October, the Halloween month… Disneyland was decorated with all the ‘creepy’ stuff as well…
Halloween Decor at the entrance of Hong Kong Disneyland
Halloween Decor at the entrance of Hong Kong Disneyland
Victoria Peak (太平山頂) is famous for its bird view over Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s night scene from Victoria Peak
Our journey to The Peak didn’t start off pretty well. It was partly our fault; we planned to go up the mountain before evening to see the view both in day and night, but we failed to anticipate the time needed to take the tram and the time of the sunset (much earlier than we thought).
Tram station on the ground
The wait for the Peak Tram was quite a pain. It was a long queue, and Q-jumping was quite uncontrollable. I even had a quarrel with on of the staff for the Q-jumping matter, but I might have overreacted in this case… the staff were probably doing their best but unfortunately short handed in handling the mass in what could be the busiest weekend of the year because of China’s week long holiday.
We managed to get on the tram after more than an hour of waiting. I am not sure if I was having a bad mood, or that the tram ride is seriously overrated… I didn’t find anything enjoyable with the tram. It was nothing bad, but just a mean of transportation for me instead of tourist attraction.
The sky was already dark by the time we reached the Peak Tower. Luckily the night view of Hong Kong from The Peak was quite spectacular; it eased the unpleasant experience while waiting for the tram.
We had dinner and hanged around the area to wait for the Symphony of Light. As mentioned in earlier post, the show is something that you should see once in your life, but just once as it could be pretty boring for the second time.
We didn’t wait until the ending of the show to get down The Peak. The tram waiting queue was not as long and chaotic on our way back, thank goodness… at least we came in grudge but went home with a pleasant smile.
Ocean Park Hong Kong (香港海洋公園) was opened in 1977 and located at the south of Hong Kong Island. The park is easily accessible with public transportation… we went there by bus from the Star Ferry’s Central Pier on our 2nd day in Hong Kong.
It was a weekend, and mainland China was celebration their week long holiday to celebrate National Day… so the park was really crowded.
Main entrance of Ocean Park Hong Kong
The Star Ferry service has been in operation since 1888 and is one of Hong Kong’s icon.
A Star Ferry as seen from the waterfront promenade at Tsim Sha Tsui
We went to Tsim Sha Tsui’s waterfront promenade after our dinner to catch the Symphony of Light show.
A Symphony of Lights (幻彩詠香江) is an orchestrated light and laser show featured on buildings situated on both sides of the Victoria Harbour. It is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show; it starts on 8pm daily (under good weather) and lasts for about 15 minutes.
Spectators can listen to the show’s music and English narration live along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront between the Avenue of Stars and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre; and the promenade outside the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night.
The show was quite spectacular, but I attribute it to the fact that the night scene of Victoria Harbour was already breathtaking with or without the show. The show was an exciting experience nonetheless, but was one of those that we should see it once in our lifetime, but not more than once.
Hong Kong island at night, before the show started
After taking breakfast we decided to head to Castle Hill (La Colline du Chateau), where we could have a nice aerial view of Nice. We strolled along some narrow streets in the old town (Vieux Nice) and wandered into a market on our way to the Chateau.
We had to be careful though, there were lots of dog poo on the pavements.
The streets and colourful buildings in Nice
Me and my sister woke up early in the morning, in hope to catch the sunrise on the sea horizon… too bad that the sun is rising on the opposite side of the sea horizon.
The experience wasn’t bad though, sunrise is always beautiful. Besides, it was still a nice feeling spending the early morning on the quiet pebble beach… it was peaceful and tranquil.
Promenade des Anglais was quiet in early morning
Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world, and the second smallest country in the world, after Vatican City.
We had a night visit to Monaco, which was about an hour journey from Nice. The bus dropped us by the famous F1 tunnel (tunel); we walked by some buildings and gardens on our way to the Grand Casino of Monte Carlo.
It was just a short tour at Monaco… honestly I can’t remember much of it besides some of its stories and the casino, the cruises and boats at the harbour, and the song we played on our bus journey (Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler”).
Monte Carlo Casino at Place du Casino