Disneyland was the highlight of our Hong Kong tour. My eldest sister was the only one who had visited a Disney theme park (Tokyo’s Disneyland) prior to this visit, so it should be a wonderful experience especially for my 2-year-old niece.

The theme park opened on 10am; we got there a bit earlier via a shuttle bus from Hollywood Hotel, which is just minutes away from the theme park.

Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

Mickey and Minnie’s fountain before the theme park entrance

Based on my eldest sister’s experience, we went straight to the Fantasyland to take pictures with the cartoon characters – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Winnie the Pooh etc. It could take some time to take photos with these characters if the crowd started to pour in… so it should be a good idea to get to Fantasyland as early as possible.

The Sleeping Beauty Castle, entrance of the Fantasyland

Adventure with Winnie the Pooh (kinda boring though…)

There are some (short) musical shows that are worth watching in Disneyland; we went to “The Golden Mickeys” and “Festival of the Lion King”, and both of the shows were good.

Golden Mickeys was a show mimicking the Oscar awards and introduced the cartoon characters (and films) such as the iconic Mickey, Minnie, Donald and characters from later stories like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Mulan” and “Lilo and Stitch” etc.

The Festival of the Lion King was a brief story based on 1994 animated movie, “The Lion King”.

The Golden Mickeys

Festival of the Lion King

The Tomorrowland… we didn’t spend much time there

Other highlights of Hong Kong Disneyland include the Disney on Parade in the afternoon and the fireworks show at night.

Merry-go-round at Fantasyland

We checked in to the Hollywood Hotel around 5pm. The room was much larger than the hotel we stayed in Kowloon and was decorated with some Mickey figures here and there…

Welcome to Disney’s Hollywood Hotel

They do expect us to bring these home ain’t so?

View from a rest area on our hotel floor – the hotel had a decent park and swimming pool

The Flying Frenchman, by César

I am not an art enthusiast; I can’t really understand what the sculpture is trying to portray. It was pretty catchy though.

I am not really fond of checking the hand prints of celebrities. For me, Avenue of Stars is simply a great place to see Hong Kong Island across the sea.

Avenue of Stars

Bruce Lee statue

Hong Kong Island across the Victoria Harbour; I wonder what’s the boat doing there

Street, buses, trams in Central, Hong Kong

It’s a simple photo, but it really represents Hong Kong in some sense. Metropolitan, buses and double-decker trams… you can’t find the combination elsewhere in the world.

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

There are a few attractions in the park; we didn’t go for all of them, but just to see the show, aquariums and the pandas. We were bringing a toddler along, so the rides were out of question. Besides, it was too crowded… it was difficult to see the stuff, and some of the queues were unbearable.

We took the cable cars from Lowland Gardens to the Marine Land; people who are fear of heights should really take the buses instead…

The cable cars, and the ocean and cliff directly below

It was a full house at the Ocean Theater, with dolphins and sea lions’ show. I thought that I could see a killer whale performing, but only found out later that the whale has passed away a few years ago. The show was just ok, but the kids were loving it obviously.

Dolphins and sea lions performing at Ocean Theater

We managed to squeeze into the Shark Aquarium and Atoll Reef; but decided not to wait in the long queue for Sea Jelly Spectacular nor some of the other attractions.

The Atoll Reef includes a huge marine tank with hundreds of marine species… seeing this alone was probably worth the visit.

Marine life at Atoll Reef – fishes, seahorses and squids etc.

We went back to the Lowland Gardens by cable again to see the 4 pandas. It was my first time seeing real life panda in action… these animals were just so adorable. It makes me want to go to the panda reserve in China to get up close with these cretures.

The pandas at Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat

[Ocean Park official website]

A Star Ferry as seen from the waterfront promenade at Tsim Sha Tsui

There are other ways to get across the Victoria Harbour (via road and train) these days but some locals are still using the ferries often. The ferry is also a favourite among tourists because if offers good view for both side of the harbour, or simply because it’s one of HK’s main heritage.

We rode on the “Morning Star”

There are currently 12 ferries in the fleet; the oldest ferry has been in service since 1956.

We rode a Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui Pier in Kowloon to Hong Kong Island’s Central Pier on our 2nd day in HK. The ferry that we used was the Morning Star (曉星號) which started its operation in 1965 and named after the company’s first ferry in 1888 (now retired).

It was a fun experience. I guess it’s always fun for people to get on a ferry (or boat) except for people who are using it daily and some of those that are easily sea sick.

Our route didn’t offer any spectacular scene though; it was a direct journey from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central. For people who want to experience the scenic view on both side of the harbour, they should opt for the Central to Hung Hom route, or take the Harbour Tour ferry instead.

[Star Ferry's official website]

Central Ferry Piers 7 and 8 – the 4th generation of Central Pier that started operation in 2006; its design is a replica of the 3rd generation Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier (1957-2006)

Lobby with portrait of Baden Powell

B P is the acronym for Baden Powell, the founder of Scout Movement. The 25-storey hotel building is actually the Hong Kong Scout Centre; the Scout Headquarters only occupied a few floors though, the rest are hotel rooms and facilities.

We chose this hotel because of its reasonable pricing and its location. It took around 5-10 minutes walk to get to Jordan MTR station, it’s quite near to the famous Temple Street, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops around.

We booked a standard room with extra bed for 3 adults; my 2 year old niece stayed for FOC. It cost us HK$1200 + tax for a night… quite reasonable for Hong Kong standard.

The room was small, a bit smelly (cigarettes), but offered a nice view of Tsim Sha Tsui and a bit of Victoria Harbour. Besides, the staff was friendly and really helpful… so we were quite happy with the stay. [Hotel's website]

Our room view – Victoria Harbour should be visible in good weather… but it was really hazy during our visit; it was nice enough though

Temple Street is a street located in the areas of Jordan and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. It is probably the most well know night market in Hong Kong, and is popular among both locals and tourist.

Fortune tellers are abundance at Temple Street

Temple Street got its name from a temple at the middle of the street. The place is sometimes known as Men’s Street as it was famous for men’s fashion (but they sell all kind of stuff).

There are 2 things unique in Temple Street… the snake shops selling snake delicacies, and the large numbers of fortune tellers. You don’t see this often at other Chinese night markets around the world.

Other than that, I actually think that Malaysia’s Petaling Street is better than Hong Kong’s Temple Street. Temple Street probably has more stalls, but Petaling Street has more variety (and cheaper). Our numbers of food stalls outnumbered theirs obviously, but then both of the markets have different kind of delicacies.

We tried the curry fish ball for supper, a common street food for Hong Kongers, before heading back to our hotel.

The night market and a snake shop selling snake delicacies (right)

Privately-run gambling businesses are illegal in Hong Kong, but there are legal Mahjong schools for people to ‘learn to play’ Mahjong… but you probably can guess that most people who are ‘learning’ Mahjong are actually experts.

There are not many licenses issued for Mahjong school though; lots of it can be found in Yaumatei-Mongkok area.

I passed by this one on our way to Temple Street near Jordan and Yau Ma Tei. Just beside the entrance is this giant banner teaching the basics on Mahjong… I guess they were trying their best to make it school-like :)

Mahjong school in Yaumatei, Hong Kong

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

A Symphony of Lights, and Victoria Harbour at night

People praying at the main altar (Wong Tai Sin) of the temple

The temple was closing soon (closed at 530pm) as we arrived; that’s probably why it wasn’t as crowded as expected. The temple is popular among Hong Kongers as the place of worship, and a key icon in Hong Kong’s traditional culture.

The buildings and compound didn’t excite me though; as a Chinese, I have seen numerous temples, and some of them are much grander in architecture sense; but I guess Wong Tai Sin Temple could still appeal for Westerners and those who haven’t seen much Chinese temples.

The Legend of Wong Tai Sin

Wong Tai Sin was not his actual name; ‘Tai Sin’ in literally means ‘Great Deity’ in English.

I remember watching a drama that was based on the legend of Wong Tai Sin years ago. Can’t really recall the whole story… but Wong Tai Sin was supposed to be a mortal at the beginning, and in the end turn immortal by practising Taoism and helping people.

It is believed that Wong Tai Sin has the power of healing; but I think Hong Kongers prayed to him for everything these days.

Wong Tai Sin doesn’t originate from Hong Kong though, but from mainland China instead. His influence only spread to Hong Kong in early 20th century after being worshipped in homeland for hundreds of years.

The Wong Tai Sin temple at the current location was built in 1921. Besides the main altar, there are also other shrines for other deities; and various halls for different purposes.

I had never heard of this place prior to the visit, but our tour guide told us that it’s a wonderful place, that there’s a saying which if Jesus is to be born onto earth again, it will be at St Paul.

The statement might be over-exaggerating, but St Paul was a lovely place indeed. The fortified village structure was something that I had never seen before; and its environment, the narrow streets and stony buildings were simply mesmerising.

The only regret I had, was that we were not able to spend much time there to fully appreciate the place. Back then, I had vowed to visit the place again… I am not so sure about the feeling now, but at that moment, I think I was in love with St Paul de Vence.

Photo of Saint Paul de Vence

Photos at Saint Paul de Vence