Woke up to a drizzly Wednesday morning in Hong Kong… The picture of a perfect city tour vanished in my mind. Putting that aside, there was a far more important reason to smile about and celebrate - our 4 years of wonderful marriage. That was another reason why we wanted to have this trip. In the previous years, we always make it a point to do something special together on this day, whether over dinner or a trip somewhere we have never been.
We all had a good night sleep from the night before. Amay was the first one to get up and had had a shower already by 6AM. As expected, I was the last one to get ready. We were given breakfast vouchers for Café de Coral, but due to inadequate time, we opted to fill up our stomach with some instant cup noodles.
The coach service was meant to arrive at 7:45. They did come on time. There was just a little bit of a wait for another group joining us in the coach. Turned out there were only six of us altogether for the entire tour.
As part of our city tour, a very nice and soft-spoken lady named Olivia served as our tour guide. Bits of info and brief history about Hong Kong she shared with us.
First stop: Avenue of Stars or Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui. Set into the promenade are plaques honouring the most famous Hong Kong celebrities, like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee. Some plaques contain hand prints and autographs of the stars set in cement, but most of the plaques only contain celebrities' names as they are now deceased. The location is also great for capturing a stunning panoramic view of the Victoria Harbour.
 |
| Daytime panoramic view of Hong Kong Island |
We were given only 10 minutes to walk around. It was still drizzling but that wasn’t a hindrance for us to make the most of our short stop over. The harbor view made the best backdrop.
Second stop: Aberdeen Fishing Village and Sampan Ride. Took us ages to reach this point. We just sensed we were getting closer because of the strong smell of water, mixed with stinky fish odor. Sorry for the description. Went straight to a Sampan or boat, where a lady beckoned us to the seats. I was so amazed at how the driver can manage to smoothly navigate the "boat" in between ferries and fishing boats. Some old-fashioned junks and house boats where the fishermen live during the season surround the harbour. There were also the modern yacths. Sampan Ride was HK$60 per person.
Third stop: Hong Kong Jewellery Factory. If there was one thing about the city that we didn't like at any rate, it would be our stopover to this shop. First of all, I honestly don't see the significance of having to go there. Quite obviously, we had a hunch that it was like an arranged agenda to sell their gold products to tourists. Sorry but their strategy didn't work with us.
Fourth stop: Souvenir Shop. I fell stupid for not remembering the name of the shop. The tour guide just said we were going to a souvenir shop then the coach brought us to some narrow street in the city which kinda looked like Ongpin. Small shops that sell practically everything from socks, shoe laces to fancy jewellery and kitchen wares can be found on both sides of the street. With Olivia leading the group, we followed her up to the third floor of a plaza where the souvenir shop/food store was situated. Apparently, this was another marketing tactic. In our own effort to help them, we bought some food items and souvenir shirts, fully aware that their prices were ridiculously dearer than most shops elsewhere.
Second stop: Aberdeen Fishing Village and Sampan Ride. Took us ages to reach this point. We just sensed we were getting closer because of the strong smell of water, mixed with stinky fish odor. Sorry for the description. Went straight to a Sampan or boat, where a lady beckoned us to the seats. I was so amazed at how the driver can manage to smoothly navigate the "boat" in between ferries and fishing boats. Some old-fashioned junks and house boats where the fishermen live during the season surround the harbour. There were also the modern yacths. Sampan Ride was HK$60 per person.
 |
| Jumbo Floating Restaurant |
Third stop: Hong Kong Jewellery Factory. If there was one thing about the city that we didn't like at any rate, it would be our stopover to this shop. First of all, I honestly don't see the significance of having to go there. Quite obviously, we had a hunch that it was like an arranged agenda to sell their gold products to tourists. Sorry but their strategy didn't work with us.
Fourth stop: Souvenir Shop. I fell stupid for not remembering the name of the shop. The tour guide just said we were going to a souvenir shop then the coach brought us to some narrow street in the city which kinda looked like Ongpin. Small shops that sell practically everything from socks, shoe laces to fancy jewellery and kitchen wares can be found on both sides of the street. With Olivia leading the group, we followed her up to the third floor of a plaza where the souvenir shop/food store was situated. Apparently, this was another marketing tactic. In our own effort to help them, we bought some food items and souvenir shirts, fully aware that their prices were ridiculously dearer than most shops elsewhere.
 | |
| The photographer guy who joined us at The Avenue of Stars took this photo of us, along with two other photos of me and Amay and all three of us. Only to find out that he was gonna sell them for HK$180 per memorabilia plate. |
 |
| with the photographer guy and Olivia our tour guide. Big revelation on the last minute that they were actually a couple, as in husband and wife. |
| Fifth stop: Hong Kong Disneyland. The child in me was rejoicing. "This is it!" Thank God the sun was out, just got a bit warm though. We had to walk from the parking area up to the park main entrance, which was about 20-30 minutes. Throng of people from all ages, including us, were there all smiles albeit the extreme heat. As we made our way in, the magic of Disneyland unveiled itself, as if taking us to an entirely different world where only bliss exists.
We were very fortunate to get there on time for the fantasy parade of Disney characters. So full of flamboyant colors, animated dance moves and entertaining music suddenly made everybody stop. Immediately grabbed my phone and took video of it. Disappointingly this caused our camera lens auto-function to collapse.
| |
Despite having to manually focus
the lens every shoot, the yearning to capture every spot possible continued. Due to the number of photos we've taken in Disneyland alone, it would be impossible to put them all together in a collage so I thought of categorizing them. Made a patchwork of images for every park attraction.
Main Street, USA
Adventureland
Grizzly Gulch
Toy Story Land
Fantasyland
Tomorrowland
It was a long and strenuous day. I could tell Amay was pretty exhausted from the warm weather and all the walking we did the whole day. I kept asking her every now and then if she was alright but she never uttered a word of complain. She enjoyed the trip and that's what matter to me most.
The much-awaited fireworks display marked the culmination of one super memorable day we will surely cherish for the rest of our lives. I feel truly blessed to have shared it with the two most important people in my life.
Main Street, USA
Adventureland
Grizzly Gulch
Toy Story Land
Fantasyland
Tomorrowland
 |
| Me and Amay with the fairytale castle behind us |
The much-awaited fireworks display marked the culmination of one super memorable day we will surely cherish for the rest of our lives. I feel truly blessed to have shared it with the two most important people in my life.
0 comments:
Post a Comment