Hong Kong - Disneyland!

This trip was not only spontaneous but also a bit special to me. I can still see myself sitting on the deck back home before I left for Korea chatting about all of the potential places I could visit in Asia during my time working in Korea. It was then that I googled a list of all the Disneylands in the world. I knew there was one in Japan, but I didn't know of the park in Hong Kong. I felt that going to the one in Japan was likely, as I considered Japan as a long weekend trip. I sat there and joked about how I would also maybe go to Disneyland in Hong Kong, in that moment feeling amazed about the opportunities ahead of me, but not truly believing that going to Disneyland in Hong Kong would be something very realistic. Everything in that moment, those thoughts of possibilities, felt more like dreams that wouldn't be able to be attained, but were welcomed fantasies.

Fast forward a year from then and I am sitting in a cafe in Korea with Mel with the intention of working on our online open water scuba diving course for our then upcoming trip to Malaysia. We order coffee and cake and get to chatting. The next thing you know we are looking for flights to Hong Kong and within the next hour flights are booked and tickets to Disneyland are purchased. Our course on the other hand, neglected. Oops.

Fast forward a month and a half and I am anticipating the end of my last class so that I can grab my bag, slip out of work and book it to the airport bus stop to catch my flight! How cool.

Mel and I booked flights Friday night, return Sunday evening. All week we had debated the best way to get to the airport as we were both off at 5:30pm and our flight was at 9:00pm, not entirely a lot of leeway there. In the end we decided that we would both catch the airport bus that was closest to each of our respective work places. So I headed to the bus stop from work, a bit nervous about making the flight in time if traffic turned out to be bad that Friday. Mel (who lives a bit further) had already gotten on the bus, but I was still waiting for mine to come. A half hour after the digital sign said that it was arriving soon, it did arrive. I walked on the bus to find who else, but Mel! Turns out the bus by her is the same one that runs by where I live. This worked out perfectly as we didn't have to worry about finding each other at the airport and we got to enjoy the 1.5 hour ride (usually only one hour) to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 7:30pm and were flying by 9pm.

The trip was already starting off amazingly as the immigration officer at Incheon allowed us to stamp our own passports. I was giggling with excitement and not ashamed to admit it.

Now keep in mind this was only about two weeks after being home from Malaysia and we were very accustom to the budget airline which is Air Asia - no pillow, no blanket, no food, no drinks, no entertainment and a very cold cabin. So when we boarded onto the Ethiopian Airlines flight, stocked with snacks and sweaters, we were blown away to find a pillow, blanket and our own mini screen at our seats! I felt entirely spoiled. We did not get seats next to each other, but I did end up getting the whole row to myself which was so nice. I decided to watch Winters Tale, and while I was watching that, they came around with dinner and drinks! It just kept getting better. I was feeling pretty content with my Friday night at that point.

When we landed in Hong Kong it was a little disappointing as they did not stamp our passports - and let's be honest, we all live for the stamps - apparently they have stopped doing this and instead you are given a paper about the size of a third of your credit card that you are supposed to keep with you the entire time and not lose. It was a bit bizarre to us and doesn't seem as efficient. As we arrived after midnight, we took a taxi to our hostel. It took a second after the taxi stopped for my door to be opened by someone on the other side and we were bombarded with people offering rates to their different hotels. We stayed in a building called Chungking Mansions, which is home to several floors and different blocks of stores and living spaces. We didn't quite know about the different blocks until we went up the elevator to the wrong block and a helpful man from another hostel directed us the right way. One thing that was interesting is that their elevators are based on floors. So each block has two elevators, one for the even floors and one for odd floors. Of course, we were the elevator that seemed to always have the most people going up and down it. At one point we stood in a line at the bottom of the elevator of people waiting to go up. We also learned that it was faster to go into an elevator that was going up just to go all the back to the bottom floor to get where you wanted to go. That night we quickly headed to bed, eager for Disneyland the next day.

The extent of our room aside from a small bathroom.

Saturday morning we were woken up at 6am to what I initially thought was Mel's obnoxious alarm on her phone. Turns out it was the fire alarm. Some will say that this is a sign we have been in Korea "too long" but I will just leave it at saying it is bad when you think "ah I'm sure there isn't really a fire" and roll over to try and fall back asleep. But the alarm kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. So we got up and peaked out our door. A few other guests were up checking out the situation as well. Turns out there was just a faulty alarm in our corridor. We went back to sleep for another hour before getting ready for the day listening to a Disney playlist. 

Disneyland was amazing - as always. Depsite being to a few different parks now, there is something still so magical to me about Disneyland and I still get just as excited each time I go. I love it. 

View from the subway heading to Disneyland

Hong Kong! aka Kong Hong

We made it!! Happiest place on earth!

In front of Cinderella's castle - honestly compared to the one in Orlando and the one in Japan, this castle was a bit sad. It was so small comparatively and not very well kept. I think that would be my only criticism of this park. 

I forget what this ride was called, but I legit had to drive the car which was so cool and it really made me miss driving!

Mickey Pizza!

Mickey & Minnie <3 ... Mickey checked us out which is a tad creepy

Goofy!

Hanging out in Tarzan's home

View from Tarzan's home

Gorgeous right?!

Mel and I were dying in the heat as we waited for the parade to begin. It was almost 40 degrees that day, our butts were burning sitting on the pavement. 

It was so hot, my 80 SPF waterproof sunscreen was melting off my body - but still no sunburn!

My favourite "land" at this park, that I have not seen at others was Toy Story Land. It was really well done in terms of decorations and theme. 

Disneyland was an absolute blast. We went on almost every ride, my favourite was Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. It is a big wooden roller-coaster that takes you backwards for part of the ride. Ooo and Space Mountain! 

By the time the sun was setting we were ready to head out and do some exploring in Hong Kong. My main goal for Hong Kong was to do Disneyland, anything on top of that was going to be bonus. I could have left on an airplane that moment and still would have felt completely happy. Do check out my other Disney/HongKong/Malaysia photos on Facebook as they are all posted now! 

<3