Day 12 (first day of post Adventure)
We had breakfast at the Shangrila but we weren't staying at this hotel for the next 3 days. We loved the hotel but it is a bit pricey for 3 additional nights so after breakfast the porters jammed all of our luggage into one taxi (3 in the trunk with a bungeed lid and one in the compartment with us .... kind of a tight fit) and we drove about 5 minutes to the Golden Mile Holiday Inn on Nathan Road. Nathan Road is the hubbub of Hong Kong. You'll find all kinds of stuff selling on that road.
Anyway, podcast listeners will remember Pete talking about how mildewy hotels like to mask the smell of mildew with an overabundance of scent. Alas, this Holiday Inn does just that. Everywhere in the hotel was this overwhelming perfumy smell. The Holiday Inn is one of the oldest hotels in HK and as such has some of the bigger rooms in Kowloon (not as big as the Shangrila though). I remember staying at this hotel in 1977!! Well, alas, moving from the Shangrila to this hotel was such a let down.
But we knew it would be ...but the smells...oh the smells. Anyway... the price was right.... My brother and I cashed in a ton of Priority Rewards points and got 2 rooms for 3 nights for free. Guess we can't complain too much, eh? The Shangrila was about $400 per post night... that would have been almost enough for a North American ABD tour! LOL (The Holiday Inn itself was kind of pricey if we hadn't had used points ... hotels in Hong Kong are crazy!)
We went walking around Kowloon Park after checking in. It's a little walk from the hotel. It's a very nice park that has all kinds of water birds, an aviary, turtles. It was still about 94% humidity so while the walk was nice, we were all melting. We decided to start heading back to the hotel by way of air conditioned malls or stores. If you walk near the entrance of a store, the cold air will help.
I stopped in one store (the AC is sooooo compelling) and ended up buying a pair of shoes! Oooops!
We were going to meet family for dinner so it was already too late for lunch. While my mom went back to the hotel, my brother, dad and I decided to find a particular place for an afternoon snack. A friend of mine had told me about this cafe on Cameron Road (not too far from the hotel). We found it .... the Charlie Brown Cafe! Peanuts characters everywhere in this cafe. We had a little nosh there while enjoying all the Peanuts memorabilia and figures.
That evening our family met with our Hong Kong family (aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin's kids) and we had a huge banquet at a restaurant close to the hotel. Alas, I shouldn't have had the Charlie Brown snack and I was sooooo tired that I could barely eat. Ah well. Afterwards, we head back to the hotel to rest up... HK
Disneyland awaits!
Day 12 (second day of post Adventure)
The next day, my dad, mom and I headed off to the subway (right next to the hotel) to go to Disneyland. My brother had made plans to meet some friends so he didn't come with us. It is extremely easy to get to Disneyland by way of the subway or as they call it the MTR. You go to a machine to buy your ticket. It asks you where you want to go and you just touch the place on the interactive map. It tells you how much it'll cost for the one way ticket and then you tap out how many tickets you want. There's a choice to buy "concession" tickets which are tickets for seniors and kids (I think kids... seniors for sure). Once you get the ticket you just follow the signs to the train, hop on for the right direction and off you go.
The subway station we started at is actually the same station as if you were leaving from the Shangrila. So, if you want to get to Disneyland, you have to change trains twice. From Tsim Tsa Tsui (not Tsim Tsa Tsui EAST....walk a bit over to the other one) take the Tsuen Wan train to Lai King where you then change trains and take the Tung Chung train. Change trains at Sunny Bay for the Disneyland Resort train. You can't miss the DL train ... it has Mickey Mouse heads EVERYWHERE.
We got to Disneyland about an hour after it opened. It was crowded and it was also a Friday so I don't understand why so many children were out of school. It wasn't a holiday so ...
. Anyway, the first place we headed to was It's a Small World because I had never seen it with the Disney characters in it. It's actually quite cute and fun trying to spot them. And I don't care what anybody says, I actually like this ride.
It was then off to Toy Story Land. Interesting place.
We decided we were going to ride the Slinky dog ride. Yikes...the line took forever. It was kind of like Dumbo. Just before you board the ride, the give you a bone (instead of a feather) and after you sit down, they take the bone back. The ride lasted barely 1 minute if even. Oh well...
Tip: bring an umbrella ... even if it's not going to rain. It's shade.... and everybody had an umbrella for shade. We brought ours and it helped. My dad brought that huge fan he got at the white elephant in Guilin.
We went to find a place to eat ... somewhere with air conditioning. We ended back on Main Street and ate in a restaurant there. Can't remember the name but I had a huge burger and my dad had a pasta. My mom had chicken wings and a peach soda. The food was ok but the air conditioning was heaven.
We saw the Disneyland band march out, play a few sets and then played Happy Birthday to somebody. She got photos with them afterwards. We walked around a bit more but didn't ride anything else because we wanted to get ready for the parade. We went into the shops and bought some stuff (like I need more Disney stuff) and then sat on the curb to wait for the parade. Finding a shady spot on the curb is important and scarce ... but we manged to find a spot.
The parade is called Flights of Fantasy and is led by Dumbo. It was a very nice parade...unique since I hadn't seen it before. After the parade, we did some more shopping
and then we decided to leave. It was just too hot and we were wiped. So back onto the train (during rush hour
). Well, we could have timed that better. Oh well.
Nobody was particularly hungry that night so we ate snacks in the hotel's concierge lounge and then bought a few more snacks at the 7-11 across the street. haha... so much for Hong Kong cuisine.
Day 13 (third day of post Adventure)
Didn't have much planned. Remember that we have been to HK before so we were just wandering around. We went to Ocean Terminal which is a huge shopping mall. We wandered around there and around the harbour for most of the day. Saw a nice looking cruise ship at the terminal. I would wish that someday I'll see the Magic or Wonder sitting there.
Evening dinner was a little hole in the wall noodle place. The noodles were great the ambience ... well, it takes some getting used to. ahhahaha
Back to the hotel to pack. I always bring a portable hand held luggage scale with me so we were measuring our bags to the exact gram. We got all of our luggage to just below 23 kg. We were no longer overweight! Woohoo!
Day 14 (fourth day of post Adventure)
It's off to the airport. Again, we managed to fit into one taxi. The lid was bungeed with our luggage hanging out. I hate that but the taxis are all prepared for it .. they have multiple bungees in the trunks. ha. It was a Sunday so traffic wasn't horrendous and we got to the airport in good time and not too expensive a fare. Can't for the life of me remember what the fare was though. They charge a fee for each bag in the trunk though...so you'll need to remember that.
As soon as you pass through security at the airport, there's a Hong Kong Disneyland store staring you in the face and it sits in the food court. I managed to still shop in there (got a Vinylmation dragon!) and there's tons of shopping at the airport. We had a bite to eat and then headed off to the gate. We had to get on a train to get to the gate -- the same way as when we arrived in HK with ABD.
And off we went ... back to Toronto. And so endeth the Adventure. Photos of the last days to follow.