Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Hong Kong Disneyland : Day 3 - Halloween (31/10/13)

My main purpose of going to Hong Kong is to bring my children to Disneyland. Ryan is a huge fan of Disney movies such as Cars and Toys Story and I have to admit that I've always wanted to visit Disneyland myself. As a little child I was obsessed with Disney princesses especially Belle from Beauty and the Beast. We actually planned the visit to Hong Kong around our trip to Disneyland. 

Since I pre-bought all my tickets online, I was left with the dilemma on whether we should spend a day or two in Disneyland. After talking to people who've just recently visited and reading blog reviews, majority advices was that we spent two days in Disneyland especially since we're bringing little children. There's is just a RM50 differences between a one day and a two days ticket anyway so it was a good deal to me.

So we took the shuttle bus from our hotel to the HK central station, jumped onto the Tung Chun line and stopped at Sunny Bay station to catch the Disneyland Resort Line which stops directly in front of the resort entrance. 

If the Mickey Mouse windows does not indicate where we're going next, nothing will hehe (please ignore that very bald and glaring head of a stranger haha)
Even the hand rail holder is shaped like Mickey's head :p
One very excited little boy so fired up to see Woody :) 
Ranya Fatimah all grown up -__-

 Welcome to Disneyland Resort

The entrance : I advice people to pre-buy your tickets online, you'll save a lot of time queuing



Main Street USA. The buildings are totally quirky and cute. It reminded me of the 50s for some reason



On our first day in Disneyland it was Halloween so there are some decorations and set ups that were done just for the day. It was not as obvious and cutesy as the ones in Ocean Park but it is still impressive

You won't find this if you come visit on any other day :)

Since it was Halloween and all I decided to dress the girls up in cutesy Snow White and Rapunzel outfits that I ordered specially from Etsy for this very occasion. As cute as they look it made the girls very irritable and annoyed so after 3 hours I had to changed them into t shirt and shorts coz they were very moody. Ahhh excuse the easily excitable mother :p

First stop was Tomorrowland :)

Our first inter galactica ride...
 Ryan was finding for Woody. Wrong place son -__-

 To infinity and beyond... Ranya and her new Mickey Mouse comb she made me buy 


Iman is so cool, she went on the Buzz Lightyear ride and scored over 19,000 shooting aliens like a pro :p

 Moving into Grizzly Gulch



Halloween carnivals along the streets
 Klang most wanted?

 Dah pandai demand for us to take their photo, too :p 


I totally hit gold with this three didn't I :) Alhamdullilah


 Next stop : Mystic Point

The most colorful land and Ryan's fave :) We hit a bit of a snagged when we arrived at Toy Story Land, Ryan wanted to take pictures with Woody but by the time we reached the photobooth, it was so close to the parade that Woody wasn't taking any more photo request. My little boy looked so sad and dissapointed it totally breaks my heart. Thank god I managed to pacify him by promising more Woody during the parade and that we're coming back the next day for more photo opt

 Slinky's tail ride, all three munchkins enjoyed this mini roller coaster ride :) 


 Hello Mr Potato Man :)


Highlight of the day : Flights of Fantasy Parade






 Such determination that he's willing to stand on the dustbin  to see his favourite characters :p 




Day one ended with this yummy waffles

I think due to the sheer number of photos, I'll continue our 2nd Day adventure in Disneyland in another blog post. Tata!!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Hong Kong Ocean Park/Ladies Market : Day 2 (30/10/2013)

I think when people mention theme parks in Hong Kong, the first name that will come to mind is Disneyland. It is a shame that people tend to overlook Ocean Park because to me it is a great place to visit :) 

I think for people who's really into adventurous rides (roller coasters and those scary thing that goes up and down) this is THE place to be, as the park offers more thrilling rides for adults as compared to Disneyland. Don't be worried if you're trying to cater for younger audience because they will still be greatly entertained with the aquariums housing sea creatures such as sharks and stingrays (think a bigger sized Aquaria), Panda's, animal shows etc..




Ocean Park is HUGE and it is divided into two parts. The lower part housing Panda House and Grand Aquarium and the upper part where most of the rides are situated in. There's cable car or the more "covered" submarine trains (for the gayats) which will bring you up and down the hill.


Fishes... fishes EVERYWHERE, my children was totally amaze being surrounded with handsome sea creatures they usually see in books. How cool is that we get to see the attendant feeding food to the fishes (Actually I didn't even realized it until my 4 year old pointed to me that there's a man in the aquarium, hahaha)






Ryan and his sisters having fun. Ryan was having the most fun, the twins was just sleepy and grumpy at this point :p The joy of traveling with little munchkins



Me with my little monsters and a real monster :p We were lucky that we got to enjoy some really cute decorations as we where there a day before Halloween. There's some giant Jack-O-Lantern, dressed up skeletons and  cute monster figurines thrown all around the park :)


 Ryan with his favourite person his ATUK


Do you know that goldfish originated from the plain old carp??? 
Masyallah such transformation

Ocean Park presents the Old Hong Kong : Very old Jackie Chan movie, with hawker style restaurants selling mee kicap (which is non-halal by the way) Anyway Ocean Park has recently open up a Halal food kiosk near the entrance, called Lakeside Restaurant. The choices are limited but more than enough to "alas perut" since you're not allowed to bring outside food in.

My very handsome penarik beca :p

Ladies Market, Mongkok

Later in the evening, Lan, my sister and bro in law decided to look for the famous Ladies Market, we decided to leave the twins with my parents at the hotel because we did not want to roam around getting lost with the girls and my parents. We managed to find it quite easily but leaving the toddlers at the hotel was the right decision. We went out around 630pm on a Wednesday and the MRT station was jam packed with people. Lan and I had to practically squeeze in a tiny spot hugging Ryan for dear life. 

You can find some nice and reasonably price things at the market such as souveniers, baby clothes, bags, and toys (think Petaling Street). I bought some cheap bags, Chinese princess outfits for the girls, toys for Ryan and a gabijilion magnets and keychain for the people back home :)

P/S: I was satisfied with one visit but my sister went again the day after with my parents while we stayed with the kids. She also went to Temple market in Jordan Street during our second day visit to Disneyland and according to her the souvenirs are a tad cheaper there. So something to consider for people who plan to shop in both places.






Ryan wanted to take a shot with Thor's hammer displayed in the MRT for the movie promo

To be continued....

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Hong Kong : Day 1 (29 October 2013)

We started our journey to LCCT as early as 6am on the 29/10/2013. Alhamdullilah, our journey was a smooth one. The twins especially Ranya turned out to be pretty nervous fliers and every little thing will set them off. It's a bit of a departure for me, who's used to Ryan who is so easy to travel with :p Oh well every kid has their own quirks, right? Deal with it, Mummy!!

Daddy, Ryan and Iman waiting for the plane to take off.

Beautiful clear blue sky :)
I think we took every available public transportation while in Hong Kong from the bus, MRT, boats and taxi. The best part about it? We don't mind it at all because it is very  convenient and efficient
Camwhoring with Iman and Lan in the AEL. They even have free wifi on the trains, how cool is that?

We stayed in Cosmo Hotel situated in Wan Chai. It is about 15 minutes drive away from the Hong Kong Central Station and Ocean Park and about 10 minutes walk away from Times Square. I find the hotel location very convenient especially with the added benefit of the hotel offering shuttle services to several location around Hong Kong. Accessibility is very important for me since we're traveling with 3 kids under four in an alien country.
Another plus about our hotel is  they offer a 2 bedroom apartment suite which can accommodate up to 6 adults. They even have a small kitchenette that we used to cook breakfast and dinner. Despite the challenged of being in a non-muslim country, we were sufficiently fed with Halal food. Anyway I think the hotel endorsed OSIM products because we were supplied with everything from the massage chair to those eye massager. All in all, I was happy with the services and facilities. Will surely come back if we ever had the opportunity.

My munchkins enjoying themselves in the hotel room. They had so much fun running from one end to another. I guess it is like a never ending party for them having mummy and daddy around all day AND also their atuk, nenek, mak long and pak long together :)



We decided to take a stroll in Hong Kong city after dinner.We took a short walk at the pier and went around IPC mall to check out the scene. 

 
                           Family portrait with nobody paying attention to the camera :p



Gorgeous views from Central Hong Kong