One of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received, has to be my
best friends present this year: A trip to Hong Kong and China! It all seemed so
unreal, it wasn’t until we landed in Hong Kong that it actually hit me: I was
in a new country! As soon as I stepped from the plane, I knew my friend hadn’t
lied when he said: ‘be prepared for the most hot and humid weather you’ve ever
experienced.’ His parents picked us up
from the airport, and took us back to the hotel where we assumed we would have
the chance to rest before exploring the city. Wrong. We dropped our luggage,
quickly got changed and left the beautiful coolness of the hotel room to start
exploring. We took a cab into the city, and I was promised I was going to have
the most amazing yum cha experience of my life. I was so hungry, (plane food as
all the travellers would now, is not filling at all!), so I was really looking
forward to some authentic yummy Chinese food. We got lost looking for the
restaurant, and people kept sending us in the wrong direction. We finally
arrived and indeed, had the most amazing yum cha I’d ever had! After that massive
lunch, we headed off to The Peak Tram, a really steep tram that takes you to the highest viewing platform in Hong Kong. The
view from up there was so stunning! We had a 360-degree panoramic view of the
entire city and all the high rise buildings looming below us, it was truly
spectacular. Later, we went to the market, were I did a bit of shopping. Afterwards,
we went back to the hotel, and even though we were still pretty full from
lunch, we had a massive dinner (this was the start to what was going to be the
most amazing culinary experience of my life!) and after such a long day, I
think I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow. I had to rest
for the exciting day ahead: My first time in Disney Land!!!
The next day we woke up bright and early for our exciting day
ahead. I was in full on tourist mode and was wearing the I [heart] HK t-shirt I
had bought the day before. We took a
train that took us straight to the little island where Disney Land was. It was the
cutest train I’ve ever been in! It was all Disney themed, even the windows and
hand bars were shaped like Mickey! After a 40 minute line to get in (so much
for ‘it’s going to be empty because school holidays haven’t started yet- the
place was packed!), we were finally into the most beautiful place I had ever
seen. It was like walking into a story book. We first went to ‘tomorrow land’,
which had all the futuristic stuff, and space rides. The day was all muggy, but
that wasn’t going to stop us! We waited 40 minutes in line and just as we were
about to step onto the ride, it started pouring down. Luckily, we were still on
the line, but the people on the ride at that time got extremely soaked! That
ride was really mild, just the way I like them. The next rollercoaster was a
complete shocker. It was dark and there were so many sharp turns that I was
screaming louder than anyone there I think. Pathetic, I waited my whole life to
go to Disney land and when I finally make it, I discover I’m scared of roller
coasters. Great! But that wasn’t going to ruin the fun either! On our way to
the next section of the park, I decided I would complete my touristy attire,
and bought a pair of Minnie ears. Yes, I knew I looked silly, but if I was
feeling like a 10 year old, I might as well dress like one right? The next section was probably my favourite
one: Story book land. I love fairy tales and everything associated with them
(yes, I’m a big kid at heart) so I made my friend line up with me to take pictures
with all the Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald and even a Goofy with an
Asian costume). We then went to my most favourite ride by far: It’s a Small World.
You basically get on a little boat that takes you around the inside of a castle
that has been dived into the continents of the world. Each continent had
decorations and elements that are unique to countries of that specific
continent. There were also puppets of children dancing and singing in their
traditional costumes, and almost at the end of the ride, there’s a section
where there’s children from all the different regions dressed still dressed in
their traditional costume but instead of being their original colours, they’re
all dressed in white. It was really beautiful, so much so that I convinced my
friend to go twice with me. The day went by really quickly in between queues,
more rides, and taking ridiculous amounts of photos. I didn’t want the day to
end, but sadly it was time to go home and rest before our flight the next day
to China.
And did we rest? Of course not! My friend’s parents had planned for
us to go to a viewing deck and see the laser show later that night. Most of the
buildings on the harbour light up in different patterns and colours, and
there’s also lasers in the sky. It was really pretty, and although we were
extremely tired from walking all day, it was worth it. Our last stop in HK
before heading to Beijing later on that day was The Big Buddha. The statue was
on top of a huge flight of steps, which unfortunately, we had to climb. To my great
disappointment; this just proved that
I’m more unfit than 60+ old ladies who just walked past me when I was taking
breaks every 5 minutes. We spent like 5 minutes taking photos at the top, and
down those stairs we came again. Then, time to head
to the airport!
