So Happy to be Home!

Hong Kong, Day Six

Finley was back to her old tricks again this morning, she woke up before 6 am and played with her animals for a bit. We had an early breakfast and headed over to Hong Kong Island on the Star Ferry. Our goal was to take the Mid Level Escalators. When we arrived, the escalators were going down, which meant we had to walk up several flights of stairs. After a bit, they reversed the direction, it was much easier taking the escalators up and the stairs down, it is how it should be all the time. We took the Star Ferry back to our hotel and grabbed some lunch along the way.

In the afternoon, we headed out to New Territories to see the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. There were 430 steps to the temple, it sure was a day for climbing. The temple was amazing. We climbed to the top of the bell tower pagoda and went inside to see all the Buddhas. Finley liked all the animal statues the best. We headed back down the steps to the train to get back to the hotel in time for dinner.

We had early reservations at Nobu so we could be certain to see the light show outside with the music. Finley was not a happy camper at dinner and didn’t want to try much at all. She had some shrimp, edamame and rice. She turned up her nose at lamb and Kobe beef. I know she loves lamb, so I am not sure what was going on there. And she needs to learn to like Kobe beef, because it is amazing.

After dinner we headed out to the Avenue of Stars to watch the show. Hong Kong needs to take some tips from Disney to improve their sound system a bit. Finley really enjoyed the show. We headed over to take the colorful ferry (Finley had been admiring it all week) to Wang Chai. When we got to Wang Chai we had a single purpose: to ride the double decker tram one last time. We took the tram all the way to central to take the Star Ferry back to the hotel. We looked for the model train, bus and tram shop all throughout the terminal, but couldn’t find it. Finley was disappointed and so were we. I took a picture of the information, so hopefully we can order the models online.

Good night and good bye to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong, Day Five

Today Finley finally got caught up on her jetlag. She awoke at 7:30 am after both Clifton and I were up, she finally got some much needed rest. Which was just in time for our day in Macau. We walked down to the China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon to catch the ferry to Macau. We ended up booking a ferry to Tapai, which meant our taxi ride was a bit longer, but not a huge deal.

Old town Macau was bustling with tourists. We walked through the town square, enjoyed an ice cream snack and headed over to the ruins of Sao Paulo church. Finley was most excited about going up the steps to the top. She loves her steps. We headed up to the fort and saw amazing views of the island, along with a few cannons. Next on our agenda was the cable car to the old lighthouse. It seemed like a far walk, but cabs were impossible to find, so we ended up just walking all the way over there. The ride to the top was quite short and Finley thought we were going to see a big Buddha like on Lantau Island. She was just as pleased with the church and lighthouse at the top after a bit of a walk, but we were all disappointed that you couldn’t go inside the lighthouse. That would have been quite neat. We took the cable car back down the mountain and figured out the bus we needed with the help of a couple of locals. We went over to the Hotel Lisbona since it was one of the original hotels and was done up extravagantly. It did not disappoint. I would equate it with the old part of Las Vegas, very over the top and gaudy. We grabbed a meal at the hotel and cabbed it back to the ferry terminal. After the hour long journey we realized the ferry was headed for Hong Kong Island instead of Kowloon. It wasn’t our day for ferries. But we did get to cross under Victoria harbor in a taxi cab. The toll for the tunnel was nearly equal to our cab fare. Finley fell asleep in the cab, but was awake enough to watch the light show from our room when we got back to the hotel.

Hong Kong, Day Four

Finley woke up at 5:30 am this morning, so we are making some progress. I think she will be completely adjusted once it is time to leave. And by then she will be crazy at home…maybe that means she will actually nap at school.

We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island to do some double decker tram riding per Finley’s request. We had planned to take the line all the way out east, but we quickly realized that might take longer than we wanted to spend. We got off the tram and boarded one to return to the area with the world’s longest escalators. The tram two trams up broke down and was being pushed by the tram behind it. This presented quite the “tram jam” per Finley and we were stopped for awhile. We had a junk tour we had to make, so we ended up hopping off the tram and grabbing a quick lunch before taking the subway back over to Kowloon.

We waited at Dock 3 for our junk, which was a bit late. A junk pulled up to Dock 1 and everyone headed down there to board it, but it was the wrong one. So we have pictures in front of both junks, but the second one was the one we actually rode on. It was neat to have the other junk out in the water at the same time. We circled Victoria Harbor for about an hour and the junk dropped us off on Hong Kong Island. It is amazing to see how much construction is going on around the city. And how many apartment buildings there are here. Clifton and I visited Hong Kong 6 years ago and the skyline has changed remarkably.

After the junk tour we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner with Lance and Barie. They have been living in Hong Kong for nearly a year and took us to an amazing restaurant, Peking Garden, for Peking Duck. The restaurant was just blocks from our hotel and the food was fantastic. It was great catching up with Lance and Barie halfway across the world. They are such wonderful friends and it was nice to have a friendly face to share dinner with. Finley was especially taken with Lance, she loved telling him all about her experiences in Disneyland. Lance and Barie are headed to Bali on Saturday, they are going to have a great trip. I hope we are able to see them again soon.

Hong Kong, Day Three

Finley was wide awake at 3:30 am this morning. Sitting up straight in her bed talking to her animals. There was no coaxing her back to sleep. Clifton and I both fell back asleep, but she never did.
We headed down for breakfast around 7 am and afterwards to the MTR to Disneyland. We ended up getting to Disneyland much quicker than we expected, which meant we were there nearly an hour before opening. Luckily Main Street opens a half hour before the park, so Finley got to meet Minnie and Mickey before the park opened. Finley had brought Figaro with her and loved showing her to Minnie Mouse.

We decided our best strategy was to try and ride Space Mountain first. Turns out, it isn’t so popular here in Hong Kong so we were able to ride it three times and Buzz Lightyear three times without waiting in line. The big draw in Tomorrowland is Autopia. The mad rush was to get there in the morning and the wait time was never below 45 minutes, so we didn’t get a chance to ride it.

We then headed to Fantasyland to watch the Golden Mickeys show. A lot of the show was in Chinese, but all the songs were in English. Tarzan came over to Finley and played with her hair, I am not sure she realized who he was. Then it was onto It’s a Small World, Teacups and Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh had a big line all day and was one of only three rides that had Fastpasses. After Winnie the Pooh, we went to the Storybook Shoppe to get Finley new ears for Hong Kong. There weren’t many ears to choose from, in fact that shelves were quite empty. People were shopping like crazy and it was hard for the salespeople to stock the shelves fast enough. Finley’s new ears were pink with a red and white bow. Finley wanted a set of Pluto ears, but they didn’t say Hong Kong Disneyland, so she said Grammy would get her the Pluto ears in Disneyland. We grabbed lunch and rode Buzz again while the ears were being embroidered.

After we picked up the new ears, we headed over to Toy Story Land. We rode Slinky Dog and Army Men Parachute Drop. The lines were long over here, reminiscent of Toy Story Land in Paris. We cut it real close to see the parade, but we made it just in time. The music was the same as the parade in California Adventure and Hollywood Studios, but some of the words were changed to fit the Flights of Fantasy theme. And part of it was in Chinese (obviously.) Finley liked the Pooh float the best.

The line at Jungle Cruise was quite long, so we headed over to ride the carousel, visit characters and do some shopping. We also picked up a new button for Finley. I lied and said it was her birthday because when I asked for one, they said “for her birthday?” and I went with it. While shopping four stores in, we came to the realization that we weren’t going to find the Pluto Finley was hoping for. Eeyore was second on the wish list, so we picked up the last one on the shelf. There are baskets in all the shops here and people were just stuffing them full of stuff. It was madness.

We headed back over to the Jungle Cruise and rode it twice in a row. This Jungle Cruise is quite different. It goes around an island with Tarzan’s tree house in the middle and there is a fire and water show at the end. We rode in an English speaking boat both times, but I think the jokes must have been lost in translation. They both mentioned turning into a gorilla if you went through a window…

After the Jungle Cruise, we went to fastpass Space Mountain. They said not to bother, it was a walk on. We rode Orbitron (HK version of Astro Orbiter) with a 20 minute wait and then walked on to Space Mountain SEVEN times in a row. I think I have ridden this version more than the one in California. I was amazed there was no line. And that Autopia was still 45 minutes. Finley just wanted to ride it again and again, she was running down the ramp and the cast members remembered her every time. We sort of stuck out here. The lady working at Chip and Dale remembered us from the morning with Mickey and Minnie. The other comical thing about HK Disneyland was the number of people who wanted to take pictures of Finley. It was so very strange, we had our own mini paparazzi. It happened several times and everyone was really nice about it, but it was rather silly.

Space Mountain wore Finley out. We grabbed a quick dinner and Finley passed out in her stroller. She slept through the fireworks and the whole train ride home. If you ever get a chance to visit HK Disneyland, the subway is one of the neatest things. All the windows are shaped like Mickey Mouse and even the handles inside the cars are shaped like Mickey. There are character statues inside the cars and it is really decked out Disney style. Finley’s heart remains with the monorail…