Hong Kong Adventure, Part 1

31st March 2014

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

This verse came to live the day I ventured into Disneyland.  It was my childhood dream to visit this magical place.  Meeting Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. 

It all came about when a church member passed us an envelope and told us that it is a gift voucher from a travel agency.  My face must have been glowing the minute we opened the envelope and saw the amount stated at the gift voucher.  Honestly, it was a huge sum where I have never expected to receive it.  Thank you so much, Mr or Mrs or Ms Anonymous.  May God bless you as you have blessed us generously.

A call was made to the travel agency to clarify a few matters.  However, I was a bit unhappy with the staff as she was not very helpful.  My impression from the staff was: The $$ may seem too little to travel anywhere with a family of 4!  Pardon me but I was pretty upset by the staff.  To cut the story short, we decided to use this gift voucher for a Hong Kong trip.  And guess what?  The amount was more than enough!

Looking out for a cheap deal at AirAsia became my priority for the next couple of months.  Liaising with the travel agent was a pain until our trip there.  But the children were excited!  They, too, looked forward to go to Disneyland!  Well, they may not know what awaits them but the advertisement on the TV certainly left a huge impression on Elyse if not Erwyn.

Months ago before the trip the weather forecast showed a good sign of Mr Sun.  After all, it was suppose to be close to summer then.  However, my heart sink when I checked the weather forecast again just weeks before.  Clearly, Mr Sun had gone for a vacation.  Rainy days were predicted.  ‘But it wasn’t supposed to be rainy season!’  I can’t help but feeling disappointed.

Que sera sera whatever will be will be the future’s not ours to see

Still remember this song?  I guess by now there’s nothing much that we could do but to leave everything into God’s hand.  Unwillingly, I packed rain coats and umbrellas in our luggage though deep down still hoping for a change of weather – a typical self denial.

Adding to my headache, our little boy showed symptoms of falling sick the day before our departure.  I read about parents who shared their experience on bringing a sick kid for vacation and it turned out to be a disaster.  Now, this is happening to me?!!  I almost wanted to tell hubby to leave with Elyse while I stayed behind with Erwyn.  However, Erwyn seemed to be fine after taking a dose of paracetamol.  He slept through the night and woke up with his usual happy self.

 

We boarded the plane with much anticipation.  My childhood dream was about to fulfilled.  On top of that, my children were there to unleash the little girl in me.  The flight journey was not so pleasant towards the end.  There was a turbulence and the airplane was unable to touch down.  Elyse and I almost threw up.  Erwyn was fast asleep so it did not affect him at all.  Thank God it finally landed safely.  This was my worst flight experience ever.

We located our travel guide easily at the airport.  The guide was very professional with good command of English.  He took us to our tour bus and we headed to Hollywood hotel immediately.  Yes, we stayed at Hollywood hotel the very first night.  It was part of our package deal.  How awesome is that?!

It was a bit chaotic at the hotel lobby when we reached there.  Lots of people were with their luggages ready to be kept in the store room.  We roamed around the hotel trying to find food for our children.  Haven’t eaten anything since morning and now it’s already lunch time.  But I always packed lots of food in my hand luggage: biscuits, bread, milk and water.  So the children were not starving.  We found none except one café.  So we ordered something there although the price was a bit steep.

Did I mention it was drizzling when we reached the hotel?  Sigh… But thank God after the meal, the sky was clear and we headed to Disneyland right away with the free shuttle bus service.  Our entrance tickets entitled us for a two-day entry.  There was a long walk from the bus station to the actual entrance of the Disneyland themepark.  I wonder why?  I thought every acres of land is considered gold in Hong Kong???  Sorry, shouldn't be complaining here.  But when you have a not-so-well kid and you have to carry that 10kg boy everywhere, every mile counts.

The sight of the entrance archway was enough to keep any children and the young at hearts feeling happy!

  

Walking further in from the entrance archway, the sight of this beautiful fountain welcome us.

We started strolling down the street right after we got our map. There were many European style shops and kiosks lining two rows of the lane. Each shops and kiosks have their own unique designs and themes where most of them were selling Disney souvenirs.  We didn't pay attention to all those as my two kiddos are not shoppoholic and we do not plan to spend any $$ on these super expensive stuff (though they are super cute!).

Now here’s the tricky part.  I have totally no idea what we did from now until dinner time.  It’s as though those few hours were ‘lost’ in space.  I choose not to take any photos today at the park coz I wanted to just enjoy the hours here without being busy clicking away.  Hubby said we played some of the rides, yet I couldn’t recall anything.  Now you know why I have to write all these down in a blog. 

Anywhere, we went back to the hotel and checked into our room.  It was very spacious and lovely.  We didn’t want to go anywhere after an exhausting day.  So, hubby and Elyse went to the same café to grab a bite while Erwyn and I stayed in the room.  Our little prince didn’t want to eat anything except bread and milk.  And soon after he felt asleep.

There was a story telling time for the children at the hotel lobby at 8pm.  Andrew brought Elyse over while I stayed with my fast asleep boy.  There weren’t many children that evening.  What fascinated us was the story teller had a poor command of English.  How embarrassing it is as this is a 5* hotel and there were many foreigners here. 

So, that conclude our very first day in Hong Kong.