Hong Kong Trip: Hong Kong Day 4 (Part 1)

Day 4: Hong Kong (23/12/06)

We woke up at around 8.30 am and were raring to go by 9.15 am. We headed to Tsim Sha Tsui via the MTR and walked around looking for some nice eateries. However, there are much lesser eateries there compared to Mongkok, where we are staying. We seem to be walking without any hope of finding a nice place to have our breakfast and we decided to ask a hotel for some recommendations of good food. They told us that there is a nice restaurant in the vicinity called Serenade Restaurant which is located at Hong Kong Cultural Centre along the habourfront.

We headed there via the directions they provided and finally got ourselves a place where we can have our breakfast. We ordered 2 rounds of dim sum and several main dishes, and we were all full by then. The quality of the dim sum is not bad but not as great as the people have proclaimed.

Dim Sum @ Serenade Restaurant


A picture outside the restaurant

The meal costs about $15 per pax due to the expensive and central location of the restaurant. We proceeded to take a walk along Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.

Victoria Habour with a boat in the center


Five of us with the habour view

We then took the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Lai King Station and transfered to Tung Chung Line from Lai King to Sunny Bay, and finally transfered to Disneyland Resort Line from Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort Station. Along the MTR, i read the local news regarding the Singaporean blogger Wee Shu Min and it discusses the income gap creating social rifts in the society. Click here to view the news of Singaporean 'elite' blogger Wee Shu Min in Hong Kong newspaper.

Disneyland Resort Train (Not the same as the other MTR trains)


In the train leading to Disneyland Resort (check out the cute mickey hand grabs)

At the Disneyland Station, some of us including me rushed out of the train to find the ticket booth to buy the entrance fee into Disneyland so that we will not be at the back of the queue as there are quite a lot of people in the train. However, the ticket booths are quite far from the station and seeing that no one seems to be rushing to buy tickets, we walked with our normal pace into the resort. Can't help the typical Singaporean kiasu spirit in us. :)

The tickets in different characters


At the entrance of Disneyland Resort


Nice building near the entrance

There are many quaint looking European styled buildings along the main street and the pavements are squeaky clean. Everything is so tidy and organised within the resort premises. The ticket price is a whopping $70 dollars though.

Our first stop is Tomorrowland. We proceeded to take a ride on the go-kart.

Tomorrowland


Astronauts!


While waiting in the queue for go-kart

We queued up for about 30 minutes as there are a lot of people waiting to ride the go-kart. The go-kart is totally for kids as the maximum speed is only around 15 km/h. There are also guide tracks to prevent the go-karts from knocking against the side walls or falling over the edge. I wasn't steering the go-kart at all and it was knocking the sides of the guide tracks repeatedly as the ride was just too tame and i wanted to get more action out from it. The go-karts are brand new and ultra shiny though.

The colourful go-karts

We proceeded to take the ride in the Space Mountain next.

Space Mountain

We queued up for another 20 minutes and there are repeated video annoucements warning people that the ride is a high speed, high-octance thrill ride. I have serious doubts about the credibility of the words 'high-speed' and 'high-octane' they used to describe the ride after the dull go-kart ride.

We were seated on the tram in the dark building and it's initial speed is quite fast. I had previously low expectations for this ride and it surpassed my expectations. The tram was racing around the dark building and the descent was at quite a high speed. We jerked from left to right and right to left whenever the tram made a turn.

A satisfying thrill ride and our hair were a bit messy when we stepped out of the tram. The speed was good but the angle of descent could have been adjusted to a greater degree though. Took a snap of the photo shown at the exit which was taken during the ride.

A shot of a moment during the Space Mountain ride


A souvenir shop opposite Space Mountain

To be continued....

End of Part 1 (9 am to 2 pm)