A holiday of a life time, one where I had cashed in all my frequent flyer points for myself, husband Scott and youngest daughter Jessica to spend 20 days overseas visiting 4 countries and 1 Disneyland!
Flying out on Saturday 22nd September 2012 we arrived at the airport around 9.45 am for our 10.50 am flight from Adelaide arriving into Melbourne at 12.45 pm. Once in Melbourne we went through customs and had a short visit in the first class Qantas lounge (not that we flew first or business class unfortunately) which was very nice before flying out at 2.15 pm to Hong Kong.
The flight was comfortable, we watched movies, read and talked, reviewed our itinerary and felt very excited. Arriving into Hong Kong at 9.45 pm local time there was a sense of order and a streamlined process even down to which coloured taxi line you got in.
The hotel for the first night was Disney’s Hollywood Hotel and we had kept this as a surprise for Jessica who is 17 and wants to visit every Disneyland in the world. It was fairly steamy and we were tired so went to bed ready for a Disneyland adventure the next day.
Disneyland opened around 10.00 am so we caught the shuttle bus from the hotel to the park and walked together with thousands of visitors streaming into Disneyland Hong Kong.
Most ideal for smaller children, as there are only a couple of scary rides, we enjoyed the day visiting Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Main Street USA, Toy Story Land (my favourite), Grizzly Gulch and Adventureland, met Disney characters and the parade was excellent albeit very hot!
Back to the hotel via the shuttle bus, spotting Cruella de Vil in the lobby, we picked up our luggage and took a taxi into Kowloon. For the next 2 nights we stayed at Hotel Nikko Hongkong, on Mody Road in East Kowloon which was fairly central and close to shops and restaurants.
Exploring the Hong Kong streets at night we walked through the South Seas Centre and onto Chatham Rd South choosing Chinese food for dinner – note most important accessory in HK is a map!
This hotel had a shuttle bus too and the next day we took a quick ride down to the Star Ferry Pier to Hong Kong Island. Impressive IFC Mall has a huge Apple store and it was packed with people hoping to purchase the latest iphone – such a contrast with the more traditional parts of HK.
Walking up to Connaught Road we found the longest escalator in the world and got off near the top to go to Man Mo Temple. On the way back down we found a great Chinese restaurant near Wing Lok St for lunch where we had lots of laughter at our attempt at Madarin.
Taking the ferry back we then caught a bus from the front of the pier (people at the Hong Kong Tourism Board are very helpful) to theLadies Market and Temple Street Market with dinner at a Chinese banquet style restaurant near the hotel. Jessica and I really enjoyed shopping and I don’t think I’ve ever done so much walking!
With an easy final morning in Hong Kong we had breakfast and coffee, packed up our things, took the shuttle bus to Kowloon MTR station, checked in our luggage via Cathay Pacific and then got on the express train to the airport.
In Cathay Pacific’s business lounge we had a chance to get online, message the family and give a quick update on what we had been doing in Hong Kong:
“and I thought Queensland hair was bad, Hong Kong hair is way worse! Had a great time at Disneyland, Kowloon, HK Island, eating, shopping and getting lost!”
Our flight departed at 2.40 pm and was due to arrive at Heathrow for 8.30 pm on 25th September 2012. Here are the photos from Hong Kong and the next leg is London baby!
Written by Wendy Perry, Innovator | Thinker | Speaker | Writer