Mickeyland

Thursday was always going to be a special treat for Luke, we had been telling him that if he was good he would have a special treat but secretly we were always going to take him to Disneyland in Hong Kong. We toyed with the idea of the hotel shuttle bus which took you directly to the gates of the park (for £10 each) but opted for the £2.50 train journey with two changes and a walk between stations. We arrived at about 30 minutes after the park had opened, with Luke none the wiser until we boarded the special Mickey Mouse train which took you to the park.

The walk from the train to the gates was filled with anticipation as Luke had finally realised that we were at 'Mickeyland'. I was surprised at how quiet the park actually was, but then it is Thursday. Disneyland is divided into 4 areas, Main Street, Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. We headed up Main Street, stopping to watch the Dragon Parade, towards Fantasyland where we knew the Winnie the Pooh area was. The picture above is the only picture that Luke would have with a character - he's a bit unsure of grown-ups dressed in cartoon outfits! Once we had met Pooh we had a theme for the rest of the day, the hunt for Lumpy and Roo for another photo. We had a few tears when we couldn't find them and even more when the day was drawing to a close and we still couldn't find them. Excuses for the shocking failure of mum and dad to find Lumpy and Roo ranged from '...it must be their day off...' to '...perhaps they're on holiday...'. The only response that Luke had to offer was for us to go and find them on their holiday and bring them back. Luke is still concerned that Lumpy and Roo weren't aware that he was at Disneyland today!

We only braved one ride, the story of Winnie the Pooh, which Luke enjoyed in the end. We saw all the main characters, and enjoyed the Disney Parade down Main Street. We saw the Rockin' Mickey show in front of the castle and decided to stay until the very last minute to see the fireworks which closed the day.

Writing this now I'm not sure whether it was Luke or Claire which enjoyed the day most......maybe it was even me! Luke's face was a picture on many occasions throughout the day, which we shall remember for many years to come. Disneyland really is a magical place.......

Goodbye to Sydney and Hello Hong Kong

Such a lot to catch up on.

On Saturday we met up with Kay's friend Tanya and headed to Darling Harbour to watch the Dragon Boat Racing - which was part of the celebrations for Chinese New Year. One of Kay's work colleagues, Nicola, was racing and her team won! We couldn't see much in the harbour as the place was packed but it is one of the places on the must see in Sydney list. We met up with another of Kay's friends on the way back - Crystal, who Luke has promised to marry - and Lee got to visit the Bavarian Beer Cafe (and drink a Gentleman's pint - a litre!). We also met Amanda, who Kay works with and went to New Zealand with, before they headed out for the night.

We were in a bit of a quandary on Sunday morning as to whether to wake Kay up for our planned visit to Taronga Zoo. Amanda had kindly lent us her guest passes so we could get in for free. Kay not only got up but made us a picnic lunch Amanda joined us too. Our only trouble was parking when we got there as it was slightly busier than we expected and we had to park several streets away - okay but there seemed to be huge spiders in gigantic webs strung from every hedge to every lamppost (and that was in the posh suburbs outside the Zoo). We had another photography session with Koala's - but this was much better as besides the 'official' photograph we were allowed to take our own ans she took some with our camera too - PLUS when we realised we'd forgotten to have a picture with Luke's nursery Lion (Roary for those that haven't met him) they kindly took him back into the enclosure and held him next to the Koala so we could get a good shot. Luke's favourite animal was the 'orange monkey' - which was actually a huge Orangutan. We returned to Kay's for a BBQ with some of her friends and Luke DID NOT want to go to sleep.

Our final day wasn't spent as we'd planned as I spent much of it at the GPs and then the hospital. It was a false alarm and I am fine - don't panic mum - but it was better to be sure. Luke did get to spend some time on the beach as Auntie Kay came to the rescue and took him to build sand castles. We also found that you may be on the other side of the world but it still takes 8 hours to get out of A&E once you are in!

Yesterday we had to get up early as the taxi was booked for 8am to take us to the airport we waved goodbye to Kay as she left to catch her ferry to work and 45 mins later we were crossing the harbour bridge and saw her ferry arrive. If it hadn't been for the 3 cases and the pushchair it would have definitely been easier to travel to the airport by ferry and train (and a lot cheaper and quicker too). We did a bit of souvenir shopping at the airport (okay it was mostly for us) before our flight to Hong Kong.

Luke kept asking 'Are we on the runway yet?' and as soon as I said 'yes' he was asleep he slept for 3 hours but them was awake for the remaining 9 hours apart from the last 10 mins of the flight - he must be affected by a change in air pressure!

Today we had a pre-organised tour of Hong Kong courtesy of Quantas. We met 'Billy' our tour guide who has the weirdest turn of phrase I have ever heard - his English sounded like he was originally from Sweden and there was more than a little innuendo and lots of weird substitution of words - glorious for genuine, switching for scaffolding, - the end of every comment was punctuated by 'yeash' or 'you da boss' and he kept talking about 'fat cats'. He has a son in LA so that might explain it. He also seemed to have lots of little sidelines - he had an associate who took our pictures a the first stop, then disappeared and came back later to sell us a copy of the picture plus a cut out of the same picture stuck onto a plate for £15. The bus driver was selling postcards and I am sure Billy took a cut from every stop.

First we went on the 'optional' extra trip on a Sampan around a floating fishing village and restaurant, then we went to a jewelry factory - which was looking through a window at 3 men putting gems into settings and then the hard sell in the shop, then we went to a market where everything was $100 (for 3, 6, 7 items) but we could only stay for half an hour, finally we went on the Peak tram ride (for the return trip only) where we travelled down the peak at a 45 degree angle - very weird experience and I hope the photos/video do it justice. With several hours to spare after the tour (we declined the optional extra of being dropped off somewhere in Kowloon to make our own way back via the Star ferry) we explored the shopping streets - again we were travelling with our mini celebrity - Luke and is red hair - so he did get a few waves. We made quite a few purchases of Thomas the Tank Engine items - including the Chinese Dragon for his train set - and may be back to buy a suitcase to carry all the extra baggage in!

Our plan for tomorrow is to brave the local train system and visit Disneyland Hong Kong (about an hour away by train) - ahh you understand now why we need the extra suitcase!

Claire