Hong Kong Disneyland Resort 2013

The happiest place on earth!

Of course we would visit Disneyland during our Hong Kong trip! Why the hell not?? Despite the tight itinerary, we were able to squeeze in a day with Mickey and friends right after our arrival. Getting there was a bit of work (we had to move from the airport to the hotel and back to Disneyland, which took about 3.5 hours), but it was totally worth it.

I actually visited this place for the first time last year with my brothers and cousins when my Ninang took us an awesome trip. I couldn't be happier that I now have a reason to come back exactly a year later. It's also Alvie's first time here!

Those eyes are still creepy, Woody.
Adult Admission Tickets, $450.00 or P2511.87 each.

Regular admission is 450 HKD, but if you purchase the ticket from the CTS (China Travel Service) counter in the Hong Kong Airport, it could be cheaper. We got ours for 420 HKD each. Not bad.

Every little thing is magic.

The Disney magic begins from the Sunny Bay Station once you step foot on the Mickey Mouse train which runs to and from Disneyland.

I wish upon a star that I'll be able to be back here every year!

A very short ride later, we were at the sunny heaven that is Disneyland.

Touchdown!

Wide open spaces and loads of fun and familiar icons await you upon entering the area. There was also a huge and lively fountain.

Just the right thing to get you hyped to start the adventure, right?? Well, there's a lot to talk about so let's just go about this story piece by piece.

The Snacks

Really? Snacks already? Haha. Let's just get this out of the way. Foodwise, there's a lot of fun options in Disneyland. Very many, actually, but there aren't a lot of wallet-friendly options. You can expect restaurant meals to be upwards of 90 HKD or 500 pesos. You may want to grab authentic Hong Kong cuisine before entering Disneyland, since there are many that would be much cheaper. Even doing that though, you can't expect anyone to have an active 6 hour day without any refreshments! Here's what we had:

Roasted (?) Squid, about $30.00 or P167.13

Okay, I don't remember what it's called exactly or the exact price but this is about right. It's fun to snack on and chewy. Snack areas that serve this are located throughout the park, and you'll definitely smell when one is nearby. Follow your nose! Haha.

Mango and Watermelon Shake, about $22.00  or P122.56 each.
Curry Fishball, $15.00 or P83.57 for one serving (4 pieces)

The shakes would quench the hell out of you on a bright and sunny day, and the curry fishballs were quite good. It had the same consistency of what you would get from good hotpot places we have here in the Philippines. Slightly spicy curry sauce was also very nice.

Chocolate Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar, $28.00 or P155.99

I feel like a kid again! This was a bit pricey but I just couldn't bring myself to not have anything Mickey-shaped. It wasn't no Magnum, but it was alright. Also available snacks are Mickey Mouse waffles and turkey legs. I had also conditioned myself to purchase a turkey leg and was looking forward to it, but in the end, changed my mind because it didn't seem as appetizing as I remember. I only tried it in Ocean Park last year.

Main Street, USA

The Railroad

The first area that will greet you is Main Street, USA. Here you will find a couple of buildings and the Railroad that tours you through the whole park. We weren't able to ride because it was closed for the parade when we arrived at 3 pm. We weren't about to waste time waiting and weren't keen to watch the parade since we needed to go through the whole park despite our late arrival. We have to be efficient!

A proposal.

Looks like some people were preparing for a proposal. Well, this would be a cool place!

Monsters U!

This new place, Monsters University, was kind of like a small Monsters, Inc. museum. I haven't watched any of the movies so I wasn't interested and neither was Alvie. We prefer the rides!

Toy Story Land

There's a snake in my boot!

This was a nice, playful area. We were planning to ride the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop, but the line was going to take 30 minutes we weren't willing to spare. Too bad, it looked like fun. There was also the RC Racer, which is pretty much Enchanted Kingdom's Anchors Away on steroids, and well, maybe next time. We did take a lot of pictures, though.

A seat on a saliva-slobbered bench, anyone?

Playskool is kool.

Alvie and Rex!

Remember this gal?

What we rode:
Slinky Dog Spin - A bit too kiddie and not worth the 15 minute queue.

Still fun, though.

Fantasyland

Magical.

Very much the heart of this place, Fantasyland is located at the center of it all. Lots of photo opportunities and a couple of nice rides are scattered around this place. There were some kiddie rides like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and the iconic It's a Small World, and a show called Golden Mickeys we weren't able to catch due to lack of time. We prioritized only the best ones.

Remember these guys?

Pumpkin cups.

It's a small world!

What we rode:
Mickey's Philharmagic - A wonderful 4D(!!!!) show that is very fun to watch and features many Disney movies. The main character is my favourite from Disney: Donald Duck!

Cool shades.

*cue Disneyland Theme*

Mad Hatter's Tea Cups - Insane fun, especially if you spin the cups until you have to stop from too much laughing!

Fun stuff!

Tomorrowland

Behold the future!

It's not all castles and fantasy in Disneyland. This is a place where marvels of the future lie, including a Stitch show we didn't watch.

What we rode:
Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy (twice!) - When I was here last year, I was really hoping to try the non-Halloween version of this ride the next time, but alas, no luck. This ride is a lot of fun and is one of the only roller-coasters that do not terrify me too much because you don't see how high up you are, or when the drops are coming. Alvie's favourite ride and my second.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - You get to ride on a small vehicle for which you can control the direction you are facing. You get guns and points for all the little targets you are able to hit. A great time for kids and adults alike.

To infinity and beyond!

Mystic Point

A small, strange place which holds the best special effects we've ever seen from a ride.

What we rode:
Mystic Manor - Though we knew nothing about it going in, we had a great time being mystified by illusions and awesome special effects!

Watch out for this eerily interesting place.

Grizzly Gulch

This old-timey mining town is definitely not one you would want to miss.

What we rode
Runaway Mine Cars (twice!) - My favourite ride! This isn't your run-of-the-mill roller-coaster. Not because it is scary, but because it has a reeling chain of events that is awesome to experience again and again and again.

If you've ridden it, you'd remember the location from this image.

Adventureland

Home of Simba, and everything from the jungle, this lively place has quite a bit of adventure to offer. I wish we had time to visit Tarzan's Treehouse!

What we rode:
Jungle River Cruise - We thought this ride wouldn't be as nice in the night time but it turned out to be even better since the fake stuff seemed a lot more real. Haha. The lights were also very nice.

Dumbo? No... ears are too small.

Disney in the Stars

To get a good view of the nightly fireworks show, we plopped down on the center floor of Main Street at 7:30 and waited for a good thirty minutes. The show lasted about 10 minutes, but the music, the lights, the fireworks and the pyro really made a memorable experience. Can I live here?

Well, soon after, we had to face the music and head back to the hotel. It was a slow walk towards our an hour something journey back.

Bye, Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

Bright lights and contented faces. This place knows how to say goodbye.

Damnit, we weren't able to take the railroad! Haha.

That was definitely a day well spent. Really happy I was able to go back to Disneyland and even write this post about it. Notice that I named this post '2013' in the hopes that I get to go back every once in a while. Maybe.

See how happy I am?

Love Hong Kong Disneyland? Hate it? Let me know by commenting below, or just tweet me!

Hong Kong 2013: McDonald's

Halfway out the airport, we met up with Alvie's mom and aunt and decided to have a quick bite before the long and arduous 3.5 hour journey from the airport to the hotel to Disneyland.

Conveniently located at the very cool HKG airport.

I've visited a few countries and I've made it a point to try out each local version of McDonald's. They all have the same fries and mostly have the same food in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Philippines. Uruguay's McDonald's is mostly the same but they use Angus beef for their burgers and each meal costs about 500 pesos each. Ouch!

I have a habit of ordering the weirdest, most different thing on every menu, so this day, I tried their new product, the Tonkatsu Burger. Note that the prices here are slightly higher than other branches since it is in the airport. That's probably why the lady behind the counter tried to stop me from taking pictures? lol

Tonkatsu with Egg Burger (a la carte), $19.50 or P108.85 and Milk Tea, $15.5 or P86.52

The milk tea fortunately came with syrup it badly needed, and even once all was mixed in, it was just a subtle sweetness. It was alright.

Riddle me this: What is Tonkatsu without Tonkatsu sauce? A pretty tasteless porkchop!

I enjoyed the texture of the pork and it wasn't fatty, however I found that my thick sandwich had a noticeable lack of taste. The small amount of mayonnaise on the cabbage wasn't nearly enough to make this a tasty meal. Still filling and interesting, at least.

McWings (a la carte), $20.00 or P111.64

These were good, but I prefer if they were filleted instead. Wing bones are always annoying. Haha. The chicken was deliciously spicy, but for the price tag, I think I prefer my big Tonkatsu burger instead.

McShaker Fries

Fries were well.. McDonald's fries. I don't think they are different in any corner of the world. Haha.

Menu:
Tonkatsu Burgers
Meals

Verdict:
Milk Tea: Okay
Tonkatsu with Egg Burger: Okay
McWings: Okay

Enough energy for the rest of the trip! For now, at least...

That was a fun, not overly delicious first meal at Hong Kong! Soon after, we trekked on to the S1 bus to Tung Chung and MTR'd our way on.

Love McDonald's in Hong Kong? Hate it? Let me know by commenting below, or just tweet me!



MCDONALD'S
Arrivals Meeters & Greeters Hall, Level 5, Terminal 1
(852) 2261-0426
Operating Hours: 00:00 - 24:00

A Taal Tale: The Advineture

A beautiful view.

What a marvel nature is. This is the view of the crater of Taal from inside the volcano. Getting there isn't exactly rainbows and butterflies, though, and I tried to capture some of it with the great new app called Vine. Instagram has the same thing now too, but I don't know.. this one is still easier to use and is easier to place in the blog. Check out our very first advineture! :)

We started the journey from the Taal Lake Yacht Club in Talisay, Batangas. It was sad that Alvie wasn't feeling well that day and had to stay behind. She brought a couple of books to pass the time and planned to wait at the club. Well, let's just say the place wasn't as we expected based on the name. It was mostly just a group of huts, not exactly the venue for lounging around and being pampered while waiting. Ultimately, she did still stay behind, and took to one of the huts for some literary "me" time. Bye for now!

The boat ride was longer than I expected at about 20 minutes. Still, the air of excitement did not dissipate and office friends, Derek, Joyce, Lee and I enjoyed the refreshing breeze. There was an instance where the engine died due to lumot or seaweed getting all up in the rudder, but we were quickly back on track. The tour guide was very nice throughout the trip. Before long, we hit land and started a'trekkin.

There was a small village where we landed and that's where we started hiking from. One of us decided to take a horse along for the journey back, a wise decision. To begin with, there were strangely four horses following us, likely in case we needed them. A ways into the hike, Joyce started using her horse and the three others gave up and headed back.

After about 30 minutes of travelling upwards, we were at the "peak" of the volcano. We took a few moments to catch our breath and take in the beautiful view. Oh, and yes, pictures.

Next, comes the hard part: Walking down the steep path towards the lake at the center.

It took a lot of hiking and sliding, and grabbing rocks and vines to stay on my feet along the steep and narrow trail, but about 40 minutes later, we got much closer and the trail got much easier.

Finally at the crater and giddy like little children about how cool it all was. Not literally cool though, the place emanated a geothermal warmth and smelled as sulfuric as a chemistry lab gone wrong. It was all still very awesome scenery. How often can you say you  were at a volcano crater lake? This is actually my second time, my first experience was at Pinatubo, where we even took a long swim. This was before I read that Pinatubo's lake had lots of harmful chemicals. Haha. 

Compared to Pinatubo, Taal is surprisingly active. Pinatubo was all lahar and stagnant waters. Taal is full of heat, steam, and sulfur. Check out that boiling bowl of water. Our tour guide said some tourists even bring eggs to boil in there. I think I'll pass on the sulfur eggs, thanks.

More strolling around the lake and more boiling water and steam being spewed. The thought did cross my mind, what if the volcano suddenly erupted? I kept aware of the general heat of the place to make a quick getaway, but figured, It'd be too late to run away, anyway, so I just enjoyed the moment and shut that all out. Haha.

It was also so interesting to find out that all this is going on in the volcano, while we stare at it from afar when we eat at Leslie's. We did exactly that for lunch later in the day, but from now on, I can say I've been there!

This was me frolicking around the side of the lake. The ground was very, very soft and even collapsed under our feet in some areas. It wasn't dangerous (I think) and it was all fun, though. I felt like I was in a videogame (always a great feeling).

The others jumped in for a quick swim. I did not want to get moist (or moister) so I just hung out and rested for the climb back. I wouldn't pass an opportunity to check-in on Foursquare, too!

I'm at Taal Volcano Crater (Taal, NCR) http://t.co/CkHw42WEPc
— Joaquin Iñigo Medina (@joaquinigo) July 6, 2013

I had one dumb move for this trek, and that was forgetting to bring water. I managed to get all the way down, but I was feeling very dehydrated after. Despite a few sips of water from my gracious companions, I became very exhausted trekking the very steep path back up to the peak. After 2 or 3 breaks to catch my breath, I barely made it to the top. It felt like heaven to be back up there again, where I bought and drank my fill of water. Got a bit of sugary energy from a piece of gum, too. 

I'm on a horse. Joyce did not want to use the tiny horse on the journey back to the boat and I did not let a good ride go to waste. Haha. I was still a bit tired and it was also a huge help. I had only ridden horses on flat ground prior to this and it's a very different experience. I enjoyed the rocky trail (I'm not sure the horse did, though) and I felt like I was in Westeros.

The great thing about riding the horse is you can take your eyes off your feet and where you're going, and really appreciate the view of the place. It was remarkable. I would prefer trekking on my feet for a more real experience but I'd take the horse for the view.

It felt so good to be back on a boat, on the way back to the yacht club and a very, very bored Alvie. Water splashed on my face as I waited, and it felt amazing. Beyond the fatigue, it was a very awesome and memorable experience. I should go on more adventures.

In case you were wondering, it cost the four of us about 900 pesos each for the entire trek, including the boat and the tour guide. There was only an additional cost for the horse, which was 750 pesos. The trail we took was the secret trail posted here. It is more expensive and way more difficult. Taking a horse is highly recommended.

Lovely nourishment.

Finally at Leslie's, where we feasted on the usual bulalo and crispy kangkong. Too bad I was too tired to even think about blogging it!

Part 1:
A Taal Tale: Cafe Breton

TAAL LAKE YACHT CLUB
Website: http://www.tlyc.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Taal.Lake.Yacht.Club