Day 6 – 12th March 2024

Get ready for a long post!!

The weather was predicted to be a sunny day in Hong Kong. I had already decided I wanted to go to Disneyland as I’ve never been before. I bought my ticket online via Booking.com. The exchange rate was slightly cheaper, and the day I chose (a Tuesday), it was particularly cheaper.

I woke up early again and had a light breakfast, and saved the rest for lunch time.

I tried to predict the time I was going to get there – approximately 10am. I needed to take 2 buses (although a week later I noticed at the Shatin Bus Station that there was a direct bus to Disneyland from there 🤦🏻‍♀️). I took the Bus E42, which is next to the A41 bus stop that goes to the airport. This bus took me to Lantau Island. I stopped at the Lantau Link Bus-Bus Interchange, and changed for the R8 bus.

I thought I got off the correct bus stop but Google Maps didn’t even indicate that the bus will will stop at the entrance / carpark of Disneyland… if any of you get the R8 bus, make sure to stay on, it goes around after stopping off at the Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre.

A small group of us didn’t realise, and so we asked a person who seems to hear the same thing everyday of people getting lost… Google Maps needs to be updated with this bus route!! Anyway, I met a family of three Filipinos who live in Canada, but came to Hong Kong as a stop off before returning home. As we reached the entrance, we said our goodbyes, and I headed to the entrance.

It was best not to hang around at the entrance to take pictures. There was a bag check, then long queues of people for ticket checks.

I finally got in after about 20 minutes of queueing time. Not bad!

I was in Disneyland for up to 3 hours, go around the area, went on two rides when the queues were just minimal. I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t stop to eat lunch either. I was just lucky to have gone on a sunny day. 😁 It looked like it wasn’t busy, but when I took a picture, no one was standing in my way. 😁 It was a good first experience coming to Disneyland but such a long way away from the city.

I was ready to go for my next adventure, so I left early… I didn’t stay for the evening fireworks.

Bye bye Disneyland! See you another time! (One of my cousins told me that I wasted money without seeing the fireworks… well… next time! I had something else in mind to see…).

My geek rating for HK Disneyland: 4.5/5

I took the train to my next destination.

I got off at Sunny Bay, and got the next train to Tung Chung Station.

Unfortunately when I got to Tung Chung the cable car was undergoing maintenance. 😢 At that point, I met an Italian tourist who was also heading to the same direction. There’s a bus 23 heading to Ngong Ping Village, but when we saw the queue, it was metres long… the agony of waiting for a bus. So we both decided to share a taxi.

The taxi stand had fewer people waiting. The Italian wanted to share with other people (to save time basically, rather than save money) but there was already a group of four, and there were no ubers around… Then suddenly out of the blue, we met two Russian tourists. I asked if they wanted to share a taxi with us, and thankfully they said yes… and yes, I was taken aback when I heard they were Russian.

We finally got into a Blue taxi. We didn’t even need to say where we were going as it seems the driver has been going up and down the same route for a while… Once we finally got there, we paid our HK$50 each. The Italian paid ten dollars short by accident, and the taxi driver just started swearing… obviously one should not translate, but the driver could have been a bit more patient. Oh well. Such is life in HK.

I actually wanted to split up with the group I came with, but I ended up staying with the Italian… and didn’t get to eat the lunch I had packed. 😢😢😢 Thankfully my energy levels felt ok, but exhausted from the sun, heat and going up the stairs to see the Big Buddha.

My geek rating for The Big Buddha: 4.9/5 (cable car was a let down)

Well, it was time to depart. It seemed the Russians and the Italian were keen to get back. So we practically ran for the bus 23… There was no point in running as we were at the wrong bus stop! Seriously…

We got back to Tung Chung and separated. I wanted to get another bus back, but the bus I wanted no longer stopped at the main stop, and I would have had to walk back or take two more buses back. No thanks… so I decided to go back by train again. Well lucky I did, because I was really hungry… I bought sushi from the shop outside the station, and also saw an advert with Aaron Kwok, so I took a picture. 🤭🤭🤭

Not sure why, but sushi places in HK give out too much wasabi and soy sauce packets. Why? That’s just a waste! Before I got back to the hotel, I stopped off at City Super in Shatin, got myself some cheap cold beers, and discounted fruit. I so wanted to try those white strawberries.

Dinner was great! The scallops in the last picture was amazing stuff. 😋😋😋 The white strawberries on the otherhand tasted watery and not nice at all… they may have lost its taste throughout the days. I want to go back and eat cheap sushi from Sushi Express!!!.

My geek rating for Sushi Express: 5/5

End of a long day 6.