Upon entering Hong Kong Disneyland, you’ll be greeted by the main train station building that is built on elevated ground.

Here is a beautiful sculpture of Stitch and his girlfriend (I think) posing on a hammock.  The entire showpiece is made out of flowers!  Isn’t it gorgeous? 

There are 2 castle designs in this photo - the traditional fortress type with grey stone walls in the front, and the fairytale land type that happens to be part of Disney’s logo in the background.  And the grey skies are also very evident!

This is one of my favourite rides in the theme park.  Visitors take “mini spaceship rides” and shoot at indicated targets during the mission and score points!

The famous and lovable characters from Toy Story are featured in a wonderful sand sculpture!  I had to wait several minutes to take this clear shot because many other visitors were also posing with it.

A photo taken from the back of the Disney castle buildings.

This cottage building is actually a Pooh Bear toy shop.  Lovely isn’t it?

The souvenir shops start to light up as evening draws near.

Part of the main street which also resembles a city central street in the US!

Be back again tomorrow for some more photos I took while on a recent short holiday in Hong Kong!

While I took many photos at the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars, these are a few of the big names that were there:

Jacky Cheung aka Zhang Xueyou.

Jackie Chan aka Chen Long.

Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia aka Lin Qingxia.

Josephine Siao Fang Fang.  I took this photo because this actress was innovative by adding in a smiley face as well!

After a while, all the designs were more or less the same, with differences in names, signatures, palm prints and some slight variations in the color trims.

As it was very crowded along this pavement by the harbour, I had to wait for the pedestrians and visitors to move away before I could take clear shots.

Be back for more photos tomorrow, this time of Hong Kong Disneyland!

The cable cars at the foothill station of Lantau Island.  Each cable car can seat 8 adults plus some standing room.  But the wait in the queue to ride them takes around half an hour!

An early aerial view that greets the passengers soon after the cable car ’launches’ into the air from the foothill station (see blue portion)!

One of the green mountain tops covered by clouds in the late afternoon!

A nice view of the first waterway covered by the cable car.

The muddy banks below are dotted with people wading on the shallows to collect mollucs and shellfish!

That flat island with buildings is the Hong Kong International Airport.  You can watch outgoing planes line up to take off and incoming planes land about every 3 minutes, clearly from the cable car!

After a 20 minutes ascending ride, the cable car reaches the station at Ngong Ping Village.  You can see the giant Buddha statue up on a distant mountain from here.  That’s where visitors will proceed to on foot.   

The entry point of Ngong Ping Village.  The traditional Chinese village buildings are now used as souvenir shops.

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Repulse Bay Beach on Hong Kong Island.  The temperature in summer time was around 32 degrees celsius!

A vast and long stretch of sandy beach in front, with a range of mountains (or hills) behind.  The many residential properties built on these hills are considered high end because of the fantastic view of the bay.  Many rich and famous people such as prominent entreprenuers and celebrities live at these hill top and hill side estates!

This man made shallow water part of the bay makes it very tempting for people to take off their shoes and wade in the waters.  That beige portion in the shallow waters is made of the same very stable concrete as the steps and walking areas.  You get to cool your feet and won’t get washed away by the tide!

There are many statues of several famous and popular Chinese deities along the bay as well.  Among them are the God of Fortune (grey statue) and the Deity of Fertility (white statue surrounded by many very young children carvings)

This is known as the Bridge of Longevity whereby visitors are supposed to walk across it and don’t look back and don’t retrace their steps.  People will then come back via another route further down (seen at the far end below the bridge).

This Deity of Matchmaking is very popular with visitors who come by to touch that mystic grey rock (where people are touching) for good luck in meeting their marriage partners soon!

Repulse Bay in Hong Kong.  The beautiful Chinese Dragon statue with a pearl in front of it, lies amongst the other statues.

Here is the other God of Fortune at the venue.

Cruise harbour at Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island.

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Here are some photos that I took during the first day of my recent holiday trip to Hong Kong.  This is a very famous and must see attraction there, where you take a tram up to the the Peak Tower at the top of Victoria Peak.  The aim is to view the cityscape of Hong Kong down below.  As I was there in the evening, I got to see the night view! 

The Peak Tram station at Victoria Peak, on Hong Kong Island.  It’s within walking distance from their Central MTR Station.

The Peak Tram at Victoria Peak, Hong Kong.  After a 10 minute interval, the tram arrived for the batch of visitors queuing before me.  I became the first in line for the next batch of passengers to be released onto the platform after this tram left!

The long queue of visitors to take the Peak Tram at Victoria Peak, Hong Kong.  I queued for more than half an hour on a Sunday evening, in the heat of summer!

The steep Peak Tram track at Victoria Peak, Hong Kong.  The very steep track slopes at around 45 degrees at some points, where the buildings next to the track seem to look like they are ’tilting’ at scary angles instead!

Hong Kong City view at night from the top of Victoria Peak.  A photo cannot truly capture the breathtaking night city view that I saw from the top of The Peak Tower.  You have to be there in person to experience the full granduer, though the feeling would had been much better if it wasn’t summer time.  It didn’t feel that much cooler than the foot of the mountain.

I’ve been to this venue some years ago during their winter season.  It was very cold but much more comfortable then.  So I suggest visiting Hong Kong during anytime except their summer time and typhoon season.  Summer time is great for sales though, if shopping is your main aim for your trip!

Be back again tomorrow to view the photos I took at Repulse Bay and Aberdeen, also on Hong Kong Island!

Yes, I’m back in Singapore as my plane touched down at Changi Airport around midnight today!  While it feels great to be stepping on home soil again, I also feel regretful that my short holiday trip was over so soon.  As I travelled light, handling my luggage and clearing the customs were easy for me. 

While in Hong Kong over the past 5 days, I visited the popular tourist attractions and some shopping areas.  Traveling by their MTR (equivalent to our MRT) was a breeze and very convenient.  On some days I travelled by pre-arranged tour coach to the attraction places like Lantau Island, Disneyland, Ocean Park, for the city tour, plus to and fro their air port.

The blog posts to expect in the coming days will be about:

1) Taking the Peak Tram and visiting the Peak Tower, plus seeing the breath taking night view of Hong Kong from the top of Victoria Peak.  Read more [>>]

2) The beautiful Repulse Bay (a long and curved sandy beach) and Aberdeen (formerly filled with boat people, now has a large collection of private yachts docked there) that is rich in history.  Read more [>>]

3) Taking the cable car up the mountains of Lantau Island to visit Ngong Ping Village (where the giant Buddha statue sitting on top of a hill resides).  Read more [>>]

4) The Hong Kong Avenue of Stars (Hong Kong’s equivalent of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in the US).  Read more [>>]

5) My visit to Hong Kong Disneyland (the 3rd Disneyland I’ve visited so far, the others being the ones in California, and in Tokyo)!

6) My visit to Ocean Park, the most famous theme park in Hong Kong!

As my laptop is still awaiting its new screen replacement, I’m using an older and much slower back up laptop for now.  Hence uploading photos will be more tedious. 

Nevertheless after unpacking my stuff, I’ll find a way to upload my photos to blog about the places in Hong Kong that I visited.  Come back again to view my upcoming blog posts on the above places that I visited!

I recall reading about a similar topic to this on Jcee’s blog some time ago.  I’ll be going off for my mid year short vacation to Hong Kong tomorrow and will be back 5 days later. 

While I’ve finished packing all the things I need to use for my trip, I’m still considering whether to bring a toy along for fun photography while on holiday.  I used to do this many years ago when I was much newer into toy collecting.  For my previous vacation to the US last year, I didn’t do it.

One thing about bringing toys out with me is that I worry they might get damaged, lose their parts, or worse, get completely lost by some unforeseen mishap, which I am not prepared to accept.  That’s why my toys are called collectibles that are supposed to stay at home and just look pretty for my enjoyment, LOL!

Oh well, I might as well forget this thought and just go on my long overdue holiday without any toys.  Maybe I’ll buy a new toy in Hong Kong and take photos of it there.  That would be a good alternative!

I’ll be taking my first overseas vacation of the year from 25-29 July 2010 and my destination shall be Hong Kong! 

I look forward to visiting their iconic tourist attractions like Disneyland, Ocean Park and Lantau Island; plus 1 and a half days of free and easy! 

I’ve scheduled some more short toy collecting tips to be posted daily on my blog while I’m away.  Now I need to go start packing for my upcoming mid-year trip!

It’s Vesak Day here in Singapore today, and a public holiday too.  Hence I take a blogging break. 

To those who celebrate this special occasion, Happy Vesak Day to you!  To the rest, happy holiday and enjoy your long weekend!

My Little Pony - Mom and Baby Rainbow Dash with shopping cart

Today is Mothers’ Day here in Singapore.  Here we have a “homemaker” version of My Little Pony Rainbow Dash bringing her little daughter, Baby Rainbow Dash to the supermarket for grocery shopping.  Aren’t they cute?  Hasbro sure knows how to evoke the inborn motherly instinct in little girls so early in their lives, LOL!

It’s another blogging break today for me.  Here’s wishing all mothers (including Rainbow Dash above) around the world a Wonderful and Happy Mother’s Day!