Hong Kong: Day 4 (Hong Kong Disneyland)

Read Hong Kong Side Trip: Macau.

When I first heard about the Disneyland theme park as a child, I never once thought I'd be able to see it. At the time (at least as far as I knew then), it's only location was in Anaheim, California. It felt like it were on another planet.

I was one of those kids in elementary school who was not allowed to go on "excursions", and so had to join another section to continue my lessons while the rest of the class went on their trip. Can you believe it? But I never thought it was unfair. Either I was successfully brainwashed by my mother, or I was just a pragmatic child. Can't go on the trip? Might as well hit the books (with a bunch of kids I'll sit with that day, and then never see again).

(Where did children even go at the time? Nayong Pilipino? Star City?)

Anyway. Disneyland was unattainable. It may as well be a fever dream.

Fast-forward two decades later.

I bought two 1-Day Standard Tickets online back home, which cost HKD$539 each. Standard Day Tickets are valid for one visit during a 6-month validity period from the purchase date. (So in case you couldn't go the next day, it's okay. You still have six months to use it.)

If you buy it online, you will get an email confirmation, with instructions on how to get your ticket. 

Collect Your Ticket(s)
  You may collect your ticket(s) starting from 1 hour after purchase by any one method below at the specified locations: 

  Hong Kong Disneyland Park Main Entrance   

Hong Kong Disneyland Ticket Express at MTR Hong Kong Station 

(Tung Chung Line Concourse)

 

Photo from here: http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/images/services/MTR_routemap_510.jpg

Hong Kong Station and Central Station are connected, so we decided to drop by Central a little bit early to grab brunch at the Tim Ho Wan branch inside the MTR station.

Photo from here: http://www.ms-skinnyfat.com/2012/10/hong-kong-best-dim-sum-list-for-tourists.html

I don't want to be that guy, but the Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong (and this is not even the main branch) has way better food than the Tim Ho Wan we have back home. (I can say this because right after we got back to Manila, we ate at the new Tim Ho Wan in Uptown Mall, BGC, and it just doesn't compare. Hong Kong Tim Ho Wan's beef balls are bigger and tastier, the pork buns have more pork, the steamed rice rolls are firmer. Also the "special sauce" they pour back home for the rice rolls is just "sweet soy sauce", which you can see right there on the table in this photo. It was not marked "special" or anything. Don't I just sound condescending? Don't you just want to slap me in the face?)

(I want some dimsum now.)

We sat next to two Hong Kong 20-somethings, one a local, the other HK-born but US-educated, and they both talked like totally like, like this, like, literally, omigosh, have you seen her Snapchat?? They made our brunch extra entertaining. 

We paid our bill (we spent I think around HKD$50 each) and off we went to Disneyland.

(To be continued.)