Thursday
It became at last! This would be the day we would leave for our second weekend gettaway from Hanoi and the destination this time would be Hong Kong! In the morning we made some arrangements for the trip, like packing and stuff. For the lunch we stopped by at the home-restaurant in the corner and had some coffee downstairs, all according to Ennis's wishes. After all that done we went downstairs and got a taxi. The idea was that we would drive to the Nokia factory to pick-up Laura and carry on from there to Noi Bai international airport. We asked the lady from the reception to help us to make sure that the driver knows where we are going. This is due to Laura's experiences that some of the drivers may ask directions several times during the trip. Well, it turned out that this driver, although he was confident enough, had to ask for directions 4 times before we found the Nokia facilities.
Commuters in Hanoi, pictured on our way to Nokia factory
"Noon Vodka", the one that comes after the morning vodka, right...?
The amazing 3D Karaoke. I would NOT want to try that one!
The plae to download your bike at. See? No.
This Nokia store was showing it's color
At last I we got to the factory!
And I got to see the factory at last! ;)
From the factory we started the journey to the airport and eventually we got there though according to the navigator there were few shorter routes available as well. At the airport we had some extra time to walk through the stores and eat something light and have a cup of cold coffee (still feels weird to day it like that :D). The flight was on time and we got to the aeroplane, to the 3rd row seats. Which was nice. :)
At the gates
A wooden jet fighter at the souvenir shop in Noi Bai airport
After the 1 hour and 45 minute flight we were happily in Hong Kong! We went to buy the train/metro tickets from the info as the easiest way for us seemed to be to buy the 3 day metro tickets for us adults and a day card for Enni. The Airport express tickets included the round trip rides from the airport to the city and back. It's rather handy to just hop from the airport to the metro and ride until the Hong Kong station (our hotel, Island pacific was on the Island) from where there was supposed to be a shuttle service to the hotel. Well, there wasn't.
Girls in the airport bus
Enni still had some energy left for a little dance act at the HK airport after the flight although it was well past her normal sleeping time
The bagsy waiting to be pulled to the hotel
Enni was yey tall and had to pay for her own ticket. OK, we actually paid for her. ;)
To me it was the first time in HK and I was amazed by the cartoon like views already from the metro windows! The building tops were nowhere to be seen, neon lights everywhere and somehow this Gotham city-like feeling... hard to describe. From the HK station we took a taxi as one couple (the only one waiting for the shuttles) had found out that the shuttles were no more running for the day. This was one point where I realized how different kind of pace of life there was in HK than in Hanoi. As soon as the taxi took off from the station he rushed the car to exceed the speed limits big time. At least that's how it felt like! In Hanoi, the max speed seems to be 40 km/h. The other thing is that I don't think that a driver from Hanoi would survive the HK traffic more than a few hundred meters as in HK they have traffic laws and people are actually obeying them! :D They even drive on the lanes and not where ever the heck they feel like. It's not like in Hanoi that you can make your own regulations. Weird though the distance is not that far from each other... one thing about the taxis is that I think that someone at Toyota has made one hell of a deal for the taxis in HK. They were all (the ones I saw) Toyota Crown Comforts. Comfy and well suited for the purpose. One other thing is the population density in the two cities. Hanoi has been spread widely and the buildings are relatively low. In HK it's the opposite: the city has been built upwards as there is no space to spare to build in horizontal way. Both cities have about the same population, 7 million but the density is 3 times bigger in HK, over 6400/sq km (2010).
Anyways we made it to the hotel and the check-in was rather painless, everything had been arranged according to the order. The room was pretty small but we were anyway going to use it only for sleeping purposes so it didn't actully matter. The thing was that we wanted the room to offer some entertainment for us after Ennis bedtime had passed, and that we got for sure: the view to the bay and harbour all the way to Kowloon mainland and the sky scrapers! Darn nice! For the first evening we just kept the curtains open and sipped some wine and admired the view. That already was awesome! After few hours we decided to go to sleep as the next day would be pretty tiring.
The Hong Kong taxis at the HK MTR station
Friday
Friday started a bit too early, considering that it was supposed to be a sort of a holiday. But what can you do if a 4 year old wants to get up already, not much I tell you. After some time trying to recover from the early wake-up we all decided to go to the hotel pool to shake off the night. That was one of the coolest pools ever! I mean the water was +30 degrees but the surrounding views were awesome with all the sunny weather and skyscrapers pointing out into the sky.
After the quick dip in the pool we went back into the room to get ready to move towards the day's big number: Disneyland! We started the trip at the HK station taking a quick breakfast in order to have more time tostay at the Disneyland. The quick one meant the Starbuck's as they offered yoghurt and it was close to the metro that we needed to take. Not the ideal breakfast place in that sence that you can have it almost anywhere else as well and also as it's not that good. But in order to save time we made an exception. After getting some illing to the stomach we jumped to the metro that took us to the Sunny bay station on Lantau Island (the same island where the airport is situated) from where the Disneyland train would take us the rest of the way. It was obvious that we were on the correct train as the train windows and handles were shaped as Mickey mouse's heads.
Just oen of the stores next to our hotel selling dried sea creatures
A view at the MTR station. High buildings...
Our next destination, Sunny bay station and Disneyland resort line
Enni, all excited on the MTR
Laura all excited as well ;)
The handles in the Disneyland resort line. Yup! We're on the correct train!
I think that you'll get a better "picture" of our day at the park if I just post pictures here from now on so here we go!
The entrance to the park had a Mickey shaped plants, go figure! ;)
Something I almost bought from the shops...
Girls getting ready to get going!
The first carousel ride after a agonising queueing
The second ride was offered by Dumbo
Enni and the train that took us around the whole park
Park area plants
This sight from the train was accompanied by the "wooOOooOOO"'s from the guys
Yet another ride, the one that Laura was not willing to try. Enni was enjoying it to the fullest.
"It's a small world" in this big house
Getting ready for a ride
You might think that the coolest place would not be under a rocket that is about to shoot to the outer space but it actually was. :)
Enni steering our flight at the Tomorrow land ride
This sugar monster was certainly a sweet one
Buzz photobombing on us
Yet another adventure ahead of us
A brief moment of standing in the line once again, this time to the Tarzan's tree house
The Tarzan's tree house was on the other side of a river
A waterfall picture
Another view of the house
The tree house was bit frightening with the Sheeta (leopard) roaring in one corner
After a while we saw Tinker as well! Luckily Enni didn't want to queue to see characters as the lines were about half an hour long
An occasional dance act was thrown in
Enni in the Toy story land
Laura helping the soldiers to complete their mission
The Toy story land was awesome with all the characters and rides
The rewarded Kid at the Grizzly Gulch mining village
The surprising mine cart rollercoaster ride, Laura can be spotted next to the person lifting his/hers hand. SPOILER ALERT! The ride was going backwards in this point. I enjoyed this ride a lot as it had few awesome surprises on it, the backward ride being one of them.
Grizzlies on the loose...
Laura after the rollercoaster ride: yes, I'm alive! :D
I made a small msitake and was taken to jail.
A spontaneous dance act number 2
Throwing HK dollars to the well, hoping for the best
The day was starting to set and we still were waiting for the fireworks
Enni holding a planet. Now there's a strong girl!
At the end we took one more rollercoaster ride that was maybe just a tad too harsh for Enni. You can see that even I was a bit confused about it! :D
The day ended in the fireworks of which I didn't get any shots as we were heading to the train. This was due to the fact that we thought that most of the people were going to see the fireworks till the end and head to the train after that. We could maybe save some time heading to the train earlier and thus avoid spending time just standing. And that was the case, the train station was nearly empty and we got immediately to the train. It was also Enni's bedtime already.
Almost empty Disneyland station
The escalator at the HK central station
The day was full of joyfull moments and sweat, carrying Enni and more sweat from the hot weather and annoyance of the people acting all weird. At the end of the day the day was all awesome and Enni enjoyed it as more if not even more than us. ;)
On the way to the hotel we still stopped at the Kowloon station to take a late dinner. Enni was all done for the day and she ended up eating nearly nothing. Luckily we had a decent lunch earlier at the Disneyland.
I almost felt like filling in the lottery ticket at the restaurant. It would had been possible just to mark on the coupon what you wanted to eat but as it was written in Chinese I passed.
I think this place served something yummy (Nam in Finnish) ;)
The buildings at the center of HK
More tall buildings
The girls passed out as soon as we hit the hotel. I admired the view for a little longer and went to bed as well. There was always the next day.
Saturday
Saturday was a day to go for the scenery viewing. We hopped on the taxi as the weather weemed a bit "colder", still reaching to +29 degrees. We went to find a brunch place called the Rooftop but that was never found mostly due to the taxi driver driving us to the correct street but to house number 20 instead of 2. We chose another place close by and headed to the Kowloon's side with an idea of first seeing the Ladie's market that one Canadian couple told us to go to while we meat them on the Halong bay cruise.
An umbrella wrapping machine we never got to use, thanks to the fair weather conditions
Views from the morning walk in HK. It's quite hard to take pictures directly due to the tall buildings...
Small sight of sunshine between the buildings
Building on building
The walking promenade in HK Island
The golden and the silvery building
A set of pipes. I suppose it's the rocket engines of the building so they'te easier to move around.
Work in progress. I just couldn't see anything being under construction other than the people working out behind the windows so what is it with the cones and ribbon...?
A stop at one of the parks of HK
The minivans of HK looked faster than the ones back home
More sights from the north end of HK Island
A view to Kowloon from HK
A dance act at the rooftop garden of ICL mall
From the Kowloon station we walked to the Kowloon park and there it hit us. The eerie feeling like just like being there already. It was quite like being in the central park of New York! We took a Metro again to close by the market and found it after a while of walking around. Walking through the market place we did some shopping and had a light lunch in one Vietnamese restaurant.
Buildings were high on Kowloon side as well
Crossing the street to get to the Kowloon park... somewhere over there.
A short drink to hydrate ourselves
Entering the Kowloon park
Just like in Central park NY!
The Mira building
Turtle pond in Kowloon park... just like in Central park, right?
The CArtoon art street of Kowloon park
Oh, the OCD side of me just got a stroke!
An umbrella vending machine. Convinient!
Handrail of the escalator that Enni liked
The masses of people in HK
Entering the Ladies market
Enni wanted to point out that that was not good behaviour from Mickey! ;D
Cool back packs t the market! I only bought a wallet and a cover for my passport
After the market area walkaround we decided to go check out the Victoria's peak. We took again the MTR to the HK side and went to see the line to the tram that would tak us to the peak. The thing was that there were some people with the same intention. The queueing time was +2 hours. Asking an assisting person by the queue if it was possible to use an alternative means to get to the top she replied that the taxis were one. How convenient was that! No need to wait for 2 hours in the queue but rather just take a 10 minutes taxi ride! Not sure how much the tram would had costed and how long it took nor what we missed not taking the tram. Maybe someone that took the tram could enlighten us...?
Once at the top we walked around the shopping mall there and tried to find the viewing platform. We found the entrance to the platform and also a playground for kids. We first went to take some pictures on the platform and then bakc to the playground. The idea was to get back to take some pics at the platform once it was a bit darker outside. At 8 PM there would be a lazer show seen from the Kowloon side and that was one of our missions as well. Then it would again be the time to hit back at the hotel to put Enni in the bed. The Kowloon side was a bit hard to find and my feet were hurting already from all the carrying of Enni.
A view to the other side of Vic's peak from the playground area
First pic from the peak viewing platform! Awesome sight!
Enni admiring the view for some seconds and then she wanted to return to the playground. :)
The monkeybars was the best Enni found from the Victoria's peak
Enjoying HK at it's best!
Girls second time at the viewing platform
"Can we go already...?" can be read from Enni's face
A pic taken by Enni with the DSLR, people were having fun while watching a small girl with a big camera like that
Getting darker...
...and darker...
...and darker. No. It was actually me playing with the settings of the camera, trying to find the optimum lightings to catch the view. The building on the Kowloon side (one on left) was awesome with a full lighting on it's side.
Back at the Kowloon side, to admire the HK in the night lighting. This was also a pretty impressive sight!
Laura, once upon a time in Hong Kong...
The other travellers
Our hotel on the far right corner of HK bay/harbour area
The day was pretty much that. We still stopped at the HK Central station to pick up some evening snack for Enni as we had promised earlier. Some chocolate chip cookies were left for us as well as she didn't actually like those and we got 3 extra for the price of 3.
The weather felt a bit windy and the reason for this was the level 3 hurricane alarm we saw back at the hotel. No wonder it was hard to walk against the wind! :D
Sunday
The day of the departure. We left outside the hotel to have a breakfast and found a place just accross the street. After the check out from the hotel we decided to head to the Lantau Island as there was the airport and also an outlet mall. One convenient thing I must mention here of Hong Kong is the in city check-in system for the flights. Works like that, that you take your luggage to the HK Central station and make the normal airport-like check-in there and you don't need to carry them around for the rest of the day with you! Awesome! Not sure how widely this has spread around the world but it was the first time I was using it, and I liked it!
The outlet was a five minutes taxi ride away from the airport but a longer distance if you used the MTR. We did some serious shopping and I was carrying Enni as she fell asleep in one point. With my feet aching we stopped for a cup of coffee and luch at the same go. Some more shopping and we were off for the airport. One other option for the outlet mall would had been to see the big buddha statue on Lantau but as the weather was really rainy due to the closing hurricane we were forced to leave it for the next visit. There definitely will be another visit in some point because I think this is a spectacular city!
We got to the airport just in time, or so we taught... just ot learn that the flight was delayed by more than one full hour. That + the fact we were supposed to be there 2 hours before the flight gave us total of 3 hours to walk around the airport. Luckily there was a lounge we could enter so we got some relaxing time there with drinks and something small to eat. And Enni got to watch some cartoons from the telly. :)
The bus taking us to the plane was was not leaving for some reason until it had waited idle for another half an hour. The flight itself took about 1 and a half hour. We then got a taxi from the airport back to our apartment and saw some new sides of the city beacause of the thrilling route selection of the driver.
Altogether the trip was a success and we all got loads of new experiences and had a really good time. It's also the point of the trip where we have spent already a month abroad again! Nice! Now we are just one week away of getting back home. Lets spend that time wisely
It became at last! This would be the day we would leave for our second weekend gettaway from Hanoi and the destination this time would be Hong Kong! In the morning we made some arrangements for the trip, like packing and stuff. For the lunch we stopped by at the home-restaurant in the corner and had some coffee downstairs, all according to Ennis's wishes. After all that done we went downstairs and got a taxi. The idea was that we would drive to the Nokia factory to pick-up Laura and carry on from there to Noi Bai international airport. We asked the lady from the reception to help us to make sure that the driver knows where we are going. This is due to Laura's experiences that some of the drivers may ask directions several times during the trip. Well, it turned out that this driver, although he was confident enough, had to ask for directions 4 times before we found the Nokia facilities.
From the factory we started the journey to the airport and eventually we got there though according to the navigator there were few shorter routes available as well. At the airport we had some extra time to walk through the stores and eat something light and have a cup of cold coffee (still feels weird to day it like that :D). The flight was on time and we got to the aeroplane, to the 3rd row seats. Which was nice. :)
After the 1 hour and 45 minute flight we were happily in Hong Kong! We went to buy the train/metro tickets from the info as the easiest way for us seemed to be to buy the 3 day metro tickets for us adults and a day card for Enni. The Airport express tickets included the round trip rides from the airport to the city and back. It's rather handy to just hop from the airport to the metro and ride until the Hong Kong station (our hotel, Island pacific was on the Island) from where there was supposed to be a shuttle service to the hotel. Well, there wasn't.
To me it was the first time in HK and I was amazed by the cartoon like views already from the metro windows! The building tops were nowhere to be seen, neon lights everywhere and somehow this Gotham city-like feeling... hard to describe. From the HK station we took a taxi as one couple (the only one waiting for the shuttles) had found out that the shuttles were no more running for the day. This was one point where I realized how different kind of pace of life there was in HK than in Hanoi. As soon as the taxi took off from the station he rushed the car to exceed the speed limits big time. At least that's how it felt like! In Hanoi, the max speed seems to be 40 km/h. The other thing is that I don't think that a driver from Hanoi would survive the HK traffic more than a few hundred meters as in HK they have traffic laws and people are actually obeying them! :D They even drive on the lanes and not where ever the heck they feel like. It's not like in Hanoi that you can make your own regulations. Weird though the distance is not that far from each other... one thing about the taxis is that I think that someone at Toyota has made one hell of a deal for the taxis in HK. They were all (the ones I saw) Toyota Crown Comforts. Comfy and well suited for the purpose. One other thing is the population density in the two cities. Hanoi has been spread widely and the buildings are relatively low. In HK it's the opposite: the city has been built upwards as there is no space to spare to build in horizontal way. Both cities have about the same population, 7 million but the density is 3 times bigger in HK, over 6400/sq km (2010).
Anyways we made it to the hotel and the check-in was rather painless, everything had been arranged according to the order. The room was pretty small but we were anyway going to use it only for sleeping purposes so it didn't actully matter. The thing was that we wanted the room to offer some entertainment for us after Ennis bedtime had passed, and that we got for sure: the view to the bay and harbour all the way to Kowloon mainland and the sky scrapers! Darn nice! For the first evening we just kept the curtains open and sipped some wine and admired the view. That already was awesome! After few hours we decided to go to sleep as the next day would be pretty tiring.
Friday
Friday started a bit too early, considering that it was supposed to be a sort of a holiday. But what can you do if a 4 year old wants to get up already, not much I tell you. After some time trying to recover from the early wake-up we all decided to go to the hotel pool to shake off the night. That was one of the coolest pools ever! I mean the water was +30 degrees but the surrounding views were awesome with all the sunny weather and skyscrapers pointing out into the sky.
After the quick dip in the pool we went back into the room to get ready to move towards the day's big number: Disneyland! We started the trip at the HK station taking a quick breakfast in order to have more time tostay at the Disneyland. The quick one meant the Starbuck's as they offered yoghurt and it was close to the metro that we needed to take. Not the ideal breakfast place in that sence that you can have it almost anywhere else as well and also as it's not that good. But in order to save time we made an exception. After getting some illing to the stomach we jumped to the metro that took us to the Sunny bay station on Lantau Island (the same island where the airport is situated) from where the Disneyland train would take us the rest of the way. It was obvious that we were on the correct train as the train windows and handles were shaped as Mickey mouse's heads.
The view outside our hotel to Victoria's peak
More Mickey decorations
When we arrived to the Disneyland it was also quite obvious that it would be a hot day. I believe it was well past +30 degrees by the time we got there. About a half a kilometer walk and we got to wait in the first line to buy the tickets and after a while we got to waiting on another one. The place was crowded already in the morning. First thing infront of us was the shopping area filled with Disney stuff, everything you could think of. We bought water. :) It was also obvious that it would be a nerve wrecking day ahead of us as the coulture here knows no shame on being on someone else's way or passing you in lines. There were a group of elderly ladies that passed us in the first queue for a carousel. Normally I would had given the way freely but being on a line with a kid and getting passed by a group of nagging old ladies is not acceptable. Well, I just sucked it up and acted cool. After a while it was evident that the ladies gained nothing by passing us. This same has been proven in the traffic light in Salo as well: you will end up being at work at the same time with the people trying to pass the whole queue of cars that drive slower. Works even in bigger scale, while driving from Salo to Espoo. It just feels that you will be there a lot quicker if you pass more people. And yes, you might gain a minute or in this case half a meter.
I think that you'll get a better "picture" of our day at the park if I just post pictures here from now on so here we go!
The day ended in the fireworks of which I didn't get any shots as we were heading to the train. This was due to the fact that we thought that most of the people were going to see the fireworks till the end and head to the train after that. We could maybe save some time heading to the train earlier and thus avoid spending time just standing. And that was the case, the train station was nearly empty and we got immediately to the train. It was also Enni's bedtime already.
The day was full of joyfull moments and sweat, carrying Enni and more sweat from the hot weather and annoyance of the people acting all weird. At the end of the day the day was all awesome and Enni enjoyed it as more if not even more than us. ;)
On the way to the hotel we still stopped at the Kowloon station to take a late dinner. Enni was all done for the day and she ended up eating nearly nothing. Luckily we had a decent lunch earlier at the Disneyland.
The girls passed out as soon as we hit the hotel. I admired the view for a little longer and went to bed as well. There was always the next day.
Saturday
Saturday was a day to go for the scenery viewing. We hopped on the taxi as the weather weemed a bit "colder", still reaching to +29 degrees. We went to find a brunch place called the Rooftop but that was never found mostly due to the taxi driver driving us to the correct street but to house number 20 instead of 2. We chose another place close by and headed to the Kowloon's side with an idea of first seeing the Ladie's market that one Canadian couple told us to go to while we meat them on the Halong bay cruise.
From the Kowloon station we walked to the Kowloon park and there it hit us. The eerie feeling like just like being there already. It was quite like being in the central park of New York! We took a Metro again to close by the market and found it after a while of walking around. Walking through the market place we did some shopping and had a light lunch in one Vietnamese restaurant.
After the market area walkaround we decided to go check out the Victoria's peak. We took again the MTR to the HK side and went to see the line to the tram that would tak us to the peak. The thing was that there were some people with the same intention. The queueing time was +2 hours. Asking an assisting person by the queue if it was possible to use an alternative means to get to the top she replied that the taxis were one. How convenient was that! No need to wait for 2 hours in the queue but rather just take a 10 minutes taxi ride! Not sure how much the tram would had costed and how long it took nor what we missed not taking the tram. Maybe someone that took the tram could enlighten us...?
Once at the top we walked around the shopping mall there and tried to find the viewing platform. We found the entrance to the platform and also a playground for kids. We first went to take some pictures on the platform and then bakc to the playground. The idea was to get back to take some pics at the platform once it was a bit darker outside. At 8 PM there would be a lazer show seen from the Kowloon side and that was one of our missions as well. Then it would again be the time to hit back at the hotel to put Enni in the bed. The Kowloon side was a bit hard to find and my feet were hurting already from all the carrying of Enni.
The day was pretty much that. We still stopped at the HK Central station to pick up some evening snack for Enni as we had promised earlier. Some chocolate chip cookies were left for us as well as she didn't actually like those and we got 3 extra for the price of 3.
The weather felt a bit windy and the reason for this was the level 3 hurricane alarm we saw back at the hotel. No wonder it was hard to walk against the wind! :D
Sunday
The day of the departure. We left outside the hotel to have a breakfast and found a place just accross the street. After the check out from the hotel we decided to head to the Lantau Island as there was the airport and also an outlet mall. One convenient thing I must mention here of Hong Kong is the in city check-in system for the flights. Works like that, that you take your luggage to the HK Central station and make the normal airport-like check-in there and you don't need to carry them around for the rest of the day with you! Awesome! Not sure how widely this has spread around the world but it was the first time I was using it, and I liked it!
The outlet was a five minutes taxi ride away from the airport but a longer distance if you used the MTR. We did some serious shopping and I was carrying Enni as she fell asleep in one point. With my feet aching we stopped for a cup of coffee and luch at the same go. Some more shopping and we were off for the airport. One other option for the outlet mall would had been to see the big buddha statue on Lantau but as the weather was really rainy due to the closing hurricane we were forced to leave it for the next visit. There definitely will be another visit in some point because I think this is a spectacular city!
We got to the airport just in time, or so we taught... just ot learn that the flight was delayed by more than one full hour. That + the fact we were supposed to be there 2 hours before the flight gave us total of 3 hours to walk around the airport. Luckily there was a lounge we could enter so we got some relaxing time there with drinks and something small to eat. And Enni got to watch some cartoons from the telly. :)
The bus taking us to the plane was was not leaving for some reason until it had waited idle for another half an hour. The flight itself took about 1 and a half hour. We then got a taxi from the airport back to our apartment and saw some new sides of the city beacause of the thrilling route selection of the driver.
Altogether the trip was a success and we all got loads of new experiences and had a really good time. It's also the point of the trip where we have spent already a month abroad again! Nice! Now we are just one week away of getting back home. Lets spend that time wisely
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