Hiphopsideproject

So, remember a few weeks ago when I went to Disneyland Hong Kong and said it was super tiny? Well, this week plans have been unveiled that will see the park undergo a $468million expansion. Epic!

They’re going to increase the size by 23% adding 4 new lands and around 30 new attractions (there’s currently only around 15-20!). Apparently some of the attractions will be brand new, ones that aren’t in any other disney parks. They’re also aiming for mainland China custom, too, and because a lot of Disney stuff isn’t hugely popular over there, they’re going to stick around a few of the more famous stories.

At the moment the park isn’t doing aswell as it should be, and visitor numbers are constantly dropping. I really hope that this cash injection manages to put some life back in the place, because it’s a super cute park with an amazing transport system (hello, where else has special trains to get there??) and so much potential!

When we were in Hong Kong we went to the Nan Lian Garden one evening, it’s built in tha Tang Dynasty style and is amazingly stunning . We ate at the vegetarian restaurant and then wandered around the garden just as the sun was starting to go down. Here are a few of my favourite photos from the garden…

This place is quite bizarre, the trees are really well shaped and pruned.. you can see the wires that pull them into their strange decorative shapes. There are loads of huge, oddly shaped rocks scattered around everywhere. The last photo is the vegetarian restaurant, the windows are just behind that waterfall. It’s a really peaceful place to wander around, so if you have a spare hour or two in Hong Kong you should definitely get the MTR up to Diamond Hill and check it out!

Wow, we just got back from an epic days adventure in Disneyland HK! It’s the smallest disneyland we’ve ever been to, but we still managed to have so much fun. Like the rest of the week, it was an incredibly hot day, so we ended up riding space mountain 3 times and going on random kid’s rides like Winnie the Pooh. The space mountain there is much better than the others, too, because it’s pretty new so goes super fast and has bunches of sharp turns without making you feel like you’re gunna fall out. I have photos, which I’ll post tomorrow, but I just wanted to say Hello.

Ohhh and I bought a Minnie Mouse oven mitt and matching apron! Also, the High School Musical show made an amazing effort at defeating the language barrier, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better english/cantonese mash-up, although they did overuse the word ‘Awesome!’

The other day we wanted a small snack for lunch after having some ‘noodles cantonese style’ in a lovely little place near Jordan MTR for breakfast (honestly, I’m going to get the address of the place because the lady was so kind – she was just laughing at us for pointing at pictures of things, and then took Adams food away mid-meal to put more broth in, so kind!). The noodles were big and flat, I think they could have been ho fun? and served in a basic chicken stock broth with braised chicken (a fatty skin cut) and spring onions (I think!). We had milk tea along side this, which my foodie friend Charmaine told me about before I came out here (you can read her food blog about the process of milk tea here), and we wouldn’t of known to order such a thing if she hadn’t, so thanks Charz!

Anyway, after going shopping for the rest of the morning, we felt a little peckish at about 2pm so headed to the food hall in the mall we were at. Bustling with bunches of different asian food stuffs (vietnamese, japanese, fusion etc etc.) we settled on some steamed dim sum (it was quick!). Another case of pointing at things and smiling like the stupid foreigners that we are, we ended up with chicken feet in a spicy sauce, vegetable dumplings with prawn, and vegetable dumplings with pork (I’m not sure if that’s what they actually are called, but it’s definitely what they *were*).

I have to confess that after trying 1 chickens foot, I decided I wasn’t a fan. For me, I found the texture a little too strange, and the lack of actual flesh a little unappealing. Adam liked them though, and I must admit that the sauce they were in was delicious! I would definitely be willing to try these again in a real restuarant, though, I really don’t want to base my opinion of them on some food hall kitchen!

The view across from Kowloon at night, we were waiting for the light show (which is so-so), but this view is just amazing. Didn’t have a tripod (or remembered to bring my gorilla pod, grr), so this is just a rocky high iso shot.