Hypnotised by Hong Kong

When my parents were considering flying to Bangladesh with Cathay Pacific, out of nowhere, my brain had this amazing idea that we should spend a couple of days in Hong Kong. Exploring a new country would be very interesting and economical since it would be on the way. So, my parents confirmed that we would stay in Hong Kong from 12 to 14 December 2024.

Setting Foot in Hong Kong  

BAM! Not the best landing, but it was still fine for sure!

Hong Kong Airport opened on 6 July 1998, a month after the 'lethal' airport Kai Tak closed. Why lethal? Because Kai Tak had a dangerous 45° angle that only very skilled pilots could turn. It is a relief that today Kai Tak is an urban park for visitors - it's right next to Runway 1.

Anyway, stepping outside Hong Kong Airport felt like a milestone! We got to the taxi stand and were surprised to see that there were three types of colour-coded taxis: red, green and blue. The red taxi is for the urban areas within Hong Kong, like where Victoria Peak is (, which I’ll talk about later); the green one takes you to the New Territories island; and the blue is for Lantau Island only. You could take an Uber, but it’s not recommended as some drivers may not have a licence. That's what we were told at the tourist information office at the airport.

We booked our stay in the Gold Coast Hotel, which is near a residential area called Tuen Mun. The hotel was amazing! It had a fountain inside and a couple of large outdoor pools, including a kids' pool where you would find some fun beach items. There was also the Gold Coast Farm where kids could plant a bunch of seeds and have fun. It also included a Piazza where you could dine.

We didn’t go anywhere the night we reached Hong Kong as we were all very tired. We had to wake up very early as our flight from Melbourne was at 8:40 am. So we just had dinner at a restaurant called Green Basil at the Gold Coast Piazza. The restaurant serves Thai and Indian food. We ordered Indian because my parents chose that. We had Aloo Paratha, Plain Naan, Kadai Chicken (it’s pronounced Karai), Tandoori Roti, Chicken Biriyani and Mango Lassi, and for sure, they tasted amazing. Even though the food was spicy, I went all in. After the meal, we decided to go to our room and call it a day.

Dazzling Disneyland and Admirable Aqualuna

***Yawns***. Good morning, everyone! Today is all about Disneyland! Hooray! Let’s start the day.

We went to the lounge for some delicious breakfast. I loved the toast, baked beans, chicken sausages, fried eggs with mushroom and cheese and brownie. My parents chilled outside for a bit while I played chess by myself. Then we took a red taxi to Disneyland. The line for tickets was really long. We regretted not buying them online!

We took the Disneyland Rail from the Main Street Station to Fantasyland, where we went on our first ride – Dumbo the Flying Elephant. The ride is an aerial carousel-style one, and you can control how high you want to fly. The ride has 16 Dumbos and two people can sit on one, meaning 32 people can go at once.

The next one was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which was also in Fantasyland. This ride was where the cart moved, and everything you saw around you was related to Winnie the Pooh. Each cart could take 6 people, so six carts would carry 36 people at once.

The next ride was Orbitron, in Tomorrowland. The ride was also an aerial carousel-style that you could control. The only difference was that it was a UFO instead of Dumbos and sat four people in each. I don’t really remember how many UFOs there were - maybe 16, so 64 people could go at once. I enjoyed this Orbitron ride more than the other two.

Then we went to the Iron Man Experience, another great attraction in Tomorrowland. The good thing was that there was no queue! We dived right into the Humble Beginnings of Iron Man. They talked about Stark Industries. It was then time to fly Jarvis – an AI Jet that helped Iron Man. We went to Gate 5 wearing HiPer glasses. We headed straight to the Stark Tower. But then an evil monster damaged the jet and Iron Man came to save us. He and Jarvis soon attacked the evil monster. When the monster was gone, we returned to base with Iron Man, and the adventure ended. We loved the 4D experience so much that we went there twice!

Our next experience was the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland. There were nine cruises, and the coolest thing was their names - Amazon Annie, Congo Queen, Ganges Gal, Irrawaddy Irma, Lijiang Lady, Mekong Maiden, Nile Nellie, Yangzi Ying Ying, and last but not least, Zambezi Zelda. Each cruise can take 46 passengers. We went on Yangzi Ying Ying.

We floated by the Tarzan Treehouse. The first animals we saw were a mother Indian elephant and her calf showering in the waterfall. Then we went to the Cambodian ruins, where we saw giant spiders, king cobras, and crocodiles resting on the beach, while a school of hungry piranhas chased our boat. We glided past the African Veldt, where antelopes, giraffes, zebras and African elephants stared at the boat, as did the mischievous eyes of a Hippo hidden under the water. We then saw a rhino chasing a safari group and heard hyenas laugh.

A cannibal tribe beating their drums and blowing their horns caught us red-handed in their territory. We tried to escape, but arrows and spears were flying from everywhere. Then the Fire God set the river ablaze! I was shocked because water should win against fire. Thankfully, it did! A water bomb thrown by the Water God extinguished the fire. Our cruise ended with a baby elephant saying goodbye!

Our final visit was to Mystic Manor. The ride started with a greeting from Lord Henry and his monkey friend, Albert. He told us about a rare, newly acquired relic - a beautifully carved Balinese music box that could bring objects to life. Mystic Manor revealed to us the power of storytelling with just artifacts.

We stopped briefly in the World of Frozen to see what it was like. We didn’t go on the ride because the wait time for this roller coaster was 80 minutes. It was strange to see snowflakes though because Hong Kong doesn’t really get any snow. After that, we came back to Fantasyland, thinking the train would be there. But it wasn’t, so we had to go back through Main Street, USA. A crowd had gathered there to watch a magical fireworks show of Disney characters. So, after it was done, we decided to go to Aqualuna.

We took a red taxi to Pier No. 1. We bought our tickets and hopped on the Aqualuna, a boat that looked like a pirate ship, thanks to its wooden deck and red sails. We had a pleasant view of Hong Kong from the boat, and there was also a cool light show. We got a good place to sit - it had a table where we could place our drinks. My parents had a great time seeing me trying to tap-dance! Though the weather was breezy, we were absolutely fine, but we looked really weird as most of the others on the boat were wearing puffies. After we got off the boat, we went straight back to our hotel. We were very tired from all the excitement of the day.

The View from Victoria Peak and the Big Buddha

This was our last day in Hong Kong. After a nice breakfast of hotpot with thick noodles and mushroom, fried eggs, toast, and yogurt and fruit, we checked out of the hotel but left our luggage there because we had two more attractions to see. The first one was Victoria Peak.

We hopped on the Peak Tram. As it started moving, the skyscrapers seemed to tilt towards the Peak. This was an extraordinary view of Hong Kong! The funicular can carry about 210 people and a round trip takes about 20 minutes. We soon went to the Sky Terrace for a spectacular view of Hong Kong and took pictures. There were also binoculars to look through but they cost about 4 HKD. After that, we were all done and took the funicular back. The skyscrapers looked less tilted than before.

After the tram came to a complete stop, it was time to go to Tian Tan Buddha, which was about 63 kilometres from Victoria Peak and an hour and 15 minutes' drive.

We took the escalator to get to the cable car, which took about 25 minutes to reach the Tian Tan Buddha monument. The cable cars were pretty good, except it was very cold inside. As you can see Hong Kong Airport from the cable car, I also did some plane spotting, seeing airlines like Emirates and Cathay Pacific. When we finally made it to the Tian Tan Buddha cable car station, we took the stairs to the Big Buddha. There were 268 steps to climb. The Buddha sits at about 482 metres above sea level.

We checked out some of the souvenir shops. My mum bought a wooden statue that looked like Devi Durga. By then it was almost 5:00 pm and the queue for the return cable car was long. I was worried we'd miss our flight to Bangladesh! After about half an hour, we got into the cable car.

We then took a red taxi back to the Gold Coast Hotel to get our luggage and a green taxi to the airport. We checked in at 6:30 pm, just an hour before our flight.

I would say this was the end of our Hong Kong travel. We had a great time and I honestly hope I can go back there one day.

So overall, Hong Kong is a fair 9.5/10. 

THE END.

OR IS IT?

NO, IT IS!

About the Writer

Auritro is in primary school. He enjoys playing video games, listening to and making music, and writing songs, some of which he shares on platforms like YouTube, Genius, and Soundcloud. He also likes playing cricket, football, tennis and table tennis. He is learning to play both the piano and guitar.

Auritro's love for travel stems from his passion for aeroplanes; it was the excitement of flying to a new destination that sparked his interest in exploring the world.

Auritro is excited to be a part of Travels That Make Us. He visits the blog site fortnightly to read the new and interesting posts.