Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 3

Our third day in Hong Kong was a whole day stay in Ocean Park followed by a late night flight back to Manila.

These balloons remind me of the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Subic which is a good place to watch a platoon of real hot air balloons being set up and fly.

The highlight of our visit there was the cable car ride that took us from one end of the island to the other. Being on a steep slope suspended very high in a cage hooked to metal strings then with strong wind in your face as you look far down below is - susmaryosep! Awesome!

The only place in the the Philippines where we rode cable cars was in Tagaytay Highlands.

Nemo and a funny looking fish. Visit Manila Ocean Park to see more.

The dolphins in the marine show did not cooperate that day so the show was very short. The sea lions and dolphins in Subic Ocean Adventure have more talent and stage presence. Maybe the dolphins in Hong Kong Ocean Park woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Now I know how giant panda's sleep. All of them were asleep when we went to the giant panda habitat. The toys sold outside looked more active.

The Skyfair acrobats were very good and we enjoyed watching them. Look! All of them are upside down except for the boy at the bottom of the picture.

1st and 7th birthday celebrations of our daughter - done.
Next mission: Hannah's 18th birthday.

Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 2

Our second day was a tour around Hong Kong.

Avenue of the Stars is a few blocks away from our hotel but felt farther when we took the tourist bus because of all the stops, straights and turns. We passed by the same buildings twice or thrice as we drove along different streets. Kinda like deja-vu.

Next stop is Jewellery City Co. Ltd. They offer lifetime warranty to all their merchandize. If what you bought gets damaged, just go back there and they'll fix it for free. The reason they gave is that no matter how old your gold is, it's still gold. But they sure are expensive.

You'll see how they make jewelries.

Aside from jewelries, they also make these colorful gem globes.

A big chunk of natural rock found filled with Amethyst. Yummy for jewelers! I want to find one.

Next stop was a sampan ride that takes you around a jumbo floating restaurant and a fishing village. Hmmm, smells fishy.

The last stop of the tour was Victoria peak. It was smaller than what I expected but has a good view of all the tall buildings of Hong Kong. There's a picture guide there that explains the highlights of the harbor view are and the major skyscrapers.

It was still early when we reached the hotel so after an hour of rest it was time to explore Hong Kong on our own, without the tour guides and shuttle buses. Outside the 3-day Hong Kong package tour.

We took the subway from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Mongkok station and finally found out where the Hong Kong folks are. We were already wondering why there were not that many people are in the streets around our hotel, well, they were underground. Busy walking and taking the trains to wherever they were going.

One thing we noticed is the high density of 7-eleven franchise stores. As we walked around our hotel we found 3 of them just 5 minutes walking distance from each other. It's reasonable considering the high density of the area.

When we reached Mongkok station and exit at the Ladies Night Market it felt like Divisoria with the audio set to Chinese mode complete with their version of yummy street foods.

Shopping - a good way to end day 2 in Hong Kong.

Hannah's 7th Birthday

I was told that for Filipinos, the must-be-special birthdays for a daughter are the 1st, 7th and 18th birthdays. So for Hannah's 7th birthday we thought of doing something else instead of the Jollibee kiddie party in school. She and her classmates are becoming very good in playing the longest happy birthday greeting game because kiddie parties happen quite often in school. We planned to go Zoobic Safari in Subic, Pampangga but thank God we changed our mind because we would have been stranded there scared of Typhoon Ondoy's wrath that ravaged Luzon on Hannah's birthday. We escaped Ondoy because before it hit Luzon, we left the Philippines and went to Hong Kong for Hannah's 7th birthday. The weather there was hot and sunny and we heard of Ondoy only when one night we saw it in CNN then family and friends started texting about what's happening. It was sad but we thanked God for guiding our decision to celebrate the birthday somewhere else.

This is our little lady filling up and signing her first departure card.

Welcome to Hong Kong !

A lady from the travel agency met us at the pick-up area in HK International airport and took us to Hotel Panorama.

Private Kodak, ooops, Canon moment in the elevator.

View from the hotel's viewdeck at the 40th floor.

After we left of luggages in the room, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Train Station

Can anyone tell me how to be the grand marshal of the parade? I'm guessing you should be the 1st complete family that enters Disneyland for that day.

Meet, greet, ride, enjoy

Our tireless daughter leading the way to meet as many princesses as we can

Cinderella

Our daughter told Belle that she played Belle in their school play of Beauty and the Beast.

Snow White

Aurora of Sleeping Beauty

Alice in Wonderland

Hannah enjoyed the cute dolls in It's a Small World

The castle changes it's look at night because we were there a month before Halloween.

We spent our whole day in Fantasyland that fit perfectly to what our daughter likes. This is the closest we got to Tomorrowland.

But it was worth it. This day of course is our daughter's 7th birthday.

Going back to the hotel

Happy birthday Hannah. We love you.