Hong Kong Halloween Treats Party Tour : Day One

As everyone knows, myself together with 2 other bloggers and 6 cosplayers were graciously invited by Animax and the Hong Kong Tourism Board to enjoy a weekend of splendor at of course, Hong Kong. Participants from Singapore had 2 cosplayers; Hiyuki and Jason. While I was not good enough a cosplayer to be selected, I was lucky enough to have a blog that can! Again, its all thanks to you guys =)

  

Spooky Series running on Animax

The event was organised to promote the Halloween culture and tourism in HongKong and a showcase a string of ghostly Anime titles showing/launching on Animax.

Well, the trip itself was so.so.so wonderful. We all had so much fun enjoying and interacting I don't even know where to begin talking! But since this is a sponsored trip by the Tourism Board it only seemed appropriate to talk a little about travelling. Which is what I'm about to do xD
Alright, enough digression! Travel blog begins!

The day started at the airport with HKTB's luxurious arrangement. A private coach for just 7 of us!! Envy that hah!
 
And then check in at our hotel, The Kowloon. As we were all invited to attend this launch party at Harbour City Shopping Centre, our accommodation was selected to be walking distance. The first hotel we got was actually YMCA, The Salisbury, but due to typhoon Megi and her projected occurrence, the entire event had to be postponed. And so our hotel had to change too... no more harbour view ToT.



But I really shouldn't be complaining because The Kowloon is awesomely located and probably has one of the BEST breakfast spread I've ever seen =). Though I might have set my expectations too high because I wasn’t super impressed with the service staffs. My best experience with the staffs was the cleaner auntie who brought me the iron I requested and the concierge staff who helped me find Akira’s Room number.


Day one was a super marathon. Almost as soon as we checked in, we dumped our luggages at our individual rooms and sped down to our first tourist spot; the Wishing Tree!
 
I bet you guys probably bet (pun intended xD) we were going to hit the malls right xD? Having just returned from an endless shopping trip at Korea, I decided I want to have a LESS shopping infused trip this time. And hence decided to explore the lesser known rural side of Hong Kong.

The entrance to the tree and temple

   

With thanks to this blog and his written instructions, we actually managed to find the wishing tree without difficulties! We then proceed to write our wishes down on two different sets of incense paper, bought from the local aunties. 

The poor tree is now so weak from all the human abuse it has to rely on stilts and bamboo poles to support and help it recover.

Now, instead of throwing our wishes onto the tree, we just hung it onto these wooden boards. Kinda like the shrines in Japan =)

Squashed starfruit on the concrete

failed camwhorexD

There was another garden sort of place just beside the Wishing tree with miniature plastic oranges hung around it. I’ve read online that a plastic tree was set up around the original wishing tree to let prayers have some fun with it. Sadly, it had already closed by the time we reached

   
One thing we noticed about Hong Kong, was the fact that is actually has a lot of mountains! Those high terrains really makes for gorgeous backdrop =) It felt really nice to be at the rural area, inhaling the cool fresh air and occasionally getting a whiff of burning incense. Though I was slightly disappointed to not be able to throw oranges at the tree ON to the tree. I still enjoyed the feeling of just being there. Now let's just pray my wishes come true ....

Next, we took the bus to the nearest MTR station and went to The Peak!

 
 

Somehow their MTR facilities look veryyyy much like MRT in Singapore xD

At the famous Central!

 

Seriously, my research only told me to take the train to Centre MTR but they didn't say how to walk there! Thankfully we got lucky, coupled with Jason’s memory and some vague signage, we managed to get to the ticketing counter without getting lost at all. It’s not stated anywhere online but you can use your octopus card for the famous tram ride.

The tram itself!

The inside of the tram

The tram ride itself was pretty amazing. At some point of the journey, the houses by the side looked like they were tilting 45degrees! Yeap, it was a very steep slope and it actually made me a little nauseous. I'm bad at these kind of things =(

And finally the peak!

 

Presenting to you, the ever famous night scenery view you see at every Hong Kong Drama! It was soooooooooooooooo cold but the view was really beautiful! The amount of lights from the cityscape was overwhelmingly beautiful and seemed to stretch endlessly. Though don’t mind if I confess that the cynical side of me can't help seeing the intense light pollution in the air. Nevertheless, still really pretty ne?

Oh yea, we met Michelle Yeung and Bruce Lee too!

Hahah, don’t play play, even matured caucasian men knows how to Yaoi hor!

 

I just wanted a normal picture…but they cajoled me to do this=_=|||

 

Disney’s official ticketing counter at The Peak. Damn gorgeous decorations!

After that was dinner at Burger King followed by a mad rush to Ocean Park Halloween Party! The Hong Kong Tourism Board had kindly arranged for 5 of us to visit the Ocean Park’s Halloween Bash and we just had to pick up our tickets at the counter. 

Yup, its the Halloween bash with that awesome promo video! FYI, Team Philippine and Team Malaysia got complimentary tickets to Disneyland T_T… I also want…

…

I'm not the biggest fan of this whole scaring business but boy does the Hong Kong-ers know how to party!

Ocean Park really went all out to scare and amaze its attendees. 

We were most amazed by the awesome performance put up by the ghost actors. It must be really hard to stay in character and scare random passerby yet they did it with such ease and realism. And the Halloween decorations were all so elaborate and intricate! You can totally tell it was not just some makeshift pathetic excuse of a Halloween decoration. Apparently its an annual event hence the splurge but its money well spent imho *-*

Jason and Hiyuki with the pumpkin light shining on the ground

I don't know about the other countries but I'm sure that's something you won't find in prim and proper Singapore! We really enjoyed the whole spooky ambience though sadly, as we arrived too late and only managed to get onto one ride T-T.

Leave your guys with some random photos of the park to show how awesome it was.

Humongous Air Balloons! Some people were queuing to get on it =)

 
Some street dance performance

 

A train we took to go to the other parts of the park. It had LCD Screens with spooky animation playing through out the ride but it was honestly not scary at all =X

 

  The general streets at the park really looked kinda like this. Spooky and eerie even though there is so many people walking around.

 

 

One of the ghost stabbed an innocent passerby and we watched on in glee :D

My royal throne wahahhaha

Oh! Oh! And you know how people always say Hong Kong produces some of the most good looking people ?? I think I can attest to that now!  I was sorely disappointed when I went too Korea but at Occean Park Hong Kong we saw SO MANY pretty faces!!!

While waiting in queue for our ride (one and only one), there was a couple in front of us that looked like they both jumped out from an MTV!

Sadly, we didn't seem to see as much pretty faces after that. Maybe like what Irene (who's a Hong Konger) said, its just Occean Park. Now you know where to go next time you're at Hong Kong!!

Alright, ending day one entry here! Day two to come soon, I hope ....