1 post tagged “hong kong disneyland”

Six years ago when I was still a secondary school student in Hong Kong, the term "Halloween" held a position of indifference with most people here. Sure, the expatriates celebrated it but that was usually in a very reserved manner - for the most part, Halloween was merely another reason for them to drink. An expatriate, especially one with Caucasian features, is known as a "gweilo" in Cantonese which translates to "ghost person" - so in some way, it was fitting that they celebrated Halloween, LOL.

Today though, as if the importing of McDonald's and Coca-Cola weren't enough, Halloween has become a staple on the Hong Kong calendar and the theme seems prevalent throughout the city. It's an odd feeling but I can now say that I am celebrating Halloween in Hong Kong - something that was previously unheard of. So with that: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I am hoping to keep this post relatively short, but I have been wanting to post for some time - though I haven't been able to get round to it recently. I just finished an extensive course of medication that my doctor prescribed me for what he called a "minor throat infection" - I had been coughing continuously for the past few weeks, so it was really time to get it checked. The problem though is that all that medication seems to have made it worse... I find myself coughing more than I did before taking the meds and now I will have to go back to get it checked out again... *sigh*

Anyhow, keeping with the theme of Halloween, I am planning to fill this post up with pictures more than words (as if that is possible with someone as talkative as me! LOL). First, allow me to share a photo I took about three years ago when I was walking back home from work while I was still an undergraduate at Queen's. I remember taking this picture on the Queen's campus around the time of Halloween - the tower on the left extends from Grant Hall.

Ah, this brings back memories from the good ol' undergrad days! Roughly a year after that, after I had finally completed everything I needed to complete to get my bachelor's degree, I went down to Boston with an invincible trio - my girlfriend, my room mate, and one of my best friends from Japanese class who I got close to thanks to endless sessions of Winning Eleven, K-drama, J-drama and a crazy Korean game show called X-man. (^___^)

In Boston, we were given a place to stay by my gracious aunt - an aunt who I took the liberty of codenaming: Auntie M. I would have called her "M" if only she had been willing to call me "double-oh seven", but then again that would be really disrespectful in our culture (not that she minds though, I am sure). In fact, me and my sister are already pretty disrespectful in that we don't call our aunts and uncles by their appropriate titles in Chinese - I still have problems remembering which aunt and uncle are which by their appropriate titles... LOL

Anyway, during this time in Boston, we took some time out to head over to my aunt's other home in Stoughton. Although it was nowhere near Halloween at the time, the resulting picture does evoke some feeling of Halloween, no?

This is my aunt's Stoughton home - I can't remember why I walked out to take pictures in the middle of the night but I do recall that shortly afterwards, me and the aforementioned invincible trio engaged in a grand struggle for resource domination in a game of Settlers of Catan. The time we spent together that summer was brief for all the time we had while in university, but those were times that made memories immemorial.

More recently now, I did spend time doing some "Halloweeny" things in Hong Kong - the biggest of which was going to Hong Kong Disneyland since they had decked the park out to fit the theme of Halloween. The park generally closes at 9pm but for Halloween they extended their hours to 11pm and had promotions to try to get people into the park.

On the right is a picture of one segment of the water fountain that greets visitors to Disney here. The park is extraordinarily small for a Disney - a day is more than enough to do everything there is to do there. It was a lot of fun though and the experience is actually quite nice because they really do make you feel as if you have left Hong Kong and went on a journey to the magical kingdom that defines Disney.

If there is to be a major problem with the experience though, it would be the proportion of Mainland Chinese that are also visiting the park at the same time. This may sound racist, but I am not trying to be racist - the reason it is a problem is that a large proportion of mainlanders cannot completely grasp the concept of queuing for something. I don't fault the mainlanders for this because it is likely a problem with the social education they are receiving. The Chinese government has acknowledged this problem however and to counter it ahead of the 2008 Olympics, China has designated the eleventh day of every month until the Olympics as "Queuing Awareness Day"... I'm not kidding... they even reasoned that they chose the 11th because it looked like two people in a line, LOL.

On a slightly separate point I have to admit that I never really liked Halloween, horror movies, or horror games because they remind me of my experiences as a child. Now that I think back to it, I can't say for sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me but when I was a lot younger, I recalled being traumatised by the spirits...

I can't really say for sure that these things exist but I can't really say they don't either. Perhaps it was my head playing games with me, but at the time it was all very real to me and even today, I can never really be sure if my head is all in the right place sometimes.

I still hear the same girl's voice whispering in my ear.. so very clearly. I could cover my ears or play my music louder, but that whispering voice would drown them all out... It was only a whisper but a whisper so very loud. Perhaps I misheard and it was really something in the background - but it's always the same voice... the same voice that is so very close and still draws cold from my very heart.

It seems I need to work on my horror writing skills, LOL... Anyhow, the point is that I am not a big fan of horror because of some of my previous experiences. Personally, I can't separate fact from fiction and can never really know when my mind is playing tricks on me. This also explains why I have no ability to separate my dreams from the real world - I never know when I am dreaming and worse, sometimes I recollect my dreams as if they were real events that actually took place. Thank goodness then, that there are people around me to set the record straight, LOL.

Well, no visit to Disneyland would be complete without seeing Sleeping Beauty Castle - this next picture is Hong Kong's version of it in all its spectral glory. The light effects were quite nice, they used lights to super impose webs, spiders and ghosts onto the castle and changed the lighting of the castle from a eerie blue to a hellish red. In the picture, they were superimposing ghosts onto the castle... I feel bad for Sleeping Beauty... having her castle turned into a giant light show... Hopefully she slept through the whole affair - it doesn't hurt them if they don't know, right? (^___^")

Well, it seems that I managed to get this post in before the month is out. Hopefully, I will have more time to get more posts up in November - this month was hectic and we also had visitors to our home near the end of it which meant less time on the blog machine. Uncle KC and Auntie Lan, I hope you enjoyed your stay - perhaps I will see you both in Melbourne next year!

The next post, when I get it down, will be a translation of YUI's LOVE & TRUTH.  I guess this is a good place to leave off - HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!