Ocean Park: Jelly Fish

Once we finished the River ride, we went back up (yes... through those escalators again) and searched for the Jelly Fish aquariums. After all, this seemed to be one of the park's new attractions.

Besides, though we can honestly say we've known of Jelly Fishes from pictures and videos, we are aonce again awed by seeing the real deal. Now, I'd have to mention that the only reason we see Jelly Fishes - which would otherwise be colorless, was becasue they have the tendency to reflect light - in this case, colored lights, so it can be seen with the bare eye. As you can see in this picture, the jelly fishes are colored green.

This is not their real color, of course... Rather, it is the result of a colored light from above, and, of course, the Jelly Fishes' ability to capture and seemingly keep any reflection. Once this is done, the Jelly Fishes then became visible.

In this regard, when we entered one room, it was pitch black with the only lights coming form the aquariums keeping the jelly fishes. This gave an almost surreal feel... more so since these glass containers were cylindrical (shades of Aliens came to mind) making it feel like an almost alien environment. The colors were also changing adding to the dynamics of the jelly fish movements. Other rooms had larger species of the Jellies - and these were placed in your usual aquarium types.

Once again we were requested not to use flash photography, thus it was a challenge to get pictures - yet those we took turned out to be very beautiful... as you can no doubt see.

I had to think just how such wonderful looking creatures can sometimes cause a lot of grief to beach bathers, after all, I have heard and seen the effects of a jelly fish sting to a person's skin - and yet... I had to remind myself as well, weren't these attacks mroe of a defensive act? I also remember the one time I saw Jelly Fishes, washed up on the beach's shore - there were a couple of them, and they were all rather large (considering their circumference - as spread out in the beach, was about a foot and a half. This of course happened when I was still a teen, vacationing wiht my cousins in Matabungkay. Bakc then these were obviosuly dead Jelly Fishes.

What caused them to stray to the beach's shore? I don't know. It did get the interest of bathing in the beach out of my system, though. No way did I want these large creatures to get ahold of me back then.

Still, just like the sharks that we saw earlier - these Jelly Fishes were nice to look at, but I would not still go near them in open water.

Having seen this, we wanted to see if we could still get back and catch a glimpse of the pandas, so it was off we went... back through the cable cars, as the rains got strong once again. Unfortunately, once we reached the panda's place, all we saw were two sleeping pandas. Actually, all we could see were their back and butts. So scratch that... besides, the park was closing already, and this afforded us another challenge (or problem) since the park did not seem to have an abundance of cabs waiting - in fact there was a long line of commuters waiting for cabs to arrive.

We were not too keen on waiting under the rain, so we asked one park officer what possible alternatives we could avail of... he suggested we take a particular bus that would bring us to a stop near our hotel's general vicinity. We waited at the bus stop, missed the first bus - as we were trying to decipher what the scheduels (mostly in chinese) were trying to tell us. We rode the second bus, and I was straining to see familiar billboards or signs to guarantee that we were going the right way (we seeemed to be... at least, for the most part that I could remember).

We went down the specified bus station, walked a bit until I spotted some familar landmarks. From there, I tried to position the possible location of our hotel, and eventually found it. Thank God for my sense of direction and 'ranger' skills.

We reached the hotel, but not before stopping in a 7-11 type store to get us some rammen soup, and milk for the kids - after all, we were wet and tired... needing a hot shower and hot soup. Before sleeping I watched the night lights from both sides of the Victoria Harbor, hoping ot get a glimpse of what Menchu said would be a lighting spectacle that would happen every 8 P.M. but found no such display - perhaps it was not done, due to the strong rains. Ah well...

As we prepared to sleep, I was contemplating the fact that we would be going home tommorow. Mcuh as I enjoyed Hong Kong, I was, at times, wondering how our dog, Bubbles was doing. I was also wondering what we would be doing next - after all, with this evening's rains, the famed night market was not an option - and even if it was, we (specially the kids) were tired to go through with it.

Ocean park: River Ride (a.k.a. Log Jam)

We were unable to see the show with the dolphins - at least, from a closer vantage point. But we did get to see them perform from afar - which, in a way was good as well... after all, if you can't be close enough to touch them, then might as well watch from afar, so you can capture the entire show with one look and not suffer a tennis neck with all that left-right-left-right look and movement, the all the better for the viewer.

To me it was, well... all right. As I said, if you can't touch them... then its just another show. So after observing them - and the seals, for a few minutes, we decided to explore the park some more, while everyone else was transfixed with the dolphins and seals.

This is when we decided to descend several long escalators to the lower parts of the park. It certainly reminded me of all those walk-a-lators in the airport. And Barbie tool some pictures along the way. Here for example is a picture of us jsut starting the descent... Here, meanwhile is another picture to show how deep each escalator was (there were about four pairs along the mountain-side). Remember... Bernice had to go down, go past Barbie, and then Barbie took the picture - with no hurry, as Bernice was close to one escalator's end - and if you could see the bottom of said escalator, you would see the entrance to the next one... with a slight egress to the left to go to another ride - the train tunnel ride... something we were contemplating on until Barbie realized that it was a mountainside roller coaster... and during a very rainy day. So yes, we passed that one without discussion. We then took the river ride (log jam) and Barbie decided not to join us again, I sat up front, but Bernice, seeing that Barbie was not going, asked to sit in front of me, so I agreed. I gave the kids instructions, we prepared to go through the ride wihle it was raining, so we all put our head covers up, and away we went... To Bernice's dismay, the first quick bump had water splach around - thus getting her pants (and undies) wet... did I fail to inform her about this happening? I guess I had an idea... since there's a similar ride back in Enchanted Kingdom, a theme park in Laguna. But since I had not experienced this particular ride, how could I be sure enough? (he.. he..). But the bigger dip was still ahead. When we reached said fall, Barbie tried getting us in video... but it was really too fast.

What we had, however... as a souvenir from said ride, was a picture taken by the ride's cameras. This was a great shot... it showed Bryce from behind laughing, me with a priceless enjoing laugh... and an even more priceless grimmace from Bernice as she saw (up front) where we were going (or falling to). Needless to say we did ge wet - again... but we enjoyed the ride. I suspect though that Bernice, now knowing better, may, or may not opt to ride front again.

Ocean Park: Marine aquariums

First off, let me put my experience into perspective - I have two aquariums that I loosely maintain - just fresh water fishes, though. And these two aquariums are sometimes a challenge to maintain (they demand time from me) and keeping the fishes healthy is sometimes tricky.

Even then, I meet a few bumps along the way... the fish I like to get is not available, the plants I like to find are not around - so even if I had enough funds (which are, at times, diverted to more immediate needs), I would be hard pressed to come up with an aquarium i would be satisfied with - one that comes close to an Amano (a Japanese nature aquarist) inspired tank.

That said, I had a microcosmic idea of the challenges faced in keeping and maintaining domestically designed aquariums. I can just imagine all the challenges faced by everyone in this theme park, when it comes to maintaining their aquariums. That said, our first stop was to reach the summit of the Ocean Park and look for the Dolphin and Seal show... but everyone also remembered what barbie said earlier about having lunch at Ocean Park, so we did just that.

We were trying to find McDonald's, as the park's map hinted at - unfortunately, it did not hint at which altitude we would find McDonald's. So the first familiar food we found - and this was a stall at the summit, we ordered our meals there. As luck would have it, this served grilled (or barbecued) chicken, fish fillet or spare ribs meals complete with one large sausage and lots of fries.

We stuffed ourselves, and in the kids and Barbie's case, could not finish their respective meals - even when they were very hungry. It was that many. We were also, just like yesterday... focusing more on the need to speed up our experience so we could maximize the time. Oh well... at least, after this meal, we really did need to walk.

Oh yeah... one last thing about the summit - though it had telescopes (the ones you insert a coin into to view the lower areas), the weather did not afford a good view, so we skipped that. We also skipped a ride that would make us enter a revolving disk, where we would sit and be brought even higher (and the ride was at the peak) to view Hong Kong all around - but, as I said, the weather was not cooperative, so all anyone would see are rain mists similar to fog. There was one saving grace, to me at least, as the summit was also frequented by some large birds - I can't say they were eagles... though they could have been. Vultures, they were definitely not - those I've seen in Africa. But hey were there - flying around.

Once is a while, they would swoop down the mountain-side, and one even tried landing at a shed's ceiling - but came in too fast, so had to swoop up again. I wished I had taken a picture of these - but they were moving fast (or too far), but apparently - just like the thought of seeing the crows (or ravens) I thought that we wouldn't have these kinds of free-flying birds, so close to where people worked back in the Philippines.

Nope... most eagles I saw back home were in a sanctuary, kept were in large cages - not free. But mind you, the cage was not to keep them captivated - I feel that they were being protected from possible narrow-minded poachers... even if they were an endangered species. I, of course refer to the Philippine Eagle - a.k.a. the Monkey-eating Eagle, with a wing span wider than the well known American Eagle. Sorry, I digressed.

We were also kind of hoping that going to Ocean Park on a week day (it was Monday) would mean a whole less number of people - but wouldn't you know it, there were still several bus-loads of Japanese tourists arriving at the park. It seems that their travel agent also had the same logic about less people during that day, so they scheduled their excursions to this park on Mondays too. On hindsight, I would have done the same thing, if I were looking after the park's interest, and schedule bus-loads of tourists during off-peak visiting days. Still, their numbers did not really daunt us - well... with exception to the Dolphin show later.

Before that happened though, it was off to see the aquariums, so armed with the map (yes, the one that vaguely described where to find McDonald's) we searched for the famed aquariums. It wasn't hard, really - all we needed to do was follow the lines of people going form one place to another. As we entered, we were greeted by a whole lot of information about sharks - yes, his was the shark aquarium, and I would have wanted to stay longer and read up on everything - but the experience of seeing one up close pulled everyone into the corridors. I managed to take one shot with Bryce... and even this, I had to time quickly, so as not to block everyone else from moving in. My first reaction to seeing the sharks was 'whoa...' to see so many, in one tank - up close. This was a new experience to me - and I'm sure, to the kids as well. We were rooted at our spot for a while, as we observed how they swam... how they looked. Then, we finally just moved on to see the rest of the aquarium's denizens. We then went elsewhere where we were introduced to the coral reefs, and their inhabitants - and I'm sure they were trying to educate people with videos and all - but nothing like seeing things for yourself made the experience better - for example, though they were mostly stoic and hardly lively, it was till better to see starfish, than to watch them... okay, maybe in this case, watching them move in a video was way better - but other sea creatures were better seen live. We started, innocently enough, with small aquariums... and I took pictures of these as much as I could... and since the place reminded everyone not to use flash photography, I complied by adjusting the setting of my camera. Here's what I came up with - at least, the presentable ones. Not bad photography if I say so myself. But this was also aided by the fact that the subjects I took were hardly moving - aiding in my getting clear pictures. See... in my camera - with flash turned off, the light had to be absorbed elsewhere, making for a slower - longer take. Had the subject (or my hands) moved, all I would see is a blur (as can be seen by some fishes in the second picture - the ones with the clown fishes). Now, unless that was my intent, or it was deemed acceptable by my standards (say, like a fleeting background) it would have made for lousy pictures. When we finally saw the large aquarium, I gave my second 'whoa' expression. Like any aquarist, I wanted - dreamed to have a large tank of my won with a community of fishes residing in them. But I would never be able to (and rightly so) match and keep the number of fishes in such a large tank... so best to watch and enjoy them. Now these I had to take pictures of... and again, lucky for me, these fishes were not camera shy - heck they probably got used to the faces milling about, and I might even suspect them of being attention seekers (juuust... kidding). I tried to see if I could capture the size of this aquarium - rather, oceanarium, but found it difficult. Just to give you an idea, though, here's a pair of manta rays swimming around the tank with hardly any worry - or at least, they look that way. So I can also offer as a subtle clue the fact that as the waters get deeper, the color within the oceanarium gets greener. One other thing too - if you'll look closely to the previous two pictures, you will notice the water's surface - in these latter pictures, said surface can hardly be seen. Here's Another manta - this time,at rest... and quite close to the view window's glass too. I took a picture of Barbie with the kids, hoping to get a piece of the background - unfortunately my camera was off, and when I turned it on, it automatically went to flash mode... so, clear picture of my family... not so, for the background. Oh well... Here's a video of the fishes - as taken by Barbie. Its rather large (36MB) so this may take some buffering time.
Next stop, we try a ride (log jam).

Ocean Park: Cable car ride

Our service brought us from Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel to Harbour View Renaissance Hotel, where we checked in. The 45-minute ride ws due to distance, as we hardly experienced any heavy traffic. The highways of Hong Kong were impressive by wya of their obvious maintenance - then again, one has to remember that this is one place that infrastructures are well planned and maintained.

Their tunnels were well lighted and the tunnel's ceiling had traffic signal arrows or signs indicating if everything was green and go the rest of the tunnel or one should slow down in event of a yellow light and best shift to another lane in event of a red - which would possibly mean that obstructions to traffic flow were up ahead. Just like any city that was influenced by the British, traffic flow in H.K. was obviously at the left side of the road (as opposed to the Philippines and other U.S. influenced country wehre traffic is normally driven at the right side.

The weather was cloudy and rain was continuing to pour - and this would stop at times. Our main worry would be that the weather might become too bad that it would entail stopping the use of cable cars - which were the main transport in Ocean Park. A quick glance towerds the cable cars showed that they were still operational, so that fear was settled.

We finally arrived in the Renaissance and approached the hotel's concierge, to check in and ask for arrangements and directions to Ocean Park, and were lucky to discover that one of the hotel's staff was a Filipino. Still, even without our 'kababayan' we would have been well received since the hotel's staff were very competent and professional. A slight problem occured though, see... unlike Disney's Hotel, it seems that Harbour View's rooms were not that large - more specifically, their beds were small, making it difficult to billet all four of us in one room. Apparently, our travel agent already took this into account and reserved two rooms.

We asked the hotel staff to see what cold be done to arrange for us to be in one room - or barring that, ensure that we had adjacent rooms - the ones with a door between rooms (no go either, it seems), so we settled for adjoining rooms - sans connecting door. After all, we were on a schedule.

We were given rooms apparently at the 40th floor - an area that not everyone could reach without having to insert their room keys into the elevator's slot... something that was not mentioned and we had to figure it out after a few trials. I noticed the slot and played a hunch and... presto! We finally reached the 40th floor. We then fixed our stuff, then went back to the lobby for more formal directions. Though it was around 1:30 - and we had not had lunch yet, we decided to take lunch in Ocean Park, since, as barbie reasoned out, there would be places to have lunch there.

Apparently predicting the need of their guests, the hotel had ready-printed cards with the hotel's address on one side, and names of the possible attractions on the other side - both in English and Chinese (designed for Cab drivers who were unable to read or understand English), this helped us direct our cab to where we wanted to go... skipping an otherwise big barrier - language.

We arrived at Ocean Park as the park gates were closing, in observance of, and a seeming show of solidarity for the victims of the Earthquake that happened one week ago in Sichuan, China. The casualties, after all, were staggering, and the nation really tried doing what it could. Three minutes of silence was observed by all in the nation, beginning at the exact time the quake struck.


Before the formal observance of 'silence', Barbie decided to take this picture of in front of the Ocean Park entrance, for posterity. As you can see, there were hardly any people lining at the gates, probably because they were likewise observing the silence.

There was even a news crews taking the whole thing in, thought I doubt we appeared in any television - and even if we did, I wouldn't have known... besides, I'm sure there were a lot more graphic images to be played in the early afternon and evening news, regarding this observance of solidarity (and prayer - at least for those who prayed. I wouldn't put it as a far fetched idea though... notice the body language of the park staff near the right, looks like she's privately doing just that).

We eventually got in, and went straight for the cable car... even as the rains were once again beginning to pour. Still, this did not dampen our enthusiasm (as you can see in the picture with the kids) to see what this particular place could show us. Prior to arriving here, we were told that the kids might enjoy Ocaen Park more than Disney, simply because of the park's more natural and scientific features. So you can imagine my curiosity with what we might be seeing.

I wonder though, how would people arfaid of heights travel from one place of Ocean Park to another. I had not noticed any alternate transportation - though I imagine that there would be... not just noticable by people who would love to experience the cable car ride. Barbie. of course, was just hamming it up for our benefit.

I, on the other hand, just wanted to enjoy the view afforded by the cable car ride. It was, after all, a rare occasion to see a majestic view of one's surroundings - seeing all greens - yet seemingly well manitained greens at that - as evidenced by a garden collage of a sea horse on the mountainside (at fist, I thought it was an H.K. symbol of sorts, hence my mistaking it for a stylized Dragon).

The cable car was built to travel near the top-side facing the ocean, hence anyone riding the cable car could view the waters as well.

The cable-car ride was quite long, as it seemed to transport us from one side of the mountain to another - where we would find the aquariums. For any nature-tripper (at least the moderates, and not the purists - who might still balk at the encroachment of human-made structures through all these greens), this was a great start for experiencing the theme park.

On a side note: my camera's spare battery was acting up - it would show that it was fine, then when I would use flash photography, it would show the red signal of needing ot recharge. Unfortunately, my otehr battery was charging back in the hotel - so I had to select my picture-taking moments from here on. Lucky for us, I was not the only one wielding a camera - as Barbie had also brought hers along, and was obviously not experiencing any such problem with her battery.

Disneyland Hollywood Hotel - a sneak peek & Goodbye to the magic!

Hong Kong Disneyland has two hotels - the first one being the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, and the second being the Hollywood Disney;and Hotel. Since we were billeted in the first - I was curious to see the latter.

From afar, the architecture looked... well, retro - say, circa 1950s U.S.A., I guess... complete with that 'diner' feel that can be related with said era, and images of serving girls on roller skates came to mind.

The Hollywood hotel did not necessarily present itself as pure elegance, but it did present itself in a Hollywood elegant manner; one that brings to fore images of past Oscar awards, and the glamour attached to it - and it was certains comparatively more 'modern' in looks when compared to the Victorian feel of its sister hotel... though not necessarily more modern than the other in terms of equipment and facilities (which I could not conclusively state, since I had not experienced the amenities of both hotels; heck, I hardly experienced the amenities of the hotel we stayed in).

As we entered, I noticed that there were many Filipino tourists here, and Barbie told me that this hotel was relatively cheaper than the Victorian one, ehich might explain the greater representation of budget-conscious Filipino families here, as compared to the mostly Indian contingent we say, billeted in our hotel. One advantage of our hotel, I was later told, was the presence of Disney characters in our hotel - something missing in this one... but the Disney themes were more obvious here. In other words, there was more than enough Disney eye-candy via the hotel's designs.

Had I been the one planing this, I might have chosen this hotel, due, of course, to my somewhat frugal nature. Not that our stay in the other hotel was a mistake, mind you - as we had experienced the better (in terms of the mere presence of Disney characters) one-day lodging experience, I'm just saying that given outward appearances and price - I'd have chosen this (but I'm glad we stayed in HK Disneyland Hotel).

Since time was short, we went straight out their garden and took some pictures.


The Hotel's theme and era became more apparent, as we looked at this hotel's garden. For example, here's a replica of the Disney studio signage - where classic movies like Snow White, Pinochio and other Disney classics were made.


And we couldn't help but pose in front of the Hollywood backdrop. By the way, it just wasn't always 'Hollywood' as it used ot be called (and presented as) 'Hollywoodland'. The 'land' was part of its early times and somewhere along the way, the word 'land' got dropped, leaving us with the all-familar 'Hollywood' sign on the mountain-side.


This hotel had Hollywood Hotel spelled out - but naturally, we just wanted the first portion. How about that? A little trivia on the side, while exploring Hollywood Hotel. I should be paid for stuff like this.

To call the read of this hotel a garden was possibly short-selling it. It was more a park - and definitely seemed larger than our hotel's rear-side garden. I would liken it more like a mini-park (no animals, though) complete with benches for those who would like to pause and rest or just take in their surroundings. As you can see, ther are no Hidden Mickeys to be found - simply because they aren't hidden - one can't help but notice them.


Here's a 'top-of-the-hill' moment for Bernice... as I experiment with larger pictures


... and here's Bryce making like Tiger Woods - and I'd have to say that had this been a golf tourney, people would know who exactly is sponsoring Bryce... need a clue? Look at his get up - see anything familar?


Perhaps a close-up is in order. That's right... the tell-tale sun-visor. So with a sponsor like that, who needs Nike?


Get a load of this 'hot rod'... with a paint job like that, its just begging for challengers to a long-stretch road race.


Of course, such a set of wheels needs a world-class driver like me - and before anyone balks, I scored a 94 in an international driving test I had to take two years ago (never mind the fact that it was for 'defensive' driving), and anyone who's driven in Metro Manila can attest to the sometime insane drivers we have... not that I'm insane, mind you. I was just making a point that I can dish it out with the best of 'em.


Anyway, here's a picture of Bryce and Bernice outside the hotel's perimeter fence - that's the South China Sea behind... and somewhere beyond that horizon must be the Philippines.


Funny story about these fences and the gates they have - its an electronic lock type, and as I saw said gate open, I went out - not realizing that the gate was closing and slammed shut on me. So, here I was on one side, with Barbie giving me a 'now what will you do' look, and Bernice, who was behind me, exclaiming that it wasn't her fault (it wasn't).

Luckily, I noticed an intercom beside the lock with a sign that only hotel guests could access the gate. I had to use the intercom and inform the hotel security that I was accidentally locked out. Lcuky for me, they believed me, and opened the gate. had this not happen, I would be hard pressed to climb the fence since its design was purely vertical bars... with the only horizontal bars either too low and too high(yes, I did assess the gate and fence the first few seconds I was locked out).

Had help not been had, it certainly would have been interesting to see if I could climb - or to see where the path eventually led, had I needed to follow the fence parallel to the next possible exit point... deciding, of course whether I would need to go either left or right (though right seemed a more logical choice, had the need, to walk and search for an alternate ingress, arisen).

Having had that close call, and having reached the end of the road (literally) we decided that we had enough outdoor experience - and headed for the hotel corridor nearest us. Did I say I imagined a diner - well, there actually was one!... though we did not have to eat yet.

We also noticed what seemed to be a cinema in this hotel followed by a Golden Mickey statue. This I took, with Bernice at the foreground.

After this , we noticed a blue-tinted mirror shaped like Mickey, Barbie took a picture of the mirror with us.

So as you can see, noting to search for as far as hidden Mickey's go - they're all overtly displayed. Wherever you turn, this hotel reminded you that you were in a Disney establishment.

Anyway, it was back to our hotel via the shuttle service's three destination route: HK Disneyland hotel to Hollywod Hotel to Disneyland theme park then back... so we naturally had to disembark the bus once we reached the theme park - walked towards the other side where the busses waiting to bring guests to the hotels were already parked and leaving every 10 minutes... which gave us time for one last picture of the park's entrance.


Once we reached our hotel, I went to get our stuff, while Barbie checked us out... and while waiting for our shuttle service to our next hotel, we took some last-minute pictures... including this with Bernice and Cinderella.

Notice the intricate iron-works behind Cinderella... can you spot the hidden Mickey? Like I said, this hotel had them - and I got to enjoy this more covert manner rather than its Hollyood counterpart's 'too obvious' Disney motiff.

Bryce got a last minute picture with the Mickey statue by the lobby. Somethign he was not able to do the previous day. After which, it was off to Hong Kong proper, with Bryce and Bernice taking advantge of the 45 minute trip to take a power nap - a new skill they learned in this trip.

As for me? I wanted to absorb everything I could - after all, I felt that Disneyland did not afford me with my real Hong Kong experience. Sure, there were obvious influences... and you might even say that the Victorian design of the hotel we came from was a salute to the island's British influence, but I felt insulated in Disneyland... not totally immersed with the sights and sounds of the city / past colony. In fact, I could say that if I had just my Disney experience to base HK with, I'd say it was not different form Manila or better yet KL (because of the crows). In short, I had little - to no HK exposure... with excpetion to what i read in certain fiction, my knowledge of the city and culture was nil. I needed exposure to something that would give me a unique perspective of the city, and make me say I had been there. Guess this was the explorer in me talking.

Now, as we were enroute to the city proper, I was curious to finally see Hong Kong for real.

Hong Kong - day 2: Disneyland Hotel

I this habit that I've cultivated by way of a combination of sheer practice and repetition plus some outside stimulus - its to make my body clock wake me up early morning around 5:30 in the morning (Philippine time of course - and it so happens that Hong King time is just the same) - this is because I normally bring Barbie to work, before going to work myself... and since Manila traffic can be spectacular, we do need to leave the place we stay around 6:30 to 6:45.

Regarding my outside stimulus? Bubbles (our dog) wakes me up between 4:30 to 5:30, so I can bring her out. You could say that I've also gotten used to the fact that even as she approaches me, I know she's doing so - I can sense it, even in dream-state and need not have my face kissed (in her case, lots of licking) too much.

The reason I stated this is that regardless of how tiring yesterday was, I found myself awake around 5:30 A.M. and looked out our room's window to notice that it was raining. We'd left Manila behind experiencing a storm - and it seemed that said storm finally caught up with us. I felt slightly disappointed since this meant that we'd have little to no time to go around exploring the hotel's grounds. Hence I just stayed in our room - watching some television (but not too loud, since I was still sharing the room with barbie and the kids - all still blissfully asleep.

Eventually, I got bored - hit the shower, left a note that I'd be exploring the hotel, and brought with me my trusty camera - battery newly charged at that. I wanted to really see the garden up close, but only if the rain allowed it. Meanwhile I was roaming the hotel's corridors to get a lay of the land. Maybe find something I could show the kids later.


Call it an early bird catching the early worm thing, but in my roaming, I found a wing filled with conference rooms - which normally would be a 'so what?' moment for me. But this time, I spied Donald Duck (or if you don't want to suspend belief - someone wearing a Donald suit) at said conference room entrance. So I approached the hotel staff, and requested to have a picture with Donald. The result you can see right here.

I then looked around some more and realized that it stopped raining - or at least, it weakened to a bearable drizzle. This allowed me to go outside and explore said garden that I spied from our hotel room window.


I specifically, wanted to see the garden maze. Not to try it out though - at least, not yet, but to capture it in a picture too. Notice the shape of Mickey's head in the maze's center?

The garden was nice, and I noticed some crows (or were they ravens? - I couldn't tell too much since they were not making too much cawing sounds to make sure), and remembered seeing similar birds in Malaysia all those years back. So I wondered... there are crows, here in Hong Kong, as there were in Kuala Lumpur too - so how come I do not see them in Manila? I thought maybe because they're caught and are eaten? Possible. They don't like our pollution? Maybe, too.

I dismissed the thought and started clicking away some more. Explored a little more and discovered where the outdoor and indoor pool were - but then I decided to return to the room. I felt that I gave everyone enough time to rest, and wanted to wake them up, so this morning would not be wasted on sleep.

Barbie was awake by then, and we ordered breakfast delivered to the room, while the kids were getting up and taking their respective showers. We then explored the hotel, with my earlier exploration helping us navigate through its corridors. It was also at this time that I started noticng those hidden Mickey's in the hotel's designs, pointing them out to the kids or challenging them to find such hidden Mickey's - a game introduced, by the way, via the Disney Channel on cable TV.


I'd also found what I can just term as sweet spots for taking pictures to capture certain parts of the hotel in the background. Take these two large chandeliers, for example. I wanted to catch their size, but traditional pictures would not capture their grandeur - or size, but there was this little balcony that seemed perfect for a picture taking moment, while affording one to likewise capture these chandeliers.

Okay, so I still wasn't able to capture the size... but you get an idea.

We then went to the garden, so Barbie and the kids could enjoy the maze.

On second thought, why let them have all the fun?

That's Bryce with me in the Mickey head portion of the maze.


The maze wasn't so intimidating - but that was because I could see above the walls, thus able to navigate to the right direction by virtue of above-sight (as in, I can see above the maze and know which leads to a dead-end or an opening). I'm sure they could be more daunting had they been around six-feet high.


This here's the entrance to the romantic portion of the garden leading ot the Gazebo where garden weddings can be arranged - at least, that is what the hotel's website says.


And here's the rest of the pathway to the gazebo (which can be seen in the background), and where "I do's" can be exchanged. I'm sure that with proper lighting and romantic music played by a string quartet, this could be a really romantic and memorable evening for a 'Happy ever after' night.


I, then, showed Barbie and the kids where the indoor pool was, and I'm sure we were all kicking ourselves for not bringing our swim wear (at least, I know I was...). Ah well, we can still request for ourpicture to be taken, so it wasn't a total loss.

With the aid of the hotel's scheduled activities, I learned early this morning (during the time I was contemplating what to do) that there would be a 'learning how to draw' talk around 10:30 in the morning, so this would easily fit into our schedule. Though this was also offered in the theme park, we had no time to try it out - now, I was glad that it was being offered here, so Barbie and I decided to add Bryce and Bernice to the attendees.


Here they are getting instructions of how to draw...


... and here's Bernice, proudly showing her masterpiece. Hey... why does Mickey look scared? Not bad for a first try, though. In fact, I'd even say that she drew the best Mickey in the room amongst all the art-course students.

Since we still had more time to kill (about an hour before pick-up and transport to next destination), we decided to go visit the other Disney Hotel... the one with the Hollywood theme.