Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 25 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Glad you were able to find some true Chinese chocolates and that they were a hit.
The pictures from "Symphony #2" are terrific. I love the pictures of the flowers too.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Friday 22 February – part two: lost in the park on my own!
The next thing I wanted to see was the Aviary, but I ended up going on my own, as Mark didn’t feel he could face the steep climb to get there. In fairness, the first part of the climb up there was just that, very steep and I could see that Mark had had enough. It’s a real shame that he didn’t come with me, as the rest of the climb wasn’t nearly as bad as the first bit. When I got there, I was greeted by an amazing free flight aviary, which you walk through on bridges that are about halfway up, which makes watching the birds a lot easier.
I saw some beautiful species and got some lovely photos. It’s probably one of the best aviaries that I’ve ever been in and there are some zoos that could learn a lot from this place.
The only problem was the right through was one way and I came out in a part of the park that was totally new to me. I had no idea where I was and didn’t even have a map of the park with me, as I had left everything with Mark and literally just had my camera. I looked at the signs and they appearing to be taking me the wrong way all the way to the top of the park. I decided not to follow them and followed my instinct instead and headed down a track I found, as it seemed to follow the outside of the aviary. Fortunately it was right and I finally saw a smaller sign and headed that way. Unfortunately, it meant a heap of steps, which was not what I needed. Still, I came to a very nice garden, which was interesting.
Finally, I was back where I started from and quickly found Mark. As we sat near the Conservatory, it started to rain again, so we decided to head off. We headed into the Olympic square, but there wasn’t much to see there. They didn’t even really explain why it was there. I guess from the fact that it dates from 2005 that it’s something to do with the Beijing Olympics, but I don’t know for sure.
From there, we walked round the Reflecting Lake and found ourselves by the Flagstaff Ware Museum of Tea.
In we went to the museum, but to be honest, there wasn’t much to see in there, which had something to do with the fact that an exhibition on the first floor had just finished and they had closed it to make way for the next one, leaving only the four ground floor rooms. Of those, one was a movie, which wasn’t showing and the other three rooms just didn’t inspire, they were dry displays and didn’t captivate us at all.
A few minutes later, we were back out and walked through the rest of the park.
We managed to get a taxi from a nearby hotel to take us over to the Man Mo Temple, as I figured that it would be quite a walk even from the subway. We were there in about 20 minutes, as the traffic was pretty bad (I got the impression that’s nothing unusual), but it only cost us HK$40 (about £3.70), which I thought was reasonable. I was amazed at how long the meter stayed on HK$15 (the base fare) before it moved. If only that was the way taxis everywhere worked.
The Man Mo Temple was quite something, with all the incense burning. The smell was quite overwhelming, so much so that Mark had to leave and I must admit I found it a bit much as well.
You were able to capture some great images of the birds in the aviary.
I can only imagine how strong the smell on incense was... it sure looks smoky in the temple.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Catching up again! The museum of history seems so incredible. I museums. The floating restaurants was so interesting, too. So many marvelous pictures! Thanks!
Friday 22 February – part three: Christmas pandas!
We came out of there and headed down Cat Street, well known for its antiques and street sellers and, although we weren’t intending to, we ended up getting six Christmas ornamanets for HK$150 (about £10). They were a lovely Oriental design and we got a combination of snowmen, Christmas trees and pandas. Yes, you read that right – pandas, it’s very Chinese.
Once we had finished browsing, we walked down to the subway station and caught the MTR over to Kowloon, where our first stop was Sam’s Tailors to ensure that Mark’s suit fitted fine. Fortunately, it did. My goodness, he looked good in it. OK, so I knew it was made for him, but it did actually look like it was as well.
While we were in there, I asked if they had a recommendation for a good Chinese meal nearby that would still be serving lunch at this time (by now, it was about 2.40). We were told to try Very Good Restaurant downstairs. Yes, that’s seriously its name. I didn’t pay too much attention as it sounded tacky, but as we left, sure enough, we saw a sign for them and the items that they had looked good to both of us, so in we went. It’s always a good sign when you see locals in there and this place was packed with them. Once again, we were the only westerners in there until a guy came in with a Chinese friend.
Now considering that this is in such a tourist hot spot, I was surprised that we had such a problem with language here, but there only appeared to be a couple of servers who spoke English. We worked out what we wanted and then sat there and sat there. Someone offered us a pencil that as on the table and we figured that meant write down what we wanted. I mean, after all, all the dishes had numbers and surely that’s the way to do it.
Just as I started to do that, someone came over to help and took our order for us, I did originally go for the scallop and watermelon soup, but was told that it was out of season, so went for the fish and sweetcorn soup instead, while Mark had the sea cucumber and meat soup. OK, so mine was pretty much what I could get at home, but the difference in taste was quite something. It just seemed a lot more natural, rather than the artificial taste you get at home.
For main course, I went for a dish that you often see at home, but with a twist, fish with pineapple in sweet and sour sauce. This was so good, but I just couldn’t finish it all. Mark had the chicken in black bean sauce and again found it very different to at home, especially as the chicken was on the bone. That proved to be a real challenge with the chopsticks and yes, we managed fine with those this time, no laughing from nearby tables.
We also shared some squid in sea salt and I have to say that after tasting that, I’m not sure that I will ever eat this dish at home again, it was that good here. The best bit of all was the cost. Had I realised how cheap it was, we could’ve paid cash for it, it came to about HK$500 (about £32) for the whole thing. Bargain and a great recommendation from Sam!
We walked down Nathan Road, the main shopping street, and ended up stopping at one of the shops I had seen yesterday, which sold Chinese outfits. You probably already know how much I like these from my previous purchases in Epcot over the years and this time, I could see price tags and they weren’t too bad, so in we went. A few minutes later, we escaped with a Chinese jacket for HK$399 (about £27). I say escaped, as they were determined that we would buy a lot more in there and the danger was that I could have done so quite easily.
We headed for the Promenade, so we could walk along the Avenue of Stars. This is Hong Kong’s equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, featuring famous Chinese movie stars. I will be honest, I was struggling to think of many familiar names and most of the starts were people we had never heard of, but there were more than I thought. It also explored the development of the Chinese film industry, which was interesting.
As we walked down this though, I couldn’t help but think that we should do something like this at home. After all, we’ve got lots of famous British movie stars and even studios, such as Pinewood, where they’ve filmed lots of movies, including many of the James Bond ones.
It was still a damp day with rain every so often, but it did seem to be easing a bit. Having said that. The view towards Hong Kong Island still wasn’t great, as you can see from these photos…
Looks like a great time!
I would like to see that jacket you got. Mark looks pretty sharp in his new suit.
We have some great Chinese restaurants here and they kind of spoil you, too.
They can come up with some pretty funny names! 'Eat First' is one (as opposed to pay first) I think it was one of the first buffet-style places.
Some more of the great stuff fillmed in the UK: Wallace & Gromit and 'The Muppets'!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
i love their avenue of the stars!! it looks so much nicer than the stars in hollywood (not that i've seen them in person, but my sister brought back tons of pictures). i can't believe it's almost over!
About This Page: 
are terrific. I love the pictures of the flowers too.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
I had no idea where I was and didn’t even have a map of the park with me, as I had left everything with Mark and literally just had my camera. I looked at the signs and they appearing to be taking me the wrong way all the way to the top of the park. I decided not to follow them and followed my instinct instead and headed down a track I found, as it seemed to follow the outside of the aviary. Fortunately it was right and I finally saw a smaller sign and headed that way. Unfortunately, it meant a heap of steps, which was not what I needed. Still, I came to a very nice garden, which was interesting. 
I didn’t pay too much attention as it sounded tacky, but as we left, sure enough, we saw a sign for them and the items that they had looked good to both of us, so in we went. It’s always a good sign when you see locals in there and this place was packed with them. Once again, we were the only westerners in there until a guy came in with a Chinese friend. 
That proved to be a real challenge with the chopsticks and yes, we managed fine with those this time, no laughing from nearby tables. 
Sorry it's all coming to an end 
Linear Mode
