Guess where I am... again..

Hey look... I'm in ... Venice.

No actually.... in Persia.

Okay... truth is, I'm in Disneyland Tokyo (though those pics were more specifically from Disney Sea). Which explains why "Persia" has a belly dancer that looks just like Minnie Mouse.

As I write this, I'm at the hotel lounge leeching off the wireless internet here with Princess both trying to update our blogs. The room actually has internet for a fair rate of RM35 for every 24 hours but I decided to save the money and just use the free Wi-Fi in the lounge.

Besides, they provide free drinks here anyway.

Yes everyone... right after my Disneyland posts, it looks like there's going to be another one because just 2 weeks after my trip to Hong Kong Disneyland, I find myself in Disneyland Tokyo.

I'm here on a family trip this time. It's been a good couple of days.

Going to share some pictures.

1) Went for the "Small World" ride again just 2 weeks after going for the one in Hong Kong.

Took a picture of this "Stroller Park" here.

That's the number of babies we have in that one ride. It's so well organized. They have a Disneyland "cast member" who does nothing but organize the strollers that come in and leave so that they're all nicely packed in one area.

2) Went for the Indiana Jones "Temple of the Crystal Skull".

At first I thought it was a roller coaster like the one in Disneyland Paris (my I really have been to a lot of Disneylands), but it turns out to be a totally different ride. Wasn't a scary ride or anything. You just got on to this 'jeep on tracks' that took you inside this place.

We all thought it would be a "drop ride" or something. Especially all the way to the end when it came to a dead end and our jeep went down this slope. But... no problem. Wasn't that scary after all.

3) Speaking of rides, one ride I didn't want to sit on was the "Tower of Terror". Now I love rollercoasters. I used to be really afraid of them but I grew to like them after I learned to scream just like everyone else. Before I used to keep quiet the whole ride and that was just torture. But when you scream.... it feels soooo liberating.

So I've been to a lot of rollercoaster rides with all sorts of fancy things. Catapults, loops, drops, corkscrews... you name it, I've been on them all and I love it!

One thing I don't like though, are 'drop rides' or rides just dedicated to dropping you like a bag of crap. The Tower of Terror is one such ride. See that tall building in the background.

That is the Tower of Terror.

What they do is that you sit on this ride that goes up all the floors in an elevator. Then when you reach the top, it opens a window to see the beautiful Disneyland view from up above and in a split second after that it drops you vertically all the way down.

That to me is just sadistic. I would never go for something like that.

My brother though was conned. He thought it was just a haunted house ride or something so you can imagine his terrifying surprise when the elevator dropped like... I don't know 10 floors down. I wish I was there just to see the expression on his face. Must've been PRICELESS.

He said he would never do it again though.

My cousins were even cuter. They brought my uncle and aunty (their Dad and Mum) on to the ride, apparently also not knowing that it was a "drop ride".

Then when they were being dropped in the lift my 9 year old cousin later told us that he was thinking to himself

"Uh oh... Dad sure scold us for bringing him on this scary ride. Die lar die lar!".

4) I did go for the best rollercoaster I could find in the park though. It was called "Raging Spirit" and it involved two fairly decent drops and one big loop. Princess at first was too afraid to go for it eventhough she used to be a rollercoaster junkie herself too in the past.

I guess we all grow old after a while. Haha

I didn't think the ride was too bad though, so after I went for it I dragged Princess with me for the second time and she enjoyed it. Wasn't as scary as we thought it would be.

Here's a picture of part of the ride.

Look closely and you'll see the rollercoaster doing a loop. It's upside down right now.

Cool huh. Had to queue for a bit though.

5) Speaking of queuing right... the night before we experienced an epic queue!

Seriously, if one thing among many many things that Disneyland is good for is planning queues for rides such that they maximize every single bit of space that people can queue up on. Like we went for this new Monsters Inc ride where the queue was all the way from the outside, then into a big round room like this.

Then the queue of people goes round and round the entire room in a circle from an outer layer to the inner layer before it exits into another room where the queue extends. We waited like an hour to get on the ride. It wasn't worth it though... just a simple ride where they take you around and you shine torch lights on the 'monsters'.

6) Got myself a Disneyland Tokyo Souvenir medallion. A Minnie one. Cost 100 Yen but I saw so many people buying it I felt pressured to buy one myself. Peer pressure.

It comes out of this machine where they stamp a piece of.. uh... copper I think.

7) Watched another Disneyland Parade. Disneyland Parades are just the best. I'm always amazed at how the performers do this every day and can still appear so enthusiastic about their dancing and all that.

8) Met Mr Incredible.

He was with Mrs Incredible who wasn't in the picture because she was taking a picture with some other people. Right after I took this picture I accidentally walked right into the path of the other people taking a picture with Mrs Incredible totally ruining their shot.

Mrs Incredible then tapped me on a shoulder and wagged her finger at me just like a mother would do scolding her child.

Princess said.. "She is after all a mother".

9) A picture we took at the Disney Sea globe near the entrance of Disney Sea.

10) And because it's Christmas, here's one with the Christmas tree.

I love Disneyland.

I've said this so many times before but I'll say it again and again: It's the happiest place on Earth.

Ok ok.. after this entry, I promise. No more Disneyland entries for the year. Don't think I'll be going to another one again... until next year haha!!! My goal is to visit Disneyland once a year.... providing I manage to save enough money to do so.

Alright... gotta head to bed now guys. Tomorrow I'm going back to Disneyland to face my fears and go for a drop ride they have there called "Splash Mountain". You know, one of those rides where they drop you on a waterfall.

Will be going into Tokyo city end tomorrow too. Excited!

Good night everyone! Hope you're all having a great week.

Last Hong Kong Post

By the time you read this post, I would have just reached Japan. I'm over at Japan for a family trip, something that doesn't happen as often anymore. When we were all young, it was easier to go for family trips. But after a while everyone gets older, married, have kids and a lot of other commitments that it's quite often really hard to get everyone together at the same time for a family trip.

This year though, we managed to pull it off. So Japan it is.

Will blog more about Japan in time to come but in the mean time I actually spotted some final photos of my recent Hong Kong trip. Will put them up here and tell the little stories behind them.

1) This is Ming and Mike sitting with me in the lobby of Disneyland Hotel.

What happened was that we had dinner at Hollywood Hotel which was right next door to Disneyland Hotel. We took a bus over there but it's the kind of bus that goes one a one way track. So if you start at A and end up at B. The only way to go back to A again from B is to wait for the bus to go from A--->B--->C--->D--->A.

So after dinner, instead of taking the bus back which would take a whole round, we decided to walk back.

The girls didn't want to though. Xiaxue was like.. "Ok you guys walk!! KTHXBAI!!!"

and she quickly boarded the bus. Ming then declared

"Okay! You girls take the bus, we guys walk!"

And we all started our walk back to the hotel while the girls boarded the bus. Princess was being competitive (as usual). She said "Wait wait.. you guys cannot walk yet until the bus leaves!"

So anyway when the bus left we started our quick walk back... and realized that it was actually a lot longer of a walk that we thought it would. It was a nice walk though. The weather was cool and the streets were quiet. Had some good man talk on the way. Then while we were in the midst of enjoying ourselves, it suddenly occurred to us that we couldn't afford to arrive later than the girls.

If we did, the girls would laugh at us and say "HAHA!!! I TOLD YOU GUYS SO!!!"

So we started walking faster... and faster... and we kept reminding ourselves "If the girls get there before we do, we will never hear the end of it!".

We reached the hotel some time after. The girls hadn't arrived yet so we lounged around the hotel lobby and took some pictures.

After a long time had passed, the girls still didn't show up and we began to wonder if they were already upstairs. We joked about how they would come down like 30 minutes later from behind us and say "OI!!! WHAT YOU ALL DOING HERE? WE WAITING FOR YOU GUYS UPSTAIRS FOR SO LONG DI!!!"

But ahh it turned out to be a false alarm. Much much later we saw the girls stroll in. At first they almost had a look of victory in their faces as they couldn't see us. Then we jumped out in front of them and went "HAHA!!!"

Ahh what a night.

2) Spent the rest of the night down in Mong Kok in Hong Kong.

HK has got to be one of the most crowded places on earth. It just scares me. Like how you can walk on streets that are just in between skyscrapers that go way up high so it looks as if you're walking inside the Grand Canyon or something... only with concrete buildings instead of rocks.

Met up with my Hong Kong friend there. Remember Eddie?

3) We had breakfast at the Enchanted Garden again the next morning. Took some pictures with the Disney characters.

Princess, Mickey and me.

Ming and I with Minnie.

This is Pluto sayanging Ming.

and here's me making friends with Goofey.

4) After breakfast, Andrew took us out for lunch.

Andrew is a friend of mine who moved to Hong Kong from Malaysia after he married his HK wife. He's this really really funny guy who finds a reason to joke about everything but this trip I saw another side of him.

He now has a cute little son and I noticed he had changed... to a father.

Like he drives a minivan and you'll see him taking the pram out of the car for his little son and then putting it back after they're done. All the change is for a good reason though.

All for this cute little boy.

Ahh... that's where I'll be in a few years I hope. More like a father... less like a young adult.

5) Final shot here is me at my room balcony.

Among all of us there, Princess and I were the lucky ones with a balcony to our rooms. Ming couldn't get over it... he couldn't get over not having the best room HAHA!.

I'd sit outside there sometimes during the weekend and hear the Disney music play all around the hotel. So relaxing... and makes you feel soo happy.

Okay guys.

I'll blog about Japan soon. Have a great week ahead.

Taylor's Open Day at their new Lakeside Campus

Advertorial

Remember some time last year when I visited Taylor’s College new Sri Hartamas Campus? Remember how nice it was?

Well this year they’ve decided to do something even better. Something that I have been hearing some people talk about for a while.

They’ve opened up their grand 27-acre Lakeside Campus which is around a 5-acre lake. A FREAKING 5-ACRE LAKE!

If I had to guess, the glass building on the left is the pride and joy of their campus: their 4-storey library that overlooks the lake. Must be nice for studying.

The campus also includes a Multipurpose Hall, 300 pax lecture halls, an outdoor Amphitheatre, multi service sports centre, gymnasium and swimming pool.

What I think is cool though, is that they’ve built it to be an “eco-friendly” campus with the natural coolings systems and ventilated spaces.

Anyway the whole point of this entry is to invite any of you potential students to check out Taylor’s University College new Lakeside Campus at the Open Day happening on the 11-13th of December between 10AM-5PM.

They’ve got quite a bit of things lined up for the day like getting the Emmanuel Stroobant (The Chef In Black from the Asian Food Channel)

to cook something for everyone to try and Asha Gill from Lonely Planet. I remember Asha from my teenage days when I used to watch Channel V. All my friends used to talk about how hot and sexy she was…. Then she got married and broke the hearts of an army of teenager boys.

Open Days are like the kind of things you would go for if you’re not sure what to do after school. I was like that once. Out of school, had no idea what I wanted to do but I guess I wanted to be in finance since my whole family was in finance. So I just studied economics, accounting, stuff like that.

What I did realize later on though was that there was a lot more than that. This Open Day allows you to check out different fields to see what you’d like to do and if Taylor’s University College is the right place for you. Explore the different things you could do for a living. Whether it’s bring an engineer, a marketer, a hotel manager or even a professional gamer. Haha no I was kidding about the professional gamer part. You don’t need to study a course for that, you just need DEDICATION, DETERMINATION, HARD WORK and glasses because by the time you become good enough to be one, you’re gonna need a pair.

Why do you think I wear glasses?

It wasn’t because I was doing research on how to split the atom. It was because of those damn games that still haunt me today.

DAMN YOU CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE!!!

Oh anyway anyway.. back to topic if you’d like to check out Taylor’s Open Day @ Lakeside Campus, click here.

Maybe one day you could play XBOX gam….. I mean… work hard in an internet company like me. *heh heh*