Hong Kong Disneyland

Here's my favourite photo of Lini at Hong Kong Disneyland. It was a Monday and the tickets were cheaper than weekends and it was less crowded. The crowds in the photo were just dispersing after the parade, so it looks packed. But that must be all the people in the park there on that day. We got onto all the rides within 10 minutes in the queue. Unfortunately, there was only 3 rides, and the park wasn't big. Lini took one of the rides twice. The scariest was Space Mountain, where the trains do high speed turns in darkened tunnels. I laughed and Lini screamed all the way. I quite hated it, but Lini thought it wasn't scary enough. The castle at Fantasyland was a let-down in terms of scale. But the highlights are the Lion King musical, a 3D show and the parade.

I love parades. The parade moves down a Main Street, a replica of any main stret in America circa 1900, and the music played over the speakers are also from the era. Americans look back to that period as their golden age, I think. They were innocent, prosperous and isolated from involvement in the Old World. I'm reminded of the parade sequence from "Hello Dolly!", one of the most underrated musicals in my view, with energetic choreography of Gene Kelly. The world portrayed in that musical is so sweet and happy, it's hard not to like it, even if you're not white, upper-middle class and conservative.

And now, one and half weeks after the visit, the parade music of that day still rings in my head. It was a great day!

Chup