Remember! Just Believe… – Hong Kong – [03/11/2012]

The stars are out where dreams are born
And fairy tales come true
No matter who you are
There’s magic in the stars
Reaching out for you…

I will admit I didn’t intend to go back to Hong Kong Disneyland after having been there only a few months ago. It’s a tremendous expense when you’re on a tight budget, and I always worry that if I go back too often, if it gets too ‘easy’ it will lose something.

However, my life as of late has been as topsy-turvy as Choplin’s Feast of Fools (“be the king of Topsy Turvy day!”) and my emotional existence bears a strong resemblance to the space mountain roller coaster. In short, I needed to forget about the money, to forget about the stress and the strain of the ship, I needed to remember what was really important, what was worth chasing after, worth fighting for, worth worrying about. Really? I needed a day off.

So it was that I found myself hiking up the crazed hustle and bustle of Nathan Road with my friend KJ (who is in just an frazzled a state as I am right now, for surprisingly similar reasons), to the subway station that would take us to Sunny Bay platform and a white train that shimmers with pixie dust and childish squeals of delight as it makes its slow way out of the station.

It was raining, torrentially actually, but rain has never deterred me when it comes to Disneyland. While I’ve yet to be subjected to rain in California’s magic kingdom, I have sat curbside in Disneyland Paris watching the parade in not just rain, but hail. This was also in the middle of March, March is apparently just not good theme park weather. At any rate, we were drenched by the time we made our way from the station to the park gate, and purchased Disneyland umbrellas before we even purchased our tickets. Mine is black with purple, which strikes me as odd, prior to this I have always been drawn to blue, but lately my eyes seem to go toward purple, even though I still consider blue ‘my’ colour…strange. Anyway, thus armed against Mother Nature, we purchased our tickets ($51 gets you through the gates), and drifted, giggling, into “the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy”.

Something instinctively changes in me when I walk under those arches, something in me falls away. Negativity cannot seem to survive in the park, and worry has a hard time of it as well. Commercial as it may be, the park gives us the opportunity to step out of reality, to step away from a world of visa bills and distanced loved ones, and over-complicated thought processes. For the first time ever, I didn’t cry when I walked through the gates, most likely because I was with someone who doesn’t know me quite well enough to understand me on that level. The tears came later, and there was reason for them.

I have been exceptionally fortunate. I have been to 3 out of 5 Disney parks, two of them more than once. Looking around as I walked down Main Street, humming along to Gary Indiana, it’s impossible not to think that so many of these kids are like I was when I was little, before I started even dreaming of traveling the world, before I had so many opportunities presented to me. For them? They wait their whole lives for a chance to walk through those gates, and they may never come back again, but the memories stay with you for a lifetime.

It was the first time I’d ever been to a Disney park with someone other than my family. Normally I am quite choosy about whom I go with, and often I choose to go alone rather than take a companion. But KJ was in as deep a need of time away as I was, and for once I found myself not wanting to be alone. I carry Disneyland in my heart a lot of the time, tucked up in the back with the rest of my travelling ‘home’ so that I can disappear there whenever I truly need it. I think if you dropped me blindfolded in the middle of California Disneyland I would probably be able to find my way to Adventureland without getting too lost – KJ however, hadn’t been to Disneyland since she was in High School, and it was an entirely new experience to watch her re-experience the place I have come to know so well.

There is something to be said for rain at theme parks. It cuts down the lines, and once you get used to the fact that you’re going to be soaked from the ankles to the knees, and once you’ve managed to browse through all the various shops to find at least one cozy hooded sweatshirt to cut the worst of the chill, you can see the beauty in the near empty park. It helps too, that the line for Space Mountain dwindles to less than five minutes in the rain. There’s something to be said too, for commiserating with a good friend over park food and caramel corn, listening to the rain drum on the metal roof of the tomorrow land restaurant.

It stopped raining about an hour after we arrived, naturally after we had purchased umbrellas – but hey, we needed umbrellas anyway, this won’t be the only port that sports a bit of liquid sunshine.

After much persuading I managed to get KJ to take a spin on the teacups. And I do mean spin. My fondest memories of my father are him teaching me how to work the Tilt-o-Whirl at the local fair, and from there, him teaching me the meaning of centrifugal force when I first went on the teacups. As a result? I know how to make those things spin like there’s no tomorrow. My arms always hurt afterwards, and anyone who rides with me is often surprised that I have the upper body strength to tork the wheel around that fast, but this is but one of my many theme-park oriented skills J

I rewarded her for her bravery by taking her to the last showing of the Festival of the Lion King (which I finally managed to capture on film) …she however got her revenge by making me go on the Toy Story Land parachute drop.

I hate heights.

Actually I hate the anticipation of heights. I’m okay with heights if I’m climbing a mountain, or looking down from the observation deck or something, but knowing I’m going to be pulled sky high by a – granted very thick – steel cable, I was almost ill. KJ of course, thought this the height of hilarity.

Toy Story land is a new addition to the park, last time I was there it was behind construction fences with “coming soon” plastered all over them. Now the fences have disappeared to reveal a world that truly does make you feel toy sized. Giant tinker-toys (which I haven’t even seen in normal size since i was a child) support huge strands of Christmas tree lights over rides based on toy-soldiers and giant crayons, and a slinky-dog that chases its own tail. There is a race-car roller-coaster too, which I was fully brave enough to tackle, but the lines are long (since the attractions are new), even with the rain factored in, and there was only time for the parachute drop before the attractions closed to prepare for the late-night fireworks display.

I’ve said before that Disneyland takes on an entirely new kind of magic at night, when Main Street lights up like something out of a Christmas card and the streets start to feel empty as tired parents escort equally tired children home, usually perched on shoulders or hips since small legs are too exhausted to support weight after such a long day. Balloons drift haphazardly up into the twilight sky, and the scent of caramel corn seems to linger in the air even more than before. Twilight in Disneyland has always seemed to me the time when you reach for the hand of a loved one, either child, or parent, or sweetheart, or friend. KJ and I were silent as we walked towards the castle for the fireworks, taking the long way around through Tomorrow Land, our minds on other things, on other people, in other places, for that temporary space of time.

Then tell-tale voice echoed around the park…no matter what Disneyland you’re in, the voice is the same, a perfectly pitched melodic tone that wouldn’t sound out of place on the BBC…

Ladies and Gentleman boys and girls, in just five minutes time, we will dim the lights throughout the park, and invite you to turn your attention to the sky high above sleeping beauty castle…

It was then, standing on the wet street with my video camera dangling from one hand, and my eyes turned upwards, somehow completely by myself despite the fact that KJ was standing less than two feet away from me…that I realized I had not seen a Disneyland fireworks show in 15 years…and that the last time I clearly remember seeing one, I was the one perched on my father’s shoulder, because even at 10 (which is the last clear memory I have of going to the park with my family, despite the fact that we went at least once after that), I was too small to be able to see.

In some ways it was like being in two places at once, like two spots in my own life time. As I stood there watching the castle start to sparkle, I could hear a different voice, with a different speech

Ladies and gentleman boys and girls, we invite you to turn your attention to the sky high above sleeping beauty castle, where if you believe and wish hard enough, you too will see the magic of Tinker Bell as she lights this evening’s performance of Fantasy In The Sky

With the aid of a zip-line and a spotlight, Tinker Bell always did fly of course. But as a child, you don’t know that, and if you do you don’t care.

I remembered being a child, a little child, only 3 years old, sitting on my dad’s shoulder, with my arms wrapped around his neck for support, whispering under my breath

I believe. I believe. I believe. I believe.

And that’s when the tears came. KJ looked over at me, and went to put an arm around my shoulder and I shook her off…

I’m okay…

But..

I’m okay! Really! Just shh…

Disneyland fireworks aren’t just sparkles in the sky, they’re an experience. I’d forgotten just what an experience they really were. They dim the entire park, blacking out mainstreet and fantasyland, everything except the lights of the castle itself, and huge spotlights rake the audience.  The energy in the air is life-giving, and soul-healing, if you’re remotely sensitive to such things, you can plug into it and feel it pull you throughout whatever else you might be dealing with.

I can show you the world…shining shimmering splendid…

There were hundreds of people standing on main street with me, but for that 45 minutes…I was blissfully alone…well almost…those of you who were there, standing invisible next to me and around me, know who you are.

No matter who you are, there’s magic in the stars….

When the fireworks finished and the castle snapped temporarily to darkness before resuming its standard glow, the crowd began to mill and we joined it to drift back towards the entrance. I’ve said before the trek is always slow and in this case rendered slower by the fact that we were sore and tired from walking all day. We picked up the last few souvenirs we had looked at earlier in the day, at the last of our popcorn, and paused to take pictures in front of the huge lit-up fountain that marks the beginning of the causeway to the train station.

Behind us, the main-street train station, still lit up like a Christmas card, glowed and flickered in a silent farewell to both us and the hundreds of other people departing for the day.

Soon the underground dropped us back in downtown Hong Kong, and we emerged into the bustling nightlife of Nathan Road. A lucky encounter with a street merchant netted me two Chinese dresses (one of which is the required green for the upcoming St Pat’s party) and a kimono I had my eye on last time I was here – and prevented a trip to the night market – after which we made our slow and weary way home.

While others were preparing to go out and party overnight, I closed my cabin door to the world, stowed away my souvenirs, uploaded my photographs, and put my Hong Kong Mickey Mouse with my small collection of miniature stuffed animals…

And somewhere around 1am, I said some words to the close and holy darkness…and I slept.