We woke up real late today, but since it was the last day, there weren’t much of a plan. After we were done with packing and having the longevity bun for breakfast, we walked to Harbour City again, having found on the Toys R Us website that the shop was actually at the Ocean Terminal side. The hotel granted us a late check out at 1pm which meant we had about an hour to shop and get out.
It was easy to get to Toys R Us and in fact, the whole level on the ground floor was dedicated for children’s stuff. There was a store called Its Magical which had some original toys for kids. Didn’t get anything from there so we went to Toys R Us. It was a huge store but we had limited time so we quickly decided on what to buy and paid for the items. These toys were selling cheaper in Hong Kong than Singapore so we bought quite a bit. Plastic bag was 50cts additional, a nice environmental initiative but we needed it to lug the toys back.
Back in the room, we quickly packed the stash of toys and fed baby K before checking out. Initially wanted the recept to assist with booking a taxi but she just told us to go to the entrance where a colleague would be there to assist us. When we got out, the staff just told us to wait at the entrance and at that instant, one taxi came in to pick us up.
The trip to the airport was smooth as traffic was light. It was supposedly a holiday for Hong Kong. The costs for the ride was about 240HKD, pretty close to the airport express tickets of 100HKD each. The time taken was about 30mins but I felt it was worth it to pay that additional for the extra comfort, especially with a baby in tow.
We checked in at the Cathay Pacific counter under the priority queue of having baby K in arms and it was done quickly. Proceeded to the 2nd floor to have lunch at Tsui Wah when my mom joined us after arriving later at the airport and completed checking in. Ordered chicken rice and fish ball rice noodles and Portuguese style coffee and red bean drink. Nothing extraordinary but adequate for a good lunch.
We went through immigrations and at the scanning line, there was again a priority queue and we sped ahead of my mom who had initially gone ahead and went onto the normal queue. It was lucky that the staff allowed her to bring the insulated container of porridge through as she said it was for her grandson although we were not together at the queue.
After immigrations, we proceeded straight to the gates as we were afraid that getting there required us to take the train. In this case, it wasn’t required and we just waited to board. Wanted to shop a bit but impossible with the time flying past like that.
After getting onboard, the 1hr that it took for the plane to taxi till it was airborne, baby K was frequently screaming! He must have been hungry but it was very frustrating for us. We had to try to feed the porridge to him while taking off to calm him down. Challenging experience.
The rest of the journey was smooth except baby K was largely active and moving around a lot. That meant that it was tiring but still manageable.
This trip was largely for us to catch Bon Jovi live in Macau and to do a relaxing shopping trip in Hong Kong. However, there was simply not enough time at all and everyday’s activities were limited. It was worst in Macau that I felt I have not even been there, except for the concert. I will be revisiting, having been to Macau more than once but not a single time seen the most iconic ruins of St. Paul’s.
Through the 5 trips with baby K, I think the period where it was easiest to travel with a baby was during the period where he was 6months old. Food was still milk and he was not able to move around that much. However, babies at different age present a different challenge and it was really up to the comfort level of the parents to determine when to travel with a baby.