Hong Kong Island Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Hong Kong 2017 Day 3 – Ngong Ping and Citygate Outlet Mall

Posted on November 26, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Third day in Hong Kong and we slept in a little more. It was much more tiring than I thought, underestimating the effect of the growing K against overestimating my capability as I aged. We only woke up at 8ish and K at 9am, after switching on the TV for some time and letting the cartoons wake him up naturally.

Everything was pretty smooth up to the point where he wanted to watch more TV instead of leaving. Whined and cried until we had to leave him in the room to force him to obey. We could have stayed longer if there was the luxury of time.

We walked outside to explore the external facilities and found deco that mimicked a scene of Hollywood, with the famous sign. We took a photo with the ocean behind us and took K to the playground that instantly removed his grouch from the morning while I went to do the check out. It was pretty quick since there was no queue and we got to keep the door cards for remembrance.

Entertainment for the young at hotel lobby

Back at the playground K finished his round of slides, tremendously happy and we went to the shuttle bus to bring us to the train station. There was a UNICEF run that morning and thus the roads were blocked with a line of traffic built up. Thankfully there wasn’t much of an impact and we were soon at the MTR, paid a HKD15 per person to Tung Chung.

It was already 11am by the time I checked in my bags into lockers at Citygate outlet malls (HKD10 for 2 hrs, first 6hrs and subsequently doubled after that). There was only payment by notes and I paid HKD20 for it.

Went back through the MTR station to buy some breakfast from a bakery and proceeded to exit B on the other side, in the direction of the cable car station. Had our bread out in the open before a short stroll up the escalator and joining the queue at the prebooked line where again I have gotten my tickets from Klook. Since we had to redeemed at the counter, we had to wait again for almost 25mins before we got our tickets. Again it was a combination of a popular destination plus Sunday that summed up to the waiting time.

The cable car line was again long but because the cable cars were coming in fast and furious, we cleared the line in no time, in about 10mins. Luckily we didn’t take the crystal cabin as it took a much longer time since the frequency of the cable cars were much lower but the line was long. We shared the cable car with another 2 groups as each one could take up to 10 people. Just before the cable car left the station, the staff would take photos for each group.

The journey took about 25mins crossing seas and climbing mountains. Along the way we saw trekkers taking the footpath making their way up. The view would have been awesome if not for the mist that shrouded the skies, blurring everything. We saw the Big Buddha seated on top a hill and we knew we were almost there, arriving at the station at about 1225pm.

Much shorter queue for standard cable car

Big buddha and temple seen from cable car

Walking through the modern ancient Ngong Ping village, we quickly used the restroom there before heading towards the Big Buddha for the arduous climb up many flights of stairs to the top. It was a lot of hard work especially carrying a 11kg load on my shoulder. Took a few photos along the way, enjoyed the scenery for a bit before descending down, equally challenging and quite painful for my ankles which was probably inflamed due to gout.

Walking through the village theme street

Then we wanted to visit the Wisdom Path, a place where the running man visited when they were in Hong Kong (a scene mommy remembered but I didn’t have a clue). The sign indicated a 15mins walk which shouldn’t be far. We saw a few free roaming cows along the way and then it was a footpath through the forest. We reached a clearing and then on the right were many tall pillars with inscriptions on it. Frankly I liked the majestic view of it and the nice weather and blue skies made walking there very much worth it. A short rest later, we took the return journey, distracting K with finding small sticks for him to break so that he could walk himself, which he did amazingly all the way back to start of the path.

We skipped the visit to Po Lin monastery since it was already 140pm. Went into a Ngong Ping 360 shop to get some souvenirs before going to a wishing board to hang a wish tag (given by the shop). Then it was lunchtime at Zen Noodle cafe, where we ordered fried rice and ramen plus a big plate of xiao bai chai so that K could have some vegetables, at a price of HKD250.

By the time we left for the station for the return trip down, it was already 250pm, and the line was much shorter. This time round the crystal cabin cleared faster too since there was a much shorter queue. So the better idea was to take a standard cabin up and a crystal cabin down, if anyone would like a taste of the crystal cabin. It didn’t matter to us and again it was with 3 groups when we boarded the cable car.

The mist had cleared revealing the the blue of the skies and the nice scenery around. K was just as excited going down as when he was going up, talking really loudly and really chatty.

Back on the ground K was beginning to feel tired so we tried entering a restaurant with long cushion seating to get him to sleep but he didn’t want. We decided and we would carry him till he dozed off which happened really quickly and then returned to the same Urban city diner and let him lay on the seat while I had some coffee and mommy carry out her shopping first.

There wasn’t free WiFi so I relied on my data roam to keep me entertained until mommy came back, half an hour later. She had a pair of jeans that she wanted to get and would combine with mine for an additional discount. Then placing K’s head on a rolled up jacket, I left for my shopping time.

As the website of Citygate mentioned that there was free handphone charging so I went to the counter whom advised that the charging station was across the bridge at the other building. I proceeded to walk to the other building as approached the information counter there, expecting to see some lockers with charging cables. But when the staff brought me there, I was disappointed to see that it was an open area with 4 miserable cables, all fully utilized. Waste of time, I went back to start my shopping.

A sucker for jeans, the Evisu outlet was the store that I spent a lot of time there, and I scored a pair of jeans with 70% off plus a 10 that mommy wanted to get ( only thing was I had to return to check with her if that was the pair she left at the counter). After paying, I returned to the restaurant as K had woken up. We paid for the drinks and went to the 10th floor where 10th Avenue was, the entire floor dedicated to shoes.

As I was looking for both a pair of running shoes and a pair of shoes for the new year, we all bought at least a pair from there. After K changed his diapers, we went to Hugo boss where I got myself some shirt (the cheaper ones, they were really comfortable). That was the end of my shopping experience but it had already added up the weight to lug back to the hotel.

Claiming the bag left in the locker, I had to pay an additional of HKD50, in which I paid 60 as I didn’t have a 10 dollar note and there was no change given. Bought the tickets back to TST station for HKD19.5 each and we were on an hour journey back, including the long walk within the station (so thankful for the travelators as my back was breaking). We went to iSquare to visit a Maxim cake shop to get a small piece of cake for K as it was his actual day birthday and then returned to Citadines. Checked in was quick as the staff knew who we were as we had initially stayed there and gave us the keys.

This time around, we were one floor higher but with the exact same design. We put everything down, rested a bit while K watched a video and then proceeded to a diner called Sweetheart Garden restaurant just across the street for dinner. Although mommy wanted to visit a Cha Chan Ting, we had to settle for this since it was almost 9pm already. Mommy ordered a sumptuous pork chop with fish and fried egg rice and a black pepper pork chop served on a hot plate. K shared the rice with mommy and I took pork chop.

Halfway through, mommy and K returned to the room first as he said that he wanted to go poo. Left myself to finish whatever was on the table and paid around HKD 216. Retrieved our luggage and from reception and also our delivery from Door Door, super delicious nougat shop, and brought everything back to the room.

Went to reception to borrow a lighter for lighting up Ks candles but was informed that there wasn’t one available but the staff could lend it to us as she was a smoker. Went to get it from the reception was told to return it only at check out, a nice gesture. Back at the room, we sang a birthday song for K and he blew out the 3 candles after multiple attempts, the 4th time this month he was celebrating (school, and with the grandparents). After a few mouthfuls of cakes, it was bath time, storytime and bedtime.

My ankles were still painful after taking some pills but the tiredness overtook the pain and drove me to dreamland quickly, a eventful day at Lantau island.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 2 – Disneyland

Posted on November 25, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Woke up early as my bodily clock didn’t change even overseas. Spent some time jotting and completing the travel memories from the day before and spent some time on Pogo, which was having a thanksgiving event.

Mommy woke up when her alarm sounded at 730 and she started preparing the soup and pasta for K. K woke up at around 830am, also around the same time he usually wakes up back in Singapore. Though he looked a little tired, the thought of visiting Disneyland made him excited again.

After having our pastries that mommy bought for breakfast, and a little TV, K got changed and was ready to go, even chasing his slow poke parents to hurry up – it was a first!

We finally checked out at about 930ish and left our main luggage at the hotel as we would be back the next day. Walked to TST MTR and bought 2 tickets costing HKD46 in all to Disneyland. It was a short ride back to Central, a 10mins walk and then around a 20mins journey on the orange line. Then finally a changeover to a dedicated pink line in which a Mickey Mouse design train arrived and picked up the passengers. Even the interior was different and felt a little more atas then the usual one. K was amused!

Interior layout was different from the standard trains

We arrived shortly at around 1030am, 30mins after park opening and already there were hordes of people around. After a few quick shots at the fountain, we proceeded past the bags check which took a while as the security was a little slow and unsure, then straight to the entrance as we had already purchased 2 adult tickets on Klook. Having already downloaded the voucher on the phone, we entered using the QR codes and were given 2 physical tickets at the gate itself.

Disneyland MTR station looked like a fantasy train station

Using the HK Disneyland app which was just really useful, we could locate all the services we needed. So mommy went to get a stroller for rental cos we knew K wouldn’t walk that long and the park was huge and I went to drop off my heavy haversack at the locker rental. It was HKD100 for the stroller rental and similarly for the locker rental too.

Panoramic view the spacious Disneyland resort

As there was a show about to start, we went straight to the Fantasyland and entered a huge theatre. It was almost like a real musical and the effects were pretty fascinating. There was also fake snow and ending had falling confetti which wowed the crowd. Songs from the Disney movies such as the Little mermaid, Tangled and Brave and of course Frozen entertained all. But K wasn’t impressed and wanted to return to the hotel, maybe because he hadn’t seen any of the movies and had no connection to them, except “let it go”.

After the show ended, we popped next door to the “it’s a small world” and K actually changed his mind about taking the boat ride. However, we got him on the slow boat ride and he was amazed by the different displays that brought him through different continents complemented with Disney characters. He then wanted to go one more round! After we exited and mommy went to the toilet while we took some photos of the castle outside, did I convinced him to go check out other stuff, such as visiting Tinklebell at the fairytale forest. He wasn’t even interested in taking the flying dumbo rides or the Cinderella carousel.

We entered the forest that had an interesting display of Disney’s princesses’ stories from Rapunzel, Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White. Different displays all had a fake winding mechanism that K like to wind. He went through it all without asking to be carried which was good. However he was disappointed he wasn’t able to find Tinklebell at the location, there wasn’t even a time schedule so we just told him that she wasn’t around at the moment and we could try later.

We proceeded to lunch at Clopins festival of food after we saw a long queue at the Royal Banquet Hall. It was around HKD 112 for a set meal of main and a soft drink, which mommy bought a BBQ chicken set and I got myself a huge bowl of Wanton noodles. K gobbled up his pasta and even had a bit of my noodles, all the while kept entertained by his pencil tablet.

We got K to change his diapers at the restroom and tried the fairytale forest one last time after our lunch and found out after exiting from the staff that Tinkerbell would only be there at 3pm, a little late already. So mommy brought K and boarded the park train while I brought the stroller back to the rental location as the stroller cannot go up the train. Met them at the main train station and as I parked the stroller back at the rental store, promising to return later after Ks afternoon nap, and retrieve our haversack, mommy went to the store for some shopping.

Spewing volcano for an adventurous boat ride

K wanted the bubble making toy and broke down crying and whining for it and only stopped after I brought him outside the store and ignored him. Down the Main Street people lined the sides waiting for the parade to start at 3pm. K then requested to enter to store again, this time being more obedient, knowing that he couldn’t have the bubble toy until much older and settled for a interesting Lightning McQueen cup instead.

Met mommy who was still busy shopping for stuff (HKD600 ish spent) and have her paid for the cup while I brought K out of the store to see huge display mobiles on the street, where dances with music were performed by people and costumed characters. It was frankly quite impressive and even K thought it was nice. However it was short lived as it was already at the end of the parade and they were already moving off.

Back at the store, mommy was still in line. After the payment, we exited the park with invisible stamps on our hands for reentry, already 4pm. Thought that the resort was nearby so I made the decision to walk, and it was about a 10mins walk. Felt difficult as I was carrying the day bag and K on my shoulder. We entered the Disneyland hotel only to find out that I booked the Hollywood hotel via the reception after lining up for my turn. I forgotten I booked the cheaper option, it was no wonder the original Disneyland hotel looked more grand. Boarded the shuttle bus just outside and alighted at the right one, 2 stops away.

Check in done and we were up to the top 2nd floor. There was a nice birthday cake display and a greeting card for K which he was happy about it. The accessories were also nice and even had nice room slippers, a pair for K. We quickly changed his diapers and gave him a packet of milk, read a story and he was then fast asleep. The parents took the time to nap as well before I woke up to write up this blog. Before I knew it, K was awake after 2hrs of nap time.

We left the room at 7pm and caught the shuttle bus back to the park. The skies were already dark and the streets were illuminated with lots of lights overflowing with the Xmas feels. Though these were essentially the same things in the day, it looked nicer in the night.

We went through the security again after some photos at the fountain and even though there was a priority queue for hotel guests, it made no difference as there weren’t many people entering the park at this time.

We couldn’t find one of our tickets but because we had the stamp on our hands, we were allowed reentry thankfully. Made a beeline to reclaim our stroller while K and mommy went to the giant Xmas tree to take some pictures. Then proceeded in the direction of Iron man expo, in the hope of using a priority pass that hotel guests were given.

As we hit the Main Street, we found many people seated along the kerb – the parade was about to begin and I had forgotten about it. We walked the furthest we could and stopped to watch the parade instead. It was a better idea as it was awesome!

The street lights were dimmed for the parade and then from a distance, we could hear music as big display mobiles and street dancers headed our direction. The dazzling lights on both the dancers and the mobiles wowed the crowd as they strolled past us, entertaining people young and old. I thought it was way better than any parade than I have seen, like Chingay, only much more dazzling. One by one, K’s favorite character turned up, starting with the flying Tinklebell, and a red hot Lightning McQueen and his huge disco container truck. Mickey was last but had one of the most eye catching moving display, suited his wizardry theme and many others in between.

As the parade ended at almost 8 and people cleared the street, we could finally walk to the Ironman expo. We had to walk back from theatre to Tomorrowland after I mistaken where I thought it was. K was pretty hyped to go see Iron man but were left disappointed when we found that there was height limit. Checking back on the app, the one applicable for all ages was the Heroic encounter instead of Ironman experience. The heroic encounter was closed unfortunately.

We then decided to return to it’s a tiny world to take the boat since he liked it in the afternoon and also agreed to go there instead. Then a brisk walk later, we found it closed, a 2nd disappointment, and K was close to tears. Consoled K a bit and we then went around to look for dinner. Went past the other side then we missed completely in the afternoon and found most of the areas closed already. Ended up at the USA streets and in the Plaza Inn restaurant, thinking that since it was $$$ in price, we could most likely get a seat. Dead wrong, there were in fact 15 more people waiting in front of us, according to the queue number.

We walked again, this time back to the place that we had lunch in the afternoon and found it closed. The staff pointed us to the Royal Banquet Hall and the second time we pass through the brightly lighted carousel ( one of the few attractions on OT), we entered the impressive Beauty and the beast medieval theme hall and got a seat while mommy went to buy food.

She came back with a trolley of 3 meals, HKD130 each which was too much for 2.5 people. There was meatball spaghetti, baked rice and curry chicken rice and K was ok having the spaghetti and fish from my baked rice. I couldn’t finish the spaghetti as the baked rice was huge enough for myself already.

We ate till 855 and then we rushed outside to catch the fireworks, which was back at the USA street. This meant we actually made two rounds around the park in that night alone! The main space in front of the famous Disney castle was already packed and we tried to get as close as possible. The spectacle was about to begin.

Music and snippets of Disney movies begin to show, using the castle as a screen. Then later, small teasing fireworks shot up the sky. Both music and movie complemented the buildup in intensity of the fireworks, much like telling a magical story, which was a similar concept that we saw the entire day in the park. Soon flames and spotlights also came in and gave the night sky canvas a beautiful combination. It was a pity that we were slightly too near to the action and too sideways to see the entire view but still fireworks were always nice to watch. K felt a little scared and wanted to leave but I tried to calm him down, telling him that it was ok while seated on my shoulder.

The 15mins show ended and then it was a mass movement of people towards the exit. Slowly but surely we took baby steps to get out, passing through the USA streets that by now was snowing (foam). Incredible Xmas feelings warmed the heart, K having fun seeing snow falling on mommy’s head. With the Xmas tree in the middle, we tried to get a family selfie.

Returned the stroller quickly and exited the park, with Santa Goofy singing some Xmas tunes with singers at the main train station. Went back to the shuttle bus station and I thought we had to wait since there were so many people leaving, but the clever management anticipated the huge influx of leaving crowd and catered additional buses to ferry the guests back the hotel so we didn’t have to wait. 5mins ride and we were back in the hotel.

Visited the hotel shop to get a gift for nephew and after a while, we returned to the hotel room. I was physically tired and had to rest a little before giving K a bath in the tub while K was playing his all new remote control Lightning McQueen car. He spent some time in the tub, like all kids loved, changed to pyjamas, and later watched Disney’s cartoons (those I remembered watching before when I was much younger). His parents bathed, cleaned up the containers and bottles and packed for the next day. Made K a bottle of milk and 2 storybooks later, it was lights off, mommy alone on her queen bed and K sharing it with me on another.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 1 – Arrival at Hong Kong and visit to the Peak

Posted on November 24, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

K’s birthday trip to Hong Kong started early on Friday morning. To catch that 955am flight, the parents woke at 630 ish while K had the slightly luxury to wake 15mins later. Having down a bottle a milk, getting dressed dazed but knowing that he was going to get on a plane helped get him out of bed way faster than a normal school day. Dad drove us to the airport taking the PIE, and while we were aware that K might puke in the car, he didn’t – traffic was light and we got to the airport in slightly more than half an hour.

We helped ourselves with the printing of the luggage tags and drop the luggage at the new hi tech looking bed drop and then we were through the departure and the immigrations. Sat ourselves at Pret A Manger (been a while since we visited) for some drinks while K had his chiffon cake for breakfast and plane watching for entertainment. We were also given by the Changi staff a airplane-neck pillow, which K enjoyed playing with.

Before proceeded to the combined gates (A1-A5 I think) area, we changed his diapers at one of the diaper changing area. Older now, he initially chose to lie on the koala fold down table and to buckle up but later we got him to stand up since he was going to use diaper pants.

Boarding happened soon after and there was a long line to the plane. We settled quickly before K started his marathon viewing of Baby First, something he remembered where he was watching it on another flight before. There was a water spill incident at the seat in front of us and the passengers in front had to be reseated somewhere else, good because K was always kicking the seat in front.

The child food came after K downed a 250ml but his appetite was a little surprising as he munched down the entire bread with butter plus a big amount of the egg omelette. We had to stop him from eating some more fearing that he would vomit everything out if he didn’t feel well. The fear was for nothing as he managed well, even though he didn’t sleep at all.

I managed to catch Pirates of the Caribbean Dead: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and K had the baby TV and his scribble pad, and a change of diapers at the seat later, we had landed in the cool (literally) country of Hong Kong, 20mins late (since we took off 25mins late due to the busy flights at Changi).

We got to the immigrations and there was a long snaking line that took about 15mins to clear. There was another passenger with the same name as K at the next counter which we found amusing as we didn’t know it was that common. Picked up the luggage at the belt immediately after clearing the immigrations and my “reservoir” and we were outside trying to hunt for voucher booklet but didn’t see any. Later we boarded the urban taxi heading towards Tsim Sha Tsui, HKD306 and 45 min later, we arrived at the narrow one way street for our accommodation, Citadines Ashley.

One of the staff on seeing us struggling, me trying to keep the change that the driver gave me and at the same time negotiating with 2 luggage, came out to help. Showing the voucher I had in my iPhone wallet, check in was easy. Before we knew it, we were at the 18th floor of this hotel.

K who was awoke after getting off the taxi, drank a packet of milk before we went back to napping. Both parents rested too but it was a short nap before mommy got up to cook soup and went downstairs to get some egg tarts while I lazed in bed. Eventually, K woke at about 510pm and had some snacks before we left for our first attraction of this trip, the Peak.

Having bought the tickets on Klook, we were supposed to meet up at exit K at Central MTR. If was 10mins walk from our accommodation to Tsim Sha Tsui station and then a short 5mins ride to Central. It was peak hour and as the ticketing kiosk was crowded, it was challenging to get tickets, someone even tried to cut out queue which we told them off, only to find the machine’s notes “eater” faulty. To make it easier, we went to the counter which had a queue but was at most a 2 mins wait.

The MTR wasn’t packed like a sardine even though it was busy, there were even seats. We got to exit K in no time and it was easy to spot the 2 guides holding small orange Klook flags. Getting behind a queue, I gave my phone to the guide that returned me with 2 ARV tickets (A adults, R return and V for train and sky terrace). Since K was under 3 I didn’t get him one. There was 3 groups of people segregated by languages, biggest being Chinese (unsurprisingly), and English and Korean, making it a 100 people crowd. At 615pm ( the last time slot for group booking on Klook), we started walking to the Tram station.

Klook group at the entrance with the orange flags

This was when it started to become a bad idea. When I booked the tickets (SGD 17 each), I forgotten that it was a Friday evening. This was peak time for the Peak. The short 5mins walk to the station became 10mins as the street was packed with people and cars with tourists and people getting off work. We got to bypass a few buildings like the HSBC bank building and Cheung Kong center (owned by the richest man in Hong Kong) before we found ourselves lining behind a very long snaking queue alongside garden Road.

Office of the richest tychoon in Hong Kong

The wait was as long as 1hr and I immediately regretted going on this trip, wondering when K could have his dinner. From about 640pm I stood in the queue while mommy and K walked about at the fountain and joined later as we were about to go into the station itself, and finally only boarded at about 740pm. And it was chaotic, even though we had a kid and people were reminded not to push, there was still a lot of pushing. Mommy managed to get onboard first and chope seats while I came up slightly later with K, after pushing through the crowd past the small doorway of the tram, feeling disgusted of the lack of civil mindedness but wasn’t surprised at with a predominantly big group of Chinese tourists.

Getting off at the station, we went through the “market” place and then getting info from the guide, we went in search of food. There was Madame Tussaud that we didn’t get tickets for and a free “trick eye museum” of sort that we bypassed, a Jap restaurant, Bubble Gump and Hard Rock that we saw but ended up at Chinese restaurant called Lu Feng which didn’t have a queue and most likely have fried rice that K could have with his soup.

We were brought upstairs that revealed a nicely designed interior and had beautiful views of the city but were told that it was fully reserved. Ordered Ying Yang fried rice (2 flavors on the same plate) and a beef fried hor fun. I thought it tasted pretty good and K had a bit of both but was quick to give up eating saying he was full. As usual, I had to eat up the leftovers but it was quite nice in my opinion.

After some fussing in the restaurant for not wanting to walk while i paid for the HKD340 ish dinner, we proceeded to use the locked toilets (key to take from counter) before heading to the topmost 6th floor where the tickets were once again used for entry to Sky Terrace 428. At that time it was again crowded and we had to wait for our turn to move closer to the balcony to take photos. I had never learnt to take a photo for people with a brighter background, and the flash just dimmed the view behind. In the end, the shot came out with very grainy mommy and K, worse without a stand. Taking the view was fine but funnily the iPhone was not able to shoot well.

After a short walk around and a photo of K doing the heart shape pose (his fave pose currently with all his birthday poses being the same) in front of a heart shape display, we left the chilling winds and proceeded to another round of waiting for the tram back to ground level. This time the queue was much faster and in about 40mins, we were on the tram, again after much shoving. We couldn’t get a seat but a nice tourist offered some space to share with K, which he took unwillingly after mommy made him sit.

The steep descent made us had to hold on tight and since the tram was facing one direction throughout, the seated people were moving in the backwards direction, slided back into the seat.

We went back to the same way we came, now the streets emptied of the crowd and it was a quick walk to Central MTR. We boarded an empty train as the previous one just left and arrived at TST station on a crowded train as passengers boarded at the stop in between. Went to iSquare mall to the Supermarket by Jason’s to buy meat and vegetables for making soup the next day, the supermarket was still busy – 10pm and people were still going in to buy stuff. Paid about HKD130 and we walked back to our hotel, going through the busy street that had probably only getting started for the Friday night.

Once back, I rested a while and had a free can of coke from the fridge. Carrying K on my shoulders made my shoulders kinda sore. Bathed K in the bathtub before he was watching a bit of discovery channel, drank his milk and played his pencil tablet while the parents prepared the day bag for Disneyland the next day and bathed.

It was 12mn before lights off, K didn’t even asked for story book and soon we were all off to lala land.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 5 – Ocean Park

Posted on January 30, 2016June 2, 2020 by ziyi

The day started awesome as the sun rays peeked through the clouds, an indication of an improving weather condition, perfect for an outing to Ocean Park.

Rays of hope of good weather. — Rays of hope of good weather early in the morning

Woke the usual early plus a little snoozing on the alarm and we were up slicing and dicing some foodstuff to prepare baby K’s porridge. Had new ingredients since we bought some from the supermarket the previous night but preparations were no issues with the small chopping board and folding knife that we purchased from Daiso.

We were all ready at 930am and left for the MTR, having learnt that the easiest one for us to get to for about 15mins of walking was Tsim Sha Tsui MTR. 10hkd per person to Admiralty station and off we went, going through the lift that was made for people with needs.

After getting off, we proceeded to the exit B where the bus stand for bus 629 was. En route, we saw a tourism info counter where they offered tickets at discounted rate, about 40hkd off, so we purchased 2 adults while baby K goes in for free.

Before going to the bus ticketing booth on the outside, we saw a hawker stand where mineral water was sold for 7hkd and on their signboards they also indicated that water of the same would cost 25hkd in Ocean Park. Bought 2 bottles and proceeded to the booth to buy return bus tickets for 10.20hkd per way.

Went to the back of the snaking queue, long queue there probably because it was a Saturday, and found that I have lost one of the park entrance ticket. Couldn’t find it after back tracking and gave up and boarded the bus. Although there was a long queue, it cleared pretty quickly as the buses came fast and furious too. We got a seat but had a hard time bringing the stroller up the bus as the walking space within the bus was not a lot.

It was quite a fast trip there, taking less than 20 mins and we were already at the escalator to the park entrance. There was a new Ocean Park MTR station there but not yet in service.

After queuing up for about 5 mins, I went to the counter to enquire if they could do something about the ticket. They said it was not possible to track that one purchased from the MTR so I bought another one.

Entering the park through the entry point for strollers and wheelchairs on the left, we went to the info booth to get 2 pamphlets, one for shows timing and the other for the park map. At almost 11am, we proceeded to the first show at the Asian animals and it was a small group of people performing juggling and stuff in animal costumes. Not really interesting though.

Proceeded to the panda enclosure and saw the pandas sleeping. The red pandas were rather active, moving around constantly. This place kinda reminded us of what we have in our Singapore zoo. On the way out, there were exhibits of goldfish and otter, where one get to have a close encounter with otter while the staff talked about it.

For lunch, we popped over to the Panda Cafe. We ordered duck and Char Siew rice and a minced meat rice, each came with a small Haagen Daz, but each for a whopping 168hkd and 140hkd correspondingly. The duck rice was bad and the minced meat rice was so so.

We went to the toilet with with diaper changing station and changed diapers before trying to get baby K to sleep. We wanted to get baby K to sleep so we walked a bit will we ventured to Whiskers Theatre, where a show was about to begin. Baby K didn’t sleep and ended up watching the show. The actors of the show actually got really close at some point to interact with the kids. The kid next to us even had his head bitten by the dolphin mascot, which was really funny.

After the show, we made our way towards the cable car. En route, we passed a small street that was designed in the style of old Hong Kong. As nostalgic old music was played along the street, baby K fell asleep.

There were two queues for the cable cars towards the Summit, the other bigger section of the park where all the rides were. The queue was not too long and we were soon boarding the very limited space of the cable car, sharing it with another family. I initially had some issues bringing the stroller onboard as the wheels kept getting stuck.

The view from the 15 mins ride was pretty good, especially as the weather was better at the other side of the mountain. Baby K continued to sleep through the ride though.

As we got off, the staff helped, thankfully, with my stroller as I struggled again. Immediately on the left of the cable car exit was the restaurant with a good view but we could get the “free” view near its entrance. Expectedly it was packed with tourists snapping away.

We proceeded to the poles expedition exhibits, one with the seals and walrus and the other with penguins that was pretty cold as we were sharing the surrounding temperature with them. It was amazing to see a walrus for our first time, swimming around. However we struggled a bit on pushing the strollers, constantly looking out for lifts to take as baby K was snoozing in it and we couldn’t risk taking the escalator. Near the exit of the souvenir shop was the discrete entrance to the exhibit for the snow fox. There were a couple of them but all were asleep.

We bypassed all the roller coasters and proceeded to the Shark exhibit. The strollers weren’t allowed in it and we had to park it outside. It was then baby K awoke in time for the visit as he loved to look at fishes. The area was quite a walk with various sections, one where we could view from top of a open pool, one from the sides, one from below looking up and one floor to ceiling kind of enclosure. Of course it couldn’t be compared to the one in Singapore in terms of size but this was only for sharks. There were a couple of types, I recognized the hammerheads easily.

One of the roller coasters, Hairraiser. — One of the roller coasters, Hair Raiser.

Exiting the shark exhibits, baby K had milk and then we walked through the many thrill rides and a short stretch of empty road before reaching the Marine Mammal Breeding and Research Center, where the dolphins were kept when the ocean theatre was closed during winter without shows. We watch the dolphins swimming in pools from behind a clear panel and the staff feeding them but nothing else. It was amazing to see the dolphins actually leaped out of the water within such a small space.

Marine mammals breeding and research center.

Walking back was rather tiring as it was an uphill climb and almost 15mins of that. We were all exhausted when we finally arrived at the Ocean Express train ride back to the Waterfront section. Initially wanted to change diapers for baby K but the one and only room near the shark exhibit was occupied and was informed by a nice dad outside that breastfeeding was in progress and would take up another 10mins.

Thrill mountain, mostly rides based entertainment.

There was a priority queue for strollers for the train ride but it had the longest queue. And funnily not all waiting had a stroller. Luckily we could all get onboard the large train. The ride was a slow moving train but seemed to be faster than the cable car, maybe 15mins? During the journey, there were screens to simulate our journey going through water and depths of earth and stuff, entertaining the kids inside the train.

Back at the waterfront, we went back to the first diaper changing room. Then we went to take another photo with a shark mascot at the booth (previously was a panda) and proceeded to the aquarium, our last attraction for the day. There was no queue also and we managed to take the lift to the top level where the exhibit starts.

In this aquarium, there were similar arrangements but was bigger than the shark ones. Again baby K was excited about looking at marine life, of which we saw the usual nemos and Alaskan crabs and starfish and seahorses. There was also nice exhibit of schools of fishes swimming together and a large octopus.

After this visit, we left the park at 6pm after mommy bought some memorabilia from the shop near the entrance. There was supposed to be a light and fountain show but we gave it a miss as that was at 7pm. Imagine if we had to take the thrill rides, a day out didn’t seem enough. Expectedly, the bus queue was long and we had to wait awhile before getting on the bus, having the same struggle as the day. The evening ride back took longer than the morning one due to the traffic jam. Baby K fell asleep on the ride.

Back at Admiralty we took the same route back to TST and the 20mins walk back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we quickly cooked dinner for baby K and got out to Harbour City Cafe de Coral for dinner.

Shopping started after dinner and the shops only mostly closed at 10pm. Some had extended hours due to CNY and we stayed till then, leaving the Toys R Us at almost 1030pm.

Back at the room, we only managed to get baby K to sleep and we followed suit falling asleep, leaving the utensils unwashed.

Macau 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in Macau bypassing Hong Kong

Posted on January 26, 2016June 3, 2020 by ziyi

It was a rather hectic week and we had only completed packing on the night before the flight. Equally crazy was baby K’s choice to be cranky on the night before, resulting in the parents clocking only 5hrs of sleep before waking up at 6am to get ready for the 10am flight to Hong Kong.

By 730am, we left the house but having to repeatedly return to pick up the milk and the stroller that we had left behind.

The PIE had sections of slow moving traffic as Tuesday was after all a working day for most. We got to the airport by 830am and checked in at the counter for our 2 luggage and the stroller. Had some drinks at the nearby cafe before bidding farewell to our parents for ferrying us to the airport.

Our flight was at the end of terminal 1 and before getting on the flight, had changed baby K’s diapers and picked up some hot water from the hot water dispenser.

Our bassinet seat was immediately on the right upon boarding which made it easy for us, having tugged along 3 hand carries and a baby. Made formula milk packed in disposable plastic packets (like those storage bags for breast milk but for formula milk powder instead) for baby K and while he happily finished the bottle and dozed off even before taking off. It was a short 1 hr break for us while he snoozed in my arms.

After waking up we had to keep him entertained through the inflight tiny TV and magazines. Had our lunch individually as always, and fed him home cooked porridge after we were done with ours.

The flight was smooth though weather was expected to be rainy with the crazy cold snap coming in on the weekends before we flew. It was still busy and tiring to manage the newly 14month old toddler though.

After touching down at Hong Kong international airport, we could feel the cold bite while at the walkway to the arrivals and immediately put baby K into his one-piece down jacket. This made him more difficult to carry with the puffier size and the slippery surface.

Mommy had gone to purchase the Cotai ferry tickets to Macau, without the need to go through immigrations. At the counters, we only had to provide the luggage tag to the staff who would ensure that the luggage was brought on board the ferry for us. Paid 640hkd in all for the tickets, including a 140hkd for baby K for the 415pm schedule to Taipa (not the main terminal), the only closest time slot we could get (the other one was at 5pm).

Ticketing counter for the ferry tickets.

Made some milk for baby K after changing him out of his diapers and checked that our luggage was retrieved at the ticket checker. We were only allowed to proceed to the gate at the time written on our tickets, supposedly to prevent overcrowding at the gate. There was a short train ride to SkyPier where the ferry was.

Machine to check luggage status, by scanning your tickets.

The road to boarding the ferry was extremely cold as it was opened to the outside. Once on board, we got some nap time for ourselves as baby K had also already fallen asleep on mommy shoulders while waiting for the boarding.

The ride to Macau was slightly bumpy but that had baby K in the snooze for a good hour. We arrived close to 6pm, after an hour and a half on the seas.

Going through immigrations, baby K had us on priority and we were taken to a short queue and we cleared rather quickly. Proceeded to retrieve our luggage at an enclosed area where everyone just stood around and waited. The luggage was to be brought into the room by human labour as there weren’t any belt there. After the doors opened, the luggage containers were brought in while the personnel unloaded the luggage. However collection could only be started after all the luggage was offloaded.

We waited for the crowd to clear before retrieving. The personnel were really kind to offer mommy a seat near the area as she tried to feed baby K and another offered to bring our luggage out on a trolley seeing that we were tugging a lot of luggage but we didn’t accept the offer.

Once out, I checked with one of the staff nearby only to find that there weren’t any free shuttle bus to Sofitel Ponte 16 (which was situated at the other island). So we had to queue for a taxi which had a couple of people before us already waiting. It was too long before we got onto one ourselves and I had issues loading the luggage and the stroller in. The stroller ended up on the front passenger seat with a rather unimpressed taxi driver.

The trip from the Taipa terminal to Sofitel was about 40mins due to the horrendous traffic jams along the way. Upon stopping at the luxurious lobby of Sofitel, a porter helped us unload, we paid about 100hkd for the trip.

Checking in was easy but there was some marketing going on as the receptionist tried to sell upgrades to suites and club privileges but we rejected it. We were given the 15th floor room that had a pretty good view of the sea and the room was luxuriously furnished. Porter came with our luggage some 10mins later.

Prepared some cereal mixed with the baby meal from the flight for baby K, which surprisingly, he liked and finished eating. I was tasked to go get dinner as room service wasn’t affordable and mommy found the cold uninviting for her to step foot outside again for tonight.

Just taking the bigger road, I walked away from the hotel and looked around. Saw some bright signboards and headed to a noodle shop (Loja Sopa Da Fita Cheong Kei) that had tripadvisor sticker on it and asked if taking away was available. Was immediately invited to sit in where it was nice and warm and then decide what I wanted. Ordered wanton noodle and their special. 10 mins and 63hkd later, I left with 2 small package of dinner.

Loja Sopa De Fita Cheong Kei noodle shop.

The food was rather delicious but I wasn’t sure that was biased due to my hunger or not. The portions were small though.

The hotel did not seem to have a good aircon to warm up the place and bathing for baby K was challenging. I filled the tub with warmer-than-usual warm water and after quickly stripping baby K, brought him to the tub and he got used to the water rather well. Unfortunately it seemed like there was some leakage and I had to warm up the tub by reintroducing warm water into the tub.

After getting out of the water, we had to quickly dry baby K and apply the lotion and wear the long sleeve shirt and pants to prepare him for bed. He was shivering a bit before we could finally dressed him.

It was clean up time on the bottles and cooker and containers but all these were far easier than back in the days of breastfeeding where there was simply a hell lot of bottles and equipment to clean.

Baby K snoozed deeply after downing a bottle of milk and the rest of the night was sleep, after a long day to get to Macau.

Hong Kong and Macau 2015 Day 2 – Prada outlet and Bon Jovi asia tour in Macau

Posted on September 25, 2015June 3, 2020 by ziyi

It started at 730am, and with all the preparations in mind, the target to leave at 10am. It wasn’t enough as cooking porridge took a long time. I had to pump and deflate his bathtub for his bath. Chopping the baby carrots and the sweet potato with a tiny knife and a cheap daiso chopping board was really difficult. The biggest challenge however was to keep a watch out for baby K as he moved around on the baby.

We were finally ready at 11 am to move out. Left the luggage at the reception but disappointed to find that they do not have a refrigerator to store milk.

Went over to Yuen Kee restaurant (where we had dinner the night before) for our meals. Ordered macaroni abalone slice and turkey ham set that came with bread and egg coupled with milk tea while wife had the traditional bread bun and ovaltine.

Restaurant menu, under the glass typically.

All was well until baby K, who was roaming about on the seat, picked on the container of chili oil and spill it all over the table. I had to bring him to the tiniest toilet in the restaurant to wash up, as fortunately, only some parts of his arm and leg got it. We had to shift tables so that the staff could clean it up, though they didn’t looked happy about it. The food costs 75HKD.

We went back to the hotel to ask for help on getting taxi but they said no one was picking up since it was peak period and were advised that we walked one street down to flag instead. Called mom to postpone our meet up to 230pm.

Went to flag the taxi at the next street (Rumsey street) where there was a taxi stand in front of the mall and it wasn’t long before we boarded. Gave the destination in lousy Cantonese accent (Marina Square, East commercial block) and the taxi driver immediately knew where we wanted to go. Baby K drank some milk and fell asleep. Then my arm started to feel a burning sensation. It must have been due to the chili oil that I might have not washed off completely!

20mins and about 100HKD away, we arrived at Marina East center and Prada outlet store could be seen. It seemed like a really out of place store since the rest of the center was either selling market food stuff or other mama store stuff. The store was quite large with a collection of mostly women products with a small section of Men and Miu Miu products. My wife shopped for a while my baby awoke from his sleep. She bought a bag and a wallet and we left on a taxi flagged from the road, another 100HKD back.

Marina square east with Prada just next to it.

We went to the shopping mall next to our hotel, Infinitus Plaza and ate Cafe de Coral, since the other places on the 2nd floor were actually pretty expensive. Had pork chop baked rice and my wife had curry rice. Had to change diapers for baby K but there weren’t any nursing room in the mall, so I had to use the cubicle in the small toilet.

Baked pork rice. — Baked pork chop rice.

When we arrived back at the hotel, my mom and aunt was already there. Repacked the luggage and walked to the Macau ferry terminal through the MTR underpass. The first stairway didn’t have a escalator and thankfully my aunt helped us with the luggage. The journey up was easier since there was an escalator going up to Shun Tak Center, where the ferry terminal was located.

The tickets office was located at the 3rd floor of the building and we purchased our tickets at Turbojet. Didn’t know that babies under 1 didn’t require tickets and had to refund the 149HKD for the child ticket. The adults one cost 164HKD each one way.

We checked in 3 luggage en route to the jet boat for 25HKD per piece and that was a good choice later we found that there was a stairway down to the jet boarding pier, which would be treacherous to negotiate with a baby. We had to go through immigrations counter, after all we were heading to another country. We had our seats given by lining up at the counter next to the gate and the staff giving us a seat number by pasting stickers on our tickets. Boarding was quick and we were soon jetting to Macau, with an active and noisy baby keeping me busy throughout the 1hour smooth journey.

Tickets with the luggage tag. — Tickets with the green luggage tag.

Tickets with the seats allocation stickers.

Gate in which the passengers board. The counter beside the gate was where the seats were allocated.

As we disembarked, it was some walking journey. First we went through the immigrations, the lack of queue meant we got through in about 10mins. Immediately to the right after the counter was our luggage reclaim area, but it was out of sight and if we didn’t follow the sign, we would have left the control area without our luggage, which my mom did.

The inside of Macau Outer Harbour ferry terminal.

To take the free bus to the hotel, we had to cross the road by going through the underpass. Luckily, there were elevators available at both sides. The main big hotels (like Sands) had their rows of buses immediately on the front of the elevator. Our Holiday Inn bus was provided under a group name of Cotai Central. The bus was scheduled to leave at 5pm, with or without a full bus.

Exterior of the Outer Harbour ferry terminal.

Upon arrival some 20mins later, we were at one of the grandest Holiday Inn I have ever seen. We were check in rather quickly with the short queue. The recept said there were 2 upgrades, one was an upgrade to deluxe and the other was a later check out timing at 12 noon. Wasn’t exceptional but fine.

The room had 2 queens as requested since mom was staying over. The view was the one facing Conrad so it was nothing. Otherwise, it was a nice room expected of a casino hotel room. Rested a while and prepared meal for baby but found our portable rice cooker was dead and even short circuited the room’s electrical socket outlet. We had to shamelessly called reception to send in the engineer to fix the trip out.

Then we went in search of cheap dinner options and found it in the form of Koufu at level 3. The food was not nice though. Right next to Koufu was a large toy store which I brought baby K to walk around as he was cranky.

Integrated shopping mall near the hotel.

Almost 8 and we proceeded to Venetian arena for our Bon Jovi concert, leaving baby K with granny to babysit for the night. We had earlier on picked up the tickets at the counter in Holiday Inn and 15mins of walk through many luxury stores and a made real city of Venice, we arrived at the Arena.

Once through the ticket collection gates, we proceeded to line up for the merchandise. Took a while and they only accepted cash, so I could only buy one for myself. There wasn’t a size small enough for my petite wife so it was ok. The concert started at about 30mins past its official start time but we only finish buying when the band started their first song.

List of countries included in the tour. — List of countries included in this 2015 Asia tour.

The concert was overall nice though we had expect more popular hits to be sung. There were still hits like “Its my life”, “Keep the Faith”, “Because we can” and the encore “Living on a prayer”. Atmosphere was nice, expected of a rock concert though it could have been better, guess both the fans and the band have grown older and more orderly? There were also many new songs that weren’t so well received by ourselves.

The concert ended about 30mins past 10pm and so we strolled back towards Holiday Inn and exited, crossed the road towards the City of Dreams, where Hard Rock Hotel was located. Purchased ourselves some tees and heard some bands jamming to old Bon Jovi songs. We went back to our rooms after all the shopping.

Baby K was fast asleep in granny’s arms but awoke rather quickly. We cleaned up the bottles a bit before going to the ground floor for some photo taking at the fountain and the Dreamworks exhibits since baby K was awoke.

Fountain area that had cardboard Dreamworks characters for photo taking.

Nice fountain that went all the way up to the roof.

Went back to the room after taking some free bottled mineral water from the casino. As we all finished the cleaning and prepared for bed, baby K also went to snooze. We wished baby K and ourselves a peaceful sleep full night.

Hong Kong 2015 Day 1 – Away from the haze and arrival into Hong Kong

Posted on September 24, 2015June 3, 2020 by ziyi

The day started really early at 730am for our preparations before the flight at 1245pm. A lot of time was required for the last minute packing since baby still need to use them in the morning. With the growing almost 10month old, travel was progressively more difficulty mainly due to food preparations and waning milk intake.

This morning activities were carried out through tired bodies as baby K had woken up at 1am and only gone to sleep at 3am, cranky due to painful ulcers in the mouth (fortunately not HFMD) and subsequently woke up another hour later. This trip was almost disrupted when he broke out into a fever just 2 days ago. Fortunately, his body temperature had been normal for almost 24hrs already. As he napped in the sarong, his parents pressed on to pack. Haze out there, could be at its worst, added on to the dread. Motivation was fueled by the euphoria of anticipation of travel only.

Baby K was napping longer than expected, so I woke him up to bath before its time for us to leave. It was quite a smooth ride to the airport, expectedly so with the city shrouded in haze, like Genting highlands, only that it stank.

We dropped our bags (having done the online check in) quite quickly and went to take some photos with the SG50 orchid and dragon playground exhibit. Fed baby K and ate some light meals before boarding. We ferried baby K around with the free trolley that came with a baby seat available at the info counter – really a gift for parents without stroller.

Trolley with combi baby seat. Love this as we didn't have a stroller. — Trolley with combi baby seat. Love this as we didn’t have a stroller.

The plane took a long while to take off, queuing behind a number of planes, wonder if it was due to the haze. 45mins behind time, the plane took off with baby K in high spirits. Unfortunately he maintained he high spirits past his bedtime, playing so happily in the bassinet, causing him to be cranky. Thankfully for granny’s experienced arms that he finally had some shut eyes.

About 5pm and we landed with baby K only just woken up, which was an amazing feat. I managed to even finished watching Age of Ultron. Getting off the plane, we left a bag behind in the overhead and had to wait for the steward to pick up and send it to me while waiting at the airport walkway because there was no way walking back against the wave of passengers leaving the plane.

Same routine of taking a short train ride to immigrations and it was relatively light human traffic at the immigrations. Before arriving, baby K was aimed at the forehead with a thermal scanner and was confirmed not to have fever, a good sign. Picked up the luggage at the belt and got to the nursing room outside arrivals to warm up the milk for baby K who didn’t drink much throughout the trip. It was a pretty nice nursing room with a Avent milk warmer, something we don’t see in Singapore.

Since there were 3 of us, we took the cab, as economics of scale gave us more private comfort for a slight few dollars more. The taxi stands was to the left from the express train platform and while we were ushered to the taxi, the driver wasn’t sure of the address of our hotel. Anyhow, we got on, with the luggage protruding at the back with the boot cover strapped with tension cords (as there were 3 of them and there weren’t enough space on the red taxis). Soon we were on the highway with the sunset upon us, tall buildings with a cloudless backdrop welcoming us to equally warm but hazeless (lesser) Hong Kong.

To the taxi stands, separated by destinations.

Arrived at the Bauhinia hotel, opposite the ferry terminal in Sheung Wan, 342HK dollars, not too expensive. Our relative was already waiting for us, not knowing the delay that we had earlier and guided us to the hotel since she was there earlier.

Checked in and we were given the room on the 2nd floor. The whole area was in modern deco and so was the room. It was a larger one which gave us plenty of space to move about. With a small coach in the room, our relatives had some space to sit as well. Prepared to go out while they fed baby K with porridge made by them.

After baby K was done with dinner, we walked to the street behind (on Des Voeux Rd Central) and found a Yuen Kee restaurant where we had our dinner. Ordered some roasted pork and goose and vegetables and egg and soup. Portion of the pork was huge, too much that we couldn’t finish. Food was ok.

Went back to the room where the routine of cleaning up and preparing the baby began while my mom left with my relatives to their home. She would be staying over at their place.

Baby K was especially cranky these few nights and it wasn’t any different here. Cried for hours before going to bed and then waking up again not too long. Wasn’t sure if the ulcers were making him uncomfortable but it wasn’t the same in the day. Giving up all the pillows to my wife as she carried baby K in her arms, we attempted to sleep. Sleepless in Hong Kong tonight.

Hong Kong 2014 Day 1 – Arrival, Eat and Shop

Posted on July 12, 2014June 3, 2020 by ziyi

The day started at 4am for our Cathay flight to Hong Kong. As expected the drive to the airport was seamless but upon arrival, there was already a slow moving queue to check in. Had some hot drinks over at Wang’s, one of the few shops opened in the early morning.

The boarding was fast, although it was for a big airplane and soon we were in the air en-route to Hong Kong, dozing off just as quickly.

We were awaken for some omelette breakfast which was pretty filling, and then back to sleep. Before we knew it, we are landing in Hong Kong!

There wasn’t any immigration card on the flight and only got it from the stewardess upon landing. Proceeded to a very crowded immigrations, there were 7 rows of people waiting to get through. We had 15mins of perpetual walking in the lines before clearing immigrations, which was about 5mins, not too bad.

Immediately on the outside of the immigrations, there was a counter selling Airport Express train ticket. A lady at the front of the queue informed that we should get the Kowloon tickets since we were alighting at Jordan. As we proceeded to the belt, our luggage was already in sight and we quickly retrieved it before exiting. The train station was just another 20m away and we boarded the quite empty train that came in in a short 7mins – to Kowloon we went.

Once onboard, we noticed that it would be better to take to Hong Kong station and do a direct transfer to MTR that goes to Jordan. Oh well, already paid for the tickets. 24 mins and many views of super tall dense buildings later, we reached Kowloon.

After alighting the train, we entered a really spacious building where we got a drink from 7-11. Moving on to the 2nd floor, the signs pointed us to a free bus transfer for all airport express customers to major hotels. Checked with the staff and she advised us the bus number and the stop to get us. Boarded an almost empty mini bus and we were on the way to the hotel, city sights along the way. It was here that every advice along the way seemed to make sense. Getting off at Kowloon station is the right advice.

Checked in was pretty straight forward at Novotel. Situated along a small street off Nathan Road, it wasn’t easy looking for it. Luckily Google map is working without the data requirement and we easily navigated there from Eaton Hotel, one of the bus stop.

Check in at level 2 was quick and we were given 10th floor. The superior room was expected small, but the view was bad, blocked by the parallel buildings packing the sense streets of Hong Kong. What we saw were roofs filled with rubbish. Never mind, we were here for the shopping and the food anyways. If not for the better price offered from my company’s contract with then, I might have chosen another hotel.

We walked the 5mins walk to Jordan MTR station and bought single trip ticket to Admiralty and changed to the blue line going towards Wan Chai for our first stop – Wing Wah noodle shop. Easily accessible near the main road on the opposite side to the station, but not really recognizable if you don’t read Mandarin.

Entering the shop, we were called to the end of the shop where there were 2 seats from a table of 4 where the other 2 seats were already taken. Guessed this would be the way to eat around Hong Kong. The menu on the table had both English and Mandarin so it was easy. Ordered the original Wanton and one with Pig knuckles.

The noodles were really springy though the dumplings were just ok. I liked the pig trotters particularly, chewy but not tough, good taste and not fatty. Only problem was there were only two of them.

Pork knuckles noodles. — Pig knuckles noodles.

Everything was fast moving, ordered ate and paid in 20mins at most.

Left for our next destination, Ho Hung Kee at Hysan Place. Getting off at 1 station away at Causeway Bay, Hysan Place was immediately connected to it. The restaurant was located at the 12th level, but the elevator took years to arrive. We had to travel to basement first before getting to the 10th storey. From there, by elevator to the 12th floor.

Store front of Ho Hung Kee at Hysan Place

The restaurant had a modern decor but the sitting arrangements were similar to the previous ones, you share. We ordered congee, I had fish and tangerine peel congee and my wife had fish ball congee, thinking that this 1 star Michelin restaurant was popular for congee till we read it’s history on the paper on the table.

Congee was smooth. The fish ball was made of real fish meat, but tasted of ikan bilis. I liked the tangerine flavoured congee which was kinda different.

We ordered a small bowl of Wanton Mee to share. The noodles here were skinnier. I thought it was not as springy as the one I had just before. The dumpling was better here, though I thought there were more taste of fish.

Left satisfied in terms fullness but not in terms of expectations.

Causeway Bay had many various malls and a lot of people. I thought it was something like Orchard Road, people everywhere, lines everywhere. Spent some time at the huge Forever 21 before heading over to Times Square. Took a short break at the Agnes B cafe, shopped a bit more before going to Sheung Wan station and proceeding to Burd street for more congee, Sang Kee congee.

Batmobil on display outside Times Square

Multiple storey of luxury goods stores in Times Square

Sheung Wan was a place without the crowd. Googled map our way there and we were initially mistaken for another of their chain selling noodles. As we moved around the corner, we saw the little shop and entered the cosy little shop. Ordered fish ball congee and minced pork congee. It was really good, the porridge tasted soupy. The balls was tasty and bouncy with a good taste of the fish and pork. It was cheaper than the ones that we had before too. The only pity was that the more popular one with the fish stomach was already sold out. It must have been good.

Went back to our hotel tired and but feeling great. Surfed the web to find more food and I made one more attack on a popular steam egg pudding at Yee Shun Milk company. Daobao the original for HKD22 and back ate it back at the hotel. The store closes at midnight and it was still fairly busy at that time of the day.

The chilled pudding had taste of sweetened milk but the tofu softness of the end product made the chilly pudding a great desert to end the food trip for today. More research on the food trip tomorrow before going to bed. Some early waking up and queuing was anticipated.