I woke up at 2am to clean up the bottles and pots and prepared milk for baby K before going back to sleep.
7am sounded and I couldn’t get up. Snoozed for some time before getting up while wife got ready for cooking. Baby K slept till 10am while we had got ready the food and packed most of the items into the luggage and had bread for breakfast.
Wife went out to shop at the Esprit outlet the last time while I took a walk around ISA boutique that sold branded goods, and a wide range of items from clothings to shoes to bags and accessories, and were at huge discounts. Didn’t get anything though.
Esprit outlet a favourite now.Inside CHKC.
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was already 1145am. Last minute diaper changes as baby K chose to poo poo and thereafter we left the room to check out. The line to check out was incredibly slow at that time as the counters dealt with both incoming and outgoing guests. We only checked out by 1230pm.
Walked to the taxi stand just on the next tower entrance, a couple shamelessly overtook us while the door staff was checking with us on our destination for the taxi and took the only taxi waiting there! Had to wait for another one which arrived rather quickly and the taxi driver was exceptional in his service, helping us to load up the luggage and then the stroller at the front seat.
300hkd and 20mins later, we arrived at the airport. The taxi driver continued with the good service, advised us on the counter for the check in and also asked me to pick up a luggage trolley so that he could load it up.
Checked in at the counter with a short queue but didn’t see the priority queue we enjoyed the previous time we were there. As baby K began to fall asleep we chose to not check in at the counter for the stroller. Little that we know that baby K didn’t sleep long enough to fully utilise the stroller.
As usual, we had some food at Tsui Wah before going through departures. There was also no priority queue so we had to go through the normal queues. Luckily there were new counters opening and we proceeded quickly to these to clear.
The gate was at a separate building so we had to take the train transfer. By the time we had arrived it was almost 15 mins before boarding. Luckily a queue was still going about where we quickly went to toilet and also got the diapers changed out at male toilet.
While on the plane, we were at the bassinet seat but weren’t given a bassinet. On the flight to Hong Kong we had to asked for one too. Don’t know if this was related to just Cathay Pacific flights or not. Otherwise it was the usual entertaining baby, letting him sleep and eating and alternating the care with mommy.
This trip to Hong Kong and Macau was primarily to visit the historical places we missed during our last trip there. We wanted to visit the big buddha and the Victoria peak during this trip but couldn’t due to the bad weather. However, we made the visit back to Ocean Park, something we did when we were a lot younger and that felt good, because now as parents, we were bringing my baby boy instead. There were bad moments such as the lost of my tickets that cost 80SGD and the weather but overall it was nice experience.
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 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.
Map at MTR showing bus stop.Cheaper tickets at the MTR.
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.
Bus tickets booth.Return bus tickets.
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.
What a long queue.
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.
Ocean Park entrance.Ocean park entry tickets.Crowded at 11am.Acrobatics show.
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.
Flowers in bloom as Spring approaches.Crocodiles.Sleeping pandas.Red panda strolling about.Otter swimming.Gold fish tank.
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.
Inside Panda cafe.Char Siew and duck rice set.Minced meat rice set.Panda cafe
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.
Whiskers theatre for a show.Show at the Whiskers Theatre.
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.
Old Hong Kong Street.
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.
Cable car climb.
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.
View from the cable car.
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.
Walrus doing a backstroke.Seal.Penguin on its belly.Snow fox.
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, Hair Raiser.Shark exhibit.Inside the shark exhibit.Shark!!
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.At the breeding and research center.Dolphins jumping out of the water.
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.
View of the Ocean Park with the rides.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.
Ocean express train.At the train terminal.Inside the Ocean Express train.Ocean Express 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.
Water fountain in the evening.
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.
Water column of schools of fishes.Fishes circling.
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.
Inside the souvenir shop.Park entrance in the evening.
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 CityCafe 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.
Woke up earlier for almost the same routine. However we were able to get ready earlier since we didn’t have to pack to leave. Ate the Portuguese egg tarts for breakfast while preparing.
The tickling sound of water can be heard and the obvious disappointment followed as after peeking behind the curtains were raindrops on the windows and opened umbrellas can be seen on the streets below. Bad weather.
Nonetheless we were aiming to visit Ocean Park today and we left the room at about 930am hoping that it t was not that bad a weather. All hopes were dashed soon we reached the entrance.
Wet weather program was to continue our shopping at the same mall (CHKC) we went yesterday. However, not all the shops were opened. Walked around G2000 outlet and also to the Mickey Mouse House outlet and purchase some items. Went back to the same nursing room to feed baby K and change his diapers and suddenly there was a blackout. We weren’t worried as I turned on the light on my hp but a staff was there to “rescue” us with his torchlight and helped shone the way for us to get to the mall, which was not affected. Most of the escalators stopped working though.
That was quite an issue as we brought a stroller along and were told to take a detour for the lift. Had to ask the staff to locate the lifts. Made our way to the Geox outlet but wasn’t ready to pay so we left.
While we took a left upon exiting following the arrow to the MTR. Not knowingly, we chose to proceed to the Jordan MTR which was some 15mins walk away instead of choosing the Austin station which was closer, to take a train to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR. Baby K meanwhile snoozed while mommy carried him.
Busy Nathan road.
The subway at the Jordan station was not stroller friendly and I had to bring it down the steps. Within the station though, we found lifts that brought us to the train platform and we quickly boarded the train which had just arrived.
One stop and we took our exit. With no real target, we hit the iSquare mall to walk around a bit. Bought a pair of shoes for baby K and myself, scoring the sale items. Went to Baby R Us and bought a toy for baby K and brought back a balloon too (babies have a thing for balloon). There wasn’t much more and as baby K started to become cranky due to hunger, we quickly left (since the restaurants there felt expensive) and went back to Tsui Wah back at one of the TST MTR entrance.
Our stroller had to be left at the doorway for being to big but we were given a table close to it. Ordered some pork with instant noodles and wife got some tasty fish bee hoon. Baby K was hard to manage as he wasn’t really interested in the lunch we cooked him, probably bored from eating the same thing for so long. Fed him some bread that we bought from a bakery.
Pork noodles.Fish bee hoon.
Then we started to walk southwards along Nathan road and went into SOGO hoping to find a supermarket but it was tiny. We then headed west towards Harbour city. We walked through it, looking at the various on sale options and at the end, returned back to our hotel room for a break, while feeding baby K and giving him a bath and collected the items from the hotel concierge left by my mom that she helped bring for us.
Lion dance deco at Sogo.1881 Heritage.
My mom then came along with our aunt from Hong Kong to come see baby K and there we spent some time in the room. Mommy cooked dinner and then tried to get baby K to sleep after my mom and aunt left, but we couldn’t dissipate his energy enough. In the end, we packed and went shopping back at Harbour City and baby K fell asleep as soon as we were back in the open.
Entrance to Harbour City.
Went to the various stores of our favorite brands and many were on sale. I didn’t think I could afford them but my wife manage to get something. Went to Uniqlo but it seemed more expensive than Singapore. After a while, my mom called and informed of the reservation made by our Hong Kong cousin at Crystal Jade restaurant. Met up and we went for dinner, baby K finding hard to get comfortable with his unfamiliar overseas aunt.
Teapot deco inside harbour city.
Dinner was alright as we fed baby K oatmeal with milk while we dined having a couple of dishes ordered for the 5 of us, inclusive of the popular dumplings. Baby K was always a handful at the dinner table, my mom having to deal with his forte of troublemaking while we had our dinner.
After the dinner, we left for our shopping while they made their way back. Continued to the C!tysuper supermarket which was pretty huge and offered some fresh fish where we could buy for baby K meal preparations. After that, we also purchased some desert of matcha icecream and a puff containing matcha cream and red bean, from Sweets House Cha Cha, pretty tasty but expensive.
Inside Citysuper supermarket.Matcha cone.Matcha bun.Sweets House Cha Cha.
Continued to Zara and then going back to the room thereafter, ending a full day of shopping.
Back in the room, we were just exhausted. But the work didn’t start to end till baby K fell asleep at 1130pm and finishing and cleaning at 12. Tiring again, but expected as part and parcel of traveling with a toddler.
Learning from the previous day, we woke up at 8am to start the day early. Baby K woke up twice again, once at 230am and another at 630am but my biological clock was already in tune to his feeding time.
The light sound of thunder could be heard and the showers came. Though we were going to leave Macau, it was going to be difficult if the showers continued.
Preparing the food for cooking while wife started packing and baby K still snoozing made us highly productive. We even had time for breakfast which we packed from the day earlier. Only when baby K woke up was when we had to keep an eye on him so that he didn’t hurt himself.
Breakfast bread from the Macau Tower bakery.
After we were all packed, changed and ready, it was past 1030 and we proceeded to first check out the room and then deposit our luggage before visiting the Macau 3D World within the hotel, that was like the Alive museum. It was another 48Hkd for one as we already had a free ticket from the hotel stay.
3D World tickets.Entrance of the 3D World.
There were quite some numbers of wall paintings but some were really not that good. The first exhibit had Michael Jackson and some of his album related displays. Then it was dinosaurs and other random but local related activities. We didn’t spend much time there as baby K soon napped as mommy carried him. There was another floor with very limited display of a moving Trex and a dinosaur video superimposed with our image. We left only after 30mins.
Dino section.
Baby K continued to snooze while we explore the 6th floor of the hotel that had some restaurants and fitness center and pool but the food wasn’t affordable and so we ended up waiting at the reception level at one of the chairs of the restaurant. However, we were asked to move as we weren’t customers of the restaurants and so we went back to the 6th floor as there were cushion seats there as well but not other guests that had packed the reception level seating area.
Baby K woke up after 1hr of nap and we proceeded to wait for the free shuttle bus to the terminal just outside the reception, under shelter thankfully, away from the harsh chill and rain outside. Bus frequency was said to be 15mins but it took about 30. We were the 2nd in queue and loaded up the bus quickly. The luggage and stroller was all placed at the front row seats. There were people who couldn’t get up and had to wait which wasn’t long as the 2nd bus came, picked up what’s left and was long gone while the luggage was still being loaded up on our bus.
Queue for shuttle bus to the ferry terminal. Shuttle bus is the same size as that in the photo.
The bus ride to the ferry terminal was rather quick, about 20mins and soon we were at the ferry terminal’s bus stop. However, the alighting point was not sheltered to the bus and so we had to quickly unload the luggage and move it to the shelter. I made the second trip to get the stroller while mommy carried baby K.
Luckily for lifts on both sides of the bus stop and the terminal, we got to the 3rd floor of the ferry terminal for some lunch at 南北麵點小廚 after checking out the next timing for the ferry to Kowloon. Ate at dim sum restaurant 187Hkd which had good noodles but the rest was so so. After that we bought some Portuguese egg tarts from the local products store on the 3rd floor and proceeded to 2nd floor for tickets.
Minced meat and sauce noodles.Wanton noodles.Carrot cake.Buns.Noodle store at the ferry terminal.
Purchased the 335pm ferry for 444Hkd (baby K had to pay if over 1 year old) which gave us an hour to be ready. However we still had to wait to check in our luggage and was told to come back at 3pm. For 3 pieces including the stroller, it cost us 75Hkd.
Ticketing counters.Ferry tickets.Baggage check in area.
After going through the immigrations quickly, we waited a short while at the small waiting area at the gate before boarding the ferry. The weather was not as cold as before. Seated in the middle row, the ferry raced though the seas whereas it was pretty bumpy at times. That made us a little nauseous.
View of the rainy weather from waiting area.
Baby K became cranky and when he couldn’t fall asleep, I made a bottle of milk with the lukewarm water because of the leaky vacuum flask and he immediately devoured and went to sleep.
An hour’s ride and we arrived at the ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. Took the elevator to the arrivals hall where we had to give in to some China tourists who did not give way to us even when we had a sleeping baby in the stroller, pretty annoying. At the immigrations, the queue cleared in 10mins though we had to shift the stroller for the officer to see baby K.
Picked up the luggage that was left on the belt, the last 2 in fact. Left the arrivals and immediately some steps away was the elevator to our hotel – the Royal Pacific hotel. This was so accessible, especially for parents tugging 2 large luggage and a stroller containing my sleeping boy. We made 2 trips up the escalator as I couldn’t find a lift and the checked in was rather quick, given a 19th floor room which had a “ok” view.
Room.Bathroom.Comes with a tub.View from our room.
Baby K continued to snooze while his parents did a little washing and a whole lot of resting. When he did wake up, he was again on his feet climbing here and there and after changing out his diapers after he pooed, we went downstairs to shop.
As the hotel was smacked in the China Hong Kong city (CHKC), it was just too convenient to have Marketplace by Jasons and shopping at our doorstep. The Marketplace was not really huge though and we didn’t really find fresh fish to cook. There were packets of milk available.
Inside CHKC.
Later we visited the Esprit outlet and while mommy shopped, baby K practiced walking around with me, having fun. As we left, we noticed that there were a few outlet stores here and thought we would returned to check out the other outlets (since there were closed already).
Baby K pooed again and we visited the baby room which was pretty clean but didn’t have a lot of facilities.
Nursing room in CHKC.
At 8 pm we left for dinner but there weren’t many options left as many were closed. We got to an area called podium of restaurants and went into one Kung Fu Dim Sum. Ordered pork ribs rice and beef brisket noodles and a plate of Chee Chiong Fun with Char Siew. The food wasn’t really good. Baby K was cranky as well as the food he ate was a little cold.
Kung Fu Dim Sum restaurant. Manual as a menu.Steam chicken rice.Beef brisket noodles.Inside Kung Fu Dim Sum.
Went back to room to bath baby K and prepare for the night. The long journey today was tired enough for us to go to bed early.
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).
Directions for ferry transfer to Macau.Ticketing counter for the ferry tickets.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.Towards SkyPier.View from waiting area of our ferry.Skypier waiting area before boarding.
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.
Nice design at the recept.Lift lobby.
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.
Large room.See through bathroom.Toilet with tub and TV.Loccitaine bath accessories.Rain shower.
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.Inside the noodle shop.Special dish featured.
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.
Total duration 6D5N Singapore is in the same time zone as Hong Kong. Flight time is 4hrs on Cathay Pacific from Singapore to Hong Kong.
Morning flight on 26th January at 10am and arrival in Hong Kong at 2pm. Return flight is on the 31st January at 3:15pm and arrival in Singapore at 7pm.
This escape plan was to get away from Singapore to celebrate our anniversary but at the same time, we chose a manageable place suited for a toddler. I haven’t visited the ever famous Ruins of St. Paul Cathedral in my last visit last year (for that matter, even way before) due to bad weather and would do it this time since we catered at least 2 days in Macau. It was during this time that a freak cold snap came down from China and froze the cities of Macau and Hong Kong. Weather man gave a rainy/cloudy report for the entire week we were there, which was just hell of a disappointment.
Budget nature: Slightly expensive due to costly hotels in both countries.
We had chosen to stay in more comfortable places and accessible and therefore it was slightly more expensive. Prices were increased as the dates were near the Lunar New Year. Plus my blunder with losing a ticket to Ocean Park, enough said.
Complexity: Easy to get around with the MTR and walkabout and buses in Macau.
The places we covered were very accessible as every tourist would probably go. Plus the fact that the hotels we chose was in an accessible place, it was easier comparatively. However, we tugged along a stroller that wasn’t really compact. That was a bit of a struggle.
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.
Inside Hong Kong international airport.
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.
Priority queue at the check in counter.
Hainan chicken rice.
Fishball bee hoon soup.
Portuguese coffee.
Red bean dessert.
Tsui Wah branch in the airport.
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.
Waiting for boarding at the airport surrounded by mountains.
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.
Started the day waking up at 8am. Since there weren’t food to prepare, we managed to get ready by 1030am and left the room. First stop was to get breakfast en route to Mira hotel, where my sister stayed. We had to borrow their steamer to cook baby K’s meal.
Found Tsui Wah restaurant at the exit of Tsim Sha Tsui MTR and headed there, about a 10mins walk away. It was still not so crowded and we headed to the 2nd floor as directed. Ordered Set C comprising of vermicelli, butter bun and a hot drink and addition butter with condensed milk bun and milk tea.
Tsui Wah at Tsim Sha Tsui.
Preserved vegetables vermicelli and the condensed milk bun.
Full during lunch time on the 2nd floor.
After our meal, went to K11 that had free wifi and called my mom using Whatsapp, which meant the call was free. Found that we had to bring our own rice to cook for baby K as there weren’t enough so we walked back to the hotel for get it. By the time we arrived at Mira hotel, it was noon already.
Kept baby K busy while wife prepared the porridge. By the time we left, it was almost 130pm and we had a reservation at Tin Lung Heen at the same time too. They would hold the tables for 15mins.
Rushed to take the MTR to Central and as we found ourselves at an unfamiliar place, I called the restaurant and they told us that we were at the wrong place – they were located at ICC at Kowloon while we were at IFC at Hong Kong! However they were able to hold the table for us which was great news.
Took the train for another stop to Kowloon station and walked towards Ritz Carlton. Took the elevator to the 103rd floor and at the left hand side was the elevator down to the restaurant.
We requested for a window seat on arrival at 2plus and were given. The weather wasn’t fantastic with what looked like haze but still, we could see something. Ordered 5 dishes and it was really delicious! Baby K, while not enjoying the food was getting cranky so I had to carry him around to distract him. The delicious food came with a very expensive price, the priciest dim sum I have ever eaten, about 260 SGD for 7 dishes. Don’t think I will have this 2 star Michelin restaurant again.
Inside the restaurant.
Carrot cake with XO sauce.
Siew Mai, with an abalone on top.
Soup in coconut, smooth and nice.
Honey char siew.
Glutinous rice.
Free custard moon cake and osmanthus jelly.
Crispy egg tart.
Mango sago.
My failed attempt at taking a selfie with baby K admiring the view.
After Dim Sum, we went to the mall below called Elements to shop around. Wife made use of the beautiful nursing room while I waited outside with the sleeping baby K. That room set the highest standards of comfort for parents, come with milk warmer, thick change mat liners for free, lotions and even a seat for babies, impressive! We bought something for baby K from Zara and left when he became cranky.
Room for nursing, nice comfy couch and changing station.
There were lotion and milk warmer available for use in the nursing room.
As time flew past, we decided to drop by Harbour City ( which was minutes walking distance from our hotel) Toys R Us to get some toys. When we arrived, we couldn’t find it on the directory so instead we did some window shopping. There wasn’t a sale going on and things were really expensive so we went back to the hotel to drop some stuff that weren’t required before going to the mall known as The One to meet up with relatives for dinner.
Harbour City.
While at The One, there were specific lifts for specific floors and queues for the lifts managed by a controller. Interesting concept to regulate flow of passengers.
East Ocean restaurant took the whole shopping space at the floor alone. We were the last to arrive at 730pm, having still feel full from the dim sum that only ended at 4pm. Food was served shortly after, mainly Cantonese cuisine. Didn’t really take much since I wasn’t hungry but I guess it was alright. The last dish was huge longevity buns that we took away back to our hotel. Unlike the one in Singapore, even though it was exactly the same signboard, the cuisine served was different.
We walked back to our hotel via the huge underpass that connected our hotel to the shopping strip of Tsim Sha Tsui ( which was what we did for the whole afternoon) and took a detour to the jetty area as we saw quite a crowd coming from there, thinking that there might be some celebrations on this Mid-Autumn night. We were right as there were some exhibits of lantern near the jetty and quite a bit of street performance by young people to earn some pocket money. There was quite a crowd walking around, enjoying the outdoors of this popular Chinese tradition. After we purchased some more lanterns for baby K and our nephew, we went back to the hotel and I knocked out rather quickly, due to exhaustion. Carrying bags and baby and walking around was really tiring.
Night view of the harbour, on Mid-Autumn’s night.
Lantern exhibit near the jetty.
The full month shone brightly in the cloudy skies.
Our day started really late, after all we only slept at 1 am. After waking up at 9am and carrying out the tasks of bathing the baby in the tub and cleaning up the bottles, we finally left the hotel at 11am.
Left the luggage at the luggage deposit and took the free bus to the terminal. Going back to the terminal and at the immediate right of the terminal was a bus and taxi queue. Initially wanted to take the bus (bus 3A, 3.20 MOP per trip) to the famous ruins of St. Pauls but in the end took the taxi instead for about 50MOP ( in bad traffic) to Almeida Riveria Road. The streets were particular busy with hordes of people, probably because it was a Chinese long weekend due to mid Autumn festival.
Buses that going to the various attractions.
Black taxis of Macau.
As we walked towards the direction of the church, it started to drizzle so we diverted to a cafe THS Honolulu for lunch. The meal we ordered was a tasty pork chop rice and so-so Portuguese fried rice. The soup of the day of carrot and radish pork soup was good though. The set came up to about 58MOP per meal.
Carrot soup.
Portuguese fried rice.
Pork chop rice.
THS Honolulu.
After our meal and a very cranky baby (as he didn’t have his porridge and we had to give him rice and soup and Heinz pumpkin purée), it was still drizzling and so we had to give up and go back, through the same route on a taxi. It cost about 80MOP to get back to the hotel where we got our luggage and boarded the free bus to the Cotai jet terminal (Taipa).
Macau tower from taxi. Drizzle on the outside.
Interesting shapes of the casinos. Grand Lisboa was the huge golden odd shape building.
Upon arrival, we found that the route Tsim Sha Tsui was sold out till 5pm. As we were rushing for time to meet up with my sister who were on their way to Macau and require my mom to babysit him tonight, we took the route to Shueng Wan instead.
Cotai jet ticketing counter at the Taipa ferry terminal.
Jet tickets.
Waiting area before boarding.
Checked in the luggage at the same price (although the staff tried to overcharge us so we made him weigh all the luggage) of 75MOP, and waited at the waiting room right after going through immigrations quickly. Fed baby K some milk where he then fell asleep as we walked a 5mins walk to the jet cruise. Another 1hr and we should arrive in Hong Kong hopefully in better weather.
As the jet rocked slightly with the waves, the weather didn’t seem to improve. There was even lightning that we saw. We fell asleep easily as the baby was also asleep in my wife’s arms.
1hr later, we arrived in Hong Kong and had to go through immigrations again. It took a while longer as the officer was more strict and had used quite a bit of time to go through the document. Our luggage was ready just behind the immigration counter, not at the luggage reclaim area.
Upon exit, which was the same entrance as we first took to board the cruise jet, we met up with my sister’s family and our Hong Kong relative. The relative had been of the greatest help, if not for them, we would not have been able to meet up in time. After my sister left for Macau, we loaded up the luggage into the relative car and they drove us to Tsim Sha Tsui YMCA hotel.
Check in was done quickly while the porters helped with the luggage (even helped to bandaged one of the broken handles on my Samsonite which had an exposed metal piece). The room was a lot smaller than the one we had in Sheung Wan but it was adequately equipped. No tub though.
Bedroom.
Small toilet.
Reception area of the hotel.
My mom left with my nephew and relative as they went back to my sister hotel while my wife had to expressed milk. Baby K became incredibly cranky so I brought him down for a stroll, which was when he amused himself with the various lights of the Hong Kong street. It was mentally exhausting sometimes.
Went back when he was a little calmer, fed him porridge before we went to Causeway Bay for makan. Exited near Sogo but couldn’t find anything to eat so we went to Itacho. There was a queue waiting and so I went around the building and found a local noodles store. We decided to move since the queue wasn’t moving.
It was a great choice as the Prince noodles was yummy. My beef noodles had soft meat mixed with Q noodles and tasty soup base. My wife’s pork noodles was equally nice, the similar Q noodles. The iceless iced tea was a little disappointing as it wasn’t cold enough and the red bean drink was a tad bit too sweet. For 115 HKD, it wasn’t cheap but it was tasty.
Beef noodles with the iceless ice tea and red bean dessert drink.
Pork Noodles.
Prince noodles store.
We took the MTR one more stop to Tin Hou and walked towards Victoria Park. There was a Mid Autumn festival exhibition of lanterns going on and there was a crowd there. Baby K who fell asleep while at the noodles store woke up to find lights and lanterns all around, naturally amusing him. It was actually quite a big area but there were so many people and the weather was extremely humid.
We bought a toy with spinning lights (not a exactly a lantern) for baby K and took some photos before we felt droplets of rain on our arms. We decided not to test our luck, especially when we don’t even have an umbrella on hand and left for the MTR. It even started to drizzle a bit before we reached the MTR entrance. Bad luck with the weather.
Event map in Victoria Park.
Stalls selling stuff.
Lantern exhibits.
Dragon lantern.
The train ride back was smooth. I was offered seats by the passengers twice because I had baby K on my hip seat, good folks of Hong Kong!
Back in the hotel and it was all about entertaining the baby till bedtime including the cleaning up. The trip was ending soon and tiredness was creeping in.
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.
Ham and macaroni with HK milk tea.
Scrambled egg and bread.
Inside Yuen Kee Restaurant.
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.
Prada opening hours.
Inside the outlet store.
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.
Curry chicken 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.
Turbojet ticket counter.
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.
Luggage check in counter.
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.
Spacious inside of the jet cruise.
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.
Buses of the major casinos.
Exterior of the Outer Harbour ferry terminal.
Our bus to the hotel.
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.
Grandest Holiday Inn, ever.
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.
Double queens in a spacious room.
Comes with a tub.
Separate shower.
All set for the Bon Jovi Asia tour 2015!
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.
Familiar Koufu for dinner.
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.
The tee from 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.
Starry starry concert night!
On the big screen for fans not that close to the stage.
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.
