Shopping With The Locals

Well so much for avoiding camera dementia this trip...I left the camera behind at the hotel! We spend the morning shopping away from the main tourist drags. It was a pleasant change to browse through the little shops and the moderate "shopping centres". I loved the Hong Kong equivalent of our $2 shops and couldn't resist purchasing a selection of knick knacks. The best shop though, was what appeared to be an outlet for Disney merchandise made especially for the Chinese market! The dilemma was how much to buy now and how much to buy at the park tomorrow. I settled for 2 tracksuit pants and a hoodie for the children. I could always come back if the park doesn't satisfy tomorrow (famous last words).

The morning went by quickly and we headed back to hotel after lunch. The children had a short rest whilst we waited for Malcolm to finish the last day of his conference. He surprised us by finishing a little earlier than expected. We caught the number 15 bus to the famous "peak". The bus ride up was hairy at times with double decker buses trying to get past each other at hairpin turns. The views on a clear day would have been spectacular.

Waiting at the bus stop outside our hotel for our bus

To the Peak!

Upon reaching the top, we made our way straight to the viewing terrace only to be surprised by a fee if we wanted to get to the very top! We decided to stop for dinner instead at one of the restaurants at the top. And guess where we ate...

At The Peak on a grey and rainy day

I wonder where we are...

The views from our table

Yep, we had dinner at Bubba Gump's. Isn't that where everyone eats while in Hong Kong??!?! The meal was tasty as always. The service was quick but it wasn't quite the same without an American server! We had a quick look around the shops after dinner and discovered the Hong Kong Disneyland Ticket Booth. The lady serving us was very kind, and advised us that if we purchased our tickets at Disneyland itself using a visa card that we would get 10% off! So we bought only the children's tickets to get the free 5th anniversary Disney umbrella and left the four adults tickets for the next day.

We then had a quick look around outside before heading back down to the city via the tram. Everyone was made to go to sleep early in preparation for a Disney Day tomorrow!

Hong Kong by night

My beloved Mr Brosnan

On Being Chinese

I am happy to report that the offerings for breakfast was different from yesterday! Different enough to keep me happy anyway. I was going to make the most of the opportunity to have rice porridge and spring rolls for breakfast. My mother was happy with the big bowl of dragon fruit that was supplied. The children simply loved being able to choose their own food.

The familial duties continued today after breakfast. My father had "business" to attend to, and we were all asked to follow. As a child, I remembered hating it as it meant meeting up with his business partners. It usually equated to a boring time of being shown off to someone. It was only recently that I started paying more attention to what he actually did for a living and the stories told about him and his friends. For the first 16 years of my life, I only knew that my father did "business" for a living, and that he was away a lot because of it! It took having my own children to want to know more, and appreciate just how far he had come from having nothing to being successful.

The children did well as it was a long morning, which started with a trip to the bank. This was followed by a trip to meet up again with his long time friend, with whom we had dinner with on our first evening in Hong Kong. We waited outside his office whilst they finished their discussion inside. We then headed for lunch together (which was absolutely delicious!). My father wanted to show off the grandchildren and his friend wanted to introduce his to us. I feel that this is a small price to pay for having great guides to take us around Hong Kong! I was more than happy to oblige my father. His friend had his son come as well. We had played once as a child (aged at about 2) and they wanted us to meet again...Neither of us, of course, remembered a thing. He came willingly and happily despite only just recently having had his second baby. We tried for a while to take a photo of the "grandchildren". One was shy and the other couldn't stop running around. I'll give you one guess as to which one was mine...

My father and his friend played the usual game of fighting to pay for the bill, and then had another "argument" about how my father's friend shouldn't drive us to our next destination. It was unfortunately raining and so my father relented. We were dropped off at the Star Ferry Terminal and said our goodbyes. My father made his friend promise to take his family to Australia so that he could repay the favour. He promised. As an interesting side point, they have a rather unusual family business. They supply military uniforms, mostly to the Middle Eastern and African countries! I guess doing "textiles" doesn't necessarily have to be boring after all. It was fascinating listening to their stories of how business was done with the Arabs.

Julian, and Jonah with Elliot and Lara at the back

The children were very excited to go on the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui despite the grey and rainy weather. We explored Ocean Terminal with all the fancy boutiques for children's clothing. Armani Junior, D&G Junior, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Dior, just to name a few. It was fun looking, but I just couldn't bear to part with that much money...

The Star Ferry

Central Pier

A very grey and wet Hong Kong

Jonah loved the ride!

The clock tower on the other side

Taking a photo for the travel journal

We had a typically chinese afternoon tea of nai cha and noodles. My father decided to call it quits and return to the hotel. We managed to convince him to take the older two with him. My attempts for him to take Jonah instead did not even come vaguely close to being successful. Oh well, one could only try! The plan was to shop, but the weather was dismal. It made it quite difficult in fact. I had already given up on the photography earlier in the day and sent the heavy camera gear back with Dad. With the stroller, a backpack, and the camera gear, I felt like a pack mule and my shoulders were becoming sore.

My mother and I found ourselves some northern Chinese cuisine for dinner and tried to shop along Jardine Crescent. It didn't take us long to give up on that too. We returned to the hotel and took a shower instead. As I type, I have just now finished the last of our supply of beef jerkey. I hope that Malcolm does not develop the midnight munchies to find his beloved stash gone...I better go to sleep now!

Family First

I was determined not to let camera dementia get in my way this holiday. However, there were a few challenges today that confronted me when trying to take a photographic journal of my day. The first was the obvious. Whipping out that DSLR with a big multipurpose lens with children in the crowd wasn't easy! The second which I didn't count on was the condensation that formed on my lens from going in and out of air-conditioned places. Bugger. It didn't stop me from trying and from enjoying my day.

We started with the hotel buffet breakfast. If you've been following this blog then you'll know how I LOVE hotel buffet breakfasts. The venue for breakfast was much like the rest of the hotel, small and basic. As nice as it was having the offerings of the Asian breakfast items like rice porridge and squid balls, the quality of food was only just passable. The children were highly amused by the automatic pancake maker and the bread that tasted like Anzac biscuits. They were also highly excited with being allowed to have coco-pops as part of breakfast. I hope that they will have variations on the offerings. I do not think that I could eat the same things for seven days straight..

The buffet breakfast

At the arrival of my mother's best friend from primary school, we set out for suburban Kowloon to pay a visit to my maternal grandmother's youngest brother. (What is that in English? Grand uncle? great uncle?) They were so happy to see the children. I last saw them just over twenty years ago. We had yum cha together and they reminisced about my various aunts and uncles. The time flew and we said our goodbyes as they headed home. It is always nice for the children to meet relatives who they would otherwise never meet and to learn more about their heritage. I am still not quite brave enough to take everyone on the journey back to China so this a happy compromise.

Opa Jing Kun and Oma Ye Ming

Always handy to have someone who can read chinese when ordering food!

An asleep Jonah makes for a peaceful lunch

My mother's best friend

The trusty char siew bao and har gow

Chicken feet, one of my favourites

Fish head

Siew Mai

We made our way to Tung Chung where Citigate Outlets reside. That's right. Shopping time! The complex was amazingly modern. Much nicer than the ones at home! However, the prices were not as cheap as I had hoped for. I have to say that prices in the US are probably better especially around sale time. We had a fun time browsing but didn't end up buying anything.

The lovely view from McDonald's, where we had our half-time break

$20 HKD is about AUD $2.5

By this time, it was 430pm. We headed back toward Times Square via the MTR. We have been on the tram, the bus and now the MTR. The octopus card was all you needed with regard to ticketing. The services were frequent and clean. I just keep wondering why Sydney's public transport system is so dismal and why we can't have a simplified and efficient ticketing system.

We met up with Malcolm and wandered the streets looking for dinner. We settled for noodles on the street. Quick, cheap and tasty. This was followed by some yummy dessert before we hopped on a tram to head back to the hotel. The children are showered, in bed and Malcolm and I are chomping on some much loved beef jerky chinese style with the TV on. Ah...life is bliss.

Having fun on the MTR

Noodles for dinner

Buying beef jerky

Then crossing the road to get some dessert

The lighting made it looks rather strange...but this is green tea ice-cream with mango, pomelo and sago. Delicious!

The children scoffing as per usual

The children's favourite mode of transport, the tram. AKA "Ting Ting"! I have tried to take a photo of one unsuccesfully multiple times. The one success would have to be of a black one at night!

So happy to have been provided with a bolster as requested on my pillow choice

Hurray for Hong Kong

The children reading their kindles before boarding

We survived the flight...phew! Jonah thankfully slept for enough of the flight. I had expected a lot less and so was pleasantly surprised! The Qantas staff also surprised me by being extremely friendly and helpful. It was definitely an added bonus. We breezed through immigration, baggage pick up and customs. We arrived at the Cosmo Hotel in Wan Chai a little after 7am. Our rooms were understandably not ready!

Malcolm freshened up and we caught the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel to the Convention centre. The children waved goodbye to Daddy and we wandered off towards Admiralty in search of some food. We stopped in the first place that was open. It happened to be Delifrance! By this stage, Jonah had fallen asleep so it was rather peaceful drinking iced coffee, eating cinnamon scrolls and studying maps of Hong Kong, shuttle bus timetables and the information pamphlet of the MTR. The shops took forever to open. We had given up on admiralty and made our way to Times Square instead. We had to make another food stop at Starbucks. You would think that the children had not been fed for a year...

By this stage it was nearly 11am and some of the shops were starting to open. Hurray! My eyes popped at the numerous camera stores with all those awesome products. It was handy dragging three children along as they were rather inhibitory for purchasing purposes. I had just excitedly spotted the Zara store when the whining began. I walked in stubbornly but the whining became unbearable. We waited unsuccessfully for the hotel shuttle bus. I decided to walk back to save time much to the horror of the children.

Inside the huge Convention Centre

A humungous thing inside the cavernous hall. Still not sure what it is...

A cloudy and rainy Hong Kong. Jonah was fascinated by the building "in the cloud"

Delifrance!

Cinnamon scrolls and iced coffee

Thankfully our rooms were ready. They turned out to be another pleasant surprise. The Cosmo Hotel is a budget arm of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The rooms were small but were clean, modern and comfortable. We also got free breakfast and free internet for the ridiculously low price we paid for our interconnecting rooms. The fresh daily plate of fruit and selection of pillow didn't go astray either! We lightened our load, and ducked into the upmarket arm of the hotel next door for a quick lunch of friend rice and noodles.

I was delighted to discover that the cavalry had arrived from China and were checked into the room down the hall! They took Lara and Elliot out for a second lunch whilst Jonah and I had some much needed sleep. By the time we woke up, Malcolm had finished for the day and we wondered back to Times Square for some shopping before meeting up with my father's long time friend for some very delicious dinner.

A great way to end our first day in Hong Kong!

Lara glad to be in our room

Small but comfortable

Fresh fruit

Lane Crawford take two!

Hurray for Oma and Opa! Shopping at Times Square for the second time today

One of my favourite stores! A few things were purchased...

The traditional tiny cups of tea to start and end the meal

Friday the 13th

Waiting to check in

Here I am sitting at trusty McDonald's at Sydney airport, a spot that has quickly become a favourite. There is a sense of Dejavu as it didn't seem so long ago that we were sitting at the same place waiting for our plane to go on our American adventure.

The past 10 days have been a challenge. We farewelled Lanella with great sadness in early May. With no parents or parents-in-law, I had to dig deep...and I just survived. Jonah, of course, chose the day that Lanella left to insist upon wearing undies. He proceeded to poop in his pants and walk all over the house with poo on his socks. Not happy Jan! The children miraculously still got to school on time. We had a brief respite courtesy of our kind friend Luan. She helped us out over the past 4 days with drop-offs and pick ups.

We've had multiple illnesses despite the flu and swine flu jabs (darn it!), near accidents with Jonah running out onto the road and of course the last minute scramble to tidy the house, finish the laundry and pack.

So I look forward to being in Hong Kong where we will be re-united with my parents. Hurray!!! I only have to survive this plane trip with the little terror that is Jonah. I was almost positive that we got shuffled into the security line with no one in it so that they could get rid of us as quickly as possible.

Elliot dutifully writing in his travel journal, an exercise to replace the week of school that he will be missing.

Meanwhile, the other two were too busy scoffing down their drinks...

So here is to parents, good food, great shopping and Hong Kong Disneyland!!!