MY BABY FOOTSTEPS

And the last day of our holiday arrived. After everyone had washed up, the daddy got to work by packing everything into our bags – he’s the one who usually packs the bag cos he thinks I don’t use the luggage space efficiently. GLADLY!

So as he went about playing “Bag It” with our luggages, I sat the girl on my lap and started braiding her hair.

Nice? Took a while to do this cos the girl has SO LITTLE HAIR that braiding without the hair falling apart needed quite some skill and patience.

And with more time to spare (cos the daddy was taking longer than expected), the mommy decided to do a Mommy-Daughter look by braiding her hair too!

We checked out early, left our luggages at the concierge, and headed off to grab brunch at a dim sum restaurant that we had gone to the last time we came to Hong Kong. But the girl refused to leave the luggages behind!!! She was very disturbed that we were moving off without bringing our belongings along!

So the daddy had to give a last minute explanation of the use of concierge and that we were going to come back to get them later. Great… now if she could only be as alert in the future, then maybe we won’t lose our bags… or even lose her!

Walked from our hotel (BP International) all the way to Majesty Chinese Restaurant (金御海鮮酒家), located just beside Prudential Hotel, Jordan MTR.

And the reason why we came here? Apart from remembering the food was quite yummy the last time we were here (many many years ago), we remembered they having a HUGE tank of fishes as all typical Seafood Restaurants do.

Naturally, the girl found her way there automatically… and we found a table just beside the fish tank… and had a great meal pretty fuss-free. In fact, we’ve come to realise that dim sum was a great meal option for the girl cos she gets to pick and choose from various dishes. Great for the fussy eater who eats based on her moods.

So once we were done, we walked back to BP International, collected our luggages and waited for the free Airport Express Shuttle which brought us back to Kowloon MTR…

… where we found that we could do In-Town Check-In! SERIOUSLY! You just check-in your luggages at Kowloon, get your boarding passes, and board the Airport Express train direct to the airport while they handle the luggages for you. Hassle-free! Superb!

But because it was quite a crowded train, the girl didn’t manage to get a seat for herself… and she ended up sitting with her daddy…

In various positions except on his lap.

And as a reward for good behaviour (generally throughout the trip), we brought her back to the Disney Store at Terminal 2 to get a nice souvenir (mainly also cos we  had some HKD leftover). She picked a Minnie watch, went up to the cashier and paid for it herself! (Of course we gave her the money to pay lah.)

Then we went to the information counter and asked if they had a playground nearby for us to tire the girl out while waiting for boarding… and this was what we found.

A small little play area… Empty!

With small little stations to play with…

… except my girl thought it more fun to play hop-scotch, jumping on the numbers instead.

And when boarding time came, we made a quick rush to the SIA lounge and grabbed a sandwich, a banana, and some fruit juice. Which turned out to be the smartest thing I’ve done for the flight back cos the girl rejected the airplane meal (DESPITE IT BEING SO YUMMY!), and finished the banana and sandwiches!

She spent the rest of the time watching the inflight entertainment…

… playing with the SIA kid’s pack…

… before falling asleep out of pure exhaustion. I don’t blame her really… cos for this whole trip, she probably didn’t get enough sleep everyday with the parents trying to maximise all 5+ days in Hong Kong and Macau. Not to mention, she herself refused to sleep, trying to see more of Mickey, and Minnie, and the Disney Princesses… AND THE DOGS AND CATS AND GOLDFISHES along Goldfish Market. *Sigh*

So tired was she that she refused to wake up even after we’ve landed. Carried her all the way off the plane and then home… where she woke up! Bedtime that day… needless to say… ended up past midnight. *Sigh*

It was a tiring trip… But great fun! It hass been 2 weeks and my girl still remembers everything that happened back in Hong Kong! Well… almost everything.

“We take an airplane, need to go to airport. Then we go Hong Kong!”

~~~

“Yahn saw Cinderella and the Prince today!” (She hasn’t grasp Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow yet so everyday to her is “Today” )

~~~

“Yahn saw Wendy sitting on the moon. And Peter Pan flying around the moon. And Tinkerbell flying around the moon too!” From “It’s a Small World” ride. But of course, how could she not remember her most favourite ride of all in Disneyland… 

“Mama, Yahn wants to see the Tick-Tock Clock! And sing,

♫  It’s a small world afterall…
It’s a small world afterall…
It’s a small world afterall…
It’s a small, small world!  ♫”

And I’ll have you know she sings on tune, and on beat too.

Guess we’re going to make Hong Kong our yearly pilgrimage from now on.

Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore

A busy day today! Woke up early and headed to the ferry terminal to catch our ferry to Macau. Our departure was scheduled for 9.30am… but when we checked in around 8.55am (cos they had asked for us to check in at least 30 mins in advance), they asked if we wanted to take the earlier ferry scheduled for 9.00am instead…

Of course! We could set off, reach Macau, and start our adventure earlier? Why not?!

It was an hour journey and it was a smooth sailing ride. The girl was kept entertained by her favourite iPad, and it seriously felt like a flash when we finally reached Macau. (Maybe cos i slept half the journey there – best way to prevent sea-sickness for me!)

Landed at 10.00am and cleared customs in a flash! Maybe cos it was a Monday, tourist crowd was super low. Coming out of the ferry terminal after grabbing tons of Macau brochures, we saw hotel/casino mascots and staff standing there, waiting to welcome us.

But we walked on ourselves towards Fisherman’s Wharf… only to find that nothing was opened! It was already past 11am and the whole place looked like a ghost town! NOTHING WAS OPEN!!! So much for being termed as Macau’s number one themed attraction… Total waste of time and effort…

Okay, so the landscaping was pretty. You have scenes of China… Tibet… Arabia… and even Rome.

BUT NOTHING WAS OPEN!!! Not even a restaurant for us to stop for lunch… But no matter where we went, or how disappointed we were, the girl remained oblivious as anywhere can be a playground to her.

Even if it were just an empty space, the little one would use it as a big race-track.

A bad start to our Macau adventure… So we crossed the road towards SANDS instead…

Even though it wasn’t much with us not being able to enter the casino, at least it was opened, and my girl was visibly MUCH happier. It was probably just the amusement center… though I think the air conditioning had a huge part to play too.

Lunch at McDonalds there before taking a cab to the Ah Ma temple.

Great thing about travelling to Macau from Hong Kong, we didn’t need to change currency! Everyone everywhere accepted Hong Kong dollars… and the best thing was, they would even return change in Hong Kong dollars too! Perfect for lazy bums like us who didn’t want to do separate budgeting for Macau nor look for a money changer. 

Ah Ma Temple – dedicated to the goddess of seafarers and fishermen… But there were also tons of other deities with shrines built on the slope of the hill. One of Macau’s UNESCO World Heritage site, and possibly the origin of Macau’s name, of course we had to pay a visit here.

They have a 百年夫妻树 (loosely translated: Hundred-Years Husband-Wife Tree), which apart from prayers to find a lifetime partner or for a loving marriage, also hangs a lot of wishes for health, wealth, brains, and happiness…

And my girl? Well…. she has found a new play-slide at these circular doorways (moon-gates)… *sigh*

… or seriously anything at all like kicking the pebbles along the steps up to the various shrines on the hill…  

Along the way, we overheard one tour guide and got to know about this metal bowl within the temple, that if you rubbed the handles and the water within “jumped”, it meant you’re blessed with good luck. The higher the water “jumped”, the better your luck.

Sent the husband there to try… and the man just effortlessly succeeded. I was desperately trying to capture the moment while the girls standing beside him went oooh… doe-eyed at his “ability” and started asking him for tips… Needless to say, his ego probably inflated to the size of a huge DHL-balloon. :p

And the next part of our trip was to follow the walking trail downloaded from Frommers. To walk the whole historic town of Macau is easily completed in one day… unless you have a little 3-year old who INSISTED on taking control of the map and giving directions… *needless to say, we had to skip several recommended sights to keep time*

One of the places we did manage to go to, was Mandarin’s House. The former home of Zheng Guangying, a forward thinker who wrote “Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity”… (not that I’ve actually heard of it before though…)

And my girl somehow found the study room and helped herself to one of the manuscript and started reading… top to bottom, right to left.

Now restored as one of the masterpiece of the World Heritage Site’s Historic Centre of Macau, it showed  the architectural characteristics of Guangdong’s residences with influences from western cultures. Nothing much there really… but my girl somehow found climbing up and down the stairs, running in the courtyard, and sitting on every single antique furniture amusing…

Evacuated fast before she breaks anything…

… and continued our walking trail down… (at least the adults walked while the girl insisted on being carried)… towards Lilau Square…

… St Lawrence’s Church…

… and St Augstine’s Church.

The churches in Macau are yellow, Portugese styled, and look pretty similar from the outside.  St Lawrence’s Church, while having quite a modest interior, has a very pretty and serene garden with palm trees and several glass etchings of various scenes of Christianity (such as the Last Supper). St Augustine’s Church, on the other hand, has a more elaborate interior deco, with a small plaza outside for people to sit around and relax.

No time to sit around and relax with a full travel itinerary, we moved quickly towards Senado Square. It’s really the city center, paved with a wavy pattern of black and white cobblestones. It may be a Monday, but the place was still crowded with tourists armed with bags of Macau’s souvenirs and goodies. With so many people buzzing, we kept a tight grip on the girl and moved towards…

St Dominic’s Church. It is very grand… And you get to go up the stairs to the second floor where there’s the free Treasure of the Sacred Heart Museum with 3 floors of religious artifacts etc. But my girl wasn’t interested. She climbed the stairs to the second floor, took a look at the exhibits, and went back down the stairs again…. AND THEN up the stairs… and down… and up… and down… Until we decided WE had enough following her and working our calf muscles and pulled her out of the church.

Oh, one thing I almost forgot. These churches, and even the Mandarin’s House, have a commemorative stamp for you to stamp on your guidebook etc to remember your visit. Needless to say, this duty was handed over to the girl who loves stamps. She’d take my walking-guide printout and *demanded* to be carried up to the table so she could stamp on the book.

By the time we left St Dominic’s Church, it was almost 3.30pm. There wasn’t much time left to complete our Macau walk-about if we went at the daughter’s pace. So we decided to break for tea, fill the girl’s stomach with food, and then let her nap (blood in stomach… blood in stomach…).

Brought the girl to a dim sum restaurant where she “ordered” her own food… (More like, we showed her a picture… she chose what she wanted, and then find the corresponding number and indicated on the order chit).

Her accomplishment? 3 egg tarts, 4 dumpling fillings, and a whole glass of watermelon juice! Woah!!! Since when was my girl such a big eater???

Took the chance while she slept to buy some yummies back too. This walk from Senado Square up to the ruins reminds me of our climb up to Kiyomizu-dera. Shopkeepers were handing out samples to tourists and passers-by and asking them to try and buy. We did… and realised that the cookies and goodies in Macau were cheaper than Hong Kong’s Wing Wah etc. (Regret buying so much a few days back).

Carried a 12kg daughter up to the top of the Ruins of St Paul’s… (clocking my exercise requirement for the month )  Nearly collapsed once we reached the top and told the daddy to carry on up the steps of the facade himself while I take a breather…

Started off sitting…. and then gradually slouching…

And finally gave up and laid back on my bag as I waited for the daddy to return and take over the load.

And this photo shall tell my daughter someday that, yes, you’ve been up here before.

Alas, she didn’t sleep long, waking up while we were trying to get a cab to The Venetian.  The interior really looks like The Venetian in Las Vegas… (Save effort on architect fees and headache, doesn’t it?) And when we reached, there was a gondolier singing and that got my little girl dancing on her feet…

But the main reason why we came all the way down to Cotai…

… was for this! The original Macau’s famous Portugese egg-tarts from Lord Stow’s Bakery!

It was in my original plan to travel all the way down to the Coloane Village (on the southern-most tip of Macau) so we could find the original original Lord Stow’s Bakery… but again I say, travelling with a 2+ year old means you’re walking at the pace of a toddler. She actually walks runs very fast! But she likes to backtrack alot . So we just had to settle for their branch at The Venetian instead – which was yummy too, nonetheless!

So while Papa went to buy his famous egg-tarts… Mommy orientated herself with the map to see which other casinos we could visit… and the little one helped herself to the bubble-wrap tied around the handles of our shopping purchase in Macau. (So thoughtful of them to use bubble wrap on the handles so we can could carry it around comfortably as we tour!)

After The Venetian, we took a free hotel shuttle back to Taipa, SANDS (to save on taxi fare), and then a cab to Wynn Hotel.

Came here for the water fountain display which occured every 15 minutes… FREE!

And then headed inside for the Tree of Prosperity performance occurring every 30 minutes… ALSO FREE! The ceiling was a elaborate design of the 12 zodiac animals, and at the bottom, an equally elaborate design of the 12 zodiac signs.

When the show started, you could see the heavens (or at least the 12 zodiac animals ceilings) opening to reveal a big grand crystal chandelier to some orchestral music. And then gradually, the earth (the 12 zodiac signs) parted too and a tree started growing (or at least rising) up and out from the earth (the globe like thing on the ground).

And funny too… Once the tree appeared, we could hear people throwing coins in at the Tree. WL joked that, “No wonder this is called the Tree of Prosperity. So many people throw money at it, of course it’s prosperous. ”. And then we decided to join in the fun and throw in the few Macau coins we have too. *HUAT AH!!!*

That being our last stop, we took the free hotel shuttle again and headed back to the ferry terminal. Our original departure was scheduled for 9.30pm… and again we reached early enough to catch the 9.00pm ferry back. Good for us too! Cos we got caught in bad weather and the sea got very choppy. What would have been a one hour return journey ended up 1.5 hours… and many of us got sea-sick.

I got my head stuck inside a paper-bag, and the girl spent the journey in the daddy’s arms, just so she won’t fly out of her seat each time the ferry rides the wave. She got visibly very scared… and probably kindof queasy too. So we stuffed her with her favourite sweets for her to chew on while she looked on in fear each time she “flew” into the air.

After a very long 1.5 hours, we finally reached Hong Kong… and thankfully cleared customs quickly again… Had a quick rest at McDonalds, and then walked back to the hotel to rest for the night.

If I could plan my Macau one-day trip again, I’d plan for the day to start at the Ruins of St Paul’s and take the same route in the opposite direction. At least then I’ll end up at the south of Taipa… Nearer for us to take a cab towards Cotai where the casinos are, and probably try to really squeeze some time so I could visit the Coloane Village. Next time then.

Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore

After spending our Holiday Day 2 in Disneyland… you’d think us coming again during Day 4 was crazy?

NO WAY! We did so much things today that we didn’t manage to complete during Day 2… and not to forget, this whole trip to Hong Kong was really for the girl to experience Disney Magic before she turns 3… and there’s never too much of Disney for anyone.

It being a Sunday weekend, we had thought it would be super crowded… but no! The crowd was similar to Friday’s, but there was more hype, like huge Disney balloons decorating the surroundings!

This was the little one’s outfit for Day 2. A mix of Pooh Bear’s ears + a hula skirt (ala Lilo from Lilo & Stitch). Quite some identity crisis eh? But who cares if one can just look cute.

First stop, again, the Jungle Safari Cruise.

Except this time, the little one somehow chose to spend the whole journey on her daddy’s lap…

And you would think she’d be braver after experiencing it before, but no… she turned out more timid and burst out in loud wails and tears when the fire and smoke started erupting out from the caves! *FAIL*

And then remembering how fantastic the “Festival of the Lion King” performance was, we queued up early to get the best seat in the house! That meant a front row unblocked view for the little one, and fantastic photos from the daddy who was capturing the moments for the girl (and this blog!)

When this performer came out singing the opening theme song “Circle of Life”, my girl shouted “THE MANDRILL!!!”

Apart from front row seats in the house, we also got the center view too! Note Simba on the right, and Timon and Pumbaa on the left! That’s what you get for recce-ing for the first visit and knowing what to do the next time round.

Simba & Nala during their reunion…

The mandrill as the main narrator… together with two white-faced saki monkeys narrating in Cantonese for the Hong Kong-ers as well.

The evil Uncle Scar was impressive with his two fire-waving warriors…? They were AWESOME!!! My jaw was opened the whole time they were “playing with fire”. Seriously… WOW!!!

And the girl enjoyed herself so much that she was dancing along to the finale number, “Circle of Life”. She was standing up and swaying from left to right… totally entrancing the Disney cast member who thought she was more entertaining than the show itself.

Another perk of front row seats… You get a nice HIGH-FIVE from zebras and antelopes etc… Totally thrilling for my little one.

After the musical, the little one remembered, and insisted she wanted to go sit on “Pooh Bear’s Honey Pot”… so here we are queueing up for “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” again.

Somehow, despite it being a Sunday weekend, the pathway up to the Castle was empty! So we quickly took a nice MUST-HAVE family pic with Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in the background. And onwards we went…

… to see Cinderella!!! It was surreal… Even I was awe-struck… Meeting Cinderella was every little girl’s dream come true…

When my girl went up to the royal couple, the prince held her hands but she ignored him and went straight to her favourite fairytale princess instead. She even sang to Cinderella!!! To which the princess said, “Good Job! You sing so well… so much better than my step-sisters…” I think this whole fairytale encounter made this trip totally worth it.

Of course we had to pay Pooh Bear a visit too! And the big bear showed his appreciation of her Pooh ears by paying special attention to her hairdo. So happy was she that she willingly and happily posed with him!

And how could we go Disneyland without taking a picture with Mickey. My little one even kissed him on his nose!!!

(On hindsight… I wonder how much germs there were on Mickey’s nose with everyone kissing him )

So excited was she that even when we break for lunch, the girl was pointing out on the map where she wanted to go next after meals…

And the first stop after lunch… “Mama, I want to sit on Dumbo the Flying Elephant!” I hung on for dear life as the girl controlled the up-and-down motion of our Dumbo ride…

But as per her previous Disneyland visit, her favourite remains to be… “It’s a Small World” ride!

Now riding for the second time, she knew what to look out for and started pointing them out to us throughout the whole ride… “Mama look! Wendy is sitting on the moon! And Peter Pan is flying around the moon! And Tinkerbell too!”

So much in love with this ride that once we disembarked, she shouted “AGAIN!!!”… And since there wasn’t a queue, we obliged and ran back to the entrance, and managed to get a front row seat this time… in a boat all by ourselves!

But when she asked for a third time in a row, we looked at the growing queue and decided there were more to do and see… So we distracted her with bubbles and let her put on her butterfly wings…

(Yap, she has costume changes too. )

… and went to sit on the Disneyland Railroad which brought us round by the Park…

… with unexpected guests popping up to say hi! Such as the Cheshire cat… the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland… Aliens from Toy Story… etc.

And we landed back on the Main Street… where we visited the Art of Animation to see the stages of animation and figurines of famous Disney characters…

There was Bambi… and the girl pretending to be Bambi… And figurines of all princesses… and even the villains such as Sleeping Beauty’s Evil Witch Maleficent… and the heroes of Disney such as Tarzan and the Beast.

They also showcased a Zoetrope which was like a spinning disk with Toy Story figurines in slightly different postures… that when it started turning, the various figurines merged and looked like they were moving naturally… just like a cartoon itself!

The girl was quite intrigued, watching the Toy Story characters come to life when just seconds before, they were only stationary characters standing there.

And just when we were about to leave, a door opened and we saw people coming out from the adjoining “Animation Academy” where they teach you how to draw Disney characters. Told the girl to give this a miss but she insisted “Mama, I want to go inside! I want to go INSIDE! GO INSIDE! GO INSIDE!!!”

To avoid a scene… *sigh*… inside we went. Decided to just throw her a piece of paper and a pencil and let her scribble away while we, the adults, learn from the experts how to draw Donald Duck.

Until she saw how well everyone else was doing and insisted on drawing Donald too! “Papa, I want (you to) help me draw Donald.” And of course, at the end of it all, she would forget all assistance rendered and announce “Look, my picture! Yahn drew Donald Duck!”

This is mine. Got some slight proportion error and ended up making my Donald look slightly sleepy… But for someone who can’t draw well, I’d say I did a pretty good job.

Just as we were about to leave, Chip and Dale appeared!!! By now, the little girl was super into Meet-and-Greet with the stars so she queued up nicely and finally got to meet the two chipmunks. They couldn’t keep their hands off her… and even scooped her down for a mega kiss!

And finally, near the exit, we found one final stop where you get to throw a ball, and whatever stickers or flashcards it stuck to belongs to you. A great final souvenir.

It was a great visit… No less exciting even though it’s the second time we were here, just 2 days apart. But we chose not to stay for the fireworks this time round cos we’re going back to rest for our next day’s itinerary – MACAU!

(Well, actually we took the MTR to Tung Chung for dinner and to visit the outlets before going back to our hotel… Believe it or not… we travelled all the way to Hong Kong, and ended up eating dinner at Food Republic – Singapore’s Food Court. And despite us really wanting to go back and rest for the trek at Macau the next day, we ended up walking the outlet stores until they close… AND STILL END UP EMPTY-HANDED! … We really do Hong Kong injustice )

Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore

Took MTR early in the morning to Sheung Wan and walked to Man Mo Temple (文武廟).

It’s the temple for worship of the literature god (文昌) and the warrior god (关羽). With the husband who is *kindof* in the academics, and a daughter who’s entering school… I thought this would be a good place to visit as a tourist stop, as well as a nice by-the-way prayers.

The daddy goes ahead to pray on behalf of the whole family…

… Until the girl wanted a part of the action and *demanded* to “do it all by myself”! But at her height, the gods could probably only see three joss-sticks being offered but not who the worshipper was.

And as I’ve mentioned, this is a temple of worship for the God of Literature. We saw a man rubbing the Literature God’s calligraphy pen right in front of the altar, so we made the girl do so too in the hope that she’ll gain some 墨水 (literal translation: ink; symbolism: depth and intelligence) from divinity.

After that, we walked along Hollywood Road and checked out G.O.D.. My sister introduced this brand to me when she was getting married and I grew to love their classy yet quirky items, and especially their wedding 囍 series.

I’ve always thought it was such a great brand name! In their words, “Goods of Desire is quintessentially Hong Kong. Our name also means ‘to live better’ in our local dialect because it phonetically resembles the characters G.O.D.”

Posters of famous Cantonese comedies of the Hui Brothers line their stairwell… A floor-mat telling you 此地无银 (No money below this mat) stands in the way… A mahjong cookie set saying “又吃十三么啦!” (eating/winning mahjong with one of the best tile arrangements ever) etc… Very Hong Kong-feel.

And with everything so precious and hence expensive, we made sure we kept our eyes on the girl at all times to prevent her from breaking the porcelain plates… the glass coffee table…  or even snapping the wooden curtains. But we forgot to keep her hands off the paper craft display! Here, the daddy desperately trying to “repair” the damage caused by the little girl inconspicuously.

Very shortly after, we went off for a coffee & tea break across the road at Pacific Coffee House…

… where we saw a long queue forming just beside it. At first the kaypoh mommy thought a HK star is in the area! I just had to go look… only to find out that it was a bakery. 泰昌饼家 (Tai Cheong Bakery).

Don’t know about it. Never heard of it. But seeing how korean tourists were buying up their egg tarts and taking pictures of themselves biting into them, I figured it was probably one of those super recommendations in guidebooks so I dragged my egg-tart-loving husband to go buy two to try…

And turns out, my NON-egg-tart-loving daughter agreed with them too! She finished one all by herself! After we went back to the hotel that night, we googled and realised that Tai Cheong bakery was famous because Hong Kong’s last governor Chris Patten called them the best Egg Tarts in the world! Well, happy to make the lucky find.

Carried on the journey after that short egg-tart tea-break towards Graham Street Wet Market.

Thought of bringing the girl here cos… well, wet markets seemed like a good place to go to for the girl to take in lot of new sights, sounds and smells etc at the same time. But of course, her interest would go to the unexpected, like the sleeping cat on the shelf of fruits. (Though honestly, would anyone buy the mangoes and bananas after they have become the cat’s bolster???)

Also of interest were the LIVE prawns and fishes lined up for sale! Back in Singapore, the girl’s marketing days with me usually only showed her dead or sliced up fishes, and ice frozen prawns. If you were lucky, you’ll see live but tied up non-moving crabs.

But here, everything was alive and swimming about! Not wanting my girl to walk by herself and risk getting splashed at by the fish-mongers washing the blood away from the chopping boards, we took a quick look and stroll down, and then out…

… towards the main road where we saw an old “Ding Ding” Hong Kong tram…

We then checked out the Central Mid Level Escalators, the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world! They even have art murals painted on sections to make it not just an escalator and walkway, but a place to hang out with friends as well!

And then we moved on towards Pottinger Street. The place where you can find party accessories, wigs, costumes, trinklets, etc… and what I usually term as “wu eh boh eh” stuff.

The girl finding interest in some toys…

… And telling me the names of the flags she knows.

… And just making sure she leaves her mark (fingerprints) almost everywhere. Alas, we walked away empty-handed cos mommy was feeling stingy that day. Well, we all agreed that my daughter’s playroom was overcrowded… and there was no interesting toys that captured my the girl’s attention much anyway to warrant a purchase.

And finally, we took MTR from Central back to Prince Edward station. We had intended to walk the (1) Yuen Po Bird Garden, (2) Flower Market, and (3) Goldfish Market – in that order. Alas, we took a wrong turn, did some back-tracking, and ended up at the Goldfish Market first.

And although my girl should really be tired out, she had a sudden energy recharge upon seeing the whole line of pet shops. This place was heaven for the little one!

Being Goldfish Market, most of the shops were selling Goldfishes… regarded as auspicious and believed to bring good luck.

But there were also the more exotic animals like Chameleons…

… Shrimps and baby lobsters…

… Tortoises…

… Beetles???

Would you believe we walked for 3 hours and only advanced 300 metres???  This was the scene played outside almost every shop…

… The daddy wanting to move forward, but the girl dragging the poor man into EVERY SINGLE SHOP…

Thank goodness we saw 许留山 and convinced the girl to take a break out of the whole “in-and-out-of-every-pet-shop” momentum.

The two mango-lovers in the family had a GREAT time… And the daddy who doesn’t like mangoes had some miserable black sesame thingie (I wasn’t paying attention to his dessert cos I was in Mango Heaven with my girl ).

After which, we moved on for dinner at a small 茶餐厅 (restaurant) where we had roast meat rice, luncheon meat noodles and toast. Amazing thing? My girl loved the food! She probably ate more than me during this meal!

And then we tried to hurry along to complete the Goldfish Market. Yes, we’ve walked until the sun has set… and yet we’re still stuck on the same street!! *groan*… And when we FINALLY reached the end of Goldfish Market, our torture did not end… This video will show you why…

… Yap. When my clever girl saw that there were no more pet shops up ahead, she *demanded* to backtrack! We tried to reason… but my little one was too smart to be conned, and too determined to be distracted. And finally when she realised we were not going back anymore, she let off her final form of protest – a huge crying tantrum.

But usually, for us, that really meant her defeat. Cos when she releases her most potent form of protest in the form of wailings and a flood of tears, she’ll throw her head on my shoulder and just give up. Even if you decide to give in and let her have what she wants, she’ll refuse it out of pure pride.

So by the time we finally walked to Temple Street… she was fast asleep! That left us some time to walk and shop a little… though that proved difficult cos the adults were tired out too. We only managed to buy a backpack to replace the one I was carrying which was fraying and disintegrating quite badly. And then it’s back to the hotel to rest and prepare for another exciting day ahead. (DISNEY AGAIN!!! )

… As for the girl, she woke up again after we returned to the hotel and got all docile remembering the trouble she’d caused earlier in the day. So bedtime, though not early, was not difficult. Especially when we told her “Sleep nicely and tomorrow we’ll go back to Mickey’s House!”

Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore

The main reason why we came to Hong Kong this year for our family trip… DISNEYLAND!!! We figured this was the best time for us cos Yahn already knew most of the key characters of Disney, and at just 2.8 years old, she still didn’t need a ticket to enter! *HURRAY*!

So look who was super bright and happy when she reached “Mickey’s Home” despite not having enough sleep the day before?

Once we stepped out of the train station, it started raining!!! *ARGH*… But thank goodness it was just a passing shower so the raincoat managed to go away pretty soon… Our first stop…

ADVENTURELAND!

First ride was the Jungle River Cruise…

… that brought us through sightings of elephants, hippos, crocodiles, gorillas etc…

… And even a cave shaped like a fish’s mouth that sprouted fire and smoke! It was quite intimidating though with the huge gush of smoke coming towards the boat… And despite scurrying backwards into her daddy’s arms, the little one insisted “I’m not scared. Because Papa and Mama are here!”

Next ride / stop, a raft to Tarzan’s tree house! Okay, this was one guy I’ve not introduced to my girl before so she probably just walked through the whole tree house thinking it was nothing more than an exhibit…

… But when brought to the Music Table with pots and pans, she started banging her own tune along with loud laughter of her own!

And then we queued up to watch the “Festival of the Lion King”…

… WHICH WAS TERRIFIC! In fact, WL asked “Why did we spend so much money watching Lion King the Broadway Musical when this was free?” Cos seriously, it was fantastic!!! The characters were there right in front of you… We felt like we’ve bought front row seats with the dancers giving us eye-contact and some coming up to give the girl a huge high-five.

More photos on the performance later on… (cos it was so good we just had to watch it all over again on our second visit )

Next stop,

TOY STORY LAND!

It was Woody and Jessie Meet-and-Greet!!!

And then her first real amusement park ride on board Slinky Dog Spin! She was kindof scared… but still excited. And then she did her signature “WEEEEEEE“ that she usually screams when we the daddy drives down the carpark ramp too fast.

Moving on to… FANTASYLAND

Seeing a “real” castle upclose… and tons of bubbles floating around gave it a really magical feel. No wonder the little ballerina couldn’t resist chasing them around. Well, much better than chasing pigeons (her usual hobby) all the time right?

… Until we all realised it was lunch time.  The girl got grouchy being forced to sit down at the dining table @ the Royal Banquet Hall… And the daddy got frustrated feeding the daughter who refused to eat nicely… And the mommy who ultimately gave up worrying about whether the girl was hungry or not and allowed them to run off to…

… Cinderella’s Carousel…

Seeing how happy she was, I kindof decided to lax off on mealtimes and naptimes since this was afterall a holiday and we should really all enjoy ourselves instead of getting upset at each other over whether she should be eating or napping at specific timings.

We watched a couple more other performances like “The Golden Mickeys” which was kindof like a celebration of Disney’s films, characters and soundtracks (in English! Hurray!) which got my girl super thrilled since she already knew most of them.

… “Mama, that’s Hunchback of Notre Dame!”

… “Woody and Jessie!

… “Beauty and the Beast!!! Hello! Hello!!”

We also caught the performance for Mickey’s PhilharMagic which was my girl’s first 3-D movie! At first we wondered if she could actually watch 3D properly… until we saw her hands reaching out in the midst of it all trying to catch the “projections” and then laughing out loud each time she “missed”. Quite a sight.

Took the FastPass for “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”…

And when we finally went in, it ended up as one of my daughter’s favourite rides!

Sat in the Mad Hatter Tea Cups too…

But her absolute favourite has to be the “It’s a Small World” ride! She entered the ride not knowing the song… and exited singing it non-stop!

And lastly, TOMORROWLAND

Sat on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. My girl has never really handled or played with a gun before so I ended up helping her “shoot shoot shoot” the aliens and monsters… and her getting a much higher score than me!!!

Rode on the Orbitron too where Yahn piloted our flying saucer up and down…

And then again drove her own car at Autopia!

*Proof that she was on the driver seat and mommy almost had a heart attack trying to help with the steering wheel when the girl insisted “I want to do it all by myself!”

And we decided to make Stitch Encounter the last stop for the day. Chose the English language performance so all of us could understand it well. It was quite amazing cos you can really have a 2-way conversation with Stitch, making him look so very alive.

By the time it ended, we rushed down to watch the fireworks… which was magical… My only regret was to have a not-so-good standing spot having rushed out from Stitch’s Encounter and ended up having half my view blocked by some bushes. *Lesson learnt. Book a prime seat earlier next time.

After a great day, I usually leave Disneyland with a heavy heart… but not this time! Cos we’ll be back soon enough for another round very soon! Stay tune for more!
Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore

Went on a 6D trip to Hong Kong… and what a great (albeit tiring) trip this has been!

Checked in early in the morning around 7am for our flight scheduled for 9.30am. Look who’s totally happy to “take an airplane to go Hong Kong!“

And a must-go in the transit lounge each time our girl flies – the playground. Seems like they “upgraded” it cos the last time we came (when we flew in Oct 2011 to Osaka), it was still the smaller version more suited for younger kids.

So a HUGE structure now stands in T3 transit area… except it’s really more for older (or at least taller) kids. The step-ups are quite high and even for my girl who is one of the most agile ones of her age i’ve seen around, it proved to be somewhat a challenge. Thank goodness there were some boys playing around too and they saw my girl in tears after a fall and went to give her a hand.

*Parental warning: Adults, please do not attempt to join your kids in there. WL attempted to go in to “help” the daughter when the boys ran off to catch their flight… and I could literally see the whole structure swaying… No joke. *

And then when it’s time, it’s off to the boarding gates we go!

It was just a 3+ hours flight and our little one was kept entertained by the SIA kid’s pack. Afterall, which kid doesn’t like stickers?

And the daddy who has probably watched most of the inflight movies he’s ever wanted to watch (flying so often for business trips) was tasked to take care of the girl while I get my rare movie time. … And I ended up not being interested in any and watched a documentary on ancient china tombs instead. *sigh*

And after a somewhat easy time on the flight once our trusty iPad was whipped out….

… We arrived in Hong Kong!!!

First thing we did was to make our way to Terminal 2 to buy our Disneyland Passes in advance (so we could jump the queue next time ). We then took the Airport Express (HKD 140 for 2 pax) to Kowloon, where we got a free shuttle direct to BP International Hotel!

The little one crashed out after all the excitement enroute to the hotel… and continued to do so for another hour or so which allowed us some time to rest and unpack our bags.

And the first thing we did after she woke up was to head out to Kowloon Park (located just beside our hotel)… and had MacDonalds for dinner.

Then we walked around Kowloon park a little to see the aviary…

… and the flamingoes. It’s a huge park and we couldn’t walk everything in that evening cos we were heading to the China Hong Kong Ferry Terminal to get our tickets to Macau.

Bought tickets for both legs to and from Macau for the later part of our trip… and then headed off for a nice stroll towards Avenue of the Stars to see the Symphony of Lights.

But it seemed like my daughter was more interested in other sights…

Realised we were not going to make it all the way to Avenue of the Stars after all the distractions along the way… (no itinerary is ever on schedule when travelling with my kiddo)… so we stopped at the Clock Tower to watch it instead.

Best view in the house!

After the show (which wasn’t much really…), we continued our walk towards Avenue of the Stars. There were some performances of people singing Chinese and Cantonese songs which really got us into the mood.  Even -y girl asked to get her camera out so she could take a picture of the singer. I guess this meant she agreed with his singing?

Moved on and walked along…

Taking pictures of the “stars” of Hong Kong…

And wondering whether we have what it takes to ever make a mark like so many there on the sidewalk…

I guess not for us… but who knows, maybe my girl will shine as bright as them… someday.

Took MTR back to our hotel from Tsim Sha Tsui East… Need an early rest cos we’ve got an EXCITING DAY coming up tomorrow!

Quick links on our Hong Kong Trip:

- Day 1: Singapore to Hong Kong
- Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)
- Day 3: Hong Kong Central + Kowloon
- Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2)
- Day 5: Macau
- Day 6: Hong Kong to Singapore