Trip to Hong Kong 5 - 9 May 2008

My parents in-law were away in Japan the entire week of 5 May – therefore Clare and I decided to take time off too and plan our own holiday abroad. We decided on HK since it’s not too far away, and it is probably most similar to Singapore in terms of convenience/language/transport/food, etc. In addition, our good friend Snowden and his wife Anthea welcomed us to stay over at their new home.

This would be the 2nd time Chloe’s taking air travel – her first being our trip back to KL earlier this year. We had reservations as to whether Chloe would be able to weather the 3.5 hour journey. Most children, especially at Chloe’s age, can’t sit still for long periods. Planning a holiday is never easy – it requires time and effort and careful planning, particularly since I wanted things to go smoothly. So I did some internet research and found a couple of websites posted by parents who have ‘been there, done that’ which offered valuable advice and tips to make flying with kids a more bearable experience. Some tips did come in handy – such as bringing along something that Chloe is really attached to, in this case being the portable DVD player and her favourite Barney VCD. Chloe practically watches Barney the entire day but never seems to tire of it…..

With all the anticipation, the day finally came and we were off to the airport. All SQ flights to North Asia (HK, Korea, Japan, etc) now departs from the new Changi airport Terminal 3. It was my 2nd time there (Clare and Chloe’s first) but I must say that the place is pretty impressive. There are number of restaurants/eateries here such as Imperial Treasure, Dian Xiao Er, Gelare, Brewerks, etc, which can’t be found in the other two older airport terminals….

The flight went well and we arrived at about a quarter past 7pm. We took the Airport Express MTR to the Kowloon station where Snowden, his wife Anthea and their 4 months old daughter Franchesca were eagerly awaiting our arrival. We had ‘la mian’ for dinner at the Elements Shopping Centre and decided to call it an early night…

The next couple of days were generally quite relaxing – with Chloe in tow, we didn’t want to pack our schedule with too much activities and exhaust her (& ourselves…haha). We went shopping at a few shopping centres/places (such as MegaBox at Kowloon, Langham Place and Fa Yuen St. at Mongkok, and H&M at Central), visited Ocean Park for half a day, went to Stanley Market and even had time to slot in a studio photo shoot for Chloe!!

The studio photo shoot was something that we had contemplated on doing for quite a while, but somehow we had procrastinated longer than expected. So when the opportunity presented itself (Snowden’s wife Anthea recommended Studio 123 which apparently is very popular) we told ourselves we were not going to defer any further. (See 2nd slideshow below)

Our trip to Ocean Park was exceptionally exhausting. The weather was amazingly hot (summer is approaching) and Ocean Park is really parent/child unfriendly. I lost count of the number of flights of stairs/steps where I needed to literally carry/drag our baby stroller!! Chloe however seemed to have enjoyed the Oceanarium, sea lion/dolphin shows, kiddy rides etc so the trip was generally worth the effort.

The best part of HK would have to be the food – it is (and will always be) what I most look forward to. Dim sum (or yum cha as it is commonly known) is sumptuous and reasonably priced. The ingredients used are always fresh and the variety of dim sum is good. Snowden brought us to this particular dim sum restaurant at MegaBox shopping centre where dining before the peak lunch hour got us a 50% discount!! Apart from dim sum, we had Italian cuisine at Soho, and hotpot (definitely my favourite meal) at Tankyoto Restaurant at Tsim Sha Tsui. I understand from Snowden that this hotpot (i.e. steamboat) restaurant is the only restaurant that serves his favourite ‘tomato soup’ (or ‘fan ke tong’ as the locals call it). We had a combination of two types of soup – the tomato soup which I mentioned above and the ‘pak tong’ brewed from ‘chu kuat’ (i.e. pig bones…… trust me, it actually taste a whole lot better than it sounds….haha).

We found time to have dinner with our friend Danny Chan too. Chloe was at her best – she is normally pretty shy when it came to strangers but somehow warmed up to Danny quite quickly (to our surprise). She spent most of her time at the restaurant walking around independently from table to table (refusing our interference… haha) and waving hello & goodbye to other diners….. it was really charming and at the same time heartwarming. By the time we left the restaurant, I think Chloe probably covered every square feet of the restaurant !!

Before we knew it, it was time to head home. The flight home turned out worst than expected. I suppose the change in cabin air pressure was too much for Chloe to bear. Throughout the final 15 minutes before landing, she was crying and wailing loudly – which made Clare and I the ‘centre’ of attention on the plane….. The ordeal finally ended and we heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

Would we consider bringing Chloe for another overseas holiday? Yes, definitely.

If you cant see any photos, click cross (x) at the top right hand corner to start/continue the slideshow.