Our highlight of the year - a trip to HK.
For two reasons, we chose HK, becos Macqueen is at Disneyland, and Carol has given birth to baby girl and we must visit.
Day 1
We flew SQ, Nathan watched a movie of Kungfu Panda 2 which he really wanted, and he enjoyed it so much, even laughed at certain scenes... Hannah also had fun watching some cartoons while on board. Both kids were terrific, ate, watched movies, played with stickers...
On arrival, we were took a taxi to Harbour Grand hotel, we had a great view of the harbour from our room, a spacious room we've got. Then, met Carol for dinner. She brought us for authentic HK food at a sidewalk cafe, had fishball noodles, dry noodles with chicken and soya sauce chicken wings, milk tea and condense milk loaf, whoa, the start of a fattening up holiday.
Day 2
Had Dim sum, carol's recommendation, good deal. Kids had baos and porridge. Then, started our nightmare of a lifetime... joined a super longest queue to get up the double decker bus that would bing us to ocean park. It was only a 10mins bus ride, and the buses were frequent enough, but there were simply too many people. We queued for more than half an hr, the queue was indeed the longest we've ever seen and been in.
Highlight of ocean park was the aquarium where we got sight of the hammer head sharks, turtles, manta ray, sting ray, largest crab in the world and fishes. The sharks were def the highlight, Nathan enjoyed the visit a lot. Next was the panda. It was a huge disappointment, only one panda, seated in an aircon room eating shoots non stop, and we just streamed past it in a bee line ... not worth it at all. We also went for the dolphin show which was another let down, the crowd was horrendous, just too many people cramped together in queues, shoulder to shoulder under the great big sun drove us literally MAD. Finally, time to go home, another last queue for the cable car .... what a bliss to be up in the cable car, all quiet and by ourselves.
We wanted to try going up the Peak, one of HK's greatest highlights, but the queue was again, an unbearable sight. We stood in the queue for 30 mins, couldn't take it, decided to give it up after one whole day of queuing, took a fast walk to catch the Star ferry across to Kowloon for a quiet decent western meal in our hotel. That was the most exp pasta dishes we've got ... almost $200 in total, with a glass of red! How generous of LC.
Day 3
The easiest and most relaxed day of the trip - to Noah's Ark. First of all, no queue at the bus lane, and only 15mins to the site. The huge ark greeted us. It was another typical hot summer day. Nathan got sight of his triceratop. I liked the merchandise the most, bought wall stickers, and more stickers, and foam art of the ark ...
There was a show about Noah's ark and moses crossing the red sea, ending with the Lord's supper room, it was all a little 'preaching' hope more tourists will come visit the ark and see the Lord's hand in creation and nature. Looking at the crowd on a sunday, the biz is not going to make it. But we enjoyed ourselves.
We had dinner with carol and terence at a mall near their residence. We visited their apt, small but livable. I had a good time chatting with her and really good to see an old friend in a foreign land.
Day 3
Disneyland
We arrived in a taxi at the hotel, dumped our luggage and took a bus to disneyland. No queue for buying tickers or entrance, just walked right in. The queue started when we waited for the first show of the day to start - Lightning Macqueen! Father and son took a pic with the real size car, nathan enjoyed the show. Next, we went for a jungle boat tour .... queued for less than 20 mins. It was not so exciting for the kids, they were rather afraid. We went for a corousal ride, nathan sat on a carriage with daddie, while hannah chose her own horse and i stood beside her. We also watched Lion king and Golden mickey show... queued about 45mins each for the shows. The last ride of the day was on a spacecraft. Nothing exciting about that, took us another 45mins to get there.
By the end of the day, we were beat. Settled in a chinese restaurant in disney hotel. The hotel was grandly decorated in victorian style with pretty wall paper and large sofa and chairs. The room was very comfortable, and we had a view of HK island, and the pool.
Day 5
Breakfast with disney characters like mickey, daisy and goofy. Mei was braved, she gave hi-5 to all three of them. Nathan wasn't so interested in them at first, but seeing hannah so keen, she got him excited too. How nice to have the two of them. They surely complement each other.
Flight back was even better, hannah slept for almostb 2 hrs on board, and i had a nice time relaxing.
overall, Hk trip was ridiculously expensive, not so pleasant becos of the large no of tourists, it was crowded and HOT, but we had a great family fun together, and that's important.