September 2016 Vacation - Disneyland

3rd day in Hong Kong - Disneyland.

The last time we came to Disneyland, the kids were too young to appreciate most of the attractions or take most of the rides. And it was super crowded, with some extremely rude tourists. This time round, the experience is way more pleasant.

Daddy did the Star Wars ride with Aaron. Nadine claimed she saw a roller-coaster picture of the ride and thought it would be too scary and refused to go on it. And she was right! Daddy said that they were moving in darkness most of the time, never knew what they'd encounter at the next turn, and some turns were quite violent, and he was surprised that Aaron was not in the least bit scared, and in fact, enjoyed himself! My little brave man!

Our favourite ride - It's A Small World. It's such a comfortable, tranquil and happy boat ride, seeing all the cute dolls singing It's A Small World.

Our next favourite - the Fairy Tale Forest. We were so fascinated by all the miniature castles.

And the best things that happened at the Fairy Tale Forest, while waiting for Tinkerbell to appear, we took an almost perfect family shot ...

and the kids took a nice photo with Tinkerbell ...

and Nadine got Tinkerbell's autograph, sprinkled with pixie dust!

Daddy was also happy that he got to enjoy some good music from the marching band.

Although we didn't take many rides, we were overall very happy with this Disneyland trip.

September 2016 Vacation - Ocean Park

2nd day in Hong Kong - we went to Ocean Park.

It was a very hot day, and the Park's actually much bigger than we thought. We walked so so much!

The kids, and Daddy, were thrilled to see a hammerhead shark and a few huge manta rays.

The dolphin show was a let-down, especially having watched the one in Sea World at Gold Coast. But the penguins at South Pole Spectacular was amazing. We were so close to them, and there were so many of them, posing, strolling and swimming.

The other animals that we managed to get a really close-up look were the red panda and the panda. Their enclosures are designed in such a way that the pandas have little chance to play hide-and-seek with park visitors .... unlike our River Safari!

Just like most theme parks, Ocean Park had mascots that come out to take photos with visitors. But the queues for these photography sessions are much shorter than those at Disneyland or Universal Studios. So the kids happily took photos with every mascot they saw.

The one big difference between Ocean Park and many other theme parks we'd visited - good food! We had yummy spicy beef noodles, char siew rice and panda buns at the Panda Cafe. Yes, even the panda buns were good! Not the frozen type!

By early afternoon, we were so exhausted, and returned to our apartment to rest before dinner and shopping at Mongkok.

Both Nadine and Aaron had bought sneakers the night before. So it was Daddy's and Mummy's turn, and we can't not buy sneakers while on Sneakers Street!

Mongkok was so colorful, lively and interesting. Besides the array of eateries and shops, there were also a wide variety of performances on the street - including yoga and oldies dancing to some really awful karaoke music!

We walked so much that night that we all had achy feet by the time we got home. So proud of the kids for walking all the way! And so glad our apartment is nearby!

September 2016 Vacation - Hong Kong & Royal Carribean

The kids have been asking to go on a cruise after seeing some Royal Caribbean ads with Kungfu Panda. So months ago, I checked out Royal Caribbean's cruises, and learnt from a colleague that we could consider flying to another country and sail out from there. That way, we could spend a few days in another country too. And that's what we did! We went to Hong Kong, stayed there for 3 days, and sailed out to Vietnam from there!

Hong Kong hotels - decent ones with good locations and sufficient space for our family of 4, are really expensive. So we did Airbnb, and booked a nice apartment with 3 tiny bedrooms, living area and a well-equipped kitchen.

It was great to have a washing machine for our laundry. But there was nowhere to hang up the laundry for drying, so I had to hang them by the window.  

The kids were so happy to see the pretty double-decker bed. They immediately unpacked their books and toys and negotiated who to sleep on top and who below. But when night came, they changed their minds, and wanted to sleep with us instead. Good thing there were a queen size bed in each of the other 2 bedrooms. So Nadine slept with me, and Aaron with Daddy.

The kids were tickled by the winky face on the toilet seat cover.

The location for this apartment was fantastic. It's just above the Yau Ma Tei MTR station, 10 min walk to Mongkok, and has lots of shops and restaurants around. I went down to buy local breakfast for the family on the 2 mornings that we were there.

And interestingly, there is a mixture of uses for the units in this building. Our neighbor is a tour agency that organises tours to Israel!

We met up with Auntie Betsy and Uncle Adam and their 2 very adorable boys on our first night in Hong Kong. The last time we were in Hong Kong was actually for their wedding 4 years ago!

4 years ago ...

4 years later ...

Aaron's K1 Term 3 Observation Report

No more "H" for "needs help" for his Chinese. What an improvement! Hope this one can progress to get an "S" for "satisfied with progress" in Term 4!