My children were fascinated with the entertainment screen in front of them when traveling on the plane. This is not the first time they are traveling so they know what to expect. The first thing they asked me to do was to switch on some cartoons for them.

However their cartoon program was interrupted by the Emergency and Safety Demo. Of coz, they do not know what it was. They made very funny remark loudly and I hope that no one superstitious was sitting nearby.

Tim & Em: Mummy, how come no oxygen masks drop down? I want to put in on. Where is it?

Mummy: :rolleyes:

Tim & Em: Can I pull the life jacket out from under the seat? Is it here? *using their fingers to touch the seat below* I want to blow and wear it.

Mummy: :rolleyes:

Tim & Em: When can we slide down from the plane? I want to ride the boats too.

Mummy: *donno where to hide*

Fortunately the cartoon channel came back on again and they left me in peace. Such innocence.

Suddenly I felt like a kid when I walked into Hong Kong Disneyland. I must say I enjoyed most rides. Many will say that it is smaller than other Disneyland but it is the right size for my children. At least I do not have to queue for long time on most rides. More about the rides and videos in parkbay.net.

Transport
We took the MTR from Central to Sunny Bay and switched to the Disney line. It was free as we got the Airport Express package. It has 3 days unlimited MTR ride. I thought it was 3 consecutive days but it turned out if I didn’t use it on the 2nd day, it was free for 3rd and 4th day. Amazing or there is a bug. 😛

The Disney line train as Mickey shape windows and that excite my children. They love the short ride. It wasn’t very pack either. As we arrived at the station, there are pickup shuttle busses to the hotel. We got that pretty early, drop our bags and straight to Disneyland Park. If you cannot get an early check in, you can leave your bags at the hotel.

Do remember to pick up the daily schedule for shows, parade and firework. It changes from time to time.

Disney Hollywood Hotel
I got a free upgrade to the room with a sea view with no extra charge. In additional, currently there is a promotion to get 1 day park ticket for 2 days visit. We stayed there for 2 nights.

By the way, Chooi Peng discovered that if you get the annual pass, you can also get 30% discount on the hotel rates. I wonder whether we can get an annual pass for child and still get the 30% discount. Check it out and let me know.

Child ticket – HKD$210
Annual Pass for Child Ticket HKD$460 (Difference of HKD$250)

Min Room rate HKD$1200 per night
*Discount 30% – HKD$360, savings of $110 (Do check the discount % as it changes from time to time)
Another night of bookings, savings of $470 if I do my math correctly. Plus other benefits that comes with the annual pass.

If the above works, be sure you get a Disney souvenir for me and Chooi Peng. :giggles:

The room was spacious and it has a nice view of the sea. The only thing that my children complained about is the missing Cartoon Network channel. They have 3 channel showing Toy Story II in Cantonese, Cars in Mandarin and Incredibles in English, repeatedly. Or was it Toy Story in English, go figure. Day 2, the same movies.

Disneyland Park
First day, we wanted to cover all the shows first. However my children are eager to ride The BuzzLightYear, so we headed to Tomorrowland. We saw Buzz! We took some pictures with him. There wasn’t any queue for the Buzz rides. We went on it 3 times.

We completed Tomorrowland and Adventureland on the first day. We managed to see all the shows except the 3D show in Fantasyland and rides in Fantasyland. Second day, we took the train to Fantasyland and finished it off. My personal favorites are “It’s the small world” ride and the 3D Mickey show.

The parade was ok but the fireworks were superb. It comes with background music.

Food is pretty pricy in the park, it cost at least HKD50+ per meal and drinks cost HKD10+.

Here are the pictures you been waiting for….

Here is what you get at the end of it all…

I am back with my family from a week vacation in Hong Kong. Happiness is so short-lived when you are having a good time. I would say my family had a great time in Hong Kong, to be precise Hong Kong Disneyland. I will share some tips with you if you are planning to go there. More pictures when I get it sorted.

Plan
My planning started way back in July when I discovered that SIA is offering a promotion for flights to Hong Kong. Actually, I was planning to bring my family to Bali because I had SIA frequent flyer miles to consume. I ended up finding a better deal to Hong Kong.

Next, the hotel bookings. Hotels are very expensive in Hong Kong especially for a family of four. Most hotel will required you to have 2 rooms because at most they can accommodate 3 in a room, 2 adult and a child. Fortunately for me my company had corporate rates for Hong Kong hotels. I had a great deal with Park Lane hotel and I stayed in the most happening place too that is Causeway Bay. Their service is superb. They even gave me an extra bed without any charges in a Deluxe Room. By the way, Ikea is just next to the hotel.

My children wanted to stay in Disneyland too. I booked Disney Hollywood Hotel for 2 nights. Now they are having a promotion, if you stayed any of the 2 hotels in Disneyland, you get 2 for 1. You pay 1 day park tickets for 2 days in the park. Trust me, if you want to enjoy yourself in Disneyland without the rush, you need to spend 2 days in the park. You need to walk, queue, walk, queue and walk. Talk more about Disneyland in the next post.

Transport
Taxi is pretty expensive especially when you have to cross over from one island to another. It is about HKD$350-400 to go from airport to the hotel.

I chose to travel by train. I got the Airport Express tickets which allow us to travel from airport to Central. From Central, it cost HKD$50 for taxi to the hotel. Airport Express return tickets cost HKD$300 (with $50 refundable deposit). It also includes 3 days of free MTR rides. I can use it to travel from hotel to Disneyland free and other MTR rides. MTR is a great way to travel around. It is fully connected to most places of interest. It has a good display on every train unit on the current and next destination to minimize confusion.

Money Changing
I was very fortunate to get a good rate for Hong Kong dollars. The day after I changed, the Hong Kong dollars went up. Phew. You can start to monitor the Hong Kong dollar exchange rates before you go and start changing when it is a good rate. Do not wait else you will regret. In July, I got 2.3 and in Nov, I got 2.15.

I heard from my mom that the money exchange from Mid Valley gives a very good rate. Always ask the agent to give you a good rate and sometimes they give a better rate than what it is publish on the board.

Interesting Places To Visit
Disneyland – A place when your dream comes true and your pockets go dry.

The Peak – A place when you get a good view of Hong Kong. At this time, it is pretty cold and windy up there, be sure you wear thicker clothing. Bring your gloves, tripod, good camera and patience. There was a long queue when we went up but the train came pretty fast. There is also a wax museum which we didn’t go because my children were not interested. After you come down the peak, take the double-decker open top bus to travel back to Central Station.

Ocean Park – We didn’t go there but another good spot for children. You can see dolphin show, panda, rides and cable car. Most rides are for teenager and above.

Mong Kok Ladies Street – A street full of bargain-able stuff, just like Petaling Street. The trick to get a good price is always survey what price you can get by asking a few stores. Do not start bargaining at the first few shops because somewhere down the street, the price will go down. Do not act desperate to buy but stay cool. Try to ask the price of other items too. When they cannot give you the price you want, don’t say anything but walk away. If they can go lower, they will call you back. If not, that is the price you can get. Try to use that price for other stores.

There was one item when I ask the first store, the seller told me the price was HKD150. I didn’t say anything and was looking at other things. She offered HKD120. I asked her for the best offer, she said HKD100. As I walked away, she shouted HKD90. I went to another store and I got it for HKD85.

Mong Kok also has a street full of food. You must try out the beef tripe noodles, steam Hong Kong Kai Lan, the stinky fried bean curd, fish/meat balls and other good stuff.

A Symphony of Lights – You can watch lights and sound show at either sides of the Victoria Harbour. The best view would be along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront at Avenue of Stars.

Ferry Ride – We took a ferry ride from Central Pier to Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. My children adore the ferry ride.

Sai Kung – Good place for seafood especially lobster. Yummy :)~~~

Causeway Bay – A good place to shop! It has Sogo, Times Square, Sasa, Causeway Bay Plaza and others.

Windsor House has toys r us on 7F. I got 2 huge transformers optimus prime and megatron that make sound for HKD299.00. It is 2 for the price of 1. One cost RM200 in Malaysia.

Dim Sum Places – You must try the dim sum in Hong Kong, superb! Again food is expensive but it is worth it. :P~~

Apliu Street in Sham Shui Po – Electronic stuff.

Tips

1. Do not be over ambitious when traveling with young children. A lot of places required them to walk and they can only walk so much.
2. Do not go to MTR station during peak hours, it has lots of people.
3. Hold on to your children because all day long on the street, there is a crowd.
4. Remember to bring extra memory card for your camera and backup batteries. We used up 8G of memory for video taking in Disneyland.
5. Pack light so that you can carry more stuff home.
6. Purchase the Octopus card. You can pay anything with it and get discounted MTR rides. This way, you do not need to dig money out and end of with a lot of coins. The airport express card can be used as an octopus card too.
7. Get a good Hong Kong map from the airport. It is free! If you want more maps, email me.
8. Bring plenty of cash because food & drinks are not cheap. If you are going to shop in the flea or street markets, cash is preferable.
9. Get rid of your remaining HKD by paying the hotel bill. You do not need to carry any HKD back to Malaysia. Remember to keep some for taxi fare if you are taking the taxi to airport.
10. Have Fun!

More post about the trip later. Now I need to clear 120 emails, work never go on vacation!

Remembered I blog about Emily has a waking up problem during school days. This week, she didn’t have any problem waking up. You wanna know why? I am sure. This week, the tadika has planned a week full of interesting activities.

Tues: Teaching children to buy and sell.

Wed: Butterfly farm excursion.

Thurs: Marcus Birthday celebration.

Fri: Last Day of School Party.

With all these exciting activities, she woke up instantly. She slept early on Tuesday night because she had to wake up at 7am. The bus will leave school at 8:15am. Guess what, papa found her sleeping outside the bedroom at 6:30am. :rolleyes: She must have been afraid that we forget to wake her up and miss the excursion.

Lastly, today will be the last day for Tim to attend kindy. Next year he will be in primary 1. The days have passed so fast. I still remember the day when I delivered him. He was so tiny and he smiles a lot! Once I sang to him and he was giggling in his sleep.

Read the previous post to get the story below.

Day before yesterday while I was having a shower, shampooing my hair to be precise, papa came knocking on the door. He asked me why did I put the lip balm into Emily school bag? Obviously I didn’t know what he was talking about. He opened the door slightly to show me. I told him, this is a glue stick. :rolleyes:

After the shower, I told my children that papa thought the glue stick is a lip balm. They giggles and Tim make a funny remark.

Tim: Papa, why do you want to put glue on your lips? You want to be quiet?

Actually he made the blooper because I told him I got the lip balm today and he thought I put it in Emily’s school bag.

Can you tell what are the pink stick and the blue stick? Have a guess? I will tell you a funny thing someone did, :giggles: in the next post.

Emily has her moments and sometimes she can be a pain in the neck. I take the family out to shopping and sometimes she will act up. She will say her legs are tired so that either my hubby or I would carry her. She stopped by every other shop to see what she wants to see. If she doesn’t get what she wants, she will be whinny.

Yesterday, I was trying to get a pair of shoes for them. However we could only get a pair for Emily and I was still looking around for Tim’s one. Emily started her round of fuss. We decided to leave the mall. I scolded Emily in the car and of coz she cried.

Later, I asked daddy to stop by another shop so that I can go with Tim to get his pair of shoes. As a punishment for Emily, she stayed in the car with daddy. I managed to do what I wanted with Tim and bought 2 sweaters for them too.

Next morning this was what Emily said:

Emily: Mummy I am 4 years old and going to 5. I am a big gal now. I don’t want to cry, show my tummy and I will not be lazy to walk.

Mummy: Good girl

Let’s hope she remembers that. This is crucial for her to enjoy the next event that is coming up. Hehehe…I will tell you when we come back!

Her new dress and Her new shoes.

Every morning my FIL will come to my place and he has started a new small vegetable garden outside my house. He is good and he can plant anything with just a small piece of soil. Look what he did just less than a month. We are going to have lady fingers and long beans.

Yesterday while I went back home during my lunch break, I was fuming mad. I saw MPPP came and was maintaining the trees along our streets. They were chopping down branches. That tree outside my house is giving me problems, no doubt it gives me a little shade from the hot sun. I need to sweep the fallen leaves and there are lots of pest up that tree. The leaves are filled with holes. Not a very nice tree too. I don’t mind if they planted a mango tree there.

Anyway, I was fuming mad because when they cut the branches, they never bothered about my vegetable garden underneath. I saw a huge branch on top of my plants. There goes my long bean plant!!

I wonder if I park my car outside and the branches fall on my car, will they pay for damages. The way MPPP does things, it is really sad. They don’t bother about other people’s property! You tell me mad or not?

Funny kids do funny things. Guess what advertisement they are portraying? Or are they just fooling around like spiders?

Finally my boy Tim has graduated from kindy and moving on to primary school next year. Six years just whoosh pass so fast. I still remembered the day when I delivered him and struggled with lots of sleepless night. Now he is standing tall. Doesn’t he look like a Chinese Scholar like from the Ching Dynasty or something?

Today is his graduation and also my children’s concert. Both of them had a great time. A big thank you to the teachers, who put almost a year effort into this concert. Yeap I heard the children started practicing first half the year.

The tadika had strict rules about photography because some parents can be inconsiderate. They will stand in front of everyone to take pictures of their child. This year, no camera allowed. The tadika hired 1 professional video man and 1 camera man to do the shots, which is fair. Everyone gets to relax and enjoy the show.

I liked the concert because the teachers incorporated two stories telling and the children acted fantastically. They have snow white and the good Samaritan stories. My children did great too. Anyway that’s not what I wanted to write about but the funnies things that the children did at some parts of the concert.

Here are the funnies:
• Emily was yawning during the middle of the singing.

• Someone dig his nose during the singing although the parents signal him not to do that.

• One boy was arguing with his friend about his toys on the stage during the start of his performance.

• There was a prop technical issue. In one of the scene there were 2 robbers attacking a boy where the 2 robbers were suppose to snatch the boy’s belongings. However the 2 robbers couldn’t get the bag away from him. It took them a long while to get it off him.

• Snow White couldn’t bite the apple, she had a few attempts.

• During one of the prize giving ceremony, one of the children forgot that she was suppose to be on stage to receive the prize.

Here are the videos that made me proud of my children.