Showing posts with label About Hong Kong with Children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About Hong Kong with Children. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Hong Kong with Children - 6D5N Itinerary (December 2016)

When our children visited Hong Kong for the first time in June 2015, we invited their grandparents along. With the elderly and children, our itinerary was quite relax (read our 5D4N Itinerary in June 2015). Then we visited Hong Kong again in December 2016, we visited some places that we didn't go during our previous visit.



Day 1
Check in Inn Hotel --> lunch at Tsui Wah --> Sham Shui Po --> Dinner at Jordon

The first two things that we did upon arriving Hong Kong International Airport were to collect pre-paid SIM card that I booked from Klook, and to purchase Octopus card from MTR customer service counter. 

We booked our accommodation at Inn Hotel located at Yau Ma Tei (read our review of Inn Hotel here), it was easily accessible by bus A21 from the airport. 

We did exactly the same things on the first day in Hong Kong for our two trips! Yes, buy cheap toys at Sham Shui Po! During our previous visit, we didn't manage to sit down in 公和荳品廠 to eat, but we did it this time!




Day 2
Hong Kong Disneyland 

It was a more pleasant visit as compared to our previous visit in June 2015. We enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere and the cool weather.


Day 3
Dim sum brunch at 稻香 --> Hong Kong Science Museum --> Ichiran ramen --> Dinner at Cafe de Coral near Inn Hotel



Guess what, we actually went back to hotel to take a nap before we ventured out again for dinner. No, not the children, DaDi and I were the ones who needed the afternoon nap!


Day 4
Hong Kong Park --> The Peak --> Wan Chai --> Dinner at 村爺爺龍蝦湯-泡飯-燉湯專家

Hong Kong Park is a nice place to get some fresh air inside the city! And the main attraction? The slide with transparent segments!



It was an impromptu visit to The Peak. We were thankful that the peak tram was not too crowded on a weekday morning.



We then went to Tai Yuen Street at Wan Chai (also known as Toy Street), and we concluded that Fuk Wing Street at Sham Shui Po should be named Toy Street instead!


Day 5
Go Green Organic Farm --> Sham Shui Po --> Dinner at Cafe de Coral near Inn Hotel



A short getaway from the concrete jungle, we were refreshed by breathing in some fresh air! As the children didn't buy any toy from Tai Yuen Street in the previous day, we decided to go to Sham Shui Po again! They bought some toys and we had tea break at 公和荳品廠 again!

Day 6
Home sweet home


Our Post Trip Reflection

I mentioned the reasons for choosing Hong Kong as our children's first overseas trip via plane in this post on 5 Tips for Hong Kong Travel with Children. To be honest, when we first visited Hong Kong, the presence of their grandparents really helped us a lot. With the ratio of 2 adults to 1 child, my alert level was raised to only 200%. But during the second visit when DaDi and I brought the children there ourselves, somehow, my alert level had to raise to 1000%! It is simply too crowded at some places, and some people are very impatient and rude! Well, we were thankful that we still encountered kindness, for example, a kind lady actually gave up her seat on MTR for me (yes, not for the children) when we were on our way back to the hotel from Hong Kong Disneyland, because she said that I looked very tired (I was unwell that day)!

Hong Kong offers some places that are really interesting to visit with children. But I would suggest not to bring your children along for shopping in shopping areas.


Our Hong Kong Travelogue


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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Hong Kong with Children - Go Green Organic Farm

What does Hong Kong remind you of? Eating non-stop? Shopping non-stop? In fact, Hong Kong offers more than that! Do you know that there are many farms in Hong Kong? We visited Go Green Organic Farm, which is located in Yuen Long (元朗) in New Territories. Although there are many farms in New Territories, we decided to visit this one because it is one of the few that is located conveniently near MTR station - Kam Sheung Road Station (錦上路). 




We visited the farm on a weekday, so it was very quiet, and we were one of the two families there! We were greeted by some rabbits and a guinea pig at the entrance of the farm. 



A staff informed us that we could purchase the animal feed at HKD20. The feed was actually one big piece of leaf. After a short while, another staff brought two goats out. Our children were excited to see the goats!



Initially, I thought that the leaf was rather expensive. However, we could tear it into many small stripes, and it took us quite some time to finish feeding the animals with that piece of leaf!



Actually, other than accessibility, another reason why I chose to visit this farm was to pick strawberries. It was a pity that the climate was unusually warm - imagine 27 degrees Celsius in early December in Hong Kong! So the strawberries were not ready for picking when we visited there in early December 2016. The price was HKD90 per pound, which I felt was actually rather expensive.

Other than feeding a few animals, we could actually pick vegetables. If I remember correctly, the price was HKD70 per pound. However, we gave it a miss, as we would not be able to cook the vegetable soon.




There was a play area where the children had fun, while we sat under the parasol to relax. The air was very fresh, completely different from the quality of air in town area!



This farm also offers rental of plots of land for farming and camping. It was quite an eye-opening experience for our urban children to see how a farm look like.



This farm used to have Hello Kitty theme in the past, so we could still see some Hello Kitty around!



Though it was quite a disappointment that we couldn't pick strawberries as we planned, we actually quite enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere at the farm.

If you are planning to visit this farm, I would suggest that you should visit on a weekend instead of weekdays. Because the farm organises activities like strawberry making class (at a fee) on weekends. In addition, other than visiting the farm, you can also visit Kam Sheung Road Flea Market located just next to MTR station on weekends.


Go Green Organic Farm
Opening hours: 9.30 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily, Tuesday and Wednesday are for reserved for group bookings
Admission fee (not stated in their website, so I sent them a Facebook message to check): HKD20 per pax on Monday, Thursday & Friday. HKD30 on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. 
How to get there:
Take MTR to Kam Sheung Road Station (錦上路). From exit A, walk across an open car park, turn right, cross an underpass, and turn left to reach the farm.


Information about Farms in Hong Kong



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Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Hong Kong with Children - Hong Kong Park, The Peak, Tai Yuen Street (Toy Street), Calbee Plus

On our fourth day in Hong Kong in December 2016, we explored the northern part of Hong Kong Island. If you have been following our blog, you would know that I have an obsession on slides - I worked very hard on finding child-friendly accommodations with slides for our Taiwan trip, and playgrounds with long slides for our Okinawa (Japan) trip. However, when I did my homework on Hong Kong playgrounds, I was quite disappointed that I couldn't find any interesting ones, perhaps my expectation becomes higher after we visited the 90-metre long slide in Okinawa. Just a few weeks before our visit, I found that an interesting slide at Hong Kong Park was re-built and re-opened in November 2016! It was timely for us to try out the new slide!



In what ways was this slide interesting? There were transparent segments! One thing to take note when you are bringing your children there - remind them to bend their knees as they approach the bottom of the slide! Pei Pei forgot about it, and she slid so fast that I could not catch her at the bottom of the slide, and she fell on the floor. Fortunately, there was padding on the ground.

Other than the slide, there were other play areas and sand playground.




Well, while the playground was the main reason why we visited Hong Kong Park, I would say that Hong Kong Park is a great place to visit, because it offers a totally different feeling to the visitors in Hong Kong's urban setting. It was very relaxing to take a stroll in the park.


Getting to Hong Kong Park is very easy, just take MTR to Admiralty Station, from exit C1, go up the escalator next to the exit, walk across the overhead bridge to Pacific Place, follow the signs and go up the escalator, then cross a small road to reach there. 

After having fun in the playground, I noticed a sign "Peak Tram Lower Terminus", and realised that we were just a short distance away from it. Initially, I didn't plan to visit The Peak, because we experienced the horrible crowd N years ago before we have children. Out of curiosity, we walked towards Peak Tram Lower Terminus to take a look. It was a weekday 10+ a.m. when we were there, the queue was not very long! So we decided to have an impromptu visit to The Peak!


It was the children's first time taking the peak tram, they were amazed by the steepness of the slope as the peak tram travelled up and down the hill!

We were thankful that the weather was nice, the sky was quite clear.



It became more hazy after lunch, and when we took the peak tram back to Peak Tram Lower Terminus, it was very crowded!

We walked to Central MTR Station, and took MTR to the next station Wan Chai. We had 2 missions - to buy toys and eat Calbee freshly made potato chips!

To be honest, after visiting Sham Shui Po, I don't quite understand why Tai Yuen Street is called Toy Street, because there are only a few toy shops. What are the difference between the toys sold at Tai Yuen Street and Sham Shui Po? Those at Tai Yuen Street are mainly original, on the other hand, there are quite a lot of imitations at Sham Shui Po. Of course, it means that the toys at Tai Yuen Street are generally more expensive than those in Sham Shui Po. Anyway, some toys at Tai Yuen Street are still cheaper than those in Singapore!


Guess what, I bought a Tomica car, while the children bought nothing at all because those that caught their eyes exceeded the budget that we gave them.

Somehow we got lost for a short while when we were trying to locate Calbee Plus. It was actually a small part of Okashi Galleria, a chain shops that sell Japanese snacks.


At HKD45, the price was a bit steep for this original potato chips with chocolate sauce and soft ice-cream. The ice-cream was delicious!

Within a day, we experienced different aspects of Hong Kong!


Our Hong Kong Travelogue


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Sunday, February 5, 2017

Hong Kong with Children - Hong Kong Science Museum

The children have been exposed to science activities since they were 4-5 years old (read about our home-learning science activities). Now they have developed more interest in science, and they enjoy watching videos on science experiment, and conduct simple science activities with materials that we have at home. So when we were planning our itinerary to Hong Kong in December 2016, we decided to visit Hong Kong Science Museum!

We actually spent a few hours at Hong Kong Science Museum, because there were so many hands-on activities! Let us share with you some of the exhibition areas that the children love!


Children Gallery (Ground floor)
Currently, Children Gallery is located in a small area at the Ground floor. A new one will be opened at 3rd floor in year 2017. Our children were amazed that the ball dancing in mid-air! They were also fascinated by the "Cloud Ring" exhibit, which they pressed down a panel to produce rings of cloud.



Lift Sciences (Ground floor)
We were greeted by Lufengosaurus magnus!



What is your reaction time? We challenged one another, and unfortunately, I lost to my children!



Light & World of Mirrors (Ground floor)
It was fun to take photos in front of different types of mirrors! The children also built their very own periscope after they learnt about reflection of light.



E&M Gallery (1st floor)
The children learnt about the concepts of electricity and magnetism through reading the instructions and perform simple experiment, and then by observation. It was an engaging way for children to learn, rather than just reading the facts from a poster.



Mathematics (1st floor)
We challenged ourselves with many brain teasers! Some of them were so challenging that I had to take a peek at the solution to solve the problem!



Food Science (2nd floor)
Let's choose a balanced diet! There was a cycling machine to show us how long we had to cycle after eating a certain type of food!



Transportation (2nd floor)
How to get to Hong Kong Science Museum by car? Our children drove a racing car, but could not accelerate often because of the heavy traffic jam! The video of the simulator looked like it was produced long long time ago, however, our children still love this exhibit most!



Energy Machine (from Ground floor to 2nd floor)
Have you heard of Rube Goldberg machine? It is basically a chain reaction of machines to perform a task. We made a simple Rube Goldberb machine at home some time ago! But this one at Hong Kong Science Museum is gigantic - it is 22-metre tall! We were totally amazed by the complexity of this energy machine. We also had to go from 2nd floor all the way down to the Ground floor by escalator to follow the movement of the balls!




T-rex Revealed - the Augmented + Virtual Reality Experience (2 December 2016 - 1 March 2017)
During our visit in December 2016, there was a special exhibition on T-rex. This was an entirely virtual experience using augmented reality technology. Tablets were provided for the visual impact and earphones for the audio.



The children had a great work-out in Jurassic period - they were chasing after the dinosaurs, not the other way round!




Our Thoughts about Hong Kong Science Museum
For many visitors to Hong Kong, they may not have considered visiting Hong Kong Science Museum. However, we feel that it is a gem for us, because our focus on family travel is experiential learning. It is truly a great learning experience for the children and adults!


Hong Kong Science Museum
Address: 2 Science Museum Road, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Website: http://hk.science.museum/en_US/web/scm/index.html
How to get there:
By MTR
  • Tsim Sha Tsui Station (B2 Exit), walk about 18 minutes along Cameron Road towards the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui East, or
  • Hung Hom MTR Station, walk about 15 minutes along the footbridge towards the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui East.

Our Hong Kong Travelogue


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Monday, December 19, 2016

Christmas at Hong Kong Disneyland

Our children first visited Hong Kong Disneyland in June 2015, and visited there again in December 2016. So we have experienced Hong Kong Disneyland in both summer and winter. If you ask me, which is a better time to visit Hong Kong Disneyland with children? I would say that December is a better choice! 

2 reasons for visiting Hong Kong Disneyland in December:
  • It is cool during early December, and may not be too cold unless there is a cold front. The temperature is nice especially for watching Flights of Fantasy Parade at 3 p.m. We had a terrible experience to watch the parade in June - we were sitting under the scorching hot sun! Our children were complaining, and their grandparents were not feeling comfortable.
  • The Christmas decoration rises the Disney experience to a new height!


How to survive Hong Kong Disneyland with children? Please read our sharing on:


During our first visit, we bought 2-day ticket, but during our second visit, we bought 1-day ticket, since we knew which areas we were interested in. We bought our tickets from Hong Kong Disneyland official website, as there was a promotion of "Play and Dine" which includes one-day pass and a free combo meal, I think it is really value for money since we had our lunch and dinner there.

The opening time was 10.30 a.m. on the weekday, and we reached there at 9.30 a.m. to collect our tickets from the ticketing booth. On the way from the MTR station, we could already feel the Christmas atmosphere.



The gate was opened 30 minutes before the actual opening time, so that visitors could take a stroll along Main Street, U.S.A. and take some photos before the rest of the theme park is opened.




Many of our favourite Disney characters were dressed up for Christmas. Yes, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse too! But the queue to take photo with them was super long, and the children were not keen to join the long queue. So what I did was to go all the way to the front, when one group of visitors had done their photoshoot and just before the next group went up, I called "Mickey! Minnie!" and took photos when they turned towards my direction! Another photo opportunity was when they took a break. They actually walked right behind us but we were not aware!



Although we didn't take photos with Mickey and Minnie, we didn't miss the photo opportunity with Santa Goofy at his special Santa Goofy's Post Office.



In addition to taking photo with Santa Goofy, we were given Disney Christmas postcard to pen our thoughts. With the Santa Goofy stamp, the postcard was made special! The interesting thing was, we could send the postcard without any charge! We received our own postcard in Singapore about 9 days later.



If you love to collect items from Disneyland, you may want to get the special Santa Mickey popcorn bucket! Ok, it is not cheap, as it costs HKD100+...



And there were Santa Mickey and Minnie soft toys!



During our second visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, our children got to experience something different from our previous visit - to take part in the performances!

First, they performed as the warriors in "Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple" at Tomorrowland.


Tips for you if your children want to be part of "Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple":

  • Once the theme park opens, go straight to The Space Trader located next to the Hyperspace Mountain in Tomorrowland to register, there is limited slots and is based on first-come-first-served basis.
  • At least 25 minutes before the performance, get your seat on the left hand side when you are facing the stage. This is because you can take photos and videos of your children's faces from this direction when they are "fighting". If you sit on the other side, you may only get to take photos and videos of their back.
  • Remind your children not to wear the hood, one reason is for hygienic purpose (ok, call me OCD), another reason is that the hood may block their faces when you are taking photos and videos.

Each warrior was awarded a sticker and a photopass (you have to pay for the photos, of course!) at the end of the performance.

Another performance that my children took part was "Flight of Fantasy Parade". We were sitting near the entrance of Tomorrowland, facing Sleeping Beauty Castle. When the parade team stops for a few minutes, the performers would invite children sitting behind Mickey's parade float to stand up and dance together!




During last visit, we were impressed by the musical "The Golden Mickey Presented in Disney's Storybook Theater". Now the performance is changed to "Mickey and the Wondrous Book". I personally prefer the previous one though.



The giant Christmas tree at Main Street U.S.A. was lighted up in the evening and it looked beautiful.



We usually don't spend much money on purchasing items from the shops. Well, after all, we have spent quite a fair bit on the admission tickets! So we usually collect some free items as souvenirs!





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