Holidaying in Hong Kong with Kids: Our First Family Vacation – Part 1

I used to travel at least twice a year ever since I started to earn my own keep as a full time working adult. It was my way of recharging and rewarding myself for a hard day’s work. Little did I anticipate how much I’d be able to curb my wanderlust (read: deprive myself) in exchange for a healthy pregnancy and a happy, “routined” baby, even if it meant not travelling outside Singapore for 2 years, and jealously liking my friends’ vacation photos on Facebook, wondering when it would be our turn.

Initially, there was the “can baby withstand the flight and sudden change in jetlag?” worry during the first year, while the practical husband would toss doubts such as “would baby even remember this trip? Would we enjoy the holiday since we have a 90% routine-trained baby which means keeping strictly to the usual nap times, keeping to baby’s early bed time at 6.30pm and making sure that the room was quiet and dark through the night?”.

When our firstborn grew old enough to stretch the routine to a more flexible one, I was pregnant with Ollie. The super cautious husband decided to put our 2nd family holiday to Perth on hold, restricting travel as much as possible since I was in the 1st trimester with lots of cramping. Naturally, that narrowed any chances of travelling even more.

Thankfully, the husband came through when I requested for a babymoon during the tail end of my 2nd trimester with Ollie with the blessings of our obgyn. Our first overseas family trip was enjoyable, although a year later, Liam couldn’t recall ever being in an aeroplane before (My subconscious heard the husband whisper “I told you so”) and asked when he could go on one. But I knew with the birth of Ollie and the parent-child ratio being a 1:1 from our previous 2:1 arrangement, plus a few unprecedented events on his side of the family which didn’t quite put him in the mood for anything, it would take a long while before I could even get him to consider our next overseas family trip.

So after pulling through and surviving a somewhat hectic year of late nights and insane work stresses as a full time mom last November (2016), I suggested going for our first family-of-4 overseas holiday.

“You sure you want to go for a family holiday? Or you rather the Jypsiere you’ve been eyeing since Feb?” he asked, just to be sure I knew what I was trading my potential Christmas present for. It had been 2 years since the husband last got me any bags or shoes. While I was tickled and flattered that the husband was actually starting to take note of what I fancied, I knew we all needed quality family time more than anything.

“Yep, I’m sure I want a family holiday”, I assured. My husband was surprised at my certainty, and I felt tad impressed with myself for not showing a hint of contemplation. No doubt, having a new bag would probably make me happy for a bit, yet my yearning for quality, uninterrupted time with my family to end the year with was much stronger. An overseas trip would serve that want because it would discourage work calls and interruptions especially from the husband’s end.

And then there was the question: where to, for our first family trip?

We had Shanghai (we have family there plus there was Shanghai Disneyland), Japan (also have family there and Tokyo Disneyland!) and Hong Kong (no family there, but husband’s very familiar with that place, there’s Disneyland too) in mind. But with insanely priced air fares increasing by the day and us being unsure if our boys could handle the single digit temperature in Shanghai and Japan, we decided on Hong Kong for a start. Also, with the boys loving Hong Kong style Congee and Cantonese styled egg noodles, and the shortest travel time of the 3 destinations (4-hour flight); there was lesser to worry about.

Hong Kong? With 2 kids under 5? I heard some well-meaning friends gasp for a bit when I added that we intended to travel by MTR as much as possible to satiate Liam’s enthusiasm for trains at the same time. Well, it really wasn’t that bad. Especially once we figured out where the lifts and pram-friendly gantries were.

With lessons learnt from the last family trip, I refrained from choosing an early morning flight this time round. Instead I chose a late afternoon departure flight, which was perfect for the kids except that they were too excited that they couldn’t nap earlier at home and refused to nap during the flight. Uh-oh. Thankfully for the iPad, which kept them engaged with a few apps, and a short flight (although I might have asked one too many times “how long more before we land” when the captain kept announcing that our flight would be delayed due to heavy air traffic into Hong Kong International Airport).

Liam’s all ready to jet off!

Mom would have loved to join us if not for maxing out her leave on her many solo trips during the year

The “kiasu” husband bought a bag of lollies to help his boys cope with air pressure during take off and descent, which also caused us to be the last passengers to board the plane 7 minutes prior to take-off. Kudos to very patient ground staff who didn’t rush us throughout

After much delay in the air, we finally arrived and of course, we had to take the Airport Express for our train-fanatic Liam!

Liam had been watching countless YouTube videos of the Hong Kong Airport Express, so it was pretty surreal for him to finally step into one.

Tired, happy faces!

Poor Ollie was so exhausted from having zero naps and a 9pm landing in Hong Kong International Airport that he dozed off the moment the Airport Express left the station. I felt so bad and wished I insisted on bringing/loaning a toddler carrier. Thankfully we had our super lightweight pram, which proved to be really useful throughout the trip.

With the exhaustion kicking in, I very much wanted to cab from Kowloon Station to our hotel or even hop onto one of the airport express complimentary buses. But the husband didn’t want to disappoint a very excited Liam who kept asking to sit the MTR despite the tiredness which was clearly hitting everyone. And so we hopped on the Tung Chung Train Line with our newly purchased Octopus cards (Liam was tickled he had his very own to tap his way in and out of the gantries), changed trains at Central (中環), with our final stop at Mongkok (旺角).

And then there was the turnstile gantry situation at Mongkok station. I tried to push the stroller (with Ollie sleeping in it) through with every turn of the turnstile but got stuck. Eventually I gave up and decided to ask the husband to approach the staff to open the side gate for us (why didn’t we think of that earlier? It must have been due to the weariness from the flight). Evidently Hong Kong was slower than Singapore in upgrading their train stations to being more pram, kids and wheelchair friendly. Although the next day, I did discover one gantry which used the auto-gate (instead of turnstiles) and was built specially for prams and wheelchairs and those with luggage, located at a corner and accessible via the only lift available from the train platforms to concourse level.

Cordis Hotel Hong Kong at Langham Place made quite the impression within the first 5 minutes of our arrival. Not only was it conveniently located at exit C of Mongkok Station which was linked by a shopping mall, we were rather impressed with the service too. 2 other guests tried to cut our queue by interrupting with a question and was about to help themselves to the hotel towels prepared for us to freshen up during our hotel check-in,  when the front desk staff was quick to react by telling them to wait in line for their turn. Next, staff Ivan stepped out from behind the front desk, knelt down on one knee, introduced himself to Liam (Ollie was still asleep), and went through the contents of the kids pack before passing it over to Liam. For what seemed to be a bustling designer hotel, I was heartened by Cordis making kids a big deal to them. They even reminded us to reach out to them at any point should we want complimentary use of their strollers.

While planning for this trip, I did my usual speed reading of hundreds of reviews before deciding on a hotel.  Yet Cordis was never once on my shortlist… until I spotted a very good discount on Agoda. When seasoned traveller and good friend Bumblebee Mum reassured me that it was a very good hotel with a 2 Michelin- starred restaurant within its premises in addition to the convenience of being a 5-min walk to the train station,  I knew there was no need to continue reading hotel reviews.

The deluxe room was very comfortable for us: 2 adults and 2 kids. What stood out for the kids was a very sizeable bathtub which had a clear glass partition separating the bathroom and bedroom area, which meant they could have their baths and watch the telly (thanks to really decent speakers installed in the bathroom) at the same time! During our entire trip, they enjoyed bathing time so much that it took a lot of cajoling to get them out and were always so eager to have a bath in the tub that they were practically reminding us it was shower time every morning and night!

My favourite part of the room was the floor to ceiling windows, which revealed a gorgeous view of Mongkok City. And of course, the handy phone which allowed me to stay connected on the go without having to incur roaming charges.

The practical husband liked the hotel for its proximity to the Mongkok MTR station and also being just a street away from supper. Our suppers were so delicious that the kids kept looking forward to nightly suppers of dough fritters, wanton mee and congee. The kids enjoyed the food in Hong Kong so much that we didn’t have to make any bedtime nor morning time milk for them throughout our entire stay!

{The view from our room}

Thanks to block-out curtains in the hotel room, we could all sleep in till we were ready to start our first full day in Hong Kong.

After a somewhat disheartening brunch at Ming’s Court – they either sold out on stuff we wanted to try, or didn’t have kids friendly dishes save for really plain congee – we decided to explore the area around the hotel.

Vibrant Market Stalls at Mongkok

Walking through rows of stalls selling fresh produce, clothes, dry goods and bags, it was such an interesting sight. The vibes, the grumpy old ladies who didn’t like having to give way to us and our stroller amidst their Sunday marketing, the stall vendors shouting out what they were selling as we walked past, the colourful display of fruits and vegetables, and the stalls against the backdrop of old buildings – I LOVED IT ALL.

But after 45 minutes, we gave in to the heat and perspiration. For a supposedly Winter season, Hong Kong sure felt extremely warm at 27°C. We decided to end our stroll of the markets and hop on the MTR instead (Liam’s daily highlight during the trip) to Central (中環).

And what a drastic change of scenery it was too, to be greeted with an intricate and magnificent display of a Christmas wonderland right in the heart of  The Landmark. Note: the nursing/baby changing rooms there are so spacious and clean, I’d recommend a diaper change or nursing session (if needed) just before you leave this place.

But of course, the real reason why we were in Central was to let our little transportation geek experience the “Ding Ding” (aka. trams) for the first time! It’s always a must-sit for me whenever I’m in Hong Kong, so I wanted to introduce it to the boys too.

The Ding Ding Experience at Central Station

Mommy! Which number are we sitting? Let’s go!”

Being a Sunday and the Ding Ding being the most affordable and cheapest mode of transportation in Hong Kong, the tram was terribly crowded from entrance to exit. We were thankful for kind folks, who not only helped us with the pram on the way up, but also gave up their seats so that the boys could watch the bustling city whiz by in comfort.

“Ding Ding, Ding Ding” the boys would echo and break into giggles. Meanwhile, us husband & wife sneaked in a couple shot.

 After a pitstop to indulge in our favourite mango dessert at Xu Liu Shan (許留山), we made our way to The Peak Lower Terminus .

The Peak Tram

The Peak Tram was on our to-go because we’ve been reading on Funicular trams during Liam’s bedtime over the last few weeks and thought it’d be fun to let him experience sitting in one. Turns out there was a rather long queue due to the weekend crowd, but fortunately the wait was relatively short with the queue moving rather quickly.

En-route to Peak Tram Lower Terminus located at Central station, which is also where the Central Business District is at.

During this trip, we taught Liam how to read signs and navigate his way as well

Another chance at taking a couple shot while in the queue to sit on the tram.

Just as we heaved a sigh of relief at finally clearing the queue outside in 20 minutes and finally being at the Historical Gallery marker, we were flabbergasted to see another long queue snaking towards the pram! Goodness me. Thankfully Liam got curg timeious about the various things that were on display and about the history of the Tram, and Ollie wanted to be involved in our little educational chatter as well  – so that definitely helped in passing time.

When it was finally our turn to board the tram, I was surprised to see that Liam managed to score the front seats by taking the initiative to ask if he could share a seat (an older boy was intending to reserve a few seats for his family who were way behind) with 2 other passengers. The passengers ended up abandoning the seats, allowing me, Ollie & Liam to occupy it together instead.

And at long last, we finally got to experience the cold at The Peak. The windy, unforgiving, harsh cold.

“Mommy! Take a photo of me and my (newly bought) train…PLEASE?”, he asked repeatedly as my attention was given to the orange-hued sky. How could I decline, even if he was blocked and surrounded by other eager folks who were there to enjoy the view from the Peak too.

The sky got dark really quickly once the sun set, and with the temperature dropping to lower digits, we scurried back into the mall to get some hot cocoa, cake (Ollie’s request) & warmth, while I attempted to brave the wind & cold shortly after, to head to the next look-out point to get a photo of the iconic city skyline.

It felt good to have some me-time, even if it was just for 10-15 minutes, even if it was too cold for my hands to stay still and take a selfie. And so I did the next best thing, and asked a couple if they could help me take a photo…although I much rather take one together with my boys than to take one alone.

So moments later, I sprinted back to the cafe, convinced the boys that the cold wasn’t that bad and got my wish! Never mind that we didn’t get any decent nor nice family photos against the illuminating city skyline, no thanks to using the selfie stick for the first time and Liam insisting on holding on to the remote. I love that we got a photo of us 4 nonetheless. Till the next better photo of us when we’re back!

The taxis waiting at The Peak wanted to charge us (and a few others who asked) 250 HKD, refusing to use the meter, just to drive to the lower terminus station – which was about a 10 minutes drive down. Refusing to pay approx. 45 SGD cab fare for what should be a 10-15 SGD fare, we decided to take the bus (since the bus terminus was just beside) to the nearest MTR station instead.

Turns out the bus didn’t seem like a much slower mode of transport. I was taken aback at the speed the bus driver was negotiating the winding slopes down, although the embarrassment of both boys nodding into other passengers’ embrace mid-journey might have distracted me more. We ended up missing our intended stop as boys were so deep in sleep that I could not manage carrying both boys and heading to the exit doors in time. The husband who was stuck at the standing space upfront was blocked by so many passengers that he couldn’t get to me in time either. What an incident, I’m glad that we didn’t allow the incident to frustrate us as we quickly worked out our next course of action.

When we finally got back to the hotel room after a long day, I was relived to see that the husband volunteering to take on showering duty for the kids. “Go and take a break, have a coffee or something”, he said as he gently nudged me towards the door.

And off I went, squealing as I walked past a Line Store (I wanted to buy almost everything in there!), chuckling as I sipped my grande-sized latte while doing a spot of late night shopping at H&M which was having a 70% sale, and taking in the vibrant night scene amidst buskers, locals and colourful neon signs.

What a fulfilling day it was.

Next up, sharing our first visit to Hong Kong Disneyland (Hong Kong Travels Part 2).