Hong Kong - Day 1

Our 8 day vacation to Hong Kong began in the early hours of a Sunday morning.  Gu Gu and Ah Ma came to pick us up to the airport.  We had a light meal before going in.



As this was the 1st time we actually departed from Terminal 3, we decided to go in earlier to explore what T3 had to offer to travellers. I must say, it is pretty comprehensive. They offered Foot Reflexlogy outlets, free lounge area for the weary travellers and even an indoor playground for the little ones. Guess where we ended up spending most of the time?



Oh... and did I mention? We will be flying on the A380. Woo hoo! Just cannot wait to board the plane.

I quite like the fact that the crew prepared child-specific items for the little ones.  Even the heahphones were in bright colours as opposed to the black ones that we had.  Even the Kid's Meal was prepared and arranged with the child in mind.

I chose the English Breakfast meal.  As for Alex, at point of booking, we informed the reservations officer that he doesn't want any beef with his meal.  When the flight attendant came over, she said, "Sir, your meal is the no-beef, Hindu meal".  At first we didn't really take much notice, until the meal came and then we realised the Reservations Officer must have thought he opted for the Indian meal.  We had a good laugh over it.  Lucky the meal was pretty nice.

After thoroughly enjoying ourselves on the A380, we finally arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport.  We quickly collected our luggages and met the tour guide to take us to Disney.

The bus that picked us up was the 26-seater bus but there were only 2 families.  Ours and another family of 4.  What a waste of resources, I say.


Finally we reached the front door of the Disney Hollywood Hotel. Very colourful atmosphere.

I must say, our room was rather spacious, considering how notoriously cramped rooms on Hong Kong can be.  We had 2 queen-sized beds.  I know I am going to have a comfortable night's sleep.

After a quick check-in, we were off to do some shopping before the day ends.  Some more photos around the hotel before taking the train to Tung Chung.....

 
 
 


The Disney trains were so cute.  Even the windows to the trains were in the shape of Mickey.  I know I sound so 'sua-ku' but seriously, it's my first time at Disney, so please bear with me.  Every little thing about the train also must take photo.

  1st stop is Tung Chung.... shopping at Citygates Outlet stores.  Since it is supposed to be the sales period in Hong Kong, we were hoping to grab some good buys.

 

But first, we need to get our 'Octopus' card for our travels since we plan to take the MTR pretty regularly.

 

Too busy shopping, so not much photos of us subsequently.  But we did manage to find time to rest and have dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

Finally, we were shopped out.  Although we expected to get a lot of stuff but in the end, a lot of the items didn't carry our sizes so pretty disappointing.  We did, however, manage to get some discounted items at Espirit (for Alex) and Adidas/Nike (for me).  The best was at Giordano where we simply just grabbed lots of T-shirts and shorts.

 And finally, our last stop for the day, Saint Honore for some snacks for tomorrow.  Just in case, we get hungry.
And that ends Day 1 of our Hong Kong trip.
San

Army Open House

A long overdue post.... but better late than never.....















We visited the Army Open House in the City when it opened their doors on 26th-27th May 2012.  Baby G was very excited as he loves his army tanks & helicopters.  He's always said he wants to be a soldier when he grows up.

The Open House was held at the F1 area, thus the name of "In the City".

The sky was quite overcast when we were about to leave, but we decided to risk the weather and go ahead with our plans.

At the main entrance, many different types of vehicles greeted us.  The displays had the 'old version' and the 'new version' side by side and it give us a good comparison of what it was like then and what it is now.  I believe Alex recognized many of the 'old versions' of vehicles that he used to see during his NS days.

Here are some of the vehicles on display.

 
 
 

Some of the vehicles that were on display also allowed you to get up close and personal.  However, most of them had pretty long queues, so we only managed to get onto one of these.. a real army tank.... something that Baby G loves so much.

Even I had a chance to get on top of one of these huge machines.

 

And his all-time favourite is the helicopters.  Too bad his Chinook was not around on display, but still, he was still quite happy with the Super Puma and the Apache.

 
 
 

They had a section just for kids too.  There was even an obstacle course, but the queue was simply too long so we chose another course for Baby G.  He quite like it actually, even though he fell quite a number of times.
 
 

After a short rest, we continued on.  The next area on display were the support vehicles.  They had a mobile kitchen, mobile toilet, mobile laundry... pretty amazing.  Although majority of these support vehicles were used in missions in other countries to lend a helping hand to those who really need them.

 
 
 

The queue for the LARC-V was almost 1hr.  I was not allowed in as I was wearing open-toed footwear which was not allowed.  So only Alex & Baby G were allowed to board the LARC-V.  The wait was really long, it really tested Baby G's patience.  By the end of the line, he was practically complaining but in the end, when he finally boarded it, he enjoyed himself a lot.


 

It was a really enjoyable and enriching 5hrs at the Army Open House.  I think I learnt quite a fair bit about the army too.  I think next year, it is the Navy's turn, so we're definitely looking forward to that.

 


San

A Visit to the Istana Grounds

1st May was a public holiday.  Daddy decided to take this oppotunity to visit the Istana grounds.  So we put on our walking shoes and off we went.



Thank goodness for the really fine weather.  It had been so blazing hot the past few days and the sudden onset of heavy rain, we were rather worried our plans would be washed away.  We reached the entrance about 10am.  Had to go through the usual security checks and had to queue a bit.  Entrance is free for residents but there is a $1 fee for the tourists.



It was a lovely stroll along the road, amid the lush greenery and wide open spaces.  The grounds are very well maintained.  Baby G had so much space to run around and to burn up some excess energy.



As we reached nearer to the Istana itself, there were some little side shows for the visitors.  They had the people from the zoo and bird park to create a little awareness of the fauna around us.  Today's topic focused on frogs.  Baby G was so interested in it.  He first tried out the giant jigsaw puzzle and then the lady, Natalie, showed him which were the frogs that made loud noises whenever it rains.  He listened intently and kept asking her about bullfrogs.  I think it's because I thought those frogs that made all those noises were bullfrogs.  Haha.  After the lessons, I now know that they are the Black-eyed Leaf Frog.

As we ventured further onto the Isata grounds, more flora greeted us.  Really nice.  But once we saw the kids play area that they set up, BAby G was more interested in the playground rather than the walk already.

After the most refreshing and invigorating walk, ur tummy beckons us.  We walked over to Plaza Singapura and wanted to have Nandos, but Baby G kept requesting for Swensens.  So we acceeded since he walked with us for almost 2hrs.



And a parting shot from the Istana..... see you again soon..... hmmm... maybe not that soon.... haha....

San

Feeling invigorated