1 Dec 2013 - Ocean Park (海洋公园)

Our plan today is to visit Ocean Park (海洋公园).  We took MTR from Tung Chung station to Admiralty station where there are direct bus (Citybus Route 629) that ferry passengers to Ocean Park.  The journey was about half an hour.  As I've already purchased the admission tickets (at discounted rate) online before this trip, we went straight to the entry gate without having to queue for tickets, we were greeted by a huge christmas tree once we entered the park.

The last time we came here was more than 10 years ago and this place had changed quite significantly.  As today is a Sunday, the whole place was pretty crowded.  And the weather was quite warm.  The first zone that we went to was the Old Hong Kong Street (香港老街).  Jerlene and Javier had a chance to sit on a rickshaw and made a phone call from an old style telephone booth.

They also experienced being a Tram driver.

Our whole family then went on a Merry-Go-Round ride before taking the cable car up the hill to another part of the park.

The cable cars were totally different from those that we took 13 years ago.  I still remember at that time, it's more like a chairlift whereby our legs were dangling in the air while going up the hill.

The view from the cable car was great.

At one of the game stalls, Jerlene managed to win a cute Plush Dino all by herself.  Javier was a bit sad as he did not win anything.  I then helped him to win a Plush Turtle at another game stall.

By noon, the weather got really hot and it's time for some ice cream to cool ourselves down.

Next we went into a Jelly-fish enclosure.  These creatures are beautiful and yet mysterious.  Their photos usually will turn out to be one of the best in the entire trip.

The next section of the park consists of different zones such as Tropical Rainforest, Arctic and the Antarctica.

Instead of taking the cable car back to the lower section of the park, we took an express train.  Throughout the journey, there are multimedia display all around the train cabin.  The Giant Panda enclosure is one of the more popular attractions in the park.  Initially both pandas were sleeping. So we decided to stay around for a while, hopefully the pandas will wake up.  Our patience paid off and we managed to have a very close encounter with the pandas.

By around 5:30pm, we were all very tired and decided to call it a day.

There is a musical fountain spectacular display in about an hour's time but we decided to give it a miss.

Other than the warm weather and the huge crowd, this is quite a fun place for a family outing.  Before we left the park, Jerlene performed a levitation trick in front of everyone.

30 Nov 2013 - Starlight Romance at New Town Plaza

Before leaving ShaTin New Town Plaza, we visited the Christmas lighting display called Starlight Romance.

The lighting display is created by Italian artists using 100,000 colored LED light bulbs. The display is eco-friendly as it uses patented made-in-Italy energy-saving bulbs that reduces energy use by 90%.

Jerlene and Javier were amazed by the lighting and decided to display their dancing skills in front of everyone.

In the 20,000 square feet garden, the artists created a Renaissance-style cathedral wall that is 108 feet tall, a recreation of the Tiber River, a traditional Christmas destination for Italians, as well as a light carousel and light canopy.

On top of this dazzling display, a nightly 3D light show with a snowfall effect will be presented every 30 minutes, along with a program of singing and dance performances.

We were glad that we did not miss this display!

30 Oct 2013 - Snoopy's World

From Che Kung Temple, we took the MTR to ShaTin (沙田) station which is just two stops away.  Next to the station is New Town Plaza Shopping Mall.  We were not there to shop, we were there to visit Snoopy's World.

Not many people is aware of such a kid's attraction exist in Hong Kong other than Disneyland and Ocean Park.  Snoopy's World is situated on the third floor of the mall.  Though it is a very small scale theme park, Jerlene and Javier still enjoyed it.  Furthermore, it's free admission.

Throughout the park, there are life-size figures from Peanuts such as Charlie Brown, Sally, Linus and of course Snoopy and Woodstock etc.

There is a playground with several slides where the kids spent most of their time at.  Also, there is a canoe ride, the one and only ride in the park, through a boating canal.  As today is Saturday, the crowd is terrible and we queued for almost an hour for the ride.

Other than our lunch in the mall, we spent almost the entire afternoon in Snoopy's World. When we left the park, the sky was already dark.

30 Nov 2013 - 车公庙 (Che Kung Temple)

Our first destination of the day is Sha Tin Che Kung Temple (沙田车公庙).

This temple located in the Tai Wai area of Sha Tin honours Che Kung, a military commander of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) whose advantageous power for suppressing uprisings and plagues made him a household name. In popular folklore, it’s said that Che Kung escorted the Song dynasty’s last emperor on his escape to Sai Kung in what is now called the New Territories. His achievements led to him eventually becoming revered as a god.

The original temple was built here around 300 years ago in a desperate move to stop an epidemic that was spreading across the Sha Tin area. According to legend, the epidemic began to subside on the day construction was completed. The structure you see today was erected in 1993 to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers during Che Kung’s festival, which happens on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

A giant statue of Che Kung can be found at the altar in the main worship hall, while the main altar is also flanked by a huge drum and bell. Next to this is a fan-bladed wheel of fortune, which, the faithful believe, will bring good luck when spun three times. Fortune tellers often gather to ply their trade at the left of the entrance.

Before leaving the temple, we bought Jerlene and Javier each a windmill for good luck.

29 Nov 2013 - Look what they brought for the trip...

Before the trip, we had asked Jerlene and Javier to pack their own bags.  We did not check what they had brought till now.  Let's see what they bring.........

Jerlene brought a few phush toys, a story book and a princess crown with her self made princess wands, which she had planned to bring to Disneyland.  As for Javier, he brought a Yo-Yo, two notebooks and a red phone (just the handset).

Javier brought the phone along because he wanted to call our helper, 爷爷奶奶 and 表姨.  No comment.......  :-P

29 Nov 2013 - 2nd trip to Hong Kong this year

Ever since we came back from our Hong Kong trip in May this year, Jerlene and Javier had been asking me when we can go to HK Disneyland again.  At that time, I had promised them Oct but due to our busy schedule, our 2nd HK trip was delayed till now.  We took the second morning flight (on subload) whereby there were still quite a number of available seats.

The Christmas decoration is already put up at Terminal 3 and this year's theme is SpongeBob SquarePants.

We had quite a good impression of Novotel Citygate at Tung Chung during our previous trip.  As such, we decided to stay there again for this trip.  The hotel provides free shuttle to and from Novotel Citygate, which is just 5 mins away from the airport.

The room that we were allocated this time round seems slightly smaller than the one we stayed previously.  And it did not have a bathtub in the toilet but that's ok because the weather was quite cold even without aircon at this time of the year.  Below is the mountain view from our room.

We had our lunch at 大家乐 in Fu Dong Mall, our favourite eating place during the last trip.

I did not plan any specific itinerary for today.  It was already 3pm by the time we finished lunch.  We were supposed to meet a friend in Causeway Bay but she could not make it last minute.  So we decided to take the tram to the Peak.  From Tung Chung MTR station, we took the train to Hong Kong MTR station where we walked to the connected Central station.  We followed a map and finally reached the Peak Tram station.  Sad to say, the queue at the station was terrible and we decided to give it a miss.  Looking at the queue, I guessed we would probably have to wait for more than an hour.  Jerlene and Javier will not have the patience to wait so long.  Guess it's because today is Friday.

As we walked back to Central Station, we passed by St John Cathedral.  We went in to take a look before going to 湾仔.  There we found our favourite 鸡蛋仔 and we bought two packets.

By then, Javier was so tired and sleepy.  He kept asking to go back to our hotel.  It's understandable because all of us woke up before 6am this morning.  Anyway the sky turned dark as early as 5:30pm.  Before heading back to our hotel room, we bought some snacks and tit bits for the next few days.

23 Nov 2013 - 汉语拼音 (Han Yu Pin Yin)

Jerlene has been learning 汉语拼音 in her child care centre.  In order to show me that she had mastered it, Jerlene demonstrated to me in this video.  I remembered I had learned it in school as well but hers seems to be a longer version.  Bo Po Mo Fo De Te Ne Le ..............

17 Nov 2013 - A visit to the "revamped" Suntec City

Suntec City has been under renovation for quite sometime and I recently heard that part of it has opened for business with many new shops.  As such, I decided to go there and have a look with my family.  Can you spot Javier among the minions?  Haha.....so happened he wore yellow with black stripes today.

As we walked pass a mini playground, Jerlene and Javier started pulling us towards it.  They had their fun there for about half an hour before we went for our lunch at 鼎泰丰.

The place where carrefour used to be is still under renovation.  However, Giant Hypermart has took over the area which used to be occupied by the food court.  We did a some groceries shopping at Giant before we left the place for home.  It's weird that Giant doesn't allow shoppers to push the trolleys to the car park.  It causes much inconvenience to shoppers, especially for those who bought a lot or with large bulky items.  I hope Giant management will seriously look into it.

It's a great day out!