Where are the Kuala's?: March 2015

What a trip! Hong Kong was awesome. The food, the culture, the weather, the fireworks!! We went to Hong Kong in February for Chinese New Year. We were looking for somewhere to go over the holiday (Eric got 2 days off work) and decided on Hong Kong. We had heard good things from friends and the price was right, so we booked. We left on the 18th and back on the 21st, a quick one, but fun.

We left late afternoon, the kids were great on the the flight. We had just recently gotten the CARES travel seat belts for the kids, and they worked great on the flight...especially since we both had empty seats next to us and got to use the CARES belts on the plane without actually having to buy seats for them!! We got in about 8:00pm to HK and headed straight to the hotel, Two McDonnell Road (the address and the name). It was a serviced apartment, we booked a room that had separate bedroom and living room area which was great for putting the kids down and still being able to hang out. The room service at the hotel wasn't open late, but that was really the only complaint. Room was good and there was a grocery store a 2 minute walk away, perfect. We also had a little kitchenette which was great for us and the kids, the hotel provided us with two cribs and two chairs for the whole time we were there! We finally got the kids down and got to relax, eat dinner, and cheers to us with a little champagne :)

The next day we got up, we all slept in a little bit, thankfully, and fed the kids and then grabbed a taxi to Victoria's Peak. It's the highest mountain on the island and a great lookout point for seeing the city. We got up there and the wind was blowing and it was freezing! Of course, Eric was in shorts and a t-shirt, we had to go into the mall up there and find him a sweatshirt since he left his in the room, he ended up with a Hard Rock sweatshirt. After we got Eric settled, we walked into a nice little restaurant and enjoyed a delicious breakfast. The food in HK was great, I had a yummy eggs benedict and a spicy bloody mary, and shared a fruit plate with the kids :) We walked down to the lookout point after that and enjoyed the view and took some pictures. Austin was hamming it up with the Chinese ladies, playing peek a boo and waving at them, they loved it, poor Hailey was tired.

Delicious Brunch

Hong Kong Skyline

It was a little bit windy :P

That's better!

Beautiful View (including Eric and Hailey) :)

Our next stop was Sky 100, or the tallest lookout point in HK. If you couldn't tell by the name, we were on the 100th floor of a building with 360 degree views of the surrounding area. Since it was Chinese New Year there wasn't a lot of people out and about, they were all with families celebrating which boded well for us! We let the kids roam and run around once we got up top since there wasn't many people. They had an absolute blast running all over the place. Running to the windows and looking out and mostly running back and forth on some Avenue of Stars mock up they had. It was on a one step platform and they just had the time of their lives running back and forth and after that they had the time of their lives around the corner practicing the downward dog yoga move, lol. This was really the first time they had tried to 'stand on their heads' over and over again like that. It was hilarious!! Sky 100 was followed by a delicious lunch sitting outside by a heat lamp (yea, it was chilly in HK!) and then we took some pictures of the kids running around in their Chinese New Year outfits with the display that was set-up in the mall. We pushed our a luck a bit and went across the bay to check out the Avenue of Stars, which is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the stars names and hand prints in the ground, but with Chinese actors. The kids started freaking out once we got there, so we walked it really quick, took a couple pics and grabbed a taxi back to hotel for much needed naps!

Enjoying his view

They kept running back and forth across this display, had a blast

Lunch on the Patio

Year of the Goat (Sheep)

Austin Road!

Hong Kong Skyline from the Harbor

Bruce Lee!

So, Hong Kong is apparently one of the top 10 festival destinations in the world according to Forbes. The celebrations they celebrate are a big parade Thursday night, a massive fireworks display Friday night, and a big horse race Saturday night that is supposed to see 100,000 people show up. Thursday night after the kids woke up from their nap and we fed them dinner and went over back across the bay to find a spot to wait and watch the parade. This ended up not working out so well. We were just off of one of the main roads the parade was supposed to go down. We thought it might turn and go down our street, but realized that it wasn't going to happen. The parade was late and started on another street, at that point we realized we were at the end of the parade route and we had already been waiting a couple hours and we weren't going to see it directly so, we left. Which was unfortunate since we wasted a couple hours waiting outside in the cold. We took the train back to the hotel and ran into another American woman with her son and she said they left before it started too because they were on the main road of the parade route and were getting pushed and shoved around because there were thousands of people on the street. Scary when you are by yourself and trying to watch out for your 7 year old son. We got back to the hotel, put the kids down and relaxed with a bottle of wine :)

Waiting for the Parade...then we left...

Nap Time!

After a super busy first day doing all the touristy things we decided to just walk around the second day with no plan in hand. Our second day we went for breakfast and found this awesome place called The Flying Pan (that's supposed to say Flying). Breakfast was so good, Eric got a steak eggs benedict and I got ranchero eggs with bacon and avocado, YUM!! Next we walked around Hollywood road where the antique stores are and where you buy fun things to take home, such as mammoth ivory (which is apparently legal and very expensive). Unfortunately for us though, all the shops were closed as everyone was out celebrating Chinese New Year with their families...bummer...So, we walked around some more and found a Temple to go into and just enjoyed the day.

Shop where you can buy Mammoth Ivory

Lion Dance we came across

My sweet boy

Sleepy Girl

We went back to the hotel after the day for naps, relaxed and then headed out and found a yummy Dim Sum place for dinner. After dinner we picked a spot on Victoria Harbor to wait and watch the fireworks display. The fireworks were AMAZING!! Hailey absolutely loved them, she kept saying "WOW" so sweet, I'm so glad she enjoyed them...however Austin on the other hand did not.
He hardly watched them, wasn't interested, poor guy was tired.

Dim Sum

Nathan Road and all the people hanging out before fireworks

Waiting on the fireworks to start

Our last day we ventured out and found another amazing Parisian cafe for breakfast. We both had mimosas and I had the eggs benedict and Eric an omelet. The kids had snacks and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves :) We wandered around a bit more after that, went for a walk through the botanical gardens and then went back to the hotel to check out and watch the Lion Dance before we headed to the airport. The Lion Dance was really cool. The music, the colors, the dance and the culture, it's hard to beat. Hailey loved it, of course and Austin did not...go figure. He sat in the stroller with his fingers in his ears, lol.