6 Days 5 Nights in Hongkong Travel With A Kid

We traveled to Hongkong recently from the 22nd to 27th Feb for a 6 days 5 nights trip. Even though this was not the first time I visited HK, going there with our kids gave us a totally different expectations and anticipation.

Weather in HK was absolutely great. It was cooling ranging from 13 to 16 degrees for most of the day and we really love the weather because it was just the right sort of temperature that we want.

We traveled via Cathay Pacific airline when they had the promo offer not long ago and it was going for SGD 248 / person. I also realized later on that Singapore airline is having a similar promo that goes for around SGD 250 / person. Oh well, I still think Singapore Airline is better after comparing the two experience.

Upon reaching HK, we took a cab to our nearby hotel which I had purposefully booked for our 5 nights stay at Novotel, Citygate. The check-in was easy and it was 5 min ride from the airport so it was very convenient going to and from the airport. The hotel is also connected to the Citygate mall at TungChung, where branded outlet was located.

Exploring around bedroom

Toilet room

TV Channel 

As most of the trip was kid's planned itinery, our trip was slow and easy.

There is a huge kid play park on the top floor of the Times Square and my boy enjoyed the place so much. We also bought home a few books which we couldn't find in Singapore.

Pony Ride

Busy entertaining himself :)

What!!! Mama lesson again!!??

Hmm, this is more fun :)

Ngong Ping 360

On our second day, we chose to go to the nearby Ngong Ping and Big Buddha since we get to ride the cable car which was fantastic experience for baby O. He was as amazed when the cable car came and he got excited.

Anxiously Waiting...

Wow, Crystal Clear Cabin!!!

Getting Started...

The view was amazing

Reached Finally

Disneyland

Disney was a dreamland for the children and our trip this time round was to include this as part of the itinery.

Tickets were going for about HKD530 and they had increased since the last time I was here a couple years ago. Still, with Disney Shanghai opening in the 2nd half of this year, it looks like there will be competition from then on. There were also many changes to the HK Disneyland which I was very impressed with and looking very different from when I went years ago. Thumbs up to Disney.

There were some which my boy was apparently scared of like the carousel ride and the small small world boat. Now that I think back, it does look like perhaps it's too young for a kid to endure such thing which can be scary.

Entrance of Disneyland ~ Here we come!!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Creatively Looking Disney MTR

Heya Mickey!!!

Carousell Ride :)

This is the new jungle area where I've never been to

The trip was fun overall.

It wasn't overwhelming filled with rush mad to visit anything and all itinery went according to plan.

Hk is also an easy place for toddlers as most restaurant served dimsum, porridge and soup which is a vital criteria for my baby's meal.

Until next time HK :)

Little Planet Indoor Playground Review

There are so many fun and entertaining choices for kids these days.

The latest indoor playground that has opened not too long ago (I think in 2015) in central Orchard road (Centerpoint Mall) that we went to today is the "Little Planet Playground". We really like the playground because they are in close proximity to where we live and secondly they cater more to younger children with role-playing cum learning activities.

The theme of the playground is learning to be imaginative and purposeful pretend play. I really like it because it helps to nurture the mind while playing, not as physical as some other playground are created to be. They are a little like Hokey-Pokey that we used to go, but more pretentious role-playing in this case.

Little Planet Playground Entrance

Little Planet has a farm, market place, kitchen, cafe, fishing area, forest maze and a castle role play area that allows the children to roam around with a realistic educational play environment. These theme play stations are build to mimic a real life situation where for example you get to the supermarket and they get to choose the ingredients, wash them in the kitchen, cook, and then serve to the customers. I think our boy really enjoyed his time there.

The "Farm" Area where seeds are planted

Reaping the rewards after farming

Seafood & Fruits Galore

Finished Shopping :)

Bring my barang-barang home

Unpacking to the kitchen

Overall it's been a really fun and enjoying moment. The crowd wasn't too ferocious since many of them caters to the younger children. I think I'll come back to this again and might bring my nieces and nephews here also some other day.

Thanks for reading :)

Fun With Pororo @ Pororo Park Singapore

Pororo is a famous little Korean icon which has been popular amongst kids, particularly in Asia so when the news about the latest indoor playground Pororo Park opened in Marina Square Singapore, we can't wait to bring our little one there.

The indoor playground is huge, almost similar in size with Cool De Sac, which is located at next door Suntec. The place was overwhelming with crowd when we came and it could be because it was new and second it was during the weekend period and school holiday.

The Entrance @ Pororo Park Singapore

The first thing when we entered was to go to the middle of the park and there are spaces for younger kids to ride sort of a bicycle that can move around easily. It is almost similar to a skating ring practice where the parents can sit around the circle and watch the kids play leisurely.

~ Bicycle riding moment but eyes wandering elsewhere ~

Oscar's eyes was gazed and fixated on the moving train soon after and before long, he requested to ride the train which is one of the most popular activities inside the playground. When we were queueing up, we were disappointed when we were told that the child needs to be independently able to ride the train on its own. This means that parents are not able to ride the train together with the child which is kind of disappointing. The train moves around the circle 2 rounds, so the queue is not pretty long to wait. I guess we will be back when Oscar gets older to ride the train on his own.

~ Oscar's sad face when he was told he is not able to ride the train ~



~ Train track in circle which makes kid gone euphoric ~ 

After watching the train went past a few times, we then visited Pororo's home which both the kids and adults can enter to take a few photos. The home is built in rather small, so parents would need to bend over to enter the premise.

~ Pororo's Home ~

~ Posing with Daddy on Pororo's living room ~

~ Playing around Pororo's bedroom and looking fascinatingly happy ~

~ Going with Mama to Pororo's bathroom on where he bathes ~

~ Conquering Pororo's bed to get ready to sleep ~

Next, we proceed to the toddler's area where younger kids can segregate their playing area with the older kids by playing cooking, slide and piano activities.

~ What should I be cooking today? ~

~ My Personal Jay Chow moment ~

~ Time to memorize those ABCs now before I go to school ~

~ Video showing Pororo series which stoned the kids ~

Every indoor playground seems to have a ball pool area for kids to throw and drown their frustration away and this is no different. The pool area was not segregated for the toddlers (unlike many other places) so you have many older kids who jumped around and it can be pretty dangerous to leave our younger one alone. The shark in the middle of the area was also a target for many kids to throw the ball into so you have many cannon balls around that area.

~ Pororo Shark Pool Area ~

There was also some more time on a engaging on arts and crafts activities like drawing, coloring and brick-ing as we wait along for the musical schedule in the afternoon. This is the same premise they use for birthday parties but as there are no activities on that day, the place is open to the public.

~ Bricking along some fancy Lego-alike bricks ~

~ Teaching Daddy how to assemble them together ~

~ Coloring with crayons on Pororo ~

One of the highlight of the playground is the Pororo's live musical theatre where kids get to interact and sing along with Pororo and friends. There are several schedule within the day so make sure you plan ahead to catch the show. The show lasted for about 20 minutes.

~ Before it starts ~

~ Pororo and friends engaging the kids to sing along ~

Lastly before we left, we had one more round of energy to climb across the 3 storey high playing area for a couple of minutes before we decide to leave for the day.

~ Last round of energy booster ~

Overall, it was a very outing to the park. I like the park layout in the sense that they are huge and caters to different playing area for the kids. We didn't visit the café area but felt that it could be spaced smaller as it takes up quite a bit of the area. Perhaps, that is one of their main revenue driver so they needed that space.

 

For admission, please make sure that you bring your credit cards partner with either POSB, DBS or OCBC to get the slightly cheaper rates than the non-member. The price for the non-member can get a bit expensive there but I think most would qualify under the Partners rate. If you are interested to visit the park pretty often, you can consider to get their annual membership for a much cheaper rate.



~ Admission Rate ~

Hua Hin - Hills Vineyard

The trip to the Hua Hin Hills Vineyard wasn't exactly that cheap, especially since we are considering to take a private car to go there. There is a way to get there by the public transport that are designated to that area, but I think it also cost around THB350/person. In any case, the driver quoted us THB1,800 for a round-trip with a bonus stopover at Sam Phan Nam floating market along the way. They are expensive but since we are a group of 4 with a kid, I had no choice but to accept it.

We soon reach our first stopover at the Sam Phan Nam floating market where we had the chance to shop at some of the stalls and also take the boat to tour around.

The weather was extremely hot that day and you can see my poor baby had a red cheek there almost dehydrated.

The places were huge there and there were almost more than 100 shops there that we had pass by. We bought a couple of T-shirt for our son and then proceeded to go next to the main destination since time was running out.

Soon after, we went inside the car to proceed to our next destination at the much awaited Hua Hin Hills Vineyard.

The view throughout going into the Vineyard was amazing. You can see plenty of greenery out there which was next best to everything. Before we entered the Vineyard, we could see plenty of grapes farm which they've used to plant their grapes for the wine and you can step out to take a few close snapshot.

 

When we finally arrived, the first thing we did was to grab a place for lunch. We didn't make any reservations prior to coming here, so we didn't really get the best seat we wanted. The whole place for lunch wasn't exactly that big, so it is recommended that a reservation be made.

 

We ordered their specialty wine tasting which was mostly uniquely Hua Hin. To be honest, I've drank much better wines out there so I wasn't really impressed with it. We also ordered a few local fried rice and western food to go for our lunch while enjoying the scenery.

 

After our lunch, we toured around the area for a little while more before proceeding to go back to our hotel.

 

Our Hearty Lunch @ Hills Vineyard

Mommy, I am drunk

See Ya Next Time :)