Hong Kong with Young Toddlers

Seven days in Hong Kong with a 12 month old and a 2.5 year old? Very do-able, and lots of fun!

We had a fantastic time taking Cub and Bunny to Mr Dandelion's birth city. Hong Kong is a vibrant, busy country with lots to do, lots to see and lots to eat. It's a fast-paced change from suburban Western Australia where we live and a wonderful place to holiday. The public transport is fantastic - fast and convenient. It is very easy to make your way around Hong Kong as a tourist.
Living in Perth, Asia is a popular travel destination and Bali, Thailand and Singapore are the most popular options, but I wouldn't discount Hong Kong as a wonderful experience and cannot wait to take Cub and Bunny there again in the near future.

We stayed in a double room at the Royal Plaza Hotel Hong Kong. The location was fantastic: in Mong Kok, right above the Mong Kok East MTR and a short, easy walk via overpasses to the busier Mong Kok MTR station. It's close to many popular attractions such as the Ladies Markets and the Night Markets and best of all for travelling with small children the hotel is attached to a large shopping mall complete with food court and playground. We started most mornings with a play in the playground, much to Bunny's delight!

Below you will find my list of toddler friendly activities in Hong Kong for tourists:
1. The Peak and Peak Tram
2. Hong Kong Disneyland
3. Hong Kong Park
4. Open Air Markets (Bird Market, Flower Market, Goldfish Market)
5. Ocean Park

1. The Peak and Peak Tram
The Peak Tram operates from 7am to midnight daily, departing at 10 to 15-minute intervals from the lower Peak Tram terminus located on Garden Road in Central. A return trip costs HK$ 80 and it's a fun way of getting to the Peak.

The Peak itself is an absolute must do and offers panoramic, iconic views of Hong Kong. Unless it is foggy, like it was on the day we went, in which case you can see nothing. Check the weather forecast and plan accordingly!  At The Peak there are a range of places to eat and also a children's playground which is worth checking out.

There is also a Madame Tussauds wax figure museum located at the peak. We felt Cub and Bunny would be too young to appreciate this one, but Mr Dandelion and I have been there pre-kids on previous holidays and had a lot of fun. Best for older children and adults I think.

2. Hong Kong Disneyland
When you have toddlers who LOVE Disney as much as Cub and Bunny do, Disneyland wasn't a negotiable option, it was a must do. Catch the special Disneyland MTR train in and from the moment your day starts the magic begins. We arrived around 11am and stayed until after the fireworks, so it was a very long day for two little kids, but worth it. We hired the Disneyland strollers but if you are travelling with your own stroller - take it! They are not the cheapest to hire and once the novelty of the hire strollers wore off they became rather uncomfortable for Cub  to nap in when the time came, as you can see below. We ended up padding Cub's stroller with a folding fabric change mat as it was hard plastic.

 



Disneyland Hong Kong is the smallest of the Disneylands but perfectly sized for the under 5 set. This TripAdvisor review of Hong Kong Disneyland by TripAdvisor user Selenapan99 has a fantastic rundown of all the attractions in the park and their suitability for toddlers. Meeting Minnie Mouse and Cinderella were Bunny's top highlights and while the lines may seem long to meet and greet the characters, they are worth it.

3. Hong Kong Park
 Hong Kong Park, located in Central, is a completely free attraction and well worth a visit if you have little ones. It has a large, multi-story playground (disinfected 4 times a day) complete with sandpit, slides and lots of other kids to play with. Bunny had a ball going down the slides and Cub enjoyed himself too. A short walk from the playground is a large walk-through aviary, full of birds and designed to be a 'tropical rainforest'. It's a beautiful patch of serenity in such a busy city.

A word from the wise, as the bottom left photo shows, Hong Kong is NOT stroller friendly. Central in particular is full of stairs. We were fortunate to have lots of hands to help on this day, but I wouldn't want to repeat the experience. Cub is travelling in the Ergo and it was a much better option.

4. Open Air Markets (Bird Market, Flower Market, Goldfish Market)All within a reasonable walking distance for each other and all worth a look. The turtles and fish on Goldfish Street are fascinating in their own way and the flowers of Flower Market are beautiful. Go later in the afternoon for all three of these, as there seems to be no set opening time and if you go early most stalls will be closed.

5. Ocean Park
I have a confession - we actually didn't go to Ocean Park. We chose to return to Disneyland for a second day, which I absolutely do not regret as Bunny loved it, but Ocean Park would be a fantastic place to take slightly older children. A spectacular cable car, beautiful pandas and some great rides, it's a fun day out for primary school aged children and upwards.


And what about food?
Hong Kong is a city of food and as such there are no issues finding food, even for fussier children! Fast food stores are everywhere and for the brave the street food and local restaurants offer more traditional cuisine. We tended to start the day with traditional jook (Chinese rice porridge) which we purchased from the food court attached to our hotel, but other days we chose the hotel buffet breakfast and loaded up on more western foods like cereal, toast and pastries. Snack food is easy to come by with 7/11 stores and bakeries on almost every corner and there are so many options for eating out at night you won't feel the need to order room service. Cub was still on formula milk when we were in Hong Kong and we brought a full tin from Australia with us, but infant formula is readily available if you need it (although slightly more expensive than Australia).

Air Travel with Young Toddlers

Two weeks ago, Mr Dandelion and I took Bunny and Cub on their first flight, and first international flight at that, to visit Mr Dandelion's family in Hong Kong. We were excited about taking the kids to Mr Dandelion's birth place and introducing them to all the colours, excitement and delicious Cantonese food, but also very nervous about the prospect of two very young toddlers on an eight hour plane ride. We figured Bunny would be fine - at 2.5 years old she is readily entertained by colouring books, Disney Princess movies and stickers. Cub, at 12 months old and in that highly frustrating wanting-to-get-into-everything-and-not-quite-walking-yet phase, was going to be another story.

At 2.5, Bunny had her own seat booked for the flight. However in order to save money, we chose to take Cub on board as a lap-sit baby. If we had money to spare, I'd highly recommend buying an infant seat for anyone else in this position. We did survive, but a spare seat to help us juggle two toddlers and all their needs would certainly have been handy!

Between the four of us, we were entitled to 3 carry-on bags (as an infant, Cub didn't get a bag). We took one 'adult' bag containing electronics like the I Pad, toddler headphones, mobile phones, wallets and so forth. The other two carry on bags we took were two Trunkis. By searching local classifieds such as Gumtree a few months beforehand, I managed to pick up two second-hand Trunkis in fantastic condition for well under half the price of buying new. These were one of the best travel purchases we made and I can't recommend them enough, especially for 18 months +. At 12 months, Cub was still a bit little for his Trunki and fell off it in the middle of Hong Kong International Airport, but Bunny LOVED hers and it kept her happy and stopped her from running off during long check-in and immigration queues.

 

Inside one Trunki, we packed the following:

 

- Nappies, wipes, nappy bags

- Change of clothes for Cub

- Change of clothes for Bunny

- Change of top each for Mr Dandelion and I, we didn't have room to pack a whole change of outfits for us.

- Cloth nappy inserts to use as absorbent rags in case of spills, vomiting etc.

 

The other Trunki was the 'fun' Trunki and it was packed full of snacks and activities.

I majorly over-packed activities for Bunny for the flight, but I don't regret it, as if I had packed less, I am sure I would have run out!

Here are the activities I packed:

And in list form:

• Foam stickers, colouring pencils and a blank exercise book. Good, but not essential.
• Magic Ink colouring book, one marker that looks clear but combines with ink on the book pages to make coloured pictures. Very handy!
• Colour Wonder colouring book. I didn't end up packing this as I was worried about losing the markers. Didn't need it anyway, so I am glad I left it at home.
• Playdough. At the last minutes, I was worried this would be an issue with the restrictions on carry-on liquids and gels, so I threw these in the suitcase instead. Didn't use.
• Portable DVD player and disks of Bunny's favourite movies. Seriously this was overkill, we flew with Cathay Pacific and their on-board flight entertainment system had a wide range of TV shows and movies, even some of Bunny's absolute favourites (Sofia the First, Frozen and The Little Mermaid) for her to watch. Definitely not needed.
• I Pad loaded with toddler friendly apps. Yes. Take one of these! If not for the plane, then it's great for downtime in the hotel room, or while waiting at restaurants and so forth. We borrowed an I Pad from Mr Dandelion's sister, and loaded it with the fantastic free Playschool apps as well as some Disney and Fisher Price apps. Bunny is very fond of Playschool though, so this was a big hit.
• Multiple colouring books and markers. Great, although I packed too many. One 'normal' colouring book would have been enough.
• Magnetic 'paper' doll set. Bunny loved this and it kept for busy for a good 45 minutes. Being magnetic is meant no pieces got lost too.
• Plastic toy animals. Packed these for Cub and then forgot about them. I'm sure they would have been handy though!

Each activity then got wrapped up as a present and placed in a drawstring bag along with the horse puppet, nicknamed 'Gift Horse' by Mr Dandelion and I. Every time I wanted to give Bunny an activity, Gift Horse would reach into the drawstring bag and select one at random, with a lot of ceremony. It added to the excitement for Bunny and it also wasted a bit of extra time!

 

 

 

One other activity that I packed for Bunny was a small packet of Froot Loops (Cheerios or other O-shaped cereal would work too), a blunt plastic needle and some nylon string. This entertained Bunny for about 45 minutes, first threading the Froot Loops onto a bracelet and then slowly but surely eating them one-by-one while watching Frozen. This was definitely a winner of an activity! 

 

 

So all in all, I have to report that Bunny travelled very well on both flights. Cub wiggled and squirmed and refused to eat, but we survived and we even managed to get an hour of him sleeping in the plane bassinette on the return flight! As an average sized 12 month old boy, Cub only JUST fit into the bassinette, there was no room to spare, so we were very lucky as these are generally only recommended for younger babies. Any older and this sadly wouldn't have been an option at all. It was great for our sanity though.

 

 

Massive credit goes to Cathay Pacific for their very helpful and welcoming staff, who went out of their way to make international air travel with two young toddlers as smooth as possible. Mr Dandelion and I, along with all the other passengers, thank you!

 

Cub's First Chinese New Year

 

Last time Chinese New year rolled around, I had one week to go before Liam's due date and we were really hoping he would arrive early so he could be born in the very auspicious Year of the Dragon. He came early, but only by one day, so he is a Snake baby. Snakes are reputably charming, intelligent and little mysterious. So far Cub has shown his charm to full force by winning over young and old alike with his ready smile, but his intelligence is there very strongly as well, his little mind is always tick tick ticking away!

I'm sure you can guess Bunny's Chinese horoscope - Rabbit!

Popular and compassionate and emotional describes her very well, but of course she has her own special brand of energy and spirit.

The weekend just gone we celebrated Cub's first Chinese New Year. Bunny and Mr Dandelion made homemade pork and cabbage dumplings, a traditional food for prosperity for the year to come. We also roasted a whole chicken (to represent family togetherness) and served with rice and gai lan. Delicious!

Bunny and Mr Dandelion making dumplings.

Bunny's attempt at a dumpling. It still tasted fine!

Bunny has been trying hard to say the traditional Cantonese greeting of "Gung Hay Fat Choy" (Best wishes for prosperity) to Mr Dandelion's family, with mixed results. She is very cute though and manages a decent "Do Jeh" (thank you) which is better than nothing! Bunny was very excited to wear a Chinese outfit to celebrate and the red and gold look absolutely stunning on her (I'm not biased at all!). Both Bunny and Cub loved receiving their Lai See.

So welcome to the Year of the Horse! Horse years are meant to be filled with adventure and romance, sounds like fun to me!

Hello!

Welcome to my little place where I document all of the craziness and loveliness and moments in-between of life with my two young toddlers. And extraordinary life? Not exactly, but it is mine and I love it.

Me: I'm Dan, a 30-year-old mum from Perth, Australia. I'm a farm girl at heart, a true dreamer with a good dose of practical. I love to read, potter in my veggie garden, fresh flowers, books, drinking tea, horses and horse riding, reading books, baking and cooking (especially Thai food), make crafty things and did I mention reading?

Hubby (aka Mr Dandelion): My hard-working 32-year-old tradie, who builds things out of steel for a living. Hong Kong born, Australian raised and the perfect partner-in-crime for my often crazy plans and ideas, even if he does occasionally like to rain on my over-enthusiastic parade.

Bunny: Our little energiser bunny in the form of a two-year-old girl! Bunny is a force of nature but also the sweetest, bubbliest girl you'll ever meet. She loves to dance, play outdoors, craft, Disney princesses and gumboots. She's a pretty awesome little thing and we are beyond proud of her.

Cub: The youngest member of our family, our 1 year old baby boy. Honestly the happiest little boy in the world (can you tell I think my kids are the best ever?), he always has a ready smile, a cheeky grin and an infectious giggle. Even when he's cranky, he's still got a winning smile. He's our future rock star. His list of likes include keys, dirt, water, mud and annoying his sister, much like any other little brother.

The next few months have a lot in store for us, including Chinese New Year, Cub's first birthday, a family trip to Hong Kong, job applications for me and lots of work around our house. Fun times, and I can't wait to share them!