Visited my MIL over the weekend and told them (SIL & MIL) about Zaria’s lung crepitation, and the rash that Zaria is having (the same rash that Zara had). My SIL has a friend who is a Chinese doctor, and she told us we should let him have a look at the girls. Thinking that he’s the same type as my Chinese Doctor, we agreed.

Dr Low happened to be a specialist in Acupuncture and Osteorpathy, totally different from my Chinese Doctor who uses mainly herbs for tuning.

I thought he wasn’t very good with kids. While he was checking Zara, Zaria touched his desk calender as a cartoon drawing caught her interest. Dr Low raised his voice and said, “Eh, cannot touch my things!”. That startled Zaria and made her cry. Bad start.

One by one he checked the girls. It seems my girls have liver problem (from the blue hue in the white of their eye) and internal fever (forehead warmer than cheeks); and then the doctor checked their spines, he claimed Zaria’s spine is absolutely crooked (right butt cheek has a dimple but not left; protruding stomach), and because Zaria has a crooked 4th toe (since birth), he concluded Zaria has gall bladder problem too.

Before the girls started their ‘treatment’, I thought I will be the guinea pig, since I constantly feel tired, I’ll let him check on me and treat me first. One looked at the age spots (or oil seeds, what do you call them anyway?) that I have around my eyes and neck, he claimed I have appendix problem. But it’s genetics I told him, all my family members have them; he said, then it meant genetically all of us have appendix problem. o.O”

So I was brought to the treatment room and was told to remove my clothes. (I made sure Daddy was with me throughout) With just panties and bra on, he started feeling my spine. According to him, I too had a few discs slightly out of place. He will do Osteorpathy on me; which is actually a massage on the spine, and also some exertion to try to align my spine. According to the doctor, once the spine is aligned, the nervous system will function properly, and I won’t have any ailments. Before he started, he pressed a few of my meridien, and asked me to rank the pain I feel. After he finished he again pressed on these meridien points and asked me to rank the pain, the pain should vanish or lessen (which is true for me for some points). After this, he poked 4 acupuncture needles to my calf to further improve the ‘alignment’. This treatment made me ~RM330 poorer, and each treatment will only make me 10% better (which means I have to come for 10 sessions and spent RM3300 to get 100% better).

It was then the girls’ turn. Zara volunteered to be first. Dr Low did moxibuxtion on her, which is to bring a lighted ‘herbal cigar’ (the girls called it Magic Wand) close to her meridien points to provide heat for 10 minutes or so.

When it was Zaria’s turn, she didn’t really want to corporate, remembering the scold she got from the doctor. She was crying, and it was difficult to coax her to lie down. To make things worse, in the middle of the treatment, she moved her leg and kicked the ‘cigar’. I wasn’t in the room (Daddy was with her, since I have to be ‘resting’ after my treatment), but it seemed the ‘cigar’ landed on her big toe and burnt it. She wailed and it took a while to calm her down. As though this incident was not enough, while the moxibuxtion was done above her belly button, Daddy was asking Dr Low some stupid questions, and when Dr Low was answering his question, he didn’t realise the accumulation of the hot ashes at the end of the cigar, and suddenly the hot ash just dropped on Zaria’s belly (I saw it this time). Zaria gave a loud scream and wailed. Since it was coming to the end, we just stroke her and calmed the traumatised her for the last few minutes while the moxibuxtion continued.

Once it was done, Zaria clung on to me like a koala, and kept saying she wanted to go home.

The girls’ sessions cost RM100 each (and extra 1 time RM20 each for our registration or the creation of our files). We are all supposed to go for follow ups, but I’m not sure if we will be going again. It seems a bit mumbo jumbo to me. What do you think?

Zara called Dr Low, Dr Harry Potter, because the ‘cigar’ to her is a magic wand. When I asked Zaria if she liked Dr Harry Potter in the morning, she replied, “No. I want to burn him for dinner.” o.O”

*Photos taken middle of March.*

One of their favourite pass time, jumping from table to sofa and sofa to table.

Thrilled to be up in the air…

Happy to land safely..

Now, the little one’s turn. She chose the arm chair nearer to the table. Smart!

Up…..

Perfect landing!

Sometimes when the landing is not as perfect….

“Mummy, painful… sayang me…”

(luckily our table is very solid and heavy)

Thanks for all your well wishes and concerns.

The cool cat, Zaria is in action right after the stint at the dentist.

She only complained on the same night during milk drinking time that her ‘mouth’ was painful, and refused to drink milk, besides this, she was normal, and so was her jiejie, Zara. The normal, rough self, which began her pushing and shoving soon afterwards. Kids, they forget so easily!

I had to warn Zara that if I saw her being rough to Zaria again, I will have to send her to my sis’ place for a week to separate the two of them, just in case anything happened to the Zaria’s already loose tooth. That kept her being careful.

Zaria’s mouth was still slightly bloody on Sunday and her upper lip puffy, but since Monday, I could see the gum had started healing, and the bleeding stopped. Besides the slightly chipped tooth, and the black thread still tying on the tooth, you really can’t tell she had a bad fall.

Photo taken in the evening of last Saturday, after the incident. You can see the blood stain at the corner of her mouth.

Tomorrow, she’ll be going to get the dentist to check on her again and to remove the black thread.

Do you realise that in Malaysia when a hotel room costs you less than RM400, chances are the hotel will be pretty horrid?

During the school holidays, we decided to bring the girls to Cherating for a holidays. We booked 2 nights stay in Holiday Villa for RM270/night (from the net), Holiday Villa you know, should be ok right?

The rooms were decent and it’s challet style, but the pool is another story.

When we brought the girls to the pool, I noticed that the water was brownish, thinking it was maybe sand from the sea, I didn’t stop the girls when they jumped into the pool, gulping down some of the water in their excitement. When I got into the water to join them, then only I realised it was filth and not sand. My skin has this slimy coat, on top of that, I can smell poops and urine. People were swimming fully clothed, and their kids were in diapers and all. Ewwwwwww.

I suspect that’s how the girls got sick.

We checked out the 2nd day (even though we booked for 2 nights), and moved to Legend Hotels next door, for an additional RM100 per night. The pools were nicer and cleaner, but the rooms were pretty basic with a leaking toilet and smelly pillows. RM370 and still you get crap?

For the girls, they were not as fussy as us in terms of cleanliness, so they had fun. Two things though, Zara was asking us when we’re going home, and Zaria was requesting us to go back to the hotel with rafters (which is Holiday Villa).

For the duration we were there, we spent most of the time in the hotel, but we did try to explore the fishing villages around and event went to Chukai for brunch.

Girls at Holiday Villa Cherating

Girls at the beach in Legends Hotels – Both were fascinated by the cheap bubbles we bought them; They were playing ‘catch-me-if-you-can’ with the waves; Zaria spent most of the time at the shallow steps at the baby pool, refusing to go any where deeper where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

Chance upon this extremely crowded coffee shop in Chukai called Hai Peng.

On our way back, popped by a village stall to have kuih still baked using wood fire

Another stop at a fishing market, where the girls have some keropok lekor (not the crunchy), and we had some satai ikan (some otak-otak style) snack.

The girls probably had gulped down some of the filthy pool water in the lousy hotel that we stayed in our recent holiday (will blog about it later), but Daddy thought it must have been one of the meals that we took on our trip; on Sunday night, the puking started.

Sunday : Zaria started at 9:30pm, in the car, and by 12am, she’s puked 3 times. Emptying her stomach. She did it once on our bed.
Monday : Zara started at 5am, and by 1pm, she puked 6 times.
Both looked well by Monday evening, so I sent them to school on Tuesday.

When I picked them up from school, Zara looked tired, and wanted to take a nap when we arrived home instead of having her lunch. I then realised she was running a fever, 38.6. For the rest of the day, she was not like her chirpy self, every question I asked her, she just replied with a feeble “Ya”.

The puking started again from 5pm. We brought her to see a doctor in the evening, and when she got back, she vomitted again. 10pm, 11pm, 2am, 3am, until nothing came out except clear yellowish water.
Zaria too vomitted after milk before bed time.

Today, both girls are off school. Zara is still running a fever, but the vomitting has stopped (for now).

Since Sunday night, I have laid mattresses in our room (layered with sarong to prevent the matress from being soiled) and I slept with both girls on the mattresses, with basin, tissue, thermometer all nearby; waking up to help them and clean them when they vomitted (Daddy helped whenever he was ‘conscious’).

This is the girls at 9:30am this morning. Doesn’t this look like a refugee camp?

After 3 nights of interrupted sleep, I’m exhausted too.

Hope the girls get well soon too, I feel so heartache seeing them so weak, especially Zara.

Over the long weekend we went to Genting Highlands with my extended family. 14 of us took up 6 rooms (compliments from my sister’s company) in the Theme Park Hotel. We were all put on the same floor, next to or across each other, making the small room less crowded since the girls could run across to their cousin’s room etc.

The main reason we were in Genting was really for the theme park, it’s more of a trip for the 7 children in the family (although 2 of them already needed Adult passes to get into the park, they are still ‘children’ in the family).

We spent the day time at the Outdoor Park and the night time at the Indoor Park on the first day. The place was pretty crowded, so it was a 10 to 30 mins wait time for each ride. While the older children went on the thrill rides with Daddy joining them on a few, I was with the girls, Tasha and my sister going for the kiddy rides. Let the photos show you the fun the girls and their cousins had.

Sam and Ally seen on The Spinner

The Spinner spinning

Of course for Zara, Zaria and Tasha, a lot of time was spent on the Merry-Go-Rounds.

And Ferris Wheel.

Zara loved this Rodeo Rider so much, I think she’s going to grow up to be able to take thrill rides, unlike her mummy who used to vomit even after a ride on the Merry-Go-Round.

Girls loved the Children Play Ground, especially the monkey bar.

There were some street performances which we caught. Girls were facinated but at the same time afraid of the Fire Eater.

Zaria kept asking me, “Why the uncle eat fire?”
I took the opportunity to educate tell her, “Uncle didn’t want to ear dinner, that’s why eat fire. You? You want to eat fire or you want to eat dinner?”
Of course she said, “I want to eat dinner only.”

Zaria had to be proped up on my shoulder to reach for the clown on stlit. She wasn’t scared of him nor liked him.

A female clown playing ‘yo-yo’ (definitely didn’t look as scarry as the male clowns).

After all the excitement, Zaria had some stories to tell.

And the girls have jokes to share.

On outings like these, we can’t do without cotton candy, and my sis got herself Tasha 3 of these in the 2 days we were there.

Thank God for family and the maid.. When the girls are tired, we took turns to carry them.

And what did my dad do when we were at the theme park? He Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-ed on the bench waiting for us.

(Updated after some some exchange of messages with Michelle to prevent misunderstanding)

I’m no saint, and I do not pretend to be one. I always believe in the Chinese saying 慈母多败儿 (which translate more or less to “A mum who spoils the kids will end up with rotten kids”). Depending on the girls’ level of naughtiness, I use different types of method to discipline them.

Verbal warning/threats :
I guess this is the most common way of us disciplining our kids. From “You don’t get to go kai-kai.” to “I’ll send you to naughty school” (learnt from Mom2Ashley).

Zaria being very fond of me, most of the time will listen when I say, “You don’t listen you make mummy very upset.” and if this doesn’t work, I’ll warn her with, “I won’t sayang (Malay : showing physical affection) you if you naughty.” This will definitely do the trick. (Note : Sayang here is not the same as ‘love’, sayang is a hug or a kiss. I never tell the girls I’ll love them less if they don’t do certain things.)

As for Zara, I have been drilling into her how lucky she is to have mummy working from home, who can sooth her when she needs it, who can pick her up from school, who gives her hugs as and when she wants. So the most fearful threat for her is, “If you continue with this behaviour, I’ll go back to work in the office, then you won’t see mummy until late at night. And also you’ll have to take the school bus to school.”

Punishment :
I don’t own a cane but I do smack the kids or use my finger to ‘flick’ them in the below situation :
1) Repeatedly tell them not to touch something (maybe because it’s fragile or dangerous), but they still do it and end up breaking that item or causing hurt to someone – they’ll get a smack or a flick on the palm
2) Spiting saliva at another person – they’ll get a flick on the cheek.
3) Purposely causing a lot of pain to the sibling (e.g. scratching the other until it bleeds or pulling a clump of hair from the sibling’s scalp) – they’ll get a smack on the buttocks.

Naughty corner :
This is the most common form of punishment the girls get. Sometimes when Zara pushed Zaria because she wanted to snatch something from Zaria, she’ll come up to me and make a confession, and come out with her own punishment, “I pushed mei-mei just now, so I stand in the naughty corner for 5 mins, ok?”

On days when they really drive me up the walls by being extremely naughty, e.g. fighting and to retaliate breaking each other’s things, I’ll issue the capital punishment. Cheng Cheng Cheng.. and it’s….
.
.
.
.
.
“No reading tonight! Both of you go straight to bed after you brush your teeth!!” (they love reading so much, they get really upset when there’s no bed time reading).

How do you discipline your kids? Do you believe in smacking?

This year, from buying biscuits, decorating the house to planning and shopping for the re-union dinner was all done by me because Daddy was away 1 week after the other, and when he was around during the weekend, he spent time kay-poh-ying (Chinese : busy body) at his sister’s new place instead. Grrr…

I was also a bit unhappy that the Chinese teacher in Zara’s school taught her to say, “恭喜发财,红包拿来” (Gong Xi Fa Cai, Give me the Ang Pow), instead of a proper greeting. Although it was meant to be ‘funny’, but the girls took it as a proper greeting. Grrr…

Just ranting a bit to get it out of my system.

Although I very much would like to join my side of the family for the big re-union dinner they were having (all my 3 siblings and their family were dining at my sister’s place), I had to fulfil my obligations as a DIL. This is the 2nd year we have re-union dinner at our place instead of MIL’s, and we have steamboat again. Next year maybe we should change the menu because all the girls had was just fish balls, nothing else. They didn’t even bother to try the RM90/Kg Sou-Mei (苏眉) fish (btw, it wasn’t worth the money as it’s really not that delicious) nor the big prawns.

Girls were very excited to play with the sparklers after dinner. Zaria not knowing the danger, kept trying to point the sparkler at herself so she could ‘see’ the sparks better, luckily we could stop her in time. *phew*

When I asked Zara at night, “During Chinese New Year, what will people give you?”
Her reply was, “Mandarins! A lot of mandarins.” She actually forgot she will be getting ang pows since she still has no concept of money, and she loves mandarins.

On Chinese New Year’s day, as usual we visited my MIL first before going over to my brother’s place where the whole family met. This year, the girls cousin wore the same clothes. I bought 2 sets of similar cheong sam from my Beijing work trip last May for the girls and their cousins. Zara’s and Sam’s are the same, Zaria’s and Tasha’s are the same. I didn’t get any for Ally as they didn’t have her size.

The girls were so happy to see their cousins wearing the same dress as them.

Love this shot

Everybody looks so happy to be ‘twins’

After a simple lunch, we carried out our yearly tea ceremony to get the big ang pow from my dad.

Zaria serving tea to Ah Gong, my dad.

And then we visited my 90 year old grandfather in Kajang. No photo of my strong grandfather, since we forgot to take the camera down.

At night I got Zara to help me open up her ang pows. Firstly, of course was to open ours, and she took out 2 RM50 notes. The next ang pow she opened, there was one RM50 note and she said, “This one only one dollar.” o.O

When I asked Zara again at night, “So do you know now what people give you during Chinese New Year?”
She of course replied, “Ang Pow!”
Zaria chipped in, “Biscuits!” (the part she likes about Chinese New Year).

Happy New Year and 恭喜发财 Every One!
Hope you have lots of Ang Pows, Mandarins and Biscuits!

♥18 Decâ♥
After breakfast and some dilly dallying, we went to Shau Kei Wan (筲箕灣) to meet my colleagues for lunch at On Lei (安利魚蛋粉). It didn’t taste as nice this round, however, the girls used their toilet, and Zaria claimed, “So clean, like hotel.” Mind you this is a very small shop, and not a fancy restaurant.

After lunch, my colleague suggested we go Festival Walk at Kowloon Tong for shopping. A bit disappointed as it’s a very small shopping mall, and the Christmas deco wasn’t that great. Daddy managed to get a jacket from Uniqlo, so I guess it was fruitful; but because of this, we have to go back to hotel to drop off the things.

We then took the ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon, and spent sometime at Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront to catch the 8pm Symphony of Light show. Can’t complain since it’s free, but the Hong Kong skyline in the dark was beautiful. Since both Daddy & I were not familiar with Tsim Sha Tsui, we just had dinner in the first decent looking restaurant we came across. Food was disappointing.

♥19 Dec♥
After breakfast, we took a taxi to Ocean Park. My colleague got me 4 discounted tickets to enter the park. As Zaria didn’t need a ticket to enter, I had to sell hers at the ticketing counter. Some people just ignored me and thought I was a scammer when I offered the ticket to them at HKD80 (usual price : HKD103). Grrrr..

I visited Ocean Park about 20years ago, and I remembered I was so impressed. This round, I wasn’t at all. I find it wasn’t as organised as Disney; the attractions are too spaced out on the hilly terrain (by then, Zaria was very clingy and wanted me to carry her all the time if she wasn’t walking); there was some major renovation going on; the thrill rides were not my cup of tea and the show (@ Ocean Theatre) wasn’t that great, and boy was the place crowded (on a Friday)!

What we like most was the Jelly Fish Spectacular and Atoll Reef, girls were also enjoying themselves since they are great fans of The Little Mermaid movie, and they were trying to relate what they saw there with the characters in the cartoon (i.e. Murray eels == Flotsam and Jetsam; Garden eels == what the merpeople turned into when they can’t pay Ursula).

Our last stop at Ocean Park was the Kids’ World, the girls loved it! They spent a lot of time playing at the play ground and got on some of the mini-rides. When it was time to leave, they refused to go, or tried to make us promise to bring them there again.

Dinner that night was at Keung Kee (强记) at Wanchai, a small restaurant popular among locals recommended by my colleague. We had roast goose (good but it was cold) and double boiled fish soup (yummy!), while the girls were very happy to get fried egg.

We came across this interesting market place on our way back to the Hotel in Causeway Bay

That night, after bathing the girls, I went out to shop alone. When I got back the hotel at ~12am, Zara and Daddy were at the window. Daddy claimed Zara was waiting up for me (and trying to spot me from the window)! Zaria tried to stay up too, but fell asleep half way. Zara even made a few calls to my mobile checking on me (but I didn’t hear the phone ringing). o.O” Can’t even be out of sight for 2hrs!

♥20 Dec♥
We spent the whole day shopping, mainly at Timesquare, where the Christmas theme is “Wonderland” by Carrie Chao. We spent a lot of time checking our her art work / statues, and even the girls loved them.

Models on display

Zara was very interested in one of the painting, she thought Carrie Chao painted Ruppenzel.

They claimed they were picking the nose of the model.

While I spent my money cautiously (working out the exchange rate etc), I see the Mainland Chinese dragging their trolley bag to the mall. While I bought 1 set of Fancl skin care, I saw not just one but 2 Chinese bought them in dozens and stuffed the whole bag full. I paid in credit, while they paid in their big wads of cash. Are they rich or what?

I wanted to bring Daddy to a very nice restaurant, Tai Woo (太湖海鲜城), which my friend brought me the last trip. However, there was a long queue, and we were told we had to wait more than 40mins. Every body was hungry, so we moved on to Chi Kee (池记) which also has a long queue but it was faster moving. Regret! The noodle is not as good as Mak Kee’s (麥奀記).

That night, I went shopping again, but this time Zara insisted she came along.

♥21 Dec♥
We checked out and went to Time Square to have our breakfast, then finished off with more shopping.

At about 1pm, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and left Hong Kong; Taking the Turbo Jet to Macau. All of us knocked off on the jet (for me, it was mainly due to motion sickness).

Our hotel in Macau was Rio Hotel, rooms are big, but facilities basic. Immediately after we dropped off our bags, we took a cab to the famous Ruins of St. Paul’s (大三巴牌坊). The surrounding area has a lot of shops, some international brands and also a lot of biscuit shops selling the famous almond biscuit. Although it’s a busy street, it doesn’t seem as crowded or rush as Hong Kong. Too bad, we only had less than a day spent in Macau.

The beautiful Ruins of St. Paul’s

The extravagance Hotel Lisboa.

Macau Skyline

When the Christmas lights were turned on… beautiful.

Dinner was again a disappointment.

♥22 Dec♥
We checked with the hotel and had a leisurely dim sum breakfast at a recommended restaurant. That was probably our best meal on this trip.

We took so long to eat by the time we’re done, it was noon time. I had my last round of shopping in a nearby supermarket before we headed to the airport.

Thus ends our 8D/7N, 4 hotels trip.

~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~

Is travelling with 2 young kids easy?
It wasn’t, we were dead tired every night. However, we’re amazed with their capabilities and understanding.
We were worried about Zaria running away from us, but she only did that once at the Kids’ World in Ocean Park. She stayed closed to us all times, and allowed us to use the leash on her.
Zara too was amazing, she could just go on walking. Her whistle was very handy, a few times some one came in between us and she thought she’s lost us, she quickly blew her whistle.

Zaria is at this stage where she likes to throw tantrum or refuse to corporate. In Hong Kong, when she didn’t get what she wanted, she would lie flat on the floor, embarrassing Daddy. She did this in the mall, at the MTR station, and even a few times in the toilet. o.O”

Look at her here : Throwing tantrum on the floor at Time Square and at The Ruins of St Paul’s. Covering her face when we wanted to take photos of her in Disney. o.O”

That’s my girl.

Thanks to Chooi Peng and Michelle, who figured out a way to get discounted hotel rates in Disneyland. We are the proof that it can be done, and got 40% off for our 2nd night in Disneyland’s Hollywood Hotel (1st night, they ran out of ‘discounted’ rooms allocation).

Even with this discount, we still got to enjoy the 1 for 1 promotion currently running, i.e. buy 1 day’s park ticket, get a 2nd day free if you stay in either one of the Disneyland’s hotel.

(Note1: meals in Disneyland are not cheap nor tasty, it’s best to stock up on your own snacks or food if you plan to be there the whole day or more).

(Note 2: We haven’t been to any Disneyland before, this is our first.)

♥16 Dec♥
After breakfast in the room (buns & croissant from Tung Chong), we took the free shuttle to Disneyland, where the queuing magic began.

We just walked past Main Street, USA (mainly shops) and went straight to Adventureland, because we wanted to catch the Festival of the Lion King. I’m not sure if they changed shows frequently, but this time it was The Circle of Life, which I think was just ok; there were just too much talking and narrating between the characters.

Lunch was HKD50 roast duck rice for myself and char siew (Cantonese : BBQ Pork) rice for the girls at Tahitian Terrace (food court). 2/3 of the girls’ rice gone to waste because Zaria was already napping and according to Zara “I think Malaysia char siew rice is nicer. Hong Kong’s one not nice, but I’ll force myself to eat.” (we didn’t bother to keep some for Zaria since Zaria wasn’t the type who would ‘force’ herself to eat).

After lunch, we found a quiet place and let Zara nap. After her rest and 15min queuing later, we got into Mickey’s Christmas House. It’s just a big room with large plastic furniture. Highlight was a photo shot with Mickey. By this time, girls were familiar with the word ‘queue’ and ‘take turns’ and they waited for their turn before dashing to Mickey with their hugs and kisses.

Zara : “Is Mickey real or not? There’s a person inside right?”
Zaria : “I love Mickey Mouse.”
Me : “Grrr.. Like that also must queue so long?”

Then it was time for Sleeping Beauty’s Christmas Ball (another show) right in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. We just sat at the pavement to watch. Sleeping Beauty appeared just for a while with Prince Charming at the end. Not worth the time.

We headed to Fantasyland for rides after the Ball. We went several rounds on the Cinderella Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephants, and The Mad Hatter Tea Cups, since the girls like it, and the queues weren’t long. Every time when the ride ended, Zaria would create a fuss and claimed, “I want some more! I don’t want to come down!!”

The girls like “It’s a Small World” ride best at Fantasyland. Even after we got home, when Zaria recalls, she will still say, “(Re)member? I went on the boat ride. Then the doll(s) sing, lalala…” (and she starts humming the tune).

We then caught the Christmas Parade where I bumped into a Singapore colleague and his family. What a coincidence, we were supposed to make plans to go to Ocean Park together, but he didn’t manage to reach me before I left KL, and here we were, right next to each other watching the Parade. Girls liked the parade, and Zaria went out a few times to try to hug a dancing character and the Disney staff has to lead her away. My colleague and I split after the Parade since we got fast pass (for some rides, you can get a ‘ticket’ earlier which will print a time for you to return, with that you can return and enter the rides bypassing the queue) for The Many adventure of Winnie the Pooh. Nothing fantastic with this ride.

Dinner was fast food from Starliner Diner and then it was time for the Fireworks. Since they put the stage for Sleeping Beauty’s Christmas Ball right in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the view was obscured. *sigh*

After the fireworks, it started ‘snowing’ (foam like bubbles sprayed from roof tops), girls were ecstatic! That was a good ending for Day 1.

That night, Zara told me our hotel looked so nice (from the shuttle), and then later when we entered the room, she asked me a question, “Mummy, why in Hong Kong the hotel looked so big outside, but inside the room so small??” (remembering Novatel Citygate too). Good observation!

♥17 Dec♥
Breakfast was again in the room. This time, the croissants were 2 days old and tasted a bit yucky. We checked out, left our luggage in the hotel, and headed to Disneyland.

We took the Hong Kong Disneyland Rail from Main Street USA to Fantasyland. We went first to Fantasy Gardens (a garden to meet and take photos with Disney characters). Every time when it was our turn to meet a character, the girls would dash forward as though meeting a long lost friend. They would hug and kiss the character. Then Zaria would again utter, “I love so-and-so.”

Upon the girls’ request, there were more rounds on Cinderella Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephants, and The Mad Hatter Tea Cups.

After lunch, we caught the The Golden Mickey show. We like this show best, it was performance of the familiar songs of Disney shows. Best bit was Under The Sea sung with a mermaid with a beautiful tail dangled mid air as though swimming.

We were at Tomorrowland the rest of the day. Went on the Orbitron, Autopia, Buzz Lightyer Astro Blaster. Nothing really fantastic, and the queue was quite long especially the latter two.

They didn’t get to take any photographs with the Disney Princesses, but Buzz Light Year (for Zaria, it’s E-Buzz-Year) saved the day.

The final ride we took was Jungle River Cruise back at Adventureland, Zara was getting a bit scared spotting the alligators and then she got a real fright when the fake volcano suddenly erupted. This was her least favourite ride.

Pillion Riding – This is our solution when both girls wanted to sit on the stroller

Our last stop was the biggest Disney shop in Main Street, USA. Zara was very keen in getting some of the exorbitantly priced Disney merchandises, i.e. chunky jewelry, bubbles blower etc.; we didn’t indulge her and told her they were expensive. We couldn’t really find something that she will use or wear, in the end, we just got the girls each a handkerchief (btw, I saw a similar one in Sogo later for 2/3 of the price).

Zara was very happy she eventually got something from the shop and was dancing when we left.

We then left to pick up our bags from the hotel, took the MTR and headed for Park Lane Hotel at Causeway Bay. Daddy’s face was so sour (because he had to lug the 2 big suitcases while I handled the kids) when we arrived at Causeway Bay station, he said we should flag a cab to bring us to our hotel. o.O” I was against it, although I didn’t know how to get there, I knew it wasn’t far away. We took some wrong turns and took about 15mins to get to the hotel (of course lugging the bags, while pushing a child on the stroller and carrying another on a super busy street didn’t speed things up). The hotel was only ~3mins walk from the MTR station actually.

The room in Park Lane was quite spacious, and they gave us an extra bed for free (and I got corporate rate for it).

After checking in, Daddy said he will bring us to eat the best wonton noodle. When we arrived at the small restaurant, I realised this was the same one I went to with Mom2Ashley in March. It’s Mak Kee’s (麥奀記) on Jardine Bazaar. The noodle came in small rice bowl with super yummy soup, and it’s probably the best wonton mee in Hong Kong (based on what we’d tried so far). The girls slurped down their noodle with their thumbs up, we adults ordered extra bowl and also its yummy fish & century egg porridge. A must try if you are in Causeway Bay.