Continue from here, here and here, this is the last piece, I’m keeping the best for last.

Now it was a coincidence that Daddy was in Japan too the 1st week I was there. He arrived 2 days later than me, and he was staying in Shinjuku (新宿). Here was a conversation that took place before he left for Japan :
I asked him “Should I check out and move to Shinjuku to stay with you?”
He replied, “Of course not. What would people think? We are there to work you know?”
Hello, we’re married right? Even if we’re working, we should be sleeping together at night, no?
That’s Daddy, so full of his principals, no abuse of work trips, no taking advantage of the company, etc etc. Anyway, I side track.

So we didn’t meet until the weekend. On Friday (27/2) I moved to Shinjuku after work, and met Daddy at, Hotel Century Southern Tower, the hotel he stayed in, which has beautiful view of Tokyo from the room and more luxurious than mine.

On Saturday, I was really keen to go to Hakone (箱根), a 2 hr train ride away, to look at Mt Fuji from afar. Daddy didn’t want a taxing trip, he was more keen to do some exploring of Tokyo; so Tokyo it was.

We headed to Ueno (上野), a nice place to check out local produce. There were lots to see, and things were cheaper than Shinjuku; but when I wanted to buy some seaweed and green tea, Daddy thought it was better to buy from reputable source. He said the things from the street vendor didn’t look like it was good quality.

Ueno – Ameyoko Shopping street

At a Fish Market – fresh clams and fish; live crabs and prawns for sale; recommended cooking style provided for reference. How thoughtful.

For lunch, we had the best Udon in a restaurant stumbled by chance, I was attracted by the sign which said, 手打ち (Japanese : Handmade). I normally prefer Soba over Udon, but this was good. I had mine cold topped with Vege tempura.

After Ueno, we went to Asakusa (浅草), walked around Nakamise (仲见世), a shopping street (mainly souvenirs) leading to Sensoji Temple (浅草寺).

A monk at the entrance of the Asakusa subway; Nakamise shopping street; an orange tree on Nakamise

Around Sensoji

Our main purpose for coming to Asakusa was to check out Kappabashi Dogugai Street, which is lined with stores selling table and kitchen wear, for we love to shop for such things. We probably spent more than an hour there, hopping from one shop to another, eventually buying a few plates. With the strong Yen, most things turned to be quite expensive.

That night, we had dinner at Soba Daian restaurant, again attracted by the 手打ち (Handmade) sign at the entrance. We shared a portion of sashimi, soba, salt grilled fish collar, tofu sashimi, and dessert; all were absolutely delicious.

It felt rather strange that we’re eating and shopping without the girls, and the hotel room was so quiet without their chatters. However, it was a lovely Saturday.

On Sunday, after checking out and a quick breakfast, Daddy took the train to the airport for his flight home, and I took the train to Takao-san-guchi to meet up with my colleagues. We wanted to visit Mount Takao or Takaosan (高尾山), a mountain which was awarded a maximum 3 stars by Michelin Voyager Pratique Japon. There were 4 of us, my 2 other non-Japanese colleagues (who were from a different site), and our Japanese colleague cum guide.

This greeted me as I got out of the station. A beautiful village at the foot of Takaosan.

Instead of hiking, we took the cable car up, but explored the top of the mountain on foot. The view and the air is so different from downtown Tokyo. There are different hiking trails leading to different places. We first went to Yakuoin Temple, built more than a thousand year ago, and then to the peak of the mountain. We saw small little shops and restaurants scattered around. On a clear day, it seems you can view Fujiyama from Takaosan, but we didn’t manage to see it. Here are the photos :

The mountains around, can’t tell which is Fujiyama; Hachioji can be seen from the top; the cable car that took us up Takaosan

Around Takaosan

Around Yokuoin Temple : A beautiful bell hung from the roof; cleansing area at the temple; donor’s names on bamboo; Tengu or 天狗, Japanese mytological figures

Shop and stalls in Takaosan; steam bun for sale; a boot washing area with brushes provided for hikers at the Takaosan-guchi station.

By the time we’re back at the Takaosan-guchi station, it was close to 3pm. Our Japanese host mentioned that she’d made reservations at a restaurant, and we had to wait 20mins for the bus to send us there. I was really hungry and wondered why we couldn’t just go to any restaurants near the station. The bus ride took another 10minutes, through winding roads and small alleys, and when we arrived at Ukai Toriyama, I knew why Michiko took the trouble, she wanted us to experience the ultimate Japanese dining.

The restaurant is in a big traditional Japanese garden, with little streams and ponds scattered around thatched-roofed country-style cottages.

The beautiful Japanese garden that houses the restaurant

A cottage for private dining; tradional lantern; a place for tea; Japanese water feature

Michiko booked one of these cottages for lunch. Served by a waitress wearing kimono, our full course lunch took us almost 3hours to finish.

Seasonal vege appetiser; local raddish stew; clear soup with pigeon meat ball

Fresh water fish sashimi (the sea water fish is still nicer); grilled seasonal fish; Dumpling in red bean soup

The rice comes with grated sticky yam, I didn’t really like the sticky slimy feel

Waiter helping to grill our meat. I have grilled chicken tigh, I’d never tasted chicken so delicious before; my colleagues have beef

All that food for 9,000Yen per course per person. Luckily my colleague was paying.

By the time we’re done, it was already dark outside, and the place still looked gorgeous.

That was how my beautiful weekend ended. Good company, good sight-seeing, good food.

I still have a post on Japan with more photos, it takes a long time to sort out the photos and post them, so it’ll come later. Meanwhile, lets talk about some cultural difference.

Here are 2 things that I found :

Credit : Hotel Gran Spa

Onsen Culture
The onsen that was located in my hotel, has 5 indoor pools and 1 outdoor pool (all heated of course from natural hot spring water). There’s a sauna and a steam bath, and also a pool with cold water. There’s a public shower area with partitions. Each comes with a shower, a tap, a stool, own set of toiletries on a low top (you are meant to sit on the stool to bath). The side partitions are not higher than 2 feet (you can’t really cover yourself if someone is using the shower next to you).

The first time I stepped into the room where the onsen is, I was wrapped in towel, and all the other females who were stark naked stared at me.
Ok, so we have to be naked once we stepped in. When you are in Rome, do what the Romans do. I walked out and did the same, nobody knew me anyway.

The ladies come in different age, shapes and sizes. I’d seen 1.5yrs old to probably 80yrs old walking about.
Nobody covered themselves when they moved from one pool to another. Nobody paid any attention to people’s body parts like I did. I couldn’t help it, I’d never seen so many naked bodies live before!
Some of them come with a friend, and they’ll be chatting to each other with their lower body submerged (hey! there’s still the upper body).

Some of the friends shower together. Imagine, taking shower with your friends? I’d seen women exfoliating themselves, standing with their legs lifted on the stool, and talking with their friend in the next shower, taking their time.
I don’t think I have friends who are close enough to do this with me. Even if I did shower with a friend, we’ll probably pretend not to look at each other, and quickly have our shower done. Not the Japanese, they shower, they talk, like chatting over a cup of coffee. A few even asked each other to help them scrub the unreachable places!

Then my colleagues told me the onsen in the Hotel that I stayed is quite famous in Hachioji, sometimes they have department events there. Imagine! Your colleagues and you all together naked! Although the females and the males are in separate sections, but still..?
I can’t imagine myself doing that with my co-workers.
Or worse still, being in the onsen with your boss? Yikes.

Bathing with their kids
While we were talking about my reaction to the onsen culture over dinner with a few closer Japanese colleagues, one of them suddenly sighed. (The conversation went something like this.)
“My daughters don’t want to bath with me any more.”
But how old are they?
“20, and 16.”
Since when they stopped?
“When they were about 12.”
When you say bath, do you mean you give them a quick shower or was it more to spend time with them?
” To spend time.”
I think 12 is about right they stopped.
“But some daughters allow their father to bath them even when they are in their twenties.”
Then I turned to the only Japanese female colleague present, what about you, when did you stop?
“Around 11~12.”
Would you mind bathing with your father at this age?
“Of course! But I don’t mind bathing with my grandfather.”

I don’t think there’s any thing dirty about the father bathing their daughters, but I don’t think I want my girls to be taking even a quick shower with Daddy when they have reached puberty.

I was in Hachioji (~45mins train from Shinjuku, Tokyo), Japan for 2 weeks from 22nd February to 7th March. We have a major deployment there which has caused some chaos in the operations, so I was there to help with my area.

Around Shinjuku (which I visited after I touched down on 22nd Feb before heading to Hachioji)

Japan was supposed to be entering Spring when I arrived, but it was still very cold (0 to 10 degrees Celsius); and they had their first snow fall on Friday 27th and again on 3rd March. Although it was a light snow fall, I’m glad I got to experience it.

I stayed in Hotel Gran Spa, a hotel basically meant for Hot Spring or onsen (温泉) user (the corporate hotels were fully booked due to high school exams where rural students flocked Hachioji to sit for the exams). Not much English was spoken in the hotel. Simple thing like ‘pillow’, ‘receipt’, were not understood. It took me a 40minutes struggle with the reception to get my room and to confirm the nights I was staying when I checked in. However, I do like the hotel because :
1) the use of onsen is free;
2) the place is very clean (all shoes are stored in lockers before entering the ‘lobby’, the rollers on my suitcase were cleaned before they helped me carry into my room);
3) it’s ~7 minutes walk to the office, and surrounded by restaurants;
4) security is very good, nobody go passed the reception without registering;
5) the people at the reception knew me (I was probably the only non-Japanese staying), I was given my room key without having to tell them my room number everyday
Every night, I used the onsen before going to bed, and I slept like a baby.

Around the hotel, on the way to the office

At work, I was in a room with my Japanese counterparts, about 20 of them. They spoke Japanese among themselves, and only when I was needed, they would switch to English. My Japanese colleagues have been working more than 15hours a day, some going home only 2 nights the week before (don’t ask me where they sleep, I dare not ask myself).

Every day I arrived at 9am and left the office later than 9pm, and still I felt bad, because I was the first to leave. Since everybody was busy, I sometimes had to eat alone, struggling with Japanese menus, luckily I can read Kanji (which is Chinese) and roughly knew what I was ordering.

Japanese is my favourite cuisine, and they make really good bread as well. The glorious food kind of made up for the long hours. Let the photos do the talking :

Most of the time, I have Onigiri (Japanese : rice balls) for breakfast. Seen here : Onigiri breakfast set; MOS English tea and chicken teriyaki burger; cold udon and hot soba. Breakfast were around : 350Yen to 600Yen

Lunches were normally set meals, noodles, pasta, or sometimes just bento (Japanese : Lunch box). Priced around 500Yen to 1000Yen.

Cold soba with vege tempura; Fish in soy set; Prawn pasta

Ate at my favourite lunch restaurant twice : Fish in soy set; Tempura and udon set. The size of the tempura was like our noodle bowl, for the remaining of my trip, I didn’t order another tempura dish after this lunch.

Prawn and seaweed ramen; Bentos (how come they don’t look as nice as the bentos our blogger mummies make?)

For dinners, I tried to eat in a variety of restaurants, sometimes with colleagues, sometimes alone. The price is normally above 1000Yen. People seemed to eat out a lot because there are restaurants every where.

Some of the many restaurants around Hachioji

Love the dangling shells of this one

And the lanterns on this

My new favourite : Japanese pizza and My all time favourite : BBQ on skewers

White bait salad; White bait pizzas

Shabu-Shabu : Soup was clear konbu soup and soy soup. My friend had the beef and pork, while I had the bamboo chicken. The soy soup made everything taste so delicious!

Grilled fish collar; Oh-so-fresh sashimi; Green tea ice cream with fried Mochi

Green tea tofu (dessert); Nagoya prawn rice balls; Cheese with Don’t know what (but it was tasty); Baby squid which looked like cockroaches

By the second week, after seeing me taking photos of my food before eating, my colleague asked me, “At home when you have dinner, do you take photo before eating?” o.O”

In a restaurant that served dishes from Okinawa, I pointed to the ‘specials’ (in Japanese) and asked the waitress what it was. She couldn’t explain, and a customer next to me tried to help. “Sea grapes!” I didn’t know what it was, but I just ordered. Turned out it was quite delicious, although the serving was puny.

“Sea Grapes” & Okinawa tempura

Now, what was the weirdest food that I’d eaten?
.
.
.
I had a date with my colleague from India, and because he’s been eating lunch and dinner at the same Indian restaurant for 2 whole weeks, I thought I’d do him a favour by bringing him to a Japanese restaurant. When we met up, he told me it was getting late, and we had better gone to the Indian restaurant which was nearer to the office instead of walking further (where the restaurant I wanted to bring him was located). So..

I obliged. I thought it was really weird eating Indian food in Japan.

Naan bread and some spinach curry.

The food was ok, but I just don’t understand how my colleague could eat lunch and dinner at the same restaurant for 2 weeks. o.O”

Now, you may ask, did I miss my girls since I was gone for so long and was it difficult for me? I did miss them. However, work trip is the only time I have to be alone, i.e. had the whole bed to myself, ate and shit in peace (nobody barged in when I’m doing my business), took my time to shower, can concentrate on my shopping (no need to have eyes darting around to make sure the girls do not walk away from me) etc, etc. So, consider this my me-time, and as long as it’s not too frequent, I rather enjoyed work trips.

寒冷的夜里,
听着阿岳的凌晨，
在八王子的街道上逛着，
雪花飘落在撑着的伞, 微湿的外套，
为什么有一股说不出的伤感? 润湿了眼眶?

I don’t write posts in Chinese, however, I was feeling this in Chinese and it didn’t sound right when I tried to translate into English.

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.

♥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.

After much thought and planning (mostly my part), we have decided for a holiday to Hong Kong with the girls, when Zaria still enjoyed infant rate for her flight, and no admission charges to any of the theme parks.

The week before we left for Hong Kong, I had dinner with my dad. Seeing the girls running here and there and could not sit still during dinner, my dad shook his head and said, “I don’t know how you are going to handle them in Hong Kong.” And seriously, I didn’t know how we were going to survive. Unlike most people who would only go with the older child, or bring along the maid or a relative to help, we braved Hong Kong as a family, just us 4, planning for the worst.

We left a day after Jelly has gone home for her holidays. We were blessed with dry, sunny weather, with temparature around 20 degrees.

♥14th Dec♥
We got on a late flight and arrived in Hong Kong at 10:30pm. 1st night hotel was Novotel Citygate at Tung Chung which is near the airport; since Daddy didn’t want to tax the girls by travelling all the way downtown to spend the night.

By the time we got into our room, it was already 12am. Zaria had knocked off, and Zara had a quick wash up, and went straight to bed.

I didn’t know we were actually near the Citygate Outlets, until I read the brouchers I picked up from the hotel lobby.

♥15th Dec♥
I realised the Citygate Outlets were actually attached to our hotel. I told Daddy maybe he should stay in the room with the girls, while I went shopping. His reaction, “You want to start shopping on the FIRST DAY itself?” (Why not?) “And I thought we’re here to see the Giant Buddha?” Grrr.. So there goes my shopping plan.

For breakfast, I walked over to the supermarket near our hotel to grab some croissant, bread, fruit juices, soya bean and had them in the room, so we can eat in peace. (All breakfasts for the next few days were eaten in the room except on our last day)

After breakfast, we checked out, and left our luggage with the hotel, and started our journey to see Tung Chung. A whistle was looped around Zara’s neck, so she could whistle for our attention if she were lost, and a leash was attached to Zaria every time we went out. Thus began our visit.

Girls marveling at the water fountains just outside the Citygate Outlet mall (while mummy marveled at the shop display). Spot Zara’s daily companion the whistle, and Zaria’s leash.

If only I could shop I would be as happy.

Tung Chung is famous for the outlet shopping Ngong Peng 360 cable car ride and the Giant Buddha, the cable car will bring you all the way to the Ngong Peng Village where the latter is.

It was a ~30mins ride on the cable car, with very scenic view of the mountains in Lantau Island and the sea.

One of the few rare shots of the Zaria smiling especially with Zara’s arms around.

Extremely stable (even when the wind is howling) and scenic ~30min ride on the Ngong Peng 360 cable car.

Besides the Giant Buddha, surrounding Ngong Peng, there are some really nice walking paths. I especially like the walk to the Wisdom Path, where you find 8~10m high wood columns with Chinese calligraphy arranged in the ‘infinity’ symbol on a slope of a hill.

For most part of our trip, we were amazed at the girls’ ability to walk for long period of time, and when they got tired, they took turns to be seated on the stroller or to be carried.

Girls were very happy to spot some Nutcrackers as Christmas display in hotels, and this one, in Ngong Peng.

Love this shot of Zaria on Daddy’s shoulder, with the Giant Buddha at the back, taken just before sunset.

Just before sunset (~5pm), we took the cable car back to Tung Chong. I requested for some time to shop at the outlet mall. With Daddy constantly asking, “Is it really cheaper here?” “Do you want to lug that all the way back?” “Are you done yet?” and the girls going wild in the shops, I only managed to spend like 30mins in Esprit (in the whole Outlet mall) and bought myself some really cheap tops and a pair of pants. Grrrr..

We left Tung Chong with some food stuff from the supermarket (and our luggage of course) and took the MTR to our next stop.

When we got to the Disney’s Hollywood Hotel, Goofy was doing his round at the lobby. Without warning, Zaria just dashed towards him, ignoring the queue of people who wanted a photo with him, and gave him a hug, and since then, every time Disneyland was brought up, she will say, “Goofy loves me!” and “I love Goofy very much.”

I don’t know why there were lots of bad comemnts about Disney’s Hollywood Hotel. To me, it’s perfectly fine. There’s a robe and slippers for kids, they folded the small towels into animals, and knowing we got 2 young kids, they even installed 2 bed guards on our 2 queen beds. The only complain is, the beds were a bit too high, I had to put a chair in between the beds to act as a stepping stool for the girls.

I went to Shanghai for almost a week 2 weeks ago. Approval was pretty last minute, and the Chinese Embassy was closed for a whole week prior to my departure. I only got my passport at 9pm on Monday, 6th October night itself, and my flight was 3hrs later. Imagine my stress level prior to my flight.

The purpose of the trip was to conduct training to our clones new Shanghai colleagues. After months of being overworked, the management has finally decided to hire more people to ease our workload.

I arrived early morning on Tuesday. This time staying in Pudong (蒲东) instead of Puxi (蒲西) where we stayed last year. By the time I got into Raddison Hotel Pudong Century Park it was 9am. With less than 4hrs sleep in total the night before, I slept in for the rest of the morning.

The room was very nice and comfortable. I like the big glass panel seperating the toilet and the bedroom, making the place look very spacious.

The hotel is next to a commercial square with lots of restaurants and a Carrefour within walking distant. The only complain I have is there’s no MRT station nearby.

My first lunch, I just grabbed a fried noodle (blech!) nearby and then headed to the office, located in Pudong, in an isolated techology park. For the 3.5 days of training, I spoke mainly in Mandarin (I thank my parents for sending me to Chinese school, making me so ‘useful’ in my adult life), I wonder if I confused anybody since my Chinese isn’t that great. 😛

On my first day, I opted to be alone because I was still feeling tired from lack of sleep. Had dinner in a restaurant near the hotel. It’s difficult to order for one, I had a portion of smoke duck and pot stickers, and didn’t manage to finish them.

I spent the rest of the evening wondering around. Found a few road side DVD peddlers, so I did some DVD shopping (RMB5 for a movie, how about that?), and then also spotted a traditional massage place next to the hotel operating till 1am. I booked myself for a 1hr Duina (推拿) massage that night itself. I slept like a baby after the massage.

The next 3 nights, I have my colleagues accompanying me in the evenings, bringing me out for dinners. I had no time to shop in the malls, but thank goodness for all the DVDs peddlers which are opened till 11pm, I managed to buy quite a lot of DVDs. I also managed to go for another round of massage.

Here are pictures of my dinners.

2nd evening – with a colleague, at 鹭鹭酒家 (Lulu Jiu Jia) he ordered some of the more famous Shanghainese dishes. Chicken in wine; tofu with crab roe (蟹粉豆腐); some soya mock meat (四喜烤夫); steamed “many treasure fish” (多宝鱼), a type of sole which is only available in Shanghai.

3rd evening – Group dinner at Lang Yi Fang Restaurant (廊亦舫酒樓). Armed with a RM50/head budget, this was what we got.

5 types of cold dishes – I love the fried fish with sauce (熏鱼), they come in a stack.

7 types of warm dishes – Gosh, I thought there was no end to the food they dished out. The fried prawns and the cucumber and corn soup were really good.

The restaurant even has a very good view of The Bund (外滩).. For RM50 per head, I think it’s so reasonable.

4th evening, dinner was at Qiao Jiang Nan (悄江南). It took us almost 1hr 15mins to travel from MRT station (near office) to the hotel (to drop off some books I ordered) then to the restaurant at The Bund, all due to Friday rush hour.

This was by far the best meal. The fresh vege with sesame dip was so good, I tried to make it at home last week, and Daddy loved it too. Then there’s the famous spicy chicken (口水鸡) and the most delicious chicken pot stickers I’d ever eaten.

These few dishes were not too bad too. Prawn and corn fried with salted egg yolk; cold noodle; stir fried shredded duck with mushroom.

All these with drinks and beer for 3, came out to RMB300 (RM150). I think dining in Shanghai, is still cheaper than dining in KL.

If you think all my meals are this yummy, check out the lunch that they dish out in the canteen. Every thing is cold, and quite horrid tasting not to mention you have to queue around 10 minutes before you get your food.

Some sights :

The Bund (外滩) viewed from the Pudong side.

Shanghai Telecom Building (东方明珠)

Love their road signs, so informative, telling you exactly what’s ahead, the name of the roads that are intersacting with the road you are on etc.

On the last day, before my flight, I managed to go to Puxi, and shopped for some Shanghainese cakes in Nanjing Road (南京路). If you are ever in Shanghai, you have to try the ShenDaCheng (沈大成) cakes. They are really yummy.

To get to the airport, I took the Maglev. RMB40, and it only took 6min to get to the airport (instead of the 30~45min taxi ride). The fasted it went was 430Km/hr!

(All photos taken in Point & Shoot, such vast difference in quality)

After leaving Penang (and spending 2 hours rounding George Town to find a place to lunch), we continued with our holidays and headed to Cameron Highlands via the Simpang Pulai way, roads are definitely wider this way, and less winding.

We arrived at 6pm+ and it was quite chilly. Even though it was low peak, when we arrived at our hotel, Century Pine Resort, it took like 15mins for us to get our room (although pre-booked). The beds were without sheets, and the day curtain was not hung up! Tsk tsk. Luckily they sent someone to fix that soon after we complained.

Our duplex room is big and comfy as well as clean. It has 2 floors, 1st with a sofa bed and a bathroom, and on the top floor another en suite room with king bed. Girls loved the room; Zara happy to get Nickelodeon channel and Zaria loved the carpeted stair case leading to the top floor; she spent a great deal of time walking up and down the stairs.

We walked to Tanah Rata to look for a place for dinner but found nothing interesting on the main street; we ended up driving to Brinchang and had steamboat.

After breakfast at the hotel on Wednesday morning, we went to the market at Kea Farm. Since it was low peak, there were very few tourists and the vege and strawberries were selling cheap.

We wanted to go strawberry picking but it was RM30 with 3 punnets given to us (that’s the max you get to pick). So the girls went flowers picking instead, mainly the morning glories, baby breath like flowers and the hibiscus that grow in abundance at the road side.

For Daddy and I, no visit to Cameron Highlands is complete without going to the tea plantations. We headed to Boh’s Sungai Palas Tea Estate after lunch. I just love the picturesque view of the green slopes, occasionally, finding a few tea pickers’ heads bobbing up and down. You have to see with your own eyes the beauty and tranquility that the camera cannot catch.

Unfortunately, the famous tea center was closed but the friendly gate keeper kept us entertained by showing us tea flowers and tea seeds, and the girls were going around searching and picking seeds from the ground (although Zaria was picking gravels on the road thinking they were the same thing).

We then had tea at Bala’s Holiday Chalet. Bloody rip off I tell you. RM18.90 for 2 scones with tea. I bake better scones than them, and they don’t even whip their own cream, it’s all sprayed out from a can (I can tell. I just can.) What we’re paying is really like an entrance fee to their English garden, quite pretty although not well maintained.

After tea, we sent Jelly and Zaria back to the hotel room, and Zara, Daddy and I took a walk on a short track just behind the hotel.

I love the moss, ferns and wild flowers found on this path. You can see them captured here (the roof belongs to Bala’s Holiday Chalet). You have to see Zara ‘manja-ing’ Daddy, “Daddy you are a strong man, carry me.” And so Daddy carried this close to 15Kg girl on his shoulder almost the whole time.

We had to turn back when the track becomes narrower and more difficult to handle with a toddler.

We went back to the hotel to find a fully rested Zaria and headed out to have dinner. This time we tried steamboat at Tanah Rata (Brinchang’s was better).

Thursday morning, we went to Kea Farm again to get our vege and strawberry. Check out the price : RM10 for 14 packs of organic vege (real organic or not, I’m not sure); RM20 for 7 punnets of big juicy strawberries.

We skipped lunch and checked out. We headed to Boh Plantation at Ringlet, thinking of grabbing lunch there.

On the way to Boh Plantation, there are quite a few watercress farms, and we stopped at one to show the girls how watercress is grown.

This farm grows eggplants and watercress. Here you see pools of shallow water used to grow watercress, and beautiful purple eggplant flowers. Surrounding the farms, wild baby breath like flowers were everywhere.

After some more winding roads, we again get to see the breath taking views of slopes with well trimmed tea trees (girls were of course not fascinated by any of these and fell asleep on the way).

The tea centre didn’t serve any hot lunch but only cakes and pastries. I took the last scone available (better and cheaper than Bala’s), the rest had some cakes and pies, the Masala tea there was so delicious.

Girls then had a good time checking out the flowers and enjoying the fresh air around.

You can tell Zaria having a good time with her many expressions.

Our last stop before heading the North-South Highway was the waterfalls. We only let the girls soak their feet in the cold water although both wanted very much to jump down and splash about. When it was time to leave, Zaria was holding on to the car door, refusing to get into the car shouting, “Don’t want (to) go home! Want some more waterfall.”

That’s an indication this was a good holiday. 😛