What will we see at the zoo...

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan's school organised an excursion to the Hong Kong Zoo as part of their curriculum for the term. The theme for this term is animals and the children have been learning about different animals both in English and Mandarin through books, songs and play. Looking after 24 little three year olds on the loose is no mean feat so the school "asked" (in other words, the child must be accompanied otherwise he or she will not be able to go!) that parents accompany their little monkeys on this trip. While Ryan had a great time running around looking at the animals with his little friends, I met some of the other mothers which resulted in a play date later in the week. All in all, a fun little outing for the both of us.

Chasing bubbles
.

One tired and extremely sweaty little boy

Pork floss sandwich and a baby carrot - an interesting snack combo

"Think the girls will mind me sitting with them?"

"Star Bears" Babies

Chillin' with the boys

Junk Junkies

The highlight of this holiday was definitely the junk trip out to Sai Kung. We hired a Chinese Pleasure Junk and took it to a small floating fish farm in Kau Sau Wan. Here, the kids had a great time "feeding" the huge fishes and "fishing" the tiny ones. Lunch was a simple but tasty "home-cooked" fare with incredibly fresh seafood straight out of the sea. After that, we stopped at a tiny beach along the way and played the afternoon away.

Fashion model in the making!

View of Hong Kong as we sailed out to sea

Arriving at the floating fish farm

A rather dodgy looking fisherman with our catch...

... but the fish looked good!

Setting the bait (little smelly rotten fish)

14 kg 3 year old wrestling with a 14 kg fish

The Khoo father and son fishing team

Lunch at the floating fish-farm (in the backyard of the fish farmers)

Mmmmm ... crab

Mmmm ... crab (a little copy cat)

Look what I caught

I got one too

Happy cousins

The Han girls

The whole junk crew just before leaving the fish farm

Enjoying a drink with Mama - while we head for a beach to play on

Cooling down in a little rock pool

Playing with (tormenting) a little crab

Oh no its getting away

Khoo family meeting

The gang on the beach

A bunch of tired but happy seafarers

Two tired boys heading back into central with the HK skyline in the background

Discovering Hong Kong (Part 2)

Continuing with our exploration ... we booked a table at the Quarter Deck for lunch after doing some shopping at Harbour City in Tsim Tsa Tsui on one of those dreary and wet Hong Kong days. The food at this Australian themed restaurant isn't anything to shout about but the view from its floor to ceiling windows makes it worth the while. On a clear day, you can get a panoramic view of Hong Kong's amazing skyline from there. Unfortunately, that is also the same spot where all the cruise ships which come into Hong Kong dock when they are in the harbour. As luck would have it, when we walked into the restaurant that day, all we saw was the side of a huge cruise ship! Still, we managed to console ourselves with a giant seafood platter :).

We feel for you Mama :)

A multi-storey seafood bonanza

A normally panoramic view of the HK skyline obstructed by a whopping great ocean liner

We had a belated celebration for Dad's birthday the night before he left. Dad wanted to have Sichuan for dinner so we went to try this restaurant in Wan Chai which had some pretty good reviews in several food magazines. Unfortunately the food was way below par, thankfully the good company made up for it.

Tram ride home from dinner

An artistic view of HK from a tram at night

Kong-kong's B'day family portrait

Kong-kong and Poh-poh with the three grandkids

One Sunday Shad and I took the two boys to Ocean Park. Poor Teagan who was down with the runs missed out on a fun day.

Kiasu kids (or rather kiasu parents) reserving our spots way before the Dolphin show begins

He ain't heavy, he's my brother!

Looks like fun, doesn't it?!?

But notice the terror on Ryan's face and Hayden's fist clutching on to Ryan's pants, while the only adult there is laughing himself silly!

Cheung Chau again... except this time we went at dusk in time for dinner the night Alan arrived. It was a short enough ferry ride for it to be a fun outing for the kids and also a nice spot for a reasonable and tasty seafood meal.

Mr and Mrs Khoo

After vowing not to ride in the cablecar (I was still a little freaked out by an earlier incident where one of the cables snapped causing a cabin to fall to the ground during a routine inspection), I finally succumbed. Well, I have to admit that it was a safe ride and the views from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping were pretty spectacular. The kids especially loved being so high off the ground looking down at the boats in the ocean and also at the aeroplanes taking off from the HK Airport.

The cable car ride to the Big Buddha

Can you tell they are mother and daughter?

View of the Big Buddha from the cable car

We spent the Saturday before the Khoos left doing what the three of us usually do on a typical lazy weekend - brunch at Cru, one of our favourite cafes in Soho. After that we took a walk through Graham Street market in Central, the oldest wet market on Hong Kong island. There has been much controvery over this market in recent years as the government pushes to close it down in the name of development while the "Save the Street Market" advocates are calling for it to be preserved as a heritage site. It will be a real shame if the government does get its way.

A relaxing Saturday brunch

A stroll through the Graham St market

The boys fascinated by a craftsman (peeling an avocado!)

Raise the red lantern

Two "siau ku niangs"

Cat-man and Fu-Man-Chu!

Does this smell fresh to you?

Not bad...

We finished the day with the two Daddies taking the kids for a swim at AMC while we ladies went and did a spot of shopping, later meeting up for dinner in the Chinese restaurant at the Club.

Ravenous kids after their swim session

A big mouthful for a little girl

A greedy 3 year old stuffing his face with duck

Mum stayed on for a few more days after everyone left which gave us a little more time to spend together. So we tried to do a few more "local" things which included breakfast at one of those extremely popular tiny "cha chan teng" (HK style tea cafe) in Central after dropping Ryan off at school (once again I forgot to take photos) and supper at a very tiny, dingy "pou chai fan" (claypot rice) restaurant in Causeway Bay (Shad swears that he'll never go here again because it's so dirty and yucky, but all I can say is that the food is pretty darn good!) after putting Ryan to sleep one night. And in between, we also managed several lunches out with the little monkey as well as catching up with my cousins.

A ginger lime lychee gelato after our "pou chai fan" supper in front of Time Square

Teppanyaki lunch at Inagiku - Ryan managed to score a second bowl of fried rice from the nice chef by loudly telling me "but I still hungry Mama"!