Casino Crawling

The last time we went to Macau, we came home several pounds heavier thanks to the "Deanna & Alex" culinary tour. We literally spent most of the day going from one place to the next, sampling a wide variety of Macanese cuisine. And all of them were delicious. With the memory of all that mouth watering dishes still strong in our minds, we decided to go on another foodie holiday.

Ryan was super excited about going on a ferry ride and even more excited about staying in a hotel. Our little boy has this thing about hotels, he absolutely loves them. Once when Shad asked him why he likes to stay at hotels, he said "because I get to sleep with you and Mama, I can draw on lots of paper and order room service." He loves hotels so much that two weeks ago as Shad was leaving to go to the airport on his way to Melbourne, Ryan gave him a kiss and said "Daddy don't forget ... (I thought he was going to say "buy me a toy") ... to order room service!"

This time since we were staying at the Venetian Resort, we took the Cotai Strip Ferry which docks very close to the hotel. The ferry left Hong Kong at 7.30pm and by 9pm we were already in the hotel room. Even on a Wednesday night, the place was bustling with people. The ads weren't lying, this entertainment/retail outlet/hotel/casino complex is humungous. Walking from the check-in area to the room itself took at least 10 minutes, and without a map we would probably have gotten lost.

High rollers on the way to the Venetian

A "mini" Venice

When we got to the room, we had a nice surprise because Shad had gotten us a room upgrade while checking in. The suite was extremely spacious, over 2,000+ sq ft of floor space. Unfortunately, the layout and design were terrible. We've stayed in many smaller hotel rooms which looked a hundred times more appealing.

A giant box of a room

We made "someone" very happy by having room service dinner that night

Ryan and Yee Chai in a food coma

The next morning we took a leisurely stroll through the historic centre. Thankfully since it was a weekday, we didn't have to contend with too many overbearing, pushy Chinese tourists so we took our time and stopped at the main attractions along the way up to the ruins of the Church of St Paul.

New meets old - Starbucks housed in one of the old heritage buldings

Big sis and little sis (vice versa when looking at height!)

Mia boleh!

These ancient craft shops still exist in Macau

Infront of the facade of the Church of St Paul

Our resident photographer and his willing model

View of the old city from the top of the Church of St Paul

See that green building? Mia and I spent a good half hour waiting in the small air-conditioned pharmacy "pretending" to look for something to buy while we waited for the others

After two hours of walking around in the scorching heat, we were all ready to head back to the hotel to chill out. Although I did suggest going to the famous "chi pah pow" (pork chop bun) stall to grab a snack first, unfortunately it was loudly vetoed by both Shad and Tania, and of course all Ryan wanted to do was to go back to the hotel and order room service!

Enjoying the outdoors under a (fake) perfect blue sky

Family pic Take 1...

Take 2... why is it so difficult to get the kids to smile at the same time??

Bollywood wannabes. Think the pole can pass off as a coconut tree??

Excited passengers with our Vegas imported gondolier

Our gondolier serenading us under the bridge. Ryan and Mia were most impressed, both kept turning around to stare at him!

We revisited Litoral for dinner that night and the food was still as good as the time we were there with Dee and Alex. The African chicken and the clam stew were both divine. Sorry no pictures here as we were all too busy digging into the food and forgot to take out the camera. Later that night, Tania and I left Shad on babysitting duties and went out to have a look around the Venetian casino as well as the Crown Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel which were just opposite the road. Both Tania and I thought that the Crown was a much nicer hotel, what it lacked in size it made up in style and atmosphere.

Frescoes at the Venetian

The Venetian at night

We spent the next morning relaxing in the pool before going to Fernando's for lunch. Fortunately since it was a Friday, we didn't have to wait in line for a table when we got there. And again, the food was excellent, just like we remembered it to be. Even after that enormous lunch, I still insisted that we had to stop by the famous Lord Stow's Bakery so that Tania (who loves this version of egg tarts) could taste some "real" Portugese egg tarts.

Daddy and his babies

Flying high

The oh so popular Fernando's Restaurant. Don't be fooled by its looks, on weekends there is a long long line of people waiting for a table even before it opens its doors.

And here's why. Those clams were amazing!

One very satisfied customer

Lord Stow's bakery - the man who invented the Portugese egg tart

They're reportedly as good as they look (so say Shad and Tania as I am not a big fan of these)

Our poor baby cried all the way home as soon as he found out we had to leave the hotel (and I mean ALL the way home, even after the ferry arrived in Hong Kong!)

"Ear" Is Here!

Tania visited us three weeks ago. Ryan was extremely excited to see "Yee Chai" (although from the way he pronounces the word, it sounds more like ear rather than Aunty), impatiently counting down the number of sleeps until she arrived. Since Tania had already done most of the touristy things on her previous visits, we just took it easy this time and did things at a lesisurely pace.

Of course a day at Big Wave Bay was compulsory. We went out on a Friday to avoid the crowd and it was definitely the right decision. We pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves, and we'd chosen a day with perfect (or as close to perfect as we could have asked for in summer) beach weather. With the sun hiding behind the passing clouds and a strong breeze to cool us down, we started the day off with a hearty brunch at the beachside cafe followed by a cool dip in the sea and then a lazy day lying on the beach. Lovely!

Separated by one generation, the two babies of the family

It took two adults to hold an 8 month old still...

...and still, most of it ended up on her face!

We ended the day with a walk along Stanley Promenade and dinner at one of the restaurants facing the sea.

Stanley Promenade

Knocked out mid-dinner after a long day's play

Brunch at our favourite cafe, a walk around at a shopping centre to escape from the afternoon heat, a swim and some sand play at a beach. This is a rather typical weekend for us, well, normally not all in one day but this time we did. We took Tania to Cru in Soho, they do a good brunch there, although she might not think so since they gave her a spinach brie omelette instead of the spinach blue cheese omelette that she ordered! We girls (including my baby girl) then did a spot of shopping at Tai Koo Shing while the boys spent their time at the toy store and amusement centre. Ryan excitedly took the 30+ tokens he'd collected to the counter to exchange for some toys, but to his dismay, he didn't have enough to get even the smallest toy. A plain hot dog alone costs 80 tokens! Shad then spent the next 20 mins explaining to Ryan how these places use this "trick" to cheat you into spending more money to get more tokens. For the rest of the day Ryan kept grumbling "they are not nice, they just cheat your money, they are not nice!"

After recharging our batteries with a Hong Kong style afternoon tea (borsch soup with soft butter buns, stir fried black pepper beef hor fun and iced milk tea), we took Tania to another one of our favourite beach, South Bay. When we got there, the sun was out but half an hour later the sky opened up and it started bucketing down. Luckily I had just taken Mia back to the car before the downpour started, but Shad, Tania and Ryan got absolutely drenched. Anwyay, Ryan had a grand time running around and playing in the rain on the beach.

Stationary baby (our Missy wasn't a big fan of the sand)

Minutes before the downpour

Lunch at Cafe Too, Shangrila Hotel is a must do when visiting Hong Kong. I think they have one of the best buffets in town.

Start of lunch...

Half way through...

Two hours later, Ms Han was still stuffing her face with suckling pig skin!

It's always nice to have free imported babysitters to help out with the kids :)

But aiyo, reading newspapers while babysitting? It's just so hard to find good help these days. Har har!

One of the nice things about living in Hong Kong is that there is never a shortage of new restaurants opening up. Tania treated us to a lovely Sunday lunch at the recently opened gastropub, The Pawn in Wan Chai. Housed in one of the few remaining heritage buildings in Hong Kong, this restaurant is named after what it used to be in the old days, a chinese pawn shop. Lunch was lovely, fish and chips for the little munchkin, truffle butter wild mushrooms on toast, scallops, quail and a four course summer truffle spread for us adults. Yummy! We were so stuffed that we could only manage one dessert among the four of us.

Satisfied customers outside The Pawn

Scallops (I forget the fancy name they had for it)

Truffle Salad with poached duck egg and cold asparagus

Choc truffle (guess whose little finger that is)

Exploring the toy shops around the streets of Wan Chai

Fooling around outside Wan Chai station waiting for the driver (aka Mama) to come pick us up

"Asian Olympics" at Lego Camp

This summer has been challenging, we found ourselves constantly cracking our heads trying to come up with activities to keep one certain four year old entertained. The past couple of summers, we've either been home in Melbourne or we'd found refuge at indoor air conditioned areas to try to avoid the oppressive heat. However this year with the swine flu scare, we've been keeping away from indoor play areas. So Ryan has spent most of the summer at "Mama's Art Centre", "Mama's Mini Cooking School", "Mama's Play Gym". Thankfully this little boy can also amuse himself for hours playing with his toys at home. But both Ryan and Mama eagerly look forward to the weekends when we have one extra entertainer, aka Daddy!

Anyway, back to the title of this post, that was the theme of the four-day Lego Camp that Ryan attended recently. He enjoyed the classes very much and was extremely excited when I went to pick him up, pulling me over to show me his masterpiece each day. His instructors would smile indulgently as I pulled out my camera, and when I asked if he did it himself they would smile and say "ah yes, he did a lot himself". But I think both Mama and Daddy know better ;)

Miniature human catapult?

Swinging gymnast

Teeny golfer (even the ball is bigger!)

Yee Chai admiring Ryan's work

And when Mama got bored waiting around, she entertained herself taking funny photos of Mia!

Stunned sausage!

Toothy Tot

After weeks of excessive drooling and chewing on everything she can get her hands on, two little pearly white teeth finally made an appearance. All of us, especially Ryan, have been closely following this major event. Every time Ryan looks into Mia's mouth, he shouts " Mia has teeth!" Four weeks later, Mia now has an extremely cute toothy smile.

Unfortunately, there's still no sight of any hair growth on our little girl's head. So Daddy has resorted to photoshop!

Splish Splash

Mia had her first dip in the swimming pool at seven and a half months old. While our little Missy seemed to enjoy the water, she wasn't overly thrilled either, looking very much like "Ms Glum"!

Master diver and his little mermaid

Little Miss Pinky with Daddy (those beautiful pink swimmers came all the way from LA courtesy of Aunty Christine)

Floating like an old pro

Splashin' around

Finally enjoying the cool waters while Koh-koh dives for lost treasure

Dining in Darkness

Shad: Ryan, what do you want to do today?

Ryan: Go to the beach.

Shad (looking at Lisa): OK, shall we have a bbq there?

Lisa: That'll be fun. Just a simple one, hot dogs, marshmallows? And maybe some fishballs HK style too :)

And so that was how the plans for a Sunday evening came about. To avoid the crowds as well as the heat, we left for the beach a little later in the evening, maybe just a little too late. By the time we got to South Bay, climbed down the tens of steps from the carpark to the BBQ pits with our bags of charcoal, utensils and foodstuff, started the fire and put the snags on the barbie, we were sitting in complete darkness! There was no lighting around the barbeque area, but fortunately the people at the pit next to us were obviously seasoned "barbequers". They'd come fully equipped with their fluorescent torches so we "borrowed" some of their light. Now one problem solved, then out came the insects and mosquitoes! On top of that, the novelty of cooking his own food soon wore off and the complaints from the little munchkin gradually became louder, "the fire is making me too hot, the stick is too heavy, I am thirsty..." Shad and I just looked at each other and said the same thing simultaneously, "hurry up cook, eat then let's go". We gobbled down one hot dog each then packed up and left. As Ryan so aptly put it the minute we got back into the car, "ah this is much better!"

Stunning sunset

Family cook out (Mia: Why are we here? So darn hot and all these insects flying around me!)

The face says it all!