A Slice of Hong Kong

It seems like forever since I've blogged. My last post was in April! Since then, I've taken on more writing jobs, celebrated a whole lot of weddings (even doing the massive prep for my sister's) and gone to Hong Kong for a vacay. And of course, we've moved back to our own place and in the midst of all the excitement (packing! new furniture! reorganising! painting!), I got dengue. It seems like I just keep sleeping but never seem to feel rested. Well, at least the itch is mostly gone - grateful for small mercies!

While I'm sorting out the rest of my life and trying to feel alive again, here's a short post on a selection of what we ate in Hong Kong. Food's always a winner in our books, although my appetite has truly hit rock bottom with my lingering illness... Maybe this will whet it!

Hui Lau Shan

We love mangoes so how can pass up Hui Lau Shan in HK? Usually I have one a day but not with the girls. Too heaty! ;)

Bielet and Bieny only wanted the mangoes so ZX and I had everything else. The durian ice cream wasn't as good as we hoped though.

She couldn't wait to tuck in!

Yee Shun Milk Company

Supposedly one of the best cha chaan teng in HK, we got a whiff of their infamous service too. Bielet entertained herself by doodling on our order chit, and ZX got a earful at the counter when he settled our bill because we apparently screwed up their accounting (yes, they file the order chits). Too bad we never went back to try their milk custard - we heard good things about it! 

Hing Kee Claypot Rice

Despite the rundown insides of this eatery and bad lighting (which made for bad photos), the claypot rice was da bomb. It would have tasted even better if we drowned it in sauce but we couldn't, the girls' sodium levels would have reached next year's. We had chicken with chinese sausage, and chicken with mushroom. YUM 

The Kowloon Diary Co

Right, so this ain't an eatery per se, but everyone was telling me to try this milk. Um, it didn't make me a milk convert but the chocolate milk was real good. 

Tsui Wah Restaurant

Luckily for us, our hotel was right next to an MTR station and also a branch of this restaurant. We had one of our best breakfasts here. The girls loved the fishball noodles (me too - it didn't taste at all fishy although it did smell fishy, and the texture was nice and QQ) while I hit the jackpot with the macaroni and milk tea. It's my go-to place for comfort food, I never leave disappointed.

Bielet and Bieny love anything fishball!

City Hall Maxim's Palace

We were in the area and decided to have our dim sum fix here again. Maxim's is one of the best restaurant chains in HK, and this dim sum restaurant is really popular. The last time we came here with Bielet, we waited more than an hour. This time though, we got lucky and arrived just before closing so there was absolutely no queue! The dim sum trolley aunties weren't refilling though, so we just grabbed everything on sight.

The girls were famished by then and polished off their dim sum.

This tofu pudding was Bieny's pick - because she was teething really bad and could only eat the softest food. We left the whole bowl for the poor darling!

The view is spectacular!

This place is usually packed to the brim. This was towards the end of service and it was just half full.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

Given the many restaurants and eateries at the Peak, this was an unusual choice but we decided to go for a Western option. And if you've watched Forrest Gump, you would know this eatery. 

We ordered this to share and was a little taken back that the portion was minuscule!

A huge portion of butter broccoli for the girls (their fave veg other than corn). The service staff also allowed us to order a bowl of clam chowder, which is actually only available as a set, because Bieny was having really bad teething pains and couldn't eat anything else. Poor baby.

I didn't see the point of heading to the observatory since we've been to the Peak before, and the lights would just look the same to the girls. So this is our cheapskate way of getting a photo with a view HAHAHA

Australia Dairy Co.

Another place which we have heard nothing but good things - and the infamous queue. I reckon it takes about an hour at the very least to step inside this joint, so we beat it by dabao-ing. No ambience but we just wanted to fill our tummies, so there, we got our food in 10 minutes! The milk custard was superb (and I don't even like milk custard).

Kum Wah Cafe

We came here for the polo bun, but the service staff looked really unhappy that FOUR of us were just having ONE bun so we ended up ordering the world's most salty plate of noodles. I didn't think the bun was anything special, but perhaps my tastebuds got killed by the noodles. 

Hong Kong Disneyland

The highlight of our trip! I'm a super Disney fan, and I managed to convert both girls too (not difficult actually).  

The service was impeccable and we got a nice family shot at our lunch spot, Main Street Corner Cafe, which we selected as the queue wasn't too long and it was right by the parade route. Score!

I love the mickey-shaped foods. I wonder if I can get the cutters to make our own here? Anyway, we chose the softest foods so here's a fish fillet with mash potato. You can't get any softer than that!

Since Bieny loves mushroom soup, we got a cup of that too.

And just to be on the safe side, we got a lasagna dish too!

I'm not sure whether it was Disneyland or if the food was really that good, but Bieny polished everything up - including this trio of sorbets.

This young lady was really sweet to Bielet and gave her drawing/quiz materials (and the answers!) 

When ZX and Bielet went to check out the parade, Bieny and I busied ourselves taking photos!

Mickey waffle for dinner! (We ate other ordinary stuff too, but not photo-worthy haha)

We saw these Baymax buns in the pamphlet and purposefully went to dabao it from the hotel restaurant (it's not sold at the park). It was incredibly expensive for such a small pair of buns, but the girls were really happy with it. 

That caps off our food portion! I still have a tonne of posts that I never did update, but it seems so out of date now. Let's see, maybe I need a fresh start...

Puffing Billy Railway

My travel blogging on our Australia trip is taking a whole lot longer than I'd liked, but I aim to wrap up all the posts by the time I fly off again. Tickets for Jakarta (with my sis in April) and Rinjani (with the boys in August) have been purchased! Eggciting!

On our Aussie vacay though, one of my favourite outings was to Puffing Billy Railway {website}. The locomotives are a heritage icon, a century old and run by over 900 volunteers - that's A LOT! I was really excited about bringing Bielet on a real steam engine because she kind of likes Thomas The Train (remember our time at Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park?). When I was doing holiday research, I found out that Puffing Billy has special themed trains - of which, one was (of course) Thomas.

Unfortunately, the Thomas train only runs during Spring and Autumn (we went in Summer) and the Christmas-themed train was fully booked, so we had to go for the normal train. But no matter, because we had such a nice time on the good ol' steam locomotive too!

Having a peek at the train before we headed to the platform proper

We had to collect the actual tickets with our online reservation printout. Oh, Bielet is wearing her raincoat because it was drizzling slightly, and we had to walk from the carpark.

Would you look at that crowd?!

The Christmas-themed train set off before ours so we got a glimpse of Mr & Mrs Santa Claus! And if you're wondering, it's perfectly okay to be dangling your legs out of the carriage (even when it's moving) - what fun!

Bielet snapped this of us three (pardon our zonked faces - this was early morning)

And a proper wefie of the fam!

As Belgrave was the closest station to our accomm (it's also the HQ for the railway), we set off from there to Lakeside, which is one of the stops with picnic grounds and takes an hour to get to (and another hour back). I wanted to go the full journey to the final destination Gembrook, but it would take close to 4 hours travelling journey both ways - definitely too ambitious with 2 little ones! See here for more on the stations and sights.

Leaving for Belgrave..............

To Lakeside!

To make the best of your ride (and day out), here are six ways for those heading to Puffing Billy:

1. Be the first ones in and get a good seat.
This is where being KS helps. The narrow carriages mean that once you have a seat, you can't move around (you shouldn't be walking when the train is moving, anyway) and if you're the last ones in, you'll need to squash in wherever there's space. Some of the families who came later had to be separated.

Tip! If you prefer open, sprawling views, get a seat at the side where the doors open. We didn't the first time round, and we ended up with the forest side. (It's a single track railway so the doors should always open on the same side.)

See how packed our carriage was! (Ignore my expression, I was obviously playing with the baby.)

2. Play 'Spot The xx'
It's easy for us adults to get caught up in the beauty of nature, but kids? It just looks all the same to them. We got Bielet to peer out and point to us her favourite tree or look for woodland creatures. The train wasn't moving that slowly, but at least she got the idea of looking outside the carriage and busying herself.

The above were taken towards Lakeside - loads of greenery

This was taken on our return trip, these are the sprawling views I was talking about!

3. Bring snacks to munch during the ride
For the younger ones who won't be able to play any spotting games, but will get fidgety anyways, stuff them. This might spoil their lunch, but preserve your sanity. With so many other families, there's bound to be someone who gets hungry. And when the other children see that, woe behold the parent who doesn't have a snack. The train is quite rocky so don't bring anything too challenging - like jelly or soup, leave that for the picnic (we had packed a modest lunch for ourselves, but also spotted many others lugging cooler boxes or trolley bags worth of picnic goodies!) You're welcome to eat and drink in the carriages but please, clean up behind your family.

In any case, the train motions will lull the children to sleep before long!

4. Get up close to the trains
This is one time you can go up to a working train and go all ooh and aah, instead of worrying it will whizz away (although if it's scheduled to leave, then stay away). Don't miss out on photo ops with the friendly volunteers too. They are quite obliging as long as the train isn't going off yet. For those keen to learn more about engines, you can ask the volunteers too - their roles (say, conductor) are prominently indicated on their uniforms.

Refuelling!

Get to see the workings of a steam engine

Another of their special trains, there are wine and dine options - even a "Murder on the Puffing Billy Express" (think real life cluedo over dinner). See all meals here.

Bielet called this 'Toby' after one of the steam engines in Thomas.

Bielet went up to request a snap

Waving us off!

5. Go ahead and dangle those legs
If you haven't done this, you can't say you have had a true Puffing Billy experience!

Even Bieny got in on the fun! It's obviously much more exciting when the train is moving, just make sure you watch the kids. There's not much bum space so it takes one determined person to seat this out an entire hour or more (not my kids).

Ah, much better!

Another thing to note is that because the carriages aren't closed, all the smoke goes in. Bielet also reminded me that when she sat at the edge and dangled her legs, "all the grass go inside my eyes". But. It is still an awesome experience.

6. Have a go at the aqua ride
Right, so this is only at Lakeside. And it's worth a go after filling your tummies with the picnic lunch.

We walked over this bridge and settled down for a leisurely picnic by the waters.

This photo very 'feeling'. Bielet made friends with the ducks by sharing her bread!

After lunch, we headed to the Aqua Bike!

Look for this park ranger's office. The queue for aqua bikes starts here.

Starting up (ZX went with Bielet because I was carrying the sleeping bub - good thing too, I think my legs would have spoilt by the end of the ride.....)

***

Thanks for the fun ride out, Puffing Billy!

[Read the rest of our Melbourne adventures here.]