Tram/Hong Kong Park

One of the few modes of transportation left for us to ride in Hong Kong is the tram.  Tom was in the States this weekend, so I thought that would be a fun thing to do with the kids.  The tram runs along the northern part of the island, near Central.  I decided we would take the tram to Hong Kong Park.  Unfortunately, all the bus/train routes to the tram from our house took us right by Hong Kong Park.  Therefore, we ended up going way out of our way to get there.  Tommy wanted to time how long we were out, so I started the timer on my watch when we left the house.  It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to Hong Kong Park.  :)  We took the MTR and a double decker bus to the start of the tram line.  The tram is a double decker.  Of course the kids wanted to sit on the top.

A blurry picture of the tram (in the middle)

The windows on the second level of the tram seem to be fixed in an open position.  Charlotte loved sticking her head out the window to enjoy the view.

We had a short walk to Hong Kong Park.  They have a nice children's playground we hadn't been to yet.  It has six different levels, each with its own play area.  None of the play structures were too spectacular, but the different levels made things interesting.  The kids would play on each level and then after a few minutes, they wanted to go to the next level to see what else there was.  Also, having the different levels lets the park accommodate a lot of kids, but since each playground is relatively small, it is easy to keep an eye on your children.  They had a great time!

Hong Kong Park-slide connects the second level to the first

Girls' day

Last Saturday, Tom took Tommy to Macau for the Grand Prix race.  Charlotte and I decided to stay home and have some mommy/daughter time.  Charlotte wanted to dress up and chose the elephant dress we bought in Thailand. 

 First, we took the train to do some shopping.  Charlotte has one of my old cellphones she likes to play with.  She insisted on bringing a purse along with her and included her phone.  She pulled it out on the train to make a few calls. 

 We went to Sham Shui Po to get some beads at the bead market.  Then, we got some dim sum, one of Charlotte's favorites. 

 Then we came home and had fun making bracelets and necklaces.  We also made some cupcakes and decorated them. They were delicious. (I forgot to get a picture of them before they disappeared.)

Our huge bag of beads

After dinner, we watched a quick video and it was time for bed.  We had a fun and busy day.

South Korea

I'm finally getting around to documenting some of my travels.

I visited Seoul, South Korea for a large eSports tournament in September.  Korea was beautiful with mild temperatures and clean air.  It's very spread out and flat - most of our day trips often took an hour to travel from one part of the city to another.

One of the interesting bits our tour guide pointed out was the lack of mature trees and forests around the city due to heavy bombing during the wars in the last century.

Seoul is very spread out

National Theatre where we saw traditional drumming performances.

We ate here for lunch.  No one spoke any English so we all ended up getting the only thing we already knew how to say in Korean: Be Bin Bop.  The staff laughed a lot.

We visited a "traditional folk village".

And what would a folk village be without mascots and amusement park rides!

Bridge in the Folk Village - the fall colors were really starting.

I'm in love.   I ate tons of Korean BBQ on the trip.

The view from the Lotte World hotel, including the inflatable yellow duck.  The building under construction will be the highest in Seoul. Lotte is a huge conglomerate in South Korea, you see their name everywhere.

Sold out 40,000 in attendance at the game.  Coke sold cans customized with Lux on it.

ESports are big in Korea - here is the crowd after gates opened.  It was great to experience.

Overall I really enjoyed South Korea.  The people were friendly, the food was good and the air and water were clean (what a simple thing to suddenly appreciate).   I'm looking forward to going back with the family.

Take a ride on a tuk tuk around Thailand

Thailand: home to the most stringent  transportation laws in the world.  But it sure was fun!

School Fair

Tommy and Charlotte's school has a fair every year that is a huge fundraiser for the school.  They have vendors pay for booths to sell their goods, they have parents donate a variety of food for the international food buffet and cookies and cakes to sell in the cafe.  Also, many of the classes run games you have to buy tokens to play.  Parents also donate used books, new items, and prizes for the school run book stall, newly donated goods stall, and tombola.  There is entertainment from local groups as well as a student talent show and performances from the choir.  They end the day with an auction for donated items, including a private flight over Hong Kong (our school and community are popular with Cathay Pacific pilots and their families).  The school raises thousands of dollars each year. 

One of the great things about being in Hong Kong is even though the fair is in November to help vendors sell items for Christmas, the weather is usually in the 70s, so the majority of the fair can be held outdoors.  Unfortunately, for the first time since they started holding the fair, this year it rained.  The morning of the fair, they had to move all the tents off the field onto the black top and most of the vendors got moved to the classrooms.  We didn't end up staying as long as I had originally planned, but we still had a great time.  We also didn't do a few things we had originally planned on, like the bounce house. 

The kids were really excited about the food.  Tommy told me many times how they were going to have a cafe that served desserts and asked if they could get something.  Charlotte decided she wanted to get some cotton candy (or candy floss) which they had never had before.  Tommy picked the biggest thing he could find in the cafe, which was a muffin. 

They also had a lot of fun playing the games.  We bought them each a bag of tokens they could use for games and activities. 

Charlotte painting a Chinese fan

Tommy doing putt putt

Their favorite activity was the tombola.  Parents had donated prizes (in exchange for a dress down day where the kids could wear whatever they wanted to school).  All the prizes were numbered, and for a certain number of tokens, you could pick a number out of a box and that was the prize you got.  They had separate prizes for kids and adults.  The kids won treats, a stuffed duck that sings Old MacDonald, a bubble gun, and a Disney princess watch set. 

Overall, it was a fun, but wet, day.

Bangs

Charlotte is over 4 and has never had a haircut.  I am glad the hair she does have is such a pretty color.  I haven't wanted to cut her hair, but lately she is always pushing her hair out of her eyes.  I decided it was time to give her some bangs.  She was so excited about it.  One of the girls in her class, Allyson, also has bangs.  When I was cutting her hair this morning, Charlotte was telling me how she was going to look just like Allyson and her teacher wasn't going to be able to tell them apart.  This is especially funny because Allyson is Asian and, of course, doesn't look a thing like Charlotte.  I mentioned this to her teacher when I dropped Charlotte off.  Charlotte thought it was funny that her teacher told her several times today how she thought she was Allyson.