For New Years 2024, we decided to go to Hong Kong and do a re-do of an ill-fated trip 9 months prior. Why was it ill-fated? Because we all, literally, got ill with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD). What is HFMD? Basically, it is a common disease that gets spread in childcare centers, considered mild, and required to wait out it’s course of illness of 7-10 days. Symptoms in addition to your typical cough, nasal congestion, and fatigue are little red sores and blisters all over your hands, feet, and mouth that may or may not make your life miserable.
We had planned to join my wife on her work trip to Hong Kong in late March of 2023, having purchased our tickets well in advance and looking forward to returning to Hong Kong for the first time in 5 years (for me). After covid rules had fully-relaxed in Singapore and everyone’s immunity were shot after 2+ years of non-exposure to viruses, the beginning of 2023 kicked off 4 months of non-stop illnesses, with the worst being stomach flu (vomiting in the middle of the night) and the most consequential being HFMD and canceling our travel (at least Jai and I) to Hong Kong.
What started out as mild fatigue and just a few little red blisters on Jai’s hands and feet, turned into a high fever the morning of planned departure to Hong Kong. I had also contracted the virus, which turned into full blown blisters in my mouth that made swallowing water or eating food painful and constantly frustrating for the course of five days. My wife, already 6 months pregnant at the time, had left for Hong Kong earlier in the week, symptom free…. until disaster struck while in Hong Kong with blisters appearing on her feet and hands. She ended up cutting her work trip short to return home and rest.
Being stuck at home, uncomfortably pained in the throat for me, and Jai being relatively happy aside from a short fever, meant that we had to quarantine inside or go outside into the open air where we could not transmit the virus as easily. What this consisted of was my son playing with the Irish flag he received from a classmate at school in the home and on the bicycle, and pretending he was also part of a construction crew like the real-life work being completed outside our window. I was fairly miserable, but it was cute to watch him play.
Fast forward to our trip at the end of December 2023, and this time we were all healthy and ready to board our flight to Hong Kong for the New Year’s holiday. Transiting through Changi airport, let alone calling it your home base, is an experience unlike any other. Singapore prides itself on being technologically forward thinking, making sure processes are efficient and orderly, and also strongly catering to the passenger experience and families in particular. All immigration and customs, as well as check-in and security, are almost fully automated. It is not uncommon to go from airport check-in to departure gate in under 15 minutes, and vice versa from deplaning through baggage claim in the same amount of time. Moving through the terminals there is a strong aesthetic to Singaporean cultural heritage as well as sustainable tech and greenery like living walls (vertical plants and flowers on the walls). Jewel Changi, a standalone shopping and experience center connected to the main airport terminal, is a destination for transit passengers and our family for weekend activities.
Our son has become a traveling pro, loving the experience of walking through the airport, running on the travelators, and staring off at the aircraft we will be boarding (hopefully a bit like dad). On the way to the gate, we stopped at a glass bottom aquarium to watch koi and other fish, and Jai hopped on some dog-shaped seats for children with the biggest smile on his face. Changi also had free strollers to push your baby in after clearing security and making your way to the gate. Jai took it upon himself, when not running around the airport, to be our baby’s guide whether pushing the stroller or making sure he did not fall off the chair.
The flight from Singapore to Hong Kong was blocked for 4 hours gate-to-gate, but the in-flight time was just over 3 hours. Since our baby’s first nap of the day was ruined via transport to the airport and travel to the gate, this late morning flight offered the chance for at least one makeup nap. I always get anxiety around baby sleep and naps, and hoping, on a flight especially, that they are calm and able to rest. Even if my wife bears the load of calming the baby and getting them to sleep as they are the lap infant on her, I can never fully relax until they have completely dozed off. Since this baby is always so interested in everything around him all the time, he got a whopping on and off 50 minute nap.
The flight on the whole was fairly enjoyable. Jai has been well-coached into sitting in his seat and occupying himself with the entertainment. At 32 inches pitch in economy, we felt the leg room was fairly spacious on this Cathay Pacific flight. The entertainment selection was vast, and as is standard on all flights within Asia, a proper full meal is complimentary with the cost of the ticket. I had a serviceable BBQ pork and green beans main, and the potato and fish my wife had was ok as well. We were impressed by the baby meal offered, a full selection of purees that he quite enjoyed. Additionally, the flight attendants were very catering to young families, bringing a plush toy for each of our children and checking-in to see how they could help. These are not common service standards in the United States, something I am very grateful for living in Asia now. After arriving at HKG, we loaded up all our luggage and boarded the train to our hotel.
We were fortunate to have an upgraded suite for our 7-night stay at Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui, right in the heart of the tourist district on Kowloon. Fortunate to have space with a young family, but not ideal for navigating the crowds during the new year, this was the best option available via hotel status and points for a suite. With ease, we could access Avenue of the Stars and it’s gorgeous skyline view with a 5-minute walk, as well as be centrally located to cross over to the more hip and business district of Hong Kong Island.
Checking-in at the Club lounge level was disappointing as the service counter was fairly dismissive and mostly transactional, quite the opposite of what you’d expect for a Globalist status member. Unfortunately they did not have any harbor facing views available and we were reserved a room on the opposite end facing the Kowloon mainland. The room was mostly circular for the living areas, with a long entryway at the front door. While we were certainly grateful for all the square footage, the design actually wasn’t the best use of space. Because the king sized bed took up most of the bedroom, the extra bed for our son to sleep on had to be rolled out into the small living room, thus negating the hope of everyone sleeping in one area, with a living room for us to retreat to after the kids were put to bed.
This hotel was quite old, and the furnishings and finishings certainly showed their wear. The old marbled floor in the bathroom, the deep sink and elongated toilet bowl, as well as the cheap rainforest showerhead certainly reflected the age of the design. The wooden hangers meant for finely pressed clothes (and providing only 4-5 in the closet), as well as the design of the closet reminded me of a time when traditional business travelers used to carry a briefcase. Luckily, the hotel’s bellhop line was quite helpful and prompt, bringing over some more practical thin and plastic hangers for the closet as well as a stool for our son to stand on to brush his teeth and wash his hands. I gripe about the little things, but really am grateful we could stay in such a large room during the holidays.
One of the things I love most about Hong Kong is the iconic skyline. For our honeymoon in 2014, I was absolutely captivated by the skyline from the Avenue of the Stars. I was determined to go see those views again as I had not been back since 2018, and the Avenue was since remodeled. Unfortunately, the remodeling of the Avenue meant there were no actual showbiz stars on the ground anymore, and the iconic Bruce Lee statue had been relocated to the edge of the Avenue. Also missing was the atmosphere of live bands and pop up shops selling yummy Hong Kong treats. The vibe was quite different, but after a long day of travel, I had to bring the family there.
We went out late for the kids, starting dinner at 7PM, with a cranky toddler in tow, perhaps overwhelmed by all the crowds and having been forced to sit for most of the travel during the day. We had at least one meltdown while rushing to get dinner as our son refused to leave his stroller after nodding off on the walk over, and a baby that had barely napped and was getting more stimulated by the transit of people left and right in the food hall. It always feels like such a rush to get the basic needs met when you have small children, those being proper sleep and adequate feeds, when traveling. I never rest easy until I feel those have been met, and often times a consequence of trying to travel and experience new things means that the kids are off and their behavior reflects it.
After finally rushing through dinner, we proceeded to the Avenue, took in the sights of the skyline, looked for a dessert (there were none on the strip anymore), and then eventually made our way back to the hotel. As expected both kids knocked out on the walk back, and finally I was able to relax and smile about the hectic first day of travel and activity in Hong Kong. I was happy to be back.
One thing my wife and I noticed right away in Hong Kong was the lack of children out in public. In Singapore you see kids everywhere and society reflects the catering of services to families as such, perhaps too much. In Hong Kong, you get a much bigger city feel and that it’s a grown-ups town, kids are barely noticed. While scooting through the malls or the subway, our son had to step out of the way multiple times because the big people just don’t see him! He was quite cross about having to walk so much, walk so vigorously, as well as being ignored by the many big people walking in his direction and accidentally bumping him. Likewise, when people did notice us, we received many stares, with adults often looking at the children very closely, and then looking up at us.
We are an uncommon pair as an East Asian man and who-knows-what-to-guess my wife is. In Singapore we get many stares as well, but there is a reference point for her as a Malay woman and me as an ethnic Chinese man, but an uncommon pairing to see together with kids as the races don’t generally intermarry for religious differences, especially when it’s a Malay woman (the reverse on occasion happens). In Hong Kong, they have little reference for my wife, plenty of reference for me (until they hear my American accent and lack of language skills), and combining the two out in public with little kids is not common. Perceptions of our identity are things we always recognize when we travel, as our family histories and their diaspora is uniquely an American story, and now obviously more noticed with our offspring.
On our second day in Hong Kong, we traveled on the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car up to the Po Lin Monastery and Big Bhudda statue. This was the best cable car experience I had ever been on, having ridden the glass bottom cable car my great uncle introduced us to almost ten years prior. My son, loving any cable car experience, had been prepped in advance how amazing this would be, and he loved every moment of it. From seeing the airplanes at Hong Kong International take off and land, to capturing the sweeping views high up on Lantau Island, this is certainly an attraction every tourist must experience when visiting Hong Kong.
Once you reach the disembarkation station, you walk through Ngong Ping village shops and restaurants, with the main attraction hiking up the many steps to the top of Big Bhudda. Jai, excited about flexing his big 3 year old muscles, started walking halfway up the stairs with his grandmother, and then the rest of the way up with me in tow. After reaching the top for pictures and observing the temple inside, walking back down to the village we stopped for some Tofu fa, another favorite of my son. Following this half day trip, we took the 45 minute bus back down the mountain, walked 10 minutes to the train station at the end of the Tung Chung line, and then proceeded back to the hotel with wary and tired legs. The night ended with a trip to Kowloon Park children’s playground before dinner and then bed. Quite an active day for the parents!
When my wife and I used to travel, we would plan our itinerary around purposeful, culture-related and food motivated stops. We loved going to museums to learn about the history of the land we were in, stroll around different neighborhoods, eat local delicacies, and sometimes wander off the beaten path for hikes or bike rides through a foreign countryside. With children, we have tried our best to blend at least some of those elements, with the realities of a 3 year old’s attention span and physical needs, and a baby’s nap/feed schedule. Usually, that consists of at least one kid-specific activity such as a playground or kid museum, and just wandering around neighborhoods taking in what is happening locally.
On our third day in Hong Kong, we visited the Hong Kong science museum, an interactive space that had toddler specific exhibits up to adult-focused learning activities. Basically, a place where a child can touch everything is a must-visit location! In the toddler exhibit, our son was able to build slides and test how gravity and speed affect the movement of the ball through the course (physics, yes?) and also work on a construction site moving blocks with levers and pulleys and moving machinery around the site. He loved the exhibits, and it’s amazing how as parents we are now so excited and impressed by how cool a playground is or how perfectly child-sized a play space is. This is what we care about now…..
After the morning kid-specific activity, we blended the late afternoon/evening with a stroll through Kowloon park and then a walk over to the China Ferry Terminal that I remembered had sweeping and beautiful views of the Hong Kong Skyline. To our surprise, and one of the reasons my wife and I love just walking through neighborhoods in our travels, is stumbling upon a Christmas market pop-up as we entered the ferry pier. Local Hong Kongers had set up stores of goods to sell in the boot (trunk in Asia) of their car to sell, consisting of varied items such as clothing or trinkets. We did not buy anything, but it’s always fun to browse and listen to the local band playing while taking in the views of the city.
As an expat, I now seem to crave all the foods I can’t get as easily anymore. Mexican street tacos, deep dish pizza, Ethiopian injera, Panda Express’ General Tso’s chicken….. you know, real authentic dishes. My wife’s colleagues all raved about an American BBQ place in Hong Kong called Smoke & Barrel, located in the busy and hip Central district. After putting our baby to bed, my parents graciously did Jai’s bedtime routine and hung in the room in darkness so that my wife and I could go out and have a rare dinner together, ALONE. Luckily, from our location in Tsim Sha Tsui, it was only one stop to Central crossing under the water to Hong Kong Island, and then many….many….many hills and steps to climb up to the restaurant.
When we walked in the restaurant, the mood and decor was dark and wood-based, presumably to mimic some Texas style saloon? As we walked to our table, I was greeted by a big white guy who said, “what’s up, bro”, with my wife convinced he was American (he was not, he was British). I did hear some other American’s at a nearby table, and thought to myself, wow, it’s just like home. Jokes aside, we ordered the All-American brisket (because any measure of a bbq place has to pass the meat smoker test), New Orleans slaw, mac & cheese, and jalapeno cornbread. The brisket was a bit dry and we were served mostly the lean meat; my mistake for not requesting the juicy fatty parts that make my mouth salivate. The slaw was ok, the mac & cheese disappointing with the quality of cheese used, and the jalapeno bread was AMAZING. On the whole, the bbq was a bit disappointing given the rave reviews and recommendations, but often is the case when you try to recreate something in a foreign country having had the traditional experience back home.
We topped off our night getting a bit lost walking to Messina, a popular gelato place that my wife apparently visited three times by herself on her last work trip to Hong Kong, while pregnant, with blisters from HFMD on her hands and feet, climbing uphill and swerving around alleys and corners. Yes, she likes gelato that much. It did live up to her billing and had an excellent selection of flavors with a line out the door to back up it’s popularity. While standing and finishing off our dessert, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the patrons there had children. Basically, I was reflecting on how old we were, how rare it was for us to be able to go out late at night together and alone, and probably being jealous of everyone’s youth. The cliche, you don’t know how good you had it until it’s gone, runs through my mind when I imagine these childless adults….. we figured maybe one or two people had kids at home, using our fact-based scientific powers of observation of grey hair, rings on fingers, wornness of faces, and a general irritable mood lingering in them.
Apparently, when in Hong Kong with kids, its important you go to a theme park, not the new and expensive Hong Kong Disneyland, but the tacky and much cheaper Ocean Park. Since my mother could get in for free as a local senior, and we had a discount using a particular credit card, I guess this fulfilled our kid-specific activity for a new day. I usually loathe amusement parks as they often are too much stimulation of low quality experiences, but children don’t know the wiser and for the 4-5 hours we spent there, Jai enjoyed it. We went on a ferris wheel that was manually operated and stopped every half revolution to let on or off new passengers, visited a pirate boat building that had some weird electronic game that we didn’t understand how to play, and sprayed water guns at a semi-broke carnival stall among other things.
The highlight of the trip was another cable car ride over a mountain to get to the other side of Ocean Park. We ‘only’ had to wait 50-minutes in line to board what seemed a bit unsafe of an older cable car system that fit too many people with open air windows, but the views were spectacular and Jai couldn’t be happier… because, cable car. After eating some overpriced cafeteria food, walking around visiting animal enclosures that probably weren’t very conservation-minded, and damn near wearing our feet out getting lost in the massive grounds, we ended our last day of the new year with a long trip back home on the train.
Finally, New Year’s Eve had arrived, and we got to celebrate it by……. watching the countdown from the bathroom window. By that, I mean more specifically waking my wife up five minutes before midnight (we have not made a midnight countdown since we had kids) and telling her to angle herself sideways to peer out the window and catch a minimal glimpse of the water and skyline where the fireworks were. Thankfully, there was a very large building directly in sight with a digital countdown being broadcast on the tower’s windows for us to know how many seconds were left. Life has changed a bit, I guess.
Hoping to recapture some of our past travel experiences, we decided to head to the West Kowloon Cultural District on New Year’s day to have a picnic. Back in 2018, while childless and spending New Years in Hong Kong, my wife and I had visited this newly built complex that was an open-ended green space with, you guessed it, sweeping views of the Hong Kong skyline, to experience the countdown to midnight. At that time, we plopped down a mat, relaxed and welcomed in the New Year, excited about our freedoms and this awesome international New Year’s experience.
On our return visit with children, as expected, the district was much more built out, with many more people with the same idea. We often feel crammed for space in Singapore and suffocated by the humidity and were looking forward to Hong Kong’s temperate winter weather and larger land mass, but it was still crammed, just without the sweat and subsequent body odor of people back home. It was still a nice time overall and plenty of people to watch taking selfies for their tik tok videos and instagram reels… hashtag #sarcasm?
The turn of the New Year in Hong Kong was a more relaxed pace. Relatively speaking, things in the city slow down a notch, with people flying back to their home countries and businesses returning to their regular working schedule. With the normalized pace, we had a family visit to my wife’s Hong Kong office, spent more quality time with my parents, and had a large extended family gathering for dinner with my mother’s cousins and uncles, a usual tradition when we have come to Hong Kong in the past. We had also hoped to visit the temple where my mother’s parent’s ashes rested to pay our respects, making the long commute from Tsim Sha Tsui to Tuen Mun, but unfortunately the gates had closed 5-minutes prior to our arrival.
We were also fortunate to make a stop to some family I had never met, my father’s cousin, whose family had emigrated to Hong Kong when his had settled in Thailand. According to my wife’s boss at work, Kam Sheung Road, nearby where they lived, is a very local area with up and coming development that was typically a blue-collared area, quite a difference from the hustle and bustle that Hong Kong is known for among the touristy and business waterfront where we were staying. As was typical of my family’s confusing origins, information about the relationships and historical migration was piecemeal and sifted through as I asked more and more questions. This was representative of my family’s diaspora, ethnically Chinese, but split language and culture with Thai and Cantonese upbringings. As I have grown older, the picture has become more clear and also full of more questions. These are things that will inevitably be passed down to our children, and their evermore confusing identity with a mother of another race.
One of our main objectives in Hong Kong was to take our first professional family photos with the baby. We figured Hong Kong, and it’s old Chinese mixed with western influence architecture and culture, would be a good backdrop for us to look back on in photos. We booked a photographer whose style in her portfolio reflected a unique mix of settings and family portraits, which on the whole, she did a good job in capturing just that with us. One thing that did stand out, that my wife and I often reflect on, is the experience that Caucasian people have and interpret when they are the ones who have been born and raised overseas from their family’s origin. While she was perfectly friendly and professional, much of the way she addressed and interacted with us or our kids, including forgetting our names multiple times, reflected not the same immigrant or minority experience we had in the States growing up. As is often the case, it seems that the experience of Caucasians more reflects a transfer of their culture and views to their adopted homeland and not fully immersing themselves the other way around. At any rate, the photos turned out well!
At last, our trip had come to an end. Our son was quite sad to be leaving Hong Kong, most likely having associated the trip with grandparent’s love (and spoiling of treats) and watching more cartoons than he ever gets at home. Truthfully, he loves the idea of family and being part of a group, so it was understandable he was sad to leave his grandma and grandpa and go back to our quiet life in Singapore. We felt he had learned quite a bit about being a “bigger” boy as he had to mostly walk everywhere, dodge the bigger people, and commute long periods of time on the train and through Hong Kong’s vast territory. As long as we kept him distracted by talking or noticing things around him, and an occasional foot race, his little legs kept on moving. We did not completely avoid the “my legs are not working anymore” whines though.
Changi airport in Singapore is one of the best and most efficient in the world. Hong Kong International may just be my favorite airport in the world. From the stadium high ceilings to the floor to ceiling windows, every which way you turn there are amazing and unblocked views of the tarmac and water surrounding it. The terminal designs are quite modern and reflective of local culture, and even the Premium Plaza lounge we visited via our credit card’s Priority Pass membership offered surprisingly wide and tasty food in a comfortable environment. Did I mention the views that come with being eye level with the nose of the planes parked right in front of the lounge?
We completed our weeklong trip with booking a bassinet row on Cathay Pacific for the first time. We figured we should test and see how successful napping our baby in a bassinet would be, considering our big international trip to the United States coming up in 3 months time. Because this flight was in the mid-afternoon, and babies generally struggle with naps later in the day, we didn’t have high hopes for success. After about 2 hours in the air, and having been served our meal, the bassinet was immediately installed and baby was placed inside. It took about 15-20 minutes to lull him to sleep, curiously touching all corners of the bassinet until finally closing his eyes. As we had figured, he maxed out at 20-minutes for this nap. We hope for a better experience on our long haul overnight flight, for our sake and everyone else’s on it.
Having a bassinet row was nice because of the extra leg room it afforded us. Although the tray tables were fixed into the arm rest, making them immovable for extra space, being able to stretch out and not worry about being squished was a big plus. Of course, no trip is complete without some kind of emergency. After 3.5 hours in the air, and Jai’s interest in movies gone, he fidgeted around for the last 45 minutes until landing. Being the proper parent I am, I requested politely that he use the toilet before landing. Each time this was met with a refusal. Well, upon descent, when the fasten seat belt lights go on and you are required NOT to move and/or use the toilets, suddenly it became an emergency to go pee. I tried my best to calm him as we descended and touched down, but was cognizant that the fasten seat belt lights remain on until parked at the gate.
Jai’s massive pleas, mind you he didn’t ‘need’ to go 20 minutes prior, grew larger and larger so I signaled the flight attendant in the jump seat if it would be possible to use the toilet. At first she remained firm that passengers must stay seated, but as she noticed Jai’s increasing agitation, she allowed us to use the toilet, with a warning of safety at our own despair. Every trip must have a beginning, middle, and end, and ours with a toddler often has some sort of irrational, impulse control absent, and emergency filled aspect to each part of that trip. Apparently, despite our best efforts to use the toilet at regular intervals, I am always stuck with a poo or pee emergency. Like in Bintan, the toilet gods must have been looking after me as I escaped unscathed from my child’s poo and pee needs. Success?
