Thursday 7 July 2016

6 Days 5 Nights Hong Kong Free & Easy with kid

I have been to Hong Kong many times and this time we wanted to bring my kid along since it was school holidays.

I think for Hong Kong, 6 days 5 nights are just right and maybe you can do with 5 days and 4 nights. You will probably need two days for Hong Kong Disneyland and one day for Ocean Park. We only planned one day each for Disneyland and Ocean Park.

Day 1

Star Wars display at T3

We took a Sunday morning Singapore Airlines plane to Hong Kong. The flight was full and I was "lucky" to get a seat with a spoilt monitor. So no KrisWorld for me. The attendant did serve me meal earlier than the rest, but I told her that I needed to be compensated. So, near the end of the flight, the lead stewardess gave me a $75 dollars voucher to purchase things from the KrisShop. My wife used the voucher to buy SKII on our flight back. I had encountered this before 10 years and the compensation was only $50 dollars. So, if your monitor was spoilt and not working properly, please ask for compensation politely and you will be given. You had paid for the full ticket and it is only right that they compensate you.




Of course, SQ flight is great and we landed in Hong Kong on time. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel at Mong Kok. Cordis hotel offers free wifi and complimentary IP phone. You can call home or anyway free of charge. You can bring the phone with you when you go out and search for location using it. We used the phone a number of times to navigate to our locations as well as calling home.

The hotel manager that day was Nicole and she is very polite. The room is big and the view is picturesque. My wife said that she had the million dollar view of the city and Victoria Peak. Nicole had help us to reserve a table at Super Star Chinese Cuisine seafood restaurant at Tsim Sha Tsui. This is a very popular restaurant in Hong Kong that serves very good roasted duck. They had double-boiled soup which was very tasty and you can't get it elsewhere.

They had the LINE characters at Langham place where you could take photos.

Day 2

We decided to go to Victoria Peak on Monday as we think that the crowd will not be huge on a Monday. We had lunch at the Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine restaurant. It is about 10 to 15 minutes walk from Jordan MTR station. We had the IP phone from the Cordis hotel to guide us there. You could use Google Map to navigate to that area. It is just beside a park.

The dim sum and food are ok level. It is a themed restaurant and normally, the food is so-so level. Don't expect much from the quality of the food. It is a place for you to take photos and be merry about it. Another thing which I was disappointed is that the tea cups are very dirty, they had stains in them. I had requested the waitress to bring me new ones. Of yes, the washroom was under repairs and we need to use the toilets in the park.

After the lunch, we set off for Victoria Peak. We took the MTR train from Jordan to Central. At Central MTR station, you can walk to the Peak Tram station via J2 Exit and walk up to ground level. Turn right and walk through Chater Garden, then cross Queen's Road Central, and make your way up Garden Road. You will pass the Bank of China Tower and Citibank Plaza on your left and St John's Cathedral on your right. Watch out for the tram bus at the crossings. The journey up to the Peak Tram station is quite steep and you may want to wear comfortable footwear.

If you need to go to the washroom, there is a sports hall nearby (on the left side), you can use the washroom there. Depending on the timing, the queue to purchase tickets as well as the queue for the tram can be very long. You can expect to queue for at least 20 minutes for the tickets and then another 15 minutes for the Tram. Inside the waiting area for the Tram, it is air-conditioned.

Trickeye museum.

Day 3

Tuesday Ocean Park

Day 4

Disneyland

Day 5

Shopping

Day 6

Home sweet home


Tuesday 5 July 2016

Growing strawberry from seeds in Singapore

Recently, I have posted on my sgmygardenisgood blog on starting the growth of strawberry in Singapore using seeds. I think planting strawberry in Singapore is a challenge that can be enjoyable and yet satisfying. This is because majority of the people in Singapore will think that this is an impossible task. But I can tell you that it is something that can be done if you know how. Of course, in the course of growing strawberry from seeds, you will learn how to be patience (same as fishing I guess). Another thing is that you may not know what kind of variety of strawberry you are planting. The other way of getting strawberry plant is to buy one. There are occasions where the local nurseries may carry the strawberry plants from Malaysia (I think). You can get the plants from there.

One month ago, World Farm had many strawberry plants on sales. I managed to get two pots.

However, I want to share with you my journey of growing strawberry from seeds and we can learn and share experience together.

Growing strawberry from seeds in Singapore
Growing strawberry from seeds in Singapore