[Hongkong trip - Day 01]

We were invited to attend an award ceremony in Hongkong for one of our projects (more on that later...) and so took the oppurtunity to bring along the family for a short holiday. Even though our last trip was at the beginning of this year (jan 09), it was amazing how much the girls have changed since then! For G, it was all about Minnie mouse, everything had to be pink, she was still in her cutesey stage where it was all about cartoons. NOW, she only cared for the princesses, especially princess Aurora (the pink one) and we queued for ages just to meet them! K who just turned 1 at that time was pretty much still a baby, nothing really registered with her, in fact, i don't think she even remembered the trip! This time around, she absorbed everything like a sponge. It was so joyful to see her relating to Mickey and Minnie, she LOVED taking the plane, she now has her own opinions on everything, a real change! It was still good to bring along both prams though, thanks to my cousin for the loan of the 2nd pram once again... it was indispensable. This time around, besides the little date night we had for the awards ceremony, it was totally kid-friendly as we stayed at the Disney hotel. The kids of course absolutely LOVED it, and as parents, we have mixed feelings about being there. First of all, everything and anything was merchandising and all about exhorbitant fleecing. Secondly, in the land of glorious food, the meals that we were forced to take sucked big time!! We were so relieved to finally get proper hongkong food when we moved to the city hotel on our 3rd day there. That said, the hotel had a wonderful outdoor heated pool that was blissfully toasty in autumny temperatures, it boasts a fully equipped childrens' playroom (that was thankfully free of charge) and K especially loved visiting the "cooking" corner. There were bedtime stories, mickey shaped food, really lovely inhouse toiletries and robes and mickey emblazoned slippers, and the best of all had to be the grounds that were truly spacious, lots of lawns to run around on, a nice and clean playground...... aesthetically though, it is a sad day for us to be staying in a "themed" hotel.....yup, mixed feelings indeed!

So, here are the trip pics (will just do Day 01 as we took about 900+ pics and i'm still editting them!):

itinery (Day 01):
CX flight to HKG
Disney Hotel
Disneyland
Disney Hotel
G totally absorbed in her inflight entertainment - another 1st! I don't think she enjoyed it much the last trip.
K and her own headset! She was thrilled to be using her own set of earphones, but didn't really get the hang of watching the cartoons...
G writing her list of names, she was our "guide"
Disney bedroom slippers - so cute that there was the kiddie ones too!
G at Disney
K, her 1st real experience of Disney
She loved all the sticker freebies
Wide - eyed and wondrous
With some scary looking elves
They loved the teacup ride, i think G remembers it from her last trip.

G volunteering to spin the tops
Chomping on the enormous baked turkey drumstick!
K was terrified of the carousel ride, she refused to even go near it the next day....
G loved it, we sat on it twice the next day!
G and K, in the long bath, another fun part of being on holiday!

to be continued.........