The Los Angeles to Hong Kong flight was, again, positively uneventful compared to the Hong Kong to Chicago flight. Hux and Augie both had decent sleeps and it was as good as can be when travelling in cattle class with two kids under the age of 5.
However, on the cab ride from the Hong Kong airport to our hotel in the Wan Chai district, a drive of about 40 minutes, Augie vomited once. It was hot, humid and we were riding in one of those small, red, unairconditioned Hong Kong cabs. The driver would speed up then slow down, over and over again - never maintained a consistent speed. I don't blame Augie for vomiting because I wanted to vomit as well. Luckily we still had a healthy supply of vomit bags and, by then, he was a pro at vomiting into them. Poor darling.
Hong Kong is absolutely not set up for prams/strollers. The parts of it that are flat (which may be limited to this stretch of footpath we were walking on) have footpaths that are very narrow and loads of people trying to walk on that tiny strip. So it is that Mick and I ended up schlepping two very tired boys up and down all over Hong Kong in the stifling heat and stinking humidity.
Did I mention humidity? Here's a steamy view out of our hotel window. We stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Wan Chai. We were supposed to get an executive suite but somehow we ended up getting one of their themed suites - the OSIM Massage Suite. It had all kinds of electronic massage equipment in it complete with a very elaborate massage chair.
Here Augie is giving the eye massager a go.
This massage chair ended up being AWESOME to cure the body aches from schlepping two very heavy little boys all over the ups and downs of Hong Kong...not to mention ironing out the kinks of 15-hours packed into an airplane like a sardine.
This thing was called the iGallop. It was very funny. And very entertaining for little boys.
Augie was so tired he fell asleep in Hux's pram one evening after dinner. He didn't even fall asleep in prams when he was a baby and hasn't wanted to ride in them since he was about 15 months old but on this trip he just wanted to ride in Hux's pram all the time. So Mick carried Augie on his shoulders. A lot.
Augie was so tired in fact that his feet kept falling off the footrest so we had to tie them on!
Augie took a photo of us one morning in the hotel. Our routine was to order a room service breakfast every day and then set off on whatever adventures we had planned. Room service may seem decadent to some readers but I assure you it is not in our case. Food as early as humanly possible is the only thing that saves us from The Wolverine (a hungry Augie). We weren't going to chance a wander for breakfast every day and hope that we could find some food he could eat when we could get a western breakfast that Augie was guaranteed to eat served hot and right to our door every morning at the crack of dawn, when they both guaranteed to wake (no matter how tired they are!).
Here we are atop The Peak - the highest mountain in Hong Kong. We took a bus to the top and then rode the tram down the other side.
Checking out the sights of Hong Kong from The Peak.
Hux was underwhelmed by The Peak...until we found the Baskin Robbins store at the top. Then he was a happy little chappy!
Hux was so done on this particular day that we took him out of the stroller (where he'd fallen asleep), wrapped him up in a hotel towel and threw him into his bed for a nap. He didn't even so much as blink.
And on this day, Augie was so tired he couldn't even get his pants all the way off! He did, however, manage to get his shoes off. They were both awesome, though, in just dealing with the jetlag. We tried to strike a balance between giving them some sleep in the day and trying to be out and about in the sunshine to get them back on the right body clock (as Hong Kong is the same time zone as Perth). But it's a very big trip for two little boys no matter which way you do it.
In fact, when we first arrived in Hong Kong and settled into our hotel - after the vomit in the taxicab and the humidity and the wrong room, we just felt so over it. We felt very certain that we wanted to skip out on our four day holiday in Hong Kong and just catch the next flight the next day back to Perth. We went to sleep that first night absolutely set on doing that and then I guess we all had a decent enough sleep that four days looked manageable and when we woke the next morning we decided to stick it out. Good thing we did as we ended up having a fun time and it was great to see a new place on a family holiday.
The second day we were in Hong Kong we went to Ocean Park, which is a big amusement park. We got this cheesy photo taken just before riding the cable car that crosses over the park.
Hux taking in the sights on the cable car ride across Ocean Park.
Our view during the cable car ride. Quite spectacular.
Hux and me.
Mick and the boys at the terminus of the cable car journey with Deep Water Bay and Middle Island in the background.
Hux and Augie taking in the sights of the underwater aquarium portal.
Admirers taking in the sights of Hux at the underwater aquarium portal. This happened with some regularity - people coming up and wanting to take photos of, or even cuddle, Hux. It was very weird but never threatening. We started calling them Hux's paparazzi. Augie didn't seem to concerned that Hux had paparazzi and he didn't.
Augie contemplating his new watch that he'd just bought with the money Grandpa Doug and Mimi had sent him for his birthday. His birthday was in December so he did a great job of saving the money and then buying something he really wanted with it. He still has the watch and loves it - it's a nice reminder of our day at Ocean Park.
Hux practicing the face he'd seen on the fish!
Family selfie in the walk-through aquarium.
We took in a dolphin show while we were at ocean park. It was all in mandarin so we had no real idea what they were saying and as you can hear in the background, Augie peppered us with questions pretty much the whole time!
One day we took the ferry across Victoria Harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui.
We had afternoon tea at the very posh Peninsula Hotel. It was just as chaotic as it looks in this photo. That's one of the fresh lilies off the table centrepiece that Hux has in his hands. Very posh is most definitely not our scene at the moment...and won't be for quite some time!
On the ferry ride back to Wan Chai with a tired Huxley. He coped so well - a very easygoing little guy.
Augie coped excellently as well, despite being very tired most of the time we were in Hong Kong. Augie thrives on new experiences and seems to love taking in all the sights, sounds and information of a new place.
One of the many shoulder rides that Mick gave Augie during the trip. And this photo is deceptive because it's all flat! This was not the case most of the places we walked in Hong Kong.
On the last full day we were in Hong Kong, we rode the Hong Kong Observation Wheel. It has great views of Victoria Harbour and the surrounding city.
Augie was very excited to ride the wheel!
I love this photo of him.
A photobomb by Dad!
That Augie found very funny...
Hux was very busy exploring the cabin we were in and didn't have a whole lot of time to pose for photos.
Mick and Augie definitely had time for silly faces.
Hux wasn't at all daunted by the heights or any other part of riding around in circles in a glass and metal capsule.
He rolled around on the floor for a while.
As you can tell by this video, Mick still is not fond of heights and our ride was most definitely not a quiet and peaceful one.
And thus ended our four day adventure in Hong Kong. The flight back to Perth was reasonably uneventful except Augie vomited upon wheels-down in Perth, thus rounding out our trip quite tidily. We think it was just a bit of motion sickness. We had a really wonderful trip that felt like so many different little adventures packed in but, needless to say, we were absolutely thrilled to get home.
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