Koffee and Kowloon calling

I have always been a travel enthusiast. In my life prior to having kids (which now seems like a dream as I'm sure most parents can attest to) I would use every opportunity to visit a new country. My goal was to visit every continent by the time I turned 35, which has now been pushed to by time I'm 50. So the fact that I’ve been living in HK for over a month now (post quarantine) and hardly ventured into the city is very surprising. The thought of venturing into a crowded city with my little person in the excessive heat hasn’t been appealing. But, last week, I finally decided the brave the heat and crowds. What motivated me? Anyone who knows me well knows that I can’t function without my daily dose (ok who are we kidding several doses) of caffeine. My Nespresso stash is nearly done. Not even 100 degree weather and severe humidity can keep me in for that.

V, my little travel buddy, and I set out on a “boatie” as he likes to call it. It’s a lovely 20 minute ride to get to Central.

Once we got off the boat, the IFC mall is right outside the station. Since we got there before opening time, we decided to wander a bit before heading to the Nespresso store. HK is truly a land of malls - we walked through the mall and followed a covered path and landed up…in another mall called Land mark. In fact, to cross over some of the major intersections you have to walk above ground level on one of these walkways, which is good given the blazing sun.

We had a lovely time wandering around (sometimes in circles) exploring, getting lost and of course getting some bubble tea.

After hearing me complain about how we never leave DB, the next day hubby planned an outing to K11 Musea…another mall. But quite unlike any mall I’ve ever been to. I’m not even sure you can classify it as a ‘mall’. It’s got high end retailers, checking the ‘mall’ box, but it’s far more than that. The name itself means “Muse by the sea” an allusion to the artistic ‘museum‘ aspect of the place. Outside and inside it’s an architectural marvel featured a rooftop garden, a amphitheatre like sunken garden and numerous displays of art and sculpture. Even the lift buttons are innovative - inside a book. It took me five minutes to figure out where to press to go anywhere. All while V was yelling 'Tsim Sang'. Every time we get on a lift there is a recorded message which I'm assuming is saying something like "Please mind the gap". V, proving that learning a language is truly ripe at that age, has picked up on the phrase and now shouts "Tsim Sang" every time he spies a lift.

It definitely sounds like a place you wouldn’t go with 3 kids right? But the various gardens (topped by a big peacock slide on the roof) and the fact that it houses the Legoland Discovery Center and a playhouse called the Donut house actually make it a great day out. Unfortunately, we had not done our research and booked tickets so the kids didn’t get to enjoy that, but they still had fun and means that we will definitely revisit. The owner Adrian Cheng envisioned it as the “Silicon valley of culture”.

Hong Kong surprisingly has a lot of fun things for kids - I would never have classified it a kid friendly city, but as I learn more I realise (apart from the lack of living space), there are a lot of things you can do as a family!