Author Archives: wandermom

About wandermom

". . .life is short and the world is wide" - Simon Raven I'm not sure I've ever consciously planned a trip based on this sentiment, but it definitely influences my subconscious! I've been traveling as frequently and widely as possible since I finished school. And I love it. I love the research, the planning, the fervent packing and the curiosity of exploring somewhere I've never been before. My husband & I are both Irish - as in born-in-Ireland. But we live in Seattle. We have two boys: wild, boisterous, regular boys. So, since becoming a Mom, I've been a WanderMom. Given our slightly-unusual family situation, routine "visits-to-Grandma" are international trips requiring passports, 10hr-flights and (oh joy!) airport transfers. I have rants, raves and opinions about how, where & why to travel with kids (start them as young as you can, I say!). I hope to learn even more by researching topics which other wandermoms may be interested in reading about on this blog. Passports, pacifiers, diapers and gameboys at the ready - off we go! Contact Info: Email Michelle: michelle (at) murphnduff (dot) org

summer-reads-wine-and-war

Summer Reads: Wine and War

Summer reads: this post is the first in a series of short reviews of books I’ve enjoyed.

summer-reads-wine-and-war

In preparation for an upcoming visit to Napa Valley, I went looking for a book about wine, wine history and wine tasting intending to educate myself on the wine industry in the U.S. I got pleasantly sidetracked by Wine and War, a book about French vintners during World War II.

The book starts in a fairly gushy, breathless tone, the author obviously a francophile and a wine lover, reveling in the opportunity to write about his favorite subjects. But, like a good wine, it opens up nicely bringing in perspectives of large and small French vintners, some who spent the war scrabbling at home and some who spent it fighting or in enemy camps. The stories of resistance are inspiring. The descriptions of broken men coming home to pick up the pieces of family and home are tenderly written. The author’s descriptions of the experiences of Germans who were involved in the wine-trade before the war who then found themselves back in France as representatives of the Third Reich are plainly and fairly written. This is not a heavy historical tome, it’s a short, fun read. I didn’t double-check the facts because I need to go check out all the many wine brands and vintages mentioned in the book – they were so numerous I may be busy for a while :)

Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure is available on Amazon.com

Got a good summer read to share? Leave your suggestion in the comments below.

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Solo To London

solo-to-london
I didn’t plan to put up a Photo Friday post today – mainly because yesterday, I said “Goodbye” to CAM as he headed off to the UK, Portugal and Ireland for his first solo backpacking trip in Europe (at the grand old age of 16!!). For me, this was as big as his first day at school. My house feels too quiet without him.

london-2012-olympic-stadium

My only rule for CAM as he was heading off yesterday was that he post a photo a day on Facebook so we could follow along with his trip. He just landed in London this morning and luckily was able to spend this evening at the Athletics events at London’s Olympic Stadium with my sister – where he took the photo above.

When I saw Debbie’s post today: London Sunshine, I thought that I should post CAM’s photo as a parenting bookend: her photo is of her kids playing in a playground in London, mine is taken by my child watching people play on his first solo trip to London.

Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Photo Friday fun.

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Crossing the Kyrgyz Uzbek Border

Osh Andijan Kyrgyz Uzbek Border

“No, no, no. This is not right!”
The female border guard admonished me in stern tones, dismissively tossing my completed customs form into her trash basket.
My temper at the petty bureaucracy flared. Ire duly raised, I opened and then quickly closed my mouth. Best not to antagonize. The object was, after all, to get through this border crossing, not to be shooed back to Kyrgyzstan.

The woman was in her late twenties, maybe early thirties with manicured hands and painted nails. She had obviously spent time on her hair and makeup before coming to work. She was pretty and looked stylish in her uniform. Even though she was bugging me to my back teeth right then, I felt a little sad for her, the very definition of all dolled up and nowhere to go.

I sighed, took another blank form and started copying out my passport details for the third time.
As my hand wrote out the familiar information, I felt more like an observer than a participant. I wondered what her life was like, as the only woman at this rural border crossing between Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and Andijan (Uzbekistan). Was her sternness with me a Central Asian version of a woman trying to be better than her male co-workers?
On cue, a guffaw echoed across the partition from the office next door where, it seemed, my husband was holding court with the male border guards.

“OK. Here you go.” I handed over the new form.
She started to review. I passed the neatness check (yay!) and she asked for my passport (yes, you read that right, there was a neatness check before a data check).

“This cannot be!”
She stared at me, this time definitely suspicious that I was going out of my way to cause trouble.
“What?”
“Your passport is from Ireland. Why have you written America as your country? That is not possible.”
“I live in America.”
“No. You cannot have a passport from one country and live in another.”
Another open mouth, close mouth goldfish impression from me. I really didn’t know how best to play this one.
At this point, I think she decided I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Decisively, she struck out AMERICA on my form and wrote in IRELAND for me. With a flourish she tore off my copy and dropped it in front of me imperiously.
“You can go.”
“OK. Can I take my stuff?”
(Call me cautious, but I thought it best not to make any assumptions at this point).
She nodded. She was done with me.

It took me a good five minutes to gather all my belongings and re-pack my bag.
I went outside and took a seat on the wall between my boys. I could see Murph still in animated discussion with his new best friends – and still making them laugh.
He saw me sitting on the wall, said something to his buddies and came running over, cheerily calling “just two minutes” back to the guards while saying “I need the kid’s passports” to me. But when he stood in front of me he hastily reached under his shirt and palmed our four U.S. passports into my hand.
“We can’t let them find these, it’ll just be too complicated.”
And then he was gone.

I made a show of standing my (checked, cleared) pack up and tightening the straps with one hand while hiding the offending passports through a hidden side zip with the other.
“Mom! What are you doing?” BigB asked, just a touch too loudly.
“Nothing, nothing sweetie, what are you reading?”
Distraction, a parent’s greatest tool – in any situation.

Finally we were done. Start to finish it had only taken two whole hours to pass into Uzbekistan.

We compared notes are we walked down the road. Murph made fun of me when I told him how the woman had commanded that I must live in Ireland. I couldn’t understand how he’d managed to get away with having an Irish passport and a U.S. address. I figured it must have been because he’d made them laugh. “Humor wins again”, I thought.

Two weeks later we were at Tashkent airport leaving Uzbekistan. Murph pulled out his papers and realized that the Country of Residence on his form has been changed too – he just hadn’t noticed :)

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Information on Kids Passports

kids-passports

Getting a kids passport is required before traveling internationally with your child. This week I’m starting with information on how to apply for or renew a kids passport, then I’ll share a couple of passport-related stories from our year-long trip around the world.

Since January 2007 all travelers entering or leaving the U.S. by air must have a passport – even infants. Passport cards are required for sea and land travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region, and Bermuda as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Get used to checking your passport and your kid’s passports as the first step in planning a trip outside of North America. A valid passport has an expiration date that is more than six months beyond the departure date of your trip. There should be between two and four blank visa/stamp pages available. If you’re flying, not meeting one or both of these requirements could cause you to be denied boarding. If you’re traveling via car, not having passports could lead to unwanted hassles and a delay getting back into your country at the end of the trip. Adult passports are valid for 10 years. Passports for children under 16 years of age are valid for 5 years.

If you look closely at the photo above, you’ll see that we were not so careful on one of our trips. One of those passports has an issue location outside the U.S. Trust me, the experience of being denied boarding on your flight home is not one I’d wish on anyone – with or without kids!

HOW TO APPLY FOR KIDS PASSPORTS

If you are applying for passports for the first time for your children, read through the instructions provided on the Department of State website thoroughly before you complete the application. Their requirements for applying for a child’s passport include:

1. Proof of U.S. citizenship
2. Evidence of relationship to parents
3. Parental identification
4. Parental permission to apply for a passport

The parental permission requirements are very important. Both parents must be present when the passport application is submitted. If one parent cannot be present either proof of sole authority to apply or notarized permission from the non-appearing parent must be provided. In addition to all the above paperwork, you’ll also need to have two photographs of each applicant which conform to the State Department requirements (provided on the passport form and on the website).

Passports for children under 16 cannot be renewed by mail. Treat each renewal as a new application i.e. bring original documents with you each time – the expiring passport is not valid as proof of citizenship for children under 16.

If you’re renewing a passport for you or your child over 16, you can do so via mail by sending form DS-82 along with your most recent passport, two passport photos, and funds to cover the fee to the National Passport Center. Mail-in passport applications can be expedited for an additional fee and extra shipping charges. (See travel.state.gov for current fees).

WHERE TO APPLY FOR KIDS PASSPORTS

The many locations where you can pick up passport forms are post offices, city halls and courthouses. Passport applications are not processed at these locations. There are 13 regional passport agencies where you can submit passport applications in person at which applications are processed on site. These applications are treated as expedited passport requests – with the associated fees. You must have an appointment to apply for your passport at one of these agencies and appointments are issued only if you can prove that you will be traveling within 14 days (by showing an airline ticket or similar documentation at the appointment). Applications submitted at passport agencies are fulfilled within 48 hours.

These days with e-tickets, automated check-in machines and ground staff who are very busy, it’s important to take responsibility for your own paperwork – so you don’t end up stranded somewhere. Be particularly vigilant with your children’s passports. Five years can pass so quickly.

If you are a U.S. citizen (or the parent of a U.S. citizen) applying for a passport for the first time, you can pick up passport application forms at one of many locations across the U.S. These form(s) can also be downloaded from the Department of State website and submitted by mail. The processing time for passport applications is about six weeks.

Once you submit your application, you can use either the Online Application Status Check tool on the Department of State website or call the National Passport Information Center to get information on your application. Don’t leave your applications or renewals to the last minute. If you think you might be traveling within the next 12 months, send in the application.

LOOKING AFTER YOUR KIDS PASSPORTS (AND YOURS)

Your passport is the most valuable item you’ll carry with you when you travel. Keep copies of the front page of your passport and your children’s passports both at home and in your luggage. Some countries require that hotels register guests with the police and will ask for your passport as ID. While this is a normal procedure, the U.S. government recommends you retrieve your passport the very next morning. If possible, leave a copy of the passport rather than the original.

For our year-long trip we scanned our passports and stored those digital copies on internet-accessible storage (e.g. Google docs or DropBox). We also carried paper photocopies of the passports – which we had to re-create at least a couple of times along the way as the originals got battered from too much use.

If you lose a passport while traveling abroad, immediately contact the local authorities and the nearest embassy or consulate for your country. If you have a copy of the lost passport, it will make the replacement process go much more smoothly. If a valid passport is lost or stolen while you are at home, alert your passport agency and apply for a new one.

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I Travel With A Purpose

Friday should be my photo post day, but instead, in support of BudgetTravelAdventures and his support of PassportsWithPurpose, you’ve got me, writing about me. Enjoy.

Picture the scene: a group of (super-cool) high-school kids in a bar in Ireland sometime in the late ’80s.
The conversation stills for a moment (only a moment, mind you, because we’re Irish), and someone says: “Summarize each person with one word”.
I still don’t quite get why anyone would think this as a fun game, but the rest of the crew were pointing and shouting like, well, a bunch of Paddies in a bar really.
Someone pointed at me and said “serious”. I couldn’t refute the description but serious is a decidedly non-cool word – especially when you’re 16.
At 42 I’m much more comfortable in my skin. Maybe it’s 42 (heh, maybe that’s what Douglas Adams meant) or maybe it’s just life experiences. At any rate, I’m a pretty intense, fairly serious, sometimes unintentionally funny wife and mom of two who is a travel junkie.

Travel. I’m even serious about my travel. Some people might, y’know, sling on a pack and travel for a year. Me? I plotted a course following the path of the Incas in South America, the Khmer Empire in South-East Asia and the path of Marco Polo from China back to Istanbul. My poor children had to put up with my historical lectures Everywhere!!

Since I’ve been involved in Passports with Purpose, I travel seriously and, more importantly, with a purpose. I’m even more unapologetic about my intrinsic seriousness and particularly the purposefulness of my travel habit. I now know how much an individual with focus, intent, organization and a supportive community can do in the wider world and I can’t look back. Through Passports with Purpose and the extended travel blogger community there’s a school in Cambodia, a village in India and a library and literacy program in Zambia that would not otherwise exist.

Last year I visited 26 countries with my husband and kids. Before visiting every country I inhaled as much as I could about the history, culture and current affairs of that place. I regurgitated information to my kids and tried to integrate what I saw with what I knew. I watched and listened. I traveled with a purpose. I came home reinvigorated in the Passports with Purpose mission to “address basic needs in developing countries”. The scale of the world’s problems with access to food, clean water, sanitation, basic housing, basic medical care and education may seem insurmountable but they’re not. None of these problems will be solved overnight or by one country or organization. All of them require global participation in many projects to raise money or participate more directly. Through Passports with Purpose, I travel, I learn about projects and people, I help corral a community to engage. I have my purpose, what’s yours?

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Hostel Review: 7 Sages Xian

xian-youth-hostel-china-with-kids

We stayed for four days at the 7 Sages Xian youth hostel, one of the prettiest and most welcoming hostels we stayed at during our year of travel.

Xian Youth Hostel: Review

I picked up a flyer for 7 Sages Hostel in Xian at the Rock and Wood Hostel in Shanghai – also a YHA China hostel. The 7 Sages caught my eye because the property flyer advertised it as one of the world’s most unusual hostels. With private room rates of US$12 per person per night, it seemed like we just had to stay here.

The 7 Sages hostel is in central Xian a short walk from the train station and inside the old city walls.

This Xian youth hostel is in a class Chinese row house. The building were remodeled at the beginning of the 20th century. They were once used as the Eight Route army Xian Office where the red army stayed in Xian. The hostel is situated around two courtyard areas with charming circular-arched doorways and a courtyard planted with trees and shrubs. There were row house on this very site, dating back to the Tang dynasty in 618AD.

The young staff of the YHA China hostel was cooperative, friendly and helpful. Language was never an issue and when there was a problem (we accidentally check out a day early), they were eager and ready to help.

There’s not a lot of room in the basic eight-person dorms in this Xian youth hostel. The shared bathrooms were clean – mostly. But, at $24 per night for private rooms, we felt like we were in backpacker luxury. These spacious rooms are simply decorated with modern furnishings with western-style ensuite bathrooms.

xian-youth-hostel-7-sages-courtyard

We arrived in Xian in mid-afternoon after a very early flight from Nanjing – we were hungry. We took a seat at one of the tables in central courtyard and ordered snacks from the onsite restaurant. And that, basically, was all she wrote. We spent a lot of our time in Xian lounging in the sun in that courtyard and eating at that little restaurant. It was a relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of backpacker travel. The food was tasty with plenty of local and western-style choices.

We were able to book tours to see the Terracotta Warriors through the hostel and this was only one of a varied menu of activities on offer. Many Xian youth hostels offer sightseeing tours. We were very satisfied with the ones we booked through 7 Sages. This Xian youth hostel is also a great base for exploring central Xian.

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Olympics London 2012 Torch in Kent

Visit London 2012: Tips For Planning A Visit

Visit London 2012 Torch in Kent

Check out this guest post for tips on planning a visit to London in 2012 – during or even after the 2012 Summer Olympics. This is a Guest Post is by British Airways who fly directly from Seattle to London (I know, I’ve taken that particular flight, with my kids, many, many times in the 16 years that I’ve been living in Seattle).

Visit London 2012

If you’re thinking about making your way across the pond with your family this summer but are unsure of where to start, we have some helpful, family-friendly tips on how to navigate around the city that we know and love.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not too late to book reasonable flights or hotel stays for London – especially with the dollar becoming increasingly stronger (₤.64 GBP ~ $1 USD). Here are some helpful links to help get the ball rolling:

Where to Stay:
There’s plenty of great information on Accommodation on VisitLondon.com.
Take advantage of the British Airways “London for Free” promotion – two nights free hotel stay with the purchase of round-trip airfare between the US and UK. The offer is valid through Thursday midnight (EST), Jul. 25, 2012, with the free hotel stay valid for travel from Jul. 27, 2012, through Sep. 30, 2012.

Getting Around:
Fast track into the city on the Heathrow Express train or if you have more time consider the Tube, aka London Underground. You should plan your travel route around the city in advance, look up fares, and buy an Oyster card (fare swipe card).
Rates for Students and Children: Read up on Tube ticket deals that you and your children can benefit from.
It’s worth noting that there is a Games Travelcard, which provides spectators free travel within zones 1–9 on the London public transport network throughout the day of the event.

There are plenty of other great family-friendly sights to check out if you visit London 2012:

  • Ride the London Eye, the world’s largest ferris wheel. It offers astonishing city views and family photo opportunities!
  • Tour Buckingham Palace and celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
  • Cruise along the River Thames to observe the city’s beauty from a relaxing setting.
  • Have a family picnic at Hyde Park and visit the peaceful Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.
  • London has many city farms that are free to visit. Vauxhall City Farm offers pony care classes and donkey rides, while MudChute Park and Farm is the largest urban farm in London sitting on 34 acres. Many of the farms also host children’s playgrounds and fresh farm shops.

    If you’re lucky enough to get tickets for The Games then make time to visit Park Live: British Airways will also be hosting a live public viewing of the Games in the Olympic Park, posting giant two-sided screens for up to 10,000 viewers. Give your family a front-and-center view of the sporting action from the comfort of a serenely grassy park.

    With so much buzzing in London this summer, it’s helpful to get prepared to ensure your family has a smooth, fun trip filled with heaps of good memories.

    Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

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    Hong Kong Bird Market

    At the Hong Kong Bird Market

    Any guesses for the English nursery rhyme this man is teaching his parrot at the Hong Kong Bird Market?

    Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.

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    Chungking Mansions Entrance

    Hostel Review: Toms Guesthouse Chungking Mansions Hong Kong

    Chungking Mansions Entrance

    Ta-da: the Chungking Mansions, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
    As far as I know, I haven’t stayed in any other place that is the subject of an Economist article, a wikipedia page, and a book.

    We stayed at the Chungking Mansions because we were trying to stick to budget ($150 per day: accommodation + food + entertainment for four people). This, it turns out is a tricky thing to do in a popular destination such as a large city like Hong Kong.

    I searched for decent budget accommodation in guidebooks, by asking friends and trawling the internet. Hostelling International had a couple of interesting-looking properties, but, sadly, those were booked out. Every other budget-friendly guesthouse or hotel I could find that wasn’t in Chungking Mansions was also either booked solid or had enough critical reviews on the interwebs that I was suspicious of the nice reviews.

    Tom’s Guesthouse in the ChungKing Mansions seemed to be the best of a bad lot and at $15 per person per night the price was certainly right.

    Full disclosure: I had no problem with staying in a building described by Lonely Planet as a “crumbling block”. We were only going to be there for three nights, how bad could it be? Murph (being Murph) was positively excited at the prospect. I was only slightly worried about exposing my kids to drug-dealing and prostitution. In my very scant experience such transactions aren’t carried out in broad daylight or in front of kids – and they’re both old enough to learn about the seamier side of life anyway, right?

    We arrived late at night. The airport bus dropped us on Nathan Rd. When we found the building, it felt like we were walking into a sea of hawkers, people of all colors and tribes, calling out in a half-dozen languages. Utterly disoriented, it took us a shameful amount of time just to find the right elevator. As I was checking us in, CAM berated Murph:
    “Well this is just perfect. You take us to what is one of the world’s best cities and where do you land us? In the armpit. Just lovely.”
    He was serious. Murph and I both played perfect parent in the face of such a diatribe. If we’d had our own room I’m sure we’d have laughed together later but the rooms…

    Chungking Mansions Room
    The rooms at Tom’s Guesthouse are tiny. We’d booked a double (for Murph and me to share) and a twin (for the boys to share). There was no way Murph and I could have fit in the “double” bed. I ended up sharing with BigB while Murph and CAM shared the twin room, which Murph quipped “wasn’t big enough for both of them to breathe out at the same time”.

    The photo above was taken standing at the door of the room. Immediately to the right (not in the photo) is the door to the bathroom-cum-shower, a classic example of a tiny Asian bathroom where you shower standing in front of the sink and you need to close the toilet seat and move the toilet paper out of the way if you want avoid having a soggy mess to clean up when you’re done showering. It’s efficient but definitely made for short people.

    You cannot beat the location of the Chungking Mansions building. At the bottom of Nathan Rd in Kowloon you’re right in the middle of prime shopping territory and two short blocks from the ferry terminal over to Hong Kong Island. If we’d had a view I’m sure it would have been awesome – but there was construction…

    Chungking Mansions View

    (Side note: do you see that scaffolding? That’s bamboo and bailing twine 16 floors above the ground. Maybe those safety warnings were not totally without merit…)

    Tom’s Guesthouse is tiny but pristine. The staff we met were friendly, courteous and helpful. The little Filipina lady who staffed the front desk for most of the time we were there could not have been nicer. She asked us about our plans for the day in the morning and laughed at our stories when we came back in the evening. She apologized for construction noise and made sure our rooms were cleaned daily. She didn’t ever offer suggestions on what we should do or see in Hong Kong – which made us wonder whether she ever actually left the building. She, like many of the people living or working in the building, was a immigrant to Hong Kong. The Chungking Mansions was her world. It was not inconceivable to imagine that she had seen no more of Hong Kong than just this building in the eight-plus years that she’d lived here.

    I know that most of my friends, especially those with kids would not, ever, in a million years, stay in this little guesthouse – which is actually a pity. The Chungking Mansions are an exercise in the adaptability of the human spirit. I’ll admit, the CK Mansions freaked me out a little the first day. I couldn’t imagine letting my boys go from our 16th floor room to the kiosk on the ground floor on their own. But by day three the front-door crew waved us in as if we were part of the furniture – the only thing we were missing was a complicated hand-slap-shake routine (hard to fake). We window-shopped on the warren that was the ground floor, letting our kids roam On Their Own. The CK Mansions multi-cultural, multi-ethnic melee became our new normal, and we were all fine for it.
    I did not observe any tricks or drug deals going down.
    Murph: “You can take the girl out of the convent…”
    Be that as it may, if you’re looking for budget-friendly accommodation in Hong Kong, I’m happy to recommend Tom’s Guesthouse – so long as you don’t mind that the building where it’s located is a block-sized fire trap. OK?

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    Hong Kong with Kids in Kowloon

    Hong Kong Markets

    Hong Kong Markets Kowloon Map
    This is a map of the Hong Kong markets we visited on a Sunday wander. We hadn’t come to Hong Kong to shop but since a number of Hong Kong’s famous street markets were right on our doorstep in Kowloon – and because that kind of meandering day is our favorite way to explore a new city – it was an easy sell to CAM and BigB.
    Hong Kong Markets Flower Market
    We started at the market furthest away, the Flower Market, and spent the day working our way back down towards the end of Nathan Road. This is me reciting “Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum” to BigB and him pretending that no, he never, ever liked a story about a little girl with such an elaborate name. Ever.
    Hong Kong Markets Bird Market
    The Bird Market is only a couple of blocks from the Flower Market. All of the stalls had bird cages stacked roof to floor and many cages had what looked like way too many birds in them. Space, apparently is at a premium even for Hong Kongs’ avian residents. Between the calls of the stall owners and the many birds cawing, squawing and even attempting to speak this market was an auditory assault, the very definition of raucous you might even say. And it was smelly, chicken-coop smelly. What? you didn’t know that chickens have some of the smelliest manure known to man? Well, now you do. And all those beautiful birds with colorful feathers? Just as smelly as your common-or-garden chicken.
    Hong Kong Markets Feeding Birds
    CAM and BigB lost interest in the birds – or were too grossed out by the smell – pretty quickly so we made to leave, but not before we caught sight of this stall-owner hand-feeding some baby parrots. Too cute.
    Hong Kong Markets Ladies Market
    We went looking for lunch at the top of Tung Choi Street (Ladies’ Market). It turns out that this far up into Kowloon english menus are not de rigeur, who’d have thunk? We managed to do OK for our first experience of point-and-guess ordering in a chinese restaurant. Sated, we resumed our meander through the markets. Honestly, at this point I was just about coming to terms with the immense volume of people on the streets. So this was China, eh? Murph and I regressed to playing our favorite “How many Irelands could you fit in this place?” game. With the population of HK at just over 7 million and Dublin a paltry 1 million, no wonder these streets were feeling crowded to me.
    Hong Kong with Kids in Kowloon
    Our boys, urban to the core, surrounded by familiar logos and with stores selling either electronics or sporting goods within reach on both sides of the street were in their happy place.
    We had to bail before making our way through all of Ladies’ Market. A combination of just too much and your classic “bathroom, now” cry from one of our kid tourists. We detoured to the Langham Mall simply because it was nearby, not realizing that we were entering a Hong Kong shopping mecca. With 15 floors of modern shopping nirvana, it took us a while to find the bathrooms and by then BigB had also discovered the “Spiral” on the top four floors. The walkways in this section of the mall corkscrew around the steep Xpresscalators. I thought we wouldn’t be able to find out way out.
    Hong Kong Markets Temple Street Market
    Our last stop of the day was the Temple Street Market. You may think I’m making fun when I say that this Chinatown beats all other Chinatowns in the world hands-down. I’m not. It’s huge and crowded with every single bit of tourist kitsch you’ve ever imagined on sale.
    Hong Kong Markets Temple St With Kids
    So big, in fact that if you let your children get out of your sight you will be scared that they’ll disappear into the warren of stalls and you’ll never see them again. Oh wait, maybe that might be a good thing…

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