Our most recent visit centred around Sebastien's operation. It was nice to have the whole family together for a holiday rather than splitting up.
Alex selected a few gifts from Gulangyu for some of her friends in Australia. She worked hard to convince me that she also needed to get some gifts for all her other friends in America that she'd be seeing. She still gets confused between Australia and America. She also selected a nice cheongsam dress (mandarin cháng-long + shān-gown) for herself and some new black silk shoes (her orange ones are dead).
We made a paper chain to help us see how many sleeps there were until we left - actually we made several as we were "in the groove" so to speak. 
We originally had planned a 4 hour layover in Hong Kong - which stretched out to just over 8 hours when they cancelled our flight from Xiamen and put us onto an earlier one. We found this out just a day or so before we left so we spent some time trying to decide whether to try to do the Hong Kong Disney transit tour or something a little less ambitious. In the end we opted to see The Peak which would also allow us to travel on a tram (good for the kids) that is really steep. So after putting our luggage in lockers we popped onto the train to get us into the city from the airport. Alex still remembers the time Daddy tried to jump onto a subway (with Sebastien in a backpack on his back) only to have the doors close on him, and solomnly said it was good that Daddy hadn't tried to hurry.
We pointed out that we were in a "quiet carriage" - explaining that it meant very quiet inside voices (hehe) and started to enjoy the scenery.
We got out down town and then headed off for a supposed 10 minute walk to the Peak Tram.
Sebastien walked for some of it - but we were never going to get there if he walked the whole way. 
It was something of a game to follow the signs - which kept Alex somewhat amused. 
It was a pretty steady upwards walk which was not overly enjoyable in the heat. Mummy found it hard to keep her eyes on the ground as she was distracted by the architecture - and would have loved to have just wandered around looking at buildings.
Finally we arrived at the Peak Tram Office. 
We saw that the tram was not running and that there was instead a bus to catch. So we waited on the steps, eating a snack and drinking some water, along with the other tourists who had wanted to take the tram. 
Eventually the double decker bus came and we made our way up to the top level. The buses are incredibly narrow so as to fit on the roads. Our bus wound its way around and up the long climb to The Peak. 
I saw this incredibly steep staircase cut into the hillside behind these buildings as we crept forward to the lights.
Our transit trip had said that the tram would take around 15 minutes - well the bus took a lot longer than that! There had been no estimate at the busstop and it took us about an hour to get to the top. That really cut into our trip time as we figured coming down would be about the same - and it would be peak hour as well. Hmmm.We definitely passed some pricey property as mansions with their own swimming pools suspended off the side of the mountain went by. Unfortunately the bus passed too quickly to get a photo.
We arrived at the top of The Peak at the Galleria - so we checked out the view from the viewing platform there - after an icecream and lychee cool drink from McDonalds.
Unfortunately it was a hazy day so the view wasn't great. Still we saw the skyline and the expanse of down town Hong Kong in front of us - Mummy still wanted to go check out architecture!
We exchanged a tit-for-tat photo with another family.
Not wanting to find out how bad Hong Kong peak hour is, we decided to head back down to where we came from and back out to the airport. We knew that the airport had several play areas. We took a different bus back to the train station and halved the time it took to get there. By this stage we were tired. We'd left Xiamen before lunch and weren't leaving Hong Kong until 9.30pm - well after Alex and Sebastien's bedtime. The play area kept everyone amused for a while. Sebastien loved driving.
Alex wanted to jump from block to block.
They liked playing the "piano" with Daddy.
And then they wrestled on the ground - we wanted them tired to make sure that they'd sleep.
After that, the kids were literally rolling somersaults.
Interestingly, this trip was during the Swine Flu Pandemic. Australia had already moved to the sustain phase but asia was caught in a panic - possibly due to their avian flu and SARS experiences. I saw more than a few people in masks in the airport and on public transport. The airport had masks available on several tables throughout the terminal and also has closed off their water fountains/bubblers.
We finally boarded our - delayed - plane and tried to enjoy our flight. Not easy when you're juggling children, tray tables and headsets. I will say that the in-seat entertainment of Qantas is a boon.
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