There is no compulsion in Islam...

A post extracted from my FB...

"I don’t understand why some schools need to close their canteens to “respect” Muslims who are fasting. If it was my son who is doing the complaining, my answer would be “WTH are you doing in the canteen in the first place? Go hang out in the classroom/library/surau” 

When I was growing up, 80% of my “gang” comprises of non-Muslims, some are super polite who’ll hide under the table to have a sip of their drinks while the less considerate ones will openly drink ice milo right in front of my face. (Oh well, to their credit they did offer to buy me one if I want to break my fast earlier..haha). But past the age of 9, when I finally decided to sincerely fast on my own, nothing my friends can do or say will affect my fasting.

At the end of the day, If I (hypothetically of course *cough2*) drank the tap water while pretending to take my wudhu, was it really because I saw my friend drinking or was it because I had no willpower to stop myself from consuming unfiltered water? Just because my willpower sucks, that does not give me the license to impose my religious beliefs on others.

I walk in front of the cross every single day for 11 years when I was in MGS, read my friend’s baby bible when I was 10 and after I started driving even drop my friends at the church for their mass after our lepak session. Heck I even dated a Christian for 5 years at one point of my life. Did I ever felt the urge to change my faith at any point of these events? Alhamdullilah, it is a BIG FAT NO. You want to know why? Because I truly believe in my syahadah “There is no god other than Allah and Nabi Muhammad SAW is his messenger” All thanks to my parents, family and teachers guidance.

So to the paranoid Malays, maybe instead of pointing fingers as to how other people can ruin our Iman, maybe we can step back and look at our shortcomings and learn the way of Islam through Al Quran and Sunnah. Let’s lay the foundation of Islam in our children so deep that no matter what other people choose to say or do, nothing will easily waver their faith. And from this point onwards when we decide to force our beliefs onto others, maybe we can ask ourselves, is this how Nabi Muhammad will act? A real Muslim will know the answer…"

What brought this on? I'm just tired having to expain myself again and again due to the actions of some ignorant individuals. Salam Ramadhan everyone, forgive my wrongdoings (if any) and may all of us have a blessed and fulfilling month :)

101 Japan Trip - Our Winter Holiday

A friend requested that I blog a similar 101 post to my Hong Kong trip, but this time covering our recent holiday in Japan. To tell you the truth, travel tips are pretty much similar from one country to another. My basic mantra is "Be ready, prepare yourself for the worst but pray for the best"

We have a basic travel checklist which we will tweak here and there based on the duration/weather/purpose of our stay. When it comes to my children essential (milk,food and medicine), I rather over pack than under pack because you'll never know when you need things and I hate scrambling in a foreign place feeling lost.

Below are some tips and relevant links for your ease of reference. 

1. Winter Clothing and Essentials for Small Children

This is our first time traveling out of the country during winter with the the kids. Preparations started 6 months before our trip in terms of research and shopping. The best trick I learn from most parenting websites was to layer. This works real well because though it may be super cold outdoors, trains and buildings are heated so putting on super heavy clothing on your child which can't be removed may make them very uncomfortable. 

We always start with an inner shirt below their normal clothes/shirts, a vest (depending on the weather forecast of the day), and add on the final layer which is the jacket. Hats is a must because we lose heat mostly from our heads, so insist that your child put it on. Alternatively you can also get an outer jackets with hoods. Get scarfs and mittens which are made from non-scratchy material. Test it out by rubbing the material on your hands, if you don't find it comfortable, your child won't be either.

This time we lugged our double stroller,the buggy and ALL of our stroller accessories. I have to admit  having the stroller helps. Since my children are creatures of habit, the 1 hour time difference totally wrecked their nap schedule, so they took turns napping in the stroller. The rain shield helped during super windy and cold days too. You just need to be extra careful (and fast) when handling your children and the stroller in the subways.

The problem with traveling during winter is that you have to deal with heavy coats and boots, which means a lot of luggage. Since there's a lot of walking from the airport to the station to the hotel, we packed our luggage in such a way that we'll be more mobile, we used two backpacks, one large trolley bag and a large carry-on to cater to 5 people. We even had a test run to ensure that we'll be able to carry all of our luggage + handling the stroller  and the kiddies. 

2. Weather Forecast
We religiously checked the weather forecast 2 months before our travel date to ensure that we packed right. It was raining on and off  and the temperature was around 2' to 12' . We made sure everyone had a rain jacket/poncho, waterproof jackets, foldable umbrellas and extra shoes. Better be safe than sorry I say because if you think having to walk outdoors in the cold sucks, try walking outdoors in the cold while it is raining :p 

My favorite weather forecast website : Click Me

2. Pocket WiFi

Alhamdullilah we managed to find our travel locations easily, thanks to the help of internet. Despite having a very detailed itinerary and travel plan prepared, I still depended a lot on travel apps and internet search to get me from one point to another. I decided to rent a pocket WiFi for our use in Japan, for easy and multiple connectivity. The pocket WiFi is able to connect up to 8 devices at once, so between the 5 smartphone users in the family, we managed to safe quite a lot.

I pre-ordered my WIFI from the company's website,2 days before we left for Japan. When we arrived it was already waiting for me in the airport. To return I just dropped the package at the post box before boarding 

Check out website for more info:  Global Advanced Communication

3. Travel Apps
I downloaded several key apps before leaving just in case there's any problem with the WIFI. I also subscribed to Celcom roaming in case of emergency (you can never be overly cautious when traveling with 3 small children)

Anyway these are the apps that I found most helpful while in Japan:

• Japan Trains - This is super awesome because not only will it tell you the time and name of the train to take, it will also detailed out the platform/station PLUS the cheapest route to get to your destination PLUS options. Take note the different type of trains while purchasing tickets, there's express (no stops in between of stations), rapid (limited stops), local (stops at every station, cheapest and takes the longest to your destination) tickets.
• Solat/Qiblat/Halal Food Guide- There's a few options but this is good to help determine qiblat for solat and will alert you of the time. The halal food guide comes with a list and some is even linked to its location + GPS 
• Currency Converter- Oh well if your Math sucks as mine, any assistance with the numbers and figures are most welcome :p 
• Waze/Google Maps-In case you need extra help to point you out in the right direction. I did use this a few time because the road signs can be quite confusing and in Japanese

Check out website for more info on train routes : Hyperdia

4. Halal Food

You can't find Halal food easily in Japan. I would say that it is more easily available in tourist spots like Dotunburi Street and Namba. I did manage to find some Halal kebab, tempura and udon while I was there.

We were lucky that our hotel is equipped with a full kitchen, so we  prepared our own breakfast, dinner and pre-packed our lunch. We brought the normal essential like rice, pasta and Brahims (chicken because you can't bring in beef due to the mad cow disease issues) We bought the rest like veges, fruits and eggs at the nearby market.

The cold weather makes my kids constantly hungry, instead of eating and snacking every 4 hours, they need to be fed frequently especially after naps.  We made sure we had snacks like cereal and cheese crackers in hand.

Just a  reminder for people who choose to eat at seafood restaurant and buy seafood/vegetarian based food, the Japanese sometimes uses alcohol during food preparations especially in rice and sauces (most fish sauces used on takoyaki contains traces of alcohol). 

Even pre-packed food which does not contain meat, sometimes use animal fat or lard. One instance was when we were in USJ and asked the popcorn vendor if the popcorn is vegetarian friendly and his answer was no. I'm not sure if it was a mistake on his part but suffice to say we decided againts buying them for the kids. So unless you read or speak Japanese well, I advise you stay clear of things that may fall under the "vague" category. This is also based on the advice from my friend who's in Japan.

Check out website for more info : Halal Kansai Restaurant List

5. USJ Tickets
We pre bought our Universal Studios Japan Tickets from Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) in KLCC. As you know, I AM ALLERGIC TO LONG QUEUES so I made sure that we secured our tickets to USJ a month before we left (Yes I'm super serious when it comes to Harry Potter preparations :p).

Check out website for more info:  Universal Studios Japan and JTB Malaysia

6 . Train Pass
You should take advantage of the train pass packages available for tourist when traveling in Japan. Before choosing a Travel Pass, make sure that it is the one that will work best with you travel route. Based on our itinerary, I choose Kansai Thru Pass because the station is the closest to my hotel. It was also the cheapest option for ticket price for our travel route. Another plus point was they offered discounts vouchers on entrance ticket to several attractions around Kansai. I purchased my tickets at the Kansai Airport itself. There's a 2 or 3 days pass available depending on your needs. You also do not need to use your tickets consecutively.

Check out website for more information: Kansai Thru Pass

You can also purchase the JR Train Pass through JTB. If you're traveling in the Kansai area you can consider the JR Kansai Area Pass available for exclusive use by foreign visitors to Japan. It provided unlimited travel on local JR trains and the Haruka limited express train in the Kansai region around Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe for one to four days, consecutively. 

One thing I like about the JR line was its loop lines, meaning you do not need to make a lot of train change to get to your destinations.

Check out website for more information: JR Kansai Pass

7.Travel Diary
For our travel diary check out the following links:

• Osaka
• Universal Studios Japan
• Kyoto
• Nara 
• Hotel Review : Mystays Otamae, Osaka  

Fuh!! super long post, it took me 3 days to finish typing this, so hope that it helps someone :) Happy weekend everyone....

Picky Picky....

I get a lot of people asking me about tips on dealing with picky eaters. I am by no means an expert but my edge on this topic is not merely based on my experience dealing with Ryan but I'm actually speaking from my personal experience as a recovering picky eater.

Ryan was a good eater until he turned one. Things changed drastically after he was hospitalized for the second time. Going for physio to drain out the phlegm and mucus at one year old, has a bigger impact on him as compared to the first treatment when he was 7 months old. I guess he can remember clearly the traumatic experience of tubes being shoved down his throat since he's older. 

After that I detect a change in his feeding pattern. He's more choosy and refuses to eat vegetables and meat (he'll only eat eggs, carrots and potatoes) and will only eat plain or fried rice and some pasta. Since he have dinner at my parents who enabled him, and I did not really interfere at that time because I was busy with my night classes and  the arrival of his twin sisters, he continued with this feeding pattern until he's about 3 years old. 

Once we've gotten pass the hecticness with the twins being older, I've managed to really sit down and analyze the issue with Ryan. In terms of preference my boy actually prefers stronger tasting food (e.g. durian, tomyam, oranges etc) so all the bland food that we were previously feeding him, does nothing to increase his appetite. The second mistake was actually listening to him when he says that he do not like a food without even trying it. Thirdly was making a huge production during mealtimes forcing him to eat (this is more my mum than me) 

Ok parents drill this into your head... 

(1)  NAGGING KILLS APPETITE 

(2) The child will eat when the child is hungry

Again let me stress this out. I am speaking based on my own personal experience. When I was 5-12 my basic food everyday is my arwah Wan Nasi Goreng for breakfast, rice,kicap and fried fish (only ikan selar kuning ok) for lunch and 1-2 slices of bread for dinner. I was a freaking skinny kid (albeit a very healthy and active one)  I introduced a bit of variety into my meals when I was in High School but was still extremely selective and only grew out of the food bubble when I stepped into Uni. You want to know what made me changed? 

It is because I DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE. There is no Mummy or Wan to cook food the way I like it. So either I starve or live on a diet of instant noodle everyday, I had no choice but to step out of my comfort zone. Most of my friends are quite adventurous foodies (or at least normal by my standard), so it made me more open to trying out small quantities of food of their plate (less scary option than ordering an entire plate of "alien" food), this in turn expanded my choices and allowed me to make a more informed decision between food I actually like/hate/initially thought i hate but end of liking (like ikan keli for instance)

So keeping all this in mind, I introduced new dishes to Ryan in a more subtle manner. Sometimes I will cooked a particular dish for myself and invite him to try a bite and assure him that he's allowed to (politely) spit it out if he don't like the taste. Even though he may not try or like it at first, I will continuously offer the same food/fruits/vege to him. If he still resist the taste after 5-6 tries I will just move on and offer something else because I take it that he is naturally not attracted to the taste (I'm positively allergic to the taste of bean sprouts, cucumber and honey dew - will literally will gag it out and I'm 31 haha ). But NEVER underestimate the wonders of persistence because I've managed to get Ryan to eat roast beef (which he won't even touch before) and spinach after a few tries.

Another thing is DO NOT provide options all the time. Example cooking two types of fried rice (1) normal with all the works (2) kosong with just kicap for the picky kid. The signal you're sending is "I do not need to try new food because mummy will always provide me with the dish that I WANT". Persuade your child to try the food and allow him to weed out unwanted meat/veges from the dish. What do you got to lose? He'll try it and not like it (so it will be status quo) OR he'll try it and decide "hey this is not bad at all".

Don't be a hypocrite. If you yourself do not eat vegetable and fruits, don't membebel and paksa your kid to eat it. Lead by example. In my house, I only buy vegetable/fruits that I know I will eat, screw variety, if you only like mangoes, carrots and broccoli than by all means buy and eat it everyday if you want . Don't feel the need to compel the household to 3 types of exotic vegetables that you personally don't like but FORCED it upon your kid. 

If your kids is forever "kenyang" try minimizing snacks or don't allow snack so close to mealtimes. We had this problem earlier this year when my mum complained that Ryan and the twins refused dinner. The root of the problem is my  parents will feed them "roti cream" at around 4.30 when they come back from school. I advised my parents to stop buying the bread (and to ignore their crying) and alhamdullilah they're  asking for second (even thirds) serving of food  during dinner now.

Finally, be patient and relaxed, mummy!! Like I mentioned earlier the child will eat when the child is hungry. Don't worry so much about variety, just ensure that they get benefit from all the food groups. If it is any consolation I survived on kicap, fried fish/chicken, carrots and junk food all through my early adulthood (the health consciousness and awareness is recently acquired) and I turned out ok :p Alhamdullilah I'm healthy, active and quite smart (despite the lack of greens) hahahah

Do make food fun and attractive :) Anyway see the green dip in the middle? That is basil, spinach, sour cream and a squirt of mayo. No vege taste but with all the goodness and nutrients...

Yes the noodle is green because it is "spinach noodle". You can find it in most health store and it taste good. The menu above consist of me tossing the noodle into a bit of garlic, spring onions,olive oil and grilled salmon. Walla a quick, healthy and yummy dish (Iman ate this without blinking)

Another option to introduce vegetable into your child's meal is through juicing. Try adding mangoes, orange and spinach together or try the various combinations available online. They won't even know what hit them. I've made this myself or if you're lazy you can buy organic and freshly pressed juice from supermarket or online (just make sure there's no sugar or preservatives added)

I find it easier to get them to eat all food groups when it is all mixed into one dish rather than visible dishes where you can see individual veges + protein and carbs. For example this dish consist of salmon, spinach, cheese, pasta, fresh tomatoes and garlic.

Another awesome way to incorporate veges into food is by infusing meat in vegetable stocks. Not only would your dish taste better, you would also benefit from the nutrients from the vegetables. 

Hope this helps... in the meantime.. chill yo!!!

Sharing the Khayr

When I first heard about IlmFest 2014 I was intrigued. It sounded interesting, it looked interesting but was I willing to sacrifice my weekend to attend a talk? I'm quite ashamed to admit it but the thought did passed through my mind. Anyway, I'm glad that I managed to ignore the devil whisperings telling me not to go and bought the tickets instead. Alhamdullilah I managed to learn a lot from the sessions.

It is a 2 days conference where 15 knowledgeable speakers gather to share their knowledge on Islam, in this case Nabi Muhammad S.A.W specifically, there's talks about the prophet's sirah, his characters as a husband, friend, messenger of Allah and more. I totally loved the way the talks was conducted, it was fun and it was informal, most of the speakers are funny and also "up to date" and not the typical boring long winded ceramah where the only emphasized is on your sins and how everyone is going to hell. Inshaallah if there's rizq and opportunity I will gladly attend another session. 

I took some notes during the talk via twitter, so just sharing some knowledge I managed to acquire during the sessions. Most of the notes is quite relevant to parenting, a topic close to heart. To tell you the truth I'm deathly petrified of the responsibilities of raising my 3 children, hopefully some of the tips will help me to be better muslim, parent and wife (haha kesian Lan now come in third :p) 

I found this on IG under the #Ilmfest hastag.Hopefully the owner don't mind me sharing :) Love the message which I missed as I did not managed to attend the late evening/night sessions.

 Day 1:With the super adorable Auntie Juju in tudung. Lawakan? hehe

 Day 2: Ryan with his two makciks, Auntie Najwa and Auntie Juju

My super duper companion, saham akhirat Ryan Daniel. He accompanied me for 7 hours on the first day and another 4 hours on the second day with very little fuss. Alhamdulliah, received many compliments on my little man good behavior. I was a bit worried to tell you the truth since I know for a fact that this little boy can be hyperactive when he wants to be :p Allah did answer my prayers for him to ease my way to learn new ilm last weekend hehehe

 Bought kiddy sejadah for the troops. 

They loved the colorful police car and hot air balloon motives on it.

I also got these mini hijabs for the twins. They need to "practice" with the tudungs as they would need to wear one next year for preschool. Ranya loved it but Iman refuses to wear it for long. Takpela kakak, baby steps ok...

Have a good week everyone inshallah :)

The one on Baby Spa and Baby Swim...

I received an invitation from Kak Evi to attend the Grand Opening of her newly opened baby spa in Publika called Little Spa Kingdom. Ryan and the twins have just recently recovered from a bout of fever and teething pains so I decided all 3 deserved a bit of a treat from mummy. I made appointments for baby swim for the twins and a haircut for Ryan :)

We were greeted by an array of awesome goodies at the entrance. Ryan (and his mum) was super excited seeing the cupcakes and cookies all ready to fill his little tummy 

The changing table for baby massage and the jacuzzi for baby swim. I love the colorful decor, so warm and inviting. I choose to try "baby swim" for the girls because I know they love water. The spa also offers baby yoga and massage, children manicure and children hairstyling. 

What is baby swim? During baby swim sessions, the baby will be made to "swim" in a tub of heated water where they are encouraged to move comfortably with the help of the flotation device. Awesome exercise for children from 0 to 36 months and they can learn to kick and peddle in the tub with adults assistance.

The twins had fun. Cik Puan Ranya graduated from the "baby" float to the normal ones within minutes and was happily kicking and floating on her own. Iman was a bit scared of the therapist at first but they managed to calm her enough to change into their swim diapers and get into the jacuzzi. Once she's in the water all worries are forgotten and she started to happily swim with her little sister.

Ahhhhhhhhhh total bliss after a hard day of playing and drinking milk  >__<

Packages for boys over 4 years old is pretty limited but I still made appoinment for Ryan to get a haircut. Someone was stewing over the fact that he did not get to swim and even complained to me the night before "asyik-asyik adik, kenapa kena pergi pool kecik, pergila bawak Ryan pergi pool besar" Thank god they had face painting as an activity for the grand opening, pacified this little pakcik a bit having a crab drawn on his cheeks ;p

A haircut in a Beemer, yo!!!

Ryan and Aunt Juju enjoying freshly made cotton candy

All of us enjoyed our visit to Little Spa Kingdom, would surely bring the twins in for another session of baby swim one of these days and I'm also planning on trying out the "Princess Hairstyling Package" for them once their hair is a bit longer. For the time being don't rat me out to Ryan ok, nanti dia jealous hahaha

If you're interested, do check out their website for more info on the packages and prices : Little Spa Kingdom

The Great Outdoors

Compared to our generation, kids nowadays are at a total disadvantage when it comes to the opportunity to spend their time outdoors. It is understandable due to the increasing crime rate, air pollution, parents busy timetable etc.

However I totally believe that we as parents should take some initiative to get our children bond with nature. Not only would it improve their physical, fine and gross motor skills, it could be a good time to show and teach them the wonders of Allah's gift to them (i.e. clean air, foods provided by plants and animals, how water is "created") A good way to enlightened the mind, body and soul.

Do you know playing with bubbles are not only fun but is a good way to train your child hand/eye movement coordination?

Sadly most kids nowadays don't like to get "dirty". They can get very distracted by a bit of dirt. We may think it is nothing but it does have an impact on the way your child do their daily activity. Take Ryan for example, he likes to have his things in order and not messy. You may think " are you crazy your child is a neat freak and you complaint?" :p 

As awesome as it may be to my playroom, it is not as good when he may be put in a situation where he NEEDS to get messy. Ryan has very low tolerance with slimy substances (I think most people do) but he can't expect his teachers to use UHU Stick instead of those normal and cheaper glue, I may tolerate it because I'm his mummy but he can't expect the same special treatment when he's in school/class/public. By letting him play outdoors, sometimes to the the extend of making him roll around in mud/ play with sticky flour mix or sand, it teaches him that the dirt won't hurt him, it need not distract him from his task  and InShaAllah slowly and surely this will increase his attention span because he won't be easily distracted by external factors like smell/sound/movements etc.

 Allow your child to learn from their senses. Let them touch grass/weeds/flowers and get them to explain the different textures/colors/ smell to you :)

Outdoors playgroup is much more fun than one that is held indoors. The greens does have a relaxing effect on children. The results? Less fighting. (I'm not delusional to expect 100%  no fighting , they will still fight but to a lesser degree laaa)

Teach your children to love the nature from young. Alhamdullilah Ryan is exposed to the concept of recycling in school and I slowly try to do it at home. I've also taken to getting the kids involved in my gardening activity and get them to plant some plants on their own. It's an informal science class for them but they get really excited when they see their plant slowly transform from a mere seed to little shoots to a proper tomato tree bearing fruits. Good introduction to "process"- i.e. tomato sauce does not come from the can but from a tree

 sings *Apa yang penting kerjasama :)*

Ryan and Iman planting some herbs for my herb rack

Mess and loads of it -__-

This is a lesson for the mum to practice a lot of patience and not to be easily worked out over little things...It is difficult, kan? especially with the stress of working, running the household and raising 3 kids. Back to the lesson about Sabr, I guess :p

Wish me luck and hope all of you will have a safe, happy and sun filled weekend *In Sha Allah*

Alternative Medicines: My First Try

Sending my children to daycare means one thing: constant sniffles

Now that Ryan is in kindergarten and the twins in the “big kids” room in daycare, means they are more susceptible to germs (though I do know people with kids who stays at home 24/7 but get sick more often than my children :p) . Anyway, I’ve made my peace with this a long time ago. Germs and viruses are everywhere; all we can do is deal with it as positively as possible.

As much as I believe in modern medicine, I do read about the harm prolonged drug use can cause to the liver. We feed the kids honey and Vitamin C daily to improve their immune system. We also try to minimize the use of antibiotics by ensuring that it will only be given to the children if the sickness is caused by bacterial infection and non-viral.

Anyway a few friends of mine have been raving about the benefits of “homeopathy medicines”. So I decided to try it out. The nearest homeopathy clinic is Klinik Radziah in Section 7, Shah Alam. It has been 2 weeks and results have been pretty positive. I’ll give another proper review maybe after using it for 2 months.

Demax : Fever, Prolife: for IQ/Physical activeness, Nasobett: Flu/Runny nose/allergies and Weezoff: Cough and wheezing

Review: after 2 days of eating the meds, the twins runny nose has stop. They still have a bit of coughing but only early morning (when it's really cold).The medicines comes in small tablet form (tictac size), it is really sweet, so it's kinda easy to feed the kids. They call it" ubat gula-gula"

Painturat: This is for "orang tua: like me with back and muscles pains. I find that my joint pains have greatly minimize since eating this pill. You're supposed to take it 3 times a day but me being me is not very discipline with it. Despite of that it works. The first 3 days of eating this I started burping and passing wind (haha) a lot. I guess it helps in getting rid of the "angin" in my body which is causing the pain. Alhamdullilah. We shall see if the effects stays. 

Ok so that's the review on the meds as requested. Will come back in a month or two to report if there's a prolonged positive effect.

The one on travelling Hong Kong with small children

Since I came back from Hong Kong, I've received several request to do a short review of my trip and to share travel "tips". Since several of my mates is planning a trip down to HK in December and early 2014, I shall do some community service (like real) and share my 5 days 4 nights travel experience with 3 children in tow.....

1. Check the weather 

Hong Kong is affected by the four seasons. Winter (Dec-Feb), Spring (March-May), Summer (June to August) and Autumn (September- Nov). According to the travel blogs, autumn is the best time to visit Hong Kong as it is not hot or cold with sunshine. I can attest to that as I find the weather very comfortable to travel in and despite the sun, it was not to humid. Typhoons seasons is in May - November so keep that in mind before booking your tickets.

2. Pre book/buy your tickets online
I bought my Ocean Park and Disneyland tickets at a discount from this site Hotel in Hong Kong, not only did we save some money on the purchases we also save a lot of queuing time, especially if you plan to travel during the weekends.

3. Octopus Card

You can buy purchase octopus card/ airport express card package at the counter right outside the Arrival Hall, the staff speaks English so they can help you choose the perfect package for your needs. We depended a lot on the MTR to get from one place to another. Even if you're traveling with children, the public transportation system is very comfortable and trains usually pass each station frequently (every 3-5 minutes). They don't accept credit card so make sure you have enough HKD to cover the expenses.

Make sure you do not dispose the card and return it to the Airport Express Counter at the end of your trip and collect your HKD 50 deposit refunds. For more information check out this link MTR Tickets

Ranya enjoying her train ride with daddy :)

4. Traveller's Sim Card

I did not subscribe to Celcom roaming, so I bought myself a broadband sim card from Smart Tone to ensure that I'm connected to the people back home (Actually I did not care much about the people back home, I'm just hooked to the internet haha) The sim card is HKD80 (around RM40), and the maximum charge per day is  HKD 24 (around RM 8 per day). There are other brands offering the same packages for consumption.

5. Halal Food

I won't say that halal food is easily found in Hong Kong but it is available. There's halal restaurant in Disneyland (Tahitian Terrace and Explorer's Club), Ocean Park (Lakeside Restaurant) and Airport T1 (Popeyes). Anyway while restaurant hunting and if you fail to find the venue, just remember to look up, based on my experience some of the restaurants is situated in 1-2 floor and may not be accessible to strollers.

Since out hotel suite has a small kitchenette we brought food from home like packets rendang, curry, cereals, soups etc.  If you have small children do remember to bring an extra packet or two of milk formula if needed and do bring some of their favorite snacks like cookies or treats for them to munch in between rides since we can't just readily buy anything we see in the cafe's or stalls (this is mostly to minimize temper tantrums due to hunger :p) Chocs like MnMs sold in 7Eleven do have halal signs so that is mostly safe to feed the kiddies (though not advisable because they'll be on sugar rush haha)

Check out this page for more info : Halal Restaurant List

p/s: mineral water in Hong Kong is crazy expensive (around HKD 20 per bottle =RM8). My advice is to bring empty water bottle from home and fill it up in the hotel. Most restaurants don't mind you bringing in your own water.

6. Travelling with small children

There's no such thing as "traveling light" when you have a pre-schooler and 2 toddlers tagging along. We practically brought everything but the kitchen sink with us :p You don't have to actually bring EVERYTHING with you as you can buy things like diapers in case you run out but just keep in mind most things in HK is a tad more pricey than in Malaysia.

Anyway I find Hong Kong to be a pretty child friendly place. They have "family restrooms" in the malls, airports and theme parks which means daddy's can come in and help change diapers too which I find very handy (imagine going in and out of the toilet 3 times.. horror to horror). You should bring your own strollers to ensure your child comfort but I suggest a small umbrella stroller because most of the streets and doorways are quite narrow for bulky double strollers.

If you plan to visit Disneyland I strongly suggest that you opt for the 2 days tickets instead of 1. Reason being the park is quite big and it would be very tiring and rushed if you plan to do a one day tour (especially if you want to go on the rides and since 80% of the rides are kid friendly I'm sure you would want your little darling to go on all of them) Anyway it is just an additional of RM50 so I say it is truly worth it :) 

If possible plan your visit to the theme parks on weekdays. At least you can avoid the crowd and minimize queuing time which can take up to 30 minutes or more. We were so lucky that we only waited up to a maximum of 10 minutes in both Ocean Park and Disneyland because we were there on work days.

First in line for the Disneyland Express Tour :)

Be flexible and be ready to change your perfectly scheduled itinerary on short notice. Alhamdullilah our trip went smoothly despite some minor temper tantrums due to overtiring and over excitedness :p I also found out on this trip that the twins especially Ranya are nervous fliers. I'm so spoil by Ryan being an awesome traveler that I expected the same experience from the girls. Thank god for 3 Tabs, smart phones and an Ipod for distractions during the 4 hours flight.

For more pictures and some commentaries on our trip, please check out the following links:
Hong Kong Day 1
Hong Kong Day 2
Hong Kong Day 3
Hong Kong Day 4&5