A Family Trip to Hong Kong

About the author
Amy Koller, 32, is a finance coordinator who lives in Yucaipa, Calif., with her husband, Robert, 39, a special-education teacher, and their two kids, Christian and Cassidy. "My husband and I have been blessed with two children who are willing to eat more than chicken nuggets, and we're wasting that by not discovering new places. We've cruised in Mexico, and we're on a first-name basis with Shamu in San Diego, but it's time for these would-be world travelers to see the world. We'll go anywhere, and we'll try anything."

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PANDAS, DIM SUM, AND LIGHT SHOWS! Amy Koller, 32, is a finance coordinator in Yucaipa, Calif. She was one of the winners of our 10th anniversary reader contest. Here are the family photos from her Hong Kong trip. • Launch the slide show EVER DREAM OF BEING A TRAVEL WRITER? • A Family Trip to Hong Kong • A Treehouse Adventure • The No-Frills African Safari • I Married a Non-Traveler • On Tour in the Emerald Isle

Once we hear we'll be going to Hong Kong, we scream and high-five. Then we rush to the Internet to learn more about the city.

The center of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Island; to the north are Victoria Harbour and the mainland, where Kowloon and the New Territories are located. We decide to stay in Kowloon.

I look for air/hotel packages on Expedia, double-check on Kayak, and scour TripAdvisor for feedback on the hotels. Then I visit the airline and hotel websites to make sure I have a deal. Our package, with L.A.–Hong Kong flights on United and five nights' hotel, is $5,905. We'd have to pay about $1,400 per ticket if booking the flights separately—so this way, it's like getting the hotel for free.

Days One and Two

For the 15-hour flight, Robert and I enlist an army of video games and other shiny objects to hold the attention of our 9-year-old son, Christian, and our 8-year-old daughter, Cassidy. Our imaginations help, too. We gape at frozen rivers that resemble albino snakes and look for polar bears sitting on icebergs.

Ten AA batteries, four movies, and one change of clothes later—don't ask—we land. We take the Airport Express train to Kowloon and the free shuttle to Harbour Plaza Metropolis, overlooking Victoria Harbour. We drift off, dreaming of dim sum.

Day Three

I'm nervous about getting everyone out the door by 8 a.m. for the Jetway Express half-day tour of Hong Kong Island that I booked on Expedia, but we're all up early. We hop on the hotel shuttle to Tsim Sha Tsui, the heart of Kowloon. We're happy to learn that only a few other people are on our tour.

The first stop is Victoria Peak, where we survey our temporary domain and vow to conquer it. Next, we board a water taxi that putts around Aberdeen, the floating "island" in Aberdeen Harbour. Enormous yachts are docked within feet of the disintegrating shelters that "boat people" have made out of old fishing boats. I look at my daughter, curious about how the inequality is affecting her. "Mom," she says, "did you see the dead ducks at that restaurant? I think they're going to eat them!"

Around 1 p.m., we find our way to the open-air Ladies' Market in Kowloon. When we're a few feet in, the clouds part and a ray of sun pokes through. I follow the light and the faint sound of angels' voices. It's then I see them—LeSportsac knockoffs. I drooled over one of the bags at LAX, but couldn't justify the $100 price. Unable to stop myself, I buy six for $60.