It was the last day of 2024 today. We spent most of it exploring Kennedy Town, a neighborhood on Hong Kong Island that has been redefined in the last 10+ years. For the longest time, urban development was slow in this area until 2014, when Hong Kong’s incredible MTR extended out that way. Now, it’s gentrifying quite a bit, with endless luxury high rises going up, as well as trendy bars and coffee/tea shops.

We enjoyed coffee and a waffle at a cute little coffee shop called For Single. There, I had a flat white made with coffee beans from Yunnan province (I didn’t realize coffee was grown in China!). For the first time, Chris had siphon coffee, which is supposed to enhance the coffee aroma more. Watching our barista make his coffee with the siphons was really fun for the first time, as it was like watching a chemistry experiment in action. Although I doubt either of us would be interested in purchasing siphons to make siphon coffee at home, it was an experience watching it made for us, and the coffee itself did seem different than coffee made out of a Chemex or Aeropress.

We found a slightly off the beaten path swimming shed called Sai Wan, where you descend down several flights of stairs into a “swimming shed” that is essentially the open water. This was a good place to see some nice views of Hong Kong, and also helped me learn a bit of history: I didn’t realize “swimming sheds” were a thing in Hong Kong. They were built in the early 20th century by the Hong Kong government, providing changing rooms, showers, and piers for swimmers. The entry fees were cheap, and with cheap leased swimming suits, people started coming to swim in droves. Unfortunately, the water pollution in the harbor gradually got worse, so the popularity of swimming sheds in Hong Kong started dwindling. Today, Sai Wan Swimming Shed is the lone, single shed still standing in Hong Kong. From what I could see, most of its members seem to be older women.

We also hiked up Mount Davis for some views… which were mostly blocked off due to weeds and trees, but it was good to get the exercise anyway. Chris pushed Kaia up via the stroller, but coming down, we tried our best to get her to walk down a LOT of stairs. She had to be cajoled quite a bit and promised treats, as she kept on insisting, “I’m too small! This is too far for meeeee!”

Later on in the day, we had some claypot rice for lunch, then stopped at a dessert spot called Sweet Dreamer Dessert (or Sweet DD), where we enjoyed a decadent pistachio lava mini cake with ice cream, as well as peach flavored popping boba for the first time (which we didn’t realize would have popping boba in it; we just thought it would be a peach juice flavored drink!). Kaia was completely obsessed with the popping boba and even preferred it to her much loved ice cream. All she wanted to do was hold the boba in her hands, place them one by one in her mouth, and feel them explode in her mouth! I’ll be honest even if it makes me sound old: while it was fun to try out something new and trendy like popping boba, I will admit I probably would not order it again knowingly and far prefer regular tapioca boba.

Kaia also got lucky, as at Belcher Bay, we stumbled upon a big children-centered fair. They had several massive foam (or fake snow) machines that she was squealing nonstop about. The theme of the fair was very cutesy Chinese: “Saying Love in the Snowfall.” There was also a hilarious snowball throwing contest between two teams. Chris noted how clean and thorough the workers were between the fights starting and ending: every last smidgen of snow and ice was cleaned up to the point of being anal — I love Asian cleanliness!

We ended the evening with dinner in Central, where we ate at Little Bao, a fusion restaurant that a friend of mine had recommended. Kaia indulged in a bowl of Shaoxing wine and butter clams, while we had fancy versions of fried dumplings, “filet o fish,” and very strong cocktails.

While we were here for New Year’s in 2016, I was still recovering from pertussis, and so we didn’t actually stay out late that night to see the fireworks. I suppose we made up for it this time, though as parents of young children: Chris ensured we had a harbour-view room on a high floor (floor 37) that would allow us to see the entire fireworks display on the harbour from our room. We watched and recorded the full 12-minute fireworks show in our pajamas from our hotel window (with me sitting on Kaia’s roll-out bed closest to the window while she was fast asleep). It was quite spectacular, with fireworks on all sides, and lots of different types of firework artistry that I hadn’t seen before. You could say it was the lazy man’s way of watching the fireworks — to do it from bed and then immediately go to sleep after. Or, you could also argue that this is what people who are lucky to have means do: we can afford a room with a view like this at this time of year, so why not take advantage of it, especially since we have a young child who cannot yet appreciate things like staying up late to ring in the new year, or a fireworks show? This was a far more comfortable way to watch the fireworks for all of us given Kaia’s age, plus who wants to be standing around outside in the semi-cold for hours on end?

It was a fun and memorable way to usher in 2025; it’s a good thing I have a husband who plans this stuff out in advance and thinks of all this because I had no idea we were guaranteed a harbour-view room until we got here!