What do you wish you had brought with you?

erina320

Registered User
Moms in HK, what do you wish you had brought with you on your move to Hong Kong? What do you miss most?
 
For what age kid? For an infant, I would have brought all the big items, stroller, car seat, Fisher Price cradle swing, etc. I also stock up on Desitin, baby clothes, toys, new bottles, formula. While you can get all the basics here for clothing and toys, selection is limited and things are much more expensive here.

For toddlers, if they have a favorite food/ treat, stock up on that. You may not be able to find it here and it can take a while to find a good substitute. Clothes / toys for toddler also.

For adults, favorite toiletries, especially deodorant and items from drugstores. Can get most department store brands here, but not things that you would find at Target in the US.
 
what do i wish i brought?
1) my mum
2) Real Canadian Superstore (just pack up a whole store and air drop it here, please!LOL!)
3) clean air
4) cheap, low cost activities for the kids that aren't totally overrun by thousands of people at a time
5) affordable housing
6) the sense & care of the environment that is totally non-existent here
7) good greek food
8) a good selection of SLURPEES from 7-11 (the 2 selections here don't cut it on a 33C day)


sorry, none of the above is directly related to my kids, who were born and raised here... but more of what i miss from home...
 
Depends which country you are from... but I don't miss anything, as I can find all I need here, and even a bigger choice... and if I really look for something special, I just order it to my mum, or some friends or some visitors, or just order it on Internet !
 
Thanks Elle. That's what I was looking for. It'll help me in talking the hubby into bringing more of the kids things! ;)
 
i LOVE the cheap kids' clothes in hk! especially the market clothes! kids grow so fast, i cannot justify spending more on a dress for my 4 year old than i would spend on a dress for myself! but $35 for a top? $40 for a pair of jeans? sure! LOVE THEM!
 
I miss the variety of items I used to get in the US, and of course the better pricing on name brands that you get shopping via Costco or Amazon.

But as far as the things we bring or bring over when coming back from visits, it generally is a specific brand that we have developed a preference for. A random example is the type of toothpaste we want (the gel / mint flavor, etc). Yes, you can get say 'Colgate' here but will you have the same choice as the 25 different variations of Colgate from the US? No. And if you have developed a taste for a specific flavor then you'll get annoyed if you have to change (and I'm using this just as an example, not because I'm some toothpaste snob).

We brought over, in bulk:

diapers
shampoo
hair gel
pasta sauce
bbq sauce (from a local joint that we loved)
toothpaste
deodorant
salad dressing
laundry detergent
diaper wipes (huge savings buying in bulk in the US vs. prices here for name brand wipes).
razor blades
towels
spare bed linens (we brought our US bed which is a different size than the HK ones).
popcorn salt (which I have never seen over here)


These are primarily items that "will keep" and that we would eventually need. We had the space for storing things and shipping. These are not things I would have brought over if we were living in a smaller place. I should also note I ordered most via Amazon Prime so there wasn't a big hassle involved pickings up at the store and bringing it home.

We also stocked up on some larger sized clothes, including the basics like t-shirts, underwear, socks etc as I wear a bit bigger than the local sizes. I bought a new pair of shoes before leaving the US which I liked so much I bought a second identical pair as a backup since it's hard to find large shoes here.

On my next trip back I'll bring some western children's books because I find many of them here are imported from the US and UK and you have to pay quite a premium for them.
 
LOL! i'm a toothpaste snob, too! in 16+ years in hk... i've bought toothpaste twice! i always buy tubes and tubes of it when i'm at home... and every visitor that comes pays their way with TOOTHPASTE!.... for me, it's the cinnamon close-up that i love...
 
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