Saturday, December 26, 2009
Having 3 trips within one year-end holiday, with a week spaced out in between back home, is truly a first in my experience - and required endless running about to complete chores but wholly worth it all :D
Trip No. 1 was a 4-day visit to Bangkok (the first for the kids), simply for the indulgence of flaming Thai food and aimless walking, and mostly for the [kids'] joy of the experience of "living next door to MacDonalds...lalala.." (which is where the hotel is located) ;d
Highlights of this wondrous vacation came in the form of (a) adventure conjured by cab-driver, speed boat operators, and tourist police of a temple!; and (b) dinner cruise on board (top deck, no less - front table next to stage and singer..hmm) with perfect cool weather. Suffice to just sum up that we have had the joyous opportunity to enjoy all types of public transport Bangkok has to offer - each and every one type of contraption, not to be experienced in good old Klang Valley.
Trip No. 2 was a 5D/4N holiday at Bintan Club Med - "where happiness means the world". Guess that kinda says it all... yoga, dance class (with kids in the hip-hop session), archery, trapeze (for the willing - not me who would have passed out just climbing up the post!), beach, swimming, performances and food, food, food, drinks, drinks, drinks.................. heh heh ;p Only bummer was that there were no sea sports owing to it being the monsoon season. But all agreed that there should be another Club Med destination in the offspring sometime..YAY!!
Highlight - in fun and excitement and heart thumping moments - was the couple of time we almost missed the train because of the horrendous traffic both in Shanghai and Xi'an!Trip No. 1 was a 4-day visit to Bangkok (the first for the kids), simply for the indulgence of flaming Thai food and aimless walking, and mostly for the [kids'] joy of the experience of "living next door to MacDonalds...lalala.." (which is where the hotel is located) ;d
Highlights of this wondrous vacation came in the form of (a) adventure conjured by cab-driver, speed boat operators, and tourist police of a temple!; and (b) dinner cruise on board (top deck, no less - front table next to stage and singer..hmm) with perfect cool weather. Suffice to just sum up that we have had the joyous opportunity to enjoy all types of public transport Bangkok has to offer - each and every one type of contraption, not to be experienced in good old Klang Valley.
Trip No. 2 was a 5D/4N holiday at Bintan Club Med - "where happiness means the world". Guess that kinda says it all... yoga, dance class (with kids in the hip-hop session), archery, trapeze (for the willing - not me who would have passed out just climbing up the post!), beach, swimming, performances and food, food, food, drinks, drinks, drinks.................. heh heh ;p Only bummer was that there were no sea sports owing to it being the monsoon season. But all agreed that there should be another Club Med destination in the offspring sometime..YAY!!
Trip No. 3 was my sabbatical - annual leave. A 9-day trip to China which was hastily planned and confirmed in 1.5 months - how lucky I am! And thanks to my nephew who had conjured a magnificent itinerary like a magician, not only did we manage to visit the pertinent places in HangZhou, SuZhou, Shanghai and Xi'an, but we also got to enjoy sumptuous meals and great food in various places over the full 8 days we (my sister and her youngest son - visiting her eldest son) were there.
HangZhou's West Lake is enormous and picturesque with islands within it;
SuZhou's Humble Administrator Garden which boasts of presidential and royal visitors is well-planned and equally picturesque;
Xi'an's Terracotta Museum is totally awesome, and the Famen Temple is huge with great expanse of space;
Shanghai's The Bund is just like in the movies, and Xintiandi the uppity hangout night spot.
The most far-out experience would conclusively be the train rides, which we took almost everyday in our travels (HangZhou-SuZhou; SuZhou-Shanghai-SuZhou; SuZhou-Xi'an-SuZhou by night mail of more than 12 hours - cabin with 4 beds) - the rush at the stations when the gates open, the people and their attitudes and manners (or lack of it), the spitting (urghhs..) - it's small wonder there were so many accidents during the festival period rush when all seek to return home.
The negative point was the cold (in Xi'an, it was minus 6 degrees! but luckily sunny) which adversely made it the plus point in that there were less visitors and we got to move around all these tourist spots easily, especially for photo-taking. Albeit the cold, we were blessed with good weather (only 1 day of rain - when we trudged through shopping in Shanghai - along Nanjing Road, and some wholesale complex).HangZhou's West Lake is enormous and picturesque with islands within it;
SuZhou's Humble Administrator Garden which boasts of presidential and royal visitors is well-planned and equally picturesque;
Xi'an's Terracotta Museum is totally awesome, and the Famen Temple is huge with great expanse of space;
Shanghai's The Bund is just like in the movies, and Xintiandi the uppity hangout night spot.
The most far-out experience would conclusively be the train rides, which we took almost everyday in our travels (HangZhou-SuZhou; SuZhou-Shanghai-SuZhou; SuZhou-Xi'an-SuZhou by night mail of more than 12 hours - cabin with 4 beds) - the rush at the stations when the gates open, the people and their attitudes and manners (or lack of it), the spitting (urghhs..) - it's small wonder there were so many accidents during the festival period rush when all seek to return home.
All in all, it was a wonderful end of 2009 for me - an exhilarating time to tantalize all my senses in all my 3 vacations - food, drinks, heat, coldness, sea, land, all sorts of vehicular transport both on land and water.
[Just to name a few water transport : speedboat/speed sampan; cruise boat; ferry; sampan boat looking like a junk fitted with outboard motor]
MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR
***peace from ahfun***
[Just to name a few water transport : speedboat/speed sampan; cruise boat; ferry; sampan boat looking like a junk fitted with outboard motor]
Chinese ladies all rushing to me to sell their wares (even in the ladies toilet) at Famen Temple : ......[ all fast rapid Mandarin words in a jumble].....
Me : ....decided to use hand gesture instead of speaking rudimentary mispronounced Mandarin to indicate that I don't understand.....
Chinese lady (giving up on me) to the others in their group : ...Oh, this one is mute/dumb [ ta shi ya de ]...
MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR
***peace from ahfun***
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