Hainan on a shoestring

So what can one get for a $50, 5D4N tour package to Hainan? By the way, if you haven't read how I got this deal, you could do so by reading my previous post :)

DAY 1
Arrived Haikou at 11am. Tour guide was already waiting at the arrivals when we exited.
Transfered to Haikou XingYuan Hotspring Hotel. My verdict on our first hotel, well, its only worth a 3 star, not 4 star as advertised.

This is Miss K popping blueberries (brought from home) at the hotel, spot the old fashioned TV? After pressing all possible buttons,turning on all switches, we could not figure how to turn it on, finally hotel sent someone up to fix the TV for us.

For those who (like me) thought that I could get some good bargains from Haikou, you will be disappointed. Haikou is definitely not a shopping place. Fashion wise, its too "chinese" for me. Weather wise, it's scorching HOT in June. The shopping malls have very weak air-conditioning, some does not even have air-conditioning.

DAY 2
After breakfast at the hotel, we were brought to the Five Official's Temple.My chinese history is about nil, and my mandarin is about 49% (I don't dare to give myself a passing mark of 50%) so, I was enjoying the architecture of the place rather than the history behind it. Miss K refused to walk, so guess where she ended up in?

I have to say, the tour bus we had was very new, clean and comfortable. We had a really good ride throughout our 4 days in Hainan. Thumbs up for bus 90K60!

On our way to Qionghai from Haikou, we stopped for lunch at this very touristy restaurant with very "interesting" make-shift baby chair:

It was a upside down pail :) But it did its job alright.

The main attraction at Qionghai was BoAo. We were brought to the BoAo conference site (nothing much to see here), just a fountain that looks like this outside the building which lacks air-conditioning with pictures of some officials who attended the BoAo Forum Asia. *Yawns*

We then had to pay 180RMB to go on the Wanquan River 'Cruise'. Actually, it was only a 5 minutes boat ride from the BoAo conference site to the sandbar which separates the river and the sea, not really a cruise. The boat ride was hot and stuffy. This is the scene from the boat, nothing spectacular.

As we arrived at  the sandbar at 1pm, it was too hot for any activities. It must have been something like 37 degC then as we were sweating buckets! There were many tents dotted along the sandbar selling knickknacks and fruits.We decided to seek shelter from the sun and have some mangoes as we while away the allocated 1 hour at that sandbar. I have to say, best mangoes in Hainan! 3 mangoes of this size for 10RMB (~S$2). Miss K had one whole mango to herself!

After we finally got back onto the bus, the tour brought us to Xinglong's Health Tea house for some herbal foot soak and massage and of course the usual sales talk in between.

We checked into Xinglong Treasure Island Hotel for our second night in Hainan. This hotel, I rate 2 stars, a far cry from the promised 4-star standard. It was old and rather dirty....but it has interesting fruit trees in the compound. Look what we saw. Miss K was terrified of that huge jackfruit.

Dinner at the hotel's restaurant was the worse meal during our stay in Hainan. The saving grace would be the many food stalls parked along the road outside of the hotel. We took a sweaty walk along the stalls after dinner and went home with 3 large mangoes (3 for 10RMB).
Highlight of Day 2 - eating 6 huge, juicy & sweet mangoes in one day, which was great, as it helped the little one with this:

And yes, we brought her potty along!

DAY 3
Started off by visiting the famous Xinglong coffee factory. Suprising that they are famous for their coffee, but the coffee we tasted in Hainan so far tasted horribly weak and lacks the umph.

Next was Dadonghai Beach. We arrived at 11:30am, got the little one changed into her swimsuit, and guess what? She said "Mama, No sand", I asked her whether she wants to go to the sea, she replied "Don't want", asked her whether she wants to build some sand castles " Don't want", so she was glued onto me for the whole hour.

J and I had a taste of our first 'Hainan Beer', very light and refreshing on that hot and sticky day. It was only 5RMB for a 750ml bottle!
After lunch, our tour's next stop was Nanshan Buddhism Park. This park was an additional 150RMB.

The 'Special Seafood Dinner' cost us an aditional 160RMB (~$30).This dinner was supposed to be a classy affair with good quality lobster and other crustaceans, but it was totally disappointing! Should have opted for the Monkey Island instead (Seafood Dinner was to replace Monkey Island)

To those planning a trip to Hainan, food is definitely nowhere near gourmet. This is what our food looked like on day 1,...and day 2...and 3 and 4. Seriously lacks variety. But do note that we get 8 dishes and 1 soup. No course for complaint here since this is supposed to be a $50 all in package tour  *keeps on reminding self*

We arrived at Sanya Jingwei Seaview Hotel rather late at 8:30pm (we did not have a seaview room by the way!) I rate this hotel 3.5 stars. The beach just about 100m away from the hotel looks nice, but we did not have a chance to walk along that beach as we had to leave for Haikou early the next morning.

DAY 4
The 'Oh-So-Boring' Silk factory as our first stop. I would rather laze by Sanya Beach. It was enlightening to see the process of silk making though, but the merchandise sold was certainly a rip off.
Next was an equally waste-of-time visit to the knife shop. Some demonstration on how durable the knife is etc etc....was totally boring.
Lunch that day was supposed to be a 'treat' from the tour company. It was a coconut themed lunch, Hainan's specialty. I got overly coconutified!

Yalong Bay was our next pit stop. The little one was so tired, she was fast asleep when we arrived, so we decided to have coffee at the nearby hotel so she could sleep on this comfy sofa ( we were very coffee deprived too, as we were only served tea for breakfast).

Miss Sleepy Head after waking up from her nap.

We only had 2 hours at this beach and the little one slept for about an hour, got really moody and grumpy for the next hour, so that's where our beach escapade ended. Sigh.

On our way to the Li Village to see women covered in tattoos, it started to pour. Apparently, a typhoon is coming by the coast of Taiwain and possibly will affect Hainan. Miss K and I stayed on the bus while the rest brave the rain to visit the tattoo-ed women in the Li Village. J came back saying that the place was partially under renovation, so nothing much to see and do. It was pretty deserted.

The last leg back to the hotel at Haikou was a long bus ride up north. Our last night in Haikou was at the Bao Hua Harbour View Hotel. We got upgraded as the previous hotel we stayed was overbooked.
It was a nice end to our tour as the dinner was the best dinner in Hainan and the hotel was indeed a proper 4-star hotel.

DAY 5
Tiger Airways back to Singapore  at 11:30am. The most chaotic flight I've been on, untrained staff, impolite, and worse of all, bad manners!
There was this teenage boy who was sitting with us, had been waiting for his ordered food for more than an hour. As we were about 45 mins from our descend into Changi (this is a 3 hour flight) we suggested he press the call button to enquire about his food and the air-steward came 5 minutes later and muttered, "if you guys keep on pressing this button, no food will get served as it will slow us down"!  The food was served 15 minutes before descend into Changi.

I was also wondering why my seat on both legs of the flight could not recline at all! Was totally uncomfortable. I will avoid Tiger Airways for any travel further than Malaysia next time!

Our verdict? Well, for $50 per person on a full board 5D4N package tour, it was well worth it.
However, personally, this might be our very first and also last package tour holiday.

We're off to Hainan!

I just realised that Miss K has been travelling quite a bit since she was 6 months old.
This is Miss K's travel log thus far:

6 months - Penang
11 months - Malacca
13 months - Berlin, Munich, London & Birmingham
16 months - Kuching
18 months - Penang
20 months - Princeton, NJ & Manhattan, NYC.
22 months - Hainan

Yes, we will be off to Hainan at the crack of dawn tomorrow. This trip was a "last-minute-buy-on-impulse" trip. This is what made me 'buy on impulse':
http://www.deal.com.sg/deals/singapore/S50-for-5D4N-Stay-at-4-Star-Sanya-Hainan-Island

Don't you think $50 per person for a 5D4N accomodation + 3 meals + transport+ tour guide deal sounds too good to be true?

Well, initially, we were not sure whether (1) the travel agency actually did exist (2) we will be asked to pay additional charges (3) forced to buy into their gimmicks; but so far so good. This time round, we will be flying Tiger Airways (arrives in the morning, we get 1 extra day in Haikou), as Jetstar, the other airline which has direct flights to Haikou arrives in the evening.

Colleagues and friends have been warning me about the dangers of Hainan, no-go places, what to watch out for etc...(So, from what I have heard so far, Hainan is a really bad holiday destination, especially with a 22 month old! **double sigh**) Am really thankful for their advice, but on the other hand, am feeling rather apprehensive about this trip now.

Well, this will be our FIRST tour (I actually HATE tours, but...there is always a first to everything, I guess) & FIRST holiday trip to CHINA (I had previously been to china on a community service trip with no toilets and no shower for 2 weeks, but that's a different story altogether!)

As with all our holidays, we usually have to crack our heads to think of where to put the dog while we were gone. This time, the dog will be staying with her friend Pebbles; she gave Pebble's owner a scare the last time she stayed there as she escaped, ran about 500m out of the housing compound and the maid (who was walking her) freaked out and cried! Hope the dog will behave herself this time round!

We told Miss K that the dog will be staying with Pebbles and she got pretty worked up, she cried, saying "No! Gigi stays home". Well, that's a good sign, the little one is finally showing some affection towards the dog! I like this recent photo of them both:

Before we jet off, I would like to wish all lovely DADS out there,

A Very Blessed Father's Day!!

Flying with Emirates

I have to say Emirates has very good service on board and also throughout check-in and transit. At least, the quality of their service on board the economy cabin which we were in was much much better than Singapore Airlines or Lufthansa (the only 2 airlines which I have flown long distance with a infant/toddler in tow).

My only grouse was, although the little one is below 2 years old and therefore do not need to purchase her own seat, she was too heavy for the bassinet which had a max weight of 11kgs!

We were very fortunate to have empty seats on our SIN-DBX and DBX-JFK route, so Miss K had a seat all to herself. That allowed her to sleep pretty well on both legs of the flight.

On our way back, we had a full flight for both legs, so, we had a really horrible time trying to make ourselves and our little one who has to  (and sleep) on our lap comfortable throughout the whole duration of the flight.

Dubai airport is neat. They have these free Maclaren stroller for toddlers 3 years and below. You will see it at soon as you walk from the aerobridge into the terminal. Very convenient for transit passengers like us.

They also have a transit lounge were passengers on transit (at least in Terminal 1) can sit and have some food and drinks (free of charge) and surf the net (free of charge too). One just has to show their boarding pass.

The range of toys and enterntainment materials for children on board the flight were also more varied. They had bagpacks, colouring and activity booklets, colouring pencils and these hand puppets:

Our collection of the little Emirate "friends".

We were hoping for a cow to complete the collection!

The air stewardess were also going around taking polaroid photos of the kids on board. We had one made into a little booklet (which I have no clue where it is right now, the hubs might have lost it!) and this one which was made into a photoframe.

All in all, very good service with a smile, two thumbs up for Emirates. My airline of choice for now.

My Todd and I in Manhattan

Although Manhattan is not the most child friendly place on earth, Miss K and I managed to fit in some sightseeing, some fun activities and of course not forgetting the many food stops for quesadillas and pizzas along the way.

Central Park was our No.1 spot. We love the lush environment, the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the different breed of doggies taking their walk in the park and of course the ducks and squirrels who made the park their home.

Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

I stumbled upon this nice park for toddlers at West 68th Street. There are actually many nice playgrounds at Central Park. Should we visit NYC again, we'll definitely explore the other playgrounds at Central Park.

A little too much fun!

A visit to New York will not be complete without visiting the Statue of Liberty. A cheap (free of charge) and less crowded way to see the statue of liberty is by taking the Staten Island Ferry. We had a nice cinnamon pretzel and coffee while waiting for the ferry. Ferry departs every 30 minutes to the hour. It was a nice ferry ride to and back from Staten Island. Miss K was free to walk around the half empty ferry, went out to the deck to look at the low flying seagulls and admired the view within.

It was lovely.

Miss K's first ferry ride :)

A visit to Brooklyn Bridge was totally unplanned. However, I was glad I got lost while taking the subway, hence ended up at the oldest suspension bridge in USA. It was a really HOT day in Manhattan the day we visited the bridge, too hot to walk the length of the longest suspension bridge in the world!

It was also on the bridge when we saw two NYPD helicopter flying really low, circling around while patroling the city. Yes, the heli kept the little one occupied throughout the 30 minutes walk along the bridge.

A very hot day, little one in a bad mood.

On the day we got lost and ended up at Brooklyn bridge, we got lost again on our way back and ended up at Wall Street where the NYSE is located. A place with high security, not interesting for the little one, however, this picture is just for keepsake.



I'm quite glad to say that this trip is actually not ALL about shopping, really!

Heatwave in Princeton

Just when I was complaining about the chilly spring weather in Princeton, a heatwave of 86 degrees Farenheit (30 degrees celcius) hit Princeton yesterday!

I had never walked for 1.5 HOUR under a sweltering 30degC heat in Singapore before... but I just did here in Princeton! What was supposed to be a nice and cool walk by the Delaware & Raritan Canal, became an unbearably sweaty and hot walk along the canal all the way to Princeton Uni at Nassau Street. The results of the walk - I had a very nice tan.

Princeton Univeristy's grounds and its halls are pretty similar to those at Oxbridge. However, I still do think that the individual colleges in Oxford and Cambridge carries a more unique charm in comparison.
Princeton University Campus is rather small and convenient as there are shops and eateries around it.
It was a nice "pseudo-summer" day yesterday, so most of the students were out and about enjoying the sun.

We did too!

Mama, can I come to Princeton when I grow up?

My weekend at Philly and Exton, Pennsylvania

The last 4 days at Princeton was pretty non-momentous.
Miss K and I spend our days shopping, pigging out, watching TV in the hotel while J was at work.
It was such a nice change to be able to visit Uncle Ted at Philadelphia over the weekend. The last time I was there was in 1993, so that was really a while ago!

Uncle Ted was such a lovely 'tour guide' for the weekend. We visited the Independence Hall, went for a tour around it (free admissions for all national parks, which was brilliant; but one would need to take a queue number for the timed tickets before the tour), had a glimpse of the Liberty Bell, and had a really nice view of the city from the Philadelphia Art museum.
Had our lunch and dinner at Philly's chinatown, which is supposed to be the 3rd largest in the USA.

 The Liberty Bell

Where George Washington signed the Declaration
of Independence @ Independence Hall



Art Museum. Nice portrait shots from J's D60.

 Uncle Ted lives in Exton, Penn, which is a small quaint town west of Philly. We stayed a night over at his after a long day in Philly and he drove us to Valley Forge National Park the next day before returning to Princeton (which is about 1.5hr from Exton). This park was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.

Thanks Uncle Ted for such a lovely weekend!

with Grand Uncle Ted outside their home in Exton

Shopping for the Toddler in USA

Alright. I told myself that I will practise self-control when it comes to buying clothes for my toddler, but in USA, one just can't help but to shop, shop and SHOP!

If you were to compare prices of Gap, Old Navy, Gymboree and Pumpkin Patch with those you get in Singapore, it is about half the price!

So, which are the shops on sale right now?

I found out that in New Jersey (where I am right now) there are no sales tax on clothing items! Their goods tax is 7%.

(In USA, different states has different taxes on goods. There is no such thing as "GST-free" shopping here)

New York City is 8+%.
Quite dissapointed about shopping for myself - Their XS is like our 'L' back home. So, to date, I only bought A BELT. How dissapointing. I need to spend more money visiting those boutique stores that carries clothing for 'smaller built' people. Normal high street stores are just way out of my size.
No more clothings for today, I need to visit Babies 'R' Us, Walmrt, Target etc and stock up on California Baby products and other necessities.

My Todd's Travel Diary at 19 months

 

We have been very blessed with opportunities to travel.
Miss K started her air travel when she was 6 months old. We went to Berjaya Hills (Colmar Tropicale) at Kuala Lumpur and then up to Penang by budget airlines Jetstar and AirAsia.
Review on Airasia (SIN-KL-PEN):

Short trip from Changi T1 to Malaysia was rather comfortable.

Stroller was retrieved at the gate when we disembarked the plane.

Milk, water and snacks for infant were allowed on board the plane.

I had to ask for an infant seat belt else am not sure whether I will be given one.



Review on Jetstar (PEN-SIN):

I was given an infant seat belt as soon as I entered the plane.

Air stewardess came to make sure I was familiar with the usage of the infant seat belt.

Drinks and snacks for infant were allowed on board the plane.

Stroller was retrieve only at the baggage claims belt.

At 14 months old, I brought Miss K to Europe and we endured the 16 hours (with 2 hours transit) flight to Berlin. We flew with Singapore Airlines, which was supposed to have the best service in the airline world. However, we did not get very good service then.

Review on SIA (SIN-MUN):

No food for infant until we enquired about it. Food selection (only a choice of 2 types of baby food) arrived after 15 minutes. Took another 30 minutes to heat up baby food. By that time the food came, baby has already fallen asleep, hungry.

Requested for hot water and air stewardess courteously asked for bottle so she could fill it up.

Bassinnet was given as soon as seat belt signs went off. Extra blanket and pillow were also given.

No toys for baby.


We then took Lufthansa for our Munich-Berlin-Munich leg before flying over to london.


Review on Lufthansa (BER-MUN-BER-LHR):

Suprisingly very good service (Travelled form SIN-MUN-SIN once and it was a bad experience)

Baby was given a toy as soon as we board the plane.

For one of the leg, she was also given a cloth book in addition to the toy.

Air stewardess were very friendly with baby.


We took SIA back from London to Singapore. The crew for this flight was much nicer. Service was prompt. Miss K was given a blue soft toy and there were more choices of baby food on board.

It was a pretty smooth ride throughout, just a little struggle to get Miss K to fall asleep on the plane and instances when I had to carry her out of her bassinnet when we flew through turbulence zones, the rest was pretty manageable.

Tonight, we will be flying off to the United States via Dubai on Emirates.

With my 19 month old who is already showing signs of the Terrible Twos, I guess I have to wish myself Bon Voyage (literally) a hundred times over.

Off to see Chor-Chor

We are off to visit Chor Chor! This time round, Chor Chor would be able to see Miss K much better after her cataract surgery.
I'm definitely looking forward to the Penang hawker fare, and J's on a shopping trip this time round (I know!!)
And of course Gong Gong and Po Po cant wait to see their only grandchild again.

Changi Airport does live up to its stature of being the world's most-awarded airport. Some how I did not spot this baby stroller during my last trip. This baby stroller at T1 gets 5 star ratings from us! Miss K would give her thumbs up too.

Bon Voyage!

14 months; and the remaining holiday snaps.

Miss K is 14 months and she can walk very steadily now. Only started her first few independent steps while we were in Germany beginning of October.

When we tell her "go put on your shoes, we are going out".
She will happily go and select her shoes from her shoe rack, ask me to put them on, then stand up, go to the baby gate that blocks the kitchen and waves bye-bye to our westie.....then proceeds to the door!

A few interesting snaps from our October 2010 trip to Germany and UK. I love this wooden rocking horse at 'dm' (dm is something like watsons; a drugstore) in Munich. Am assuming it was stocking time, hence the large cart full of stuff in the background...

Rocking horse at 'dm'

while in the UK, I discovered Plum Organics...they have a wide range of snacks and baby food. Kate loves the blueberry, banana and vanilla smoothie, anyone coming back from the UK, mind helping me get some of those? :)

oh, this is her corn ring snack.

Those black cabs (has never been on one in Spore) are huge! I remembered my whole room could go into one black cab during Uni days...Whenever we get a cab in UK, the whole stroller+Miss K goes in, apparently its safer this way:

Will be short posts from now on until November ends....busy, busy, busy.

Munich 12 OCT 2010

I personally do not feel like a tourist in Munich anymore...but its Miss K's first...so, had to take a few snaps of her at the touristy spots while I stroll along for some retail therapy.
Our Hotel (Munich Holiday Inn - Never consider them if you have a choice!) is at a good location, only a short walk to Marienplatz but...its has the WORST service ever!!! 

Marienplatz 

Karlsplatz

The famous Gothic Church at Odeonplatz (- also meeting point for dinner as J's office is near odeonplatz)

Hofbrauhaus- good and cheap dinners, MUST top it all with A gigantic mug of refreshing Munchen beer!

Berlin-Munich-London-Birmingham-Singapore

Munich- London-Birmingham updates will be up as soon as I get the photos sorted :)

As for now, we are back in sunny Singapore!

Read from the papers (while in London) - the haze was real bad in Spore, was rather hesitant to be back, but thank God for the rain! love the rain! it cleared up the haze.

Was on a blogging hiatus for a while in UK as the T-mobile provider we were using did not allow me to create a blog in Blogger UNLESS i sign in with a UK credit card number! How weird is that!

Here are some photos of Miss K (which i took using my phone as we thought we lost our camera!), while on the Virgin train from London to Birmingham; enjoying her organix blueberry rice puffs.

More photos of our trip coming up...

Berlin II

Yes, the lil' one is still on singapore time...Day 3 was a very sunny but cold day which was spent at the Schloss Charlottenburg, an exquisite baroque palace, a summer retreat of Sophie-Charlotte, wife of Friedrich III. Not as impressive as Versailles I have to say...

Entrance of Schloss Charlottenburg

The Schlossgarten was very pleasant. The lil' one is finally awake after a nice stroll along the park:

Happy after a long nap

And so its now milkymilky time!

We decided to swing by Alexander Platz for lunch and some shopping.
When its time to sightsee, yes you are right, its the lil' one's nap time again!

Marienkirche

Altes museum (old museum) at Lustgarten (built in 1830)

Berliner Dom

Am rather pleased that the lil' one loves her bottled baby food, especially these german ones...best of all most, if not all of them are organic.

Guten Appetit!

Berlin I

Failed TWICE to get to post as Blogger is in German and somehow I can't seem to 'create blog'. Anyway, as its working now, I better get blogging!
Hello from Germany!

DAY 1- WEDNESDAY
What amazes me is that baby who travels in a cab needs to be strapped in a baby seat. Miss K had her first cab ride in a Berlin cab:

First day was spent shopping and walking along Charlottenburg area where our hotel is.

DAY 2- THURSDAY

Visited Charlie Checkpoint and the site where the Berlin Wall once stood. This is the remains of the wall...the whole area is very touristy.

Would have to update with photos of the checkpoint once i get my hands on picasa.

Miss K is on Singapore time, so most of the time she is asleep while we sightsee:



Sleeping in front of Konzerthaus Berlin at Gendarmenmarkt.



Still sleeping while we were at Pariser Platz



And finally awake during dinner time!

Side note:
The Reichtag is a 'must see' in Berlin, the work of Norman Foster compliments the old and the new Berlin magnificently. We saw the bundestag (parlimentary) session taking place while we were there:

view from top of the bundestag in session