Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Holiday

We left for a short trip on 29th May, just as the school holidays begins.

This time we went for a scenic trip in China. Boring! China again! On hindsight, I should be thankful to husband for being so "loyal" to visit China coz' I never had the chance to do any sightseeing in China when I was flying. And since we're travelling to China, I never want to do a F&E which I always prefer my mode of travelling.
I, being the angmoh kind who prefers Europe, hubby and me are totally opposite. And he really knows Chinese history very well. The tour guide says something, he's able to connect the place to dunno what dynasty; who was there etc... IMPRESSIVE!
We've been to China for a couple of times, must admit that Chinese history is really rich (though I'm more interested in the Pharoahs and still dreaming of my initial crazy ambition of being an archeologist digging dunno who's grave). We can never finish covering China. I dunno if he hopes to finish covering the whole of China. Argh!!! Then I can never finish covering my Europe; Easter Island; Central America. Haha! Wishful thinking!

This 8 day trip took us to Nanning, Detian, Yangshuo and Guilin. Must say amongst all the tours we took over the years, this is the most relaxing one coz' we spend 2 nights in each place so we were not unpacking and packing our luggages that often. Not much packing everytime we check out too coz' we keep our room really neat by bringing out only what we need. But things are a little different when I have 2 kids who insisted on bringing their luggage and trying to help you by packing up stuffs. Next minute you realise - they even pack in their used disposable bedroom slippers. ?!?!?
Since it was the school hols, we expected alot of children in the group. But it was still okay, there were 6 kids. 4 kids in P2, the oldest being P4 and the youngest being mei-mei. This trip too, my kids liked playing around with the other kids. The 6 kids were very close this trip, the parents also initiated some pictures taken together at certain tourist spots. Che-che even sat with one girl many rows behind us - chatting; playing and eating. Hubby and me rotated taking care of mei-mei. She's not making too much noise (tour guide calls her 麻雀. Even commented that while she's taking a nap in the bus she can hear her yakking away) We travelled far distances too and were kept entertained by this interesting serial. Che-che on the other hand was kept occupied by my phone or by playing the girl's PSP.

My kids were not mermerised to the mountains they saw in Guilin. In their minds, mountains were white and very majestic looking. Mountains are long & wide and endless, the ones they saw pops out like a weasel's head. I was impressed with the performance in Yangshuo 印象·刘三姐 using nature, Zhang Yimou has brilliantly turned it into a marvellous performace. There's another acrobatic performance called Dreamlike Lijiang. The kids love both performances. I'm so thankful that mei-mei didn't scream or make alot of noise. The only time she only shouted in the Dreamlike Lijiang show was when the male performers only wore briefs, she shouted "eee...a......shame shame. Never wear any clothes." So embarrasing!

This trip too, our group had a few hiccups. Two ladies had the much dreaded travel sickness (vomitting and diarrhoea) at separate times. The SIN tour guide had to bring them to the hospital for treatment. Thankfully, they were well a few hours later. There wasn't much change in our itinery, we went along with the local guide. Three men were pickpocketed (at different times/places) -one of his video camera; another of his wallet; last guy of his tissue. Haha! Pickpocket wasted his effort for that pack of tissue. However only the video camera was lost forever, the wallet incident was stopped by another man from our group. Apparently, what we heard was that the pickpocket had already 'took the wallet using a chopstick' out. When it was out, that (hero) man saw and stopped him. He beat him up, then another two local accomplice beat that man in our group. 3 against 1, they ran into an alley and took out a chair wanting to hit our man with it. Seriously, I wonder why that 'victim' didn't even render any help when he was apparently being 'helped' by that hero? We heard that some one shouted and then they ran away.
So where were we? We were suppose to be walking in the front when we got off from the boat, but we were browsing at some stalls so we were walking behind with the 2 tour guides. We missed the nerve-wrecking action, most importantly is that thankfully our kids didn't see what happened coz' we were taking slow walk. Wah.........that girl was crying and crying when she saw her own father being beaten up. Poor girl. Mother consoled her daughter but her own hands were shivering too. The place is in Yangshuo, where we took a boat to see the mountains etc..
If China wants to attract tourists to their country they got to bloody do some big action to stop crimes from happening. And you don't even see any police patrolling. Ha! We were told the police and the pickpocketers there are friends. If pickpocket picks out any passports, they call the police to tell them they've discarded passport and which dustbin. They only want the money.

(Anyway, that's partially the reason why I never want to do a F&E in China. Join a group and travel in big group a little safer than being alone. Also, with 2 young kids I cling on to them so tightly. Never let them out of my sight at all. With a group, they do help you look out)


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