21 March 2018. JB to Singapore
8.00am, JB-CIQ, took BUS 965 / 170 to Woodlands CIQ.
8.45am: From Woodlands Train checkpoint, take BUS 911/913 to Woodlands bus interchange.
9.00am: Reached. Windowshopping in this area. Running errands in UOB bank.
10am: took BUS 965 to Sengkang bus interchange.
10.45am: Arrived Sengkang bus interchange. Got down to MRT station. Took One stop to Punggol station. Get out to Punggol bus interchange, Took BUS 3, 83 0r 85, two stops and reached GIANT. walked to relative house
Return.
3.45pm: From Oasis Station, took LRT to Punggol MRT station.
From here, got down to took MRT to Sengkang (one stop).
Walked out to Sengkang bus interchange, took BUS 965 all the way to Yishun MRT station. Walked up and took MRT to Kranji station.
From Kranji, walked across overhead bridge to bus station. Took bus 170X to Woodlands CIQ. After immigration, get up the same bus and back to JB CIQ.
5.15pm: Arrived JB Sentral.
Total transport fares via BMLW: SGD6.00
Reflection
I observed the development in Singapore. Bus ride allowed me to tour city in the most comfortable way.
I observed a blind got up and down to the bus alone. The community were friendly and helpful. The bus driver was well trained and considerate for disable passenger.
I saw a lady fetched her son from kindergarten. She took a 2-seaters seat and got her son to laid down on her lap. She placed an adult cardigan on him to keep him warm. The little boy just dozed off and enjoyed his nap.
On 24 July, 8.00pm, we departed from the home board the bus to Changi airport. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the exact location, so Ler sent us directly to align the bus at Mutiara Rini- McDonald. Upon waiting, we received a bad news. Our flight was delayed from 5.30am t0 9.30am the next day. Our naïve tour leader – Miss Nicole suggested the bus driver send everybody back home and gather back at 3.30am to proceed to Changi airport. She gave a reason that we needed to spend extra SGD for food if we were to wait at the airport. After much discussion, we finally got up to the bus at 11.30pm according to our original plan. There were 41 pax led by Miss Nicole for this tour.
As it was too early to wait at Changi airport, so the bus prolonged the time at Tmn Sri Orkid Petronas Station to fill petrol and further stopped over for an hour at Gelanq Patah mamak store. She had good intention for us to save money. We could only land for our lunch at 3 pm the next day.Some members went for a bite or bought extra food to eat in the airport and also in flight. Some just rested in the bus.
25 July 2017, Tuesday
The journey from the second link to Changi airport was a smooth drive. We took less than an hour to reach Changi airport at 3.30am. We hung around while waiting for check –in at Jetstar counter by 6.00am. Finally, we settled at departure hall by 7.00am and rested cum napping until 8.40am for boarding.The inflight service was normal. It was a budget airline and no meal was served. Most of us ate our own snack as the on board food were too pricey.
We landed at Sanya airport with a welcome drizzling at about 3.00pm. After immigration clearance, we were received by the local tour guide, Mr. Goh. We received our packed lunch – KFC- 2 small pieces of fried chicken,1 chicken burger and 1egg tart plus 250ml mineral water and ate inside the coach.
Sanya Tourist area
Sanya is located in China’s southern most tropical coastal tourist city of Hainan Island. It was formally known as “Deer City” and also “Oriental Hawaii”. Our first itinerary was Da Dong Hai Scenic Area, a crescent-shaped bay, the vast sea glittering like a mirror/ Between Luhuitou and Yulin Gang, 10 minutes from the city. The East China Sea is surrounded by mountains, 2.9 km long coastline, the sea side, surrounded by rows of green coconut palms beach, blue sky, blue sea, mountains, green coconuts, white sandy beaches unique beauty won praise at home and abroad tourists. We took some photos at the Deer statue and ate local fruits like pineapple, dragon fruits and papaya.
Our tour ended up of shopping in a local stuff and followed by having dinner in a local restaurant at XinLong. Our tour fares inclusive of 5 breakfast, 4 lunches, and 4 dinners. A total of about 10 dishes + rice, 1 bottle of Sprite, 2 bottles of beer and a jug of Chinese tea plus a plate of cut water melons were our standard cuisine throughout our trip.
Hotel at Hainan
Our first lunch was KFC meal as mentioned above. Our first dinner was curry chicken with potatoes, deep fried prawn, sweet sour black tilapia, stir fried ‘sawi’, plain ‘sayur mani’ soup with eggs, braise pork, stir fried bitter gourd. The food was served simultaneously until we forgot there were some more on the way. We spent our first night in Golden Sojourn Spa Resort to rest. Each room had its own hot spring spa bath tub. We had a good sound sleep as it was indeed a long day since last night.
26 July 2017, Wednesday
Garden
We had in-house breakfast. The typical Chinese breakfast was porridge, preserved vegetables, nuts, buns, fried noodles, fried rice, cut fruits, soya bean drink and fruit juice. The beverages were very diluted and tasteless.
After breakfast, we went to Peking Tong Ren Tang. All of us were treated to free feet massage while listening to nutritious herbs briefing. The free diagnostic health check was given, followed by remedial were recommended.
Next, we went to XinLong Tropical Medicinal Botanical garden. This center preserved lots of herbs and spices plants. It belonged to Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Center. We learned about various types of herbs, spices and their remedial usage to our bodies.
Later, we had our lunch at a beach resort. The cuisine was much better than yesterday. We tasted baby abalones and roasted duck in addition to those common dishes as mentioned in our first dinner.
After lunch, we moved on to APEX Forum venue-Bo-ao. This site was known as water town, emerged at the meeting points of three famous rivers (Wanquan, Jiuqu and Longgun). It was surrounded and characterized by rivers, lakes, sea, sandy beach, mountains, hot spring. We experienced a boat ride to witness Jade belt beach scenery, where the three rivers flow into the South China Sea, a narrow long golden jade belt separates the river and the sea, forming the natural combination and landscape, listed in the Guinness record of the world. We took a short boat ride to a man-made island to feel the sea. It was extremely hot. Many local petty traders sold coconut water, honey pineapples, and other tropical fruits. Many local professional photographers mingled around to do tourists’ business.
We also took photos on the APEX stage and strolling the gallery.
Coconut chicken soup
In the late afternoon, we arrived Haigua for dinner. However, Mr Chan had prearranged with his collaborating partners from Hainan University. Hence, we broke away from the tour dinner and had dinner at Long Chuan restaurant. This restaurant served the best and most authentic Hainanese cuisine. We had a sumptuous meal indeed with 3 ladies and a man. We tasted famous, boiled coconut water soup with Wen Zhang chicken, papaya and fish maw. Coconut pudding, coconut dessert (like our ABC dessert), mango ‘chee cheong fun’, braised black soya bean ‘toufoo’, barbecue mackerel fish, pineapple fried rice, clay pot mixed vegetables, deep fried prawns, peanuts and mushroom dish.
After dinner, we just walked across to our hotel- New Oscar 4-star Hotel. We admired the night life of Seaview Intermall, and lots of high-tech OPPO gadget stores. Upon settling in the room, we walked to a nearby Ming Choo supermarket and bought some dried stuff, such as walnuts, dates, glutinous rice, coconut sweets, seaweeds……etc. We spent about RMB350.00 in total.
27 July 2017, Thursday
We had international breakfast and enjoyed a short city view before departing to our first destination. We travelled for almost 2 hours and had a toilet break at a country side R&R (quite similar as Yong Peng express bus rest area.)
Hainan Sea view
Finally, we reached our destination and had lunch before proceeding to tour Li and Miao Ethnic villages It was indeed a fun and interactive way to get a real taste of the native cultures of Hainan Island. We were guided by the village tour guide to experience the local culture for a glimpse into Miao heritage. Tattooed natives dressed in vibrant traditional attire greeted us with a warm hospitality. We watched the folk performance on bamboo sticks and witnessed a make-believe wedding ceremony while savoring tea and delicious specialties. We were amazed by elderly weavers and artisans handcrafting jewelry from beetle nuts and natural materials. We gained knowledge about the benefits of wearing silver ornaments.
After that, we were brought to a Deep sea fish products retail outlet. We were briefed about the benefits of shark fish oil and other omega 3 products. Besides, we sampled seaweed soups, squirted products and others. Finally, we reached Sanya and rested in GuaXi Hotel for two nights.
We had an early dinner in this hotel. The food served were quite slow and the waitress were not sure about the number of cuisines being served. Some members left the table to wash up without realizing there were 3 more dishes to be served.
Performance
We watched an exciting live show in the Crown of Beauty and the Giant Tree Theme Esplanade. It was indeed an awesome and breathtaking performance by Russian, Cuban Broadway dancers and Chinese acrobatics. We took lots of photos at this North Pavilion viewing platform and rows of golden Oscar statues. This Beauty Crown Grand Theatre was holding Miss World Pageants for consecutively 6 times.
28 July 2017, Friday
We went to the wrong local or domestic breakfast venue. We only realized after second round as we could not see any familiar faces dining in. The waitress was very polite. She returned our coupon and asked us to proceed to international tourist’s venue with additional coffee and tea, fried egg salad and bread.
After breakfast, we went to Bamboo charcoal retail outlets. We learned about the moisture absorbent quality this product. We bought a few items and proceeded to Goddess Mercy at Nanshan Cultural Park.
Hainan Goddess of Mercy
On the way, the coach passed by a long distance beaches with coastline sceneries. The Nanshan Cultural Parks highlighted China’s diverse social customs. The key feature of the zone was the three sided statue of Guan Yin Bodhisattva stands 108 meters tall on a man-made island in the sea just off Nanshan. It is larger than the Statue of Liberty. The park consisted of sites and sceneries with Buddhist Cultural including “Nanshan Temple”, “Nanshan Kwan-yin statue of South sea”, “Savior Garden”, “Auspicious Garden”, “Longevity Valley”, “Small Moon Bay” and vegetarian shopping street.
We enjoyed a very sumptuous vegetarian lunch in one of the hotels high up on the hill. This meal was the best vegan cuisine I had ever tasted. The culinary skills were just amazing.
After lunch, we went to visit Orchid World Research Farm. It covered a total area of 400 hectors. Only 125 hectors were utilized according to 5A Government Tourism Bar code. There were 3000 spices, 200,000 plants in which 300 plants are world extinct species.
Hainan Sunset view
We spent about an hour in this farm and went back to Guaxi hotel. We had an early dinner as we had to rush for our paid river cruise. This river cruise agenda was very disappointing. We felt cheated as the so called ‘VIP” seats were over crowded. Bad management, not enough seats and snacks as promised were the main reasons which made all visitors jumped up. The semi roofing was leaking and the whole place was stinking. The ‘shows’ were not really out performed as the stage was too small for them. It was indeed the worst experience and not recommended at all. Surprisingly, none of the tourists complained or confronted the cruise managers.
The cruise trip ended at 8.30pm and we went back to the hotel. Some members went for last minutes shopping and meal.
29 July 2017, Saturday
After breakfast, we checked out and transferred to Sanya airport. The return flight was smooth and speedy. We touched down at Changi airport on schedule and transferred to Malaysian coach to Johor Bahru. The experience bus driver used Woodland check points to save all the hazards of immigration and customs checks. Ler fetched us home at around 5.30pm.
Preliminary:
Bought over lucky draw tickets from a staff of this trip at RM1800 for two.
Top up: Airport tax & domestic return flight tickets from JB to KL
Itinerary
Itinerary
On 25 June 2005, 5 pm, we departed from home to Senai airport. We board 1840 MAS flight to KLIA. At 2030, we met up with our tour leader: Ms. Fiona of Travel Master. At 0045, we board on Korean Airline KUL/ICN KE672 to Seoul.
On 26 June 2005, we were served American breakfast on board before we landed at Incheon airport at 0810. (Korean time is 1 hour ahead of Malaysia).
26 June 2005, Day 1
Image Credit: KoreanBapSang
Upon arrival, we were greeted by the local tour guide and transferred into a coach to start our first destination-Imjingak- a border between North Korea and South Korea. We were informed about the cruelty of humanity separation due to political reasons of this two countries in 1950s. Later, we proceeded to have our first Korean lunch- Ginseng Chicken Soup. This food was quite delicious but the portion was too large for me.
Image Credit: MapsOfWorld
After lunch, we went to Famous Casino Walker Hill Resort Hotel which was the film site for Korean drama-Hotelier. We did not watch this drama. Hence, we had no attachment at all while visiting this hotel. Nest, we took a roofless boat ride to Nami Island. We enjoyed a leisure canopy walk and took lots of photos. Those houses in this ‘forest were simply enchanting and picturesque. Again, we were told this site was the outdoor shooting site for Korean Drama- “Winter Sonata”.
Before checked into the hotel, we had our barbecue chicken dinner at ChunChuan. This cuisine was delicious and appetizing. That night, we stayed in Vivaldi Part Resort Condo. It was a unique, cozy, tatami style. There was a ski site for winter.
27 June 2005, Day 2
Image Credit: Yahoo
On Day 2, we enjoyed a sumptuous American Buffet Breakfast in this resort hotel. It was a rainy morning. Hence, we couldn’t walk out to enjoy the greenery of Spring Ski site. We started our first visiting to Kim Chi Factory. Tourists could join in to make KimChi and brought home. We were served ginseng-milk and wore Korean Traditional Costumes for photographing.
Our second destination was Herb Land at Lavender Garden. This was the only one place in the world which grew 550 types of herb species out of 3,000 types in the earth. The herbs were classified into different tour themes. We had a special ‘flower bop lunch”. We ate ‘colourful petals’ as dishes.
Image Credit: Visit Korea
After lunch, we proceeded to Jeonju Mt Maisan (Horse Ears Mountain) which was located at the east of Jeonjin. It names ‘horse ear’ as the location was built between two mountains which resembled two horse ears. Nestled at the foot of this mountain was Taspa Temple, with its stone pagodas that rose up to 10 meters high. We took a twenty- minute walk to reach this destination. The surrounding was very peaceful, tranquil and calm.
In the evening, we had dinner at Jeon Ju. We enjoyed Korean Traditional Imperial Feast- a variety of small dishes with rice. We had an early checked-in to Jeonju Riveria Hotel. Since it was still early, we took a stroll to the nearby arcade. We stopped by some stalls and sundry shops which still sold fresh fruits and vegetables at the late hour. We bought some seaweeds and a peach. The price was quite reasonable.
28 June 2005, Day 3
On Day 3, We had our American Buffet Breakfast in the hotel. Our first itinerary was a 5-minute walk to Korean Traditional House Village. This village was quite similar to Chinese Shi He Yuan. There was a Main Hall in front, maids’ quarters and kitchen were on the right-hand side. Whereas on the left would be children’s rooms. Far behind the main hall was the Master bedroom. All the four blocks were arranged in a square with a void/air well in the middle. Below each sleeping areas were high-up area with cabin/ containers especially for steam and smoke to heat up the dormitory during the winter season.
Image Credit: Korea TImes
Later, we visited Traditional Alcohol Liquor Museum. We watched how the Korean wine was made. The ingredients were mainly wheat, rice, grain, barley. Grape, strawberries, and pear to be fermented together become alcohol. We bought a bottle of Strawberries wine for testing.
Our lunch for that day was Barbecue pork rice with bean sprout soup,
After lunch, we continued our visiting by coach to Yon Gin Everland in Seoul. This place was famous for Festival World Theme Park. We enjoyed watching the beautiful rose festival. Besides entrance fees, we were required to pay an extra of 48,000 won (RM150.00) to purchase 5 theme park tickets for two. We used the first ticket to experience Global Village Dance performance by taking a boat ride to watch different dolls wearing different national costumes, dancing joyfully in beautiful melodies under the sound of music. (American, Canadian, Mexican, Swedish, Swiss, British, Scotish, Italian, German, Spanish, African, Chinese and Korean).
Image Credit: Visit Korea
Our second ticket we spent on Safari World. We took a enclosure bus ride into the wild animal kingdom. We were stunt to see liger ( a new breed of Lion father with Tiger mother), lion head with tiger stripe body. However, we were entertained by bear feeding and demo shows. Our third tickets were spent on the most exciting experience was Amazon Adventure. We sailed around boat cruising, entertaining with wild animals’ roaring, python and Tarzan screaming. Next, we indulged in self-play “pong-pong zhe” crazy driving and lastly, we took a train ride around the rose garden with kiddy who were very well-behaved and discipline.
About 6 pm, we ended our fun trip by transpiring back to Seoul. We did our shopping at Dongdaemun Shopping Street. We had Chinese Cuisine; ”Char Chiang Mian” (35,000 won) and “la Mian” (40,000 won) as our dinner. Plain water was provided F.O.C. We bought some local souvenirs. Mostly metal chopsticks and Korean Dolls. We stayed in Capital Hotel.
29 June 2005, Day 4
On Day 4, We had breakfast in a Chinese restaurant. The dishes were soya bean soup with porridge, sour bean, scrabble eggs and some salted vegetables. After breakfast, we visited 2002 FIFA World Cup Stadium. Followed by National Ginseng Outlet and Amethyst Topaz Factory.After lunch, we proceeded to shop at Itaewon Shopping District until 4 pm to catch up a live show: “NATA”. Nata was performed by 4 actors and 1 actress about: lanthanide. The show delivered a kitchen story, preparing dishes for a wedding banquet. All the actors used various kinds of kitchen utensils to produce wonderful music. It was indeed an enchanting, exciting, stress-free live show.
Image Credit: VisitKorea
Immediately after the show, we were transferred to the World Biggest Full Scale Indoor Theme Park- Lotte World. This futuristic park of adventure would rival Disneyland in the United States and Japan. We took a boat ride on Sinbad Adventure to experience a scary, exciting and fearful rescuing the princess from a horror trap. Next, we also enjoyed watching the Global costumes parade and dances. We had a chance to get into a hot-air balloon and also watched 4-D theater show, experiencing the underworld/ocean adventure with the Little Mermaid and Turtle Michael. We enjoyed Japanese Undo dinner in this theme park while appreciating the Laser show about the global world. Last but not least, we took a train ride to go around the park while indulging in Pilipino live band performance.
We had a hectic full day tour and ended our day with cup noodles in Capital Hotel.
30 June 2005, Day 5
Image Credit: Famous Wonders
On Day 5, we had our own breakfast. We ate Korean Bread with jam and orange juice. Later we checked out and proceeded to Kyonbok Palace and Presidential Blue House. We took some photos and visited the souvenir shop. We have informed the election of President is once a year and only served 1 term. After that, we proceeded to The National Folk Museum of Korea. We gained a lot of knowledge about Korean History. We got to see how the emperor’s lifestyle. In fact, there were no indigenous folks in Korea. All Korean ancestors were origin/immigrants from Shangdong District in China during Tang dynasty. The Korean printing began from brass to wood carving and later paper printing. Their early day surviving skills were agriculture, fishing, and civil servants. They had a wedding ceremony, deliver babies ceremony as societal activities.
We had a unique lunch on that day. We were served rice plus stirred fried egg in a metal bowl. After lunch, we were transferred to Weolmi Island. From here, we enjoyed another cruise tour and beautiful scenery, We experience the thrill of feeding seagulls. Later, we stopped by a local staff shop for last round of shopping. Finally, we were transfer to Incheon Airport and board KE671 at 1800 to KLIA. Our dinner was on board. We arrived KLIA at 2315 midnight. We out up a cold night in the airport while waiting for our transit Air Asia to Johor Bahru the following morning. At 9.45am, we reached our Home sweet home.
Reflection
The road system was very advanced and in good order. Road users were polite and considerate.
There was hardly any bargain in the shopping arcade.
Environment consciousness was high. Once I bought a cup of taking away cold drink from a fast food outlet. I was charged an additional 100 won. However, I could get back my refund once I returned back the empty cup.
Toothpicks in the restaurant were made of flour. The reason was because toothpick would be swept together as food waste which was used as animal feed. To prevent the animal from choking and injured by the ‘wooden toothpick’, hence, it was made of flour instead.
It was largely recommended to bring school kids to visit Korea as its township and technology are 5 to 1o years ahead of Malaysia. A lot of environmental consciousness and quality lifestyle should be learned from them.
Countries visited: Switzerland, England, Holland, Belgium and France
Image Credit: Airport
1. On 23 November, 5.30pm, we departed from home to Senai Airport in a rainy day. Upon arrival to KLIA, we met up with the group – Ken Air travel, led by a tour leader Mr William. After checking in at British Airway counter, we were expected to board at 0015 in flight-BA0034. However, there was a delay and we were given a RM15 voucher instantly to compensate for refreshment. Finally, we were on board. The inflight attendants were rather matured and mid-age Caucasian ladies, except 2 young pretty Asians. The inflight service was very lousy. After one round of ‘supper’, all the attendants were missing in action. We were told to pick our snacks from the pantry behind on our own. It was a long-haul of 14 hours direct to Heathrow airport, London. The inflight was dim and most passengers fall in deep sleeps. I encountered an Asian air-stewardess who advised me to have a glass of red wine, or take half tablets of ‘sleeping pill’ to go through the night. Otherwise, we would feel extremely lethargy upon arrival. She also gave me some cute soveniours of the airplane: mini wine bottles, mini cokes sets, etc.
Image Credit: Google Image
2. We arrived the next morning (-MT-1300, London is 8 hours behind time-5.30am). It was pretty cold. We transited to a domestic British Airway to Zurich after 2-3 hours interval. It was winter. Everywhere was whitish. I viewed from the window, there was a bright sunlight, but our flight was above thick white cloud. I was speechless as the captain announced it was winter.
Image Credit: Yahoo Search
Finally, we touched down in Zurich. We met our coach for a short ride to Lucerne area with a picturesque postcard setting for the following two evenings. Lucerne was a scenic and typically Switzerland. The snowy roof top equivalent to a layer of icing on cakes. Wow, simply breathless and speechless. We stayed in Post Hotel and Casino Resort at Wigges. The room rate was SFr 240 per night.
Image credit: rail europe
3. On day three morning, we had our own self service breakfast in a corner room of this hotel. There was no waiter around. The portion of food were rather simple with limited choice. Bread, croissant, butter, cheese, etc. After breakfast, we departed to Engelberg. Along the way, I would help to keep snapping the picturesque sceneries. A thick layer of icing snow flooring was simply amazing. From far, I could feel the gigantic Alps mountain range were drawing nearer and nearer. We entered into the village of Engelberg, which was situated 3000 feet above sea level. We board the bucket cable car ride (SFr74) all the way to the top of the world- 10,000 feet above sea level at Mount Titlis. We had a good time enjoying the fun of making snow-men, castle-building, snow-ball throwing and also wandered in to the ice cave. Some guests relaxed over a cup of hot chocolate in the restaurant with panoramic views. We had our lunch (SFr14.80) on top of the ‘world’. The experience was simply awesome.
Image Credit: Google Search
After lunch, we returned to Lucerne to explore the old town on our own in search of local handicrafts, chocolates, Swiss watches or cuckoo clocks. All these retails outlets were small in size but very specialized in its products.
In the evening, we had dinner before going back to the hotel.
Image Credit: Paris Info
4. We spent a long time in coach on our fourth day as we departed to Paris very early in the morning after in-house breakfast. We traveled on Basel Barn Highway to Paris as early as 8.03am. We passed through Zurich Tunnel. The highway speed limit was 90kmh. Our tour leader told us Barn was the capital of Switzerland since 1848. About an hour later, we arrived the border check point. We exited Basel to enter boundary of France. No passport endorsement was required as we passed through the immigration. The route system was highly advanced. We stopped over a Petrol Kiosk to ease ourselves and had some snacks. The weather changed drastically. It was sunny misty. We continued our journey and had lunch at an R&R spot at around 1pm. We paid Frfranc40 (RM24.40) for a quarter-size roast chicken with a plate of half-cooked yellow rice.
Image Credit: Trip Advisor
Finally, we reached the most exciting city in Europe- romantic Paris, the City of Lights in the late afternoon. We took an illumination tour on a cruise down RiverSeine. This river is 776km flowing from Southeast to Southwest. We could see a golden torch which was a copy of statue of liberty. At night, Paris is transformed into a sparkling germ. As it was winter, I noticed the street trees were blanketed with vast plastic sheets to keep away from frozen. What a thoughtful citizen who felt empathy towards the suffering of nature. We put up two nights in Holiday Inn Paris which was located about one hour and fifteen minutes away from the metro city.
Image Credit: Trip Advisor
5. After a good rest, we started our day with Notre Dame, one of the most beautiful churches in the world and a master piece of medieval art. We completed our experience in this elegant city by visiting the Arc de Triomphe in La Defense, the Champ Elysees, the Place de la Concorde, the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadero gardens and Opera House and the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel tower was built in 1889. It stood at 320 meter high and weighed 7000 tons. It is repainted in every 7 years which takes 3 years to complete the painting task. Indeed, Paris is really live up to its name. Everyone should at least has ONCE visit in their life time. We had our dinner in a very tiny, cramp Chinese restaurant. Luckily it was winter. Otherwise, I would have soaked in heatedness and sweating like falling rain.
Image Credit: Thousand Wonders
6. Saying bye to Paris in a chilling dark morning at 7.30am. We were going to travel for about 181km to Brussel, the capital of Belgium and stayed overnight in Amsterdam. Alas, our bus broke down as the engine was frozen due to coldness. While waiting, we strolled around and discovered some apple trees. We plucked some tiny dried apples for fun. We were delayed by three hours until another replacement bus came in at 10.22am. Along the way, we passed by many industrial zones. As we were very tired. We dozed off in the coach. Finally, we arrived Brussel at almost 2pm, just to visit the Atomium and the Chinese Pavillion as well as the Manneken Pis statue. We were treated a free Chinese cuisine for lunch to compensate of the delay of three hours this morning. In this typically Chinese architectural restaurant, I had a very nostalgic feeling like going back to ancient Chinese tradition. The food was very authentic and sumptuous. Later, we hurried up to move on to Amsterdam. We managed to visit Ratterman Dutch Clog Factory, an iconic element of Dutch. Dutch residents prefer to wear clogs because most of them are working as farmers in the damp moist agricultural farm. After the visit, we proceeded for dinner before checking into AC Restaurant Hotel.
Image Credit: Google Search
7. We had a leisure trip this morning. We were taken on a cruise down the network of waterways in charming Amsterdam. We stopped for quite a long time at the Gassan Diamond Factory to see how diamonds are polished. we bought a diamond ring which cost us USD412. In the late afternoon, we took a short flight back to London. Upon touching down Heathrow airport, we were transferred to Cumbeland Oxford Hotel.
Image Credit: vizts
8. This morning, we toured London. Our city sights and monument tour of London covers Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Marble Arch, Speakers’ Corner, Trafalgar Square and Number 10 Downing Street. After lunch, the day was free at leisure. We were delighted to window shop by the well-known Selfridges. Marks & Spencers, all along Oxford and Regent streets and world reknown Harrod’s in the Khights bridge area. We also strolled in Hyde Park and saw some elderly couples resting on the benches.
9. After breakfast, we headed for the airport for our home bound flight. We arrived KLIA after fourteen hours long-haul. The return trip only left 6 couples out of 24 guests. , We were told those who stayed behind were actually hunting for some odd jobs to earn a fortune. Anyhow, this trip to me was indeed an unforgettable memories of a great time in central Europe. I look forward to travel to other parts of Europe in near future.
On 20 December 2010, Chan and me travelled free and easy to the above destination. We bought the land tour at SGD285 per pax from Neway travel service Pte Ltd.
Our journey started from Changi airport. We travelled by Vietnam Airlines ($383/pax), transitted in Ho Chin Min before arriving to Hanoi.
We did a brief city tour in Ho Chin Min city, tried the local ‘fur’ (beef noodles soup) in a local market. We arrived and were picked at Noi Bai airport, Hanoi late afternoon to be transferred to The Jasmine Hotel in Hanoi Old quarter.
We moved freely that evening. The city was very congested. The road was very narrow, and packed with two-wheelers and four-wheelers, horning each other. On both sides of the road, there were food sellers and food eaters, either squatting or sitting on stools to enjoy the local cuisines. We are avid traveler who stand firmly on, ‘when you are in Rome, behave like a Roman.’ as such, we appreciated and explored this crowded old city like a local. We had fried rice, vegetable soup and sea food for our dinner.
We had an early night as we were quite tired of the journey. However, our first night in this hotel was rather unpleasant. We encountered broken bed and over flow toilet bowl. Luckily, the housekeeper managed to rush in and mended for us. We requested for a change of room and was entertained.
The next morning, our tour began. We had simple in-house breakfast. Fresh mango juice with American breakfast. (On other days, I saw guests ordered local Vietnamese Breakfast, The waiter actually went out and bought from the street hawkers, transferred them into the hotel’s plates and served the guests). We were picked up by SIS tour to visit Ho Chi Minh Mousoleum and Museum. We enjoyed the architectural and historical aspects of Uncle Ho’s final resting-place. Just next door is Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts. Lying to one side of the Mausoleum is the One Pillar Pagoda, founded by King Ly Thai To in 1049. This structure has become an important symbol for the people of Hanoi.
Later, we proceed to visit the Quan Thanh Temple (Toaist dating from Ly Dynasty) and Buddhist Tran Quoc Pagoda on West lake.(one of the oldest in Vietnam).
In the afternoon, we proceed to visit the Ehnology Museum, continue to visit the Literature Temple and Quoc Tu Giam – Vietnam’s first university constructed in 1070, its garden and well-preserved architecture offers a relaxing glimpse into Vietnam’s past. We also visited Hoan Kiem lake, saw the peaceful waters, and visited Ngoc Son temple. Later, we traveled leisurely by coach trip along the Hanoi Old Quarter and spent our evening for shopping till night before going back to our hotel.
In between, we visited Ho Chi Minh’s vestige in the Presidential Palance (formerly Indochina’s General Governor Palace. Tis relic complex has become vital memories connecting to President Ho Chi Minh’s fifteen years of living and working from December 1954 to September 1969. We saw the presidential Palace, fish pond, pagoda, orchard, cars, the house of 1954 and especially the historic house-on-stilts of Ho Chi Mihn which symbolised his living way of simplicity, modesty, gentleness and dedication for the nation and the people. The whole site is full of wind, light and fragrant flowers from gardens around. Millions of home and foreign visitors have poured here to learn and to respect the virtue and thoughts of a national liberation hero – a great man of world culture.
We check out our hotel on day 3 after breakfast. At about 8.15am, we left Hanoi for Ha long city by a modern bus. We got into an Imperial Junk boat and enjoy a welcome drink and lunch of savory local seafood. We checked into our cabin at the lower deck and started cruising around the bay to see the amazing karsts with different formations in shapes which looked like Lion, Tea pot, Toad, Dau Nguoi (Human head) islet. Later, we stopped over for a walk through the Sung Sot cave “Amazing Cave”. Subsequently, our boat anchored at a clean calm sea. We enjoy a wonderful sunset dinner in our beautiful restaurant before retiring to the comfort of our cabin.
The next morning, we had our breakfast relax on the cruise. We visited the VAGIA floating village and kayaking to Bai Tu Long Bay. This bay was a neglected area but consisted the most spectacular bay with islands in different shapes. We had a brief visit at Hon Gai market at Poet Island. Finally we arrived at Ha Long City at 11.30am and had our lunch on shore. After lunch, we returned to Hanoi and reached our destination at about 4.00pm. We had another free and easy evening. We went for Vietnamese massage. Frankly, I felt the massagers were very commercialize. They demanded for tips at the exit door and blocked our way if we refused to give. They left a very bad impression in me.
The next morning, we checked out after breakfast and was transferred to airport. We transited in Ho Chin Mihn airport and did some last minute shopping at a nearby shopping mall. Finally, we boarded our flight back to Changi Airport and back home.
To me, Vietnam is not an inviting place for me to revisit.
($383+285 = RM1563.00/ pax)
written on 9/17/2016 7:52:49 PM
