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| Christmas Trip 2010 |
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Christmas Vacation, Part 6 - Phuket (Kata Beach) Thailand
Finally the last leg of our vacation! We took the passenger ferry to Phuket Town and then a taxi to Kata Beach near Phuket. We stayed at a "boutique hotel" that was about a 5 minute walk to the beach. We had a very relaxing time in Kata. Basically we ate, watched National Geographic Channel, read, played and relaxed on the beach, shopped, played Uno and ate (yes, I know I said it twice!).
Our favorite food there was a crepe-like pancake wrapped around a sliced banana and drizzled with nutella or chocolate syrup. I'll be looking for a crepe pan soon!
After 5 days in Kata we flew back to Singapore for a one night stay before heading home to China. We did a bit of last minute shopping and eating in Singapore.
We finished the trip quite happy, but tired, after 20 days! They kids are proud that they swam for 19 days straight!!
Our favorite food there was a crepe-like pancake wrapped around a sliced banana and drizzled with nutella or chocolate syrup. I'll be looking for a crepe pan soon!
After 5 days in Kata we flew back to Singapore for a one night stay before heading home to China. We did a bit of last minute shopping and eating in Singapore.
We finished the trip quite happy, but tired, after 20 days! They kids are proud that they swam for 19 days straight!!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Christmas Vacation, Part 5 – Koh Lanta (Thailand)
We love our resort in Thailand. We are on the northern tip of Koh Lanta (a small island off the west coast of southern Thailand) at the Kaw Kwang Resort, a small family owned resort and one of the oldest on Koh Lanta. The resort is very family friendly and we feel very welcome here with the kids. We are all together in a small bungalow with a view of the ocean past a treed lawn area.
The kids love the pool! In fact, they spent about 4 hours in the pool the first day we were here because it was raining and they didn't have to worry about getting too much sun.
The resort has a small restaurant, so we are able to eat all our meals here, or walk down the beach to many other restaurants nearby. Or, take a taxi (really just the back of a small pick up truck) into the small town nearby to shop or eat.
Tomorrow night we will celebrate New Year's Eve here at the resort, where they are throwing a small party for the guests with dinner, games, dancing and fireworks. As the staff all know us now and we recognize many of the other guests, it should be a fun family party!
The kids love the pool! In fact, they spent about 4 hours in the pool the first day we were here because it was raining and they didn't have to worry about getting too much sun.
The resort has a small restaurant, so we are able to eat all our meals here, or walk down the beach to many other restaurants nearby. Or, take a taxi (really just the back of a small pick up truck) into the small town nearby to shop or eat.
Tomorrow night we will celebrate New Year's Eve here at the resort, where they are throwing a small party for the guests with dinner, games, dancing and fireworks. As the staff all know us now and we recognize many of the other guests, it should be a fun family party!
Christmas Vacation, Part 4 – The Night Train
The night train. Oh, the night train. I will always have memories of the night train.
We took the train from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai, Thailand. From 9:00 pm to 10:00 am. We each had our own bunk in a train car with about 40 bunks. We shared our bunk with our suitcases and backpacks.
Amazingly, we all slept. Kiana and Mike liked the train. I liked it better than I expected, but I don't really want to do it again. And Kevin thought it was hard to sleep. And the weird part is that it was so cold on the train. Not because it was cold outside, but because they had the AC cranked. I was a human popsicle in spite of the four shirts, 2 pairs of socks and various clothing piled on top for covers.
And best of all we had our choice of a squat toilet or sitting toilet. If you think using a squat toilet is hard at Tesco, imagine what it's like on a moving, rocking train car! And yes, the hole went straight onto the tracks.
When we arrived in Thailand we then had to take a minibus crammed full of people for 2 hours. Then transfer to another for a 2 hour journey to our resort in Thailand. After the night train and very little food, this was definitely not our favorite day!
We took the train from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai, Thailand. From 9:00 pm to 10:00 am. We each had our own bunk in a train car with about 40 bunks. We shared our bunk with our suitcases and backpacks.
Amazingly, we all slept. Kiana and Mike liked the train. I liked it better than I expected, but I don't really want to do it again. And Kevin thought it was hard to sleep. And the weird part is that it was so cold on the train. Not because it was cold outside, but because they had the AC cranked. I was a human popsicle in spite of the four shirts, 2 pairs of socks and various clothing piled on top for covers.
And best of all we had our choice of a squat toilet or sitting toilet. If you think using a squat toilet is hard at Tesco, imagine what it's like on a moving, rocking train car! And yes, the hole went straight onto the tracks.
When we arrived in Thailand we then had to take a minibus crammed full of people for 2 hours. Then transfer to another for a 2 hour journey to our resort in Thailand. After the night train and very little food, this was definitely not our favorite day!
Christmas Vacation, Part 3 - Malaysia
We took the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Seven hours on a train is a long time! Even in first class. Luckily we brought along all sorts of electronic entertainment...sometimes I feel like our family is personally keeping Apple in business – iPad, iPods, and our beloved Mac.
Riding the train allowed us to see a bit of the countryside in Malaysia. It was beautiful, lush and green. On the train Kiana came down with a fever, so she was especially relieved when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I was thankful that we booked at a nice hotel (accommodations are inexpensive in KL), as Kiana spent the next 36 hours in bed with a fever. It wasn't until the second day that we were there that she realized that we had a view of the Petronas Towers from our room's window (until recently, they were the tallest buildings in the world).
Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit the towers as planned. Actually, because Kiana was sick and I was still recovering from the same illness, we didn't do much in KL at all. We did make it to the malls (two beautiful malls with every shop imaginable) within walking distance of our hotel. In the short time we were there the kids managed to eat three Auntie Anne's pretzels each! And we saw Tron. If I had a choice, I'd go back to KL again instead of Singapore. I'd like to see more of the city and I hear there are good beach resorts too.
Riding the train allowed us to see a bit of the countryside in Malaysia. It was beautiful, lush and green. On the train Kiana came down with a fever, so she was especially relieved when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I was thankful that we booked at a nice hotel (accommodations are inexpensive in KL), as Kiana spent the next 36 hours in bed with a fever. It wasn't until the second day that we were there that she realized that we had a view of the Petronas Towers from our room's window (until recently, they were the tallest buildings in the world).
Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit the towers as planned. Actually, because Kiana was sick and I was still recovering from the same illness, we didn't do much in KL at all. We did make it to the malls (two beautiful malls with every shop imaginable) within walking distance of our hotel. In the short time we were there the kids managed to eat three Auntie Anne's pretzels each! And we saw Tron. If I had a choice, I'd go back to KL again instead of Singapore. I'd like to see more of the city and I hear there are good beach resorts too.
Christmas Vacation, Part 2 – Christmas
So we didn't actually skip Christmas, we just downsized it! Considering that anything we gave each other for Christmas we had to take to Malaysia and Thailand with us, we opted for fewer and only small-sized presents! Although we had planned to cook Christmas eve dinner in our condo, we weren't able to find the foods we wanted at the grocery near our house and we were too tired to trek out to the other supermarket. So we had Popeye's Chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Mike did make the traditional cinnamon applesauce so we had that for bedtime snack.
The good news is that Santa did fly into our hotel and deliver presents and fill the stockings! I hope he enjoyed the Famous Amos cookies and chocolate milk we left for him!!
After a quick swim on Christmas morning, at 1:00 we boarded a train for a 7 hour train ride to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The good news is that Santa did fly into our hotel and deliver presents and fill the stockings! I hope he enjoyed the Famous Amos cookies and chocolate milk we left for him!!
After a quick swim on Christmas morning, at 1:00 we boarded a train for a 7 hour train ride to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Christmas Vacation, Part 1 - Singapore
As this is the first blog of the vacation (but written 12 days into the adventure), let me say that so far this has been a vacation of interesting travel. Getting from place to place has definitely been part of the adventure. And since I am writing this from a covered patio on a Thailand beach during a warm rainstorm, I am happy that we will be here for the next 3 days with no travel! The kids are in the pool, I'm enjoying the view while writing and Mike is napping. Perfect!
(I will attach a photo album of the whole vacation later, we have minimal internet access here).
Our trip started with a delayed flight from Shanghai to Singapore. Before takeoff, someone on the plane had a medical emergency and they had to evacuate her. Luckily we were still in China, so I was able to call a friend who was still in Dalian and ask her to Skype our hotel in Singapore to let them know we might arrive after 11:00pm (when the front desk closed). As we arrived at the hotel at midnight, this was a phone call that averted potential disaster! We loved our hotel – the kids swam everyday in the pool (in fact they have a goal to swim everyday of this vacation – so far so good).
Before we moved to China, we considered an expat assignment in Singapore, so naturally we compared the lifestyle of Singapore to China. After living in China, being an expat in Singapore would be SO easy! They speak English, every kind of food is available, and every kind of shopping is available. However, you'd have to make a lot of money! Singapore is expensive. Very expensive! Our first meal at a Mexican restaurant with 2 kid meals and 1 adult entree and one margarita cost $60 (US).
Because we were curious about what life might be like to be an expat in Singapore (you never know where life will lead you), we took a tour of the Singapore American School. It is a huge school with 3900 students – 10 times as big as the kids' current school! It would be a dream school to attend. After reading so much about it online, it was nice to see it in person.
We stayed at a service apartment right at Clarke Quay – the hotel was situated above a small mall with a Subway, a book store, food court, grocery store, and Japanese crepes. In the Clarke Quay surrounding area were hundreds of restaurants and bars. While there, we ate Mexican, Middle Eastern, Burger King, Subway, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and crepes.
We started our visit with a taste of local life. Mike has kept in touch with classmates from graduate school who are long term expats in Singapore with three children. We went to their apartment in the late afternoon for a swim then they took us to a nearby neighborhood for a delicious Italian dinner. The kids had a great time playing together and Mike and I enjoyed catching up with his classmates.
The heat there tired us out easily so we didn't see a lot of the traditional Singapore sights, but the kids and Mike did go on the Singapore Flyer – the largest ferris wheel in the world. It is 42 stories high and takes 30 minutes to complete a rotation in an air-conditioned capsule large enough for 20 people. We also enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights on Orchard Road and were able to do a lot of shopping for essentials and Christmas presents. And, as always, we visited the Science Museum (and getting free entry by using the membership card for the southern California museum we bought last Christmas). We also saw Gulliver's Travels.
Overall, Singapore was a great place to visit, but I think it would be more enjoyable to actually live there. While public transportation is easily available, it often took a lot of walking to get to and from the stations we wanted to use. And we often found ourselves waiting in taxi queues for 10-30 minutes. I think if you were a local, you would drive or know how to navigate the system a little bit better.
(I will attach a photo album of the whole vacation later, we have minimal internet access here).
Our trip started with a delayed flight from Shanghai to Singapore. Before takeoff, someone on the plane had a medical emergency and they had to evacuate her. Luckily we were still in China, so I was able to call a friend who was still in Dalian and ask her to Skype our hotel in Singapore to let them know we might arrive after 11:00pm (when the front desk closed). As we arrived at the hotel at midnight, this was a phone call that averted potential disaster! We loved our hotel – the kids swam everyday in the pool (in fact they have a goal to swim everyday of this vacation – so far so good).
Before we moved to China, we considered an expat assignment in Singapore, so naturally we compared the lifestyle of Singapore to China. After living in China, being an expat in Singapore would be SO easy! They speak English, every kind of food is available, and every kind of shopping is available. However, you'd have to make a lot of money! Singapore is expensive. Very expensive! Our first meal at a Mexican restaurant with 2 kid meals and 1 adult entree and one margarita cost $60 (US).
Because we were curious about what life might be like to be an expat in Singapore (you never know where life will lead you), we took a tour of the Singapore American School. It is a huge school with 3900 students – 10 times as big as the kids' current school! It would be a dream school to attend. After reading so much about it online, it was nice to see it in person.
We stayed at a service apartment right at Clarke Quay – the hotel was situated above a small mall with a Subway, a book store, food court, grocery store, and Japanese crepes. In the Clarke Quay surrounding area were hundreds of restaurants and bars. While there, we ate Mexican, Middle Eastern, Burger King, Subway, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and crepes.
We started our visit with a taste of local life. Mike has kept in touch with classmates from graduate school who are long term expats in Singapore with three children. We went to their apartment in the late afternoon for a swim then they took us to a nearby neighborhood for a delicious Italian dinner. The kids had a great time playing together and Mike and I enjoyed catching up with his classmates.
The heat there tired us out easily so we didn't see a lot of the traditional Singapore sights, but the kids and Mike did go on the Singapore Flyer – the largest ferris wheel in the world. It is 42 stories high and takes 30 minutes to complete a rotation in an air-conditioned capsule large enough for 20 people. We also enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights on Orchard Road and were able to do a lot of shopping for essentials and Christmas presents. And, as always, we visited the Science Museum (and getting free entry by using the membership card for the southern California museum we bought last Christmas). We also saw Gulliver's Travels.
Overall, Singapore was a great place to visit, but I think it would be more enjoyable to actually live there. While public transportation is easily available, it often took a lot of walking to get to and from the stations we wanted to use. And we often found ourselves waiting in taxi queues for 10-30 minutes. I think if you were a local, you would drive or know how to navigate the system a little bit better.
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