My First All-inclusive Packaged Travel Experience To Shanghai

  Before we departed for our journey to Shanghai, I was kind of uneasy with the itineraries of this trip, wondering how we could visit so many tourist spots and cities in only 8 days. This was my first experience of travel by all-inclusive vacation package. Before this, I used to self-travel or travel by ‘Free and Easy‘ package where we could plan ourselves those tourist spots we are going to visit, the food we are going to eat, the place we are going to stay, the retails we are going to shop, and even whatever sweet time we are going to spend or relax. Not for this trip. I was going to experience a totally different perspective of travel.

I called it All-inclusive vacation package because once you signed up, the travel agency will plan everything for you, even when and where you are going to shop and buy souvenirs from! No doubt, having a full time local tour guide to lead you from one place to another, introduce you the place you are going to see means that zero time you are going to waste on searching for transport, places and every other things. On the other hand, however, we lost some real fun of travel with those same reasons as well, sometimes.

In terms of budget, group travelling has surely got a better deals in dining, accomodation and transport. For a total package cost of RM2,350.00 per person, we might not be able to get as high star-rated hotel, or the same quality of food and restaurant, if we were travelling by ourselves. On the other hand, we would not be able to experience what the local people are doing, eating and the flee market that they are going and shopping, if we were travelling by all-inclusive package. 

However, with no argument, all-inclusive packge is the better option when we travel with old folks (Yes. I travelled to Shanghai with my mother-in-law). We couldn’t expect our parents to walk from one street to another to search for the best budget hotel! Also, her stomach would not be feeling good if we were to try out all those local foods from the roadside stalls! And I’m too lazy also to explain and introduce to her those history of where we are visiting to….

After all, my verdict for this trip is: NOT TOO BAD. At least, I drove my Lumix real hard. My digital photo album size has now become larger with an additional of 2000 photos, taken from 6 significant cities and towns in South-East China (my available hardrive space of my laptop has also become smaller though ). Also, my body gained weight significantly after this trip as full course Chinese local menu are being served in every morning, afternoon and evening! (also those junk local foods as our supper )

This is my short introduction of our 8D7N all-inclusive packaged travel to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuzhen, Nanjing and Wuxi. Stay tuned for more! - Travel Feeder.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Hurray! Finally! 1 day to go before my family and I going on board for our vacation travel to Shanghai! Though it will definitely be a rushing tour since we joined the destination-packed travel package, there is still something that I’m looking forward to: beautiful sceneries for my photo album! During this 8D7N tour, I would expect some huge proportions of time being spent on travelling, be it on bus or train, travelling from 1 destination to the other. I don’t really mind as long as there would have good weather and great scenes for shooting , instead, rains and overcast weather of autumn seems to be my bigger worry. Let’s hope for the best.

Only 24 hours away, what have I prepared so far? Other than those normal items in my packing list, I found that it is quite challenging to get prepared for a whole-week-long winter travel in a country that you haven’t been to before. Here are the top 5 challenges I am facing or have rather overcome before my winter travel to Shanghai:

1. The biggest challenge of mine in this final day is to pack sufficient (or necessary?) winter clothing for the trip - According to the weather forecast, Shanghai at this moment is having an average temperature of 8 to 15 degree C, which is cold for someone from a tropical country like me. Packing those thick winter clothing into our small cabin baggage seems to be our biggest challenge! Last night, we decided to check-in our baggage finally (though it’s not my preference after some bad experience with check-in baggage damage years ago). This will allow us to expand our travel bag to an additional space of 30% and that would be enough for all our staffs;
2. The second challenge during the preparation of this trip is things that need to bring along - Shanghai is not a commonwealth country so their power sockets are different from what we are having here in Malaysia. In order to plug in our chargers (handphone and camera), we need to bring along an adapter socket; Another item in our packing list is umbrella (Brella… ella…er…er..) since weather forecast tells us that rains is expected during the period;
3. The 3rd challenge is the amount of Ren Min Bi (or Yuan) we need to bring along - Since money changers in Shanghai are ‘famous’ for their expensive rate, and we can’t use this currency in Malaysia, a more accurate estimation is preferred which I should consider monies for extra night tour, local snacks and souvenirs;
4. The 4th challenge is to prepare staffs for our children - We are not bringing our children along for this long trip (in terms of distance and quite long period). Chloe would be taken care of by my sister-in-law while Dylan would stay with our baby sitter. 2 care takers means 2 separate baggages are needed. I would say packing staffs for children is as tough as ours; and
5. The final challenge is to inform whoever necessary and dedicate well of all my works in hand - On top of that, I have asked favours from my brother in law to drop-by my house once or twice for whatever reasons. Finally I’m going to leave my car in the workshop for major service during this period of time.

Whatever it is, apart from all these challenges, I am looking forward to a wonderful vacation travel to the Shanghai Bund. For those who are interested to read more on my travel experience to Shanghai, you may prefer to subscribe to my RSS Feeds for FREE future updates. Cheers! - Travel Feeder.

I was driving pass Batu Caves while sending my car for service in Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. I did this once every 2 months at least. Ironically, this afternoon was quite different from my other previous trips there. The sun is bright and blue with some clouds shading part of the Batu Caves which made the golden Muruga statue so attractive and it stroke my mind immediately (perhaps I only noticed it after having my new camera ). I decided to visit the infamous tourist attraction of KL…. once again after some 10 years… to take PHOTOS!

Entrance is free but car drivers like me needed to pay a negligible fees of RM2 for parking (RM2 for a wonderful photography session…. I paid immediately!). Once I stepped out of my car, I pulled out my camera and what I could hear was endless shutter sounds and nothing else Seating in front of the 400 million year old limestone hill and series of caves is the 130 feet tall statue of Lord Muruga which Batu Caves was dedicated to. This huge golden statue of Lord Muruga was constructed for 3 years and completed in January 2006 which is claimed to be the tallest Lord Muruga statue in the world.

Beside the statue is the 272 step steep concrete staircase which visitors have to climb before reaching the Cathedral Cave, the biggest cave of Batu Caves, some 100m above ground level.

Once you reached the top, there are stalls selling souvenirs and drinks in front of the cave entrance and underneath those stalactites jutting from the cave’s ceiling. Don’t be scared if some water dripping onto your head from above, it’s only mountain dew

Visitors could go into the temple of huge cave and find lots of Indian religious statues and paintings. If you are brave enough, there is a guy who could ‘lend’ you his big snake for you to pamper.

While I was on my way down the steps, suddenly there were about ten Cynomolgus monkeys running up the steps! Then I heard a young lady shouted to them: “No more foods for you! Go away little xxxxx!”

Before I left Batu Caves, I saw also children feeding pigeons at the square in front. Close-up shot please!

Batu Caves is also holding the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia every year which attracts over 1.5 million pilgrims, and it is one of the largest annual gatherings in the world. - Travel Feeder.

The recent global financial meltdown started in US when its real estate market bubble burst and banking instituition went insolvent. Soon after the US, other world’s major financial instituitions reacted fast to slump to a new low and the crude oil price index has dropped to a recording low price since 5 years ago! This chain link effect is further evident in many part of the world’s equity market and hence the global economy are facing a slump.

Many would start to worry about the recession cycle of every 10 years after 1997 and started to cut their daily spending in all respects with beliefs in the terminology of ‘Money Is King‘. Theoretically, the first budget we are going to cut is our travel budget , which is sad for me personally (my travel blog would be less active… ). Nevertheless, my response to it is a big ‘NO‘! We should not cancel our vacation plan. Contrariwise, we should travel more at this moment of global economy slumping . Why? Here are the top 5 reasons (or excuses… *giggle*):

1. So fed up? Go and Relax! - We are having intense pressure in our life and it’s even more during this period. Our already subtle income and assets appreciation has suddenly became negligible and we are so fed up after all the hard earned money depreciated over night! What should we do? Go travel and relax! ;
2. Save monies on Air tickets and Hotel - Especially during the economy crisis, our travel would cost us a lot lesser as all vendors are offering cheap bargain in order to survive. Air tickets, hostel rate, eating-out are all going to be cheaper! ‘Demand and supply‘ rules;
3. Save Energy of offices for this non-productive period - During the economy slump, less demand means less productive in our office and business. What we could do is to shut down office or factory to save energy and Go Travel! (This is a bit ‘hard sell’ mate…);
4. Search for new opportunity - Go travel! Open our eyes and search for new opportunity of new business in abroad. We may find some great ideas in other part of the world that could to be adopted in our country instead, and
5. Stimulate the global economy - Com’on! The global economy is already slumping! Spend more to stimulate the global economy so it could recover faster!! Bravo!

‘What a nonsense excuses!’ At least I feel better with my vacation plan to Shanghai next month . Another 32 days to my 8D7N Shanghai autumn travel… countdown continues…. - Travel Feeder.