I’m Back From Shanghai !!

Finally. After 8 activities-packed days in Shanghai….. I’m BACK!!! To be exact, it was not Shanghai trip but a round-up trip covering Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi…. all in 8 days! It is normal when we book a vacation package to China that seldom travel agencies would organise trip to only 1 single traval destination or city of China. Instead, few cities in the same region of China would normally be covered in a single package unless it is a ‘Free and Easy’ package where only flight ticket and accomodations are included. For example, if someone wishes to visit Suzhou by all-inclusive package, he would need to book a vacation package that covering few cities in the South east region of China, like the one I booked and just got back from. There isn’t any or very few vacation packages that let you spend 8 days in Suzhou alone.

From Shanghai Trip

Since this is my first travel to Shanghai and even China (and heard well enough bad experiences of security threats and con incidence), I found it alright and made more sense to join this kind of all-inclusive travel package. However, after got back from Shanghai, I realised 8 days are basically nothing if you want to explore most of the travel sites of these cities and I would say only 30% of them are covered in my trip. Moreover, social securities are found to be much better than expectation due to the continuing effort of China government to revive its image.

From Shanghai Trip

These are the two photos of China and Shanghai’s trademark: The Bund of Shanghai and bicycles. In this coming weeks, I will post more and more stories of my first travel to China and its biggest city, Shanghai. For these exciting travel experiences, you may prefer to subscribe to my RSS feed for free updates. See ya. - Travel Feeder.

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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 wondering one day that since Eastern and South-eastern parts of USA are facing Atlantic ocean, there must be lots of nice beaches along the coastline which are worth travelling if I have the budget, one day . I was right on this. After watching one of the travel documentary over TV recommending the top 10 beaches in US and surfing around net that I realised there are in fact lots of them which are brilliant for travel but unfortunately very little of them are widely publicized in Malaysia. Apart from the previous 2 destinations along the same coastline, I found another wellknown beach city, Hilton Head Island which is great for golfers.

Hilton Head is an island located in South Carolina, USA, 20 miles (32 km) north of Savannah, Georgia. It is a popular vacation destination with over 2 Millions travelers all over the world visiting Hilton Head each and every years. Travelers love the island because of its eco-friendly environment with majority of lands are still occupied by trees and wildlife. 

Hilton Head South Carolina is the home of wildlife, alligators, deer, Loggerhead Sea Turtles, hundreds of species of birds, and dolphins are still living here. Most natural properties of Hilton Head island are still very well preserved by the local government of Carolina. Many of the Hilton Head island rentals are occupied by visitors who come here for wildlife admiration and photography which is especially tempting to me . 

Cameron Highlands is one of the most popular weekend getaway destination in Malaysia. It is a highland resort located at the northern region of Pahang state, some 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur. At over 1,500 m above sea level,  Cameron Highlands enjoys a year round cool climate between 25 °C to 12°C. In contrast to the man-made 24-hour entertaintment city of Genting Highland, Cameron Highlands is all about natural beauty. We love the highland for its serenity, cool environment and of course our favorite ‘Steamboat’ lunch and dinner, not forgetting the freshly brewed tea.

Earlier this year, we re-visited Cameron Highlands and checked into the same hotel as on our previous visit, the Smoke House Suite in Tanah Rata. We loved this resort so much after having an unforgettable stay here 5 years ago during our Christmas Eve celebration.

We loved to enjoy its English breakfast at the garden terrace where you could taste one of the best freshly baked scones and locally grown tea that you could find in the highlands.

I still remembered the beautiful garden outside of the resort where we could oversee the one and only championship golf course of Cameron Highlands next to it. Until dusk, we drove down to Tanah Rata town centre for our steamy hot steamboat dinner at Mayflower Chinese Restaurant, one of the oldest restaurant in town. It is definitely a wonderful experience to sit in front of a cooker with steaming soup, boil your own selections of vegetables, meat and seafoods, and eat it in the cool breezy evening (Must try it at RM12-22 per person). Some will also be drinking beers as side orders, count me in please! 

The next morning was the perfect weather to visit the infamous Bharat Tea plantation along the main road in between Tanah Rata and Ringlet, the next major town down the Cameron Highlands. We stopped by and enjoyed the scenic view of the tea plantation and had a cuppa in the small stall there, before we headed back to Brinchang for flower and vegetable shopping!

Brinchang is the upper town of the highlands. It’s the home of strawberry farms, cactus valley, flower nurseries, vegetable markets and bees farm and many more. Whenever we go to Cameron Highlands, we must buy home some vegetables, strawberries and as well as pearl-sweet-corn. This time around, we bought also flowers and cactus for our new home.

We came here to Cameron Highlands from Tapah, Perak state and we were going back to K.L. from the other side of the mountain via Simpang Pulai and Ipoh. Along our half way down the highland, we had our lunch at this chinese restaurant of Kowloon. By the time we reached back home, it was already at night. This is how we spent our 2D1N stay in Cameron Highlands, normally. For those who are going to visit Malaysia, Cameron Highlands is your Must-Go destination for its unbeatable cool, serene, green environment with delicious local steamboat delicacy and freshly brewed highland tea (Download Visit Guide Here). For me, it’s alway a perfect escape destination with lots of sweet memories. - Travel Feeder.

Some might not have heard about Sea Isle City before, me either. I got to know this island city from the recent tropical storm disaster (Hana) that hit most of the South Eastern part of USA’s Atlantic Ocean’s coastline, started worst in Haiti and weakening towards North Carolina, without hitting Sea Isle City. Sea Isle City is one of the most popular family travel destination in Cape May County, New Jersey of United States. It is located  along the Atlantic Ocean, east of USA and not water. Though it is widely considered as an island city, Sea Isle actually shares its land on Ludlam Island with neighbor, Strathmere.

With more than 30% of residents being Irish ancestry, Sea Isle City is a beach town with most of its housing used for vacation rentals and second homes. It has a 1.5 mile beachfront promenade and several arcades, shops, restaurants and bars in the center of town. Visitors from all over the world come here for its serene environment. You can stay in one of those beach front bangalows, relaxing under the beautiful sun while kids are having fun on the beach and enjoying sun setting at the same time. It is just a perfect holiday destination for families. For those who are adventurous can even drive down to the nearby Atlantic casinos for some luck try!

If you are wondering any city rentals Sea Isle travel agency could help arranging accomodation in Sea Isle, FREDA Real Estate Agency located in Landis Avenue of Sea Isle City is one of the trusted company in the city. It serves Sea Isle City Rentals and Sale needs since 1955. For those who are interested to visit Sea Isle for a family vacation, you can rent either a resort chalet, condo or townhouse for a period in the city. For your information, many of the properties there are actually second homes to expariates. You can log on to Freda’s website for more information. If you have any other family travel destination to share with other travelers, do let me know by commenting this post. Cheers! - Travel Feeder.