Vietnam

First stop in Vietnam is danang, a newish coastal city. There are lots of rivers and bridges. We joined a cruise tour to travel the city. The tour is quite expensive but since we know nothing about Vietnam and only have limited time and also with my parents, its safer to stick with a tour.

So we went to a museum first to learn a bit about the history of danang. Then we got to see the inner city on a tricycle. It was pretty cool but also kind of scary. Our driver didn't quite respect traffic sign and ran a red light twice!

After lunch, we went to a shopping center and then visited a giant pagoda. We finished the tour with a beach side young coconut drink and a fee minutes on a very pretty white sand beach.

Next stop in Vietnam is ho chi Minh City. Also known as Saigon. This time we picked a river cruise tour. It took a 3 hour long bus ride to get to mekong river. There we went on a small boat to get to an island, where we were served honey tea and fruits. Then we got on a very small canoe ride in a small canal. It was an interesting experience!

After we had lunch, dad probably had eaten too much and also a can of beer in a very hot and humid weather. He got sick outside of the restaurant and vomited. Me and mom were so worry! Luckily after the vomit everything was fine. Whew!

The tour guides gave a bit of information about Vietnam and it's culture. Even it isn't my preferred style of traveling experience. It wasn't all that bad.

Sanya, China

We decided not to join tours (tours are expensive and mom and dad been to the place multiple times already). We got the tourist map. Got off the boat. And took a shuttle bus to the city, which takes only a few minutes.

The first thing we encountered was a lot of taxis and a man trying to help me to figure out where to visit. Turns out that my dad thinks he is not a taxi driver. He was trying to be the middle man and try to send people to far away places and make  money. We walked away and decided just to walk around ourselves.

There was a nice beach, but it was really sunny and hot. Very few people on the beach. Rian spotted a big jellyfish and immediately got me and Ellie to stay away from the water. We played for a few minutes on the beach and then went to a local restaurant for lunch.

At lunch time, ellie learned to use chopsticks to pick up vegetables. She ended up eating lots of vegetables because of this :)

Because it was so hot, we decided to head back to the ship after lunch. All in all,  Hawaii of China seems to be hotter than the real Hawaii.

Fremantle and Perth, Australia

We arrived at frematle, finally! This is the 2nd stop in Australia on the cruise and its also our final stop of the cruise trip. The ride here was particularly wobbly and noisy and I didn't sleep so well. Glad the cruise is over. I will miss mom and dad though. They will continue on for another week and get off at Melbourne. I was trying to help them with the transit arrangement when they get there. Hope that everything will go well for them. I won't see them until the Panama cruise.

So yes, I was quite concerned about the luggage problem when we get to Fremantle. I like to spend more time before saying bye to mom and dad but it was a little problematic if we have to carry our heavy backpacks around. Turns out that Australian visitor booths are super helpful. We left our packs at a coffee shop storage room while wandering around.

We walked around the market and Ellie played a bit at a sea side park. She and rian also went up to a ferris wheel. Then we all had a big seafood lunch. The seafood chowder was huge and the chilli mussels was super yummy!

After that we went to another maritime museum about ship wreck and then it is time to send mom and dad back to the boat. After we said our goodbyes. We took a train to go to Perth. It was easy and only took about half an hour to get to the Perth city centre. After we got off the train, rian was in charge of getting us to the hotel. But he got the map upside down and took us to the opposite direction :)

after we settled down in the hotel, we went for a nice dinner with yummy burgers and fries and beer! This marked the beginning of our New Zealand trip. One interesting bit about the hotel is the shared bathroom. We need to go out to the hallway, punch in a code to use the bathroom.

The flight to go to Auckland is at night. So we decided to spend the rest of our time in Australia in the zoo. We had to take a ferry there and so that was also fun. Got to see the nice scenery along the swan river side.

We had no trouble finding the bus stop to go to the airport. We were there way early so we had another coffee break. Daddy got a affogato (coffee with ice cream) and Ellie got a babycino (hot cocoa in a tiny cup).

One problem we had was that we found out the hand carry limit is 7kg and not 10 kg. We quickly moved a bunch of the heavier things to rian's and Ellie's backpacks. And it was a ok. The layover was in Sydney and the big problem was that we need to recheck again there. It didn't sound so bad until we found out that we need to take a bus to go to a different terminal. Tired, and carrying big backpacks with a sleepy child made all of us a bit cranky.

See ya Australia. New Zealand here we come!

Nansha and foshan, China

This is a transportation tour. After tram, bus, subway, and ferry, this time we took long distance bus to foshan and ferry back to Hong Kong from nansha.

The bus took us to the front of the hotel. The hotel was very nice and fancy. Ellie was particularly excited about the TV by the bath tub!

After settled down we went for lunch at pizza hut and then took a walk at the ancestor temple and ip man museum. It was fun to see and show Ellie and rian some of the Chinese tradition.

The next morning we took a tour at dad's factory and had lunch with my relatives in china. Ellie wasn't too thrilled about the factory tour but still a good experience, allowing her to see how goods at stores are made.

Second part of the visit was min and dads house at nansha. Big house, pretty garden and fish ponds!

Project rainbow dash

I love making Halloween costume for ellie for 3 reasons: save money, unlocking my secret talent in costume making, and earn the words "my mom made this!" from ellie... haha, i guess the real reason is the opportunity to work on a project together! The outcome doesn't matter. We had fun and it is OUR costume!!

We drew up the design together on a piece of paper. I had trouble figuring out where to put the cutie mark and it was ellie's idea to put cutie mark on the side and rainbow strip on the other side. Good call!

Home sweet home - hong kong

First stop: my home town Hong Kong!

The flight back home wasn't so bad. Layover in Taipei. The saddest thing was at the security during the transfer, Ellie's scissors got taken away. She was very sad and I am pretty upset too... kid scissors, come on! How dangerous can that be?

The weather here is nice and warm (even though it is supposed to be winter now). Ellie enjoyed using the octopus card and all different kinds of transportation. Bus, subway, peak tram, and ferry. Not so used to the crowd after all these years in america but its nice to be home.

We met a lot of relatives today from my mom side. Surprised to see so many small kids. Pui wai has a 3 year old boy and a one year old girl, and Chi lun also has a one year old girl. Pui wai's girl is so super cute! Really big eyes like a doll!

After lunch, we went to the beach at gold coast with mom and dad, 2 Goh and Yvonne. Beach is nice with lots of sea shells and the weather is gorgeous. And then we went for sea food dinner. Super full and yummy!

Sunday it was dad side of the family. Same restaurant same table! Happy to see more kids. In the afternoon we went to an all you can eat BBQ place. Too much food in Hong Kong. It is absolutely ridiculous!

Let the journey begin

A common feeling between me and rian on working too much and not spending enough time with each other and Ellie has come to this spontaneous idea: take an extended time off and have some fun together!

Itinerary was roughly in place for the next 5 months. Travelling around and interleave our vacations with cruises with mom and dad and the first ever vacation with rian's parents.

Backpacks are ready... I am way too tired from continuous cleaning around the house to properly shutdown the house. Anyways, with excitement, I think we are all set to go!! Yay~