Short National Day Trip

Me and the kiddos redeemed our miles and tagged along Da on his work trip over the National Day weekend. This is the first time we travelled two on two by plane as my mum usually joins us. The flight there was fairly smooth as Cayson managed to sleep through most of it. Cayen napped sfor a short while but awakened as he couldn’t find a comfortable position. Thanks to all my preparations, he doodled on his journal , game book and eventually I even read all the safety instructions. 

As we took a morning flight, day 1 was spent mainly eating very good local food, courtesy of our very kind neighbours / friends who had helped planned the trip’s itinerary and food menus. 







Day 2 was zoo day at Chimelong. It was a good zoo , complete with dinosaurs. Cayen accused me of lying that dinos are extinct as he’s seeing them now. Haha. The zoo was big and complete with pandas , including the world’s only triplets, alongside an impressive extended family of white tigers and other Asia and African animals. There’s a lot of “mountains” that we had to conquer to finish half the zoo and it already took 17,000+ steps but it was well worth it.


















The relatively new Panda hotel was also nicely decorated with lots of panda themed wallpapers, bedsheets and toiletries. I was impressed. Only pity was that we didn’t have much time to enjoy it as we only stayed one night.














The next day was Safari Park day. It was a hot day once again, but thankfully we rented a car after being upsold by the taxi drivers. Sitting in the comfort of the car, we set out on our safari adventure , where we get to be really near some of the animals. 











Towards the end of day, it started to pour and we had to buy expensive umbrellas to avoid being stranded there and be late for our circus show. Finally, against all odds, we managed to reach the very big circus grounds that could pack a few thousand (was it 8000) audiences. It was an international troop so it had all the standard circus act that I recall watching when I was a kid. Pity Cayen fell asleep and missed half the show but Cayson was completely enthralled by the acrobatic movements and animals. It was a good act.










By night, we went back to hotel and I decided to order some supper as we only had some snacks for dinner in the circus. But alas, as with all vending machines in China now, without wechat and alipay, I couldn’t pay. And to see the room service menu, I need to scan the QR code which I couldn’t see as I don’t have a China phone number for verification. Thankfully, hunger makes one desperate and hence resourceful, I decided to call the general concierge line and just asked them to quote me whatever rice or soup that hey had on the menu and just ordered. I eventually paid using a credit card and I wondered why I had to pay upon food delivery - very strange for a hotel. 

The answer reviews itself the next day as the food actually came from a canteen downstairs from different vendors so they need to collect money immediately. The only difference is that physically, you couldn’t even use a credit card. You‘ve gotta buy a prepaid card; no cash allowed.

Anyway, after the night stay over at Panda hotel, we went back to Shunde for more food and massage. 

On Monday, I had to juggle the three kids in a meeting room whilst the rest went for meeting. Thanks to the whiteboard, snacks and games including iPhone , we survived the day and went for more good food .. 无米粥. 

Then it’s time to go home. Till we come back again. 

















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