2014 X'Mas Holiday in China (Sneak Peek)

Although my family and I don't celebrate Christmas, but I do love the Christmas feelings and celebrate it abroad always part of my wishlist. In 2010, I celebrated Christmas in Taiwan, 2011 in Indonesia and 2012 in Singapore. As for this year, I tagged my mom along to China for the joyful Christmas holiday cum my year end trip as well. This is the fourth trip I sponsored my mom, after Indonesia, Japan and South Korea (from airfare, accommodation, transportation, foods, shopping & etc). Wondering, how many of you sponsored your parents a trip abroad actually?

We started our trip by flying in into Hangzhou first (we burnt our Shanghai tickets actually) and one of ultimate place to go in Hangzhou is none other than mesmerising and awe-inspiring freshwater lake, West Lake itself.

#1: Three Pools Mirroring The Moon, the largest island of the West Lake of Hangzhou.

#3: Ended our night by strolling in Hefang Ancient Street of Hangzhou before leaving to Suzhou

From Hangzhou, we proceeded to Suzhou where we booked 1 day Suzhou ground tour and out from the 24 tourists of this tour, only two of us are Malaysians whereas the rest are the Mainland Chinese.  

#4: Besides few pagodas and temples and not forgetting, we also visited The Lion Forest Garden, one of the four great gardens of Suzhou.

In one of the temples, we were requested to see the fortune teller. Normally I don't believe these but the first thing fortune teller said to me was, "You are the type that don't sit still at home one. Always travel around here & there." How's true is that?

#6: The ancient architectures along the canal in Tongli Water Town. 

Before we move to Shanghai, we managed to go Tongli Water Town, a thousand year ancient town with a long history and the typical style of water town located an hour away from Suzhou. 

#8: Meanwhile in Shanghai, the first place we went was Yu Garden, an extensive Chinese garden located in the heart of bustling Shanghai

#9: We tried the Nanxiang Steamed Bun but turned out to be so so only. Kinda disappointed

#10: Kill our time in Nanjing Road for window shopping. Seriously, just window shopping cause everything was so expensive there.


#11: Last but not least, a view of Pudong from The Bund is a must when visit Shanghai. Oh boy! Shanghai is so amazing and breathtaking especially at night. 

Frankly speaking, my trip to China with my mom is like roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. We started off with a pretty good start not until the day I woke up on the Christmas day itself, we were told by Malaysia Airlines of an unpleasant news when I unable to do web check-in. Kinda piss off with the T&C promotion fare. And the next day again, received another bad news stated our flight back to Kota Kinabalu from Shanghai will be delayed. From the original ETD of 1.30 am to 4am. Although we were compensated with food vouchers, but all I want is hotel vouchers instead. 

#12: First time in my life I have such an early flight