Short Weekend Vacation at Melaka (Blog by Felicia)

January 13, 2016 6 Comments

One week ago, we just returned from Hong Kong and Elkan, my mom, my sister (Chups) and me headed to Melaka this weekend! It was a last minute decision for a short trip to visit my relatives and attend my uncle’s 82nd birthday celebration! At 82, he still drives, writes good Chinese calligraphy, and tends to his own business that was hand down by his father. It’s been a while since our last visit to Melaka, my mom’s hometown.

Online coach ticketing is so convenient and efficient. We managed to get a coach that departs from Marine Parade straight to Melaka. In the past, we had to make a trip down to Lavender Bus Terminal to purchase the tickets few days before departure day.

We got onto a very spacious and comfortable 21-seater coach on Friday afternoon after I picked Elkan from school. He was excited when he spotted free wifi was provided on board! After a short 3 and a half hour drive and we arrived at Melaka.

We checked into our hotel and quickly walked over to visit my uncle and relatives. I kinda miss the shophouse where I used to come here every school holiday during my primary school days and played with my cousins. Now we are all grown up and living in different cities so far apart, we hardly meet up. The old folks chatted and my eldest aunt spoke about the old days when they were still kids running up and down the wooden staircases, making a lot of noise and getting into trouble so often. Fond old memories.

Just two days before we left for Melaka, Joanne mentioned that she’s heading to Melaka for a short weekend trip with their family of 12 pax! So we planned to meet her and Sherane for dinner on Friday night. Elkan spotted them across the street when we were heading to Jonker’s Street. It was always good to see familiar faces when you are overseas.

The evening was hot and humid. As we stroll along Jonker’s Street, there were food stalls, souvenirs, handicrafts, toys, and many more. It is much more bustling than it used to be many years ago. There were also cruise by the river. At some point, the street was filled with the stinky toufu smell! For a moment, I tot I was in Hong Kong! Some of the locals speaks Cantonese too.

Finally we managed to get some seats and had local Chinese food for dinner. But our main course was actually the chendol! Unfortunately it was sold out by evening…. Such a disappointment. We had gula meleka with sago & shaved ice instead. Not too bad too! Then I spotted a guy stuffing a cake hand mixer into a small water melon! He was making instant watermelon juice right in the melon itself! So interesting! Perfect for the hot weather.

At the end of the street, it was lit up with many fancy cartoon decorated rickshaws! Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Frozen, Minions, etc. These are not cheap rides. Almost the same price as taxi rides.

It was great to catch up with the gals. The evening ended with happy tummies and Elkan was happy with his new bow and arrow toy!

The next day was a just indoor air-con shopping. We simply couldn’t stand the outdoor heat. The malls are similar like ours with all the familiar brands. Best part is you pay in ringgit!

We were looking forward to the birthday dinner where we met more relatives. It was a karaoke cum dinner session. The old folks were enjoying themselves, singing Mandarin and Cantonese oldies. They were good sport and sang heartily! The food was great and people were greater. I did not know many of my uncle’s friends but they were all very friendly.

Elkan and me were trigger happy snapping many candid shots with our nieces, nephews, cousins and the other folks!

阿Q， 生日快乐! May you be healthy and happy! 

Filed under Family, Life in Singapore, Travel Tagged with ,

DIY – Lego Bluetooth Control WALL•E (Updated)

January 10, 2016 11 Comments

Last November while I was sourcing for more parts for my Lego tree house, I spotted a very unique Lego WALL•E displayed at the toy shop near my office. There was something different about this WALL•E. There were a lot of wires connecting from its body to its head. Those weren’t fake wires. Curiously, I asked the shop keeper if the WALL•E was running on batteries. He told me it was a bluetooth control toy. Using an app on his iPhone, the WALL•E came alive with lights and motion! I was so intrigued by it that I offered him a price for the display item. However, he told me it was not for sale.

I went home that night and googled a couple of videos online. There were a couple of pretty cool and simple Lego hacks to convert a standard WALL•E into a remote control toy using Lego’s standard (Power Functions) powered motors and IR controller. However, I could not find the same mobile bluetooth control Lego WALL•E. The next day, I went back to the shop and asked more information about their WALL•E.

The shop owner was very helpful and nice. He told me to wait for the new WALL•E edition as the original one had some issues with the joints of its neck. It was too loose and Lego will be releasing a new edition sometime in March 2016. He also helped me to order all the electrical parts that were required to make the bluetooth control WALL•E.

2 days ago, the parts finally arrived and I went to pick them up. As the WALL•E was no longer displaying in the shop, the shop keeper couldn’t show me how to wire up the parts. He gave me a web link (but the tutorial was completely useless). At mid point, I had to discard the confusing online tutorial and relied on my own logic to rebuild the entire piece again.

In the end, I spent 4.5 long hours on Saturday night to piece everything together. It was extremely messy but all fun and exciting! My face lit up the moment WALL•E came to life (via the app SBrick)! I made a couple of modifications (and even changed the colours of its eyes!).  The best part was I am able to design and customised my own app controller!

Check out the “making video” in my 2nd Vlog of 2016 below! I am sure my son will be screaming in excitement the moment I show him this. Enjoy!

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Sparkling Surprise at Gloomy Farewell

January 3, 2016 Leave a comment

Just like the foggy weather today, we had a gloomy farewell at the airport. Even though we have been expecting (and mentally-prepared for) this farewell 1-2 weeks ago, tears still welled in our eyes when it was time to say goodbye.

Harshad, Tracy and I planned a little surprise for Felicia at our farewell lunch. Her birthday is just around the corner and we gave her an early birthday celebration. Thanks to Harshad who bought and hid the cake well.

It was difficult for me to shop/buy/hide the present when Felicia and Elkan were 24/7 tailgating me throughout the past 14 days. In the end, I had to disguise the present as my sister’s Christmas gift to avoid Felicia’s suspicion. Luckily, it worked.

Felicia was pleasantly surprised when we brought out the cake and the presents. At least, there were some happy moments to cheer all of us up today.

When it was time to go, Elkan broke into tears. Unlike we adults, a child never hides his true emotion and love. And that’s the beauty of being childlike and pure. Just like those meaningful lines in the story of the Little Prince, “Never lose that childish ability to see what’s really important in life. Sometimes, a silent look or a hug is enough. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” 

I hope my son grows up like the Little Prince. Never forgets the little pure heart inside.

Farewell marks another new countdown to our next happy reunion. Big smile and hugs. See you two very very soon.

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Warm Farewell, Lucky Find & Joyful Ride into 2016

January 1, 2016 1 Comment

No countdown or staying late for the fireworks, I slept very early on New Year Eve. Mum and dad flew back early this morning. Felicia and I woke up at 6am to send them off.

While many others were still in their beds after last night’s countdown celebrations, Felicia and I were blessed to catch the first ray of dawn on New Year Day. We felt very refreshed and energised. It felt really good.

Mum and dad were already waiting at the entrance of the hotel by the time we arrived. They woke up earlier than both of us. We took a cab to Hong Kong Airport Express at IFC where they checked in their bags.

While waiting for them outside the check-in counters, I went to a nearby bin to spit out the awful phlegm that was irritating my throat (I am still down with this nasty cough and flu). Just before I was about to spit, I spotted something familiar inside the bin.

I recognised the rim of the wheel. It was a hoverboard!

Why was there a hoverboard inside a bin at IFC Airport Express in the early New Year morning? I looked around to check for its owner. No one seemed to be paying any attention to the bin. I was the only one beside it.

Curiously, I took the entire hoverboard out of the bin. It was wrapped in a white cloth. It looked very new and clean except for some slight scratches. Some one had deliberately dumped this. Possibly just minutes before I came by.

I turned it on and stood on it. It worked perfectly! A pity to leave it inside the bin. Well, finders keepers! I will most likely keep this in the office.

When my parents and wife saw me standing on the hoverboard, they were extremely surprised. My dad immediately warned “Later, it will explode!” 

I suspected the owner planned to check the hoverboard onboard the plane but was rejected as all airlines forbid any electric-vehicles/hoverboard on flight (due to the danger of large lithium-ion batteries). There have been more than 10 cases of hoverboards explosions and fires. It must be a very heart-breaking dump for the owner, especially when the hoverboard was well-protected by a bag (and it looked so new and clean). I felt really bad for him/her to discard something like that on New Year Day.

If my logic is right, then there will be many new hoverboards or segways being discarded at the check-in counters. The airport may be a good place to start hunting for discarded goods. (There are already many expensive lighters, perfumes, liquors being thrashed at custom check-in every day. I wonder what happened to these discarded items?) Maybe someone should start a “Cash-convertor” stores at all customs.

It was a quick and warm farewell. Mum’s teary but she hid it well. And I spotted it, ha! Sigh, I will rerun the same heavy-hearted farewell 2 days later when Felicia and Elkan are flying back to Singapore. Damn, I really dislike farewell.

Felicia and I came back home before 9am. I decided to surprise my son with my new find. It worked! His expression was priceless! (See video below)

Since it was New Year Day, we decided to do something different, new and healthy! We spent the rest of our day cycling from Tai Po Waterfront Park (大埔海濱公園) to Shatin. The weather was fantastic! It was sunny and cooling! Believe it or not, this is our first time cycling together in Hong Kong! This is a great place! I love the scenery and the cycling route. I never expect Tai Po Waterfront Park to be this beautiful!

In total, we cycled close to 20km (3 hours). It was very crowded this afternoon, there were a few near-accidents due to those reckless overtaking bikers.

What an unusual New Year Day for me! Previously, the house would be very empty, cold and quiet by now as Felicia and Elkan used to depart before the new year. This is the first time in 10 years my entire family is with me on New Year Day!

Summing it up – A warm reunion and farewell, a lucky find and a very very happy, sunny ride! Guess 2016 will be a lucky, smooth and joyful year for me! Happy New Year to all!

 

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Back to our roots (金門-寻根之旅）

December 29, 2015 Leave a comment

This may not be the most beautiful beach but it is one dearest to me.

Since young, I heard so many stories from my late Ah Mah about her life in Kinmen (金門). Even at the final days of her life when most memory failed her, she kept reciting about the beach where she and grandpa went to collect oysters every morning. The beach must have left her with such a deep memory, even at the final days of her life, she couldn’t remember me or her loved ones, she kept reciting the same old story time after time.

When she passed away in 1999, I promised myself that one day I must visit this particular beach where Ah Mah and Ah Gong used to live. With my loved ones and family.

I never forget this promise. It takes me 16 years to fulfil this promise.

This is the one and only reason why we come to Kinmen. To find back our roots. It will be a meaningful trip for my parents and my son. For me, I have been dreaming about this “beach” Ah Mah often mentioned, I want to be at the spot she mentioned in all her stories.

Thanks to my cousins Xuejun and Chee Bin who directed me to the right local contact, we managed to locate the address of our late grandparents’ old home. The old house sits opposite the beach in a very small district of Yangshan (21,22 洋山).

An old distant relative and some neighbours came out to welcome us and brought us to the old abandoned sealed house. It was very very old. A government seal was pasted on its wall. It stated the owner of the building (my deceased Ah Gong) and it was under the protection of the government. The exterior walls looked clean and intact but the building’s interior was occupied by dense vegetation. It was impossible to enter the compound.

There were a lot of empty oyster shells littered around the compound. I asked the neighbour about the beach. They told us it’s a short walking distant right across the road. Before we left the compound, we took a 3-generation photo (my dad, son and me) at the entrance of the old house and headed out to the beach. It was only a short 3-minute walk away.

“Look opposite and you see Xiamen” the old neighbour pointed to us.

The seashore is unlike the sandy beach my Ah Mah described, it is now bunkered by concrete stabs to prevent erosion of the shoreline. A road separated the house and the beach. I was a little disappointed when I saw it. It was just so different from what I had imagined.

“So this is where Ah Gong and you harvested oysters” I thought to myself. “And this is the sea view you see every day before you came to Singapore. Too bad, this place has been urbanised, there is no more oyster.”

By some divine intervention or the old neighbour was able to read my thoughts, she said “Look beyond the shoreline at the shallow water, there are a lot of oysters there. If you come early, we can go down and grab a few!”

I was surprised and delighted to hear that and took out my camera to capture the areas she pointed. The neighbour then brought us to another house where we saw a middle aged lady extracting oysters from the shells.

“This is how we do it here. We put sticks or nets in the water for the oysters to grow. One year later, we draw them out and extract the meats” she explained. “This is tough work, only the old folks are doing this today. The young ones left home for better jobs outside Kinmen.”

Just before we left, I went back to the old house to take more shots. At the back of the house, I bumped into a very old lady who sternly questioned (in Hokkien) about my presence (you might be able to spot her in the video below). I told her I was taking photo of my late Ah Mah’s house. To my surprise, she said she knew the occupants of the house but that was so long ago. Before we left, she smiled at Elkan and me with these parting words, “Yes, they (deceased ancestors) will know that you are back. Young people should come back to revisit their roots. This is your home after all.” 

On the way back to our cab, I took one last look at the sea and the rocky sandy beach, I can finally put a good closure to the missing part of my 16-year vision of the story my late-Ah Mah shared.

It is nothing but beautiful. Miss you so much again, Ah Mah.

Filed under Family, Travel

Droning on Christmas Day (over Fujian Tulou)

December 29, 2015 4 Comments

I always like to blog or vlog on the actual day so I can extract the most from my memory. It is also mentally exhausting for me to go through 2-3 days of content.

However, after 3 late nights of video editing and blogging, I fell sick on Christmas Day. I was down with a very bad painful sore throat and fever. I totally lost my voice. My parents and wife were worried about me and I promised them that I will rest more. So, no blogging or video-editing until the end of the trip.

On Christmas Day, Leon and Qiaoqiao made special transport arrangement for me to visit an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the legendary Fujian Tulou. Built between the 12th-20th century, the Tulou is famed for its large, circular fortified earth structure. It is like a Royal castle with thick defensive outer walls and upper-deck gun holes (to fight against armed bandits), except these unique buildings were built for a large family or clan. Despite using very basic materials, the oldest Tulou stands for over 700 years. Each Tulou comes equipped with its own water wells, ceremonial hall, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Due to its unique shape and uncanny outlook, the Tulou were once mistaken for missile silos by the Americans during the Cold War.

We took an hour train from Xiamen to Longyan City (龙岩市) and from there, we travelled for another 40 minutes to Hongkeng village. There are a total of 46 Tulou listed by the UNESCO and the driver took us to the “Prince of Tulou”, 振成楼. Completed in 1912, the Prince of Tulou is a double-ring structure, consists of 184 rooms.

The weather was bad. It was foggy and gloomy. It wasn’t the ideal condition for photography. Nevertheless, Leon and I took the drone out and prepared for flight. Drone pilots often attracted many curious onlookers. Even before the flight, there were already a couple of onlookers waiting beside us. The drone flight was delayed by damn DJI as its app alerted us that we have to upgrade the new firmware which I did a few days ago. Anyway, we wasted a good-10-minute battery life for the completion of upgrading. It was kind of worrying as it is never good to do remote upgrading just minutes before flight time.

The drone took off successfully and the view from above was spectacular! A few local villagers stood beside me to peep at the screen. They were excited as this was the first time they saw their homeland from above. They were surprised how beautiful and big it looked.

Leon and Elkan took turns to operate their first solo flight. Leon was impressed how user-friendly and powerful the drone was. (I was trying to persuade him to join the drone club!) Elkan was super excited and happy that he managed the landing unassisted.

I wished we have more time to drone over more Tulou. However, we have a farewell dinner to attend and we have to rush back to Xiamen. Well, I got what I came here for. All good and beautiful. Time to pack and head back to Xiamen.

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The impregnable Golden Gate（金门之旅）

December 28, 2015 Leave a comment

Kinmen (金门), the Golden Gate of the East is a small island with only 50,000 residents. Today, over 100,000 Kinmen descendants are residing in southeast Asia. It is rich in its war history and was the place where the last China-Taiwan war was fought. Thanks to American’s intervention (with a serious threat to nuke China if Kinmen is ever invaded), it miraculously survived 2 Chinese invasion attempts and over 500,000 bombardments.

Other than its historic war monuments, Kinmen is also famed for its white spirit (金门高粱酒), knives (金门菜刀) and herbs (一条根). Surprisingly, not many people know how close Kinmen is to China, it takes only 30 minutes on ferry to get across between these 2 countries. Due to the passenger volume, there is a ferry every 30 minutes.

Kinmen is relatively a green and clean island, life on the island is slow and peaceful. Local islanders are extremely warm and friendly, everywhere is peaceful, safe, spacious and quiet. Air is fresh, there is almost no pollutant here. Greenery is aplenty and very well-maintained. Drivers give way to one another and strangers make small talk along the way. The main road is mostly empty and there is no major shopping street or night market. By 9pm, the island sleeps. It reminds me of Australian and New Zealand towns. (Perfect for me as I slept early due to my bad flu.)

It is very tourist-friendly as over 90% of the attractions do not require any entrance fee. At the custom, I saw many tourists from China, mainland Taiwan and Hong Kong.

We stayed at a cozy local B&B hotel where it is named after the owner’s Dalmatian dog, Dingding 叮叮. The owner volunteered to pick us up at the ferry terminal (which was extremely helpful as we have 6 pax and many big luggage). Breakfast were provided daily and they were very tasty. (As Tracy is vegetarian, they went out to buy her breakfast!) Our rooms faced a very small man-made lake which was amazingly clean with fishes and ducks. And broadband was surprisingly fast too!

Getting around Kinmen is easy. There are a lot of yellow cabs around and the bus drivers are friendly to guide us around. Private car rental is at NT500/hour and most attractions are located within 5-10 minutes ride away.

As it was a trip to visit our old house, we didn’t make any pre-holiday planning. We relied on the local’s recommendation and travellers’ reviews on TripAdvisor. Too bad, the weather was wet and we didn’t get to cycle around the island. We visited many free attractions – underground bunkers (dug manually during the war), old traditional residence, Kinmen cultural museum, underground navy base and the original Kinmen Liquor Company (it is cheaper to get the liquor here than at duty free stores at the ferry terminal). At night, we dined at Asia’s largest duty free shopping complex, Everrich Downtown Duty Free.

It was a short relaxing 2D2N trip, the main purpose is to visit our old house. This morning, we left Kinmen and returned to Xiamen to catch our train back to Shenzhen. Leon came to pick us up at the ferry terminal and had lunch with us.

The year end family vacation is coming to an end. Next stop Hong Kong, with my old folks.

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Who needs Santa when you have Mermaids for Christmas!

December 25, 2015 Leave a comment

I only slept for 3 hours last night. We have a wonderful Christmas Eve. I took tons of footage and photographs. By the time we finished our little Christmas countdown and video-edit, it was already 4am! Tiring but every second is priceless!

This is the first time I celebrate Christmas with my parents and Auntie Amy’s family overseas (outside Hong Kong to be exact). It is certainly great to have them around during this festive seasons. Our usual end year travel becomes noisier with joyful chattering, laughers and lots of blissful nagging.

As there is no public holiday in China during Christmas, Leon took 2 days off to accompany us. I felt guilty as he was working in between during our visit (and he paid for all our expenses!). Qiaoqiao and him planned a special Christmas Eve dinner for all of us. Knowing I am an avid blogger, he promised it will be a “spectacular” dining venue for me. I really appreciate their kind thoughtfulness and love.

We set off to the one-and-only-must-visit tourist attraction of Xiamen, Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿). The island is only 2km2 and is home to about 20,000 residents. Gulangyu is famed for its mishmash of architecture and alleys of local eateries and souvenir shops.

The 20-minute 3-deck ferry from Xiamen was all packed with visitors. My first impression of the island reminded of Taipei Jiufen. Rustic with lots of sweet surprises at every turn. The old colonial buildings and confusing narrow lanes, Gulangyu is like a mini Venice of the East. There are just so many things to see and explore. We saw many Taiwanese eateries and souvenir shops. Price was surprisingly reasonable and we could bargain with the shop-keepers too.

Leon’s princess Zhuzhu was the star/spice of the day. She won our hearts with all her comical poses, little pranks and mischievous tantrums. Annoyingly adorable!

Thanks to our great hosts Leon and Qiaoqiao, we had the most unusual Christmas Eve countdown at a very unique restaurant. The dining place they booked exceeded our expectation. Surrounded by full-height glass- walled aquarium with many fishes, it was like dining under the sea. The buffet hall is incredibly huge with a wide range of dishes! I covered less than 50% of the spread. (Cost: RMB395/adult)

In my opinion, it wasn’t the wide selection of food that attracted the big crowd. I believe it was the magical enchantment of the restaurant’s resident-mermaids that lured everyone here. It was certainly very distracting to dine beside an aquatic stage filled with sensual aquatic dancers from Russia. The mermaids performed many graceful routines that drew almost 80% of the diners to the tank. They were eye candies and I have deep respect for them. One thing is for sure, this is not an easy job, especially performing in such a tight space. These mermaids are professional! Who needs Santa when you have Mermaids for Christmas!

What an eye-opening and mouth-watering treat from my dear cousins! Certainly, this will be one unforgettable Christmas Eve family dinner ever! We had the best of everything – great food, great dining concept and most importantly, with the presence of great company of family and friends.

This blog is dedicated to Leon and Qiaoqiao for being such a wonderful and thoughtful hosts! Thanks for the generosity and time! 

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Road to Xiamen

December 23, 2015 3 Comments

What a dramatic and rocky start of the day.

First, we hijacked someone’s transport unintentionally (at the Shenzhen hotel) and we had issues with our train tickets. We nearly couldn’t make it to Xiamen (not again!!!). It was a close call and almost a deja vu. 2 years ago, Tracy and I were didn’t make it to Xiamen and we ended up in Xian! For a moment, I thought fate was replaying itself when the ticket officer told us they couldn’t issue the tickets due to a typo. Luckily for us, we managed to replace the invalid tickets with 2 “standing-tickets” and boarded the train just in time. What a frustrating morning at the train station. Not to mention a terrible driver who smoked and talked on the phone when driving.

The train from Shenzhen North Station to Xiamen North Station took about 3.5 hours (1st Class Seat: RMB181/adult). Traveling at a top speed of 215km/h, the ride was extremely comfortable, clean and smooth but don’t expect any in-train entertainment or fine dining. My only complain is the frequent ear-pressure that can be very uncomfortable. The train crossed many wetlands, streams, hills, farms and gigantic electrical towers.

This was supposed to be another “surprise visit” masterminded by Auntie Amy. We wanted to surprise my cousin Leon and family but my auntie accidentally let the cat out of the bag 2 weeks ago (and she thought her son was dumb enough not to see through her trick). Last week, my cousin Leon revealed to me that he knew about the surprise and asked me to carry on with the act. Now, this is getting quite complicated and confusing. To surprise or not to surprise?

Leon picked us up at the train station. My parents were so delighted and surprised to see him. We spent a couple hours back in the hotel to unpack/chat/rest/recharge and the grannies started their chattering and nagging ritual the moment I flashed my gears & toys. Usually when I travel, my hotel room is always empty. It is so good to see my room packed with lots of people. It was chaotic, noisy but full of family love and warmth. For a second, I thought it was CNY (and not Christmas)!

We didn’t spend much time touring Xiamen today. It was purely family gathering and dining. Leon treated us an awesome/sumptuous dinner with many “never-seen-before” dish decoration. In total, we had 20 over dishes! Thanks bro for the wonderful hospitality and generosity!

There is something unusual with the weather. Winter isn’t that cold in Xiamen. At a cozy 24°C, there is no need for us to wear any thick winter clothing. The weather is just perfect for me! Hopefully the haze clear up by tomorrow so I can start flying my drone and explore this small dynamic island of Xiamen.

What a tiring and eventful day. I am looking forward to a great and relaxing Christmas Eve tomorrow!

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Oh dear, his grannies are in town

December 22, 2015 Leave a comment

Today is an exciting day for the family. My mum and dad flew in for Christmas! Today is also the Winter Solstice (冬至), a festive day when Chinese family get together to eat glutinous rice balls (汤圆) that symbolise reunion. We will all meet in Hong Kong airport and then make our way to Xiamen via a 3-hour train from Shenzhen the next morning.

Elkan is nervous meeting the grannies. Being the only child in the travel group, he gets all the nagging from the old folks. I can understand his fear (whenever Elkan isn’t around, the grannies will start to nag at me!). He calls my dad “creepy grandpa” after our last vacation in Maldives 2 years ago. Both sharing the same room, my dad kept talking to him late into the night. Couldn’t understand the dialogue, Elkan wasn’t sure if my dad was talking to him or talking to himself. Elkan totally freaked himself that night.

Thanks to my massive gadgets (projector and speakers – I’ll explain later) and gears (drone and cameras), we had a difficult time getting a cab to the airport. Luckily for us, we met a cab driver who excels in “brick-game”. With a little tweaking, the cabbie managed to pack all our luggage into the cab. Oops…Due to this slight delay, my parents were at the arrival gate 20 minutes before our cab arrived. (And I arrived even later as I was “replenishing” more gears at the airport DJI-pop-up store.)

After a quick (and heavy) dim sum lunch at the airport, we departed for Shenzhen. We will be staying one night in Shenzhen as we will be taking a morning train to Xiamen the following day.

Thanks to an invitation and recommendation by a friend who is working at DJI, I brought the entire family to visit a new city attraction, the Shenzhen OCT Harbour (欢乐海岸). Located within the Hongshulin Mangrove Forest, the 1.2m-sqm OCT Harbour hosts many China’s firsts – China’s first international waterfront shopping, first 5-star cinema, first multimedia water theatre and eco-tourism exhibition complex. With such a cool foggy weather and so many glittering structures, the OCT Harbour is so beautiful and magical at night. I am surprise to find such a place in Shenzhen.

DJI just opened its first flagship store 2 days ago here at the OCT Harbour and that is main reason why I am here tonight. It is housed in an iconic building and the showroom is huge. Thankfully, it wasn’t as crowded and crazy like its opening day. There wasn’t a lot of people tonight. I had all the space to myself to browse and interact with the friendly shop staffs.

I spent close to 45 minutes in the store and bought a couple of accessories and shared an informal retail-audit report with my friend. Overall experience: B+. It looks good but the instore engagements aren’t interactive enough to trigger purchase. There are little product demos that allow users to test the drones or the cameras. In short, it isn’t very “experiential and interactive”. It looks like a pretty modern showroom with lots of repetitive drones. I guess this place is more for new users than regulars like myself. All the shop staffs were extremely friendly but the first two staffs who I engaged separately couldn’t offer me deeper technical advices. Only one shop staff was impressive and he took an effort to fetch me an item that was out of stock.

We had our Winter Solstice dinner at a Taiwanese hotpot restaurant and glutinous rice balls desserts at our favourite Hong Kong Honeymoon Dessert. Elkan got himself totally drenched playing at the water fountain. We had a great cozy evening at the harbour. Love the weather and the lovely company!

Tomorrow will be another long day of traveling. Tracy and Elkan are now in my room waiting for me to setup the projector to screen our favourite Singapore TV drama. Yes, now you know why I bring along a portable projector and speakers.

Filed under Family, Travel

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