Admittedly, if you're not a local and don't understand their culture, you might probably be cheated in China. They're infamous for being scheming (and very smart)! However, my dad has worked in China for the last 20 years so he knows their "pattern" through and through. He's also very familiar with Shenzhen, so he was the one who first brought us there and introduced us to the best food and shopping places there is, which you wouldn't have known if you're just an ordinary tourist.
So if you want to find out just how to experience the best of Shenzhen (and a little bit of Hongkong), join me as I share my 5 years worth of Shenzhen-Hong Kong travel tips. Are you ready? *grin*
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| Taking Tiger Airways to Shenzhen |
We took Tiger Airways from Singapore Changi Airport Budget Terminal to Shenzhen International Airport. This is the only budget airline that flies from Singapore to Shenzhen directly so although the timing was not very good (the flight was scheduled to depart at 7.15pm and arrive at 11.05pm), we decided to book it anyway. We prefer to stay in Shenzhen as the hotel rooms are 3 times cheaper and much bigger than the ones in Hongkong. Plus, Shenzhen is where all the cheap and good shopping and seafood are, so that's where we'll be.
Of course the plane was delayed for some reason and we ended up only departing at 8.30pm and arriving at way past 12 midnight. Thankfully baby girl adapted well and only cried occasionally because of the noisy engines and popping ears.
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| Girlee's 1st time on a plane! |
I got her to suck on her pacifier the whole time as it helped her to swallow saliva and 'pop' her ears. I think it's the first time I ever let her suck on her pacifier for so long.
The only bad thing (for us or for others I don't know) was that we had to share our row of three seats with one other stranger. I had to take the aisle seat as I didn't know when baby needed me to stand up and rock her or change her diapers, but then it was really very inconvenient whenever the stranger needed to go to the toilet. And she would do it at the most inconvenient time - i.e. after I had just put Girlee to sleep -_-" She woke up of course and took me forever to get her back to sleep!
(On the trip back we got smart and requested for all three seats to be occupied by us while one of us sat at the back by himself. That worked out much better!)
On arrival, all of us were dead tired so we didn't heed my dad's warning (which was to always take a cab from a taxi stand and go by the meter) and accepted a cab driver's offer of 200RMB (S$40) to get to our hotel. And boy was that the wrong thing to do! Apparently that cost us almost 50RMB (S$10) more. But we learnt a valuable lesson. Never take the green cab (which costs way more and doesn't get you to where you want to go) and always queue up for the red cabs.
We were all thankful to reach the hotel in one piece at 1am in the morning. We decided to stay at Days Inn Shenzhen, the hotel we always stay in whenever we're at Shenzhen (I booked it online via Agoda).
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| Days Inn Shenzhen (Taken in the day) |
We decided to all pile into one room so that it was easier for us to take turns looking after the baby (and each other).
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| Our hotel room |
We booked a large room that came with a giant king size bed and then added another bed so that it was just enough for all of us. The hotel was also nice enough to provide us with more pillows on request, which made our stay more comfortable =)
Continue to >> SZ-HK Day 2: Lao Jie Shopping & Seafood (SZ)
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