Sunday, November 12, 2017

Counting down...

The massive 11.11 shoppaholic event just passed and I too, took the chance to grab some bargains. Out of those that I've bought, the one purchase that caught me by surprise was air tickets! Yes, the choos are travelling.. although there was no plans to initially. Wow! Hahahah... surprise surprise..

During our recent melaka trip, I told William that if we were to travel again, I hope that it would be something meaningful. That the girls would learn something out of it..either humility or be able to see snow coz the twins hadn't experience snow before.. we considered bringing them to HKK but it was simply too expensive for the village to go.. air tickets on scoot alone would easily b $5k, not mentioning all the accoms and transpt etc..  I did considering doing farm stays in Aust/ TW but even that too would cost quite a bit.. the most affordable option we had was to bring them to a farm stay in JB but some of the reviews said that the mosquitoes there are commando grade and I wasn't comfortable risking Vera on another mozzie attack. I suggested legoland also bcoz it was a place that the girls havent been before but Mr Choo wasn't keen.. when it seems like all options weren't possible, I suggested Khao Yai - a place 3 hrs away from Bangkok. We had all watched a travel show before on it a few mths ago and really like what we saw. But even tickets to Bangkok wasn't cheap considering the school hols (aka super peak). Budget airlines were going for ~$300/pax, only slightly cheaper than full carrier fares. One might think $300 sounds reasonable but when I have to budget for the whole village it would easily cost abt $5k for the entire trip and that wasn't something I was comfortable to spend on a whim. I would rather spend the $5k on groceries and let the girls bring it to the children home we adopted last yr. 11.11 came and I was still sitting on the fence. I'm not sure if it was 11.11 or what, (I was sure that the lowest fare we saw on SQ was $1600++ for the whole village the day before) but somehow by God's grace, the SQ tickets became $217/pax! Which would mean that we would only spend abt $1k on air fare. N it was the dates that we could go in order to stay at the cheap accommodations at khao yai.. hahah..(~$400 for 3 nights with 5 beds is a steal)
And so , we booked the air tickets and accoms on 11.11! And getting ready to leave on sat ! Really excited to see the place! The scenery is nice and we would be going to a few farms so that the city kids could appreciate nature..hahaha

A casual chat with my buddy and he referred me his driver contact which would bring us there too ! And at a discount ! Yeah! Praise the Lord ! Mr choo had checked out the car/driver rental rates and it were all much more exp such that we concluded that we.probably just rent a car and he will have to drive. But God is good.. for He has given us a driver who will fetch us around and we didn't have to worry abt getting lost or finding a petrol kiosk etc..

Feeling pretty excited abt the upcoming trip. We have decided that there won't be any T.v. on the trip so that the girls could spend time with each other and with us. Praying that God grant us mercy on the trip and protect us throughout it.. and I hope the girls will know how fortunate they are when they see kids living in poverty in other parts of the world. Moving forward I do want to be deliberate in my travel plans such that they do learn something out of it. But this is the first one and hopefully it pans out well..

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