International Travel Archives - Page 10 of 19

Jan 02 2015

Five Reasons to Travel with a Toddler

Our trip to Asia is winding down, but before we go I’ve been reflecting a bit about whether it was worth all the trouble dragging our about to be 2-year old halfway around the world. It hasn’t been easy and we’ve never been out past 9 PM (which is like the opposite of what one would usually do in Hong Kong or Taiwan).

At some point in Taipei Jess asked me if knowing what I know now, I’d take this trip again. I’m happy to say that now my answer is a definitive yes. Here are my personal reasons why.

Everything is new and amazing to a toddler

1. Problem solving is fun for me

Although you might have an impression of me as a problem creator (guilty), I enjoy problem solving which takes up about 80% of my energy as a parent. Travel inherently involves a bit of problem solving – figuring out how to navigate a new country in the most efficient (both cost and time) way possible can create a real challenge.

You need to be a lot more strategic about your pathing with a toddler in tow

Balancing a toddler’s needs on top of all that adds a whole other layer that, while stressful, I find really fun dealing with. It’s fun because the rewards of “figuring it out” can be seen on the smiling face of my child which makes it feel worth it.

Case in point: it took a lot of maneuvering to get us there, but the end product of going to Hong Kong Disneyland today was a lot of this:

2. You still get to eat well regardless

Traveling with a toddler definitely slows us down, but the one area that suffers the least is eating. Sure, you don’t get to go to any fancy restaurants, but there is plenty of amazing food to be had that your toddler can enjoy with you (as long as you’re willing to do some advance research/problem solving!)

We even managed to hit up two Michelin starred restaurants on this trip, Din Tai Fung in Taipei and Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong.

Quite possibly my favorite Char Siu Bao (pork bun) of all time

I mean sure, they’re not your typical fancy schmancy Michelin stars, but the food is still amazing and memorable. And in a worst case scenario you can take food back to your hotel room – I guarantee if you do it right it’ll still be better than what you eat at home! What we eat, at least. 🙂

3. The chance to introduce your kid to new cultures is worth it

Or in the case of this trip, her forbears culture. This trip has helped legitimize our decision to speak mainly Mandarin to M, since she’s been surrounded by it since we got to Asia. I also think that there is that “wow” factor for her, especially here in Hong Kong. All the people, all the lights, all the…boats…all these things have been really stimulated (and overstimulating!) our daughter.

Hong Kong has turned M into a big fan of boat rides

But I know one of the best parts of the trip for Jess was the chance for M to not only meet relatives, but the time we visited the house where her father grew up. There’s something special about seeing your child in a place that has significant meaning for you, even if they don’t get it. Sometimes that’s worth the trip in and of itself.

4. Traveling together is a real bonding experience

Every time we travel together, it feels like M takes some major steps developmentally. But deep down I think it just feels that way because we get to spend so much time together. And it’s fun.

It’s fun for our daughter to see and experience new things, and it’s fun for us to be a part of that. I’m sure traveling is a bonding experience with kids of any age, but I think there’s something special about toddlers.

May or may not have had to give her a little nudge down

Sure, they’re just starting to have opinions but for the most part, everything is awesome to them. Whereas when you drag an adolescent around they’re probably just complaining all of the time. Well, maybe that was just me.

But when we ask M if she wants to try something new while we’re on the road, right now the answer is “yaaaaaah” 90% of the time. And that’s fun for all of us.

5. It beats being at home (most of the time)

I guess we could have spent the last 10 days lounging around at home. But I would have inevitably just drifted to my computer, M would have just been doing the same old same old, and Jess would probably be baking something amazing.

Hey, if they get bored, stickers work in any country

Being out here forces us to mix up our routine; that process isn’t easy but it’s definitely worth it. We get to see the world together as a family and have some memorable moments (both good and bad). Not too shabby.

Final Thoughts

What I’ve neglected to mention at all is how points and miles really have made this trip possible. It takes a lot of work and planning to fly business and to stay in confirmed suites, but that’s all things that make our travel easier (and less expensive!). For that I’m thankful.

Ultimately, while it may not be for everyone, I think traveling with a toddler is/was worth it. Especially when it’s 2 vs 1, which is what we’ve got. Feel free to check in with me again if it becomes a game of 2 on 2. Maybe I’ll change my tune…

Asia 2014 was different, but in many ways even better

Jan 01 2015

Dealing with Mishaps While Traveling

So...this is happening..... — So…this is happening…..

This may be a banner trip in terms of screw-ups for Jess and me. I recognize that I am prone to mishaps (that sometimes result in sprinting across a tarmac in Tahiti), but I’d say M’s toddler-hood is really kicking things into overdrive.

Things started at the Star Alliance Lounge when we were waiting for our flight to Taipei. We thought M had gone #2, and after drawing straws to see who would change her, I prepared to take her to the bathroom.

M's got the diapers, but where are the wipes? — M’s got the diapers, but where are the wipes?

“Hey, where are the wipes?”

“I thought you packed them?”

“……………………………”

Check that, this happened towards the beginning of our EVA Air flight. I know this because we both decided we were screwed because there was no way of procuring butt wipes. Luckily, at that particular moment, it was a false alarm, but sure enough, an hour out, duty called. We ended up using our regular disinfectant wipes which was not ideal but did the trick.

Not content to make this mistake only once, we decided to go next level by completely forgetting our consolidated diaper bag in Tainan before our 2 hour train ride back to Taipei. Which of course happened an hour after this exchange:

“Hey we should change her right?”

“Probably but we can also change her at the train station while we’re waiting, right?”

“OK…sounds like a good idea.”

The clutchness of this facility cannot be overstated

NOPE. Luckily in this case we were able to rely on the kindness of strangers. As you may recall, Taiwan is super kid friendly. So we stalked all the parents at the breastfeeding room in the Tainan HSR train station until we worked up the guts to ask someone for a diaper.

Of course, they were super nice about it and even offered two, but we were so embarrassed. Terrible parents! And this was followed by the jet lag incident on the train, which I’m still recovering mentally from.

Diaper bag incident #3 occurred on our slightly nightmarish flight from Taipei to Hong Kong which I haven’t even gotten to write up yet. Let’s just say that the flight attendants called back to Taipei Taoyuan reporting a missing diaper bag only for me to realize I had put it in an overhead compartment separate from the rest of our stuff fifteen minutes later. <hangs head in shame>

Since we’ve arrived in Hong Kong, things have been pretty smooth unless you count M breaking a phone charger as a mishap.

Oh, and I’m currently typing this with my laptop hooked up to the hotel room TV since a series of unfortunate events has caused the monitor on my laptop to go bust. NBD.

Anyway, mishaps while traveling can cause a lot of stress. We do our best to roll with the punches, and for the most part I do, but sometimes it’s tough not to let things get to you. I was particularly shaken up (or something like that) by the whole laptop is busted situation.

She's happy...so what else really matters? — She’s happy…so what else really matters?

In the end, you’re on the road to enjoy yourself, and you just have to let things go – something I find very hard to do. But mishaps are going to happen, they almost always lead to amusing anecdotes for dinner parties, and in the end, there’s nothing you can do about them – so enjoy the ride. The most important thing is that everyone is healthy and happy. Though we’ve still got a few more days to screw up some more so I’m crossing my fingers…

And hey, at least I got to eat this today.

That's not the lighting, that's mostly raw-ish egg. Yum. — That’s not the lighting, that’s mostly raw-ish egg. Yum.

Interested in more misadventures? Follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

Dec 30 2014

Home for the Holidays: Using Public Transportation in Taiwan with a Toddler

This post is in small part trip report and in large part informational. Public transportation in Taiwan is cheap, easy, and fairly straightforward – even when your kid is having a rough time. And regardless of how they’re feeling, Taiwan is super kid friendly and their public transportation system reflects that. Here are some quick tips for getting around.

Using the MRT (Subway)

Taipei’s subway system is called the MRT, and it’s very well designed. Not only can it get you almost all the places you’d like to go in Taipei (and beyond), it’s very intuitive, signed clearly in both Chinese and English, AND makes announcements in English, Mandarin, and other languages that I thought were Cantonese but were actually Taiwanese and Hakka.

Now I’m appreciative of our public transportation system in Boston, but the reality is it can’t hold a candle to Taipei.

First of all, my guess is Taiwanese people pay a ton of taxes – how else can you explain these prices? For NT => USD you basically divide by 30. We took a trip to the zoo and it only cost us a little more than a dollar in USD.

Prices to every station are listed above the ticket vending machines – cheap!

Secondly, there were trains every few minutes every time we rode the MRT – even on weekends.

Thirdly, there are 7-11s in many of the stations (they’re really everywhere) serving awesome stuff like this:

Don't worry, you can get hot dogs too — Don’t worry, you can get hot dogs too

Using the system couldn’t be simpler. After noting your fare price on the map, just choose a single-journey ticket. Then click on your ticket price and number of tickets you want and pay (cash only as far as I could tell).

After that, the machine pops out a couple of tokens that have some kind of RFID in them (or some other sort of chip).

Hmm not sure what happened to my hand color here

Tap the token on the picture as you are entering the gated area, drop token in slot on your way out. Easy as pie.

Before you ride the rails, prepare to ride the...um...cables — Before you ride the rails, prepare to ride the…um…cables

Be forewarned, if you are disabled or using a stroller (like we were), you’re going to have to take a lot of elevators. Generally it’s pretty intuitive where to go (well designed, remember), and there are even attendants at a lot of the stations who are a lot of help. Again, since Taiwan is so kid friendly, lots of people were yielding to us and letting us go first – I guess we do that in America too, so good for us! It definitely feels silly to go up an elevator, walk across a bridge, and then go back down – but that’s just train life.

Taking the HSR (High Speed Rail)

The HSR is just as easy to use as the MRT, though I was able to use a credit card (Barclays Arrival+ with my pin, not affiliate) to buy these. Buy tickets from machines, insert tickets (and take) when entering, insert tickets (and watch go bye bye) upon exit. The HSR can get you between a lot of different points in Taiwan quickly; we took a quick 1 hour 45 minute ride to Tainan to visit relatives.

Having a chip and pin card is still awesome

Be aware that you can choose to reserve seats beforehand or sit in a car with unreserved seating. Buying from a machine, we couldn’t really choose our seats (they were just assigned to us) though my guess is you can if buying at the counter. There is a food card with all sorts of goodies that rolls through the train and they keep it remarkably clean.

Like I said in a previous post, M had a rough ride on the way home so I became very acquainted with the toilet cleaning lady due to my proximity to the lavatories.

One thing to note is that in the HSR stations (and I think I saw some in MRT stations as well) there are Breastfeeding rooms. Jess said you actually have to knock to go inside and they have it set up with boppy equivalents and all that – crazy kid friendly! There is also a baller changing table with a sink right next to it (great design). Didn’t take pictures of that though because I don’t like looking like a creeper.

Taking the Bus or a Cab

Again, the bus is very simple and very cheap. Jess took it once on her own, but I never ended up taking it on this trip because I didn’t want to deal with M on it.

Cabs are everywhere, but one thing to note – the culture around car seats is pretty different in Asia. Lots of babies are held by their parents a lot of the time, and cabs are no exception. Sometimes people look at you like you’re crazy if you ask for a car seat. So, be prepared to potentially hold your child in a car. Just a word of warning.

Final Thoughts

Public transportation in Taipei is cheap, well-designed, and efficient. There are even clean places where you can change your child. Best of all, it can be fun for the kids. Just watch out for rush hour…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

United Domestic First and LAX Star Alliance Lounge

EVA Royal Laurel Class Review

Using Public Transportation in Taiwan with a Toddler

Visiting the Taipei Zoo

Eating in Taipei

Grand Hyatt Taipei King Suite Review

A Tough Flight with a Toddler

Public Transportation in Hong Kong with a Toddler

Typical Hong Kong Tourist Activities

Hong Kong Disneyland with a Toddler

Dec 29 2014

Hong Kong Money is So Unnecessarily Complicated

I’ve realized that dealing with a toddler, especially a jet lagged one, renders my “live” trip report near impossible. Even when I find the time, I’m too tired to go through all that effort.

BUT – I still can post some random thoughts quickly. We’ve made it safely to Hong Kong, though not without a bit of excitement. It’s been about six hours and I can honestly say it’s good to be back. For those who’ve never been, it’s kind of like New York on steroids with tons of more people and a lot more Chinese characters (both the language and the humans).

Cash is ordered from big to small - literally. I mean, I guess that's useful? — Cash is ordered from big to small – literally. I mean, I guess that’s useful?

What I’d forgotten about Hong Kong money (cash tender) is how unnecessarily complicated it can be. I was distributing cash between myself and Jess (as I do in every new city) and I was just blown away by the number, sizes, and shapes of the bills. I always forget it’s like this here.

So the money is made in all sorts of shapes and sizes, issued by different banks, plus coins, plus coins with frills, plus the old money, plus newly issued money, plus oh my gosh my wallet looks like it threw up on itself and it’s only been a few hours.

Case in point: here are three different twenty dollar bills.

Three different twenty dollar bills - why!? — Three different twenty dollar bills – why!?

Like – why? These bills represent two different bills issued by HSBC and one by Standard Chartered. And it’s not just the twenties – every single bill has multiple issues. It’s crazy. The color scheme is pretty standard, and I guess the different sizes help, but why!?

I’m not even exaggerating when I say that the bigger bills don’t even fit in Jess’ wallet.

Then there’s stuff like the 2 dollar coins, which are cool looking despite their unnecessary looking fringe. And then there are the < 1 dollar cent pieces! It’s enough to drive me crazy.

Of course, you’re probably asking why I’m using cash at all. Mostly because we were just tired and I was feeling lazy and because I had some. But I’m thinking of just loading the majority of my cash onto my Octopus card and calling it a day.

The Octopus card is so easy I might (gasp) rely on it more than my CC here

Actually, maybe the government doesn’t want us to use cash. If that’s the case, then I guess their funny money makes more sense. It’s just so weird to me, Hong Kong has one of the most developed economies in the world but the most badly designed (to me) cash system. Or maybe I’m just too dumb to get it.

Dec 28 2014

Dealing with a Jet Lagged Toddler

With crowds + jet lag, the Beco is a lifesaver

I wish I had the answers, but I don’t. Although we managed to handle the long flights to Asia without too much issue, jet lag has definitely been kicking our butts. Here are some of my random thoughts after the past 72 hours – delirious ones, I might add.

1. A toddler compounds all of your own personal jet lag issues

This is pretty “duh” as far as thoughts go, but this is even clearer to me now that I’ve seen it in action. I should add the corollary that your personal jet lag issues compound that of your toddlers. Mine, at least.

Example – when any of the three of us wakes up at night, generally at least one if not both of the others will wake up. Case in point, two nights ago at 2 AM I moved my arm and M woke up and we had to deal with her for a little over an hour. This morning M woke us all up at 5 AM.

Of course the biggest problem is you are adding jet lag problems to general lack of sleep for parents of toddler problems. As far as I can tell, it just kind of spirals. When you go to Asia with your parents as a kid, jet lag doesn’t seem like too big of a deal. When you’re responsible for your own kid it feels pretty different.

2. Naptime has devolved into a disaster

Overtiredness + jet lag = totally screwed up naps. At least as far as our child is concerned. Compounding the issue is our familial obligations that keep us out of the hotel room a lot.

We’ve tried everything, Beco, strolling, straight up cradling in the arms – with little to no success. What has made things worse is the new environment is one that M is obviously keen to explore.

The train ride there was no problem, but the return ride... — The train ride there was no problem, but the return ride…

Things hit a low point yesterday as I held a screaming child for 35 minutes straight on a High Speed Rail train. We were in the passageway between cars but Jess said she could still hear her. She ultimately just fell asleep crying. At that point she had been awake from 5 AM until 5 PM – twelve straight hours!

So if you can help it, I’d suggest taking things even slower than you think you should with a jetlagged toddler. They need that rest!

3. Be prepared to break the rules

Rule 1 broken: no T.V. outside of football

Rule 2 broken: no chips

Rule 3 broken: no juice

The first two were broken in the middle of our marathon flight, but no juice happened yesterday. During the aforementioned train meltdown a kindly conductor came by and produced a juice box out of thin air.

Admittedly most kids her age drink juice already but for whatever reason we’ve never felt the need to. Until yesterday! At my wits end I popped the straw in, gulped down over half the juice myself, then gave M a few drags.

The first thing she did was squeeze the box and get it all over her face and clothes (mine too). Then after drinking a bit she calmed down for a few precious minutes. Sugar really does soothe. She eventually started bawling again but this time it was short and she finally passed out. Breaking the rules in order to survive!

4. You can’t stop a tantrum if it’s happening subconsciously

It’s true, M is hitting the terrible twos, but the reality is most of her tantrums have been jet lag related and totally out of her control.

If a child is crying with her eyes closed can you really do anything about it? It’s not like we are withholding something from her and she’s getting mad – she’s just screaming and crying subconsciously. This is all due to being over tired and jet lagged.

This happens at home from time to time but it’s happened since we’ve got to Asia at least once per day (or night). We just have been waiting her out as best as possible, the worst example being that train! (By now you probably have gathered I’m mildly traumatized by the whole thing).

5. Just go with it

Probably the motto all parents fall back on at some point. There’s nothing we can do about jet lag, hers or ours, we’re just doing our best to survive. Family helps, of course, but we’re just learning how to adapt situation by situation.

Last night when M woke up in the middle of the night I just firmly told her she had to stay in bed – luckily it worked. She woke up at 830 this morning, hopefully we’re out of the woods? We’ll see.

Final Thoughts

Dealing with a jet lagged toddler is definitely tough. 12 hours is the most she’s had to deal with and some times are definitely harder than others. Like we do at home, we’re just trying to survive – and have a little fun in the process! Feel free to offer your jet lag related thoughts in the comments!

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