Basically what we have done was only booking with Air Asia and all of us felt reluctant to search for information before the clock tickling.
Besides of Yen, Yvonne and I have no idea what are the attraction of Hainan island and we just simply booked the tickets and planned to take our parents together... its a friends and family trip!
Not until March 2010, we decided to discuss and planned the itinerary of this trip. 7D6N for a not so popular vacation is not as easy as we thougt. Since we do not have much reference from friends, the only thing we can rely on was internet. We gathered quite some information from blogs, Trip Advisor, China and Hainan websites, & etc and came up with a To Do & Must Visit List.
We even brought the list to Matta fair and looked for travelling agencies to custom made our trip- private trip. Just like common SOP (standard operating procedure), we source for 3 quotes and tried to compare. Ended up none can be used, either too expensive to they insisted us to follow their itinerary.
So, as 3 musketeers/ Charlies' Angels, we can't simply gave up! We tried to contact some China travelling agencies and hotel. We will booked and planned our own itinerary. At the same time, we received an SMS from Air Asia that KL- Haikou flight had been reschedule from April 19, 2010 to April 20, 2010. Feeling something not right, we went to Air Asia counter in KL Central and found out that our return flight had also being reshedule without notice. The AA officer said that they will inform us very soon of the return flight reschedule but, we did not received any notice until one week before our departure.... Air Asia representatives, if you are reading this, honestly, WE ARE NOT IMPRESSED!!!!!
After several emails with the travel agent & hotellier in Hainan, Global Sanya and Sunny Sanya Family Inn, we have our finalised itinerary as follow:
Transportation booking：
Transport at RMB3600 by van with 9-12 seats for 9 persons from April 20th to 23rd (4 days) with the following details:
April 20: Airport pickup, lunch, head for Xinglong, (may stop Coffee factory, botanical garden or abalone farm etc), then check in the hotel, dinner, back to hotel: Hainan Xinglong Silver Lake Hot Spring Holiday Hotel
April 21: Breakfast & check out, tour around Xing Long, Lunch in Sanya, check in Sunny Sanya Family Inn, Sanya tour（places to be confirmed）, Dinner, Back to hotel
April 22: Breakfast, Sanya tour (places to be confirmed), 6 pm depart to Haikou and check in hotel: International Financial (Jasper) Hotel, Shopping, Dinner and back to hotel
April 23: Breakfast & Tour in Haikou- Old Street & Volcano park, Shopping, Dinner & back to hotel
April 24:At your own arrangement; Hotel- Airport transfer via Airasia Go.
This itinerary was agreed by the travel agency in China, see how flexible it is! And the charges was reasonable. After we had confirmed the airport transfer via Air Asia, the travel agency told me that they actually offer a much much cheaper rate!!! Well, since nothing much can be done, we just proceed with the plan.
The next step that create hussle was the Visa application.Yvonne contacted a local travel agency and they requested RM90 for a single entry Visa. Hubby got pissed and he offered to help us sending the passport and application forms to the China Embassy (opposite Citibank, KL). A single entry Visa just cost RM 58. For a total of 8 person, we have saved RM 256!!! But, Yen's parent photos had been rejected due to the measurement. So hubby gotta visited the embassy few times in order the get our Visa done.
One lucky thing about this trip was the RMB rate was quite good. I managed to get 49++ and planned to bring about RMB 4 K for the 5D4N trip. Tot is should be enought for 2 person since 2 night of the hotel and airport transfer had been settled..... well..... keep track of our trip and expenses in coming post...
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