Travel & Leisure

Wednesday November 11, 2009

Travel smart

By WONG LI ZA

A family holiday provides a great learning experience for both parent and child.

PARENTS are all too familiar with their children's incessant chant of "Are we there yet?" whenever they go on holiday. Be it a two-hour road journey to the beach or an eight-hour flight to a foreign destination, family trips can be stressful for parents.

However, with a little planning, flexibility and a positive attitude, you could have a whale of a time. Here are stories from parents who have done just that.

Fun time out: When travelling with children, it is important to be flexible, enjoy things like a child would and not get unduly worried. – Pic courtesy of Tourism Australia

Different perspectives

Travelling with four children in tow may sound like an ordeal, but not for Tengku Elisa Bustaman and her husband Mohamed Taufik Omar.

Last year's trip to Taman Negara, Pahang, was one of their most memorable.

"I was really surprised at the facilities available in Kuala Tahan. The children enjoyed the natural surroundings, learnt about wildlife and the orang asli, and the importance of preserving the environment," said Tengku Elisa via e-mail.

A former engineer with a telecommunications company, she quit her job in 2005 to relocate to Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, where her husband, who works in the oil and gas industry, was posted.

Travelling with children of different ages is both challenging and rewarding.

"It can be quite stressful, especially when you have four kids of different interests, but they also provide different perspectives of things," said Tengku Elisa, who has three boys and a girl aged between three and 11.

"Sometimes the simplest things are what they remember most, like collecting pebbles by the beach, finding the remains of a camel in the desert, or noticing that the turtle poo-ed when being chased underwater," she said.

Tengku Elisa, 38, makes it a point to have variety in their itinerary and to include visits to the park, puppet theatre or lunch at an authentic local restaurant.

"With children, I usually limit it to one main activity a day. If we visit a museum in the morning (which would require a lot of walking), in the afternoon I would probably let them stay in the room, go to a local bookstore or park," she said.

Travelling together has been a great learning experience for the family.

"The children learnt about different cultures and saw how people from different walks of life live, from the farmers in Egypt to the farmers in Alor Setar, the Bedouines in Oman to the pilgrims in Makkah.

"It has also made them more tolerant of people who look or act different from us," she said.

Simple pleasures

The mere fact of being together during a holiday is something Lainee Wong, 40, and her family cherish. Their favourite activities include going to the beach, snorkelling, visiting the waterfalls and theme parks.

"Recently, we went to Awana Kijal for two nights and also did snorkelling at Pulau Kapas. We enjoyed the clear pristine beaches in Terengganu, the stopovers to have coconut water and lekor, eating yummy seafood and bathing in the beautiful Sungai Pandan waterfall in Kuantan," said Wong, a marketing communications manager with an energy management company.

"Taking it easy during a holiday is key to having a good time. We went for a trip to Singapore for three nights and made the mistake of trying to cram too many activities and places to visit in a day. It was fun but tiring for all of us," said Wong, who has two boys aged eight and 11, and a girl aged four.

"During a trip to Myanmar a few years ago, we visited many orphanages, monasteries, nunneries and hospitals. Our eldest child was seven then. He's 11 now and can still remember the children at the orphanages.

"When travelling with children, it is important to be flexible, enjoy things like a child would and not get unduly worried," Wong added.

The best situation

Travelling with a baby can mean lots of unscheduled stops and doing things impromptu, like breastfeeding while waiting in queue.

Sazlin Suhaila Daud, 37, did just that when she travelled with her husband Ilhami, and then seven-month-old son Seth, to London and Paris last year.

"We had to wait over an hour in a long queue to get on the Thames river cruise and there was nowhere for me to breastfeed my baby. I had to find a corner, turn my body away from the queuing public and breastfeed while standing," recalled Sazlin.

Although the trip was tiring, it gave Sazlin and her husband a sense of achievement.

"I tried to keep the itinerary simple and we managed to cover the major sights but in between destinations, we had to return to the hotel to rest and eat before heading out again," said Sazlin, a former corporate lawyer who is now a freelance writer.

Now that Seth is a toddler (he turns two next month), travelling presents another set of challenges.

"We took a drive to Penang some months back and I could only keep him in his car seat for an hour. After that, I had to sit at the back of the car with him and keep him entertained.

"As a result, we've put off all plans for long travel with my toddler, at least until he's about three. He's now very active, easily bored and cannot sit in one place for more than 10 minutes.

"Travelling with children teaches us to be organised, to plan in advance, to have lots of patience, and be able to make crack decisions if something comes up.

"For example, when Seth soiled his clothes on the subway and there was nowhere to change him, we had to get off at an unplanned station and changed him in the nearest toilet before hopping on the metro again.

"It is important to be able to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the other passengers when your child is screaming his head off in the plane or on the train and to be creative in mitigating the situation."

Go with the flow

Being on holiday with children often warrants a positive attitude and improvising.

Pushpa Ramalingam remembered once how there was no toilet on board a ferry to Langkawi and she had to think of something when her son needed to use a toilet.

"When the ferry took off, our son wanted to go to the toilet and he had to pee in a plastic bag," said Pushpa, whose son is seven and daughter, five.

As a family, their most memorable holidays include a trip to Bangkok and Koh Samet, Thailand, New Zealand, and a cruise from Singapore to Phuket and Langkawi.

Before embarking on long journeys, Pushpa, 41, and her husband try to tire the children out at the playground.

"Once we reach our destination, we go with the flow and don't follow a fixed plan. However, it has to be child-centred and involve a lot of play.

"When on holiday, as much as we would like them to eat every meal, we also don't get stressed when they don't because we know they will make up for it in the next meal," said Pushpa, a lawyer by training who migrated with her family to Perth last year.

The children have also learnt to adapt to new environments and learnt new cultures.

Pushpa sticks to a few basic principles when on holiday.

"Relax and remember that enthusiasm is infectious. If the parent is enthusiastic about the trip, then the children will be happy and positive, despite any setbacks," she said.