Bismillah.
WARNING: ENTRY NI PANJANG!!
WARNING: Bahasa banyak karat dan oh my english sangat. Forgive me. Tak bermaksud untuk menghina bahasa. I really have to learn language again.
I do wanna say it's amazing to be able to travel around the world with your kids, I do. I do wanna say it's a FUN, EXCITING experience. But I have to be honest, it's one of the hardest. It's HARD. It's more fun and exciting to be at home, playing something, or just go to somewhere just in the city, rather than travelling across continents to bring them somewhere. But ofcourse, it's worth it. So this will be a longgg entry because I will share with you all the things we have been through, and other stuffs too.
I have a 17 month old, and a 4 year old. I have been travelling with young kid ever since my first girl was born. When she was 50 days old, we go on a vacation in Gold Coast Australia. We fly overseas 3 to 4 times a year, sometimes 6 times. Depends on business. And most of the travel are not vacation. Memang business trip. Ada meeting, conference, training, dan sebagainya. Things were super duper easy when there was only one child. Macam tak perasan pun kena juggle traveling bawak anak semua. Maklumlah, one dad, one mom, one kid. Memangla senang lagi kan.
So the real challenge begins, when we have 2. And then I feel like giving up travelling with young children 3-4 times a year T__T. Wahaha. But still, 2 adult 2 kids okeyla. Kalau 3 nanti tak tahula macam mana kan. :s
Don't get me wrong. I am grateful. I never regret. Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah. It's exactly as what I planned and I dream of. Cuma I just feel like sharing it, because in the instagram semua nampak macam 100% happiness, and in life there's no such thing as perfection. So let me just share with you how exactly the journey with young children.
The Experience of Challenges we went through with young children:
1. The full public transport experience.
This was Paris. I was 3 month pregnant. My girl was 20 months old. Ni namanya gatal nak merasa kepayahan hidup. "Hey, why rent car when you can walk on the path that local people walk on?" Macam tulah. Dengan stroller nya. And we discover than the train station in Paris are not kids friendly. They have stairs. And no doors for stroller kat tempat check tiket tu. So we have to make stunt like angkat stroller kat gate tinggi, rendah, semuanya. Angkat stroller kat tangga. Takde escalator. Takde lift. Just stairs.
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| No more public transport in Paris. That's it. |
Whyyyy never in my mind aku nak sewa kereta or naik taxi je. I was just so thrilled and excited just to walk around. We carry the stroller together naik turun tangga, most of the time with my 20 months old girl in it, with me being pregnant. My husband wouldn't allow, but I was so stubborn nak tolong. TANGGA TINGGIIIII HOKAYYY kesian tengok husband.
The good side is, there are always some good man volunteering to help. And the good side is, we tend to love each other more in bad and exhausting time, perasan tak? I mean... in a luxury and easy trip, we tend to slipped dengan lebih mudah complain. Perasan tak? Ke aku sorang je yang suka susah susah ni. And this hard challenging trips, we complain less and love more. I don't know.
I told my husband lately, "I find it quite fun moving around with public transport in other country."
"NO. WE ARE NOT DOING THAT AGAIN. Rent a car, or pay a tour guide or driver, or whatever. WE ARE NOT DOING IT AGAIN." His reaction. LOL. Can't blame him for feeling that.
Although I find the experience is romantic and lovely, we are never doing it again. At least not in winter. (yeahh we did this one in winter!!)
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| Thank you for being a patience companion for someone who loves to look for trouble like me. T__T |
2. The non-English speaking Disneyland
This was Tokyo. It was free. Most of the ride, we couldn't ride because our girl tak cukup tinggi. We we can only join the show...that we didn't understand at all. Serious ngantuk. Tengok macam... ape ni ape ni...
Ada mascots of Disney characters, that suppose to entertain our kid, but she has this phobia for mascots. (blame my sister for that. My daughter inherit it from her). So everytime ada meet and greet characters yang lalu she would cry so loud so scared.
Basically, we can only enjoy in the Ariel playground. We spent hours in there.
Syukurlah tiket free.
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| Mascot apa tu punnn aku tak kenal deerrrr. |
3. The 6 hours flight + 10 hours transit + 13 hours flight journey
Selfies are trophies of our teamwork.
THISSSS is so tiring. Macam ni ek. We are talking about young children. So yang paling mencabar kalau trip panjang-panjang atas flight ni, bila ada anak berusia bawah 3 tahun. Yang pandai tantrum, tak faham bahasa lagi. Ya Allahhhh.
Bila ada anak bawah umur setahun, make sure you drink lots and lots of water sepanjang perjalanan sebab kalau susu tak cukup memuaskan anak mengamuk. We always carry empty 1L bottle bila naik flight, dan mintak pramugari isi. Habis je isi. Habis je isi.
And just as we thought we could sleep on the flight yang depart from Kuala Lumpur midnight, "Ohh anak-anak mesti tidur punya. Bolehla tidur sepanjang flight nanti." Turns out anak-anak kena adapt dengan tidur dalam flight. And they have interrupted sleep asyik terjaga nangis je. And you...being a mom, who normally have syndrome sekali-terjaga-je-takkan-tidur-dah. Say bye bye to your on flight sleep. Aku, dah biasa sangat migrain selepas flight yang panjang.
If you think that bassinet may help your child's sleep, in my case, not at all. Lagi annoying adalah bila die nangis je kita kena bangun, angkat. Bila turbulence je pramugari akan kejut kita angkat baby dari bassinet. Last-last lagi best peluk je anak tu sepanjang kite tidur. Kite nyenyak, dia nyenyak.
We normally have this experience bila pergi US. We've been there 4 times. 6 hours flight kau interrupted sleep. 10 hours transit kau kena berjaga sebab jaga budak-budak tu. Normally transit Korea, banyak playground. They have fun, but your eyes are always with them. No sleep. Husband banyak kali pujuk tidur, he would take care of the kids. Tapi serious lah tak boleh tidur. Pastu sambung lah on the 13 hours flight, interrupted sleep jugak. And sampai je US, it's 9am in the morning. Tadaaa!! New day!! It's the first day of your vacation! You have 12 hours before your sleep time according to US time. To sum up, it's 41 hours without real sleep. That's why I started getting comments, "Pucatnyaaa!!!" Time tu nak pengsan dah rasa.
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| Semua orang comment pucat. It's 40 hours of no sleep for both of us. :'D |
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| Budaknya happy je cukup tidur. :/ |
First time lalui benda ni memang shocked lah. Your mind wasn't ready. So memang teruk lah. Sampai US je aku tidur dalam kereta berejam. Tapi lepas 3 kali experience, trip ke 4 ke LA bersama young children bebaru ni, Alhamdulillah sangat mudah. I was like Mary Poppin, well prepare mind and tools. Happy kids, happy mom. Happy mom, happy family. :D
4. The 2 kids crying non stop for 2 hours on flight. With everyone around, and you can't do anything about it.
I've been there. 1 child nangis? I can handle that. In fact, my first flight ever with my baby, she cried for 4 hours non stop. Takkk die tak sakit, die tak sejuk. Semua okey je. Except I think Allah wouldn't allow something to pass freely. So one child, acceptable. Dah ready. 2 children nangis serentak? Tak tahu nak fikir macam mana. T__T
This was our trip to Hawaii. Waktu tu anak-anak umur 5 bulan dan 3 tahun. My 3 year old toddler, was in the stage of crying during deep sleep. She cried every night at home, dalam 3am every night, and normally it lasted 30 to 45 minutes. Die tak perasan pun. During day time she is adorable toddler, yang suka explore, yang suka berkepit dengan Papa. Easy peasy to handle. But night time? She didn't even know that she was crying so bad every night. Aku tak pernah make big fuss pun dengan keadaan tu because I read that it is normal for some children at her age to wake up at night and cryyyyyyy all her heart. Sampai kami memang dah biasa, dan kami semua tidur je biar dia nangis. and really, there's nothing can be done to stop her crying. My 5 month old baby, is very easy to handle Subhanallah. Cukup susu, nyenyaklah tidur.
So I thought, yang dah besar tu dah pandai tidur (terlupa yang die ada peranga menangis malam), yang kecik pun takde masalah. Turns out, that was the worst flight ever all our life. Flight tu 2 jam je. From Korea to Japan where we will change to another flight to Hawaii. Tapi most of the time turbulence. If you always go on flight, you know during turbulence you cannot walk, cannot stand up, cannot go to toilet, and you cannot put baby on bassinet, and you cannot take off the seat belt. So bila baby nak susu, dan anak toddler nak sleep scream syndrome die, my husband tried to sooth the toddler, but as I said, there's nothing can be done. Yang adik pulak tak boleh nyenyak, terikut kakak nangis (because kakak really cried so loud). Husband pun tak boleh tukung die bawak jalan-jalan pergi tandas ke apa because most the the time it's turbulence (normally they would love a trip to toilet in flight). Seems like Allah purposely make everything falls at once.
It was our the worst flight. After the flight kami bersinar menjadi ibu bapa yang lebih baik. Hahah. Positif jela kann.
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| Untuk tiba di Hawaii, antara tempat tercantik kami pernah pergi, kena go through the worst flight of our life. Alhamdulillah for every challenges He put in our life. Alhamdulillah. |
5. The forgot-to-prepare-halal-food time, causing hunger to everyone, no milk production for Mom, and disaster.
This happened, 2 times. Selalunya, aku memang perfect bab-bab pack makanan dari hotel ni. Tapi dalam masa 5 tahun ni, 2 kali aku lupa/ambil ringan tak prepare makanan halal. And usually the trip will be, hours of searching of halal food dan tak jumpa. Anak-anak mengamuk kelaparan, mak takde susu, ayah pun lapar. Ni namanya lapar yang tak disengajakan. Lain dengan puasa. And lain dengan sibuk kerja punya lapar, sebab this one affects the whole family. Semua lapar. And you spent hours searching for food.
Wakt-waktu macam nilah kau akan teringat semua mangsa-mangsa lapar. Mangsa banjir Kelantan. Dan lain-lain. I mean, Allah tested me 2 times for hunger. It could have been worse.
From hunger bermulalah the tantrum of a baby, toddler, mother and father. So kalau semua dah tantrum, tak payah tanya apa jadi lepas tu. LOL.
6. The not getting hotel on a 10 hours transit. After 13 hours flight. Waiting for next 6 hours flight.
This chapter of travelling is called 'frustration'. Sebab kita baru turun dari flight 13 jam, waktu tu jam 4 pagi. Kepala pun tak betul lagi. Travel agent kata dapat hotel untuk rest. Rupanya travel agent salah booking, instead of die booking hotel, die book lounge. Kalau dari awal prepare takpe. Ni kepala dah ready nak jatuhkan badan kat katil, tapi tak dapat. Tambahan pulak kejadian ni di Korea. For your information, dorang ni betul-betul ikut rules. Takde istilah 'hati perut'. While benda tu commmon untuk mereka, kami, Malaysian yang selalu sangat jumpa orang Korea ni, rasa benda tu sombong sangatttt. Jadi walaupun dah tahu agent kami tersalah, dan kami ada 2 young kids yang tengah menangis-nangis time tu, they were like, "Sorry it's in the ticket. Nothing can be done." Fehhh kalau Malaysian selalu dah kasi chance dah kat silly mistakes. Time time tulah kau sayang bangsa sendiri kan. Walaupun Malaysian ni mcm 'malasssia' sikit, tapi hati tu penuh kasih sayang. T__T
Although, kami digantikan dengan lounge business class. It was alright. Free flow food for 10 hours. Alhamdulillah. It wasn't bad at all. The frustration is all part of the mind game, and we have to learn to control it when things aren't going our ways.
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| Our dad was so worry about us. So we sent him this photo of us enjoying the free flow food in the Lounge. Namun begitu, 8 hours later aku dapat migrain sangat teruk sebab tak cukup tidur. Heheh. |
On the other side of the coin, (setiap benda ada positif negatif nya), we explore the Korea Airport. Ada music show that inspires my girl to learn piano (which I haven't done anything about it yet heheh), free craft activities for kids and boleh bawak balik kraftangan nye.
I ended up being grateful because our agent tersalah booking. :)
Sometimes things are meant to be. If you have fight for it, tapi tak dapat jugak, then things are meant to be that way. Chill. Allahuakbar.
7. The chicken pox surprise di negara lain. And being denied on flight. T__T And going to hospital where people speak very less English.
This was Macau. Seriously, who would have thought!!! Time time tulah kau rasa macam "I am never gonna leave the country for years!!" - emotional sangat. Benda yang paling teruk dalam travelling adalah bila ada yang terkena sakit yang rare. Sakit yang kena jumpa doktor. Dahla tak familiar dengan sistem perubatan kat sana. Dalam banyak-banyak dugaan berjalan, I cried on this one.
In the beginning kami cuba hide bila nak naik flight supaya boleh balik Malaysia. Yang penting BALIK RUMAH T__T. Dah elok-elok sorokkan anak tu, last-last kantui jugak dengan pramugari Air Asia tu. Fineee bukan salah dorang la kan. Tapi that feeling kena denied on board. So there goes the drama, kena turun flight balik dengan, kami berempat. Time tu anak aku chicken pox ni tanya, "Kenapa kita kena turun Mama?" Terus aku burst down nangis. Sedih pulak.
Tapi airport staff tu baik. Tengok kitorg macam emotional break down tu, tolong tolakkan trolley beg beg kitorg. Bawak ke tempat simpanan luggage, bagi alamat hospital untuk dapat kelulusan flight. Dan Air Asia menjanjikan flight pulang ke Malaysia PERCUMA sebagai ganti, asalkan dapat kelulusan doktor katanya. So score one for Air Asia!!
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| Thank smile. Denied on board. Sakit pulak tu. Pun boleh senyum-senyum jaga adiknya. Her smile, a reminder for me. PATIENCE is beauty. |
So kami berempat pun naik taxi ke hospital sendiri. Sampai hospital doktor tu confuse. And then he said, di Macau, ada peraturan yang tidak membenarkan doktor memberi kelulusan flight. Doktor tak boleh cakap yang patient ni boleh naik flight. WHATTT??? So doktor punya kuasa cuma diagnose patient je. Tapi tak boleh bg surat lulus naik flight. Like... I'm confuse! So kitorg pun redha jela. Doktor bagi surat diagnose kata Asiyah punya chicken pox dah kering.
Nak jadi cerita sebenarnya itu baru hari ke 4 Asiyah chicken pox. Means active lagi la kan. Memang pagi tu banyak blister belum pecah. Tapi time nak naik flight and time jumpa doktor tu, miracle, semua pox dah kering tiba-tiba. Nampak sangat kuasa Allah tuuuu. We lied to the doktor kata Asiyah chicken pox hari ke 8, dan dengan izin Allah, chicken pox Asiyah pun 'berlakon' ala-ala hari ke-8. So doktor pun keluarkan surat diagnosis kata her pox are dried and safe. Itu je.
Sampai airport, berlaku drama lagi, sebab staff airport keep on saying "Nak surat fit to fly". Dah tu aku mengamuk la. Drama beb. "Don't ask me why we didn't get the fit to fly letter if your government has the rules. You should know better." GRRRR. Bengang betul. 3 - 4 orang datang at different times dengar explanation kami. Last last ada sorang datang, tengok lagi pox Asiyah. Tibe-tibe pox tu sembunyi pulak. Pelik dah aku. She said, "They pass. Give them ticket for tonight." T__T Alhamdulillah. 7 jam drama.
So we were treated like VIP. Dapat masuk flight awal, private bus ke kapal, sebab atas arahan kapten, dia taknak ada passenger lain tahu ada budak bersama chicken pox. Eheh. Baiknyaaa kapten. Tq tq. :') Sampai dalam flight, pramugara tu pulak bagitahu yang all our foods yang kami dah bayar melalui online booking tak boleh digantikan ke flight ini. Sedih lagi. T__T Tapi pramugara tu Malaysian. As I said, orang kita ni berhati perut sikit. He gave us 2 meals for free. Ya Allah, seriously the whole flight I prayed for his blessings.
Although it was the worst experience ever, being denied, have sick child, pergi hospital yang tak cakap bahasa kita, jadi bad mood semua, in the end when the day is over, I feel so proud of our family. As I said, when things are though, and really tough, we love each other more.
Never regret a bad day, because bad days are trophies of the family teamwork. Alhamdulillah!
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| Sampai jugak kat Malaysia Alhamdulillah. This photo has always been a reminder for me. Trophy! |
8. The long hours on bus that wouldn't stop, driving on bad road, causing Mom to get nausea and vomit, while dad has to take care of Mom and Toddler.
No need to explain. If you have a toddler, and you are on a bus to somewhere 4-5 hours, and you vomit. You want your husband to take care of you, but your husband pun kena jaga the very active not sleeping toddler. Please imagine that.
9. The jet lag.
Pagi kau nak kerja. Malam kau berjaga jaga anak-anak. Macam tulah.
10. The "pampers habis" moment and there's no store nearby.
11. The kencing berak bocor moment during tour. T__T
Ni pun selalu. As long has you have someone bawah usia 3 tahun, this is something you must prepare all the time! Sometimes kite nak solat, kite kena basuh dulu baju kite sebab terkena bocor anak. Baju dorg kite boleh tukar. Baju kita? Takkan nak bawak extra pulak kan. Bocor kencing boleh terima. Bocor berak. T__T Bad mood okey. Bad mooooooood.
12. When you have gone though all hardships getting to a place (cari cab/naik turun train), your kid fall into the Sleeping Beauty Sleep. So what are we gonna dooo…
Bengang kan? Macam tulah. :/ Tak tahu nak kata. Siapa dah rasa tahulah.
13. The moment when you thought it'll be fun but the kids are bad mood for whatever reason.
Seriouslyyy!! Whyyyyy whyyyyy!! But I always think positively. Challenges in travel are there to remind us yang dunia ini sementara, dan dugaan ni semua hadiah dr Allah, so that we wont be too in love in travelling.
I learnt this 3 years ago. So keep calm, and zikir in our travel. :)
My kids fall into 2 hours of bad mood bila kami visit Disney Cali Adventure Park baru-baru ni. The park is seriously amazing MashaAllah. Tapi we sit on a bench for 2 hours to calm our kids down. Rehat kejap. Part of me feel restless because every minute is a waste of money. Hahah. Part of me feel grateful to see the kids are not attach to these unreal world. I mean… dorang tak tergugat pun tengok segala Disney character yang lalu. And I would keep it that way. Takkan kita mak ni pulak nak nourish excitement anak kat benda-benda tu bila obviously anak kite steady je boleh differentiate dunia Disney dan realiti. After 2 hours lembutkan their bad mood with foods, bagi makan banyak banyak, baru dorang excited nak explore.
It’s exciting to see the architecture, the machines, the lake, animals, and all the wonder in the wonderland. Good to explore. Cantik.
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| Together in thick and thin. |
Ice in Arendelle, Frozen World.
For those above, you get these:
The memories of going through things together in all the circumstances above. It made our marriage more mature, it made our kids more mature. Semua dengan izin Allah ofcourse. Kalau Allah izinkan, jadilah. Allah tak izinkan, tak jadi.
The Disneylands, Theme Parks, may be fun and we may thought it will be a good memories. But the best memories and situations are actually the one that create us, create our character, create our expectations, minds, and future.
After all the hardships we have been through together, I noticed us, develop more patience in new unwanted circumstances, and the kids develop their maturity.
Changes in kids after every travel:
1- They speak more vocab
2- They learn to tolerate hard circumstances
3- Learn to deal with frustrations when things aren’t going their ways
4- Learn to accept they cannot get anything they wanted to have easily. Everything comes with price.
5- Learn to leave toy store without toy. The more they see, the less they desire. Sama jugak macam adult. The more we explore, the lesser focus we put on owning things.
6- Less tantrum after travel. I think it’s because they explore something new, they have less time being emotional.
7- Learn to ask, plan, decide, and everything.
8- They calm their own tanrums - Maybe tak obvious sangat. Tapi as a Mom yang kena handle amukan anak-anak ni, kita tahu ada beza.
A the end of every travel, you are gonna say, "Thank you for being a good team kids!!" Sep sep!!
And don't get me wrong. I am not saying anak yang merantau lebih baik dari yang tidak merantau. NO NO NO. Harap tiada orang yang twist the message. I am just sharing my experience as a frequent traveller with young kids, and it is NOT meant to compare with other kids. I only compare my own kids before and after.
MOST IMPORTANT THING TO BRING:
- Foods. Foods. Foods. Variety of foods. 80% of the time, the kids mengamuk sebab lapar. So foodsssssss.
- Pakaian cukup.
- Pampers.
- Air.
I am also not saying that you should find yourself troubles. NO NO NO. Nabi pun ajar baca doa "Rabbi Yassir Walatuassir", mintak segala-galanya dimudahkan Allah. Inilah doa common bila travelling, sebab macam-macam dugaan sebenarnya.
And vacation is not easy. It comes with price. Learn to look at things the bright side, then all challenges will can turn into sweet cup cakes.
I used to think that travel is all about being rich, luxury and perfectly planned journey, being a classy tourist. But now I realized that travelling itu salah satu cara untuk kita dekatkan diri kepada Allah. Subhanallah. T__T
Thank you Allah, for everything.
HERBALIFE MOM
