With our Minion Family cruise and travel through Asia complete. I look back and am appreciative of being able to spend precious time with my immediate family. As we get older, recognizing that time is a finite resource, I appreciate these chances to share in something we all enjoy doing: Travelling. If you’ve spent any time to read my blog through these countries, Thank You! Alternativel,y if you have not but would like to, you can check out the whole trip here. Otherwise below are my thoughts to wrap up the entire trip.
Top 3 Highlights
Highlight #1: Shenzhen
As I travel more and more, I find it rarer and rarer for me to experience opportunities of “giddy excitement”. However, our Shenzhen visit did just this for me. Prior to visiting, there were two technology implementations I wanted to experience in China. The first is driverless cars and the second is drone food delivery. So our visit allowed for me to “nerd out” a little and experience both these things. I’m fairly sure I was grinning ear to ear during both occurrences!
Highlight #2: Busan
When we first embarked on this trip, Busan didn’t stand out to me as a destination. So when we make our port of call and our Minion Family gets to explore, I am pleasantly surprised! Even though our time here is short, I find myself thinking about a return visit. It has a good mix of intimate venues for gatherings and big city amenities. It’s along the water for some great views, and has a large variety of food offerings. I could see myself spending some time exploring this city and hope to do so in the future!
Highlight #3: Yokohama
Japan holds a special place in my heart! Being able to visit it so often is something I am proud and grateful to do. Over the years my preferences towards the more common big cities of Japan like Tokyo and Osaka have evolved. On this trip, our family decides to base ourselves in Yokohama prior to embarking on the cruise. I’m very happy to have the chance to spend a few days in this Tokyo adjacent city. It has all the luxuries of a big Japanese city but also holds its own special charm. There are fewer crowds, it has a beautiful waterfront and has its own unique charm! I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Yokohama and have it serve as a base for future Japanese trips!
Favourite Meal
Travelling through Asia, it’s been incredibly difficult to choose a favourite meal for this trip. Because just about every meal has been memorable and delicious in their own right. We’ve had some very fancy and unique settings for food. Some wonderfully gourmet options and more basic but equally as delicious offerings as well. For my favourite meal I am going with our Fu Wah Cafe meal in Hong Kong. It’s not the most culinary complex meal on this trip. It’s also not in the most unique environment either. What it does bring about is a great sense of nostalgia. This is very much a comfort meal for me. All the dishes we order are items that I’ve grown up with and still crave from time to time today. These offerings are synonymous with a lifetime of food memories for me. And being able to enjoy them in the place where this cuisine originates is awesome. Add in that we come to this restaurant on a very rainy evening after a long day of exploring. And being able to enjoy familiar food items makes for a very favourite meal!
If I could change the itinerary…
I’m not sure if I have the power to change the cruise itinerary. But if there this is an option, I would try and spread out the ports of call a bit. During the cruise, our family found it very “front heavy”. After leaving Yokohama, we had a port of call every day until after our Hiroshima visit. Then there would be a sea day before a few more ports. After a two day stop in Shanghai there are a final two sea days before arriving in Hong Kong. This means that the first half of the cruise is very port heavy. It’s a lot of disembarking, exploring, and re-embarking the boat every day. With some fatigue and mobility questions it makes for some very long days early on. Then when the Sea days hit, its a much more laid back setting. We’d spend time lounging around the boat or our rooms and not engaging in too much activity. If there’s a way to even out the ratio between ports and sea days on this specific itinerary, I think it’d be ideal!
What surprised me?
China surprised me. Prior to this trip, I didn’t have a strong desire to visit China. Not that there’s anything wrong, it was just never at the top of my visit list. I felt that being Chinese but not having strong Mandarin skills put me at a disadvantage. However, after this most recent visit to both Shanghai and Shenzhen, I am keen to make a return and explore more of this country. Adding in the fact that there is a visa free option now makes it more appealing! Everything seems modern, clean and safe! There are very intriguing and aesthetically pleasing neighbourhoods that I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of. I’d love to go back and have more time to explore the things that interest me! What I also find interesting is that this isn’t a unique sentiment. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to friends and colleagues who have also had surprising and very positive experiences when visiting. I get a sense that China is opening up more and more to the world and starting to show off a lot of what makes it such a wonderful tourist destination.
One memorable story from this trip
This is a story that I’ve already posted during our time in Yokohama, but its such a random story, I needed to repeat it. As we are walking along the Yokohama waterfront, there are all manner of people walking about. There are people with pets, pets in baby carriages and everyone out and about enjoying the weather. As we walk by different pets, I notice once baby carrier that seems to have a very large and “ugly” dog. Upon further inspection, its actually not a dog but a pig wearing a cute little hat! It’s not a normal thing to see, and it just goes to show that you really have to be prepared for anything in Japan
Did I pack appropriately?
Yes, I feel fairly well packed for this trip. I also had an opportunity to do a little shopping in Yokohama prior to the cruise which also helped with the wardrobe. However, one of my few long pants did develop a tear in a compromising spot which meant I couldn’t wear it for the remainder of the trip. Thankfully, I had enough other outfits available that this didn’t impact me at all. I did end up bringing a small portable umbrella with me on this trip, but didn’t end up using it. On the days that warranted it, I didn’t have it with me so that’s a bit of a misstep.
Regrets?
I regret not spending more time researching for Shanghai. I ultimately enjoy all that we end up doing there. But there’s just so much more and beyond the typical tourist attractions. There are so many cool little neighbourhoods or areas that we wouldn’t have seen had it not been for our extended family showing us around. Had I done a bit of a deeper dive into some of these less “touristy” places, I think we could have found some wonderful hidden gems!
Advice for people considering similar trips/destinations?
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I find I’m less and less adverse to cruising. It offers a great way to see and sample many different destinations. Even for myself who has multiple visits to Japan, our cruise stopped in ports I wouldn’t have visited on my own easily. It also allowed me to discover some great new cities, of which I hope to return to in the future, like Busan! All that being said, Asia is in many ways a very easy, comfortable and affordable travel destination. Doing it via cruise further helps reduce complexities with logistics. So if you have always been keen to visit Japan, Korea or China but aren’t sure how to do it all, this cruise itinerary is a great option to consider!
Final thoughts?
The primary purpose of this trip is family. It’s been the intention from day one before we even settled on the destination. As we all get older, finding concentrated time to spend with each other becomes more and more difficult. So being “stuck” on a boat with each other for two weeks addresses that! Tack on being able to show the parental Minions some of the Sister and I’s favourite things in Japan. Being able to explore Papa Minion’s home town of Shanghai and meet some of his extended family. Exploring where Mama Minion grew up and letting her show us her home town of Hong Kong. These are all wonderful memories that all of us will keep for the rest of our lives!
Being able to look back on this trip, write these blog posts and reflect on the trip as a whole is an exercise I value greatly. It always results in a great sense of appreciation. Not only the ability to travel to these wonderful places. But also that I belong to a family that can still travel together and enjoy the activity of travel! These experiences, memories, laughs and discoveries are things I love and will treasure! And so, another Minion Family trip will come to an end! It will certainly not be the last, as we’re already talking about what the next one will be!