Me Time!

[zac's mum]

@MyPillow no i’ve never been to China, other than a week-long trip to Beijing city & Great Wall in 2011. My DH flies to various cities in China regularly now for work though. If u look on Xiaohongshu, the tour route from Chengdu > Jiuzhaigou > Emei shan & panda reserve is an extremely common tour route. Some ppl said ctrip app has tour agencies that will assist in booking good hotels + driver (car or tour bus) + entrance tickets. I did indeed find some there & enquired via WeChat.

There are also some advertising via XHS but i dunno the reliability. Scared the drivers bring us to some forced-buy shops/restaurants. Happened in our taiwan trip, super sian.

[zac's mum]

@MyPillow on Jiuzhaigou, there is a new high-speed rail station just completed in Sept. So technically u can take train from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou. And then change to bus that brings u to the entrance of the JGZ park. Many hotels at the entrance to stay in. The difficult part is securing the park entrance tickets, so a local agent will be helpful. At least that’s what the reviews say. U can research more online, plenty of videos on it.

[sharonkhoo]

@MyPillow said in Me Time!:

@slmkhoo
I recalled u went Jap in summer , how was the grp tour?
Am planning self drive in jap from Airport to lake kawaguchiko… for 4 days then return to Tokyo city . Then taking train to other places .
has anyone tried driving in jap …after Christmas period , I hope no snow on road n lake kawaguchiko coz the car I looking n to be rented fr airport not providing snow Tyres n quite troublesome .

The group tour was great in many ways - small group, everyone well-behaved, interesting guide, nice hotels etc etc. The things I didn’t like are personal - little flexibility (can’t decide to leave things out, or have a later start), and not enough history!

Can’t comment on self-drive or trains. I think my husband and I probably won’t consider self-drive in a non-English-speaking country simply because signs are not always in English. I think we will probably go by trains the next time we visit Japan.

[Funz]

@MyPillow We drove when we went for our Kyoto & Osaka trip few years back and again last year when we went Kyushu. For Kyushu we did not insist on snow tyres but for Kyoto we insisted. We arranged and paid for snow tyres but when we picked up the car they said they do not provide snow tyres and we had to drive to one of their workshops to have it fixed. That wasted almost 1/2 of our day on the day we arrived. Our trip was from early December to right before Xmas. I remember our cars covered in snow but most of the cities or towns, the roads are clear. Only when we drove to the more remote areas or mountains then we encountered snow on the roads.
It is not that difficult to navigate in Japan with their GPS and google map.

[MyPillow]

@Funz said in Me Time!:

@MyPillow We drove when we went for our Kyoto & Osaka trip few years back and again last year when we went Kyushu. For Kyushu we did not insist on snow tyres but for Kyoto we insisted. We arranged and paid for snow tyres but when we picked up the car they said they do not provide snow tyres and we had to drive to one of their workshops to have it fixed. That wasted almost 1/2 of our day on the day we arrived. Our trip was from early December to right before Xmas. I remember our cars covered in snow but most of the cities or towns, the roads are clear. Only when we drove to the more remote areas or mountains then we encountered snow on the roads.
It is not that difficult to navigate in Japan with their GPS and google map.

Thks for the info !
Which part Kyoto or Osaka snowed? I did not see any snow when I went few yrs ago .

Do u enter phone or map code . Can share how to get map code for some area, can it be found easily on line? Esp those attractions with no tel number ?

[Funz]

@MyPillow

There were a few stretches where the roads were covered in snow. One of them was when we were driving to Shibu Onsen and to see the snow monkeys.

Yes we use either map code or phone number.

You can use this to search for map codes https://japanmapcode.com/en/

[ChiefKiasu]

I wish I can travel, but my timings all off. My class schedule just started in early September and will continue all the way to March next year. Been like that since 1994 so I’m used to travelling only in March-September every year. That’s kind of off peak, and as I’m not travelling to see “people”, it’s fine

[marshmallow96]

Sorry I just run into this thread for some random question… this seems to be the most active thread hope you all don’t mind answering my questions

I have been trying to get back to this forum since the migration… i noticed that for those old mega threads, while I see the snapshot of very recent reply from other users at the subforum page, once i clicked into the topic, the last reply stuck at 2013 and I cannot go further to view the replies after that… is it a common issue for everyone? any known remedy? very much appreciate your help… Thanks~

[chenlaoshi]

Hi @marshmallow96, did you see these options (circled in red below) that can allow you to navigate through the pages in the thread?

(PC)

(mobile)

[lee_yl]

@zac-s-mum said in Me Time!:

@slmkhoo Mind sharing where you target to visit in Berlin & prague? We may go Munich next year, will consider extending to your 2 cities if have stuff we like!

DH had an official trip to Prague last year. The first thing that came to his mind then was that I would love this town and he said he would like to bring me there one day.

I shared some photos in the old ksp forums but the photos are now all gone. A few must-visit places are :
1). Strahov library, part of the Strahov Monastery complex
2). Prague Castle complex
3). St Vitus Cathedral

Please bring your DS there. I think he would fall in love with the city too, like how my DH did.