ZH’s first solo vacation in Thailand: Day 1 of 12

ZH is a superb 7-year-old-turning-8 kid, a child I proudly call my niece. She is now in Bangkok, on her first solo vacation without her parents and elder sis. She’ll be away from home for 12 days, such a long period of time.

Yiyi (aunt) is writing from her own perspective of ZH’s trip, and hope that ZH’s momentous journey will inspire more children to go down the road less traveled.

Day One: KUL-BKK

Day One was intended for traveling from one country to another, and also for her to get used to a new environment.

We arrived at KLIA2 two hours before our departure time. Arriving early at the airport is good for two reasons:

1. For her to settle her emotions
2. For her to spend some time with her family

At immigration checkpoint, I wished that the immigration officer would ask questions since I am not ZH’s mum. I could have smuggled her out from the country easily! Same thing happened at Thailand’s immigration checkpoint.

Back at KLIA2, silly yiyi forgot to check our gate number; we had to enquire after we cleared the immigration.

Thanks to ZH, we got the buggy service to the end of skybridge at KLIA2. Saved us lots of walkings. So, traveling with kids gives us a long list of privileges!

After second immigration checkpoint, bottled waters are not available. Hmmph!! We paid RM 2 for a glass of water (daylight robbery!!), and filled the water in ZH’s water tumbler.

ZH has been so amazing on Day One, that I can’t help to reflect on the day and take time to marvel at the wonders of ZH.

This young adventurer is so independent, and always being considerate of others:

• She required minimal looking after.
• She didn’t demand for this and that.
• She didn’t even bat an eyelid on AirAsia’s Hello Kitty beverages available on board.
• She took great care to keep her voice low during the flight.
• She tried to sit as still as possible. Whenever she needed to move, she took great care of minimal disturbance to the passenger in front, that she did not kick the seat.
• She knew that she was tired. So she read and close her eyes to conserve her energy.
• She had ear pain, but tried to bear with it and said no to sweet things like candy and chocolate. She finally relented and agreed to a packet of Ribena.
• At dinner time, she was full. But, she tried to finish the rice on her plate as she didn’t want to trouble us to finish it for her.
• At supermarket, she gave us a decisive answer on her fruit choice. All we had to do was to choose the fruits as the fruit shelves were too high for her.

Stay tuned for Day Two ….