Thursday, 25 December 2025

Guangzhou-HK Day 1: Shangri-La Guangzhou Horizon Club & Tianhe City

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Incredibly, this was my 10th vacation for the year! I've done 5 flights (BJ-SH, HCMC, Cebu, Manila, Busan-Seoul), 2 ferries journeys (Batam, Bintan) and 2 short road trips (Malacca, JB) this year! 🀭

We booked our Singapore Airlines tickets in June 2025 because the Hubby spontaneously suggested a trip in December to countdown to the new year. As it was the super peak period, we decided on Guangzhou and Hong Kong because the multi-city tickets were the cheapest at S$586 per adult and S$447 per child (inclusive of seat selection). Incidentally, this would be the last child fare for the Boy! πŸ˜†

The whole family woke up excitedly at 5am on Christmas morning to board our usual maxi cab to Changi Airport Terminal 3.

We love travelling via our usual driver's maxi cab as it's super spacious!
Disney-themed decorations to promote Disney Adventure cruise!
Disney Christmas trees
Playing at a playground during transit

Coincidentally, my colleague was also at T3 at around the same time! Her flight to Shanghai was about 1 hour earlier than ours so we met up at the transit area! πŸ˜„

We headed to our gate when it was time to board our plane and departed Singapore at 8.05am as scheduled. Although we had complimentary seat selection (as we were travelling with a child), we could only get separate individual seats in the system! This meant that my kids had to sit alone, which made no sense so I wrote in to Singapore Airlines to highlight the issue. After some negotiation, I managed to get seats with my two younger kids while the Eldest, Hubby and Mum sat individually.

Alone with my 2 younger kids
Kids meal for the Littlest
The Boy was old enough and didn't need me much πŸ˜€

It was a pretty smooth flight and after flying for about 4 hours, we arrived at Baiyun International Airport Terminal 2 at 12pm (no time difference between Singapore & China).

Welcome to Guangzhou!

There was a long queue at customs so by the time we were done, we had worked up an appetite. We spotted a McDonald's in the corner and decided to have lunch. We do love eating at McDonald's all around the world (London, Melbourne, Sydney, Melaka, Bali, Dubai, Cebu, just to name a few).  

McDonald's at Baiyun Airport
Using the self-ordering kiosk to buy our beef burgers
Interesting flavours that were different from Singapore!

After lunch, we hailed a premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥320) to our hotel.

Walked to the Car Hailing Pick-up Point to board our DiDi

Thankfully the car was so huge that it was able to contain most of our luggage in the boot!

Spacious seats

We would be staying at Shangri-La Hotel Guangzhou (our 5th Shangri-la stay this year! 🀭).

Shangri-La Hotel building can be seen from the bridge
A super huge Christmas tree made up of bears greeted us on arrival!

We checked in at the Horizon Lounge as we had booked 2 Horizon Deluxe Rooms via the Shangri-la app at $299 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast, evening canapΓ©s, all-day lounge access and other Horizon Club benefits).

Horizon Club floor
Our room with a king bed
Large bathroom with bathtub;
You can watch TV while soaking in the bathtub!
Huge bathtub
Dressing table and coffee machine
View from our room window
If you look closely, there's a gokart track on the roof of the building next door (left);
Complimentary fruits (right).
Complimentary candy
Shangri-La kindly added a complimentary single bed for the Boy, who was more than excited that he did not have to share a bed!

The hotel had the usual Shangri-La amenities such as a spa, gym, both indoor and outdoor pools and even tennis courts!

Good size gym
Indoor pool
Outdoor pools were closed during winter

It was time for our evening canapes at Horizon Lounge at 5pm.

We got a table with a great view
View of the Pearl River 珠江 from our table
Cheeses, fruits and hot food
Nicely decorated pastries
Bread and alcohol
Although the food was good, it was definitely not as good as China World Hotel in Beijing
You can actually see the Canton Tower εΉΏε·žε‘” from the Horizon Club Lounge!

We left our hotel at 6.30pm via premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥69) to Tee Mall at Tianhe City (next to Sheraton Hotel Guangzhou).

Shangri-la Hotel was fully lighted up with changing lights at night! (left)
The nearest station is Pudong Railway Station (right)
Photos at the lobby while waiting for our DiDi

As it was the peak hour, our ride to the mall took us longer than expected due to the congestion. Our destination was a popular shopping district and super crowded when we were there! Likely because it was Christmas Day! πŸ˜…

Tee Mall
Interesting shops with cute merchandise
Activity sticker packs were so cheap that I bought many of them for the Littlest!
Aeon supermarket

We were hungry after all the shopping but we could not find a restaurant that wasn't crowded! There were long queues everywhere so we decided to leave the mall and search the streets for a quieter restaurant. We approached a quiet street and spotted Nemeida Pizza.

Nemeida Pizza

Food was pretty good; my Boy loved the pizza! πŸ˜‹

With our stomachs filled, we hailed a premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥78.50) back to our hotel to rest for the night! Looking forward to exploring more of Guangzhou! πŸ˜„


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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P.S: We're proud Shangri-la Circle members; read about our Shangri-La experiences around the world:

Continue to >> Guangzhou-Hong Kong Day 2: Guangdong Museum & Canton Tower Plaza

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Guangzhou & Hong Kong, China as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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Sunday, 14 December 2025

Bintan Day 2-3: Lagoi Bay, SpaLab & My Reflections

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DAY 2

I didn't sleep well the night before as the pillows were really flat! I woke up at around 6am and decided to spend some quiet time alone, praying at the balcony.

Beautiful view of the pool and hotel from our room
It started to rain!

When the rest of the family were awake, we headed to Rempah Kitchen at 8am for breakfast.

Christmas decorations
Different food counters
Love the variety of sambal, sauces and crackers!
Donuts and pancakes
Cotton candy for the kids!

The skies finally cleared after our breakfast so we headed to the pool for our first swim!

Super excited to check out the pool!
Lagoon-style pool with the usual pool-side bar
View of our room from the pool
Mum decided to chill on the pool chair
Enjoying quality time in the water
Cool water feature
Huge shallow pool for little kids
Water fountains!
The beach was right in front of the hotel 

After washing up, we walked for about 5 minutes to Plaza Lagoi, the only place for shopping in the area.

At the entrance of our hotel
Walking to Plaza Lagoi
It's resort-style shopping, similar to Bali Collection in Nusa Dua
You can buy souvenirs and other necessities at Mustafa Centre
Found a nice shop selling handmade Indonesian jewellery!
Bought these earrings for the BFFs and myself because I love the colours!
Mum bought kueh lapis from Mama B
Took a break and had ice cream at Gelatologi!
Flavours to choose from
As the Littlest didn't eat much during breakfast (she's extremely picky), I bought ramen for her from Ramen Sanpachi 38. It tasted average but was one of the cheapest ramen I've bought and thankfully the Littlest finished it! πŸ˜ƒ

We walked back to the hotel via the beach.

Welcome to Lagoi Bay!
Mandatory group selfie!
Popped by Yeah Mart for some essentials
Exploring the beach

After we returned to our hotel, the Mum and Littlest stayed in the room while the Sister, Eldest and I headed to our hotel lobby. We were waiting for our complimentary transport to SpaLab for our pre-booked massages. 

We received complimentary fish food from the hotel staff and fed the koi in the pond while waiting!
Our transport has arrived!

SpaLab was actually located at Plaza Lagoi, where we were earlier! πŸ˜…

SpaLab
Enjoying our welcome drinks
We did our massages in a room together 😊

Our massages were good but definitely not worth the Rp650k (approximately S$52) price tag! The massages that we had in Batam were almost 3 times cheaper and just as good!

Lounge for guests to relax and try their kueh lapis after our massages

The spa provided complimentary transport back to our hotel and we joined the Mum and Littlest in the room. We spent quality time just chatting until it was time for dinner.

We decided to have our dinner at Rempah Kitchen again because we loved it so much the day before!

We sat at the outdoor section of the restaurant this time
The 5 of us have the same face because we all got it from my Mum! 😁
Seafood soup and kang kong in spicy sauce
Fried rice
Fish soup (I think!)
Had to order my favourite beef soup again!

After a good dinner, we ended the night taking photos of the lighted up hotel.

The El Lagoi sign at night
The last night of our very short trip

Goodnight! πŸŒƒ


DAY 3

The moment we woke up that morning, we called the Front Desk to request for late check out. They were able to allow us to check out at 4.30pm for one room! That meant that we could spend more time at the pool! πŸ₯³

With our check out secured, we had breakfast at Rempah Kitchen.

My breakfast - gotta love me a good teh tarik!

We headed to the pool immediately after breakfast but just as we were about to get in, it started raining heavily! When the rain did not let up, we returned to our rooms and spent the time moving our belongings to the Mum & Sister's room instead. 

It was almost noon when the rain finally stopped! The Littlest was super excited to jump into the pool!

The Mum joined us this time!

Since we wanted to continue swimming, we popped by El Lagoi for lunch as the restaurant allowed us to dine in our swimming attire. 

El Lagoi in the day
We got an indoor table instead of our preferred one outdoors next to the pool as the latter was too wet
Drinks, spinach and mushroom soups and chicken wings
(Nothing memorable)
Tomato pasta and fries for the Littlest
(Pasta was quite bland)
Roasted chicken was ok
Crème brûlée and complimentary fruits on the house

The meal was nothing special for the price. The convenience and ease of accessing the pool was the restaurant's only plus point for me! πŸ˜…

Littlest couldn't wait to jump into the pool once she had finished her food!
Loving the pool

While we were dining, the Sister and Eldest went to get something from the room and happened to bump into housekeeping staff, who returned them our valuables that I had left in the safe when we checked out of my room! 😬 So grateful to the staff for keeping them safe! Of course, I wrote a stellar commendation to the hotel to thank them! 😁

We were really sad when it came time for us to leave! After we washed up and checked out of our room, we boarded the complimentary shuttle service at 4.30pm to the ferry terminal.

Comfortable shuttle bus

We arrived at the Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal at 4.45pm and joined the queue to clear customs after I collected our boarding tickets from the Bintan Resort Ferries counter. 

We started the queue at Gate 1 since we had the Littlest with us
Our ferry departed punctually at 5.45pm

The journey was 1 hour 10 minutes and we arrived at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and cleared customs by 8pm. All in all, a very good trip! πŸ˜€


My Reflections

I've heard from friends about how boring Bintan is and have to say that I've personally experienced it as a first time visitor! If not for our amazing hotel, where we spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying each other's company, there was nothing much to do! Everything was also more expensive than Batam, though the service was better (you get what you pay for I guess)! It was a great getaway while we were there but I don't think we would make it a regular visit like we do for Batam! πŸ˜…

Can't wait for our next Heng Girls' trip!


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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bintan, Indonesia
as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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