The Promised Land

Coco is a huge Harry Potter fan. She read her first Harry Potter book when she was seven. After that, it was no turning-back for her. She devoured the rest of the books and watched every single Harry Potter movie. She would write down all the magic chants and practise them with her cousin while holding a make-believe wand.

Some time this time last year, I made a solemn promise to her, that if she could get 250 and above for her T-score, I would take her to the Harry Potter Studio in London.

She took the opportunity to ask me,"Can we go Paris too?"

I replied,"Yes. I would go bankrupt celebrating if you get 250 and above."

It is not without struggles that I decided on this coming June trip.

Firstly, I have just returned to work after 9 months of no-pay leave. A Europe trip to London and Paris would poke a big hole in my pocket for sure.

The sensible Coco understood this and agreed to postpone the trip, maybe to next June.

But I decided that we should just go this year, because I really have no idea what would happen next year. Besides, we 'hibernate' during December as year end is too cold to travel for me for most countries. I was already freezing when we went to Shanghai during its cold and wet summer. I really just wanted to stay indoors but that would be stupid during travelling.

There are other reasons but in any case, I made up my mind to do it the Nike way.

So I have:

1) booked the hotels (London, Disneyland, Paris)
2) booked the flights
3) booked Eurostar tickets from London to Disneyland

I am left with:

1) booking the Harry Potter tickets
2) booking the Effiel Tower tickets
3) planning the itinerary, especially the one for Paris
4) finding out the route for each place or attraction
5) budgeting for the trip
6) buying travel insurance
7) picking up simple French

I will be taking Baby along too - a mission that is not without a fair share of trepidation.

I am not sure if she could take the long hours of flight, and how robust she is to endure a 5-day trip in Paris after the Disneyland experience.

Read about horrific attempted child-abduction, scams, pick-pocketing and robberies in broad daylight in Paris after I had booked everything. And the French police are as ineffective as, if not more ineffective than, the police in some developing countries. They simply laughed in the tourist's face when an extortion happened right in front of their eyes. Hotel staff told the tourists that there was no need to report to the police since robberies were a common sight. And locals do not trust the police.

I didn't know that Paris has become so unsafe. All I ever heard about Paris was its beauty and charm.

For a petite Asian Chinese woman and two young kids, I can only pray that we would be invisible to the crooks.