A fatherhood experience to Remember: Muawiyah, Rumaysa & Abah go to Yunnan 🇨🇳 - November 2025

 

This trip marks the first time 7yo Muawiyah and his younger sister , 3yo Rumaysa, goes overseas, where we take them on a 6-day trip to the cool cities of Kunming, Dali and Lijiang, in the province of Yunnan, China. 

Without their mother. 😱

While Ibu takes care of Baby Ali back home 🇲🇾👶🏻, it's Abah's time to step up 😅

Gulp. Gotta admit, this being my first overseas trip in a long time, there was a huge feeling of anxiety going in, anticipating my parenting and fatherhood skills would be put to the test. So many thoughts before the trip:

🤔 How am I going to prepare the kids on time, with the tight tour schedule and limited sleep? 💤

🤔 What if these little fellas throw tantrums or fight in front of others? 😖 Will I be able to control my emotions, keep my calm and composure in handling them? 

🤔 What if they cannot stand the cold weather, since the cities range anywhere between 5 to 20 degrees? 🥶And even colder in the snowy mountains? 

🤔 What if they dislike the food? 🍜🍛 What if they get hungry? 

🤔 How will I keep them occupied and engaged? At this age, would they appreciate the sightseeing and landscapes? Will I be able to pull it off without resorting to gadgets?  

🤔 Diaper dilemmas 💩🤯

🤔 What about security? 

Going into the trip, I was thinking: This could either turn out to be a traumatic parenting nightmare.. or the greatest & most memorable bonding journey with the kids. 

Alhamdulillah, it turned out to be the latter 😄

Turned out a really fun family trip and the much-needed bonding I needed, after weeks of late nights at the office. 

Super proud of the kids for behaving so well, (mostly) complying to schedule and learning to enjoy each other's company, with minimal tantrums, and - surprise, surprise - I never had to resort to screen time or gadgets. 

Thanks tok and tok mum @zahurinmohamed for bringing us together on the trip, and for all the help handling Abang & Kakak. Super thanks to Ibu @ummmua_wiyah09 also for systematically preparing their clothing by days. 

P/s I can now fully relate to what it's like to crave for "me-time" 🤣