This post is way overdue but I'd like to have a written memory of it. Owh well, better late than never.

Well, our family trip to Beijing was planned last year, and it was half materialized in November - as that's when we bought our tickets during one of those seasonal promotions by MAS.

Why Beijing? As we wanted to visit both Pak Ngah & Mak Ngah which are currently living in the country and to...you know, splurge on the cheap China stuff (this particularly applies to my mum,MIL and aunts - which will be mentioned from here on as mak-mak, us? Not so much.he he) and do all those touristy stuff for a bit.

Our flight to Beijing departed on 22nd March at 6.20PM - we got to the airport like less than 2 hours earlier, thanks to the scary Airport Limo driver (which sadly I didn't get the chance to ask for his name).

Scary what? Well, to start it off, he drives like he's drunken/sleepy which was blardy obvious, so much so that C*** had to ask "Cik, mengantuk ke? Kalau nak smoke ke,minum air ke, stop je dulu" which he quickly rebutted with "Eh, tak tak tak" along with a silly grin. Padahal a few minutes before it seems like he's about to doze off.

I was about to ask him to stop and let C*** take over instead. Second, he took the blardy wrong route to the airport. Well, it's Friday and anybody sane would be wise enough to not take the MRR2 + DUKE + Jalan Duta highway to the airport. So yea, a merely 45minutes journey was elongated to almost 2 hours. God knows how I fretted that we'd miss our flight.

Long story shot, we got to KLIA, queued to check in our luggage when we heard the final call for our flight passengers which were yet to check-in and we were ushered to the priority lane and we later proceed to the departure hall. Mum and Mak Su were already there - waiting for us as they flown in from Penang earlier (owh my Dad couldn't join us as he got to much to handle at work and baby brother's currently attached to his chambering thingymajingy).

End of the 1st drama bit of our trip. :P

The 2nd one came in a form of, well, apple juice and toddler's puke. he he. Yea, our little one drenched herself with apple juice (thank God I was 'beringat' enough to pack some extra change for her) and later puked on me, luckily most of em was on the blanket,so I was pretty safe.

Since she's still considered as an infant, she didn't get her own seat, so yea, I am her comfy seat - so much so that I didn't get to wee wee throughout the 6 hours flight + I couldn't feel my legs. Imagine sitting with a 10kg of weight for 6 hours. Sila kebas.

Us, 6 hours + banjir apple juice + baby puke + not dressed for the weather later.

So yea, we got there 40 minutes after midnite & it was freaking cold tho we were indoor (I was not dressed for the weather, our down jackets were in the luggage, little that we know that they are going to be a part of our daily getup throughout our stay) - much to my dismay( I wanna see the spring blossom ya see?), as by mid March it's supposed to be the beginning of spring, but it wasn't the case when we were there as it was still snowing a few days before, so it's still somewhat wintery. The cold person in me was not happy, but at least, we were well prepared clothing wise, thank God for that.

We had to wait for a bit for our baby stroller,boarded the aerotrain(the new airport is huge) and after the usual immigration stuff (read: the immigration personnel simply stood at the side whilst looking at us with half closed eyes, like yea whatever,sila masuk), we got to arrival where Pak Ngah was already waiting. We ran walked quickly to the car park where the driver waited for us. Masuk kereta + heater = I could feel my nose back.

We headed to the National Defense Uni in Changping - which is where my uncle and aunt are staying (cum our accommodation for the week long trip). Got there within 40 mins. Honestly, their foreigner quarters are pretty awesome whilst the ones for local adelah kesedihan. Bias much? I think the same applies even in Malaysia, if it's for foreigners, 1st class treatment segala. Locals, well, pepandai lah yer, you'll live.

So yea, we kong out almost immediately. Duvet + electric bed warmer = bliss.


On Saturday morning, we're already up and running by dawn as we're already out of the house by 9am to catch the weekend tour bus that was provided by the campus. Field trip yo. Naik bus beramai-ramai. I can't remember the last time I was on one. The bus dropped us at the Street Market (kot? I is lupa the name) and the mak-mak went crazy over those quilt, bed spread, tablecloth and stuff. Me? Not so much, throughout our trips, I only ended up with a set of quilt and 2 small quilts for Myra, the mak-mak? Plenty ( some of them are still in Beijing, waiting to be shipped together with my aunt's stuff when she's coming back for good in August).

Mak-mak rambang mata session.

We later left our purchase in the bus, had lunch and shopped some more until it's time to get back home. Talks about shopping in China, you have to haggle with the sellers like your life depends on it, as if you're about to spend the very last cent of your money. Be prepared to have someone calling you stupid right in front of your face. (Grr grrr!) They'll scream and shout at you with life threatening words and whatnot but don't be timid. Shout back and you'll ended up happy (most of the time) as you'll get whatever you've bargained for - tho you might ended up with sore throat from too much of shouting and screaming. :P

Day 2.

We took the same bus, but on Sunday, it headed to a different place instead. The name escaped my mind, but it's somewhere which is very similar to our Low Yat - which didn't intrigue the mak-mak at all. Obviously. he he. So when we got off the bus, we quickly took the subway(which was quite confusing,they have like more than 10 lines, mengagau much?) to Tienanmen square to explore the city square, enjoy the crowd(not!) and yea, the mak-mak even went into Mao Zedong Mausoleum  to take a look at him. Me? I just (literally) sat around with C*** and the little one whilst people-watching. Dok bersila macam kat rumah sendiri. :P

These photos are my favorites. Someone asked whether I was freezing since I was pictured wearing my black skirt, well, nope, I had my thermal pants on else mungkin rasa macam pakai kain batik whilst sitting in a fridge. :P

Spot me!

We didn't get into the Forbidden City as the queue was very very very very very very very long. Waiting in  a line in the cold weather didn't appeal to us. So yea, we settled with looking from the outside.

We even went to this place that has the China Town feels to it for our lunch as there's a Muslim restaurant somewhere in the middle of the busy street- which the name also escaped my mind. The street were lined with antique-looking building, they sure are pretty. Owh yea,we got a handful of souvenirs from this street, I got myself a nice wooden comb and paid like 2 ringgit for it. Super cheap - maybe modal membuatnya is like 50 cents kot? I should have bought like sekodi of them - menyesal sudah tidak berguna lagi. Probably should have listen to my MIL, "Biar menyesal beli daripada menyesal tak beli". he he.  :P



After breathing in the scenery and whatnot, we headed back to the pick-up point to wait for the bus and got back home. It got really cold and windy after 5PM, so it's wise to head back and stay inside.

Day 3

On the 3rd day, we decided to take it easy and just went out to roam the small town of Changping on ehem, bicycles.  Well, the mak-mak rode the bicycle whilst C***, the little one and me rode on the electric bike. (Not like I don't know how to ride a bicycle, I is pakar mengayuh basikal you see?) Owh so romantic. Rasa macam from Taiping with love sungguh - too bad that we didn't manage to have our picture taken whilst on the bike.

There are a bunch of mall/hypermart around, namely the Wu-Mart(apparently the Chinese version of Walmart.he he), Walmart itself, Suning etc.We went to the local mall Suning that day,which is somewhat similar to the Street Market but in a smaller scale. Got my hands on some cute high-cut sneakers for the little one which cost us less than RM50. By noon, the mak-mak were not showing any sign of slowing down whilst our little one was getting cranky as she's getting sleepy, so we headed home and the mak-mak only showed up hours later (should I mention that they brought along like tonnes of stuff?) & complained about their aching feet segala. T_T

Later during the evening, I went out with mum and aunts to the ehem, rumah urut. We had to massage the stress away yes? So yea, my masseuse's partly blind, but she's awesome with her hands alright. I swear if we were to stay there longer, I'll drop by like everyday - after all it's only RM30/hour. Right after we're done, it's already super windy outside, so we just had a quick stop at the fruit stalls, bought a bag of chestnut, strawberries (they were big and cheap) and a bunch of unknown fruit which tasted like, hm.. guava + pear?

Owh, food in China - especially the Muslim food that we had throughout our stay adelah awesome. Their stir fry - especially the beef with leeks is to die for. Nothing beats a bowl of warm rice and a simple beef/chicken and vege stir fry. I can absolutely survive on that. :)

Will write about the 2nd half of trip later. Promise.