So..it's the first day! We are departed from LCCT on 6pm and arrived Beijing International Airport about 1.00am. No, i didn't sleep much in a plane. It wasn't a pleasant experience though. well, just as i thought it would be. ahaha. you got what you paid for. i vomited, dizzy & nauseated. After taking panadol, then only my head felt lighter and managed to catch a sleep for a while.
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| Beijing Airport. Not bad. Well, KLIA is way much better. |
Our tourist guide picked us up from the airport and straight to our hotel. There's a story on our first night there. I wanted to intercom my friends' room to asking about the itinerary and what not. So, i pressed their room number but i couldn't get connected and went through the operator instead. So, the operator picked up and i mentioned the room number to him. Of course, he can't understand me and neither do i. After felt like useless talking to him, I just hang up. Suddenly, a housekeeper came up to our room and scolded us. Oh my..i just wanna intercom to other room for god's sake. So, i made up a story saying that our room's aircond is not functioning. Well, she checked and scolded us again. All the conversations were in Mandarin whilst we spoke in English. So, it's like ayam and itik there. It's a first sign that the people here are not service oriented and hospitable enough though. The air-cond problem? not solved. Luckily the weather was just nice (it's beginning of autumn there) and we slept peacefully for 4 nights we were there.
So..here goes the first day. The itinerary starts about 9am in the morning. We went down to the hotel so-called 'coffee house' for our breakfast. Too bad, there weren't many choices. Well, i would expect a standard international breakfast buffet where even 3-star hotel in Malaysia would serve that. You know, the omelette, hash brown, bread etc. But, there weren't any! I still remember what they served..vegetables, hard-boiled egg? more vegetables & fried rice. To be safe, I took fried rice of course. For drinks, they have orange juice, milk and coffee. All of those three were served warm!!!!! I felt like vomiting after I had my breakfast. Warm orange juice? Definitely a no-no. Sumpah! that would be my last breakfast there. Luckily, I already packed some food just in case. So, my daily breakfast there would be hot milo, granola bars & fruit bars. Healthy much? haha
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| the tasteless nasi goreng Cina |
First visit, we went to some kind of government building there. It shaped like an egg. Our tourist guide did tell us what it was but being kiddos, we all just too eager to take pictures as many as we could without listening to him! Then, we walked to Tianmen square where it is like a large field or something. Forgot what it was for. But, I guess it's more or less like our Dataran Merdeka, no? OMG, I am so not paying attention! From there, we walked to Forbidden City, the ancient palace of China Emperor. It's quite a distance but the only way to go there is by walking under a tunnel. Oh yeah, it's packed of people!! Although it was sunny, but it's quite breezy, hence, no sweats! hehe.
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| Tianmen square |
When we entered Forbidden City, it feels like I am in Chinese drama. The ancient ones I meant. What I've been seeing on the television are now right in front my eyes! The place is huge!! Besar gila weh. Our tourist guide, Ali said that it would take 2 days to complete the visit. The complete visit means to go to officers' room, the mistresses' room yada yada. I can't imagine, why would the Emperor would need to much space and too many mistresses?
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| the entrance |
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| the map/plan - hugeeeeee |
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| all of us |
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| this is inside the officers' office |
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| garden in the middle of the palace |
There's something interesting facts about the bricks floor in the picture below. Did you know that this floor is made from 15 layers of bricks?! This is because, the Emperor then too afraid that someone might kill him. So, he constructed this floor to be made with 15 layers so that, people wouldn't have the chance to dig up the ground, make a tunnel out of it to enter the palace and kill the Emperor. Crazy!
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| 15 layers of bricks! |
After that, we went for lunch. Well, good thing about Beijing or any parts of China is that, China is one of the country that has many Muslims. So, food and mosque will not be a problem, Alhamdulillah. There's always many restaurants with Halal sign on the streets. No worries, happy tummy!
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| yumsss..but these meals use mainly peppercorn |
After our stomach is filled, we continued our trip to go to Silk Store. Here, we watched the process on how silk were made from the silk worm yada yada. Oh yes, to inform, usually, people who go to China under tourist guide, need to visit the certain places which their government already made it compulsory for us to comply. It's like they want to show us their culture and country's landmark. That is why, when you go to one place to another, you will always see the same group repetitively especially from Malaysia. Dah macam kat Malaysia pulak! haha. Surprisingly, most of the sellers there can converse in Bahasa Malaysia although it is limited to basic ones ie: apa khabar, murah, mari2, beli barang. By the way, I bought myself 2 sets of silk here which I regret later that I didn't buy more because this is the cheapest place among others. Well, how do i know that right?! It's only my first day. Later, we went to a knife shop, Exxon where the representative showed us a demonstration of China knives. It's quite a show I must say because most of us bought the knife set after! ahaha. I don't know was it because of the great demonstration or because that guy is cute! :P I wanted to buy a ceramic knives, but too bad they were out of stock :(
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| I wish I brought extra money to buy that silk bedsheet. It's cheap! |
Later, we went to perform our prayer at Niujie Mosque. It is one of the oldest mosque in Beijing. The structure and architectural design of this mosque are antique and very China-like. I really like the detailing here. What attracts me is that, they utilized this mosque following our Prophet Muhammad's practice where to make a mosque as a place to get knowledge in Islam. That is because, as a proof, every mosque that we went in Beijing, there'll be tables and books.
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| Women's prayer room |
After that, we went to Niujie Halal Market which was just down the street. This is the market where Muslims in China get their food stocks. It is cheap (which I just realized few days after!) and bought myself some Halal snacks here. We (Mas, Beeb and I) finished our shopping quite early and while waiting for others, we treated ourselves with ice-cream. OMG. It was the best ice-cream I've ever tasted in my life for only 2 yuen (RM1)!!! Oh no, I missed it already T_T
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| red bean flavour, blueberry flavour and mine, mango flavour!! |
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| yumsss..cute ain't it? Mango shape |
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| Niujie Halal Market |
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| Suka hati duduk tepi jalan |
Last place to visit on our first day was the Acrobatic Show. I would say that this is the best place I've visited in this trip! Well, you know that China is famous with their acrobatic, gymnastics what not, so this would be the highlight of this trip! Every show is remarkable, full of suspense and got a loud 'WOAH' from every mouth in that hall that comes together with the loud claps of course! It's worth every second! This is something to remember :)
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| yuck! tapi best haha |
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| colourfull! |
So...there goes my first day. Wait for my entry (don't know how many months it would take! haha) for another day in Beijing.
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