It is finally our turn; we really have been waiting for this holiday (just like our many other holidays, haha). I had been working very hard since right before my Mumbai business trip, when I had to cover for colleagues; we took turns for vacation. I joked that it is like we have to “earn” our holidays and then it would be pay back time after the holidays. Worth it? Ya, I need my holidays.
Packing had officially started last weekend. I had always prided myself with my ability to pack and travel light.. For the past winter holidays, the 4 of us travel with only 2 big luggage. This time, I don’t know if the kids’ clothes are now bigger and thus takes up more space or the doing of the extra warm heat techs. Attempting with 2 big luggage is a squeeze and we decided to add on a medium one, in case of shopping. One to be handled by Daddy Lim and one each for the kids, just nice, I shall be served! Hoho.
The extra hand carry contains the winter jackets. I had originally packed all of them in the luggage until I was reminded that if the luggage is lost, we probably would freeze to death in Beijing. Speaking of which, I remembered to buy our travel insurance at 11pm the night before we flew. Hoho.
There were a lot to be done before the trip other than the packing. Nana and I got our hair done. She had wanted to perm her hair for the longest and got it as a Christmas present. Alien invasion.
My greys are peeking. I had contemplated coloring after the trip but figured out that I should also look 美美 in Beijing. She sat for 5 long hours in the salon. Such great sacrifice.
My day started with a trip to the gym. I am wondering if it is possible to jog outdoors in Beijing. Hoho.
While on leave, I had 2 calls to attend and was busy putting last minute things into the luggage throughout the morning and rushing around the house for last minute household chores.
Mochi was sent to the sitter’s (SS) place at 10am. Poor boy, who started hiding the moment he saw his carrier.
We haven’t post about our Christmas tree. We didn’t put it up since we got Mochi, thinking that he would ruin the tree. Nana was brave enough to attempt.
Mochi lives in harmony with the tree. We occasionally see the ornaments on the floor.
We had a light bite at home and got ready to head to the airport, intending to start our holiday early and right and do some walking around at the airport.
Where is Zaky? He forgot his hoody. Zzzzzz.
Random… Nana let me wear her socks with hands!
We were so early at the airport that we roamed and we ate and we still had a lot of time. Daddy Lim and the kids visited the butterfly garden. So brave.
We saw a group of China aunties posing exaggeratedly in front of the LV shop. Our kids attempted too.
Finally board the plane. We love SQ. I got to sit with the kids.
Daddy Lim was right behind us and lucky him got an empty middle seat.
It was a 6 hours flight and we waited for a long time for dinner. Bcos we were hungry, we forgot to take pictures. Zaky not only ate his bun but also took Daddy Lim’s and mine and was caught eyeing Nana’s greedily.
China must be very big bcos we flew over land for a long time.
The kids dozed off towards the end of the journey. Finally, we touched down.
We saw some passengers wearing their winter jackets but decided that it was too much hassle to do so in the plane. While exiting the plane, I was wondering out loud if it was cold outside (the plane) and one of the air stewardesses answered “very cold”. Lol. It was indeed very cold, it was in minus, but we were indoor and managed with our light jacket.
We had to take a shuttle to the immigration and then get our luggage.
Given that it was almost midnight, the immigration was empty. Auntie SR had just visited Beijing a month back and waited at the immigration for 2 hours.
We had arranged for a private driver for RMB 400 to send us to the hotel. I WeChat the contact person the moment we landed and was told that the driver was already at the exit and holding a placard with my name. We did exit, but there was no driver and we couldn’t find the contact person on WeChat. Zzzzzz. We figured out that we could take a taxi but going via the private transfer would save us a lot of headache.
After 15 mins of waiting and finding, we gave up and decided on the taxi. I haven’t figured out how to do didi, which is their cab hailing app. As for the taxi, we simply followed the signboard, prepped the hotel details and think that everything would be in order.
Then, the 2nd problem came. The taxis are sedan cars and are unable to take 3 luggage and 4 passengers. Zzzzzz.. maybe I should have kept to 2. We had to take 2 cars instead. I took Zaky and I hurriedly pushed the international SIM card to Daddy Lim so that he would have data and would be able to keep in contact and more importantly, make payment. He ended up turning on his auto roaming instead but I managed to set up Zaky’s international sim. Zzzz.
Did we arrive safely? Yes. My driver took the highway and arrived faster but cost us RMB200. Their driver took a non toll road and the fare was only about RMB100. While unintended, we ended up saving RMB100. It was our 1st attempt trying to use Changi Pay and it worked!
It was already 1ish by the time we checked in to our room. The hotel was decent and quite new looking. I was worried for a while when the taxi driver said that it is some small hotel.
I actually cannot quite remember what type of room I had booked and was worried when I saw a single Kings bed. We can’t all squeeze in 1 bed! Then I saw the bunk beds. Heng ah.
What is a holiday without supper. Daddy Lim and Zaky were peckish. We saw vending machines while we were checking in. That was where our supper came from. Everything is so high tech and there is so many QR codes to scan to activate this and that. The hotel staff was very helpful. I saw so many food delivery and I aimed to be able to do that during this trip. Haha.
We forgot pictures of the supper and Nana turned in to bed soon. It was already 2ish and we had to wake up at 7am the next morning in prep of Universal Studio Beijing.
The room was cool with the natural air conditioning. The room has no window but it wasn’t claustrophobic. Instead, the hotel cleverly used cute decoration to counter that. The bed and linen were nice. I was also very tired but Daddy Lim beat me to it and started snoring minutes after lying down. Bcos the room was so quiet, his snores sounded like an oncoming train. Hoho. Luckily, 姐姐有练过. Train or not, I slept. Good night!
Mummy Lim
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