The day finally came when my eldest daughter and I finally boarded our plane , MH 360 to Beijing. The flight was to be 6 hours long . We travelled to the KL International Airport on the ERL, a little expensive, at RM35 one way, but time saving and fast... It is actually my favorite way to get to the airports. ERL serves both the KLIA1 and KLIA2.
While at the airport, we took the time to do some window shopping while killing time. There are a lot of shops to browse in at KLIA, in case you do not know...
Our flight was at 6.30pm and around 6.15pm, we boarded our flight. My daughter Talia was excited as it was her very first Malaysian Airlines flight.
Just after take off, we were served tidbits in the form of peanuts and orange juice, and an hour later, we had our dinner served. I had the fish and rice set (see above) which was pretty yummy. My daughter had some chicken and noodles. During the 6 hour journey, I manage to watch Taken 3, as well as two episodes of Stalker. The flight was thankfully smooth despite a little bit of turbulence..
We arrived safely at the Beijing Capital International Airport at past 1 am and since it was already so late, we decided to spend the night in the airport to save money as well as for convenience purposes.
Early next morning, we took the first Airport Express train (very much like our ERL but cheaper) to Dongzhimen station. It costed us RMB25 per person per way. The first train starts at 6.20am and the last train is at 10.50pm. It gets pretty bright in Beijing during the summer as early as 4.30am...
From Dongzhimen, we then changed subways to get to out hotel for the night, the Red Lantern Hostel. We had to walk quite a short distance from the Xinjiekou subway to the hostel which was located in a little hutong off the Xinjie Kou road.
The hostel was slightly dusty and the interior somewhat messy. We got a private room and it had a queen sized bed. I liked that the room was reasonably clean, and there were ample pillows in the room. There was also a fan and an air conditioner.
There was a desk, chair, small seating area, and shelves..
Address: No 5, Zhengjue Hutong , Xinjiekou Nandajie, 100035 Beijing
If you would like to know more, check out:
The hutong area was a little dirty and busy though with lots of hawkers selling vegetables, food and fruits.
When we had taken our bath and got out of our hostel, we headed to the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City... The security detail and checks in Beijing are very important, and you will encounter security checks at all subway stations and places of interest. Even bottled water is checked. Come to think of it, security checks are nowadays all over, even in Singapore, Thailand but not in our own country... huhuhu
It wasn't very busy and we had a great time taking pictures outside the Tiananmen Square..
Instead of groups of concubines or warriors of long ago parading inside the area, we saw soldiers instead...
It was a Monday, and sadly, the Forbidden City was closed to the Public on Mondays and so we were disappointed.. However we went for a walk in the garden /park to the left of the Forbidden City and it costed us RMB3 to enter this pretty garden...
Inside the garden area, there was a small bungalow area too where my daughter and I were fascinated. We took some photos there
After visiting, we took a stroll around the lake , got a banana flavoured ice cream some vendors were selling for just RMB1 and headed towards the hutong nearby where we got to window shop for souvenirs and so on.
Basically I find Beijing quite clean, even cleaner then KL but there are the occasional spitting and also the toilet stench whenever there is a toilet nearby....
I like the weather which is quite cool and the breeze is refreshing...
When we got back to the subway, we decided to hit the Beijing Zoo...
Entrance to the Beijing Zoo is RMB40 per person which includes a boat ride and visit to the Pandas... I swear that Beijing Zoo is the second best Zoo I have ever visited.... I just love the atmosphere and the lovely garden/lake....
And it just so happened that we came to the Beijing Aquarium as well... and I had a hard time between wanting to go and not wanting to go there....it was a bit expensive.... at RMB150 per person...
But finally I caved in at the temptation of seeing dolphins and beluga whales.... It is a lovely place and you can also see Hawkbill Turtles here... though I did feel that the Turtle enclosure is way too small for them.. The Beluga Whale, Sea Lion and dolphin show was definitely entertaining and amazing...
For more on the zoo and aquarium, I will share more details and pictures in other individual blogs on the places of interests I visited so watch this site....
By the time we came out of the aquarium we were just sooo exhausted, we took a bus to the Xinzimen area and happened to come across one of the Halal Noodles restaurant, and had dinner there before returning to our hotel.
Since the previous night we did not sleep much at all, and had exhausted what was left of our energy, we tucked in early and slept by 8pm...
And that was the end of my first day in Beijing......
That's great that your documenting it all.... Sounded like a great trip....
ReplyDeleteMike G. From Facebook
It definitely was... Thanks for dropping by and reading my blog and for the comments... Deeply appreciated....
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