I couldn't blog before I left, hence MIA for a while. Reached back to SG on wed night (instead of wed morning cos our flight was cancelled!) Its been both very exciting and exhausting travelling around, so pardon me friends if I'm missing out on the dinner appointments or nightclub activities! (I missed Ser's musical *apologies!*,princess night out to velvet *wait for me to recover!* slept through the first World Cup match)
I haven't repaired my camera, so all the photos are with qi.. will do a detailed travelogue after I get them! Can't wait to savour my trip again! I enjoyed my trip tremendously and can't wait to visit Peking again in a few years' time, hopefully in winter! And of course the "notorious" Shanghai City too (for all the shopping and of course, Soong Ching Ling's tomb)!
The highlights of the trip would probably be my visit to Forbidden City (twice), Former Residence of Soong Ching Ling (my "idol") and of course the company! Ok better stop before I flood the entire page with words! I should post with pictures because they speak a thousand words!
The worst part of the trip would be the plane ride.. I would advise all to avoid taking Air China if possible. The flight to Peking is about 6h, I felt like I was on a bus coach! No inflight entertainment, the recorded songs were very limited (must have repeated at least 10 times for the entire duration of the flight), stewardess were rude, food suck (they served lunch at 11am and lunch at 430pm) and the loo was possibly the worst - the seats were yellow with brown stains.
Actually I'm able to put up with all these because I can sleep through the entire journey, but i think the most unbearable part would be the fact that our flight was cancelled (no reasons given) and we were not offer any form of "compensation" - no seats upgrade, no hotel subsidy etc - so unreliable, so irresponsible!
Our tour package was only till monday afternoon, so we extended to have some adventure on our own.. they cancelled our midnight flight on tues, and wanted us to be on the 3.25pm flight on tues.. if we had gone on that flight, it would meant wasting our hotel booking on monday night, since we would only be left with half a day for our own adventure (3.25pm flight meaning reach airport by 1.25pm, meaning leaving the city by 12.25pm, meaning no time left in the morning for any major expedition) so in the end we opted to stay for an additional night. Luckily I brought along extra clothings and could stay over at buddy's place so not so bad.
So yup, end of Air China episode, I'm just thankful that I'm back, safe and sound. Hopefully I can get some form of monetary compensation from the insurance company and the travel agency.
Ok got to take a nap before heading to Beat's house (our new shipment had just arrived), then its dinner with Jnette & eLeen before watching matches with dear (hopefully I'm still awake by then).
Have a good weekend!
