Exactly a year ago, it was the very first #wanderbabes👯, trip of just two minah just want to escape the adult world.



We booked flight tickets to Lombok lama dah when AA having their zero fare promo on 2017 but only start planning few months before travel date. I thought it would be a simple tour around the town and island, didn't expect we will experience a lot of unexpected thing.

Plan kept changing due to so many reasons banyak gila version of rough itinerary we had. Even dah book hotel pun tak finalize lagi tak pasal kena cancel. Akhirnya we decided to include Bali in our plan sebab teringin nak visit Nusa Penida. Geram tengok gambar kat sana semua cantik. 


31 July 2018

Sampai airport dalam 12 tengahari, pak supir dah menunggu. Masuk je kereta terus dah ada places to visit.


Actually we don't expect to visit this Lombok traditional village tapi dah dia bawak kita turun jelah tengok-tengok. Kampung ni tak jauh dari airport.




Lepas tu menghala ke Pantai Kuta Mandalika. Sebelum jumpa pantai singgah masjid besar hujung jalan to pray and freshen up.










Pastu dibawa ke Bukit Merese. Kat google kemain cantik bukit tu tapi bila kitorang sampai kering-kontang.



Salah timing pergi masa musim kemarau. 

Disebabkan pak supir takut kami sesat tak sampai atas, dia panggilkan seorang budak yang ada kat situ yang bawa kita naik ke atas merangkap jurugambar. Kita boleh je bagi duit belanja seikhlas hati kat budak tu. Ingat jauh sangat sebab dia risau sesat la jadi apa-apa la padahal bukannya jauh pun mendaki sikit je.

Kat sini dapatlah banyak sikit gambar sebab photographer tu rajin betul pandai je suruh kita pose macam-macam gaya.

Seperti ini. Takpe kita layan kan je.









Then bergerak ke Tanjung Aan. Terus order air kelapa sebab penat kan memanjat bukit.


Biasalah bila dah duduk-duduk ada la orang datang berjualan souvenir gelang la beg rotan la kain batik la. Since this is our first day memang takde la nak shopping. Tapi sampai sekarang menyesal sebab akak tu offer murah beg rotan bulat tu sebab dah petang nak tutup kedai katanya. Padan muka berlagak lagi beria tolak tawaran tu sebab ingat akan jumpa lagi tawaran yang lebih kurang sama on the last day.


Lama lepak bertenang kat situ sampai nak dekat maghrib tak sempat singgah other places so back to Mataram, cari makan, beli sim card lokal then baru check in hotel.

Sekian hari pertama di Kuta Lombok.

Hello!

Walaupun cerita tahun lepas tetap nak update kat sini sebagai kenangan!


It was my very first winter trip.





Seperti biasa, kita gerak lepas setahun kumpul duit and buat research. Malangnya tak boleh share exact budget kat sini sebab lupa nak take note. Kalau nak mengharapkan memori sendiri memang tak guna la kan. Dah setahun kot. So kita share itinerary jelah ye. Dengan rough bajet la kalau ada yang tetiba teringat pun.

Date : 26 January - 5 February 2018
Location : Beijing + Harbin, China

ITINERARY

Day 1

• Flight patutnya 6.30pm 26/1/2018 tapi delayed sejam ke sejam setengah sebab masalah teknikal.
• Touch down Beijing Capital International Airport around 3.30am
• Lepas imigresen terus cari toilet nak tukar baju sebab baru reti rasa sejuk. Kat luar rupanya suhu -10°C
• Beli Yikatong Card kat kaunter subway airport and top up extra terus untuk avoid kena top up banyak kali kat mesin. Masing-masing tak reti bahasa cina langsung hahaha. 
• Drop off luggage kat hostel and off to Forbidden City. 
• Buat itinerary pack patutnya nak cover banyak tapi akhirnya pergi satu tempat je sebab badan masing-masing terkejut dengan suhu sejuk.  

Day 2

• Bangun pagi excited bergerak ke Great Wall of China
• Decided to visit through Badaling entrance sebab senang sikit nak sampai guna train. Niat asal nak masuk melalui Mutianyu tapi tak sempat nak study bus route and sejuk-sejuk malas nak take risk and sesat.
• Angin kuat gila and suhu drop until -11°C. Sebelum pergi tengok weather forecast beijing temperature was supposed to around 2°C to 7°C tu yang terkejut sikit bila sampai.
• Jalan-jalan cuci mata kat Wang Fu Jing. Makan kat satu muslim restaurant besar kat situ je sebab dah sejuk tak nak beria jalan jauh. 

Day 3

• Pagi-pagi check out hostel, tinggalkan luggage kat stor hostel and off to Russian Market untuk beli winter attire for Harbin
• Rupanya pukul 9 baru few kedai at Russian Market started to open so tak perlu la macam kitorang pukul 8 dah terpacak depan tempat tu.
• Back to hostel to pick up luggage and off to Beijing Railway Station as our train to Harbin is at 8.30pm

Day 4

• Volga Manor
• Masjid Harbin

Day 5

• Harbin Town
• Ice Festival. Entrance ticket we bought at agent yang our taxi driver hantar. 

Day 6

• Took package 2d1n provided by Kazy, our hostel in Harbin town to Snow Village. 
• Snow Village/Snow Town is 6 hours away from the town.

Day 7

• Snow Village
• Train to Beijing

Day 8

• Safely arrived in Beijing, check in hotel and rest for awhile.
• Strolling around Olympic Park

Day 9

• Souvenir shopping at Silk Market

Day 10

• Souvernir shopping at Pearl Market
• Flight to Kuala Lumpur at 1.30am
• Touch down KLIA at around 8/9am. Sampai rumah pukul 11am 

TIPS 

1. Intercity train ticket in China will only be sold a month before departure date so set your reminder and always be aware especially when you are traveling on peak seasons. Chances of your desired train type and seat classes is sold out is quite high when you bought tickets last minutes. Trip.com is a reliable website to be used to buy ticket train in China.
2. You will walk a lot if your main transportation in Beijing is subway especially if it involving transfer between lines so brace yourself. 
3. There are airport style security checking in every subway & train departure station so all your bags need to be scanned each time.
4. Download VPN before you reach the country to be able to access blocked sites/apps such as Google/Whatsapp/Instagram
5. Translation apps (Google translate) is very useful to communicate with local.  

Till then.

 It was my first winter experience and we are going to places that the temperature can drop up to -35°C. We definitely need to prepare carefully to avoid fall sick cause nobody wants that while on vacation.

Clothes

Every site found on google suggested that I had to wear at least 3 layers of clothes. Damn that was a lot of clothes. Tapi memang betul, saya gembira je takde pun kesejukkan melampau. Paling pun stress muka beku sebab muka mana boleh layer sampai 3 habis la tak nampak jalan.
  
I survived just fine with these



Extra tu make differences tau. Covering ears, neck mouth and hand help survive the winds. Oh and tampal heat patches everywhere you want.
 
It is definitely better to travel light that brought all those unnecessary items. Menyesal betul angkut beg berat dari kl dan tak pakai half of the baju. Buy winter attire bila dah sampai destinasi je. They usually sell those jackets, scarf, gloves and heat patches a lot cheaper compare to in Malaysia.




When you are in winter trip, you'll mostly inside the buiding and your day will end earlier. Lagi malam lagi sejuk kot jadi mesti nak cepat-cepat balik hotel and rehat. Baju and tudung semua tu boleh recycled tak perlu nak pack banyak sangat sehari 5 helai sebab perlukan 5 layer. I basically brought almost 30kgs of baggage full of i-dont-know-what-clothes but just recycled the same few days worth of clothes in the end. Please do not follow my mistakes.

 

 

Skincare

I brought along in-shower body lotion, facial oil, vaseline petroleum jelly. Walaupun dah mandi dengan in-shower body lotion, pakai lotion biasa jugak to make sure kulit tak overly dry. Petroleum jelly jadikan bestfriend for lips. Especially when you have sensitive skin. Takut luka sebab terlalu kering.

I have dry face so face oil tu bestfriend. Biasa kat kl pakai one or two drop je. Kat sana pakai macam moisturizer hahaha. Alhamdulillah, i dont really have skin problem throughout the trip.

Suncreen jangan tinggal eh walaupun matahari muncul kejap and tak rasa panas langsung, the uv exposure still can cause sunburn.

Phone

Most smartphone batteries are lithium-ion, which can stop discharging electricity in extremely cold temperatures. Do not surprise to see your phone just suddenly shutting off or has shortened battery life. It is actually normal. Boleh tahan sakit hati la bila tengah syok buat insta-story tetiba battery tinggal 5%. Or tengah ambil gambar, then the phone suddenly freeze and auto shutdown. Restart and voila all the previous pictures has not been saved.

There is actually not much you can do, just engage with real world and enjoy the trip.






p/s : the trip was in Jan 2018 hrmm setahun lebih dah