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 

Holla!

Thought I would not make it to final exam but here i am just submitted my final exam answer sheet 30 minutes ago. And still alive! Now in the library to finish off my pending assignments.

My semester one journey is definitely not easy as these past few months is the busiest months in my life. Nak tidur pun tak tenang asyik pikir all those datelines to meet. Tiba-tiba rasa tak reti nak bahagikan masa dan tak tau which one is my priority.

Lost sekejap but then decided to just suck it up and do the best that I can.

Semoga tahun depan lebih baik

Belum habis lagi cerita Jepun. Sebab dah bulan Oktober, kita buat Halloween version la.



One of the main highlight of Japan trip is USJ! Sebab we all love amusement park. Niat asal memang nak singgah Tokyo sekali pergi Disneyland tapi since it is over our budget takpe la kita visit satu-satu. 


I bought entrance ticket dekat 11street from Travelog for RM269. Harga dia standard je sama dengan harga on their own website tapi 11street suka kasi coupon so boleh la jimat up to RM30. Passed the express ticket since we are on a budget trip tapi dah summarize our plan for each popular ride.



Before pergi, always check for their operating hours sebab tak tetap. Kalau tengah high seasons dia buka awal and tutup lambat sikit. Check juga weather forecast. On the day we went hujan dari tengah hari ke petang. Lupa pula bawa payung nasib baik tak lebat sangat jadi redah jelah.


Strategi untuk kurangkan waiting time is to always use the single rider lane. Lebih baik naik sendiri-sendiri dari kena habiskan masa menunggu lepas tu tak sempat enjoy benda lain. For food, there is no halal menu available in any of the restaurant inside the park. Boardwalk Snacks at Amity Village area and Studio Stars Restaurant at Hollywood area has some snacks and seafood pizza jangan risau boleh tanya je staff yang mostly peramah. We brought our own food biar senang tak payah penat pikir.
 
Untuk muslimah, takde prayer room tapi boleh solat dekat baby centre near entrance atau ask the staffs in guest service for a room to pray, they will direct you to a room that can be used to pray.


Hari tu kitorang lambat sikit senang je tunjuk printed tiket terus boleh lari masuk takde extra checking pun. Ingat dia nak check beg ke apa ke kan. To reach USJ by train, memang kena guna JR Sakurajima Line. Tak ada cara lain. Kalau pagi memang train tu sesak la semua orang turun kat Universal City station.



For hijabis, kalau naik roller coaster they mesti provide something like extra pin or jacket to secure your scarf. Mungkin risau kau punya tudung terbang ntah kemana bila kat atas tu. Padahal nak je kasi tau, "Don't worry miss, I already have minimum of 4 to 5 pins to secure my scarf" sebab memang dah tau nak naik rides mestilah dah ambil langkah berjaga siap-siap. Tapi rela jelah untuk tenangkan hati mereka kan.



 


For those yang teringin nak merasa kena kejar dengan zombie dekat amusement park boleh la datang USJ around September till November. They'll having halloween special.


Bayaran extra untuk sesiapa yang nak naik special ride or join some extra game je. Kalau takat nak tengok-tengok zombie berkeliaran jangan risau free of charge.


We are totally not aware of these at the first place. Pagi tu macam wow orang jepun ni semua memang suka cosplay eh takat nak pergi amusement park pun in character dengan make up special effect bagai. Rupanya they all are prepared for the night event.


Dah petang baru makin paham sebab ada notices penutupan certain areas for zombie attack. Zombie akan berkeliaran everywhere except for kawasan kanak-kanak. Kawasan kanak-kanak kira safe zone la nanti trauma seumur hidup pulak dorang terkejut tengok benda menakutkan ni. Tapi certain areas tu tempat berkumpul dorang so lagi banyak geng zombie la.


We all pun apa lagi excited habis la terus nak cepat habiskan semua ride before 6 sebab lepas tu zombie dah keluar and nak kitorang main kejar-kejar je. Maklum la tak pernah attend halloween party before.



Nak bagi seronok hantu ni semua kacau orang yang takut je, yang chill takde reaction dia pun malas nak layan. Paling confuse nak bezakan mana satu staff usj mana satu orang awam sebab masing-masing scaring each other.


It was a fun experience. Penat tapi totally worth it habiskan masa sehari suntuk kat sana.


Till then.

Here I am in the coffee shop waiting for my phone. I sent it to clinic to be fixed. While waiting, I suddenly remember I have not updated for quite awhile now.

Just finished reading ProudDuck blog. This post make me write here. I really admire Vivy as a blogger! Despite having a very busy life, she is still enjoy updating her blog. Seems like I am not dedicated enough.


But I have exciting news to share here . . .





Next week I will start my part time Master Degree Program in UTMKL.

Up to this date, I still am not so sure about what I really want in life. But I swear by this phrase 'tak ada ilmu yang sia-sia'. So I really do not mind learning about anything. I am sure that it will be useful at any point of my life.


I decided that now is a good time to start being a student again. I keep on making excuses before and it is about time that I ran out of it. That is why few months before I accepted the offer and will start classes in two weeks time. There are things that still have not settled but I received my time tables for this semester. Back to sleepless night finishing assignments and preparing for exam. 

Hope everything went well. Wish me luck, guys!