Day 1 : Singapore - Beijing

It was an early start to our China travel. We had to be at Changi Airport by 7am for the flight to Beijing at 8.30am. It should have been earlier but thanks to the wonderful internet check-in that SIA offered we needed to be at the airport only an hour before departure.

So there we were - 6 women - 3 of my sisters (Indra, Mena and Su), 1 cousin (Padma) and a friend of my sister's (Renee) and me.Was I anxious? Yes :)

The flight took 6 hours and I must say we had a wonderful start to the trip onboard the SIA flight. My sisters began downing cocktails and wine while silly me only thought of asking for orange juice and coffee. We had asked for Indian vegetarian food so our lunch was pretty good. And we had ice cream for dessert. Yum.

We arrived at Beijing at about 2.30pm and I cannot describe the relief I felt when I saw the guide holding a placard with my name on it. Only then did I admit to myself that that had been a secret worry - that somehow the internal tour arrangements would not be in place and that we would be stranded :) But one thing I can say for sure now is that I know surely that God blessed every day of this tour. I saw His hand of protection and mercy in many ways and I am thankful to all those who supported me in prayer.

Navigating the immigration at Beijing was surprisingly painless as they had officers stationed to move people to different queues. Our tour guide in Beijing was Tiffany and we were taken from the airport to the Redwall Hotel where we stayed for the next 4 days. It was a decent enough hotel though the service was really slow and they had the most careless cashier I have ever met! The first time I gave her S$100 (about 500 yuan) to change into yuan she gave me 6 yuan back! And she was insistent that that was what I would get until I made her take the notes out and showed her that they were Singapore dollars. She sheepishly said she thought they were Japanese yen. The second time I changed currency with her she gave me 5 yuan less than she should have. And when I settled my laundry bill she insisted that Renee's laundry was mine!!! Strange woman.

It was at Redwall too that we had our first encounter with Chinglish - the strange signs in English that had us in stiches or feeling really puzzled. This was a sign in the toilet of our room and it made us a bit nervous... In case the picture is not very clear the sign says "The Sweet Hint In order not to the water splashes please pull up the bath curtain and put it into bathtub." So far so good. Then comes the classic - "Be careful. Landslide" Huh? Were we supposed to be on alert to evacuate at short notice? It was only the next day that we learnt from the guide that what the sign meant to say - "Beware. Slippery floor." Hahaha.

We were picked up later from the hotel and taken to a restaurant for our first meal in China. And the pickles that were squirreled away from the SIA flight made its appearance on the table for the first time together with the constant refrain at every meal thereafter - "Got chilli?" Strange how we never did learn how to ask that in Mandarin despite asking for it at every meal we ever had in China.


Thus ended our first day in China. More to follow.....