Backpost: The long journey to Qingdao

(Backpost for April 1, 2006, Sunday)

After a hearty breakfast at the McDonald's at the KLIA Airport with our close friends at 8AM, we decided to go through the Immigration to the boarding gates. Selena and Nanay Susana bid us goodbye as we went into the Immigration. It certainly broke my heart but I chose to stay positive.

Having had no sleep at all since Saturday noon, exhausted from days of packing and last minute shopping, and very tiring last night performance, we seemed floating on air as we dragged along our colorful trolleys. As we boarded the plane and fastened my seatbelt, it only took less than 20 minutes for me to fall asleep. I didn't even notice that the flight was actually delayed for almost an hour! The plane actually left KL around 10AM.

Aboard the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, the flight to Beijing wasn't smooth at all. It was gloomy with dark skies when we left KL. It was a very turbulent flight. There were lots of kids with us on the flight and we could hear them gasping - maybe because they thought they were riding a rollercoaster. I would wake up in between naps, changing my head and butt position. Took lunch, then took a nap again. It was a very long flight. We thought it would just be less than 5 hours. But it was 6 hours of not so comfortable flight.

We arrived Beijing at around 4:30PM. We were ushered by a staff who was carrying a paper with our names with a header that read "Transit to Qingdao". Our flight to Qingdao was not until 7PM so we had the chance to stretch our bodies before boarding on to another flight. It was only merely 2 hours so we arrived Qingdao before 9PM.

When we got out of the airport, it was freezing cold. We weren't really prepared for this type of weather because we were told that we could just wear any long sleeves because it's getting warmer. But the heck!!! It was freezing cold! We were greeted by Rebecca, the assistant Qbar manager. We were brought to our apartment. Not as posh as our apartments in Shanghai, it's just an above normal apartment of 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets & bathrooms. We also have a small kitchen, dining and living rooms. At least we have a homey feeling now. And it's something permanent. The only hassle is the trip we had to make to go to and from the hotel. In this type of weather. Wish it was already mid-spring!!!