It has been years since the last time I wrote my blog. I finally have the time for it after all these craziness going in my life. Long story short, I'm going to graduate from uni early next year, my brother got married October last year and I'm going home to Indonesia on end of July to welcome the newborn baby into the world, I became a food reviewer and managed to be a BonAPP Power User in Shanghai and living my life depending on free food and goods, I rescued a kitten last winter and she has grown into a really HUGE cat called Astrid, Willem and I are still madly in love after been in a nearly 2 years of amazingly wonderful relationship. SO, Willem and I decided to travel to a few cities last CNY but we compromised a lot and ended doing Beijing and Nanjing instead as they are the North and South Capital. At least, Nanjing is already an ex-capital city because the emperor couldn't make up his mind. We took the fastest bullet train from Shanghai to Nanjing (up to 300km/hr). The journey was about 2,5 hours more or less. Travelling with Willem is something because he NEVER let me go to sleep in the train because he doesn't wanna be left awake alone. It's a huge challenge for a pillowhead like me..
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Our backpacking style. Don't mind the plastic bags, those are just trash that we'll throw away.
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| All my life I have always wanted to take a picture of this! #relationshipgoal #powercouple |
We reached Nanjing early that day and it didn't take us long to fall in love with the city. We had a pleasant surprise once we got out of the train station. We saw and touched some snow for the first time in our lives! Wanted to eat some then realized how dirty it can be as it is China pffft. Not long after that, I heard Willem screamed "WOW! LOOK HOW LONG THAT SELFIE STICK CAN GO!" When I turned around, I found out he was talking about the window cleaner. LOL! This African boy.. We finally reached our hostel called Bunkie Hostel. It's a really nice hostel located in an apartment building. They have a pet dog called Cici, a toy poodle dog. They have a Marvel themed living room and theatre room. So far so good. After we unpacked our stuff, we decided to go to the City Wall in Andongmen and Zhonghuamen area.. Once we were there, we were surrounded by piles and piles of snow so we decided to have some fun with it and built a snowman that somehow went under a drastic transition; snowman - snow woman - rabbit - mouse - duck - muscular duck. LMAO!
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| My first snowman ever! Turned out, It is also Will's first snowman too! |
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| Tadaaahh! |
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| Tadaaah! #2 |
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| The final form. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! I bet people who see this after we left be like wtf :)) |
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| That's the city gate!! Is it just me or ancient Chinese are really into walls and shit? First is Great Wall, then this?._. |
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| You would never find this kind of view anywhere else. |
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| We're focusing on that newly built pagoda that is covered in glass. Yes. Glass. |
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| I never thought that I would travel with my boyfriend. Ever. |
We wanted to climb up the wall but then decided not to as it is so so expensive. CNY50 per person, I can already buy 2 portions of fried chicken rice set in Yonghe Dawang. Then we went to get some beef noodle as it is bloody cold outside and we need warm food. At one point Willem poured too much chili in my food and I end up not being able to eat it. The broth numbed my lips - thanks to Szechuan pepper my lips felt they were vibrating LOL! End up switching food with W HAHA!
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| We were really starving so we decided to eat beef noodle aka nu (nv) ro mian nearby :D |
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| Someone is really happy with his food. Nu ro mian is his favorite. He literally eats this everyday when he just reached China. |
After a really nice meal, we took a bus to The Confucius Temple aka Fuzimiao. Willem and I found an awesome Miniso copycat store called MUMUSO and then we also found MMVUSO HAHAHAHAHA!!! Wtf. We came across Paris Baguette bakery to buy some curry bun, W told me the curry bun tastes like an African Bun instead.. What? (¯―¯٥) We also bought a potato twister on the way. Now, LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!!!! Sight seeing, snacking, shameless photo taking, whoop whoop!
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| Weird food + souvenir shop + backpack = basic tourist. |
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| Nanjing fuzimiao. Yes, people.. I read Chinese now. |
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| There we go. Fuzimiao is not focused but ok la. |
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| Chinese New Year is coming so they decorate things with lanterns. |
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| I love Chinese style roof. |
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| The lanterns aren't all up but this good enough. |
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| What I like the most is this. All of the things I saw that day. |
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| You have to go through this before you can enter the Dacheng Hall :D |
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| The Confucius Temple Of Nanjing. |
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| I think these are the things where you wrote down your wish. |
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| Lovey entering the Ancient Chinese Education building thing. |
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| So we were supposed to payif we hit the bell, so Willem hit the bell when the guard is not around lol! Sneaky. |
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| I also want to pose with this. LOL! |
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| There's another bell. But Willem didn't even bother as there is guard. |
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| The hallway. |
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| LOL! My travelling wallet and ze book cover :D |
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| This is our fisrt time eating breaded deep fried corn. Was great though. |
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| Look at all these satay *drools* |
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| La cha!! TEH TARIK!! PULLED TEA! YAAASSS!!! Sadly they did't make some that day (¯―¯٥) false hope.. |
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| He's making our banana roti canai. |
The Conficius Temple was cool but there are so much more to offer in the area, so we decided to go cruising. Because we're fucking stingy with our travel money, we decided to get the cheapest package and it was shit LOL! Should've spent an extra CNY10 per person to get a better cruise boat tour. It was cold, noisy and they didn't do the whole river tour. Whatever. I have another reason to go back there again.
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| Chinese boat riding in the cold night. |
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Cruising in the cold night. I regret for sitting in front of Will. I should've stayed at the back with the kid while Will is
shielding me. |
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| The main lantern that we seen (so far) @ Confucius Temple. VSCO cam filter works really well on this one. |
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| Nanjing, you beautiful :') This reminds me so much of Spirited Away though.. |
The next morning we went to get breakfast at a street food stall and be local before setting off to Dr. Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum. So that place is located in a very legit mountain along with other attraction, but the main attraction is definitely the mausoleum. Once we went out of the metro station, we took a van to go up the mountain because walking up took a long time and nobody got time for that. The entrance fee is free! FREE!
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| Dr.Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum gate! HERE WE GO! |
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| #ootd @ Dr.Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum. |
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| MWA! :* |
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| I know it's a long way up. My legs explode already LOL! |
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| View from the top! We're on top of a mountain btw. The view is breathtaking! |
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| Ze mausoleum on top of the mountain. |
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| 2nd #ootd @ Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum. Because one is not enough *selfish* |
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| Le lovey posing near the 100+ years old tree. |
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| Call me a bad tourist. I have no idea what monument is this. Didn't really look at it :( |
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| I love hamigua and I love you :* |
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| The twigs and branches inspire me. Pretty! |
After all the hard work of going up those stairs up the mountain, the most sacred room in the mausoleum is closed for maintenance -____- Ayyyyy! But anyway, still had so much fun up there snapping photos and joking around. We sled down the mountain on our way down btw. Super fun! Although people were staring at us and thinking we are some kind of weirdos. The local ladies took pictures with W, I decided to jumped into the photo. I mean, hello.. He's mine, you can't have a photo with him without me. MUAHAHA! Im going to ruin all of local girls photos with my bf because I can :P We had dinner at the nearest Mcd then jumped onto a bus to buy train ticket to Beijing. We literally took that bus from one end to the other end of the route. Once we reached the train station, it was hell. Everybody's travelling on CNY so every train is packed. We were panicking about ticket booking as everything is full and the next best thing to get the ticket is via a machine but you need Chinese card for it but we don't have em.But somehow we magically managed to get train tickets to Beijing.
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| Will bought me Totoro that night and we named Taro. It is the 'son of the family'. |
The next morning, we woke up and decided to get a proper food in a restaurant located not far from the street stall from yesterday. Fast forward we went to the ancient city, it was nothing like I have ever seen before. I love the setting of the place. Felt like I was in the typical old Chinese movie with some kungfu action. They sell modern stuff inside the ancient looking shops, though. One time we found a pet store with cannibal hamsters in it. W and I were depressed for a moment...
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| Willem's food. The food turned out to be way different compared to the picture. |
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| Mah fried chicken!! Was a good meal but unfortunately a bit greasy for me. Couldn't finish the whole meal :( |
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| "*sarcasm applied* Thank you so much, Mutia" - Will. Cannot see his face lol! |
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| Selfie! |
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Our family portrait honeymoon photo ootd shoot. I cringe looking at this photo though, |
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| How I love ancient town! Ancint things are my favorite!! |
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| We're at the end of the main Laomendong's road as we've reached the city gate. |
After taking it easy in ancient town, we got some groceries on our way home. Willem got himself some instant food that heat up without microwave, he got the beef curry option. I chose to get 5 litres of water that W end up left alone in a bus stop, W was sad about it though. Came to hostel, W made his dinner and we chill at the theatre room watching some movies. W told he just had the worst meal ever in his entire life that night. W woke me up in the middle of the night, he got some serious food poisoning. He kept puking and had fever. We stayed indoor for 2 days. Never in my life I have seen him this sick. He never got sick. I'm sure that food isn't for consumption yet some people still sell those to get more money.. Lesson for all of us, never buy instant meal that doesn't require microwave to heat it, that shit is poison. While W spent his 2 days bed resting, I played with Cici the dog.
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| Good morning from Cici and me! |
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| Cici is such a fluff ball:3 |
2 days have past, W is feeling much better and has recovered. It was our last day in Nanjing and our train to Beijing departed at night so we use our day time to visit one famous landmark in Nanjing. During WW2, Nanjing was attacked by the Japanese troops. The Japs went berserk, went on a killing spree and committed horrible things such as rape, torture, mass execution with no mercy. 300000 killed in 6-8 weeks time. The Government then built a memorial hall and museum to memorialize those who passed away that time. Located near a mass burial ground where thousands were buried. It is a very powerful place and it remind us how mean and crazy can people be. The site has this heavy atmosphere that will make you cry even more on each steps you take, from the start line to the finish line. Seeing real remains of skeletons of those who tragically killed and suffered. It was too much for us. All we could do is to send them prayers and hope that they won't suffer anymore in their next stage of life.
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| The name is too long tha it can't even fit. |
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The first thing that we saw the moment we walked out of the security check is this humongous statue of a woman with one
boob exposed.. |
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| These sculptures are amazing. I've felt the tension a little from the entrance but still managed to crack some jokes around. |
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| When you lost your phone in the water. |
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| Isn't this obvious enough? |
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| The first proper room I see the moment I walked down the hall which is the 2nd room. |
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| A little piece out of 300.000 names carved on the victim names wall |
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| We have no idea what those are but we're assuming they're each person's file. The victims, maybe. |
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| I feel pure sadness in this site. Depressing.. |
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| The statue on the right side of the pond once you walked out of the mass grave building full of skeletons. |
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| The statue that symbolizes peace. Beautiful statue though. |
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| I don't know what pot is this. I'm guessing it's a symbol. I don't know, man. I'm lost. |
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| The date when the massacre stared and ended. |
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| A bell that I can't really describe the history or hidden meaning behind it haha. I have no idea. Man, I feel bad.. |
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| #ootd @ Nanjing Massacre Museum. When you're mourning but you still want to fashion lmao. |
It was a true spiritual journey for both me and W. Quite often we heard men sobbing walking down the alley. It was pure sadness. Before the sun sets, we headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and say goodbye to everyone and Cici because Beijing was already waiting for us :)
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| From the south capital to the north capital! |
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| A real quick selfie on our way to the Northern Capital, Beijing!!!!! |
Once we reached Beijing, we went broke af because my wallet got stolen. Got that sorted out once I got back to Shanghai though. Anyway, we wanted to go for tons of attraction but we couldn't because we're broke af! Had W's mom to transfer us some money. Wanted to stay for a week, ended staying there for 3 days. That minimized our trip so much and we ended doing the essential attraction. The Great Wall. Reached the hostel in Sanlitun area and booked our trip to the Great Wall the next morning. I've done badaling trip recently and I've been there twice so we ended doing the Mutianyu path. Yes, my name is in there. A perfect destination to go with me, 'Muti and you' Great Wall HAHA! Michelle Obama went there btw. I didn't have the best night staying in the hostel room because I got bitten by bed bug. W didn't get any bite despite him sleeping next to me wtf so we moved to another room. In the morning, before we left to the Great Wall, we had breakfast provided from the tour while waiting for our bus to arrive. Apparently they pick us up the latest so I didn't get to sit with W during the whole bus trip. I decided to doze off as I didn't get enough sleep..
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| Handsome is playing the guitar when I'm having my breakfast because he has finished his. |
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| Our included breakfast. He has the meat breakfast, he got me the vegetarian breakfast. I came to a very challenging country. |
Reached Mutianyu Great Wall, made some new friends from Canada. Everything was fun and all that. We took the cable car up and cost us CNY100, that kinda choked us with our current budget that time but oh what the hell, let's make the best out of it since we won't be back to GW together but if we do, that'd be great. We went to the old part of the GW though, unmaintenanced and unrenovated part. It felt so natural and so historic, so chill. But in order to reach there, you have to go effin far and go on a high peak. It was tiring but it was worth it. I recommend going to Mutianyu GW instead of Badaling because Badaling is more mainstream, packed, noisy, offer sketchy train ride up and down.
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| The cable car view from our capsule. On our way up! Excited. |
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| He's the light to my darkness. |
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| Proud Namibian holding his Village Cafe Mug. |
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| The ultimate "If it fits I sits". W tried to slide his butt down the snowy path. |
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| The first fort after the "no tourist" sign was plaed. Yas, that fort is still in it's own original shape! Mutia is amazed. |
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| Lightness in the dark.. |
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| The 14th fort. The only fort I have seen so far where you can write things on the covered wall! |
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| The view of one of the forts from our cablle car's capsule. |
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| The 2nd fort after the no tourist sign placed. This is the last and the fursthest fort we've explored. |
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| Willem holding his village cafe mug proudly. That mug has been to more countries than I have in my life. The sad truth... |
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| The ancient pathway of the Mutianyu Great Wall! One of the biggest achievements in my life! *scratches one of my bucket lists* |
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| #ootd @ Mutianyu Great Wall of China!! Can't believe I'm here! About a year ago I told myself I wanna visit this part of the Great Wall and now I have!! :') |
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| Going up to the peak (trust me, that fort over there is not the peak) |
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| ❤❤❤❤❤ |
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| Who would've thought I'd be visiting The Great Wall of China with my ultimate. |
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| Lovey with his xiaomi yi. I recommend this camera! Really. |
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| Amazingly breathtaking view on our way back down. |
That was definitely the most worth it tour of the GW ever as lunch included. We had to move seats as a group of family decided to came late and kick me and W out of our table and joined another group. We end up sitting with some awesome people from Canada and Mexico and Italy-ish people. The reason why I called some Italy-ish instead of Italian because there was this biatch who thinks she is more superior than the others. W and I were stuck in the cable car with them on the way up and down the cable car ugh. One super friendly Mexican guy who looks like Taylor Lautner encouraged her to speak more and more, his gf was pissed though. Anyway, food was great. loving the sweet and sour chicken and we impressed the people in our table for being able to speak Chinese. YEAAAHHHH!! Suck it Italy-ish bitch! It has been more than a year it happened but I'm still pissed at her lmao. We were the first one to get dropped off the bus (this time we sat together ohoho), said goodbye to everyone, especially the Mexican Taylor Lautner because he's a fun guy and I think he realized that I'm still a kid so he was acting all big bro on W and I. We were dropped off quite early so we decided to go to the Olympic Stadium Complex instead. Located in line 8 that stands for the 08-08-08 date of Beijing Olympic. The Olympic complex was HUGE!
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| Somebody is so proud wearing my lipstick stain on his cheek. |
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| Bae-jing lel. It's not his final form yet C: |
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| Thank you for making this trip so meaningful, so fun, lovey! I love you x. |
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| The National Aquatics Centre "Watercube". |
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| Finally after 8 years of wanting to go here!! |
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| Look at how my boyfriend posed.. Goodness! -_- |
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| When bae tryna fabulous skating in front of the Aquatic Stadium. Tryna beat Kim Yuna :)) |
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I told him to pose with one of the olympic mascots but he chose to pose this unknown creature instead. I don't get him
sometimes ._. Confused girlfriend is confused. |
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| Ling Long pagoda. |
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| When you tryna be more fabulous than your already-fabulous boyfriend. |
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| Wo ai Jing Jing! Ta hen ke ai! :* |
The Olympic Complex was epic! Wish we had more money so we could do some ice skatings and enter the Bird's Nest. Oh well, at least we managed to take some pictures with it. These complex gave a major flashback to the year of 2008 when I visited China for the first time. The 11 years old me was standing in Tiananmen Square, looking at the countdown calendar for the Olympic to start. It was nearing my 12th Birthday that I end up celebrating in Shanghai. Funny that I live in Shanghai now. The next day I decided to meet up with Keles aka Clearance. He brought 2 friends with him; Michelle and Vincent. Vincent then later became Novie's boyfriend :)) We wanted to go to Quan Ju De, I wanted to show Willem how good the ducks are in Quan Ju De as they use the same recipe to serve the emperor some ducks. But since we went broke, Keles brought us to Waipojia instead. It was packed and they closed early as it was Chinese New Year's Eve. We met up in Wangfujing area as I was craving for some Wuyutai ice cream, but they closed early that night.. And I don't know where else to buy wuyutai..
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| LOOK, MA! WE'RE ON TV!!! |
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| I don't know what this chicken called but it's good. A bit bland, still good af!!!!!!! |
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| Ze roast pork. Sadly I can't eat it. The stupid fuwuyuan keep saying yes although we asked for gao ya (roast duck). At least they didn't charge me for not eating this mwehehehe. |
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| And this is uhhh.. Beef full of corriander. It was so good, I tell you!! It's a little spicy, otherwise it's still very very good!! |
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| I love garlic-y seafood! Garlic shrimp oh YASSS!!! They even have glass noodle as the best. Pure satisfaction :') |
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| Have I told you that I love stir fried cauliflower? This is my absolute favorite among all!! |
We all went home early because everything is closing early. We definitely had fun that night. From that day on, W and I are addicted to Grandma's aka Waipojia and we are so happy to find tons of them in Shanghai. SO, on our way home that night we saw tons of fireworks in Sanlitun area. Apparently, from what I heard, the firework is banned in China in order to control the air pollution. However, only Sanlitun area that is allowed to put up some firework. We were back in the hostel and I found a guest book so we doodled (as usual whenever we found a guest book somewhere). When we were back in our room, we met Martin and Jenny who happened to be our roommates. They're married couple from The States living in Fujian Province that time before they moved to Turkey earlier this year. They suggested to play a strategic game called Caracassone where you build your as many empires, the biggest empire wins. I WON ZE GAME (●▽●) I won! 4 of us went out of the hostel as we heard the hostel staff start playing some firecrackers. Tons of firework, it was CNY Eve so why the hell not go outside? We did. W carried me on his back under the rain of firework. It felt like we were under attack omg. Fun times..
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| Firework nearby the hostel on our way home. Just a little piece. |
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Not tryna be cocky here or anything but I think that our page is the 2nd best in this whole guest book. The best page(s) belong(s)
to Martin or something. A Russian dude with amazing skill. Like a goodtype kind of writing. |
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| Playing Caracassone. As you can see, I built a little Jakarta over there, 6 tiled city lol. |
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| Holiday Inn Express Sanlitun knows how to firewok., |
That was the best way to spend your CNY Eve in China! HAHA! Jenny and Martin became good friends with us and we stayed in touch. A couple of months after that, they came to visit us in Shanghai and we had awesome Indian food (click
here for the proof!). We're all friends on Facebook now haha. We are so glad that we met people like Martin and Jenny. They're absolutely the sweetest and the couple we look up to, they live their life with so much fun. The next day, we left early in the morning and head off to Tian'anmen Square because it is a prime location. If we can manage to go to tian'anmen, we definitely can enter Forbidden City. It's like killing 2 birds with one stone. But NOPE! CNY in the fucking capital city of China is packed as fuck! Especially in the Forbidden City as it is where the people are going. We gave up on Forbidden City and walk around the Tian'anmen instead. We don't wanna get stepped over by those crowds and die #nottodaysatan.
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| Tian'anmen's gate. People are lining up in order to go into The Forbidden City. |
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| OOTD @ Tian'anmen Square! |
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| Boyfriend's ootd shot. |
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| Sillhouette ootd in front of The Monument of People's Heroes! |
As we walked down Tian'anmen, we (especially me) found a nice surprise! My dad never brought me there. W and I found all these majestic gate looking forts called Qianmen and other gates called Zheng Yang gates. Down the road, we found an ancient town. The old Beijing as it is still located within the first inner ring. We wanted to get the peking duck but as you know we were on a tight budget, we got one of the cheapest duck we can find. We had a good and solid lunch though :)
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| The Qianmen gate from accross the street! |
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| The Qianmen gate from the back (because the front look isn't as majestic from my phone camera. silhouette problem). |
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| Célfie @ ZhengYang Gate. |
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| Zhengyang gate from in front of the Qianmen gate. |
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| Mao's Mausoleum. We had no idea what that building is before. Never been in there in my life. |
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We came across a market that I didn't know that it exists! Qianmen Street Market! I didn't see
this Tian'anmen Square's gem when I was here 7 year ago. |
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| Guess what? WE BOUGHT WUYUTAI ICE CREAM!! AHHH!!!! OMGOMGOMGGG!! W isn't a fan though :( |
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I gotta say that this is a good fukhin duck! It's not even roasted. best 58 kuai spent in Beijing!
The cheapest duck you can get in the restaurant. Gao ya is too expensive, budget.. Not enough money. I'm glad we ate this. |
As much and as long as we want to stay in the North Capital, we have to go back sooner or later. This time we came home sooner as we didn't have enough money left to spend. So we went back to Shanghai late afternoon, we were rushing home from Qianmen though. That was a nice almost 2 weeks of trip. I would do it all over again. Thank you, W for making it happen. You are definitely my ultimate. Love you with all my heart xoxo.
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| On our way back to the port city!! Say bye to accommodation fee!!! *waving a piece of white cloth* |
