Beijing, China

Basically, I thought that I could always tolerate cold really good, but that was until I came to Beijing. When they say its cold here, it literally is. Lets put it into perspective, the iPhone is touch screen, and is activated by the body heat of your fingers... well my hands were so cold that none of the buttons worked when I pressed them! When I leave to go outside, I honestly feel like a walking marshmallow. I put on so many layers that I become really plump and like waddle when I walk LOL.

My outfit consists of: 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants (leggings, thermal, jeans/sweat pants); 4 tops (tank top, thermal, another thermal, long sleeve); 1 huge jacket (with fur inside); scarf (made of wool); hat (covers the ears); ski gloves - Normally it takes me a while to choose my outfit in the morning, but not in China. Instead it takes longer to actually put on all the layers. The coldest it got to be was -14 degrees Celsius.

Apart from the weather, everything is great!!! To my surprise, the food wasn’t too bad, I ate LOADS of vegetables, and I mean loads. Vegetables that I have never heard of or even thought about trying. And they do really good soup here... perfect for the temperature outside. But, all those “rumors” you hear about China, and how they eat everything that moves (besides humans).... well they are actually true! I went to the local park where they had a festival going on, and they were selling fried roaches, scorpians, worms, and spiders!!! IT WAS SO GROSS. You should of seen the look on my face when I saw all of this.... I was about to throw up. I wanted to see somebody actually eat it but nobody around me was... until i turned around and saw this guy putting a scorpion in his mouth. I literally just stared at him, my jaw dropped in shock. There are just some things I’ll never understand! Apparently it’s a delicacy and they only eat it on special occasions.

On a lighter note, I managed to do everything that I wanted to do in the 10 days that I was here: The Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Tian’anmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace! Everything was so beautiful! I had a tour guide that showed me around because it was literally impossible to walk to each place... especially in this weather. She told me the history of the places, and took me to the important parts of each site.
The Great Wall: It was about an 1 1/2 drive from where I was staying and it was about 3-4 degrees colder, but I knew this already so I came prepared with an extra jacket, pair of gloves, and hat! I took the cable car up to the Wall, climbed it, and then took the slide down! While I was climbing, I had to stop a few times to catch my breath! There were so many steps and they were super steep, and scary. A couple times I had to grab the edge of the wall to keep my balance. It was a great work out though - I talked to a bunch of random people along the way to keep myself occupied. And obviously took loads of pictures! There was a group of Philippino people on my tour as well which were extremely friendly so we took the slide down together! It was basically a luge ride going down where you sit in this buggy, and have a stick to gear it! The breeze in your face didn’t feel that great but it was fun.

On the days where I didn’t have many plans, I basically chilled; watched movies, walks, dinners etc. My friends that I was staying with introduced me to some of their friend so we went out for dinner a few nights and spent time with them. 

There’s a huge language barrier in China. Most public places have everything translated into English but it doesn’t matter when the people can’t speak English. The taxi drivers don’t even speak English so getting around was very hard; I had to get the address of the place written in Chinese and then show it to them so that they’ll understand. But it was a great learning experience, it allowed me to plan different alternatives and realize that “there’s always another way”

Malaysia

Last minute plans always work out for some reason, if you are easygoing and go with the flow, everything just seems to fall into place. One of my friends that I was planning to stay with had cancelled because she was going back home for Chinese New Year so I was just going to stay in a hotel, but then another opportunity came along. This other girl from GYLS, who attended camp the previous year, offered to host me at her house. I had never met her before or talked to her for that matter, but we were connected through GYLS so we had mutual friends. She opened her arms wide opened and allowed me to stay with her and her family in KL. It was one of the first times that I didn’t feel lonely at all because we hung out all 4 days I was there - It felt good to have a conversation outside the words “how do i get here, how much does that cost, what is this?”

During my stay, Niresh and I did so much walking! We took the public transportation as well, but the bus was ALWAYS packed. We went everywhere exploring KL: Petronas Twin Towers, Menara KL Tower, Little India, City Walk, Malls, and the exhibition of international bears. Taking pictures at these places was fun because at the Twin Towers and the Menara KL Tower, we did the typical poses where you pretend to hold/push the tower, it was funny. After we started doing this, the people around us started to do it and asked us to take their picture. I joked around and said that i should start charging for my amazing photography skills :P Anywaysss, at the City Walk, there was a random large inflatable armchair just sitting there, and we had asked these kids to take a picture but they thought we wanted a picture of them so they smiled and posed; it was super funny. 

The following day we went to Batu Caves which had the “World’s tallest Murugan Statue”. At the caves we held a snake around our neck, prayed at the temples, walked around, went to the reptile exhibit, carried some parrots, went up a 250+ flight of stairs, and watched monkeys steal food from people. 

On my last day, it was a really laid back morning; slept in and took it casually. In the late afternoon we went to this company called “MindValley” and had a tour of the place. It was the most relaxed work place that I have ever seen. The whole atmosphere was so inviting and laid back. Completely well decorated, full of colors, and the workers walked around barefoot. After that we went to eat some lunch, walk around the mall, and went to this street where they sold everything for really cheap. They had branded purses, wallets, clothes for really cheap; the quality obviously wasn’t there but it’s great for short term things. It’s a great tourist attraction since they get to shop for really cheap, but they obviously get ripped off because they can’t bargain properly. As soon as they see a tourist, they put the price up a couple hundred ringgit’s. If you are malay and you talk to them, then they give you a reasonable price. I learned how to say “how much” in malay so that they would think that i’m a local, but it didn’t work. They just laughed and said, i know you’re not Malaysian! LOL. It was worth a shot. 

By the time we went to sleep it was about 1:30AM, and I had to wake up at 6 o’clock to catch my 9 o’clock airplane. Have i ever mentioned how much i dislike morning flights? Complete rush and no sleep. No bueno.

Airport: After I checked in, got something to eat, went through security etc, I saw a starbucks so i though mhhhm, let’s get a frappicino, and it’ll last me for while I’m on the plane. 20 minutes until my flight leaves. I get my frapp and headed towards my gate (right around the corner), I go in all smiley, and they say “sorry no liquids allowed”!!! and I’m like uhh, i bought this at the airport, after security, and then they repeated “no liquids allowed”. -__- I was not a happy camper at this point. I had to down my frapp, which gave me several brain freezes and then rush on the plane! STORY OF MY LIFE.