2009 - A 牛YEAR............A 牛BEGINNING

7 Jan 2009 7 am
Currently at Xian Xianyang Airport blogging this.
I am leaving Xian with a heavy heart having spent the longest amount of time in any city during this China trip. I will miss most, the friends I met and briefly met here. I chose Xian to crossover to the 牛year primarily to kill 2 birds with 1 stone - celebrating both New Year, New Year's eve coupled with an advanced celebration of the 22nd birthday of a very special person who resides here. Everything went perfectly, the French restaurant with a spectacular view, the fabulous food and sweet red wine and most of all the company. The only downside was the camera failed to take any good shots! The countdown to the New Year was with a bunch of alcoholic-crazy gang at the home of one of the gang. Smoke-filled room aside, the setting was as down-to-earth and authentic as it will ever get and I thank Dathy from the bottom of my heart for that.

I haven't been updating the blog with a progressive day-by-day trip report, I guess I am not up to it to do so while travelling and prefer to do it while recollecting those moments (old-folks' style) at a later date after the trip. I find doing it this way that much sweeter!

I missed my flight, by a whisker, the last time round on New Year's day from Xian to Chengdu. This time I booked an early morning flight Xian-Beijing, catching the 1st Airport bus out from Xian townside which will be the safest route because of the unpredictability of the mildly notorious Xian traffic. True enough, the streets were all clear and the bus departed 5 mins earlier than the scheduled time of 6 pm from outside Melody Hotel when the bus was full. Reached the airport at 6.33 am, the journey was a mere 38 mins as compared to the usual 50 mins to 1 hour 10 mins in the course of the day. Checked in was a breeze except that the counter staff insisted on a flat 20kg maximum check-in luggage (the 2 pcs I had was 26.8kg), after some wrangling and realising that they were following the rule to the book, I took out the big backpack and check in just the other piece. I guess it is not too difficult although it would be that much easier if I could check both in so that I will be left with a small backpack and a plastic bag. Anyway this is already the home stretch, so nothing to fuzz about.

Heading for Beijing and then home sweet home to Singapore and the hot weather yet again!