Nanjing, ni hau

Nanjing, China.

China mainland bucket list: checked!

who can honestly raise their hand and say that they've heard of this place before?
(unless, of course, you're an avid historian and have heard of the famous Nanjing Massacre before).

would you ever consider this as a place to visit in your bucket list? usually when you mention China, Beijing or Shanghai comes to mind. but Nanjing? no way. what can you find here anyway?

this month i got the opportunity to visit Nanjing, because for the first time the husband was rostered a 2-day trip to Nanjing (he usually gets Xiamen or Canton if you talk about China). dapat pergi sekali untuk merasa pun da cukup, alhamdulillah.

this month dia memang murah rezeki; he's got day offs in Jakarta, Nanjing, and even Taipei for this month's roster. if i had all the free time in the world, i'd follow for each and every one of his trips, unfortunately that's not the case =(.

but the thing with China is, you need a visa to enter the country; only Hong Kong and Macau are excluded. so i was lucky there was this blogger who just recently wrote about what you need to do to apply for a Chinese visa; his blog helped me tremendously, thank you so much!

China visa

for a quick recap, you'll need:
- your flight ticket
- 2 passport photos
- your passport, still valid for at least 6 months (the usual requirement)
- a photocopy of the passport’s info page

the visa processing centre is located at Hampshire Place, situated smack in the middle of KL T_____T.

application submission is open from 9-3pm weekdays; i headed there at around 1pm-ish after purchasing my flight ticket, last-minute style. (to go? no go? should i? hee~ going would mean me applying 3 days off from work :\) the Grab driver was a very chatty young fellow, who didn't mind doing most of the talking while i listened throughout the ride.

once at the building, you go to level 5 for visa applications, or you go to level 6 for pickups. that day as i stepped onto level 5, there was barely even a queue, means i didn't have to wait long for my turn, yasssssssssssssssss. you could even take your photo here, penat je i drop by midvalley tadi just to take my photo; the visa requires your photo to have a white background. my photo turned out ugly, btw. i only realized that i'm slowly going bald bahahahhahahaha. i seriously need to change my current hair parting to mask it.

the normal duration for your visa to be processed is 4 working days. any earlier than that and you'd have to pay a little (no, ALOT) extra for your visa. i already filled up my visa application form online and had it printed out so i just needed to submit everything and come back after four days.

oh, there are also a few types of visa to choose from, the price will differ depending on what type of visa you choose and how soon you need it. i chose the single entry visa, because i wasn't sure if the husband would get another China day off within the next three months. (update: May roster is out and no China for him, Mumbai ade la. haha).

you only make payment when you come to collect your passport. collections are from 9-4pm weekdays. this time i drove because when i asked the guard downstairs, he said basement parking was available payable by the hour; which was much cheaper than having to pay Grab to get you there to and fro. when i arrived there in the morning, collecting my passport was also a quick process because there weren't that many people either, must be my lucky day perhaps? or perhaps it's low season to visit China at the moment. hee~

so yes, i collected my passport on the day of my flight, which was taking off the same day at 5.05pm. i also went to exchange RMB currency after i collected my passport, talk about everything last minute. i hadn't even finished packing for myself; i seriously didn't know what to bring to China =D~

so. another milestone checked: visiting mainland China!

excited =P

bye Malaysia!

well anyway, i made the flight, watched 27 Dresses (for a light laugh) and He's Just Not That Into You (just because i wanted to layan Alex and Gigi, hahahah). the duration of the flight was an average of 5 hours 30 minutes. Nanjing shared the same timezone as Malaysia, so i didn't have to worry about synchronizing any clocks for the trip.

business class menu

even though i was the first one off the plane (for attempting to skip the long immigration queue and also because i wanted to go to toilet), i still ended up being one of the slowest to clear immigration anyway; China immigration opened only ONE lane for foreigners, as opposed to the locals who had about 4-5 lanes to choose from, tak aci sungguh.

Nanjing Lukou International Airport

customs. y. u. so. slow.

the locals queue

fortunately for me i was lucky that one of the crew members was waiting for her check-in bag to emerge from cargo (like i mentioned before, since my bag went in last, it was one of the first to come out wahahahahaah) so i didn't feel so guilty for making the crew wait for me and my bag. untong kan jadi crew? they have their own customs clearance lane, they can saunter into the airport at the last minute and they get to travel like a bawse. sighs.

with the crew. ifs tunggu bag x kluar2 lg

anyway, once outside, the night air was cool! best gila! and whoops i only checked Nanjing temperature during the day and totally forgot to check for the temperature at night, which was a whopping belas belas degrees celcius, ahahahhahahah shit. and i didn't even pack any sweaters, confident je weather panas macam Malaysia, kah kah.

the hotel the crew was staying at took almost 50 minutes to get there by shuttle (similar distance from the airport to their hotel in Taipei); i was glad the Captain was nice, he reminded me alot of Arif, only in tall size. hahahahahahah.

the hotel room was so cantik btw; for only one-person to occupy, it was huge! it even had a sort of walk-in closet hidden in the back. our room did not have a balcony, since the view from our room was some sort of abandoned-looking water park, but we did have a bathtub (which i did not utilize during this trip, phooey). rooms facing the riverside had balconies, but didn't have bathtubs. the hotel came with an indoor swimming pool and a gym. aaaaand the only tv channels that were in English were BBC and HBO =P.

the spacious room

the bathroom sink

the bathtub, toilet and shower compartments

walk-in closet haha

the only downside to Nanjing is that practically everyone do not speak England, so you will have a problem if you want to ask them even a simple inquiry T___T. makes you wish you had spent all your available time learning Mandarin, eh?

oh well til the next morning, people!

Perth Day 2

second day:

supposedly the plan was to wake up really early and head to Kings Park & Botanical Gardens, because Danial says the best time to view Perth CBD ideally would be before 10am. but biasalah, hotel beds and the covers are always very inviting that it's impossible to get out of bed that early, even though sunrise is about 6.15am haha.

darn those blackout curtains.

anyway, after i managed to drag the husband out of bed, we headed to Watertown Brand Outlet first, since it was walking distance from the hotel, barely a kilometer away.

Watertown Brand Outlet

i didn't do much shopping here, mostly available were Australian brands that i wasn't familiar with. oh, they had Smiggle here, for the Smiggle-lovers. i wouldn't say that the prices were dirt cheap here, but they were still slightly cheaper than prices in Malaysia (later when i got back to KL i compared the price of the bag that we purchased for the kids, it was indeed cheaper by 20-30 ringgit).

at Adidas waiting for the husband

souvenirs

Lindt!!!

we came across a luggage store that sold Samsonite laptop bags at reasonable prices, so the husband bought each of us one, since i'm in dire need of a laptop bag (the buckles of the previous bag that i had kept breaking, even after i had them replaced), and the husband's current laptop bag had been with us for so long, i've even sent the bag to have its straps repaired a couple of times before. the new bag that he got for himself had an extra zippered compartment where you could stash an extra set of clothing just in case you end up stranded on an island or get stuck in some similar situation (hence, his bag was much more expensive than mine =P).

thank you Dear, love you to the moon and never come back =*

we headed back to the hotel to stash our purchases and proceeded to the bus station to for our next destination: to find lunch at Charcoal Chicken - Dianella Plaza. don't be an idiot like me and mistake it as 'DAN-ee-yella'. it's actually 'DAYA-nella'. hahah. i only realized my mistake when i went to ask for directions at the hotel reception. the easiest way is to ask for directions from Googlemaps, i'm not kidding. trust Googlemaps! since i wasn't sure which bus to take and from which bus stop, we headed to the bus station itself to get a ride from there.

directions to Charcoal Chicken from the hotel

from Perth Busport, you have a few choices of buses that you can take to get there: Bus #360, 361, #362 and #960 since all buses will pass by the same stop that you're going to: Alexander Dr After Grand Prom (Stop #12800). we hopped on the first bus that arrived, Bus #360. a bus ticket costs $3.10 for Standard 1 Zone, also valid for 2 hours.

taking the bus like the locals

now, when i asked around  about what was there to do/eat in Perth, practically everyone told me that I had to try Charcoal Chicken. as soon as we got down at the bus stop and arrived in front of the restaurant, the husband was like, errr did we get the right place? rupa macam tak nak niaga je. on the outside the place looked partially abandoned, with the sign 'Charcoal Chicken Express' erected on its front.

Charcoal Chicken
Alexander Dr & Grand Promenade, Dianella WA 6059, Australia
opens daily 10.30am-9pm, closes on Sunday

abandoned-looking, seriously

but amaigad, do not dilly dally and ask so many questions, just go inside and order. LAMB RIBS DIA IS DA BOMB i tell you. unless you tamak and don't want to share, i recommend that you share a set between the two of you because the portion served is big, which costs $17.90 *tutup mata at exchange rate lagi*. it comes with a generous helping of salad, and they have alot of salads to choose from.

so that's why they call it 'express' i guess

lamb ribs set. yummeh!

there were a bunch of other Malays customers there (or Indonesians? i dunno but i could understand what they were saying hahahahah) who ordered and shared between them because the portion was quite big. my friend says boleh makan ni hari2. sorang lagi kawan mintak tolong bungkus bawak balik. hahahahhaha. can we open an outlet here in Malaysia? =D.

selepas kekenyangan macam ular sawa, we took the bus back to town using the same bus ticket we purchased since it was still valid *kedekut gila hahahahah*.

we did a bit of random wandering in the city before the husband had to go back to the hotel to sleep. he was going to operate that night and needed at least 6 hours of sleep to function properly (so he says lah, lol).

jalan-jalan in the streets of Perth

the alleyway of Harry Potter, or what looks like it

this BB-8 is seriously cute, can be controlled from your phone

who wants an iphoneX?

the leftovers of Autumn in Perth

but before heading back to the hotel, we went to buy that famous Corica apple strudel pastry to bring home. the previous day, just before Arif went back to the hotel he showed us one store in town that sold a mean apple strudel, but i forgot where the store was *sweat*. Corica Pastries was situated not too far from the hotel, so exercise it is.

Corica Pastries
106 Aberdeen St, Northbridge WA 6003, Australia
opens daily 8am-5.30pm, Saturday 8am-12.30pm, closes on Sunday

i'm a fan of walking (the husband is more into jogging as a form of exercise) so i had to drag him all the way to the store for one last kopek adventure, which also looked half-abandoned on the inside (you know, like how sometimes you see bakery stores in KL half empty sbb stock roti tak masuk lagi). i half expected her to say they were sold out when i asked the lady at the counter if they still had any apple strudels left. luckily they did, kept in the chiller behind her, phew. one box costs you $24.

so. after sending the husband back to the hotel for his beauty sleep, i headed out on my own to continue exploring Perth, because the day was still young and i wasn't even sure when would be the next time i'd get to go back to this place again.

the last place i intended to visit what with the limited time i had here (orang lain pergi 5-7 hari, i pergi 2 hari je gila express nak explore semua huh) was the Blue Boathouse. you know, that sebijik boathouse blue in color that noone can tell you why it's there but people go visit it anyway to take photographs of it just because everyone's doing it? (i think there is a history behind the boathouse but you go Google about it yourself lah).

at this time i'm relying solely on offline Googlemaps to get around; only the husband has internet, and he's in the room snoring.

now, please listen to me when i say you should board Bus #950 to get to the Blue Boathouse, no matter how you think it looks near when you examine Googlemaps, because it will take you a FREAKING 1 hour 30 minutes by foot to get there. tak tipu. i missed exploring the Botanical gardens because by the time i arrived at the boathouse, dusk was setting in. the only consolation i got despite arriving at the spot at almost sundown was that the weather was seriously gorgeous, and you got a spectacular view of Perth CBD as you walk by the riverside. the birds in Perth were very colorful too, not those boring black and brown ones you'd usually see. i would've posted a video of them birds in my ig, only that the app keeps hanging when i try to do so, grrrr.

breathtaking view

sunset

i passed by the Eliza Sculpture on the way to the boathouse. I didn't know the significance of the statue at the time; the sculpture is 2.2m high and it depicts a woman about to dive off a wooden platform. it commemorates the old Crawley Baths which were a prominent Perth landmark during the early to mid 20th century.

Eliza Sculpture in the Swan River

Blue Boathouse is also known as Crawley Edge Boatshed, which is situated at the other end of the riverside T____T. when i arrived huffing and puffing at the boathouse, there were two people taking photographs of the boatshed, with tripods and everything. so i got the guy to take a photo of me and the boathouse as proof that I made it to the freaking boathouse haha. i asked him if he knew how the boathouse ended up here; he didnt know either. he told me that some rich guy had so much money that he decided to build that little boathouse. ehh betul ke hahahahha.

the Blue Boathouse

Crawley Edge Boatshed

milestone checked! - take photo with blue boathouse hahahahah

a selfie with the boathouse, hee~

although, i would like to come here again with someone else. tak best pergi and selfie sorang2 with the boathouse =(.

i say take the freaking bus because the bus stop is directly beside the boathouse, so tak payah sesat2 cari the landmark after you get off the bus, janji you get off the correct stop lah. you save alot of time and energy ok. hahahhahahahhaha.

bus routes and where they stop

since i still had time to explore beside the sun already setting, i decided to make a pitstop and hop off the bus at Elizabeth Quay station. the Captain's wife said that the place was relatively new, officated in 2016. the Bell Tower was also located here, so i wanted to go and see for the sake of seeing it.

by this time, the Bell Tower was already closed, obviously. and this is the time where all Ostolians gather at pubs to have a drink after work, their form of lepak and unwinding i guess you could say. what else can they do, most of the stores here closes at 5.30pm. bosan betul ok =P. probably after hours the local here continue shopping online, hahahahhaha.

the Bell Tower

after taking random photos and selfie failures because there just wasn't enough lighting, i made my way back to the hotel.

there were two more things i did before going back to the hotel though: (i) i had to try Ispa Kebab because my friend said the chicken kebab was nice, the portion was big enough to share; and (ii) they told me i had to try the iced coffee from Double Dare and Barista Bros. i wasn't a fan of coffee, so i went to Woolworths and purchased Double Dare's Mocha. Arif had already purchased Barista Bro's Iced Chocolate yesterday, tu pun sedap jugak.

Ispa Kebab

chicken & egg kebab

Barista Bros

Double Dare

hani told me to try Devondale Milkshake. ok putting that into future bucket list.

only then did i head back home, because i had to figure out how to sumbat TEN boxes into THREE bags. oh, did i mention the weather at night was glorious? =D. made the walk back twice the enjoyment, you didn't even feel that you were tired (kalau dekat Malaysia dah start menyumpah2 dah with regards to the hot and humid weather hahahahahah).

Perth weather. sapa tak suka??

all prepared to go home =(

Perth airport

and as usual, the flight back home was delayed. i'm used to all this delay already, haha.

flight delayed

i almost forgot that when i was passing through international departures, one of the guards managed to strike a conversation with me about the strudel i was lugging along with me onflight. haha. even he says the strudel is nice, lol.

i'm going to list here places that i want to visit next time in Perth if i ever get the chance:
- Rotness Island
- Penguin Island! becuase you don't find em in Malaysia hahahahhaha
- Cottesloe Beach
- Pinnacles Desert - sandboarding. you game?
- caversham wildlife park
- westfield carousel - shopping of course. cuci mata pun jadilah. oh someone mentioned there's a Kikki K store here =D
- another shot at Kings Park & Botanical gardens of course =P

now... maybe next time we bring a kid or two so that we can go to the zoo? =P

Perth Day 1

milestone unlocked

i've managed to unlock a new milestone recently: travelling to the Australian continent. in all my thirty-**** years of existence, i've never been to 'Ostolia' before, haha! this is my first trip of the year following the husband after a long hiatus. how i miss!

you need a visa to travel to Australia, but you can apply for one online, so you don't have to worry about having to apply 3-4 days in advance, like for some other countries I know =D.

i was actually running on fumes by the time i arrived at the airport (because you know me, running late for everything is 'class' lol), but for some reason just as i was about to reach the check-in counter, i heard the staff at the counter calling my name on the intercom *sweat icon*. don't ask my why, it's never happened before, but i'm grateful i managed to get on the flight. a 5hour+ flight baby! hahaha i must be crazy to want a flight to last as long as it could. i don't think i will ever get over my fascination of airplanes. sighhhhhh.

got my boarding pass!

economy didn't seem too cramped with an empty seat in between me and the other passenger. though at some point the guy got rather tipsy after his first couple of beers, the flight attendant got somewhat miffed. i spent the first part of the flight watching Little Giants. the actress Shawna Waldron used to my be classmate in Glendale. who would've guessed she'd left school to pursue a career in acting. hee. back when i was a kid i used to be a huge fan of Devon Sawa. who's in the same era as me?? =P~

my school friend Shawna

next time you fly, ask for tomato juice. they say it tastes a whole lot nicer in the sky.

tomato juice! =D

the Captain also brought his family along, wife and kid. it isn't that often the 738 gets two days off in Perth so it really is worth tagging along for the trip. the advantage of being the last person to be checked-into a flight is that your bags will definitely come out first =P.

when you're in last, you get your bags first

Danial was also going to Perth this month (it's practically his second home after India haha) but unfortunately his trip didn't overlap with ours. but know who's trip did? Arif. hahahahhahaha. i didn't even know until he called to say he was going to be in Perth one day ahead of us. so ok la, we had a one-man show welcoming committee awaiting us at the hotel at 2 in the morning.

and the two pilots had a sort of mini reunion at the hotel. jauh benor. haha.

Four Points by Sheraton Perth was kinda small, but cozy, situated just across the Perth Arena.

the hotel room

first day:

currency exchange rate: 3.1

we woke up that morning to a cloudy sky; it started drizzling not too long after. i was like whattt the weather forecast predicted sunny skies, it never even mentioned rain! T__T. i did bring one umbrella along for the trip just in case. but it was a blessing because the day continued to stay cool even after the drizzling let up; Arif told us the previous day was quite hot.

morning view from our room window

first things first: was to get on the train to Freemantle. i have no idea whether the other crew were going anywhere that day, so it was just me, the husband and Arif (sorry if we ever bored you that day, but thank you dear we really enjoyed the company =D). googlemaps was our best bet, so off we trooped to get to Perth Station. i'm telling you, these pilots ah, they never fail to get lost on the ground, probably because they don't have their instruments i guess ahahhahahah. we were going round in circles before we finally came across the train station.

seriously, i could've walked in a straight line and get to the station much faster than these two. i only had offline maps to rely on, though.

getting lost on foot

finally found the station

we had to ask around abit for ticket instructions; we purchased a standard ticket for Zone 2 departing from Platform 7 which cost us $4.70 one way per person. these tickets last you for about two hours before they expire, which is kind of cool because you can actually reuse the ticket within the time period. transportation in Prague uses this system as well. i loike.

ticket for One

playing lost tourists

Freemantle is 16 stops away from Perth Station. as soon as we got off, we went to find food. Freemantle reminds me of small towns you see in tv series, like Mystic Falls in the Vampire Diaries, no kidding =P

Freemantle Railway Station

making our way to find food

people recommended to drop by Cicerello's if ever you're in Freemantle. as soon as we arrived at the place, the famished boys ordered the Premium Fish & Chips; i decided to be adventurous and order Breaded Garfish & Chips instead. I've never heard of Garfish in my entire life, and i don't think Garfield is related to the fish either, lol.

Cicerello's
44 Mews Rd, Fremantle WA 6160, Australia
opens daily 9am-8.30pm, Friday & Saturday 9am-9pm

found what we came looking for

Cicerello's!

what's on the menu

they give a generous helping of fat chips, muak nak habiskan. we had to purchase our own sauce - mayo, tartar and sweet chilli (this is a MUST thing to do for all tekak Melayu wahahahah) of which we paid $8 for five sauces. do not convert the price, and everything will be fine =P. if you managed to get your hands on one of those tourist brochures, you can get a discount on your order. better than nothing i must say *still not thinking about the exchange rate*.

Breaded Garfish & Chips

sauce. bahahahhahaha

old fashioned lemonade

with fish and my Old + Fat Teddy Bear

food for two. thanks for being our photographer of the day!

bright & sunny day in Freemantle

breathtaking view

the seagulls there were many, and they would swoop down and eat off any leftovers on unattended tables, coleslaw pun layan, haha. we bumped into the Captain and his family who were also having lunch here; they were heading off to Cottesloe Beach later in the evening. after lunch (i think Arif was already sick of having fish two days in a row hahahah) we took some photos on the pier, and then off we went to find dessert.

trying to get a photo of them seagulls

they even had their own ferris wheel in Freemantle

map of Freemantle

purchased some fridge magnets as souvenirs along the way. even posted a couple of postcards for Ah Wai and Nora, all the way from Freemantle ok. gigih mau cari posto ok just for the postmark, you owe me Gongcha 1, Ah Wai! =P~~~

we stopped walking only after stumbling upon Ben & Jerry's, Arif belanja (yassssssssss tengkiu Arif!!!).

they made a beeline for the store

sedap!

headed back to the city since Arif was departing to KL later that night and he needed shut eye before flight, so we decided to continue exploring the town on our own. drop the husband in a shopping district and he will float; drop him in a museum, he would probably doze off to sleep under a statue or something.

i purchased The Ordinary's Buffet from Priceline, it was much cheaper than purchasing from local PS.

walked past Lush without purchasing anything, hebat, no? i wanted to replenish my shampoo bar but they told me the one i wanted to get was only sold online. haiz. i also walked by Pandora without purchasing anything, haha. i wasn't sure if the Shine collection was available in Malaysia; i was so outdated on charms and beads already. if you think about it, i seriously should've pau-ed an Australian charm from the husband while he was in a generous mood. lol

dropped by Chemist Warehouse to see what was so awesome about the place; i guess if you're looking for reasonably priced supplements and perfume, this is the place. the husband purchased his perfume here. my friend says this is where they sell more of celebrity perfumes, wangi2 pulak tu, hence why my perfume isn't sold here, but Mashi's perfume is! =P

for Mashi. murah tak?

did you know toys is cheap in Perth compared to Malaysia? well, im not sure about most of the other toy brands, but the ones my children collects are freaking cheap - Shopees and Hatchimals. we 'accidentally' came across them in Myers, whoops. they cost way less, so the Daddy borong SEVEN of them to bring back home. pingsan. sebbaik muat luggage T__T.

and that was Day 1 for you. i love love love love the weather! *love*

Perth Arena