So I've been asked to blog about my trip to Beijing. If you ask me what was my most memorable experience there, I'll probably tell you are story of two Foo Dogs.
Whenever the hubby travels, the hubby must do his shopping. Because his logic is that he'll probably never go back to that country which justifies his desire to buy what he sees and likes.
There's the Buddha he bought from Bali. Security at every airport stopped us to ask us what the big round head in the security X-Ray scan was.
There was the prayer house that we brought back from Phuket (with some occupants who recently moved in). It was so fragile, that when we walked down the staircase from the plane, the hubby immediately went to the compartment where they were offloading the baggage from the plane and insisted that they pass him his little house there and then.
Cambodia wasn't too bad. The hubby settled on a relatively small stone craving of the Bayan face (will upload the photo here tomorrow)
And then there were the two Foo Dogs from Beijing.
The dear hubby decided that he had to get them after two days shopping at the antique flea market. He bargained hard with the friendly Chinese man who suddenly disappeared immediately after he received our money leaving us to figure how to carry the two Foo dogs back.
I picked one up and the hubby picked the other and we shared an "Oh Shit!" moment.
It was freaking HEAVY! Duh, they are made of stone but it only occurred to us after we tried to pick it up.
To cut a long story short, with tremendous effort, sweat and a lot of arguing along the way, we carried it back to the hotel and from the hotel to the airport using the subway which we had to interchange several times. Hubby was annoyed with me because I refused to take the taxi (I have a thing against taxis), and I was annoyed with him for buying something so ridiculously heavy.
Miss Pessimistic me wanted to give up and throw it away because I was absolutely convinced that it was too heavy to check into our luggage. But Mr. Optimistic hubby refused to give up and stubbornly carried on like a hero in battle. He carried one on his back and dragged the other in the luggage bag...
...and then... one wheel started to come off...
...and then... one wheel started to come off...
Oh mother of all crap!
Somehow out of sheer determination, we managed to arrive at the airport, weigh the foo dogs and upgrade baggage allowance online.
What really happened at the airport:
8.40pm - arrived at the airport, flight was 1.05am. Air Asia airport will close online baggage top up 4 hours before the flight which meant we had only 25 minutes to figure out how much we had to top up
8.45pm - Transformed into a mad woman running around the airport in panic finding a weighing machine to weigh the foo dogs. Hijacked an empty check in counter to weigh the luggage, unloaded EVERYTHING onto the floor to even out the weight of each luggage to be within the max of 32kg.
8.55pm - Practically screamed at the lady behind the counter to get the wifi password required to go online.
9.00pm - Panicking to death. Sat on the floor, emptied all the contents of my wallet onto the floor. Couldn't find my credit card. Panic... Panic... PANIC... then realized I my credit card was with my phone.
9.03pm - Frantically keyed in all the details online knowing that if I made one mistake, I would not make it in time. Managed to successfully top up the baggage allowance.
9.05pm - Suddenly very conscious that we were the only country bumpkins who were sitting on the floor with our belongings scattered on the floor.
When we reached Penang, we couldn't move. Muscles were punishing us after the Foo Dog incident. A few days later, the hubby could no longer move his neck. He had no choice but to go to the doctor and get an injection on his bum.
What really happened at the airport:
8.40pm - arrived at the airport, flight was 1.05am. Air Asia airport will close online baggage top up 4 hours before the flight which meant we had only 25 minutes to figure out how much we had to top up
8.45pm - Transformed into a mad woman running around the airport in panic finding a weighing machine to weigh the foo dogs. Hijacked an empty check in counter to weigh the luggage, unloaded EVERYTHING onto the floor to even out the weight of each luggage to be within the max of 32kg.
8.55pm - Practically screamed at the lady behind the counter to get the wifi password required to go online.
9.00pm - Panicking to death. Sat on the floor, emptied all the contents of my wallet onto the floor. Couldn't find my credit card. Panic... Panic... PANIC... then realized I my credit card was with my phone.
9.03pm - Frantically keyed in all the details online knowing that if I made one mistake, I would not make it in time. Managed to successfully top up the baggage allowance.
9.05pm - Suddenly very conscious that we were the only country bumpkins who were sitting on the floor with our belongings scattered on the floor.
When we reached Penang, we couldn't move. Muscles were punishing us after the Foo Dog incident. A few days later, the hubby could no longer move his neck. He had no choice but to go to the doctor and get an injection on his bum.
The hubby swore never to buy anything so heavy again. And now whenever I see the Foo Dogs who are happily guarding our door, I (who was so willing to throw them away along the way) will remember...
No matter how heavy things may seem, keep going until the end and never give up!
(Even if the cost comes with an injection on the bum)
