Our Beijing Break

We just got back from Beijing! I can now safely say that we had a whale of a time! I was not too sure about this trip right from the word GO. Would the kids be keen on a serious sightseeing trip? Are they old enough to understand it all? Will Shriya be ok with the local food? Will we all be ok with exactly 10 words and 2 sentences in Mandarin?

We were more than fine and manage we did quite well. The kids were on a high, right from the minute we got to the airport. Separate seats, the entertainment systems, the movies, the kid’s meal..everything was regarded with super excitement. I felt a tad guilty for taking them on Tiger Airways a little too many times to India so much so  they had forgotten what it was like to travel Singapore Airlines!

Beijing is a HUGE city and I had no clue about the amount of walking we’d have to do. The Forbidden City and Summer Palace, however gloriously beautiful are also painfully strenuous! Not a whimper or whine... …atleast not from the kids. They covered it all except that they never walked once. They ran and skipped, hopped  and imagined they were trains and dinosaurs!I tried their way but realized that walking at a steady pace was safer at my age!

I must say that our trip was made extra special because of the Beijingers. So much warmth and love, they were completely charmed with V&S. And of course my little ones played to the gallery! They sang the Mandarin rhymes they knew and happily posed for photo after photo with strangers. They were hugged and kissed and petted! And to my glee they were even given discounts at the markets, that I used very well to my advantage :-)

A wonderful trip in all! But when I look at the photographs and think back, it's not the Great Wall or the Tianamen that bring back memories. It's that afternoon at a little pizza joint where the kids laughed through mouthfuls of stringy cheese watching their father enact something. It’s the hour long steaming bath that they took together while blowing soap bubbles in the hotel bathtub. It’s the bumpy ride that we all took on a trishaw to nowhere. It’s the smiles and giggles, cuddles and kisses, questions and observations that make me smile and bask in the aftermath of a lovely vacation.