Day 1 : Kch - Kul

Sometime around Feb 2025, I suggested to my friend that we go to Harbin at the end of the year. She took up my suggestion and helped organise the trip for us. In the end, 9 of us signed up.

Harbin was no joke, as temperatures were extreme and we had to be properly dressed up. First of all, I didn't want to catch pneumonia. And secondly, I didn't want to fall down and hurt myself all over again - I'd fallen down in Iceland in 2024 and broke my left arm. But I was seriously busy and did not really have time to prepare for it. My colleague LP who had been there the previous year shared with me her countless tips ... but by the time I was slightly more free, there wasn't time to buy all the winter gear online. Instead, I went to Uniqlo and bought a pair of Heattech Ultra, and 2 pairs of warm pants. I would have to buy the rest of the stuff in Harbin and pray that the weather would not be too terrible. 

On 21 Dec 2025, we gathered at the airport. Ours was an evening flight .... my friend N brought me to the lounge ... with her Enrich Gold card, she could bring one other person there. But the food was crappy. 

Soon, we boarded our flight to Kuala Lumpur ... 

And upon reaching there, we met up with our tour manager. We'd been in contact on Whatsapp forever! So it was great to meet her in person. It was still a long time before we could check in for our next flight. We would use China Southern airlines .... 

So we hanged out at KFC at KLIA ... and then to my surprise, I saw a familiar face. He had walked past but he turned back, surprise to see me. 

'Hello,' my friend SH greeted him. 

I was surprise. How come SH knew him, Cikgu I, a teacher at my former school. Only then did I find out that Cikgu I and SH were formerly also colleagues at another school. What a coincident, and what a small world. 

He was going to Istanbul with his family for the holidays. We chitchatted a little before saying our goodbyes. 

Check-in started at 10.30 pm, since our flight was scheduled to depart at 1.30 am ... it didn't take us too long to check-in. Thereafter we boarded our flight at the Satellite tower.