It was not swine flu, but still...

I was a bit ill few days ago. I had flu. It wasn't swine flu, thank God, but i was pretty worry that i searched for the symptoms of swine flu in the internet. It was said like this:

"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in humans the symptoms of the 2009 "swine flu" H1N1 virus are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general. Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. The 2009 outbreak has shown an increased percentage of patients reporting diarrhea and vomiting."
(Wikipedia again)

Ok, i had quite temperature, sore throat, runny nose and low blood pressure. But i didn't have cough, headache, body aches, chills, fatigue, diarrhea or vomiting. So, i conclude that I HAD NO SWINE FLU. Pff. I still have runny nose and low blood pressure now though.

Actually, it began when i eat a weird snack that i bought in a small supermarket near my school. It was prawn snack; and tasted more like salt with chips than chips with salt. I can't put the picture of that god-damn-nasty-snack here cause i'm afraid to be sued, but i can tell you that the container is red, with a picture of prawn on it. Humph.

The next day after i ate that snack, i had a sore throat. I thought i would be recover soon so i just ignored it. But that day, i went to a lot of place, drank milk shake at 10pm, danced a lot, and had ice cream at 5am in the morning. Please remember that now is autumn- early winter in Beijing, so it was sooo cold for me.

So, then, i was ill. I didn't bring any medicine from Indonesia except some tablets for diarrhea that my mother put inside my bag. I used to have really good antibody, so i thought i would not get ill and i dont need to bring medicine with me. That was a REALLY BAD idea.

The girls, Martyna and Slava are really sweet. They gave me medicine from Russia and Polland. I took Strepsills Intensive, Grypolek and Oepbekc and took a rest for two days and i felt much better. Thanx a lot, girls! :D

(they work! :D)

So, if you're going abroad, i highly suggest you to bring some medicines from your country. If you feel lazy to bring a lot of medicine with you, make sure these 1st aid stuffs are in your luggage:

1. Flu/ cold medicine. Some stuffs with parachetamol will do. For Indonesian, it could be Panadol, Bodrex, etc.
   
2. Cough syrup/ sore throat medicine. If you feel troubled to bring cough syrup with you, make sure you bring Strepsills, FG Tchrosis, or something like that.
   
3. Inhaller. Runny nose is really, really annoying. Inhaller may help you a lot.
4. Diarrhea medicine. There's a lot of food poisoning case happens to foreigners.
   
5. Vitamin C. It's important to maintain your condition during recovery.
   
6. Cajuput Oil (minyak kayu putih maksut gw... hehe). It always helps.
7. Band-aid
   

But the most important thing is that always aware to your condition. Always have scarf, gloves, coat and boots when you feel cold. Stay in bed if you don't feel well. When you have flu, you're really sensitive to other viruses and something worse can happen to you if you're being reckless.

The best medicine for flu is to lay in bed and sleep! ;D

Tian'anmen Square

Actually, Tian'anmen Square is the first tourist destination that i visit in Beijing. I visited it the second day of my stay in Beijing. Well, i should've posted something about this special square earlier, but i had no intention to do it, until now,, heheheu,, i've told you that i'm an impulsive writer.

(front gate of Tian'anmen square. There's a picture of Chairman Mao)

But anyway, Tian'anmen Square is surely a must-visited place in Beijing, since a lot of important event happens here, the latest event was the celebration of 60th anniversary of Republic of China. To reach Tian'anmen Square, you got to take subway line 1. This square has two stations; Tian'anmen East and Tian'anmen West. There's no charge to get into Tian'anmen Square.

China government put extra attention to this square. They have a lot of soldier and security volunteer in this place. Don't try to take picture together with the soldiers eventough some of them might be cute >:D because they will not allow you to do that. But candid photo will do, though... hehehe.

(left-right: me, Carey, Nguyet, Putu and Ky)

Here are some words that can describe Tian'anmen square historically, i borrowed it from Mr. Wikipedia;

"The Tian’anmen Gate was first built in 1417 in the Ming Dynasty. During the demise of the Ming Dynasty, heavy fighting between Li Zicheng and the early Qing emperors damaged (or perhaps destroyed) the gate. The Tian'anmen square was originally designed and built in Beijing in 1651. It was enlarged to its present size (four times its original size) and cemented over in 1958.

(some people say the design resembles to the Red Square in Russia)

British and French troops who invaded Beijing in 1860 pitched camp near the gate and briefly considered burning the gate and the entire Forbidden City down. They decided ultimately to spare the palace and to burn instead the emperor's Old Summer Palace. The Qing emperor eventually agreed to let the foreign powers establish headquarters in the area. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 the siege badly damaged the office complexes and several ministries were burnt down. In the conflict's denouement, the area became a space for foreign troops to assemble their armies and horses. It was cleared in due course to produce the beginning of what is now known as the Tiananmen Square."

Tian'anmen square is connected with other tourist destinations such as Beihai Park, also known as Sun Yat Sen Park (entrance 3Y, 1,5Y if you have student card) and also Forbidden City (entrance 60Y). If you plan to visit Tian'anmen square, be prepare for the crowd. A lot of domestic and foreign tourist gather here to see the historical square.

In my first time, i went to Tian'anmen square with Putu, Fany, Nguyet, Ky and Carey. Remember to save your friend's number because it's really easy for you to accidentally get separated here. There was something funny when we tried to buy water here. We told the seller that we want cold water, and she gave us... freezing water. Seriously, it was solid ice inside the bottle. Wkwkwk,, we could just wait until the ice melted and we could drink the water.

(It was really ice inside the bottle wkwk >.<)

Tian'anmen square consists of some squares devided by some gates. The whole area is really huge, placed right in the middle of Beijing.

There were also some pedicabs inside the square. I don't recommend this, since the driver would charge you really high if you're a foreigner. There was also a souvenir shop inside the square, but the stuffs were pretty overpriced.

There was a lot of Chinese people from another city. Some of them really interested to foreigners and would talk to you so friendly, in Chinese, for sure. Well, could be in English if you're lucky though.

(This beautiful lake is also part of the square)

If you come to Tian'anmen square early in the morning or at 5 in the evening, you can see the flag ceremony. In my second visit to Tian'anmen square, i saw the flag-lowering ceremony. The soldiers were strictly asked people to move from the center of the gate, so they had enough space to line up, create formation and move to the other side of the road to put off the flag. They even closed the road for this routine ceremony.

(the ceremony. it's also pretty famous)

That's all from me, make sure you visit Tian'anmen square if you come to Beijing. It's always worth to check! :D

Chong zhi dian hua ka

*Subtitle: refill the phone card

I had a pretty emotional morning when i tried to refill the credit of my Chinese phone number, hehehe. I bought 30Y credit of China Mobile and I was so frustrated because this card of Chine Mobile didn't have a SMS system to refill the credit. The instruction written in the card was only;

1. Dial 13800138000 and follow the voice instruction to recharge your China Mobile account
   
2. Call from China Mobile's service or any fixed-line service to recharge your local account
   
3. etc... (msi ad 3 poin lg males nulisny gw,, irrelevant tpny dgn crta da,, hehehh)
   

(troublesome card)

So i did, i dialed 13800138000 and tried to follow the instruction. Of course the intruction was given in 2 languages; Chinese in English, but... the operator spoke with a really strong accented voice. It was sound like Chinese for me >.<>

Dial 13800138000

Dial "2" for English assistance

Dial "2" to recharge your account

Dial "1" and insert the numbers written in your phone card

Dial "#" to confirm

Type "Ye" then send to 10086 to check if your credit has been added

You can buy phone cards in the magazine stalls that can be easily found in Beijing. To ask for it, you can say,
"Ni you mei you dian hua ka?" (Do you have phone card?)

This type of provider is kinda unique (read: capitalyst ;p) for me. Because, if you run out of credit, you can't even accept a short message nor a call. Totally unreachable. But they will inform you if you only have 10Y left in your credit.

Lama Temple

It was Tuesday, 2oth of October 2009 when i went to Lama Temple.
Lama Temple is located in Yonghegong Dajie, you can take Subway line 2 and stop in Yonghegong Lama Temple station. You can take EXIT C cause it'll be the most convenient to get into the temple.

Lama Temple is a Buddhist Temple with Tibetan influence. The monks are pretty different with Shaolin Monks, because they wear red cloak, and they don't practice the martial arts heheu. I'm not an expert on this matter, so i borrowed this definition of Tibetan Buddhist from Wikipedia;

"Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan and India (Arunachal, Pradesh, Ladakh, and Sikkim). It is also practiced in Mongolia and parts of Russia (Kalmykia, Buryatia and Tuva) and Northeast China"

On my way to Lama Temple, i passed a lot of store that sells incense, flowers, charms, and other stuffs that people usually use to pray in the temple. Well, i think incense can be pretty good for aroma therapy as well, so these Yonghegong Dajie stores are worth so check.

You need to pay 25Y to get into Lama Temple. It's for a ticket and one CD. Too bad that they don't have student discount there. But anyway, Lama Temple is a nice place for me.

(i'm sorry, but it was taken from the internet... hehe)

My visit to Lama Temple began with an accident. I was so gladly taking some pictures when suddenly my camera gave me a warning about "out of memory". That was strange, because i always remember to transfer the pictures from the MMC to my laptop. I checked it out, then i found out that i forgot to put the MMC inside the camera. Crappy shit.

(This lion is practically everywhere. People believe he brings good luck)

It was good that i have Martyna and she had a really good SLR with her. So, i took my time to go around Lama Temple. Actually, i managed to take pictures with some monks. I will upload it here as soon as i get a cable data.

(the bigger your wish, the more incense you need to use)

Ok, the first temple in Lama Temple is the Matreeya Temple. Matreeya is the Buddha of Future. He has a smiley face and big belly and always looks happy and optimistic. People burned incense in front of his temple and prayed for wealth, examination, happy marriage and that kind of stuff related with future. We're not allowed to burn incense inside his temple, nor to take pictures of him. The statue of Matreeya is guided by "Four Deffenders of Buddha", their statue were massive, they looked like warriors with scary faces.

Then, I found a statue with a lot of coin on it. I thought that we can make a wish on this statue, so i prepared a coin, and gave Martyna a coin as well. But then we found out that we're not allowed to throw coin on this. I don't understand why there was a lot of coin there. Maybe we can only throw coins in certain occations.

(don't throw coin on it, pals...)

There were many kinds of temple for many kinds of Buddhist Gods. There was also the temple of Kwan Im, the Goddess of Mercy. A Chinese girl told me that this is the most popular temple. I guess i know why,, heheh.

I think the most interesting part of Lama Temple is the massive statue of Matreeya, which is written in the Guiness Book of Record. The statue is 80 meters tall above the ground, and constructed about 8 meters deep under the ground. It was made from a single trunk of wood. It's so amazing, the statue is just beautiful. Actually, it's not allowed to take pictures inside the temple, but i managed to find a picture of Matreeya from the internet. I really want to show it to you.

(The Guinnes Book of Records written Matreeya)

I also went to the Jie Tai Art Exhibition Room. In this Exhibiton Room, there was a three-stories marble stage made in 6th century to welcome the Panchen Lama who came from Tibet. There were also some Buddhist God statues and explanations about Buddhism. These are few things that i learned in there;

• Guru is the way to call someone who create the doctrin of this Buddhism way
  
• Buddha means conciousness; the purpose is to get the full awareness of yourself. There are three kinds of Buddha; The Past Buddha, The Current Buddha and The Future Buddha
  
• Devi means wisdom; she appears in the form 16 years old girl maiden
  
• Sarmadani is the idea of controlling what you say, do, and think
• Bodhisattva means enlightment
  
• Dharmapala is the idea of protecting Dharma (the good deeds)
  

(Well, i don't have plan to change my belief, it's just for knowledge, u know ;p)
Too bad, we're not allowed to take pictures in this room either.

(candid pict of me taken by Martyna, i'll soon upload my pict with the monks)

I met a lot of foreigners here. I believe they also think that Lama Temple is a great tourist destination. I just hope they can provide a guide book/ broschure so we can learn about the history and art of Tibetan Buddhism more.