At 5.45am, a Nissan Sunny car stopped by and two men approached us. You know my fingers were crossed... What a relief to hear that they were from the travel agency to pick the two of us to KLIA by car. You see, the other members were from two places - Jelebu and Kuala Klawang and they were on their way to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) by vans.

In the car, mom kept commenting to the driver that they at least should have told us that only two of us from Seremban was to be picked up and the rest were waiting elsewhere. Me, I was silently in thankful prayers. There were many other things that I would worry about. Whether my mom would face any difficulties during the flight. No matter if she got sick during the trip and if I had to stay at the hotel with her throughout the trip, I was prepared to do so. In my heart, at least she tried. At least she experienced a flight. That was all I hoped for.

The journey at an early hour in the morning seemed to be quite romantic. A full moon basked beautifully as a backdrop when we passed by the airport's mosque. I started to have a good feeling about the trip.

Upon reaching the airport, we were introduced to our local tour leader - Mr. Wong Jong Kong. He seemed to be a friendly man with much experience. But he surprised me by being bold when he said that later, each of us would need to fork out some money to treat him breakfast. I would be glad to but I thought that the idea of treating him shouldn't be that early during a trip since we don't know him well at all.

I checked the itinerary and found that on the first day, breakfast was not included. Only dinner. Oh well, I thought. Since everyone else seem jovial enough to treat him, I shouldn't appear to be so selfish and mistrusting. (Only two days later, I discovered that Mr. Wong came from the same village as the other tour members. So that's why they could joke with him so well). Mmm... come to think of it, I never did pay up for the breakfast. Wonder who paid it?

After getting our boarding pass (Notice: the pic does not show my name. that's because in order to sit together, we swapped our tickets among other tour members), I could see Mr. Wong worked in a very efficient manner. Since it was very early (our flight was to depart at 8.45am), we went to Eden restaurant for a dim sum breakfast (the so-called treat to Mr. Wong). When everybody was seated, he then distributed our airplane tickets and thought us how to put the necessary documents in place with our passports. I could see mom nodding with approval with how Mr. Wong handled things. He's fast, early, efficient and calm. And he's funny too. All the necessary ingredients in assuring elderly folks on a hazard free journey.

After breakfast, we headed for the immigration check and to the railbus to take us to the plane. Cool stuff... this happened to be the first time I took the railbus. Real proud of our country's modern airport.

Not before long, we were already on the MAS airplane (A330). Mom seated next to the window. How exciting!! When the plane took off safely at 9.30am, mom said that hey, it was nothing! Nothing to be afraid at all. At that moment, I felt so glad that I "tricked" mom into going to Beijing. I mean, I didn't really consult her long - just like Onn Wei told me to "just do it" - just book yourself and mom for the package and she can't say 'no' afterwards. I've been meaning to do this since a few years back but always put off by mom's reluctance.

The view below was magnificent. I thought I saw a building which looks like Sunway Resort Hotel but how could it be near KLIA? Only realized moments later, that it was the Putrajaya Administration's majestic building. Mom was pinching me - is this a dream or what? In her lifetime, she never imagined herself in a flight. She need not imagine no more. This was reality!

Food and drinks were frequently served during the nearly 6 hours flight. There was somewhat a breakfast (should I say 'brunch'), lunch and finally an ice cream treat. I had fish, mom had chicken. So 'kiasu' - drank lots of fruit juice - ended up visiting the toilet more than necessary.

I didn't watch the inflight entertainment tv screen. Instead I was pretty happy listening to a music channel no. 7 with latest pop songs like 'Bye bye bye' (N Sync), 'Born to make you happy' (Britney Spear), 'Falls Apart' (Sugar Ray), 'Maria, Maria' (Santana), 'Everyday I love you' (Boyzone), 'Don't say you love me' (M2M) among others. Actually I was only interested in Sugar Ray's Falls Apart which ended up with me listening to the songplay for 6 times repeatedly! You'll find out later during the flight back to KLIA, I also had another favourite song which made me tune into the same channel repeatedly.

We touchdown at 3.10pm. Mom pinched me again. Here we are in China!!