Week 40: Sep 17 to 23

Monday was a public holiday for Malaysia Day, which is why we went to Langkawi for the weekend. After breakfast and a swim we headed for the airport. We arrived home at Dua at about 3. We quickly unpacked and packed Lachlan's things, then Steve and Lachlan went to get haircuts and Danae and I met them at KLCC so we could have some dinner and get a few groceries. Cathy drove Lachlan and I to the airport with Ryan, and I will take her to pick them up next Monday. The boys were so excited, China is going to be a great experience for them!
It was a quiet week without Lachlan. We went out for dinner a few times and tried 2 new restaurants, La Boca (a newly opened Latin American place at the Pavillion and Souled Out).

Here is Lachlan's itineray for the week:
Tuesday:
6:35am arrive in Beijing
Dim Sum breakfast
Zoo
Lunch at local restaurant, then hotel check in
Acrobatic Show
Dinner
Wednesday:
breakfast at hotel
day at school
Thursday:
The Mutianyu Great Wall, cable car and tobaggan
Ya Siu market
dinner at local restaurant
Friday:
Forbdden City
lunch at local restaurant
Beihai Park and Hu Tong for trishaw ride and learn to make dumplings
Saturday:
Temple of Heaven
Panjiayuan market
China Museum and Tea House
Sunday:
Summer Palace and cruise on Kunming Lake
The Opera House of National Grand Theatre
Tiananmen Square
Beijing National Stadium and National Aquatics Centre
Monday:
transfer to airport and fly home

Thursday night after spending the whole day looking for something for Danae to wear to school for bookweek on Friday, we got news of a demonstration in front of the US embassy on Friday afternoon. We were told that there would be no transport home from school provided as the main road (the one we live on) would be closed, and were encouraged by the embassy to keep the kids home for the day. So Danae missed her last day of school and missed bookweek.
Saturday Steve did some study and we went to Viva, a mall of furniture and homeware stores and then did groceries.
Sunday we went to Damansara to look at furniture, but the shop we wanted to go to was closed and IKEA was packed so we came back home.