I blame the snow in Beijing

Doing rounds was a chore this morning. It's hard to see patients when my nose was constantly leaking and I am coughing more than some of my own patients. Well, at least they know that I know how they feel.

I put the blame solely on the snow in Beijing. Ya, I know it's supposed to be spring and all. When we arrived in Beijing on the first day, it was 4 degrees Celcius! And we were conned! Instead of being transfered to the hotel (I was hoping for a hot bath or something) we were unceremoniously transported in the bus to the Summer Palace. Apparently this was the place where the Empress Dowager Xi-Chi or was it Chi-Chi (my mind was too frozen to pay attention to the guide who spoke bad indonesian!!!) spent her days when she was not in the Forbidden City running the state affairs by proxy (you see, the empeoror then was just a kid and so she had to do the work).

It was supposed to be a lovely place but on that misty and cold April morning, we could hardly see a thing. And then we felt real cold and it started to rain...which turned rapidly into snow and within minutes turned into a mini storm of sorts!!!

I am showing here some pics of the snow on ancient foot paths! I know, I know, some of you may be sceptical but trust me, they were NOT frozen bird poo! They were real snow. Cold freezing, hand numbing snow. Ugh! Now, I don't think snow is all that romantic as it was made out to be after all. Sigh! Give me the tropical sun anytime.