Finally!!!

Finally! A perfect egg on my plate of yee mee, made with steamboat.

After a year of regular bursting of my egg yolk in the hot pot, finally, on the 28th of April 2009, a perfect poached egg! Such a proud moment for me!!

A Trip to New York New York

So, May and I were walking around 1 Utama, having the usual debate on which restaurant to eat, when miraculously, she agreed on my choice.

New York New York. It's located just in front of Cold Storage.

It wasn't my 1st time there, but it was for her, so that's probably why she agreed to it..

So we ordered the,

Root beer float with vanilla ice cream (bugger didn't even fill it up all the way for an RM8.50 drink!)

Spaghetti mushroom alfredo with chicen fillet (pasta too creamy, chicken was good!)

Tagliatelle mushroom alfredo with crispy fish (pasta too creamy, fish was bad)

Fiery buffalo wings (Damn hot!)

And we went home, stomach bloated with cream and fiery chicken wings.

The next day, we went back to 1 Utama (ehem, we had things to do..) and instead of our usual debate, May decides she wants to go back to New York New York again.. So we did.. :P

We had the Spaghetti aglio olio with mushrooms (so good!)

and spaghetti bolognese with giant meatballs (according to May, it was delicious)

Well, 2nd trip wasn't too bad. But this time, we didn't order root beer float, more worth it to get it at A & W!

Beijing, China Day 3

So on our 3rd day, more sightseeing, thankfully, no climbing as our legs were still screaming from pain and agony..

We visited Yandai Byway. It's a really old town, our tour guide just took us here to walk around..

It's not a map, just a another stone carving


They put this stone balls here to prevent cars from coming in

Another old bridge, Yinding Bridge


Across the bridge, this place is suppose to be like a night life place. Okay, I understand that, but why bring us here in the morning??

Soldiers marching around again

Beijing's very own starbucks!
(Don't ask me if that is a hooker standing there, I dunno..)

So after walking around, it's back to the van

In the van, we notice this building and according to Duncan, he says that in order to purchase something from this place, you'll need half a million in your bank account, if not, sayonara! Fancy..

Okay, next stop, Summer Palace. This was once a sort of summer resort for the emperors.

An illustration

It's listed as a World Cultural Heritage

This is East Palace Gate, the entrance into the Summer Palace.

Inside, we were in the Hall of Happiness and Longevity. This is where the emperor conducts his business.

Duncan was telling a tale about this dragon, but I forgot :P
Something about the dragon waited here and became a statue..


The phoenix and the dragon. It was said that the phoenix was made first to show how powerful the empress dowager cixi was.

The ladies group shot. We were grinning hugely because our camera man couldn't work our camera! (His wife had the same ones as ours!)

The Hall of Jade Ripple, this was where the Dowager Empress Cixi kept Emperor Guangxu imprisoned while she walks around the gardens where she planted magnolias, a flower which also means her name


We came out of the hall into the Long Corridor. This corridor is soooo long it's in the World Guinnes Record for the longest corridor in the world!

Okay, the picture above and below is NOT the corridor, We're beside the corridor. We're waiting here because some people in the group are missing,so we're waiting for them here.

It's super super cold, degree was probably 7 or 8, and we're beside a huge lake.

Bollywood style!

His wife was lost in the crowd, that's why he's holding the flag to flag her down I guess, hehe

Now, this is the long corridor. Do you know at the top, there are pictures drawn into it? So there are 14,000 pictures all together. Drawn!

While mum's inside the gift shop, me and May just sat outside.

As we walk along the Longevity Hill, we saw this Tower peeking out among the trees.
By the way, that's the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Thank god, part of the agenda wasn't climbing up there!

After buying some gifts, we headed back to the front of the Summer Palace, but this time we took a boat ride. Behind us was the Marble Boat.
It was freaking cold!!! I was shivering so hard.. I should have brought a better coat! May was laughing at me..



Not happy, face was frozen

The seventeen arch bridge. It's the only connection to the Nanhu Island.

After the summer palace, since we like flowers so much, Duncan took us to a park where cherry blossom flowers were just blooming!



Walking again..

Oh yeah, we saw the once tallest tower in the world, but not anymore, hehe



May said they dress weird. Well, a cat for a bag, wat do you expect!

Next, we went to Beijing Zoo, especially to see the Panda. So we visited the Panda House.

Zzzz..

This cute kid kept laughing and giggling non stop, May couldn't resist taking his picture!



Wanna know how much does a panda weight?

End of Day 3!

Our home modem Disconnects when..

Our home modem disconnects..

a) When it rains
b) Before it rains
c) Immediately after it rains
d) When it suspects that it is going to rain
e) When May showers
f) When Kit showers
g) At night, roughly 10pm all the way through the night..
h) When someone calls the house phone (normal)
i) When mum cleans the house
j) When maid cleans the house
k) Kit claims that when me and May walked into the house..
l) When May walks up the stairs to her room
m) When May closes the door of her room
n) When it feels like it
o) When it is angry
p) When we need to go online urgently

And what happens when the modem doesn't work?

A hole will magically appear one morning.
(Apparently it had a little encounter with Kit's fist)

Beijing, China Day 2

Our wake up call was at 6.30am, May and I didn't wake up.

Our 2nd wake up call was at 7.00am by Mum, which we still did not wake up.

By 7.30am, grumbling, we decided to shower and get dress, and we reach downstairs at 7.50am to get breakfast where we bump into Duncan, our tour guide, who said you're only down now??!! I told you guys we have to leave at 8am!!

Well, in my defense, I did try to wake May up but she just won't budge.

So, on our 2nd day, we took a trip to

Great Wall of China!!!

It's truly a magnificent sight even from a far..

It was a very long drive from the city to the Great Wall, because it's at the outskirts, it's probably like a 2 hours drive. Duncan did told us that Beijing is as big as 18 Hong Kong's. Can you imagine how huge Beijing is??

So, once we reach the wall, Duncan said, right, hopefully you all will reach at least to the 2nd tower or the 3rd, and once you've reach the top and climb down, don't worry, we will send you to the nearest hospital. where everyone broke out into nervous laughter's. Is it really that steep?

So in my heart I'm thinking, yeah yeah, no problem. I'll probably climb to the 4th or 5th even! And I was set on getting those certificates where everyone has been saying you will get if you climb from one tower to another.

Now, if you notice at the side of the wall, there are a row of locks.

Now the story is this, when a couple gets married, they will come here to lock a lock here and throw the key into the forest, so that their marriage will lasts forever.

Cheap love!!

Okay! Up we go!!

Now, if you think climbing up the wall is easy, you're CRAZY! The steps are incredibly steep and it's so high! Not only that, it's freakin faaaaaar!

I don't even dare look down as I'm climbing, I'm scared of heights actually hehe.

Haha, I reach the 2nd tower faster than May did. She was so out of breath that she had to stop many times.

Tired May..

That's a tired yin

Not only young people are climbing the wall, even oldies are. Can't imagine how much energy they have. They were even climbing to the 3rd tower! Me and May could barely even reach the 2nd tower. Our knees started shaking and we could barely even stand. We are sooo out of shape..

When you've walked from the 1st tower to the 2nd, you get a certificate. It's not free, it's 20 yuen. Makes a nice souvenir, would be nice if they included how far we've walked..

View from the 2nd tower up

A little ultraman on the wall..

"You are not a hero until you have walked the Great Wall"

The chinese just love to write things on a rock

View from the wall down. Very high up, huh? You fall, you break your neck!

The 1st pass over gate of the wall or something

The walls goes through a dam

Okay, final shot of the Wall, Bye bye wall!! So we got back on the bus,and the retired couple were telling us about their adventure on the wall. They actually made it to the 6th tower!! *Shame, I only made it to the 2nd!* They said that once they reached the 4th tower, it gets easier to walk and it isn't as steep as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Walking from the 5th to the 6th, there weren't even any steps there! Dammit!!

So after the climb, we were so hungry, we were exhausted and we were given a treat indeed!

This drink has a lethal alcohol content of 56% content. The food wasn't bad, wasn't good either. But the alcohol.. phew! It's so lethal, I couldn't even finish the little cup. It was too strong for me, even JD don't taste that bad!

So after lunch, we visited the Imperial College and the Confucius Temple. The van drops us off at this road side, and we followed Duncan along the alley. Imagine, this place has been here for centuries! It's a really nice place to just walk around and chill.

Man playing chinese chess on the streets. *I took this picture and ran, in case the guy starts running after me..*

This is the entrance into the Imperial College. The College and the Confucius Temple are side by side, so we didn't have to walk from one end to another. Imagine, this school was built in 1784 and this was the place where the emperor's deliver their lectures.

The story of the Imperial College. Just click on the picture for a bigger view

This is the entrance into the hall where the emperor sits on his big gold throne.

More like big red throne.. It was easy to take pictures in here because there were no crowds at all in here! Thank God, if it were another trip like the Forbidden City... you will get trampled and people won't even notice!

There are pictures in every 4 corner of this small hall. Basically they are pictures of what the place would like when the emperor is in here giving his speeches. It's like a big parade! Click picture to view it bigger.

View from the hall out. So, from what Duncan says, the students and scholars will kneel out here and since there are so many students, they will kneel from outside the hall to the entrance of the college. Amazing! Since there are no microphones back then, everytime the emperor says something, there will be scholars passing the information along to the students kneeling outside.

This is what a "classroom" looks like

Wow, a student needs to kneel in front of the teacher to ask any questions!

So after playing around in the Imperial College, next stop is the Confucius Temple. Basically it's a temple where they worship Confucius. His shrine is placed there, along with the other scholars, but his is placed in the middle because, he's like smartest of them all and stuff.

What are these you say? These are tablets where names of people who graduate in the college. It's a very big honor when someone graduates, because it's very very hard to pass the exams, which they have once every 3 years. Only 5% will pass the exam and only the rich are able to afford to go to school. But anyone in the country can enter the exam. So if a farmer boy is able to pass the exam, he will bring honor to his family, and his name will be written on the tablet. This days, we just get a piece of paper and be done with it. I want my own tablet!!

There are hundreds of tables in the temple.

I notice alot of this around the college and temple too..

Well, my guess is someone must have gotten electrocuted here before..

End of 2nd day!

Beijing, China Day 1

This is probably my most anticipated trip my whole life!! Going to Beijing?? How incredible is that! I've always wanted to see the Great Wall, The Forbidden City.. I've always been fascinated with all this historical things, so it was great going there to see it with my own eyes. So mum has booked us for 5 days and 4 nights tour. But last minute, Kit cannot make it. So sad :(

So our flight was at 12.30AM. Yup that's right, AM. So i was thinking, hmm so we'll reach there at 6.30am, so we'll probably go to the hotel from the airport, rest for a bit then start our tour. But I was wrong, 6.30AM we reach the airport (and I couldn't sleep on the plane, the journey was very bumpy), so with my panda eyes, I was told by the tour guide manager, Kelvin, that we're going to start our tour right NOW. So, okaaaay, haven't slept the whole night, I hope I won't snore in the van.. like I did in Hong Kong. Our tour group consist of us, a Chinese family and a retired couple. All of them are super super nice.

Okay, so our 1st stop of the tour is.....

Tiananmen Square! It's so big here!! And there were just so many many tourist here. It's really hard to take pictures. Oh by the way, it was so freaking cold in Beijing, do you know it was 2 degrees?? COLD! Great way to start your morning! Frozen cheeks!

So we wouldn't get lost, our tour guide held out a Malaysian flag everywhere he takes us. (Thank God he didn't ask us to put on a colorful cap)


We walked passed this huge Beijing Olympic slogan as we were walking towards Tiananmen Square.

In the west of the Square is the Great Hall of the People

In the center of the Square stands the Monument to the People's Heroes

Our tour guide Duncan, said that the flag is changed everyday and stored in the museum. Dunno whether true or not... Never seen a flag so heavily guarded


Meridian Gate (Wu Men). This is one of the entrance into the Forbidden City. Did I not mention how huggge it is in there?? HUGE!

The crowd!!

In the Outer Court, there are couple of cannons there. Decorations??



The Hall of Supreme Harmony, this is the largest hall among the other 2. This is where the Emperor discuses affairs of state or held ceremonial purposes. I didn't take a picture inside the hall because it was too crowded and I kept getting shoved away..



The Hall of Supreme Harmony, or also known as Tai He Dian. In every part of the Forbidden Kingdom, they have English illustration on what is what, which is pretty cool if you don't have a tour guide taking you around

See every little detail put into drawings? By the way, that's real gold..

Now we're at the Hall of Central Harmony or also known as Zhong He Dian. This is the smallest hall used by the Emperor to prepare and rest before and during ceremonies.

Oh, I remembered, this was when my camera ran out of battery :( Good thing mum brought an extra camera. So on into the inner court, is the Palace of Heavenly Purify or Qian Qing Gong. This is the place where the emperor lives. But Duncan said that instead of living here, the emperor usually sleeps with his concubines, which he has hundreds.. This is also a tactic, so his enemies wouldn't know where he is sleeping all the time


Mum and May posing

This was located at every Palace, it was used as a fire hydrant those days. Of course now it's empty.

It's heavily guarded in here too!
Okay, after playing around in here, our next stop is..

The Beijing National Stadium, or Bird's Nest! If you don't know what this is, you've been living under a rock last year!

Since our tour didn't include going into the Stadium, we just took shots of it outside. It's freezing by the way

We were there in the afternoon, at night it's suppose to look even more spectacular with the lights


Jumping

and running to keep warm, hehe, nah, just posing

And right next to the Bird's Nest is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, or better known as the "Water Cube".


Swim, swim

So after taking loads of pictures, it's close to evening, so we went to a restaurant close to the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube for dinner. No pictures, because the dinner was just normal rice with dishes. Boo! So, finally, we get to go to out hotel and rest. I was sooo tired, technically, i was up the whole day! Our hotel, was fabulous, but it's out of nowhere, me and May were hoping we would be right smack in town or something so we can walk around.

Our room was incredible.. It was so nice and cozy in there. Since it was winter, there were no air conditioner, but heater. So we had to open the window, and freeze our asses off. I was the victim here, cause I'm the one closer to the window and May was closer to the heater. Hey, she was the one who suggested opening the window!!!

Flat screen telivision in front of the beds. Shows are all in Chinese anyways..

Our sink, and the best part of all...

We have a shower and a..

Bath Tub!!! Ahhhh, blisss...

Okay, that's Day 1!