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Tuesday 30 June 2009

Beijing (Part 2)

After traipsing the Tiananmen Sq and the Forbidden City for the better part of the first day, we went back to the hotel quite early, right after dinner. My parents were tired, but my sis and I still had some leftover energy, so we went jalan2 at the street below the hotel.

It was indeed a hive of activities, and it's like Beijing came more alive at night. Street vendors with their wares of varying kinds and not to mention street stalls selling mainly satay-like food, what we here call the lok-lok. I didn't really want to see them one by one, takut nampak benda yg pelik2, and of course not to mention the smell la. Beijingites are really laid back at night, and as it is a pet-friendly city, you can see pet owners walking their dogs around this time too. Most of them memang on a leash, but some are carried like babies. Beijingites seem to favour small breed of dogs, so you can see lotsa shih-tzus and Pekingese dogs here. Another strange thing is for the 5 days that I was there, I did not see a single cat!!!Mintak2 la it's not because diorang makan those cats la kan....tak boleh nak imagine my anak2 bulu jadik hidangan diorang...Yikess!!!

Anyway, the next day, our itinerary was mainly to the Summer Palace, and of course visits to those compulsory place, this time it's the fresh water pearl place.

Enough talk, here are the photos:

There were 22 pearls in that oyster, and we could take one. I got the purple one hehehe...

Then it's off to the Summer Palace. Ramai gila orang!!But the place itself is amazing. Had a hard time fending off street peddlers, as well as protecting mum from them.


This is the entrance.


Our tour group. So nice travel 6 orang je, x risau banyak perangai nak kena tolerate...





Lake Kunming at the Summer Palace, and the place where long...long..long..time ago, the queens and empress of China reared fresh water oysters to get pearls for beauty purposes. It is said that they kept their skin clean and complexion fair by pounding the pearls into powder and put it on their faces. Ala-ala susuk mutiara la tu...

The area of this palace itself is vast, and counting the whole area, including the mountains and the pagoda at the back of the pictures, it even exceeds that of the Forbidden City!

Then, the water from the lake itself, due to irrigation project in which dynasty I don't know la, flows all the way to Forbidden City, which is around 50km away. That's why along the way there, when we drove past their man-made river, it's so clean that the water itself is green. Along the way it was fenced so that nobody could get near and pollute it.

After Summer Palace, went to another mandatory place, the traditional Chinese Medicine HQ *sigh*...Here Dad spent quite a lot of money to buy medicine for himself and Mum, I objected a bit, but what to do, it's his money kan...Bukan apa takut ken a tipu je..Sesambil tu dapatla free foot massage;)




My kaki kena urut, and the 'professor' sedang melecture my Mum about whatever ailment she has. Memang tak cover2 langsung harusla terus suruh beli tu beli ni.Aiyo these people you're serving tourists make an effort to learn English la...Aku yg dengar diorg punyer translator tu pun pening kepala trying to make out what she was saying.

But with all the money spent, I hope they're worth it la for my parents...

Next...Cerita the next day pulak la..panjat Great Wall...But tunggu....

Friday 26 June 2009

Beijing (Part 1)

About a month ago I went to Beijing with my parents and sister. We were lucky as there were only six of us in the group. Aside from us four, there were two other ladies, kak Azimah and kak Hamidah. They are well-travelled, and I'm kind glad we had a small group. Less people to deal with, and more fun we had. So here's some of the photos we took over there.



At KLIA, after checking in we lepak in front of McDonald's before going to departure hall. It was a midnight flight, itself an uneventful event. I don't sleep very easily, so the journey was uncomfortable la. Boring naik Air China, kerusi sempit, makan pun tak sedap, FA semua pun English berterabur!! Really had a hard time trying to understand them.

The city itself is becoming very popular with Malaysian tourists, evidenced by the fact that I think our flight was filled with 50% Malaysians. Ni mesti groups from other agencies.

Actually masa travel tu I haven't been feeling very well because due to the crazy El Nino phenomenon in Malaysia at that time the weather was extreme by definition. It was really, really hot, and perhaps because keluar-masuk air-conditioned rooms, I get asthma attack ALL THE TIME!!! So tak sangka I had to use my inhaler again because before this pun dah berbulan tak kena attack. Anyway earlier that day also I went to the clinic to get a flu jab (at that time the A(H1N1) sort of just started so that's why we took some precautionary measures lah. Little did I know I would develop slight fever after that. Alamak risau gak takut tak boleh travel but still gagahkan diri ajer...

And even after we landed that morning at around 6AM, all passengers were required to stay in. Bab ni tabikla Chinese officials because probably due to their experience in handling SARS a few years ago, they didn't want to take any chances with imported swine flu (although swine dlu ni tetap gak masuk China) so what happened what that they had a Health official coming onboard and check pax temperature sorang-sorang. So dia bawak la thermometer yang canggih-manggih and tembak this gadget on our forehead to get a reading. I grew nervous because I was coughing all the time, so I had chewing gum to stop myself from coughing. When it came my turn, he gave me some puzzled look (kantoi!!), check at his screen, and was hesitant. I was getting more nervous but I tried to appear cheerful (inside I was miserable OK...). Then he went to my family and other people near my seat, checked their temperature. Then he went back to me and put that thing on my forehead again. Then he talked to me in Mandarin, so obviously I couldn't understand a thing! As usual, even mainland Chinese thought I was Chinese, so I replied in English and asked him what he was saying, and requested he speak in English. Luckily a passenger at the seat behind me translated and told me he wanted to know if I was OK, so I said cheerfully, "Yes, yes I'm OK" (I lied!!) so only then did he get off my back. Once down at the terminal, there were another two scanners we had to go through, the second being the submission counter where we submitted our health declaration form. Over there, again I was also asked more questions before the lady let me go...So that's when our trip to Beijing truly started..
Oh god sorry my ramblings melarat-larat pulak..Anyway here's some more photos ya...






After our early check in at Long Ding Hua Hotel (tak best la hotel tu!!!) we rested for a while before we left at around noon. We had lunch first, then singgah at masjid...sorry tak ingat nama...then off to what is undoubtedly a must-go location in Beijing-the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both are magnificent, both are really impressive!! (moi in green top)

Monday 22 June 2009

I'm Trying...Don't Laugh

Nuff said at the title, try not to laugh. I'm trying to compose in BM k...
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Actually tak tau la nak cakap apa kat entry ni. Tapi kalau sesapa yg dah baca aku punye mini profile kat belah kanan tu------>, you all akan tahu aku ni aspiring entrepreneur..(Hadoi...hancus tol, memang tak boleh la nak speaking BM 100%, mesti nak ada rojak gak, sorry yerr...)

Anyway, aku tgh nak upload beberapa gambar benda2 yg aku nak jual. Basically, apa yg ada dlm stok sekarang adalah beberapa deco items dari Sarawak, e.g pasu2 dan table lamp pattern etnik dari Sarawak. Juga table runner yg boleh gak digantung jadik wall deco sebab siap ada dianyer hanger. Very nice!!!

In addition, bersempena dengan bulan Ramadhan (and op kos sbb dah nak Raya!!) aku akan jadik distributor beberapa jenis biskut, as well as kek roll dari Sarawak. Once dah dapat gambar and sample semua insya-Allah akan di up kan kat blog ni..

In the meantime, ampun ye aku cakap memang rojak. As long as everyone can understand dah le...

Friday 19 June 2009

Friday Morning Bla..Bla..Bla..

I'm 'back' to the blogging world. I'm not sure if I'll post regularly, if I'll make this personal and let whoever reads it a peek into my world, I'm not even sure if I'll stick to writing in English or write rojak instead..

I don't know if this will become only my marketplace (most definitely) or if it will also include jottings of my thoughts and musings. But whatever it is..It is MY PLACE, MY BLOG, and WELCOME...