shots in beijing

Traveling to Beijing, China gives you the opportunity to grab cheap interesting souvenirs like these colorful 'for display only' wooden chopsticks,

these heavily-painted things are not for use!

 or some really nice glass figurines going for only RM100 per piece...after much bargaining, of course!
Transporting the soaring eagle, Chinese cabbage and the horse safely back to KL ain't easy though. If you're wondering what's the use of a cabbage if you can't cook it, well apparently since cabbage is 'pak choy' in Chinese, it's translated as '100 types of prosperity luck'. There you go, another of those beliefs.

i took the horsie of course, since i'm one!

 Back to the fundamentals of a guided Beijing tour, if you expect to be served food that looks like this, then you are in for a surprise... Not a very tummy-fulfilling one.

photos from Ben's Grilled Seafood pasta and Ben's Nasi Istimewa

 Apart from a non-spicy diet of the Beijingese (ok, i did not just create this word), a typical Chinese from Malaysia will most probably crave for a nasi lemak bungkus or char kueh teow as soon as he is served his first meal in Beijing.

dun worry, this is not what they serve in Beijing - this was just a display in some museum in Beijing :)

 Misinterpretation of tour information could happen. Like when they proclaim there is to be a 'Roast Duck Dinner', this is what they actually mean.

let's play spot the duck

 Also an important point to note is you'd better pray that you get a fairly decent hotel to crash in for those few tiring nights. Decent with clean and hair-less sheets!

 BUT despite any 'flaws' that one might encounter during a trip, more often than not, it's the friends and family that you travel with that makes your day (and night) an enjoyable one. Like when my parents traveled to Beijing recently,

 with none other than my parents-in-law!

 If you think putting any parents and in-laws together in a foreign land is a catastrophe, then you are so wrong.

 I've got some really coooool in-laws,

 Haven't you heard that 'opposites attract'? Look at the size of both my dads.

 And i've got two sporting mums who can really rough laugh out any situation!

 Beijing's forever jam-packed with tourists, both local and foreign.

In fact when asking a favour from a stranger, you might as well be direct and say," Excuse me, can you take a photo of me, my wife and the few hundred tourists behind us?"

Don't forget to say 'xie xie'. 

When you think Beijing, you think Wonders of the World. So, to be able to walk the steps of the Great Wall is an achievement one should experience in life.

 Beijing also has a great number of historical and cultural museums, which luckily for my parents, have English translated descriptions.

 Covering the grounds of the large-scaled Summer Palace and The Forbidden City on foot are enough to make your knees go wobbly by night time.

 Working the camera for the very first time, i'm so proud of both my parents.
Filtering all 357 photos taken of their 5D, 4N Beijing trip was not an easy feat. A hilarious one though.
I'd never imagine my dad mastering the art of self-taking (camera in his own hands) with such precision.

 Or standing while posing for the camera.

 I thought taking photos in front of mirrors were something only vain bloggers do. lol.

 All the photos posted here are my parents' 'work of art'.
A nice touch of capturing the locals performing their daily tasks.

 ok, i have no idea what this is, just thought it looks pretty cool.

 There were other impressive shots such as the world' largest LDC screen at 'The Place'

 and the National Theatre Dome. Nice ain't it?

Not bad results for an amateur photographer!.....................though,

.... there were the occasional 'snapping my own finger by accident' moments,

..and the 'what are you trying to show us actually' photos.

But THIS.......!


Now, this just looks so wrong.

air asia flies u for 10 cents!

decisions, decisions.......

Forget about sticking to my original schedule, getting to view the Flight Schedule page is already half the battle won! You see, they first place you in this so-called 'Waiting Room' for minutes and minutes, till which either the page fails to download or hallelulah, you get to view the flight details but not at the promo price you are hoping for. (drat)..u start cursing in your heart. 

So you then go back and forth repeating the same process until ....

1. you start pulling your hair out or

2. you start smacking your nearby colleague because you think he is Tony Fernandez or

3. your boss finds you doing something 'unproductive' (or in some companies, 'illegal') OR

4. finally, you stumble upon the cheapest rates for BOTH to and fro journeys! (your heart does a little somersault at this point :))

I experienced no. 4 right after 2 hours of searching the seemingly endless possibilities (thankfully the travel period is only from Feb - June 2012) and spent another 2 hours later trying to get my booking and payment through. Didn't help that i had to key in and re-key in the Guest Details like 4 times due to the alien-looking error messages that kept popping up. To make things worse, Maybank2U's TAC request was down today for Maxis users! (disgruntled look). Luckily i managed to get other means of payment through another bank's direct debit. Anything but paying by credit card where they make you pay a service fee for it!

Tell me, would you resort to all this hassle and distress for such mere savings? Only in Asian countries will you find such kiasu-ness for mad sales like this, but hey, i prefer to call it 'smart shopping'. :D

 Plus, it's only once that Air Asia holds a lelong-lelong like this on their 10th Year Anniversary. So why not take full advantage of it to see the world, or wherever Air Asia flies you. Seriously, the 10 cents rate (for one way) is applicable even to places like Bangkok! Now now, of course you still got to pay the airport tax and fuel surcharge (some places waived!).

In fact, last i hear, the tickets for Tokyo are already sold out!

For me, after a good long session of finger tai-chi (i mean clicking the mouse lor), i'm glad i managed to get tickets to one of my Asian countries wish-list, Hanoi in Vietnam.

Ah yes, beautiful Hanoi (and not too dirty i hope) is a city rich with tradition, in both food and culture. In my language, that means mad eating and mad shopping. tee~hee

 Then maybe i'll make a trip around Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and gawk at their many limestone caves from a private junk.

 At RM 250 return air fare per pax, I think it's as good as it gets.

The entire process is truly a test of patience, my friend.

Patience will eventually get you the best deal, and patience also means waiting for your trip to finally unfold.
Like mine, which is booked for a year from now. :P

bus-ted

Something came over me that made me hop up a Metro Bus to get home today. I knew it was the worse decision i could make but i thought it was still kinda early (only 5.45pm), plus i couldn't resist it when the bus  was parked right outside my office and the conductor kept yelling 'Genting Klang, Genting Klang'.

What started out as a 'convenient' move for me turned out to be my worse nightdaytimemare as it took me an hour and a half to finally reach home. The amount of manoeuvring through the jam-packed roads of KL made it seem like the bus was just going in circles. The reckless overtaking and the blaring horn prevented me from getting any shuteye throughout the journey. For some insane reason, our driver today wasn't a very patient one as he persistently honks at every car in front of him as soon as he sees a traffic light turn green. Irritating.

 I always wonder since a bus driver frequently gets himself stuck in a jam, is it an employment prerequisite for drivers to have a big bladder?

Another thing a Metro Bus driver and a RapidKL driver (in particular) have in common is this feud between the two 'rivals'. A bitter reality that sprouted because one particular company pays their drivers and conductors by commission based on fares collected. As a result, you may see Metro making more trips but on the other hand, i can't stand it when they tend to wait for passengers at particular 'popular' spots, sometimes up to 15 minutes of waiting!

One famous spot is at this bus stop beside the Chow Kit Monorail Station where there are usually hoards of people boarding buses from here. Most of the time, you'd find at least a Metro and a Rapid (both heading the same direction) playing the waiting and yelling game. Since a Rapid doesn't have a conductor, it'll be the Metro conductor yelling and gesturing to get passengers into his bus.

A seasoned passenger (like me) clearly knows to look for a Rapid instead of a Metro because 99% of the time, the Metro will still be waiting after the Rapid continues its journey. Sometimes there's more of a drama to witness, when both buses repeatedly revs the engine (sort of like wanting to trick the people into thinking they are going to start moving first). On rare occasions when a Metro eventually starts moving before a Rapid, that's when the Metro conductor might snigger at those who just boarded the Rapid, 'Bai baiii.. kita jalan duluuu...'

Nevertheless, i gotta remind myself not to conveniently hop onto any bus right outside my office, next time.Sure it saved me 60 cents (from taking the train), but it just looks too damn deceiving from the beginning. Such a pain in the ass... ...  probably from sitting down too long. ~.~

eccucino

Buffets are sinful pleasures. Especially seafood buffets. No one escapes from that guilt feeling of popping prawn after squid after oyster into their mouths, all the while thinking 'this is my last piece, tomorrow i'll start dieting' or 'nevermind, tomorrow i will hit the gym'.

I blame those restauranteurs for creating such gastronomic dilemmas for us. I especially blame the banks for coming up with those hard-to-miss dining promotions by using their credit cards.

Just like the latest Citibank's 'Buy 1, get 1 free' promo at Eccucino (Prince Hotel & Residence, KL).

With a price of only RM 51 nett for a 1 pax buffet (NP : RM 88++), i took a gamble to bring a particular someone here for his birthday. After all, a simple dinner at say TGiF's or Victoria would have come up to around that price. Hence, i went for variety instead.

 Eccucino holds a themed buffet daily, as in 'Malaysian Delights' for Mondays, 'Seafood' for every Wednesday, 'Italiano' for Fridays and 'International' for any other day. Ideally we chose the 'Seafood' of course.

  The place was barely occupied with only a handful of foreigners having a quiet dinner by themselves. But don't let the emptiness of this place fool you.

 I found the food worth my RM 50 bucks. hehe. They may not serve over 100 variety of dishes but even if they do, you wouldn't manage to try each and every one of them. They've got the key items in a seafood buffet though - the oysters, the salmon and the lobster. Nice.

 Dun these jewels come at RM 5 per piece? Five of these, and i would have covered my buffet cost.

 Three professionally prepared prawn tempura that tasted like heaven!

 My first time ordering an ice cream waffle in a hotel buffet. Who could resist not having a piece of this?!

 We went for the kill immediately!

 Me...i was in total bliss as long as i got to play by the chocolate fountain with an endless supply of sweet succulent strawberries!

I highly recommend all Citibank Cardmembers to take opportunity of this buffet dinner promotion. You've got till 31st Dec this year to make that reservation through 03-2170 8888 ext 8119.

Dun say i didn't share ...  ^-^

something to ponder in life

I've had the pleasure of attending "Team-building : Building Bridges" at Berjaya Hotel conducted by one of the most charismatic and entertaining trainer i've ever seen. In fact, labeling him as a 'trainer' is simply undermining his abilities. He can easily pass off as a stand-up comedian!

I tried googling his name and striked gold! At least, i think this is the same person we're talking about.

 Err, too bad the link doesn't seem to exist...you try it.
Mr Alphonse in his most whimsical ways, taught me the 5 things we must remember to succeed in life:-

1) EGO must GO
2) Rubbish must THROW (in other words, throw all negativity out the window!)
3) Don't let the situation control you, I control the situation
4) Tuhan tau! (in other words, do unto others as you would have others do unto you ... leave the punishing to God!)
5) This world is a better place because of ME

Make sense hor? i'm gonna carry it with me from today onwards.

Coincidentally, the first contribution i made to society today was by rescuing one of nature's beauties....

 Poor birdie was trapped on the 16th floor of my condo...flapping her wings like mad trying to squeeze through the little gap of the window.

 All it took was a kind soul (that's me) to give a little push of the window to free ms birdie!

What a beauty, isn't she?

theng theng

A 3-month old Theng Theng who previously looks like this, is now as cute as a button.

 That is, right until ...

 ...she ends up in my arms. 

sorry, no experience holding young infants ler...  awkward awkward.