Siu~V: 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.