"Home Sweet Home!"

Touched down in Penang on Sunday night; what a relief to get away from the freezing weather in Beijing!

Day 1:

PEN-HKG-BEIJING. Upon touch down, we took a taxi to the hotel and immediately asked the hotel if they could help us purchase the train tickets to Datong. Luckily we got the soft sleeper seats, but couldn't secure the return tickets.

Day 2:

A bright and sunny day awaits! The weather was superb, clear blue sky. We went to Tiananmen Square, and onwards to the Forbidden City. The place was spectacularly beautiful and also DAMN HUGE. We walked 5 hours straight and couldn't even finish it! The subsequent trip to Beihai Park had to be cut short because our feets couldn't take it anymore and it got dark at 5PM.

Day 3:

Supposed to be Badaling Great Wall, but opted for something less punishing for our feets! Went to the Summer Palace. Unfortunately the temperature dropped drastically that day and it was also hazy. Pure suffering when the wind blew :D And also the Summer Palace was also SUPER HUGE. Wanted to complete the Temple of Heaven today also, but we wouldn't do justice to it if we rushed it through. Ok, straight go to Beijing West Train Station to take the train to Datong.

Day 4:

The train ride is an adventure by itself! The soft sleeper was a room with 2 double-decker beds. Reached Datong at 3AM, rented a hotel room to rest properly. Rented a taxi for the day to finish both the Yungang Caves and Hanging Monastery. The weather that day was the WORST ever. The Hanging Monastery was in a valley and the wind was blowing like mad. All the winter clothes also cannot help!

Day 5:

We managed to get the train back to Beijing, but it was hard sleeper! It was like a military bunker style 3 deck bed (so 6 in each compartment!) Arrived in Beijing, rest till noon before we went to the Temple of Heaven. The weather turned nice again. Skies were clear and less chilly. Thankfully we spent 1 whole day here because it is really a magnificent temple and an icon of China. Later that day we went to the Olympic's Bird Nest stadium. We were way behind schedule by this time :P

Day 6:

The Great Wall at Badaling. Surprisingly the weather was soothing up in the mountains, even with all the wind blowing. Getting to Badaling by public transport was one challenge by itself! People will try to do anything to con you to go to their tour. Even taxi drivers also don't want to send us to the bus station. Yeah, go figure! We spent 4 hours in the Wall, and walk until legs all injured..hahha.. we underestimated the challenge of the Great Wall :-S Again, we slipped behind schedule and couldn't go to the Ming Tombs.

Day 7:

OMG, the last day dy! Do we go for the Ming Tombs or what?? No more fooling around, on this day we finished FOUR places: Yonghegong Lama Temple, National Centre of the Performing Arts, Beijing Zoo and Hutong Tour! Haha... desperate dy :P

Day 8:
BEIJING-HKG-PEN. So happy to be back in Malaysia :D

Summary:

I have mixed feelings about the trip. Felt like mission not complete; missed out on the Ming Tombs, Chuandixia and Jinshanling Great Wall. Perhaps another visit on another time? BTW, we took over 4000 pictures, so hope to get these published soon! :P

"OOO"

Signing off.. back to Penang on 28 Nov!

"Beijing-Datong side trip in danger!"

Dear Leopard,

Best wishes from Beijing Xinhua International Tours!

We are sorry that now it`s already late to book train tickets between Beijing and Datong.
Usually, train tickets need to be issued 10-20 days in advance.

Anyhow, thanks for your enquiry.

Have a lovely day!

Best regards
Linda He

Oh no... the overnight train from Beijing to Datong on 24 Nov and back is the trickiest part of our trip. Train tickets are unavailable to be booked online, and even this tour agency is not able to secure us the tickets. Looks like have to find other transport means, such as buses!

"Beijing's weather"

GULP!

"Goodbye... and welcome!"

It's weird to write a post about a pair of shoes, but I have great memories with this little buddy. Bought in 2008 for CNY, it has since followed me on great adventures to KK, US, Langkawi, and pretty much everywhere else.... but the last hike in Pantai Keracut proved to be the last adventure. The shoe mouth 'opened' and attempts to first stitch and then glue it back failed... :(

And with Beijing 2010 coming, we need a replacement:
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Tada! Still black, but with a streak of bright yellow at the bottom. Welcome aboard. I hope we have a great ride together!

"Beijing 2010"

Flight tickets already bought (Cathay Pacific-Dragonair)... Hotel already booked... Now here's the proposed itinerary:

21 Nov
Penang-HKG-Beijing

22 Nov
Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Beihai Park

23 Nov
Great Wall at Badaling

24 Nov
Travel to Datong for Yungang Grottoes and Hanging Monastery

OR

Travel to Chengde to see Mountain Resort and Eight Outer Temples

25 Nov
Chuandixia

26 Nov
Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven

27 Nov
Jinshanling Great Wall

OR

Relaz relaz

28 Nov
Beijing-HKG-Penang

I keep hearing: "You sure you don't want to follow tour in China?" Really freaking me out... hahhaa... already nervous like hell.. that's why I only plan one or two activity per day. We didn't want to follow tour because heard a lot of horror stories where they bring you to side-trips to the shops which you are not interested in. And being rushed all the time. And have to wait for other people. Anyway, I already bought a copy of Lonely Planet's Beijing City Guide so May the Force be with us! :D

"Celebrating Macross Frontier: False Diva!"

Recently, the new Macross Frontier movie, titled the False Diva, was released. To commemorate watching it the 2nd time (without subtitles!), I took out these 3 heroes to recreate the final battle~~

Ozma, Alto, Brera. The movie was pretty much so-so, but the final action sequence, with these 3 guys defending Sheryl and Ranka was memorable!

The original Macross F TV series is still the best, so I brought out the gang again~~

The 1/72 scale VF-25F Super Messiah. Now permanently in Fighter mode, because I super-glued all the parts so that they won't fall off :P

Macross F figures. I wish they came out with more of these. Although they are small, but at least it wont burn my wallet!


My fav: Sheryl and Ranka combine :D

Defiant. Armored Ozma still can transform to Battroid mode despite breaking a crucial part! BUT... if you just touch it, everything collapses, the wing, the armor pack, gosh... what a mess :-S

"Hot Toys' (Improved) Bruce Lee figure!!"

Previously, when Hot Toys announced their new 12 inch Bruce Lee:



I think the response was like..."Err.. the body sculpt looks plastic-y!"

And now, they have done this:



Hot Toys have actually refined the body sculpt to look more natural! OMG!! It's so temptinggggg!!! :P

(Pics taken from Hot Toys)

"Should I have spoken out?"

Some time back, I saw someone posted in a forum, wanting to sell his Macross VF-1A Hikaru custom. He threw in a display stand and put the price as RM400. It was a fairly good price...unless you knew that this VF-1A release had a big problem, which was the fragile shoulder hinge.

On my VF-1A, the shoulder hinge had hairline fractures already and it would only be a matter of time before it broke. When I saw this person trying to sell his off for cheap, I wanted to reply, "FYI, this is the version that has the shoulder hinge problem". But I hesitated.

A few days ago, I read the forum again; someone had already bought the VF-1A from this guy and reported that the shoulder had cracks. And he isn't able to contact the seller. On surface, it does seem like the seller knew about this problem and wanted to sell it off quickly and cheaply (or maybe not).. but damn... I really felt guilty that I didn't choose to speak up then.

What would you have done?