"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?