All the things I needed to update!

I never seem to have time to reply to messages and emails because I've been keeping myself busy! Tons of errands to run when I'm in town (Dubai I mean) and plenty of things to see and do when I'm out. With my goldfish-like memory these days, I really need a to-do list so that I can keep myself on track.

Here're some insights to my cooking these days, since it's all my housemate and I do when we're home together :p

 

ooohh yeah, from girls who never stepped into kitchen, to these, we're pretty amazed ourselves.

Beijing
I'll continue with shots of the imperial garden in Forbidden City:

Decided that we should also do a tour in the imperial park opposite - Jingshan Park

Extracted from the wikipedia page linked above:
"Jingshan (Chinese: 景山; pinyin: Jǐngshān; literally "Prospect Hill") is an artificial hill in Beijing, China. Covering an area of more than 230,000 m², Jingshan is immediately north of the Forbidden City on the central axis of Beijing.^[1] As a result, it is administratively part of both the Xicheng District and the Dongcheng District. Originally an imperial garden, it is now a public park, known as Jingshan Park (景山公园)"

Gio finding his inner peace here with the greenery and flowers. We were elated to see so much green here as compared to the sand we have in Dubai.

Taking time to appreciate the little things around you.

Climbing up the stairs to the peak of park

The view opposite of the palaces, weather's a little cloudy that day.

At top of the peak where one of the pavilions sits, there are 5 peaks and pavilions n total in this park.
That pretty much ends our visit to Forbidden City :)

Dubai
I've so much to update about my local visits and gatherings but I'll do one recent visit to an Indonesian restaurant here. It's an authentic indo restaurant called Betawi, situated in Bur Dubai area. My indonesian chinese housemate gave it a 4 star ;)

Suy, Karen and I sat for lunch.

The girls and their avocado shake, indonesian style.

I had a bandung which was really good - ultimate milkiness. We liked it so much that I told Suy to get rose syrup from Jarkata to make one at home (as seen above in my instagram shots!)
 
Soto Ayam

Nasi Briyani 
(favorite of the lot, this reminds me of the one I had in Bali)

Ayam Satay

Indonesian Fried Fish


Another of my UK adventures in
Manchester

One of my favorite hotels with the fluffiest pillows and bounciest beds!
There's a garden out there and the hotel looks fantastic, 2 levels like a cottage house :)

Went to town @ Piccadilly 'cos we had a private car to 6 of us :)

Tired max cos we went out immediately after the flight!

City Center with tons of shops. M&S, Primark, Topshop, Debenhams, etc!
London is indeed a heaven for shopping.

weirdest costume ever in Primark and floral shorts I didn't manage to buy cos I burst my budget at the street.

The girls and tons of primark bags, its awful how we pulled the heavy bags through the subway station.


Manchester subway:


Bought vitamins for myself


Shopping for the day, love those pink pouches that I bought as souvenirs and one for myself and one for bestie!

Steak and eggs as in-room dining. Mmmm, i need to infuse more meat into my diet.

Rested well with London TV and newspapers before I exited Manchester :)

Gonna do an entry on Rome next, wee!!!! :)

Beijing in May part I

Came back from Roma (omg awesome place with beautiful scenic postcard-like pictures) and I realized that I haven't post about my China flights cos there were in drafts! Gonna post them all before I go on to Rome :)

* * * *

Just came back from Shanghai 3 days ago and I had the pleasure to have my room mate to be traveling with me. I found that I really liked traveling, with or without company. With someone by my side, I get to go to scenic places, share the same palate with a friend, shop and laugh together. When I'm alone, I get to explore places I never would by myself, sometimes get a little lost but with surprises that come my way, stop by cafes and pen down my personal thoughts or write a random postcard to somebody. A lot of things I would love to take pictures of, and blog about but many things have to be seen and experienced by one to know exactly how it feels to be at that place, and that moment. The scenic places, the night views, are things that even my SLR can never capture. Such amazing views and feelings can only be seen and felt with traveling. 

I'll continue with my travelogue.

 Beijing - May 2012

I never knew how much I liked China until I came here. Used to dislike it as a destination until I realized how magnificent and beautiful it was and is as a country.

 

Gathered my things to meet my girls! Check out my orange tote I bought from Bangkok.

My favorite chinese herbal drink, Wang Lao Ji. Not as sweet as Jiajia herbal tea sold in SG, but it still taste good :)

With my Asian friends having hotpot that day :)

Sure you've met Becky through my entries :)

The mixed pot 鸳鸯锅 with lots of veg and meat dishes. The thinly sliced beef taste soooo good with the spicy soup base. We only paid 50yuan each (S$10), as compared to 150dirham (S$50) hotpot I have in SG. I'll never have 小肥羊 in other countries again!

Woke up early to be dragged out by Becky to do shopping at the Silk Market. 

busy roads of Beijing

Had breakfast before we went out at this porridge place which does pretty good cod fish porridge ;)

Becks certainly looks fresh T_T

Arrived at Silk Market excited, because there are so many things that they have.

DVDs, clothes, bags, shoes etc. I'm glad to buy a winter coat from here, because it costs so much to buy in Dubai even after sales!

I'm a HK drama junkie, and for the price you pay, you expect that a few episodes cannot be viewed LOL!!

Dinner was done and it was all pork and meaty dishes :D~

Guess what I bought home? Frozen buns for the win!

My friends loved the custard bun, while I do like the roasted pork too.

Currently thinking of how happy I was to receive Hong Kong trips next month, and that makes me thrilled (dim sum dim sum!)

Returned to Beijing another time and I promised myself that I had to do Forbidden City after watching this new drama I had, 步步惊心

dressed up (my new super dry tee) and had Paris Baguette which did open in China!

Arrived at Forbidden City 故宫 with my friends.

and realized the taxi driver took us to the exit door (北门)

Grrrr, we could only enter through 南门 which was 40 minutes walk from where we were, since the FC is a huge place.

Nonetheless, we took pictures (since it was really beautiful to have them taken) before we strolled to the other entry gate.

It was declared one of the heritage sites during the year I was born!

The entry gate seemed miles away, as we strolled by the river bank that divides the passenger walkway and the palaces.

With Celeste who looked beautiful in her green maxi she bought in the mall.

Frantically walked for 45 minutes to the right gate and queued for another 20 mins to get the tickets. Grrrrr!!!


#coolestgirls in Beijing

best picture of me and forbidden city

longest rows of rooms


the interior of one of the halls:


if you do watch 步步惊心, this should be familiar for you ;)


structure


I bought the chinese sausage and it's so yummy!! Took pictures with buddy Cel before we went into the hall of mental cultivation.




Tai He Men (Gate of supreme harmony), one of the major gate/hall in Forbidden City that I've seen. Majestic!


Gio with one of the knobs ;)

Will continue on our imperial garden and jingshan park tomorrow :)