Beijing Express Sightseeing: Forbidden City & Tian An Men

(...Continued from last post on Beijing Express Sightseeing in Great Wall of China.)

Right after our trip to the Great Wall, we set out to visit the Forbidden City. It was a about one and half hour journey back to the city. The sun now is truly hot, and I'm still fasting (Sayang dah nak berbuka sbb dah pukul 2.30pm bila sampai ker Forbidden City)

Our visit to Forbidden City was an express one as I was feeling very-very tired and very-very thirsty from the climb at the Great Wall and the scorching sun. We basically walked the length of the Forbidden City from the North Gate to the South Gate and straight to Tian An Men Square, which is situated just outside the South Gate of the Forbidden City. To truly explore the Forbidden City, one should at least take 2 days to finish exploring all the artifacts and buildings. It was helpful that we had a tour guide, so we managed to capture some of the history of China, and its emperors and dynasties.

Tian An Men - literally means "Heavenly Peace Gate". This is where the ruler of China gather for the National Day on Oct 1. He will address the public on the gate just on top of Chairman Mao's pic.

The statue of the guardians that we normally see in front of Chinese establishments. It is actually the statue of a lion and lioness. The lion is recognizable by the ball under his right paw, whereas the lioness has a baby lion under her left paw

The Emperor's palace and the place where he recieve guests

North gate entrance to the Forbidden City. Entrance fees is RMB60

The Forbidden City was built around a moat to discourage enemy to attack the city. It was told that when Qing Dynasty, the last Dynasty of China fell, the Eunuchs committed suicide into the moat because they couldn't bear to live without the emperor and the special privileges

The inner wall of the forbidden city is on the right of this pic with the red door. Right in front is a small hill with a resting place on top where the emperor and his concubines spend their time

One of the palace where the emperor and his concubines go to relax which is just in front of the North Gate

Earthquake 30 Sept 2009

I was still in the office around 6.15pm yesterday with 3-4 colleagues when I felt the tremors the first time. I thought I was probably dizzy because I was having a headache due to exposure to the sun and I was fasting sunat Syawal, so I thought it was just me feeling malnourished. My chair was shaking and I thought it was the wheels moving. Then I got up to make sure that either I was dizzy or the building was moving and said to no one in particular, "Is it just me or is the building moving?". Assured nothing happened, I sat down and continued iwth my emails. Then Tasha came and asked me if I felt the building moved, and I said yes, I thought it was just my imagination, and then wham! Both of us felt the tremors again, this time around more visible than the last because we were aware of it and we saw the leaves of the office plants moving. I said to Tasha let's get out of the office, now! We switched off our PCs and collected our bags and quickly went to the lift, praying that there won't be any tremors. A lot of things were playing in my minds, would I make it out alive? would there be any more tremors? I was scared. The elevator came soon enough and it was packed with people. I met En Wan, one of the Directors and asked him if he had felt the trmors, and like me he said, I was having a headache and I thought that was it. Alhamdullillah we reached the lobby without any incident. Later on, I heard on the radio, an earthquake had hit Sumatra with 7.7 richter scale and its tremors were felt in Malaysia, including Angkasapuri. Tsunami alert for Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

Lets pray for the victims of the earthquake in West Sumatra and the tsunami victims in Samoa.

Tunai, Touch 'n' go & Smartag: Mana Satu Pilihan Anda?

Ketika umat Islam di Malaysia sibuk ziarah-menziarahi saudara-mara di kampung sempena menyambut Aidilfitri, kita semua tak boleh lari dengan kesesakan lalulintas dimana-mana saja. MRR2 ke, Jalan kampung ker, highway ker. Terutamanya di highway. Tp ada pilihan, kalau nak cepat gunakan laluan fast track Smartag atau Touch 'n' go. Kalau tiada kedua-duanya, maka terpaksalah gunakan lorong tunai yang queue nya panjang berjela-jela. Saya terdengar komen hamba Allah mengatakan bahawa lorong Smartag ini untuk orang kaya-kaya sahaja, dan kerajaan tidak telus dalam pembahagian sama rata untuk kemudahan pembayaran tol. Yang ironiknya, hamba Allah ini mempunyai Smartag! Ada pulak komen tambahan yang mengatakan tunggulah kerajaan yang baru...?! (wtf??)

Saya tak suka berpoliticking di dalam blog yang tak seberapa ini, tetapi saya terpanggil jugak untuk komen pernyataan di atas kerana saya merasakan ianya sungguh kontradik. Kemudahan Smartag itu kesan dari kapitalisme, siapa yang kaya atau ada duit lebih dan bencikan queue yang panjang, boleh gunakan lorong tersebut. Ada juga guna Smartag sebab mereka dah plan perjalanan mereka dengan baik. Ini pemandu yang bijak, takder kena mengena dengan kerajaan sekarang atau yang akan datang. Pendapat saya, sesiapa yang gunakan lorong tunai pada masa perayaan atau cuti sekolah, memang tidak bijak sebab mereka dah tau queue akan menjadi panjang dan mereka masih tidak merancang perjalanan. Kalau tak mampu beli smartag, pakailah touch 'n' go. Bukannya mahal sangat, RM 10 pun dh boleh dapatkan satu kad. Kalau nak berjalan jauh, segeralah top-up di kaunter tol atau di mesin ATM. Sekarang ni Smartag dan touch 'n' go bukannya satu kemewahan, malah satu keperluan.

Semua kemudahan dah ada, anda buatlah pilihan yang terbaik untuk diri dan keluarga anda. Kalau tak kisah beratur panjang sekali-sekala, apa salahnya gunakan lorong tunai Tp kalau anda tak suka kesesakan macam saya, gunakanlah smartag atau touch 'n' go. Senanag cakap, ini pilihan peribadi (its a matter of choice). Bukannya nak menyalahkan kerajaan sekarang atau yang akan datang, tak kisahlan kerajaan yang mana pun. Kalau nak komen pasal kerajaan tak adil, janganlah kemudahan smartag dipersalahkan. Kalau semua orang haknya sama rata, baik kita jadi negara komunis, macam China. Itupun saya perhatikan semasa di sana jurang kekayaan besar, tak jugak sama rata. Mana ada benda yang adil dalam dunia ini. Allah sahaja yang adil!!!

P/S: Aku pun golongan marhaen, tetapi pengguna jalan yang bijak sebab ada Touch 'n' go.

Disclaimer: Posting ini bukan tujuan untuk mengiklankan Smartag atau Touch 'n' go, tetapi menyedarkan betapa pentingnya untuk merancang perjalanan anda.

Eid Ul Fitri Mubarak

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin kepada semua...
Jangan terlebih makan ketupat/rendang/lemang/lontong..nanti sakit perut..
Berhati-hati di jalanraya ketika balik kampung/pergi beraya...
kecelakaan boleh menimpa di mana2 sahaja...

Happy Birthday kepada Kak Shira, ibu kepada tiga anak, bakal calon Phd, kawan sekolah dan geng Taekwondo masa zaman Uni. Mudahan persahabatan kita kekal sepanjnag hayat walaupun kita semua dah sibuk dengan kehidupan masing2.

Beijing Express Sightseeing: Great Wall of China

I only had just the Friday after finishing the tradeshow and seminar on Thursday. So I had decided to do express sightseeing to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square. Morning we started our journey at 8am. I was joined by Peter the tour guide, a surly lady driver and May from Sunway Resort.

Great Wall is about 60km from Beijing, a journey which took about one and half hours drive because of the traffic. Traffic is quite bad in Beijing but it is moving traffic, plus Beijing have four ring roads, which all roads will take you about half an hour to go to any main area of Beijing.

Gondola at Badaling which costs RMB60 (about RM30)

We went to one of the nearer Great Wall entrance, the North Pass which is called Badaling, which literally means "arriving from everywhere", or so I was told. The walls were built such that people can arrive at the 8th tower from any direction. This entrance was the most popular and visited by most tourists, apart from Mutianyu or the Southeast pass. The Great Wall was built from the 5th Century, most famous when China's first emperor, Emperor Qin built it, continued by the Ming Dynasty. It was built as a fortification of the emperor's new frontier and against invasion from the North and Mongolia.

Gondola ride up to the 8th tower, much like the gondola going up to Genting

The 7th tower on the top was cut off by the huge mountain stone, so they built another way at the side for people to access. Below left is the 6th tower and front is the foot of the 7th tower

The climb to 8th tower starts from here

Fortunately the weather was cool, I guess about 15-17 degrees. I was fasting but I was determined to climb to the top to reach the 8th tower. We began climbing at the foot of the 7th tower, at first it was kind of easy because it wasn't slanting till we reach half of the way and it began to become very steep and angle is about 70-80 degrees...scary!

Going up...up

See the angle up? My guestimate it's about 70 degrees angle

I made it!!! The 8th tower at the backNow...how to go down eh? Very steep!!The Great Wall branching out to many different directions

Coming up, Beijing Express Sightseeing: Forbidden City & Tian An Men. Also, Beijing's handiwork.

Work@Beijing

6 Sept 2009, D-Day: 2200 hours at McDonalds' KLIA

I just came back from Beijing last Saturday. This week has been crazy, didn't have time to update sooner on my trip to Beijing. But the week before departure was the craziest, I had only 3 days to prepare for my traveling arrangements - express visa from the China Embassy (cost RM130), my flight ticket, my hand-carry items - 14 boxes containing promotional items and one clothes bag that I checked in which totaled 174kgs! Lucky I got a warrant. Phew...

This trip had me worried for so many reasons:
1. I had so little time to mentally prepare myself for the appointments and other work entails;
2. I was traveling alone for the first time, but still lucky that I have colleagues to wait for me at the other end;
3. and the current health situation with H1N1, naturally going to China had me worried eventhough there were no death reported.

Hence, the mask. Mak and Ayah advised me to wear the mask, which I did. And throughout the 6 hours flight. I was the only one wearing the mask in business class. Well, better a freak than dead because a passenger had some kind of flu and I got paranoid. However, once arrived I noticed that only the Immigration people wore masks. But in Beijing, nobody wore masks. Even in the newspapers, H1N1 was not yet a cause for concern because it only attack the rural area and mostly in schools. It was almost unheard of in Beijing, people weren't concerned. Plus, China was to produce its own antidote. So, China boleh!

After about half an hour's drive, I arrived at the Chaoyang area. It is not exactly the city centre but its the area where Tourism Malaysia and the Embassy of Malaysia is located. I checked in at the Westin Chaoyang Beijing. Awesome room! Includes Osim foot massager and a nice view of the city.

King sized bedView on the other side of the room. Some of the boxes I carried on left side of the room

The Osim foot massager...ahhh

See thru shower stall, people from the opposite building can see me shower. Lucky I realized in time that I need to push the automatic button for shutter down for complete privacy!

Next day I head on to China National Convention Centre, the venue of the tradeshow. The CNCC is located nearby the Bird's Nest Stadium, where China had the opening for the Olympic 2008. Basically I had to take care of the booth and attend appointments normally with travel agents or meeting planners, advertising houses (more for soliciting ads space), and some trade visitors.

Bird's Nest stadium BeijingIn front of the CNCC

Malaysia booth at the show, back viewKorea Sparkling was our neighbour booth

I love Thailand's booth because of its simplicity and cute signage and ultra-cool lamps
Beijing's booth was the biggest, this is only half size Phillippines booth

Incidentally, Malaysia just won the best short haul destination as voted by TravelWeekly. We were against Philippines' Cebu and Boracay as well as Japan. So, Malaysia Boleh!

New Recruits Reporting for Duty, Sir!

So yesterday, 1 September 2009, was the day that me and Shasha were required to report to our new boss, ZHS. Despite protests from Bonda in the way of request to defer me from going to MYCEB for at least another month, the powers that be still requires me to go and report duty till further notice comes. So I met ZHS, MD of MYCEB. Nothing new there. In fact, it was like going home. I was in familiar territory. Except that there's a bit of power play with Bonda. Hopefully, that will work out soon. I don't want to feel guilt for wanting to do something that I think I'm good at. Plus, tonnes of things to do already. MYCEB still have a lot of unresolved issues like office space, staffing, SOP, etc. So, we'll take it one step at a time. Oh, I was requested by ZHS to go to Beijing next week to attend a tradeshow. So last minute, need to have permission for travelling, visa to China, book accommodation, etc etc. See how it goes

p/s: Life will be like a rollercoster with MYCEB from now on...

Ayu & baby Johan Iskandar

We just came back from visiting Mummy Liza Idayu, who had safely given birth to a very healthy baby boy, named Johan Iskandar. He weighs 3.1kg and was delivered in Pusrawi KL. CONGRATS TO AYU & KHAIRIL

Mummy Ayu yang glowing dan happy jer

Kolat yg terencat and Ms Fantaghiro with her "Gollum" pose

Baby Johan Iskandar, born 26 August 2009

Me and Mummy Ayu

Me and Ayu were neighbours from both our parents home in Taman Perwira Gombak. She was emcee at my wedding, and I was the emcee at her wedding. She is currently teaching in SM Teknik Dungun. Again, congrats to both new parents. I'm sure they are both over the moon with their bundle of joy!

When All Hell Breaks Loose

Some women shouldn't be left in charge. They get too emotional, and prejudiced. Most of the times they would hear about things in the office about something or somebody thru the grapevine. Then they get prejudiced about the person that were gossiped about. They would start to hate that person, eventhough they didn't have a direct encounter with that person! And that in turn would make the atmosphere in the office to be very negative as they would make their displeasure known to other staff *sigh*

Itulah sebabnya aku rasa perempuan kurang sesuai menjadi boss, terutamanya kalau yang dah "senja" sebab dah dekat nak menopause dan hormon pulak tak menentu. Lagilah emosional dalam segala hal. Itulah juga antara sebab aku nak pencen opsional pada umur 50 tahun kalau ada rezeki (dan kerana aku tak ambil opsyen 58 tahun!). Cuba tengok kak Yasmin dari Baking Project, dia ambil VSS pada usia 35 tahun dari bidang real estate dan kemudian meneruskan minat dalam hiasan kek. Baru dua tahun berkecimpung dalam bidang ini, dah terbitkan buku dan juga kelas deko keknya sentiasa penuh...

Begitu juga dengan mak aku, Kerabu Jantung. Pencen opsional pada umur 50 tahun, 8 tahun yang lalu. Masanya telah diisi dengan menghadiri kelas belajar bahasa Arab, dan Al-Quran, sehingga sekarang dia pula yang boleh mengajar orang mengaji. Sekarang dia ada minat yang baru iaitu blogging. Canggih tak canggih mak-mak zaman sekarang??!

Begitulah halnya dengan Sophisticated Office Ladies (SOL) yang dah senja ni. Hentikanlah acara gossip-mengossip dan dengki-mendengki kerana ianya tidak mendatangkan faedah dan hanya membuatkan anda lebih sakit hati, dan seterusnya menyebabkan tension & hypertension. Lebih baik gunakan tenaga yang masih ada untuk buat kerja & rancang masa pencen korang nanti. Kan ke lebih berfaedah???!!

P/s: Aku pun SOL jugak :p

Of Relationships & Good Friends

Ms Fantaghiro, Kolat and I were talking tonight about friends and relationships and I was reminded about something that happened back in Uni days. There was a very good lesson me and Ms Fantaghiro learned about good friends & relationships:

Cardinal rule: Never get involved in other people's relationship, even if they are your good friends.

We had a couple who were both our friends. Lets call them Jack and Jill. They were dubbed "UMBC" - "University's Most Boring Couple". Yep, you guessed it, they're like "belangkas", it was almost impossible to see the one without the other, unless of course, inside the dorm. They'do do things together, eat together, go places together. They were seemingly the most loving couple you've ever met. But like most couples, arguments do happen about some thing or the other.

One night, Jack was so upset at Jill that he began asking some of Jill's friends about her behaviour and other things that she had done. Some of Jill's friends thought that it was wise to lay all the cards on the table so that Jack would realise what kind of person Jill was. Some of the things said were better left unsaid. They began swapping stories about Jill. Maybe they think that this will give Jack a better insight on Jill.

Not long after swapping stories, Jack suddenly made up with Jill. The best part was that, Jack told Jill everything about what her friends spoke about her. The good, the bad and the evil...laid bare. Can you imagine the surprise Jill's friends felt? Those were the things that her friends talked about her behind her back. Both parties must've felt that they couldn't trust each other. Luckily, me and Ms Fantaghiro didn't say a thing because we didn't like to butt in personal matters, plus we were no relationship expert.

Two important lessons here:
One: Some men are jerks and can never be trusted completely;
Two: Never be in the way of two lovers quarelling, or it may backfire to you!

Which was what happened in the story above. Never get involved in other people's personal matters even if they are your good friends. You never know when somebody is looking for leverage. Even if you are a relationship expert, you should refrain from commenting so biasedly or comment at all if you think you may be trapped in a tricky situation. Don't offer free advice, especially to those who didn't ask for your help. Your friend may not be comfortable with you intruding in their personal matters, and commenting or forecasting the outcome of the relationship. I know I don't. Let your friend live his/her own life, they don't need to know what's going to happen in their relationship. Even if they ask for your help, be sure to dish out your advice carefully. You don't need to be a know-it-all person.

Be a friend, not their guidance counselor :p

Today, Yesterday and the Day Before

Today is Adam's birthday, my brother's son. He turned 1.

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 31.

The day before was my Hisham's birthday, my younger brother. He turned 28.

I wanted to write about it yesterday, but so many crazy things happened yesterday. I finally got the transfer order to MYCEB, effective 1 September. Bonda wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it. I had gotten an earful from her since she found out last week. I had to play the innocent victim in all this.

This year is the most I've gotten birthday wishes from friends and family. Thank you Hubby, Kerabu Jantung, Kolat, Ms Fantaghiro, Azura, Cik Lili, Zaza, Fairdaos, Karen, Karene, Mei Phing, Kak Yaz, Kak Norizah, Edy, Shasha, Aza De Kaza, Kak Lin, Gojie, Awang, and others...

Last night, I went out to live my life. Ms Fantaghiro and Kolat treated me to Sushi King and Coffeebean.

Cuppies sold by abang gentle we found outside Coffeebean Ampang Point. The deco was made from Royal icing and the muffin was made from kind of Brazilian coffee/choc (can't remember the details). per box is RM10. Ms Fantaghiro bought one for me coz she was supposed to buy me some cupcakes in Pavillion.

Sushi! What more can I say!!

Kolat mengediks and Ms Fantaghiro doing her boring post

Oh, Liza Idayu smsed my from Pusrawi wishing me happy birthday while we were in Coffeeebean. Apparently she's having contraction and can't wait to get into labour. Will call her to find out her baby status.

Interesting birthday I would say.

These are a few of my favourite things

There are some things, be it organic or man made, which we love so much that at any time we will not refuse to enjoy it. These are just a few of my favourite things:

1. Cats
I found this cat under a makeshift jetty in Pulau Lang Tengah last year

Doesn't matter anytime of the day or wherever I am, I'd be the first person to spot the cat under the table, a sleeping cat or a cat mewing or washing itself. Doesn't matter if it's a cute cat, baby kitties, a mother cat, a cripple cat, a kurap cat, a carik-gaduh cat, my heart always skips a beat spotting a cat. I would always find ways to pat the cat or at least call its attention to me. Maybe I was born with a cat detecting-radar. Who knows. But I know that I will be attuned to cats forever. I miss living with a cat. *sigh*

2. Islands & beaches

Pulau Lang Tengah

There's nothing like the seductive beckoning of an island urging you for a visit....to swim in its clear water, to walk its sandy white beaches, to taste the salty wind in your face, to have the feeling of being totally free from all your concerns. My mother grew up by the sea. I grew up loving the sea, but at the same time afraid of the deep, dark waters. But still the sight of beach or island would excite me...I'm longing to go to a nice sandy beach and just relax there...

3. BooksThe Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

To hunt and find the perfect book to read is a bliss in itself. Always preferred books to magazines. Its weird how some people I know would shy away from a good novel. To totally immerse yourself in a good book, to feel it taking the space in your head till everything else becomes obsolete, and then to finish it. That's satisfaction!

4. MusicMust have music to function in daily life. Music for work, music for driving, music for cleaning, music for relaxing. Can't live without music. 'nuff said.

5. A good bargain

Aye, I am a sucker for bargains. Why buy only one when you can get two at a discounted price? Or get one free when you buy two items, the more the merrier! The cheaper the better :) Ladies (and maybe some men), you know what I'm getting at.

And there you have it: my favourite things:)

Cake Deco Class with Yasmin Sanusi

Yasmin Sanusi's book on caked deco using fondant

Salam Ramadhan to all..

Yesterday was our cake deco class with Yasmin Sanusi, organized by Aza De Kaza who is Puspanita's Pengerusi Kraftangan & Keusahawanan. The class was RM190 for a 5-hour session and there were 15 participants in the class. We were taught how to make cupcakes, buttercream icing, how to ice a cake, decorate cupcakes with 6 different designs - Elmo, teddy bear, clown, swirl, rabbit, and one decorated with coloured piping gel. More info on cake decorating class can be found on Yasmin Sanusi's website.

I'm not really a fan of cupcakes but the ones that Kak Yasmin baked in class was the yummiest and fluffiest I've ever tasted. It was a basic yellow cupcake recipe in which she substituted vanilla essence with orange flavour. She'd also taught us how to fill in piping bags with buttercream, some neat tips on how to soften or harden the buttercream, depending on what you want to decorate. If you want to make a sitting clown, then you should harden the buttercream by sifting in more icing sugar, you know its stiffer when you spoon just stands in the icing. If you want to make some delicate motif like leaves, then add more milk to soften it.

Kak Yasmin explaining how to make buttercream icing by slowly (medium speed) creaming shortening, butter, icing sugar, milk/whip cream, cream of tartar, some salt and vanilla essence. Must be patient and give ample time for the buttercream to turn out nice and fluffy

Kak Yasmin demosntrating us how to make shell motif on the cake

Yours truly decorating a cake with woven basket techniques on the side and shell motif at bottom of cake and star motif on top of cake. My cake's is 90% done as shown here

Voila! The cake done with roses, leaf and branch motif. We learned how to make the roses from scratch. And kak Yasmin showed how to make two-tone rose. But mine's not so beautiful lah...kembang semacam jer rose tuh hehe

Elmo's furry face was made with piping tip with lots of small holes, same technique for making grass, then his eyes, nose and mouth were shaped from coloured fondants. The star cupcake were filled in with coloured piping gel, the same piping gel that were mix into buttercream to make it more smooth and shiny. The sitting-down clown was made using building up techinque to form its body, the icing should be a bit sitffer so that you can put the clown's head (non edible)

The proud owner of decorated cupcakes

Aza De Kaza with her cupcakes. During the class, she kept saying "Ini bukan bidang aku!" And look how her cupcakes turned out! I believe anyone can do it, just need to learn the techniques

Soon to be mummy, Teena with her cupcakes. She also made some of the most beautiful roses in the class.

Mother of four - Kak Lin, proudly displaying her decorated cake and cupcakes.

All in all, it was a fun and quite tiring 5 1/2 hours of class, but we did learn a lot! Kak Yasmin did a really good job teaching us the decorating techniques. Now I know what's its all about, I can decorate my own cupcakes! Next, I would like to learn cake deco using fondant with kak Yasmin, which she I believe is more of her specialty. Look in her website and you'll see many creative things that she had created from fondant such as the burger cake and cactus cupcake.

*FYI: Cake and cupcakes that I decorated yesterday were given to my neighbour who have 5 children, they were so delighted to see the decorated cupcakes:)