Beijing

Now to relive our time in Beijing!

We arrived in Beijing and managed to find our little hutong hotel (which was not an easy feat as it was tucked away in the maze of hutongs that makes up Beijing).  Hutongs are the old streets and alleys filled with courtyard style homes made of an open courtyard surrounded by rooms.  It was a fun place to stay, although the design made for rooms that were not the most private and sound-proof.

Our view of the courtyard.  In the mornings, they served light breakfast in here.

Andy standing in the doorway of our room.

Our first day in Beijing was full of sightseeing.  We visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

This is the building where Mao's body is on display.  If you look closely, you can see thousands of people lined up to get a glimpse of the Chairman.   We opted not to wait in line....the line stretched all around Tiananmen Square, it was crazy!

Chinese doing what they do best...the Asian squat

Now on to the Forbidden City.  The place is massive!

River running through the Forbidden City

The basketball court of the emperors.  Andy mentioned that nylon had not been invented yet so they didn't use nets.

Entrance to Forbidden City - lots of people!

After a morning of walking around the Forbidden City, we moved on to Beihai park:

The white dome is called the White Dagoba.  What is a Dagoba?  I have no idea....it sounds suspiciously like a dyslexic version of Pagoda...maybe they just had a bad spell checker when they named it...

Us in front of the Five Dragon Pavilions in Beihai Park

A view of one of the Dragon Pavilions and the White Dagoba across the lake

The next day we set out early for...some more sightseeing!  We went to the Temple of Heaven park

An old man writing calligraphy on the sidewalk with water.

Temple of Heaven's most famous sight - the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.  Apparently this was constructed without a single nail, using wood joints instead.  Those smart Chinese!

The Confucius Temple:

This little kid stood there "unprompted" for about 5 minutes while his mother unsuccessfully tried to get a good iphone picture of him

Andy taking his place amongst the wise men lineup at the Confucius Temple.  I had to make him squat because he was about a foot taller than all of them...

Then we trekked north to the Olympic Park. 

Jumping in front of the Bird's Nest

No Beijing experience would be complete without some Peking Duck! Here's the duck master in action:

Our yummy dinner

On our third day, I started the day off with a migraine.  But, by lunchtime I was feeling much better so we had a nice lunch and then went to the Summer Palace

The highlight of our trip was definitely our last day in the Beijing area.  We hired a driver to take us out to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.  We spent the afternoon hiking the wall - and boy was it a hike!  We climbed the whole section of the wall and even explored a little bit of the "wild wall" which is basically unrestored.

I was originally just taking a picture of Andy, but a vendor nearby shoved these hats on our heads and made us take this picture.  She kept saying "no money, no money" and told us to salute Mao.

There's a....donkey....on the wall!  One of the vendors probably used the donkey to haul up his stuff...and the poor donkey has to stand around all day until he's done selling.  I couldn't resist taking a picture with the donkey.

The Great Wall.  See that long section of stairs at the end - that was brutal!  When we got to the top of that, there was a cheering committee to welcome us.

This is me after climbing that ridiculously long section - I was so happy I busted out a dance move.

Andy's thinking, "Boy it's a long way back to the start...."

 

Climbing to the top wasn't enough, we had to go out a little further and get a glimpse of the unrestored sections of the wall.  Some spots were a little scary, just a narrow crumbling path with no side railings.  After awhile, I had had enough (plus it was beginning to rain) and we made our way back.  That night we splurged and spent a night by the Great Wall at the Brickyard Inn.  It's an eco hotel with rooms that have great views of the countryside.  One wall of the room was a two-story window so you could lie in bed and just gaze out to the mountains.  Pretty neat.

Window wall

View from our patio

It was definitely a fun trip and especially meaningful because it was like a trip to the motherland for me.  My grandparents were born in China, but had my parents in Taiwan so I had never been to China before, only Taiwan.  It was definitely interesting to see the cultural differences over there.  Another awesome chapter in the Adventures of Jennie and Andy.

Shanghai

A couple of weeks ago, we got back from an epic trip to China.  We spent 4 days in Shanghai, followed by 5 days in Beijing, then returned to Shanghai for another 2 days.

As usual, I took way too many pictures, thus explaining my delay in posting because I have just been putting off weeding through my pictures.  But, finally, I have succeeded and can now post about our great trip.  I've posted a few pictures on my blog, but if you want to see all the pics, you can click on these links to see my albums for Beijing and Shanghai.

The first day, we arrived in Shanghai and were greeted by some college friends. They took us out to an awesome hot pot restaurant (to which I failed to bring my camera and thus have no pictures to show).  This place was off the hook! The waitress brought out hair ties for women with long hair and eye glass wipes for those with glasses.  Not only was the food amazing, but they even had a hip-hop-dancing-gymnastics-noodle-pulling-man.  If you order the la mian (pulled noodles), the guy comes out with a piece of dough and whips it around doing a whole dance routine and turns it into some noodles that he dunks into your hot pot.  Great food, great entertainment, and great service (which apparently is rare in China).

The next day, I did lots of shopping, hit up the fabric market:

I am clearly in fabric heaven here.

We hung out with our friends, or I should say, our friends took us to all the places we wanted to go....like the fabric market, the pearl market, got massages.....it was fabulous!  Then at night we ate some steamed dumplings for dinner and went to The Bund for drinks and desserts:

Us on the Bund

Pretty night views

The next day, we spent more time with friends.  One friend and I had a little girl time and did a little more shopping at the craft/beads/notions market and checked out the scene at Yuyuan gardens.  I should really say that I did all the shopping and my friend was a trooper and tagged along, providing me with wonderful company.  Andy chose to spend some downtime playing Wii at our friends' apartment.

Yuyuan gardens - lot of people!

Afterwards, we all met up again for dinner and had some great Mexican food.  It's funny how Mexican has now become a delicacy for us.

While I was waiting for the rest of our party to join us before dinner, I snapped a shot of the scene at the street intersection.  Traffic is pretty crazy in Shanghai.  Even if the green man says walk, you better look both ways and watch out for those bikers....they don't stop for anyone.

There are people going in every direction possible here.

The next day, we headed out to Beijing.  We spent 5 days there, but I'll skip forward to our second weekend in Shanghai and leave Beijing for its own post.  For our second entry to Shanghai, we opted to take the Maglev train from the airport to the city.  The train takes about 8 minutes to do what would take about 40 minutes in a cab.  It goes up to 431 km/h (268 mph):

For our final full day in Shanghai, we took a hi-speed train out to Suzhou.  It's not as fast as the Maglev, but still gets up to 300 km/h.  It should have only taken 20 minutes to get from Shanghai to Suzhou, but we were too busy chatting with friends and didn't realize we got off one stop too early.  So...we sat around waiting for the next train to show.

The Gao Tie - or G Train

Once we got to Suzhou, the transportation woes continued.  It was a national holiday and the locals and tourists were out en masse.  We skipped the mile-long taxi line and opted for the bus, thinking it would only be a short ride.  The first bus rolled around, but we couldn't force our way onto it because it was so packed.  We then had to "illegaly" push our way onto the back of the second bus, getting yelled at by the bus captain because we were supposed to board in the front.  We didn't care though, as long as we made it on we were happy.  Then, about 30 minutes later, we managed to travel the 3 stops necessary to get where we wanted.  Now I see why the tour books warn against travelling in China during national holidays.

Canals of Suzhou.  They call it the Venice of the East.

Suzhou is known for its gardens so we checked out the Humble Administrator's Garden, which is one of the more famous ones.

All in all, our time in Shanghai was awesome.  We got to spend lots of time with our college friends, ate good food, and did lots of shopping.  We were definitely sad to leave.

World Lupus Day

Ahem....indulge me this once while I step onto my soapbox.  

Today is World Lupus Day.  It's a day to raise awareness of Lupus - a disease that affects millions of people worldwide.  It is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system turns on the body and begins attacking the healthy cells of the body.  It's an unpredictable disease, which can be mild in some people, but life-threatening in others if major organs are affected.  

As some of you may know, I was diagnosed with lupus when I was 16 years old.  For the first 8 years after my diagnosis, I was doing really well, but as I finished college and started working, my lupus began to flare and took a turn for the worst.  I chose to stop working, and instead focused on taking care of myself.  That's how I ended up starting jslik designs (even though I'm sort of on hiatus right now).  Having lupus has forced me to make some difficult decisions and led me down a different road than I had envisioned for myself.  If you had asked the freshly graduated me what I would be doing 7 years down the line, I'd probably tell you something about having a career, moving up the ladder, making a great salary, getting married, and starting a family.  Instead, I've had to switch jobs a few times, finally giving up the idea of a "real" career.  At least I got the married part down though!  However, through these trials, I feel that God has built my character and strengthened my faith in Him.  I still have a positive outlook on life and know that God is in control.

Now, with the support of my wonderful family and my awesome husband (and a few medications), I'm leading a relatively normal life.  Sure, I may not be working, I may not have a career, and I may not have children, but I'm still enjoying life.  Since moving to Singapore, I've gotten involved with the Lupus Association of Singapore.  I've really enjoyed volunteering my time and meeting many other people who share this disease.  It's encouraging to see older women, who have lived longer and experienced more than I have, still happy and full of life.  The local Singaporean newspaper, The Straits Times, did an interview to promote World Lupus Day and our efforts at the Lupus Association to raise awareness and recruit new members and volunteers.  You can check it out here.  (For some reason, Straits Times didn't bother to post their article online but no worries, the Jakarta Globe did.)  It's my 3 lines of fame!  "Chemical engineer husband" even got an honorable mention...haha.  It was weird reading my own quotes....not sure if I actually said them like that or if they were translated into Singlish...  But the main point I was making was that even though I have lupus, I'm still living a full life!

Finished Products

Finished up my bag just in time for our trip.  Took it out for a test drive today and it seemed to work pretty well. 

I used some leftover Ikea fabric

Really loving my gold zippers for some reason

A look at the inside

Proudly wearing my bag - ready for China!

Being the first one I made, it has a few flaws.  I would probably move the straps in a little more and use an adjustable strap next time, but I didn't have time to go out and find the hardware necessary for that this time.  I still managed to put too many things in it, so it was heavier than I had imagined....I'll blame it on all the change Andy dumps on me.  

Speaking of change,  I finished my beaded crocheted coin purse (or however you call it).  Can't seem to bring myself to actually use it...it looks so pretty just sitting here and I don't want to get it all dirty...

I picked up this hobby from a friend of mine in the lupus support group I go to each week.  She's really crafty and sells her handiwork at the hospital we volunteer at and then donates the proceeds to the Lupus Association.  I think I might give it a try as well and put this little bag up for sale.  Then I can use my hobbies for a good cause.

And on a completely unrelated note, tonight is taco night!  I splurged and got some tortillas....hard to believe they cost $6.50 (which is on sale!).  Tex Mex sure is a delicacy here.

Tomorrow we'll be off to China for vacation, or "on holiday" as they say here.  I'm super excited - hope things go smoothly.  Better dust off my Chinese cuz it will get some good use!  Alrighty, time to do some last minute packing.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures when I get back!  Zai jian!

Getting Ready

Well, I'm just about recovered from a pretty rough case of food poisoning.  Hopefully, my stomach will be fully recovered and extra-fortified because we're heading out for a trip to China in a few days!  It will be my first trip to China so I'm really excited to visit some friends and see the amazing sights of the land where my family came from. 

For my trip, I've been looking for a small crossbody bag to carry my essentials in.  I want to be able to carry a few items like a map, guide book, maybe a bottle of water, but not have to lug a big bag around.  Spending the past half a year navigating Singapore on foot has got me trying to cut down on the amount of things I carry around in my bag.  After a few hours of walking around, even the smallest amount of stuff can get rather heavy.  I did some shopping, but all I could find in my price range were some cheap knock-offs at the mall.  So, I am working on my own....

Just a sneak peek, it's still in the works...I picked up these awesome gold zippers from the Japanese $2 store (that place is fast becoming my 2nd favorite place to shop....right behind Ikea!)

Here are some other projects I've got going on:

A friend has got me hooked on crocheting - I'm working on a beaded crochet coin purse.

A few baby bibs and booties

Hopefully the bag will be a success....finished products to come shortly as I'm working on a deadline.

Singapore Zoo!

Last weekend, we took a trip up to the zoo to check out all the cool animals they've got there.  The exhibits were really well integrated and they gave visitors many chances to get up close with the animals.  First, we met the Orangutans.  My favorite was the little baby Orangutan who kept fooling around and couldn't sit still. So cute.

Orangutans like to suck their thumbs too

White tiger on the prowl

I couldn't resist taking a picture with these totem poles

We decided to sit in on the elephant show.  

Elephant walking on the log

Then the elephant proceeded to turn around on the log, while keeping all four legs on the log

The giant tortoise is bigger than the kid!

Then we walked into an enclosed area where there were birds, butterflies, giant bats, lemurs, and iguanas walking around freely.  Saw these guys up close:

Lemur or sloth hanging out

Iguana trying to scare us off

This guy was letting people pet him

Even though we don't have kids, we had a fun time acting like kids at the zoo.  I put up the rest of my pics in my flickr album so you can check them out here.

Melaka Getaway

This past weekend, we took a trip to Melaka, Malaysia.  Originally, we planned on going on the weekend of our anniversary, but we put off planning for too long and then couldn't find a hotel room because it was a school holiday weekend, so lots of people were travelling.  So we had to push it back a few weeks.

We got up early and caught a luxury bus from Singapore to the Melaka bus terminal.   It was a smooth ride, only 3.5 hours and very comfortable as the bus was a regular sized bus with only 29 seats.  We had plenty of leg room and could recline pretty far back.  Andy's long legs were happy.

Andy got us a nice room at the Holiday Inn with a view of the Melaka Straits.  He had used his points to get us a free room, but they made a mistake when assigning the room and we ended up with two single beds.  So, after some complaining, upon which he flashed his Platinum status (thanks to all those nights spent in Victoria last year), he got us upgraded to a nicer room with a water view that came with free breakfast.  After checking in, they brought us this welcome treat - fancy! 

Our view of the Melaka Straits and a mosque.

After some resting, we headed out to explore the sights of the town.  First, we stumbled upon the "Pimp My Rickshaw Contest" at the plaza.  There were all these rickshaws lined up with numbers and I guess they were being judged.  

This is one really souped up rickshaw.  You could rock out while riding the streets of Melaka.

One of the creepier rickshaws, decked out in.....barbie dolls.  Weird.

A muslim woman at A Famosa, the old Portuguese fort. 

The front side of A Famosa

The ruins of St. Paul's Church

A local school boy looking out the window of St. Paul's Church.

Me hanging out inside the church.

Just down the hill was Christ Church of Melaka, probably the most famous tourist sight of the town.  Of course we took a few pictures.

We also spent some time strolling down Jonker Street, which basically closed down at night and became one really long night market.  I picked up some cool leather bracelets for my sister for $1 a pop.  So cheap!

Jonker Street at twilight.

After dinner, we were zonked out and headed back to the hotel.  The heat and humidity can really be a killer here.  The next morning, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and headed out to the mall where I got my shopping fix in.  Stuff in Malaysia is so cheap!  At the mall, there was an archery store, so Andy and I gave it a try.  I even hit the bullseye on one of the targets - to which Andy remarked, "Were you actually aiming for that one?" Surprisingly, I was.  If you know me, I definitely have a lack of hand-eye coordination, I've even missed the cup when pouring water before...so I was really proud of myself.

Watch out Robin Hood, here come the Sokoliks!

After shopping and archery, we headed back to Jonker Street and had some Hainan Chicken and Rice Balls. It was pretty good, although I think I still prefer the Singaporean version with rice in a bowl.

This cost about US$4! So cheap.

So we basically spent a little over 24 hours in Melaka, but had a great time.  Getting back to Singapore was a bit of an adventure since we waited until we got to Melaka to buy tickets for the return and found that all buses back to Singapore were booked.  We then found ONE company that still had tickets to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, (which is right across the border from Singapore) and had to go there, then take the public buses back over to Singapore.  Took almost 6 hours to get home.....  

So, we got to celebrate our anniversary in style, a month late...but better late than never!  I posted the rest of my pictures in my flickr album so you can check them out here.