Back to Blogging

I have finally forced myself to sit in front of the computer to update this long neglected blog.

It is really unusual for me not to post anything for more than 3 weeks. Yet, I am glad to know that I am able to live without blogging for so such a long time. It gets to show that I am no longer so attached to it. Although I still make it a point to answer any questions posted by my readers, I no longer feel 'obliged' to update it on a regular basis. If not for a good friend, who took the time to SMS me to ask whether anything is fine, I would probably prolong writing this post indefinitely.

I have not been baking for the past few weeks as I had gone for a trip to Beijing during the recent one week school holiday. Although it was a last minute arrangement, I managed to cover most of the places as planned.

Once out of the airport building, I took a look at the gloomy, foggy sky, it didn't give a very good impression, especially since it was the very first time I have set foot in China. After taking a deep breath of the cool night air, I was immediately greeted with this busy scene of a non-stop flow of taxis coming in to pick up passengers. I was glad that I was not the one tasked to speak to the driver...with his strong accent, I really couldn't make up the content of his speech. I rode the next 15 minutes of journey with a stomach full of butterflies. We were very quiet during the entire journey, partly because I was tired from the flight, and all I could do was to hold on firmly to my younger child. It was only the next morning that he joked about the taxi ride...he made this funny comment that the driver's driving skill was equivalent to his...ie his skill at playing Burnout Legends, a PSP game which allows gamers to drive vehicles with blistering speed and intensity so as to deliver the fastest, adrenaline-inducing driving experience. The driver of our second taxi ride didn't disappoint him either. He zipped through the street 7am in the morning with a breeze...it didn't help to lighten the stone in my heart when we saw a terrible road accident along the way, and as if that was not enough, at that moment, the news from the radio was about the court hearing of a drunk taxi driver who got his passengers killed in an accident. Although Beijing's streets are awash with thousands of taxi which can be found at every single corner of the city, whenever possible, I chose to take the subway and buses to get around the city. Even the low cab fares fails to attract me.


On our first morning in Beijing, we went to WangFuJing (王府井), one of the city's most famous shopping streets. I didn't plan to go shopping though, we were there just so to get a calling card for my mobile phone. While waiting for the store to open, we walked over to the night market. Since it was early in the morning, only a few stores were opened. Yet, I got to see the famous snacks sold at this snack street.


I have heard about deep fried scorpions, but I was really taken aback when I noticed that they were still alive and kicking on those skewers! The hawker will only fry them upon your order.

Click on to the "Play" button if you want to find out how those scorpions got themselves hooked to the skewers.


Besides seahorses (extreme left on the above photo), scorpions and insects, there were also star fish. Of course we didn't try any of these...but I told myself I would probably give the deep fried star fish a go on our next visit to the city ;)


The following day, we went to the Great Wall. Instead of the popular section at Badaling, we went to another section at 慕田峪 (Mutianyu).


The scenery was magnificent and best of all it was not crowded. While we were standing at the lower section of the wall, we thought we would be able to climb all the way up to the top where the words "忠于毛主席" (loyalty to Chairman Mao). It turned up that we could only make it half-way up as the rest of the section further up is off-limits. The last section was fairly steep (the almost vertical long flight of steps on the right hand side of the above photo).


After the initial 20 to 30 steps, I had to stop every 10 steps just to catch my breath. As it was a continuous flight of steps with no 'breaks' or landings in between, I could only lean against the wall to rest. From the tiny figure of me in the photo, you could imagine how far I was lagging behind ;')

I was almost on all fours when we climbed up the last few steps to get to the last tower. It was well worth the effort as the view up there was awesome. We took our time to enjoy the tranquility before making our way down. After the hike, my younger son and I both developed a temporary phobia of staircase, we didn't recover until it was almost time go home!


The rest of the week was spent sightseeing at the must-see places in Beijing, Tiananmen, Imperial Palace...


Temple of Heaven...


waiting for the subway to get to...


the Olympic Green....


to visit the the unique Bird Nest...


and to take a picture of the Water Cube...


and finally to the zoo...to see the symbol of China...the giant panda!


The pandas were so adorable that I couldn't help but kept snapping away...


two is just right, and

here comes a third one...


and now, three is a crowd!


A panda taking a cat nap high up on a tree. We were wondering how did it make its way up the tree trunk?!


This is my boys favourite bear...a panda taking a siesta under the shade...its huge paw comes in handy as an eye shade...


and hundreds of 'pandas' at the entrance gate?!

It was a good time of the year to visit Beijing, I really enjoyed the nice cool weather. While my elder child spent most of the trip with his other schoolmates on an exchange programme, his brother and I spent many special moments together exploring the city. We learned how to get from one place to another by the forever crowded buses and subways...studying the signage at the bus-stops and finding the right exit to get out of the underground. We also picked up the trick to cross a busy street...if you just follow law and adhere strictly to the traffic rules, you will never ever be able to get across the street! It was a hilarious experience...having to hurry along the streets and yet hear my child making loud remarks that even the traffic wardens were also not following the rules.

I must thank my child for being such a good travel companion. There were no complains from him even when we had to cross the same road twice just to get to the right bus-stop...the long walk from Tiananmen square to Wangfujing...strolling the vast compound of the Temple of Heavens and being squashed in the crowded subway. Sitting under a tree at the park with just a slice of Lim Chee Guan bak kwa sandwiched between two slices of plain bread, was a gourmet lunch to him. During those long walks, he entertained me with his innocent and yet funny comments, remarks on just about anything under the sun. The only thing bad about him was that he refused to let me do any shopping at any of the malls, the only exceptions were the local bookstores. We came back with just a handful of souvenirs but tonnes of photos and fond memories.

Sorry for the super long post, I promise to delivery shorter-and-sweeter ones in future posts, and I think I am almost ready to be back to my usual baking routine.