Tibet No Permit

OK, I guess everyone abit bored with me bragging about my next trip to you know where, hence this entry is going to be a standalone entry about a trip a friend of mine took. Which I KNOW I wouldn't be able to do in next 5-10 years or EVER. Sigh.... hence I will share some of his pics that I have been ogling with 'hatred' hemmm.....

Our dear friend Mr. Pei Leh took a 3 weeks holiday to visit land of Dalai Lama, unfortunately he and his group was rejected an entry point ie border... kinda pity him. Apparently it's not that easy to get a permit despite that they approved his first level request.

Anyway, he managed to take some nice shots in China (bordering province) of which he was very proud of (using my camera, ofcos I claimed that my camera did 80% of the job), and I also insisted that he's was a fluke shot. Hahahhaha.... hurt his ego abit I suppose. Ops!

Having said that, the pics was superbly beautiful, so hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Meeting Greek God & Count Dracula

Guess what?!?!??!?
I’ve booked my Greece flight tickets!

YIPPEEEEEEE!


Nah…. That’s not good enough, I'll be staying here (Yup! The hotel pic above) - Volcanic View Hotel,

YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hemmm…. That’s more I like it. Hhehehheh……

You wouldn’t believe what we just did, we crazily decide that 1 country is just NOT ENOUGH, sooooo…… we are visiting…… jeng jeng jeng……




















ROMANIA!!!!!!

Cause I want to visit Transylvania to meet up with DRACULA!!!

KIOK KIOK KIOK……

Chat more in afew days time once I iron out my itinerary!


Chow!

Om Syam

Sri Lanka & Maldives Slip


NO!!! The 2 island didn’t slip or any of that sort, it slip from my travel plan as I just received a sad news that my beloved close uncle Om Syam in Pekan Baru Indonesia just passed away yesterday. And this all happen as we approach Ramadan (fasting month) and Edul Fitr (Muslim celebration), one can only imagine how the family must have felt. Thus, I have “dispatch” my mom and sis on our whole family behalf to Pekan Baru to pay our last respect to him.

It wouldn’t be nice when all these happen and I go happily jollying in Sri Lanka & Maldives right, the truth is; I am not in the mood to go anymore upon receiving this news. Sigh……

It’s truly a sad and shocking news as he was getting better and looking fine when I visited him in May. He has been coming over to Malaysia often for medical check-up and surgery, he did a heart by-pass few months back that went great. Hemmm…. In Malay we have a saying “We (human) can only plan, but HE(God) who decide”…. we must try all our means to find a solution, the rest; we leave it up to HIM.



May Om Syam rest in peace.



AMIN

In loving memory, Om Syam with family in Bali 2009

Differed Travel Plan (What else is new?!?!!?!?)

A short note DUE TO EXCITEMENT!




My plan as usual differ form original which is Bromo, Xian and forgot the other 1-2 of the countries.... yup! selective memory lost as you can see. HAHHAH.....

Anywaysss...... the latest pipeline, jeng jeng jeng......






Sri Lanka & Maldives early August, this highly depending on Anna. If she FFK then cancel lerrrr my trip nih. Meaning this will be 2 new country to add to my list. Banyak nye duit some might ask, actualllllly.... am tagging Anna's business trip hence keluar duit flight ajek.... makan???? Cis... Kan ke bulan puasa, makan apa.... JIMAT!!!!

Next country, working on dates, accommodation and searching for flights now... bottomline - doing research ler kata kan. The country is....... JENG JENG JENG.....







Greece/Santorini....... FINALLY! Selepas 2-3 years dok tak jadi. Sapa bakal mengikut? Zali & geng, Esther & Aunt. And me? Wahidah ler kan..... Kiok kiok kiok..... Ini excited giler..... Isk Isk Isk!!!!

Selepas itu..... YUP! Ada lagi....






Japan!!!! But kali nih.... KYOTO & OSAKA in Autumn sebab JELES tengok Biqque's Autumn in Seoul! Keh keh keh......

CHUP! Not finish yeeet....






Last skali.......

Myanmar or Jordan......tengah dalam peracangan lagi..... TUNGGU!!!!

Itu jek ler kan kan kan.....

I Burnt My Tummy

Have you guys heard of Fire Therapy?
I bet most haven't, RIGHT?

Unless you are from China. The next thing you will be wondering why on earth would you want to burn yourself and go thru the pain (my thought exactly initially!)... But after I tried, hemmm.... it kinda feel nice, REALLY! SERIOUSLY!

I did some research, and found out that it have another name ie Fire Dragon Therapy, and apparent it is an ancient form of heat therapy. This therapy is originally from Tibet. The term is derived from "Moxibustion", but it is much more advanced and powerful than "Moxibustion".

Basically, base from my experience. They do a simple& light massage on your yummy area, trying to circulate your blood I guess. Then, they will put this herbs paste on your tummy area ad this supposedly will react when the set your tummy "on fire". Hehheheh....

In the website on fire dragon therapy, it helps to cure the following disorders: Indigestion, low metabolism, low temperature, melancholy, pain caused by stress and tension, insomnia, anxiety, fear, panic attacks, stomach distension, vertigo, hiatus hernia, benign tumors, cold bile disease, joint pains, arthritis, bone deformation, joint inflammation, superficial fever (empty fever), post-menopause syndrome and nerve inflammation (sciatic nerve, neurological disorders, etc.). In short, fire dragon therapy is good for diseases which manifest from phlegm and wind humoral disorders.

the will avoid the belling button area, I should ask them why in my next round... hemmm.... I assume it's where you "wind/gas" will 'come out' lar...

The next step is putting a plastic wrap over the herbs.

After that, they wet few towels and put its circling the herbs area like the pic shown above. This is that the other area won't catch fire I guess.

Them the last step is putting 3 layers of wet towels on tops of each other. They spray spirit or something before the 'set me on fire'.

Normally they use lighter, but because I was taking pics, hence they thought to add the drama. So, the real thing not this big a fire lar... ehehehhehe.... don't get panic yah!

There it is, am ON FIRE! I AM HOT, as it HOT!!! *wink wink*

Do you dare to try this?

Hyperlink credits : Chinese Energy Therapy

Empress Dowager Cixi's Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. This wasn't the fact that impressed me the most, the below is impressive...

The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill..... YUP! All because the empress wants so, back in the olden days, this was feasible I guess in all country. As log as you rule the throne, your wish is the bumble servant command.
It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. This is like super rich those days, same scenario as Shah Jehan of India whom wanted to use country money to build a black Taj Mahal mausoleum for himself. I blog about it here as well. I wonder how crazy will I get it I have the money and power like them.... slap my face if I do anything silly ok!

The lake was awesome (my sis favourite word these days) BUT not sure whether you guys felt the same, Beijing cky/weather are always misty, dull, foggy and grey... INSTEAD of clear blue sky. Is it me or is it the season I was in when I was there?!!??! Abit frustrating whe I was there, no many pic turns out great. Sigh...

The Long Corridor, a covered walkway along Lake Kunming at the Summer Palace, runs for almost 2400 feet to the famous marble boat. But it was sooooooo crowded when I was there, I have to take a stroll OUTSIDE the corridor, sob sob...

Here's the story of the super LOOOOOOONG corridor:

The long corridor of the Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan, 颐和园) was said to be built for facilitating Emperor Qianlong’s mother to view the snowy and raining landscape of Kunming Lake. For celebrating his mother’s 60th birthday, Emperor Qianlong mobilized massive manpower and resources to expand Kunming Lake and built Qingyi Garden as well as Da Baoen Temple on Wen Mountain. Hereafter, Wen Mountain was named Wanshou Mountain (Longevity Hill, 万寿山). Emperor’s mother often appreciated the snow view in garden. For pleasing his mother as well as for avoiding his mother suffering from raining and snowing, Emperor Qianlong built a long corridor as well on the border between Wanshou Mountain and Kunming Lake.

And all I got my mom was a fridge magnet from oversea... sigh... he set the standard so high... ahhahha.....

On order of the Empress Dowager Cixi, this marble boat/pavillion was set for restoration, a new two-story superstructure was designed which incorporated elements of European architecture. This new superstructure is made out of wood but it was painted to imitate marble. Oh! By the way, it doesn't sail....ehhehe... tooo heavy I supposed.

Oh yah, in December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. Another one to my LIST!

One of the alleyways with nice green pond plant.

Next entry I will write about my experience in Malaysia doing a China Chinese fire therapy on my belly, yeah! they burn my belly with fire and I have pics to prove it.

Hyperlink credits : Wikipedia, China Absolute Tours

Tiananmen Square & Temple of Heaven

Strange! Strange! Strange! I was so sure that this was the Bell Tower and accordingly to my very 'convincing gut feel' I am right. Oh! Guess what! TET!!!!! I was WRONG! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong.... took me 1/2 a day to think thru (while doing 2 rounds of laundry, refilling ALL my bottles with water, cleaning the kitchen & cat's litter, sending sis to work etc etc); it then hit me! Temple of HEAVEN! Thank 'heaven' I finally remembered! Sigh..... LILY!

Before I start with Temple of Heaven, I would like to take you into a journey of THE ever so famous TIANANMAN SQUARE. I only knew ONE story pertaining to this square, I believe it happened while I was in my school days. There was this protest that took place here, I can't even remember what was the protest all about. I guess my mind was still on New Kids On the Block instead of world news back then. Hehhehe..... Anyway, whether it's good or bad, it certainly put Tiananman into the world map and memory of every living soul.

This is basically the area coverage, yup, as you can see - SUPER HUGE! How huge? Like it's the largest city square in the world... yeah! WORLD! Apparently, it was built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size. To put it in perspective, its about... hemmm...... 90 American football field. Can you imagine it now? Phew, that's scary big!

Psst : I found out that Imām Reza shrine in Iran has the biggest square in the world. Read it here.

This is the view form THIS angle...

And that is the view from THAT angle.... hahahha.....

This is the Mao Zedong memorial hall of which I didn;t enter, WHY???? QUEUE super LOOOOONG.

Then we were asked to walk toward the end to catch our tour bus.... don't ask me which direction, I just follow the pipe the piper.

I saw a Muslim HALAL restaurant, YIPPEE!!! If ever visit here, I know where I can get me food.

LOVE this building but fail to know what, I suspect it's either a post office OR train station. GUYS!!! help me out... pleaseee..... what building is this?

Next STOP! Temple of Heaven on earth *smile*

Even in heaven there's big screen TV for viewers....hemmm.... modernization on heaven & earth? Hehheheheh.... By the way, this is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing.

The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, the same emperor that construct the Forbidden City in Beijing. Apparently, the Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was described as "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations..." as the "symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries." Obviously this is from Wikipedia.
Bottom line, I covered another UNESCO site *smile smile*.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 36 metres in diameter and 38 metres tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests.

I always thought the colour is strong and bright... blue, red, yellow/gold. What a combo.

Surrounding this temple area are parks for exercising, strolling, "DATING" or touristing. I saw a bunch of old uncles writing calligraphy with water on the floor, ballroom dancing, playing chess, chatting etc. I guess its a 'holy' community area. If I ever have another chance, I shall visit here super early in the morning and take nice community activity pictures.

PLEASE take note on the DON'TS DON'TS DON'TS. Don't tell China never tell you the DON'TS. Hahhahaha.....

Hyperlink credits : Wikipedia