Hard Rock Hotel Penang 16~18 Sept

Raya Holidays and we made a quick getaway to Hard Rock Hotel Penang spending 2 nights there. Located at Batu Ferringi beach, I think it's the last Hotel along the touristy stretch. But not before battling the bad jam in Penang, the whole place is like a giant carpark.



One of the many memoribilia found at Hard Rock Hotel
This is Chuck Berry's Gibson ES335

At the Hard Rock Hotel's main entrance

Ashley's turn at the slide.
The Kids are crazy over the slides and spent the whole day on them!

Bathroom..brush your teeth and floss 'em leftovers at Elvis.

Debbie Harry would be envious ...

Ash's first experience at the beach and seawater..

One of the many wading pools found at Hard Rock Hotel, this one has sand at the bottom.

The Gazebo's for hire..RM20 / hour..not worth it I think.

Beach Loafer...

The long pool is similar on both wings of the hotel..long.

Hard Rock Hotel seem to favour Beatles..they are almost every where.

Nice Fibre Optic lights over lapping their trade mark found at Lobby Entrance.

It changes colour.

View from our balcony.

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Some Other Monkey Mia Photos

Monkey Mia Resort

Fraser's Hill 13~14 June

School's out, we brought the kids to Fraser's Hill, same time toying with my new GPS and enjoy some cool time out. The journey there was eventful, with the kids and their grandma getting motion sickness, that road is long and really twisty!


Arriving there, there's really nothing much to do..but that's the point. Not doing anything. But we had something planned before the trip - Tarantula watching! It was fun with the kids getting excited about it, we look for the burrows in the day time, record the location on GPS, and returned to the place following the GPS at night armed with our Maglites. It was fun and cool.















Nicknamed "Taranty" the biggest Brendan found near Pine Resort.

China: Beijing, Shanghai April 4~10 2010

Tian Jin

We arrived at Tian Jin at about 3.00pm on April 4th under nice weather but a little hazy. There was a recent sand storm that occured in this vicinity and we can still see the roads,cars and building were still covered with fine brown/reddish tint. Luckily it happened before our trip.From the airport, we have to take a shuttle bus that cost us a mere RMB10 to get to the bullet train station that will take us on the 250km+ from Tian Jin to Beijing.

At this speed we arrived Beijing in about 1 hour, faster than F1 and it was silky smooth.

Beijing

Arrived and settled down and extremely hungry, we just tried the nearest Peking Duck joint. It was THE BEST duck I've tasted. Even cheaper and better than the famous "Quan Ju De" duck. Stay away from that joint!

Tiananmen Square, "ching ming" festival which is a holiday in China, we opted to do city tour as we would expect the tourist spots outside the city to be congested. Here many paid their respects to Chairman Mao. I also bought a RMB20 winding mechanical clock with Mao's face and mechanical waving hand on the face. (It doesn't work well )

9x9 door studs dragon phoenix crest, on many "layer" doors that separate the courts within Forbidden City.

The emperor's office is marked with 10 figurines. The rest 3 or 5 I think.

At the forbidden city's garden.

Temple Of Heaven

Here the emperor takes time off to pray for great harvest of the land and sacrifice farm animals.

These 2 kids caught my eye with their head gear.

This is seems is the oldest Chinese Juniper in Beijing, >500 years old. Called he "Nine Dragon" Juniper because of the growth that seems to coil up to heavens.Number 9 is the royal number those days.

Summer Palace Buddhist Temple built for the Emperor's mom.

Long Corridor, 700m+ long, it seems the Longest Corridor in the world. Emperor dispatch his artisans all over China to live in the areas and then come here to paint what they saw.

Summer Palace's huge lake behind us.

Cable Car ride up to Mu Tian Yu Great Wall segment.On the ground the Tobaggan Sled track can be seen. That's how we made our descent, it's one of the highlight to this part of the great wall, it was great fun riding the sled down.

Annie and I both made it to that top post. Looks mild in the photos, but in reality I had sore thigh muscles for next 3 days.

The Old part of Beijing, Hu Tong

My very own "Fear Factor" at Beijing City "Wang Fu Jin" area. Actually they are delicious!

Shanghai

On the day we arrived at Wee Eng's gorgeous Condo, we visited the Shanghai World Finacial Centre (SWFC), the tallest building in China that resembles a giant bottle opener.
The observation deck is the highest in the world, 100floors 474m up and it only takes 63 secs by the lift to reach 97th floor, then another lift up to the deck. It cost RMB150 for premium visit which entitles to go right to the 100th floor.

Next morning Pudong side of Shanghai's famous bund walk. Across the Huang Pu river is Pu Xi the west side.

Very nice treat by Linda, she muscled her way to get this great window seating overlooking the Huangpu towards Puxi.
Superb unique Shanghainese food served at "Charmes" restaurant.

Below: The typical river crossing that cost us RMB5 along with Noisy scooters, electric bicycles, spitting pedestrians.

















Shangai Puxi, Yu Yuan gardens.

On the 9 angled bridge.

Nearby, is the famous "Nan Xiang" steam dumplings joint. We waited like 30 minutes in the que, paid premium minimum order of RMB60 per head and what we got are mediocre Shiao Long Paus. What a dissapointment. KL and Taiwan's are still the best!!

Yu Garderns mansion. Some super duper rich guy's home. It's even more impressive than forbidden city!

This guy is so rich he can even details like these in his buildings.

Shanghai Huang Pu River Cruise

People's Park and Musuem Visit

This plate is 800 years old.

It grew misty and view from Wee Eng's. That's Jin Mao and SWFC. Both are Top 5 tallest in the world. The Jin Mao is just slightly under Twin Towers measured at the cheating antennas!

Wee Eng's treat! Fried and steamed dumplings, yes these was much better than Nan Xiang at Yu Yuan, don't go there!!

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