How She Wants to Celebrate her big 5 (and Beijing)

Before Angel turned 5 years old few weeks ago, we asked her how she wanted to celebrate her birthday. So, here's a summary of her list:

1. She wants to Celebrate @ her "Shanghai Home" (Top of Angel's list!!)

Ok ok ... since no Disneyland so I think Shanghai is not bad too ya :) Daddy's hard earn $$$$ all gone to flight company liao, hu~ hu~ hu~ *crying*

2. Eat Haagen Dazs 100 time! @_@

I know you didn't gets to eat ice cream very much but 100 time is way too much, my dear!

And also, Haagen Dazs in Shanghai is so expensive as compare to KL and this 3 small scope cost us around RM40++.

Nope, she only gets to eat 3 times of her favourite ice cream within a week and no more :P :P



3. She wants to go to Toys 'R Us

...... and stay there long long time, not only "5 minutes" as she puts it *hahahaha*



Have to put her jacket back on as inside is a bit freezing. I just bought this jacket from H&M KL not long ago. Quite a good bargain, but looks like she will soon outgrow from it :(

She stays in Toys R Us for a good 1 hour and me + hubby are like her bodyguard, waiting for her patiently, following her everywhere till she is done with all the touching here and there.



4. She wants a Double-Decker Bus ride @_@

Although she is very prone to car sickness but she just can't stop from asking to go for a Double-Decker bus ride whenever she is back in Shanghai! And she will turn very quiet after a few rounds feeling car sick but still, she doesn't want to get down from the bus!

No tourists on the bus that day!



So we transformed into 2 tourists touring Shanghai for a day again :P :P

RMB 100 (50 ringgit) per person -Shanghai Big Bus Tour. There is also a cheaper version of this double decker bus at RMB 30 (15 ringgit) per person - City Bus Tour, but expect more tourists and fighting for good seats lo.

We went to The Bund (上海滩) at the far end, can you see it?



5. Insisted to go to Nanjing Walking Street

This is another place that Angel must go. The very famous Nanjing Walking Street (南京步行街). Why????



Sigh, she is totally hooked with this little train which takes passenger from the beginning of Nanjing Street to the end of the street. She then will pay for another train ride and take the train back to where we start our journey.

Again, when she is up, she refused to get down!!

RMB 2 (1 ringgit) per trip per person one way including children, reached destination less then 3 minutes per trip.



6. Drink Coke and Japanese Food @ 和民

Ok, this is not in her list actually but after the Double Decker bus rides followed by a few rounds of that little train ride in Nanjing road, mommy is getting really car sick and need to find a place to sit down!

Too dizzy to even take picture of the food too but tell you, this restaurant is fabulous!!!

She gets to have her favourite drinks of all - coke + lemon and she told me, "Mommy, this lemon coke is so nice oh!" and drank 2 glasses!!!!



7. Dessert @ 恒记甜品

This is her must must list to do too!! This is by far her most favourite dessert of all!!

She managed to finished a big bowl even after a full meal!!!!!! RMB30++ (15 ringgit) per bowl of her most most most most favourite mix fruit in mango juice dessert.

"No sharing please .... not enough for me when it comes to this mango dessert!" :P



8. Go to the Great Wall, Beijing

For some reason, she starts asking about Great Wall after seeing a picture of it and tell us she wants to go to the Great Wall.

So we did make it a trip to the Great Wall in Beijing. Not a very ideal place for family with young children especially those active ones *gulp* and I almost have heart attack watching Angel making her climb!!

And half way, she did ask daddy to carry her! Carrying a 20kg kid walking up on a slippery steps?? We can't even walk steadily ourselves and too many people on the great wall pushing each other around.



So we sweet talked her into walking herself and this girl is like a wild horse let loose! @_@ So dangerous throughout the journey and my blood pressure raised quite a few times throughout the climb. And I am glad, I am glad that we make it safe and sound!!

So at the end, this little tough girl successfully complete this very dangerous journey and slippery climb all by herself! Long relief from mommy and daddy but a big Well Done my girl! Well done daddy too!! Well done mommy!!! *phew phew phew*



9. She want To Eat Something "Special"!

Or should I say she wants mommy to eat something "special"? She actually begged me to EAT those "still alive" scorpions still moving on that "satay stick"!!!! (or is that lava that I saw???) Eeeeewwww .... No Thank You!!!

I would never ever eat those even when I have nothing to eat, will you??? *yucks!!!*



I think eating a steamboat the Beijing-way is consider special too, my sweetie??

It's call 北京老火锅 ：） Steamboat in a very ancient Beijing style hot pot using "burning hot charcoal" to heat up the soup which they dropped it in the middle opening as you can see from the picture :) :)

Again, steaming hot pot which is definitely VERY dangerous especially with kids who can't sit still and always wants to touch here and there whenever you didn't pay attention!!! And adding to that, a bunch of very careless and carefree waitresses who is walking pass by with hot burning charcoal and hot soup all night long?

*we had a very 'stressful' dinner that night* hahahahaha



10. The forbidden City of Beijing

She is very happy indeed as her dreams finally comes true as she has transform into the Little ancient Princess - 小格格 wearing that little outfit we rented from the The Forbidden City. She keep posing even for the other tourists who is taking her picture as if she is the movie star.

She looks very tired as it's way past her napping time. The Forbidden City is much bigger then I thought too! So tired ..... but feels great!

Everything is the same as seen on the TV dramas here :) :)



11. She wants to swim!

After a hectic day, she demand for her swimming and splashing time!

Ok .... we can't swim in the cold winter weather but we sure can swim in the warm hotel room bath tub :P :P Another must do thing which she enjoys to the max!!!!

Why not the pool but the hotel bath tub you might ask?
Answer: Daddy and mommy are too tired to even move a finger let alone swimming! That's why :)

At the end of the day, this has become her most favourable thing to do out of the entire list!!

Hhhhmmmm, in that case, should we just omitted the rest and skipped to list no. 11 instead next time? *thinking*



Mommy and Daddy had great fun and hope that my little girl had a whale of a time too :)

Happy Yuan Xiao Festival - 上海 豫园 (Yu Yuan)

Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy 元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Festival) to all!!!

I have learned from the locals here that Yuan Xiao Festival falls on the 15th of the first lunar month, signifying the end of our Chinese New Year and also the first full moon of a lunar calender. Hence, the Chinese would normally celebrating with eating 元宵(yuan-xiao) which is 汤圆 (glutinous rice balls) symbolising togetherness. Kids will be carrying yuan-xiao lantern celebrating the first full moon while the adults, will be participating in the most awaiting event - 猜灯谜 (solving riddles on the lanterns).

^ ^ A huge paper lantern decoration in Shanghai Yu Yuan（豫园）

If you happens to come to Shanghai or planning to celebrate Yuan Xiao Festivals in Shanghai next year, one of the most happening and crowded places where you could find all of the above was at the Shanghai Yu Yuan（豫园）.

* We need to pay a fee to enter Yu Yuan (which normally is free) if we were to visit Yu Yuan during this 3 days to attend the festive event.

Ok .... so Shanghai Yu Yuan, here we come!


^ ^ Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy 元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Festival)

Yu Yuan （豫园）was so crowded throughout the 15 days of Chinese New Year (we went last weekend) and we are walking shoulder to shoulder, being pushes and knocked at boorishly squeezing our way out from the crowd and heads held up high competing for a good view! I am glad that I brought along Angel's stroller so she was fully protected inside her own comfy zone with her stroller cover pulling all the way down (she loves doing that.) enjoying her raisin and biscuits inside while having a good time watching at ........ people's legs and pants? :P :P

The weather is still very cold and we take a good picture before entering the 'battle field'! :P



We first went to the 城隍庙 (Cheng Huang Temple) as hubby wants to do his prayers for the new year. The ticketing counter was floaded with people but I am glad that we finally enter without any chaotic matters.



A lot of people went to the temple praying for a smooth sailing and prosperous year ahead. A lot of them were holding their red hot burning colourful joss stick roaming around searching for a good spot to pray. Angel refused to stand still at the corner and wanted to join in the fun of lighting up the joss stick with the crowd too. *so dangerous* She suddenly stretched out and snatched hubby's joss sticks from his hands and eventually the tug of war breaks the joss sticks into half *oh-oww!! >:(* Hubby was fuming mad!

So I asked her weather she wants to get her new CNY clothing all smoked up and she answer me with a big NO! Finally, she told me she wanted to do her prayer with bare hands and that makes our little missy happy again. Phew!


^ ^ Happily posing for the camera again ^_^

We went to the 2nd floor of Yu Yuan's food court to have lunch and we had the most disgusting dim sum and drinks ever!! We don't really fancy the food in Yu Yuan's food court (more for tourist) but this one is really bad until we barely can force it down our throat! *yucks!*

So whoever came here, please avoid the food court unless you wants to torture your taste buds or was dying for food that you could basically swallow ANYTHING! The various snack stalls inside Yu Yuan selling various of Shanghai snacks taste much better then the food court!




At first we was planning to cross the 九曲桥 （meaning nine-bend-bridge）as a tradition to get rid of the bad luck but look at the crowd on the bridge!! I don't think I wanted to squeeze into that crowd of people (the part with colours were the crowd 'sardin-ed' on the bridge) and add further load onto that poor bridge! So we decided to leave it instead and move on to jalan-jalan else where.



Although the entire place was sooooo crowded but the decorations and Chinese New Year displays were awesome! It would be even beautiful if those lights were lit up :) I love CNY!!! ^_^




Wow .... The lanterns with riddles!!!! You could see such lanterns everywhere, hundreds and thousands of them where ever you lay your eyes on.



If you look closely, each and every lantern will have their own unique riddles written on them! Can you solved them all?? I wonder how they manage to see what was written up there. So far above ...... I think I need a binoculars! :P


^ ^ 猜灯谜咯 (solving riddles on the lanterns)

I think Shanghai Yu Yuan（豫园）looks so beautiful during this season of the year with all the lighting turned on beautifully every night! No wonder the place was flooded with tourists!



But mind you, a lot of pick pockets were out there looking for victims too and please be extra careful. That day I have seen guys (age 20+) following some ladies with hand bags, with eyes glued on their hand bag ready to attach and they are working in a 3 person gang! Hubby thought they were some 'samseng' at first but I saw them trying to lay thier hands on one lady handbag but failed! So scary! If I am not with young kids, I will surely alert the police!


^ ^ My happy girl who refused to nap after seeing all those pretty lanterns and decorations :)

When the night falls, the lanterns were all lit up and they look so elegant swaying along with the wind ^_^ Feels so happy just by looking at those bright red lanterns. I am not sure whether prizes will be given out for whoever solved all those riddles up there in tonight's event?




That's the look of Yu Yuan (豫园) when the night falls. It sure looks extra beautiful tonight. I can spend my entire day here eating, walking, shopping ... basically everything that you could ever imagine! I love Yu Yuan! ^_^

I am sure I'll be visiting the place again soon when it's not that crowded anymore and cross that 九曲桥 BRIDGE!!! ^_^



Have a very HAPPY and PLEASANT YUAN XIAO Festival spending time with your family and friends to everyone! ^_^

p/s: Oh dear, my VPN is still not working and I can't leave comments here and in any other blogspot too! So I can only be your silent reader for the time being ya until I find a way out!! Till then, Take care my friend ^_^

Our Very Red X'mas Tree 2010

Daddy went groceries shopping. Instead of the normal stuffs, our 'Santa' came home with these .....

^ ^ Oh, how come our 'Santa' knows that I silently wished for :P :P

Angel woke up from her afternoon nap, saw the packaging and start jumping up and down shouting, “Christmas Tree!! Yeah!! Christmas Tree!! Is it Angel 的？？Is it Angel 的？？Oh ~~~ I love Christmas!!!”

She just can’t get her hands off all the Christmas decorations and even start tearing off the packaging saying, “Oh boy ~~, I can’t wait!!”



That’s not hubby’s style who will buy this sort of stuffs back home normally but I am glad he did. ^_^



M: Angel, what do you want for your Christmas present?
A: Emmm ... I want ... I want Apples and Bananas! *kids are so easy to please isn’t it? Kekekeke*


^ ^ Work in progress ...... 'kacau' here and there :)

But today
M: Angel, what do you want for your Christmas present?
A: Ahhh ….. I want Toys!

M: But what about your Apples and Bananas? You don’t want them anymore?
A: Oppss, sorry! I want Toys, Apples and Bananas!!



^ ^ Our first Christmas Tree here in Shanghai.

Tah Dah!! Presenting our X'mas Tree, finally!! Doesn’t it look great?? I am all in the Christmas mood now ^_^

Ho, ho, ho! Merry X'mas to All of You out there ^_^

Shanghai World Expo 2010 (3 of 3)

........... Continue (end)

4th Visit to Shanghai World Expo:

^ ^ The top right picture was Denmark’s national treasure - ‘The Little Mermaid’ and it’s her first time getting out of her country. That’s very generous of them to exhibit that in Shanghai.

We continue our journey at the Europe Pavilion on Tuesday, 26 October 2010. Unfortunately it’s raining that day and Angel is extra cranky too. Temperature is very cold at around 12 degree Celsius but we still continue with our journey. This round we visited the bigger pavilion.

1. Finland
2. Denmark (the little mermaid)
3. Sweden (the home of Ikea)
4. Norway



^ ^ She looks boyish today and a lot of strangers come asking me whether she is a boy or girl :P

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5th Visit:

We went to the expo again on Thursday, 28 October 2010. As the queuing was extremely long, we only manage to visit 2 pavilions but it’s awesome!

1. Spain (gigantic baby doll)
2. France


^ ^ The Spain Pavilion which was the facade was build using rattan (藤)

There is this humongous 小米宝宝 (if I remembered the name correctly) who has facial expression inside the Spain Pavilion. Angel is extremely horrified when she first saw this gigantic baby and starts crying! Really incredible to be able to stay so close to such gigantic BABY!


^ ^ The Gigantic 6.5 meter electronic animated baby - the Miguelin (小米宝宝) inside Spain Pavilion and it’s so huge! Do you noticed the actual size of the visitors down there?

Then we visited the France Pavilion. It actually has a nice restaurant up there which required advance booking! That’s a very good place for taking nice pictures, especially with a DSLR but not for a normal cameras coz the light is way too dimmed.


^ ^ The France Pavilion. There is also some LV display at the lower left picture.

France Pavilion has a very nice open air garden but then again, my digital camera failed to take a nice and decent picture there due to very dimmed condition again :(


^ ^ Top: That’s not real snow/drawings on wall, that’s just some lights and images projected from the projector. Looks nice isn’t it?
^ ^ Bottom right: She is horrified by those high tech mini size robots at her back :P

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6th Visit:


^ ^ Pavilions!

We went to the expo again on Saturday, 30 October 2010. We managed to visit quite of number of Pavilions that day :)

1. African Republic
2. Netherlands (Holland)
3. Polska
4. Belgium EU (Land of Chocolates and ate a RMB20 tinny size waffles :P)
5. Ireland (the builder of Titanic)
6. Italy
7. Canada
8. Mexico
9. USA


^ ^ Views inside some of the pavilions. Those tulips are all real tulips from Holland in Netherlands Pavilion!


^ ^ Angel in African Pavilion.

Now only I knew that there really was a place call MADAGASCAR in Africa from one of my favourite cartoon Madagascar!! *embarrassing* It’s really an eye opening opportunity for me :)


^ ^ Oh ... she looks so tiny standing beside the wall sculpture there and on the right, those were Madagascar trees from Madagascar :)



^ ^ The Mexico Pavilion is full of beautiful kites! Enchanting views and great for pictures!!!! Oh ..... My camera ran out of batteries here! Urrgghhh ...... :(

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7th Visit:



We went to the expo again on Sunday, 31 October 2010 (The Closing Day of Shanghai Expo 2010). The last day of our visit so we bought a special day ticket and the pavilions we managed to cover were:

1. Sultanate of Oman
2. Pakistan
3. Sri Lanka
4. United Arab Emirates (2 hours) – and oh boy, this place is even developed then Shanghai!
5. Turkmenistan
6. Nepal
7. India
8. Japan
9. Vietnam


^ ^ Nepal Pavilion

And that marks the end of our Shanghai World Expo 2010 Marathon! Angel enjoys the entire journey a lot and even asked to go to the expo again after it ended. That’s truly a journey which will last in our memories for a very long time as I have never visited a place for 7 times in a row within weeks! A place where I least expected to learn something but got a whole lot more from it for all of us :)


^ ^ My stack of used Expo Tickets!

The next coming World Expo would be held in Korea and I wonder would I be able to visit Korea and continue my World Expo journey there? Most unlikely I think :)