Travel inspiration

Above the sky when flying to Beijing, since nothing to do and no entertainment provided in Air Asia's flight, I suddenly get inspired to come out a few drawing by using my ASUS tablet.

Sharing a quote from Seneca, “travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” and I agreed with what he said. If you have been tired working, take a short break and it can refresh your mind, body and soul! 

A cup of coffee please!

I happened to browse through a blog sharing by Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott on Burmese cuisine, one of their top eating experiences was flan and coffee near Sule Pagoda, Yangon. As a coffee lover, I quickly jot down the address: 128 Sule Paya Road without the shop name.

1) Let Ywe Sin tea & coffee shop (near Sule Pagoda)
Me and my husband didn't really go all the way to look for this shop, but coincidentally we bang into this shop by following the strong aroma smell of coffee just like Daniel and Audrey. Then only I realised this is the shop! With our tiredness walking all the way from Bogyoke Aung San market to Sule Pagoda, we would like to order the same things as mentioned in the blog.

I told the person who served us for two coffee and flans. But they do not understand what flan is, and we had to point to the flan eating by a person sitting at the another corner. The waiter brought us a sandwich instead of a flan, until we need to walk to the table and point him the flan. For them, they called it a pudding rather than a flan.

The shop name is Let Ywe Sin, the coffee and pudding are recommended to try when you drop by to Sule Pagoda.

A lot of local people are here for their tea break

At the end, we brought a total of five packets of their coffee with 700 kayts per pack and 1,600 kayts for dinning in. Estimated USD6.

2) Coffee Factory (1st flood of UK mart building, Bogyoke Aung San market)
This is another shop we tried, and I believed this shop is specially designed for foreigner. At first, we have difficulty to look for this shop although a signage is hanging outside of the building. We asked around and actually the shop is located inside a shop... Did I describe it correctly? Yes, it is hidden inside.

     
The atmosphere here are serene and comfortable, there are air conditioning provided here. Photo of oldies singers 70s and 80s are hanging on the wall. Of course the price is higher compared to previous one but it is still reasonable for the environment we were enjoying. I ordered a cold local coffee and a Cappuccino for my husband, it cost 2,200 kayts ($2.6), but the coffee are nothing really special.  

Things to be remind when travel in Yangon, Myanmar

With last minute invitation from my husband, I decided to fly to Yangon, Myanmar for a short trip while my husband having a business trip here. I am a bit excited because this will be my third trip within two months.

Although my husband had been traveling here for business for quite a number of times, but this is the first time he invited me. I think he might been well surveyed here and can show me around. But this is not true, he had to work and I need to travel by myself. Therefore, I did a last minutes research and here I go!

4 days 3 nights trip in Yangon, Myanmar is considered a very long holiday, unless you travel to other places as well such as Mandalay, Bago, or Inne lake. If not, you will feel boring like me. I meet one Malaysian lady who always come to Myanmar for business, she felt boring too! Therefore, one or two day is enough for you to spend around in Yangon.

The places I have visited is Shwedagon Pagoda, Chauk Htat Gyi Buddha, Sule Pagoda, Karaweik hall, Kandawgyi lake, Bogyoke Aung San Market, Downtown Yangon, and St. Mary's Cathedral. There are more pagoda in town, but I just choose the significant one to visit.

Oh ya, the currency they are using is kyat. You can pay by USD but they will charge a higher price compared to kyat. Therefore, it is suggested to change your USD in kyat in airport or your hotel. When changing your dollar, the person will inspect your dollar carefully and will reject any dirty or folder notes. Hence, bring a new and nice shape dollar. Likewise, there are also different conversion rate for $100 and $50, for $100 you get more kyat.  

The most convenience transportation here is taxi and you will need to negotiation your price when you took it. I had an experience when I wanted to go to Padonmar Restaurant, but the taxi driver send me to Panda hotel. Due to difficulty to explain it in their language, I told him to send me back to my hotel. But when we reached, he asked for additional charges which I refused to pay. At last, I asked the hotel people to talk to the taxi driver who is not good in English. Learning from this experience, I will normally showed them the full address. Another things to mention, most of the taxi is without air condition (a/c), one of the taxi driver told me that for air condition taxi will normally charge higher price than non a/c.    

A dinner in House of memories, Yangon

If you want to enjoy traditional Myanmar food along with reasonable price, serene and nostalgia atmosphere, I will personally recommended you to House of memories which is located at No 290, U Wizara road. It is a more than 100 years old colonial and historical villa, and it is used to be the office of General Aung San, the Father of modern-day Burma and the father of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The service here is excellent and the staffs are very friendly. One of the staffs even brought us to walk around the place and showed us all the different room design, General Aung San's office and the beautiful garden. If you would to have a private room for official function or dinner in their beautiful garden, you can book earlier from them too. 

Not only Myanmar food, you can have the Chinese and Western dishes as well. We have ordered the Myanmar chicken curry, fried bean curd and bean sprout, Som Tam (green papaya salad), crab in clay pot, a coconut steam rice and a steam rice for 2 persons. It is only cost around 16,000kyats or USD19.

I like the foods we order especially curry and the crab. Frankly speaking, I seldom eat curry in Malaysia and I am not fancy with Santan (coconut milk) dishes. But this dishes is highly recommended by the staff therefore we gave it a try. Not bad! It is nice and suit my taste.  

A colonial Villa with more than 100 years old fill you with nostalgia memories and experiences

You can select a wine from their piano bar and enjoy it!

The atmosphere is romantic and in a colonial setting

It is an ideal place for dating in a unique dining room with antique furniture

General Aung San's office is located upstairs and a private room next to it

Another dining room upstairs and at the balcony area, besides, there are snooker area for entertainment as well

Food are not bad and almost finished it with over full dummy

Unique Chinese ancient design

Despite of the fast changing of Beijing city, more and more modern buildings pop up overnight. A part of the Beijing city still preserved the design of Chinese ancient architecture.

A well mixed of westerner and Chinese cultural in the buildings imposed a different feeling. What would I said, "the communication between old and new generation?!!" And you will not be surprised to find a Starbucks or Costa Coffee sitting in an old traditional Chinese architecture.   

Things to buy in BEIJING

When you travel in Beijing especially with tour or free and easy travel, most of the tour guide will bring you to their identify exclusive shop. This is where they can earn their commission, therefore, beware and spend cautiously, there may be scam or buying unnecessary things here. I will share with you all later in my blog where I have been scammed for buying a high price Chinese herbs.

Of course, not to deny, there are still good things to purchase in Beijing. Hence, it is recommended to do some research if you would like to buy an expensive souvenir whenever you travel. The sales person there will be very pushy to ask you to purchase by mentioned that their sales is still zero, asked for your kindness to support them... Firmly say "NO" and go out from the building, but if you wanted to buy, you will be surprised that you can cut down the price half by using the same tactics.

What things you can consider to buy in Beijing, there are pearl, silk, Chinese tea leaf, jade, handcraft, local snack and books.

1) Pearl
The tour guide brought us to one of the pearl exclusive shop (Freesky Pearl) in the Olympics village. It is one of the favoured, beauty and longevity secrets for Empress Dowager Cixi. It is said that everyday she will ate high quality pearl powder getting from the Summer place's pond. According to "Compendium of Materia Medica" 本草纲目, pearl is non-toxic, rich in calcium, good for the appearance of the skin, improve eyesight and it can calm your heart. You can see the effect only you consume it daily.

A more convenience Bio-gold pearl cream is sold in the shop,  it contains bio-gold, pearl, hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, ginseng extracts, ganoderma.

Pure pearl powder

 2) Jade
There are two categorized of jade: soft and hard jade. China only produced soft jade, therefore all hard jade is imported from Burma. In market, hard jade is more valuable and popular than soft jade, therefore you will be questioning why should we buy it from China? I think the main different is the way they polished and engraved the jade. Jade is loved by Chinese, it is mentioned that it has the life force energy. As human, we nurture the jade and the jade nurture us.

Laughing Buddha jade engraved it is said to bring good fortune to lady

3) Silk
Silk is a natural protein obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of silkworm. The silk made fabric is a luxury item in ancient China and commonly used by rich people and the Emperors. The benefit of using silk helps to prevent skin and nose sensitive, especially good for asthma, cotton will capture dust but not silk.

  
4) Chinese tea leaf
Chinese tea leaf is another things you can consider to purchase in China. There are many different types of tea leaf sold in China, the recommended tea leaf sold in Dr. Tea are Pu erh, TianQi flower, white tea, flower tea... Pur erh tea is produced in Yunnan province, it is good for high blood, diabetes and coronary heart disease. The taste is thick and the price sometime can be very expensive cause it is depends on the age the tea leaf was keep.

Kungfu tea demonstration by the promoter in Dr Tea exclusive shop

TianQi flower and white tea

   

Wangfujing street

Woman like shopping, so do I. There are many places you can spend your money in Beijing, it is a shopping paradise! But unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this round shopping, this was mainly due to my swollen leg and my tiredness.

There are many commercial streets, markets, departmental stores, supermarkets, feature stores...around in Beijing. Too many is my only answer, but the famous tourism spot for shopping area will be Sanlitun Ya Xiu Market, Wangfujing street, Silk market, Qianmen street, Hong Qiao Market (Pearl Market), and others.

We only manage to drop by few places, one of the place is Wangfujing 王府井street. There are many departmental stores around, book stores and a snack street. I like Wangfujing, this is because there have two bookstores around that area - Chinese and foreign languages bookstore. The book is cheap after the conversion rate, it only cost half of the price if I purchase the same book in Malaysia. Due to limited space I purchased for my luggage, I have to sacrifice for most of the book I liked. If not, I think I will bring back the whole bookstore. Haha...  

Wangfujing street

There are lots of departmental stores around the street, if you like shopping rather than book, you can enjoy this place as well

Beijing foreign languages bookstore is located nearby Wangfujing bookstore.

Wangfujing bookstore is one of the biggest bookstore in Beijing, there have 6th floors altogether and full of variety of books.

Besides bookstores, there is a snack street around the corner. This is the place you can try their exotic snack foods and purchase their souvenirs. You can find their street foods such as Tang hu lu  (candied fruits on a stick), Chuanr 串儿 (meat stick), scorpions and bugs stick, fried butter cake and many more. Don't be surprise with the scorpions, sea horse...sticks, according to Chinese, scorpion is an expensive herb with health effects on the prevention of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Therefore, why not give it a try!

Wangfujing snack street

If you dare to try, it will be a good experience to eat their scorpions, sea horse and star fish stick. It is just RMB20 to 25.

Tang hu lu, a candied fruits on a stick

Fried butter cake

You can buy a variety of souvenirs in Wangfujing street

Transportation in Beijing

Traveling in Beijing is quite convenience because most of the attraction places are well connected by their subway. All you need to know is which interchange station to get off and get in. And it may be a bit complicated cause there have around ten lines for their railway. But if you have a good map, that will be fine.

We didn't prepare a map for our traveling, rather we used a brief map provided in our hotel. Therefore, the experience we got is to walk a very far distance until my leg swollen. My conclusion is prepare a detail map and a good shoe for traveling from a station to your destination. The photo below is the traditional Beijing cloth shoe I brought to substitute my shoe, it looks nice and it is cheap, just cost RMB58.

Old Beijing cloth shoe I brought after my foot become swollen for a long distance walk.

For my experience, the destination seems very nearby in the map, but in really case, I have been walking for almost 1/2 to 1 hour to reach the place I want. It was because we got off the wrong station or we didn't know the short cut, I think. Beijing is very big and their road is wide, for example the road in Chang'an Avenue is the longest and widest street with 10 lanes altogether. And you can have a nice view of Chang'an Avenue street went you visit Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.

This is one of photo I took on the road near Agriculture Exhibition Center and you can see their road is wide

During our traveling in Beijing, we have difficulty to get a taxi. One of the reason is the taxi stand in the famous city sights are always full of tourists and the number of taxi is less. We have been waiting for half an hour and we decided to walk to the nearest station as possible.

I remember that when we reached Beijing international airport in the mid night, no railway service for that time and the taxi stand is full with people. For our tiredness and lazy to queue, we paid RMB350 for whoever want to drop us to our hotel. I think it is an illegal cab service. It was scared experience too, the driver took us to another building that was very quiet to get his car and he drove very fast on the road.

Another experience, the taxi driver didn't want to fetch us to our hotel. We are quite frustrated until we got a taxi driver that is kind enough. We told him our experience, he mentioned that it might due to the different slang we have. Although we speak well in Mandarin and I even give them the hotel address in mandarin words, I really can't understand why they refused to fetch us. Besides, I also noticed that not all taxi driver known very well of Beijing street, the driver had to ask us to call to the hotel to get the direction by using our own mobile.

These are only my experience, may be others have good and pleasant experience with the transportation. One of the guide told us that it is better not to take a taxi who pull over and wait for tourists, in addition it will be more easier to get a taxi by walking a bit far away from the famous spot.

Pedicabs, the fare is depends on negotiation

Beijing subway map:  Line 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 15. The security is tied and we have to put our begs for scanned before entered the subway

Chinese ancient wisdom... the forbidden city

Recently I read a book written by Richard Nisbett "The geography of thought: how Asians and Westerners think differently... and why". There was one research done by given children 3 pictures of "grass", "chicken" and "cow". The children were ask to group and categorize them. And most of the children from China will group "grass" and "cow" together. In contrast, the kids from US categorized "chicken" and "cow" as one group.

The result above indicated that the kids from China tend to see things from the relations perspective (wholeness), whereas, US kids tend to see things as individual (an item itself). It was a quite an interesting research, but it might not suitable for now because most of the Asians are now influenced by Western and Asians education. But I do agree that it represented the traditional Chinese culture.

When I travel in Beijing, I noticed that the ancient applied the "harmonize" and "wholeness" principle well and it was reflected in their architecture. For example the forbidden city, the design of the building and structure are very symmetric. Even the staying place for their governance are well arranged in the forbidden city. Another well known principle is "fengshui" which emphasize the harmonize of the surrounding. Although I am not delved in "fengshui', but I am amazed with the Chinese ancient wisdom.

Jade in front of Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧太后 palace

Most of the gate are decorated with 9 x 9 array golden door nails, 9 is the biggest number in yang, therefore it symbolic highest imperial status

Cranes symbolize longevity

Huguo temple snack, beijing traditional snacks

When we travel to other country, it is very common that we must try their local food because it represents part of the culture we experience.

Therefore, in the earlier morning of my second day in Beijing, me and my husband took Beijing railway and stopped at Ping'anli station 平安里站 to Huguo temple snack headquarter 护国寺小吃总店. This is one of the famous place for Beijing traditional snack food and our Malay friends also can try it cause it is halal.

 

Huguo temple snack HQ is located near Ping'anli station, walking distance around 5-10 minutes away.  

Picture of Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung visited Huguo temple snack in year 2001

There are many snacks displayed in the counter and menu is listed on the board, but we only managed to choose some snacks for tasting cause some of the snacks are served in large portion which we could not finished. The snacks we tried are douzhir (fermented bean drink) 豆汁, sheep offal soup 羊杂碎汤, baked sweeten wheaten cake 糖火烧, butter fried cake 奶油炸糕 and one more dishes recommended by the seller which I couldn't remember the name.

Menu is listed on the board and it is written in mandarin, but I believe you can choose the dishes you like in the display counter.

baked sweeten wheaten cake 糖火烧, butter fried cake 奶油炸糕 and one more dishes recommended by the seller which I couldn't remember the name.

sheep offal soup 羊杂碎汤

Frankly speaking, me and my husband couldn't accept the taste of douzhir (fermented bean drink) 豆汁, it taste like swill and it was hard to swallow. But according to Beijing people, it is a very healthy drink and it will be nice to served together with fried ring 焦圈. And not all Beijing people can accept this drink as well which mentioned by one of our Beijing friend, and this make me feel not so bad. Haha...

douzhir (fermented bean drink) 豆汁