No Fat Girls in Beijing ... & ... The Coolest Building

Beijing girls are slim, no doubt about it. 

I noticed that when I was travelling in the subways and observing the locals in general. If I see a fat Chinese girl, chances are she's not a local. Maybe she's a Malaysian Chinese cause 2 in every 5 Malaysians are obese. 

The hotel where we stayed, Traders Hotel is located in the Central Business District (CBD) where skyscrapers light up the skyline and the roads are wide enough for a small aircraft to land.

From our hotel room I can see the tallest building in Beijing:

The China Central Television (CCTV) building is one of the coolest building I've ever seen! If I love the Petronas Twin Towers for its stylish steel structure that gleams in the sun and illuminates the skyline at night, I love the CCTV building for being radical in a cool way. I wonder how the floors are named.

The girls who work in the CBD are busy executives who dresses immaculately and I noticed most of them wear pantyhose when they wear a skirt. Not too sure whether it's because of the cool weather or just good grooming. Anyhow, their legs look slim and gorgeous in pantyhose, which reminded me of my ex-boss who told me that a lady must always wear stockings if she's wearing a skirt. I had just joined the corporate world back then and that piece of grooming tip has stuck with me till today. 

If the girls in Beijing are slim lasses, then the girls in Hangzhou are another breed of pretty Chinese lasses. 

Apparently Hangzhou is not only famous for its natural sceneries and lovely weather, but also for its pretty lasses, so much so that the Emperors of China made annual trips to Hangzhou to select their concubines. 

Getting High with Fridge Magnets

A package of fridge magnets came in the mail on Thursday. I quickly opened the package and the contents blew my mind!

First there was this one from the state of Florida: 

Reminds me of SpongeBob SquarePants :-)

I was curious why these 2 had the word Margaritaville on it:

This magnet is one of my all-time favourite. It's big and shaped like a bottlecap cover. But can someone please tell me what's the purpose of the rectangular and round hole at the back? 

So I did a Google search and discovered that Margaritaville is the name of a song written by Jimmy Buffett about a drink. The song was released in 1977 and became a hit.

Isn't it amazing what you can learn from fridge magnets!

When Florida is mentioned, another name comes to mind - Universal Studios!

I like the white glow that illuminates the logo.

It's all about movie making!

And if you want to make the recipient of these fridge magnets feel like a princess, get her this:

I feel oh so special already!

In the package was also this magnet about the The Mighty Eighth:

The Mighty Eighth Air Force is one of the greatest air armada in history and you can read about its history here. I'll make it a point to visit this museum if I ever go to Georgia.

Thank you Art for these lovely magnets and especially for a quick lesson in Margaritaville and The Mighty Eighth!

Madrid to Toledo by Bus

Toledo is an easy day trip from Madrid which you can do on your own by taking the efficient public transportation.

Buses leave from Plaza Eliptica which is on Line 6 of the Metro subway (didn't I mention that public transportation in Spain is one of the best!).

Plaza Eliptica is made up of different levels and I navigated my way to the correct platform with help from digital screens like these:

Almost all signages in Spain are in Spanish or Catalan. Here it means that Route 402 is the direct bus to Toledo that leaves from Platform 7. 

When I reached Platform 7 ...

... the bus was about to leave and I didn't have a ticket!

The bus driver pointed to the ticket machine beside the platform ...

... where I bought a return ticket to Toledo for 8.88 Euros: 

Then I checked the screen and the next bus was at 11.30am:

Not too bad since I only had to wait for another 20 minutes for the next bus.

Soon I was on my way to Toledo which took about 45 minutes because traffic was clear, yeah ! 

Click here for Part 2: Getting Inside the Medieval City of Toledo

Nepal, Here We Come!

After 2 years of talking about it, Angie and I are finally going to Nepal for trekking adventures.

We'll be going end October which apparently is the best time to visit the Himalayan region and walk in its magnificent landscape. But no, we're not going to attempt to conquer Everest, or even get to Everest Base Camp. We're just going to do easy, non-strenuous hikes and enjoy our time there. Being able to see Everest and the Himalayas with my own eyes is enough for me.

Coincidentally Air Asia and MAS have started flights to Kathmandu. And for travellers like us, the bigger the price war, the better. We'll be flying MAS because prices are similar with Air Asia during our travel dates.

I've climbed Mount Kinabalu and Mount Bromo before, but what will adventures in the Himalayas be like? Well, there's only one way to find out ... get there!

KL Walking Tours for TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor recently commissioned me to write 5 walking tours of Kuala Lumpur: 

1. Highlights of Kuala Lumpur Walking Tour
2. Kuala Lumpur Culture & Arts Tour
3. Kuala Lumpur Photographers Walking Tour
4. Eatery Walking Tour in Kuala Lumpur
5. Kuala Lumpur Walking Tour for Families

These tours can be downloaded into iPhones and Androids which makes it easy for the traveller to refer when on the road.


Writing these tours for TripAdvisor is the closest I've got to achieving my travel bucket list of writing a travel article and getting it published. Along the way I learnt that TripAdvisor is actually a public listed company on Nasdaq, how cool is that! 


Click on the links to read the efforts of my writing. What do you think? 

Celia was in town ... and brought me fridge magnets!

I met up with Celia from Singapore over the weekend. She was returning from a 2-week holiday in Sarawak and on transit in KL before heading back to Singapore.


Celia had a fantastic time in Sarawak exploring Bako National Park, attending the Rainforest Music Festival, eating flying fox and the list goes on. I hope she blogs about her adventures.


Since Celia knows I collect fridge magnets, she brought me a few:

Do you know that the Singapore Sling was concocted before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a bartender working at the Raffles Hotel Singapore? (Got that bit of info from Wikipedia). This means that the Singapore Sling is almost 100 years old !!! 

An ex-boyfriend loves Tiger Beer, would order it every time he's in SEA. And he's an 'ugly' MF with issues. So this magnet has lots of truth in it, at least for me.

I haven't tasted Singapore Chili Crab before, and sadly I can't cause I'm allergic to seafood. Well, I guess a small bite won't hurt.

Marina Bay Sands are the latest cool buildings in the Singaporean skyline.

Good old Sentosa Island is not to be forgotten ... especially now that it has Resorts World Sentosa, Universal Studios and the works.

I always chuckle when I hear people say Singapore is a fine city. This magnet depicts it nicely ...

Singapore and Malaysia are both multiracial countries. The only difference is that if this magnet were to be produced in Malaysia, the Malays would be on the extreme left since they are the most in the population.

I adore this one!

Another magnet shaped like a slippers and feet. But this one can put picture inside :-)

Since Celia was in Sarawak, naturally she also brought me some from the state. Cool!