Singapore and Malaysia

Greetings!

My parents and I decided to go to Malaysia and Singapore because we've never been and our Japan plan fell through. So first off, here is a picture of one of the world's tallest towers, the Petronas Tower in Malaysia. It was kind of disappointing since we couldn't go up to the top of the towers because there wasn't an observatory there. However, there was a mall in the bottom of the towers. The one redeeming quality was the most amazing bakery in the mall. It's called Rotiboy and it had one of the best buns I've ever had. Here's a picture of a old Portuguese Fort and church, one of the few sites in Malaysia.
Surprisingly, there is a identical Iwo Jima Memorial to the one in Washington D.C. in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Here's a picture of my parents with the mounted guard outside the Palace of the Malaysian king in Kuala Lumpur.
Here's a picture of some parliamentary buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
We were only in Malaysia for two days so we didn't get to see much. Then we were off to neighboring city-country Singapore, which is also known for its strict laws. Here's a picture of the merlion in Singapore. For some reason there are a lot of them around Singapore.
We took a night cruise around the harbour and here are some of the buildings.
The main reason my parents wanted to go to Singapore was because of the Universal Studios. Here's my mom with Charlie Chaplin.
Finally, we went to a Singapore beach and we managed to catch the sunset and took a pretty family picture.
Well that's all for Singapore and Malaysia. All in all, I wouldn't return to Singapore because most of the sights revolve around shopping malls and everything was really expensive. The Universal Studios was tiny and most of the rides were closed. It wasn't that much fun. I would return to Malaysia because there's a lot of things that I would still want to see.

All in all, my Asian trek was very productive. I'll spend the next post(s) summing up the trip so stay tuned.

Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Army

Hello!

I have always wanted to see the Terra Cotta Army because I'm just an all around anthropology geek. So my parents, aunt, uncle, and I joined a tour to go to Xi'an. There were only two things that I wanted to do in Xi'an: see the Terra Cotta Soldiers and eat the dumpling banquet. Little did I know, there was actually a lot to see in Xi'an.

According to our tour guide, there were actually a lot more foreign tourists that come and visit Xi'an, so the government thought to take advantage of it by building a large cultural center pictured below to explain and show off the Chinese sites. It was pretty impressive. We went on a really rainy day so there wasn't that many people there.
Xi'an also has a leaning temple. I took a picture of it but according to our tour guide, it used to lean a lot more before they fixed it.
Finally, we got to see the Terra Cotta Army. It was amazing because it's huge. I never thought that there were that many figures. They are nowhere close to unearthing all of the figures and they think that they will be excavating for another decade or more. Here are some horses in the pits.
All the figures do have different expressions and they are dressed differently to signify rank and position.
Here's another smaller pit.


This is the famous chariot with horses but this was a replica because the real one was in Shanghai for the Expo.
Xi'an has many temples and here is a pretty large one.
We also managed to have an elaborate dumpling dinner at De Fa Chang.
Our hotel had a large art piece in the back of the famous Chinese emperor, which I can't remember the name of right now.
It was pretty rainy when we went to Xi'an so we didn't get to go up Hua Shan (Hua Mountain) a very famous scenic landmark in China. So we took a picture at the base of the mountain.
That's it for all the Xi'an sights. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous trip. We actually went to Xi'an with Hong Thai travel agency and while we were there, we heard about the hostage situation in the Philippines. The scary thing was that were were looking to go there with the same travel agency. Luckily, we didn't. So next up is Singapore and Malaysia!

Hong Kong with the Parents

Hi all,

Sorry for being AWOL but I didn't have internet access when I was in China and in Singapore and Malaysia. I'm back in Columbus but have been suffering from a heinous bout of food poisoning/sore throat that has been keeping me under the weather for the past week. I'll post pictures from my travels in a couple of posts.

When my parents arrived in Hong Kong, we set out to see the sights. One of the places that was a must see for us was the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. If you know me, one of my life goals is to visit all the Disney Resorts (I know, so thrilling). Here are my parents standing in front of the entrance sign. I'm sad to report that the park was tiny and there wasn't too much in way of rides. They didn't even have the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! But one highlight was that we got dim sum at the hotel where they have food shaped like the characters. We had glutinous pancakes shaped like Mickey, pork buns in a pig shape, and chicken little buns filled with lotus paste. They were all very delicious.


We also when to Lantau Island to see the big Buddha because my father has never been to see it. We took the cable car to the island and it was pretty amazing. The cable car spans over 5 miles and the views were pretty good.
This is the main attraction that everyone comes to see. It's a pretty big Buddha.
My family also decided to visit the island of Macau, which is a SAR like Hong Kong with Portuguese influence instead of British influence. All the signs are in Portuguese and Chinese. There is more to Macau than just casinos, although there are lots of casinos there.

Here's a casino in Macau, I can't remember the name of it.
We also went to afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel, one of the must do things on my Mom's list. She's been wanting to do this for decades. She was very happy and so was I because the food was delicious.
On my birthday we took the tram to the Peak to have dinner. It was pretty nice, here's a night view from the Peak of Hong Kong. It's very pretty with all the lights.
I also managed to convince my parents to take the Star Ferry with me, a ferry that goes from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. It's been around for decades, since my parents were young.

That's all that we did in Hong Kong besides shop and eat lots of food. Next up, my pictures from Xi'an and the terra cotta warriors.