Beijing by side-car? OK!

So you're in a huge city with millions of people and crazy traffic and you want to see as much as possible in a short amount of time. What do you do? Take a side-car tour!

See how awesome we looked?

Tours with Beijing Sideways are the top rated thing to do in Beijing according to Trip Advisor. Well, I'm not one to pass up a top rated activity on vacation so for our first morning in China we jumped on this motorcycle/side-car combo and explored the city at a crazy fast pace! Our driver, Dillon, was a bit of a...free spirit...and well, he certainly added to the experience! Overall he was a pretty skilled driver and we only felt near death 2-3 times throughout the whole morning ;)

Check me out in the super cool bicycle helmet Matt suggested I wear about 5 minutes into the ride. Safety first!

Straight away Dillon took us up to the top of a hotel just minutes from ours for a killer view of the city! I got the impression that we weren't actually supposed to be up there, but we were quickly informed that a dollar goes a long way in China in convincing someone to let you do something you're not supposed to.

See all of the red roofs in the distance? That was our first glimpse of the Forbidden City!

The CCTV Building, also known as the 'Big Underpants' to locals. Fun fact - I noticed this building featured in the opening scene of the new Karate Kid movie that I watched on the way home from Beijing - so that makes this building all the more cool in my opinion ;)

After a few stops for a gas leak, oil leak and over heating (not to mention the bike's muffler had fallen off prior to Dillon picking us up) - hey, I said it was an adventure - we were well on our way...

A quick sweep through a local market led us to...

...the most delicious dumplings I've ever had!

We checked out the National Grand Theatre, aka, 'the egg'...

...and stopped for a quick beverage break at the Zhonglou Bell Tower - originally built in 1272, then rebuilt in 1420, then rebuilt again in 1745.

Our short, 4 hour side-car quickly came to an end and Dillon kindly dropped us off at the back entrance of the Forbidden City...the next adventure for the day!

My first peek at the Forbidden City...I was ready to go inside!

The Forbidden City, named for being off-limits to commoners for 500 years, was built during the Ming dynasty from 1406 to 1420. The emperors of both the Ming and Qing dynasties ruled from inside there and only left when they absolutely had to.

The place is absolutely huge! We got through in about 3.5 hours which I'm sure is considered a fast pace!

The details on each and every building inside are amazing. It is said that up to a million people constructed the Forbidden City and after seeing it, I don't doubt that fact!

Since we entered through the back, we of course, exited through the front entrance...

...and directly across the street from the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square.

A look back at the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square.

After the side-car tour, a long walk through the Forbidden City and a stroll around Tiananmen Square, the only thing I had left in me to do was eat dinner. Lucky for us, Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant was just down the road...which meant I was in for my first official try of authentic Peking Duck!

Like a couple of old folks, we made it to the restaurant by 4:28 p.m....

...so imagine our surprise when the line was out the door! #45 was our ticket in!

And here we have it, our own personal duck (we even got a duck I.D. card) being carved right at our table.

Nicely carved I'd say...

My duck wrap with all of the fixings...cucumber, sprouts, green onions and bean paste. You know what? I actually liked it! So it was either really good or I was just really hungry. I guess we won't know unless I go back someday ;)

And that ended our first full day in China! Exhausted and done, we made our way back to the hotel to rest up for the next day of touring the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace...

China! Are you hungry?

Exactly one week ago at this time, Matt and I were zipping around Beijing on a motorcycle/side car combo (more on that in the next post) and now I'm here in Singapore blogging about our exciting China adventure. Time is flying these days!

I guess you could say that the trip to China was our "babymoon," you know, that one last BIG trip people like to take before the baby arrives and changes life as they know it? The location was just perfect for more than one reason. For one thing, Matt spent 6 weeks in China back in 2001 and since we started dating (nearly 8 years ago) he's been telling me that he wanted to go back there and share some of his experiences with me. The other thing is that while we originally planned on going to one last beachy location for our big trip, I couldn't get past the thought of being so close to the Great Wall of China (one of the seven wonders of the world!) and never actually going to see it before we move home.

We packed a LOT into our short amount of time there. The trip was incredibly exhausting, but in a good way! We enjoyed our time together...our last trip as a family of 2...reflecting on the past 8 years together...all while excitedly talking about the future. In less than 4 months we'll meet our little boy and we simply can't wait for that day and all of the new and very welcomed changes that will come with it :)

We arrived in Beijing on Friday afternoon. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed straight to Wangfujing Market. We were ready for some dinner and heard that we might find some delicious foods there...

The crowds of people must mean good food is close!

Ahhh, a skewer of some type...that looks promising. Wait! Is that squid on a stick? Is a young child eating that?! Hmm...maybe that's not what I'm looking for after all. 

OK, well what about some fruit dipped in glazed honey? Really, doesn't sound bad at all...but we'll save that for dessert.

Now we see it...more skewers! There has to be something good over there to eat, right?

 Snake on a stick? No?

How about some seahorse then?

How about the ever delicious cicada on a stick? Yum?

Grasshopper?

Fine, what about scorpion?

Starfish? No? No takers at all?!

Well, none of that appealed to us either! I assure you we didn't try any of that, nor were we tempted. I must admit, these exotic food choices seem to be more of a tourist trap than anything else. Our tour guide actually told us he's never seen a single local eat any of those and they certainly don't eat scorpions and the like in the countryside. The one exception is silkworm which is apparently enjoyed by both locals and tourists. Not us though!

Matt showing off the market!

Oh and what did we eat? Some tofu and dumplings among other really good (and normal!) foods :)

How did we wash it down?

With this! It's only 46% alcohol...

OK, so maybe I didn't actually try it. And don't worry Mom and Dad...Matt only tried a sip! Our guide wanted to show us how the locals keep warm in the winter. The entire bottle only cost $1!

...and goodnight to the Wangfujing Market!

Rachel in Singapore

August was a busy month for me. As in non-stop (but fun) activity. In fact, the moment I finally stopped moving, I ended up getting the flu which forced me to rest for several days in a row. I'm happy to report that I'm all recovered now and I'll even go as far as saying the sickness was worth it because I had such a fabulous time when Rachel came to visit me here in Singapore!

Rachel is a life long friend. We met and became friends in kindergarten and we haven't looked back since! OK, that is a lie...we have looked back...twice to be exact. A fight in both third grade and fifth grade set our friendship back a tiny bit, but obviously we got over those little arguments ;)

Rachel's first stop was Australia to visit another childhood friend, Jean. Then the two of them flew over to Singapore together and spent a week touring this great city. We packed in a lot of fun in a short amount of time. I'm so glad they came to visit! Who would have thought that when we were all running around the playground together in elementary school that we would one day end up hanging out on the other side of the world? Certainly not me!

Chinatown!

Rachel and I got to spend some quality time together on day 1 while Jean and her husband traveled to Kuala Lumpur with some friends.

Shopping on Orchard Road

Dinner in Chijmes with Rachel, Jean and Jason

Fun at the casino...well, maybe not as much fun as we could have had since we didn't win any money!

This is probably as close to Universal Studios that we'll be since many of the major attractions aren't open and won't be until after we're gone. Not worth the admission price for us!

Sentosa Island

The Mega-Zip at Sentosa. That's Jason, Rachel and Jean coming down the wire!

All smiles after their zip wire fun!

...and if you're going to do the zip wire, you may as well do the flying trapeze too! :)

We rounded out the week in Singapore with trip over to Indonesia to relax on the beach in Bintan. It only takes 45 minutes to get there from Singapore...how could we resist?

Thanks for coming Rachel and Jean!