China - Day one: The Temple of Heaven

....before we knew it, our bus came to a halt! We've reached our first destination: "The Temple of Heaven"

The Temple of Heaven, which dates back to 1406, is a Taoist building which was originally used by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for good harvests. In ancient China, the emperor was regarded as the “Son of Heaven”, who administered earthly matters on behalf of, and representing, heavenly authority. To be seen to be showing respect to the source of his authority, in the form of sacrifices to heaven, was extremely important. The temple was built for these ceremonies, mostly comprising prayers for good harvests. Twice a year the Emperor and all his entourage would move to the Forbidden City (which I’ll tell you about later), wearing special robes and abstaining from eating meat. No ordinary Chinese was allowed to view this procession or the following ceremony. In the temple complex the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. The ceremony had to be perfectly completed; it was widely held that the smallest of mistakes would lead to a bad omen for the whole nation in the coming year. Today, the Temple of Heaven is only for sightseeing and commoners, like us tourists, are still not allowed to go inside. But judging from the outside alone, it’s quite spectacular with its royal blue and gold paint and ornate design. What makes it even more breathtaking, is that it made of wood but not a single nail was used to keep it together. UHM-MAZING!!!!!

First we took a lovely stroll through the beautiful gardens that leads to the Temple of Heaven. It was also in these gardens that we got our first taste of the aggressive sale strategy displayed by Chinese hawkers – something we would soon become accustomed too. As we entered the gates to the temple though, I couldn’t help but gasp for air. Majestic and gigantic, I couldn’t believe  how pretty this temple was and for the first few minutes I became one of those typical tourists that just took hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Soon however, I realized that the Temple of Heaven, beautiful as it may be, wasn’t the only tourist attraction!!!! Among the shimmer of this blue and gold beauty, the camera flashes was pointed in quit a different angle, away from the temple, in the direction of….. me and Gill!!!!!!. Yes, my lovelies, for the first time I got a little taste of “celebrity life” and I must admit that I was quite thankful for my sunglasses as a barrier to all the camera flashes going off around us. Gill and I just giggled nervously, but then the bravest among our fans dug up the courage and asked to be photographed with us. Soon we had a line of about 15 “fans” all awaiting their turn. What could we do? We just smiled sweetly at the camera until; at last, Gill politely excused us! We were, after all, the “tourists” and there was some sightseeing to be done!!!!!

....(to be continued)

China - Day 1: Arriving

Silly girls that we were, neither me nor Gill slept the night before our trip. Instead we pampered ourselves, decided on our outfits for the next day and then giggled till the wee hours of the morning! Understandably, when the alarm clock went off at 8pm, we were half dead. When we got into the airport limousine bus, we were half dead, when we boarded our plane we were half dead…and during the 2 hour flight to lovely China, we slept like babies. It was only when we set foot on Chinese soil that life and crazy excitement returned to us and we stared, with wide eyed awe at all the skyscrapers and unexpected, but breathtakingly beautiful, English colonial buildings. Did you know that China was an English colony? I sure didn’t but it’s pretty obvious when you look at the buildings and I felt wonderfully at home among these pretty, pretty architecture (something very lacking here in Korea) and the abundance of trees. One thing was certain; Beijing was not at all what I expected. Maybe I was just lucky, but the smoggy cloud that everybody complained about was not to be seen, in fact one of the first things I noticed about Beijing, was how extremely clean it was. It wasn’t long before I lost my heart to this charming city with its millions of bicycles, pretty buildings, big trees and oriental flavor. The Chinese people also stunned me a bit with their good English, friendly smiles and eagerness to help.

Our tour bus, which became a much loved meeting place, is vital to this story so I only feel it’s appropriate to tell you more about it. Not only was the bus the place where we got introduced to our adorable group leader, Jerry, who cutely refers to himself in the third person as “the Jerry”, but also made great friends. Me and Gill chose the backseats so that we could giggle and talk to our hearts content without disturbing “the Jerry” and equally friendly bus driver, but soon we were surrounded by 5 other girls and Charlie, who also liked to giggle and talk and would become our friends for the duration of this trip (and afterwards). It was not long before we became a tight knit group and for the next 5 days Christine (Canadian), Suzanne (South-African), Meghan (American Eskimo – I kid you not), Willemien (South-African), Jessica (American) and Charlie (American Hungarian) would become close travel partners and friends. Furthermore the bus also became our language school were “the Jerry” taught us vital Chinese such as “hello” (tru la ma), “thank you” (shee shee) and “too expensive” (tie gway la?).

So off we were on our bus, and before we knew it, we've reached our first stop: the heavenly "Temple of Heaven".....(to be continued)

Come look....

.....what arrived in the mail today!

My (first) very own Etsy print!

I heart Etsy.....

....and I really do have the best boyfriend in the whole wide world!!!

* credit: image from KeepCalm as for sale on http://www.etsy.com/)

China - how the story began...

I've been dreaming about China ever since I was old enough to read the little words on my grandfather’s world map so when my friend Bongi said she dreamt about pretty China too, we immediately started planning a trip. But four months before we were set to go, Bongi's mom announced that she would visit her daughter over the summer vacation and I was left with a dilemma: "will I stay or will I go?"

I preferred traveling with my awesome friend but from experience I learned that travelling by oneself, isn’t all that bad and can, in fact, be great fun - lots of flexibility and opportunity to make new friends! So I decided to go anyway! I would miss Bongi but "one is better than none", I figured.

Unfortunately I quickly learned that traveling by yourself does have some disadvantages, especially when it comes to be a "single" in terms of hotel rooms - my trip would cost me an whopping $300 extra! Out of the question I thought, that’s my spending money!!! For long I’ve dreamt of owning a (fake) Chanel bag and now it seemed that my pipe dream would stay just that! Then, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from the travel agents that said that there is another girl that will be travelling alone and wants to meet me! They included her telephone number and an “oh, she is also South-African!" and this is how Gill stumbled into my life. We organized coffee and it was a matter of seconds that both of us realized that we did not only meet a great roommate and travel partner, but also a great friend.
The best description of Gill is that she is a life-sized Barbie. Almost 6 feet tall, with blonde hair and more charisma that should be allowed, Gill steals the show – without even trying. Not only is she charming and smart but really extremely funny! So after tea, dinner and a G&T, it was a done deal; we will not only be roommates and travel partners but also friends.

Gill immediately started planning our trip and every so often I would receive little texts or e-mails about all the things we should pack. She is a compulsive planner and we made sure that we were going to be ready for the adventure that awaits us. Photo ready too!!!! So the night before we were to leave, we organized a little treatment evening – we plucked and waxed, masked and dyed – and didn’t sleep much because we chatted until dawn…. One thing was sure; China was going to be an awesome experience… (To be continued)

China in Polaroids

Temple of Heaven

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Houhai Lake

Great Wall

Houhai Park

Tienanmen Square



Being technologically disadvantaged, it took me about 3 days to figure out how my new little camera worked. The result being very over-exposed photographs of the pretty places I've seen! But I kinda like the photos - they are all dreamy and whimsical just like China.

I finally got all my bags unpacked, pictures uploaded and with lots of oriental tales to tell, I will, for the next few days devote posts specially dedicated to charming China!

Today I am thankful for.....Bibimbab

My gosh, I haven't done a "thankful" post in such a long time!!! Not that I don't have a lot to be thankful for, in fact, "my cup runneth over" but tonight I'm especially thankful for a cooking lesson, amazing dinner and great chat with a treasured friend.

Jill, the sweet thing, invited me for my favorite Korean dish - Bibimbab - but first she showed me exactly how to make it.
Bibimbab is basically rice, Korean veggies and a fried egg. Its really yummy, easy to make and very, very healthy. Finding the ingredients anywhere else in the world might proof to be a bit tricky, but here is the recipe (just in case you live close by a Korean grocery store and feel the need for healthy comfort food):

Ingredients:

Cooked rice
a fist full of bean sprouts
a fist full of spinach
a few slices of cucumber
 mushrooms
fern brakes (kosari)
1 small carrot,
1 small potato cut in strips
an egg
 hot pepper paste
 sesame oil


Cut the veggies into edible pieces and sauté separately for about 30 seconds

prepare an egg with sunny side up.

Put your rice in a big bowl, and attractively display all your vegetables on top of it.

Place the sunny side egg in the center.

Serve it with sesame oil and table spoon of hot pepper paste.

Lastly, mix it up and eat

* this might sound a bit weird and may look a bit unappetising, but let me tell you, its delicious!

Love letters

My "adopted" grandmother has a box of love letters, in the bottom of her closet, that her husband  wrote to her years and years ago before they got married. Just like me and Chris, they had to spend a year apart so that she could  she help her parents on the farm whilst he fought in the second world war. After the war they got married, had two daughters and lived a love-filled lifetime together. They were married for 65 years when he passed away last year. Losing him, she describes as losing a limb - he was a part of her being, always by her side and now that space is emtpy. But even after all this years, she still has every single letter, all tied together with a red ribbon and they are her most treasured possession.

A few weeks Chris and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary (whoohoo!!) and decided to follow the tradition anniversary gift "guide" which states paper as the first gift. His paper present from me was the corniest, pinkest, heart drizzled card I could find but I never told you what amazing gift Chris gave to me!!!!!

Because we have another 4 months left of being apart - me in Korea and Chris in South-Africa - my sweetest Chris gave me the best-est gift of real, handwritten love letters send via postal mail! I absolutely LOVE love letters and always secretly wished for a little pack of my own, tied with a bright red (or pink) ribbon, which Ill keep to show my grand daughters when I'm old and grey. My first love letter from Chris, arrived last week and gave me such immense joy...and of course I’ve read it close to hundred times by now! I sure am a very lucky girl and thank God for blessing me with such an amazing boyfriend!

(p.s: China posts and photo's coming soon!!!)