Winter in Osaka

This year end we went to Osaka together with my mom.We reached Osaka early morning and DH started to figure out which ticket/train we are supposed to take to go to our apartment.I use airbnb for the first time and booked an apartment for 5.  The apartment was just 200m from the nearest train station. The host actually picked us up from the train station and walked us to the apartment. After our microwaved ayam beriyani lunch we went to the aquarium.

 At the kaiyukan..the kids touching the fishes

 Outside...it was quite cold

Tak naik pun Ferris wheel tu....amik gambar je

We stopped for a hot pancake-like snack before our next destination

 Then we go to  dotonbori/ shinsaibashi shopping area. After some shopping, balik apartment.

 The next day...Universal Studio ... while waiting for papa to buy tickets..berpusu-pusu orang masuk

Universal Studio  will always give me a special feeling...like you are in a totally different world

 posing dulu 

 Jaws...you are not supposed to take photos...this girl tried to tell us in Japanese...manalah kitorang faham...

 Off we go....that girl was a good actress...siap tunjuk sana sini, muka panik etcs when jaws appeared. I wanted to laugh when I saw a little girl behind us was really scared when the jaws appeared, probably thinking it was the real thing hehheh...

 Jalan2 lagi, we wanted to go to Harry Potter land but were told to take a ticket because they were simply too many people going in at the same time. So, DH took the tickets and we only got to go there at 2pm.

spent time kat Jurassic park dulu...

Selfie behind spiderman ride

 This place is simply magical! Even with so many people around, you felt like you are in a Harry Potter's world.

 would really love to lepak2 here with a hot coffee

 posing lagi

Wanna take the magic ride? That's how long you have to wait!...haih.. tak payahlah

DH looking at this magic plant

 

 Couldn't take a clear photo of the plant..but I would say that it's scary for kids

 

Wanna buy or take a look at the sweets inside? There's a 40 minutes queue...again we take a pass at this...not gonna waste 40 minutes waiting to buy sweets

 Malam...actually I think it was just past 6 pm...the customary photo for universal studio...looking at this pic i realized i should have taken the photo in the morning before we enter USJ. We are not that tired but just couldn't stand the cold, so terus balik apartment je la.

 The next day itinerary -Arashiyama/ Kyoto. We started using our Kansai 3 Day Pass today

 Bamboo groove...very calming path

 Tenryuji Temple

 3-generations of girls hihi

 Resting and enjoying the scenery

 Inside the place

 Outside..on our way out

 Balik beli soft ice cream, green tea and combination green tea and roasted tea flavour

 Next...Nijo castle...had our lunch here. Our lunch throughout the stay is either egg sandwich or egg and cheese sandwich that I prepared in the morning. We brought 13kgs of food, mostly Brahims stuff- which we had for breakfast and dinner. Dinner is always the best meal coz we will tapau sushi, roasted fish and tempura prawns from the supermarket downstairs to take together with our rice dinner. Then we had either ice-cream or chocolate as desserts.

jumping session

 another scenic view..

 and another one

on our way back

Next.... Kiyozumi-dera.. ramainye orang..it's uphill all the way.

From DH lens

From mine...I did not follow DH into the temple, just spent my time outside and look for a nice spot. Mom and kids is somewhere down there... tak nak naik tangga dah

we made a stop at Kyoto handicraft center.. hmm nothing much here that you cannot get at Kiyozumi-dera shops actually.

Our final stop for the day - Gion. DH managed to capture a few geishas on their way to work. Throughout our stay here, this day is the most steps we took...almost 22k steps which is about 15.7km of walking. I'm glad everybody including my 61-yr old mom made it.

bakes & cakes 16

carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

 baklava with cashew filling..fresh from the oven..without the syrup..

two types..one the nuts at the centre (left) and another the nuts were scattered all over on the phyllo pastry and rolled up...the ones at the centre taste better coz the phyllo is crunchier. everybody except Irfan(who does not like baklava) prefers to eat it without the rose flavoured syrup... is it still baklava ke kalau makan tak pakai air gula?

oat cookies...only 5 ingredients, oats, butter, sugar, egg and butterscotch chips. a hit with the kids..I made this 3 days in a row..

Not baked or a cake...a mochi with chocolate filling

 something new...a mixed nuts cake..recipe was actually for a peanut cake but I used almond and cashew. Recipe is not only flourless it is also butter/oil free so the batter initially looks like a sponge cake until you add the nuts.

this has become DH's favourite.....taste great with coffee...must make another soon

cinnamons pull apart bread, requested by DH

coconut cake...using freshly grated coconut

Kena tipu di Beijing

If you are going to Beijing and joining a tour there, please beware of this scam. this happens one day before our departure date. From the 'waiting for 'teacher' to give the briefing,the anak tauke story,' anak tauke' showing us the 'special room', the jaw-dropping of the staff when the 'anak tauke' gave us a HUGE discount on the retail price etcs.. it all very similar to the story here, and here. There are also several other similar stories but this two are closest to what we experienced.

 The place where the 'teacher' gave us briefing. They made us wait for sometime...during that time the other workers made a small  talk to us and ask our occupation...trying to guess our disposable income, I think. since I'm always skeptical of  salesperson especially when they are trying to make a sale to you and it is always my principle not to tell salespeople what I do for a living unless it's really necessary, I just play games on my phones instead of joining their small talk.

 This 'anak tauke' call herself Nancy...beware..everyday there will be different people posing as anak tauke.

After the briefing they will bring you to a special room...it looks like a big vault where all their expensive items are displayed...she told us she's  just showing you her father's collection...and in a year they only sell an average of three items...mostly to Dubai customers.

Then they will bring you to another room downstairs and start to sell you other stuff. she started by giving us a gift...this pearl ring was given to each female member of our group..The RRP cost  there? about 198 yuan if i'm not mistaken,..its worth? maybe just a couple of RM I think..

So..she started to give us a HUGE DISCOUNT.... a pearl bracelet from 2000 yuan down to 400 yuan..DH offered to me...I took it. A pearl necklace...from 4000 yuan to 600 yuan..etcs...Then she started with the jade....Those jade bangle from 8000 yuan down to 2000 yuan...DH offered me again but I told him I don't like jade.  Sayang...if you want to spent RM1k worth of jewelry on me, make it a diamond hihihi...

the receipt., I dont know whether the company name was there or not...the name card, address is fake.

A Malaysian chinese couple in our group actually spent RM32k  here buying some jade bangles and a set of zodiac stuff for collection. My MIL also bought a jade bangle here but a much smaller amount than them. 

The next morning, the chinese couple told us that they realized they have been duped and wanted to make  a police report. Since MIL spent quite a substantial amount ( although not as much as the chinese couple), we decided to ask our tour guide to bring us there first thing in the morning. After some thinking, we decided to call our contact who used to work at the embassy in Beijing. He gave us a name, of a Malaysian, Mr L who have worked there for a long time to help us.

This is when we realized our tour guide is also part of the scam!..He refused to give the shop's address to our Mr L. The name card that we forward to Mr L was a fake address. so using technology and our own memory we manged to get Mr L to this shop.

We tried to return the items on our own but were flatly refused. Mr L came and tried to talk to them on our behalf...also failed.  He called the police...the police actually scolded the Chinese couple for actually buying the stuff.."all these for 64K yuan???'

The police asked and scolded our tour guide as well. Even our bus driver was not spared..after the police threaten them by asking Mr L to report to the press if they refused to refund us, they reluctantly agreed....tapi sengaja melambat-lambatkan proses..

Our hero of the day...without his help we couldn't possibly get our money back. 

They also said that if we do not delete Nancy's photo from our phone they are not going to refund... hahaha...I still have her pics anyway....from other group members' phone who did not enter the shop the next day...During the time it took us to get refunded, we saw other tourists coming but a different staff acting as anak tauke.

This shop do not even have a name at the entrance... just that symbol on the above photo..situated inside a stadium (not the birdnest stadium) ..inside the olympic village...no significant landmark..all building nearby looks generic. They will bring you here one day before departure...the next day, when you realized you're probably been conned, you probably wont come back here coz you don't want to miss your flight. But in our case, our flight was late at night, in fact 1am the next day.

A few tips to remember, you can't access google,blogspot, facebook etcs in China...so you probably can't read this if you are in China. In our case...when we tried to look it up there whether this is a scam...we couldn't find much coz mostly it's in blogspot.com.
Do not buy anything that you don't know what it's worth, In fact, to be safe, don't buy anything during the factory/ shop visit. Buy your stuff in the market...Silk Street, Pearl Market etcs..