Pasir Pajang Market

I am thankful today for access to such wonderful informational blogs that people have put out there!! I stumbled across a blog about this market in Pasir Panjang and could not be more excited! The prices are fabulous and quality has not disappointed! Another plus it's only 3 MRT stops from us and then a walk across the street! Talk about convienent!! I bought all my veggies for less than $10. I bought all my fruits for less than $13. If I would have done this at the grocery store it would have been close to $50. 

This market has a number of different warehouses and is mostly for bulk sales to restaurants, which may have been why I hadn't heard of it before. However they have a number of stalls that sell individually as well! They have fruit warehouses, veggie warehouses, and then a dried foods warehouse. I have a really hard time doing the dried warehouse due to the smell, it's just not engrained nor familiar and ill just be honest not pleasant experience to me. 

Aren't they beautiful!! 

This little fruit stand is my favorite because they have the oranges, similar to cuties back home, by the bag for $3! I could eat a bag a day :) 

This is a jackfruit. Also known as nangka. 

Kimbo ventured with us to test out the market. L and Kimbo carrying the buggy board over the overpass. 

Ventured to Haw ParVilla on our way out. J and Kimbo checking out the view. 

Day 2 Night- Quest to find Kagens

To end our Day 2 in Beijing we had been told about a must try restaurant and so we asked our driver to take us to Kagen's Tepinyaki (s/p??) Restaurant near downtown... Well, after some language barrier issues and confusion on address and location we did not make it to the restaurant. However we didn't waste our time, we found a nice little square to explore. 

Our drive downtown. 

The square that we found had this AWESOME screen that had money in water with fish swimming over it. Such a neat place.  We ended up eating at Paris Bakery which was absolutely delicious... I mean who doesn't love some bread!! As L continued to preface everything he said as "Chinese," his "Chinese" bagel was delightful as well as his "Chinese" smoothie.

Our driver took us home after dinner. 

We had to get a picture with him. He was such a delightful gentleman who made our experience AWESOME. It was so nice to be able to trust someone to get you where you needed to go, wait for you, was prompt, and had such a nice, genuine demeanor. 

We all got a good nights rest that night! :) 

Blessed for this experience and being able to enjoy it as a family! :) 

Day 2 Take 2- Summer Palace

On the same day we visited the Great Wall our second stop was the Summer Palace. We had a drier scheduled for the whole day so we decided to do the places that were the most spread out! The Summer Palace is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces, it is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9km which is equal to 720 acres, three-quarters of which is water. The Summer Palace was made a World Heritage site in 1998 by UNESCO and described as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.It was definitely beautiful and the size is just as it sounds... HUGE! 

In case anyone wants more information or history:

http://www.summerpalace-china.com/

We parked a little ways away and walked by a few shops and a Police Station (one of the few English signs we saw). 

I really wanted to ride in one of these, but all 4 of us, stroller and back packs wouldn't quite fit. 

I would have gotten closer to the sign to read it, but unless you are fluent in Chinese there is really nothing to see. I apologize for those fluent in Chinese that I didn't get closer ;)

Logan taking a little break while Daddy gets our entrance tickets. 

Entry to the Summer Palace. 

Jackson calling the Grandparents telling them what an awesome time he was having! :) 

"Mom, check that dragon out."

"He is SUPER big!!"

Beautiful landscape of the summer palace off to the right. 

My boys!! The beautiful willow tree in the background! 

Sweet boys! 

The buildings and architecture was beautiful! 

I loved this walkway to the bridge from the entrance. 

Our new friend Tanya gave us great advice about directions to get the best of the Summer Palace without wasting our time. As we entered the Summer Palace we went to the left and walked around the big beautiful bridge which is in the picture below. 

Unfortunately there was construction going on so we couldn't cross the bridge fully, but it was still worth walking over there. 

From right before you walked onto the bridge. 

J man exploring.. 

The white on the trees is to protect the bark from insects. 

Would have loved to walk over to this building.. but yes it is as far away as it looks! 

The Bronze Ox

Posing with the "manly" statue. 

Sword fight... I mean Stick fighting. 

The beautifully and intricately painted ceiling of one of the pergolas.  

Officers at the end of the bridge with the Summer Palace in the background. 

After venturing up the bridge we came back down and boarded a boat that would take us to the other side to explore the Summer Palace! 

The boys loved the boat ride! 

There were a few shops with trinkets in the windows. This one happened to have airplanes and trucks. 

The marble boat. 

The marble boat is also known as the boat of purity and ease.  The boat is a lakeside pavilion and is often seen as ironic due to the fact that the money used to restore the Summer Palace largely came from funds originally for building up a new imperial navy.  The pavilion is 36 m long and beautiful! This picture certainly does not do it justice! 

The front. 

All the corridors leading down the front of the Summer Palace looked like this. So pretty! 

Gorgeous! 

For the most part the boys were left alone. We had been given the warning that the Asian culture LOVES a little blonde boy... These sweet girls really wanted a picture with Jackson. They even asked. Poor boy was hungry and tired by that point and really did not want to take a picture. We tried though. Due to the cold weather as well J had a hat on majority of the time so although his pale skin gave him away and got us some looks the hair was covered! 

3 tunnels for my 3 boys! 

Loved all the different stones that were used! 

Exploring and snacking.. a good combination! 

Found us a little exit! :) 

We saw these birds everywhere and they made a very distinct sound. 

Overall we really enjoyed the beautiful Summer Palace! Definitely got our exercise in for the day! This wasn't even the end of our day! :) Summer Palace in our opinion is a MUST do! We did not climb to the top of the palace due wanting to save some energy for other adventures in the day and to be fair to the kids who did AWESOME with all the walking that we did do!!