Travelog for: Mei

Mei is the world's smallest panda. She fits right into the palm of your hand. Yet she has great courage, she is ready to do what many other bigger pandas have done. Venture out inot the world. Some go through zoos but Mei will be travelling in an envelope to places she has only dreamed of. Oh what a brave, brave Panda.

Mei is traveling the world and started her voyage today. She is off to Malaysia to explore.

Poor Mei is missing. I hope she has made it to Malaysia all right.

I'm not missing Raina. I just arrived at aliah's place on Saturday. It's been raining since I arrived so I just stay under the blanket.

I'm at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square), one of the most visited sites in Kuala Lumpur.  Here is where, the Union Jack was lowered on August 31, 1957. This year Malaysia is celebrating its 50th years of Independence. Flanking the square are the Selangor Club and Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

I'm at the historical landmark used to be a tin tycoon's mansion. It served as the war office of the British army and as the headquaters of the Japanese Army during World War II. Now it is a one-stop centre offers a host of facilities for tourists like myself!

A visit to Malaysia won't be completed before I have a glimpse of this twin towers. It's the world's tallest freestanding twin towers with 451.9 metres of height. I must say, I feel dizzy by just looking at it 

I'm at Comic Carnival. There are so many people here as the school holiday just started. I can see some characters of Malaysia comics and they are so cute 

Here I am in Sydney.

My host introduced me to some new friends - she went through a big phase of liking pandas and people keep buying her panda things! I'll feel right at home!


And I've met the other ToyVoyagers who are staying here right now: Kalli, Twinette Kani and Boone & Beak


My host wants me to thank Raina for the postcard from Candy Cotton that she got just last week!

My host took me to a concert tonight, headlined by two of Australia's biggest bands - Silverchair and Powderfinger as an effort to promote reconciliation between the general Australian community and Indigenous Australians, to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of equal rights for Indigenous Australians.  My host did forget to take her camera with her (oops!) so here I am holding the ticket at home!

Silverchair were 'discovered' by a national radio competition when they were only 14 years old and they recorded their first album when they were 15. They have had more hits in Australian charts during the last decade than any other local artist.

Powderfinger is one of my host's favourite bands, so that was the half of the show we most looked forward to.

We've been celebrating Bec's mum's birthday this weekend. Last night we had a small birthday party for her. We had a cake (with star sparklers!). The cake was a sponge with lots of cream, strawberries, kiwi fruit and passion fruit on it. Bec says that the top was like a special Australian cake called a "Pavlova" but usually a Pavlova has a meringue bottom instead of a sponge.





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This morning we all helped Bec make her special pancakes for her mum to have for breakfast. We couldn't do it yesterday because Bec had to go to work! It was lots of fun cooking the pancakes. I took turns with Boone Racoon and Twinette Kani. My jobs were to carefully measure out the baking powder,


and then help Bec mix it all together - very tricky to do when you are smaller than the spoon bit of the wooden spoon!


Then Bec cooked them in the fry pan.


You have to make sure that the fry pan is very hot  before you can put the batter in so us ToyVoyagers weren't allowed to help with the pan. But look, Bec even made ToyVoyager sized pancakes for our breakfast too!



YUM!!



They have a big surprise for my host's mum tomorrow - a scenic plane trip over Sydney is planned - as long as the weather is nice! and I'll tell you all about it as soon as I can!

We went to a Spring Fair today. It was held by the Lions Club to raise money for charity. It was a a lot of fun. They had rides and craft and food stalls

as well as showbags, dance performances, vintage cars

(look at this mini!)
dog shows

and the emergency services.

What was the most fun to watch though was the Bubble Man. He had a long rope that he put in a bucket of bubble mix and when he held the rope up in the air and pulled the two ends apart he made huge bubbles just from the wind blowing!! Look at how big they are!  (It was so sunny, Bec managed to cut me out of the photo because she couldn't see the LCD clearly!)

We went flying today in the littlest plane I think I've ever seen! Remember we told you that Bec's mum was getting a plane ride for her birthday? We all went with her! It was a little bit scary at first. The plane was so tiny - it only had 4 seats. One for the pilot named Phillip, and 3 for the passengers. Look - its called a Piper Comanche. To get into the plane we all had to climb up on the wing and slide in the door. It was a bit tricky!!


We got to see lots of Sydney from the plane. It was so cool!






We flew all over Sydney Harbour and got to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and all the tall skyscrapers from the air. (Twinette Kani and Mei have more photos on their pages, and Bec's uploaded them to her MySpace page.) We even flew right over the top of the zoo! Elephants look funny from the sky. We tried taking a photo, but the wing of the plane got in the way, so you'll just have to believe us!
We were so excited on the flight. Do you know we could even hear the pilot talking to the air control tower because we were all wearing headphones, just like the pilot! It was very interesting! We were wondering though if this makes us the first ToyVoyagers to fly in a light plane??

Look at this! I'll have to visit Australia again (and try to find a host in Adelaide - but Bec says she wants to see the pandas too. Maybe she can take me???) in 2009 so I can see a Panda!

Adelaide Zoo link

I went into the city today on a ToyVoyager expedition with (Playmo)Bill, Boone Racoon, Twinette Kani and Alpina - who is staying with Bec's sister at the moment!
Our first stop was the city shops in the CBD so Alpina could check out the fashions.

Here is Sydney Tower, it is Sydney's tallest free-standing structure, and the second tallest in Australia (with the Q1 building on the Gold Coast being the tallest). It is also the second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere (after the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand).


Our next stop was the Pitt Street Mall. It is Sydney's main shopping street and one of Australia's busiest and most cosmopolitan shopping areas. In it you see a mix of modern skyscrapers and heritage buildings.


One of these heritage buildings is the Strand Arcade. It opened in 1892 and is the only Victorian arcade in Sydney that is in it's original form. We couldn't afford to buy anything from the stores in here, as they are mainly designer stores, so after a little look around and some window shopping for Alpina we moved on to get some lunch someplace else!


After lunch we continued our sightseeing expedition and stopped to have a look at the flowers in Martin Place.
Martin Place is surrounded by many heritage buildings and it is very popular at lunchtime, often crowded with office workers and bicycle couriers. Sydney's largest Christmas tree stands in Martin Place every year. A Christmas concert is held in late November, when the tree is decorated.

(Playmo)Bill was very taken with these flower gardens as their designs celebrate the Year of the Surf Lifesaver


Martin Place is also the home of The ANZAC Cenotaph, commemorating the soldiers ("Diggers") who fought in World War One and all wars since. An ANZAC Day dawn service is held at the cenotaph every year on 25 April.


Continuing on our tour, we walked down George St towards the Harbour and Circular Quay, where we came across this interesting water feature (one our hosts / tour guides had never noticed before, seeing as they don't usually come to this side of Circular Quay station!) It marks where The Tank Stream once flowed. In the earliest days of White Settlement in Australia, the tank stream provided the colony with fresh water - until it was turned pretty much into an open sewer! To protect the settlers, Tank Stream was covered and now can't be seen at all.