Panda Bears And a mobile phone

This morning I had a coffee from Starbucks - I spoke my usual order "Soy Flat White" only to have a blank stare returned. Having a quick look at the menu I then realised that there are NO soy flat whites in Star Bucks, so I had to quickly conpensate for unnessary foam on my coffee and get a Cappucino. Let me tell you - it was awesome. Not the best, but it was GREAT.

One thing about getting out of my hotel, is properly organising my address for the taxi driver so I can get to my destination as quickly and easily as possible.

So, first stop  - Beijing Zoo. I HAD TO SEE A PANDA! Entry was 20RMB which included the panda entry - almost like a zoo vip pass to see the great chinese panda. As you can tell; I was getting pretty damn excited by this stage. I had all these images of pandas sitting around eating bamboo, conversing in panda language about the weather, climbing trees, making handstands to mark their territories on trees - just like on Discovery Channel. 

So here I am at the magnificent entry to absolute awesome panda world, about to walk in.

I see the enclosure, camera in hand and I have to tell you, I'm feeling pretty excited. 

When I see...

Seriously - 911, is that a dead panda?

No - it's just sleeping. Great, I got a VIP pass for the most ridiculously awesome animal in China; The Amazingly Sleepy Panda that is in such an awesome position for instant photo fail.

So, I exited the enclosure disappointed to say in the least. I had a walk around the enclosure trying to see if that was the only mere panda exhibit - two more. So trying my luck there, I walk over - again, getting pretty excited.

And AGAIN i see...

what the bloody hell is going on here?

Sleeping pandas? not on my watch..

So after another walk around I guess it must have been feeding time because that was enough to get these pandas up and grazing. Yay!!! So I finally got some great shots:

So after the pandas I pretty much skipped along to the lion and tiger enclosure, which was my other must list because tigers are my favourite animals. The tigers were just beautiful, one smiled at me - I guess I must have looked delicious :) I don't blame them for thinking that either to be honest. 

Other than that, I was pretty much done at the zoo and decided to make my way to Beijing's biggest shopping mall: "Zhangguancun Plaza", as soon as I got in there (aside from it being extremely busy) I was called over by 5 different sellers to have a look at their big flat screen tv's.

I was tempted too because at home we have a Tv the size of a cereal box. But withdrew because I know mum would probably just use it as a vase stand or as a display cabinet for her collectible plates. I had a look at a few phones, I was contemplating buying a phone that has GPS capabilities, but for now I'll have to hold off until I find a job and it can be  my reward..woohoo incentives are great.

So any way that's pretty much my happenings for the day. My biggest goal aside from the main point of actually coming to China was to see the Zoo and now that I have done that - I can focus on my main objectives and not worry about "I should have seen the pandas." No regrets with this one!

Until another blogging day - pzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz