it’s pretty
By geeGreetings from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Home to the (original) Mighty Ducks, Macgyver and yes, Donnie Pfaster.
Pity UofM doesn’t have a library science program.
I’ll be back to Bumfuck, Indiana on Sunday.
Toodles till then.
Comments(4)one last look
By gee
It’s not the A380 but the A340 is a pretty sweet piece of equipment.
This is the last time I’ll be flying the BKK-JFK route. Thai Airways will no longer fly this route beginning the first of July. Also, they’re selling all the A340s in their fleet. The rise in oil prices has made the endeavor a loss making one.
Siiiiiiigh…
oh hai
By geein response to comments:
yes, I do need a frikkin haircut.
yes, that’s GRACE.
yes, I’m “back”; as in back to reality and away from vegas.
And Tommy Trojan is keeping well:
My camera lens, however, is cruddy as hell.
And what happens in Vegas… stays in Vegas until you ask me in person cause I’m too effin tired to type.
a little goes a long way
By gee
I just got up from a 10+ hour sleep. That really helped since I passed on sleep the previous nite. Heh.
We’re leaving for LV but not before a stop downtown for Chanos.
My mind can’t wrap around the fact that I’m back here. It’s familiar and wonderful; at the same time things are happening in a blur.
Traffic on the 405 is still evil. Anyone who’s ever been in this town for more than 2 days would have known that but not Grace, going on 8th year Angelino. :p
purgatorial piece
By geeI’m currently in a place that doesn’t exist. After having to catch a 4.30am shuttle to the airport to make my 8.10am flight, I landed in sun-shiny Phoenix to see that my connecting flight to LA has been cancelled. Loverly. So now I have a 4 hour stint in this .. whatever.
At least it has free wifi. Or I be very upset.
My upset face:
This sucks because I am losing precious hours that I can spend cavorting around southern cal. That’s right, I said ‘cavorting’.
The bro texted and said that with the hammering they’re getting from the current front, it’s entirely possible that his flight out will be cancelled.
siiiiiiigh.
yew nork pics
By gee…are in the gallery.
You can find them under Buffalo, NY May 2006 and New York City May 2006.
Usual disclaimer apply - Comments welcome unless you want to tell me my photography sucks then don’t bother, I already know.
small bite of big apple
By gee
New York really is dirtier than Chicago. I got to see Times Square.. all the crazy people watching a TRL taping and just regular crazy tho there weren’t many of those; and soak in the local atmosphere at Central Park by sitting on a puddle of water. New York City is wet from all that rain but nothing like what farther up north is experiencing.
I also met up with H on Monday - almost exactly 4 years to the day since I last saw her when she went out to LA for my graduation.
The brother and I got to experience rush hour subway travel. That was almost like Hong Kong but grungier.
Right now it is still wet and cold and threatening to rain more. I think the statue is going off our itinerary. Met, here I come!
it’s the falls that’ll kill ya
By gee
Friday the rain stayed away and we had a great time at the Niagara Falls State Park. Like most things, I can tell you how awesome it is to behold a force of nature but it’s not till you see it for yourself that it hits you exactly how much it rocks.
Mom, Dad and Bro #1 went on those boats that take you up close and personal with the falls. Bro #2 and I stayed on the observation deck to watch - we weren’t up for that this time.
But then later, in a fit of temporary insanity, we all went down the ‘cave of the winds‘ and had a close encounter with the Bridal Veil Falls. (The link lies about the price of admission!)
The Cave tour takes you down the gorge and we were all deliriously soaked at the end of it. But we couldn’t find a t-shirt that says “I Survived The Hurricane Deck!”.
Anyway, this is one of those places you need to see for yourself. Soak it up. Literally.
My brother graduates today. Woo!
blogging to you live from the hotel lobby
By geethe only place with free internet access, save the school’s library but we’re too lazy.
The 18-hour flight from Bangkok was pleasant - as pleasant as being stuck in a plane for a better part of your young life can be.
weather in wonderful Buffalo, as predicted, is wet, very wet, and slightly wet. Temp is nice in the mid to high teens. windy. like Chicago. The weather channel is my good friend.
Today (it’s now 5.45a.m. on Friday) we’re supposed to go to Niagara Falls but I don’t know how long we’re gonna wanna be out in the drizzle. Not much sun either, mind.
We brought the wet weather to the northeast and we’re also Sabres bad luck charm as they went down to top seeded Ottawa Senators last night, 2-1, failing to sweep the playoff. Teehee.
Postcards from Romania
By kumquatI mailed 4 postcards from the airport of Bucharest, 1 to myself and 1 to a friend who is also in Singapore, and 2 to individuals in Malaysia. I got mine a week later. And then the other 3 were no where to be found. About a month later, the 2 headed for Malaysia arrived. The remaining 1 for Singapore is still missing ..
I hope someone will scan the postcard and post it.
But here are the only 5 photos from my visit I got time for.
Road towards Office:
Road away from Office:
View from the Office Balcony 1:
View from Office Balcony 2:
This one is at the Frankfurt airport showing the cafe next to the McDonald’s:
Romania
By kumquatOther than the gymnast Nadia Elena Comaneci, who became the first gymnast to be awarded the score of perfect 10 in the Olympic Games (1976, Montreal), the only other fact that I knew of Romania was that it was part of the USSR’s sphere of influence. I didn’t even know that Transylvania was part of it. When I went looking for a tour guide book in the library, I ended up picking one on Budapest, which of course was the capital of Hungary. But who could blame me for mixing up Budapest for Bucharest?
The trip to Romania was postponed once and again but we finally left for Romania in the fourth week of February. As with every long flight, there were unpleasant characters who would irritate not just me but fellow passengers and even the flight crew. However, that’s not what I am going to write about.
It was the end of winter and not yet the beginning of spring, and it even snowed the week before we arrived. Thus the temperature was mostly below 10 degrees Celcius.
The first surprise was the size of the Henri Coandă International Airport. I don’t have the specifics but I thought it felt quite small. I found out later on the way out of Romania that it has only about 10 gates. Oh, and photo taking is strictly not allowed.
The next thing I learned was that the people resented the former president, Nicolae Ceauşescu, so much so that the Palace of the Parliament with a total area of 350,000m², 1,100 rooms and 12 storeys tall, was left unused for a very long time since 1989.
On my first day in Bucharest, I had the opportunity to interact with the local young people. They speak good English and were very fashion conscious, but much better behaved than some in Western European cities.
During my daily travel to the office via the Metroul Bucureşti, I noticed the female office crowd were very neatly attired and fashionable too. And maybe it’s just the area that I was in but I thought they all walked like Ally McBeal.
Well, there are much more nitty gritty details that I have whined about but I felt the above observations made a significant impact on my impression of Romania. Perhaps I should make another trip, and visit Prague too.
Tripping Thru Hong Kong, part 2
By gee
Read part 1 before this for continuity, or not. Eheh. The rest of the photos are in the gallery, the album is ‘HK / Shenzhen December 2005′. Comments welcome unless you want to tell me my photography sucks then don’t bother, I already know.
Day Four
We started out early to catch the first ferry at Star Ferry Pier to Cheung Chau Island. At 8.50am we arrived to find the first shuttle leaves at 10.40am. HongKis, surprisingly, start their day late. The ferry service, btw, is available on weekends and public holidays only. However, over on HK Island there is round-the-clock service to Cheung Chau.
So we schlepped over to another familiar spot, the Sweet Dynasty restaurant (糖朝, cute huh?) for some dim sum. This place, aside from it’s good tong sui (not served in the mornings) has fresh dim sum and their char siew pau is mmm-mmmm good. Sorry no photos. Too busy eating. 
We dashed back to the pier to catch the ferry and settled in for an hour of praying the captain of the boat successfully manouvers his way out of the busy waterways of Hong Kong.
Now, I’ve always wanted to go to Cheung Chau and after 15 years I’m finally there. Look at how thrilled I am:
This island is rumored to be once the hiding spot for a famous 19th century pirate called Cheung Po Tsai, 張保仔. On the guide map you can walk to the cave where he stashed his booty but we didn’t make it that far up. We trekked eastwards instead, towards Tung Wan beach. There were wind surfers doing their thing there. After all, this was(is?) the training ground and birthplace of Hong Kong’s windsurfing Olympic gold medallist Lee Lai Shan. Pride of the nation, she is. The surfers had the beach and water to themselves since it was close to winter and there aren’t any silly tourists wanting to sun bathe.
Southwards along the beach you get to come across a historical rock carving. I found it so hugely dissappointing that I didn’t even snap a picture of it. The wikipedia entry of Hong Kong has a photo, if you’re curious.
We meandered back to the center of the islang, going through alleyways and checking out the local offerings. The aroma wafting from the bakeries just about killed me. When we decided it was time for a break, we sat down so mom could have her Tau Foo Far. The other two of us was just going to chill.
As you can see, the Tau Foo Far was so good, so soft, we ended up getting another…. and another. Terrible, hor? Anyway, we spent the day meandering some more, stopping to sample whatever food we fancy but didn’t find the restaurants very appealing. Cheung Chau is a big tourist attraction in the weekends and the place was packed with them by midday. The food places mostly served bland looking dishes that cater to foreign taste. With that we decided to head back to Kowloon for dinner, after a nap to recharge the batteries, and left Cheung Chau at 3pm.
I would love to return to Cheung Chau when the Bun Festival is happening… you’ve probably seen in on Discovery Channel. This festival held in mid spring attracts tens of thousands of curious tourists over a span of a week.
That night we were knackered but decided to have one more go at the wanton place we went to on Saturday night for ’supper’.
This place, on Parkes Rd and Jordan Rd is another Hong Kong institution. They serve nothing but wan ton and wan ton noodles in its varied forms. The name of the stall escapes me for the moment but I’ll get back to you on that soon. The wan ton noodles was so fresh, you could taste the ingredients that went into making it. Dee-licious.
Day Five
Today, the temperature finally dropped low enough to break out the jackets. I gleefully put on my new jacket purchased from U2. You can’t get stuff like that from KL’s U2 outlets, I tell you. The Christmas atmosphere definitely felt more real with the chill. Teehee.
After the exhaustive trip yesterday, we set out for more of the same. This time to yet another place I haven’t been to - Shenzhen, China. The train ride was an hour long and was fairly uneventful and I spent it people watching.
Shenzhen, like other thriving cities in China is huge. Everything is just big and wide. I failed to convey that through my photos, must bring a wide angle lens next time. This was a shopping trip which means I basically trailed along and observed the surroundings while the parentals perused the goods. Shenzhen, although very close to Hong Kong, has an uminstakeable China feel to it. The city is tripping over themselves in the race towards modernity; it is teeming with construction, traffic, people, and pollution… as you can see from my mom’s reaction to having to walk the streets of Shenzhen. This place, like Beijing, has its share of beggars lining their roads. I hate that. Don’t misunderstand, it isn’t the people who beg but the confluence of events which led them to such fates that bugs me. China is one of the fastest growing economy and will soon overtake many first world countries after it was revealed that their GDP was undervalued by at least 20 percent. I’m no economist, and I understand a healthy economy doesn’t mean riches for all but it *SHOULD*. OK, maybe a diatribe for another day, eh?
Anywho. we travelled to several places in the city via the underground transit. I asked dad why an underground system when they’ve got so much land above to build a cheaper system on. He thinks it’s because there’s a prestige factor in having the underground. I, personally, think it’s so much cooler to have an elevated system, like say a monorail lining the city.
locals dining at Dong Men
The last stop of the trip was to an outdoor mall of sorts called Dong Men. More shopping and nibbling on local food. We found this bread cooked with herbs and some kind of meat, it looked like naan and tasted fantastic. Mom bought three pairs of shoes here at Dong Men and Dad came away with two pairs. I found a pair of boots to go with my kebaya so it was a good day. Six pairs of shoes for RMB610, can you believe it?!
We caught the 7.36pm train back to Kowloon and I stayed at the hotel while the other two decided to do a little bit more walking and to return to that wanton noodle place. My feet was hurting like hell by then and I just couldn’t do it. Good freaking night.
Day Six
After breakfast, which included my last iced lemon tea we returned to pack and check out from the hotel. Our flight back was once again on-time and ahead of schedule.
If you were looking for sight-seeing tips in this travelogue, I’m sure it was a letdown. We went to eat and did exactly that. I’m stuffed to the gills with cheung fun, noodles of all kinds, and duck. Duck in HK is just heavenly. Can’t wait to go back the next time. And next time, I’ll see about going to Macau, another place I have yet to explore.
It’s good to be back home. It feels good to walk among the tudung-clad girls, the sari-wearing women and all those other wonderful reason why Malaysia is go great — including having the best teh tarik in the entire damn world.
Tripping Thru Hong Kong, part 1
By geeI’ve got the photos uploaded from the trip. They’re in the album called ‘HK / Shenzhen December 2005′. Comments welcome unless you want to tell me my photography sucks then don’t bother, I already know.
Day One
The flight departed KLIA right on time and arrived 5 minutes ahead of schedule. I am writing this down only because I’m seldom so punctual.
The weather was alot warmer than I’d expected. It was hovering in the low 20s and I couldn’t stand being in my polyester jacket. takign it off, however, immediately marked me as a foreigner as the locals seemed to be all dressed like it was in the low teens. *sigh*
Since night fell soon after we got settled in at the hotel the remainder of the evening we spent checking out the familiar places on Nathan Road, among them the record store, HMV. I hate going there because I always end up wanting to buy everything; everything I can’t get here. It’s like shopping on Amazon except here I can touch everything. Couldn’t afford the sixth season of The West Wing (HK$799!!) so I settled for a 3-disc Ultimate Jordan 20th Anniversary Collectors Edition. For HK$259 I got three documentaries, 5 full games and a bunch of other stuff. Sweet.
Day Two
good food
Weather still warm. Most of the day was spent trailing behind my parents as they shopped. Went over to Hong Kong island for some good food. I didn’t spend alot of time in the island and so was not ‘in the thick of things’ in regards to the WTO and the hoopla surrounding it. Would’ve totally gone to check out the protests had I been travelling without the parentals. So, sorry, no exciting photojournalism this time.
In the evening we walked across the street from our hotel (Kowloon Shangri-La) to check out the Avenue of Stars. It was a blatant rip off of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, complete with the souvenir store selling tacky goods to the throngs of tourists bussed to the location.
Day Three
Today I discovered I’m addicted to HK-style iced lemon tea. It isn’t too different from what you might know but they use REAL tea and REAL lemons unlike the crap you get locally. Mom says it’s because lemons are expensive in Malaysia. I say it’s because people don’t appreciate a good iced lemon tea. Teh O Ais Limau is a different storylah…
Attended evening mass at the Rosary Church cause we’re off to Cheung Chau tomorrow.
Stay tuned for the next part of the travelogue, soporifically documenting days four, five and six.