Just My Rambling

The last time I went to Las Vegas was 20 years ago while I was still in college. I haven’t been back since then. My parents just went for their Las Vegas vacations
last month and according to them, a lot has changed. They were very impressed with all the new buildings on the strip. It looks like I should plan a trip there soon. Most probably it will have to be next year since I already have other travel plans finalized for this year.

My parents will be staying with me for another 2 weeks. Lil’ C is also out of school. So for this week, I will be playing tour guide again so that I don’t have 3 bored people in the house. My parents have already done the Seattle sights from Part 1. I am trying to figure out where else to bring them. Here’s my list so far. 

• Museum of Flight
• Chateau Ste Michelle
• Cougar Mountain Zoo
• Woodland Park Zoo
• South 47 Farm

Let’s see if the weather will cooperate this week. Otherwise we might just end up visiting the local malls.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s off to sea I’ll go . . . . . . .  Finally, I am off on my cruise to Alaska. I know there will be internet onboard but I think it will very expensive. So I have decided to leave my laptop and the cyberworld behind for 8 days. I have a feeling that I will try to sneak in just a little internet time while onboard. We’ll see. Just in case I don’t have access, I decided to finish up all my pending assignments. So please bear with me hor? I promise I will show lots of photos when I get back. Have a great week everyone! 

 P/S: For my fellow Photo Hunter friends, if you are looking for my entry,I didn’t manage to get it done this week. I will probably miss it next week too but I’ll be back after that. Thanks for dropping by.  

 Woohoo…. just received our fancy-schmancy cruise tickets today. That means in less than a month, we will be going on a cruise to Alaska!! My parents and a couple of their friends will be joining us for this week-long cruise. I have been wanting to go on a cruise for a long time. All I’ve got to do now is pray for good weather and calm seas so that no one will get sea sick!!!

It looks like my wish is coming through this summer. After weeks of indecision, I finally confirmed my tickets to Alaska this summer. In a month’s time, we’ll be heading out to Alaska on a weeklong cruise with my parents. Yay! It took me a long time to book the tickets because there were too many options to choose from. From the port to the destination, the different cruise ships, the cabins, the shore excursions and much more, I just had a hard time deciding on an option that will make everyone happy. But ultimately I’ve made the decision and now all I have to do is dig out my luggage, buy a couple more new clothes and wait.

A little overdue but continuing from Part 1:

After a smooth border crossing, we headed straight to Richmond, a suburb south of Vancouver. The Asian population is very large and that means lots of great authentic food. Currently Richmond is more popular for its Asian cuisine than Vancouver’s Chinatown which is one of the largest chinatown in North America.

First we went to Kirin, our favorite restaurant for dim sum. Unfortunately it was fully booked. We had to make a reservation for the next day and went in search of another dim sum restaurant. Fortunately there is no lack of dim sum restaurants nearby. We ended up in Sun Sui Wah for these yummy dim sum.

The dim sum was pretty good but I think I still prefer the ones at Kirin. Sun Sui Wah is more famous for the dinner menu which includes Alaskan King Crab and Roasted Squab.

After filling our tummy, we went to downtown Vancouver. It was so crowded!! Maybe it’s due to the awesome weather, it seems like the entire Vancouver population were out! We decided to skip downtown and went over to Stanley Park. Stanley Park is so huge with lots of activites.

A gorgeous day at Stanley Park

A view of Vancouver from the park

Playground for the little one

Lil’ C’s favorite. A train ride around the park

We had to bribe Lil’ C to leave Stanley Park because she was having too much fun. We then headed back to Aberdeen Centre in Richmond for my favorite shopping stop - Daiso and some yummy desserts!

The trip ended with more restaurant hunts for yummy food. Hey, what can I say, we love food!! See here, here, here and here for more food details.

Just a little detail on our Vancouver trip. It was a gorgeous day for a road trip. Blue skies and warm weather, what more can we ask for? Canada is only a 2 hour drive from Seattle. However we don’t go often because that 2 hour could turn into 3-4 hours due to the long lines at the border. So this time we left early just to make sure we don’t get caught in the traffic.

Yay, a very short line!! Took us only about 20 min to get across to Canada.

I took a photo of the Peach Arch while waiting in line. This monument is built on the exact US-Canada border, thus the US flag on 1 side & Canadian flag on the other side. It always amuses me that while waiting in line for the customs, people start running from their car to the Peace Arch, take a photo & run back to their car. Sometimes they cannot find their car since the waiting line has moved while they were taking photos.

It’s a different story on the other side of the border. Traffic coming into US was very long. It was probably 1-2 hours wait!

6 years ago, when I first went to Canada from US, it was totally an opposite traffic situation. Traffic going into Canada was long while traffic coming into US was short. Of course the main reason was the high exchange rate. 1 USD then was about 1.5 CAD. So everyone went to Canada to shop. Now it’s only .99 CAD to 1 USD! Boohooo!!!! No more shopping for me!!

*Backdated post

The flight home to Malaysia was a very long one. It was 14 hours from here to Taiwan, a 3 hour layover and then another 4 hours to Kuala Lumpur. Before we got to Taiwan, I was actually wondering what we were going to do for 3 hours with a 3 yr old. So when we got to Taiwan, I was very glad to see this new Hello Kitty Playland at one of the terminals.

First we were greeted by this cute Chinese New Year Hello Kitty

Then there’s the nice playground guaranteed to tire a little one out before the next flight

Another play area with mini-kitchen, dressers, tables & chairs

Of course, there’s the endless showing of Hello Kitty TV

Even the waiting area chairs didn’t escape the hello Kitty stamp

These were decorating the walls throughout the waiting area. I thought they look very nice.

I love this playarea and I really hope that it will still be in a good condition when we go back the next time.

I promised to update more travel news. To start off, here are my 5 favorite places to visit in downtown Seattle.

1. Space Needle - The major landmark of the Pacific Northwest. Just make sure you try to visit it on a sunny day otherwise you will not be able to see the great view from the top of the needle. After visiting the Space Needle,  hop onto a monorail to Westlake Center. Then take a short walk to #2.
2. Pike Place Market - One of the oldest public farmer’s market. It’s a great place to shop for all sorts of knickknacks. But watch out for flying fishes when you are there. Don’t forget to visit the original Starbucks.  
3. Waterfront Park - This is another great place to shop, a great view of the Seattle skyline and also watch the ferries. You can also visit the Seattle Aquarium or take a cruise to Tillicum Village
4. Pioneer Square. - The historic district filled with antique shops and galleries. You can also take the Underground Tour beneath Seattle’s streets.
5. If you like arts, there’s the Seattle Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture park.

This blog started out as a travel and photography blog but somehow, it’s lost its direction a little. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I have not been travelling much this year as compared to the previous years. However this year I hope to start travelling again. So far there are a few tentative plans being made. In fact, there’s a trip to Malaysia and Singapore that’s coming up soon. I will also try to highlight some local travel spots. Hopefully this blog will be back on track soon.