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.
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.
Do you still have annual leave that are about to expire by the end of the year? Instead of letting them go to waste, why don’t you take advantage of them and go on a nice vacation? You can find great online holiday deals at Holiday Hypermarket. Holiday Hypermarket is one of the largest travel agencies in Europe and they offer millions of bargain holidays to destinations all around the world.
Holiday Hypermarket offers many traveling options depending on your traveling style. You can book an all inclusive holiday if you like everything to be pre-arranged for you or you can just book the cheap flights and then plan your own vacation, If you are procrastinator like me, you can take advantage of the last minute deals. So start your holiday planning today!
When I lived in Arkansas many years ago, a group of us loved to drive to Branson Missouri for our weekend getaways. Our first destination was always Silver Dollar City for its fun rides and interesting crafts. Then it’s off to the White Water for water rides. Usually after all the rides, we would be so exhausted but we didn’t want to call it a night because we didn’t want to miss the shows. So, after a quick dinner, we would catch a show. My favorite is the Shoji Tabuchi Show. It was always so much fun! I will definitely have to plan a trip back there again.
Leavenworth is also known as Washington’s Bavarian Village. It’s a cute little town nestled in a valley about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle. It is basically a tourist town modeled after Bavaria, Germany.
Cute welcoming sign!
Horse carriage rides for the ever-willing-to-pay tourist 
Some of their cute buildings!
Look, even McDonalds look different from the norm.
Being the foodie that we are, we had to have some German food there. We had bratswurst & rotisserie pork hock. Too bad we didn’t take a photo. They actually had a rotisserie stove with all the pork hocks rotating in it. Kinda cool.
