Oh, It's Love... » adventures

Day 10 – A picture of what you like to do

sally — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:48:53 +0000

… in the future! At least that’s how I interpreted the title.

I would love to go skydiving in the future. None of the tandem stuff. I’m going solo! It’d require some training beforehand… but the whole excitement of jumping out a plane by myself is just over the top for me! Control freak much?

skydiving 101!

Original photo: Ace Skydiving

Day 03 – A picture of what you did today

sally — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:01:14 +0000

Awesome time spent with friends! We headed up to Elora Gorge for some tubing time. Lazy river awesomeness to the max! This was one of those times when I wished I had a waterproof camera case. I could’ve taken some amazing action shots of the (small) rapids.

Had a great time tubing down at Elora Gorge

Day 18-22: Beijing welcomes you!

sally — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:58:11 +0000

May 12 – 16

Time to hit up some more cities after being in HK for a couple of days. I decided that joining a travel agency would be best for going to Beijing. I was much too lazy to explore myself. The combination of simplified Chinese and Beijing-accent Mandarin discouraged me to travel without a guide. Travel agency it is! I ended up going with Hong Thai (康泰旅行社). Their dates worked for me and the prices were very reasonable.

Last minute shopping at the HK airport!

On the day of the trip, we had to meet at the airport at 6:30am for the 8am flight. SO early. I definitely was not used to waking up this early during a vacation. However, getting to the airport early means that we had plenty of time to walk around and shop. A must-go place at the HK airport is the Disney store. The store sells some of the special items that they have at the HK Disneyland. I picked up this adorable Stitch koala-bear looking plush. He’s the best travel buddy and I brought him everywhere with me.

//– WARNING: this post is image heavy –//

The amazingly beautiful Beijing Capital International Airport

I landed at the Beijing Capital International Airport shortly after noon. This airport is gorgeous and absolutely epic. Loved the wooden ceiling decor.

The first place that we visited was the National Centre for the Performing Arts. We were given the opportunity to explore the centre ourselves. They had an exhibition of violin/cellos at the time. They even had a live demo on how to make a violin! We didn’t stay long enough to watch it from beginning to start. I suspect that it’d take several hours to make anyways.

Tiananmen Square

Since my travel tour went on a weekday, the tour guide decided that it’d be best to first see the Tiananmen Square. The place was incredibly empty. We walked around the square and it had a very 到此一遊 feel. I didn’t mind the brief visit either. Having guards everywhere made the visit very tense.

We stopped of for a quick snack at Wangfujing (王井府大街). It’s this super long shopping street. On one side, there are luxury stores and malls. On the other side, there are snack streets and street food stands. To be honest, Beijing street food doesn’t compare to the Taipei street food. I might be biased though, since a lot of the Beijing street food are meat (grilled lamb, grilled beef, buns with meat).

Leehom! Chips! Eek!

The next day started with a really early morning. It was so early, I don’t even remember where I went! =] All I remembered was what happened after lunch. I sneaked out of lunch early in order to stop by the 7-11. I was SO glad that I did because I found this awesome treasure. Leehom on a bag of Lays! That ladle looks so photoshopped. Angela Zhang was also on the competing flavour. Leehom’s flavour was Dumb & Spicy Hot Pot and Angela’s was some spicy seafood fish flavour. The flavours weren’t that bad. =] Should’ve bought more, but I didn’t want to be hot air (熱氣).

(Click to enlarge) Forbidden City

After the super exciting adventures with the Leehom chips, my tour visited the Forbidden City (故宮) and Summer Palace(頤和園). Let me tell you, that day was a whole lotta walking. We walked everywhere. I think we walked for more than 5 hours for the entire day. The Forbidden City was absolutely spectacular. Everything was so epic. Same with the Summer Palace. Our Beijing tour guide was very informative (sometimes I felt like I was in Chinese history class). He explained a lot of the meaning and fengshui related stories about the sites.

BTW, in the picture above of the Forbidden City, the closeup of the person in green was our HK tourguide, Steve! Funny thing is that he wears these brightly coloured shirts from Calvin Klein that says Calvin right across his chest. I must’ve miscalled him Calvin several times.

Great Wall of China @ Juyongguan

On the third day, we finally got to climb the Great Wall of China (長城)! epicccccc! The tour guides dropped us off at juyongguan (居庸關). It’s one of the closer passes to Beijing city.

Proof that I climbed it! done and done.

Whoo! Another checkmark off my list of to-do-in-life. =]

Gorgeous scenery at Great Wall of China

Temple of Heaven

The fourth day of my Beijing trip started at some chinese medicine clinic. Alright, it’s the most famous one in Beijing – Tong Ren Tang (同仁堂). I wasn’t very interested though. After the medical stop, we headed over to the Temple of Heaven (天壇) – where the emperor prayed to Heaven for good harvest. Man, that place was packed.

Xingfu Dajie - I found happiness! 我找到幸福呢~!

After the temple, we checked out this kungfu show. Awesome thing was the theatre was located on Xingfu Dajie, which roughly translates to Happiness Street. I’m guessing it’s a tourist hotspot because the show was narrated in English. Nonetheless, the kungfu shown was incredible. There was also some aerial ballet too. Gorgeous!

(Click to enlarge) Bird's Nest

Last day! The tour visited the Beijing Olympic venues. We were allowed into the Bird’s Nest. The stadium is huge! When we visited, Adili Wuxor walking on tight rope, trying to break a world record. He was just chilling out and just walking around really high up there. There was also no safety net afterneath to catch him if he ever falls. Craziness! Within the Olympic Park, we also saw the Water Cube. We weren’t allowed in because they were doing renovations. They’re turning it into a water park!

Anyways, notice that I rarely mentioned anything about food during this trip. To be honest, the food was decent. Since I ordered to have things made vegetarian for me, most of the dishes were quite bland and were honestly just plain veggies. To make up for the mediocreness, the dishes were usually way too large for one person to eat. Guess I shouldn’t have expected amazing food. But at least I appreciated Hong Thai and my tour guide Steve to make sure there’s something I can eat.

Beijing, all in all, was a lot of fun. Seeing all the amazing architecture of Beijing’s past was beyond amazing. As for the Great Wall of China, it really matched up to its motto – One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a hero. Guess I’m a hero now. =]

Day 11-16: Exploring HK

sally — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:38:14 +0000

May 05 – 10

Coming back from that way-too-short trip in Taipei, I had to rest and just chill out for a bit. After a full day of resting and doing absolute minimal, I was ready for more food and more excitement!

Ding Tai Fung @ HK

Tracy called me out to do some shopping, and I can never say no! We stopped by Ding Tai Fung for some delicious dumplings. The one in TST isn’t as good as the one in Taipei though. Then again, I’m comparing it to their roots. Lunch was just Tracy and me but we were seated in this room of 12. They ran out of 2-seaters in the main dining hall. So here we are, just the two of us, sitting beside the huge dining table. It was hilarious! Just like the one in Taipei, they had excellent service. The waiters would check on us every once in a while to make sure we’re OK.

Dinner at Doraya - me, Tracy, Sunny, Charlie

After some more shopping with Tracy, we met up for dinner with Sunny and Charlie. We decided on going to Doraya, which is famous for their tuna belly. A friend of mine highly recommended this place, and Doraya definitely did not disappoint! Their tuna belly was so fresh and juicy. It tastes so different than the ones we have back home.

I didn’t realize everything had such a fobby pose. xP And all of our names rhymed.

Victoria Harbour - from the Kowloon side

To end of the night, Tracy and I just chilled at the pier at the Victoria Harbour. It was a nice girl-talk. I missed connecting with somebody else at that sort of level. I was getting so overwhelmed before about how busy and fast-paced Hong Kong was. We took the Star Ferry back to the HK Island side. I though the ferry ride would be more amazing…. but it’s just a ferry ride. Nothing exciting to report. haha

Vegetarian restaurant with grandma

The next day, my Aunt and I headed into Aberdeen to meet up with my Grandma. We ate at this tiny little fishball place (which, apparently, everyone on my mom’s side loves) for brunch. For lunch, we stopped by a traditional vegetarian place. We ordered a dish of tofu with different flavours. Not bad.

Creative flower art @ Tai Koo Shing

While I was wandering around Tai Koo Shing one day, I stumbled upon this creative flower art exhibition. Some of the creations were completely out there and some of them were pretty tame. I think the coolest one is this one – Bambi!

Fake honey spareribs (蜜汁金沙骨)

One night, I met up with my Aunt Donna and her family for some creative vegetarian meal. The fake honey spareribs was absolutely amazing. The sauce was delicious and the ‘meat’ tasted so real (I think). It was quite chewy, but in a good way!

Fake black bean fried fish (豉汁炒魚)

We ordered a couple more dishes but this black bean fried fish was definitely different than the other ones. First of all, it looked so real! The colour of the fish skin, the meatiness of the fish! So cool.

Look at that fake shrimp! It's so real

And this, my friends, was absolutely the coolest thing. A fake shrimp. It even had the coloured shrimp shells on it! So real.

Temple Street!

I stopped by Jordan to hang out with Alex for a bit. We compared a bit of our Beijing trip and just chatted about randomness. We wandered off to Temple Street.

Mmhmm... steamed milk and steamed egg!

But really, we were in that area to check out the steamed milk and streamed egg. It’s so good. We went this place called the Australian Dairy Company. The steamed milk/egg were the smoothest thing ever. So rich and creamy! I didn’t know they served chinese-style egg breakfast all day. I was drooling over the breakfasts while I ate my dessert. haha But this place was so chaotic, even though we went around 10pm. The place was still full of people! That’s how popular it is.

TsingDao on the streets!

To cap off the night, beer on the streets! Once again, HK allows you to drink on the streets. I’m not used to that idea, at all. TsingDao all the way!

Day 5-9: I heart Taipei

sally — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:17:28 +0000

April 29 – May 03

5 days 4 nights in Taipei, what a whirlwind trip! 5 days is definitely not enough. I miss Taipei lots already!

//– WARNING: this post is image heavy –//

First time flying with EVA Air. Exciting news!

Hello Kitty @ Taipei TuoYuan Airport. A whole store dedicated to HK and all the airport goodness!

Flying over the clouds…. crazy colours! Alright, it’s just my phone being weird, but still, crazy colours!

Fahrenheit greeting us at the airport! How exciting! I was stoked to be in Taiwan at this point. haha

Eight Elephants Hostel – best ever! Very cozy place. Would definitely recommend it to all the travellers out there.

It was my first time staying at a hostel, and it was a superb experience at Eight Elephants. The staff were very friendly and they all spoke English quite well.

ShiDa Night Market. The super awesome thing about Eight Elephants is that it is quite close to ShiDa Night Market. It’s about 15 minutes walk away to all the great Taiwanese food goodness!

Mmhmm… red bean + green bean shaved ice! Even though it really wasn’t that hot at the time, the shaved ice was still awesome. That pile of ice… Dan and I barely finished it! And yes, this was our dinner.

The next day, we went to Taipei 101. Passing through the Taipei Main Station, who did we see? Leehom, of course! I *had* to stop and take a picture. Craziness!

Walking towards the 101! We could see it from miles away.

On top of the world! Or at least on top of Asia-ish (the new building in Dubai takes the crown for tallest in the world/Asia).

Day 2 starts off at XiMenDing area. Lots of little boutiques and lots of street food. And lots of teenagers. I felt old walking through this area. Fortunately, there was no celebrity autograph sessions this saturday, so we got lucky. It could’ve been even more crowded!

At the North Gate! It really wasn’t a huge tourist attraction, but we saw it on a street map and decided to explore a bit. Jumping pictures are so epic! <3! Late that night, we went to another night market. Shilin Night Market... it was packed. The streets were filled with people. More eating for us!

Day 3, I finally woke up early enough to try out one of the breakfast places near Eight Elephants – the sticky rice roll. It was made fresh to order. It had crunchy fritter(油條), sour vegetable (酸菜), soy-sauce egg (滷蛋) and fake meat floss (肉鬆, i asked to make sure it’s vegetarian-friendly).The picture’s all blurry, but trust me, it was absolutely amazing.

After a full day of walking around, dinner was at Ding Tai Fung (鼎泰豐). We stumbled upon this place while walking around 東區. Man, this business operates at maximum efficiency level! When we asked for a table, hey told us the wait was about 10-15 minutes long. The hostess also handed us our table number, the menu and the order form. By the time we decided what to eat and checked off the order form, they were ready with our table. They took our order form and asked us to wait for a bit as they were still cleaning off the previous table. When we were finally seated, we were served hot tea immediately. Our food came about 5 minutes after we sat down! We were quite hungry already, so we devoured the plate of veggie dumplings. The ninja-waitresses were very attentive and they continuous poured us tea whenever we were done the cup. They would come out of nowhere! Stealthy! Just writing about it makes me drool.

Time to leave Taipei! I’m gonna miss ya, but rest assure, I’ll be back soon. ♥

Day 3: Friends!

sally — Sat, 01 May 2010 02:05:23 +0000

April 27

I met up with Katie today for some shopping on the other side of HK. First up, Langham Place at Mong Kok! Crazy high ceiling on the lobby level.

Walking around Langham Place was a challenge and a half. So many levels! So many escalators! So many steps! We were so tired just from walking through this building. After some high-class window shopping, we went somewhere cheaper – 新之城. As we walked around, we noticed a lot of the younger girls were eating these noodles from these tiny little baggies. Turns out they were from the main floor! These stands that were just making customized snacks. And they were only $10HKD.

For some even cheaper shopping, Katie and I headed over to Ladies’ Market. There really wasn’t a whole lot of shopping since it was quite touristy there. We really didn’t need any more of those I <3 Hong Kong tshirts. But it's always nice to walk through these streets.

Dinner was at Hokkaido Katsu Sushi, just a random place that we picked. We met up with G+Chi (from Teacher’s) and Charlie+Jackie+Grace. Maybe it was because we went late, the fish really wasn’t that fresh.

G+Chi had to head back earlier to pack since they were going home first thing the next day. Charlie+Jackie+Grace(?)+Katie+me just hung out around Mong Kok. haha so jokes. I forgot how much fun Charlie is and just how random Jackie is. He’s the mini 方大同~！

November 07th, 2009

sally — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:27:01 +0000

Ontario Science Centre

Lee’s girlfriend, Enola, invited Derek and I to her birthday day-party at the Ontario Science Centre. I love the OSC because of their rock candy. mmhmm…. you can never deny the fun that is the Science Centre!

At one of the technology exhibits, we spotted this quote from Eminem.

“Fame hit me like a ton of bricks”

And it was right beside an Andy Warhol quote. Andy quotes, I get. But Eminem? really? I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that.

Speaking of brains, we also checked out Body World. WOW! I was so impressed with the work and effort the artists put in to make this exhibit happen. There’s SO much stuff in our bodies. Amazing. Definitely inspired me to keep my body in tip=top shape!

October 20th, 2009

sally — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:54:34 +0000

just chilling at the Blue Mountain shops area… after my feet massage treatment.
I swear this is part of my work offsite meeting! =]
You can bet your ass that I treated myself to some super delicious caramel apple from Rocky Mountain’s Chocolate Factory.

September 17th, 2009

sally — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:50:13 +0000

Le Grand Chapiteau @ OVO

Michelle and I went to see the new Cirque du Soleil in town. It was amazing. The performance was spectacular! And the story was just so adorable. My favourite was probably the couple who aerial danced with ropes. They were absolutely beautiful. Makes me wanna learn it too. And there was also the dude who walked (and biked!) across a wire. holy! i think my heart stopped everytime he attempted to jump!

It’s a great show. Highly recommend it to everyone. Plus, it’s inside the big tent too!

September 12th, 2009

sally — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:33:36 +0000

Michelle Sally Ori

Presenting the fab three, MSO!
Well, we planned to go the Veg Food Fair… but we didn’t make it in time. We helped Mich found (and bought!) a beautiful black dress at FCUK for Marcus’ wedding. I also found this gorrrrgeous blue dress that I’m waiting for it to go on sale to buy. We ended up spending 2, 3 hours at Eaton’s.

After that, we went back to Michy’s (old) place to chill. Got my bags of stuff from Taiwan! whee! =] it was like christmas all over again!

We didn’t eat dinner til late… 9ish. We headed over to 7 West because that place makes the yummiest 24/7 food! To finish off a great night, of course we headed to Dolce Gelato’s! Insane drive trying to head into Little Italy, but the drive was well worth it! =]