We were travelling with our bags today. Lunch at the Dragon’s restaurant where we had dim sum on the first day. There were a lot of people, so mm got us a private room — had to order a la carte, and a bit more expensive. Still good value.

More snack shopping — biscuits, sponge cake and all sorts. Bus was on time and today it was more a hassle, had to get off and on the bus twice for customs cos they weren’t in the same building.

Quick dinner of hainanese chicken rice and I was glad to be home.

 

Today’s itinerary can be summed up by these 2 pots. Lunch was at a local restaurant that specialised in “chicken and pork stomach” pot. There was a long wait for it, may be they had to cook the chicken? It arrived with the chicken in the soup, a bit like sukiyaki. It was again, fresh and delicious.

The second pot is fish congee. The fish was swimming fresh, the flesh went into the congee and the bones was steamed. A theme to the food here is everything fresh.

In between? We went to Walmart and bbmm went for foot massage. Weather is very very cold.

I can’t remember the last time I was in the mainland. Shanghai may be? That was over 6 years ago. Sounds just about right.

Basically, mm bought a flat and spent a lot of effort decorating it. So we went there, and my parents came along too. It was pretty straightforward to go — a 45min coach journey to the border, get our bags, go through 2 sets of immigration, get back on the coach for the remainder 2-3hr trip. Her place is nice, in her style.

We had a dim sum lunch, then visited the Qing Hui gardens right in the city centre. It’s not very big, surrounded by buildings and streets but once inside, there’s surprisingly a lot hidden. Turn a corner and there’s something new, another pond, another doorway leading to another exhibit. Pics: whole set

Dinner was the most scrumptious lamb hot pot ever. We had lamb, blood, skin, and all sorts of interesting parts, all in a hot pot. Plus rice cooked in coconut that was perfect. I didn’t charge my S90, so no pictures. Sigh.

Went to the supermarket nearby, got some snacks and sweets and milk and stuff. Got parents home, then we went for massage. It was late when we finished, and cold outside, after a quick (and not hot enough) shower there wasn’t much to do except crawl into bed.

Flight arrived early at 6.45am, I was one of the first off and was out through Immigration quicker than the bags. My duffel came out first (as in the first off the belt) but the suitcase only came with the non-priority bags, brrrr. Got on the train, called home, off the train straight to the taxi and I was home by something like 7.30am. It’s cold. No heating. Took a while to unpack all the food I’d brought back. Showered and got online. Very frustrated that I can’t seem to connect my mbp to the modem, Mum doesn’t have wifi. So now I’m stuck with the 2004 PC that runs like a run/walk marathoner at mile 22. Sigh.

The good thing was, I had steamed fish for lunch and everything my parents cooked was great. It is nice to see them.

Went out in the afternoon to meet up with mm. It is valentine’s day after all. She was tired and asleep. What else could I do but join her? I was jetlagged too. Eventually we pulled ourselves up, cos otherwise we’d sleep through the night. She took me to a conveyor belt sushi place that was very yummy. The plan was to walk around but my energy level was fading so I called it a day.

I basically lost today on the plane. It’s usual when I fly west over the international date line. I slept for about 4 hrs, had a nice dinner, watched lots of TV. I wasn’t expecting it, but no I didn’t get bumped. Can’t complain. Who gets to go on vacation on C-class?

I’m at SFO. The pic was taken at ORD. The flight was fine, only 4-ish hours. There was a delay of 30mins, so I stayed in the Admiral’s Club a little longer, but when I got to the gate they’d already started boarding and was at Group 3, drat. It was interesting and annoying to see all these people with their wheelies, trying to cram into the tight overhead spaces. Not many gamers of the system this time. Full flight, but I was comfortable, read a book, ate a choc chip cookie I got from training yesterday.

The walk from the domestic to the international terminal at SFO was quite far, but I got my new boarding pass very quickly once I found the counter. The stupidest part was at security. Which yo-yo had the bright idea that priority = first, business and families with children? Families with children do not know how to get through security quickly so who suffers? The same people who know, have paid for, and expect to get through security quickly. ARGH!!!!

So this is why I’m kinda in a rush here. I wolfed down a cup noodle, and just managed to check all my mafia and vampire wars stuff. Boarding to HKG soon.

Went over to the bookstore to say goodbye to people, we’re leaving today. We managed to greet and hug a lot of people who were walking by or just milling about — it really is a congregating spot.

Car and I joined Karin and MJ for a screening of Hannah Free. Thanks to Karin and MJ for offering us this honour. The film is based on a play, and the book is coming out in the spring. The performances were strong, dialogue sharp and the story very touching. Yes, I found it a bit long and boring at places, but that’s me. The actors and the ending more than made up for it. Highly recommended.



More goodbyes as we walked back to the car, and then a quick stop to Race Point. The sea was very ferocious over there, and then there were a couple of para-wakeboarders out there braving the waves. Beautiful.

And we were off at around 3.20pm and the plan is to drive overnight. Over 1000 miles. Should be back in Chicago by tomorrow afternoon.

 

Morning signing with Karin Kallmaker, Donna Kelli, Jocelyn Powers and JE Knowles. It was a pleasure to meet all of them. The store wasn’t very big so initially we spent time at the café opposite.

Pizza lunch with Car, Nell and Trin at Twisted Sister. It was good to catch up with them. Their book everafter has just come out, and sold out at the bookstore already. Wonderful news.



The main event in the afternoon was the reading from the outsiders, a collection of stories by Lynn Ames, Georgia Beers, JD Glass, Susan X Meagher and Susan Smith. Smitty read JD’s story and Susan read Georgia’s so we got an excerpt from each of them. It was a great informal reading, kudos to Lynn, Susan and Smitty for making it so enjoyable.

There was a bsb erotica reading, but I missed it because I was out with Ruth at the Pig. We then made our way to the Post Office café and later at the Vixen ran into Karin and MJ. Boy, I was pretty full of alcohol from all the drinking. Ooops.

pig

drinking

I woke up, grabbed the blackberry, saw that it was 6am and made a face. But I couldn’t go back to sleep and eventually crawled out half an hour later. A thought came to my mind that i could go running!! And so I did. There is a bike trail at the dunes and I did a full 10k up and down that path. There were a few other runners, a biker or two, some people in their car reading the newspaper / drinking coffee, and a couple walking on the beach. See previous post.

It turned out, my BB says 6am, but in my haste and delirium it was 6am CST, actually 7am here. Would I have still gone running? That far? Dunno.

Mid-morning was my hair appointment. The hairdresser was running late so we did some shopping at the bookstore and surplus store. The haircut was quick and efficient — kept most of the length but not the thickness. Lunch at the pig (again) was fish and chips. The fish was absolutely fantastic.

 

And then it was time for another reading. There were again 2 panels. The first was about mystery-romance and included Carsen Taite (moderating), VK Powell, Anne Laughlin, Kim Baldwiin & Xenia Alexiou, Clara Nipper and Ali Vali. Heavy hitters all.

The second panel was historical / paranormal and included Nell Stark (moderating), I Beacham reading Colette Moody’s book, Trinity Tam, LL Raand (Rad’s pen name for a new series) and Gill McKnight. These were so awesome, I need to get books by, heh, pretty much all of them.

I missed the book signing, was distracted by Chef shopping then running into Bobbi and stopping for coffee. Made it to the meet and greet, and met so many authors, in addition to the ones i’ve met already, it was unbelievable. There was also a prize draw (didn’t win) and everyone left with a goodie bag.

And now for the grown up part of the post. I went to my first drag show! Two of them. In one night. First it was all the kings men, and then it was an amateur contest. There was a contrast between the professionals and the amateurs, both shows were interesting and enjoyable in their own ways. Our Rach won the amateur contest, with a rousing performance…and a loud supporting contingent.

Original plan was to get a haircut, but the places were either closed or full, so i made an appointment for tomorrow. We ended up at the pig where I had proscuitto, fig jam and gorgonzola on ciabatta and I was introduced to magner’s cider. A full pint bottle too. First it was just Jeanine and me, and we deliberately sat at the window so people can see us and vice versa. And it worked! Trish and Jacqui joined us, then Smitty, and I spotted Car walking down the street. T&J mentioned they saw Nell and Trin so I called them to tell them to join us. And Ruth joined too.



First reading was at the Vixen, where we went to support Cheri. Then it was to Gabriel’s for a big reading — 2 panels of 10 authors over 2 hours. Mainly it was to support Bobbi and to meet a few authors I hadn’t met in person yet.

After a quick one at the Pig, we went to the house of Cheri, Trish, Jacqui and Jo for a private reading. Rrrose, DK, Dalia also read. And Trish made us chilli con carne that was fantastic.

Rrrose and DK came to our house to hang out for a while, then Nell and Trin popped by too. Nice evening with friends. I’m feeling like I’m getting the hang of this, and it’s only my second event.

Had planned to go on the walking tour this morning, which got scuppered by the weather — windy and raining cats and dogs at one point. Stayed in, took it easy with the housemates. It’s a sight — all 4 of us on our laptops doing facebooking, twittering, reading, emailing, photoshopping (that’s me). We had planned a house dinner tonight, which got expanded when we decided to post an open invitation on fb. We went to the supermarket and ended up spending $240 on food, chips and alcohol.

 

We ended up with 10 people, a good dinner party size. Chef made individual meatloaf with mashed potatoes and oven-baked glazed carrots & parsnips. I was sous chef and pastry chef for the day — made salad and apple crumble served with vanilla ice cream. Everything was delicious, especially with the wines — I bought a chateauneuf-du-pape to share with Chef, and there was also a nice Pinot and a Petite Syrah. Others were enjoying beer, smirnoff ice and soft drinks.

A few of us went to the Vixen bar afterwards for more drinks (i had a Stella and a Jack and diet coke) and air hockey (3-0 for me, yay!). The jack and diet was pretty potent, we talked a bit more once we got home but i went to bed soon after.

First order of business today, drive out to the mall at Hyannis so Car can get a replacement camera. Of course while at Best Buy I see the canon s90, which came out yesterday. so tempting, but I’m gonna wait. I can fix my coolpix with a rubber band, so may be it has a few months left in it.

The main plan today was to systematically visit the cemeteries in this area. There are many old cemeteries here, and they are all full of character and history. So, one by one:

   
Cove Burying Ground: site of the original congregational church and has markers for 3 Mayflower passengers. All in all a nice, peaceful, small cemetery.

Eastham Congregational and Soldier: the major attraction there, surprisingly, is the moss on all the gravestones.

South Wellfleet: a little unkempt, but that’s its charm. Gravestones facing every direction, some markers hidden in grass, other parts more groomed.

Duck Creek: undulating landscape, some markers were broken and lobsided, interesting. Lots of mushrooms.



On the way back, we stopped at Truro Vineyard. Just in time for a wine tasting. $7 for 5 tastes. I had a chardonnay, a vignoles, a cab, their triumph blend and a sweet cranberry wine. The cranberry, and their sweet white, came in distinctive lighthouse bottles. I bought a couple, for decoration.



Dinner was at the lobster pot, where I briefly contemplated having the crab. But i got told off by Car, so I changed my order back to lobster — I’d been whining about lobster for a while, so i had to get it. It was really fresh, having presumably come straight out of the ocean today. Total $30, including clam chowder, salad and a side of mussels. I had a local amber ale too, nice and dark, the way I like it. We walked home, completely full and having had an enjoyable and relaxing day.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day when we woke up, and it kept sunny all day. We checked out and was on the I-84 towards Boston in no time. Didn’t stop for breakfast, just sandwiches in the car, making good time.



Stopped at Milford for gas (full service, seriously!). Then by chance came across Pine Grove cemetery. The gravestones were old and well maintained. What I hadn’t seen before were gravestones for the whole family in the same plot. The central pond was pretty, and the trees around it already turning autumn colours. We spent a nice half an hour there.



The route was straightforward. We ended up at a tourist information centre at Hyannis, then stopped at Nauset Marsh, not worrying about the time. The marsh was also very beautiful, the combination of well maintained paths, water and autumn trees very enticing indeed.



Next stop, Head of the Meadows beach. Sandy, with sand dunes, and I hadn’t seen the Atlantic for a while, it was so peaceful and refreshing.

Finally we drove to the tip of Cape Cod at Provincetown, our holiday home for this week. Our house was a great 3 bedroom place we will share with 2 others. Lots of deck room, spacey bedrooms, and a spiral staircase leading up to a tower turret study / den.



After dumping our stuff, we walked to the town centre, stopping at the shoreline to take in the beach scenery. it’s so beautiful. The main commercial area is at, well, Commercial Street. It’s narrow, full of people and lined on both sides with interesting shops, restaurants and galleries. We didn’t have dinner there, walking back to the house and meeting our housemates. Did go out for pizza at a place in Truro, just a local-ish type of place. I had ice cream too.

Cape Cod is truly beautiful, and I can easily see why people come and stay. It’s like the South of France, the combination of breathtaking scenery and general charm is hard to beat.

I had quite a bit to do at work, but a lot of motivation to get it done. Still managed to leave at 4pm and was at Car’s house within an hour, pretty quick considering the rain and the traffic. We had dinner, then transferred the luggage to the SUV. Since we are bringing the car we packed freely: our respective bags, a box of books, shoes, snacks and a cooler of sandwiches and drinks.

We left at 6.45pm. Then hit traffic at Indiana, wasted over an hour because of construction. Then made better time as soon as we escaped that area. I took over at midnight and drove for about 2.5 hours, taking us from Ohio and into Pennsylvania. But that’s for tomorrow.

My friend RM is here for work, but he came over early to stay with me over the weekend. I picked him up from the airport yesterday, we took it easy last night — I made lamb chops and we walked around Clark for a bit after dinner.

It was a glorious day today. We started by going to ann sather for brunch. It’s a beautiful restaurant with local European feel and good food. We were quite greedy, hehe. Between us we had crabcake eggs benedict, cheesecake panini french toast and sides of bacon, sausage, applesauce and hash brown. Extremely full but very very tasty.

I drove into town, parked at Millenium Park. Visited the bean, the Loop, Sears Tower (but didn’t go up), Michigan Ave, the Apple Store of course. There are a variety of tours we could have chosen — the hop-on hop-off trolleybus, the architectural boat cruise — but we were both excited to go on the segway tour.


youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adm89zeK3gQ

I’d seen people on segways before, it’s pretty common in chicago, but never tried it myself. oh boy, was it absolutely fun!!! It took no time to get familiarised, and accelerating, stopping and steering were very intuitive. The tour was 2.5hrs, and we went all the way from the top of millenium park to the museum campus, northerly island, soldier field and back. I’d say for every visitor I’m getting from now on will get a recommendation for these.

Ten years ago today, 29 Sept, I arrived at New York. It was the first time I’d moved from one country to another on my own. Even though I was familiar with Asia and Europe, I was less familiar with the US.

I found this when I was cleaning up my writing stuff earlier. I’d had these scraps of paper with scribbled words for ages and ages. This is what I wrote those first days, most of it for mm. I typed it up unedited.

Brand New New Yorker

29/9
Did I tell you that when I checked in the desk clerk told me that seat 83K wasn’t reserved, but it was available anyway so I took it anyway but it turned out the recline didn’t work! Luckily the seat next to me wasn’t occupied so it was ok, the entire upstairs was only half full anyway. Couldn’t sleep very well, wrong time of day, ate and watched the films — most repeats. The Matrix, Love Letter. What the hell it helps pass the time, quite comfy anyway. Thought about you, did you hear me say good night and to wake you up? Stopped myself from thinking too much about missing you. Soon it’ll hit me that I’m not on vacation, this is for real and going to be for a long time. Busied myself thinking about where to go for your last twentysomething do, and guess what, the west coast isn’t the only place between NY and HK, there’s the whole of Europe! What about Venice or Eastern Europe?

One hour stopover in Vancouver, first time in Canada. Forgotten how pretty things are here, well designed. I know how biased you are against Canadians (Chuey…) so I didn’t get you a souvenir. Still quite tired, sitting at a coffee shop near the gate writing to you after searching in vain for an internet connection. Walked around the duty free places but no concept of how much things are, too tired to convert currencies. Can’t believe how many Asians here, announcements in English Cantonese and Mandarin. Saw logs floating on the river first time with my own eyes. Guess I’ll be using ‘first time’ a lot. It’s 2am HK time, are you asleep yet? I miss you.

30/9
Amazingly I got out in 15mins! Plane landed and we had to wait for the previous plane to vacate the parking space but once we parked I was able to get through Immigration really quickly, no comments or problems. Luggage was one of the first out and nothing at customs either. Ernie was surprised. The apartment is nice inside, can’t believe how much it costs though. A one-bedroom apartment, pretty good size we’ll be quite comfortable even if we both had to stay here. I wish you were here. Neighbourhood seems ok decent, delis, supermarkets, laundries. Bought some pizza and ate back at the apartment. Bought a phone card, prepaid with a dial-in number and an access number. Supposed to be cheaper than using the phone here. I called Mum and of course I called you, want to tell you everything but now I can’t really put words into how I’m seeing things. Lots of TV channels but not sure what is on, far too confusing for someone like me who’s used to only 4 channels plus a few on cable. Went to bed at around 11pm but woke up twice. Woke up at 7-ish couldn’t sleep more. Watched TV and read the newspaper. Raining this morning but it got sunnier later. Quiet street here not many people around.

2/10
Forced by necessity and that sense of expectation to venture out of the relative familiarity of the apartment. Promised my grandma and aunt and cousin I’d visit them, so had to go take the subway (including buying a stored value ticket) and getting a monthly train pass. All so strange, such a long time ago that I took a train. Walked from Times Square to Penn Station with the sun in my eyes, felt like a tourist yet wasn’t a tourist. Had a salad in a deli salad bar, keep adding to the places I’d take you when you come visit. Trains all over the world are so alike, buy ticket, go to platform, give ticket to conductor, change trains, avoid dozing off. Suburbs everywhere also the same, just the size varies and the names on the storefront different. But the same mentality people go through the same motions.

Today turned out to be a crappy day at the end. It started out well enough, with breakfast and then what KK called “kiss and cry” as good-byes were said. I packed and we checked out of our room. I even went to the membership meeting and … gasp … spoke out.

Just before our bus was due to pick us up the sky opened up. Heavy thunderstorm persisted till we got to the airport. We found seats in the crowded terminal. The flight was supposed to leave at 4pm, and the plane arrived at the gate at 4.05pm, so needless to say we were delayed. The flight wasn’t that comfortable, it was full and I scrunched into the middle seat.

Car was in pain and had been for a few days, poor thing. Her mom was at the airport. To add insult to injury, 3 out of 4 of our bags came but the last one didn’t. It was one of Car’s, but in a twisted turn, was tagged under my name. The agents checked and advised that it looked like one whole cart didn’t make it. At that point, Car and her mom went home and I queued up to register the lost luggage. About 30mins into the queuing, they told us they found the cart, and so we waited another 15mins for it to come out. Okay, nice, relieved. But I had 2 big bags plus my puma bag to haul home. Taxi time. I didn’t get home till almost 10pm.

The highlight of today’s sessions is undoubtedly the author auction, where selected authors get auctioned off to the highest bidder for the first dance at tonight’s award dance. I was as usual busy with videoing, even more so cos a couple of authors had confided their plans with me beforehand — so I could get into the best position. It’s good that the other camcorder was fixed so i could roam. The auction was hilarious, with costumes, muscles, lap dances, leather, heels and plain charm. I actually bid on one and won, but was too busy with my job that i didn’t collect. Heehee.

Quite a lot of free time in the afternoon, so postie and I hung out at the pool. Late afternoon it was time to get ready for the Awards Reception and Ceremony. I’d brought my pinstripe suit and M&S shirt — my best work clothes — which I spruced up with a pin, a pinstriped fedora I bought at Disney, and (lol) one extra button undone (still modest though). There were plenty of fabulously dressed people — the suave in tuxedos and suits and the elegant in cocktail dresses and heels.

Shoes got a lot of attention, from KK’s shiny heels to someone’s rainbow chucks. Mine weren’t bad either, I wore the silver acupunctures that are perfect for this type of function.

The awards were fun. Lots of authors i recognise. Rach from the vlr won 2 awards, one for debut author, i’m so proud of her. And for that I acquiesced when she dragged me to the dancefloor, although I only lasted just over 1 song. I think I made so many friends tonight it’s amazing.

This morning opened with the keynote address from JM Redmann, followed by a coffee chat. Both general sessions, no breakouts. I was videoing again, and paying attention to the interesting talks.

Lunch was provided, which was different from yesterday. Thing about having the conference at the Hilton is the proximity to Downtown Disney, and that there is a 24hour marketplace that sells drinks, sandwiches, snacks and such like. Perhaps the conference can provide drinks and snacks but I guess there wasn’t the budget for it.

After lunch was a session on romance together with lots of ppt slides. I wasn’t overly interested in the next block, but since Car wasn’t well and sleeping in the room and I didn’t want to go upstairs to disturb her, i thought i might as well go to a session. It was on writing series characters, which was pretty okay. The last session of the day I went to a fun and games — it was a hilarioius session of Jeopardy.



There was time to visit the vendors area where booksellers had set up stalls. There’s also a silent auction of goodies like books, posters, action figures, wine etc donated by various people.

Even more people joined for drinks at the bar and dinner. We decided to go to the House of Blues, there were 12 of us at the end.

The evening entertainment was pool and hot tub again, but not before we all sat out a heavy thunderstorm. The pool party was crowded! At one point at least 20 people were sat in the hot tub singing show tunes. I didn’t know any of them, so I left a little early.

The conference proper started today. It’s my first time, and I was a little scared. I stuck closely to the couple of people I met last night, and postie naturally. I had my big camera and my new camcorder in my backpack. Got talking with another participant with a camcorder, turned out she volunteered / was asked to record the conference. So I said I’d help too, and with 2 camcorders it should be better.

So I found myself a job and it made my life easier. Less lonely, less unsure of what to do and where to go. I can focus on videoing and photographing instead of talking to people.

I went to a session about writing a realistic beat cop, run by an actual former beat cop. Then there was a coffee chat, a readers’ panel and finally a session on sci-fi, fantasy and horror writing. All very interesting and fun.

As the day wore on, I ran into more people I know either from the reading last year, the vlr or on fb. I’m pretty surprised I actually know so many people (well, about 10). Joined up with a bunch of them for drinks at the bar then dinner at Downtown Disney, ending up at Wolfgang Puck Express where I had a spaghetti with tomato and basil.

After dinner we sat around the pool, just hanging out. Then a couple of them decided they’d go into the pool. So I went upstairs, changed and joined them. Then more participants came, and we had a pool party. Which got moved to the hot tub until lights out at 11pm.

There are many big name writers at this conference, and I’m only a wee little reader. That said, there was no feeling of arrogance, all of the writers seemed to be just regular people. Many of them have day jobs, which made them more down to earth I think.

Hollywood studios today. When we were planning this trip we were thinking, blah hollywood studios who wants to see the American Idol Experience? Oh my, were we wrong. This theme park ROCKS.

Needless to say I pouted and batted my eyelids so that we went to the Star Wars ride first. It’s a simulator, similar to Mission:Space at Epcot. But this time it’s on a Federation vessel that accidentally got caught, among other places, in the Death Star trenches. It was super fun. I got heady and lost at the Star Wars shop on the way out, and managed to offload quite a bit of cash on: a Jedi Academy robe and a make-it-yourself lightsabre (double ended like Darth Maul’s of course).


For me, the distinctive attraction about this park is that it’s full of sights and sounds. Even the landscaping had a Hollywood theme.

Car and I went on the Aerosmith Rock’n’Rollercoaster. It’s an indoor coaster, very fast and loud. At the queue, this 10 year old boy kept telling me how the car starts at 60mph then accelerates to 100mph very quickly and that I should take my glasses off cos it may fall out. We figured he thought I was a kid, cos he totally ignored Car. Hahaha!! I must admit to failure, I closed my eyes and adopted a fetal position for the whole ride.

 
After lunch (beer and cheeseburger) we took in the Beauty and the Beast show and then Car dragged me to the Tower of Terror. Postie got the fastpasses for us earlier. This one was terrifying and I was plenty scared going in. We were strapped in seats in a giant lift that did random freefall drops. All I could think about was “is it over yet?” while trying to keep my backpack from disappearing — i was literally lifted off my seat several times during this ride. My hands were shaking when I got out. Once is enough.

We got back to the hotel around 5pm. Just in time for the Meet and Greet for the conference. Had some wine, and then went to the suite of one of the authors for a selective book signing session. Even managed to catch some fireworks. Conference starts tomorrow.

(catchup post and make sure to click on the panorama)

Met a new friend today, postie from the bella forum. She’s from Yorkshire, and boy was I ecstatic to hang out with a Brit. Car was feeling poorly so I met postie by myself. We went to Epcot, which looked brighter and bigger in the morning sun. Lots of photo opportunities, including with a disney photopass — it’s a plastic card with a code that can be given to any of the official photographers. once the photos are taken they scan the card, and we can look at the photos online for 30 days. I bet it’s expensive, but i think it’s a good way to capture people pics.


Anyway, the distinctive spaceship earth dominated the entrance, and at certain angles looks like a giant golf ball resting on leaves on the ground.

We got a fastpass for Mission:Space, then roamed around the innoventions pavilion before finding ourselves at the Honey I shrunk the Audience 3D show. At Mission:Space there were 2 rides — the orange regular ride and an green “less intense” ride that is the same as orange except with no spinning. We were wusses and went for the green ride. It’s a Mars landing simulator and huge huge fun. I’m scared of rollercoasters but have no problems with simulators. May be I should go on the orange ride next time. I got a fastpass for Test Track but forfeited it (more later).


The great thing about Epcot is that it has the futureworld section with the rides and such; and then it has the world showcase section around the lagoon. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We found ourselves at a perfect spot looking over the lagoon and there were no other people. I took this series of 8 pics to make the panorama.

Lunch was at the Germany pavilion. We had the oktoberfest beer and i had a bratwurst and a crumble cake — the whole counting calories thing is going out of the window this week.

After lunch we decided to go back to the hotel to pick up Car. Hence forfeiting the TT fastpass. On the way out we were stopped by a disney staff and asked to complete a customer satisfaction survey. I was in such a hurry that i just put whatever answers were the most convenient on the touchscreen. Which meant postie and I were aged 7 and 8 respectively, and we had beer for lunch. Way to skew the stats. We ended up missing the bus so we got a taxi back.

 
Animal Kingdom was every bit as fabulous as the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It was CROWDED, and the fastpasses had run out. So we queued up properly for the Harambe safari, the biggest attraction there. It was like a real african safari, we saw rhinos, giraffes, thomson gazelles, elephants, warthogs, flamingos, cheetahs and a male lion. Very authentic and impressive.


The rollercoaster ride there is the Everest ride, but we didn’t go because it had stopped — with a whole car of people stuck right there for at least 20 mins. I took a photo of that too. Instead, we went on the Kali Rapids water ride. It was a long queue but totally worth it, it’s my favourite ride so far this week. There was a sign that said “you will get wet, you may get soaked” — it’s a complete lie because getting soaked is a 100% certainty, within 30 seconds of the ride starting the whole pod went through a water sprout, it’s the degree of soakiness that may vary. Suffice it to say that we were well and truly soaked at the end. FUN FUN FUN!!!

After showering and changing, we had beers and food at the hotel bar — nachos, pizza and i had a chicken quesadila. Exhausted, very very happy.

Today we went to Magic Kingdom, and this means that I’ve visited all FIVE Disney parks in the world. The day started really grotty, with showers that got heavier. Didn’t dampen our enthusiasm one single bit, today I felt like, and acted like, I was 12. Heehee.

Rides / attractions we did — autopia, small world, haunted mansion, big thunder mountain, country bear jamboree, pirates of the caribbean, splash mountain. All i can say is, they were all fantastic and fun and impressive. One useful feature we didn’t fully utilise till the end was the fast pass, which is a little like getting a reserved timeslot, it is great for planning and saves time on queuing.

Didn’t really have a sitdown lunch, I got a huge turkey leg to munch on at one point. Kept drinking water as the weather cleared up and it was the expected Florida sunny day. Did some shopping as well, bought a mug, an oven glove set, tote bags, a pirates t-shirt and a Jasmine costume for my niece. Since we are staying at one of the hotels inside the disney complex, we can have our purchases delivered to the hotel, no need to lug bags back, how thoughtful.

After returning to our room and resting for a bit, we headed to Epcot for dinner. Every theme park has a late opening night and tonight was Epcot’s turn to stay open till midnight. We went straight to World Showcase and had dinner at the Mexican restaurant. I even had a passion fruit margarita. After dinner we walked around and I indulged in a little night photography — I’d brought the EOS and the tripod with me for the Epcot outing.

The efficient free Disney bus took us back to the hotel. Showered and still a little wired. Plan tomorrow is to return to Epcot for the attractions, then to Animal Kingdom. Keep an eye out for the tweets.

It’s been a while since I visited a new US state, and I deleted a few off an earlier list cos I just drove through them. This new one is genuine, I arrived in Orlando today for a week of combined holiday and conference. This is just a quick snap that I twittered, it was taken as we were walking from our hotel to the restaurant at Downtown Disney. It was threatening to rain, hence the blue-grey sky. There will naturally be a full set of pics and detailed write-ups when the trip is done.

i shut down the mbp this morning with a guilty twinge — i’m gonna be without it till next sunday — a good 10 days. I’m going away on holiday, then to the conference. I’m taking the netbook. A fb friend, upon reading my dilemma tweet (mbp or wind?) put it aptly — that it will be an experiment to see if I’m compatible with netbook computing. I think I am, but ask me again in 3, 5, 7, 10 days.

My flight was at 4.35pm, and I gave myself 2 options: a) check out, leave the luggage at the hotel, go to Oxford Street and come back; b) check out, leave the luggage at Paddington, go to Oxford Street then get on the Heathrow Express. I opted for (b) cos I didn’t fancy trekking back to Liverpool Street, there wasn’t a lot of time anyway. What I didn’t account for, was that it costs £8 for left luggage. That’s too expensive!



So I ended up hanging around the station. Had a very nice plum tart and tea at paul. Took my time, didn’t do anything to hurry up.

Had plenty of time at the lounge. Even though I was flying AA, I went to the CX lounge instead. Ate some food, drank lots, watched the cricket, talked to mm. It’s funny, Mum couldn’t decide on the colours for the flooring and tiles, and couldn’t find me cos I was in London so she called mm! Very wifely. Hehe.

Flight wasn’t full but someone sat next to me. I had the first seat in business class. Watched He’s just not that into you, napped for a bit, listened to the radio, watched the flight path. It was a long fly-in, overshot Chicago, almost to Iowa before turning back! Must have been a long queue. Immigration and customs were quick, I got a talkative taxi driver, was home by 9pm. Went to the supermarket, initially to get milk and ended up getting loads of other stuff. I’m glad to be home.

I’m not used to “only” 7 hour flights, which was how long it took from ORD to LHR. Quick dinner, watched The International then I made sure to get some sleep. Woke up an hour before landing and had some cereal for breakfast.

Tube strike today, start of 48hs. It’s been a long while since the whole Tube was closed. A car picked me and my colleague up from T3 and it took one hour to get to Chiswick roundabout, and 2.5hrs to get to our hotel. Staying at the Andaz at Liverpool Street, which I stayed in when it first opened and was known as the Great Eastern.

Went to the office for conf calls and meetings. Wanted to get salt beef bagels but the walk is too long. Went running, ordered room service sushi and now watching England vs Andorra. Woot, football!

Uploaded NYC pics: nyc set | ym6 set

One that isn’t related to the trip, but I really like it. In the Ellis Island museum, there’s a area that they haven’t totally restored and the feel is still stuck in the 1950s. Some of the rooms were empty, though roped off. This is one of them. I wanted to convey the sense of quietness and isolation that I felt, looking at that room.

i fell asleep the second the lights went out last night, and slept all the way through to almost 8am. We checked out of the b&b, returned to the breakfast place from yesterday, and headed out to Rockefeller Plaza. I didn’t know about the top of the rock observation deck, it was great! Panoramic view of central park and a closeup the empire state building.



Outside at the plaza I spied a Teuscher store. Sigh. Memories. I had to get their champagne truffles even though they’re like almost $5 apiece.

then it was time to return to the b&b and head out to the airport. we called Ali again, and he in his imitable way brought us to LGA quickly and humorously. I took Car into the AA lounge until it was time for her flight. we were on different airlines for the return to chicago. the weather in NYC had been great all weekend, which didn’t prepare us for the delays — the weather in Chicago was grotty, and air traffic control at ORD was controlling flights coming in. This means my flight originally at 5.30pm was delayed until 7.30pm. I was lucky that I was in the lounge in a comfortable sofa and free drinks. Once we boarded the plane, they pushed us out quickly but we had to sit on the tarmac for 20mins waiting for our takeoff slot.

In the end I got back to PT after 10pm. I’d originally planned to go grocery shopping, but that was no good. Shopping and laundry will have to wait till tomorrow.

i’m in nyc this weekend, to meet up with car and bobbi and to attend a launch event. got in last night after an uneventful flight to LGA. We’re staying at chelsea pines inn at w14th and 8th — the meatpacking district. it’s a great little b&b, with rooms named after hollywood stars. we were in the George Nader room, except I have no clue who George Nader was.

woke up early, after a restless night. the b&b has a nice kitchen with a simple continential breakfast. We wanted a real breakfast instead so we walked over to this very nice place. i had waffle with ham, which i scarfed down at record speed. i was pretty hungry, having only had snacks at the ORD lounge, and the remains of a beef sandwich when I arrived at the b&b.

After breakfast we taxied down to Battery Park to catch the ferry. The queue was long cos of the nice day, lots of tourists, and security check. This meant we had time to check out the sights and sounds — street vendors, buskers, the Korean war memorial.



We didn’t alight at the statue of liberty, the view from the boat was nice enough. I’ve never been to Ellis Island, and was impressed with the museum. Unlike some other visitors, i don’t have the emotional connection of “my great-grandparents came through here when they immigrated from the old country” though i can understand how it can be moving. The small exhibit on the ground floor was the most impressive, with visual exhibits showing immigration trends.



Back on shore, we walked the 10mins or so to Ground Zero. It’d been fenced over, even more so than my last nyc visit, and there wasn’t much to see. The memorial wall seemed a little sad and temporary, perhaps the idea is that it goes on the new buildings when and if they are completed. With the amount of interest in the site, i’m surprised there isn’t an observation platform or something like that. Yes, it’s tacky to treat this place like any other tourist destination, but it can be done with dignity and for visitors to have a more substantial experience. It’s important.



We were tired after that, so we taxied it back to the b&b to relax for a bit. There’s snacks and hot drinks available at all time in the kitchen as well as free wifi, a change from business hotels i tend to find myself staying. Originally we were going to take a bus to NJ, but wisely decided to call a car instead. it wouldn’t have cost that much more than a taxi and a bus, and miles more convenient. We were attending the launch party for yuri monogatari 6, a graphic novel series. The party was at rareflix.com store at the Secaucus outlet NJ. Very hard to find place, and to add to the confusion, it’d moved. Credit to our driver who stuck with us and was determined to find it. A lesser driver would have just abandoned us somewhere in the general vicinity.



I’m not a big consumer of comics and graphic novels. I feel like I should get into them more, but haven’t been able to. That’s one of the reasons I was looking forward to this trip. The party was low-keyed and casual. We looked around the store, including in the back where there was a horror set. Pretty soon the contributors arrived and started signing. For sone reason they all had to wear purple and white feather boas, i guess to distinguish them from non-authors? i dunno, it was fun anyway. We were there primarily to support JD, who also writes books, is in a band, is super smart and all round cool person. The evening ended far too early at 10-ish (and that’s saying something). we called Ali, our driver, and he took us back to the b&b.

We hadn’t had dinner, so we ran across the road and got pizza. I had a slice of bbq chicken, it was perfect for the time and place.

Arrived LHR before schedule cos of strong tailwinds. 7 hours is one of those neither here nor there flight times. After they fed us, I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Wasn’t interested in watching any film so ended up reading. The ereader was FANTASTIC. Did manage to nap for about an hour before breakfast came round.

Heathrow is big and confusing. First off, I hate that we didn’t park at a gate and had to get a bus. Then I had to get another bus from T5 to T3. That was a good 20mins spent on buses. The security line at T3 was long too, but at least unlike the Americans we didn’t need to take off our shoes. So finally I staggered to the CX lounge and staked my claim on the sofa in the first class lounge. It’s a pretty grotty lounge actually, and definitely not enough electrical points for laptops and such like. I hopped out for a bit to get twix, aero and milk trays for mm and other people. My recollection of T3 was that it was big and full of shops. There are still a millions shops but the waiting area seems grotty and very very crowded. I must count my blessings.

I got bumped up to first class. I half expected it cos this flight was full and I was originally waitlisted. It makes sense for them to bump people up to fill up the plane. I’m very lucky to have the comfortable seat for the long flight.

Watched Quantum of Solace during dinner, then slept for 5 hours. Watched Twilight and did not get the fuss. It’s kinda lame.

I finished my work by 11am and thought sod it, i’m not hanging around for the sake of hanging around. So I went back to PT, squeezed in an intervals session, showered and left around 2pm. There was a bit of traffic to the airport due to some roadworks.

I’d checked in already, and the queue at the BA counter was slow. It was weird, watching the woman’s demeanor change between when I walked up with my documents and my leaving. Sigh, it is the emerald status. The BA lounge was nice. At 4pm they opened the dining room and I had a nice chicken salad, lamb with guinness and some cheese. Too much Pinot Noir too, heehee.

So, time to board. i have a window seat, one of those rear facing ones. I usually don’t like facing backwards but I’m thinking it’ll be okay.

With 5 trips to Chicago this year I definitely made it over 100,000 miles. 113,140miles = 182,081km. Distances are between airports and calculated at webflyer. I’ve reached diamond level at the Marco Polo Club, so next year will be a good year in terms of privileges. Wonder if I’ll get as many miles under my belt in 2009 as 2008.

Had half a day to spare before needing to go to Heathrow so I took the opportunity to walk around and take pictures of places and things that I’d taken for granted when I was young. First I walked from the hotel to Liverpool Street past my old company then through Moorgate and back to my old school. Some of the old shops are still there — like that Boots next to Moorgate station.

 

The school looks the same too, as was the sign for Cripplegate Without on the wall of St Giles Church, one of the remaining old use of ‘without’ I think.

 
 

Took the tube to Hyde Park Corner to the Hard Rock Café with the sole purpose of getting a new London HRC polo shirt. More about that in another post on my HRC polo shirt collection. I’d actually never walked around Wellington Place on foot, because that’s such a touristy thing to do. The New Zealand war memorial is new, and is very poignant. From the HRC I walked all the way to Piccadilly Circus to another tourist mecca — the Eros statue, Leicester Square and Chinatown. The familiar restaurants are still here, including our old favourite. Except instead of noodles it’s now a §8.90 buffet place. The second hand bookstores on Charing Cross Road were unchanged too.

Lunch at Belgo, where I had moules provenç with frites that looked more like chips. Washed them down with a Chimay Bleu beer, and tried the Floris Apple beer too. The apple beer tasted of cider, nothing special.

By then it was almost time to head back to the hotel. By bus again, and it being a nice day looking out of the windows was clear.

Here are some uniquely London things: the traditional red phonebox and the open platform routemaster buses. Not many of either left.

 

More pictures at the flickr set. And I edited monday’s post to add a few food pics.

On a grotty, grey, drizzly November day, I am a Londoner again.

I left 13 years ago to follow…someone, something, some unknown dreams. I last visited the UK 4 years ago. I was afraid that I’d feel out of place, unfamiliar. That I won’t recognise the streets, that I won’t know how to navigate the tube, or not know what food to order.

None of that. The flight arrived at 4.40am, and I was through immigration quickly — there are counters now, where your passport gets scanned rather than just glimpsed at by an officer. Terminal 5 reared its ugly head again, as my luggage took forever to get to the carousel — the fact that it’s priority didn’t seem to matter to the baggage handlers. Well, I had time.

Staying at the Crowne Plaza Shoreditch near Liverpool Street. Was all checked in and unpacked by 7am. What to do, what to do? Time to get back to old habits.

Londoner #1: bought drinks and crisps from the Tesco Metro across the road. Walkers for mm and Quavers for me.
Londoner #2: walked 10mins to the bagel place at Brick Lane to get salt beef bagels. Yes, far too early in the morning, but I don’t care, it’s been years. We used to drive all the way from home in the middle of the night to get those salt beef bagels, so walking over from the hotel was no big deal.


Londoner #3: bought a Oyster Card, though I eventually got a one day travelcard instead. Tube to Oxford street. And no, there was no problem in navigating the tube. Shed a tiny tear when I noticed it was a West Ruislip train I got on.
Londoner #4: shopping shopping shopping — underwear form M&S (hee, tmi); Christmas pudding for Mum, also from M&S; bathroom scale from John Lewis. Now I have to explain why I go all the way to the UK to get a bathroom scale, and the answer is very simply — I need scales that are in stones, meaning UK only.
Londoner #5: late lunch at John Lewis, where else? Scallop risotto and lemon & sugar crepes. The crepes did not taste the same as I remembered, a little disappointed.
 

Londoner #6: took the bus back to the hotel cos I wanted to watch the streets. It started raining though so the windows fogged up. Got asked the way by my neighbour, a tourist from Eastern Europe. And I knew how to direct him!
Londoner #7: got dark by 3.30pm, 4-ish. And like everyone else, I shrugged it off.
Londoner #8: whinging about the lack of TV channels. I’m so spoiled by the choices in the US. heehee.

Bought some vegetable and guacamole dip for dinner. Didn’t feel like a lot. 40mins running at the hotel gym. The thought of weight training went out of the window cos the hotel only has 2 treadmills, 2 ellipticals and a rowing machine. Gonna be an early night tonight. I had a nap early this morning but there’s no harm to get more rest.

God, it feels good to be home.

It has been 5 years, it was a long wait, but it was well worth it.

We took over 1,500 pictures which I’ve trimmed down to 873 and 8 videos in 3 flickr sets: part 1 | part 2 | part 3

There’s a thread in one of the flickr groups called the 5-shots-a-trip game where you’re supposed to show a trip using only 5 pictures. My choices were based on what they brought to me:

• something new — marimo
• something breathtaking — sunset at bibaushi
• something delicate — millenium forest
• something indulgent — the joy of hot springs
• something fulfilling — all that seafood

The whole trip has been written up:

day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6 | day 7 | day 8 | day 9

Not including flights, hotel and car rental we spent ¥307,823, or approx $2,800 so double that for the whole trip. I’ve broken down the cash spending into categories.

Should really take out mm’s Burberry shopping. Heehee.

We want to go back already. Even with 2 trips there are so many places in Hokkaido we hadn’t explored. The far south Hakodate, the ice boats at Abashiri, the tiny islands off the NW side, Jozenkei Onsen, skiing at Niseko and many more.

An old New York Times article so aptly described why visitors to this magnificent island return to it again and again.

[T]he primary difference between Hokkaido and the rest of this heavily industrialized, crowded country is that it is still raw and largely unsettled. Hokkaido is Japan’s frontier and looks the part. In a country where little goes to waste, the Japanese have set aside large expanses of this countryside.

We’ll try not to let 5 years lapse before our next visit.

1. Full of food

My stomach is full to its limit. We spent 9 straight days eating anything and everything we wanted. Thankfully since it’s Japanese food mostly it’s low on red meat and high on seafood and vegetables. Still, I can’t help feeling bloated after quite a few of those meals. By the time it got to Saturday and Sunday I was subconsciously staying away from snacks, and I found that the trousers I had on at the beginning of our trip felt just that little bit tighter. Sigh.

1. Full of images

We took both my cameras. I had the 350D and mm had the S550. I went through 2 CF cards (total ~3GB) and mm through almost the entire 4GB SDHC card. We ended up with over 1,500 pictures.

Whenever we stopped for a shot potentially there’d be half a dozen pictures all at slightly different angles. mm tends to take 3 identical ones, probably cos of her conservative / safe nature. It’s a lot of work to sort through these and rename them. I can understand for occasion shots to get duplicates, but every.single.one? Sigh.

1. Full of clothes

I’ve done 3 loads of laundry already. I took too many clothes, thinking it’d be cooler than it was, and forgot that Japanese hotels generally provide yukatas.

I can’t seem to accept the idea of wearing a shirt multiple days running. I need new shirts every day, this adds to the laundry load.

home

Flight was at 4.40pm so we had the whole morning for shopping. Breakfast was ramen at the JR station. First time we had ramen this trip and it was a good one.

mm went crazy and bought a handbag and a couple of purses from Burberry Blue Label. Blue Label is exclusively licensed to Japan and seem to have a more contemporary design. We even got the tax refund immediately in the store, very convenient.

I didn’t buy anything, unless ice cream and gumi sweets count.

We were very late returning the car, mm was cornered by someone on a customer satisfaction survey. We were spared the pain of check-in cos of my gold card but everyone was treated equal at security. For the 3 flights leaving around that time there was one security checkpoint so imagine the queue.

The lounge was tiny, more like the waiting room at a train station albeit with better seats and free drinks. The flight was fine, we had 3 seats to ourselves.

Otaru

I didn’t think we’d make it back to Otaru. In my mind it’s got shopping and more shopping and how many pretty glass ornaments can we buy?

I’m glad mm insisted to return. After all, it’s only 30 mins drive from Sapporo. We had a great day. Tired from all the walking, but still good. Parking was difficult, at least for the free variety so we parked for the whole day. ¥100 for 30mins, max ¥1,200, we were prepared to pay the maximum price.

No visit to Otaru can be complete without a stop at the canal. I’ve never really gotten why it’s considered to absolutely stunningly beautiful. It’s pretty, but…I dunno.

Early lunch of uni rice at a food stall. We thought the place would get packed later but the crowds never appeared. They must have stuck to the restaurants on the main strip. And what a main strip. Took us the whole day to walk from one end to the other and back. Mostly glassware, music boxes and ornaments. There were repeats which suggested similar sources. Still, the handiwork was impressive.

I didn’t buy much. mm bought sake sets from the outlet, an award winning bottle of sake, music boxes and other souvenirs. We learned something new today at the Otaru Music Box Museum. Normally music boxes are 18-note, so are limited in the range of music they can play. High end music boxes have 36-, 50- and even 72-notes. One of the curators at the museum showed us the difference, and it was remarkable. The 72-note box played Ave Maria with both treble and bass, just like on the piano (same number of keys). Naturally the price increase is exponential.

Food-wise we had a heavenly day. The seafood stall offering grilled scallops on the shell for ¥100 was too good to pass up. We had one each, then returned to have 2-3 each. At Kitakaro where we got a tea set of coffee, ice cream and puff for ¥500 was equally value for money.

Dinner back at the wholesale fish market in Sapporo. By then it was dark and the stalls had closed, but not the restaurants. For this last dinner we totally gorged ourselves, I had the crab set meal and mm had sushi and tempura. The new room at the Keio Plaza was way better, so much so that I was impressed (or relieved) enough to take pictures.

Bibaushi—>Sapporo

We found ourselves lingering, not wanting to leave, because Bibaushi is so stunning. We traced our route from the station to Takushinkan, this time by car. I’ve tried over the years to try to find more works by Shinzo Maeda and realise his son Akira has taken up his mantle. We bought a big stack of postcards, wanting to buy the whole lot.

A side note is that Takushinkan charged for parking, but only a minute away was a service area with free parking. We wondered why they even charge when every single car parked at the service area. Just as well because we had the sweetest sweetcorn and juiciest cherry tomatoes at the small shop there. The hospitality of the shopkeeper was amazing, she even gave us small doughy rolls to taste. May be our poor student persona was showing again.

The GPS directed us back to Sapporo via Asahikawa, weird. It was lunchtime and we stopped at a huge shopping mall. Had more buta-don and quickly looked around the giant Jusco supermarket. Food was amazing.

We took the fast, and expensive, highway to Sapporo. Instead of wasting time checking into the hotel we headed straight for Sapporo Factory for a little shopping. Not far away was the Sapporo Bier Garten. The beer museum was closed by the time we got there, but dinner had just begun.

Wow. Talk about vast and organised. The speciality is jingisukan, the romanji spelling for Genghis Khan. No surprise that it’s barbequed lamb. There are several different restaurants in the complex and the choices are - full buffet, 100 minute all-you-can-eat, à la carte and a grill. We opted for the AYCE, which for ¥3,570 included beer and soft drinks. I had 3 glasses (500ml each I think) of draft and a half-half mix of draft and black beer. Followed with a glass of oolong tea.

Another shopping mall next to the beer garden and the main attraction was the Uniqlo store. We both managed to buy something, woot!

When we checked into the Keio Plaza we were told that we had a standard (smoking) room for one night and had to move rooms for the second night. We were really, really annoyed. I mean, if a customer requests an additional night before their original booking, wouldn’t it make sense to have one room for both nights instead of treating it as two separate bookings? Not sure if it was the problem with our travel agent or the bureaucratic hotel.

Furano—>Biei

Today was all about reliving old experiences and sampling new ones. Furano, Biei and Bibaushi invoke images of rolling hills, vivid flowers and lone trees like no other place in my mind.

The cheese factory was a new experience. It was a little out of town and we didn’t have a car last time to reach there. There were free samples, including a black cheese made with cuttlefish ink, as well as hands-on cheese making sessions.

Next to the factory was an ice cream factory. We didn’t try it cos it was too early in the morning. A short walk to the back led us to a photographer’s gallery where the owner sold me one of his books.

Then it was off to Farm Tomita, arguably the biggest tourist attraction in Furano. The lavender had wilted by now, but there was still plenty of other flowers. Lavender inside the greenhouse if photographed a certain way gave the impression that it was outside.

The famous slope was bare, compared with full bloom last time.

Between Furano and Biei was the Trick Art Museum [English translation of Japanese site] where 2D paintings gave the illusion of 3D. Fun stuff.

Yet again we missed the narrow lunch window and most places in Biei were closed. We ended up eating instant ramen from 7-Eleven in our car. Sometimes we splurge out on expensive meals and yet sometimes we go back to poor student mode.

The starting point of the Biei circuit is Pension Ken & Mary with its distinctive tree. They charge ¥300 entrance to the café, or we can buy something to drink and sit on the terrace. No brainer, duh.

The sun was almost setting when we reached the Shikisai Hill otherwise known as four seasons hill farm. The hay figure was a memory from last time, as was their pumpkin ice cream.

We had dinner at an izakaya - drinking places that are part pub and part tapas bar. We ordered sushi, yakitori, fried camembert, and beef on hotplate. I had a beer and mm a sake. Such a pleasant way of spending an evening.

The softball gold medal match was on. I saw the first few innings at the bar and caught the final few after getting back to the b&b. To see the elation on the faces of the winning Japanese team was gorgeous. When the last US hitter got run out, one of the commentators cried and squealed, even not knowing Japanese I could tell her excitement.

Tokachigawa Onsen—>Obihiro—>Furano

Time to pack up and leave the Kangetsuen, sniff sniff. What a lovely place. Before heading out of the area totally, we explored the town around the hotel. Behind the visitors centre we enjoyed a foot bath and a few minutes’ drive away was the huge flower clock at Tokachigaoka Park.

Then it was time to head out in the direction of Obihiro and the Tokachi Millennium Forest, a nature reserve that is an eclectic combination of wilderness, agriculture, ecology, education, art and technology. The owners expect the site to be sustainable for 1,000 years and aim:

to nurture and maintain the natural woods where various animals and plants live. By planting conventional species of trees, we are restoring the original Tokachi forest. We welcome our visitors to come and discover the abundant nature of the forest, and to ultimately enhance their knowledge of agriculture.

The park was designed by Dan Pearson who was also responsible for Roppongi Hills and Millenium Dome. There were distinct zones - forest, grassy plain, agriculture garden and even a cheese factory. Located randomly in the park are works by various artists, the most famous being Yoko Ono.

We spent a bit of our money at the cheese factory on goat’s cheese. Got to sample fresh milk from this morning too.

We would have stayed at the forest for the whole day if not for needing to move on…and find lunch. We headed back to Obihiro, parked, and found out that most shops and restaurants were closed. It was only just after 2pm. Sigh. By sheer luck we came across Kita no Yatai which was a narrow alleyway of small stalls that looked interesting. These open at night for drinking and chatting so we wouldn’t get to experience them, what a shame.

One of the restaurants that were open nearby served buta-don, which is associated with the area. The options depended on the number of slices of pork on rice. We chose the smaller 4-slice portion and supplemented with a vegetable tempura.

Next stop after Obihiro was Furano. Funny thing about GPS, not all roads are registered on satellite. When we got to one of the toll booths the attendant tried very hard, with lots of words and drawing on a map, to explain to us that a new highway just opened. It was only driving on it, and freaking out the GPS (driving through a blank screen was hilarious), that we figured out what was happening.

We checked into the b&b and drove to town for dinner at Kumagera. Its speciality was raw beef don, tofu cheese and beef hot pot. mm had the beef don and I opted to try the bear set meal. Yes, bear meat. They warned that since it’s difficult to hunt bear, it may not be available all the time but they had it tonight. It tasted gamey but not as strong as venison, a little chewy like jerky but in general quite nice.

The restaurant also had a large selection of sake, so it became impossible for us not to try a glass.

The pension had a small onsen bath and we enjoyed that for a while. The best thing actually was the open shower area and we could talk and share the bathing experience. No wonder the Japanese talk about the social aspect of going to the onsen. There is no embarrassment about being naked with other bathers, unlike what might occur in other countries. No staring, no judging, no lewdness. Stripping away clothing is like leaving social barriers and other stresses of real life behind. Once in the baths, the flow, the heat and the sound of the water has a cleansing and peaceful effect.

Kushiro

Long drive today to Kushiro not helped by the poor weather. It rained and was cloudy all day. We missed the wetlands train by a few minutes, but we were only half-heartedly rushing for it anyway.

We made the tour of the wetlands by car instead. The Hosooka Viewpoint gave an expansive view of the meandering Kushiro river below us. This panorama was stitched from 6 photos, click for larger image.

Lunch was at Washo market, a non-descript building housing a wet market of about 80 stalls selling fruits, vegetables, seafood and other produce. The reason for the visit wasn’t because it is one of the three largest seafood markets in Hokkaido, it was to sample the katte-don, or “make-your-own” chirashi. It was simple. Buy your rice from one of the many stalls, picking the appropriate size. It’s sold by weight so no issue about scrimping. Next, go to one (or several) of the many seafood stalls and select the various items you want on your rice. That’s it. As was our focus on this trip, ebi, salmon roe and uni formed the main selection. Two chirashi plus a plate of uni came to ¥5,050.

The next stop was the Tancho Reserve that is home to a flock of red-capped cranes, Japan’s national bird. From pictures we thought it was an open nature reserve and were a little surprised to be confronted with high wired cages each housing a crane family. Strange. It could be that most of the cranes had migrated elsewhere, since they were only supposed to be on site during the winter. The theory that the ones remaining were in captivity was quickly debunked when a couple of them flew out of the cages and starting hanging out on the footpath. Clearly if they wanted to fly away they could, and these few chose to stay. It would still have been nice to see them in their natural habitat but it was also reassuring to know that they weren’t prisoners. They were tame though, we walked past them very close and they weren’t bothered.

We had coffee and ice cream at the small (rather deserted) souvenir shop off to one side of the carpark. The service we received was as usual impeccable.

There was just enough time to pay a short visit to the Kushiro City Marsh Observatory, another lookout to the wetlands.

Guess what? Our third beautiful dinner and more relaxing soaking in the onsen followed by Olympics. That’s the life.

Akan—>Mashu—>Sulphur Mountain

Breakfast was in the large dining room and self-service. All the traditional items were available - rice, fish, noodles, pickles. There was a local item that was like semolina with croutons that was interesting. Yogurt was more sticky than what we were used to, and had a mild taste. The tea from a teabag was awful so I stuck to oolong and green teas.

The drive to Akan was under 2 hours. We had our first petrol station experience on the way. It had been years since we’d been to a fully serviced place. They even cleaned our windows, and directed traffic to guide us back out to the road. Talk about great courtesy and service.

Lake Akan is one of three lakes in the Akan National Park. We just missed the hourly sightseeing boat so we took the speedboat option.

The main attraction of Lake Akan was to see marimo, slow-growing algae balls that populate the bottom of the lake. Marimo was declared a national treasure and there is a concerted effort to preserve them. The Marimo Observation Centre is located on an island at the top end of the lake. The round shape of the marimo is formed through gentle rotation of waves, and one of the exhibits replicated this action. It’s just like a relaxed version of lava lamps. [hurray for flickr video]

Back on shore, we walked the length of the village of Akankohan. The main industry being tourism, there was an abundance of souvenir shops. But hidden between buildings were hand or foot baths. Temperatures ranged from cool to too-hot-to-put-your-foot-for-more-than-5-seconds. Very enjoyable and relaxing.

The far end of the village behind the Ainu tribal museum was a 30-minute nature walk that led back to the lake. The end of the walk was the Singing Marimo monument, from what we could gather it had song lyrics carved into a rock.

Lunch was rice bowls at a local family place. Pork for mm and ebi for me. As with many Japanese we came across on this trip, we communicated through a combination of hand gestures, pointing and lots of nodding. The Japanese has a cute tendency to continue talking in fast Japanese even though they fully understand that we understand 0% of what they are talking about. It’s as if by talking even more, some of it will get through.

We hurried to Lake Mashu. The drive took longer cos of slow moving vehicles. We ended up at Observatory No 1, and a nice view. Apparently the lake is often covered by mist from the Kushiro wetlands but today it was open though overcast. Apparently also the view from Observatory No 3 is better (there isn’t any No 2) but we didn’t have time.

The next stop was Io-zan, or sulphur mountain. Similar to the hellmouth at Noboribetsu but on a smaller scale, there was a short path that led up a little into the mountain where we could see, feel and smell the sulphur seeping out from the rockface.

Another fully loaded, beautifully cooked dinner course and hot spring evening followed. Heh, we even did laundry.

I didn’t realise until mm told me that we were going too fast, even worse than a tour group. Sorry, mm. Let’s slow down and take our time.

Sapporo—>Furano—>Tokachigawa Onsen

We got up early to visit the tourist information office. We’d decided to revisit a favourite and spend 2 nights at Furano. Yes, it’s another tourist mecca but it really is very pretty. Disappointly the tourist information office couldn’t help us book accommodation; and neither could the travel agency we were directed to. We decided to stop off on our way to Tokachigawa to make the reservation ourselves. With the sheer number of hotels and b&bs in Furano we weren’t worried.

That settled, we headed off for brunch at the seafood market. The more popular one is Nijo Market near Odori Park but we went to the Central Wholesale Market which was just 10 mins’ drive away. The advantage was the less crowded location and easy parking. We’d also seen a leaflet for Kaisen-ichiba Kitano Gourmet which reassured us that a) there’d be some English and b) it had a phone number for GPS direction. We weren’t disappointed, the prawn looked like it was gonna jump off the bowl, the seafood was so fresh. Two chirashi plus a grilled conch came to ¥6,750. No need for drinks, a jug of cold tea was on every table. Watched the finish of the woman’s marathon, so impressive when the runners enter the bird’s nest stadium.

Dessert was yubari melon from a street stall, Japan’s version of luxurious cantaloupe melons. To give a perspective on just how luxurious, the best pair in this year’s first auction fetched ¥2.5 million in May. Ours were more modest, at ¥100 a slice.

The drive to Furano was just under 2 hours. Would have been faster if we hadn’t gotten stuck behind some truly sloooooooow drivers on the single-lane A-roads. The speed limit was 50km/hr, so okay, we were above the limit. Then again, so were 98% of the other drivers. Not sure of the purpose of setting such a low speed limit only for it to be broken by almost everyone.

It was straightforward booking the hotel, even with the language difficulty. We went for a pension near the ski lift that mentioned an in-house onsen. Stopped off for an ice cream and then we continued on our way to our destination for the next 3 nights, Kangetsuen at Tokachigawa Onsen.

This was the highlight of the trip. The Japanese-styled room was simply furnished but roomy. The sizes of the rooms are measured by the jo. Ours was 8-jo which converts to 12.24m². The futons were put away in the closet during the day, and the hotel staff set them out on the tatami during dinner. Originally we wanted to book the rooms with en suite spa, but our agent couldn’t secure them.

Our stay included breakfast and dinner. The dinners were traditional Kaiseki style, consisting of a multitude of delicate courses carefully cooked and presented. The attention to detail was amazing, from the small glass of pre-dinner drink to the orientation of the plates.

After dinner was another highlight, the onsen. After thoroughly showering, it was time to try out the different baths. There was a main mineral bath with whirlpool section, a separate whirlpool, waterfall, stone walking pool, sauna and an outdoor bath. My favourite was the outdoor bath, overlooking what looked like the fields outside the hotel and further, a nearby bridge (hard to see without glasses, hee). Rocks form the boundary of the bath and there were submerged areas to sit on when the water got too hot.

The Olympics were on tv. We watched volleyball, basketball, gymnastics and other games. Commentary in Japanese was interestingly incomprehensible. Naturally they focused on the Japan team, and it looked like they were doing very well.

Sapporo

We visited Hokkaido in 2002 and were awed by the beautiful scenery. We’ve talked so many times in the intervening years about going back, and it’s taken 6 years. Even though we are missing the peak tourist season, July, when lavenders flower, we figured there will be so many other things to see and experience.

The flight arrived early but the long queue at immigration ate away the time advantage. We wheeled our bags to the Toyota Car Rental counter only to discover that, hee, it’s affliated with Hertz. No wonder when we reserved online that it was so efficiently English. In a procedure that reminded us of Heathrow, we registered at the counter and then were taken by van about 5 mins’ drive offsite to the main rental location.

Our car was a Ractis, class P2 (similar to group B or C). For 8 days it was ¥75,600 including insurance. Automatic and came with GPS. I’d emailed them previously to ask for an English-speaking GPS and that was what we got. The people who got the car next to us at the parking bay obviously didn’t make that specification and had to change their car.

First thing I noticed when I got into the car, I didn’t know where the handbrake was. How embarrassing. Turned out it’s a foot pedal located where the clutch would have been if it were a manual car. :blush

Second thing about the GPS. It spoke English but the dashboard was still in Japanese. There were English instructions but we managed with the kanji anyway. Programming a location was dead easy - just key in the phone number!

The last time we’d rented a car on a long holiday was New Zealand, although I’d driven in the US in the last couple of years. But driving was easy, it helped that Japan is on the right side of the road and the roads are in good condition.

This first night we stayed at the Keio Plaza. Location was perfect, a few minutes’ walk from the JR station. We hadn’t booked all our nights for this trip, and were hoping that the tourist information office could help. We took bundles of brochures off to dinner to talk about options.

By the time we remembered that we had a car, we were at the ticket machines in the subway station. Hee. It was only 2 stops to Susukino the nightlife district. We had conveyer belt sushi and our first indulgence was to order a bunch of uni nigiri. Yummy. Dinner came to ¥3,276.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Robinson’s (a decidedly un-Japanese name for a department store) and ogled at the displays of greenhouse fruits. Amazing. Artificial, but still amazing.

First impressions. Seemed to me that there are more tourists than we remembered, especially from other Asian countries. Hokkaido has always been the Japanese people’s best kept secret but now more and more people are learning about this. Sapporo probably isn’t the best example cos it’s the largest city and the starting point for visitors.

[Note: USD vs JPY is currently 109.597, but for quick rule of thumb use 100]

Flight arrived at Tokyo early at 2.45pm I was booked on the 17.00, which I changed myself when the not-helpful-new travel agent didn’t have enough common sense to change it from the 18.30. Anyway, I was the 5th person off the plane and got through transit security quickly. Hustled to the lounge and asked if I could be placed on the earlier flight. See, I know there’s one around 4pm. As it happened, the 17.00 was delayed so I was doubly glad I made the effort.

The lounge and desk staff were super helpful and I got myself a seat on the 15.55. Another aisle seat, what’s up with that? Can’t complain. I was really tired and fell asleep after dinner.

Problems started at the luggage reclaim. It was a busy evening, with a huge number of flights arriving. On the same carousel were bags arriving from LAX. First all the crew and priority bags from my flight arrived. I was mildly irritated that mine weren’t among them, but figured it’ll show up with the regular bags.

But no. The carousel cleared and soon it was empty. Sigh. I wasn’t all that worried cos the suitcase will show up eventually. When I reported to the lost luggage desk both the agent and I figured that it didn’t make it to the flight but will arrive with my original flight.

So I got on the train and went home. Talked to mm on the phone and she met me at the train station to talk a little. I really wanted her to come home with me but she was tired, and I needed a shower. She got me dinner though. :D

I got the call after I showered that they found my suitcase. They even offered to deliver it straight away, but couldn’t guarantee that it’ll be before 11pm. I told them to deliver it tomorrow morning. It’s not like I’m desperate to do laundry, and there is a difference between lost luggage when travelling and lost luggage when home.

The hotel bill came to $3000+ and that’s already including breakfast. They comped me last night’s dinner (wow!!) but otherwise I had minimal charges.

Taxi to airport, checked in, hung out at the lounge, the usual. Had an aisle seat this time, and the passenger in the middle seat moved just after take off so the seat was empty. Perfect.

Read a little, disappointed at the lack of interesting films (remembering that I’ve been on this route 4 times in the last 2 months) and slept for 3 hours. The flight attendant was okay, but could have done better. Friendly enough but seemed to be just going through the motions. Not offering drinks refills, dropped a wine glass and did a sloppy job of picking up the pieces (the passenger across the aisle from me had to finish the tidying up), dropped food into another passenger’s lap. Not unexpected from an American airline but would have failed in an Asian airline.

Ack, the falling standards

After one year, I finally got round to writing up last year’s big trip to Texas, Washington DC and Chile. It’s no big deal cos I’ve already written it all up, it was just copying and pasting from one part of the website to another. All the more reason why I shouldn’t have taken so long.

I enjoyed reading through my struggles with stupid Delta, the long cross-country drive, the largeness of Texas, the awesomeness of DC and mostly the privilege of visiting friends at Santiago. Worth re-living.

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

A few pictures from the stopover at the Notre Dame University. Huge, pretty campus. The car park alone is larger than the whole of KCL. There are many notable sights at the university, one of the most distinctive being the golden dome at the main administrative building.

And then there’s the World of Life Mural at the Hesburgh Library. The upraised arms of Jesus are in line with the goal posts of the (American) football stadium opposite and the mural is often referred to as “touchdown Jesus”.

I went to the taste of chicago today. I avoided going at the weekend because of the crowds, and today i got there at 10.50am, just before the 11am opening. The place was practically empty and I had time to walk around looking at the stalls deciding what to try. Tickets were available for $8 for a strip of 12. Most stalls had 3-4 menu items costing around 6-10 tickets, although they have one “taste of” item for 3-4 tickets obviously for tasting.

There were the expected sandwiches, pizza and the like but I focused on trying food I hadn’t tried before. First was a chorizo arepa, because I was watching a program on the Food Network over the weekend on arepas. This arepa wasn’t anything like the ones on TV, the sausage was okay but the pastry was dry. The second thing I tried was a mustard fried catfish. Now this one was good. The breading wasn’t thick, the fish was fresh and the mustard gave it a nice gentle kick.

 
On the theme of fish the next stall offered shark. I’ve eaten all sorts of unusual food so i wasn’t fazed by the shark. It was actually quite nice. Like tune in taste although it’s white not red. Better than crocodile definitely. Not to fishy either. I was kinda full by then but one dish from my earlier inspection stood out — goat with fried plantain. I didn’t care for the goat, it was very tough, even tougher than mutton. The plantain was good — sweet and filling.

Dessert time. The New Orleans style restaurant offered up a tasting portion of beignet and a large piece of watermelon was the perfect thirst quencher.

The best till last. A combo of lemon and watermelon ice. Yep, a great day out.

There really isn’t much to say anymore. A 4-hour flight, 1.5hrs layover and another 12 hours. Eat, sleep, read, watch movies, fidget.

Watched Charlie Wilson’s War, Definitely Maybe, Penelope, I Could Never be Your Woman and some tv. Ate everything they gave me. Surprisingly only got through 70 pages of the book I brought along. Sometimes I’m in the mood for movies, sometimes for reading, I never know.

It was hot in Chicago. Took a taxi to the apartments. Since I’ll be here 3 weeks they booked a serviced apartment for me. It’s at Presidential Towers and first thing I did when I got through the door was take pictures, hee. It’s a one-bedroom place, with more closet space than my own apartment. No, strike that. Total area is larger than my own apartment. Just look at all those large appliances in the kitchen.

Got to Narita around 3pm. I had no idea what date or time it was exactly. Transit was quick and I ended up at the lounge to get my boarding pass for my flight at 6.30pm. Then I looked a the board and noticed an earlier flight at 5pm. It was around 4.15pm. I asked the staff if it’s possible to change. Getting a seat was no problem but there was a tantalizing wait to see if they could intercept my bag. I guess I helped them by saying I didn’t need to have it with me and I’m happy to collect it tomorrow. Being flexible gives people more incentive to help, I think. Plus, it’s Japan. Plus, airlines don’t like unaccompanied luggage. Plus, I’m a Gold member.

There were no problems at the end and they found it. I can’t help wonder if I’d get equally efficient service at any of the US airports or Heathrow. Asian airports yet.

The flight was blissfully empty. Almost everyone had 2 seats. I got the last row centre, but I didn’t care at that point. After dinner I collapsed and slept till the lights came back on, may be another hour to add to my sleep bank?

I’m sooooo pleased to have gotten the earlier flight. Instead of getting home at close to midnight I was unpacked and showered by 10.30pm. I know I’ll need a melatonin tonight but…sigh… I’m home.

Another travelling day. I’m becoming familiar with the bus to O’Hare, the kiosk check-in and the long security queue. I’ve always wondered why the US doesn’t have outgoing Immigration but with the queues at security it’s a good thing.

The AA Admiral’s lounge was pretty large with plenty of seats scattered so people have their own personal space. I got a bar voucher but when I tried to present it to get a Diet Coke I was told I didn’t need one. Perhaps only for alcohol drinks. Biscuits were available but other food we had to pay. Okay, this is the first lounge I’ve been to that charges for sandwiches and salads. I thought about getting one, but decided against it cos I wasn’t that hungry.

The flight was long. I got may be 1-2hrs sleep. Watched the second half of 27 Dresses and then ended up listening to music. Had bento again. Read a new book, I’m glad it’s a thick one.

If I vaguely remember, I once travelled from London to New York on American. On the 4th of July. It must have been 2000, cos I was still in NYC then. Since then my experience of American airlines — both the airline by that name and airlines-that-are-American — have been purposefully limited. On US domestic flights there is no choice.

Which was why I approached the long haul from NRT to ORD with a certain trepidation. It turned out to be … okay. The seat was comfortable, sufficiently wide though not very well extended. There was enough legroom for me to climb over my next door neighbour even though she had the seat stretched out. Even though I couldn’t get the headset to work I didn’t feel a loss cos the movie selection was average. The best feature was that they offered Japanese bento as dinner option, which I took without hesitation.

Flight was early by an hour and I had enough time to check in at the hotel before Car picked me up to join her family for dinner.

What next for this week?

Today is/will be a travel day. This is the first time I fly to Chicago via Tokyo, because I simply had enough of US domestic flights. The longer flight (12 hrs from NRT to ORD) will be on American, not my preferred, but let’s see how it goes. Business class on a poor airline is still business class surely. [/jinx]

Now I’m at the Admiral’s Club lounge at NRT. It’s very pretty and large and peaceful, so I’m tending to be relaxed. I even had a shower despite not planning to, or having brought a change of clothing. I’ll do whatever I can to make the next leg more comfortable.

It is a larger lounge than the CX one down the hall but amongst others, CX has cup noodles. I’ve been here an hour, I’ll be here another 2; it’d be nice to have some hot food. Shouldn’t complain though.

Another early finish, lucky me. I hurried to the fish market to buy salmon roe for mm. Most of the market had closed, but a few shops were still open. While I was at it, I got some of the roasted eggroll too.

Very tired after all the work, so I went downstairs for a massage. More precisely, a hand, foot and head massage. It was very relaxing, not too strenuous like my usual foot massage. They call it refle, which I’m sure is Engrish for reflexology.

Had a hard time finding dinner. I should have gone back to the fish market for sushi, but didn’t want to walk 20-25mins to spoil the foot massage. The 2 sushi restaurants near the hotel were both full, so I had shabu shabu instead. ¥2900 for pork, vegetables and soba. I must admit it was very very tasty and I wanted to order more … but it was too expensive. The wait staff were friendly, giving me all sorts of tips on how to eat the shabu shabu. I didn’t have the heart, nor did they know enough English, for me to tell them that I know what to do.

Early start tomorrow. But finally, here’s a night shot from the middle of a rickety metal pedestrian bridge behind the hotel.

Our Tokyo office moved to Roppongi Hills recently and this was my first visit. It’s a huge modern complex comprising of tall office buildings, a shopping mall, an art museum, luxurious apartments and the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The most interesting place is the iGoogle Art Café, combining computers, internet and an art collection.

I managed to leave at around 4-ish, and got back to the hotel before it got dark. I’m staying at the Royal Park Shiodome, which is a short taxi ride from Roppongi. I took the JR train to nerd central, aka Akihabara, to explore the electronics stores. Just one store with 7 floors covered everything from computers, games, TVs, cameras and white goods. Of course, being the magnet for otakus, there were lots of shops selling anime stuff, dvds and things I have no clue about.

By the time I exited one shop it was dark, it’d started raining and I was hungry. I took the subway a few stops back to Ginza and headed straight for Tenkuni tempura. I got the seasonal special, starting with a grilled fish accompanied by lots of small dishes and followed by the more classic tempura. Needless to say it was fantastic.

Oh, and apparently I’m so stylish. I opted for not needing my sheets changed (I mean, after 1 night there is no need) and I got a nice thank you card. I’m sure there’s an Engrish joke someplace but I can’t think of it now.

Yeah, no first class upgrade on the way back. Not too bad still. Upstairs in the quiet cabin. Watched I am Legend cos I missed it when it came out, then a whole bunch of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Slept for about 2 hours, otherwise an uneventful flight. The captain was one of the humorous type, he made snarky comments instead of drolling on about altitude and temperature. Hee.

The conference finished but some of us stayed behind to have individual meetings. It was a pretty quiet day, nothing much to report. Lunch was steak frites at a bistro opposite the office.

Dinner was at Chez Flottes. We shared a seafood platter for starter — oysters, mussels, clams, tiny shrimps. I had confit de canard, another item to check off my “must eat in France” list. It was served with a delicious aligot — mashed potatoes with cheese and garlic. Oh my, that cheese just melted into the potato!

Was back in my room to pack by 9-ish. Watched some football and went to bed at 10.30pm. Tired.

Originally the agenda was only half a day but the conference continued until almost 6pm. It was my first time participating in this steering committee meeting and at the end I have this sneaking feeling that it won’t be my last time. I hope.

I followed some people to the Louis Vuitton shop to ogle at the expensive bags. I was a little bored, though some of the bags look nice, I can’t see myself ever wanting or needing something like that. Talking about LV, there was an ad on the flight that is really pretty, though associating philosophical journeying with bags is a bit of a stretch.

Dinner was at Aux Lyonnais, which served well, Lyonnais food. The restaurant is now part of the Alain Ducasse stable and has been in place since 1892 and it seems that some of the original art-deco like fittings have survived. There was a wee bit of confusion about the booking, but all was settled at the end. We were served cervelle de canut while we waited for the rest of our party. This is a specialty of herbed garlic fromage blanc served with fingers of toasted rustic bread.

I had asparagus for starters, it’s in season and pretty much a must-have in any occasion. For mains I had the tripes aux lyonnais. A cast iron pot of tripe in a creamy sauce with potatoes and carrots. Not everyone likes tripe, of course, but for me I was willing to try and it was very good. The others had shoulder of lamb and a Ducasse special — quenelle de brochet et écrevisses (pike quenelle dumplings and crayfish) — all looked good.

Because I was the adventurous one, the waitress recommended that I tried the special dessert. Île flottante aux pralines roses et tarte aux pralines was made up of an island of egg white floating in crème anglaise served with a pink praline tarte. I’m so mad the cameraphone is so disappointing.

A few of us walked the 25mins back to the hotel, and a small group stayed at the hotel bar for a drink. Originally we were going to have tea but it became cocktails. It was nice to catch up with people from around the world.

Early start, met up with everyone at 8am in the hotel lobby. Most of us opted to walk to the office, with a couple of people (the ones who don’t walk or are in heels) opting for the taxi. It’s a very pleasant walk to the Champs.

We were holed up in the conference room all day. Lunch was sandwiches brought in. The meeting was intense with lots of agenda items and discussion. Pretty exhausted at the end of the day. There was enough time to go back to the hotel, dump our bags. I got changed, I didn’t care if it was formal, I wanted comfortable.

Dinner for the group was at La Cagouille, specialising in seafood from La Charente, the flat sandy district on the Atlantic south of Bordeaux. The seafood is prepared as naturally as possible, with no fancy sauces or elaborate techniques. We shared starters — a huge seafood platter, oysters, salted cod salad, asparagus. For mains I had a duo of red mullet and john dory. Both were extremely fresh and definitely needed no fancy sauces.

In the continued tradition of trying something new, I had Paris-Brest for dessert. It turned out to be a bagel-shaped pastry made from choux pastry and filled with crème pâtissière. Sigh. A million calories.

Arriving early sometimes means the hotel room isn’t available, which is a bummer. I was able to borrow my colleague’s room for a shower.

So without anywhere to go or anything to do, I dumped my luggage at the hotel and went out with my camera. The hotel is just oppositeTuileries, so it was nice to get myself re-acquainted with the area. Joggers and tourists were already out in force but there was enough space to find quiet time.

I went into the Louvre but only under the pyramid and the shops, I didn’t go into the exhibits. Somewhere in my albums and photocds there are pictures of Paris, but I’m still glad I have the opportunity this time to re-build my collection.

After finally checking into my room at 12.30pm, I went out again to search for lunch. By then it’d started raining quite heavily. First I walked in the direction of Concorde thinking perhaps I should try the Champs d’Elysée but then realised it’d be too much in the rain.

Instead I headed for Opera and les grand magasins. Lunch was at the self service place at Galleries Lafayette. It was only after lunch and walking around the gourmet supermarket bit that I saw all the various counters for cold meat, cheese and seafood. Argh!!!

Met up with the rest of my colleagues for dinner. The concierge apparently had recommended Le Dauphin, a bistro within walking distance … and closing tomorrow. I had a tuna carpaccio starter and for mains I had pig’s cheeks slow cooked in armagnac for 7hours. The pics from the cellphone camera didn’t turn out too good, this was the best one.

I got invited to the departmental steering committee meeting in Paris. It was a last minute affair — one minute I was going, the next I wasn’t, then it was on again. There was a bit of a scramble to get tickets earlier this week.

I got to the in-town check-in early. There was no wait at the counter where I was promptly told that business class was full so I was being upgraded to first. First class. On a 12-hour flight. Oh man.

The seats were huge — 79” long and 22” between the armrests. They also recline fully into a flat bed. Aside from the usual amenities kit we were given a comfy pajamas and slippers set. It was easy to cocoon myself, and not have to deal with the other passengers.

The entertainment program was the same on-demand as in Business. I watched Bewoulf during dinner. Now dinner, that was different from Business. It was full service, like in a restaurant. The menu:

Caviar and Balik Salmon with Krug grande cuvee

Lobster bisque

Mesclun salad with olive, sun-dried tomato and balsamic vinaigrette

Grilled beef tenderloin with gratin potato, asparagus, carrot and red capsicum
or
Pesto tortellini with tomato sauce and pinenut

Cheeses — cambozola, appenzeller, double gloucester and somerset brie

Fresh seasonal berries

Ice cream

Tea and coffee

I finished the film and went to sleep. Not blankets but a proper duvet. I managed to sleep for 6-ish hours, which is not bad nowadays.

As a flying experience went, it was extremely comfortable. I can only hope I can have another opportunity another time.

After the presentations this morning, we were done.

The team went for lunch together, at the Japanese restaurant at the hotel. We all had the same bento box, which was amazing and so intricate. I must remember to bring my camera whenever I eat in Tokyo; or get a cellphone with a decent camera.

The afternoon was free. While my colleague went shopping, I went to the gym and read. It’s interesting to see how different people react to free time.

Dinner was also at the hotel, this time at the charcoal grill. Man, I should have photographed each course, even with my small cellphone camera. The appetizers, fresh fish course and the melt-in-the-mouth steak … wow. The guy at our next table asked for an additional steak, and after tasting it we could all understand why.

Early day tomorrow. Can’t wait to get home.

This time last week I was getting ready to leave Chicago; now I find myself at the ANA Intercontinental in Tokyo. The trip was planned before my vacation but I had kinda hoped it wouldn’t happen. It’s not that I don’t want to be here, it’s just flying again so soon … sigh.

I watched Enchanted on the plane and enjoyed it. It’s an amalgamation of all the fairy tales we know well, but the human element made a change. We took the Airport limo to the TCAT station and a taxi the rest of the way.

It was almost 5pm but we made our way to the office anyway. It’s only next doors. Did a little work, had some meetings, made some plans for this trip. Dinner was nearby too, of fried pork chops. Showered and checked in with Car. I brought 4 books, so I’m all set.

So what did I do during the missing day that was thursday?

First of all, I have to vent. 14 and a half hours!!! It only took 11hrs going there, why did it take so long on the way back?

Okay. Calm now. I had a window exit row seat, so I could stretch out or prop my feet on the doors. They served dinner quickly. I watched Atonement, then fell asleep. Managed 5 hours of sleep, which wasn’t bad. Walked up and down the aisle a bit, grabbed water and a sandwich from the mini-bar area the flight attendants had set up next to their galley. Watched The Jane Austen Book Club, and then gave up on films. Oh, back up. It was a newly refurbished plane, one of those with single business class seats, economy seats that shift down but doesn’t fall into the space of the PAX behind and…on-demand entertainment in every seat. I took advantage and watched a bunch of TV programs — Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, e-online documentaries, Gordon Ramsay and the Hotel Inspector.

Actually most of that took place on friday, but who’s counting?

I’ve got a timezone issue. I think it’s still wednesday, it’s now almost 10pm and I’m at the lounge at LAX. In Chicago, where I started this morning, it’s already Thursday. I’ll get home my friday morning. Somehow I lose thursday. huh.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Carm took me to the bus station and it was a straightforward trip to O’Hare. I’ve checked in and printed out my boarding pass already, so going through the formalities was a breeze. Only as I was walking towards the gate that I realised I should have checked out whether I could get on an earlier flight. Ah well, I settled at the gate and read for an hour or so. The flight to LAX wasn’t full, the middle seat was empty so I could stretch out. I finished one book on the flight, and started a second one.

LAX was crazy crowded man. I hadn’t checked through my luggage (though I should have) but it means I can priority check on the long haul leg. Of course it wasn’t as easy as checking in … we had to take the luggage to the X-ray point. Then the long queue through security. Long, but eventually it gets through.

Last time I was in the LAX lounge it was under construction and it was in a temporary portakabin. This time it’s properly on the 5th floor of the terminal. It’s a oneworld lounge so it was shared with a group of Qantas travellers. It’s pretty nice.

I have 1.5hrs till boarding, so I’ll probably catch up with my feeds and read a bit. I have to remind myself it’s still wednesday.

I started the preparations for the end of my vacation, sigh. Checked in for one flight, the other can only be done 24 hours ahead of time. Checked out the bus timetable, gotten numbers for the taxi. Laundry, packing.

It always happens, whenever I fly I become superaware of near misses and incidents happening at airports. Scary to watch the recent A320 almost crashes at Hamburg in strong crosswinds.

I did a search for “crosswind” at youtube and the most prominent are the ones landing at the former Kai Tak airport. Oh my, the good old days of watching the plane get closer and closer to the buildings, then that 47° turn, looking into people’s living rooms.

I did a lot of flying over the past 6 months. I was 13,000-ish miles, or one long haul flight, away from advancing to gold status on my frequent flyer card. My membership year starts in August so I’m very sure I’ll get there.

Surprise surprise I got a package today congratulating me on reaching gold status. So they didn’t even need me to put in the additional 13,000 miles. woot! Gold means I have priority waitlisting, even more extra baggage allowance. Lounge access and priority boarding applies for all oneworld airlines, not just my home airline. That will be very useful.

This means my airmiles is reset and I have to start another 12 months afresh. Hopefully I can get enough miles. I think a couple of business trips to Chicago will be good enough. I’ve been a member since 1999, I wonder if they’ll give me some benefits next year on my 10th anniversary. Hee.

It’s the end of the year and I’m supposed to do some introspection and review. Like list out my achievements, thoughts, regrets, surprises and all.

Nah.

Look at the categories and tags here and you’ll see that Travel is the most popular topic. And I did a lot of it this year. I thought it might be interesting to figure out how much I have done, so I did a little summary of all the flights. The distances are actual miles between airports and calculated at webflyer.

Total is 99,700 miles or 160,450km. If it weren’t for stupid Delta and the cancelled JFK-ORD flight I would have gone past 100,000. In any event I’m claiming the extra 300 miles cos it’s within the margin of error. This is flights only and doesn’t include driving — add on an extra 6,000 miles or so for the couple of big roadtrips.

That’s a lot of miles, eh?

Woke up at 5.30am Sydney time, checked out by 6am. Getting to the airport was really really quick; getting through immigration and customs was also really really quick. This meant that I was settled in the lounge, had gotten breakfast and was just messaging Car when the A380 pulled in. Yep, I’m going to Singapore on SQ and I lucked out on the A380. Again, hee.

This time I wasn’t as wide-eyed tourist like as last time. It was just as quiet and smooth as I remembered. There weren’t any films I wanted to see so I watched HIMYM instead — mmmTed. swoon I tried to sleep a little and managed about an hour before giving up and started reading instead. During lunch I watched Bones. Yes, it’s a CSI knockoff, but I was impressed with it. It was … interesting to be watching a program featuring a year old decomposed body found in a lake while having a nice lunch. heh.

Most of the rest of the trip was reading and listening to country music. We landed pretty much on time. Had a chatty taxi driver to the hotel, and all checked in by 3pm. Quick trip to the 7-eleven to get drinks and that was as much as I could manage. I’d been up since Singapore time 2.30am. Tried to nap but only managed half an hour.

At around 6pm it was time to find dinner. I was mortified to discover that the small shopping centre (including a bunch of restaurants) had closed for the day and the choices were — Subway, Burger King, a local place selling only deep fried food, walking further to the hawker centre near Chinatown (with no guarantee that it’s still open) or cup noodles from 7-eleven. Not much of a choice, eh? I took the expensive, I-can-claim-T&E way out and had the semi-buffet at the hotel coffee shop. Lots of seafood starters, a scampi and fried rice main course, dessert and tea. SGD35, not too bad.

Not a busy day tomorrow, I can get away with resting a bit.

Woke up late, very nice day. The plan today is to visit Parramatta, another one that the “what to do in Sydney” guides said to visit. There are several ways to get there, and the most picturesque is by rivercat from circular quay. I got there at 11.40am and the next ferry left at 12.30pm, so plenty of time to walk around the area.

The boatride was nice. Took about 50 mins up the river.

Parramatta was disappointing though. It got really hot — later I found out it was 30°C — and in parts there was no shade. According to the official tourist info book there is a Harris Park Heritage walking trail. I followed it, along a highway, stopping at a historical hut which was closed, and the rest of the trail was a footpath along the river. Nothing much worth photographing.

To top it all, I missed the 2.30pm ferry and the next one was at 4pm. I wasn’t gonna hang around for over an hour. So I walked back into town and got a train back. Quite dehydrated by the time I got back to Sydney Terminal station, and needed the isotonic drink quick.

Debated whether to go to gpo or foodcourt for dinner. Ended up at the foodcourt again, and most stalls were putting their food up for sale. Easy choice then, got some roast lamb, roast turkey, pumpkin and roasted veg. Plus a selection of fresh juices.

Have to go to bed early tonight. Flight’s at 8.50am tomorrow.

My day ended early today, so there was time to explore and walk around. It’s great that sunset isn’t till late. I was reading about other areas of Sydney to explore and after reading about the “hundreds” of restaurants in the King Street Newtown area, it was easy to make the decision to visit. There are a few buses that go to Newtown from town, and it was easy to hop on one. I keep having to remember that Sydney is a small city because in no time at all I was there.

I don’t know what exactly I expected but it was … interesting. Mostly old buildings and small shops. The hundreds of restaurants are mainly cafés and Thai / Indian / deli places. It wasn’t even 5pm so too early to have dinner. Walked up and down, window shopping at the smattering of gift shops. I guess the nearest equivalent is that this is the Sydney equivalent of Mission, down to the second hand furniture shops, small record shops and places selling incense. Only it isn’t as cool as the Mission.

There were a couple of potentially interesting places to eat but I finally decided on a deli kind of place. The reason was one of their specials is grilled halloumi and chicken schnitzel salad. Love love love halloumi. I also had a carrot, beetroot and celery juice and took away a slice of orange & poppy seed cake for later. Bus ride back to hotel was quick too.

Spent the rest of the night reading.

okay, I like qantas business. Seats are the pod-like skybeds which don’t quite fold flat but are good and comfortable. Lots of buttons and reclining positions to play with, including one for a mild back massage.

Dinner was cream of broccoli soup followed by sea bass and noodles. The noodles were too salty and I needed a quick fix of diet coke. Finished with chocolate mousse tart. I tried a muscat dried wine but I didn’t like it. Or I was too tired. Couldn’t sleep that much though. The way they handled breakfast was pretty good — they gave us a hotel door hanging type card so we could choose what items we wanted. When the lights came on, they were able to serve people as they woke up instead of having a trolley service.

Watched Once which was fantastic. I’ll write about it in the next post. After breakfast I watched Strictly Ballroom, which I hadn’t seen before.

Staying at the Swissôtel this time. So I didn’t hurry through immigration and customs — I knew the room wouldn’t be ready when I got to the hotel at 10am. And I was right! So I left my bags, walked down to Paddy’s Market to wander around; then took the light rail to the fish market. Had oysters, a few prawns and a spinner crab (remember last time?). By the time I got back to the hotel at 1.30pm the room was ready. Took a shower and hopped online. Got too tired and slept for 4 hours. Woke up at 7pm. Luckily today was late night shopping and the streets weren’t totally deserted. Dinner at the food court at Myers — roast lamb with vegs, lemon & sugar pancake, and a carrot juice to take back to the hotel.

Everything so familiar. I even bought a 10-ride bus ticket. The hotel receptionist asked if I needed a map and I said no.

The Christmas tree is already up at Martin Place. It’s been so busy that I hadn’t had time to focus on Christmas.

I’m off to Sydney and Singapore in a week. Great for my airmiles but hell otherwise — the jetlag alone will mean I can’t wait for the Christmas break.

I’m in the Qantas lounge, which is shared with the BA lounge. It’s not a lounge I’m familiar with — it’s smaller, more crowded and in general I’m not used to it. I’m not quite used to Qantas either but it should be okay. I have an upstairs window seat, which is what I like.

I have my mbp, a couple of books, I’m sure I’ll get good food and watch some movies. If only I were: a) on holiday and b) younger so I can enjoy this.

Here’s an interesting New York Times article about the difference between first class and economy class travel. First, I’m thinking the author is talking about US domestic flights. Oh gosh, those first class seats! Compared with business class in European or Asian airlines, first class seats on US airlines fail miserably.

I know I’m privileged. I’ve been flying on business so often lately that I am completely spoiled. The lounge access, the priority check-in and boarding, the personalised service, better food and of course the bigger seats. Interesting point made in the article:

But here’s the puzzle. Such shameful feelings do not arise in hotels with concierge floors, in trains with business-class cars, in traffic jams where S.U.V. drivers five feet above me glare down.

Could it be the blatant arrogance at which business class passengers rub it in the faces of the sheep/cattle class that occupies the after cabins? The envious looks as they trudge down the aisles to the back of the plane on boarding … I’ve seen plenty of those. It’s like, “who are you to have this luxury while I’m gonna be stuck in a middle seat fighting two armrest battles?”

And the worst?

It’s that insubstantial curtain that is drawn after we reach altitude, the one that pretends to protect decadent first-class activities — it cannot be lap-dancing, orgies or the tango — from the purportedly covetous eyes of the rest of us. What that curtain really does, its sole purpose, believe me, is to keep us from using the toilet up there.

You know what, that is so true. Many a thick-skinned economy passenger has dared push aside that curtain and sneaked into a toilet they don’t have the right to go into. No matter that there are 4 toilets in business for 30 people and 6 toilets in economy for 200. Too bad.

Here’s a secret. Business class toilets are just the same as economy class toilets. They aren’t plated in gold; nor do they have massagers or individually wrapped soaps. They are cleaner and have a few more towels and lotions, but the riff-raff are not supposed to know this.

Flight at 10am means a 6am morning call. Sigh. Caught the 6.35am bus to the airport, got there 7.40am, all checked in and settled in the lounge by 8.30am. There was lots of time and I got a little writing done.

Flight wasn’t full. Watched Ratatouille, had chicken for lunch and read some more.

Home by 3pm. Too tired to go to work. Feeling a headache coming on.

Went to bed at 9.30pm last night. Only woke up briefly at around 2am but otherwise slept through. Still tired though.

First meeting was in another area that needed taxiing, no big deal. Lunch with ex-colleagues and I was so happy to see them. One more meeting in the afternoon and I was done by 4pm.

It was cold. And a part of me wanted to stay in and read. Another part felt like a little adventure. In the end the need for a walk won out. surprisingly the walk to Namdemun was short, the hotel was nearer than I thought. I remembered many of the stalls and found the one that sold these delicious sweet flatbreads. Also had a small bowl of noodles at one of those streetside stalls.

Dinner was a toss up between room service and the hotel restaurant. Again, adventure won out and I found myself seated at the buffet. Oh joy, they had raw beef with pear. And lots of sashimi, salad and king crabs. Didn’t have too many of the hot food, preferring to have the more special items. Tried not to get too full.

Conference call at 9pm that lasted 1.5hrs. Tired. Still.

What do you call the nice person who comes round to your hotel room while you’re out and makes up your room for you? In most hotels it’s usually maid or attendant. Here at the Westin Chosun they are Room Stylists. They leave a little note at your bedside table with their name and photo; so I know Mrs Young styled my room today. heh.

Meetings were fine today, the staff are very friendly. The admin department took me to Hanilkwan, a traditional Korean restaurant that has been around since 1939. The lunch was KRW23,000 per person and I had grilled sirloin in red wine sauce. The beef came sizzling in a hotplate and was delicioius. There were the usual side dishes, kimchi, as well as salad and strangely, an oyster.

After the grill course, there was the starch course. A choice of bibimbap or beancurd soup with rice or noodles. I had the soup, it’s mm’s favourite.

My colleagues said it’s a luxury lunch, which I guessed. It’s the sort of traditional place you’d take guests. I appreciated their taking me.

Meetings finished early so I took off back to the hotel. It was cold today and after being hot yesterday I decided to not wear my coat. Big mistake. The hotel is about 10 minutes’ walk from the office and I never really warmed up. Oh, on the way out from the office I noticed there was a rotiboy, oh boy I can’t resist those. A taste of Singapore in Seoul, hmm.

After consuming my rotiboy bun, I took off for Myeongdong, just across the street. Walking around mainly. But I soon got bored, because duh I don’t like shopping. Early dinner then, at the familiar chicken restaurant where I had ginseng chicken soup. What’s this about going to traditional restaurants, this one opened in 1960.

Got some seaweed and tea for souvenir and I’m already showered. Nice.

sigh. guess what. I’m not home again.

This time it’s Seoul. Flight and everything was nothing special although my neighbour struck up a conversation with me. She’s an American lady who lives in Korea and she was curious about my accent, so we got talking about culture, technology and language. Normally I don’t talk to people on the plane but it turned out to be a nice chat.

Immigration was quick. I’m staying at the Westin Chosun hotel. Once out into the arrivals hall, all I had to do was to go to the hotel counter and the lady there took me to the airport bus. She actually gave me a choice of transportation — airport bus, hotel car or taxi. I mean, the bus is so convenient there is no point going for more expensive transport.

She must have called it in because I was greeted off the bus by the check-in staff. No need to check-in at the desk either, he took me right up to my room and I did all my signatures in the room. It was done in 2 minutes, very efficient.

I actually did not bring enough KRW in cash with me. I thought I had some leftover from the previous trip but it turned out to be only $50 in total. Yikes. There was enough for the bus and to go th 7-eleven to get some drinks. But dinner had to be room service. I had beef rib soup which came with kimchi and rice. Seriously, i don’t like room service it’s not value for money. ah well, I went to the supermarket in Sydney and lived off bread, ham and yogurt for 3 days, the company can pay for my room service for a few days here.

Of course the room is nice. The bathroom is nice. The bed is great. I’d rather be home though.

Flight was at 8.55am, so working backwards gives:

• arrive at airport 7am
• leave hotel 6am
• wake up 5.30am

and that’s cutting it fine. Once again I’m glad of my decision to rent a car instead of relying on taxis. Incredibly the road was full of cars, so much so that part of the drive was at a slow crawl. Wow, who gets up at those hours?

Check in was straight forward. Mum wanted me to get her a slab of lamb so I walked through every single shop in the duty free to look for it. No luck. There was beef, so I got her that instead. There was still time to hang out for a bit at the lounge, so I was relaxed. I had to be, with even the announcement status boarding telling us to. Hee.

Flight was half full, at most. Every one in Business got 2 seats, which was great. They fed us, I watched a film — No Reservations, read my book, napped. I got home and I was quite tired. Had a quick shower then had to go out for dinner with ex-colleagues. I changed my ticket especially so I could make it to the dinner.

Anyway, I’m just happy to be home. Two weeks is a long time.

A stop-start sort of day. First meeting involved driving about 15 minutes to another suburb, getting lost (google maps isn’t 100% reliable) then having to call the people for directions. The meeting ended at around 11am. My next meeting was in St Kilda at 3pm, which meant driving another half an hour towards town. I found the place in advance and then realised I had a good couple of hours for lunch.

Drove up to Queen Victoria Market and did the same looping around the side streets looking for parking space thing again. This time there were no cheapie spots even though the meter wasn’t expensive. I wandered around the large market and was pretty much astounded at the collection. I was soooo tempted to buy all the fruit and veg I’d need for the next 2 weeks there.

Lunch was at the food court. I had a choice of fish and chips, sandwiches, Chinese and Indian. I chose the Indian, had chicken biryani and a mango lassi. It was pretty good. More wandering around the other stalls — souvenirs, clothing, all sorts. Walked as far as the Old Melbourne gaol then back before having to head back to the car and drive to the 3pm meeting.

Wasn’t very productive that meeting. I had decided as soon as I entered that we weren’t going to use that company. But I still had to go through the motions, right. Meeting ended at 4pm and I changed in the car.

I’d forgotten that sunset was late, like London. So I had more time than I expected. Drove up St Kilda Road and initially found a parking space near the park. It was more expensive than I thought, so I actually went inside the park and found a space that was really cheap. Incredible that an extra 5 mins walk can save so much money.

First stop was the Arts Centre, with its interesting Eiffel tower like lattice structure. I didn’t go inside, just walked around the outside.

Strolled leisurely along the south side of the river and caught a bunch of kids doing rowing practice. Their coach would be on a bike following them and hollering at them through a megaphone, it was pretty funny with all the shouting from the various crews.

Dinner at the Southgate food court. Sweet potato and spinach salad, with a tapas collection — olives, stuffed peppers and prawns. They threw in a glass of wine with 3 tapas dishes so that was what I had. Very nice. There was an ice cream counter there that was far too tempting. I had orange and chai latte ice cream. Yummy.

The rest of the evening was spent at the park, enjoying the late sunshine. Walked all the way to the National Shrine then back to the car. It was almost 9pm when I got back to the hotel.

So I got up at 7am and checked out by 7.30am. Taxi to airport was quick and I even managed to bump myself on the earlier 9am flight (originally my flight was 9.30am). All in vain though because there was fog in Melbourne causing a backlog — we had to circle for half an hour before it was our turn to land.

Got a rental car because I worked out the costs. I’m not staying in town, and 1) the taxi ride would probably be huge to and from the airport; and 2) I need the freedom of a car. I had checked on google maps to get directions but didn’t print them out, just wrote the main directions on a piece of paper. The Hertz map was pretty brief so I was amazed that I got to the Novotel Glen Waverley with no need to stop or turn around. It’s a good 45 mins from the airport and is basically a roadside 3-star-ish hotel, a far cry from the Westin Sydney. Still, it’s fine by me.

After a quick unpack, I drove out to town to explore. I found a parking space at the park, yes it’s 15 mins walk from Federation Square but the meter was only AUD1.30 an hour. For 3.5 hours it only cost me AUD4.50, compared with AUD44 for the big carparks … eeeep.

Not a lot of time — had to get back to the hotel by 6pm for a call. So time for quick walking. First was the important Federation Square, with the impressive Atrium and the glass mosiac roof at the ACMI museum.

Just behind Fed Square was the Yarra River, and next door was the historical Flinders Street station.

From there it was across the street to Swanston and Bourke Streets, with shopping, trams, hotels, the entrance to Chinatown, street artists, the town hall and at the end of Swanston, the State Library. The camera was busy!

It’s kinda unreal, it was sunny and I was in a polo shirt. It’s November, and Christmas preparations were already underway. Even a special Santa-only mailbox. Wow.

Hit rush hour traffic on the way back, glad that I left early. Turned out I had two conference calls, one at 6pm one at 8pm. I was pretty tired and pissed off. Had to find some dinner so went outside to around the back of the hotel. Oh gosh, it’s bad. Typical suburb strip mall — pizza, fish and chips and a ton of Chinese restaurants. Even though I really didn’t want Chinese food it was the best of poor choices. I bought a roast pork and duck rice, that was it. Could have ordered room service but … didn’t feel like it either. Walking around the area it reminded me of Blue Island actually. :P

Well, more of Melbourne proper at the flickr set

One meeting at 10am, then I was done. Still had some shopping to do — to get UV protective swimsuits for my niece; and sherlock’s advice was to go out to Bondi Junction. The Westin’s location was perfect for the train, a short walk to Martin’s Place station and 3 stops to Bondi Junction.

Walked around the high street, had lunch of pastrami bagel and iced tea (what, no diet coke?). Managed to find the swimsuits at various shops. Not surprisingly the best choice was at the last shop, after I’d already bought a couple of suits already. The cheapest purchase was at Target and the best selection was at the Cancer Society shop.

There was time, so I took the bus down to the beach, trying to find the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. Couldn’t find it — I guess it’s along the coastal walk which was a bit far away. It was nice to walk on the beach, people watch and take pictures. This was taken at the side, the main beach was pretty crowded and I was glad to find a corner with fewer sunbathers.

As this was Bondi, there were surfers galore. No wonder this is one of the most famous beaches in the world, look at that blue sky and the water. Picture has been resized but not photoshopped.

Took the bus all the way back to town. Yeah, I kinda wasted the return journey on the train, but it was nicer by bus. It was supposed to be an express but it stopped everywhere. The people behind me needed to get to Circular Quay by 4pm but they realised with the non!express service they won’t make it.

Dumped the backpack in the room and went out walking around for the last hour or so that shops are open. Oh yeah, shops close at 6pm. Initially the purpose was to look for some beer but I ended up buying some souvenirs instead. Turned out that I could have bought the beer at the Coles around the corner. Hmm.

Didn’t have food left in the fridge so I went downstairs to the gpo for dinner. I was hesitant to eat at the posh steak or seafood restaurant and was happy to find that there were more casual choices — there were counters where people could order pizza or seafood or bar food. So I had some oysters and grilled dory and chips. A nice glass of shiraz/cab and it all came to something cheaper than one of the steaks at Prime. Much preferable anyway.

Need to get up early tomorrow. 9.30am flight means I need to leave the hotel by 7.30am.

I reserved a rental car yesterday and I had to drag myself out of bed when the alarm rang. I tried to cancel online but wasn’t allowed to (duh, cos I said pickup at 10am and I tried to cancel at 10.15am). By then I was more awake so I walked over to the Hertz office and got the car.

Debated whether to have lunch at the fish market or elsewhere. Decided to go to Harry’s instead, since I have the car. Ordered the famous Tiger — beef pie, mash, peas and gravy. Was hungry so I got a plain hot dog as well. I prefer the peas more than the mash, should have gotten pie and peas with extra peas. Anyway, it was as delicious as I remembered it; sitting on the wood beams overlooking the Finger Wharf.

The main purpose of getting the car was to drive out to Rose Bay and then further to Watsons Bay. Note to self: instead of wasting 20 minutes trying to find a parking space at the bottom of Watsons Bay, drive back up and park at the highest point. It’s an extra 10 minutes walking along the coast, it’s pretty and there are plenty of free spaces.

Beautiful beautiful day, blue skies, clear seas and the cliffs were as spectacular as I remember. There was also an impressive view back into the harbour, of the city and the bridge.

It was around 2pm when I left, so I attempted to go to Bondi. Attempted. Not that Bondi had disappeared or anything, there was so much traffic and it was impossible to find a parking space. So I drove along the beach, then left.

There was still time to go to the fish market, which was what I did. Parking was AUD2 for under 1 hour, increasing to AUD5 for each half hour after — obviously they want people to park and go. That made the decision easy for me, I bought a dozen Manning River oysters, a cold platter of lobster and prawns, and a spinner crab. Ate the oysters by the bay with a light beer (well, driving and all) and took the rest with me.

Returned the car at 5pm, and was back in my room by 5.30pm. Could have kept the car to drive around at night and returned it before work tomorrow, but couldn’t be bothered. Nicer to relax in the room. Plus I had laundry to do. Dinner of assorted fresh seafood was good — the crab was sweeter than even the lobster and the prawns were the sweetest.

So I got to the gate, and it’s buzzing with anticipation. There was a party of young kids, presumably on a school outing. There were families, grandparents, and the usual single travellers. People were huddled around large seat maps or their noses pressed against the glass gazing at the big monster. I tried to take a couple of pictures but they didn’t work, neither on the camera nor on the cellphone. I should have gone out while it was light, dammit.

The lower deck consists of Suites and economy class; the upper deck is business class with economy at the back. Economy is 3-4-3 downstairs and 2-4-2 upstairs so I think upstairs is preferable.

Business class was amazing. The seat arrangement is 1-2-1, with the intention that each seat has aisle access. The seat itself is wide enough to seat two people and there is a footrest embedded in the seat in front. Narrow storage cabinet between the seat and the window, like the ones on the 747 upper deck.

The seats fold out to completely flat flatbeds. There is enough room to lean back, move around, sit cross-legged, stretch my legs. I watched Stardust like that, very comfortable. Even when dinner was served, the table was high enough so I could sit cross-legged at one side of the seat. I had prawn salad and lamb chops. Dessert was ice cream and I had some Shiraz with the meal.

I was enjoying myself so much I didn’t want to sleep; but I knew I had to, otherwise I won’t last the day today. The flatbed was great, they even gave us 2 pillows and a non-static blanket. It was easy to fall asleep. So much so that I had to force myself to wake up when the lights came on.

Breakfast was light, just fruit and croissant. Pretty soon it was time to land. At 7 hours the flight wasn’t long enough to feel like long haul yet was too long to be short haul. The view out of the window at landing was nice. We were even half an hour early, landing at 6.30am.

I lucked out hotel-wise. We don’t have an office here so no official hotel. The hotels nearest the other party’s office are Swissôtel and Westin. I knew the Westin is more expensive but the Swissôtel only had suites. So Westin it is. Because I was so early I was afraid that I have to wait for a room to be ready but I got it straightaway. It’s on the 4th floor, not very high and looking out to the courtyard. I don’t mind though. It’s one of those rooms with modern design with glass between the bathroom and bedroom.

Chatted a bit with Car; when she went home from work I went out to the Coles around the corner (yay for still remembering some of the landmarks) and bought bread, ham, rocket, pâté, tzatziki, yogurt and drinks. In other words, the essentials. Had breakfast, then napped until noon-ish. RKT chat at 1pm, and I arranged to meet Chris for coffee. It was nice to meet someone from the group, pretty soon I would have met everyone. He even took me around the shops to look for a swimsuit for my niece. No luck, but not for want of trying.

Tired, so I’m glad to be at the hotel early. Sandwich again for dinner, nice and simple.

My flight is at 8.30pm and I’m already at the airport. It’s only 2.30pm. I finished work at lunch and in theory had the whole afternoon to wander around, go shopping, have a massage or go to Underwaterworld in Sentosa to have fish reflexology.

Um, may be another day. I figured I could just go to the airport and hang out at the lounge. There’s free wireless, free food & drinks and I can take a shower later. Great check-in process. Everyone delighted in telling me, delightfully, that I will be travelling on the A380. Wow. I brought my camera especially for this leg of the trip.

So yeah, I had a nice chicken curry, some salad, fruit and a peach bread pudding. As much diet coke as I can drink in the next few hours.

What does the early bird catch? A life that Riley knows about I’d say.

It’s almost boring, to be posting about where I am right now (Singapore). I got to the airport early to have a late lunch at the lounge. There were a lot of people in the lounge, felt almost like the fast food places outside. Luckily people tend to congregate at the sofa seating area and the computer area wasn’t full. I discovered that there are 2 types of workstations there, the normal size desks and longer desks with enough extra space to set up a laptop. I wrote about 2 paragraphs of the Christmas story.

The other notable event was that we turned onto the runway and the captain announced that we have a maintenance message to return to the terminal. So we drove the whole length of the runway without taking off. Ended up at a parking bay (non-terminal) and we waited for about 20 minutes while engineers came up to the flight deck. Apparently the onboard computer said that one of the tyres was under pressure so they had to have it checked by hand. Turns out it was fine, so the computer was wrong.

The second time we got on the runway was take off time. We were about an hour late. Had a nice dinner of prawn salad, braised lamb shoulder chop and calamansi cheesecake. The only thing was that the attendant seemed to be newly promoted and didn’t understand that I wanted tea with milk, not milky water. Another attendant came to her rescue quickly though.

Immigration was quick as usual. And the luggage was already on the belt when I got there. Changi is so great.

I’m staying at the M Hotel. They gave me a twin room — I went straight back downstairs and asked for a double room. Nothing for tonight (except one with 2 singles put together on the smoking floor), but I get to change tomorrow night. In theory, it’s not a big deal … hell no, I’m here for 5 nights and I want a bed I can roll around in. This means I can’t unpack and I’m not sure if I can come back to the hotel to change tomorrow. We’ll see.

So yeah, I’m on the road. Again.

I finally downloaded the pics from Mum’s camera. Naturally I only took pictures of food, heehee. I forgot to take pictures of the fantastic grilled kobe beef we had on Thursday but remembered on Friday and Saturday.

First it’s the sushi we had at this place in Shinjuku. I honestly can’t remember its name and I have only a faint idea of its location. It’s pretty popular, we got there before 7pm and lucked out with a table but couldn’t get seats at the counter. People coming in later had to wait. We ordered à la carte and everything was fresh and delicious. From the top: crunchy roe, scampi, daily special white fish, cooked prawns, crab, uni, toro, salmon, sardines, ebi.

That was Friday night. Saturday lunch we went to Ginza Tenkuni, a tempura restaurant that began as a small street stall in 1885. There’s a reason why this place has been successful for so long — the best tempura! Mum had the bamboo set which consisted of 2 different kinds of prawns (regular and king prawn), squid, fish and vegetables. The set came with tuna sashimi, tofu, pickles, miso and rice.

I had the bento which had fewer tempura pieces but also included a piece of grilled salmon, egg, grilled skewers, different types of vegetables, sashimi, pickles, soup and mushroom rice.

Here’s a picture of the poster menu. They also had a seasonal mushroom tempura dish as well as smaller sets that was just tempura on rice — kinda like chirashi but with tempura instead of sashimi. Definitely a place worth returning to.

I like traditional Japanese breakfasts, even though it’s not the type of breakfast I’m used to. This is what we had this morning at the hotel: warm pickles, grilled salmon, fish, rolled egg, more pickles, slimy seaweed natto stuff, miso and porridge. I can see why — hot food that fills you up but doesn’t make you feel bloated. Like most traditional Japanese meals it’s not a large portion, more vegetables and easy on the carbs and proteins.

Oh, taken on my cellphone camera because i didn’t bring my camera.

I’m in Japan this week for meetings. It’s been 2.5 years since I was here last. Lots of changes since then.

I brought Mum. She’s never visited and wanted to. I upgraded my room to a twin and got her an air ticket; this way she saves on hotel. I had some airmiles expiring next January, and it was just enough to get her airport lounge access. We had breakfast and I set up the mbp while she read a magazine. It was relaxing pre-flight; much better than fighting with the masses at the public food court. The flight was too full to upgrade her to business class, but I checked her in early and got her a front-of-plane window seat.

Uneventful but long bus ride on the bus to the TCAT station, then we took a taxi to our hotel — the Royal Park Shiodome Tower. Shiodome is a new developed area, full of modern office buildings, post restaurants. It used to be a derelict railway terminal and now it’s like Docklands.

Met Sis’ family for dinner. My colleague took us to an area with a bunch of restaurants. I had chirashi and we shared a mixed sushi. ¥12,000 (US$100) for 5 adults and 1 child — we’re talking about fresh fish here. That’s really good.

Tomorrow is a long day for me. I’m still enjoying NewJob but it’s been quite draining.

A few of my pictures on flickr got noticed by schmap and they asked for my permission to use them. It’s flattering, there’s a sense of pride the first time I received an email telling me my picture has been shortlisted and could I click on a link to agree or reject its inclusion.

Schmap is a travel guide, I can’t decide whether they want it online or whether the downloaded version is the proper way to use it. They cover 200 destinations in USA, Canada, Europe Australia and New Zealand — North American focused and the usual suspects in terms of cities. The interesting feature is that users can click around the guide and there are useful links and photos of hotspots along the route. Or they can plan a walking tour and see pictures of highlights on the way.

For instance, my first Schmap picture is of the Carbide and Carbon Building. There’s a map to show where it is, a little blurb about the landmark and the user can scroll through 10 different pictures of the building. They also included my picture of the Hard Rock Café in Niagara and I just got an email that a couple of my Washington DC pics have been shortlisted.

The pictures aren’t the super fancy professional ones, more like ones taken by ordinary people, which I guess is the point. It’s an interesting business model. To use a clichéd saying, very web 2.0 — user-generated content, no need to use expensive photographers, free marketing. They seem to source the majority of their pictures from flickr, and the people who use flickr are mostly more tech-friendly. How better to have a bunch of bloggers telling the world about how they are included … the page links and click rate alone is bound to be stunning. Having said that, the content needs to be good to ensure repeat visitors.

I just got back from a week in Chicago, this time for work. My new global head is located there, as is the global team. I went over Friday night because Car’s Grandma had her 93rd birthday on Saturday. She didn’t know I was coming so we had to detour to iHop after the airport to make sure she was asleep and I was sneaked in through the back door. It was a nice surprise for her in the morning.

Most of the rest of the weekend was either birthday party or shopping. I bought a couple of new shirts and a ton of sweets.

It was a change, having to shift from being at the house to being at the hotel. The work meetings were long and intense. In a merger situation there will always be degrees of acceptance by the people affected and after the meeting it was pretty clear, even to me as a newcomer, who were in and who were less committed.

Out host, my global head, was super hospitable. We had dinner at Roy’s — nice starters, I had seared ahi for mains and a fab dessert — and at Ballo — family style Italian food with very nice salmon and ribeye steak. On Wednesday when the official meeting has finished, a group of us were still in the office visiting and they had a pizza lunch with the entire department.

What I took away from the meeting was that it will be massively busy in the next year or so. But that providing I work hard, they’ll want to keep me. There are knowledge and experience that the team members don’t have because they haven’t been exposed to such an environment and not because of their ability.

As a side note, this visit I found myself feeling familiar with Chicago. So much so that I didn’t take my camera, and I was able to point out landmarks for my colleagues.

I wasn’t online for almost a week (yes, really!) because I was so tired after I got back to the hotel, by the time I showered I had enough energy to read one chapter of my book and that was it. Next time I go back, I’ll find surveillance cameras. If I miss the place, I can build my own 3D models of the famous skyscrapers or even the Metra trains.

Chicago O’Hare — June 2006. On my way to Newark. Late arrival of crew, who were on a late inbound plane. It was funny, on the way to New York the captain was telling us about how she had the same turbulence on the way into Chicago.

Chicago O’Hare — July 2006. On my way to La Guardia, even got on the plane and waiting for push off. Except LGA was closed because of the heat. Spent the best part of the day at ORD, got on an American flight to JFK at the end. Missed my onward flight but luckily it was C-class so got re-booked on a later flight.

San Francisco — Sept 2006. On my way to meet Car’s family in Las Vegas. Plane was delayed coming in from LAS because of mechanical problem. Flights after that one came and went, I didn’t get to Vegas till after midnight.

New York JFK — June 2007. Came in on a 15 hour flight already. Found out my connecting flight was delayed; then cancelled. Apparently the whole east coast was backed up because of bad weather (“what bad weather? it’s so sunny outside!”). Spent the night sleeping on the floor behind a vending machine. Was on standby in the morning and couldn’t get on any of the fully booked holiday flights. Ended up driving to Chicago.

Yes. All US airports. Every time a domestic flight.

We caught the Globe Trekker episode on the haute route by accident. We were totally riveted watching it — a seven-day ski tour of the highest peaks of the Alps. Oh.my.god. It looks an absolute, stupendous, “I wanna do this” fantasy.

First tackled by the members of the Alpine Club in the mid 19th Century, it was originally a hiking route from Chamonix to Zermatt. The ski route was first tackled in 1911. The English name was “The High Route” but the French version became more prominent.

The ski route takes 7 days, and the hiking takes about 2 weeks. Needless to say, participants need to be extremely fit as well an advanced off-piste skier. They also need to have luck on their side, because bad weather can totally ruin the well planned itinerary. Tours usually allow an extra day for delays. At around £825 half board (flights, lunches, insurance and equipment are extra) it’s not cheap … for staying at basic mountain huts. But I’m willing to bet it’s a great experience.

I’ll never reach any sort of proficiency at skiing to attempt this; but may be I’ll keep hiking as a pipedream.

Sigh. I wish.

Somewhere along the way I lost a day. I got home at 8.30pm on Friday. Unpacked, showered, sorted mail and checked in with people. Doing laundry, then I’m off to bed. My own bed.

For the sake of completeness, here are the links to the full sets of pictures:

Texas | Washington DC | Chile

After sorting and deleting, I still end up with almost 800 in total.

Travels

A travelling day. Got to SCL early, way early … with loads of time to kill. I had a little money left so I bought drinks and spent the remainder on small souvenirs. When I settled down at the gate I had 200 pesos left, for souvenir. Heehee.

Flight to LAX was about half-full. I got second row exit row which turned out to be not so great because exit row arm rests are fixed, I couldn’t stretch out along both seats. Not a big deal, I still managed to sleep for about 6 hours.

Layover at LAX was 5 hours. We had to clear immigration, customs and claim our bags. A bit of a pain, considering I’m just transiting. When I got to the CX counter they hadn’t opened yet. Had McDonalds breakfast and talked to mm for a bit.

After finally checking in, I got a pass to the Temporary Business Class Lounge. I guess there’s construction at the airport and the regular lounges are unavailable. This one I had to take a shuttle bus to. It was pretty empty early in the morning. I had cup noodles, a croissant and swiped a handful of babybels.

I’d reserved exit row seats for the LAX leg too. On a 747-400 it’s the big bulky doors, which I could comfortably tuck my feet on. I napped some, not as much as the SCL leg.

Heading home

My flight is at 11pm so I have most of the day. I could have gone out but I’m mentally getting ready to head home already. Packed, uploaded the last of the pictures, read and relaxed.

Santiago was great. South America is very far away, regardless of where one lives. I feel so lucky to have friends who opened their home to me and allowed me to experience the country in a non-touristy way. Yes I could have packed my days with lots of sightseeing, or even took an overnight trip. I could have stayed longer and visited Easter Island. But that is for another trip. I like the easy-going pace of the last couple of weeks.

Some pics that didn’t make it to the travelogue, because they didn’t fit into the commentary or there was a more representative pic.

The orange tree inside the grounds of the Government Palace.

A lone cellist in the park. He was literally just playing; if he was busking there’d be a hat or tip jar somewhere right?

Palm trees and the moon at Viña.

A typical suburban house in Las Condes. If it weren’t for the licence plates on the car I’d say I was in the UK.

And finally something special. K always told me about the beautiful view from her balcony. I’d seen pictures and was amazed. But seeing it myself adds to the amazement. This rotates through morning, sunset and night views.

Santiago

Walked about 20 minutes through the suburbs to the metro station. Fare downtown was 380 pesos, which I paid for using the bip! card K&P lent me. The metro system was straightforward, clean and efficient.

I got off at Baquedano station and walked up the Pío Nono. We were there last week visiting the souvenir markets and I recognised the street. At the top end of the street is the Cerro San Cristóbal, at 880m the tallest point in Santiago. The whole area forms part of the Parque Metropolitano and consists of the zoo, open spaces, gardens, a funicular and a cable car.

A return ticket on both funicular and cable car was 2,300 pesos. The main attraction of the hill is the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción, a 22m statue of the Virgin Mary. There was a small altar inside the pedestal of the statue and a helpful guide gave out small prayer cards.

It rained yesterday so it was sunny and relatively clear. Haze had begun to settle so the view of the city was not as clear as expected. Spectacular though, I could see most of the big city from the foot of the statue.

The other side of the funnicular was the cable car station. Small cable cars brought us down to the Oasis station, which was a park and a car park. However there was a stop along the way, Tupahue, which had a swimming pool (not open obviously), a viewing fort, children’s playground and more nice views of the city. I just find palm trees backed by the Andes an interesting contrast.

I retraced my steps through the cable car, funicular and side street. Had an Italiano — a hot dog with tomatoes and avocado — at a street stall, together with a fried pastry. Bought some more souvenirs and took the metro back to the apartment.

That was my last full day in Santiago and my trip.

Santiago

A domestic day. I sorted, uploaded the weekend pictures and wrote the days up. Ventured out on foot to the local Lider Express, a supermarket. It was about 20 minutes’ walk, in the rain and it was cold.

The main purpose of going out to the store was to get cream to make chocolate mousse. I also bought artichokes and wind-dried beef/ham for lunch. I said I’d make dinner so I bought a whole chicken, potatoes and mushroom. Did the usual spatchcocked chicken, rubbing in an olive oil concoction with rosemary, lemon zest, garlic and shallots under the skin. It was a larger chicken than I’m used to, but we still managed to finish 2/3.

Most of the afternoon was cooking. I enjoyed it very much, a small thanks for my hosts.

The Coast — Zapallar, Concón, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso

The rain yesterday meant today was sunny. Perfect day for the coast. Only 2.5 hours’ drive from Santiago and it was the coast already. I hadn’t been to a beach for a while so it was refreshing to watch the waves hit the rocks and smell the fresh breeze. Although the sun was out it was still cool, around 9-12°C.

We stopped at Zapallar, an absolutely pristine cove surrounded by rolling hills. The beach was sand, the waves striking and the sky the deepest blue. The houses on the hill were swanky, the place felt like a fishing village nested in a high end resort. We sat on the beach for a while, and it was very pleasant. Definitely a place for weekend home if one has the money.

We turned back and drove towards Concón for lunch. On the way stopping briefly at roadside fruit stalls. Each sack of apples, avocados, oranges or whatever fruit was 1,000 pesos ($2).

Lunch was at one of the many seafood restaurants in Concón. We had empanadas as starter — I had crab and cheese and the others had scallops, razor clams as filling. Very yummy. I was too hungry and ate most of mine before I remembered about pictures. I did take a picture of my main course, a mountain of seafood. There were machas (razor clams), baby scallops, mussels, shrimps, loco (like abalone), crab and piure, an orange slimy clam-like local delicacy.

The drive down the coast was breathtaking. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at the sky, the sea and the beach.

Mid-afternoon we reached Viña del Mar, which oozed money. Even on a winter’s day the promenade was full of people walking around and being seen. With a posh hotel, casino, palm-lined streets it had a Monte Carlo feel to it. Part of being out and about in the cold was having ice cream, of course. The shop we went to was having a promotion — get 2 scoops and have either one free topping or an extra scoop. I had orange, aloe vera and mixed berries. Yummy.

It was almost sundown but we had one final stop — the hills of Valparaíso. To get up there we rode in a rickety Victorian funicular, the Ascensor Concepción built in 1883. At the top are museums and a nice walk (if only it weren’t getting dark). Valparaíso is distinctively known for its sprawl up its hills.

A quiet drive back to Santiago. It’s been an incredibly full 5 days, and K&P went 200% to take me to all these places.

Wine train tour

We met up with our bus at 8am which took us downtown. Changed to another bus for a 1.5 hour ride to San Fernando. This was were we boarded the antique steam train for a memorable wine train tour. It was raining all day but it didn’t spoil the atmosphere and fun. The engine was built in 1913 and this tour had been going for a few years, with very little interruption. All I cared was, steam train! (resists temptation to go choo-choo.)

The 1.5 hour ride was in a 1923 carriage, with dark wood and plush velvet seats. We’d been warned that it would be cold cos the train had no heating. Didn’t matter. Almost as soon as we set off we were treated to cheese and fruit. And then they came through with the wine trolleys. This was the Red Program II, so primarily we were served red wine. By the time we reached our destination of Santa Cruz most of us had a good 3 glasses already. I tried a Cabernet, a Cab/Merlot mix and an organic syrah. Nice.

We were welcomed by a folk dance by local children, then it was off to the Museo Colchagua, a private museum containing a lot of artifacts from all through Chile’s history.

Lunch was at the Hotel Santa Cruz Plaza, belonging to the same family and next to the museum. A pretty hacienda like hotel, and the sun peeked out just enough after lunch for some pictures.

The final part of the program was a visit to the Viña Santa Cruz. I’m guessing it’s the only vineyard in the world that has its own cable car, indigenous village display, llamas and giant telescope.

The actual wine tasting at the vineyard was a short affair — just a couple of glasses. The vineyard is only about 10 years old but it has an old name since the owners bought the brand name of an older vineyard. Main production includes syrah, carménère, cabernet sauvignon and malbec. Nothing too extraordinary, nice tasting.

An interesting six degrees type of tidbit is the astronomical centre has a piece of space junk — a part that fell off a satellite. The same satellite now sits at the Air & Space Museum at Washington DC where I was only a couple of weeks ago. Hee.

Santiago

Downtown tour today. P was so organised, even printed out a talking point sheets for me, I’m very touched. It was supposed to rain last night but didn’t, so the air pollution level was high. In fact, it was very visible throughout the day. K told me that when the pollution level got high the government placed limitations on certain cars — with number plates ending with a certain digit for instance. The result is that many families get more than one cars so the problem isn’t solved.

First stop was the Santa Lucía Hill, which houses the remains of Fort Hidalgo, a nice garden and statues of important personages in Chilean history.

I like this one, although it’s the ubiquitious boring white sky effect. The contrast between the native Indian warrior and the modern building is typical of Santiago today.

Another typical phenomenon is the smog. From the top of the fort it’s pretty obvious. And we spotted one of the contributors spewing black smoke.

From the Santa Lucía Hill it was a short walk to the Iglesia San Francisco, the oldest structure and great landmark. There’s been a church in that place since 1554, and construction on the church proper began in 1586. Such is the importance of the church, it’s on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Next to the church is the museum of colonial art dedicated mainly to St Francis.

Walking onwards, we passed the busy financial district, visited the fantastic museum of pre-columbian art, went inside the grounds of the Government Palace, and saw numerous administrative buildings all housed in impressive historical buildings.

The next stop was the Main Square and the cathedral. The churches I’ve seen so far have all been impressive. There’s a sense of history, and that these structures have withstand the passage of time and unease. The decoration is lavish, and full, though never overly opulent.

We stopped for lunch at the mercado central — central market — which is a vast cast iron building with stalls at the side and restaurants in the middle. Mainly fish, poultry and fruit stalls, like a wet market except not as wet. P and I had fried fish and tomato while K had seafood soup. The fried fish was very good, not so many bones and tasted very fresh. We also shared a starter of razor clams.

Then it was shopping time. We visited an artists’ market and I bought lots of small souvenirs for everyone. Nothing too fancy, but with distinctive Chilean character. The walk back to the car was by way of the park (P: “our version of Central Park).

It was a packed day, and I enjoyed the walking tour very much.

Cajón del Maipo

Easygoing day today. We set off after 11am, for the short drive towards El Cajón del Maipo, or the Maipo Valley. It’s a canyon that follows the río Maipo eventually reaching the Andes and the Argentine border. We didn’t go that far, it was a leisurely drive passing the towns. We got as far as Romeral, when the road turned from paved to gravel. It was too bumpy and we turned back.

It was a cloudy day so most of the pics ended up being mostly grey. It was still pretty, especially the villages along the way and the impressive river. Along the way were small stalls selling honey and nuts.

During the summer this valley is hopping with activities — hiking, kayaking, rafting. There’s even a small ski area. Further along the gravel road (22km) are thermal springs. It’s not far from the city, and again I’m amazed at how easy it is to get out of the city into an interesting area.

We stopped for a late lunch at one of the restaurants along the way. Had warm chicken salad followed by delicious cakes (cheesecake with raspberry sauce for me and plum streusel for K) for desserts. The area has a number of German immigrants, so they brought with them their recipes for küchen. The red drink is raspberry lemonade.

The air pollution was worse than yesterday when we got back to the city. Rested a bit late afternoon before heading out again. Met up with P to watch the semi-finals of the under-20 world cup between Chile and Argentina. We wanted to go to a bar but it was full. So we ended up at a local fast food (?) place where we had 1.5 pitchers of beer and a selection of local snacks. Unfortunately the score at full time as 3:0 in Argentina’s favour. Chile was reduced to 9 players near the end of the game and it was sad to see them lose.

Skiing around Santiago

Woke up at 6.30am and left at 7.15am. Our destination today was the El Colorado ski area just outside Santiago.

Oh yes, I went skiing!!!

I was amazed that it was so near the city. About 10-15 mins of town and all of a sudden it was the turn off into the mountains. The road up the mountains is long, winding and full of gasp-inspiring hairpin turns. I’m not going in order, but this is a picture I took when we came down. See how the treacherous the road is.

Before we could get up to our destination we had to put chains on the tires. Oh damn. Neither K nor I had much clue about how to set about doing that, and it took several trials and errors before we vaguely got it right. I don’t think we ever got it completely right. Our hands are still filthy tonight from all the grime. It was an interesting experience though.

But enough about roads and chains. The mountains were beautiful. The runs were beautifully groomed.

When we got there it wasn’t as crowded and we had a couple of runs before people started showing up. I felt like a large elephant when we were trudging around in our boots and skis and stuff — not gotten my ski legs yet. But once I got off the chair-lift and onto the slopes it all came back. I’m so happy I still remember how to ski. I stuck to the easy slopes. We only stayed till early afternoon, cos we were pretty tired. I had such a great time.

Looking back from the slope we could see the city in the distance. Santiago is surrounded by mountains, and is pretty windless. This means air pollution is trapped and the smog is very evident.

We got back to K&P’s home by teatime. K made some absolutely delicious ham, cheese and mushroom toasties. I spent the afternoon reading and relaxing after the day’s exertions. I was in perfect position to capture the sunset from the balcony. So pretty, with the mountain backdrop and the colours.

For dinner we had humitas which are ground corn and seasoning wrapped in corn husks. Very healthy and tastes really good — easy on the palate. Apparently they can be eaten savoury or with sugar. I tried with a sprinkling of sugar but liked the plain savoury version better.

Santiago

Flight was about 30 mins late, arrived at 6.55am. It was very foggy, I thought when the plane approached that we were going through clouds, when all of a sudden we landed. Immigration and customs were straightforward. I emerged to the meeting area with lots of people asking if I wanted taxi when I felt a tug on my backpack. Heh, lots of people do that. It was K — she had kindly come to pick me up.

The drive to her home was at first foggy, then we went through a tunnel and came out to fine weather. Santiago felt like a European city. I was car watching and there were many smaller European cars — Peugeots, Renaults, Golfs and Polos. K’s car is a Clio — that brings back memories of when mm was learning how to drive. :) Not so much mm driving, people are quite aggressive and there’s a lot of weaving in and out.

K&P’s apartment is beautiful. Magnificent view and a kitchen to die for. We had breakfast (I had cereal) and I took a nap cos I was tired. Then lunch of pasta and creamed avocados — lovely lovely. It seems like the first few hours in Chile and all I’m doing is eat and sleep. Hee.

Then we went to the shopping mall and I exchanged some money. The FX rate is approx 500 pesos for US$1. Back to her home and I re-packed, played on the internet for a while.

Dinner was a huge Argentinian slab of steak grilled on the balcony. It was very nice, I think the first time I’ve tried Argentinian steak. The whole apartment got smoked but it didn’t matter.

I’m in Chile. Wow.