So I have decided to blog about my Asia
trip! I'm going to try and make a blog post everyday about my day.
This way it'll be more accurate and it'll be more of a joy to re-read
if it doesn't consist of “some stuff”. And I guess this is part of the "live" part of my blog title ! :)
Day 1 – July 21st.
Got up and did some last minute packing
at home and then at 12pm, off we went to the airport (with my uncle
driving us in another uncle's ghetto van). We arrived at the airport
at 2pm, due to the one-lane reduction on the A. Henday, however the
checking in with Westjet went really smooth so we were done in no
time. I don't recall the woman who helped us' name, but she was
totally awesome and kind, unlike others I've had prior. I finally got
to check out RIM's Playbook! WOOHOO. For those of you who don't know
me, I am an avid RIM/Blackberry fan. I hadn't had the chance to play
with the Playbook because I rarely go to electronics stores and when
I do, it's usually for movies LOL. I went into the store called
iStore and I totally thought it would be an Apple products – only
store. I was, however, mistaken and was so happy to see some
Playbooks on display! I don't want to say much and sound uber fan
girling on my blogposts about my trip but I will say that once I get
back, I'm going to be buying one! Anyhow, we took the plane at 4pm
and arrived at Vancouver at 4:30pm. Well, 4:30pm Van time (I can't
recall which time zone it's in.. oops).
Here's our plane all happy in Edmonton.
It was a bit of a gong show as my mom's
classmate from elementary was coming to pick us up (she lives in
Victoria) and she accidentally went to the international part of the
airport instead of the domestic side. A little bit of a mix up which
cost us an hour of waiting. We then set off to meet up with the rest
of their classmates. My mom's classmates from JHS/HS were going on an
Alaskan cruise trip and had invited her along, however she already
made plans to come back to Vietnam. It was by pure luck that the
times matched up that they all arrived to Vancouver on the 21st.
Her teacher also joined them. It was really interesting to see that
my mom's classmates went to various places in the world: Australia,
Canada, USA and Europe. Okay, I guess it's not very “various”
since it's one of the bigger, more developed places in world. It's
still pretty neat that after close to 40 years after they had class
together, they still met up! Anyways we went to go eat at Richmond
Sushi (unfortunately I was unable to snap pictures of it since I
didn't bring my camera in with me). Holy crap it was expensive!! It's
interesting because I know Vancouver & area are flooded with
Japanese restaurants and yet the competition didn't drive the price
down. It was an all-you-can-eat sushi place and cost $32.95(not quite
positive about the cents) + HST! For me, coming from Edmonton where
we only have the GST, it was quite a big price to pay. The sashimi
pieces were quite large and very tasty. You could definitely tell it
was fresh. It was also my first time trying geoduck (pronounced
goo-ey duck)! I always watch it on Food Network and wondered what it
was like. It does have a slight “seafood” flavour to it, however
I really enjoyed the texture of it; it had a little bit of crunch.
Afterwards, we went to buy me a sweater from RCSS because I'm so
smart and decided that it would be super hot in Vancouver and the
other places I would be going to so I wouldn't need a sweater. WRONG.
It was pretty chilly at night and of course the airplane is ALWAYS
air-conditioned. We then visited my mom's Victoria classmates family.
Her sister went to school with my aunt and her brother went to school
with my other aunt (when they were all in Vietnam). Finally, we were
back at the airport to wait for our 2am flight to Taipei! Didn't do
much but sit there and charge my iPod touch & Blackberry as well
as talk to the BF. We got onto our China Airlines flight and off we
went!
Here's our plane.
The flight was 11 hours and 20 minutes.
I honestly felt SO smart on this flight LOL. What happened was I sat
in between my parents in the middle section and I had an armrest on
either side of me; there was also a second armrest next to the
armrest on my right side. What I did for an
awesometastic-make-shift-bed was I lifted up one of them to give
myself more room and then I curled up into a ball and fit perfectly
in the spot. I slept like a baby with my seat reclined and my whole
body comfortably snug into my spot. Beautiful. I also re-watched
parts of The Hunger Games before I fell asleep (still pretty bad the
second time around lol), finally watched Tangled!!! (SO CUTE),
watched an ep of BBT. That's all I got since I was sleeping most of
the time! As for food, we were given dinner and breakfast. For
dinner, it was a pick between chicken & potatoes or pork &
rice. I picked the chicken and potatoes. NOT GOOD. LOL Here is the
pic of the meal:
Here is the pic of just the chicken and
potatoes and veggies (sorry the pic is blurry):
The chicken was not crispy but soft and
it had dark meat which I hate. The potatoes were cooked well but
didn't have much flavour. The veggies were just soggy. I forget what
was on top of the chicken but it wasn't a saving grace. For sides, we
had a dense bread roll (ew) and potato salad with a slice of salmon
on top with some dill.
The salmon wasn't even good. It just
tasted slimey. Absolutely nothing like what I had at Richmond sushi!
Best part of this meal was the dessert: a mango mousse cake!
Had a little bit of cake on the bottom,
mostly mousse. SO YUMMY. Reminded me of the Save On Food's mango
mousse.
For breakfast, you could choose
between a western breakfast or congee. I opted for the western one.
Here's a picture of it:
It had a cheese omelette, some spinach,
a sausage as well as a hashbrown. For sides, we had yogurt (I scored
the raspberry flavour!), some fresh fruit and a sweet bun. The
sausage was well overcooked; one could actually SEE the dryness
inside. Hashbrown, not crispy at all. Spinach was soggy but eh I like
spinach so no biggie. Omlette was decent IMO (although I don't eat
eggs much), but I added way too much salt to it! The sweet bun was
alright but I found the inside a bit dense too. I like fluffier buns.
My mom ate the seafood congee.
It came with the sweet bun, fruits and
some type of toppings that typically go into congee. I have no idea
what they are because I usually don't add much to my congee other
than some green onion and crispy wonton strips. I tried my mom's
congee and it has absolutely NO seasoning at all. I'm sure it tasted
better with the salt and pepper my mom added after. I'm not THAT big
of a fan of shrimp so it's a good thing I passed since there was so
much of it LOL.
The flight was actually alright. Not
TOO much turbulence. TBH though, I've slept through all of the storms
we've had in Edmonton for the past 2 weeks so I honestly think it
takes a lot to wake me. The landing was quite good too! Thanks pilot
:) Oh since we were going overseas we technically went forward in
time so by now it's the 23rd.
When we got to Taipei, we only had
about 40 minutes to shop! I saw a Hello Kitty store! SO CUTE.
I'm not the biggest fan of HK but
every time I see HK stuff, the Asian in me is triggered and I get all
giddy. I didn't buy anything though. My friend Kerry told me to go to
7-11 and grab a milk tea, unfortunately I had no time. I kinda
thought there would've been a 7-11 in the airport like Hong Kong did
but nope.
Here's a pic of our flight to
Vietnam.
Bye Taipei!
The flight was only 3 hours long so I
watched Wipeout and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen! I've always wanted
to watch that movie and I finally got the chance to. Unfortunately,
we landed before I could finish it. I swear there was probably only 5
minutes left in the movie!! Sad. Anyhow the food we had on this
flight (it was our “lunch”)...... BEST MEAL EVER. LOL. Maybe
because the past ones were shitty or I don't know. But I totally
finished this WHOLE thing. You could pick between Chinese noodles or
western. Since western was total fail last flight, I had to get the
noodles. Holy mackeral, was it delicious!
Here's the pic:
I think the meat was chicken (my mom
thinks it's pork) but I can't even really explain the sauce. If you
guys have ever had thit kho, it's a pretty similar taste. YUM. Had
some Chinese vegs and an egg! I thought it was a mushroom at first
and got all excited (I love mushrooms). Still good! The bun was
another sweet bun but this time the texture reminded me of the buns
you can buy at the Chinese bakeries. SO GOOD. Had a fruit salad, this
time it was the canned Delmonte ones that they just put into the
container. TBH I hate having the fresh fruit ones all mixed up
because the flavours all mix weird, however in these artificially
preserved ones, it all tastes the same until you actually bite into
it. That's what I prefer. I do like fresh fruit more than preserved
but not if you mix it all up together. We also got orange juice in
this. Tasted like Minute Maid. Don't like that but whatever, it was
such a good meal I just sucked it up and finished it!
Oh look! Here's a view of Ho Chi Minh
city!
This is the kickass taxi van things
that took me to my grandma's house out in the country side.
BOOHOO. After riding the long ass
plane rides there, another 4-6 hours to my grams! I asked my parents
about this and they said it's because the speed limit on the road we
take is about 50 – 60 km an hour. There is a road that you can
drive 100 k/h on but you have to pay a toll to use it, so most people
don't and suck it up for the long ride. My parents told me the
distance from the airport to my grandma's is equivalent to half the
distance between Calgary and Edmonton. It took us extra long this
time around cause we went on the ferry to cross the water lol. I
recall before there was a bridge that was quicker but for some reason
this driver did not go that way LOL. Anyways they also have a BK at
their airport which I didn't see the last time I was here (2 years
ago).
Motorcyclists.
This was really neat; they have a
countdown for how long the light will stay red and how long the light
will stay green. Very informative and cool! We should get these
Edmonton ;)
Picture of rice fields.
I also saw many coconut, papaya, banana
and mango trees, as well as some lotus flowers, but I couldn't take a
picture of them cause the scene was changing so quickly. Lol I just
noticed coconut, papaya and banana have repeating syllables.
FIRST MEAL HERE WHEN I GOT TO MY GRAMS
PHO TAI.
DELISH. So good. Delivered straight to
her house. This bowl made me full. It's not as big as we have it at
home but for $1.50 CAD I ain't complaining! The noodles are FRESH,
super tender and just melts in your mouth. So so good. I can't wait
to eat some more.
Oh and I got me some 7-up since I can't
drink their water here hahaha. And cause I'm a princess and likes
drinking Dasani bottled only.
OH PS. I saw a big ass cockroach in the shower area. COOL. It was bigger than my thumb. Didn't get a chance to snap a pic though. As of end of day 1 I have one mosquito bite right by my big toe knuckle which is where my flipflop strap hits :(
That's all for day one and two! Stay
tuned for the next 24 days for my travels in Asia.
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