HK hotel pricing

I cannot believe how much we get screwed if we try booking 5-stars HK
hotels on our own. Even from the hotel websites with promotions, we
still get screwed. Take a look at the top left corner from Cathay
Pacific travel package from Shanghai. 2 nights of hotel plus round
trip economy class ticket per person. Then the additional night on
the hotel. Now, look around the image on the hotel pricing from
official hotel websites. Outrages! We are subsidizing mainlanders to
shop. Next time I go to HK, I am going to use the package deal from
Cathay. This explains a lot why we keep seeing mainlanders in 5-stars
hotels because they are staying there for a fraction what "normal"
business people will have to pay. Wonder what happen if the business
communities around the world that fly to HK to do business and realize
the price they are being charged compare to the mainlander. I would
bulk too!

Hence the Four Season is on my banned list. The mainlands pay 1/4 of
what others pay! And the Island Shangri-La on Hong Kong as well. The
room was trashed. I complained, no one cared.

FYI: on average, a round trip ticket to Hong Kong is anywhere from RMB
2,300 to 2,900 depending on the time of day departure.

Chinese U view

This is a view from the Hong Kong Chinese University. Nice huh?

views from hotel

These are the views from our Excelsior Harbour View room. We overlook
the Hong Kong Harbour to the Kowloon. To the famour TST shopping area.

Nite view:

HKG hiking

Hong Kong gov't should promote its place as a hiking paradise. Wow,
so many nice paths. We were on one today. One of the paths that iron-
wife used to get on when she lived in Tsuen Wan District. We were out
from 1130am till 4pm. We only took a 15-minute taxi from the hiking
end point to China University where she did a one-year Chinese Study.

Getting away from the downtown core on Hong Kong island today was a
good choice. Heat wave warning today. Got out there. Cooler (aka
tolerable). We were prepared. Backpack with about 3L of water. 2
cans of sweat electrolytes replacement. Apples and nuts. When we
were on the trail, we were not that hungry; just sweat a tone. Fresh
air. Sunny. A little bit of rain and thunders and lightnings. Other
than that, a very nice time. A very easy hike. Not a hardcore
serious one we were expecting. Have to pick another trail next time.

Very interesting to see people live in pockets of districts all over.
But the subway lines make things easy. Took us 45 minutes from
downtown to the hike's starting line - A subway change including a 10-
minute walk for that and a mini-bus ride up the hill.

O yeah, after the hike we took a taxi to China University where Audrey
did her one-year Chinese Study and ended up staying in Hong Kong for
10 years. Taxi, because we couldn't find the subway and the wind
whipped up from the incoming storm. We just missed it!

Then after an hour or so in China U, we took the subway to visit Jon,
my cousin, and his family.

Here is out track today.

WET

Wet as in drench in your own sweat! That's how hot and humid Macau was today. I took a ferry across; man, busy! Darn, end of Summer school holiday. Everything was pack. Immigration, ferry ticket booths, line-ups. Everything! Walked out to the taxi stand at the Macau Ferry Terminal and there was no taxi but line-up! So I walked back to the apartment. Normally, it was quite easy. But today, with the sun and humidity. Yikes. As I walked toward my destination, my body reacted. Sweat started pouring from every pore on my body! I stopped at a supermarket for a bottle of water. Only had HKD on me. I did not know that Macau people did not accept HKD2 coins. Good thing I had paper money. MOP2.20 and a 750mL of water later, I was refreshed and moved on. Most than 1/2 way home. More sweat. I felt my Patagonia shirt sticking to me now. Felt heavy. More water. More water! Home at last after walking six floors of stairs. Drip, drip, drip.... I was drenched from my sweat! from socks, underwear, shorts and shirts. (As I am typing this blog, I look over to my shorts lying on the couch. White stink from the sweat! Twice over!) Just standing at the bus stop for 10 minutes for my return trip to Macau Ferry Terminal, I started sweating! Some breeze but oven hot!

I didn't pack much clothes as I expected to pick up some replace stuff at Patagonia. Unfortunately, the mentality of the clothing merchants is: Winter stuff!!!! Yes, Winter stuff even when we are still under a heat wave and at least 2 more months of heat! And seriously, how much winter stuff does one need living in HK? With all those smog trapping the heat and all? I could not get anything! I visited other stores, same thing! Change of season! Agh... And I only have one pair of shorts! Let see how tomorrow will do. Good thing Sogo is just a 5-minute walk.

Speaking of Sogo, had Mochi ice-cream. So yummy. A perfect end to a perfect vegetarian dinner tonight. The cost was HKD 13 each. I had a green tea and a honey cranberry. Don't want to make a regular event though.

O yeah, back to the Patagonia stuff. I was wearing a Patagonia shirt. Good thing. I had to change it out to have it dried so that I could wear it back to HK. With the special treatment applied to the shirt, it felt like a clean shirt for me when I put it back on before leaving Macau.

Regular

It is funny how many times this year I have stayed at the Excelsior in Hong Kong. All under certain circumstances from price wise to location to work-related.

When I checked in today, I was handed an envelope. The hotel is asking for my preference profile. Yikes. I have stayed one too many time. The preference form, I let iron-wife handled it. It was more for her than me. I am easy. Clean room with fast Internet access. Ha ha...

After registration, the receptionist handed me the keys and said "we have upgraded you to a harbour view room. The package includes breakfast for two daily." Cool. When I booked, it was only for one person b'fast.

In the elevator going up to our floor, we laughed how small the window will be to see the harbour. As we stepped inside the room, we were stunned. The room was twice the normal size of our usual experience of this hotel and we had a big window with a spectacular harbour view! Will take a movie tomorrow during day time. Just tried the new camera for the night view. Not bad.

All in all, so far this HK trip is "happy"!

We were pissed with the Shanghai air traffic control. It imposed flight timing without prior warning; it pretty much did whatever it felt like it. After the pilot made an announcement happily informed us of leaving shortly to 5 minutes later despaired saying delayed. We were mad. The plane was full and we were stuck in the middle two seats of a row of four seats. The kicker was the C0mM!es imposed a 10-minute per flight rule! Excuse me? And they want to make Shanghai as a big busy humming place? And they want to build this new airport terminal at Pudong as Terminal 3 because they expect more travelers? Right! BS! We were an hour late.

new camera

We had to replace two point and shoot digital cameras. One was accidentally dropped from a 2M height ledge while touring India; the other one, after the MSP trip in July no longer could focus, motor shot. So today, I bought the Canon D10 as the replacement. This camera was selected due to its ruggedness.

The original price was HKD 2,680 (CAD 379+). Due to my requirement, I paid for what I got. After asking for a discount and a "no" was replied, I pull out my credit card. Immediately, the staff came back with a load of goodies. 1) Free 8G SD card (water-proof), 2) Camera bag, 3) extra Canon backup battery, 4) SD card holder, 5) screen protector, 6) Addidas sport water bottle. The kicker came when he asked quietly if I would like to use my HSBC MasterCard points to pay for part of the purchase. O. I didn't know I could do that nor the bank informed me of that. The only thing I knew was the bank will charge me HKD 200.00 to transfer my points to AsiaMiles. "OK" I replied. Why not. After 5 minutes, he came back with all the slips and all. I signed my life away. Out of the HKD 2,680, my MasterCard point redemption netted me a payment of only HKD 1,720 (CAD 243+). What a saving! And what a way to redeem my points. Fast and Furious. Wow... I was impressed; this was easily the best deal I had all my life with my electronic purchases.

I am ready for our hike this Saturday in HK. Iron-wife will show me her old stomping ground. And I've gotten myself a pair of the new Timberland Mountain Athletics runners. It was at a discount, 15% off.

Air Canada response

Below is Air Canada's response after my email sent last week. 

Dear xxxxxx   :

Thank you for your email. We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and are pleased to address your concerns. On behalf of Air Canada, I offer my sincere apologies for the inconvenience that you experienced.

Your email is a clear indication of your disappointment and we regret the poor impression we may have created during your recent travel experience from Toronto to Shanghai.

We expect our employees to serve our customers with kindness and respect and it is cause for concern when this does not happen. Your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate management team for internal review. We wish to assure you that we treat these matters very seriously and are intent on preventing recurrences.

I have also forwarded your positive feedback and kind words regarding the staff on your return flight, it is rewarding to learn that you were left with a favorable impression of the courtesy extended to you. Our employees are always pleased to know that their efforts have been recognized and appreciated. 

We are aware that our operation is judged primarily by the image and service of our public contact personnel. All employees are expected to perform their duties in a courteous, friendly and efficient manner with a full appreciation of our customers' needs. Air Canada recognizes the value of customer satisfaction and therefore, we continually monitor and address the performance levels you should expect to receive from us.

As a gesture of goodwill, we are pleased to provide each of you with an electronic travel voucher in the amount of $100.00. These transferable vouchers may be used toward the purchase of Air Canada tickets for future travel on Air Canada and/or Air Canada Jazz and are valid one year from today. This means that they must be applied to new tickets purchased within that time frame, however, travel does not have to commence within the year. 

Your voucher numbers are:  0140774xxxxxxxx  Dxxxxxx Lx           
                                                 0140774xxxxxxx  Axxx Sxxxxxxr

If booking through our Call Centre, simply provide the number shown above to the agent at the time of booking

If booking on our web site or through a travel agent, please wait until travel has been completed to submit your online request for credit to the original form of payment.  Simply visit the link below to redeem your travel voucher:

http://www.aircanada.com/en/customercare/emco/index.html

Your travel vouchers are fully transferable to the customer of your choice.  Please ensure you indicate you are using your voucher as credit towards the purchase of a ticket for another passenger where asked on the online form if applicable.

Thank you for contacting Air Canada. We look forward to the opportunity of welcoming you onboard in the near future.

Sincerely,
Mary Ann Huggett
Customer Relations

so that's where the money gone

The central gov't has completed an audit looking into the spending
behaviour of alloted farmer's budget. It has found that 10 province,
district and city level governments have misappropriated over 2.6
billions. Over 58 millions were being used for building own
residential buildings and purchasing of new cars. Not a good thing.
26 suspects have been arrested or being penalized by the Party.
Wonder how much more are there.

Also in the news, the vice judge for the Central Gov't has been
arrested for being involved with a 700 millions corruption originated
from GuangDong. A piece of land was being purchased by his friend at
a very low cost, in less than a year sold it for much higher price.
They pocketed over 700 millions.

Man, these guys don't mess around. When it comes to dollar amount,
they are worse than the Wall Street types.

cooler weather

right. NOT! I laughed at the official Chinese online newspaper
saying the Summer is over yesterday. People should start avoid eating
certain food that may cause harm to the overall body system, a
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice Chinese follow. It might
be true in the "old days". Old I meant before all these concrete
buildings 40-50 stories high blocking all the natural wind. All the
cars idling with air con on. And all the exhaust output from
expansive looking building to the street level. One place was the
Crystal Pavilion just down street. When I walked by two days ago in
the morning already in the high 30's, I walked thru a shroud of
exhaust. Instantly, 5C warmer!

Granted the news article reminded people that Summer heat wave is
still possible and can linger, the reminder of what food to avoid now?
I think the more damaging to the body is not the food man! It's the
artificial environment that is heating the whole place up that we need
to worry about! And all those spitting! Do they know how much air
borne germs being released when those spits dried up? Or the smog
generated from the vehicle exhausts? Or the sub-standard paints used
for painting? Or get the people wash their hands after going the
bathroom both in proper bathroom or just behind a tree in public. If
the TCM wants to remind people what to eat to avoid "hurting" the
body, maybe those TCM experts should start preaching the artificial
pathogens. I laughed when I saw a TCM doctor in Beijing couple months
back. He was right about me not having enough sleep. But he was dead
wrong when he said my Arthritic condition can be healed just by
avoiding certain food , eating certain food and sleep more. Hey
buddy, in Chinese medicine, there is not much known about pSA.

I hate using air con. It's not good for my bones. But I had no
choice. The heat outside is so bad, it flows back into the house
instantly "cooking" everything. And the humidity, bad for my
electronic equipments. This morning when I was up at 4am, I tried
opening my windows. Fat chance. It was so bloody hot and dense
already like I have just turned the oven on at 375F for 20 minutes.
With that, I am heading out to the gym to workout. Avoid the late day
heat and severe thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Smooth scotch

Speaking of that bottle of Scotch I sampled in Boston courtesy of Tom,
here is the link to the website: http://www.glendronachdistillery.com/index.php
. The name is GlenDronach. It's about USD 50.00. I guess in
Saskatchewan, it might be special item of CAD 180,000,000,000,000 due
to the monopoly. Hee hee.. Wonder if the Medicine Hat SuperStore's
Liquor Store has this brand.

M & S

Mark & Spencer, I was not too thru of this store. Not good stuff as
far as I am concern. However, this store is a bit different. It has
the food I want. A kinda "homey" food. Chips, veggie soups, nice
bread, and wine. The food section in the store is good for what I
want; the rest of the store still the same as other M & S, cheap stuff.

It's convenient for me though if I want a fix of the "homey" food.
Funny I travel so much outside of Shanghai or China, I still want some
"homey" food in Shanghai. And I just got back from Boston. Obviously
I did not get enough Boston chowder and nice bread. Scotch though,
thanks to Tom, I had some really nice and smooth one ;-) I even had
it straight up. That was how smooth the Scotch was!

never straight forward

light bulb burn outs are common after extended use. No big deals, go
buy some and then switch them out. Yes, so it seems.

Do you know in Shanghai even though you have the same shape and fit
for a light bulb the colour of the light is NOT the same? You have to
hunt around town to find the matching light bulb, colour when lited
that is. With the heat, I just did the next best thing. Switch them
all out. 4 of them, RMB 8.00 each. The other 3 are on their dying
leg anyway. One problem solved.

More light bulbs burned out while we were away! Go figure. Two
pieces, another RMB 16.00. No problem. Put one into the slot, the
one in the hallway. Nothing. Nothing! OK, let's try another one,
this time to the bathroom one. Ladder, ladder, wherever you are, come
on out and play. My wife only has a 3-step ladder for all her life
living in this apartment. An apartment with a 10-feet ceiling.
Umm.... I had to use one of the end table in the bedroom. (note to
self: buy a ladder from the shop down the street this aft.) One touch,
the entire casing fell off. Welcome to Chinese workmanship.
Apparently the installation of the light fixture was "ingenious".
Large holes, with cheap wood chips pounded in and then put screws
thru. And the screws didn't fit! The screw heads were small compared
to the anchor required for the fixture, so this guy used pieces of
cardboard folded to "enlarge" the screw heads. Wow. Problem. Good
thing I put on my Rudy Project Horus cycling glasses (http://www.rudyprojectusa.com/products/sunglasses/styles/horus.htm
) as my safety goggles. I have these transition lenses on the frame
so it looked like a pair of safety goggles! The stuff coming out of
the ceiling. OK. Fixture mounted back on. Plugged in the new light
bulb. Nothing! Nothing! What?

Can't be serious! Two for two! No way. I went back to the shop,
tested the light bulbs, they worked. So can it be both transformers
were faulty? Or was this just a bad case of "Operator's error"? I
admit, I am better with computers than 'Mr fix stuff'. Haven't
touched those things since Industrial Arts back in highschool days.
But two for two? The light bulbs went bright with no problem. So
down to the transformers. Bought two for RMB 20.00. We'll see. My
handyman guy is coming.

only here

Drunk driving problem is big here. Following so many tragedies, the
gov't is starting to act. Crack down it is.

This is one of local party secretaries being arrested. In the picture
he was still trying to call in favours to stop the arrest. Take a
look! This happens somewhere in Guangzhou.

This secretary said "job requirement, I need to drink." This is not
far from the truth. If you don't, you cannot move up in ranks.

New university students

Yesterday was the first day for new students entering the university
dorms. It was a very exciting time. 6,000 students arrived and
estimated 2,500 vehicles "song" them (or delivered them). With that
many vehicles, a university entrance was gridlocked with vehicles of
all sizes and from all over China.

One student actually had 8 "helpers". mom and aunt cleaning the room
and toilet, dad and uncle buying electric fans and assortment of
electrical appliances. One set of grandparents buying fruits and
drinks; another set of grandparents standing by at the dorm for extra
assistance. And the student? Just standing at a corner with books.
This is just one incident. One child, one family.

One area where a Shanghai university is located, all surrounding
motels are fully booked. The "in-house" university motel is fully
booked. Officials are trying to open up more bunk beds, over 1,900
according to the newspaper, for parents to stay at the university for
a while.

Not just the students will be going thru orientation, even parents
are. The universities are very accommodating, making sure parents are
"relief" that their children are well taking care of. First time away
from home and away from the parent's protective umbrellas. Will be
tough.

Speaking of tough, there are students entering university will have
their own vehicles. But this is ridiculous!

safety

World Expos is coming to Shanghai; the local gov't is actively making
sure the entire city is prepared for it; major building projects,
expanding subway lines, beautifying old buildings and securing subway
safety. The last, well. Some one has taken a serious of pictures of
a passenger (sitting next to). Take a look at: http://bbs.bj.sina.com.cn/thread-180-1/table-64411-5336.html

Pretty long knife!

Letter to Air Canada

Dear sir/madam,

I am writing about my very disappointment of your crew's work attitude
during my flight from Toronto to Shanghai. There was no smile, not
friendly and above all, treated the meal service as a MacDonald's fast
food takeout. I was sitting in your Business First section along with
my wife. The service, comparing with other airlines I have flown
with, to name a few: Cathay Pacific, Dragon Airline, Singapore
Airline, Silk Airways, China Southern and China Eastern, your standard
of service was below average. I was only comparing the same class of
service. Very disappointing. I have flown in your Business First
class of service since beginning of 2007, all originating from
Vancouver. The crews were exceptional, very friendly, courteous,
service with a smile. Please extend my gratitude to your Vancouver-
based crew. Unfortunately, I could not say the same about this crew
from Toronto to Shanghai. I had my half drank coffee and table cloth
snatched from me while I was still drinking, all the crumbs from the
dinner fell on my lap. The tone of voice used was less than friendly
when your crew were serving our first refreshment. One of your crews
told me to remove wrappings so she could set a drink down as if she
was doing me a favour. I dislike that type of attitude and certainly
did not expect that with the amount we paid for the class of service.
The meals were served so fast, I thought I was in a mass hall. After
that, everyone disappeared. I trust this is a very isolated incident
and not a continuing trend. The service from Shanghai to Toronto on
August 7 was exceptional. Many thanks to your crew.

Regards.
Damiao Lo

hugging

This picture shows two apartment buildings hugging each other. The
apartments are not even 5 years old. After two days of heavy rain in
Chengdu, the buildings slid into each other. Both buildings are about
20 degrees off centre! Scary.

web access

I was questioning the expert's views on having all the undersea cables
spanning from Asia to US via Taiwan area with no backup plan was
dangerous. That was proven correct last week. 7 undersea cables were
damaged after the typhoon hit Taiwan. 70% of the US-based websites
were inaccessible. MSN was down for quite a while.

Well, let see; these experts said the December 2006 Internet problem
from the earthquake was one in a million chance to disrupt
connection. Now, this is the second time. So which millions are
these experts were using? The Indian Rupiah, the Indonesia Rupee or
the Vietnamese Dong "million" standard?

TO airport

The designer must be one graduated from the US and prefer the chaotic
and poor air circulation .... Man, the entire feel of the airport
compared to Vancouver was night and day!

Signage at Pearson was bad. Too us a long time before finding a
baggage storage. It turned out it was part of the Travel Store in
Terminal 1 at Level 3 just before security. Worse, the sign was
covered by other shop items. Let's put it bluntly, it was a crap
baggage storage. It must be privatized. Because all the baggages
were piled in three separate rooms as well as in the back office of
the Travel Store. What a mess!

The line up thru security was like backward US-style. Guess we are
pretty spoiled here in Asia (Hong Kong excluded, same dumb asses
design and India, just dumb asses).

Has any one ever departing from Terminal 1's International area? The
bar and grill place had such a venting problem, immediately as you
walked toward the down escalator to the gating area, you could smell
the grease. And as you walked around, one could see blue haze.
Liquor was cheap though. CAD60 for two bottles of Chivas. CAD 49.99
for two bottles of Saffaire Gin and Volka.

The entire feel just bad. Must be modeled after Boston and the
"greater US designs".

The AC lounge was packed and the food was bad. The wireless.
Couldn't handle the load and could not communicate with a new Macbook
Pro. I could get to other Wi-Fi services no problem, the paid ones of
course.

More on AC in-flight services in a separate blog. But in short, the
service sucked! If that was the best service for North American
airlines in 2008, the quality pretty much is sub-standard.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Best darn CAD58.00 I had ever spent yesterday. Our flight from TO
back to Shanghai was delayed for 9 hours. With our hotel location,
the Royal Ontario Museum was just kiddy corner away. Off we went to
see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibition. I was disappointed on the way in
as we would have no time to see the exhibition. But....

Just 15 minutes before we were to leave the hotel for the airport, Air
Canada called my cell and said "Your flight has been delayed to
9pm.". Wow... I picked up the phone, rescheduled our car pickup,
extended hotel and reconfirmed the flight departure time. I got
online after all the phone calls to check out the museum hours. Good
thing it did not close on Mondays. We walked over and 5 minutes
later, we were walking down to the basement floor for the Dead Sea
Scroll exhibition. What an eye opener! There were not that many
pieces of scrolls but enough to give an over feel. As well, the
history leading up to the findings and all. We spent an hour and a
half in there. Afterward, we went upstairs for the gem stone
exhibition. Wow. Could not believe there were so many natural rock
formations. Some looked like mushroom or fungi. Man, must see!

We killed enough time in there seeing both exhibitions that we did not
have much time left. Good thing.

yummy food

This is the place:

Jean's Vegetarian Kitchen
1262 Danforth Ave (greenwood station)

We went there last night after taking what seemed to be old, backward
and bureaucratic Toronto Metro system. 8 stops later from the Bay
station, we arrived. The area was a bit run down and seedy. But the
restaurant food was exceptional. It was a mixed of Malay and Thai
vegetarian dishes. Good thing we were there early, by 7pm the place
was packed. I cannot recommend any dishes as all of them were good!

And yeah, the dessert! Fried bananas and mango sticky rice! O...

Tapas style

After a year of agony of not finding the restaurant in Burlington
Mall, Chairman Lo persisted yesterday. He had found the same
restaurant that he went to last year during his Boston visit. It was
a nice little Tapas style restaurant, tugged inside the second floor
of Nordstrom. The name: Blue Stove (http://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-stove-at-nordstrom-burlington
). The review is here: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/Oct/9/small-plates-big-tastes-blue-stove-cooks-up-at/

When I set foot into this place, I had my doubt about the Tapas
style. I looked at the menu and "ummm". Then the waiter came by and
explained the menu. Ah, it made sense now.

Food was wonderful. I recommend the raw Tuna and the wild mushroom /
asparagus. So yummy. O yeah, a nice glass of white to go. Too bad
there was no outdoor sitting; otherwise, the deck sitting would have
enhanced the experience; after all, nicer air here than sitting
outside in smog filled Shanghai.

gps

thanks goodness for GPS system. If without one, Boston is one of the
cities I would refuse to drive! I drove in South Africa, I drove in
lots of different cities, this place is just chaotic with no ends.
Streets cris-cross everywhere. No straight line or anything to get a
feel of sense of direction. North, South, East, West, I just don't
know without a compass. Street signs, highway signs, any signs are
always playing hide and seek behind tree branches or shrubs in far
flung places. Signs are totally irrelevant as what they say do not
represent what it should be. Lanes? There are no lines on the road.
3 lanes here? Or is it one lane and a half? And who designed the fre*^
$^king highways and freeways? Obviously not the gang that put people
in space! Otherwise, God helps us all. The exits and directions, all
over the map. Merging and exits were located at places that shouldn't
have been. From Braintree back up to Boston, I had to cut over 4
lanes in less than 3 seconds in order to enter the correct entrance
going North. And people drive like idiots with cellphones.

So far this week, I pretty much just plugged in the address I wanted
and went. Let the GPS guided me. I felt like a "ground" pilot
entering all the coordinates before "taking off".

Piazze Dolci

Went to Piazze Dolci (http://www.cafepiazzadolce.com/) in Winchester
for dinner. A nice little restaurant not far from Lexington where we
are staying. Food was home-cook style. Very nice. One thing missing
was a nice glass of red wine. For some dumb town ordinance, no
restaurant is allowed to serve alcohol in outdoor patio or any not
"covered" area. How stupid is that? Well, it happened. Actually
this Winchester town doesn't even seem to have liquor stores.

The tomato sauce was so rich and flavorful. I was impressed. The
bruschetta salad, wow, nice bread, olive oil and vinegar. Man!
Apparently this restaurant opened 5 years ago by an Italian highschool
student.

North American food

Could not believe that how my food selection changed over the last two
years. Everywhere I turned to find "heathy" food always landed in
front of a pile of something that on the outside looked "heathy". But
read the small prints, the pile was loaded with sugar or potassium.
And processed everything. Wow. Just in the Air Canada lounge on the
US side, the b'fast offered was all processed everything - white flour
kind. Then there was the supposedly healthy yogurt. Right, enough to
bring several low sugar diabetics back to life. Fruits were the
canned with sugar water type. Wow. So unappetizing. We are in the
season for peaches, blueberries, grapes, watermelon. Were those too
expensive for the Management's bottom line? If these management types
wanting to keep using small size regional jets to save money, they
better start thinking to offer a less sugar "bottom" heavy food
selection for travelers. Maybe then people would not complain the
seats are too small!

I was really shock on this trip to see most ground crews were at least
4 sizes too big compared to the ones I saw in Asia. Man.... Very
weird feelings.

emptying

It has almost been a year since I visited Lexington, a suburb of
Boston. After a walk today, I could not believe how many shops have
closed on downtown main street. Each building has at least one
vacancy with a sign. Those used to be occupied. I knew it was but
just could not remember what they were. So the economy downturn
really hurt. A scary sight to see.

At TO

Arrived after 13 hours and 45 minutes door to door from Shanghai to
Toronto. I found it interesting we did not fly further north. We cut
across the Baring Sea then down thru BC, Alberta, <Saskatchewan> the
pilot never mentioned, Manitoba then finally here in TO. Flight was
uneventful. Service was ok. Movies sucked. I am afraid will be like
that on the way back. But just need to use the seat anyway. It was a
777-200 model. The econo seats looked wide and comfortable with lots
of leg rooms. The flat beds were flat bed. Skinny. Not long enough
for me. O well. Food was ok. It has downgraded to pretty much a
quick meal service. The service in econo class with Dragon Air,
Cathay, Singapore Airlines were far better.

That's about it here. Sheraton at T3 does not work more than 125.00
per night; that's what we are paying with this special rate, normally
over 290 before taxes. Yeah right.

Tomorrow, airport check in by 5am for 640pm departure for Boston.

dense

Dense not the the idiot type dense. I am referring to the humidity in
the air. Forgot to close the windows in the bedroom, as I stepped in
there I was greeted with an invisible wall of water vapour and heat.
Seemed someone had turned on the oven outside. I was like I just
opened the oven door after couple hours of 375F cooking. Of course,
the is this humidity part.

We are officially under the effect of an incoming tropical system.
This one is fast and furious. Good thing we are heading out flying
north then east toward the pole and back down to the Great Lakes and
finally landing at Pearson Airport. Just hope on the way to the
airport the ground transportation will not get stuck in Shanghai
traffic for the "betterment" of World Expos. Cannot take the Maglev
as iron-wife is bringing her baby, the new bike, for a tune up at
Peabody (suburb of Boston). I had to reserve a cargo space for the
bike.

Current temperature is 27C but I suspect here in downtown core, it is
about 37C now.

Not much exciting news in Shanghai. It's like the low after a high
from Saigon.

Heading to airport at 230pm today. Will be in TO by Friday 700pm.

Today (Aug 7, 2009) at 12:34:56 will be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . It only
happens once.

August schedule

Saigon - done
Boston - coming up in 56 hours
Beijing - August 22 to 24
Hong Kong - August 26-28
Taipei - August 28-30

That should complete our August schedule.

September light schedule
Sept 20-22 Macau/Zhuhai
Sept 23-24 Zhuhai

Home for 56 hours

Flew the red eyes back to Shanghai from Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh
City). The flight was uneventful. 3-seat for every one again. When
we boarded the flight, it smelled. Smelled bad. The carpet released
a mixture of cooked food over the last 5 years and urine smell and
whatever... This plane just came in from Shanghai, less than 2 hours,
turned around and flew back to Shanghai.

By the time I got home, I just stripped behind the main entrance (door
closed of course). I just didn't feel clean. Of all the Chinese
flights I have been on, seemed hit and miss in terms of "clean".
South China, Hainan Airlines, China Eastern, Sichuan Airline. All
mixed bags.

Home. We are gearing for the next trip. Looks like we will miss the
effect of an incoming typhoon expected 72 hours from now. Good
thing. The last two days, Shanghai had experienced red alert on rain
fall. At the Pudong airport, 20 flights were affected the other day.
That's serious.

Now, the clock is counting down for me to hop on Air Canada for the
Boston trip. Looking forward couple Caesars on the way; nope, won't
be doing a Brent back in 1996 when the gang flew over to HK from
Vancouver ;-)

Wonder if the flight attendants be able to make a dirty dry Gin
Martini for me. Ummm.....

finally

Finally, a nice bowl of Pho Bo and cheaper than Pho 24 from
yesterday! Also, lots and lots of ingredients; tasty, chunky beef,
pork and all. Tomorrow after we landed back in Shanghai at 6am,
heading to the gym.

This is the restaurant. Like the guy that took the pictures and
commented on the food. I was too busy eating to take any pictures.
The pot stickers was very sticky.

http://www.saigonnezumi.com/2009/07/13/quan-hy-restaurant-saigon/

Humidity

Yikes. What humidity we have here with the rain. I had the patio
door opened pretty much all day today. Nice breeze and cool. But as
my bare feet touched the carpet, felt moist. The desk and all had a
film of condensation. Now, how's that for humidity. And on top of
all that, I believed I had shorted out the entire circuit board that
controlled the hotel room's electricity. First it was the room's
lights flickered on and off non-stop. Followed by the electric
curtains opened and closed by themselves; then it was the alarm clock
kept going off. It was just like a horror movie with a possessed
room. Then the phone started humming. The final straw came when I
tried turning on the air cond. Everything gone. Stuck. Had to call
the Guest Services twice.

Now, everything is fixed.

view

I have merged pictures taken from the hotel balcony. Pretty close to
what my eyes see when I stepped out onto the balcony.

where was the Vietnamese food?

Went to Xu, the so called fusion Australian and Vietnamese
restaurant. Disappointed. The write up and all sounded better. My
meal costed USD 50.00 and iron-wife was USD 22.00. We blew over a
million VND. The restaurant website is: http://www.xusaigon.com/

The food was too sweet. No Vietnamese taste to it. My pork belly
suppose to be the restaurant's signature dish with coconut. Right. I
couldn't see any or taste any. Gin Martini was acceptable though.
Not quite as dry and dirty as I would like. This place charged for
bread too just like any Western high-end restaurant in North America
or Australia. My advise, stay away.

Spa yesterday

This is the place where I got my calves torture treatment yesterday. http://www.lapothiquaire.com/
. There are two locations. We went to the one on District 3. The
house was huge!!! Hard to imagine how many servants back then needed
to keep this place tidy and proper.

restaurants.

This is the website with recommended restaurants in District 1 here. http://thejadedpalate.com/foodie-guide-to-vietnam-saigon/
In there, scroll down to see Pho 24. The picture of the restaurant
was where I set on the right.

Pho Bo

Beef noodle soup, that is. Went to this famous Pho-24 noodle house, a
franchise. This is a Vietnamese story. The owner started one store
and then just kept growing. Gutsy move. I wonder if that Phantom
parked outside the Sheraton yesterday was his car.

Anyway, I ventured into the first Pho-24 opened by him to eat. In
short, as Singaporean would have said "OK la". Nothing special. It
was a bit disappointing. The cost was 100,000 for a bowl of striplion
noodle soup and an ice coffee. I am still hungry as I am typing
this up. 100,000VND is about 5.71USD. I saw it on the bill as I
could have paid in USD, but why.

The ice coffee was not like the one in An Nan Gourmet Market. Though
the price was the same between the both places, 28,000 per cup. I
tried, I ate and I won't go back.

This is the official website of Pho-24: http://www.pho24.com.vn/homepage.php
. Don't get the pictures fooling you from believing you have a big
portion. Think half of what you see on the website and then some. OK
time to get some banger and mash across the street for my second
lunch. That was how little in that bowl of mind.

how

How is it possible having two bottles of sealed water but they each
have different level of water? These bottles are supplied by the
hotel for the SPG guests for room use. There were condensation inside
the bottle so I would imagine something is being evaporated from
inside. Though insignificant. How then we have two different level
from the same batch of water from factory?

Three explanations? 1) Evaporation was faster from one bottle to
another due to the different temperature between the two? 2) Manual
water filling station at factory? 3) Re-calibration of water filling
mechanism? Or 4) If we don't get sick from it, it's ok.

another view

This was taken this morning when I said by the window in An Nan
Gourmet Market for my cup of Vietnamese drip coffee with a croissant.

This corner is the other end of the street where Sheraton is located.
The bundles of wire hanging I believe they were telephone phones. I
saw workers with Telecomm uniforms just down the block working on a
bundle.

I took this while there were no traffic. Otherwise, just had massive
motor bikes and taxis.

AC pricing

Take a look at this pricing list from Air Canada. Routing is from HKG
to BOS. What's wrong with it? A faulty system or the airline is
employing a new tactic making people to pay more because Business
Class looks cheaper thereby boosting the airline's bottom line?
Ridiculous! How the heck can you have Tango fare more expensive than
the lowest Business Class fare? BTW the prices are in HKD.

old houses

We walked around District 1 and 3. Man, there were lots of
interesting residential architectures. This is one of them that I
could take (when we were dry). It was raining all day.

Today's photos are brought to you by my Nokia 5601 mobile phone's 3.2M
pixels camera.

lunch

After being beaten up with a whole body massage and a calf and foot
massage organized by the iron-wife, we head to Com Nieu Sai Gon for
dinner. It was almost 3pm by then. It suppose to have a website but
it doesn't work. This place is at 59 Ho Xuan Huong Street, District
3; tel: (84-8) 9302888.

We ordered 4 dishes. But man, they were big! Take a look at the
pictures below. The clay pot rice was most interesting. Once the
rice was cooked with a nice crust. The waiter broke the clay pot and
threw the rice across the room to the other waiter who promptly caught
it with a plate. Then we were served with a soya green onion sauce.
Yummy. The total with five big dishes and two drinks came to
281,000. About USD 16.50. No need to have dinner tonight.
Full...... Full full...

Inside restaurant

DD

Speaking of nice strong coffee, this is the place that one should NOT
get a cup of Dunkin coffee. I took this picture back in March in KL's
budget terminal. We were waiting for our Penang flight. I was so
excited when I saw the Dunkin sign. Figured I could have a good cup
of old fashion North American coffee. Nope sir. Coffee tasted
terrible. Brown liquid with burn smell. And it was brew fresh from
the packet. Yikes!

Twice b'fasts

We decided not having b'fast at the hotel even though one was free;
but would have to pay for the 2nd one at USD25.00. Ridiculous for bad
food. So we ventured out, across the street for an omlette, toasts
and vietnamese coffee for a total of 60,000 per person. For the two
of us, 132,000.00. That was about USD 9.00; not bad for better food
and got to sit outside. This is the photo from our vantage point this
morning.

The street corner is where Sheraton is located.

Internet Sharing

Thank goodness of Internet Sharing capability; otherwise, I would have
gone insane! We always travel with a wireless router so that at
hotels, we could just plug it in and each of us will have Internet
access free from wire. This hotel is one of the fews that I have had
trouble with the wireless router.

I plug the ethernet cord to my computer, setup Internet Sharing using
my Wireless card, and whamp iron-wife's computer is alive. It's
connected to the Internet.

Couldn't bear the thought that we have to share computer use for 5
days. Haha...

Saigon day 1 pictures

Day 1 photo gallery: http://web.me.com/damiaolo/Saigon2009

I find it that I am taking less and less pictures. After you see
something, things all look the same to me from country to country.

223,000 for dinner

Yes, it was cheap and had a view, kinda. The place is called
Lemongrass recommended in the NYTimes 36-hours in Saigon article. You
can skip the restaurant. It's catered to foreign tourists. I am
heading to a Pho 24 shop.

Anyway, we had four plates of food; Vietnamese spring rolls, tofu,
fried rice and veggie; and a pot of Lotus tea. The total cost came to
VND 223,000. It's about USD 12.80. That's including VAT and service
charges.

One the way to the restaurant, we saw lots of wedding banquets being
prepared. On the way back after the dinner, the wedding banquets were
in full swing. All the newly wed couple pictures were hung outside
the restaurant doors so that guests knew who they were, I guess.
Interesting phenominum to see.

1 million gone!

Vietnamese Dong that is. USD 1 = VND 17,500 or so. I was an instant
millionaires. And then I spent my million.

We bought some paper art work and it was 670,000.00. Then two cups of
Vietnamese coffee at the Rex Hotel where the US officers gathered
during the Vietnam War, 135,000.00. That was a highway robbery for
only two cups of coffee with VAT and service charges. 47,000.00 for
two paper hand-rolled cards. Then the best value afternoon tea at the
Foreign Supermarket just a block from Sheraton. The nicest Vietnamese
drip coffee I have had so far, carrot cake and a scone for a grand
total of 85,000.00. So there you go, a million gone.

We walked all day. That's the best to take in a new city. People
just want you to give them businesses. Mostly taxi, and rides. They
tried soliciting but not pushy at all. No big deal; but after China
and India, I just didn't like being approached. You stop, you just
get "harassed" in my own version anyway.

People are friendly. But be careful not walking along the river with
your bag or camera. Snatchers on motorbikes.

We had a fresh coconut in a local fruit shop. Staff couldn't speak
English but fingers and smile did the communicating. We had one for
10,000. Less than one dollar US.

Along the roadside, there was always a small little 'coffee shop'.
One small table, couple stools and couple bottles of soft drink.
Coffee a plenty. Then walk some more and then sidewalk pedicure. A
basin, a pedicure tool and a towel. That was it.

So, that....

Fine Art Museum

Day 1 of our visit in Saigon. We were walking around in District 1.
Despite the city looks big and large, easily walkable. We walked all
day. Soaking in the Vietnamese atmosphere. One of the places we
visited was the Fine Art Museum. It used to be a private home of a
wealthy merchant. Of course, a Chinese. This place was just
ridiculous big! 3 stories in height and 1/4 city block! It also has
an elevator! The first picture is from within the courtyard. No
camera was allowed in but good thing with my handy Nokia 5610 camera
phone. I snapped two pictures.