Progress

These are the pictures taken inside the departure level of the grand International airport in Shanghai; this is the new Terminal 2 which has been in service for over a year now I believe. Really jam pack with people huh? Plan of building a new Terminal 3 starting 2012 apparently in anticipation of MORE travelers.






And these pictures below is the domestic side of the same Terminal 2. Passengers? And that was the planned lounge for a domestic airline but not sure which one.







These pictures were taken between 830am to 9am.

blocked

So stup!d. The C0mM!e has blocked google map from being displayed.
The native local version one with website address: ditu.g00gle . c0m
but the stupid people forgot to block the actual website that everyone
uses for g00gle map.

What? They think the potential in$tiGat0rs don't speak or write
English? Give your head a shake.

Long Monday

It will be long for sure; don't think my body knows what jet lag means
anymore.

Flight path starting Sunday: PVG->MFM->HKG->YVR->YQR arriving YQR
finally Tuesday morning at 1:08am. Just in time for Breakfast at
Denny's and a 1pm appt for dad's PICC line. Damm! Have to find
parking at the General. Who design the place anyway? Morons? No
parkings in the middle of downtown (off a bit).

Monday, I get to re-live it twice thanks for modern technology.

Monday HKG will be meeting, meeting, meeting and HK company renewal
crap. Have to go to two places to accomplish annual renew. Chaotic.
Then a 4:45pm flight for YVR.

Monday YVR arrive at 12:30pm. Checkin to my YQR flight with my ever
so favorite home grown airline of AC. Then Skytrain to town. Meeting
and Granville Island for a load of Salmon Candies. My parents
consumed the last batch in 2 days. Rationing this time! Then flight
out of YVR at 730pm.

not doing you a favour

I cannot believe how much crap Air Canada management is putting road
blocks of using Aeroplan points. Rebooking fee, taxes and now,
because of December, I require to redeem additional 66,000 points on
top of the 19,000 points I used for my canceled ticket. That's a
bunch of BS.

I have decided not using the airline anyway to fly so I have about
20,000 more points to the account. Any taker? ;-)

Say again

What? I only got a quota of one bowl of noodle in biz class? What? Did I hear right?

2am flight from YVR back to HKG was great.... You tired yourself out and then hit the sack as soon as the flight took off; but one thing though, I missed the "dinner" being served. Yes, 2am. Who would want to eat? 5 hours into the flight, I woke up and felt hungry. Got a bowl of noodle soup. This filled me up for a while. After a movie, I wanted something else. Sandwich? Anything? The flight attendant told me I had my quote of 'one' bowl of noodle, I was not allowed to have another. Huh? I wasn't asking for that! I was asking for sandwiches! Nothing. Banana? Nothing. But the flight attendant offered ice-cream to me! Nope! Bad food for flying! Some fruits please! So she relented and gave me a small plate of cut fruit. Right. What the f*%&^&*! I can see Cathay is definitely not doing well, if they are restricting that badly for biz class passengers on a long haul flight! And do they know it cost more to keep ice-cream in the freezer? More fuel to keep it frozen? Dumb ass! Fruits in natural state, healthier!

Well, I guess the airline has to restrict the passenger diet so that everyone can fit into those narrow personalized flat beds.

On this trip back, I could detect a slight drop in service with the crew. It seems the cutback is taking a toll. And I can see Cathay is copying the North American airline model. Sliding slowly into the abyss....

Follow-up

Canada Line, remember I saw last week that the ticket dispensing unit was just not user-friendly. Ha, so funny today there was a whiteboard on the floor telling people how much fare one need to pay to get downtown! And the sign was on the floor! OK, mind you it was between the two ticket dispenser units. But if a tourist is tunnel vision, I don't believe he/she can see it. O well.

Yes, I am in Vancouver again. Heading back to Asia for a short period of time. My travel for the next week and a half composes of: YVR->HKG->MFM->HKG->PVG-> Song Jian (yet to determine) -> PVG->HKG->MFM->HKG->YVR->YQR from Nov 23 to Dec 1. Yes, the crazy travel has begun. Then on Dec 13, YQR->YVR->HKG->PVG. Dec 19, PVG->HKG->YVR->YQR. And I am not using AC at all. A combo of Cathay and Westjet!

I am planning on doing a 3pm Westjet flight YQR (one stop over at YYC) to YVR. 2am flight from YVR to HKG. Work if needed then back to PVG. One the way back, I have to plan a bit as if I take the 1am flight from HKG I get to YVR at 8pm. Hotel before I head to YQR, makes a long travel day.

Chau

That was the name of the Vietnamese restaurant on Robson that we had dinner tonight. Food was excellent. Presentation was good; taste wise was BETTER. MSG, umm.. will report tomorrow morning. The only thing that sucked was the air exchange. What's with Asian restaurant and poor air ventilation. I had to strip when I got home and wash my clothes. 3 layers later, still smelled.

I had the veggie curry, the Chay Curry, very nice. And I had the fish special. Vietnamese beer, cauliflowers, broccoli, onion and of course, the fish it self, all wrapped up in parchment paper and steamed. Wow! Well worth the 15 dollars.

Here's the website link: http://www.chaukitchenandbar.com/.

Umm... I think I am starting to feel the MSG on my tongue. Not sure yet.

Morning after the meal: MSG! I hate that morning after MSG taste in my mouth! This restaurant started in a Vietnamese refugee camp in Indonesia during the Boat People period, there was no MSG available in the camp; why now!!!!

Skytrain

Skytrain to downtown. Well, it is a very cheap, convenient and time
saving way to and from airport at YVR. But the nicities stop here.
After traveling so much and using subways around the world, I am quite
disappointed with the way it has been designed compared to the rest of
the airport. The airport, by far, in my eyes are one of the best.
HKIA and SIN are the two that are comparable to YVR. Then..... The
train.

Signs. I don't see any signs at the Arrivals to say train this way.
Normally there should be.

I only saw one and that said "Canada Line". Now, if I were a tourist
coming in from a foreign land, I don't know what that is.

This line is used all year round, and this is a supposedly built
specially for the Olympics. Well.... Did the budget run out when
building this? The terminus station at YVR is NOT fully enclosed.
Sits high above ground. 3 levels up sitting in the middle of
nowhere. The wind just wipes. The long corridor from the airport to
the station, half glass. Wind just blows. In February, trains comes
in 7-8 minutes. Holly batman, is that ice chilling cold. No wind
blocks!

The ticket machines. The big map and the map on the machine do not
match in name for the major station. One said "Granville", the other
said "Vancouver City Centre" or something like that. Huh? Then the
fair zone! The ticket machines are new with touch screen technology.
You think it has the map of the line with stations displayed? And you
just touch the station and the fair is displayed. That's what every
major world subway system works. Not here! You get a small list on
the left side of the ticket machine. Small and hard to read. And
people's focus are on the screen. And on the screen only 4 things!
zone 1 price, zone 2 price for both adults and seniors. If I were
disoriented from a long flight and trying to figure out, good luck!

Then the trains themselves. I hope there will be more carts as there
will be lots of people using the Canada Line. The meager 4 carts
won't cut it. And the schedule.... Wow, is that slow. Singapore
slow. O yeah, have to be careful too because the same track can be
used for two different directions. And just at Bridgeport but at
another station closer to downtown. What the! Then the announcement,
not consistent at Interchange. Bad. And when the announcement came,
it was almost close to the station and not during departure like any
other subways I used. For example, when a train leaves a station an
announcement is made about the next station. Not this YVR one. It
makes that announcement as it "approaches" the next station. Hello?

Two major crappy designs: 1) the station sign; the bloody adverts on
the walls are bigger than the station sign. And the colour for the
sign just meshed with the signs. Even the commies don't do that at my
city! They have 1000% better signs for subways than this one here!
2) At Bridgeport, two different directions on the same sign! Gee...

It'll be fun when it comes to Olympics. I did not see any helpers
anywhere. I hope there will be. And the announcements with just
English.... I think couple other languages will be needed.

O yeah, what's this with fancy 2x2 seats with cushions. If I were to have my luggage with me, where the hack do I put them with me? Space inside was not efficiently used. Think! Cushion seats. Vandalism, wear and tear in a few years! Going to look ugly! Haven't you seen around the world using bench type seats for space and low maintenance? Too artsy fartsy? Or someone just doesn't think and dictate the "nice features"?

Boneta Vancouver

Boneta, it's a hip restaurant in Gas Town, Vancouver. We had a good
meal there; price was not exuberant but fair. Hot item averages about
$18. Service was excellent. Portion is not too big but good European
size. My grilled Sablefish was excellent. I wished I had more greens
though.

It was a cold windy walk from the Sheraton Wall Centre. A good 25-min
walk. And just before the restaurant at Cordova West and Carrell
Street, the area was a bit seedy with the Hildon Hotel. That was the
bad part. Well, just before China town so....

The restaurant, recommend reservation can be done online at: http://boneta.ca/
. Make sure you request the booth. It was the only quiet place which
a conversation can be had without yelling. Otherwise, very loud.

I cannot stress how good the service was! From the waitress with good
knowledge of the food and compliment wine to the taxi booking leaving
the restaurant. Everything was top class.

Outrages!

Thomson development project rolls out a new piece of "fat". The price
per sq meter for the top dog was RMB 160,000.00; that's short of CAD
25,000. A unit was sold for over RMB 100Million. OK, what's wrong
with that picture? This guy did a mortgage? Or cash? If mortgage,
the bank will be in deep sh!t. If cash, this guy will be in trouble -
tax? Or just one of those "committee" members? Ummm...

long time

It has been a long time since I posted. Well, a week in Regina turned
out to be almost 3 now and counting. CA. That's the big medical
term. Mom had it; and now dad has it. Discovered just at the nick of
time. Couple more months, it could have bursted inside and the
consequences cannot be imagine. So, now I am a double whammy. Will
have to something sticking up my butt and down my throat. Once a year
or twice a year. I wonder if I can just do a quick MRI scan instead.
I am sure it will show my crooked fingers and toes from my Arthritis.

When a family member has CA, pretty much put your life on hold until
the outcome. So my life has been on hold for the last 3 weeks. Still
have to wait for the oncologist appt. Petty much though we know chemo
is required. Stage 3 it is.