Summer 2011 Europe Trio - Prague (June 31st - July 3rd)

Day Three - Travel / Prague

My first impression of Prague was not a good one. Coming into the main train station, I can see a lot of graffiti and the buildings were not as kept-up as the majority that I saw in Germany. Their Metro station was quite dirty and needs a lot of TLC. Their subway trains and tram cars shows has many marks of vandalization. Also, reading about the pickpocket warnings in the guide book did not help the image at all.



Our hotel Czech Inn turned out to be a very pleasant little hotel that had a combination of Hostel shared rooms, private hotel rooms, and even apartment rooms for multiple people. The staff was very friendly and there was a lively atmosphere full of travelers sharing and interacting. I guess that’s the upside of a hostel. At check-in time, they could not locate our reservation but we eventually determined that we were 1 day too early. I had messed up again and we weren’t supposed to leave Berlin until the next day. This realization of course comes a little bit too late because we are now in Prague so… C’est la vie.




After we got things sorted out, we decided to go and check out a local microbrewery/restaurant/pub that was highly recommended by our hotel host. They served local Czech food and some German favourites. The beer was quite amazing and it’s no wonder they’ve been winning “Best Brew” awards for quite a few years. I had the coffee beer which had a beautiful aroma and a creamy aftertaste. Janey tried their beer mixed with honey and that was quite delicious also. Czech and Germans have similar food which consists of mostly meat so it makes it challenging for true vegetarians. Not to mention that there was an E Coli scare so eating raw vegetable was cautioned against. We tried a few items, one of which had a Bohemian dumpling with it. Janey must have been a bit excited to finally have dumplings so many days away from Vancouver’s Chinese food. But to our disappointment, “dumplings” to them is actually a bread roll that they use to dip with their sauces. Quite delicious but I can tell Janey wasn’t a fan.




Day Four - Prague:

You know the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? Well, it’s a good tip. We ventured out to Staremesto or “Old Town” with a free tour that just happened to be at our hotel door step as we were walking out. He asked if we were interested in a free city tour, and I figured, what the heck so off we went. He worked for Sandeman Tour Company and they happen to be quite a good tour company that offers free tours in many European cities. Their tour guides are always local people that speak English and work on a tip only basis. Although this tour is free, they do offer other paid tours also. We actually ended up on a 2nd (paid) tour with them for the afternoon.





Prague’s old town is a charming enclave of beautiful old buildings tightly packed together in winding, cobbled stone streets closed off for pedestrians only. It reminds me very much of fairytales storybooks, just less the dragons, prince, and princesses. In constrast to Berlin, most of these buildings are original. Hitler is hated by many here, but it was because of him that Prague has remained so original. He loved Prague and had given orders to inflict as little damage as possible because he wanted to retire here after he conquers the world. There are some Gothic and some Art Deco buildings, but many are of Art Nouveau architecture. Our tour guide was a history buff, so I learned a lot of Czech’s history starting from the Austrian empire, to Hitler, through to the Soviet’s Communist rule and up to the present day republic. I had a much deeper appreciation and understanding of this city and the country.






We had such a great experience that we decided to join their afternoon Castle tour. This guided us to the Castle district on the other side of the river which turned out to be another beautiful area with a very similar fairytale character. The view from their famous Charles Bridge had a medieval beauty to it. The castle was set way up high atop a village of red clay roofed buildings below. Like I mentioned early, all that’s missing is an armoured knight to ride through the cobbled street on his decorated horse. The Castle is a very old castle that dates back to 1000 years ago. The last piece to finish was St. Vitus’ Cathedral which King Charles had commissioned because he wanted it to be his final resting place. It actually took 500 years to complete so I don’t think he was able to wait.





Day Five - Prague:

Yesterday was a full day of tours so today, we decided to just walk around to explore on our own. Janey had noted some stores which she wanted to check out and I wanted to take more photos because my battery did not make it the full day yesterday.







We found a quaint restaurant on a side street that served pasta and oven-fired pizza. I had the pizza and it was delicious; light crust and ready in minutes from their authentic brick oven. They prepared it fresh in an open-to-view area; everything from kneading the dough to adding the topping, to firing it in the oven.




After lunch, we decided to walk further up the hill towards the castle district to explore more of their shops. We met a nice policeman who chatted with us a little bit and asked where we were from. Upon hearing Vancouver, he exclaimed Canucks! We went on to talk more about hockey and Jamyr Jagr, and Dominec Hasek. I tested his policing skills abit and asked if he can take a picture of us and he said he can’t cause he’s a policeman. I was sure he would’ve after all the hockey talk. Oh well.




After 2 days of continuous walking, our feet felt as heavy as sledge hammers. We decided to seek out a not so famous Garden attraction. It turned out to be a very pleasant formal garden that had several levels to it. From the top, you get a great view of the red clay roof of the buildings below. You can even see the Castle to one side. When were there, there was a wedding couple doing a photo shoot so we watched and had some rest time there.






Day Six - Travel / Munich:

It’s another travel day as we are off to our final stop Munich. We went to the train station early because our ticket is actually for tomorrow but we wanted to leave early to have more time in Munich. Most of the people we’ve met so far are quite friendly and helpful, but the majority of the city workers have not been. A lot of them don’t even look at you when addressing your questions and is very short with their answers. This was the case with us trying to figure out the platform that our train would be on. I had to goto the information desk 4 times and in the end, I still did not get a clear answer. Fortunately, in the last minute, we asked a local Czech woman and she confirmed that this is the right train, although the digital sign says it’s going somewhere else. How confusing! We found out she was going to Munich also, so in my mind, we’re sticking with her. After talking to her a bit, we found out that there are train operators on strike for a portion of our commute between the Czech and Germany border. So they have arranged for buses to connect us over to nearby German town where we had to catch the train into Munich.



This strike added about 2 hours to our travel so we are quite tired. After checking into the hotel, we decided to walk into old town to check out a restaurant called Ratskeller (think Rats Cellar) which seems to be very popular on Yelp. The restaurant is underground and yes, it does look like a cellar, albeit a very large one. The restaurant has beautiful barrel vaulted ceilings and has great character. Janey ordered a salmon and I ordered their roast duck. Both are super delicious! I think now, we can comfortable rest after a long day.

Summer 2011 Europe Trio - Berlin (June 27th - 30th)

Day One - Travel / Berlin

Its been awhile since I posted on my travel blog, but then it's been awhile since we've gone anywhere for an extended period of time. Most of the travels in between were weekend trips with the kids or family. In fact, I believe this is our first trip with just my wife and I. We felt it was time and we considered it our delayed 10th anniversary trip.

So the initial plan was to see more of Europe since most of what we've been doing have been Asia and cruises. There was an initial thought of going to see the rest of Spain because our last visit to Barcelona was amazing! Then there was also thought of driving through parts of Europe to take advantage of the EU borderless travel. Now, once I think about driving Europe, the Autobanh immediately comes to mind. I remember our last visit to Western Germany (Munich, Stuttgart, & Frankfurt) left a really good impression specifically because of the friendly people. This was about 13 years ago now so we figured it was time to go back. Also, we wanted to avoid the heat that is probably around in Spain at this time of the summer.




The first stop was Berlin and we were lucky enough to get business class on points so it made the flight much easier. We navigated to our hotel from the airport fairly easily with the U-Banh (Germany's subway system). Hotel Gat Point Charlie was a modern stylus boutique hotel that has a super central location so I do recommend staying here if you planning to come. We got in around the evening time with many things closed so we decided to check out the local Italian restaurant next door and then call it a night.




Day Two - Berlin

We had planned to get up early the next day to join a Bicycle City Tour as a quick intro to the see what Berlin has to offer. Unfortunately, jetlag got the best of us and we didn't get up till three in the afternoon. Seeing what the situation is, I didn't really let it get me down. In my normal mode, I would've felt really bad because of all the time wasted. But I think our initial mindset of having a more relaxed trip then a "cram it in, go go go" trip helped with it. We decided to go check out one of their famous shopping district. Once we got out of the subway, we saw these street guys taking bets on "guess which box is the ball in" game. It looked quite easy and the heat of the moment along with a little bit of greed got me and I placed my bets only to find out that it was a scam. If I slowed it down, I saw many signs that gave it away but I did not take heed. Janey had her spidey sense on and did not get involved and tried to stop me also. But I took the bait and it was my stupid mistake. Being in my holiday relaxed mindset, I took it with stride and saw it for what it was and did not want it to get me down. Janey wasn't happy at all though and I had to calm her down a bit. After things settled a bit, we took in what the street had to offer. For Janey, it was high end shopping. For me, it was beautiful buildings that has tons of old character, very different from our new world home of North America. Needless to say, my camera's full with photos of buildings and architectural detail.







We finished off the evening with a great meal at MAOA in the Potsdamer Platz area. (thanks to Yelp) It was a modern mongolian style restaurant & bar. The interior was quite nice and the food very delicious. It had a great patio and like most restaurants we've seen, people were mainly outside.





Day Three - Berlin

This time, we set our alarm and was up in time for our Bicycle City Tour. Although, having only slept a few hours because of jetlag, I wonder if we'll be 2 zombies around the streets of Berlin. The bike tour was a very fun experience, for me at least. I think Janey was tired and maybe exhausted from the heat near the end of it. But the tour itself was great and a super way to get a preview of all the main sites around the city. Berlin is very flat and have may bike lanes so it makes it very bicycle friendly. In fact, a lot of the locals choose that as their commute. Our tour guide was a tall skinny guy originally from California 7 years ago. He had a bit of a stutter and I can't help but see Porky Pig everytime he talked. " "Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks!". Our tour went pass the anticipated 4 1/2 hours and I was thinking in my mind that it was probably his st- st- stutter.






It was a 4 1/2 hour tour but it still felt very rush. There were many buildings along the way that I wanted to take detailed photos of but didn't have the time for because I had to follow the pack. The ones that I did take a photo of, was like stop, quickly pull out the camera, shoot, and quickly ride off again. I bit of a shoot and ride. I guess thats a luxury you don't really have with guided tours. It was good though because it allowed us to preview and make a mental note of places to come back to. The Norman Foster Dome at the Parliament Building and the Halocaust Memorial and Museum were two of the those places.






Riding around in 22 degrees heat and sun makes for a sweaty and exhausting day. We decided to go back to the hotel first to rest and shower. On our way back, we stumbled upon the Volkswagen Forum. This was a building that housed all the Volkwagen AG brands (Bugatti, Bentley, Skoda, Seat, etc.) Being a car nut, I had to go in. As we looked around, we were treated to seeing a Bugatti Veyron supercar upclose. This is car has been voted best car of the decade and is the fastest car in the world with 1001 hp and an acceleration of 0-60mph in just 2.5 seconds! And the starting price, if you had the cash floating around, is 1.7 million USD. The icing on the cake is that I got to witness them having to drive one of these cars out of the showroom and into the street. Let me tell you it was a tight showroom so it was a sight to see and not one to miss video of course. There were a handful of staff guiding this car, which had to back up and out a set of double doors. There was literally only inches on each side of the door to the car. If you watch the video, you'll see that the driver was sweating buckets going through the door. With a pricetag like that, I would be too and the crowd of onlookers doesn't help. "Careful Mr. driver, careful!" Did I mention that this car is 1.7 million dollars?






After a good shower at the hotel, we decided to go and see the Holocaust Museum (officially named Memorial to the Murdered Jews). Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the Museum was just closing for the day. I felt a little bit of sadness but rejoiced in the fact that the Memorial was available all the time. So we took our time walking through the maze of concrete blocks. This memorial consists of 2711 blocks of black concrete over an open area of 19000 square meters designed by american architect Peter Eisenman. He notes this was an experiential memorial and encourages people to walk thru the maze and feel what it feels like. It has been controversial over the years for Berlin. Some say its more a public art project than a memorial to the dead. But I really loved it. I loved the architectural design of it. I loved the way it was laid out; how the gaps between the concrete blocks is only 3' to allow only one person to walk through at once. Walking through it and having these black walls of concrete tower over me as the grade drops and rises illicit a sense of loss and hopelessness. There's definitely a heaviness especially as the twilight comes near. There were other people around and many teenage kids were playing hide and go seek. But for the few moments where it was quite and no matter which direction you turned, there was no one, it brought up a common fear in me. And I think that is the intent of the architect; to have you walk through it and experience it to see what comes up for you. I'm sure for everyone it's different. For Janey, it was much brighter than what I felt. She saw a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter which direction she looked. So it was a nice perspective to take on the holocaust.




A little tidbit that our tour guide shared with us was there was a total of 11 million killed during Hitler's rule and 6 million of those were Jews. So when putting together this Museum, they were trying to think of a good way to put this in perspective because really, when you hear 6 million, it's just a number. But how do you really feel and know the magnitude of 6 million? So what they did was read every Jew's name that died in the holocaust including their birthdate and where they were from. This was put on an audio recording and they estimate that it will take 6 1/2 years for this recording to finish one of it's cycles. The museum has been open for 6 years so it has all the names of the dead have not been read through yet. Wow! That gives me so much more perspective.




As the sun start to set, we headed out to find our next restaurant to try. There was a chinese Peking Duck restaurant that was the only with a 5-star rating on Yelp so we figured it's a must try. Sadly, though, the taste was disappointing. I guess coming from Vancouver, the land of chinese cuisine, its hard not to be critical. I guess on a normal Caucasian standard, this would've been very good. But we found the food with too much, too thick of a sauce and the duck was a bit overly deep fried. Definitely more for Caucasian taste buds. But judging from the fact that we've only seen a few asians so far, I can see why. After the meal, it was a relaxing bike ride back to the hotel. Let me tell you, it is much nicer to bike in the cool evening breeze than the hot afternoon sun. Ah, so nice!

Christmas 2009 Trip - Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam turned out to be better than I expected. To be honest, I actually didn't have much expectations for it and it wasn't even on one of my to-see list. I found the people to be friendly and more polite than I had thought. The city wasn't as dirty or poluted as I had expected. There was actually some blue skies and I was able to see the city, unlike Guang Zhou where the smog is so heavy that you're lucky to see much of the skyline. The buildings are cleaner than I had thought, unlike Taipei for example where a monotone grey takes over the city.



One thing similar to Taipei though is the amount of scooters on the streets, except that these one bend the traffic rules a lot more. In fact, the only rule it seems is that you have watch the vehicle in front of you. People don't even use their rear view mirrors in fact. Just don't make aby sudden movements and nobody gets hurt. The traffic will come at you in all directions but as long as you move in a steady manner, they will flow around you just like how a river current flows around the rocks in the water. It's a frantic symphony of cars, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians which you really can't comprehend until you're in the middle of it all. So that's exactly what I did. Janey's dad had a moped and I said that's a must-do before I leave. I even doubled him on the back, because otherwise I would be lost like a blind-man without his stick. It was very exhilarating to ride like there are no rules. In reality, its very defensive and I think everyone in BC should be forced to do it at least once to make them a better driver. You're constantly on the lookout for dear-life and it was a great adreline rush to be honest. But, for that 20 minute ride, I probably breathed in a year's supply of carbon emmisions. There's so many people in this city (8 million to be exact) that the traffic bunches up and you're literally inches away from the next person. They pretty much use their scooter and moped for everything. I've seen a family of 5 all on one scooter so it is to them what a mini-van could be for us. They were carrying all sorts of things being on it from a large piece of glass to bags of styrofoam at the front and the back of the moped such that you can't even see the driver anymore.



We were lucky enough to have Janey's brother, Tai drive us and show us around. Most of the time was spent visiting Janey's family but we managed to check out some really good local food spots. My top favorite was this restaurant called Quan An Ngon on Pastuer Street close to the cityhall . This is a super busy restaurant in the main part of District One that serves up all kinds of vietnamese dishes. We tried to get in for dinner but there was a line right out to thew street. So we returned the next day for lunch and got a spot. Its in an old french building that's 2 storeys and has a reflecting pool which leads to an internal courtyard. It has a very nice colonial feeling to it. We some of their exotic fruit shakes, vietnamese rice dish, spring rolls and Vermicelli with Snails and it was delicious! Yes, yummy snails. And the bill came out to be $218000 Dong, which sounds like a lot but really was only about twelve bucks in Canadian. The fruits were also very yummy and sweet. We tried all sorts of exotic fruits that's not available back home so it was a real treat.




On the last night here, we met up with my Grand Uncle who I didn't realize I had until a few months before I left, thanks to Maggie. I've never met him and he was my only relative in Vietnam so I figure I should go and say hi. He was almost 80 but still very healthy. He walks as fast as I did, still has great hearing and sight. He still commutes in the crazy streets with his moped so that really speaks of his health and alertness. It was great listening to his stories and understanding more about my family tree on my father's side. I even recorded him so that I can someday draw out a family tree.



So all in all, I was glad I made the trip to Vietnam. Maybe next time, I'll go back to Hai Phong also. Well, time for bed to catch our early morning flight back home, just in time for christmas.

Christmas 2009 Trip - Bali

Bali is hot and beautiful. Sitting by the pool, staring at the beach outside with nothing on my mind except what to eat next is a welcome change. All we did for the first 3 days were sleep, wake up, eat, hang by the pool, and repeat. The kids really enjoyed it and if it was up to them, they would be in the pool all day even if they came out as wrinkly elephants.






Of course for me (the busy body) relaxing can only last so long so we decided to check out the main drag Kuta where all the shops, restaurants and bar were. Most of Bali only have 2 lanes, 1 for going each way with no parking lanes. Add in lots of taxis and scooters and you've got busy streets of meandering traffic everywhere. The sidewalk is about 3' tight where there happens to be one so us with kids and scooters didn't get too far in the small market type shops. Throw in 30+ degrees of high humidity heat and it basically means we're walking around in the mall instead.


The food so far was mediocre with the limited local food menu of Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng, You Goreng, and Everybody Goreng. It didn't take many meals to get bored of that. The local fresh fruit juices are yummy but not as sweet as the last time we were here. I don't know if its because of the season. I have to say that Thailand is much better in terms of local etnic food and fruits.




On the 5th day, we decided to venture out a bit and chose to goto the biggest Elephant Sanctuary and Safari Park where they have a heard of 30 Sumatrian elephants. A lot of these were saved and brought here. There's a good museum and you're able to feed, pet, and even ride on the elephants. We had lunch at the park restaurant and its probably been the best food we've had so far. The price was more than what was in town but definitely worth it. The sercvice through the park was excellent. The moment we went in the park, we were escorted by our private tour guide who brought us around the different areas. As we were eating, I saw the owner, an Australian named Nigel Mason, who was walking around the park probably doing quality control. It was evident that he cared for the elephants and for his park. And it definitely shows in the food, the service, and the cleanliness of the park. We chose not to ride on the elephants because the kids were scared but we did watch the elephant show where they had elephants walk on a balance beam and play with soccer and basketball. They didn't have an elephant paint though and I was looking forward to that.



After the park, we got back on our private chartered tour bus and drove back into town. It sounds lux but the tour bus is basically a 7 passenger mini-van that we hired for $60 all day. Good deal really considering the park was 2 hours away and we had the vehicle and driver for 10 hours. On our way back, we decided to stop by Seminyak, another Beach district, north of the main one in Kuta. Janey wanted to look for some jewelleries and we found that there were a lot of neat little shops. The streets weren't that much more stroller-friendly than Kuta so we cut it short, but its on our come-back list.





We wanted to checkout this restaurant we saw on a trouist magazine called Chinoiserie. Its a chinese restaurant and the words "Spicy Singaporean Crab" caught Janey's attention. The space was beautiful with a bar/lounge like ambience. They had a few sections including a front room which was enclosed and air-conned, an outside dining area which was covered, an open internal courtyard area, and a raised open dining area that had views of rice patties behind. The furniture were all patio seating and it really added to the outdoor feel. We were treated to live jazz while we were there and our little girls really enjoyed it. The food was excellent and the service was beyond our expectation. The server recommended their signature drink Mango Bok Choy and the curious health freak in me couldn't turn it down. He explained it was basically Mango and raw Bok Choy blended together and the taste was nothing like what I expected. It was not as sweet as I had thought a Mango mix would be and not as bland as Bok Choy should be. It actually tasted more like Guava juice with a heightened freshness. We actually were suspecting if they didn't substitute the mango for Guava instead. We ordered Char Kuey Tu, Baby Bok Choy, and of course the Singaporean Spicy Crab. Everything was very good even the Man Tau (chinese bread) that came with it. It was deepfried so the outside is golden brown but the inside was still soft and moist. It was very similar to the Shanghai deep fried buns. It was so good that we ordered a side order and used it to dip the spicy sauce from the crab.







We gave them many compliments and asked for their business card. Instead the chef Allan Wong came out and gave us his personal business card. He speaks Cantonese and is a Malaysian Chinese. We found out that the restaurant has been open for a year and he was brought over from Malaysia about 9 months ago.

That pretty much concludes a long, but fun day out and about. We are not back at lounging poolside for our last day here. Tomorrow, we're catching an early morning flight to Vietnam.

Stay tuned for that update.

Christmas 2009 Trip - Hong Kong

Some of you may or may not have heard that we missed our flight on Dec 10. We arrived at the airport just an hour before departure time. If all of us were holding e-tickets we would have made it on, but Janey's, Katelyn, & Kirsten were paper tickets, therefore we had to update our tickets to e tickets due to changes made to our routing. There was not enough time to make this change and get on the flight. Fortunately, there was a lady (Joyce) at the ticket counter which was extremely nice (for an Air Canada person at least). She went the extra mile to get us out of this disappointing and hopeless situation. We're not saying that she got us on our original flight, but she did manage to book us on the next one out the following day. The normal (and proper) procedure would've been to call Aeroplan and have them book us something, but we knew that wouldn't be possible cause when I called originally, there were no seats available after the 10th. So yeah, 3 cheers for Joyce!!

So the next day we arrived at the airport at 2.5 hrs early to make sure we don't miss our flight again. While we were lining up to check-in, Joyce came over and told everyone this line was for people who already have a boarding pass. We didn't but when she saw us she told us to wait there and personally helped us with the check in. To be honest, while we were heading to the airport Janey was hoping that Joyce would be there to help us so that there would be no other surprise complications. She's thank-ful for "The Secret" working for her once again. I was thank-ful that we told Joyce yesterday that we would write a nice compliment letter for her.





The flight was better than I had thought mostly because of Air Canada's upgraded entertainment system with Movies on demand. Most of the time, we're too busy to keep up with the latest movies, so its usually on flight that we do our catch-up. Katelyn was being very good and Kirsten slept through most of it.

Upon landing, we met up with our friend Karen in HK. She took us to a famous place "Under the Bridge Chili Crab" to eat crab. The crab was OK in my opinion, I think our crabs in Vancouver are much better. The price was not cheap either so don't take our food for granted guys.




Afterwards we headed over to Times Square to shop for a camcorder. We realized it would be cheaper to get it in Vancouver, so gone are the days when people use to go back to HK to get electronics.

We heard on the news later that at the same time we were there, there was an idiot who threw acid down the street from the apartment building above. We were only a few blocks away from this, but fortunately not the same street. 21 people got hurt and one lady got burnt very badly. There had been 4 similar accidents in Mong Kwok in the last 3-4 months and the police suspect it to be the same person. They said this guy chooses the busiest location to throw the acid. I hope the police find this person soon and stop him from causing anymore injuries. I can't help but wonder is this an accident or a cause of bad act? Does accident even exist or is it just cause and effect? But that's a topic for another discussion.



The next day, we headed out to the airport for our flight to Bali. Yes, we only stayed one night in HK. It was really a quickie in-out to visit our friend Karen.

Deal's Gap - Conclusion

Over 10,000 kms in 15 days. An average of 715 kms/day and 10 hours/day on the road. Going nearly across the North American continent and visiting the "holy land" of motorcycling. Was it worth it?

Hell ya!

Would I do it again?

Maybe not. At least not in the same way. I really loved the roads that the western states have to offer. Everything up to Wyoming basically. I love the Smoky Mountain area in the east and Deals Gap (and surrounding roads) is truly what it's cracked up to be. This is assuming you do it early enough to avoid the cops and traffic. Trust me, it'll be worth it!

But what I really hated was the prairie states in the middle. I think if I was to do it again, I would trailer the bikes over and skip the middle altogether. The other thing I would do differently is to spread it out into at least 20 days. The long days really take a toll on you. It was stupidity that got us going and raw adreline and anticipation that kept us riding. A few extra days as non-riding rest days would make a huge difference.

But one things for sure, there is no regret. Now that I got crossing North American and Deals Gap of my Todo list, it's time for another continent!