Thailand - Changmai

First trip to Chang Mai ~ with Kaixin and 2 of her friends

Day 1 (4th Nov) - Early morning flight to Chang Mai, via SilkAir. Landed in Chang Mai at 10:30 and the Airport was pleasantly near the city area: Old Town. As it was too early to check-in, we left our luggage at hotel reception and headed out for lunch. The Old Town is a little larger than we expected, and it took us almost 20 minutes to walk to the central area, where we hungrily looked for authentic Thai food.

Somehow caught their annual lantern festival

Day 2 (5th Nov) - Rise at 9am to catch hotel breakfast, then go back to bed for rest. Close to noon we were pondering over where to go, and eventually decided on a half-day tour outside the town.

Resembles grand palace

View from top of the hill

Day 3 (6th Nov) - Really early day to prepare for our 8:30am pick-up for day tour.

Their supposedly traditional village, there's absolutely nothing to see

Day 4 (7th Nov) - Last chill in Changmai before home-sweet-home. Generally Changmai is a pretty boring place with more expensive massage. Bangkok is much more happening in terms of activities/food and crowds.

China - Dalian

First trip to Northeast part of China. It's going to be a week short trip visiting Dalian factory with 2 other colleagues. Flew alone via Xiamen Airlines and it was a dread, transit, waiting, squeezy plane.

Reached Dalian in the evening and thankful company arranged a chauffeur to pick me up directly to the dinner place. Had I would say the best quality steamboat of my life. The chicken is literately the most tender steamboat chicken ever eaten and even better than Hai Di Lao.

Shangri-La Hotel was luxurious, fantastic room.

Day 2 (Tuesday):

Headed down early for hotel breakfast, not enough sleep. But the breakfast food was not too bad.

A long and tiring day spent visiting and understanding the Da Lian factory. After work, followed one of the manager for some local restaurant, which was alright. Finally some free time at night to roam around Da Lian city centre, and snapped some pictures.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Full day of factory assessment, forgettable day. Da Lian team treated dinner again, and this time was at Peking Duck restaurant. Learnt a new way to eat Peking Duck, dip in sugar.

Day 4 (Thursday): Full day of assessment again, tiring and forgettable day, but assessment finally concluded. Had to entertain Dalian colleagues for BBQ dinner again, but the food was really good.

Day 5 (Friday): Had to go office for half-day of wrap up session. Finally was able to conclude in the afternoon at about 3+pm. Finally, time to explore streets of Dalian!

By following our driver's recommendation, I took a 'casual stroll' towards the coast. The stroll turned our not so casual as it was around a 45 minute walk and I was definitely under-dressed. The wind was gushing so strong at the coast.

Paid a visit to the fake Venice which was alright and then had KFC dinner before hailing a cab back to the hotel. Almost died from the cold, should have wore a jacket.

USA - Highway 1

Day 12 (11th Apr) LA to Santa Barbara

Time for the ultimate road trip back to San Fran. We catered for 2 nights of rest along the way to not make the trip too hectic. Drove off close to noon and first head our way to the shopping outlets - Kaixin's paradise.

After an entire day of shopping, we reached our Airbnb only at night. Rest rest rest.

Day 13 (12th Apr) Santa Barbara to Monterey

Woke headed straight for brunch as we were hungry.

We subsequently paid a short visit to Santa Barbara beach before continuing to head North to Monterey.

Random rest stop for McNuggets

We managed to arrive at Monterey in the evening and found this famous Seafood restaurant via Yelp. The food was certainly delicious but the service and waiting time was horrendously long (~2 hours) resulting in us given the lowest tip in our trip.

Humongous fresh oysters

Day 14 (13th Apr) Monterey to San Jose to San Francisco

The Motel was pretty cozy and we had a great sleep. Feeling good waking up on a rainy day.

Look at this tranquil place

After quick hotel breakfast, we paid a short visit to Monterey beach before driving off to San Jose.

Pretty empty beach on a cold rainy day

It was a relatively short drive to San Jose and we reached there just past noon. Had KFC lunch to satisfy cravings. We heeded my aunt's recommendation to visit Winchester Mystery House and Apple Campus. The Mystery House visit was alright, just a bit too expensive. Apple Campus was a total disappointment as there's honestly nothing to see. Ended the afternoon with quick tour of Rose Garden.

Ended the day with Chinese food with aunt and her family before driving back to San Fran.

Day 15 (14th Apr) - Returning to San Fran signaled the end of our trip. The weather was cold and we stayed in Airbnb outside of San Fran city, near the airport. The day was pretty plain as there wasn't much left to see and we took the time to rest and relax. Outskirt of the city gives the impression of a poorer place where it doesn't seem as safe to hang around.

We drove out for some last spin near the hill areas and then headed to airport car return area to drop-off our car.

Bye to our companion for 8 days

This marks the end of our 2 weeks US West Coast Trip. Would say that renting a car is the best decision ever. All geared up for future East Coast Trip.

USA - Los Angeles

Day 9 (8th April)

Road trip Road trip! Lalaland!

Always a good view of Arizona desert

8 hours drive to LA. We set off from Williams at around 11.30am after a late brunch. The drive to LA is indeed torturing, by 5pm we were getting pretty impatient at how far from LA we still were. 7-8pm was the biggest torture when entering LA highways where traffic was heavy and car speed was zooming fast. My palms were literately sweating trying not to bump into any car on the roads where there were minimal road lights.

We stayed in Hollywood Historic Hotel, at West Hollywood. The hotel actually has a very famous atas restaurant where celebrities can be frequently spotted. We were pretty hungry already as it was 9+pm and decided to splurge.

Day 10 (9th April):

Started the day off with McGriddles meal at nearby Mcdonalds. We drove to UCLA for some campus visit, and the school was not bad.

Woohoo UCLA! Could (not) have studied here

In the afternoon, we drove to Beverley Hills for a walk. Beverley Hills generally consist of expensive-looking bungalows and some premium shopping streets.

Mandatory Beverly Hills sign

Giant tree at Beverley Hills park

After some random mansion visit to fill up rest of the day, we went back early for good pasta dinner and some rest.

Day 11 (10th April): Not a happening day today. We woke up for McGriddles brunch again. We then drove to nearby hills to check out the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately the best available place for viewing (Griffith Observatory) was closed, so we settled for another viewing spot.

This view is actually way better than Hollywood sign which we could barely see

Kaixin wasn't feeling too well today so we went back to rest in the afternoon. In the evening we head to our 2nd NBA game: Clippers vs Rockets. Well this time round we sat really high up so the atmosphere was totally not comparable as the Warriors game.

Realize we are sitting too far to be part of the action

Visit to the Staples Center: complete!

Rest rest rest.

USA - Grand Canyon

Day 8 (7th April) - Would say this is the most memorable part of the trip. We checked out from Flamingo Hotel and picked up our rental car near the Vegas Airport. The drive towards Grand Canyon was pretty peaceful. We drove along the historic Route 66 where there's little cars and were able to enjoy the scenery (desert) along the way.

Pretty much the view of the entire journey

After a few small stop points, we reached Williams little past noon and quickly check-in to our motel + Taco Bell dinner, before continuing towards the canyon.

We managed to arrive at Grand Canyon before 4pm and it was sufficient to enjoy the Grand majestic mountains.

At last!

We left Grand Canyon at around 5pm before it starts to turn dark. After a brief rest at our Motel in Williams, we headed to a Italian restaurant for some pizza. The night was really cold and Kaixin was a bit sick, so we hurried back to our room after dinner.

Chilly town of Williams, with population of just over 3000 people

USA - Las Vegas

Gamble gamble gamble! Arrived at Vegas via Domestic flight on Virgin Airlines. Pretty surprised (not surprised) that even US domestic flights conduct long checks before boarding, although not as long as international arrival. We landed at Vegas at around 2+ in the afternoon and managed to check in by 4pm. Vegas is located in Arizona where the city is surrounded by deserts and heat.

After brief rest in the hotel room, we walked along The Strip looking for dinner. Kaixin did some research and led me to Gordon Ramsay Burger place where we had really delicious burger, it was huge.

Their signature burger, it's really good actually

Walking along the strip

At night, we went back room to rest again, and watching some online tutorial on the game of Craps, easily the most fun game in the Casinos. Unfortunately, no eyes gave way and fell asleep all the way until morning, LOL. What an uneventful day.

Day 7 (6th April): Woke up and walked to cafe to redeem free hotel breakfast. Today is gambling day, to redeem for yesterday's over-sleeping. We instantly went to sit at the Craps machine (easier to play than the real Craps table with human dealers, and no minimum bet). Basically, the entire day was spent at the Craps machine, it's really that addictive haha!



Intended to have Gordon Ramsay burger again for dinner but the queue was insanely long this time. We past by and Grill house and had a full Ribs for sharing, look at the size.

After dinner, back to Craps! So I will finally pulled out from the casino by Kaixin at 9pm. The net damage was around USD 100, still quite reasonable.

USA - San Francisco

First trip to US!

Day 1 (31st March) - Landed at 8am in the morning, the 14 hours flight is dreading as I hardly managed to fall asleep. Thankfully there are good movies to watch on SIA. The custom, as expected, took us 2 hours to get through. Took Uber to our Airbnb and managed a short rest.

View from our rooftop! can you believe this

After awhile we went down to buy Golden Boy pizza recommended by Airbnb owner, probably the best roadside pizza of my life.

Best pizza ever, can't believe I'll say this having been to Europe

Knocked out for 4 hours in the afternoon due to jet-lag and woke in the evening. We strolled down to Pier 39 and toured the area, guess it's one of the happen areas at the bay.

Great day

Back to city area for some Chinese food for dinner. Don't know why we ate Chinese food on our first night in US.

Day 2 (1st April) - Woke up looking around for breakfast. Settled for a decent American style place with poached egg and toast. The plan of the day is to cycle along the coast to golden gate bridge. We began the journey at around noon and it took a lot longer than expected to reach the bridge, almost 2 hours.

The bridge in sight but still damn far

Day 3 (2nd April) - Really excited today as we will be heading to Oracle Arena for Warriors vs Wizards match. Can't wait to see Steph Curry in person. First activity of the day was to meet up with my aunt and her family. They are staying in San Jose actually but drove all the way over to San Fran to meet us. We set off slightly earlier to have a brief walk around the Golden Gate Park before meeting them for Chinese food lunch.

Golden Gate Park - kinda boring to me

In the afternoon, we took Bart to Oakland and arrived 1 hour early to the game. Woohoo to the atmosphere and crowd. This 1 hour was spent queuing team merchandise stores and eventually settling for a Steph Curry jersey which had 1-for-1 promotion.

Great win by the dubs!

I was so hyped for the game that I was cheering and screaming like a lunatic fan. It paid dividends as Steph Curry was monster hitting 3s after 3s. And you can tell how much he is beloved by the fans when everyone will go nuts each time he hit a three.

Day 4 (3rd April) - Today is the day to head back to the Bay. After a promising day yesterday, we headed back to the Bay in search of more. We started the afternoon with ferry ride around the Bay, overlooking the bridges and Alcatraz.

Pretty much summed up all the roads here in Bay Area

Ferry ride around the Bay

Afternoon was pretty simple as well. Riley's Believe-it-or-not Museum, casual stroll along the Bay back to Pier 39 in search of hotdogs.

Finally having le jumbo hotdog

Day 5 (4th April) - BIGGEST BLUNDER EVER! We woke at 5.45am to catch our bus to Yosemite. Waited and waited and waited at the pick-up point until 7.30am and feeling something was wrong. We called the customer hot-line and realize our trip was supposed to be 3rd of April instead! OMG, we just wasted $500...!

To compensate for our misfortune, we decided to go and queue for the famous brunch place 'Mamas'. The queue was crazy long and the restaurant is really small. It's pretty surprising people willing to travel down and queue for 1 hour + to eat this. We started queuing at around 9am and entered the restaurant only at around 10.15am. And we had to queue at the counter again to order food. By the time food arrived, it was already 10.45am.

Monte Cristo and Egg Benedict. Monte Cristo was really nice!

After brunch, we walked back our house to rest and think of what to do for the day. After some research, we have decided to go to a town across the Golden Gate Bridge called Sausalito. We set of in the early afternoon to the jetty and board a ferry over.

Chilly and peaceful town of Sausalito, stress-free place

It is a relaxing and peaceful little town at Sausalito, by the waters and overlooking the hills. We strolled along the streets and even stopped at a food place for afternoon tea. In the evening, we headed back to San Fran and Kaixin was craving Steak. Thus as recommended by Yelp (everyone uses this here), we headed to The House for their steak. Absolutely the best steak I have ever eaten.

Day 6 (5th April): Time to move on to our next destination, Las Vegas! It will be via domestic flights that will take us an hour.