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.

Thailand - Bangkok

Bangkok again! Kaixin booked a cheap deal from Expedia which covered both air tickets and hotel accommodation. The hotel we are staying is Venice Suite Hotel, as the name suggest, is along the river canal, near Chit Lom - Pratunam area. We arrived close to mid-night on the first night and went to sleep upon reach.

Day 1: Woke at for hotel breakfast then went back to nap again. Woke close to noon time and brought Kaixin to Thong Lor for the famous Pad Thai near the hotel I stayed during training, Salil Hotel. I literately had the best Oyster Omelette I ever had.

Walked towards Purr Cat Cafe only to realize the Cafe was already closed month ago. We then traveled to Terminal 21 for some shopping, and of course, mandatory Honey Toast from After You Cafe.

In the evening, we took BTS back to Chit Lom and went back hotel for brisk rest, then walked to Central World for some night market dinner. The street food outside Central World was rather disappointing as most of the food there wasn't really freshly made and was cold.

At night, we walked to Soi 19 at Pratunam for some massage. I did body massage and Kaixin had feet massage.

Day 2: Didn't sleep very well and woke close to noon this time. Went straight to famous chicken rice stall for some chicken rice, and then finished off with Wanton Mee. Afternoon was spent shopping in Platinum Mall and enjoying 1-for-1 frappocino at Starbucks.

In the late afternoon, we took BTS to National Stadium and went about another round of shopping at MBK mall. We then traveled back to hotel for brief rest and head out for dinner.

Dinner was much better this time, we settled down at Neon night market which was right opposite our hotel. We had banana crepe, big grilled fish, giant clams, and eventually mango sticky rice after resting our bellies.

I went to massage alone this time as Kaixin was tired. Dad neck, shoulder, and back massage at iSabah, one of the pretty famous massage place at Soi 19.

Day 3: Woke for quick hotel breakfast, and went back to rest and pack up. The highlight of the day was our quick 30 minute massage at boarding area to clear our remaining Thai Bahts. The chill at Bangkok ended too quickly and we wished it was 2 10 days longer.

Taiwan - Taipei

Arrived at Taoyuan Airport late at night, and took shuttle bus to Taipei. Had a quick glimpse of Ximending and arrived at our hotel - Design at Ximen Hotel. The location is perfect, right at the heart of Ximending vibe.

Day 1 (Sun) - Taipei City
We woke late as planned. After a quick Taiwanese breakfast, we headed off to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. There's generally nothing much to see there. For lunch we queued awhile for a famous 卤肉饭. Following lunch we drifted by President Office Building and walked back to our hotel, as the sun was way too hot.

Woke from nap in the evening and took train to 象山 for some climbing and night view. The steepness of the hill made the climb really tiring, but we made our way up (halfway up).

For dinner we decided to visit 师大夜市 since its along the way.
Food for the night:

1. 盐酥鸡 - the meat was dry
2. 蚵仔煎 - fantastic
3. 羊肉串 - great
4. 猪血臭豆腐锅 - spicy
5. 大肠面线 - fantastic
6. 肉羹汤 - alright







Day 2 (Mon)- 淡水
Day trip day to 淡水. Woke at almost 11 again and bought 永和豆浆 breakfast back for Kaixin and I. Had 汤包，油条， 豆浆 they were all great.

Moved out at noon and took metro to 淡水. Had the best street food in Taiwan during lunch - 炸花枝!!! The meat was so tender.

Spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along the river and watching the sunset. We didn't go the famous jetty though as it's not walkable by foot.

We left 淡水 in the evening and went back to hotel for quick rest, before heading to nearby 建宏牛肉面 for dinner. The noodle was pretty good too.

Night time was of course spent chilling in hotel room watching free movies!

Day 3 (Tue)- Taipei City
Slack day! Woke up close to noon and went to meet Kaixin's ex-colleague for lunch. Instead of eating DinTaiFung as planned, he decided to bring us to 高记 next door as the queue was way shorter. The 生煎包 and 小笼包 were fantastic.

We took Metro to Taipei 101 in the afternoon. It was pretty boring there since we didn't pay to go to the top. In the evening, we visited our second night market - 辽宁夜市.
Food:
1. 蚵仔煎 - Good
2. 卤大肠 - Kaixin's fav
3. 炸鸡翅 - Crispy
4. 炸臭豆腐 - Nice

Day 4 (Wed)- 九份
Day (half-day) trip to 九份！But before that, of course mandatory 永和豆浆 breakfast to start the day. Had {insert food}. Took train to 瑞芳 station then transferred to a bus which brought us to 黄金瀑布, our first destination.

Took bus to 九份 in the afternoon. Had lunch and a great time walking around enjoying the scenic place. The small drizzle added to the 烟雨江南 atmosphere there.

We took a direct bus back to Taipei in the evening and alighted at 饶河夜市.
Food:
1. 胡椒饼 (打包) - amazing
2. 羊肉串 - Kaixin ate
3. 麻吉 （打包）
4. 豪大鸡扒 - bought at Ximending

Day 5 (Thur) - 阳明山
Woke up close to noon, and bought 永和豆浆 for breakfast. Today we have decided to go 阳明山 for some hike. Took bus to the base of the mountain, and trekked up quite a bit to the visitor center. Afterwards, we had a brief trek up before I decided to give up and take shuttle bus instead. The bus took us all the way up to the mountain top, where the scenery was absolutely great.

2 photos taken within minutes of each other, can you believe this

Took bus back to Shilin night market and met up with Chensin and his gf for dinner. Shilin is pretty overrated to me, way too crowded and commercialized, and hard to navigate.
Food:
1. 烤牛肉 - Cs bought and tried 2 piece, decent
2. 胡椒饼 - not as authentic as 饶河
3. 大肠包小肠 - AMAZING
4. 羊肉串 - Kaixin ate
5. 炸牛奶 - finally found what I've been looking for!
6. 九龙城奶盖 - fav milk tea in taiwan
7. 花枝羹 - soso

Day 6 (Fri) - Taipei City, rainy day
For once a rainy day during our stay. Woke up for 永和豆浆 and went back to slack. We intended to cycle by the river but it was spoiled by the bad weather. In the late afternoon, we headed to 五分埔shopping district. The place was soso, with cheap and lower-end clothes. In the evening, we met up with Kaixin's exchange friends near 台北大学. They brought us around their campus. It's pretty much as big as NTU and the cycling routes remind me of my exchange in UCD.

Day 7 (Sat) - 十份
Woke up at noon and instantly decided to go 宜兰 . First had our mandatory 永和豆浆 breakfast consisting of 汤包 and 煎饼. We then went to 台北车站 only to found out that the tickets to 宜兰 has sold out. We thus switched to alternative plan of going 十份. We took train to 瑞芳 station again, and first took a cab which brought as to 八斗子渔场. We had a brief hike there.

Tiring and hot hike

We then took another cab to 十份. Unfortunately, the waterfall was closed as it was 5pm by then.. Feeling disappointed, we strolled to 十份老街 to 放天灯. The overall  experience is great, just as what we saw on TV.

Crowded place

Took train back to 瑞芳, then back to Taipei where we alighted as 饶河夜市, to have our night market finale.
Food:
1. 胡椒饼 - authentic
2. 猪血臭豆腐汤 - soso
3. 羊肉串 - great
4. 烤虾和螃蟹 - very average
5. 烤鸡腿肉 - not bad la
Sadly I couldn't find my 鸡包饭 and 考牛奶, and was too full for 大肠包小肠.

Day 8 - Home Sweet Home
Ready (not ready) to go back to work.

Indonesia - Bali

First time to Bali!

Embarked on company's annual team-building trip to Bali on AirAsia on a Friday night. We reached Bali at almost midnight and checked-in and settled down in our hotel rooms at almost 2am. It was too late to sleep anyway so some of us ended up having supper and chit chat until 4am. Barely got to sleep that night as my roommate was a ridiculous snorer.

Day 2:

Team-building day. Woke up close to noon and skipped buffet breakfast as lunch will be buffet too.

Gathered at lobby at 1.30pm to proceed to team-building activities at the beach. The sun was crazy hot but the weather was actually reasonable. Team-building concluded with a variety of team games like tug-o-war, water-gun, sumo-wrestling and sand bowling.

We were given some time to wash-up before gathering to move out for company dinner. Bus-ride to dinner took us almost 1.5 hours due to the insane traffic in Bali, roads are simply too narrow for the amount of cars. Dinner was arranged at the top of a mountain with cool breeze. The food was underwhelming though, or Bali food in generally, dislike it.

After a long bus ride back to hotel, everyone split up to massage, drinking or rest.

Day 3:
Joined some of my colleagues for day-trip, that lasted from 10am to 7pm (could have been a lot shorter if not for the traffic). Visited several key landmarks such as the rice plantation, temple, holy water, volcano sunset, and orange picking. Food once again, was pretty suck.

Day 4:

Home-sweet-home.