我爱中国，中国爱我！

Guest writer - Adeline Joie

Blogging on this familiar interface makes me feel like a rebellious kid, who ran away from home to explore the 'greener' grass, only to realize that home is where I do belong. I have tried Tumblr, Wordpress, Typepad and even ventured into Japanese blog services (uh huh, I am that curious.) to pen my thoughts.

But nothing beats Blogger, really. Else, Google will not have acquired them.

So, I was looking for a perfect place to blog about my crazy, impromptu trip to China and every blog account I hold failed me. That left me with infringing the boyfriend's blog space, heh.

I booked my air tickets three days prior to departure. WTFISH! It was an outrageous move, deserting projects and assignments. Perhaps being with the travel geek for too long has inspired me (read his last three posts before this). March 27, I chucked my burdens away and hit the road!

We went to Shantou specifically, southern part of China. This is where the Heng family hailed from. Some of my relatives are still living there, so it was a great spring gathering for us.





You don't want to guess how much food we ate and this is only the first day. We had steamboat at our aunt's place. She can make the best oyster egg 蚝煎 in the world! It is normal for them though because orhlua is the Teochew specialty! Why I love China Reason #1 - Orhlua is my favorite hawker dish and I silently vowed that I will try all the orhluas in the world. I would die happy eating them everyday if I live here.

Most of the night's photos were badly taken so too bad, many wonders will come following on... Can you make out some of those food I had for supper (above) just three hours after dinner?


Day 2


A few years ago, we stayed in the exact same hotel 声乐大酒店. It looked like your typical school hostel then. Today... ZOMG! Why I love China Reason #2 - Rate of development accelerates faster than a fighter plane. The transformation will always leave you speechless and conceit defeat to China's capabilities. Our hotel underwent major facelift to become Singapore's Meritus Mandarin equivalent, or even better. My favorite part was the light sensors installed on every hotel room door, where lights will come on automatically when your presence is detected. High-tech, no kidding!

This knife blade is almost as long as my MacBook, that is 13" long. GASPS.

Braised duck intestines with a hot bowl of soup for the cool, breezy weather. Well, it was cool for us but not my mother, obviously, who wrapped herself like a dumpling. I have no idea why these people can cook so well. The braised duck beats any stall in Singapore. We were the first customer to step into his shop. When the boss opened the door for us, the smell of his gravy immediately activated our saliva glands. I was literally wagging my tongue like a dog while he prepares the dishes for us.

China is probably the only place I would dare to consume pig's lard without flinching. Like my cousins would tell me, without the lard, the food will lose its flavor, and you will get your typical Singaporean dish. That might be the trick but I would not want to have lard everyday either. Once in awhile, in China, I would do as the Chinese do. That's it.

Funny that they think my grandaunt would continue to be a smoker in the other world.

Later that day, we went to the grave site of my grandaunt to commemorate Ancestors Day, or commonly known as Qing Ming Jie to the Chinese. My relatives prepared a trunk full of delicious food. Compared to Singapore, I am quite ashamed of our offerings - a few types of fruits and pastries. Are we stingy or can we really use land space as an excuse? Anyways, I am amazed that authorities shaped the fire furnace as a cute gourd with little openings to save the environment. Kudos to them! Why I love China Reason #3 - These people value traditions a lot, which is why their history dates back from 5000 years back. Traditions are a form of culture that inculcate moral attitudes and behaviors. Without them, we lose our identity... and become part of the norm.

Lulu is my FAVORITE drink. A must-try in China!

In the afternoon, my uncle got a chef to prepare lunch banquet at his factory. Yikes! I thought it was just a small lunch spread, but he served abalone. The abalone was fantastique, just looked at the stunned look on my brother.



My blessed grandmother and her grandchildren. We went shopping together because I am jealous of her shoes. My uncle got it from Shanghai for her. I love the colors and oriental details, so envious! So I was hoping to find similar shoes and lo and behold, I got it! Tweeted about it a few days back. Hit on the link and be AMAZED! How can you not love China?! They have the best tailors there! Yep, I tailor-made my qipao in Shanghai three years back. Why I love China Reason #4 - craftsmanship is superb, which is why they can produce almost perfect imitations. Remember Grade A, Grade B, Grade C on your Louis Vuitton bags? Hehe, think about it.

Seriously, a word of advice before I take a break, China is a must visit destination before you die. No, actually if you have just a least bit of interest in China, better visit within the next few years. Otherwise, you will find yourself unable to afford anything there. Korean clothing in China is far more expensive in Shantou, a developing city in China, than in Singapore. Can you imagine what will happen in 3 years time at the very least?

----------------------------
Catch me on Twitter (@adelinejoie).

San Francisco Superstar

I don't know what Burmese food is, but it sure was yummy

I've always heard great things about Burmese Superstar in Alameda, I mean, comon this place has over 2000 reviews on Yelp, but going solo to a popular restaurant is never my thing. So when a client suggested we go there for dinner, I jumped at the opportunity.

As expected, the food made this place a Superstar. Even though I still don't know what Burmese Food is exactly, maybe a mix between Chinese, Thai and Indian, it sure packed the best flavoring of all 3 ethnic foods.

We started with the Tea Leaf Salad. This goes down as the best salad I've ever had. I didn't catch all the ingredients but I definitely tasted sesame oil, peanuts, peppers, mushed tea leaf, sesame seeds, and an orgasmic mixture of sauces. And, it paired well with Chimay...my favorite beer.

Most Flavorful Salad EVA

For the main course I got the chili eggplant with shrimp. The flavor was very familiar and it tasted like 鱼香茄子 served at many Szechuan Restaurants but, the eggplant and shrimp were cooked to perfection. My apologies for the lack of pictures, the restaurant was too dark to get a quality image on my Iphone.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I got upgraded to United First from SNA to SFO but I was too tired to enjoy the experience.

Hertz also upgraded me again to a full size SUV, I love being a Gold Club Member...Although driving around SF in a Ford Explorer is not ideal.

Very Proud of my park job, hehe...

Also I had a wonderful stay at the Embassy Suites Burlingame. My room overlooked the bay and had a great view of planes landing and taking off on 10L/28R and 10R/28L at SFO. I will definitely stay thier again on my next business trip to SF. The hotel provides complimentary made to order omelet for breakfast and a happy hour with free booze. Cant beat that.

A Delta Flight on Final Approach taken from my Hotel Room

Orlando Vacation booked!

After some midnight fare surfing, I came across a great deal on Farecompare. $145 all inclusive r/t to Orlando from LAX. Dates were available in May and June, making it a perfect vacation opportunity for the gf and I. Well by the time I got to US Airways website to book, the June dates were already gone. I knew I had to act fast as these fares were going like hotcakes. So, I tried the 3rd weekend of May, also gone. I was left with the 2nd weekend of May and quickly went ahead to booked it. The flight times were not ideal(leaving LA Saturday morning, coming back Tuesday Morning), but what the hey, cant complain about the $145 price tag.

And, since I was in hot pursuit of the Hilton Diamond status, we can get 3 stays out of the trip. Also, I went ahead and rented a car with Hertz, affording us the flexibility to visit the Disney Hollywood Studios and also Kennedy Space Center.

Trip report to come after the trip!

$555 ai roundtrip to Hong Kong in October. Booked!

I finally took advantage of a mileage run deal on Flyertalk!!!

Over the past couple of months, I have been checking the mileage run forum on flyertalk almost daily but until this week nothing has enticed me enough to go ahead and book.

Well, you can say I was surprised to see the thread heading. "AC $498 r/t LAS-HKG" Hell I was even willing to travel to Vegas to take advantage of this deal. Many dates were available in September and October. And, I knew I had Columbus day off(I know, we have random holidays off...) so a quick 3 day trip to Hong Kong was in the works. Since, the flights are going to be on Air Canada, it will be a perfect opportunity to credit some miles to my Aeroplan account. Since, the thread said that the fare was only available through cheapoair.com, I had to double check the credibility of the site. It looked legit, I guess...

And out of the whim, I decided to try LAX as my departure city instead of Las Vegas, and to my delight, LAX-HKG was only $60 more expensive. The dates I wanted were also available.(Leaving Friday afternoon, coming back Monday night)

It might sound crazy to most of you(ahem, Adeline) that I will be spending $500 bucks and 30hrs on airplanes for 2 short days in Hong Kong, but what is there really to do in Hong Kong other than shop and eat? Plus, I have a long 9hr layover in Vancouver which will give me an opportunity to visit Vancouver and try out the famous Japadog. Yummm.

Hopefully, my gf can join me in Hong Kong. Trying to entice her with the opportunity to stay at the Conrad Hong Kong. I should have enough Hhonor points by then. And, hopefully, with my Diamond status, I can get a room upgrade and access the club everyone has been raving about.

In the mean time, I will rewatch the No Reservation episode on Hong Kong to see what restaurants Tony Bourdain recommends.

Hilton Diamond Status after 7 stays

So I've decided to switch my hotel allegiance. I have nothing but rave reviews for the Starwood program and I will continue using the Starwood Amex. However, Hilton's offer of Diamond Status after 7 stays between 4/1/10-6/30/10 is too hard to pass. I got this offer with my welcome packet for Hilton Silver last month. After a month of wavering, I've decided to go with Hilton.

Hilton Diamond is Hilton's top tier program which is equal to Starwood Platinum. As a Diamond, I will get club access, free internet, free room upgrade, 50% points bonus among other things. After taking a look at my travel plans from now until end of June, I should have no problem qualifying for Diamond. I hope...

Chicago Trip Report

I decided to visit the rents this past weekend for Easter. Since we had Friday off, I hopped on a 7pm United flight to Chicago out of LAX. To my delight, all 3 of my flights were automatically upgraded to UA First Class. All 3 legs were flown on ancient 757 metal that were almost as old as me.

A note for future bookings, to increase upgrade chances on United, I recommend flying on these 757s because they have 24 seats in 1st class compared to the 8-12 1st class seats available on A319 and 320s.

So, I got done with my work appointment early so I made my way down to LAX at around 3:30. Since I was quite early for check in, I decided to make my way down to the In & Out by LAX.

For those of you who don't know this unique spot for aviation enthusiasts, there is an In & Out right by runway 25R at LAX where you can get a great view of Terminal 2 and of planes taking off from 25L and landing at 25R.

My Favorite In & Out

You can see part of Terminal 2 and 3 here. I think I saw a KLM and Air France bird parked at Terminal 2.

And the Piece de Resistance...

I caught the SQ all business class configured A340 on final approach

What a beautiful sight, I would have missed out on this shot if it were not for a fellow aviation enthusiast and his live Air Traffic Control feed. We knew something big was coming when he rushed from one end of the parking lot to another passing up a Speedbird(British Airways) 747 take off roll on Runway 25L.

I decided to leave on a high note and proceeded to LAX Park to park my car. I love this little parking lot on Bellanca Ave. First of all, it is dirt cheap, $7 a day I believe and they park the car for you. The shuttle service is almost always reliable to and from the Airport.

The check-in and security at LAX Terminal 6 was pretty lax and I was in the terminal by 5pm.

As expected, with United's new upgrade policy, 1st class was completely packed with Elite flyers. I took my 5C seat and observed the 1st class boarding process. The aisle was completely cluttered with people and the overheads were completely full.

Service was slower than usual for 1st class due to the cluttered aisle, and I only got my pre-takeoff OJ 20min into the boarding process.

Pre-Takeoff OJ with the Hemispheres Magazing

After takeoff the CA's quickly went into the galley to prepare our dinner service as well as drink service. They came around to take drink and dinner orders. To my disappointment, they did not call me by name. The dinner choices on the flight were either chicken or pasta. I went with the Chicken, typical International Economy choices IMO. And for my drink, I went with a gin and tonic.

The drink came out first with the hot nuts. The hot nuts has to be my favorite part of the entire 1st class experience. Nuts just taste sooo much better warmed up.

Gin and Tonic and the world famous United Hot Nuts

My chicken dinner came out 10min later and on a scale of 1-10 I give it a 4. The chicken was moist but lacked flavor, and the cous cous and salad was disappointing. However the Lemon cake for desert was quite tasty.

Dinner service-Chicken breast with couscous, salad and lemon cake

The CAs were pretty attentive with the drinks and whenever my glass was nearly empty, I got my refill.

For the remainder of the flight, I decided to pop open my chinese book to memorize some characters...I know I am a nerd.

I reached Chicago around 1am and the airport was nearly empty. I quickly made my way home and went to bed. The next 2 days, my parents put me to work and I cleaned the garage and did some yard work. No Chicago trip ends without Chicago style pizza, and I got my dose this time around from Lou Malnatis. Now that I think of it, I haven't had Malnati's since high school. Lou Malnati's is owned by our High School Basketball coach's brother, therefore it was our only catering option for events at my high school. IMO the pizza quality is second to none. We ended up getting our deep dish with sausage, spinach and pepperoni.

A word of advice: spinach is a must have on Chicago Style pizza.

And the sausage is a nice complement to the crust. They basically stick a hamburger patty underneath the cheese.

Malnati's Pizza with Spinach, Sausage and Pepperoni

We also went to a new Korean BBQ restaurant my family was raving about, Arirang. I gotta admit, their marinated rib pieces deserves a big thumbs up from me.

The Gigantic Rib Pieces

The delicious meat and some banchan

On Sunday afternoon I made my way to O'Hare for my flight back to LA. For the return leg, I had to make a quick 1hr stop in Vegas.

I took my seat at 2B and once again, the 1st class was filled with Elites going to Vegas. I decided to pass the pre takeoff time by listening into the cockpit on Channel 9. Channel 9 is the one unique thing that I love about United, I can listen to the cockpit's interaction with the ATC. Although most of the conversation is gibberish, I am starting to understand more and more of what goes on between the ATC and the cockpit. And its always fun to hear the conversation between the ATC and Asian airline pilot. I love listening to their accents. On this flight I was able to listen into the ATC directing a British Airways flight to takeoff. The ATC referred to the plane as Speedbird 20, and I got a kick out of that. Speedbird is probably my favorite call sign.

During this time, it began to rain and I realized from channel 9 that the taxing process was going to get hellish. As I feared, we ended up taxing for over 1hr, and I was getting nervous that I would miss my connection in Vegas. To make matters worse, my connection was the last flight leaving Vegas for LA and if I were to miss that, I would be stuck in Vegas. I knew the only way to make the flight was that the Las Vegas-LAX flight was on the same plane I was sitting on from ORD-LAS. There was a high chance of this because Vegas does not get much UA 757 traffic and also both legs of my flight were on 757s. So I crossed my fingers as we made our way to Vegas.

The service on the plane was decent, better than the LAX-ORD leg. Although the Orange Chicken I got for dinner was absolutely disgusting. It was so bad I even forgot to take a picture. I ended up getting another gin and tonic and enjoyed my hot nuts : )

Gin and Tonic and Hot Nuts

After an extremely bumpy flight, we landed in Vegas over an hour late, and to my delight I got an email from United saying that my LAS-LAX leg was also delayed for 1hr. I was right, they were going to use the same plane. So I walked around Vegas airport for about 20min and took a pic of the slot machines.

Slot machines at LAS

We hopped on the short 1hr flight from LAS-LAX and to my surprise, 1st class was only 1/3 full. The flight must have had very few elites on it. Since I had to drive home from the airport, I decided to order a Seagram's Ginger Ale instead of an alcoholic drink. To my disappointment, we were not offered hot nuts and only got pretzels.

The Vegas skyline on takeoff from seat 3D was magnificent, a close second to landing and making the deadman's turn at the old Hong Kong airport.

Vegas Trip Report

This past weekend I made the drive to Vegas to meet up with my buddies from Cleveland Dave, Brad, Tony and Jake.

Since I plan on buying a new car, I decided to set a $50 limit on gambling.

I planned to leave for Vegas at 8pm right after getting my car appraisaled from Carmax. Well the appraisal process ended earlier than I expected but I was not happy with the result. Carmax gave me a low ball $9000 offer for my car which is absolutely ridiculous! So, I was in a pissed off mood when I left for Vegas at 7:30pm. Besides a bit of traffic leaving LA, it was a pretty uneventful 4.5hour drive.

I listened to the UPGRD Podcasts during the drive and basically forgot about the Carmax offer.
I gotta admit, the second the Vegas skyline appears on the otherwise boring drive on I-15 gotta rank up there in terms of exciting moments.

Overall the weekend was filled with lots of drinking, laughing, eating and observing my buddies gamble. The company was great and filled with interesting characters. We had a guy who was 6'8, a uber nerd who works for Google, and a guy who was a contestant on Jeopardy. The pit bosses and dealers kept making bets on how tall my 6'8 buddy was when we walked up to a table.

I was able to stay within my gambling budget and left Vegas happy. And of course, no Vegas trip ends this uneventfully...

I left Vegas after lunch at 3pm, and naturally hit a pocket of traffic. That pocket lasted till the Nevada border. More traffic ensued randomly along the drive. We had to stop at the Agricultural stop and the mother of all traffic, a truck flipped over and caught on fire closing 2 lanes along the mountain roads entering LA. So in total, I was behind the wheel for 8 frickin hours, reaching home at 10:45pm. I could have made it 4/5 of the way to Asia! Completely ridiculous!