Beijing: Night 1

Alas, we get to check into our hotel room to freshen up. You start to feel icky and grimy from being at the airport and on the plane for so many hours.  It felt good to settle in our room, the place we'll call home for the next few days.

 Our Hotel Room at the Double Tree Hilton!

 Using the free wifi at our Hotel's lobby.  Looking for directions to where we want to go and eat.

Oh all those drinks were about 5 USD and it was more than enough to last us for the next few days in Beijing!

Cheers with a cup of hot tea!

Henry at his 2nd XLB stop at DTF! Check out our dining experience here.

We found a 85 degree bakery and got some buns for breakfast/ snack for the next day!

 View Beijing local traffic. The hustling and bustling of cars.

Wandering the streets of Beijing after dinner!  Pretty bundled up because it was that cold!

It's a very big city! Our tour guide told us that the city is 80 miles by 80 miles. Definitely not what I'm used to in San Francisco, where you can get from one side of the city to the other in no more than half an hour.  It was hard getting around on our first night especially when we're not too familiar with the city and with my mediocre Mandarin speaking skills.  It ended with us having way too much trouble trying to find a taxi! Oh and in China I think they flip around the order of how you state your address.  I think you first say the district, then the street name and then the number.  Our taxi cab driver was not happy with us.  Good thing we just so happened to have had the hotel's telephone number. Saved.  It was an interesting night adventure.

Beijing: Day 1

Happy holidays! Hope everyone got to enjoy their holiday to great food, good booze and presents in the company of loved ones!  I know I definitely did!  December has been good to me =] I love love love love love everything I got <3 I am grateful for a loving family, amazing friends and wonderful coworkers that I can call my friends!

Anyhow, I know I've been delaying this entry for way too long now, but with the holidays, there was just too much going on.  So now my long overdue entry on my Beijing Trip: Day 1.


We arrived in Beijing at about 5:30am.

With barely 8 hours of sleep on a 14+ hour plane ride, I was ready to jump out of my seat and breathe the Beijing air already...well at least that's what I thought.

Dressed in a thin cotton sweater and jeans, I stepped off of the plane to find myself shivering.  I was so not ready for the weather at 12 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was worse than Tahoe weather (and I thought that was bad)!  If you know me, I've never been a fan of the cold.

Freezing cold. That was my first impression of Beijing.

I was feeling a bit miserable in the cold.  I tried to layer myself to keep warm.  I had my hands stuffed in a pair of gloves which were stuffed in my pockets.  Snow boarding jacket on.  Scarf wrapped over my face and my feet and hands were still frozen.

Despite the unbearable weather, I was ready to explore the city.  I guess my adrenaline some how allowed for me to momentarily forget about the cold.  Our tour guide offered to take us on a tour to the Temple of Heaven, Cole Hill Park and lunch close by the Wang Fu Jing snack food street before checking into our hotel (which was not ready for us).

Truly an amazing city with so much culture and history. Buildings and temples that have been around for hundreds of years..geez even their squatter toilets seem ancient. 

A very hungry, tired me that wanted to take a shower.

 

First stop: Temple of Heaven

Look at the details.

Locals playing Scrabble?  They sat around this one area either playing Chinese boardgames.  Reminds me of Portsmouth Square in San Francisco Chinatown, where all the older Chinese men sat around playing Chinese checkers.  Perhaps there's some gambling going on.

 

Almost at the top of the highest point in Cole Hill park. Freezing cold!

A picture of Buddah.  If you look closely at the picture, there are signs that say no photos on it.  Only merely a minute after I had taken this picture did I take a step on a ramp, losing balance, falling and sliding about 5-6 feet down the ramp until I landed at the bottom.  It was totally Karma! SMH! 

At the highest point of Cole Hill park overlooking the Forbidden City

Ready to eat at Wang Fu Jing Street

Stinky tofu! Looks and smell not so good, but super tasty!

Sour milk. I did not try it, but it seemed to be popular with the locals!

I did not want to get a stomach ache.

Not during my first visit, but I tried some my second visit on this street.  After my nerves and guts got over the idea of eating insects did it taste good.

This pretty much sums up my first morning in Beijing! Spent the rest of the afternoon checking into our hotel, settling in and unpacking.

Feeling pressed on time...

I've been out for two weeks, jetlagged for a couple of days and Xmas is in 6 days.  I feel like there's still so much for me to do.  I'm still up at this hour...you may ask why? I'm not sure if it's because I've been jetlagged and slept most of the day that I'm not that tired now, or the fact that I am having some anxiety because 1) I don't have wrapping paper 2) tomorrow is my only free day of the week to do any sort of shopping.  I have family dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday which was yesterday 12/18/11 on Tuesday.  Wednesday and Friday will consist of xmas get togethers.  Dinner for Fanny's birthday on Thursday and Saturday is already Xmas Eve.  I am totally feeling pressed on time.

Anyone else feeling the same way? Geebuz...there's a million things to do and not enough of me to do it.

I should totally be sleeping right now, but I just can't. Work's going to be hard tomorrow=[

EeeKs!!

Back from vacay and super JETLAGGED

Got back around midnight Friday morning and I'm so glad I took the day off from work to rest up. I woke up at about 4pm, which is the time I would have gotten off of work. I'm a lot more jetlagged than I'd thought I'd be.  My phone is still off, I haven't tried checking any emails, luggage still unpacked! Just extremely exhausted.  I can't believe I'm back to reality already.

First thing I did when we got back to SF was take a shower and then ate McDonalds, while we caught up to two weeks of Iron Chefs Super Chefs.

Despite of how drained I am from this trip, it was definitely a great experience!  It makes me appreciate my life so much more and realize how fortunate I am to be able to live a life of luxury compared to some of the people in China! I may not have the best of things, but to some people, what I have is already 10 times better than what they have.

Will definitely update when my head stops pounding!

This is my current state. Tired in bed chilling with no make up on.

LA: Day Two

Dinner was fabulous last night!! We ate at this place called ANIMAL! Pics soon to come!

This post will be brief since I'm stealing internet!

The weather here in LA is amazing! The sun's out and its freaking warm!

Currently at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia!   Xiao Long Baos and their noodles are bomb!

Ella, the Green Milk Tea Tapioca is so freaking delicious! Best I've EVER had!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday yall!

We're on a food adventure today!

LA: Day One

I'm just killing time at our hotel lobby (which is amazing by the way).  Christmas lights are up and xmas songs are playing and it's starting to look and feel a lot like Christmas!  There's a skating rink outside our hotel and we're right across from the Staple Center.  Definitely in the heart of downtown LA.  We have dinner plans with my pledge sis ELE and just hanging out before we meet her up!

It's pretty chilly down here, not much different from SF!

 First stop: Lunch with David at Mendocino Farms! Amazing sandwiches with a fusion twist to it.  I got to try the THREE PIGGIE (which consisted of 3 types of pork meat: pork belly, bacon bits and carnitas) and the PORK BELLY BANH MI!  Both of which was on a grilled ciabatta bread and delicious.  If David goes anywhere at least 2-3 times a week, that means it's good! He was the one who introduced me to UMAMI BURGER, a few years ago!  I trusted his taste and I wasn't disappointed!

 LACMA: I've been dying to check this place out!  I want to see it during the day and night!

The view from WP24 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel which is connected to the JW Marriot (where we're staying at).  AMAZING!

At the Lobby!

I will keep on updating every chance I get!!

Miss you all <3

SFO

Hello from SFO.

I'm waiting to board my plane to LA and am feeling extremely tired right now, which is why I have a cup of Peet's coffee.  I don't usually drink coffee, but am feeling in desperate need of it.

All Packed...

or at least I hope so.  For some reason, I always seem to forget to pack something when I'm going on trips!  I'm actually afraid that I did not pack enough clothes.  I mean it's winter time, so I'm packing thicker garments that takes up a lot more room, which makes packing for a 10 day vacation a lot harder to do.  Anyhow, hopefully we're all set and if we're not, we're just going to have to deal with it or try to find what we need in LA or ASIA!  I was hoping that I'd have more room in my luggage to pack souvenirs, but our luggage is already pretty much full. Yikes!

That's everything for 10 days! Wish me luck!

Two of my good friends, Diana and Ella will be traveling in the next couple of weeks too.  One to rainy Seattle and the other to sunny Cancun.  I can't wait to come back and share stories with each other!

xoxo

Anticipation Awaits

Tickets. Checked.
Passports. Checked.
Visas. Checked.
Itinerary. Checked.
Packing. Almost done.
Adrenaline. Checked.


We've been planning and looking forward to our Asia trip this upcoming week.  First stop LA for two days, where we will be visiting a couple of friends.  Our short trip will consist of some catching up, but a lot of wining and dining adventures to add to my list of places to eat.  I'm so stoked about our first international trip together.  I'll definitely try to post pics of our LA and ASIA adventure if there's internet for me to do a little bit of blogging while I'm on vacay!

Today, I spent most of my day in Palo Alto catching up with my pledgemom Sandy and my pledgesister Christine.  The sun was out and there was a slight breeze, surprisingly a nice day to be out.  So glad I was not watching football! We chatted away to tea and sandwiches at Tea Time in Palo Alto.  I've been to cuter high tea places, but I thought the location was great; right near University Ave.  We moved our catching up session next door to Coupa Cafe for some delicious desserts.

Hoping for more get togethers like this in the near future with people I've lost touch with.  It feels good to be in touch with people's lives again.

My day ended with dinner with the family at Peninsula Restaurant in SF Chinatown to celebrate my brother's bday, because I'll be gone for his actual birthday. The only time we get together to eat as a family anymore is in celebration to either some kind of holiday or when it's someone's birthday. 

Ecstatic about my trip! I can't sleep!

Good night <3

Thanksgiving Week

Freaking awesome that I had a two day work week, but so sad the long break is over.  I slept in EVERY SINGLE DAY, which made waking up really hard this morning.

Today, I paid the doc a visit for an annual check up. Definitely not the funnest thing to do on  Monday morning after a long long weekend.  Needles, blood...not my thing. Anyway, glad to know that I am in great health!

Some highlights from my Thanksgiving week!

Sunday 11/20/11: Got to spend the day with my big sis, minilover and JTPizzle! So glad that I could spend a Sunday not watching football.  It was as if I was in college all over again, except a lot toned down from how we used to hang out. <3  Annie and I met up at my big sis' place in Milbrae and headed to Napa to meet up miss Jenny Thao Pham. Our day started with brunch at Ad Hoc then proceeded to Robert Mondavi and Francescan for some wine tasting.  5 tastings later, I was feeling pretty woozy! It must have been that fireplace at Mondavi! I almost thought I'd survive the day without stumbling out the door, but I was wrong.  My stomach had intaken so much food and booze that by dinnertime, I was not too hungry.  We ended the day with dinner at BRIX, which by the way was pretty good especially for the price.  We paid exactly the same amount for brunch and dinner, but brunch was so much tastier!

Autumn leaves. Fall colors. I like!

Girl talk + wine tasting= :)

Very cozy fireplace that did not help with the warmth from the alchy.

Robert Mondavi Winery

Francesca Winery

Dinner at Brix with their adorable little pumpkins

Monday 11/21/11: We finally got around to celebrating Hana's going away party that turned into a WE MISS HANA party.  Dinner was held at Chez Papa Resto! Read more about our foodie adventure here.

I was so excited to find out that they make dark and stormy's here. Ginger and rum. Yum!

Group shot!

Picture courtesy of Paloma! I like the foggy room affect of the pic!

Tuesday: 11/22/11 Dinner with the fam (no pics taken). 

Wednesday: Baking Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for Henry's family Thanksgiving dinner. (Yay, it was a hit)

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! Dinner with the fam and football Thursday!  Too bad they lost though!

Friday: Decided to do some late night baking and to my surprise my snickerdoodle cookies turned out pretty good.  Not bad for our first time.

Saturday: Planned our Asia trip and a late dinner at Kingdom of Dumpling.  It was a small place that we could have easily missed.  From the outside, the windows were fogged up and as we stepped in, I seriously felt as though I was in someone's kitchen.  A hole in the wall place that could fit about 30 people! Delicious and authentic northern chinese food that consisted of scallion pancakes, dumplings and XLBs!

Sunday: Slept until 130pm. WOW!!! I don't remember the last time I've done that! Anyhow, lazy football sundays then off to Palace BBQ to celebrate Henry's sister's birthday!

Happy Quarter Century to the Bestest!

November 12, 2011

This time last week, I was celebrating the bff's birthday.  We've been friends for over a decade, since 1997. That means over a decade worth of birthdays celebrated!  It feels like just yesterday we were in middle school and in a blink of an eye my bestest is now 25!  I've seriously watched her grow into the smart and beautiful woman she is today.  Cheers and I hope there's many many many more to come!

We celebrated her birthday with dinner at Butterfly lounge (read more about our dining experience here) and then dancing at 5a5! Diana, me and Jenny at Butterfly Complimentary shots from the restaurant because we had to wait over an hour before we were seated.  Cheers to the birthday girl!!
 
Happy Birthday to the bestest!
Decided to get her a practical gift: Kitchenaid Standmixer. I love her gift! 
Ak got her a bday cake from Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous: Read more about it here.



Last year, I dedicated a photo album on facebook filled with pictures from when we were in our teens. Here's a few for laughs. Enjoy!

November 2002
Holding a box with a strawberry shortcake birthday cake from Ambrosia Bakery.  It was a surprise birthday I had planned for her held at Herman's house (that's if I remembered correctly)

November 2003
After dinner at Pasquales, we made our way to Serra Bowl for some birthday fun!

November 2004
We were both pledging for the aKDPHI and just had a sleep over slumber party at her place.

I don't remember what happened for her 2005 birthday, but I do remember her 2006 birthday that I missed.  She had invited me over to celebrate her birthday with her family and I had a horrible migraine the whole 3 day Veteran's weekend.  I had no idea it was a migraine until after the fact, in which I had learned all of it's symptoms.  It was my first and only migraine.  I have no idea what had caused it, but I hope to NEVER EVER get it again.  It was so bad to the point where I could not do ANYTHING!  Fish head soup and a lot of rest cured me!

November 2007
Clubbing at Tabu Lounge!! <3

November 2008
Clubbing at Roe!

November 2009
At Sushi Bistro happy about her gift from me: a new camera!

November 2009
Celebration part two. 1 week later, we celebrated at Butterfly Lounge!

November 2010
Opening presents at 5a5! We look so happy!!