Where to, Gumshoe? – Page 8 – Follow us through our day to day travels and adventures

Melbourne (Day 71): Fitzroy and Lucy Liu

May 10, 2016

Each morning we seem to wake up around 9:45am. We can’t seem to get over the 2 hour jet lag from being in Asia for 2 months. We’re both feeling a tad under the weather so being able to take it easy is helping. Or maybe our bodies realize we aren’t on the go and that we are, and will be, around doctors for a good chunk of our Australia leg.

We finished off most of our groceries for lunch today and did a couple more bookings for Australia. We booked a flight from Sydney to New Zealand on Air Emirates’ A380, the price of the ticket was only $10 more expensive than flying Virgin Air. We’re both looking forward to flying Emirates since we don’t get the opportunity very often (Tim: and more importantly, to fly on an A380).

Our plan for today was to explore the Fitzroy area of Melbourne. Fitzroy is an area north of downtown and is about a 10 minute tram ride from the apartment. We were there at night while eating at the Napier, but we weren’t able to see much else. The area is known for its boutique shops and cafes, making it the most hipster area of Melbourne (and probably the Southern Hemisphere).

We took the tram down and started walking along Gertrude Street and ended up finding the Museum of Melbourne and the Royal Exhibition Building. The Royal Exhibition Building is a beautiful Victorian World Heritage building.

We walked through Fitzroy, going down Brunswick, Smith, and Johnston Street. The Fitzroy area reminds me of the Capitol Hill area in Seattle. Very hipster and has a certain grunge feel to it.

There are a lot of neat restaurants and small coffee shops in the area. A lot of the boutiques and some restaurants were closed on Tuesdays so the streets also seemed a bit quieter. I could imagine how busy this area gets on weekends. We stopped by Messina, a gelato place that was recommended by Chloe and Lonely Planet. It’s supposed to be the best gelato in Melbourne. We tried a couple of flavours and ended up sharing a double scoop of apple pie and salted caramel white chocolate. Everything at Messina is made with fresh ingredients in the back, so that being said, it was really good gelato.

After finishing our gelato at Messina, we walked back to the tram and made our way back to the apartment to rest up before dinner tonight. On our way back we walked behind the apartment complex and walked on the path along the Yarra River (a River that runs through Melbourne). We also went to check out the pool and gym area. It’s too bad the weather wasn’t warmer. It would be nice to relax by the pool. Maybe on the way back in June (Tim: it’s only going to get colder…).

We waited for Marcus to come back home from work and then got ready to go to a popular Melbourne restaurant called Lucy Liu. Apparently there is no affiliation with the actress. Lucy Liu is an Asian fusion restaurant and one of the “hottest” restaurants in the city. Considering it was a Tuesday night and we arrived just before 8pm, we still had to wait about 20 minutes. It’s safe to say it’s a popular place. (Tim: When people describe restaurants, cafes, or bars in Melbourne, they always sound like Bill Hader’s Stefon on SNL to me).

Everything we had at Lucy Liu was really good. I actually underestimated how big the portions would be since it was such a trendy place. We were really full half way through the short rib curry. Tim’s favourite dish was the tempura soft shell crab and I really enjoyed the curry.

Tomorrow’s our last full day in Melbourne before setting off on our Australian adventure. Marcus is concerned that we haven’t experienced how cool Melbourne is. We told him we already know it’s cool and that it’s probably too cool for us. I joked around with him that we’ll come back another time with a better (non-backpacking) wardrobe.

Steps today: 11,000

Melbourne (70 Days): Feels Like Home

May 9, 2016

The plan today was no plan at all. We were looking forward to just spending the day around the apartment, cooking lunch, and trying to figure out what we’ll be doing in Australia for the rest of the month.

We woke up to a bit of rain but within an hour it started coming down (tropical rain style) and was very windy. We waited until the rain died down a bit before walking across the street to the Victoria Gardens Mall to buy groceries. The both of us were really excited at the prospect of cooking for the first time in 70 days (how things change when you’re away from home).

Marcus’ apartment is very conveniently located and the grocery store, Coles, across the street is just like a Safeway. The prices were all very reasonable. Fruit and vegetables were more expensive than home, but not as crazy as Japan. We decided to make a salad, spaghetti bolognese, and corn on the cob. It was a pretty simple lunch but that’s a pretty standard dinner we would make for ourselves back home. The groceries we bought would be good for a couple of meals.

When we got back from the mall, all of a sudden, the sun came out and the sky was blue. The weather in Melbourne does change fairly quickly. We started to cook the pasta sauce, boil some corn, and cut the avocado for the salad. After taking our first bites, we both agreed that it felt really good to eat something simple and prepared by ourselves.

After we cleaned up, we hunkered down and started to plan out our Australian itinerary. We finally figured it out and began to book car rentals, flights, and research some accommodations. We’re going to be staying in Melbourne until Thursday, then rent a car and drive the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide (where Jess and Robin live) and stay there for a few nights. Australia’s a huge country so even with a month here, I feel like there’s still a lot to see here that we won’t be able to go to this trip.

The day flew by and Marcus got home from work to wash up and pick us up to go to Max’s house for their Game of Thrones viewing. Apparently every Monday, they watch Game of Thrones together with his house mates since it airs in North America on Sunday nights. Tim is a big fan of the show so when he heard they do a viewing party he wanted to join in.

We stopped by a food truck area for a quick dinner. They have different food trucks come each day and there’s a bar and open air and indoor seating. I got a pulled pork burrito and Tim tried a Polish “pizza”. The weather was a lot colder than we thought it would be. It was very windy and it was a cool breeze. We were sure it was around 8 degrees C out, but when we checked the temperature it was 17 degrees C. We’ve acclimatized.

After a quick and good dinner, we went to Max’s house and were introduced to his house mates. They turned off the lights and watched Game of Thrones. I took this chance to take a nap. When it was over they all discussed what was going on. I was just sitting there looking around at the house and kept thinking about how good it smelled inside. It was like the smell of someone’s house when they finished making a roast beef (yum!).

It was a pretty relaxing day and was probably the most “normal life” day we’ve had in 70 days. It was a nice change of pace and rest day that we both needed.

Steps today: 3,000

Melbourne (Day 69): Queen Vic, Graffiti and Pub Food

May 8, 2016

After such a beautiful day on Saturday, we woke up to grey skies and rain. We took our time getting ready this morning and I had vegemite on toast for the first time. I wasn’t a fan of it. After doing a load of laundry and throwing the clothes in the dryer (so nice to be able to use a dryer again), we headed into town.

Our first stop was Queen Victoria Market, the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The market is quite large with different areas: seafood, meat, deli, produce, clothing & gifts, and a food court area. We did a quick loop around the different areas and went towards the food court and food trucks in the back. There weren’t as many food vendors to choose from for lunch as I had imagined. We decided to try Sri Lankan food and shared a roti and chicken plate. The dish had a lot of good flavours and was very satisfying.

I read that the doughnut truck at Queen Vic was good, so we lined up for doughnuts. They come in bags of 5, and you can either get raspberry jelly filled or plain. Since they have such high turnover, the doughnuts were super fresh and delicious.

Since we got to the market fairly late in the day (the market closes at 4), many vendors were pushing their meats and produce pretty hard. You can get some good deals at the market on Sundays at 3pm. Queen Vic closes on Mondays, so it makes sense that they’re trying to sell off all their inventory for the week.

After the market, we walked around some of the streets and side streets in the main shopping area. There are a lot of side streets and alleys in Melbourne that have a lot of personality. There’s a lot of graffiti art in the city… it’s a hipster’s Instagram’s photoshoot’s dream.

We eventually made our way down to Federation Square, which was broadcasting an AFC (Australian Football League) Australian rules football game. It’s an interesting sport that we don’t quite understand (Tim: I’m pretty sure I understand it, I just think it’s a wacky sport). Tim describes it best when he says they are basically playing quidditch (like in Harry Potter) without the brooms.

We took the tram back to the apartment and rested up a little before dinner with Chloe and Alex. We were meeting them in an area fairly close by called Fitzroy. Apparently Fitzroy is the most hipster area in Melbourne. We’ll have to walk around the area during the day time to check it out.

We met at the Napier Hotel, which is a restaurant and pub (I learned that pubs here are called hotels). It’s nice to be able to visit with Chloe while in Melbourne and for Tim to finally meet her. Since she and her boyfriend have been living abroad for two years, I’ve never actually met her boyfriend, Alex, yet. Marcus also came for dinner, which was good because he’s such a nice guy.

Apparently pubs in Victoria serve chicken parma (chicken parmigianas) and its a very popular dish. I tried one with kangaroo meat instead of ham and Tim had the kangaroo pie. Both dishes were pretty tasty and since the kangaroo meat on mine was covered in tomato sauce and cheese, I could hardly tell it was any different than beef. The portions here were quite large. We haven’t had portions this big since Seoul.

We sat and chatted for a while and then were told the pub closes at 10pm so we got up and left. Restaurants and stores in Australia close really early. We learned from Chloe that there’s weekend wages in retail, so they get paid time and a half on the weekend and even more on Sundays – no wonder they close early.

Marcus dropped Chloe and Alex off at their place and we headed back to the apartment to have an earlier night. We’ll probably see them again before we leave Melbourne.

Steps today: 10,000

Melbourne (Day 68): Prahran and Chinatown

May 7, 2016

We landed in Melbourne just before 6am (Melbourne is two hours ahead of Singapore). It was still dark outside so we weren’t able to see anything from the plane. It was my first time in the Southern Hemisphere, which was kind of exciting! Singapore was just barely north of the equator.

Before we left home we had to apply and pay $20 AUD for an “Electronic Travel Authority” (ETA) which is linked to your passport when you arrive. On the walk towards immigration, there were several “e-passport” kiosks for people who had chips in their your passport. I don’t have the new Canadian passport yet, so mine did not work. Tim has the new one but he wasn’t going to leave me behind (good husband). We lined up for about 20 minutes before crossing customs. The upside to having to wait in line, I got my passport stamped. However, since Tim’s passport has the electronic chip, he did not.

By the time we got out of immigration, our bags were already on the baggage belt, quite lonely again. We hadn’t seen our bags since Taipei, so I was happy to see that they made it to Melbourne (with Hello Kitty attached).

We made our way to the Skybus, which runs from the airport to Southern Cross Station in downtown Melbourne. The tickets are $19 AUD each way or $38 RT, so we just bought a one way ticket. The ride into the city was nice because the sun was rising and the city seemed like it was still sleeping. We arrived at Southern Cross Station around 7:30am and found WiFi outside Hungry Jack’s (Australian’s name for Burger King) and messaged Marcus. My first impression of Melbourne was that it looked like Toronto. I think it’s because of the street cars (trams) and the older buildings.

Marcus picked us up from the station and gave us a warm Australian welcome. We made our way to his apartment, which was about a 10 minute drive outside of the downtown core. Marcus is a good friend and med school classmate of Jessica’s (Tim’s sister). I got to meet Marcus last year at Jess and Robin’s wedding. He travelled all the way to Toronto from Melbourne and only had 4 days in North America. He told us we could stay with him any time we come to Melbourne, so we took him up on that offer a year later. His apartment and complex is really nice and quite new. He also has really good taste in furniture and decor.

The first thing we did when we got here was shower. We were so sweaty from Singapore and hadn’t showered for more than 24 hours, so I think we stunk a bit. After we showered, we ended up falling asleep for a couple of hours. Marcus knocked on our door around 11am and told us to get up. He was taking us to a chocolate festival. We said we were still feeling a bit tired but he insisted. He said when he has night shifts he forces himself to go outside the next day or else he’ll feel groggy the following day (like us). We didn’t argue with him. He’s a doctor, so we listened. Lucky we listened because it was such a beautiful day – the sun was shining and it was about 23 degrees, with no humidity!

We met Marcus’ partner, who was joining us for the chocolate festival. Marcus drove to South Yarra, to an area called Prahran. The chocolate festival was being held at the Prahran Market and when we went inside, there were only a few chocolate stalls, so everyone was a bit disappointed. It was the inaugural festival so it was a bit of a let down. The market was packed with people since it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and it reminded me of Granville Island Market – lots of fresh produce, deli counters, and florists.

After having a couple of samples we went for lunch at a restaurant called, Oscar Cooper. While walking along Chapel and Greville St., and getting the vibe of Melbourne, I felt it was very hipster. I also noticed there were a lot of very attractive people here and it’s very multicultural. It’s been a while since we saw so many (actually any) guys who looked like they just went to the gym and were super buff.

We got a seat outside, which was perfect on a day like today. Melbourne and Australia in general take their coffee very seriously and apparently there are no Starbucks in Melbourne any more (Tim: there are, just very few). Tim and I aren’t coffee drinkers (as in we don’t drink coffee every day, but will drink it once in a while socially) so when we told Marcus and Max that we don’t really drink coffee, it was like blasphemy to their ears. I ordered a “flat white”, which originated in Australia, and is like a latte except the foam that’s poured over the espresso have very small bubbles (which appear to be more velvety than a normal latte). It was really good coffee.

For lunch, Tim and I shared a hamburger and southern chicken sliders. Both dishes were really good, and it was nice to eat a hamburger that wasn’t sweet teriyaki tasting. If the prices are going to be higher than what we’re used to, at least the food is great. Marcus mentioned we were visiting from Vancouver and the waiter said he worked for Kit and Ace and helped open their Melbourne stores. Apparently Lululemon is extremely popular here, which isn’t surprising.

We’ve quickly adjusted to the pricing in Australia after walking through Prahran Market and observing prices of food items. I think it helped that I had outrageous prices in my head before coming here so it hasn’t been that difficult to adjust and often times I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Marcus secretly went off and paid for lunch, which was very kind of him.

After lunch we headed back to his apartment to relax a bit before dinner downtown. We sat in the kitchen and munched on some candy and cookies that we had brought from Taiwan and Singapore over a nice cup of tea. Around 6pm we headed out and took the tram to downtown Melbourne. We went to a couple of restaurants and they all had about 2 hour waits. There are a lot of Thai fusion places in Melbourne and they all seem very trendy. After being in Asia for a couple of months, it was the first time I felt unfashionable.

We ended up going to Longrain, which is a Thai Fusion restaurant. There was about an hour wait but we got to sit in the bar area while we waited. We ordered some drinks and shared some appetizers, which were all very tasty. We got seated at a long shared table and ordered two mains, a salad and two desserts to share. Everything was very delicious and I’m pretty impressed with the food here so far. Marcus treated us to a wonderful meal and is being such a generous host to us here in Melbourne.

After dinner, we walked around through Chinatown and around some streets downtown. There were a lot of people out and about and some of the streets reminded me of Granville St downtown. After walking around, we hopped back on to the tram and headed to the apartment.

Marcus and Max were telling us about this Chinese dating show called, “If you are the One”. Apparently it’s extremely popular in Australia and not just with Chinese audiences. We watched an episode and it was really entertaining. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before.

The forecast for the rest of the week is rain. We’re planning on checking out another market downtown and then meeting my cousin and her boyfriend for dinner. I think our time in Melbourne will be a lot more relaxed.

Steps today: 12,000

Singapore (Day 67): 23 Hour Layover

May 6, 2016

We had a good rest in Singapore at the Bliss Hotel. The bed was very comfortable, but if you’re a light sleeper, I wouldn’t recommend this hotel. You could hear everything in the rooms next door as well as what’s going on in the hallway (a lot of people got up early, probably to catch flights). We washed up and headed out for the day at 10:00am. Our first stop on our day in Singapore was to go to Maxwell Food Centre for some Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Singapore is known for its hawker markets and this was a priority for me on our layover here. I love Hainanese Chicken Rice, and at home, my favourite is from Cafe D’lite in Aberdeen or Mamalee’s in Kits (which used to be called Cafe D’lite), so that’s what I was comparing Singapore’s rice to.

Bliss Hotel is located right beside the Chinatown SMRT station, which is only about a 6 minute walk to the Maxwell Food Centre. The chicken rice stall that is the most famous is called, Tian Tian, and according to Trip Advisor, it opened at 11am. When we got to the market, we found Tian Tian and it was already open. There was no line up, which was surprising, but I guess it was only 10:30am. I ordered a medium sized chicken rice plate ($5 SGD = $4.75 CAD). We read online that Tian Tian had a former disgruntled chef who left them to open his own stall, called Ah-Tia, a few stalls down at Maxwell. We tried one from each stall to see whose was better. They tasted the same to both of us, the rice at Tian Tian was a bit softer (and better) than Ah-Tia (But Ah-Tia’s set was only $3.50 SGD and it included soup).

So what’s our verdict on the chicken rice in Singapore? The rice itself was the best I’ve had, but I wasn’t that blown away by the chicken. They served me all white meat so maybe it isn’t fair to fully judge, but I actually like Cafe D’lite’s chicken better. The white meat was juicy but it wasn’t as flavourful as I would’ve hoped for and the chilli dipping sauce was very spicy (not a sweet and tangy spice like at home). Maybe I hyped the chicken rice too much in my head, but in actuality, Vancouver does have some of the best food and I don’t take that for granted.

Maxwell Food Centre only has ceiling fans so it was very hot inside. We had a bottle of free water we got from the hotel, and I drank it all in a couple of minutes. We saw a bunch of fruit juice stalls and got fresh watermelon juice for $2 SGD = $1.90 CAD.

After brunch, we walked towards the water to see Singapore’s Merlion fountain. Singapore has some really interesting architecture which I really appreciated. Before coming to Singapore, I knew it was a city full ex-pats but I didn’t realize it was so multicultural on its own. I would prefer to live in Singapore than Hong Kong, mostly because the city is quite attractive, clean, not as crowded, and everyone speaks English. I know you can move to Hong Kong or most cities without fluently speaking their native tongue, but I also understand that living in Hong Kong without being able to speak much Cantonese is restricting if you can’t really communicate well with coworkers on a casual basis.

We took a bunch of pictures around Collyer Quay, which is where you’ll find a good view of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Merlion. The waterfront area was full of SE Asian tourists, mostly Thai. I think we got the most sun and truly experienced the Singaporean sun in those 15 minutes we were out. Any area with a bit of shade, there were people huddled together. For once, I saw the appeal of using an umbrella to block out the sun and I wished I had mine with me.

After we finished taking our pictures, we went to the Fullerton Hotel, which is across the street. It’s a beautiful looking hotel that used to be Singapore’s main post office. It felt so good to be in an air conditioned building. If you’re ever needing a reprieve from the Singapore sun, I highly recommend hanging out in the Fullerton Hotel’s lobby. They have free wifi and their washrooms are very nice.

After taking a break at the Fullerton, we walked down the street to another hawker’s market, Lau Pa Sat. This market is located in the middle of the downtown/financial core and is a popular lunch spot for office workers. We went to Lau Pa Sat at basically the worst possible time, 12:10pm. Lau Pa Sat is a nice looking market, but like Maxwell, there’s no AC. Since the sun had been scorching for a while now (34 degrees and humid), the the market was very warm. We did a few loops around the market to see what we were going to try. The main reason why I wanted to go to Lau Pa Sat was for their satays, but after we arrived I read that the satay stalls are only open at night (7pm and onwards) and are set up outside the market. I guess we’ll have to come back to Singapore another time.

Our meal at Lau Pa Sat was by far the sweatiest meal we’ve ever had. I don’t think I’ve sweat so much in my life while eating a meal. When I tried to put my elbows on the table, they would slip off because my arms were drenched. If we were to go back to Lau Pa Sat, I would try their Indian food, it looked really good.

After Lau Pa Sat, we headed towards Clarke Quay. There are shops in the area which we took our time to walk through (thanks to the strong AC). There are also a lot of bars and restaurants that aren’t open until dinner. Clarke Quay area seems like it would be more fun at night time, so during the day it wasn’t that interesting to walk around. You can take boat rides from Clarke Quay to Collyer Quay, where we were earlier.

Down the street from the Clark Quay area is a fun and colourful building. It used to be the Singapore Police Station and now it’s the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth. Inside the atrium area there’s a brief history run down of the building and police history in the city. Apparently Singapore used to be a crime ridden city back in the day.

We had about 3 hours until we planned on going to the airport. At this point in the afternoon, we were both feeling really tired from the heat and walking around with our day packs (old Macbook Pros are not light). We hung around the City Hall/Raffles area and took refuge in Raffles City Mall, which had a lot of internationally branded stores. We decided to hang out at the food hall to relax and sit for a bit before picking one of the stalls to eat from.

I was excited when we saw the choices we had for dinner because there was a “HK Style BBQ” stall. I told Tim I had been craving Cantonese BBQ for a while, so this was perfect. Unfortunately, this did not satisfy my cravings. While it was good, it wasn’t really the same. They poured a thick brown sauce on top of the meat and rice, which if I had known they did, I would have asked them to put it on the side. I think the sauce threw things off for me. Maybe I’ll find some good BBQ in Chinatowns in Australia.

At around 6pm, we made our way to the train station across the street (City Hall stop) and headed to Changi Airport. It was rush hour on a Friday afternoon, it was busy but it wasn’t too crowded. It’s hard to identify office workers in Singapore because they are dressed fairly casual here. I think because it’s so hot here, people just don’t care.

We were flying out of Terminal 3 at Changi, which is different from the terminal we arrived in. Terminal 3 was much nicer and is the largest terminal at the airport. This was the first airport we’ve been to that you go through customs before you clear security. Once we got through customs, we were in the shopping area (which is pretty good) and we realized we didn’t even go through security yet. At Changi, you go through security when you enter your gate area, right before boarding. It’s a different system and one that I don’t really get the logic behind. If you wanted to buy anything from duty free, you had to buy it at least 90 minutes before your flight because you couldn’t take it through security with you. Also, people are waiting around any way and usually once you go through security and customs, you just need to relax before your flight. The way it is at Changi, you still have one more thing to line up for and another stage to deter you from buying a bottled drink from a restaurant.

We boarded our flight to Melbourne and it left at 9:15pm. The flight was quite full and our seats weren’t the best. We were in the middle of the plane right in front of one of the washrooms. The only upside was that no one was behind us. I was surprised that the flight time was only 6 hours and 20 minutes (online I read it was 7 hours and 20 minutes). I slept for most of the flight and only woke up when it was time for breakfast.

Singapore Airlines is really good. I would recommend it if you have the chance. They’re part of Star Alliance and they don’t charge fees the way Air Canada does (on reward tickets). It’s too bad they pulled their Vancouver route a few years ago.

Steps today: 26,000

Taipei/Singapore (Day 66): Heading South

May 5, 2016

Our three nights in Taipei went by really quickly. We were flying out later in the afternoon and going to Singapore. We woke up pretty late and took our time packing up. Mom went to get us breakfast and made us some milk tea (which was really yummy). She had to go out for lunch with some old friends, so Tim and I were on our own.

Before we knew it, it was already 1pm! Originally we thought we’d go for beef noodle, but the places we had in mind weren’t that close to the apartment. We decided to go back to Tonghua Street to go for a quick lunch at Formosa Chang’s and grab bubble tea for later. We headed out without checking the weather, a jacket, or an umbrella (Tim: foreshadowing). While we were walking we felt a couple of heavy rain drops and knew it was going to be a huge down pour. We quickly got undercover and into Formosa Chang’s for lunch.

We walked really quickly back to the apartment to try to stay as dry as possible. Luckily we were both wearing clothes that would dry quickly since everything else was packed. We got back to the apartment and did the final pack up and waited for Mom to get back from lunch before heading down to meet Uncle Albert.

As mentioned in my last post, I’m a sentimental person so it was sad leaving Taipei. It has become the closest place we had to a home this trip. We have had a lot of good memories here with family and friends, so when we said bye, I obviously cried (but tried to hide it as best as possible…). Tim is touched that I showed so much emotion to his Motherland.

The drive out to Taoyuan Airport is around an hour from the city. It’s extremely kind of Uncle Albert to drive us back and forth from the airport so many times this trip. They are building an airport train line out from Taipei Main Station to the airport, but it’s completion has been delayed quite a bit. Hopefully the next time we visit it will be done.

We were flying Singapore Airlines (both for the first time) and we left out of Terminal 2 of the International Terminal. This was the first time we have been to this terminal and it’s really nice. They had a good selection of luxury brands, Taiwanese souvenirs, and duty free shops. Comparing the prices of Longchamps back at Taoyuan and Incheon, they are about the same. If the USD was stronger (like it was a few months back), than Taoyuan would be cheaper since their prices are in NT.

I was looking forward to flying with Singapore Airlines since I’ve always heard good things about it and it’s consistently ranked one of the best airlines in the world. After my first flight with them, I would have to agree, it’s probably the best airline I’ve flown. The flight attendants were all very friendly (and pretty), they gave you a hot towel when you sat down to wipe your hands/face (and we were in economy), they came around with drinks (great drink selection) more than 5 times on a 4 hour flight and their meals were good (you get Haagen Daaz ice cream).

The movie selection was also great – they had over 150 movies (those are just the Hollywood movies) to watch, including some really recent releases. I ended up watching “The Intern” with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro (I liked it!), 3 episodes of the “New Girl”, and Anthony Bourdain in Tanzania. There was no turbulence on this flight so it was more enjoyable than the flight a few days ago.

We finally landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport after what felt like a long flight. It was 10:20pm when we landed, we went through customs and headed for the SMRT to get us into the city. We packed an overnight day pack so we didn’t have to pick up our backpacks (they’re going straight to Melbourne) (Tim: fingers crossed).

We booked a hotel near the Chinatown SMRT stop through Expedia. It was $139 CAD a night and is in a relatively good location – about an 8 minute walk to a couple of the hawker food markets I wanted to go to. After a couple of transfers, it took us about 35 minutes to get to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel just before midnight. We checked in, washed up and relaxed. The hotel room is quite nice – clean, rainfall shower head, and a large bed.

Tomorrow we’ll have until about 7pm until we have to go back to Changi for our flight to Melbourne at 9:30pm.

Steps today: 8,000

Taipei (Day 65): Comfort Food

May 4, 2016

We spent a good chunk of the morning organizing our backpacks and giving items for Mom to bring back home for us. What a load off! My luggage feels like it’s 10 pounds lighter (Tim: probably because it is 10 pounds lighter). I caught up on my blog entries while Tim went to Yong He (our regular breakfast place) to get breakfast for everyone.

We didn’t end up leaving the apartment until just before 2pm. It was nice to be able to just hang around and fully relax and not feel like we had to see something or go somewhere. We didn’t have anything on our agenda since Mom was busy with her own plans. Since we’ve been in Taipei with her, she’s been non-stop busy meeting up with people who want to see her. The one thing that I wanted to have before leaving Taipei was bubble tea (a few times) and the gua bao (pork belly hamburger) we had in March.

Tim and I walked to Gongguan and cut diagonally through the National Taiwan University (NTU) campus along the way. It’s very hot here, about 32 degrees celsius with humidity. My back was sweaty the entire day since I was wearing a backpack and a cotton dress (it wasn’t pleasant). This is preparing us for hot weather to come during our SE Asia part of our trip in June.The pearl milk drink and the gua bao stand in Gongguan was highly recommended to us by Tim’s cousin, Karen. Unfortunately, when my sister and Noel were in town, we didn’t hear about it until the day they were closed. We’ll have to come back with them another time. I feel bad, the gua bao was on my sister’s top eats for Taiwan.

When we arrived in Gongguan, the pearl milk stand had a line up but surprisingly, the gua bao stand didn’t have a line up (Tim: maybe because it was not really lunch time). The pearl milk line wasn’t too long but by the time we got to the front of the line up (5-10 minutes) the line up had curled around 3 times! We just beat the crowd of students. We took our lunch to the NTU entrance benches and sat and enjoyed our cheap and delicious lunch. As I was eating the gua bao and biting into the best pearls I’ve ever had (super soft, warm and chewy), I kept thinking, “this is amazing”. I’m really savouring the good and cheap food in Taiwan because I know when we get to Australia, everything is going to be more the double the price and probably not as delicious.

After we finished our lunch, we decided to walk to the Roots Canada Lodge store and an Eslite Bookstore. We had noticed that Taiwanese people love Roots clothing when we first arrived in March. Even when we were in Korea and Japan, when we saw people with “Roots Canada” t-shirts, we knew they weren’t Canadian, they were Taiwanese. Coincidentally, Mom brought a brochure back from Roots back home that says “Roots loves Taiwan”. There’s a campaign by Roots Canada and Tourism Taiwan that shows pictures around Taipei as well as suggestions on where to go (it’s a pretty nice pamphlet). The store on Robson just had a grand re-opening on May 3rd and Mom was asked to look for Taiwanese dancers for their event. Pretty cool!

Any how, we were both interested in going to a Roots store in Taipei and the one we saw the other day while in the car had a Roots Canada Lodge restaurant. They served Canadian food – like Nanaimo bars, bacon cheeseburgers and poutine. We went into the store to see if they had any t-shirts that said Taipei on it because one time we saw someone who had one on. Tim asked the sales associate and she said those t-shirts only come out once a year and it’s usually in September. Roots clothing isn’t cheap and it’s definitely not cheap in Taiwan. A plain zip up hoodie is around $140 CAD (almost double what it would be back home).

We then made our way across the street to Eslite (the 24 hour bookstore). We hadn’t been to this location before, only the one near Taipei 101. Tim was looking for the Marie Kondo book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” in Chinese. He has been recommending this book to a lot of people and wants his parents to read it as well. I haven’t finished it yet, and I’m recommending it to others (Tim’s not happy that I haven’t finished reading it since it’s so short). We wandered around Eslite and browsed around at all the floors – besides books they have a lot of neat shops to look at.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at a CoCo bubble tea and ordered a passion fruit tea. This was one of our favourite drinks here as it’s super refreshing. With the heat, I wouldn’t have minded if it were all slushy. I know they opened a CoCo in Vancouver and I probably won’t go there this summer since it’s going to cost 4 x the price for what we had and I would have had enough bubble tea in the past 3 months to last a year.

We came back to the apartment to rest up and cool off before dinner. Tim and I had been going to a hot pot place a lot in March and we had a stamp card that only needed one more meal before we got one free (yes, we went that much). Hot pot isn’t something you crave during hot humid weather, but since they blast the AC so high in Asia, it’s always perfect.

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, the waitress recognized us. For the most part, the restaurant isn’t a tourist destination or even on most people’s radar (we couldn’t find any information on it in English at all). I guess she hadn’t see us in a month so when she saw us she asked us where we’re from etc. It’s basically Tim answering for both of us explaining that he’s Taiwanese and his parents were born here and then they look at me and ask what I am. Then he says, her family is from “Tai San” then they say, “you should teach her some Mandarin” and we all smile and laugh.

We ordered two types of beef as usual and enjoyed our last meal there. We both put a lot of fresh garlic in our sauce, so now today we both have severe garlic breath. When we were done, Tim showed her our stamp card and she said usually you are supposed to use the free one during your next visit (which is what Mom told us would probably happen) but Tim said this is our last day in Taiwan so she let us have the free one. Our meal was 270 NT = $10.71 CAD for the both of us.

After dinner, we walked back towards the apartment and went to the Linjiang Tonghua Night Market (this is like our neighbourhood market since it’s so close). I wanted to buy some more dried guava for my family, fresh cut guava (for me to eat tomorrow), and a phone case (since mine was in horrible and dirty shape). We didn’t eat any food at the night market since we just had dinner. I bought a new phone case, which wasn’t that cheap but cheaper than home ($9 CAD). I know how cheap these phone cases could be, so anything sold in Taiwan isn’t cheap compared to China. My former co-worker asked me if I wanted phone cases before she went to China one year and I said I wanted one that you could put cards in. She told me it’s buy 1 get 9 free and showed me the Chinese website. I said I only wanted one and she’s like, it’s okay you can have them in 9 colours. So when she came back she gave me a box with 10 cases in it, and they’re the exact same ones in the night markets here.

We headed back to the apartment and packed up and went through all the items Mom is bringing back for us. It’s such a big help that she’s here to bring a lot of things home for us. I have a bunch of clothes that I didn’t end up wearing much and I know won’t be good for Australia and SE Asia. You really don’t need much clothing while traveling (Tim: which is pretty common advice, yet lots of people don’t adhere to) and especially in the humid heat, Lululemon or any dri-fit type of items are the best.

I’m a pretty sentimental person so whenever it’s the last day or last of anything, I do get a bit sad and reminiscent of all the good memories. During our time in Taipei, we became very familiar with the Daan area. Even as someone who isn’t great with directions, I got to know Daan very well. I’m happy that we got to see so many people while we were here and were able to spend 2 weeks with my sister, Noel, and Nate. Even passing by the apartment we stayed at or going around to sites we visited together, I think about them.

Steps today: 24,000

Taipei (Day 64): IMAX, Thai Food and Tea

May 3, 2016

We had an another early morning today… not because of a flight, but because Tim wanted to watch “Captain America: Civil War”. The movie was released last week in Asia and will be out in North America on Friday. Tim wanted to watch it at Miramar (which is about 5 stops away on the brown line from us), which has the largest IMAX screen in Taiwan (I think at one point it was the largest in Asia). We woke up around 7:45am, got ready and headed out.

We got to Miramar Entertainment Park at 9:15am, bought our tickets for the IMAX 3D (480 NT = $18.89 CAD), and looked for breakfast. The mall was closed so we went to Carrefour, which was across the street. We grabbed some Asian buns and a carton of guava juice and headed to the theatre. We arrived just in time for the previews, it’s nice to have reserved seating in Asia. We both enjoyed the movie, that’s all I’ll say (don’t want to spoil anything). (Tim: The IMAX theatre used the latest IMAX with Laser projection technology, and all I can say is it was frickin’ phenomenal. Head and shoulders the best digital projection system I’ve experienced and the 3D was particularly good.)

After the movie, we rushed back to the apartment to meet Tim’s Mom and family friends for lunch. Tim’s family friend picked us up from the apartment and drove us to a Thai restaurant in the area. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by his wife who was already at the restaurant waiting for us. She brought us into the restaurant and there was a beautiful spread of food already waiting. Tim and I both really like Thai food, so this was a definite treat. Tim and his family spent a lot of time with this couple while living here in 1994 and they also spent a good amount of time in BC, so it was a very happy reunion.

After a very delicious lunch (I think it was one of my favourite Thai meals), they took us to their friend’s store on Yong Kang Street. Their friend, who is also an artist, runs a store called, Chang-Yi-Fang Taiwan Puppet Creations. Their friend makes an assortment of merchandise with classic Taiwanese fabrics and prints and her husband makes costumes for puppet theatre. They were very generous and kind and told us to pick something for our wedding as well as something to bring to Tim’s sister and husband in Australia. Tim chose a canvas messenger bag and I got a canvas tote. Hopefully we will see them soon in Vancouver if they visit or when we come back to Taiwan. They offered to take us around Taiwan when we’re back!

Uncle Albert met us outside the store and was there to pick us up to go to a teahouse for a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony. In about 30 minutes, we were out of the city centre and going up the lush green mountains north of Taipei. We stopped by Xin Mt. Meng Lake in the mountains and took some pictures.

After about an 8 minute drive, we made it to Shi-Yang Tea House. The tea house is beautiful and has a Zen feel to it. We were also meeting two of Mom’s friends for tea and dinner. One of them lives in Taipei and the other is visiting from Vancouver. Shi-Yang is located in the mountains and surrounded by a forest. We were welcomed and brought to a meditation room to mediate and relax before the tea ceremony. After about 10 minutes of meditation, we were lead to another room and began the tea service. The tea master served two types of tea, brewing each about 4-5 times so we could taste the difference. He was very methodical while pouring each cup of tea, it was very calming. He was very careful in feeling the temperature of the water and making sure it was the right temperature each time to pour on the tea leaves. He said that after you finish brewing the tea, the leaves should be intact and not broken. If they are broken, then that means the water was too hot, and the tea would probably be bitter. Tim and I looked at each other and were reminded of our wedding tea ceremony. The nice tea was very bitter, probably because we just poured boiling water on it.

After about an hour, we were lead down to the restaurant for dinner. For dinner we were treated to an amazing tasting menu. Everything was wonderfully prepared and presented beautifully. Tim’s Mom treated us all to such a wonderful afternoon here, it was very relaxing. I never knew Taipei had tea houses like this so I’m really happy we got to experience one with her during this trip.

It was a pretty long day for us, so we were ready to get ready for bed and sleep as soon as we got back to the apartment.

Steps today: 9,000

Spending Summary: Japan

In what feels like ages ago even though it was only a little over a month, Kaitlyn and I spent 28 days in Japan. After spending time in Taiwan and Korea, we were expecting to spend more in Japan. As with the other spending summary posts, hopefully this can help you get an estimate of how much you might spend in Japan on your own travels. Let’s see how things worked out.

Over the course of 28 days (and 27 nights), we spent a total of $5,712.93, which works out to be $204/day. As with the other spending summary posts, all dollar amounts are in Canadian Dollars. This was more than we spent in Korea, and around double the cost of our travels in Taiwan. Here’s the breakdown:

Accommodations: $1,535.83
Food: $1,729.50
Transportation: 1,969.13
Activities: $470.47
Souvenirs: $7.99

And here’s how things compared with Taiwan and Korea.

Accommodations

We stayed at a variety of places in Japan, but they were all pretty “conventional” when you take into consideration some of the quirkier places you could spend a night in Japan. Of the 27 nights we spent in Japan, 7 of those nights were complimentary thanks to my great-aunt “hosting” us in Osaka. The remaining nights were spent in various hotels and an AirBnB in Tokyo. Looking only at the accommodations we paid for, our average cost per night in Japan was $76.79. This was actually less than I expected it to be, but a lot of that has to do with finding a very reasonably priced AirBnB in Tokyo, which is the most expensive city in Japan. Overall, I was quite happy with the final cost as we still kept things below what our rent would be in Vancouver (~$60/night).

Food

Food prices vary widely in Japan, but nothing ever feels unreasonably priced. You get what you pay for in Japan, and that price range can be big. However, especially when you take into consideration the prices, it’s hard to have a bad meal in Japan. Even the cheapest eats are likely to leave you satisfied and pleased with its quality.

The cost of food was quite close to Korea, with Kait and I spending $61.77/day. The higher spending in Japan can be attributed to more “splurge meals” than we had in Korea. The food in Japan was more in line with our tastes, so we found more opportunities to go for an more expensive meals (i.e. $20+/person lunches or $50+/person dinners). I would say anywhere from $20-40 / person / day is a very reasonable budget estimate for food in Japan.

Transportation

Transportation was where the biggest increase in spending was compared to Taiwan and Korea. Moving from city to city in Japan can be expensive, and while not unreasonable, transportation within cities can also quickly add up.

The bulk of our transportation costs came from just 2 things: domestic flights and trains. Both of these modes of transportation can be expensive, but there are many options to reduce your costs if you do your research. For trains, Kait and I purchased 14 day JR Rail Passes which cost $558 each. Rail passes can be good value, but you need to compare the cost of a rail pass with your planned itinerary to make sure you’re saving money with the rail pass. Also, don’t feel limited to JR Rail Passes. There are other (less expensive) options out there, especially if you’re only planning to travel around a certain area, and not all over Japan. For flights, we booked 2 domestic flights where each flight segment cost $130. Both JAL and ANA have promotional flight pricing at around 10,000JPY / segment for foreign travellers with international tickets in and out of Japan. This makes air travel very competitive with train travel as long as the places you’re travelling to are covered by direct flights from either airline.

Other than those two major transportation expenditures, all the remaining spending mostly came from travel within cities on subways, and the occasional bus our train rides. Budgeting $10-$20/day/person for transportation within cities in Japan would be a good place to start, moving up and down the range depending on how much you want to walk, and how often you opt for taxis instead of taking transit.

Activities

Activity spending is really dependent on the traveller with regards to how much you need to budget. Kait and I spent an average of $16.80/day on activities, but in reality, we didn’t even spend money on “activities” for most of the days (17 out of 28 days to be exact). Most days Kait and I are happy to just walk around a city, which is free. Here are some spending highlights:

Most Expensive: $183.66 for the Tokyo DisneySea
Most fun bang for your buck: $24 baseball tickets
Best Japanese Experience: $27.12 Onsen admission
Most recommended: $7.20 Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum

So, that’s it for the Japanese Spending Summary. Next up on our travel itinerary is Australia and New Zealand. I’m expecting these two countries to be the most expensive, but we’ll see how they stack up compared to Japan.

(Originally Published June 7, 2016)

Sapporo/Incheon/Taipei (Day 63): 3 Countries in 12 hours

May 2, 2016

This morning we woke up early to catch our flight to Seoul-Incheon en route to Taipei. Our flight time on our e-ticket said 8:55am so we woke up at 6am and left the hotel around 6:45am. We took the JR train to Chitose Airport, which took about 40 minutes (we also had to wait 15 minutes for the train). Luckily, Tim checked the flight time while we were at the train station and it showed that the flight time actually changed to 9:40am. I guess we didn’t get a flight time change notification. Any how, that actually worked out a lot better for us because by the time we arrived at our check in counter, it was already 7:50am.

Chitose International Terminal is about a 8-10 minute walk from the JR train (it’s a lot closer for the Domestic Terminal). The international flights that leave Sapporo are only to a few cities – 5 to Taipei, 4 to Seoul, 3 to Bangkok and 1 to Kuala Lumpur on a daily basis. One thing that I’ve noticed in Sapporo that I didn’t see anywhere else in Japan was that tourist signs always include Russian. We’re pretty far north and this is probably the closest I’ve ever been to Russia.

The International Terminal at Chitose has a few duty free stores. The store with food souvenirs was a bit of a gong show. There were a few Thai flights leaving so people were stocking up (I think I’ll be the same in July). A LeTAO representative was there dishing out huge spoon fulls of their cheesecake. (Yum!).

We were flying Korean Air so we had a 3 hour layover in Incheon before flying to Taipei at 4pm. Incheon iss a really good airport to have a layover in, so I don’t mind being there for 3 hours. There are a lot of stores, restaurants, and their Wi-Fi is extremely fast.

Our flight to Seoul from Sapporo was only half full (if even), so we got a row to ourselves. There are some really nice views of the mountains as you leave Sapporo. Tim likes to take aerial shots from the plane while we’re flying. The food on Korean Air has been very good. We both had a chicken dish and it had a shrimp salad and a plate of assorted fruits. (I didn’t take a picture of the meal).

When we arrived at Incheon, we walked around for a bit and browsed some of the duty free stores. If you like Longchamps bags (Tim: and who doesn’t?), Incheon’s Longchamps store is about about 25%-30% cheaper than at home or online. I can’t say the same for the other luxury brands, since those are the only bags I looked at in detail. Also, if you want to buy face masks while in Seoul, you can buy packs of 50 of them at the cosmetic stores for slightly cheaper than what you would pay in the stores in Seoul (they have Nature Republic, Tony Moly, Innisfree, and the Face Shop). Another interesting thing to note is that Incheon retail store prices are all in USD and are charged in USD, which doesn’t really make sense to me. But all the food and restaurant prices are in Korean Won. I don’t get it.

Tim and I didn’t eat anything at the airport since we got meals on both the flights on Korean Air. While walking around the airport, I was reminded why I wasn’t a big fan of Korean food and/or snacks. There was definitely not as big of a draw to buy any snacks and treats like there is in Japan (unless you want to buy Red Ginseng). I just bought a Chilsing Cider (which is their version of 7up) to tie us over until our flight.

Our flight to Taipei was a full flight and it was a fairly large plane (777). Apparently there was a long weekend for Labour Day in Taiwan this weekend, so that’s why so many people were traveling. The flight was one of the scariest flights I’ve been on to date. There was a lot of turbulence that made the plane go up and down a lot. I’m “okay” with turbulence when it just shifts the plane side to side but when it starts to dip up and down, that’s when I start to freak out. The flight attendants had to sit down quite a few times during the flight because the turbulence was so bad. When I’m scared on flights, I grab Tim’s hand and squeeze it pretty tight. He’s really calm when there’s turbulence. He told me after we landed that I looked like I was going to cry. To be honest, I did have that urge to start crying (which has never happened before on a plane). Other than the turbulence, I watched the Steve Jobs movie (which was pretty good) and the meal they served was also quite good (I had Korean beef bulgogi).

We landed at Taoyuan Airport about 15 minutes late and as soon as we got off the plane, we felt a sudden wall of humidity. Apparently it was 37 degrees Celsius today, a stark difference from our 5 degrees temperatures in Sapporo. A bunch of flights from Japan landed at the same time and we were caught behind the crowds and had to wait at customs for about 35 minutes. We finally got through and got our bags, which were very lonely on the baggage carousel by the time we got downstairs. Uncle Albert came to pick us up and we dropped off our bags and headed straight for dinner with Tim’s Mom, and Tim’s Dua-yi Diu (whose apartment we are staying at).

We went to G-Woo, a restaurant close by to the apartment and one that we had gone to in March with Tim’s other relatives. They are known for their chicken soup, but since we got there fairly late, around 8pm, they said they were sold out. Everything Tim’s Mom and Uncle ordered was really good. I didn’t realize how much I missed the taste of Taiwanese/Chinese style food.

Before leaving Japan, we found out that some good friends were in Taipei visiting from Toronto and we would have a 12 hour overlap with them here. Unfortunately they were leaving tomorrow morning at 6am for Hong Kong so the only time we could meet was tonight. We planned on meeting at Ice Monster (shaved ice restaurant) after dinner. We don’t get to see them very often since they live in Toronto so we were both really happy to see them here. We shared two shaved ice and chatted for a couple of hours before saying bye. It felt like we were at home. They had to be up in a few hours to go to the airport and we were pretty beat from our long day of travel.

We walked back to the apartment, washed up and crashed. Tomorrow we planned on watching Captain America Civil War (which came out in Asia last week, and doesn’t come out in North America until Friday) at 9:30am. Tim has been waiting to come back to Taipei to watch it, since most movies here aren’t dubbed like in Japan.

It feels nice to be back in Taipei. It feels like our second home since we’re most familiar with it and there is family here. We only have 3 nights before heading off again. I kind of wish we had a bit more time here before leaving. Tim’s Mom is here visiting, so it’s nice to be able to see Taipei with her and meet more family friends.

Steps today: 13,000