The Phoenician in Scottsdale
Posted November 18th, 2007 in TravelThe Phoenician is part of Starwood’s luxury collection, but before you think we spent a fortune on the hotel, we booked it through their cash and points rewards program. By giving up some points, we only paid $90 a night, a great bargain considering their rooms start at $375 per night… Lucky for us, they even upgraded our room - a huge room with a balcony and a view of the golf course.
Check out the beautiful Arizona sunset at the bottom!
This was an incredibly rich chocolate mousse cake, one of the best I’ve ever had!
In spirit of Thanksgiving, they baked a turkey from dough!
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Shangri-La in Beijing
Posted November 13th, 2007 in TravelThis was another amazingly beautiful hotel. The decor was modern and ornate. The only inconvenience was the distance to the center of the city. The hotel was located near 3rd-ring of the city, and on a typically morning, it could easily take up to an hour to get to the center of the city (4 to 5 miles away). Granted the US dollar had been weak, the hotel was only around US$100 per night. There are still many parts of Asia where the US dollar can go a long way…
This was hung on the wall in my room - a “Ru-Yi”. It was intricately carved, supposedly used to scratch one’s back in the old days. =)
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FOOD!!! Always a new experience in Chinese cuisine
Posted November 13th, 2007 in Food, TravelI’ve had my fair share of Chinese food, but every time I visit parts of China, I am always amazed just how much variation there is. One thing I like to do whenever I ask the concierge for suggestions is to ask them where they would personally go to eat, not where they typically send the “foreigners”. I’ve gotten some great suggestions throughout the years, really getting a chance to sample what locals eat. In this case, I wanted to try some traditional Beijing cookings.
This was a traditional dish with intestines, liver, and lung. The flavor was intense with lots of spices.
Traditional noodle with (zha-jiang) sauce - only 9 yuan, or little over US$1.
This was actually eggplant - all mashed up. A cold appetizers.
This was stewed pork - the pork was so tender and juicy. Surprisingly, the garlic was surprisingly edible - didn’t have the typical sting of fresh garlic.
This was funny - the written title on this guy’s towel roughly translates to “waiter” in very traditional Chinese, a word found only in those shows depicting old days of China (think Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)…
Finally, I do have my limits when it comes to trying new things - look what I found on the street…
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Reflexology - or better known as foot massages!
Posted November 12th, 2007 in TravelI was introduced to this art a few years ago when a friend insisted I give it a try when I was in Beijing (and it’s popping up in the spas across US as a new service). Traditional Chinese medicine explains that there are many reflection points at the bottom of our feet connected to the various organ in our bodies. By massaging the right points, it could help alleviate (not cure) some of the these problems. They were quite accurate in diagnosing some of the problems I have: lack of sleep, bad shoulders, poor digestive tracks, etc. I have to say I slept really well all those nights after the massage. It was very inexpensive, compared to the US standards - 138 yuan (little less than US$20) for 90 minutes. They first soaked my feet in a pot of black medicine-infused water for about 15 minutes. During this time, they massaged my hand and back. Then, they washed my feet and got to work… the process lasted about 60 minutes. Finally, they massaged the rest of my leg, washed my feet with soap, and put my socks and shoes back. Great service for so little money… I highly recommend it! I did it 3 of the 4 nights while we were in Beijing.
I talked to them and got to understand their situations. Most of the massage therapists were from the countryside looking to make a better living in the cities. Most would save their money to send their families back home, others would save the money to open a shop of their own someday. They were trained for 6 months. They normally work 12 hours a day, massaging about 3 to 4 clients (each session being 90 minutes). The meals and housing (a big room with bunk beds, 10 to a room) are paid for by management, and they make about 20 or 30 yuan (US$3 to US$4) per customer. On average, they could make about 1500 (US$200) yuan to 2000 (US$300) yuan per month, and they would get one day off per week. By the standards in the US, that seemed like terrible working conditions. However, many were actually quite happy doing this - compared to factory workers, this was far better working condition - air-conditioned rooms, flexible schedule, plenty of time to rest when there were no customers.
FYI, with regard to tipping - they are technically not allowed to accept tips as a policy. However, if you slip it to them while the management is not watching, it’s okay.
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Beijing - The Forbidden City
Posted November 10th, 2007 in TravelHere’s another first for me. I’ve been to Beijing a few times in the past, and I visited the Great Wall of China and the tombs of various past emperors. I also had a chance to walk around the Tienanmen Square, but never did I have the chance to see the inside of Forbidden City.
The palace was definitely impressive - to think it was meant to service one person and one person only. Also, the traditional architecture was amazingly intricate. Being Chinese and having seen this types of architecture all my life, it was very impressive to see everything in such grand scale.
Check out this big “Pot” - a common item throughout the entire palace. I originally thought it was for drinking water so the servants didn’t have to travel far to fetch water, but turned out the these pots were used to hold water for a different purpose. The water was meant for putting out fires since these buildings were mostly built of wood. In the middle of winter, servants had to continuously burn wood under them to keep the water from freezing. Something else I learned, the grounds were fortified with layers and layers of stones - this was to prevent people from digging tunnels into the palace. Amazing, isn’t it?
So, what happens when you ride the bus in Beijing and suddenly the bus breaks down? We were not riding the bus, but we did see this exact situation. We heard the ticket-collecting lady tell people to get out of the bus and help push it to the side of the road. She yelled at a few teenagers as they were about the run away without doing their part to help. Isn’t it hilarious?
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Walking around downtown Seoul
Posted November 9th, 2007 in TravelI got a chance to walk around the downtown area a bit after dinner last night. I needed the walk to digest some of that yummy Chinese banquet meal we had.
One thing I noticed right away was the number of “gates” there were right in the streets. These were left over ancient architecture from the days when the cities were fortified with barriers and walls. It was such a sharp contrast seeing them today against the backdrop of modern buildings and nonstop traffic.
I walked over to the Insadonggil where there was a night market. It’s filled with your typical gift shops as well as little food stands. Everything looked so yummy, but I was too full to try anything… After taking the picture below, I got yelled at by the store owner - I was standing on a stool, and once I got off, he yelled at me and asked I wipe it down (I think that’s what he was gesturing…) I smiled, apologized, and wiped it down for him.
I walked past many of these “palm reading” stalls, and they were surprisingly popular. In most of the stalls I passed by, they were filled with people. I guess people here really like to know what’s in their future.
Then I reached an artificial river, and the first thing it reminded me of was the river that winds through Chicago. Like that river in Chicago, they built sidewalks below the street level right next to the river bed. There were lots of people strolling around and seemingly having a great time.
Here’s the source of the artificial river. Water bubbles up from the ground, and with the right lighting under it, it’s quite impressive looking. Look at the next picture - there were just way too many people with tripods and SLRs! I really wonder if there was a photography class going on, or were they just normal people passionate about photography. Through out the walk, I saw lots of people setting up their tripods and SLR trying to take pictures of the night scenes…
Before I got back to the hotel, there was an exhibit of artistic chairs/benches on the lawns in front of the old city hall. At a first glance, this seemed like a normal plastic bench - modern and futuristic. But look at the corners, isn’t it cute?
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Petronas Towers at night - so damn bright!
Posted November 6th, 2007 in TravelOkay, I am pretty sure you can see the towers from 10’s of miles away because of the amount of light they shine on it… see for yourself!
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Petronas Twin Towers!!
Posted November 4th, 2007 in TravelThis is actually my 2nd time in Kuala Lumpur, and I was so disappointed the first time I came through KL without doing any sightseeing - literally I was in the city for less than 36 hours. I remember I could see Petronas Towers from the hotel window last time, but didn’t have a chance to drive by…
NOT THE CASE THIS TIME! Quite literally the Mandarin Oriental Hotel is right next door to the Petronas Towers, and I spent a good chunk of time today wandering around the mall in the lower floors of the towers. I got a chance to walk on the skybridge, too! Yes, you all probably recall that movie “Entrapment” with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones and they were hanging off the skybridge. Thankfully I got to cross the bridge on the inside! For your information, tour of skybridge is free, but you need to get in line for a ticket early in the morning. Since I was up and about at 5:00AM thanks to jet lag, I had no problem getting to the counters at 8:30 to wait for a ticket.
Granted it’s no longer the tallest buildings in the world, it is nevertheless impressive.
Check out this backdrop! There’s a beautifully cared for park right next to the Petronas towers (with a jogging trail which I ran around 5 laps this morning! Each lap is 0.8 miles), and the building you see in the foreground to the left is Mandarin Oriental. Just insert the couple, and it’s a beautiful backdrop for any engagement or bridal portrait!
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