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Bitter and sweet (and freezing) Toronto
Post Date : 2017-12-20
Toronto, Canada
Mar. 1 - 5, 2017
The decision to redirect my initially-approved trip from Sri Lanka for the Typography Day 2017 conference to Toronto, Canada for the 11th International Conference on Design Principles & Practices was solely for two reasons: the unwillingness to fly 36 hours each way to the University of Moratuwa in Colombo and secondly because of a higher possibility of getting published with latter. As a continuation of my North American Chinatown restaurant signage research from last year, Toronto has been on my list of cities to visit as part of data collection. Besides, it would be my first trip to this Canadian city. More importantly, there were two unresolved cases which had been on a stalemate. Considering that my accepted paper had dragged on for almost 2 years, it was time to get to the bottom of things. It was perplexing that while the online system for registration was efficient in accepting my payment, it ineptly assigned me as a virtual presenter, a fact that I only found out much later, much to my chagrin. I had registered for the conference by December 30, 2016, but every time I logged in to check for progress, their system would indicate that there was no paper submitted. Three more attempts were resubmitted my paper were made on 1/9/2017, 2/12/2017, and finally 2/21/2017. Unfortunately, when I only found out the problem two weeks before the conference, the only correction they could make was an online list.
As a result, during the conference, only one person attended the presentation towards the end as my presentation was not listed in the conference program booklet which almost all attendees would refer to while trying to find the rooms, ill-marked at the venue (the Institute Without Boundaries at George Brown College). A little 8.5" x 11" print-out posted to a circular pillar didn't seem to do a good job to rectify the situation. It was my wish to collect feedback about my research paper and thanks to the snafu, I was in a room with two other presenters who just wanted to get our presentation over and done with. Needless to say, I was academically and royally pissed. The paper I wanted to present at the conference was a continuation of my research from Rio, Brazil. With the completion of another round of research to be conducted in Western Europe this year, I was looking forward to publishing a book with the organizer but the recent experiences made me rethink my decision. Upon returning to the States, I wrote to Dr. Philip Kalantzis-Cope, the chief social scientist of Common Ground Research Networks, who handed me his business card during the conference and responded to my email dated March 9. He kindly offered his apologies and complimentary registration to one or a number of future conferences. He also quickly resolved the publication issue to my satisfaction. As for the snafu, he offered complimentary registration for the next or a number of conferences. I was tempted to ask for three but was afraid to relive the experience again. Adding kerosene to the fire was an email from my colleague who selfishly asked my Graphic Design division to financially contribute the amount $1575.11 to upgrade a departmental purchase for a large format printer. Justified that she was only offering me the option to upgrade and not asking my division to pay, I thought she had pulled a Kellyanne Conway on me, you know, saying things without saying them in a befuddling way. If it was for a departmental upgrade, why wasn't everyone else included in the email, other than printmaking and the coordinator of Fine Arts? This is clearly an extortion and bully. When I declined, she accused me of being divisive. Unbelievable!
On a more positive note, in running into two acquaintances from the Indian Institute of Design of Mumbai, Purba and Mander, together with Magnus from Arizona State University, we talked about collaborating on a packaging design assignment because it seemed that most conference attendees never really collaborate, let alone keeping in touch. As I was slated to present on the first day, I was able to effectively fuse my other task into the trip, being most importantly, to document restaurant signage in Toronto's Chinatown. The city of Toronto, much like any North American city, offers good transportation and alternatives such as Uber. With roaming service turned on prior to the trip, I was being charged $2 per day for data per day. The access to the internet was so helpful to find me drivers within seconds. The service was really affordable, swift and efficient. However, the weather was a different story. Living in the mid-west after relocating from Singapore since the fall of 2015, -8 degree Celsius minus the wind chill factor was too much to bear. It was so cold and piercingly painful that I had to buy a pair of gloves, just to feel my 10 fingers again. I had sumptuous dim sums, shopped for souvenirs and in general, had a great time. Although the trip was marred by the organizer, the hand-pulled noodle at Super Noodle Express on Spadina Avenue was delicious and when the cocktail buns from one of those Chinese delis melted away in my mouth, my stomach was thanking me and my thighs were also grateful, after I wore a pair of new long johns to keep them warm.
My travels so far as documented on Trip Advisor
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days - Italy, Vatican City, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, and France
Post Date : 2019-03-12
With a year in the planning starting with an application for the summer faculty research grant from Indiana University Southeast, the ambitious travel plan for the summer of 2017 was the last leg in my research pursuit to complete the global Chinatown restaurant signage. Hopefully this plan could produce two or three journals and possibly a book towards the end. Financially facilitated by the university, the last five Chinatowns in Europe would be sampled from Italy's Milan, the Netherland's Amsterdam, Belgium's Antwerp, France's Paris, and finally U.K.'s London. Due to the recent scare of terrorism in England, I had to rely on my ex-colleague, Sean Chaidaroon, who was in his final year teaching as a senior lecturer at the Westminster Business School, University of Westminster to help out. Within 41 days, I had covered 16 cities in eight countries. After attending the commencement (graduation) ceremony on May 5, 2017, I left the next day to fly to San Francisco, CA from Louisville, KY. Joining me was Scott Higginson, partner of longtime friend, Tony Wong. Unfortunately, before we left, I had received news on May 15th that my cousin, Leng-Ngar, had died from a work-related accident where he fell to his death. He was the eldest nephew from my maternal side. My brother had posted a video shot from the memorial hall and it broke my heart to see mom sobbing endlessly as she had cared for her nephew when he was little.
Rome, Italy
May 16 - 20, 2017
With the pre-TSA, there was no need to remove our shoes, jackets, and things out of the luggage. Once we were buckled into our seat, Scott pulled out his wallet where he had Euro10,000 cash and he handed Euro2,000s to me since I had not had a chance to exchange money. As much I had flown, it had always been economy class. It was really hard trying to get any shuteye at all as I used the backpack to prep up the seat to turn it into a vertical bed, sort of. It is my first visit to Rome and we had to figure out how to get to the hotel. Without data or a physical map, it was difficult to travel. The hotel room wasn't ready so after dropping off our luggage, without any shuteye, we plowed through the different attractions and our first stop was the Santa Maria Maggiore followed by San Pietro in Vincoli, a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica best known for the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses. Our next stop was at the Colosseum before returning to the hotel. With limited pieces of clothing, I had to rely on daily handwashing my T-shirt. I had also purchased three underpants from Uniqlo where the Airism had been working wonders as they dry really fast in the hot summer of Europe.
While I had read that tourists had to watch out for pickpockets, I never had thought that a male waiter at Antico Caffe Vitti where the Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucina was located tried cheat me 10 out of a 42-Euro dinner and when I asked him about it, he tried to lie that he was giving changes to many tables. As we walked around the area where the Spanish steps, a wide gathering place consisting of 138 steps placed in a mix of curves, straight flights, vistas and terraces connecting the lower Piazza di Spagna with the upper piazza Trinita dei Monti with a beautiful twin tower, Scott was being approached by Indian guys who tried to sell him something. Scott was being considerate by entertaining them. Because he hadn't heeded my advice to just walk away and completely ignore them, he was constantly a target. Scott found the wishing fountain of Trevi, built in the 15th century. While legend had it that tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain will guarantee a trip to Rome, the fountain is swept daily and the money is donated to Caritas, an Italian charity (USA Today) and BBC News reported that in 2006, an estimated 3,000-Euro was collected each night. I made a wish and I hope it would come true. The Medici villa, a mannerist villa with a huge landscaped garden complex with a controlled tour of 90 minutes as everyone was not allowed to go at our own pace. It was hard enough to understand the English tour with a thick Italian accent. Luckily, with an umbrella, I was doing fine hiding in the shades most of the time.
On our last day, we visited the Pantheon and the weather wasn't friendly by then. Scott had been complaining about it and his alternative shoes was over $100, a mistake that could have been avoided as he was not willing to get them wet. Almost all of my travel plans had never involved a second person and with Scott as a travel partner, it had been difficult as I had to cater to his concerns and needs as well. It was annoying to have to enter the Louis Vuitton stores throughout the trip as I knew that Scott would have to fulfill his vain boyfriend's desires to own the latest fashion. I was simply happy to have found a pair of reading glasses that featured a black square and a circle for frames, a wooden Pinocchio, three architectural 4" x 6" prints, an equally sized postcard that I would mail back to myself as a souvenir and take loads of pictures to commemorate this historical city.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Vatican City
Post Date : 2019-03-12
Vatican City
May 15, 2017
As a country that existed within a city in the Italian city of Rome, Vatican City has always been an intrigue to me since I had spent 11 years of my life living in another small city - the city state of Singapore. The first stop was at the St. Peter Basilica and it was something truly ornate. I haven't seen anything like it. All the hypocrisy of saving the poor when so much opulence was at play was unbelievable. I bought a stamp for 90 cents mailed it from the Vatican to mark my virginal trip. After 50 minutes of waiting, Scott and I got in the Vatican museum at 1030 AM, paying 16 euros and a woman in front of me was reminding me that I got in her space and we got into a spat, luckily not a fight. Once we were in we had to figure out certain parts to skip as it was hot outside. I bought two more postcards as one featured the Sistine Chapel showing the great mural which was forbidden for photography. It was time to leave and after checking out the shop one last time being Undecided on the sculpture, we left to have dinner outside, stopping at La Locanda di Pietro at 120 pm for lunch and the marinated salmon cost me $15 with tip included and it was fishy that I couldn't eat it and we tried to get to our next destination but we couldn't get far enough as our energy, especially mine was wearing down and as a result, we got back to the hotel. It was hot as expected and I tried to sleep but I couldn't so I went downstairs to ask if they could do anything about it. The short answer was no and was told to wait till 8 PM and the central air would come on at 6 pm. What a load of crab. Scott and I walked at the via Filipo Turati area and as he had mentioned, we discovered a lot of Chinese shops. I even tried out a shirt with they only asked for euros 20 but unfortunately the neck was too big. We walked around the shady neighborhood and we had dinner at a Hong Kong restaurant called F & B located next to the Termini station. The Chinese waiter was to die for. We returned to the hotel to find out that the damn a/c wasn't working and they're not even apologetic about it. I learned that air-conditioners are luxury items and with our limited travel budget, we had to tolerate many sleepless nights.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Italy
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Florence, Italy
May 21, 2017
Day four of Scott serenading me with his snore and likewise, I may have returned the favor and this was our second crappy hotel called Toscano. There was no time to waste but unfortunately, we had to wait 1.5 hours because we refused to foolishly pay 35-Euro to skill the line just to see the 5.17-meter tall statue of David by Renaissance artist Michelangelo at the Galleria Della Accademia. The gleaming white marble sculpture was astonishing, depicting the biblical hero representing a standing male nude. The watchful eyes with pulsing veins engorged with tension all while flexing the thigh muscles were truly reflective of Michelangelo's passion for human anatomy. The account of David and Goliath brought back the thoughts of a German company that once challenged me as an alleged cybersquatter for not willing to sell them a website that I own but luckily, justice prevailed as they had recently returned again. This time, through a web design company, had made an offer to purchase one of my websites. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone arch bridge over the Arno River noted for still having shops built along it. It was there that I found a small gift for the likeness of David for 11.50-Euro. It was annoying to constantly get text images from Tony, who wanted to check on us. Hardly our third city and I was regretting the decision to travel with a mate. Scott needed his wine and fine dining and when I suggested that we should try the local McDonald's, I was chastised for not having any culinary taste but I reasoned that localization sometimes does take place at these food chains. In Scott's mind, McDonald's was the last place to go because it wouldn't make any sense to eat that when having that in the States. To his surprise, the food quality was bad.
Venice, Italy
May 22 - 25, 2017
The lesson learned so far for not having access to digital data was excruciating. Our 7:15 AM train ride required us to transfer at Bologna from Italo to Trenitalia to board the RV2226 towards Venice, arriving three hours later. My first priority was to get a data card but it was nature's call for Scott. The half an hour wait at the Wind cellular shop was necessary and for 2 GB of data, it was an exorbitant 23-Euro for 2 gigs of data with phone calls. It was with the phone call capabilities that proved to be helpful when Scott had to call his credit card company to yell at someone in customer service during our lunch by the Rialto Bridge when he had to call the States to inform them that he was overseas. He had forgotten to inform them before leaving. Due to its open space, lined with pleasant outdoor cafes, restaurants, and stores located in the surrounding covered arcades, the square was surrounded by must-see sites like the Doge's Palace, Basilica San Marco and its bell tower, the Campanile. The Campanile (bell tower) located on the Piazza San Marco charged 8 Euros per person and it was just an elevator to ride up to the top of the tower to catch a spectacular view of Venice. I was very happy to have found an M. Sasek children's book, showing his rendering of Venice and at the same bookshop, I also found a calendar as a gift for a colleague. For the week, we had averaged 122,908 for our weekly step and today was the lowest at 14k. The gondolas are tourist traps, obviously, so I go by an important rule, if the price bothers me, don't fall for it. The city of Venice sets official rates for gondola rides at 80 uros for 40 minutes (europeforvisitors.com). On day two of our trip, I had to buy an over the counter antihistamine medication and some earplugs to block out noise at night. It managed to work for about 1.5 hours but it started to wear me down to a point that I need to lay down to get some shuteye. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I discovered that I had lost my wallet. If the pickpockets were that good, they deserve to have the Euro 200 in my pocket. Sadly, they also my driver's license, the only credit card which I had brought for the rest of the trip, and more sentimentally, my Coach wallet that was purchased a year ago in Kentucky when mom, brother and his friend visited for three weeks. It was scornful that I had been pickpocketed. The frustration of not having two pairs of keys became a problem as the B&B owner wasn't able to understand my request for another set of key. Scott was stressed and he knew that when we made the decision to book for hotel rooms, I had stressed the importance to be frugal due to limitations of my budget. It didn't help that he suggested that I could a different hotel for myself at a time when I had only limited cash for the rest of the trip, no credit card, and having to deal with the annoyance of having a travel mate. During dinner time, he was accommodating, trying to appease me to have Chinese food as he would usually stay away from due to his inclination to try out local foods. Getting another day's pass to use the boat to travel was a small matter because in addition to the chaos, I had to deal with my colleagues' stratagem to get Jonathan, a full-time adjunct who teaches in Graphic Design to teach other classes. With the ability to call overseas, I started to systematically call the different companies in the US starting with the MasterCard to notify them about my incident. By now, I started to limit the places I could visit as most of these tourist attractions such as the Doge Palace charge for an entrance fee. Luckily, Scott offered to pay since he found it boring to tour these places alone. On the night before our day trip to Verona, Scott and I sat by the side of a building watching gondolas being rowed by and while I sipped my vodka, Scott seemed content with his 4.20 red wine that he had purchased at the Mercato area. He was surprised that I had recovered rather quickly from my incident. What else could I have done? With 32 more days to go, I better have the energy and optimism to push on.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Italy
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Verona, Italy
May 25, 2017
By the time we get to Verona, Scott had completely foregone the idea of having any Chinese food. I, on the other end, was researching Chinese restaurant signage. This time, the hotel was better, with matching colors of lavender for curtains, soaps, and accents in the room. The only reason for the stop was so that Scott would be able to visit Juliet's House (Casa di Giulietta). The power of storytelling should not be underestimated. None of us cared that possibly these two love birds are probably only figments of Shakespeare's imagination, despite its tragic ending. The house was owned by the family dell Capello, dating back to the 13th century. The balcony that Scott waited in line to have his picture taken by was actually added in the 20th century (viator.com). There is a museum inside the house and in the courtyard is a bronze sculpture of Juliet and people regardless of their age, rub her right breast for luck. Scott had a backpack which he refused to carry and as a result, he shared the little bottle with some water for my own consumption and even when he needed to get a bottle, he was complaining about how expensive they are (in a touristy area) and why there are charges to use public toilets. It seemed strange to me that while Scott would splurge on one LV after for his love/hate brand-loving man toy but would penny-pinch on these things. What seemed strange was that he revealed that although he was ready to break up with Tony, he was still willing to spend thousands of Euros on him. For the first time, I had to vent and with the data, I was able to skype with a friend in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was also the first time we separated from traveling together so that I could get some me-time and it was very helpful to breathe some much-needed air.
Milan, Italy
May 26 - 28, 2017
We took a bus for only 2 Euros per person as our hotel was about 10 minutes away. I felt much better after the owner of the B&B gave us some simple instructions on how to do so at 625 AM! The Milan train station was an impressive one with voluminous ceiling and huge sculptures. When we finally made our way in the midst of our confusing google maps leading the way, we were able to check into the hotel Canova room right away. Scott seemed nervous about being left alone. And he told me that he was glad to have traveled with me because he would freak out doing it alone. We left the hotel and the first stop was at Duomo. For lunch, we both tried using the touchscreen at McDonald's and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Without a credit card, I had to go to the counter to pay cash. Next stop was the Montenapoleone station so that Scott could get his overpriced LV jeans for Tony. While there, he also splurged on an LV shirt that cost over 700 Euros for himself when he realized that there weren't any jeans available at that location. This is the first city where I could finally take some good pictures for a bona fide Chinatown in Milan. Once I arrived at via Paolo Sarpi, I decided to photograph along the street and it was a bit difficult having Scott tag along because I felt that I was waiting his time. However, when he dragged me to those LV stores, I wondered if he felt the same? I unexpectedly got a black long sleeve shirt with the motifs of a rooster for 30 Euros. What a way to commemorate the year of the rooster. I also decided to get a haircut at the Milan Chinatown for 12 Euros. I bought dinner for the two of us at Tang Gourmet for 15 Euros and we were both impressed with the xiao long bay and the presentation of their daring showing off their kitchen, the use of bamboo skewers. On day two of our trip, we returned to the Duomo but the line to enter was too long and I wasn't willing to spend two hours waiting. We eventually made our way to the vicinity of Chinatown and we separated and I was able to continue taking more pictures of signage for my research. I was quite surprised to see a huge number of Chinese shops selling cheaply made Chinese fashions. Scott made some racist remarks about how those Chinese Italian kids would grow up smoking in spending the next of his 70 years guiding the shops. Of course, I wouldn't let him get away for saying such a thing. I text messaged Sean who was in London and we skyped for a bit where I found out more about his decision to move on by taking a new teaching position in Sydney, Australia. Since I wasn't able to join him in London, I asked him for a favor to photograph my research for London Chinatown restaurant signage. At the hotel, Scott surprised me when he walked through the door clutching another LV bag with the 1100 Euros LV jacket for his brand-loving boyfriend. On day three, we attempted to enter the Duomo again and this time, arriving at 730 AM, the line was short and the frustration of trying to get tickets via a touchscreen machine. After following all the instructions on the screen, we kept getting an error message. Trying to get one of those workers to help was impossible that we resorted to going to the counter instead. With a bicycle race ending at the Duomo, we skipped the archeological site at the Duomo. We were in the Duomo but didn't realize the archeological site was under the cathedral. Lack of signage and if any, poorly located. When Tony called Scott, I wasn't pleased that he had the audacity to tell Scott that I could carry some of their branded goods for him when there was barely enough room in my luggage for my own things. What's with his obsessions with branded goods? Scott was not ballsy enough to say to him which left me the task to tell Tony off.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Hungary
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Budapest, Hungary
May 29 - Jun. 1, 2017
The morning before leaving for Budapest, Hungary, Scott had an altercation with the employees at a cafe after he returned to confront them for wanting to charge him Euro10 for a croissant and coffee. What really was the issue was that the waiter was rude to people and he was told to get out if he didn't want to pay the price. He didn't heed my advice to be discreet and as a result, he was being manhandled. If he had been hurt, our plan would have to be postponed. We had to take a bus from Milano Centrale to the airport to catch our flight from the Lisz Ferenck airport. The hotel Erzsebeth city center was a decent hotel with two single beds. I praised Scott for doing a good research. It was really a hit or miss type of situation with the hotel searches. Intrigued about a teaching position which was also about running a student design agency at Northeastern University, I text messaged an ex-colleague to get the juicy details and soon discovered that the pay was measly to live in the Boston area. Because of the intention and the possible laptop ban, I hadn't brought my laptop to work on my CV. Luckily, Tony was able to get into my laptop to email me my older CV and a letter to work on. Part of my souvenir collections include the Starbucks mug and I was surprised that they charge Euro17 for one. Our first stop was the St. Gellert statue before snaking our away around to the top of the hill to and before we could locate the palace. We did a momentous amount of walking, made more tiresome under the hot summer sun. Luckily, I had my umbrella, probably the only able-bodied Asian guy in the whole of Europe who would dare to do so in the public. Prolonged exposure in the sun always ends up giving me a terrible headache and I wasn't going to let the sun spoil it for me. Scott and I got into an argument when he callously stereotyped the Chinese race when I chose to walk down a slope that was mowed by people who would prefer a shortcut. He did apologize later as I wouldn't let him off the racist hook.
At this point of the tour, Scott was slowly being weaned from having to do things together with me and it was food that made that possible. I was also getting tired of being reminded by him for not being exploratory. C'mon, my research is about Chinese restaurants and it seems logical that I followed that path or at least stay on Asian cuisine. In addition, since my wallet was stolen in Venice, I was severely limited to some limited amount of cash and I didn't have the deep pockets like Scott who must have wine and some fine dining in all the places that he had been to. Another interesting spot that Scott wanted to check out was the Rudus Thermal Bath and it was rather interesting to check out the supposedly straight sauna with an all-men theme on Wednesday. On the 30th, I received news that Hope Kaiser, a senior who emailed that she got the job and News and Tribune in New Albany and thanked me for spending time with her as she had learned a lot and well as her thanking me for developing the graphic design program. All that constant, non-stop city-to-city came to a rude awakening when Scott made the mistake thinking that June 1 would be the day to check out only to be reminded by the receptionist that we have the booked room booked until tomorrow. It was also during this time when Trump tweeted 'covfefe' while I also received a message from my brother that the Germans are back in offering to buy a website that I own. It was a legal battle that started almost 10 years ago which ended up in an arbitration with the panelist throwing their case out. Now, they're interested in buying the site. Towards the end of the stay in Hungary, I wanted to keep my 5000, 2000, 1000, 500 Hungarian paper currency as souvenirs which continued to limit how I could spend. This trip has been quite a challenge with many restrictions working against me.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Austria
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Vienna, Austria
June 2 - 4, 2017
Scott had paid for two train tickets with his credit card from one of the three Budapest train stations that would take us to Vienna but it had been days and we never heard from the online ticketing agent. We were told that the OBB Railjet does not operate from Hungary which resulted in an additional 66 Euros per person for the extra ticket. There was no time to be mad as we only have five minutes to get to the platform. Scott ran skittishly and I was trailing behind to catch the 735 AM train. When we got in the train, instead of being angry, we were more amused and started laughing about it. Internet connectivity was an issue and Verizon wanted to charge $10 per day for data usage and there was no guarantee for service in the countries that we had stopped at. Alternatively, we had to buy phone cards and we were totally at the mercy of the service. This time, 15 Euros went towards a 10 GB card for my iPhone. At the nearby park where our hotel called Queens Apartment, was located, there was a free movie night for park goers as well as passerby. We separated on June 3 (Sat.) as Scott wanted to check out the nudist park while I wanted to stay behind to check out the town. His Uber driver gave up on him when he couldn't find the square and Scott wanted to give up but I knew that part of the trip was about him discovering the nudist camps of Europe so I put him in in a Mercedes taxi instead which turned out to be a blessing for him as the driver had given him a guided tour. I couldn't understand why he with skimp on the expenses when he was so willingly spending and splurging on Tony's expensive LV. I continued on to take picture of Chinese restaurants on Makartgasse and was pleasantly being surprised by my discovery of big flea market. With the website offer looming over my head, when my brother and I skyped, I told him to contact the lawyer in Malaysia who had won the arbitration case for us. Part of my souvenir collection as I traversed from city to city was to collect Starbucks cafe 'You are here' mugs that sell for about 15 Euros. It has always been a tradition to mail a postcard from the city to myself and 1.50 Euros was spent for a postcard of Klimt, printed with gold accented lines at a store on Stephansplatz. We both had no idea that a/c is a luxury in Europe as cheaper hotels wouldn't have them and at times, if we had requested for one, they may furnish it. We were disappointed with the hotel owner, whom we both deemed as homophobic who promised a yes to our fan request but his action would be a no instead. I wanted to try out the Chinese restaurant that I discovered at the Kettenbrucken-gasse area. We couldn't agree on food and separated because Scott didn't want to have any Chinese food but changed his mind after I secured a table for one at the Tofu and Chili restaurant selling biang biang noodle. The Chinese character refutably was invented by locals in the Shaanxi province in China. The character itself was made up of 57 strokes in one was to write in traditional form and 43 in simplified Chinese.
On the last day of our trip (Jun. 4), it was nice of Scott to offer to pay the entrance fees of 16 Euros to explore the Schonbrunn Palace. It all seemed like a scam because we soon discovered that outsiders need not pay get in to use the beautifully huge backyard without paying a single dime. We left to head back to the popular tourist Square where the Karlspatz station is located only to find that the T-Mobile store had closed due to today being Sunday. For lunch, we got tired of dragging our emaciated bodies to the dim sum place. As a result, Scott bought his coffee at McDonald's and we both had kebab for lunch. We met an American who was the retiree from New York and his daughter did a summer transfer program from Penn state. Taking the subway, we arrived at Museum Quartier only to discover that the painting of Klimt titled The Kiss that I wanted to see was at another museum. Our last stop was at the Wiener Plater for Scotts beer at 330 pm. It was quite a fun place with a theme park styled restaurant and the Hochstes Ketten Karussell Der Welt which basically was a carousel that lifted people up really high, like some ten story was fun but Scott was too terrified to do it. He ordered a pork knuckle and two beers for us. It was a rainy evening but that didn't stop us from trying out the go-karts and another paid entrance to the zombie house at the park. We wanted to get some simple dishes at a grocery store and at Billa, we were both amazed to see that the security guards had to block off some customers and allow some to leave before they could open the gate again. Customers were snatching processed and ready-to-go foods left and right and the line was long so we devised a way for one to wait in line while the other shops. Even in a crowded place like Hong Kong and Singapore, it was a rarity to see such a madhouse scene.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Austria
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Salzsburg, Austria
June 5 - 6, 2017
While trying to find a seating area in the train to Salzburg, Scott had to change seat because there was a baby staring at him from the seat in the front. As a result, we lost a good seating position where we couldn't keep our eyes on our luggage. It was nice that the room was ready for us at Imlauer hotel upon arrival. After some complimentary tea and coffee in the room, Scott and I walked to the Old town area of Monchsberg and we were mesmerized with the beauty of the town separated by a river and stalls that were lined up. We walked around the old town area going up to some higher elevations, checking out churches, taking pictures of the town where the Sound of Music was filmed. Scott recharged by having a glass of wine in the square while I took pictures of a newly discovered Chinese restaurant and at the Waagplatz, 40 cents went towards my sound of music postcard. June 6 happened to be my second niece's 6th birthday. Relying on technology with limited access to data, I was able to use an app to type a birthday message to her. Her mother used voice message on her phone so that her daughter could say 'thank you' tua pek (uncle) and when I apologized for not being there, it was nice that at her young age, she was understanding and replied that it was ok. Scott paid 12 euros per person for what turned out to be his first funicular ride to the palace on Festungsbahn. He took his first panorama shot and also walked around the trail alongside the beautiful scenery overlooking the palace. We read the weather yesterday and realized that if we left early this morning before it started to drizzle at 11 AM, we could possibly cover both the places he wanted to visit and just as we stepped off, it started to drizzle. I suggested that we visit the Mozart birthhouse on Munzgasse. My brother sent me the picture of his daughter's birthday cake which creatively used the shape of a big skirt to form the lower body with a Barbie toy that made up the rest of the top. I suggested that we could both Skype for a moment and was able to see mom and my two nieces. Most of the time was spent with mom to discuss how to reply to the Germans. Jin told me that mom still cries almost every night due to the passing of our cousin's untimely death, Leng Ngar-ko. I noticed an email from the mowing company and they had moved to 5/11 and 5/26 and the payment is due on 6/12. I could only hope that they had done what they had set out to do because I didn’t have any surveillance camera pointing to the yard. Even if I did, it would be hard to know when they had arrived so I trusted that they would have done their job and they expect me to fork out payment soon.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Germany
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Munich, Germany
June 7 - 8, 2017
The day I prepared to leave for Munich, Germany, I finally heard from the lawyer who represented us 10 years ago for an arbitration case when the negotiation of a website purchase with a German company went sour. The lawyer expects to be paid f anywhere from RM3,000 to RM4,000. I had to use Scott's credit card to pay the mowing company. The train conductor let us both off because it seemed the ticket we purchased yesterday wasn't for today. It was confusing because there was no date to indicate the purchase and that should have been a red flag and luckily, we needn't have to pay extra for the tickets that was no longer valid. Foolish Scott was offering to pay for it and that sent me to kick his leg a few times. When we got to Bad Endorf that we were told in German to get off at our next stop at Rosenheim because apparently a body was found on the track and everyone needed to catch a bus instead. After 20 minutes of waiting, we were told in German through a kind lady who translated for us that the bus wouldn't be coming and we could take an alternative train to Holzkirchen at 1145 am and to transfer there for a red train to Munchen. Once there, we wasted no time and immediately made our way to Viktualienmarkt, Heiligisktrukche, and Marienplatz. Scott suggested going to the Hofbrauhaus, arriving at 630 pm. Scott treated me for dinner for the half chicken with potato salad which cost over Euro 12.90. I kept a copy of the world-famous restaurant menu while Scott paid for a fridge magnet. On the following day, I decided to wear my black jacket with red cocks that I bought in Milan today as the weather was cold. It was annoying to be bothered by Tony who kept asking me if his sugar daddy had bought him an LV jacket. He also kept asking about his whereabouts. These two jokers had held their relationship together based on materialism and lack of trust. Surprisingly, they are still together after 3 years. I was immediately being reminded of the Cantonese saying that goes something like: "one is willilng to hit, and one is willing to take the hit." The best way to get around was to take the train and there was no need to validate our ticket as no one was checking them as we headed to the Nymphenburg Palace. Scott wanted to walk around in the park so I just sat on the bench.
On our way to the Art Museum, we stopped at Karstadt where Scott bought two more underwear which was his obsession, much like mine with the Starbucks mug and the self-mailed postcards. The next point of interest was Alte Pinakothek which seemed like it was smacked in the middle of a technical University somewhere and wasn't touristy at all. The building's exterior was getting a facelift and inside, I wasn't willing to pay the entrance fee of 4.50 euros so I checked out the bookstore and came across an art textbook written by author Ralph Larmann. I took a picture and happily shared it on Facebook because it had my artwork in it. It had become difficult to share the trip with Scott as he had gotten on my nerves several times so I suggested that when it was time his gold digger of a boyfriend joined us, we should separate. Throughout the trip, a big item on Scott's agenda was dictated by the needs to check out LV stores so that he could splurge on designer clothes for his boyfriend. When we realized that the ticket to Prague tomorrow was over 130 Euros per person, I told him that we needed to go to the train station for cheaper alternatives as he was still bent on finding cheap tickets on his phone app. Instead of buying a ticket to Prague tomorrow, I suggested that we should get tickets for the rest of the trip booked from Munich to Prague, Prague to Dresden, Dresden to Berlin, Berlin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Antwerp, and Antwerp to Brussels. Unfortunately she couldn't help us with the last leg which was from Brussels to Paris which would cost over 400 Euros for our tickets. From Berlin onwards it would be ticket for the three of us as his boy toy, Tony would be joining us. I could almost imagine the drama that would ensue...
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Czech Republic
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Prague, Czech Republic
June 9 - 10, 2017
By 9 AM the train slowly pulled away from the station, on time but because we didn't get a reserved seat on the train, we were going from one coach to another, being bumped by people who had bought them paying some six euros extra for the privilege. I was feverishly trying to respond to emails especially from school when there was an email from my student Sydney asking me for a letter of recommendation which I wasn't able to furnish due to the laptop ban by Trump. I had only brought my IPad and IPhone. The first thing Scott did upon arrival at Praha (Prague) was to exchange 100 euros for 2600 Korona. It was annoying that as soon as we left the main station in Munich the Internet was spotty and when we got to Prague, there was a carrier but no data which was supposedly available for all of Europe. Typically when I travelled alone, I didn't make as many mistakes such as leaving my phone on the counter while Scott was trying to get data. That was because I had to watch him as he wasn't a seasoned traveler and my absent mindedness didn't help either. I was getting ticked off when he would penny and dime on data but would splurge on designer clothes, not for himself, but for his boy toy. A case in point was that with his rather limited data which was the cheapest option he could find, he ended up trying to save by not using it. It wasn't helpful because without a map of sort, we were constantly lost. I was left with 600 euros and I also noticed that a $100 bill was missing from the base of my backpack.
It was frustrating to realize that and my suspicion was that probably the homophobic asshole in Budapest had stolen my money. Situations hadn't improved between my relationship with Scott who said that I was slow due to my arthritis and that I am destined to be alone. All of a sudden, jabs of his infinite wisdom when he was barely clinging on a relationship based on materialism and a mentally abusive boyfriend. It was clear that we could never travel again and having him tagged on this research trip with me was a monumental mistake. Charles Bridge was breathtaking and on a separate occasion, I made it on foot to the parliament building and the Schwarzenbersky Palace where I paid 420 Korona for the Starbucks You Are Here mug on June 10th.
Since mom's birthday was in 6 days, I decided to mail her a postcard. I returned to the hotel to write the postcards because I needed the Wi-Fi to translate the content of what I wanted to express to mom into Mandarin. On the last night of our stay at Prague, I decided to have a heart to heart with Scott, considering that we still have about two weeks to travel together. I told him that I needed some personal space, we visited the Absinthe bar on the Frank Kafka square for our first absinthe. We also had the petit frere pure with 58% for 150 Korona and an absinthe Prague colada for 185 Korona. The rest of the evening was at a club called Escape. Thanks to data on Scott's phone, we were able to navigate our way around and there was 200 Korona for entrance fee which is about 7.70 Euros the drinks were separate. Luckily, Scott paid for my drinks and I just had to fork out the entrance fee. I had to restrain Scott from splurging considering that the dancers were trying to get us to buy them drinks. By his own admission, his days of being able to be wild would be over soon when we would be joined by his domineering boy toy.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Germany
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Dresden, Germany
June 11 – 12, 2017
From the Czech Republic, we were to take the train back to Germany's Dresden. By 7 AM we had checked out to take the metro from a nearby station and the confusion started when we got to Muzeum because we couldn't figure out which station the main train station was located which cost us at least 20 minutes in the station going round and round and that was nerve-racking, out of the fear that we would miss our train. Even after we got to the station, the platform was not displayed on the screen. We waited and when platform seven was shown, there was a mad rush to get there and when I cut ahead of a many people since we didn't have any reserved seating arrangements, the train to Dresden, Germany wasn't even there yet. Scott upgraded for both of us by switching to a different cabin where there were these two guys under 25 years old. We knew because they told us that they were traveling on pass that require them to be below 25 years old. It was nice to have conversational partners for the 2 hour trip. I told him good job for finding a hotel so close to the station (5 minutes) but when we got there, we were told that the hotel room as paid for tomorrow. That meant that we had left a day earlier and because of that mistake, Scott had to shell out an extra 60 euros. We wandered our way to the Neumarket where 3 Euros went for a big German sausage for dinner and another euro for a one scoop ice cream. We walked around to the Stadtausgang area and we were amazed that all the shops in the mall were closed. We made our way back to the hotel and before 5 pm, Scott convinced me to leave the cool room and brace the hot sun and paid six euros per person for our daily ticket to the Watzke Brau Haus where they supposedly brew their own house beer.
It didn't help that Scott wanted me to join him occasionally for his needs to have expensive food which would deplete my limited cash. During dinner, we were both surprised by the foolishness of his boyfriend, Tony who posted the images of him shopping in Rome on Facebook knowingly that Tony's current invalid partner, Bruce's sister would find out as Tony had lied to her about returning to Malaysia when he was actually "in heaven" shopping at the LV store. He convincingly replied to our question that he had blocked her but I still cautioned that it wouldn't be a smart thing to do. The bad part was that on Monday all the museums were closed. At the Procession of Princes' wall mural, I paid for a panoramic postcard, took some pictures and we walked around just to kill time in this rather tourist unfriendly town. He suggested going to a different part of town and at the Art + Form, I found a made in Germany gift which was a pencil holder in the shape of a VW van. We started exploring the Alaunstrabe area and it turned to be such a cool area which some specialty shops. As a result, Scott walked out of that store that sells predominantly skating board called Feed My Soul, a pair of boxer plus a pair of wooden sun shades and I didn't miss out either as I had him charge 99 Euros for a pair of wooden sun glasses. We explored the area further waiting to hear from Tony because Scott wanted to get him one but we never heard from him. We returned to the hotel and at TK Maxx (instead of TJ Maxx as we would in the States), a piece of glass so small had pierced Scott's middle finger. I thought he just wanted to joke with me that he was almost going to drop the piece. When I saw blood coming out of his finger, I knew he wasn't joking. We returned to the hotel and using the reading glasses from Rome and a tweezer, I was able to pull the piece out. It's definitely one of the highlights from our trip.
Berlin
June 13 -15, 2017
Scott's boyfriend, Tony joined us in Berlin and the first item on the itinerary was to an LV store on Kurfürstendamm and it was hilarious to hear that as decked up from head to toe in LV, Tony wasn't being treated royally by the staff at the store. Scott altered his behavior probably in his effort to butter up to his self-centered materialistic boyfriend and seemed determined to chase me away by suggesting that we didn't have to travel together. The hotel room wasn't ready for us which forced us to do a bunch of things separately. Even when the room was ready, they had to take a nap. Such a luxury and it was definitely something I wouldn't do when I travel. Every second costs money in a foreign land. We left after they were ready to head to the Schoenberg area where we checked out local stores and I noticed that the Germans are definitely arrogant which came across in their attitude towards foreign customers. Tony wasn't wearing his jacket and he was cold and he wouldn't wear mine and I asked if it was too embarrassing for him since it was brand-new it is. His reply was a yes. I told him that he deserves to be in cold. We returned back to an air conditioned less hotel room. The next day on the 14th, we visited the Brandenburg gate at 9 AM for pictures and Tony, who used to be a graphic designer, completely butchered my pictures. There was no sense of trying to take a decent picture. I was mad that when he asked me to do so, I tried to get a good picture. The Berlin victory column seemed too far away so we just walked half way and posed for pictures. Tony was moving at his own pace to check out souvenirs while ignoring our interests. I got a small piece of cement from the Berlin Wall. Heck, it could have been a piece of construction dirt but at least, it was a souvenir, nonetheless.
It was my first visit to Berlin and I needed something to remember the trip with. We didn't go to the top of the TV tower but we also visited the Checkpoint Charlie. When thirsty, Tony stopped at McDonald's for the ice cream and asked if I have any change. I thought he was going to take the small ones by the end of taking four euros for me and I was already strapped for cash. It became very apparent that there is no way we can shop together so we separated and I told them to meet back in the hotel, after dinner. My feet were hurting and I needed to charge my phone. I used the time since the two of them were not at the hotel room yet to write three postcards: one for myself, one for James and the last one with dad. It must've been the first time ever that I wrote a postcard to him.
The next 12 days would be tough with Tony wanting to be in control at all times and I having issues with it. I was ready to lose our friendship over it. On the last day in Berlin, we started the morning with a train ride to Warschauer but we all had to alight at Hallesches and walk to a bus as part of a connecting service. We walked a long way after making our way to the east side gallery where the Berlin Wall is and by the time we got to the bohemian area of Kreuzberg area, I had made over 8000 steps according to an app on my phone. Despite my request, Tony posted our pic from the restaurant on his Facebook. He said that he had blocked Bruce's sister Wendy but I told him to be safe than to be sorry but he'd rather be foolish. He had lied to Wendy that he was supposedly in Malaysia to complete his dad's funeral when in fact, he is in Berlin, shopping and having Vietnamese lunch in Berlin. Later, he decided that my wanting to go to Brandenburg is no longer a coherent with his plan to shop, which is fine so we separated. It was joyful, for a change of pace to wish my mother Happy Birthday when we skyped for 21 minutes until 408 PM, German time. I showed her around using the camera as I panned to show its surroundings. I had to end the talk as my battery was running low and I was able to find my way back to Alexandersplatz where 12.95 euro went towards a book titled 'Berlin wall art" at a store called Ludwig and shortly 14.99 Euro was paid for the Starbucks mug before I hopped on the U2 to head back to the hotel and since both of them weren't back yet, I took the time to hand wash my jacket, underwear and a pair of socks.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Netherlands
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Amsterdam June 16 - 18
The rude awakening was to discover that the train from the Berlin hop on hop off to Amsterdam central would take 6 1/2 hours. Tony gave Scott that startled look and asked why he wouldn't fly instead and Scott immediately panicked when he had to face his boyfriend's interrogation. I knew that he was trying to save money but I just didn't realize that it would be this long of a ride. Tony wanted to be in charge of everything trying to suggest that we could take the train instead of a bus that would stop directly from the hotel in. As a result we had to transfer station and Hollaback at stairs. We arrived at 7 AM and he seized the ticket from Scott who questioned why we wanted to change the procedure as he had always been holding on to the tickets. Since we still have time to shop, Tony decided to shop and not wanting to join him, I sat at a chair with our luggage. The journey was too long but was made worse when it stopped for an hour for the mechanics to remove a broken coach. The train finally took off at 1014 after halting for 45 minutes. At a damned town called Bad Bentheim, they delayed the train without any explanation for 20 minutes. It was speculated that someone had committed suicide. Tony and Scott finally got to move and sat next to me and to kill time, Tony played movies on his iPad while I tried to sketch some logo revisions for Entour, the clothing company that Jeffrey Wang, another longtime friend runs in the Castro in San Francisco. Unfortunately, part of our time was spent bickering about how Tony constantly needed to prove that he was right. He said that if he didn't plan the trip, things were bound to go wrong. He gave me no choice that I brought up that he had to pay 50 euros for the taxi when he rushed to the wrong airport when leaving Milan to join us in Berlin. What was the point of visiting Amsterdam without a stop at the cafe where weeds were sold? It was pathetic to watch a fully grown man groveling after his motherly boyfriend begging to be given the permission to visit a cafe where the weeds are sold. Of course, it was Scott I was talking about. Tony kept warning me not to give him any ideas. I wanted to get some but was afraid that I'd get high without supervisions.
It all seemed perfectly a good timing to arrange for a time to meet with Lim Sow Sek on the 2nd day of my arrival. Lim was an ex-classmate when we were graphic design students from the Malaysian Institute of Art in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We arranged to meet on Saturday (June 17) and it had been at least 25 years since we last met. She brought her 13-year old son and her husband with her and they also hired a boat with a sailor (together with five other passengers). It was such a pleasant change of pace and atmosphere. We checked out the cheese shops, souvenir shops and when I saw the coin pressing machines, she even gave me a one Euro to make my little coin souvenir. We left around 135 pm to head to Chinatown located on Zeedijk and over the years, it has grown into the neighboring Nieuwmarkt and we even had late lunch there around 3 pm. Her husband treated us and we walked around so that I could photograph the restaurants. Her son was having a tough time not wanting the wonton noodle that Sow Seik had ordered. They patiently waited as I zipped in and out of souvenir shops and it was quite uncomfortable for me as I dragged them along. At Starbucks, 12.95 Euro was paid for a "You're here" Amsterdam souvenir mug which put a smile on my face.
I decided to come out to Sow Seik when I saw gay flags as we walked to the joint area. She was accepting and said that Holland has gay marriage and her husband's uncle is one too. By the time we drove for two hours back to Sow Seik's house, it was almost 12 midnight. Her house was a semidetached and it was with a beautifully done long backyard. Her husband, son and I were in the patio until a little after 1 am while the wife was upstairs fixing the 'messy and dirty' house. It was just an Asian way of being humble. I was awake at 6 AM on the 18th of June and was wondering if Tony had thrown away my joint. Sow Seik was the first to get up and she made milo for breakfast for me. She also got Jenny and Patrick, our life time friend from the Malaysian Institute of Art in Kuala Lumpur to chat with me for about an hour.
As suspected, when asked via text messaging Tony said "Destroy your smoke u left in room". I replied that I'd be very upset and he typed "oops". By then I had communicated with Sow Seik's daughter, giving her opinion about whether she should pursue a Master's degree or not. That was the purpose of my visit, other than the fact that I got to see Sow Seik's beautiful semi-detached home. We finally left the house at 130 pm to head back to Amsterdam. I was predominantly silent throughout the whole journey as a family have a lot to share initially. Partly because I was brewing inside being angry thinking about how Tony could do this and how I was going to fight him. Sow Seik dropped me off at the corner opposite of the central station and I shook hands with the father and the kids while sow Seik and I gave each other a big hug. The time was 330 and I was able to find some souvenirs along the way while trying to hunt for a coffee shop where Sedevas were sold. Tony wasn't in the room and what I found was that my initial Sedeeva was never destroyed by that bitch so I took a shower and headed out to get some souvenirs. When I was at the back alley leading to the path that would take me to the Main St., Tony and Scott was on the way to the hotel and they spotted me lighting up. They told me that they were done with shopping and that I should be on my own to shop souvenir. I walked on the souvenir strip and finally, when returned to the shop after exhausting my other options, the original choice was taken by someone. I settled on two windmills and I knew that with that box, my luggage would swell to two. We lounged around the hotel room until it was time to leave for dinner at about 7 PM and decided on the Nyonya express. My dinner cost $13 and after that we walk around to the red light district and try to hang around until it was 10 PM for the night to turn dark. It wasn't until 1030 from winter sky was really dark.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Belgium
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Brussels
June 20, 2017
The train journey to Brussels was about an hour and by the time we get to Brussel Central, it was 10 AM. The Hotel was two minutes' walk away from the station which help to save a lot of energy. Ecological was the name that used to describe the approach of the hotel which is another fancy way of saying there is no air-conditioner. When asked about Tintin museum, the receptionist named the comics book museum on Rue Des Sables instead and their souvenir store wasn't even that great. We separated and reconvened later to go to the Tintin store. I already have enough of the Tintin collections that all I was looking for was a souvenir of the Manneken Pis, a little boy holding his dick peeing and when I finally found it, I bought three of them in blue red and yellow, despite the original being in black. Another souvenir that I wanted to get was the Brussels town hall and I returned to the hotel to do some research about their height. I laid out my Colosseum plus the other two windmills. According to google, the Colosseum measured 48 meters tall, the Eifel tower at 300 meters and the Brussels city hall at 96 meter. Scott thought that I had a nice architectural collection. It was around 9 PM when we were ready to head out to a gay bar that someone in the hotel told us about an incident in the Brussels train station. We rushed back to the hotel room to check out the window which we managed to crack open and saw that people were hurrying people off the square. It was around his time that Sow Seik called. Her son told me to be careful about the bombing incident or threat at the train station nearby.
There was an unexpected change in our plan where Scott had suggested that we could take the train for a day's trip to Brugge on June 21 and the train ticket for three people cost 88.20 euros. We were nervous because of the bombing incident yesterday but our wandering lust overcame the fear. When the train pulled away from the Brussels central station, there seemed to be more reporters than security personnel. We arrived at 1020 and immediately headed by walking to the Grokt Markt. They wanted to have food at a restaurant while I yearned to shop around so we separated and I got to discover some neighborhood. It was 35-degree Celsius out there luckily the train had air-conditioning. By the time we got back to Brussels Central, it was 4 PM.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: Belgium
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Antwerp
June 19, 2017
Scott had a brilliant idea to try to take an earlier train to Antwerp which could save us two hour about half an hour. That was because we had to transfer to another train at Breda then to Rosenthall where we transferred to a slow air conditioned less train. Century Hotel, was literally one minute away from the Antwerp Central train station when we arrived at 1230 noon. Tony wanted to immediately shop at LV so after we pseudo-checked in at the counter, we split. Afterall, the room was not ready yet. Chinatown was just seven minutes away so I walked there getting there and immediately started photographing Chinese restaurants along van Artevelstraat and the two adjacent streets that sandwiched with. I was glad to see the 'phaifang' to mark the entrance. I had Teochew styled flat noodle duck soup for 10 euros. In walking to the Grokt Markt, I stumbled upon the St. Charles Borromeo church. When I got to the Grokt Markt, I unexpectedly ran into Tony and Scott. Tony told me how he was being ignored at the LV store despite him lugging a special edition LV backpack. He never listens and as a result, he never learns. We separated and I checked out the Tintin store around the corner of the Cathedral of our lady to look for postcards. Although I couldn't find one to put the stamp on yet, another 1.45 Euros went for a Belgian stamp at 3:30 pm. As I made my way closer to the hotel, Scott spotted me and seemed perplexed that tony would rather sleep instead of going to shop. He wanted to go for a drink but decided to join me back in the hotel since I had to take a dump.
As it turned out, Tony was angry at Scott and I had to deal with their dramas. It was hard to take any nap in the air-conditioned less room. As Tony continued to ignore Scott, I took the time to write myself a postcard and headed to Chinatown for dinner but by 7 PM, most shops had closed or started to close. Luckily the restaurants in Chinatown hadn't and I had Pad Thai vegetarian dinner for 10 euros. We abandoned the idea of going to a bar after everyone started to doze off. The room was swelteringly hot that Scott and I went downstairs to the lobby to get a fan from them but our first attempt was unsuccessful because the reception area was filled with a busload of tourists from China. On my 2nd attempt, I was successful but I only got a small one and the challenge was to figure out where to place it in the room that was oblong. The fan was a joke and I knew I wouldn't be laughing the next morning.
Ambitious 17 cities in 9 countries in 40 days: France
Post Date : 2019-07-10
Paris
June 22 - 6/25, 2017
We arrived at the Gard du Nord before 10 am and thanks to the info from the Internet we bought a carnet of 10 tickets. It wasn't even good for two hours as mentioned on travelgayeurope.com. Tony, as usual wanted to play blaming and I told him that the information was from the Internet and our decision to spend 14.50 euro was guided by that. Tony ran like hell to get to his favorite flagship LV store near the Champs le Elyse. I do pity those who have to live vicariously through a brand that they couldn't afford. Oh well, in this case, it was sugar daddy Scott who was forking the bill. While waiting for them to pack Tony's orders at LV, we visited the Arc de Triomphe to photograph the landmark. The hotel was, as expected, without any air-conditioner. Scott was complaining about it and wanted to buy a fan but I knew he was all talk. We walked around the neighborhood and he realized that when he visited with his nephew that we lived very closed to the red light district including some Chinese prostitutes. I spotted a rustic looking (which meant that the metal had started to rust but since the LED light works and the price was only 10 euros, down from its original 15, I decided on it. The scale wasn't as accurate in comparison to the Rome Coloseum but t would do. Scott wanted to eat some French food and when I found a Chinese restaurant, I decided on it while they left for theirs. I had a nice conversation with the lady from the restaurant and found out that she had been there for 13 years and that the friends while appearing to be polite, some may harbor discrimination against Asians. We had to go through security to get to the Eiffel Tower and that was just to get in so that we could buy a ticket. I was willing to wait downstairs for them to do the trip which would allow me time to speak with Sean on Skype. They didn't go because there was a temporary suspension but I did speak with Sean, giving him more clarifications of how to photograph the Chinatown signage for my research.
On the next day, June 23rd, I had arranged for my friend from the Bay Area, Ulysses to meet with me at the hotel. I used the time to get my postcard mailed and was absolutely maddening to find out that the seasoned scammer who sold me the stamp and postcard for five euros had sold me two local stamps which I could not use for international postage. We took the train to the 13 arrondissement, arriving before 11 am and he wanted to have dim sum but we ended up with Vietnamese noodle after getting off at Olympiades for 10 euros. At the Bastille where they are a lot of cool shops, I got a "You were here" Starbucks cafe mug to commemorate Paris. By the time we left the Marche des Enfants Rouges area after making a 20 minute walk, it was almost six pm and that was because I couldn't find anything to eat. The Marché des Enfants Rouges is the oldest covered market in Paris, France. It was established in the early 1600s and is located at 39 Rue de Bretagne. At Rue de Turbigo, after Ulysses and I walked at length to discover a Taiwanese restaurant, we ended up at a Thai, Laos restaurant instead called IndoChine House. Compared to his service carrier, T-Mobile which had a free roaming service, Verizon was overprized and underserviced.
The source of irritation continued on June 24 when Tony reminded me to pay his boyfriend the 2000 Euros that he had loaned me and that I should be glad that he didn't ask for it in Euro. Of course, Scott was feeling the pinch from having to sponsor Tony's lavish spending habits. When Scott and I first planned the trip, we didn't think that the 24th of June would co-incide with the Paris pride parade. Tony and Scott left earlier to shop at a second LV store before the parade and by the time Ulysses came to get me at the hotel, it was almost 1045 AM and we were both hungry. Being flexible, unlike Scott, he had Chinese food with me and together with a can of soya bean, it was 7.80 for my meal. We then took the train to the area where he could return his Hermes scarves. Oh no, Ulysses was a victim of name brands too! As it turned out, he wasn't able to return, only getting store credit. As we walked through one of the alleys, one of the cafes called Coffee and Roses caught Ulysses attention and we decided to stop for latte and another unexpected surprise when we befriended a 27-year old Asian guy called Ken, who turned out to be flight attendant. We invited him to join us for the gay parade. At a cafe, I shared my observation and experience that it seemed the police harassed a black guy who wanted to enter the area of parade by questioning and looking at his stuff but for me it was more relaxed. While they shopped for my labels, we thought we could round off the evening exploring a sauna near our hotel called the Sun City. he sauna was Hindu themed and there were Arabic looking guys, black guys, Asians, old and young of all sorts trying to hunt for a piece of meat in the three level sauna. By 1033 PM, it was time to leave and Ken wasn't ready because he was talking to someone in the pool. By the time I handed a McQueen shopping bag back to Ken at the hotel as we offered to keep it safe with Tony and Scott who returned to the hotel without joining us, it was 12 midnight and we had to get up at 3 PM since Tony had a separate flight to catch for San Francisco, leaving me with Scott to take another flight. Although Tony had arranged all the forms for Scott to claim the tax refund at the airport, he panicked as he kept pulling out the different ones when asked by the personnel. I noticed that he kept saying OK but I knew from the 41 days of being within truck the trip that his mind was not computing the information that was given to him. He finally got about US$260 of cash hand it to him and there is a payment that was dropped in the mailbox.
The flight from Paris to London arrived at terminal five and I immediately noticed a Starbucks. I was relieved to see that there was no London mug but Scott found it on the other side. To my surprise it was only 8.50 pounds for the mug making it the cheapest from this entire trip. We had about three hours to kill in the terminal and by the time we were done we had a bit more relaxed time because we were fed and need not deal with Tony's drama. When Scott asked me after I returned to New Albany in a text message if I'd ever travel with him again in 2019, the answer was a 'No.' At the end of the journey, it was time to also conclude the end of my friendship with Tony. I have always had his back since we became friends in 1991 but I wasn’t even sure if we were on the same page anymore… We both had drifted apart. The last straw was how he treated me when we were back in San Francisco for his unbearable overbearing controlling, self-centeredness and lack of compassion. The years of caring for his current invalid partner, Bruce, plus the recent death of his brother and father had turned him into someone I no longer recognize.
Other local trips in 2017
Post Date : 2017-03-27
Other travels:
Corydon, Indiana
Mar. 24, 2017 for a virginal trip during the university's spring break.
Lexington, Kentucky
Mar. 25, 2017 for a virginal trip during the university's spring break.
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
Mar. 28-31, 2017 for a virginal trip during the university's spring break.
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YEOH'S JOURNAL
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