Indonesia Here I Come!!

Gosh! I couldn't believe that I finally get to revisit Indonesia~  It's been 7 years since the last time I was there and I am super pumped to be back!!!

Here's my princess style travelling needs~

It took a total of 26 hours of flight time and 13 hours of transit before I finally step my foot on my beautiful, super humid, little hometown. I flew with China Airline, who kept on feeding me with a really good travel size full course Chinese food.  I like how on my flight to Taipei, they give me Ferrero Rocher chocolate!! Me gusta~

At first, I was kinda scared to travel internationally by myself.  But then I realize that it actually excites me more than it scares me.  By travelling by myself, I get to meet lots of different people.  Like the Vietnamese girl that helped me push my luggage.  I brought three luggage and one carry on, and I was kinda lazy to grab the cart because the check in line does not seems to be that long.  I was wrong of course, cuz I end up scrambling through the check in line trying to juggle my stuffs.  Luckily, the Vietnamese girl start to help me out and we eventually chat through the check in line.

Then during my transit in Los Angeles, I met an elderly woman from a country that I have never heard about before.  She looks kinda similar to Indian people, but apparently she is from the Republic of Fiji, an island in the South Pacific Ocean, closer to Australia than the middle eastern.  With teary eyes, she told me about how she was in arrange married, but she grew to love her husband that she just lost from cancer.  I guess it doesn't really matter how you meet your soul-mate huh?

She waited for like 3 hours in the airport and had asked someone to help her get the boarding pass. But that person never came back.  So I took the chance to pass forward the help that I got from the Vietnamese girl to this Fiji woman.  It surprised me that the people on the airport is sooooo unwilling to help!  I asked some people in the assistance area to get a wheel chair to help her.  But they kept on telling me that I would need a boarding pass to get the assistance.  The thing is this woman wasn't even able to walk to the check-in area and it makes me mad that the person that I first talked to insist on not helping!  I finally talk to another person and get her to help me out.  Thank God there's still some people who cares

Then, I flew for 14 hours to Taipei.  There's a lot of things that I like about the airport at Taipei.  To start with, all of their cafe and restaurant are super duper cute!! I went to a cafe to get a cup of blended ice coffee.  The cafe had this vintage and romantic feel.  They paid attention even to the most tedious details, like painting the floor with small vintage flowers.

The airport also give out maps that guide tourist to have the traveling experience even though we only spent the time at the airport.  The only thing that could be better is that if they make the map sings the map song~

"If there's a place you got to go
I'm the one you need to know
I'm the Map
I'm the Map
I'm the Map"

(Lol Dora, you are such an inspiration)

More surprisingly, Taipei airport also has a hello kitty themed gate!! Why couldn't we have any of this in the US?

The airport also had this super cute Christmas display, complete with a small Santa and his Reindeer running around the display.  I don't know how it works, my guess is that they used battery or solar power to mobilize our little Santa.

Lastly! my favorite of all~  There was this tree where you can write your wish on colorful sticky notes.  Although it was mostly written in Mandarin, I saw many sticky notes from different places like Russia, UK, and USA.  I feel like this tree brought us closer, where ever you came from and where ever you are heading to.

At last, after "Percy Jackson", "We Are the Millers", "Frankenwennie", and some other random movies, I arrived in Indonesia.  I thought it was very convenient to be able to apply the visa on arrival.  I just wished people know how to make a line.  I mean it is so simple that kinder-gardener know how to do it. But during my arrival, there was a group of old Chinese ladies that cut the line. Some people got angry and start swearing to them, but they pretend like they hear nothing.  

No offense to my reader who are Chinese, but you guys should change that tradition.  It's rude and unethical!  Let your grandma do the mistake, but the younger generations need to change! We had lived in a more globalize world afterall, you need to be able to live side by side with people from different backgrounds.

From this flight, I learned that with one kindness at a time, we can make the world a better place.  Be open minded and be willing to help each other!  At least I learned that my ultimate happiness does not came from having money or being able to buy materialistic items, but from making other people happy.  Try to pass forward each kindness that you had received and see how it makes your life full of joy!

Until the next adventure you all...Vagabond girl is out.

What Happens in Pittsburgh Stays in Pittsburgh (NOT)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone~~ hopefully you stuffed all those yummy nummies in your bellies!! Let's all get fat together and survive this harsh cold winter weather.

Me and my partner in crime, Danica, was planning to go to Canada for thanksgiving break.  But apparently the Canadian embassy over at Detroit is closed for good and now you have to send your visa application either to the embassy at NY or LA.  It sucks for everyone who lives in Midwest...considering one of the border to Canada is actually located in Detroit.

Well anyway~  that doesn't stop us from having another adventure together.  Ever since our last getaway to Minneapolis, which took us 15 hours drive from Lansing, anywhere seems possible now.

We start to consider New York, Philadelphia, or Tennessee as our new destination.  But just the morning of thanksgiving, we heard from our friends that they are going to Pittsburgh.  So we decided that morning that we will catch up with them and start driving to Pittsburgh on Friday morning.

Enough with the background story! Now let's get up all night for good fun 

Danica and I left our house early in the morning, when the sun and all the birds still hiding under their warm blanket.  And of course, if you are in a road trip, you gotta stop by Tim Horton cuz their mocha ice cap will give u sugar rush and keep you awake for 5 hours before you crash! hahaha

After a couple songs..we arrived in Pittsburgh already.  We met up with our friends and had some lunch together at the Big Fat Greek Gyro at market square.  I ordered a medium rare steak Gyro that almost break my jaw.  Seriously, if you ever order a medium rare steak, you better cut the steak into smaller pieces.  I tried to chew em as is and it feels like I am burning more calories than my intake.





Afterwards, we walked around the downtown, which was fully decorated with Christmas stuffs and screamed CAMWHORING TIMEEEEE!!!

I actually took a lot more pictures, but somehow my Samsung NX1000 was frozen.  When I tried to zoom in and out to take pictures, it often took a delay and all of my pictures end up blurry.  Screw you winter!!!!

We then went to Andy Warhol museum.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take too many pictures because it wasn't allowed.  The museum was great though, we start off from the 7th floor and work our way down.  The 7th floor was actually dedicated to Yasumasa Morimura, who is a Japanese artist who likes to recreate other people works with his twist.

I personally likes Morimura's works better than Warhol just because it was so twisted and deep.  I do not want to spoil the experience to other people who hasn't seen Morimura's work.  I highly recommend everyone to Google him up though!!

At night, we ate dinner at Sun Penang.  Which was supposedly a really good "Malaysian" restaurant.  But when we take a look at the menu, most of them are Chinese food.  Despite the big disappointment, Sun Penang did make decent  Malaysian foods.  Here are their Roti canai and Roti Telur.  The Roti Telur is kinda similar to Indonesian Martabak Telur, but personally I thought Indonesian's is better and yes I am bias! lol

After dinner, we drove up to the mountain to get a good view of Pittsburgh at night.  It was so beautiful and cold!!!! so again, most of my pictures were blurry hahaha..I really need to get a sweater for my Camera.  (booyah there we go a breakthrough innovative business idea!)

The next morning, our friends were all driving to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while Danica and I stayed at Pittsburgh.  We have another appointment on Saturday night at Lansing, otherwise we would have joined the rest of the pack.

We end up going to Phipps Conservatory.  Phipps is like an indoor park that features different plants from different parts of the world.  They got some cactus, bonsai, or even the bird of the paradise.

Heck yeah~ They are also being consistent with the Christmas theme at downtown!

Phipps also have a wedding gallery that enables me to do a super 90's pose

Talking about flowers, I never like getting flowers as a gift.  First it doesn't last that long and I am suck at taking care of plant!  I do like flowers though, but I rather see them grow in the wild.

These two kinda look like angels...don't you agree?

Their collection was great! they even have a special room for Indian rain forest, complete with the pillar and trees that looks like those in Bollywood movies hahaha

After all these fun! now it's time to wrap up and think about what I learned from this trip.

I guess I kinda learned that life is too short to spend meaninglessly.  For a break such as thanksgiving break, spend them with people who are important to you.  Do not lock yourself catching up with works or watching movie on your own, because when else would everyone have free time together?  Be thankful for the people who cares about you and return their love by giving back a thousand times more!
Bali
Until the next adventure you all...Vagabond girl is out.

The Walking Dead Wannabe

Hi lovely readers,

So to have a little pre-Halloween celebration, I went to kill off some zombies yesterday.  The event was held by TC Paintball at Charlotte, Michigan.

Although we got there early because we were expecting a long line, we still end up waiting for 2 hours before we get in.  It was so cold and I couldn't feel neither my hands nor my toes anymore, so we took picture close to the campfire ( for those of you with too much imagination, I'm sorry to say but the reddish light on the left hand side is not a ghost apparition haha)

The zombie hunt was a 15 minutes mission which really felt more like 5 minutes because it was too much fun!!  To start with, we were given Splatmaster shotguns with 15 ammo.  Then, just like any other zombie hunting game, we got to find more ammo along the way.  We also have a guide who told us that we need to find this doctor who supposedly has the cure.

I was a little nervous when the mission started, cuz I literary couldn't see nothing!  The zombie village was kinda dark to begin with and my vision was further limited by the gear.  Even worst, the gear would start to fogged up if you keep on breathing with your nose.

Luckily I figure this out early and started breathing through my mouth.  Some of my friends however didn't realize it until later in the mission.  They end up scrambling throughout the mission relying on their hearings.

The funny thing was that one of my friend wore a red jacket, and since he was the only thing we can see in the dark,  he became the target of friendly fire LOL!  We couldn't distinguish between friends and foes, so whatever we saw first would be our target.  Another friend of mine kept on shooting at him that the guide end up confiscating his gun hahahahahah.

I end up screaming my ass off all the way through the village because there was so many zombies and I don't know where my friends are.  Zombies would jump in front of me, crawling towards me, and growl like crazy.  And I need to pump the shotgun for each shot!! Meh, how I wish I have machine guns instead so I could go Rambo with it hahah.

After getting into two safety zones, we finally got to see the doctor.  The doctor asked us "Are you guys looking for the cure?"  So, I replied with a weak yes and started walking towards him to get the cure.  Suddenly he growled and running towards me!!! what the freak~~~~

So I screamed and did a head shot at the same time till the zombie-doctor died, oww yeahhh 

Then the guide told us that we need to take the cure.  I wasn't sure, but I just grabbed the bottle that was in the dead zombie's hand.  Then guess what, HE'S STILL ALIVE!!! whyyy meeeeeee~~~  So I shot once and I tripped over a barrel (or a dead zombie, I'm not sure which one).

But anyway, the zombie-doctor was still alive and I couldn't reload because my other hand was holding the bottle!!  Fortunately someone in my team got him and I am alive mwahahaha.  It was such an intense ending.

I really wish the mission was longer and that there's a way to oust us.  That way it would be much more realistic hahaha.  But I am happy with the overall presentation.

So, before we leave and head of to Denny's for dinner, we took a zombie hunt commemoration picture.

From this adventure, I learned that even though sometime you might have a friend that would stab you in the back, in the end you would also find a true friend who you could rely on.  So, don't give up on humanity!! hahaha

Until the next adventure you all... Vagabond girl is out.

At Last, Vagabond Girl Unleashed!!!

Yeay!! I finally get to create my own travelling blog.  I have always been passionate about travelling, but my immigrant status and my lazy-cheap ass has hindered me from travelling more than I should.  But now that I finally has my passport, it is time for me to explore this little world.

Thanks to Anthony Bourdain who has been my inspiration, I am now committed to preserve my experience through pictures and words.  Hopefully this travelling blog will last and make a huge hit!

Well anyway, I will start with sharing my little expedition at Manistee National Forrest on early October.  I went there with a couple friends to witness the fall foliage.  We arrived around 10 pm, so we just spent our first night setting up our tent at the camping area close to the parking lot.

The weather forecast said that we have 40% chance of thunderstorm that night, and we could just wish that mother nature will be on our side.  But of course weather forecast won!  Just when we finished building our tent and cooked some weirdly good instant raspberry chocolate dessert with moth sprinkles, the rain started to fall down.

We quickly brushed our teeth, changed our clothes, and retreated into our tent.  We end up spending the first night with heart to heart conversation, like you would in a girly sleepover night hahaha.

Although I am a huge fan of thunderstorm noise,  I slept like a baby with poops on my diaper.  My problem was not the noise,  it was the fact that our tent started to absorb the water!  I could feel water flowing through my sleeping pad.  It felt just like I was sleeping on a water bed. If you think water bed is glamorous, I will argue with my life that it was not!

The next morning was a beautiful day however!  We woke up around 8 o'clock and found out that apparently we set up our tent right at the down slope, noob~  No wonder all those water end up submerging our tent.

After folding back our tent and eating some breakfast, of course I would find the time to take a fabulous selfie before anything else.

Then we started the 5-7 hours walk to the wood before we found a good place to set up our tent!  Thanks to Ria who cooked this awesome Mediterranean lunch for us.

 I also found a cute mushroom with a slug near our spot.  It kinda remind me to the caterpillar in Alice in the Wonderland.  The one who like to do hookah on top a mushroom, thanks Disney for the message!

We hung parts of our tent between trees for 15 minutes to let it dry.  Then we set up our tent, remove some weights from our bag and finally walk for another 7 hours!  Yeah I started to feel my butt is gaining muscle from all those hiking time.  One of my friend actually have this calories counter gadget and we apparently burnt about 1800 calories for the 20 hours that we spent hiking that day.  Geez that's like a family size potato chips that I could eat in an hour!!! Oh how I wish I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight~

By the way, I found this adorable hairy caterpillar when we walk to see the water falls (which wasn't as grandeur as I imagine, so I didn't take a picture of it).

When we walk back, just about 3-4 miles from our tent, the thunder start to rumble! We started power walking back to our spot. How lucky we were, the actual thunderstorm didn't start until we actually reached our place.  Then at around 7 pm the rain stopped, so we were planning to set up a camp fire and eat some smores.  But mother nature loves to troll, just when we step outside the tent, it started to rain again!

Again, the second night becoming another pillow talk time~

The next morning we walk back and meet a daddy-and-son hikers.  The daddy seems to be a veteran of war of some kind.  He has this vintage backpack with an iron bar to keep his back straight, it was pretty cool.  Anyway, we asked them to take a picture of us.  We did the sorority squad hoping the beautiful scenery in our back would be captured.  Total failure however, I cannot safe this picture with my low level editing skills hahaha.

Once we arrived to the parking spot, my shoes was soaking wet.  I couldn't help but keep on thinking how people in army losing their toes because they didn't get the chance to change their socks.  So, the first thing that I did was drying up my beautiful feet and wear my flip flops.  I also has to let go the training shoes that has accompany me for the past 7 years, because it has holes here and there.  I feel really accomplished though hahaha.

Overall, this little expedition has taught me to once again appreciate the beautiful gift that God has given to me.  The magnificent nature that I capture in these pictures are nothing close to the real thing.  I also learned that my plan would never work if it is not according to God's will.  In this trip, we were planning on so many things, like eating smores for example, but it will never happen if God has different plan.  In that case, I need to fully put my trust in God and keep enjoying my life in its ups and downs~

Until the next adventure you all... Vagabond Girl is out