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.