Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, 15th President of the Philippines, June 30, 2010

 We were in the Philippines when the election happened.  It was an exciting moment in history where most Filipinos participated in.  We wanted to vote for Noynoy but we cant.  We are Canadians but we supported him in our hearts.  We were overjoyed when the count showed him leading the pack by a huge margin.  He was several millions vote ahead of the second in the competition for the Presidentiables.  

Just like everyone else, my husband and I are so tired of the corruption in the Philippines.  Old politicians are always there in power and so the tradition of corruption went on for a long time.  Noynoy is capital HOPE for poor Filipinos and well-heeled Filipinos who are honest and desperate for change. 

Good luck Noynoy and God bless you and the Philippines.

Queen Elizabeth in Canada

It was raining heavily when The Queen arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  It was nice watching her got off the plane with an umbrella unassisted, despite her age of 84, followed by her husband Prince Philip.

News reports said The Queen is not coming over to Vancouver.  If she were, I would have lined up the street wherever she is going, to see her.

Summer in Greater Vancouver, Canada

June 21 was the start of Summer 2010.  It's been 9 days since and there's only been 2 sunny days.  The rest of the days are gloomy and rainy.  Caucasian Canadians who are so looking forward to go the beach to get their bodies tanned are so complaining of the gloomy and rainy weather.

Personally, I am very happy.  My family and I prefer Winter over Summer.  My husband and I had too much of the sun and the heat in the Philippines.  I would appreciate more days with temp in the 14 deg. C range like today.

Home is Surrey, BC, Canada - June 4, 2010

Our airline from Hongkong-Shanghai to Vancouver was China Eastern Airlines.  It is the cheapest flight I did find online and also cheaper vs. travel agencies in Manila.  It is also nice because we did get to make side trips to Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai before finally going home after close to 5 months of being away.

Home is where our children are.  My three children live in Surrey, BC together in one condo.  When we are home, there's five of us in this 1150 sq. feet home (107 sq.m.)  They are all unmarried and as Asians it is considered normal for adult children and parents to live together.

My husband and I are both retired and when we are home, our main occupation are food and groceries shopping and cooking.  Our days are full however because of our many interests like computer, tv shows, movies watched on tv, sudoku, hanging out at McDonalds to drink coffee, cooking and also eating out.

One of the best thing about coming home, aside from being together with our children again, is the weather.  We arrive in Spring time which was like heaven, temp is around 12 deg C which is of course like our entire home and the streets are all airconditioned; comparison is extremely hot temp in Manila at 38 deg C.  I am so happy, I am no longer suffering the unbearable heat of Manila.

Shanghai, China June 3, 2010

Chinese Immigration allowed us to enter without visa because of their 48-hour in-transit policy.  We arrived on their airport at past 2 pm and after scrutinizing our eticket for our flight to Vancouver which was on the following day at 1pm, we were allowed entry for 24 hours.

Our hotel which was located at the airport was a few minutes walk from Arrival Gate.  There were 2 hotels at the airport actually.  Where we checked in is called Motel 168 and the other was Ease Hotel.  The hotel room was big with a queen size bed which the reception people told me was king size.  It doesn't matter though whatever the size is because we are staying here for only 1 night.  This room is a huge upgrade compared to our room in Hong Kong.  Cad$62 per night.

It was fun trying to buy a fare ticket to ride the metro to go to the city.  We figured there was English option, so it became a breeze buying tickets to go shopping downtown.  The metro was clean and full of Chinese people.   I did see one Caucausian, us Filipinos and the rest are Chinese. 

We went shopping and by the time the mall was closing we were done shopping.  It was a terrible experience shopping in Shanghai.  I am a Filipino and I know how to do haggling but here in Shanghai sales people would pressure, harass, hold your arm, run after you to force you to make them a counter offer from the ridiculously high price they quoted you.

We went to see the famous Nanjing Road  This is Shanghai's shopping street where malls are left and right and lining up the several km street.  It was a beautiful night at Nanjing Road, the street was lighted and there were a great number of people walking the street.

It was our only night in Shanghai, we wanted to see more but our achy feet and legs would not cooperate anymore, we had to go back to our hotel room.

The following morning, I wanted to shop at Shanghai airport but every shop was chinese and all goods are chinese.  I thought I could find branded products like those I've seen at Hong Kong airport but sadly there was none at this airport.

We had brunch at a fastfood at the airport and later it was time to check in for our flight to Vancouver.

Fruits

Day Trip to Macau from Hong Kong by Ferry

 June 1, 2010
We went to Macau today. Gateway Tower at Canton Road is walking distance from Chungking Mansions at Nathan Road.  Gateway Tower is a mall and this is where the departure and arrival areas of the ferries that go and come back from Macau are located.

Ferry ride was nice and smooth going to Macau.  It took about an hour and 15 minutes.  Ferry ride cost for the two of us was HKG $600 or US77 round trip.

There are a lot of people entering Macau lined up at Immigration.   After being allowed entry, we changed our HKG dollars to MOP or Macanese Pataca.  We got 102.90 Pataca for our 100 HKG dollars. Coming back to Hong Kong we have MOP28 left.  We spent 26 on cookies and was left with 2.