Ups & Downs of My Life

My Alaska Trip (04 Aug - 18 Aug)

2005-10-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

Day 4 (07 August 2005)

Today is also one of the highlights of the cruise journey. Our ship arrived at the beautiful town of Juneau - the capital city of Alaska at 8am. We woke up at 7:30am and quickly washed up and rush to the deck to see the ship approaching the port of the city - an activity that Agnes likes to do.

Port of Juneau

After having our breakfast at the buffet area at level 10, we went back to our room to pack some stuff for our shore excusion. We have signed up for a "Mendenhall Glacier, Whale watching and Orca Point Lodge" shore excursion. The bus was waiting for us beside the ship on the port. We boarded the bus and know that the first stop will be Mendenhall Glacier. The bus stopped after 20 mins for us to take some pictures of the glacier. This is a perfect place to take pictures of the glacier from a distance.

Next, we proceed to board the smaller ship for our whale watching cruise. While cruising, we were told to look out for wildlife in particular seals, bald eagles and of course whales - as that's what we came for. It is very cold when the ship starts cruising and the wind chill factor is about 4 degrees. You can feel your cheek turns numb. After about 20 mins of cruising, we entered this area which feels like the bermuda triangle as the area is surrounded by a ring of fog. It is quite exciting for us as this is the first time we encountered such things. After we have cleared the ring of fog, our ship slows down and we are all busy looking around for whales. After some anxious waiting, we finally saw them. One of them even flip their tails! But we did not see them jumping out of the water, which is suppose to be spectacular. The fun part of whale watching is that whenever someon spotted something that looks like whale and shouted "whale", you will see the the whole group of people on the opposite side of the deck rushing to the same side of the deck where the "whale" was spotted. It was almost a spontaneous reaction.

A documentary that we saw later on TV tell us that Alaska is the place where the mother will bring and teach the child how to hunt for food. The best place to see whales is Hawaii as that is the place where they mate. So for the male whale to attract the attention of the female, they have to do all sorts of acrobatic stuff including jumping out the water. We also saw some killer whales - a whole family of three. We were told that we were lucky to see them as it is not a usual sight. We also saw lazy seals sun-tanning on the edge of an small island and bald eagles. Bald eagles are hard to spot. If you see a white dot connected to a brown oval shape amongst a span of trees, high chance that they are bald eagle.

Ring of Fog

Seals sun-tanning on the island

Bald Eagles

Killer Whales

The Humpback Whale

After we have seen our whales, we procced to Orca Lodge to have our lunch. We had wild salmon for lunch. Now this is something that I will never forget. The salmon is bake and it taste so good. Nothing like the cooked salmon that we get in Singapore. It has a nice aroma and sweet taste to it. We were told that the salmon that we ate belongs to the Sock-eyed Salmon - the second best breed of salmon in the world. The best is King Salmon. There are altogether 5 types of salmon. I think what we usually eat in Singapore are the pink salmon - the lowest grade and not breed in captivity.

The ship that we took for whale watching

Orca Point Lodge

My unforgettable Salmon

After our lunch, we proceed to the Mendenhall glacier. When we reached the glacier, the temperature was like 10 degrees with a wind chill factor or 6 degrees. We immediately wrapped ourselves like a dumpling with all our warm clothing.

After we are done at the glacier, we proceed back to the town in coach. When we reached the town, it was already 5:30pm. Sun sets at 10:30pm in Juneau. So we still have time to shop. The ship sets sail at 9:30pm. So we decided to sacrifice our dinner on the cruise which starts at 6:30pm. Anyway it is formal attire tonight so I am not really in favour of going through all the trouble of wearing a suit just for a meal. So we went shopping in Juneau. One thing to note is that the architecture of the buildings in the town is very western and colourful. Souvenirs here are more expensive as there are taxes now.

Town of Juneau

7:40pm and still so bright

Anti-Bear Dust Bin

Time flies and soon it is 8:30pm and we return to the cruise ship reluctantly. Had a quick dinner at the buffet counters at level 10 then went to bed early as we had a very exciting yet long day.

My Alaska Trip 04 Aug - 18 Aug 2005

2005-09-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

Day 3 (06 Aug 2005)

We woke up about 9am this morning. After washing up, we proceed to the breakfast buffet located on the 10th level. This is also where we will have our lunch for the rest of our cruise. Another alternative is to have our breakfast at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant. But the restaurant only serve breakfast from 7am to 9am. And their breakfast comes in sets. We prefer the breakfast counters as we can have lots of variety.

Usually, I will have scrambled egg, sausages, mashed potatoes and orange juice. Agnes will have cereal, waffles and omlette. We like the omlette because you can choose your own ingredients to be put into the omlette. Ham, bacon, spinach and mushroom are our staple when it comes to customizing our omlette. We also like the pizza as it is thin crust with lots of ingredients. You can also make your own pizza and the attendents will bake it for you. So here we are sitting by the windows watching the scenaries and having our breakfast while the ship is cruising. Everything is very relax. If you are on Concierge class, physically challenged or senior citizens, there will be a butler assigned to take care of you when u step into the dining area. We are one of the only five asian families there. Most of the guest on board the cruise are senior citizens. Some can be as old as 70 years old but they are still fit and strong to move around without assistant. Really make one wonder how they can do that with all the oily and high calories american food they are taking for the whole of their life probably.

While we were having breakfast, the captain announced that we will be reaching the Hubbard Glacier at 2:30pm. After the announcement, there was a lot of commotion as the glacier is one of the major attraction of Alaska cruise. After breakfast, we went to the deck to take some pictures and wait for the ship to be near Hubbard Glacier. At about 11:45am, we can see mountain ranges with snow capped peak on both side of the ship. We also have visual contact with the Hubbard Glacier in front of us. We went back to our room to exchange our windbreaker with thicker clothing as the temperature is falling as we approach nearer to the glacier.

By 12:20pm, lots of people are gathering at the front deck of the ship (where u do the titanic thingy) armed with still or video cameras. For us, I chose to go for lunch at the pool side counter since there are less people there. Everyone is on the deck waiting eagerly for the glacier. We had clam chowder, a cheese burger each with fries and fruit punch. The patty of the cheese burger is as thick as all the patties in our big mac added together. So it is very tasty.

At 12:50pm, we finished our lunch and went to deck for the glacier. We are almost reaching the glacier. at 1:15pm, our ship is right in front of the glacier - 200 metres away. All of us started snapping pictures of the glacier. As we look at the glacier, we heard lots of thunder. The narrator said that this thunder-like sound is caused by blocks of glacier ice melted and falls into the sea. The narrator also said that global warming is causing the glaciers to melt rapidly. The Hubbard Glacier used to be much taller but lots of it melted. Now it is about 3 storeys tall. Glaciers are formed when water cascades down from the mountain and the cold temperature causes it to freeze into ice blocks. And one thing to note is that glacier ice is blue not white like the ice cubes we see in our fridge. This is due to the molecular structure difference between the two. The narrator also says that the weather allowed the ship to be only 200 metres close to the glacier which is the nearest for the past 18 years. So we are considered very lucky.

The ship left the glacier at about 4:30pm and cruise south towards our first port of call - Juneau. Juneau is also the capital of Alaska. We went back to our room to take a nap and woke up in time to dress for dinner. We did not go to the Cosmopolitan restaurant as we woke up at 8pm which is not in time for it. We went to have pasta and pizza at the buffet area at level 10. After our dinner, we did not went for the performance as we were already late. So we went to walk around and went to the deck to experience the cold winds at night. After that, we went back to our room and started packing our haversacks for our excursions tomorrow when we reach Juneau.

Approaching Hubbard Glacier

THE HUBBARD GLACIER

Best way to see a glacier is by Helicopter but it cost US$ 650 per pax. Cannot afford.

Glacier ice blocks falling into the water.

My Alaska Trip 04 Aug - 18 Aug 2005

2005-09-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

Day 2 (05 Aug 2005)

We woke up early in the morning so as not to waste any more time as we only have 1 morning left in Anchorage. We left the hotel for breakfast. We walked around the whole downtown for 30 mins and we still couldn't find a decent place to have breakfast except Starbucks. We were both very hungry as the temperature is about 17 degrees. We decided to go to the place where we got our camera charger to try our luck. We manage to find a restaurant that served breakfast. After we had our breakfast, we went back to our hotel and took their transfer from the hotel to the Williams A. Egan centre.

William A. Egan Convention Centre

When we arrived at William A. Egan centre, it was buzzing with activities. We immediately go ahead with our registration and checked in our lugguages. Apparently, there were three cruises departing Anchorage today. So lots of people running around. We board a coach at the cruise centre which will take us to the Ted Stevens airport to board another coach to take us to the port of Seward to board the cruise ship. The whole journey is 3.5 hours and the coach driver doubled up as the tour guide introducing the places of interest and history along the way.

We had our toilet break at a Nature Preservation Centre. This is a place where injured animals are brought to be nursed back to health and being re-introduced back to their wild habitat. The following are the pictures of the animals currently in the nature reserve. We bought some post cards and souvenirs from the shop and continued our journey to the port.

Nature Preservation Centre

A Moose & a Bison

Bald Eagle & a group of Moose

A BlackBear lazing on the tree and Agnes close encounter with a moose.

We reached Seward at 5pm and proceed with the immigration clearance and registration to board the ship.

Seward Cruise Port

We were informed that it is casual attire for the dinner tonight at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant. So after we went to our room and put down our stuff, we were introduced to our room attend, Mahmood and his assistant. We were told that our luggages will be delivered to our rooms shortly. We proceed to have our dinner at the restaurant. After our dinner, we went to the deck to take some pictures and started running around the cruise to familiarise ourselves with the environment. We missed the performance tonight which I regretted after I saw it for the first time on day 3.

Agnes having lobster tail for main course which I regretted for not ordering.

Our stateroom

Views from the Deck

When we went back to our room, our luggages were all delivered and placed outside our room. The largest luggage (the one with the broken handle) has a hole ripped open on one side. I was quite pissed and worried as I still need to use this luggage for the rest of the trip at Vancouver. So I called the customer relations and they agreed to repair the luggage for me. So I emptied the luggage and place it outside for the room attendents to sent for repair.

We slept early that night at 12am, dreaming about what we gonna do tomorrow.

My Alaska Trip 04 Aug - 18 Aug 2005

2005-09-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

Day 1 (04 Aug 2005)

Our flight was at 8.10am so we had to be at the airport at 6am. We finish our packing at 1.30am and woke up at 4.30 am to prepare to go to the airport. My elder brother - Lip Wee and my sister-in-law - Pei San who came over and stayed overnight help us with the luggages and drove us to the airport.

We arrived at the airport at 6am sharp. We checked in our luggages and one of the officer of China Airline asked me whether I brought along my Singapore IC. I did not as I thought my passport would be sufficient to prove my identity. But the officer cautioned me that it is more advisable to bring my IC as the rules and regulations had changed at the US custom after 9/11. So Agnes, Pei San and Lip Wee quickly drove back to get my IC and at the same time my birth cert, marriage cert and PR certificate while I waited at the airport for them. I met one of my colleagues who was going to Bangkok at the same day as well. Agnes and Lip Wee came back with the documents and we had coffee at the airport before we board our plane.

The plane was ok. No individual screens for entertainment but the stewardess were courteous and pleasant. Service was great and they speak with a tone that will make man simply melt. If u have listen to how Lin Zhi Ling speaks u will understand what I mean. We stopped over at Taiwan Chiang Kai Shek airport for 4 hours before we took another flight to Anchorage. That four hours were absolutely boring as there was nothing to do or see in the airport. So we ended up clutching our haversacks and slept on the chairs while waiting for our next flight.

Taiwan CKS Airport

Anchorage Airport

We arrived in Anchorage - a town in Alaska at 11pm. After taking some pictures at the airport, we proceed to our hotel. We arrive at the Howard Johnson Hotel via taxi. And the bellboy broke the handle of my biggest luggage while he was trying to carry it onto a trolley. Surprisingly I was not pissed at all. Think I am in the holiday mood so I am cool about it. After we checked into our hotel room, we walked to the downtown for souvenir shopping. Anchorage is a souvenir shopping paradise with lots of souvenir shop lining along the streets and best part of it is that Anchorage is Tax Free. No GST. No State tax or whatsoever. We bought the majority of our souvenirs in Anchorage. We went back to our hotel about 5pm to take a rest. While we were resting in our room, we realised that we have forgotten to bring the battery charger for our new panasonic camera. So we decided to visit the camera shop in Anchorage to see if we can buy a new charger. We finally found 1 shop and bought it at US$ 80. Kind of heartache to pay for it but I think this amount is nothing compared to the incovenicence of not being able to charge my camera.

Howard Johnson Hotel - The hotel that we stayed in Anchorage.

After we had purchased the camera charger, we went to this restaurant operated by a Japanese couple and had our Alaskan King Crab legs as our dinner. I mean how can we come to Alaska and miss eating the King Crab rite? The crab legs were steamed and the meat was juicy and tender. Cost us about US$ 30 for the meal. Two things of Anchorage that you will notice besides souvenir shops are the bear statues and colour building. We shopped till 11pm at night before we retire in our rooms for more action tomorrow. As it is summer now, sun set is at 11:30pm. So it is great for tourist like us who likes to shop.

Anchorage Post Office

4 More Days to My Cruise to Alaska

2005-07-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yes! It's four more days before I fly to Alaska.

I will be flying to Anchorage on China Airline on the 4th August. It is an early morning flight. I will reach Taipei CKS airport at 11am and spend 4 hours in-transit before I fly straight to Anchorage. Gosh, what am I going to do in that 4 hours. I will spend 1 night in Anchorage and will travel 3.5 hours by land from Anchorage to Seward, a port in Alaska to board the cruise ship.

The cruise ship that I will be taking is Celerity Summit.

Ship Facts :

Occupancy: 2034

Tonnage: 91,000

Length: 965 ft.

Cruisespeed: 24 knots

I will be spending 7 nights onboard the ship.

The cruise starts from Seward down along the straits of Alaska, passing through various port of calls and places of interest such as Hubbard Glacier, Icy Straits Point, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and finally stopping at Vancouver. The cruise will stop at several ports of call. There are shore excursions that you can take up at each port of call. The main ones are Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.

I am planning for a shore excursion at Juneau where I will visit the Mendenhall Glacier, watching humpback and killer whale as well as having a sumptous meal of fresh wild salmon and other seafood.

At Skagway, I am planning to experience the wild like of Alaska by taking a small cruise to Lynn Fjord. On board of the cruise, I will be able to view wild life such as seals, sealions lazing on the coast. If time permits, I will also visit Musher's Camp where Alaskan sled dogs are train. I will have the opportunity to play with the puppies and also sit on a sled pulled by adult sled dogs across a rain forest.

Alaskan sled puppy

These are the three main shore excursions that I die die want to go. Of course there are other shore excursion that I am interested too but they are too expensive for me to take up. Some can cost up to US$ 600 per pax.

I will reach Vancouver on 12 Aug morning. I will be visiting some "must visit" place listed in most travel guides and websites on Vancouver tourism. I plan to visit the Stanley Park in the afternoon the same day I reach Vancouver. On the 13th Aug, I will be visiting the Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge. That will take one whole day.

On the 14th and 15th of Aug, I will be embarking for a short trip to the Canadian Rockies. I will be taking a motorcoach and travel from Vancouver to Calgary and passing through Whitsler, Lac La Jeane, Banff and Lake Louis. I will be spending one nite in Lac La Jeane on the 14th Aug and the tour ends at Calgary on the 15th Aug evening. I will spend one nite at Calgary and flew back to Vancouver on the 16th Aug.

Photo of Canadian Rockies

I am planning to visit Gastown, Chinatown and Westend in Vancouver on 16th and 17th Aug. Will be doing some shopping and sight-seeing at Robson Square (aka our Orchard Road). I will be flying off on the 18th Aug from Vancouver and reach Taipei CKS airport on the 19th Aug. Will be spending a nite in Taipei before flying back from Taipei to Singapore on the 20th Aug.

Photo courtesy of:

www.celebrity.com

www.brewster.ca

May the Force be with You......against Aedes Mosquito

2005-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Came across this poster on the notice board of a HDB flat. Finds it amusing. If you are a Star Wars fan, you will know what I mean. :P

Prawn Mee @ Macpherson

2005-07-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

I had a very sinful but delicious breakfast this morning. One of Agnes's colleague suggested having our breakfast at a coffee shop at Macpherson. Apparently this coffee shop has the best prawn mee in Singapore. So once again, I cannot resist the temptation and woke up early to meet them to try the "har meen".

The coffee shop is situated near Jacksons hawker centre at Macpherson.

As you can see from the photo, they have many different kinds of prawn mee. You name it they have it. From the normal prawn mee to spare ribs & prawn mee to mushroom prawn mee to even Abalone prawn mee. Price for a normal prawn mee is S$ 3.50.

So without further hesitation, we immediately place our orders.

Clockwise from the left:

Tracy, Francis, Simon, Henry and Agnes.

After about 15 mins, the food came.

The red powder shown above is actually chilly powder. To me this is what makes this prawn mee stands out from the rest. So far, the best prawn noodles I have tasted is at Kallang and Hong Lim hawker centre. The taste of this prawn mee is able to rival the two but with the chilli powder added, it might even surpass them. Adding the chilli powder somehow gives more "ormh" to the taste.

Everyone was busy tugging in to the food when they arrive.

According to Henry, the soup of the prawn mee is at its best between 2 - 3 pm as by then all the goodnes of the ingredients had all went into the soup after a few hours of boiling. The store operates from morning till 4:30pm. A franchisee took over after 4:30pm.

We went our seperate ways after we finish all our food. It was a great way to start our Saturday with.

Mexican Mania at Magarita's

2005-07-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last nite was one of my regular foodie outing with Felix and Dexter. We went to try some Mexican food last evening with my two friends.

The restaurant is call Magarita's situated along Katong. It was highly recommended by Dexter, who is our food guru. Trust me, so far the food that he recommended to me has not failed me. So we decided to try it out .

The ambience of the restaurant is rather unique. Warm colours are being used to spice up the ambience through paintings, wall paints and furniture. When we arrive, we were the only group of customer. But after reading the menu for 15 mins, the crowd started to arrive. There were althogether 5 tables occupied, which we considered it to be good business for a Wednesday evening.

We couldn't decide what to order so we asked one of the waiteress to make some recommendation. All in all, we ordered two appetizers, two main course and a jug of peach & honey concoction. We were all very hungry and while waiting anxiously for the food to arrive, we smell the good aroma of other dishes ordered by other customers. That made us even hungrier.

After waiting that felt like ages, the first appetizer finally arrive. It's Avocado with Prawns. Chopped avocado fruit were mixed with prawns and sauce, and served on the skin of avocado. The taste is cool, rich and slightly sour. The avocado flesh blended seamlessly with fresh prawns and the sauce. It is very a good appetizer to start with.

Next appetizer is Grilled Portamello Mushroom with white sauce. There were two pieces of mushroom submerged in white sauce. The mushroom were very fresh and as u cut it with your cutlery, the juice within the mushroom will ooze out. The sauce goes very well with the mushroom and "succulent" is the word to describe the texture of the mushroom when u chew on it.

Now come the main course. The first main course that arrived is the Corn-fed Fish - highly recommended by Dexter, as he had tried it during his last visit. It is fish fillet fried to golden brown with white sauce, rice and raw vegetables. This is also another delicious dish as the fish fillet taste fresh and the texture of the meat is fine and smooth as silk.

The second main course is the Fajitaas. We ordered mixed filling which comes with grilled sliced beef, grilled chicken breast strips and onions. The meat are very juicy and it taste great with the onion. Before it arrives on our table, we can smell itfrom the kitchen, which makes us more eager to try it. Once it is on the table, three of us immediate get on with wrapping the filling with the bread provided, like making "popiah". We ordered another three serving of the bread to finish off the rest of the fillings with a satisfied "aargh"

The peach & honey drink that we ordered is also great as it is medium bodied and not very sweet. It helps to refresh our taste bud and prepare it for the next dish.

After the meal, we proceed to have our dessert and chit chat session at Secret Recipe. For some unknown reason, the idea of trying the dessert at Margarita's never came to our mind. We ordered a chocolate & banana cake with coffee and juice. We left after we are done with the cake.

Our verdict on Magarita:

Food taste: Very good
Food portion: Small
Ambience : Good (aircon a bit too cold)
Price: Expensive (S$ 123+ for the meal for three)

My First Digital Camera

2005-07-19T02:41:00.000-07:00

After reading about many blogs of others, resistance is futil for me. So here I am sitting down writing my first blog.

After do a bit of research, I finally bought my first digital camera so that I can take beautiful pictures during my Alaska Cruise in August. Its the Panasonic Lumix FZ5. It comes with a picture quality of 5 mega pixels and 12x optical zoom. A bit bulky but I like the features that are packed into this camera.

This is a camera that is suitable for beginner who may demands more customisation in their photography in future. Why do I say so? That's because this camera allows you to turn the features on auto as well as manual. But it is not an SLR.I bought this camera last Saturday from Best Denki at Plaza Singapura. I immediate start to read the user manuals when I reach home that day. I also try to play with it as I read the user manual. After playing with it for a while, I decided it is time to stop. So I put the camera into the camera pouch. After I put it into the pouch, I have some difficulty in closing the camera pouch. So I try to force it in a bit. I thought it would be ok. I WAS WRONG! As the camera pouch is rather stiff, it pushed against the camera when I try to force it to close. To my horror, the view finder cover actually came off! I was like....oh...oh....siao liao. I am in big trouble! Just bought the camera for a few hours and it broke! After taking a deep breathe, my mind started thinking for solutions. I remembered the salesman told me that I can exchange for a new set within 7 days of my purchase. So I decided to bring it down tomorrow to exchange. I didn't sleep well that night.

I went to Best Denki the next morning. I told the sales girl what happen. I was expecting some form of resistance and I have prepare all my reasons and excuses to exchange it successfully. But the sales girl immediately told me that they will replace with a new set. No question ask! I was so happy. I went home with a newly replace camera and this time I put it into the camera pouch carefully.:)