Chicago: Susan's Graduation and Family Trip

This weekend, my older sister, Susan just graduated, Summa Cum Laude, from optometry school at ICO, so the whole family and a few of her friends flew over for her commencement. We did lots of touristy things like going up the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), walk the Mag Mile, visit Wrigley Field, and walk around Navy Pier. I love Chicago!

We stayed at a condo near Millennium Park, so we took pictures at the Bean before going to her commencement.
 
Family Pic!
 
I wonder what it'd feel like standing in a glass box 103 stories above ground...
 
We definitely ate our way through Chicago: Molly's cupcakes, Garrett's popcorn, and some awesome Giordano's Stuffed Crust Pizza.
 

Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou

After Chengdu, we spent a day at Huanglong and a day at Jiuzhaigou. Seems like this year will involve lots of revisiting places!

The last time I was here, it was snowing and cold, but since it was fall, the trees were shades of red/orange. This time, Huanglong was warmer and had beautiful blue skies.
 
Jiuzhaigou - always breathtaking!
 
 
 
We had a Tibetan banquet (with lots of BBQ yak that I didn't eat). During the course of the dinner, I ate, drank, and got married to this girl!
 

Chengdu!

For our annual company trip in mid May, we spent a few days in Sichuan, with our first stop in Chengdu.

I got to see the Pandas at the Chengdu Panda research center again. I could watch them all day!
 
 
We went to see a Sichuan Opera, which involved some sword throwing, with yours truly!
 
The coolest part of the show was the Sichuan Face Changing performance (Wikipedia Link). Performers changed faces in less than a second. One walked up to one of my coworkers for a handshake and POOF, new face!
 

More traveling!

I haven't gone on any big adventures in the last few months, which is fine, b/c the next 3 months are going to be CRAZY! Taipei, Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, Shenzhen, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, HK, Macau, Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai...

A bit of work, family, friends... Life is good!

Victoria Peak

While I've been to HK more than a dozen times in the last year, this was the first time I had been to Victoria Peak. A few friends and I decided to go for a "hike", which ended up being a nice leisurely stroll around the top of the peak. Weather was a bit overcast, but it was extremely comfortable for a nice stroll!

 

Back in SZ!

I'm now back in Shenzhen and I'm about 4 shades darker (I can tell when I look at my sandal tan and farmers tan - I'll spare you all a photo of it :P).

It is good to be back home - I do love my room! Time to get back into the swing of things... I think I'll start with a visit to the Peak in HK tomorrow!

Penang!

After Singapore, I flew to Penang to hang out with a friend of mine, Wong. Here's a picture of him and his family where we got some awesome Indian food. Who needs plates when you have banana leaves! Very classy!
 
I stayed in Penang for 7 days where I got to continue doing nothing but eat, sleep, and relax. Check out the view from our balcony! Wong gets this view every day! Talk about having an awesome place. The air is fresh, the view is fantastic. Very refreshing!
 
My trip through Malaysia and Singapore have confirmed that I love Indian food. Half of my meals during the trip were Indian food! Check out this Poori the size of my head! Fried bread and lots of it. Yum! Add some good naan, curry, dal... I could eat it every day!
 
Here's a picture I took while watching the sun set Batu Ferringhi (a touristy strip of beaches in the northern part of Penang).
 























I now get to check off another hotel on my list of famous hotels visited. (I've made this list since I've unintentionally been to most of them!). The Sarkies Brothers founded a bunch of hotels toward the end of the 19th century/ beginning of the 20th century. Here's a Wikipedia link.

In chronological order, the hotels founded by the brothers were:

* 1884: Eastern Hotel, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
* 1885: Oriental Hotel, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
* 1889: Eastern and Oriental merged into Eastern & Oriental Hotel (visited Feb 2010)
* 1887: Raffles Hotel, Singapore (visited Feb 2010)
* 1891: Kartika Wijaya, Batu, Java, Indonesia[1]
* 1901: Strand Hotel, Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar) (visited July 2008)
* 1910: Hotel Majapahit (as Hotel Oranje), Surabaya, Indonesia

I guess this means that I need go to to Indonesia!

Here's a picture of the pagoda at the Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple (supposedly the largest in Malaysia). It gets all lit up for the Chinese New Year! What's crazy, is that every lantern and every tile in the temple is "sponsored" by someone. "Sponsored" meaning someone made a donation to the temple to have that lantern hung or tile tiled.

When I see these anodized aluminum bottle openers, I can't help but think about the hours it took me to machine a few of them in the machine shop (you might even own one of these!). Here, you can buy one for less than usd1!

This is a photo of the biggest ant I have ever seen! It's an ANT, and it's HUGE!

I went for a short hike in the Penang National Park to Pantai Kerachut which opens up to a secluded beach! No people, no litter, clean water! Went for a nice swim on a beach all to myself!