YOGAYUGA

I took a cruise tour today for 1.5 hours! I went to Bayside down town Market Place, but didn’t expect any cruise trip. And it happened! It only costs USD15.00 for each person. It was USD20.00, but the first 15 persons offered with special discount. I was within the first 15. I didn’t pay much attention about the tour details, and just realised after I got on the cruise that it was a tour of Millionaires Row and beautiful Biscayne Bay. I just wanted to get on the boat, and go somewhere beautiful. ^_^; It takes you to see the Homes of The Rich and Famous. All the expensive houses are built along Biscayne Bay. Houses include Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias, Jackie Chan and Gloria Estefan, etc. The tour guide introduced each house when our boat passed by each of them, but most of those people he mentioned I have never heard. Many are Spanish singers, and local stars. I only know the well known international stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Chan of course, Ricky Martin and Elizabeth Taylor, etc.

It was a great fun trip with VERY Caribbean atmosphere. They played special song on the boat when came to house of that particular person. They made up sound of Ku Fung when we passed by house of Jackie Chan. They played song of Ricky Martin as well. The whole tour started from Bayside Market Place, passed by well known houses, South Beach, and back to Bayside.

The bay view was fantastic with so many boats and cruises around the whole area. I guess I had been 1/20 of Caribbean sea. lol

House of Jackie Chan, and house of Ricky Martin

They played the song of Ricky Martin by the time we passed through his house…You can see me in the end of the video…

People were singing and dancing in the Market Place. Latino music was all around…

You can hear the music…

The building view looks so much like ours in Hong Kong….

I took many photos on the South Beach, but these are part of my favourites. I will upload the rest on Flickr soon.

The sea view was amazing. Weather was beautiful. My mood was colourful. The food was wonderful. I had great time on Miami Beach. I had great food in the mall of Lincoin Road where you can find many open cafes. Most are Italian cafes.  I feel my life is full of colour.

I sat on the beach for two hours as I tried to make myself to realise this is true, “I am on Miami Beach”. I really can’t believe I am on Miami Beach. I can’t believe I can have my feet soaked in the Carribean water. Miami is somewhere that I have never thought I would go as it’s far from my usual travel idea. It’s absolutely no Asian in the surroundings of this place. I have never thought I would have my current job, and be in Miami!! How amazing!! It’s like a dream, a dream I have never dreamed of, and that came true in real life. So everything could happen, guys!! You never know!!

It was quiet, peaceful, a little hot with a little wind. It was just perfect! I wore too much clothes as I didn’t know that the weather is just like summer of H.K. >_< A woman who even had sunbath with topless. I had so much clothes on.

The manager of the Italian cafe, who talked to everyone pass by…

My tasty Italian lunch….

My French dinner, it was an excellent one…

I managed to visit some galleries…

Hope that one day I can take one of these cruises going to Bahama or Jamaica….

The image isn’t clear, but you can hear the sound of sea and the sea birds.

I eventually arrived in Miami but saw no sunshine after twenty hours of journey. LoL I was expecting to see the smile of Miami. I was starving when I arrived. AA didn’t sell any food on the night flight apart from giving passengers free drinks. They charge everything on the flight even the head set for movie. It costs USD2.00. I was shocked as it is supposed to be part of the services on the plane. My AA flight departed at 10:50pm on 29th. I didn’t eat much on the CX flight as it was the breakfast food. The CX dinner was good though with beef and salad. The new seats of CX are not so comfortable I feel. Their business class section became so congested with the new seat design. The flight was absolutely full. Few babies were on board I think. My goodness, one of them kepy crying and crying. There was one sitting next to me with her mother. I was so glad that she didn’t cry much, and only made some noise. The AA flight was full too, but the seat next to me was empty.

I was absolutely starving when I arrived. I quickly got to the hotel by taxi. It only took 10 mins. Miami looks like a beautiful holiday place. I thought that I can have a nice meal in the hotel, but found the surrounding is so empty. It was rainy and windy during day time. The hotel manager told me that I could walk to Warmart nearby, but I didn’t due to the rainy weather. Many food service menus are available in my room, so I made few calls, but found they all are not available until 11am. Some open at 4pm. I finally got one at 11am, and ordered so much food. The American portion is big, but I ate them all. LoL

The surrounding lookouts from my room.

My studio room

My first Miami lunch by food delivery. The onion soup was great with a layer of THICK cheese. It’s like an inch thick, God!! And I love it! The steak sandwich was delicious too, not too heavy in taste. I was ordering Cuban sandwich, but couldn’t figure out what it is, so just dropped the idea.

The strawberry cake was good but too rich for me.

My first Miami dinner by food delivery service.

I stayed in the whole day due to the weather. Apart from eating, I just slept and slept…..zzzzzz ^_^ I need some beauty sleep for starting of my new days……………

Overall the trip was good though I can’t say I am a big fan of Vietnamese food and things to do in Vietnam. I guess I like the atmosphere and feeling of Thailand the most in Asia compared with other Asian countries. Moreover, I much prefer spicy food. Vietnamese cuisine is rather mild for me. The French influence of Saigon is what I like the most. I did manage to have a French cuisine in one of the local well known French restaurants last night, La Camargue. It took us more than an hour to get there as the first address we got was the old one. However, we found it at last after we had been told the restaurant moved to another area. The food was good though my appetite isn’t very good lately. Vietnamese people are overall very friendly. Once I stucked in the middle of road, and didn’t know how to cross to the opposite side, a very nice lady took me through. (there were too many motorbikes travelling around on the road) She was so kind, same as many others who instructed us how to find our directions though they can’t speak English. Ho Chi Minh was also kind to us as it was supposed to rain with thundering during the period we were there, but it ended up no heavy rain. It rained in short time only the first day we arrived. The local taxi is very cheap. Few minutes ride with taxi, it costs less than USD1.00 per trip. The longest ride we took with taxi was the trip from airport to our hotel that took 25 mins. It costs USD7.00. I found no McDonald in the city, but many KFC around though.

The rest of photos are on Flickr, enjoy!

The last Vietnamese local cuisine of the trip…

At La Camargue, one of the best French restaurans in Saigon….

The beef rice noodle soup again as well as the ice coffee at the boarding gate of airport…

The beautiful Cathedral Notre Dame of Saigon

The post office…

People Committee Hall…and classical music played by local musicians

Do you want to hear? I couldn’t record the full music, but part of it. The sound wasn’t very clear though. I crossed the road, and took a short video of what they were playing in the park. I sat in a very nice open cafe right opposite the park. I was enjoying my Vietnamese coffee and chilling….:).. (The video is workable, but just don’t know why the preview scene is gone. Anyway, enjoy!)

Some people said it’s easy to spend a lot in Vietnam as they do have lots of interior decoration stuff and they are very cheap. However, I almost spent nothing in this trip for shopping. Ben Thanh market is the major shopping area of the city compared with many others I had been, but I only bought a buffalo bone made brooch, which costs VND45,000.00. It’s about USD2.90. Vietnamese coffee is great. Their coffee beans are very cheap. I bought 100gm of Bluemountain coffee and 200gm of Moka included a drip filter, only costs VND75,000.00. It’s about USD4.8. It’s so cheap though I don’t know if those Bluemountain coffee is real or not. Bluemountain is supposed to be very expensive but theirs are very cheap. Anyway, I just bought it for souvenir. If any of you don’t know what Vietnamese coffee is, and how to make them. You can go to this site for details. Most of their home decoration stuffs are either wood made or bamboo made. Most of them are not very colourful. Oh well, I am a colourful person, so their designs are not so attractive to me. It’s good as I didn’t spend anything for shopping. If I was in Thailand, I am sure I will spend fortune.

My buffalo bone made brooch and Bluemountain coffee, Moka with drip filter….

Saigon street scene….

Gallery scene…there are so many lovely galleries in Ho Chi Minh. It’s actually part of the influences caused by the French colony period.

By the Saigon River, and the night cafe scene in District one…

I found the most significant scene of Ho Chi Minh is the motorbikes on the roads, and their sound. Apart from taxi and travel buses, I really didn’t see many private cars on the roads. There are many motorbikes in Taiwan, but the noise of those in Ho Chi Minh is remarkable. Do you want to hear?

It’s a great ice cream place. You can have ice cream with fresh fruits made for you right after ordered. I love the architecture. It’s the old French colony building.

A delightful and tasty Vietnamese cuisine restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city, where you can have very nice Vietnamese food. It’s a kind of classy restaurant in Ho Chi Minh, where Hollywood stars also visit. I like their interior decoration a lot. I feel Vietnamese cuisine is kind of mixing with Chinese food culture in many ways. It’s quite light in flavour generally. Air conditioning is not really common in Ho Chi Minh I found, as it is actually not existed in any kind of restaurants included this one. I am glad that they do have big windows by the table we sat as well as decorative fan otherwise I would feel like being in the desert.

Very nice floor tile….

Vietnamese rice wrapped roll and spring roll. I love all their herbs as the flavour is so refreshing.

Green pea sweet cake and squid with white pepper.

Our hotel has a very nice swimming pool, where I can sit by for a whole day.