25C at Waikiki

Visiting a beach at this time of the year will probably be in our annual vacation plans. We left a rainy and pre-winter cold Vancouver and travelled over 5000mi to sunny Hawaii for the first time.

The beaches may not be as powder fine as Boracay, but there are more hotels and designer boutiques steps away from the Waikiki beach just like the pictured colonial Westin Moana SurfRider hotel. We spent 4 nights in Honolulu last Veteran's day.

Spent two days at the beach..rented a car for one day to go kayaking at Kailua, Lanakai beaches. Spent another day (by joining a tour) to visit one of the best snorkelling spots- Hanauma Bay.

We walked along the Waikiki coastline to watch the surfers. Also went to the Ala Moana Mall (which is the biggest outdoor mall in the world), where we saw Tony Romas at the foodcourt.

We are now back in Vancouver, a little tanned and ready to welcome winter and X'mas after being sunkissed on last time in 2008.

Almost Went to India

I was supposed to fly to India after a week's stay in Hong Kong for work, but since I wasn't able to get my Indian visa, I'm still here at the Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok again. Can't complain, especially if they let you stay in one of the fanciest 5-star hotel in HK. I heard from my colleagues that their hotel in India is as good. Too bad I missed it, but I'm sure there will be tons of opportunities to visit as we continuously increase working with our offshore team in India.

Hong Kong

Spent two nights in HK at the Langham Place in Mongkok. We walked around Mongkok and visited the Lady's Night Market on our first day. On our second day, we took a bus from the Central station to go to Stanley Market and Repulse Bay to buy souvenir artworks.

Manila Trip

Part of our 12 day trip last February is a visit (yes, again) to Boracay. Not much has changed on this tiny island 300km south of Manila. We stayed in boat station 1, left most side of the 4km stretch of powdery white sand, lined with resorts and restaurants. Boracay is probably one of the most beautiful beaches in the world but still costs less 50% less than a Bora Bora (Tahiti) package. More Boracay pictures posted on my flickr site.

While in Manila, we spent most of our time at Mall of Asia . We also visited different spas every two days for foot & body massages which cost approximately 12CAD including tips.

After our visit to Manila, we went to Hong Kong for two nights before flying back to Vancouver.