2010 Winter Olympics: Qualifications Hockey Game, Switzerland vs. Belarus

On Feb. 23, 2010 during the 2nd week of Olympics competiion I attended the qualifications playoff game at Canada Hockey Place (GM Place) where Switzerland played Belarus. The winning team which was Switzerland would go on to play the United States in the quarterfinals and ultimately lose to United States and the United States would ultimately lose to Canada in the Gold Medal game today.

The game last Tuesday started at 12:00 pm. I was unlucky that I got the 12:00 pm tickets because if I had gotten the tickets to the 4:30 pm qualifications game I could have been the Canada vs. Germany game.

I went with my uncle and we walked from my house and over Cambie Bridge to the security checkpoint for Canada Hockey Place. Near the security checkpoints there were all these "Inukshuks" (logo for the games) built on the side of False Creek.

2010 Winter Olympics: 5 Hour Wait to Touch Olympic Medals

The Royal Canadian Mint set up a pavilion in Downtown Vancouver at a Simon Fraser University conference building during the Olympics where the public had a chance to touch the Olympic medals that were being handed out to victorious athletes.

I had wanted to go during the past weekend but there were too many people so I thought that lining up Monday morning on Feb. 22, 2010 would be a good idea as there would be a shorter line because it was the start of the work week.

I was totally wrong. I went with my mom and I budgeted a wait maximum wait time of two hours but it turned out that we lined up for five hours just to the priviledge to touch, give gloves on, the Olympic medals for ten minutes!

We started lining up at 10:30 am. This was the scene at 10:30 am.

2010 Winter Olympics: Visiting Pavilions on the Weekends

Last weekend on Feb. 19, 20 and 21, 2010 I went with my family to check out some of the free pavilions that various governments and organizations had set up for the Olympics.

On Friday night we visited the pavilions located near the Concord Pacific lands in Southeast False Creek.

This is Molson Canadian Canada Hockey House sponsored by Molson brewery where for the low price of $99.00 per night, you can enjoy watching "the game" inside a tent with complementary food and beer.

2010 Winter Olympics: Day 3, Victory Ceremony, Downtown Atmosphere

Last Sunday, on Feb. 14, 2010, on the 3rd day of competition of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I went with my family to participate in the Victory Ceremony at B.C. Place Stadium.

The weather that day was more like spring than winter.

We started by walking to downtown because it was about an hour walk from our house and we didn't want to ride the congested transit system.

While walking across Cambie Bridge we passed by the Olympic Village.

Brunei: Empire Hotel, Tutong

On May 15, 2008, we went to the Empire Hotel and to the town of Tutong. It was only our third day in Brunei and we were already bored and we still had 4 more days to go because we booked our itenerary for a week in Brunei.



The Empire Hotel is the most luxurious and famous hotel in Brunei. Because Brunei does not really have many tourist attractions, the first question that any Brunei resident asks of the visitor is: "Have you been to the Empire Hotel?"

New Intel Core i5 750 Computer System

On December 25, 2009, Christmas Day of last year I ordered parts for a new computer system. I bought the parts from a local retailer and because I paid with PayPal (I had money left over in my account from an eBay sale) the parts had to be shipped via the courier service and therefore I only received the parts in the middle of January.



Originally I did not plan to build a new computer system as I was satisfied with my 2006 era Pentium D system with 2 GB of ram and integrated graphics. However because my Pentium D system could not playback high definition video cards without stuttering, I decided to upgrade my Pentium D system with a new external ATI Radeon 4670 PCI Express video card.

Brunei: Kampong Ayer (Water Village) and Wild Monkeys

On May 14, 2008, on our second day in the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan (which everyone just calls "Brunei" as it was just called "Brunei Town" before its name was changed to Bandar Seri Begawan), we went to Kampong Ayer (Water Village) which took up most of the morning and afternoon and then walked around the "downtown" area a bit before returning back to my cousin's house.

My aunt and cousin lives in Brunei and it was fortunate for us that my aunt had a spare Toyota Vios car or else we could not have gone anywhere as there is no public transportation system at all. My sister drove the car (they drive on the left side of the road) and I was the so-called navigator. I had to rely on an old map book that the oil company Shell had produced a number of years ago for their expatriate workers.

Because Brunei is an oil producting country, gas was really cheap, it was around $0.30 per litre in Brunei dollars ($1.00 Brunei = $0.74 Canadian). As a result of all this cheap gas, almost everyone drives an SUV in Brunei and the whole city feels like a transplated American suburb with "Southeast Asian characteristics". Unlike other Asian cities where there is a vibrant downtown area full of energy, the downtown area was completely dead, devoid of people and any sort of energy. We would later find out that most of the people did their shopping in suburban malls and suburban shophouses.

Happy New Year 2010 and Reflections on 2009

Happy New Year for 2010!



Once again it is the last day in this year's calendar year and what better way to "celebrate" than to reflect back on the year that was 2009. 2009 was a weird year in that the year started off after the financial meltdown in September 2008. Other than the excitement generated by the inauguration of President Obama in the United States in January, the year was already being written off before it even began! I'll begin by separating my thoughts of 2009 into the following categories.

Singapore to Brunei: Flight, Arrival and Royal Regalia Museum

On May 13, 2008 we flew from Singapore to Brunei after coming back from Kuala Lumpur the day before. Brunei is not exactly a tourism hotspot so the only reason we went to Brunei was because that is where my mom was born and also because she never went back to visit after she immigrated to Canada in the mid-1970s...until now.

Since most people have no idea where Brunei is, I thought that maybe I should include some maps of where it is. The country is located on the island of Borneo. The following map shows the relative locations of Singapore and Brunei with respect to Southeast Asia.





The following map shows the places that I visited in Brunei and East Malaysia.





We started our journey in the morning from Singapore's Changi Airport. It is constantly voted as one of the best airports in the world due to the amount of amenities it offers to travellers.

The following shows the distinctive control tower of Changi Airport.

Kuala Lumpur: Merdeka Square and Departure

On May 12, 2008 we spent a half-day exploring the Kuala Lumpur city centre before going to the airport at late noon for our evening flight back to Singapore.

We started out at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre area where our hotel was located and took the LRT system to the old downtown area.

The Kuala Lumpur City Centre area is also where the Petronas Twin Towers and Suria shopping mall are located. In front of the twin towers is a massive landscaped park.