Well… I think I was MEANT to take this trip at this time or something, because things are only getting better and better (and better!) as my travels continue!

We are finally boarding the plane from Taipei to Denpasar, on Bali, Indonesia. Looks like a packed flight on this one. Not much chance of getting an empty seat beside me. I’m usually in no hurry to get on planes because seriously, why be squished into that tiny seat in that tin box longer than you need to be? But from the looks of the crowd lining up to get on, I wanted to make sure I would get some overhead storage space for my carry on bag relatively close to my seat. So through the line I went…

Everyone’s boarding pass was making a short high pitched beep as it was pulled through the machine, and then mine went through and it made a different, double low toned beep… I was thinking, “what now!” But, it seems it was nothing to worry about! In fact, it was my second seat change of the day; my seat at 21A had just been changed to 1K! Which makes it what? Yeppers! That’s right!! I was upgraded to BUSINESS CLASS!!! WOOHOO!!! My first time in business class, EVER!

Business Class Cabin

So here I sit, in my LARGE cushy seat with my plump pillow, nice thick wool blanket and glass of champagne! Pretty sure flying doesn’t get any better than this! The seats have power outlets for my laptop, and looks like an internet connection would be possible, if I hadn’t packed my RJ45 cable in my suitcase… (d’oh!) The seats are electric with foot rests, and lumbar support in my back and if I wanted to lie back and sleep, the seat reclines all the way back into a sleeping position! Craziness!

(Apologies to those of you who experience business class all the time, but not having traveled a whole heck of a lot, i’m new at this and a little bit excited to be so spoiled! Haha! –or should I say so LUCKY?! Someone buy me a lottery ticket back home, it will be sure to win today!)

The flight attendant refers to me by name, and hands me a menu of food and cocktail options for the flight. Wow! I never knew how spoiled they were up in these hidden front seats behind that mystery curtain until now! So although it’s only about 9:30am here in Taiwan, I order a vodka/soda because my biological clock is telling me that it’s 6pm in Vancouver. And hey! If they’re gonna offer me free booze while I sit here in business class, I’m gonna TAKE IT!!!

Enter vodka/soda with two slices of lime in a REAL glass (none of that plastic crap they’re getting in economy class!) complete with cocktail stir stick! LOVE IT!!!! I could get used to this! If this keeps up, this is going to be a fantastic month of adventure!

My cocktail in a REAL glass!

Next on the menu: A shrimp cocktail appetizer, then shrimp, rice and bokchoy in a creamy mushroom sauce as the main course with a Californian Cabernet Sauvignon, and cheesecake with fruit, whipped cream and chocolate sauce for dessert, all followed by a lovely cup of green tea. Holy horse! I’m not going to have to eat for a week!! The best airline food I’ve ever tasted, that’s for sure!

Business Class Entre

Business Class Dessert!

Approaching Bali by Air

Yep, there’s no better way to spend 5 hours flying through clear skies, 11,634 meters above the ocean to the tropical paradise island of Bali, Indonesia… Haha! Today, this is MY LIFE!!! I wonder what tomorrow will bring! 🙂

Stay tuned for more Balinese adventures coming soon…

For information on Bali and the neighbouring island on Lombok, I recommend the Lonely Planet guide.

Right from my check in experience at the Vancouver airport (YVR), I was very impressed by China Airlines and their efforts to accommodate my seat request for my 13 hours flight from YVR to Taipei (TPE) Taiwan. My seat was decent to begin with, 9A by the window fairly close to the front of the Airbus 330-300, but the clerk at the desk said he could probably do better for me and find a similar seat with an empty one beside me as the flight was only at 70% capacity. He would let me know at the gate if he was able to make the change. And SUCCESS! I ended up in 12K, a window seat on the opposite side, with the whole row to myself! YES!

The flight was smooth for the most part, a few bumps and fasten seat belt warnings along the way, but nothing major. The food was… well… it was airline food… But surprisingly, I was able to sleep away about 7 hours of the flight… Almost like a time machine deleting these hours from the flight time! 🙂

The landing at Taipei was smooth. There was an attendant waiting there to help passengers find their next gate. So after a short train ride and a bit of a walk, I found Gate 1A, complete with drunk-airport-crazy-lady and all!

When I first arrived at the gate, drunk-airport-crazy-lady was passed out at the end of the people mover (you know, those escalators that don’t actually escalate? they are just flat people movers)… Then I decided to find myself a snack and some tea, and when I passed her for the second time, she was awake and ranting at everyone who passed her. Then she stumbled her way to my gate, and caused a bit of a ridiculous scene. Yelling, screaming and waving her arms like a crazy person. (ah-hem, straight jacket please!) The airport crew then moved her to a separate area in hopes, I think, to calm her down… But lemme tell ya, I sure hoped she wouldn’t end up on my 5-hour flight from Taipei to Denpasar!

Honestly, I’d be surprised if they let her on a plane at all…. but no security had shown up yet, so who knew…? If this was Vancouver, they would have tackled, pepper sprayed, tazed and handcuffed her by now! (ok, ok, bad joke… but still… the point is that this would never be acceptable airport behaviour at YVR…)

Anyway, now I have some dude sitting behind me in the waiting area and a China Airlines worker, who claimed to be the purser for our flight, hijacked his guitar and played Eric Clapton tunes flawlessly! Loved it!

Hehe, if the rest of my trip is this interesting, I think the next month will be an amazing one!

I later ended up talking to said “dude” with guitar (who ended up being from Vancouver Island) and he was telling me how he got upgraded to business class on his flight from Miami to Taipei and how great that was. I was pretty happy having an empty seat beside me, but I had to agree that a 13 hour flight in business class would have kicked ass!

So, that’s it for the first leg of my 30-hour travel adventure. Stay tuned for Part II in my next post about the flight from Taipei to Denpasar…

I never thought I would take a winter vacation, being a sun baby and one who is not at all fond of the cold. But with a friend from Montreal, the idea to head out to Quebec City in February 2009 for the annual Carnaval d’Hiver somehow didn’t seem like such a crazy one. It was an incredible 5-day adventure that I will not soon forget!

We decided to spend the first couple of days just outside of Quebec City at Station Touristique Duchesnay, home of Quebec City’s Ice Hotel! We were not able to make a reservation to stay in the ice hotel, but thought we would go anyway and tour the ice structure and stay at L’Auberge Duchesnay, next door. Connected to the hotel is spa, which we took full advantage of with a massage, body scrub, sauna and jacuzzi package. AMAZING!

We thought we would check out the bar in the ice hotel for a cocktail one evening, before it was closed off to the public for the hotel guests. Because it’s so cold at the Ice Hotel, they serve only hard liquor, as anything else would freeze due to the icy temperatures. To boot, all cocktails were served in glasses made of ice, eliminating any worry your drink getting warm!

For entertainment, they held an ice carving competition. I never imagined myself as an ice sculptor, but now was my opportunity to give it a shot. It turned out to be a fun, creative experience! The ice was fairly soft and easy to carve. Between myself and my travel partner, we carved the head of the Bonnehomme d’Hiver, the mascot for the Carnival. I carved the toque, while he carved the face.

We had such a great time in the Ice Hotel that evening that we tried our luck with the ice hotel reception desk to see if there happened to be any cancellations that night. We were in luck! We were even able to swing a themed room for the price of a regular room, and ended up with the Cathedral Room.

Again, let me stress to you how much I hate the cold… And I mean HATE THE COLD!!! So I’m really unsure what possessed me to agree to staying in a hotel with walls made of ice, floors of snow, a bed made of ice, and an average temperature of 4 degrees Celsius! I think I may have suffered from some form of temporary insanity at the time… But in the end it was a “cool” experience and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to do it!

The hotel provided us with North Face sleeping bags and a crash course on how to stay warm for the night. There were  six hot tubs and a sauna at the Ice Hotel, to warm up before turning in to your COLD room for the night. They recommended to dry off COMPLETELY (including all your nooks and crannies) when leaving the changing area, as any moisture at all would be a risk of freezing and making your Ice Hotel experience a very unpleasant one. They provided blow dryers to help with this – not only for your hair, but your entire body!

Once in the room, we unpacked out sleeping bags and crawled in fully clothed, socks, toques and all! The bed frame was made of ice, but the mattress itself was foam covered with animal furs, which made things much more comfortable.

We survived the night right up to the 8am wake up call when they booted us out to prepare the hotel for the daily public tours. I had woken up maybe an hour prior to the wake up call and it was not until then that I started to feel cold and a bit uncomfortable. But I stuck it out, my sleeping bag was still the warmest place to be at that moment!

The best part about the stay at the Quebec City Ice Hotel is that you have the comfort of knowing that you have a room at the nice WARM L’Auberge Duchesnay, just up the hill included with your stay. So just in case you do get too cold and don’t think you will make it through the night at -4 Celsius, you are able to go to a nice warm bed! And after our wake up call, you can bet that I made a beeline for a nice, long, hot shower!

For more photos of the Quebec City Ice Hotel, please visit my Flickr page.

I watched the Canada vs. USA Gold Medal Hockey game from the best venue in town next to Canada Hockey Place: the Molson Canadian Hockey House!

Already at 8am the lineups were growing for bars, pubs and cultural houses around the city. The lineups on and around Granville Street were huge in the morning in anticipation for the noon-time game! This was the view from my living room window that morning.

Inside the Molson Canadian Hockey House, the people were packing in and the energy and excitement for the upcoming game was building!

Francois-Louis Tremblay stopped by to celebrate the Canadian speed skating team’s Gold Medal win!

Wide Mouth Mason played two AMAZING sets! I was very excited about this, as I had been hoping to see them at some point during the Games and my moment had finally come!

And of course, the crowd cheered for Team Canada with such loud, excited optimism, that I have no doubt that we could be heard at Canada Hockey Place!

After the game, and during the Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies, Roberto Luongo and his daughter, Gabriela, stopped by for a quick visit to thank the fans for their support and show off his gold medal and the crowd went WILD for one of Canada’s newest heroes!

All in all, it was an amazing day and the perfect wrap up for the Games! If someone had written a script for the day, it could not have been written with a better ending!

For more photos of the Molson Canadian Hockey House during the Gold Medal Hockey Game, visit my set on Flickr.

For more photos of Wide Mouth Mason, there is a Flickr set for that too!