For love of travel and food

I just go back from my trip to Vietnam with Gate 1 for 12 days. My schedule was changed since I arrived earlier to Vietnam to visit my friend's relatives. My schedule was a bit different compared to the rest in the tour group since we were done with jet lag and were already in Vietnam for a few days by the time the tour started. My Gate 1 tour guide was Hai. He is very thorough in his explanations. There were some jokes that I didn't necessarily appreciate (for example, how he explained how to do tai chi, or when we went to the village and he imitated the elderly woman's 3 level Hanoi accent), but in terms of his explanations and doing his job, he was very good. After the tour, he apologized if there were some things he said that we may not agree with him but he is just saying facts. Which he meant about the facts with China, since there were people on the tour of Chinese descent. However those items, felt more like facts and from a Vietnam perspective (maybe even So...

I'm honestly not sure how I should write this post, but I feel like I should as a "you might want to know before you go to East Asia". I am by no means an expert, but it's something that I've observed and wanted to share so that there are no offences made. Also I try to look up these types of things before I go on vacation. While in these countries, I may have unknowingly did these things and received some stares. I'm only looking at this from a tourist perspective, so if you're going to move to any of these countries, you can still keep it in mind but there are probably more things to pay attention to. I am also trying very hard not to stereotype, but it's just good to be aware. Recently I visited Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Taipei and many cities in Japan. It's not like I left my manners behind me, but I didn't realize or I may have forgotten certain things during my vacation. I will probably also list these things in my actual blog post. Publi...

My main reason for starting a blog is so that I can store all my recommendations in one place. Also, I can just direct my friends/coworkers to my blog if they were interested in a place I've already visited. I typically recommend things for Tokyo since I've previously lived there for one year. I usually tailor my recommendations depending on what I think the individual might like but there are many similarities. I will get to the general items here, and hopefully in the future I will make specific posts for each city I visited in September 2016. Pre-planning for people in Toronto: Free maps/guides available at 481 University Avenue, Suite 306, Toronto,  Ontario M5G 2E9 Canada http://ilovejapan.ca/ Has very handy  Tokyo  guide for all the sites and other items. JTB Toronto office Suite 1510, Carlton Tower, 2 Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1J3 CANADA **VERY USEFUL** Hyperdia - This is the website/app that has train schedule that can  help you ma...

In September, I visited Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Taipei and Japan. I bought my flight in February for an amazing deal CAD$894.60 for four flights! It was truly amazing price. This time around, I didn't spend that much time in Hong Kong. This was my fifth time going to Hong Kong. The first three times, I did a lot of sightseeing around Hong Kong, but the last two times, Hong Kong acted more like a hub for surrounding cities.  Hong Kong holds a special place in my heart because it is the first place I visited outside of North America. This is a roundup of all the items I liked or was told about Hong Kong.  Victoria Harbour Places to Visit (not in any particular order) 1. Victoria Harbour Every time I go to Hong Kong, my favourite place is to go to Victoria Harbour. Exit Tsim Sha Tsui metro station and it's a bit of a walk to Victoria Harbour. Then you can overlook to Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side. There is also the Avenue of the Stars walk, and there is a f...