My recent trip to downtown LA had something to do with this event that was held at the Microsoft Theater.
And it is one impressive theater. At a 7,000 people capacity, anywhere in the audience you sat, it seemed that you had a center-stage view.
The VIP area.
Backstage public area.
And we’re on.
Backstage before and after show.
It is quite unbelievable that Estonia and other Baltic states were all under Soviet rule until the early ’90s. I cannot imagine the fear people lived under and the limited freedom they were allowed.
In the only hotel in Tallinn, Estonia where foreigners were allowed to stay during the Soviet regime, is the “KGB Museum“. On the 23rd floor of the still working hotel were the secret KGB offices used to spy on guests. Filled with memorabilia including one room where everything is left as the KGB left it, rooms have been turned into a museum.
Near the ticket booth of the museum, you find cynical and irritated Snicker bars which we thought was hilarious.
View from the 22nd floor balcony
The door to the stairs leading up to the secret 23rd floor. The museum sign reads “entrance” at the top but the bottom part in Estonian and Russian apparently says “Do not enter” as it said when the top floor was occupied by the KGB.
Old floor guide
Selfie point
Direct to Moscow line
Our funny and excellent guide
What the KGB left in chaos.
The hotel in its present day at night
So I visited Guangzhou, China at the start of the Chinese New Year this past weekend. I booked my trip w/o knowing it was the holiday season but discovered that was the case at the end of last year when I was visiting Penang, Malaysia from my Grab (equivalent of Uber) driver.
Anyway, as I arrived at CAN, decorations suggested celebrations were underway but in the city it was business as usual in some parts.
At the airport
In the cab
At my hotel
At dinner in a nearby shopping mall
At supermarket after dinner in the same shopping mall. The incorrect Japanese on the packaging of the squid snack is beyond funny.
In my room at hotel after an OK day!
Happy Chinese New Year!!
Every city with a colonial charm has a “heritage hotel” and the one in George Town, Penang, Malaysia is “Eastern & Oriental Hotel“. Went to pay a visit to its bar during my stay in the World Heritage city.
When viewed from the city side, it looks as though it is perched on a hill. When you get there, it doesn’t feel that way.
It’s a huge building. It took me a while to get to the front entrance from one end of the hotel.
The obligatory Christmas tree past the Christmas day
The hotel as viewed from another nearby hotel’s rooftop.
BTW the service at the bar was disappointing!!
Just outside, or really on the same premises near the entrance of the Chowrasta Market in George Town, Penang, Malaysia where I was visiting was this shop selling very tasty dried meats. I asked to try some, the shop keeper let me, and they were so good I decided to buy RM 10 (a little more than US$2) worth of the “Special pork roll” and the “Dried mince meat” which came out to be quite substantial. It was a good snack to carry around and to nibble on in my hotel room at night.
And then on the next day I passed by the same spot in the afternoon when all the market stalls were gone but saw that the same shop had this permanent establishment very close by to where I bought the goodies.
Really yummy and recommended.
A blog by Ayako Mathies 