Antwerp

Day trip from Brussels to Diamond city. They even sell diamonds at the train station. Feeling a little churched-out at this point, so I decided to visit a quaint little museum called Museum Plantin-Moretus. It chronicles the rise of Antwerp’s biggest and most important printing press and publishing house over a few hundred years. Everything is remarkably well-preserved in this house - The printing press machinery, type-setting equipment, library archives, and books on display. the first ever 5-language bible (16th century) (see pic below) and other liturgical works, world atlases, musical scores, etc. The bonus for me was coming across a 16th century town map of Lancaster!

Blast into the past – I love the smell of old books – maybe that’s why I’m still resisting e-books, reading just doesn’t feel the same when you’re holding a computer in your hand.

Brussels

Say Belgium and the following comes to mind: Jean-Claude Van Damme, beers, moules, frites, waffles with ice-cream and of course chocolates! Frites to belgians is like rice to chinese. Everywhere i go, there's a fries shop! I wonder how Belgians survive on these unhealthy foods!

Beautiful market square in Brussels

The zwanzeur spirit, or local unique humour- quirky comic strip frescos adorn the walls and even the electricity boxes along the street are decorated!

Bruges

Beau is in Brussels for the ASEM and I conveniently tag along to see the country. More accurately, it was my excuse for the whole Europe vacation, and not only do I arrive before him (to visit Paris with Shaheen), I also extend my vacation to visit more pals in London – ha!

Beau had only one free day and we took a train to Bruges, a picturesque UNESCO world heritage site with canals and several well-preserved historical monuments.

After walking through the entire town, we took a welcome respite in the form of a fun boat ride that winded through the canals and under a number of old bridges– it’s the closest we got to a guided tour of the buildings.

Paris

First stop of my Europe vacation and I have to admit I was so excited about this trip – so excited I didn’t sleep much on the red-eye flight because I have been looking forward to having a long break from work. The last time I was on this continent was when I backpacked here in 2006, where I mostly spent my time in Spain, Scandinavia and Poland. I feel really comfortable here, with the weather, the food, etc. and can get by with my pidgin French/ Spanish. Contrary to the steoreotype, Parisians are not rude at all, but in fact very polite and genial.

My first visit to the City of Lights was in the summer of 2000. It was hot and muggy and I was a poor student then. Still, I remember being wowed by the city’s architecture and sensuality. Fast forward 10 years later, Paris is still as beautiful as ever, and even more so in autumn. Perhaps I’m a lot more mellowed out now and I don’t feel the burning desire anymore to check off 20 different attractions each day, but just to enjoy the mood and atmosphere of the city at a more leisurely pace.

Still, Sha and I made good pace exploring Paris and its marvelous monuments (mostly by foot!), the river Seine, and soaking in the café culture. She and I last met in 2006 (in Andalucia), and we had 4 years worth of catching up to do over our long walks, desserts and coffee.

Jiuzhaigou/ Huanglong revisited

One of the few bonuses of work finally surfaced in the form of an expense-paid client summit our company organized in Sichuan – yayyy! Compared to the freezing cold and desolation in winter 2008 (and not to mention 20RMB hostel beds with little or no heating!), this time, we were in a 5 star hotel and after a one-day mind-numbing conference, we were rewarded with two days of sightseeing – we even got a cable-car ride up to the top of Huanglong (as opposed to a 4 hour hike) nope, can’t complain about it.

Crystal Clear waters

Huanglong is very desolate in winter. It’s cold and completely devoid of tourists. The cable-car is off-service and we almost walked into the park unchecked (the ticket officer sprang out from a little hut, no doubt hiding from the cold)
This time the colours were much more vivid because of the lush verdant forests and numerous waterfalls. I also got to see several more sights and walking trails that were sealed of in winter. Of course, the payoff was are a lot more tourists in summer and that means endless queuing and jostling!