Huatulco, Oaxaca

Las Brisas Resort Huatulco is a beautiful property! Apparently it used to be a Club Med. It’s much, MUCH better than the flight. I mean what could be better than toilets that work! The resort is very lush and green with well kept tropical gardens. I would venture to say that it feels like a tame jungle. Very beautiful!

The photo is the view from our room.


Huatulco is in the state of Oaxaca and situated 286 kilometres from the colonel capital of Oaxaca city. The bays of Huatulco are located along the coast at the end of the southern Sierra Madre mountains. The clear, turquoise water of the 36 beaches are spectacular! Over11,000 acres in and around Huatulco were declared national parks by the Mexican government in 1998. Important to sustaining the natural ecology and sea life, many of the bays are considered protected areas with development prohibited. Some of the bays are also the spawning grounds for variety of marine (sea) turtles.

The state of Oaxaca, among Mexico's 31 states, is known for its diverse culture with 16 different ethic groups. As such, Oaxacan culture combines the history of many of these groups. The native tribes ruled by the Aztecs in the city's earliest years were the Zapotec and the Mixtec. Both tribes still influence Oaxaca culture to this day, and the informed traveler will note that separate accents representing these different tribes can still be heard in Oaxaca today. Spain and colonialists from Europe also influence Oaxaca culture. Together, this mix of cultures and peoples creates a modern day Oaxaca that is full of history and fascinating people and traditions.

Nowhere are the differing sides of Oaxaca culture seen as prominently as they are in Oaxaca food. Oaxaca food is famous throughout the world for its unique flair and combination of spices that are found almost nowhere else in Mexico.

Senga and I signed up for a few low key tours. Here are some photos from a natural, fresh water lagoon and crocodile habitat! We also went on a snorkeling trip visiting 7 bays.

Flight to Huatulco

My friend Senga and I went on a week long, girl's vacation to Huatulco, Mexico!I guess it’s pretty standard for vacation travel to start at an ungodly hour. However, I can understand why. People want to start their vacations ASAP. My flight to Huatulco departed this morning at 6:30 am. The airlines recommend you arrive at the airport 3 hours before your departure time. There is no way in hell I was going to be at the airport at 3:30 am. I’m sure the security line up would not be an issue before the break of dawn. I arrived at the airport to 4:45 am and that was plenty of time to check-in, eat breakfast, get a snack, and grab a magazine to read on the plane. I even had a mini nap before boarding.

As some of you may already know, business travel and leisure travel vastly differ. For this trip, I’m flying on Sunwings, a charter flight, and service sucks hole. However, I think that is to be expected so I can’t say that I am disappointed. Typically, if the service is good on these charters, I am pleasantly surprised. I think the flight attendants are the rejects from all the other non-charter airlines. Even the safety demo seemed ghetto to me some how. They were using old, crusty belt buckles and faded yellow and somewhat smelly looking, plastic air masks. You know when clear plastic tubes have yellowed and the plastic that is supposed to be soft is hard and brittle? That’s what the air mask looked like. The elastic used to hold the mask to your face was tattered and worn. The elastic strap is supposed to be white but this demo one had a brown tinge to it. Nasty.

Here is the extent of the mediocre service from Sunwings:

a) There were only working toilet in the back of the plane. Hello people, this is vacation so the passengers are boozing away and low and behold there is now a long, long queue to wait in to deplete oneself. Holy-mama-jamma was the line up long! At times I’d say the line up was 15 people deep. Multiply 15 people by 3 minutes per person (I think that is being conservative!) and you have a 45 minute bathroom line-up! Good thing I elected to sleep during most of the flight and watch my downloaded TV shows on my lap top.

b) Because of the long queue down the isle of the plane, the flight attendants had a hard time serving meals. Needless to say, Senga and I didn't get a meal until we managed to waive one of them down to let them know they missed us in the food service. I'm sure someone spat a loogie in my already awful plane food. I am now certain something was wrong with our food because Senga became violently ill one we got off the plane. She pretty much up-chucked her entire lunch in the airport bathroom.

c) Also because of the bathroom issue, passengers who wanted to get drinks (water, juice, beer and whatever else) had to walk to the galley to get their own drinks. The toilet queue blocked the isle so drink carts could not be used.

My hope was the resort would be much better than our flight to Mexico. I plan on some solid rest and relaxation in addition to becoming a darker race! Hellllooooo sunshine, here we come!

Travelling Efficiently, Connecting Flights and Pee

Well this last trip to Montreal will be the last leg of my work travels that began in early January. While it has been a great experience to travel to almost all of the Davis offices, it has also been quite tiresome. I know that there are many people in this world who travel extensively for work or maybe even for pleasure. So my recent travels likely pale in comparison to some. One thing I have learned traveling these past couple of months is that I know I can travel light. I have learned how to pack efficiently. I have also come to realize that I don’t need to have a lot of “stuff” when I travel. Nor do I need a lot of “stuff” period. So after my trip back from Whitehorse, I took on the task of cleaning out my closet. I know I have a lot clothes and I have always been one who likes having unique and stylish clothing. But I know that I can still have a sense of style without so much “stuff”. I simply do not need all these things. I have donated 4 garbage bags of clothes and shoes. I will likely give away more when I get back home.

Efficiency and Connecting Flights

My flight this morning had a connection through Calgary and typically I hate having to catch connecting flights. I hate connecting flights for the following reasons, a) they are time consuming and I prefer using my time efficiently, b) I hate the possibility of missing a connection hence wasting more time waiting around trying to get to my final destination and c) I often feel a need to stop in the washroom to pee when I get off the plane. I know that c) is a ridiculous reason to hate connecting flights. I think I have been classically conditioned to feel the need to pee after I get off a plane. So you ask why does having the need to pee have anything to do with hating connecting flights? Well, if I have a very close connect time between flights, typically anything under an hour, I worry that my need to pee could make me miss my flight. I am obviously a control freak. What can I say?... I’m a Virgo.

Adding to my theme of efficiency, not only can you check-in on-line but Air Canada, amongst other airlines, can send you your boarding pass by way of a text message! It’s great and there’s no need to use a stitch of paper! Since I have learned to travel lightly, by bringing a carry-on bag, checking in on-line, and getting to the airport in just enough time to clear security, I can arrive at the gate and board a flight without having to wait. I hate waiting around and I find this system for travel unbelievably efficient. I love it when things tick like clock work! Now if only we were allowed to verify photo identification without actually having an ID card, the efficiency travel process would be complete. I know there is such technology available but given the debate surrounding privacy, I can understand the hesitation to implement. But a have a good reason why I would consider a retina and/or finger print scan and that has to do with a dirty toilet.

The Need to Pee

From what I’ve told you so far I gather you get that I am all about efficiency. I like to plan and be prepared. I even put much thought into what I will wear on the plane in order to ensure comfort on the plane, comfort during any connections if applicable, and I take into consideration the weather condition at my arrival destination. And in doing so, I always make sure I am wearing pants with back pockets. When I can, I often opt to wear my jeans as long as I don’t have to go directly to the office from the airport. The pockets are for my driver’s licence or my passport. So before boarding a flight, I have my Blackberry for my e-boarding pass in one back pocket and ID in the other. Well today something went terribly wrong during my connection in Calgary.

As I got off my connecting flight into Calgary, I, of course, have the incredible need to pee. The flight coming into to Calgary was late so my one-hour time frame to connect shortened to about 25 minutes. So I quickly drag my little carry-on bag with me to the bathroom. Of course, I’m about to burst and the toilet stalls are so small I can barely fit my bag in with me in the stall. At this point I didn’t care if the stall door was opened or not. I had to pee like there was no tomorrow and when I did, it sounded like a cow peeing on a flat rock. What a relief. I can now rush back to find my gate. At this point, I probably have about 10 or 15 minutes before the flight takes off. Well upon finishing relieving myself, I pull up my jeans and to my misfortune, my ID slips out of my back pocket…. hits the edge of the toilet seat and (it seemed to be happening in slow motion) jumps into the bowl full of my own pee! Aghhhhh! I am grossed out.

Now, if photo identification was not needed to board the plane, I would have simply walked away. Cards can be replaced! But I needed this stupid piece of plastic so what else could I do but reach into the bowl and get my driver’s licence. Now, it was very important that I did this in a calm and controlled manner. The last thing I needed to do was reach in and in a panic, accidentally splash around urine! My luck would have it that I would likely scream and flick pee into my mouth! Ughhhh! Hence, I am pro retina and/or finger print scan as a means of identification.

Mushing and Sourdough Sam in Whitehorse

What can I tell you all about Whitehorse other than it is definitely a friendly town. My co-worker Dean and I seemed to have arrived during the week of the 22^nd anniversary of the Sourdough Sam Contest during Rendezvous: A Wild Week in Whitehorse. So you are probably asking yourself “What is the Sourdough Sam?” Well apparently “Sams” are local male contestants that compete for 7 straight evenings in a wide variety of hilarious events like evening gown and bikini contests, karaoke, a kolbassa eating contest, turkey bowling, a dance fever night and the male strip tease. The audience votes for a winner each evening and at the end of the 7 days, points are tabulated and the person with the most points wins a truck. Not a new truck, just one that runs. There are also Can-can girls at these events.

Other interesting facts about Whitehorse:

• If you raise your kids in Whitehorse, they have the option to go on a Bison Hunt starting at age 12. Your kid(s) will have a great week long experience of hunting for bison with their classmates. Your children are permitted to use guns. You don’t even have to sign a waiver! Permission slips will work just fine.

• A newcomer to Whitehorse is called a "Cheechako". The word comes from "new comer" in Chinook jargon, a trader language in the late 1800's and early 1900's that incorporated English and the language of the Chinook First Nation. The term Cheechako was prevalent all along the West Coast during the Gold Rush. When new people came off the boats in Skagway on their way to the gold fields, local traders who had been in-country for decades called them "Cheechakos".

• A local who has spent some length of time in Whitehorse is called a Sourdough. I’m told that this terms comes from a famous Robert Service poem about the cremation of a prospector who freezes to death in the Yukon called "The Cremation of Sam McGee", published in 1907 in The Songs of a Sourdough (The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses).

• This February is the 25^th Running of the Yukon Quest International Dog Sledding Race. It is a 1,020 mile race that runs from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. A single musher and a team of 12 to 14 sled dogs race for 10 to 14 days, following the historic 1890's Klondike Gold Rush and river mail delivery routes. The race route runs on frozen rivers, across open water and bad ice, over top four mountain ranges, reaching an elevation of 3,800 feet where temperatures can drop to as low as −40 to −60 °C with winds reaching 160 km/h on the mountain summits. The Yukon Quest is 'The Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World'.

Bueller??? Bueller…??? Anyone??? Anyone???

Graham Lang, an Articling Student at Davis LLP where I work, is the Ferris Bueller of Whitehorse. When my co-worker Dean and I arrived in Whitehorse, we decided to see what all the ruckus was all about in the bar next door to the restaurant we had dinner. If you can believe it, there was a Vancouver-like “bar line-up” at Coasters Bar and Grill. I couldn’t believe that Dean and I were waiting in a line-up to get in to the bar in Whitehorse! Well it turns out that Coasters was hosting a Sourdough Sam event. The people watching at Coasters was the primary reason we decided to line up to get in because there were all kinds inside. Such a wide variety and mish-mash of people in one bar. You would never see anything like this in Vancouver. Fortunately the line moved quickly. Anyway… once inside I thought I recognized someone but I couldn’t put my finger on where I knew this person from. I mean really, who would I know in Whitehorse? And then suddenly it hit me… it could bet money that the guy I recognized is Graham Lang! But of course I did not “know” Graham other than from reading a couple of his stories he had posted on the firm’s intranet about his experience working as an Articling Student at the Whitehorse office. Along with the stories were photographs he had posted. This is where I “knew” Graham from and this is how I recognized his face. Anyhow, I decided to ask this fellow if his name was Graham. This is how the conversation went… and keep in mind that we are in a bar with loud techno music and where many drinks had been had by all parties involved in this conversation:

Nancy: (walks over to Graham and friends and taps in on the shoulder)

Graham: (looks around, and then looks down - I am short so he has to look down)

Nancy: “Is your name Graham?” (pause)

Graham: “Ummm, yes.” (looks confused)

Nancy: “Graham Lang?” (pause)

Graham: “Ummm, yes?” (looks worried like he’s in some sort of trouble)

At this point I think he thought that perhaps he owed me or someone he knew some money. Either that or I was about to serve him with some papers or tell him about some love child he had had years ago. Anyhow, throughout the rest of the weekend any where we went in town with Graham everyone seemed to know him! Graham is a very friendly and funny guy. The overall impression we got was that Graham is the Ferris Bueller of Whitehorse.

Dog Mushing

I tried my hand in some dog sledding while up here in Whitehorse. Of course, it was nothing remotely close to what a musher would experience running the Yukon Quest. I did however have the good fortune of having Rudy, a retired Quest dog, in my little team of 6 dogs. Not much to talk about here except that I love the outdoors and sledding with some great puppies… well other than pooping. Most of you who know me know that I am anti-poo. The dogs did a lot of pooping while in a full run. I can’t really describe what it was like to smell it but I have attached a few video clips for you to view. I think I gagged the first time it happened... but I had stopped gagging when I shot this video clip.

Calgary Hotel Break-In

I arrived in Calgary on Tuesday night and I am thrilled that it is a balmy -10c! Now, business travel is typical bland and boring. More often than not, nothing overly exciting happens when I travel for work. Sometimes, I will go to dinner with my counterparts at the other office or have a business dinner with counterparts at competing firms. It’s mostly shop talk with the occasional polite questions about how your family is doing and the like.

Well during my visit to Calgary, I decided not to have such dinners. I was looking forward to spending some down time on my own. One night I wanted to find a few new books to read so I headed up to 8^th Avenue to a quaint bookstore called McNally Robinson Booksellers. The store is nice with a café upstairs. I was delighted that I could leaf through a few books while having a nice, quiet dinner. After my enjoyable meal of sun dried tomato and pesto tortellini, I purchase my books and start walking back to the hotel about 8 or 9 blocks away.

Accompanying me on my walk is my trusty Blackberry mp3 player. I love listening to music while I wander around. Good tunes always make things much more pleasant and enjoyable for me. As I strolled through the streets of downtown Calgary I was completely and elatedly enthralled with the music that I am certain I was singing out loud, and likely singing badly. I didn’t care… I was enjoying myself and I didn’t care who knew it.

I continued to trot along until I arrived at my hotel. Needless to say, I was still in a great mood and listening to music very loudly on my headphones. At this point the music has been so stimulating that I am pretty much strutting! I strut into the hotel and gleefully dance to the elevator heading back to my room. I am looking forward to delving into my newly purchased books. I will tell you more about my book selection in my next blog because I am truly disgusted and disappointed with myself. Anyway, I get off the elevator and skip down the long hallway still entrenched in the music playing between my ears. I pull out my keycard to open the room door. Nothing happens. I try the keycard again and the door does not open. I quickly wipe the magnetic strip on the back of the card onto my jeans in hopes that it was a bit a dust or something. But no, the key doesn’t seem to be working. Of course, I am still enjoying the music playing loudly from my mp3 player and I’m not at all frustrated by the fact that I can’t get the door open to my room. Like a fool, I must have been standing the for a good 30 seconds cramming the keycard into the keyslot and wrenching on the door handle while pushing on the door.

All of a sudden, the door swings open and there is sweaty man standing in my room wearing a bathrobe looking somewhat tired and perturbed! I was so startled that I let out a little scream! I think my scream scared him. My first thought was “who the hell are you and why are in my room?!?” Well, it turned out this was NOT my room. The man said to me in an annoyed tone “I kept asking who was at the door and you didn’t answer.” Of course I didn’t answer, music from my mp3 player was playing way to loudly for me to hear anything! At this point all I could do was laugh. I literally laughed out loud and apologized profusely to him. Even though I had a huge grin on my face as I walk to my room giggling to myself, I was truly sorry I had interrupt his Thursday evening. My room was at the opposite end of the hallway. I turned the wrong way when I got of the elevator. How embarrassing.

Wrapping up Yellowknife and Off to Calgary

On my last day in Yellowknife I had the pleasure of experiencing -42c weather and seeing snow actually blowing upwards! It was great! In the morning, the walk to the office is a mere 5 or 6 blocks but in this kind of weather it has it’s challenges; especially for a mild weather dwelling Vancouverite like me. As usual, I bundled up in wool long johns, layered myself in thermal sweaters and such. This particular morning, I had decided to wear my glasses instead of cramming my contact lenses into my dryballs… err I mean eyeballs. This was my first mistake. It’s a mistake because I forgot about my need to breathe. Let me explain further…

As we walked out into the cold to trek to the office, I pulled up my neck dickie up to cover my face from the wind and cold. Of course, need to do this thing called breathing. Apparently, it’s the thing that separates the living from the dead. Anywhooo… because I have this need to breathe, each breath I took steamed up my glasses. I tried to breathe less intensely taking short breaths. That did not help. My glasses continued to steam both on the inside and the outside of the lens. Of course, it being -42c with the windchill the steam freezes and a thick layer of ice start to form on my lenses.

My second mistake, my glasses are metal framed. So as the steam formed into ice on my glasses, it is also caused them to literally stick to my face! I don’t think it helps that my nose bridge is pretty much non-existent. I am Asian after all and I accept that I have flat face and a flat nose. But in this kind unbearable, extreme cold, metal framed glasses that sit snug against a flat face instead of resting nicely on a nose bridge is just a bad idea!

Now remember, this is only a 5 to 6 block walk and all of this managed to happen within block number 2 of the walk! Needless to say, by the time we arrived at block 3, where Dean felt the need to stop and take a photo of us in front of a sign that displayed the temperature, I could not see anything! I could not see through my glasses nor could I see peering over the lenses because my vision is so crappy. I’m literally as blind as a bat! Good thing Dean was around to be my seeing-eye-person!

NOTE TO SELF: when in temperatures below -20c, wear contact lenses as glasses will freeze to your face.

Dancing Aurora in Yellowknife

My co-worker Dean and I arrived in Yellowknife mid-afternoon and so far I have to say that I like this town. I know I have been here for less than 24 hrs and I am probably jumping the gun a bit in saying that. It was sunny and warm for this time of year at a mere -18c. I could be singing a different tune if it had been -40c. It's likely to get colder tomorrow so I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. But nonetheless, -18c is still somewhat cold with the windchill (maybe -23c or so today) if you aren't dressed appropriately. Your tongue would definitely stick to metal in this sort of weather as I quickly discovered. No, I did not purposely stick my tongue to a metal parking meter or anything like that! But rather, I have these special mitts that have a zipper along the side so you can slide your hand in-and-out just in case you need to use your fingers... you know for things like taking photos and such. Anyhow, I forgot that the zipper on my mitts are made of metal and when I attempted to use my mouth to open the zipper, my tongue froze to the zipper latch! I tore a small part of my tongue onto the zipper of my mitt! Ouch! *Note to self: do not use mouth on metal zippers!*

The trees here are short and watching from the plane during our descent, Yellowknife looked like snow and ice covered by fuzzy moss. Apparently as you head north toward the tree line, most of the trees are about 3 feet small. I would look like a giant at a staggering 4'9 1/2" next to those trees!

A Sunday night in Yellowknife seems to be fairly quiet. Dean and I decided to have dinner at a Vietnamese noodle joint and I'd have to say that it was the most expensive bowl of Pho I have ever had! When I was in Vietnam in June I paid the equivalent of $1-2 CND for a bowl of Pho with all the fixings - mint leaves, basil, bean sprouts, etc. Here in Yellowknife fresh herbs are hard to get and they are very expensive. So I ordered a bowl of Pho with beef balls and rare beef and it was $9.95 just for the noodles and beef! No fixings. Just a few chopped green onions and that was it. I couldn't even get beef flank or tendons as I would normally! Oh well.

After our less than exciting but very pricey bowls of Pho, we decide that we should walk around town and see if we can see the Aurora Borealis a.k.a. the Northern Lights. So we wander around the parking lot of the hotel and wander down the highway and low and behold we see a light stream of green light bending and curving in the sky. At first it was very faint but gets brighter from time to time. Nothing too spectacular because there was too much light pollution in the city. So we decide to head out on to a frozen lake to get a bit further away from the city lights. We tread through a foot or so of powdery snow on the lake and the Aurora Borealis look brighter. But still, I was not satisfied. Dean suggests we look for a cab to take us outside the city limits so we head back to the highway in hopes of finding a cab.


Within about 5 minutes from when we get to the highway, a cab drives by and I wave it down. The cabby is a Francophone named Gilles from Quebec City and he drives us out about 10-15 minutes outside of town. We pull off the side of the highway where it is dark and as we get out of the cab I see one of the most spectacular things of my life..... dancing ribbons of light across the night sky! Strings of green and some with hints of pink and red! And they do dance! They danced in waves and ripples, flashing red and green marching in and around the starlit sky. It was absolutely stunning and literally took my breath away for a moment. But after that brief breathless moment (most of you know that I can be quite chatty), I was overwhelmed with glee and felt deeply fortunate to have the opportunity see such a wonder of nature. All I kept saying was "This is beautiful! I can't believe how spectacular this is! This is fucking beautiful!"


Well, I'm off to bed as work awaits me in the morning. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow night as well. I want to see more of this amazing phenomenon and will take every chance I get to do it!