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Describe your most memorable vacation.

I have two absolute most memorable vacations in the books. The first most memorable vacation I want to mention is the family reunion trip my dad planned back in 2006 to Japan. I believe this was the last group vacation I ever went on with my dad before his passing. It had always been his lifelong dream to host one giant family reunion with our entire family in Yokohama, Japan, including my eldest brother, who hadn’t been back to Japan since his early teenage years. I, myself, hadn’t been back there since I was 3 years old. This was something my dad was adamant about doing, regardless of cost, before he became the last surviving sibling of his generation, which was quickly becoming more of a reality than we would know.

Initially that year, my brother had already planned a group vacation with another set of his friends (another couple) & all of their children (all girls). My dad urged my brother to cancel his vacation plans & go with us to Japan. He even invited my brother’s friends to come along, all expenses paid. That was one of my most fondest memories about that trip. It wasn’t just the fact that we’d be having a full-on family reunion with my dad’s entire family, including myself & my brother for the first time ever. It was the fact that my dad paid for a whole other family (2 parents, 2 children) to tag along with us to our family event. Of course, we all became lifelong family friends after that.

Another core memory I treasure from that trip was going back to visit my dad’s family home one more time before it got torn down to become a 9-floor multi-use building complex. I have been to my dad’s family home once before, but I was so young I could hardly remember any of that time. It was such a memorable experience visiting my grandfather’s tailor shop (which is now run by my cousin & his wife) & having a home-cooked family meal at the family house. It was hotter than hell that day, especially in an old building with no central air conditioning, but we all had the time of our lives catching up & eating together. My dad’s family home is now a 9-floor mixed-use building, but I can proudly say that my cousin’s tailoring business is still operating there, & the eldest aunt from my dad’s generation still lives there on the top floor.

All of us had such a great time catching up with family, & it was especially meaningful for my brother’s two daughters to get to know cousins & other relatives they have only heard about but had never met before. My dad was living his best life, drinking all the beer, & chatting non-stop with his two last surviving brothers. My brother’s close friends fit seamlessly into our family reunion. They were included in all of our family activities, & we had a fun time bonding with them over the course of our vacation. I even got to meet up with my childhood best friend after many years apart, & we had such a fun time catching up with each other.

Seeing my entire family from my dad’s side all coming together (despite some family members not getting along) really made my heart soar. It was a truly magical moment that I will never forget for as long as I live. It is one memory I share with my dad that I cherish so deeply within my heart. Even to this day, I will reference back to this amazing experience.

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For a detailed account of this memorable vacation please refer to this post.

The next memory I want to talk about is my birthday vacation in London, England. This is another memorable trip, for one, because it was my very first time traveling to the U.K. (or even the European side of the globe). For as long as I could remember, I have always wanted to visit London. My dream came true back in 2017 when I finally convinced Jian to travel to the U.K. instead of Asia. I am still trying to convince him to visit London again, or any other part of Europe for that matter, but he is extremely adamant about traveling overseas to Asia again.

From the moment we started talking about this trip, I was absolutely certain that this was going to be an extraordinary experience. I was not wrong. The incredibleness began before we even boarded the airplane. Somehow, we were able to book a stay at my now all-time favorite hotel at a jaw-dropping discounted rate. This hotel (Edition Hotel London) is supposed to be the crème de la crème of the luxury boutique hotels within the Marriott Hotels group. We somehow were able to book a room around my birthday, & as soon as we checked in to the hotel, the amazingness continued. Each day, everyone greeted us by name & sent me birthday greetings. I even got a personal handwritten birthday note (which I kept) by the hotel manager, along with a special dessert sent to our room. Then, on the last day of our stay, we were sent 2 complimentary custom cocktails to our room. Let me just say that I could not have been more impressed with this hotel & its entire staff.

Our little tour of London was also extremely memorable. Some of our highlights include: going to an Anderson.Paak concert, doing a proper pub AND bar crawl nearly every day (not just at night), randomly spotting 2 celebrity actors (who were very popular at the time), taking a tour of Westminster Abbey & Big Ben (while it was closed for repairs), riding a proper red double-decker public bus, riding the Underground subway for the first time, & getting McNugget grease on our hotel bed from eating McDonald’s at midnight after the Anderson.Paak concert.

There are two interesting stories that really stand out from this trip. The first story is about that time when Jian & I were sitting at the counter of a bar we had looked up on TripAdvisor. We were just sitting by ourselves as the bar was slowly starting to fill up for the evening, & were casually watching the bartender restock all of her pre-batched cocktails. Eventually a group of already drunk, rowdy guys saddle up to the bar to greet the bartender who was a friend of theirs. Jian somehow got a spam call on his phone, & one of the drunk guys asks if he could answer the phone for him (in a very thick accent, probably because he was drunk & already slurring his words). Jian of course said yes, & let the guy talk bullshit with the spam caller. We built up a friendly rapport with this drunk guy after that little incident, & had a great time drinking & talking. On our way back to our hotel, Jian complained that I was constantly trying to get him drunk every night. I said, “Who cares? Just have fun!”

The second story is about that time when we effectively shut down the lobby bar at our hotel. The hotel policy states that the lobby bar is supposed to stop serving drinks at 11pm & close for the evening at 12 midnight. We met an older couple at the bar, who were visiting their daughter at university in London. The wife was already three sheets to the wind as she had been mixing vodka drinks, tequila drinks, & champagne all night. Then she proceeded to argue with Jian about how to say certain words & phrases in Cantonese, proclaiming that she was an Italian-born woman who went to school in Hong Kong. She tried to assert that she was more Cantonese than Jian, who was actually born in Canton, China. It was hilarious how the two of them were going back & forth with each other in Cantonese & English.

The husband, however, was interested in talking to us about the drinks we were ordering, & grilling us (happily) about how the two of us knew so much about alcohol & their brands. It turns out that this man worked in the field of alcohol distribution or some sort, or import-export of alcohol for international restaurants & hotels. We talked to him about his job, & he was very eager to chat with us to gain our perspective from a younger generation. Meanwhile, the wife kept chatting with us on the side, exclaiming that we seemed like the kind of couple who have amazing intimate relations (to put it very lightly).

We kept having a very lively & spirited conversation with this couple all the way past the bar’s closing time, & didn’t end up back in our room until 3am. It was incredible. We tried getting this couple’s contact information, but they explained to us that they were leaving the next day, & they wanted to meet us at the hotel lobby before they left. We never got a chance to meet up with this very interesting couple, but we have a cool story to tell everyone. I believe that was only the second time in Jian’s life where he had a true hangover. The first time was when he turned 21. We ate mediocre Vietnamese pho the next day, & as Jian was staring at his bowl, he was contemplating the meaning of life.

I truly hope we are able to visit London again, sometime in the near future perhaps. I would like to have more adventures like the two I described above, maybe with my little bean in tow, maybe not (she can’t get into bars yet). All in all, I have been on quite a few fun vacations in my lifetime, but these two were the ones that stood out the most in my mind. I hope I can have more fun vacation adventures, & document them here to share with everyone. Until the next trip, cheers!

Today’s song of the day: