Month: April 2013

Dallas, Texas – Day 10: Post Office, Malai and Walmart again!

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Monday 15th April 

Day 10 was an early start compared to the other days. Yay! We first went to the post office in St Paul (it’s just around the corner from St Paul station) as I needed to post a postcard to my friend in Canada who likes receiving these kinds of things from countries her friends go to for holidays… (Not sure if she got it…).
Wow, the post office we went into which I pictured the outside of during the other day (day 3 post) was so eerie inside. It was like going into a building of ancient times of Dallas.
Roof of post office

One of light bulbs

Eerie hallway!

Nice painting

Next it was again another trip to West Village via the M-Line Trolley. We went into GAP, then ate in Malai, a Thai / Vietnamese restaurant. This place was quite reasonably priced and I wanted the Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef and noodle soup).

Outside Malai

So first off, we started off with the mussels which was cooked in a white wine sauce. This was delicious and served with some bread, but the sauce was bit too runny for our liking. We also had a complimentary rice parcel with some curry type of paste.

Bread and mussels

Rice parcel and curry paste

Next was Miss Pinky’s Panang Curry Duck costing US $17 (approx. £11). Pretty expensive dish! But the duck was tender, and the rice portion was small, but the peanuts were a bit too much for her.

Panang Curry Duck

I had of course the Pho Bo – the large bowl (there’s the small bowl option too). Hm. The soup was ok, but a bit too sweet for me. It wasn’t like the one I had in London (Café Mama Pho). I expected a beefy stock, less coriander and a very Vietnamese taste. It wasn’t the greatest pho I have had (even the instant pot pho that I buy tasted much better than this to be honest). The noodles weren’t consistent enough as I saw some thick and thin noodles. But the beef was great. Nice and tender, and easy to chew on. That was the only bit I had enjoyed.

Pho Bo

It was strange to see a complimentary Chinese fried dough given to us… Chinese people mainly eat this with congee! Not as a side dish!!

Fried dough

We then had a banana pudding which we shared. I liked the glazed banana, chocolate and cream but not the pudding. It was too salty for me… Yeek.

Banana Pot de Creme

Well service was ok, they talk too quick for me to understand, and they go through the specials way too quickly. Miss Pinky had to ask about the fish special again!

Total cost came to US $49.80 (I think… approx £32)… Miss Pinky and I were arguing about the bill because I didn’t listen to her say she was going to pay the majority of it since her dish was expensive.
My geeky rating: 3.5/5. Not the best pho I have had I’m afraid. Meat is all good though…

Address: 3699 McKinney Ave #319 Dallas, TX 75204, United States
Website: http://www.malaikitchen.com/

Next we wanted to go to Walmart to do some final supermarket shopping. It was a long trip, and I think I got sunburn because of it!! But first off we had stopped at Uptown Pub before we took the tram and bus. They have free wifi. Plus they have some nice seating outside… This was when heard about the Boston bombing… how sad it was on that day…
Looking out from Uptown Pub

Next we waited for the free tram for a very long time. Got onto it, then came off it as we saw the bus 39 bus-stop… It was late by a good 10 minutes! But thankfully the bus driver stopped for us as we had stood by the tram stop to go a different route! What a long afternoon… Then it was another bus trip to get to Walmart!!

Walmart really had amazed me. They sell hospital scrubs. They even sell Hello Kitty ones!!!! I wanted one just for fun, but resisted!!! 😀 No wonder people walk around in scrubs along the streets of Dallas!
Hello Kitty scrubs!!!

Finally we went back, and I took a picture of the sun just starting to set by South Western Medical Center… This medical center is so big. I think you could easily get lost in it!!

Sunset at South Western Medical Center

And I also took a pic of this eerie looking bar with no windows… American bars always look so dark inside! It must really get hot out there!! Miss Pinky said it looked like a hole in the wall kind of place… ¬,¬””

Princes Bar

Then we had dinner at the hotel… It was pizza again :S

End of Day 10.


Dallas, Texas – Day 9 – A trip to Walmart Supercenter

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Sunday 14th April
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I forgot to mention in the previous post that I was given a fortune cookie, it said

“Tomorrow you will find the item you have been searching for.”. 

Wow! So before I went to sleep the night before I quickly looked up where and how we could get to that Walmart that we first went to. I thank Google maps and free wi-fi (plus pictures I took of shops nearby) for finding the bus route!! So I told Miss Pinky. I think we left after 12 or 1 pm or maybe it was around 2 pm to find it…

We took the 526 towards the station and then changed for the bus 529. I put my hand out for the bus to stop and I think I was waving to Miss Pinky who was sitting in the sun to hurry up to get the bus because the station is not its last stop. The bus could drive away without you Miss Pinky and then we would have had to wait again!! 😛 The bus driver thought I was crazy but she was a lovely person who seemed to have known that we wanted to go to the shopping area!! 😀 Lovely woman who seemed to know the area better than the other drivers we have met on our journey in Dallas… Fortune cookie was right!
We looked around the area first. So our first main stop was Sam’s Club. This is a supermarket where you bulk shop like in Lidl’s and Aldi. Unfortunately you have to be a member to shop there… 😦 But that was kind of good for us because that meant more spending in Walmart. 😀
Sam’s Club – You MUST be a member
Finally we went into Walmart, and we spent some money on clothes and chocolates for people back home! We’ll be back again!!
Bus number to Walmart Supercenter from Inwood / Lovefield Station: 529! 
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Stop at: Marsh Lane at Almazan Drive, then crossover at the traffic lights.
Address: 9410 Webb Chapel Rd Dallas, Texas 75220, United States
Didn’t do much in the evening… Sat around and did nothing… I was just blogging, but then suddenly we went out for a walk around the area. Miss Pinky and I saw something typical that you would see in American TV programmes and films… a thief stealing a bag of crisps and the owner of the shop had come out with a stick running towards the thief, but the thief got away… :S I was quite afraid… And then as Miss Pinky and I were walking back, a guy was holding a box of iced beer. Miss Pinky wanted to buy alcohol, and the guy was willing to sell his beer. He offered it for US $7 and she paid US $10 ¬,¬”” … Well… Americans are really nice when it comes to alcohol!! 😀
Brookriver Drive…

Dallas, Texas – Day 8 – Finding DFW China Town 達拉斯中國城

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Saturday 13th April

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Saturday started off late (once again). Well both Miss Pinky and I were exhausted (more Miss Pinky than me!) from the night before.

For this day we decided to go to the Richardson area in Dallas, which is up north, and it doesn’t take you long to get there. I wanted to find ‘a’ or ‘the’ China Town in Dallas, and I had found on the Internet that there was a place in Richardson, but there were no clues on how to get there or where it is! I guess not many tourists like me want to find these places. ¬_¬”” So we took the 526 bus once again (it was so handy having a weekly pass), changed for the train and stopped off at West End to change for the red line. We took this next train up to Arapaho Center Station (can’t pronounce the name of this station), and I saw DFW China Town! We tried to get a bus there from the transit centre, but unfortunately there are no buses that go there on the weekend. 😦 So what do people do in Dallas on the weekend? I don’t understand why bus services are not regular on the weekends… I expect they want people to chill out instead of going out and spending…
Arapaho Center Station

So then we took the train back to Spring Valley Station which is the previous stop to see if we could walk from there… Nope it looked too far from Spring Valley, so we quickly hopped onto the train going back to Arapaho Station and then finally walked there… (I’m sure the passengers thought we were mad!). There’s no actual pathway (pavements) to walk on from the station to China Town, so watch out for the dogs in the houses you pass by. I think this is definitely one thing America needs to improve on. It’s one reason why there’s so much obesity over there. For a tourist like me who does not drive I would expect there to be pavements!!


It was a mission and half getting there I tell you. It was also hot that day. But it’s about a 15 minute walk from Arapaho Station. So it wasn’t too bad.
Finally found DFW China Town

Cool!

DFW China Town 中國城 sign

So many cars! Shops and restaurants are set up in a line

Nice lantern!

Everything’s in Chinese!! Signs, posters, menus…

We spent a good hour or two there and found ourselves looking in the supermarket, the bakery and a cute shop! 😀 Miss Pinky bought a few things from the supermarket (we were arguing about ingredients at this point… I think Miss Pinky was back to her normal moody self due to a lack of sleep) and I had a very good look at the cute shop!! ^_^

Very large prawns!!!!

Black chicken?!

Statue of Confucius – I made my blessings

Didn’t do too much shopping, but we did eat in China Town. I spotted Canton Restaurant. I thought they would speak in Cantonese, but I was wrong.  The restaurant name is misleading. Majority of the people there in China Town spoke in Mandarin rather than Cantonese. I was a little disappointed although I did hear a few shoppers around who spoke my native language in the supermarket. But thankfully I can understand Mandarin – that’s if people speak slowly enough (but my speaking still sucks!). 😦

Just to point out – majority of restaurants in Dallas don’t put their menus outside for you to view. I think that’s quite selfish of them and a bad marketing scheme just to get you inside and seat you as soon as you enter… That’s what happened to us several times… And in this restaurant too…

Inside Canton Restaurant

Miss Pinky so wanted to eat roast duck and noodle soup, but unfortunately they only had braised duck rather than roast duck… So she ordered a pork dish that had too many vegetables and rice… Oh well, we’ll find a Chinese restaurant that makes roast duck and noodle soup before we go… Maybe…

Pork and Vegetables

Rice … Miss Pinky already started on her food before I took this pic!! 

I had the combination special which consisted of prawns, squid, pork and loads of vegetables on top of some pan fried noodles. It was good. A very big dish. I think I have been craving for noodles… In this dish the noodles were slightly thicker than the usual ones I have in London and at home. They also gave me a steak knife. Not sure what that was supposed to be there for. ¬,¬” Miss Pinky was laughing at that in a sarcastic way! 

Massive Combination Special ^_^””

In the end it cost me US $19.98 (approx. £13) including Miss Pinky’s dish and the drinks. So cheap. I had paid because Miss Pinky didn’t like her food. She wanted noodle soup, but she didn’t get it. Oh well!! But at least we sat next to a couple who seemed like they were having an affair… Or maybe not… Gossip to talk about on the way back… By the way, they didn’t take my US $1 tip ¬,¬”” Wow. They didn’t want it!! 

Happy to go again… But would go to another restaurant to try out…


My geeky rating for Canton Restaurant: 4.5/5 

Address for restaurant: 400 N. Greenville Ave. Suite 25 Richardson TX 75081

***

Address for DFW China Town: 400 N. Greenville Ave., Richardson TX 75081 United States

***

So it was back to the station. By the way, I think there’s some stinging nettles on the ground. So watch out!!

This is the bus number – 360 that takes you to DFW China Town

Arapaho Center Station – Coming back from China Town

It was a good day out…


And look Miss Pinky made dinner… Tom Yum soup with coconut milk… Most of the ingredients were bought in DFW China Town. The mussels were massive too! Wow!!

Ingredients used in the Tom Yum Soup

Very large mussels 😀

Yummy Tom Yum soup – well done Miss Pinky!!

It was quite difficult making this as the pots that the Suites provided were too small!!

Does anyone want the recipe for this?


I had told Miss Pinky that we were supposed to go back to the bar that we went to the night before… But we didn’t. Didn’t do anything during the evening… Sad people we are – I know…

But during that evening we were both awakened by the night life of Texans staying below us… They love to party!! But I wanted to sleeeeeep. 😛

Dallas, Texas – Day 7: Uptown/City Place and Charlie’s Bar

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Friday 12th April

Day 7 started late… What? Again?! Well this time it was me who woke up late not Miss Pinky, so she made breakfast! Heheh.

On this day we were determined to find the big superstore Walmart that we first went to on Day 2. So we took two bus journeys. The 404 which is near our normal 526 bus stop, and this took us all the way to Parkland Station… Then we were advised to take other buses around the area… Basically we got lost. But eventually we took the 527 bus… And we still couldn’t find it. The bus took us back to the train station. May I just point out that the bus drivers don’t know the areas very well, so don’t ask them questions. It’s best to ask the locals who the know everything that goes on!! But some of the locals don’t even know the area… 😛

We gave up. So we went to the one in City Place. We took the train (orange line) and stopped off at Uptown / City Place. We realised we were back in West Village!!!! Hahahahah. 

Uptown / City Place Station

We asked a lady where the Walmart was. And yay!! Someone knew where there was a supermarket!! It looked far and Miss Pinky wanted to take the bus… Seriously it wasn’t far! A 10 minute walk. This one is a small grocery one, not the superstore, and isn’t what we had wanted. It’s opened 24 hours. The lady advised us to go back towards the inside of the station, crossover, then take the bus 36… So we waited…

Walmart looks far…!!

When we got there Miss Pinky wanted to eat before we shopped, so we walked all the way back down to Uptown Station…

…and surprisingly we passed by a memorial for black slavery. Ooooh interesting!! ^_^ This place is called Freedman’s Memorial…

Inside Freedman’s Memorial


We then ate at a steakhouse. Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse. There were only a few diners at that time. It was around 3 or 4 pm. But it seemed people got takeouts from there rather than eat in. 

Big sign for Texas Land & Cattle

Looking out from where we sat… didn’t smell any car fume like you would in London!

The outside

Nice boots!! ^_^

Menu cover

And we had the following food. I swapped my bacon wrapped scallops with her lobster. I like lobster. And I just knew Miss Pinky wanted my scallops. I also got a free soft drink top too!! Great place! Good food! 😀

Chips and bread

Butter was nice, bread was warm

Sauteed onions

TXLC Sirloin and BBQ Bacon-wrapped Scallops with potato mash – looks small but filling!!

Signature Smoked Sirloin and Lobster Tail  with rice – yummy lobster, plus nice presentation!!

My geeky rating for Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse: 5/5 – quiet, peaceful, friendly people and good food!!

Address: 3130 Lemmon Ave, Dallas, TX 75204, United States


Both of us didn’t want to go all the way back to Walmart, so we shopped in Albertson’s. This is an ok grocery store but a little expensive. It was like shopping in Sainsbury’s where everything is expensive!

We then took the M-Line back to St Paul, and took the train back…

So food unpacked, we then went out to look for bars and had ended up in an Italian restaurant (where I had a very good gin and tonic) and then into Charlie’s, which is a block down the road. It’s an all time American bar! Finally we went into one. It looked awkward on the outside, but very much like a bar on the inside. I don’t understand why there are no windows. I guess they are built that way so people from the outside can’t look at the people drinking their lives away… Just a thought…
Inside Charlie’s

Another view of Charlie’s

The people in Charlie’s were awesome. Very much a homely sort of bar where the locals drink and where they have a good time. It was karaoke night by the way, and Texans can really sing!! I was amazed at these people’s singing… However, Miss Pinky had trouble with one customer who was already drunk and swore at her whilst I was in the loo… Miss Pinky panicked and wanted to go home. But a couple of the regulars saved the day and convinced Miss Pinky to stay.

Miss Pinky had wanted to try a beer in a jug like this!!

One of the regular customers paid for our drinks and cab!! OMG. She didn’t have to do that, but she is a lovely person who can really sing…!! 😀


Here’s a mix video of the people singing that night. I just want to say thank you to the people at the bar who made our trip a memorable one!! Miss Pinky and I had a great time, and it’s a shame we didn’t go back for shots… Maybe in the future if we return. ^_^


The girl at the end of the video paid for our drinks and cab… Shocking!! 😀 Happy to return the favour if she comes to London. 😀

Address: 1820 W Mockingbird Ln Ste 28, Dallas, TX 75235, United States

The night ended very late for us… 2 am to be exact… Then we went to sleep around 3 am… YAWN!!! 

End of Day 7 (and it was the start of day 8). 😀


Dallas, Texas – Day 6: Fair Park

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Thursday 11th April

Gosh. Time flies when you’re having fun and a very relaxing time!! It’s already day 6 into our holiday, and I felt like we hadn’t done enough on this trip. It felt a little different to our short holidays because this time we had so much time on our hands… 😀

On this day both of us woke up late. Well, Miss Pinky had her TV on loud the night before, and we both didn’t sleep until after 1 am Dallas time!! ¬,¬”

Miss Pinky wanted to find out some tours we could go on. Her energy levels seemed to have revived after yesterday’s short trip around the area. And she said she didn’t spend any money. I am actually impressed because usually Miss Pinky would have spent all her holiday money by now. Thank you mother nature for the rain!! 😀

So we went on a bus journey by taking the bus 526 again up to Inwood / Love Field Station. Then I saw a bus 39 going towards Downtown, so we jumped onto that bus which seemed to have taken us back towards McKinney, which is the road before West Village and where we had sat down and had loaded chips… and got slightly drunk! Wow. So now we don’t have to rely on shuttles, trains or taxis!! The bus 39 took us through Cedar Springs. This place seemed like a posh area of Dallas. It was like going through Docklands on a nice sunny day. The last stop is West End Bus Station, then the bus goes back towards Inwood / Love Field Station. It’s funny how the buses in Dallas run on a circular route (as I have mentioned in my previous post). I like the Dallas bus routes as you will never get lost – this is what Miss Pinky would say. But the bus times are not that great as they run hourly during non-peak times (at this point I had missed London transport!).

Anyway, we went back to the Tourist Centre to check on other tours. Not much going on, but Miss Pinky found two she wanted to go to… ¬_¬ … One of them didn’t get my approval and thankfully we did not go to it…!! Then one of the guides at the centre advised us on where to go to, but we had been to most of them already, and we didn’t want to disappoint him, so we had just let him carry on with the information about Dallas’s tourist sites. And then finally he mentioned about Fair Park! That’s a place where we haven’t been to yet!! But before we jumped onto the Green Line heading towards Bruckner we stopped off at the West End Aquarium Center just to check out the prices really. It’s a bit expensive for my liking…

We got to Fair Park. Then we almost got lost because the map wasn’t too clear. It didn’t show where The Women’s Museum was on the map that was given to us at the tourist centre!! I then asked a gentleman who kindly pointed out that we needed to go through the entrance around the corner leading to The Women’s Museum and then we would find the other attractions… Oooooh. That could’ve been pointed out in the map!!
Fair Park Station – pretty on a nice sunny day!! 😀

Star of Dallas – go pass this and you will see the attractions at the site

The Women’s Museum


We looked around. It is a gigantic place to explore! I felt like we were the only tourists around, but we spotted another two tourists, and then we saw some other people around.

Someone’s boat…???

Statues representing the gods and goddesses I believe

Swimmers…?

Another museum


Some cops having a gathering before they get to work

Mini Statue of Liberty in Dallas?!

Ghost town…

Unfortunately the fair ground or the stadium were not opened. It looked like they were rebuilding a few things before the summer starts… Not sure when it’ll be open to be honest! Maybe May time…

The Fair Ground

Cotton Bowl Stadium

Then we walked a bit more, and finally we went out of the place via a back entrance, and looked for a place to eat… 

Beautiful scenery ^_^

Duck boats!

Seahorse statues

The Science Place


Wanted to try out Jack in the Box. I think I heard about the place from somewhere and wanted to try their food out.

Jack in the Box in Fair Park

Inside Jack in the Box

Miss Pinky had a steak burger with burnt curly fries. Miss Pinky said she has had better junk food than this… Not up to her standards I believe. She would’ve given this place 2/5 I believe!

Hmmmm…. Not good food…

And I had the Chicken Teriyaki bowl with an egg roll and a banana smoothie. Mine was ok. Sauce was a bit too sweet for me though…

Chicken teriyaki and an egg roll

My geeky rating for Jack in the Box: 1/5

Finally we made our way back to the train station. We just missed a train, so we had to sit and wait. By the way, Miss Pinky hates me for being right, because we almost took the wrong train at the wrong platform going in the wrong direction… Hmmmm… (^_^)v

Got back to West End. We needed to find a few groceries before heading back so we went into CVS and 7Eleven, but both don’t sell loaves of bread or other stuff we needed… Hmmm, it’s really hard to find a grocery store in Dallas that’s if you don’t have a car to go to the bigger stores! I’m happy that in London that you can find loads of grocery stores and supermarkets and markets easily than in Dallas. Anyway, we were advised by a customer in 7Eleven to go to City Place where there’s a Walmart (we’ll go there another time)… I think she said it was closed at that time we were around… but it wasn’t. It’s opens 24 hours!

In the end we went back to the Suites via bus, ate dinner in the dining area again (it was better – fried chicken, unseasoned mash potatoes and sweetcorn ¬_¬””) and then we watched a lot of TV! American TV is ok in the evening… Not so much medical stuff or weird adverts…

End of Day 6.


Dallas, Texas – Day 5: Walking around Inwood

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Wednesday 10th April

Day 5. We started the day very late. I woke up before Miss Pinky and made breakfast (I always seem make it when we’re on holiday together!! :P).

Unfortunately it rained all morning, and so we watched daytime American TV. 
Raining in Dallas is like having a downpour!!
That was the wrong idea. Watching American TV that is. The adverts they showed and the talk shows that were on were a bit too overwhelming for me. There were so many medical ads on that morning (all day and everyday to be exact) I couldn’t believe it. Who on Earth would want to watch this stuff during the day?! I sure wouldn’t. If I wanted medical advice I think I would go to my local GP or those walk in centres… Not from a TV ad!

Finally it stopped raining around 2 pm. We wanted to take the local bus 526 which is just outside the Suites. It comes hourly during the day, so we got the 3:13 pm bus and then got off one stop before its last destination at Inwood / Love Field train station. Just to let you know, all the buses run a circular route in one specific area. Unlike in the UK they run from one end of London to another end and then back on the same route to where they started from!  So you will never get lost in Dallas. But you would in the UK!

We walked around for a bit. I took a few pictures of Inwood Street, and also saw a funny ad. 😀
Roads in Dallas

In Inwood
Went into a couple of liquor stores just to check the prices too. Very cheap stuff in very big bottles!!

Miss Pinky then became hungry. I wasn’t that hungry, but we spotted this smokehouse: Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse. And I wanted to give it a try. Finally. We ate at an American sort of diner!! 😀 I think this is the original place as there are other branches around Dallas. We saw one in West End… There’s also a few branches in Utah! 
Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Inwood

Inside the smokehouse… Seating was a bit weird for me!

The kitchen

Wow!! Someone likes one dollar origami too!! ^_^

We were in TEXAS ^_^

Our food!! Delicious 😀
Very good food and very nice people. We both loved the pulled meat, and I have a feeling we’ll be there again before we go back home (unfortunately that didn’t happen, 😦 I want pulled meat right now!!).

My geeky rating for the Smokehouse: 4.5/5 (seating was a bit awkward for me)

Address: 2202 Inwood Rd, Dallas, TX, United States

Here’s some more pictures around Inwood as we waited for the bus to go back…


A couple of hours later, we went to eat our free dinner. It was lasagne and sweet bread that day. It was ok. Miss Pinky didn’t like it though…
So-so dinner!!!

Dallas, Texas – Day 4: West Village

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Tuesday 9th April

Yay there’s sun! And finally my jet lag is over! But Miss Pinky I’m afraid at this point was still jet lagged. Both of us started the day a bit later than usual. We were very tired from day 3. I seemed to have had 10 hours sleep and had some paracetomol the night before because my hands were in pain and so I had a good nights sleep! 😀 This time I made breakfast. Toast, bacon (that had a lot of fat attached to it) and scrambled eggs. These were some of the items we had bought in Walmart. Then Miss Pinky decided to wake up really late, and then she decided she wanted fried bread rather than toast (luckily she came down in time before I made the toast for her!).


The night before we booked the free shuttle to take us to the station, but unfortunately the person in reception said it wasn’t booked… But we saw the girl book it! Anyway, we had to wait for a few minutes before we headed off. This time we purchased a 7-day pass which costs US $25 (approx. £16) per person. This time the machine was working!! We were at the Tourist Centre yesterday which is located in West End and just opposite the Court, and the person there said we could go to West Village which is like an area of boutiques and branded stores. It’s pretty easy to get to, but we weren’t given great directions to remember to get to the free tram. But Miss Pinky remembered that we had to go to St Paul. So we got off at St Paul Station as instructed but wasn’t sure on where to go next. So we asked a lady who was very helpful, and gave us good instructions on how to get there. She was correct as we saw the tram heading towards West Village! The tram is called M-Line Trolley and it is absolutely FREE to ride on!! First stop from St Paul is at Ross Avenue. It seems not only the tourists get this tram but also the local residents. 😀 Here’s the Wiki page for you: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney_Avenue_Transit_Authority
M-Line Trolley

Inside the trolley

Very simple steering gear

Posters that look old!

I swear they look old

There’s air-con on these trolleys!

M-Line Trolley Service: http://www.mata.org/
When we got to West Village, Miss Pinky and I decided to walk around for a bit before we hit the shops. So we spotted a school, lots of nice flats and a dead pigeon! ¬,¬””

Nearby school in West Village

Nice flats!

Seriously… I don’t know what possessed me to take a picture of this… It was a nice neighborhood until I saw this!

We headed back afterwards towards the shopping area, and started to look around the shops. Went into GAP first, then a few boutique shops and a clothes shop that had a very chatty assistant… Not sure if Miss Pinky could compete with her! 🙂

West Village Sign 😀

After looking around and finding stuff, we decided to go for a drink. We had a look around, they even had a pub at the end of one street called Uptown Pub… But some of the places looked shut or probably not what we wanted to eat. In the end we took the M-Line Trolley, and went around a few streets / blocks, and decided we would check out a few more pubs, taverns and restaurants. We ended up in two pubs. The first one, the barman who I think is Irish, gave me a double vodka and 7-up… I was drunk after that! 

Forgot what pub this is called… The Idle Rich Pub

Address: 2614 McKinney Ave, Dallas, TX, United States

Then we went to the opposite pub after that, which is called Blackfriar Pub. We were pub crawling around 2.45 pm!! I never do that! 😀 Both of us were extremely hungry, and I think we ordered way too much food than what we actually wanted. I have always wanted to try the Loaded Chips as I always see pictures on Instagram of them. I got that plus a pie. It didn’t look like a pie. A very odd pie actually!! The crust was put on top of a soupy-like chicken and mushroom filling. That’s not how you make pie!!! Seriously have a word Miss Pinky would say! :S I also had a weird mix of Guinness, coke and rum. I was seriously drunk by 4 pm! But was still conscious.

Blackfriar Pub

Our drinks

Loaded chips! I didn’t finish it

Didn’t finish the chips…

Odd Pie

Miss Pinky had cheesy chips but she also wanted some mini chicken which apparently wasn’t ordered by accident in the end… Oh well…

So much cheese!!!!!

Address: 2621 McKinney Ave Dallas, TX 75204, United States

Afterwards, we took the M-Line Trolley again back to the last stop… We walked back towards West End Station instead of St Paul Station. Miss Pinky wanted to get my slightly drunken state out of the way… 🙂 West End feels like a scary area, especially around the McDonald’s bit, but we were ok. I see these type of kids in London a lot (see picture in previous post).


Got the train and the bus back to the Suites, and Miss Pinky decided she was still hungry and wanted to eat dinner. Wow. Miss Pinky was still hungry!! So both of us went back to reception. There was pasta and sweet bread. Miss Pinky had seconds too! Amazing. We were comparing British and American TV at this point. Some of the adverts you see on American TV is quite shocking. There’s a lot of medical advice… This also leads to the point of how and why do medical staff walk around in scrubs in the streets of Dallas? It amazes me a lot because in the UK you hardly see this, and I don’t think it’s allowed…

And finally Miss Pinky’s comment of the evening and after another long day out, she informed me that there was another shooting / stabbing in a Texas university… And also at this point I think Miss Pinky wanted to read my blogposts, which I am only posting up now. ¬_¬

End of Day 4.

p.s. The Americans were shocked at how the British reacted to Lady Margaret Thatcher’s death. They are appalled, and so am I, as she’s actually one of my idols of Britain even though she made all the wrong decisions during her time as prime minister. I respect her a lot! RIP Margaret Thatcher. By the way, I am not a supporter of the Conservative Party… I just like Margaret Thatcher 😛


Day 5: http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/dallas-texas-day-5-walking-around-inwood.html

Dallas, Texas – Day 3: Being a typical tourist

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Monday 8th April

Oh great. Miss Pinky wanted to start the day early so that we could eat breakfast. 😦 So I got up at 7am (actually before 7… I had a very good nights sleep, although I heard our neighbours flushing the toilet a lot… and Miss Pinky had thought it was me).

So we had breakfast at the Reception area again. This time there was scrambled eggs instead of boiled eggs. I don’t think I want to eat this breakfast again… 😛

Before that Miss Pinky asked for the free shuttle to drop us off at the nearest train station. We were kindly dropped off at Inwood / Love Field Station. We had a bit of trouble purchasing our tickets from the machines as they were only accepting coins or credit cards, and not dollar notes. But thankfully we asked a bus driver who said we could purchase our day ticket on the bus which costs US $5 per person (approx. £3.29). And it lasts for the whole day! Wow. I wish London had cheaper bus and train tickets. It would save me gazillions of pounds! (To check out bus and train ticket prices, go to this website: http://www.dart.org/).
Bus / train ticket machine
Inwood / Love Field Station
Not sure what building this is, but it is one of the unique ones in Dallas!
DART train that reminds me of Docklands Light Rail
Akard Station

There are two lines you can take from Inwood / Love Field Station, green or orange, and both go towards the centre of Dallas but end up somewhere different. We took the green line from this station. We weren’t sure which station to stop at as there are 4 stops within Downtown Dallas. So we stopped at Akard Station where there was an information and service centre. The lady at the counter didn’t realise that we were tourists, and had asked us why we needed to know about the bus service around Dallas. Heheheh. Apparently Americans are not very good at recognising accents even though we have a very clear British accent. Well I do anyway. ¬_¬”” But in the end we explained, and the lady at the counter was very helpful about which places to go to for shopping and where to go around the area. Heheh.

In the end we jumped back on a train to West End Station (it’s a 2-3 minute walk from Akard, I don’t understand why the central stations are so close to each other, and neither did Miss Pinky!). In the end we walked around, found the J.F. Kennedy Memorial where Kennedy got shot 500 yards west from the memorial.
JFK Memorial
JFK Memorial
We found ourselves looking around the area, looking at museums and shops to go into, but the museums don’t open until 10 am. We were there quite early… ¬_¬”
Shop selling cowboy boots, hats and accessories
In West End Historic District
Not sure of the name of this place…
Finally we went back to West End Station and headed towards Park Lane (red line). And then we took a shuttle (bus 72) to the big mall in the area. The big mall is actually Macy’s which is popular in the US. It’s basically like a big massive Selfridges or it’s like Bluewater or Westfield Shopping Centre. You are not really missing anything as all the shops are the branded ones like Gucci and other American stores. I wasn’t really keen on spending all my money in this place as I could spend the same amount in London for the same products…
On the train
On the bus
Heading towards the mall
Inside Macy’s in Park Lane
Big hallways
Nice design!
Turtles in a mall pond!!
And there were ducks too!!!!
Miss Pinky wanted to eat in a diner, but there were no diner like places in the mall except for an Italian place and a sandwich bar… But this wasn’t up to Miss Pinky’s idea of American dining. And so we ended up in the food hall in the end where I had this lovely Rainbow Sushi Roll… It was awesome!!! I want more of it!! 😀 I also had 3 dumplings, and a medium sized drink. It didn’t feel like it was a medium drink as there was a lot of ice in it.
Rainbow Sushi Roll and dumplings
Miss Pinky had the beef and chicken rice. It was nicely seasoned. 😀
Japanese beef and chicken rice
We checked out a few more stores before heading back to the station. 

Address: 687 North Central Expressway, Dallas, TX 75225 (North Dallas) United States

How to get there: Take the orange or red line to Park Lane, then take the shuttle 702 to Macy’s

I had wanted to check out a 7Eleven. There’s none in the UK anymore. And I was quite happy to see them still surviving in other countries! Hong Kong are crazy about them, but it feels dim and not as lively in the US.
7Eleven!!
We then trekked down into a building that had the name TJ Maxx. Isn’t it supposed to be TK Maxx?!… Apparently not. TJ Maxx is the original name of the store and it’s from the US. It came to Europe with a different name to save confusion with another company. There was nothing much there, just an empty building, so we headed back to the station.
TJ Maxx
From Park Lane Station we went back towards Downtown, and stopped at Art District this time and we decided to walk back towards West End, so we did a lot of twists and turns.
Cancer Survivors Plaza
Looking up at buildings
Thanksgiving Square
McDonald’s in West End – the rough spot!!
Liquor store opposite McDonald’s
We found a CVS which is a general store. And look what I found… Peanut Butter M&M’s!!! I was so happy!! I’ve been trying to look for these from the day we landed!!! 😀 These M&M’s are massive compared to the UK ones!!

After this we ended up drinking a pint. Miss Pinky was exhausted from too much walking. I seemed to be ok, but my hand muscles seemed to be aching a lot.

Finally we went back. Took the green line again back to Inwood / Love Field. And then one of the smaller local buses 526 back to Hawthorne Suites. If it’s your first time on one of these buses and you need to get off, press the yellow or black strip that’s located on the side of the buses by each seat. I felt like I was in Hong Kong again, as they have buses with similar bell stops… 😀

Then we had our dinner in the Reception area. I guess Miss Pinky didn’t want to cook that night… It was pizza night!

Day 3 ended almost peacefully between us. 😀 Wasn’t even tired!!

Dallas, Texas – Day 2: Getting around

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Sunday 7th April

5 hours sleep. That’s all had that night. Time difference is always difficult to get used to when you’re in a country so far away from your own. I called out to Miss Pinky who was sleeping upstairs. Yes upstairs. We were in an apartment! I was very proud of myself for booking this place. Very different to all the places I have been to so far. So we sat around for an hour or so watching morning Dallas TV. Pretty boring for a Sunday. Miss Pinky was complaining how the Americans liked to talk about weather in Fahrenheit rather than Celsius at this point… ¬_¬””

Next we decided to go for breakfast. It was a free breakfast buffet at the Hawthorne Suites, but we had as little as possible. Although I had two coffees… Very nice filter coffee. You can make your own waffles too… Unfortunately there wasn’t a great choice of food items (go for the cereals if you must)!
Breakfast at the Hawthorne Suites

In the dining area of the Hawthorne Suites

The filter coffee was great…!
We wanted to change the rest of our British Pounds as we thought the rates would be better in Dallas (we thought wrong – more like Miss Pinky thought wrong). So we tried to get a shuttle to Love Field airport (however we found out later that they don’t have a currency exchange there). Unfortunately there was no shuttle available that day, so we got a taxi. It was the same driver from the night before! Cool!! 😀 He took us to a Walmart first as we needed groceries. And yes, we had a kitchen too!! 😀 Mr Bear said to me before we went on this holiday that he hoped Miss Pinky knows that Walmart is just another version of the UK supermarket ASDA… (I don’t think she knew as she wanted to go there EVERYDAY!). Walmart is massive! 🙂 Prices are great too. We even met a police officer from Chicago who was very nice to us and a guy from Nottingham, UK who was living around there.
At Walmart

Inside Walmart

Loads of fruits

Loads of cakes!

Big bottles of wine!

And a lot of beers that Miss Pinky wanted to try out!!
We did some massive grocery shopping. Over US $96 including tax (approx. £68)… Spent too much!! But we needed to. Next we went to Love Field airport but as I said there’s no currency exchange at this airport so we eventually went back to the Dallas International Airport which is also a massive airport! Currency exchange was very low at the time. That’s not good if you’re on a budget… 😦
DFW airport
Now it was back to the apartments! Then for a walk around the area… In Dallas, people don’t seem to like to walk around. There’s hardly any pavements from where we were. People were in cars or trucks or lorries. So I bet those drivers thought we were crazy people walking around. I don’t care… However we ended up in McDonald’s. I really wanted to experience the difference between the US and the UK one. There isn’t much difference. Just a different size system and different burgers… Miss Pinky didn’t enjoy her burger. Too much going on in the burger for her she said. She didn’t even like the look of my one. Steak (burger) and mushrooms always mix together! You see them in restaurants all the time. Miss Pinky, as you may know by now, is a real fussy eater!!
Walking around Inwood

American flag and advert signs

My Angus Steak burger with mushrooms

I think I forgot to take a pic of Miss Pinky’s burger… but here’s her drink

Inside McDonald’s

I prefer the way the UK makes it! The chocolate is supposed to be all over the sundae pot
It was back again to the apartments. And because it was a Sunday, there isn’t much to do in Dallas. So we watched TV. A lot of TV. Miss Pinky is a TV addict!!! I have to say Undercover Boss is a great emotional show by the way! 😀 … Had the rest of my Chinese food from the night before for dinner… And then I started blogging!! 🙂

End of Day 2.

Dallas, Texas – Day 1: Flying and Landing

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I haven’t blogged for 2 weeks! But I have been writing everything down nearly everyday so that I can put these posts up quickly. So for the next two weeks you will see a full account of my adventure with Miss Pinky in Dallas, and I will try and be as informative as I can if you plan to go out to Dallas… 😀 Happy reading! (Still jet lagged by the way)…

Saturday 6th April

Following on from the trip to Ireland, it was decided that Miss Pinky and I would be going for a long haul flight. So which place to go to? Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia… Blah, blah, blah. Nope. It was decided we would be going to Dallas. That’s Miss Pinky’s choice, not mine. So why Dallas Miss Pinky? Why? (A lot of people have asked me this question when I said I was taking two weeks off work to go to there, but only one person seemed to understand the reason why…)… Well according to her, she’s been wanting to go to Dallas for the past 3 years (a bit longer than that really ¬_¬ guess how many years?). No idea why. I think Dallas the programme has made her decide to go there. Well, it’s my first time going to the USA, so why not. JF Kennedy was shot in Dallas. They have good food (but over-portioned). And it’s a good experience. Something to tell the family and friends in the future about.

On day 1, we met up, I forgot my bank card and so I had to rush home. Arrrrgh! Thankfully we were not far. Then next came a dispute with Miss Pinky and her family plus me about luggage weight, and so on so forth (because I know she’s going to buy things, but she said she won’t, yeah right!), which we then took the tube to Heathrow. We did the electronic boarding and went through security… All the boring stuff…

Next it was time to eat. We noticed one cafe / restaurant called Dining Street, so we went in (not realising there were other restaurants at the other end of the terminal. Miss Pinky had the Dining Special. A normal English breakfast without the tomatoes and the mushrooms but with an extra (two – by mistake) hashbrowns.
The menu cover

Breakfast at Heathrow Terminal 4

I had the Breakfast Burger. It was bloody good! (Excuse my language. I started writing this post on the flight to Dallas, was so bored as the TV was boring, which I will explain in a moment…
… and Miss Pinky started to spy on what I was writing at this point… It’s my blog. I don’t care!) Tasted like a normal burger. But the burger is made out of pork sausage not beef.

Breakfast Burger – messy but yummy

Miss Pinky rated this place as “not exceptional” due to a lack of service even when we tried to stare and get some attention!!! Hahahahah. It’s funny to see what people classify as service. Be attentive or be ignorant?


My geeky rating: 3/5

After this we walked around, changed some of our cash (by the way it’s better to go to a high street store to change your currency… Airports are expensive as recommended by Miss Pinky, plus it is better to order your currency online and collect it at the airport as recommended by a staff member). Then finally we boarded!
Flying with UNITED

It’s my first time on UNITED airlines so I didn’t know what to expect. For one thing they only served us one main meal on this flight compared to other airlines I have been on. When I go to Hong Kong, they always serve two meals, a breakfast and a lunch or dinner. On this flight, I got to eat lunch only. Chicken breast with shitake mushroom sauce, carrots and surprisingly macaroni cheese!! Wow, this is a combo I never would have thought of. But it really tasted good!!

Airplane food

Miss Pinky had the beef option which she said tasted good. XD (I deleted the picture by accident… Whoops).


Compared to other flights I have been on this one was ok. Although the entertainment value wasn’t great. Most long haul flights these days would have a tilted monitor that’s in front of you. And there’ll be games for you to play on. Is UNITED a budget airline like easyJet? I don’t think it is!! It sadly loses marks from this flight. I wish there were more films to watch or better entertainment shows… (which I did experience surprisingly on the return flight home… Flight service is not consistent for small or large planes).
And it didn’t help for the two guys who sat in front of us who tilted their seats making it awkward for us to watch anything! That’s what you get for Economy class I guess!! 😛
So far so good. I had the window seat which Miss Pinky said it was ok for me to have. This meant I took a lot of pictures of the plane wing, clouds and America! 😀
Flying above North East Canada

Miss Pinky bought this neck rest for me from Primark! Cute!

Flying over Texas somewhere

Almost in Houston!

Then it was landing time. We had a connecting flight via Houston, Texas… That was not a good idea I tell you, not a good idea at all. We landed on time. We had an hour to get to our next flight. BUT! We had to pass through immigration and collect our luggage before we got onto the next flight. Now that was not fun. I wish I took a picture of the queue, because it was massive! The immigration service is there, but there weren’t enough staff that could facilitate the service. The U.S. have so many people so why can’t they maintain their service? For one thing there are 5 terminals . And the place is HUGE! So we missed our connecting flight as we only had an hour in-between flights. It was the worse connection service ever! In other countries or probably in other states even this probably does not happen. You don’t usually see your luggage in between flights, but we did. 😦 I suggest if you ever come to Dallas and you want a cheap flight, don’t connect via Houston as there is not enough time in between. OR the service provider (I used Expedia, but I assume it’s not them who booked or changed the flight times) should think again about what flight times they should give to passengers. Luckily when we got to our gate the Customer Service team were able to give us a new flight time. Apparently this always happens according to another passenger who also missed the same connecting flight. Miss Pinky says I was being very optimistic that we’ll be able to get our flight… Well, I always have to think positive, my job involves planning which is supposed to make things happen. And her job is mainly to fix the problem on the spot!


The actual connecting flight was GREAT! No complaints there. We even got good leg space. 😀 The flight was less than an hour too!
Finally at Dallas Fort Worth

Finally it was time to go to the hotel. I had booked the Hawthorne Suites, which is less than half an hour from the International airport, and about 15 minutes by car from Love Field airport. We took a shuttle which cost US $25 (approx. £16) per person. We were supposed to wait for half an hour, but our driver was awesome and didn’t wait! However I suggest people should take a taxi. I think it’s cheaper than a shuttle maybe (make sure that person puts the meter on!).


We got to the hotel and Reception was great! (Miss Pinky asked so many questions, and there was always an approximate answer. She loved that!). Both of us were tired and hungry. We had no food except for two packets of noodles which Miss Pinky did not want. So we got a taxi from Reception. The driver got to us within less than 5 minutes! Wow. And he took us to the nearest Chinese takeaway which was near a local gas station… (and I later noticed it was near Inwood / Love Field Train Station).

Miss Pinky and I had ordered our food in two places, and then we had a look around in the gas station shop. 

Chinese and fried chicken for Miss Pinky

Lo Mein and fried dumplings for me 😀

We tried to buy beer, but unfortunately the person at the counter said we needed a US government passport or a driver’s license to purchase that! What nonsense are we hearing here?! We are over the age of consent for goodness sake. We’re not even US citizens… We’re helping the US economy 😛 … This was not a very good experience. But it got better when we explained to our taxi driver what happened who kindly purchased some beer for Miss Pinky, and had also said that it was not right for that shop assistant to do that… SO either the till person didn’t like us or didn’t understand we were foreign and would have no US documentation except for our waiver which was not valid for her. O_O Clueless? Yes, me too!!


Eventually we came back, ate and went to sleep… Snore, snore… 😀