The original compilation of this photo story was published on TripWow on 16 November 2015. Since TripWow was shut down, many of our readers were unable to follow this wonderful transpacific journey which started from Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Destinations included Bangkok, Thailand, Taipei, Taiwan, Edmonton, Vancouver Island & Vancouver in Canada, Seattle WA, Cincinnati, Cleveland & Dayton in Ohio, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Caribbean Cruise, Sunnyvale/San Fransisco CA then return to Bandar, Brunei. We have taken hundreds of photos so it is decided to split the post into several short sections.
My brother Johnny Chong 張天來and I started our journey by catching a Royal Brunei Airlines flight from Brunei to Bangkok where we boarded a long EVA flight to Vancouver, Canada. There we hopped on a short domestic flight to Victoria, Vancouver Island, where we spent a few days visiting some old friends. Then it was time for our 4th flight to Edmonton to meet up with some more “old” Kuala Belait friends some of whom we have not seen for more than 20 years!
BANGKOK
While in Bangkok we stayed with the family of the late David English who worked with me at Radio TV Brunei. Our children grew up together and have become close family friends. Mary English and her children, Kati English & Christopher English, always take good care of me as their house guest whenever I visit Bangkok.
Kati & Christopher English celebrating with their beloved mother Mary English on Mother Day. Mary English takes active role in community services including the recent funeral service of the late King of Thailand. She was a team leader advising the tourists. She was also a charity worker, giving out food and drinks to well-wishers. These well-wishers had to wait for several hours to get into the Palace. Mary is a very successful organiser in the multilevel community & social services. She sings as good as her daughter on stage. She can even sings several Chinese songs too!
On 26 June, we embarked on an EVA flight from Bangkok, with a stopover in the Taipei International Airport for about 6 hours. We spent our time at the THE MORE Business Centre Premium Transit lounge, which is quite large and offers a wide variety of food and drinks. The lounge also had electric massage chairs to ease the stress of long-distance flights. Our exploration of the duty-free shops, especially as the night drew in and only a few shops remained open, was a unique and intriguing experience.
EDMONTON
We boarded another EVA flight bound for Vancouver, Canada, after checking through the Canadian Immigration & Customs we took a Canadian Airlines flight to EDMONTON
Our good friend, Lin Yun Yin, recommended the Rosslyn Inn & Suites at the North Gate, a hotel conveniently located near a large shopping mall. This mall, anchored by Safeway & Walmart, also offers a variety of eateries & restaurants, providing us with plenty of dining options. The next morning, Allen Yong picked us up. He took us to Kallin Chinese Seafood Restaurant near the North Gate Centre. It was just across the main road from our hotel.
EDMONTON
張天來, 張日省同學, 翁亞富同學, 張四貴,翁亞勇同學
張天來, 翁亞勇同學，李運發同學，張日省同學, 張四貴，翁亞富同學
After lunch we went to the North Gate Food Court to meet up some more friends and distance relatives who knew we were in town.
Next day Nyik Chong 張日省同學 was very kind to find time and took us to visit one of the biggest shopping Malls in North America. There was a huge playground for fun things, for both adults and children called GALAXLAND, where they have an indoor beach with a wave pool that you can swim and surf etc. as seen in the photo.
The next day Lin Yun Yin 凌雲英同學 & her family came to pick us from the Hotel for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, very yummy Chinese food!
By Lin Yun Yin 凌雲英同學: Absent was Olivia, Dan’s elder daughter and the eldest of my 4 grand-daughters. She was at Basketball Training Camp that week-end and thus could not join us for dinner. Crystal is standing next to Johnny.
VICTORIA, VANCOUVER ISLAND BC
Next morning we took a Canada Airlines flight to VICTORIA, VANCOUVER ISLAND BC -CANADA for a visit with the Wang family.
Mr & Mrs Wang Foo Chun were a couple well known among high-profile celebrities and movie stars in Shanghai. They had a personal connection to Lin Dai 林黛. Their brother, Wang Foo Lin 王福玲, is a famous composer of many Chinese songs, some of which we learned from Chinese movie theme songs. In April 1964, they took us to Shaw Brothers Movie Town in Hong Kong. We were fortunate to meet Lin Dai there. She was filming the movie “Dan Zi” 旦己 at the time. We were lucky to have taken a photo with 林黛, and unfortunately,( 林黛 passed away in June 196)
We stayed at the Georgina home for 2 days and visited Chinatown and the famous Butchart Gardens. David Wong took us for a drive to the Golf Club for lunch. Georgina was very kind to advise us to take a local ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, and we did.
The Victoria-to-Vancouver ferry sailed from the Swartz Bay to the Tsawwassen Terminal. It passed through the beautiful scenery of the Active Passes of the Gulf islands. The journey continued through the Georgia Strait in British Columbia, Canada.
The crossing took 1½ hours to reach Tsawwassen Terminal near Vancouver. There was another journey. It included a short double deck bus ride to Victoria ferry terminal. The journey continued from the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen to Vancouver Bus Terminal.
VICTORIA ISLAND to VANCOUVER
One of the most essential objectives of this Transpacific journey is to attend the Alumni Reunion, scheduled for 4 July 2015 in VANCOUVER, CANADA.
TOUR of VANCOVER CITY
However, Johnny and I arrived in Vancouver on 2 July, 2 days before the Reunion function. The next day, we were invited to join a one-day city tour of Vancouver by the Vancouver organisers—Liew Then Kui 劉天貴同學, his beloved wife 黃玉梅同學, 王錦棠同學, his beloved wife 黃鳳珍同學, Professor 陳玉雄 and his dear wife 劉慧娟同學. Chiew Chee Phoong 丘啓楓同學 & his sister, Kiew Lim Pang 丘玲芳同學 (from Brunei), who had arrived on the same day.
Visiting Stanley Park and sampling the best restaurants around China Town
Visiting The homes of Liew Then Kui 劉天貴同學 and 王錦棠同學. It is very popular among the Asian homes in Canada to set up with up-to-date Karaoke equipment . They organized regular Potluck gatherings and usually all ended up singing their favorite songs.
KBCHMS ALUMNI REUNION @ VANCOUVER CANADA ON 4 JULY 2015
ALUMNI REUNION FROM CHUNG HUA SCHOOL, KUALA BELAIT
IAT VANCOUVER ON 4 JULY 2015
Vancouver Names List 2015 reunion RV16012016
The Vancouver Alumni Reunion was jointly organised by a team of Alumni, namely Chow Kat Liang 曹吉良同學 from San Francisco, Chong See Kui 張四貴, Chiew Chee Phoong 丘啓楓同學 & his sister, Kiew Lim Pang 丘玲芳 同學 (from Brunei) and the local Vancouver TEAM headed by Liew Then Kui 劉天貴同學 his beloved wife 黃玉梅同學, 王錦棠同學 and his beloved wife黃鳳珍同學, Professor 陳玉雄 and his beloved wife 劉慧娟同學
???? The above is a slide show that automatically flip from one photo to the next. Just sit back and relax to enjoy the photos
VANCOUVER TOWN HALL FOOD COURT
We had to leave the Fraser Court Sea Food Restaurant by 3pm; its closing time before reopening at 6pm. So we continued our reunion gathering at the Vancouver Town Mall Food Court where there were plenty of tables and chairs. Everyone tried to move around to talk to each other; catching up with memories and stories, laughter and shaking hands and well wishes as the evening sun disappeared down the horizon. Everyone left with a heavy heart for not knowing when shall we meet again.
Everything begins and has its ending, So do our First compilation of slide shows of our Transpacific journey. We hope you enjoy looking back to some of the photos of the most wonderful friends we met. They made our journey a memorable adventure especially some of the seniors whom we have not met for more than 20 years!
We like to thank you all attending this once in a life time Great Reunion and to be part of our lives and our journey. Please do stay in touch and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
We welcome your COMMENT, even just click “LIKE” below, so that we will continue to work hard to improve our quality of our postings.
Please do follow for the next compilations when SK Chong moves on to his next ports of call – SEATTLE WA, CINCINNATI, DAYTON, CLEVELAND in Ohio, FLORIDA for the family cruise, LAS VEGAS and SAN FRANSISCO.
HAVE A NICE DAY AND SEE YOU LATER!
PRODUCER: SK CHONG
Credits & thanks to:
Assistant producer : Chow Kat Liang
proof reader: Ruey Shuian
photographers: Professor 陳玉雄, 曹越偉，張仲德 Clement Chong
Others Photos: from friends
Memories of The Way We Were 
After I have gone through the whole lot of photos, I just realise how many of my school mates and friends I had missed to catchup during my last visit to Vancouver in 2006!!
曹吉贤
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Hello 曹吉贤 your last visit to Vancouver was 2006; we are now in 2017! That was a long time and almost 11 years ago! Anyway the photos in our eBook bridged the gaps so that you could see how we aged over the years and as well to remind us to reach out to say “hello my dear friend, I miss you and you are always in my mind” as often as possible. It is so easy in this with this ever advancing super highway shortening the distance between friends and family. If you don’t wish to write, just call…it is ever so easy and it is free! Let’s us do it!
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Reblogged this on KatChow and commented:
Please spread the news in your facebook, email and etc. Thank you very much
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It’s very nice booklet Mr Chong. Congratulations to you and your group. I like all the photos your shared in this booklet.
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Thank you very much for your nice comment and we will work harder to make our stories more readable and enjoyable with photos. Have a nice day and hope you will come back to visit us soon. We have upgrade our system and our URL link is now “memoriesofthewaywewere.blog”
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I have checked your site and i’ve found some duplicate content, that’s why you don’t rank high in google, but there is a tool that can help you to create 100% unique articles, search for:
Boorfe’s tips unlimited content
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Thank you very much Raymundo for your feedback and advice. We are still new and we will be working to improve our publications. We will certainly check the link your so kind to provide
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Hello K. Chong,
Great and beautiful stories in Ebook by you. Thank you for sharing.
You always looks smart and all people in there looks happy including Khun Mary’s family also.
Have a wonderful day and life!
Take care.
Tar
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Thank you very much Khun Tar for your encouraging comment. We will work harder to improve our publication. If You should have a good story, please send your draft and photos and we will try to get the approval from our editorial staff and publish it in our blog? How about that?
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