Canadian Medical Care - A World Class Medical Care System for Canadians

Yesterday I went for a medical appointment at the Scarborough Health Network in Toronto. I was there to see a specialist for a medical issue. Though I had to wait for more than an hour for my appointment, I had no problem with that as I was looked after very well by the specialist. The doctor explained my medical issue to me clearly and gave me three options from which I could choose dealing with it. I was grateful for the excellent care I received.

My visit to the hospital yesterday reminded me of another medical incident which again was handled very well by the medical staff in Toronto.

  An evening last fall, my husband and I were walking on Bloor Street in downtown Toronto towards Koerner Hall for a concert starting at 730pm. It was around 720pm therefore we were rushing a bit trying not to arrive late for the event.

  All of a sudden, my husband fell forward landing flat on the ground with his face hitting the concrete ground. A few kind passersby rushed up and helped him up. My hubby was not bleeding and said he was OK so we continued walking to the music hall.

About half an hour after sitting down for the concert, I noticed a bruise and a big bump right under my husband's right eye. During the intermission I went to the bar to get him some ice and told the usher what happened. The usher immediately referred us to Security. Seeing the big bump on my husband's face, the Security personnel asked us if we needed medical assistance and we decided to call 911.

  The Toronto Paramedic Team arrived within 15-20 minutes. Two paramedics, Ethan, the paramedic personnel and his teammate carried my husband on a stretcher into the ambulance. While waiting for his teammate to locate a hospital to admit my husband, Ethan asked my husband many questions trying to understand his situation and medical background. This paramedic personnel was very polite, considerate, patient and thorough. A true professional indeed!

 

  At the hospital after registration and within minutes, my husband was hooked up to a machine monitoring his blood pressure. A short time later he was seen by a nurse who checked his eyes. In less than 20 minutes, he was hooked up to an ECG machine and had the assessment done. The Paramedic Team stayed with my husband during the admission process, until he was seen by a nurse from the Emergency Department and well taken care of by the Emergency Team.

 

After that we waited in the waiting area. We were grateful that my husband was looked after and had these crucial assessments completed at the Western General hospital.

 

  We were also impressed by our Toronto Paramedic Services Personnel who carried out their medical services with genuine care, sincerity, patience and thoroughness. A shout out to the Toronto Paramedic Team!

  My husband and I were grateful for your timely medical service and assistance performed in a world class and professional manner.

  You are the best and we are fortunate and proud to have an outstanding medical team like yours serving us in Toronto! Thank you to the staff at the Toronto Western Hosptial and grateful to our universal health system in Canada where every citizen is entitled to FREE and fair medical treatment! Canada, we are so proud to be Canadians!

  RT, Toronto Western Hosptial, Toronto, Canada 2025/26

Passing on the Chinese New Year Traditions to Next Generation, Toronto

Shortly after coming back from our Asian trip, we celebrated Chinese New Year, the year of the Horse in Toronto!

 We always celebarte Chinese New Year no matter where we are. In Toronto, where many of our friends and family members reside, it is a must observed tradition for us. We invite relataives and friends to come to our house for the celebration.

  Invited relatives are pretty well the same every year, but with friends, we try to invite those who are in need or have few friends or relatives in Canada.

With the younger generation, we try to keep our traditions going by sharing with them what our grandparents/ parents did with us for the New Year celebrations such as preparing and enjoying a feastive dinner with friends and family, giving of the red pockets to kids/ young people who are single and blessing them, while the person receiving the red pockets wishing the parents some traditional Chinese New Year sayings in return.

After dinner and the exchange of good wishes to each other, we relaxed, enjoyed some desserts, chilled, played with the dog and enjoyed some fun games. It was such a lovely time spending time together and carrying on the Chinese New Year traditions with the next generation!

 We also were invited to a New Year party and we had a celebration with many community members who all brought delicious homemade dishes to a potluck lunch.

After lunch, we played some games with the kids, shared stories and heard a powerful testimony from a former medal winning athlete who has been suffering from a serious illness and bravely fighting the disease and carrying on in life with faith and much positivity. We prayed for him and encouraged him and his family.

  We had a wonderful time sharing and celebrating the Year of Horse with family, friends and our community!

RT, Toronto, Canada, 022026

A Hotel Review in Hong Kong - Sheraton on the HK Waterfront

Sadly, our Asian holiday came to an end. We flew to Hong Kong, stayed for a couple of nights and caught our flight back to Canada. We liked staying at the Sheraton so much last time when we were in HK that we returned to the same hotel this time. The reasons for our returned stay - excellent customer services as well as the following:

1. Free shuttle bus picking us up from the Hong Kong Airport straight to the hotel 2. Proximity to airport - this Sheraton Hotel, only about 10 minutes shuttle bus ride to the airprot 3. Waterfront room, spectacular lovely oceanview

A stonethrow away from the Citygate Mall, we could walk there anytime we felt like having a coffee at a cafe or doing some shopping. With a few restaurants close by, just right across from the hotel, we had no problem finding a place for breakfast or dinner.

4. The best part we liked about this Sheraton was leaving some of our lugguage there for storage while we were travelling in Vietnam for almost two weeks. This was an excellent customer service for its guests! This was important and convenient for us as we didn't want to carry any unnecessary lugguage all over Vietnam. Two thumbs up for the Hong Kong Sheraton near the airport! Highly recommend it and will definitely consider staying there again next time when we fly into Hong Kong!

  RT, Sheraton Hotel, Hong Kong, 022026

A Two Day Whirlwind Stop in Hong Kong

Before going back to Canada, we stayed in Hong Kong for a couple of days.

This gave us sometime to slow down a bit after a busy holiday in Vietnam. It has been a tradition for us to give Christmas gifts to our family members. Though Christmas was long over by the time we saw J. we had brought gifts from Canada for him. After retrieving our stored luggage from the hotel, we were able to present the gifts to him. We bought some skin care products and hope that these gifts would make him feel better.

 

We went to see a movie , something we loved to do when visiting China. After the movie, we went for a Japanese Sushi lunch with the dishes delivered on a moving conveying belt to the customers' tables. Interesting indeed!

The next day, my hubby wanted to show J. the quieter side of Hong Kong. We went to Tai O on Lantao Island as J. had never visited this place before. We toured the island, watched the locals make their fishballs and other snacks, paused at the edge of the water to watch the little fish swimming under us and enjoyed the small village atmosphere.

We also visited the little Tai O Museum where we read about the past history of this island and saw displays of old fishing gears and some tradional clothing.

A former fishing village, Tai O is famous for its seafood. Off course we needed to try some of the seafood dishes. We lunched at one of the well known restaurants and ordered their famous oyster pancake along with other dishes. It was delicious and went well with the cold beer!

  Taking advantage of our time in HK, we made arrangement and had dinner with our new friend, L. and his wife, who were happy to see us again since our last get together.

Using the GPS, we were still unable to locate the restaurant and we were late; our friends had to wait for us for more than 20 minutes before our arrival. We felt so bad about being late. However, they were gracious and were happy to see us again and meet J. as well.

 

 

It was a whirlwind two day stopover in Hong Kong and time to say good bye to J. and head back home! Thank you, God, for your protection and mercy and for giving us a great holiday with our loved one and meeting up with friends!

  RT, Hong Kong Last day of Our Asian holiday 022026

Good Bye Vietnam! Thanks for a Fantastic Vacation

Our holiday in Vietnam came to an end and we were sorry to leave this beautiful country!

We have seen and learned a lot about this Asian country once ravaged by a horrific war and had suffered so much. Like a phoenix rising up from ashes, Vietnam has rebuilt itself and has been developing rapidly in the past decade.

The country is developing economic success is evident everywhere.

Young people are hardworking and are optimistic about their country. The people are enjoying life and are out with families on playgrounds, in restaurants and shopping malls.

Vietnam is a country blessed with a long coastline, an abundance of natural resources, stunning beautiful scenery, rich history, resilient, hardworking and friendly people.

Like the other 20 some millions tourists who visited Vietname, We have enjoyed our vacation in Vietnam tremendously!

Thank you to the Vietnamese people who were welcoming and providing us with outstanding services in all the places we have stayed.

We enjoyed what this wonderful country has to offer and are planning for a return visit in the near future!

RT, Vietnam, 022026

Hotel Reviews for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Sadly, our holiday in HCMC came to an end. I would like to share a review on the hotels where we stayed in this exciting city.

The first hotel we stayed in Ho Chi Minh City was the Viet Lotus Saigon Hotel located some distance away from the downtown area. Our room was nice and clean. Good buffet breakfast and a nice outside eating area for tea/ coffee/ dessert anytime we felt like it.

Since it is not a tourist hotspot with many attractions catering to tourists but with regular shops and restaruants, we could observe how ordinary Vietnamese live.

We liked the area so much that we wouldn't mind spending our entire HCMC holiday at this hotel but it was fully booked.

Our other hotel in HCMC was the Rex, our second 5 star hotel on this vacation.

The location of the Rex Hotel is excellent as it is right where the actions are being close to many of the famous buildings and sites.

A beautiful and elegant hotel, and a landmark of French colonial era architexture, opening on 1921, the Rex Hotel is best known for its pivotal role during the Vietnam War.

Its rooftop bar, now called the Rooftop Garden Bar, was the site of the daily'Five O'Clock follies'- military briefings where US commanders and officials gave war updates to journalists. The name came from the skeptical press corps, who felt the briefinfs were often overly optimistic or misleading. The Rex lives up to its 5 star reputation by offering its guests an unforgetable breakfast buffet daily.

Our experience with the buffet breakfast at the Rex hotel was incredibale! We couldn't even count how many choices were there!

Besides Asian and western breakfast food items, this breakfast buffet included many dinner dishes such as beef stew, sweet and sour pork, roasted chicken and even sushi for breakfast as the hotel tried hard catering to many international visitors visiting Vietnam.

In big cities like Ho Chi Ming City, we saw many visitors, a large number of whom coming from Europe and all over the world.

Besides enjoying the fabulos buffet breakfast, we also enjoyed its nice spacious facilities such as its welcoming and spacious lobby and main floor garden dining area.

We did some swimming in its spa resort like swimming pool which was carefully looked after by its attentive staff members. One staff memeber was in charge of getting rid of mostquitos and flies should one fly near a guest bathing in a lounge chair. I watched him fanning away the flies and mosquitoes. He also moved the huge umbrella around so that guests would not be roasted under the hot afternoon.

Very attentive staff carrying out their duties with dedication to ensure the comfort of the hotel guests! I highly recommend it if it is within your budget.

RT, HCMC, Vietnam 022026

Shopping at the Bloom Store and Dining at a Michelin Star Vegetarian Restaurant - HCMC, Vietnam

After watching an excellent show at the Saigon Opera House, we went for dinner at a restaurant. On our way to the restaurant we passed by a new year festival celebration being held in a park. There were many stalls displaying food, arts and crafts items specifically for the new year.

We learned that Vietnam has adopted and still practises many Chinese customs such as the celebration of the Chinese New Year, the Chinese 12 animal zodiac, the lion dances, the writing and hanging of new year couplings etc. Very interesting indeed!

The Hum, a vegetarian restaurant located in a beautiful building was where we went for our after show dinner. Located not too far away from the War Museum , we were captured by the unique design of the building.

Before dinner, we also visited the Bloom Store, located on the first floor of the building, selling local products and handcrafts.

We liked the store as it was a nice, peaceful place where one could take the time to find some unique gifts for friends and loved ones. The store known for selling locally produced crafts many of which made by women living in remote mountian villages.

We wanted to support local small business and had no hesitation buying a few items from the store.

  J. is always talking to people during his travel. One of the people he met during our Vietnamese vacation recommended to him to come here for dinner, so we did.

  Though all the dishes were meatless, they were delicious! The funny thing was we didn't even know this was a Michelin star restaurant! We loved the ambience of the place. It was decorated beautifully with lots of natural material and handmade decoration items done by the local artists.

The staff told us the big bamboo wall hanging in the restaurant was handmade by the staff themselves. What a group of talented committed staff!

It was a great evening for us visitng a fabulous store and dining at a Michelin restaruant!

  RT, HCMC, Vietnam 022026