In my opinion, Toronto is a city that I would love to go back to as many times as I want.
1. It offers many halal restaurants that are not only Mediterranean food
2. The city life is not as hectic as New York even though it has New York-y vibes
3. It is where Shawn Mendes lives, kidding
This reading week, I decided to spend time in Toronto
(this is my third time and I need to come back soon!)
because I wanted to try out so many things and mainly the food!
I left Ottawa after my meeting with the Director of YTN.
I took the train (ViaRail) from Ottawa to Toronto
and it should take me around 4h30m to get there.
However, the train got delayed on the day of my travel,
so it took me around 6h.
Almost equivalent to the traveling time if I were to take the train from Montreal.
There are 4 ways to travel to Toronto from the city I live in, Montreal.
1. By driving
- you might wanna go for this option if you're traveling in a group of 4 or more
as this will be a cheaper option
- you can stop by Ottawa on your way to/from Toronto to visit the majestic Parliament
or skate at Rideau Canal
2. By bus
There are two bus services that I know of - Megabus and Greyhound
Megabus is the cheaper option between the two. Sometimes you will be riding the double-decker
bus, but it's not very comfortable at least for me. I got car sick when I took it.
As for Greyhound, I felt like it took me longer as they'd stop by Ottawa for transit.
3. By train, Viarail
The most convenient way to travel for me because the train station is literally 10min away
from where I live.
Super comfortable.
If you're hungry on your way, they sell reasonable price of food.
If your train got delayed, they will let you book your next train with 60% discount!
4. By plane
It takes you around 30mins or so to get from Montreal to Toronto.
I've never tried this option because I just don't need to lol.
I rank the order of transportation according to the price from low to high,
but I can't tell the average price for each transportation as it differs based on seasons.
I spent 4 days in Toronto - not including traveling day
and one of the days, I spent the day by myself in the city.
I think that I'm super grateful about is that
Canada is a super safe country for a solo, woman traveler.
I am really gonna miss that when I'm back in Malaysia :/
Day 1: Wondering around the city
I stayed at my friend's place, she lives somewhere near to Chinatown, not too far away from University of Toronto.
From her house, I mostly walked to all the places that I wanted to go.
I started my day at noon.
I went to Sansotei Ramen for brunch and I ordered vegetarian ramen.
It's quite tasteless, so I asked them for pepper and salt, then only it got better.
The portion was huge and the staff was friendly, so good job on that lol.
Then, I walked to Yonge-Dundas Square
to check out what stores do they have here.
It did have the New York Times Square vibe,
with fewer people and no walking characters who would chase you for pictures around,
thank God!
Toronto Eaton Centre is located there too!
They have Uniqlo in Toronto and it always has many people inside.
I was wandering around that area a lot because it felt like -19degree outside
and I left my gloves at home,
so I had to find gloves.
I ended up buying a pair of gloves at Canadian Tire for $3.99 but it's not the savior.
My hands still froze lol.
I walked along Yonge street and headed to the Old City Hall.
It's a pretty building but I didn't go inside.
There were many people taking photos at this building too.
This building is a street away to Nathan Phillip Square
and I spent longer time day just to watch people skating.
It started snowing for a bit when I got there
but that didn't stop people from skating.
In fact, I found that a little romantic when people skate when it snows.
I went home after because my feet and hands were freezing.
But here are the places that I should visit on that day too:
Allan Gardens.
It is Toronto's oldest park, home to the famous Conservatory where
rare tropical plants grow.
Not a miss for me because I have seen enough banana leaves in my entire life haha
If I went there, I might end up stealing it and make nasi lemak bungkus :P
Textile Museum of Canada
It's a small museum presenting the history of fabrics from around the world
Fat Bastard Burrito for dinner
It's Shawn Mendes' favorite place to each but I had to miss it because
I was still full from the ramen.
Day 2: Real Adventure Day
On that day, I traveled with my roomies.
They arrived from Montreal last night and today we started our day with
lunch at Khao San Road.
I had curry mee, which was super good btw.
My roomies had pad thai and the other rice dish which I forgot the name.
But they're spicy!
We had to state of the spicy level and trust me,
do know your spicy level well because
they're true spicy.
We later headed to CN Tower and Rogers Centre.
The fee to get to on top of CN Tower varies according to level
and I think the cheapest ticket was $38 without tax.
We didn't go up because it was cloudy and it's not gonna be worth it.
So we decided to go to the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada instead.
It's really huge and the designs are magnificent!
I realized that my knowledge about the underwater world was really shallow!
The underwater creatures are really amazing too!
I'm so glad we went in.
We didn't go into Rogers Centre
but judging by the outside,
it looks massive!
And Shawn Mendes Tour tix here sold out?!?!?
These three places located next to each other,
so it's really convenient to walk around.
After spending 2h at the Aquarium,
we walked to Jack Layton Ferry Terminal
to purchase return tix to Toronto Island.
The cost was $7.50 each person for return tix.
I'm glad that we went to the island,
even though it was super windy and cold,
the view was breathtaking!
The ferry comes to every 45 mins
so we basically just spent 45 mins, walking around the island
and hop back on the ferry at 545pm
and walked the square.
We did some window shopping and Nawwar purchased some
office outfits at Uniqlo before heading to the Captain's Boil for dinner.
The Captain's Boil is equivalent to the Shell-Out in Malaysia.
They recently closed their branch in Montreal.
Over the years I've been eating at this restaurant franchise for 6 times.
One time, I ordered lobster and after looking at the bills,
I just never did it again hahaha!
But if you got the chance to go,
order anything with the Captain's Boil sauce!
That's the best sauce ever!
Day 3 - More food hunting!
Day 3 is pretty laid back for us.
We started our day by playing Unstable Unicorn and Dutch Blitz.
Later, we went to Hanabusa Cafe where they sell pancakes.
The google search tricked us saying that they sold mochi.
But they didn't lol.
A bit disappointed but their pancakes are good!
Not to forget,
the interior design is pretty chic too!
We later walked to DaanGo cake lab to buy macarons!
They sell carton macarons,
they're $30 for 9 pieces,
which I found pretty expensive
but we just wanted to try them all.
Some flavors are really a hit, some are a miss.
It's totally based on your luck haha!
We later walked to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
They have free admission every Wednesday after 6pm.
We reached there before 6pm,
so we just chilled at the gift shop.
The gift shop is pretty lit too.
I've been there once during my 1st year.
It's amazing but I guess it'll be more amazing if
you go to the special exhibition.
We had dinner at Manpuku Japanese Eatery with Zubed (the friend who hosted me),
we ordered Takoyaki, Udon, Unagi and Rice, and Vegetable Curry.
It's so cheap, I'm impressed!
After dinner,
we walked to Kai Wei Supermarket and Hua Sheng Supermarket.
Kai Wei sells maggi and we're not that lucky because the asam laksa maggi was sold out.
I bought a couple of Malaysian dish pastes too!
Day 4: All about that food!
We ate macarons for breakfast at home and we headed to the Museum of Illusions around 10am
via uber. The reason why we didn't walk was that the place was 40-min away from where we stayed.
I vlogged most of the time while we were at the Museum of Illusions!
These are verdicts for that place though:
1. The place is fun, but some of the illusions are
pretty common that you can see
at any other museum of illusions or 3D Art Museum
2. The tix price is quite expensive considering how small the place is.
We later walked to Sukothai to have our appetizer,
since today it'll all be about food hunting.
We ordered calamari, mango salad, and seafood tom yam
and in total, they cost us $9.00 each.
The next eatery was Canteen, it's a Malaysian restaurant
and we thought it was halal
but when we asked, it's not.
They got confused when we asked,
"is the chicken halal?"
And they started pointing on the menu,
"Hainanese chicken"
lol.
So we just ordered seafood stuff,
seafood char kuew tiaw, fish curry and sambal udang.
We're so full and it's totally worth it.
After Canteen, we walked to Thai Country to get dessert and
we ended up ordering mango and sticky rice, and calamari again.
I ordered Thai Ice Tea and I kid you not,
it tasted like concentrated milk with water and ice lol.
Full stomach always led to sleepy humans,
so we decided to go home to rest.
We ended up playing games till 530pm.
We should be heading to a halal Chinese restaurant,
but we're too lazy to go out.
So we ordered our dinner from ubereats
and we got so much food!
The name of the restaurant is the Magical Taste of China.
We ordered lamb, beef and veges.
The portion was huge, we couldn't finish it.
So we gave it away to other people in the house.
So that's basically it about my Toronto experience!
I really had a great time
and I wish I could come back again before going back to Malaysia
for good!
lots of love,
Petite Malay Girl
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