Trips in 2013

Jan - Present : Plenty of day-trips to JB
June : Taiwan
August : Bangkok
October : Cruise
December : Penang/KL/Malacca (TBC)

:)

Final Trip for 2012

Updates :

May 2012 - KL

June 2012 - Bangkok

July 2012 - Batam

December 2012 - USA West Coast

Back from KL

Updates :

May 2012 - KL

June 2012 - Bangkok

July 2012 - Batam

December 2012 - USA West Coast

Just got home this afternoon from the weekend getaway + Les Mills Workshop in KL.

We stayed at the Somerset Ampang, a service apartment located about 15mins walk from KLCC? Here's some pics of the apartment in case you are interested....

The "SEASON" is starting....

Nope, not the durian season. Not the football season either..... its my TRAVEL SEASON!! :)

Let's see :
May 2012 - KL
June 2012 - Bangkok
July 2012 - Batam
December 2012 - USA West Coast

woohooooo!!!

Loots from BKK

1 pair of berms
1 pair of tailored dress pants
1 electrical essential oil "burner"
2 bottles of Martell
3 (mini) bottles of essential oil
3 packs of munchies
4 pair of briefs
6 tailored dress shirts

All that for S$670, exclude airfare & hotel....

:)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated July 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai (completed)

May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop (completed)

Jun 2011 - Taiwan (completed)

Jul 2011 - Bangkok (completed)

Nov/Dec - Melbourne

??? 2011 - Dublin (doubtful *sad*)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated May 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai (completed)
May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop (completed)

Jun 2011 - Taiwan (upcoming VERY soon....)

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Bali? Melbourne? ???? (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated Apr 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai
May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop

Jun 2011 - Taiwan

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Hokkaido/Europe/USA (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

From the way things are going, this list can only get shorter. Any longer and my neck will be given a good squeeze by SO!!

"Frying" up to Tom-Yum Land - Part 1/3

I'm be making 3 trips to "Tom-Yum Land" (Thailand) thrice this year, leading to accusations of me having secretly gotten PR there!!

This trip will be my first time there on National Service-related purpose. We're going there for a Live-Firing Exercise. I was back in camp for ICT since last Monday, but that's the local phase (based in Singapore) in preparation for the 2weeks exercise starting next week.

The place we'd be based at isn't too technologically advanced and communication might be an issue, not to mention the hefty roaming charges I'm expecting to incur. However, in my bid to try and reduce this cost, I've done some research and came up with the following "battleplan" :

1. subscribed Auto-Roaming from my SG Telco.

2. Bought a Thai SIM-Card (True Corp.) via Trusling Communications to call back to SG.

3. Use the same Thai-SIM to access Internet if time/signal-strength permits.

4. Bought 600B worth of Top-Up value whilst in SG.

While I do not expect to use my SG-SIM much there, I still took up Auto-Roaming as an "Insurance" just in case I was not able to get a signal from True, I'd still be able to hook up to any available network in the area using my SG-SIM.

Should True have signals in both camps while I'd be, then Items 2 - 4 will come in handy and Item 1 will be used as Plan B. The above items costs me a total of $75... Hope they are sufficient for my use. I bet if I survive on Plan B alone, the charges will probably be triple of $75 and upwards!!

So much for now, see you folks when I'm back in SG 2 weeks from now.

PS : Sorry, cannot provide too much details regarding the Exercise for security reasons.

Travel Plans 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Thailand (ICT)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai

Jun 2011 - Taiwan

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Hokkaido/Europe/USA (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

SO was telling me I've no more slots to squeeze in anymore travels.... :(

Photos from Land Of A Thousand Smiles

Here's the long awaited pictures snapped while SO and I were in Bangkok recently....

PS : My apologies for the masking of our faces as we're both shy folks.... :)

 On the way to Baiyoke Sky from the Airport. Able to spot which is my hand and SO's?

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Our room @ Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Level 42. Pretty spacious for a Standard Room. And it costs only 80SGD Per Nite!!

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It even has a small little side room for things like an open wardrobe, drawers and a safe... We use that space to 'dump' our things :p

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My 1st Phai Thai in Bangkok, @ a simple eatery in a side alley. The half-eaten spring roll was purchased from another street hawker... and it's pretty good!

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SO's Thai Fried Rice, not very fantastic but decent enough to eat.

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A makeshift changing room. I requested to try on a bottom and the shop-assistant promptly put up a screen and asked me to try it on THERE AND THEN. I was initially quite amused while SO thought its damn funny....

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Should we go left or right? Which BTS Station is nearer? Both looks equally 'near', so we decided to head for Chitlom Station, a good 5mins walk away :s

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Posing with the ticketing machine. No, she didn't purchase it, I did....

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We're heading to Chatuchak Weekend Market @ Mo Chit Station.

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It was a damn hot and humid day @ the Weekend Market and the Bandung lookalike drink is a welcomed relief!

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My 2nd Phai Thai.... this time, it's from the MBK Foodcourt.

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Fried 'Dumplings' according to the menu but it looks nowhere like dumplings. Looks more like those Singapore-styled Fried Carrot Cake. The sauce in the picture, it's a plum sauce taste-alike sauce which we're not sure what it really is.

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The entire Central World shopping mall was closed for renovation due to the damaged suffered during the recently-ended protests.

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Look at the damage! I was so shocked by the damaged when I first saw it before me that I'm speechless!!

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One of the Bangkok streets during approximately 4pm.

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Lazing around, taking a break in the Amari Watergate Hotel. We're actually there to tailor-made some clothings. There's this tailor on the 3rd Floor called Paul's Fashion. Service is good, price is reasonable and the staffs are very friendly. Most importantly, they speak very decent English!!

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At the Ground Floor Bell-Hop Counter of the hotel we're staying in. The main lobby is @ Level 18.

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Been telling SO that I'm itching to eat some Thai Papaya Salad since our arrival in Bangkok. Ironically, it wasn't until the Day 3 before I get to eat it.

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My 3rd Phai Thai... :p

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Some Vietnamese Spring-Rolls. We don't really like it. There's this weird taste which I suspected to be due to the inclusion of Basil Leaves within the rolls. On a side note, the accompanying sauce is pretty good shit!

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A shot from the Observation Deck atop Baiyoke Sky Hotel.

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This expressway interchange had somewhat become a 'Postcard' picture of Bangkok...

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My 4th Phai Thai... I remembered posting on Facebook on the same day, "A Phai Thai a day, keeps the hungry away" :p

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Some "Fried Oysters" from a food court. It looks somewhat like the Singapore version and that's where the similarity ends. It tastes NOTHING like the Singapore version. This one is crispy, with plenty of bean sprouts and comes with that weird plum sauce (again).

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Our favourite drink in Bangkok. The Thai Iced Milk Tea. Its not exactly an infatuation with the pictured brand but with the drink in general. It's got a unique taste to it, not too sure how to describe it. But it's distinctly different and very nice as compared to the Singapore version (again).

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@ the airport's Departure Hall. We arrived with 2 half-filled bags, the Yellow Adidas and the Red Backpack. You go figure it out yourself how much stuff we bought.

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I bought 40kg worth of luggage space but utilised only slightly over 50%. The lady checking us in even commented that we had over-purchased....

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That's all I've got here.... :)

My upcoming trip... Malacca, during the National Day weekend :)

A Trip of Many Firsts....

I was in KL over the recently past weekend (again) and the usual things such as meeting up with Irene and her fabulous bunch of friends, visiting Lookout Point, doing BC, etc happened. However, there exist one major difference...my significant other joined me on this trip!

This is a trip of many firsts, why so? Read on and let me know if its full of firsts or not :

• Our very FIRST holiday
• Watched our FIRST movie
• Did our FIRST good deed together 'fostering' an orphan from KL during a charity event

This trip also happens to coincide with Irene's FIRST attempt at obtaining the Body Combat Instructorship which would allow her to begin instructing BC in FF Malaysia. A whole bunch of us dropped by to give her our moral, physical and vocal support, including Garion, who specially flew in via Singapore Airlines and arriving at the gym only barely 30mins before the class! I've not seen a class filled with more energy, noise and encouragement than this! I've never shouted this much and this hard before in my years of BCing until this class. My voice was already coarse by Track 3.... No doubt there were mistakes here and there, I personally felt that Irene did a great job and thought she might be able to scrap through. However, I guessed the assessor had other ideas....

Another significant activity which we partake in was this charity event whereby we bought tickets to the movie, How To Train A Dragon for 30RM a piece. The amount we paid actually goes towards 'sponsoring' a movie outing for a group of orphans from the local orphanage in KL. This event runs in the manner whereby each Girl-Guy pair of us becomes the 'foster parents' of an assigned orphan for the duration of the movie. Our child is named Paul and imagine my amusement when the tallest boy in the group responded to my calls for his name! He is 16, speaks pretty good English, knows where is Singapore and is even taller than me & SO!!

I've never given much thought about orphans until this event where I came up close and 'personal' with one. For the first time in my life, I really appreciate knowing who my parents are and having them with me. OK, well, at least my dad for now....

This is really a meaningful and rewarding trip for me and SO for its not everyday that we get to do something sooooo meaningful for charity. Living together with her for 3days, I'm already starting to feel closer to her emotionally and mentally. Of course, Irene had a big part to play in making this a GREAT TRIP in the way she introduces us to her awesome bunch of friends... Rachel, Jonathan, Doreen (correct me if I'm wrong).

My next trip there should tentatively be for the Sept Quarterlies.... :)

A Unique KL Experience

This is a long overdue post which should have gone up long ago but due to laziness.... here is it now....

Well, I hopped over to KL over the 04-06 Dec weekend for the Les Mills Quarterlies taking place on Sunday. Although I signed up for Body Combat and Body Pump, I participated only in the BC42 Workshop due to time constraints, plus abit of laziness too. :p

I arrived on Friday morning on an uneventful flight together with G & V, his partner. Prior to the trip, we both knew we're on the same flight but probably different rows/sides of the plane. As it turned out, their seats are actually right next to my window seat! Talk about coincidence....

Something 'dramatic' happened the moment we landed. I was trying to switch on my phone but it simply wouldn't power on. I then tried using a pen's pointed end to 'poke' the power button, it still wouldn't start.... I've by now started to panic for without my phone, I'm unable to link up with Ms Ang, my very kind course-mate who offered to play host to the few of us from SG and showed us around KL. I'm supposed to link up with Ms Ang @ KLIA for she had come all the way to the airport to drive GV & me our accomodation @ Concorde Hotel. Desperate, i borrowed G's phone and plucked in my SIM Card. To my great relief, I received an SMS from Ms Ang the moment G's phone powered up. Had she not SMSed me, I've no idea how to reach her.... Anyway, all ends well regarding the linking up part once we're able to reach each other. Much credit must go to G for helping me out of the 'crisis'.

After checking in, Irene brought us to this street market where she recommended us some very delicious chicken/beef rendang. I particularly like the rice for its kinda sticky, unlike those we have in SG which is non-stick. The hawker must have added quite some spices to the rendang for the smell and taste is fantastic. I could have eaten it for dinner too if not for us going elsewhere in the evening!

We proceeded to Mid-Valley Mall post-lunch for some shopping before returning to attend a BC class at the Menara MBF Fitness First which is about 300m from Concorde while Ms Ang's office is, can you actually BELIEVE it, right next door!!

The highlight of the day comes in the evening post-dinner where Ms Ang, GV, G's coursemate B & wifey, Ms Ang's 2 friends from FF and myself drove up to a place in Ampang called Look Out Point. I've always a soft-spot for great scenaries be it urban or natural landscapes. It sort of like a ritual of mine to ascend up the local viewing tower for a look around the city during my first visit. I've been up KL Tower and also the Petronas Tower, but to look 'down' onto KL City from its outskirts is something totally new to me and I love it very much! The view up there is stupendous while the roads leading up is horrendous. Can you imagine driving up an unlit, winding road with pretty faint road markings at 10pm? If you thought the roads up Genting is bad enough, wait till you try this!!

The atmosphere here is very conducive for a good chill out session with friends, with your significant other and maybe even a good location to propose! :p If could be adventurous enough, I might have brought my SO up too (if I have one). The drinks and food is pretty ordinary, nothing fantastic to boast about. But like I've mentioned earlier, the atmosphere is second to none (Jewel Box @ Mt Faber is WAY OFF!!).

Day 2 was an interesting day for Ms Ang's Team-Teaching and G, B and I decided we just had to attend it to give her our utmost support. Her mentor was this petit lady called Peggy whereby she gives you the kind of impression that she's just like any other BC Instructor we have in TF. The moment she gets on stage and started rattling off the standard Class-Intro, the way she explains the various techniques in BC and some of those safety points to take note of, you'd know she's not a mentor for nothing. I'm really glad Ms Ang had been assigned Peggy for mentorship for I know she'd be in good (in fact, very good) hands.

More folks are arriving from SG on day 2, eg. MF, Grace and Mich @ 2pm via coach. Ms Ang and I met up with them at Corus Hotel where they're staying before we hit the road for 1-Utama. This mall seemed like a hell-of-a distance away from KLCC! A rough estimation of the trip time goes like 1hr? We drove past a Nandos signage and Grace went crazy... no prizes for guessing what's our lunch that day. The plan of the afternoon is to have lunch, then hit the mall for shopping before proceeding to meetup with more folks for dinner at Bubba Gump @ The Curve. The Curve's a nice dining spot, it sort of reminds me of The Grove back in LA. There wasn't much activity post-dinner as we all wanted to retire early for the next day, the HIGHLIGHT of our trip up north, the Les Mills Quarterlies!

It was rise and shine real early on day 3 of my KL Trip. Met up with Ms Ang for breakfast at the lobby just like the previous day as I'm staying alone in my twin room. Rather than waste one breakfast each day, why not invite Ms Ang to join me? We had a light breakfast before heading out to the gym @ KLCC where the Quarterlies are held. Body Combat is the 2nd programme of the day @ 10am while Body Vive was the first. The event was conducted on this indoor basketball court within the gym where they had setup the stage on one facet of the court. Anyway, we finished the workshop, did some cam-whoring, snap pictures with Rachel (one of the BC Programme Directors) and then left the gym for our hotel to pack up and check out. G had hired a cab to take us to KLIA for our flight back.

I've actually sooooooo much to share with regard to my very first LM Quarterlies that I'd be dedicating one entire blog post to it instead of mixing it in with this post. Do stay tuned to my next post, ok?

As the 4 of us, Ms Ang, GV and me sat drinking in Hard Rock Cafe waiting for the cab to arrive, I can't help but felt abit sad that the weekend's coming to an end so quickly and we'd have to leave. Thank goodness KL isn't too far away from SG and we can always drop by whenever possible. This trip had been one of my best ever trip for it was the first time that I've done things which are not  'tourisy' and this is all thanks to Ms Ang for playing host to us and showing us the nooks and corners of KL. On behalf of GV, Grace, MF and Mich, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for all that you've done for us during our visit.

Hope January comes around faster so that we can once again meet up and have a helluva good time :)

KL in another 12hrs....

In about another 12hrs, I'd be in KL for my 2nd last trip out of Singapore in 2009, ending an uneventful travel season for me...

Let's see my travels this year :

• KL in Jan
• BKK in Jun
• Malacca in Nov
• KL in Dec
• Cambodia in Dec

Compare the above to my trips last year :

• Shanghai & Suzhou in Mar
• Bintan in May
• US West Coast in Sept
• Batam in Nov
• Hainan in Dec
  

Back to the topic proper.... My main purpose in hopping over to KL is to attend a Les Mills Body Combat Workshop on Sunday but am arriving 2 days early to go around KL properly despite having been there earlier this year. In that trip, Mr L and I went around mainly around the Bukit Bintang area as we're not too familar with KL and didn't want to get lost. However, this time, with Ms Ang being my guide, I'm hopeful of seeing more of KL....

Ms Ang : See ya tomorrow!!

Travel Plans until end-2010*

Nov 2009 - Malacca
Dec 2009 - Kuala Lumpur
Dec 2009 - Cambodia (Tentative)
May 2010 - Bali
Aug 2010 - HK/Macau (Tentative)
Nov/Dec 2010 - New Zealand (Tentative)

*confirmed unless otherwise stated....

:)

Land of a Thousand Smiles

I finally got outta town recently and into the heart of the 'Land of a Thousand Smiles' with a BKK regular, SS..

We stayed @ the Baiyoke Boutique Hotel (BBH) which is actually 'hidden' behind the towering Baiyoke Sky which several cab drivers were unaware of. So if you wish to stay at this affordable and funky-looking hotel, be sure to either direct the driver to drive to the back of Baiyoke Sky or alight at Baiyoke Sky itself and walk over by foot, 3mins away :)

I considered this trip fulfilling as I've managed to achieve 80% of my objectives. The only unfulfilled one being to watch a Muay-Thai fight as we both found the cost rather exorbitant and the atmosphere not being really fantastic. It cost 1500baht for a standing ticket and 2000baht for a ring-side seat alone!! We ended up visiting the next door Suan Lam Night Bazzar instead.

SS brought me to Paul's Fashion located at level 2 of the Amari Watergate Hotel (abt 15mins walk from BBH) to tailor-made some clothes. The guys there are very friendly and helpful. Most importantly, they spoke English!! I made a French-cuff shirt, a normal shirt and a pair of pants all for 3100baht. Considering the number of friends recommending them, I guess they must have built up quite a good reputation for their superb worksmanship if not for their very reasonable price :) They'd even gotten my name embroidered on the left sleeve of both shirts!!

We also visited Kanchanaburi for its famous 'Death Railway', built during the 2nd World War by Allied POWs and forced labourers. Checking the various tours itinaries offered online as well as those locally, the rate of such a tour cost typically around 2000baht. We decided to make the trip by ourselves via public transport and the entire trip from our hotel to Kanchanaburi and back to our hotel cost ONLY about 800baht each!!! Of course, if you ain't the adventurous sort, I'd strongly recommend that you stick to the tour. As mentioned earlier, SS's a BKK regular and that's why we're daring enough to go on our own...Some friends of mine who had visited the place prefer to go by tour, some even private tour. Its all a matter of preference. If you prefer convenience and fuss-free, stick to the tours. If you prefer to self-explore/save cost, then do it like the way I do....

We visited the JEATH (Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland) War Museum, the Kanchanaburi War Cementary, the Thailand - Burma Railway Museum and the famous 'Bridge over River Kwai' by an open tailboard, pick-up look-alike taxi which charges us 300baht per pax. This cost only marginally more compared to a trishaw asking for 100baht lesser. I chose the taxi for the comfort and speed of getting to our destination. You do your own math. :)

The deal with the taxi is such that it would bring us to the various stated places above and wait for us while we explore the places. The driver gets paid only at the end of the entire trip, so you need not be afraid that the driver will disappear after dropping you off. I especially enjoyed train ride (20baht, 15mins ride) across the bridge spanning the River Kwai. You may also walk on the bridge along the rails across the river if you do not wish to take the train ride. However, do be careful with your steps as there isn't and safety railings or netting to prevent things from falling straight into the water.

We had one of the better shark's fin in a Chinese restaurant sited along the main street in Chinatown called Nam Sing. One rather filling pot of fins meant for one cost 300baht! If this ain't cheap enough, I don't know what is... There's also a shop selling Thai specialties opposite Nam Sing which we dropped by after the filling dinner. Chinatown's basically all about food after dark as one can see from the numerous push-cart stalls that came alive only at night, according to SS.

My 'tour guide' also brought me to several other places such as the Hyatt 4-Faced Buddha, Platinium Shopping Mall, MBK, Siam Discovery and others... I've not bought so many items during a trip. SS DOES indeed knows BKK like the back of her hands. I'm very impressed!

PS : if you needed more info regarding my trip, just drop me a comment herein :)

Kanchanaburi War Cemetary


Bridge spanning River Kwai


The railway tracks of the 'Death Railway'


Aerial view of BKK's criss-crossing highways from Baiyoke Sky Observation Deck

USA Part 3 - Las Vegas

And so... we were once again back at Long Beach Airport on Day 9 for our Jetblue flight to Vegas, sometimes referred to as the Sin City. If you look down on Vegas from the plane as it flies in from the west, you can see that Vegas is actually nothing more than a city in the middle of a desert, Mojave Desert to be exact.

Unlike the previous 2 cities where we had either booked our transfer to the hotel or met a kind lady to show us to the Metro, we had to find our own way to Luxor Hotel. Had it not been Lyn Soon who recommended this hotel to me, I might have gone the ways of motels like in SF & LA. As you can see from their webby, Luxor is a pyramid shaped hotel located near the southern end of the stretch of Vegas where all the mega-resorts (and casinos) are located. This stretch is commonly referred to as The Strip. The casino takes up the majority of the concourse space. One can see rows upon rows of slots machine as well as the various table games. Going into the elevators, you'll realise the most interesting thing; the elevators are not vertical-lifted, they are side-lifted. As they move, you can feel the motion going sideways! The hotel room doors are inward facing towards the hotel concourse just like either Oriental or Mandarin Hotel in the Marina area. Our room had a slanted window facade, something which one do not see in a typical building, much less hotel... To be honest, I'm extremely thankful to Lyn Soon for her recommendation.

Having freshen up from our 'long' journey from LA, we hopped across the street, 2blocks away to the Showcase Mall where outlets such as the M&M World & The World of Coca-Cola are located. M&M World is a 4-storey retail store where you can find M&M merchandise from their signature M&M milk chocolates to clothings to kitchen-ware to beddings to glassware. At the end of the estimated 2hrs we spent in there, our 'loot' consisted of chocolates, tshirts for her, poker cards and a very interesting black-coloured coffin-shaped Halloween-themed cookie jar. We were halfway thru at Coca-Cola when I received a call from a long-time-no-see friend, Mel, who happened to be studying in Vegas. I'm supposed to ring her once I reach Vegas but as luck would have it, I was unable to make calls from my HP despite having enabled my auto-roaming. I was intending to go back and use the room phone to contact her for a meet-up either on the next day or the next next. Well, since now she called and suggested dinner, why not?

She arrived in a grey toyota without a proper license plate together with her classmate, SP. Somehow, we keep forgetting her name until she said something abit 'lame' which did the trick for us to remember her by.... its goes : Those who SIN, PAYS.... :p Mel drove us to this place located in the southern end of The Strip called Townsquare Mall. Seeing there were boutiques there, SO's eyes immediately lit up like a cat having smelt fresh fishes nearby. Luckily, its rather late by now (9ish) and most of the shops just about to close. Mel recommended this very interesting store, Yogurtland, for a snack since all of us weren't hungry nor full. What I find interesting here is that you get to mix and create your own frozen yogurt, complete with toppings! I always enjoy mixing and matching, coming up with my very own creation! :) I figured that this place must be extremely popular judging from the queues at the self-served frozen yogurt dispenser. Enjoying cold yogurt on a cold evening (despite the place being in the middle of a desert) reminds me of my trip earlier this year to Shanghai where I ate ice-cream out in the blistering sub-10 degrees cold!

With most, if not all the shops already closed for the night at Townsquare Mall, the only options left were to either retire to hotel or to explore The Strip. There is only 1 very obvious decision here. Mel drove us down the entire stretch of Las Vegas Blvd, aka The Strip. Not too sure who was it but I suspect is Mel who hatched the CRAZY idea of trying out the rides located at the top of the Strastophere! SO supported the idea wholeheartedly while SP and myself were trying to wriggle our way outta it. Can you imagine being suspended 109 storeys in the air? THAT IS CRAZY!!! Under intense persuasion and coaxing, SP and I reluctantly went along with them for Insanity, The Ride. It was at this precise moment that I kinda regretted meeting Mel up :p The ride isn't actually that scary, except for the moment when you are suspended up there waiting for the ride to begin & at the end while waiting for the robotic arm to move the suspended portion of the ride off the suspended area. Mel drove down the other side of The Strip again on our way back to Luxor. We passed by the famous Bellagio Fountain and saw a huge crowd lining the entire length of the fountain watching the on-going show.

Day 10's gonna be another long day and I'm fearing for my legs... According to the itinary, we're going to the Outlet Malls in Downtown Vegas. Knowing how SO shops, it'd probably mean being there from dusk till dawn.... Waking up bright and early, we popped over Bellagio for their famed buffet breakfast and it indeed is! One can't complain about the lack of variety here for you have the usual sausages, bread, pastry, cereal, etc... and much more such as pizzas and prawns. This is truly one of the best breakfast buffet I've had around in ages! The Forum Shops next to the Caesars Palace was our next stop. I needed to help Mat get a Coach bag while SO wanted to get a bag from Kate Spade. Taking about an hour to accomplish our targets, I suggested dropping off the bags in your room before heading out to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets, which we did.

Getting there is straightforward, take The Deuce to the intersection of Sahara Ave and Las Vegas Blvd before alighting, cross the road to the bus-stop behind Denny's and board Route 108 to South Grand Central Parkway. This is the place where I've been waiting to raid since the merchandise here are expected to be lower priced. Some of my prized catch included a pair of Levis for 32USD, 2 Banana Republic dress shirts for 60+USD and some other items which I can't recall at this moment. No doubt I managed to grab some bargains here, I'm somewhat disappointed by the lack of items which caught my eyes. Perhaps the general perception of an outlet store is for 'clearing old stocks', which explains the apparent lack of variety or latest range of merchandise. Despite this disappointment, it still took us about 4-5hrs to cover the 100 over shops here before Mel & SP met up with us for dinner which we had at Denny's. For a while, I thought Mel is going to suggest the Strastophere again. Lucky she didn't or I'd be tempted to knock her on the head :p She brought us to The Venetian instead. There is an interesting anecdote on why the ceiling of The Venetian were painted the colours of the sky, complete with clouds... "It's so that the punters here would gamble all day and lose track of time due to the never-changing sky-colour". This sounds logical enough but I thought the punters would look at their watches instead of the sky for time. Hmmmmm...... I stepped into this shop selling interestingly worded tshirts for about 25USD. The 4 of us walked out of the place with a tshirt each. According to SP, the same tshirt retails for about 60SGD at that Ah-Gua shop, NewUrbanMale, seemed like we've gotten ourselves a good bargain. We later on invited Mel & SP up to our room to 'watch' TV since they claimed they do not possess a TV back in their dorms.... poor thingys :p

We're going to the Grand Canyon on Day 11 of our 'USA Western Adventure'. Boarding the bus at the coach drop-off/pick-up point in the neighbouring Excalibur Hotel at 630am is no joke! We had to get up at 530am while sleeping around 2am. It was an estimated 3hrs drive to the canyon from The Strip, passing by Boulder City, Lake Mead and also a 10min photoshoot at Hoover's Dam. According to the boring-toned elderly lady who was our driver cum guide for this tour, we have another nearly 1.5hrs to go. Unlike the rest who proceeded to dreamland, I stayed awake to enjoy the scenary along the way. :) The was nothing really fantastic along the way but I kind of enjoyed the scenary anyway. I remembered the coach driving pass this town in the middle of the desert called Dolan Springs. I saw a Sheriff's office, a bank and a few ranches here. I find this sight rather interesting as in that how often do we get to see a desert dwelling? Must less a ranch! The coach came upon a 14mile unpaved stretch of track not long after driving pass Dolan Springs. The track is narrow with barely enough space for 2 vehicles to pass each other, plenty of dust churned up from the track whenever a vehicle drives over it and also, its an extremely bumpy ride. Those who were awake around this time most probably did so due to the 'turbulence'. I can't imagine walking or even driving with the windows down along this track. Personally, I can't wait for this 14mile to end. After what seemed like eternity to me (and most?), we came upon paved roads again! Yippie!

We finally reached the drop-off point where we are supposed to hop on to a 'Grand Canyon Shuttle' to the 2 nearby lookout points (Eagle Point & Guano Point) in the Grand Canyon West Rim. Boarding the shuttle, our first stop was Eagle Point which is so named because of a rock formation there which resembles an eagle spreading its wings. It's also here that the Grand Canyon Skywalk is located. This is a horse-shoe shaped structure which allows one to walk out over the canyon at a height of about 1200m. SO & myself went on it. From my understanding, the flooring of the Skywalk is separated into 2 sections; one with CLEAR glass, the other with FROSTED glass. I initially thought I would freak out slightly due to my fear of heights (extreme heights in this case). However, I wasn't having jelly legs at all and was even able to stand over the CLEAR glass portion and admire the sights 1200m down! Forget it if you're thinking of snapping plenty of pictures here as all photography except for the 'official' ones are prohibited. We bought our 'official' picture from them at 30USD and it comes nicely framed up. Not too bad for a keepsake but the price is abit steep I feel. Anyway, its once a lifetime kinda trip, so I shan't complain too much.

Hopping back on the shuttle after completing the Skywalk, we arrived at Guano Point. This place is so-named because bat dung (guano) used to be mined from a cave across the canyon and transported back on cables. Some of the mining relics still exist and are very interesting. Lunch is served here and we were able to dine at picnic tables outside under a large tarp. It was comforting to see the natives and workers also eating the same meals. We were able to do some hiking and discovery after a 'heavy' lunch. By far, this was the highlight of the tour, and provided many perspectives of both the solitude and natural beauty of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. As with the other sites, caution should be exercised as no fencing or railing is provided along the paths. There were also many vendors offering handmade Hualapai Indian jewelry and art for sale. The prices seemed reasonable but are negotiable.

We arrived back at The Strip at about 630pm, passing by the same places as we did earlier in the morning. This tour is easily one of my favourite as I've finally been able to visit yet another 'Wonders of the World' after I did Rome's Colosseum back in 2004. As there were no stops along the way for snacks, we were pretty much famished by the time we head out to the Fashion Show Mall along The Strip for dinner.

Day 12 is our last day in Vegas. Our flight back to SG departs from SF at 1am the next morning while the flight back to SF from Vegas departs at 6pm. We basically have until 4pm to 'waste' until we first say bye to Vegas followed by USA. We spent our time going to Townsquare Mall once more and stayed there till 3plus. Thereafter, its a long journey back home. 28hrs from Vegas to SG, inclusive of 22hrs of total flight time.

Here's the last set of pics...


MGM Grand, heard inside got lions on display, not sure how true is that....


Bellagio... 2 things worth your time here... the buffet and the fountain show at nite.


The bright lights of Vegas as seen from the top of the Stratosphere


Lobby of Luxor Hotel....


My favourite shot of the Grand Canyon.


Hummer



Hoover's Dam at dusk....



Our loot from the war...

USA Part 2 - Los Angeles

And so we landed at Long Beach Airport, LA in the afternoon of the 5th day. Long Beach Airport is a typical, small domestic airport where you walk to/fro between the plane and the airport building. There is nothing impressive about this place EXCEPT that the baggage claim belt in IN THE PUBLIC!! Coming out from the 'Secured Area', turn left and there is the belt. Non-passengers who where there to fetch their loved ones or friends where less than 20m away. I'm extremely stunned by this means that someone walking in and steal your luggage is probably going to be able to succeed. Poor security...

We happened to run into a lady whom we met whilst on our Yosemite National Park trip. She was on the same flight as we are, going back home in San Pedro, LA. Knowing that we were clueless getting around the place, she offered to drive us to the nearest Metro Station so that we can catch the Metro to our hotel (Hollywood Downtowner's Inn) along Hollywood Blvd. Along the way, she purposely drove past the more scenic parts of the area for us to have a look. We were cautioned to be careful whilst in Hollywood because there are many 'weird' people, according to her. She finally dropped us at this boardwalk along the waterfront called the Shoreline Village. It was a short walk from here to the Metro Station, cutting across the LA Convention Centre. The Metro is a no frills, decent communter train service much like our MRT except that it runs entirely on road level and stations are totally unmanned and 'un-gated'. So its pretty much based on trust and integrity. However, if you are caught without a ticket, be prepared to pay a hefty fine!

Having heard from her friends as well as that lady we met about how cautious we needed to be whilst in Hollywood, she got worried and suggested to change hotel if possible. I was rather annoyed at the idea at first although I kept those thoughts to myself. However, after some thinking over the matter during the journey to our hotel, I convinced myself that even if I disregard my safety, I mustn't compromise her's. With that, we agreed to stay in the current hotel for 2days before moving to a hotel near Disneyland for the next 2days until we depart LA. Luckily for us, the hotel proprietor, Bernard, is a friendly, helpful and very accomodating person. He's totally cool about it when we cooked up a story about why we're staying 2days short at his property. Immediately after checking in, we went to a cybercafe few doors away and started looking for hotels in Anaheim (where Disneyland LA is located). We managed to secure a booking for a room at Holiday Inn Express Anaheim Maingate which is about 10mins walk from Downtown Disney.

Having settled the hotel arrangements, we proceeded to The Grove, a local shopping mall for dinner and some shopping. Following tips from Bernard, we took Metrobus 28 from outside the hotel. As always with any Free & Easy trip, one is bound to have to get lost at least once. This was exactly what happened to us. Following the rough map we had, we alighted accordingly and proceeded in the direction where we think our destination was. We still don't see any signs of the place despite having walked a few blocks. Finally, a kind Mexican we approached pointed us in the right direction saying The Grove is 3blocks away. The time is now slightly past 8pm and we're both pretty hungry and tired having not eaten since 7am. 3blocks away... Its a decision between walking or waiting for the bus. I prefer the former, she wanted the latter. She opted to go with my preference but we soon got to regret it as the 3blocks seemed more like 3 GIANT blocks! Usually, a block in the US is about 100m long, however, this time it seemed more like 500m per block! We finally reached The Grove at about nearly 9pm and some of the shops had already began closing for the day.Grabbing a quick dinner, SO launched into shopping mood again... Had it not been for the time being late, we wouldn't have been able to leave the place just 2hrs after arriving!

Day 6 brings us to Universal Studios Hollywood, a movie-themed theme park located just north of Hollywood. I initially thought there would be plenty of visitors but I was wrong. The crowd seems not too bad. SO decided our first ride of the day to be the 4D Shrek thingy. This is easily one of my favourite item here due to the effects they dished out! Imagine watching a 3D show with LIVE effects such as 'real wind blowing from behind you', 'seat rocking' and the best part : while the spiders crawled up the legs of the movie characters, one can feel wind from beneath the seats and felt like creepy crawlies!! Our next ride, the Studio Tour, made us waited 45mins or so due to the huge crowd going for it too. This Studio Tour takes you to some of the sets that were used in the TVs or Movies. Later on, you can see a picture of 1 of the sets created by Steven Spielberg for War of the Worlds. Lunch was at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company which was another 'must-try' from Gary. We had a Blueberry Lemonade, Cajun Shrimp for appetiser and a Tilipia thingy with rice to share. We had a few more rides after lunch such as The Mummy, an indoor roller-coaster in the dark at times and Jurassic Park, a water-based ride.

We left Universal Studios early about 4pm SO wanted to hit The Grove once more but again, we got 'lost'. We took the bus in the wrong direction, bringing us back towards our hotel direction instead of towards The Grove. It seemed like we ain't fated to go to The Grove. Firstly, we got off at the wrong stop and now we took the bus in the wrong direction. I suggested since we're back to near our hotel, why not we go to the supermarket nearby and buy dinner back to our room and eat? And so we got frozen pizza, vegetable salad and a small packet of milk (upon request by me) back for dinner. Guess what? SO mistaken the 12mins indicated on the pizza-box to be microwave timing instead of defrozing. By the time 12mins went by, whatever's on the rotating plate in the microwave oven is burnt pizza and an intense burnt-smell! We laughed our heads off... Luckily the oven was too small to cook the entire pizza at shot, which means we still have about 1/2 of our pizza still uncooked and we were better able to experiment with how to cook it.

We moved to Anaheim on Day 7. As the check-in timing at Anaheim Maingate was 3pm, we need not leave Hollywood Downtowner Inn so early. Our plan is to check-out about 12noon to proceed to the Amtak Station for the 40mins train ride over to Anaheim. Lugging several pieces of heavy luggages, it's impossible to walk from the Anaheim Amtrak Station to our hotel 2miles away. Hopping onto a cab, SO thought she saw the meter jumped by 60cents! I brushed her off saying she might have seen wrongly... I took a sustained look at the meter and INDEED it jumped by 60cents!!! OMG.............. The short trip over to the Holiday Inn Express cost USD10 odd. The hotel DOES have standards that one come to expect of the Holiday Inn brand at 100USD per nite and I'm extremenly satified with what I'm getting so far. Having settled down, we proceeded out to the Anaheim Garden Walk via the hotel shuttle.

Day 8 is Disneyland Day! Yippie.... As mentioned earlier, it was less than 10mins walking from hotel to Downtown Disney. There were 2 parks, the Disneyland Park and the Disney's California Adventure Park. We opted for the latter as it offers more thrilling rides as compared to the mostly 'kiddy' rides by the former. First ride of the day was the Hollywood Tower Hotel. This is an 'elevator' type of ride where one is being hoisted up in the lift before a series of sudden drops and lifts. This is also the very ride which scared 1/2 the hell out of me!! :S We went for a couple more other rides before having this thingy called the Corn Dog for lunch. This is actually a hotdog wrapped in corn-batter before being baked or deep-fried. I initially thought there would be a huge crowd on a weekend, which also means a longer wait for the rides but it seemed I was wrong. We had gone on most of the rides we had wanted to by the time we had lunch about 2pm.

With no more rides we were keen on, we left the park for Downtown Disney, intending to hang around until 5pm before returning to the park for the Pixar Play Parade, which we did. The main reason why I opted to visit Disneyland on a Saturday is due to the fireworks display at 930pm on weekends. According to the hotel staff, we can watch the fireworks from the hotel carpark. We standby at the carpark at 920pm but it wasn't 945pm before the first shot went off. The display is nowhere as spectacular as what we usually have in SG, but it was nevetheless a nice sight to have. I've always loved fireworks because I viewed fireworks as 'painting in the sky'. Tonight is our last night in LA as we'd be departing for the Sin City (Las Vegas) tomorrow afternoon via Long Beach Airport (again).

Please stay tuned for Part 3 of this triology. In the meantime, do enjoy the following photos taken in LA!


1 of the set for the filming of Desperate Housewives...


the set of War of the Worlds built by Steven Spielberg.


Blueberry Lemonade from Bubba Gump.


The highly recommended Cajun Shrimp from Bubba Gump...


A customary pic of the Hollywood sign in LA :p


The 1st ride we tried at Disneyland California Adventure Park which scared the shit outta me!! Imagine being dropped and lifted in the darkness!!!


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....


Pixar Play Parade....