Series of Amazing Journey

West Coast trip - Day 4 [Yosemite National Park]

2007-04-20T23:20:00.000+08:00

West Coast trip - Day 3 [San Francisco]

2007-04-19T21:41:00.000+08:00

China Town

Around 8.30 o'clock in the morning, we departed from Crowne hotel for breakfast at Chinatown. FYI, San Franciso's Chinatown is the largest Chinatowns in the States. It is also the oldest Chinatown. Trust me, it is muchhhhh larger than Los Angeles' Chinatown. For breakfast, the tour guide brought us to dim sum restaurant. Because of the "limited" budget, me and Sebastian decided to have breakfast somewhere else. We ended up at bakery shop and bought Charsiew bun and egg tart. Yummyy!!!

3 for 10 bucks

Chinatown, located in downtown San Francisco, has a lot of smaller side streets and alleyways which gives an authentic characteristic. We tried to find the famous Dragon gate on the corner of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, but we almost got lost. Luckily, we did found our bus on time.

Typical Chinatown street

Love this picture!! So pretty ... and well composed ... Hahaha

colorful butterflies

Lombard Street

Next was Lombard Street, the crookedest [most winding] street in the United States. What does this mean? The steep, hilly street was created with sharp curves to switchback down the one-way hill past beautiful Victorian mansions. The street is paved with bricks and is an amazing site to see!

The famous Lombard street view from Leavenworth Street

The houses beside the street are really someone houses. Someone really live there! Yeah in fact, I saw one of the owner shaping his garden.

Me and the Lombard street

We climbed up to Hyde street and took couple pictures. The Powell-Hyde cable car stops at the top of the block.

The unique Powell-Hyde cable car

Alcatraz island (top left background), Lombard St from top

Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. It is now popular as a favorite wedding location for brides and grooms throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. When we went there, we saw a bunch of primary students running around. Probably there were having study tour.

Palace of Fine Arts - in front of Colonnades

The park @ Palace of Fine Arts

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County as part of US Highway 101 and California State Highway 1.

The bridge has six total lanes of vehicle traffic, and walkways on both sides of the bridge. On an average day there are 100,000 vehicles crossing the bridge. Amazing!

According to the tour guide, the Golden Gate Bridge is a "popular" site for suicide. In 2006 itself, there were 34 confirmed bridge jump suicides, excluding various unwitnessed deaths that appeared to be suicides but could not be confirmed.

Me posing on the south side of the bridge

Pier 39 & Bay Cruise
Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction. The Pier is located at the edge of the Fisherman's Wharf district which is pretty close to both North Beach and Chinatown.

Hard Rock Cafe @ Pier 39

Giant crab in front of the Aquarium of the bay at Fisherman's Wharf

We reached there at 2 pm and hurried to queue for the bay cruise tour which started at 2.30 pm. Therefore, we had no time for a proper lunch. We grabbed $5 hotdog, finished it within 5 mins and ran for the ferry.

Sebastian, hotdog, and bay cruise ticket

A very crowded queue for the bay cruise tour

Luckily we were able to find a good spot to take pictures. Sebastian said that I should take as many pictures as possible since we paid $21 for this tour. No problem Sebastian!

Pier 39 - taken from ferry boat

The ferry brought us to see Angel Island, Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, and the might Alcatraz island. Along the way, we saw several sea gulfs tailing our boat and the captain warned us that they might come to disturb people.

From top left: sea gulf, SF from San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, Me and Sebastian

Golden Gate Bridge from the water surface

Alcatraz was well known as a military and federal prison until 1963, when it became a national recreation area. During its 29 years of operation, there were no prisoners had ever successfully escaped. 34 prisoners were involved in 14 attempts, 2 men trying twice; 7 were shot and killed, 2 drowned, 5 were unaccounted for, and the rest were recaptured. Only 2 prisoners made it off the island but were returned, one in 1945 and one in 1962.

The Alcatraz island

Sea lions at nearby Pier 39

At the end of the tour, we still have time to wander around the pier and took a bunch of pictures. The pier was really really crowded. A lot of Asian tourists there! There was a funny sign about "No Thongs" hung at one of the restaurants there. The one who dares to wear only thongs in this windy and cool weather must be crazy!

Pier 39 - The crowd and street performer

The Twin Peaks

The Twin Peaks are the second highest hills in San Francisco after Mount Davidson. The peaks are around 900 feet above the surface. From the peak, San Francisco looks very small, foggy and dense. The tour guide shorten the time to spend here since he said he was cold. I told him that it is nothing compared with Ohio...

San Francisco view from Twin Peaks

We departed from the peaks for Castro street which is a gay village, and later on headed toward City Hall.

City Hall

City Hall is our last stop of today city tour. To me every city hall in States look almost the same: the dome-kind architecture. Therefore I didn't take much pictures here.

City Hall - outside and inside the building

Nite in San Francisco

It was raining quite heavily when we went off from City Hall. And it made me hungry!! The tour guide decided to bring us back to china town for dinner. We ended up eating nasi lemak at Singapore Restaurant there. Look at my dinner below! It did not taste as nice as the outlook ... pretty disappointed.

Nasi Lemak

Before we headed back to our hotel, the tour guide made a quick stop for those who wanted to take picture of Bay Bridge at night.

Bay bridge at nite

We arrived at hotel by 10.30 pm and that's it for today. Next day: beautiful Yosemite Park! Stay tune.

West Coast trip - Day 2 [Solvang Market and Hearst Castle]

2007-04-18T23:24:00.000+08:00

In the morning, we waited at hotel lobby for a "correct" tour guide since at that time, there were at least 2 different tour groups picking up their clients. Luckily, we were able to find our tour guide and departed at 9.30am. The bus that we took, brought us to another meeting point where we switched to other bus. From this point, we were separated from xinen's parents and therefore the journey began...

Our destination for a day was: Solvang Market and Hearst Castle.

Solvang Market, Solvang

Solvang market entrance

The trip to Solvang took about 3 hours. We reached there by noon and had our lunch at Viking Garden Restaurant. The restaurant has Viking decorations like its name. We had western-chicken rice for $8 which was served in small portion. But it tasted quite ok.

Lunch at Viking Garden Restaurant

FYI, Solvang is a little Danish replica village. The windmills, quiet streets, horse drawn carriages, wineries, Danish bakeries, authentic Danish costumes worn by some shop keepers, Danish atmosphere and architecture are how the city looks like.

The giant windmill in Danish architecture

The shops at Solvang

Nice Oreo Fudge that I bought!!

On the way to Hearst Castle - Ostrich farm

Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle was is located near San Simeon, California, on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. William Randolph Hearst, is the man behind Hearst Castle. He is an important figure from the 20th century whose influence extended to publishing, politics, Hollywood, the art world and everyday American life. By the mid-1920s he had a nation-wide string of 28 newspapers. Cool right?

By the way, we reached the castle at 2 o'clock, and took 2.40pm tour.

The Hearst Castle from a distance

The castle itself is five miles (eight kilometers) inland on a hill. The guide brought us touring around the park and its main building. Look how huge and interesting the Hearst Castle is!

Hearst Castle - Neptune Pool and Casa Grande

In front of the Casa Grande

Casa Grande or the main house has 5 rooms on the ground floor: the Assembly Room which is the largest of the four sitting rooms, the Refectory which is the huge dining room, the Morning Room which is a magnificent sitting room filled with Spanish antiques and Flemish tapestries, the Billiard Room which is a game room, and the Theater which is the largest room in Casa Grande.

The Dining Room where only those invited can eat with Hearst

The dining room decoration and the statue in Hearst's Theater

The tour ended 1hr 30mins later at the indoor pool. It was a great tour. Awesome mansion!!

The indoor pool, modeled after Roman baths, with gold mosaic tiles

From the castle, the bus drove us to Crowne Hotel, Oakland South - Union City. It is located at the east bay of San Fransisco. We had our dinner at Burger King on the way to hotel. Not feeling to eat chinese food at that time =)

On the way to Oakland

That's all for today! Next entry will be about San Fransisco ... wohooo!!

West Coast trip - Day 1 [Hollywood - China Town]

2007-04-17T23:58:00.000+08:00

Today we began our trip to West Coast. After a-month preparing the itineraries and booking the tickets etc ... (thanks Sebastian), we were ready for West Coast. We woke up at 3 am to catch 6 AM flight to Los Angeles. Special thanks to our friend Ching Yuh who was willingly sacrifice his time to sent us to the airport!

The flight to Los Angeles took about 7 hours plus an-hour delay in Chicago. Yah ... it was not a direct flight. Luckily, I had an access to the Red Carpet Lounge since I have a Krisflyer Gold membership card. Look how convenience it was in the lounge ... Hehe!!!

At the Red Carpet Lounge, Chicago

Around 3 pm Pacific Time (LA has 3 hrs time diff), we reached the City of Angel, Los Angeles. After the tour guide picked us up at the airport and brought us to hotel for rest. But we did not want to waste our time doing nothing on the first day. So after settling our luggage, we rushed to Hollywood. We reached at Hollywood/Highland Station after almost an-hour bus + Metro subway ride. Pretty tiring but exciting!!

Hollywood/Highland Station

Our first destination was Mc Donald! Yup ... I was verrry hungry at that time.

Pplz said the McDonald's on Hollywood Boulevard are the most expensive exterior of any McDonald's restaurant in the world. It looks pretty clumsy to me. But it does have a few minor extras inside, though: a large skylight to let in sunshine and a few Hollywood stars pictures.

Mc Donald - Hollywood Boulevard

Xinen's parents were with us. We actually planned our trip with them, so that they can help us translating chinese to english since we were taking Chinese tour (yah ... the tour guide speaks chinese as a main language). But, turned out the tour guide changed our schedule, and therefore we were on different tour. I'll explain about the tour later. But now, let's look at Hollywood first!

The Hollywood Sign from Hollywood & Highland Center

Hollywood & Highland center

El Capitan Walt Disney Theater across Hollywood and Highland Center

Hollywood Boulevard is a such crowded place. The sidewalk along this road and Vine Street is so called Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of celebrities honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce along the road.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

We went to Kodak Theater complex, but didn't have an access to the theater. FYI, Kodak Theater is the home of the annual Academy Awards Ceremonies ("The Oscars"). And for American Idols fans, it is well known as a place where the final two competition is held.

Kodak Theater

Next is the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater, the worldwide-famous movie theater located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard whereas nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints, and autographs printed in the cement of the theater's forecourt.

Grauman's Chinese Theater

Picture with Mr. Schwarzenegger's fingerprint and footprint

In front of theater, there were a lot of movie characters walking around and offered if we wanna take picture with them. I did not know that we should give them tips. When they asked, we gave them a dollar.

Picture with Yoda Starwars

We walked along Hollywood Blvd until Hollywood/Vine subway station. Along the way I saw people selling Star Maps for only $5, live band, skateboarder, Green-leaves tree.

The uniqueness of Hollywood Blvd

Capitol Record

We therefore contd our journey to China Town, which was nothing much there since all stores closed after 5.30pm. So disappointed!

LA China Town

We headed back to our hotel after "tapao-ing" our dinner at cheap kopitiam. We can't find any taxis in China Town, therefore we took Metro train back to Union Station. Remember when Jack Bauer (24 Season 6) intercepted the bomb carried by Fayed follower at Union Station? Haha ... 24 freaks!

The waiting room at the Los Angeles Union Station.

We reached our hotel around 7 pm and had our rest. Waiting eagerly for the real tour tomorrow!

White Easter

2007-04-08T11:58:00.000+08:00

Happy easter everyone! Easter is always specially for me. Three years ago I was baptized back in Singapore. Now, I saw people getting baptized. How wonderful Lord called each of us. St Clare Church has 3 people this year, and I heard from Alvin, St. Mary of the Angels in Singapore has 100+ people. Praise you Lord...

K, back in Cleveland. Today is around 27F (-2.8C). Lake effect snow (Erie) brought us 4-6 inches of snow as the Easter gift. No white Christmas back in December, but we have white Easter. Haha ... April Snow is unusual!

Saturday morning - Outside balcony

I reached the church by 6.30 pm for choir rehearsal. In the vigil celebration, we have timpani, bells, piano, organ, and trumpet as the instruments. Cool right? Yup, It looks like orchestra!

Church of St. Clare - Parking lot covered by snow

Church of St. Clare - the Altar

The service started at 8 pm with no light. Then the priest brought the easter candle and lighted up parishioner's candles. Exsultet therefore, intoned by the deacon. The reading that struck me today is about Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. I recalled what I learnt during RCIA couple years ago. It doesn't matter whether it is Egyptian or any other tyrant, it is just a symbolic for a sin. Moses brought Israelite from Red Sea means brought us out from sin, cleanse us from sin! The same thing about Paul Theology about "die and rising from the death". John 3 and Roman 6! Hehe I still remember the chapters.

The Baptismal font

Congratz for those who are baptized! May the Lord guide you to be light of the world. Be faithful, be strong and always remember that you are not alone.

People cleaning their cars @ the parking lot

Oooh no, I thought the snow would probably stop after mass, but I was wrong. I needed to brush the snow and scrap the ice. The road was so slippery. But, I managed to take couple pictures hehe.

Once again, happy easter everyone. Let's spread the joy and peace to the world!
K... I need to sleep now.

The Warmness of Kentucky

2007-03-24T23:30:00.000+08:00

The itinerary for this weekend has been fixed. Kentucky is our next State to conquer. Eleven of us were in the trip. We woke up super early this time and departed at 4 o'clock in the morning. It took around 6 hrs to reach our first destination, Lexington.

Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington

We reached Kentucky Horse Park by 10:30 am and spent 3 hours there. We saw horses, barns, horse show, gift shop as expected. It was fun, although a little bit regret that I skipped the horseback riding.

Group picture & the horse rider

The horse show - Parade of Breeds

Interestingly, they have park memorial which is the gravesites of numerous great horses. Cool right?

Horses buried at WALNUT HALL STUD CEMETERY

We had chances to take pictures with horses.

We saw people taking test for the horse riding. Perhaps, they have some sort of license ... hmmmm

Horse riding test

We had our lunch at Cracker Barrel and headed toward Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort.

Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort

We spent an hour there and had our photo session. It looks like Spring there. Flowers blooming, sunny weather ... what else!!

Dun really get what Ameek tried to do

Funny and nice pictures

Me of course...

At Floral Clock: Family picture?? or ... Stupid pose??

After this, we spent another hour at Vietnam memorial war, had our dinner, played go-kart, and drove to our hotel in Cave City, KY

Mammoth Cave
On Sunday, we spent our day at Mammoth Cave, the most elongated cave system known in the world. We bought 2 tours for a day : the New Entrance (Frozen Niagara) tour and Historic tour. See our cool pictures!

Experience Mammoth Cave!

After the 2nd tour ended at 3 pm, we decided to spent the rest of our day having lunch in KFC BUFFET =) Only $6.99 you can enjoy as many chicken as possible. I only eat 6 chickens and I gave up.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Buffet for lunch

After spending an hour+ for lunch we headed back to Cleveland. I drove for 2 hours before Ameek took over. She drove amazingly fast (above 90 mph) such that we arrived within 5 1/2 hours. Good job all drivers!

St Patrick's Day @ West Virginia

2007-03-17T23:56:00.000+08:00

It was less than a week before the spring officially announced, yet the snow was everywhere. Perhaps it was a bad idea to travel in extreme weather, but STILL six of us managed to reach West Virginia within 6 hours. We gathered at lobby by 8 o'clock and waited half an hour for unreachable Kevin. I called him couple times and no one picked up the phone. Sorry buddy, we left you behind!

Look ... what a wonderful scene...

The journey was not easy at all. We traveled along mountainous and snowy roads, and the petrol drained so fast. But KS and Xinen are a good driver. They drove along the way to our destination: Seneca Rocks.

Maryland state?? Oooo nooo

After few hours drive, we were shocked by the sign: "Welcome to Maryland". Hey, we the minutes, we supposed to be in West Virginia. Not Maryland. We decided to stop for a while to check whether we were heading to correct direction. KS parked at MacDonald, and therefore we had our lunch there. MacDonald again... Did I mention that we had our breakfast at MacDonald?

MacDonald for lunch

Turn out, we were indeed heading to a correct way. After GPS-ing for local attraction, we found Seneca Rocks! Yippeee ... One hour plus to go! To make sure we had enough petrol, we pumped our cars.

See how HAPPY Sebastian was at the petrol station

One hour later, we stopped again .. to ... TAKE PICTURES. What else? Hehe. The open space at the road side was AMAZING. Regardless how cold it was and how shaky our legs (and my tripod) were, we managed to take nice pictures.

See how nice it is?

We finally reached Seneca Rocks around 4.30 pm. The first thing we did was to check out the visitor center. But, unfortunately, it was CLOSE. Ooooh nooo ... End up, we just went to the local shop and took pictures with Seneca Rocks as a background. I brought my camera remote along with me, so ... we played with it until we agreed to move on before getting dark.

Local Gift Shop - Local people and local bear =)

Us, Seneca Rocks, and my lovely remote =)

Series of Jumping Poses

Time to go back! Actually, we were a bit upset 'cos we drove so far only for few pictures of Seneca Rocks (1.5GB consider few?). But, when we drove back, we saw Blackwater Falls sign. So we gave it a try. The scene was AWESOME. If you ever watched "The world of Narnia", you will probably understand how cool the place is.

The place was closed, but the adventure continued ...

Cool picture ... love it so much

KS and Erwin ... the red color blend well with the snow

W V for West Virginia - except for KS =)

Since I love this place so much, I decided to change my blog header! Blackwater Falls, I'll never forget!

Blackwater Falls - Panoramic view merged with Photoshop

It was getting dark and therefore we hurried to ... find a place for dinner. We stopped at the nearby restaurant. And since today is a St. Patrick's Day, we ordered a mug of GREEN BEER. Actually, it is only beer with green coloring. Nothing special. As for dinner, we shared plenty of chicken wings (chesapeake, honey BBQ, and garlic flavour) and fried mushroom. The chicken wings are nice!

The 'famous' Green Beer

We finished our dinner at 9 pm. Outside the restaurant, there was heavy snow. Me and Kelvin took turn to drive and arrived safely by 2 a.m. Overall, the trip is fun and interesting, especially the Narnia thing.

Weekend at Detroit

2007-03-10T22:12:00.000+08:00

Detroit, Michigan here we come... Our friendly travel agent, Xinen, once again planned our itinerary. Well done! Since Detroit is just 3 hours from Cleveland, we gathered at the lobby at 8 am. This time, Scott, our US colleague joined us to the MotorCity. The weather was nice. Oooh, Thanks God it's Spring! Wohooo, 80 F (almost the same as Singapore's).

IMAX at Henry Ford Museum

After couple stops at MacDonald and petrol station, we arrived at Henry Ford Museum by noon. Wikipedia mentioned Henry Ford museum as the nation's "largest" indoor-outdoor history museum complex. We kinda hungry back then, therefore we went for lunch at the museum's Michigan Cafe. The food was ok, standard western style (actually, I thought Sebastian would make a stop at the nearest Arby's but I was wrong hehe ...) .

By the end of the time, NONE of us went into the indoor museum to see the cars. "Cheappooo ... hehe". Instead, we ended up watching Deep Sea 3D IMAX movie =__=

IMAX at Henry Ford Museum - My lunch at the Michigan Cafe

Eastern Market

Cos the IMAX movie started at 5.40 pm, we went out to ... EASTERN market. Yup, a market. It looks like PASAR MALAM in Singapore.

Posing outside eastern market

As you can see from the pictures below, the market was crowded. In fact, some of us bought groceries here, including me hehe (garlic, carrots, a box of grapes, peaches). Cheaper and fresher ... !!

The market situation -- courtesy of XLEE

A box of grapes for 10 bucks. Good job, Erwin!!

Poultry & Meat and Honey - Fresh from the cars by XLEE

The eastern market ...

General Motor Headquarters

After eastern market, we went to GM HQ to see car show. Hehe ... it's free. Therefore we spent couple hours there.

KS and XLEE as my models

Me & the car at GM World -- Me & 3D Glasses at IMAX

GreekTown - New Parthenon Restaurant

After watching the movie, we were looking a place for dinner. Hungry ... oooh no traffic-jam. Finally, we stopped at Greektown but no luck ... every places were fully packed. Dinner time, cold, long queues ... After wandering from places to places we decided to have our dinner at Greek Resto called New Parthenon. We waited for 30 mins long.

XLEE, Sbass, Erwin, CY waiting 'patiently' outside the restaurant

"We want to order menus which come with flame" quoted someone in the resto. The waitress replied "Saganaki Opa and Flamed Greek Sausage are come with flame". Saganaki Opa sounds like Japanese food, but it's not. It is kasseri cheese fried in olive oil and served as appetizer.

'Flammable' cheese and sausages

Spot the differences!

Look at KS! He was doing same poses for all pictures. So funny ...

Erwin and Sbass -- taken by Xinen

Scott - Children ... dun try this at home. Eating money is not good!

My Souvlaki - A small shish kebob, served with rice and vegetable ... yummy

Chin Yong and Miss Wang

That's all for today. Another weekend ended ... means ... back to office on Monday. What next for the following weekend? Stay tune!

Xinen Bdae Eve

2007-03-08T10:44:00.000+08:00

Today is Xinen bdae. "Hey guys what should be a proper gift for her?" I said to others near office pantry during lunch time. Hmmm ... A&F gift card. Deal! So Kevin and I went off earlier to Beachwood Mall for Abercrombie gift card. I bet Xinen knew this gonna happen since she asked "Where you guys going?" and Kevin answered "Buying men clothes blah3x ..." Lame excused hahaha ...

The girls and their silly pose

For the cake and candle, we bought a nice Chocolate Ice Cream Cake from GiantEagle. Better than our home-made cake! Peace peace ...
The plan continued by gathering everyone in my place and asked her to come up to watch Death Note 2 - The Last Name (even though I didn't have one yet). Sorry Xinen hehe ...

Then as usual, we sang a bdae song, cut the cake lalala, and took a ton of pictures. Yup, with my new IR Remote Control, we can let the camera take our foolish poses. We did really have fun with the remote that night. Good job remote!

Series of our group pictures

Once again, happe bdae Xinen. Hope you enjoy your gift card!

Back to Cleveland

2007-02-25T23:05:00.000+08:00

After 2 weeks staying in Jakarta, it is again time to depart. Back to Cleveland means a-day-flight. Yeah, 24 hours flight would drive you crazy! A day before I had my luggage filled with food (Chinese new year cookies), new clothes, medicine, MILO, etc etc. At Soekarno-Hatta Airport, there were long queues! Yeah, I met a lot of NTU graduated friends there. My cousin was there too. Same flight. Haha. This time, my flight with SIA was fantastic. Since I am now a Krisflyer Golden member, people treated me better than ever. My luggage now is a Raffles Class Priority. Cool yah!

Transit 6-8 hours in Changi was not a good idea. I only spent a little time to sleep since my "neighbours" were too noisy. I waited until the United counter was opened and until Sebastian arrived. It was around 5 AM. The five-hour-flight to Hongkong departed at 7.55 AM. This is the best part. The United personal upgraded my seat to Business class for free. Erwin had the ticket upgraded as well. Lucky us! Star Alliance Gold membership rocks!!

Look how comfortable we were at the business class cabin!

Being business class passenger, we were treated well. Haha so happy. "Mr Liong, can we ..." "Mr Che-mer-leng, oops do I pronounce correctly?" Yeah, my name is kinda hard for them to pronounce. Erwin's name is easier. But, I did enjoy this flight. If only, they upgraded our seat on Hongkong-Chicago trip.... Yeah keep dreaming!

This awesome picture taken from the business-class seat +)

The flight to Chicago was a total disaster. Economy class seat, 18 hours flight ... tired!! Lucky time went fast (hmmm not really lor ...). But anyway, we arrived safely at Chicago. The immigration took us more than half an hour. Chicago was really crowded since a lot of flights were delayed b'cos of the bad weather. Yah, almost forgot about snow and cold weather after staying couple weeks in Asia.

The real problem came after this. I saw at my flight schedule, and realised I should fly earlier than my colleagues. Ooooh no ... I ran from terminal 1 to 5, tried sooo hard to get into the next flight. The customer service queue was sooo long that I could not manage to catch the next flight. Hmm ... I was alone there while Sebas and Erwin flew away to Cleveland. Poor me...

The next flight was at 5 pm and there were more than hundred peoples on the waiting-list. Oooh crap... How about me???? The problem was United canceled the-three-pm flight. After waiting for 2 hours, I talked to the customer service to let me in to the five-pm-flight. "Ok ... I'll put you in the waiting list." I replied "I have waited blah3x ... hours ...." "If I told you I have Star Alliance Gold membership, would it help?" He replied "Yes, it does". Then finally, I managed to fly on time and reached Cleveland by 7.30 pm. Thanks for my colleagues for being passion waiting for me hihi!! You guys rocks!

Oooo no ... other problem came again. My luggage was not there. I spoke to the United representative that my luggage would be at cleveland for another few hours and she said they will deliver to my address in the following day. Hiuhhhh ... Now, I can relieve ...

Back to Jakarta on CNY Trip

2007-02-16T23:36:00.000+08:00

Hurray, back to Jakarta! Finally, after a year and half!!
Guess what? I returned in a correct time. No more flood, no more electricity breakdown ... Being spoilt kid. Hmmm, what else missing? While staying couple days in my relative HDB, I managed to have "Shio bak peng" a.k.a roasted-pork rice, "Wanton mie" a.k.a wanton noodle. That's just the beginning.

An eve of New Year is the time to gather with my family for BIG dinner. My mum prepared the menu from the morning. Noodle (compulsory), Fish (nian nian you yu), Breaded Pork-shrimp-Fill (Dimsum style yummy), "Bak Keng" (Hookien delicacy), Spicy vegetarian Rendang (Indonesian delicacy), and Ham-Shrimp roll are the menu. Taste awesome! We had a good evening, except my sister was in Australia. She was not able to return 'cos she was working on her PR status there. May be next time we'll meet.

Chinese New Year Eve - The Big Dinner with my family

On the first day of new year, we were staying at home while waiting for my relatives from both father and mother sides to come. That's because my father is the oldest son. As a tradition of Chinese new year, wearing red is a must.

My cousin family from mother side - Red red ...

I love the picture above. Nice shoot everyone!! My father side aunt and uncle came the following hours later. Here are the pictures!

Uncle, Aunt, and their families

The second day was our turn to visit others. In the morning, we went to my aunt and uncles houses. Even though there was no more flood threat, the water level was still high. It was almost at the same level as the street.

Picture of the houses along river bank. Perhaps creek, not river

Chinese New year is always unique with its cookies. Pineapple tarts, "kacang" (various peanuts), "lapis legit" (layered cake -yummy), and other kueh-kueh. I brought some of my mother-made cookies back to Cleveland and my friends finished 5 boxes within few days. Chin Yong said "How if I setup a store in Singapore and let your mother cookies sold" Haha, thanks Chin Yong, my mother took it as compliment.

After visiting my relatives, we headed towards Taman Anggrek mall (one of my favourite malls in Jakarta). This year is amazing. They even shown Chinese "wayang" (opera) in the public. My big sister wanted to take picture with the actors but she didn't manage to do so. Poor sister ... hehe =)

Chinese wayang Opera at Taman Anggrek mall

Dinner was the main reason we went to the mall. I told them, I wanted to go for Dimsum. Haha, I was delicious!!! In-expensive (compared to Singapore and US currency)!! Huang Ting is the name of the restaurant (thanks for the recommendation my friends!).

I did enjoy my time in Jakarta. Besides, Chinese new year gathering, I managed to meet some of olddddd friends. Having lunch, dinner, buying DVDs, attending Catholic seminar by Bo Sanchez, getting new clothes from my sister, hearing the priest singing Chinese song during sunday mass cum chinese new year mass are amazing. Thanks God for these opportunities!!

Snowboarding @ Boston Mills

2007-01-20T23:36:00.000+08:00

It is getting colder this week. That means it is a SNOWBOARDING time! Look how excited we are at Boston Mills. It's my first time to snowboard ... but I do survived!

Ultimate Ski and Snowboard-ing warriors