Kennyster

Saturday, July 29, 2006

San Diego is surprisingly arty-farty, with an interesting mix of Mexican and Spanish architecture, lots of pubs with a village-like atmosphere.

Our accomodation (Hostel International Metropolitan) was atrociously bad, dismal service and there's a weird musky paint smell in the whole place. First day was especially bad since we couldn't secure a private room and had to move to a 10-man mixed dorm which was occupied by strange puerto ricans, an indian and 2 pretty liberated european girls who were quite nonchalent about just wearing their bras and jeans.

The only good thing about the hostel is its location. We were right smacked in Gaslamp Quarter (sort of their Boat Quay) with lines of pubs filled with a vibrant college crowd.

The police here is equally happening. It was around 1am when a police car came to a halt just outside a pub opposite our hostel. Rather than spoiling the party, a cop boomed into his loudspeaker,"THIS IS THE SAN DIEGO POLICE... STRIKE ME A POSE!"

Naturally, the crowd got even rowdier and started posing in front of the patrol car and that was quite a funny moment.

***
There's lots of stuff to see in San Diego. On the first day, we went to Old Town and Balboa Park. Interesting to know, Old Town is actually the 'birthplace' of California and they managed to restore and reconstructed buildings and furnishings to illustrate the ambience of the 1800s San Diego. I think they might have used this place to film "The Mexican"

Whaley House, an officially designated haunted house.

Alright, im really out of time now, flying off to Bangkok in a couple of hours. =)

Kennyster @ 12:14 PM

Friday, July 21, 2006

Flagstaff, Arizona (29Jun - 2July)

The 3rd stop of our US trip was at Flagstaff, a tiny little old town that we felt was an ideal base to explore Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

It was a short 2 hours flight but it was sure scary as hell. It was probably a mistake to fly via American West Airlines (suggested slogan: We provide death-defying flights).

Just about everything about the plane (including the sole air stewardess) looked like they were from the Wright brothers era. And there were no drinks/snacks or inflight movies to help take your mind off the extremely terrible air turbulence that we experienced.

Throughout the flight, the tiny plane was dipping up and down, right and left and I was crinching in pain as Lin was digging her nails into my skin. The only good thing about the flight was that we saw the huge forest fires that had been raging in Arizona. I wanted to take a quick snap of it (for bragging rights, haha) but Lin was adamant that I kept my camera off as she staunchly believed that my switching on of the camera would result in the wings of the plane breaking off instantaneously and us plummeling to our ridiculous deaths in the burning forests.

(As usual, I looked glad to be alive)

Pulliam Airport (FLG) is damn cute.. haha.. its so small (about the size of 3 petrol kiosks.) & our plane was the only one around on the runway. For this leg of the trip, we stayed at Du Beau International Hostel, a really well-run independent hostel.

The next day, we went on the hostel-organized tour to the Grand Canyon, which was an unforgettable experience. Our guide made us close our eyes as he led us to a viewing point of the canyon and when he told us to open our eyes, the Grand Canyon stood before us. Stark, quiet, a maze of cathedrals and castles sculpted by mother nature.

It was so huge and amazing, positively overwhelming in its grandeur, truly one of great wonders of the world.

(Our guide giving us a geography lesson on the formation of the canyon)

Near the end of the day, it started to rain and we saw fan-freakin-tabulous rainclouds in the sky. It was so gorgeous and I was the last one back to the van as I simply refused to return as I was trying to savour everything. Damn nice!

***
But the most memorable part of the Grand Canyon trip was when Lin suffered from mild heat exhaustion. She couldn't see nor walk and I had to carry her back to the van. Come to think of it, it was pretty hilarious because I was weaving through the tourist crowds with her in my arms and the rest of the group was tagging along behind us. And as I was doing that, one of the German chaps said "That's a good man!" and I replied "I have no choice!"

Kennyster @ 7:54 AM

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A Summer to Remember

This has been the best 2 months of my life!

Blessed with wonderful roomates that I clicked so well with in UBC, blessed with wonderful weather in the States, & even when it drizzled, I saw gorgeous rainclouds in the Grand Canyon and rainbows on Waikiki beach.

And of course there's Lin. I think we complement each other really well. Being the chao accounting mugger that she is, she does the financing and budgeting of the trip, while I stay the hell out of her way. Of course, occasionally, I do try to make myself useful by washing her underwear & very smelly Hello Kitty socks.

Haha. But seriously, Lin has been a wonderful wonderful companion. Tolerant of my occasional grumpiness, she gives in alot to me and do the stuff that i like. (eg. Nudie show in Vegas. haha..) And she's surprisingly fit as well. Mostly game to go hiking with me at places such as Grand Canyon, climb up huge rocks to see the majestic waterfalls at Yosemite and to hike up a dormant volcano in Honolulu to get a stunning view of the Waikiki beaches.

For all of that, I do quite like you more. =)

***
Anyway, back to where I left off at Seattle. We flew in to Las Vegas where we stayed for 4D3N at the VERY NICE Luxor Hotel, which is the 3rd largest hotel in the world by the way.

Pretty obvious from the pictures, Luxor is an Egyptian-themed hotel with cleopatra's sphinxs, King Tut's tomb, and other Egytian drawings on the wall.

And that's the 30+ storey high pyramid. It has like the most unique elevator ever. It goes 45degrees upwards like the shape of the pyramid! And Lin fell back and hit the wall of the lift the first time we took it. hahahaha.

The most impressive part about the hotel is probably THE beam. It shoots way up high into sky (something like Batman's beam) and you can see it from anywhere in downtown Vegas.

And Luxor is just one of the less extravangant hotels on the strip. The skyline of Vegas is hypereality- a melange of the statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, MGM's lion statue, Eiffel Tower, Roman colloseum etc... Unlike most other places, the hotels ARE the attractions and they are just surreal.

We took the Gondola ride where the boatman will serenade his customers with italian love songs

The pussycat dolls-inspired topless show that we went to.

The view from the Eiffel Tower...

Even the shops are over-the-top hustle & flash...

Making a fortune out of the 5cent jackpot machine...

Only for Lin to lose it all..... haha

My absolute favorite was the Bellagio fountains. I think i dragged Lin to watch it at least 5 times during our stay here. It was so nice! Best free show on earth! My favorite song sequence was Bocelli's Time to Say Goodbye.

Especially poignant since it was our last night in Vegas and i was really overwhelmed by it, so immersed in it that i stood still with my mouth wide open...

Kennyster @ 5:49 AM