Post - USA

Hello all, I am still ALIVE. Just still recovering from the exhaustion from travelling so much. I think I have been through too many airport security checks till I have lost count. I have not suffered from jetlag at all. Just finding it hard to get out of bed every morning and I feel like I need a good massage. About time to use my birthday massage vouchers ! :)

I miss the USA quite a bit. But it's great to be back. Nothing beats home. Here's some highlights from the trip, pictures will follow soon once I have the time to resize them! :P

The journey there was a very long 23 hours. From Melb to KL, KL to Taipei, Taipei to LA. I SO HATE AEROPLANE FOOD! So disgusting and the smell makes me sick. And the worst thing is, they keep feeding you. I am amazed at how Eric, our other traveling partner managed to scoff down almost every meal. When I look at him, I feel slightly sick at how much he's enjoying the food. Thank God for Jolvin's parents. They picked us up at our stop over in KL and brought us back to his house to shower and freshen up and then eat.

At our stopover in Taipei, we had the most expensive beef noodles. It was good but imagine paying US$24 for beef noodles!! Ahhhh!!! We ate it twice but the second time 4 of us shared.

1) LA - It is supposedly the city of stars. Yup, indeed, we spotted two stars. Although Jolvin and Eric reckon they saw Mickey Rourke at Katsuya. I still disagree. He wasn't Mickey Rourke. He looked more like Santana!! Hahaha.

- Discovering ROSS - designer brand shopping while doing laundry with Jolvin. The Latino guy was smiling at us. Jolvin and I - the two jokers supposedly doing laundry and ended up with two large shopping bags when picking up our laundry.

- I enjoyed our day tour to Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Olvera Street (Mexican place).

- UNIVERSAL Studios is wayyyyyyyyyy better than Disney. :)Enough said!

- Dinner at Providence at the end of our trip. I spotted Hayden and Rachel. Wohooo! And the food was A M A Z I NG LY great! Best in LA.


2) SFO - Jolvin driving the Go Car around SFO city. Oh my! Imagine buses and trams behind us. They were nice enough not to honk us.

- The 'pearl' ring experience. Jolvin bought me a pearl ring. The process was soooo nice. I picked the shell containing the pearl and the girl brought us through this whole process of welcoming the pearl and yelling - ALOHA. I picked out a big white pearl signifying 'Innocence'. Chose the setting of the ring and the girl even gave me another chance to pick another pearl for free. This one is a little pinkish. Now I have a lose pearl.. :)

- I didn't get to ride along Golden Gate Bridge. I need to start learning how to ride a bike again. So scared coz' the last time dad taught me, I was like less than 10 years old!? :( Meh!

- Dinner at Ozumo, SFO Up class Japanese restaurant. The food was superb!! Sushi was done so well and differently.

3)LAS VEGAS - The state of TACKI-NESS. Jolvin laughs when I say that. Honestly, I do wonder why people get married here. It's so... TACKY. Maybe it's because I am not a fan of blondes, all things cowboys and country!

- The highlight - CIRQUE!!! Beatles LOVE and Le REVERE was SUPERB!!! You have to watch CIRQUE in Vegas. The bestest ever. You will never want to watch it anywhere else.

- Shopping at the outlet. It is a 1 hour bus ride but well worth it. I bought the most Coach items there. :) Wouldn't say how much but a fair bit.

4)NEW YORK - Oh New York, my favourite city. It is still my favourite. Despite the rudeness of the retail staff. Only nice people there is the high class restaurant staffs (that's because they are paid to be nice)and BONNIE AND ROB!!! :)

- BOULEY. OH MY GOODNESS. The best ever FRENCH DINING. Thank you JON and LI! Your recommendation has made it to the list of travel highlights. I wanted to leave this out because I wanted to keep this a secret. But I'm just too kind. If you ever visit NY, you have to try lunch at BOULEY. $55 for 6 course meal and they even gave us a huge lemon tea cake when we left. Remember to make your booking though. Wouldn't want to miss out on it.

- Rowing in the lake at Central Park. Jolvin rowing most of the time. It was such a beautiful weather. I love Central Park. One of the best place in this comospolitan condensed city!

- Visting the 9/11 Memorial where the twin towers used to be situated. They are now replaced by man-made waterfalls. Extremely surreal but sad at the same time. There was a guy who was showing us imagines of how the place will look when all the other office buildings are built around it. He told us a story of a tree. The tree is called a survivor tree. Years before the 9/11 attack, there was a similar terrorist attack and the tree was there. When 9/11 happened, the tree survived so they brought it to a park to nurture it to heath. Then a lightening strucked and it affected the tree but it still survived. So they brought it back to the 9/11 grounds and it represents the fighting spirit of the American people. Amazing huh?! And it was sooo sad when we visited the Tribute Museum. Seeing imagines, pictures and items of people who didn't survived, missing posters from friends and families. I just felt like crying.. And to see the airline tickets of the passengers of the flights..- United, American Airlines.... it could well happen to anyone. Life is so fragile!

- PINK BERRY!! Best ever yogurt ice cream. Favourite flavour pomegranate and original swirl with lotsa of mochi and berries! So yummmmmmmmmmm!

- Dissappointment was Jean Georges, Le Bernadin (top 10 world restaurants) and Corton. Sad but true. We paid so much and expected so much more but my mum's way of cooking fish is way better than Le Bernadin. EEeeeks. At least we can say, been there done that.

And we went back to LA and completed our travel journey there. Guess what?! I think I can survive wandering alone in the US. Well I did it in SFO and LA. A bit creepy in LA coz' Hollywood Boulevard is so shady and dodgy but overall I felt pretty safe. Although I had a terrible encounter at the toilets in NY subway. A guy budged in while I was in the toilet and I told him off. He threatened to knock the door down and I quickly walked out and Jolvin was standing there. Huge sigh of relief!

Shopping was crazy as ever! Cheap cheap cheap! Next travel stop, Europe perhaps? :)Wait till Jolvin and I have saved enough... :)