Cheng's Wall of Thought: November 2008

Day 1. I’m finally out from the planes! Time has passed so slowly in the plane and the worst thing is I can’t really sleep well in the plane. My eyes are so dry and red after the 2nd flight. I don’t know what happen to my luggage at the US custom. The inside of my luggage was wet when I opened it up in my hotel room. My new luggage belt looks so dirty and I think that they’ve opened up my luggage to check my toiletries, powder, aloe vera cream etc. I think they either did it in the rain or they spill some other people’s water on my bag. I’ve to hang all my things to dry them! I hope they don’t do it again, as it’s quite troublesome to clear up the mess that they have created. I met a nice lady on the 3rd plane, who’s from Michigan. She has brought along her whole family, including a blond angelic looking toddler who can scream really sharply. Haa, kids are like that when they threw tantrum. I could see that she tried her best to calm down her daughter. At least she’s not kicking, just throwing things onto the floor. The sun sets earlier in US during the winter season. It is so dark that when my plane reached Orlando, I felt like it’s already near midnight even though it was just evening.

Day 2. While waiting for Lan to join me in the hotel, I decided to make breakfast for myself. After tearing the lid from my cup noodles, I realized that I’ve forgot to bring along a pair of chopsticks or a fork! I searched the room and found 2 hard straws (which they use to stir hot drinks) that could be makeshift chopsticks. While filing up my bottle from the water cooler at the ground level, a sign caught my eyes – ice cream! I bought a cup of Hershey’s chocolate sundae and it tasted great. Lan and I went to the Prime Outlet to shop. I tried to limit my purchase due to the 20kg check-in luggage limit (my luggage weighs 14kg before arriving in US. I guess I’ve packed in too much clothing). In Singapore, the GST is usually included in the price tags, but in US the tax is calculated separately. I learnt that it is a common practice here to clear the table after each meal at non-restaurants.

Day 3. I think I’m getting sore throat. We missed our 8.50am free shuttle to Universal Studio and had to wait for the next at 10am. While waiting, Lan and I walked around the area and I bought my lozenge from a 24hrs mart. The Universal Studio was fun! The rides or shows are really interesting. The queue gets longer in the afternoon, but it clears quite fast due to the big capacity of the halls or ample number of vehicles. There are usually pre-show acts before the actual show. The Universal Studio hosting staffs are really dramatic and funny. There was one where they show the twister effect on the movie set after we move through the twister movie’s props gallery. I could feel the heat of the fire even though I’m standing at the last row! The roof starts to leak and we got really wet. It felt so real. The Mummy’s indoor roller coaster was nice and short (I don’t like an exciting ride to be too long). At the Fear Factor live show, there are some theme park visitors who enrolled as participants of the show. They did stunts like swaying on ropes to catch things, crawling on cars in the air, allow creepy crawlies to crawl on their head and ate disgusting stuffs. The winning pair of father and son who ate a mixture of crushed worms and internal organs with sour milk only received a pair of Fear Factor mugs as prize. I think it is not worth it to risk one’s health for that miserable gift, but I do admire their courage to participate. Lan told me that in US, we have to give tips that amount to a minimum 15% of the total bill at restaurants or to hotel service providers. Everything is so expensive here. We had our dinner at a restaurant on Citywalk before catching the shuttle back to Clarion Hotel. Citywalk looks like a more colorful version of our Clarke Quay.

Day 4. We checked out of Clarion Hotel and took a cab to Disney Pop Century resort. Our room was great, everything smells nice and clean, and most importantly it felt so cozy! I love the Disney 50’s Pop style. We visited Disney Animal Kingdom after we put our stuffs in the room. Everything went fine until it starts to rain in the afternoon. Many visitors were wet and it really spoilt our mood. However, there were many things to see or ride at the park. The Mt Everest ride was quite exciting, with the ride suddenly changing direction at the sight of the broken bridge. I really like Disney’s Fast Pass system; it really helps to shorten the waiting time for popular rides. It was a tiring day. I was down with flu and have to buy the flu medicine at the resort. The rain didn’t stop until it was late at night. I bought my plastic Disney cup to enjoy the free flow of drinks at the resort’s food court after doing a calculation on whether it is worth the money (The cup costs US$12 plus).

Day 5. We went to the Disney Magical Kingdom. It has plenty of nice scenery for photo taking and is the biggest park among the Disney theme parks. However, many of the rides are rather childish and more suitable for kids or families. We requested for the Disney photographers to help us take pictures using both my camera and their camera. The Disney castle looked really nice and one day, I hope I would get to visit a real castle. It was another tiring day, as we waited for the evening parade and fireworks. It was really crowded, and we were lucky that there was no rain despite the weather forecast saying that it may rain. I think my flu worsen despite having taken my medicine.

Day 6. We visited Disney Epcot, which reminds me of our Singapore Science Centre. We redeemed our free photograph that came with our package. My flu still hasn’t gotten better and I still had teary eyes. The attractions are fun with the usual 3D shows with sudden falls of water drops and wind, and roller coaster rides. I think I’ve taken so many rides that I have mixed up which parks have which rides or shows. They all started to look similar, haa. It was really a tiring task to visit so many theme parks in a row. I was glad that the crowd at Epcot was lesser than the Magical Kingdom’s and that the weather was fine.

Day 7. Disney Hollywood Studio was the last Disney park we had on our plan. I really like its new Toy Story 3D ride! It was so fun that we queued twice for it! The 2nd queue took us 40mins, as the fast pass system has closed for the day, but it was definitely worth it. One gets to shoot at 3D targets (while sitting in a moving and rotating vehicle) that fly or burst towards the person who shot at them. Each target has different points on it and there are various stages (very colorful cartoon images with different theme at each stage), which the vehicle quickly brought us through. The Tower of Terror was also really interesting, with a haunted hotel as the background story. A bunch of us sat in a lift on chairs with straps across our lap. Then the lift went up to a floor and spirits are seen when the door opened. When they disappear, the door slammed closed and the lift shot up at high speed to 13th floor. As the door opened to reveal the clear sky outside, the lift dropped at high speed immediately after the door is closed. Then, it repeated again. We could feel ourselves fling up during several drops and the drops were so fast that there was no time to recover before each fall. Lan said she felt her sling bag flying, haa. There were many people at the park, as it’s a Saturday, but many of the people didn’t go for the rides. It seems that there were soap opera live recordings at the park on weekends and many of these people were in the queue either for the show or for autograph sessions. I do not recognize any of the stars, but I was happy to get a Colgate goodie bag, who was the main sponsor for the soap opera event. There were two short musicals at the park; one on the Mermaid and the other on Beauty and the Beast. I really like those familiar songs; they sound better in those live musicals. The evening show features Mickey trying to fight against the evil and of course, he won. The firework and the other effects such as the musical fountain and the fire really make the show an enjoyable one.

Day 8. We went to Disney Downtown to redeem our Planet Hollywood $15 voucher. The restaurant has a nice environment, but the food is really expensive. Again, we left a 15% tips for the staff. I think US service staffs really earn a lot here, with so much tips and higher basic salary than ours. My luggage is 18kg now and I haven’t fly to Boston yet! Oh no, I’ve to watch the weight of what I would be buying. I really regret bringing so much clothes. My flu is better now after switched to another type of flu medicine (Vicks brand), but I felt really sleepy. It was really cold in Orlando today, and I heard it was even colder in Boston. Lan was really sweet, she bought me a pair of woolen socks to prepare me for the coldness and bought me pastries for my breakfast tomorrow. My connecting flight was delayed for 30mins due to the bad weather at Detroit. I was so tired that I managed to doze off on both flights. It was a long drive from Boston’s airport to New Hampshire’s Portsmouth. I would like to thank Lan’s boyfriend, Baonan, for fetching us at the airport and waiting for my flight to land. Lan has reached the airport much earlier as Jet Blue has offered her an earlier flight. If only my Northwest flight could also do the same. (Instead, they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats for a night stay at the Hyatt and $400 travel vouchers.) The US airport security check was really tight for foreigners; I was searched, both body and bags. I checked into the Motel 6 and started to upload my photographs from my camera to my thumb drive.

Day 9. I explored the area on my own and I felt frozen despite the gears I have worn. It was so cold! I felt my throat starting to pain again. Lan met up with me for dinner and Baonan drove me to the Wal Mart for some shopping. The Macdonald here has really tasty nuggets, which are crispier and juicier than Singapore’s.

Day 10. It was such a cold day today. I wanted to take some pictures, but my hands were trembling and it was too cold to take out my camera. I looked around and found that I was the only one who was wearing gloves…I explored the Fox Run Mall and spend most of my remaining money on clothing. There are so many jeans here and the Levis and Lee brands were cheaper than Singapore’s. There was Christmas sales going on at Sears and JC Penney and some tops are as cheap as US$3! I hope I would have enough money for the next two days…Anyway, my bags are full and I don’t think I’ll buy any more things.

Day 11. I visited Lan’s home in Portsmouth and she fried some crispy nuggets for my cup noodles. I played wii for the first time and it is a bit hard to control…It is a cold day again and I heard that it will only snow after I return to Singapore. *Sigh* Tomorrow I will visit Boston and prepare for home sweet home. I heard it’s going to be colder in Boston…Hope my skin don’t crack.

Day 12. We visited Boston and it was another cold day. I got a bit of motion sickness after the long bus ride. We took the subway to the Aquarium, as Lan got free tickets to it. The subway has a flat rate of $2 with the charlie card (it's like our ezilink), regardless of the destination. The aquarium was small, but all the bigger sea creatures are very well fed; they all look bigger than the normal size. I tried the New England Clam Chowder at the Quincy Market and it was tasty, too bad the staff was so unfriendly. He seems to treat the non-chinese customers better. The shops at Boston seems to be more high-end than Portsmouth and they seem to be less service-oriented too. We went to Boston's Chinatown and there were many chinese there who conversed in cantonese. We had wanted to visit MIT and Harvard University, but it was so cold that I dropped the idea of going there. Even though it wasn't snowing yet, I saw that some floor had ice on it. You could imagine how cold it was.

Day 13. Today is the day I'm returning to Singapore! I really need a good rest before starting work on Monday. I was so glad that my luggage didn't exceed 50 pound! My wallet only has US 41 cents in it now, haa. I had really spend a lot and Lan had also spend a lot on me. Today was quite an unlucky day. The air stewardess wasn't very friendly; she insisted that my fat backpack could fit under the seat when I already have it stored in the storage bin above (I have told her that it couldn't fit, as I was sitting near the aisle and I have already placed my sling bag there). A laptop drops when I open the cabin storage bin. Luckily, it fell into the lap of the owner, but his friends seem to blame me for the fall. I vomited during the 13hrs flight as it was a bumpy ride and the food was too oily for me to digest. The worst thing was that the lady beside me kept pushing her head towards me when she sleeps and I was hit by her pillow. Her hair was so near my shoulder that I could smell them if I don't turn the opposite direction. I don't understand why she couldn't sleep within her own seat as she was a small size asian. I lost my mp3 player's battery cover while changing its battery. I searched high and low for it, but it seems to disappear into thin air. The skin of my hands was so dry that it was painful and itchy, no matter how many times I had reapplied the lotion. I realized that my beautiful Disney luggage tag was missing after collecting my checked in luggage from the belt. What a bad day.

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Photos of my US Trip

My US holiday diary….

Saturday, 8 November 2008

Catching my flights to US soon...