Travelogue : Trip to US-Korea 2006 (part 2)

I basked in californian sunshine for a few days and got a few shades darker ;) Okay... it may be autumn there but I figured if it can be known as THE sunshine state, it wouldn't be lacking in rays (not even during autumn!--- hhhmmmm... and I don't even like basking in sunshine that much :p) Just so you know, it's not really very cold there... even though it's Autumn; it's only around 24 degrees Celsius - give or take a little. It's only cold at night...

And since I was in California, this is a must! :)

Sleeping Beauty's Castle - Disneyland, Anaheim

Disneyland - Anaheim

I'm went to the Happiest Place on Earth, otherwise known as Disneyland ;) And I went to the one in Anaheim, to be precise.

Since there isn't much I can describe with words, I'll let the photos do all the talking.

Some photos I took in Disneyland:

my photo of Sleeping Beauty's Castle
(I waited for eons to take this photo cos there were just too many people around!)

"It's A Small World"

Look who I met there *grin*

okayokay.. the photo is so dark, you probably can't see anything. It was the closest thing to Johnny Depp that I could get so I had to settle for that.

lookie who else I 'met' there...

Fantasyland - me trying to pry the sword out from the stone ;D

King Arthur's Carousel
(and for those of you kaypo ppl out there, YES, I went on the carousel.. and my parents and aunt decided to humour me and join me there :p)

The Princess Fantasy Faire
*dreamy look* where Disney's favourite Princess stories come to life...

This is the Mad-Hatter's Tea Party :D
That's me and my dad in the green cup!
Clearly my mom and my aunt weren't the least interested in joining us because they said that they didn't want to feel dizzy. Thank goodness my dad was sporting enough :) He was going on and on about not spinning the cup too much and when we started spinning, he complained that I lacked 'oomph'. cis....

And this is TOONTOWN!!!
Everything here is so classic-Disney

Everything's so cute here :D

This is Goofy's House

I invaded Minnie Mouse's House

3 happy people in front of Chip & Dale's Treehouse

okayokay... they were very tired too, but happy nonetheless. I figured none of them were as happy as me, and the trip to Disneyland is actually kinda boring for them (especially my aunt who's been here more than 3 times! *envious envious*) But I know that they went ahead and spent the time and money because I wanted to go really badly. We spent the ENTIRE day there and it was US$69.90 per person... So, I was really thankful!~ *grin*

(I STILL AM THANKFUL! :P)

Disneyland's all geared up for Halloween

I was just wondering how the Thanksgiving and Christmas decoration will look like in Disneyland. Too bad I missed it :(

Isn't this the cutest thing that you have ever seen????? I bought this pooh pin when I was there and I liked it so much that I wore it on my jacket EVERY SINGLE DAY. Then went shopping on Sunday and the pin fell off! *scream* I couldn't find it anywhere and now my heart is broken... *sniff sniff*sob sob*

After spending almost the entire day in Disneyland, we walked over to Downtown Disney, which was only around 5 minutes away...

Here are some photos taken in Downtown Disney:

DOWNTOWN DISNEY

in all its glory

World of Disney

(so you can imagine that I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven... then the price tags jolted me back to reality. And whaddya know... REALITY SUCKS)

Sleeping Beauty's castle in a bubble...

Dad befriended the Sleeping Legoman in front of Legoland

Mom sitting on the "L" in California dressed up in Halloween colors!

I've barely been back here for a month and I'm dying to go back there!! I wonder how long I'd have to save before I can afford another trip like that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll strike the lottery or something...

Well, there is one thing, I might add. The place was insanely packed!!! *eyes bulge* We had to queue for almost 30mins for each ride, so I didn't manage to get on a lot of rides. We didn't even manage to walk the entire Disneyland *cry* We only managed to go to around 3 quarters of the Disneyland Themepark and Downtown Disney, and we didn't even get inside The California Adventure Themepark!

I loved the place so much that I am DEFINITELY going back there :D and I've decided that Chin Aun will have the honour of taking me there in the near future :D :D

He just doesn't know it yet :p

Travelogue : Trip to US-Korea 2006 (part 1)

I've been back from Seoul since 8th of November and before that, I was in California from the 23rd of October until the 1st of November. The reason why I've been blessed with this all-expense paid trip is because my cousin is getting married (and also of course because my mom and my aunt are practising benelovence *grin*). She's been residing in the States since around 10 years back and she's marrying this Korean guy that she met there. So it's US then Korea... hehehehe... I've been wanting to post all these up but I've either been busy or lazy (okay... more of lazy and less of busy...) hehehe...

So basically, before the trip, there was nothing much for me to do except plan what to take there and shop around for wheelies. Finally settled on a black Crocodile Wheelie with a carry-bag and borrowed a big luggage bag from Chin Aun's mom. Also, I had to go apply for my Visa which took me a couple of hours. The interview process was pretty simple and the interviewer made it easy by being so nice :D and I got 10 years! hahaha... (I was just reading this and I realized that if I got sentenced 10 years for doing something else there wouldn't be a 'hahaha')

Aside from that, there was nothing else for me to do except to wait for my aunt to email me the flight details. My parents left for the States a week earlier than I did *envious* and they got to rendezvous in Virginia too (where my aunt - dad's sisters - are staying. Please note I said "sisters" cos there are two of them there! There's another one in Sacramento but my parents didn't manage to go)

So since there's gonna be quite a bit of photos, I'll be dividing it into a few parts. Let's start with the photos that I took before I went there and those that I took on the way there :p hehehe...

Checking my travel documents:

My airticket and my insurance
(Not posting photos of my Passport and Visa)

I took Korean Air with my aunt and my flight was at 11pm on Sunday (22nd October). Chin Aun fetched us there and hung out with us until 9-something... It was really sad that he wasn't able to make it :( I figured it'd be much more fun if he was there with me...

Photos at the Penang International Airport:

and you can see, there are no photos of my luggage because when I was packing, it was already late (last minute packing) and I was NOT in the mood for any photo taking...

I did my homework before I went of course :)

The Sunshine State!!

This is actually a book that my Aunt Monica (my aunt's friend) lent me. She went to the States with us, but she wasn't going to go to Korea cos it would be too cold for her. I actually went to Kinokuniya to get a book on California and Korea but ended up buying something else...

On the Plane

So we boarded the plane and got ready for a 7-hour flight to Incheon. We transitted at Incheon and had to wait for 4 hours (madness!) before boarding another plane to go to Narita Airport, Japan. From Japan, we had to wait for an hour before boarding the next flight - 15 hours! - to LA.

Penang --> Incheon

I had this for breakfast on the plane... at 5am!!!

I also had loads of this on the plane ;D

Sunrise on the Incheon horizon from the plane

I arrived in Incheon at around 7am... and was stuck there for 4 hours!!! *scream* I was bored, sleepy, tired and everything else. I did nothing but sit there, stoned, in the transit area. Oh, I also visited the washroom numerous times... say twice every hour(?) - I drank a LOT of water ok!!!

I tried my phone but there was no signal... and I tried the pay phone but it was all in Korean! So I didn't manage to call Chin Aun.

Incheon --> Narita, Japan

So anyways, I boarded the plane again, this time to Japan (it took barely an hour...)...

A photo of a plane from the window of anothe plane ( I was bored ok!!!)

My lunch... (and might I add, I didn't like it *bleargh* except maybe for the jelly..) Btw, I added the nuts there myself to make the meal more appealing :p

Touched down at Narita at around 1pm and hung around for a little bit. Looked around the duty-free shops there and browsed for Mochi's to buy. Found none that looked remotely delicious.. Walked around some more and bought a pair of Japanese Slippers for 1690yen and a Hello Kitty pocket watch for 1980yen. It's RM3.80 --> US$1 --> 115yen... After that I realized that I blindly paid almost RM60 for the slippers and RM66 for the pocket watch! *faint* But since I'm on holiday, I can buy stuff with atrocious price tags without feeling guilty until I touch-down in Malaysia again (And now that I am here, the bloody guilt is so strong...)
---> just a note, my dear old dad lost my pocket watch when we went to Korea, so that's RM66 down the drain *cry*

McDonalds at Narita Airport :) So pretty right???

Narita --> LA

So, here I go, up on the plane again.. with sore feet (from all the walking around in the airport) and a sore bum (from all the sitting on the plane)...
At this point, I was so tired that I barely had the strength to lift my camera for pictures...

I felt that I had to ingest something for strength... So I beckoned to the Stewardess and told her to get me this:

Vodka and Tonic!!!

Not long after that, we were served dinner...

This is my favourite meal on the plane (look at the yummy beef bits!)

and whaddaya know... after some snoozing and watching "Click" (in-flight entertainment!) we were served breakfast!~

Nothing special here.. Green Tea porridge...

And finally... LA was less than 2 hours away! I sat up and peered through the tiny window...

Nothing but clouds!
Sunrise :)

We arrived at LAX at around 11am (LA time). It was 11am on the 23rd. Since LA is 16 hours behind, it was 3am in Penang on the 24th.

My cousin and my dad were there waiting for us... We actually bought a bottle of Vodka and another bottle of Johnnie Walker from the Penang Duty Free Shop and had them sent to LA. Apparently, the bottles were badly manhandled and my Vodka bottle broke *CRY*

I cheered up after my aunt said she'd get me another bottle one the way back (which, by the way, I forgot to bring back to KL *damnit*). But I knew that I was actually cheered up because I was in LA!!!

*note: no more photos after we arrived in LA cos I was too stoned to do anything*

Ipod Replacement?

*gasp*
Can it be?!?!?!

My dad just informed me of this on the Internet:


http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116302848393917854-PAAeqqkO1hjNctQc__I8otHEuJc_20061208.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top


*laughs*
My humble opinion?

Microsoft doesn't stand a chance!

there can NEVER be a replacement for something as magnificent as this:



(but then of course, I may be biased. So this is just MY humble and unaffected opinion, so people who cannot take it should just sod off~)