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*