Holiday Part III - San Francisco!

Reached beautiful San Francisco, beautiful weather, beautiful sky, beautiful landscape, beautiful people. It's the city with the highest proportion of Asians... a whooping 30%!!


San Francisco looks like a very dreamy fairy-tale place. Its streets are very neat and all roads are up and downhill... also its buildings are very colourful and makes the whole place look different from any other part of USA. In addition, the city is very slow-paced and everything seems so relaxed.




On our 2nd day, we took a cable car! It's USD5 per one way ticket, and it was worth the money. The cable car negotiates steep slopes with little difficulty and along the way we could see the beautiful buildings and landscape of San Francisco. We were one of those who held on to the sides of the car... and the oncoming cable cars actually whizz past by less than a metre away!



























Us, having very enjoyed the ride. Reached Fisherman's Wharf (in the midground) In the background is where we're headed to, Alcatraz Island! Fisherman's Wharf was a very touristy place, with lots of souvenir shops, bicycle rentals, cafeterias. We had our lunch of fish and chips and clam chowder while the sea breeze blew and seagulls picked up food from the roads.. We then hurried off to Pier 33 where we would be taking the ferry to the island!


Remember Pirates of the Carribean where Johnny Depp and 2 other guys sword fight on a gigantic wheel? We were on it! LOL!

That's Alcatraz as the ferry bobbled towards the mysterious island... lots of seagulls were loitering around the coast...

Alcatraz was one of the world's most secure prisons, and the most dangerous criminals were sent there because it was believed that nobody in history has ever escaped from there alive. It has been closed for many years now, and is now a top tourists' attraction... tickets are sold out as fast as 2 weeks earlier!



And here's a look at the inside... everyone was guided along by an audio tour... simply to say, we all listened to our personal tape players and a narrator would lead us into the history of the mysterious historic stories... what you see here are 3 stories of cells. The area was quite silent but one could almost imagine the cells occupied with prisoners... So mysterious the place felt...






This is how the inside of a cell looks like... See the hole at the bottom of the wall? Alcatraz's most famous story was when 3 people dug a tunnel into the wall using only spoons and made mannequins of themselves lying on their bed to distract the guards... in the end they were washed away by the strong sea currents and never seen again.



Spooky...I kept picturing lines of prisoners dragging their feet past the walkway...

After a few hours at Alcatraz, we then took the ferry back inland... it was certainly an experience!!!













How could we even miss Chinatown? Haha. We had several of our meals there... Majority of the restaurants are HongKong based and the prices were super cheap! And we tasted the best Boba milk tea from one of the shops too.

** On the second night, we asked around and found out that there were nude shows around at cheap prices! We ventured into one of the shops... there were many small cubicles. If you went in and put in a dollar, the curtain will raise .. and you'll get to see nude girls dancing for a minute. HAHA! It was so funny! I don't know why it's funny, probably because the girls were smiling and dancing like nobody's business. (I LOL-ed and nearly vomitted when one of them danced danced, then raised up her arms... and dangs, she didn't shave her armpit hair... One big bush of it.)



On our 3rd and last day at San Francisco, we headed for Lombard Street, also known as the world's crookiest street. The place was crowded with tourists and picture-takers. People even drive down and take pictures and videos from inside their car!



Here's a picture of the beautiful land of San Francisco, from the top of Lombard Street.


In the afternoon we headed for the Golden Gate bridge... on foot! But alas, our plans were foiled because we didn't realise it was too far away to reach.. Along the way we played soccer with 2 kids! Playing on a vast green field with the sea breeze on a relaxing afternoon, was simply wholesome fun... The parents even gave us drinks after that.





San Francisco would be one of the most beautiful places in USA I believe... although we only spent 3 days there, it was totally quality time. I told my parents to visit this place. =)

Enjoy the rest of the pics. =)

I am the President!

Ahem.

Allow me to break a good piece of great news to all of you.

I have just been made President of the largest nation in the world!

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Procrastination.

I Love... SF?

Two days ago I wore to school one of my proud purchases in USA ...



It attracted some weird stares and question mark looks. HAHA. I was asked, "What does SF mean?"

I told them it means San Francisco.

Some of the abbreviations they guessed were "Street Fighter", "Safety Factor", "Special Forces" and "SEXY FEMALE".

Holiday Part II - Niagara Falls!

Greyhound bus was very punctual - we arrived on time at Buffalo City in the morning safe and sound and feeling fresh because we slept on the bus.

At the Buffalo Airport, Roy and Jx went in search of car rental while the rest of us washed up and changed into fresh clothes.

Behold what vehicle they came up with!! We had 8 passengers + LOADS of luggage, so they had to rent a what we all call the "Tua Leng Gong" aka 12 seater van!!!! BY RIGHT, we were not allowed to drive it because this TRUCK is way above the weight limit which our drivers' license permits us to, but that's by right. We're all glad we had the vehicle, because everyone had alot of leg room and personal seating space for the ride to Niagara falls, which is located about 45 mins from the airport.



















Above is us moving our luggage into the van and getting ready to move off! =)

First stop is lunch! What food comes into your mind when you see 'Buffalo'? Ermmmm... okay, you may have thought of the animal buffalo, but NO! We had Chicken!!! WAHAHA!




















These are called Buffalo Wings! Spicy and tangy sour, these wings come in 3 different flavours - mild, medium and spicy. We ordered 12 medium and 12 spicy. They were delicious!!! It goes best with celery and ranch dressing. Btw, ranch is a local dressing which can be found almost everywhere. It's kinda white colour and tastes very unique... donoe how to describe the taste to you haha.

After a full lunch, off we head for the wonderful falls!



















The Niagara Falls. It actually is located on the border of USA and Canada, what you see in on the right of the photo above is actually Canada!! Niagara Falls consists of a few falls, the famous ones being Bridal Veil falls, American Falls and the most majestic Horseshoe falls in the background! As its name suggests, it's a U-shaped waterfall. If you can click on the photo, you can make out the shape of a ferry in the top 1/4-centre of the pic. The ferry brings you upclose with the horseshoe falls, and that's where we're going next!



















It's going to be very wet with all the water splashing about, so they gave us free raincoats haha. It's USD20 (I think, or less than that) for the once in a lifetime ferry ride. The bridge above us is the connection between USA and Canada.




















As the ferry left, we were awed by the sight and sounds of the American Falls... we could actually feel the water droplets on our face.




















The pic above shows us at the place where the ferry was on the prev-prev-previous pic. As the ferry moved towards horseshoes falls, you can see the American Falls in the background, and can you see the rainbow!!! PRETTY PRETTY!!! You could actually see the rainbow there with your naked eye! Absolutely beautiful... on the right is the Canada coast (pic below).



















The best was saved for the last, right into the middle of the U-shaped Horseshoe Falls. No photos for that scene, because 1) it was too wet to take out our cameras! 2) what you'll see is only mist and water droplets haha. But it was an awesome place to be... the roars of the water falls, the unbelievable majesticity of the natural wonder...



















After the unregrettable ferry ride, we slowly explored the place. After passing a bridge, we came to this point where we could see the American Falls from another angle. It's almost sunset now, check out the sunrays on the waterfalls! Beautiful.

A few of us rested our legs while 4 of them went for USD15 'Cave of the Winds',which allows you to walk beneath the Bridal Veil Falls... I didn't go for it, but what I heard from them is that it's a MUST-GO! The scene was very pretty and the experience unbelievable, you could actually stand beneath the fall and enjoy the rushing water pouring on your head.

Below are photos from the cave of the winds.





















Very soon, it was already near 7. We walked towards the Horseshoe falls, check out the skyline from the pic below... awesome... This is the nearest place nearest to Canada.



















We heard the night scenes were pretty, but we were all very hungry so we decided to leave the beautiful place... but I 'kop-ed' a pic from Jitttttttery Jiexin's blog of the night scene of the Horseshoe falls... DAMN IT'S PRETTY!!!!



















HAHAHHA. =) Niagara Falls is about 7 hours drive from NYC, do go there and spend half a day if you ever go there! You won't believe how beautiful and wonderful it is. Anyways, we left the place and back to Buffalo City in search of dinner. The city is quite a laid-back one, so by the time we got there (about 10plus) most of the shops and eateries were closed! I accidentally drove the wrong way into a one-way lane (not my fault since they never even warn beforehand!) and I got stopped by a police car who sirened its lights and shone its flash light at us! HAHA!

Fortunately the policeman was a very friendly one. We told him bout our problem and guess what - driving behind his police car, he escorted us to our dinner place! LOL!!!! What an experience! We thanked him much. =)

After dinner, we were ALL very tired and sleepy + the streets were dark and empty = all of us slept! except for the very alert Jx, who we really had to thank because he was the only one awake, he topped up the gas, ensured all our safety while we zzz-ed in the back of the van and brought us back to Buffalo airport, where we would be catching a flight to our next destination, San Francisco....

3 week holiday part I

After the 2 months of fun work, we had to say goodbye to our employer - Kings Dominion, and off we set off for our 3 week adventure...

1st up! New York City!

We woke up early and went to rent a 8 seater, so we could drive up towards NYC. It was like a 6 hour drive, so we took turns to drive... HAHA. At New Jersey, we finally could eat our most wanted White Castle burger! Remember "Harold and Kumar - Search for White Castle" the movie? YES! WHITE CASTLE!!



















The burgers are quite small, almost the size of ur palm only. You could devour the whole thing in 3 mouthfuls... they are very very very nice! Each burger is like USD1.20 I think. Very nice burgers!

I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many photos, so I can only share some with you guys, unless 1)you all come up to my house or 2)my desktop is portable, then only I got time to show you all. HAHA.

So here's a couple of pics taken in NYC. We bought a 3 day pass for USD96 which entitled us to many free visitings!

First of all, the view from top of the Empire State building. For those who don't know what that is, it's the building which King Kong climbed and fell down from.



















Next up, we also went for a tour at NBC, the broadcasting station!

























You cannot don't go watch Broadway theatre shows since you're already at that place!!! The Mariott Hotel sells tickets at discounted prices, there are alot of shows! For example, Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray, Lion King, Mamma Mia etc etc etc! There are also matinees, and long queues. You have to be there early to get better seats.

We watched Chicago! USD60.

























Both Roy and Bee said they were very impressed with the music, dances and cheorographing... but I was quite disappointed! didn't quite enjoy it probably because we had a top + angled view which wasn't very good, but the main reason is that the casts didn't change their costumes AT ALL!!!! Should have watched Phantom of the Opera. GRRRR.

We also went to Central Park Zoo, where the movie "Madagascar" was based upon. Although it wasn't very big, it was a very fun place to be. Serious! It doesn't feel like a zoo at all, the animals like polar bear and penguins were especially cute! Most impressive was the open space tropical rainforest, where snakes can twine round your legs, birds can just fly past your head, water can drip on you (joking about the snakes).

Here's the seal feeding session. They are very acrobatic and cute!



















Here's a shot of New York Times Square, the most happening place to be. It never sleeps! The street lights and signboards and buildings are all brightly and attractively-lit, even the Macdonalds has neon lighting ahaha! What you can see below is the Madame Tussad's Wax Museum...
























(you can see the Mac in the background, and the famous NYC yellow cabs!)
























We met Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!!



















And I had to save everyone from the Hulk, who was enraged by all the camera flashes at his half naked body.





















I told Mr Einstein I'm pursueing a mechanical engineering degree, he replied alot of crap which didn't make sense to me. And I gave him the namecard of a hairdresser in Tampines.

We had a total of 4 days in NYC, on one of the afternoons we went to catch a baseball match between the New York Yankees and Tampabay. How can you not watch the world champions play? Don't worry if you don't know baseball rules, you'll soon learn it after watching it! The stadium was huge and the atmosphere was not bad too. When the home team had a homerun, all the crowd will cheer, it's a MUST thing to do at NYC!



















When it was break time, theyd play the song "YMCA" and the people with brooms will come out to smoothen the sand. They dance along to the song! So entertaining!

The 3 day pass also entitled us to take the Circle Line Cruise, which we board a ferry and take a 2 hour tour of NYC. We saw the Empire State building, 3 very magnificent bridges Manhatten, Brooklyn and W-something (forgot the name, argh!)






































Still on the ferry, another thing to see when you're at NYC - the statue of liberty, of course.
































It was an awesome sight. Ms Liberty stood there holding the torch, grand and majestic. You could actually also take another Circle Line Cruise and go up Ellis Island, and take photos up close with her.

Another afternoon, we had a tour of Madison Square, home to the New York Knicks (basketball) and New York Rangers (ice-hockey). We were fortunate there was a WNBA match playing later that evening, so we bought USD10 tickets to watch it!

























The New York Liberty was unluckily to lose that game by 2 points, but the whole game was very entertaining, and the atmosphere was awesome too. Whenever the visitors are attacking, there'd actually be what you always see on TV - crowd chanting "Defence! Defence!". And not forgetting the half time interval where cheerleaders will entertain the crowd! In fact, I like watching the bball match better than the Yankees.

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NYC is the place to visit if you ever go to USA. It's just so happening, so many things to do over there. There is also the Ripley's Believe it or not museum, Rockafeller Centre, lots of shopping at Times Square, Chrysler Building, Ground zero, etc etc, and the best thing about NYC is that every place is very accessible by the subway train, and it runs 24 hours! We were all quite sad to leave the beautiful place NYC after 4 days.

Off to our next destination.... by Greyhound bus. To Buffalo City! Still located in New York state, it's where one of the world's 7 wonders are located....

Behold NIAGARA FALLS... next entry! =)

LAzy!!!!

Lazy pig is resting and still adjusting back to reality.

Updates are promised, in a short while. =)

Adios...

Be back very soon....