america america so this is u

back from Millbrae! Need to focus and work hard now! Had lots of fun in US!

Chiyoyo's house is pretty awesome. Clean and safe neighbourhood predominantly occupied by the ang moh and the ABCs so u cant really see much Blacks like those in Dangerous Minds. Everyone had a nice lawn and interesting design for their houses so its really shiok when you take a stroll down to the nearby Millbrae Square to get dinner. Talkin' about Stop and Smell the Roses man. One thing though, most of the houses' build is hollow, unlike Singapore, so every footstep around the house is magnified a few gazillion times. Check out Chiyoyo's house and her beetle in the garage.

First stop, LA's Disneyland and Universal Studio. Kudos to superwoman Chiyoyo because she drove 3 hr + 3hr to our hotel without me rendering much help except pinching her cheeks to keep her awake.

Disneyland is kinda unimaginable because its so damn pretty big that by 4pm we were already pretty tired. Yea we were both lazy fellows but nonetheless we caught up with a couple of celebrities for some shots.

just joking, there they are.

Universal Studio is pretty cool too. I particularly liked the studio tour- get to see the sets from War of the world, desperate housewifes, king kong..... And the Simpsons family are kinda naughty.. Some very professional actors inside, they will high-five cool dudes like us, mess around with your hair, bear hug young children AND conduct security bag searches like the one below.

After LA, it was time for Chiyoyo to get back to serious business in Genentech while i slack around in the house tidying up her room, visiting burger kings, and do some running. America is full of fat people and before u know it, spare tires will grow on your stomach because everything's is fast food, grilled, barbequed or fried, and their notion of vegetables is just the pathetic version of coleslaws and salad. Thats one of the few things i dislike about AMerica other than the usual hip-hop blacks and their street-full of tramps

Our next stop, Yosemite national park is pretty much the stairways to heaven. I fell in love with Yosemite. Sorry Chiyola, but you still get the majority share of my affections. Incredible myriad of astounding landscapes filled this land and I was grateful to chiyoyo for bringing me here. The view from sentinel dome was breath-taking.

And chiyoyo is damn fit! She climbed and hiked like nobody's business (must be from the Gym-work that shufen was describing the nature of their job was) An ah ma along the trail even commented "U better hurry, shes gotta lose you!" Ok chiyoyo, U R BETTER there.

There were so much fun at Yosemite but my deepest was insufficient time to climb the half dome before we return. Having said that, the travel guide says hiking the trail to Half Dome was EXTREMELY STRENUOUS and judging my performance at the earlier hike which is only VERY STRENUOUS , i do need some training =(. Chiyola even had the cheek to say the hike was not tiring at all. Guys, when u get back, take a look at chiyola's Strong legs and you will understand wad im saying.

Sin city's our final destination. We stayed in New York New York -the exterior's looks spectacular but we have to agree that we were kinda disappointed with our room. No flask to boil water, small room and we even have to pay 15USD for a single nite of internet access. TA MA DE. We visited MGM, Paris, Bellatio, Monte Carlo, Luxor and Excalibur. The most impressive by far is probably MGM, the exterior looked like shit but the inside is pretty much an sprawling underground city.

We didn't realise we had to travel around 4-5 hours by coach to Grand Canyon National Park, then spend just 2 hours there, then another 4-5 hours back. we felt cheated. Anyway Grand Canyon didnt take our breath away the same way Yosemite did. Thankfully, Chiyola's ingenious suggestion that we get the helicopter ride for a trip around the canyon save some frustrations.

Back at Millbrae, we get to spend 2 days at SF before i leave so we had some time at Fisherman's Wharf. We cycled to the golden gate bridge, or whats left of it since the fog swallowed more than half of it.kinda cool though pretty different from the sort of pics other tourists would have taken.

And the last day in US happens to coincide with the San francisco Gay pride parade. NICE. loads of brunos, elton johns and Lindsay lohans in skimpy costumes. While Shufen enjoyed her phototaking session there, we had our fair share too.

Few things etched an impression:
1. Ang moh's friendliness and courtesy
2. chiyola's superb 130km power-drives despite she is seeming direction-blind and her over-reliance on her Garmin GPS.
3. shit load of national parks that i yearn to explore!


So thats it. this concludes the chronicles of ahgoh in glorious country of America. Misfortunates that occur post-trip include losing my freaking camera after checking in my baggage, and Chiyola's beetle's getting fried =(.