My friend was putting this n repeat mode... It just reminded me how much I love this song back then and hearing it again, I still love it!

Haizz..... Boarding time and yet I can't find a tix to board. I am upset to hear that you are good but we have found someone internal to fill the hole.

I was looking at some of the old pictures as I was trying to suggest some places to visit in Melbourne to my friend. I really missed those days.. I feel more n more disillusioned these days.. I guess this is part of growing up..

I am beginning to feel the impact of manpower shortage and I think it's going to be worse with the interims and peak upcoming. It's a viscious cycle. I felt even more push factor and I am sure this applies to many others.. This is real bad.. The small carrot they dangle in front of everyone of us has such a weak attraction.

Day  10- Yosemite

I feel that all 3 of us weren't very impressed with Yosemite. I think it pales in comparison with Yellowstone. Our guide was a young lad who was pretty slack. The waterfalls had dried up, so we spent the 3 hours of free time slacking. I was pretty tired and this might be due to the fact that we only reached San Francisco at 10 plus the night before. Our tour comprises of 1 Taiwanese couple, 1 British couple who were quite friendly and 1 American-European couple.

 <Yosemite>

 <One waterfall which has yet dried up>

Day  11- San Francisco

We did the touristy stuff on Day 11. We headed for the Golden Gate bridge to attend a free guided tour. It proved to be a bad day to view the Golden Gate bridge, or it might be said  that we had experienced the real San Francisco- a totally foggy San Francisco. The guide provided us some information on the bridge and hence our trip was not totally meaningless.

<A foggy Golden Gate Bridge>

After Golden Gate bridge, we headed to the fisherman wharf and enjoyed our lunch at McCormick restaurant. The clam chowder is really delicious, so is the Calamari.

 <Tasty Calamari>

<Delicious Clam Chowder>

We walked towards the pier area after our heavy lunch. We visited the Hyde Pier before proceeding to Pier 43 1/2 for our sunset cruise. Our chosen date wasn't a good one as it continued to be rather foggy. Along with the fog came the cold and windy weather.

<Sunset viewed from cruise>

After our sunset cruise, we went for ice-cream at Ghiradeli Sq and we bought the popular chocolates at the official store.

Day  12- San Francisco

We took the iconic cable car (it's actually a tram) to the Chinatown in the morning as the cable car station was rather near to my hotel. As this California line was less crowded, we could have the outward facing seats. I really like the outward facing seats. I can feel the wind and see the slopes clearly. Ps:San Francisco is a hilly city. It has many slopes. People can choose to stand and hold onto the railing. The cable car is manually operated.

 <Cable car>

<There are many steeper slopes and the cable car doesn't go too fast down these slopes.>

San Francisco has quite a huge Chinese population. It's quite common to bump into Chinese on buses or at the hotels. San Francisco chinatown is just like any other Chinatown. It's lined with shop houses. We searched for the shop selling fortune cookies. It's a very small shop in one of the alleys and apparently it attracted many tourists. We overheard a US tour guide describing Dim Sum as fast food. I didn't think that it's a suitable description. Dim Sum isn't really fast food. We walked towards the Coit tower and we finally caught glimpse of the golden gate bridge from that area.

<Top part of Golden Gate Bridge>

<Slopes of San Francisco>

We had our dim sum lunch at one of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. I love the Siew Mai. The prawn was fresh and sweet. After lunch, we took a bus to Union Sq and began our shopping at Forever 21. We spent a few hours there.

Day  13- San Francisco

This was our last day in US as well as San Francisco. We wanted to take the Powell-Hyde cable car line, so we had to queue at the Union Sq area for the cable car. It was a pretty long queue. This line was recommended by Lonely Planet. I could understand why it was recommended. There were lotsa of steep slopes, but I couldn't really enjoy the ride as the cable car was simply too crowded and I was sitting on the inward facing seats. We dropped off the cable car at the Lombard St. The street is famous for being crooked. C commented that it's just like our multi-storey carpark.

  <Lombard St>

We took the next cable car to the Fisherman Wharf. It's a sunny day and finally we saw the full golden gate bridge from the Hyde Pier. We walked to Pier 39, but I didn't find it interesting. It's very touristy. We took the street car to Union Sq where I gone crazy at H&M. I bought a working dress and 2 skirts. The H&M in San Fran is defintely cheaper than London's. The prices are affordable kind. We went to Macy next as this was highly recommended by a friend, but we didn't find it fascinating as it's just another departmental store. We decided to nuah at the Cheesecake Factory next. It's strange that there were such a long queue. We were given an electronic queue device. When the table was ready, the device will beep to inform us. We ordered the Godiva cheesecake, the original cheesecake and a fruit cheesecake. I like the Godiva cheesecake the most. We decided to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory as we were too lazy to move around. We continued with a bit of shopping before we took the cable car back to our hotel. Our flight was at 1am, so we took the cab to the airport at around 10pm.

<A clear view of the golden gate bridge>

Meals on the SQ flight was rather interesting. there's Ee Fu mee and Chee Cheong Fun with Siew Mai (this is probably because we stopped over in Hong Kong).

This was our last day at the Yellowstone and we only had half a day at the national park as we needed to catch the flight at 5.50pm. We went back to the Running bear cafe for breakfast. When we went on our lst day in West Yellowstone, it's a late lunch time and there was no crowd. When we reached the restaurant for our breakfast, the restaurant was almost full and there was queue. I guessed that's not surprising considering the popularity of the cafe and the timing. West Yellowstone is really a very small town and I believe most people came here due to its proximity to the Yellowstone National Park. It's really not surprising that the town is pretty quiet during the day.

<Breakfast @ Running Bear>

  <Soft pancakes>

We visited the firehole lake drive where we drove and stopped by the various features such as the Great Fountain Geyser. I really hoped to see the eruption of the geyser. When I saw people sitting around, I thought there's chance, but the timing on the board didn't suggest so. When I saw the predicted timing at the Old Faithful area later on, I realised that it was within the 2 hours of the predicted timing. That explains why there were people sitting around to wait for the eruption.

<Great Fountain geyser>

<A smaller geyser in the firehole lake drive.>

We wanted to visit the Black Sand basin but there's no parking slot. So we went straight to the Old Faithful area. I would not regret at all though... When we reached the Old Faithful area, I was looking at the perdicted timings. There were a few geysers whose predicted timings were rather close. There's the Grand Geyser, Great Fountain Geyser and Riverside Geyser. Even though there was a window of 2 hours from the predicted timing, we were at the 2nd 2hours window and somehow I felt that there was chance. Hence, I was urging my companions to give it a try. We slowly walked towards the geyser and as we did so, we saw the eruption of a geyser from a distance. I should think that it's the Lion Geyser. As we walked towards the Grand Geyser, it started erupting, but thank god the eruption lasted for quite a while. We still managed to watch it from the viewing area.

 <Grand geyser from a distance>

<Eruption of Grand Geyser>

The Grand Geyser is really "grand". I love it! It's a fountain type of geyser. The eruption is of great height and it last for quite a while. After the main eruption, there were a few more eruptions before it finally came to a stop. When it finally came to a stop, there was an uncoordinated round of applause. As we left the area, we saw the eruption of sawmill geyser. This was really a geyser day! Even the castle geyser had some activities. There were small eruptions.

After the round of geyser viewing, we had to return to our motel to get our luggage and drove to the airport. The airport is really small and the check-in area is small and informal.

<Sunset at the Salt Lake City airport while we waited for the flight to San Francisco>

Day 8- Yellowstone National Park

We had to start our day early as we had a long journey ahead. We wanted to visit the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River and the journey itself would take 2.5-3 hours to reach.

<Large herds of Bisons aka Buffalos roaming around>

We stopped at the Yellowstone Lake for a short picnic. As we stepped out, I felt the cold air. It's really cold. I am supposed to be one who aren't scared of cold, but I really had to admit defeat. It's around 5 or 6 degree C when we reached the lake area. I didn't bring any gloves as I thought I wouldn't need it. Somehow I still felt cold with my winter jacket. The winter here must be quite terrible since it's only Autumn now and it's already so cold. Surprisingly, the lake water wasn't too cold.

<Yellowstone Lake>

After Yellowstone lake, our next stop was the mud volcano area.

<Mud volcano>

We reached the Upper Falls and Lower Falls area in the afternoon. There were various few lookout points. We took the Uncle Tom trail hike first. This allowed us to view the Lower Falls at a close proximity and feel the power of the fall. As we climbed down the multiple steps, I could hear the power of the gush of water. The way up was tiring, but I still think it's worth the efforts as the Falls is quite nice.

<Lower Falls from Uncle Tom Trail>

 <Upper Falls>

<Lower Falls from Artist Point>

<Brim of the Upper Falls>

  <Lower Falls from Lookout Point>

<Sunset at West Yellowstone>

This is recommended by one of my small bosses. I had searched through the USA itineraries of the various tour agencies in Singapore and I am quite surprised that no tour agency has included Yellowstone. Naturally, I was a bit puzzled and worried that it may not be as good as I thought. But I will say I am not disappointed.

Day 6 - Yellowstone (Old Faithful)

We had to wake up pretty early (around 3 am?) to catch our flight to Salt Lake City, our transit stop. Before we left Las Vegas, we tasted the Earl of sandwich which is delicious. It's among my top 3 for this entire trip. Salt Lake City is just like Las Vegas. The terrain is the desert kind of terrain. When we reached the West Yellowstone airport, I was rather surprised at the size of the airport. It's real small. It has to be the smallest and most informal airport I have ever seen. In fact, the airplane to West Yellowstone is also the smallest I have ever seen. The air stewardess has to work within a very small area and I am amazed that she can still perform her usual tasks as per normal.

I got to knew much later that West Yellowstone is a pretty small town with a population of less than 1k. Yes, less than 1k! When I thought that the capital of Iceland is sparsely populated, this is even more so. However, the small size of the town makes it easy to navigate around. It's not difficult to find our way around and find our way to the Yellowstone National Park. It's just a 10 mins drive to the West entrance of the National Park.

After picking up our rented car and placing our luggage in the motel rooms, we drove to Running Bear Pancake restaurant for our lunch. It's a tasty lunch! The pancake was soft and the maple syrup was hot and nice. It's also among my top 3 meals during this trip. The waitress who served us was friendly and caring. She made us feel warm and welcome.

After lunch, we drove to the national park. We had to pay an entrance fee of US$25. This last for 7 days and includes Grand Tetons which is too far for us to pay a visit. We had one destination in mind- The Oldfaithful Geyser which is one of the most famous geyser in the national park. When we reached, we were only about half an hour away from the predicted timing of the eruption. Hence, we decided to wait for the eruption. The clouds were low and beautiful that particular afternoon. It's a sunny day and the temperature was in fact warmer than I have expected. It feels like the mid 20s. Our patience paid off when we eventually saw the eruption of the Old Faithful. Its eruption is longer than the one I saw in Iceland and it's of a greater height.

<Old faithful erupting>

We walked around the Old Faithful area. It's a rather huge area and we only managed to cover a small part of this area. We covered part of the Southern section of Old Faithful area. We saw pools and geysers. It's a casual walk and we were in time to have another view of the eruption of the Old Faithful Geyser from far. It's little wonder why the geyser is named as such. Just when we were about to leave the area, we saw another geyser eruption from far. It's a cone type of geyser, but I seriously couldn't figure out which geyser that was.

Day 7- Yellowstone Area (The Lower Geyser basin, The mid and the upper Geyser basin)

We started the next morning pretty late as we wanted to have more hours of sleep. Breakfast is at our motel and it's free! There's french toast, pancakes, cookies, toast and even fruits.Taking into consideration that it's free, it can be deemed to be quite a good meal.

After the breakfast, we set off to the national park. We went to the lower basin first. I was having quite high expectations of the Fountain Paint Pots but it's not of my top fave. Fountain Paint Pots is a bubbling mud pool which is like a clay pool. I visited the miid geyser basin with high expectation of Grand Prismatic Spring. Actually, the usual postcard pic is an aerial view of the spring. The spring is big and hence, it's impossible to have an aerial view. Nevertheless the spring is still nice! I also like the Opal pool.

<"Entrance" to the mid geyser basin>

<Grand Prismatic Spring>

<Opal Pool>

After the mid geyser basin, we also visited the biscuit basin. We took the trail hike to reach the mystic falls.

Mystic Falls is not the most scenic waterfall.

<Mystic falls>

 <Jewel geyser in action!>

We drove to the Old Faithful area after the Biscuit basin. We did a quick sandwich lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge and viewed another eruption of Old Faithful before we toured the North Section.

When we visited the North Section, the geysers weren't very active. However, we saw a lot of beautiful pools. The highlight of the day is the Morning Glory Pool. I really like the rich colours of the pool. It's a pity that it has lost its original blue colour due to the clogging of the vents by the rubbish threw by people.

<Castle Geyser>

<Belgian Pool>

<Beauty pool>

<Chromatic pool>

<Morning Glory Pool- My favourite pool!>

The night at West Yellowstone was pretty cold. The temperature dropped to 40 F aka 4 degree C when we went out for dinner.

Day 3- Grand Canyon

This is a long day as the journey to Grand Canyon will be around a 4 -5 hour drive. We would only reach the hotel at 11.30pm or 12am. The guide drove us to get our Mac breakfast. We could order whatever we want, but we only have limited space in our stomach. The menu looks slightly different from the Singapore menu. There's this Ultimate meal where everything is in - the hotcakes, the meat, the egg, the hash brown. All 3 of us chose this set meal while others picked other set meals.

(The ultimate set meal that cost the same as the big breakfast.)

After the breakfast, we headed for Hoover Dam which was built during the Great Depression period.

(Hoover dam)

(Bridge under construction in the Hoover dam area)

(Nice clouds taken from the car)

I could feel the heat of a desert area at this area. I am really scared of heat. When everyone else didn't complain about the heat  in the car, I was telling the driver to make it cooler as I really found it too stuffy. It's a long ride to the national park and coupled with the fact that we only arrived the day before, I was dozing off during the entire journey. I seriously suspected that I was suffering from jet lag. I usually don't fall asleep for the entire bus journey, but I still caught glimpses of the Route 66. Route 66 serve some historical values for the Americans but since I am not one, I failed to appreciate the true significance of this route. I was wide awake when we finally reached the national park. Surprisingly, the air is cool. I would have thought that it is as hot as Las Vegas. The Canyon is just like a painting to me. It's real big as well. After walking a short distance along the South Rim, we paused for our lunch picnic. We were given sandwiches, cheese and crackers. I like the Sandwich but it's too huge for me. After lunch, we continued with another 2.5 hours walk along the Rim. The guide was friendly and funny. He was helping us and other tour mates take pictures. It's a casual walk. There's nothing strenous. At times, we would walk towards the edge to admire the beauty of the Canyon. Our final stop is a spot near the Visitor and educational center as we awaited for the sun to set. I was a bit disappointed as the sunset didn't look as nice as I what I expect.

(The majestic Grand Canyon)

(Playing with the exposure after the guide explained to us that it might be better to set a lower than 0 exposure for the canyonlands)

(The Grand Canyon in the evening)

(The sunset)

Day 4- Las Vegas

Day 4 is shopping day! We set off later than usual since we slept pretty late the day before with the 15 hours Grand Canyon day tour. Once I stepped out of the hotel, I felt the immense heat again. It must had been around 36/37 or even higher. We took the deuce to Sahara hotel so that we could take another bus to the Premium outlet of Las Vegas. Deuce travelled along the strip while the other bus travelled on another stretch of roads off the strip. There wasn't a proper bus stop for the other bus and hence, we couldn't find the bus stop. My nose started to bleed while we were walking to look for the bus stop. I didn't know whether it is due to the heatiness within my inner body or it was due to the outside heat. This nose bleed was quite serious as it only stopped after a prolonged period and the cycle started again when I was in the outlet mall. My nose bleed prompted us to stop by Sahara for lunch.

We had lunch at the Nascar cafe. It's pure American food with burger and fries. The curly fries is nice! But we couldn't finish as the portion was huge.

(Passing by Paris Las Vegas as we consulted the Concierge. It's  beautiful!)

(Our lunch at Nascar Cafe. Even the salad is huge! And the meal wasn't too expensive. It was around US$30 in total)

After further consultation and some navigation around, we finally found the "bus stop" which was just indicated by a stand. It's not a very long journey to the outlet itself. It took around 10 mins to reach from the Sahara stop. This outlet mall was more crowded than the one we went on Day 2. It also has more shops. All of us had fun shopping in this outlet mall and we even had to sacrifice visiting fremont street in the end. I was so thrilled to find a tube dress (for function type) at US$21. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price, so it was a must buy. All of us also went crazy at Naturaliser as the discounts for shoes was crazy. On top of a 60%-70% discount, we had another 50% off the 2nd pair of shoes. At the end of the day, I was carrying many many paper bags. The bus journey back to the hotel was torturous. The outlet wasn't very far from our hotel, but the traffic along the strip was really horrendous. It took us around 1 hr plus to reach our hotel. In addition to the horrendous traffic, the bus was really packed. We had to stand throughout the bus journey. The bus driver would ask people to move in as much as they could at each stop.

Day 5- Las Vegas

We went for our ATV ride today. I actually prefer this to the ride I had in Korea as there's less people and we had more room and freedom while we drove. There were in total 5 of us. Lunch was simple with some baked beans and meat with bbq sauce. After we rode back to the starting point, we were droved to an old mine. There's nothing fantastic about the old mine though.

(ATV ride)

After the ATV ride, we went back to hotel to wash up before we had Ben n Jerry for dessert. It's one for one with the discount coupons!

We then walked to Venetian with the intention of taking the gondola ride, but we gave up that idea eventually as it was too expensive. It cost over USD 16 (SGD 20 ++). So after taking a few pictures at the beautiful Venetian decorations, we took the monorail to the South Strip. The monorail is more expensive than the Deuce but it's so much faster!

(Interior of Venetian)

(Exterior of Venetian)

(A view of the strip from the bridge connecting New York New York and MGM Grand)

This trip seems pretty complete with nature, architectures and shopping all in one. My favourite place will still be Yellowstone. The geysers were fascinating and the colourful pools were beautiful. And there's consensus on this, so I had not lured my friends to a condemned place. I have enjoyed the shopping too.. The prices are alright.

Day 1- Las Vegas

My trip started with Las Vegas. After my 16/17 hours flight in a SQ plane, I finally reached San Franscisco airport. The flight has been more comfortable than my flight to UK (via Qantas). I arrive on the same day as my departure date since San Francisco is 15 hours behind Singapore time. The first day is all about flying as we took the domestic flight to Las Vegas after our international flight. We arrived in Las Vegas at around 5 plus in the evening. When I arrived, I truly knew that I was in Las Vegas as I was greeted by the slot machines. It's a true gambling city. It's a short cab drive to our hotel, planet hollywood. In fact, I could see the strip from the airport. That's how close the airport is to the main streets.

(Slot machines in Las Vegas airport)

(Sign greeting us at the airport ... )

Our first stop in Las Vegas is the Bellagio hotel as we wanted to try the buffet which is ranked the highest among the buffet category on tripadvisor. As we walked towards the hotel, we saw the Bellagio fountains. It's beautiful!

(Bellagio fountains with the 'Eiffel tower' in the background)

It's a long queue for the buffet which is not surprisingly as we had read about the long queues on the tripadvisor. The buffet comprises of Alaska crab legs, snow crab legs, Kobe beef (I am still puzzled whether it is the authetic Kobe beef), Prime ribs, Sushi and some Asian crusine. It also has a pretty wide range of desserts and ice-cream. The Alaska crab is sweet, but I will love it more if it's in a hot pot just like the crab I had in Hokkaido. Overall, it's not a bad meal but it doesn't fall into my top 3.

(Alaskan crab legs and the dessets)

After dinner, we went straight to the Bellagio fountain as our intention is to view the musical fountain at night. They played different genre of music each time. We stayed for 2 or 3 shows which were around 15 mins apart. It's a peaceful feeling as I watched the musical fountain.

We wanted to collect our shuttle bus tix at MGM Grand so we walked to the South strip, but the walk was surprisngly long. MGM Grand is really a big hotel. The walk through the casino to reach the hotel concierge is really painfully long.

(Paris Las Vegas hotel with its iconic replica of the Eiffel tower)

(Monte Carlo in the South Strip)

Day 2- Las Vegas

We walked to MGM Grand to take the shuttle bus to the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas. I bought a coach bag at this outlet as the bag only cost USD 65 after a 50% discount! Besides coach, I also bought quite a few clothes and a Polo Ralph shirt for my dad. C introduced Charlotte Russe to me. I would say I quite like this brand. As the 6pm bus was full, we had to take the 3 pm bus back to our hotel. After a short rest, we decided to venture to the Casear Palace which is also on the Center strip where my hotel was located.

(The deep blue sky and the Roman decorations in Caesar Palace.)

Caesar Palace is of Roman theme. As we walked around the shopping mall, we saw Cheesecake factory and we decided to have our dinner in this famous restaurant. The cheesecake is not bad, but it pales in comparison with the Baileys cheesecake I had in Sunshine coast. We didn't like the buffalo wings which is coated with blue cheese and has this sour taste. We had ordered another pasta which taste quite good. The table next to us were looking at what we ordered and they replicated our choices.

After dinner, we decided to walk to another shopping mall and as we walked, we saw the Volcano show. It's not too bad with the fire spurting out from the "Volcano" outside the Mirage.

We decided to take the bus Deuce back to our hotel. The journey is short but it took at least 25 mins to reach as the traffic was horrendous and the bus was fully packed. The bus driver would stop at every stop and asked the various tourists to move in as much as they could.

Just back from my USA trip and I had received a not so good news.. I have to fly to China for a job soon... and well I guess I didn't like that idea because it's a first year client and the bosses combination is not fantastic.. On top of it, I feel that it messes up my other jobs, but well I have no choice over this..

Okie enough of the bad news..