19042013: Turning Blue At Buffalo

At this point, my fever faithfully returned to me. I was feeling super chilly and I was shivering. The fever made me fell asleep on my way to LAX. Thank god for the reliable and safe journey from Super Shuttle. Convenient and inexpensive. 

The queue was long at LAX and it stretches to the outer compound of the airport. Damn it, it was 3 in the morning and I'm feeling feverish. Luckily it was a quick one or I might just fainted right there and then. My eyes were hot and heavy, my body was shivering, my legs were heavy and I was dragging along a heavy backpack. Not the the backpack, I had to drag myself too around LAX. I was just too weak to move.

I kept drinking some Vitamin C water along the way hoping that it can helps in my recovery. Sleeping the whole way through the flight. I lost track of how many hours it took to reach Arizona for transit and to actually reach Buffalo. Everything was blurred the entire journey.

But I remembered the adorable Southwest Airline stewardess with her funny landing speech. " We are glad that you enjoyed the flight with Southwest. Most of you were sleeping and some of you were drooling" that followed by some laughter from the passengers. Was she talking about me?"Just to let you know...we have reached Buffalo Airport now" then when it's time to alight from the plane " Now get off the plane " followed by further laughter from the passengers. 

And I managed to snap this as we landed

 Here I am finally at Buffalo. The bad news was my ears were stuffed. I only have one good ear left and I couldn't hear much now and my throat was killing me. I can't hear and I can't talk....

My host Michael picked me up at the airport and we headed to the famous Anchor's Wings after dropping my backpack to meet up with his wife Jill and Jennifer with her family. I got to know Michael through Couchsurfing and we chatted a bit online before I head to America. His wife Jill joined us soon after that and she saw my comment of the creme brulee on my Instagram. They are so warm and friendly.

 As for Jennifer, it's great to be finally meeting someone that you got to know through a virtual farm and still be able to maintain contact for so long. I was looking forward to meet her long before the trip was confirmed. I remembered when I was having some issues sometimes ago, she comforted me online. She seems to project certain kind of warmness and positivity even online. To meet her in person confirms it. Her daughter Ally, I saw her adorable pictures from years ago and she has bloomed into a beautiful young lady now .It was a pity that I wasn't able to talk to them more. My fever makes communication so hard for me. Whenever I tried to open my mouth, my ear and throat pained. Never felt so helpless before. I feel so bad...

I love Buffalo Wings but it's really killing me by eating this with my current condition.

    Michael, me and the ugly buffalo wings lady. I couldn't find a single picture of me with Jennifer and her family. I don't know why. Did I or I didn't had any pictures taken with them? I can't remember much. Everything was so blurred to me.

The cozy and nice bedroom at Michael's place. His house was like those that I used to draw when I was a kid. House with chimney and a garden. I like this place very much. As you see that the guest room is this pretty, what's more for the other part of house. I want my future home to be something like his with a fireplace( a fake one of course considering the crazy weather back home). I didn't take much pictures of his place but I still remembered the design deeply in my memories.

18042013: City Of Angels

You never been to Los Angeles if you never visited these famous landmarks. Here I am hiding my sick face behind my Kenneth Cole shades. It's getting worse but anyway here's the snapshots that I still managed to get:

   Griffith Observator had appeared in some of the mainstream movies like Transformer 2007, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and so on. Familiar eh? And it's situated right across the famous Hollywood Sign, a landmark and the American cultural icon. The initial purpose of this sign was far from what we know today. It was actually an advert for a housing developer back in 1923. It was the rise of the American movie industry that made it famous.

Do you know that it cost $30 k per year for the maintenance of this star at the Walk of Fame? The star itself is made of terrazzo  and brass.

   I found the hand prints of the vampires!! Twilight!

Mann's Chinese Theater, home to many world class movie premiers. 

    Rodeo Drive, another famous filming location and home to the region's favorite luxury boutique. Things are expensive here. All I can ever afford is to stand here for a picture.

My room at Sheraton Garden Grove. No, I won't be sleeping here tonight. I have a flight to catch at 5 am to continue my solo journey to the Northeast. Just to roll around on the bed...

17042013: A Boring Day

Fooling around as I feel better this morning. I thought my body can bounce back easily from illness. I was so so wrong. 

Today is our shopping day. Actually I'm the only one feeling unexcited about shopping here. Something's totally not right about me. My fever escalated in the afternoon and I had to pile on my clothing even though I'm at indoors. 

And I lose 3 dollars at the jackpot machine!

16042013: The Real McCoy

Considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, world apart from those that I made up about Creme Brûlée. Inhabited by the Native Americans for thousand of years and the first European known to have seen it was Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas from Spain. It's also the first canyon that this June from Malaysia will be able to visit today. I'm talking about the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Western Grand Canyon to be exact. Run by the Hualapai tribe ( meaning People of The Tall Pine).

Can't wait to get there. It looks pretty hot at the desert but looks can be deceiving. It's pretty chilly out there, I'm  in my shorts today due to some wrong information given by some professional tour guide, yes I'm being sarcastic here. It's my blog, I can say anything I want...

And here I found my Dreamcatcher. Funny though, I see people hanging them in their cars, they sleep in their cars or what? Supposed to hang them at the bedroom's window or near the bed filtering away the bad dreams leaving us with the good ones. It's hanging by my bedside now.

   When I was a kid, I always heard adults telling their children that if they are being naughty, the police will catch them and throw them into the prison and feed them curry rice. Maybe they really serve curry rice to the inmates in Malaysia or children hate curry? And in Hong Kong movies they serve inmates oranges with each meal. This seems like the ultimate inmate meal here.

   The Hulapai tribe performing during our meals

   I could get a better snapshot if I move forward just a little more but I can't as I'm afraid of height. This is the best that I can get from here.

   The aerial view from the helicopter. What can I say? Oh my god! Wow! This is great. A truly intimate encounter with this inspiring landscape.

   A cruise along the Colorado River getting even more intimately close to the immensely powerful Canyon itself. I feel like I want to cry now. What an incredible experience.

My day's itinerary ended at Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill@ Venetian for dinner. Consider a pleasant one because I don't have to go for Chinese food in America like the first day I arrived. 

And then I just fell sick. Feverish with sore throat. Either I got it from the others who were already sick few days ago or from the other worldly encounter last night. I have no idea.

I popped this and I went to sleep early alone in the room, my roommate went for another show tonight. The same haunted room! As days to come, I'll be even sleeping in places that I never imagined I could. If I want to sleep, haunted or not haunted, I can sleep anywhere anytime. I might even sleep in the cemetery if I had to. I don't care, I just want to hit the sack.

Poor me, sleeping early in Vegas! And this is only the beginning. My worse form has yet to come

15042013: What Happens in Vegas, Stays In Vegas

We are heading to Las Vegas! Yay! I'm just feeling overwhelmed for being able to experience different cultures around the world, doesn't matter if it's Las Vegas or some slum area in India. I can go anywhere and still be happy. Fine dining or road side stalls, 5 stars or just dormitory style hostel, being chauffeured around or just having to walk around...it's no big deal for me. Life's too short and the world's too big for me to settle down just like that.

This is the time where I'll be able to really let my hair down and to reflect on things. Things that used to be so nerve wrecking, heart breaking, so out of proportion, overwhelming and so sickening to me, are now miles away from me. Almost like I'm stepping out of myself and to see things from another perspective. Things seems much clearer here and it's not the end of the world, like what I thought previously.

And here I have finally arrived at Las Vegas situated in the Mojave desert, the city of sin. Yes, I've committed a major sin within an hour of my arrival. Gluttony... I lost count of how many of these crazy Creme Brûlée that I ate. One of the seven wonders of my dessert world. Kryptonite is Superman's weakness and Creme Brûlée is June's weakness. Diet? What diet?

Le Rêve means "The Dream" in French. We are going on a journey of romance, action and fantasy tonight in Wynn Las Vegas as what is mentioned in the introduction of the most talk about show here( an understatement here). Wait til you seen the show with your own eyes.

We hired a limousine ( more like a mini bus to me) to take us to Wynn right after dinner. A relief to me, I ate too much and I don't think I can walk too much now. Feel like sleeping too... Yawn....until

I get into the limo. I felt like I was being transported back to a decade ago, my partying phase. Club music blaring from every direction taking my sleepiness away.

The verdict of the show? Wow! Magnificent .... Love it. A few times more of the worth of your money.

Do you think I'll call it a night after this? No right? Anyone in their right mind will not do so when they are here in Las Vegas. What did I do here? I wondered around The Strip in this cool night. Having supper at McDonald's before heading back to Monte Carlo which is situated nicely along The Strip. Good for a restless person like me. 

As I was getting ready to sleep, I felt something on my bed. Like someone invisible sitting on the end of the bed near my legs. Hmm.... Must be my tired legs from all those walking just now. I  try to stay very still for a few minutes and struggling to keep myself from falling asleep. Indeed there's something right on my bed. I peered into the darkness, can't see anything but I still feel it. I did knock the door before I come in and I did leave my shoes scattered near the entrance( Chinese superstitious). I can feel that it isn't aggressive and I don't really feel afraid that moment and it's still moving around  gently. Quietly I told 'it' that I'll be staying here for 2 nights only and please let me sleep and Zzzzzz.....

It's morning when I woke up. The night went by peacefully. Not the first time I encountered such thing. First in Salzburg and now in Las Vegas. But at least I'm still able to sleep like a baby soon after that.

P/S: Friends has been commenting about the delay in updating my blog recently and also lack of pictures of myself for this current trip. Thank you so much for noticing. First, I'm having a massive workload right after the trip as my company is going through rebranding phase now. Being me, I always feel that I have to be personally involved in every aspect of stuffs which is totally not the right thing to do. I'm learning how to delegate tasks around and to have trust in others or I'll be just forever trying to juggle tasks in my hands and getting frustrated and getting nowhere. Wearing too many hats at once is very very exhausting. I now wish that there's additional hours in a day for my loved one and for my blog. 

Secondly, someone fucked up with my hair and I don't feel like posting pictures of myself and my stupid hair. I'll blog about that fucked up hair experience soon.

That's the end for this long ass blog entry for now.