WHEN SUAKUS HEAD WEST

One thing is.

I went to America. For a good 23 days.

Who knows if I ever get to step foot into America EVER AGAIN FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

Typical asians or rather, average Singaporeans like me, opportunities like this are so RARE.

                  BOSTON. NEW YORK. CANADA. WASHINGTON. ORLANDO. KEY WEST. MIAMI

One of the many takeaways from this trip is: I'm such a crybaby. I didn't know I had so much tears to flow. Don't recall if I mentioned this before, but I cannot deal with farewells. So being such a mummy girl, it took me quite a while to prepare myself for leaving my mum in Singapore especially when we all clearly knew that my dadd is going to be busy with his golf balls. That wrecked me harder. I was literally crying while passing my passport to the security at the screening gate.

But anyways, dear sis was sent to Boston for some training program (and we only knew when everything was confirmed). Not going to lie but I believe my mum wrecked equally as hard when she learnt about it, which mother would be happy to send her daughter to the other side of the world ALONE? Wellz its once in a lifetime right, 9 months living like an angmoh. So my second sister was all set to save up and visit America in the name of 'visiting'. Of course, this is like a second blow to my mother but oh well this is when your third daughter comes into use, If its too unsafe for one daughter to go alone, you sent two others to go together and case closed.

Of course, it was so hard to save up. America is never a cheap country to visit for an average family like us. And 2015 was a happening year when I went BKK twice. But YOLO. Not going to lie but yes, I gave up studying in university just for this America trip. Since I had no idea what am I going to study and I also failed the interview for SIT I guess its a sign to yolo. And true enough, no regrets.

So..................

YES  I LOVE TO FLY

We flew with Singapore Airlines *whooop whooop* enjoyed the 23 hours flight to New York.

Transited in Germany's Frankfurt (13 hours) + 2 hours transit time then another 7-8 hours or so to New York. I literally slept -> watch movie -> eat -> slept and this vicious cycle just repeated itself until we touched down in New York.

My aunt came along with us, and nice enough she planned for us what time should we be sleeping on the plane so we don't suffer from jet lag (true enough, america is 12 hours behind us) But it was pretty useless cause sis and I just slept as and when we grew bored of the movies.

Eld Sis was at Orlando's Disneyworld when we arrived so the three of us had to survive one night without her. Gotta say that both my sister and my aunt they are ultimate stubborn people. So the first thing that happened when we were at the airport was them quarrelling over how we should get to the bus terminal in the city (we need to take another 4 hours coach to reach Boston). Trust me, its not a good experience being sandwiched even though I don't make any decision. Things kinda suck when you have a loud person who doesn't listen to what others have to say.

Although I knew that America is going to expensive, but the moment you have to pay up for a short one hour ride (I know one hour bus ride in Singapore is crazy enough) you feel that pinch. It costs USD$17 for that transport to city which was around SGD$24.65. At that time it was a horrible rate 1.45 I can't even okay.

Besides travelling to Malaysia where  we need to sit in the coach for a few hours, this was my first time 4-5 hours of domestic travel. I don't recall the price but it wasn't cheap either.
NOTHING WAS CHEAP. Their roads are like highway all the way, the bus didn't even stop for more than 98% of the trip and yet it took that long to reach, imagine the distance between the cities already.

Touched down in bostonnn

When we finally reached Boston at night, it was soooooooo chilly. Mac was our first meal in the States. Friends would already know that I once said "When you're in America you have to eat their mac, drink their Starbucks right." and yes, mission accomplished.

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken burger

So eld sis arranged her colleague who was kind enough to pick us up from the Boston bus terminal and drop us at the serviced apartment that we are supposed to spend our night in. There's quite a huge difference between New York and Boston. New York is literally a bustling city, whereas Boston is more peaceful, laid back. I hardly saw any tall buildings in Boston, or rather everything was very spaced out. I don't even recall seeing any bus services going around though. So I guess everyone has to drive. 

The service apartment that we stayed in was rather good, even their hotel is not like within the same building as the reception.




The lobby area was like a little house on its own, and the apartments are little houses behind them. So we had to walk in the cold to get breakfast! And breakfast was super good actually,

Our plans for the second day: 

1.  Shopping madness at the Merrimack Premium outlet 
2. Reunite with the eld sis whom we missed dearly for a good 8 months 
3. Crash in eld sis' rented apartment (someone else's basement)

Firstly, the hotel staff was super nice to agree to send us to the premium outlet for free! She's such a nice old lady!

I don't know if its just me or I expected the premium outlets to be like a shopping mall, and the shops are all in there. But nope, its a huge area and single floored shops stretched all across. If only our day wasn't so rush, or rather we came out earlier, we could have gotten more goods. We only managed to spend a few hours there, and obviously it wasn't enough to cover the brands we see there. All those Coach, Kate Spade, Nike, Converse, etc etc etc many more. Before I realized it but all the clothes there were thick (its fall).....not that Singapore friendly. 

Surprisingly, even the basement of someone's house can be better than our Singapore's HDB. The room is good enough to pull off the condo feel. But this room didn't have any heater hahaha. 

Day 3 - Boston

1.  Walk around Boston's city area (I'm not good with roads)
2. Harvard University 

Boston was literally freezing cause everything was so spaced out, there's nothing to block the wind.
During the day, it was chilly enough for us to be walking around and not perspire. On this day, we literally walked on foot for a good 7 hours or so!! Till night, I swear I almost died being frozen. It was soooooooo cold and I obviously wasn't prepared. I didn't have any hoody to cover my neck and I really refused to leave the car cause it was around 3 degree at that moment I was even shivering in the car.

With da sisterss

Train station literally named Harvard

Knowing where I stand, Harvard was nothing more just a word. But, I stepped into premises of Harvard University. Does that make me 10% smarter? AHAHA I wished. It was bustling with many visitors all around the campus, with students being some tour guide of some groups (I wonder if they earn extra income like that). 

FALLLLLLL~~~

and after we walked around, we came across this really cute building that sits at some traffic junction. Doesn't it resembles a cute pinocchio?!?!!

Central Park 

   

  

and how about some lobster feast in the cold? 

Day 4 - Boston > New York 

And we have another younger aunt joining us from New York. Yes and thats another 4 hours bus ride back to New York. That's probably one of the bad things when you're travelling around a super big country- you spent most of your time on the road. 

Grand Central Terminal

I think you're supposed to take some train from this really unique terminal (heard that a lot of movies used this venue), but eld sis said that very often their trains derail so we're going to give it a miss :/

And once again, we walked all around New York City by foot. I wasn't prepared but well it proved that my nike shoes was the best buy. 

Right after we left Grand Central, we met with some road closure for the Paraguay's parade....that reminded me of our Chingay. 

But it wasn't a good thing. We relied on Google maps, and we were frantically searching for our alternative route cause we were late for our slot for Top of the Rock. 70 storeys above ground, 360 degree view of New York City. 

Times Square

Of course we went to Times Square but that's one of my most hated place because the crowd was really super crazy. The only place without crowd was only the shops. Every single walk was literally flooding. You can't even stop for a while. For a claustrophobic person like me, I died again. 

Day 5- New York > Canada

We bought some tour package to bring us to Canada by coach. It was somehow like Singapore to Malaysia but the journey was like a x93849127384398713940912 times. It took us around 12 hours to reach the sides of Canada. Of course in between we went to some other attractions, before we finally proceeded to Canada via the Rainbow bridge. 

And of course, not missing the NIAGARA FALLS (yay!)  from the Canadian side! 

I was amazed by the distance between Canada and America. 

We took the Hornblower, which is the boat that brings people into the Falls, so near that you're just going to be drenched or lucky, wet. The Niagara water doesn't give anybody chances. Thankfully, eld sis went before and she warned us to wear slippers there (even though it was cold) but I rather have cold toes than soaked and soggy toes. It was really spectacular! 

                                

Standing in Canada, looking at America

Horseshoe Fall

Had lunch at the spinning restaurant, it literally spins all around, but it goes so slow that I wasn't even able to finish one whole round even when we're fine dining. 

                                               

Ontario/Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal I actually lost count of the days already

and yes we travelled further into Canada and her cities. 

So there's this one day when we had our breakfast on a ferry (but they call it a cruise)

as they brought us into the waters and visited the Thousand Island (not the dressing) 

There's so many people residing in the island, where it was so inaccessible, like a no man island and they're totally on their own? Not sure if there are roads in there, but they stay by the river. 

Even the houses there are huge and beautiful on its own. Not the kind of slums we see in Msia/Indonesia. 

 

Attraction of Thousand Island

So this castle was built by some rich guy (I don't really recall anymore) for his wife. But as he was building the dk how many hundredth room, his wife passed away. He was so sad that he gave up building halfway, and locked it down. So till now, this castle is incomplete. 

                            

then we came back to Americaaaaaaaaaaaa~~~~

Ausable Chasm

Its so pretty that it look so unreal!!! 

New York

No one gives these a miss! 

STATUE OF LIBERTY!! 

Actually there was a lot of tourists there as well. What I couldn't stand most was being mistaken for Chinese tourists. I wished, they would know that not all who speaks mandarin comes from China. There are Asian countries such as Malaysia, Hongkong, Taiwan we all speak mandarin but we are not from China. Pfft. There was a lady who came up and asked "are you girls from China?" and it was such a mood spoiler. But its alright!

                          

                          

    

BROOKLYN BRIDGE!!! 

and the manhattan bridge beside it was gorgeous at night! America was so big that we had to take ferry, car, train, taxi etc all modes of transport (i.e. Land, Sea and Air) to go around TEEHEE.

                          

Washington DC 

It was another long coach ride to Washington. Not to even mention the Airbnb we rented was right smack in some far far away place from the city and that's still okay cause there's the train. But it was in the Black Americans community :/  we were safe but..... I had to say I'm not used to it. We had to walk around 1km or so to get food, and the supermarket. We had to rush everything so that we can be back at our place before the skies turn dark. And washington was colder than Boston :/ 

In Washington, we walked around as well. 

It was a peaceful city as compared the fast-paced New York. Washington is my favourite city! 

We visited a lot of attractions, such as the Lincoln Memorial, White House,Washington Memorial, United States Capitol, International Spy Museum etc etc 

apparently Obama forgot about our lunch date.

sadly this United States Capitol was under construction

Lincoln Memorial

inside Lincoln Memorial

                          

Washington Memorial

                         It was a long walk from the photo to the near one grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

TOO MUCH OF SPY GENES IN ME YAAAAA

this spy museum was rather interesting, where you get to see a lot of exhibits about those things that spies use to spy on their target, and of course there's this 007. And our dear aunt signed us up for this "Operation SPY" game where its like a role play, where a group of 15 of us (with other strangers), will become spies and try to save some funny funny thing. It was really scary cause the casts were too much into the theme, I hate suspense ya. It was so tiring, to think that after this we walked from Washington to Virginia (thanks to google)

    

and so the eld sis wanted to visit the Pentagon which got attacked during the 911. So we walked from the Lincoln memorial. Google told us that it was a 17 minutes walk, so we followed but ended up on the sides of the expressways and it became an hour walk, from Washington to Virginia, by foot! I swear my legs almost gave in that day. Especially after the Operation Spy, where I was quite tensed up during the game. 

                    

Singapore's machine is easier to operate serious

And this reminded me that, we got scammed by some lady.

We reached the subway station, trying to figure out how do we go about purchasing our tickets or metro card. She was being so nice (out of nowhere, we should be suspicious about her) and helped us administer everything. While we were passing her money to put into the machine, we didn't realize that she was holding to all our coin changes and did not return to us. After which, she was still thick-skinned enough to ask us for more, when she took our changes dispensed from the machine. If you needed money, ask for it properly. It does not make tourists or whichever being feel good when being cheated. If you are intending to go, please look out for people like this!! 天底下真的没有白吃的午餐!

Orlando

Took the domestic flight from New York to Orlando, where its holds the happiest place on earth. And I would say, sadly, it wasn't cold there. It was like around 17-18 degree so we said bye to our winter wear.  

We went to Universal Studios first!!! 

As my sec sis doesn't take much rides, so I went to the normal park, whereas aunt and eld sis went to the super nerve wrecking park. 

The magical conductor from harry potter?

Magical meal like a wizard at Harry Potter's place

The butter beer was super good. And guess what, they saw that sec sis and I was sharing a meal, they gave us one cup of butter beer for free. So nice T^T their theme is super strong!

and the next day and next next day, to the happiest place on earth. 

DISNEYWORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

w my fairy godmother

Gotta mention that this turkey drumstick is huge and heavy and being too ambitious, I wanted to finish one on my own, and in the end, I told myself I'm not eating turkey for a year. #turkeyoverdose

SPACE MOUNTAIN! 

Space mountain was like the most exciting ride in Magical Kingdom. There is only 5 exciting rides in this park because the remaining are kiddy rides. We had to do this because sec sis has a weaker heart than I do. :/

and we bought tickets to visit Mickey's (not-so-scary) Halloween Party! We praepared all sorts of props to go with it, and played one of the most exciting ride at 12am!!

and everyone there was dead serious about Halloween. Almost 98% of them dressed up, only us awkwardly thinking that nobody would really dress up. We were so wrong! 

And I'm officially a disney fan now! 

Key West

Eld sis drove up to Key West and it was even hotter!

But, it was such a friendly city!! The main attraction there was to watch the sunset. I've always thought sunset/sunrise was not a big deal, and it was the first time I spent hours waiting for that few moments of the watching the sun go down. It was spectacular. 

Miami 

 Yes we drove up to Miami as well, and went for some shopping and thats all! But unfortunately, my eye decided to swell like mad (maybe its the bikini babes sobs) and even until now my eyelid is tripled. I can't, I swear I hate it more than I hate new york, 

From Miami, we took a plane back to New York for our last attraction. 

Some Natural Museum which they filmed the Night at the Museum ya. Couldn't really find every single thing that I saw, but pretty sure it will be really freaky if the whole museum comes alive LOL. The amount of dinosaurs will wreck the whole museum. And Gum Gum was cute HAHAHA

And right after that, we went to eat Shake Shack

It was worth the wait for a table!! The queue was long, but they had limited space for their tables. Everyone was literally taking their own sweet time to eat which kinda pisses me. But well the food was worth the wait although there's only like beef patties but its alright, it was really good! The only regret was to put the curry sauce in our luggage instead of bringing it everywhere with us.. 

Right after this, eld sis sent us to take the bus to the airport while she takes the 4 hours coach back to Boston. Not going to lie but behind my big shades (supposed to cover my swollen eye), I cried like some mad woman. It wrecked my heart to think that she's going to be all alone back there till she comes back. The plane back to Singapore was quite bad though it was still Singapore Air. I don't know why but it seemed like I was in hunger mode, whereas when we were flying there, we were not hungry before the next meal was served. And it was so hard to sleep, maybe because we were near the end? I have no idea. But well, I was watching a sad korean movie while dear sis was watching some comedy and laughing her ass out when I was tearing up. that kinda suck. 

If you ask, I would say America is not a good country to for holidays if you're working cause you really spend a lot of time travelling around. But, one big difference I can see is that, they are very open to showing of affection in public, like typical angmoh alright. But I would say, its a challenge to  travel by public transport cause their map is really mad confusing, despite us being able to understand English. The train platforms can be shared by different trains going different directions, or the train that is heading towards the direction you want to go, but it may be skipping your station (they have a lot of stations to go and the distance between each station is not like what we have in Singapore). Each train interval can go up to 24 minutes (Singaporeans please be contented with our train intervals). I guess, I've learnt how to appreciate Singapore's efficiency being a little red dot. 

In the end, I realllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy enjoyed this trip no matter what. Sisters and I were like normal siblings who can't be bothered much with each other, but after this trip, I have to say that we are much closer now. We disturb each other with love and seriously I love them more now. I appreciate how they will always look out for me and how I would reciprocate their love by attacking them. It was expensive, but I'm glad that I chose this path. Its okay taking a gap year, I am embarking on a new journey meeting new people at work now. I don't lose out, other than not being able to graduate together with fellow friends. But at least we will graduate, that's all it matters isn't it? 

Now that we are all back in Singapore with this heat wave, we are really missing the freezing washington or Boston. Memories of this trip will be kept close to me.