Hkg-Frisco

the trip that i am looking most forward to on my roster so far... my first trip to USA, San Francisco, California. this is not including of my stopover at Hong Kong first for a day, which i practically did nothing but roamed the streets a bit, and got stopped by HK police to check my identification. I bet he is thinking that i am an illegal immigrant from China...

my working colleagues are very nice people.. a bit cranky but lots of fun.. Kyan is my supposed mentor and he is really nice, looks like a mama's boy in fact but dun be deceived by his looks. Cecilia is very pretty, looks oddly familiar but i din know where i met her before. She jioed me to go LKF on the way back to HKG.. good idea... cos i haven been there yet despite my numerous visits to HK. Suppose Kyan is gonna come along since he is so havoc, and Debbie is the super crazy one... talk non-stop and 1 super drama-mama.. haha.. nicole is very funny, looks like one of my aunt but younger version lah... Boss is Edwin who took us for a course before, nice and smiley, pretty fatherly also. the other bosses are nice and cheery oso, certainly dispelled any of my fears and apprehension about coming to this flight after a not so good ending on the last flight, nothing to do with my colleagues but more self-doubt on my own abilities.

Excited is the word that i would use for touching down in States, cos heard its a shopping paradise here. Kyan suggested going to Napa Valley or Lake Tahoe, which i totally jumped on the chance immediately. Road Trip out of Frisco city.. plus i get to drive in States since a lot of pple wanna come, cos shops are close on thanskgiving day (Damn it!!) totally wasted 1 day here man.. bad timing... but in the end, everyone overslept, plans cancelled... i decided to explore the city on my own, took a map from the reception den i set off exploring the city, with 95% of the shops closed. i walked to Chinatown thou, bypassing many of the shops that the crew wanted to visit. The Old navy, A/X, LV, Apple just to name a few. most of the shops are open in Chinatown, to my delight. lighting shops are a beauty to watch cos of the designs and ornaments that they have. exquisite and exotic. others are more like tourists gift shops out to cheat tourists' money. saw a few leather jackets at exorbitant prices, all made in China somemore... tsk tsk... passed by Union Square and Washington Square too... saw the Coit Towers, was deciding if i should make the climb to take a look or to proceed to the Bay Bridge, in the end couldnt resist the temptations and i climbed to the top.. freezing there and the view is lo and behold... i never regretted that climb that made me breathless...

The entire view of the city was within view... the financial district, the shopping district, the Bay bridge, the Wharf and the inlet into USA and of course the famous Alcatraz... talking about that, i am proud of my purchase cos i bought 3 tshirts at chinatown for the price of 6USD and i saw the exact tshirts selling at Coit Towers at 16USD each.. hohoho.. shioks...

After that, i took an entirely different route down the towers, hoping that this so called shortcut will save me some time so that i can detour to the ferry terminal and Piers before heading back... luckily, i can read the map quite well... i passed by the famous Broadway too... before heading for the pier where i can take a better view of the bridge.. its really magnifique!!! cant stop taking fotos... but since its getting dark... i had to head back before it gets too dangerous... funny thing is as it gets darker, i see more blacks roaming the streets... haha...

on the way back i decided to hunt for food oso, since i haven eaten the whole day... met 2 elderly ladies who chat with me cos they were a bit lost, they were from Montgomery, but lucky they found their way in a bit and i was able to proceed on... saw a man-made skating rink outside Embarcadero, crowds gathering around to skate in there... so cool...

Carl's Junior it is, despite repeated warnings from Debbie, cos she was just here last week and Carl's Jnr was being robbed at gun point while she is eating in there... scared stiff, she crawled out with other colleagues... i guess she is never go back there again...

wasted day today cos all the plans came undone... but not so wasted cos i did some unplanned exploration... but the wasted thing was that, i din get to cycle on the bay bridge, haven been to the fisherman's wharf, haven taken the tram, haven got my gloves and winter clothing... those were my objectives before i came.. those shall be completed tmr.. minus the cycling i guess... cycling, road trips to lake tahoe and napa valley is on the agenda for the next visit. Cant wait for tmr... going shopping with Kyan and Cecilia...

Will be meeting my sasa Charlotte on the way back to HK and Yiming as well, she is on a biz trip in HK, just found out.. so cool to meet friends overseas... lotsa pple in HK but haven got time and chance to meet them... never mind.. keep it till next time, shall rest well for shopping tmr and breakfast shall be Krispy Kremes at Hilton Hotel. Tts the plan for tmr...

right now? i hear police cars siren roaring downstairs... 2 nights in a row already...

Amritsar

this place turn out to be more interesting that most of other places that i have been to so far.... Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Shanghai, Narita and even Seoul.... maybe its because those places are cities and this is something different... its a 3rd world country. Everything was very backward but i am highly grateful for the internet access here and not to mention they have 70 over channels of cable tv...

Seoul is interesting cos of the gadgets they have there... Narita is because we are living off-town.. so nothing much to see until we get to stay in tokyo itself... shanghai is plainly shopping..

Yesterday was tremendous... some of the crew visited the Mother Theresa Orphanage... which i didnt cos i couldnt wake up... afternoon was lunch with the crew, punjab food is very tasty, i like Lassi a lot.. but think they put a lot of msg.. left me thirsty and full for the whole day. We travelled to Pakistan - India borders to witness the change of guards. its extremely crowded, i didnt know its such a big thing here considering its a daily event, but the stands and gallery is all filled. maybe its because of the deepavali holiday and weekend as well. According to Andrew (our Captain), this border is very famous because it cut a village into 2. this village turned hostile towards each other after the borders was drawn, cos half is Pakistan and half is India. This line is drawn by General Radcliffe back in the British colonial days and the village is known as the Wagga Village. It was an interesting sight, the parade. like a showoff event with dramatic fast marches and stamping, as they lift their legs above their heads. Almost a competition to see who is better as both sides carry out the routine with their citizens cheering them on. glamourous uniform and a never stopping fluttering of the fan structure, which reminded me of Cocks(male chickens). The nonstop touting in the streets but kids as young as 4-5 years old, just reminded me of how fortunate singaporean kids are. along the way, we saw rice fields, vegetables plantations that stretches as far as our eyes can see. herds of buffaloes, cows and sheeps, occasional wandering pigs... we also managed to catch a glimpse of an Indian wedding...

next was the Golden Temple, the holy sacred ground of Skihs. The temple is situated inside the Ghandi Gate, made of gold and yes, i mean real gold.. this place is also the site where the British massacred 1800 indians when they protested and wanted freedom and democracy. The temple is super majestic looking with all the lightings, rested in the middle of a square man-made lake, thousands of people were packed in the temple... people were praying, chanting, singing to the scriptures within the temple, we were lucky cos our guide manage to get express tickets for us, meaning we can cut thru all the queues of thousands of people to enter first. it was a sight to behold inside a temple made of gold. temperature was ard 8-9 degrees, but we see devotees soaking themselves in the holy lake. kudos to them.

Dinner before going back to hotel, was at our guide's brother-in-law's restaurant - Crystal. Coincidentally, our guide is called Amrit Singh, i wonder if its name after Amritsar. We played fireworks at the hotel after reaching back, something which u dun get in singapore or anywhere else much today, so much fun, the captains and the senior crew all joined in, we played till 3am...

Never have i thought that India can be so interesting, to think i was still dreading the trip cos its considered a long haul trip like europe and you get paid so much lesser. But apparently, this is a very difficult station to get cos some of the crew is also the first time here and its been 2 years for those who has been here before. So i guess its all worthwhile... real eye opener... seriously... the next time i get to come here, i will be visiting the Himalayas!!!

picking up the ropes is not easy.. i need to learn to be more organized and efficient... and really quick about it... off to Amritsar later... wonder how izzit gonna be... i think i am being checked on this flight... hope it turns out well..

First day of work

some of my batchmates are already back from their first solo.. i'm only a few hours away from it... feels weird not having my buddy ard... all the 4 snys, going out together, suddenly i am alone... i'm sure he felt it too... he was telling me about it... i wonder what kind of colleagues i will be having.. i hope they are nice and easy to get along with...

i am here stressing myself over the sequence of things thats gonna happen on board... i hope i dun do any major cockups... sigh... work stress... 1st nov...