Children Sponsorship Program

i was walking along santa monica 3rd street while this gal came up to me with friendly smile. i knew it's about some donation programme. i dont know why but i stopped to listen to her. it's an international children sponsorship program that she was trying to "sell" to me.

i have always been wanting to do this but as usual, never take initiative to look for the programme. since someone approached me, i was like "why not?" Or may be i was feeling lonely those few days in the States and didn't want others to feel left out and lonely like i was. whatever the actual reason is, I SPONSORED A KID!

i never choose any specific gender, no specific country, i let the programme choose for me. she told me that the child's profile will reach me in 10 days. i will get the kid's information when i am back in Malaysia. i am so excited!

came back for a week now and finally i received the letter from Children International. else, i will think that i have been conned! :p

My child's name is Leobanny Tineo Arias and lives in Dominican Republic. Frankly speaking, I dunno where exactly is the place! So sorry to all my geography teacher back in school. I scored high marks but i memorised it just for the exam. The exams are all over now so my brain deleted those unused info automatically! :p Anyway, Leobanny is 11 years old and he is already 5'1" tall and weigh only 78 lbs. gosh... i wish i could share a little of my fats with him. He loves to dance and he speaks only Spanish. So before i saved enough money to visit him, i should also saved some money to pick up Spanish too. :p i know i know, there will be translator but it will be so different if i could communicate using the same language, wont it.

sorry, i need to google bout the Dominican Republic now before i could think / dream whether i can afford to visit my boy. :)

It's affordable to sponsor a child. Visit http://www.children.org/ if you need more info on how to sponsor a child. :)

The Grand Canyon

4th day of our tour covers The Grand Canyon.

the journey was long. bout 2 and a 1/2 hours to reach the small town of Arizona before we transitted to another bus to travel another 45 minutes on the bumpy road to Grand Canyon.

on the way to the Canyon, we passed by the Hoover Dam built on the Colorado River. it's named after the ex-US President Herbert Hoover as he played an important role in building the Dam back then. It's located just at the border of Nevada and Arizona and these two states are in different time zone. standing one foot on each state, the one side on Nevada is one hour younger and the other is one hour older. kakaka...

we continued our journey and everyone continued to sleep in the coach. especially me and mei mei... :p

it worth everything when i saw the canyon.

it definitely look grandier than the picture i took!

me jumping on skywalk! fyi, i was screaming walking on the skywalk. :p

i dunno how to describe. it's just grand!! fantastic view. we wanted to take a helicopter ride but wind is blowing too strong. sigh... else, it will be another different experience. :)

More of LA

San took a day off to bring me around on my last day with her.

We took a 1 1/2 hours drive to camarillo factory outlet. Just to let me shop at Polo, Gap, DKNY and many more brands that are not available at Citadel. :p Four hours at the outlet and i only managed to go into the few brand i mentioned. i even skipped my lunch to have more time for shopping. hahaha... that's crazy? you won't say this if you're at the outlet k. No joke!!

We took the coastal way to Malibu. Stopped at Malibu wines for wine tasting. I felt a little cheated or may be i am just ignorant. USD12 for 4 types of different wines but the serving is not even half for each type! i rather spend that USD36 that three of us paid to buy two bottles and drink at home! may be i am just some cheapo...

continued on the coastal line, we passed by Malibu beach, Santa Monica and we went to Hooter's at Long Beach downtown! To those guys out there, the chicks are really exposed! i won't lie to you that they're all as pretty as me, but their boobs definitely bigger! :p

it's their halloween costume.. :)

i love the chicken wings at hooter's.

Of course we had beer too! not as much as what we had in Mexico though... :p

Mexico & San Diego

i joined the 2D1N Mexico and San Diego tour on my 5th day in LA.

US Navy Base taken from the cruise.

Coronado Bridge

As the navy base is just beside the bridge, there are some steel bars built-in at the side wall of the bridge for defence purpose. The steel bars will be released to prevent submarines from other countries entering into the navy base. Cool feature.

We headed direct to Mexico after the cruise. We skipped the border city of Mexico, Tijuana, known for drugs trafficking and prostitution and headed straight Ensenada.

Something interesting explained by the tour guide.

Apparently, the red colour zinc was the border last time. And I wonder, how the hell this wall gonna prevent those desperate Mexicans going into US? It's like 4' height and it is just those we see in Kampung houses! The American built the much higher one at the back which is the white cement wall. and there is a 2 mile empty land guarded by polices to stop those Mexican climbing over the wall and thinking that they could run 2 miles to the Land of Gold. :p

along Coastal Freeway 1, nice huh?

seagull @ La Bufadora

since i am travelling alone, i joined the tour guide and driver for lunch and dinner. and you know, they normally eat for free and i got it free too. :p they thought i am the trainee tour guide. wahahaha.... i saved alot of money.


We had Mexican food for dinner. It tasted so good. Yummy...







it tasted much better than it looks k. "Seven Sea Soup" with seven kinds of seafood in it and it tasted so fresh... thumbs up.

my main course - Mexican style grilled fish. This one tasted fastantic too. Two Thumbs up.

my Mexican coach driver and Chinese tour guide promised to bring me for Tequila after dinner. Since I had 3 Tequila while having dinner, we decided to just have a beer each before calling it the night. and next thing i know is to see a bucket of 10 coronas right in front of me. 10 bottles for three of us. Gosh... i think they might have different intention on me. There is something that they least expected, I AM A GOOD DRINKER!!! and three of us had like 21 bottles of beer and 6 Tequilas the whole night. I am not kidding you.

Francisco, me and Alan Guan

luckily the weather is cooling. else, i will have the heat up till my nose. We stroll along the sea side before heading back to hotel.



at the end of the night, all their plans, if there is any, was spoilt by GOOD DRINKER!
and Alan waking up this morning telling me that he got the worst hangover ever in his life. "No more beer, no more tequila!!" was exactly what he told Francisco.

2nd day @ LA

my favourite activity - shopping.

we went to South City Plaza. unlike ours, their mall is huge across big land but just 2-storey. they have earthquake!!

this is South City Plaza. doesn't look impressive, does it..

on the first day itself, i spent USD500 and i wonder my money will last till the day i gone home. but who cares, i have plastics!! i love plastic and i love the person who came out with this wonderful idea.

i know i know that my pocket will have a humongous hole but it's hard to hesitate. so many brands, so many choices and they look cheap! wahaha... they are all below 100, 100USD of course, but it's so nice looking at those below 100 figure. i have not seen in Malaysia for long!

their shoes are so niceeee... but i can't afford to carry all of them back :(

these are only partial of my harvest. all my clothes and dresses are in black, and i am not good in photography. it tried but it came out like some black ink splashed over the brown carpet. wahahaha... so sorry...

And i saw something interesting on the highway.

"Car Pool's Only - For 2 or more person in vehicle"

Interesting, isn't. Only those cars with 2 or more person can use the fast lane. and they're really fast. how good if Malaysia has this rule and i will be more than happy to have extra passengers in my car. muahahaha.... and if there is only 1 person in the vehicle, the maximum fine is USD341. Bear with my photography plsssss... i know it's not good at all. i tried to take the sign with fine but i couldn't catch any, either too early or too late. :p

we had McD for lunch. i had their Southern Style Chicken which i like. A set of burger and a fillet-o-fish cost USd10. If i am staying a little longer, i will be eating only bread at home. :p

it tastes so much nicer than our McChicken back home, trust me!

we had taiwanese dinner. 3 dishes for USD16.50 and each additional dish is USD5.50. 4 dishes for 3 of us. portion is big and san had them packed for her lunch tomorrow.

They then brought me for BOBA Milk Tea @ Guppy House. Not too bad but their milk tea is far far far from Taiwanese. I can't complain a Taiwanese food in western country afterall right?

me @ Guppy House

15 more days :)

i am in LA!!

finally i am in LA.

4 hours from KLIA to HK and 14 hours long haul from HK to LA. arrived at LA on time but waited for parking for an hour. i thought reservation made earlier since our plane touched down on schedule? sigh...

then a blardy long queue at the immigration that seems take forever to clear. officers taking time to question every visitor, without miss k!! i felt so warm when one of the officers checked my passport said "terima kasih" to me. :p

LA airport is currently under renovation. i wanted to take a picture of it but nothing interesting. dusty, plaster board everywhere... and san already waited for me for two hours!! so i quickly rushed out to meet her before she left me to take taxi on my own. :p

LA doesn't look like that the city i expected. i don't see any sky scraper, i don't see any huge buildings. may be i have not entered into the LA city itself. San stayed in Long Beach, 25 minutes drive from the airport. even the apartments are 3-storey. Weather turned better only towards the evening. Afternoon was as hot as KL, less humid though. i don't see any happening drinking places along the way. i must ask her to bring me for happy hour before my bosses arrive next Friday.

talk bout something happier and sth i enjoyed most. i thought of having some bites before i board the long haul flight to LA. not having any HKD in hand, i thought i better find a posh restaurant so that i could use credit card. and i picked this, Seafood Bar - Caviar House and Pruner.

saw the nice fresh salmon and smoked salmon on their display, i walked in. knowing they will be expensive, i am still shocked when i saw the price on menu.

i ordered the crab salad which the waitress recommended and a Marlborough Chavignon Blanc to make me sleepy while on board, i enjoyed my long 40 minutes before the 14 hours flight.

guess how much i paid?? ... ... ... USD45!!!! it's freaking expensive ok! may be i am stingy, yes, perhaps i am. btw, the reason i ordered this crab salad and not the initial salmon that i eyed on, i think you know why, it's the more reasonable priced on the menu which cost me HKD250. all dishes with salmon started with price tag of HKD300!

nevermind, at least i have someone buying me dinner. Korean BBQ dinner.

these look much nicer right? our menu at the Korean BBQ Restaurant. USD16.99 per person and all you can eat! The portion is so big and it comes with egg in hot pot, soup, salad and all the Korean side dishes. We thought we could order the second plate of meat but all three of us were too full to take in anymore.

thank you san and hb for the treat! :)

transit @ HK

started my 17 days US East Coast business cum holiday.

i am travelling alone to meet up with san one week earlier than the business schedule. talking bout biz, not really as well. haha... as we have universal studio, disney in the package. more of holiday than anything else. just that i am leaving earlier to be alone.

this is the first time i am travelling so far alone. 4 hours passed from KL to HK and now i have another 12 or 14 or 16 hours to LA. in order to kill my time during the long haul flight, i am fully equipped.

and i also bought a new camera for the trip as the camera we had admitted 'hospital'. and ed just called that the camera is ready for collection today!! else, i could save up for more shopping over in US.

should update more when i arrive...

see ya... :)