so here it goes

warning this could be one hell of a long entry for you guys to read.

i'm uploading the pictures for my previous entry, so be aware of that.
most of the pictures here in my blog are taken from muben's camera, so thank you muben, for that. muben is our official professional photographer of the trip. Also a huge thanks to Nasri who contributed as my personal photographer through out the whole trip. without him, i'd be caught red handed vaining with bulu. erk.
so now...where did we stop last time?

asian art museum. where afghanistan exhibition was held. we split up that day. 3 of us went to haight-ashbury. the weather sort of made me choose to follow nasri just for the sake of avoiding myself from cursing under my breath every 5 minutes for the coldness and wetness. i went to the museum with my pal. and i didn't regret the visit at all. i like the fact that i could learn something when i'm having fun visiting new places at the same time.

then we met the rest at this huge music store at haight-ashbury. and i can't remember what we did after that. i think we went to union square and (as they say it), chill in the very chilly atmosphere of san francisco. On the next day, we decided to split up again cause i've been wanting to set my footsteps on the alcatraz island. plus my pal and i were planning to go to the academy of sciences and the others planned to go to haight-ashbury again cause it was raining the day before, so they wanted to go there again to take some more pictures.

alcatraz, was so damn beautiful. it started out as a lighthouse. then became a fort when they discovered gold. and then as technology improved faster and faster, they found no reason to keep the fort running anymore. so the place was changed into a prison which housed some of the notorious and infamous criminals. like who? like 'scarface', also known as al capone. it was once known as the maximum-security penetentiary and most of the breaking attempts ended to be unsuccessful.

depiction of how one of the cells looked like one time ago


the 1962 escape


won't get this view if you were an inmate

this too


san francisco could be seen from here


the hole, troublesome inmates were put into isolation in this cell

so the island is like a museum right now, you'd be given an audio guide which would tell you the history and stories by former inmates and correctional officers who had served the prison before. it was a GREAT experience. from the island, you could see san francisco's tall buildings and hilly roads, it was AMAZING. i remember this one excerpt that said the inmates could actually hear the sound of music and people's laughter and even smell women's perfume at new year's eve when the wind was blowing. and that time they just wished that they had never done those bad things that got them into that place.

beautiful. alcatraz. i love.

and so my pal and i went back at around 2 i think. and we went back to the hotel for prayer. and suddenly the owner of the hotel (i guess) paid us a cold visit saying that we were supposed to check out on that day. we were very sure that we were supposed to check out on the next day. but we were shocked to find out that the documentation was not on our side. we were supposed to leave on that day. so we immediately informed the others and it was a bit of a chaotic time i would say. and we were then charged :|

so we kept on moving. drove to san diego. nothin much there. but the waterfront was full of creative monuments and decorations. it was not bad. and we also stopped by at the orange county cause i've been hearing request to see the famous laguna beach for quite some time. and yeah it was nice. i actually felt like i was at pasir pandak in Kuching (beaches kinda look the same to me) except that the water was so cold and i was surprised to see people surfing. in that cold water. that was just, wow.


just arrived there, san diego


laguna beach


i love sliding down the sand

so then we went off to hollywood, los angeles. explored the walk of fame. and randomly meeting a malay family that was also on a vacation. nothing much that night. but on the next day, i love. went to universal studios. and it was fun. i love all the rides though most of them were quite rubbish. rubbish but fun. all the shows were awesome. in short, i love that place. farisa told me that that was really nothing compared to the one in florida. but i think, it was really not bad at all. and guess what, since miss farisa has put it that way, florida might be my next target of winter breaking...or summer breaking. or whenever i feel like going.


hollywood


mulholland drive


pose with the strong wind


LA, people


la brea park


buritni spears


walk of fame


hollywood sign at universal studios


universal studios globe


beetlejuice


tebalkan bibir anda


something was wrong


paparazzi chasing after some celebrities


rodeo drive


really nice of me, helping an old man cross the street

and so we moved on. to grand canyon this time. and grand canyon had a more interesting way to greet us. it presented to us...SNOWWW. yup snow. totally weird. i was like... canada is haunting me. i thought i escaped the storm and so i'd be fine. but this? it was like freaking -30 degrees celcius. and we didn't book a hotel to stay for that night. and so we had to sleep in the car. and i tell you what? the worst experience ever. well for me. the coldness. not being able to lie down. my body couldn't even stand the floor, i'd get bruises on my hips and my back would hurt for the whole day if i sleep on the floor. and in the car. no bruises but it's worst. but i had no choice, so i tried my best to beat all the challenges.

snow at grand canyon


aaa... look at that


plate tectonics


deep indeed


dessert in arizona

grand canyon. beautiful. no words could describe. cameras can't even help potray the beauty of that place. only your eyes would be the best device for you to be drown in the paranomic view.

and the final destination. las vegas. before we arrived there, we stopped by at the hoover dam. it was night time, so we didn't get to see the beautiful side of the dam. in las vegas, met one of my fellow MCBian and friends of muben and farisa.

now i see the reason they call it sin city. you could see pictures of half-naked and even naked women almost everywhere there. painted on the buses or trucks. on the huge billboards. slots machines are almost everywhere. girls, hot or not (or maybe they thought they are) heading to clubs with sexy dresses (oooouuuu). along the pavement, you'd find m****** people wearing t-shirt that says "Girls Girls Girls, Direct To You In 20 Minutes", busy attracting bypassers attraction to take cards that they offered, which have naked women and phone number that needs to be called if interested in that service on them. and these cards are like everywhere, whenever i looked down, my sight would fall on some boobs with stars shining on them. vegas is really not a nice place to visit if you have children with you. the hotels are beautiful. each hotel has its own theme. like the one that stayed in, that was New York New York Hotel & Casino, so the theme is obviously, New York. There are Paris, the Mirage, the Venetian, Treasure Island, Excalibur, Flamingo, Luxor (my favourite), and so much more. Luxor looks like a huge black pyramid from the outside. so you can guess what the theme is. lots of sphynx and drawings of pharaoh. and of course for some students like us, not really a good choice of place to stay for about 4 or 5 days.


90 degrees drop, wanna die? ride that


luxor, the huge black pyramid. no they don't keep mummies in there, there are actually luxurious rooms available for rent


excalibur hotel. looks like a fairy tale kingdom eh?


eifel tower's little brother in las vegas


on stratosphere


...there was our klcc picture hanging on the wall inside the stratosphere


mandalay bay hotel


outside mandalay bay


into the year 2009


a m****** guy carrying a board with a picture of a sexy lady on his back, offering nudies cards to pedestrians at the same time. haha. haha. haha.

well, i'd say it was another nice winter trip this time. though i actually found that i actually enjoyed the first half of the trip more than the second half. cause i don't know maybe it was just me but somehow i felt like there was this negative aura that started to fog our view. or maybe it was just my view? hahaha. things that were unexpected, unpredictable. Maybe i've learned something this time. that i need to reevaluate my decision next time. cause maybe i had made a mistake for letting the devil in me to take things that are supposed to be my priorities not seriously. i do feel that the sacred distance is sometimes getting larger and larger. and that was entirely my own fault for not making the right decision when i knew, and i've seen the potential of being in that situation. hope it won't happen again :( Forgive me, oh Lord.