Cynix’s World

It’s around 5am now at Houston, but I’m blogging now coz I can’t sleep. Still need some time to get use to this time zone I guess. Anyway, as some of you might already know, I took the LA route to Houston, which works like this, KLIA->LAX->IAH. I have a stopover at CKS, Taipei for about an hour as well.

Friday morning, I checked in my luggage using KL CAT at KL Sentral & took the ERL to KLIA. The KLIA Express cost me RM35 and the check in facility is free. Since I do not have my own transportation to KLIA, this service is definitely worth it for me. The ride to KLIA is ok, nothing special but the scenery is not too nice, can’t expect much of that anyway Arrived at KLIA early, walk around the Duty Free Shops, the stuff there are quite expensive, no reason to buy chocolates or liquor or cigarettes so just window shopped. Taking Boeing 747 to LA, not as nice compared to Boeing 777 that they normally use to fly to Melbourne. BUT the economy return flight ticket to Melbourne is around 2k, mean while the LA return flight ticket is around 3k, so yeah… no complaints there.

There’s a family with a baby sitting in my row but luckily I am at window seat and they are at aisle. A woman sitting with them decided that it’s better for her to move to my place since there’s 2 empty seats beside me. Found out that she’s from Penang and is a lecturer from USM! She’s going there for a conference about music in LA. She told me she’ll be doing her presentation on saturday morning and she needs to get more sleep in the plane. Cool eh.

Still quite sleepy, apparently.

Chiang Kai Shek international airport

After a few hours, we arrive at taipei for stopover. Malaysia airlines issued us a transit visa. The airport looks kinda old & run down, the promoters looks kinda pretty but snobish at the same time & some can’t speak english. Had a look at their duty free shops. The price is alright, USD1 is 32 Taiwan Dollars. Went in a duty free shop called Ever Rich and bought a souvenier that has the word “Taiwan” for the sake of it. It’s 2 metal keychains, one is phoenix & the other is a pen with a dragon design. Cost me USD8, got some taiwanese coins as change. William kept that tho. After walking around for a while, we decided that there’s not much to do there anyways so we went to the boarding area. There are many ppl lining up to get onboard the plane. Quite many taiwanese going to LA I suppose. Waited until almost everyone went in before lining up, just need to pass back the transit visa then all good to go.

Los Angeles International Airport

Opposite Terminal 6

After a few meals, a few movies & 18 hours and 10 minutes later, I arrived at Los Angeles Airport - LAX. Well I’ve always got this idea that since Los Angeles is a place of glitz & glamour plus Hollywood is there, surely LAX would look so magnificent. Well, strike one. Not that it looks horrible but it looks… well kinda old & nothing to do with what I imagined earlier as well. In fact after we reach LAX, we have to get through immigration , then claim luggage for security purposes, give the luggage back to them to fly to Houston then get to Terminal 6 for Continental flight. And before we know it, we’re out, yep there’s no duty free shop, I mean we’re at the arrival hall already. Saw one shop selling international calling cards & sim card. Cheapest sim card is USD90, would have considered sharing it with him if either of us have a tri-band phone. But I’m still using my 4 year old 3310 and he’s stil using his old phone too. Unbelievable right? There’s not much at the International Arrival Hall so we decided to go to Terminal 6 to wait for our flights which is in another 6 hours. aih…

                       
Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom in Terminal 6       The logo

I’ll be taking the First Class flight for Continental Airlines coz economy class is full for the whole day. Don’t wana stay alone in LAX hotel, could potentially be more expensive than taking this flight, so might as well pay for first class. Took a few pictures outside Terminal 6 & decided to check in early. Domestic flights normally don’t have anything special inside, so kinda expected this, there’s only a few duty free shops, some restaurants, StarBucks & Presidents Club which is for members only. Some of the shops were closing & some have already closed. We’re all kinda hungry, so decided to take dinner in the nearest restaurant, Jody Maroni’s. It’s packed with ppl, so I’m guessing the food should be good. Ordered soft drinks & Italian Chicken Hotdog, coz I know americans love hotdogs so it should taste good. Turns out the soft drinks doesn’t taste too good, they actually watered it down so badly that it tasted kinda weird and I’m talking about Coke. The hotdog din taste too good either, not hot & kinda bland. William’s collegue ordered fries, not too good as well, not much taste, the black pepper din solve that problem, and we’re too lazy to look for salt. I think the hotdog’s better if compared to the fries. Hmm… maybe it’s just this place, haven’t really tasted American food yet so hopefully other dining experience in USA would be better.

First thing we saw when we arrived at IAH

Got on Continental First Class, Boeing 757, small plane, kinda cosy, relaxing & casual compared to previous international flight in Malaysia Airlines. Managed to watch a movie & had some snacks. Finally arrived at Houston International Airport after 3 hours. This airport looks much better compared to LAX as it is newer. The lighting is bright & nice too. Claimed my luggage & took a cab home. Turns out that our apartment is pretty far from airport. Paid quite an expensive cab fee, had to pay tips somemore. Luckily, everything is covered by him & his colleague Don’t think it’s a good idea to travel in Houston unless you plan to rent a car or follow tour bus, mass transit not that convenient here, unlike Melbourne or New York as the cab driver told us.

Kroger

Yellow Cab Houston

Arrived at apartment in the morning, had some sleep but felt hungry. Microwaved some lunch that I brought from Aus for emergencies, din taste good. That’s coz it’s suppose to be cooked with milk & water but I only used water since we haven’t bought any groceries yet. Slept until evening, called a cab to get to nearest groceries store. Yellow Cab Houston driver says Kroger has the best price & it’s near, so went there and bought quite a lot of food & groceries. The TV here has around 75 channels and it includes Comedy Central, Food Network, tbs & Houston’s WB. And we manage to find around 10 Wireless Networks in our apartment, which most of them are password secured & among those that are not, only 1 has enough signal strength but it’s not that stabil, still better than nothing I’ll say. That’s it for now, will take more pictures of Houston City next time.

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