My fight from New York to Las Vegas was really comfortable… I had more space than business class passengers as the seats for flight crew were in front of me and not occupied! It was my first Delta flight (hopefully more to come in future), as well as my first on a Boeing 757! It was a rather new aircraft – still smelling of fresh interiors and looking bright and clean… unlike the WestJet flight I had on a stinky, old 737.

It was evening by the time my ~ 5 hours flight arrived in Las Vegas. The view from the plane as we were flying into LV was spectacular - lots and lots of specks of lights! The Las Vegas airport was really interesting, as it had rows and rows of slot machines where gambling addicts can play while waiting for their flight departures!

Las Vegas hotels are really affordable. I booked a room at the Excalibur Hotel as it was even cheaper than staying in a hostel! The room was not very nice, but nevertheless it was still a nice change from the hostel beds without any privacy.

By the end of my first night in Las Vegas I gambled away $75 and downed about half a dozen $1 Corona beers. Drinks are free in casinos (even cocktails!) but one is expected to tip the server about a dollar each time.

Not wanting to gamble away my remaining trip expenses, I reluctantly pulled myself away from the craps table.

Las Vegas is very different from other places, not only for its casinos but also for as one of the few places in the States where there are things like legal prostitution (there are people handing out flyers everywhere - well, the brothels are operating outside of Las Vegas itself… but the flyers advertise ‘escort services’… ), and legal consumption of alcoholic beverages on the street.

My second day in Las Vegas was spent walking down the Strip… the weather there was hot and dry, it would have been easier to take the bus down but I wanted to pop into all the Strip hotels and casinos to look around so I went on foot. Vegas is full of imitation architecture - there is New York New York, where the hotel is made up of several imitations of iconic NYC buildings (i.e. the Empire State Building) and Paris (that had a fake the Eiffel Tower). The most amazing attraction in my opinion is the lion enclosure at the MGM Grand. Apparently the hotel owns a pack of lions in a ranch somewhere outside of Las Vegas, and someone would groom a few of them each morning and they would be transported to the hotel’s enclosure which comes complete with a man-made waterfall and pond, if I remember correctly. The interesting thing is that their lions are all pretty active, unlike those at the Singapore  Zoo that are always sleeping.

I spent the later half of the day at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet where I bought another handbag for the SO.

I had most of my meals at the Excalibur hotel’s buffet restaurant as I had plenty of dining credits that came with my hotel room… the food there sucked big time though. I would have paid the $20+ to try one of those legendary buffets in Vegas (I heard a lot about those huge Alaskan crab legs!) if not for those credits I had to finish… well, maybe next time.

And the third day I went on a day tour to the Grand Canyon… the view was amazing, but unfortunately being on a day tour meant I had just about 3 hours at the South Rim itself. It would have been more enjoyable to stay over for a full day at the Rim, but there were no viable/affordable transportation options.

After several weeks of procrastination, I’m continuing with my trip report… I stopped blogging at NYC, and so the report continues from there…

Not that I’ve got many readers eager to know about my unexciting life, but this also serves as a record of the thoughts and experiences I’ve had on my trip. I’ve got an awful memory and this will be nice to read years from now when I’m reminiscing about my journey in N. America.

NYC - Las Vegas

I’m writing this in the food court at JFK Terminal 3, where there is no free WiFi access. I got moved from my original seat at the back of the plane to near the front, at the emergency exit row – yay! More leg space for my 5 hours flight to the Sin City.

Delta planes at JFK

Excess legroom in front of seat A1 on a relatively new Boeing jet

I’m missing Vancouver already, with its pleasant weather, fresh air, friendly people and relaxing pace of life. And of course my roommates who are really awesome and easy to get along with.

And oh, I got my grades yesterday – I got 3 A- and an A. Oh my, guess what… the A was not for any of the courses in my major, but for Wine Science! All my homework and revision (drinking wine!) have paid off! Wine is a pretty fun and interesting subject… I am actually contemplating to look for a part time job at a wine bar or shop when I get back to Singapore, just because I like the subject … not because I like working part time (I don’t like to work for others, and I certainly don’t like to face snobby customers). Maybe I can gain some experience along the way and can learn how to start my own wine distribution business or wine bar!

Today is my last day in NYC… I’ll be leaving for Las Vegas in a few hours’ time.

NYC is a pretty fun and exciting place, with lots to see and do… however, one would need a substantial budget to go for nice meals, watch broadway shows and go for all the tours and attractions. On a low budget, there wouldn’t be much to see or do, because all the museums have admission charges of $10 - $20.

I bought a 3 day New York Pass (www.newyorkpass.com) for $100 and it gave me admission to ‘over 40 attractions’, but in actual fact only a handful of them are the better ones - having said that, it’s already worth the money, as I managed to use $100 worth of value on the first day alone.

I visited the Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Madame Tussaurds’ Wax Museum; went up the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, the Bodies Exhibition, and had a 2 hour evening ‘cruise’ on a ferry.

In terms of food, NYC wasn’t as expensive as I expected it to be - one can spend a fortune on food if he likes, but for people like me, $1.25 can get a breakfast of coffee and a chocolate eclair (I think the price was only for a coffee and donut but they gave it to me when I asked =)). That’s an impossible price to get in Canada (except for Macdonald’s $1.50 coffee and muffin).

I don’t have a very good first impression of NYC - I find that people here are pretty stressed out, always rushing for time (just like in Singapore), and pretty much unfriendly and not helpful - except for some street side food vendors who always seem to be cheerful and friendly. It’s certainly a nice place to visit for the shopping, shows and attractions, but it’ll never be on my list of places to work and live in.

Last night I was at a subway station and there were two transvestites dancing and taking off their shirts on the platform, either oblivious to the attention they were getting, or actually enjoying the attention. It was so funny and crazy, and I was telling my friend (whom I met for dinner) we don’t need to pay to go for cabaret or comedy shows… can just get a free show on the subway.

Another funny thing about subways here is that, on every single subway ride that I took (about 6 times), there would be some homeless people who’d hop on the train and start to tell their sob stories and asking for money. Homeless people here are very creative (well, some of their stories could be true, but I am skeptical), compared to those in Canada who just sit on the ground and hold out their hands! Here are some of the ones I remember:

* “Between XXX and XXX stations, somebody stole my wallet. I have no money to go home now, and I need $8.50 to get back. I have $1.85 now, and if somebody can spare me a quarter or any amount at all, it would be great”
* “I am HIV positive and have no ID. The hospitals would not treat me because I do not have an ID. I need money for food and for my treatment”
* The most ultimate one that I’ve encountered… and I gave some coins to… were 2 elderly men who got on the train I was on last night, and shouted “How are you, New York City?! It’s gospel time!”… and started to sing a catchy jingle (I couldn’t make out the lyrics cos I was listening to my MP3), dancing and jiggling across the train. I was impressed! I gave them some coins and one of the chaps gave me a hi-five and said, “you’re an artist”. LOL!

I think they deserved it - they were homeless but still able to ‘work’ for money, appearing cheerful and trying to entertain people… not like the stereotypical homeless people who’d just tell their sob stories and hold out their hands. The latter doesn’t work for me - I (and probably many other people) would think they are just making up stories half the time.

Alrighty, tonight I will stuff myself with a buffet in Las Vegas and finish the evening with a soak in the bathtub - a nice change from the bunk bed I was in for the past 5 nights.

I bought a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off open top bus ride today, and hopped on, intending to take one whole round without hopping off. However, traffic was extremely, painfully slow, and so I got off at Chinatown to have lunch… fishball noodles! I had it at one of the HK-style cafes there, and it was actually more like instant noodles with fish balls. Well, still it was a decent meal at just $3.50 in NYC, can’t complain much I guess. At least they gave me 11 fish balls…

Then I went to the subway station intending to take the tube to meet my friend at Columbia University. Being totally new to the NYC subway I was totally taken aback by the complicated network of routes… so I asked the ticket vendor what train I should take. That was a Chinese guy, and he looked at me as though I was a moron and yelled an indecipherable answer at me. I asked how much the ticket cost and he yelled $2, grabbed the money from me, and practically threw the card through the hole in the window.

I asked a passer-by for directions instead.

Later when I was getting back from Columbia U to Times Square, the ticket I bought had a problem and I couldn’t get through the turnstile, so I asked the ticket vendor for assistance… and got yelled at again. Seems like he couldn’t understand English or just couldn’t be bothered to listen - I told him the ticket had a problem and he just asked me to try again. So I went to the turnstile to try again… couldn’t work. I looked at him, and he was motioning furiously at me to try again. So I did so again and again. Couldn’t work still. Then I walked back to the counter, looked at him, and he again had that “you are a moron” look and told me to go through the manual gate instead. Dammit. What’s the problem with these people.

When I got back to my room, I realised that someone took my towel. Gee. Of all things, someone stole my towel, a used one too. Now I got to buy a new towel before I can shower =( Better lock all my stuff tomorrow before I go out.

I took the road less traveled today by taking the Amtrak train from Montreal to NYC. I chose this mode of transport because having experienced the excellent service on Amtrak’s service between Vancouver and Seattle I thought it’d be just as good.

However, this time round the train kind of suck (poor ventilation, and less comfortable than the Vancouver one), and the food service was bad… while there were gourmet sandwiches on the Vancouver service, this one had just hot dogs and hamburgers… and there was no hot water for the entire ride, thus no coffee or tea.

Nevertheless, it was a very scenic route and I enjoyed it… pretty grueling ride at about 11 hrs though. Reached NYC at about 9pm, and headed out to get some dinner after checking in at the hostel… there are street side food vendors here, just like in Bangkok! But much cleaner of course… and I got myself some delicious, authentic tasting Indian food for just 5 bucks.

I spent the entire day walking around Montreal today, following the suggested itinerary from Frommer’s travel guide. Took lots of photos, of which a selection can be found below.

For lunch I had Chinese food in Montreal’s Chinatown. This is totally different from the Chinese food in Vancouver. Apparently here the clientele is mainly westerners since there are fewer Asians in this part of Canada. Not like in Vancouver where we make up a formidable number. So obviously the food tasted less authentic and yes, the meal ended with a fortune cookie.

Guess what my fortune for the day is (pic below)? Quite hilarious, because I know for a fact that the fortune cookie is an American invention and I am pretty sure many Americans believe that they really do come from China. The same for things like “General Tao’s” chicken. In all my life eating Chinese food I’ve never heard of things like these.

And as an afternote, I did not manage to finish what I wanted to undertake today (against what the fortune cookie predicted) - I didn’t go to Mont Royal because I was too tired. Darn fortune cookie!

Tonight is my last night in Montreal… and then I’m saying goodbye to Canada (with the exception of my half day layover in Vancouver at the end of my trip).

Today I went for a day trip to Quebec City. The shuttle bus arrived to pick me up at 7.30 am, bringing me to the office to check-in for the tour and then boarding the tour bus there (troublesome eh?). That began a 4 hour or so ride to Quebec City, with a breakfast stop along the way where I paid a steep $3.60 for a miserable muffin and coffee. Tour buses always seem to stop at places with expensive and lousy food.

Shortly before noon we pulled into Quebec City… a small, quaint little town (yea, more like a town than a city) that the tour guide described as similar to Brittany in France. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and will be celebrating its 400th birthday later this year. What a shame, I think there will be some very grand celebrations lined up for it, judging from all the construction taking place now.

There were lots of stories and interesting bits of history narrated by the guide throughout the tour, but well… I’m one of those who can’t seem to keep these things in my head for long. The only interesting bit that I recall now is how the guide/driver explained why there were some many places named “Saint *****” in Quebec. He said it was because in earlier days, people turned to the village priests to name their villages, and the priests would then name them after the Catholic saint of the day (quite sketchy about this part). If it happened that there was already a village in the area with the same name, then the priest would just flip open the Bible randomly and then choose the name of the first saint mentioned on the page.

The guide also mentioned that many Hollywood movies supposedly filmed in a French setting are actually filmed in Quebec City - because that would save the producers much money than actually going to France. The movie Catch Me If You Can was actually filmed in QC (the scene where Leonardo di Caprio was printing fake cheques or banknotes in a church in France - the actual building is in the last photo below).

I like the feel of Quebec City very much… it seems like a nice place to settle down in for retirement (as is evident from the growing number of retirees moving there)… however, the weather there is really extreme - it can go as low as minus 40 degrees centigrade in the winter and as high as 35 degrees in summer. Also, everyone speaks French as the first language so it can be frustrating for non French speakers.. even for a day!

What I realized after just 1 day in Montreal and 1 day in QC, is that some French speaking people here can be quite snobbish - I don’t think they totally don’t understand English - just that they refuse to communicate in English even though they do understand - I’ve heard such stories from most people I know who ever been to France and now I know what they meant.

Anyway, the scenery and architecture were awesome.

I only planned for a half day layover in Toronto, and I’m glad I planned it that way - there’s nothing much to do in Toronto - not much sightseeing besides the CN Tower (another one of those tourist traps where you pay $20+ to take an elevator up, wow at the view from the top for a couple minutes and that’s it). Needless to say I didn’t go for it. Too much to pay for 2 minutes of city view when they are more or less the same everywhere else and no less magnificent for example at the Pearl tower in Shanghai, OUB Plaza in Singapore, etc.

There are actually lots to do in Toronto for people who love the arts… and comedy - Canada is like the comedy capital of the world with lots of shows in Toronto. I didn’t go for them again as I’m on a budget and don’t really want to spend like $30 to watch a comedian for a couple of hours when I can watch on TV.

I took the morning before my departure for Montreal to do a walking tour of downtown Toronto as recommended by Frommer’s, and had a supposedly famous “peabody style pork bun” in St Lawrence market - it was absolutely disgusting, with many pieces of salty and greasy pork cutlet slices wedged between a bun and nothing else, not even a slice of lettuce! Man, I got to stop believing in those marketing efforts put up by these eating establishments - rows and rows of newspaper and magazine reviews on how good that expensive bun is… it was so bad I couldn’t finish eating it!

I don’t like the feel of Toronto - it’s too fast faced, much like Singapore… (but still slower than the latter). And oh the temperature here these couple of days was a comfortable ~20 degrees celcius - quite unexpected given that its still less than 10 degrees in Vancouver - I came here expecting worse, which is typical of weather in East Canada… hmm… global warming effects changing the typicity of weather?

I took a grueling 7 hour bus ride to Montreal from Toronto. The only reason why I chose bus over a flight or train was because of the price … I bought it at a steep discount for early purchase… no complains for the price and the relatively OK bus ride since I had two seats to myself.

Along the way… there was mostly … nothingness. The countryside in Canada is such a vast landscape of emptiness… grass and trees, the occasional farm and small town, and nothing else. I wonder how people who live hours away from a major city (i.e. those in the agricultural industry) survive in this age. It must be quite boring. And oh I had Tim Horton’s for dinner again. Darn. It was the only choice available at the rest stop.

The bus pulled into Montreal shortly after 10.15pm, and I was surprised at how well-developed the city is - seems much, much better than Toronto. At least, first impressions was good - the subway is a more pleasant experience than in Toronto and there are few homeless people on the streets - I felt quite safe walking late at night in the empty streets looking for the hotel I’m booked into for the next few nights - very comfortable room (check out the pic! - I’ll upload tomorrow). I’m glad I got a good rate for this stay.

My last day in Vancouver was spent doing last minute packing for the stuff I’ll be bringing along on my trip… then went for a Macdonald’s dinner with a roommate… returned my keys and said goodbye to the roommates. Then went on my way to the airport.

I was booked on a WestJet flight to Toronto. The security procedures were rather strict – I even had my laptop swiped with a swab and tested on the spot for explosive particles. The flight was delayed slightly as for some reason a passenger had to be ‘removed’ from it.

The way I see it, flight crew were not very professional (compared to Asian carriers’ crew), and were very casual… chatting loudly amongst themselves during the flight. Also, they weren’t doing things very efficiently – they could have sped up the boarding process if they followed some boarding sequences (i.e. allowing passengers sitting at the back of the plane to board first… thus reducing bottlenecks). Hmm. No wonder North American airlines have been losing money.

The flight was 4.5 hours long and very uncomfortable. The seat was hard and narrow… even for an average sized Asian guy like me… I was so relieved to get off the flight finally at 6.30am Toronto time! Then I took public transit to the hostel I am staying at for the night. Toronto’s subway system is quite aged and its showing… the trains and stations were quite dirty and dimly lit. Quite different compared to Vancouver. And here on the streets they’ve got very short and narrow ‘streetcars’ which were essentially just trams.

After a long flight, I was hungry and tired so the first thing I did after depositing my heavy bags at the hostel was to look for something to eat. I ended up, where else but at Tim Horton’s (it’s all over the place here in Toronto, compared to Vancouver where Starbucks is the de facto coffee place).

And… I ended up eating Tim Horton’s sandwiches for all 3 meals today because it was the most reasonably priced food I could find. And to be honest they were all pretty good. Vancouver’s Tim Horton’s serves fake cappuccino (at least the UBC branch does that – of the few times I ordered it, they served me French Vanilla flavoured coffee – not at all like cappuccino, and doesn’t even have frothed milk). The Tim Horton’s cappuccino I had for breakfast this morning in Toronto is the real deal, though I do find it a tad less aromatic than Starbucks – but I guess for the price its good enough.

Shortly after 9.30am I got on the tour bus for a day tour to Niagara falls… well, when we finally got there I was quite disappointed – although the falls was certainly really large and amazing, but there’s nothing much else besides that… and one would get tired of looking at it after a few minutes. I would prefer something like the Grand Canyon where every direction you turn there’s amazing scenery. I also paid about $10 to take an elevator down ‘behind’ the falls… it was quite disappointing as you can see from the pictures below - nothing more than a wall dug out of the rock to show that we are behind it. But the sheer quantity of water and the speed can really make one feel intimidated.

Before the falls we stopped at a boutique winery for some free wine tastings. The wine were all so-so… and I had a chance to taste red icewine as well (Cabernet Franc – erm, not very nice actually). Actually after a few tastings the novelty of icewine wears off – I find late harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling much more palatable, and many times cheaper.

And after the tour we got back to Toronto at 6pm. I tipped the driver/guide (who incidentally can probably qualify to be Toronto’s tallest person at 208cm tall) and went for dinner, yes, at Tim Horton’s.

I swear I’m not gonna touch Tim Horton’s again in the next 2 days at least. Sinful stuff.

Exams are finally over! With this my stint at UBC is over.

Yesterday night I went partying with my roommates… the first time all four of us went out together, and definitely the last time since I won’t be here anymore. It was fun, thoughm and especially memorable since it snowed – yes, in mid-Spring! I think its quite rare to have snow in Vancouver (compared to the rest of Canada), and this year we’ve apparently got plenty and even twice in spring!

It’s the exam season, so all the drinking establishments on campus were rather empty… and all closing early – wouldn’t serve us more than a pitcher of beer… luckily we had some before going out…

I’ve been packing up my stuff since I’ll be leaving in a couple days’ time… my room is like a pig sty and I always suck at tidying up and packing stuff… without the SO helping me I felt kind of lost (she’s the one who always gets my luggage in order whenever I’m going somewhere).

I did manage to clear up everything by the last minute, out of desperation more than anything else! We (me and a couple of friends who will be taking the same flight back to Singapore with me) rented a car this morning, drove to the public storage place where we rented a storage space and left our luggage there. Now my room’s quite empty except for the stuff I’ll be bringing with me on my month-long trip alone. I’m sure traveling alone will give me fresh perspectives that I wouldn’t get from traveling in groups.

Later in the day I went to the Nitobe Garden (in UBC) and Wreck Beach for some phototaking.

I feel pretty sad about leaving Vancouver, my home for the past 4 months. It’s a really beautiful place with lots of greenery, clean and fresh air, pleasant (and surprising) weather, a melting pot of world cultures (not like Singapore where its more like a melting pot of South Asian cultures)… I’ve met people from more places around the world during these few months than in all my years in Singapore – my airport taxi driver was an Afgan, My roommates were from the US, Canada and Palestine (his family now lives in Jordan), I had classmates from all over the world (compare to NUS!), and I went on a trip to the Canadian Rockies on a bus tour with people of 13 nationalities!

I hope one day I’ll be able to come back to this city again to work and live here for good.

And here are some photos:

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