LA, LV, Whistler and Vancouver from 7/12/08 to 19/12/08.

Day 1 - Dec 7

we left for King's Dr early in the morning, the cab came earlier than expected, noone was halfway awake yet, let alone ready to hop into the waiting cab outside. hopes for a nice breakfast absolutely dashed, we made our way to fio's place. then hauled the luggages down the slope to yt's, good morning exercise. should do that more often, clears the mind of the previous night's fog pretty well.
then we discovered we were the absloute first, thanks to the eager cabbie. so we had a sit around, then the rest drifted in. and might i add that Zac is sooooper doooper cute. anyways, went to the airport blah blah. spent an ungodly length of time in a cramped seat, with only a short span of time at narita to work the ol kickers. then back to numb behinds and static in the hair that never fails to gross me out and piss me off simultaneously. yucks. and here i shall add again that SIA is on the decline, stewardesses with bad service attitudes, the krisworld entertainment system not working too well, the WORST air turbulence i've experienced in my entire life. i honestly thought at some point the plane would crash, no kidding. the first sign of air turbulence, a heart-rising dip that evoked yelps and shrieks from the japanese girls who got on at narita, made my stomach clench. bleargh. this was followed by possibly an hour-long rolling of the aircraft from left to right, with several dips interspersed between. everyone was ordered to sit down the whole time, no visits to the toilet and so i figured we were all condemned to eternal damnation without relief. (okay, i lifted that last one from rowan atkinson) but the rocking from left to right thankfully resembled that of a humongous cradle, albeit one being maneouvered by a slightly overzealous caretaker, and i managed to slip into a blissful sleep. which was abruptly ended by relieved, or soon to be, passengers rushing down the aisles when the seatbelt sign was turned off. i must mention that the whole flight i only had intermitten naps, and thanks to lousy krisflyer entertainment systems, i wasn't at all entertained by the backdated and uninteresting movies they had to offer. so when i stepped off the tarmac (or rather off the carpeted floors of the 747), it was with as much irritation as a starving grizzly watching his meal being snatched up by a seemingly innocuous and clueless woodsman stumbling upon his catch of the day. but things started looking good for me as the first activity of the itinerary was a direct bus ride to lunch in anaheim, then straight to the hotel with nothing else planned till dinnertime. i should add in here that we had landed in the LA airport. so lunch it was, a chinese buffet affair. as chinese lunches in the states go, i wasn't extremely pleased to find what was staring up my plate at me after i was done making the finest selections. but it was all there was to consume and nothing else could have been done. another thing to note was the large sizes of everything there, in relation to F&B. the cups came in humongo sizes, enough to last a man 3 days' at least in the Mojave Desert. and that's not counting the amount of ice in the cup. then me glo fio yt slipped out of the restaurant and headed to the row of shops near the restaurant. we were in some kinda large mall of sorts, where everything was spread out into diff buildings surrounding a carpark, much like a huge factory outlet. interesting concept. there was a farmer's market or smt, pet shop, clothes shops, bank, clinic, dvd rental etc. then it was time to get back into the coach and arrive at the ultimate destination for the day, the hotel room, or rather, the bed in the hotel room.

i should probably clarify that being 16 hours behind singaporean time earned us so many hours to allow us this many activities while it was still the 7th of dec.

the hotel, Embassy Suites Resort Anaheim was a spanking dig, complete with an automated lion on top of a manmade cliff jutting out by a waterfall in the centre of the building. and the hotel rooms were found only on the sides of the entire building, such that there was a complete hollow throughout its centre, and you can step out of your room, look down the railing, and swoon if you were afraid of heights. the hotel room, incidentally, was awesome. big. classy. posh. soft bed linen and towels. yum. and it had a single cup coffee maker, which i soon discovered could be found in every hotel i went to in this trip. with several hours to spare, i looked forward to taking a well-deserved nap. until mom called, with scoop that there was Target just out of the hotel and down the road. sigh. the nap could wait. i asked fio and glo to ask their parents also, and off we were, trudging out in the cool evening air and slowly fading light. Target had interesting stuff, some on sale for cheap, others not as much. bought some stuff, looked around. then we had to rush back for dinner. which i forgot to mention was supposed to be exciting stuff. we had it arranged to drive to Buena Park's Medieval Times, a themed-dining-cum-performance joint where they split you into teams and each team had a knight to support. you cheered for your knight, jeered the evil Green Knight, and ate like you were a lord or lady in the royal castle. that is, with your hands. yup, with only your bare hands, you drank soup in what looked like a stone bowl of sorts with a handle, tore the chicken thigh apart and stuffed half a roast potato down your throat, and then handled the steaming hot apple pie with the raw tips of your fingers. the medieval feel was somewhat lessened by the options of drinks served: Pepsi or beer. but the waiting staff were dressed for their parts, scooping soup with ladles from buckets. fio or glo even told me that her waiter called the chicken thigh "Dragon Meat" and the roast potato half "Dragon Toenails".

anyway, we all got stuck into rooting for the Black and White knight. and the night's activities dragged on. there was much jousting and swordplay, pyrotechnics and horsemanship. the horses were cool, and the swordplay rather interesting. but the boredom of the entire put-on got to us and many were asleep or close to it nearing the end of the draggy performance. finally it ended and we hurried out before the crowd got up their sore behinds. the restaurant design was cool and all, they made it look like a stadium with staggered seats around a sandy pit where the performance unfolded, but everything was SO tremendously draggy i swear and by the time the apple pie came, everyone was hoping the evil Green Knight would just stick a sword in the other knights and get it over with.

and so we reached the hotel, knocked out on the bed and showered, can't remember in which order for it was all so tiring. i ended up asleep on the pull-out sofa bed while glo and fio knocked out on the chairs around the table. apparently when you were dead tired it didn't matter how good the quality of your sleep was, just which item of furniture caught your attention first. hence that first night all of us neglected the soft comfy covers of the 2 single beds we pushed together earlier.

Day 2 - Dec 8
woke up bright and early, feeling really good. the holiday mood was really lifeting my spirits, until i made the discovery that american hotel breakfasts aren't nearly half as nice as those in european hotels. sure the ambience was good with the lion roaring and all every hour i think, and the greenery all around. but breakfast was only scrambled eggs, sausages and toast, as i eyed the deep-fried crispy bacon with disdain and didn't feel up for cereal that morning. the few pieces of pastry i grabbed in haste proved a mistake as they were sweet enough to possibly induce involuntary gagging, or even hyperglycaemia if even such a condition exists. the queue for the omelette with fillings of your choice was abominable and out of the question. and like the extra large portions, i was learning that breakfast wasn't going to be very exciting affairs for the next few days of my life. but then it was off to Disneyland and the California Adventure Park. which was but a short drive away. Disneyland was up first, since it opened earlier. so we walked in, and headed directly for the big rides.

no beginner to theme parks after all these years, we knew which rides to head for even without the map. so me glo fio yt derrick gigi and irwin struck a direct path towards Space Mountain. and i must make it known, out of pure honesty, that i wasn't looking forward to the theme parks. i turned into a real wimp at rides a while back when youthful ignorance and the enjoy-first-wonder-later mentality flowered into cautious adolescent i-would-like-to-preserve-my-life-not-lose-it-in-a-freak-accident mindset, until about a couple of years or so ago, when i suddenly dug deep and found the courage to hop onto a Space Mountain ride. the ride turned out to be exhilarating and i've been back at rides ever since. but anyway, we conquered space mountain. i was scared as hell, but there were no heart-abandoning drops in the ride, only violent jerks from side to side. of course i wasn't complaining. although i was surprised. the last Space Mountain ride i took had a corkscrew in it. i think it was in Paris? can't really recall. then the next stop on the battle plan was Matterhorn. again, shaky and bumpy as hell but the dreaded butt-clenching drop was missing. finally, Indiana Jones. i had heard talk about this ride, reviews that it was fantastic drifted to my ears a while back. but with the 2 previous rides under my belt, i felt confident. so off we went. i admit that in Space Mountain, all i could see was black. that wasn't because the ride was dimly lit. well it was actually, for everything was dark except for the space-y glittering lights that were supposed to make you dizzy and feel like you were in outer space. it was mostly because my eyes were clamped shut tightly. and in Matterhorn, my eyes inched open several times during the ride, enough to catch sight of the tracks in front of me, and the people wandering around the park below me off to the left, before they inevitably slammed shut again. but in Indiana Jones, i must say that my eyes were open the full duration of the ride. and i was impressed by the effects of the ride. the lighting, figures, projections etc. and even when the tracks in front of me snuck off downwards into darkness i didn't shut my eyes into unseeing in the face of the incoming plunge, which by the way, never materialised. this was when i realised i had found my MOJO. the MOJO for adrenalin-pumping action. thus it was that i was pumped up by the ride, but nonetheless still wary of the purportedly BIG rides that Cali Adventure Park offered.

it was still morning when we crossed over to Cali Adventure Park right opposite Disneyland. we wasted no time in seeking out THE ride of the park. California Screamin'. on the map the thing looked a monstrous creation of some sadistic engineer. it occupied a huge portion of the paper, with parts of the ride looking to be designed perfectly to scare the living shit out of any sane mortal. but first, we were all ushered by our tour guide to a simulator ride, which showed the sights of Cali very realistically by means of a tremendous screen like the one in the imax. there was even the smell of oranges pervading the air when the screen showed a stunning view of the orange fields of cali, which is a large part of cali agriculture or smt like that. the experience was amazing. very realistic. i loved it. and i loved it all the more knowing what was coming next. THE ride of the day. i trudged onward with my enthusiastic cousins. somehow the instinct for self-preservation was not equally shared among humans, some like to feel the rush of air at speeds that would normally make a grown man quail with thoughts of imminent death. hurtling downwards at mind-bending speeds was just not what humans were born to do. why put ourselves to so much heart-stopping fear and stomach-writhing turns and drops? it puzzles me to no end, but each time i step out from a ride i feel like a tremendous weight was lifted off my shoulders, and as if a dizzyingly large airy bubble was lifting upwards through me and all i can do is laugh uncontrollably and talk loudly to the others about how great the ride was. and so i stepped onto California Screamin', a mega monster of a ride, lifting high up in the air many stories higher than anything else i've seen, with a drop that seemed designed to leave the vital organs of its riders back up at the crest of the plunge while the empty shells of those foolish enough to enter the ride plummeted towards the ground at speeds that would tear off their hair and nothing else if they were lucky. the entrance of the ride was strategically placed right below the tracks where the carts met the dip after the mind-scrambling first dive. the screaming from the riders above made us slightly nervous. on the other hand, the americans didn't seem too bothered. perhaps being locals, they've been on this ride more than enough times to wear their survival instincts thin. perhaps they were just scared to move or talk in case they'd simply start blubbering and faint away. i'd imagine it was the former. there was a prudent suggestion by brendan that we hit the washrooms first. this was the one ride that had the potential to unlock our bowels or gut at a strategic plummet. then with everything cleared, we stepped into the misty depths of doom. the queue was short, and in a New York minute, we were seated on the carts, bolted down tightly with shoulder bars, and rolled slowly round the bend out into the open. we lingered for a while, where several people stood at the railings next to the tracks. i averted my eyes, knowing they'd be smirking at the cries of despair, and looks of absolute trauma, of all the occupants in the cart the next instant. a puff of smoke, and we were shot off at a HUUUGE speed forward. and i mean HUGE. i've never sat on a ride that went at this speed i tell you. amazing. some feat of engineering, some moment of inspiration by an engineer and you get this. looking back i think this first shot forward was one of the best parts of the ride, and i mean seriously scream-worthy. then we climbed up, it seemed, towards the highest point of Mt Olympus before the crest of the first and biggest rise came. and it was all downhill after that. we all screamed, no doubt some even wept. there were several amazing swerves, i could imagine calculating centripetal forces there. and then came the corkscrew. beautiful. more plunges. more turns. and finally we pulled in. and the only feeling i had of this frightening experience was that of euphoria. and then we were all out, shouting for a second time on the ride. but there was more to conquer, more battles to win. so we headed to the next attraction. a several storey downward fall. eep. i did a double take, told them this one was outta my league, i liked rollercoasters, but direct no-holds-barred falls at acceleration g was not my thing. but then we observed the ride carefully. and turns out it looked okay because the real drop wasn't too high, it fell about 3/4 of the way, rose up a bit, fell a bit more, and repeated once more before sinking to the ground in surrender. seems pretty ok, we all assessed. brendan yt and derrick were disappointed, they wished for smt more exhilarating. i was just happy to keep my intestines for another day. so on we hopped, the queue was non-existent. (note to self: yellow nike teeshirt!!) anyway, we strapped in, all the time with me thinking how stupid i was. i should have jumped ship at the last moment to join fio at the bottom. too late to chicken out. so up we went. and again here was a ride which had smt to boast about other than the throat-constricting drop. the speed at which we shot upwards to the top was the highlight of the ride i think. it was probably scarier than the fall that was soon to come. oh and before that, i was getting scared as hell waiting for the ride to start as we were all sitting there. and there was this girl in the queue staring at me, smirking her face off. all i could do was ignore her and clench my eyes shut, gripping tightly to the only armour protecting me from a freak accident, my shoulder bars. i wish to the high heavens that girl pissed her pants on the ride later. they also had some plastic screen shielding you entirely in front, and we theoretised that this was to funnel all bodily fluid ejections downward instead of allowing them to take their natural course outwards and all over the passers-by below. another theory emerged that it was to prevent various innocent winged creatures such as birds or insects from mistakenly flying into passengers, thinking they had a luxurious meal in store for them, or worse, thinking that this was the perfect spot to eject their bodily fluids. just an interesting aside.

and so we alighted with shaky looks but nonetheless the vigour was apparent in all our eyes. perhaps it's the euphoria of survival, of feeling so very much alive that makes these hairy rides such a hit.

and then it was lunch, a sordid affair fit for one of Jamie Oliver's fits. Jamie's Theme Park Lunches. what a hit that would be. our meal consisted of clumped spaghetti strands, i take the menu's word that those really WERE spaghetti strands, with unhealthily-red looking tomato sauce poured on top. this was, as the menu proclaimed, Spaghetti Marinara. where the Marinara in Spaghetti Marinara came from i had not a clue. neither, i think, did the cook. there was also a slice of pizza, huge, as expected. it also managed to be oily and dry at the same time, an unimaginable feat i expect. and tasted like dog food, not that i've ever tasted that before. it's weird when i say something tastes like another object or substance that noone in their sane mind would ever stick into their mouths. like how i say olives taste like car tyres. or when blood tastes like rusty metal. or when frozen mashed potatoes taste like cardboard. it just feels like how these would taste like, not that i've ever tried before. some weird sixth sense probably, a hidden talent as a Michelin-starred chef. lunch was over thankfully, and we hit a small ride, some cutesy swinging round a huge orange trip. which was actually scarier than expected since all that separated the flimsy metal frame of a chair that held me and an imminent horrible death was a slender metal bar strung across my lap. the chair was only help by two wires, and flipping the seat upside down or just enough to tip its occupant out was startlingly easy. hence we were swung round and round, me being fixed immobile, not daring to move an inch as the thought of falling out and perishing in a giant orange flashed back and forth in my mind. not a way to go clearly. just imagine the parting words on the headstone. finally we emerged into the sunlight, which was somewhat clouded by the greying sky. rain was imminent it seemed but not before we headed to our next stop, the Tower of Terror. after lots of debating about what the ride entailed, we made our way through the queue and were ushered into a spooky room. daddy and mommy were with us, so were auntie khim kiang and ah seng uncle. i was warning mommy of the ride, there were sudden drops and everything, could she handle it? somehow she managed her way in anyway. then we were shown some whacked story of a family disappearing from the lift of some Hollywood hotel and entering the Twilight zone where they were never seen again. and we about to enter the very same lift and trace their footsteps. so we were ushered again into an area, seated side by side, all facing the lift door. then it began. at first we all thought it should be ok, after all, the only safety precaution we had was a single belt across the lap. no shoulder bars, nothing. this ride wouldn't be at all scary. and then we were all elevated, with much noise and ado. then we were shook, the lift doors open to reveal ghostly figures of the family that disappeared, and we were unceremoniously dropped several metres downwards, screaming loudly. then the elevator proceeded to go up and down, at freaky speeds. then at one point the doors opened to show us the entire park, and cameras took snapshots before we plummeted downwards and up again and down again in complete darkness. at one point i didn't know whether we were falling or going up, then i realised it probably was the former because my heart seemed to have escaped out through my mouth, and not my butt. then it ended. i gripped the handlebars by my sides so tightly that i realised later it was the only thing that prevented me from being lifted upwards completely from the seat during the plunges, which happened to yt and some of the others. everyone was laughing at the parents, their expressions in the photos. and then everyone laughed at daddy cos he was telling everyone how his bag flew up during one of the drops, and luckily he had held onto it if not it would have flown up and met his or another unfortunate individual's head seconds later as gravity caught up with it. so ended the rides for the day. we stopped over for photos outside with the Tower of Terror as the backdrop, with us doing stupid shots and all. there was also this cool backdrop which was painted to look like the street carried on all the way down when it was actually just a painting. then there weren't any big rides left, and we were wondering what the hell to do since we were supposed to meet well after dinner for the coach to drop us back at the hotel. we caught up with some others as we stopped to watch a high school musical 3 performance. the male dancers were SUPER ... effeminate. erm. no more comments there. then we found out an advanced party was leaving early for the hotel. so we joined up. the numbers were so big in the end that the coach was hired to make an early drop, before coming back again at the previously appointed time. we killed time waiting for the coach by making our way back to Disneyland and watching the extremely boring parade. we've never bothered to watch the parade since the first time we stepped into a Disneyland park, and that day i fully understood the reasons why. yawning my head off, tired from the day's delights and stress, i was hard pressed to keep myself from spreading out on the floor and taking a nap. back into grizzly mode, and so was almost everyone else, we sat in disinterested silence while the more enduring of us took photos of the colourful floats and smiley characters. then the coach came and all energy was rekindled as we headed back. next came the problem of finding dinner, for we were left to our own devices that day, which meant we had to hunt food on our own. we settled for a trip to Target, then grabbing some grub on the way back. so it was that we went to Outback for dinner. had the lamb rack, which would be delightful to the locals but wasn't as lamb-y tasting as i wanted it to be. coupled with the fact that we neglected to include how the meals here were catered to the solid hearty appetites of big Westerners, dinner was an unhappy affair, especially for the gut.

all in all, the theme parks were still same old same old. with expensive souvenirs, only a few rides that could hold our interest and dreary food that seemed to come straight from the freezer, missing the preheating process somewhat and definitely absent when it was time to inject flavour and nutrition. but i noticed something, that Disneyland, especially, really was a fantasy land. it was amazingly detailed in creating a world so dream-like and fantastical as to attract so many people throughout the years with the promise of escaping reality. every single point of architecture was not left out in identifying with the theme. at indiana jones, i remeber how every single thing corresponded to the theme of the wild west, and that of hidden tombs and what not. the railings were all wooden posts and ropes, not metal to be seen. lighting was by means of flickering lamps hung by ropes winding across the ceiling. the floors, walls and ceilings were all rock and sand and dust, even realistic props like spiderwebs, abandoned carts, skeletons and insects were seen everywhere you looked. it was amazing how detailed the designers were. walking out some bridge somewhere in the place i saw the small stone statues of an owl and another creature i can't recall, sitting on stone pillars which people don't even shoot second glances at. every insignificant or small item i looked at was still perfectly in sync with the theme of its placement. stunning. it only hit me how fantastic Walt Disney was in creating this dream. and how fantastic the people behind the various parks were, except maybe for the ones in certain countries which we have all heard nasty rumours, such as long queues and poor service, about.

back to the hotel again, barely made it to the sofa-bed, slept for a while before showering and nestling into the sofa-bed again. woke up in the night and scooted over to real bed which i found fio and glo in. it seemed we adjusted to the time zone perfectly well.

to be continued when my wrists stopped aching....