14th May (Sun) - We took a bus from Phnom Penh to the Cambodia-Vietnam border. The tiny bus was packed with passengers and the road was damn bumpy. At the Vietnam border, we queued for a long time because the immigration officers were paid by travel agencies to settle the passports of the people in the tour groups... Since we were not in any tour groups, we couly only helplessly watch the tour operators pushing piles and piles of passports to the immigration officers. After sometime, my mum and some fellow passengers in our bus were fed up and they complained [View Full Entry]

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12th May (Fri) - We took a "deluxe" double decker bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. (The bus is actually 2nd handed... The original signs and labels, written in Chinese, were still in the bus, which was probably made in Taiwan.) In Phnom Penh, after putting our luggage in the hotel, we went to explore the O Russei Market and the Central Market. We also went to a Buddhist shrine to watch a Vesak Day ceremony, and explored the area near the railway station and the Boeng Kak lake. The public infrastructure in Cambodia is rather [View Full Entry]

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9th May (Tues) - My mum and I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia in the early morning. The flight was so early that my mum and I overslept and nearly missed the plane. In Siem Reap, my mum booked a taxi to bring us around. The driver brought us to Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat, where we saw magnificient ancient temples with intact wall carvings and decorations... In the evening we went up Phnom Bakheng, a temple hill complex, to view the sunset. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy and we didn't manage to see the sunset. 10th May (Wed) - More [View Full Entry]

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In 2006, we have holidays on 30th and 31st January (monday and tuesday) due to Chinese New Year. I originally planned to clear my homework at home during the holidays, but my mum suddenly booked a tour to Genting and "dragged" me and my sister along. In the end, we had to bring our homework up to Genting... (My sister was more pathetic than me. She got a 3000 words essay on Asian economics to write.) Genting was very crowded (as expected, because it was Chinese New Year). In the end, to maximise our time, we went to the theme park [View Full Entry]

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I arrived at San Francisco's Greyhound depot on the morning of 31st Dec 2005. The idea of counting down and celebrating New Year in a foreign country made me pretty excited. Also, after travelling around Western Canada/USA alone for 2 weeks, I finally had company in San Francisco. My father has a friend, Uncle Danny, who lived in San Francisco. Uncle Danny and my father worked together in Hong Kong 2 decades ago. After my family migrated to Singapore, Uncle Danny migrated to USA and settled down in San Francisco. I was very lucky to meet Uncle Danny in San Francisco [View Full Entry]

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After spending 2 days in San Francisco (refer to my post on SF), I decided to visit Sacramento on the 3rd day. Since I had a Greyhound Discovery Pass, I could take an unlimited number of Greyhound rides within 21 days and I could travel between SF and Sacramento without paying additional fares. When I arrived at Sacramento, the weather was lousy. The sky was excessively overcast with a generous serving of rain and lightning... Nevertheless, I made my way to the State Capitol building. (I was fortunate enough not to encounter any flood. After I left Sacramento and returned to [View Full Entry]

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(Okay. This post is almost six months overdue. For the past 6 months, I spent 4 months slaving away in my university, 2 weeks travelling in Cambodia and Vietnam, and 1 month travelling in Macau and Hong Kong. Now, I'm finally back in Singapore and I will try my best to update all my travel photos and blogs. Phew!) To be frank, Los Angeles didn't give me a very good impression. Unlike the past few cities that I visited (e.g. Salt Lake City, Denver, Santa Fe, Phoenix, San Diego, etc), Los Angeles is BIG, chaotic, and to some extent, lunatic. My [View Full Entry]

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After visiting Tijuana in the morning, I bought a transport day pass in San Ysidro (the US side of the US-Mexico border) and took a San Diego Trolley to Old Town San Diego. Old Town is the original site where Father Serra, supported by a brigade of Spanish infantry, established the first mission in California in 1769. The site is preserved and converted into a state park, where some of the orginal buildings still stand and the other buildings were reconstructed. Some of the buildings house restaurants serving Mexican dishes and shops selling historical souvenirs and Mexican products. After [View Full Entry]

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Tijuana is a bustling city on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border. Any visitor going to San Diego will definitely make a trip to Tijuana, since many things in Tijuana (e.g. culture, cuisine, language, shopping, etc) are different and often cheaper than USA. Of course, I won't miss the opportunity to step into this small part of Mexico and experience a totally different atmosphere... (After visiting Tijuana, I can tell my friends that I have visited Mexico. Haha.) The Greyhound bus from Phoenix to San Diego reached S.D. Greyhound depot at around midnight. I wanted to visit Tijuana, but [View Full Entry]

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The Greyhound bus left Albuquerque at 5:30pm on Christmas and reached Phoenix around 3am on Boxing Day. Initially, I wanted to take a bus to Tucson and explore Tucson in the morning. Then I would return to Phoenix in the afternoon and explored Phoenix in the afternoon. However, because Boxing Day was a public holiday, most of the schedules between Tucson and Phoenix were cancelled. The next available bus from Phoenix to Tucson would depart in the afternoon, and if I went to Tucson, I might not be able to make it back to Phoenix in time to catch the bus [View Full Entry]

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