The Travel Bug Blogs

Check In: Jian

I have to confess - jetlag is the only reason driving me to write this! :P Since it was so well publicised by Suan and Al - I just got back from my travels once again. Everytime I make a trip like this and return to the real world - I kick myself for not having the guts to make travelling my career! Yes, alright I am already travelling quite a bit for this job but not enough!!!!

So I started my travels in San Francisco for about 2 nights. Was my 3rd visit there - last time I was there was with Al and I'm sure she won't make me forget how I coerced her into walking all those uphills and downhills!! But Al - you have to admit all those views we captured were well worth it!!! Anyhow, this time around I finally made it to Alcatraz which was a truly one-of-a-kind experience!

Then it was off to Chicago for a week's worth of training. Back to good ole St Charles which is about an hour outside Chicago. Training was really useful this time around - it is always refreshing to get together with people from offices around the world because you start to realise that the same shit happens everywhere!!! PLUS had some serious good fun the whole week after hours too - the training centre's well equipped with a 'Social Centre' which is essentially an inhouse pub - believe it or not the best fun was watching the newbies (who were there for some other training) making a fool of themselves!

I happened to be in Chicago/ St Charles on the first official day of spring and guess what - it snowed! So believe you me, Jan, I know how it's like for you! Anyway, after training, spent a night downtown Chicago and then it was off to see Al in LA!

Always good fun to visit Al - you guys should do it sometime really!! She's a great host - knows where best to shop, eat but doesn't really know how to make dining reservations at popular restaurants!!!! :P So she gets all excited that we might try Monday lunch at The Ivy - and I ask her if we should call ahead to make reservations. She says nah, lunch on a weekday we should be fine. So Monday 12.30pm we call the restaurant - can we make a reservation for 1.15 (now she calls!!!) ? Silence on her end...then oh nothing till 3??!?!? Lesson learnt huh Al?

Darn thing was I got seriously sick once I arrived at LA - must have been the cold and late nights in Chicago! Never been so ill in the last 5 years and I had to fall so ill on the first day of my holiday!!!!#$^&%

Then after about 4 nights I think it was off to Madrid transiting in London for about 2 hours. If any of you get a chance to access the British Airways Lounge in Heathrow - try the showers!! They have 'Hand Showers' - ahhaha..I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what those are!

Madrid was interesting - was a little trying since I was still sick but I still walked about as much as possible despite coughing and sniffing away! Good thing the Europeans and Americans are not as hung up on Bird Flu as they are in this part of the world - else I'd have been quarantined! But me being me, I covered the Old City from north to south, east to west in 2 days!!!

Then me and my 2 big luggages (:) - refer to Suan's entry) made our way to London which was my last stop on this round-the-world trip of mine.

Suan's the funniest hostess ever - if you ever need a good laugh and break from the mayhem of the world - head out to Suan's!! Just 2/3 nights in London with her and you're guaranteed to forget the worries of the world - like that 'spoonful of sugar' shit from Mary Poppins y'know? I finally managed to catch The Producers this time around so I was glad - tried to get tickets when I was there over New Year's but as it was peak season then, I couldn't get any! Other than that, Suan's entry pretty much summarised the highlights of my stop in London.

All in all it was a much-needed break and I could have done with more time in each stop. Had originally planned for a full week holiday in US and then another full week in Europe - making it 3 weeks away from work but sigh..work being work wouldn't let me have it so I had to cut it short.

So my bank account's much much lighter thanks to this trip but worth every penny, euro, dollar! (p.s. a word of travel advice, if you ever make a trip overseas covering many cities, make sure you let your credit card company know where you are - or maybe it's just a stupid KL thing - it's the 3rd bloody year I've had to call them up a few times during the trip to assure them my card was not used in fraud!!!)

Suan and Al, thank you both so much again for putting up with me - I seem to bug the both of you almost every year and I hope I'm not becoming too much of an annual bother!! :D. You should come out to HK sometime and let me play host for once!!

(OK - so there - I have contributed to the Blog, Al & Suan!!)