It's back!

Must go to Singapore. This is the REAL thing because everything becomes dirt cheap. I'm so glad that it's just a bus ride away from where I'm from. 

Sad for Bangkok

As much as I don't want to post bad stuff here in my blog, I just want to express my sadness over what happened to one of my favourite cities. Bangkok is beautiful. But political protests and violence has ruined the city. Several buildings were burned yesterday, one of them Central World, Southeast Asia's second largest department store. You can see a video of it burning above. 


Here are some pictures of Central World that I took during my trip last year. 

The street in front of the mall used to look like this before the Red Shirts closed it off.

Got this pic from the website.  

I hope Thailand recovers after this and resolves its issues. The country has so much potential. When all of this is over, I will gladly go and visit Bangkok again. 

The cutest trailer ever: BABIES

This movie is just way too cute. It shows the lives of four babies in different parts of the world, namely Mongolia, Namibia, Tokyo and San Francisco. The cute little tykes are the highlights of the movie, of course, but I can't help being interested about the locations, as well. Which makes this movie another must-see for travelokas/lokos like me. Watch the trailer and get ready to goo goo gaa gaa.

A must-watch for travelbugs: 'Eat, Pray, Love'

Although I did not like the way she whined in the book, the movie adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Eat, Pray, Love' (starring my favorite actress of all time, Julia Roberts) is definitely a must-see for anyone bitten by the travel bug. They said Ms. Roberts insisted on shooting in the exact locations (Italy, India and Indonesia) to make the movie more beautiful. And let us thank her for that! I can't wait for August 13.

Pacific Grove

A short drive from Monterey is the village of Pacific Grove, where we decided to spend overnight before continuing on the Highway 1 to San Francisco. This cute little village is what I imagined a small American town should look like. 

It has small, colorful buildings.

No traffic. 

Family-owned restaurants like the Red House Cafe where they have really good lunch specials. I had the warmed tomato mozzarella sandwich and it was really yummy. 

This house is so elegant and sophisticated. I wouldn't mind living here.

A lone tree by the beach of Pacific Grove

The beach is beautiful, but I don't think it's ideal for swimming. 

Romantic sunset

Seagull!

We stayed at the lovely Sea Breeze Lodge, near the beach.

This cottage is where you check in and have breakfast.

It was my first time to stay in a motor inn, a really cool and comfortable one at that. 

Our room.

The design is a little 70-ish but I love it!

We booked the Sea Breeze Lodge through Travelocity  and we got a double and twin room (for 3 adults) for only US$84.68 a night including breakfast. Not bad! 

And while we were on our way to dinner, we saw a couple of deers crossing the road in front of the lodge. How nice!

Monterey

Monterey is a picture-perfect town.  Literally. Although it was just a stopover on our way to San Francisco, we enjoyed the brief stay there. So much that husband and I plan to come back for a nice, quiet holiday and a whale-watching expedition. 

But since time was short, we just walked around the town and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is a must-see.

Here are nice houses by the beach.

In the center of town.

Promenade by the sea

Monterey used to have a lot of sardine canning factories and some of their old buildings, like the famous Monterey Canning Co., are still on Cannery Row.    

Feeding time at the Aquarium

Leafy Seadragon.

Fishy.

So they sting, but aren't they beautiful?

My dad in front of a humungous aquarium.

The World's Most Beautiful Highway

I feel so ashamed.  My pictures don't give justice to the beauty of California's Highway 1. It's a state highway that hugs the Pacific Coast and goes all the way from Los Angeles County to San Francisco, around an 8 to 10 hour trip. It's probably one of the best road trips I've ever had and something that you should do before you die. 

If you're planning to go on this long drive, make sure you have company (an extra driver helps a lot), bring lots of water and sandwiches (it's nice to just stop the car and have a small picnic on the shore), and load up on sunscreen. And, of course, bring a really good camera. Mine was already pretty good but I feel that it's still not enough. 

Here's a lone windsurfer.

A shot of the coast.

Approaching one of the small towns on the coast.

Wild waves. 

Driving to the famous Big Sur bridge. 

The place where the mountains meet the sea.

Lovely.

The Awesome Grand Canyon

'Awesome' is a word that Americans like to say a lot. I think I heard the word 300 times in two weeks when I was in the USA. They use it to describe anything, even those that are not-so-awesome.

But there's one place in the US that deserves to be called awesome and that is the Grand Canyon. And the best way to see it is through the air. So husband and I booked a flight through Grand Canyon Airlines and Scenic Airlines. They picked us up at our Las Vegas hotel well before sunrise and saw the canyon during dawn.

There were only 18 of us on the plane. It's a small propeller jet with big windows so you can see the views. I took a picture of it once the sun was up.

A big white bus picked us up when we landed.

And took us to the Holiday Inn for a yummy buffet breakfast.

Then it's off to visit the Grand Canyon National Park.

Located in Arizona, the Grand Canyon National Park is one of the oldest parks in the US and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are two vantage points that tourists can visit -- the South Rim and the North Rim. The South Rim is open the whole year and is more frequented by tourists. It's about 4,600 feet from the Colorado River below and 7,050 feet above sea level. The North Rim is open only from mid-May to mid-October but supposed to have the best views ever. Since we went there during autumn, we only saw the South Rim which had some tourists but not a lot.

As for the Canyon, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I wonder how Mother Nature was able to stack up these rocks?

Found this really cute squirrel and an eagle in flight. The park is full of wildlife.

The best part of the tour is flying back to Las Vegas where we saw almost the rest of the Canyon through the air. It was AWESOME!

Here's a picture of the Colorado River. Without it, the Grand Canyon would not exist. The river's raging waters shaped the Canyon thousands of years ago.

We also flew over the West Rim of the Canyon which is not really part of the National Park but boasts a Skywalk and Hualapai Indian Reservation. A lot of tour operators in Vegas promotes the West Rim because it's closer but it only has an elevation of about 4,000 feet above sea level which is not as breathtaking as the South Rim.

And lastly, we flew over Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US and provides water to the rest of Nevada.

Our tour costs us US$388, for two people. This includes the plane ride, buffet breakfast, bus tour around the park, guide fee, fuel surcharge and hotel pick-up and drop-off. The duration was around 8 hours so you still have time to explore Vegas after that.

I recommend everyone to see the Grand Canyon from the sky. It's really one of the world's wonders.