November 2010 Road Trip Part 1

So I just got back from a road trip to some cities in Western United States. I basically flew out from Vancouver to Las Vegas on November 8, then I spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. It was a great second visit to Las Vegas (I went to Las Vegas about two years ago with some friends who lived in LA and SF).

Welcome to Las Vegas! (@McCarran International Airport)

Unlike last time where I only had time to go clubbing at TAO and strolled down the Strip for only about 3-4 hours, this time I had enough time to stroll The Strip both at daytime and at night. It was crazy!!! I love Vegas, I always love the casino atmosphere..... not sure why though....

Wynn

Some highlights of my Las Vegas experience are:

1. I got the chance to watch the incredible stunning show of Blue Man Group

2. I went to Grand Canyon West Rim and tried the skywalk (read: COOL)

3. I was staying at one of the top hotels in Las Vegas >>>> THE VENETIAN!!! :) :)

Yes! I went to see The Grand Canyon!!! Another nature's world wonder conquered! :)

Guano Point

I was basically pretty happy with my time spent in Las Vegas even though I wish I have watched more shows that Las Vegas has to offer.

Before, we left Las Vegas, my uncle wanted to check out the golf country club at Wynn. We had a peek and wow it was pretty spectacular!!! A store attendant, who is eventually an Indonesian, at the country club store, said that it costs about $500 to play there which is more costly than any other places. The reason is it's very very hard and costly to maintain a golf course in a desert like Las Vegas. Indeed!

Wynn Country Club

After Las Vegas, I then rented out a car to depart for San Diego on November 11. I didn't drive the car, my uncle did! A bit of background, my uncle comes right from Indonesia, had no experience whatsoever about driving in North American highways, had no knowledge at all about the road signs and etc (Indonesia has road signs everywhere but NOONE pays attention to them there, including me haha), and was completely not used to driving in the right side of the road. Hmmm...... That's why I was constantly nervous and kept on checking the speed on the speedometer.

November 2010 Road Trip Part 2

On our way leaving Las Vegas for San Diego, we stopped by at a McDonald restaurant since we hadn't had lunch. What I like about McDonald in the US is the ice sweet tea which is not served in any Canadian McDonald (as far as I know). Hitting back the highway, we proceeded with high speed (approximately 100 miles/hour of speed) and again, I was constantly nervous and kept checking out the surrounding to make sure no police was around. As we almost reached the greater San Diego area, I explained to my uncle how the speeding ticket works. As I was explaining, a police car was behind us and honking on us to pull over. Oh great!!! Finally we got caught. Long story short, we got a speeding ticket with an unknown amount since it's not stated on the ticket. The ticket doesn't even have the website on it. We ended up having to go to Civil Court in Beverly Hills to find out how to pay for the ticket.

On our way from Las Vegas to San Diego, we stopped by a big and famous factory outlet, Cabazon. We shopped for about 2 or 3 hours and then we continued out road trip. I'd have to say Cabazon was alright (I rate my shopping experience there 7/10).

As we reached San Diego, we checked into our hotel, Doubletree Club Hotel San Diego. After that, we were very hungry for food and finally had dinner at nearby Cheesecake Factory restaurant. Then, we went to see how downtown San Diego looks like and then headed back to hotel for a rest.

The next day, we did a quick visit to San Diego Seaworld. It's nothing special except the Shamu Show.

I have to say that San Diego was just OK and nothing much to do except visiting the beach. I didn't have a chance to visit San Diego Zoo since my travel buddy didn't want to go. We ended up trying to go to the border between Mexico and the US. As we reached the border we didn't really have a gut to cross the border. We ended up shopping at the factory outlet near the border which was probably the highlight of our shopping experience in this trip since we shopped the most here (shopping experience 9/10).

The next day, we tried to visit a beach in San Diego, la Jolla Beach. The view was awesome! I feel that I should have visited more beaches in San Diego. Oh well, probably next time!!! We had to leave San Diego and continued our journey to the next destination, Los Angeles!

Kelowna Part 2

Here are some pictures from the Kelowna Trip..... Click on them to view larger image! Enjoy! :)

As we arrived in kelowna, the first wine shop that we visited was the Summerhill Winery....

The next winery we visited was Mission Hill Winery and Estate. We had a wine tour there and tasted a couple wines..... We bought some but then the next day we regretted ever buying any wine at Mission Hill. The wines at other wineries such as Inniskilin and Sumacridge which are located South of Kelowna were simply much better......

For more pictures:

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=870247&owner=Cyclopps

Kelowna Trip Part 1

Finally I got the chance to write something about my trip to Kelowna, well it's more like a trip to Okanagan Lake.

So me and 5 other friends went to Kelowna last week (Wednesday and Thursday) and had great amount of fun!!! We took lots and lots of picturess.....

Also, we visited as many wineries as possible. Well, you don't go to Kelowna without visiting wineries. That's literally the only thing u can do there beside having Italian food at MammaRosa.

I have to mention here that we had a grreeeaattttt dinner experience at MammaRosa, if u ever visit Kelowna u should check that restaurant out! Yummy!!!

Finally, we came back to Vancouver with a trunk full of bottles and bottles of wines and ice wines. We didn't take the same route from Vancouver to Kelowna. Instead, we went South of Kelowna to Oliver, Osoyoos, then Keremeos, Hedley, then finally back to Highway 1. The driving trip back was in total 6 hours long plus the times we had visiting more wineries.

Oh yeah, after our visit to all the wineries, we all agreed that Inniskillin has THE BEST ice wine. All of us regretted buying ice wines in Mission Hill. Oh well.......... Mission Hill is the most well known one. So, we feel like we have been tricked by the branding. However, the ice wine in Inniskillin is very expensive. But, I guess you have to pay the price for what u get.......

Check out more pictures at the link below:

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=870247&owner=Cyclopps

My Updated List of 50 Places to Visit Before You Die

~~~~~ North America ~~~~~

1. The Grand Canyon, USA
I am very excited that I am going there next month. :) :) I can't wait to stand and walk on the skyline and enjoy the panoramic view of Arizona Dessert.....

3. Florida, USA

7. Las Vegas, USA
I am also going to Las Vegas for a couple days next month. Not as exciting as going to Grand Canyon though, well, just 'cause I have been to Las Vegas. But, I am pretty excited to explore some places I didn't have the chance to visit last time. Plus, I am absolutely gonna see more Vegas shows this time.

I went to Las Vegas in summer 2008. Now, I got to see why people call Las Vegas as "Sin City".

9. New York, USA
I went to New York in December 2006 with a couple of friends. I didn't quite have a good impression of the city. For me, it's a bit dirty and dark.

11. Canadian Rockies, Canada
Finally, I traveled to the Canadian Rockies before I went back for good to Indonesia.

15. Niagara Falls, USA / Canada
One word, SPECTACULAR. I went to visit Niagara Falls last year after my graduation with my parents. Check out my Niagara Falls pictures from the link below:

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=867690&owner=Cyclopps

23. Yosemite National Park, USA

28. Alaska, USA

36. San Francisco, USA
I have been here a couple times, May 2006 and August 2008. I have a friend who lives in San Francisco. What a romantic city with hills.....


~~~~~ Central America ~~~~~

13. Chichen Itza , Mexico

43. Barbados, Barbados


~~~~~ South America ~~~~~

14. Machu Picchu, Peru

26. Iguassu Falls, Argentina / Brazil

31. Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

33. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

47. Angel Falls - Venezuela


~~~~~ Europe ~~~~~

18. Venice, Italy

27. Paris, France
I went to Paris in July 2009 as part of my European Tour. However, I didn't really like it except the fact somebody great built an amazing structure like Eiffel Tower. Other than that, the roads are messy and people can't drive properly. It's just a mess for me. Hahaha....

35. Rome, Italy

37. Barcelona, Spain

44. Iceland

46. Zermatt, Switzerland


~~~~~ Africa ~~~~~

5. Cape Town, South Africa

17. The Pyramids, Egypt

21. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

32. Masai Mara, Kenya

34. Luxor, Egypt

40. La Digue, Seychelles

48. Abu Simbel - Egypt


~~~~~ Middle East ~~~~~

16. Petra, Jordan

38. Dubai, United Emirates Arab
I was in Dubai Airport for a transit from Indonesia to Europe. One day I hope I will have the chance to explore Dubai more. One day....

~~~~~ South Asia ~~~~~

6. Golden Temple, India

10. Taj Mahal, India

19. The Maldives, Maldives

30. Himalayas, Nepal

41. Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka


~~~~~ East and Central Asia ~~~~~

20. Great Wall of China, China

22. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
I went to Hong Kong in summer 2007 with my younger brother, a cousin, and my uncle. I had a great shopping experience in Hong kong. I also went to macau, China. It only take one hour or so to go to macau from Hong Kong by ferry. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, casinos are everywhere.

45. Terracotta Army, China


~~~~~ South East Asia ~~~~~

29. Angkor Wat - Cambodia

39. Singapore, Singapore
I have been here a couple times since it is closed to my home country, indonesia.

42. Bangkok, Thailand
I have been to Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand. Bangkok is the cworst city in the world for traffic.

49. Bali, Indonesia
Indonesia is my home country. it would be ashamed if I have never been to Bali. I have been to Bali a couple times. I can't remember what year, probably in December 1999. I spent New year's Eve of 2000 in Bali.


~~~~~ Australia and New Zealand ~~~~~

2. Great Barrier Reef, Australia

4. South Island, New Zealand

8. Sydney, Australia
been here......

12. Uluru, Australia

25. Auckland - New Zealand


~~~~~ Micronesia ~~~~~

24. Hawaii, USA

50. Bora Bora, French Polynesia