Menyeberangi Lautan Pasifik

We had only two days to spare in Santa Barbara. Someone told me that the Santa Barbara Old Mission is a must see. Well, there must be a reason Santa Barbara is called the "Queen of Mission". And I had wanted more of the sea after the Huntington visit. So two reasons to visit Santa Barbara.

Yuting, Wen Chun and I arrived at the Santa Barbara Amtrak station in the afternoon. I flicked out the hostel map. It seemed to be really near the station. And I remembered that on the hostel website, directions was to "Cross the train tracks towards the beach." No kidding, that's all we had to do. The hostel was really across the tracks from the station! Too near to be true. Cool.

But the hostel doesn't open up for registration till 3pm so we locked up our luggage and set on foot to explore the city. The main part of the city lies along State Street, which is just down the other direction from the train station. Convenient.

We saw lots of pubs and cafes, restaurants, shops and few of big business entities you'd associate with a "city". The sidewalks were really spacious and the entire city had an almost uniform landscape of spanish architecture. The buildings were characterised by their spanish arches and simple bohemian decorations. The buildings generally don't exceed two storeys. Even the shopping complex, known as Paseo Nuevo, was lovely, and had cobbled pathments. It did look out of a postcard somewhere in Spain.

We stopped by at the Courthouse, known for its architectural structure. Unfortunately, we just missed the entrance to its clocktower. It closed at 4.45pm. Supposedly, from atop, you'd see roofs that are mainly red-tiled, therefore earning Santa Barbara her other nickname "City of Red Tiles". However, we did crash into a rehearsal for a Easter church concert that would be held the next day. The courthouse had a big lawn and looks like the perfect place for concerts or even weddings!

That night, with some persuasion, my two travel kakis agreed to check out the Salsa places along State Street. According to my online research, there were supposed to be two places. Turned out that Velvet Jones didn't have Salsa Nights for half a year now and the other place, Ruby's Cafe charged $12! Too expensive plus no free lessons, they went instead to catch Blades Of Glory in the theatres. After seeing them off at the theatre, I was contemplating if I should go to Ruby's, then my shoe bag zipper came off, which decided my fate that night haha... (clue: zzzzzzzzZZZZZZ)

The next day, the plan was to visit the mission in the morning then hit the beach in the evening. However, an encounter with Ale, the mexican girl who was working at the hostel changed it our plans. They were going to have a Volleyball outing in the morning and asked if we'd like to join? Sure!

The beach was just 3 minutes walk from the hostel. How more convenient could this get? haha. We started our beach trail from the Iraq War memorial. It had been set up every Sunday at the beach ever since the war began 3 years ago. The hardworking people in-charge would plant crosses into the sand for each USA soldier that was sacrificed in the war.

We walked past the Fisherman's Wharf and walked through the Arts And Crafts Show. Artists would sell their works and crafts along the beach walk. The show is held every Sunday and is an opportunity for local crafts to get exposure. The were a lot of interesting crafts, like the rotating wood and the psychedelic mirrors.

Continuing our walk till the end of the beach, we found where the beach volleyball courts were. There were 5 of us: Yuting, Ale, Sean, a Australian and Sean's friend, a British, who'd visited Santa Barbara for more than 8 times.

The weather at the Santa Barbara beach was quite unusually. Because there were the Santa Ynez mountains sandwiching the city with the ocean. The clouds that accumulated overnight would normally hover above the beach and city until around slightly before noon. Then, the sky would clear up once the wind becomes strong enough to push the clouds past the mountains.

This day, there probably wasn't enough wind movements in the atmosphere and the clouds hovered above us until about 3pm. The sky was a greyish sad.

Walking back from the beach, we stopped by the SkateBoard Park. Wen Chun joined us then and even bought a souvenir from the Arts And Crafts Show. We spent so much time at the beach we didn't realise that it was approaching late evening. Luckily, we managed to catch the last bus to up to the Old Mission. Unfortunately again, we couldn't visit the insides as it was Easter Sunday. Church had to rest!

However, the skies in Santa Barbara had cleared up and we had a clear view of the Mission with the mountains as its backdrop. Beautiful. Nearby was Mission Park, where families were seen picnicking or playing frisbees. There was also a rose garden in the park.

We took a slow stroll back to our hostel from the, Mission, which meant walking down the hill. Not bad at all =) We took the liberty of treating the homes that we passed by as exhibits haha... We kept ooh-ing and aah-ing at those cottages and nice homes because they were seriously.... nice =) So if you're from Santa Barbara and you see your home in my personal photo collection... don't be surprised!

After San Diego I was in the mood for more sand, sea and warmth. And since I would be in Los Angeles, it won't be too greedy to ask for some glamour too? Or so I thought haha

Yuting, Huaqian, Wen Chun and I arrived at LA Union Station around noon and already, we were overwhelmed by the largeness of the station. With 12 boarding platforms, it's the biggest train station we've been to thus far. We were greeted by Boh Ming aka Nick, my primary school friend who's since 16 has banished himself from the comforts of Malaysia (oops! are you reading this? : ).

First stop, Chinatown. We were in search for a good meal and we found a restaurant that was used as location in Jackie Chan's Rush Hour, so claimed the mural on the exterior of the restaurant. Cool. We went in and it was almost full. For desert, there was complimentary fortune cookies. (It turns out that most asian restaurants here does that... and I don't even eat them in Malaysia -_-)

Second stop, Beverly Hills. Took some pictures of the houses of the rich and not-so-famous. Then, it was desert stop again! This time it's Pinkberry frozen yoghurt somewhere between Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Yum! Repeat this after me: Medium Original with strawberry, mango and fruitcrackers. Repeat again... and again .... haha... highly addicitve isn't it?

Oh, on the way there, we saw Hollywood on fire! So I caught your eye! haha! (I'm learning how to sensationalise my paragraphs.) Ok, what accurately happened is that a kid accidentally set fire to the forest area around Hollywood. Thick black smoke billowed out from the hill behind the famous Hollywood sign, certainly a worthy addition to the infamous LA smog. Hollywood itself was spared from the fire, so yes, we could still go to Universal Studios the next day.

After visiting the rich people, we had to drop off Yuting and Huaqian at Arcadia, a subarea in LA. They were putting up with Yuting's acquaintance. Actually, LA covers such a large area, it is subdivided into many subareas. Moving from one location to another is best done by car. But that's the bad part: everyone here owns a car and therefore peak hour is never a good time to spend on the road. The highways in LA remind me of the infamous Federal Highway of KL. Except that they have a carpool lane in LA. So if you have more than 2 people in you car, then you are on the fast track.

As mentioned earlier, the second day in LA was spent in Universal Studios. We bumped into Yuting and Huaqian, who went separately from us. The highlight was the studio tour (especially for Wen Chun, who's desperate to see the set of Desperate Housewives. Pardon the pun.) For me, I liked the special effects part the most, whether it was the sound effects or the backdfraft. The only rides that came close to being roller coasters were the Jurassic Park and the Mummy. Brace yourself for some wetness when you visit Universal. They have a water splashing frenzy going on during the rides, and even during the tour! haha... beware! Wen Chun who sat mostly at the sides clutched onto his camera while frantically protecting it from the spurts of water coming his way. "Ahh..... noooooooo!!!!"

In the evening, we dropped by Hollywood Boulevard for a short walk. Our main goal was to check out the Walk of Fame. The famed stars flank both sides of the boulevard. They are embedded into the sidewalks and to walk the whole stretch would take quite a while.

Then the third day, we just relaxed, visited some Malaysian students in the afternoon. They were studying under Academy of Techonology Park Malaysia. It is the other option if you wanted to major in Biotechnology. So, they studied two years in KL, and another two years in Cal Poly, Pomona. Nick gave us a tour around his campus. They also had a horse stable, to keep the Bronco steed, which was their university mascot. The university was kinda hilly like NUS.

At night, we went for a late dinner with them at Penang. The restaurant which specialises in Malaysian cuisine appeared in several write ups in the Star (Malaysian newspaper) so I was curious. I naturally chose Asam Laksa, since I hadn't had it in 2 years (yup, they don't have it in Singapore). Review? Well, I'd prefer to eat back at home anytime. It's not bad, it's just not authentic enough.

This trip to LA turned out to be a big feast! haha... at least for me. Why? First day: lunch Chinese, dinner Thai fusion; second day: lunch Chinese fastfood, dinner Korean claypot tofu; third day: lunch Taiwanese noddles, dinner Malaysian. I'd never had so much "exotic" food in 3 days haha... thanks Nick!

Soaking into the LA lifestyle, one thing that can't escape is the car. Yes, the Car! haha... LA is so spread out, it's like KL plus PJ, plus Cheras, and maybe plus USJ and SJ..... I could get lost here....

"When I breathed the air, it's as though I've lived through its history. Every turn of the corner, every slab of stone, every shadow cast by the buildings, the city seems to be talking to me."

I must say that some of my perception of Seattle had been formed since my secondary school days when my dance teacher introduced Seattle as a "Art City" to us. I didn't know what else to expect. Then I met Jay while studying in UCDavis, who's from Seattle, telling me about the beautiful islands around Seattle's Elliot Bay. And after the actual Seattle trip, an old uncle on the train told me that the two cities that I should see are San Francisco and Seattle... in his words "cities that will tug at your heart". You know, he's right. Each time I returned from San Francisco, I want to go again. So I was curious how it was like to be in Seattle.

It turned out that Seattle isn't the buskers kind of city most people will naturally link with Art. Leave that to San Francisco or New York to do the job. Seattle has more of the artsy fartsy high brow kind of arts... as some people will call it. Yes, those ballet performances, symphonic concerts, theatres, galleries, those stand ups.

On the ride to our accommodation, I realised that I have arrived at the city where many ideas and entrepreneurship endeavours were born. Boeing, Amazon and Starbucks. As diverse as these companies may be, there were born right here in Seattle. Amazing.

One thing that struck me, especially at the downtown was how the old and new buildings blend in seamlessly. None of the jaggedness you get like in other cities.

A visit to the Experience Music Project (EMP) is a must and that's what Yuting and I did on our very first day. You get to learn about the history of music and they have a section where you can play musical instruments, like the drum, keyboard, guitar and the mixing board. You could even record your own music if you like! And of course, there's a exhibit about Jimi Hendrix, guitar god to some, musical son to Seattle.

We got the combination ticket of EMP and the Science-fiction Museum (SFM), costing $27, saving us $6 if bought individually. The two attractions were linked within the same building, it was convenient just to walk across the walkway. But we didn't know it then so we took a walk around outside the building. Sigh.

They are situated at the Seattle Center, where the Space Needle, Children's Museum and monorail are too. The Space Needle was built in the 60s and the design was supposed to reflect the modern building look in 50 years later (meaning around now lah) but I think that the designer went way ahead of his time. However, Ben, whom we met staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel begged to differ. Someone's complaining that it looked too oldies!

Green Tortoise Hostel was where we stayed. And I must say that I have enjoyed my stay there thoroughly. Highly recommended place to stay =) They have really good brownies for breakfast and you make your own waffles. On different days, you'll find a variety of additional food on the table =) They also have very useful guidesheets along the corridor, one of which I used to walk up Capitol Hill. I almost got up to Bruce Lee's grave! But it was too dark so I came back haha...

The hostel location was really good too and the bonus point was that free dinner was served on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The Sunday that we were there, they made really good spaghetti with pasta sauce. haha... I'm using "really good" twice in describing this hostel, but it definitely deserves some good recommendations.

Back to the point about its location... it's right across the street from Pike Place Market, marked in "Rough Guide to USA" as one of the top 32 places to see in the US of A. I found many interesting shops there. They have everything! haha... no kidding, They have coin shops, poster and postcard shops, comic shops, indian shops, spanish shops, magic shops. And within the shops themselves, they have everything else. No two shops are alike. These shops are found on the "Underground" of the market. On the "overground" that's where fresh food can be bought. Along the street, they also have food stalls and flea market type of stalls.

Of course, there's the main attraction along the market street - the first Starbucks Store. Opened in 1971, it was packed when Yuting and I visited it around 3.30pm. It is better to visit it after 5pm (Sunday) or 6pm (other days), before 7.30pm when the market's closed and the store's still opened. We came back at 6.40pm and we finally found space to walk into the store, literally. It's a purely sales store. There're no comfy sofas to sit and lounge. You can get the exclusive Pike Place Blend from here.

The second day we were in Seattle, we checked out Bainbridge Island, the nearest from Pier 52, which was the nearest pier to our hostel. It takes about 35 minutes by ferry. Life on the island seemed peaceful and slow. We took the scenic harbourfront walk from the island jetty to its downtown area. After that, we caught the first bus available (line #90) at 11.15am to Poulsbo. "Little Norway" is its nickname and we were game for some cultural exposures. The town itself was really dainty and did have a quaint european feel. Even the post office has Norwegian words written on it walls. Surprise, a mini Europe tucked in the corner of USA! Yuting really liked the Poulsbo trip. For me, I could retire here... haha

After the island excursion, we signed up for the Underground Tour. With our UCDavis student IDs, we managed to have a $2 discount =) I don't usually explore cities through paid tours but I must say that this one was worth it. I held more curiosity and respect for the city after the tour. There was a huge turnout for the tour, I think about 120 people. The main briefing was conducted in the Doc Maynard Cafe, which was decorated in the 20s, 30s style. The namesake of the cafe itself is that of one of Seattle's founding fathers. After that, we were divided into four groups for the remaining part of the tour, which included underground walks around Pioneer Square, where downtown Seattle was born. I liked, particularly the story of how Seattle had sewage flushing problem, leading them to have undergrounds after a fire in 1889. Yay to the Seattle Spirit! They rebuilt the downtown first before adding soil from the eastern hills... so Seattle ended up having a "underground". Somehow, this feature became useful during the Klondlike gold rush, when gold and money could be stashed in the abundant underground vaults available.

That night, we had the free dinner at the hostel and had a group of nice people sitting at the same table as us. There was Mickey from Myanmar, who's now studying Architecture in Kansas. It turned out that he had studied in Malaysia before coming to the state and his mom is actually working somewhere in Perak! haha... what a small world. His coursemates, Kelly and her boyfriend were also here to enjoy their spring break. Then there was Ben, the American who had spent most of his lifetime nowhere near America =) He's been teaching English in Taiwan for 8 years now. The strangeness was that we all found out that we all (except Mickey) went to Bainbridge that day but we hadn't known each other then.

Later, we went walking around the city. Kelly and her boyfriend went off in search of beer and the rest of us just went to the Space Needle and took night pictures of it. Enroute back to the hostel, we stopped by Triple Door, located at the street behind our hostel. There was a salsa band. Surprise, no cover charge! The floor was already filled with salsaroes showing off their best moves. We kind of stood around watching the action haha... until sleepiness beckoned some of us.

As the Salsa dancers danced the night away, Seattle continued to emanate its charm on me. When I breathed the air, it's as though I've lived through its history. Every turn of the corner, every slab of stone, every shadow cast by the buildings, the city seems to be talking to me. Until now, I still can't decide if I like Seattle or San Francisco more?

Two days in San Diego, and I am still not sun burnt. Less of what I had expected.

But the weather is still a welcoming change from Seattle's. The sun had not let us down and it had been relatively warm. It does get chilly when the sea wind (read: wind, not breeze) blows, especially at the beach area. Woohhhhh.....brrrr... and those beach people seem to be enjoying the water.

Anyway, just an update on what I have been up to in SD. Yuting and I arrived early in the morning, no thanks to a good four hour delay by Amtrak. We managed to see the Pacific Ocean from the train, albeit it was a night view. Someone taught me to look for "white foams" in the dark horizon and that would be the breaking waves in the ocean. At certain moments, when the train was near enough to the edge of the cliff, I could see the coastline and saw where the waves hit the shore.

Although the train was delayed, I must commend Amtrak for the good service. Because of a tunnel reinforcement work being down as a earthquake preventive measure, we had to detrain at the Santa Barbara station, which is several stations before our final destination. From there, Amtrak arranged everyone onto buses that sent us directly to our final destinations, skipping most stops in between.

Luckily our hostel - San Diego USA Hostel - was within walking distance from the train station, about 8 blocks away. Wen Chun, another NUS friend of ours was to meet us at the hostel, since he checked in earlier. I practically fell into deep slumber once my torso touched the mattress. Oh.. and the most special thing in this hostel.... it has a ceiling fan in the room!!! haha... haven't seen it in a while!

After a couple of hours of sleep, it was wakey time and start-the-sightseeing time. First up, was to register at the hostel (the counter wasn't open when we came) and then a 10 second walk outside just to check out the temperature. A nice warm shower was really welcomed, followed by breakfast, which was self-made pancake, sweetened with maple syrup.

Wen Chun, Yuting and I wanted to visit SD Oldtown first and I was adamant to see the beaches after that. So our itinerary for the day was decided. We bought the SD Trolley Day-tripper which costs each of us only $5, really cheap. It is valid on any SD transit (bus & trolley) for the whole day.

Our hostel was at Downtown so we took the Blue-line trolley to the Old-town Transfer Station. San Diego was where "California" first came about. Before that, ownership of the region was being wrestled among the Mexicans and the Americans. The Oldtown was razed to ground in a fire some decades ago and thus the new San Diego town was built at the current downtown area. Some old buildings that still survived were turned into museums and memory timepieces, including a housing quarter where a well-to-do Spanish family once lived.

From the Oldtown Transfer Station, we could take Bus line 8 or 9 to Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. The lines basically ran the same loop except in opposite directions. Mission Beach was not crowded. But there were many people taking advantage of the good weather and went for long runs along the beach. And a number of surfers and bodyboarders took to the water. We spent some quality time taking pictures of people at the beach... haha

That evening, Huaqian joined us. On the way back from meeting her at the Amtrak station, we met up with the other NUS students who were also gonna spend a few days in SD. They were at LA before this and flew into SD for a couple of "skip-class days" haha... The SD airport is really near the city and the few times I saw the planes, I thought they were going to land right above me.... they were that close to ground!

They checked into our hostel but were all given different rooms. So they ended up booking a Omni Hotel room for the next few days. Anyway, we had our quintessential american meal at TGI Fridays just across the street. And I retired early for the night. I did check out a salsa place, Cafe Sevilla, but cover charge was $8 so I passed for it. (No point going if no one I knew was gonna join me.)

For the four of us, the next day was spent at the famous San Diego Zoo. We found the place similar to Singapore Zoo... or rather Singapore Zoo was largely similar to it =) The animal exhibit areas were designed to reflect their wild habitat. And the entire place was HUGE. There was a cable car that takes you to the top of the zoo and at the same time serves as a sightseeing tool. By the end of the day, we still didn't finish the Itura Forest area but we covered the main attractions, mainly the panda and polar bear. Their Pandas, Baiyun and Gaogao had been featured in many news articles before.

That night, Yuting and I walked around the Gaslamp Quarter, which was where our hostel was located. It's where the nice restaurants, pubs and clubs are located, kinda like Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur. Good thing that our hostel has a 11pm onwards "quiet time", so it's actually quiet within the hostel. We don't even hear music from the streets. That very night, Microsoft had some kind of party going on. Unfortunately, we weren't dressed well enough to gate-crash.

After that, we met up with the other NUS students who went to Seaworld instead of the Zoo. Seaworld was a waterpark cum aquarium, like Hong Kong's Ocean World. We visited their hotel room and I fell almost asleep there.... boredom. haha... anyway, we had to head back to our hostel as we needed to rest early and pack for our early train ride the next day. We were heading to LA!!!!!

Oh yeah, that night, I was trying to access the wireless internet in the hostel. A tip to mac users out there... whenever a hostel gives you the password and you can't access the wireless no matter what, try adding a "$" before the password. It worked for me in SD and in Seattle. Strange but true!

"The great gift the world has for the humankind is the vast amount of education it can give through its diversity."

"It's not wrong, it's just different."

Continental United States of America stretches across four time zones and if you include Alaska and Hawaii, that would make six time zones. I figured, if I couldn't find any kind of diversity in this country, then I'd be hard pressed to find it anywhere else.

After many goodbyes to Davis and its wonderful people, my study exchange officially ended on 22nd March 2007. Thereafter, I am the serial USA city - hopper, sent from Malaysia! So here began my long (arduous?) journey across the states. The first few weeks would be spent traversing the longitude of the Western coast.

Seattle - I'd call it the Taiping of USA because it showers everyday was the first stop. It's located all the way north along the Western Coast, just an hour drive from Vancouver, Canada. Yuting and I took a long train journey from Davis on 22nd night itself. But it isn't the longest train journey we would be embarking on yet =). I bought a USA Rail Pass that covers a whole month of train travel to anywhere around the states so it saves up on my transportation budget.

Yuting would be seeing 17 cities altogether, she counted. I would be seeing 11 as I am leaving for home earlier than her. Big cities, small cities, mission cities, beach cities, rainy cities, inland cities, we've got them all! The best part of traveling on the train is the enroute sceneries. You could see the changing landscapes as you move North to colder Washington from warm and sunny California. Central California around Davis is flat, like the Netherlands but you can see the mountain ranges in the distance. Sometime late-February, the flora in Davis had started blooming. We had many cherry blossoms and the weather was just perfect for evening strolls with just a t-shirt on. It was getting warm and the temperature in the previous weeks had been hitting around 20ºC.

Moving up Northern California, the last recognisable town that the train stopped at was Redding. Following that, the train passed through the region of Mount Shasta, which I call the "red-soil forest". There were tall temperate trees growing side by side greyish-blue understories. Sometimes the train would pass through tunnels bored through a mountain. After a series of tunnels we finally entered the state of Oregon, where the first stop was the region of Lake Klamath. Supposedly the only way to get to the Klamath Reserves is through means of water transport, like kayaking. Oregon is really like the farmers land. We passed largely yet developed regions aka natural reserves, and usually the train tracks are high up in the mountains! A lot of times, we can look down and see towns and settlements on the plains below the mountains. What a pretty sight! We left Oregon after the Portland stop, which is the state's capital.

After that, we were reached the state of Washington, where the trees were still bare and the forests have that Debussy-impressionism-painting kind of look. Clearly, spring has yet to descend on Washington! We braced for some cold weather in Seattle. It was 14ºC. On the second day that we were there, it actually got sunny (no rain, wow!) but the sunlight were most of the time being blocked out by the tall skyscrapers. And there's the northern wind blowing down the streets, making it not-so-warm after all.

caption: Yuting and I, upon arriving at Seattle

As I am typing this, we have already ended our Seattle stop and are enroute to San Diego - as south as you can get on the Western Coast. In fact, the train route that we are taking is called the "Coast Starlight", which spans the entire coastal length of West USA. We are fortunate enough to be taking the entire route, which starts from Seattle, terminates at San Diego. However, thus far, I haven't been able to see the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully, there would be some oceanic views later as we near Santa Barbara or Los Angeles.

San Diego is just minutes away from a taste of La Mexicano, where the closest Mexican city is Tijuana. This train trip is supposed to be 37 hours but as usual, we are running 2 hours late. (Our arrival at Seattle was delayed 3 hours.) But still, I am looking forward to some real nice warm weather, a real beach and maybe some Salsa! =)