It has been 42 days since I came back from a country that left a big impact in my life. There are no reasons for me to hate that place because everything that happened is like a dream come true for me. I never once thought that I will have a chance to visit the other side of the world at this age. Thanks to my brother for creating this chance. Without him, my parents won't even think of going there and I won't even have the chance.

Unlike my parents who went there for a month, I went there for two weeks only and visited 7 out of 52 states. Barely one-seventh of the country. That's why I plan to go back there one day before my visa expires.


1. This was the first time I'm flying alone. 17 hours of flight. I was worried at first but it was kinda fun going through the whole process alone. I spent most of the time watching movies instead of sleeping in the plane. If I was not wrong, I think I watched a total of 4 movies and played a few games. Now, I'm not afraid to fly alone anymore.

2. Thank God I passed the immigration. Witnessed a Korean lady questioning and begging the officer to let her off. Luckily, I was called by a lady officer instead of that stern-looked officer.

3. This was the first time someone opened the car door for me. Not including my parents though. Someone will open the car door whenever I reached the hotel. I felt like a VIP. I wonder if this kind of treatment is available in Malaysia. Well.. Maybe 5-star hotels.

4. I lost my watch on the second day at the hotel lobby (in LA). Couldn't recover it.

5. The weather there was so nice. Not so hot nor cold. But, when the wind blows (especially night time), it was extremely cold. There was once when we were on the way back from the suburb to the city, we saw part of the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco) covered with mist. I was so curious that night that I dragged my brother out of the hotel to experience the cold wind. It was really really cold and I shivered and jumped around to ease the cold. However, the weather in Florida and Miami was almost the same as the weather in Malaysia. It was hot. Even though it rained almost everyday when we were there, it was not cold at all.

6. How can I forget about Yellowstone? The weather there was kinda cold too especially in the morning where smoke came out from my mouth when I was talking. That's how cold that place is. We were lucky to be there during that period because we were able to see the snow. I heard that it snowed two weeks ago before we were there and that's why the snow hadn't melt yet. WHAT?!?!?! Snow during summer?!?!?! That is weird.

7. American culture. The culture there is totally different from Malaysian culture. The people there are so friendly. They will greet whenever we entered into a shop or diner. They will assist and talk to us the whole time. I felt so welcomed by them. Even the rules on the road are different. The cars will stop for the pedestrian to cross the road if there are no zebra crossing or traffic lights around. There was once in Universal Studio where it was raining heavily and I was in a food court waiting for the rain to stop, there were two American family sitting with me. One is from Miami and the other is from Long Beach. They engaged in a talk and laughed as if they knew each other for years. They even chat with me. I was so comfortable with them.

8. The security at all the airports are very strict. I had to take off my shoes and jacket to pass through the scanner.

9. Domestic flight was the worst flight I ever had. Taking off and landing was a disaster as if I was riding a roller-coaster. The plane kept on shaking when it faced turbulences. Maybe because it was a small plane. The steward and stewardess were not as 'hot' as AirAsia's. They wore plain clothes and trousers just like a normal person. Without their name tag, I wouldn't know they were stewards. Now I understand why AirAsia is the best low cost airline in the world.

10. This was the first time I missed a flight. We were late for check-in (just 10 minutes) and they put us on stand-by list which means we had to wait for the next flight based on the availability of the seat. We were numbered 30 on the stand-by list and so, we missed the second flight. Thank God we were able to board the third flight. We spent 3 hours in the airport. We were already at our destination had we board the first flight. This happened in Miami and we wanted to fly to New York to take our midnight flight back to Malaysia. Luckily, we booked a morning flight to NY. If not, we will miss our midnight flight if the flight to NY is at night and we missed that flight.

11. I always thought that NY hated me because something will happen to prevent me to go there. I planned to visit NY on the day before I left the country since my parents went there earlier without me. That's why I booked 11.30am flight from Miami to NY so that I will have 8 hours to visit that place before our midnight flight. But because we missed our flight, we only reached NY at 5pm which means I had 5 hours remaining. To make matter worse, we had problem with our baggage storage. We thought we can put our baggage at the baggage storage so that we can go out but they charged 24 hours. We need to put for 5 hours only and it's not worth to spend on that. Disappointed and so, we went to see whether we can check-in as it was still early. Luckily, they allowed us to check-in and our baggage problem solved. Mum insisted not to go out as she's worried that we'll miss the flight again but dad said since I never see how NY looked like, we should go out. And YES, we went to Times Square. Finally NY likes me.

That's all for now. Overall, it was such an amazing journey with my family. Thanks to our personal driver and tour guide which is my brother. Without him, we won't be able to fully utilise our time to visit as much places as we can. I would definitely go back there one day and I'm even thinking of getting a PR status there. Who knows.


PS: I was so sad because I didn't have the chance to bump into celebrities. Arghh..