Cariso at Milpitas, CA, USA

Two more left

2006-09-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today I found these two photos leh at ppl's folder. Hmm..kinda late but nvm lah. :)

On the way cycling to the Golden Gate. *Siao liao me, wearing jeans for cycling, so ugly look leh, so 'pak' (tight) one*

Strong wind blowing at Hoover Dam.

My rewards

2006-07-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

My rewards:

1x Levis jeans (my first Levis), 1x jiao-jiao shirt and 1x long sleeve bare back (USD3.00 only).

Some food brought back to PEN.

Some items that I brought back.

On my last week, I started to plan out where to have my dinner for the next five days. PEN ppl asked me to go eat here. "MUST go and eat". It ended up disappointing lah. The dishes were small leh (compared to the usual american serving size here), like that was considered expensive already loh right?! The garlic bread is very special (right upper pic), 'bun' shape and very soft!

If I were to know earlier, I have better gone to Happy Buffet! It’s a waste that I did not have the chance to take the photos of Happy Buffet. It's my favourite! I went there three times altogether within 3 weeks! Once I was there I could not even remember to take food photos already. So can you imagine how 'kum kum chaeng' was I when I was seated there?! Ha!
*Happy buffet mentioned in Las Vegas Day*

Last day at San Francisco

2006-07-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

My last day. Must go and eat my spaghetti at San Francisco lah of course!
Finally I was able to snap a clear pic of Alcatraz port. Bay cruises and ferries are available here.

I did not have the chance to hop on this. So snap a photo with it, dah!

Pier 39

I visited Café 8 again. I missed its combo seafood spaghetti with big scallops leh! What to do...

Santa Monica - Pacific Park

2006-07-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

We drove to Santa Monica beach after finished ronda at Hollywood. Ai....It's a waste lah not able to make it to San Diego Sea World but then since time did not allow us for a full day play at San Diego, we opted for this Santa Monica loh.

Pacific Park at Santa Monica.

Santa Monica

I turned darker after this trip. All thanks to the walking and cycling activities during NOON time lah. All thanks to their day time so long one lah. :) Sky turned bright from 5.30a.m.- 6a.m. Day still bright till 8p.m. Their 8p.m. was like our 6p.m.

On the night we went back to MP we had our dinner at this Darda Seafood Restaurant (清真一条龙)(296, Barber Court, MP, CA 95035). It is halal one. It has good reputation here. FULL house everyday at night. Got to take number. This dinner was really filling and worthwhile.

Hollywood

2006-07-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hollywood – During day time it really was not attractive at all, somemore it’s Sunday morning. We walked along Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd and we drove to Beverly Hills – Yes, this is the place where you can see a lot of big bungalows here. Phew~! Chaeng ah! Star houses sign were along the way when we drove away from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica.

See the 'Hollywood' sign or not? It's on top of the hill there.

I went over to see whose name was it that attracted some Chinese tourists taking photos with it. OIC…Jackie Chan hor.

Light House Buffet – The Original Seafood and Sushi Buffet. USD11.95 (without tax). Cheap leh! VERY GOOD!

LA - Universal Studios

2006-07-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Third weekend - we went down to Los Angeles. 6 hrs drive.

Universal Studios.

OK, I personally think that this Universal Studio should introduce new items every now and then. Hey, come on, the rides were still Back to the Future? Terminator II? All were very ‘mild’ and outdated liao leh. I nearly dozed off while sitting inside there, especially the Terminator II and Shrek. Not to mention the Van Helsing House, not scary at all.
All those rides were not chi kek at all except the new one - the Mummy ride. This one ah, you waited for 25 minutes, but you ended up having the ride for < 2 mins only. Very spiral chi kek type but SUPER short leh!

What I enjoyed most was the Studio Tour – You really got to see exactly where their moviemaking scenes were. How they changed the spots to suit different movies. Hmm...how about the shooting scenes of that housing estate of the Desperate Housewives?! Hehe… and you got the chance to see how they created the flood (and this one spoilt my camera man! The lens turned foggy for the rest of the day coz it was splashed by the flood loh), the Fast and the Furious Close Up – how the car being ‘feng’, the collision and disaster scene in a LRT tunnel, the fire scene and etc etc.

Another one that I enjoyed was the Backdraft – showing you how the fire & explosion scenes/ effects were done. All were automated.

The 'All you can eat' pass - DON'T BUY oh pls. Inside there got a lot of other restaurants selling cheaper food and more tasty ok. For this 'All you can eat' pass, only got 3 restaurants associated with it.We nearly missed our dinner as we did not aware that some of the associated restaurants were closed at 6.30p.m. When we finally reached the last one, we were told that we could only take one round. HAR?!

We should have gone to Sea World in San Diego instead of this. :p

My car work lunch dinner

2006-07-02T05:37:00.000-07:00

My rental car over here. USD198/wk (excluding tax). No remote control, no power window, no auto lock. The rest of my colleagues were scared at my driving skill during the first few days. I switched on the wiper instead of the signal light whenever I wanted to make a left/right turn. I drove too near the pavement, apparently ignored that I was driving at the left hand side of the car. I nearly turned into the wrong lane for many times. Anyhow, I got no complaint about the car because its fuel consumption was low compared to the others! Haha! Who cares whether got auto lock or not uh?! :)

No matter how I still couldn’t meet the USD2x/wk budget. Sorry lah dear, I no need to go ronda cari 'makan' ah? :p

They put me in this cubicle. So, I finally had a cubicle by my own after working for 6 years! :) All thanks to my trainer, if it was not him, I did not know how was I supposed to survive without his notebook coming in to rescue me from the 2nd week onwards. Over here the PC conditions were more zao gao than back there. Well, each of them got one pc that allowed them to access internet anytime. That's the only joy. BUT I got problem accessing my thumbdrive lah due to their OS lah, then no network support lah and etc. All in all I ended up very frustrated lah. In order to transfer some clips I took in the fab to pen, I got to go through 2-3 computers and wasted a lot of time.

I had a tough time especially the first week working here. I woke up at 4.am. and worked till 6.30p.m. The colleague whom I attached to go working at 6.30a.m. and go back home at 4.00p.m. So if I was not that early (say by 7a.m. reaching office) then by the time I go into the office (say 8.a.m.?!) he would have already come out from the fab. See?! Every night I got to check emails from hotel also (first week no notebook yet mah) in order to get ready for the next day’s ‘workload'. My colleagues saw me at night,” How come you looked so damn chann one?! go back room to rest liao lah.” I received a lot of emails from different parties asking me for this and that materials etc etc etc. I did not even have the time to switch on my hotel room’s TV until the 2nd week.

The catering truck. The canteen here did not serve food thus this catering truck will come in time everyday for us to 'hao kor'.

Some light dinners served. The most appetizing one was the HOT DOG, but super salty! Ai……

After eating so many salty food during the first week, I started to cook some soup during my 2nd week.

Dish washing machine - made me lazy. :)

万峦猪脚 Café Taiwan – Taiwan beef noodle. (181 W.Calaveras Blvd, MP, CA 95035). Not ‘original’but OK lah. From so many cuisines that I have tried, I could conclude that the beef in US is ho chiak. Very tender very soft one loh.

Second visit to Café Taiwan. My camera took the shot badly lah. In actual it looked OK and tasted good also.

Dumpling, lunch at The Great Mall – super salty. No good.

I visited this restaurant twice for dinner. GOOD!! Maru Ichi Noodle House (530 Barber Lane, MP, CA 95035). Jap food. As you can see now, I ate a lot of Japanese food here hor.

Milpitas Tofu House (231 West Calaveras Blvd, MP, CA 95035). This is a Korean restaurant serving this lunch set at USD9.75. I visited twice for lunch session. Sorry lah, I must elaborate here liao on this restaurant for it is special to me.

It comes with 5 appetizers (xiao cai) including Kimchi (a lot leh you see?!),seaweed, tau kua, vege, spicy taugeh and one egg. The claypot sure comes with tofu but different ‘ingredients’, all depends on which ingredient you choose lah. Got seafood & clam one, chicken one, mushroom one and etc. You can choose what level of spiciness you want. Even if you are eating alone, your whole table must be full one coz got so many small plates mah. If you were there later than 11.45a.m. then you will have to wait or queue liao. Keng leh! (The tofu claypot no matter what ingredient you chose also same one – very salty!)

Golden Gate - Sausalito

2006-07-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was very excited ('heng fun') when I have finally seen the Sausalito lying in front of me after hours of cycling. I 'recognized' its buildings !! I remember watching them in the movies! (Yes, khi siao liao me!)

Lying at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, picturesque Sausalito receives a steady stream of visitors who both cycle over the bridge or use the ferry service from San Francisco.

The houses are unique. Each got its own design.

I boh lat liao after cycling till here. It took nearly 3 hrs leh to reach here. At this stage I decided not to cycle back liao, but use the ferry instead (USD8.50). If not later got no strength to cycle at SF leh.

Scoma's in Sausalito - scallop saute and risotto mare. First few mouths OK lah, but after soon you realized they were TOO salty lah. (Did you see their scallops very big hor?!)

I took the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf. The ferry was made biker-friendly with the section carrying bikes. The bus here also biker-friendly one leh, in front of the bus got the fixtures carrying bikes one. Wah, if in Penang also got then syiok lah.

Alcatraz at our left hand side.

After that, I cycled to Chinatown to take a look. The roads were up and down, up and down, up and down one - typical San Francisco streets lah. Very chia lat loh cycling at SF city. We wasted some time trying to locate the exact direction to Chinatown. Cycled till 'or um hin' already somemore need to look at map. *sweat*

It's too bad that I could not spend more time to 'explore' on Chinatown as time was a constrain. At first thought of perhaps could drive past here and if got place to park our car then I could go down to ronda loh. Nah! There was totally no where for you to park one lah, mian think of it.

The result of cycling from 10.00a.m. till nearly 6.00p.m. was I got m hands sunburnt liao!

SF - Golden Gate Bridge Biking

2006-06-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

After the Flea Market/Gilroy/Great Mall shopping trip on Saturday, the next day I went to San Francisco aiming to bike the bridge!

Lombard Street - 'The Crookedest Street in the World' because of its eight sharp turns on a 40-degree slope.

You know what?! I have vowed before that if one day I had the chance to go to California, I must go to San Francisco and Sausalito. I have watched too many of the San Francisco scenes in movies. The scenes of Sausalito in "一见钟情" (Sausalito) 2000 by Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung planted deep in my mind.

I also listened to many songs related to 'California' . I was once crazy over the song "California Dreaming" by The Mamas & Papas (background music in the movie of Chung King Express 重庆森林 1994) and of course "Hotel California" by The Eagles. How could you not knowing this song right?!

I also got to see how a chinese female student (pursuing a PHD degree from UCLA) 's style was through the Lambir project back in uni time. 浸过美国加州的水, fascinated me.

So......How could I have possibly missed the San Francisco streets when I was here. Those up and down slopes have already been visualized in my mind for so long until today I finally got the chance to step on it. ha!

I biked the bridge! I rented a bike (USD23.00) for one day to cycle from Fisherman's Wharf -> Golden Gate -> Sausalito.

I cycled past a park.

On the same day there was a marathon event held there.

I cycled past this. Palace of Fine Arts / Exploratorium in San Francisco. On land originally belonging to the Presidio, the Palace of Fine Arts was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Today the site, which belongs to the City of San Francisco, features a classical Roman rotunda with curved colonnades in an idyllic park setting.

There you go the Golden Gate. Before this the cycle route was mainly along the coast line and I truly enjoyed it. The breeze is so cooling and refreshing. That time I thought, "Hmm...if back in Penang we can have have such kind of cold weather then syiok loh. Cycling whole day also no sweat one leh!". I started to regret after this stop because there were a few uphills later on which required me to use the lowest gear, oh mine! I have already stopped cycling for so long and this was really killing me you know. Somemore it's NOON. It's noon time oi!

Flea Market - Gilroy Premium Outlet

2006-06-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

I visited the Flea market during my second weekend. I found out that other than those T shirts and caps printed with "San Francisco", "California" and etc (only if you were intend to buy), there were in fact not many things that interested me leh. It was so damn HOT leh to walk along those unsheltered streets at noon time. I decided to go back before I saw this item!

Nioxin! It's 3 times cheaper than in Malaysia.

I went to Gilroy Premium Outlets after that. It is a place selling all the branded stuffs. I ended up did not buy any Levis (as ordered by my colleagues) there coz I could not recall their sizes and model numbers lah (I forgot to bring along). I was told that The Great Mall at MP also got Levis therefore I decided to buy there. I got to play safe mah, if I were to buy wrongly, who gonna pay me then huh?! *wink*

I had lunch at Denny's. Their serving was really BIG. The left hand side (up, bottom) and right (bottom) was all mine. OILY.

This is the only item I got from Gilroy, the Foot Locker Outlet. USD23.

San Francisco - Pier 39

2006-06-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

Fishermans Wharf shop lots.

Alcatraz - you can take a ferry to visit Alcatraz. Unfortunately we got no time for that.

The penny machine. Put in two quarters and one penny. The penny will be pressed and become...
......like this. These are what I have managed to collect.

Pier 39

I finally found the one with my name! It's a bicycle plate.

I bought some SF's T shirts - ordered by colleagues.

San Francisco-Fisherman's Wharf

2006-06-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

I had one week overlapped with the other two colleagues (who came here for a two-week-training at another plant). On the night we sent them off to SF airport, we had a short night tour at Fisherman Wharf and Pier 39.

Fisherman's Wharf of San Fransico.

Over here you can get to eat one whole big crab for less than USD10.00.

Cafe 8

This restaurant is good yet cheap.

Almost all of us ordered this combo seafood spaghetti. Phew~! Mou tak teng ah! Some of them missed clam chowder so much that the first thing they looked for in the menu before selecting the restaurants was 'clam chowder'.

See the big juicy scallop?! Ever since I had this dish which came with such big fresh juicy scallops, I continued to hunt for the same spaghetti level (of equivalent price and taste) at MP later on but in vain.

Las Vegas Day

2006-06-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

One night stay at Las Vegas was definitely too short for us. We did not even have the chance to go into casino to try our luck leh. Anyhow, boh huat tor lah since our schedule was very packed. Therefore we allocated a few hours in the next morning to have a photo tour before departing back to MP.

Caesar Palace

The police patrolled using this 'one' leh. What do you call this uh?! There were shops which let you rent this about ~USD40.

OK, we were behind our schedule. We must not stop halfway to have lunch, therefore we ta pao burgers from Burger King. Due to Memorial Day, there were a lot of traffic along the highway and we were stuck also at many places along the way back. Argh!

I started working on Tuesday (30.5.06). I was all on my own during lunch for the whole three weeks except the first day. I went to taste all the different restaurants (within 1 hr can kao tim one) almost everyday. :) The most impressive one is the Happy Buffet (that serves in buffet style, china dishes of seafood, salad, BBQ, sushi & etc). It is always full house during lunch and dinner. The Fu Zhou fish balls, you must not miss OK?! You must not delay taking them if not they will soon all disappearing into other ppl's bowls. The food are all very yummy! The lunch buffet is less than USD10.00. For the dinner it is USD15.15 got raw salmon (sashimi) - take as much as you can, no limit hoho! Address : Happy Buffet (24S. Abbott Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035).

Their wan tan mee only comes with soup, no 'kon lou' one. This is an awful match : wan tan mee with broccoli !!! Argh, over here almost everything matches with broccoli. I ate a lot until one fine day when we got the chance to eat 'zhu char' at Qing Zheng Yi Tiao Long (清真一条龙Darda Seafood Restaurant, 296 Barber Court, MP, CA 95035), I requested the rest not to order any dishes which come with broccoli anymore. Beh tong liao. :)

My hotel room at Staybridge Suites. Boh than hiam! Thumbs up!

The first week 's Friday - we paid a visit to our colleague's house. Hmm.....it's a bungalow on top of the hill, overlooking the whole view of San Jose. It's very BIG. Heard it worths about USDXmillion now?!

His wife is very artistic. All the paintings were by his family members.(right top : made by egg shell, right bottom :cut and made by thick card board)

Las Vegas Night

2006-06-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

One night stay at Las Vegas. We stayed opposite Hard Rock Cafe.

The dressing corner was really ROCK oi! Look at those bulbs @ spotlights ! They really wanted to make you feel like you are the showman, man! :)

Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas.

A newly opened Kaizen Fusion Sushi Roll Restaurant (www.kaizen-sushi.com) which was located nearby our hotel- mou tak teng ah that Spicy Tataki Roll.

Ambience yat lao ah! Take off your shirt if you wish, see?!

Casino Hotels at Las Vegas - Glimmering all night long. Sorry I took mostly video clips. For photos I only snapped a few pieces.

We joined the crowd to watch the free show available outside of Treasure Island Hotel at around 11.30pm.. It was nearly 12.30a.m. when we walked back to our hotel. Very sleepy loh....

Grand Canyon

2006-06-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

Grand Canyon. Really really really veryyyyyyyyyy G-R-A-N-D! Phew~!

Finally got this spot which we could see the Colorado river 'clearly'.

Risking ourselves by going near to the cliff.

We hopped from one viewing spot to another, but frankly speaking lah once you saw enough of the same 'structure', you got 'immuned' eventually. Lastly I heard one passenger talking to his gang," .....well, it's the same old rock ok?! haha!" I agreed. :)

A very stylish pretty girl. We waited for the bus to take us to another viewing spot lah. Damn boring mah.

No good food for a budget of USD10 and below. Those hotels at Grand Canyon served expensive food leh. Therefore we went to a 'food court'. Mine (spaghetti) was still considered OK. The rest of them one 'mou ngan tai', the chicken was very ngang like rock.

Kingsman - Grand Canyon

2006-06-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

We stayed one night at Kingsman. It was located in between Las Vegas & Grand Canyon. We had our dinner at this restaurant which seemed to be the only restaurant that was still opened at 8.45p.m. Bangkok Thai Cuisine, oily oily oily.

I woke up very early and went to buy grocery at the mart opposite our motel at 7a.m. Their 6.30a.m.was already very bright with sunshine, roughly equivalent to our Malaysia time 8.30a.m.

This motel provided such kind of buns and muffins. Hmm....You know what? I think out of all the things I packed from Penang, the best decision I have made was to bring along the Enerflex . The right pic shows the first groceries purchase of mine. The nissin cup noodle - I have already aimed on this item ever since I had it on my Cathay Pacific HKG-SFO flight.

Milpitas - Hoover Dam

2006-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

First week our trip was to go to Hoover Dam / Grand Canyon / Las Vegas.

We drove for 8 hrs from Milpitas to Las Vegas. There were a few spots along the journey that we were totally stuck in the traffic. Reason was because the opposite lane got accident. This sounds familiar right?! So...same lah no matter it's here or US there. :)

How come there was this 'fan' thing underneath the number plate uh?! (left pic) Can someone tell me what it is?!

We drove past Las Vegas.

Denny's is opened 24 hrs at US. It's kinda popular over there. The serving is big and yet cheap. Oily oily.

On the way to Hoover Dam.

At Hoover Dam

OK,this is the spot at Hoover Dam that James Bond 007 (forgot which year) shooted its scene at the beginning of the movie.

How come the time zone did not seem to differ between the Arizona and Nevada? Has it been stopped due to summer or was it out of order?! Can somebody please tell me?!

Penang - Milpitas

2006-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

My trip to Milpitas, CA, USA (27th May - 16th June 2006)

I managed to reserve a leg space seat near the emergency exit for both the flights from Pg-HK and HK-SFO. Too bad that I could not even sleep for more than 1 hr during the whole Pg-HK (5 hrs) & HK-SFO journey (13 hrs) . My left and right neighbours apparently were frequent flyers leh, they started to sleep from the beginning till the end except eating time.

At Hong Kong airport, I beh tahan tasted the Wei Qian Ramen.

My first dinner at Milpitas was Kabab & Curry's.