Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

I was rather lucky to be able to go on two trips to Langkawi in 2009 and both of them were complementary. This time round, I stayed at the Sheraton and I was quite surprised by how nice it looked. Instead of flying using AirAsia, this time we decided on flying by Firefly which was a bit more convenient for me because it flys off from Subang Airport.

Langkawi Day1 001 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 002 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Because they were propeller planes and do not have jet engines, the flight takes longer as compared to Air Asia or MAS flights and the one thing that was quite unbearable for me was that our flight was the very first flight of the day and the airplane was extremely hot and stuffy inside. I was literally sweating bullets throughout the flight and it was the most uncomfortable flight.

Thank God the moment I arrived at Sheraton in Langkawi, the atmosphere was totally different. I was literally blown away by the service we received and the size of the chalet rooms we had.

Langkawi Day1 008 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in LangkawiThe chalet’s were a little different than usual, it was located a bit of a distant away from the lobby so everytime you needed to go back to the lobby, you can either walk or call a buggy to pick you up. But of course, being a little bit further away from the lobby meant that you get a little bit more privacy and you also get larger rooms.

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Langkawi Day1 003 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

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Langkawi Day1 006 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

The view outside the chalet was quite nice as well.

Langkawi Day1 007 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 009 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Definitely one of the nicer hotels to be at in Langkawi. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend staying in Sheraton hotel.

New York Trip – Part 1

I previously blogged about my trip to Chicago here and here. Actually I was on training for a week before spending the weekend in Chicago. Right after spending a couple of days in the windy city, I journeyed towards east together with my mate, Jamie. I learned a lot about flying in the US. First of all, when it is stated that you need to be at the airport an hour earlier before your flight, that really means you need to actually check-in at the counter an hour earlier. This doesn’t include the time it takes you to line up (it took us about 45minutes, so we kinda missed out flight).

Anyway, by the time we landed in New York, we both took a cab towards Manhattan Island only to be greeted by what some people might call a New York cab experience. We didn’t get conned but the experience was somewhat disheartening. The cab driver did get cut off but he didn’t have to wind down his window and started cursing non-stop for 15 minutes. He didn’t get a tip from me.

By the time we reached our hotel (we stayed at Sheraton Manhattan), there was a street fair going on.

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From all of the movies I have seen, I always had the mental image of how New York would look in either sephia or black and white.

The fair was in full force with plenty of vendors selling trinkets and souveniers as well as plenty of food.

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This was my lunch, a mixed version of a kebab with plenty of filling and vegetables. It tasted fantastic, maybe because I was a little hungry at that time hence that could have been an added bonus factor.

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The corn dog was really calling out to me and they had like 1 foot sausages. Jamie could tell that I was drooling all over them!

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And what is New York without the guys handing out flyers or street baskers.

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Times Square was extremely packed. The queue to get theater tickets were extremely long. We wanted to catch the new play called “Shrek”. The hotel wanted to sell us tickets at USD$175 but if we spent about 2 hours queuing up,  we could have bought it at a much cheaper price.

After walking about for a bit and enjoying the view of the city, the two of us felt sick and it probably was that we might have been too worned out. But with the current crisis of swine flu, we were a little paranoid and after checking into the hospital, we ended up all bandaged up as shown below.

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Ok, I was lying about the bandage thing.

Find out more in my next post icon smile New York Trip   Part 1

An Interesting Penang Trip

As would most folks in KL, the quest for local delights will bring one around the country in search for the ultimate fare and Penang is one state all too familiar with their local dishes. So, on one fine long weekend, me and my colleagues decided to head up to Penang for 4 days to get fat by stuffing ourselves silly. So silly that we planned every single itinerary in order to maximize our time there efficiently. Talk about being kiasu!

Our journey began at 5am in the morning only to be greeted with thousands of other folks who thought that traveling in the wee hours of the day would be convenient. You see, we decided that the Raya weekend was the best time to head up north. Sad to say, it took me 3 hours to reach Ipoh where we stopped by at “Foh San” for some dim sum.  

Getting a table at Foh San was not easy and we had to split everyone up around the entire restaurant to stand next to tables where people were about to finish eating. After a good 30 minutes, we managed to find a table where my cell member was having breakfast. Talk about a small world indeed. But because it was so packed, although my cell member and his family vacated their seats, there was an elderly couple who had joined them. They weren’t exactly done yet with their food so while waiting for them to finish eating, I decided to take a couple of photos.

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If you see the image above closer (at a 100% zoom), you can actually see all of us having breakfast icon smile An Interesting Penang Trip

After a long a hearty meal, I got Ivan to drive the rest of the way towards Penang. It took us another 4 hours before we reached our hotel and after a quick 30 minute rest we headed out to try some of the “Sister’s Char Koay Teow“. We were in luck, they were just about to close when we arrived so we quickly ordered 13 plates and other dishes to munch on while waiting for our food. 

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The otak-otak was quite nice in fact! It tasted a little different compared to the usual nonya ones which I always eat when I am back in Malacca.

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The dried shrimp on top of the yam cake was also delicious although without the thick black sweet sauce, it turned out to be a little dry for my taste.

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Of course, when the main course arrived, everyone was busy eating! The unique thing about this “char koay teow” was the crab meat that was served together with it. Frankly, I still prefer the other one where the uncle cooking the CKT wears goggles! I now call him, Uncle Goggles.

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And what is Penang without it’s Penang Lobak.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed to Little India in search of this super duper famous cendol stall only to be dissapointed that it was closed.

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So instead, Kit decided to get his eyebrow’s threaded which became such a point of interest to the rest of the guys that every guy in our group decided to get their eyebrow’s threaded as well. In fact, I joined in as well and I have to say that it is way less painful compared to pulling out each individual hair!

We then decided to head to more touristy areas to eat some food at McCallister Road.

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Yes, this was another round of more food and by the time we were done, I was so stuffed!

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Next on the itinerary was to visit Kek Lok Si temple. 

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Took a couple of shots of my colleagues while we were at the top.

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After the visit to the temple, we had dinner along Batu Ferringhi and that was the beginning of the “interesting” bit in my title. Apparently all of us gotten food poisoning so we spent the next 2 days either hibernating or resting in bed. I was one of the few who didn’t get it as bad as the rest so I ended up being the driver, driving them to the hospital and buy dinner back for everyone.

Turned out pretty interesting after all. By the time we reached back to KL, everyone ended up taking MC the next day,

At least now, I will definitely stay away from food at Batu Ferringhi!

p.s. I have to thank my colleague Chiaw Yin for saving my laptop from the rain! Apparently at the place where we were staying, whenever it rains, if the windows were not closed, rain water gets in. My laptop was half drenched!

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Alright, I am definitely responsible for a little lack of blog updates. I guess the moment I turned this into a true blue photography blog, I seem to realise that I have that amount to blog about but then again, I am the number procrastinator when it comes to processing photos and getting up on the blog let alone sending them to the printers to get them printed.

Here is a continuation from my previous post, talking about when I was visiting Chicago City which is still a fond memory in my head. We started the day with an Architecture tour in mind, the tour mainly revolved around us going up and down the river whilst listening to some lady talking about how old some buildings were and what design the architect had in mind. To be honest, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be an architect. Mainly because I wanted to design the next “Death Star” or something cooler.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Every day had to always begin with a great breakfast and where else to have breakfast at the local bakery in the village.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I was quite happy as I could finally try out bagels and cream cheese.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

But to be perfectly honest, it was nothing to shout about. Kinda regretted not ordering the large breakfast set which came with toast, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. After going about on the river cruise, we decided to walk along Michigan Avenue which was crowded with shoppers.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After spending a lot of time walking (my feet was already aching!), we decided to look for a place for lunch and since I am a fan of 1901 HotDog’s and my favourite hotdog is Chicago Beef, why not try the actual Chicago Beef Hotdogs in Chicago itself. High and low searching and using our iPhones to search for nearby restaurants, we ended up at Portillo’s.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Where I ordered a huge chilli dog with curly fries. (Pity there wasn’t any rootbeer available)

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Next stop for us was the Aquarium which was located all the way down south of where we were. After taking the metro line (subway), we were still quite far off from the aquarium and walking there seemed the best alternative (also the cheapest). At the same time, it gave me some opportunities to shoot a little bit of the Chicago scenery. Apparently they worship feet over there since they have plenty of monuments dedicated to it.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Note the guy in the orange shirt above? Yes, he is on a Segway! He is part of a Segway tour group, how cool is that?  Its basically a tour where you get to ride your own individual Segway around the city with a bunch of other people guided by a tour guide. Do that in Malaysia and you get run down by cars and “mat rempits“.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I am amazed that they even have signs to state “dog friendly” areas as well.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

More random stuff which I took whilst making our way to the aquarium.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After a long walk, we finally arrived at our destination.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Only to be welcomed by a huge crowd and the fact that we only had 2 hours before they closed. I am so not used to seeing everything closed by 5pm!

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

The main attraction of the aquarium, other than seeing loads of sea creatures, is their collection of beluga whales.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After the place closed up, I took even more random shots of the surrounding areas.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I still can’t believe how large Lake Michigan is!

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Yes it is a lake! Possibly larger than the entire land mass of Peninsula Malaysia.

By the way, the myth about cops and donuts ain’t true. I caught a couple of them eating hot dogs.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

They (the police, duh!) seem to be riding everything possible now, bicycles, horses, and motorcycles. Soon they will be riding one of these as well!

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Only thing is that they probably needed to put power sockets around the city to charge up their Segways.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Funky looking bench with interesting art on it.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Last but not least, a shot of my colleague whilst we took the metro train back to our hotel.

 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Chicago, definitely a city I would love to visit again. I think I will spend a little more time there the next time I am in Chicago for training.

Langkawi – Day 2

To be honest, after being to islands like Phuket, Bali and even Singapore (no, I am not talking about people with an island mentality), I have come to realise the vast difference between Langkawi and these other tourist destinations. Seriously, the place could definitely use something to spruce it up but then, what does Langkawi really have to offer?

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, I don’t think the escaped Ian is always there in Langkawi as captured above!

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many escaped jumping humans about. Perhaps you might catch a glimpse of some other interesting life forms there.

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many beggars sitting by the sidewalk waiting for their other halves while they shop for 4 hours. (ok I was just kidding about the 4 hours).

 Langkawi   Day 2

I don’t think people usually come to visit the water bottle carrying man from Penang who hides in the deepest of alleys in the streets of Langkawi as well.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Like every other island, the relaxing sound of waves hitting the shores whilst the cool breeze skims through your hair is enough to melt away all of our tensions. Perhaps that is what people might head to Langkawi, to catch a little rest and relaxation. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Langkawi for a shoot and then for a little bit of R&R with the WeddingStory team. After a very very tiring first day, I totally overslept and skipped breakfast. That aside, I woke up definitely in time for lunch icon smile Langkawi   Day 2

After lunch, we all decided to walk along the beach and after several sessions of banana boat rides and watching Nigel and Lai Yeen defy gravity and got dragged across the ocean on a para-sail. It just took me 15 minutes standing under the bright sun to note that I was being cooked alive! Yes it was that hot so our time on the beach was cut short because we were heading out for our own photo shoot!

Yes, Grace and Alex planned that we needed to all dress up for a private shoot and did I really come unprepared. Whilst Munz brought a nice dress, I wore a polo shirt and shorts which she definitely made me change into something a little more formal. Oh well, I guess I had to suffer in the hot sun with slacks and a long sleeved shirt. After the whole fiasco with my clothes, we arrived at our destination.

 Langkawi   Day 2

We started off shooting and shooting and trying out various types of shots with various techniques. Personally, I was trying to utilize the natural lighting as much as I can and to use it to my advantage as well. Here are some of my shots from the session.

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Took a couple of photos with Munz for a while whilst trying to figure out how to pose her for a couple of those shots. Not easy trying to pose your girlfriend especially when I am sweating like mad and my sweat was stinging my eyes! I must bring a towel on my next portrait shoots.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I liked this photo of both Alex and Grace because of Grace’s expression.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Now who says you can’t do some serious shots in padi fields?

After taking even more photos of the rest there, the sun was setting and we quickly headed back to our hotel (which was conveniently next to the beach). Since we were on the west coast of the island, we wanted to capture some sunset shots by the beach. This was when I could change back to my shirt and shorts which was much cooler!

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Ok, we arrived there a little too early and it was still extremely bright. Good time to shoot a couple more portraits on the beach while waiting for light to diminish.

 Langkawi   Day 2

The sunset was totally awesome. One of the nicest I have seen around Malaysia. The other occasion was when I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, atending Louis Pang’s workshop.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I even managed to get the sunset as well as the crescent moon as well. Was a tough shot to take because I had my 50mm attached with me at the moment.

After spending two days in Langkawi and eating overpriced food which was still good, I guess the main attraction over here was the statues on the beach. Some say that orcs erected them up to celebrate the crescent moon, or maybe elves wanted to erect landmarks to guide their ships correctly.

 Langkawi   Day 2

All I know is that, these statues have a story to tell.

Now try and guess what they are saying,

Chicago the Windy City – Day 1

Before anyone asks where is Day 2 of the WeddingStory Langkawi trip, I decided that I definitely wanted to post up some other photos of my recent trip to the US. Back in May, I flew to the States to attend a training in Chicago for a week where I planned a short break after the training session. Since I was already at Chicago attending the training, I thought it would be great to stay a couple of nights in Chicago with a bunch of my colleagues over in the City whilst taking in the sights.

The bus ride from St. Charles all the way to the city was horrendous. We were stuck in traffic for about 3 over hours for what should have been a 45-min bus ride. By the time we arrived in Chicago, it was already 5pm in the evening and we had little time there to enjoy the sights.

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Chicago City itself, home of the mafias and also known as the Windy City.

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This is a view from my hotel room. The building next to the hotel had a very interesting concept, it was totally round and had built the parking lots below the rooms. Look at the parking spaces, there are no walls at all! I can’t imagine parking my car there overnight. I would probably be having nightmares about my car falling off from the building.

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Chicago has a river running through the city where they have plenty of water taxis and Architecture tours available for tourists to ride up the Chicago River. Look how nice and clean the water is much compared to our own wonderful Klang River which runs through KL City. The secret to this is not only civic minded folks who don’t throw every single bit of rubbish into the river but they actually have a processing plant to clean the river’s water.

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Before I went to Chicago, a friend of mine, CWCW, told me that I have to try a deep dish pizza. After checking out with some of my colleagues during my training session, I was told that I should check out Giordano’s for some of that awesome deep dish pizza. I guess Giordano‘s is sort of like those franchise type stores, much like Domino’s or Pizza Hut.

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As it’s name suggests, this pizza is definitely a thick crust! The pizza is so thick that after 3 slices I was totally filled up to the brim, of course the extra added cheese did not help at all. The crust itself isn’t like the usual pizza crust you might get but it had a combination of pie crust in it. If you ever are in Chicago, I would highly recommend that you try out a deep dish pizza.

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After stuffing ourselves crazy (with plenty of leftovers), we decided that a nice long walk would be suitable and since Grant Park was nearby we headed there for a walk. As light began to disappear, shooting in low light was going to be a tough challenge. The weather itself was just awesome, nice and cooling without any hint of humidity.

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As we were walking, we chanced upon this interesting monument. I love the fact that it was rather stylish and interesting, mainly because it was totally reflective!

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Which means I could take a photo of myself!

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I loved how the syline of the buildings behind were also reflected on it the monument.

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This was the skyline of buildings behind it.

After snapping a couple more photos, we headed towards the Sears Tower where the attraction there would be to head up to the upper decks or the “Sky Deck” to catch a 360 view of the Chicago City.

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The one thing that caught my eye is how straight the roads were! Everything is so nicely planned out.

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The SkyDeck definitely showed us all how large Chicago is. By the time we got down (we stayed till it was closing time), we were totally wiped out and proceeded back to our hotel.

Day 2 of the Chicago trip to follow up!

Langkawi – Day 1

* Apologies for the confusion, I am trying out a new desktop publishing tool and it seemed to have screwed up the entire post and I have lost everything! *

The one thing I really hate to do is to retype an entire blog post which I have spent quite a fair bit of time writing. It saddens me that a simple mistake or being totally oblivious to the new tool which I am trying out can cause about 30 minutes of work down the drain. Nevertheless, the post must go up! Let me try to recapture what I have written in my earlier post.

I wonder how many people out there get up on a Monday morning, feeling worn out and said to themselves,”Wow, its going to be a great week ahead!”. Most of the time I hear from my desk is that people are either feeling the Monday blues or they are updating their Facebook status about what a wonderful weekend they had recently. Personally, my weekend was the bomb!

Together with the WeddingStory team, we headed to a part of Malaysia I have not been in over 10 years, and that was the island, Langkawi. Feeling excited about Stuart & Amy’s wedding, I took the 8am flight to Langkawi on Friday and I can safely say is that, don’t fly so early in the morning. Why? Think about it, if your flight is at 8am, then you would probably need to be at the airport by 6.30am to check-in. Which means you have to leave your house at 5.30am by taxi. Hence you need to be up at 4 something in order to get ready.

And that was what happened and I have to thank Alex and Grace for hosting me and Mun Tzin the night before so that I didn’t have to take account the time needed to travel from my house to their place. Also I have to thank Mun Tzin for waking me up in the morning by rubbing her wet fingers against my face. That really didn’t give me a shock at all.

By the time we arrived in Langkawi, rented two cars, checked into the hotel, the first thing I did was sleep! Yes, sleep was the first thing in my mind and after a quick nap, whilst Alex and Mun Tzin went to pick Kee Sitt and Sharon up from the ferry dock, I felt hungry. A quick walk along the main road where our hotel was located, we found ourselves in a cosy restaurant ordering some dishes and eagerly waiting for our food to arrive

 Langkawi   Day 1

Kee Sitt then decided to try out Nigel’s camera while we were waiting for our food to arrive.

 Langkawi   Day 1

By the time the first dish arrived (fried rice in case you were wondering if this was some special Langkawi grown rice), we were all too hungry to take more photos of the rest of the food. Ok, I admitted that once I started eating, I didn’t stop until the food was gone!

 Langkawi   Day 1

The one thing I remembered about Langkawi was that it was a duty free island, meaning that all alcohol, chocolates and cigarettes were very cheap. It was so dirt cheap that they even served my chinese tea in a beer mug.

 Langkawi   Day 1

After lunch we decided to walk about and check out some of the stalls across the street from the restaurant. Apparently Alex and Nigel found a new toy, Langkawi Poken!

 Langkawi   Day 1

Kee Sitt loved playing with his new toy so much so that he took loads of pictures and videos with it. Can’t wait to see all of them when he is done with it.

After lunch, the team got ready and drove about 45 minutes up north of the Island to the famed Andaman resort. There we were to shoot Stuart & Amy’s beach wedding. I will leave more details about the shoot in a separate post. icon smile Langkawi   Day 1

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This was the view from the bride’s room. Look how lovely the scenery is.

 Langkawi   Day 1

And last but not least a view of the beach side where the ceremony is to take place. The decoration and the lovely sea breeze was just amazing, makes everything feel so romantic. The wedding lasted from 4pm all the way till past midnight and it was just so much fun!

I was totally wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel which means only one thing for me. I need more exercise!

Stay tuned for day 2 of the Langkawi trip.

Off to Langkawi

It is 7am here now in Kuala Lumpur and I am feeling extremely sleepy. Getting up at 5am is something I don’t do too often, of course sleeping at 5am doesn’t count. So the title probably gave me away. Here I am sitting at the newly refurbished Taste of Asia restaurant at the LCCT airport surfing the web (using my Maxis 3G line because the wi-fi here is near impossible to connect to!) whilst waiting for my flight at 7.30 together with the WeddingStory team.

Click to continue reading “Off to Langkawi”

Bumming at the Q for a week

Oh my goodness, the blog went silent for a week and I have to blame the lack of internet when I was in New York. Actually there was internet available at the hotel I was staying in and it was limited to only 30minutes and the Wi-Fi connection kept dropping so after I returned back on Saturday and sort of recovered from all the jet lag, I believe its time for a new blog post.

The first week I was in the states mainly involved me living in this small room as shown in the image below. As the title states, I was at the Q Center located in Chicago for a weeklong training. Getting there was no easy task, I had to endure a flight from Malaysia to Hong Kong, transit for 2 hours before travelling another 12 hours to Los Angeles. Upon arrival which was almost midnight, I stayed a night at Los Angeles because the security checks at LAX took almost 2 hours. Then early in the morning, take another flight to Chicago which I clearly missed because I was queuing up for more than an hour and missed the 1-hour before flight check-in deadline. Anyway they just put me on the next flight which was the next hour.

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Don’t sweat it, the awesome part of this was that it had free internet as well as a TV which had more than 10 HD channels. It was really awesome watching ESPN in HD! The image is so clear, you can see all the chest hair of all the basketball players when they are playing (ironically I was catching the eastern conference playoffs icon razz Bumming at the Q for a week )

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Most of the time I would be walking to and from my training lecture and viewing these awesome scenery and although training usually lasts until quite late through the day, I am glad that the sun sets really late (like 8ish) so I still manage to catch some wonderful sun and cool temperatures.

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The centre used to be a golf course but they managed to preserve the last hole.

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My room was located in these apartments on the right. They are quite close to the actual lecture rooms and since classes start at 8am, I had to wake up very early every morning just to catch breakfast before classes. I am utterly amazed that the Americans love to start at 8am everyday whilst where I work, usually people come in after 9am.

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Its nice to see tulips as well as we don’t get to see many of them here in Malaysia. But it was a really nice week at St. Charles in Chicago where the sun was up every day and the temperatures were still cool.

More to come when I process the photos I took while I visited Chicago city itself.

pixel Bumming at the Q for a week