Early morning this Saturday, 20th, I will be flying to US for holiday for almost 4 weeks, so bear with my blog possible hiatus for 4 weeks. I will be back to Singapore late 14th October.
Destinations have all be planned, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal, and Taipei. Although I will be travelling for a total 25 days, but the schedule is pretty packed. If you want more details on this trip, read on.
I booked a tour from Nam Ho Singapore for S$2,388 that includes return trip Singapore – Los Angeles and 10-day west coast tour (LA, Vegas, SF, Grand Canyon, Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland). One thing I like about their service is customisation. I asked some travel agents, and they told me I have to stick to their travel schedule and itineraries, no change allowed (I’m not paid commission by Nam Ho btw to say this hehe…). I asked for this 10-day tour, then change my return trip from New York instead. The top-up is S$450, fair enough. They’ve also arranged a domestic flight from Los Angeles – New York for S$439, which is slightly cheaper than what I can get in retail sellers like Zuji. Add S$795 for airport taxes, fuel surcharges, etc. and you end up with S$4,072 per person.
That S$4,072 will bring me to LA, Vegas, SF, and around, then flight to NY and back to Singapore. Everything from the moment I reached NY are all free-and-easy. At the moment, New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Montreal are in the plan, but they can always change depending on situations when I reach there. Maybe I should add Wall St. to my schedule as well to see Barclays new-office-to-be at Lehman Brothers.
Temperature will be pretty okay, dropping as low as 5°C for cities that are closer to the north like San Francisco, Toronto, and Montreal, but in cities like New York or Los Angeles, they only dropped as far as 15°C. Taipei’s weather is exactly the same as Singapore, so no worries there.
Preparation are pretty much done at the moment, I have packed enough attires, shorts, jeans, jackets, and sweaters. I even bring one formal attire with tie should I need them in Las Vegas casinos. Gadgets are plenty in this trip. My parents (oh yeah, did I say I’m going there with my parents? US Embassy in Melbourne rejected my brother’s US Visa application, so he can’t go 
) will bring a video cam and Panasonic Lumix FX8 digital camera, I will bring my Macbook (I’m sure will need my Macbook a lot in this trip), a 320GB portable hard disk (I’m not scared of how many photos will be taken, I’m scared of videos to be taken that could go 4GB/day if our last trip to Australia is any indicator), Canon IXUS 860IS digital camera, Nokia E90 mobile phone, iPod, and all kinds of chargers, batteries, cards, company and banking tokens, etc.
Free wireless Internet access are pretty much guaranteed in US hotels, so I can keep myself connected (to upload photos no less, and update blog), yay !!! I hope to be able to keep up a journal/diary/blog whatever-you-call-it for my trip as soon as I get to hotel, fingers crossed I can do that.
Meanwhile, take care everyone.
After Apple iPhone 3G has been launched in 22 countries last month, the remaining 50 countries (including Singapore) are still waiting for it. Word has spread that the next 20 countries will get it this August 22nd, 2008.
