Going in addition to my previous blog post of installing and running Android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich) on your x86 based system. I encountered an interesting infinite boot loader loop problem evident only if you install your Linux distribution (and GRUB) on top of a Windows 8 system using the new Windows 8 radical boot loader. This problem could be a nagging issue for users due to the annoyances caused by the Windows8 UEFI-ready new double-boot bootmenu, and could be more prevalent when Windows 8 become mainstream, especially if you are setup to tri-boot Windows 8, Windows 7 and Linux on the same machine.

The cool but rather annoying thing about Windows 8 the Microsoft new bootmenu which appears to act like a new boot loader interface, but is actually in-fact a mini operating system itself sitting in the MBR (root) partition which functions like a gatekeeper to boot into Windows 8, it even has it’s own optimized video and touch-friendly mouse drivers pre-loaded. I previously had Windows 8 and 7 installed on my machine. If multiple instances of Windows are detected on your partitions, it will invoke the bootmenu and list all the available compatible Windows OS and reboots the PC again after your selection.

This has major issues with pre-existent bootloaders, especially if you are looking to boot into an Linux environment or similar ext3 partition using GRUB for instance. The problem here is that you will get infinite restart loops. GRUB will catch the reboot again, terminating the Windows boot cycle, bringing you back to square one into the irritating Windows 8 bootmenu. It simply just makes you wonder what Microsoft is intending to get out of this, by implementing this together with their notorious Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Though bootloader signing and certification for UEFI is not evident here, we could see this being a major problem given the controversy Microsoft new UEFI BIOS will have against Linux platforms (or other platforms not signed by the manufacturers to work with the UEFI BIOS), especially in securing the BIOS and making the boot procedure largely closed-source.

Anyway back, fixing the bootloader loop is relatively simple, my weapon of choice means getting rid of the Windows 8 bootloader completely and reinstalling the Windows 7 bootloader. I choose the Windows 7 bootloader over GRUB on this laptop as I primarily run Windows on this machine anyway. This can be done by invoking the power of the new Window 8 “mini boot loader OS” which surprisingly has not only a in-built recovery tool system but a full working command prompt which you can repair your boot records with.

Start off by first selecting Windows 7 as your primary operating system. Then go into Windows 8 command prompt (under advanced) and type the following code to fix your MBR using boot recovery.

Or to make it simple, simply just completely rebuild the BCD using /rebuildBCD as shown in the code field below. If you feel that you’ve corrupted any of the MBR, just pop in your Windows 8 or 7 installation DVD or bootable flash drive, boot into the “repair my computer” option and access the command prompt from there.

This will be good enough to get you out of the infinite boot loop and into your production Windows environment again. Thereafter you can use a MBR modifier such as EasyBCD (freeware) or bcdedit (if you are a purist) on the command prompt, to clean up your boot records and add the additional Linux/Android ext3 partition as a additional Linux boot record.

Here you can choose to invoke your own instance of GRUB or use EasyBCD with it’s own in-built GRUB to boot into Linux/Android. Upon restart, you will be greeted with the clean default Windows 7 boot loader with the 3 simple selections in place. Pretty, simple and no ugly Windows 8 double-restarting boot loader.

Of course you can argue that GRUB does the exact same thing as well by adding Windows 7 and 8 to menu.lst, but it’s just a matter of choosing your sides I guess. Remember the old intel vs AMD flamewars? Yea you should get it.

The idea of Windows 8 running on ARM based tablets is unreal, but the idea of running Android on x86 based PCs is even cooler. Knowing the crazed Android platform developer and supporter I am, what’s the least I can do than to get it running on my x86-based tablet PC?

You can start off by grabbing the Android x86 sourcecode and building the image yourself. You have a choice of Honeycomb or Ice cream sandwich (ICS) flavors. This is courtesy of the guys on the Android x86 project who made everyone’s job easier by porting much of the needed original source code for runtime in the unconventional PC-based architecture. So do check out the Android x86 project, go ahead and give the guys a visit and drop them a tip or two if you appreciate the work the team had been putting in developing Android for PC. If you are new to this, the main development site has specific .iso files for Asus netbooks (Eee PCs), Viewsonic viewpads and few MSI netbooks which is convenient if you have those devices. Otherwise, you are quite out of luck if you are intending to get ICS running properly on your own system, let be on any system like my ultra-old-and-dated 8 year old Intel 915GM-based Fujitsu tablet which nobody supports at all.

So that pretty much kept me busy over the last few days, working on the x86 instance of Android 4.0 for my laptop and streamlining various old drivers and re-building the installer with many trail and errors. It gets really rewarding eventually when you finally manage to get the build to work, bringing a whole new life to my stoneage tablet PC.

A familiar face!

Full ICS experience

Games & market work

In a matter of no time, I was zipping through the app tray and testing out various functionalities of ICS. I have the default market installed which was promptly updated to Google Play through my intel a/b/g card via my compatible wireless drivers. I’ve got touch support using my wacom-penabled touchscreen and the hardware keyboard working. Strangely, the laptop trackpad was automatically recognized as an optical trackpad (similarly found on the Desire range of HTC phones), which allows swipe based navigations and scrolling, but no hardware mouse pointer like those you get by plugging in a human interface device via USB Host. Hardware limitations on my digitizer and synaptics trackpad prevents any form of multi-touch interactions, so I am pretty much out of luck for pinch-to-zoom on the browser/maps or any form of on-screen gamepad interactions where 2 or more multi-touch points are required.

My clunky tablet PC, though in the heavy weight league of 2kg is not exactly what you will find in a standard Android tablet these days and is not exactly what I call “one-handed” portable without breaking your wrists in the process. But it’s a form factor I never knew could be realized at all, let be on a nearly decade old tablet PC. Is it how the eventual tablet PC is supposed to be idealized as? Maybe.

Come to think about it, my tablet PC may be one of the few ICS machines on the planet which doesn’t go with Google specs for Android, especially with the lack of an on-board camera- the camera app crashes on runtime due to the lack of a webcam. The absence of an accelerometer means that automatic screen rotation is non-existent and have to be toggled via a manual screen rotation app on the notification bar. Currently, the mounting of any SD cards via the Tablet’s SD reader or any external USB mass storage devices have to be done manually through terminal (yea for root!). I was not able to get the integrated DVD-burner drive working too.

Games such as Pocket God runs well on the system only that the market seems to recognize my device as a tablet, but I believe is not exactly sure of my device type or fingerprint. So it seems to be blocking several mainstream games I’ve bought and free ones such as Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja. This could be rectified by updating my product.device and build.fingerprint to a known similar tablet device type or simply just physically transferring the game .apk files over.

Nyan Droid :3

Tablet mode

Quadrant run

I was curious to find out the Quadrant scores on my unconventional system, but I wasn’t able to get Quadrant standard to run a full benchmark as presumably with the program freaking out and crashing after encountering my laptop’s GMA900 “GPU” (lawl) on the graphic testing portion of the benchmarking process.

I still yet have to test for extended battery life running ICS, but I reckon the increase in battery life will not be significant as processor don’t seem to throttle well between cycles, as felt with the system fan always abruptly speeding up and down presumably at 100% commit. I was not able to tweak the on-screen brightness too. Furthermore, my DVD drive goes into a random read-write cycle each time the screen goes off standby mode, it’s like as if you are booting the partition again each time to wake it, but then that’s how Android goes into standby anyway, so doing it on PC kinda counter-productive. Still, everything is still largely in the testing phase, so bugs are always evident, it’s always a work in progress!

In all, running ICS on my tablet will keep me busy with the ICS experience without the need of any emulation or SDKs for now, until I get a stable ICS build into my handphone at least. A poor student developer like me will have to suffice using an 8 year old 2kg laptop as an Android tablet until I can afford a proper Android tablet myself. Till then, happy Android x86-ing!

*noms on a Jellybean filled Ice cream Sandwich*

When the Metro interface was first announced for Windows 8, I had the humorous impression of it being Windows Phone for PC. We’ve seen the Metro interface already being implemented on the Xbox and the Windows Phone platform, knowing Microsoft’s enthusiasm on this rather unique interface, it will be only a matter of time before it finds it’s way into their flagship product.

Metro for Windows acts as in intermediary gateway for users to launch apps. In Windows, it serves as the new start menu between the desktop and “Apps”, positioning itself as a launching UI, allowing an out-of-the-box style of navigation via window boxes. Gone is the familiar start button on the task bar, invoking “Start” now means hovering your mouse on various “hotspots” on your screen or using the Windows button (which you will intuitively find yourself using more often now). With Metro comes with it’s own set of special shortcut keys allowing you to transition to various App listing via an Aero-like interface of sidebars, charms (window-C) and the start menu (windows button) itself.

Windows 8 still has the speed and capabilities to run on older machines. I had Windows 8 dual booting on a 7-year old single core Centrino-based Tablet PC, which was previously running Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows 8 is still largely based off Windows 7, so they should behave similarly performance-wise. Going with Metro has alway been thought to doubled edged decision for Microsoft, one which will usually make or break an OS, the change here is in-fact more drastic than the one we saw with Windows XP and the transition then to the more stable and “secure” NT file system.

Test system

Metro

New Start menu

The radical new interface runs like a charm. It’s both fresh, zippy and pleasant to the eye, and will definitely catch the attention of anyone. Microsoft has a strange obsession with buzzwords on their new OS, particularly the over used of the word “Apps” and “Charms” which I find hard to stick as names not representative in any of the elements on the UI. Microsoft claims that Metro is as intuitive to use on a tablet as well as trackpad based laptops, but I beg to differ even with tablet capabilities on my machine. I found the touch and swipe movements not as intuitive as that on Android or even iOS, the OS still retains much of the fixed, segmented tablet input structure we see in the previous version of windows, with weird scrollbars popping out of nowhere and Windows swipe gestures conflicting with the current touch interfaces. But I can attribute that now for the lack of refinement in the alpha release, as well as the lack of touch support drivers for my machine, which will be rectified on future releases.

Moreover, the speeds are excellent. Performance of Windows 8 will be best supplemented by a solid state harddisk (SSD), which has not only allowed me to breathe new life into this old system but prove that Windows 8 isn’t as slow as it was perceived to be. Movement swipes and transitions are fast and smooth and I hardly ever need to invoke high CPU usage in Metro too. Also, having an SSD also allows you to capitalize the extremely rapid boot and shutdown times the new OS is known for. I managed to get a 5s OS boot up after POST and 10 seconds shutdown, with the closing of running Apps on the shutdown phase the only reason for slowdowns. Quantifiable average boot times are roughly 3 times faster than Windows 7 on a similar setup on this early alpha release.

Sluggish tablet input

Desktop

New dual boot

Metro has found a very nice spot between it’s bigger Android and iOS platform brothers, without invoking any design cues of any rivaling operating systems (which we can only see ending under a barrage of infringement claims in court). But I personally find the new interface frustrating to use, especially for power users who know their stuff around Windows well. Metro is simply eye candy which pokes into all your doings, I at times find it more of the hassle having to hover-wait over hotspots to invoke a start menu, or reaching out to the keyboard for the Windows button to get an App list up- tasks previously which can be done with a single click from a mouse in one hand. Also, what’s peculiar is that Windows 8 is trying be both a tablet and full-fledged operating systems in a single package, with many features we won’t need or use on either side. However, it is still good to know that deep down inside of Windows 8 lies pretty much a nearly identical version of Windows 7, if Metro is not to your liking, you can in-fact completely customize the OS to look just like the predecessor, but then there comes the question of even the need to upgrade from Windows 7.

There are still several evident quirks and nagging bugs on the Metro UI at this point of release, as well as the return of the glaring driver issues which we saw with Windows 7. For me, driver issues, especially for my old hardware usually means lots of wasted time writing and re-writing compatible drivers with an occasional forced BSOD. But these problems will be rectified in the next release as well as a more larger and complete driver library in the RTM. Metro is still an on-going development so changes are still planned in the pipeline until at least the beta stage.

But don’t get me wrong, Metro is an ingenious piece of kit. Windows 8 had received a mixed bag of contrasting opinions so far, but what is really most promising is the move from x64 and x86-based platforms to ARM or even Ti-opmap based platforms, where the true ability of Windows 8 can be realized by bringing desktop computing to tablets. The tablet PC of yesterday was clunky, heavy and simply just functions as a PC strapped onto a heavy photo frame. It does not have the instant-on capabilities and suave of today’s modern tablets.

Windows 8 could be Microsoft’s chance at redeeming their failed vision of the tablet PC, despite arguably, Microsoft could had taken the tablet PC further if they were to expand more on the now-defunct Windows Mobile for slate tablets 10 years ago- way before iOS was launched. Who would have thought of that? Maybe the consumer market just wasn’t ready for a tablet device then. Then again, who would even conceive the notion of Nokia and Microsoft teaming up to make phones a decade ago? It was something too-far fetched then.

So will we be seeing Windows 8 on your ARM-based Android phones or even iPhones in the future? That may not be too far fetched now.

2011 turned out to be pretty much a snow-less year, with the Christmas period surprisingly devoid of any snow, considering how it usually comes in early December for the last 2 years. And before you can call it spring, it’s snowing in Cambridge today! Strangely, nearly 2 months later than usual. The weather here in the midlands UK had been rather eccentric with rather summer-like warm periods contrasted by sudden cold spells, much to the dismay of many students here who caught the cold chills and flus at the last minute.

Snowmen!

College Library

Mystical

Then before you know it, came the unsuspecting white flop over this weekend. It snowed overnight, but the snow is not that deep as last years- sitting just under 5 inches- the kind which won’t humorously put the UK workforce in to a grinding halt, well at least the airports are still functioning, to some extent… By the looks of the weather reports, this may be the only snowfall we might probably get till next winter too.

With fresh snow, comes snow responsibilities as well. Ahoy! May all the snow mans, snow totems and snow fights begin!

(New record! Made a snowman myself in under 10 minutes flat. :3)

It’s the Chinese new year and of course no new year celebration to welcome to Lunar new year is complete without the inclusion of food! And lots of them. This year’s celebrations was held at the Queens college junior combination room. I’ve never been to Queen’s JCR before, only their halls for formals and apartments of friends in the area. Apparently it’s situated right on top of a loft proving rather good views of the River Cam via Sliver street and the adjacent University center (where the gyms are). Despite it’s rather small size, the JCR was decked out with plenty of sofas and furniture, not to mention being able to accommodate an odd 30 over people who turned up for the gathering.

It was organized by mainly the second and third years of the CuMaS association, the Cambridge Malaysian society (why can’t the Singaporean cookouts be just as awesome?), with many new faces, namely several year ones where we spent most of the evening meeting and integrating into the group.

CNY Reunion!

Foodies!

Yu Sheng!

Huge servings of variety of local Malaysian and Singaporean delicacies such as noodles, (Mee goreng style), Curry chicken, omelettes and Bak kut teh just to name afew. The huge group turnout calls for at least 6 rice-cooker pots of home cooked chicken rice and a double tossing Yusheng at the end of the dinner session. It was quite a big feat to prepare all the food for so many people as well.

The Lunar new year is just like any other day here in the UK, a typical work day buzzing with people on the streets, with school still on and lectures to attend, with the exception of Chinese restaurants and takeaways all closed. Chinese new year for me this year was a rather simple and fat-free one too, considering I was more selective on the ones I am able to go this year given my leg injury. Also with most of the awesome seniors who graduated last year not around in Cambridge to organize their trademarked annual steamboat dinner, I am happy to say that the food standards had not dropped either. This new year mass pot luck is one which still lives up to the legacy set by the seniors of last year.

Having said that, in the light of the Chinese new year, wishing you good health and a prosperous Lunar new year of the dragon ahead!

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. It was the December holidays, stretching all the way to January at least before the start of the upcoming Lent university term. With Portal, Skyrim, and TF2 boring me out these days, why not get back onto some RPGs like World of Warcraft? Well as you should know, World of Warcraft (WoW), despite it’s launch since 2004 is still the most widely played massively multi-player RPG in the world (though some SWtoR fans would argue otherwise).

So it’s $15 a month to head back into Azeroth at least for the holidays, for a month. Paying to play a game, could be a turn off for many. I was initially skeptical of paying too. But later do I know paying does has it perks as it not only provides a much better mature gaming experience not only in support and game uptime, but sieves out casual trolls and kids you usually see on free-to-play games, not to mention flame-bait and trolls.

So what did I do within the period of a month? Leveled up 3 toons with a cumulative total of 200 levels, now that is quite alot of (anti-social) time. That also means exploring the worlds and various (and revamped) expansion zones I missed out over the years. I never quite got to the current level cap of 85, not seeing the need to level up so quickly, so technically I actually had not touched the Cataclysm zones as of yet, despite starting on it already on my ass-kickin’ Worgen Death Knight.

Dragons in Northend

Chilling out over Stormwind

Exalted in Orgrimmar

With the start of Lent around the corner in a few weeks time, it’s time to put all my toons into deep freeze till the upcoming summer holidays at least. Not to mention considering gearing up my characters for the new level-90 cap when blizzard releases the Kungfu- touting pandas on the new Azeroth southern continent in the upcoming “Mist of Pandaria”. But not of course till we get “Heart of the Swarm” or the long delayed Diablo III on the next Starcraft/Diablo franchise.

Surprising, with the exception of a number of local British students I know here in the university, no Singaporeans studying here plays WoW at at. Not only that, some do not even know about the game, let be any PC or Xbox game titles I know at the back of my head released within the last 5 years. So for WoW I usually end up playing with my friends in the States anyway, with almost all of my toons on US servers.

I know you must be screaming “NERD ALERT” right now, yea but it’s a “problem” either the poor Singaporean kids here, I hope this is not what you get with ultra nerdy students coming from top schools and Junior Colleges who “take pleasure by studying”. That is really sad, but the fact is this is the stereotypical image of various top Singaporean JCs, just study study study- Not even any extra-curricular activities or nothing about heading to a pub to chill for the night or a game of pool after a long day of work. Of course that is another huge area to debate about what I define as a “balanced and healthy” college life. I mean hey! college life is literally one of the best times of your entire life. I definitely wouldn’t like to look back at my college days and see myself remembering just only all the studying as a socially-inert study-bot.

That would be really, really sad.

Happy New 2012! A whole new year, a whole new area of possibilities! The fireworks at London was fantastic even when viewed on the TV as broadcasted by the BBC. The sparkles lasted just over 12 minutes right after the midnight chimes of the Big Ben. It was a grand display of over 12,000 fireworks, producing 50,000 projectiles, also welcoming the year where the Olympics will be held in the city itself.

I did the London Thames countdown to welcome 2010 in my first year of college. But personally I think the crowds and effort to crawl all the way there is not really worth the hassle, unless if you intend to make the countdown an whole day affair and literally camp the best firework spots since midday by the embankment. For most of us that year, it’s just a matter of “being in town”. And of course unless if you are planning to check out the awesome new year’s day parade running through the heart of London and the still ongoing boxing day sales (or in this case now, new year day sales) attending the countdown is a no-brainer.

Anyway regardless of how you welcome the new year, 2012 will come anyway, well… eventually. So what are you new year resolutions for the brand new year?

I don’t think that is too much to ask for. 2012 is also the year of the Dragon on the Chinese lunar calendar too, which in the case for my sister is a big year for her turning 24. I remembered the time when I was 24, made me realise how old I am, haha.

Nonetheless, hello 2012!

Fireworks photo credit: REUTERS/Andrew Winning

And so it’s December and time for a much needed blog post on the happenings so far here. Guess I was just too busy with stuff and the end of the that I had not found much time to share the happenings here as of date. The sad fact is that there is actually quite a lack of things happening here, with the exception of homework and loads of end of term pile ups and deadline reports to submit (and finally done with whew).

Having said that, Christmas here in the UK is also the time where almost everybody head back home and out of college for Christmas. Everywhere here in college seems pretty much like a dead town now in comparison to the term time buzz. The kitchens and halls get progressively quieter over the days as the holidays finally hit. The streets are all quiet, bare and empty with most stores all closed until next year. This is of course in stark contrast to the situation back home, particularly most shopping districts in Asian countries, like those in Japan, Seoul and Singapore, with the streets buzzing even with extended store opening hours till midnight.

Christmas here in the UK on the contrary is one for the family- Christmas tradition holds as a get together period for all family member and relatives alike. This means getting together back at home on Christmas day enjoying a scrumptious Christmas dinner (which also means the most expensive time of the year to travel too). This is my first year where I get to spend Christmas grounded in Cambridge due to a leg injury. Which kept me pretty much grounded here in college and made me very acquainted with Taxi drivers in getting around town as well as the hospital outpatient’s department. Due to the inconvenience of travel, I didn’t get to spent at my aunt Jenny’s place, though she never fails to always delight with her wonderful roast and Christmas cheesecake. Just a pity I can’t join her family this year.

Pre-Xmas dinner!

Roast!

Desserts!

Anyway, I won’t just stop there and call it quits. Christmas is a time of feasting and celebrations. So the least to do is to have few get people together, particularly those who remained in college during the period. There was a pre-Christmas day dinner at an upmarket restaurant in town as well as a wonderful Christmas lunch and dinner with university mates at a large rented out-of-college accommodation flat courtesy of an old friend of mine. The flat was big enough to house our Christmas day party of 25 and we had Turkey! Loads of it. Well too much turkey, 2 large birds in fact to the extent where leftovers the next few days were literally Turkey days as well.

Weather-wise this is my first winter here in Cambridge without snow. It seems this year the snow decided to head home too, it’s pretty much snow-less Christmas in Cambridge. Not to mention rather warm for winter now too. Surprisingly, there are still many trees out there with their leaves on and lush green patches of autumn grass dotted everywhere around town. Temperates here range from 5 to 11 degrees here at night which is nearly autumn weather in comparison to the sub freezing temperatures of last year and the year before.

In comparison, lets take alook at the snow that was in Cambridge the years before. Surprisingly this exact panorama taken 2 years ago by yours truly was used by my college as the official college Christmas card this year. I am honored!

Snow here in Cambridge is known to come in one big flop in December just before Christmas (well at least for the last 2 years I was here) and very much sits around slushy like a sore thumb throughout January at least. Commendably, the weather here in Cambridge is as good as it can get in the UK. Cambridge is pretty much sheltered from harsh storms and snow, given it’s location in land just north of London. So if the weather is bad here, chances it might even be worst else where.

So that’s for Christmas this year now, there was lots to eat and not as bad as I thought to be, despite being grounded. And oh thanks for the Christmas cards to those who sent yours, I had to find more wall space to pin all of them up this year.

In the meantime, Cheers and have a great Happy new year ahead!

And heyho! Summer break’s over, it’s the my third year in college and the start of Michaelmas now. A whole new world of exciting studying, homework-rejoicing and sociallife-killing fun awaits! Oh bummer.

Third year engineering here in Cambridge is where the specialization in your field actually starts, as you actually get to learn what you (or for most Singaporeans here, what your scholarship provider) want to study, with specific modules students get to choose beforehand. The case here is different to those in other UK universities, say Imperial college, where they are known for engineering themselves and where specialization of the course starts explicitly on day one (just like what they do in NUS and NTU too). The last 2 years beforehand here on the other hand were spent literally learning everything an engineer should know under the sun- electronics, thermodynamics, statics, dynamics, information, computing, mathematics, etc. That’s why my first 2 years (particularly the second) here are usually the toughest years for engineers in Cambridge university.

Looking back, as what my Directors of Studies like to say, it offers somewhat a more holistic learning viewpoint to engineering, the interesting stand here in Cambridge is that even if you intend to be an electrical engineer, you will have to understand at least civil, structure and mechanical engineering. So you won’t be a complete idiot in the other fields with at least tertiary understanding how buildings stand, mobile phones or turbine engines work. But of course at the expense of your sanity with the breakneck speeds they teach their courses here. I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world where you get to pack on so much to study in such short term time here.

But what doesn’t kill you does make you stronger. Having said that, you will get to some what specialize in your third year, choosing relevant modules in your chosen field of specialization. Each module has it’s own set of requirement like laboratory sessions, supervisions (often with TA, PhD students) and technical reports to write, which will be grade on positive credit.

In comparison, this is somewhat similar to the system in the States where you can jump all about different kinds of unrelated modules in your first 2 years, but not to the extent of completely going of engineering, say taking physiology, anthropology or arabic studies for instance. Only that the choices are more structured and related to engineering here. It’s somewhat a free, but not so what-free based engineering course in terms of the compulsory courses you have to go through in the first 2 years, namely called the part I and part II of the course.

Time do flies as a third year now, long are the excuses of being naive anymore, in no time I will be on my senior graduating year soon. So lets take on the new academic year in a positive light.

Hey hey, I am back in the United Kingdom just at the start of my third year in college. My 2nd year was fairly good given my various commitments during school term, but otherwise still mostly study study study. I guess my year 1 made me better prepared for year 2, not only in terms of the syllabus but in-sync with the pace of study which Cambridge is notorious for. On average, you cover like 3 year’s worth of poly knowledge in under 6 months here, it’s that fast. And the size of my annual lecture note binders don’t lie either!

This year too marks the final undergraduate year, with my 4th year being a Masters program. And what other better way to begin my trip back here than to queue up 2 full hours at the UK Immigration as Heathrow T3 upon my arrival (about 7pm London time) that too blessing me with the unexpected ability to miss not only one but two national express buses out of the airport in the row.It just can’t get any much better.

My time back in Singapore was short, but otherwise fruitful. It was nearly 2 months of relaxing and getting stuffed fat with home-cooked food prepared full of love. Had my annual dental checkup as well visiting my Grans quite regularly at AMK too. There were few nice food outlets I got to try this summer, namely a nice curry crab joint by the name of Mellben Seafood. Besides that, I was more or less pounding over 76,000 words on the computer day in-and-out for my trip blog posts. That includes my travel tours to the Middle East, Europe, the West and East coast of the United States.

H&M Craze in Singapore
Looking back at some of the musing when I was back in Singapore, the H&M craze was worth mentioning. Given the amount of hoo-ha the store received with shoppers even queuing up 12 hours beforehand to get into the store (and vouchers) on opening days. Humorously, sometimes I don’t understand the mentally of our fellow country men, particularly the Kiasu mentally which plagues every Singapore I see everywhere.

I do not know how my friends in the UK will think of us Singaporeans going all gaga over the launch of a clothing retailer which is almost like “This Fashion” back in the UK. No one batters an eyelid at H&M here and in Europe. I won’t be surprised if we become pretty much a laughing stock back here whenever I get to talk to my British friends about that. As a matter of fact, I personally think the less popular Uniqlo and New Look imports in Singapore tend to be more popular here, despite considering the clothing collections in Singapore not quite matching up to that at the stores in the UK.

The horror of Halloween Horrors
Then came the big news of the cancellation Night Safari Halloween horrors. It came pretty much of a shock to many after the installation of the Wildlife Reserves new chief executive. It won’t be surprising to see a new helmed CEO flexing the power of their new position by introducing drastic (and often controversial) changes to the organization. So why not start with the cancellation of the award winning Halloween horrors for starters? I bet no one expected and hilarious repercussions brought upon the Wildlife Reserves for those actions, particularly the large public outcry it caused and the stir it had with the president of Singapore, all made worse with seemingly sweeping and unjustifiable reasons for the cancellation. Inevitably, more damage was created than it was intended to avoid. Not a good start for the new Chief Executive I reckon.

Halloween is a huge event out of the shores of Singapore notably in the US and UK. It’s personally one which I look forward to every year and the idea of dressing up in unique costumes every year keeps your creative juices following, particularly if you make your own. The streets on Halloween are packed with party goers, theme parks all transformed into fright night specials with tons of special new rides and theming to go with the festivities. Halloween is undoubtedly one of the most recognized annual events internationally and usually feature the most fun parties of the year everyone looks, unlike Deepavali.

Undeniably, Deepavali is a big event in Singapore, but having that in place of Halloween is unjustifiable, unless the lack of a global focus is what the Wildlife Reserves is gunning for now. No offense, but as much as we love Deepavali here in Singapore, believe or not, the event is completely unheard off in the western world. Focusing on the more “Family theme” for Halloween just loses the essence, it’s like having the mid-autumn festival without mooncakes. But isn’t death and scares the basic making of a Halloween theme?

So do you think the lack of external exposure for our Singaporean kids leads to the fear of Halloween itself? I think so. This too, considering that death is still largely perceived to be taboo in Asian communities. We are a by-product stereotypical mindsets crafted by the expectations of society, with no leeway to think out of the box or self-exploration, fueled by the endless noisy flinging of Angry Birds on iPads and iPhones on every bus and train throughout the country.

That is my Singapore.

Tryouts were on tonight at the Hilton Singapore for a media showcase of Activision’s newest cross platform action-fantasy adventure game- Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. As with all adventure games, gameplay involves controlling your character through a full 3D universe, with various baddies to beat and areas to explore. The game takes a different path of the Spyro franchise and somewhat into as a spin-off series into the first of the Skylanders series.

You assume the role as the portal master, being in control of 32 different characters, including our beloved and favorite fire-breathing dragon, Spyro. You choose your in-game character through placing highly-collectible action figures, (which are too, the focal point of the game) onto a portal device connected to your console, PC or handheld. It literally adds a whole dimension to choosing your character and beats having a generic character selection screen seen on most games in this genre, not to mention scoring many points with kids alike. The portal base device itself is a battery operated peripheral which comes with the game on all platforms and dependent on your setup will be recognized as an additional wireless controller or USB interface device.

Gotta collect them all!

Available on all platforms!

Demo by Activision crew

The action figures themselves appear to be rather well crafted and painted, which interfaces with the portal base via Near field communication (like RFIDs). Besides doubling up as a rather nice desk figure, it also stores all saved games, level-ups, equipment loadouts and stats of your character in the figurine itself, allowing you to deploy your character on your friend’s consoles too. Storage is non-volatile so no power is required on it to retain any data. This hardware platform is somewhat proprietary and is required by all players to access the Skylanders universe.

The game and toys were developed by Toys for Bob. With your character chosen, it sits on the portal all lit with a nice glowing effect, courtesy of RGB LEDs in the device itself. Players here can embark on a fantastical journey into an amazing world, where you can explore mysterious, mythical lands, unlocked by the unique abilities of your elemental characters themselves. Need to swim through a water course? Switch to a water element character. Need to thread fire? Select a fire elemental character instead. The seamless switching of characters allow you to choose on-the-go the right characters to solve puzzles, battle menacing outlandish creatures or employing their unique abilities to explore the far reaches of the game collecting gold, treasures or just for that 100% completion.

spy-ro a demo with my evil eye!

Wut cheat codes?

Spyro in-world

The game itself is playable in campaign and battle (PvP0 modes, with the first offering both single-player and cooperative multi-player, bringing you through this segment of the Skylanders storyline on a quest to save their world from Kaos, an evil Portal Master.

Playable characters become unlocked upon purchasing their corresponding action figures, which can be customised with an array of equipment, gear and hats, which seemed to spark an uncanny obsession of hats, which we can evidently see too in Valve’s Team Fortress 2. The role-playing aspect of the game allows you to gain experience points by defeating monsters and leveling up for upgrades. Next comes the competitive player versus player mode which is standalone and separate form the campaign. Here, you can pit your campaign characters through arena-style fight it out slug-fests, complete with cage-style jump pads, death spikes and traps. All characters in the Skylanders series are balanced, so expect all the other characters to stand a fair fighting chance even against the favorite Spyro, all to balance out the PvP gameplay.

Impressively, the game comes with a rather star studded production cast as well, with game’s character design by Tom Hester (who did Shrek) a storyline script penned by the writers of Disney-Pixar’s original Toy Story film (Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow), sound effects by Skywalker sound and a music score composed by the all popular Hans Zimmer.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is published by Activision worldwide and by Square Enix in Japan. It was originally revealed to be exclusive for the Nintendo Wii and 3DS, with the support for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows announced only early this year. Is expected to be released on October 12-13rd 2011 in Asia, 14th Oct in Europe and 16th Oct in North America. The starter pack itself retails at about $70 USD for all 4 console platforms including PC and comes bundled with the portal base and 3 actions figures (Spyro, Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy), with all the remaining 29 characters available by year end.

Many thanks to Activision for the presentation and happy3media for the media invite.

Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) has announced the debut of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, an entertainment breakthrough for the toy and video game industries. Through an innovative use of technology, the game allows players to transport real-world toys into virtual worlds of adventure through the “Portal of Power™.” These “toys with brains” can come to life inside the game in connection with multiple gaming platforms, as well as on handheld gaming devices, mobile devices and on the web, remembering achievements and level-ups wherever they go. This marks a wholesale change in the interaction between toys and video games, opening up new possibilities and revenue streams for both industries.

Activision brought its gaming expertise together with top Hollywood creative talent to bring Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure to life. The game and technology was developed by Activision’s Novato, California studio, Toys for Bob, led by creative director and studio head, Paul Reiche. The adventure driven story was penned by two of the Academy Award nominated writers of the original Toy Story movie, Alek Sokolow and Joel Cohen. The result is a line of highly collectible characters, an engaging story, and an immersive interactive entertainment experience.

There are many unique and innovative elements to this experience, including:

• Each Character Has its Own Unique Powers – In addition to the highly collectible design and personalities of the toys themselves, each character has different powers and abilities, opening different experiences inside the game. Players can drop in and out of each level with as many different characters as they like, making each players experience unique.
• Toys With Brains – Each toy/character remembers the player’s shared experiences. Achievements and leveled up capabilities earned in the game are embedded inside the toy and travel with the toy. Wherever the toy goes, its experiences go with it.
• Portal of Power – The Portal of Power serves as the gateway between our world and the amazing world of the characters in Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure.
• Play With Friends – By placing two characters on the Portal of Power at once, players can team up together for cooperative play, or face off in player versus player battle arenas utilizing their leveled up characters.
• Diverse Experiences on Diverse Devices – While the toys can be used with gaming consoles to play the disc based game, completely different gaming experiences await them on the mobile app and inside the Web World, each of which were designed specifically for those platforms. The result is a remarkable number of different gaming experiences in one game.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure lets kids take on the role of a powerful Portal Master, who can control over 30 different characters, including the beloved purple dragon Spyro. Each of these heroes is a protector of an amazing, mysterious world, but they have been ejected from their world by the sinister Portal Master known as Kaos and now they are frozen in our world as toys. Only the players of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure can get them back into their world, by embarking on a fantastical journey where they will explore mythical lands, battle menacing, outlandish creatures, collect treasures, and solve challenging puzzles as a part of the quest to save their world.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is developed by Toys For Bob, an Activision studio located in Novato, California. The game is not yet rated by the Classification Board. For more information, visit www.skylandersgame.com

About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website.

Cedar Point, the name synonymous with almost any theme park goer or thriller seeker around the world. With more than 17 major roller coasters located in the theme park, it is literally America’s roller coaster capital, spotting the world record for the most number of roller coasters in one park itself. Notable high profile coasters here will include Millennium force, Top thrill Dragster, Raptor and Maverick just to name afew. Moreover, the amusement park located in Sandusky was named the “Best Amusement Park in the World” for the 14th consecutive year by The Golden Ticket Awards, which is an independent amusement park body who rates all theme parks in the region and presents the award annually too in the Amusement Today newspaper.

Cedar Point!

America’s Coaster Nation!

Awesome B&M goodness

Our journey begins there with about an hour’s drive from Cleveland Ohio, taking the interstate and exiting the I-80 on the Ohio Turnpike right into Sandusky and to Cleveland road. The area is rather isolated to begin with, but is otherwise largely habited by homes and small business along the road to the park. The road passes through several shrub areas before shortly coming back into civilization again. Here, several small diners, hotels and eating places can be found here, presumably riding on the visitorship of the major theme park. It’s a short turn thereafter past the Castaway Bay Indoor Resort and Quality Inn & Suites Water Park into the Cedar Point causeway park.

It’s not long where you will be greeted by the Snoppy themed Cedar Point gateway and the park’s huge outdoor parking area. Cedar point first opened it’s doors as a theme park in 1870 and is located on a beach island, shaped like a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. It currently operates annually 10am to 10pm from mid May to end October, usually ending the operating season with the Halloween spook fest parties just before it starts to get cold in winter. The park entrance fees will set you back $50 for an adult and half price for children and seniors, which is very affordable and one of the lowest I’ve seen too for a world class theme park. Greeting you at the entrance as you enter the park past the gantries is the oldest existing ride in the park, the Midway Carousel.

many inversions!

air time rocks

looks rather RCT

Main Midway
The entrance follows up to a long Main Midway with game stores and restaurants lined by the sides. The center of the pavilion sits a large flower bed, which looks like a scene off the roller coaster tycoon. To your left is a rather awesome B&M inverted roller coaster- Raptor which is widely known worldwide for it’s myriad of inversions and ride smoothness. It’s an extended inverted coaster with several inversion elements such as loops, barrel rolls and boomerangs. The helix at the end does pull out some great lateral G-forces too. Just off and behind Raptor is Blue Streak, a woodie out-and-back wooden roller coaster spotting some rather excellent airtime on the bunny hills. It opened to the public on May 23, 1964 and is the oldest operating roller coaster at Cedar Point.

Wicked Twister!

Disaster Transport

a dark bobsled!

Moving on east near the front of the park is the Ocean themed area and home to the resident pirate ship Ocean Motion as well as several great midway and carnival games stalls, basketball hoop shooters and the park’s main games Arcade building. Cedar point is somewhat the mascot theme park for the comic Peanuts, which I previously thought was Knotts Berry Farm, until I recalled they are now also operating under Cedar Fair. The kiddie ride section of the park here is extensively themed to Peanuts in general with several snoopy and friends rides including a mini safari trail and river rapids, it’s like a self contained miniaturized version of all the bigger rides you see in the park, tamed for kids!

Twister Midway
Moving on past the Peanuts Playground towards the beach line area on the east will bring you to another coaster by the bay and the park’s recording breaking impulse coaster, the Wicked Twister. Wicked twister is a 2nd Generation steel inverted impulse roller, manufactured by Intamin. The difference this coaster has among all other impulse coaster is the presence of 2 twisted spikes on both ends (with the tallest and fastest reverse spike), allowing riders on both ends of the coaster train to experience the wicked twists as you are propelled up the towers at 116kmph courtesy of a station trackload of linear induction motors.

Still on coasters here, Disaster Transport (Dispatch Master Transport) is an indoor dark bobsled ride, which is totally awesome in it’s own unpredictable way as the coaster trains does not actually go on rails. It makes you feel pretty much like a bobsled rider in the winter Olympics, only that the ride speed along the turns here are all much slower for safety. Having said that,, the simple ride’s queue line theming may need abit of work too.

WindSeeker’s new

maXair

Sky Ride

The eastern beachline area here at the Twister Midway also offers you views of the Sandusky Bay, which can be made even more awesome by a slow ride on the Giant ferris wheel. Topping up the line of observation type rides here includes the generic Gyro Tower, which was not operational on my visit. But who needs that with the Windseeker tower in operation, which is new to the park. In a nutshell, Windseeker is a roundabout flat ride and gyro tower all rolled into one and is essentially a free hanging suspended skyride, providing a whole unique viewing experience of a scenic tower ride. It’s location by the beach side just beside the Wicked Twister offers the same scenic views of the windy eastern bay and Lake Erie.

Right in front of the Giant Wheel sits one of my favorite flat rides in the park, the MaXair, it’s an upsized Huss giant Frisbee with an extended swing angle over 300 degrees, all while having it’s main gondola rotating in a continuous 360 degrees fashion, it simply just makes most pirate ship rides look tame in comparison. And just when you though you had seen much of the park, that’s is not even half of it, let be even half the number of rides here in Cedar point. Taking the Sky Ride just off the a short walk from the entrance brings you right into the heart of the park and the start of the “coaster circle”, which I would like to call it given it’s looping circle layout passing through all of the park’s northern attractions.

into the heart of the park

Corkscrew, a classic!

Arrow Dynamics goodness!

The Skyride, in my opinion is another scenic ride moving along the Midway Trail overlooking Raptor and can be substituted with a short 10 minute walk into the coaster circle, where the remaining 14 coasters of the park reside. The Skyride travel from the entrance brings you right into the circle’s fork in front of the Iron Dragon and the classic Corkscrew coaster. Here you can start your loop on the western or eastern side, and this is where your adventure here really begins. Cedar point prides itself as a coaster enthusiast park and for down and dirty thrill seekers who want their adrenaline raws without the fat offered by most tourist parks, such as Disneyland. It is surprisingly not very touristy and often mostly frequented by the locals, which is rather good. Everyone you see here is a thrill seeker or sort and not having to put up with ugly rowdy tourists and the tourist traps which comes with it is a bonus.

Gemini Midway
The Arrow Corkscrew here is an all time classic, complete with it’s trademarked full vertical loop after the first drop and the double corkscrews which follows. It is notable that all variants of the corkscrew coasters I’ve ridden around the world by Arrow Dynamics and Vekoma all somewhat follow a rather similar track layout.

prepare for launch

Top Thrill Dragster tower

Magnum XL

Here at the Gemini Midway, Top Thrill Dragster is one of my favorite launched continuous circuit coasters. It accelerates from 0 to 190 kmph in under four seconds, throwing riders up into a vertical tower cresting at the top and spiraling vertically down the tower thereafter for the brake run back into the station. It broke coaster speed records on it’s opening day as well as being the first “Strata Coaster” topping over 120m in height. Trains here are themed after a Top fuel dragster and are catapult launched via a hydraulic cable pulley system which anchors underneath each train prior to be launched. The ride computer here then calculates the amount of force required by the catapult to launch each train over the crest of the hill with the minimal speed required. This is so reduce any dangerous airtime while clearing the top of the tower and prolonging the life of the trains.

Before each ride, riders will be treated with the simulated deep rumble of Top Fuel Dragster ready for launch with the starting christmas tree lights slowly turning green for the eventual launch. Occasionally, due to an uneven weight distribution and bad weather, trains may not make the crest of the 61m vertical tower, with hilarious rollbacks which always send everybody screaming backwards onto the launch strip. That’s where the brake fins (which automatically pop up after every launch) comes into play in stopping these rollbacks into the station.

Magnum XL-200 is Cedar Point’s first mega coaster. The non-inverting speed coaster opened in 1989 and was the first to exceed 200 feet in height and speeds over 110 kmph breaking several world height and speed records again in the process. The ride was rather bumpy and rough for a steel coaster which was surprising. Most of the ride is actually situated out of the main park boundaries and overlooks the Soak City and Challenge City areas of the park. It is listed as an American Coaster Enthusiast landmark.

Gemini

dueling woodie!

huge!

Gemini is a favorite old-time wooden coaster here. At it’s opening in 1978, the Arrow dynamics coaster was the highest, fastest and steepest roller coaster in the world. The ride itself does not qualify as a full wooden (or we riders call woodie in coaster slang) given it’s composition as hybrid wooden-steel roller coaster, offering the best of a woodie roller with the speeds and ease of maintenance of employing tubular steel rails for tracks, thus the term “semi-woodie”. Gemini, like in astrology comprises of 2 identical coasters which departs together in a dual station and duels with each other throughout the most of the ride’s course, including the hill-lift (rider high-five) portions of the ride. Both coasters will snake together through various bunny hops and turns together at times overtaking each other on the insides. These adds to the cheer and the “racing factor” of the ride between riders which is only unique between dueling coasters.

The nearby Jr Gemini is a small kiddy coaster named after it’s big brother Gemini. Built in 1979, it features several short dips and helixes. It is the first roller coaster manufacturer by Intamin.

Frontiertown
Tucked in the northern corner of the park just before Frontier land and the yummy Sagebrush Sue’s Frontier Food Company hotdog stand is the park’s giant woodie. So just when you thought the Blue Streak is a big woodie, meet it’s much bigger southern yellow pine brother, The Mean Streak. The coaster itself rides just under 3 minutes long and is one of the fastest, longest and tallest woodie coasters in the world on it’s opening in 1991. Manufactured by Dinn corporation costing 7.7 million USD, the huge wooden behemoth coaster adopts a twister track layout which snakes it’s way all around the northern areas of the park. The coaster itself is so large, it’s super wooden structure itself can be seen from miles away. Cedar point even have their own dedicated carpentry staff just to maintain the attraction.

Meanest Streak in the park!

authentic steam engines

Antique cars!

Frontiertown is everything all old school and old western, a Camper Village resides here as well as old wild wild west rides which fits the theme, such as the Intamin AG Antique Cars family ride. It’s a slow car driving ride which goes with the old wild west theme here and is suitable for all ages. The start of the entrance into Frontier Town is the second station of the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad (CP&LE Railroad). These are authentic old school steam engined transportation locomotive trains. Boarding the train at this station will take you back to the Wildcat Midway Funway Station.

This part of the park resides the wet sector also themed after a wild west atmosphere and decked out lots of water rides which WILL get you really wet. The Snake River Falls ride just behind the S&S Swing Skyhawk is literally an automated park guest soaking device. It’s a looping river boat flume ride made by Arrow Dynamics and on it’s opening in 1993 was the tallest and steepest water ride in the world. And just when you thought the underwear-soaking first drop of the ride is enough, even the exit area of the ride requires you to cross over a bridge right above the ride’s splash zone.

completely WET!

Various wet rides

Log Flumes

But you are most probably wet anyway so getting wet another time on the crossing doesn’t seem make too much of a difference, much to many guests delight who have nothing else to do but catching the impending splashes from each plunging boat. Shoot the Rapids is an Intamin 4-in-line log flume ride new for the 2010 season with 2 drop splashes complete with waterfalls and several water bomb elements. Classic rides here includes the Wave Swinger Swing Carousel.

Despite having their own wild west Town Hall, the Frontier trail is home to various food stores themed to the old western look, such as the Toot Sweets Candy Factory. You can get delicious ice cream, wonderful cookies, and fresh fudge at the Grist Mill Refreshments Trail. The last and definitely wettest water ride here have to be the Thunder Canyon. It is an Intamin wild river rapids ride, with lots of water elements guaranteed to get you soaking wet. It will be a feat trying to be dry even before getting onto the ride. If you are still dry after making through the queue lines (with several signs warning you get of the impending wetness), then the ride loading will more of less guarantee wet underwear when you go splotch on the already water filled bowl seats in the rapids boat. Ponchos are available for sale on the queue lines, if you think they are of any help, which may keep the dampess out by alittle, but not much.

Rapids!

Wet wet wet!

Maverick!

You get strapped in and before you know it, be sent splashing through the water canyon through various water elements along the ride. The wetness of ride is kinda based purely on luck as the boat rotates randomly through various wet elements, soaking each part of the boat as you pass through them. You get an occasional large waterfall here and there, laughing at the people on the boat who eventually get soaked by it, but the finale of the ride will be sure to get everyone on board totally wet as it passes through 4 consecutive waterfalls on both ends of the boat, and you will have nowhere to run!

As a consolation to your newly acquired “wetness”, several coin-operated air dryer points outside the ride are open for multiple park guests to use at a go, as well as lockers to stash you belongings. Frontiertown is the only portion of the park where you are allowed to go in bikinis or bare chested for guys to dry off in the sun from the various water rides here. So it’s not surprisingly that this area is the “bare all” part of the park. Personally, drying off is best done with high speed winds and what other better way to do so yourself than go on a high speed roller coaster?

Marverick is an awesome Intamin high speed roller coater set in the western theme here and is easily one of the greater favorite coasters in the park itself. made by Intamin too, you can almost call it the little rebellious juvenile brother of the Millennium force, as shown on the ride POV’s and showcase I’ve compiled as follows:

Maverick itself is an awesome western style roller featuring a dual ride launch system with the first phase propelling you up the chain-less hill lift incline right into the first greater than vertical (95 degrees) drop sending you flying through various high speed banks, corners, bunny hops and corkscrew-like heartline rolls. You pause into an enclosed shed to catch your breath before being shot right out of it into the ride’s high speed lagoon section with several more twists and turns before eventually hitting the brake run back into the station. The ride has a good mix of excitement and intense elements making it surprisingly enjoyable, not to mention offering a good feel of speed as the coaster hugs very closely to the ground and just barely sweeping past the various rock faces at a blurring 110 kmph.

twisty

S&S Swing Skyhawk

nicely themed minetrain

Frontier trail
The queues for Maverick will set you back roughly an hour or so too. Topping up the Frontier town area just be the entrance of the Snake river falls will be another flat ride by S&S Power called the Skyhawk, it’s essentially a Screamin’ Swing tower.

Tucked in the Frontier trail Cedar creek area is the park’s resident mine train coaster. Just like Gemini, the ride is an Arrow Dynamics hybrid steel and wooden runaway mine train built with steel tubular tracks on wooden supports. The ride is seemingly mostly made out of wood including the whole queue and ride station, not to mention all the supports of the ride itself which twines around through various forest and water elements in the Cedar creek portion of the park where the ride reside. This portion of the creek is also home to the duck and fish feeding sections of the park too. The 4 decade old mine ride spots a rather nice worn out look and wood theming, which seems to go very well with the old mine setting. The coaster track element spots 2 hill lifts, which provides enough potential for the mine trains to reach a top speed of 68kmph together with many short drops and several twists and helixes native to a typical wild mine train coaster.

Best steel coaster evar!

2 coasters one shot!

AWESOME!

Moving along Frontier Trail will bring to the last but definitely the most major attraction in here in Cedar Point, the Millennium force coaster. Millennium force is personally one of the best roller coasters I’ve rode here in the park and let be globally. The Intamin coaster easily ranks high up as the top 5 roller coasters I’ve been on in the world. It is an excellent high speed giga coaster topping over 150 kmph with over 2km of ride length. It broke thirteen world records, including that for highest and fastest roller coaster on it’s opening day. The giga roller coaster is also the first in the world to utilize a cable lift system, rather than a traditional looping chain lift, given the weight issues the hill lift tower will have to endure having to deal with over 10 tons of chain just to pull the train up if chains were used. In place, a 800-horsepower cable lift driven by 600 kW motor pulls the train up quickly up the 310 ft tower by an efficient pulley and weight system, just like a lift-hook system found on an elevator.

Have a go on board the last row seats of Millennium force with this video I’ve recorded off it.

The coaster employs and out and back circuit layout which starts off the bay side marina section of the western part of the park, looping into the center of the Cedar Creek and back out crossing over the Frontier trail at two points of the ride. The coaster is an extremely smooth one, native to most Intamin high-speed coasters with very minimal rolling resistance through the deployment of very large nlyon/polyurethane wheels found on Intamin’s line of modern high speed giga coasters. These allows for extremely fast speeds through the course comprising of three trademarked overbanked turns, two tunnels and four bunny (airtime) hills

Wildcat Midway and other park sections
It’s not long where we are back out on the Wildcat Midway. The Wildcat in question here is the carnival style wild mouse roller coaster which resides here as well as the all smackingly-fun old school Dogdems. Wildcat is a tame coaster in comparison to the larger brothers all around it. No cat and mouse games here, but the wild mouse here is manufactured by the German company Anton schwarzkopf (Schwarzkopf Industries). Topping up the remainder of the tamer coasters here also includes the Woodstock express, which is a junior steel coaster made by Vekoma located back in camp snoopy.

The Cedar Point point island is also home to various other mini parks situated on the north east park of the main park which are also open on Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. The ones in question is the Soak City Waterpark and Challenge City. Soak City positions itself as a getaway waterpark comprising of 18 acres of wet and wild family fun and segmented into sectors namely the Splash Zone (areas for the toddlers and the massive Eerie Falls slide complex) and Breakers Bay allowing guests to take a break from the main park’s 75 rides and coasters. Soak City itself is home to more than a dozen water slides, two inner tube rivers, a 500,000-gallon wave pool, the giant Zoom Flume family raft ride makes up some of the wettest fun around.

Challenge City is a pay-to-ride portion of the park, accessible via a tunnel near Magnum XL. It comprises of Challenge Racing (go kart track setting you back $5 a trip through the Grand Prix kart circuit) and Challenge Golf at about $6 for 18 regular holes. Other thrill rides here includes the SkyScraper- a rotating propeller tower ride and RipCord- a gliding Skycoaster attraction allowing you to soar through through the sky suspended at speeds over 80 kmph.

Iron Dragon!

zoom!

bumping some Dodgem cars

Back on the Midway, Iron Dragon is one of the few tamer coasters without any inversions despite the coaster itself spotting over shoulder restrains. Iron Dragon is an Arrow Dynamics suspended roller coaster which sits off the mid portion of the coaster circle just off the exit of the Sky ride in the Wildcat Midway sector of the park. Just when you thought the ride was a bore on the first stage, the ride goes up on a second stage hill lift and plunges you right into sudden steep drops and rapid corners which will send you swinging like crazy. The ride gets bit more intense from here, moving really fast and swingy on the end with a helix rush through the park creek lake complete with ultra cool smoke effects, just before hitting the arupt exit to the brake run back towards the station.

Mantis!

Stand-up coaster!

Lights!

The last of the coasters here on my Cedar Point coaster tour will be Mantis. Mantis is a Bolliger & Mabillard stand-up roller coaster featuring 6 inversions comprising of a vertical loop, diving loop, inclined loop and corkscrews over the park’s lagoon section right beside Iron Dragon, topping max speeds of 97kmph. Stand up coasters, like flying coasters are notorious for their downtimes given their more complex operating nature- Mantis was down earlier in the day with a technical problem, it’s not long after where the engineers got the ride problem fixed just before closing. They needed some test dummies after their trail runs we all dummies there naturally stepped up for it without a doubt.

Behold the Standup POV on Mantis, rear row seats for the win!

And man was the ride awesome, that and without the need of having to go on a ride queue. As said, it is a standup coaster, so the whole ride is done in an upright position. Prior to loading on the ride, you have to prop yourself onto spring loaded saddle seats which are like bouncy bicycle seats. These goes between your legs so you don’t go all over the place on the corkscrews. The over-shoulder restraints are much longer too, going over your shoulders and covering much of your front torso as compared to the seated B&M coaster trains. Though you ride the coaster through all the inversions in this standing position, much of your weight can actually be placed on the saddle itself, so you can call it a saddle coaster or sort, just avoid sitting on it while hitting a brake run, as it is not exact very guy friendly.

No trip to a theme park is complete without with sky shot up into oblivion. The Power Tower here is no exception either with 4 full towers which makes up the skyshot thrill ride here. The queue line to the world’s only 4 tower skyshot ride was pretty good under 20 minutes in my opinion. You get a choice of 2 different ride styles including being shot up into the air from the bottom of the tower or climb up and get shot down faster than the acceleration of free fall from the tower top, both modes are unique in each way, bringing a whole degree of re-ridability for the tower attraction itself.

back on Max Air”

Look fireworks!

Farewell Cedar Point, it was a blast!

It was more rides back out to the Midway Trail with MaXair as night falls towards the park’s 10pm closing time. It’s here at night where you can catch most of the rides all properly lit up in their colourful neon glory at night. Even the Top Thrill Dragster tower has the starting lights extended throughout the tower itself. Compared to various flat rides, other rides, such as Raptor and Blue Streak (mainly coasters) are dark in comparison due to the lack of on-ride lighting. The Midway section of the park here is decently decorated for the night too, with several larger than normal stuffed toys available for the win. Even the Midway carousel here is nicely all decked out in golden lights for the night portions. And what other better way to signal the park’s closing time, than with a continuous lineup of fireworks all over the park.

Compilation of my time in Cedar point:

To sum it all up, Cedar point was awesome, the park is truly a world class theme park. One full day (12noon to 10pm) is just barely enough to cover a park so huge and all it’s 17 major coasters as part of the Cedar Point coaster world tour, and the 17 coasters here does not even include the smaller family coasters. And what other better way to end the night with a late night dinner at Lugi’s in Ohio for a late night pub dine-in with caesar cheese salads, and a large cheese and mushroom pizza to top it all up with their trademarked triple flavoured pistachio ice cream.

Visiting Cedar Point is largely a no brainier if you happen to be in the Eastern Ohio region of the US, you won’t regret the visit there as a roller coaster thrill seeker or just simply being young at heart. There is no single Disneyland or Universal theme park around the world which even come close to half the number of coasters here, let be even spotting extremely reasonable priced tickets at half the entry fee to the said Disney and Universal parks. The quality of thrill rides and roller coasters here too also far exceeds my expectation and the park gets my high recommendation as a coaster freak paradise.

Located in the Pennsylvania state, downtown Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh. It is colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle and is officially the central business district of the region. The city is the headquarters to several major global financial institutions including PNC, the nation’s 5th largest bank, as well as the Federated Investors and the regional headquarters of BNY Mellon.

The city itself is also a renowned powerhouse for its heavy manufacturing industries particularly steel (PPG Industries), glass and oil, with it being home to the offices of few major corporations in the United States, such as U.S. Steel, PPG, Bank of New York Mellon, Heinz, Federated Investors and Alcoa. It is here where the fortunes of industrial barons Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon and George Westinghouse were made.

west virginia and into pennsylvania!

Allegheny River

Downtown at night

The downtown area is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, together with the Ohio River, merging and forming the “triangle” as bounded by the three rivers themselves. This lush presence of rivers is home to many iconic bridges which spans these water bodies; serving transport and utility needs throughout downtown Pittsburgh.

It’s from the city’s David L Lawrence Convention Center where you can catch few of the many bridges such as Roberto Clemente Bridge, Andy Warhol Bridge and the Rachel Carson Bridge just off the PNC park. Not all the bridges here are road and pedestrian bridges, the train bridges residing here are the Allegheny Aqueduct and Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center itself is a significant symbol of the modern Pittsburgh region, connecting the urban city to the waterfront overlooking the Allegheny River itself.

PNC park and Heinz Field

convention center grounds

On the streets

Sporting-wise, Pittsburgh is the home ground to two of the most prominent and popular sports in the states itself, football and baseball. For those who follow the NFL, Pittsburgh is home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who competed in the last superbowl finals, despite losing the Green Bay Packers. The Heinz Field stadium here across the Ohio river serves primarily as the home to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Panthers American football teams and the University of Pittsburgh football team. Given it’s strengths in the industry, it’s not surprising that the local football team here started off with humble beginnings supported and funded by a steel giant in the country, and therefore the “Steelers” name too. Baseball is another favorite sport here too. The PNC Park is a baseball park located here is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the city’s Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

Pittsburgh market

Mmm flowery!

Lunch at P&G pamela’s diner

On a normal day here, street side pubs and cafes are a common place for sport and social gatherings, particularity catching the MLB on the pub TV when I was there. Public transport in the downtown areas are well served by buses and the Port Authority’s light rail subway. The Pittsburgh regional greyhound bus station can also be found just off the city’s main convention center too.

Not far off Liberty avenue along Penn Avenue is the food and marketplace of the city, it is within walking distance in downtown and is buzzing with crowds in the mornings and lunchtimes, particularly on weekend Sundays. It’s then where the streets here are transformed in a roadside market place, complete with street lined food hawkers, merchandise stands, fruits and flower stalls just to name afew.

Awesome lunch!

Rooftop drumming

a night of party!

There are also loads of souvenir merchandise stalls hawking apparel and gear of the city’s major sport teams, namely that of the Steelers and Pirates. They are everywhere. After all with the NFL 2010, this is Steeler’s territory, and you definitely won’t want to be packing any packer’s gear here. Have a go at the food by the road side cafes or dine at the historical Primanti Brothers diner or P&G Pamela’s diner just off 20th and 21st street. You will be in for an traditional American treat for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Topping up the city of Pittsburgh will be the diverse night life here, food stalls are generally open till late. Night hangouts are decent with few good pubs and clubs, when I was there there were many late night roof top percussions in town as well as night clubbing venue to spend your night away. Simple plain, yet effective for a good chillout.

Miami, Florida is a Resort City located in the Miami Dade County, Florida. It is incorporated into the United States on March 26, 1915. You should be no stranger and familiar with the typical beach and resort style setting of the area which the city is popular for. The municipality is located near the southern end of the state of Florida on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay not too far off the Caribbean sea. The strong sea presence coupled with the land boundary creates sea breezes which generally makes Miami much more cooler than inland Orlando in comparison, despite both spotting rather hot yet dry climate typical in Florida.

express bus to Miami

Miami International

land of the chill out

My journey there begins with a 4 hour overnight Greyhound express bus ride from downtown Orlando to Miami international. The Greyhound buses, like the Amtrak trains is the country’s nationwide bus service, allowing you to travel vast distances at the expense of your time on a budget. One way adult bus tickets will set you back roughly $33 each compared to $170 airplane ticket if you so choose to fly there within an hour (or 2-3 hours in total including checking-in, customs, etc, though it doesn’t actually means a faster travel by air). The buses are generally well-equipped, with air-conditioning, individual seat lighting and reasonably comfortable, American-sized spacious seats for us small Asians.

hotel view

can’t get more miami than this!

Eat that!

Miami itself is split into two main areas, downtown Miami and South Beach Miami. Downtown is where the commercial and corporate office areas of Miami reside, which in my personal opinion is a rather dead town with noting to see with the exception of few tall buildings, parks, a stadium (Amway stadium) and nothing else. The beach line however is where all the action happens. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising of the southernmost 2.5 square miles of Miami Beach is home to posh chill out areas decked out with pubs, stores lush hotels complete with the iconic palm filled walkways and boulevards which many of us come to associate with Miami in the movies.

Lincoln Road mall

street parks

3 simple rules

Lincoln road mall
The Lincoln Road mall just off 16 and 17th street is one of the main shopping districts of the island, which is accessible from the airport and bus terminals in downtown Miami just with a sub hour long bus ride across the causeway connecting the mainland to the south beach islands and Washington avenue. The mall was once open to vehicular traffic, but now is only pedestrian exclusive with rows of upmarket boutique, beach bum shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants and galleries lining the road between Washington Avenue and Alton Road. Here you can find retailers such as All Saints London, Banana republic, Bonwit Teller, Saks Fifth Avenue, and even Cadillac and Packard car dealerships. There is even an awesome Quiksilver surf and several other surf boarding shops!

squirty fountains

retro colony theatre

perfect beach bum hangout

Going with the tropical theme are loads of palm tree filled parks, fountains and ponds. Over here in Miami, less is more, it’s not uncommon to see ladies just dressed in bikinis and men in singlets walking along the streets here, which is sensible given the heat of the scorching summer here. The mall is too home to the iconic Miami Beach Community Church, the Lincoln-Drexel Building, the Art Center South Florida as well as well historical landmarks of the arts such as the retro Colony Theatre and Lincoln Theatre.

New World Symphony building

Miami Beach Baby!

para-gliding

Not too far off Lincoln road are the shops along 16 and 17th street, home to budget line of eateries and shops in stark contrast to the expensive neighboring neighborhood. You find most locals here, together with an eccentric mix of tourist looking for bargains. Though the place looks very much like a tourist trap, you can find some reasonably priced food stores, gift shops and provision/grocery stores here too. A decent diner meal can set you back 5 to 8 dollars which is not cut throat considering the tourist orientated atmosphere. Making a detour on Meridian Avenue moving off Lincoln road will bring you to the Miami convention center, which is too situated just beside The Holocaust Memorial and the minute Miami Beach Botanical Gardens.

got weed?

beaches are public

jetskis!

South Beach
Of course, no trip is complete in Miami without chilling out at south beach, the perfect place for all beach bums alike. The total beachline itself spans over 100km long but the prominent sections are very much nucleated on a 20km stretch along the Miami beach island, stretching from the Aventura, Golden beach southwards towards Fisher Island or the south beach tip. All the beaches are public and maintained by the county itself. Thankfully, there are no reserved or large pieces of the beach totally cut off, owned or condoned off by the beachside hotels, a bad practice widely practiced in Dubai. It’s just a nice long continuous stretch of pure sand, shore and the sea. Besides the all time favorite sport of surfing here, para-gliding, speedboats and jetsking are optional extras, these equipemtn can be rented or charted at any of the beachside counters dotted along the beachline. There are several lifeguard posts along the beach too, as well as recommend safe swimming areas away from the boat launch areas.

Topless beaches are rather common here, though most of them are reserved in specific “child friendly areas” of the beach, after all this is a public beach, so it’s totally up to the responsibility of the patrons here to practice self preservation of dignity if the need calls for, which I say is done rather well and discretely with the number of children playing on the beaches too. The beach also have a very strong LGBT presence, with rainbow flags planted at every corner on the beach and decorated on the lifeguard posts. Chatting with the locals here revealed many interesting folktales of the trade too, particularly the story and believe that making a wish while skinny dipping at the beach at the first break of dawn before sunrise will grant you that wish. Not that I am actually able to see myself up that early to do that!

chillin’

greetings from south beach

designer showers

The waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay are clear and cooling to the touch, particularly in the hot Florida climate. Here you can catch the horizon of the Atlantic disappearing into a sea of green, with nothing else in sight. Feeling like cooling off after chilling about the beach and tan? Head in for a splash from the shoreline. The cool seawater just beckons you to spend the whole day dipping in it, that is of course not without few matches of beach ping-pong and volleyball. Walking the shoreline was a breeze too- from south beach you can grasp the full view of the beachline which curves along the contoured edges of the Miami beach itself.

The beach too is well served by various showers and fountains found tucked behind the beaches. One such example are the fountains at the South Pointe Park. Maintained by the county itself, it offers a quick much needed splash of freshwater to rid of all the salt residue you pick up swimming in the ocean just before leaving the beach. Like all beaches I visit, it’s generally advisable to come dressed for the beach in all waterproof clothing (or surfwear) so you can simply just splash and go, using the hot weather to completely dry out while heading out onto the streets back onto Ocean Drive.

Miami Harbor Entrance

“posh bayside residence

modern!

You will be familiar with the South Beach Miami as a popular spot for various shows and movies filmed in Miami itself, such as 2 Fast 2 Furious, Bad Boys I, II and III, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Casino Royale, Miami Vice, Transporter 2 and CSI just to name a few. The opening at the south beach just off Fisher Island is the mouth leading into the Miami harbour, the shore line walk and beach front here along south beach is home to a few lavish beach-front housings and apartments, as well as luxurious marinas decked out with yahcts of all shapes and sizes. The weather in Florida is very predictable and tends to follow a very hot morning and afternoon followed by sudden evening showers, this is too rather evident in Orlando too.

marinas

Aventura Mal

art by the galleries

Moving around Miami is mainly done using the rather effective Miami-Dade Metrobus. On the island, these buses plying the south beach serves two major directions, uptown and downtown which is rather straightforward. A sub two hour long ride will bring you up from Washington Avenue from 16th street along scenic Ocean drive, all up to past 196th street where the Aventura mall reside.

Aventura mall
The Aventura mall is a large 2 floored shopping center and apparently the largest in South Florida and fifth largest shopping center in the United States. It is an upscale super-regional shopping mall in the north shrubs of Aventura (thus the name). You will be greeted by the mall’s food court entrance with a jawbreaker machine upon arriving at the mall’s bus bay which seemed rather amusingly given the mall itself being branded as an upper class high end retailer. And yes, the stuff retailing here are not cheap though, there are few lifestyle shops too, as well as familar brands such as Nike and Quiksilver, besides those out of my budget such as LV, Amirani, etc.

cool fountains

Miami Bayside

live music performances

Anchor tenants here includes Bloomingdale, JC Penney, Macys and Sears. The stores here closes around 9.30 to 10pm, so you are good for shopping till late.

Miami Bayside
Frequently featured on the crime drama TV series Miami Vice as a popular meeting place in the show, the Miami Bayside is a boat side quay and marina decked out with bayside shopping centers, pubs and eateries alike. Located at 401 Biscayne Boulevard, it was opened in 1987 and developed by The Rouse Co. and managed by General Growth Properties. The Bayside complements an existing marina, situated right in the bayfront park.

quayside pubs and bars

Quay overview

one drink er up!

The Bayside is home to an open mini theater as well as the Miami Hardrock cafe which surprisingly, opens till late past 10pm when I visited. The nightlife is rather mellow, yet tranquil here with not much of a crowd here late at night, so if you are looking for a nice quiet night by the river side with a nice cold beer and life music playing, this is the place to hangout. Pubs and eateries such as Hooters are all open till late past midnight, despite most of the shops and restaurants in the arcade closing late at night. Many yachts and speedboats can be seen docked along here which is served by the opening at the Miami bay harbor from fisher island.

On the far south end of the area is the Bayfront Park, home to the Bayfront Park Amphitheater and the Challenger Memorial at the southern tip. Just outside the park is the The Torch of Friendship monument, dedicated in memory of president John F. Kennedy, it is located on Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami. North of the downtown strip sits the Miami press and Freedom Tower Building as well as the American Airlines Arena.

party boats!

ready for takeoff!

seeya miami!

That’s all mostly for Miami as a whole, it’s all just beaches, relaxations and indulges. Public transport is well served and that particularly by taxis as well, especially if you are looking to get one up to Miami international airport. A standard cab fare across all cab companies will get you to the airport $33, but do be aware of driver teams jacking prices up to $100 and above. It pays to bargain on fares to, I got a pickup fare from south beach all the way to Miami international for a flat rate of $25 on a registered Taxi cab. It was there I was told by the Latin American driver who despite of the touting most blacks cab drivers have for tourists. Stating he would rather pick up a $25 fare than no fare at all. Sometimes cabbies will go all the way to get one, so it pays to know the local rates and not be conned in the process.

It was not long before I was up on the front row of the small jet for my internal connecting flight to Pennsylvania. The flight was early, which was good but wished it were longer so I could get a better longer sleep onboard. To prepare myself for the next league of my journey in the East Coast.

This post covers my day trip to the Universal Studios Florida. The “studios” portion of the park is one of the 2 universal parks in the Universal studios Resort. It is located just north west from downtown international drive and a short 10 minute drive just off from there. The Universal Studios itself too is well served by cabs in town, and the Lynx public buses for $2 a pop. Just off the bus bay and car park area is the overhead bridge leading you to the Universal Citywalk. I didn’t touch much on the Universal Citywalk on my trip to the Islands of adventure, so I will talk a little bit of this area here.

on the bus

surf’s up dude

Go right this time!

Universal Studios CityWalk is a broadwalk or sorts, a walkway leading to both theme parks in the resort. The walk itself is a short mega shopping area featuring many shops, restaurants, pubs, food stands and souvenir shops, all decked out with rather retro looking signboards which looks awesome all lit up at night, after all the Universal CityWalk sells itself as a night-time entertainment destination. Which kinda like the Disney village in various Disneyland parks around the world, only that this shopping area is not a separate entity by itself and is actually one which park guests have to pass through each time to get in and out of the Universal resort.

shop shops

river separating the islands

Universal Studios!

No doubt, Universal Orlando Resort is the largest property owned and operated by Universal Studios Theme Parks, the resort here is also home to the world biggest Hard rock cafe as well as three Loews Hotels which forms the holistic package and one stop destination for accommodation, food, shopping and fun at the theme parks itself. The ton of eateries and shops here are also nicely themed to the islands you are headed too- whether it’s a modern space-age cafe, a tropical beach shack complete with a moored seaplane or a Nascar Cafe to name a few, it’s simply an eye candy paradise, under the sun and a perfect complement for any beach bum, fake waves and surfboards included!

Coming up to the crossroads, between the two park, this time we are going right to the Universal Studios Orlando.

Main boulevard

Simpsons!

nick toons town!

The front of Universal Orlando looks very much like most of any other Universal them parks around, the grand yellow arches and the giant universal globely ball rotating just off the entrance to the park. Upon entry, the main entrance boulevard is themed after a Hollywood sunset boulevard decked with iconic palm tress to adding to the resort feel of the park. If you are lucky, you can catch various entertainers and moving attractions at this portion of the park, such as the moving trolley up for a ride, a live band as well as the Simpsons family on plow in promotion for the park’s newest Simpsons ride.

Just right at the entrance of the park is the Nick Toons (Nickelodeon) section of the park and is home to 2 of the park’s theater rides and motion simulator. The Jimmy Neutron blast is a 3D motion simulator ride complete with hydraulically moving platforms in a theater like setting with 6 degrees of freedom. The story starts with a pre-show and plunges viewers into their world trying to recover Jimmy’s stolen newest rocket creation while going about saving earth from baddies and invaders from the Yolkian planet. If you are lucky, you might catch Spoongebob on the exit of the ride as well with other Nicktoons hanging around for photos with the kids. The ride in my opinion is not a great ride, too predictable and doesn’t leave you with a wow factor thereafter despite the ride spotting some really nice spacey rocket theme to it. No wonder the attraction will be closed from August 2011 onwards and will be replaced by the Despicable Me 3D Simulator ride in 2012.

effects motion simulator

presented in Ogre vision!

welcome to the dungeon!

The Blue Man Group occupies Soundstage 18 here in Universal studios just located opposite from the Nick Toons studio. Soundstages 18 and 19 are located just right in the Universal Studios itself and were formerly used in the production of Nickelodeon shows, but was annexed and accessible only via the CityWalk with the closure of Nickelodeon Studios, the place was developed with the opening of Blue Man Group at the now renamed Sharp Aquos Theater.

The Shrek 4D attraction movie is one of the few simple yet nice interactive 3D movies I’ve been on. The theming on the queue lines are as in typical Shrek fashion- rather hilarious, with many movie posters of various cast members in the show in rather compromising situations. The studio we are heading to is a dungeon where we are welcomed into the prisoner holding area as prisoners for life, waiting to be put through endless mishandling, desecration, bludgeoning and torture for eternity. After the pre-show and joining the imprisoned Pinocchio and 3 little pigs, we are later brought into the theater for more screaming torture in the dungeons where we awaiting for the impending torture, umm show to begin.

waiting to be tortured

rock it!

museum visit!

So here we meet Princess Fiona in a setting just after the 3rd movie (with some funny references to them too) presented in “OgreVision” which is essentially the 4th dimensional element to the 4-D as claimed by Universal allowing you to not only see and hear but feel the action right from your seat. It’s a much simpler, yet better attraction than the more funky Jimmy neutron one. The show is firstly longer with a better storyline and have more emphasis on the 3D effects which are really good through their 3D glasses, the show is somewhat comically semi-realistic at sort, with moving seats on a horse chase, with facial and legs air blasts and water sprays on wet encounters in the show.

Moving along Amblin avenue will bring us to the Mummy ride, located along the Production Central/New York part of the park.

mummy the ride

some street!

rock it!

The Mummy returns ride is a heavily themed Vekoma launched indoor roller dark coaster. The wait for the ride was a surprising short 10min one, despite not being on the single rider queue. The ride queue area was also very nicely themed like a museum with lots of artifacts lying around like that of an archaeological dig.

The cinematics for this roller coaster varies from different Universal studio parks. This version is different as it spots a launch off the first movie scene into the “cave” where the coaster does it high speed turns before coming into the dead end at “Scarab” scene. This is where the train reverses off another transverse track off a Y fork backwards around the dark cave portion before stopping into a walled off area with more cinematic shows, smoke and fire effects and eventually moving off to the unloading area. Despite the stunning special effects, the ride was rather short and has not much of a story in my opinion. However, the Orlando version is personally the best incarnation of the others, the flaming roof top was awesomely cool and it’s these additional elements are what makes this coaster different and better from the one in LA.

rock and roll!

overbanked turn

first drop!

The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit coaster is one of the favorite attractions here, with the long snaking queues here giving a cue or two of it’s huge popularity. A wait on the ride will set you back at least 90 minutes, but thankfully they do have single rider lines so make the best out of it by splitting your group up to ride with the minimal waiting time. Even on the single rider queue, you have to wait around 15 minutes to get on board.

Riders board the ride from a moving sidewalk on the loading platform, before strapping yourself on the space-age looking “X-Car” Coasters decked out with fancy lighting, even in the day. You even get a cool touch LCD screen on the lapbar allowing you to pick your music selection which will be played throughout the ride sequence. The train dispatches right into a 51m vertical climb, which I think is the nearest you can get to an inversion on this ride. This is followed by the ride’s first fall element. The coaster is actually not as scary as it looks as the ride actually does not feature any inversions at all. The loop you see after the first drop is a cleverly disguised traversing the “loop” element, made to look like a large 31m diameter vertical loop element. Other notable parts of the ride includes many over-banked turns, which Maurer Sohne’s seem to take a cue from Intamin coasters as well as a 540-degree helix nicknamed the “plot twist” nearing the end of the ride.

street of excellence!

twister!

blue brothers!

After our stint at production avenue, we are back on Amblin avenue, a street named after classic film excellence. It leads up to the New York portion of the park complete with a recreated mock neighborhood of the iconic New York city, with various landmarks to boot. Twister, the special effects showcase here is a short man-made spectacle of the town scene in the movie where various town inhabitants seek refuge in a warehouse when the twister ravages the town. It’s all done with reproducible carnage complete with forced wind, smoke and various fire elements.

And guess who was in town when we were in town? The Blues brothers in their street show! This duo got pretty much the whole downtown street of New York dancing and clapping to the beats of their performance, coupled with their solo sax player and big momma to top up the 4 in line performance. Uber large horn on car included!

Moving east from New York brings you to the San Francisco/Amity part of the part, with recreations of the Fisherman’s Wharf and home to the Disaster movie attraction. In the nutshell, the disaster movie is a very short version of the Universal Hollywood backlot tram tour, with some special effects and an reenactment of disaster scene of an underground station experiencing an earthquake.

everybody put your hands up!

Fisherman’s Wharf

now for a disaster!

The “Disaster” ride is after all a “Major Motion Picture Ride”, starring you, the visitor, prior to the effects rides, you will be grouped into halls at a go where volunteers are selected for various specific roles to be played in a movie, with a small special “casting” crew required. This includes an old lady, 2 evil villains, a strong guy and middle aged man. Here the actors will be put through a series of acts and recordings on painted background or blue screen, everyone with completely no clue what the scenes are actually used for, so just be a spot and go with the comedy flow! The group then transitions to different studios sets in the building at a time to film all the required scenes before eventually heading into the ride.

next studio take!

arghh!

giant oil tanker

Finally we exit the studio into a tram, which seem to bare a canny resemblance to the backlot tram tours in universal Hollywood, only that these are reversible trains running on rails. Here, we are put through an enactment of the underground earthquake I mentioned earlier, right inside a London underground station, with lots of reproducible and controlled Hollywood style explosion and flames. As the train backs out back into the boarding area, our earlier production film is played on the tram’s overhead screens, with hilarious effects.

We were just in time for the Bettlejuice graveyard Revue. The life performance is scheduled about 3 times daily, so do check your updated park schedule for timings. The performance is held at a sheltered open air theater stage which is not air conditioned like the one in California, despite taking a different rock and roll them. The stage is much smaller too.

inferno!

BettleJuice!

ata boy!

Even the crowd warmer was a show itself, with an elderly staff member racing all along the aisles of the seating areas in his motorised scooter keeping the crowd entertained while waiting for the show to begin. The show started off with Beetlejuice himself not very satified with his current set of monsters. Well in typical Beetlejuice fashion, it’s not like some magic and chanting his name 3 times (get it?) will help. The rest is history with lots of hard rock and roll and pyrotechnics. Overall the Beetlejuice graveyard revue is a quick nice show for a filler between rides in the park, but personally I still prefer the Beetlejuice graveyard show at the Hollywood branch.

monster rock!

A date with Jaws

Mmmm shark!

Everything here in the San Francisco/Amity is all about bay side fisheries and sand shacks. The area here is themed to a nice tropical like getaway complete with beach shacks and surf shops. No wonder, it’s home to the Jaws boat ride too. Jaws the ride starts off with boarding a leisure cruise boat as part of a tourist sightseeing exploration of Amity bay, well not until signs of early departing boats all razed and blood stripped empty by some unknown sea creature. It’s not long where the culprit finally revealed itself complete with loads of fiery explosions, boat throttle action and shotgun shells as your boat captain have a go at steering the boat and filling the shark with loads of buckshot.

settle for this one!

Fear Factor

Life!

Fear factor live is another live show located in the World Expo sector of the park, just after the suspended Jaws shark which had became pretty much an Icon in all Universal parks. It’s essentially a physical fear factor challenge taken by various park guests all done right in front of a full-house sheltered stadium. There are many other side challenges where members of the audience have a go at conquering their fears, such as having scorpions dropped onto your head or drinking a contraption of very gross blended mix of animal parts and goo. The highlight of the show is of course the main fear factor challenge where 4 selected park guests gets to battle through various challenge elements put forward to them, such as conquering height, water and obstacles. To enter, you just have to turn up few hours before each scheduled show time for selection and pre-show preparations, only 4 people are selected for each show.

Fear factor final battle

lets bust some aliens

agent weapon of choice

The Men in Black ride is a blaster shooting ride located at the eastern end of the park overlooking the Universal 360 lagoon. Just like all the rides in the park, lockers are provided for you free at the entrance of the ride to deposit any loose items which cannot be brought on the ride. The attraction starts off with a storyline of you being a newly enlisted agent who is put through the facility training facility to shoot aliens, as with all drama, things goes wrong and the training sudden turns ugly into a real shooting scene, fighting for your life so “This is not a drill” after all. The ride is a blaster game, where you ride through various parts of the city blasting escaped aliens and scoring points throughout the ride, just like the buzz lightyear blaster ride in Disneyland, only that you have no control over the rotation of the capsule buggy, which rotates by itself through the various scenes in the ride.

zap zap zap!

universal 360

Simpsons!

Just outside the spacey sleekness of the MIB building and hidden space saucer towers is the Universal 360 spectacular. The lagoon attraction generally takes place at the hour of the park’s closing and is a Cinesphere Spectacular featuring famous scenes from Universal’s films projected onto four large inflated domes in a lagoon located in the center of the park. Overlooking the lagoon here too is the Simpsons ride. Simpsons the ride is the latest addition to the park it’s essentially a motion simulator roller coaster ride, which ironically spends most of it’s time off the tracks in Krusty land as slide show bob tries to kill you off with spectacular effects.

nom nom nom

thank you come again!

The horror!

The ride features several pre-show elements and Simpson clips before heading into your own simulator room where you can amuse yourself with various circus elements and distorted mirrors to pass the time before boarding into the simulator. Just when you though it’s going to be another Back to the future ride with a puny motion screen in front, you get lifted off into an Oimi dome with the simulator taking a whole immersive twist and a ride of a different kind. Overall, Simpsons the ride is a rather cool simulator ride, with a rather interesting fun storyline, but doesn’t rank quite up there in terms of the wow factor you get after the ride.

casualty!

animatronic demo!

shaun of the dead!

As with all things Studios in the “Studios” portion of Universal Studios, the Animal Actors on Location is another life show featuring animals you may recognize from various Universal movies, such as the Orangutan and Labrador from Marley and Me’ and the pug from the movie ‘Men in Black 2′.

The Monster Horror show at the start of the Hollywood walk was one of my favorite and most entertaining shows in the park, partly it’s one which tickles your funny bone. It is a small show, held in one of the old looking theaters on the Hollywood boulevard. The show host started off introducing us to his co-host who entered the stage all stabbed and bleeding from the chest. The stand up stage presentation to the horror movie world is not like what the name suggests, but rather an educational stand up comdey of what makes the famous monsters we see on ther silver screens, everything from face mask to proestitics and animatronics. After a knife to the head, lots of fake blood and some running around the stage chasing memebrs of the audience, we are sadly done with the short 30 minute display.

The hollywood walk

EEE TTEEE!

cycle faster!

E.T. Adventure the ride is a typical classic in all Universal studios and is an exact duplicate of the ride back in LA, so you won’t be missing much on either side if you had already been on the ride. It starts with Steven Spielberg appearing on TV screens, telling you that E.T.’s teacher Botanicus needs E.T. to come to his home world- “The Green Planet” because the planet is dying. Only E.T.’s magical healing touch can save the planet, so it is up to the guests to bring him home. Guests then transition into a rather interesting yet redundant need to obtain your ET passports after checking through the ET passport counters using your given name. Thereafter you will have to present the passports to the ride operators before boarding your fly-cycles. The ride’s namely a ride through the forest on the movie’s storyline of ET escape into his world for the magical touch, all done through an overhead motorised rail system suspending a carriage of 12 poeple at a go

It’s a small world!

Barney

Curious George

The Woody Woodpecker’s Kidzone will greet you are the kiddy portion of the park. Here resides the Wood woodpekcer family coaster as well as various children play areas, such as the American Tale upsized Fievel playground, allowing you to explore the world from the perspective of being mouse-small. The kids section of the park brings back alot of old memories of old cartoon characters I grew up with, such as Barney the Dinosaur with his theater live shows with and curiously, the Curious George water playground, all decked in curious pink too.

Back on the Hollywood boulevard, there is nothing much left on the street here in terms of attractions except retail stores and some retro themed gas stations and diners, as well as Terminator 2 the 3D movie. There was a display of the cars used in the 5 fast movie too. It’s not long along the walk where you will find yourself back at the Production avenue (Nick Toons) where we’ve started. The park is planned out well in loop, with one full circle all round the park will set you back one whole day in time for closing.

woody coaster!

The world’s biggest

Hard Rock

Just outside the themepark is the entrance of the world’s biggest hardrock cafe- Hardrock Orlando, strategically located on the “island” part of the resort across the river where the Universal Studios CityWalk is. You can catch nice views of the lagoon area from either side of the banks, with the Universal Citywalk across the river which all seem to come alive in a sea of lights at night. The hardrock “island” itself resides and connects both the Islands or adventure as well as the Universal Studios park across the bank.

The 3 floored hardrock cafe here is both a mega store, restaurant, Hard Rock Live theater as well as the headquartered offices of the Hardrock cafe. With rather friendly staff to boot too. Of course, no Hardrock cafe is complete with our their signature resident Cadillac, particularly this one decked in hot pink revolving at the centerstage of the restaurant, bar and cafe area of the building.

Cafe!

big blue ball!

The Citywalk shops

Thereafter, the only way back home out the park is through the Universal Citywalk again, not of course passing through the studio entrance with the Universal globe now all lit up for the night. It’s here where you cross the bridges right into the heart of the Universal Citywalk, where most of the leaving crowd will hang out for the rest of the day or till late for food, beverages and shopping with both parks starting to close for the evening.

Ok, that’s all for Universal for now, personally I find both Universal parks somewhat better than the Disneyland World parks, partly because most of their rides here are very much unique and original compared to mostly clones in their Disney counterpart. Universal also scores by appealing more to thrill seekers and coupling them well with movie elements. The park entrance fees are also much cheaper than what Disneyland charges (up to 30% more for 2 parks) making it one of my favorite and recommended must-go attractions for the day whenever you are in Orlando.

The Islands of adventure is one of the two theme parks located in the Universal Florida Resort. Instead of having one big park which is impossible to cover altogether in one day, the park is split into 2 different independent parks, one the Universal Studios Orlando featuring various film related rides, theaters and production elements and the other a whacked down adrenaline junky’s haven with more thrill rides split into different themed “islands” called the islands of adventure. For this first league of the journey, we will be headed to the Islands of Adventure.

A $90 ticket will get you 2 day access passes to both parks with a 13 day leeway between either both parks. So it will be recommended if you are not intending to visit the park on consecutive days.

Islands of adventure!

Several themed islands

Marvell super hero island

Nearing the Port of Entry, the shops on the Universal City walk nearer to the Islands of adventure will start decking out and spotting a rather tribal look and feel, together with air planes and beachside shacks beckoning visitors of the adventure which awaits. The islands itself are all interconnected in a loop, with the park’s main lagoon taking the center stage of the park. Heading east will bring you to Dr Seuss island while west’s the ultra cool Marvel Super hero island. We had to go for the latter as the sound of the incredible hulk coaster just beckons everyone at the entrance.

Hulk!

Doctor Doom’s freefall

Super Heros included!

The Marvel super hero island nicely themed to a comic architecture setting complete with large cutouts of various marvel comics characters and generically labeled signs in front of all the stores on the street such as: “Store,” “Shop,” “Food,” and “Comics. The comic-book styled island is home to many super hero mascots for photographs and even a daily Superhero parade.

Flaunting the ride on your entrance to the park is the Incredible Hulk coaster, which is a hulk of a B&M seated incline launch coaster. The coaster starts off with a storyline with Dr. Bruce Banner finding a control and antidote to his mutation on the ride’s slow hill climb, his antidote failed catastrophically, transforming into the hulk rage. This is where the coaster’s iconic mid hill-lift launch sequence starts, propelling the train up to it’s first zero-g turn and awesome B&M trademark boomerang and full loop. With these inversions, no items are allowed to be carried on board the train, but as with all Universal rides in this park, good thing they have lockers with a free 30min grace periods, so we can deposit them for the duration of the ride.

Load up for your DOOM!

awesome ride

entering another island

Dr Doom’s free-fall ride is a standard high tower skyshot and free-fall with multiple launches. While most free fall towers are just simple free standing structures, Dr Doom’s free-fall is surprisingly well themed, too well for such a simple twin tower drop ride in my opinion. Not that I was complaining- it spots a completely indoor air-conditioned queue line area with cool lighting and sound effects, beckoning of your DOOM as you load up for the ride. And man do the views of Orlando and the islands fantastic from the top of the tower.

Marvel Super Hero Island panorama:

The adventure of Spiderman is one of my favorite rides in the the park. It is a 3D track based action movie, with your ride vehicle moving on rails with localized 6 degrees of motion for the mobile vehicle synced to various movie screens, smoke water and fire effects. It is a very cool 3D ride, not to mention popular, despite an advertised 45min wait time at the entrances, the single rider queue had only a 5 minute time, much to our delight.

On board, the crawler simulates a ride through town, only to be thrown and picked-up and flung all about town as Spide tries to safe both the city and you, whether it’s flying or climbing 40 floors though the streets of New York, thrown off a bridge or flushed down the sewers, it’s a ride which will leave you feeling totally awesome after going on it for the first time. Good to hear that a similar “Transformers the ride” is opening in Universal Hollywood and Singapore next summer and this winter respectively utilising similar ride technology.

comic strip cafe!

Ripsaw!

Big Splash!

Toon lagoon is the following island linking out of the other end of the Super hero island. This segment is comically themed, well literally to that of the Sunday funnies, with many comic strip character such as Dagwood, Popeye, Betty bop all coming to life in this universal incarnation of Disneyland’s toontown. The catch is only that this is after all a Lagoon, so this one is much wetter with lots of random squirting fountains and water elements, much to many children’s delight in getting soaked in the hot Florida weather.

Toon Lagoon panorama by Popeye’s Statue:

Having emphasized the lagoon part of the island, this sector is home to several toony water rides such as the Popeye river rapids, which runs all round various parts of the island as well as the Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. The Ripsaw is a log flume ride with a semi coaster rail element for the plunge portion of the ride. Opened on 1999, it is one of the park’s original attractions and is themed and inspired by the Dudley Do-Right character created by cartoonists Jay Ward and Alex Anderson. The pre-ride show features the Snidely Whiplash’s hideout, which is a theater that spoofs movies such as “Jaws,” “Silence of the Lambs” and “Star Wars”.

just a little dino!

Dino escape!

yup animals are under control

Next up will be the Jurassic park (JP) sector. This place is well, all dino orientated. The visitor center here is an exact replica of the one in the movies, complete with the iconic stairwell and dueling dinosaurs at the round atrium. Have a go at the various dino trivial in the center or meet an InGen scientist. Dino land is home to the trade marked Jurassic River adventure boat ride, which is an alternative to the visitor land tour, allowing you to see the dinosaurs from the rivers, of course not with things going wrong and the dinosaurs running lose with the boat tour ending with a fantastic splash out of the main complex right at the end, complete with splash zones from the outside viewing areas.

Going up!

The visitor center

Hulk from the lagoon

The heavily forested areas in this part of the park is a perfect place for a dino-themed playground including an adult rock wall and children Jurassic exploration area complete with large prehistoric trees. The flying Pterodactyl ride also resides here, allowing you to swiftly and stealthily glide above the tree tops in the Pteranodon dino flyers.

The Discovery food court here located in the JP visitor center is also another major venue for the “$20 Meal deal” all you can eat in the park for a day, besides the other outlets at the Marvel Super Hero and Dr Seuss island. The front entrance of the visitor center offers great overlooking views of the islands of adventure and the Super Hero island’s hulk coaster from across the man-made lagoon.

wizardy stuff

Wizarding world of Harry Potter

Hot hot hot!

Crossing the bridge off JP will bring to you to a rather scenic sight of the park, if not one of the best sights in the park itself. Here the Hogwarts castle sits on the mountain to the left while the route to the Hogsmeade Village is up to your right- Welcome to The Wizarding world of Harry Potter. A little history, the Hogsmeade Village, or simply Hogsmeade was founded by medieval wizard Hengist of Woodcroft and the only settlement in Britain inhabited solely by magical beings, and is located to the northwest of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You might be familiar with it being featured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The scene here in Hogsmeade is unreal in the hot Florida weather and sort of plays with your mind with seemingly unreal snow capped houses in 90°F heat.

Harry potter ride

it’s a robo coaster!

totally awesome ride!

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is the section’s signature attraction, it is an indoor dark ride located right in the Hogwarts castle itself. Waiting time is surprisingly short despite the huge crowds here. The ride car itself is a 4 in row “magic broom stick” which are actually kuka-like robotic arms mounted on a transversing rail track. This ride is one of the find examples of the uses of the new Robo coaster for interactive ride and storytelling through multiple degrees of freedom, simulating the feel of broom flight as we join Potter and his friends through flights in his Wizarding world and because of possible inversion. Over shoulder restraints are standard on this ride.

The Harry potter ride too bring brings together ghostly and dragon animatronics together with smoke and mist effects coupled with seemless transitions to the video theatrical performances as you fly through different parts of the ride. Just off the Castle is the Forbidden Forest, home to a Vekoma junior roller coaster. The Flight on the Hippogriff is a small family roller coaster located in this vegetated area just between Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, it’s your typical kiddie coaster with a first drop and lots of helixes and small hops.

dueling dragons!

Mmm, boomerangs…

DUEL!

Located at the end of Hogsmeade by the train station is the Dragon Challenge attraction, also known as The dueling dragons coaster. These dueling coasters are 2 separate B&M inverted coasters. Built together in a dual coaster dueling configuration. At the queue lines, you have a choice of sides in the challenge going with either the blue or red, choose wisely for your choice of dragon for the dragon challenge. Check out my video below for a ride showcase and on-ride POV I made on both coasters for a side-by side comparison.

The Dragon Challenge:

Both coasters are similar, launched from the station together and follows a near identical path, with slight differences in nature and timings, starting with very similar inversion such as the B&M trademark boomerang, few barrel rolls and eventually the iconic dueling double loop. The loop is the fun part where riders legs come close within meters of each other as both dragons make their full loop inversion “clash”. Totally goes with the theme of the dragon fight.

Being a B&M inverted coaster freak, the Dueling dragons coaster was an instant favorite which brings back old memories of the Nemesis coaster back in Alton towers (which is more awesome). There is a returning riders queue at the exit of the coaster, allowing you to pop by right into the lines on your first ride, presumably added for returning riders not having to re-walk the whole queue line for a re-ride on the second coaster. After all, going on one coaster is just half of the dragon challenge. Due to time constraint, I rode the coaster about 3 times in total, nothing compared to my record of 20.

Platform 9 3/4!

Arabian

Sinbad stunt show

Also The Dragon challenge coaster here was initialy a standalone dual B&M inverted dueling coaster in the Lost Continent section of the park, which is later relabeled into the newly themed Harry Potter Wizarding world. The town ends with a pass to the village’s Train station and Steam locomotive, remember to get directions from the Hogsmeade conductor for departures to platform 9 & 3/4 in London Kings cross!

The connecting Lost Continent section of the park from Hogsmeade is the only section without much thrill rides but rather home to many cool theatrical performances. The area is largely themed to an Arabian maketplace, which really put the hot Florida climate in proper context unlike the snowcapped Hogsmeade where we came from. There are many waterfalls not to mention a remote controlled squirty fountain which speaks and fires targeted jets of water to people all around it.

Here you can catch The Sinbad live stunt spectacular at various planned timings as listed in your park map. It is an indoor stunt show featuring Sinbad and his pals in search for treasure, together with his trusty cowardly sidekick.

look treasure!

villain fry!

poseidon fury awesome!

The theater is indoor so it’s unaffected by the unpredictable Florida weather. Here you meet the main characters of the show- giant treasure chest, bad guys, lots of stunts and pyrotechnics for an explosive stunt show worth your time. Of course with the show baddie killed in a sea of fire and the hero saving his damsels in distress. Plain and simple and perfect for all ages which the pyrotechnics possibly scaring smaller children to bits. But hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right?

Following up was Poseidon’s Fury. It is a walk-through theatrical effects showcase and together with the Sinbad stunt show, is one of the few highlighted attractions of the Lost continent. Flaunting the attraction entrance is a rather neat looking weathered castle ruin, besides the rather prominent trident at the attraction entrance, hinting a bit or two about what to expect inside. The castle itself is perfect for photo opportunities and whoa is the structural attention to detail breathtakingly awesome.

giant pitch fork!

diggin’ the live acting

nice water tunnel!

The thing which makes Poseidon’s Fury different from most walk through ones is the presence of life actors, in this case our tour guide to the professors base camp inside the lost temple, you start off shadowing the archaeological dig with your guide, only to find yourself trapped in the temple after awakening an evil being residing in the temple. It’s not long after finding Poseidon’s “pitch fork” where we were able to control various water elements at the flick of the tool, as well as opening up many caverns within the temple, including a spiraling centrifuge water tunnel.

with boom!

water screen projections

Seuss Landing!

The trident itself, being a magical tool offers a battle scene at the last cavern, complete with an iconic combination of pyrotechnics (the bad guys) and water elements (the good guys) putting together a choreographed fight scene with water projected images. The fight ends with the bad guys defeated and all the “hostages” freed from the temple itself.

That pretty is much for what’s left of the Lost Continent section of the park now. Our next island is a place to all things rhythmy and hatty. What other way to put it better than with Dr Seuss and the iconic Cat in the Hat.

All things Seuss!

blue fish red fish

got hat?

The Seuss island is somewhat similar to the toon lagoon in terms of the outrageous toony architecture and theming, complete with wacky twisty walkways. Even the overly large gumball machines, lamp posts and rainbow ladened sweet stores don’t look out of place here. The Seuss landing is decked out with touchings of many characters seen in the Dr Seuss line of books and cartoons, which can be seen hiding and littered through the island. The area here is also home to the Grinch, one two red fishes as well as the circus carnival. The Seuss Trolley tram ride encircles the whole area, offering vantage views of the circus and surrounding Seuss neighborhoods.

tada!

Overview

circling the circus!

Whether it’s living with the whos who or being chased with thing 1 and 2. It’s quite a whacked out place with lots of very nicely painted and themed fixtures settings. Rides here are somewhat children-family orientated, but not totally a kiddie land or sort, so it’s fine for adults alike of all ages. Here, you can catch the The Cat in the Hat through various theater screens as well as a motorised train attraction. The McGurkus circus cafe is also the sector’s feeding area for guests and is the third meal deal area of the park on our visit. The Seuss trollery even passes through the buffet area as part of it’s ride. Food wise, the spread is an all american mix and different from the other eating places in the park. Just too bad you can only grab a main comprising of (pizza, spaghetti or chicken caesar salad) with a side on each order, having the need for multiple trips for more food.

Buffet! yummy!

got whiskers?

world largest hard rock!

Good thing the weather held up until closing for us. As with all Florida weather, it is always dead sunny in the morning and afternoons and heavy downpours in the late afternoons/evenings. Do note that unlike the theme parks in Singapore, bad weather and impending storms with lightning and rain will close all the outdoor rides in the park until further notice, which happened in our case, but good thing we already had all our rides done for that evening. So it’s just a matter of chilling out at the citywalk for some souvenirs and T-shirts before catching our a bus back to international drive at 8.40pm for dinner.

In summer, Orlando’s still bright at 8pm, so you might potentially lose track of time still thinking it’s early. The park’s closing time ranges from 6 to 8pm depending on the daily schedule, so do check your park’s opening timetable for updated timing. In all, Islands of Adventure is a really cool park to visit, it’s a break away from the family like culture in Disneyland and spot many more thrill rides of my taste, definitely a recommendation for any visit to Orlando.

The NASA Kennedy space center (KSC) is a space launch facility for every United States human space flight since 1968. It is located on the Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Florida with both public and off limit space facilities. Given the need for remote launch sites literally in the middle of nowhere with minimal rainfall and always-clear skies (what this part of Florida is known for), the space center is located in a rather isolated location and for most people, getting there means driving there or taking paid public transport to the space center itself.

The Merritt Island is located mainly on a marsh like, shrub area, with mostly swamps with mostly short brush-like vegetation all around. There are not many tall forests around here and is a protected nature reserve area for native and migratory spices, particularly birds. Our journey there begins from an early bus departure at 7.30am along International Drive in Orlando, Florida. This bus we boarded is operated by an agency specializing in transport to the Space center itself. For $90, you get a return trip to the space station including entrance fee. The bus started picking up guests along route along the way to the center. Our bus driver was this cool guy called Mike from Gray tours, who kept doing impersonations of Houston and had been driving the route for years. Rather entertaining guy nonetheless.

SPPACCCEEEE!

The visitor entrance

Got ISS?

Kennedy Space Center was created and has evolved to meet the changing needs of America’s manned space program from conception till today, initially in competition with the Soviet Union as kicked off by John F Kennedy. The visitor complex portion of the Kennedy Space Center is what most visitors will come to upon arrival at there. This public area is set with an exhibition center with theaters and “spacey” rides for all ages alike. The park is operated by 700 employees by Delaware North since 1995 and attracts about 1.5 million visitors annually.

All board!

The VAB

60-foot-tall Launch Complex

The highlight of the space center will have to be the center tours. The bus tours of KSC originate from here. You board air-conditioned tour buses which will take you to the 2 main sites within the space center itself, passing by various iconic structures, installations and plants as part of the guided bus tour. After boarding these buses, it’s only a matter of no time where we are back on the public roads heading out of the visitor center area and out into the outer restricted working areas of the space center.

Here you will get to see the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), which is a hulk of a structure and is the fourth-largest enclosed structure in the world by volume. It’s blessed with a cavernous interior and home to few massive heavy cranes. The assembly building is where the solid rocket boosters become attached to the main fuel tank together with the shuttle, which is then hoisted from a horizontal to vertical position to be mounted on the main tank onto the crawlers in preparation for movement to the various launch sites around the facility.

Launch pad model

future commercial space flights

“Launch complex LC39A

The first stop was the LC 39 Observation Gantry. It’s essentially 60-foot-tall Launch Complex located near the old crawler storage facility. The crawlers are large hunkering track based platforms which the whole assembled shuttle, rocket boosters and fuel tank are placed on, to be moved the respective launch sites. They move extremely slow and usually take a whole night to make the short 5 kilometer travel from the VAB to the shuttle launch site. Those long white gravel and sand strips you see running along side the main roads are the specially made paths for the crawlers themselves leading up to the respective launch sites.

At the gantry, you will be brought through a pre-show screening in a theater and a mini exhibition area featuring cutaway sections of the launch complex, alternative shuttle launch configuration as well as try-it interactive booths before exiting out into the open for the attraction’s observation tower. The gantry is 3 floors high and is served by both stairs and lift landings on every floor. On the first floor sits the engine of the fallen shuttle Challenger. From the top you can catch distant views of Launch Complex 39–Pad A and 39–Pad B.

a sight we will never see again

challenger engine

Saturn 5 center

There are a number of launch pads in the area, some decommissioned and preserved for display and educational purposes. Since December 1968, all launch operations have been conducted from Pads A and B at Launch Complex 39. Both pads are situated near the ocean, about roughly 5km east of the VAB. There are many more pads around the Merritt Island area with a large number of them still active for larger rockets.

During my visit, Space shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) was up on the launch Pad 39 preparing for launch after the 4 fourth of July. Seeing the space shuttle on the launch pad is something we will all never see again ever with the decommissioning of all NASA’s shuttles for future launches. Moving on with your bus tour will bring you to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which is north of the VAB and the area where you will spend a substantial amount of time in your trip.

houston we have liftoff!

Saturn butt!

hanger!

You start off by entering a Launch Control Center where you will be put through simulations of the Saturn V rocket launch procedures itself, the one which placed the first man onto the moon. It’s a complete mock-up with an re-enactment of the launch control sequence and checks, with special vibration and lighting effects included! You exit the theaters right into the air conditioned Apollo/Saturn V Center hangar exhibit area, where you will be greeted with the massive rear of a Saturn rocket itself. The rocket itself was dissected into it’s respective blast stages for indoor center stage display and spans the whole length of the Saturn exhibition center, which looks like a large storage hangar with a sub-attached building. The Saturn center is also home to the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. The whole facility itself is roughly 10 kilometers from Titusville.

second stage rockets

to the vault!

Original Apollo 14 fun sized!

It’s here where you can grasp the sheer size of the Saturn 5 rocket in the center, spanning over 110.6m in length and over 3039 tons in weight. Currently decommissioned, the design had it’s maiden flight (SA-501) in 1967 and was built by Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft, and IBM. Until today, it remains the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket brought to operational status ever known to mankind. It still holds the record for the heaviest launch vehicle payload. It placed 24 men on the moon from 1968 through 1972.

space men!

a successful failure

Got rocket?

There are several other exhibits in the hangar too, such as lunar modules, the NASA vault and many other info booths of various space hardware of interest as well as touching on the history and future of human and robotic spaceflight. The facility is also home to a moon rock cafe and the attraction gift shop, stocking lots of NASA themed merchandise as well as limited edition commemorative medals and fixtures of all the shuttle space flights. The Vault here is an exhibition containing various archives of the space technological evolution time line of NASA, with plenty of old artifacts on display including the Apollo 14 capsule as well as a collection of old space suits and bits of pieces of spacecraft from the various past Apollo mission themselves.

lunar module goodness

ejector ring!

all board!

The Saturn V pad spots a massive movie theater, the Lunar theater. The theater teaches about the challenges and incredible accomplishments the Apollo moon program had brought to to mankind as a whole, with a tribute to the Apollo astronauts and the machines that brought them there and home safely. The movie exits into the souvenir store where you can hop right out into the bus bays for the return trip back to the visitor center or head back into the Saturn 5 complex for an encore. The merchandise at the NASA store is really like a nerd haven, with loads of cool space related gear including science kits. Well, it got out the impulsive nerd in me, there were quite a number of nerdy NASA themed T-shirts which caught my eye too, resulting in a number of apparel purchases as usual.

star trek exhibition

beam me up scotty!

Dude where’s my car?

The bus journey back saw us through the crawler section of the facility, just before our destination. It was not long before we are back at the visitor center. With the major external space facility section of the KSC tours done, we pretty much had the rest of the afternoon to explore all the remaining attractions in the “theme park” section of the space center. The center is home to a number of “theme park” related attractions, comprising of rides, theaters, exhibits and exhibitions. There was a Star trek exhibition going on at the atrium of the IMAX theater complex, featuring many authentic props, costumes, weapons and settings all used in the series itself. A total treat for all space fan, particularly the trekkers.

Hubble 3D

The IMAX theather

Shuttle launch experience

We were in time for our afternoon IMAX show (2.30pm), the entry tickets grants you to unlimited views of the cinema during your visit, there were 2 shows on rotation between 2 theaters there (Hubble 3D and Space Station 3D), so you can catch any of them at your discretion and schedule. I went for the Hubble telescope IMAX 3D movie, it’s the exact same IMAX video they were screening at the Washington Air and Space museum, as well as the Singapore Omni theather as of now. The 3D film was narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio. As with all IMAX theathers, the screen is a huge five-story behemoth. The use of 3D digital film-less formats is fast becoming a norm in all US based theather attractions, it seems that 3D is an expected feature in all theme parks now, including Disneyland, Universal and even here. The effects are cool too, allowing you “float’ alongside NASA astronauts through stereoscopic cameras shots employed on the space walks, immersing viewers with the astronauts on their journey in full 3D depth. It makes you feel like you are there with them, adding to the thrill of space exploration.

space shuttle plaza

pre-ride shows

in the space shuttle module

Next up, it’s back up the shuttle plaza for another ride of a different kind, the Shuttle launch experience. The attraction building sits right in front of the shuttle plaza, it’s an open air plaza where Space Shuttle, Explorer (a replica shuttle) resides. The Shuttle launch experience was touted as the most accurate shuttle launch simulator you can find on the planet, as vouched by fellow astronauts themselves as part of the pre-ride video screenings and holding areas of the ride. Thereafter you will be split into various group rows to broad you simulator, almost set like “Star Tours” in Disneyland. The ride begins with you tilting nearly up to vertical for the launch as you go for a launch in a passenger module located in the shuttle’s payload area. Personally I found the ride to be just a massive vibrator or sort. With very hilarious flabbing results on rather well, physically well-endowed people on the ride. The ride ends with the Shuttle’s payload top hatch opening to reveal the vast milky way after achieving geostationary orbit.

All board the shuttle

Inside the shuttle

In the ISS!

The shuttle experience ride exits out back to the shuttle plaza through a rather nice space-station like indoor walkway. The exit area is a circular descending walkway with it’s handrails decked out with the photos of the missions and crew member photos of every single space shuttle mission, all laid out along the handrail. The handrail ends at the bottom of the passageway with 2 empty slots filled with the generic NASA logos, which is to be filled by the upcoming and last STS-135 mission. Back on the Explorer Space Shuttle in the shuttle plaza, it is a replica space shuttle made with many genuine shuttle parts, including the internal crane, cargo bay and exterior heat tiles. This shuttle was primarily built as a mock up for educational purposes and never saw entry into space. A nearby large dome shaped structure by the Explorer sits the Launch status center. It’s a presentation of the space race the US had with the Soviets and how it fueled the rapid development for space exploration in the past.

the space race

astronaut memorial

dedicated in 1991 by Congress & President Bush

Just off the launch control center is The Astronaut Memorial. The outdoor memorial honors every single astronaut and test pilot who died in the line of duty for the space program. This includes the 24 fallen U.S. astronauts as those from Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Apollo 1. The main memorial is actually a marble lined it’s blast deflector with all the names of the fallen craved into it. It’s a national memorial by Congress and President George Bush, dedicated in 1991. Around the gardens here are early test planes which pioneered the technological development of the space program too.

Exploration space!

The world coming together

Nature and technology

There are a number of exhibition areas showcasing many of NASA’s achievements as well as space gear around the facility grounds. The nearby lunar module from the memorial is an air-conditioned dome featuring a launch status center and discusses the space race back in the early days. The Exploration space exhibit showcases is one about the progress and current direction of the NASA space program, together with a stage showcase and various interesting machines from the space program which never quite make it to where they were intended to go, like the impressive looking lunar module and the all terrain equipment transporter.

The Nature and technology displays across the rocket garden showcases more of the natural environment and animal species residing in the immediate area, particularly Cape Canaveral and the Merritt Island itself, with both of them being home to many indigenous species and is a protected nature sanctuary and wildlife migratory bird nesting ground. Covered here too are the history, way of life and early agreements of the use of the Florida grounds land here for the space program, as well with various miscellaneous ecology and stuff relating to the natural wildlife around the immediate area and the repercussions they cause.

rocket garden

Kennedy’s push for space

boy, they’ve grown!

Having mentioned the rocket garden, the garden itself is a display of missiles, sounding rockets and orbital space launchers all decked in an open outdoor area. As most rockets are generally expendable items, all the items on display here have not been flown. The collection here, started in 2004 is ever expanding with new additions added over time, residing here is a Jupiter-C/Redstone rocket, as well as the Mercury/Redstone, Thor, Mercury/Atlas and Gemini/Titan II just to name a few. As in the case of the Saturn V (the world’s biggest and heaviest rocket), many of the decommissioned Saturn rockets found their way here with later planned missions canceled, leaving these unneeded rockets for the museums for display.

The early space exploration building containing a variety of olden day displays of the early space program as fueled by the push from John F Kennedy in his desire to put the first man on the moon. The facility is located at the end of the rocket garden just off the nature an technology building. Here, various old space gear and test equipment are displayed, including weather balloons, probes and memoirs of fearless test pilots on their experiences of hitting supersonic flight for the first time and going on untested equipment and trail runs in general. Interesting too was the rapid evolution of rocket size and technology over the years, which eventually led to the first man on the moon.

this one escaped from the ISS

had you met your astronaut today?

That’s all for rocket science!

The space center is also home to the largest space shop in the world, selling well, everything spacey! The gear includes stuff for all ages and interest alike- NASA merchandise, space kits, telescopes planetary sets for kids as well as many attraction specific souvenirs, medals and commemorative patches of the various shuttle and Apollo missions. Technically, it’s a NASA space freak’s dream come true and is surprisingly popular with all the park guests here.

Astronaut Jon McBride was around too, he was the Pilot for shuttle mission STS-41G and the mission commander for STS-35, STS-61. It’s not everyday where you get to meet and chat with an astronaut, not to mention getting his autograph!

The trip to the space center is generally good for a whole day, from the morning till about 6pm (closing time) in the evening, it’s very much a whole day affair with plenty of time left for the evening. Not a problem in Florida with so much to do here Downtown and back along International Drive.

The Disney Hollywood (MGM) Studios is one of the 5 theme parks here in Walt Disney World Orlando, Florida. Parks here include the Epcot, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks and the Animal Kingdom Zoo on top of the flagship Magic Kingdom park. All these parks span a huge area in this Disney world and are well served by buses, monorail and ferries, we will be taking the ferry to the park this time. The ferry is a large 2 deck passenger boat, able to take an odd of about 200 hundred passengers across the Disney central lagoon on 15-20 minute trips each, dropping you off at the ticketing sector of the world. The loading bays by the ticketing offices are also the best place to catch the daily 10pm Magic kingdom fireworks at the park’s daily closing.

river cruise

incoming ferry!

Epcot!

As iconic as the Epcot globe can be, the Hollywood studios here is another independent park by itself, represented by Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat. It is the 5th most visited amusement park in the United States and 8th in the world. This portion of the Disney parks focuses more on the Hollywood and acting part of the Disney line of entertainment, with mainly lots of fantastic live shows, including stunt spectaculars coupled with lots of pyrotechnics. It can’t get anywhere more Hollywood than this.

Sunset boulevard!

aerosmith rock and roller

nicely framed!

Undoubtedly, the Sunset boulevard is one of the best looking portions of the park, which leads up to the Hollywood tower of Terror. Many gift and souvenir stores dot the sides of the walkways here of the boulevard, including a replica of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which is home to The Great Movie Ride. The ride here is essentially a dark indoor ride, paying homage to several classic films, including Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

With all the Hollywood Boulevard action here, leading up to the end of the road is the rad-looking Aerosmith rock and roller coaster, just beside the Tower of Terror and the entrance to the Fantasmic show. The other far end of Hollywood Boulevard stands the Blue Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat, sitting above a large open air performance stage where events can be held right at the heart of the park. Towards the west of the park behind the large blue Hat sits The Echo Lake sector of the park. The lake, together with small steamer cafe boat sits in this small man-made lagoon area with several theaters around it. This is where you catch the daily shows of the live Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

disney animation avenue!

Animation excellence!

Little mermaid performance

The American Idol Experience theater resides here too, which is a something like American idol live, with auditioned contestants being park guests themselves, performing or singing for live audiences within the park. If they are good, they can potentially win a special front-of-the-line pass for the annual real tryouts of the actual TV series.

The Streets of America after the Echo Lake is a recreated movie set of various iconic cities of New York, complete with landmarks, ambient sounds and street fixtures alike. it’s here too where you can catch the Motor stunt show complete with gun totting, stunt man falling, explosive car chases in the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. The other key attraction here in MGM is also the Studio Backlot Tour with a tour through actual movie props (not real hot sets) and the disaster flood showcase at the Catastrophe Canyon.

The Disney animation avenue is a showcase of animation excellence with the animation courtyard. Educate yourself with a walk in the path of Walt Disney’s dream of making animation a reality, as well as going through the development process of creating and bringing an animated character to life. Live performances here includes the Voyage of the Little Mermaid which employs neat glow-in-the-dark puppets, water effects and lasers to re-create favorite scenes of the movie, all acted out by human actors. Next to the avenue is the Pixar Sector, and place of the Toy Story Midway Mania, an interactive 3D attraction inspired by classic carnival midway games.

Ursula

Sunset

fantasmic!

The Fantasmic is one of the main highlights of the show, no trip to the Hollywood studios is complete without it. The show itself runs 3 times daily in the evening at the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater located just outside the park grounds. The entrance to the amphitheater is just short walk off the Sunset boulevard beside the Aerosmith coaster. With the summer months bring more daylight into the day, it is generally recommended not to catch the first 7.30pm show but rather the last 10.30pm one, as the Fantasmic pyrotechnics are best enjoyed in the dark at night. That is of course after you are done with all the ride and attractions by the park’s closing at 10pm. It was quite a gamble for us to catch a later show with the impending evening lightning storm which threatened to pour anytime. Florida weather is notorious where it will always rain throughout the evening after a long hot sunny afternoon. That day was not an exception either, but thank goodness it didn’t come down.

fancy water lighting

party!

fire!

Fantasmic was a great sell out show and man, was the amphitheater totally packed. The show itself is a showcase of various Walt Disney’s works, with a combination of water screen projections from various Disney animated movie scenes. Then comes the story portion of the show, with the baddies having a win over Mickey, who then turned the tables and took back control, overpowered them with his imagination and magic. The show concludes with a fireworks display with lots of fiery fire over water as Mickey defeats the evil witch and dragons at the ending of the show. As with all Disney endings being a happy ending, the final scene of the show features various characters from the Disney movies coming together on a boat, parading their success over the evil characters in pure Disney’s fairy tale ending style. I particularly liked the techno remixes of several old classic Disney songs such as the Eurobeat Beauty and the Beast song played throughout the attraction’s intermissions.

loaded!

Mickey choreographed to the fireworks

all board!

We rocked the Rock and Roller coaster after Fantasmic. The Aerosmith coaster always never fail to disappoint. It’s an indoor dark Vekoma launched roller coaster, which starts with a pre-show stating the Aerosmiths needs to get you to their gig fast and what other better way to do it but with a LIM launched powered super stretch limo complete with your own personal on-ride stereo to boot. Having said that, you start off blasting you right into the Californian traffic (like how they do it in Hollywood) right into the first corkscrew inversion of the ride, the rest is pretty much history.

aerosmith style!

fancy a drop?

the park at closing

Last but not least, the last of the rides here include the iconic Tower of terror. The tower as seen at the end of the sunset boulevard looks even more awesome in the night, complete with glowing lighting effects making the twilight portions of the real seem unreal. The tower of terror here in Orlando is the first variant of the dark indoor tower drop ride created by Disney Imagineering. In a nutsehll, you can say, is the original ride featuring the forward traveling elevator cars into the twilight zone before entering the drop shaft sequence of the ride. This is unlike the ones in Tokyo DisneySea and Paris Disneyland, where the ride starts in the elevator shaft and goes straight into the show-drop sequence. The ride here also employs the faster-than gravity free fall pulley systems courtesy of Otis lifts as well as the Pepperghost effect as seen on the Haunted mansion attraction.

The park is general have alot to see, the park is after all an independent Disneypark which you can literally spend a whole day in if you are looking to cover every single attraction and stage performance show. The park closes at 10pm as with most of the other Disneyparks here, so you are otherwise fine too by covering all the key attractions with a park hopper on half a day.

That is Hollywood studios for now, next up, Universal Studios!

My journey to Orlando begins with a flight on 17th June from Washington D.C. It’s a connecting domestic flight, so no passport immigration is required for internal travel, unless if you wish to use it as a proof of ID at the counters, which can be alternatively by done with your national identity card too. TSA and security checks was a breeze and in a matter of no time, we are en-route on our Embraer small Jet towards Florida.

An additional point to note is to board early for smaller jets as luggage space is very limited and you have to gate check your bag once they run out of cabin space, which usually affects passengers who board later or have a seat nearer to the front of the plane. So a good tip is to reserve a tail seat on your Jet so you can get in early to load your luggage. Upon landing, it’s generally a rip off to take a cab from the airport terminals, head to the airport bus interchange for direct buses into town from there.

Good ol’ Florida!

Lynx!

Florida mall

Our stay in Orlando is at a resort hotel situated along International Drive which is a recommended area of stay in Orlando with at the heart of all the main attractions in town. There are no subway line operating in this area of Orlando due to the nature and geographical profile of the area, where it’s wide open districts are best served using buses. Lynx is the primary bus operator here. A direct bus to on Lynx bus service 42 for $2 a pop will bring you right to International drive. If you need help with directions, the friendly airport staff and bus drivers there will be more than willing to help you.

Mmm coffee

Downtown Disney

shopping centers and a circus?

After a day at large 1,849,000 sq ft Florida mall just off Orange Blossom Trail and Sand Lake Road (operated by Simon Property Group), it’s not long after in Orlando where we see ourselves headed towards the land of smiles- Walt Disney World Resort. Disneyland is still very much a chill out destination here for me, or at least for this league of my trip, while recovering from the 4 large blisters on both of my feet after the last 4 days of endless sightseeing in Washington. I will be expecting to walk all funny these days.

Moving on, Disneyland Florida is the biggest of all the Disneylands around the world. This one comprises of 5 independent parks scattered all about the Disney World Lagoon, comprising of the main Magic Kingdom park, the Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. These parks are served by a huge number of Disney endorsed and themed hotels, operated by Disneyland themselves including golf courses, beach resorts campgrounds and deluxe villa resorts. Non Disney themed hotels here includes the Wyndham, Doubletree, Hilton and Holiday Inn just to name afew.

tickets GET!

Monorail

all board!

Upon entry to the Disney world gateway, you will pass by the The Downtown Disney shopping district. This is a huge shopping and F&B outlet located just by the park entrance and hotels. Moving on deeper into the Disney Boulevard and passing all the resort will eventually bring you to the central ticketing booth for all the parks, where you can choose from a variety of park tickets to go, including Park Hoppers and various water park Add-On Options for your stay here. There are many ways to get around the parks here, Monorail, ferry or buses, each with their own perks. The monorail offers direct return routes to your intended Disney park, but does not do routes between parks. The ferries serves only the main Magic Kingdom park, the buses on the other hand, does regular services between all parks and is usually the preferred method of travel for hopping between parks.

The entrance of the Magic Kingdom is home to the Main Street, U.S.A. Which is an early day representation of downtown New York which I will cover more in detail later on in this post. The park opened in 1971 and designed by Walt Disney himself as “The Florida Project” and built by Walt Disney Imagineering (WED Enterprises).

Frontier land

dive into the thorns!

Going Down!

The Magic Kingdom is also the most popular Disneyland park here of the 4 and attracts over 17 million visitors annually. We were in the park in no time after a quick visitor security check and verification past the ticket gantries. The paper electronic park ticket here should be retained for park hoppers as well as obtaining fast passes throughout the park. A quick hop up on the Walt Disney Railroad brings us up promptly to our first planned area of visitation- Frontierland.

Frontierland is the critter county of the park, with all things country and western and home to the iconic Splash mountain ride and Thunder railroad mountain ride. It was splash mountain first for us after grabbing fast passes for Thunder railroad, which at that time was a viable option with queues lines over 45 minutes. The ride is based upon the stories of “Brer Rabbit, Tar Baby, and Uncle Remus” though slightly deviating from the actual Brer Rabbit story. The attraction itself is home to 103 Audio-animatrontics robots, telling the story on various indoor and outdoor portions of the ride. Splash mountain still retains the record for the most number of audio-animatrontics employed in a single attraction at Disneyland. The Splash mountain variant here in Florida is an exact clone of the one in California’s Critter County, only that the attraction is mirrored. Same final wet drop included!

choo choo!

argh water

people falling to impending doom

As with all things Cowboys and Indians here, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad always never fail to disappoint. The coaster is an Arrow Dynamics high speed rail coaster, with a custom extended track and multiple mid ride hill lifts. It is a rather enjoyable long blazing ride through the hills and canyons western style, but this one does not have much outdoor water elements like the ride in Tokyo Disneyland. Interestingly, even the hill climb spots curvy bumpy rails themed with volcanic waterfalls and sound effects. Topping up the remainder of key attractions here at Frontier Country is the audio-animatronic Bear Jamboree stage show, and of course, you can expecting singing bears here.

Adventure land Jungle Cruises

giant camel & carpets!

it all began with a mouse!

Connecting Frontier land is the Liberty Square itself, this area is themed after colonial America and is home to the jungle-like vegetated areas of the park. That of course, coming together with various jungle themed elements and rides. The Swiss family treehouse walk resides here, allowing you to have a tour though the Robinson Home. Fancy a silly safari boat tour? The Jungle Cruise steamer’s and floating platform plank rides are situated here too, offering rides of a wetter kind.

In Adventure land, you can find the nicely decorated Aladdin Magic Carpets carousel and the Scurvy Pirates of the Caribbean indoor boat ride, complete with drunk pirates and random pyrotechnics. It’s not too far off from here where you will find yourself in Fantasy land, offering full fantastic views of the Grand Golden Carousel in front of Cinderella castle. It’s here too where the iconic “Partners Statue” of the Magic Kingdom featuring Walt Disney and Mickey can be seen with the Cinderella Castle behind them.

The “Partners” statue sits at the end of main street USA is situated centrally in the whole park linking all the various themed sections together. The eastern part of the park sits Tomorrow Land and my most favorite sector of the park. As the name suggests, this is the technologically futuristic portion of the park, with all the buildings in here all decked in white or shiny metal with tons of retro looking stainless steel fixtures, radar dishes and antennas sprouting everywhere. The Tomorrow Land railway ride here is an observation tram ride and links all the buildings, which is made to look like a futuristic “space transportation” between the various “space ports” in Tomorrow land. The iconic Astro Orbiter flying carousel tops the futuristic looking “skyline” around here.

so much METAL!

fastpass get!

Emperor ZERG!

Tomorrowland is also home to few popular resident rides as seen in many Disneylands around the world, such as Space Mountain, Autopia and the Buzz Lightyear space ranger blasters. The Buzz Lightyear Space Range Spin ride is a track based 2 seater ride moving on a dune buggy system similar to that of the haunted mansion attraction, only that the ride have a shooting element to it, allowing you to score points by killing the baddies. In short, the ride is essentially a point and shoot blaster game, with the target in question, everything shaped like a bull’s eye target and Emperor Zerg.

You ride along various scenes with Lightyear on the ride, aim and shoot your laser guided blasters at various targets to score points for every target you successfully hit. You can leave the ride to rotate on targets on it’s own or if you are hardcore enough, spin it away with the manual override lever on the central console. You earn bonus points on special hard-to-hit moving targets. The key here is knowing what to destroy to get the highest score possible. You can hit targets multiple times too, and look out for hidden mickeys along the ride!

best high score EVAR!

dustbins here talks and moves!

roll up roll up!

Tomorrow Land is home to few musings in this sector of the park, such as visiting space show fog coolers, perfect for the Florida heat as well as ultra cool talking dustbins which goes about mumbling random quotes about the area and itself while moving around scaring guests and amusing children. Oh yea, you can also throw regular trash in it if you want to shut-up it for a while.

Tucked in the corner of Tomorrow Land is the Indy Speedway. It is a go kart-ride you may otherwise know as Autopia from other Disneyland themeparks. Like all family kart rides, the cars themselves are small independent petrol driven go-karts, only that they travel on guided rails. It’s quite no-brainer going around the multi-tiered 4 laned race track with only one single pedal to control the car (gas for acceleration and release to auto brake). You can’t really do much but just gas it and follow the track, driving around even without much steering, provided if you don’t mind the bumps along the rails at a turn. It’s not long where the rides starts to get boring as these cars can’t really go fast even after flooring it. After all, this is a family ride, and not quite a proper go-kart track, though having a free range kart attraction may appeal to more people including myself.

look ma no hands!

monster’s inc!

an interactive CG stand up comedy

The Monster’s Inc scare, umm laugh floor attraction is located just just the main entrance to the sector. You start off by getting briefed by Mike Wazowski after entering the doors to the monster world. The attraction takes off after the first movie, upon the discovery that human laugher generates 10 times more power than screams, so now Monsters incorporated regularly invites humans into their world to harvest our laughters through the now renamed CDA (comedy detection agency).

Guests are then seated in a theater with a laugh-o-meter showing how much laughter had been collected. The main screen features all rather interactive real time computer generated characters as the show crew preps the humor over the audience with Mike and various other monsters polling interacting with the audience and asking us questions, and trying to get us to laugh by making jokes in real time, often ending up with hilarious effects. Hold your breath as you might have the camera on you anytime in the show!

lilo & stitch ride

Space Mountain go go go!

spacey!

The Stitch Great Escape ride opposite the scare floor was quite a disappointment. The ride start off with an animatronics pre-show of the seemingly cuddly and harmless tiny stitch being a deadly class 3 prisoner on the loose, we cadets get strapped into a seemingly nicely decorated space travel capsule complete with overhead restrains, which serve no other better purpose but to just secure you in for the duration of the “ride”. The attraction itself is pretty much not of a ride, but rather just a dark effects showcase, with the restraints doing nothing but compressing you on the shoulders, simulating stitch jumping around loose on the set when being chased by the space cops. Overall I feel that the ride is quite a let down with a great build up damped by a rather anti-climatic performance of just lights and smoke and lots of disappearing act, that’s just it. And I was actually expecting ride inversion when I first saw the over shoulder restraints. Bleh.

The space mountain ride here is a 4-in-line bobsled-like train indoor coaster which runs off steel rails, there are actually 2 seperate coasters in the indoor cavern, with 2 distinctive loading areas depending on the queue line you choose pre-ride. The coaster here had been refurbished a few times, but the coaster itself is still old and rather bumpy. You begin on a dual coaster hill lift climb, where if you are lucky, can spot the riders on the adjacent coaster up the hill lift too, but it’s no dueling coaster. The ride itself spots several sharp twisting turns and sudden drops in the dark simulating the space flight the imagineers are after, but its otherwise rather predictable.

spot the mouse?

see some bears here hunny?

Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel

Leaving Tomorrow Land back into Fantasy Land brings you back into the magical fairy tale portions of the park, fancy the snow white and seven draft pub? The blacksmiths or the mine shop? It’s like walking through a fairy tale story. Besides the facade of the Golden Carousel flaunting the King author sword and Dumbo the flying elephant, notable rides here include The Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which is a very nicely themed indoor dark ride where the free roaming cars traveling on trackless remotely planned routes which seem to amaze more the technological mind than the ride itself.

Fantasy Land is located north of the park and is currently undergoing expansion works for a new expanded park sector, new rides coming include the The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which is a moderately intense indoor roller coaster attraction and a new circus theme for portions of Mickey’s Toowntown Fair. This area connects just north of the current Fantasy Land to the new Fantasy Land expansion location, sited just north of the park.

Strolling down fantasyland

It’s a small world!

Get me outta here!

It’s a small world ride is a dark indoor slow river ride. It is a family ride featuring over 300 brightly costumed audio-animatronic dolls in the style of children from all over the world and showcasing their different unique cultures around the globe through their costumes and city backdrops, all frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the attraction’s title song, which has a theme of global peace. Its a very happy and cheerful ride, but otherwise plain boring making you wonder why you’ve gone on the ride in the first place. Despite all this, I say the ride has one of the nicest looking for front facades in the park, it looks just like one of the playing cards castles in Alice in Wonderland.

a date with the dead!

going underground!

singing busts included!

Of course, no trip to Disneyland is complete without a ride on the The Haunted Mansion back and paying Madame Leota a visit at the same time. The Haunted mansion back on Liberty Square here is very similar to the one in California, complete with the graveyard scene, besides the usual dancing and hallway “Pepper ghost” effect which the attraction employs greatly. As not many know, the ride actually resides on the ground level, as we go “underground” in the stretching room scene. The ride itself is tucked in a studio building just behind the mansion which this passage is eventually connected too, therefore all haunted mansions around the world all appear to be situated on a hill.

Awesome huge 3D screen

dance! disney style!

do the dance boy!

Mickey’s PhilharMagic is a rather cool 4D theatrical show featuring Micky and various other Disney characters. You will be given 3D glasses pre-show to feast your eyes on the full 180 degree curved screen where the show will be shown. You get the same 3D effect on every part of the theater regardless of where you are sitting, contrary to most 3D show myths of a 3D sweet spot only situated at the center of the theater. The show starts off with the iconic Mickey magical orchestra which he commands using his magic hat. The 4th dimensional element to the show is of course that of the non-visual effects which comes with the show, such as air blasts to your face and legs as well as water splashing effects.

Cinderella’s castle is the spot and backdrop for the various daily park performances making up of various Disney cast characters coming together for a 20 minute show complete with loud booming music and pyrotechnics, right at the heart of the park facing the Main street USA. There are many other street performers here in the Main street too.

spot the hidden mickey?

fantastic piano performance

dream and do

Together with the olden day setting, even the staff here all seem to originate from the past, all dressed and spot the talk of the past, it’s almost like they’ve transported all the visitors here back in time. One entertainer even commented on my camera, stating that it’s surprising that you don’t need to crank them now to record your videos. It’s here too where you can meet Mickey in the “Meet Mickey attraction”, despite having a “wait, isn’t he performing at the castle now too?” moment. The attraction itself is rather well hidden unless you notice the signs, so do have your park map guide you there, otherwise look for the double rope street skippers on the Main Street itself just by the old theater beside the Disneyland steam railroad station.

At the end of the Magic Kingdom Main street is Casey’s corner. This place is one of the few affordable places in the park for lunch, serving sandwiches, burgers and sundaes, though drinks are an optional extra. The outdoor sitting areas of Casey’s literally have you sitting around the ducks in the garden. With that, I will leave you with a cool piano piece I’ve recorded of an entertainer on the Pianos at Caseys’. And look at those fingers fly!

Heading back to International drive is a $2 bus ride with 2 transfers, or a direct $15 cab ride. There are lots of eateries around here on the drive, and it is generally recommend to have your meals out of Disneyland as they can get rather expensive in-park. You will be spoilt for choice here on International, with all kinds of American fast food restaurants and Chinese buffet joints around, including Dennys, iHop and Ponderosa. Popeyes for lunch for lunch will set you back $6 per person, with unlimited refills.

The Dennys restaurant here spots very good service, reminding me of the good old American diner food and reliving my old childhood attempt in finishing an American-sized spaghetti with meatballs- with meatballs as large as my fists. Too bad this Denny’s do not have spaghetti on the menu anymore, but the steak and clam chowder was awesome. So I guess that’s pretty much wraps up Magic Kingdom for now, next up, Hollywood Studios!

The National Air and Space Museum (abbreviated NASM) is one of the museums operated by the Smithsonian Institution located just off the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum is home to the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world and was established in 1976 as a center for research into the history and science of aviation, spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. It attracts over 6 million visitor annually.

The Air and Space Museum

overhead planes

A decapitated 747

The building itself was designed by St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obata of Hellmuth and was originally called the National Air Museum when it was formed on August 12, 1946 by an act of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. The museum spots a rather open layout on plan, with many open atriums allowing space for many large aviation exhibits to be showcased, such as the sagittal cutaway view of a former Northwest Boeing 747-100B as well as several full sized commercial planes to be suspended from the ceilings. These open areas are designed by the architects as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theme specific theatrical exhibits lined along the lower and upper floors of the museum too.

early air travel

flying places!

Early jet engines

Some pieces in the National Air and Space Museum collection date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia after which the Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites to the Smithsonian institution, after Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird convinced exhibitors to leave them here for display given that shipping them home would be far too costly.

The Air and Space Museum itself is the second-most popular of the Smithsonian museums here in Washington D.C. You will be familiar with the museum for it being featured in various blockbuster films such as the setting in the 2009 film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, where Sam, Mikaela, Wheelie and Agent Simmons woke up Jetfire in SR-71 Blackbird mode. Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or backups to the originals.

1st Wright flyer

BMW aircraft factory

german plane to go!

The galleries on the upper floors are home to some permanent displays looking into the invention of flight, namely galleries set and themed to the timeline of the human development into the evolution of flight machines which the museum teaches and recognizes strongly. It starts with nothing more iconic than the actual original wright flyer. With it’s 1st successful milestone on Dec 17, 1903, it is displayed in all it’s glory with several other earlier Wright prototypes and elaborated with various working fixtures displaying how these early simple mechanisms of flight work. It’s interesting to note that all modern planes until today still bare very similar resemblances and traces back to the original wright flyer; employing the same basic principles for flight control of the plane as well as flight lift generation.

The galleries then transition into the modern era of propeller flight, with a rundown of few classic war planes and an early BMW aircraft engine factory. The galleries then go on to embrace the transition to the more efficient use of jets for trust (and starting the whole air speed records race). There are several early jet engines on display, used both in military and commercial aviation.

hand made propellers

wind sock?

flight surveillance

Take a tour through the Golden ages of flight, looking at the various facets of early air travel complete with various aviation Awards and Insignias ever known to man here on display. Modern aviation will of course won’t reach it’s pinnacle of achievement without the on-going contributions of our women pilots. There are many displays of iconic women pilots in history and awarded service medals recognizing the part our ladies have in place in the skies.

The “How things fly” section is the science discovery part of the museum, which is essentially a discovery fun house teaching all about how planes work- all from instruments to avionics through simple experiential displays and techniques. Wonder how air on an aero-foil creates lift? Have a ago at the water tank or wind tunnel try-out display. Wonder how engine gyroscopic effects will hinder a plane’s movement? Have a go at holding a spinning bicycle wheel with demonstrations courtesy of teaching staff members. It’s fun for all kids and adults young at heart.

Overhead surveillance too plays a major role in the development in key areas of modern air and space flight. The flight surveillance sector teaches just that, showing how we map and document the world we see as of today with high altitude aircraft and satellites. The surveillance section here too covers on the various techniques employed by both military for spying and commercial surveillance aircraft used to capture our world maps like those we see on google earth.

exploring the universe

giant telescopes!

hubble!

The space and universe galleries teaches about the planets of our of solar system as well as introducing the vastness of the milky way and the machines behind their discoveries. Housed in the museum grounds itself are various early telescopes and astronomy devices including a giant ground telescope complete with it’s shrouding dome, allowing us to peek into the universe and history of space. There is no doubt viewing the milky way and beyond from a telescope is the best from space itself, the orbital telescopes here on display also includes the iconic Hubble and all it’s actual spare parts.

indoor rocket garden

lunar module

space space space!

The place is no air and space museum without the spacey bits. The space section of the museum is decked out with a time-line of man’s quest and journey through space, complete with various assortment of artifacts and equipment used on previous space exploration missions, particularly those on the Apollo missions. This of course not forgetting the pioneering technologies before the first space flight, such as the birth of the Balloon and Space Ship One, which actually made all these possible. An Apollo Lunar Module resides in the eastern end of the museum ground floor, near the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Display and indoor rocket garden reside. These ballistic missiles are so long, they have to be dug into the ground for them to be displayed vertically without having their tops going through the ceiling. The rockets in question here are the Soviet SS-20 and the U.S. Pershing II rockets.

tools of the trade

million dollar space pens

in a space station

The Apollo galleries showcases every single Apollo completed with the various artifacts, equipment and capsules used by the crew themselves, including the notorious space pens which NASA spent wasted millions researching on. Some notable ones include several Apollo 11 mission equipment and the space suit worn by David Scott on Apollo 15. The entrance to this gallery section houses the rear assembly of the world’s biggest rocket every made- the Saturn 5 as well as several civilian applications satellites for GPS or research purposes. The mock up space displays here also allow you to have a peek into life inside a space capsule, a space station and the space shuttle.

Martian friend!

space glove schematic

jets by the pavilion

With the exception of a million dollar random rocket, an X-15 experimental high altitude stealth jet or Mars lander rover lying here and there, the NASA art showcase here is a temporary exhibit at the point of my visitation. It’s an art gallery tucked in a corner of the museum housing various art depicting the space organization over it’s course of history, fueling more than 50 years of space exploration till today. In a nutshell, it’s mainly a display of modern space related art with various paintings and sculptures depicting the milestones of NASA, particularly that of the various successful space shuttle missions, launches and the various equipment and facilities which help put man into space.

The experiences of astronauts in space are as told in the artwork too, together with sculptures made out of various engineering parts meant for space travel. Print and canvas media art here includes sketches of the inner mechanical workings of NASA buildings and robot such as the VAB and Mars lander respectively, all put into an arty engineering compilation. There’s even a nice schematic of an astronaut space glove.

marine planes

more propeller aircraft

showcase of commercial flight

The last of the galleries here and that for my visit will be a mock aircraft carrier display called deck 78. It houses various United States Navy aircraft all set in the atmosphere of the lower decks of an aircraft carrier, including a mock-up of the carrier’s living quarters and command bridge. The displays here include collections of several domestic and captured aircraft from World War I, as well as few relatively modern ones including the decommissioned VTOL Harrier jet.

Overall, the National mall museum is good for about 3 hours tops which you can visit for an afternoon together with another museum around the block, especially if you intend to cover as many museums here in a day. There are just so many museums here in Washington. Can’t get enough of the Air and Space museum here in the National Mall? The museum also conducts restoration of its collection out of the museum grounds itself at the Paul E. Garber preservation, restoration, and storage facility in Suitland, Maryland. Contributions for the Air and Space museum don’t just stop at the museum. The Institution themselves operates a separate installation of the museum with a gallery at the Dulles International Airport in Washington itself, all to promote the public interest in aviation.

The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington DC, United States. It opened in 1910 as was known back then as the United States National Museum to meet the growing needs of the Smithsonian Institution for additional exhibition space to house their collections, as well as supporting ongoing research in Washington itself. The main building we see today was not fully completed until 1911. It was designed with a neoclassical architectural style which was popular in France of that era by architects Hornblower & Marshall.

The Smithsonian rock

museum grand lobby

nicely decked out

The museum’s grand lobby is home to an atrium spanning the full height of the museum with a full size adult African elephant display as a centerpiece. The lobby is the entrance to the first section of the Hall of Mammals. The Natural History museum sees about 8 million visitors annually and is open 364 days a year with free admission, though donations to the Smithsonian institution is greatly appreciated. The museum houses over 500 million different unique collections of plants and animals specimens, as well as various geological ones including fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites. It is the most visited of all of the Smithsonian museums and is the research home ground to about 200 professional natural history scientists, forming the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world.

cute foxes

argh! humans!

got skulls?

The Hall of Mammals is a well, a hall of mammals! Every single iconic mammal since the ice age to the present is on display here, all taxidermy stuffed in realistic poses in their natural habitat settings. These various displays spans the gallery sides or hung from the ceilings. Various subgroups such as the marsupials are on display here too, educating visitors their natural way of life. Connecting the gallery is The Hall of Human Origins. This gallery covers much our whole evolutionary tree from the very beginning, including the sub divisions of the ape group where we largely evolved from.

The human gallery pretty much establishes ourselves as learning creatures which fueled our evolutionary development of intelligence through the use of understanding the world around us. This is of course implemented with the clever use of tools to change our environment suiting our needs. We humans are also a rather populous and predatory bunch to begin with too, touching on the challenges of our exponentially increasing population and the diversity which comes with it.

the ocean gallery

early African culture

mammoth included!

The Ocean Hall is a newly renovated gallery in the museum and connects many of these sub galleries together. You will often find your way back here after exploring another sub gallery or two. The Ocean hall here is one of the few bigger galleries in the museum with various sea-related exhibits. It not only touches on the various sea marine life, but the different tools and equipment used by explorers now to explore the vast deeps of the oceans we until today have not fully comprehend or explored. The hall is home to about 674 different marine specimens and equipment, including a huge bony jaws display of a great white, preserved giant squids, fishes of the deep and crustaceans. Suspended from the roof of the gallery is a North Atlantic Right Whale.

Just off a quiet spot from the Ocean hall is the African Voices gallery. The exhibits showcase the life and living ways of the Africa’s people, covering their cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, and the natural environment.

John hammond will be proud

prehistoric!

dinosaurs!

Going back in time, the mammal section transitions to a display of Ungulates, particularly those of the early ice age before transitioning to pre-mammal portions and eventually The Dinosaur Hall which is too combined with the hall of Paleobiology. Here resides many different prehistoric creatures, not only those which roamed the earth, but those which swam in our oceans as well. The Dinosaur hall features a mix of fossilized skeletons as well as full-scale cast models, including Tyrannosaurus Rex facing off with a Triceratops. Other dinosaurs here include an Allosaurus, a Diplodocus and Stegosaurus.

dead?

Brontosaurus & T-rex

hopey diamonds

Just above the dinosaur hall is The Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals, which is served by an overhead walkway leading above the Dino Gallery. The displays here houses an assortment of rare and semi precious stones, as well as minerals and ore. It is also home to the Hope diamond, which was seemingly a rather popular centerpiece with the museum visitors. The Korean Gallery is a special showcase, celebrating Korean traditions and examining its unique influences the country play on the world today. The Smithsonian ceramics collection compliments the gallery here too, with a rich selection of photographs, ritual objects and traditional Korean carpentry.

so MANY STONES!

feeling spacey?

night at the museum!

And when you are thought you are done with stones, there are even more stones, here, there everywhere, particularly in the cave sections of the museum. There are some really expensive looking gems as well as few large impressive crystals taking a scene right off a cavern. The formation of rock and ore are also taught here. It’s not soon after where the galleries shifts it’s focus from earth based stones to the extraterrestrial ones, comprising of meteoroids, asteroids as well as specimens from the Mars and Moon. It’s here too where you can have a go at touching a rock from space. The space section not only covers the geology of space stones but also the various equipment and process employed to harvest, store and transport them in various space missions.

butterfly garden

always wanted a pet tarantula

got bones?

The Insect Zoo is one of the few lesser exhibits here with not many displays, with the exception of just a few small sections housing leaf insects, children play displays and enclosures containing arachnids including tarantulas and scorpions. Notably this is the only section where live exhibits reside, therefore the name “Zoo”. The highlight of the Zoo is the large climate controlled live butterfly pavilion, but is accessible only via tickets obtainable by a payable extra at the attraction entrance. The tarantula section is really cool though, always wanted one for a pet.

It’s all about bones in the galleries which follows, the Osteology section in the Hall of Bones houses skeletons of various marine and land animals. No fish bones about it, there is even an impressive giant sea turtle skeleton on display too.

no bones about it

forensics

ocean gallery overview

The Osteology and forensics section of the museum covers everything we can learn about human remains, there is even a mini teaching forensics lab here to educate visitors on tricks of the trade, far beyond what CSI can teach. Showcased here are also the early days of medicine and tells the story of various popular forensic cases of the dead telling tales.

Modern forensic sciences now greatly put the phrase “dead man tell no tales” literally to the grave, besides the phase itself being glorified in contemporary television series, such as the CSI episodes. The galleries teaches how the truth can be unraveled from excavated remains of the dead, painting the life of the victims just before death just not only based off their composition and state, but by the way their bones are arranged prior to death. This includes the presence of any trauma and marks to the skeleton as a whole, which could signify injury or torture. There are several tortured souls on display here, each with their own grisly tale, repainting a picture of their last moments of the person’s life. Interesting exhibits here also includes an early day doctor’s toolkit, which bares an uncanny resemble to torture kits complete with amputating saws and bone breakers.

Part of the gallery here is devoted to long time anthropology researcher Dr Grover Krantz and his dog Clyde, with their skeletons poised in the Partners In Evolution display for eternity.

angry bird!

Jaws!

that’s all folks!

The bird collection is one of the last galleries left in the building to cover and is tucked into a dark dead end corner of the museum’s basement, which seem rather out of place for the large impressive displays which line the walls of the bird alley. Most people usually come in here via a walkabout, by accident or just simply looking for a toilet here or so, not doing much justice to this little gem hidden in this corner of the museum. Here you have an assortment of various American and migratory birds of the region, with some bearing somewhat a similar resemblance to birds of the Angry kind.

In all, the Washington Smithsonian Natural History Museum is a nice museum to spend an afternoon in, you can cover most if not all the galleries under 2-3 hours, with time to spare on other Smithsonian museums such as the Air and Space also located not too far from here along the National Mall.

Though the galleries here are not as fantastic as the American Natural history museum in New York, it’s still a spectacle considering that it is firstly a research museum and one that actually does not charge an entrance fee to visit. It gets my recommendation as a must visit here in Washington.

The Arlington National Cemetery is located in the Arlington County, Virginia just off Washington DC. It is the nation’s most sacred shrine established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House. The cemetery itself is well served by the DC Metro Blue Line heading up to the Pentagon and Crystal city, the stop in question will be the Arlington cemetery station. The station itself is above ground, a short 10 minute walk from the station exit along memorial drive will bring you to the cemetery’s main gates and visitor center.

Arlington Cemetery

memorial drive

cemetery visitor center

The visitor center is an air-conditioned gathering area and rest point for the visitors of the national cemetery. The grounds itself is opened daily to the public from 8am to 7pm and is considered to be one of the few national sights the locals and international visitors alike come visit and pay their respects to in Washington. It’s surprisingly popular with the locals as well and providing educational values to visiting children as a whole. The cemetery itself is primarily a military cemetery divided into 70 main sections spanning an area over 624 acres. The grounds are administered by the United states Army themselves, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Park Service.

start of the cemetery grounds

nation’s most sacred shrine

vast cemetery grounds

Moving along from the visitor center will bring you away from the Administration Building to the main roads leading up to the cemetery hills. There are guided tram tours for visitors as well, the tours touches on the various key sights in the sacred grounds as well as pointing out tombs of important people in American history. The tram ride is recommended for people with walking disabilities, difficulties walking or for people who just wish to explore the cemetery in shaded motorized comfort at a payable tram fee. Most of the roads in the cemetery are wheelchair friendly, with the exception of many hilly inclines.

The front of the cemetery is a World War I cemetery as well as the the resting site for the fallen women of the Army. Veterans and military casualties from each of the nation’s wars are interred in the cemetery. Each section here is demarcated by signs or flags stating the fallen residing here, the wars here ranging from the American Civil War through to the most recent military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

world war II section

Arlington House on the hill

Kennedy grave

A short walk up along Week’s Drive will bring you to The Kennedy Grave, the final resting place for the Kennedy family, (The President, his wife and his two children) with the daughter being the only living Kennedy at the point of this writing. Residing at John F Kennedy grave is the Eternal flame and marker burning behind the four gravemarkers at the gravesite. The Kennedy grave site itself is situated on high grounds with an Elliptical plaza near the grave site. The walls of the plaza are inscribed with Kennedy quotes. The plaza offers vantage views of the memorial drive serving the cemetery as well as the Arlington memorial bridge, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument in the distance. The Arlington House (Lee Mansion) and The Robert E. Lee Memorial can be seen at the top of the hill from the plaza.

cemetery grounds

Tomb of the Unknowns

honoring WWI & II soldiers

Despite it’s vastness, the cemetery is not difficult to navigate using Google maps or the park provided directories. The cemetery is also well labeled with signage. Many of the roads here are named after iconic people of American history, such as Grant, McClellan and Roosevelt drive. There was a solemn changing of the guard ceremony at The Tomb of the Unknowns as witnessed by a huge crowd of visitors by the tomb itself. The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. This tomb in particular are for the entombed soldiers of World War I, II and the Korean War, as inscribed on the tomb itself. In the United States, the unknowns soldiers are also recipients of the Medal of Honor, who were interred on their return here and as presented by the U.S. presidents at their funerals. The World War I “Unknown” is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Victoria Cross, and several other foreign nations’ highest service awards.

tomb of the unknown soldier

Arlington Amphitheater

north entrance

Only the finest of soldiers will get to serve at the tomb of the unknowns, with fewer than 20% of all eligible volunteers accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards or “sentinels”. It is generally considered one of the highest honors to serve as a ceremonial guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The sentinels do not wear rank insignia on their uniforms so that they do not outrank the unknowns, regardless of their rank.

Sitting near the tomb of the unknown soldier is the Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheater, or the Arlington Amphitheater for short. Dedicated in 1920, it is a huge elaborate Italian Vermont-quarried Danby marble open air venue with a center stage used for official ceremonies to honor all American service members who serve to keep the United States free. In the cornerstone of the Amphitheater contains a time capsule sealed inside the box placed in the on Oct. 15, 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson, containing 15 items, including a copy of the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Flag (1915) and many more items of historical significance.

memorials honoring space crew

Joint Resolution

Women war memorial

Just off the Amphitheater north entrance lies another section of the cemetery remembering the lives lost in the US space program. Memorials here honors the space crew lost in the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. Also remembering the USS Maine is The Cenotaph memorial dedicated to the lives lost on the ship. Last but not least is the Women in Military Service for America Memorial located just outside the cemetery, as viewed on the panorama below:

The memorial is also known as the The Joint Resolution Women in Military Service for America Memorial, comprising of a vast stone podium decked with a fountain pond at the center. It is designed by New York architects Marion Weiss and Michael and sits at the Ceremonial Entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, honoring all women who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

That is all for Arlington for today, next up, lets get a move on to the museums in downtown Washington.

The National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The gallery itself can be accessed via the north entrance from Constitution Ave & 6th Street in addition to the National mall south entrance. It’s one of the main museums along the National mall with it’s neoclassical front architecture. The museum saw itself with humble beginnings displaying a substantial art collection as donated by Andrew W. Mellon. The building itself, established in 1937 was built using funds from the United States Congress for the people of the United States of America. The museum is open daily 10am to 6pm and till 9pm on Fridays. Entry is free of charge to the public.

The National Gallery of art!

north entrance front atrium

the galleries

There is both a north and south entrance, with the latter from the National Mall. Both entrances situated at the center of the museum will bring you to the lower level atrium, which is an open mini fountain and gathering area just below the main museum rotunda, which resides just one floor above. You can use the cloak rooms here to store your bulky bags and hand carry items as they are not recommended to be brought around the galleries in fear of accidental damage to the exhibits. You are allowed to hand carry these bags into the galleries. The museum itself is split into an eastern and western wing, both identical to each other in terms of floor plan and spans two floors housing mainly collections of paintings, drawings and prints.

marble-quete

garden courts

skylight and plants

There were few photographic works too, which makes up the minority of the displayed work, as they are not much of “traditional art” which makes up the bulk of the displays here. Much of the American art here dates as early as the 17th century, with the core collection featuring major works of art donated by iconic business people such as Lessing J. Rosenwald (president of Sears), Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Samuel Henry Kress just to name afew. There were few sculptures on display, which makes up most of the exhibits on the sculpture halls, linking the main halls to the various smaller galleries in the museum. Going on with the donation frenzy, the magic about such museums is that most of the items on displays are contributed mostly by the people themselves for the people. Who knows what other hidden treasures of historical significance can the average household be having in their homes these days, waiting to be discovered for the museum. Few other notable artwork donors also includes Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Brown Widener, Joseph E. Widener and Chester Dale.

east sculpture hall

Oculus of the West Building

smaller galleries

Flaunting the ends of the sculpture halls are the garden courts, which are large man-made gardens complete with a flowing fountain and skylight ceiling to boot. The location provides an outdoor setting for exhibiting a number of pieces from the Museum’s contemporary sculpture collection. These gardens are like little oases and a break from all the wooden decked galleries which line every single gallery here. The stairwells at the end of the gardens will take you to staircases serving both museum floors, offering views of the museum’s outdoor Art Sculpture Garden. Joining both halls is the museum’s grand rotunda- modeled after the interior of the Pantheon in Rome, decked with a white oculus with a distinct pink hue of Tennessee marble which sits right at the center of the museum.

The lower galleries are smaller in comparison to the upper floored ones, housing most early Victorian furniture, fireplaces and olden day home settings. Also on display here too is the sculpture gallery featuring mostly marble statues, with the highlights being the 46 wax statuettes by Degas to Honoré Daumier’s entire series of bronze sculptures, including all 36 of his caricatured portrait busts of French government officials. There are glass cabinet displays featuring a range of Chinese porcelain, as well as renaissance decorative arts.

tapestries and murals

paintings

Shaw Memorial Project

The upper floors houses mostly decorative works, including medals, and decorative arts. These works traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas. The feature then at my visit was The Shaw Memorial Project, with artworks paying tribute to the American officer in the Union Army who fought during the American Civil War. Moreover, the West Building spots an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures by European masters from the medieval period through the late 19th century, as well as pre-20th century works by American artists.

Personally, the museum is a fine place to hang out, but there is not quite many displays here to see to begin with. It is after all a small cozy museum, and you will be done with both floors within 2-3 hours or so, leaving you time to explore the many other museums along the National Mall.

The Newseum is one of the new modern boys on the block here along Pennsylvania Ave right here in Washington DC. Opened in 1997, it’s essentially a museum focused on the news, thus the name New-seum. Decked in a modern glass and beam facade, it’s one of the only few museums here with a modern design flair- a much needed break from all the old traditional looking ones we see along the National Mall. You will need some minor security checks before entering the museum grounds. Entry to the museum is $22 for adults and $10 for students, so do have your ID and student card with you for that awesome discount.

Newseum building

news-eum!

news copter!

In five years since it’s opening, the Newseum attracted more than 2.25 million visitors annually. The museum itself is an interactive one, one reflecting the modern age and time of data and communications, which the whole museum seems to resolve on. The museum uses a combination of audio and visual means to get the message of the news to you, this is done to you through 15 theaters various and 14 unique galleries dotted all along the seven-floored, 250000 square-foot complex.

start from the top

invisible people!

Berlin wall exhibit

The building is semi-functional, complete with live audio recording and press rooms, the large atrium is home to a large jumbo screen and a suspended decorative news helicopter overlooking the museum’s main lobby. You start off with a a pre-show and introduction to the place at the basement theaters, which is also home to the museum’s food court and the entrance to the 4D theater. The Berlin wall display resides here too. The Newseum’s Berlin Wall gallery here tells the story of the rise and fall of the iconic wall, as illustrated with the world’s largest sectioned display of the Berlin Wall outside Germany, situated right inside the museum’s grounds itself. You start off exploring the museum from the top down, first by taking the glass lifts right to the 7th top exhibition floor.

daily funnies

working from the top!

The capitol

From here, you have access to the outdoor balcony overlooking the east-west roads of Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street. The Washington Capitol can be seen in the distance just at the end of the street and looks like they have a cabinet in session! The balcony also forms part of the panoramic display overlooking the national mall with iconic structures, monuments and museums pointed by signs along the balcony railings itself.

The showcase of the Sunday funnies in our newspapers can be found here too, with a run down memory lane on some very old cartoons, including some you never knew existed. Too bad the papers in Singapore don’t have much of a sense of humor to appreciate these funnies, all to bring the laughter and comic relief on our dailies.

the balcony

Katrina news history

news history

There is an extensive permanent collection of the news coverage and the ground work involved in covering hurricane Katrina, both from the support and news reporting elements. All these stories and experiences were all captured by battle hardened journalists, who survived the elements and lived to tell their tale and stories out to the world as it is. These experiences are all engraved in stone through photos, headliners and savaged property including stories of the pain, causalities and the devastation involved in the disaster.

going back in time

sealed archives

wideee screen

The news all around the world section features an archive and headliners of various Today’s Front Pages from more than 80 international newspapers, including every single major front page news published in the United States spanning decades into history since printed news in the states started. They are all preserved and showcased in protective sealed drawers viewable by all. It’s almost like a walk through time, digging into news relating to iconic events of a yesteryear. Also lined along the perimeter and going with the exhibits are notable timelines in history, particularly those affecting the press and milestones in news reporting, print and digital.

9/11 coverage

the free press

why I don’t trust the Singapore media

Other galleries here present topics including news history, including an interesting coverage of the life of the presidents’ personal photographer, as shown on one of the many large theater screens here. There is an extensive display of the September 11 attacks too, with a mortgage of newspaper headliners all over the world covering the attacks on that fateful day in New York. As with the ever changing world of news, the displays are regularly updated too, with the latest headline at my point of visitation announcing Osama’s bin Laden’s death. There is a video showcase of the attacks there which still today, touches the lives of many who watches it, with complimentary tissues provided at the exit of the theater if so be required.

The world news section focuses on what drives the news here in the states, as backed by the First Amendment by the United States Constitution which gives the world press freedom and the history of the Internet, TV and radio. These includes the 5 freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to petition and assembly and freedom of association. The mission of these “freedoms” is to help the public and the news media understand one another better and raise public awareness- part of the important role a free press plays in a proper democratic society. Moreover, these are rights and power for the citizens to decide what is right, such as interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances just to name afew. Not surprising and shockingly in this modern times, Singapore is still one of the few Red regions mark on the world map where news is still ironically tightly controlled by the ruling parties.

Journalists Memorial

lives lost pursuing the news

New electronic era

What can a bullet-ridden media truck and journalist bullet proof flack jacket have to do with the next display? Well the dangers of war news reporting that is. This section of the museum focuses on one of the more dangerous and gruesome aspects of journalism- battlefield and warzone reporting, particularly those in the middle east and riots. Showcased are the hazards of frontline reporting, particularly those involving gunfights with near encounters and experiences as told by field reporters, photographers and cameramen alike. There are several photos showing journalists donning helmets and media labeled bullet proof vests dodging for cover and bracing overhead gun fire, as both bullets & shrapnel fly all over them from both attacking sides with their “Media” tags the only form of identification of their neutral identity out on the field, these pictures paint more than a thousand words.

Not too far off here is the Journalists Memorial. It remembers and honors those who died pursuing the news from all over the world. The glass cladded memorial has every known late journalist name etched out on the west wing of the building, while a montage on the sides displays the photographs and names of the journalists themselves.

covering the times

be a reporter!

Shaun reporting!

With print fast becoming an alternative method of delivering the news, the Internet TV and radio section touches on various alternate forms of media, particularly those having a larger influence on the younger generation now and that of the new electronic information era. Here, you see the evolution of news through the times where the humble radio served as the primary non-print means of delivering the news, giving birth to the whole concept of live reporting to the masses too. Then came the TV and eventually the presently formidable power of the Internet and it’s social networks as an effective form of information propagation to the masses.

The fun part of the museum resides on the second floors and near the end of the museum tour. Here, you can try your hand at some interactive games or test you mantle at journalism and news reporting skills at the various interactive computers kiosks. Want to take your knowledge from the displays and go live on Camera? Have a go at reporting live at a hurricane, the Capitol or basketball match in front of a teleprompter camera at various simulated venues courtesy of a blue screen. The fun here is suitable for both the young and old alike. Few of the functional displays on this floor includes a live Press room, where a live broadcast was seen during my visit as well as a TV broadcasting control room of how the TV broadcasting stuff actually works.

Pulitzer prize

Loads to see

see ya folks!

There is a substantial collection of Pulitzer prize collections here too, featuring 400 audio clips and 1,000 prize photos with the annual awards awarded by Columbia University. The Pulitzer prizes ranges from prizes in letters to books published in the US including fiction, biography, general non-fiction, history and poetry. Focused here are mostly the photographic and audio entries.

Last but not least, there is a 4D theater. At regular timed intervals, guests can enter into the world of news reporting through a 40 minute 3D show touching on how journalism shaped the modern world with the freedom of speech through case studies. One such topic is that of investigative journalism at a women’s mental asylum and the horror it unraveled. Overal, the show was impressive complete with smoke water and motion effects, all telling the story of the free press with various key examples and how it changed the world completely.

In all, the Newseum is a rather unique modern museum on it’s own and is highly recommended despite the high entrance fee. The news had changed much of the world today, something we all seldom realize and often take for granted. And I am glad that this museum does very just that in not only educating visitors but showcasing our unsung heroes of journalism, bringing how the news is brought to you, by you. Now that’s news!

Washington, D.C. is formally known as the District of Columbia (D.C.) and commonly referred to as Washington or simply just “The District”. My trip in Washington starts with an overnight 11pm bus ride over from downtown New York. Besides domestic air travel, you could be better off taking an overnight bus between neighboring states, saving you the cost of an overnight day at a hotel or inn, but at the expense of some of your sanity from jet lag and sleep interruptions on the bus on the rest stops, not that a little coffee can’t fix!

The departing bus arrived earlier than expected right at 3am in D.C, much to over dismay as none of the public buses are not operating yet at that hour. After our own variation of Sega’s Crazy Taxi on the empty streets of Washington with our own scary reckless taxi driver beating 2 red lights and making several illegal turns, we arrived at the Washington International student center in one piece and in record time too. The center is like a backpacker’s inn run by students in the area, where we will be spending our stay here in D.C. It offers traveling students from all over the region affordable rates to stay. It didn’t take long for us to get all our stuff unpacked in our rooms and out sightseeing by the crack of dawn.

Newyork to Washington

Washinton Metro

National Archives

There is alot to see here in Washington, and if you are a museum and monument enthusiast then this is the place for you. Most of D.C attractions and museums are all located along the National Mall and Pennsylvanian avenue, leading up to the US Capitol. They are all linked by an extensive network of underground rail network operated by D.C Metro. The Metro is the best way to travel here in D.C. The operating trains and stations here are modern, fast, clean and rather well maintained compared to those in New York. Even the stations themselves look rather space age, almost like a subterranean scene from the underground bunkers of a secret organization, or maybe just the Men in Black for keeps.

Popping up at the Archives metro station will bring up right up to the US Navy Memorial, which sits in front of the National Archives building, this major road in front of us is Pennsylvanian avenue which links the White House on the western end and the US Capitol on the other. The Newseum (news museum) also resides here which I will cover in more detail in my following blog post.

I spy with my little eye

FBI building

monumental

Moving westbound to the intersection on 10th street is the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) headquarters. The FBI is no stranger to anyone with their main roles bring both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal counterintelligence agency. Their non-exhaustive line of duty involves preventing terrorist attacks, protecting civil rights and investigating technological treats to the US, just to name a few. The front of the building is decked out by lines of American flags and entry is via invitation only. Ironically, the building was named after one of the FBI most prominent heads, the late J Edgar Hoover, who believe it or not, actually hated the design of the FBI building, man he won’t be pleased.

old post office

Franklin!

Inside the clock tower

The streets here are literally like history in motion, with historical finds at every single block. Moving off 12th street is the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, with the statue of Benjamin Franklin standing in front of it. The building served as a focal point for the US postal services in Washington when it was completed in 1899. The post office is the largest commercial building and standing 82m at the top of the tower’s observation deck, it is the third tallest structure in Washington, D.C.

It was officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983, operated and maintained by the National Park Service rangers from the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. Despite it actually not an operating post office, the building is still largely known here to many locals in Washington as the “Old post office” and it still bares the Post Office name outside it’s front entrance. It is now converted to a shopping mall and food court and is accessible to the public after some light security screenings. National parks do provide tours of the Old Post Office Tower with exhibits including a room depicting the building’s long struggle for survival. The bell tower, besides providing spectacular views of the Washington city from the top is also home to The Bells of Congress which are replicas of those at Westminster Abbey.

IRS AHH!

nice alley

Station all look alike!

Walking along 12th street leads you right to the Federal Triangle Metro Station where the (Dun dun dun) Internal Revenue Service reside. I guess to most Americans, saying the word “IRS” just brings the chills to anyone’s spine, being right next to the building itself is even more scary. The Federal triangle metro station here is also home to one of the major interchange for the blue and orange lines of the D.C. Metro.

The stations here are all situated rather deep underground, with escalators going like 5 to 6 floors or more underground before coming onto the station platforms, any longer and the escalator ride will lead you right to the center of the earth. All D.C metro stations are also thankfully wheelchair accessible and travel is done via the metro D.C travel pre-paid Metrorail and Metrobus travel card. The prices for single trip travel depends on the station you are traveling too, so for visitor (or tourist) who do not want to invest in a dedicated card have the option for a single day pass, which is recommended, not to mention more bang for the temporary buck. Despite all the stations here looking pretty much the same, like someone with a wardrobe malfunction, the monotonous look is actually rather modern; with iconic parabolic concrete tiles lining the perimeter walls on most of the stations here in the D.C. Metro. The platform edges even have this cool red lights which pulses with increasing intensity when the train is arriving.

metro interchange

dupoint circle!

pub noms!

After checking out various museums along the national mall and the Newseum, we are up in the National gallery of art, where it is home to few iconic art pieces such as those by Leonardo di Vinci. Calling it the National Gallery does give it some high expectations to meet, the museum does spot few nice galleries, but just does not leave one saying “wow” at the end of the day. The museum itself does not quite match up to the expectation of “national”, particularly in comparison to the caliber of the art “national” art museums I’ve visited, particularly those in Paris.

Dinner was up at Dupoint circle with another friend from Harvard University. We very much GPS-ed our way around town courtesy of Google maps on AT&T mobile internet before ending up at Fireflys’ pub for dinner. The restaurant in question is located on New Hampshire Ave just by Hotel Madera. Here we had seafood and delicious soft shell crabs for dinner. We metro trained our way to Rosslyn Metro Station thereafter to spend the night at the Iwo Jima Memorial, with spectacular views of the memorial in the garden overlooking the US Capitol and Washington Monument all lit by a cloudless sky and full moon that night.

war memorial

crystal city residences

National Cathedral

The Iwo Jima War Memorial (Marine Corps Memorial) is located in a large public park just off Marshall Drive, next to Arlington National Cemetery and is dedicated to the marines who gave their lives during one of the most historic battles of World War II, the battle of Iwo Jima. The area is well served by buses and spots a large carpark on the park perimeter if you are driving there from Key’s Bridge. Otherwise it’s a walk south across the Arlington Boulevard highway before hitting the park, if you are headed from the Rosslyn D.C. Metro Station.

Crystal city is a surprising little underground “city” or sort, one which can literally spend your whole time underground without having to surface above ground level at all. The metro serving the station is interconnected to underground shops which in turn serves most of the residential areas in this city through these linking tunnels. It so as we come to learn after spending the night at our friend’s apartment, where she showed us around her apartment in Crystal City till late, with us barely making the last train back in time to the student center.

Our next full sightseeing day involves getting on the D.C hop on and off trolley tours around various unreachable areas of D.C not well served by the Metro rail or bus system itself. The trolleys in question here are the Orange D.C. trolley tours and they are a good way to get around the remote attractions of Washington D.C, such as the neoclassically gothic Washington National Cathedral. The cathedral here is one of the of the Episcopal Church and it is huge. In fact it is the 4th tallest structure in Washington, D.C., the 6th largest cathedral in the world and the 2nd largest cathedral in the United States. It receives about half a million visitors a year and spots a congregation number of 800.

Georgetown

Ohio Canal

Iconic buildings in Georgetown

It’s a drop off at Georgetown for some Sichuan Chinese lunch in a nearby food court just off the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, Georgetown itself is a neighborhood located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington just along the Potomac River waterfront. The town retained its separate municipal status until 1871 and now is an establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia, this was only after it was eventually accepted by the United States Congress.

Georgetown is also home to Georgetown University as well as many commercial high-end shops, bars, and restaurants littered along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue in this sector of the old town. It’s at the intersection between this street and avenue where the former Riggs Bank building now stands. Our uptown tour carries on southwards towards downtown, passing by numerous embassies which just keep appearing out of nowhere along embassy avenue, before making a short stop in front of the White House north lawn. Thereafter it’s all downtown, passing by several national monuments off Arlington in the District of Columbia itself.

The whitehouse

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

The capitol

The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church located on F Street is widely known as the President’s church, as it’s one which almost all United States president attend during his term in office. Tales foretold, many say that the old lap bars located just across the street from the Church are the exact same ones which Abraham Lincoln used to tether his horse to when he attends service in this Church. The church itself was formed in 1859. Moving on along Pennsylvania Avenue east bound past the Capitol brings us to one of the busiest and best-known places in Washington, D.C. the Union Station.

Union Station

Japanese American Memorial

Museum Of The American Indian

Opened in 1907, the Union station was designed to be a grand ceremonial train station and entrance to Washington D.C in the early days of rail travel. With a current annual visitation of 32 million, the station itself is a rather busy one too. It is the headquarters of country-wide Amtrak and is served by MARC, VRE and of course Amtrak commuter railroads. This too includes the Washington Metro transit system of buses and subway trains.

Moving down westbound will bring you past the Japanese American Memorial located just off the road by the Capitol. Several Smithsonian Institution museums such as the Air and space museum as well as the National Museum of Natural history can be seen along MadisonDrive. The National Museum Of The American Indian is an interesting museum, the museum itself is new but it was purposely weathered on it’s exteriors to make it look dated with the earthy tribal Indian theme which it showcases.

Just off marine Avenue towards the Tidal Basin sits the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Here, bridges serves the roads leading up to the Arlington county. The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and said to be an American Founding Father.

Smithsonian Institution

Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The neoclassical Jefferson Memorial was built over a period of 5 years. It was completed in 1943 by Philadelphia contractor John McShain, and was designed by John Russell Pope. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947 after the world war. The Memorial itself is one of the few rather popular monuments out of downtown Washington and is presently managed by the National Park Service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks division.

Similarly, The Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the National Mall across the Tidal Basin was built to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. It takes the form of a Greek Doric temple designed by architect Henry Baconand and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln (made by Daniel Chester French) and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, including The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address. You may recognize the memorial being backdrop and site for various famous speeches, such as Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”.

World War II Memorial

Verizon Center

Smithsonian castle

Everything here in Washington DC is monumental, well literally, there always seem to be a memorial or monument for almost every part of history you can think of here. The National Mall and Tidal basin is home to a few more notable smaller ones, including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial. When I was there, the new and upcoming World War I memorial can be seen constructed just off the road leading up to the Lincoln Memorial. Almost all of these memorials are administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group. Heading into downtown past Chinatown is The Verizon Center. This iconic indoors sport arena, beside being named after the telecom company is home to the Washington Wizards for NBA, the Washington Capitals of the NHL, the Washington Mystics of the WNB and even the sport grounds of the nearby Georgetown University men’s basketball team.

Having mentioned the National mall, the National mall itself is unlike what the name suggests is a large open field which runs from the Washington Monument to the front of the Capitol, offerings views of either structure on both ends of the National Mall itself. The mall itself is a popular spot for open air outdoor events and seasonal carnivals. The distinctive red stoned Smithsonian castle can be seen right along the center Mall, flanked by many other Smithsonian museums along the field itself.

Hirshhorn Museum

Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden

Air and Space museum

Various museums line the side of the National Mall which runs parallel to Constitution Ave. Moving along this avenue will bring you past the National Museum of American History as well The Hirshhorn Museum with the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden out front. The Hirshhorn Museum contains over 6000 paintings and sculptures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as donated to the Smithsonian Institution, including a $5 million endowment by Joseph H. Hirshhorn upon his death in 1981. Hirshhorn made his millions when he became a stockbroker in 1916 after starting out working as an office boy on Wall Street at age 14. The museum has both indoor and outdoor exhibits, namely those inside the Museum itself and those in the Sculpture Garden. The museum opened in 1974.

The Smithsonian Natural History and the Air and Space museum sits along this stretch which are all managed by the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution. I will be covering each of the main museums here in Washington, particularly some of the iconic Smithsonian ones in more detail on my following posts in my east coast trip which follows, in the meantime lets get a move on along the National Mall to the US Capitol.

Washington capitol from the National mall

Washington monument

Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

The Capitol is accessible by buses along Pennsylvania Ave or from Constitution Ave. The closet Metro station is the ASID stop on the Metro Blue line. Otherwise you can walk east bound from the National Mall after visiting the museums in the vicinity. The National Mall itself spans 2 kilometers east-west with the Capitol on the east and the Washington Monument towards the west, so it’s still largely a very walkable distance. The World War II and Lincoln Memorial sits beyond the Washington Monument another kilometer away. The mall is a rather pleasant walk in the park. You might come across many joggers around the area as well as students or associations playing baseball on the various green fields on the National Mall fields itself.

Civil War statues

Capitol front

the front reflecting pool

The United States Capitol is 5 floored complex which sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall near Garfield Circle. It’s Senate wing was completed in 1800 and the House wing 1811 respectively. The Capitol is primarily used as the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. You can tell whether congress is in session by the raised state flags sitting on the top of both wings of the Capitol. The front of the building’s west facade sits the capitol’s reflecting pool and is flaunted by several war Equestrian statue which makes up the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.

Just on the south end of the west entrance of the capitol is the United States Botanic Gardens. The 5 acres Botanic Garden is a national greenhouse and first opened it’s doors in 1816. It is the oldest continually operating botanic garden here in the US and is supervised by the Congress and designed by the Architect of the Capitol, who is also responsible for maintaining the garden grounds of the United States Capitol too. The gardens are open every day of the year, including federal holidays.

The Washington Monument

flaggy!

Lincoln memorial at night

The Washington Monument on the other west end of the National Mall here in Washington is a 170m tall obelisk and the world’s tallest stone structure and obelisk. Accessible via the Smithsonian Metro station, it was constructed out of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss in commemoration to George Washington, the first U.S. president. It’s from up here on the high grounds of the Washington monument where you can see the Lincoln memorial and White House lit up just north from afar. The presidential south lawn pretty much obscures much of the iconic white mansion, so the best way to see the White House is to actually take the Metro to the White house grounds, where you are able to access the front gardens offering north view of the mansion with it’s front northern fountain.

The White House itself is a large mansion located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue between McPherson Sq and Farragut West Metro Station on the blue metro line. It is the official residence and principal workplace of the U.S President. The white-painted Aquia sandstone mansion has been the residence of every U.S. President since John Adams. It was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and constructed between 1792 and 1800 spotting a rather Neoclassical style which takes it’s origins form France.

The front of the White House is relatively open and rewards with a nicely lit view of the mansion in it’s white glory though the north presidential gardens and fountain. The north lawn is out of bounds to the public, but the Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed Lafayette Square is public accessible. The square was also humorously labeled as the park with densest squirrel population known to science.

White house at night

Chinatown grand arch

whoopee!

It is a 7 acre garden which makes up the northern half of the President’s Park. It was named in honour of Marquis de Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought in the American Revolutionary War. The four corners of the square stands statues of foreign Revolutionary War heroes comprising of Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette himself, Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau of France, Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland, and Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Prussia.

The Pentagon itself can be seen just outside the Pentagon Metro stop. Security is very tight there and photos were not allowed on the Pentagon grounds. The Chinatown here in Washington, D.C. is a rather small town comprising of just a handful of Chinese and small Asian businesses, comprising of shops and restaurants along H and I Streets between 5th and 8th Streets. The town itself is a historic neighborhood east of downtown and is known locally here for its annual Chinese New Year festival and parade. The Friendship Arch is a Chinese gate built over H Street at 7th Street, marking the start of this little town. You will see it immediately upon exiting the Chinatown Metro stop.

Overall, Washington is a rather fresh getaway and is also a rather popular destination for Americans who travel domestically and for most, it’s getting in touch with their country’s history and achievements. The city in all is very well kept, clean and maintained. I am glad to say that it’s also one of the safest states I’ve ever visited here in the United States.

The American Museum of Natural History was founded in 1869 and houses a variety of nature related exhibits covering areas such as Anthropology, Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology of the past and present. It’s a large museum located on the upper west side of Manhattan just beside Central Park West at 79th Street. It attracts over 4 million visitors annually. Getting there is fairly straightforward too, any north bound bus along the Central park serves the museum, as well as the uptown New York Subway stopping at 81 Street, the subway station in question will be the Museum of Natural History stop.

American Museum of Natural History

Roosevelt!

Dinosaurs!

The museum was undergoing an exterior facade facelift during my visit, but is otherwise still largely fully operational on the inside. The equinesian statue of Roosevelt is otherwise unscattered by the mass of renovations going on behind him. The front lobby atrium is where the museum ticketing and information reside, as well as a stunning collection of dinosaur bones comprising of a Brontosaurs, T-Rex and Velociraptor posed in the heat of a battle. Entrance fee is discounted for students and seniors ($14.50 from $19), so as always, do have your ID with you if you intend to get the lower rate.

no wonder Ben Stiller pissed in his pants

deer in headlights!

love the scenic views

The museum itself spans 5 full floors, with you entering on the 2nd. The lower ground is home to mostly foodcourts as well as student/group facilities. The Akeley Hall of African Mammals on the 2nd spots a rather extensive collection of taxidermy animals spanning 2 floors with an overlooking balcony. The animals here are all nicely preserved and posed in a rather realistic setting in their natural habit, complete with scenic background paintings and vegetation. It just looks uncannily real.

yup, Night at the museum

shh!

Buddhism!

You might be familiar of the museum being featured in The Night at the Museum, where all the various exhibits come alive at night as seen by the museum guard Ben Stiller in the movie, if you don’t then the iconic African elephant parade display at the center of the Akeley hall might ring a bell or two. The museum too covers the diversity and religions of various Asian cultures, such as that of early Japanese, Chinese and Indian ones alike.

he looks stoned…

more dinosaurs!

someone’s grumpy

It doesn’t just stop there, there is also an extensive Aztec and Mayan tribal collection, complete with large stone heads, wood cravings, early tools and weapons of the trade. The region in question here includes the tribal woodland of the Indians and that of the Pacific peoples. Now to move onto the highlight of the museum, Dinosaurs!

Hey Mr Rex!

evolutionary tree

Going Mammals!

Of course, no natural history museum is complete without dinosaurs, the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs does not disappoint either. In addition to the usual large full dug out skeleton fossils, the dinosaur collection here includes a combination of miniature fossil pieces as well as those excavated in-situ still embedded in rock. The displays here includes a Styracosaurus and Apatosaurus, just to name afew. The gallery is home to more than 600 dino fossil specimens with nearly 85 percent of them being actually dinosaur fossil as compared to the casted ones.

giant tapirs!

scene from a long time ago

hugged your bear today

The Dinosaur fossil gallery is ironically small for the size of the displays exhibited, but the museum does the space management well with a 2 tiered false flooring and a combination of wall and ceiling-hung displays. The galleries here follow much of an evolutionary timeline in chronological order, with most of the fossil halls following a continuous loop on the fourth floor telling the story of vertebrate evolution, with the large mammals section next telling their evolution through the ice age. Well, provided if you cover them in the right direction of course!

No bones about it

tribal!

look a boat!

Besides some cool looking tribal section and boats tucked in hidden corners of the museum, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Hall of Human Origins was an interesting exhibit. It’s a walk through human evolution, allowing visitors to dwell deep into the world which makes us humans and how we are not, with references from our so much similar yet different ape counterparts. There are no bones about it either, with various skeletons, skulls and the evolutionary tree on display too.

stony

fur, shells and feathers!

Milstein Ocean Hall

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Gems and Minerals is quite a spectacle and is home to well, loads of Gems and minerals! The exhibit teaches about the variety of rocks we have on the planet together with an assortment of faceted and polished mineral displays of various rare and precious stones. Focused here too are cave mineral and rock formation on earth, as well as the various modern methods we use to mine them for various needs of industrial and commercial exploitation, such as buildings, tools and even jewelery. The introduction of foreign stones literally out of this world are covered in the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites with various space rocks on display.

Hall of biodiversity back on the 1st floor houses a small but rather extensive collection of various taxidermy specimens, ranging from tigers, monkeys to sea creatures such as sharks, dolphins, various invertebrates and crustaceans alike. Which brings us to the next major gallery in the museum, the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.

The hall itself is huge. You will be greeted by the hall’s main center piece- a full sized blue whale suspended right off the roof the the hall itself. Lined along the perimeter of the ocean hall are various exhibits covering the vast ocean life we until not have barely even fully explored.

Overall, the museum is good for a whole afternoon and 5 floors is quite alot to explore for a museum of this size, particularly if you wish to explore every single nook and cranny so it pays to schedule your time well before the 6pm closing time. The dinosaur collection here is one of the best I’ve seen, even surpassing many other natural history museums on the west coast and London alike, a must visit on your trip to New York for both the young and old alike.

More information on the Museum’s official website (AMNH)

So what other way to waste the night lazying around at night at New York but spending your time at Times Square. On the streets in general, New Yorkers, though friendly are not as cheery as their Californians counterparts as a whole, and yes the people culture here is still leaps and bounds ahead of that in Singapore. The city here never sleeps and Times Square is no exception either- It’s so bright here at night with all the billboards around that the whole street is nearly self illuminating. Not that was a problem keeping us awake throughout the night with plenty of coffee courtesy of a nearby Starbucks.

TimesSquare is self illuminating!

Amen!

Speaking of Toys…

Many cafes with their extended outdoor seating areas line the streets here at night, offering patrons a seat with a night view like no other, bathing in the luminescent of technology, not to mention, LED lighting and various scrolling news tickers. Then there was crazy fun at the nearby Toys “R” Us too. The store here is home to a large kiddie indoor ferris wheel which sits in the basement of the building, spanning the full internal atrium height to the ceiling. With us grown ups in a toy store, you can always expect some well, grown up fun with the toys around. The subway in New York operates 24 hours on most major lines at reduced capacity, but it will get you back wherever you want to go anyway, so you will have no worries about hanging out too late.

Argh casualty!

more skyscraping!

another museum

Our following day in NYC was spent checking out the museums on the upper Manhattan area, specifically those along Central park. Here we have iconic ones like the the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. The up town subway of New York serves all these museums, stopping at various points along the outer perimeter Central park. The Museum of the City of New York houses a showcase of the history of New York City, USA and its people. Itself is a small brick and limestone building located at 1220 Fifth Avenue and was founded in 1923 as an art gallery and history museum. The Museum is government supported and run by a private non-profit organization, admission is $10 for adults and free if you purchase the CitySights tour bus tickets.

few art pieces

Times of change

museum’s grand staircase

The front lobby of the museum is home to the general reception, museum store and ticketing counters. The museum looks like it is built and refurbished from an old mansion, complete with an elaborate looking grand staircase which serves the upper level exhibits. The upper floors houses various Victorian and early day furnitures in themed rooms settings as well as very detailed toys and doll houses from the yesteryears. The chronological change of New York are also all plotted on a timeline through the ages, documenting the city’s transformation over the times. The museum itself is almost like the Museum of London in terms of showcasing the history of the museum, but is very much smaller with few galleries and less than impressive exhibits. With that, you can pretty much cover all the exhibits just under an hour.

Conservatory Garden

Musings around 5th Ave

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Just outside the Museum of New York sits the Conservatory Garden part of Central Park, it’s a large open garden with a centerpiece fountain in the middle of the manicured field. Central Park itself is a 843 acre public park which opened in 1857 and was granted the National Historic Landmark status in 1963. Surprisingly, the park itself is all completely man-made, from the lake to every single tree here all artificially planted. Only the rock faces here reside in-situ in the park itself. These giant bouldered rocks you see along the roads from outside Central park are hard slate, which is a very good material for the construction of tall skyscrapers, particularly for the foundations of the buildings themselves. These very stable rocks makes New York an excellent location for the construction of tall buildings and fueled the city’s skyscrapers revolution.

Moving along 5th Avenue will eventually bring you to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Opened in 1959, it’s a modern arts museum housing various of impressionist, post-impressionist, as well as early modern and contemporary art on top of special on-going exhibitions throughout the year. It will float your boat if you are into modern art, but most I know say that it does not quite live up to it’s hype. The building exterior and interiors on the other hand, is impressive with the trademark curvy walkways which line the inner atrium of the museum. The building itself was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is one of the 20th century’s most important architectural landmarks. The end of the Central Park on this stretch will be the Grand Army Plaza, the Apple glass cube store resides here by the Pulitzer Fountain.

$1 hotdog

Am on a boat!

the Wavertree Boat

The next part of my New York tour involves a cruise along the Hudson river. Besides the helicopter city tours, this is the other better way to see the city New York from the river surrounding it, either way it offers a different perspective than from the streets itself. Being on the go most of the time between sightseeing locations, our pre-cruise meal on the way to the terminal comprises largely of hotdogs. New York can be unofficially called the hotdog stand nation and I say, running off $1 hotdogs for lunch from the roadside stands are really very good for the buck, not to mention a quick dirty yet filling meal on the go with tons of ketchup an mustard. Moreover, these food stands are literally dotted all around New York city, so it won’t be pretty hard to get one.

under the Brooklyn bridge

Chrysler building

Ground zero from the Hudson

Hudson River Cruise
It’s no time where we are chugging along the Hudson river passing by several iconic landmarks in the city. The cruise out here on the river is where you can appreciate the sights out of the city, offering a different experience away from the buzz of the city streets; a stark contrast with a very different kind of tranquility out here on the river. The route starts off from the piers from downtown at 46th street, heading north on the Hudson passing by the Wavertreess boat, then making a turn towards the South Street Seaport and Kips Bay.

It’s on the southern circle of the Hudson past the Staten ferry terminals where you can catch full unobstructed views of the skyscrapers of downtown Manhattan such as the Empire State, Bank of America Tower and Chrysler Building. Here on the southern end too sits Ground zero with the One World Trade Center seen under construction in the background. The boat carries on under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge, passing by long island before circling the statue of liberty for some awesome photos.

carrier USS Intrepid

Papaya dog

The NYSE

Just off the north pier sides of downtown Manhattan is the USS Intrepid, you can’t miss this huge ship of an aircraft carrier located at Pier 86 off 46th Street on the West Side of Manhattan. The Intrepid, together with the USS Growler (SSG-577) forms the main exterior displays of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Intrepid itself is decommissioned ship and one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II, many old fighters line the top decks of the carrier as permanent decorative fixtures. The history museum is an on-land building with a collection of museum ships in New York City.

Moving on back into downtown Manhattan was pretty much an uphill climb back into the heart of Times Square, but not without Lunch was at the Papaya Hot Dog joint, I was told this fast food store just off Wall Street has rather good reviews, offering affordable Fast Food and Hot Dogs at a great price and location. It’s located off 333 Avenue of the Americas and is popular with the people working at the nearby financial districts. It offers both dine-ins and takeways and man was the chicken and fish & chips oily good!

Lots of upmarket stores

Wall street charging bull

back underground

Wall street
Having mentioned Wall street, it’s only a matter of time after a short walk where we are at the iconic financial district of New York City. Wall Street started off as a street in the area, named after and centered on the street running 8 blocks from Broadway to South Street on the East River in lower Manhattan. It didn’t take long before the name stuck, itself becoming a metonym for the financial markets, signifying New York-based financial interests and that of the United States as a whole. People totting around here in business suits is a rather common sight here, together with the upmarket retail stores which line the ground floors of some of the office buildings here. Wall street is the home ground to the NASDAQ, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with the latter being the world’s largest stock exchange by market.

The Wall Street Charging Bull sits just outside the Street, standing just in front of the Bowling Green Park near the YWCA NYC itself, it is also known as the Bowling Green Bull. It’s a 3.4m long bronze sculpture made by Arturo Di Modica and weighs about 3 tons, it’s pretty much an oversized bull sculpture depicting symbols of the aggressive energy and strength of the financial market, as well as optimism, prosperity and unpredictability of the stock market.

Rockefella Plaza

going up!

Howdy Newyork!

Rockefeller Center
Ask any New Yorker on the street on best observation deck in for the best sights in New York city and they will recommend you without doubt the Rockefeller center. The Rockefella GE building here located on 47-50th street is sited right in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. The deck up at the top is often known by the locals here by the nickname “The Rock”. The center itself was implemented and built by the Rockefella family after acquiring the land lease in 1928 from Columbia University (who actually owns most of the land here in NYC). The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

At street level, the Rockefella plaza has about 200 flagpoles showcasing the flags of United Nations member countries. The center itself is home to NBC Studios and is served directly by the Subway terminating at the Rockefeller Center station on the B D F & M subway lines. There, you have to option to head up above ground or take the underground pass into the below ground Rockefella plaza shopping concourse. The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is of course the 266m tall GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The front entrance of the Rockefella building is rather posh looking, decked out in brown gold with oriental like trimmings. Student discounts are offered with a valid ID at the attraction’s ticketing counter. You will be directed through a series of displays explaining the construction and history of the building before boarding the express lifts up to the top floor observation deck.

On the lift to the top of the Rock

The GE/Rockefella building itself stands at 70 floors, which is surprising, meaning that the Rockefella building is not the tallest building in the New York. Believe or not, it’s actually the 10th tallest, just after the Trump World Tower at 9th. The Empire State Building still stands tallest at 102 floors, followed by the Bank of America Tower and the rocket shaped Chrysler Building.

The roof access

Awesome views

bright spot= TimesSquare

However, The Rock is the only public accessible observation deck which offers one of the best open and unobstructed views of New York City. It boosts a full 360 degree view which is in fact, better than the one offered by the Empire state building. This allows you to catch both the sights of lower and upper Manhattan at a go, with the full greenery of Central park in full view up north and the Hudson river down south too.

The observation deck pretty much occupies the two most upper floors of the building. You first enter into a fully air-conditioned deck with floor to ceiling glass paneled windows and an outdoor viewing balcony area complete with telescopes. Taking an escalator up to the roof access floor will bring you to a fully outdoor viewing deck lined with large acrylic and tampered glass walls on it’s full perimeter, possibly meant to keep us and our belongings up here on the deck. The viewing deck here, together that with the Empire state sprouts many old city myths, including one that throwing a penny off a building so high will generate enough force to instantly kill anyone at the ground floor, thankfully, that is untrue, with the myth busted by the Discovery channel’s Mythbusters.

The views from the Top of the Rock roof just gets better as you climb up the floors of observation deck. The roof access deck is the highest you can go, with the exception of the roof top antenna mast, this floor is the highest point of the building and is as far as you can go up from the enclosed bottom decks. It can get rather windy up here, so do pack a jacket if need be. The Empire state building can be seen squarely in front of the panorama above.

The good thing about going on observation decks just before sunset is the ability to catch both the day and night views of the city in a single sitting. You can watch how the city of New York slowly transforms into a sea of gold lights as night time approaches. It shouldn’t be too difficult to spot the Times Square from up here too, just look for the very noticeable bright patch of lights in the streets down south towards lower downtown Manhattan.

I will end this New York trip update with a bang, by leaving you with the fantastic panorama city skyline of the beautiful city of New York itself. Clicking on the panorama above will bring you to the respective image in the photostitch/panorama section where a full sized image will be viewable.

Good old New York City, the pumping heart of the United States which never sleeps. New York is a metropolitan area located on a large natural harbor at the mouth of the Hudson river. New York itself is mainly located on the Manhattan island and is shaped like an elongated “island” spiting the island into two distinctive uptown and downtown parts, forming the lower and upper Manhattans respectively. The “island” itself is surrounded all round by this iconic river and is well served by bridges such as the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, themselves being historical iconic structures themselves. The city is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and in the United States.

Howdy JFK!

Underground!

zippy train!

Upon my arrival at the John F Kennedy airport, it is notable that airport security is tad tighter than most other airports in the United States, and I guess security here is as stringent as it can get anywhere. I’ve been to the States both pre and post 9/11 and I say there is much a stronger emphasis on the custom clearance now, particularly those done by the notorious TSA. These reactive forms of security screenings are often shunned by many as being excessive and a hindrance daily operations. Personally, I had no problems clearing customs on my entry and departure of the airport. I guess it pays to be prepared too. Being a frequent traveler myself, I always have all my liquids, laptops, shoes, etc all ready for the TSA at the queue, so It will be a fast 10min breeze through, plus one or two minutes more if you have to go through the full body scanners.

My stay in New York is at a budget inn right in Chinatown. The airport is well served by the NY subway system which connects us directly to our accommodation area. It’s surprising that expensive New York offers a variety of accommodation options for all visitor budget types, from the posh downtown hotels to affordable mid range hotel to shared inns. There are a surprisingly large number of backpacker inns here in the city, especially around the Chinatown area, though you have to manage with sub-par rooms and themselves being quite a squeeze at times, especially if you are about 6 foot tall. Good thing the one I stayed in have proper decent and working toilets, as well as clean proper hot showers.

Subway

Chinatown!

overwhelming police presence

My first night there was pretty much exploring the subway and integrating myself in the city, with late night walk around town for groceries and checking out the nearby Manhattan bridge. There is no shortage of food options here too, with several budget eateries, kiosks which all open till late, including fast food outlets such as Macdonalds and Subway restaurant. There’s aplenty for dinner, after all, this is America!

Particularity notably too, with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacked approaching, it’s a no-brainer that security is beefed up in all the public and downtown areas. The strong NYPD presence have very good coverage over most parts of Manhattan, which makes the city relatively safe at night. It’s not uncommon to see patrol cars at every corner of the streets here.

On a train!

Got billboards?

TimesSquare!

Times Square
The New York subway is a worldwide known entity and is no stranger to anybody. As iconic as it is, the subway system here together with the above ground bus services very much links the whole of New York together by providing seamless connection to various spots around Manhattan. The subway here is completely underground and is not as clean and well kept as the MRT in Singapore, with a show of it’s age with some parts of the subway left very much in neglect. The transport system here is very functional, much one down to basics without all the fancy bells and whistles, with stained walls, trash everywhere, no fancy platform plasma screens, billboards, etc which makes you wonder how pampered are the commuters back in Singapore. It functions pretty much with just the bare necessities for basic functionality and nothing else.

Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is located at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets and between Sixth and Eighth Avenues from east to west. Also, known as the “The Crossroads of the World, Times Square is one of the key landmarks here in New York city.

Exiting the subway will pop you right up at the extended Times Square area, also called the Theater District. This street behind the Square itself is home to various brightly lit theaters, dining outlets and even the bizarre Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium and one of the few iconic Madame Tussauds Wax Museums in the world. Moving towards the center stage of Times Square at the intersecting junctions will bring you to a myriad of advertising billboards including the Coca-Cola and Samsung animated mega screens.

An elaborate Toys “R” Us store and Planet Hollywood resides here as well as few prominent show companies such as ABC’s Times Square Studios, where Good Morning America is broadcasted live. The One Astor Plaza located at the center of southern part of Times Square is the MTV’s New York studios in Times Square. There is also TKTS booth, a Bubba Gump Shrimp seafood restaurant and the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel. A huge colourful M&M’s store and Hershey’s store sits on the northern end of the square across the street from each other, offering various sweet indulges you never though possible.

$350k a month ads here?

on the road!

Paramount Building

On a little history, Times Square was formerly called Longacre Square, it was renamed Times Square in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters right to the square into the then new erected Times Building. The building is now presently called One Times Square and is the site of the annual Times Square ball drop event here right on New Year’s Eve.

Moving on downtown are few more rather prominent buildings such as The Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway. It once housed the Paramount Theater, where Frank Sinatra had bobby-soxers. This pretty much makes up the western part of the commercial area of Midtown Manhattan. The streets here are rather busy, but amazingly are not packed bumper to bumper even on a weekday workday. The NYC buses and taxis ply the upper areas of the city. While the iconic all-Yellow taxis is something New York is famous for, it’s not a colour which is only unique to the region. New York however has largest number of hybrid Prius taxis in service.

yep, same one which Kong climbed

Empire state main lobby

a staff for the day!

Following the route down 5th Avenue will bring you along NYC’s famous shopping and fashion avenue, with one of the largest Macys departmental store located here every known to mankind. It’s not long along here till we are at the American cultural icon in New York City, The Empire State Building. The Empire State, beside being the one which King Kong climbed has it’s name derived from the nickname for New York, “The Empire State”. It stands 102 story tall at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. On its completion in 1931, it stood as the world’s tallest building undisrupted for a whole 40 years, until the World Trade Center’s North Tower surpassed it in 1972. However, following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City. It is 381 meters tall.

Do the Flatiron V!

September 11 mural

Prince Street

Fifth Avenue and Bleecker street
Moving on Fifth Avenue brings us to the celebrity stretch of New York, this stretch here is home to many affluent residential areas of the city, particularly high rise apartments. This area is home to various Hollywood stars such as Madonna, Woody Allen, Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg and Lady Gaga just to name afew. Standing along here too is the Flatiron Building, also known as the Fuller Building as it was originally called, is a unique V-shaped building located right in front of a Y intersection just off 175 Fifth Avenue. It is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper for it’s time when completed over a century ago in 1902. It was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper north of 14th Street.

A quick stop at Soho and a shop around Prince Street yielded some good buys for some electronics, this too while checking out the RockStar Games HQ and various clothing and surf boutiques around the street. We are back on the bus soon after through the Greenwich village via Bleecker Street, where many good local recommended pubs reside as well as the 9/11 mural fence. Notable residents living here includes Craig Rodwel and Alicia Keys.

Statue of Liberty
In a matter of not time, we found ourselves right at the Battery park entrance towards Liberty. For most people, checking out the Statue of Liberty means getting on the Liberty Statues cruises, that possibly explaining to super long queues in Battery park by castle Clinton where the Liberty ferry ticketing booth is located. This may be the most direct route to see the Statue of Liberty, but unless you have your pre-purchased tickets online, there are better ways to get on a boat rather than spend half a day queuing up at the downtown castle.

Like the one I have at home

East Coast Memorial

A statue of a Liberty!

Instead, head up to the Whitehall Terminal just outside Battery park right by the city’s subway station here and take the South Ferry towards Staten island. You can take the paved route through Battery park itself passing by scenic bay views of the south Manhattan river and the East Coast Army Memorial. The journey to Staten island is about 8km away by sea and the ferry itself is a large orange-coloured passenger ferry provided free by the New York municipal transportation, offering you a by-pass view of the Statue of liberty from the Hudson river itself. You can visit the Staten Island Museum while you are there or maybe a round trip back to Manhattan via the same boat. The views from the large boat are just as good, what’s more it is a free ferry service on public transport, contrary to getting on board the paid tour. This is somewhat a smarter alternative not many people actually know unless you do your homework.

Staten ferry

Downtown Hudson

Chinatown Statues

We were back on the road along State Street towards Chinatown after lunch at the Macdonalds restaurant just off Battery park. Good thing they provide free Wi-fi in the fast food restaurants, courtesy of AT&T, allowing any mobile warrior to stay connected to you tweets and emails on the go. The public buses were very packed and in high demand here in lower Manhattan, even including the CitySights hop-on hop-off open top double decker tours with half an hourly buses. I will recommended going for their multi-day open top bus packages as it offers free-and-easy transportation through all the sights in NYC including Brooklyn using these open top buses. Otherwise, it will cost you considerable more, not to mention more time consuming if you were to commute using municipal public transport. Luckily there were extra buses dispatched to cope with commuter demand.

Chinatown here in New York city had grown out much than the small village it flourished from a long time ago. You can access it via Grand Street on north Worth Street to the South. It’s one of the oldest ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia and spots the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere. A clear way to know whether you are in it is to just look for the various Chinese statues such as Confucius, etc. in the area, or the Chinese worded sign boards littered all around the street, they shouldn’t be too hard to spot.

Chinese signs are a giveaway

street markets to boot

on the Manhattan bridge

Do check out the streets and the wet markets in the mornings around Chinatown, they can be really buzzing with with lots to see, especially the side near the foot of the Manhattan bridge, you can find busy street hawkers selling fruits, vegetables and packed meals alike. Moving across the Manhattan bridge and past the iconic The triumphal arch and colonnade offers overlooking views of lower Manhattan and the impending Brooklyn East River in New York City. The Manhattan bridge starts off at Canal Street and connects Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn at Flatbush Avenue Extension through a 2km over-sea roadway with 7 roadway lanes, 4 tracks of the New York subway lines, pedestrians, and bicycle lanes, though the suspended portions of the bridge is only about half a kilometer.

bridge!

Awesome view

This way off Brooklyn?

Brooklyn
It’s only a matter of time after crossing the Manhattan bridge where we are in the industrial looking city of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the westernmost county on Long Island and the most populous of New York City’s five boroughs, home to nearly 2.6 million residents. Brooklyn was an independent city until its consolidation with New York City in 1898, despite this it continues to maintain a distinct culture form that of Manhattan, which is noticeable even on the streets. The place has a more homely feel and one which is more suited for the middle working class, with many hangouts, budget shopping areas and mega malls all lined up around a rather eccentric mix of modern skyscrapers and olden industrial looking areas.

Brooklyn also spots an independent art scene, and a rather unique architectural heritage. We visited few rather iconic theaters such as the Brooklyn historical theater, which most Broadway stars started their humble stage life beginnings from. The market place areas and fish markets are all buzzing with activity in the day, selling fresh seafood and flowers just to name afew.

Grand Army Plaza

ohh industrial

head choppers!

No visit to Brooklyn is complete without a tour of Prospect Park. The main entrance of Prospect Park is flaunted by the Grand Army Plaza. It’s an historical arch (a National Historic Landmark since 1975) located on the center of a roundabout in front of the Brooklyn public library, consisting of concentric oval rings arranged as streets, with the outer ring being the namesake Plaza Street. The inner ring of The Grand Army Plaza was originally intended to be a circle, but it actually was arranged as a main street as what it is today.

In front of the plaza stands The Central Library which leads up to the Brooklyn museum along the eastern parkway. Brooklyn has the same boundaries as Kings County since 1896, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after New York County (Manhattan). Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves where particular ethnic groups and cultures predominate.

old UN building

Trump Tower

Riverside Church

It’s onward to the United Nations Headquarters back in Manhattan, it is located along the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan on large spacious fields overlooking the East River. The tall UN tower has been a global icon in the US and even the world for diplomatic issues since its completion in 1952. This old building complex here together with newer buildings across the street (DC-1 and DC-2) serves as the official headquarters of the United Nations. This site is also one of the places in the world with extraterritoriality status where the UN rules override the laws of New York City, except those who commit crimes here in the city itself. In addition, the United Nations Headquarters remains under the jurisdiction and laws of the United States, although a few members of the UN staff have diplomatic immunity

Moving along the Bay road will bring you to the Trump Tower. The tower is a 58 floor mixed-use skyscraper located at 721 Fifth Avenue and is home to Beyonce, Bruce Willis, Saudi Prince Mutaib and Donald Trump himself. Designed by Der Scutt of Swanke, Hayden Connell and completed on late 1983, it sits at the corner of East 56th Street on the upper east side of Manhattan. A Gucci flagship store is located at the tower’s ground retail area.

Also situated in the upper Manhattan areas in Morningside Heights between Riverside Drive and Claremont Avenue is the tallest church in the United States- the American Baptist and United Church of Christ. It sits specifically between 120th Street and 122nd Street and is otherwise also known as The Riverside Church of the City of New York. It is interdenominational and famous for its elaborate neoclassical gothic architecture which includes the world’s largest tuned carillon bell. The church was granted the New York City Landmark status in 2000.

Columbia university

Chilling out at University pubs

So many LIGHTS

Our night is spent chilling with a fellow friend from Harvard who is doing her summer job in Columbia University. We explored the Columbia campus for a while with her as our tour guide, which also means able to enter many of the student restricted areas which couldn’t be accessed otherwise by the public.

The campus itself is well served by public transport with buses and region’s subway station is just right in front of the campus grounds. Dinner was at Mels bar in University’s neighborhood area. The area is home to a variety of produce stores and various diners and pubs supporting the university, which is too recommended by the university student bodies themselves as good nearby student eating places for the buck. We pretty had much of the night free after exploring the whole of Columbia University. Surprisingly back in the olden days, Columbia university actually owns much of the land here in New York, the loyalties earned from the lease of their land all round New York provides a substantial amount to their annual endowment.

It’s back down on the Subway, heading back to Times Square thereafter to spend the night. There we were surprised to find the CitySights night tours operating an extended 90mins past their stated end time due to overwhelming demand. But we didn’t go for it anyway as we already more or less covered all the sights we’ve already seen on our earlier day tours.

Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention, was held this weekend with the last day being today. As the name suggests, it’s a convention featuring an assortment of Toys, Comics and Games, Cosplayers with creepy photographers included. If I am not wrong this con is roughly into just over it’s 5th year or so, with my last con with them here being their debut year and man had they improved alot since their first.

A $10 entrance fee will get you in with unlimited re-entries via a stamp. The good thing about charging an entrance fee is that it prevents the general casual crowds from just walking in or simply just using the place as a hangout, which is a welcome in keeping the crowds down. Surprisingly it’s not as packed as I intended it to be.

Chilling with Andrew Bell

Superhero toys!

Got Saber?

Andrew Bell was the main reason I was there, considering him also being a crazy Android fanatic as I am, which is craziness in a good way I guess. Surprised was I when the STGCC first made the announcement of him being a guest of honor of the con.

A droid fan will simply can’t resist his Android toys, possibility explaining why I got one from abroad when the first series was first announced or even heard off here. On how the series started, apparently he was approached by a close friend of his who works at Mountain View (Google) who needed an artist in help with the designing a figurine series, stuff went off from there and yea you get it, just fill in the blanks from here.

Andrew is very down to earth and cool guy to hangout with, in contrast to his his rather bizarre works such as his on-going Creatures in my head series.

The place is cos-players aplenty, notable ones will include a team fortress 2 pyro and spy (you can see where this is headed too), Carmen Sandiegos, as well as a few awesome dragons by the name of Dark Lurker. There were many Anime characters as well as a balanced mix of western ones, such as star wars and marvel characters.

Italian plumbers?

A Tamiya Racetrack!

Presidential campaign poster

The entrance to the con was done at the exhibition hall 401- right at the end which is weird as everything is all squeezed there with a huge adjacent stage in hall 402, seemingly completely devoid and separate from the action. A question of inadequate utilisation? maybe. And though the spare hall might be needed by the cosplayers and events alike, it will help if the wasted space in the second hall could actually be ultilised to expand the floor areas of the exhibition area, particularly those for the artist alley- their booths there are really pathetically small, and yes though I know they are paid for in peanuts, but that’s where the crowds are.

There were cosplay competitions as well as a Tamiya one, including an impressive uber Tamiya race track to boot, built in a way that it tests almost all aspects of the car’s ability such as weight distribution, balance and power. A sight to behold itself.

In all, this is no International comic con, so don’t be expecting San Diego standards here, after all, such cons in Singapore are really a niche item here- largely affected by exposure to external influences, it is just something uniquely not Singaporean at all. Nonetheless, it’s still good to see the con going strong over the years, Though I am not exactly sure on the future direction of the con, who knows it can expand further into more variations or even specialise in one, besides branding itself now as a jack of all trades.

Ok, that’s all I have for the small con today, now to back back to those creatures stuck in my head…

Whew didn’t know putting together hundreds of photos together can be such a tedious and tiring task. After sorting, ploughing, stitching and uploading almost a year’s worth of panoramas, behold, the largest panorama update on the site ever! With a whole new section (United states and Europe) and various other niffy additions to the other regions as well. My London gallery had kinda outgrown itself, so I decided to have it separate from the UK and Europe pages, despite them all being in the same region, so mind my geographical sorting on that. Without further ado, feast your eyes on some on them!

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi:

» More on the: Middle east panoramas page.

You can check out more paranomas in each section by following the direct links to the galleries below the images on this post, or navigate to the Paranoma link on the menu on the left under “gallery”.

Marvel Super Heroes Island, Island of Adventure, Orlando:

» United states panoramas

Each respective new region has at least 10 panoramas in them, taken from various iconic landmarks during my travel to them.

Paris City from the Eiffel Tower:

» Europe panoramas

That’s all for now, now back to typing my travel diaries on them. :3