The Yellowstone Memoir

favouritest house

2007-10-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

This is my favouritest house. super huge and cars can drive up to the front door, under the round round thing.

Night view - they really have lots of lights on..

~Yor

sunrise sunset

2007-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

sunrise at my house.

sunset along a coastline near my place.

~Yor

money and sate

2007-10-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

money is such a beautiful word.... hee.. looks a lot.. but actually not really..

satay road side stall.. we call it sate thought... charcoal grilled... lots of smoke but smells good..

we da bao home. each stick is smaller than those we have in spore. 10 sticks bout $1.50.

~Yor

dadap

2007-10-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

harvesting tapioca.

Tapioca loaded up the car.

~Yor

tahu isi

2007-10-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

krab for dinner!

This is another common road side snack. Fried tofu basically. but there's filling inside, beansprouts, cabbage and carrot. yea u eat it with the green chilli..

~Yor

mati lampu, pijit kaki, rebonding

2007-09-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hair work:-
i just went for rebonding last fri. bout $50. cheap ah.. haha.. in indo considered quite cheap too. think the usual price is bout $70-90 maybe. cos i went to some quite deserted salon. hehe. but doesnt mean its not good la. rebonding only. think its the same wherever you do it right? just make sure your hair don't dry up. so for the first wash i went to another salon. new one in the neighbourhood. lots of new salon coming up nowadays. went for hair spa. $19 including tips. i like this salon. its new, clean, ppl are nice and service is good. hair is clean and smells good and the hair stylist bother to put this and that on your hair to make it look nice.

Blackout:-
We have a blackout two days ago. My worry is how am i going to sleep tonite without aircon. Cos weather is hot here and you cant open windows. or you'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes. We went to on our generator. its very very loud and its making the whole house smell.funny experience.. our generator is only big enough for one air con to be on. so we on one. it was fine. then my dad wanted to watch the tv. i have doubts bout this. he on it anyway. it was fine. then he got greedy. he on the satellite (for tv-so we can capture other country's channel). it was fine for a while then suddenly the light got dim. "Off the tv! Off the tv!" he shouted and ran to the generator. hahahaha.. cos totally had nothing to do at home.. we went out for a ride.. and when we came back, lights are on!

Foot Reflexology:-
Tried foot reflex few days back. hm.. not bad la.. tot it will be damn painful.. but not really.. i live the place very much tho. once you enter, it feels like a spa place, smells good and lights are dimmed, very cosy, peaceful. men in suits are at the reception. the place is quite big. and have up to bout 100 guest or so. the seat that you sit it is biigg.. very comfortable. and you can lie down, the foot rest will come up.. you have a personal tv attached at the chair. not the very small type that you have in plane. maybe bout twice as big. then they'll give you ginger tea. before and after the foot massage, you get a body massage too. short one tho. the whole thing last one and a half hr. cost $7.60. can go there and sleep too. i wanna go again...

~Yor

sedap malam

2007-09-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Today dinner is at Sedap Malam. Seafood restaurant. tts where they grill the food. using charcoal. can grill squid, prawn, fish...

Pick your own fish. lots of different types to choose from.

crab and mussels on the menu.

our dinner. got prawn, lala, grilled fish,grilled eggplant.

coconut juice. you can choose for it to be served with the whole coconut or like this.

~Yor

soto tangakar

2007-09-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

yah lunch is here! Soto tangakar.

This is how the stall look like. one of the few road side stalls we dare to go. its cleaner.

Food come liao! the rice have fried onion on it. typical of soto dishes. cant remember how much. think bout $2.50.

car crash

2007-09-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

My mum crashed the car into a electricity pole when reversing. goodness.. nice dent....

kew tiao, kerupuk, otak2

2007-09-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

This is tape. erm.. fermented tapioca i think in other words. so got a bit of alcoholic smell. i dun really like this. can only eat abit. my family like this tho. can eat a lot. this is one packet. worth. $1 a packet.

Avocado juice. Love this. green liquid is avocado juice. the chocolate strips is chocolate. to make it sweet. nice nice. price varies depending where you buy it.

Kerupuk. tts one bite. so it's pretty big. altho its big, its not solid. so you can probably eat two of those. theres got a lot of version of this. theres another type more ex and solid. but i dont think tts nice. this one is nice. bout $0.70, you have 10 of these. but watch out. its very heaty..

This is otak-otak. just a snack in between meals. It's fried. you eat it with black sweet sauce - kecap. and peanut sauce, a bit spicy. this is what we eat in sch in our early days. $0.85 a packet.

This is our char kuo tiao. Not as black as spore one. and think they are made up of different ingredient for the kuo tiao. $2.90 a plate.

bakso, kembang tahu

2007-09-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is the famous indo food! beef ball with bee hoon! its quite a small portion. can add chili. i can eat it everyday.. one bowl is $1.35.. i bought it outside a school. and eat it in the car. ha.. other place's beef ball is not tt good. this is the best i've eaten so far. but you can easily eat two bowls of this. one bowl got 10 balls and bee hoon.

This is our version of dou hua. This one bought off the street. the 'abang' will walk around residential areas and knock on a metal plate. those who hear and want it, will come out to the gate and buy. i''ve been searching for it since i came here and i just got it today. this abang version dou hua is super smooth. other places i bought is pretty rough. and it differs from spore version cos the sugar water is made up of brown sugar with ginger taste. so its kinda gingery hot. but you dont see the ginger. eat it warm. $0.70 a bowl. nice!!

~Yor

jln jakarta

2007-09-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

Jalan Jakarta

This place is located in Jln Jakarta. It's my dad heaven. Basically its a stretch of Teochew food, mostly from Pontianak.

It's very packed there. lots of stalls.

you park your car up front and just go in and eat. looks dirty eh.. haha.. only the road tho. the food's fine. maybe bout hawker centre standard.

you can eat there or da bao.. we usually da bao. cos its pretty hot if you wanna sit there and eat.

mixed rice..

~Yor

buah ki

2007-09-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Live prawn at home. we bought it in the market. they are still jumping. but this batch is a bit too small. jumping prawn are not really readily available everyday in the market.

This is the delicacy! My dad called it buah ki (very small crab). Come from dad hometown, Pontianak. Sounds like the ghost.. and yea it is. according to my dad they do have a lot there. and it used to be called Kuntilanak, which is a more scary version or name of the ghost and they change it to wat it is now. my aunty bring it from there. They sometimes sell it in jakarta, although rare. and usually quality is not good and their size is big. we like it small cos if its too big, eat liao disgusting ah. haha.so we usually get it from pontianak. small and smells good.my mum, which is from medan, hate the smell though.cos of her different bakground, she finds us disgusting eating this. she kept complaining when we are cleaning this. but my sisters love it. hehe.. ya ngak ya ngak? ngiler deh.. Shel,zy,ys, this is why i like the crab thing in thailand. hehe. delicious. oh. its raw btw. been salted to preserve it the same way as salted fish i think.

This is what it looks like after cleaning. So you remove the shell and gills. wash it with water. then you chop small chillies, squeeze lime and put vinegar. mix the whole thing thoroughly. so you are basically munching on the legs and pincers only. i prefer the legs tho. the pincers shell is abit thick. so its harder to bite.of course it taste hot and sour, but it has its special taste too. you should keep it in the vinegar for a longer time then it taste nicer. so you should prepare this sometime before you devour it. hehe. so when you munch it, the meat will flow out and you suck those and its shell. aft that, you throw away the shell. and keep doing tt..

This is supposedly poor man's food. cos they dont have money to buy food, they just needed smth salty. so they munch of this and eat with rice. The rich eat it because they are hooked. haha. my dad n me finish the whole thing in 3 dinners. slurpz...

~Yor

kampung life

2007-09-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

A visit to Dadap, sort of a kampung and industrial area.

Drive pass a goat. They have lots of thm roaming around. surprisingly i see a lot of young one this time round. but didnt manage to take pic of them.

Dad in warehouse.

Farming. Oh yah, i planted chili plants in my garden. it sprouted already. have young leaves. then dunno which animal eat the leaves. think its having a hard time staying alive. haha. and i forgot to water it today too..

kampung house.

This is a secondary school. So now we know how lucky we are to be able to study in such nice schs..

kampung view.

~Yor

PM seafood

2007-09-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is a seafood restaurant near my place.. Live seafood.. everything still swimming.. live food is slightly more expensive la.. prawn is crunchy and sweet. nice. cockles for tt day a bit too small.. cos only few od us went, we didnt order much.. i didnt take the pic of all the food.. busy eating... haha

New drink.. for me..coconut in orange juice.. hm... i would say... the pure coconut in coconut water taste better... but the coconut here is good.. young and soft..

this is snail... what kind of snail i also dunno... the type that you can eat...

ordering our food and getting our catch..

this is how the place look like.. its the non air con area... theres a small place tts air coned too..

~Yor

pik, soto kambing

2007-09-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Its a morning walk in Pantai Indah Kapuk.. Residential areas.. and its crowded with people.. they have lots of big and nice houses... nice to look at...

example.. i like a damn huge house near my place... if i eer go near there then will take a pic... the day view and night view of that house if totally different.. so so nice.. show you guys next time...

this is lupis and cai bao... the skin is from sweet potato.. so its yellow.. i like the skin more than the filling tho.. hehe..

This is soto kambing.. yum yum... kambing is mutton.. and they provide all sorts of meat.. they so have meat the usual meat.. and they have cheek, intestine, brain, leg, cartilage,skin,ear and torpedo.. try guessing what's torpedo..ha

2007-09-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Dinner at Yun Yian (forgot how to spell liao) near my house.. its a new restaurant.. so we went to try.. its got its reputation in other cities liao though.. food not bad.. but servings not as big as Angke.. price bout 10 odd too..

me and bro in yun yian..

mum and dad..

Shopping shopping... in Taman Anggrek Mall earlier in the day.. bought quite a lot of clothes tt day.. for less than $30, usually can get quite good stuff already.. for my standard la..

A&W lunch! ZY... u wan root beer??? wahaha... too bad i dont like th ice cream on top of it... wehehee..

PM apartment

2007-09-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

looking down from apartment...

lots lots of boat...

Expensive housing.. their backyard is the sea.. and they can hop on their boat and jalan jalan.. good ah..

angke

2007-09-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

Our favourite restaurant since forever... restaurant Angke. its an old restaurant... think been there for like 30+ years at least.. every time we visit restaurants, we will always compare them to this one.. and so far few can beat this one.. its not a luxurious restaurant but customers always come out of this place satisfied..

the price is more expensive than usual restaurant but worth it.. the good thing bout this restaurant is you dont have to say what size dish you want.. small, medium, large.. they count how many ppl came and they always have the right size for you.. rice is free flow.. and they serve fast, all the dish comes out one after another..

They have just another branch some place else but not nice.. so.. better go to the original one..

Its lunch time and its packed.. every day's dinner is full house... tts y we go for lunch instead to avoid the crowd..

This is hm.. the hainan chicken thats usually available in spore.. supposedly.. but of course it has its distinct taste.. they put lots of fried garlic on top and oil.. looks oily but very fragrant.. the garlic dont taste like garlic.. dont have the pungent smell anymore.. its my fav dish there..

This is what we having .. it looks more messy than it really is.. haha.. we ordered chicken, sweet sour fish, the crab thing (looks like ball there) prawn fried kai lan and tofu.. i think tts all... each person is bout $17.. mayb sounds ok but its considered expensive here liao..

~Yor

2007-08-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

our slumber party started out w dinner then ktv till 1130pm before heading to my house for a stayover. pic 4 shows how lazy our dear ms chen can be...to think that she can even lie down while singing...goodness! oh and check out pic 2 (top right hand corner)...our miserable attempt to act sexy! we suck at it man (esp pei!! haha so funny lah..that's her definition of sexy!)

2007-08-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

check out the new look of my room and my newly-bought pink panter pyjamas ;)

2007-08-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

the theme for the slumber party was 'Pyjamas'

2007-08-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

the pigs snoozing away...our initial plan was to watch vcd till wee hours but we concussed at 2am and slpt all the way till 10am.

2007-08-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

shopping at sheng shiong!!

2007-08-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

2007-08-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

very hot after cooking...and our food tasted abit plain though. pei cooked her mushrooms....and shan had 2 dishes of veggies while i had the cabbage+fishballs+crabstick+corn+cheese tofu soup. i thought that by just dumping everything i can get hold of, the soup will be sweet. but i'm wrong! my soup tasted almost like plain water with overflowing fishballs and crabsticks which required me to keep scooping them out

shan and pei suggested playing mahjong after lunch...so we asked alan over...and needless to say, i lost again!! it's like out of 10 mahjong games i play....i will lose like 9.9999 times...tsk tsk this is bad...i shld just resign to the fate that gambling is just not my cup of tea.

2007-08-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

Martabak in the making!

Supper for the day. Thick crust, its soft. Inside, theres chocs, condensed milk and peanuts. slurpz.. theres different versions too.. see how you order it. some people like it with cheese.. the whole boz cost less than $5.

2007-08-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

Went for manicure and pedicure. Camera lousy, cant see properly.. haha.. its flower design..
Mani less than $5 and pedi also less than $5. but need to give tip, each person bout less than $2. usually 2 ppl will help you. so total $12 like tt la..

hanburger, bakwan

2007-08-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is mobile burger stall. Finding it for a long time and finaly found it outside a sch in my house. so i ordered one.

This is the burger. Not a v good pic. Inside got a piece of meat, lettuce, cucumber, chili sauce and tomato sauce. spicyness is up to u. cost less than $1. Yum Yum.. but quite fattening la. cos they use a lot of margerine. but they toast the bread till its crispy on the outside. the bread is soft in the inside and u eat it hot...

This is what we called Bakwan. My interpretation is supposedly its made up of meat as the word Bak means. but here alot of poor ppl. so they use vegetables instead. but it dun really taste like vege. cos even my bro who dun eat vege also like to eat.. its made up of cabbage, carrots and batter for frying. and you eat it with the small green chili as shown. nice nice! one pice cost bout 10 cents.

mie keriting

2007-08-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

I was uploading like 4 pics and suddenly all gone! goodness... and it took me like 5-10 min to load 1 pic! so i gonna show one by one...

I reached indo in the morning... so this is what i had for breakfast. Mie Keriting! Basically means curly mee... and my favouritest drink in the world. Teh Botol! Basically jasmine red tea. In a glass bottle. yum.. they have the packet one also, but the ones in glass bottles taste the best! This is my best breakfast combi so far.. haha.. noodle is springy, not soggy, quite a big bowl to satisfy my appetite. of course must add chili to make it better. hehe.. the noodlw cost bout $2+ and drink mayb 50 cents.

2007-08-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

i miss the travelling times!! seems so long ago alrdy......and i'm looking forward to tonight's slumber party themed 'pyjamas'! the late-night ktv....watching of vcd and shopping of groceries then cooking our own lunch tml...doing our mani and pedicures and of coz GIRLS TALK! cant wait to wear my newly-bought pink panter pyjamas! i specially went to buy it for today one okayy

p.s: bee: pls make time for dikos ok...we (meaning dikos), havent seen u for donkey years alrdy lehhhhh

2007-08-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

the yellowstone meet up last sat. it's good to see everyone back in singapore again ;)

no postings

2007-08-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

This blog have been so cooolllddd...

Will be going back to indo on 20 Aug... Will post more often especially pictures i hope.. Once i get the internet settled there...

So keep watching this page!

Haven't been going back to indo for slightly over a year. just once for my cousin wedding and its for only 2 days. Whenever i'm hungry i'll start picturing what food i should eat when i get back. which makes me even more hungry... *slurpzz*

Just wanna say,
For friends who are still studying - enjoy ur sch life man! i miss it..
For friends who are jobless - no worries, enjoy a longer holiday!
For friends who are working - too bad... haha... no la... jia you for the money!

~Yor

places to visit

2007-07-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

top 5 places i wld like to visit!
1) the Northern lights. i guess it should be an awesome experience to be standing before this phenomenon. it's just so special isnt it?

2) Cape town, the southest point of South Africa. i just want to be on the southest point on the earth

3) Dubai! i wanna see this hotel and visit deserts

4) Eygpt. i've always thought that the pyramids are very magnificent and it's a very different city just like Las Vegas, in my own opinion that is!

5) Dead Sea. i've always found the Dead Sea amazing and i wld love to try floating on it someday too! i also wanan read a book while floating on the Dead Sea.

*zhiying

Jenny Lake

2007-07-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

rrJenny Lake - Grand Teton National Park.
Here's the lake pics.. Think ZY load then cant see.. It's the most beautiful lake we see there. It's right in front of mountains. It didnt look as nice in pics than if you see it live. Very very nice. Although it's just a small lake.

Grand Prismatic - Hill View

2007-07-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Grand Prismatic Pics!
Its a hot spring, think one of the hottest.. Very colourful due to the different bacteria, But cant really see from the pics..

Grand Prismatic surroundings.

We climbed 2 hill for the view. This is from one hill. Not a very nice view of the Prismatic, but we havea nice view of the surrounding. Lots of mosquito. Not really mosquito.. dunno whats thats. It's smaller than mosquito. Everyone got bitten quite a lot. except for me. only 1 bite. haha. They kept scraching few days after that.

Same hill as the above pic.

Steep climb.. ZY kept sitting down, not bcos she's tired cos she have no choice! wahaha! she slip and slip and slip and slip and slip...... Most entertaining hike for me... hahaha...

This is another view from another hill. We can see better the hot spring from this hill.

See?? she just slip... Everytime she slip she will give a funny scream and laugh laugh laugh. Then we also laugh. Dunno why she keep slipping while we dont...hahahaa

See?? She slipped again... and me at the background? laugh till i cry... Wing Fai also laugh... entertaining.. Guess the person behind the camera also laugh... wahaha..

Another slip? haha.. cant remember.. countless.. See tha water bottle? i'm helping ZY to take.. cos she need all the limbs she got to balance.. hahaha.. oh boy.. i can still laugh now..

Interesting hike eh..

~Yor

2007-07-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

went back to ntu today to collect my gown and transcripts, it feels to see all the familiar faces again and catching up with old friends after so so long. many pple are alrdy in their office wear...feels so diff from the past...and most look really professional!

it's so good to be back in sch once again. as much as i hated the 830am lessons in the past, i think i'm gonna miss the da pao-ing of siew mais, milk teas and eating during our 4hrs seminars. man, i'm so gonna miss all these!! and the impromptu mahjong/ktv sessions after lessons. nth beats the life of a student man!

updates

2007-07-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

ok so i have more or less gotten back into the swing of same old Singapore lifestyle except the fact that i'm still waking up at 8+am thanks to the hot weather here. other than that, i've accepted the fact that i'm really back in homeground alrdy. just that i will still be upset over the fact that those carefree days are over sometimes. thinking back...the walking of boardwalks, hikings and staying in the dorm doesnt seem so familiar to me anymore. for those pple who are still in yellowstone and are reading this blog..i still misss YOU and the life in yellowstone!! waves!!

and i've started the job-hunting shit ytd, but only half-heartedly. cant wait to get out of singapore again. haha. hoping to start work only in aug...this leaves me with only 3 weeks to secure a job. it is definitely no joke when all the friends around you have secured a job. peer pressure man!

anyway, just got back from an overnight mahjong session. played till 6am this morning before napping for 4 hrs and continuing to play for another 2hrs or so. needless to say, i've lost again! arghhh....really not cut out to be a gambler man...i can even count the no. of times that i've won in mahjong using my 5 fingers. tsk tsk. cant wait for ktv tml and next week....havent sung my lungs out for very long time alrdy!!

will be collecting my scroll and gown tml....and the thought of going down to the ulu NTU totally puts me off. it's been so so long since i have travelled down to sch alrdy....and it spells s-i-a-n to me now.

p.s: yordia: hope u are having fun in vietnam!! have a safe trip :)

Vietnam Day 2

2007-07-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

Here's my Vietnam trip. It's freakin hot here. Damn damn damn hot. Cant stand it. Hotter than spore and even more humid than spore. Never been in such a place so hot and humid before. Goodness. the best place to be is the tour bus. You get down the bus, and just stand in the shade and your sweat will drip like crazy already.. Miss YNP weather.. you walk for 3 hours and not a single drip of sweat.. T_T

Those of you who can appreciate housekeeping, think i'll go crazy working in this hotel. It's really clean. 5 star hotel though..

The bath towel is super big ok.. the hand towel was almost the size of the bath towel in OFI (Old Faithful Inn).

No comfortor on bed tho. its kept somewhere else..

Got coffee maker some more.. then so much food.. stock till siao..

Look at the toiletries.. Nice ah... so many colours.. dunno will take how long to do 1 room..

Graduation

2007-07-07T03:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a bit of my convo pics...

Beaver Pond Trail

2007-07-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Beaver Pond Trail. Its a 3 hours hike! With nothing much to see... Only that there's a lot of wild flowers.

2007-07-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is what i see when i drive.. Nice view right.. May not look so nice from the photo. But i assure you it looks much nicer. the cliff is high and steep and its reddish brown in colour

Nice clouds eh...

Grand Teton National Park located south of YNP. We pass through this park before going down to Jackson Hole town.

Leaving YNP going Grand Teton National Park.

Cleaning the car with our housekeeping skills!

This is what our car looks like! At that time still clean.. Now its filled with dead bugs at the front from all the travelling..

2007-07-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Let us see the journey of the foot!!

Foot up at the Grand Prismatic after a steep climb up a hill.

Canyon at the bottom of my foot! haha. Feels good....

At Uncle Tom's trail. We had to climb down 320+ stairs down to look at Lower Falls. It was fun climbing down. But no joke climbing up. and as you can see, you can see pass your feet and see how high it is.

At Canyon trail, sitting on a cliff waiting for the guys to come up. They went down to look at waterfall. We were too tired to climb down and climb back up. Then i got bitten by a huge dunno what - smth like an ant. Then i quickly got up.. -_-

The foot's up on a horse. Horse name was Pocco.. smth like tt.. It was really fun riding. u pull the rein left, it go left, right, it go right. pull towards you, it'll stop. Pull even harder, it'll reverse. You kick it, it'll run faster. Might sound fun when the horse is galloping but it wasn't so when it really did run. My horse ran once when i was riding, i really thought that i'll fall off the horse. Cos we didn't know how to ride when its galloping. But when i see the wrangler riding the horse and the horse was running so fast, it was so cooool. Then the next day, our butt hurts. Sit down also must sit slowly... haha..

Journey of the foot to Mystic Falls.. Can't lift my foot high enuff to get the picture of the fall, if i try to lift any higher I'll slip down.. =P

Sitting in front of a fireplace in another hotel - Snowlodge. Nice... Snowlodge is open all year round, including winter, while the Old Faithfl Inn only open during summer.

back

2007-07-03T20:18:00.002-07:00

ok pple, we're back already!! cant believe that i'm actually back in singapore now..when i woke up to my bedroom this morning...it feels kinda strange. i'm missing the life in yellowstone and times in Las vegas and LA already!! the life there is so diff from here in singapore....it's like everyday u will be kept occupied and surrounded by frens...but here like got nth to do besides the impending sending of resumes (SIGH). i aint even fully done with my unpacking and my room's in a total mess now. but not in the mood to do anything except to sit in front of my laptop and review the pics...alright, shall let the pictures do the talking. :)

p.s: btw, i've added archives to the blog..so click on the 'july' link on the top left corner to see all the entries

*zhiying

2007-07-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

the first few days at houskeeping

yordia the chambermaid ;p

the Old House lobby....we love to sit there with our ice cream at night. i m missing it alrdy!

look how flexible yor can be..

2007-07-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

jenny lake

2007-07-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

mallad lake

the trek there was really not easy...we had to cross water puddles, walk across the thick and slippery snow...and climbed steep slopes...and feed the mosquitoes....

2007-07-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

the housekeeping outing!

2007-07-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

at the Lake country of yellowstone..

at mystic falls

2007-07-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

spotting a bison in front of our dorm

old faithful

this is the scene u get when there's a bear or coyote around

2007-07-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

water rafting!

at grand teton...the view there is sooo pretty...i personally prefer it to yellowstone

2007-07-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

mount rushmore! it was a 12hr drive there..but the trip was very fun...

in the motel....

2007-07-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

at bear country

devils tower!! the one we learnt in geog

2007-07-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

the thing abt yellowstone is that u see wildlife everywhere u go...so we got to see elks, coyotes, bisons, moose. but it's quite rare to see bears and wolves...and this bear with 3 cubs just happened to walk by the roadside when we drove past...

the canyon of yellowstone. i totally dig it!! it's so pretty such that it looks like a painting, doesnt it??

trying to kiss the waterfall ;p

2007-07-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

the grand prismatic...had to climb up a hill to get this scenic view...

at mammoth country

yor at horse-back riding!!! i totally miss it man! it was rather scary initially...and my horse sort of like galloped downhill...scared the shit of me....but it was very fun on the whole. the horses are very well-trained such that they know that they need to follow the horse in front of them and be in line

2007-07-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

the view to Old faithful

the Old house which we usually cleaned

2007-07-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

drawing the linen closet on the 2nd last day of work

that's how our dorm looks like

2007-07-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

last lunch at the employee dining room, where we usually had our 3 meals in.

our first few friends from ukraine

i cant seem to rotate the pic in the software that i use to upload the pics...so pls bear with it ok!! anyway, i LOVE the purple colour ice-cream named Grizzly berry made from huckleberry. we love to eat ice cream and sit in the lobby of the Old faithful Inn at night...looking at the crowd and fireplace...it's de-li-cious. thanks to it that i've gained a few kgs.

2007-07-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Last day in yellowstone

our car!! these are the pple who shared the car with us

at Bozeman airport...we were very sad on the first night in Las vegas since we boarded the plane such that we didnt even dare to mention much abt yellowstone coz tears start welling up at the slightest mention of it. ;((

2007-07-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas

yor was so lucky with jackpots such that she won USD60....i lost USD 10. think i'm really not cut out to be a gambler...rarely wins whenever i gambled

Excalibur! one of my fav hotels....looks so distinguished. we wanted to book it initially but it was too ex....

there's an M&M's store that sells everything and anything ....very interesting!!

2007-07-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

watched a David copperfiend's performance..i've enjoyed the show coz i thought it's really an experience to see him in person. he looks older now..but he's v charismastic when he performs his magic!

our room in Las Vegas

2007-07-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

Grand Canyon

excited to see our company's name over at grand canyon...so nostalgic....i miss yellowstone ;((

2007-07-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

shopping in LA was damn shiok!! got many good buys from Guess, Fossil, Levis etc....but the transportation was ex...the trip to the factory outlet has alrdy cost us USD 140 each...

happy from shopping ;)

Universal Studio, LA

2007-07-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

i like this donkey from Shrek! he talked to me...hahaha and there's a kid saying that he got yellow teeth...he was like saying "oh yeah, coz i'm a donkey and donkeys dont brush teeth.." so funny!!

Biscuit Basin

2007-07-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

It snowed shortly after we reached. This is the only time that i can see snow accumulating on the ground. After that, its jnust snowing but the floor is clear.

Another snow pic.

Our dorm back door!

Old Faithful Inn. The place where we work at. A historic place in YNP.

1st day off - visit to good Old Faithful.

Old Faithful erupting. Old Faithful is the most famous geyser not because its the highest. Its famous because its the most predictable, highest of the predictables, and with the short waiting time and error of waiting time (like maybe plus minus 10 min). Some geyser only erupt a gew times in 10s of years, or some waiting time error can be like plus minus 2 hours or 6 hours. Its a big range of everything. The biggest geyser is Steamboat Geyser. Made me think of steamboat buffet when i pass there. Then we started hallucinating of eating steamboat..

Just a little education corner here. A guide told us that thermal features is divided into 4 types. Geyser - that is the one you see erupting. Hot Spring- you can see hot water on the surface, When there's bubbles, it may not mean that its boiling. it might be just air coming from the bottom of the vent. Mud Pot - these are very thick solution you see it bubbling. The hot water from the broung dissolves away the surrounding acidic rock, mixing it together and you got thic thick soup thing. Fumaroles - also known as steam vents, the water level is below the ground, hence what you see is only steam coming out from the ground. This is the hottest thermal feature that can exist. if i;m not wrong, can go up to 200 degree C.

It's our visit to Biscuit Basin, The first boardwalk that we experience. It's just located near our hotel.

The most beautiful hot spring we ever seen. Morning Glory.

Hm... we are in front of.. dunno what geyser... Giant Geyser? i think so...

~Yor

2007-07-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

It's 4.30 am and i'm very awake liao. it's 2.30 pm in YNP. guess some people might be still knocking on doors saying "hello housekeeping!".. Miss those days... Anyway, pics pics pics.. here goes..

1st night in SFO ( San Francisco Airport). looks like some homeless people huh...

i took her pic withour her knowing and she took my pic without me knowing... sort of took turn to sleep cos scared that our stuff might be gone..

This is what our dorm look like.. a mess ah.. haha.. my jackets are everywhere..

~Yor

2007-07-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

2007-07-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

2007-07-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

2007-07-03T03:21:00.000-07:00

rodeo drive

in taiwan

2007-07-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

we're now in taipei airport...waiting to catch the 9.15am flight back to singapore. how time flies...2mths just passed in the blink of eyes....kinda sad to be coming back so soon...we left yellowstone on 26 june and went to las vegas where we caught the david copperfield's magic show. it was a real experience for me...then we went to grand canyon and los angeles after that. anyway will be arriving at abt 1pm today and most prob will be updating the blog with pics and more details tonight :)

zhiying

mt rushmore

2007-06-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

apologies for the lack of updates...life's been v busy after we've gotten a car...been goin out everyday so as to maximise the usage of the car since we will be here for a few more weeks only. so busy such that we didnt have time to do our laundry, go to another place for internet access and go to the recreational hall to play games after work.

having our 2 days off today and we have drove for like 12 hrs from yellowstone to south dakota to see the mount rushmore sculptures of the 4 presidents. we went to devil's tower (the one we learnt in geog in sec sch) on our way here too...will be going to the bear country tml morning. it's a wildlife drive-through where we can see wildlife such as wiolves and bears walking past us.

oh and results are out..and i've gotten only a 2nd lower class honours...but it's kinda within my expectations since i didnt work THAT hard during my 3 yrs in uni....but i guess i shld be contented. got to slp now..shall update next time. take care!!

*zhiying

Car

2007-06-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

Been damn stressed these few days. so much problem, so little time.

Anyway, almost all things turned out to be quite ok and we got a car! its a 1991 chevrolet wagon. smth like tt. quite big, but hard to accelerate. stupid car. hard to climb hill. theres 6 of us sharing, and it cost USD1775. we are gonna sell it back to them again and hope we can fetch a good price.

its been a 3 days or so discussion with ppl. its a real headache. first we cant find enuff ppl to share the car. then suddenly got a lot of ppl wanna share. and we scared we cant get a big enuff car. so in the end there 6 of us. the car we bot is a 9 seater car. wow rite. good can let more ppl share. then we realise theres only 5 seat belts. damn. we asked the ranger and they say it means we can only carry 5 ppl. haiz.

and with so little time left on our hand, its hard to coordinate with other ppl. we got so many places to go.

we went to town BOZEMAN to get the car. we used our fren car to get there. its a 3 hr long drive there. but it was the most pleasant drive i ever driven. the road is long without too many cars and the view is spectacular. wah... damn nice! don;t think you;ll get that in singapore.

its our offday today, we'll be going to Lake village later i think...

getting a car is a hassle. 2 groups of our friends got legal probs with their car. one of them is cos they didnt register their car and the other one is because they didnt insure their car. so we learnt a lot from them and of course we got both.

initially, we wanted a cheaper car. after 4 long hrs of admisnistrative work and discussion, we drove the car away, only realising it got transmissin problem. it cannot go up to 3rd gear. it happened when we were test driving the car, but after topping some transmission fluid, it was ok. then it happened again. and so had to get another car. our car was originally 2400+ and we got it for bout 1800. i still find it quite expensive tho. cos of the acceleration. the only good thing bout the car is the seats and aircon....

~Yor

Black sand, Kepler cascade and grand prismatic

2007-05-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hey ppl!

Updates...
We've been to Black Sand Basin. Its a long walk. It was 4 degress C and we didnt know it. the wind was like blowin damn hard. blow till my head go giddy. we pushed on. ZY tot the temperature was in the teens. i guessed it was a single digit. aft we come back from the trek then we know it was so damn cold. then it started snowing. Black Sand wasnt as nice as Geyser basin tho. not much to see...

Its been snowing for 3 days. Come fast, go fast. Then it rained just now. wah... weather;s really unpredictable..

Yest was a fun day. We went to Grand Prismatic, where it is a large plain full of colourfull bacteria growing in hot spring. We were supposed to climb a tree to get a clear view but couldnt find the hill. It was an outing where we got 4 cars from our american friends. And it was damn funny. the driver who didnt know the way drove first and we had to stop somewhere just to rearrange our order. cos its a one lane kinda thing. hard to take over from one another. Will make up for pics next time! Promise!

Then we went to Kepler Cascade. Its a nice waterfall! Went to near a cliff. wah. legs wobbly liao.

ok. gtg! catch ya next time!

hiking

2007-05-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

went hiking to Mallard Lake ytd after work ...it was a last min decision ....wasnt expecting a hike..thought the route has a trail or sth but we were oh so wrong! it's like so rocky...and steep at some parts as we were trekking in the mountains and there were times when we had to cross muddy pools and deep slippery snow.

yor and I were initially panting like crazy coz havent been exercising since v long...and our friends were walking at a very fast speed because we had to head back before it gets dark..where the bears and wolves may start to roam around. so we reached the lake after 1.5hrs of hiking (note: not trekking coz got gradient!) and the lake is really beautiful. the pics we took look like a poster at the backgound..very nice! and we had to hike for another 1.5hrs back...at the end of it our legs were aching like hell....but it was a good workout, i must say. have been snacking like crazy ever since i came here....i will be like snacking whenever i m free...either after work and before bedtime...and this excludes the sinful deserts during every lunch and dinner. tsk tsk!

ohh btw...i have received USD$20 worth of tips today!! it was abt $30 sing. quite shiok to receive so much tips..the first one was $10 and followed by $5 each. looking forward to work tml!!! haha had been dreading work until today's tips. :)

we'll be having our off days on 21st and 22nd and we're planning to go horseback riding with our friends on 21st and taking a tour to the other parts of yellowstone to see the canyon and the lake. it's really inaccessible here...like we're in the geyser village..so it's almost impossible to get to the other 4 villages without transportations...so we have to bang our hopes on such tours.

ok..going to have dinner now before shopping at the general store (oh btw, there yoghurt and creamy choc milkshake are damn nice!!!) and then ice cream after dinner! i m beginning to feel that i will be quite sad to leave this place at the end of 2 mths...but i'm missing the economic bee hoon terribly! it is my fav breakfast in singapore...;(

zhiying

2007-05-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

Old Faithful

This is what we look like during housekeeping.

2nd day off

2007-05-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

today's the 2nd day off...the inn is finally opened and work's been pretty busy. we have to clean like 18 rooms each everyday. and making 18 beds everyday is no joke! and the singaporeans have arrived like a few days ago and coincidentally, one of my yr 1 classmates, xueni (engkiat should know who!) is here too. was so shocked to see her along the corridoor.

went trekking 3 days ago with the asians and it wasnt as tiring as we thought it would be. wont be able to post up the pics here...will show the pics if i have the chance :)

hopefully our next off day will be next mon (which is a Tue in singapore) and we might be taking a guided tour around yellowstone...

oh btw, we're tinking of ending work on the 25th june and we're be heading off the las vegas for 2 days..then to the Grand canyon...cant wait to go to the sky walker!! after which, we'll be going to Los Angeles for 2 to 3 days before heading home on the 2july. will reach singapore on the 3 july. think during may and june..we can only visit places within yellowstone coz it's pretty hard to get out of yellowstone without a car. wad's more we've only 1 or 2 pathetic off days each week.

zhiying

Housekeeping is realy tiring work. always makes us hungry, i start to eat a lot now. sometimes even more than zhiying. heehee. went to eat ice cream yest in OLD FAITHFUL INN. its a 2 scoop thing and they gave us 4 scoops. goodness. very big. but we finished it anyway. haha! we sat at the 2nd floor lobby of the INN, looking down is the magnificant fireplace. its a very nice relaxing view. OLD FAITHFUL INN is made up of logs. all wood. built over 100 years ago. its counted as a historic place in US. Read from a brochure that its one of the largest log structures in the world. too bad we cant post pictures up. its really beautiful. the OLD HOUSE, where we do our housekeeping for the 2 days, are the old part of the INN. the rooms are very rustic kind and cosy. but a lot of them with no bathroom. they do have the newer usual hotel kind. thats usual already la. we're quite lucky to be cleaning the OLD HOUSE tho. cos no bathroom.

Yellowstone is made up of 5 countries. Geyser Country- tts where we are at. a lot of geysers to see in here. Lake Country- there have a big lake on it. Roosevelt Country- got petrified trees and Lammar Valley where the wolves are! (ZY say petrified trees are trees that are scared- stupid). In case you are wondering, they are trees that got preserved due to volcanic eruptions. The next country is Mammoth Country-lotsa hot springs and Canyon Country-its a small grand canyon in Yellowstone.

think we gtg. ppl q-ing for com.

~Yor

Old faithful visit

2007-05-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

A day off..

We got a day off today! nothing much to do. Did our laundry in the morning, then went to visit the OLD FAITHFUL. For the first time, we see a lot of tourists walking around and saw a few asians. We sat down for a while and the geyser started to squirt water. Then slowly it goes to a full eruption. It sprayed quite tall into the air actually.. Lasted for a few minutes. Took quite a bit of photos. But the com we using now doesnt have a USB plug, so we can only surf website and not anything else.

For once we felt like a visitor in this place. After that as always, ZY went to........

GENERAL STORE.....

Do wat...????

FOOD LO....

Always stock up food... we visit the store everyday. that's the only place that we can spend our money..

Aldwin: no food suitable for you leh... all chocolates... you want???

Tmr back to work again... so sian..

~Yor

YNP-1st week

2007-05-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

1st official blog from US.

Oh my goodness!! Finally we are connected to the world. Sorry for taking so long. life's been hell for me for the week. For me at least. Zy been enjoying herself. Although i drag her down most of the time. Here goes my story:

In San Frans:
you guys already knew we reached TW airport. then we reached SF (san frans). we had a hard time looking for the airport shuttle. we know it exist but coulnt find it. so after a long search and dragging our luggage ard, we found it. we booked the service for 3 hrs. our guide is from hongkong. so we communicate in chinese. his chinese is better anyways. haha! he was a nice guy. lbrought us to a lot of places we didnt know. guess we didnt do enuff research. weather's pretty cold out there. but my clothes are good enuff.. for now.. so we had fun. then its a night spent at SF airport. couldnt slp tho. cos its daytime for us. at dawn, its time for another flight. This is where my suffering begin...

Salk Lake City:
its a 2 hr flight there. my throat start to hurt. u know those type it hurts when u swallaow your saliva. so i started drinking a lot of water, have no appetite for any food. didnt eat much. its a short stop there. only for about 3 hours. only went around looking ard at the airport. i was still quite alive then.. then its flight to bozeman.

Bozeman:
Weather's cold. throat become much worse now. cos it hurts, drinking water is also a pain. when we reach the airport, there's no taxi around. we could only wait. after bout hlf hr or so, we were brought to the backpacker's hostel. after putting our bags down, we had to apply for our social security card. its a long walk. draining my energy. after we got that done, the 5 of us decided to go to a nearby WALMART. only- its not nearby. cos i didnt really know my way back, i just tagged along. i already started to feel giddy and dying. its a damn long walk. everyting is so spacious it takes a long time to walk from 2 shop to another. the sun is scorching hot. really felt like dying. but i know i need to get some medication. so hopefully they have a pharmacy there. after like a half hr walk. we finally reached there. i quickly went to the pharmacy to ask wat they have formy throat and fever. they introduced me to their version of PANADOL-TYLENOL(or smth like tt). Hu dunno! i also have liao... but i;m desperate. buy lo. eat 2 pills. tot they would give me smth better. damn. Zy started walking bout the market. i felt too weak liao. found a bench and sat down. dozed off every now and then. sleeping in a supermarket! can you imagine! trying to keep myself awake. i didnt want others to think : "this girl so poor thing, sleep in a supermarket. aiyo..." after we bought our breakfast, its a lonf way back to hostel. grabbed a pizza along the way. the walk back was torturous too.
that nite i cant sleep at all. we forgot to buy water in the market and didnt know if tap water is drinkable. there's no one we could ask at tt time too. mayb cos i didnt drink enuff, worsen my condition. with only like 1+ bottle of water, had to survive the nite. i keep waking up every hour or so. tossing and turning, eating panadol. goodness. worst nite ever. so in the end, didnt get any sleep. tts 2 days without sleep already. the next day become worse.

Yellowstone:
early in the morn, a bus from bozeman come to pick us up. i was still sick. weather is damn cold.wore a lot of layers and still cold. the bus came and we got up the bus. worse, i got a seat right at the back. as u know, the back part of the bus is shaky and uncomfortable. the whole seat was vibrating very hard all the way. didnt dare to lean back comfortably. cos its making me nauseous. so i had to sit up for the whole 1.5 hours. everybody was asleep in the bus. i had to fight back my motion sickness and cant slp. i tried to slp but when i close my eyes, i feel even more sick and wanna throw up. so i rather not. after a long ride, we reach yellowstone entrance. i was DYING!! ZY looked v worried all along. we had to queue to sign in and everytthing. its a long q. so couldnt go to toilet to throw up. tahan tahan... i cant remain standing for very long. sat down most of the time unless they call my name. Finally, everything's done. Go toilet! make myself throw up. Felt better. weather outside is very cold. we get our uniform and took a bus for lunch in MAMMOTH (part of YNP-Yellowstone National Park). The place is very open. wind every where. no where to hide. had our lunch. i didnt really eat cos no appetite. and the food sucks. i want porridge! i know they had a clinic there. die die also wanna go there. anyways, we still have a bit of time. its a long and cold walk to the clinic and i tot the clinic was my saviour. but haiz...

went to the clinic, waited for the DR. luckily he;s still there. he nearly went for lunch. after he checked me and did a test on me for some bacteria, he said i;m fine. just told me i;m too tired. i need to rest and drink lots of fluid. (ok i know that already). then he send me off. i asked 'so you are not giving me any medication?' the dr say 'oh you don;t need any. you can just get those from the shelves.' ARGH!!! cannot see ppl dying liao! dun wanna give medicine!! at least gimme smth to feel better la!! NEVER LO THE STUPID GUY! wah after that feel so devastated man. and the visit cos me USD33+. goodness!!! bo pian. go back.

they put me on a job in OLD FAITHFUL. another hour drive from MAMMOTH. the same bus again. but i chose a seat right in front. didnt help. threw up on the bus. yikes! they assigned us which dorm we should stay in. and the dorm its actually just next door to where they assign us (office). the driver see wrongly and tot we stay at the other side. got up the bus again and send all other people to their dorm before send us. that would be another 1 hour or so. making me feel worse. i;m feeling horrible horrible horrible. and it snowed... i have totally no strength, had to pull my big luggage up the dorm and stupid snow is in my face!damn cold la! worse still to come.

at nite, the darn dorm got no heater! when we asked the co-ordinator, he said ' its not on, if you need more blankets let me know' from what he said seems like he's the one who doesnt want to on the heater. need to get some rest. so put down my stuff and ready to go slp.

before that, called my parents. goodness.. their voice sounds so good. the best thing that ever happen to me within those few horrible days. couldnt call them since BOZEMAN cos there's no pay phone around. i told them i was sick and darn dr didnt give medication. luckily my dad told me yah mayb tts the case. just keep drinking water. think a few more days will be ok. ask me to eat more panadol. talked to my mum too. think she about to cry liao. haha. i hear also very sad. cos they nv hear from me for 2 days or so and i couldnt speak properly cos of my throat. but after listening to them, i felt much better. they are better doctors than the darn dr. so i took lots of water and went to sleep. of course, its nt a peaceful sleep. eat panadol every 3 hours and kept drinking water. drink too much water, what happens...? go toilet lo... so.. go toilet, drink panadol, cough cough cough, practically kept me busy for the whole nite. next day, training starts...

OLD FAITHFUL 2nd DAY:
Hello Housekeeping! I'm a high class maid! hahahahaha... i felt better already after the nite. it was training day. training was ok.. learned how to make the bed. quite fun. learn howto clean room and wash toilet. haiz. the hotel is not open for the season yet. so basically they are asking us to clean rooms thats not been occupied for sometime. 1st day we just see how they do it. On the 2nd day, we had to make bed and clean 8 rooms. 1st time, stupid stupid. really clean every corner. the next day, getting smarter.. know how to eat snake. which one to clean which one dun need. learn to drag our pace to escape more work to quickly finish our job to get released early. hahaha.. always scheming on what to do.. its the first few days of work so me and ZY pair up to clean rooms.. so when you ppl go to hotels, don't think its very clean. think again. they may have maids like us!!! haha.. we anyhow one. looks clean can liao. wanna know some stuff we do?

we wash toilet liao, clean liao rite? we use first... haha.. do our business- when we need to la. huahaha.. wash hand, wet right? nice clean towel available- wipe using their towel la. huahaha.. hand towel la at least, not bath towel.. tired, wanna chit chat, lie on the bed.. huahaha on the comfortor only tho.. hahhaa... feeling cold, have a runny nose, just pull their tissue! haha... we use gloves to clean toilets and wipe stuff.. and not supposed to wear gloves when we touch the towels. i lazy to take off. v ma fan. dun care la just use for everything if team leader nt around. hahaha.. so.. you all better dont come here to stay.. toilet actually all must wash. but i see the shower place quite clean, just spray water can liao.. hahaha.. so.. we getting pretty smart by the day.. er hm...

NOW:
Old faithful getting warmer. not as cold as when i first reach here. but weather very unpredictable. sometimes i get very cold. our room have heater from the 2nd day onwards. dunno why so sway, sick then no heater. Very very grateful to Zhiying. keeping me alive during my dark days. haha. she look at me so xin ku, i know she nt feeling good also. she helped me whenever i can. thank you thank you. i kept saying 'i;m gonna die here' so many times and ' what am i doin here' so many times... if i didnt come here, i'll be enjoying my time in indo, goring food that i love. here... haiz...

my appetite just started to come back. but goodness, Zy can really eat. she eat a lot leh.. everytime hungry.. everything is nice to her. i say all not nice she say everything nice.. dunno whats wrong with her.. she eat full meal. at least main course, dessert and fruits. wah.. i eat main course didnt even finish.. and she can stand the cold better than me too..

now we are at WEST YELLOWSTONE town. a fren of ours which we just had the chance to work with together today brought us here. so grateful. the drive here was amazing. saw a lot of bison on the way. some crossing the road, so had tostop and let them cross. so fun! haven seen any bears or wolves. oh yah! there's poo everywhere at our place. all shape and sizes... small circular one that comes in large groups, or big isolated ones. luckily cos its cold, they don;t smell. oh well think things are turing up for us. hopefully.

by the way, there no a single chinese like us working here. all americans. we feel so out. haiz. heard gt some sporeans comin in today. but haven met them. dunno will they stay in our dorm or not. quite miserable. they seem not to like asians too. got nothing to say to them.

long essay ah.. tired of reading or not? let's see what i missed... Zy will be uploading the photos..

oh yah. the daylight is long over here. 8.30-9.00pm then the sky will get dark. day break at bout 6+am. so in the morning if we don;t see snow, and not much wind, we know that probably today is a good day. if we see snow or windy, then die liao lo...

think that's about all of my story here. been only 1 week so far felt like been here for a month. haiz. i dun mind going back there now. sobz. oh was telling ZY the other other day, when we go LA, let's check into a hotel. and mess it up for them! haha! revenge revenge! i belong to the hotel room nt the dorm!! haha... oh well... dunno when we gonna have internet again.. so bear with us.. we have very little means of communication.. we;ve settled down. so don;t be too worried about us. Thanks for those who are concerned about us though!

you guys take care too!

~Yor

first week at yellowstone

2007-05-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

greetings from yellowstone! sorry for the lack of updates because we're so deprived of internet access over here! luckily our neighbour is kind enough to drive us to an internet cafe in west yellowstone and this drive is alrdy 45mins. but we just got to know today that there's 1 (pathetic) computer in the entire yellowstone open for use. so we might just drop by in future after work or during our offdays. Oh and by the way, there's no reception over here, so i cant receive any SMSes. the past 6 days felt that we're like so cut off from the rest of the world man!

we're 14hrs slower here and the weather was very cold when we first arrived. it was snowing during the first 2 days but things are better these few days alrdy maybe because summer is coming. there're no asians at our dorm yet and we're all surrounded by the americans. they are generally nice pple, who will smile at you along the corridoors and stuff but didnt really interact much with them except maybe 6 or 7 of them. heard that there will be a batch of singaporeans coming over today or tml. looking forward to that!

we're doing housekeeping here...hai..have to wash toilets, make beds, clean this and that. ironically, our room is in a total mess! the life here is totally diff from what we have in singapore..it's very close to nature and you will get to see bisons walking very near you or appear just before your windows. havent seen any bears or wolves around yet. our only place to shop here is the general store that sells some food and souvenirs. but the weather is too cold for us to walk around anyway. it's still spring here and hopefully summer will come in 2 or 3 weeks' time so that it wont be freezing our asses off anymore.

anyway, tml's our off day and we're planning to go to the Old Faithful geyser (the one that we read from our geography text yrs old). past by it ytd and it's sooooo magnificent. cant wait to see it erupt! alright, shall let the photos do the talking...will try to blog as often as possible and you all can email me instead of sms-ing me in the future ;)

at changi airport

thanks for sending us off! :)

at san francisco (we arrived at 7pm local time, all groggy and tired from our 15hrs flight). we booked an airport shuttle and brought us around for 4hrs. but sadly it was at night and there's really nth much to see.

chinatown, san frans. their roads over there are all slopes and some of them can be quite steep, so it's like taking a roller coaster ride while travelling on the roads.

lombard street. look how steep the slope is! but it's really a very beautiful scenary, just that our lousy cameras werent doing justice to it.

fisherman's wharf. the clam chowder is damn shiok! perfect for cold weather! i'm missing it alrdy.

at golden gate bridge. too bad the fog was soo thick such that we cldnt even see the bridge though it's just in front of us. totally cldnt see it AT ALL. such a pity.

fellow singaporeans

spending our night at san frans airport while waiting for our domestic flights early next morning.
the view from our dorm at yellowstone

our messy dorm

shopping at the general store!

on our way to west yellowstone. internet access, here we come!!!

that's all for now! take care everyone and we're missing everyone and everything in singapore now!

*zhiying

at taiwan

2007-05-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

greetings from taiwan! just arrived at taiwan airport at 7pm...we're now in the transit hall waiting for our next 11hrs flight to san frans at 11pm. thanks guys for sending us off! 　will post the pics when we manage to get a proper computer soon. the 5hrs from singapore to taiwan seemed very long though....

anyway, it's such a pity to be in taiwan but not being able to go out and shop ;( so near yet so far. how i wish i can go out and shop myself crazy at the night markets! such a waste man. the airport here is soooo quiet..so unlike of singapore's airport.

anyway, we met the 2 girls who will also be going to yellowstone with us. apparently, they seemed quite nice so far. and zhiying is getting homesick soon!! ;( (this spells trouble for yordia haha)

Indonesian note from yor:
nyonyowin ada lihat nga? harus baca yah!

2007-04-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Off to the AIRPORT!!!

yay i passed!

2007-04-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

today's truly a blessed day for me. never had i felt SO damn lucky before because i passed my driving test today! not because i was exceptionally good, but because i've got a rather easy test route and the traffic condition at both circuit and road was UBER good. like a few cars only...and most imptly, i had a VERY lenient tester. he was like so fatherly...guess he was the only kind tester around 'cause the rest of the testers are chinese and they looked damn stern and rigid. i guess i wld have flunked long ago if i've gotten the chinese testers.

so i have forgotten to put on my safety belt because i was so engrossed in pretending to adjust my rear mirror...such that i've gone through half of the ciruit without the belt till the tester's reminder. and the tester was kind enough to remind me on things like 'move off after that car move' or 'dont turn 1st' or 'signal and keep left' etc. see, where to find such a good tester! and he cld easily fail me because i've kinda exceeded the stopline by abit. PLUS, i forgot to check my blindspot during merging lane and there was actually a car on my right.

and i really went all the way out to pass on my 1st attempt..i did superstitious things like throwing in a gold coin under the mat and wearing a mini skirt based on the hearsays. haha! i mean seriously, it was quite unbelievable that i actually passed on my first attempt and i believe many pple agree to that too! (pple like miss ah jin esp, yor, lynn, meows and including myself!). and that's only 3 words that can describe my feelings now, overwhelmingly relieved+happy. and it's really heartening to receive so many well-wishes and good luck msgs from so many pple before my test. :)

anyway, had a ktv session with pei today...it's been so long since we went ktv....and it was very SHIOK. sang my lungs out today. it was followed by a farewell dinner with the girls. i'm going to miss all the people here in singapore (esp my girls and family and bed and laptop) :( till then, girls!

2007-04-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

TomorrowTomorrowTomorrowTomorrowTomorrowTomorrowTomorrow

and yesterday I suddenly realised I forgot my PIN number for my card. Goodness. Visited the bank so many times with ZY and I didn't think of it.

Enjoyed myself these few days. Especially after the exams. Went out to eat after exams and eating ice-cream. Wah nice. Thanks for the travel journal. So cute and think it's gonna be useful. ^_^

I;m leaving with 2 bags. one is very big.. but seems like everything is pretty full.. always worried how i;m going to come back if i going to buy stuff there.. winter clothing really took up a lot of space.. hm...

~Yor

2007-04-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

2 more days leaving...

Percentage packed: 0.1%... die...

somebody packed 85% liao... stress me only... i totally have no mood for exam... reading my notes but seems like it cant get inside my head.. and i think i have a bit loss of apetite ever since this morning.. smth that i would usually have before going abroad..

smth interesting i noticed from my mother... she can play games damn good.. i;m amazed.. haha.. i can't even do it.. anyone played 'cosmic stacker'? its a simple concept game similar to brick game, bubble shooter, things like that.. she finished the whole game! goodness.. she can play fast with lots of combos... keep getting 'great'-s and 'incredible'-s haha..

and i enjoyed the meet up w shelby too.. so long we nv sit down and talk.. see ya again on tue yah!

~Yor

packing

2007-04-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

it feels real good to be spending the whole day at home, without any exams or impending work to worry about. the past few mths (since CNY) had been CRAZY! juggling between the final yr project, 2 core projects, job-hunting, mugging for my psychology paper in the midst of the 1 mth temp job+cocoa trees over the weekends+driving lessons. speaking of job-hunting, i guess it's one of the most, if not, most terrible cross-roads for many graduates-to-be. it's a point where most of us are worried abt not being able to get a desirable job or unsure of what one actually intend to pursue upon graduation. cant wait for this job-hunting shit to end soon!

ok enough abt work stuff...the ever-nice bee suggested a farewell coffee yesterday night. havent seen her for sooooo long! but i was half-dead ytd parce que je suis malade!! never had such a painful sorethroat before such that even drinking water is like killing me. and i'm losing my voice...and it's all because i was gorging myself with digestive biscuits, the seemingly innocently-healthy biscuits.

anyway, finally got down to my packing...spent 2.5hrs on it and i'm 85% done. and at the end of the packing, my luggage is BURSTING. i'm leaving with 3 bags...and i can foresee myself coming back with at least 5 bags. 4 more days! i'm definitely gonna miss my laptop and comfy bed man.

oh by the way, i'm contemplating (again!) to put on braces. it has been an on-off issue for some time alrdy that was ignited by my mum's casual remark. so i went for the braces consultation and was told most prob i would have to extract 4 (GOODNESS!) teeth. and of coz not to mention the high costs and 2yrs of pain. should I?????

*zhiying

5 more days...

2007-04-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

5 more days to yellowstone.

2 more papers to go for my exams!
Haven't pack my luggage.
The thought of packing luggage tired already.
Suddenly feel that i'll miss home when i'm there there.
I'm so touched that my family coming over to send me off. Hm... usually i don't really feel the care that they give me but now i do.. not saying they don't care about me usually... =P
Glad that we know of some people that have the flights with us up to Yellowstone. So total, there'll be 5 of us. We still don't knowhow they look like but we'll know very soon!
Hm... think i better get back to study..

~Yor

2007-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

got an interesting link from jin, where she drew a reeaaalllyyy ugly pic of me! so now, it's my REVENGE TIME! muahahaa ;p

presenting to all......my cousin during sec sch days! i still rem how her black pen leaked and left a big stain on her white chung cheng skirt (that explains the red drips on her cute-raisins shirt). And not forgetting her trade-mark "drop-specs" image but too bad i cant find a gold-framed specs and the hands cant be moved to hold onto the specs. (private joke!) ;p but jin, i'm nt so mean, i still gave you your pearl necklace which u used to like, your brown hair, your fav colour--green background and nicely-trimmed eyebrows albeit the yellow teeth (oops!)

2007-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

and this is how i look! :)

2007-04-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Joking lah Jin! dont flare your nostrils ok! this is the YOU now! my twin ;) gone were the stains and specs (and hopefully the yellow teeth!). i've even given you a halo and wings since we're once a saint, always a saint ( haha so cheesy! but i still miss the jc days!)

just 3 weeks away

2007-04-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

in just 3 weeks' time, we'll be off to the rural yellowstone. cant really believe that it's THAT soon. but dont feel the excitement yet, or rather, i'm more worried i wld say.

the first night will be spent in san francisco airport with yor and we are planning to take a bus to the golden gate bridge (that will be around 9+pm since we will probably arrive at 7pm local time). and i'm really feeling quite insecure abt that coz it's quite dangerous for 2 girls to travel alone in a foreign land, whatsmore our first night there! plus, they've got guns (i'm v kiasi one ;p)

then the 2nd night will be spent in bozeman..and apparently we've booked our accomodation online from a reliable source before finally arriving at our employer's on the 3rd day of arrival. the 1st 2 days seem very uncertain to me. ;(

anyway, it's totally irrelevant but i'm gonna blog abt it anyway. went out with the cocoa trees fellow part timers and bitched abt the full timers like nobody's business. very shiok! the culture there is TOTALLY screwed! and by the way, chongqing steamboat is really not very nice...the tom yum is diluted with few variety of food..i still prefer the joaqium's steamboat..

and and, i'm finally done with all the projects and reports! tue's last lesson marked the end of my 17 yrs of education life. now i'm only left with 1 last paper and then it'll be convo! i've always wondered how will it be like to plant the last full stop on my last paper.

*zhiying

Facts on Yellowstone and US

2007-03-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hm... to give people an understanding of our understanding of Yellowstone, let's start listing facts of Yellowstone.. These are what we know and our perceptions.. May or may not be true..

Interesting facts:
1. Reeeaaallly nice view!!
2. It houses half of world's geyser population.
3. Lotsa animals there! Wolves (i'd love to see one!), Bears, Buffalos?...
4. They might just be right at your doorstep!
5. There should be snow, night-time temperature falls below zero degrees. Celcius. Not Kelvin.
6. Old Faithful is there.
7. During our free time, there are activities for us (kinda forgot), but I remember we can visit the glaciers, water-rafting, dunno what else...
8. It's near a town called Cody-a cowboy town.
9. Medical fee is free.
10. Housing only at $14/week.

Sianz Facts:
1. Hardly any Internet connection there. At least no wireless.
2. Might not have reception.
3. Ulu place. Reemoooteee!
4. No shopping centre.
5. Limited transport.
6. Lots of mosquito? Or bugs? Or lizard?
7. Hiking as a main activity. (We are not very fit, you see...)
8. Can't earn much money.
9. Wasted a lot of money. Not sure if it's worth it at this point.
10. Might need to clean toilets.

They are not listed in any order by the way.

Sianz Facts on US:
1. They got guns!
2. Dangerous at night. Yellowstone is ok though.
3. Expensive! Have to give lotsa tips: 10-20% of bill.
4. We don't know the way.
5. They speak very fast.

That's what i can think of right now...

~Yor

winter wear hunt

2007-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

went hunting for winter wear ytd after making a trip down to the Work and Travel Program organiser's office for the settlement of visa issues. there's so much for preparation but we're only left w one mth on top of our projects and finals and my driving test (oh! my driving test is on 30 april by the way. let's pray hard that i pass on my first attempt coz if not, i will have to wait till july when i'm back from US.)

speaking of the preparations....we'll have to get a hiking bagpack, sports shoes and winter wear though it's suppposedly summer. i guess the hunting for winter wear is the most exciting portion coz i have totally zilch interest in bagpack and sports shoes. i want to get a happy yellow winter coat! seriously, i dont mind spending on the winter coat but bagpack and sports shoes not to a great extent coz i know i wont use it when i'm back home. so pls give advice on where to get affordable and durable bagpacks and shoes!

anyway, i've been working like pretty hard to save up for the trip which requires us to pay 3.5k upfront. on top of the cocoa trees job, which i cant wait to get out of it due to the disgusting number of backstabbers and bitches and politics there, i just got myself a 9 to 6.30pm job at commonwealth doing data entry for 1 mth. alright got to slp early coz will be starting work tml. sian!

*zhiying

Author of the Memoir

2007-03-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome to 'The Yellowstone Memoir"!

This is where you will learn about our experiences
Is it going to be hell or heaven?
Will we know our way or get lost?
Will we be homesick (more for ZY, I guess)?
Will we lose weight or grow fat?

and hope everyone will enjoy reading this blog.

by Zhi Ying and Yordia.

Official open date: To be confirmed.

=P