The Greyhound Adventure

I've seen it in some of the movies, when the actors take the Greyhound bus when going on intercity or interstate trips within United States. And so the idea of going to San Francisco, CA via the Greyhound bus appealed to me. I wanted to experience one of the all-American way of public transport.

They have a website to book online but due to my lazyness and also perhaps because I wanted this trip to be spontaneous, I did not book online and decided to just purchase the ticket on the counter, an hour before the ideal schedule I wanted. From the little inquiries I got, the bus route would not be scenic anyways so I thought I might as well take the night trip on Dec 17th and arrive in San Francisco at 7am the following morning.

This was the schedule I intended to get:

When I told my Uncle (who I'd be staying with in San Francisco) about taking the Greyhound bus, he seemed worried. He told me to sit at a seat near the driver, be very careful and be very alert at all times. I am used to long bus travels from my Singapore-Malaysia travels and so I thought an intercity bus in the USA would be similar and so there was nothing to worry about. But oh boy, I was not ready for what I was about to experience.

The bus from Riverside that was supposed to leave at 8:45pm for LA was 45 minutes late. The ticketing office in Riverside closes at 7:30pm, so I had to take my chance and purchase from the bus driver a ticket to LA if there were seats available. So my assumption that the bus was starting from Riverside was obviously wrong, the bus started from another city. When I got to LA, all the seats for the 11:35pm bus were taken and the next earliest available bus would leave LA at 2am and would arrive in SanFo at 1pm. I had no choice so I took it. But at least there was some unexpected advantage (to my amazement): the tickets were waaay cheaper over the counter than from online!

My ticket itinerary showed:

We arrived in Fresno, half an hour ahead of schedule. From there I had another bus transfer..to a what they call a local bus. Unlike the bus from Riverside to LA and LA to Fresno which was the usual 56 seater big bus, this local one was smaller and older. The seats are not as comfortable and most are already broken (i.e. stuck in reclined position). But what really caught me off guard was the "hidden layovers" in that itinerary because from Fresco to San Francisco, I think we almost stopped at each city we passed by for 5-10minutes each to pick up/load off passengers.

So this was what actually happened:

We did arrive on schedule in San Francisco but I was freezing the whole time from Fresno to San Francisco because the bus heater was not working! Anyhow, let's see what was my total travel time including the waiting time: 8pm to 1pm would be...16 hours!!!

That is almost the same travel time on a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles!

Going back from San Francisco to Riverside on December 22, I thought it would be a breeze, because I got the express ticket:

Then from LA to Riverside:

I did not anticipate that it would be a very packed weekend as it was the last weekend before Christmas and everyone was going somewhere. So you could imagine how there were A LOT of passengers that for the SanFo to LA bus 11pm departure, they had to have 3 buses to accomodate all the passengers (2 buses were chartered buses). The trip from San Francisco to LA arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule. However, the trip to LA from Riverside was something that was unbelievable. I thought I was only going to have to endure 3 hours of wait for my bus but at 10am the boarding door for my bus has not opened, meaning there was still no bus for my route. At 11am finally, they boarded us. However, besides being late, they did not at all follow the scheduled route. I should be in Riverside by 11:40am but with the route they made:

Los Angeles to

Hollywood to North Hollywood to

Glendale to Pasadena to

San Bernardino to Riverside

it took me 3 hours to finally reach Riverside. That's another 16 hours of total travel time!!!

Taking the Greyhound bus was indeed one heck of an adventure. It was not at all what I expected, I had underestimated its challenge but I can proudly say that I was able to go through it, I did it! Just like a local! I can't really say that I am regretting choosing to take the Greyhound bus, for after all, this experience made me see a lot of the places in California, it made me learn new things about people, culture and meet another face of reality in United States...but let's just say that this is one of the things that I wanted to try and have tried that now I would say that once is just enough. ;)

Gandhi, My Father

On board SQ12 going to Los Angeles via Tokyo (Narita).

I don't know my exact position right now, but we're about 2 hours away from Narita. I have just finished watching "Gandhi, My Father" and this movie indeed proves that it deserves the Best Screenplay award it got from the recent Asia Pacific Screen Awards. I learned about this movie after watching the awards ceremony in CNN weeks ago during one time I was runnning on the treadmill in the gym. It has taken my interest since then as it presented Mahatma Gandhi in a different perspective - he has always been presented as a successful father of a nation but in this movie we will see his failure as a father to his own son.

The movie is more than two hours long but there is no dragging moment, every scene is so essential and so I give all my admiration to screenplay writer and director Feroz Abbas Khan. I also have to give credit to the cinematography, nothing really fancy, but it presented the film with India's colorful and artistic culture, which added to the consistent vivacity of the film without reducing the melodramatic setting. And of course, my applause goes to the actors as well, for an outstanding performance, subtle and yet so powerful. I had to keep slouching down my seat to be more discreet, otherwise, the other passengers and the cabin crew might think I am a troubled person who's too depressed that she could not help sobbing in the plane (good thing my seatmate is sleeping!). Well, that's my normal me, I cry when I am deeply moved.

This definitely made it to my list of favorites movies. Watch it, maybe it would make yours too.

This is the official website: http://www.gandhimyfather.erosentertainment.com/

Christmas get-togethers and dinners

'Tis the season to be jolly...

Yup, Christmas is just around the corner. As most people, especially for foreign workers like me, who will be going back to home to Philippines or someplace else for their holidays, usually we do some get-together parties before going on own separate ways for the season. So I have had quite a busy week to squeeze in everything before I go on my holidays:

Dec 7, Friday: Dinner at Marché restaurant in Vivo City

Had a great time with my friends. It was like a deja vu, as two years ago we had our Christmas dinner at Marché in Orchard Road. I had some Swiss rosti with mushrooms and a rootbeer float for dinner and a mercy hug from Eypooh :P

Dec 8, Saturday: Back to the 80's Christmas Party

Had a very fun time with some friends reminiscing the 80's in Sunnysprings Condo Clubhouse. We dressed up. I wore a Bagets* inspired outfit, complete with a ponytail on the side hairdo. Who says blue and purple can't go together? hehehe. But hands down to Dayohbabe's pink tights. Thank you to the Chili organizers Ays, Eypooh and Dayohbabe and Donnah for a fun, fun, night and yummy Pinoy foods (macaroni salad is the best!), catered by Panyeros Catering. :)

*A very popular teenage movie in the Philippines during the 80's

Dec 9, Sunday: Christmas Lunch at 7107 flavors

On this rainy day, my housemates Uly and Mimi were so thoughtful enough to accompany me to do some winter clothes and travel bag shopping after going to mass together. We had a yummy Filipino lunch of garlic rice, sisig, kare-kare, laing and ensaladang mangga at 7,107 Flavors restaurant in Marina Square. I love the ambiance of this restaurant, especially the Filipino Christmas decors of parols (lanterns) and a belen . I also love the food presentation, makes you proud to be a Filipino ;)

Dec 11, Tuesday: Christmas dinner with the Chilis at The Forbidden City, Clarke Quay

As always, I had a great time with my chili friends. We had quite a posh experience in Indochine-The Forbidden City. This posh restaurant, beautiful ambiance and the food is superb too. The waitress was also a very nice young Filipina who was so accomodating and friendly and who made my night by guessing my age to be 23 years old (hahaha). We chilis also each had a glass of wine to conclude the night, we were missing Aoisoba all the while. Then yup, you might have guessed it, I had to take the cab to go home, as you know, even a very little amount of wine is lethal to me, hehehe.

Dec 12, Wednesday: Christmas dinner with Admin team at Tuk Long @ The Central, Clarke Quay

In my company, for Christmas, we go to dinners by department and as I am the only one in my department in our office, the administration department has adopted me to be a part of theirs. And just like last year, we had it in a Chinese restaurant, as all of them were Chinese. I do not mind it at all, since I like Chinese food. Last year though, we had it in the revolving restaurant on top of Meritus Mandarin Hotel along Orchard Road so I got nausated instead of enjoying the food. But this year we had it in Tuk Long restaurant in The Central Mall at Clarke Quay. We were so full from the 7-course meal plus 2 orders of chili crab. The food is great and one I can neverforget is how much the staff of this restaurant loved to change our plates and utensils after every course. They must really have a lot ofdishwashers. hehehe.

Dec 13, Thursday: Dinner with at Sun with Moon Resto in Wheelock place

This was our last class for our French course for this term and since there weren't much left to discuss, we only had 1 hour of class instead of the usual 3 hours. So we had plenty of time left for the night so my colleague (and my classmate in French too) and I then went to Orchard road and went to have dinner at Sun with Moon Japanese restaurant at Wheelock place. I've been wanting to eat here because I've had good feedbacks about it. True enough, the food and ambiance was great, I had a Japanese prawn and pork pancake and a very nice guava juice with little rose buds on top. I was also surprised to see that it wasn't as expensive as I thought it was. Then we went to a Mac store bought some stuff we need.

Whew! With so many food involved here, my entry seemed to have become a food and restaurant review, hehehe. Anyway, that's all for my Singapore Christmas get-togethers, now it's time to be on another side of the world.

Lost but not found

It was just a mere 10 to 15 minutes since I left that bus stop beside our condo and got to the train station and went back to that bus stop. But as I was expecting, I did not see my small red paper bag. I went back to my room, hoping that I left it there instead. Then I went to the bus station and checked if I may have left it in the bus. The bus station officer was quite accomodating to help me look inside the buses but when we didn't find any red paper bag, I became certain I left it at the bus stop and somebody had taken it already when I came back for it.

So what's with the red paper bag, anyway? Well, that red paper bag contained the Christmas gifts I nicely wrapped last night for my chili friends. I wanted to cry, but I did not, I had to be strong. It was devastating, but I had to accept that I lost them, and I could not do anything to bring them back. It was not easy to accept it, knowing that I only have myself to blame for it. Sometimes, stupid mistakes can be laughed off but for this instance,my absentmindedness was not a very easy thing to laugh off, because what I lost were gifts to my friends, gifts that I had enjoyed wrapping up with a special touch and I was excited for them to see...only to be lost and be found by someone who will just see those gifts as mere gifts wrapped in a typical Christmas wrapper. The bag also contained unused Christmas cards, which I meant to write and give to people close to my heart but just like the gifts, those will be just seen by someone as mere Christmas cards. But yeah, perhaps I was really meant to lose it and somebody else was meant to find it, perhaps that somebody needs it more than I do, perhaps that person also has some special people that he/she would like to give some presents this Christmas but he/she couldn't afford it, perhaps, perhaps...perhaps I should just leave it thinking as that. I consoled myself with that thought and the fact that I still could do something about the situation to find some remedy and move on. So I was still sad when I arrived at the office, I was 2 hours late. But by lunch break I was feeling a lot better, thanks to my lunch buddy who offered to help me go shopping again to "re-buy" the gifts I lost. By late afternoon I had completely recovered after finishing wrapping them up (yes,I did the wrapping at my desk during my work hours!) and was ready to meet my good friends for our Christmas dinner.

So, as the saying goes "all's well that ends well". It would have been nice if for each devastating experience, it would be just at the end of the day that we will realize that the conclusion of something tragic could become a happy ending afterall, no?

Just like riding the rollercoaster

While in the train today on my way to work, I was thinking about rollercoasters. There is a popular figure of speech pertaining to this: they say that love is like a rollercoaster ride. I think because of the ups and downs, the turns and twirls of a relationship but which make the relationship exciting...

But let's leave that as is since I was thinking of another perspective...I was thinking that having to wake up from a nice dream is like riding a rollercoaster ride. You feel so weak in the knees just by looking at the hoops and loops you've got to go through. You feel like you could not do it, but then again, you console yourself that you could do it, because you've had a rollercoaster ride before, just not the same rollercoaster but which were alike anyhow. Especially when you have no choice but to go do it. When there's no more turning back because you are already on your seat and the rollercoaster is already going slowly up, up, up and then getting ready to take that first very deep plunge that will be the start of an unforgettable and scary moment. But you still brave yourself, close your eyes and take a deep inhale and hold it, tell yourself that it will be over in a few minutes and then you scream your heart out as you flash down the steep rail. Then you will open your eyes when the ride stops and walk away just like that. Maybe there will be aftershocks for some minutes, like knees still trembling, heart still beating faster than usual, a tensed breathing, and perhaps even some more tears if there are still any left from all your crying during the ride. But eventually, you will go back to your normal self. You will smile and give yourself a pat on the back to say, well done, you survived!

Yup, yup, it's time to wake up.