Fly To USA

First of all, we would like to thank those who have read our recent article in Berita Harian and those who have visited our blog so far... Terima kasih banyak-banyak. It has been a quite interesting week. Since we have received positive feed back, we would like to reveal the whole story of our little adventure in US.

Hmmmm... how shall I start? The adventure actually took place end of last March till middle of April. The are many reasons why we picked US but I don't want to make you guys bored.. so just get started with the journal..

Day 1

Landed at Newark Airport (New Jersey) at 8.00pm, since our next flight at 6.00am next morning, so we decided to spend our night sleeping at the airport. Mula-mula risau jugak, tapi nampak a few travellers pun lepak kat airport so rasa ok sikit. Tapi bila time dah nak masuk pukul 2.00-5.00pg rasa sunyi betul.. Maklumlah airport Newark ni terletak kat New Jersey. Luckily Dunkin Donuts kiosk kept us company, bought donuts and coffee.. buat alas perut terus tak boleh tidur strong betul coffee dia..

Finally, time to check in for flight to Orlando. It took about 6 hours including one transit at Charlotte, North Carolina. Besar betul transit airport..dapat jugak lah ronda-ronda dalam tu. We landed at the Orlando Airport around noon, so grabbed quick lunch and took our shuttle to International Drive, our hotel is International Drive Inn (tapi recently dah tukar nama). Sementara tunggu nak check-in, we met a couple from Malaysia, James & Felicia. They're a very nice couple.. Ingatkan lepas rehat kejap dalam bilik hotel nak pergi jalan-jalan. Tapi kitaorang tertidur sampai pagi esok.. bayangkan from 4pm - 6.00am. Apa taknya, dah 36 hours tak tidur since dari Malaysia.

Day 2 (not really day 2)

Apalagi Disneyworld, here we come. To get to the Magic Kingdom, we had to take a monorail. Everything there was briliantly organized. From buying tickets and to get to Disneyworld, everything was perfect. After we been greeted by the whole Disney characters once they released the grand entrance to the park, we were like a little kids running inside. At that time, I was really happy coz that was my childhood dreams to be in the kingdom. Dari satu ride ke ride yang lain, we all macam kanak2 ribena tak nak berhenti main. Bila dah penat baru berhenti itupun sebab perut dah lapar. We were there until the grand closing.. nak tau apa? Apalagi bunga api and tinkerbell keliling the castle la. Till now, I couldn't forget it. One thing I learned from there, Dare To Dream.

Jeng..jeng the next day we spent the whole day at Disney MGM. Since we were the first batch to get in so were offered VIP access to Aerosmith's ride. The best part Faizal was the only one on the ride, I tak naik pagi sangat... So apalagi Faizal cakap memang BEST tapi kecut perut la..sebab sorang je dalam tu.. Disney MGM lebih kepada replika-replika penggambaran macam dalam kota San Francissco, New York dan mcm2. Kitaorg sempat jugak lah tengok aksi stunt team Luc Besson. 

Day 4 & 5

Another famous theme park, Universal Studio Orlando. Kat sini lagi la.. tak tau nak cerita macam mana lagi. Tapi kalau ada sesiapa yang memang giler naik ride this is the place. Hulks, Dueling Dragons, Mummy dan banyak lagi la.. but for me, being able to go to World's Largest Hard Rock Cafe was my ultimate for the day. Masa kat situ I was so proud of my country, when the staff asked where we were from and how long the journey was and Kuala Lumpur is actually a city or a country? As a self-appointed ambassador I explained every details, and they were impressed. Negara kecil tapi jiwa rakyatnya besar. Mestilah.. MALAYSIA BOLEH !

Masa kat sana, sempat jugak kitaorang tengok Ellen Degeneres show secara LIVE. Ingatkan dapat minta autograf, tapi nampaknya dia tak keluar2 dari kabin. Tak pe lah.. bukan minat sangat pun.. Jangan marah Ellen. Actually, Universal ada satu lagi park they call it, Islands of Adventure. Besides rides, they have many places to hang out from kids to adult. Memang rasa macam Alice in Wonderland. Kalau nak cerita detail memang panjang, but check our photos thru http://www.flickr.com/photos/budgetcouple

Day 6

It's time to say good bye to Orlando, Florida. An early flight made us slept at the airport again. This time more comfortable... It tooks us about 2hours to get to Memphis, Tennesse. From the airport to Days Inn, sunyi betul pekannya. Rasa macam betul ke ni?? Sebaik saja nampak Elvis Presley Boulevard, baru lega... yang bestnya hotel betul-betul sebelah kawasan Graceland. During our travel in US, Days Inn was the only hotel we stayed.(yang lain hostel jer) Masuk je bilik everything was about Elvis, dalam toilet pun ada gambar Elvis. There're two 24hrs Elvis channel on TV and radio station. Sebaik sahaja rehat kejap, terus la..ke Graceland. To cut story short, click our article on Berita Harian online.

The next day, we took the shuttle provided by Sun Studio to other attractions around Memphis. First, Sun Studio where all the big names were here such as Elvis Presley, Million Dollar Quartet, Johnny Cash. U2 dan ramai lagi. Kalau nak tahu detail tempat ni, Walk The Line is the best movie to watch. Sempat jugak la Faizal posing kat mikrofon yang digunakan oleh Elvis. Lepas tu kami ke Beale Street. Sepanjang jalan ni dipenuhi dengan bar dan music scene serta souvenir shop. Waktu siang tempat ni agak sunyi tetapi sebelah malam pula, bar serta pub mula hidup.

Dengan berpandukan peta, kitaorang pun jalan kaki menuju ke National Civil Rights Museum. This place used to be Lorraine Motel, where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated. They have revamped this place to be a museum. You may find interesting stories of the struggle for African-American civil rights from the first Africans arrival to the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. Pengalaman yang tak dapat dilupakan bila jalan dah dekat 1/2 jam tapi tak jumpa2, semakin jauh semakin sunyi tempat ni, orang kiri kanan asyik tengok kitaorang, maklumlah muka typical Asian. Jalan punya jalan sampai kami disergah oleh peminta sedekah, apalagi lintang pukang kami berjalan laju, akhirnya sampai jugak kat museum tu. Fuh! Lega rupa-rupanya yang sergah kami tu nak tunjukkan jalan sebab nampak sangat kami dah lost. Tapi kat sini kena hati2, if asked for direction you should give them some tips otherwise you'll be stalked. Lucky for us, every Monday (3.00pm-5.00pm) is admission free day so we spent almost 2 hours and took the tram back to the main street.

Gibson Guitar Factory, FedEx Forum, Rock N Soul museum and etc..etc.. are others can be visited. After spent almost whole day, we're back to our hotel and guess what? We had our dinner at Heartbreak Hotel. Just the perfect ending for our journey so far... 

We shall continue with 2nd half of our backpack travelling stories in the next post.