The Haunting Experience

Me n Hend arrived pretty early today. Round 10am. Our hopes of check-in early was dashed due to the not so nice lady at the front desk. Boo to her. The hotel is Holiday Inn Chateau Lemoyne. I know 10am is kinda early but when we asked for 2pm, she still said no and insisted that we waited till 4pm. Rediculous isn’t it.

So we just sat at the lobby to rest. Sosan n Ranjan arrived round 1pm. We where so excited to see them. Hehe. All 4 of us again. Went for lunch and found out that there is actually an hour time difference btw Atlanta and New Orleans. Haha. Dumb us. Now we got an extra hour to spend. Good!

Headed back to the hotel after a little exploring around the city. It was already 3pm and we decided to try out luck to check-in again. This time around, it was another lady and guess what? Yes, she allowed us to check-in. Which proves my point that the first lady is simply lazy and horrible.

Unique Archi of the Buildings

Went for the cemetery tour later the evening. I am kinda thankful that it is summer, hence the place is still brightly lit throughout our tour. Haha. Out tour guide Voodoo Mary sure knows her stuff. She just brings us around those expensive cemetery and the state owned ones to show us the difference. It was so crazy! Due to the above ground burial system, we actually manage to see human bones surfacing on the ground. Scary!

Street Car
On the Street Car

We also found out that there is so little space available in the past that people actually reuse the grave. Yes, reuse the grave. It is like the same family will use the same land over and over again. They will dig up the previous person’s remains and then bury it with the new person. Talk about recycling.

The cemeteries are so huge
State own cemeteries is not well maintained at all
One of the private ones. A tomb here can cost up to hundred thousand dollars!

Honestly, I don’t know what was more haunting, the problematic bus ride from Washington to Atlanta or the cemetery tour today. Haha.

Had dinner at a bar later that night with Sosan beating Hend at pool. Unbelievable! Haha. Hend who was so sad about his performance slept throughout the night while the 3 of us went partying. And this is our new found theme song. Luv it lots! You gotta boogie with this.

The 2 Big Cs of the Big Peach

The morning that we had to check out, both of us are like so attached to the room that we feel sad leaving. Hence, we fool around the room and take more photos. Haha. I loved Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta. We manage to see Hend's 'chai' on check out again. Haha. You must be wondering what are the 2 Big Cs. Read on and you will know.

Nice view from the room

Cam whoring in the room

We visited the main attraction in Atlanta. New World of Coca-cola. It was a very interesting and fun thing to do. We get to see how Coke is made. Track down the museum of coke and go on a 4D show all for only $15 dollars. Cheap Cheap le. We unknowingly spend like 2 hours at the place and that does not include checking out the gift shop.

World of Coca-cola
Signs of Coke from all over the world
More memorablia
So many designs, feel like taking them home!

The robot that process you coke. So many coke!

Hend's first time at a 4D show

We made a long long pitstop at the drink station. I cannot believe that there is actually so many brands of sof drink in the world. Those from Africa tasted distinctly different from what we have. Had a hard time trying to gulp down all those sodas. I crazily tried out everything they have there! Haha.

At the drink tasting stations. 5 region of soft drinks altogether.
I found my favourite soda from coca-cola. Its taste pretty much like water but the smell is good

We headed to CNN for an inside the studio tour. I am really excited about this tour as I really wanna know how that global news headquaters look on the inside. The ticket cost a whopping $12 dollars. They are so strict, no hp and camera.

We are at CNN!
The tallest escalator in the world. Its 7 storey high. Used this to get to tour start point.

We managed to catch a Singaporean newscaster, Richard Lui on action that day. Hend pointed it out to me. The inside of the studio is definitely less glamorous than I tot it would be. Apparently the studio and the workdesks are all in a huge hall, no studio room. The weather channel is just behind place where the shoot the main news. Space efficientcy I guess. One really amazing thing is there is only one cameraman contronlling those massive number of camera. I also found out they have 8 hours work shift! Isn't that good?

We went back to the hotel to get to greyhound for our bus ride to the next destination. Praying hard that this will not be as bad as the previous.

The Retreat

The bus ride last night was definitely one of the worst experience in my life. Greyhound was so disorganized that I can hardly figure out whether there is a system at all. We faced overbooking, seating problems, leaving passengers behind, screaming conductor, impromptu bag tagging and lost baggage. All in one 15 hours journey. Gosh greyhound is bad. Did I mentioned bout the dripping water from air-condition throughout the journey?

The whole horrendous bus ride was however rewarded with the great hospitality at Intercontinental Buckhead. They gave us an early check-in as early as 9am! Unbelievable isn’t it? We were so happy to see the interior of our room. Gosh It was just luxurious! Their fridge works on a sensor system

Our beloved room, 1110

Feels like heaven!

View outside the window

We decided to just relax and unwind at the hotel as it was so good. Went out for a short walk around the huge Lenox Mall. It feels like a relaxing holiday again after all those rushing that we did. I hope the other 2 are recharging too as there will be a lot to do as we approaches our next destination.

We finally get our ass out of the hotel round night time. We check-out Underground Atlanta some kinda shopping place that reminds me of Heeren. The whole shopping mall is built underground with 19th century concept. Lots of Atlanta souveniors available here.


The best part of making out way downtown has to be the surprising discovery of the Jazz Festival. There were so many people at the park and the Jazz music is just marvelous. The fair going on is just great! So many people so many things to eat and buy. The place is just bustling with energy.

So many people!

Enjoying my lemonade, see the huge food stall behind me?

The band is just great! Wanna boogie to African Dance.

We headed off back to the hotel that night. The 20 minutes wait for the train is just crazy. Argh. For the first time I was so looking forward to going back to the hotel room and not exploring around. Haha.

The Shortest Day of the Trip

There is really nothing much that we wanna go today. Guess we are finally gave in to the tiredness from rushing for the past week. Got up just in time to prepare for check out. Even hang out at the kitchen for quite a while. Again, we have leftover pizza for breakfast. Haha.

See how disaticfied I am with the pizza? Haha

Is she sending him signal?

We left for the day visiting the Holocaust Museum. It is very very huge. Without realising it, we actually spent all our time available that day at the place. Images were less disturbing than I tot they would be. Guess they are trying to cater for kids also, not to scare them ma. I still like the BEP Museum that we visited yerterday better. (we get to see how the USA is printed there) Did I mention that most museums at the National Mall is free? So if you are crazy bout museum Washington DC is the place for you.

Gosh is that a middle finger?

Ronald Reagan Building

Rushed off to board the bus, we were there just in time. Meaning the queue is already super long. Hence, we cannot get seats together. That is just the beginning of the most horrible bus ride in my life. By the way only me and Hendrik are going Atlanta as Sosan n Ranjan decided to visit Philly and skip the bus ride. Lucky them.

A Day at the Capital

We reached Washington DC after a pretty screwed up bus ride. Apparently they overbooked our bus and had to call a replacement driver who is not from greyhound. This led to the problem of trying to find the greyhound station at every stop. We were a total 2.5 hours late when we reach Washington DC that day. Argh!

We went to store our luggage at the hostel before heading off to the city to explore. They once again screwed up my reservation. We were moved from a 4 bedroom dorm to a 6 bedroom dorm again. I'm really getting fed-up with all these over booked systems. Booooooooo

We started our sightseeing of the National Mall (Not a shopping mall. It is where all the museum and admin are carried out in the capital city.) at the Capitol Building. It was so impressive and big, much better than seeing it on TV. Our intention to visit the inside of the Capitol did not materilised due to timeslot inavailability. We did however, took lots of picture of the building. The crowd visiting the building is really crazy. There must be like hundreds of people queueing up.

The Capitol Building
Perfect Shot!
This is how the camera man got the perfect shot, Haha.

We continued walking along the National Mall. It was huge! Grab some hotdogs around the place. It was sure expensive! But hungry la, so no choice lo. Must eat, if not later will faint. The Foot Long Coney Island is very tasty. Took a few pics around the area. Sorry I forgot the name of this building. Haha.

We join a free walking tour at 2pm that day. When we first arrived, the meeting spot is kinda empty. We almost left thinking that the tour was cancelled. The tour was really engaging and fun. The guy was wearing a baby blue shirt with orange cap (that's a fun colour already) and was jumping around, so full of energy. I wonder how he does that. Haha. It is call the Free DC Walking Tour. (Just in case u guys wanna do it) I definitely recommend doing it. You get info bout the place without too much boring naration.

The Washington Monument. A great place to view the whole National Mall
At the reflecting pool of Lincoln Memorial with Washington Memorial behind The New WWII memorial with all the US states

We found out one really fun fact. They actually build the White House and Jefferson Memorial directly opposite each other to make sure that Thomas Jefferson keep an eye on the President of US. Haha. See, Chinese are not the only superstitious one. The even make sure that no trees blocks the view between the two. The Capitol and Lincoln Memorial also faces in other but I don't know whether there is a reason for that. All these 4 and the Washington Monument make up the Big 5 must see of the place. They are just so impressive.

Jefferson Memorial, my favourite landmark
White House, this is the closest that we can get.

Went back to check-in that day with the intention of checking out Dupont Circle night life. But the piggy me slept the night away while the other have pizza in the room. Yes I slept without dinner. Slaps head...

Boston, it is Oh-so posh!

Today is gonna be a long long day. We started our day at Boston Common with the intention to walk the freedom trail. Took a photo at the garden that day and found out that we are now down to only 2 cameras. (mine died on me yesterday at Fenway Park and now Ranjan's is dying) Boston murdered our camera! We spotted a tourist office and decided to walk in to ask about tours available.

The overexposed shot of the dying camera

This is how the place supposed to look like

After a long discussion, we decided to take the trolley and not to walk the freedom trail as we wanna see more of the city. (Lazy to walk also la. Haha) It turned out to be a very wise decision as the ride on the trolley around boston was marvellous! We got to see so many parts of the city. Furthermore, our driver is really entertaining. We drove across the bridge to the USS constitution, Copley Square, MIT, Fenway Park, Teather District, Wharf Area, parts of the freedom trail, etc.

It cost 30 dollars, but its good.See how excited we are?

The walk around Quincy Market was a good one althought we did no really get to shop or sit down to chill. The place is full of activities. Cafe by the cobblestone walk, lots of pushcarts selling souveniors and very good buskers too. The driver made a joke about people coming to Bekerly Music College and then go busking after the graduate. I wonder whether it is true as I listen to those great beat from the drummer. Haha.

After getting down the trolley, we quickly strategise on where we wanna go. We got on the trolley once again and it was the same driver. Haha. The guy actually remember us and ask us aren't we bored going on it so many times. Little did he know that we are actually using his trolley for recree purpose. Haha.

USS Constitution, oldest battleship

Where is the treasure?

We quickly boarded the last trolley to Copley Square where the archi is just magnificent. Feel so lucky that we took the trolley as we never plan to visit this place until when saw it on the trolley ride. Hehe. Beacon Hill is also a great place to chill. Those nice brownstone houses which houses cafe and stores gave me a very relaxing feeling.

It was a difficult shot. Thanks camera man!

Huge reflecting pool at a church

We took the T to Harvard straight after to see what the ivy league school is all about. To our horror, it started raining the moment we exited the T. We would have went back the hostel to chill had it rain earlier. Argh. We sat down at a deli for dinner while hoping for the rain to stop.

At the Harvard T station

The rain stopped when we finished filling up our tummy. Yeah! So we took the opportunity to explore around the campus. There is not many students around at that time. What a waste! So we were kinda walking around aimlessly around the empty campus. Haha. Nothing really impresses me, so I would say skip this place if you don't have enough time when visiting Boston.

Harvard Hall, with Ranjan's dying camera

Trust me this place looked better in pic

One of those abundant red building

Went back to the hostel after that to drag our luggages to the bus station . It is definitely the best greyhound station in USA. Really clean, not smelly and lots of food outlets. If only all greyhound stations can be like this. No wonder people like to stay in Boston. Everything is just beautiful and clean. Well, at least those palces that I have been. Alright now its time for the long bus ride to Washington.