Mexico adventure is over… time for holidays!

Hi all!

As the title clearly states, my Mexico adventure has finally arrived to an end. Well... finally might not be the most appropriate term to use, as the experience has been very interesting and I've learned a lot. It has also enlarged my visions of things and working directly with the final client directly make you realize some things you might not see when you are developing an application 10k km away from where it is actually being used.

As my trip back from Mexico city implied a stop over in LA and I had two very good friends in the same area at the same time (best coincidence ever), I decided to take some well deserved leaves and do some travelling! I asked my company to do a 1 week stop over in Los Angeles so that I would be free to do whatever I wanted in the meanwhile! *dream*

My first detour was aiming to visit my best mate Thomas Wolf (you can find the link to his blog on the right panel, although he has not updated it since he left Singapore, more than a year ago), in Vancouver, Canada.

He was finishing his 6 week summer program in the University of Victoria,  so I just dropped by the same day he was over (1st August). The plane from Mexico city left very early in the morning, had someone pick me up at the hotel at 5am. Flight spent mostly sleeping Problems started when I arrived to Los Angeles: my plane was late, and I already had a tight schedule: 2h to clear the customs, pick my luggages, change terminal, check-in, pass customs again, and enter the plane. Luckily for me, as I was travelling in business, I could sneak out of the plane fast enough to avoid the crowd, but only to hit another problem with the USA customs: when I first entered the country for my transit to Mexico city, they clipped a green immigration form in my passport, that they should have removed once I left the US. Problem is that they forgot to do it, so I lost a huge amount of time clearing this thing with the custom officer (I'll have to do a photocopy of some pages of my passport and sent them back with some form as soon as I reach Singapore). After the long queue for the custom, the problem on it, I had to queue for my bag, then run run run to the other terminal. They were making the last call for my flight to Vancouver, managed to do the check in on time (30min before the departure of the plane, which at the end was a good thing, didn't have to pay for the extra luggage I was carrying), only to find more queues to do the new security clearance, customs. But.. I made it on time! Yay! I really though I would never make it.

Sweaty but relieved, I slept the whole flight to Vancouver!

Once there, I cleared the customs again (I'm really getting tired of this haha), even though the officer was quite confused by my itinerary (ok, I guess a French guy, working in Singapore, coming from a 2 month business trip in Mexico and going to Vancouver followed by New York is not really the most common case of tourist arriving there :p ).

After that.. well, my friend Thomas was waiting for me, beer in hand at the airport! He was there with his classmates, as they were leaving that same day.

After leaving our stuff in the airport luggage center, we went uptown Vancouver to check out the Capilano suspension bridge, a bridge located North Vancouver, in the middle of the forest. The bridge is really huge, and persons with heights problems might have problems crossing it, as it really moves a lot. On the other side of the bridge, you can also do some tree walking, and also some hiking. Very peaceful place, but we got the picture of the place quite fast. After that, we headed downtown to have drinks and dinner. The initial plan was to sleep at a friend's place, but we had some trouble contacting her (phone and sobriety problems...). Problem was: no place to stay in town! It just happened to be the gay pride parade so all hostels were fully booked.

Hopefully for us, Thomas could contact his course supervisor, that managed to find us a place where to stay for the night... which just happened to be a Chinese family! The father of that family picked us up at the airport, with all our staff and we managed to get a bed where to sleep. After a good rest, the father dropped us in the nearest bus station, where we took a bus to the ferry terminal. Destination: Nanaimo.

We unfortunately missed the ferry we were aiming by few minutes, so we had to wait in the ferry terminal for 2h before getting into the actual ferry (2~2.5h ride). Once in Nanaimo, we found out that there were no buses from there to the town or our next destination... the Wild Play Element Park. Where we wanted to... bungy jump!

We had to take a cab down the park, as it was quite late already, and once there, well, we went straight to what we aimed at: the bungy jump! They basically weight you before jumping (aouch, I could feel the Mexico effect...), so that they can calculate the length of elastic rope they need to put. Then, you have to go up the bridge and wait for your turn!

The waiting time was quite long, but weather was good, we were on holidays, and sun was there. We only had to decide for two things before our turn would come: how to jump, and if we wanted to go underwater or not. Basically, there are two ways of jumping:

• First one, you jump by yourself, front facing the void. This is what both Thomas and myself did.
• Second one, you jump backwards: you will hold a rope, the instructor will hold the other side. Once he decides he will just drop the rope and you will fall.

The other thing we had to decide is whether we wanted to go underwater or not, and if yes, up to what level of the body. We both decided to take off our shirts (oh oh!) and go up to chest level down the water.

I've to admit that even if I was not tired, when the moment arrives that you have to jump.. well, it's not easy haha. Even though you know it's safe, you always have the "what if?" question coming back, and you need to take a leap of faith and just jump.

Thomas said it was actually better than sky diving, as you really feel the adrenaline rush when you fall, and you see the river coming and approaching your head (and yes, we both got soaped in Canadian river!)

Once the jump is done, they will pick you up downstairs, and we both happened to ask the girl that was picking us if she knew how to get out of there downtown. Very friendly, she proposed to drive us down to the hostel after she was done (and we didn't have to wait much as we were among the last ones to jump).

After the excitement and the drive to the hostel, we went for dinner and drinks in Nanaimo. Not the most happening place in the world actually, it's a veeeeery peaceful city, and nothing much to do by nights. We manage to find to Canadian guys in some random bar, that went with us seeking for some fun in the city. After several hop in different bars, the group went bigger and later on the night we settle down in "The Queens", a pub with a live band. But... well, Thomas managed to injure himself, he fell down against the stage while dancing with some girl. He injured pretty badly his face and his nose, I actually got quite scared, he was bleeding a lot (he might get a scar in the nose after this incident )

The day after, we woke up very late and took the bus down to Victoria, where I visited the uni he spent the past 6 weeks, and meet the coordinator team of the summer program. We managed to squeeze in with the new group, and joined them into a hiking of a mountain. It was very fun, and I could imagine myself like in Singapore: 90% of the group was Chinese!

After the hike, we went down town with Christina (the coordinator), with who we had dinner and drinks in the harbour. She then dropped us in the ferry station, where he headed back to Vancouver. We had booked a cheap hostel downtown so that we could easily get to the airport the next day.

My trip to Canada was coming to an end, but I will retain very good memories out of it. Of course the main purpose of this trip was to see my friend Thomas again: it was really good to see him again and catch up with all our stories and tales. But... well, I did enjoy the country itself: Canada is really an amazing country, I was really surprised by how cool the locals were. Very very friendly, always very polite, it really felt like a safe country. Also the sceneries: it's a green country, full of forest and amazing nature. A lot to do, both in summer than in winter.

After a short breakfast at the airport with Thomas, we said "see you later", as we know we will be seeing each other for New Year Eve, as usual now . He was heading to Germany, and me to my next destination: New York city!!A city I've always wanted to visit since I was very young. There, I was visiting my friend Sara Fikrat, a very good colleague from my uni times in Lyon.

The travelling journey was quite long, I went from Vancouver to Toronto, , where I found that my Toronto - New York was cancelled (probably due to a lack of passengers). I was reschedule to the next one, so had to wait extra time in Toronto. I touched down in New York city around 20ish, in La Guardia airport. I was  quite lost there, didn't know how to get a cab down there. I ended up in a shuttle cab van, where I only had to pay 15$ the ride downtown, but it took me ages (the concept of those cabs is that they fill a van with different people / destinations and once full they will drive down and drop everyone starting South NYC up North. I actually did enjoy the ride, as I entered the city by the Brooklyn bridge and got a glimpse of NYC. I've to admit I was like a little kid visiting Disneyland for the first time: New York city by night is just magic, with all the lights, people, etc.

Once arrived to the hotel (I was hosted by Sara in her hotel room, she managed to get an extra bed), it was weird to go up, knock at her door and got to see her after 2 years! Even more surreal to walk down Times Square, as if we had never been away, to enjoy a drink and some food (I was damn hungry haha). We also joined Sara's course friends, (which happened to come from everywhere in the world, even Singapore!).

The day after she had her course going on, so I woke up quite late (11am) and went for a walk in the city (always like to do that in new cities). I walked quite a long distance, went from the 44th where the hotel is down to the union square, up and down. I was just amazed by the skyscrapers surrounding me, and the shops, and the cars.. and... and.. well, everything! I visited the Empire State building as it was on the way down and after that long walk, I went back to the hotel, to join Sara as she had just finished her day. We went for dinner in the nearby area, and had drinks and Karaoke

The day after, I went down to the financial district, and experienced the metro to get there. I love NYC metro! It has it's own soul, and can be quite complex (many lines coming in the same station, some are express, other are not, signs are not that clear, but still!). Saw the Ground Zero and the stock exchange, but had to rush back to the hotel to meet Sara for lunch. Then from the hotel we walked west until we arrived to the sea, to see the aircraft carrier "The Intrepid". From there we walked all the way down to the financial district again, following the sea. I got a first glance of the Statue of Liberty and Soho and the other districts of NYC. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with Sara!

Next day, we went to the American Museum of Natural History, a very interesting museum where you can see incredible dinosaurs skeletons among other stuff. After spending the morning there, we had lunch (in a Mexican!) and we headed up to Central Park, where we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the lakes and different parts of the park. Very nice place, quite surreal how they are surrounded by the skyscrapers. After that, we headed back to the hotel and we decided to go for a movie. It turned out to be another interesting adventure: we went to a theater near Time Square, they basically have whatever movie you like, every 30min. Price is quite expensive (~12$ per person), and the surprise came when we ordered the medium set of drinks and popcorn: the drinks where like triple the size of usual medium size drinks, and the popcorn was really huuuge. And it was very expensive!!! But it was free refill! As if we could ever finish those ones already . The movie was nice (Salt) and after the movie we went for an early (not so early actually) sleep.

For my final day in New York, we went down to the financial district in order to do another amazing thing NYC has to offer: tour of the city by helicopter! Quite expensive (more than 150$!), it's really worth it. Plus I got the change to seat near the pilot, so it was really an amazing experience. I got really nice pics and seeing the city from the air is completely different. The statue of liberty seemed sooo small!

After the thrilling experience, we went to take some photos with the financial bull (apparently you need to touch his balls to get wealthy... which I did, who knows!), and went up to visit the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). That museum was really amazing and it would have been a shame to miss it. The shop was also very interesting, I'm lucky I don't live there or I would spend all my money in it! After that, what better way of finishing my trip and day than a Broadway show?

We had bough our discounted show tickets earlier in the morning for the "Billy Elliot" musical in the Imperial Theater.

First time for Sara, second for me, we both really loved the performance. There were a lot of very talented artist and among them very very young ones (the main character is only 12 years old!). Sara went out of the who with sparkling eyes, I think she really loved the experience. On the way back to the hotel, we crossed one of her colleagues and joined the Asian crew in a bar. After several drinks, we went back home, and I finished packing.

The way back started the day after, Monday 9th August at 4am! From NYC, I would take a plane to LA (horrible trip, I spent 6hours with a baby 1 seat away from me crying and crying, finished with a horrible headache), where I would wait more than 10h until I could catch my final plane to Singapore (18h of flight!). Longest trip I've ever done (the longest one was the Madrid-Paris, Paris-Singapore, Singapore-Sydney), with a record of 40h from hotel to "home", except that this time there was not really a "home" waiting for me, but a coach... Time to search for accommodation!