This is probably a more “complete” post compared to the previous one. I am going to make a series of posts from the first day to the last day followed by a more private posts filled with my rant and perhaps a concluding post with some of my reflections. Be entertained sure that you have something from me to read for one week at least, though not promised to be consecutive. I’ll probably make a “photos highlights” next time.

I woke up at 545 (I think) and after some washing up, my dad drove my family to Changi Airport Terminal Two to prepare for an extremely early check in for SQ 16. The check in was pretty smooth and fast. Don’t take this efficiency for granted for you will soon see in my last post for the last day as to why this is so.

After check in we bade farewell to our parents and friends (gosh all of them were all too lazy to come this early) and flew off with 5 hours of airtime (pun intended ) to transit in Seoul. Well, at least I can proclaim to have landed on the soil of South Korea.

The seats of SIA were much better than the horrible Valuair I sat a couple of years back to Hong Kong. At least there were more leg space, decent food and a working entertainment system! I don’t know if it’s just my lack of expertise in food or otherwise, SIA’s food had no “wow” factor though they were pretty good, comparable to Cathay Pacific. I managed to watch three episodes of 24 on the plain and it was pretty cool.

The second leg of the journey to San Francisco was grueling. 16 hours of non stop flying. I tried to sleep but failed. I managed to do a bit of studying. It was tiring both physically and mentally, sitting their with pretty limited movements allowed. At the end of the flight, I didn’t have a very good or “wow” impression of SIA as I should have, probably because of the long flight.

At SFO (San Francisco International Airport), the fun began. The immigration queue took one hour before we were free to breath the air of San Francisco. Boy, it was cold, at least to someone who have been living in the tropics for 18 years. Even though it was summer, the temperature hovered around 20 degrees Celsius. It was a pretty cool weather, in the literal and figurative sense.

Headed to the Computer History Museum next. I can’t really remember much of the attractions there because I was really sleep at that moment due to jet lag. It was terrible. At least what I can remember was that what we saw were only the tip of the iceberg of what they have. Apparently, most of the stuff can be found at the website I linked to above.

We had dinner at some Chinese Si Chuan restaurant. The food was very spicy even for the standards of Singaporeans.

Headed to our hotel, Comfort Inn, located in a pretty rural area in San Mateo. By that time, it was already 7 pm and the sun was still high up in the sky and it looked to us as though it was still 4 pm. Luckily, the hotel provided a free WiFi service and I was able to have access to the net. Used free VOIP to call back home and plunged into bed at 9 pm, all ready for the next day.

Tags: US Silicon Valley 2007