蔣和勳

Finally at about 8 a.m., we arrived at Los Angeles International Airport after a long, grueling ride. Took our finger prints and photos, went through the Immigration check, waited a while for our luggage and we were finally out! Someone from the travel agency was suppose to pick us up but we couldn’t locate him. My aunt had to call some lady up and asked for information. We waited and finally a Chinese dude came by holding a paper with “Kim Eng…” (which was my aunt’s Pinyin name). We went out of the terminal and when the door opened, a gush of cold air blew past us.

It was ccoooooollldd! Even with the sun shining through, it was still very cold. Got into the car, a MPV with automatic doors(!?) and a GPS, and left for the hotel/inn. During the car ride, I looked out of the window and realize that I was in USA, the country that you always watch on the television serials, movies. I was pretty hyped up at that moments!

We reached our Best Western Executive Inn, located at Rowland Heights, after a 45 minutes ride.

While my aunt was checking in, I saw this Chinese family which I assumed were tourist as well until the Dad spoke. He spoke in an American accent to my surprise. I was like “Whoa!”. Anyways, we got our room and proceeded. The room was pretty big with 2 queen size beds which I was presently surprised considering most hotel I’ve been had only single size beds from my past experiences. The first thing I did, by the way, was to switch on the television. Ha ha! Anyways, jet lag caught up with us and we decided to rest till around 1,2 p.m. before we went for lunch. Before lunch, we walked around the area to see what food they had. As we walked around, we saw Chinese, then more Chinese and more. This area is filled with Chinese! It’s like having little Chinese town in the middle of nowhere. The shops around sell roasted chicken,duck,pork,etc. There were also shops that sells Bubble tea, provide foot massage, Chinese food,etc. Eventually we settled down in a Chinese restaurant due to the presence of many people (so we assume the food was like YUMMY). Man were we wrong! My aunt ordered some sort of Noodles, a plate of Veggie and I had a plate of Beef Fried Rice. It was bad! The veggie was oily and tasteless, the pea, carrots and corn in the fried rice was obviously taken immediately from the fringe without defrosting! What’s worse was the cost of the meal. It cost more than USD20 (if I remembered correctly). Unbelievable! By the way, asking for box seems common in USA! Unable to finish mine, I asked for one and placed the fried rice in it, brought back to the hotel and left it there, untouched!

After our bad experience, we walked across the roads and reached a shopping center. It was pretty big and empty. No Caucasians were spotted, lots of Asians as usual. We went to a supermarket which was pretty Asian in nature. They sold tons of stuff including 菜饭 which we were felt bumped as it was relatively cheap and the servings were huge. Bought a packet of Ricola and drinks and went back to the Inn. On our way back, we bought bread (those with pork floss on top) to eat (just in case). The bread shop sells those Pineapple bakery which my sister bought from Hong Kong as well!