A world without borders

Pause a bit on the US blogs... Another boring rant post without photos...

There are many ups and downs to be Indonesian. And what makes me envy a Taiwan or Malaysian passport holder? They can visit many countries without visa, as they are granted permission to stay for a month or maybe more. Yes, as an Indonesian I can visit any southeast Asia countries and Hong Kong, but Taiwan passport holder can visit Japan, South Korea, even US, which made them easier to travel for business or maybe holiday. I know the fact from a Malaysian friend, they even can visit any European countries with a visa on arrival, which made me so freaking jelly. But if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me :)

Anyway, as an Indonesian, the process of making European countries, UK, or US visa is a bit... well, complicated. Last year, I had been granted a six-month UK visa,  3 month Schengen visa, and for this year a 5 years US visa. I'm like a visa collector or something hahaha. The process of making these three visas, each of them is so different, and to be honest, sometimes really irritating. That is why, Taiwanese and Malaysian friends, I envy you.

Now, there's a Rotary summer camp in Denmark that I can attend this summer. And...  as you can guess, I need that bloody Schengen visa again. After an excruciating experience with the visa agency in Jakarta, I really hope I can make the visa in Taiwan, and it will be easier than in Jakarta, which really is quite impossible, seeing how difficult it was back then. *sigh.

I do hope my mom can get back her Taiwanese nationality real fast, so (finger crossed) I can get my Taiwanese passport... Once, I talked to my dad about making a Taiwanese passport, because I still have relatives from my mother's side in Taiwan, but he said why bother? By adding that Taiwan is not officially a country (yet, plus I really don't want to talk about politic here) he refused. Nevertheless, after all those fash making visas, now he really want one.

First night in Las Vegas

Okay, so we arrived in McCarran, picked up our luggage, and bought a ticket to Travel Lodge hotel near the strip. Seeing the confusion in our faces, the butler (yes, even the shuttle bus stand has a butler in tux) joked, "Don't tell the cabbies that this is your first time in Vegas!"

Shuttle Bus no. 3

So apparently, our hotel is located near MGM, and exactly beside the strip. After checked-in, we decided to buy some dinner nearby, but all we found was casinos, grills, hotels, and shops. We wanted to take-away something simple, like pizza, maybe?

One thing in Vegas, beware of these "cosplayers". Yes, maybe they look friendly, and seeing our Asian face, they immediately spotted us and asked, "Hey wanna take a picture with us?" We didn't have time to response and my dad just handed his camera, and we started taking photos. After that, with no surprise, they wanted a $20 tips. What the? This is a blackmail! This is a scam! My dad just gave them like $15 and after we got away, we learned a valuable lesson: don't make eye contact with these people.

I'm sorry the photos are very blurry, cause I used my shitty phone camera to capture this. I didn't bring my Canon X2 cause my hand was still injured when I went home to Indonesia. Yes, loads of excuses, bla-bla-bla. So we came across this Pin-up Pizza, near the hotel in the Vegas strip.

Whoa I have never knew they have this huge slice of pizza in US. But the food in US are mainly grills, sandwiches, pizzas, and other junk food, so we couldn't complain much. We ate the pizza in our hotel room while we were watching Sochi Winter olympic on the telly.

HKG - LAX - LAS

We departed from Jakarta 8 a.m. in the morning. It was like 5 hours of flight to Hong Kong, and after we landed in the airport, we went to the lounge, took a shower, and refreshed ourselves until 4 pm for the LA flight. According to the itinerary, it would be like 12 and a half hours flight.

Brace yourself, 12 hours flight

My mom once said, long-haul flight is excruciating. She went to NY last time for dad's Boston marathon, and she slept for like two days in order to adapt with NY's time. I have never experience a jet lag before, cause I know how to dodge it: you must sleep for like 7 hours or more in the flight, like my dad. He has this ability to sleep right directly after he sit down and fasten his seat belt. Envy.

Nothing special happened in the flight, mainly sleeping, and we arrived in LAX. We were greeted by a long queue line for the immigration, and a bit disorganized, plus, the officers were all like robots, with no expressions in their face and arrogant. For those who haven't been to LAX and in a connecting flight, here's a tip for you: remember to bring your luggage as all luggage are required to stop at LAX first, after that drop it off at the check-in counter. We didn't know that, so we almost left our luggage there. 

LAX: convenient my posterior!

LAX or Tom Bradley International

We dropped off the luggage in the American Airline counter and continued our way to the domestic terminal. It is a security requirement to take off the shoes when screening, which is unusual for us. We don't have to take off our shoes in Hong Kong, Taipei, or Jakarta. Later, we took a shower in the lounge and relax a bit until our 8 pm flight toward Las Vegas. And guess who I met there? Lady Gaga. LOL. Kidding. It wasn't her, but this waitress in the lounge looks exactly like her, just a little bit shorter. Too bad I didn't ask her for a photo. 

The flight to Las Vegas is approximately 45 minutes, and I found out that their American Airlines flight attendants are mostly middle-aged, very different from the attendants from Cathay Pacific. 

It felt like a blink of an eye, then we landed in Las Vegas airport, or McCarran International Airport. A bit cold, and my thin jacket didn't help at all. 

Vegas, baby!

My dad, looking exhausted.

Vegas indeed, slot machines everywhere