Florida trip Pt. 1 : Ft. Lauderdale

I AM HOME!!

I've had an awesome 2.5 weeks in Florida and I can only say that it ended much too early than I would've liked! I was nervous as heck as I was to meet Phil's family for the first time but I just want to say thank you so much for being so nice and for accommodating my visit. 

As per usual, picture post--and for good reason too! To put my trip in words would take ages as I've got so much to tell. I can tell you this much though, I bloody love it there (as I always have since I first visited when I was 8) and would definitely

 go over and over again!

Enjoy :D

My first time flying past 2 continents alone was somewhat scary, but in a story of amazing coincidences, I met Zin Rei (I hope I got that right!) who sat in front of me during our entire flight and who happens to be a good friend of my colleague! Have fun during your trip!

Before catching another flight to Florida, I met up with Phil and his brother Christian in Newark where we had just enough time to scoot over to NYC for a pizza dinner (which btw, portions were HUMONGOUS!). Thanks for dinner, Christian! :D

Christian was gracious enough to show us a little bit around NYC as much as time would allow us, and the above picture is a somewhat near yet far view of the Empire State building across a park I forgot the name of. It's not that famous park OK :P I was pretty happy I got to see a few things NYC was noted for, such as the above mentioned building, the Statue of Liberty (while still in the plane hehe!), Ground Zero and that papaya king place! LOL!

Once in Florida, it rained. It rained very, very often. In fact, it rained everyday!...which was understandable because it (still) is the hurricane season. As you can see to the far right of the picture, that's rain, y'all.

This goes without saying; you cannot go all the way to the US and not visit IHOP. Disagree with me, boo to you. Their pancakes are aweeeeesome!!! Highly fattening and everything, but hey, it's IHOP! Sacrifices must be made!

Strawberry pancakes. Freaking yummilicious!

Rain or no rain, must-go-to-the-beach! Sadly, we didn't get to go to Miami Beach but this Ft.Lauderdale beach was really nice and unfortunately you can't see that from this picture due to overcast. There was a nice and very long walkway for people to jog or walk along the beach without dunking your shoes in the sand and it even lights up in multicolor when it gets dark!

Phil showing off his culinary skills by making a Brazilian dessert which, I've forgotten the name of *oops!* It was awesome and subsequently devoured within two days! He also made two loaves of bread which disappeared even faster than that ;)

A (small) flock of Muscovy ducks in the backyard. Cats get pwned by them. Beware.

My jaw dropped when I saw this. Look at all those colors!!! This is proof that Malaysia needs to bring in more M&Ms! 

This is also proof that Malaysian 7-11s need to update their "instant" food aisle...Chili Cheese Nachos; is there anything better?

Apparently there is! Malaysians, feast your eyes on this gargantuan slice of stuffed spinach pizza! This is for one person--to eat-all-by-themselves!! :O

Indiana Jones taking a whack at Guitar Hero.

Oh wait...that's just Phil. XD

You can find all sorts of buffets in Malaysia, except Chinese. This was an interesting culinary experience and yes I know french fries aren't Chinese!! Mind you, the Chinese food there tasted nothing like what we've got here. Three cheers for Malaysian Chinese food!!

I obviously bought a heck of a lot more stuff than this great pair of Roman sandals but I forgot to take pictures of them before giving them to the family :P