The journey begin with my flight being delay for about 7 hours. The flight shall be departing at Narita, Tokyo before heading to Chicago, Illinois. Due to the delay, we are unable to catch up with our connecting flight. We shall be sitting both All Nippon Airways (ANA) planes to Chicago. However, due to the delay, we have to board the United Airlines (UA) which turns out to be disaster for me.
Despite the hyper mode I was having during the 1 hour transit in Narita, the other half journey was not that interesting. At Narita airport, after the long 7 hours of flight in MAS (which is much better than in the UA), we finally landed on the land I always dream of. The only regret I have is that I have only 1 hour to walk around the airport and I can't really lay my foot out of the airport. LOL.
The other 13 hours flight in UA, as I mentioned is a nightmare. The air attendance are not smiling and not that friendly as you see in the movie. Other than that, the sitting is like cramp up. Imagine you have to cramp up in the plane for 13 hours with limited space. I almost can't breath. To make it worst, due to the weather condition, the plane landed hard and lots of breaking when we arrived to Chicago O'Hare airport.
That's not the worst I had so far. To make it even worst for me is that the Transportation Security & Administration (TSA) officer make my life difficult. Coming into the States is hard enough as I had the trouble to get their visa, and now they want me to register my departure when I'm exiting their country. Maybe that's only applies to first timer to the States as my manager didn't have that trouble to get in.
Well, that's the first day experience. Despite all the bad thing, I do enjoy the good things which is the food. We have a nice steak in Chicago on that night. I seriously think that even their so-called normal restaurant are comparable with the standard we can get in Tony Roma's, TGIF, etc. in Malaysia.
Since we are seriously exhausted with that jet lag, we ended up sleeping early. We have to catch another flight to Indianapolis to meet with our material supplier. Travelling to Indianapolis was good. The flight is on time and the weather is brilliant. We have a great tour around the factory and had a great lunch at some local restaurant.
Talk about local food and stuff, their local beers are excellent to try. I had a Goose Island in Chicago which taste better than Heineken beer. In Indianapolis, I have tasted the Upland (Wheat Ale) beer and the Bud Light. It seems that each beer has it's own identity. Upland taste not too bad. Bud Light is good if you want something light. It almost taste like water as in the taste is not strong at all. Maybe that's why their called it Bud Light.
Of course other than all those stuff that you can't get it in Malaysia that I have tried here in the States, I also do go for stuff that you can get it in Malaysia here too. Guess what. It's Starbucks. You can literally find it almost everywhere you go. They look the same as in Malaysia. The only different is the price. You can get a hot chocolate, grande size for $3.50, which equivalent to RM10.94 (inclusive of tax).
One thing about the States is that they usually don't charge service tax or perhaps don't charge at all. Their culture is tipping or they call it gratuity. It's a norm for them the receive tips from you when you pay our bill. Usually if their service is average, tipping of 15% will be the the norm and it's advisable to tip them generously if the service is excellent (approximate 20% of your bill). If their service is bad, tip them less but not less that one buck.
I will be posting those pictures I took during this trip when I get back to Malaysia as I don't have a broadband service here. More updates about the trip will be posted once I have the chance to do so. So see you guys.. ^^
