Wanderlust Traveller

So by now I'm pretty sure a lot of people have their own bucket lists by now, so I thought I'd do one for my travel list, just because. In no particular order:

Bungee jumping (probably the scariest one would be jumping off the Macau Tower... I don't even know if I dare jump)
Skydiving over New Zealand's landscape
Visit the Hobbit village in New Zealand
~~Northern Lights / Aurora hunting, Iceland~~ (CHECKED OMG CHECKED SO HARD)
~~Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Japan~~ (CHECKED!)
Visit the Honshu-Shikoku bridges in Kobe, basically, because damn look at all those structures:

Seto-Ohashi Bridge, picture credit to headofleslie.com

~~Cliff diving~~ (CHECKED! I did the 8m version of it in Boracay, so I consider this crossed off the list :P)
Stonecutters Bridge, Korea
Santorini, Greece
~~Amsterdam~~ (CHECKED!)
Switzerland - visit ALL the bridges (okay I'm only half-kidding here. I love aesthetic aspects of bridges, okay)
Maldives
Bora-Bora
Tour Japan for a month
Tour Korea for 2 weeks - 1 month
Tibet, China
Walk along the Great Wall of China
Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki
Venice, Italy
Visit the Scandinavian countries (Norway is high up on my list)
Lofoten Island
Faroe Islands
Greenland & Iceland in summer
US Road Trip!
Australia's Great Ocean Road Road Trip
New Zealand Road Trip
Visit the Balkan countries
Visit Egypt, Jordan & Palestine
Hokkaido, Japan
Dive in Raja Ampat Islands
Learn to dive first lol
Trans Siberian Railway journey
Pilgrimage to Mekkah (by far I think this will be the hardest journey of all, which is why I saved the best for last - plus I need my mahram to accompany me, which is nonexistent for now and my parents are waiting their turn for the haji also, so.)

I'm trying to be more realistic with my bucket list... Well, I still have a few more years to me before I turn 40 and lose all my willpower to jump off of great heights, so we'll see what I can accomplish by then.

What's on your travel bucket list?

DAY 14 (8 Nov 2013): Back to Malaysia
- Walk along 5th Avenue again
- Last look around Times Square
- Bye, NYC :'(

My friends were going back to Aussie in the morning, while Nadia and I had at least half a day before we had to make our way back to Malaysia *sighs* Ohhh NYC you feel like a dream :(

Overall, it's been a truly fun 2 weeks spent in Orlando and NYC - we did everything that we wanted to do and that at least we could say we'll be coming back happy. Nothing untoward happened, we spent a happy 3 days in Orlando (even though I was kinda sick for half of it), we spent 7 days happily going around NYC, and I got to go back to Albany once more :')

If I had the funds to go again, I would probably go, although I would need to rethink the decisions a few times lol. I would probably need my salary to increase by 10x if I want to go again, to be honest :P

But I'm happy to have gotten the opportunity to go back to where there were so many memories made.

So long, NYC. I'll see you when I see you!

Go to Day 12 & 13 (NYC: Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn)
NYC 2013 Masterpost

DAY 12 (6 Nov 2013) & DAY 13 (7 Nov 2013): NYC
- (Day 12) Goose chase to find my dad's Rembrandt paints
- Walk around Union Square to find them :P
- (Day 13) Walk from Central Park down to 5th Avenue (FAO Schwarz etc.)

Erm, so there weren't that many pictures from Day 12, as I spent it looking for my dad's Rembrandt paints as well as looking for an eReader for myself (I settled for a B&N's Nook, which I absolutely loveeee) around Union Square. I actually spent quite a lot of time looking for these items, and before I knew it, it was 7pm lol. Went to watch Matilda with Nadia on this night.

On Day 13, we decided to take our last stroll around Manhattan, starting from Grand Central and moving downtown, since it would be our last full day in NYC :(

Union Square!

Had dinner at Nobu. Gotta say, the food was a bit underwhelming.

And our last night in NYC ends thus.

Go to Day 11 (NYC: Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn) | Day 14 (NYC - Malaysia)

NYC 2013 Masterpost

DAY 11 (5 Nov 2013): NYC
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Grimaldi's
- Walk around Brooklyn

On this day, my friends and I were set out to traverse across the Brooklyn Bridge, and walk around Brooklyn.

So for those who didn't know, I'm an engineer working on the Second Penang Bridge Project (long story short, I'm working for the concessionaire company / owner of the bridge, where the bridge is the second link connecting the Penang Island to the Malaysian mainland). I've been working at the company for almost 5 years now (my last month here is this February 2014, in fact), so I've had some sort of fascination with the evolution of bridge construction methods as well as the aesthetic aspect of bridges.

Apparently, the US has been one of the leading countries (along with Switzerland and France and Europe in general) in terms of bridge construction methods as well as bridge's aesthetics appreciation. One of the most iconic suspension bridges is the Brooklyn Bridge, which is John Roebling's (1806 - 1869) arguably most famous work. This was before the "discovery" of the many uses of reinforced concrete in bridge construction, and thus steel has an ironfist rule at the time. The bridge has a main span of 488m, which at the time of its construction, was one of the longest at the time made possible by technology.

Aesthetically, it's not an exaggeration to say that the Brooklyn Bridge is truly one of the most pleasing and iconic bridges around. It was said that Roebling had particularly chosen the pointed arch for the masonry towers (which can be seen in the pictures below), which was one of the major reasons for the aesthetic success of the bridge. And most importantly, Roebling's design actually managed to combine so many aesthetic and construction factors which actually resulted in a cost-effective bridge. Today, it's hard to argue with his success when everyone will want to pay a visit to the Brooklyn Bridge if they ever get to New York City. Unfortunately, Roebling didn't live to see his final "masterpiece" completed in 1883, and that's a major shame.

One of the things I most loved about Brooklyn Bridge was the pedestrian (and bicyclist) walkway. I mean, honestly, it's such a simple thing, but it's one of the most often overlooked aspect. There's not a lot of bridges where you can just walk along for a stroll, certainly not in Malaysia. There's a lot of bridges I would love to visit when I get the chance to (mostly bridges in Switzerland and Japan), and I'm glad I managed to stroll along the Brooklyn Bridge for the second time (the last time I came here with my family, I didn't really appreciate the aesthetic aspects of bridges ;P I was fifteen!). I wish bridge aesthetics would play a more major role in the bridge construction aspect in Malaysia.

Anyway, enough poetic paragraphs about bridges: onto the pictures!