Washington DC Metro

Washington Metro mass transit system in Washington DC is the second busiest metro system in the United States after New York metro. The rail metro station have some unique characteristic as shown below.


Gateway to Washington DC Metro. Rider enter and exit Washington metro system using this proximity card known as SmarTrip. They also have paper based magnetic stripe farecard as well.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Ronald Reagan National Airport has the distinctive golden colour. The airport is under tight security and close oversight by the federal government due to its proximity to the national capital. To show now near this airport, its is just around 12 minutes drive to White House.

Cement ceiling vault pattern at Metro stations.

Intersection of cement ceiling.

Kyoto Station with rooftop garden @ Kyoto, Japan

The building's futuristic design and atmosphere was conceived by the Japanese architect Hara Hiroshi. Hara's design attempts to convey historical Kyoto through a modern aesthetic. The station's large main hall with its exposed steel beamed roof, called the Matrix, is meant to reflect both the structure of the station and the grid like layout of Kyoto's street network. The Kyoto station building also housed a large Isetan department store and Porta shopping centre at lower ground floor. Kyoto Station is the city's transportation hub, served by Japan Railways (including the Tokaido Shinkansen), Kintetsu Railways and the Karasuma Subway Line. It is also the site of a large bus terminal for city buses and long distance and overnight highway buses. Luggage storage and takuhaibin (delivery service) counters are available in the basement of the station. Besides the station facilities, the building's 15 floors offer several other attractions and conveniences including an art museum, a theater and a vast array of shopping and dining options.


Kyoto tower. Located just opposite of Kyoto station.

Entrance to Kyoto station.

Busy and crowded even on sunday.

Super crowded Kyoto station. This is the busiest station in Kyoto and major transportation hub of Kyoto.

Its nearing Christmas. Huge Christmas tree on the display.

The same Christmas tree at night.


Kyoto Station is a huge modern looking building.

Long escalator to the roof top garden.


The escalator area at night.


Artificial garden at the roof top of the Kyoto station.

View from the roof top of Kyoto station towards the south.

View towards the north of Kyoto. As you can see, Kyoto is surrounded by mountains and that's why it has lower temperature compared to the nearby cities.

GPS/Coordinate: 34.985454, 135.757723
Public transport: Kyoto main station.

St Pancras railway station @ London

St Pancras is regarded by some as the most beautiful railway station in the world. It is an international railway station with daily services to Paris via Eurostar. When it opened in 1868, the arched Barlow train shed was the largest single-span roof in the world.



Impressive Victorian architecture from outside St Pancras station.

Inside St Pancras.

Area surrounding St Pancras building.

The meeting place sculpture by Paul Day in St Pancras station.

King's Cross station on the opposite of St Pancras.

Coordinate/GPS: 51.531908,-0.125785
Address: Euston Road, London N1C 4QP, United Kingdom
London tube: King's Cross St Pancras station.

Malaysia Airlines - Kuala Lumpur to Paris (Economy Class)

After touching ground for 6 months in Malaysia, suddenly the idea of visiting the largest flower garden comes into my mind. The world largest flower garden situated in Lisse, Holland offered the best flower view in the world for almost 50 years now. Keukenhof is my favourite flower garden. Since it only open 2 months a year from end of Mar to end of May, I need to plan this trip soonest possible.

Initially, my idea is just to visit Amsterdam. But since Paris is just within 3 hours away by bullet train, I may just as well visit it. Since I am going to Paris on standby basis, my seat is not confirmed. Its quite tough to get the seat to Paris during end of April 2012 as most of the flight is full and Malaysia Airlines only have one flight a day. On my first attempt of standby, I disappointed as the flight was full and I have to go back home midnight via airport taxi. On my second attempt, I took bus to the airport and I manage to get a seat last minute as there is no show passenger. Yahoo! Anyway, this flight is really a long journey. It takes more than 13 hours from Kuala Lumpur to reach Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. The flight to Paris was pleasant without much turbulence. The meal served is just like other Malaysia Airlines long distance flight.


Since this is a ultra long haul, two full meals provided. My first meal is soy sauce chicken and vegetables with rice. Comes with raw salmon, fruits, sweets, bun and butter.

Second meal is always breakfast. My favourite selection is always their nasi lemak. Anyway, this will be my last nasi lemak and have to wait for another 11 days before I can have another nasi lemak. The croissant provided is good with butter flavour.

Finally reached Paris airport. Reached around 6.40am Paris time. I like to arrive early morning so that I have one full day. I usually opt for hotel/hostel which have luggage storage so that I can just drop my items and begin my exploration. I need to look for CDGVAL train to get to terminal 3 in order to broad RER train to Paris city centre.

Brought my ticket to Paris Nord train station. Ticket price from CDG airport to Paris city centre at EUR9.25.

Waiting for RER train. First impression is that the train is dirty :-P

Reached Paris Nord aka Gary Du Nord main train station.

Waiting for metro to reach my hotel.

Wow, when exiting metro station of Place d'Italie... My hotel is just 5 minutes walk from here. More updates later...

Grand Central Terminal @ New York

Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Park Avenue of Manhattan, New York. It is the largest train station in the world by the number of platform:44. The Main Concourse is the center of Grand Central. The space is cavernous – 275 ft (84 m) long, 120 ft (37 m) wide and 125 ft (38 m) high[8] – and usually filled with bustling crowds. The view of the main concourse is amazing. Besides subway, this terminal also provide train service to other cities in United States via Amtrak. If you interested about the history on this Grand Central Terminal, there is a free walking tour every friday at 12.30pm. The assembly point is sculpture court at 120 Park Avenue, located at the southwest corner of East 42nd Street and Park Avenue directly across from Grand Central Terminal. I missed this free walking tour though.


Entrance into Grand Central Terminal.

Outside the station, the clock in front of the Grand Central facade facing 42nd Street contains the world's largest example of Tiffany glass and is surrounded by sculptures carved by the John Donnelly Company of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury and designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan.

The clock at night.

Modern city but New York still maintain their main train station which is full of history.

This is one of the main attraction in New York. Unique old large windows.

Beautiful main concourse.

Grand Central subway. It serves a 4,5,6,6X,7,7X and S trains.

American flag in Grand Central Terminal.

Me in Grand Central terminal.

Address:
89 East 42nd Street at Park Avenue,
New York City, NY 10017.

Amtrak Train from Los Angeles to San Diego

This mark the start of my journey as solo traveller to the other two destinations: San Diego & New York City. I went to San Diego by taking the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train from Los Angeles Union Station. By taking this train, you are able to view the seaside between Los Angeles & San Diego. I also found out that this train also heading to the Anaheim DisneyLand. No wonder there is many family and kids. The train tracks is very near to the sea and on certain location, it is just around few metres between! The ticket cost me USD36 and the journey took 2 hours and 50 minutes.

This is my first time trying Amtrak service and they already given me a bad impression on the service. My train was delayed for 1 hour. Some more, all the passengers have to queue up on the gate and we all have to stand for additional 1 hour. The whole process and system is different compared to their efficient subway service.


Each seats have a power plug.

A wide selection of menu. But there is not push truck on the cabin. If passenger wants to eat, they have to go to the second cabin to buy from Seaview Cafe there.

Buena Park station.

Fullerton station.

Finally the Seaview cafe opens after passing Fullerton station. I brought a sandwich and muffin as lunch :-)

First view of the sea.

Wildlife beside the sea.

Many lifeguard booth beside the sea.


That is how near the train to the sea. That sea is actually Pacific Ocean.

Finally, I reached San Diego.

Coordinate/GPS: 34.056073,-118.23654
Metro: Union Station in Los Angeles.