Cumulonimbus: Washington DC

Monday, September 04, 2006

Washington DC

On the 27th of August, Ren Jie and I embarked on a 5-day visit to the capital of the superpower of the world - Washington DC.

We decided to drop the initial idea of driving there, considering that it wouldn't be economical for 2 persons to rent a car and drive there. Although we were kind of late in purchasing the air ticket, the price wasn't to bad, about 120 USD roundtrip.

Washington DC was a place where monuments, museums and memorials could be seen everywhere. We tried our best to cover every single interesting place in DC, but that proved impossible. We did pretty good though, managing to visit all the major attractions in the city. Among the highlights of the trip were the US Capitol tour, the Library of Congress tour, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving tour, and the visit up to the top of the Washington monument.

The interior of the Library of Congress was particularly breathtaking, as every corner of the building was lavishly ornated. The details were painstaking, and the high ceilings, rotunda, statues, and paintings were decidedly masterpieces of the finest artist of the time. Such awe-inspiring work of art reminded me of the Europian palaces and cathedrals that I've seen in photos.

For the first day, we stayed in the Churchill hotel, and the following days in the hostel of Mara (which was really not bad at all). We had good food throughout the 5 days, having visited 3 Malaysian restaurants and a couple of chinese restaurants in the Chinatown. The Penang in Bethesda was indubitably the best in town; we practically stuffed ourselves to death with the ambrosial food from our exotic homeland. I had a "wat tan hor", a penang hokkein mee and a cendol. Ahhh...they were just authentic. It was as if that I had been somehow brought back to Malaysia. A very gratifying experience indeed.

With the touchdown of the returning flight in Detroit, my summer was officially dead. Hope there will be a pleasant fall awaiting me in AA.