Last morning in Guatemala – there is an exit tax of about 3 USD. I didn’t get an exit stamp on my passport. Hopefully this is normal!
Since Houston is a hub and transit point for Continental, and I have some friends living in Houston, I decided to drop by for a visit. Camera died, though, so no real pictures from this.
Houston seems pretty spread out, with a small downtown. It also reminds me of the suburbs of Seattle, in that the malls are spaced out. As K was driving me around, I couldn’t really get a sense of the geography. But based on the informative drive, it is kinda divided into neighbourhoods, and he was living somewhat near the Asian neighbourhoods.
Seeing all of it fleetingly, what struck me the most was the number of Republic of Vietnam flags, and other statues dedicated to the regime. It seems as if this regime from 35 years ago (fell 1975) just imported itself into this part of the US, and settled there, living out the nation’s life in the territory of another. It was very interesting for me, since this is what I study, and this just made me want to study it more.
It was also museum day, so all museums were free, which resulted in crowds. Guess Singaporeans are not the only ones who go to museums when they are free! We ended up going for an exhibition on Central Asian mummies in the Museum of Natural Science. It was pretty fascinating, though baby mummies do creep me out (especially if they are blue in colour!)
On to the topic of food, K brought me to this deli where they serve beef brisket. I never had a liking for beef brisket done in Chinese style (well, Crystal Jade style), but I definitely loved the brisket done in this deli. We also had ribs, which was excellent. Thank you Rs for being such wonderful hosts! I enjoyed chilling out at their house, just watching silly movies like Sharktopus. (mutant animal movies just got better as the night went on)
Wanderlust 