Austin

So one of the reasons why I chose to bring Snuggles to Austin was the fact that this was supposed to be a dog-friendly city. The truth is, it is. It’s amazing how well dogs are treated here in contrast to Malaysia. People bring their dogs everywhere, and some places even let you bring dogs indoors. At one restaurant, they even brought out a huge bowl of water for Snuggles to drink from. At another bar, the cashier even came over to play with her and feed her some treats.

In Malaysia, I get stares for bringing Snuggles to public open parks, even though dogs aren’t prohibited there. You need to bring them to places that specifically mention dogs allowed. I remember when I was a kid, we brought our dog to a public park, and a Malay kid started crying and screaming until he fell off a swing/slide (memory is a bit hazy for this one). One lady, who wasn’t even the mother of the child, came over to chide us. We didn’t even do anything to upset the kid, we were just walking past the park. It was hilarious. If I had been older/more eloquent back then, I would have yelled back at her.

Anyway, if you ever want to live in a city where dogs are treated like how they ought to be treated, Austin should be up on that list. The whole experience has been fantastic for Snuggles so far. Hopefully she’ll grow to love it once she gets over me leaving her behind.

Today was a lazy day – eat, shop for dog stuff, helped my sister to move some stuff into her new place, and drinks at East Cider. If you’re a fan of cider, they have some topnotch drinks. Definitely worth checking out again. Am back in bed, getting some rest so I don’t waste half the day sleeping it away. It’s been a great first day, am looking forward to the rest of the week! Here’s a picture of an exhausted Snuggles.

My plane trip to the US has finally come to a conclusion. After a flight delay (I’m surprised it was the only delayed flight of my trip so far), I touched down at Austin-Bergstrom airport. One thing good about flying late is that there usually aren’t many people on it, and you have a higher chance of not having to sit next to a stranger. A big plus when you’re traveling alone, in my opinion. You don’t have to bother people when going to the toilet and vice versa, you don’t have to worry about your shit getting stolen when you’re sleeping (maybe I’m just paranoid). Also you won’t have to worry about intruding in each other’s personal spaces.

I slept during the whole flight – I guess the trick to not staying awake is to remove all entertainment (it was a small plane with no personal entertainment systems for each chair – there was a common display playing Bohemian Rhapsody (good movie btw). I put on a podcast and shut my eyes.

Most importantly, operation: migrate Snuggles has come to a conclusion. I have successfully brought her over to Austin where she will be spending the rest of her life. Like Jason said: she gets to be American before me. Heh.

She’s super attached to me right now, despite my sister being her favorite back when she was still in Malaysia. I guess she must have forgotten about her after all those years. Hopefully she warms up in the coming days – not like she has much of a choice. On the bright side, she’s going to have a nice backyard to run around and do dog stuff in. Not like back in KL where she’s cooped up in my tiny apartment.

I finally had my first shower. Also, my sister cooked me some instant ramen for supper. She also mentioned that there are some good ramen places here in Austin, so I think I’ll be having more tasty Japanese noodles in the coming week.

The weather is great, just right for me – not too cold or hot. What a great start to this trip.

(Bonus points for figuring out this title’s reference)

My flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles was uneventful. JAL food isn’t very good, in my opinion. I had three different meals and they were all meh desite them trying to be all fancy when it was unecessary. There was a flyer served with the dinner course, telling us about the airlines’ chef program and that the dishes we were eaten had been created by two rising stars.

I watched many films – not sure why I wasn’t sleepy, only slept about two hours out of the whole 10.5 hour journey. I watched – Tomb Raider (meh), Johnny English Strikes Again (aight), Thailand Only (pretty funny, though the last act with the ghost felt so out of place, Tag (was pretty bad, couldn’t bring myself to finish it), and The Shape of Water (meh, strange sex).

Landed in LAX this morning, I finally got to see Snuggles. She seemed alright, I let her run around the handicap toilet for a bit, where she took a leak (I cleaned up of course), and I fed her some snacks and water. Just one more flight and she’ll never have to get on a plane again (at least not anytime soon!). I checked her in early so I’m currently wasting time at the airport, waiting for the next flight. Not sure if I could have planned my flights better, but having two long-ass transits is a pretty big waste of time but I was constrained by my budget and travel-with-a-pet requirement. It would have meant an additional day not spent traveling. Oh well. I haven’t showered in over a day. Fortunately, I haven’t been sweating, thanks to the cold weather – if not I’d probably be reeking right now.

Nothing much to say, except that the lack of indoor smoking areas here is a bummer – it’s a real hassle to exit the airport for a smoke because you need to go pass security again to reenter. So I have been relying on Snus, which have been great. Getting a tobacco fix in the plane and airport without breaking the rules is a win in my book. Oh, I encountered my first all-gender toilet today. I was genuinely confused for a moment this afternoon heading to the toilet when I saw ‘all-gender’ signs on both sides. I had to walk further down one direction to find the male toilet. Was a first for me, I wonder if they are frequently used or as vacant as the handicap toilets in Malaysia.

One more flight til I reach my destination tonight, will write again if I haven’t passed out by then.