Dallas, Texas – Day 7

By Veron | Posted in Travel / USA
Tags #Dallas

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It was night time when we arrived in Dallas, and early morning when we left. I dozed off after all, despite having tried to stay awake the entire night. Overslept, after sleeping for a grand total of two hours. So from then on it was a mad rush to the airport to get everything checked in.

The security policies at the checkpoint were rather stringent. They had to check all fluid items brought on board, as well as all cameras and laptops. At one point I even had to take off my shoes! What a hassle! But of course, safety comes first.

American Airlines plane

Said one last goodbye to America, and it was time to board the plane!

Thirteen hours on a plane… That’s no joke man. Luckily this time round I got an aisle seat. But I sat next to a Korean lady who was very unfriendly and very rude. At one point when I was sleeping, she decided to crawl over me just to get out. Couldn’t she just go the other way?

The flight attendants looked pissy too. I’m starting to think it’s a race thing. Don’t wanna play the race card here, but if we were caucasians we probably would have received better treatment. Don’t get me wrong. I love America and its friendly people. But too many of them assume that Asians cannot speak English. I had an American man telling me he wouldn’t come to Singapore because he “wouldn’t know the language”. Hell, most of us speak at least two languages here.

But let’s get back to the flight. The meals were decent. Pasta and pizza!

Lunch on American Airlines

I thought those lemon cookies would taste weird. But they were yummy!

Dinner on American Airlines

It was really difficult going through those thirteen hours. That’s equivalent to the length of time from waking up at 9 in the morning to sleeping at 10 at night! And for almost the entire time I had to be sitting in my cramped seat next to a pissy woman and served by a pissy crew. Argh!

The plane finally touched down in Tokyo. yatta! And I bought a ton of cosmetics from the duty-free stores. One cannot leave Japan without buying any cosmetics! Unless you’re a man of course. And the variety of snacks and candy they have is just amazing!

Hello Kitty strawberry & milk chocolate

Hello Kitty strawberry & milk chocolate! I love those!

Chicken-shaped pastries with white bean filling

White bean pastries in the shape of chickens. Totally adorable!

Rice cakes with milk

Rice cakes with milk!

Rice cakes with chocolate

Rice cakes with chocolate! Yummy!

Rice crackers in kimonos

Kimono-wearing rice crackers! Haha!

Assorted cakes

Assorted cakes in various colors!

Hello Kitty sponge cakes with cheese, green tea & pudding cream

More Hello Kitty! These are sponge cakes with cheese, green tea and pudding cream. Sounds yummy, but what’s pudding cream?

After this trip I really learned to appreciate our Singapore Changi Airport. Checking in and out are a breeze. And the skytrain system is just awesome. I had to bring 80kg worth of equipment and personal luggage back to Singapore on my own. While I could check in 60kg of it, it was still a challenge lugging the remaining 20kg around, especially when you could travel only by bus from one terminal to the other.

The seven-hour flight back on Japan airlines was a real luxury though. It was a night flight so there weren’t many passengers. I managed to get the entire row of three seats all to myself! Yay! If I had bothered to ask for a business-class seat, I probably would have gotten it.

Flight safety video

I don’t normally watch the flight safety video they play at the beginning of each flight. But this one made me pay attention because it was so cute! Instead of using real people, Japan airlines has designed an animation instead.

Meal on Japan Airlines

The meal of moonfish rice with curry was awesome! In addition to having great food and a spacious seat, I got to do all my favorite things as well. I completed Michael crichton’s sphere, which is my most favorite novel of all time (I think I read that novel at least ten times in my life!), and saw my most favorite movies in 2006, the devil wears Prada and the lake house. It was pure bliss!

Pontianak is a real place!

Plus, I learned something new too! Did you know that Pontianak is a real place? For those not in the know, a Pontianak is a kind of vampire that preys on virgins. Reading those ghost stories about them really terrified me when I was young!

Vanilla ice cream

Nearing the end of the flight, we were treated to vanilla ice cream! It must be a bonus because it wasn’t printed on the flight menu. Yummy! I love Japan airlines! It ranks next to Cathay pacific as my favorite airline.

Overall, this has been a very fruitful trip that wasn’t just about work, but new experiences as well. I learned quite a number of things. How to be nicer to strangers, for example.

In Dallas, people are extremely polite to one another. They smile at strangers, and take time to ask “how are you”. They are very outspoken too. When I was at Victoria’s secret browsing through their hair product range (yes, hair products), a man who was doing some advanced Christmas shopping started conversing with me about gifts for his wife. Haha!

Now that I’m back in Singapore, I try to smile more as well. But the smiling culture here is almost non-existent, which explains why we had that bizarre smiles campaign earlier this year. Even if I tried to smile more, the thought of other Singaporeans finding it weird is quite discouraging.

As Singaporeans we tend to avoid the gaze of other people, and we walk around with a perpetually tensed or bored look. Why don’t we all start smiling more?

I’m gonna start a smiles campaign too! From now on let’s all start smiling at strangers, shall we? If someone happens to catch your gaze, smile! If someone knocks into you by accident, smile! If someone smiles at you, smile! This way we would be a much happier and more pleasant society!

Who’s with me?

Also in this series

November 19, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 1
November 20, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 2
November 21, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 3
November 22, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 4
November 23, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 5
November 24, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 6

For more restaurant reviews, deals and goodies, find @Sparklette on Twitter and Facebook.

About the Author

Veron Ang is the founder and chief editor of Sparklette. She lives in Singapore and has dined and traveled across the world. She also runs Sparklette Studio, a web design and WordPress development firm. If you'd like to connect with her, head on over to the contact page or follow her personal updates on Twitter: @VeronSG.

Dallas, Texas – Day 6

Precious

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18 responses

Leave your comment

py
November 26

:)
Reply
leo
November 26

i agree ! let have 4 millions smiles .
Reply
Veron
November 26

Alright! This is a good start!
Reply
Cobalt Paladin
November 26

What happened to SIA? You had bad experience from flying our national airlines?
Reply
jasLynn
November 26

thankx veron for the advise. the nite ended sweetly with him.

thankx alot. (:
hope you enjoyed your trip at dallas.
Reply
Veron
November 27

Hi Cobalt Paladin,

SIA is world-class of course, but somewhat not affordable when you’re travelling alone.
Reply
Veron
November 27

Hi jasLynn,

Great to hear that the night went well!
Reply
wiz
December 2

whoa, Pekanbaru is also inside your map huh!? it’s my hometown ! :D haha thousands smiles, nice one :)
Reply
pkchukiss
December 8

I don’t know why some people hate airline food, but the spread you had on both flights seem pretty good!

I only had a similar experience on Singapore Airlines where they had the option of chicken omelettes with bread and butter spread, and dessert.

It wasn’t really enough for me, but I didn’t ask for an addition serving since I was too shy to have two trays on my stowaway…
Reply
VIc
June 6

Lovely page =)
Reply
ruby
June 17

Hey,
I just wanted to say good job with the site!
I’m a Singaporean studying in the US and I totally agree with you! Americans are much friendlier, but they barely know anything about Singapore and our culture!
Reply
Veron
June 17

Thanks ruby!

I think the lack of awareness about Singapore is not limited to America alone, but many western countries too. The people there seemed surprised each time I spoke English, because they never thought that people in Singapore could!
Reply
Chihiro-chan
June 20

Haha,yes,let’s all smile! x) I try my best to smile to everyone,well,mostly everyone when i’m at school,especially to my friends.Sometimes i find i smile for too much of a long period of time that my gums feel like they’re permanently stuck in a smiling position XD

One of the reasons i’ve been wanting to go to Japan ever since i was in grade 6 was partly because of their wide range and variety of food.Everytime i end up looking at food from Japan that’s posted on the net,i always dream about going there one day,but also very much for their culture,as goes for many other countries in the whole of Asia.I think i’ll try and visit Singapore too one day! :) There seems to be something about Japan that truly attracts me to it somehow,their creativity in certain domains,shall i say?They incorporate many of their ideas into things that people wouldn’t usually think of,like the example of the Flight Safety Video you gave in your post.Small things can make a whole lot of difference sometimes,especially when it comes to capting the audience’s or people’s attention.For those white bean pastries in the shape of chickens,i first saw them in the manga Love Hina(by Ken Akamatsu) and straight away fell in love with them!There was one thing that hit me though…How could you eat something so adorable?? o_o The fact that they all look absolutely scrumptious couteracts the fact that they’re too adorable to eat.I usually tend to always take pictures of nicely presented food before proceeding to the eating process =)

Haha,wow,i feel like i’ve almost written an entry instead of a comment!XD Your stories and descriptions are just so interesting and fascinating that it draws me to type in a lot.But no worries,i enjoy every bit of the commenting on your wonderful entries!I’m looking forward to your recent postings!~
Reply
Veron
June 22

Have you read my posts on my 11-day trip to Japan last year? There are more pictures of adorable-looking food! The Japanese love making everything look kawaii. It’s truly a country of all things beautiful :)
Reply
Minh Doan
December 23

Dear Veron,

I am living in U.S. now and can tell that too many residents here can not speak English.
So forget the trivial things & any weird ideas!

Enjoy life !

Minh Doan
Reply
- Veron
  December 23
  
  Out of curiosity, are the non-speaking residents of Asian ethnicity or some other?
  Reply
linjie
April 13

The Hello Kitty strawberry & milk chocolate is so adorable! i wouldn’t bear to eat them..hehe
Reply
- Veron
  April 14
  
  I would feel pretty mean to bite into one!
  Reply