DC : Museums n n Landmarks

since aku tak g mana2 on weekends... i mean tak keluar dr DC and tak de keje nak buat... i've been wandering around... visiting museums n monuments n buildings n landmarks... apart from g shopping mall lah... as per my earlier entry... :-)

tp last weekend mmg i intended to do as many museums as possible (setelah rasa bersalah menghabis kan masa kat outlet mall yg tak menghabis kan duit on saturday...) (btw, i have determined that no more shopping from now onwards... habiskan duit lah shopping ni) it's autumn/fall here in DC, good weather to walk around... 2 miles pun tak kisah... berpeluh jugak... tp relax (peluh pun sbb pakai baju berlapis2 takut terlebih sejuk) at this weather, aku mmg tak nak kena selsema... susah...
the main part kalau dtg utk tour/visit is the national mall yg sepanjang 2.2 mile... iaitu the park between george washington memorial and capitol hill with washington monument and the white house kat tengah. its a huge park... and still ada tupai2 berlari sana sini... i walk around waktu siang n malam... and according to ppl, its one of the safest place in the US. mana tak nya.. ada white house kat situ... berduyun polis ada situ.. hehehe....talking abt museum, the first museum i went was the national museum of natural history. oh, most of the museum kat sini dikelola (hmm... very baku punya perkataan) oleh smitsonian instute (gambar kat atas tu). i dont remember, tp i think at least 10 museums mmg bawah smithsonian institute.... termasuk lah natural museum ni. and most of their museums located in between washington monument ngan capitol hill so its within walkable distance.apa ada kat museum ni... its understandable from the name... its on natural history... so ada lah dinosaur, asal manusia... asal bumi... etc... but in my opinion, the natural history museum kat London is way much better than this museum, in terms of collection and interactive... aku rasa lebih terpegun museum kat london tu lagi... anyway, it is still a great museum lah.. and they have better collection on marine life lah...
satu je museum aku tgk the first weekend, so the last weekend when i declared a museum day for myself.... i spend a good 6 hours touring 3 big interesting museums.... first of all i went to international spy museum

yup mmg citer pasal kehidupan spy... apa yg spy perlu buat... gadgets and techniques... and kisah2 spy2 yg popular... yg kena tangkap n yg kena bunuh n pengalaman yg dah pencen jadi spy... no pics taken as photography was not allowed kat dalam museum. ooh ada tiket, price at 18USD, n actually aku masuk ke main exhibition, kalau ada lebih masa, blh join their operational spy so that u can try jadi spy.
the good thing about this museum, masa awal2 dia buat briefing n suruh kita ambil character as a spy, so kita jadi teruja masa mula2 masuk... tp for me lama2 rasa tu hilang. first sbb bila dah masuk bab history, byk kes2 spy yg berjaya masa cold war between US n Russia... n kehebatan US... tak larat nak baca dah... second aku jadi bosan (not towards the end lah) sbb semua citer tentang spy zaman cold war, WWII, WWI, perang dulu2 kat UK-France, berlin wall... so citer zaman before 70s.... i wanna know pasal spy in current years gak... equipment sekarang... n new story about spy sekarang... like those KGB lah... CIA lah... Mossad lah... kalau ada, lagi lah best...

after museum tu, aku g ke another museum, (under smithsonian inst) National Air and Space Museum. a very good museum for those minat airspace, aviation industry, jets, planets, NASA and sewaktu dengannya.. although i stroll around je... tak banyak baca sgt lagi pun free je... so pusing2 lah.. still i cant help but admire ngan the collections... especially the original (original ke? tak sure) wright brothers nya first air craft.and yg lain2 tu aku pusing2 je, tak try pun simulator bawak kapal terbang or riding the jets etc. n didnt go to the IMAX pun (sbb semua tu kena bayar extra) but still habis gak dekat 2 jam pusing2. another part that i like pasal race to the moon between US n Russia... (again propaganda, kata US dah menang). and also one part what's beyond this... should we find another planet to live in? so byk citer pasal marikh... n life kat airspace... (best gak dpt keje kat air space sana)
after that, i only left exactly 2 hours, contemplating between 2 museum, a newsuem yg citer pasal news and also sejarah2 baru dlm dunia. lots on journalism. or another museum call holocaust museum. tp at the same time, information guy kat museum tu cadang indian-american museum yg aku tak berminat nak tgk. but anyway, holocaust museum sounded more interesting, so aku gi sana.

So there you go, aku gi ke US Holocaust Memorial Museum. At first thought, aku akan dpt tgk holocaust yg teruk2 selama ni, i.e. nazi, serbs, pol pot, israels etc... all yg pernah wujud dr dulu... all the genocides, ethnic cleansing... but too bad, museum tu cuma citer pasal kes jews kena bunuh beramai2 ngan nazi/hitler. its all about that, hmm... halfway br i realise that... kalau i knew earlier i dah keluar n go to another museum dah. even indian american museum lagi best kot. it's totally jewish propaganda... its totally sponsored by jews... nasib baik free... n i've decided not to buy any souvenir dr museum tu... but not all bad... i think i like hitler... i wish dia bunuh org2 tu sampai licin dr muka bumi dr dulu lagi...

so thats all museum yg aku pergi... 4 great museums (ok, holocaust tu good in terms of collection n history, cuma purpose citer je aku tak minat, plus tak sampai my expectation hehehe). so museum2 ni dekat2 area national mall tu... where the other main monuments located... except museum berbayar (spy museum), yg tu located near chinatown. but still blh lah jalan.. dekat2 je...


oh.. yeah... national mall tu apa... as i said.. its the place between george washington monument ngan capitol hill... so in between tu, banyak memorial perang (which i didn't go any except ada lah lalu kat vietnam war memorial, sbb tu US kalah). then... monuments... its a big park.. and of course lah ada white house (atas tu pintu belakang white house waktu malam).

white houseada marine marathon masa aku g situ, meriah... oh, thats washington monument.so the white house and the washington monument tu, adalah di antara george washington memorial kat atas ni.... dancapitol hill ni...

so, in short, if museums and monuments are totally no-no in your touring list and visiting places... dont ever dtg washington DC, mmg takde benda lain selain tempat2 ni... tempat yg aku tak g... aku rasa more museums and more memorial... ;-) but for me... macam baca buku sains and sejarah at one go... hehehe.... and too bad, aku jenjalan sorang2... so ada satu dua je gambar sendiri... hehehe.. tak pe lah, not a poser anyway.... hahaha