Day 6: Miami - Washington DC

It was around 2.30am when we arrived at the airport, we unloaded our luggage from the car so that Dickson and Winson could return the car while me and Damien will look after our luggage in the airport (the car rental return place was outside the airport). Seriously, I haven't had any idea on how to spend my remaining 6 hours at the airport, which I drafted a blog post, slept and ate etc. But the 6 hours didn't turned out to be so long after all as we were soon entering the airplane already.


The departure hall of Miami International Airport

After a 2 hour plus ride (which I slept through the ride), we arrived safely at the Washington Dulles Airport, and it was the first time for me coming down from a plane using a stairs instead of the usual passage straight into the arrival terminal.


The plane which took us from Miami to Washington


The arrival terminal of Washington Dulles airport

Once we were done with our baggage claim, we immediately started finding a way to get to the hotel which we found out about online the day before. With the help of a friendly travelers' aid advisor, we were told that we could either catch a super shuttle (something like a taxi which will cost USD59) or take a bus, transfer onto a subway and take a walk which would take us to our destination. You could say that we were crazy in our attempt to save money, but we decided that we took the long and cheap way into the city of Washington (which would eventually cost us a total of USD 4.75 each). And we didn't regretted a bit, because it was a first for everyone of us seeing and taking a subway and what an experience it was!


Our bus ride from the airport to the Subway Station at Rosslyn


The escalator down into the subway platform


Me & my first subway platform :)


Inside the subway carriage

It was a less than a 10 minutes ride when we arrived at the Metro Center station in the heart of Washington DC.


The Metro Center Station

Again, just right outside of the subway station, we were caught asking directions again, and with the help of a City Service and Maintenance officer, we decided to stay in a different hotel which was just nearby the station (and wouldn't cost much more) instead of the one that we had planned earlier due to the hotel being situated quite a distance away from the station (we had our bulky luggage with us, remember?).
The name of the hotel was Harrington Hotel, and we took a room for 3 nights and immediately settled ourselves down.


A picture of our room (in case if you were wondering why is our room so small, we had 2 rooms which had an opening between them)


Hotel Harrington in Washington DC

Due to not getting enough sleep, all of us were knocked out the moment we settled down in our rooms. When we were awoken, it was already close to 7pm and after we were done bathing, we put our clothes on and ready to roam the streets again. Below are a few pictures of the streets of Washington DC.








Me & the Hard Rock Cafe in Washington

After a short walk, we were soon at the China Town of Washington, which we had earlier planned to have our dinner at. And so we came by a place which had quite a few restaurants serving Asian food. The one we eventually had our dinner at was called Chinatown Express, which we had fried noodles and pork dumplings (oh, words just can't explain how much I missed those food).


A bunch of restaurants serving Asian food


The seafood fried noodle which I had

After we had paid our bill for the food (which was USD 36 after tax and tip), we then continue our quest to roam the streets again. There were indeed many many sights of interest that we saw and below are pictures of them.


The China Town arch


The Smithsonian Museum


The House of Treasury (beside The White House)


The backside of The White House (we couldn't get a clear view of the front of The White House)


Me & the House of Directors


The famous Washington Monument

I still just couldn't believe myself that I had the chance to see all these structures (which we usually see them on TV only) with my bare eyes. It was pretty late already and we decided that we should continue our sightseeing the next day, so we headed back to our hotel to get some rest before another explosive day tomorrow. :)