Mississippi River

Mississippi River, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

We had a walk down to the ever famous Mississippi River bank after dinner at the Bourbon House (a seafood restaurant along Bourbon St.) one evening. It was a nice stroll after yet another dinner of seafood; we had oysters, crawfish, shrimp, catfish, etc.. (I reckon New Orleans would be a seafood lover's paradise!) Anyway, the huricane Katrina did quite a lot of damage in this part of the town. The Aquarium and the IMAX theatre located by the banks of the river were closed to public. These places took quite a beating from the fierce storm/hurricane. We were told that all the fishes, including the sharks died after the hurricane. How sad!



Since there was not much lighting along the banks, we could hardly make out the river itself. There were a few tug boats going downstream but we could not see the famous steam powered paddle boats. From what we could see, the river was rather wide with muddy waters (quite like most of our rivers back in Sarawak) but there was a bridge running across the river a distance away. This river meanders through quite a long distance through the States. All I could remember about this river is tales of Mark Twain!



After a good 20mins or so by the river bank, we headed back to the hotel. On our way back, we passed by a huge casino called Harrahs. It's amazing how places like these can spring back to business so fast whilst the surrounding area is still in need of restoration. It's also amazing to note that there were tonnes and tonnes of 5-star hotels like Marriott, Sheraton, etc. along Canal St.. We were informed by our hosts that New Orleans is one of those cities where it would attract a lot of conventions through out the year. Well, only time will tell if New Orleans will spring back to life after the hard beating it took from Katrina.



We ended at our hotel after a good stroll in town, too tired to do anything else. This is the reason why I have not blog much at all (as most nights are either filled with dinners or shopping - hosts bring us to these areas) except now; I'm flying back from New Orleans to LA to catch the midnight flight back to KL via Taipei).



Note : Apologies for the poor pictures taken here as everytime we were out and about, I would have left my camera behind at the hotel! Hence, I could only use my PDA to take these shots... Better than nothing I suppose.