Ok... So we touched down in LA on Monday morning, 18th May 2009. I just love flying eastbound since we always gain a day, so eventhough I had left KL on Sunday evening and spent 17 hours in the air and half a day transit in Tokyo, it was still Monday morning when I arrived. Sweet!
Since we only had 3.5 days in LA, there was no time to rest, so we dumped our bags off with the concierge at the lovely *cough* Downtown LA Holiday Inn, and quickly made our way out to do some exploring!
Even Holiday Inn had Idol fever!Since we only had 3.5 days in LA, there was no time to rest, so we dumped our bags off with the concierge at the lovely *cough* Downtown LA Holiday Inn, and quickly made our way out to do some exploring!
Tired & Jet-lagged tourists...So after walking around a little bit, we decided to check out Santa Monica. Heard a lot about it on TV and music, so must be good mah, right? We asked the concierge how to get to Santa Monica and got some directions to hop on to a bus heading that direction.
Ok... Note to self... Next time, plan journey ahead even if you are tired!
Even with the direction from the hotel, we ended up getting on (and off) the wrong bus (thankfully not having to pay because the bus driver must be thinking I'm some stupid tourist) and getting some grunted instructions on which was the correct bus to take to head of Santa Monica.
Here's a little tip for those who don't know... If you want go to Santa Monica, decide which of the two popular hotspots you want to go to, Santa Monica Beach or Santa Monica Boulevard, because they aren't walking distance from one another!
We decided to head to Santa Monica Beach because (a) the trip takes about 1.5 hours from Downtown LA and we wanted to catch the sunset there (b) shopping there is probably helluva lot cheaper.
I sighed a breath of relief and wiped my brow as the bus zoomed by Coach and Tiffany shops on Santa Monica Boulevard...
Ok, so after about 1.5 hours of bus travel (my butt was soooo totally sore from sitting down in the airplane and then the bus), we finally arrived at Santa Monica Beach. So, first things first - LUNCH!
We wanted to try some "American food" so we stopped by at this restaurant called ??? and ordered a giant burrito and buffalo wings (very American no?).
Good wholesome (?!) American meal...
Well, the pictures looks better than the food tasted... I'd have the burrito from Las Carretas and chicken wings from Bandar Menjalara over this stuff any day!
Anyways... We did some shopping...
Santa Monica Beach 3rd Street MallChecked out the beach...
Can you see the tiny ferris wheel in the background?And did some soul search... (NOT)
Oooooommmm....We then took another 1.5 hour bus ride back to Downtown LA, nodding off on the bus all along the way (it was early morning back in Malaysia after all!).
While walking back to the hotel, we saw this really nice looking restaurant called Bottega Louie so we decided to stop there for dinner. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Will post about this place another time because it was just so good!
After dinner, we got back to the hotel and HORROR OR HORRORS -
NO IDOL TICKETS!
The tickets were supposed to be delivered at midday to the concierge but when we asked they said that they hadn't received them yet. Thankfully, other people have been asking too, so I knew we were not the only ones.
Whew!
The room wasn't too bad actually! I was quite surprised that it was quite spacious and wasn't very noisy at all, eventhough it faced the main road. Too bad I didn't take a pic of the room. Didn't think I'd be blogging about it after all... =p
After settling in, I called Star World to say "WHADDUP! Where's my tickets?!".
Well, not really, but kinda...
Was told that there was a mix-up at the courier's office and that the tickets would be available by morning the following day. It had better since the show was at 4pm on that day!
With that, that wraps up my first day in LA on the trip!
Will write about the American Idol Finale Performance Day next (if I don't procrastinate again...)
To be continued!
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