The green route of the hop on, hop off bus brought us to Santa Monica pier/ beach where we spent the evening. Santa Monica is far from where we stayed, which is Downtown LA. Downtown LA is also where the Jewellery District is, what I call a hip area with budding artists. Just like how Colette is staying there and has loads of artist friends in the area. In fact she is in charge of organising the monthly Art Walk event, which is to celebrate and promote local artists.
Santa Monica Pier & Beach
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| Arriving to a large crowd especially now that it is proper summer |
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| The movie Forrest Gump was filmed here |
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| This is also the ending point of route 66 |
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The waters were really cold, don't be deceived. Colette said you need a wetsuit to get into the waters.
Well, I guess I can say I have dipped my toes in the Pacific Ocean! |
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| The happy look |
As we arrived around 6pm, we needed to find a place for dinner. We wanted some Asian food and so googled Japanese food in our vicinity. One sushi bar we went to was so packed, the wait time was close to an hour. We walked around and saw this chain Beni Hana. Random as it can be, K mentioned he knows Beni Hana because it was mentioned in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Leonardo DiCaprio and his mates celebrated one occasion at Beni Hana or something involving the Beni Hana boss. He was very amused and said we should come here for dinner. For me, as long as it is yummy… guess what? I think it was one of my top 3 meals of the trip! It was a teppanyaki style dinner where the chef cooks in front of you.
This being America where everything is big, we ordered a sushi plate and a meal to share. The meal is 5 course, and it comes with a soup, a salad, a starter, a main and finally, dessert. The waitress was very kind - bless her - gave us two portions of the soup, salad and dessert! By the time we came out, we had two very satisfied tummies. And the portion was just right, hallelujah.
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| We sat with two other families who were really friendly. |
One thing we notice about Americans is that they are friendly. They can randomly strike a conversation on the streets and soon we kind of followed suit: very helpful especially when asking for directions. Later on after visiting the national parks and all, I came to the conclusion that: because of their land size, their neighbours might not be that close by and they can feel rather isolated. They have this longing to speak to other people and hence as time passes, they just be chatty to everyone. Makes sense?
It was close to 10pm when we left the restaurant. I was kind of worried as we were far away from Downtown LA and Colette told us to let her know where we were, in case we needed her to come and pick us up. She is really very kind. We texted her on where we were, and we were planning to take the direct bus back and she said it's safe to do so, and probably the best option.
The next day (also our last full day in LA), we had a rented car. See people told me we definitely need a car to get around LA and upon discussing with K, we decided to have a car for a day. So we collected the car a day earlier before we were to drive to Sequoia National Park. On hindsight I am not sure that having a car is a good thing. Being in Downtown, we found the connections to be quite good, and the hop on, hop off bus took you anywhere you wanted to. With a car, you are often stuck in traffic (LA is known for their grid locked roads) and the parking. Oh the parking! What a headache.
Colette drove us to pick the car up from Union Station. She highly recommended us to visit the original city centre of LA (back in the day where it was under Mexican rule so the architecture was all influenced by the Mexicans). Interestingly we saw this group of people gathering near us. We were both very intrigued and kept noticing what they were doing. They seemed to be getting ready for something.
We took some pictures of them (ahem secretly) and a guy stood close enough and I just asked him what was happening (see, just talk to strangers lah). He explained that they are from the ancient Aztec group (red indians) from Mexico and they were planning a peaceful protest, from here to some government building, to protest against some new immigration law affecting them. "Ah I see" I replied. "Would you guys like to join us?" He looked at me and K. Ah haha can you imagine.. two Singaporeans joining a group of red Indians dressed up in their Aztec wear protesting? Sticking out like two sore thumbs. Who knows, we might appear in their local news.
We explained that we were going to collect our car and drive to the beach today, and so very respectfully declined his invite. He said "it's ok, don't worry!". Before we left, we wished them "Good luck!!"
Driving back to Santa Monica and from there a highway to Venice beach was probably the best route according to Googlemap. It was a Saturday and with the sunny weather, no prizes for guessing where most people were headed to. It was very stressful especially it's driving on the other side of the road. Not to mention the parking at Venice Beach. We just couldn't find any parking. We circled for at least half an hour and finally found a valet parking (beggars can't be choosers) for USD12 - cheap by Venice Beach standards. A 20min walk away to the beach which K kept complaining and comparing it with the stress-free bus ride we had the night before. I agreed with K.
Venice Beach
Finally we arrived! Colette said that Venice Beach is more hip and cool, great for pictures because it is "very California in the 80s. Malibu, on the other hand, is very residential. Good only if you have friends living there."
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| Hot and thirsty when we arrived at Venice Beach |
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| Proper waves here |
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| Actually, more like scary waves. The waves were taller than us. |
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| The stores lining the beach selling all sorts of beach wear |
We sat on the beach for a while before driving 10min to the nearby Marina del Rey which had nothing much to see.
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| Marina del Rey |
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| Continued driving to Malibu, an hour away |
Malibu is on the other side of Santa Monica and so we had to drive past Santa Monica again. Colette highly recommended this place called Malibu Seafood for dinner and so we went.
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| Entering Malibu |
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| It was a nice coastal drive |
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| Found it! |
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| Which had a snaking Q outside. Spot me?! |
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| I ordered the giant squid steak whereas K ordered the local's favourite: fish & chips |
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| We saw groups of people bringing get this: table cloth(!), wine bottle(s), wine glasses to create a lovely dinner setting. With a sea view and free corkage, why not? |
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| Was it as good? K was not blown away. I guess we get loads of fish and chips in England and so this wasn't anything special. My squid steak was better. |
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| More crashing waves. Sitting there looking at this, I couldn't help but imagine a tsunami and got quite scared by my own imagination... |
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| After dinner K wanted to drive to Zuma Beach which is in Malibu |
Contrary to what I thought, Malibu is not the name of a beach. Malibu is an area. K wanted to go because of the sitcom Two and a Half Men.
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| Close to sunset when we arrived. |
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| The beach was deserted including the life guard hut you see here |
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| Big difference from Venice Beach |
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| K kindly exchanged my shawl with his towel as it was quite cold |
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| It was very windy and I had to wrap a towel around me |
On our last morning in LA, I suggested visiting Oasis Church, headed by Holly and Phillip Wagner. Holly Wagner spoke at Colour Conference a few years ago and is coming again next year. We arrived a bit late, again trying to find parking... We sat in the service; it was nice to be greeted with smiley faces… we had no time to spare and so couldn't visit their welcome tent. We went straight for lunch afterwards.
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| Inside Oasis LA church |
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| The outside of the church |
Since the church was in Koreatown, of course it made sense to have a Korean lunch. We stumbled upon BCD Tofu House and we never looked back. lol
It.was.heavenly. Best meal ever.
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| OMG I love pork + kimchi + tofu soup and we had so many other small plates including this deep fried fish which was very nice. As if there weren't enough food - you see the earthen bowl with the leftover rice? They came by later and poured in hot water to make a porridge for us to "finish the meal". |
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| Trying the soup |
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| We were given a raw egg to crack in |
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K ordered the beef bulgogi thinking he would just have that and rice.
No he had the kimchi soup too - the whole works |
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I wish I had a bigger stomach at that time.
I couldn't stop eating even though my stomach was bursting.. |
*My set meal cost USD 9.99 (excl taxes + tips) - how amazing is that?
To me, LA is good for celeb spotting and the beach. I guess there is some truth in what people say. However as first time tourists, we did do and see a lot. However, would we go back again?
I'm not sure. Probably not for a long time...
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| On the way to Sequoia National Park, we needed to buy a GPS and Colette recommended this tech superstore called Frys. K's kind of store and he was so excited. |
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| Inside the store, I guess it's a boy's wonderland |
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