Hello all, it has been rather quiet here because we are doing our much delayed honeymoon here in California! It's been 2 weeks so far and boy is there much to blog about.
Planning for this last minute trip was pretty stressful for us. The last time I went to the USA was years ago as a (poor) exchange student. Even that, we were on the East coast (NYC, Boston) and the drive to Washington DC didn't happen due to the blizzard which was rather unforgettable. Us girls insisted on going to the shops even though people were pulling down their shutters saying everyone is being asked to stay indoors due to the impending blizzard. This is also K's first time to the US and so for us planning this trip was into uncharted territories. K was very anxious throughout the process, planning everything right down to the details.
To keep this post short (sort of), I shall share some highlights and tips!
This was how we planned our trip. I'm also trying to think of a word or two to describe each city we visited.
Alas nothing of that sort happened. We lost USD 90 in 10min and decided gambling is not for us. Vegas was boiling hot (I mean.. summer in the desert..) it was about 39deg C on average and I was wilting. Thankfully people are indoors in the mall or casino most of the time.
On one of the days we did a 15h (!!) day trip to visit the majestic Grand Canyon. Contrary to many people's opinion, we decided to take the good old tour bus instead of the helicopter ride. I still have my doubts but oh hey, at least we did see the canyon and it did blew us both away.
From Sin City, we proceeded to the City of Angels. Like Z said, we went from "hell to heaven". Before we left for our trip, many people told us "LA is a big city of nothing." Perhaps it's this that made me go with no expectations. Such that when I was there, I did enjoy it! K agrees with the rest of the people saying "LA has nothing". But you would be surprised how big this city is. We spent a day chasing the glamour of Hollywood, even signing up to a cheesy "Celebrities' homes tour" where we literally rock up to celebrities' homes thanks to the informative tour guide. Obviously not expecting the stars to open the front gates.
Koreatown is so established here and after church service (yes we visited Oasis church!) we stumbled upon this place called BCDTofu House, packed with Koreans (it must be good). And what can I say? One of the best stumbles we've ever made. It was a superb meal which I still rave so much about today. OMG heaven.
Funnily enough our next best meal was also taken in LA at BeniHana. To be fair this is a chain across the US but we also stumbled upon it at Santa Monica and it was a teppanyaki style dinner. SO GOOD.
Did you notice that the top 2 meals were Asian meals? ;)
From mega trees we drove 4h to yet another national park (a little more well known) in Yosemite. When we thought Sequoia was massive, Yosemite is even bigger. In fact our B&B hosts said the entire Yosemite area is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Let's put it this way, Yosemite National Park can easily be the size of a COUNTRY. We had no idea how much time would be spent on travelling and getting from point A to point B. I found a B&B in this tiny village called Groveland "at the foothills of the Sierra Neveda mountains and close to the west entrance". What it means in reality in terms of driving distance: 45min drive to the entrance and thereafter within the national park, another 1h drive to the visitor centre! Whoa! It's like driving from Singapore to Malaysia to be able to start hiking. Also the nail-biting long and bendy mountain roads which scared the hell out of us - that was an experience which I will blog more in detail later. Packed full of adventure by this time!
Our trip has been packed full of things to see and do, with a healthy mix between nature and city sights.
Top 3 tips which I can think of now:
1) ALWAYS USE GOOGLEMAP - without this, I don't know how else would we have travelled around so easily. Googlemap is scarily good. It is able to tell you the current road conditions and which roads to avoid. It is also able to tell you how to get from point A to B via public transport, walking or driving. If it is public transport, it will tell you which bus to take and the countdown to the time of the bus arrival. Of course when we were in the mountains with no reception, we had to rely on the good old GPS but seriously, Googlemap is awesome. Scarily awesome.
2) DATA OVER CALLTIME
K bought a pay as you go SIM card here from T Mobile whereas I opted for the 3GB dataplan from AT&T. 3GB because I couldn't get any lower than that and obviously I can't finish all the data. It's complicated - different cellular companies offer different things and for AT&T, in order to enjoy talk time, text messages and data, I had to top up USD45 minimum which I didn't want to. 3GB of data cost me USD30. But connection was way better than K's T Mobile. He topped up USD 15 to start with to last for a week but connection was poor (depending on where we were). Anyway my point being I readily chose data over calltime because I can not call but I can't have no data. Who's with me?
3) AIRBNB IS COOL
We tried Air BnB for the first time in this trip, both in LA and SF and it has been a very good experience. In LA, we had a whole Parisian themed studio to ourselves. The owner Martha stays in the flat next to us so it was very convenient to ask her questions.. plus she's always shown to be "online" on whatsapp all the time so her responses are always prompt. She even volunteered to wash our clothes! Amazing.
In SF we are staying in a Victorian house with a local couple, in a pretty rough neighbourhood called Mission. We call it "rough" but the owners call it "upcoming". However once you step inside the house you do feel like all is good and you forget what's out on the streets. They do have a cool house though. Love their style and their high ceilings.
More to come!
Planning for this last minute trip was pretty stressful for us. The last time I went to the USA was years ago as a (poor) exchange student. Even that, we were on the East coast (NYC, Boston) and the drive to Washington DC didn't happen due to the blizzard which was rather unforgettable. Us girls insisted on going to the shops even though people were pulling down their shutters saying everyone is being asked to stay indoors due to the impending blizzard. This is also K's first time to the US and so for us planning this trip was into uncharted territories. K was very anxious throughout the process, planning everything right down to the details.
To keep this post short (sort of), I shall share some highlights and tips!
This was how we planned our trip. I'm also trying to think of a word or two to describe each city we visited.
Stop 1: Las Vegas
We figured if we win enough money at the casinos, we could fund a more luxurious trip ;) Heck, we might not even need to work anymore.Alas nothing of that sort happened. We lost USD 90 in 10min and decided gambling is not for us. Vegas was boiling hot (I mean.. summer in the desert..) it was about 39deg C on average and I was wilting. Thankfully people are indoors in the mall or casino most of the time.
On one of the days we did a 15h (!!) day trip to visit the majestic Grand Canyon. Contrary to many people's opinion, we decided to take the good old tour bus instead of the helicopter ride. I still have my doubts but oh hey, at least we did see the canyon and it did blew us both away.
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| God's creation is amazing |
Stop 2: Los Angeles
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| In the Hollywood Hills |
From Sin City, we proceeded to the City of Angels. Like Z said, we went from "hell to heaven". Before we left for our trip, many people told us "LA is a big city of nothing." Perhaps it's this that made me go with no expectations. Such that when I was there, I did enjoy it! K agrees with the rest of the people saying "LA has nothing". But you would be surprised how big this city is. We spent a day chasing the glamour of Hollywood, even signing up to a cheesy "Celebrities' homes tour" where we literally rock up to celebrities' homes thanks to the informative tour guide. Obviously not expecting the stars to open the front gates.
 |
| Santa Monica beach |
Koreatown is so established here and after church service (yes we visited Oasis church!) we stumbled upon this place called BCDTofu House, packed with Koreans (it must be good). And what can I say? One of the best stumbles we've ever made. It was a superb meal which I still rave so much about today. OMG heaven.
Funnily enough our next best meal was also taken in LA at BeniHana. To be fair this is a chain across the US but we also stumbled upon it at Santa Monica and it was a teppanyaki style dinner. SO GOOD.
Did you notice that the top 2 meals were Asian meals? ;)
Stop 3: Sequoia National Park
From this point on we rented a car and poor K drove so much in total. He dove 4-5h from LA to this little village called Three Rivers which is close to the entrance of Sequoia National Park. Sequoia trees are HUGE trees - none of which we have ever seen before. In fact, they look like they belong to some Jurassic Park movie because they look more suited to be amongst dinosaurs (thanks to Denise who mentioned the word "dinosaurs" to me. We hiked a lot in the forest. There are no marked trails and for a short period of time I thought we were lost and started freaking out because it was only us and these dino-trees. We spent a full day here and the next day at King's Canyon which is also part of the national park. |
| General Sherman tree - the largest tree in the world in terms of volume |
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| A typical Sequoia tree |
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| Unreal right? They say how we look up at these trees is just like how a mouse looks up at a human |
Stop 4: Yosemite National Park
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| Isn't this place stunning? |
Stop 5: San Francisco
Driving distances in California seems to be in the range of 4-5h and similarly, K drove this much to get us to our final stop San Francisco, which is also where we are now. After 4 days in the mountains I was ready for the city again. We took the usual hop on hop off bus and got around the city and did the touristy things. For one of the days where we still had the car, we drove out to Napa Valley, the famous wine region in California. There are a few main towns within the valley namely Napa (which we started at), and followed by St Helena, Yountville (my American colleague could not stop raving about this picturesque town which has the highest concentration of Michelin star restaurants and also boasts of the best bakery in America called Bouchon) and Calistoga (which we did our 3 winery visits). Whilst many tell me they would willingly move to stay in San Francisco, I say I would willingly move to Napa or Yountville. |
| Having one of he best burgers at Gott's Roadside, paired with yummy sweet potato fries which is such a good idea |
Our trip has been packed full of things to see and do, with a healthy mix between nature and city sights.
Top 3 tips which I can think of now:
1) ALWAYS USE GOOGLEMAP - without this, I don't know how else would we have travelled around so easily. Googlemap is scarily good. It is able to tell you the current road conditions and which roads to avoid. It is also able to tell you how to get from point A to B via public transport, walking or driving. If it is public transport, it will tell you which bus to take and the countdown to the time of the bus arrival. Of course when we were in the mountains with no reception, we had to rely on the good old GPS but seriously, Googlemap is awesome. Scarily awesome.
2) DATA OVER CALLTIME
K bought a pay as you go SIM card here from T Mobile whereas I opted for the 3GB dataplan from AT&T. 3GB because I couldn't get any lower than that and obviously I can't finish all the data. It's complicated - different cellular companies offer different things and for AT&T, in order to enjoy talk time, text messages and data, I had to top up USD45 minimum which I didn't want to. 3GB of data cost me USD30. But connection was way better than K's T Mobile. He topped up USD 15 to start with to last for a week but connection was poor (depending on where we were). Anyway my point being I readily chose data over calltime because I can not call but I can't have no data. Who's with me?
3) AIRBNB IS COOL
We tried Air BnB for the first time in this trip, both in LA and SF and it has been a very good experience. In LA, we had a whole Parisian themed studio to ourselves. The owner Martha stays in the flat next to us so it was very convenient to ask her questions.. plus she's always shown to be "online" on whatsapp all the time so her responses are always prompt. She even volunteered to wash our clothes! Amazing.
 |
| For a moment I thought we were back in Europe |
In SF we are staying in a Victorian house with a local couple, in a pretty rough neighbourhood called Mission. We call it "rough" but the owners call it "upcoming". However once you step inside the house you do feel like all is good and you forget what's out on the streets. They do have a cool house though. Love their style and their high ceilings.
More to come!
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