Duration: 12 Days 11 Nights (Feb 23~Mar
05, 2016)
Day 5: A Day in the City of
Angels
I booked a day tour with
adayinLAtours (link) that cost USD89 per pax since I was too lazy to
drive everywhere on my own and worry about parking. The meeting point was at
Santa Monica at around 9.45am.
I had my breakfast of buffalo
chicken burrito & cold pressed juice that I bought from Trader Joe's last
night before starting my journey at 7.30am for fear of heavy traffic.
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| Breakfast of the day! |
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| Chicken Wrap... Hmm.. not that good since it was cold and there is no microwave in hotel |
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| My leftover 2.5 gallons of water after 4 days in US |
There were some traffic along the
way but I ended up arriving at the parking area at around 8.30am. There were
tons of public parking building near Santa Monica Pier and I ended up at
Parking Structure 2. Maximum parking fee would be USD14 for a day. Everything
was automated here and one had to pay at machine before driving out.
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| Fresh Vege anyone? |
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| Walking over to the seaside... |
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| Oh dear.. need to cross the bridge to the Beach! |
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| Sammy enjoying the cold.. Hmm.. Hot Breeze! |
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| Some Memorial around the Park |
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| The Georgion Hotel! |
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| Our Bus was there! But it was too early though! |
Since it was still early, I
continued on to Santa Monica Pier where the end of Route 66 is located. There
was also an amusement park there as well. I simply walked along the shore at
the end. There were loads of hot guy/girls jogging along the way and I must say
it was really sunny! There was also some function there with tv crews,
securities & fans at one of the open space but I had no idea what function
it was. =p
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| Function at Santa Monica Pier? Even Birdy is interested! |
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| Sammy at the Cannon! LOL!!! |
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| Walking over to the Pier |
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| It's a HOT day! |
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| All the Shops are closed since it is too early.. |
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| There is Bubba Gump! Heard this is the one of the places he stopped. |
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| Police Station at the Pier! LOL!!! |
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| End of Route 66 |
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| My Shadow at Santa Monice Pier... ;P |
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| Hello Pacific Ocean! |
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| Some Amusement Park |
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| Let's just enjoy the view.. |
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| Harbor Office & some restaurant... |
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| Ferris Wheel from afar |
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| Sammy at the Pier. :) |
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| Having a morning stroll... |
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| Red Carpet?! |
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| Fans waiting outside... |
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| Security |
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| Houses along the beach... |
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| Houses with Flowers... |
I went back to the registration point by 9.30am to register myself in and got on Bus 5. Our bus driver cum tour guide was really funny and helpful - he even offered to charge our phone battery. LOL!
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| Walking back to the meeting point! |
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| Right across the Street |
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| Here it is - the meeting point |
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| Just beside the Visitor Center |
Off we departed to our 1st
destination - Venice Beach which also known as Muscle beach since Arnold
Schwarzenegger used to train there. It was kind of foggy that day so many of my
pictures came out blurry. =( Venice Beach was kind of underwhelming for me
though as it simply had some shoplots, skate boarding ground, graffiti art area
& the open-air gym and sport area.
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| Venice in Southern California |
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| Venice Sign in the Fog |
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| Very Foggy Morning |
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| Sammy with the V! |
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| Venice Public Art Walls |
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| Graffiti at the Skateboarding park |
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| The Skatepark |
There were few muscle men &
women training there and people were taking pictures of them. One may also rent
a bicycle to cycle along the whole stretch of Venice beach.
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| Wondering around the area... |
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| Muscle Men!!! |
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| Open Gym at the Beach - no wonder this is called Muscle Beach |
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| They even have a Museum! |
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| It's time to go! |
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| Rent a Bike to cycle along the beach! |
Our 2nd destination was Beverly
Hills where the riches resided. I took my time to take picture with the famed
Beverly Hills sign before continuing to look for other famous spot such as the
location where "Pretty Woman" was filmed.
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| One of the Canals in LA... |
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| Hello Beverly Hills! |
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| One of the locations for Pretty Woman where Julie Roberts says "It's a mistake!" |
The whole row of buildings was
basically high end shops such as Gucci, LV, Prada etc but one of the most
glaring was House of Bijan - a tailor-made suit store that only meet by
appointment and one suit could cost USD25k! Gosh! I could use that money for a
car here in Malaysia! An imported car no less!
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| Bijan - the Luxury Suit |
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| Even the shop looks classy huh? |
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| The Street in Beverly Hills |
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| Gucci! |
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| Cable Car? |
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| Yet another shopping street |
Another thing I realized was the
amount of sport cars driving through here - Ferrari, Porsche & Lamborghini
were everywhere and unfortunately they were driving too fast for me to take
picture! *facepalm* I think I was at the correct spot
for the "Pretty Lady" hotel but my picture came out dark due to the
backlight.
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| I think this is the "Pretty Woman" hotel? |
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| All the Luxury Brands |
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| Beautiful Blooming Flowers at Roadside |
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| I have no idea what this cute little van is for! |
I did not walked all the way to
Beverly Hills Police Station though but simply took a picture from afar before
our bus was leaving. There was also some preparations around that area for some
event and our driver told us it was the location of Oscar after party! Oscar
was going to be tomorrow in Dolby theatre.
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| A far shot to Beverly Hills Police Station |
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| Oscar After Party! |
It was lunch break and we were
brought to the farmer's market at LA. There were lots of shops & food
stalls and I think this was also the place where Gilmore drill the oil in LA as
there were memorial everywhere.
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| LA - the land of OIL in old time |
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| Farmers Market |
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| The Historical Railroad on the ground... |
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| A Water Fountain! |
I ended up with the original
corned beef sandwich from Magee's kitchen - one of the oldest stalls in
Farmer's market. The place was really packed and I was lucky to get a table.
The sandwich was packed with tons of corned beef and it was nice eating the 1st
half of the sandwich but it kind of got disgusting during the 2nd half as some
parts of the beefs were too greasy. Yucks! I guess I should've ordered extra
lean! The sandwich itself cost USD13.90.
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| What to eat in Farmers Market? |
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| Let's have the Corned Beef Sandwich at one of the Oldest Stalls in Farmers Market |
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| OMG! The Sandwich is so THICK!!! |
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| Nice for 1st half.. too many fat chunks in the 2nd half.. |
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| Lemonade to wash it down |
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| CBS around the corner! |
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| Another Cute Truck! |
After lunch, we continued on to
Griffith park - the place to take a picture of Hollywood sign! There was also
the observatory there as well with planetary introduction.
Our last stop was supposed to be
the Hollywood Walk of Fame but we ended up skipping it due to closure for Oscar
preparation tomorrow. What a bummer. Our driver drove us to Universal City Walk
instead - basically an area outside of Universal studios with a row of shops.
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| Jack Black's House! |
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| Superhero Run?! |
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| Universal City Walk |
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| Johnny Rockets at the back |
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| King Kong?! |
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| Hard Rock! |
I spent most of the time in Rock
shop and took pictures with the iconic Universal Studio globe near the
entrance. =p
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| I love Rock Shop! |
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| Look at all the Foods on the Building! |
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| On the Way to the Universal Studio Entrance |
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| The Entrance with Red Carpet! |
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| Sammy was there! |
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| The Universal Studios Globe |
Thus this ended our day tour. Our
bus did drove pass Hollywood Walk of Fame there and we could see the area was
really closed. We also drove pass some famous spot such as Chateau Marmont
hotel where celebrities loved to stay in. Another highlight was Viper Room
which was owned by Johnny Depp when River Phoenix had a overdose right in front
of the club. Too bad I didn't managed to get a picture of the club as it was at
another side of the bus.
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| Ironman!!! |
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| Hollywood Walk of Fame is closed for Oscar! |
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| Chateau Marmont |
We also drove pass a building where Bruce Willis jumped out of in Die hard movie before being sent back to our starting point at Santa Monica.
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| Let's jump out of the Fox Building |
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| Random Church |
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| Sunset at Santa Monica |
Night view at Santa Monica was
really different from earlier but I was too lazy to walk all the way down to
the pier again. Thus I ended up taking pictures from the top instead. =p
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| Looks different from morning! |
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| Santa Monice at Night - lots of cars! |
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| Still taking pictures non-stop |
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| Goodbye Santa Monica |
I was really tired and ended up
having dinner at Burger Lounge - a random restaurant which happened to be near
my parking area. The line was long to get the burger so this also boosted my
confidence on the food quality. =p
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| Let's have some burger! |
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| Long queue - must be a good sign? |
I ordered the Alaskan Cod Fish
burger with fries and lavender lemonade. The burger was really delicious! The
Cod Fish was a real piece and not the patty type. It was really fresh and soft
and blended well with the bun and vege. The fries was sprinkled with some herb
stuff which made it even more delectable. I loved the lavender lemonade as well
and they actually offered free refill! Gosh! I think I was overloaded with
sugar by the time I finished the 2 glasses of lemonade. *facepalm* By the way,
the set cost USD18.54 after tax.
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| Refillable Lavendar Lemonade! |
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| Alaskan Cod Burger & French Fries |
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| Look at the Cod! |
I packed the leftover fries and
it was time to drive back to Westlake Village Inn. I managed to find the
payment machine and paid without any incident. There was a Third Street
Promenade around tar area with more shops and stuffs but I was simply too tired
for it. I didn't even had the energy to buy some grocery for tomorrow's
breakfast. *facepalm*
I did went for refuel for the car
just in case and ended up taking me a long time to find the handle to open the
fuel door. LOL!!! It was really a fun day but in some way I was a bit
underwhelmed as in my mind LA was supposed to be more glamorous! =p
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| ROCK ON!!! |
Next Day (A Day of Movie Magic)
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