USA Vacation Day 2 – Los Angeles, City of Angels

From Narita we flew for 10 hours to Los Angeles. Once we touched down, I was half expecting the immigration screening would take awhile. You know all these times they say how hard it is to go through the immigration, they would search you, ask all sort of questions etc. But I don’t know if they changed the system or we got lucky or we looked extremely harmless.; cause we go through the checking easy as ABC. No question asked.

Even before we left Malaysia, Azman bought a T-Mobile pre-paid simcard online. It was already activated when we received it with US$3 perday. So most of the time when we were in US, I have a US number and full access to internet until I lost my phone. It was really convenient coz you know how we need to Google up stuff every now and then and of course the GPS. Crucial!

From the airport we took a shuttle to the car rental place. We rented from DOLLAR Car Rental. Initially Azman booked a compact Ford Focus with full insurance but we ended up with TOYOTA RAV4 which is an SUV. The car rental is relatively cheap but having travelling with kids we need to pay more for car seats rentals. That alone doubled up the cost of rent. But the car is nice and we were comfortable.

However,I will not forget the 2 hours wait at DOLLAR, queuing for the car. There was so many people and the line moved oh so slowly! The four of us hadn’t showered in ages luckily none of us smell but the discomfort was starting to bother the kids not the mention the jet lag. If it was hot like Malaysia I would have gone crazy haha! but it was cool but very-very sunny in LA.

Above, Azman is somewhere in that long line for hours while I have to keep Rafa entertained. Haishhh! Below- This is the butt of  the car that served us well for 11 days in USA.

After we got the car, placed all our bags in it, set the kids all right and hit the road. It was Azman’s first time driving on the left side and of course it was ackward! LOL! When we passed Beverly Hills, a car honked us many times and then we realized it was a slick red Ferrari, so OK fine… horn lah! horn lah lagi… horn lah sepuas hati… tah tah ko pun kereta sewa jugak! hahaha

Los Angeles, ladies and gentlemen is beautiful!

And so we drove while Miki was asleep at the back and Rafa was wailing. We drove past the endless of streets and tall magnificent palm trees, signature to LA and California swayed in the wind. It was different of course than our country and I really love this weather. We drove down the famous Hollywood Boulevard, you know where there were stars with artists’ names on them on the floor, and we drove past great many picture taking tourists before we arrived at Hollywood Inn. We stayed there for the next 3 days.

Azman did the bookings for all our  accommodations and it was no surprise that although our rooms was all under US$100 but they were all very comfortable and nice.

Hollywood Inn was situated on Hollywood Boulevard itself ( like how cool is that?) and in the Thai town section. 5 minutes walk from here we found a fully Halal Indian restaurant, yummm!!

The Inn is small but our room was pretty huge and it got everything. They styled it in such a way that it way really “Hollywood” hahaha! Masuk-masuk bilik aja there was a huge mural of Whitney Houston on the wall.  They don’t serve breakfast here but they have running coffee, tea, juices and water 24/7. Which is nice.

The view from our room was those beautiful big houses on the hills with palm trees towered above them. It was lovely! The boys who were tired in the car suddenly got their battery charged automatically once we reached the inn. I wanted to rest a little but Rafa started jumping on my tummy.. haishhh…

Initially we wanted to go out for a drive but then I got a message from Deccee, my dear old friend from St George’s, Penang and she was coming over to see us! I was so happy and excited. In fact I got a gift for her, MAGGI CHILLI SAUCE! ahahahah!

Deccee later took us to ROSS, Dress For Less where I fell in love instantly with that store. The web said ROSS provide 60% off departmental store prices but to me, that’s like 80-90% off Malaysian prices. Giler!! I took some pictures  but using the lost phone so none to upload here. But you guys just imagined Jusco on J-Card Day, barang bersepah-sepah… harga dirt cheap from brands like BCBG, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Micheal Korrs, Guess, Coach, Marc Jacob’s,  DKNY, Roxy, Billabong, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson,  Armani, Nine West, Bakers, J & Company, Levis, Lacoste, Polo,French Connection, Donney and Bourke, Ralph Lauren, JCPenny, BeBe, Ann Taylor,  Adidas, Burberry, Nike…

ROSS HAS EVERYTHING I WANT TO DIEEEEEEEEE….

One of the main reasons why I have to comeback to US again someday. Is to go to ROSS. I will write about shopping later on. Just writing above para excites me so much my jantung bang! bang! bang! I takut heart attack die already… Haishh!

To be continued.

NEXT STORY – The Amazing New Minion Mayhem Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood – USA Vacation Day 3

PREVIOUS STORY – USA Vacation Day 1 – Tokyo the Amazing Metropolis