Us of A (Day 5)

Day 5: San Mateo - Hollywood Boulevard - Walt Disney theatre - Hol Inn (LA Marinda)


On Tuesday Morning (5th June), we got up at 7ish to prepare for our road trip to LA. GEGE dropped us at San Mateo which was the pick up point about 20 mins drive from home. He was kinda excited to have the house back to himself again since we'd be gone from Tuesday to Friday.

Life in LA is more similar to SG as compared to San Francisco. The afternoon sun is more lethal and it's warmer in the day. Temperatures go up to 35 deg which is kinda similar to what we have in SG, just that it's no where as humid so it was bearable. As well, half of America's population resides in LA which makes it pretty densely populated with human and cars. There's crazy traffic jams almost throughout the day. On this note, people in LA are very sharp looking in the sense that they dress to the latest fashion (in fact, they are the fashion) and that they have nicer features. I know Beverly Hills is known to be the city of cosmestic surgeries but this does not naturally indicate that everyone is in general better looking because they've all gone through some sort of surgical corrections.

Us hippies setting off for LA in the tour bus

First of a series of stopovers next to a fruit market where there was a carousel and small park 

Second stopover where we had BK for lunch nearby a cattle farm. 

Nice landscape coupled with overpowering smell of live products.

I think we made about 3 to 4 stopovers in total. After a long 8 hours journey by road, we finally got to LA and the first stop was Hollywood Boulevard with the famous walk of fame. True to what the tour guide had mentioned, it is a city abuzz with activities and (good looking) people. 

Greeting tourists outside Madame Tussaud's wax museum in Hollywood 

Kodak Theatre. Seems like that's the last anyone will see of the sign since Kodak has declared bankruptcy earlier on this year. 

Will Smith

Donald Duck

Along the streets are people who dressed up as celebrity icons from cartoon animations to movie stars. The only difference between them and those we see in Universal Studios/ Disney land is that we need to pay for their photos because it is essentially what they do for their living. After careful deliberation, M and myself each chose one character we would take a photo with.  

Optimus Prime!

We were walking along that stretch and were pretty fascinated by his costume. And it's true that people are won over by good services and warm greetings. So as we stopped and deliberated, he approached us and started talking to us. Both of us were captivated (yes, I believe this is the right word) by his robotic voice and his mesmerizing eye (you can actually see through the opaque box to see his eyes). And upon our request, he actually turned off the voice box after warning us that all the magic will be gone so we got to hear his real voice. To bring it a note higher, he took off that robotic head and beneath it was a really good looking hispanic guy *_* He obviously won M over who decided that this shall be the character she'd have a shot with.

As for myself, I chose

Mr Incredible!
(and the character from Star wars. I really dont know his avatar name because truth be told, I was never a Star wars fan)

My choice was purely diplomatic. I was not prepared to have any photos with these people but as we walked along that particular stretch thrice, I guess I was won over by Mr Incredible's cheekiness and part thereof, looks. As to why Star wars was in the picture, it still remains a mystery and joke to M and myself. For the rest of the trip, Mr Incredible was always the topic of our jokes because let's just say, as a character from a child movie, his personality certainly didn't match the innocence you would expect from his avatar.

After having enough fun at the walk of fame, we proceeded down to Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That's the Disney theatre behind which houses about 2200 people and is worth billions of dollars to date.

Thereafter, we were brought for dinner at a Hong Kong restaurant (which tasted surprisingly nice) before we headed back for our hotel at Holiday Inn La Mirada. My stereotype of holiday inn hotels was challenged because what greeted us in the hotel room were 2 Queen sized beds and an almost impeccable toilet that we could ask for.

OOTD: White Jacket: HnM Hong Kong || Yellow dress : Cotton on USA || Necklace : Flea Market from San Jose

US of A (Day 4)

4th Day: San Francisco (Castro) - Union Square - Burlingame

On the fourth morning, we gave ourselves additional time to sleep in and to hang around at home after a tiring weekend. Breakfast was a simple affair because we were pretty worried that we had busted our expenses on the second day in Gilroy.

Cinamon Donuts from Safeway (it's like Cold Storage albeit a much bigger version) which were really addictive

Wearing the coat that I was gonna wear for the day for fun and because it was pretty cold in the morning (yes, you can see the tag because it was new)

Breakfast in style

After taking our time to get ready, we left home at about 12 noon for San Francisco. Actually, we did a bit of strategic planning (which I will get to later)

Burlingame was really like a quiet suburb and was one of the richer and safer areas in SF

train tracks of Caltrain

Traveling to SF as an independent tourist really requires you to do lots of research and smart planning. Unlike SG, many of the places are not very accessible by public transport and even if they were, they have several kinds of trains (in SG, you just have to say the train and everyone knows you are referring to SMRT but over there, they have caltrain, bart to name a few). And for the caltrain, they have stipulated timings (about 1 hour between each train so you really need to get the timings correct cause missing the train would cause you lots of time wastage and for us, waiting in the cold) 

Fortunately or unfortunately, they have a rather known area within SF where we were advised to avoid because people there are known to cause troubles and instigate fights. It was a risky move on our part to travel there alone because we look every bit like tourists and very potential targets of bullying. Whilst waiting for the bus to get to Castro, we met 3 kids whom we had every right to suspect were from that area. They were throwing fart bombs at pedestrians, at the windscreens of drivers (yea, not kidding) and because they got on the same bus that we boarded, they threw it even in the bus. Thankfully, the bus captain did his part by chasing them off the bus and reported the incident to policemen patrolling the area. And, one thing about SF, it's really cold. I know I've mentioned this a few times but we thought Burlingame was cold enough. It turns out that the clouds in SF always cover the sun so it gets freezing cold when the wind blows even in summer.

In any case, we got to Castro (which sells vintage stuff like Haigh / Ashbury but on the more affordable end) 

  

Fresh and hot bagel which tasted absolutely delicious :)

We saw many saw country flags in this particular store

I tell you, our loyalty is dangerously wavering

Sadly, it was not a very fruitful trip at Castro for us because we weren't too sure where the hauls were. Instead, we went on a pilgrim in search for ...

That's the city hall in SF

That's the shop at Hayes. We spent some effort before we found this place but it was absolutely worth it. Can you already guess what it was?

Yep! Macarons!

This shop was initially known as Paulette. I have quite a sweet tooth and macarons are included. Before the trip, I was googling on best macarons in SF and this kept appearing on my google feed. 6 macarons came at about 12USD which was absolutely worth it in our opinions

Thereafter, we went back to Union Square for some shopping before heading back to Burlingame. We had cravings for vietnamese so we ended up at Ben Tre. The shop is opened solely by Vietnamese so the food tasted really authentic. I know we can debate about how authentic something can be if it's not located within its home country. But seriously, the shop name, owners and most probably chef are vietnamese, ingredients are similar to what they have at home, beef is fresh in US; there's really nothing more we can ask for.

Beef Pho. So Good. 

Vietnamese spring roll with peanut and sweet sauce dippings. Words cannot describe how delicious and addictive it was.

Because we were headed for LA early morning the next day, we went home by 10PM to pack our bags and  for an early night.

OOTD: Polka Dot Coat - Target || Jeggings - Target || Shades - Cotton On

US of A (Day 1 - Day 3)

My recent trip to US has been a real eye opener. There's been too much misconceptions about the country. Everything I saw was obviously in comparison to my home country. I began to saw light at why America's security and employment rates could never par up with my own country's. I always bore a sense of pride in my own country's immaculate performance at how no other countries sometimes come close to comparison  in many aspects. But throughout the trip, M's bro (who shall be addressed as GEGE henceforth) constantly reminded us that SG is merely the size of SF. There is NO WAY the gov can penetrate as thoroughly into every area of US as much as SG can. On top of it, SG is an urban landscape on the whole whereas US is filled with numerous rural lands. Besides, the culture in Am is very different, people are so much friendlier and more patient and good looking (I'm biased on this). They are SO friendly and full of genuine compliments. The country is also a shopping haven. This trip was probably 70% shopping and 30% visiting tourist attractions. Food there is really fresh because they have lots of agricultural products and immigrants. So we were really surprised to tuck into Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Hong Kong and even Indian cuisines to find ourselves preferring the taste over there. Life in America takes on a much slower pace so we really got to take a break (literally, from the hectic lifestyle in SG). And lastly, the weather there is one of its own. The sun is really lethal and strong partly because its summer but it's freezing cold. As Mark Twain famously puts- The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in  San Francisco.

Day 1: SG - HK - SF

3AM on 1st June at the airport before take-off

Transiting at HK International Airport. By then we were pretty lethargic already cause it was about 10AM and we had missed one night of rest already

After another 12 hours of flight (it was the most painful part of the journey), we got to SF, local time 9AM feeling very sleep deprived but no less excited. GEGE picked us up at the airport before dropping us at his place for us to settle down while he went back to office for a meeting. We try not to rely on following tours but instead plan our own holidays because no tour itinerary will put up with crazy shopaholics but mostly because we want to experience life as a local to the fullest possibility.

This was the view from his apartment balcony in Burlingame. The weather was pretty cooling with a tinge of warmth from the sun which was a fresh respite from the crazy weather in SG.

GEGE came back home after his meeting to bring us out for lunch and we chose in-n-out burger, a local product. He told us that the reason why the burgers remain so fresh is because the owners reject any notions of franchise to ensure the quality of their food.

GEGE! The awesome host who put us up, together with our mess and nonsense and drove us to places without complaints :)

The patty is so fresh and juicy

After lunch, we headed for union square to do some shopping

on Bart after an eventful day of shopping at Union

you cant really tell but we were very jet lagged. The time difference is about 15 hours so although it was about 5PM US time, it was 8AM the next day in SG alrd which meant that we had missed 2 nights of rest alrd.

At night, GEGE brought us for a simple Jap meal near home which according to him, was only 'normal' and nothing fantastic because we looked too tired to brave the cold and a 2 hours queuing at one of the better restaurants. The weather gets pretty cold once the sun is covered by the clouds, despite it being summer.

Although he'd said the meal was 'normal' in Burlingame's standards, it was enough to throw us off the grounds.

After dinner, we headed home and literally slept like logs because GEGE allegedly accused us of sleeping very nosily throughout the night 


OOTD: Jacket- HnM HK || Top- Cotton On || Bottoms - MNG || Studded Pumps - Topshop || Rings- Gift, Forever 21

Day 2: SF - Gilroy - San Jose
They say holidays are not meant to rest your physical bodies because more often than not, you end up more tired after an overseas trip. Well, its true and time waits for no men. So, we had an agreement that we'll have a hearty Brunch before GEGE drove us (about 2 hours ride) to Gilroy for some massive shopping. Along the way at San Jose, we picked up T (who's also from our home church back in SG whom got linked up to GEGE in SF) and J (T's friend).

Brunch at Crepevine in Burlingame.

If you pay attention to the backdrop, you realize that wild honey in SG applies the same concept of using a chalkboard to write up the menu. No offense but, after having tasted all the Americanized brunches and breakfasts in SF, I think breakfast places in SG are highly overrated and overpriced. 

Check out the gigantous (gigantic + enormous) portions

our suave GEGE 

No the picture is not deceiving. It taste as good as it looks

on our ways to San Jose to pick up the girls before heading for Gilroy

Gilroy is the largest outlet in SF and has about 150 brands. It's not a shopping mall which houses all the different brands. Rather, the stores are 1 storey high and seated side by side, stretching across a few roads. It's like a mini town on its own and we experienced heaven on earth. 

This person is a true blue Bath n Body Works Ambassador

After shopping for about 6 hours, we decided that our purses needed a time out and because the girls wanted to get their Korean Cravings fixed, we headed for a korean restaurant in San Jose 

Complementary Appetizers in the small bowls + Hot plate tofu 

Korean rice cake

We also ordered cold noodles, BimBimBap and a beef hot plate. The food turned out to be too much for a table of 5 but it was so good. so good that J actually packed some home. GEGE sent T and J home after dinner before we proceeded to shop for groceries nearby our apartment. We practically went crazy because they sell BnJ at 3 tubs for 10USD. It is $22 per tub in SG


OOTD: White Jacket - HnM HK || Floral Dress- Topshop

Day 3: Palo Alto - San Jose

On Sunday morning, we got up at 7ish to prepare for church. C3 in SV is a new startup and hold their services in Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto (but everyone's gearing up for their move to a new location in July). Usually, service starts at 10AM and GEGE would head down earlier to help out so we'd tagged along with him. 

Cereal breakfast with berries. The milk turned out really sweet and addictive

Sunday routines, anywhere around the world :)

The church was about 40-50 ppl strong and everyone is so hospitable. I think it was partly aided by the culture in the country because everyone is really friendly.

After church, we had lunch at Harbor fish n Chips (in San Jose) before GEGE brought us to shop at the largest flea market in San Jose

Im not advocating or exaggerating but the food is really fresh. It was opened by a Hong Kong citizen who migrated over to US.

I think it was the size of several football fields combined

Under the open sky of San Jose

At one of the shade stalls

The ESSENCE of AWESOMENESS

Because the sun was quite hot, we decided to change our location and GEGE brought us to Target!

Target is simply amazing. They sell literally everything. Just look at the rows of nail polish

They have shelves after shelves of shoes

We spent about 3 hours in Target because really, our greatest abilities lie in our ability to shop

After calling it a day with shopping, we were deliberating between movie or simple dinner affair at home. Because GEGE had to work the next morning, we decided on the latter. And we decided that we'd whip up a meal to reward/ appreciate GEGE (with the food and ingredients he bought) for driving us around.

our Michelin-inspired dinner (actually we just took 3 boxes of frozen food and put them into the microwave. Even the meatball in the center was prepared the same way.)

Even in the midst of preparing food, we nibbled on small delights

We watched youtube videos of Wong Fu Productions whilst having dinner because all 3 of us are pretty ardent supporters of the WFP. 

 

A very silly makeup-without-mirror game we were playing while GEGE was sound asleep (and no, we really don't look like this usually)

OOTD: Jacket - HnM HK || Red Velvet Dress- Topshop || Stockings - HK mall || (Red) Heels - Target || Necklace- Flea Market || Rings- Gift, Flea Market