48 Hours in Los Angeles

I had barely gotten back from a month-long whirlwind tour of China when I found myself on a flight to Los Angeles. These would be my first memories of the city I was born in as an adult. Sure, my family did the customary trip to Disneyland when I was a kid but it’s simply not the same.

At this point, I had been on some 30 flights in the past year and didn’t ever want to hear the roar of airplane engines every again, but by some stroke of a luck, a friend’s parent’s friend (remember that Chinese billionaire I wrote about in one of my Macau posts?) sent me down to L.A. to deliver a pair of shoes to his son who lives there with his girlfriend. And like I say, when traveling, don’t say no to free stuff.

 

Day 1

Part 1 – Arriving in Style (Read: With Extreme Jetlag)

And so I was once again faced with this dreaded airtight cabin shooting across the sky at 500mph.

I landed at LAX at 3 in the afternoon and taken to and put up in the Ritz Carlton in the center of the city’s L.A. Live Entertainment District. Not to sound ungrateful for this opportunity whatsoever, I was nevertheless disappointed with the hotel’s offerings. A night at a regular room at the Ritz runs 600 USD. Rooms at 200 USD in Southeast Asia provide you with a private pool. I guess this shows the economic divide between nations.

 

Part 2 – Hollywood Walk of Fame

Seeing that I hadn’t really been to L.A. before, this billionaire’s son and his girlfriend (also named Grace), both graduate students as USC and super cool and down-to-earth, took me on a first-timer’s tour of the city.

We started the tour of sunny Los Angeles at the Hollywood Walk of Fame because, well, it’s so infamous that it warrants a visit (and needs no introduction from me).

Obviously, the rest of the world thinks the same. The Walk of Fame is crowded with tourists and activities catering to tourists: souvenir shops, street performers dressed as mascots to take photos with, and flashing lights.

 

Part 3 – Crustacean for Dinner 

Despite how much I enjoy taking photos of food, I’m not a huge fan of writing about it mostly because I can’t really get beyond “it was really good” when describing food but I feel like Crustacean in Beverly Hills deserves a special mention because of just how much I enjoyed my meal there.

I’ve never been a fan of crab; I’ll eat it if it’s placed in front of me like with almost any other food (I draw the line at insects and blood cakes) but this restaurant made me fall in love with crab.

When you enter, the first thing you notice is a koi pond snaking underneath a glass floor beneath your feet. Unfortunately my photos of this didn’t turn out as I was too hungry from my long day of flying to and exploring L.A. to take the time to take another photo; I needed my food and a delicious scent was wafting from inside.

Inside is a sleek and classy east-meets-west restaurant drawing from a Vietnamese heritage mixed with European offerings.

Their Drunken Crab paired with An’s Famous Garlic Noodles were nothing short of perfect smothered in butter and garlic. Would could have thought noodles could be such a famous course at a fancy restaurant and taste so good? And that crab, as I mentioned, made me love crab.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

And this Godiva chocolate cake…

Crustacean runs on the expensive side at $52 for the Drunken Crab and $12 for a serving of An’s Famous Garlic Noodles (both items serving 1) but it’s well worth it.

Next time I’m in L.A. I’m definitely coming back here and getting my hands covered in crab, butter, and garlic again.

 

Part 4 – Griffith Observatory

Full of crab, garlic and butter, we drove up the winding, hilly road through Griffith Park to the Griffith Observatory for incredible views of the City of Angels lit up and glittering in the night.

There’s something very surreal and a bit haunting about towering over the vast and glamorous city that is Los Angeles. City nightscapes from above all look similar, yet the stories they hold are drastically different – L.A. especially, with its glitz and glamour and multitudes dreaming of stardom.

Part 5 – Staples Center (sort of)

It was only around 9pm then and I had been in L.A. for less than 6 hours but I was exhausted from my month of touring, plane rides and jetlag most of all. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I was staying in the heart of downtown L.A. and within walking distance to various nightlife venues but I couldn’t muster up the energy.

I walked around a bit, took some photos and at least saw the sights even if I didn’t quite get to experience them, then sunk into the cloud that was my Ritz Carlton bed and prompted passed out at 10.

Goodnight!

 

 

Day 2

It was hard to get out of bed on my 2nd day in L.A. I was tired and jetlagged, but the curtains were thrown open and it was yet another bright and sunny California day to take advantage of. Having lived in Chinese hotels for the last month, I was grateful for the reliable toilets and hot water of an American hotel though I was mostly looking forward to sinking into my own bed back home and sleeping for several days straight.

But in the meantime, there was a lot more L.A. to explore.

Grace (the other one) picked me up at the hotel. Her boyfriend was finishing up his semester as an Architecture student at USC and was cramming for finals so she took it upon herself to show me around L.A. on my 2nd/last day there.

 

Part 1: Urth Caffe

I’ve never watched Entourage but Grace insisted that I visit Urth Caffe in West Hollywood, which is often used as a filming location for the show.

Walking in, you notice earthy tones reminiscent of California deserts, colors and atmosphere supplementing the cafe’s organic coffee offerings. It was a Sunday morning therefore extremely busy but we eventually picked up tasty sandwiches, dessert, and drinks.

I’m not sure where the photo of my sandwich went but here’s dessert and my favorite: the green tea latte.

 

Part 2 – Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

One thing I really dislike about L.A. are the extremities at which everything is spread out. Based on the numerous films that come out of Hollywood, we’re made to believe that L.A. is easily accessible and these movie stars don’t spend hours every day in a car going from point A to B to C to D.

This is not the case. What I was told was a relatively close trip between Urth Caffe and MOCA ended up being an hour long ride with another 15 or so minutes looking for parking. In cities where parking is hard to come by (and for the sake of the environment) I prefer to take transit however, L.A.’s transit system (or lack thereof) makes its a near necessity to own a car. And so we drove around in circles looking for parking.

Finally parked and at MOCA, Grace insisted that I take photos with the Urban Light installation located at the entrance. She told me photos with the display are very popular with tourists and locals alike.

The art installations at MOCA seem more interactive than those at more traditional museums. Visitors were all taking photos with the lively displays rather than standing back and admiring as they would say, a Renaissance painting. So we got a bit silly 🙂

The museum is very contemporary like its namesake and complete with a courtyard, sunshine, and a balcony with great views of the city skyline and the Hollywood sign.

I found MOCA to be more of an attraction for people to look at strange pieces and take photos rather than an ‘art gallery.’

However, MOCA is a museum for ‘contemporary art’ so this makes sense. Western art before the 20th century or 19th century was reserved mostly for the church or artistocrats (in other words, those with money) hence why most work in more traditional museums are of a religious nature. On the other hand, art today is made for all people in mind rather than just an elite few.

 

Part 3 – Rodeo Drive

Half an hour in the car got me to Rodeo Drive where I did a quick tour just to say that I’ve seen it. It was bright, open, and airy, like everything in California seems to be though not as crowded as I expected, good for if you want a relaxing shopping experience without the frenzy that malls seem to cause in people. We Pretty Woman’d it up for a while before heading to Santa Monica.

Okay, so maybe this guy wasn’t entirely pleased that I was taking a photo of him but if you bike around in public wearing nothing but a helmet and star-spangled speedo, people are going to take photos.

 

Part 4 – Santa Monica

Another half an hour later, I arrived at the vast, wide-open beach of Santa Monica. Being used to seeing mountains at all of the beaches in Vancouver, I always find it strange when I come across a beach with an open ocean beyond.

I took off my shoes and walked through the hot sand, relishing in the west coast sea breeze and welcoming the sounds of water and people.

All of my cameras tragically died at this point. In a haze of exhaustion and jetleg, I had forgotten to charge my batteries after my tour of China, hence ends my visual tour of L.A.

After this, I explored the shops around central Santa Monica feeling like I was walking around in my imagination. After growing up with television, Hollywood movies, and California-themed retail, I had a vision of what Santa Monica looked like in my head and the reality was exactly the same.

And so ended my 1 year and 1 month of continuous travel. By that time, I had been to Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Canada, and the United States.

How fitting that my long, sometimes-lonely, often-amazing, always-crazy journey end right where my life began: in sunny Los Angeles, California. It was almost as if I had planned this all along though I hadn’t in the least.

A year and a half prior, I planned to go to Taiwan, model, and teach English in September of 2010. Here, in October of 2011, I had journeyed across oceans, cities, and seas, taking the road less traveled by and that made all the difference.