I think I'll upload the pics after Thursday, when most of my assessment has been done.

My last two days in LA were a lot more quiet and relaxed. It involved going to have some decent Chinese food that I haven't had for ages, as well as visiting the Getty Museum, and just car tours here and there.

We went to the Getty Museum, having no idea what it was. It ended up being an art and architectural exhibition that was interesting. Unfortunately, I'm not really a person that can appreciate art that well, but I have taken a few pics here and there, for all you readers who appreciate art.

Afterwards, we just had a car tour around Santa Monica, especially the beach. Unfortunately, the two ladies at the back were a bit exhausted, so all we did was drive past different areas.

For dinner, we ended up getting Bo Zai Fan, which is claypot rice. It was not the best Chinese food, but a lot better than what I have had here in the Bay Area. We also had some of the Chinese Chinese food with rice that I miss so much. Afterwards we had bubble tea - they call it Boba here which I was confused at before. It wasn't anything special to me, but a good change from soft drinks.

For our last day in LA, we just ended up getting Yum Cha Brunch, they like to call it Dim sum over here. It was good to have Yum Cha after so long, almost 3 months now! Kinda bored of the Dining Hall food they served here already. My favourite Dim Sum would have to be Siu Mai - a pork and shrimp dumpling that is a staple to the Yum Cha Diet.

We ended up departing for Santa Cruz at about 2pm, and managed to get back at about 1am. I really appreciate the work the Kelvin put in to driving us there and getting back safely. He almost fell asleep on the wheel though mind you.

This LA trip made me realize how sacred time is, because before you know it, it is all over. I thought it would have been a nice slow paced, 4 day holiday, but it went past just like a flash. It was good to actually get to know my three friends, but reality shows that all good things must come to an end. I hope that we will at least keep in contact, and go on another trip again some place else around the world. But I might just be a little bit optimistic, but who knows, it could come true.

Hey there guys! How's everyone going? Like last time, I'm gonna put pics up later, as some of my friends have better pics.

Well, after having a crazy tiring day last night, we ended up taking it easy for this day, and cruised around two Asian towns for a while. We ended up leaving the hotel at about 1ish, and decided to grab some ramen in Little Tokyo.

We went to Daikokuya, apparently the restaurant with the best ramen in LA. We had to wait for about an hour to get a seat - I'm not sure if it was really worth it because I was too hungry! It was good I must admit, and I tried a variation of it called Tsukemen. I can't give an honest opinion, because I was too hungry, it was almost 3pm before we could get any good food.

Afterwards, we decided to sightsee Little Tokyo for a bit. To me, it reminded me of some really old Japanese town that was built in the early 1900s. The shops were pretty primitive, but on the whole still a site worth checking out if you love Japan like me!

Before doing some last minute Black Friday shopping, we went to Chinatown too. It reminded me of old Chinese markets, but it was in no way close to being as lively as the San Francisco counterpart. Chinatown is still Chinatown, so it was basically more or less the same. I feel really bad to showing people around our Chinatown back at home, there isn't much to see and do there in my opinion.

We ended up going to Beverly Hills to go do some last minute shopping. Beverly Hills is a nice place basically in Hollywood, with a lot of big brands etc etc. You can tell by the pics, which I'll upload later. The whole street lights up, and it is a really good place to go visit on a tourist destination. I wouldn't mind coming back again to come visit.

For dinner we decided to go the fast food route, and had Yoshinoya. Unfortunately there was a sign to say no cameras inside the premise, so I can't show u what it's like. It was alright in my opinion, but i prefer the HK/Japan version. They actually give you a porcelein bowl.

When we got back to the hotel, we manged to spend about 3 hrs playing uno and card games. A great way to chill out I guess for the evening. Hopefully today will be just as exciting!

This day seemed like a really really long one. It started off with having some brunch at Subway, before heading to the Universal Studios. I'll post pics later.

Subway in my opinion seemed heaps smaller than the Australian counterpart. I grabbed a meatball sub cos I was so hungry, it tasted alright, but it filled my empty stomach. =)

Before going there, we had no idea whether or not to go to Disneyland. We decided to go to Universal studios instead because it is Hollywood, the place where good movies would be at. Personally I thought it was good, because there was only small queues for each ride. But compared to the Japanese one, I thought it wasn't as spectacular, both in terms of shows/parades and souvenirs.

Afterwards, we met up with Kelvin's friend, and had hot pot dinner together. Unfortunately it wasn't too much like hotpot, rather, it was more like Sukiyaki soup with rice. It tasted good though, I might go and make an entry about it on Oishiilog. Check the pic below!

After that we went to what I would call shopping hell. Black Friday as they call it, is the day after thanksgiving where big outlet places/malls/shops have big discounts, and they start from 8pm on thanksgiving. Some started at 5am this morning too. There were heaps of huge lines in front of different stores everywhere, and it basically seemed like chaos. I couldn't pick up anything, it was just not a pleasant experience.

We ended up arriving back at our hotel at 5:15am. It was the first time I had ever slept that late, I guess it wasn't too bad because I had 2 1hr naps. Either way, it's still a once in a lifetime experience, something I wouldn't do again for a while.

I think for the next few days in LA, I'll do my best to blog every morning. Images to come later, currently having trouble uploading some of them. =P

OMG, I finally arrived in LA. There were 3 others that went with me, Kelvin, Yao, and Kristen. After leaving at around 4ish from Santa Cruz, it took us roughly 8 hours to get here. I guess it didn't help that we were basically following the peak hour traffic to arrive.

Horrible traffic!