BABYMOON Part 1: getting there

LOS ANGELES.... MANHATTAN BEACH..HOTEL BELAMAR...JOE'S CAFE



Well.. that's the latest craze among us Generation ??X or Y

We weren't really planning a holiday for the rest of this year, apart from maybe visiting Melbourne again.. we were saving up for our next ski trip, probably Niseko again in Jan/Feb 2008..

So.... with EDD in March 2008... we weren't going to make it ! PANIC...

Then we remember Melvin Chua saying something about a trip to the USA... so we thought... why not.. go somewhere we weren't likely to go for a REALLY long time...

BABYMOON USA!!!

31.10.2007 to 17.11.2007

31.10.2007: we fly direct with SIA to LA... oh my goodness... 16 hr flight... but thank goodness for executive economy... we meet Dr Lim See Hian (head of emergency at SGH) on board! At the lounge at the back of the plane!
Arrive in LA, pick up car: a Chrysler 'premium' car...
thank goodness for GPS... takes us directly to the Hotel Belamar where we check into RM 313. Room is nice, has a small lounge area too..

Then we met up with Melvin for dinner at Universal City, Bubba Gump restaurant, which is pretty much fashioned like TGIF or Hard Rock Cafe... we had shrimp, roast chicken, chips... slightly cheesy, waiters dressed like ?? Forest Gump, music pretty loud, decor quite garish... but food was fresh and crispy!

The thing about LA is really the distance between places which we GROSSLY underestimated... took us an hour to get from place to place, the traffic is terrible on the highways... I really don't understand how people can tolerate it on a daily basis! Cars CRAWL on the freeways at all times of the day.

But otherwise, I really like LA for the beach, we stayed near Manhattan beach and managed to go there everyday, watch surfers, beautiful bodies jogging by and admire gorgeous beach houses... reminded me of Bali's Kuta beach, without the searing hot sun and hawkers..