Los Angeles .. Ooh La La

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LOS ANGELES !!! Like a dream come true.....

My stay in the US was almost coming to an end. I was in the US on work and had landed in Seattle , WA , USA in September,2007 .It was almost time for me to fly back to India . Come December last week (2007) , I had to pack my bags and leave. But I did not want to leave without having visited Los Angeles. The only problem was that I had no company . But thanks to my friends who arrived to Seattle in December. They were all game for it. So there was nothing to wait for and we were all set to go to Los Angeles.It was around Christmas time .We booked a return flight from Seattle to Los Angeles .

We, four of us, were to fly on Friday to LA ( Los Angeles) . Unfortunately , we got held up with some work at office and missed our scheduled flight . We rushed to the airport and enquired at the counter. Lucky us!! There were few seats available on the next flight and they agreed to put us aboard it. It was pretty late when we landed in LA. We took a cab to our hotel which was around 9 miles from the Disneyland resort in Anaheim.

The next morning, we had our breakfast at the hotel and set out for the Disneyland resort. We took the local public transport – a bus to our destination but the bus didn’t quiet drop us at the exact location. We had to walk for some distance before we reached Disneyland. And here we were , standing at the entry gate of Disneyland. I had to pinch myself to believe that it was not a dream anymore.

We had bought the 1 day-park hopper tickets which meant we could switch between the Disneyland park and the Disney California adventure park as many times we wished on that particular day( the parks are just opposite to each other) . The Disneyland park is mainly for kids, so we just hung around there for an hour or so and then switched to the Disney California adventure park which had attractions like the roller coaster , drop tower , giant wheel etc which were more for adults than kids. We waited in queues to get on to every ride. I had never been on a drop tower before , so this experience was unique. The rides were cool but the wait time to get on to each one was too long. Long queues everywhere !

We then strolled around the park clicking pictures for sometime. After lunch, there were two attractions that we visited the memory of which is still fresh in my mind. ‘Soarin’ over California ‘ and ‘ The Hollywood Tower hotel’ . Two attractions that you should not miss. 'Soarin' over California' takes you soaring over the state of California. You actually feel that you are flying over the place. And its not a 3D / 4D movie either ! So don’t miss to soar over California! ‘The Hollywood Tower hotel’ was the best of all attractions in the adventure park. Oh my God , I have never experienced a free fall like that before ! And the story line that goes with it. Ok, I am not going to break the suspense here. Go, experience it for yourself.

It was already dark by 4:30 pm and was also getting colder. Around 6 ish , we again went back to the Disneyland park as there was going to be a Disney toons parade. And then the icing on the cake at the end of the day – fireworks ! The Magic kingdom castle was lit by colourful lights and the fireworks above the castle was just awesome ! Check out the video to see more of the fireworks -

We came out of the park and walked towards the bus stop(public transport) hoping that there would be buses back to our hotel. We looked at the bus timetable in the bus-stop and were happy to see that there was a bus in another 15 minutes. We waited and waited.. 15 mins .. 20 mins.. 30 mins.. No bus turned up ! How could that happen? We checked the timetable again only to realise that we had missed to see the am/pm . We had seen the am timings ! The last bus had left an hour ago and we were stranded on the road at 10 pm.

There was this guy who walked to us and said that he too had missed the bus and asked us if we cared to share a taxi with him. What were the odds of us being ok with that offer?

Nothing much – we were four average built adults and he was a strong built man; we were new to that place and he was a a local; and we were completely clueless and he exactly knew how to go about! Against all these odds, how would we trust a total stranger? Hmm.. we had no other choice than to just believe our guts and accept the offer of sharing a taxi. We did . He booked a taxi and all of us got in. We were all sitting there with bated breath. Well, it turned out that he was a genuine guy and when he got down at his location , he asked the driver to drop us where we wanted to. Ah ! sometimes it is ok to trust strangers and believe your instincts. That guy was definitely a god sent friend!

The next day we set off to Universal studios, Hollywood . woohoo ! On the way we passed by the famous ‘HOLLYWOOD’ signboard . Got our tickets and entered the Universal studios park with so much excitement.

We first took the famous Universal studios bus tour. The bus takes you through some of the sets and emulations in the park giving you an idea of how the special effects in a movie are made ( excluding graphical effects). The tour is so awesome. So the bus first went through the stages' area where movies / soaps are shot. There were several stages. If allowed on the set, one could just walk into the stage area and watch the scenes of their favourite soaps / new movies being shot. We were told that ‘Desperate Housewives’ episode was being shot in one of the stages as we took the tour. Then the bus entered the special effects area. First was the King Kong where a helicopter flies over you and the King kong gorilla tries to escape. Then came the flooding area where its raining and then all of a sudden there is a flash flood! And the next minute the water is all drained out. We then went through Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift set where the cars danced . There was also an emulated scene from Jaws where the shark grabs a diver and the water turns red . The bus also took us through the Desperate Housewives set ( the street with all the lovely houses) and also through a plane crash site. I must say it looked like an actual plane had just crashed minutes ago. So real ! This will give an idea of how it feels –

After the bus tour, we went and watched the Shrek-4D show. I was so fascinated because it was my first 4D experience . I guess the concept of a 4D movie was unheard of in India then . There were other 4D / 3D shows too but Shrek-4D stole the limelight. After lunch,we headed towards the rides. ‘The revenge of Mummy’ and ‘The Jurassic park river adventure’ rides are a must go to. Do not miss them !

The last show of the day was a stage show with all special effects including fire, water , stunts etc. It was a pirate based theme. Some jaw dropping and gripping stunts to watch out for.

And then yeah, we were done for the day and ready to head back to Seattle.

Thank you LA for giving some of the best memories that will last for a long time to come.

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