Los Angeles

Leaving San Francisco was bittersweet because it would mean leaving family but it was also good to have our own time to enjoy the rest of America. Gary had booked 2 days at Universal Studios (a special offer, which his Canadian cousin told him that was always on repeat). In reality, she was right, we did not actually need 2 days in Universal Studios. Somehow, we managed to cover most of the rides we wanted to go on in 1 day. 

We had booked a hotel close to Universal Studios so getting there was really easy. We just had to walk past the bus terminal (which involved going under a bridge (not pleasant - dirty and smells of urine) and up a hill to wait for the free Universal Studios bus. It takes passengers up the hill to a plaza place. From there, it was a short walk to the entrance.

One of the best attraction was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and it was one of the first ones we went on as soon as we got there. It is a bit of trek that involved going down two flights of escalators from which we could see construction works are already happening on a new attraction. 

In the Harry Potter Wizarding World, there was a recreation of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. There was the also a replica of Platform 9 and 3/4 with the Hogswart train. Fans of Harry Potter would be ecstatic!

Here are some of the recreation of Hogswart, it is a pity the picture in the portraits are not made to move. Or maybe it did but we did not notice because luckily because the first ones there, the line was fast moving. The ride was very very exciting and Gaz said it was the best one, so we went on the ride twice!

There are two rides in Harry Potter, called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (very exciting - it is the typical immersive ride that Universal Studios is so good at) that takes one through a game of Quidditch, away from the spiders at the Forbidden Forest, away from the fire breathing dragon in the Triwizard Challenge and many more. 

The other is Harry Potter and the Flight of the Hippogriff which is a roller coaster ride. I had thought it would be scary but because as Gaz reminds me, the ride is for kids, it was not too scary. Yes, I am a scaredy cat! 

We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron which involved drinking Butterbeer and half a roast chicken for one of the meals we had but it was such good value in comparison with Disneyland. 

After lunch, we joined the queue to Olivander's Wand shop. It was a very long queue but only because there were limited people who could fit into the small space of Olivander's shop. Otherwise, the effects were not great and we all had to stand around which made it difficult to relax and enjoy the experience. 

Some other notable rides are the Mummy, Simpsons and Jurassic Park. We met a young man who was in the queue with us at the Mummy and striked up a conversation. It seems that most Americans are very friendly and outgoing. And that is not just in the theme parks. 

We had Panda Express for dinner (bain marie Chinese food) which had one advantage - reliably good chinese food, and no tips needed! The servers were a little on the stoic side but we met some locals who graciously gestured us to order ahead of them. 

On the second day, we woke up early to go back to Universal Studios to catch the Mario Kart ride. It was the only ride that we wanted to do yesterday but did not get to because of the insanely long queues. 

We snapped some pictures in the very brightly coloured Mario World, caught the Mario brothers who were roaming around and watched people play the games such as hitting toadstools for points. True to their money making venture, Universal Studios sells a Power Up Band that players wear around their wrist like a watch and allows players to collect stamps and records their rankings. 

About an hour into the queue, we were told that the ride had broken down and would need some time to fix. At that point, it was already mid morning and so we left to explore LA city. 

We took the train to the city where the first order of the day was to get a wide brimmed hat and a pair of sunnies! It was so hot in the US in August. 

Next, we went to the Chinese theatre and saw the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We also saw the Kodak Theatre and enjoyed the cool air condition inside. From one of the buildings, we saw the famed Hollywood sign in the distance and snapped a few pictures. 

This is a close up of the Hollywood sign, but only from the Universal Studios behind the scenes Tour. Got you! I did not think very much of the tour, but it proved me wrong. We were shown props and sets that appeared in movies, special effects and the shuttle even acted like a simulation ride about 3 times during the tour. It was the best tour I'd ever done. 

This is one of the movie sets on display. Universal Studios is an active studio meaning there are still movies and shows being filmed while tourists roam the grounds so if you were lucky, you could see a celebrity! 

Downtown LA is filled with tourists and touters selling tours, merchandise, pictures with costumed characters. It was very lively. The trains stations are big, but generally dirty with use. I suppose as soon as the pavements are pressure washed, they would be trodden by people and get dirty again. But one thing I noticed was almost every local's shoes are so clean and well kept. I was amazed. How do they keep their shoes so clean?

We wanted to go to Walt Disney Hall for a guided tour but it was closed by the time we arrived. So we went to the open garden upstairs and took a picture of the beautiful architecture instead. 

The Walt Disney Hall is in the arts and music precinct of LA. How wonderful it is to have a number of art galleries, theatres, and music halls in the same area dedicated to every form of the Arts. 

We went to the Museum of Contemporary Arts for a wander. Although entry is free (except to paid exhibitions), there is a booking system. You booked the time and get 'tickets' which are then scanned for entry. 

Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama were two of the artists I knew who had their art exhibited in the gallery at the time we were there. I'm not sure I enjoy contemporary art all that much but it was mesmerising looking through a peephole and look at an infinity of polka dots that change colours that is Yayoi's work. 

In the evening, we took the train to the end of the line to Santa Monica beach. We only had time to walk up and down the jetty looking at the small amusement park, the various stalls and restaurants and cafes before heading back to the train station for the ride back. Public transport is frustratingly inefficient in LA. An Uber ride from the airport is expensive but it was 1/3 the time needed to take public transport from the airport to the hotel. Perhaps that is how the locals keep their shoes so clean. They only took the train around downtown but drive everywhere else..

 

Knox Gateway Cafe, Knoxfield and Monash Open Gardens

It was a wet morning and the likelihood of doing anything outdoors today is becoming slimmer by the minute as more and more rain poured down from the skies. 

So I pulled out my pots and pans and prepared to make matcha choc chip cookies, and BBQ pork buns. On the cards were also home made pizza for dinner and a lemon cake for dessert but those were shelved to avoid a flour fest. Carbs are by no means the bad guy but it'll be excessive to consume all that today.

I am glad then that when we went to Knox Gateway Cafe last week to try their new dinner time menu that we did not receive too much rice on our plates. Usually, restaurants overload on rice but stinge on the protein portions. Here, we got a good portion of rice, one big piece of fish cutlet but only a few pieces of beef and half a scoop of bitter melon. 

They had an array of unlabeled dishes (frustrating!) in the bain marie but I noticed it was mainly three types - masak lemak (coconut curry) x fish, chicken or beef; masak merah (tomato base) x fish, chicken or beef; and curry x fish, chicken or beef. So with just 3 types of sauce, there are 9 nine dishes to choose from! There are 2 types of vegetables when we visited - stir fried bitter melon and eggplant sambal. 

For $19.90, I chose 2 meat (fish masak merah and beef curry) and 1 vege (bitter melon). The fish was the best - I had missed masak merah so much! 

I wanted to try the nasi kerabu but it was regrettably not available because it took too long to cook. So we ordered the nasi lemak ayam berempah which is nasi lemak with fried chicken ($18.90). The chicken is fried with a crumble and curry leaves. It was a tad too salty but I enjoyed it.

The next day, we went to the Monash Open Gardens. Only 4 gardens were open this year, including 1 community garden. An interesting one was in Wheelers Hill where the owner converted their tennis court into a big curated garden of fruit trees, vegetables, and lots of sweet pea flowers. They are very fragrant but a bit disorderly to look at. The old foliage gets trapped in the new foliage, you see. 

We also went to the community garden, getting lost in the Ashwood Secondary school in the process. We tried yukon (a type of yam) and learnt about feijoa and sapote. It was an educational day. 
 

Warburton, Warburton Bakery

On Melbourne Cup Day, we went to Warburton on a day trip. Running through Warburton is the Yarra River. It looks so different from the muddy brown river in Melbourne city. In Warburton, the waters are clear and fast running. It looked good enough to bottle up to drink! Of course, it is not potable but I did see someone wash their kebab skewers in the river before using it on the bbq. 

Apparently one can get a tube down the Yarra River all the way to the town. It would have been quite the ride, I think. 

We went to the famous Warburton Bakery to get some pies for a picnic. The food was reasonably priced and they only do take aways. We bought a Stockman's pie ($7.50), sea scallop pie ($8.50) and a pecan pie slice ($6.00). 

The pie pastry was soft and did not taste oily like most of the others. It was delicious. The sea scallop pie had about 4-5 little scallops in a creamy sauce. It was a generous serving of scallops. 

We agreed the Stockman's pie is our favourite. It had a mix of beef filling and a bacon and egg on top. It was also something I had not had before. It was a day of exploring a new place and trying new foods!

There once was a railway from Lilydale to Warburton (we could have cycled to Warburton!). It is now not in use and the rail trail has become a track for cycling and walking. 

The picture (right) shows the old station marker, and commemorative drawings of the Warburton station. 

Besides the plaque, there are shops selling knick knacks, a RSL, and this giant water wheel which was closed and not running on the public holiday. 

There was a festive atmosphere in the town. This picture was snapped while listening to a two man band playing guitar and singing in the background. It was a sunny day and there were so many people in the town. 

Redwood Forest is about 10 minutes from the town centre. It has very tall redwood trees, all planted in a symmetrical fashion. Memorably, there was a big, man made nest as though made for giant birds. 

The Yarra River ran through the Redwood Forest as well. It was soothing to listen to the sound of the water flowing through the verdant surroundings. There were many people around so the sounds of people's laughter and chatter echoed through the area. 

Rainforest Gallery is yet another 10 minutes away. There was a boardwalk to admire the tall trees and the ferns and greenery on the forest floor. The walk on the boardwalk was very enjoyable. 

Warburton is a very pleasant place to spend the day in, if only there were not so many people and difficult to find parking. The locals must be quite annoyed by the throng of people visiting their town, they are introducing paid parking from next year. 
 

Grand Canyon

From our base in Vegas, we took a day trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The journey to the South Rim takes about 6 hours one way from Las Vegas. The total day trip including a stop at Route 66 was 16 hours, a very long day. At the South Rim, one can walk along the rim and admire the views of the deep canyon, visit the free Visitor Centre, and stay at the lodgings there. 

Another alternative that tourists usually take is to visit the West Rim, which boasts a glass viewing platform. There is a charge to go on the viewing platform. Compared to the South Rim, it was a 12 hour day trip but we thought there were more to do at the South Rim so we braved the long journey. 

We were rewarded by these wonderful views of the Grand Canyon.

 The journey itself was very long and the guide was quite an interesting personality. A bit of bitterness mixed with sarcasm for 12 hours was interesting as long as you were not the one being picked on. The toilet stops were ridiculously inadequate in terms of timing and there was the added pressure of being ridiculed if you did not get back on the bus on time was not something anyone wanted on a holiday. 

The visit to Grand Canyon exposes the wonderful glory of nature on American soil. There are many other national parks in America, each with beautiful views. 

South Wharf

There is an interesting light installation at South Wharf that lights up and changes colour as one walks through it (left). Ever fascinated by lights and especially ones that changes colour, I took a picture as we walked past. 

It was a sunny day on the weekend. We were in the city for Godzilla's 70th anniversary celebrations. The actual day was on the 3rd November. Yes, Godzilla has a birthday celebration for it and it is already 70 years old! It is an old monster but still popular. 

Do you like Godzilla? 

There is also a mini Melbourne Eye by the Yarra River. Most of the pods were empty but the view would have been nice to look at from inside the pods. 

DFO was packed full thanks to some heavy discounting going on in the Nike store - 50% off shoes! It seems that most of the discounting are in the sports shops like Nike, Adidas, Puma etc. As wonderful as the discounts were, I cannot forget the great bargain we got at the Nike warehouse closing down sale. Each pair of shoes were only $20! We bought 10 pairs, a bag and some clothes too. It was a bargain that has not been replicated since..
 

Diwali, Shree Swaminarayan Temple Wantirna

Diwali is the festival of lights and are celebrated over 5 days. It is celebrated differently in different regions of India. Different deities are celebrated by different communities during the festival. The same festival, but celebrated in so many different ways! This tells of the diversity of the Indian community. But one thing is for sure, the celebrations are widespread, vibrant and joyful. This year, the celebrations fell on 31st October. 

We went to the local temple and joined the local celebrations which involved music, drums, dancing and food. We saw some ladies dancing with a nunchuk looking instrument but studded with bells. Then everyone joined in to dance to the music on the street, just like in a Bollywood movie scene.

We got some street food (literally food from stalls on the street) that operated on a voucher system. Buy the voucher, go to the stall and pay with the voucher. We got some chaat puri to share, a rose water ice cream and a big bag of crackers made from besan flour (chickpea flour). 

The chaat puri was fried potatoes topped with yogurt, crispy sev (chickpea flour noodles), coriander, chilli chutney. It was filling and delicious. All the food sold at the temple are vegetarian. 

The people at the temple were very welcoming and friendly. One of them who was manning the snack store in the temple chatted freely with us as though we were his long time friends. We bought a big bag of papad for $10. It was made from chickpea flour, crispy and savoury. Over the course of the week, it slowly dwindled to nothing as we could not stop ourselves from munching on the snack after work, or during the day. 

The decorative ceilings on the outside of the temple looked so beautiful that I had to take a picture. The temple itself is not open to the public but the adjoining hall was. One of the ladies welcomed us in and showed us the beautiful kolam of several Hindu deities. 

The kolam is made of coloured rice flour and looked so beautiful. There were also a number of artworks done by children from the temple on display in the hall. 

It was an enjoyable day immersing ourselves in the Diwali celebrations. Last year, we went to Marvel Stadium to celebrate. There were dancing, music, stalls, and we even appeared on TV when the local network news reported on the event! How wonderful it is to be able to celebrate different festivals in Australia. 

Half Moon Bay, San Jose, Cupertino, Alameda

We were in US for a family wedding and had planned for 3 weeks holiday which was unfortunately cut short by an onerous US visa process that had added a lot of stress to my holiday. I had to resort to the idea of not getting the visa during the 3 week window and was entertaining the idea of a radical home clean up to use up my time. But luckily the visa came through at the end of the first week and I managed to attend the wedding. Post the festivities, the relatives took us sight seeing. Among the places we visited were San Jose where we went to a Tesla showroom and took numerous photos of Cybertruck (it was not available in Melbourne)

We went to Cupertino and visited the Apple headquarters (right). The architecture is beautiful and modern. Although we could only visit the tourist centre, we can use an iPad to scan a model of the whole place to see it come to life with cars, trees and people. 

There are also free workshops about how to use Apple products. No registrations are required, just rock up on the day. Two of the aunties were interested in iPhone photography and found the course of the day very useful. Indeed, they took hundreds of photos of us during our week stay in California recording all the fond memories of our time together during family meals, the wedding, sight seeing activities especially a tour downtown in San Francisco. 

Despite all the caution I had received about San Francisco, we saw little of the crime and homeless situation.

One time we were driving to Chinatown and saw a tent city on the sidewalk. That was the extent of our exposure to the situation. The rest of the time we were in tourist areas like Pier 39, Lombard St, Chinatown, Palace of Fine Arts (a beautiful place initially built for the World Expo, recreating ancient Roman architecture). All that on the day I stepped out of the plane after a 13 hour flight!

This is a beach in Half Moon Bay. There is a pumpkin festival in this city every year where the largest pumpkin wins a prize. There are many beautiful beaches and scenery and has the quaint cosy feeling of a seaside town. 

There was a fisherman's pier where firshermen sell their day's catch straight from the boat. We did not buy any but got some fish and chips from Barbara's Fish Trap by the seaside instead. Sitting down together, 4 aunties and uncles, 2 cousins and us, it was a jovial time.

4th auntie, her husband and son had come from Canada to attend the wedding and stayed at 6th uncle's house. We had the honours of travelling the furthest from Melbourne for the wedding and stayed in 7th uncle's house. 5th auntie who also lived in Alameda with her family were exempt from hosting anyone because she had a full house. 5, 6 and 7th aunties and uncles lived within a few minutes of each other. On the weekends, they meet up and go walking along the canal (right) or by the bay (we saw a groundhog there!) then replenish all those calories at the closest In and Out Burger joint.

There was previously a naval base in Alameda before it was converted into housing estate. We visited the USS Hornet, which is permanently docked there for use as a museum. The aircraft carrier is a national Historic Landmark. Admission fees are $25 per adult.

So far, we have had the best meals in USA in California. The quality of Cantonese fare in the restaurants are second to none. On the way back from Cupertino, we passed by Fremont and treated the relatives to dinner at Pearl Bay restaurant. We had delicious dishes - duck, pork belly, scallop fried rice, spinach in seafood sauce, fried pork ribs, prawns are only a few I can remember. It was about $450 US for 9 people with doggie bags at the end of the meal. 
 

Navigating the US Tourist Visa Process, San Francisco

My first impression of the people of USA was on the United Airline flight direct to San Francisco and it was a very good one. I was travelling solo and the air stewards took very good care of me. Once, I was rubbing my hands together desperately with what little hand lotion I had left because my skin do get so dry in the air. The air steward noticed and gave me a toiletry pack normally reserved for first class that contained hand lotion and lip balm. They also gave me little Tim Tam treats to make my journey better. A little kindness and friendliness can really make someone's day! I still feel grateful to this day. 

(Lombard St, left. The steepest street in San Francisco)

Travelling solo for the first time in many years was daunting but exciting. It would not have happened if my US tourist visa had arrived on time. So although my first impression of the people of USA was a very positive one, it is 180 degrees different to my impression of the USA bureaucratic process.

I found the tourist visa application process clunky, inefficient and slow. The process took 3.5 months! Surely no other country has such a long wait time. To apply for a visa, one had to go to the ceac.state.gov (consular electronic application centre) and fill an online application form called DS-160. It was long and tedious, asking for information that is usually not required by other countries, like parents' name; employment and travel history; and social media identifiers. Initially, the system kept crashing so I lost all the information I had entered. The online application took about 60-90 minutes. Another quirk of the process was that a photo is needed for the application, and it is in a different size (square, instead of rectangle). The embassy is also very strict in checking the age of the photo - it cannot be taken more than 6 months ago. 

After completing the online application, the next step is to login to another website to schedule an interview date at the nearest consulate. This is where the longest time in the process took. The next available time slot was 3 months away! Every tourist must be interviewed except in limited circumstances like anyone over 80 or group travel (e.g. parents travelling with kids on a school trip). 

(Chinatown, left. Did you know that the fortune cookie originated from San Francisco?)

To expedite the process, I also paid for the visa ($260) on another website before the interview. I found that I had to search for these websites myself, there was no link to these pages. 

The check in to the US consulate in Melbourne (553 St Kilda Road) was like going through the airport. Bags in lockers, no laptop, print out the DS-160 form and bring your passport and a photo which gets submitted to the staff during the interview process. The interview itself took less than a minute after which I was told my visa is  approved. It took another 2 weeks for an email confirming visa had been printed and to collect passport. Finally, the last step in the long process was collecting my passport at VFS Global (332 St Kilda Road) which is why I missed my flight and 1 week of my holiday and had to fly direct to San Francisco to catch up with Gaz for the subsequent leg of our holiday.

(Golden Gate Bridge, above. The view is always foggy and windry except in rare occasions. I love California's sunny and warm weather!)