Sin City and City of Angels

now in LA, in Foghorn Harbour Inn. staying here for the night then tmr continue driving ard LA then going back to vegas in the evening. vegas is 3 hours behind virginia, which means 15 hr behind SG. it's hot but dry in vegas, reaches ard 40 deg in the day. and the air is hot even at night. like at 2am. cooler in LA tho, nice weather. visited santa monica beach just now.

i didn't have any problems with the casinos in vegas cos i didn't gamble. anyway they're all abt the same. walked down The Strip ytd and the am before, very nice night scenes. but all the casinos look the same. "circus circus" sounded familiar tho, so did "caeser's palace". will visit MGM grand tmr night when we move to Tropicana hotel. phantom of the opera is showing in The Venetian! considering watching again, or one of the Cirque Du Soleil shows in the other casinos. am really getting poor haha. shall c how tmr evening.


and i drove today! highway I-10 to LA, but only the last part of the journey. Jian Wei did most of the driving, until he was really tired cos he only slept ard 3 hrs the night before. was pretty fun, and surprisingly driving on the left side aint tt bad after all. i missed an exit to Pesadana so we couldn't follow our original route to LA and the universal studios village, but managed to get onto I-10 and still got to LA, and surprisingly found Hollywood without much difficulty. stopped along the way to collect maps. i tried to apply for BOA, but california law states tt u have to b a citizen or have permanent residence here to open a checking acct, so i didn't manage to in the end. apparently it's easier in virginia, but after 2 unsuccessful tries (once in VA before leaving for LV but the queue was too long so gave up), i tink i'll just give up the nice card haha.

btw it's scary driving with large long trucks haha. but my confidence has increased :O) i miss papee's Saab tho, cos this Chrysler Cruiser is pretty cui, RPM ard 3 to maintain speed at 80mph. and i have to really step hard all the way down on the accelerator for the speed to increase slowly. lol. and it really guzzles alot of oil :(


and i wanna visit Universal Studios and Disneyland! and Knotts Berry Farm haha. but no time for all of those, and don't think the rest are interested. hope can visit universal studios tmr tho.

been sleeping only 4-5 hrs every day, pretty tiring. but i had BUFFET in the Stratosphere hotel for lunch ytd, and it was GOOD!! ate damn alot haha. there were main courses, drinks and dessert. and i took the 3 roof top roller coasters on the stratosphere, quite fun tho not very thrilling, cos they're the highest in the world. on top of the hotel! whee! bot the all-day pass but only took each coaster twice, once in the morning (the seats were scorching, almost roasted my legs) and once at night. and the night scene in vegas is really breath-taking. it was just a blanket of lights for as far as u can c, and we alr got a preview when the plane landed :)

really been on an adventure today. we were driving around all night looking for an affordable hotel/motel/inn but ALL WERE FULL. haha. it really was a test of resources and map-reading skills. lucky i collected whatever i tot was useful at our first few stops, cos there was this santa monica map and guide that we neglected and ended up driving ard aimlessly until much later. it felt like i was on Amazing Race, chionging from hotel to hotel to ask for vacancies. our last option was either to slp in the car, on the beach or drive to Century Boulevard, which led to LA airport. cos one of the hotel concierges said they shd have affordable rooms with vacancies there. anyway it was really a different experience, sth tt would never have been shd i have travelled with family.

am safe and sound so don't worry guys! will touch down in richmond, 10pm.

btw, Hollywood was really boring :( maybe cos we didn't pay entrance fees to enter any attractions and just walked ard Hollywood Blvd but still, it's not worth all that hype. we kena cheated to pay for photos with weird characters. and santa monica beach was nice though cold. the wind cut through my jacket to my bones! was shivering lol. gotta wake up at 5.30am to see sunrise and it's alr 1.20am so good night peeps!