Let's Revisit Los Angeles

Typical big city, 2-3 days will never be enough to explore Los Angeles. First time I visited Los Angeles was last October with my housemates. We stayed mostly in Santa Monica for 3 days which was outside of the city. Santa Monica has nice beaches but I'm more city girl so being remote in Santa Monica wasn't my first option. We rented a car to get around Santa Monica and LA as we heard from couple of friends that public transport wasn't that good comparing to San Francisco and LA was too big to be explored using bus or metro. Renting the car was fun but again it wasn't really my thing, I was more spontaneous girl, like to jump from one bus to another mode of transportation and just get lost in the city. As we travelled with seven girls, I decided to follow their way to travel this time, staying in Santa Monica, renting a car hmm I could do that and still had fun.

This is LA video from my Travelike episode


During my first visit to LA, we visited Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach, Universal Studio, and Hollywood Walk of Fame, it was a short visit actually.

Venice Beach

Universal Studio Tour, Singapore doesn't have this!

Traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles has plenty of options, you can take plane that costs you approximately $80 one way, it's probably cheaper if you book the flight in advance. You can take the bus (Greyhound or Megabus), the price is varied, starting $25-$50 one way. Another convenient way to travel is using the train (Amtrak) which is more expensive than bus, not sure about the price though. I took the bus and it costed me $70 for the return ticket, the travel period is about 7 hours from SF to LA.

The second time I visited LA was in winter break. I travelled with my Indonesian housemates and one CCI friend from Panama. LA was my first stop, we stayed in a motel near Hollywood Walk Of Home, it was a very convenient location as it was near to bus stop and you could easily walk to Hollywood Walk of Fame. First thing to do was revisiting Hollywood Walk Of Fame as we didn't have much time when we were here last October.

We walked along the pavement that has many famous stars such as The Beatles, Michael Jackson etc. Then we tried to get closer to Hollywood sign by walking a couple of blocks up to the hills. Roslina and I watched Korean drama The Heirs that inspired us to see the same spot where the actors see Hollywood Sign. There is one scene where Kim Tan (Lee Min Hoo) takes Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye) to see the sign in such a close distance. After walking a couple of blocks, thanks God it was sunny day, we managed to get closer to Hollywood sign and found the spot. We were too happy to take a lot of pictures there, well in the middle of the street hahahah pretty dangerous but we couldn't stop taking pictures. These are the photos that day ;)

Girls and Hollywood Sign

Me and Hollywood Sign #KimTan Fever

The girls

Met John Lennon at Walk Of Fame

First day was about Hollywood, second day was more free-to-do-anything-day, this is what I like when traveling with less people, we could go anywhere we want, one can go revisit Hollywood, one can go to revisit Universal Studio, one can do nothing but stay at hotel room or else. Roslina, Milka and I decided to visit Getty Center, a beautiful park and museum located in the hills. Roslina found this in trip advisor and was listed as #1 place that we should visit when we are in LA.

We rode public transport, you can buy 1 day pass which costs $5, it's a money saver if you move from one place to another place. Single bus ride costs $1,5 but often you have to change the bus to get to your destination, so I suggest you to buy a day pass when you are in LA. From our hotel to Getty Center was almost an hour, but the trip was really nice. The bus passed Beverly Hills neighborhood which mostly big and nice houses stretched along the street, then we passed UCLA, a big and enormous campus which was also beautiful. It was a nice ride, this is the positive side of taking public transport haha you never expected something nice but then it just happened :D

Getty Garden

Getty Labyrinth

Some fall color at Getty Garden

In front of Getty Museum 

We spent almost half day indulging ourself in Getty center, it was really relaxing. From the entrance they provide shuttle train to bring us to the top of Getty center and it's free. We just took a stroll and relax in the Getty garden and enjoyed the scenery. If you are not in a hurry, you may spend a day in this place, explore the garden and museums or just sit down and have a nice lunch with your friends.

LA is not LA without fancy rodeo drive, a branded boutique and nice restaurants scatter every where in this area. Since this is our last day in LA, we made the next stop to Rodeo Drive and probably had dinner around there. Since I'm not a branded girl well I could't afford those thing, better use the money to travel around the world anyway, I found Rodeo Drive pretty entertaining. I didn't check out those stores, I just walked along the street and ofkoors took a lot of photos :D
So yaaah, if you have spare time you may stop by here seeing fancy stuff!

Rodeo Drive

Spadaaa BVLGARI

The thing that I don't like about LA is their downtown. I imagine downtown will be like downtown San Francisco, Seattle or Portland that is really nice to walk around there but Downtown LA is sketchy, I don't recommend people to stay around there. We went to downtown LA at 8pm to eat Chinese Food, it was really scary. It was dark, a lot of crazy people and homeless people, I was fine if they didn't bug me but some are just troubled so a big NO for me staying in Downtown LA. I think typical big cities will be like LA, there is some nice neighborhood and some are sketchy, always do research about places before going and read the reviews will be helpful.

Adios Los Angeles, next stop will be San Diego!

Why Portland?

I always want to visit Portland in the first place. Why is that? Portland is quite meaningful for me, it connects me in many ways, simply it has a lot of story for me :)

This sounds silly but my first non-Indonesian boyfriend was American and he's from Portland. Then when I was studying in Spain in 2010, I met some friends who are from Portland. When I was studying in Yogyakarta, I met a nice guy and he was from Portland as well. So Portland was very familiar for me. In fact, I heard a lot about Portland from them and gave me an idea to visit Portland when I'm in the states.

Leaving from Seattle, I headed to Portland, Oregon. It took 2,5 hours to get to Portland from Seattle by bus, it wasn't that bad, it was such a short trip. It was Sunday when I arrived in Portland, it was pretty empty. Many shops and restaurants were closed. But hey this is Portland, the place that you want to visit in the first place, I cheered up myself and try to enjoy the city.

Portland is smaller comparing to San Francisco, Sunday was kind of dead even in downtown Portland. Public transport is pretty good as they have train and bus. I rode both and found it pretty easy to get around the city.

First we explore downtown Portland and ended up trying street food. If you come to Portland on Sunday it is hard to find restaurants, but street food are everywhere so no need to worry to walk in empty stomach. The good thing was it tasted good! I tried Gyro, a mediteranian food, it was delicious and only costed me $6.

Street food in downtown Portland

Downtown Portland

Portland Public Transport

Things that you should try when you are in Portland is Voodo Doughnut, if you like sweets this is probably for you. I heard about Voodo Doughnut from the receptionist in our hotel, he said that it's sold exclusively in Portland so I wanted to try it. Don't be surprised if there is a long long line in front of the Voodo Doughnut outlet, it made me even more excited to be in line hahahhaha suppose it tasted good as there were a lot of people queuing outside. I queued for almost an hour just to get into the store. While I was waiting I had a chat with a girl and she said that the bacon and maple doughnut is very good and try the Voodo man doughnut as well. I bought one dozen of doughnut which consisted of maple and bacon, voodoo man, oreo and peanut oreo. Voodo Doughnut is located in old town Portland, I don't know where are the other store locations but I found one here.

Voodo Doughnut

After filling up my stomach with sweet Voodo Doughnut, I continued to explore old town, there are sunday market and it was pretty interesting to check out. Portland is a beautiful city, I sat down in a park next to the river, pink leaves were falling down from trees, the view of the city and the old bridge were wonderful, the weather was rather cold so put some jackets and bring scarf and we would be just fine while enjoying autumn in Portland.

Old Town Sunday Market

Old Town

Old Town

Autumn in Portland

The bridge

Beautiful autumn in Portland

As jompo traveler, relaxing in the park with autumn color trees was is favorite part of this trip. Just sit down, relax and contemplate. Well things may be different when I'm younger, night scene in Portland is probably my favorite hehehheheh :)

Sadly I had to leave Portland and went back to San Francisco, I hope I will visit Portland another time. It always feels good and right to come back.

Autumn in Seattle

Before I'm turning 30, I want to experience Autumn in the US, feeling the breeze, one chilly afternoon sitting under the trees that have reddish and yellowish leaves. I remember that's on my checklist.

Here I am in the states, I live in San Francisco that doesn't really have autumn color, well it does have but not as much as those cities in east coast or northwest coast. So, I decided to travel to Seattle and Portland to see beautiful autumn color with my lovely housemate Roslina. I took morning flight from San Francisco to Seattle, it takes only approximately 1 hour. Soon I got to Seattle Airport I took the train to get into the city. Public transport in Seattle is pretty good and they have even cleaner train comparing to San Francisco MUNI train :)

Throughout the way from the airport to the city, I spotted the beautiful autumn color, it was really beautiful, it was mix of reddish, pinkish, yellowish color on the trees. I was so happy that I finally experienced autumn here, thanks God for this wonderful opportunity. From all the seasons, autumn is my favorite.

University of Washington

Edmonds Community College

Lucky for me, one of my CCI Friends "Danis" studies in Lynwood which is located near to Seattle. It was very kind of him to let me and Roslina stayed in his apartment for couple of days. We met Danis in Seattle near University Street and we started to explore the city. First stop was Pike Market and First Starbucks outlet. I had hot green tea latte as usual, we sat down in a bench next to the Pike Market overlooking the river, oohhh it was so beautiful and the weather was really nice :)

Drinking my green tea latte, looking at the river and the busy Pike Market was one thing that I liked the most in this trip, well I liked everything but this is my favorite, just sitting, sipping my latte, enjoy the scenery and do people watching :)

These are the photos of First Starbucks Outlet and Pike Market

First Starbucks Outlet Seattle

Pike Market

In front of Pike Market and the river

Busy Pike Market

We took a stroll at Pike Market, picked some foods, took a lot of pictures, we had a wonderful afternoon. We stopped by at the bubble gum wall where people put the bubble gum and stick them to the wall, sounds yuck, imagine that someone chewed the gum and sticked them there hahahha but it turns to be a wonderful and colorful wall indeed.

bubble gum wall

In front of bubble gum wall..yuckkkkky

From Pike Market, we moved to Space Needle to see Seattle from the top. We went up to the top to see the city landscape and the sunset. Seeing Seattle from the top is really beautiful, with the shade of the sun it gave the city a little orange color, buildings and the river looked beautiful right before the sunset.

View from the top of Space Needle

Seattle City Landscape

Space Needle

Seattle is not as big as San Francisco, visiting Seattle will be enough for 2-3 days. After Space Needle we explored downtown Seattle, it's smaller but it's lively. I started to like Seattle, this probably my second preference of the city that I would like to live in besides San Francisco. We closed the first day by watching the sunset at Pike Market before going home. Pike Market in the mid day is as beautiful as in the evening, I like both.

Sunset at Pike Market overlooking the river

Pike Market in the evening

Downtown Seattle

The second day we spent half day to explore University of Washington yaay The Huskies! I was speechless, the university is stunning! I felt like I visit European university, the architecture reminds me of Europe. The university is enormous, I really like the architecture and the environment, it's like university town. This visit led me to have a new dream, some day I will attend this school :) *amiiiin* It's one of the dream university in my list. I even sat on the steps in front of the library, feel like in the Gossip Girl movie, having lunch break on the steps #toomuchamericanteenagemovies

University park

library

campus building

 Gosip Girl mode on pretend to have lunch here

campus building

See how wonderful University of Washington is :) 

I'm glad I visited University of Washington. Ohh I forget to tell you that it rains a lot in Seattle, the second day was raining, but it makes the city even more beautiful and romantic. I walked in downtown Seattle in the rain, I liked it. I stopped by at Seattle Public Library that has modern style architecture, the library was nearly closed so I didn't stay that long but I managed to take some pictures fortunately.

Seattle Public Library

Inside Seattle Public Library

I really like Seattle, it's not as big as San Francisco or Los Angeles but it has everything. Downtown and Pike Market is really happening, the city landscape is beautiful, the transportation is pretty good, the food is also varied. Although it rains a lot, it makes the city more beautiful and romantic, well if you a big fan of romantic city.

If it's not San Francisco then I'll definitely go with Seattle.