Los Angeles trip (14th-15th Jan, 2006
LA trip was good. We had to start early in the morning and as usual I was late getting up. I was the one who was excited the most I guess. Reason? I had to drive a "Land Rover" to LA. I was bit worried also. It was huge. Bigger than my Hyundai Sonata v6, 2006. So I asked Sanjay to drive first so that I can observe him. I told him that I will be uncomfortable driving it. He said I will learn quickly. It was true. I was able to drive pretty quickly.
It was a huge powerful 7 seater. The seats had capability of heating. We put all the luggage in the back seat. Lots of space. Good leg space and I think everyone was comfortable. Sanjay drove along 101-South and then on I-5. At I-5 I took over as the driver. There were warning of gusty winds and hence drive slowly.
I-5 was one major disappointment. I was so sad after coming to I-5. I kept cribbing all the while to Sanjay about I-5. I wonder how many times I would have repeated the statement. "But Sanjay, I-5 is disappointing. I thought it will be a 10 lane road and speed limits of 85mph. This is just a 4 lane road with speed limit of 70mph. This is really disappointing. Everyone who told me about I-5 fooled me.". Those were the exact statements I must have repeated like a broken record countless number of times.
As we reached LA it started raining and the traffic was terrible. It was crawling and I was bit concerned also since I have not driven Land Rover in traffic. Not that I made any mistakes but then Sanjay asked me to pull over somewhere so that he can take over. I pulled over at some place and then we exchanged. It was kindof relief because after hours of driving I was able to look around.
DisneyLand:
We reached LA and directly went to Disneyland. After some confusion it was decided that we will go to California Adventures. Go there and see for yourself. I won't talk about it. We were lucky in the sense since it was raining so the wait times for the rides was 0 minutes for nearly all the rides. We were able to complete all the rides.
I liked the "Jelly fish jumping ride" particularly because it was very nice and "california driving". There were 4-D shows (sense of touch). I missed the fun of "Allaudin" because I was too tired sleeping. "Tower of terror" was good fun.
I yes, we drew "Goofy".
Manish and others had amazing sense of direction. They knew where to go and all. I was as usual lost in my own world and blindly following them.
Stay in LA:
Sunil, Sanjay and Manish went in search for a accomodation when we waited in the car. The room was very comfortable and I slept as soon as I hit the bed. After sometime I was woken up for dinner. When we came back we had a nice boyish discussion and laughing loud. Later my colleague told me that she was able to hear us laughing and talking. Damn, these wooden walls....
Universal Studious:
We woke up in a sunny morning next day and went to the Universal Studious. Again due to some reason we were very lucky. We were able to do all the rides with 0 minutes wait time for more. Again come and see yourself.
One was the 4-D shows was "Shrek". I liked "Shrek" in that. Especially when there will be instances where someone sneezes what will fall on you, someone farts smelly gas will come and then the seats will move and insects will move around you.
"Mummy" ride was good. We went for the studio tour which was ok.
The best I had fun was "Van Heiselgal". My colleague was freaking out. Literally freaking out. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and very afraid. The magnitude of her fear could be judged from the fact that she never let go my Jacket and was pulling me all the while to get out of that fast. And I think I took the best ever "picture" of her as soon as we came out.
Few funny incidents happened. We were trying to take a snap as the flintstone. Manish and my colleague stood as the flintstone husband and wife. I didnot want to stand as the female. So I was standing near the male side waiting for my chance. When my turn came, Sanjay was smart enough and came rushing in and occupied that position. I waited for another turn as no way I wanted to stand in the female position.
Then we went to watch "Fear Factor Live". There they said you are late and one female directed us to another guy to get us seat and he directed us back to her and she directed back to him. It took me sometime before I realised that we were being fooled.
In fear factor they made people drinking disgusting stuff and put scorpians on one female's head. Then suddenly they threw a torantula on the crowd. The girls there fell down here and there. Later they told it was fake. But few of them were already freaked out.
Another thing was a sound recording studio where Manish volunteered to shout. He had to shout when the light glows. But then it never glew and they said he was not good enough and sent him to a room behind. We then saw him being attacked my a monster and he running. It was his shadow. Later he denied doing anything like that. But I still think it was his shadow and wonder how they faked it.
Return was fine. Again Sanjay was driving for sometime and as I was not feeling great, sleepy and slight headache I slept. Later we exchanged the seat and I drove continuosly for 300kms.
The fun part was the lateral thinking but I guess I slept and missed major part of it.
It was a huge powerful 7 seater. The seats had capability of heating. We put all the luggage in the back seat. Lots of space. Good leg space and I think everyone was comfortable. Sanjay drove along 101-South and then on I-5. At I-5 I took over as the driver. There were warning of gusty winds and hence drive slowly.
I-5 was one major disappointment. I was so sad after coming to I-5. I kept cribbing all the while to Sanjay about I-5. I wonder how many times I would have repeated the statement. "But Sanjay, I-5 is disappointing. I thought it will be a 10 lane road and speed limits of 85mph. This is just a 4 lane road with speed limit of 70mph. This is really disappointing. Everyone who told me about I-5 fooled me.". Those were the exact statements I must have repeated like a broken record countless number of times.
As we reached LA it started raining and the traffic was terrible. It was crawling and I was bit concerned also since I have not driven Land Rover in traffic. Not that I made any mistakes but then Sanjay asked me to pull over somewhere so that he can take over. I pulled over at some place and then we exchanged. It was kindof relief because after hours of driving I was able to look around.
DisneyLand:
We reached LA and directly went to Disneyland. After some confusion it was decided that we will go to California Adventures. Go there and see for yourself. I won't talk about it. We were lucky in the sense since it was raining so the wait times for the rides was 0 minutes for nearly all the rides. We were able to complete all the rides.
I liked the "Jelly fish jumping ride" particularly because it was very nice and "california driving". There were 4-D shows (sense of touch). I missed the fun of "Allaudin" because I was too tired sleeping. "Tower of terror" was good fun.
I yes, we drew "Goofy".
Manish and others had amazing sense of direction. They knew where to go and all. I was as usual lost in my own world and blindly following them.
Stay in LA:
Sunil, Sanjay and Manish went in search for a accomodation when we waited in the car. The room was very comfortable and I slept as soon as I hit the bed. After sometime I was woken up for dinner. When we came back we had a nice boyish discussion and laughing loud. Later my colleague told me that she was able to hear us laughing and talking. Damn, these wooden walls....
Universal Studious:
We woke up in a sunny morning next day and went to the Universal Studious. Again due to some reason we were very lucky. We were able to do all the rides with 0 minutes wait time for more. Again come and see yourself.
One was the 4-D shows was "Shrek". I liked "Shrek" in that. Especially when there will be instances where someone sneezes what will fall on you, someone farts smelly gas will come and then the seats will move and insects will move around you.
"Mummy" ride was good. We went for the studio tour which was ok.
The best I had fun was "Van Heiselgal". My colleague was freaking out. Literally freaking out. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and very afraid. The magnitude of her fear could be judged from the fact that she never let go my Jacket and was pulling me all the while to get out of that fast. And I think I took the best ever "picture" of her as soon as we came out.
Few funny incidents happened. We were trying to take a snap as the flintstone. Manish and my colleague stood as the flintstone husband and wife. I didnot want to stand as the female. So I was standing near the male side waiting for my chance. When my turn came, Sanjay was smart enough and came rushing in and occupied that position. I waited for another turn as no way I wanted to stand in the female position.
Then we went to watch "Fear Factor Live". There they said you are late and one female directed us to another guy to get us seat and he directed us back to her and she directed back to him. It took me sometime before I realised that we were being fooled.
In fear factor they made people drinking disgusting stuff and put scorpians on one female's head. Then suddenly they threw a torantula on the crowd. The girls there fell down here and there. Later they told it was fake. But few of them were already freaked out.
Another thing was a sound recording studio where Manish volunteered to shout. He had to shout when the light glows. But then it never glew and they said he was not good enough and sent him to a room behind. We then saw him being attacked my a monster and he running. It was his shadow. Later he denied doing anything like that. But I still think it was his shadow and wonder how they faked it.
Return was fine. Again Sanjay was driving for sometime and as I was not feeling great, sleepy and slight headache I slept. Later we exchanged the seat and I drove continuosly for 300kms.
The fun part was the lateral thinking but I guess I slept and missed major part of it.
posted by l_shankar_ganesh at 5:21 PM
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