[USWC Fall Vacation] Day 01/02: Exploring Downtown LA (DTLA)

Both Baby and I love visiting the United States, as we love the shopping, food, themeparks, and pop-art culture, but most importantly, there are less social pressures as it is more liberal with less restrictions in the states in managing our daily outings. Our last visit to the United States was Seattle/Portland, and it was way back in 2019 before the pandemic. When travelling was finally allowed, the reason why we didn't choose going back to the USA as our first destination was the low exchange rate of the Euro, so we decided to visit Paris instead.

This time, one of the main reasons on why we chose visiting the USWC was to fulfil our goal of visiting Universal Studios Hollywood for the US version of Super Nintendo World, as we are big fans of Super Mario!

Baby did much preparation and in-depth analysis on our entire 10 days stay on this upcoming west coast USA trip! In total, we stayed at about 4 different locations, which included various hotels and a stay at an Airbnb, as we were visiting both Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Our airfare was with Singapore Airlines with a transit stop at NRT for the return leg. We upgraded ourselves with Premium Economy for extra leg room for our long-haul flight. Our tickets cost us about SGD1500-ish per pax for a return ticket to Los Angeles, and I think it was totally worth it!

Baby used his priority access for us to enjoy some quiet and rest time at the Marhaba Lounge which is located at Terminal 3 while waiting for our direct flight to Los Angeles.

In the lounge, we enjoyed free wireless internet access, as well as the decent spread of complimentary refreshments and drinks to enjoy. It was an ultimate indulgence prior to boarding our flight.

We were delighted with the amenities that Premium Economy offered, which included priority boarding, comfortable leg room with leg rest, a spacious seat with a substantial allowance for back reclining, as well as Noise Cancellation Headphones. Apart from that, we had the option to 'Book the Cook' (BTC) prior to our departure from the Business Class Food. We could also order champagne from the Business Class drink list.

The entire journey to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was about 15+ hours and I literally felt that I was spending almost a whole day flying in the sky! A cool point to note, Singapore flights provided unlimited excess of WI-FI on board, and I loved that they had a few USB ports available at every passenger's seat and this made it easier to charge our phones and iPads at the same time before leaving the aircraft. After what must have felt like an eternity, I was delighted to see that the seat-screen was showing our destination was close!

We had 2 meals on-board which was literally based on SG/US timing. We had dinner and lunch, and both my meals were under Book the Cook (BTC). I had Unagi Don as my dinner and Seafood Horfun as my lunch.

Baby's Fried Carrot Cake tasted so good!

The night fell around 4.30pm, and the sky was pitch dark the moment we touched down. Oh well, during the late autumn/early winter season, it's normal to experience longer nights than days...

We landed at LAX airport at around 5.45pm local time. Note, the USWC is about 16 hours behind us which means we literally earned a day in the States. Well sort of, as we need to fly back at the end... but oh well.

After clearing the US customs (which was the most difficult part), we headed straight to the car rental shuttle. In prior to our trip, we pre-booked our car from Fox Rental online, and we took the shuttle bus from the airport to the car rental company to register and to collect our car. We were given a Jeep Wrangler after paying a small additional amount to upgrade from our original booking. We were all set for our trip after collecting our car!

Our Airbnb location was located within the West Hollywood area, which is relatively near to Downtown LA and Hollywood Boulevard, as well as Beverly Hills. Baby drove us there after a half an hour drive as he was trying to familiarize himself back with the left-hand drive, hence we took a slightly longer time.

We reached our Airbnb around 10pm, and this lovely place was my ‘home’ for 5 days in Los Angeles. I can now confidently say that for longer stays, Airbnb is a better alternative to the usual hotels. The location was good, and the neighbourhood seemed safe. It had really good Wi-Fi too!

Our first meal in LA was at the famous Pink's Hot Dogs in Hollywood which is located at La Brea. It was merely a 5 to 10 minutes drive from our Airbnb for some supper to beat jet-lag!

I had the ‘Lord of the Rings Dog’, and the dog is topped with bready onion rings which was slathered with generous zippy BBQ sauce. I enjoyed it very much. Baby had the 'Martha Stewart' Dog, and he loved it too.

We drove back to our Airbnb after our meal, and we rested a while before our shower. We headed straight to bed after our long flight, as we wanted to charge up our energy levels in order to explore the lovely city of LA the very next day, but jet-lag is seriously no joke. We could not sleep until around 4am in the morning! The adjustment of the irregular sleeping hours took 3 days for us to get used to the US timings. OMG! How siaaaaaa, the return leg to SG was going to be dreadful!

Good morning, and we woke up at 8am to start our day. We did a short drive to the popular West Hollywood restaurant - Breakfast by Salt's Cure for brekkie.

They made the best griddle cakes we’ve ever had in our lives. Their griddle cakes were made with oatmeal, and you could taste the nutty texture in every bite. We loved the OG Griddle Cakes served with Cinnamon Butter. We also ordered a serving of Pulled Pork with Hash topped with 2 Sunny Side-up Eggs.

We started our outing by driving ourselves to Downtown LA (DTLA), and we took the Angels Flight Railway. It is the world’s shortest railway at just under 300 feet long, and it was first built in 1901.

We went for it by paying USD1 per person each way, and we immediately felt transported back in time. Honestly, it was pretty cliché, but the Angels Flight truly is a gem preservation of the past. I am glad that they maintained it well on the safety precautions.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and historical 5-minute ride for us. It is a cheap option when spending the day in LA and provides a lot of unique photo opportunities.

We visited The Broad Museum which was also located at Downtown LA (DTLA), and the admission was free! If you want to avoid long lines, make sure to reserve the tickets beforehand. Art lovers like us definitely took advantage of this famous free LA attraction. The Broad Museum is not to be missed by any art lover visiting this city.

We ended our Downtown LA (DTLA) sightseeing by heading over to the Grand Central Market for our late lunch. We had Shrimp Tacos and a bottle of Soda and we paid like almost USD20. While the food was good, the price was a total rip-off, so beware if you visit this obvious Tourist trap!

Baby made an advance reservation in Singapore prior to our trip, and he brought me to the République Restaurant which was located at La Brea Avenue for our first dinner in Los Angeles.

The République Restaurant is known as one of best fine dining restaurants in the city of Los Angeles. It fills up quickly and often has a long line, so getting a reservation is recommended.