This post is image heavy. Just want to let you know.
Previously: To go there, we didn't have to take the bus in Wilshire Boulevard when we first got off. Apparently there was a bus stop that would lead us to Simpang Asia. What the heck, the post's getting longer! It was still a long day, but I'll cut off here so you won't hurt your eyes reading such a loooong text.
Still on the same day, as you may tell.
From Westwood Boulevard just slightly several feet from UCLA entrance, we waited for bus #12 that would take us all the way to National Boulevard, where Simpang Asia was. Apparently, bus #12 happened to be the rarest bus to ever stop at the bus stop. So our patience was really tested, especially we were so damn hungry at that time. I kept motivating myself by thinking of Cah Kangkung, Nasi Campur, Lodeh, and all of my favorite Indonesian food that I love and I hope would be available in the restaurant.
Finally, after ages of waiting, the bus that we'd been waiting for came. It took quite a while to go to Simpang Asia. I barely remembered whether we needed to switch a bus or not, but as far as I remember, it was only a one-bus ride. Good for us.
The restaurant turned out to be not really big as I thought it would be, but it has a nice family-friendly atmosphere that brought comfort to us. Even more surprising, the waiter and the waitress in duty turned out to be Indonesians! So yeah, the waiter brought us the menu and we spent like more than 30 minutes to decide which food to order. I'm sure he was already getting used to this sight – a group of Indonesian college students trying to make up their minds on what food to order.
No wonder, cos the restaurant was said to have the completest menu among all Indonesian restaurants in – probably – Calif, especially the fact is, we actually lived very far from this restaurant. So, once in a blue moon, no?
We finally made up my mind. Aymee came up with Nasi Uduk and Sayur Nangka, I came up with Nasi Warteg and Sayur Lodeh for breakfast, and Elda came up with Nasi Uduk with Sayur Kangkung, Tahu+Tempe, and siomay for breakfast too. I know, we sound like we've never eaten these stuff for ages, ay?
Tahu and Tempe (Fried tofu and fermented soybean cake)
Cah Kangkung (some sort of fried spinach with chili spicing)
Nasi Warteg(mixed rice with chopped boiled egg, beef, pineapple dipped into coconut milk soup, cucumber, chicken, fried peanut - okay enough the writer's drooling)
After we finished our lunch, we paid and visited the grocery store which was located right next to the restaurant. Since the grocery store shared the same name with the restaurant, we were convinced that it would sell Indonesian groceries and products.
And here's where the euphoria began... (background music: Survival – Daylight OST to add more dramatization)
Aymee: “They have Taro!!!!” (Indonesian chips similar to Cheetos)
Elda: “Omygosh there's KOPIKO!!” (coffee candies)
Aymee: “Teh BOTOL!!!!” (a famed tea product in Indonesia)
Me: “Kacang Pilus Garudaaaaa!!!!” (Coated peanut balls)
Aymee: “Pop mie!!!” (cup noodles)
Elda: “Minyak kayu putiiihhh!!!!” (Cajuput oil)
Me: “Marie Regal Biscuit!!!” (milk biscuit)
Aymee: “Guys, I found something that's even much better....*drumroll* BENG BENG!!!” (crunchy caramel chocolate bar)
Yeah it was THIS hilarious. 98% of the whole products displayed in the store is Indonesian products, so you can imagine what it's like reconciling with the products we had longed to consume since our departure to the US.
The mentioned products above are all imported from Indonesia, and are impossible to find here. It's weird how back in Indonesia, I wasn't really a fan of any of the products mentioned above. But after not tasting it for more than half a year, I kind of missed consuming the products, which leads me - and not just me but also Elda and Aymee - to go ecstatic over the products we found.
That's why, back in Indonesia, there's this famous slogan of "Consume local products" yet Indonesian people simply just ignore those words and go on consuming imported ones. Here, Indonesian people feel everything in reverse. We long for Indonesian products, no matter how we hardly consumed it back in Indonesia.
Elda and Aymee even bought each box of Beng beng. One box could even contain up to twenty Beng beng. I don't understand why Beng Beng is actually THAT famous. Everyone likes it for sure, and even I like it, even better, it's actually addictive. So if you spot an Indonesian and you expose him with a package of Beng Beng, he won't hesitate to devour it.
We spazzed over these Indonesian products like they were some hot boys. But after exploring the store aisles through aisles, we ended up carrying these products we really wanted to buy. Oh by the way, even the store's employees are Indonesians! Wow, I started to doubt whether the bus was taking us straight to Jakarta or another corner of LA.
I didn't buy much stuff, considering how small my suitcase is. Too bad. Elda and Aymee really got a lot of stuff and it was good for them. I'm really sure they had plenty of space to place their items.
(Coated peanut, cup noodle, tea box, a box of black tea sachets - ALL ARE INDONESIAN PRODUCTS)
Elda and Aymee, especially, had to sort their items which to buy and which not. After a while, they finally made up their mind and went to the cashier counter to pay.
Aymee still deciding on what to buy
Finally, with our shopping bags on both of our hands, we were ready for the next and third destination. Actually the destination itself was quite unplanned. It was already 4 pm when we left Simpang Asia and headed towards the next destination, which was...no other than...Hollywood Boulevard! At first, I had a feeling that we couldn't make it to Hollywood on time, because we would be having dinner in Koreatown.
But it was just 4 pm and the sun was still high up. I was worried if we went to Koreatown that early, we would spend hours till dinner time wandering around. Cos I was convinced that Koreatown didn't have much shopping places to explore, despite the fact that everything there was all Korean.
I felt confident about going to Hollywood Boulevard. Besides, we weren't going to spend much time there. All we did was just strolling around and taking pictures, maybe followed with a bit of shopping. Though the distance from Simpang Asia was relatively short, we needed to switch buses midway.
I decided to lead the way, despite my poor ability in navigation. Aymee, Elda, and I just relied ourselves on my Google map, cos Elda's wasn't working.
There was a funny event along the way. When I was busy trying to locate the bus stop and talking to both Elda and Aymee, Elda suddenly went “Structural and Civil Engineering!!!!!” using the tone of someone shouting “Look out there's a snake!!!”
I instinctively jumped in panic. I believe Aymee also did the same. In a second, I thought there was something really shocking, but in the end Elda was just pointing at a small board with 'Structural and Civil Engineering' text on it. Oh I get it Elda. I know you want to be an engineer that bad, but as a result my heartbeat stopped for several split milliseconds. lol :)
After two bus rides, we made it to Hollywood Boulevard. It was packed with people, although we realized it wasn't high season, unless for some people who were having spring break just like us.
Unfortunately my camera's battery drained once we got there, so Elda's camera took place.
Helen Mirren's footprint and handprint are still wet that they still need to be fenced.At first Aymee was like “Why do we go this place anyway?” cos I pretty much believe that she's not an avid fan of movies. But her mode suddenly changed drastically as she spotted Arnold Schwarzenegger's handprint in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Here are some more pictures taken in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
It was actually the second time for me to visit Hollywood Boulevard after the previous visit which was on February 2009 with my family. At that time, Kodak Theatre was fully concealed due to the upcoming Academy Award the next day. I couldn't catch the full glimpse of the theatre, but at that moment, I was lucky enough to spot the famous giant Oscar statue in the red carpet.
But now, the Oscar's season has passed and I got to catch the full glimpse of Kodak Theatre building!!!!
During the Oscar, this entrance will be draped in red carpet and at the corner will stood a giant Oscar statue
We even took some pictures with two cosplayers posing as Zorros.
Last but not least, the other major attraction of this area is not other than the walk of fame itself. We walked along the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard only to take pictures with our favorite actors, musicians, singers, and directors. There are actually lots of picture we take here from Elda's camera, but of course I wouldn't upload all of them here.
After all this time, I always thought Madame Tussauds wax museum is only one, and that's in New York City. But I came to realize that there are actually several of them spread around the world. Hollywood included of course, since it's the capital of film industry and entertainment. Too bad we weren't able to get in due to limited time and high admission fee.
She looks very real!!
I wonder if the real Nicolas Cage is THIS tall.
I also bought myself a white tank top with famous I ♥ LA on it. The price is quite reasonable so I'm satisfied. Sorry, no picture. Too lazy to take a picture and upload it to the computer :p
Here are some more views from the famed Hollywood boulevard
In front of the Hollywood/Highland station
Hollywood Boulevard before we left for Koreatown
A rare sighting of a fancy white limo!After spending approximately an hour in Hollywood Boulevard, we took off to the last destination: Koreatown!!!! Good thing it wouldn't take us while to go to Koreatown from where we were at that moment. Hollywood Highland Metro station was located a few feet from Kodak Theatre!
Once we got there, the sun already set, and all that we needed to do was just looking for a Korean Barbecue house for dinner. There were actually a lot of them, like spread all over the place. But we wanted to find a decent one. Too bad, the format of Koreatown wasn't like Little Tokyo. The place was merely a normal neighborhood with only everything was in Hangeul. I wish there was a good place to shop for Korean stuff, but apparently, I found none.
I tried to use my limited ability in reading Hangeul, to make sure which is a barbecue house and which is not. We almost entered a place we believed was a restaurant but apparently it was a karaoke place. The sky was getting darker so we decided to just enter the first restaurant we spotted. Finally, we found a decent Korean barbecue house: Chil Bo Myun Ok.
We were very surprised to see that it was actually a fancy restaurant! At least the price is still reasonable, according to Yelp. In fact, I felt like the three of us were the only non-Koreans and the youngest people to have dining there. The others were of course, Koreans or at least Korean speaking people, and mostly are adults who were having dinner with their colleagues.
Since it was our last night in LA, we decided to eat something really special. Honestly, the three of us were a bit clueless when it comes to Korean cuisine. No matter how often I watch Korean reality shows and dramas, still they didn't really help.
We finally asked a waitress – an ahjumma – to recommend us what course we should order. She pointed out the restaurant's bulgogi specialty and we decided to go with that.
The ahjumma even served us with free Korean egg soup or Gyeran-tang (계란탕) and dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥). She also divided the huge portion of Bibimbap to three of us. She's really nice!!! I really wanted to say something in Korean, but the only thing I could say is just “Dolsot.” which literally means “stone pot”.
The bulgogi was absolutely goooooodddd!!!!
It was already late and it was time for us to go home. We were a bit confused to locate the nearest Metro station. When we were lost in an intersection, we bumped into a stranger. Elda collected her guts to ask the stranger where the station is, to which the stranger replied. “It's right across the intersection behind you.” (yup, our backs were facing the intersection so we didn't really pay attention what across the intersection was). It was a bit silly I know ^^".
The train that was about to take off once we got to the station was apparently the last train. Good thing we caught it on time, otherwise we needed to wait for...I don't know, tomorrow morning? I guess?
Eventually, we spent the rest of the night packing and tried to reassembled all the items we bought in LA and the clothes as well. Phiew, what a night.
Haha... I love the way Aymee looks with all her snacks!! Btw if you don't mind you can delete the first photo of me. Thx
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