TRAVELOKA: Los Angeles

Finally set foot on the land of the stars and stripes. Husband and I visited the west coast of the USA where sun, sea and sand meet, forming an interesting array of colors and scenery. But not all the sceneries are lovely, though. Take the case of Los Angeles. People think LA and imagine pretty people, pretty beaches and pretty enormous houses. Yes, the town has all those but it has a lot more to show that's quite unexpected.

Visiting LA is good if you have a relative or friend who lives there and is willing to take you around (in our case, my Dad and stepmom). Otherwise, you may have to rent a car as the public transportation system sucks and the major sightseeing areas are miles (or freeways) away from each other. Car rentals can go as low as $270 dollars for a week's rent. Tour buses and limousine tours are also great options but they can only take you to tourist spots and not in places that are off the beaten track.

I won't be recommending any hotels for LA because we stayed with my parents in their nice cozy cove in Eagle Rock.

So here are some of the Good things that I liked in Los Angeles. As for the Bad and the Ugly, they'll come in another entry.

Hollywood is surreal. My picture may be a bit blurry (it's was a smoggy day!) but seeing the Hollywood sign brought chills to my spine. Even though I never wanted to be a star, I still felt the excitement of showbiz that constantly electrifies this town. Just imagine how aspiring actors and actresses felt upon seeing this sign.

Hollywood Boulevard is one of the most entertaining streets I've ever been on.

I saw the Grauman's Chinese Theatre where a lot of movie premieres are held,

and swooned at a cement slab containing Hugh Jackman's hand and footprints, one of the many located in front of the theatre.

The Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, offers tours which costs around $15. Imagine, with only $15, you can sit where George Clooney sat when he won an Oscar! Exciting if that's your thing. Maybe George left some precious white hair on the seat.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a crazy place full of showbiz characters, from Darth Vader and Freddy Krueger to Hello Kitty and Sponge Bob. Just be careful because some of them can get a bit aggressive. Like Spiderman.

And, of course, I had to take a picture of a star.

You can go around the major tourist spots in a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus if you don't have a car.

And what's with all the limousines?

Los Angeles has a lot of very very rich people. A lot. Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood, Hancock Park and Holmby Hills are neighborhoods containing huge houses and enormous estates that blew me away. They all have multiple rooms, pools, tennis courts and big driveways tucked into acres of land.

Here's a house in Bel Air.

Here's the entrance of Bel Air from sunset.

The Bel-Air sign

The famous Beverly Hills sign

Some houses in Beverly Hills.

A status symbol of the LA rich is to have as much space as possible between you and your neighbors. So most of the houses are set far apart from the road and have meters and meters of gardens.

Take this one really big house on top of the hill, in the middle of nowhere on Mulholland Drive. It doesn't seem to have any neighbors at all and has a fantastic view of the Hollywood sign and the rest of LA. Its vantage point is even higher than the tourist lookout. Now that's saying you've got a lot of money.

Beverly Hills is like a fantasyland full of beautiful shops, people who look like stars (or had surgeries to look like stars) and art-deco buildings. Just walking down Rodeo Drive made ME feel like a star.

Here's The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where "Pretty Woman" Julia Roberts fell in love with her prince charming.

The Via Rodeo promenade is so quaint and filled with top designer shops.

Another landmark is the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel, or 'The Pink Palace', as referred to by the locals. It's one of the most luxurious hotels in California and boasts of movie stars as guests. Which brings me to the question, 'Why pink?' I honestly thought the color made the place look cheap. Oh well.

Movie and TV shoots are seen in and around the city. I saw 3 shoots in one week in LA. Here's one in downtown where the scene has fake snow. I think they're trying to make downtown LA look like New York.

Downtown Los Angeles has very nice buildings but its skyline pales in comparison to other cities.

This is their tallest building, the 73-story U.S. Bank tower.

Here's the silver-ey and shin-ey Walt Disney Concert Hall where the LA Philharmonic plays.

Another landmark hotel is the Westin Bonaventure, which I think looked a bit 80's and outdated.

One building that I liked is the old LA Post Office Annex.

And my favorite part of the downtown LA is...Chinatown, the place for really yummy, really cheap food. Although, locals say that the Vietnamese has taken over LA's Chinatown, the place still carries a lot of Chinese culture.

Just look at the train station and some structures.