Last month I was sent to US for about 3 weeks. But this time, it wasn’t for any airport-related projects. I had some tasks in a couple of Malaysian government agency offices in Los Angeles and San Jose. It was really tough to leave my family again… I don’t know if I can cope with long-term overseas assignments again. Yup… with a baby daughter at home, anything more than 2 weeks can be considered long-term. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I’m one of those travelling folks who only comes back once every few months. If I was still single, I’d be happy to go anywhere for any amount of time!

After I arrived in Tom Bradley International Airport and stepped ouitside, I immediately recognized the exact spot where I got caught smoking by my dad some 15 years ago hahah! I stayed smack in the middle of Downtown LA, at the Orchid Hotel. Although I’ve never heard of this hotel (and neither did the many cabbies there), it was quite nice for its price. Very modern-looking, with some funky lighting. The guy told me that they were waiting to open a restaurant and bar on the ground floor, and I could see that the floor layout was built to accomodate a night club as well. My room had a nice 40″ plasma tv, but there were no HD channels so I got stuck watching Astro-quality channels on a sexy TV. Horrible… haha!

There weren’t many places to see in Downtown LA. It’s like KL without the shopping malls. Purely business centers. I asked around about places to shop, and some guy suggested for me to go to the Shopping District. It’s a stretch of road called Broadway Street, and I was told that there are loads of shops selling sports goods, clothes, electronic gadgets, musical equipments, etc. So I went there, and it appeared to me that I’m right in Chow Kit road, full of Mexicans.

So there were nothing to see within walking distance from the hotel, unless I wanna go to the Staples Center which regularly feature sports events and concerts. LA Lakers played when I was there, and Gath Brooks had a concert on my last weekend there too. Loads of people wearing cowboy hats walked around everywhere at that time.

People kept telling me to go to the factory outlet stores to get some cheap goods. So i went to Citadel Outlet which is about 15 minutes from Downtown. I had been there with my family when I was small, and the place didn’t change much. There were loads of outlets like Guess, CK, Puma, Levi’s etc. I bought some stuffs for my wife & daughter but nothing for myself. I didn’t find the place very interesting. The cabbies there told me that Citadel isn’t really cheap, and you get more selections and discounts if you go to normal shopping malls. So I went to a mall 15 minutes up north called Glendale Galleria. It’s sorta like the new One Utama wing crossed with the Curve. It’s very big, and the internal layout feels very posh. Definitely more things to see here, and the prices are quite cheap too. I bought a Coach bag for my wife and quite a few other things.

I also went to Universal Studios, but I didn’t enter the theme park. The daily pass was about $60++ and I didn’t think it would be worth it for me to go alone because I’d be too lazy to go on all the rides. I wish I could bring my wife and daughter here… maybe some other time when I’ve got loads of cash to burn. I just walked around the Universal City shopping area and bought some stuffs at Hard Rock Hollywood. I’ve got friends whe are crazy about collecting every single Hard Rock tees, so I bought those too.

After a week and a half, I flew to San Jose, the Silicon Valley. It was my first time in a small regional airplane, and I hated it. I’ve got a severe fear of turbulence, and the aircraft’s small size further amplified the bumpy flight. I could also feel the slight steering adjustments made by the pilot. So the moment when the pilot is getting his bearings right just after takeoff and before landing felt really unstable. My hands and feet were sweating badly from fear.

San Jose is really nice. It lacks the towering skyscrapers of LA, so you could really see the beautiful snow-covered mountains in the horizon. My ime here was really packed with work, so I really regret not having the time to visit the offices of those big-time tech companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, etc. The only leisure trip I took here was at Santana Row, an open shopping area much like Bangsar. I got myself a nice pair of Oakley shades :)

Everytime I have an outstation trip, I imagined that I’ll take loads of pictures everywhere. But in reality, many factors prevented me from lifting the camera and pressing the shutter. In LA, I had fears of being mugged, so I just left the camera in my bag most of the time. Also some of the time it was really cold that I couldn’t bother to take any pics. Another thing was that I prefer to have a familiar subject, so if my family were there with me, I could take pics of them instead!