Meeting with The Uncle Sam - Part 2

This is the continuation of my journey in the United states - Part1. In this part I describe about my experience in visiting Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. We had planned to take few days off to explore these places after our official schedule. During the planning phase, we had explored lot of options and decided to go ahead with the plan as I describe below. However this was not the best or optimized plan. But this was the best we could do in the stipulated time we had.

To save travel time first we decided to fly to LA from SF. Also we wanted to fly such that we could optimize time for covering most of the places. Hence after finishing our work schedule on Friday, we had booked early morning flight on Saturday to reach Los Angeles. We got Vergin America tickets for to and fro at $100. We went ahead and got our seats reserved. We had our flight at 5.50AM in morning which would land us in LA at 7.15AM. We had planned to visit Universal Studios on that day. So we had planned such that we could reach the venue by 9.30 and get maximum time to explore at the Universal Studios. We had booked our stay at Mariott near airport so that we could save time in reaching hotel after we land in LA. The hotel provides free airport pick up and drop 24hours a day. All this we got at INR 10,500 in Expedia.com. But one thing I should tell you - it was very tough for us to get up at 3AM and reach airport to catch the flight. But unfortunately we could not plan better. However, once we reached hotel, we were informed that there were no rooms that were available at that time. The check in time at the hotel was 3PM. So, we quickly had the breakfast which we had got - all thanks to MTR 3 minutes poha. Though I had to take the pain of opening my baggage for security checking at the airport for carrying them, MTR came in handy throughout the trip whenever we needed them. Then we left our luggage at the cloak room and proceeded to Universal Studios. We had got our tickets online so that we could avoid the queue for tickets. The tickets costed $105 per person. We took Uber to reach there which costed us $23. We reached the destination at 9.15AM. We had rough idea about what all rides to go for.  Since we were so early, it was not much crowded at that time. So, as soon as we entered, we decided to first finish the Harry potter ride which was unique to this place. The waiting time was 20minutes at that time itself though we thought we were early. However we decided to wait and finish the ride. This decision proved us right when we saw the waiting time increased to 45 minutes in no time. It was a thrilling experience to having gone through this ride. Later we proceeded to explore The Mummy ride which was the fastest roller coaster ride in the dark. Then we explored Transformers ride and Jurassic park ride. Since we were a bit early, the waiting time was around 10 minutes for each ride. It was a real adventure experience to go through these rides. I really enjoyed all the rides. In the Jurassic park ride, the model dinosaurs keep splashing water :D So one should be careful if they are carrying items like digicams and mobiles during the ride. Overall it is a nice experience. The last fall of this ride is awesome. Do not miss any of these rides. I personally did not like Transformers ride. Rest all I enjoyed. By 12PM we had finished all the main rides. Then we decided to go for a show Animal Actors that was conducted there. The speciality of this show are, the animals are trained here which do the actions as directed by the trainers there.

After the show got over, we went on to have lunch. We took some pizza and donut. Later we explored Death by Walk. Actually this should be scary. Due to the number of people at that time, it was not much scary. We finished exploring almost all of it by 3.30PM. By now we were all exhausted. The reason being we had got up at 3AM to explore all these. Then we decided to head back to hotel. We again booked Uber which costed us $47 this time to reach hotel. We could witness lavish villas of the Los Angeles in the way to hotel. We realized that we had our hotel booking far from city area. However this served the purpose we had booked it for. It helped us save time. 

For rest of our trip, we had booked package trip from TakeTours. It was a 3-day package trip from Los Angeles. It included transport to Las Vegas and 2nights stay at Las Vegas with an option to either spend a day at Las Vegas or explore Grand Canyon. We chose to visit Grand Canyon with an extra cost of $90 per person. We had got this package with Buy2 get 1 free offer which had costed us $230 for the package. However additional $90 extra per head we paid to go for Grand Canyon west rim. We had our pick up at China Town in LA. Again, our hotel reminded that we stayed very far from city area. We had arrived at the location by 6.45AM and our pick up was at 7AM. The uber driver who dropped us there was confused about we getting down there because it was a lonely place and he had no clue why we got down there. After we got down even we were a bit worried. We could not contact the tour operator by phone. So absolutely we had no means to contact anyone there for help. We could not figure out which was our tour bus. After 10 minutes many other people started coming to the same location. Some of them even asked us about the tour bus. Then we got a bit confident that we are waiting at the right location. Then at sharp 7AM bus arrived. I enquired the operator there. She confirmed that thats the bus we were supposed to travel. We got our contact details updated with each other so that for next 2 days we could contact tour operator without any hassles. The operator was Ctours. It was a chinese tour company and the crew members were also chinese. Also lot of chinese take these package tours from LA. After picking few more people bus started towards Las Vegas. Since we were the only English speaking team in the bus, the guide kept on speaking in Chinese for rest of the people on the bus. However after complaining she said her colleague would convey everything to us in English. But we said, that was not working out as we missed out lot of information. The bus stopped at some point where in people can buy some food to have on the way. Later we reached Vegas by 1PM. Initially they took us to some Chinese restaurant for lunch. Also they advertised some of their products. I felt that it was too much of marketing tricks they were playing to support their own people. I personally felt they could have stopped for lunch at some neutral venue where people can find some popular eateries like SubWay and McD. Later we were dropped at the Dragon hotel and we were told that we could take the Vegas tour for additional $35 per person. We thought we would go with them that night and explore Vegas on our own on second day. We were picked up by 4.30PM. The tour covered the Venetian, Belaggio, The Mirage and few casino. Finally we were dropped at the hotel by 9.30PM. We had dinner with MTR we had got. 

Venetian

Casino

The Mirage

Belaggio

Belagio

Next day we had chosen to visit Grand Canyon west rim. Our pick up was again at 5AM. So, continuously for third day we had to get up early in morning. We had packed poha for breakfast on the way. We slept for some time and by 7.30 I woke up and had breakfast. The sunrise was beautiful a t that time. By about 8AM we were dropped at the west rim entrance and had got around 4hours to explore there. This part is managed by the tribals and they operate their own buses to take us around the points in West rim. We first entered Eagle point and the view was breathtaking. When I was in India I was planning to visit Gandikota which is known as Grand Canyon of India. But I was really happy to visit the actual Grand Canyon before visiting its counter part in India. It was so calm over there and the weather was so nice which enhanced our experience. We took Hot Chocolate to drink. Then I went on to explore the famous Sky walk at a cost of $21. It was a nice experience to witness the depth of the canyon through the transparent skywalk. The photos are not allowed there. However one can take it at a cost of $30 per photo. So I decided not to go for photos instead print the view in my mind. Later we got onto the next bus to go to Guana point. I do not have words to describe the view of this natural beauty. Let my photos describe them for you.

After this, we felt our effort of getting up early is worth it completely. Later on the way we visited Hoover dam and the famous Nevada state sign. After this again we were taken to the same restaurant which they had taken us the previous day. But this time, the lunch was already included in the package. The food was ok ok with options to eat noodles, cakes and fruits. 

Hoover Dam

We were dropped to hotel by 3PM with an option to explore Vegas on our own again. We rested for some time and went to the street to explore. We walked across so many casinos and lot of other stuffs over there. We visited the M&M store and also visited Hersheys chocolate world. We had our dinner at taco bell. Finally we got so tired and decided to head back to hotel by 10.30PM. Our next day pick up was at 8.30AM to LA. On the way they again took us to the same restaurant for breakfast. Then they took us to some chocolate factory. Later on the way they stopped at some mall where in lot of popular brand stores were available. We did window shopping and later we were dropped at China town at 5.30PM. We had our hotel booked at Inglewood. We took cab from China town to reach. The journey took around 1hour to reach. Hotel name was the Adventurers. This hotel was so crappy. It was like some dungen. It was very dirty and the people over there looked very scary. Actually it was more or less like a back packers hostel. The rooms were stinking badly. We realized our mistake in not doing home work in picking up right spot to stay. The surroundings were also very scary. Our cab drivers had cautioned us not to step out after 7PM as it could be dangerous there. Hence we had dinner with our MTR again. The only reason my friend had booked this hotel was this was available at $90 per night. But it was a very bad choice. Next day we had plans to visit the Hollywood boulevard. We checked out of the room and put our luggages in the locker that was available there. The locker was also not working properly there. Finally with some efforts we could open it and keep our luggages in. We walked through the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took lot of photos there. Also we went to take photo with Hollywood in background. It was so far that the cameras could not capture them very clearly. Later we took photos near Chinese Theatre and Dolby Theatre. We had booked Madam Tussades tickets online. We entered the studio and took photos with many celebrity's statues there. By 12.30PM we had finished exploring the street. We were so hungry and went on to have lunch at the CPK. There was a lunch combo available at that time. I had taken a veggie pizza with tomato soup. The soup was so tasty, that was the best tomato basil soup I had ever tasted. Then we thought we would visit the beach in LA. We took Uber to Venice beach. We enjoyed the blue pacific ocean for some time and headed back to hotel by 5PM. We had to catch our flight to SF which was scheduled at 8.50PM. The hotel provided free drop to airport which was around 15minutes drive from there. We were waiting at the airport from 6PM. For our bad luck, our flight got delayed by 1.5 hours. Finally the flight took off by 10.30PM and we landed by 12.15. 

Finally our excursion of California and Nevada came to an end with loads of memories. Though the visit was short, I hope the memories would stay for long. I enjoyed the places I visited. However I felt we could have planned better. At some point of time we felt, instead of travelling all the way till Grand Canyon, we could have visited some other beautiful places like Lake Tahoe, Yosemite national park, Big Sur etc. However this is not the end. We witnessed some of the best places of California and Nevada with options to explore further in next visits :)

Few tips:

• Be very careful when you chose a locality in LA. LA is very vast and the traffic is too much in LA. Avoid downtown area, Inglewood. Stay somewhere near Venice beach for better experience.
• As I had said in previous post, car rentals are the best option to explore in US. So, get to know the rule properly and take car rental to explore at your convenience.
• There are lot of eateries in LA. So, if you have car rental it is easy to explore these. 
• In vegas also play casino and know when to stop to avoid losses.
• Do not forget camera to Grand Canyon. Also if you have time, go for helicopter ride. It would be an awesome experience.
• Stay safe during night at Vegas.
• Plan well in advance to get flight tickets at discounted price.
• Carry snacks with you