Updated 8th July, 2003 - many of the links, especially Disney links in this page do not work - I guess the rides are obsoleted:)
It was Ganesh Chathurthi, and we decided that the best way to celebrate it would be with a visit to the temple. The temple we selected was the one in Livermore, 50 miles away. Off we were, at 8.30 AM - me, my Manager and another colleague. We reached our destination in 50 minutes and were in time to witness the abhishekam for Lord Ganesa. We started back at 10 AM, and were in office in just over an hour.
Okay! now for the LA trip! Nagi (Nagaraj), my classmate during MCA in REC, Trichy, called up to say that two of his friends were driving to LA from my place, and why don't I join. I took up the offer and at 6 PM, found Manish and Deepa before my residence (Residence Inn).
Off we were on a 400 mile drive to LA, the initial stretch of the road having bumper to bumper traffic. Manish was a skilled driver, no doubt, and with just one stop for a light dinner (Mac Burger, what else?), we were in Pasadena, LA at 1 AM.
Nagi had cooked an excellent dinner and we dispatched it, before hitting the sack.
After a protracted discussion on where we should be going, we started at 3 PM to Rodeo Drive, in Beverley Hills. (Did I mention we got up around 11 AM?) Nagi was the driver, Manish the navigator, and we had a colleague of Nagi, Rajan for company.
Without much ado, we reached our destination. We drove through the roads, which possibly(?) housed some film stars. (Can't tell, didn't bother to purchase the "star map")
Rodeo Drive is the US version of Brigade Road, only 10 times better! It's the home of the who's who of the fashion industry - Armani, Versace, Tomy Hilfiger, to name a few. Every shop competes with the other in its display and elegance. The drive stretches over 3 blocks, and ends with the Hotel(?), where the popular movie "Pretty Woman" was shot (a decade or so back). (We wouldn't have known this, but for a localite, who volunteered the information)
Window shopping was the order of the day, as we didn't wield much purchasing power! However, we did enjoy the fruit juice at a strategically located shop there (can't remember names, of course)!
Our next destination was Griffith Park, which houses an observatory and planetarium. It is located atop a hill, from which there is an excellent (though bird's eye) view of LA and its surrounding areas.
We enjoyed the view, took a peep at Venus through the giant telescope housed there, went through some exhibits, also viewed the moon through the telescopes of some amateur astronomers, who'd set them up on the lawns of the observatory.
Since we had time to kill, we decided to drive to Universal City. More by luck than anything, we found the right exit and reached our place. We decided to walk through City Walk the popular tourist spot in the area. This "street" is narrow, and has shops and restaurants on either side. There are road-side performances by various artists. The place is lit up with lights of various colours and shades, and streamers and other decorative items, to lend a festive look.
By this time, it was 9 PM, and we decided to visit a Thai restaurant for dinner. We selected one, close to Nagi's place and had a lovely vegetarian dinner.
We were up at 6.30 AM to start off to Disneyland. It was 8.15, when we finally started. We reached our destination in 45 minutes and were whisked away from the Parking Lot in a tram to the actual fun ground. (The Parking Lot is the largest in the US, and can house around 10,200 cars, and is the size of 80 football fields)
There was a queue for the tickets and once we entered, we needed to plan our rides to cover the place. We selected Tomorrowland (one of the several themes in the venue) to visit, and went for three rides in that - Astro Orbitor, Space Mountain and Autopia. Space Mountain was the best of the lot and we took the ride again, later in the evening.
Then we went to the Adventureland for the popular Indiana Jones ride. By now the place was teeming with people, and we had an hour's wait for the ride. But it was worth the wait, what with scenes from the Indiana Jones movie series being part of the ride (the famous one being the rolling stone in the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark).
It was now time for lunch, and we were lucky to find some vegetarian pizza, after taking the Fast Pass for Splash Mountain. (Fast Pass is like a reservation of seat - you are asked to come back between some time interval and need not stand in the queue)
We had a terrific 3D experience in Honey, I shrunk the audience (modelled on the movie "Honey I shrunk the kids"), the characters seemed to leap out of the screen at you - the best part being the chairs shaking and water spraying at you in the hall!
Splash Mountain was a ride culminating in a fall into water (hence the term!) and was accomplished without much wait, thanks to Fast Pass. We were now in time for the Parade of the Stars - a parade on the Main Street with the various Disney characters atop decorated chariots.
Our next stop was at Fantasyland - the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride. We found it similar to Splash Mountain. We decided to brave another ride in Space Mountain as we found that that was possibly the scariest ride around!
This was followed by a loooong wait for the Rocket Rods ride - which was an anti-climax compared to the other ones.
We watched Basix the music extravaganza, and the last part of Fantasmia, the light and sound show on the river bank. The Musical fountains in India come nowhere in comparison! This was soon followed by Fireworks spectacular, above the sleeping beauty castle.
We thought we'd had enough - the time being 10 PM, and half-asleep, retraced the path we'd come!
We covered barely half of the place. What I felt was, Americans knew how to conceive and market entertainment, and make money in the process - others have a long way to go to catch up!
Got up very late, and started on the return journey. Six and a half hours drive and we were back home, after an eventful visit to LA.