USA – Los Angeles & Hollywood BABY!!!

Hollywood the city of plastics and annoying celebrities especially the ones from reality shows. However Hollywood does create remarkable and wonderful movies and so I had extremely high expectations about the city till my best friend Miassar told me that I will be disappointed when I visit which was true, I was disappointed.

Reading about the lives of celebrities, I’d expect more from the city. I found it to be filthy and I was not impressed however I will still go back because of the following reasons:-

  1. Take a picture with DWAYNE THE ROCK JOHNSON LOL (I’ve been in love with him since I was 9)
  2. To attend Jimmy Kimmel’s show
  3. Visit the beaches (we didn’t manage to visit any)

Despite it’s a filthy area, it is a place to visit especially the Hollywood walk of fame.

 

My friend Christina, who is also a traveller, highly recommended visiting the Chinese Theatre. Tim and I watched the Hobbit, the theatre is actually pretty cool, it’s different than the other standard cinemas. We also took pictures at the Kodak theatre where the Oscars are held.

Los Angeles Downtown is like any other city. There’s always something to do and lots of restaurants to try. We didn’t manage to do much in LA since we travelled to Nevada and Arizona.

Tim and I are planning to visit LA and on our next trip, we are planning to drive to San Francisco. I can’t wait to plan our next US trip.

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USA – Burgers & Junk

Our first dinner in LA was at The Counter Downtown, one of the best burger places EVER. Luckily, they opened a branch in Dubai which is like 20 minutes away from our place. Food is cheap and massively up-sized in the States. I was surprised when I found out  that a regular McDonald’s meal is a large sized meal in Dubai.

In the 10 days we were there I gained 4 kilos.

The burgers and pizzas were so greasily delicious but man I just couldn’t finish any of them. There was a pizza place we ate at called Stage Deli in Vegas which did not cost much compared to other restaurants in Vegas but if you want to save up some money in Vegas, dine at any restaurant that serves buffets. It is surprisingly cheap. Check out the HEART ATTACK restaurant, well I wouldn’t be able to eat there.

Milkshakes, smoothies, junk food, candy, everything there is YUMM YUMMY YUM YUM YUM. Tim and I pigged on Mexican food at Olvera Street. The day we both were travelling back home, we stopped at a sub place that sells cheap sandwiches and coffee. Personally the coffee was terrible but my GOD! The sandwich was heavenly. We ate the sandwich at the train station and there was this guy who kept staring at our sandwich and jokingly asked Tim to share his sandwich (I really don’t think he was joking though). I was eating the sandwich with so much love and dropped the mustard on my shoes and oil everywhere ahh it was one of the best sandwiches I ever had. I was very similar to Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

When in LA, Tim and I stopped at Target and 7/11 to buy chocolates and candies for back home; we managed to buy lots that were not available in Dubai. I was amazed that they don’t sell or even have Galaxy chocolates in the U.S. AND that kinder is illegal in America..SAY WHAT??!!! One thing that surprised me though was the big chips ahoy cookies and it had M&Ms all over it YUMMY, enormous chocolate chip and OTHER YUMMY TO THE TUMMY stuff.

I think this is such a random food blog. Well anyway I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE FOOD.

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Sri Lanka – Wood Carving & Silk Saris

Sri Lanka is well known for mainly Tea, Silk and Carved Wood. Zudhi took us to a workshop to learn on how they carve wood and colour it with natural dyes.

The sales guy at the store spoke 9 languages and among the languages, he spoke Tagalog (Filipino language) and Arabic. It was really impressive. So we were just conversing in my languages and I managed to get discount.

On separate day, Zudhi then took us to a silk workshop where we learnt on how the saris are made. Tim and I tried on traditional Sri Lankan outfits and eventually bought them.

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Sri Lanka- Safari

Well it was an experience but would I recommend it to anyone? NO!!!

It was not worth the $50 we paid. It was a 2 hours jeep safari. We drove into a forest with monkeys, umm cows, birds and peacocks but mainly elephants.

We managed to take awesome pictures. If you haven’t seen elephants and you were just visiting Habrana, then I recommend the safari but otherwise not really.

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Sri Lanka – A Trip to Mini England

Our guide Zudhi took us to a cold place called Nuwara Eliya. It’s where people from the cities, mainly Colombo visit because of the cool weather and change of scenery.

The location was discovered by an English Governor in 1800’s. He built a Governor Hotel which looks very much like an old English town. Zudhi later took us to a very British restaurant near the lake where we had lunch and drank tea. We were embracing the British culture in Sri Lanka LOL.

Tim and I walked in the little town and visited a garden of wonderland. I recommend you visit the place because it feels like visiting Europe and but in Asia. 🙂

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Sri Lanka – “It’s Always Tea Time” – Mad Hatter

Zudhi took us to one of the best tea factories in Sri Lanka called the Bluefield Tea Factory. Here is what I roughly remember from our trip in the factory. I can’t remember exact details as I was busy taking photos and barely paying attention.

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Bluefield Tea Factory

Well at the main door of the factory, we were greeted by a very cute Sri Lankan lady who was a newlywed at that time and didn’t want children. She explained that there are different kinds of tea; green, white, black and gold. The most expensive one was the gold one. LIKE DUH!!!!

Here is what I can recall, first they pluck the leaves then either they keep the leaves under the sun or in a cool area and eventually the leaves become dry. Also they had another way where they place the plucked leaves in a machine that crushes them in order for the ‘leaf juice’ to come out. Finally, they are kept in a temperature control room where each machine is set on a different temperature and that’s how you get different kinds of colours of tea leaves.

For more information, please google lol or visit the Bluefield Tea Factory. I’m the worst person to talk to about tea. At the end of the tour, the lady took us to the store and we bought packs and tried various types of tea. It was a Mad Hatters Tea Party LOL

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Sri Lanka -Yes! I officially Love Tea

My brother Mohammad travelled to Sri Lanka weeks before we did and when he got back, he bought lots of tea and asked us to buy him some more when we visit.

I teased him by asking ‘what’s so special about their tea,  you British wannabe?’. He replies ‘well….. you think what you are drinking in Dubai is tea?’ Me: Ummmm Yes, whats the difference? Anyway doesn’t matter, I’m more of a coffee person. Mohammad’s reply was ‘You will regret saying that *Ate’.

*Ate: [pronounced Ah-Teh] which is a Filipino word to address the older sister/female with respect. 

Weeks passed and I had my first morning tea in Sri Lanka and DAMN!! my little brother was right. Tim bullied me the whole entire holiday because I constantly kept drinking tea. We also went to a tea factory which I will blog about separately and I managed to buy 4 packs of Sri Lankan tea.

Yeah!! Yeah!!! I’m officially a tea lover.

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Sri Lanka – Buddha’s Tooth

Tim and I spent our honeymoon in Sri Lanka. Our tour guide Zudhi, the friendliest and sweetest person we’ve met planned to take us to attend Esala Peraher in Kandy. It is a massive parade which lasts 10 days. Tim and I were fortunate to attend the first day, where the parade lasts for 3 hours. Oh you think that’s long? Hell No! Zudhi told us that on the 5th day, the parade lasts for 5 hours.

The main event of the parade was to wait patiently for Buddha’s tooth which is kept in a golden box. It is a very important event in Kandy and all around Sri Lanka but we were lucky to attend the biggest one and which happens to be in Kandy. I have to admit, I didn’t have the patience. We watched the parade for an hour and decided to leave.

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Morocco – Tim’s 26th Moroccan Birthday

At that time, I just started dating Tim and thought why not plan his birthday since we will be spending it together in Morocco. So I went on tripadvisor and searched ‘places with belly dancers’ and booked us a table at ‘Comptoir Darna’. I arranged a surprise cake and belly dancers.

When we got there, Tim requested no big surprises so I told the waitress to just bring the cake without the drummers but instead got 7 ladies to sing to him and made him dance with a belly dancer.

Earlier that day, we went quad biking. Instead of renting my own, I just rode behind my knight and shining armor LOL and we drove across the sahara desert of Marrakesh following the instructor and a German couple that rented a duke buddy.

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