14 Dec, Thursday - First Day in Los Angeles

We woke up super early to wash up, change and pack our luggage again and took the complimentary airport shuttle from our hotel to catch our 8am flight to LA. The day got off to a slight hiccup when we were passing through the customs at the airport.

Becky and I were 'lucky' enough to be marked for random checks. I think it was probably because they saw us snapping photos(above) at the airport and thought we were terrorists planning some kind of attack.

Anyway they made becky emptied out her backpack and confiscated her 2 apples and throw away my jar of jam. Becky had to empty her water-bottle of orange juice as no liquid was allowed on board. I had kept my bottle of orange juice and peanut butter into my check-in luggage. Should have did the same thing with that bottle of jam! No more peanut-butter-jam bread.

By the time they were done, we could board the plane already. We took air canada and it was a 3 hours long flight so no meals were served, we only got one round of refreshments and there was no in-flight entertainment, only several radio stations that played lousy music. Anyway, I slept for most of the flight, waking up occassionally to take the view outside the plane.


We touched down in LA at around 11am, took our sweet time getting off the plane and to take photos of LA airport. We met our tour agency escort at the baggage claim area who was grumbling why we took so long to claim our baggage. He also was complaining how heavy our luggage was.
And it costs USD$3 to get the luggage trolley at the LA airport! Another way to earn our money. Tsk tsk..
We were then driven to our hotel in LA - Holiday Inn West Covina. But check-in was only available from 3pm so we deposited our luggages with the hotel and walked around the vicinity. There was nothing much to see as West Covina is like a county in the outskirt of LA so there's not much attractions around.
Our hotel was near to a big mall and there was a Ikea across the streets. The weather is similar to Singapore, it was hot probably around 26 degrees but without the humidness. So it didn't feel that bad. Finally no more photos of me in thick winter jacket. LA is also pretty polluted, there's like smog hanging around. And there were more obese people around here compared to canada.