the best x'mas in three years- @ Monday, December 28, 2009
i'm finally back from my 1-week vacation to LA & las vegas! aaahhh, it was probably the best christmas i've had in three years. anyhow, a short recap on the places we went to:
landed at the LAX int'l airport at 10pm on the 19th, and headed to daikokuya for dinner. we LOVE the ichimen ramen there! the egg is especially good :D. after dinner, we headed back to the hilton checkers in LA downtown and called it a night.
next day, we headed to disneyland! love, love disneyland, although things didn't look as great as they used to when i was younger (prolly cos we're grown ups now, and it's not our first visit to mickey's land...) we practically enjoyed all the rides, except for the long lines for nearly everything (restrooms, restaurants, snacks, rides...) which definitely taught us a little patience or two.and some tricks to cut the lines... we especially enjoyed the x'mas parade and fireworks. after a long, tiring day there, we headed back to the hotel.
day three: checked out of hilton's, headed for the sin city. stopped at tan cang's for lunch. great lobster, great fish. loved the food there. that, followed by a 3.5hr ride filled with random music from koko's iPod, random sights along the highway, and random convos. reached vegas, checked in at wynn's, and headed for the buffet at le village in paris las vegas. WORST buffet i've tasted in that restaurant (and i've been there three times, including this visit). some walk along the strip, and back to the hotel.
day four: lunch at Red 8 in wynn's. it's some chinese casual dining restaurant, and food was... so-so. walked around la palazzo and shopped. headed to ARIA and saw the new louis vuitton store and the funky whirpools at the center of the mall. headed for dinner buffet at sushi mon! BEST sushi buffet i've ever had. literally any kind of sushi, all-you-can-eat. what can be better than that? walked around the venetian to burn down some of that calories from the buffet, and called it a night.
day five: checked out of wynn's, and headed to caesar's palace to try one of wolfgang puck's restaurant, spago. our conclusion? wolfgang puck should stick to making pizzas. the pizza we tried was superb, but the entrees were disappointing. bought a red epi leather LV bag at caesar's OUT OF THE BLUE which i'm sooo returning right after this. tried serendipity 3's frozen hot chocolate and decided it was, like zainal said, overrated for its $12 price. walked around a lil more, and headed back to LA. checked into the westin bonaventure hotel, which definitely has a cool concept with all the water and all, but... it's nonetheless an old hotel. i mean, orange and yellow striped wallpaper? not in trend anymore.
day six: headed to simpang asia for some good indo food for lunch. then drove down the rodeo drive, bought a cup of the ultimate mocha from coffee bean, and back to the hotel to get ready for x'mas eve dinner at tradition by pascal. it was definitely not worth the $77(inc. tips & taxes) we paid for the 3-course pre-fixe meals. after that we headed to le circle club for some x'mas eve fun. turned out to be a BAD mistake we made. basically, the korean club's bartenders don't know how to make any drinks at all. i mean, WHAT KIND OF BARTENDER DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE MARTINI?! not to mention the weird club system whereby the waiters would grab any girl who seemed to be by themselves and pull them to tables full of disgusting guys waiting. even the dancing sucks. apparently, we all saw through their whole system. this is how a korean club works: girl comes in with some of her friends, guys come in and book a table with overflowing alcohol. girls buy their first shots to go dancing, guys join in. when the music slows down, the already-sort-of-high girls would be dragged to the tables with those guys. guys would prolly give the girls more drinks, do whatever they please, and when the music picks up, they'd dance with the girl. and the cycle goes on. how weird. anyhow, never going back to that place again. not to mention, $15 for vodka + soda? f*ck you. i'd rather go somewhere else.
day seven: it's x'mas! checked out of the hotel, and headed to gyukaku for lunch. unfortunately, gyukaku was sooo full, so we headed to jazz cat instead for some shabu-shabu. jazz cat's meal was good, but definitely not enough meat to please us for its $18 price. so after that we headed to alhambra for yogurtland and the shen jian bao there (which was really, really delish!) we wanted to take some pics at the purikura machine there too, but alas, we had no time, and we headed to the airport. and flew back to seattle.
anyhow, this weekend in seattle was pretty fun too! did some shopping in downtown on saturday, followed by a free sherlock holmes movie (let's just say we had our lil tricks! hohoho). oh, and not to mention the tory burch clutch that david bought for my for x'mas gift! *^^* love you, baby! it's just what i've always wanted! today, had lunch at the old sichuanese restaurant, and another free avatar 3D movie, and a *ahem* paid it's complicated movie. so, all in all, 3 movies for just $10! :D what could be better than that?
not looking forward to work though... *sighs* how i wish i'm still a student with my long holidays. oh, a higher salary would motivate me more too. but sadly, it's neither of those.
with love-
