The American Dream

Restoto

Agung

Izwan

Yours Truly

22-Jul-2008 (Tue)

Four of us: Restoto, Agung, Izwan & Yours truly had a business agenda in the US of A. Our flight from KUL (1515hrs) arrived at LAX (1830hrs) transited at Taipei International Airport. Thankfully, I had no problem at the immigration clearance. Little bit nervous since this is my 1st time there...but managed to keep my cool.. Izwan’s wife had some trouble with unrecognizable finger prints but managed to get through at last. We had to wait for her clearance for 1 half hour after touchdown…

First things first…we had to get to the car rental office. All car rental was organized by Pak Agung. Despite many attempts from Izwan to go for a Mustang :), we got a steady jet black Dodge Durango instead, a middle size SUV. Could fit all five of us and all of our baggage. Nicee…..very nice….. It blended well with LA…

Then, we headed to the hotel. All hotel arrangements were done by me. First night in LA, we booked in Marriott LAX, very close to the airport and the rental car office. Very cosy hotel, nice king bed, very comfortable since we had been in the business seat for 24 hours. I would give this hotel 3 star rating. The receptionist was not very friendly though since she had to check in many people that night I guess…
After putting our luggage in the room, we decided to hit the road to find something to eat…Pak Agung was automatically assigned as our main driver while Toto became the official mascot..hehe..juz kidding, Toto became our navigator. Nobody else brave enough to drive left handedly. :) Including me…Hubby said NO to driving in States earlier though…like I want to drive???.....

Since it was already late, we drove around to Manhattan beach and stopped at McDonalds drive thru for our official food, the Filet-O-Fish meal…;p


Oh, did I say, we used Pak Toto’s trusted Garmin GPS to find our route everywhere. So, Pak Agung was doing some kinda multitasking, to adapt with left hand driving, familiarize with the road signs and rules, and follow the GPS at the same time…This was very funny and most memorable experience for us….While driving, the car swerved a bit when he tried to follow the GPS and changed lane. Suddenly, out from nowhere, a police patrol car send a signal siren and spotlight to stop our car. Geessshhhh…..so all of us at the back quickly pulled our seatbelts. Pak Agung remained calm as he is. Toto got panicked, and tried to get out from the car. Bad move..., we scolded him, like he never watches any movie from the States??? Goshh…the police on our right had already put his hand on the fire arm…aiyoo… sia sia je nanti...eee....The 1st patrol police inspected the car with his torch, and asked Pak Agung few questions…including have you been drinking tonight? (Haha)…since the car swerved..

He explained what happened…Despite that, he had to undergo a driving under influence test…the alcohol test…kih kih kih…we were so scared he would failed the test somehow, maybe because he was so fatigue and hungry....it was soooo amusing (p/s: we only found it amusing after the whole deal was over though)...we laughed about Pak Agung wearing the LA community service uniform and a broom in his hand if he failed the test and didn’t manage to persuade the police…heheh…we didn’t get a ticket, just a warning to drive safe even with a navigator…Thank God!!! Bad 1st night experience in LA...