Day 4
Where we meet up with
an old friend, have some killer dogs and encounter some mobile problems.
Jason Hwang, who currently studies at Santa Monica College, was kind
enough to come down to meet us at our hostel and bring us out for lunch. After
an hour or so of shopping at Ross (I bought two pairs of jeans for just a
little over USD30) and watching TV (Adventure Time!), we headed down to the
hostel lobby to find Jason waiting for us.
As we caught up, Jason brought us down Melrose Avenue, to a quaint,
unassuming stall called Pink’s Hot Dogs. There, a gaggle of feisty cooks cooked
up a stunning variety of hotdogs and burgers at a breakneck pace. The line was
long and heavy, and once it was my turn I ordered an overflowing nacho chilli
dog while Jason bought us onion rings and a plate of sinful chilli-cheese
fries. They were generous with their sauces and toppings, and despite us eating
outside in the hot sun, the scrumptious meal was truly one to remember.
They should call it Yellow's. Look at that cheese.
For dessert, we hopped down a couple of blocks to Baskin Robbins, to
satisfy Kenneth’s ice-cream cravings. He got himself a small cup of strawberry
cheesecake ice-cream while I went for a milkshake of the same flavour. Jieqi
bought some bubblegum ice-cream that came with real bits of bubblegum.
Naturally, he was unable to swallow the gum (in spite of the counter girl’s
insistence) and spat/dug most of them out. All hopes of him blowing an
ice-cream bubble were dashed.
Once our stomachs were satisfied, we found a shop specializing in
mobile phones and lines and decided to apply for a US number. The guy who ran
the store was a cool lad named Bobby. He talked us through some of the cheaper
plans we could go for and was pretty detailed. We decided to go for a T-Mobile
plan which cost about $110 per month—excluding taxes—for five people; the final
cost averaged out at just shy of $30 a month for each of us. Bobby told us to
come back in a bit while he set up our SIM cards.
We headed back to Banana Bungalow to bum around a bit before Jason had
to leave. Once he was gone, we took a short rest before returning to Bobby’s
place to retrieve our SIM cards. There were some issues trying to get our
phones to run with the new SIM cards, especially with Shaun and Kenneth’s Redmi
phones. In fact, Bobby eventually gave up on Kenneth’s phone. We took what we
could get—after all, Bobby was a cool lad—and tried to find dinner.
Our legs aching from four days of walking, so we decided to settle for
Frida Tacos, which was just across the road. The guy who served us was a really
nice, cool fellow. He misunderstood our order and gave us a bottle of Tamarind
Soda on the house. We ordered a platter of five tacos, stuffed with different
cooks of meat, and doubled up on salsa (for future reference, don’t, because
those things will burn off your tongue). For dessert, Shaun and I ordered
churros that oozed caramel from one end. Honestly speaking, this was by far the
most underwhelming meal we’d had since getting to LA, but the friendly guy at
the counter sure made up for it.
Churros with 'special sauce'.
After dinner we started back up Melrose Avenue towards Fairfax in an
attempt to return to the hostel, but were halted by the sudden apparition of
America’s finest open secrets—a comic-book store! Turns out those guys were
having a Magic: the Gathering tournament.
Deciding not to get ourselves beaten up by yelling Age of Ultron spoilers, we went in to browse. Shaun walked away
with a Vasquez graphic novel while I bought the 5th TPB volume of Chew (which is IMPOSSIBLE to find in
Singapore).
Weird, I didn't actually take pictures inside the store...
That night being our last night in the hostel, we did what any
twenty-something hot-blooded male would do: we partied packed our bags
and settled in our beds for the last time in Banana Bungalow.
It was almost
time to say goodbye to LA, at least for the time being, but there was still one
more day of misadventure to be had.
Stay tuned for Day 5!
No comments:
Post a Comment