I left Orange County on a Friday afternoon. It was a couple of hours' drive to Santa Monica, and I half slept on my way there. I was quite excited to be heading for Santa Monica, mainly for two reasons: one, I was waiting to meet an Indian colleague there and chatter in Hindi after a long time...and two, I was looking forward to dinner, which we had planned to have at an Indian restaurant.
The hotel that I was supposed to put up at Santa Monica had an antique look, which was supposed to be very posh and chic...well, guilelessly, I found it more haunted than anything else. With narrow corridors, dimly lit with those crooked antique shades, ancient designer carpets and brown, ragged paper on the walls...I almost used to dread coming back to the hotel after work. I practically used to run to my door after the lift door closed behind me. I half imagined getting strangled on my way to my room and dying in this unknown land in the hands of some ancient spirit...whatever! my imaginations always run haywire.
Santa Monica was in the Los Angeles county in California, and the notable differences of this place with Orange County was definitely quite attractive and lovable. The people here go out, party and enjoy their evenings - and, that was a big thing after the lazy streets of Irvine. On my arrival here, tired as I was from the whole day at office and the journey, I did not want to waste a Friday evening. Me and the Indian colleague went out for a scrumptious dinner at an Indian place - not to mention how taken aback we were to see a plate of bhindi sabji (ladies' finger curry) costing us 15 dollars...why, we would be able to get a shop full of ladies' finger at half this price in India! We had a relatively better dinner that night (India! Ahh, the land of spices!) as we gorged on to Biryani (garnished, strangely, with green peas), tandoori roti and butter chicken. The sea was close by to our hotel and we thought of going for a midnight walk along the Santa Monica Pier. Friday night as it was, it was totally lit up by colorful lights...giant ferry's wheels and other different rides were in full swing, and it hardly seemed so late. We checked into a beach side shack and had one of the most delicious Margaritas. We waded into the freezing sea waters, sat on the wet sand and only remembered to look at the time when we saw the sea waters were slowly advancing towards us due to a high tide.
Walking in the US is always a pleasurable experience, so walking back along the pier, and then along the sideways lined with restaurants and bars to our 'haunted' hotel even after 1 in the night was something I adored. The weekend that followed was a fabulous one! Saturday, as we had planned, was spent at Universal Studios. Going there wasn't much fun as we couldn't get the desired bus and had to take a cab all the way to that place, and that definitely burnt a hole in our pockets...a huge one! But once there, things were pretty fascinating. The Studio tour, the 2 hour wait for it, the spider crawling on my bag (yes! even US has spiders to scare me!), the different rides and the photo clicking sessions took up the entire day. We had a weird lunch of mashed potatoes, chicken (which looked like yummy tandoori murgh, but turned out to be a boiled-burnt chicken piece with over-sweetened tomato ketchup) and loads of coke. In the intention of not burning another hole in our pocket, we took the train, and then a bus back to our hotel. I won't term it as a brilliant experience though, as we had a couple of drunk black guys staring at us on the station stairs, a bearded old man wanting money at the bus stand (poor as we were with converting every dollar into rupees, how could we help US beggars!), an old lady who refused to answer us when we asked for the bus number and a sad, cold dinner at a sidey restaurant.
We were experienced travelers on Sunday and we booked a tour with an agency to go to Disneyland. This was something I was really looking forward to and yes, Disneyland did not fail to amaze me! With all the awesome colors, rides, music...Snow White, Cinderella, Pirates, Frog Prince, Alice in Wonderland...I almost had a peek into my childhood! The day went by in a jiffy and after a gorgeous firework show at 9 in the night, we rushed for the return bus. Tired, sleepy and dusty as we were, we were amazingly happy at our day's experience in this fairy tale land. We reached without hassle unlike the previous day and walked past the wonderful Third Street Promenade. Now, this Promenade is another of those places which I will remember forever! It resembled...ahh...a little bit like Indian roads on Diwali. The Promenade is a long lane that winds past the middle of Santa Monica and connects the beaches on one side and the main road on the other. The whole place is always lit up with the most colorful and pretty lights (the best ones I have seen in US so far). The lane is lined with the most chic of shops and restaurants to the regular cheap eateries as well. And, the best part of this place, were the street performers! A guy who plays the guitar with such magic melody that you are bound to get glued to the place, a girl who dances like a feather, twirling and twisting all over the place, a singer who plays the most awesome country songs ever...well, the Promenade is a place where you can't just go off from! We returned late that day, grumbling at the thought of office the next day and dropping off into bed like we haven't slept for ages!
The whole of next week my colleague was away to another place for work. I was tired of adventuring by then and spent a decent hotel-office-hotel week. I tried new eating places here, made friends with two Zimbabwean cab drivers who spoke about cricket, became real chummy with the office canteen girl who would pack me a box of marshmallows everyday, walked along the Promenade almost everyday and sat staring at the sea waves every night from my hotel window. It's been three weeks now...I want to go home, to India, to Hyderabad...
That Friday, I felt an immense amount of happiness in me! Two more days, and I am off to my own place...and in spite of all that you may have to say about India, I was jumping at the thought of returning to the land of real colors, of sunshine, of loud laughter, spicy food, warm air, drizzling rain, friends, family, love and joy...my real fairy tale land!
My colleague was back that Friday and we had an Indian dinner, a pleasant walk, and grand plans to spend the last Saturday in Amrika! Saturday dawned bright, sunny and we spent the day in a lazy, random and exploring way. After a long morning at the beach, we went for shopping. We went for dinner to an Italian place along the Promenade where we cheered with sparkling wine for the great time we had in US and how it made us re-realize our love for India!
"Good night Amrika!" one last time I murmured before wriggling into the warm blanket. Tomorrow I am off...back to my nest, back to my comfort land!
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