Day 07, in LA

We began our day with a "cold" breakfast. The breakfast at this hotel is similar to the other one at Comfort Inn, though here offers more variety than the latter and colder (everything need to be heated before serving). After breakfast, we set off to Universal Studio and a whole day of fun awaits us! However, we did some detour to the Staples Stadium (stadium of LA Lakers), before we went to a street where there are many stars on the street floor, which is what I have seen on TV before. We went around the place, taking photos together with people dressed up as some Hollywood characters such as Catwoman, Spiderman, Charlie Chaplin, Supergirl, Zorro etc.

During the trip from the hotel to this street, based on what I have seen so far, I would say that LA is more developed than SF. There are more buildings in the city compared to SF, and there are many others that are being constructed.

After this Hollywood lane, we left for Universal Studio. I must admit that before coming here, I thought we were visiting another company as like before. However, this exceeded all my expectations as it is a place of entertainment. Being a place of entertainment, they're actually a business as well, making use of technology to enhance the visual and sound experience; I wonder how much money they earn per day.

The place is so wide that maybe the whole hill belongs to them! The studios here are also very versatile to an extend that any type of scene can be created here. I also feel that this is one of the most creative place too. Why? In order to make any special look real, they have to create their own props and equipments, which are not similar to what we’ve ever seen before, etc. For example, to create the airplane crashing scene, they've used 500 different effects! This also somehow explains the reason why film production costs so much and amounts to millions of dollars.

Here, we went to quite a few places that we had marked out before hand. We went (actually everyone) went on the Universal Studio Tour which was quite insightful as they showed what goes on behind-the-scenes. Also, the Water World show was also very nice with real actors from some of the well-known movies and TV serials. Shrek in 4D and Terminator 2 in 3D are also very nice too. I wonder how they make such 3D effects that looked so real.

The roller coasters rides we took in The Mummy and The Jurassic Park are quite exciting though not really scary, as we could not see anything much while we were moving fast. It was the same thing as just listen to the sound in a ghost movie.

The last place our group visited was the House of Horrors. There was nothing so special here, though the only thing that surprised me was when a stranger lady that I mistook for my group member jumped into me as she was frightened by the displays.


Regards,

An
Ngee Ann Poly