#BigBangingInLA – October 3-4

Christine was complaining that I haven’t blogged in a while so here’s a blog about my short trip to LA for the Big Bang concert! I thought I did a good job at posting IG pics but I guess a blog is nice too as opposed to just pictures.

Mika and I bought tickets for the Big Bang concert at Staples Center a couple months ago so it was a highly anticipated trip for me. I didn’t get to see Big Bang the last time they came to the US because I was a broke college student but I upgraded to a broke grad school student so I made sure I didn’t miss out this time!

We had an 830am flight to LAX from SFO and began our roughly 36 hour trip in LA at 10! We rented a car from FireFly (super cheap but the car was meh) and headed to Westin by LAX (not so cheap). Mika and I had an agreement that if she drives us to the hotel from the rental place, I’ll drive the rest of the trip. Turns out the hotel was literally across the street -______-. I got tricked! SO TRICKED.

After we settled in, we started Yelping places to eat. We decided we should keep it light since we planned on eating dinner around 4pm (to avoid crowds). Mika suggested Sweetfin Poke in Santa Monica because she saw one of her friends post a picture on IG and it looked delicious. I think that’s how we decided on most of our meals during this trip. Sweetfin Poke is a small little restaurant pretty close to the beach. You can choose from one of their Signature Bowls or BYOB (build your own bowl). You get to choose your base (kelp noodles, bamboo rice, or citrus kale salad) and 5 add-ons. I got the Spicy Yuzu Salmon with kelp noodles, crispy garlic, crispy onions, edamame, seaweed salad, and mangos. It was heavenly. So. Delicious. I can’t wait to go back!

They also sell different flavored popcorn at the counter. The flavor of the day was Matcha! White chocolate, matcha, black sesame & coconut. Mika loves matcha anything so of course we had to get a pack. We didn’t eat it until after the concert but it was so good that we regretted not grabbing 2 bags.

After lunch, we drove a couple blocks down to Urth Cafe. I got the Red Thai Tea Latte and Mika got the Macha Latte. The thai tea latte was the BEST latte I have ever had. It was the right amount of sweet and I couldn’t get over how delicious it was. I probably didn’t stop raving about it to Mika until I finished it.

We walked down to the beach and watched people play beach volleyball while we sipped on our latte.

Afterwards we decided to go check out the Broad (because Mika saw a friend post something on IG). It was really crowded around there so we thought there was a special event. We asked the security guard and he told us that most people RSVP for tickets months in advance because it is free. There was a line for “stand bys” so we technically could’ve gotten in without having a ticket in hand but the wait was long. We decided to head over to MOCA instead (The Museum of Contemporary Art).

They were hosting a book singing right outside MOCA! The featured book was “Outside the Lines, Too” which is a coloring book for adults and kids. They blew up some pictures, printed it on a white board, and gave us markers.

 

After hanging out for a little while, we headed into the Museum. Here are some of my favorites!

After spending about an hour or two in that area we decided it was time to go eat dinner. We went to Kang HoDong Baekjeong in ktown (not AYCE). My friend Janice raved about it so we HAD to go check it out. The line wasn’t so bad at 430 so we got seated pretty quickly. We got the small pork combo and were absolutely stuffed afterwards. A small combo could’ve easily fed 3-4 smaller people. This was probably the BEST kbbq place I’ve ever been to. It’s a little on the pricier side but it was worth every penny.

We headed over to Staples center around 6pm and the line for GA admission was RIDICULOUS. It was soooo long. SOOOOO long. We were like meh eff this lets just hang out which was a mistake because we ended up having to stand in line for over an hour to get in anyway. :[

MinhAn was already inside and she ran around to help me find a light stick <3. We got to our seats and bam. AMAZING VIEW.

The concert was so good. Words cannot explain how much I enjoyed the concert. I had a great time screaming, jumping, singing, dancing, and laughing!

After the concert we headed back towards our hotel and grabbed some Taco Bell. We were exhausted so we called it a night. For lunch on Sunday we decided on Boiling Point! YUM! I don’t know what it is but I really like Boiling Point but it’s so not worth the hour wait.

After lunch, we headed to Manhattan Beach and on the way down there was a Cinnabon truck giving out free cinnamon buns to celebrate Cinnabon’s 30th birthday! We were stuffed from lunch but it was free! No Asian will say no to that!

We took a stroll on the beach. I can’t remember the last time I actually walked on the sand and got in the water. It wasn’t as cold as I anticipated so it was nice! We stayed there for a little shy of 2 hours.

I was thirsty and super hot so we headed over to Lemonade for some lemonade! We got the blood orange lemonade because it was highly recommended on Yelp. I thought it was going to cost us like 4-5 dollars for a lemonade but it was less than 3 bucks! I shake my head at myself for having SF standards.

We checked out the Spirit Halloween store while we waited for the restaurant we wanted to get dinner at to open. We found some emoji sunglasses haha how fitting.

We grabbed dinner at Gaja Okonomiyaki because Yelp said they serve monjyayaki. Monjyayaki is similar to okonomiyaki but a little more runny and the texture is kind of like melted cheese. You also eat it off the grill with a small spatula. I had it for the first time last year when we went to Japan and have been craving for it ever since. Our waitress asked us if we wanted her to cook it for us but we told her we’d try it ourselves. A couple minutes passed and we were still staring at the instructions 😛 our waitress ended up cooking it for us.

Fresh fruit beer on draft! Grapefruit & Strawberry. YUM!

We finished dinner around 630 and returned our car around 7pm because we had a 830pm flight to catch. As we were waiting for the shuttle to the airport, we get this text.

Absolutely the worst text to get after a tiring trip. On top of that our flight was delayed by 2 hours. 2 HOURS! We grabbed some beers and pizza as we (not so patiently) waited for our flight. It was 36 hours well spent and a much needed vacation for us 🙂 Until next time, LA!