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* Tuesday, November 27, 2007 *
30th July 2007 - Los Angeles Day 3
In case u wanna have a glimpse at the up and coming one at Sentosa, here it is! of coz, I will expect the one in Singapore to not be as wow-wowwy as the one in LA. plus the spore's one would prob not have the all-famous, one and only studio tour (more on that later!), which is possibly the best thing at Universal Studios.
otherwise, according to my very reliable sources, the spore's one will be an exact replica of the one in LA.
enuff crap! here goes!
from our hostel, it was abt 2 or 3 train stops from the universal studios one. which qt surprised me, coz i will think a tourist attraction as huge as that will be at some unaccessible corner of LA haha...
fooling ard at the train station
i do suspect there are security cameras around the station, and they would be sniggering at those 3 guys. haha...
anyway, the train station reminds me of the train station at taipei.
upon reaching universal studios, there's this stretch of shops outside that looked totally funky! the shops in USA are all designed this way.
when i said designed this way, i meant they have those humongous gigantic structures in front of the shops tat tell u wat kinda stuff they sell inside, w/o even really looking at the signboards.
see wat i mean!
tho i still cant figure out why "Ben & Jerry's" used a car instead of like, a humongous tub of ice-cream.
and ta-da! lo and behold! the Universal Studios!!
tickets cost abt USD54, for the interested ones. totally worth it, i must say!
the red carpet leading up to the entrance was a nice gimmick. made us feel like celebrities for those sheer minutes haha....
the picture on the right shows a mimic of a production set.
.
.
.
so first stop will be "House of Horrors"! one of the best inside, we've heard long before this day. oh oh! and chang, u're rite! when i saw these photos, i think i really did mix up the disneyland one with this one... haha...
so this is the "house of horrors" where we had to walk thru an alley full of scary pictures, scary structures, and scary shortclips played on the screen...
i must say, some of the structures are really good.
anyway, it's like fright nite, except of higher standard.
the only spoiler is, there's this huge grp of ppl walking tgt, so the noise kinda take away alittle of the atmosphere... plus if u're not walking in front, u can totally see wat happens to the ppl in front, and avoid being frightened the same way haha...
BUT
we were in front. heehee...
with gungho ching leading the way, and bearing most of the brunt of being scared haha...
.
.
.
next up, is "Back to the Future"!
which is basically juz a stimulator, not bad not bad. the picture on the right shows the car we were sitting on.
i swear, if the ride had gone on for another 15mins, i would have puked rite across les's lap. the car was shaking like nobody's business!
.
.
.
3rd stop! STUDIO TOUR!!!
i nvr knew it was so famous and so good, till lester keep getting us hyped up and couldnt stop repeating "we gotta go for this, we gotta go for this".
as its name suggested, i initially tot they were juz goin to put us on a tram and bring us around the park showing us which rides were where etc, albeit a supa boring ride.
boy, was i wrong! the studio tour was like how good! THIS. is the ride that made the ticket price worth it, unanimous agreement.
wonderful scenery of LA on our way to the studio tour
so studio tour is basically a tour on this long tram into the backstage scenes and sets of Universal Studios. some of the movies/dramas being filmed here included "War of the Worlds", "Jurassic Park", "Jaws", "Return of the Mummy", " Tokyo Drift", "Desperate Housewives" etc etc...
so! we get to see not only the sets, but also the props! and better still, all the effects they use in the movies!!!!
the tram we were all on
on the way into the backstage area, we actually passed by banners of blockbuster movies being filmed by Universal Studios in each year.
1985! the year i was born!
one of the filming stages...
all of them looked the same actually, only with different numbers.
we went on to look at the sets they used for backgrounds.
u noe how certain movies are filmed in like 80s Chicago? or 90s New York? or 60s Texas?
or they do is come up with the following backgrounds, and they can change the sets to look like it's from different timezones by changing little little details such as the decor of the buildings.
so cool rite! and they only built one side of the buildings, since the audience wouldnt be able to see the other side anyway.
den we saw the very first special effects!
tat's a building, with spotlight on it... u noe, like in some shows, when the police come up to a building and shine spotlight all over the building, all the while ranting into the loudspeaker "you're surrounded!" ? yepz! this is it.
top right picture, there's an apartment on fire.
bottom pictures, fire worsens, building starts to collapse.
no, they are not static display. we actually got to see the process!!!!! it is damn cool! and it's real fire somemore, we could feel the heat.
and an uninvited guest appears!
King Kong!
he was shaking our tram by the way. sooooo coooool rite!
my god, thinking abt it now excites me still.
aft all the pandemonium, we (all the while on the tram) headed towards this area where they store all the vehicles they use in different movies.
i think u can spot Jurassic Park, Back to the Future etc...
and signboards, and roadsigns too...
den we proceeded to the set for Tokyo Drift.
and that! is another wonderful performance. real fire. real heat. real effects. u could see the cars dashing towards u, and then ta-da! all tricks used in the movie are revealed haha...
the cars were dancing to some music by the way. damn cute.
and bow
next set, take a guess...
wat else, but jurassic park. those little green dinosaurs hidden in the bushes actually spat water at us when we passed by... how cool, if T-rex could appear and lift our tram hahaha...
the next set, i couldnt rem which movie it was from, neither did i watch the movie anyway... but it's basically a village-like place set in 80s texas (i think).
den, within mins, everything juz subside and it's as if nothing has happened. so, this is how they do it in the movies, fantastic. =)
we were den led into one of the indoors stage. since it's indoors, i expected something not tat hyped up, and more, u noe, boring. but this turned out to be my all-time fav fr the studio tour.
when we were inside, we saw the exact replica of the San Francisco Underground Train Station. not exact though, everything was in disarray, it was like something had happened here, or something is going to happen.
we saw electricity went haywire, we felt the tram being shook violently from side to side, we saw the benches and the walls crumbling, and we saw huge waves of water coming towards us.
it's an earthquake.
it is soooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
next set is this really beautiful fantasy-like background. not sure which movie it's from, sorry guys it has been 4 months already haha... trying my best here =)
nice rite!!! looked like a scene out of a fairytale.
next set! "War of the Worlds"!!!
me and les were both so excited when we saw this coz this was the movie we watched on our first date before we got tgt... dun even ask me, how come we chose such an unromantic show.
(i think he purposely chose it so tat i'll get scared and lean towards him, wahahhaaha)
tat's the damaged plane
for those who have watched the movie, the scenes during the movie were totally chaotic, and huge amounts of damages were done (by some alien creatures i think).
the bottom right picture showed a damaged plane, which the guide told us they bought at qt a high price.
next up, return of the mummy!
the set was more amazing den it looked here... we entered this dark tunnel, where everything was juz spinning around us in circles... of coz i couldnt take photos of tat.
at the end of studio tour
we came out from the tour totally happy. it is wat u'll call an eye-opener... i'll nvr look at the scenes in the movie the same way again. =)
anyway there were so much more to the studio tour, for example we went to sets of "Jaws", "Amity View", "Desperate Housewives" etc... lazy to put too many photos lar... hee...
.
.
.
we went on to take some of the rides around the park...
Jurassic Park ride
where we got into a boat and was taken around in a river, passing through tunnels, going into power stations, passing through forest, and ending up with a drop.
next ride...
Return of the Mummy :: as his shirt suggests, "Mr Cheater"! haha...
this is the best ride inside!!!! it's like a themepark ride (though not as scary as some of the rides at Kings Dominion). it's indoors, totally pitch-dark, and it goes forward THEN backwards, with a story plot for u to follow.
superb! =)
.
.
.
Fear Factor was next!
it's exactly like the reality tv show, but on a milder tone, since it's indoors and confined to such a small area, not many fearless things they can do... haha...
host of the show :: the 5 contestants they got from the audience
by the way, the 5 contestants were 4 guys and a girl. and the girl on the extreme left in white top is the winner of one of the season of Fear Factor.
couldnt really see her face, but doesnt she look pretty? haha...
1st round : hanging onto bars for the longest period of time
of coz the girl will drop first duh!!!! i protest against this! it's not a matter of fear factor, but a matter of strength factor.
2nd round : they had to grab their own flags from a tank of insects (i think) and hang it on this fast rotating pole tat correspond to their flag.
3rd round: down to only 2 guys, they had to each rotate their own electricity generator, all the while getting electric shocks from it. there's a meter at the back for each of them, and the one whose meter hits the bottom first loses.
tat's the winner!!!!
he is sooooo BIG SIZED.
damn cool, to witness something u ALWAYS see on TV, live. simple as the performance is, i'll nvr imagine that i could sit at home watching tv with my family and juz casually mention to my bro, oh i watched that live before... wahahha... cheap trills hee...
.
.
.
Shrek ride!
we went in and stood for like 10 mins in the holding area, while they gave a synopsis of wat happened...
top right picture, do u see the three little pigs being locked up in a cage each? sooooo cute!!!
and they toked!!!! haha...
anyway the ride is a 4D simulator. not 3D, but 4D!!!! meaning there's special effects like when the donkey spits at the screen, u'll actually feel sprays of water shot out at ur face. kids love this =)
and look who we met after we came out from the ride...
shrek and fiona :: and the shrek-wannabe haha...
.
.
.
on our way to nickelodeon...
Flintstones
me and ching :: tat's lester by the way (who else as stoopid as him! haha)
but i gotta admit, tat photo was damn freaking funny okay! there was this ang moh family waiting to take photos with the shark aft les, and they couldnt stop laughing when they saw him do tat...
nickelodeon
looked EXACTLY the same as the one at kings' dominion! ahhhh... the memories...
Spongebob! (dun u feel like squeezing him!) :: bikini bottoms!
.
.
.
a really nice place all in all... the only thing is, they dun have enuff souvenir shops!!!!!! and their souvenirs are not exactly fantastic! oh wells, better i guess... we were kinda poor by then haha...
conquered Universal Studios! Yays!
and the night view of the stretch of shops outside... really nice... =) i love the night views in USA, they always have these glittery lightings that make u feel like everyday's Xmas Day! hee...
and tat'll be our dinner. =)
it's really nice okayyyy! superbly superb!
.
.
.
u would think aft a long day in disneyland the previous day, and a long day in universal studios, we would be ready to go back to the hostel and lie flat on the bed till the next morning...
but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...
our playful streaks had to get the better of us, even though admittedly we were seriously DEAD TIRED.
so we went back hostel, changed, and came out.
to this club (think drinking and dancing) that's decorated like a salon...
i think i was too engrossed in dancing and drinking to take photos of the club (tho i'm sure it'll be disallowed anyway). i tot the internal decor was really unique. but anyways! there's no cover charge (unlike stingy singapore!) and the drinks are all freaking cheap!
after clubbing
i am so red. -_-'''
*next up, santa monica, venice beach!
Universal Studios!!!!
In case u wanna have a glimpse at the up and coming one at Sentosa, here it is! of coz, I will expect the one in Singapore to not be as wow-wowwy as the one in LA. plus the spore's one would prob not have the all-famous, one and only studio tour (more on that later!), which is possibly the best thing at Universal Studios.
otherwise, according to my very reliable sources, the spore's one will be an exact replica of the one in LA.
enuff crap! here goes!
from our hostel, it was abt 2 or 3 train stops from the universal studios one. which qt surprised me, coz i will think a tourist attraction as huge as that will be at some unaccessible corner of LA haha...
fooling ard at the train station
i do suspect there are security cameras around the station, and they would be sniggering at those 3 guys. haha...
anyway, the train station reminds me of the train station at taipei.
upon reaching universal studios, there's this stretch of shops outside that looked totally funky! the shops in USA are all designed this way.
when i said designed this way, i meant they have those humongous gigantic structures in front of the shops tat tell u wat kinda stuff they sell inside, w/o even really looking at the signboards.
see wat i mean!
tho i still cant figure out why "Ben & Jerry's" used a car instead of like, a humongous tub of ice-cream.
and ta-da! lo and behold! the Universal Studios!!
tickets cost abt USD54, for the interested ones. totally worth it, i must say!
the red carpet leading up to the entrance was a nice gimmick. made us feel like celebrities for those sheer minutes haha....
the picture on the right shows a mimic of a production set.
.
.
.
so first stop will be "House of Horrors"! one of the best inside, we've heard long before this day. oh oh! and chang, u're rite! when i saw these photos, i think i really did mix up the disneyland one with this one... haha...
so this is the "house of horrors" where we had to walk thru an alley full of scary pictures, scary structures, and scary shortclips played on the screen...
i must say, some of the structures are really good.
anyway, it's like fright nite, except of higher standard.
the only spoiler is, there's this huge grp of ppl walking tgt, so the noise kinda take away alittle of the atmosphere... plus if u're not walking in front, u can totally see wat happens to the ppl in front, and avoid being frightened the same way haha...
BUT
we were in front. heehee...
with gungho ching leading the way, and bearing most of the brunt of being scared haha...
.
.
.
next up, is "Back to the Future"!
which is basically juz a stimulator, not bad not bad. the picture on the right shows the car we were sitting on.
i swear, if the ride had gone on for another 15mins, i would have puked rite across les's lap. the car was shaking like nobody's business!
.
.
.
3rd stop! STUDIO TOUR!!!
i nvr knew it was so famous and so good, till lester keep getting us hyped up and couldnt stop repeating "we gotta go for this, we gotta go for this".
as its name suggested, i initially tot they were juz goin to put us on a tram and bring us around the park showing us which rides were where etc, albeit a supa boring ride.
boy, was i wrong! the studio tour was like how good! THIS. is the ride that made the ticket price worth it, unanimous agreement.
wonderful scenery of LA on our way to the studio tour
so studio tour is basically a tour on this long tram into the backstage scenes and sets of Universal Studios. some of the movies/dramas being filmed here included "War of the Worlds", "Jurassic Park", "Jaws", "Return of the Mummy", " Tokyo Drift", "Desperate Housewives" etc etc...
so! we get to see not only the sets, but also the props! and better still, all the effects they use in the movies!!!!
the tram we were all on
on the way into the backstage area, we actually passed by banners of blockbuster movies being filmed by Universal Studios in each year.
1985! the year i was born!
one of the filming stages...
all of them looked the same actually, only with different numbers.
we went on to look at the sets they used for backgrounds.
u noe how certain movies are filmed in like 80s Chicago? or 90s New York? or 60s Texas?
or they do is come up with the following backgrounds, and they can change the sets to look like it's from different timezones by changing little little details such as the decor of the buildings.
so cool rite! and they only built one side of the buildings, since the audience wouldnt be able to see the other side anyway.
den we saw the very first special effects!
tat's a building, with spotlight on it... u noe, like in some shows, when the police come up to a building and shine spotlight all over the building, all the while ranting into the loudspeaker "you're surrounded!" ? yepz! this is it.
top right picture, there's an apartment on fire.
bottom pictures, fire worsens, building starts to collapse.
no, they are not static display. we actually got to see the process!!!!! it is damn cool! and it's real fire somemore, we could feel the heat.
and an uninvited guest appears!
King Kong!
he was shaking our tram by the way. sooooo coooool rite!
my god, thinking abt it now excites me still.
aft all the pandemonium, we (all the while on the tram) headed towards this area where they store all the vehicles they use in different movies.
i think u can spot Jurassic Park, Back to the Future etc...
and signboards, and roadsigns too...
den we proceeded to the set for Tokyo Drift.
and that! is another wonderful performance. real fire. real heat. real effects. u could see the cars dashing towards u, and then ta-da! all tricks used in the movie are revealed haha...
the cars were dancing to some music by the way. damn cute.
and bow
next set, take a guess...
wat else, but jurassic park. those little green dinosaurs hidden in the bushes actually spat water at us when we passed by... how cool, if T-rex could appear and lift our tram hahaha...
the next set, i couldnt rem which movie it was from, neither did i watch the movie anyway... but it's basically a village-like place set in 80s texas (i think).
so the weather started out hot and sunny. everything is peaceful and calm.
suddenly u hear pitter-pattering of rain... and u start to hear thunder too.
then there was this low rumbling sound that seemed to come from nowhere, and u feel the tram shake alittle. u spot waves of water coming out from nowhere towards u...
den the sky gets so unbelievably dark, and the rumbling sounds now become roaring sounds, and shaking of the tram has become hurtling from side to side.
it's a flood!!!!!!
suddenly u hear pitter-pattering of rain... and u start to hear thunder too.
then there was this low rumbling sound that seemed to come from nowhere, and u feel the tram shake alittle. u spot waves of water coming out from nowhere towards u...
den the sky gets so unbelievably dark, and the rumbling sounds now become roaring sounds, and shaking of the tram has become hurtling from side to side.
it's a flood!!!!!!
den, within mins, everything juz subside and it's as if nothing has happened. so, this is how they do it in the movies, fantastic. =)
we were den led into one of the indoors stage. since it's indoors, i expected something not tat hyped up, and more, u noe, boring. but this turned out to be my all-time fav fr the studio tour.
when we were inside, we saw the exact replica of the San Francisco Underground Train Station. not exact though, everything was in disarray, it was like something had happened here, or something is going to happen.
we saw electricity went haywire, we felt the tram being shook violently from side to side, we saw the benches and the walls crumbling, and we saw huge waves of water coming towards us.
it's an earthquake.
it is soooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
next set is this really beautiful fantasy-like background. not sure which movie it's from, sorry guys it has been 4 months already haha... trying my best here =)
nice rite!!! looked like a scene out of a fairytale.
next set! "War of the Worlds"!!!
me and les were both so excited when we saw this coz this was the movie we watched on our first date before we got tgt... dun even ask me, how come we chose such an unromantic show.
(i think he purposely chose it so tat i'll get scared and lean towards him, wahahhaaha)
tat's the damaged plane
for those who have watched the movie, the scenes during the movie were totally chaotic, and huge amounts of damages were done (by some alien creatures i think).
the bottom right picture showed a damaged plane, which the guide told us they bought at qt a high price.
next up, return of the mummy!
the set was more amazing den it looked here... we entered this dark tunnel, where everything was juz spinning around us in circles... of coz i couldnt take photos of tat.
at the end of studio tour
we came out from the tour totally happy. it is wat u'll call an eye-opener... i'll nvr look at the scenes in the movie the same way again. =)
anyway there were so much more to the studio tour, for example we went to sets of "Jaws", "Amity View", "Desperate Housewives" etc... lazy to put too many photos lar... hee...
.
.
.
we went on to take some of the rides around the park...
Jurassic Park ride
where we got into a boat and was taken around in a river, passing through tunnels, going into power stations, passing through forest, and ending up with a drop.
next ride...
Return of the Mummy :: as his shirt suggests, "Mr Cheater"! haha...
this is the best ride inside!!!! it's like a themepark ride (though not as scary as some of the rides at Kings Dominion). it's indoors, totally pitch-dark, and it goes forward THEN backwards, with a story plot for u to follow.
superb! =)
.
.
.
Fear Factor was next!
it's exactly like the reality tv show, but on a milder tone, since it's indoors and confined to such a small area, not many fearless things they can do... haha...
host of the show :: the 5 contestants they got from the audience
by the way, the 5 contestants were 4 guys and a girl. and the girl on the extreme left in white top is the winner of one of the season of Fear Factor.
couldnt really see her face, but doesnt she look pretty? haha...
1st round : hanging onto bars for the longest period of time
of coz the girl will drop first duh!!!! i protest against this! it's not a matter of fear factor, but a matter of strength factor.
2nd round : they had to grab their own flags from a tank of insects (i think) and hang it on this fast rotating pole tat correspond to their flag.
3rd round: down to only 2 guys, they had to each rotate their own electricity generator, all the while getting electric shocks from it. there's a meter at the back for each of them, and the one whose meter hits the bottom first loses.
tat's the winner!!!!
he is sooooo BIG SIZED.
damn cool, to witness something u ALWAYS see on TV, live. simple as the performance is, i'll nvr imagine that i could sit at home watching tv with my family and juz casually mention to my bro, oh i watched that live before... wahahha... cheap trills hee...
.
.
.
Shrek ride!
we went in and stood for like 10 mins in the holding area, while they gave a synopsis of wat happened...
top right picture, do u see the three little pigs being locked up in a cage each? sooooo cute!!!
and they toked!!!! haha...
anyway the ride is a 4D simulator. not 3D, but 4D!!!! meaning there's special effects like when the donkey spits at the screen, u'll actually feel sprays of water shot out at ur face. kids love this =)
and look who we met after we came out from the ride...
shrek and fiona :: and the shrek-wannabe haha...
.
.
.
on our way to nickelodeon...
Flintstones
me and ching :: tat's lester by the way (who else as stoopid as him! haha)
but i gotta admit, tat photo was damn freaking funny okay! there was this ang moh family waiting to take photos with the shark aft les, and they couldnt stop laughing when they saw him do tat...
nickelodeon
looked EXACTLY the same as the one at kings' dominion! ahhhh... the memories...
Spongebob! (dun u feel like squeezing him!) :: bikini bottoms!
.
.
.
a really nice place all in all... the only thing is, they dun have enuff souvenir shops!!!!!! and their souvenirs are not exactly fantastic! oh wells, better i guess... we were kinda poor by then haha...
conquered Universal Studios! Yays!
and the night view of the stretch of shops outside... really nice... =) i love the night views in USA, they always have these glittery lightings that make u feel like everyday's Xmas Day! hee...
and tat'll be our dinner. =)
it's really nice okayyyy! superbly superb!
.
.
.
u would think aft a long day in disneyland the previous day, and a long day in universal studios, we would be ready to go back to the hostel and lie flat on the bed till the next morning...
but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...
our playful streaks had to get the better of us, even though admittedly we were seriously DEAD TIRED.
so we went back hostel, changed, and came out.
to this club (think drinking and dancing) that's decorated like a salon...
i think i was too engrossed in dancing and drinking to take photos of the club (tho i'm sure it'll be disallowed anyway). i tot the internal decor was really unique. but anyways! there's no cover charge (unlike stingy singapore!) and the drinks are all freaking cheap!
after clubbing
i am so red. -_-'''
*next up, santa monica, venice beach!
at 10:14 PM* * * * * * * * *