What a beautiful names, don’t you think? If you’re from California especially in Los Angeles area, then you should know about those three cities. My blog today is simply going to talk about my trip during memorial day weekend.

Do you believe that spontaneous plan usually worked than the one you’ve been planning for very long time? I do sometimes.

It started by the email from Manado Post that said they’re gonna continue pay me as their correspondence. It should be a great news but to me it made me kind of feel guilty because sometimes I was too lazy to contribute but I knew that moment I better figure it out what kind of story that I should write very soon.

Well, why not go to West Covina and writing about the Indonesian food court? We’ve been planning to go there at least since last year, but something always comes up. Just in few second, Adam went to price line and start to bid the cheapest hotel we could find around there through Priceline.

We found that cost around $ 49 (after tax), it’s a two star hotel called Homestead Studio Suite Hotel at Monrovia.
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Adam then called the hotel and asked what time is check out time. A woman answered and said, “it’s 12 pm.”

The next day, after having delicious breakfast at Denny’s, we then were on our way. We arrived at the hotel probably around 12 pm. There was a woman in a lobby and we told her that we want to check in, but the woman said that it won’t be until 3 pm. Of course we’re not happy about this and we told her that the other woman last night told us it was 12 pm. She said that the other woman is probably just a “night laundry” person who didn’t know what she was talking about. So, now we would have to wait for hours!

I asked where the bathroom is and she said it’s located at the guest waiting room. I went there and was pretty shocked with how DIRTY it was. There were pieces cereal all over the dressing table, corn on the trash, seemed like someone tried to eat their breakfast in the toilet.

The TV screen in the guest room also looked so awful. Adam assumed that someone must put a magnet nearby that makes the people on the screen looked green just like aliens.

To our surprise, the woman called us and said there will be a room ready at 1 pm. When we finally went there, I was preparing for the worst but the room is actually nice although when we went inside I can still smell the cleaning product meaning they must had just done cleaning second ago.

The room has their own TV with cable, alarm clock radio, one table, one lazy chair (or whatever it calls), phone, closet, iron and it even had it’s own kitchen with a stove, microwave, fridge, coffee machine and some eating tools. But they don’t have pan, so how on earth you’ll use stove without it.

We learn that the room actually cost more than $ 110 and thanks to Priceline we can get it for SO much cheaper.

Then we went to West Covina so I could see the place that was gonna be in my story and of course so I could eat some Indonesian food.

There are four Indonesian restaurant there; Satay Fong, Simpang Asia, Raso Minong and Janti’s Noodle. I ordered some Nasi Kuning at Satay Fong while Adam ordered some Roti Bakar from Simpang Asia.

I noticed that most people there are talking Indonesian. Well, some talking in English but with a very thick Indonesian accent.

It was delicious as I expected. After that we took a look around Asian grocery store and by some snacks for later. Nothing really special there though it looked just like Ranch 99 store.

At the evening we went to Thai Classic for dinner. We order fried rice with pork satay. It was also delicious.

We were so impressed with the amazing view surrounded Arcadia and turned out that our hotel room isn’t that bad at all, so we decided to stay one more night.

Unfortunately, Priceline couldn’t get us the same room at the same hotel. The next morning, Adam tried again and we got another hotel called Extended Stay, that less than a mile from our previous hotel.

It’s been a long time I also have plan to write story about Indonesian church in California and turned out there was one at Monrovia called Gereja Kristen Indonesia.

We went there and I talked with their pastor. The people are pretty nice and even asked us to stay for lunch. I learned that they always have feast after service. I ate some yellow rice (yes, two days in the row). I exchange emails with the pastor and he said he’ll emailed me more information about the church. I was happy to know that now I have at least two stories to write for Manado Post.

We then went to a mall nearby to kill the time until it’s time to checking in at our new hotel.

When we arrived at the lobby, we noticed right away that this hotel is MUCH nicer than the other one. Even the employer seemed more professional.

Our room were definitely better. It was basically has everything the others had but they have TWO working desk, and two chair and their kitchen tools was more complete. They have frying pan and regular one.

For dinner we went to Chinese restaurant called Hop Li. I prefer to eat Thai food but it was so late and most of the restaurant already close, so Hop Li seemed my only hope.

I ordered some fried rice and drink some tea. The restaurant was nice and big, but the employer seemed always in a hurry (or was it because it’s around 12.30 am and they wanted to close right away and went home?). That’s why I decided not to ask some sugar for my tea, thankfully I got a chance to ask for spicy sauce, though.

While I was still eating, I notice one of the employer already prepared some container for my left over. I even surer that they DID just so cannot wait for me to stop eating.

Since my order seemed impossible to eat in just one visit, I decided to bring the rest home. On the moment we went outside, they closed the door right away. We were the last guests, by the way.

The next day is our time to went back to San Diego. I didn’t eat breakfast outside this time because I still have some leftover from the other night and microwave at our room to heat it up. Adam however went to Taco Bell.

On our way to San Diego, we decided to stop at the “rest place” where people like to take a break from long driving. I think the one we went it’s around Oceanside.

I was amazed with their rest room. We think that they have the most cleanest public rest room ever. It was not fancy or anything but it was just SO clean! We read the sign that most people who are working there are having disabilities.

Then we finally back at our apartment but can’t wait to take another trip very soon again (*)