Los Angeles Double Decker Tour

We took a double decker bus to tour Los Angeles. The bus is a hop on hop off service and has four routes. We bought tickets for one day only and therefore the best we could do was to explore only two routes: the red route which tours Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and the purple route which tours downtown LA. Each of the tours is more than two hours, so we did not have time to get off at any point but remained on the top deck watching the scenery and listening to the narration with earphones. We started at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood by the Walk of Fame area. The red route went through Sunset Blvd to the exclusive area of Beverly Hills where the rich and famous live. Along the way we saw Chateau Marmont, the Beverly Hills shield, and the exclusive streets where Palm trees stand tall on either side. We saw the Spanish Renaissance City Hall building of Beverly Hills where the police of the city reside, and where the movie "Beverly Hills Cop" was made. At Beverly Center is the premier fashion shopping mall of Los Angeles where you find hundred plus stores like Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry making Beverly Center a unique shopping destination. Then we took the purple route which took us through Wilshire Blvd to LA Museum of Arts (LACMA) and the Tar Pits Park, where you can see oil in the form of tar still bubbling to the surface as a reminder of the oil fields under the city. We passed by Canter's Deli which is open 24 hours a day and is considered an LA classic. Along the way we saw pioneer studios like CBS and Paramount pictures still standing in their original places. We passed by MacArthur park and lake in Westlake area, then on to the Broad, LA city Hall and the new famous LAPD building often called the glass house. Next we passed by Koreatown, where all the signs are in Korean and English. They say there is a famous stationery store in Koreatown called Daiso of Japan, which I am planning on visiting one of these days. Then we passed by El Pueblo historic Monument, which reminds you that the city of Los Angeles was established by the Spanish in the eighteenth century. The famous Union Station is next to El Pueblo, and next is Chinatown which is maintained by the Chinese government itself as a tourist attraction. Nearby Chinatown is Little Tokyo whish has interesting free museum to see. We saw the tallest skyscraper in downtown LA which is the US Bank tower, and then we passed by the Staples Center situated at Figueroa St., which is a multi-purpose sports arena and whose picture you can see on the right. That concluded our one day trip. The bus then took the highway back to Hollywood and dropped us at the Dolby Theater where we started. This tour was just a means to know about the places of interest in LA so that one can visit them again later at his leisure. LA is a very vast city and it is impossible to visit everything in one day or even one week. It requires many weekends to cover all the other places. For example there is the yellow route that takes you to Santa Monica area and Venice beach, but that requires a separate day, so we will visit that area on our own at some later date.