Adam Chen in Las Vegas and Los Angeles
From sun-soaked streets to the glamorous casino strip, it was a tale of two
cities.
MediaCorp actor Adam Chen, 36, experienced an "enlightening" trip when he
flew to Las Vegas and Los Angeles with his friends over 12 days last December.
Chen, who's currently filming a TV drama across the Causeway, told The New
Paper: "I went to the US to get ideas for a couple of business concepts that
I'd been considering.
"Los Angeles has a very strong cafe culture, which is why I chose to go down
many of LA's small streets to look for interesting cafes."
He added: "The cafes take their business very seriously, and I was thinking
that we could profitably learn a lot from them."
Chen was amazed that the baristas even took time to roast coffee beans
properly.
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Strong cafe culture in Los Angeles where there were many small cafes.
Besides checking out the cafe scene, Chen also discovered the plethora of
shopping opportunities available throughout the City of Angels. One place he
really liked was Santee Alley in Downtown LA, which resembles the Bugis Street
market area in Singapore, only that it's three or four times larger.
Chen also shopped at the Citadel Malls outlet mall where prices where 50 per
cent cheaper than in Singapore. He said it's like shopping in Johor Baru and
you can get a H&M T-shirt for as low as US$3 (S$3.80).
The actor also went snowboarding at Bear Mountain, one of California's premier
ski resorts.
While the actor had an enjoyable snowboarding experience, he was definitely
more comfortable soaking in the sunshine around the Venice Beach area, where he
was astounded by the proliferation of street buskers.
Painters and buskers along Venice Beach.
A trip to the US West Coast would not be complete without a detour to Sin City.