Head to Tea Station, by the Taiwanese franchise Ten Ren, for a boba milk tea ($2.75 for take-away, $3.75 if you have a seat in the busy tearoom). Tea Station's sweetened tapioca boba tends to be chewier and its tea -- served hot or cold -- distinctly more fragrant than many of its competitors'. You can also pick up bags or loose-leaf tea. The store carries a range easily found at Asian markets, or even Costco, but it also stocks rarer black and green teas from Taiwan, for a price: Some are more than $100 a pound.

As Long as You're in San Gabriel, get a Chinese foot massage -- which, at no more than $15 an hour, has to be one of the best deals in L.A. At Zhi Zhu Ba Foot Massage, you also get a "free" shoulder rub included in the price. No, the spa won't win any decor awards, but the acupressure-based massage (or the televised Chinese soap opera) will transport you. English isn't spoken here, but there's a banner listing services near the front, from full-body massages to cupping (the detox treatment involving heated cups placed on the skin and popularized in the West by Gwyneth Paltrow -- who, we're guessing, doesn't get it done here).

For a refuge from the noise, head west to San Gabriel Nursery, one of the largest and oldest independent nurseries in the Southland. Gardeners and landscapers come from as far as the East Coast, but you're welcome to just stroll through the fruit trees (mangoes, longan, cherimoya), the rose section or the excellent bonsai collection (some of the larger trees were recently donated to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens). For $59.98, you could buy yourself the fragrant evergreen Michelia champaca alba; the nursery was one of the first in the area to cultivate this prized specimen.