This morning I woke up in the hotel feeling pretty good. I was definitely on the mend, and with Vegas only a day away I really needed to shape up. Mat and I had decided to splash out and order room service, so I lazed around the room in my pyjamas until it arrived. I opened the door to a massive trolley and the happiest Asian man I’ve ever met. I was still relatively new to the whole tipping thing, so I grabbed some change but he refused to take it. He wished me well, then left, leaving in his wake he had left us an amazing hotel breakfast. On the mend from the flu, and with a full and satisfied belly, I was ready to tackle the day.

After showering and dressing we met everyone downstairs for our first full day in LA. We had decided to go straight to Hollywood and get on a jump on/jump off bus so that we could cover the basics of the city, and yet have the freedom to jump off where we saw fit. After buying our tickets and boarding the bus (it was a double decker but with an open roof – yes, THAT kind of bus), like cool kids we headed straight upstairs, and for the back seat. Back seat rebels!!

It was a beautiful day albeit a bit hot, quite a change from the cooler temperatures of San Francisco. I made a mental note to buy some sunscreen as soon as I got a chance since I burn relatively easy, and was grateful that I’d at least remembered to wear a hat. We had a few minutes left until we were due to depart, so I got in a bit of people watching time looking down on the street below. Along the Hollywood Walk of Fame there were a lot of street performers dressed as characters from movies, all posing for photos with passerbys. I saw batman, superman, several characters from Pirates of the Carribean (and made a mental note to tell Jo – she’s obsessed with pirates), and Mat’s particular favourite, superwoman. He thought she had a great body, but once he saw her face he quickly changed his mind. He compared her to a street walker working on a corner to support their crack habit. Harsh, but yet totally valid. Her teeth were incredibly rotten and hideous.

Turning my attention back to the bus, I found the state of the bus was quite dismal. There were a few chairs with rips in them, and once the bus took off we discovered the speakers were also broken. Instead of hearing a narrator explain various bits and pieces of the city as we passed, a staff member came upstairs and yelled to us. He did his best though, so props to him for trying to turn the situation around.

I found everything fascinating, from street signs to guitar stores, and tried to look in every direction so I didn’t miss anything.  In comparison, Pauline wasn’t fussed by it at all and instead chose to read a book she’d brought along. We drove past the Chateau Marmont Hotel and The Viper Room, where River Phoenix famously died, past Santa Monica Boulevard and eventually down Rodeo Drive. It was so bizarre to see these places in real life given I’d only ever read about it or seen footage on TV. I tried to video tape as much as I could, but the combination of riding on a bus and trying to keep a video camera steady just wasn’t working out for me. I decided I didn’t want to give anyone motion sickness, and culled a lot of it.

When we arrived in Beverley Hills it was immediately obvious that we’d reached the “better” part of town. Perfectly landscaped lawns lining the streets and brand name stores on Rodeo Drive were both pretty good hints that we were in an area of prestige. I tried to imagine how chaotic it would be to see a celebrity being hounded by the paparazzi, and was immediately grateful that I have the chance to go and visit places anonymously. I expect celebrities miss out on quite a bit when they travel because they don’t have a chance to enjoy their privacy on the streets, let alone just trying to live peacefully at home.

Amy, Pauline, Mat and I jumped off the bus at the Tar Pits (the others chose to continue to a different spot) and went for a look around there. Plain and simple, it stunk. It was oozing, and was cool to look at…for a total of 2mins. We went inside and looked at the store, chose not to go on any of their tours,  and left. I’d managed to find some sunscreen though, and set about applying it to anything revealed to the sun. When the hop on/hop off bus eventually arrived, we made our way to the next spot, the Farmers Market.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any footage of The Farmers Market except for a tram that ran between there and The Grove across the street. The market was fantastic though! Food stalls lined the aisles, and it reminded me a lot of Adelaide’s Central Markets. The only difference I could tell was that the Central Markets sold a lot more fresh produce, whereas the Farmers Market was really only concerned with offering entire meals made on the spot. It was so hard to choose something to eat for lunch, and eventually decided on a crepe. It was pretty darn good!

After we finished eating we headed over to the The Grove, where Amy and Pauline went their way and Mat and I went ours. The Grove was much like it’s own little city; pedestrian traffic walked the streets lined with prestigious brand-name stores (I began to feel like that’s all we could find in LA). I saw an Abercrombie & Finch store and immediately headed inside. I’d read about the brand when Improv Everywhere had bombarded the New York branch with 111 shirtless men, a take on the fact there’s a shirtless male model greeting shoppers at the door, and posters and statues of shirtless men littering the store. To my dismay there was no shirtless model when we arrived, but I went in anyway. It was a totally different atmosphere in the store to what I was used to. The lights were low, the music was loud, and there was levels upon levels of shirts. Mat didn’t like anything though and the store really wasn’t his type of thing, so we left quickly without buying anything.

Next stop was the Apple store. We walked in, walked upstairs, walked downstairs, and left. Mat’s hate for random wandering combined with his intense dislike of shopping was rearing its ugly head. His patience wearing thin, we made our way quickly to the end of the street, where we found a nice looking water fountain (I just wanted to dive in I was that hot). I quickly videotaped the bridge (to prove we had been there), and wondered what the snobby crowd surrounding us would have thought had I ran and jumped in the water. I daresay they wouldn’t have been impressed.

Thinking back on this place, I’m sure many of my friends would have been in heaven. Jimmy Choo, Banana Republic, etc etc etc. It was shopper’s heaven, but definitely not Mat’s scene. If we’d had more money, and Mat found some amazing ability to enjoy looking in the stores, I’m sure it could have been a bit more enjoyable.

Finished looking around, we started walking back to the entrance of the Grove to meet the others. Fiona told us about a gigantic doll store, and out of curiosity I went inside to take a look around. I was speechless. The doll store was massive! Not only was there an extensive range of clothing to buy for your doll, but you also had the choice of buying the exact same outfit for your child, just so they could match their dolls. Oh my god! I’ve never been a doll person, so this totally overwhelmed me. The store also had its own concierge just in case you broke a nail thinking about having to lift your own handbag. Slight exaggeration, but you get my point.

While we were in the store I saw the hop on/hop off bus arrive, so I quickly grabbed Mum (who had come inside with me) and we ran outside to get on the bus with all the others. We went past more famous streets, and Paramount Studios, before we got a glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign. For a total of 2 seconds. Through thick clouds of smog. Can you hear my level of disappointment? It was so far away, and such a fast glimpse that really it was like WOO it’s gone. It was so quick that Mat didn’t actually see it at all, and it was only when he saw the footage on the video camera that he realised we actually HAD passed it.

We arrived back to the starting point at the Hollywood Walk of Fame and decided we would all split up for the afternoon. A few members of the group decided to jump on another bus to look around, Mat and I decided we would wander the street. Stupidly, we got suckered into buying tickets to the Guiness World Records museum, and the wax museum next door. We would be terrible in places like Bali or Phuket, where the street vendors hassle you to buy their products. I’m sure we would end up buying one of everything on the street.

Thankfully the museums were air conditioned, but everything else we found to be pretty damn boring. I didn’t include any footage in our video summary of the day, purely because I didn’t want viewers to fall asleep. We zoomed through both places, then decided we would find somewhere to eat and relax to pass the time. We wouldn’t have enough time to get on a bus to tour LA again, and looking back on this day we really did waste it. It’s probably the reason why we weren’t too impressed with LA – we just didn’t experience it! That has to be one of my major regrets for the holiday.

Once we met back up with everyone we made our way back to the hotel. We decided we would take two cars for a drive up to the Griffith Observatory (checking out the city lights) before going down for dinner at the famous Pink’s Hot Dogs. Mum and Pauline opted to spend the night back at the hotel, everyone else jumped in the car. While we were driving to the Observatory, we apparently experienced our second earthquake in America. Once again, I missed it. We were in the car, and I didn’t feel anything different. We like to blame the earthquake on the fact that Amy managed to drive their car too close to a tunnel wall, breaking the side mirror in the process. Damn earthquakes!

We only found out about the earthquake when Aunty Sue got a text message while we were waiting outside at Pink’s Hot Dogs. Joanie had messaged, concerned if we were OK. We were more than OK – we hadn’t even realised. Later on, when we met up with Mum & Pauline again it turned out that Pauline had been lying on the couch reading, and felt the earthquake. More hilariously, Mum was in the shower when it occurred, and when the walls started shaking she thought that maybe that one glass of wine went straight to her head! I was so disappointed that I didn’t feel anything – I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like.

But back to Pink’s Hot Dog’s. It has a long history, starting as a small hot dog stand in 1939, retaining its original position 70 years later. It’s also been visited by a lot of celebrities, and is touted as something you must try when in LA. So we rocked up, waited in line for about 20mins, then finally ordered. I found it quite difficult to figure out what to order, given that I’m not a big fan of chilli and these were chilli dogs, it made my options limited. I finally settled on something, we got our orders then made our way back to the hotel. Mat was a little bit disappointed, as he thought we’d be spending a night out on the town, but it was not to be. Once back in our room, we cut our hot dogs in half so we could try a bit of each. Unfortunately, we weren’t all that impressed. It appeared that America’s love for all things greasy really wasn’t sitting well with us. Oh well, at least we’d been there and tried it.

The following day was the one that we’d been waiting for since planning our trip to the US. We would be arriving in vegas.

For Amy’s version of events you can see her blog post here.