Los Angeles - Day 2

Wednesday, Nov 23 (Local)

I woke up several times today before properly getting out of bed at 7:00am. I woke up at 2am, 4am, 5:30am and 6:30am. Obviously not the most comfortable of places but it wasn't too bad. I probably would have slept better if I brought a pillow along. I prefer thick pillows, but unfortunately the ones that we are all given at the hostel are paper thin.

I'm actually quite proud of getting up so early. I didn't even got to bed that late either. Looks like i'm getting into a work regime... but whilst on holiday. Hmmm... strange. Anyway, nobody else was up at around 7 so I went for a walk outside. It's quite nice in the early morning. Cool, not too bright and it's great to breathe the morning air.

Now's a good time to write about a couple of things that I didn't bring. First of all I didn't bring soap or a towel. Hmm.. fantastic. Showering is a little tough without these things. I've now since bought these items and have had a proper shower (including washing my hair, lol). Good to get back on track. I also didn't brig toothpaste, but that was due to the fact that I couldn't find any at home prior to leaving. So my advice for travellers is to not only remember your toothbrush, but to also remember to bring soap and a towel (or two).

So what happened today? Well oday was a day for sightseeing - duh! Today took me to a variety of places and I used both the Metro rail and the Metro bus systems. Public transport is quite decent in this city, Sydney should take note.

Today's journey started off at Hollywood Blvd. Maccas for a healthy breakfast. The menus are different here, quite different. Please note: I only saw the breakfast menu. I ordered an Egg McMuffin Value meal. It looked like a Bacon and Egg McMuffin from the picture on the sales board - but in actual fact it was somewhat different. It was an Egg McMuffin with a slice of ham. Bah! Next time (if there is a next time) i'll go for the Bacon and Egg Biscuit - sure doesn't look like a bikkie but oh well, try something new-ish.

First stop post Maccas was 7th Street/Metro Centre. It looked as though there would be several interesting (well... somewhat) things to see in Downtown LA. Hopped onto the Metro Red Line staight there. No hassles whatsoever. Leading on from the Metro system, maps. What is good about this city is that there are maps everywhere. Surrounding-area maps at each Metro train station and also area maps scattered about the Downtown LA area. Very convenient for the tourists.

Throughout the morning I went and saw the Pasco de Los Pobladores, Court of Flags, Los Angeles City Hall, U.S Courthouse, Little Tokyo and Chinatown. The Pasco de Los Pobladores is a small park/reserve athough there isn't a great deal of greenery around. However, there is a lovely fountain there - much more impressive than the one in Hyde Park. I'm sure they get better elsewhere.

The Court of Flags sucks. Haha. Well maybe i'm a bit too harsh. There was hardly any wind, so none of the flags were fully visible (nor partially visible for that matter). The flags are supposed to be historic American flags over the years. Perhaps it'll be better another day.

Little Tokyo was interesting. Quite smallish, yet interesting. What I found interesting about the place was that 65% of the shops were food shops (i.e. Sushi shops or Japanese restaurants). I'm not sure why the majority of shops are food shops, whatever floats their boat, really. One feature of Little Tokyo is a Challenger monument (the space shuttle that exploded mid-flight). A monument rests there because one of the Astronaughts was Japanese-American, Col. Ellison Onizuka.

Chinatown. A whole district of Downtown LA is Chinatown. No joke. This is one true Chinatown. There are market stalls everywhere, the streets need more cleaning work, and the toilets need some unclogging. Yep. Unlike Little Tokyo, Chinatown was full of shops and it was actually quite difficult to find a Chinese restaurant - although there seemed to be a fair amount of Viet and Thai food around. Eventually found a Chinese restaurant and ate there for lunch - US$4.15/dish. Not bad. Quite a nice place actually. The restaurant's name is Hop Woo's BBQ and Seafood Restaurant.

Life seems to throw up a whole bunch of unique scenarios. Whilst eating lunch a camera crew walzed into the store. Hop Woo (or whoever the owner is) was doing a tv-interview for the Thanskgiving season. Or that's what it appered to be. My guess came about as there were three entire tables laden with Tanksgiving turkeys. Nuts! It's a possiblity that my back will be on American TV.

After wandering around predominantly in foot it was time to head back and rest the feet. My feet were quite sore from all the walking so I think it's time to either bus it around more or buy some decent shoes.

Back into the town after a short rest. The Metro Rail system has three stations with the first part containing the word "Hollywood": Hollywood/Highland, Hollywood/Vine, and Hollywood/Western. I though that perhaps there would be something interesting at these other locations - not quite.

Hollywood/Vine was rubbish. Nothing to see and nothing to do. The area seemed completely dead. No people and not many cars. Had a quick look and took photos of Capitol Records and the Apollo 11 star on the Walk of Fame. Maybe if I saw a show at the nearby hall it would have been different - but I passed. Seeing shows in New York and London would probably be better. Next stop Hollywood/Western.

Hollywood/Western would have been just as bad if it wasn't for Little Thai. Not so many shops were open - yet the ones that were served food. Good stuff, considering it was dinner time. Went to this Thai restaurant called Real Asian Cuisine. Mad name, eh? Clean, moderately decorated... it seemed like a nice place to eat. I ordered a Pad Kee Mao, and it was spicy-as!

Once again dinner cost me approximately US$10, and once again I wasn't able to finish all of the food. American food serving sizes are massive. No wonder they have obesity problems over here.

Not much else to mention here. A big day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - so hopefully something will be open. Hopefully. (Note: It's acutally thanksgiving now, i'm just behind on the posts... stay tuned for Day 3 - more shenanigans in LA when the beauty pagent hits the town!).

Los Angeles Metro Train

Haiku, Little Tokyo, Downtown LA

Los Angeles - Day 1

Tuesday, Nov 22 (Local)

Touchdown was at 7:01 am (local Los Angeles time). The total length of the flight totalled 13 hours. That's a terribly long time in a plane - in Economy. My suggestion to anyone is that you pay for Business class for long trips. Why this recommendation? More space (leg room, body room... you name it), more reclining action (which could enable sleep), and more channels on the in flight entertainment. I missed out on watching Sin City. Damn!

I mentioned the interesting announcement made by the captain at the start of the journey. Well it seems as though procedures have changed with respect to taxiing (is that a word?). This may be news to some people but it was news to me. For aeroplanes to land and "dock" several steps need to occur. First of all tyhe plane needs to head down a particular stretch of track (the Alleyway in this case. Next, the plane has to stop completely and turn off its engines. Yep, that's right. The plane has to be dead (effectively). After that a vehicle comes over, latches onto the plane and tows it into the skydock. Fairly strage protocol - but understandable given the present security environment.

More security followed post-docking. After leaving the plane we had to walk down to Immigration. The first checkpoint was storage of personal information - by that I mean digital fingerprinting and a mug shot. Impressive stuff, but that's probably because we are technologically backwards in Australia.

Next - baggage collection. OMG - I had to wait an eternity. QF107 luggage (which was the luggage from my flight) passed through completely on Carousel A (Economy pickup). QF92 luggage also passed through carousel A. Nothing. After all of this plus a couple of more minutes my suitcase ended up in the Priority/First-Class section, which was Carousel B. Interesting. I guess the Americans have got the right idea - i'm a first-class passenger. Yeah! That, or i'm a suspected terrorist. I should think that the Americans double checked my luggage.

Post-baggage collection I had to hand in a declaration form and that was it. Out into Los Angeles proper. Outside of the security area I gave the hostel a call. The hostel is called Hollywood International. The person answering the call told me that I could catch the Metro (train) for $3 or a private bus for $16. Going for the train option I was told that the journey was going to take approximately 2 hours. I thought the operator was joking... turns out he wasn't.

Before catching the train I obviously had to bet to the train station. Helpful airport staff directed me to a LAX shuttle service. LAX shuttles are provided for free to the parking lots and also the the nearest metro station, Aviation/LAX. The LAX G-bus took me to Aviation/LAX station.

Catching the train in LA is quite different than that in Sydney. First of all - every train is an all-stop ttrain. Second of all there are no ticket gates, you just hop on and off at your leisure (obviously, fines are applied if caught with no ticket). There are no indicator boards telling you where the trains are going. Finally, trains go both ways on particular stretches of track!

The second last sentence may raise a few eyebrows... or not. Why do you need indicator boards when the trains are all-stop? It's a question that was answered after extensive detours on the Metro system. The answer: the destination of the train can be seen via a small electronic board on the side of each car of the train.

My metro destination was Hollywood/Highland. For those of you with a map of the metro system (metro.net) - you can follow my first ever journey on the LA metro. I hopped on at the LAX airport station and proceeded to the Green/Blue Interchange, Imperial/Wilmington Station. After moving onto the Blue line I proceeded to the 7th Street/Metro Centre Interchange Station. Now here is where things get interesting. Not noticing that there are two different Red lines I hopped onto any west bound red line train. It was the wrong one. As a result of this I disembarked at Wilshire/Normandie Station, and back I went to Wilshire/Vermont - to ensure that i caught the right train. Off I got at Wilshire/Vermont and caught a train off the platform with trains headed to North Hollywood - just what I wanted... so I thought.

I hopped onto the next train that arrived, and thought I was home free. Not the case. I found out that I took the wrong train when the driver announced "last stop - Wilshire/Western". OMG. Did it again. It gets worse.

The train stopped at Wilshire/Western and I got off. There was a set of track on each side of the station - so naturally I got off and started waiting on the other side of the station. It was here that I noticed that each train had destination indicators on each car of the train. Fantastic. I felt really stupid at this point in time. As I noticed this the indicator changed from WIL/WESTERN to UNION STATION. The direction I needed to get back on track. I didn't get on - as I assumed that the train would come around. Not a great idea. The doors closed and the train went backwards - back into the tunnel from which it came. OMG. Bloody trains. After the revelation of trains indicating their destinations, it was a relatively painful trip henceforth. I finally made it to Hollywood/Highland in one piece, after two hours. The Hollywood International Hostel dude was right afterall, and he even accounted for traveller stupidity.

I'll probably make some more comments about the hostel a little later on - but at the moment all i'll say is that there is no elevator and that there are lots and lots of stairs. Hauling 20+ kilograms of lugguage up a long flight of stairs is by no means fun.

I've crapped on about alot today so i'll be brief about the rest of the day. American food and drink portions are enrmous. Small servings definitely aren't small - unless of course you are obsese. Didn't really do much else other than see Harry Potter IV at the Grumman's Chinese Theatre. Reasonably good movie, and a nice location. Oh yea - also saw some street breakdancing as well. Should get some more over the coming days. That's enough today :D.

Los Angeles from the air

Touchdown in LA

Woke up at 8:00 am for the 12:40pm flight to Los Angeles. I was still packing some things in the morning - but everything was ready to go in a short amount of time. I can tell that i've forgotten some things, but i'm sure i'll figure that out the hard way.

I checked in on the Qantas E1-12 bank of check-in desks and was greeted by a friendly lady at the desk. I checked in one large suitcase (one packed inside another to be exact) and it weiged 27kg. Didn't realise the luggage bag was so heavy - I must be a tank... yea, that's it. Moving right along - I was given a boarding pass and was told to head directly for Gate 8.

The walk through to Gate 8 was daunting. I've managed one happy snap on the approach to customs, but that's it. I promptly packed waay my camera the moment I saw an Australian Federal Police sign warning me not to use camerasin the Customs area. The find would have been $1000 if caught. Oops.

Fast forward to the flight. After 3 security checkpoints (ignoring the one at the check-in) I finally made it to the plane, a Boeing 747-400. Quite a nice plane really - TVs for each seat, remote controls for each seat and I was near a window. Note: near, not next to.

Funnily enough one particular announcement from the captain interested me. It went: " I am required to read out a statement from the United States Department of Justice, it goes something like this; At all times during the flight, please do not congregate in any area of the plane - especially near the lavatories". Interesting indeed.

So off we went - departing from runway 2 (i think). The northern runway, anyway. The usual health and safety messages were given first, followed by a short video on preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT). I must admit that I yawned during this... and it was a killer yawn. Unfortunately it was a little too intense. I pulled a muscle. LOL. The muscle above my Adam's Apple. Oh well, such is life.

So where did I actually sit. Well I was assigned a seat near the window - and that is all I mentioned previously. To be specific I was assigned the seat 67B. Placing me at the back end of the plane, several rows behind where the wing joins the body of the plane. Not the worst of locations to be sure.

Travelling extended hours on a plane is not solitude by any stretch of the imagination. An extended plane trip wouldn't be an extended plane trip without meeting new people. Now obviously I am travelling with a friend - Carmen, but the person on the other side was someone that I haven't met before. On the aisle seat sat a UCLA undergraduate. Female, psychology student, 2nd year, and just completed an exchage at the University of Western Australia.

Now it may seem as though I talked alot on this trip, but that's not the case. I spent more time watching the in-flight entertainment. The shows/movies that I watched were: The Island, The Skit Show, Mythbusters, The Real Da Vinci Code, and Dukes of Hazzard. All Ican say is that Scarlett Johansson is hot, a dodge viper moves quicker than toy cars based on gravity alone, yawning is somewhat contagious, Dan Brown isn't telling a true story (although the bookbeing classed as Fiction should have been a hint), and no comment on Dukes.

I did try to sleep on the plane - but I didn't quite succeed. Qantas provided a blanket and a pillow - but this was no consolation. Sitting upright and trying to sleep doesn't quite work for me. Also, leaning to either side wasn't really an option. Well rested? Not quite. Sore neck, you be! Oh well - at least breakfast was good.

The journey begins...

I haven't been posting much recently because it's crunch time. So many things to do in such a short space of time. I've forgotten heaps and i'll probably find out that i've forgotten more when i'm no longer in the country. I leave tomorrow at Midday. As I write this entry there are still several things that have not yet been completed - some of which include packing, arranging accomodation in some places and figuring out what to do when I touch down. As you can see, this is a well planned holiday :).

Well - what do you expect anyway, i'm a guy. Haha. You should be worried if everything was immaculately planned, right? So anyway - what am I doing and where am I going? That's a good question. I'll be headed to America, England, and Western Europe - so there should be lots to write about whilst i'm away. Obviously, i'll endeavour to post on this blog as soon as i'm near an internet cafe/kiosk.

For those of you in the know how i'll post up where i'll be and when (Jeff and James, you can read this as opposed to senging me msn messages all of the time asking me where and when i'll be on location). However, some of the locations may change.

22/11 - Los Angeles (USA)
25/11 - New York City (USA)
26/11 - Philadelphia (USA)
27/11 - Washington DC (USA)
29/11 - New York City (USA)
03/12 - London (UK)
04/12 - Salisbury (UK)
05/12 - Liverpool (UK)
06/12 - Oxford (UK)
07/12 - London (UK)
08/12 - Amsterdam (Holland)
10/12 - Rhine Valley (Germany)
11/12 - Mt.Pilatus/Lucerne (Switzerland)
13/12 - Innsbruck (Austria)
14/12 - Venice (Italy)
15/12 - Rome (Italy)
17/12 - Florence (Italy)
18/12 - Nice (France)
20/12 - Lyon (France)
21 /12 - Paris (France)
23/12 - London (UK)
24/12 - St.Anton (Austria)
31/12 - Vienna (Austria)
02/01 - Salzburg (Austria)
03/01 - Munich (Germany)
04/01 - Stuttgart (Germany)
05/01 - Munich (Germany)
06/01 - Hong Kong (China)
09/01 - Sydney (Australia)

So if any of you have any suggestions on what I should go and see at these places, feel free to post them up.

Now obviously this pseudo-world tour isn't very cheap. You'd be right. I'm expecting this trip to be in the vicinity of $9k (AUD). So i'll be working that off for some time to come. Damn, that's alot of money that i'm borrowing - lol!

Now, next item on the agenda. Postcards. If anyone wants a postcard from any of these places (excluding Sydney, of course) then drop me an email: marky.on.tour@gmail.com . I'll obviously be checking my standard email addresses, but i'm sure they'll be clogged up with a whole bunch of stuff - so I may miss a couple of emails. Feel free to just send over an email asking me how things are, etc.

Now - as i'm going to be away for a while i'll just make a few comments on some issues that i've read about in the papers recently. So if u read further down - there's no more travel stuff :).

First of all - Internet governance. Currently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains and holds the "internet telephone book". These are the dudes that make sure that internet addresses like markyhomez.blogspot.com are linked to the correct numerical address (as the 203.123.123.123 kinds of addresses are somewhat harder to remember). ICANN is based in America - somewhere in California from memory.

Anyways, the United Nations and the European Union are somewhat jealous that an American company has control and have been pushing for more "international co-operation". Some critics proclaim that "no single nation should maintain control over the top level domain or country names". Sounds good in principle, but who else would be in charge of the "internet directory". The UN? the EU?. I certainly hope not.

Lets see. The UN takes total control of internet governance. Countries like China, Iran, and Zimbabwe would be able to influence how the Internet works and is managed. Zimbabwe will be able to tell everyone in the world how to manage their e-businesses - fantastic! considering their economy is in the toilet and that they've chased away all the white farmers in the country. China will be able to ensure freedom of information on the internet - excellent! All of my news needs will be provided by the Xinhua news service. Hopefully, ICANN will keep control for the time being.

Issue Number 2 - WorkChoices. I'll be the first person to admit that I haven't read the entire bill - but I doubt that many people have... it's 700 pages long. What I may say could be disregarded as someone who is not "in the know", but so would many others - including high profile unionists. Obviously this is a big issue and there are probably several things that can be fixed and or amended in the bill, but IR reform is necessary.

Why this is a good thing? Well, in my opinion the best thing one can do for his or her future is to get a job. Enabling more people to move into work does two things - makes people more self-sufficient and lowers the welfare burden on government so that front-line services can be better funded. These two things in combination will ensure future prosperity for Australians.

How will the WorkChoices legislation enable more people to gain employment - well one national Industrial Relations system will be introduced across Australia (rather than 6+ as it is now). Meaning less confusion and probably less compliance costs as there would only be the one system - as opposed to the various state systems and the commonwealth system on top of that. Unfair Dismissal laws would be removed for businesses less than 100 employees. Shit workers should be sacked, it's as simple as that. Forcing small businesses to keep bludgers is a travesty. By allowing bludgers to be sacked rather than retained will undoubtedly help small businesses take on more employees.

Obviously there will be questions raised, and questions have indeed been raised. Won't the big bad company sack me for no reason? There is another set of laws that is still in place - illegal dismissal laws. It will still be unlawful to sack you based on age, race, religion, and all of that. Plus, if you work hard - why would your boss sack you? Plus, it seems as though companies are big bad meanies all the time (if you watched the union ads). Companies depend on their people to succeed - so it is in their best interest to keep their staff happy and content. Obviously, not all the companies are the same - but the most successful companies are the ones that keep thier workforce happy.

Anyways, that's enough from me. This is a mega blog, and I should stop here and start packing. Haha. The next post will come from overseas, w00t. In closing i'd like to say a big thank you to my Cousins Jason and Kara for helping me plan my holiday.

Socceroos - about bloody time

Well, well, well. What an intense match. I'm sure the SBS would be happy with the ratings they get for tonight's match. Summary: 1 - 0 victory at home for the Aussies and a 4 - 2 penalty shootout to the Aussies to decide who goes into the world cup. Uruguay had their turn last time, now it's ours - w00t!

That was a real top effort by the Aussies. Getting that crucial first goal and holding off Uruguay for the rest of the match - truly a dream run. Makybe Diva, Coalition Senate Control, and World Cup qualification truly makes for a spectacular year. The penalty shootout was the tensest part of the match for me (and probably many others) - Mark Schwarzer and 2 saves, omg! What a hero - he almost saved 3. When he saved that second goal, I was out of my seat in a flash. Stacks of congratulations are in order for coach Guus and the Aussie team. Well done and good luck in Deutschland '06.

I would also like to make a pointer about the telecast. I might have been living under a rock or something like that, but since when has the "virtual spectator" been around? It looks like something out of Fifa 2006, LOL. The virtual spectator is fantastic, i'd even rate it more than any other analysis tool from any other sport. It should definately feature in more games in the future. (PS: Something that shouldn't feature in future telecasts is Ned Zelic, didn't look very professional slumped over the chair).

Anyways... congrats to Australia, bad luck Uruguay, and hello Germany 2006! (Both for me and the Socceroos, lol).

Examinations are over, University is over

Hmm.. I forgot to notify everyone that I had exams, and thus would be silent for a while. Oh well, too late. Not that I was studying hard or anything, lol. I was too busy being counter-productive.

So i'll quickly mention the one and only exam that I had (jealous? haha). It wasn't terribly difficult and I finished in 45 mins. The duration of the exam was 2 hours. That's typical for me. It's not as though i'm a genius or anything, I just do what I can quickly and then get out of there. I'm not sure how many hours i've "saved", but since i've done over 50 subjects and have left in pretty much each examination I can remember - i'll have to be setting a world record somewhere.

So what can I talk about today. Hmm. The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? Wow, that's quite deep and meaningful - no. However, I saw the movie "The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy" and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What's classy is that they still make use of the radio version as they did in the TV series - maximum points for that.

Well that's enough for now. I'm just overwhelmed by my subconscious urges to bludge and fill up my time with totally un-constructive tasks. I'm supposed to be assisting in planning a holiday, but I fear my subconscious will take over. Will try to post something decent before leaving (22 Nov).