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
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