First leg...

Hi everyone!

I had intended to stop in at a netcafe quite frequently and update the blog and email, but there just doesnt seem to be many netcafes here. So thats why you haven't heard from me in a little while.... and i'll start at the beginning (warning: this might take a while to read).

Well after a 12 hour flight we finally arrived in Los Angeles and set right out enjoying ourselves. LA lived up to is seasonless reputation, and we had 80-90 degrees farenheit most of the time we were there. Sarah and I couldn't remember the conversions but i think its around 25degrees C.

After getting the keys to our rental car i had to simultaneously learn to drive on the right-hand side of the road while trying to navigate to our hotel. The rental company gave good directions and we arrived at the hotel with no damage to the car or ourselves, apart from our sanity. The hotel was located about 5 miles from LAX, with one runway's traffic flying to the right of us and the other's to the left. The planes line up to land for miles and miles. You can see ten or eleven planes flying in at any one time.

After calming down and psycing ourselves up for another drive [driving is a little scarier here] we cruised down to Santa Monica. After finding ourselves on the 405 freeway, we found that the freeway was nothing to be scared of: average speed was only 30 miles an hour. All the traffic in both directions did make for a spectaular view. Once we got to the coast we parked the car in front of Venice Beach and walked to the Santa Monica Pier. There was a themepark/carnival thing on the pier and thousands of people around. We just walked through all the stalls and rides and soaked up the vibe.

Next to the pier there was a free film screening and exhibition right on santa monica beach. It was a protest against the Iraq war. They had laid out 2000 white crosses on the beach - one for every US soldier killed in Iraq since the war began. The sea of crosses against the glowing orange sunset was very moving, and we took our time to walk around the crosses. And take photos, which i will show you as soon as i find a computer that will handle my camera!

My goodness i can really talk. I will try and keep this brief. Next day we did Hollywood Blvd, the walk of fame and chinese theater etc, took our photos in front of the hollywood sign and did that all-important cruise down the length of Sunset Blvd. We then retuened to Santa Monica to shop and eat along 3rd street promenade, a really really fun place with thousands of people out in an open air walking street mall. The shops along the street are open till 11pm 7 days a week and there is really fun street theater and buskers etc all the way down.

We visited the Museum of Tolerence, a museum all about america's and the world's racist past - and present. They had some really good exhibits, especially on the Los Angeles riots, exploring their causes and advocating racial harmony. The museum of tolerance wasn't terribly tolerant of us, we had to be wanded down for metal and were sent back to the car to leave our cameras behind. Once inside, it was very good indeed.

Then we visited the Beverley Center which is just a really big upmarket mall in Beverley Hills, we only stayed about an hour as a mall is a mall is a mall. After that we went for a drive up Mulholland Drive, which is a really nice area, kind of semi rural rich houses at the base of the Santa Monica mountains. On the way down we struck a bit of evening rush hour and started crawling our way back to the hotel. We ended up passing through the Sunset Strip, and Sarah would like everyone to know that we went to the Viper Room, whch is a hangout of Paris Hilton. Actually we just drove past.

Still stuck in traffic and faced with hours of driving to get back, we decided to take a detour and try to stop for dinner until the traffic died down. We tried to eat at UCLA and went in, but could not find any real restaurants so we ate in Westwood, which is a neighborhood near UCLA. Like many subburbs in Los Angeles Westwood had skyskrapers many times taller than Wellington's Majestic Centre, yet another reminder of the sheer size of the city. Ali, our car rental rep said that living in LA you hardly get to see all of it, he drives the same route to work everyday and stays in his own little part of the city. Unfortunately he still has to pay for the privilege of living near, well everything he could ever need or want: he says he and his wife pay $900/month in property tax alone.

Well it all sounds rather boring without photos. Photos are worth a thousand words. I will upload them as soon as i can. Also, its too soon to say what i think about salt lake city. I'm going to do some more exploring and get back to you on that one. :)