24 hours madness in Vegas

I spent a mad 24 hours in Vegas when I was in LA. I started by catching a 6 hours Greyhound bus out at 8am. And realise immediately why people from the States do not use the Greyhound. The bus was full of bums and low income earners hoping to make it big in Vegas. One bum was so smelly that nobody sat next to him! Upon arriving in Vegas, I immediate set out for that famous boulevard.

First impression - I WAS BLOWN AWAY. Ok so people from the States wonder what the facination is. Well when you see and watch it on TV, hear about it on the news and then finally see it with your own eyes. It is just simply fantastic! I felt I was in La La land!!! Though the La La land would have been even better if I was loaded! ;)

Even the first sighting of Vegas was incredible. One moment it is all desert and dry plains, and then you start seeing big billboards on the side of the road (with one gun shop selling M-16´s wtf?), before the tall white buildings of Vegas rose out like a mirage in the distance. And everything in Vegas is HUGE. Then again, everything in the States are massive! From their billboards, food portions to big cars and 10 lanes wide boulevards.

Walking around the main strip neon signs, TV screen, and big billboards all jump out at you. I thought there were some hilarious contradiction though. Such as passing by wedding chapels (whom broadcast your wedding for free over the Internet) and seeing a big poster of Dalai Lama´s upcoming preaching. And of seeing nuns in their garb strolling by those big evil casinos.

I really enjoy watching the different people out here too. From fat mama´s to men in cowboy suit. But I saw a lot of families too, like this is some kind of healthy outing or something. :)

This fountain is pretty impressive too, found outside Paris Vagas. I went up the Eiffel Tower for a great view over the city.

Afterwards I caught a few free shows. The most impressive being Ballagio´s massive fountains. I was hugely impress by it´s size, and the height of the fountain. I just wish the show was longer! LOL

I caught the pirate show at Treasure Island next, that wasn´t as impressive though the audience were huge. I also caught the volcano show outside of the Mirage and the Roman show inside Caesar´s Palace, all pretty average but fun to watch neverless.

Vegas is all about gambling, shows and shopping. I didn´t have time to gamble, but I caught shows and shopped. They had some pretty cool shops too! Such as the M&M bar on the right. I LOOOOVE M&M´s and they had all kind´s of M&M. Such as M&M´s with peanut butter inside! It was yummy!!!! And at some casinos such as the Venetian they built a canal inside the mall, and had paddlers take passengers out on boat. The ceiling were pretty impressive, with the sky painted on.

So most of these casinos had a theme, from Paris Vegas´s French furnishing, Excalibur´s old England theme, Caesar´s Palace´s Roman theme to Luxor´s Egyptian theme.

Obviously if you wanted to catch a decent show you had to pay for it. So I fork up nearly 150USD for the latest Cirque du Soleil show. It was call "Love" and is based on the Beatles. The show was at the Mirage, and I booked it prior to arriving here thanks to Andreanne in Melbourne. She worked for Cirque du Soleil and manage to get me a pretty decent seat inside.

Technically this is the most advance show I have seen. Every seat in the purpose built theater had 4 speakers built in. The lighting and sound effects was also impressive! And the show, it was fantastic! I enjoy hearing all the Beatles song, and watching the actors dance to the songs. They used 3 VW Beatles in the show, and one actually comes apart during the show. But in terms of the actors skill I was more impress with the other Cirque du Soleil show I saw - Varekei.

So in the end, I caught the 1.30am bus (which was delayed till 3am thanks Greyhound!) back to LA. It has been one tiring but fantastic 24 hours for me. :)

I´ll be back!

I love LA, there was so much to see and do in my time there that I did not get to see everything.

I spent the first day visiting Universal Studio Hollywood, one of the biggest movie studios in the States. Universal Studio Hollywood is one part fun ride and the other part a proper production studio. With on going series productions such as "Desperate Housewife" and "Jericho", and recent famous films such as "Shrek 3" and "The Kingdom". It was interesting to look through the production studios and the fake city setups. I was pretty impress with the setup for "War of the World´s" though as they cut up a real Boeing 747 and scattered the pieces throughout the stage. I also love the movie rides and movies such as Jurassic Park, Shrek 4D and the Mummy. The best bit about this was I waited for no rides as it wasn´t pack on a Monday!

Another day was spent walking through Hollywood Boulevard. It was fun looking out for my favorite actors but I thought there were way too many, and they even included cartoons such as the Simpsons and Donald Duck in the Hollywood star walk! It was cool to see the legendary Grauman´s Chinese Man theater, and to see the writing by famous actors outside. In this photo you can see the writing by the current governor (some call him the governator!) of California. :) I still think it is hilarious but appropriate to have an A class (well I think he is A class) actor ending up being the governor of that very State. I hope he goes all the way to become to Prez one day (when they decide to change the rule about American-born to become President).

This last star has got to be mine. LOL!

But I went ga ga over the actors found. Including Bruce Lee, Wyona Ryder, Marilyn Monroe, Arnie, Jonny Cash... Though as mention before, it was weird to see cartoon characters being featured here. Perhaps I am missing something but according to my guide it cost 15,000 USD to place the tile and to maintain it. Are the fan base of the Donald Duck club big enough to have fund raise for this?

The only disappointment I had here was that I couldn´t find the star of Scarlett Johansson. :)

I love California!

This is where I have been for the past 11 days. I spent it with my mate Derek and his girlfriend Cynthia in LA. I went there as it has been a long 4 years since we last partied together, and it was also his 40th birthday so we wanted to celebrate it in style. Don´t he look good for an old man? :)

Derek and Cynthia lives in Brentwood, a suburb in Santa Monica in West LA. LA by the way is one massive city, home to 13 million (encompassing Long Beach and Santa Ana). It is also a massive car-friendly and people-unfriendly city, as getting anywhere requires wheels.

Anyway, Derek and Cynthia´s neighbourhood can be considered as the Parnel/Remurea of Auckland. Big mansions, beautiful apartments, palm tree lined boulevards and lots of nice cars on the streets. Seeing SUV´s, Porsche, Mercs and BMWs driving past are like seeing Fords and Nissans back home.

They also own a cute little Beagle name Holly. She is only 6 months old. She spots these big fluffy ears (which I would very much like to pin back) and a beautiful fur coat. I love watching her run around the apartments as the marble floor makes her slip and slide everywhere.

This photo I took of her will probably be her last time sitting in the back seat! Coz she threw up both on Cynthia and me afterwards. They blame it on her eating prior to coming out and of sitting out back. Poor little Holly!

Climbing Shoes

Yey! I finally got myself a pair of climbing shoes. I have been holding off until I got to LA to look for them. These babies that I bought are La Sportiva Cliff (http://www.sportiva.com/products/prod/996). Not the hottest looking thing out there but since when did climbers ever care about fashion ;) and they were cheap! At 60USD it is a bargin!

For the outdoor enthusaistics out there I purchased my babies from REI Sport (http://www.rei.com/). One of the biggest outdoor store in the States. They have everything here! All, except for my beloved NZ brands like Macpac, Fairydown and Ice Breakers.

U S A

Guess what, I am in LA now. Yes LA! The city of Angels. Home of Hollywood, plastic surgery, Venus Beach, In And Out Burgers, Bay Watch and the OC. I am having a great time so far. The weather is beautiful, sunny and a constant light sea breeze to stay cool, and at night it is warm enough to go out without a jacket.

I came here to see a good mate, Derek and his gf Cynthia. I came to celebrate his birthday and to take a break from travelling through South America. But what a big contrast it has been compare to the third world countries that I have been travelling through in the last 3 months. From driving through Hollywood Boulevard last night, setting sail on a boat in Orange County during the day and to see all those beautiful mansions with their meticulously kept garden, big name brand shops, fancy cars and boats, well maintain boulevards with palm trees lining both sides of the street. This is LA alright!

It was great to see Derek and Cynthia. They live in a pretty nice pad in Brentwood. According to Derek this is the Chelsea of London, or Parnell of Auckland. Everybody here looks good, drives nice car and owns a dog. Derek and Cynthia owns a cute little puddle name Holly. She is only 6 months old, has big floppy ears and is very adorable. She seems a little spoilt though and shares their bed at night. Awwweee!

First impression of USA is that they are a patriotic bunch! American flags abound and many houses have a flag pole out front, factories would have a big American flag painted on their walls, and even car yards have mascot cars painted with the stars and stripes.