In ol' New York...

It's bloody amazing how much one can forget in the space of a few days.
I sat here thinking 'I really should update the blog with New York news'! When I thought about it, I couldn't actually remember much of it. Much of it was a blur.

Landed in New York from Miami at the time of 10.30am. I was excited because it meant I could go to the apartment, drop my bags off and have a proper New York lunch. Don't ask me what a New York lunch is but I had a hot dog from a stall in mind.

I waited and waited at the luggage carousel.

I had an uneasy feeling about the luggage because I had arrived late into the airport and my flight from Miami. I actually had a final boarding call and my name shockingly pronnounced over the loudspeaker. I was waiting for a bacon and egg roll while that happened. Off the topic slightly, it was a lousy bacon and egg roll - last time I go to a place that was recommended by Oprah in 2006!! I think it has more to do with the ingredients though - food from the US just doesn't taste as good or as fresh and natural as in Australia.

Back to the carousel - after close to half an hour of waiting, a guard told me to go to the baggage retrieval office. I discovered that my luggage had been put on the 2pm flight from Miami and would not be arriving to New York until about 4.30pm. This meant that I would not be getting my luggage till the next day. Luckily I didn't lose it with all the shopping inside otherwise smoe thief would've been a very happy camper (and eBayer!)

Caught the bus into Manhattan where there was plenty of traffic to poke a stick at. Finally arrived to Grand Central Station and left to my own devices. Since my knowledge of the subway was pretty decent, I made it to the Upper East side (40 E78th Street) to where I would be living for the next 3 nights. I loved the leafy area, the grand brownstone buildings which look like they come off a movie and the fact that it was half a block from Central Park.

I met Barbara, the lady who owns the penthouse I was staying in and shown how to use things like the air con, internet etc. She finally gave me the key and after a quick refreshing shower, I was on my way to stomp around NYC.

The day I arrived it was muggy, sticky, hot and over 30 degrees. It was so hot that a woman fainted in the subway and was cut in half by a train: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393362/She-cut-half-Horror-Fatoumata-Diallo-21-killed-New-York-subway-passing-falling-tracks-train.html - it does get really warm down there. Perfect in winter but not so good in summer.

I traipsed around 5th Ave, Times Square, Chelsea, and just a whole bunch of streets soaking in the atmosphere. I came across the Flatiron building and was overjoyed because Arup had denied me visiting it last time I'd been there. The jerk. There was an awesome costume shop with every costume imaginable (except for a bloody White Rabbit costume!) at Union Square which I wish was in Sydney. Did lots of shopping for other people so my credit card wasn't too happy...

At night I sat in Times Square till about 11pm and thought it was the best city on earth!

Time Square (north)

Flatiron Building

Trump Tower on 5th Ave

Smoke stack from the subway below

One of my favourite buildings - Chrysler Building in background

Kokomo : Key Largo

As I am progressively becoming lazier with this post (I've already written 2 and I'm getting sleepy!), I will be very brief with this one.

8am - Meet at dive shop and fill out forms. Due to the storm the previous night, there were 4 - 6ft swells so the captain cancelled the boat. Decide to go to a sheltered lagoon instead to dive. 2 German guys decide to bail. A lovely Swiss girl by the name of Sarah decides to kick on. Get sized up for equipment and head to Flamingo hotel for pool session.

10am - Finish the pool session and start driving towards Key Lago
10.45am - Stop off and buy Subway for lunch. Am starving! They didn't have a pizza sub so I ordered a Spicy Italian instead. Was overjoyed at finding peanut butter cookies and raspberry cheesecake cookies. Guy behind the counter thought it mildly amusing that I was so excited about said cookies. raspberry is awesome, peanut butter is dry and disappointing
11.15am - Arrive at the lagoon. Put our gear on and do 2 x 20 min dives
12.30pm - Finish dives, pack up and head home
1.30pm - Arrive back at the dive shop. Sarah and I decide to buy sushi for lunch and go to the beach. Have many hours chilling out in the ocean and sand. Talked about the mystery that is men and laughed at a group of Belgium guys that were intent on picking her up. One guy asked her whether she was going out that night about 5 times. The same guy had a look of disgust when I told him I was 27. He was the old ripe age of 21. Geez.
6.30pm - Decide to leave the beach and go shopping. In particular a college jacket for Sarah's younger sister. We didn't find one but we did buy nice Venetian masks! I'm so ready for the next masquerade I get invited to!
7.00pm - Departed for dinner but agreed to text once finished and meet up for drinks along Ocean Drive.
Started packing my bags and realised that my flight was not at 10am but at 7.45am. That meant I had to be up by 5.45am. Sad face.
10.30pm - Meet up at the dive shop and stroll to Ocean Drive. Realise the place is dead because the Miami Heats were playing in some final (?). Sat at a restaurant where they were playing Lady Gaga (in joke - it seemed that now all that Memorial Day was over, all the songs that we could hear being played in every single store was Lady Gaga)
12.05am - Said our goodbyes and I tottered home with a bit too much too drink. Had an ok night sleep if it wasn't for me waking up every hour because I thought my alarm had gone off!

 

The Never Everglades

The tour kicked off to a fantastic start by being about late. Whilst I had been waiting for the tour bus to arrive at my hotel and pick me up, I noticed a number of flashing police lights in the far distance. I found out very soon there had been a gang-related drive-by shooting early that morning. As a consequence a number of streets were locked down (and for well over 48 hours!) and traffic was extremely heavy due to makeshift detours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDs-Wp_TN2c to see shooting footage.

The drive itself to the Everglades isn't very exciting. As seen on TV, you travel along a vast highway network which from an aerial view (like the helicopter view in those police chase shows) look very impressive but when driven, are very very very boring. I even fell asleep at some parts. I did take random photos to show people on the bus that I was alive at some point during the drive.

BK HQ

Cruise ships docked in their... docking area

The dome looked interesting. I think it's a stadium

 After about an hour of driving we arrived at the Everglades Safari Park. We were to go on an air boat ride through the canals in search of alligators, followed by an alligator show.

Docked air boat at the safari park

The air boat novelty was pretty cool. It reminded of Police Academy 5. As a 9 yr old, I remember two things from that movie: one was that you could write rude words on undesired people's foreheads in sunscreen so that when they went to tan, DORK would be appear. The second thing I remembered was a bad guy chase through the Everglades on the air boat. I wasn't expecting the same type of reckless rampaging through a protected park but it would have been fun. 

View down the canal

Due to the dry season, the canals that we would have cruised along were above the sea level. We literally went up and down one canal. Some alligators were spotted so all was not lost. Surprisingly I thought it would smell swampish because of how it looked. It turns out that the Everglades is not actually a swamp but it is an extremely slow moving river.

Everglades banks

Can you see the baby alligators?

After getting off the boat, I met Justine from Perth who was also on her own. Only thing was that she was on her own in Miami till Thursday and then off to the Carribbean for 3 weeks. So so so lucky! We watched the alligator show and wandered around the park together until it was time to leave. For $3 I became a proper tourist and had my photo taken with Snappy, the resident 3 yr old alligator. 

Justine and I decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach so when we arrived back at South Beach, we promptly had lunch. Lunch was super disturbing as a bunch of drunken loud black chicks thought it would a good idea to start grinding this fellow black guy. They proceeded to pour their cocktail all over his head and then two of the girls started licking the liquid that had dribbled down his neck. For the record, one of the girls had a HUGE dimply stretchmarked ass. Ew. At some point some other random guy thought it was all fun and started tossing 1 dollar notes on the ground. Animals groped for the notes, picking it up and stuffing in places where strippers would store stripper dollars and would go even more wilder with their booty grinding. 

Afterwards Justine was saying that the expression on my face was gold. I apparently had a look of disbelief and distate on my face but it was like a train wreck - I couldn't look away! As a result I would study my salad intensely, look up at the girls and then study my salad again as though nothing was happening.

We also ended up getting rorted with the 2 for 1 drinks. To compensate, the restaurant charges one drink at $35 so even though our meals were less than $10, the bill came out to be about $90. No wonder the prices weren't on the drinks menu! There was a cigar seller nearby so we bought an el cheapo $5 cigar to try out later that evening. What rebels.

After all the excitement we finally got to the beach. It was awesome fun to just hang out there and feel safe and non-intimidated. We departed around 5.30ish so that we could freshen up and meet up for drinks and dinner around 7ish. 


Walking over to Justine's, I became caught at the start of a tropical outpouring of rain which ended just as abruptly as it started 20 minutes later. We lit up the cigar walking to dinner, took a few puffs, declared it nasty as hell and dumped it in a gutter. Luckily it was only $5.

S*%t going down during dinner

Ended up having dinner in a diner nearby as we declared ourselves grandmas and wanted an early night of 11pm. As we were eating, a whole squad of cops on pushbikes, followed by a police van and several cars came flying down the side street. Being seated outside we immediately stood up to see what was going on. It looked like a black van - you know, the ones with no windows that they use for kidnapping in movies - was being searched and two guys were being arrested.
I sculled my peanut butter milkshake, Justine downed her drink and we left our food (really dry chicken wings and I had spicy buffalo wings which considering my chilli tolerance, even I couldn't eat much of!) and had our early night.


The street was cordoned off so it meant having to go another way home.


I was kept up that night by the sounds of louts that were either coming or going to/from their room yelling down the hallway. Grrrrrrrrrr!

Miami Ghetto : Sunday Bloody Sunday

As some people have not been able to live vicariously through me (cough *Jyana* cough), I'm having an early night to recover from yet another morning flight. I must have sub-consciously have wanted to get no sleep on this trip.

Sunday started out very tame and ended even softer. I woke up in the morning with the purpose of going to South Beach Divers to book the scuba dive. Unfortunately there were still remnants zombie-ing around. I wish they were actually like zombies and didn't speak coherent words - the guys were still able to mumble out a 'Hey Chinatown' every so often. 


Afterwards I wandered along Collins St which is considered the shopping street. I found Urban Outfitters, True Religion (got the Mistys for Kitty!), Sephora, Steve Madden, GAP, Armani, Diesel etc etc. It was either Washington St or Collins St that had a cafe where you could do shisha but the thought of:
a) being a nigel
b) surrounded by idiots with one pickup line
was enough to deter me. I will have to take Gaby out to Bankstown one day to get my fix. I'd rather risk a drive-by shooting than be uncomfortable.


The Art Deco Welcome Centre was in sight on Ocean Drive. They had walking tours that outlines the history of the area which would have been fascinating had I gone on one. As such, they were booked out and I wasn't able to get any time to go on one. I did a book an Everglades tour for the next day so it wasn't a complete loss.


Did some boring basic human functions such as eat lunch and have drinks. 

Hit the beach around 2pm. I remember being in the water for well over an hour and combined with my massive frozen cocktail, I had a nap basking under the warm sun. I must have been comatose as I felt myself being awaken and surrounded by concerned beachgoers, i.e. the group that had plonked themselves almost on top of me. They thought I had passed out as I had my empty cocktail cup next to my head. After reassuring them that I was ok and that's what we do in Australia when we're at the beach, a wingwoman said to me 'You're so cute! Have you ever been with a black man?' I told her that since there was not really a lot of them back home, no I hadn't been with one and neither did I want to start. That didn't stop her keen friend from trying to pick me up grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Rogue wave

Homies amazed that cameras can go in the water

Testing out the new Lumix camera

Looking back at the beach

I stayed at the beach till 8pm in which I decided to scoot home as I could hear the pulsing bass of some rapper. I walked past a club that had a headline which spelt 'Pray for Sean Kingston' - there were a bunch of big mammas that were dancing to 'Beautiful girl'. Irritating song.


I was so knackered that I Googled 'South Beach' and 'sushi'. Lo and behold I discovered that I could have sushi delivered to my room! abotu 40 minutes later, takoyaki balls and a massive sushi set containing salmon and cream cheese, california rolls and sashimi arrived. I was in heaven. After a diet of absolute s*&t of burgers, pizzas, burgers, pizzas and chips (and feeling like I am going to work extra hard at pole to get rid of any weight!) I could finally eat rice! And fish! And miniscule vegetables!


I pretty much fell asleep during my dinner and very happily after dinner. Luckily I didn't spill it all over my bedsheets (*cough Jyana cough*)

Miami Ghetto

After almost missing my flight for a scrumptious sugar laden Cinnabon, I landed at balmy Miami airport. Balmy meaning it is exactly hot and humid like a Sydney summer. Perfect for the beach!

The first thing that struck me was a group of black chicks that were waiting for the bus in the bus terminal at the airport. I say this because all three of them were in their bikinis. Waiting for the bus. At the airport. Did they get off the pane like that?! Not just your regular practical bikini in a block colour or pattern. These were bling bikinis. I don't think the Gold Coast meter maids gold bikini outfit could top these girls. In addition, it was clear that America does have a definite overweight crisis but sadly, they are not lacking in self-confidence. I'm all for being proud of your body but at least have a decent body to show off! I really don't need to be subject to stretch marks, cellulite, protruding or overhanging bellies on girls at least 5 years younger than me

 
The bus ride was fairly uneventful until we hit Miami Beach. 

What I didn't know was that on Memorial Day long weekend (it's their equivalent of ANZAC Day), there is an urban hip hop festival in Miami every year (I saw that Diddy and Chris Brown were supposed to be in one of the clubs). This meant that the three main streets - Ocean Drive, Collins St and Washington Street - were closed for about 20 blocks (from 5th to 25th Street). I stepped off the bus thinking I was in a hip hop video. You know how the dancers wear bikinis and high heels thinking it's cool? That was the norm for all the chicks roaming around! I ended up getting a cab because I thought I was going to be rolled. There were so so so many people I felt like I was in a ghetto.

The initial shock over, I arrived to the hotel around 4pm, unpacked and found myself some food as I hadn't eaten anything since that delicious Cinnabon at 5.37am. Roamed the streets and ended up having dinner at a Jap restaurant around 7. I watched the pimped out cars move slowly down the traffic-laden street with their music blaring. One thing they can do is pimp out their cars. I was amazed at how creative they were (not necessarily in a tasteful way but it made for good entertainment).

Ended back at the hotel, had a nap till 9:30pm, went online for a bit and decided to head out after 11ish.

The walk around South Beach was ok but still kind of scary because of the drunk people factor. Saw a few arrests (and man do the US cops get onto it! They swarm all over the guy like in the TV shows). I just literally walked down a street onto Ocean Drive when all of a sudden there were whistles blown and a crowd of black people running at me. There was some kind of arrest/raid going down in one of the bars so the whole crowd dispersed and ran down the street I'd just come out of. I had to turn back and run with them in case I was trampled. I felt like I was doing the Running of the Bulls in Spain.

Was flagged down several times by groups of guys, be it their names Trey, Jerome, you get the drift. They thought I was funny because I didn't get a word they were saying, i.e their slang so I had to ask them several times what the hell they were saying. I also learnt quickly to say that I had 'friends' staying in a nearby hotel. One thing that annoyed me was that to get my attention they'd nudge my arm and call me either Ching Chong or Chinatown. What the hell? That's a bit rich coming from the same people who were saying that Aussies were racist awhile ago - at least the guys don't try and pick up chicks by referring to derogatory stereotypes.

The outfits the girls were wearing were even more outlandish and skimpier than during the day. Think fishnet bodysuit with a bra and g or bikini top barely covering their massive assets (I would've seen more than a dozen nipples that were poking out) plus denim shorts that disappeared into their massive cheddar cheese ass crack. how is it that they get all offended when the guys try to pick then up? Geeeez. 

And don't get me started on the tatts of random s*&t that is all over their body. It's as though they had a momentary stroke of genius and thought 'Hey! Imma gonna get me a tatt of 10 irregular shaped stars all over my body'. I noticed a common tattoo was their star sign, be it the word, symbol, animal or all 3. I guess it's hard to remember when your birthday is... If that doesn't say original, I don't know what is.

Ate a giant slice of pizza in a little store and was being stared down by this little punk ass kid that was high.

Made it back to the hotel after 1am but it was a bit of a walk as I didn't realise how far down Ocean Drive I really was. At least for the most part, the streets were well lit.

I guess this post sounds like a bit of a whinge and very very politically incorrect. All I wanted to do was hang out at the beach and go scuba diving and all that jazz. I wasn't expecting that the entire African-American population to be there. It was more of a culture shock in that I couldn't quite believe that the whole 'hip hop/ghetto culture' was so prevalent or big - I thought it was exaggerated by the music videos and the rappers talking s*&t. It makes for awesome people watching though!

Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Time 1:08am Friday

Sydney time: 6:08pm Saturday

Temperature: 27 degrees

No shotgun marriage. Check. 
Elvis is alive... and alive... and alive on every footbridge and corner. Check. Clogged arteries now realise why the vast population of Americans are so bloody overweight. Check. Now I know why that Michelle Bridges cried and wailed about her body being a temple. If I don't get back to Sydney soon, I will need to be rolled onto a plane.

Thursday was a day to acclimatise and become accustomed to the fact that I was:
a) actually alone
b) on my own
c) did I mention I was traveling without friends?


If I hear one more person ask me where my friends were, I will make a weird face. Yeah.. that'd freak them out.


If one more person guesses that I am from London, I will have to just talk in an English accent so I get a kick out of how dumb some people are. Apparently to the American untrained ear, it is difficult to tell the difference between an English and an Australian accent. Go figure.

Thursday I spent at Miracle Mile shops were I proceeded to become lost once again. I was extremely successful in my shopping - a bit too much! Blowing half the shopping budget in the space of an hour makes me still want to cry... 

One of the casinos in my travels

I was approached by a club spruiker on the way back to Bills. With nothing else to do that night besides watch Peepshow (starring the lovely Holly Madison), I had my name put on a guest list for Gold and Haze at Aria. 
Always alert for another chance to shop, I raided the shops for a more whore-ish dress and ended up buying a black Herve Leger imitation dress from Bebe. It was short, black, tight without screaming hooker. I was annoyed that I had a perfectly good Herve Leger dress at home and didn't bring it grrrrrr!




Peepshow started at 9pm. Me being ever optimistic about the distance to get to Planet Hollywood from Bills had a late dinner. This ended up in me rushing back to the hotel, getting changed and tangled in the new dress and tottering about 400m down the Strip with catcalls about my fluoro yellow shoes. I know they're hot but did you really need to chase me down the Strip to tell me so?


I had bought a VIP ticket so I was placed on a table with this unfortunate looking older man. He was from Blacktown, Sydney. What were the odds of being plonked on a table with a Sydney-sider? The show itself was pretty damn awesome. Lots of sensual, sexual dancing (I was disappointed in the pole part but the chick looked very hot nevertheless) and lots of breast flashing. Blacktown just couldn't contain his vocal appreciation when someone whipped off their bra. Holly herself was very hot and I was literally less than a metre away from her since our table was right next to the middle runway. Hugh definitely made sure his Playgirls got some pretty impressive assets! 
The show ended at 10:30pm which was when I started making my way over to Aria...


Arrived at Aria around 11pm to be ushered into Gold nightclub. The music was pretty damn good (similar to Marble Bar) but just the crowd wasn't the best. Open bar till midnight meant that I had as many drinks as possible. A black 37 yr old guy called Colin from New York started talking to me. It is Memorial Day on Monday (similar to ANZAC Day) so everyone goes on holidays to take advantage of the long weekend. I was introduced to his posse which made me laugh. There was a stereotypical massive guy and then one who looked like he lived on a permanent diet of protein shakes and protein bars. I was asked to go to LAX with them but declined.


I made my way downstairs to Haze and was waiting in line with one of the club spruiker guys (a different one). He was quite cute, young but sadly for a sponsored snowboarder, thought that New Zealand was in Africa. He tried to cover it up by saying it sounded like Madagascar AHAHAHA. 

There were two Asian chicks in the line in front of me with a weedy white guy who had a black velvet jacket on. They were quite nice, fro California and invited me to hang out with them once they discovered I was on my own. 
I found out later that this guy was trying to get lucky so was buying us rounds of drinks. I never did find out if he did because about 30 min after getting inside Haze, the girls 'went to the bathroom' and never came back. 

By that time I was progressively embarrassing - read drunk - dancing with a rather good looking 29 yr old cop from Redondo Beach called Ryan. I had bailed him and his friend Ross from being kicked out by pretending they were with me and yes, Mr Bouncer, I will keep them away from the white line. Ryan and I sat down on a seat, only to be told that we couldn't sit down unless we paid for the privilege. Apparently 'losers' (this is the bouncer's words, not mine) pay about $1000 for a booth and you get bottle service and girls brought to you. The bouncer was a Kiwi and when he heard my accent, he was happy to tell me all about it and let us sit for a little bit. Around 2:30ish, Ryan and I left Haze since neither of us could take the loud music any longer, became lost trying to get out and ended up having a discussion on worldly matters on a cold concrete wall in the middle of nowhere. 


It turned out that Ryan and Ross were staying with friends of Ross in Aria so we decided to go upstairs to find Ross' friends. It turned out that Ross had gone traveling 4 years ago and met an Aussie named Brett during his travels - as you do.Aussie is getting married in a week, decided to do a Hangover-type bucks week and contacted Ross to come over to Vegas for a good time. Ryan and I turned up to this absolutely gorgeous penthouse suite that had an awesome view of the Strip. Drinks were poured aplenty and merriness was all around. A bit too merry and loud because the next thing we know, security guards have come up to the room with a 'recommendation' that we all vacate the room. Started a mas exodus and helped the guys shift many cases and bottles of booze down a few levels. Brett had managed to wrangle 3 rooms for the Aussies, none for the Americans. With Ross left to fend on his own somewhere in town, I suggested to Ryan that he could stay at my hotel. The offer was taken and we cabbed it over to bills. The time was 6am by then and the sun had already started to cast red-pink-purple hues against the mountains in the far distance.
Nothing more to add aside from:

a) no we didn't end up sleeping together. I told Ryan I wanted to sleep and he replied that he was so f*&ked that he probably couldn't get it up anyway

b) he did keep trying to stroke my hair, hold my hand as I fell asleep etc which was nice and all but reminded me of Rhys, i.e. who the hell does all that lovey dovey touch feely stuff and then just doesn't call or disappears?

We woke up around 11ish and departed afterwards - me to Serendipity 3 for breakfast and him to Caesars Palace because Ross had managed to get into the pool there and was not moving from there. I felt so ill that I couldn't eat breakfast and had to get my food boxed up. I had to nap again and woke up around 1.30pm... the rest of the day was a write-off so I hopped on the bus out to Las Vegas Premium Outlets and bought more bloody stuff. The suitcase is now almost full PLUS I bought a Samsonite carry one blue hard case luggage at the outlet to hold more stuff!! Ive definitely exceeded the shopping budget but oh well... I will try and refrain from now on! 

I heart AK-47. It reminds me of Goldeneye

Take that zombie target!

The Gun Store was freaking awesome!! I decided on the Ladies Pack which meant I could shoot two guns (I chose a Glock and an Ak-47) plus for another $50 I could shoot a machine gun (chose the Uzi). All this for $102 plus I received a singlet to wear. The Glock was really heavy compared to the other guns but I think it was more to do with the fact that you hold the gun out from you. The AK and Uzi you could support with your shoulder so didn't feel the weight as much. Feeling the recoil and hearing the gun sound (and other people's gun sounds) was pretty scary at first. I wasn't comfortable since I had images of someone losing control and shooting through the wall but got over it after a few shots. Highly recommend it!


There was a group of Asians who had decided to go shooting for a friend's birthday. The girlfriends were telling me that watching me shoot a gun was a turn on - mainly because all my shots hit the paper (if it was a real person, they'd have some pretty bad head shots) and a few of the boyfriends completely missed the target and shot everything else... like the ground or the clip that was holding the target up!

Being the soft boring person I am, I decided to have a quiet night and wander the packed streets of the Strip. I also have a massive blister from the night before so was not in the mood to wear heels! Friday night is definitely the night to be in Vegas! I was supposed to go to Marquee but after seeing the line, was glad I decided to have a quiet night.


The adventure continues...

L.A. Times

Las Vegas

Time 11:28pm Wednesday

Sydney time 4:28pm Thursday

Temperature 29C

So I ended up being a Nigel No Friends on the plane because I was stuck next an aisle and an empty seat. Halfway through the flight I would've preferred the empty seat because a little crying 2 yr old was put in the empty seat so I didn't sleep a wink. At least the food was good and V Australia made sure I was fed my 3 meals. In between picking up a teddy bear the id kept thowing in between my feet, I wasted the 13 hrs watching Black Swan, No strings Attached, Never Let Me Go, Zoolander (finally!), an hour and a half of music videos and 5 episodes of Modern Family.

Arrived at LAX at 7:20am Wednesday morning (or about 12:20am Thursday morning for Sydneysiders!). 

Discovered I actually had a 6 hour layover before flying to Vegas so I decided to try and venture out of LAX, jump on a bus or cab and go somewhere. Unfortunately the mean streets of downtown L.A was a bit far so settled some mall nearby.

This guy called Yuki - I think he mentioned he was disabled or something - decided to take it upon himself to play tour guide. It helped out in the end because I ended up getting a US SIM card for my phone so I can have unlimited internet for $1.50 p/day. It works out well because I can also use the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot and get my laptop to detect the  network yay! Unfortunately he was a bit clingy as well and wanted me to add him on Facebook and message etc. Geeeeeeeeez.

Aside from learning how to buy transfer passses and using the L.A. bus system, that was my very uneventful layover in L.A. The half hour before boarding the Delta flight to Las Vegas was pretty alright because this random guy (Todd) and his group of friends started talking to me and bought me Bud Lights. Because everyone checks your ID when buying drinks, I enjoyed being told how I looked 19 - 20 :) ! Sadly his flight was the gate next to mine and flying to San Fran so no friends made there!


Landed in Vegas and the weather is awesome (for me!). It is warm, slightly hunid without being too sticky with a strong warm breeze - the kind that dries you right away the second you get out of the water at the beach. The lady at Bill's Gamblin hall gave me an upgrade to a bigger non-smoking room with the view of The Strip because for some reason the booking said I was sharing with someone. Walked the entire Strip and back which took at least hour mainly due to cars trying to run you down at traffic lights, variety of things to see and I became confused in the Miracle Mile shops... I still don't know where I ended up! Watched the Bellagio fountain show which was fun (but couples everywhere grrrrrrr!). Ate a chilli burger at Imperial Palace, poked my head in to see Human Nature singing a motown song before being told to get out and bought my 32 oz pina colada (with an extra shot for $2). I'm still nursing that pina colada!


Not sure what the plan is tomorrow but hopefully will get the following done:


- photo in front of 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign
- go to a gun range and shoot a gun
- find the shopping outlet and go shopping
- buy tickets to Holly Madison's Peepshow

Eiffel Tower in Paris. You can even go to the top and eat dinner in the Tower restaurant

Somewhere inside the Miracle Mile, I came across the Stripper Bar

Hot babes direct to you - I really hope they're not in the back of the truck...

They don't do things by halves over here. Monster hummer truck at the lights. It must be super long because other Americans were taking photos of it too!

If you didn't think your burgers were big enough out there...

M&M Ice Cream Cookie!!

Bill's Gamblin Hall is actually in a pretty awesome location

32 oz pina colada with extra shots

D (eparture) Day - Minus 12 hrs

Tuesday (EST) 23:21

Sydney. 13ºC. Cloudy/rainy

Huddled in front of heater warmth, I stumbled (read: Googled) this gem of a quote: 

Half the fun of travel is the esthetic of lostness

Eight months seems like an extraordinarily amount of time, but geez does it go like there's no tomorrow.

To contradict the above statement, there is a tomorrow and I will be flying out to the summery US at 10:45. Presumably to increase fun by 50% via appreciating the beauty of getting lost in a different country.

Farewell desk! Farewell Unilever!

For those not in the know, I had booked a return flight to Las Vegas on August 27 last year with the reasoning that they were a steal at $1198.26. 

To further lessen the guilt of yet another impulsive buy, I justified in my mind that it would be a congratulatory holiday for being single for a whole year - despite that the singledom period was only really 344 days. 

I digress. 

I bid farewell to my desk this afternoon.

Packed much?

Hopefully this will be the most boring post I'll type on this blog - mainly due to the fact that nothing eventful has happened aside from a final check of my clothes and remembering that I must call the banks and Telstra after 8am regarding overseas travel. 

On the Singapore/Thailand holiday, I'd forgotten to notify the banks and Telstra of my overseas junket and had my credit cards frozen plus a phone with no network. 

Come to think of it, I'd forgotten to do the same for New Zealand. 

I think there is a trend happening here...

To avoid an onslaught of Mobile Uploads and status updates on FB, I'll attempt to post as much as I can on this blog. However I will check-in to places just so I can be traceable (and gloat).

Love love and good night!

xo