USA LA

So started our first of 8 days spent on a bus. For the most part they are clean mini buses, but with little leg room. The air con is always on, and you skin and eyes dry up to the point of feeling like you've spent 36 hrs on a plane. The roads are atrocious, especially around LA, and you can feel your bones coming loose from their sockets! The scenary is quite monotonous, with rest stops at the sort of places that you only see in films, and not in a good way. You'll be driving through the desert for a few hrs, and then there'll be a Burger King, a shop selling road maps and tat, a lot of trucks and the occasional dust ball for good measure. I'm not joking when I say that we tried desperately to find something that a- was vaguely healthy, and b- wouldn't give us food poisoning, for lunch. We ended up with Doritos and salsa dip... At least the dip had seen a tomato!

8 hrs later we arrived in LA. It's a hole. Everyone says its a big urban sprawl, but you don't, or can't, believe it until you've experienced it. 31 cities joined together by the kinda industrial suburbs that inhabit the area around Heathrow. Not good.
Santa Monica, where we stayed, on the coast, was really nice though. The hostel clean, although the staff very unhelpful, and the restaurants and shops in the area brill.

We decided to see LA the next day, and signed up for a tour. We waited for over an hour, but managed to get on one. First, were the Star's homes. A lot of OJ Simpson anecdotes, and some random 'only famous in America' celebs. But we did see Nicholas Cage and Elizabeth Taylor (houses that is). Rodeo drive was next, adn a stop at the Beverly Wiltshire (too many Pretty Woman referenes in one morning). So much money in one place made you cringe slightly. Quite unreal. Then Hollywood, and Mann's theatre and the walk of fame. OK, but a dodgy area to say the least. A bit of a disapontment. Then downtown and Gehry's Disney Centre. Very Bilbao!

That evening we made the most of being in the US and went to the cinema to see Spiderman 3. OK film spoilt by the rest of the audience clapping and whooping at every little thing. No need - its not real, they can't hear you!

Another early start, and another bus. This time onto Vegas Baby (always to be said together.) A very long journey, and stops at more truck stops, but this time with outlet stores. We did pass through Moajve desert, but it is all quite 'green' with juniper firs, and cacti everywhere. You notice as soon as you get to the Nevada border, as there's suddenly casinos appearing everywhere. As they say, anything goes in Vegas. We arrived at around 4, enough time to go and explorethe 3.5 mile-long Strip.

I love Las Vegas. It's so bright and tacky and just like the adult playground that everyone says that it is. We went to New York, Egypt, Venice, Paris, Ancient Rome all in one night.... Courtesy of the magic of the Casinos, which are huge. 6000 bed hotels have to be seen to be believed, and the money being spent/earnt runs at millions every hour. Did I mention that I loved Vegas?

6.30am we left for the Grand Canyon. The bus wasn't too bad, as there was a screen to watch videos, (Sarah and I were positioned so all there was a black screen though!). We also stopped at the Hoover Dam, which was a 1930s Art Deco masterpiece of engineering. We arrived around midday, and decided to blow our budget on a helicopter ride. Well, what's money there for, if not to be spent? It was worth it. Awesome to say the least. You're a mile above the Colorado river below, surrounded by the oldest exposed rocks on the planet - a billion yrs old! Made even better by the pilot putting on the the music from Apocalypse Now! We subsequently walked around the north rim, but I couldn't get too close to the edge, no balustrades, so was very glad I'd seen so much previously.

Time enough, when we got back, to hit the north end of the Strip. Caesar's Palace, the Belagio, we lost money in everyone! Luckily we had about a $20 limit, that we all stuck to. In fact we all, (Sarah and I were joined by another English girl,) won once with roulette, the slots, or 21. Free entertainment from the fountains and volcanio errupting! A great night, even dinner was just $5 for steak with all the trimmings.

Late to bed, meant the drive back to LA was difficult, especially getting dropped in a less than salubrious part of town.