Los Angeles

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David here...

We arrived mid afternoon in L.A after a long 11 hour flight, without the benefit of watching many films as they started them all before they turned the screens on and Air Pacific only show the same films on a loop, though I did manage to see the bulk of Tangled. To make up for not being able to really watch films we drank a copious amount of white wine, making sure that we asked the gentleman serving as his measures were bigger. We jumped into a Super Shuttle (Blue Vans at LAX) who took us directly to our hostel in West Hollywood for only $16 each. We had decided to stay at the Banana Bungalow on Fairfax as: a) it was cheap, and b) it was only a 40 minute walk from the area of Sunset Strip we wanted to be near. The hostel chain has a reputation of being a real backpacker party place and to some extent it lived up to this with a fair amount of noise at times, with the highlight being some drunk bloke knocking on our balcony window at 03:30 in the morning thinking it was his room, despite us being up on the first floor. Nevertheless the room was clean, the staff were exceptionally friendly and the bed was really comfortable.

We got ourselves ready and hit Sunset Strip, where we went to the Rainbow Bar and Grill, home of 80's Glam Metal, and had a massive, massive Pepperoni pizza, before sitting at the bar and chatting with the barman for a while. He explained that it was really quiet for a Thursday night because the night before was the 39th anniversary of the Rainbow and had been packed. After a few more drinks we headed out of the Rainbow to go back to the hostel as it was a good hour walk, with a free 39th anniversary T-shirt under our arms. About 20 minutes into the walk we stopped off at the Saddle Ranch bar and had a few double vodkas before staggering back to the hostel with the plan to go to bed. We got back to the hostel at 01:30 and found the Royal Wedding being shown in the basement area, so we took down our dodgy Fijian rum and joined the other hostel guests in mocking the barmy spectators at the wedding and the ridiculous outfits worn by many of the wedding guests. Though it has to be said, we were feeling very patriotic and felt a genuine warmth towards the future King and Queen of our country. We finally got to bed at 04:00, once the abbey choir started singing.

We woke up and headed out into West Hollywood with one task for the day - to sort out our onward travel in Costa Rica. To be allowed into the country you have to have proof of onward travel out of Costa Rica directly, with the only feasible options being booking a flight (really expensive) or a bus ticket (just plain old expensive). We contacted A Safe Passage with our passport details (scanned images) and travel details and then headed to a Western Union money transfer agent to send the required money. While we cut it fine, the scanned tickets did arrive with no problems.

We had a late lunch before heading back to the hostel and relaxing before the hour walk to The Key Club on Sunset. Tonight was gig night, with Kill Devil Hill playing their debut show. The band contained a former Sabbath, former Pantera and a former Ratt/Wasp, though we weren't that interested in them. We were there to see one of our favourite bands - Vains of Jenna, who we found out were supporting KDH just a few days before. We arrived as the first bands were starting, with a pirate/gypsy/Irish band called The Pirates Charles being quite good fun. So Vains of Jenna arrived onto the stage to a rapturous welcome before, unfortunately putting in a really lazy and lacklustre performance, which was a real shame as the 3 other times we'd seen them before in the U.K they have been brilliant. Personally I think it is a symptom of becoming successful in L.A as bands just don't seem to put the effort in once they've made it big on the strip whereas they really have to put more work in to impress in the U.K. It was highlighted by the many 'falsies' who were at the gig, just screaming completely randomly regardless of what was going on on the stage, almost like they were pretending to like Metal and didn't have a clue on how they should really react. I find this with many American crowds at times - they just seem to be pretending most of the time. I know this sounds like I'm up myself, however I've seen this a few times now with my own eyes. When you have a crowd that adore anything you do regardless, as you're the next big thing, how do you know when you've been good or bad? Anyway, as a punishment, we refused to buy the new album...though I'm sure we'll get it next time VoJ play Wildside. Despite this, we still had a really fun night . We got back to our hostel at 02:30 and crashed out.

The next day we again had one major task to complete - to obtain a Latin American phrase book and a Central America travel guide. We found the Travellers Bookstore on 3rd Street about 40 minutes walk from the hostel which had everything we needed (though not a Rough Guide unfortunately). We chatted with the store clerk who we found out had only been back 4 months from his own round the world trip. While chatting a girl came in looking for information on the U.K as she was going to Worcester in July and travelling for a few months. So we recommended The Cardinals Hat in Worcester, a great Austrian bar, and Warwick castle nearby. We also recommended that she book train tickets to get from London to Worcester straight away as she thought she would be able to buy tickets on the day in London, which she would've been able to, however at well over £100. That's the one bit of advice we would give to anyone travelling into the U.K - make sure you book onward travel away from London at the earliest opportunity. Anyway, after a tasty lunch at Johnny Rockets on Fairfax we relaxed for a bit before again heading to the Strip.

Tonight it was the turn of the Whisky-a-Go-Go, with Bang Tango to entertain us, and the usual bunch of poor support bands that the clubs wheel out to warm the crowd. The first band we saw were already on the stage when we got there, a bunch of 10 year old kids called Haunted by Heroes, who were actually pretty good. However this being America, the Whisky had to top that by bringing on an 8 year old rapper called L'l P Nut, who did his own poor cover of Walk this Way with the older boys. There's loads I could say about an 8 year old rapper however the only thing I will say is....what has an 8 year old got to be angry enough about so that he goes on stage and raps about it? Anyway, once this fiasco was over with we had a real treat in store for us.

The next band were called Baton Rogue Morgue from Finland and blew everyone away. They were stunning. Real Heavy Metal with a touch of Glam (Cowboy hats and Platform Boots) to them. We bought the CD from them straight away. These guys are now officially our new favourite band. They were everything that Vains of Jenna should've been the night before. The rest of the bands were all O.K however we left before Bang Tango finished as they were a little boring and the dictatorship of the Whisky was really starting to get to us, you are not allowed to sit downstairs if you're not drinking....despite that you've already spent all your money on drinks the whole night and you are not allowed to stand in certain places at the random choosing of the security guards walking round. We got back to the hostel at 02:30 and again crashed out, before being woken up by the drunk on the balcony I mentioned earlier. The final day was spent getting our onward Costa Rica tickets printed out at the nearest Pinkos (A good 40 minute walk away - just buy a printer Banana Bungalow). We then stopped off at a Chinese cafe for lunch before being picked up and whisked away from L.A ready for the next stage of our trip - Costa Rica.

This blog sounds a bit like we had issues with L.A. This couldn't be further from the truth. We Love L.A. We felt right at home when we arrived and were sad to be leaving. We had a great time and already think we will be going back in the future - and this time we never even left West Hollywood. We hoped to get to Universal or Six Flags, but found we just didn't have the time. Too much to do at night meant we didn't really get a lot done in the day. Maybe next time.

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