Advertisement
Published: September 6th 2007
Let's say that was me...
Please let me dream for a momentWell, folks, my holidays did not go as usually planned and I luckily ended up staying one day in Los Angeles; thought it would be a shame not to let you know, so here I am, writing another entry on a non planned visit to LA, which I enjoyed very much.
First, you know how impatient I am, but life is currently teaching me that sometimes things happen because there is always a reason... I remember how anxious I was due to a one-hour delay on my Guangzhou-LA flight, how angry I was that all my planned flight schedule was about to change and yet, I totally ignored what was going to happen to me...
Chaos? Not yet...
From the beginning of my trip to the airport, things were getting a bit messy, I arrived at 12 m and went straight away to the China Southern Airlines check in counter to find out that the limit of the check-in baggage was 32 kgs and 10 kgs for the hand luggage. That was a bad surprise as my baggage weighted some kilos over the limit! What to do? Since my flight was scheduled at 9:00
And the winner is...
Oh, thank you very much; you don't don't know what this award means to me, but let me thank my family first, my partner Julia Roberts who has been so supportive in my career, my lovely friends who -though they haven't been this close to celebrity-, still continue to read my blog...I...I (sniff) can't believe this is happening, thank you (sniff and a bit of laughter) thank you so much.
The people at the back are some of my fans, they are waiting for me to sign their photos and books. You wish, no, I wish...well, we all wish!!! pm, I had time to mull things over and look for ways to reduce my main luggage, no way I was going to pay for extra luggage. The good thing was that since they do not normally count the weight of the computer, I managed to fill one of the handbags with some other stuff from the big suitcase; and yet, there was a surplus... 'what the hell', I thought, and I was right and lucky... in the end, the guy who weighted my luggage for the second time overlooked the extra kilos, thanks China!
As I had some time to kill, I started reading one of my books and after a cheap meal ( there was a lady selling lunches at 15 Yuan in a sort of clandestine way: she had trays from I don't know where and would leave as soon as the police got there), I went to the gate to wait for my flight. As I was going through customs, I remembered that a friend of my sister's has always asked me to buy him a Chinese coke to see how different it is from the one we have in Colombia; funny, there
The Harry Potter Premiere
As I told you, this was magnificent, and I have not watched the movie yet. By the way, have you read the last book of Harry? what a finale, I think it is the best of the bunch. is always a difference in many products, sometimes there is less sugar or mint, etc. Anyway, I asked in one of the shops, but when they told me it was 30 Yuan, I knew there was no way, I was going to pay that ripoff at the airport. I know, we are at an airport where everything is bloody expensive, but still... my sister's friend would have to wait for another year, if I remember to buy it before (4 Yuan), that is.
I was so excited about my return home that I couldn't concentrate while reading. I then tried to devote the time wasted to assign the gifts I had bought to all the members of my family and friends, what a big task taking into account that presents was all I carried in my bags and this time as usual, Santa had many things for everyone.
The airport's announcements quickly started and since I was getting kind of desperate -I had only two hours for my connection flight- I then decided to forget about gifts and started biting my nails... well, I did not exactly do that but I found myself putting
Rocky
A better Rocky than Stallone, believe me, and he is the only one of the museum who is not made of wax, that's Hollywood my life on the brink again as if that could solve something... To cut the story short, our flight left one hour after the scheduled time; as a result, I had only one hour to change planes if I didn't want to miss my connection flight, which... I did miss.
My transformation
The situation in LA was getting out of hand as I couldn't do anything, shame nobody has given me a time machine for Christmas; after doing lots of running in the airport, I got to Avianca's check-in counter to find out that the lights were out and that there was nobody there. Crazy and reckless as I was at that moment, I run upstairs to the queue where you have to show your boarding pass before they let you in; I was begging one of the supervisors to overlook my boarding pass as I had my ticket, but then she was right to tell me, she couldn't, so off I went trying to find a ''nicer'' supervisor in another queue; no wonder, I had the same response: 'without a boarding pass, we can't let you in and if we do, we'll end
up losing our jobs' but then I couldn't understand their reasons, my goal was to make them comprehend that I had my ticket but then I had this delay and blah, blah, blah. Funny, only when you are in one of these situations, will you realise how self-centered and selfish you can become, your problem becomes the world's problem and you are not to accept denials. Are we not human beings silly and very, very selfish?
An official, who had seen me in all this rush, took me apart and told me: 'Hey Mister, even if you get them to let you in, you can be arrested once you are there' and that's the bit that did it, it was not that difficult for me to understand the dangerous situation I was putting myself and everybody in. Even if I almost cried my eyes out when I looked at my watch, it all made sense and then I gave up and accepted that I had missed my flight and that I was not invincible. Thanks...China.
Still, I was somehow hoping that my flight would be put off again by another delay, this time it
would favour me. But soon one of the stewardesses from Avianca told me the flight had already left (sniff!) and that I had to go back to the Chinese airline to ask them to book a new flight for the next day and pay for my stay in LA. I was so depressed that I thought they wouldn't do it and wanted to disappear but I was wrong, the Chinese supervisor was most kind and did all the necessary bookings for my two flights. I then asked to borrow the phone and told my family about all this mess, poor them, I thought my mum was about to collapse when I told her, my sisters had gone all the way to my parents' city to wait for me and pick me up at the airport; but then, her words gave me lots of hope, in fact, she said: 'Well, you know, we are so happy that you'll be here in two days', I loved it and all of a sudden, my excitement was back in place and then I was happy when the steward told me, they had arranged everything for my stay.
My hotel would be
Celine Dion
Wow, a shame I had only one day, but...am I really honest? I think the prices of those tickets, starting at $160, were not so appealing to me and the concert was in Las Vegas, but hey, let's say that I did not have the...time to go; if you're still thinking of attending, hurry up, the show ends on Dec 15th. 'La Quinta', the Spanish name means sth like a large estate or a big house, kind of comfortable; I was hoping that the name lived up to the expectations, and it did indeed. I took a free 20 minute bus to the hotel; I liked the place and the location, the staff were extremely kind and all I had to do was to pay a deposit of 100 dollars that I would get back the next day.
I went into my room and that was when it dawned on me what I had been missing on since I first moved to China, the first thing I did was to go to the toilets; luckily, I was to find some western toilets at last. The room was superb, nice colours, pictures, the TV was great and if I may, I have to confess I didn't want to go to bed. Having so many American channels available was unbelievable; For those, who don't know me, I know what a TV set is but I have to explain that in China I hardly watch any programme as there are only two channels in English and the rest -obviously being in
Polite bus drivers
Yeah, thanks to those drivers, I really had a nice time finding the way to Hollywood Chinese- wo bu zhidao. Dawn, I know you understand the feeling, don't ya? I had one of my best baths while being able to smell cleanliness again (yeah, I had been to a hotel before, just in case...) I even had a coffee machine in the bathroom, but then I didn't want to stay awake, so no coffee for me, I thought... I fidgetted through all the channels, stayed put for 40 minutes and then it happened: the little Frank I have inside started telling me: I am in North America, this is my first -though accidental- visit to the States, this is Los Angeles, move your a... sorry, legs and go for a walk...
A pleasant walk
Not relying on my execrable sense of direction, I decided that the walk had to be short; as I was getting sort of hungry, I went to a 7-11 to grasp a beer and some chips, you know, it was a bit hot, lots of wind, what do you need? an American beer, n'est-ce pas?. I was astounded that the fridge for the beers was locked, then I asked and found out that the regulations prohibited
Leave me here, please...
Yeah, that's the point where they dropped me off, just what I needed to see sellers to sell beer after 10 pm. Wow, I was transported to the English early pub closing time; the seller saw my disappointment and told me that this was because we were near the airport. So, I had to decide to buy another drink, coke? no, lemonade? no, funny I was tempted by the vanilla capuccino, sth I hadn't tried before and I was happy with my choice as it was kind of sweet, well done LA!
I went back to the hotel, you can imagine after a midnight coffee, I was not that desperate to fall sleep, then I watched two nice films, one of them was with Samuel Jackson about this basketball team, kind of nice but very predictable. Those films together with the jetlag helped me to stay awake for almost the whole night though I remember dozing off at times. At 9:00 am I woke up and decided I should go and see a bit of LA for my flight would not leave before 9:00 pm; so off I went to reception to ask for the nearby places to visit, and guess what? they say: ''Hollywood'', what????? I had forgotten where I was
lots of shops
Guess where I bought my Oscar's statuette? and my excitement was such that I didn't go to my room to change or take anything with me, well, I had my wallet, what else would I need for my rendez-vous with Julia? first things first, I had to find out how to go without worring about the way to come back.
On the way to Hollywood
The waiting was long and then I went and asked two people, one shop assistant and one of the drivers who looked very hispanic, it turned out he was from Ecuador and he gave me a ride to a closer bus stop. I took the bus and I must say the politeness of the drivers left me speechless, they tried to help me and even one of the lady drivers waved me goodbye when I got off the bus. No, I am not saying it was like being Alicio in Wonderland but hey, I hadn't seen such politeness for a very long time that I felt I was a VIP customer taking a tour on one of so many Chinese destinations.
I had to change buses and asked the second driver, another woman,
Shops 2
Or was it here? maybe to drop me off at the place where the tourists normally go in Hollywood; I remember my agitation when she asked me to get off at the Star Boulevard, the first thing I saw in front of me was a big theatre which was ready for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix; the theatre's name was the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which was built in Hollywood in 1927; it actually gives the impression of a Chinese Harry Potter castle, I thought it was stunningly beautiful, no wonder, it is now one of the best landmarks of LA, I just loved it. To my right and left, there were souvenir shops selling Hollywood stuff: photos of the stars, keyrings, t-shirts, funny things, which, to my surprise, were not that expensive; but a film freak as I am, the thing that really caught my eye was the Oscars statuettes on the windows. Without looking at the price, the text was enough: 'The best parents in the world', I took it to the cashier and then I was ready to be a loser having bought my first Hollywood's souvenir.
Vine Street: Hollywood Boulevard: Paying $15,000 to be
Hollywood's souvenirs
Not telling you where I bought it there?
There were lots of tourists just doing the same as I was, that is looking for their favourite stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is a sort of tribute to a great deal of artists; oh my, you just wonder how the artists feel to have so much publicity and attention from all of us. And there I was too, taking pictures on both sides of the boulevard; for your information, I didn't see Julia Roberts either in person or on one of those stars, I was disappointed. I must have missed her.
I learned that most of the time, stars, or the companies they work for, have to pay for their name to be exposed at the boulevard; and then I thought this Hollywood business is really something, I used to think that you get all the publicity just because you are famous already, but then I read on the internet that in many cases the choice of stars coincide with the release of a new film or the Oscar's Ceremony. Apparently, Nicole Kidman's star was decided as a push for her nomination for best actress in the film, The
They didn't fool me..
I quickly found out that the dinosaur was not real. hehe Hours.
Interestingly, I saw the names of some Spanish and Mexican singers my parents like, such as Juan Gabriel, Vicente Fernandez, or the late Cantinflas. I always thought Hollywood would cater only for the English speaking artists but I gather that it must be the fact that here we are in such a bilingual city -sorry Americans, I know you don't like this- that many of the radio stations and TV channels cater for the big amount of Spanish speakers. I kept on walking on the right side of the street admiring all those big names and on my way back, where I took the other side, I found some shops offering tempting tours:
Hollywood Trolley Tours, Home Star Tours, The Warner Brother Studios, Universal Studios Tour, The Beverllys Hill Tour, etc. anything you ask, they have it and they must be fabulous, I was just imagining myself in one of those tours listening to the guide's comments as well as some gossip about our favourite starlets; the tours were not expensive, I thought, as it was roughly $20 each, but they all lasted for about two hours and as I didn't want to repeat the
same shocking experience of missing my flight again, I was wise not to take any of them.
And the Oscar goes to...
I went instead to the Kodak Theater, where the big Oscar ceremony takes place, it is a large and impressive building which holds many different events but undoubtedly the most famous one would be the Oscar's Ceremony. I was very excited to see the place of so many dreams and hope, I allowed myself to picture some of my favourite big stars walking under the red carpet, how much elegance, beauty and class; I even took myself for a star as I asked a tourist to take a picture of me holding one of the small Oscar statuettes I had bought in one of the shops. Another tourist, who on the spur of the moment laughed and said, it was ridiculous, asked me two minutes later if he could borrow the toy for a photo; you see, the magic of Hollywood is contagious, that was funny . You are entirely entitled to say there were two losers at the Kodak Theatre, and no, I am not ashamed.
I also
Told you, born to be a star
Be it a first or last name, it was a sort of predestination, I am the-one-that-can-be-named took some pictures with some of the stars, well, almost stars, that is; there was this guy disguised as Charles Chaplin, I was taken aback when he called me and said: 'hey, take a picture with me', I thought he had really seen that Jude Law's look in me or perhaps saw me holding the statuette and took me for somebody famous but I was disappointed: after the photo we took -I was thinking he was one of my fans and I was in Hollywood for some marketing-, he asked me to give him a tip, so I gave him one dollar. Never mind my short fame, it was all fun, I then took pictures to the other faked stars but not with them so that I didn't have to pay.
Next, I went downstairs to see the places where the stars made their mark by imprinting their hands and feet, I had a laugh comparing the size of my feet with that of Arnold Swarzenegger and Keanu Reever. The reason? well, you never know if size is important, I always think I can become a star, the potential is still there. And let me tell you,
Him, too, though
The message is, after all this fame and glamour, I would go into politics. My maxim will be: 'Books, films, travel, basketball wnd happiness will change the world' can I count on your vote? I was not the only loser, many people were doing exactly the same, I swear!
In spite of my excitement, I kept looking at my watch all the time; and there I was, confronted to the decision of leaving the place as I didn't want to go rushing to the airport since July 29th was there already (I am so mature now); what a difficult decision to make but since I was not sure whether I will meet Julia then I thought it would be better to leave on the spot.
I reckoned it would be safer to talk to the driver and tell him exactly where I was going, I did that with the first driver but thought that thanks to my Hollywood tour, I had became an LA citizen who really knew his way back to the hotel. So, I did not bother the second driver and... Bingo, a bit lost I was as I got off at the wrong bus stop; fortunately, I had plenty of time and was able to keep strolling, I met a nice Latin lady who told me, the place I was looking for was far away,
Hollywood
Yeah, I was there but I didn't think so, and asked again, a local told me it was just 600 metres away from where I was. So, off I went, got to the hotel and since I had still some time, I ordered my lunch. The menu was kind of tempting with some Mexican dishes, I ordered some tacos, and a big dessert, which I was not able to finish.
To recap...
Things I would never forget from this very quick visit to LA? the politeness of the drivers, the excitement of being in Hollywood and the nice vanilla cappuccino I had. Looking back, it was not that bad to be delayed in LA, that actually made me think of travelling in the USA, that would be great. The moral of the story would be? THINGS SOMETIMES HAPPEN FOR A REASON, that I will remember, I hope.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.197s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 14; qc: 67; dbt: 0.1038s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
dawninshenzhen
Dawn Byers
I do know!
Ha ha! This is a great entry Frank! Isn't it a crazy feeling to be in America after so long in China?