LA van tour.

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Sorry about suddenly cutting off yesterday. I went to dee the Tar Pits museum, which is where they unearthed all these fossils of large mammals and birds in the middle of LA. Eight year old me would have loved it, and 18 year old me quite liked it too.

I finally got on this full city tour that my hostel was offering but kept cancelling due to lack of numbers, so I got to see the whole thing. The driver was this bloke called Mike who is exactly as you'd imagine a bus tour driver in LA being. He was this failed soap actor/metal roadie who liked name dropping people like Harrisson Ford and Slash, but he was a nice bloke and did seem to know what he was talking about.

The first half was places like Hollywood, Beverley Hills and Venice where I'd already been, though we penetrated further into Beverley Hills and I got some prime shots of the Hollywood sign. The afternoon was different: we drove through Watts (a poor area with gang problem) and back through Downtown. Watts doesn't look like you might expect. It's run down but I didn't feel uneasy driving through it. At least, until something kicked off outside a school. Loads of kids just came out and seemed to be protesting and confronting two guys. We got out quite quick.

We also went through Downtown which was mostly just anonymous big city office block, apart from the "Fashion District" which was rows and rows of shops wholesaling cheap clothing pretty much as far as the eye can see. Apparently shops in posher areas buy these clothes, package them up and sell them at huge mark up.

We also went past Skid Row, where the LA authorities box up all the vagrants. There are no shops, just armies of ragged crack zombies which the police sweep past from time to time. Most of them didn't even notice the van.

PS: I'm actually finishing this off in Fiji. It's very hot here, but seems nice. Will update you when something happens or if I even decide what to do.

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Comments

[AJ]

...
Will there EVER be whores and opium dens in this thing? Seriously, though, I saw the tar thing when I went there, and it was really great, but I felt sorry for the plastic mammoths they posed in it for NO REASON WHATSOEVER. If they're still there, that is. And you went to the same place. Anyway, chocolate milk calls, bye dude.

[Stig]

Patience...
Seeing as this is 21st century LA/NZ rather than 19th century Singapore opium dens might be a little thin on the ground. I'll let you know if I see any.

[Hannah]

Are you sure?
Do you *really* want to hear about Max, opium and whores? I would suggest you think about the consequences very carefully...