Hello All!
Been dying to write this email to you guys, but haven’t had the chance to sit down long enough. It's been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks for me, where do I start...
The flight from Australia to Vegas via LA was extremely tiring (14hr flight), after working at Ansett for close to 3 years I had vowed never to eat aero plane food, but my hunger got the better of me. On the plane there was some troublemaker sitting behind us, I think he drank too much alcohol and started threatening the airhostess and engaged in a verbal argument with the people next to us. Eventually they were moved to another seat, which meant Jacky and I had the row to ourselves and we could stretch out.
Stepping out on LA soil was very strange, I think the first thing to hit us was realizing that everyone drove on the left hand side…it was extremely odd. The second thing was that there were black people (African Americans) everywhere…just like the movies…it was way cool! And they way they spoke just cracked us up, I just kept thinking Sarah boy do you need to get your butt over here! ehheehe.
The flight to Vegas was short and sweet, from the air the city looks extremely well organized. In the airport itself there’s a whole shuttle system that takes us to our luggage…its like nothing we’ve seen before. Jacky and I stayed at the hotel ‘Aladdin’ which is a 5 star hotel,it cost us an arm and leg but was well worth it. The hotel was massive and very busy, it took us one hour to line up and get checked in. Jill the girl who checked us in, thought that Jacky and I were honeymooners and upgraded our hotel room. There’s 5 possible types of suites we were meant to stay in the cheapest ones instead we ended in one of the best rooms of the hotel (the 2nd most expensive) it was sooooooooo nice!!
Vegas is beautiful! The photos can’t justify what you see real life…the casinos, the lights, the shops…it’s wonderful!! The downside of it all is the US exchange rate…the US dollar is double ours so even simple things like food and water are extremely expensive. Vegas has the only store in the world dedicated to m&ms there was so much I wanted to buy…but got to stick to the budget so I just left with an m&ms dispenser. We also went to Madam Tussaud’s (felt great to be idiots for a day) and watched Harry Potter at the cinema. The bars and clubs here are mad! And the chics at Cyote Ugly are drop dead gorgeous!
We left Vegas and headed for LA on the greyhound bus (we were sad to go), traffic was really bad due to the thanksgiving holiday period. Our 6hr bus ride turned into 8 but I was so fatigued that I slept most of the way so I found it rather enjoyable. I found LA rather scary…you have the really posh places like Beverly hills but ordinary people just live in very ‘ghetto’ like places it gets scary at night, there also seems to be heaps of crime. We stayed at the Kawda hotel… it was very basic felt like our trip to schoolies all over again! Ehhe.LA is very spread out so Jacky and I would walk 1km and then back everday to Chinatown to get something to eat.
While in LA we visited Chinatown, little Tokyo, little mexico, Mann’s Chinese theatre, the Hollywood walk of fame, Kodak theatre (where the Oscars are held), and some big shopping centers. We went with a tour to visit celebrity houses which included: Aron spelling, Courtney cox, Nicholas cage, Catherine zeta jones, Johnny depp and Hugh heffeners playboy mansion itself! The houses were absolutely amazing and the envy of everyone. We also went to visit some famous Californian beaches, which was really relaxing. One beach had this cheesecake shop with at least 20 different types to choose from, Belinda you would have loved it!
LA is a place with no centralised area, to get around its really quite essential that you have a car or you will rely on cabs, since their public transport system is virtually non existent. The shopping is quite ordinary (expensive) and a lot of areas are heaps scary. I prolly wont visit here again.
America is also VERY big on tipping, you’re expected to tip everywhere you go…you give at least 2 bucks which equal $4 aust every time you eat, take a tour, have a door opened, or ask the info counter a question…it will send you broke I tell ya!
Right now I’m in Canada staying with Jacky's uncle, aunty and five cousins… it’s great here his family is really friendly and very easy to get along with! I love Canada it' s just like Sydney only much colder…I’ve yet to start doing all the tourist stuff but I think I’ve written enough for now. So I’ll write again soon …and hope you guys are having an excellent holiday!!
Love Emily
P.S - individual shouts *Hey girls- how was little Jays b’day?? Did you take pics? And how was Dec 4th? What was sarah up to? *Sophia – how was your formal? Have a good time? Make sure u scan me ur pics! *Sammie – where abouts in the world are you now? When will you be in London again? *caroline and jill – hope you guys have a safe trip..send me your itinerary maybe we can meet up in Europe! *marcus- I heard the bush fires are bad…is your house ok? *Babor/Barbara – jacky says to email him or call him so he can see whats happened to the computers. *Rowena sorry to miss you xmas party … * Kat and ivi – weren’t you suppose to invite me to dinner b4 I went hmm…?
Vegas
