Day 2 ~ Car adventure, LAX Gun Range and Hollywood

I wanted to start off with something I forgot to mention yesterday. I said somewhere how we were living in the ghetto, but I missed out something last night. The dodgiest sight I saw as we walked to the train station. A giant strip club with Neon signs and everything everywhere. Really tacky. That's the ghetto for you I guess.

so our adventures today hinged on the very fact that we needed a car to visit all the places we wanted to go to. Santa Monica to visit Venice Beach, visit a few different Malls to buy some clothing, maybe catch a movie, shoot some guns at a range and Hollywood. To help us we borrowed from the super handy rental car place that the hotel runs. Rates are relatively cheap person running it was funny AND he gave us a dodgy broken half dead car. And we came to grief after 4miles of driving and stopping at the closest shopping centre. (By the way I bought a nice pare of Nike runners for less then $50 – SO CHEAP!!!) After stopping for the first time, we came back to the car where it would not start up. Took him hours to finally pick up his phone and eventually get to us. Wasted our time so much we had to change our plans. Apparently the starter motor seizes up and if you get the wheel nut thing and whack it a few times it fixes it... so... off we go again after that. What a crap car...

So next thing on our list (after deciding to skip Santa Monica and Venice Beach) was the gun range at LAX. First thing we noticed after they let us in was the vast amounts of guns, knifes and all other weapons everywhere! Ammo just out on shelves, opened up and spread all around for people to touch, examine and just plain play with. It's so... disorienting and confronting! But to get to the point... and OH MY GOD!!! it's so much fun!!! It's so unexpected how heavy the weapon is, or how hard the spring in a cartridge is to compress after putting in 5 bullets! Then there’s the recoil and the aiming and well everything. We ended up shooting the crappiest gun they had there which was a 9mm. And my aim? Well lets just say that there is room for vast improvement. Although it could be worse I guess... the important thing is that it was so much fun... and I am so going again!!!

So I met the first unfriendly person today. In a way I knew it wasn’t going to last, but it did make me wonder about the whole friendliness of the people here. Before I came to the US, I was warned by a friend that I shouldn’t expect to meet that many nice people. There are just a lot of jerks... anyway back to the story. So we were in a souvenir shop in Hollywood. I'd picked up a keyring to buy and had taken a photo of the rack of it. Next thing I know the shop keeper yells at me and threatens to kick us out of the shop. I was really disgusted by the behaviour. There are certain ways to do things. Being polite for one thing works really well. That and also putting up signs. Not threatening to kick them out of the shop. Never going back to that shop again.. what a ^&%*^(()&%$#$%^. Which also leads me to mention the parking attendant at the hotel tonight. All the parking spaces were taken so we were directed to double park in the hotel spaces and register at reception about it. So when I queried him or tried to query him about our car being a rental from their own places if this makes a difference and such... I was cut off before I was finished and told to “listen to what I am saying” by the guy. Once we were all done and parked I said thank you to be polite and he was all back to being bright and polite as well. Just makes me wonder at how skin deep courtesy really is. Is it all just an act? Makes me think that they’re two faced and in their heart of hearts they loath everyone else...

Onto the second thing about Hollywood I noticed. Walking down the main tourist strip area I noticed 1) a lot of beggars, 2) a lot of people with missing legs in wheelchairs 3) a lot of local gang type people hanging out and just... chilling... coupled that with a lot of shops around the place and not just in Hollywood, about loans, cash advances, pawn shops and all these other monetary services. Its really scary how everything looks so poor and in such a big state of disrepair. America is really struggling here. The lifestyle here is almost desperate and hungry, and it makes me realise how much of a better lifestyle there is back home.

Back to Hollywood though, we met this really strange man at a hat shop. He was quite interesting and rather nice giving us tips and ideas and helping us finding a hat that fits. After getting some hats he offered to help us get a deal with this tour operator he knew and apparently worked for. Not willing to sound ungrateful we followed behind and planned to claim we'd think about it and all but when we got there the place was closed. The conversation that ensured next makes me want to call him... the Facilitator. He was like one of those people who could get you whatever you wanted in Hollywood. If we want to go clubbing ~ no worries he could get you in... food not a problem he had great deals... something a bit more wild? That's a go ahead too... weed, cocaine... he had the connections. Girls? That's fine too. There’s the ones that are at the clubs and party ~ who I have been informed is really easy to get but they apparently talk to much and are “bitches”. Then there were the other kind... $20 for a nice one apparently and $5 for ones that look like girls but are actually guys. WHAT THE?! Talk about strange conversations... suffice to say we made some excuses and kinda just left.

Not much more to tell really. It's like 3:30am my head hurts from all the junk food so I’ll just wrap it up now. I've noticed that there are a whole load of junk food around... and they’re open 24 hours. I've also noticed a whole lot of people hanging around on the streets for no reason at 1am. Connection? Maybe... gangs? Possibly... too dangerous to go outside to know though...