Los Angeles


While the Vancouver airport was quiet, when I arrived in Los Angeles early evening the airport was bustling. Flying in you could see endless lights of the sprawling big city. I started chatting with the guy sitting beside me, and discovered that he was also born in Durban. He and his wife had just got married and were heading for a cruise to Mexico on their honeymoon. So I gave them the freshly printed info sheet about my upcoming couples massage workshop and they were quite enthusiastic about it.

I had been one of the last to board, so there was no room in the overhead bins for my bag, which I was reluctantly forced to check. So despite travelling light, I still had to wait about half an hour for my bag. 

The hotel shuttle appeared minutes after I called for it, and with all the heavy stop and go traffic, and stopping at other terminals, we were slow to leave the airport. Driving through the busy streets I couldn’t help wondering why anyone would want to live in LA. More than 12 million people live here. (Though not as unbelievable as Mumbai with a population of over 21 million people!)

While my hotel check-in went well, I got lost looking for my room, and ended up outside between the three buildings that made up the hotel. After wandering around trying to figure out where to go, I found someone who worked there who showed me the way. He explained that the hotel has three separate buidings which were each built at different times, and which are not well connected.

While I had thought there were lots of restaurants within walking distance, I was told at 8 pm when I was checking in that they were all closed. So I ordered a pizza from Dominoes. The person taking the order had trouble understanding the hotel address which they had me repeat multiple times. Then they told me they could not process a Canadian credit card, connected me to someone else, and I had to give my order all over again. The first person I had spoken to was working from a call centre somewhere else in the world!

Monday was a slow travel day, so I worked on my website and caught up with a few things. I got to the airport around midday, and have been reading and waiting for my afternoon flight to Guatemala City that leaves at about 4 pm with a slight delay.

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