Full Circle

After being back in Sydney a couple of weeks, it's still interesting to reflect on the differences between this "Europe in the South Seas" city and the heartlands of The Industrialised World in which we spent the past few months.

Sydney is awash with sunshine in summertime, insects abound, the mangos and cherries are really amazing, and the beach is a daily paradise.

Sydney is beautiful in spite of the best intentions of all the generations of urban designers that have tried to bury the environment beneath endless strips of poorly laid, buckling concrete and a transport system that fails, in fact, to transport anyone anywhere.

Sydney has a small-town feel that I hadn't previously noticed. It seems strange to see large groups of men standing around in parks, by the roadside, drinking, talking, fighting. People seem to have a higher sense of individuality, fashion is more diverse, people move quickly but without urgency.

We are looking at Sydney with different eyes from the ones we left with. Both the limitations and charms of Sydney are more apparant.

Travel Stats

• Plane: 42,000 km


• Train: 1,000 km


• Automobile: 7,000 km


• Hotels: 24


• Hostels: 3

NYE in Vegas

Due to a late start, we didn't get a chance to go through Death Valley on the way to Vegas, but the traffic out through the Mojave desert was terrible anyway, so this turned out to be okay. Accidents and heavy traffic choked the freeways and we inched along for a lot of the way.

But as soon as we arrived to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, all was forgotten and forgiven. We're not gamblers, and we still aren't, however hard the Vegas system tries to get into your head the message that gambling is fun, sexy and rewarding. Hard Rock Casino spoke strongly along these lines, the game floor is the best looking casino we saw, filled with young sexy people dressed to kill. Our room in the hotel was by far the coolest room we had stayed at (it was up high, and had a rock-star's casual pad kind of vibe).

Therein lies the only obvious charm of Vegas. The message is this: You, the common schlob, can come here and we will treat you like a star. You can dress in your tracksuits and walk around with your plastic pitchers of beer and vomit on our streets and our police will protect you and our waitresses will pretend you are a celebrity and you will believe in the absurdity of this desert city that is somehow, at night, stunningly beautiful, and charming (and surreal) and the memories you will take away are ones of the buzz of participation in a sexed up, crowded hyper-reality that is more dream than reality.

The deals we had on our hotel at least were great. $40 bucks for the Hard Rock and a mere $160 a night (not including the NYE surcharge) for the MGM Signature Suite. $160 is by far the most we payed in America, but it was the absolute best hotel I have ever stayed in. Compulsory valet parking is a good start, followed by an intense effort at achieving "stylish luxury" throughout the entire hotel. The staff are under orders to strike up friendly conversations at every opportunity, which they manage to do without being obsequious. The room was up high and had a marble/stainless steel kitchen, the bathroom had a jacuzzi and it's own tv, there was quiet air-con and a fridge and the entire room was huge, new and tastefully decorated.

NYE was about as much fun as it could be under the circumstances. The crowd in Vegas is generally drunken, but surprisingly friendly. One gets the impression that the typical Vegas tourist can hold their alcohol (the casinos have perfected the art of pouring alcohol down the throats of their visitors).

New year's day we spent further luxuriating, followed by the buffet dinner at Paris (casino) which proved to be delicious. We were both really hungry, and the deal at Paris is that there are five food sections that have excellent quality and well cooked food from various regions of France. There was a lot of seafood on offer, and we had a lot of fun eating crab, trying the regional highlights, and I personally enjoyed the prime rub, which was quite rare and melt in the mouth good.

Further touring of the casinos helped us to walk off dinner and we drove out of Vegas
the next day well satisfied with our time here.

Coming back from Vegas to a slightly worn-out LAX hotel seemed a major step down. That's the problem with inhabiting dream worlds - there's the letdown when you wake up.

Christmas week in LA

We found ourselves back in LA for our last week of this amazing trip and decided that this is where we would be spending Christmas. We had originally planned to have a white Christmas in Tahoe but since that wasn't to be it was left to me to be the 'Christmas coordinator'. Christmas Eve went off without a hitch and we spent the afternoon at the Getty museum which is an amazing space set high up in the LA hills. Although it houses some beautiful 19th and early 20th century art my favourite thing about this place was the unique architecture, gardens, and view (overlooking Los Angeles). In the evening we went to see a movie in the pretty town of Westwood at the The Village Theater which opened in 1931 and is often used for movie premiers. We watched the movie 'Yes Man' which was really quite funny and much better than I was expecting. After the movie we headed to Church for the 10pm service (much better than waiting for midnight mass in my opinion). It was quite strange to be at a church where the priest had an American accent and the service was so formal, not what I'm used to at all. It was a lovely service though complete with a pipe organ and choir.


Christmas day was a little less organised unfortunately. I had planned a day of ice skating and movie watching but after waking up on Christmas morning to grey sky's and rainy weather my plans were foiled. Instead we spent the day driving around the abnormally deserted streets of LA. At night we visited the Grove with the intention of watching another movie, however it was sold out by the time we got there, so again my plans were foiled....I think Jack was beginning to wonder why he put me in charge by this point. We stood around watching the fountain and the Christmas tree trying to think of something to improve this day, when a Christmas miracle appeared, It began to snow! Snow in the middle of LA...could this be possible? I got my white Christmas after all, what a great way to end the day. OK so it was fake snow coming out of the roof tops but who cares!

After several attempts we finally spent one day skiing at Mount High. It took us ages to get there due to all the holiday traffic but it was well worth the wait. I hadn't been skiing for 12 years and it had been five years for Jack. While he was full of confidence I was a little more apprehensive. After my lesson though I remembered just how much fun skiing can be and I'm proud to say that I only fell over once it sux that it had to be in front of Jack but it was my first time on the chair lift so I can't complain. We both were feeling pretty tired by the end of the day and happy to head back to the hotel for some R&R.

The rest of the week was spent exploring Venice beach, catching up with Jack's friend Harry and his wife, and watching more movies.

LA is a pretty crazy city, its strange to me to see so much going on that the people just seem to ignore. Everyone just seems to go about their business with minimal interaction with the people around them. In the week we have been here we have seen some weird and crazy stuff. A man collapsed in Whole foods and people just ignored him and continued to shop and eat their dinner (paramedics were called). We saw one of the most outrageous car crashes where the front section of the car was completely cut off right up to the windscreen. Luckily no one was injured, however the guy in the car was in a bit of a daze. He managed to stop three lanes of traffic (including us) to pick up the scattered pieces of his car. I guess he figured if he survived that crash he must be invincible. We also walked passed a person lying face down in the bushes on the side of the road, again no one seemed to take any notice!

Aside from all the craziness LA does have a lot to offer and I'm glad that I got to spend some more time here and get to know what this city is all about. I think a lot of people come here and only see Hollywood and downtown and then decide they don't like it much. I guess it would be like coming to Sydney and only seeing Redfern and Kings Cross, and missing all the great things the city has to offer.

With only a few days left to go of this Vacation I'm starting to hear the warm Sydney weather call my name, don't let me down Sydney I need a tan!