Continued from previous post...

Yes, the night i returned from SD to LA. Met up with Winston after checking in to my hostel (more on that later) and walked along Hollywood Blvd. Yes, it's THE place where u have all those stars, it's the Walk of Fame! We walked to the Chinese Theater, where u will get to see all the imprints of stars' signature like John Woo, John Travolta, Harry Potter stars, even donald duck! Nope, no sign of Mickey Mouse tho... N of cos, my aim was Tom Cruise which I finally managed to find! N Jack Sparrow was there...or his impersonator. Cost me USD1 to take a picture with him! We had dinner at BK, which was a wise choice cos i got a USD15 discount coupon there for Universal Studios! Yes, how lucky!

The Chinese Theater

Me stepping on Donald Duck

That's Tom Cruise!!!

My $1 picture with 'Jack Sparrow'. He's really good

Walk of fame

Well, the street is actually not happening at all! N it was only like 9pm. I had expected it to be noiser n more happening but it was rather quiet n all the shops were like almost closed. No crowds on the streets, except for the Chinese Theater area. That plc was full of tourists. It was like dark n quiet all the way, then suddenly a clutter of lights & noise in that small area... Well, after dinner walked all the way back to my hostel.

Yes my hostel - Banana Bungalows Hollywood. Quite a nice & interesting hostel. Bathroom & kitchen attached to the dorm rooms n the room is quite big n cosy. They have a courtyard at the entrance. I had fun roomies. An Indian English (Raj) and Irish (Comase). Interesting persons to talk with. We had a long long long interesting conversation through the night, talking abt our lives, what was up, what was our plans blar blar... Then the next room traveller from Germany walked in n chatted up with us! He had been on tour since June 2007 and will continue till June 2008! That's 1 full year of travelling! His aim - To find himself n what he wants to be! Wow! That's very admirable! He wants to find out if being a photog is what he reali wants to be, so this trip is a trip to discover himself! Hope he will eventually figure out what he really wants. His next stops would be Australia, NZ, and SEA. Wow! About the Irish (Comase), he was on attachment with a marketing firm in California for the past 3 months n it was time for him to go back home. N Raj was in LA en route to his friend's wedding a few days later... Interesting bunch of pple. Because all of us were at least in our mid 20s, our topics were much more on track n interesting than talking to young teenages. Oh, n they actually thought i was an actress wanabe in LA seeking for fame! Hahah... goes to show that i have the acting chops to make it! It was during this conversation that I learnt that Irish is a language! Hahha...sorry but i seriously did not know Irish as a language actually existed. Our conversation lasted till the next morning abt 5am.. I did not go back to sleep cos I had to meet Winston at 840am to go hiking up the Hollywood sign. So a sleepless night for me... Which affected me in the late afternoon during my stock take.

Me with the HOllywood Sign

Took the Dash Bus to the foot of the Hollywood sign hill and hiked all the way up. Took us abt half an hour to get to the halfway point. Nope u cannot hike up to the sign, but we got close enough to get some pictures. After the hike, i packed up and moved to the hotel (yes, time for some luxury). It was near the airport, hence close to nowhere... Took me almost 2hrs to travel there... N at 3pm, time for my stock take to start! Cos of the sleepless night b4, i seriously had to try real hard to keep myself awake! After 4.5hrs, it finally ended and i just headed straight back to hotel n slept for 12hrs. Room service came knocking on my door twice the next morning to clean my room! Ha, forgot to put the 'do not disturb' sign, made the lady came in twice.

Finally i got up at 1130am and headed to Venice Beach. My walking day begins once again! I walked from Venice beach to Santa Monica and back, n onwards to Muscle Beach. Venice beach, an interesting plc, with a unique quality to itself. Loud music, streets shops and performances... has a hippy quality and characteristic. Onwards to Santa Monica, the music dies off, and everything becomes quieter & more family. There's even an amusement park right at the end of Santa Monica. Onwards to Muscle Beach, where yes, there was a gym by the beach n u can see pple working out there... What a crazy idea! Nice walk along the beach, nice scenery... had wanted to stay for the sunset but decided agt it cos my hotel was too far away...so i went back b4 the sunset. Pity though, cos i think it would have been a great sunset that day...but well....

Venice Beach

Santa Monica, with the amusement park

Beach goers

Near the muscle beach

Anyway, went back to hotel in time for part of the Federer match agt some unknown tennis player.. Yes it's the US Open! N he was great in that match! I could have been stuck to the TV just watching tennis match if I had nothing better to do!