Clubbin in LA

Nutters dancing and drumming on Venice Beach.
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Well we're nearing the end of our US leg and how could it be complete without a trip to LA. We still had our hire car which was a godsend here as everything is so spread out and there really isn't much in the way of public transport. We managed to get a fairly cheap motel and after checking in, decided we'd head out into town. Rick did some internet research to find some suitable clubs to go to and we headed into town in a cab to an indie club downtown.

We wandered around downtown on the way to the club and saw the famous Chinese theatre and the walk of the stars, I was suprised by how many unknowns there were immortalised in the pavement. I thought you had to be pretty special. Some girls were taking a picture of Chuck Norris's but we didn't see anyone cool enough to warrant a pic.

We couldn't find the Hollywood sign so I bought a platic one from a gift shop and held it up against the hills, convincing no?
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The club was pretty cool, if a bit on the pricey side. It was split into three rooms, playing Indie, Hip hop and house. We stayed until closing at which point me and Rick headed on a bit of a trek to find another club still open. The first place we found had a huge queue that didn't seem to be moving at all, and when we asked how much it cost we got answers ranging from 20 bucks to 100 bucks! After asking around some more, we found another place a few blocks down. It was a hardcore trance-dance club, something I was fairly sure I had no interest in anymore but it actually turned out pretty good. Unfortunatly we had been mislead somewhat in how long it would be open and we ended up paying a princely some for just and hour and a half. Ah well.

An engine from the crashed plane in War of the Worlds. The house behind it is none other than Norman Bates' of Psycho.
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The next day, Patrice and I headed to Venice beach, I was already quite familiar with the area from a misspent youth (actually early adulthood) playing Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2. The beach was really nice and host to a number of colourful fellows. There was an area just off the beach where a group were dancing on rollerblades to a beatbox. An eclectic mix of young and old (and scary). From there we could hear the tribal beat of drumming and looked off to the beach to a huge crowd congregated further down on the beach. We wandered over and there was maybe 100 people sat around playing all types of drums they´d brought with them, while more people danced in the middle as if they were in some trace club. If reminded me of some sort of music festival. The drumming didn't seem to be lead by anyone in particular, everyone just kind of found the rhythm and got into it. After a while is slowed and then stopped for a few minutes, with just a couple of people tapping out more slowly and less intensely. Gradually after a few more minutes (drumming hands presumably rested by now) it picked up again was in full swing. It seems like a strange impromptu thing to do on a Sunday afternoon, I wonder if its a regular thing or just a freak occurrence.

Pyrotechnics at the water world show at universal Studios.
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That evening we headed back downtown for some food in the Thai town. Apparently LA is so big, it's not content with just a China town, it actually has towns for distinct Asian countries! The food was pretty great and as usual tasted better than the thai food I used to get while in Thailand - how does that work?!

The next day we went to Universal Studios which I was really looking forward to. It was somewhat of a disappointment though I'm sure I would have thought it the best place on the planet about 15 years ago. We went to a few movie inspired shows, here are my mini reviews:

The chill out roof garden at club #2
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Waterworld: live action with pyrotechnic effects, 7/10

Terminator 2: 3D cinema with live action 8/10

Back to the Future: Cinema with simulator, bit nausiating 5/10

Animal magic: Animal training show 6/10

IMG_0787
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Van Helsing: Haunted house, 6/10

Mummy: Rollercoaster 4/10

We also went on the tour which is a video accompanied trolly tour of some of the famous sets. Some of this was pretty good. The set of the plane crash from the recent War of the Worlds remake was particularly impressive.

All in all it was a fun enough day, but I´m not convinced we could have spent the day doing something cheaper and better around LA. Especially as we ended up paying extra for the front-of-the-line passes which we really didn't need on a monday afternoon!

After the tour we got back in the car for the last time :( We drove to San Diego where we would be catching the bus early the next morning to goto Tijuana in Mexico. Before retiring for the evening we when to wal*mart where we returned the tent we'd used for the grand canyon. They have a super returns policy and I heartily recommend them for their free tent rentals.

More pics from LA here:

LA Pics