Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. – Frank Lloyd Wright
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 (DAYS 1,150 – 1,155)
I always find it interesting when crossing the international dateline with the fact that I can leave Asia or in this case Korea on Wednesday 4/29 at 5:50pm and arrive in Los Angeles 10-minutes later at 6pm on the same day! My flight route was with Air China (a fairly decent rating for an airline), but as a budget traveler I was more concerned with price, but it was good to read positive reviews, plus I've never flown with Air China. Fortunately, when I first booked my flight I was given the option of selecting my seat assignments for both flights and they originally showed that ONLY middle seats were available! Of course this is devastating to any traveler, especially for those that have experienced the long international flights, however, I've also learned that by arriving at the airport early to check-in you can often be one of the first to check-in for your flight and therefore be given the option of selecting your seat(s) because of this fact. In this case I was able to change my middle seats to aisle seats and it made a huge difference in my overall experience. I arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) on flight (CA126) with about a two-hour layover, which sounds like plenty of time, however anyone that has flown through China, even without leaving the international transfer terminal you go through not just one, but two separate international transfer security check points that include metal detectors, which is annoying having to dig out my laptop and etc. I made it to my original gate and then there was a sudden announcement that we were to depart from gate E-51 (I think I remember that correctly), either way it was on the opposite side of the airport so everyone is walking at a speed-walkers pace to get there with about 15-minutes to spare. I arrived at LAX on time, just after 7pm and then waited at Terminal 3 for my friend Breean that I met in Peru almost 3-years ago and since she didn't get off work until 10pm (working at LAX), I had a few hours to kills, and even though LAX claims to have free Wi-Fi, of course this never worked for me, so I took a seat and next thing I knew I was completely passed out from exhaustion and woke to Breean poking me awake.
I always find it interesting when crossing the international dateline with the fact that I can leave Asia or in this case Korea on Wednesday 4/29 at 5:50pm and arrive in Los Angeles 10-minutes later at 6pm on the same day! My flight route was with Air China (a fairly decent rating for an airline), but as a budget traveler I was more concerned with price, but it was good to read positive reviews, plus I've never flown with Air China. Fortunately, when I first booked my flight I was given the option of selecting my seat assignments for both flights and they originally showed that ONLY middle seats were available! Of course this is devastating to any traveler, especially for those that have experienced the long international flights, however, I've also learned that by arriving at the airport early to check-in you can often be one of the first to check-in for your flight and therefore be given the option of selecting your seat(s) because of this fact. In this case I was able to change my middle seats to aisle seats and it made a huge difference in my overall experience. I arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) on flight (CA126) with about a two-hour layover, which sounds like plenty of time, however anyone that has flown through China, even without leaving the international transfer terminal you go through not just one, but two separate international transfer security check points that include metal detectors, which is annoying having to dig out my laptop and etc. I made it to my original gate and then there was a sudden announcement that we were to depart from gate E-51 (I think I remember that correctly), either way it was on the opposite side of the airport so everyone is walking at a speed-walkers pace to get there with about 15-minutes to spare. I arrived at LAX on time, just after 7pm and then waited at Terminal 3 for my friend Breean that I met in Peru almost 3-years ago and since she didn't get off work until 10pm (working at LAX), I had a few hours to kills, and even though LAX claims to have free Wi-Fi, of course this never worked for me, so I took a seat and next thing I knew I was completely passed out from exhaustion and woke to Breean poking me awake.
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I still find it fascinating, once again, not just flying across the international dateline but the fact that our travel route took us up and nearly over the north pole.
I still love the images people conjure up when you say the words Los Angeles to those that have never been here, and the fact that my friend lives in West Hollywood, people just assume that it's like the TV shows or movies they've seen, and celebrities are just everywhere. Sorry to disappoint, but this is not true. You may see someone famous if you live here long enough, plus it's a unique place, where it's often about who you know. For example, my friend Josh is buddies with several celebrities, which I feel I should be name dropping so I'll leave it at that, hahaha.
One reason I love the backpacking community so much is friends such as my buddy Breean! We met in Cusco, Peru for maybe a day, but only spoke a few hours and that's when she told me that she is from LA, well since that first encounter I've staying with her not only once, but twice! The first time was when I was flying from Costa Rica via Ft. Lauderdale and finally arriving at LAX, which should have been around midnight, yet due to lightning storms I didn't arrive in LA until around 2am, and yet, she still was kind enough to track my flight and pick me up. A sign of a genuine friend, where we continuously feed one another's travel addiction. While I'm sitting here at LAX on a Monday morning and it's still not even 7am, I chose to wake up early and drive into work with her since she works for Virgin America Airlines and we left her place just before 5am even though my flight departure isn't until 12:46pm, which I was fine with, because I was hoping to connect to the LAX Free Wi-Fi, which when I first arrived was failure after failure to connect.
A map of both Los Angeles and West Hollywood, where Bree lives.
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One morning I woke up, due to the jet lag, which I still continue to feel and am thankful I chose to break up all of my flights from Seoul to LAX to PHX to ANC and so on...I felt a bit guilty not calling anyone or responding much to messages but I had a list of things to accomplish, primarily going into my bank and a quick stop at Target, but the rest of the time was seriously just trying to readjust my internal clock, where on Saturday I was so exhausted by 3pm I slept for nearly 18-hours! Even though Bree's place is comfy little studio, I have come to feel as though this is my second home whenever I come to the City of Angeles.
Since I arrived at 7pm on Wednesday, April 29th and waited for Bree to finish her shift at LAX at 10pm she found me slumped and passed out from exhaustion sitting in front of the Virgin America customer service desk. The following night, I knew my cousin Scott was in Anaheim for business and it happen to be his last day before flying home to Missouri at 8:30am, but we were still able to connect and he was extremely kind enough to take me out to a restaurant that was originally supposed to be on Melrose, but as we were driving and catching up, we overshot our destination and randomly just chose a place that happen to be quiet. Over some fine cuisine and phenomenal whiskey that Scott introduced me to, unfortunately I can't remember the name of it, it was an excellent evening out and my first opportunity to be around family in-person in more than three years since setting out on this journey!
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As much as I hate LA (LOL) I was still grateful to be back in the good ole USA, where not only was English prevalent, but also just the small excitable things such as; a relative order of obeying traffic laws, being able to order food items the way I want, ICE water, flushing toilet paper, and a variety of other things that any traveler will confess to, that by traveling or living abroad you have a new found overview and respect for your home country and the things that you never really thought about or were highly annoyed with before (i.e the U.S. Department of Labor, banks, and etc).
My first full day in LA after arriving the night before, Bree and I would of course head to K-Town (Korea Town), which both us found to be hilarious and ironic because of arriving from living in Korea for more than a year, but she had to go to get her iPhone 6 screen replaced.
For those that live in West Hollywood realize the In-N-Out is always madness, but Bree was kind enough to allow for us to indulge in one of the staples of Cali cuisine! This was the line at I believe around 11:30pm and the drive-thru was about five-times worse than ordering inside.
An aerial overview of the City of Angeles, Los Angeles is such an array and unique in so many ways, that I can't help but think that this has been the cities in the States that have spent more than a few days each time in the past three-plus years and as uncanny as it sounds even while I dislike LA it's starting to grow on me just a bit. However, I'm ready for the next big adventure that will be spending the season in Alaska as a commercial fisherman, I suppose both for the experience and the money, but I think a bit more for the experience. I've joked with friends and family saying that this could be one of the most interesting and adventurous Summers or one of the worst....only time will tell.
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