Hello LA, Goodbye

Ok, so I will admit to being a complete New York City boy. I love everything about New York and having visited the city too many times to count. I would seriously consider living there. It is with that attitude that I knew coming to LA and understanding that much has been made in the States about the rivalries between these two cities whether it’s the culture, attitude, food, weather, the people, everything, would be a treat – or at least I hoped that would happen. Now having said how much I love New York, I may have - ok, I did go to LA with some biases already in place BUT I was still ready and in fact very excited to finally be here. So what’s the verdict?

Well, I place it just slightly above Singapore in that I was decidedly ho-hum about it. Sure the weather was great – sunny in fact and warmer than San Diego; lots of palm trees; the LA train station - when I arrived from San Diego, is absolutely beautiful, and I did get to see the giant Hollywood sign on the way to my hotel. But. It’s surprisingly dead at night (I wonder, did that depend on the neighbourhood you were in? I wasn’t sure? I was in West Hollywood, did that make a difference? These aren’t rhetorical questions, I mean I really want to know). You really do have to drive just about everywhere to get anywhere as it’s so sprawled so I didn’t get out much, and; frankly I just wasn’t getting into it the visit altogether. As for the rivalries? Who knows. If I had stayed longer, would I have liked it more? I ended up leaving the city with more questions than answers. A question remains though: would I go back? With Singapore I said no, but with LA, I’m not quite ready to close the door yet.

Ah well, at least I can say that my room at the London West Hollywood Hotel was awesome; my dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s At The West Hollywood restaurant was good (really wasn't that memorable to write anything significant other than the restaurant itself is beautiful - yeah I'm shocked too) and I had a pretty great view of the city. Oh and did I mention that I arrived right in the middle of LA Pride? I didn’t? Well I did. Not much else to add there.



Next: San Francisco!