A Private Bathroom With Towels

Joni's Diary:

25th June 2006 (Sunday night)

Arrived into LA for the last time at 11.00pm, and checked into Sheraton Four Points Hotel. I picked it because it was practical – I was arriving late and it was close to the airport with complimentary 24-hour shuttle service and 24-hour day stays (i.e. midnight check-in = midnight check-out – why didn’t the others think of that!?).

For the first time after staying in five different places over the course of two weeks, I knew I was definitely getting towels. Towels! Fancy that. Not to mention a king-sized bed, large open spaces, toiletries, a lobby so massive you could be lost for weeks, and...behold, a lift up to my floor.

Strangely however, in the face of all these universal, modern comforts of a typical Western hotel, instead of falling to my knees and crying Hallelujah, I stepped back and thought - by golly it’s predictable. :s

Then for the first time after staying in five different places over the course of two weeks, I was suddenly immensely glad that I didn’t deprive myself of the multi-faceted, full-flavoured adventure that it has been. I didn’t opt for air-conditioned luxury coaches. I never took a cab to and from any airport. I didn’t opt to be spoon-fed, taken by the hand, to follow the flag of a tour leader, to be told to eat, walk, see the same things as the people on the next tour bus. Yeah, I was on a budget but I shudder to think of all the experiences I would never know of and thus would never miss, if I hadn’t gone cheap. I wouldn’t have experienced charming neighbourhoods, stayed in a lop-sided building in Chelsea, laughed all the way up 5 storeys of stairs in a tipsy state after cocktails with my galpal, savoured the doggy-bag breakfasts at Nana’s Treats, heard the most colourful 'Jerry Springer'-style domestic dramas next door, realised that florists opened 24 hours, or had breakfast on a warm early morning atop a quiet rustic roof overlooking NYC.

What would I get instead?

A private bathroom with towels - metaphorically speaking.

26th June 2006 (Monday)

Caught the $0.75 Blue Bus to Santa Monica after waffles at the hotel. Love floating amongst local Los Angelenos and just observe them go about their everyday lives. Get on the bus. Get off the bus. Sit and stare. Sit and listen to music. Stand and daydream. It wasn't New York. And it wasn't glitzy glamourous 'Hollywood'. They were suburban children, grandmothers, pensioners, housewives, dads and babies. Everyday people of multi-ethnicity and for that 40 minutes we spent together, I was just one of them...