I was awake before my alarm again. I lay there checking fbk and sending messages, instead of getting up, I justified it by saying that I didn't want to wake the others up, even though it was 7.30am and their tickets said they were checking out too. Dave's alarm went off so I got up. When I came out of the shower everyone was up. I chatted to Ellie from NZ and Claire from Milton Keynes, who had done camp America previously. I was telling them about G and they knew the answer to the cosmic number! They told me some other camp stories and games, then they had to head. Dave hung about til everyone was packed up as he'd lost his keycard and wouldn't get his deposit back. He eventually found it in his shirt pocket! He then headed out for a run before checking out.

I headed to check out about 9am and put my luggage in the store with 2 hours until I needed to head to the airport. Had a long call with Wendy on viber. Then headed off to post my sleeping bag on. I walked through a corner of the Tenderloin, eeek! A lot of down-n-outs. Found FedEx on O'farrell street...$220 to ship the damn thing to Oz! The curse of the bloody sleeping bag! Went to the post office in the basement of Macy's who quoted $29 to ship if I packed it and $47 if I used their stuff to pack it. So off I set with time running out to find materials to pack this darn bag!! Found the perfect sized box in Walgreens just around the corner. On the way I found a shop that sold professional hair produces! Bingo! Burst expensive shampoo and 2 hair clips that I'd lost, now replaced! Things were working out! Returned to the post office packed the box and completed the forms. However, now the package was $52 to post because the box had put the weight just over 4lbs!! This sleeping bag is going to be the curse of me, I mean, honestly??? I'd been through enough trauma with it, I was committed and I was paying my money!

I walked on back to the hostel. Picked up my bag, checked my emails in their fee wifi, who knows when the next free wifi would be available, then headed to the airport just after 11am for a 2pm flight. I walked to Powell Street station and caught the BART to the airport. Then the AirTrain to terminal 1. Checked in, passed security, where I got a body scan, bought a sandwich and sat and people watched until I boarded. When I was boarding, the plasma had a list of names on the board and their category, my name was there with a category code of B. The next screen said that first class upgrades were available to those with certain categories listed. Of which mine was there, so I asked when I handed over my boarding pass and she gave me an upgrade!!!! It wasn't Emirates first class as it was a domestic flight, but there were good perks! Free food and drink and I was even able to get wifi, so the entire flight was spent on facebook and calling people on viber, to which I received many dirty looks; from those clearly less articulate in technology!

I disembarked, or deplaned as the American crew said haha! Collected my bags and headed outside to find someway to get to my hostel. I settled for a shared van ride for $15. He sent me to a bench to wait. I sat in between two men, an old guy on my right and a guy in his 40's/50's on my left. I asked the guy on my right if he was waiting for the bus. He was waiting on a lift at sometime between 4-6pm. We got chatting. He was an ex-special services from NZ. He had a team of ex-special services guys based in West Africa protecting local fishing fleets, he also had a production company who filmed the activities of the team for a programme which broadcast on American networks. He was in LA as he had a major sponsor in Santa Barbara. We talked about all the countries he'd been to on ops while he was in service. He told me a story about some of the private work had done on recon and intelligence. He'd worked for a massive global dairy company based in India who thought their systems were being hacked into. The story ended in him and another guy in the cupboard of a hotel room and jumping out to catch a guy loading data onto a stick! He's the most fascinating guy I've spoken too. He gave me his card and said to give him a buzz when I get to NZ...and I will. His name was Pete. My bus then arrived and we said our goodbyes and gave best wishes for onward travel. He was cool, he said 'keep safe'.

The minibus journey travelled to a few residential addresses to drop some people off. I arrived at my hostel, Stay on Main, which is part of the Cecil hotel. The reception area was very modern and cool which was a good start! When I got to the room, there were 6 beds, 3 bunks, a Chinese girl was lying on my bed!!! She got off without a word and sat on a red chair shaped like a hand. There was a sink and a plasma tv in the room, which was quite cool. The room was also ensure which was unexpected, as I was sure that there were only rooms with shared bathrooms available when I booked. I set out everything for the morning. As i knew it was an early start with the bus leaving from a hotel, Kyoto Double Tree Hilton, for which I was unable to book due to lack of availability, 6 blocks away at 7am. The thought of getting ready at 5am with 5 other sleeping in the room was a pain in the ass. So I wanted to be as organised as possible. The cupboard with the lockers stank of smoke and I struggled to find one, even though there were more than 6. I climbed on my bed to sort some papers out with the intention of heading to the Kyoto about 6.30-7pm for dinner before the contiki tour welcome meeting at 8pm. As I was checking my paperwork, I thought I'd just check my contiki paperwork. I'd got the time wrong, the meeting was at 7pm and it was now 6.30pm and I had to get ready and walk 6 blocks!! It also said to check the Contiki board in reception for the location of the meet up which made me question whether it was even at that hotel! That was dinner out of the window and maybe my opportunity to get in there early with meeting my tour mates. Got there dead on 7pm! Luckily the TM was in reception with a Contiki shirt on. I'd made it and the meeting was at the hotel. The TM was busy, so I walked up to a group of young people who were chatting, i asked if they were Contiki and bearly got an answer. I asked a couple if other questions and it was clear they weren't the usual type of chatty people I'd met on my travels. I moved onto another group, who gave me much the same reaction, except one girl who was excitable and full of all the other tours she'd done. It was like drawing teeth and being back at school. I couldn't decide if they were all really nervous or stuck up their own arses. I can't deny, at that point, I thought, what the hell have I done? It was true awkwardness. I thought Contiki people were well travelled and cool at chatting with anyone.

The TM introduced himself as Tyson and gave brief details of the plan for the morning and then passed round sheets of contact info to be completed. He said he'd hang about for a while to answer any questions and told us to get on and mingle, but warned to be careful if we went out as the first couple of nights were big ones in Vegas. I mingled with difficulty, it seemed like everyone else knew each other. Eventually I came across a couple of nice Aussie girls, Ashley and Chantel, we chatted for a while. Then someone announced that a table had been booked for dinner. I thought it a perfect opportunity to get involved, so a big crowd of us headed to an Italian round the corner. There were already groups formed which made it even more awkward. It turns out that there are two tours rolled into one and the majority of other people were on the other tour and had made a Facebook group. So they already knew each other and had been talking for months. A complaint to Contiki I think, they really should tell you if your tour is part of another and advise to search for the other tour details. They've done this for my NZ tour. Why was it different for this tour? A number of them were also booked into the Kyoto, how did they get rooms???

Anyway, once at the restaurant, all the boys sat at one end surrounded by the young girls already excitedly fussing over them and fighting for their attention. The rest sat at the other end. There were about 25 of us there, it was crazy to think it was only half the tour, how would I get to know all the names far less everyone's story. I had Monique and Rachel to my left who had partnered up, but didn't know each other prior to Contiki. Monique had just finished the Grand Northern tour and been to Vegas and the Grand Canyon on that. I had Jen on my right, travelling on her own and Brooke travelling with her boyfriend who was back in the hotel room. Maria and Lucy sat opposite; Kiwi's travelling together. I was already starting to lose track of the stories!

Monique and I chatted for a while about her travels. She told me that the variety night optional show was crap and that Rachel and her were going to see a proper show. I said I'd much prefer to do that too and she invited me to go with them. We arranged to go back to Rachel's room in Kyoto after dinner to book the tickets. After dinner the boys and young girls went out drinking and we headed to Rachel's room. There was a lot of chatting and not much booking getting done. The girls told me about Frank from the Facebook page and how he'd arranged to hook up with Rachel the day before at the theme parks, he had text her to say he was outside with his ticket and for them to text when they left. They didn't leave for another 4-5 hours. He then text to say he wasn't going on the tour the next day because he was 'culturally spent'?!?! Weird...

It was getting late and Monique and I arranged to share a taxi home and in the morning, she was staying in a nearby hotel, Miyako. I was saying how I wasn't looking forward to getting up so early with others in the room, especially when I was going home so late and would probably wake then up too! Monique then offered for me to stay in her hotel as she had two double beds! I jumped at that! We headed off, with arrangements to pick up show tickets when we got to Vegas, in a taxi to pick up my stuff. Thank god I was so organised! We arrived at Monique's fancy hotel and set up a covert operation for entry! Monique had a shower and I used her notebook to catch up on Facebook, emails and hostel bookings. We went to bed at 2am and I set the alarm for 5am as we were meeting Rachel at 6.30am at the Kyoto for breakfast before check in for the tour at 7am.

Musings for the day...Los Angeles is freakin massive all low rise with a couple of small groups of sky scrapers. The airport is circa 1960, old and a bit dirty. But that's maybe just because it's the domestic arrivals, international terminals may be nicer, you know, trying to make a good impression on those from 'out of town'.