Hollywood and Beverly Hills
I was in Los Angeles as part of my short term onsite assignment and the wanderlust bug bit me hard. Weekdays were filled with dogged work at office and the lonely apartment gave me every excuse in the world to hit the road every weekend. I started making plans, religiously mapping the itinerary and booking the tickets. I bought the Los Angeles City pass during my visit to Universal studios, which gave pre-booked tickets for Hollywood Walk of fame tour, Madame Tussaudd's museum and the Beverly Hills tour. I had seen the Hollywood walk of fame and the foot and hand prints at the Chinese Grauman Theater on TV, yet seeing them on a narrated tour was an altogether different experience. So many superstar artists decorating the pathway of Hollywood Boulevard and not to mention the Cosplays on the sidewalk dressed as Batman, Captain Jack Sparrow, Michael Jackson, etc gives you a piece of their legend and their impact on the rest of the world. The tour guide told me that Hollywood became Hollyweird a long time ago and not many locals appreciate the new weird crowd of wannabe superstars in search of fame, particularly the cosplays who might be wannabe actors who are faced to wear costumes and pose for photographs for their living. Hollywood is also a land of broken dreams, not everyone made it to the top. The Chinese Grauman theatre, the El Kapitan, the Egyptian and the Kodak theatre - where the Oscars were given, are genuine historical monuments which needs to be visited. The Kodak theatre tour banned photography, which was very characteristic of its name. Duh :|. The Beverly Hills - meet the stars tour is a blatant invasion of privacy of the stars we admire and hope to catch a glimpse. Beverly hills is a posh neighbourhood on the hills with exotic houses, apartments and villas costing tens of millions and a ton of Paparazzis. I could still recollect the stream of paparazzis outside Tom Cruise's home, gawking and on the trigger for a snap if he and Kate ventured out. Another jaw dropping moment was when the tour bus took us to Rodeo Lane, the street where stars shop and dine. As expected everything was obscenely expensive to keep out commoners and yet fabulous to attract the rich and pretentious. The tour guide gave us tid bits about the places in Sunset Boulevard where Paris Hilton goes to party and the spot where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car and the slums of Beverly Hills where apartments cost 1-5 million as compared to 15 million and above on the hills.. uffff .. I just grasped every darn thing he said. All in all Hollywood is very well connected to the rest of the city via the LA Metro Underground Red line and the numerous Buses from North Hollywood. It was the perfect destination to drop by and get indulged.
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| Hollywood and Beverly Hills |
