That would have been the longest non-stop flight I've been on I think, clocking in at 15h40m. The fact that we left Dubai at 8.55am local time and then had "sleep" mode in the cabin (dark, only the "stars" were on) for most of the flight whilst being served breakfast and lunch, didn't help the body in adjusting.
The flight was fully booked and there were a large number of infants on board, but no over the top crying thankfully. It was a bit annoying that we had the window seat and next to, it meant I had to ask the lady next to me to stand up every time we needed to stretch our legs or go to the loo.
The guy in front of me (maybe 15-16y, part of a larger Arabic/Asian family) was apparently never taught any manners and his lack of respect for the air hostesses was apparent. Whenever they asked him to do something he had to question it. When he rang his buzzer, it had to be rung repeatedly. He would interrupt them when they dealt with other passengers and they had to tell him several times to be patient and wait his turn. They also had to tell him at every instance to move his seat to the upright position: start, both meals and landing. When he stretched he put his hands on my screen. I was too tired to say anything.
After the landing at LAX we made our way through immigration. Our VISAs were both fine, however when we mentioned the date of our return flight (3rd Jan 2013) we were told we can only stay 6 months, meaning we'd have to leave on the 29th Dec. I was already being put through as "referred" whatever that means, so he had to call a supervisor and then another supervisor to make sure he could actually let us in the country and reverse my "referral".
In the end his supervisor told us that if we wan to leave on the 3rd we need to have left the country before then so we are not in the US for 6 consecutive months, and Canada and Mexico don't count.
He said South America would be the closest. So we have to look into a little side trip to South America if we want to spend NYE in the US!
From there we grabbed our luggage and took a cab to the hotel, which came to $65.
The hotel is nice, has everything we need (fridge, good bathroom, free wifi) and is located a few steps away from the metro underground station.
We arrived here about 4pm, I freshened up as I was feeling a bit yucky after that long flight. I wanted to get our SIM cards for the phones sorted and get some supplies so we went ahead and walked to RadioShack, which our hotel guy said may be able to help out. It turned out they didn't actually sell the cards, but the guy referred us to a particular AT&T store, because in the closest one "the customer service sucks". Directions were pretty easy, just follow Vermont Ave until you hit Santa Monica Bvd, turn left and then it's a 10 min drive. He definitely recommended to drive there - but I guess that's because not many people here are used to walking...
Well after a roughly 2h walk during which we got to see a bit of the very ethnically diverse neighbourhood (heaps of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Armenian, Ukrainian places to eat), we arrived at the store 5 mins before it closed :)
The guy there was very helpful and set us up with our SIM cards and phone numbers.
We had a bite to eat afterwards at a place called "Flaming Broiler", which serves Asian style rice dishes with various meats and veggies. All very healthy! After a yummy and filling meal we went upstairs to Target, which btw is open on saturdays until 11pm thank you very much. We got various supplies, mostly drinks and I also got a pair of clippers, since I couldn't take mine from Australia as the powersupply is only 240V and can't handle 110V.
Spotted some interesting goodies in there too:
Milo in cans.
I couldn't resist to buy the twinkies and sno balls :)
