I find a cab and tell the driver, take me downtown LA –where exactly he says, I respond with you know where the hop on hop off buses go, so I can go sightseeing. This way I will fill in time until the plane leaves at around 10pm. I must have been delirious because it was now around 4pm and I’m sure the hop On’s only go for a few more hours before they would have stopped for the night. The drive took like forever, when I arrived. I looked around and I was amongst a lot of very dull buildings and not what I remembered from a few years earlier when I had travelled there. The driver stops at a taxi rank and says $80 American ($120 Aus). I get out and start to walk, nowhere in particular, just walk, pulling my carryon suitcase behind me. OMG where am I? this is not the place I thought it was, homeless everywhere. Street people, nomads, vagrants, and unhoused. What have I been dropped off in the middle of! It’s obvious there is a very big problem here in LA, I asked a few people, where am I.? Well, guess what, I was, amongst 50 square blocks, and this area is what they call Skid Row. It’s also known as Central City and this area has a long-standing history as a residential neighbourhood for those with the least. Well, the driver sure took me where I wanted to go, downtown LA. I was surrounded by hobos/homeless, it’s an awful term but the easiest way to describe where the hell I was. I walked and walked, stepping over bodies and rotten trash, trying to find another taxi rank to get me out of this nightmare. There was none anywhere. Looking around its was a forlorn stretch of tarps and tents. I tried to circle back to where I was dropped off, but I had no idea in which direction that was, as I had been walking blindly for a few hours. I stopped in at a 7/11 petrol station and asked the dude to please call me a taxi to take me to the airport. I offered to pay him for this service. I can still see his dumb face as he smiled and said, “lady you won’t get any taxi’s coming down here. You need to go and download Uber and book one”. Sounds easy hey, my phone was FLAT. OMG I’m in trouble here. I kept walking, now I am in the middle of the road pulling my carry-on suitcase along behind me. I had tears in my eyes and wished to God I had stayed at the airport. While walking these two guys rode up next to me on broken down pushbikes, they had no shirts on, and the smell was so evident they were homeless or lived somewhere down there. Both had McDonalds thick shakes in their hands, and the next thing I knew they threw the milkshakes over each other. Oh my gosh, REALLY. All I could think was I’m going to get mugged or bashed or murdered. They laughed and I kept walking faster –This is really a no-go zone for most people. I kept looking for maybe a miracle of a taxi rank or an Uber to drive by so I could hail it down. And after over 2 hours plus of walking around and around I saw a security guard having an apple and he was standing outside this enormous sporting stadium. I went to him, crying at this time and asked for his help. I was a hysterical mess. As the phone was flat, I had no idea what time it was and all I knew was I had to get back to the airport before 11pm. This nice security guy said, why would you come down here, and you won’t get a taxi here. You need to have downloaded the Uber App. He said lady, tourists should avoid Skid Row. I explained how my phone was flat – he looked at me, like I was a complete idiot… finally he said he would help me and agreed to book me an Uber. I tried to pay him, but he refused the offer. Finally, my lift arrived and took me back to the airport -It was around 9pm so had I not found that security guard, I don’t know what the outcome would have been. This trip back to the airport Cost $120 American ($178 Aus) what a joke, what an expense, what a nightmare! I was so glad to see the airport, I went into the bathroom and fixed my face, it was evident I had been crying. I was able to get something to eat then wait for the next leg of my journey to Heathrow.

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