Day 258-259 - Days With Ivan

Day 258 (Saturday 28th) - EDC

After checking out I spent a large amount of today dicking around on the Internet, waiting for instructions from Ivan as to what I should do tonight. I also wandered around the beach a bit, walked up main street, had a bagel and watched the world go by, did some very mild shopping (nowhere seems to sell spray anti-perspirant, it's all wierd roll-on or stick stuff, both of which I disagree with on many levels) and bought a phone for $90 or so. Eventually Ivan emailed me to let me know the address of the hotel we were to be staying in, and gave me an ETA of about 5. In the end, I got there at half seven, and he didn't arrive for a good hour or so, so I ended up sitting like a lemon in a crowded hotel room with a load of strangers, all of whom were getting dressed in their best rave finery - garish stuff for dudes, and tiny corset, fishnet and lacy underwear for the girls. Awesome. When Ivan (and my ticket) arrived, we did a wee bit of pre-partying, snorkelled some vodka and red bull, and away we went. When we got there (we being about 10 of Ivan's housemates and friends) there was a massive queue/scrum for the entrance, in which we lost and found everyone a few times. Ivan estimated that he knew 200-300 people there, and I can easily believe it. There were so many gorgeous girls, mostly clad in just underwear and heels, which ruled. Also a fair few impressive costumes strewn about. We took a while to make it into the main arena, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is USC's home ground for American football. It's a cavernous barn of a place, but nonetheless the pitch-cum-dancefloor was packed with people. We went down into the centre of the melee for a while, and were dancing around for a good 15 minutes before we realised we were dancing to Moby. We stayed until the end of him, and went out of a side entrance to what we thought was the Drum & Bass stage. It was playing a bit of rock, so we turned away confused, but just as we were heading out the MCs got going and they dropped some awesome D & B, which wierdly caused a mosh pit, the first one I have seen at such a venue - it was a lot of fun. We milled about for ages, trying to fight through scrums at various bars to get beers, eventually returning to the coliseum to catch Paul Van Dyk, the headliner. He was OK, but I must say that by about 0320 I was over him, and was looking forward to the end (only of him, not of EDC) at 4. Also the show was soured a bit by some outrageous extortion on the part of some of the bar staff. They were not only giving no change, but were waiting until thirsty ravers shouted "$4 tip!" and so on, before selecting who to serve. I waited for a stupidly long time, and ended up paying $40 for 4 glasses of wine - an $8 tip for the worst service ever.

Anyway, all in all it was an awesome night. We were walking around for a long time trying to find a cab, and found some after an hour or so of wandering, by which time the sky was distinctly bright, as it was about half 5 by the time we got in. Our cab driver was apparently the only Laotian taxi driver in all of LA, and was pleased to hear that both Ivan and I had been to his homeland. Back at the hotel we drank and chatted in the courtyard until the guard moved us on, then moved to the room - we had got a second room, as there were at least 25 people trying to fit into one. In the end 12 people slept in ours, in the bed, the cupboard, the bathroom, and bent all round each other on the floor. There were some strange conversations afoot, concerning a massive basket of apricots (literally hundreds) that Sam had brought with him, and an energy drink called Extenz, which apparently has a Viagra equivalent in it. We may have an Extenz party at some point - then again, we may not.

Day 259 (Sunday 29th) - To Isla Vista

Around 10, those of us who had slept at all got up, and we headed out to the cars for the long drive to Santa Barbara. Our journey included a brief stop at Sam's house to pick up his car and play with his puppies, then a trip to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant, where we all devoured far too much food, then all came home for a nap. I lay in the sun with my hat over my face dozing and reading alternately, then Ivan took me on a tour of Isla Vista, the area they live in. It seems like a cool place, apparently "prone to parties", according to Ivan. Tonight we are going to a few friend's houses, and just generally hanging out - with the exception of the place 3 doors down, who hav been playing Beer Pong all afternoon, the town seems to have a collective hangover after EDC. I should mention, by the way, that Ivan's place backs right onto the ocean - there is just a foot of space between his fence and the cliff that plunges into the Pacific. Awesome.