7/03 Last night update and San Diego Zoo

The original plan last night was to have a blast with the two Japanese guys, Kenchi and Tako, after they asked to join me on my San Diego Zoo tour today. The greyhound station was just too far away and we’re worried that we would miss it in the morning, so we decided to stay somewhere else that’s close to the station instead of returning to Backpacker’s Paradise for the night. Nice soft bunks were wasted, but at least I had both my big luggage stored there and was traveling light.

 Kenchi is the loud one and Tako is more shy but soon we’re like brothers and talking about all sort of stuff. They kept saying that they would really love to go to Taiwan and I told them my experiences of traveling in Japan. 

Things went pretty smooth and we located a McDonald’s that’s not far from the station and decided to stay there for the night. Unfortunately at 9 pm, the manager told us that they’re going to close! Not only was it not open 24h but it also closes that early. We went to Burger King that’s just across the street and they closed at 10, leaving us nowhere to go.

The area was pretty remote and filled with homeless people and some look like gangsters especially in the dark. And some of them are just smoking weed in the streets. We dare not wander around or too far from the station and it was getting really cold at night and we had only shorts instead of pants, my knees were getting more and more painful as the night grew long, for I used to do sports in winter with shorts and rode motorbikes with shorts and these really damage your knees. 

Tako suggested about buying beer and have some fun, but fun didn’t last long, the two Japanese dudes got drunk so fast, each had only 1 and a half can and started gibbering in Japanese and I was completely ignored by them, they also went from the chairs to the ground and started wrestling. Both went deep into sleep and started snoring after a while. I dare not sleep or even close my eyes, for we’re in a dangerous neighborhood and these Japanese fellows can’t be trusted to protect us and our belongings anymore and I was really afraid of getting robbed or money stolen. (It was really dark, cold and filled with weird strangers smoking and shouting all kinds of crazy stuff). 

I had no choice but to listen to music, kept on chatting with three of my friends and thanks to the time difference, they kept me awake from 11 pm to almost 7 am, and I didn’t even take a nap. To sum up, since the morning I got up to catch my flight to the morning that I took the bus to San Diego, I haven’t slept for 48 hours and I was feeling so fragile and exhausted. But look at the Japanese, all happy and relaxed on the ground.

I wasn’t in my best mood the moment we arrived in San Diego and I really want to go back to my dorm and sleep for the whole day. The weather was still cold and the second we came down from the bus we’re surrounded by homeless people asking for money, cigarettes and light, which I had none. We departed and made our way to the San Diego zoo after having some McDonald’s breakfast, and it was already 11am and the line waiting for the tickets just couldn’t be any longer.

It was 50 dollars per person for the entrance fee by the way and that’s really too large an amount to pay to see some animals. But since San Diego has always been famous for its zoo, and this year is its 100^th anniversary and we had bought our bus tickets and traveled here, we still paid and went in.

The park was huge, nicely organized but some of the animals couldn’t be seen like wombats, anteaters and other cool species, but it was still a lot of fun. I wouldn’t they the zoo is worth paying 50 dollars, but the experience is.

Our soles were aching so badly and torn on the sides, my knees still hurt and I really need to get some sleep. Tomorrow’s the fourth of July, the day Kenchi and Tako leave and also the day that Ariel will join my company. (Originally Kenchi and Tako are going to leave today but they heard about my trip to San Diego and asked to join) We’re still waiting for the bus to Los Angeles, it’s going to take 2 and a half hours, and 40 minutes from Greyhound station to the Metro Station, around 30 minutes on the Metro including transferring from blue line to green, and then to walk for another 20 minutes from the Metro Station back to Backpackers Paradise. Sometimes it would have been much better if the country was smaller.