My big trip officially started already Thursday the 8th of September, when I went to the Chinese consulate for a visa to China. Got a Chinese business visa last year through Nokia for the horrible price of $280, admitted it only took 2 days. I read a little about visas and found that as a non-US citizen, I only pay $60 for a visa. Same day rush fee and it costs me $90. So I went to LA to do the consulate myself.
Number 13 in line for a visa when the consulate opened at 9am, waited about 4 minutes. 35 seconds processing time handing over my beautifully handcrafted visa application. No questions asked at all, just a smile and she waved me to the side so the next applicant could come to the counter. Impressive!
I went out and found a park close to the consulate and fell asleep in the sun, surrounded by homeless people with just as much to do that morning as me. Good thing I dress like one, I blended right in and had nothing to fear, haha. They had their shopping carts chained to the light post next to my car. We each took turns to watch out for our belongings :-)
Back in the consulate I ended up standing in line for picking up my passport. Not nearly as efficient as their application process. 45min in a line, 50 Chinese and a hand-full grown up white guys. I wonder if Chinese people are as small as Japanese, I guess I will see soon.
Again the Chinese efficiency impressed me. I got to the counter where she looked at my ID, swiped my credit card, smiled and told me to enjoy my trip to a beautiful country. The DMV could really learn something from this
When I returned to my car I had gotten a ticket for not having a license plate on the front of my car. Had it been in San Diego, I would have to go to the police station to show that I fixed the problem and then pay the fine. In LA they just ticket people, then they can ticket them again some other day, clever but very convenient...
Met with Carl at the AE HQ in Valencia, he had a photo shooting to take care of. I now know how I want my garage to look like and what I need in it! Wow.
After that we were meeting with some colleagues of Carl in Malibu for dinner. There is a freeway all the way there, but why use it? My had the address typed in already in the GPS, and when Carl took an exit 10 miles before the one I was intended to, I just followed him.
Mulholland Highway, the road had some nice turns through the canyons. It was a little scary as the sun had already set and I guess we were speeding just a tiny bit. I tried to keep up with Carl and his Turbo, but no way that was going to happen around the blind corners. We arrived at the restaurant and the adrenalin was pumping. Wow what a ride. Now just some food and a beer, then home to sleep. Yeah right. After dinner, we took another detour, I should have seen that coming, haha. While driving on the I could have sworn I heard my GPS at some point say: "Are you serious?"
If the road to the restaurant had been snarly, think again. This way down through the canyon was some 30 miles with one hairpin after the other. And of course I could not lose face to the other guys, driving Porsche Turbo and Mercedes SLK in front of me, with a Porsche GT3 glued to my rear bumper. Have to admit, I had never been on roads with this tight bends and driving this fast. I was amazed at every corner how the rear of the 911 just got more grip the more I pressed the gas, totally opposite of what I had ever tried or dared
It wasn't until my brakes faded that the canyon drive became just a little too exciting. Driving too fast around a corner becomes a very interesting without brakes, the only thing to do is to turn the car a little earlier and hope the car will not under-steer for too long. Driving towards a wall of stone and just hearing the already too worn tires scream when turning, made me a just a tad nervous I have to admit. I took a wrong turn at a split and had to back up, now being the last of the group. That was good, now I could focus on getting down without having to brake too much. Sweating like a pig I caught up with the other guys at the bottom, but still smiling. This was probably the worst and at the same time the best drive ever. Not even Jere’s bus flying off the road on our ski-trip was that exciting. Too bad I have other plans the next few days, otherwise I would be back with a GoPro camera to document a drive like that. Fun stuff
We drove back to LA on the 101, letting the adrenaline get out of the body slowly. No need to speed at all, not even when some souped up Mustang passed all of us, trying to get one of us to bite. I bet any other time of the day, probably all of us would have picked up that invitation, haha
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