A couple of motorcycle clubs descended in the strip right outside my hotel's balcony this afternoon. All kinds of pepped up Japanese bike, almost all of them customized to one degree or another. The riders decked out in their club vests. Must be like 50 - 75 bikes out there, lining both sides of a one way street. Traffic just barely able to squeak through at a snail's pace cause you don't wanna hit a bike when surrounded by 50+ bikes who obviously take this shit seriously.
Accross the street there's one of the many Bourbon St. strip joints. This one advertising "Topless & Bottomless" not that you wouldn't see something similar along Yonge St back home. But here, the "entertainers" occasionally come out for a smoke and it's rather distracting.
Music is blaring loud, a cacaphony of Jazz, Blues, Creole from neighboring stores & bars all trying to out N'Oleans the other. Actually, there's two really good bars with bands playing. One with Jazz that would make an afficianado proud but also a really good blues band playing live.
You can tell this place is tourist central in this city. No wonder when you consider that this district was one of the first things to be seriously rebuilt after Katrina.
The hotel I'm staying in is interesting in it's own right. Built from the "Old Opera House" that was erected in the 1800's, it's a mixture of modern furnitue in the rooms and classical furniture. You walk in and look at the enclosed patio/swimming pool, dining room or seating area off the lobby and you'd think you were in Paris and yet there's HBO on tv in your room.
Between the mix of blaring music, the crowds starting to build, the zanieness of the tourists sporting beads, strippers on the street taking a break, stores selling trinkets & the number of bars, this place is a hedonist's paradise.
Time to explore!!
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