"New Orleans - The Big Easy" New Orleans by M0B1US

It was with an overwhelming feeling foreboding and trepidation that we journeyed into New Orleans on a Greyhound bus, being told by all and sundry how dangerous this city was and, looking on the map, the station is near the downtown area where the superdome is - which is a bad neighbourhood for tourists!

It was bad enough that we were travelling by Greyhound, but only the night before leaving Miami I had gotten on my high horse about refusing the pay the absurd fees of $1.50 to $3 just to draw money out of an ATM (most banks in NY were free - as they bloody well should be!!!) and hadn't withdrawn any extra money until we realised we were arriving in NO with about $8 to our names in cash!

To cap it off, we were arriving just days after the Mardi Gras and hadn't been able to get any accommodation as everywhere we tried was booked out - we were coming into a threatening city with no place to stay!

As the bus came into town towards the station it seemed as though our worst fears were being realised - the area around it looked run down and seedy and the Greyhound station was first one that we had seen protected by electric steel gates and barbed wire!!!

Once in the station, I found the tourist volunteer desk but realised we needed some cash for a taxi - during this time my girlfriend actually witnessed someone trying to break into the only ATM in the station and stop it from working before running off!!! The only security guard in the station was decidedly nonplussed about this event and could barely be bothered to do anything about it, as if it were a regular occurrence...

The next nearest ATM is a few blocks away and as an obvious tourist, hardly the most intelligent place to get money from.

Talking to the volunteer tourist desk gets our first break - he seems like a kindly man and recommends the interestingly sounding 'Bed & Beverage' for only $45 a night in the French Quarter...

So, we head outside to the taxi rank only for our hearts to drop again - they have to be the seediest collection of taxi drivers I have ever seen and we try to pick the least seedy looking one hoping for the best, we ask how much it will be and he estimates $7-8...

Once in the taxi, the meter starts moving like it's on speed - truly I have never seen a meter go that fast and it's rate was obviously set to 'rip off the helpless tourist' as our journey was only a mile or so and we actually got him to stop a hundred yards up the road as we scraped through our wallets right down to our last nickel!!! He was well pissed off that we didn't give him a tip, but I figure he must've screwed us out the the equivalent of a tip anyway as that ride was the most expensive cab ride I've ever had on a cost to distance ratio and made London's Black Cabs look like they were charging 3rd World fares!

Could it get worse I hear you ask as we stood outside our accommodation with $0.07 to our names? What kind of a lowlife hellhole was the Bed & Beverage anyway???

Stepping into the Bed & Beverage's courtyard was like stepping through an invisible forcefield where in an instant we left behind the fearful trials and tribulations of our terrible day and arrived in a Shangri-La like parallel dimension of hedonistic pleasure and good times - we had finally arrived at the Big Easy!!!

Despite that hair raising start, New Orleans is probably my favourite city in the US - though I wouldn't actually want to live here because it's full on 24-7 and you almost feel a kind of seige mentality because of the constant warnings of danger!

The locals are the friendliest people I met in the whole of the US, but it is interesting to note that most would leave if they could - New Orleans is a place to enjoy visiting, not to live in...

Bayou Alligator

New Orleans is the home of Jazz, Voodoo and Cajun food - it is a virtual certainty that you'll have a rip roaring time if you're up for it! So go forth and wander the streets from bar to bar with a GO cup - because you can!

People watch along Bourbon Street, you're sure for an entertaining time!

Have a Hurricane Cocktail at Pat O'Brien's where they were invented

Check out Preservation hall for some wicked jazz tunes

Sample the local Cajun and creole cuisine at loads of great restaurants

Enjoy a Po Boy from the land of the Po Boy - Mmm mmmm!

Check out some local Cajun or Zydeco music

Enjoy the fantastic architecture of the French Quarter and the Garden District

Check out Nawlins' dark and fascinating voodoo history

Check out the Great Plantation houses along the Mississippi River

Go for a Paddlesteamer Cruise on the Mississippi

Visit the battleground where Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte successfully repelled us Limeys

Take a trip out to the Bayou on a boat and go looking for Alligators and Snakes

Check out the famous New Orleans cemeteries

Take a trip round Anne Rice's New Orleans, as this city is her principal setting for her Vampire books

Come here during the amazing Mardi Gras or Jazz Festival

There is so much to do in this amazing city bursting with character and culture!

Anne Rice's House

We came into Nawlins by Greyhound because of time constraints precluding making the journey by car. I would have loved to have driven on the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain and explored the Bayou more closely, but when you're on a schedule sometimes you have to cut corners...

Anyway, once in town having a car would have been a distinct liability - especially for parking!

The Greyhound got us into the main Amtrak train station and from here it is a short taxi ride to the French Quarter.

Once in the French Quarter, you can easily get by just by walking as it is only about a half dozen blocks by a half dozen blocks in size.

The tourist office is conveniently situated in the French Quarter and from here you can book all sorts of tours that take you around or out of Nawlins.

Two things you must do are the St Charles Ave Tram out to the Garden District, and a Paddlesteamer trip out on the Mississippi for some classic New Orleans action...

• Pros:This is THE party town!
• Cons:Apparently very dangerous outside of the 'safe' areas
• In a nutshell:Sacre Bleu, quelle bon temps!