On the Road again, Day 1

What an early start. Taxi turned up at 4:30 am to take us to the airport. Can recommend staying at the Chateau de Regan. A very comfortable night. On Saturday night we had dinner with Evan and talked with Karla prior to our departure. The flight over to Sydney as acceptable, made more so by the AB's defeating the Wallabies and winning the world cup. Arrived early than scheduled so grabbed a train into circle quay, then a Ferry onto Manly. Manly was very warm and sunny. Full of beach type people and families. Both the train and ferry ride was very relaxing and enjoyable. While in Manly we visited the Sealife Santuary. While it didn't look much from the outside, it was very well presented on the inside. The sanctuary is on three levels. The top level is dedicated to the local small blue penguins (which were worth watching for some time). The second level had displays showing the water environment of the coral coastline, marine estuaries as well as jelly fish, cuttle fish etc. The bottom level covered the ocean (had Greynurse sharks, turtles, manta and eagle rays plus many types of schooling fish). While walking around the observation tunnel, we watched people in scuba gear, in with the Grey nurse sharks etc, the sharks swam a few cm's from the scuba people (not for me). Would recommend the Sealife Santuary if you have a few hours to spend in Manly. After this we strolled up the corso, to Manly Beach. At this point we decided to return to Sydney airport and prepare ourselves for the 12+ hour flight. The return trip went off with out any hiccups. The ferry's arriving around midday, were extremely full (Day trippers).

So, we arrived at the International airport with over 4 hours to spare. Immigration and customs went smoothly. The e-gate rejected me, so I was taken to a person and then screened for explosives (shoes, clothes, belt and both the inside and outside of my backpack. Just as we were about to board the whole airport was closed down due to electrical storms overhead. It took about 1 hour for the storm to pass and us to be boarded and get underway. What a long flight, all of 13 hours.

Arrived LAX around 2 pm (local time). Immigration was like being at Disneyland during the festive season. This was due to about 5 airlines arriving around the same time (from Moscow, Paris, Soul, Australia and I think Indonesia). Wave upon wave of people all trying to clear customs and immigration. Thankfully they had electronic gates, but these were soon overwhelmed. Anyway, after about and hour we got to a gate. Scan passport, take a copy of finger prints and then take a photo. We both had difficulty getting 4 fingers  read (required extra assistance from the locals), also the photos taken and then printed on a pass were less than flattering, in fact, mine made me look downright old!!!!

From there it was off to join another queue, this time to meet a real Border control person. This didn't take too long, and then we were off to get our bags (which were already on the baggage conveyor) and off to join one last queue and into or onto the streets of LAX. It was chaos, buses, shuttles, private cars and taxis everywhere. Found our pick up point for the hotel transfer and waited, and waited and waited. Finally in sense of desperation I phone the hotel, and duly 15 minutes later they turned up. So it took from 1:30 pm to 3 pm to clear customs and immigration and from 3 pm to 4 pm to get to the hotel. A shower, shave and S later we both feel refreshed. Tonight we are going out with Linda (long time friend in LA) for a meal.

Finally a few shout outs. To the Qantas flight crew who kept me in ice (to keep my insulin cool while traveling a big "thank you", also to  a young bar man in Sydney airport who without hesitation gave me bags of ice for the same insulin and finally for the security woman at Sydney screening who gave me assistance in getting said insulin (now surrounded in ice water) through all the screening.

Travelling with a months supply of insulin is not fun, especially when you have such long lay-overs. I managed to soak my back pack because the two zip lock bags I used for the ice could not retain the melted water.

The Best Western hotel we are staying at is managed by Fijian Indians, so we got to discuss the AB's world cup along with a Fijian who happened to register at the same time we did. So that's it folks! day one, room is still moving. So its off to bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow the road trip begins in earnest.