The Travelodge I stayed in (Denise had already returned to London) was just round the corner from Westwood Village, not a quaint little village as we would understand it in Britain, but built-up, commercialised and with 6-lane highways running through it! Nevertheless it has a lot of character with palm tree-lined avenues, lots of little restaurants, and Mexican-influenced architecture. The houses in the residential sector are all unique, ranging from the small hacienda-style to mock classical collonaded mansions. There's a large Iranian community here, which surprised me (for no good reason other than the effect of listening to George Bush's anti-Iranian [View Full Entry]

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Just down the coast a bit from Santa Monica Beach is the more Bohemian, down-at-heel Venice Beach, full of beardy, smoking hippy-types flogging funny hats, telling people's fortunes, playing lanquid jazz melodies or just chillin'. (If you wish to purchase any of the photos shown please click here) [View Full Entry]

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One fine day in L.A. I (Gerry) decided to visit the Getty Center in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. I reckoned it was only 4 or 5 miles away so I set off walking, not always an easy thing to do as most US routes are set up for cars not pedestrians. I didn't pass a single person and on long stretches there wasn't even a pavement, but I had the company of thousands of cars driving along the world's busiest road, the 405 Santa Monica Highway! The Getty Center is a museum and art gallery built over 750 [View Full Entry]

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Los Angeles is on target for having the rainiest winter since records began in the 1800s! And here I am in Santa Monica by myself (Denise returned home a bit earlier). To cheer myself up I bought a new camera (my other one got soaked on the Cook Islands) for a great price. Cameras are so much cheaper than in the UK. The sun even deigned to come out to assist my photography! Sorry don't have time to write anymore at the moment. (If you wish to purchase any of the photos shown please click here) [View Full Entry]

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In New Zealand we learned that the Cook Islands had been hit by 3 big cyclones in 10 days. Normally there's only one in every few years! We reckoned we were safe as there couldn't possibly be anymore, but to be on the safe side we made sure our accommodation wasn't on the beach! We left New Zealand on the 27th February and arrived in Rarotonga (the capital and the biggest island in the group) the day before (you have read it correctly, as we cross the international dateline we go back a day)! We were picked up at the airport [View Full Entry]

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Our start in New Zealand was a good one. The airport in Auckland is set in a lovely watery location and there are some nice shops awaiting. Then when you get through customs there is a stand offering free coffee and tea (Denise was overjoyed!). Funny how first impressions count. We headed straight for the campervan rental office in the airport with a view to hiring a van for a week or so. Unfortunately all the vans were already hired out "but there is one", the attendant said "but we don´t normally hire it out!" This appealed to Denise´s maternal instincts [View Full Entry]

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Our visit to Australia didn´t start very well. When we arrived in Sydney after a very long flight we had to wait ages in the longest queue we've ever had in any airport. It was roasting hot and there was no air conditioning. When we got to the immigration official there was the usual unfriendliness, but things got worse when we got through the other side. We had to go through more bag scanning and searches (this is the only place in the world where we've had to do this), the security people were very rude and one of the woman [View Full Entry]

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On the night of the 23rd January we were airlifted from Hanoi and flown to Bangkok so that Denise could receive more sophisticated tests and treatment at the 5 star Bumrungrad Hospital (fortunately our travel insurance were paying!). As mentioned in the last entry she was finally diagnosed with strongyloides followed by pneumonia. While Denise was suffering with all manner of nasty discomforts I (Gerry) also had developed a nasty rash on both my legs. Being concerned that the strongyloides worm had wiggled its way into my body I decided to take advantage of the world class medical expertise and go [View Full Entry]

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From Vientiane in Laos we flew to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. By this time Denise was not feeling too well and things got worse in Hanoi. We booked in to a pokey wee hotel next to the mist-shrouded Hoan Kiem lake, in the old quarter and attended the local speciality, a water puppet theatre show. Denise eventually had to see a doctor as she hadn't eaten much for about 4 days and certainly wasn't keeping any of it inside. The Doctor at the SOS International clinic said she should stay in as she was dehydrated and they needed to do [View Full Entry]

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2nd January saw us fall for another minor travel scam as we booked the 'special air-conditioned tourist' coach across the border from Hue in Vietnam to Savannakhet in Laos. Transpires it was a series of journeys on local buses for which the locals pay a lot less than we mugs did! And we thought we were becoming travelwise! In any event we consoled ourselves with the notion that we were supporting local enterprise and the views across the border into Laos are wonderful. Laos, (apparently misnamed by the French, as it should be 'Lao'), is a warm, sleepy backwater in SE [View Full Entry]

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