LA, Victoria BC, Seattle and...... Home

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2nd of August: The Longest Day of our Lives... Quite Literally 43 hours!

We said Isa Lei (Fijian Farewell) to Fiji at 10:00pm on the 2nd August and arrived at 1:30pm into LA airport the same day, effectively travelling 9 hours back in time as a result of passing through the international date line which falls through Fiji. Regardless of the time difference the flight was only 10 hours and that passed quickly as a consequence of the childhood excitement I had because we were on the top deck of a jumbo jet! The descent into LAX airport was interesting what with the large scale grid road system sprawling into the distance like a lifesize cross stitch picture of a modern metropolis. Well in our opinion LA was far from the modern world!.!
We waited for almost an hour for our free airport pick up to our hotel situated in the poverish Inglewood district in LA. As soon as we had got to our 20 bed dorm we were told of room thefts, incredibly unhealthy buffet food and the dangerous location! The computers also ate our money which didn't help to sort out travel arrangements to Canada! We were immediately put off by LA and decided to move our flight to Seattle forward so we could get out of the place! Still, we had to do the tourist thing and at least visit Hollywood!

So on the 3rd August we took the public bus for the 50 minute journey to Hollywood. The 50 minutes gives an indication of how vast LA is, and the fact that there was a fast food joint every 1 minute on the journey is a further indication of America's obesity "epidemic"! The people on the bus were all very poor and it wasn't hard to notice we were the only white people aboard. Soon enough we were in the circus of Hollywood, we followed the walk of fame for a while and had to tip a lady for asking where the late MJ's star was. Generally Hollywood Boulevard seemed mediocre compared to the hype it was given and then we found the main section near the Chinese theatre that was a lot busier, although most of the people on the walkway were film characters dressed up to be tipped for a photo. The majority of which were terrible however the worst of a bad bunch were a Skinny Shrek and a Mexican Elvis! We had a McDonalds for lunch primarily to try out the ridiculous size portions they give in the US and it lived up to its obese scale. We then took a tour around Hollywood and Beverley Hills to see the famous Hollywood sign, still at a distance, and the likes of Christina Aguilara, The Beckhams, Jackie Chan, Elvis and Michael Jackson's enormous Beverley Hills mansions. It was pretty cool to see how the rich live but it was quite difficult to comprehend such a class divide in the US. Its supposed to be the worlds "superpower" and it seemed far from it. Furthermore we weren't happy when our guide driving her pimped up convertible hummer actually "asked" for at least a 50% tip. Tipping in the US is compulsory rather than gratuity which we found very rude, so much so we decided against compulsory tipping! We would have rather tipped the likes of Cambodian people who were far friendlier and far poorer. We got back to our hotel for some unhealthy buffet food consisting of popcorn, chips, curly fries, wedges, rice, cake and coke! A daily diet for an American!

The following morning we were happy to fly out of LA, bound for Seattle. The Virgin America plane was particularly nice and a brief stop in Seattle improved our impression of the US. Our flight arrived into Seattle at around 10:00am so we had about 5 hours to wait until we could board the Victoria Clipper to Vancouver Island, Canada. We took a downtown bus from the airport and then caught a free waterfront bus to the Clipper Harbour. One of the stops was in China town and we were surprised and safety conscious what with the numbers of drugged and homeless people around us whilst we waited for the bus. Many of which proudly and ironically wearing ther war veteran caps that most likely put them in that position anyway. Time soon passed at the pretty waterfront piers and we were on our way to Canada. We had 12 days in Canada which were spent with Nik's family in Cordova Bay a small town on the outskirts of Victoria. During which we visited Victoria itself as well as Nanaimo which is a few hours North on Vancouver Island. It was no doubt a luxury to stay in one place and not move our increasingly heavy rucksacks from place to place and it was especially nice to see Nik's Mum and Dad and meet her family. We also sailed on Niks "uncles brothers" boat, the Phonecian Star to Roche Harbour on the American owned San Juan Islands. A brilliant 2 weeks.

Finally we left back for Seattle. The last destination of our 5 months and 12 days trip. We went for a nice hotel on the last night of our trip. The 6th Avenue Inn had a good location for us to do some last minute shopping and also visit the colourful Pike Market of which Nik was very enthusiastic about. The market supplied a garden of flowers, gifts, food and fish and the energetic bustle and market freshness offered a healthy vibrancy. We also found the worlds first starbucks and visited Seattle's famous landmark the Space Needle using the monorail to get there. Our final few hours were spent at the Seattle Centre Fountain relaxing in the sun and watching numbers of kids soaking themselves in the playful sprays. We then made our way to the airport content with coming home after an amazing trip. Yet again there was confusion with our flight details and tickets to Heathrow but we have been acustomed to that on our travels and didn't panic! Fortunately it was solved and we flew back home.

What a Trip...



Acknowledgements!
Thank you so much for all who have supported Nik and I during our travels. Particularly Ruth (Nan), Val, Dave, Julie and Peter. We hope you have enjoyed the read and have in someway shared the amazing experiences we have had on our travels.


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