Residence Inn Marriott Westlak Westlake Village

... br>Got through customs quickly. It was the wait to pass through security that was the time consumer. But hey, I didn't get pulled aside for interrogation, so let's be happy.

Got about another hour before we leave for Vegas (baby, Vegas). If I can get inot my room straight away I may just try for a nana's before hitting the strip. *sigh* I'm getting old.

... place called the Venice Breeze Suites, which I had booked over the phone after finding it online. The room, which was more like a small efficiency apartment, with a nice kitchen area, was even nicer than I thought it would be after finding the place online. The first thing I did, was open up my laptop and sat down at a little table which had a great view of the ocean ...

... of hiring one on a backpackers budget was too high! I was surprised at how many street people there were and how much rubbish was on the streets! The Hollywood sign can be seen from the streets below, but is not lit up so you cannot see it at night time, so got a local bus then had a bit of a treck up a steep hill to get a better view, but saw some very lovely houses along the way, you cannot get ...

... scooter wheelly things. I've put a few photos online. They looked pretty fun, but it was so strange seeing them used in real life. Once I had trekked back to the hostel, I decided to look around the huge mall in the kodak theatre. There were some amazing shops there and I only wish the Aussie Dollar was a bit higher, as things would have been reasonable. I took a heap of photos and made the most of my last day in L.A. The funniest part of the whole day was the fact that I spent the ...

... complete with the all - American tour guide Sally. It's really worth a visit, especially at night. It was great, I got to look around and do all the touristy photographs "look at me, I'm in a prison cell, I'm a prisoner! Wow, I must look so hard, the ladies love the rugged look", and this was whilst Jake was having a look around essentially getting to grips with the environment that he will be spending most of his time in Asia in. We have met a ...

... pistols have been drawn only to see them quietly slip back into their undercover locations. The first night at Arrowhead gave the team an opportunity for vigorous debate on many topics and it certainly didnt disappoint. Rhonda - who loses weight when she travels Narelle - the enforcer of wayward cell phones Tim - the silent assassin who is killing us with his shopping habits Lucien - the ...

A while ago I discussed having pity on Customs agents who have to deal with disgruntled passengers disembarking after long transits. Well, now I want to describe the flip side. My return from Bali was a 24 hour jaunt from Bali to Singapore to Taipei to Los Angeles. A good flight because on the longest leg there was no one in my row so I could lie down and sleep (and Singapore Air doesn't have the annoying and back bending plastic humps between seats that United does). So ...

... to allocate me a shared office and library access for the three days I am there, which along with the honorarium for the talk and the hotel accomodation they are paying for is really quite an honour. Working in the US is really very easy. Everywhere is wired, cafes, hotels, even plazas, so you can pull your laptop out, go online and work anywhere. I have been moving locations a bit today, just to avoid getting bored, but still got a lot done. Wonderful ...

We stayed only one night in Mexico and drove back straight back home about 8 hours of driving time. We stopped in Yuma for about 1/2 hour to get coffee and a subway sandwich. We are planning on hitting the road in a few days and head up the California coast with a couple of days in Big Sur and planning on visiting our good friends in Bodega bay and then of to the redwood parks. Will start another trip travelpod....

... which is only a few hours closer. Even still, we would still have to travel another 5 hours to get to our destination - Denpesar Bali Indonesia. ON THE FLIGHT: Cathay Air is actually not bad - considering we were flying Coach/Economy. We were able to get seats on the first row of the plane. Which ...