· Haha man I'm clever with my blog titles. :)
Ok so now that I've got that out of the way I thought I'd fire together a quick update for those who may be following this particular foray into the great semi unknown. Had to get up at 4am this morning to get to the airport on time as I was a bit paranoid about the process of checking a bike all the way through to Vancouver. No worries were required though as it was a simple process of weighing the bike and throwing it at the oversized baggage people (it's 18.6kg - that's HEAVY for those that don't know much about bikes, especially considering my last rig was 10.9kg).
This trip has been planned pretty much right from start to end and the benefit of planning is paying off as I'm actually pretty bored without having anything to work out along the way. I kinda just have to turn up and take a seat - everyone else does the rest for me.
The flight from Melbourne to Brisbane to totally uneventful and I even managed to cram in an hour or so of well-needed sleep (I didn't get much sleep the night before I left, can't figure out why).
The almost 13 hour flight from Brisbane to LA was equally uneventful with the exception of the guy behind me a) complaining about stuff the whole way and b) being completely unable to get through the flight without causing localised turbulence in the back of my seat every time he moved. Being someone who has flown a wee bit though this was no problem and I was surprised to wake up after managing to crash out for over 6 hours.
I was seated next to an American part model/part student the whole way - yes you're right, there are worse companions. She was very chatty but unfortunately she was on her way back to Minnesota as her Grandma is seriously ill in hospital - hope she gets better. A very confident (and hungover) young thing she was, considering she's only 19. The next seat along was taken with another American lady who joined in the conversation too. Good company and excellent service all make long-haul flights go way faster than they would otherwise (Qantas's in-flight service was also better than any I've experienced before).
So here I am sitting in a lounge in the Tom Bradley terminal of LAX International Airport. Those of you that have travelled through LA before will already know this but LAX has got to be one of the most boring airports anywhere. There's nothing to do here and the wireless internet costs $1 for 3 minutes ... extraordinarily expensive really. This particular lounge, called "Re-LAX", wasn't built last time I flew through here but I reckon $25 USD for 3 hours use of the lounge including complimentary internet, food and drinks is tough to beat. Definitely look at sitting in here if you are up for a couple hours to kill at LAX.
"Re-LAX" lounge in the Tom Bradley terminal, LAX International Airport.
It's 9:35 a.m. Pacific time now and my flight north to Vancouver leaves at 1:!5 p.m. so I've got some time to kill now too but that shouldn't be difficult sitting in here with a view of one of the world's busiest airports. I was just about to make this post live and then what should arrive? Qantas's brand spanking new Airbus A380. First time I've seen one of them anywhere but TV - the A380's sheer size really is something else to behold.
The Qantas A380 arriving at LAX. Prepare Star Wars quote ... "Look at the size of that thing!"
In fact as I write this I can see a heavily armoured convoy of trucks, one of them with S.W.A.T on the side, making their way along one of the taxiways at breakneck speed. Maybe they're coming to take me away - I snuck some toothpaste onto the plane without telling anyone. Oops.
The view from Re-LAX where the SWAT trucks were a few minutes ago. I'm still here so I guess they didn't want me after all.
Next time I write on here will be from somewhere in Canada, probably Whistler as I've only got about 1.5 hours between landing in Van and getting the shuttle up to Whistler Village - I CAN'T WAIT!
For now I'll sign off by sounding like one of the Latinos that works at LAX ... VAMOS!!! :)
