Australia – Day 1 Liftoff
As many of you may know, I’m on my 2 month paid sabbatical from work, and that one of the things I’ve been fond of is spending my vacations traveling. This sabbatical trip, is to someplace I’ve always wanted to go. Australia. I’m going to be visiting4 cities in 14 days, Melbourne, Alice Springs, Cairns, and finishing up in Sydney. This first report, is the trip from Phoenix Az, USA to Los Angeles, then on to Melbourne. Total Flight Time; PHX to LAX: 52 Minutes, LAX to MEL: 15.5 Hours.
The Super shuttle showed up on time, at 4:00pm for the 6:10pm flight to LAX, unfortunately, the flight was delayed until 6:50pm. Good thing I got here early. I spent my wait in the Chili’s Restaurant bar, and a quesadilla and 2 Corona’s later, I wasn’t bothered by the wait at all.
Guess who was on my PHX to LAX flight? MIKE TYSON! Yup, the boxer, and get this….. He was flying COACH! I guess the old boxing game doesn’t pay like it use to (hehehehe). I didn’t notice it was him when I boarded, but the guy in the window seat whispered it to me, so naturally, I “faked” having to go to the bathroom in the first class section, and sure enough, on the way back, that face, and that tattoo around the left eye was unmistakable.
The wait for the 747 flight from LAX to MEL was a bit longer (3.5 hours), but with the additional International customs inspections, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t rushed. Plus, it turns out, that the LAX International Terminal has free wireless internet access, so it wasn’t so bad a wait.
The flight was pretty full, and although the aircraft had individual screens for each seat, with lots of movies, and television shows that you can call up, there’s NO WAY a 15.5 Hours flight is going to be comfortable. Plus, I don’t sleep well on airplanes. Even taking a couple of non-prescription melatonin tablets (sleep inducers) didn’t help at all. By the way, melatonin is the chemical your brain secretes to induce sleep.
Because of crossing the International dateline, and the 16 hour time difference between PHX and MEL, we landed at 9:15am on Sunday, MEL time, even though I took off the previous Friday at 6:50pm PHX time. The Sofitel Hotel is really nice, even though we were a bit early to get our rooms, so we went and had a late morning snack at a local authentic Australian restaurant….. McDonalds. Hey, there wasn’t much choice, since for some reason, many of the cafes in MEL are closed on Sunday Morning. Don’t know why, since in PHX everything is open during that time.
Anyway, like I figured, the Sofitel Hotel is 4 star, on the level of the Hilton, so it’s pretty much what I expected. I just finished my first shower in ~36 hours, and I’m sitting here in a genuine “Sofitel Hotel” thick cotton robe (classy, huh?) it is 4:50pm, and we have our Welcome To The Tour, and meet the Tour Director, and the other tourists Cocktail Party at 6:00pm, so I better get dressed. Dinner afterwards is on our own, and I’ve already met several of the other tour participants, so, I would say “so far, so good”. I’ll write more after we tour Melbourne tomorrow. So, for now, all I can say is.....
G-Day Mate :-)
The Super shuttle showed up on time, at 4:00pm for the 6:10pm flight to LAX, unfortunately, the flight was delayed until 6:50pm. Good thing I got here early. I spent my wait in the Chili’s Restaurant bar, and a quesadilla and 2 Corona’s later, I wasn’t bothered by the wait at all.
Guess who was on my PHX to LAX flight? MIKE TYSON! Yup, the boxer, and get this….. He was flying COACH! I guess the old boxing game doesn’t pay like it use to (hehehehe). I didn’t notice it was him when I boarded, but the guy in the window seat whispered it to me, so naturally, I “faked” having to go to the bathroom in the first class section, and sure enough, on the way back, that face, and that tattoo around the left eye was unmistakable.
The wait for the 747 flight from LAX to MEL was a bit longer (3.5 hours), but with the additional International customs inspections, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t rushed. Plus, it turns out, that the LAX International Terminal has free wireless internet access, so it wasn’t so bad a wait.
The flight was pretty full, and although the aircraft had individual screens for each seat, with lots of movies, and television shows that you can call up, there’s NO WAY a 15.5 Hours flight is going to be comfortable. Plus, I don’t sleep well on airplanes. Even taking a couple of non-prescription melatonin tablets (sleep inducers) didn’t help at all. By the way, melatonin is the chemical your brain secretes to induce sleep.
Because of crossing the International dateline, and the 16 hour time difference between PHX and MEL, we landed at 9:15am on Sunday, MEL time, even though I took off the previous Friday at 6:50pm PHX time. The Sofitel Hotel is really nice, even though we were a bit early to get our rooms, so we went and had a late morning snack at a local authentic Australian restaurant….. McDonalds. Hey, there wasn’t much choice, since for some reason, many of the cafes in MEL are closed on Sunday Morning. Don’t know why, since in PHX everything is open during that time.
Anyway, like I figured, the Sofitel Hotel is 4 star, on the level of the Hilton, so it’s pretty much what I expected. I just finished my first shower in ~36 hours, and I’m sitting here in a genuine “Sofitel Hotel” thick cotton robe (classy, huh?) it is 4:50pm, and we have our Welcome To The Tour, and meet the Tour Director, and the other tourists Cocktail Party at 6:00pm, so I better get dressed. Dinner afterwards is on our own, and I’ve already met several of the other tour participants, so, I would say “so far, so good”. I’ll write more after we tour Melbourne tomorrow. So, for now, all I can say is.....
G-Day Mate :-)
posted by TomH | 11:49 AM
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