the end of an epic.

And so i'm back, tapping away on my lovely little ibook, munching on Mr Spuds delicious potatoes with more filling than potato, and gorging myself on all the music i've missed.

It's good to be back, in a way, being here makes me realise how much i missed certain people/places/foods (mainly foods).

Our last full day in L.A was exactly what we imagined it would be , the city of angels is everything i imagined in the stereotype thoughts i had had about it before. There's fast food restaurants everywhere, literally everywhere, and downtown is the most 'downtown' like place i've ever been. Riding the buses around is fun though, everyone has something to say and put forward, the bus drivers are super friendly and its all much much cheaper than england.

Joels one wish of america was to go to a diner, so we found one close by to our hotel (in Inglewood...), and again, it was exactly what we imagined. I ordered the country omlette and a chake, Joel the burger and root beer. We guessed my omlette must have been made up of at least 5 eggs, and the shake of pure ice cream with extra whipped cream on top for good measure. Perhaps tasty then, but for the first time in my life the next day i had a dairy hangover. It was worse than any alcohol hangover i've ever had. Seriously.

Anyway, we said we would put a few awesome photos up that we never managed to before.



Well thats all thats needed, really.

And if i ever pay off my debt for traveling this time around, perhaps this blog will be alive next year...

Oh, Joel's right here.

So I finally reached LA, the last stop on our trip before heading back to England. In the most amazing timequake of my life thus far, I boarded the plane in Melbourne at the same time, on the same day, that I got off the plane in LA. That was cool.

The rest of the Melbourne Festival was very enjoyable. I averaged about 2 and a half films a day, and got to know some nice places to hang out in the city. Lots of animation, lots of documentaries, and one amazing animated documentary. Australia in general was very friendly and pleasant - and it was nice to have a summer in Byron and then a winter in Melbourne. I got a lot of use out of my woolly hat.

I won't be using it much here in Los Angeles, however. It's very hot and sunny here. Coming to the States for the first time is a pretty big deal for me, although I'm not really getting much of a look at it this time. Especially as the place I'm staying is practically in LAX. I'm just kind of waiting around now, pretty eager to get back home. Never mind, there's plenty of time to see the rest of it.

I guess this will be my last blog post, so thanks for reading. I might not come back any wiser, or even any older, but I had a whole lot of fun. Who needs attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion when you've got small dogs, big gods, electric towns, beautification enforcement areas, soundtracked landscapes, floating villages, Canadian pirates, trains, planes, automobiles, buses, coaches, taxis, bicycles, ferries, longboats and even the occassional tuk-tuk?

Knocked me sideways, anyway.

Fiji is...

Hot. After the cold, cold, but great times in Sydney over the last few days its great to come back to somewhere with decent weather. But it's not overwhelmingly so, so i can still move around in the day without too much trouble. And everything is on a tab, so i end up getting a lot of drinks.

Couply. I've only been to two places with a family atmosphere on my travels, Railay and here. There's even more couples here, I've found. And lots of groups going on two week holidays. Not the best people to try and befriend when travelling alone. It was a lot easier in Nepal, as people were, well, better. Maybe it's me. Although i have befriended quite a few Japanese students, as they all seem to come down here for a working holiday or to study English. Seems like a great place to do it. Even though their English is slightly limited it's nice having some company.

Good for walks. With the lack of conversation being made I've been taking a few super long walks along the masses of road and beach there is here. Along the roads i passed through villages, where everyone stops to talk and all the children wave at you, at first it's a bit intimidating when a huge guy comes up to you with an even bigger cleaver, but all they want is a little chat. The beaches are just as friendly, in the distance you can see the waves crashing along the coral reef, and strewn across the beach is tons of bits of coral, all of it i want to take home.

Coco Loco. Not taking any beverage with me on these long walks was not much of a problem, as the entire beach is backed by hundreds of coconut trees, and after a few minutes of bashing their fruit against the rocks, i managed to split a few open and drink some of what was inside. The rest went all over down my hair, neck, arms and clothes. But it was definitely worth it, with the beach being as remote as it was, i felt like i was on a desert island. After some more time bashing, i broke them open and scraped out the inside with my nails. Tasty.

Cheap. Another use for coconuts here is in oil, which i found yesterday when i bought a twenty dollar (7 pounds) massage at the resort I'm staying in. Again, afterwards i was covered in coconut, my hair was super greasy, but smelt so good. And it was definitely worth it, unlike my massage back in 'Nam, the masseuse was hired for her skills, not her looks. Perhaps Fiji isn't quite as well priced as S.E.A, but what hides that is that everything here is put on a nice big fat tab for you, so it all seems free at first. Which i can deal with, until Wednesday anyway.

Chilled. The resort I'm staying in is about 45 minutes from then nearest town, which is one of the reasons they give you a tab, no-one bothers to ever get out of the resort, it has everything you need. So all people do here is lie around in hammocks and go for a swim occasionally, as long as the pool/beach is close by. I think the most I'm going to do today, as the weather is a bit cloudy, is attend a free coconut jewellery making workshop. It looks hard work.

Don't get too jealous, as I'll be back in a week, and have to find a job immediately and work off my wonderful adventures. Also, i haven't got everyone presents, so a lot of you may be receiving hugs, or bits of coral as your gift from afar...

The internet is being really bad at uploading photos, so i only have a few on there at the moment.







Love

Tom