As you may have already noticed we are back in Adelaide. It is certainly good to see the green on Adelaide’s hills and to see an overgrown garden in its spring prime!

Since I last wrote, we continued our Bollywood theme for 2004 by seeing the Broadyway/Eastend musical Bombay Dreams which was full of Bollywood Glitz. The only thing missing was the final hour. I don’t know these Broadway Singers tire too easily.

We’ve got the Soundtrack for anyone who wants to listen to Bollywood inspired songs in Engish. It was quite unusual to be able to actually understand the songs. Many first release films don’t have subtitles for the songs. The live Indian music certainly got the audience going.

On the last day, in supreme gunzel style, celebrated the 100th aniversary of the New York Subway by visiting the NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn and had a guided tour for free! It was a buzz. We also saw the beautiful City Hall station which is normally closed to the publice. If we had one more day, we would have been able to catch the Historic Subway cars operating throughout the system. Still, there is nothing like a NY Express Train!

To prove my credentials, we arrived in NY by train from Newark and departed via JFK also by subway! Lugging more than 35 kilos up and down subway steps is certainly a bigger work out than what I usually get.

We landed in San Diego and this time did not rely on a train to transport us and our luggage to the hotel. We used an airport shuttle (read bus on a ford truck chassis). We stayed at Pacific Beach, a beautiful surf beach where we could hear the waves lapping the shore all night long. It was a great place to calm down after the extreme bustle of New York.

We spent quite some time just walking or cycling the “boardwalk” *actually a concrete bath, with plenty of other cyclists, roller bladers and walkers.

In San Diego we caught public transport to Mexico, walked across the border and got accosted by many Mexicans selling all sorts of goods. I certainly enjoyed their good humour, even the guy who chased after me to remind me that I had promised to visit his restraunt on the way back to the US!! It is amazing how much difference there can be in a matter of 100s of metres. While the main drag caters for US tourists the side streets seem more authentic, as a sampler it certainly made me want to come back to Mexico and other parts of South America for more.

San Diego, especially represented by Pacific and Mission beaches, is a relaxed town and reminded me a lot of home. But their modern trolley continues to be extended and is well utilised perhaps Adelaide can learn from San Diego and Portland?

We caught the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to LAX (which is actually Union Station not the Airport). We congratulated ourselves on purchasing Business Class tickets to LAX, because this guaranteed a seat. From what we could gather the from the announcements in cattle class, the train had anywhere upto 300 standing passengers, and this ain’t a 5 minute ride, some would have standed for more than 2 hours! Quality Amtrak rail services eh?

Union Station is quite beautiful, we stayed across the road and enjoyed great mexican food at El Pueblo/Olvera Street certainly better than the franchised restaurant and any Mexican I’ve had here. We visited Universal City for the complete LA experience and drove down Sunset Boulevard on Halloween Night, their were plent of Adult tick or treaters ready for the big street party!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Keep your eye out as we will be posting some of the better photographs here soon.