San Diegans proudly boast that their city is the best in the world, and why not on the evidence we saw. What a cracking little city. The weather is amazing all year, with temperatures always above 22 degrees, there are beaches aplenty and the city has plenty to offer. After a short bus from LA, it was great to get into a city where we could easily walk from the bus station to our hostel; you certainly couldn't do that in LA. The hostel was a welcome surprise too...

Los Angeles is fascinating yet horrible, tacky yet glamorous, and unimaginably rich yet unthinkably poor. Maybe these were things I already knew about the City of Angels, but it was still both shocking and exciting to experience it. It was fairly shortsighted of us not to have booked somewhere to stay before arriving in the US, as not only is it the summer season but the school holidays had just started. Suffice to say, we had trouble at first and had to settle ...

It felt as if we could have been back in Thailand as our minbus swerved onto the other side of the road to avoid the numerous potholes on our way from the airport. After meeting Becky at the Nadi Bay Resort following her 24 hour flight from England, and discarding our jumpers and snow boots, we headed down to the bar to start our 'holiday.' Getting to 'The Beachouse' on the Coral Coast the following morning was not going to be as easy as we'd first hoped as inev...

A city of epic contrasts................more to come when there's not a big queue waiting to use the free internet....

Awesome week at The Beachouse. Full blog to come when we find an internet cafe not charging silly money!