Anaheim, Orlando, Las vegas, San Francisco, Honolulu

4 September 1999

Flew to LA and caught a shuttle bus to Anaheim, the home of Disneyland, which we visited the very next day after arriving. There were 12 of us, Nathan Justin, Darren, Kaylene, Mark, Lily, Janet, Evan, A. Cath, Veronica, Susan (Marks friend) and I.

We also visited Universal Studios and rode the rides there as well. The Jurassic Park ride and the Terminator 2 3D show were  "Superrr!"

On the same night after the Universal Studios Tour, we took a walk up the Harbor Blvd after dinner and guess who we saw - the vice president, Al Gore and his entourage with police escort on motorcycles - all we really saw were his limos and we only found out later that it was the vice president visiting as a guest speaker at a convention for retired veterans.

On the second and third week we flew to Orlando, Florida and arrived there in the evening, in pouring rain. Evan and I were the drivers and having rented our respective mini-van and compact car, we were told by the man at the rental place that if we waited a "few minutes" the rain would stop. No way was the rain going to stop. Anwayway, we got very wet getting to the car and more wet loading the luggage into the car. Even with raincoats on, which we had gotten on the Jurassic Park ride, we were soaked right through. Our shoes were squelching sopping wet.  If we had any sense we would have taken them off and went bare foot.

On our first day out shopping at the outlets, my sister, Lily got her bag stolen from her while we were in a shoe shop trying on shoes. No one saw anything and we spent the rest of the day having to locate the police station to file a report for insurance purposes.

Just when you thought nothing could get worse, on the third day, a State of Emergency was declared in Florida and we had to prepare for Hurricane Floyd. All furniture had to be brought inside or tied down, resort pools were drained (no swimming) and all eyes and ears were glued to the tv for the lastest update. There was nowhere to go, all the shopping malls and theme parks were closed. We were lucky enough to be grocery shopping when we heard the news of the hurricane warning so like the locals we stocked up on supplies, e.g. water, food etc. I haven't seen anything like it before, all the supermarket shelves were empty, no bottles of water or canned food left on the shelves. Everyone was caught up in Hurricane fever.  Luckily for us, the Hurricane was swept upward and out to sea and didn't hit Florida. Anyway, because we had to stay indoors for a couple of days, the next few days were jammed pack with theme parks and the Kennedy Space Centre, where they launch the space shuttles - that was a very interesting place to visit. Lucky we had 2 weeks in Florida.

On our 4th week, we flew east to Las Vegas, for a spot of casino hopping, more shopping and lazing by the pool. The weather here was hot, hot hot. After the rain ans showers of Orlando, the kids made the most of it and went swimming every day. I on the other hand went into as many casinos as I could. Evan and I walked into them all, from Circus Circus to Treasure Island and in between - one end of the strip to the other. I haven't seen so many poker machines in all my life but I think I only played one once. Evan would put a dime in one machine every casino, but no jackpot.

We went to the Grand Canyon on a tour. The only memorable thing, beside the canyon which was spectacular and wow and superrr, was "No. 13" an asian derelict guy who tacked onto the tour group and because we were asian, he hung around our group, although we tried to distance ourselves from him. At the lunch stop, he ate so many roast chickens, it was disgusting.

On our last day in Vegas, we heard the president, Bill Clinton was going to attend a fund-raiser at Paris, one of the newest casinos on the main strip. We had some time to kill so having checked out of our rooms, we packed all our luggage into the resorts storage room and made our way down to the casino to catch a glimpse of the president and his entourage. After waiting for at least half an hour, we caught a quick glimpse of the entourage of limousines as they made their way down the strip and into the Casino's parking area. Didn't see the president.

After Vegas, we flew to San Francisco, and guess who we should see whilst in our taxi to the hotel, the President's entourage again. Seems he had something on in San Francisco as well. Here the group split up. Because Nathan and I had already been on the tours, we spent the time with Evan and his relatives showing us the local places and shopping centres. Janet, Lily and the rest of the family visited Alcatraz, and did the tourist things.

After San Francisco, we flew to Honolulu. Here we hired a van and with me as driver toured around the island, beach hopping, sight-seeing and more shopping.

Melbourne - August 1999

Janet and I went to Melbourne for a couple of days.

We stayed in the city, so we did everything by foot. Toured the city and shopped, shopped and shopped till our feet couldn't take it any longer.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

In January, Janet, Lily and family and I went to KL.

Saw the sights and did a lot of shopping.

Went swimming in the mornings and sightseeing or shopping in the afternoon.