Well here I am again! Los Angeles was brilliant - although we didnt really see that much of the city, i ll expain! We got to L.A. after a 4/5 hour drive from Vegas. We hit some traffic entering L.A. but thats been the only bad thing about driving in USA. We eventually found our hostel we were staying at and parked up outside. We had found this place on the internet the previous night i think. It had free continental breakfast, free buffet dinner and we had our own room of 4. So i was already impressed before entering the reception. We had 3 queen size beds in our room!!! And 4 of us! Spoof seemed the only fair way to decide this major dilemma (you ll have to ask someone about spoof i dont have time to explain the rules)! Creaky won the first prize bed - i won the second - leaving Joe and Nunny to share! I got the impression they were both gutted. I offered my bed to Joe who i felt wanted it so much more than me (and he had had to put up with sharing with me for the previous 5 nights). He curtiously said no to it - Nunny was more than happy to take me up on the offer! Think Joe went from being gutted to irate in a matter of seconds. Haha. Anyway we headed down to the buffet - it was only rice, potatoes and a few chips but that was enough for me (free again - so im happy again). Feel like a real pikey! After dinner we had a shower etc and went to the bar. It was the first time we had a real chance to socialise with other travellers. Beer was $1 dollar (it wasnt a pint but more than a half). We and Nunny came to the thinking it was rude to ignore such a generous offer. We sat by the out door pool (it was heated - i had a few casual dips the following few days. Avoiding the leafs was the only worry). Joe retired to bed as he couldnt drink (age restriction). We ended up in the bar about 11pm ish - having already had a few to many. We got chatting to a couple of English guys who had landed in L.A. a few hours ago. They were also pretty smashed (keeping up England good well respected name) haha. The bar was fairly busy - there was a guy in there dressed as a sailor! Random i know. He was American but had a boat in Avonmouth - Bristol. We got chatting to him. He was a top bloke - but (you might need to read this twice) he went by the name of Dr Christ Ectasy! He was a religous guy - who had changed his name by depol, and he wanted to start a business selling Holy Weed!. Haha - he was a stange one but a real nice guy with it. Another guy we got chatting to went by the name of Fox - he was also American. He had been to England a few times and we spoke about our travels with him. He claimed he played pro football in his earlier years and made an apperance as a running back in the super bowl! I dont know if he did but he was a real charcter. It got to about 2 am and we needed food. Dr. Christ Ectasy offered to take us to get food in his car (he hadnt been drinking - he said the people of Bristol treated him so well he wanted to show his appreciation). An Austrailian girl was sat with us and she also came for food. We had been chatting with her during the night (think we were all trying to woo her at first) haha. Anyway we got food at some local fast food place and went back to our room. This Oz'y girl (later found out her name was Rebecca) came up and ended staying with us the whole time we were in L.A. She had been in a dorm with another 20 odd girls, so she ended up having one of our queen size beds with us 4 sharing the other two again. She was cool - shes from Melbourne and offered us a place to crash when we pass through there next year. Bargain! We did get to Venice beach for a few hours but thats the only tourist thing we did really. Its apparently packed with beef cakes in the summer doing exercise on the beach - the only beef cakes there when we were there were Joe and Creaky. I did manage to get a run in on the beach - which i thought was going to kill me! Anyway im in Fiji now and we leave to go to a secluded island tomorrow. Im not sure if there are any phones or internet on the island so it might be xmas next time i can get in touch with anyone. So dont worry im alright - even if you dont hear from me until then! The only thing we have done so far in Fiji is a welcoming ceremony. We got hauled into a shop as we walked thooguh the streets. We were sat down in a back area. We were shoeless and sat around a large bowl of yellow liquid. They called it Kava. We sat there clapping each time someone drank from what looked like half a coconut shell. It tasted like bark from a tree although it was a powder mixed with water - it was an experience i tell you. It was great to be welcomed so kindly - although i think all they wanted us to do was buy something from the shop. Anyway i ll give you all the low down when i next get a chance - its sucluded islands for me until xmas - 10 days on one island - 10 on another and 2 on the party island.

Bula (welcome/hello) - thats the local Fijian language i have picked up on already.