3 Countries in 24 Hours

Left Adelaide just before 10am on Friday and flew to Sydney to meet a connecting flight to San Francisco where in turn, I would meet another flight to Vancouver. Airport codes in brackets for anyone interested.

Adelaide (ADL) to Sydney (SYD) (Qantas) - just over 2 hours' flying time so no dramas.

Sydney (SYD) to San Francisco (SFO) (Qantas)- things didn't start well. As this flight was going to the States, I had to go through extra security; had to be patted down by security who then rummaged through my carry on luggage. Not a major hassle, just a nuisance. The flight was then delayed half an hour as a passenger's 'lost' luggage was found. Not too comfortable as it was 34C outside and the airconditioner isn't effective unless the engines are running. After we finally got going, flight itself went well. Had an aisle seat in the middle section and fortunately, the two middle seats were empty so I could spread out during the 13+ hour flight.

In flight entertainment was really good; you get the obligatory screen in the back of the seat, but unlike when I flew Cathay to London, the programming is all On Demand. No more waiting until the movie to start again; you just choose what you want and it starts from the beginning. Had a pretty good range of movies and TV shows. Watched following movies: Mission Impossible 3, DaVinci Code, Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore Global Warming doco), X-Men 3. The guide listed that Thank God You're Here was available, but I couldn't find it. Food was pretty good too.

Had some more minor hassles upon arrival in the States. Had to clear immigration and customs just to collect my bag and make my connecting flight unlike when I was in Hong Kong where I only had to clear customs if I wanted to leave the airport. More nuisance security checks at San Francisco airport. Had to be fingerprinted and photographed as part of clearing immigration (everyone entering the country has to do this). After this, had three x-ray machines with about a hundred people in the queue on the way to terminal for my next flight. In addition to having to take laptops out of bags, everyone had to take their shoes off as well. Took nearly half an hour to get through this check all the time enduring whinging Americans in the queue. Overall, the people working at the airport were no-nonsense rather unpleasant. The people at the Alaska Airlines (whom I was to fly with to Vancouver) were pleasant (they may have been Canadian).

San Francisco (SFO) to Vancouver (YVR) (Alaska Airlines) - flight was delayed about half an hour as the plane was late arriving into San Francisco. The flight, as appears to be standard practice for US airlines, was overbooked so they offered to upgrade two seats to first class for a 'nominal' fee of US$50. If it was a longer flight (only 2 hours) I would have considered it. Another Alaska Airlines flight (to Palm Springs) was also overbooked; they were offering a free return trip to any of their destinations to anyone willing to reschedule to another flight. The tails of the planes have some bloke's head on it. Have no idea who it is but it reminds me of a cross between Che Guevara Bob Marley.

Flight was uneventful and managed to snooze a bit. Flying out of San Francisco reminded me of flying out of Adelaide as you fly out over the water. The flight North to Vancouver was reminiscent of flying from Adelaide to Darwin as the landscape is dry, brown and sparsely populated. Past a number of snow capped mountains on the way, one of which I thought may have been Mount St Helens (not 100% sure as while large, looked smaller than I was expecting). Got into Vancouver at about 4pm.

Vancouver airport was very nice, clean and modern and even had a water feature. People at the airport were all pleasant and helpful.

Hotel (Richmond Hotel) is only 7-8 minutes from the airport via the free shuttle bus.