LAX, USA - Mar 24, 2020

We land at about 6 am LA time, same time zone as home. So we are about 27 hours into our journey and we are in this probably one of the worst airports in the world. Let me tell you why. When we checked in in Perth, they told us that our bags will go all the way through to Vancouver, okay great. We were also told that you were able to stay in the secure zone to get to the next flight. Well both these statements were not true and there is more, remember very limited sleep. We are told that we need to not only collect our bags but will also need to go though customs, what, why, we are in Transit, this is just suppose to be a pass though. Okay, we comply get our bags, fill in the declaration for and move through customs, ah, hold it not so fast, excuse me sir you need to go to section B, section B, what is that, we go to section B. Here there is a fine young man that will now ask us to put all bags on a table, okay, we will now to open all said bags so he can run his fingers through each and every article we have in them. Not only that he can ask you questions about every article, like, “Gucci, this is a nice watch, where did you get it and how long have you owed it” or “these are nice bracelets, where did you get them, they look expensive” and things like “are you retired”, “where were you”, “what countries did you visit”, “how much cash do you have on you and let me see” and of course “let me see you wallet”. I am biting my tongue with every answer and also inform him that we want nothing to do with your country, we are passing through, “In Transit”. I ask, why us, he says “its random” I say “its randomly stupid, we should not have to do this, if we were staying here, then sure, whatever, but we are not, we are just passing through”, he shrugs and tells us that we can now put all the stuff back in all our suitcase and proceed. I say, so we are done right, no more security, we are done, great - this whole thing took about a half an hour. To boot though, as he was moving the suitcases around my glasses fall on the floor and the lens pops out, now I am livid but trying to maintain control, boy do I hate this airport. 

Well, we are not done, we put our bags in the transfer area and try to proceed to our terminal, someone told me Terminal 3, next thing I know, I am outside, like outside outside, so security is not done, great. We get to Terminal 3 only to be told that we need to go Terminal 4, we are walking by the way. We get to Terminal 4 and at the security line up I am grumbling about this airport, well my mistake there. When I get to the front they are basically yelling orders at me, “yes, my pockets are empty”, cargo pants, oops I have some cash, “get back and put it in the bin, are your pockets empty” (this really should be in all caps). I stand in the machine and thank god came out clean. But wait Jan get put aside, it turns out that the top she was wearing was metallic so her turn to be have a go at. Did I mention that I do not like this airport. We end up taking another shuttle to our way out of the way gate. Now here, we are the only two people on this shuttle and we are about 5 minutes into this ride and I am thinking, oh oh, what did I say back there are we being taken somewhere else, are we going to be detained, oh boy. We arrive at our gate to see some fellow cruisers, good we are in the right spot. We had a nice uneventful 2 and half hour flight back to Vancouver, breathing a sigh of relief as the wheels touched the tarmac. The airport was dead with the exception of a few arriving flights, eerie, really eerie. We strolled though our familiar beautiful entry area with the piped in bird sounds and made our way to our friendly customs, out within minutes. Yes, all passengers were asked how they were feeling and we were given literature about the Virus. After clearing customs we did stop and sit down to take it all in, this crazy journey home we just went through from the other side of the planet, we were supposed to be in Singapore today with the big World Cruise Party Celebration at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, hosted by the HAL President and all the Executives - a big splashy affair. Instead our 202020 World Cruise has come to a quick and abrupt end as we sit in an almost empty airport apocalyptic scene from a movie with the one restaurant open with a short line, a Tim Hortons, still serving coffee and donuts, yes we are back home in Canada…, fade to black as this epic adventure comes to an end. The last few pics of this adventure, a summary in a few days.