Qantas 747 LAX to SYDNEY (1st class)

The way we got there... (Sher in the cabin in pink of course). When we boarded the QA 747, flight #008, in L.A., we were given the usual shaving / make up kit that you use at the end of trans-oceanic flights to freshen up with before reaching your destination. But then they also gave us black Qantas pajamas to change into for the flight. It was my first flight on a 747 in first class, and it was just weird to look out of the front of the aircraft and not see a pilot. Of course he was there, but up on the second level where the other part of business class section is. (Half of business class was upstairs) and the other half was in the section behind our first class area. The first class area on the plane had seating (or should I say bedding because they went out flat when reclined) for 14 people. All but one of those seats was full of passengers. I really expected to see nothing but movie stars in there (who would be the only ones who could afford to pay for that kind of flight). But they just seemed to be mostly Australian business people going back home after a trip to the states. When we got off of the plane, a lady who identified herself as a Qantas Customers Relations Representative greeted us. She said; "Mr. & Mrs. B_, please follow me". She took us to the baggage claim area, loaded our bags on a cart, literally drug us through customs without the customs people doing anything other than looking at and stamping our passports, (which she had taken to them) and then she hailed us a cab and told the cab driver to take us to the Marriott Sydney Harbour at Circular Quay and we were off. This was not just a lucky guess on her part, she obviuosly knew exactly what she had planned on doing from the first moment she found out it was out first trip to Australia, and was very deliberate in her questions to us as we left the plane and she hurried us through the whole process of making sure that we were thrilled with Qantas' First Class service!

The Opera House & Harbour Bridge in the Background

We did a lot of guided bus tours while in all of these places and never even had to rent a car (which I was really happy about). I was not happy with that wheel on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road thing. And even though I have done it in other British colonies before, I was not wild about doing it in such heavily populated areas (as Sydney, Surfers, Brisbane and Auckland) As for the hotel there. . .