I think that the map just about says it all.

Phoenix to London = 10 hrs________Destination
London to Chennai = 11 hrs________7.5 hour layover
Chennai to Coimbatore = 1 hr_______Destination
Coimbatore to Chennai = 1 hr_______9 hr layover
Chennai to Kuala Lumpur = 3.5 hrs___3.5 hr layover
Kuala Lumpur to Perth = 6 hrs______Destination
Perth to Singapore = 6 hrs_________3 hr layover
Singapore to London = 5.3 hrs______7 hr layover
London to Phoenix = 10 hrs________DESTINATION

I was able to snap some photos of Greenland on the way home.

After walking around a bit I finally found the shopping district at Piccadilly Circus. I don’t know, I guess with the word “Circus” in the name I expected something a bit more entertaining. I did see a lot of people holding signs pointing me to buy cheap theater tickets.

The saddest part is that I went in to look at the tickets and a Star Wars poster caught my eye. Then I remembered that there’s a Star Wars exhibition going on right now! It opens at 10:00 AM, but I needed to get all the way back to the airport by 12:00. I found out that I was 20 mins. away from the exhibition. With travel time to the airport and the exhibition I would have about 15 mins. to see the whole thing. So, I missed it.

I think that I ended up walking away from Piccadilly Circus and found this little place to eat breakfast. I thought, “That was a nice little place. I’ll have to take a photo when I leave.” Well I forgot to take the picture, but I was in no rush so I walked back and took it!

LOOK OUT!!! There’s an Australian impostor on the street!

On a side note. When I was leaving Australia they said that my carry-on bag was too heavy. I ended up taking my laptop out of the backpack, and the redistributing the backpack contents into my other bag so that I could stuff it into my checked luggage. I traveled all the way home with the camera case dragging behind me and the laptop under my arm.

I laughed at this sign, took a picture of it and then walked right past it. I saw a little open air marked that was just setting up off to the left and thought I would go through this little gate, into the alley and have a look. Then I thought of the sign! I backed up and kept on walking.

So I’m off and running. I’ve got about 6 hours in London so I decided to get out. I took the Heathrow Express to Paddington. On the train I talked to someone who was coming home from a trip to San Francisco. She suggested that I take the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus and have a look around.

The escalator in the underground was so steep that I nearly fell!

I just started walking around and I came down a small alley where they were setting up some fruit stands etc. I thought that this was a cool looking building.

Well, it’s hard to say goodbye, but I’ve been away from my family for 2 weeks. I’m getting pretty excited to just get home. This is a shot down by the Harbor at Fremantle.

I was standing at the airport and decided to do a panorama shot. I got to the end and this girl was standing there and just made for a wonderful reflection shot!

In parting, I forgot to mention that everything in Australia was pretty familiar. I was a bit confused by “Hungry Jack’s”. I forgot to take a photo so I got this one off the internet. It turns out that someone already owned the name “Burger King” and wasn’t willing to part with it. As a result, we have Hungry Jack’s.

One of the guys that we met in Australia was Iain Murray. He works in Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Research at the Curtin University of Technology. He told us that when he first learned about the Networking Academy Program that he thought it would be perfect for the Blind. He said that it required the network engineer to be able to visualize the network as much as being able to actually build one.

Below is Iain, Aubrey, Dr. Helen from the University, (Helen Parke is blocked from view) and then Lou.

This is a peak into the secret lab…well not so secret. Iain is working on new technology to assist the blind. I think that he said this project was a PDA.

The Cisco Networking Academy text book in braille.

I though this poster was great!

In my final stroll around downtown Fremantle, I was sure to take a shot of the local University.

These are the train tracks at the far end of the park.

We stayed in the building in the center back with the red dome. It is the Esplanade Hotel.

I don’t know what it means.

I think that because I was traveling with Helen who is the Exec. Director, I was involved in a bunch of different meetings. We attended a Cisco Mini-Conference and were asked to take a bit of time to introduce ourselves. I feel that Helen and I communicate quite well, and that she feels confident in having me speak to a crowd as a representative of the Cisco Learning Institute.

Lou had asked me to take some photos while I was video taping from the back, and when I was asked to come up front and talk a bit, I took this photo.

We had a bit of time between our meetings and I wanted to go out and get some more footage of Australia. We drove down towards the water and found the Swan Bell Tower. I had never heard of it before. I went walking around and then went to the top of the tower.

I was windy enough at the top that I opted to leave my hat with the guard.

Helen and I went to meet with Paul (far right) to hear about the new method and technology that he’s developed to teach some of the Cisco curriculum. When we got there we were introduced to Dr. Otsuki and Mr. Akamatsu from Kobe. I enjoyed having the opportunity to introduce myself in Japanese.

Paul explained that he comes from a scientific background. He searched around a bit for effective methods in teaching and didn’t find anything that he felt was working. So he then applied the scientific method to the problem of education and came up with some wonderful concepts. I look forward to hearing more from him.

We are leaving cameras and equipment with 15 different Networking Academy sites around the world. Over the next 2 years they will record their class lessons for 1 hour a week and then mail them back to us. Helen is presenting the camera to the head of the Central TAFE in Perth Australia. I looked through the business cards that I came home with, but I didn’t seem to get hers, so I’m not sure of her name or title.