The trip was also to be a reunion of the Thailand '87 team as I was being joined by my friends John and Piak. Everything was looking good. John and I flew into Miami where we were joined by Piak and we stayed one night near the airport. So far, so good.

The next morning we picked up our rental car, a virtually brand new white Chrysler Sebring with a rag top. I was very much looking forward to the journey south. Getting out of the city was a nerve racking experience. Moving across six lanes of traffic to get to an exit did not prove easy and the Miami drivers weren't going to allow anyone to cut in.

But, having overcome this obstacle, we were soon on our way down to Key Largo where we stayed for a couple of nights. It was at this point that I realised our vacation had coincided with Spring Break in the States.

Key Largo

I have travelled a lot in the US and it has never been a problem finding somewhere to stay. However, this was the exception. Many hotels were booked and it didn't help that there were three of us travelling together. Most US hotel rooms have two beds which meant that we had to get two rooms or ask for a third cot-type bed to be put in the room. (We are good friends but draw the line at sharing a bed.) To keep costs down the latter option was preferred but cot beds weren't always available. Consequently, throughout a lot of this trip we spent a lot more time looking around for places to stay than I would have wanted to.

Key Largo is the diving capital of Florida so John and I took the opportunity to get a few dives in. This is the first time we had dived together and John hadn't dived for a while. There are some wrecks in the area, all in shallow water. Visibility was quite good but, apart from a few big Morays, there wasn't a great deal to see.

Key West

Key West is famous for being the home of Ernest Hemingway and while there you are not allowed to forget this fact. There are images of him everywhere, bars named after him and regular look-alike contests around the place. And, of course, you can visit his home which is now a tourist attraction. The town attracts a mixture of folk. There are lots of what I call regular tourists but a lot of weird people seeking an alternative kind of existence. Everyone to their own.

Watching the sun go down from Mallory Square is a big thing and is treated every day like a once in a lifetime occurrence. People clap and cheer and, being Americans, they 'whoop' as only Americans do. But now I'm getting cynical so I will stop. It's really not a bad place, just very touristy with an enormous amount of cheese.

I was relieved to be feeling better as we left Key West and could actually enjoy the ride. The bridges and causeways that link the chain of islands from Key West to the mainland are quite often spectacular and they had a familiar feel to them due to the fact I had seen them so often in movies and on TV.

Getting high in Florida

After a couple of nights there we decided to go to Miami anyway so drove east again stopping off in the Everglades and taking a fanboat ride to see the local wildlife which included a number of large crocs and alligators.

Everglades

I must admit, first impressions of South Beach in Miami were good. The art deco area has been sensitively restored and the architecture of the buildings, combined with lots of pastel shades, is pleasing on the eye. And the buildings aren't the only things pleasing on the eye. The beautiful people of America are drawn to Miami like iron filings to magnets so naturally I felt totally at home! My impressions changed after a couple of days. Looking beyond the veneer, where image is everything, an air of superficiality begins to become very apparent.

The hotel we stayed in was a Lonely Planet recommendation - The Kenmore - and was quite acceptable even though I think it is a gay hotel. For once, we didn't have a problem finding a room. I was hoping that after getting sick and the problems with finding accommodation that things would start to go right. It was looking quite good. But then my wallet was stolen.

I won't go into details but we'd been out drinking in a Cuban bar all night and my brain had completely gone. I didn't realise the wallet had gone until the next morning. The hotel was opposite the local police station so, being aware I would need a police report for any insurance claims, I reported the loss. They were totally unsympathetic. At this stage I was ready to go home but we still had another week.

Miami

Besides being no diving in Boynton Beach there wasn't much of anything. It didn't look like a good place to stay so we left. This had proven to be another wasted journey and I was getting tired of spending so much of my vacation on the road - even if it was in a nice car.

A quick look at the Lonely Planet guide unearthed a town nearby that sounded promising - Delray Beach. Off we went again. Delray Beach was one of those places which instantly gave me a good feeling when arriving there. What's more, the hotel (another Lonely Planet recommendation), was one of the best I've stayed at in the US. It wasn't the standard motel style place that you so often see but an older style colonial building that was in the process of being refurbished. I highly recommend 'The Colony' and would love to go back sometime.

Finally, I was looking forward to a few enjoyable days now that we were in a decent place but there was still time for one more disaster. The Colony, besides the main hotel, also owned a Cabana. We went along one day to enjoy the beach for an afternoon. I was so relaxed that I fell asleep in the Florida afternoon sun without any sun screen. When I woke up my back was on fire with a serious case of sun burn. This was about the final straw.

I was feeling desperately grumpy with no money or credit cards and a sore back. I wasn't much fun to be around as John will testify after I continually snapped at him. Delray Beach is a great little town though. It has lots of arty shops, lots of restaurants, lots of bars (many of them with live music at night), and it is generally a pleasant place to be. We spent most of time there in town but took a trip out to the nearby Japanese gardens which was also very pleasant. Apparently Japanese immigrants settled in this part of the States to grow pineapples and have left behind a Japanese legacy.

This should have been a fantastic vacation but it turned out to be my worst ever trip Stateside. You just never can tell.

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