Borneo, first leg to Los Angeles

So, the easy part, a five-hour-plus flight from Dulles Airport outside of Washington, DC, to LAX, the airport in Los Angeles, California.  Virgin American proved to be a spiffy airline and my first time flying with them.  Kudos to Virgin for an error-free flight.

Arrived at my hotel, as this is a multi-day trip to get to our final destination at Sukau, Malaysia on the island of Borneo.  From which we will launch many day trips to the Gomantong Caves.

But the hotel had little record of me coming, so there was a bit of whatnot to get me a room even though I presented a bit of paper with my name and a reservation number on it.  That overcome, I got some food and settled in to the hotel room. 

But I didn't have any photos from today, so figured I'd take a few minutes to find something sorta representing Los Angeles if I could do so fairly quickly.  This wasn't a priority.  I wandered up to the highest floor I could get to in the hotel, and took this shot of what appears to be an apartment complex.

Which doesn't show up here, nor do the other two pics i wanted to post.  Not sure why, but hopefully will figure this out and get pics up!  Sorry for no pic today.  I am baffled as to why I can't post pics.

Here is the apartment complex pic that didn't go up until later.

Okay, so now that I can post pictures again, I wanted to get some kind of a photo with Los Angeles mood.  The movies always have expensive fast cars at red lights, so I tried for that.  Didn't get what I was really looking for, but it was very late and I had been traveling all day.

A Porsche at a red light in Los Angeles, California.

And finally, a photo of the lock and handle on my hotel room at the Hacienda Hotel at LAX.  Why, you might ask, is this important?

The lock and handle on good old room 2119

So, I was only out with the camera for a short bit, and came back and my key card did not work.  This happens.  Went to the front desk and they gave me a new one.  It also did not work.  Went to the front desk.  They called security and he came and brought two master keys which he guaranteed me would work.  They did not. 

At this point, remember I had been up for a long time and it was late and I had been locked out for some time.  He called the maintenance security guy who showed up with his master key, which did not work, and a long metal fishing rod like thing that they use to go under the door and pull the handle from the inside, which did not work.  Well, eventually it might have, but after 20 minutes the "line" part of it got wrapped around the foot of the luggage rack that was inside near the door.  It was stuck and useless.  They then spent some time to go and fetch yet another "master" key that is supposed to be just for this room, but the first run got the wrong card so they made a second run and got the right card, which did not work. 

Out of options on the door, note from the photo that there is no way to take the frame off the lock box, they decided (or remembered) that the room has a back door.  I did not know this, but they went around and after playing with that door for some time apparently one of the key cards worked and I was in! 

In the end the maintenance guy took the whole lock apart from the inside and declared it completely broken and in need of replacement.  I got to bed at something like 3:30am California time.