Here is one of our west coast vs. east coast servers. I've always had much better luck to Asia/Australia from the West Coast:
Code:
East Coast
traceroute to westdesigns.com.au (182.160.148.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 208.83.142.193 (208.83.142.193) 0.578 ms 0.568 ms 0.563 ms
2 67.23.161.144 (67.23.161.144) 0.315 ms 0.324 ms 0.527 ms
3 67.23.161.139 (67.23.161.139) 6.942 ms 6.950 ms 6.937 ms
4 10gigabitethernet1-3.core1.atl1.he.net (198.32.132.75) 6.906 ms 7.139 ms 7.140 ms
5 10gigabitethernet3-2.core1.dal1.he.net (184.105.213.113) 27.131 ms 27.130 ms 27.301 ms
6 10gigabitethernet2-3.core3.fmt2.he.net (72.52.92.153) 75.066 ms 74.941 ms 74.921 ms
7 10gigabitethernet7-4.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.222.14) 69.703 ms 69.697 ms 69.805 ms
8 10gigabitethernet1-4.core1.sjc1.he.net (72.52.92.117) 78.691 ms 69.793 ms 78.798 ms
9 vocus.gigabitethernet2-13.core1.sjc1.he.net (64.71.184.46) 69.752 ms 69.764 ms 69.740 ms
10 ten-0-2-0.bdr01.sjc01.ca.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.199.116) 225.231 ms 225.248 ms 225.208 ms
11 pos-0-0-1.cor01.syd03.nsw.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.199.45) 225.143 ms 225.259 ms 225.242 ms
12 ten-1-3-0.cor02.syd03.nsw.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.192.87) 225.199 ms 225.296 ms 225.276 ms
13 ip-203.192.31.114.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.192.203) 225.409 ms 225.441 ms 225.423 ms
14 ip-202.90.161.119.VOCUS.net.au (119.161.90.202) 226.425 ms 226.686 ms 226.158 ms
15 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10) 225.787 ms 225.881 ms 225.870 ms
PING westdesigns.com.au (182.160.148.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=225 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=225 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=225 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=4 ttl=50 time=225 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=5 ttl=50 time=225 ms
Code:
West Coast
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=164 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=163 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=164 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=164 ms
64 bytes from 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10): icmp_seq=5 ttl=55 time=164 ms
traceroute to westdesigns.com.au (182.160.148.10), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 173-231-31-97.hosted.static.webnx.com (173.231.31.97) 0.318 ms 0.358 ms 0.416 ms
2 100-42-223-169.static.webnx.com (100.42.223.169) 0.744 ms 1.052 ms 1.180 ms
3 100-42-223-153.static.webnx.com (100.42.223.153) 0.636 ms 0.770 ms 0.860 ms
4 vocus.com.au.any2ix.coresite.com (206.223.143.136) 8.161 ms 8.154 ms 8.178 ms
5 ten-0-2-0.bdr01.sjc01.ca.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.199.116) 164.354 ms 164.354 ms 164.355 ms
6 pos-0-0-1.cor01.syd03.nsw.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.199.45) 164.105 ms 164.127 ms 164.180 ms
7 ten-1-3-0.cor02.syd03.nsw.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.192.87) 164.154 ms 164.142 ms 164.128 ms
8 ip-203.192.31.114.VOCUS.net.au (114.31.192.203) 164.431 ms 164.428 ms 164.253 ms
9 ip-202.90.161.119.VOCUS.net.au (119.161.90.202) 164.782 ms 164.803 ms 164.837 ms
10 182.160.148.10.reverse.crucialx.net (182.160.148.10) 164.658 ms 164.132 ms 164.116 ms
Not really sure any server on the east coast could beat 10 hops (3 are internal on our network) to Australia, but I'm open to be proven wrong with traceroutes.
[EDIT] In fact, as you see on the first set, the route goes through California from the east coast. That's usually the case. Almost every east coast datacenter I know will route traffic through California, going to the Pacific or Asia.