We drove what felt like the entire length of Western Australia but was actually only about 400km. It was exhausting for me, and C did all the driving. Saw lots of Kangaroos on the way, though sadly all of them in varying states of decomposition by the side of the road. The scenery is pretty much as it has always been so far, basically flat lands of scorched sandy earth and low scrub. Whilst this makes a change from your average green Welsh valley and smelting works it is not in the same league as, say, your average south western US [View Full Entry]

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Short leisurely drive up to the Kalbarri. They claim to have gorges here but I’ve been to Barranca Del Cobras, the Grand Canyon, and numerous other locations along the Colorado, and these Australian gorges are pretty much ditches by comparison. Currently sat in the van listening to what sounds like 50 million red breasted parrots which have colonised the trees and have the unfortunate ability to sound like bawling children. Actually now that the sun has gone down they’ve gone quiet, but I suspect that we won’t be sleeping through the sunrise tomorrow. If I open the door all I [View Full Entry]

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Well, our flight got us into Perth at one in the morning. Like wayward baggage, however, lighter moods did not arrive until well into the afternoon. We managed to get a room for the night courtesy of the hotel information board at the airport but I slept so poorly that we might as well have stayed in the arrivals lounge. We have decided to make alternate travel plans, based on closer proximity to the earth’s surface with consequent increase in legroom, between Cairns and Sydney and abandon the flights we had booked for these. We’re ignoring the 14 hour flight across [View Full Entry]

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Not much to report on today. Late breakfast, cocktails at Raffles. The usual Friday hardships. Tomorrow we fly to Perth where, amongst other things, we’re looking forward to sampling some of the local culture - Fosters, Barbies, drunken youths rioting in the streets, that sort of thing. It occurs to me that gone half past midnight and still polishing off the last of our supplies of the locally brewed Tiger beer, no doubt before we fall upon the mini bar like raptors, is not the best way to prepare for an overnight flight to Perth which is due to arrive in [View Full Entry]

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Today we caught the unfeasibly early 08:30 train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. The station at Singapore was right out of colonial times and I’m sure I’ve seen it before in one of Michael Palin’s travel documentaries. In anticipation of catching a train that was equally aged we elected to travel first class. There was only mild disappointment to discover that people were not hanging from doorways and roof clutching baskets full of livestock, and whilst 1st class was luxurious, 2nd class would have put anything we know of from back home to shame. Every stop announcement was a [View Full Entry]

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Following on from that last post, I’m pleased to report that the Hong Kong peak tram did indeed take us above the smog layer, though I’ve been on roller coasters with less severe gradients. The view was suitably impressive and the McDonalds at the top as nourishing, though a little more touristy, than our regular breakfast haunt. I have to confess, on the subject of taking in local culture, that our regular evening haunt was an Irish pub populated exclusively by Europeans. There was the occasional Asiatic there, but I suspect they were Chinese Americans also on vacation. This is pe [View Full Entry]

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For those nurturing rose tinted ideas about travel I should tell you that we are able to find our way back to the hotel here by sole reference to sense of smell, and I’m not talking rose lilies and violets here. Above the general layer of exhaust fumes in this incredibly crowded city there seems to be a decaying fish theme going on in town, and that’s one of the better odours! We arrived here from Bahrain after an overnight flight which was pleasant bordering on psychotic. It’s not a fun experience being cramped upright into a space barely bigger than [View Full Entry]

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Well after months of planning, waiting, and a couple of nomadic weeks back in the UK as the guest of a number of C’s relatives (some of the planning having resulted in the house being disposed of a tad earlier than we were due to leave), we’ve finally made it to Bahrain. It’s been a fabulous start. C’s cousin and fella were magnificent hosts and chauffeur, though a tad maniacal for the latter. The fact that they lived one block over from the hotel made the nightly stagger back to our room significantly less hazardous than it would otherwise have been. [View Full Entry]

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