From Hobart, I was headed back to Melbourne with a flight from Launceston. My plan to see Cradle Mountain fell apart when I realised it was the last weekend of school holidays, and all accomodation there was fully booked. When I had initially arrived on Tasmania it was beautiful weather - and looking out onto the rain swept streets of Hobart I could only visualise sunny Launceston. Even though all the weather reports showed it to be poor weather across the entire island, I had faith that the sun was shining in Launceston - and so bought a ticket back there. [View Full Entry]

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The weather did not improve upon arrival in Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. The entire time I was there it rained, leaving me feel totally unsure of what to do - I really didn't want to go outside, yet I didn't want to stay in the hostel all day - so I went to my old favourite, another Museum!! It was another good museum, with loads of displays on snakes and spiders, but I've been to far too many - why do they all have free entry?! Hobart itself struck me as a poorer city than those I had already seen. [View Full Entry]

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My next destination was to be the uninhabited island of Maria, just off the East Coast of Tasmania. After an overnight stop in Triabunna, eating home-baked biscuits in front of a log fire in the hostel, I took the ferry to the island. Maria once held a number of convicts, and the accomodation available on the island was a tent or the old penetentiary. The choice was easy to make. The room in the penetentiary was around 3 by 4 metres and held six bunks,although in the days of the convicts there would have been around fifty men sleeping in hammocks [View Full Entry]

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After my time of daily hardship - actually having to do some work for the first time in over a month - I headed towards the beach, and does Tasmania have some nice beaches. Beautiful bright blue and turquoise waters, lapping gently on to sandy white beaches. The only trouble is that the water is absolutely freezing! After only seconds paddling in it - trust me, that's as far as you should dare go - all feeling goes from your feet. Amazingly people are still seen out there swimming!? Must be Tasmanians. I visited a small seaside tourist spot called Bicheno [View Full Entry]

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Tasmania is only a short flight away from Melbourne, yet when you arrive it feels like another country completely. Launceston Airport consists of a runway and a small building housing a check in desk and one cafe. Stepping out of the aeroplane, out into the open air and having to walk across the runway was a new experience for me, and made the airport that much more 'local' - something I would soon find was a feature of Tasmania. Launceston itself, referred to as a city, seemed little more than a small town, and was totally deserted by 8 o' clock [View Full Entry]

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The first thing that struck me about Melbourne was it's tram network. Never having visited a city with working trams before, this gave the whole city a different atmosphere - with wide roads and relatively little traffic on them, making it easy to get about by foot - not to mention the curious way the cars have to turn. In order to turn right, they have to remain in the left hand lane, then swing out when the coast is clear(ish). Much like Sydney, Melbourne had it's fair share of backpackers and hostels, and plenty of languages other than English were [View Full Entry]

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Canberra is a purpose built capital, and it is apparent in the atmosphere of the city. The endless stream of government buildings and national headquarters make it feel like one giant industrial estate. The sheer amount of land Canberra occupies in relation to the number of people who live there (many who work there can't face living there and are located in Sydney) causes the place to be incredibly quiet. Visiting just after New Year, when many were still on holiday, the whole place was a ghost town. In the middle of the day it was possible to be the only [View Full Entry]

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The past few weeks in Sydney have been a mixture of great times and times of sheer frustration at staying in the same place for so long - previously my usual stay in any one place was 3 nights before moving on - making 3 weeks seem like a lifetime! It was a brilliant few weeks though, making some friends that I will kep in touch with for life and meeting my college friend Simon for Christmas and New Year. (Sadly the plan failed, as the lure of a real meal rather than a kebab for Christmas lunch caused me to [View Full Entry]

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Getting to Australia proved to be more tiring than I had imagined, and involved a lot of waiting around. The reason was that in my wisdom I had decided to get to Singapore from Bangkok by train for my flight. The journey involved : - Three seperate trains each of around 12 hours Two stop-overs in train stations of 12 and 10 hours The crossing of three borders. After this the 8 hour flight was nothing, in fact it was the least stressfull time I had had in the past three days. Initially it was strange to be back in a [View Full Entry]

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I returned to Bangkok, this time for five nights. Initially I had great difficulty finding the enthusiasm to do anything other than sleep or read, knowing that my time here was really just to fill in before I left for Singapore and my flight to Australia. However the day after I arrived was the King's Birthday, and in Thailand they really love their king. Around 2 million people had converged on the small park in front of the Grand Palace to hear the speech by the Prime Minister, watch the fireworks and enjoy - if that word can be applied - [View Full Entry]

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