Could not add these before [View Full Entry]

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Australia was greener than we thought. Cost of living about 20% to 30% less than Europe (petrol is half price). The people are certainly nice and naturally friendly. The roads and roadsigns are poor (the Pacific Highway is one lane each way for the most part). Drivers though are patient, considerate and drive more slowly than in the UK. Sydney was a disappointment, maybe we expected too much but it was no different than many other large cities, however it does have some great beaches! Could we live there? They would have to get rid of the flies and other flying [View Full Entry]

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And so to Sydney. We had met Bev and her friends in Bali for 1 hour and had now arranged to stay with her for 4 nights! We followed Bev's directions and found her apartment relitavely easily. What a fabulous apartment with even a 60" TV!. Her "good bunch" i.e. Rodger, Andrew and Mick and Emi with their lovely 20 months old son Kai all came to see us and we drank a lot of wine and beer with them all each night. The Harbour Bridge was a bit of a disappointment, although the Opera House is nice. We walked across [View Full Entry]

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G'day We picked up our hire car in Brisbane and as advised "threw a left", at the first roundabout and headed north to our friends Bek & Steve at Hervey Bay. There we found their fabulous house with swimming pool set in 11 acres of grounds. Also we found 2 very friendly dogs and later the owners, when they returned from work. We stayed 2 nights and as you would expect Bek and Steve made us very welcome. We did a tour of Hervey Bay and saw loads of kangaroos and taking a lead from our hosts drank plenty of beer [View Full Entry]

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We arruved at The New 7th Storey Hotel and will be two of it's last guests as it will be knocked down (before it falls down, it leans 15 deg) next week. This is a shame as this is the iconic backpackers hotel in Singapore. We will remember Singapore as it rained most of the time we were here. In fact the only time it stopped raining was after we bought an umbrella! We did the boat trip round the harbour and saw most of the sights. Michelle refused to shop anymore when she found out that her size here is [View Full Entry]

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Bali back to Lombok for our flight to Singapore means either the slow public boat (5hrs) and 9 pounds each including shuttle bus (a sort of 1980's small minibus with bench seats in the back) at either end, or a flight for 27pound each. We decided it would be more interesting and we would see more on the boat. 9.00am our 'bus' arrived and we shared the 2.5 hour journey with a male charge nurse from Nottingham and an American lad studying complimentary medicine and acupuncture. After his explanation of how cold drinks damage your innards, Michelle made a mental note [View Full Entry]

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So Ubud (pronounced Oobud) came and went. We saw the Monkey Forest, and had a fabulous meal at the Nomad. Next we went to Candidasa and the posh Puri Bagus hotel where we stayed for 1 week. When we arrived the luggage man put our bags on the trolley, "What have you got in here, your diving equipment?" "No, that is my clothes!" said Michelle (also see later). We had real luxury for 33 pounds a night, however, buyiing anything there like a meal or a drink cost twice as much as everywhere else, so we did a 10 mins stroll [View Full Entry]

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Michelle has had a bad tummy for a couple of days and when it came to a 2 1/2 hours journey on the fastcat to Bali she was worried. Terry walked to the harbour and confirmed that the boat had a toilet so we were able to set off. First the boat has to travel with its passengers to Lombok to receive clearance to leave which an official managed to do in nearly 10 mins! 2 1/2 boring hours later we arrived in Bali and had a taxi to Sanur where we hoped to stay a week. However, on the boat, [View Full Entry]

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The island looks idyllic on the photos and it nearly is so, surrounded by a coral reef the water is clean and a blue/green colour with sand all the way round, however, this is partly spoiled by the amount of broken coral, which can make barefoot walking difficult. The 'strip' on the east coast is where it all happens and the beach is covered in trip and dive boats. The north beach is the best, has pink sand and quite a few trees for shade. The west and south coasts, whilst pretty have mainly been surrendered by to nature. The majority [View Full Entry]

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On our flight to Lombok we met a German couple called Roman and Yvonne. They are from Heidelberg and on their honeymoon. Roman comes to Bredbury occasionally to repair the flour machinery at a bakery. Some days later we met again in a restaurant at Senggigi. This turned out to be the cleanest and best value restaurant ever, called The Asmara. We had a meal each with beers for a total of 7pounds, which included transport to and from our hotel to the restaurant which was 8km each way. Next day, Saturday, off we set for Gili Trawangan in our 20ft [View Full Entry]

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