Perth is the gateway to Western Australia and having crossed the Nullarbour Plain with literally days of nothingness.....bo-ring.....you could be in a different country. I guess it is closer to Jakarta than Canberra! Not even the Australian mobile I bought in Melbourne works over here. I guess everything will be in Western Australian time from here on in. If it can be put off until tomorrow why do it today eh? We spent our time in Perth after a quick schmooze around the city - all very clean and pretty and city like, in Fremantle or 'Freo' as the locals call [View Full Entry]

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This is how it starts, a camper and a beach. Next a beard and unwashed hair. Soon, tie-dye, dreds and Jesus sandals. Our little camper has it all and a bag of potato chips! After stocking up the fridge with fruit and veg (we will be eating healthily for the next 8 days) we made directly for Palm Beach - where Home and Away is made. Just 20 km out of Sydney, this is by far the most beautiful beach around and even has Summer Bay Surf Club. A great place to spend our first night free camping; that just means [View Full Entry]

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Ken and Alison were kind enough to take us on a trip to the Blue Mountains for two days. Only 2 hours from Sydney, this part of the Great Dividing Range took 25 years for Europeans to cross, not because the mountains are high but because this is true Aussie "bush" - extremely rugged and dense. Travelling in a 4WD bus (yes, that's right) we made our way out of the city. In the distance the mountains really do look blue. There is reason for this. Eucalyptus, or gum trees, emit an ultrafine oily vapour that hangs in the canopy giving [View Full Entry]

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Having escaped the rain in Melbourne we reconvened with Ken and hop along, I mean Alison, in Sydney and felt the welcoming sunshine on our faces as we settled into what is undoubtedly the most instantly identifiable city in Australia. Wow! Sydney has a lot to offer. Like a psychedelic supermodel the city curves and sways through a glamorus maze of lazy bays, sandstone headlands, quirky islands and legendary surf beaches. Effectively the first colony, it has a feel of history (albeit dating back only just over 200 years) that Melbourne lacks (although we still REALLY love Melburne). The area [View Full Entry]

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G'day..... Well, we never actually thought we would make it to Australia. Back in November it seemed so far away and now this is the last leg of our trip. With the hard parts of Asia behind us we re-enter civilisation. We are understood, we can cook for ourselves in kitchens not situated in an alleyway and not inhabited by other animals (although there are more than a few dubious "younger" backpackers here). Even though eating out is fun, after 3 meals a day for 6 months that first bowl of home-made bacon amatriciana was almost as good as at home [View Full Entry]

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Privacy has never been of any real importance to us on this trip. Dorm beds are the norm or even 3 in a bed when Michael was here, but this is being typed in perhaps the coolest accomodation we have stayed in yet......a "Manga Cafe". This is a 24 internet cafe in which you hire a private (well it has half walls and a saloon door) booth for the night, complete with DVD, Play Station, bottomless soft drinks and, of course, broadband. Strangely and unexpectedly in Japan you have little choice when it comes to internet. No longer does the standard [View Full Entry]

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After deliberating for hours over where would be the best place to see Mount Fuji we settled on Fuji Go Ko, a pretty town surrounded by lakes in which great reflections of the mountain can be seen. A bit of a bitch to get to but we decided it was a right of passage in Japan to see their most familiar symbol. It is, afterall, only a couple of hours from Tokyo. Spurred on by the good weather in Tokyo we embarked on this journey. Well, after alighting the train in the fog we enquired as to which way to look [View Full Entry]

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After being templed out in Kyoto we decided to take in some other of Japans famed sights. First on the list was Himeji Jo Castle. Himeji Jo is universally aclaimed as the most splendid Japanese castle still standing. It has a stately white form with a 5 storey main donjon (heavily fortified central tower) and three smaller donjons. The entire structure is surrounded by moats and defensive walls punctuted with rectangular and triangular openings for firing guns and shooting arrows. So, as far as castles go, it was kind of cool. It had a real gothicy feel about it and reminded [View Full Entry]

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8.15am.........Hiroshima will be forever remembered for that terrible incident on 6th October 1945 when it became the world's first atomic bomb target. "Nothing will grow for 75 years" went the rumours after the Enoula Gay unleashed the bomb. The historical elements of this trip have been some of our most memorable things.... Kanchanaburi in Thailand, EVERYTHING about Cambodia, Vietnam and now Hiroshima are all firmly entrenched in my mind as a potent symbol of the idocy of war. Oddly enough, you would never know about the history of this city from just looking at it. In fact it is lik [View Full Entry]

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What does one discover when arriving off the plane? Heated toilet seat covers, vending machines in residential streets and face mask donning locals - we must be in Japan! Kyoto is the must see city in Japan, second only to Tokyo in tourism. Although lots of Kyoto does involve neon and the like, it certainly has more than its fair share of "real Japan" - yes I know I just uttered the heinous phrase but Kyoto really does have raked pebble gardens, temples galore and the tripping step of a latter day geisha in pursuit of a taxi. With more than [View Full Entry]

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