Had a terrible nights sleep on the way down as it was soooooooooooooooooo cold at night. This time it wasn't because of the ridiculous use of air con but because when we made the 4am driver stop he had to leave the door open so people could get on and off but in doing so, turned the coach into an ice box. Dan managed to sleep through this all but once my toes had gone numb it was very difficult to drift back into dream land! Arrived in Sydney by driving over the Harbour Bridger which was pretty cool. Also experienced our first minor traffic jam in the whole of Australia. The place felt very much like London as we drove through the suburbs, weird. Arrived at our hostel too early to check in so although ... read more
Byron bay was a very nice as a place and we had a great time doing a bit of body boarding and going on a couple of lovely coastal walks. There are a lot of hippies in Byron bay, it's a good place to people watch. Also meant we ate a lot of falafel while we were there. Weather was OK during the day but you could definately tell in the evenings that it was getting colder... time to get the jumpers out! We saw lots of dolphins (still no whales), beautiful beaches, mad surfers and walked to the most easterly point in Australia. Dan took some excellent pictures of the big waves by getting absolutely soaked - good job his camera is waterproof! Whilst body boarding we saw a big shoal of fish actually in ... read more
Whilst on my diving course, we became friends with a guy called Con (this is who introduced us to Toppie) and he was kind enough to offer to let us stay at his place whilst on the Gold Coast. I honestly can't thank him enough for his generosity while we stayed there, had a brilliant time. Anyway, the Gold Coast is split into many different areas along an enormous beach!!! The bus dropped us off at Surfers Paradise and our friend Con picked us up and took us to drop our stuff off at his apartment. OH MY GOSH!!! It was amazing. He lives in an apartment block just set back from Main Beach on the 22nd Floor and so has the most fantastic views ever! After feeling a bit gobsmacked and slightly nervous we were ... read more
We had thought about going to Noosa but decided after a number of discussions to miss it out and head straight to Brisbane. As the journey was so long we did our first overnight coach journey to get some free "accommodation". Woke up very groggy as the coach arrived at Noosa to drop off people and looking out at the pouring rain storm outside we were sooo glad we were heading on. An overnight coach journey is cheap but so tiring, when we arrived at our hostel I just wanted to sleeeeeeep!! Dan had chosen to stay at a place call Bunk which was really cool. We were in a 16 bed dorm which was fine as there were privacy walls between beds so you didn't notice how big it was. Only problem was that we ... read more
Arrived in Airlie beach and we managed to get a double room for cheaper than two dorm beds which was excellent. The place was nice and located above a strange food/shopping arcade thing but had lovely views and was close to the bus station. Our room was very tiny, didn't have a window and the walls were paper thin (unfortunate as the people next door were French) but it was cheap so no probs. We managed to score an excellent deal on our Whitsundays trip. All the practice of haggling in Asia was coming in handy now as a discount really does mean something when you are dealing with "Western" currencies. We ended up booking a really cool trip on a new boat that had only been out four times. The guide book says that however ... read more
Just wrote a big entry for this but for some reason the website crashed and despite the fact I had saved it, I lost the whole lot! So instead of writing it all again here is a snapshot low down - Townsville is VERY quiet, except the pub opposite our room - Had a really bad cold and felt horrible so was very glad we had "splashed out" on a double room with TV. - Went to Reef HQ which had a big aqaurium and we saw beind the scenes of their turtle rescue centre - Magnetic Island was very nice - Stayed at Base Backpackers hostel and was the sort of place where there were a lot of party games to win bar tabs. Despite my best efforts in "underwear beach race" and Dan's trooper ... read more
Finally found a computer that allows me to upload photos to the blog so hopefully the selection I have put up with this blog, help illustrate the text! Cairns is certainly different from Darwin and is a lot more spread out. We arrived again at a stupid time in the morning so had to wait a long time before we could check in. Wherever you are, finding your new hostel is a tense experience - as always we looked out of the window everytime the airport shuttle bus stopped, hoping that it wasn't/was our hostel! Thanksfully the first place it stopped that looked quite good was for our hostel! Phew! This hostel was Dans choice so he was quite relieved as well. Bleary eyed we walked around the central street where our hostel was, grabbed some ... read more
Check out more photos of Hong Kong at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2546324&id=197805346&l=18816b09aa or just look on my facebook page x x ... read more
We jumped on a plane to Singapore early morning Thai time. We knew we had nearly 12 hours to kill before our next flight so investigated going into Singapore centre. Then spoke to an Irish girl on the plane about the Ozzie visa situation and she scared us into buying a return flight as she was convinced that even with a tourist visa we might have to have proof of us leaving the country (Dan - the Irish know nothing!). It was one of those times that you knew if you didn't sort it out they would ask so we decided to be a bit cautious and use our free Singapore time to search for a flight home. After guessing our daily budget we figured that we had to return home near the end of June. ... read more
On the boat over we had booked a minibus to meet us and take us to our booked hostel. We were very glad as the port looked a bit empty of taxis and tuk tuks (very strange in Thailand). We had chosen to stay in a place called Patong beach. We had heard that it was a bit seedy and a bit of an odd place but an Australian woman we met in Phi Phi assured us that this is where we should stay as it was where all the facilities were and everywhere else was miles out. It was a very big island and so she was probably right about it being a good central location but we hadn't factored in that she was probably staying in one of the very nice resorts where you ... read more
