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Published: April 22nd 2006
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Kat writes:
Considering both of us didn't feel ready to leave Asia to re-enter the Western world, since we landed we can't stop smiling! In Australia and loving it. Sydney is certainly all its cracked up to be. Its easy to see that people come here and don't want to leave. It has everything you want in a city plus sun, beaches, water and so much space! Rush hour on the tubes here is a stroll in the park compared to London's push and shove. With all this in mind Scott definitely thinks that we gave away the wrong island!! Since landing we have been here, there and everywhere. Scott will tell you all about it.
Dollaridoos!
Scott writes:
Landing in Sydney on the 27th March was a smoothier landing than the bump we got with the realisation of how much the value of our money had shrunk! We knew leaving Asia it would be coming and everyone had told us the same, but 'bloody hell mate' it was still a shock. Instead of our own little tranquil bungelow, we were thrown back five years to our Uni days, with pokey rooms, shared bathrooms and kitchens in a Hostel in
Kings Cross for three times the price! Wow Wee!! However, we had a cunning plan to 'cheap it' around Oz which we put into action asap.
Before that, our flight was good from Bali to Kuala Lumpar. Upon arriving we flew over the Sempang F1 Circuit and once in the Airport we saw the Indian Commonwealth Games Team. After a 4 hour wait there eating our first fast food in ages and marvelling at the mod cons (still escalators that start the second you get on and intelligent toilets that flush themselves), we flew through the night to Sydney. We went by the biggest storm we had ever seen, the lightening lit up the entire sky and our plane for about two hours. We watched Lord of the Rings and despite the pilot announcing 'we may experience some turberlance' hoped we were not on course to go through it!
Stop those Poms!
At Immigration, we caused a bit of a stir becuase I had ticked the no food box on the immigration card and i had.........Dun Dun Da...Mini Dime Bars on me. The guy politely told me that Chocolate is still FOOD, which i thanked him for the
Hello Australia!
After a long flight from Bali, with a stop in KL, we are flying into Sydney. clarification. You must Declare it he said and shuffled us to the correct conveyor belt and scribbled on our card. The women who checked my bags added to the drama by shouting....'Chocolates, chocolates everywhere!' and tutted her disapproval. Anyway, after unsuccessfully smuggling Dime Bars into the country, we were through.
We were staying in a part of Sydney where all the backpackers go, Kings Cross. It is possibly the wierdest place we have ever seen. A mix of swanky bars, cafe's and bakeries thrown on top off sweaty backpacker hostels, kebab shops and of course porn shops, go - go bars and prostitutes hanging about on the main high street. So bizarre.
Seeing the sights
The first couple of days in Sydney were pretty sweet, we did all the classic things. Went to see the Opera House, had some wine at Darling Harbour, took a boat ride around the harbour and under the Sydney harbour bridge, sat on Bondi Beach, took more boat rides to Manly and Watson's Bay and cruised around on the metro throughout the inner city.
We also went to the Aquarium and Taronga Zoo which were both totally brilliant. The Aquarium was huge
Yippe the Opera House
We know loads of you have been there, done that but the first time you see it, you can't help but smile! Its the Sydney Opera House! and had the biggest types of fish we had ever seen, in particluar Grey Nurse Sharks and Manta Rays. The underwater walkways were something else. Then we went to the zoo where amongst other things we got to see a Komodo Dragon.
We enlighten ourselves with a bit of culture by purchasing tickets to see Madama Butterfly at the Opera House. We poshed ourselves up with the best clothes we had in our backpacks and sped over to the opera house. It was of course all in Italian and for the first act we didn't have a clue what was going on but it all looked jolly good. So in the break over our glasses of chardonnay, we read up on the the next act to get the jist of what was going on and it worked. At least we could understand some of it. We had a good time and enjoyed the Opera but i think we liked the fact that we had seen an opera at the Sydney Opera House more.
We spent a few day over in Manly as we had liked what we had seen on our day trip and have been reccommended that
is a good place to stay. The beach is glorious and the town is good too. We joined in on a pool competition at the Stein Pub across from our hostel one night and surprisingly I won the Killer Pool Comp and Kat won the girls competition. So we had free cheap champers to drink and $25 to spend at the bar. We were 'stoked'.
The 'PLAN'
After we had ticked all the sightseeing boxes we started on our cunning plan to keep the costs down.
Buy a camper van! This way we will have a mobile home and wheels too and won't have to keep forking out for expensive hostels and coastal tourist buses but we glossed over there fact it would mean camping for next four months. So we made our way to the 'Travellers Car Market' in an under ground car park to check out the oldest, most used cars we had ever seen. We had no luck on the first couple of days viewing and believe me there are folk desperate to get rid of their home / banger to the next willing traveller. We were told things like "It's a good runner but the
Fingers crossed
Is today the day we will by our second home!? steering column moves alot" or "Yeah it's pretty good but the head gasket is on its way out" Ding Ding Ding.....Move away from the Car!!! Anyway, on day four we met a Scottish Couple with a decent van. At the car market they recommend you have an independent check of the car, so we paid for that the happen on the van. The Guy told us it needed a bit of work (which we have now had done) but it is the best you will find and will do the job. We hangled for a good price and the Red Ford Econovan was ours. Not the VW Kombi we had dreamed about but oh well. We could already hear
'Road Trip!' ringing through our ears.
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Al n Shez
Alan
Ozzy Chocolate
This is a true fact that Australian chocolate is by law allowed to contain 5% cckroach, which is maybe why they got so ars*y about the mini Dime Bars. Keep up the good work, Alan x