Down under May 2012

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Well , that was Asia ! Amazing continent, and I love it . so varied and mixed cultures . Before my first visit on 2011 to Borneo / Malaysia I always generalised Asia as being a united culture , how wrong I was !

I left Burma and it took me 3 days to get to Sydney , stopping in BKK and Singapor to chil out a bit ( as if I needed to chill out ! ) before the big city of Sydney.

I arrived at 5am and it was freezing ! About 10 degrees compared to the 35+ where I had just come from . I had no warm clothes and it was depressing , mainly due to the tiredness and jet lag . i could nt get into my Hotel before 8 30 so I had a few hours to kill at Sydney harbour before taking the 25 min ferry across to Manly Bay . I opted for Manly because it was half the price than Sydney and only a short ferry ride across the beautiful Sydney harbour, but at 50 AUS$ a night still 3 times the price of the accomodation in Asia .

It was weird to be in a modern civilisation again , the high skyscrapers and normality of everything was a total shock to the system as was paying 8$ for a cup of coffee ! FOr that money I could get a taxi into town , eat and drink all night in Asia ! Well ok a bit of an exaggeration but not far off ! Yes I was in complaining mood .Even the fact that people spoke my language was a bit strange , almost took the novilty of being overseas away and it was dark !

This was a real culture shock and I was confused .

I finally got the ferry and I was really in a bad mood , sailing past the Sydney opera house about 200 m away I just did not feel impressed and longed to be back in the warm enchanting, mysterious South East Asia again .

I got to the hotel / gust house and it was ok , nothing special but nice people ran it . A german girl Steffi greeted me in ok-ish English so I conversated in German , I hadnt spoken german for ages and it was kind off nice to speak it again . But it wa so cold , the room had a little heater and a big thick quilt , God I havent seen neither of them things for ages but bloody well needed both of them .

I had heard so much about Sydney and was dying to explore but not today , time for a sleep and hope to wake up in a better mood. But this was not an adventure , I would have to wait until the Fijis to feel like I was on an adventure again .

Manly is a lovely little suburb , right on the sea edge and after a sleep the weather had perked up , the sun was shining and it was warmer nearly hitting 20 degrees . I decided to try Aussie food and yes it was disgusting , my taste buds had had first class treatment the last few months and now back to greasy high chloestral junk ! but it was kind of funny listening to the Aussie accent and they are friendly people .But I was lost here , I felt very shy and found it hard to talk to people like I did in Asia

I needed to adjust and go exploring , but not yet.. just a couple of days to adjust to this new world

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Photos

That opera house
Lovely to see this after only seeing it in photos

Sunset
In a big city Sydney

City life
No wooden shacks or temples to be seen here !

I am happy
.. honest

Beach life
Manly Bay , vey nice