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Published: August 18th 2006
Greetings from Oz!
So, that was Asia then! After we left Shanghai, we had a flight intensive few days, owing to a cock up in timings. We flew Shanghai-Hong Kong and had one night in a gloriously posh hotel, with electric curtains and a walk in shower. Fabulous! The next day we flew Hong Kong-Singapore, as this is where our Sydney flight departed from. Trouble was, we had about 8 hours to fill at Singapore airport. Now, we could have gone back into Singapore and had another look, but it was pricey in a cab and we'd 'done' Singapore at the start of our Asia segment anyway, so we made ourselves busy.
Singapore's Changi airport is fantastic, we managed to pass away the time by having a shower (S$8, free shower gel and fluffy towel included), using the free internet, buying yet more books for me to read (Mr Bryson, you better be working on another title sharpish, I've nearly read your entire back catalogue) & calling home. I felt a bit guilty as we've only managed to call home twice this whole trip, and we've only used the mobile in Africa so far. However, a 15min call home cost us less than 2quid each and it was good to hear some Naaarwich accents again (yes dad, that's you!).
Finally, we boarded our Singapore Airlines flight for Sydney at midnight local time, and as I settled back for a relaxing 7 hour flight, pleased at the thought that Ju & I have a spare seat between us, the silence is shattered as thousands of Chinese 11 year olds get on, and to my horror, sit RIGHT BEHIND ME!!! Great, I'm leaving Asia behind, with all the staring, spitting & general rudeness that seems to personify China, oh, hang on, no, half the country is coming to Oz with us! Maybe not half, China does actually have 1.3billion inhabitants, but I was pretty naffed off by now! Cue much kicking of my seat, shouting & playing video games by jabbing at the seat-back tv. (by the Chinese, not me!)
I did the only decent thing I could do. I glared at the row behind me, then crunched my seat into the recline position! Ha! Squeal now, you horrid little kids!!! I'm sorry if this makes me sounds like a child-hater (I'm not, I love my nephews!), but it was midnight and I was grouchy. And I almost never recline my seat as I think it's so unfair, but needs must. A lovely night's sleep ensued!
At Sydney airport, we were greeted by a strange Russian with a very suss accent, who was transferring us to our hotel. Trust me, my Russian accent is better than his, so we were giggling away to ourselves as he drove us to the centre of Sydney, in glorious temperatures of only about 20 or 21 degrees. It was lovely because there was no humidity, no sweat!! Even though it's winter here, it's fabulously sunny, with blue skies, but just not as hot as their summer, obviously.
We'd booked into a hotel, as opposed to a hostel, because we thought we'd slummed it enough in China, so when we pulled up to the Metro Hotel on Pitt, we were chuffed to see not a backpacker in sight! Apart from us, but we don't have any henna tattoos or dreadlocks. Yet. Our room wasn't ready as it was only about 11am, so we dumped the bags, filled our pockets with leaflets and maps from reception and off we went. First stop was Gloria Jean's, a sort of down under Starbucks, where we filled our faces with Bagels & Latte (and a hot choc for Ju, naturally) and immediatley started to feel a little ill. Hmm, a little hot. We were only wearing jeans & t-shirt, but we soon realised - THEY HAD THE BLOODY HEATING ON!!!
I know it's winter, but that doesn't mean a thing if it's 20plus outside and the sun is shining!! We wandered off down to Circular Quay, to be greeted by the awesome sight of the Sydney harbour bridge and the Opera House. Stunning views, the sun reflecting off the water & lots of boats bobbing around the harbour. Beijing was forgotten in an instant.
Over the next few days, we crammed in as much as could - the Rocks area, Darling Harbour, Manly beach & Mrs Macquarie's seat (a massive walk around the headland, but worth it for the views). The highlight for us both was getting to climb the Bridge. It was quite pricey, but trust me, the scenery from up there was amazing. You have to put on a rather fetching boiler suit, headset and plastic trouser combo, and you also get breathalysed before you climb. I was so paranoid about not being able to climb that I banned us from having any beer for the whole of the day before, something we hadn't done in a while!
After a safety briefing, our group set out for the climb, all clipped on by various safety devices to the bridge itself. Ju & I were at the back of the group of 15 or so, which was good as we could take our time. However, we had such a freaky family in front of us that we kept up with them, just for the comedy value! They were from Leicester, and the mum looked like Mrs Scoggins from Postman Pat (or the FPC lady!), the dad looked very much like Rowan Atkinson and the kids? Well, being really cruel, we're not sure which one was the son and which was the daughter!! Strrrrange bunch, kept stopping to put on more layers of clothing as we acsended, even though most of us were peeling off the layers! The top of the bridge wasn't scary, just a perfect view of all of Sydney's sights, albeit with a bit of a breeze blowing at you full in the face. We only have the official pics, no photo's of our own, as they don't allow you to take your own camera up (it's a scam!), and they cost us a few dollars after the climb, but we mailed them home there & then and somehow they arrived in England after just 4 days.
After Sydney, we flew on Virgin Blue to Brisbane. That's our 16th flight so far, and I still don't like take off!! The flight was fine, hardly any Chinese people and no delays. Result.
Brisbane was never going to measure up to Sydney though. It's a good place to visit, but without the sights & style that Sydney has. There's a really nice beach (man made of course) over by the river and a lovely esplanade to walk down, while munching ice cream (Hokey-Pokey flavour again, so weird and yet so right!), but as we were back to staying in a hostel again, we had more funds to spend on pints. Or schooners, or pots or whatever they're meant to be! Ju normally points at the pump and say ' two of them please mate' which seems to be working!
The hostel was a bit of a cock up to begin with. There was a big show on in Queensland that week, like the Norfolk Show but bigger and probably with less chavs. That meant all the accommodation was booked solid and the hostel, in their wisdom, had let our room go before we got there!!! Not impressed, we had to spend the first night in a dorm, in bunk beds. To top that, we had to share with a strange bloke called Eric.....all I will say is that he smelt weird. We got as drunk as we could manage (not nearly as hard as it sounds!) and slept fine. Finally we get moved to our own room, one which faces onto the bar. Not good, the bar was jam-packed & noisy every night, so again, we had to force down more booze, to help us sleep of course. We went and did the Castlemaine XXXX brewery tour too, purely out of cultural interest, and not to do with the fact that you get four free samples at the end! It wasn't all beer, we did go up to Mt Cootha lookout spot and even did a bit of a hike through the woods up there. We turned back when I freaked out, thinking I had walked into a spiderweb when really it was just a leaf that had blown into my hair......! Well, the spiders are really dodgy over here!
After another short flight on Virgin Blue, we arrived a few days ago in Cairns, even further North, so even warmer than Brizzy was. Staying in a hostel again, but smaller, and with much nicer people, no sign of any club 18-30 types so far. Cairns is gorgeous, a nice boat jetty, pool area, lagoon, parks, little gift shops to wander through, oh and we get a free dinner at one of the local bars every night, where we can indulge in yet more beers if we so wish! We've mainly been exploring so far, but tomorrow we go to Cape Tribulation @ 7.10am. It's a kind of tropical paradise place, and I'm sure we'll have our fair share of nutters on the bus - we seem to attract them! The day after, we get a catamaran out to the Great Barrier reef for some snorkelling & sunbathing. I can't wait! For now though, we're off to buy some postcards & drinks and sunbathe near the lagoon for the rest of the afternoon. Or should that be arvo!?
I'll leave you all with that thought, I'm sure it's just as nice back home in Sunny England.....! And I won't mention the footy, except to say how pleased I am with the both our team's current league positions!!!! Hope that doesn't jinx our next game too much.
Bye for now, fellow Poms & everyone else who knows us. We've had a lovely day, but we think we'll take the money......hmm. That's actually Bullseye. Time for a beer.
Love Kel & Ju xxx
PS - If there's a random pic of us both in the top right hand corner, I don't know how it got there & I can't remove it, but it's from our hols in Florida, LAST YEAR?!
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Neal
non-member comment
mmmmm.... beer!
soooooo.... jealous!!!! Just read that at work and am now depressed!!! sounds like things are still going great... can't believe that was only flight number 16 though... we did 10 in 4 weeks!!!!!! Take care both, and have an Aussie beer or 6 for me!! Neal