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Published: September 16th 2007
J'day Moites!!! Howe's it gowen?!
Er... Sorry about that my Australian needs a little improvement yet....
However, before we get to that we have many more adventures to tell you about! Philippines
Now then, the Philippines.... Hmmm.... Well, after Vietnam, it certainly had a lot to live up to - especially as Vietnam was SO cheap and full of exciting things to do.... I know Lesley has already given you all a run down of what it was like and it was exactly as she described it, however, she didn't tell you about the time she went off to the toilet whilst we were having lunch in a Manila shopping mall (unlike places in Britain it's not a legal requirement to have toilets on your premises in SE Asia so you can end up walking 15 minutes to the toilet if you're extra lucky)... On this seemingly normal trip she followed the signs until she came to a dead end, so she asked a guy standing near where they were. He told her and she walked off and found them, only to realise when she came out that he had waited for her outside! She then, understandably became slightly unnerved and walked upstairs to me...
Once told, of course, I was ready to throw the guy off of the top balcony down five floors! Only to find out that Lesley managed to single out the wrong guy to me, the real culprit was now somewhere else in the Mall... Short of eating a banana and putting my underpants over my trousers there was nothing I could do, the main thing was she was OK...
At the time it wasn't particularly worrying as we were together, and I want everyone to realise I'm not trying to dramatise it for effect at all... Even though it wasn't at all a drama just an isolated incident, it did make us think of how worrying it would be to a girl if she were
travelling alone.
It also raised the thought that, since we have been away, not once have either of us felt in REAL danger, not to the extent of the obvious threat of being followed... Couple that with the fact that the Taxi driver who gave us a lift to the airport said,
"Please! Lock your doors as we go through here,
"He looks really mad!"
"So I'm going to stick my head in his mouth, but don't try this at home; it's stupid!we could be held up at the traffic lights...."
Well, Whoopie! Isn't the Philippines nice!?
.....................BYE!
Singapore
Like the comparison of Chalk and Cheese, or perhaps, West Ham FC and a football team of genuine quality, Singapore was a dimension apart - never mind world - from the Philippines!
I can't quite describe how impressed I was with Singapore, it was amazing!
Some people we had met had told us that it was a fantastic place, but as we arrived we were greeted by an über modern metropolis with pristine streets and a road system that actually worked!!! It was incredible!!!
Singapore is a modern city with all the amenities of any western municipality of the equivalent size, but importantly, it proves that this can be achieved without losing a sense of self and individuality!
We arrived at Singapore airport around about 9 at night so immediately time was against us when it came to Hotel prices: prices always seem to go through the roof when the hoteliers sense the slightest bit of desperation! We proceeded through the passport control area with no fuss and climbed into a cab that had a meter! Whilst we were happy that this was the case, I suddenly started having flashbacks to all the times cabbies had ripped us off for cash during our trip!
For example, this is how it felt it had gone for us in the past,
Can you take us 'five minutes down the road' please?
Hmm.... Fie minute down de rod? Oooo, dat long way away, 30 minute drive 700 ฿aht my flend.....
We ended up finding a room and of course, ended up inevitably paying the 'We need a hotel room, we're knackered and can't be arsed running around trying to find one all night' tax... The room was OK but the next day we booked in to a really nice one as we were only going to be there for a few nights and fancied treating ourselves to some luxury....
After I'd managed to drag myself away from the control panel in the room which controlled every light, the T.V, radio and strangely, Lesley's temper, we headed out to look for activities within Singapore...
Singapore was great; we could just chill out and we didn't need to travel anywhere for at least a few days which made it all the more enjoyable...
On the last day of our 3 day stay, after some shopping, some football watching and my glorious discovery of
an Internet café that allowed me to play Command & Conquer for hours on end, it was time for us to actually experience a really unique Singaporean
adventure........
The Night Safari!!! This is apparently the only of it's kind in the world. Basically, it's a zoo but instead of cages and windows the animals are kept in enclosures that are topographically impossible for them to escape from and, of course, it's only open at night!
This was a really cool experience, that was until an annoying Indian family came from nowhere and decided to be as loud as possible, with also the prolifically swearing child this side of Moss Side! Not to mention the token American imbeciles;
So, are Kangaroos mammals or, like, Rodents?!
Man alive! Where the hell do you start with that one?!
So after turning these people in to the appropriate authorities and having them put down, it was once again time to enjoy the safari...
We saw all kinds of creatures Leopards, Tigers, Elephants, Hyenas, Tarsiers (yep, I know you were all waiting to hear if we got to see a Tarsier, well we did!) and Bats! We actually walked through a kind of Bat coop
This is Lesley infront of the Elephants...
Minutes later we realised she had been trunk-pocketed! where they were free to fly about. I have to say I was quite amazed at how massive they are - the Bats in that coop were roughly the size of a Rugby ball, perhaps slightly larger, which was far from my idea that they were about the size of a milk carton!
The night Safari was brilliant and I would certainly recommend Singapore to anyone thinking of travelling, probably for only a few days, but after going around SE Asia for all that time, Singapore really did feel like it was a different world...
That's about it for Singapore really, nothing of any real significance other than the Safari, Lesley will take you all through our Oz trip so far, but she might not mention her sneezing session, so I'll briefly cover it...
A day into our stay in Oz Lesley had clearly caught some sort of sinus infection and couldn't stop sniffling and blowing her nose... Now this ultimatley led to a few sneezes, but not normal sneezes, oh no! These sneezes were super sneezes were the fearsome Australian sneezes!!! Oh yes, and with one almightly
ATCHA-WOOLAWOOOLOO
Lesley had sneezed but in the process, also put
Singapore Safari
This bird is pretty hot! She could even turn her head all the way round....how can I compare to that? her back out of action... Great! So now my little poppet is more delicate than ever, not only that but Lesley's sheer stubbon will and perserverence means that now we are somewhere where we can get fit she wants to do everything even though she needs to rest!!!
Lesley will fill in the rest of that one!
Take Care everyone!
Love and Bubbles
ANDI
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD
We were both really looking forward to flying to Australia, South East Asia was an experience but it was not really my kinda place. I was looking forward to great beaches, friendly people and shrimps on the Barbie!
We took the seven hour flight from Singapore, the flight was good apart from some guy who decided that although there was a free seat between me and him that he would move over and sit next to me for the whole flight. He was not a small man and he had a tendency to snore in my face.........and I am not a violent women but I had visions of me throwing him out of the emergency exit! The 'sizzling' 16 °C sea front swimming pool...
Look at all those people enjoying the blistering temperature!!!
Bondi Even when we had our meals, he was right there on top of me whilst the seat next to him was free...and by the way that seat was an Isle seat so it would be a bonus for both of us if he had moved over. Oh no the Mr Big belly just wanted to make me that little bit more uncomfortable.
I thought I best not use my Kung Fu on him as I would only be locked up and I did want to see Oz! So I restrained myself!
We landed in Sydney quite late and hadn't organised anywhere to stay so this was the first thing we had to do. We had learnt that George Bush was also flying into the same airport in the next half an hour and that they were about to block off all the roads etc..so we had to get out of the airport fast to give ourselves any kinda chance of getting anywhere that night.
After phoning around a few hostels we went for one in Kings Cross....and yes it did resemble the Kings Cross in London. The Hostel was pretty grim, a huge room but not particularly clean and
the people were not all that friendly so we knew we wouldn't be staying there for very long.
After staying a few nights we thought it was best to move away from here so we went for a wander down to Bondi beach to find a youth hostel that had been recommended to us.
Bondi beach is really cool, I couldn't believe how clear the water is, I have never seen a beach so clean. we wandered up the coastline for a bit and eventually came to a youth hostel. This youth hostel was totally different, the lady showed us around, it had a movie room a games room, Internet (although expensive) and it felt a lot friendlier and was in a much better location. So the next day we packed our bags and left for Bondi.
It is really cold here at the moment it has just hit spring and our room in the hostel was pretty chilly. Andi had a great idea that if he turned on the shower, really hot it would heat the room......and it did. He then thought it would be another great idea to leave the kettle boiling with the lid off
Tamarama Beach just south of Bondi...
And a Superhunk sitting on that rock of course! whilst we went and made ourselves a soup.
Whilst we were eating our delicious soup the fire alarm went off.........."Great" we thought, some idiot has set off the fire alarm! We then all had to go outside in the freezing cold and the rain, our food was getting cold and Andi then had this guilty look on his face as the fire engine turned up, could it be our 'steam room' that had set off the fire alarm? After the fire brigade left confident that there wasn't a fire the guy who works in the hostel told us, it was our room (surprise surprise, the "idiot" who set off the fire alarm was my lovely boyfriend) and that when we are having a shower we should open the windows. Us having not actually had a shower in there yet, he then thought to repeat this to us on various occasions reminding us that there is a water shortage in Oz at the moment. It would have to be some shower to set off a fire alarm! We just cant go anywhere and just not be noticed!
Andi has probably mentioned somewhere that I have pulled a muscle in my
The Opera House
A view of the Opera House from the Harbour Bridge, Spectacular! back by sneezing........yes I know you can stop laughing now!
I was gutted as now we have not been able to surf...although it is pretty cold here at the moment, and it has really restricted what we have been able to do, just walking around at the moment is a killer. We have managed to do most things we have wanted to do here and anything that we haven't is an excuse to come back in the summer.
As George Bush was in and around Sydney some of the roads and the streets were being blocked off, the people had been given a public holiday and people were advised not to go into the city if it can be helped over the weekend. So we decided to stay away and we entertained ourselves by going to the shopping plaza at Bondi Junction and walking around the coastline (where we saw lots of dolphins jumping around in the sea!) so just chilling out really.
Just next to Bondi beach there is an outdoor swimming pool which is sea water and you can see the sea crashing into the side of it and filling it up. We thought we would have
Sydney Harbour.
Whilst Andi was taking a thousand million photos of the Opera House I thought I would take this one of the harbour for you all to see. a swim as we have not done any decent exercise since we have been away. The water was absolutely freezing!!!!! 16 degrees! It took a good while to get in and once we were in we just had to keep moving or we would become ice blocks. We had to try and avoid the waves crashing over the top as it was really disorientating when they landed on you! So after our nice refreshing dip we defrosted in the sauna!!!
We had a good few days just relaxing and decided that on the Tuesday we would do the touristy things and go and see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was a really sunny day which was lucky, the Harbour Bridge was really impressive and the Opera House was also cool to look at.
We walked all the way over the bridge and back again as the sun was setting, we were contemplating walking across the top of the bridge but that cost about 80 pounds to walk over it. we decided against it as Andi would only be happy if he would be allowed to go over with no safety ropes, swinging from the beams in
The Sydney Olympic pool!
We tried to re-inact the Olympic swims but it wasn't quite as fast, well Andi wasn't anyway...... his superman outfit....and I don't think he would be allowed to!! We were happy enough just to walk the normal way across the bridge and save the superman outfit for another time.
Later we found out that there was the Olympic swimming pool right near the Harbour Bridge so we went back the following day to check it out. It was the pool used in the Sydney Olympics, it was huge with about eight lanes. It was an outdoor heated pool and we were so relived that we would not have to defrost afterwards. The pool was right at the base of the bridge so it was an amazing view from there, check out the photos!
So now we have seen the sights of Sydney and done a bit of exercise, we haven't been surfing and we didn't see the beaches north of Sydney but we will do that in the summer. But for now we are going down to Melbourne and are going to find some jobs before the summer kicks in. We are hoping Melbourne will be just as good as it is here in Sydney and we are looking forward to the Summer getting here
Gorgeous!
The beaches here are amazing, if you look close enough we are running up the beach hand in hand naked...........ummmmm! and turning us into beach babes/dudes!
Australia definitely beats S E Asia, the people are slightly more normal and everyone seem to be really active here which is really good, people are either running, swimming, surfing or just bouncing around like Kangaroos...yes that is a sport here in Australia......kangaroo jumping, go on try it!
I'm only kidding it's not really a sport...silly!
So that's Australia so far, one week into it and 51 weeks to go and I cant wait!
(Make sure you watch the video attached!)
Lesley
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