Australia

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Friday 15 January 2010 - Tuesday 9 February 2010

Weekend in Sydney

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney - what a fantastic place! Even flying over the city was great as we caught a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the sky (which looked amazing)!

My Ashok Uncle picked us up from Sydney airport as we were staying with him on Friday night. Even though we were feeling very tired and sleep deprived a little from Singapore (for various reasons) we got up early on Saturday morning to attend a laughter class with my uncle. OMG how hilarious it was! A group of random people get together very early on a Saturday morning to enjoy a class of laughter. During the class everyone partakes in random gestures and activities to make you and others laugh. The group just end up laughing at stupid things you end up doing or you just end up laughing at them. It feels weird to describe the concept given I have never come across anything like that before, but I can say it was very entertaining watching a random group of adults acting out childish games or fake laughing loudly (which actually makes you laugh). So weird, yet so funny. After we took part in a tai chi class which was a bit more relaxing.

On Saturday we went to an open concert - A R Rahman (producer of the Slumdog Millionaire sound track) concert which was really good, very enjoyable. Me and Narj went with my uncle and my uncle's friend Komala and met Prath (who we initially met during the Full Moon Party in Thailand) at the concert. Very good music and excellent dance performances. It rained a little which felt kinda refreshing after the heat of the day. After the concert we went back to Prath's and stayed with him - ended up chatting till early hours of the morning.

Sunday we spent the day in the city with Prath chauffeuring us around - always feels nice when you're with local who knows how to get around. We met Narj's cousin Gurpreet at the Sydney Opera House then went for a guided tour inside which was interesting. We learnt about the history of the design and about the issues regarding Utzon and his budget for completing the structure. It was heartbreaking to hear that Utzon who originally designed the Opera House never got to see his building due to politics as he passed away in 2008 in Denmark.

We had a fantastic weekend of sunshine in Sydney thinking we were lucky to get good weather - not knowing what the rest of Australia had in store for us weather wise.

18 days of campervanning

Oh my god - what a random 18 days we had driving up the east coast from Sydney to Cairns in a campervan! Definitely an interesting experience with lots of sights seen along the way. Not sure how i'm going to summarise it all as it was just so random (but i'll try and pick the best bits).

Our first day in a campervan

Picking up our campervan from the rental shop was exciting at first until I saw it and thought - oh my god it's huge, not sure how i'm going to drive it exactly. Narj drove first, she managed to get the hang of it after a bit then we parked up in a car park and it was my turn :s Now given that i've only driven a tiny Yaris all my life, god knows how I was going to drive a huge van looking vehicle which I had to literally climb into.

Turned out it wasn't as bad as I thought. I hit a corner in the carpark when I took off (but no harm done) then I was on the motorway - and after a bit I really got a feel for it and remembered how much I loved driving at home and how much I missed my car! The campervan was actually quite easy to drive and once I had got the hang of it, it felt amazing to be driving along the open roads along the coast listening to NEW music on the road (which we had missed for ages). Felt perfect! Both of us had smiles on our faces as we felt pure freedom driving our campervan

The campervan......

Awww.....it felt like our second home, it was sooo cute! Everything was compactly packed (very cleverly in my opinion). The back part of the camper during the day was used as a eating area with 2 sofas and a breakfast table and during the night converted into a double bed. We had a little sink which we had to fill up with water every now and then when the tank ran out. And a gas cooker, small fridge, utensils and cupboard space.

Air-conditioning system was okay whilst driving. During the night it was a killer as there was no air-con and it got ridiculously hot during the nights as it was bloody summer in Australia 😞 I can honestly say I hated it! After dinner we'd set up our bed and be sweating, then we change into our pjs still sweating, then lie down on the bed hoping to cool down but no, you just end up sweating even more. And you continue sweating for the WHOLE NIGHT. Then you wake up in the morning (if you do eventually falling asleep, which for most nights I didnt) sweating - urghh!!! Worst thing is there is no shower! 😞 I remember Hannah from our China tour talking about wet-wipe showers and I didn't really appreciate them until now. Gosh, I just can't describe how disguistingly hot I felt during our evenings in the campervan - I was not pleased!

Food wise it was amazing. We had several trips to Woolworths (the best supermarket in Auz) to stock up on anything we wanted to eat or make. The best thing about the luxury of a fridge was eating cereal with cold milk in the morning - such a novelty after travelling around South East Asia (as you'd get warm milk or sweetened milk). And I bought a box of the most amazingest cereal ever - wish they did it in the UK!

On the way up to Brisbane......

We travelled past Nelsons Point - very scenic viewpoint; Port Macquire; Coffs Harbour. All really scenic places along the east coast. And obviously we were constantly driving past loads of beautiful and deserted beaches which was really cool. The first few days of campervanning consisted of enjoying the scenery along the coast and living in our campervan which felt like a novelty initially.

I liked the city of Brisbane. Felt culturally more diverse than Sydney and the city had more atmosphere to it than city. There was a really cool public swimming pool along the river in the city amongst the skyline of the city. As we arrived on a Sunday the pool was heaving with locals so it had a really lively atmosphere. In Brisbane we booked a tour to Fraser Island which we had to get to in 1.5 days.

On the way up to Cairns......

Whilst driving up north we came across signs for the Australian Zoo - Steve Irwins', so we decided on a detour - and what a good idea that was. I was so impressed with the zoo - it was massive! Loads of animals to see and interact with, and i'm not even an animal person and I really enjoyed it. I fed kangaroos which were roaming around freely and stroked a cute koala. We watched the famous crocodile show which was really impressive. The crocodile was cool however all the different coloured and types of birds which they set free to fly around the stadium, right above your head, was my favourite part of the show. Felt like a jungle in the stadium.

Then we headed to Hervey Bay where we caught a ferry to Fraser Island for a tour. Fraser Island is the largest island made completely of sand - and there was lots of sand. Apparently there's more sand on this island than on the Sahara Desert. All the beaches on the island looked beautiful and all were deserted - this was because it was the jellyfish season so no-one was allowed in the water.

At Fraser Island we did a bit of trekking to get to Indian Head which was a viewpoint of the coast - very nice. Then we relaxed in some cool clear stream waters flowing into the sea. The following day we climbed over some hot sand dunes after trekking for 45 minutes, then arrived at Eli Creek where we did some swimming. Didn't realise there were huge fishes in the lake, so when I did I got straight out. Stared at them for a moment, took some photos then went back in as the water was nice and cool - although the water had a green tinge to it probably because it was surrounded by trees.

Our final stop at Fraser Island was Lake McKenzie which has to actually be one of my highlights in Australia. It looked AMAZING!!! Like nothing I had ever seen before - wow! Seriously, natural crystal clear water and silica sand which apparently would clean jewellery and make it sparkle and your teeth! I was just shocked with how amazing the water looked. I pretty much just ran into it and stayed in the water, figured Narjw ould have difficulty getting me out again. I've never swam in natural water so clear than that in Lake McKenzie.

Another stop up the coast was Airlie Beach where it just rained for 2 days 😞 but it was still really humid. Actually it felt worse than it being sunny because you just constantly felt sticky. When it did stop raining, after we felt we knew Airlie Beach inside out, we went on a tour to the Whitsunday Islands. The amazing Whitehaven beach wasn't all that in my opinion although the storms the previous days had stirred up the water quite a bit and dragged loads of seaweed on the beach - and the water wasnt crystal clear as advertised everywhere - I was disappointed. Managed to practice some snorkelling though from the coast and got to do some reading on the beach.

Final destination - Cairns

It felt like such an achievement reaching Cairns, our final destination where we dropped off our campervan. Prior to arriving at Cairns everyone had told us how there was nothing to do in Cairns - but we soooo thought the opposite.

On arrival (which was in the morning), we rushed around to grab and eat breakfast then handwash our camper - which was messy business. Then we were picked up by the station to go and do a 14,000 ft skydive which we booked the day before. THIS INDEED WAS MY HIGHLIGHT IN AUSTRALIA.

WOW! The skydive was awesome! Narj had been going on about it on and off during our trip, and I kinda wasn't really paying much attention as it was not an immediate concern of mine - however on the day I still didnt seem to be phased much. Unusual. However when they took us into the office to sign a disclaimer suggesting we might die on the skydive if something went wrong - that's where I began to shit it! There was actually a part in the disclaimer which said a successful skydive cannot be guaranteed as there is an element of luck involve - like seriously, what the hell (which is what I thought). But nonetheless everyone just signed it and handed it in. The was the point during the whole experience where I was most nervous and felt sickly. After that I was fine. Getting on to the plane and watching the scenery on the way up was amazing! I was so impressed with the view that when it was my turn to jump off the plane I was still admiring my surroundings.

The jump itself was sooooo much fun - really gave you the sensation of flying or floating in the air - so cool! It was AWESOME! The dive was a tandem skydive so I had Tim on my back smiling away for me as I made his job easy by not creating any comotion, he actual said I was a natural - lol! So we had a 60 second free fall, then the parachute came out, then we just gently floated back on to the ground after I was given the chance to control the parachute. On landing the first thing I said was - I so want to do that again! 😊

Then we did an awesome daytrip out onto the great barrier reef - this was definitely another highlight! I was amazed with the life that exists underwater - wow! So pretty and colourful! Saw so many fishes because now i'm obviously a pro at snorkelling 😉 especially given my first experience in Thailand. I did quite a bit of snorkelling and absolutely loved it! Saw a turtle come up to the surface for air, so loads of colourful fishes all different sizes even saw a group of Nemos!!! Aww.....how cute they looked!

Alice Springs/Ulluru

From Cairns we caught a flight over to Alice Springs to start a 3-day tour to Ulluru. Alice Springs had such a different feel to it compared to the rest of Australia - I guess we were in the Outback.

Here you were in contact with more aborgines as there appeared to be a higher population in Alice Springs whereas along the east coast we didn't come into contact with any. Its weird because I actually partly feel sorry for them. Being the original inhabitants of Australia and not being treated or classed as human beings by others was a sad fact to hear and comprehend. I understand what people see from the outside - you see the aborgines (in Alice Spring) roaming around the place, not using public footpaths and instead walking on whatever they want to, grunting and making random noises, grabbing and itching inappropriate body parts freely in public places, stinking of alcohol and shouting random things at you. I understand why people see them differently - purely due to the fact that their actions, in modern culture it socially not acceptable or not the norm. But then to think about their background and their own culture really makes it clear there exists a huge culture clash here. The aborgines lived in the outback with nothing - no shops, roads, restaurants, other people - nothing. Everything was simple - I imagine. And now they are being forced to accept modern western culture and civalisation - something which I guess has been imposed upon them and it's such a shame to witness. Given they at one point in life had no need for alcohol or petrol, you can kinda understand why they would abuse such items which I imagine would appear alien to them. Our tour guide explained because they have been bought up differently from a young age, it is difficult to get aborginal kids into education as its too late so the culture clash remains.

From Alice we visited the Kings Cannon, Ulluru and Kata Tjuta - all very impressive and red. Gosh it was hot during our time there - really dry heat, very uncomfortable. One thing which really frustrated me was the fact people were allowed to climb up Ulluru (Ayer's Rock) given it was a sacred rock/place to the aborgines and they requested for people not to climb the rock due to that reason. Yet, people were climbing it. I found that really disappointing to witness and felt it was a sign of disrespect almost. The government allow people to climb because tourists travel from around the world to do so which I personally don't feel is a justifiable reason.

The aborgine cutural centre was very interesting to visit and very informative. Shame we only had 20 minutes there and shame it wasn't included as part of our tour (but our tour leader squeezed it in as we were really interested in the background of the aborginal people).

Overall I really enjoyed my time in Australia (apart from not being able to sleep at night because it was really hot) and Fiji is next on the agenda.

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Photos

Aborgine Art
in the airport.

Chanker, Narj, Rohan and Me
At Bondi Beach

Narj, Ushma, Ravi and me
On a boat in the great barrier reef