A mini adventure!

Enter Thailand

smorg — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:26:00 GMT

After an arduous series of flights I arrived in Bangkok. Happy to have accomplished two things, shortening the journey back home and seeing the movie Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood, I recommend this film worth a watch. Upon arrival I was in awe of seeing such a different culture and being in a place so unfamiliar to home and so far away.

The signposts to the baggage claim being in two different languages, the people looking so different to yourself and the humidity were among the first things that grabbed me. Once having made it through customs I have never in my life been offered so many Taxi rides!

Before I could accept a taxi I needed to get some Thai currency, so I made my way to the ATM to make a cash withdrawel and to my horror the ATM was refusing my bank card. After trying another ten or so times and being in disbelief I realised this was real and had to get myself together and get this problem sorted.

But working out how to operate a Thai international phone box with no money is no easy task and getting help was also difficult. Trying to explain to the Thai people why I needed to borrow the money was a little tiresome but eventually I managed to borrow 500 Baht from a nice Thai lady, in exchange for my passport as a deposit. After searching the airport with the directions offered to me by a Thai to locate the international phone center I finally located it. Lucky for me I came prepared and had the Barclays bank number written down in my luggage.

After waiting for a rediculous amount of time to get through to customer services (having worked out how to dial the number which was a mission in itself) barclays inform me they decided to block my card because I used it in a hotel more than three times - what a fucking joke. I had informed them that I was in Australia till Feb 2010 AND told them about Thailand but they still needed to block my card. Thankfully after 5 minutes he card was unblocked and I could proceed with my journey 2 or so hours later after having passed through customs.

Not a good start.

When I left the airport nothing could have prepared me for the humidity I was walking into. IT was like being in a steam room and within minutes of leaving the air conditioned airport I was sweating buckets.

I took a taxi to Th Ko Sahn in Bangkok about 35 minutes away which cost me 400 Baht (8 GBP). Once there I was blessed with the task of finding some accomodation in the middle of a busy drunken street with all my luggage at around 1:30AM. I must have looked like such a target!

Very wary of my surroundings I was approached by a helpful Thai guy who showed me a hotel off the beaten track which was quieter and a good place to get some rest. Of course I was very cautious and wondering if there was an ulterior motive for his helpfulness which of course there was he wanted 40 Baht for some food which I gladly accepted. I would never have found this hotel on my own, the streets (smelly) are very difficult to navigate, small and winding with difficult names to remember.

I got my head down at the hotel for 500 Baht (10GBP). I had my own double bed, air conditioning, fridge, room service, bathroom and I could smoke.

The next day I took a walk around bangkok making sure I made a strong mental note of landmarks to guide me back to the hotel. I could not believe what I was seeing and for the first time I was a real foreigner I was the one who stood out.

The people here are fairly poor and to them you are rich so I felt slightly awkward and very cautious of my wallet being pickpoted. I think for the first time in my life I didn't feel short! I was as tall or taller than a lot of the thai people! Walking around bangkok was an experience in itself, people serving food on the streets, masses of food stalls tables and chairs laid out on the street, beggars, people trying to get you to buy crap it's very easy to get subdued by it and after a while it gets very tiring.

After an hour or so I got talking to a Thai guy who seemed very genuine although I was skeptical. We was talking for hours and he was educating me on the local tradition, the thai language and what to go see and do. It seemed a bit daunting trying to work out how to travel this country but he showed me to a tourist information center which was about a 15 minute walk. He said I will wait outside while I go and talk to them and I was in there for about 2 hours talking I just assumed he would be gone by the time I leave but he actually waited all that time!

You would never find someone so helpful back in England, at least in my 22 years I haven't. The information center sorted out my entire stay here for me and pointed me in the right directions.

For his help I bought him three beers 1 litre bottles for 3GBP (150 Baht). After we departed I wished him all the best I went to go and try my first experience of Thai cuisine. I went to a street stall and had pork and rice which was amazing and it cost around 2GBP! - a pack of 20 Marlboro cost 1.10GBP!

The next day I left the hotel and made my way to the train station in the evening and headed up to Chiang Mai. The train ticket was cheap and I had a bed to sleep on! Chiang Mai is in the north and I was happy to leave bangkok which I was not too impressed with.

Here in Chiang Mai I embarked on a 3 day jungle trek. I was not at any time informed on how difficult this would be but it involved hours of uphill walking in the baking hot sun. The group I was with were all cool people in their 20's and we had a good time. At times it was really dangerous having to walk along ravines with nothing but a 100m+ drop to your left with minimal pathways, I won't lie I was terrified. At one point we came to a part where the path was totally separated and we had to use a bamboo stick to walk across it with a huge drop below if you fell.

We come accross snakes, spiders many mosquitos and elephants after it was finished I was so happy to have completed it, my legs could barely move aterwards and I was covered in bites.

Later, on the last evening me and some of the group went to go see a Mauy Thai boxing fight which was really good. We had ringside seats for 10GBP! - and you could smoke in the arena. Rules on drinking and smoking here are very liberal.

After it was in a bar for a few drinks before retiring to bed for some well earned sleep - never have I appreciated air conditioning so much in all my life.

Up to Cairns and beyond....

smorg — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:21:00 GMT

A lot has happened since my last update because the last update was a long time ago! From surfers paradise I made my way 8 hours to a place called Hervey bay which is a small town with not much to do. There is one main street with a parade of shops along the esplanade and a small beach. Beyond that it is fairly residential. The motive for coming here though was the advantage point for Fraser islands.

The ferry is that departs for the island is about 10 minutes away by car. Fraser island is a natural sand island which has a rainforest growing on top of it, with a lot of native wildlife on the island including Dingoes, Snakes, Spiders and Scorpions! The island is very beautiful and we was there for 3 days 2 nights camping. We went on a group tour (60 people) and hired 4 wheel drives as it was a self guided tour. It was good fun, good partying but unpleasant at times. The first day it rained like you wouldn't believe, I forgot a sleeping bag and my swimming gear so I couldn't swim or sleep properly! My only critiscism of the island is the ever growing interference of man. I heard that the dingoes get captured, tagged and culled to keep numbers down apart from that the island is fairly unspoiled and the partying, getting smashed and chilling was great. When we got back from the island we all had a goodbye party to celebrate which was funny :)

After this I wanted to make my way to Airlie beach and sail around the Whitsunday islands. I decided to try hitch hiking and got part of the way there which was interesting. In between we stopped in a place called bundaberg which was another quiet town with not much going on here, I left after one day and made my way to Airlie beach.

Here in Airlie beach I took a boat tour to the Whitsunday islands and saw the most beautiful beach ever just check the pics on facebook. After seeing the islands here we then went snorkelling on the barrier reef which was good but not amazing. I think the best diving/snorkelling for the reef is up by Cairns further north however I was never told this which was a bit annoying. There were some nice fish but the reef wasn't that amazing (not many colours).

Airlie beach itself is a nice town, small and a bit too touristy for my liking but very picturesque. Touristy places come with tourist prices and the beer was way more expensive here.

By coincidence In the 'Magnums' bar I saw some people who were on my tour group from fraser island. The crazy Italian of the group Filippo.

We just got talking over a beer and he said he was heading to Cairns the next day so I hithced a lift with him which was really handy.

Here in Cairns it was where I spent a few weeks just being lazy, chilling out in a really cool hostel one of the best ones so far actually not doing much in the days. Once you get to Cairns you've practically reached the top of the East coast. Met some really cool and strange people here. There seems to be a lot of Aboriginals here in Cairns and it's here where I have had my first eye witness accounts of how dodgy they can be, Filippo the italian got beaten up and robbed here.

Here is where is faced a decision where to next? money is running low and domestic flights to Perth, Darwin and Alice springs are rediculously expensive. I decided to (after much convincing by others) head to Thailand! I figured my money would go much further and to see somewhere drastically different would be a nice change.

16th May I will be in Bangkok. After Thailand I may stay in Asia or come back to see the north and west coast of Australia not sure yet!

Peace and love

Tasmania - Queensland

smorg — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 11:38:00 GMT

Right it's been a while and a lot has happened since I last posted nodoubt I will forget things but i'll do my best to remember it all.

The hostel in Launceston was awful very dirty and bugs all over the place, the only highlight here was the beautiful Gorge that I went to which you can see in my photos when I upload them. I met a crazy Aussie guy here though by the name of Steve Curry (how crazy? - he took on 3 bouncers, bare foot!) and with his advice I changed my course where my next stop would have been Adelaide his advice brought me to Queensland. Apparently Adelaide is full of serial killers, very small city and not much going on, this was confirmed to me by a Aussie I met who has lived theres all his life so on that note I took a diversion! I met a Taiwanese guy here who became fascinated with me and began treating me like I was his spiritual guide, this soon became very annoying. Everytime I asked him a question he'd answer me with a question. I had this for three days by the third day I was going insane.

(NTS - Goon night, Catherine, Audrey, Steve: funny)

So I jumped on a flight to brisbane with Jet*. Brisbane was boring not much going on here just a huge shopping mall inside a compact city, the hostel here was expensive and bound by too many rules. I spent three days here and that was enough for me. There was a funny incident, I was in a bar here on a music night and got talking to this group of crazy Koreans. As I was talking I began to roll a cigarette which fascinated them. It fascinated them so much that they wanted to try one for the first time. So we went outside and had a smoke and the Korean guy got a headrush off the smoke and fell over! I found this extremely amusing.

The next day I jumped a train to the Gold coast which took about 2 hours. Having been here for over two months and not yet spent a day beside any beaches I was very much looking forward to this. Well I stayed on the train and had no clue where the hell it was going I did not recognise any of these station names! turns out the Gold coast is pretty big which I soon found out first hand. Anyway I got talking to some canadians on the train who told me about surfers paradise. The name certainly sounded appealing so I headed there. When I got off the train I must have gone past the station so I had a long bus ride!

When I arrived this was the place I had been wanting to see and it looked great. Instantly this place is for two things only: Partying and Surfing what more can you want? (Check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:View-from-Q1-looking-north.jpg ) The pink building is where i'm at.

I decided to spend 2 weeks here the hostel I am in is practically a hotel with 4 bed shares and after constant travel I felt like a rest from all the moving. I met many people here in 2 weeks, two cool Americans Erin and Josh, and two guys from the UK both called Paul.

Paul came to Gold Coast for the V Festival which was happening few days after I got here which I never knew about, and on a whim me and the second Paul bought tickets and we joined him for a really good day. We saw the Killers, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, Duffy and Kaiser Cheifs to name a few. This day soon became very random. Midway through the day we got split up and it was impossible to find each other. I stopped and asked someone for a smoke and we soon got talking and was introduced to a huge group of people. I ended up hanging with these guys. At the end, it started raining like you would not believe and I was soaked. I got invited to a house party they were throwing and next thing you know come the end, I was in a Limo with all these people heading to some party on the Gold coast, this was incredibly random but good fun. Leaving out the gory details.... I woke up not remembering much at all apart from realising I had slept in a wooden chair in soaking wet clothes!

I made my way back to the hostel in the morning, fell asleep on the bus and woke up in a place called southport - nice city but not where I was meant to be!

(NTS: Funny, crazy night after drinking, bumping into a few psychos we come back smashed Paul being a legend has some Weed, we smoke it and it completely bolloxes Paul of his face!)

I could go on for ages talking about some of the stuff that went on i'm not gonna go on though. I met back up with the french dude I met in Taz here in surfers and we went on a few club crawls, as I am writing - this being the morning after one of them and am feeling fairly fucked.

Next stop is Fraser Islands.

(Weather: Queensland weather is very tropical, very humid and hot but totally random going from clear sun to heavy rain in seconds this can happen like 4 times a day alternating between each other - and night brings bats!.)

Hobart - Launceston

smorg — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:42:00 GMT

Hobart was filled with excitement. Me and this french dude spent a day in port arthur which is one of the old convict settlement prisons in Tasmania, in 1996 it was home to australia biggest mass murder event where a lone gunman by the name of martin bryant walked into the public caffeteria and began shooting everyone. After an interesting day at port arthur I return to my hostel to discover someone decided to take my bed and put their stuff on it! I reclaimed my bed and then at around 3AM got woken up by two crazy bitches claiming i've stolen their bed, even though it had been mine for the past 4 days! this erupted into an argument which was quite intense and led to me making an attempt to set fire to the stupid bitches hair; after I was kicked and endured several items being thrown at me! I stood my ground, kept my bed and they fucked off, I win. Next day me and the french dude meet up with and begin talkin to loads of people in the common room and we end up going out to a bar called irish murphys we all had a good drink, saw some live music and it was good there was about 8 of us. In there i get talking to some dude who lives round the corner and offers to let me crash round his for a few nights before moving on and we took a trip up the east coast going into every pub along the way to triabanna which was pretty cool. The hospitality of the people i have met in Tas is unreal you'd never get this in England, not in my experience anyway. This is the sort of place where you would stop and ask someone for directions and they'd give you a lift! Whilst couch surfing round at this house I was introduced to his hot nieces and their friends which turned out to be quite interesting. We went to a heavy metal gig which was great real head bangers place interesting night also. Finally the time come to where I was feeling like it's time to move on from Hobart. Tasmania is a beautiful place for sure very picturesque. The french dude i was hanging with made his way up towards Launceston on the same day as me. He left at 10 and I left at 3. After arriving in launceston i had nowhere to stay and after trying 4 different hostels found a spot in a place called the hub. Checked into my room and who's in there? the french dude. How coincidental is that. The aim of coming to Launceston was to enable me time to visit cradle mountain and the overland track but so far i haven't been too motivated to do much, especially after meeting the resident alcoholic here I seem to be doing 24 hour drinking since arrival. Today is my first clear day and also why I am managing to update this journal! This hostel is crazy and dirty. Bugs everywhere, crazy residents and strippers in the evenings which can go on till the very early hours, conveniently my room sits above a 10,000 watt speaker system!

Tasmania

smorg — Wed, 4 Mar 2009 10:17:00 GMT

After a faithful night of drinking, smoking 'Sheesha' (thanks to some random french guy) and music making with my fellow nomads from Oasis I was awoken by a rather large and grumpy lady barging her way into my room at about 11AM only to tell me my time is up and I was meant to have checked out at 10. Had I known this was my last night I probably wouldn't of got so hammered. So next thing I know I am packing up my bags and bidding farewell to my fellow travellers. I knew it was time to move on from Melbourne and I had a good idea that Tasmania was the place. Of course when you leave it that last minute and go on the day your options are limited and beggars cannot be choosers my fellow readers.

2 choices, ferry ($165 with bed) or plane ($295 1hr flying). I chose the ferry which was actually quite good. Restaurents, pubs and lots of roudy bikers. I was sensible and only had a few drinks before turning in at around midnight. The ferry arrived in Devonport, Tas at 6:00AM so I knew it would be early wake up and an interesting day working out where to go from there.

At around 5:30AM I was woken up by the loudest bang you could ever imagine hearing whilst in deep sleep. That was a 60 odd year old guy on the top bunk bed opposite me, miss footing his ladder and having it slide away from him directly onto my bed while he of course came crashing down. After the initial shock of waking up so quickly it was very amusing.

Once arriving in Devonport I realised this was the complete opposite side to Hobart which is the main city, very interesting. Luckily I managed to wing it again and jumped on a Tassielink coach all the way. Having been here for 4 days now in Hobart it's an interesting place, where shops and newsagents open and close whenever they want, they are as random as the weather, one minute sunny, the next hurricane winds. There is some nice places here particularly some of the residential houses which are near the main ports and bays nice location to live. We are surrounded by ports, with a nice bar and many restaurents onverlooking them.

I went aboard (for free!) the Sea Shepherd; a greenpeace type Australian, volunteer ship dedicated to the preservation of marine wild life particularly whales. Ask any Japanese person and they will tell you it's a terrorist ship! It was good seeing how they worked and lived and we saw video footage of them on actual chase, where they scuttle the harpoon ships.

There is a huge market here called Salamanca which runs every Saturday which is very lively.

Now I have seen on three separate occasions at markets particularly Victoria Market in Melbourne (where they sold crocodile burgers) UGG BOOTS. Yes I am beginning to encounter them and some have been very cheap around $29 genuine sheepskin...

I very much want to check out Port Arthur (Steeped in history) as my next spot before heading to a different part of Tas.

Story so far - Updated

smorg — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:38:00 GMT

The story so far, there has been so much that's happened I know I won't remember it all. Since i've been in melbourne I have met many people and have been taking a laid back approach just drinking and chilling most of the days away!. I have been checking out the city which is quite nice but after a while cities can get a bit samey. Ok when you first get there but after a few days you can tire of them. Melbourne is quite a big city and the hostel I am in is a bit of a trek from the main town so I have been doing unbelieveable amounts of walking. We are getting some very hot days here too. I have moved on to three different hostels since my last post around Melbourne. I hooked up with a friend from school mr Anthony Dixon who happened to be travelling in Oz the same time and we spent a few days together which was really cool. We hired a car and drove along the great ocean road which is a road that basically goes along the edge of a cliff that is long enough to take you all the way to Adelaide, with some amazing views. If you ever hit Melbourne this is a must do, it was here I experience my first wild Koala bears and wallabies! - and a decapitated kangaroo.. (road kill). We've been having loads of parties, bbq's guiatars out and watching people fall over after a lot of 'Goon' drinking.

Today I am heading to Tasmania, very last minute and have practically been winging the whole thing. The internet is pretty costly here so i've kept this short and sweet but so far it's going great!

I went to see my very first Australian football match here at the AFL, the Kangaroos vs the Carlton blues very interesting game I went to see it with a Danish guy I met in Melbourne Metro and this was quite a unique experience - actually going to a football match where there was EQUAL numbers of Men and Women watching it and the women were not just partners the blokes brought along for a show! these were women genuinely interested in the game! We were sitting in front of a very enthusiastic young lady who indirectly taught us the entire game with her constant and very accurate commentary!

On the way back from the game we spotted some very unusal nocturnal creatures running towards the trees, I grabbed some photos which I will upload when I get the chance.

Here in Melbourne I have met some very interesting characters a lot of them German. One particular guy in the group was very eccentric and yes he was a journalist. We had a very strange morning where we was walking around the city and he decides to take a tour around Melbourne Central cemetary! at least I went to a place where 99% of travellers in Melbourne have never seen before! - he found it fascinating and I was very easily amused by his enthusiasm!

Canberra to Melbourne, Victoria

smorg — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:46:00 GMT

I had a productive day in Canberra visiting the Australian War Memorial of the australian soldiers who died in WW1 and WW2 this was a sad place to visit but eye opening as well. They had real bomber planes in there, guns you name it from the world wars they even had a newspaper of the morning the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. I then went to Parliament house which was a beautiful building albeit a bit boring but great if your into politics there was public access to the commons where they decide upon laws to enforce which was quite cool. Next stop was the Australian Museum all things Australian with a great focal point on Aboriginal culture and a history into how it all started with the european settlement right to the public apology made to the Aboriginees. The surrounding of Canberra was fairly quiet and laid back with nothing much more than a busy city centre which was just a huge mall and lots of government buildings. Not much else going on here and I am glad I spent no more than 2 nights, I knew it would be this way though and it was a good pit stop before arriving in Melbourne. Met a woman from Hawaii who I went around with that day which was quite cool. The next day I left the hostel which was both quiet and overpriced serviced by lazy staff. I left early in the morning and contemplated on how to head to Melbourne. There was 2 options a Greyhound coach which is a popular form of transport here for long distance or a Flight. Railway is not an option. Considering the Greyhound coach was a 12 hour drive from 20:00, I chose to take an early internal flight for $95 and arrive there in 55 minutes, the quickest flight ever. Getting on the plane I was nominated for explosives testing, maybe I look dodgy..

By the time you eat your food and they take your tray you're putting seat belts back on getting ready for landing. I got off at the Airport and thought right where the fuck now? City Centre! so I hopped on a shuttle bus which took you straight there. Next I had to find a hostel, which wasn't as easy as Sydney. I used a hostel transfer service free of charge from the same company who took me to the city centre as it was included in the price but I had no hostel booked up so I had to wing it and try my luck. I picked out a random YHA called 'Oasis' and luckily they had a spare room for the night.

The only problem is this is quite a hell of a walk from the main city centre at least 35 mins if you know exactly where you're going. Upon arrival I had a 2 bed dorm which is very unusal in comparison to the common 4 - 8 bed dorms. I immediately made friends with my room buddy Dave who was from southern Ireland. That night I met another 8 or so people in total who were all really cool and we had a good evening drinking 'Goon' - some sort of cheap white wine / cider; which tastes better the more you drink along with a bbq guitars and sing song. This place had a real good vibe as it was small and you are forced into meeting people. Pretty much everyone knows each other.

The weather in Melbourne is great btw a good 30 degrees clear sunny days.

I then had to depart in the morning to my new hostel the 'Metro'. Now on the map it looked like an ok walk but in the heat, with a backpack going uphill it's not one of the best things to do. I finally get there drenched in sweat and have to wait around for about 3 hours to get my room key what a fucking joke. As soon as I arrive I can instantly tell this is nowhere as good as the previous hostel. it has a very different vibe people seeming more reluctant to start conversations and being a much bigger hostel this is why.

When I get to my room I notice it is an 8 share room with no air con. Great! to top it off a couple of twat scousers in the room who find jokes about immature stupid things amazingly funny. Other than 2 guys everyone else is paired up so it's not ideal for mingling.

I went for a trek around the city today and it was a hell of a walk not to mention the heat was intense. I made it to Federation Square and the royal gardens which was really beautiful. I decide to lay down for a bit which turns into about 2 hours and I continued my walk back to the hostel after sitting by and walking along the Yarra river which was really nice.

On my walk back I started to realise just how far I had walked to get there and the heat was getting even more intense and I was walking for AGES. Then somewhere along the way I took a wrong turn and ended up walking in the opposite direction! grr the second time that's happened! so most of my day was walking and working out the area.

That day after my little sunbathe when I went into a few shops I noticed I was getting some funny looks off people and was thinking what the hell are they staring at? when I get back to the hostel I look in the mirror and yep I am as red as a tomato haha then it all made sense.

Later that day I made friends with some people from my room, turns out there are 2 lone travellers in there one called Thorbin from Denmark and another called Hassen from Sweden both pretty cool guys. Thorbin has a masters in Astro Physics and was a very interesting conversation! - he was involved in the creation of a space probe tool which does something to the dust on Mars! There was a couple from paris too which were very nice! Turns out I am not alone in sharing my negative views with the two scouser twats they are all pissed off with them and I think they have picked up the bad vibes and are starting to quieten down in the night.

Today, time to do the laundry I think, but we'll see how it goes don't want to strain myself too much....

Life in Canberra, ACT

smorg — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:11:00 GMT

I left Sydney yesterday and made my way to the railway station to catch a train to Canberra. Sydney and Canberra look so close on the map but it was 4 hours away! I really want to head to Melbourne as my next stop so Canberra was a good half way point. Upon arrival, being a Sunday it was dead. Nothing like the energy of Sydney, although the Lonely planet book mentions that Canberra is very deceiving upon arrival and I can see what it means. If you want something you have to look a bit harder, but it is there. Canberra is very suburban and borders wilderness. The weather was the best i've seen so far, clear sunny day, 20 degrees and dry. Upon leaving Canberra railway station It appeared to drop me off in the middle of nowhere! it looked vast but thankfully there was a taxi stand nearby. Accoring to the knowledgeable cab driver part of the Railway was ruined by floods and never fixed some time ago, which is why the train does not stop in the canberra city centre. The railways in Australia come second to coaches and flights and so they are underfunded something to do with the voting in NSW not being applicable to the people in ACT, but NSW are in charge of the funding! - bit of trivia for you there. I have two nights planned for Canberra last night being my first before heading to Melbourne, today I plan to catch a Canberra explorer bus and get the main attractions done in a day. I have met a couple of decent people so far from Germany and Vietnam, oh and that guy I spoke of in my last post was an indigenous New Zealander also known as Maori!

Considering departure from the state of NSW

smorg — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:55:00 GMT

Yesterday was a bit of a wasted day as it was flash flood tropical rainfall in a warm 20 degrees temperature so I took a chilled day and spent most of the day in a bar chilling with some people, met a right funny looking character and just wish I had my camera with me to take a pic of him! I caught a movie too called 'My Bloody Valentine' and it has to be said this film is the biggest pile of shit ever. I feel like an hour and half was robbed from my life, not to mention trying to watch it pissed didn't help either because it was so boring I ended up falling asleep in the cinema and missing the end, doubt I missed much though! I planned on heading to the popular beaches Bondi, Manly and Palm beach but in this weather it would be pointless. Not sure how long this weather will be continuing for in NSW but up the east coast and to the North it's getting wet whereas down south such as Victoria they are battling bush fires and experiencing hot weather. This is the worst summer Sydney has seen in years and coincidentally it was the worst winter with the most snow fall back home for years too. Looks like it followed me to NSW.

Cool attractions

smorg — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Today after having sussed out some places yesterday, me and my travel buddy Pete went up to the Sydney Aquarium which is pretty impressive. They have all the native marine animals found around the oceans of Australia, we went to wildlife world which also has a host of interesting wildlife from mammals to invertebrates and reptiles all native to Australia. We then headed over to the Sydney tower after walking around for about an hour looking for the entrance to the damn place! After arriving we had some impressive views of sydney [photos to be added]. Then we followed the recommendation of the Lonely planet guide and headed up to Watson bay for what is said to be the greatest fish and chips in Sydney! it's a place which catches fresh fish from the bay so yeah it's certainly the best fish and chips I have ever eaten. Unfortunately we didn't realise how far Watsons bay is from sydney! by taxi it's about fifteen mins but it clocked up a pricey fare! Our second surprise was how swanky this place was. In our heads we imagined it to be a fish and chip shop take away like you get back in England and it turned out to be a fancy Restaurant with very fancy prices! The place was called 'Doyles on the beach' and it worked out about 20 quid! not including the drinks! I had a fish called 'Flathead' and it was really good similar to cod but tastier. Anyway we settled the bill and this time proceeded to a bus stop for a nice little journey around town back to port jackson for a nice walk back. Unfortunately again we find the road we need and end up walking in the complete opposite direction! after about 30 minutes of walking and realising we don't recognise any of the shops we decide to turn back and check a map! we finally made it back and went for a few beers whilst sitting outside. Suddenly out of nowhere came what seemed like a tropical monsoon! it just bursted out with heavy rain! by this point i am knackered and I head back to the hostel to rest, the amount of walking we are doing is heavy going. I had my first normal days sleep today getting up at a normal time of 9:00 rather than 5AM and encountering my first decent day. Another productive day in sydney!

Walking Around Sydney Central - Landmarks

smorg — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:07:00 GMT

The day I arrived in sydney I checked into a pretty decent hostel called Sydney Central YHA! (after having tried a few to no avail) It has some decent facilities which are quite impressive such as Cinema, Sauna room and roof top swimming pool! The weather so far has been mildly warm to hot esp at midday with intervels of rain. So far I have met some pretty decent people in this hostel to name two there was Peter from England and Oscar from the Netherlands. Today the three of us trekked to some real major parts of sydney going briefly to the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Opera house, Sydney Cove (AKA Port Jackson), The Rocks and a brief visit to Darling harbour. We covered all this today on foot and my feet are killing me! -=[I will upload some photos that I took I just need to write this while it's all still fresh in my head!]=- This was a truly nice experience the views and places look amazing. The Opera house being a very impressive piece architecture and Sydney Cove was also very impressive. The Rocks is a place which holds some of the most oldest buildings in Australia dating back to the periods of first settlement, it gets it's name mainly from the fact the buildings are buit from sandstone rock! We managed to find the oldest pub in Sydney and of course could not resist a well earned pint in there after all this trekking. It was in Port Jackson I saw the first Aboriginal, they were playing the didgeridoo and I was able to join in with them surrounded by tourists taking photos of us! My impressions so far of Sydney as a city it is very clean, vibrant has some great architectures and it is especially laid back and nothing like the fast pace of London! We then had to bid farewell to Oscar and me and Peter proceeded to a bar. It was here where I spent the rest of the afternoon. We met a couple of vagrants in here, two brothers from Belgium who have been travelling for 10 years! Needless to say I got pretty hammered and after loads of walking and mild heat not a great combination and so what happened when I got back? yep I fell asleep and woke up at 11PM! this is the second time I have crashed at a stupid time now and my body clock is crazy, I was up and about from 5AM today! Jet lag still seems to be taking it's toll.

I hope to come back to the Darling Harbour and Botanic Gardens tomorrow to get a more detailed experience of the two places.

Au revoir for now!

Journey begins

smorg — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:32:00 GMT

We arrived safely at Heathrow Terminal 4 and got there at a world record speed thanks to Svens advanced driving techniques. After checking in we grabbed a coffee and then I made my way to the departure gate bidding farewell to my family and home. By this point I am going through the airport security scanners and thinking what the fuck am I doing? Actually suprising to myself I felt completely anxious free for the entire journey and I know it had nothing to do with the vallium. After a long 13 hours on a cramped sticky plane and getting very crappy intermittant sleep we stopped in a newly built airport in bangkok but don't ask me what the hell it was called. Looking around and seeing airport directions in Thai was quite an experience but there were translations. Being able to smoke in the aiport was very handy gotta love the Asian folk. After 2 hours it was time to reboard the plane and stick out another awful 8 hours. The airplane food being better than expected. Finally we arrived at Kingsford Smith Sydney Intl Airport at 6:10AM 10 hours + GMT. Getting through airport security was surprisingly quick and hassle free. Once through to the exit lounge I looked around to see that this was going to be easy. Hostel links, ATMS you name it everything was here and it made it really welcoming and easy. I stepped outside for a smoke looked around and thought wow where the fuck am I? then I hear a guy talking to me in a funny accent and behold I met my first nomad. A lonesome traveller from Norway who seemed to have been to every corner on the earth. It was like we had known each other for years, both being in the same boat, wanting to head to sydney central both with no pre booked accomodation and so we had a lot in common. We headed back inside the airport and tourist information was extremely helpful and they guided us to a shuttle service which takes you there direct. We then met another lonesome nomad from the Netherlands a young lady who came here to study. Once we arrived in sydney central we went our separate ways. I found a nice hostel called "Wake Up" , and then I preceeded to check out the high street only to find my first Internet cafe. All I need now is to have a rest and plan my route of action! I'll try to keep my journey updated but don't expect them all to be this detailed. See ya until next time!