Sand, sea and not many fish!

4 years on and yes we are still posting about our Travels!!

We landed in the beach town of Noosa, a little deflated from the backpacker experiences of Brisbane, but intent none the less to enjoy ourselves, and enjoy ourselves we did!!

We arrived at the fantastic Noosa youth hostel and were faced with a stunning view out to the Ocean. We spent our time Body Boarding and taking walks through the rain forest, baulked at the price of a bowl of pasta in town ($37!!) and ate fish and chips as the sun went down.  We were sad to leave but the greater beaches of Fraser Island and the Whitsundays beckoned.





We arrived at Hervey Bay, the main leaping point for Fraser Island, and travelled to the optimistic name of Flashpackers.  It appears all you have to do is build a dark room and put a big TV in it along with a few comfy seats and you can advertise yourself as luxury, I mean forget about AC, or even windows that open in the bedrooms, that is just too much to ask!!

Anyway, after an extremely warm night we left for Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, on a 4x4 bus along with 20 other people.  We negotiated soft sand dunes, swam in crystal clear waters and stood by as our driver bush engineered our broken bus back to life on the beach.  We took the obligatory sunrise photo and spent the afternoon floating down Eri Creek, it's a tough old life, and made our way back to our overnight bus to Airlie Beach.












Ahhhh, the Whitsunday Islands!!  Images come to mind of sand so white that you can polish jewellery with (or use to create the lens for the hubble space telescope...which they did), azure blue waters teeming with neon colours fish and you, sitting back with a cool beer on the deck of a huge yacht watching the sun set.

Hmmm...... well I'm sure that the above is possible but not for us!!  We ended up on a large yacht, we saw fine white sand, and watched the sun set.  We also did it with about 20 other people on a boat, who all seemed to be concentrating on their tans and stealing our food!! Ok, maybe not stealing but they took it away and never brought it back.  Sometimes we don't like the politeness we were born with being from the UK!!

We began to realise that although we enjoyed travelling we were not enjoying the gap year/I'm 18 and I want to go mad type of travelling which usually involved sweaty cramped conditions with not a lot to do.  In short we were generally the oldest around and were feeling it!





Moan over we had forest walks which included eating ants bums, snorkelling (without fins because they are a threat to the environment?!?) and many more food stealing incidents!  Sailing back to another overnight bus we were starting to look forward to diving the great barrier reef!


We arrived in Cairns, our last bus trip of the whole year as it turned out, and this was really a moment for celebration.  Not because we had reached as far north as we were going to go, or that it was the a dream for either of us to be there.  No, it was the end of a 9 month journey that had involved many churning, queazy stomachs and all in the name the measly but mighty mosquito.  Yes it was the last doxycyclin tablet which to be honest we had been looking forward too for a long time!

Apart from that we had a really relaxing time awaiting our dive trip the famous great barrier reef.  This had been in the diary to do for a long time since Louise started to dive so we were looking forward to this a lot.  We headed out to sea along with about 20 learners and a fair few fellow divers and anchored off our first site.  Now, before we go any further we should say that we had not dived without a dive guide before and Louise and I were sent out on our own and, well, shall we say that we had a domestic at 12m below the surface!  We worked on our own communication signals and all was well, because Louise took the lead......and Louise likes to lead.

Unfortunately although we saw lots of things there was a distinct thing lacking on our dives, and that was fish!  The coral was amazing and what you would expect, but there where hardly any fish, a sign of the times.  It will probably be attributed to global warming or declining fish stocks but it was quite sad to see, or not.

We returned to shore and headed to the airport, destination Melbourne and the beginning of our 4 wheeled adventures in a camper van!!

Byron Bay and the Brisbane.........nuff said!!

We arrived in Byron Bay after an overnight bus and having been unable to secure any accommodation in any solid buildings we made our way to our permanent tent.....yes tent. It's ok, it only cost us $180 a night!!! The people were lovely though and it was actually quite nice to get away from the general teenage back-packer grunge that made up most of the accommodation in Byron Bay.

Now, for those of you who do not know Byron Bay is one of the must go to places for any back-packer heading up the east coast.  This is for obvious reasons as there are lots of surf schools (which can be found almost anywhere in OZ where there is a beach), there are lots of coffee shops (...again they aren't short of them in most populated areas), the beach is nice (..................Australia is kind of one big sandy beach!!) and drugs and alcohol seem to be in full flow wherever you look.

Well we jumped on the band wagon (surfing, not the other stuff!!) and had some surf lessons which left Louise close to tears and me with no skin left on my fingertips.  Needless to say that we decided our careers weren't about to change at this point and we would remain professionals and not give it up for a life searching for the perfect wave!!  We decided to move on with little persuasion and headed to the capital of Queensland, Brisbane.

It was at this point that we realised that we were 'old' when it came to traveling as we moved into our 24 bed dorm that stank of MAN and left a lot to be desired in terms of security, hygiene.... and well pretty much any creature comfort that we mature back-packers had come to crave.  Unfortunately it wasn't the only thing about Brisbane that we weren't too keen on but what it did provide us with was a great opportunity to plan the rest of our time in Australia.

We met a lovely Irish girl, Katie, who was desperate to book us tours, camper vans and diving trips.  After booking our mandatory 'hug a Koala' trip we ended up having a good laugh with her and after LOTS of discussion we left her with several options to work on overnight, which included some travel agent party (everything on the east coast seems to involve some kind of party?).  As we were a bit bored in Brisbane we spent a lot of time researching ourselves into the evening and a very resourceful Louise found a discount code on twitter to leave us in a very good position to negotiate.  For those who know us, we like to negotiate and drive a bargain!

Katie was so pumped up about what a great deal she had for us and it was a shame to see her be deflated by our own research......but what a star she was as we got an e-mail later that day saying she would not only match our price but gave us a huge discount on top!! We ended up getting our camper van for £15 a day which was an amazing deal and big discounts on our diving and other tours.  So we left Brisbane on a bit of a high and on to the paradise beach of Noosa!!

Myall Lakes, a real Australian adventure.....and some wine.

We didn't know very much about Myall Lakes national park before we went there but we are very glad we did.

Michael and Rosemary, two of Louise's parents friends, very kindly offered to put us up for a few days.  They had been following us on our travels from the very beginning and had constantly been saying we should come stay with them on our way up the east coast.  We were treated to scenic drives, another real bed and some of the most stunning views we saw in Australia.  Michael's encyclopaedic knowledge of everything from birds, snakes and the majority of Australian wildlife was an excellent commentary as we were taken to huge empty beaches and
Koala spotting.  The highlight of of the Koala spotting was after we had tramped through a small section of forest with no sightings we asked some local residents about them.  There answer will remain with us for some time, it went something like this.  Michael "Are the Koalas in that forest?", Local "Yeah, not many of them but you can hear them at night.  Don't go walking in the forest though, lots of snakes."

This wasn't the only incident we had during our
stay here.  On a lovely drive up to seal rocks near Myall Lakes we arrived at the official car park for the lighthouse at the top.  It was a 15-20 minute walk up to the top from there and what was in front of us was a gate and a sign saying "official vehicles only".  Now most people would read the sign and agree to park the car and walk up the hill but no, the gate wasn't locked so up we drove.  It was a lovely view from the top and we managed to see a pod of dolphins from the cliffs and as the sun started to set we headed back down the hill to be faced with a closed gate, that was locked.  To cut a long story short we managed to get a key to the lock and got out but needless to say it left us with a story to tell many times over.

We had many non-life threatening experiences as well including having our first swim in one of Australia's countless salt-water swimming pools and a wee wine tasting session in the hunter valley.....when I say we, Louise drank, John drove.

Our time came to an end quicker than we would have liked and after a panic filled evening trying to get accommodation booked for the next stage of our trip we found ourselves saying goodbye to our hosts and onwards to the backpacking mecca that is Byron Bay!!

Our first stop down under....Sydney!

'It just looks like Australia doesn't it?'

 These were the first words Louise said when she saw the ocean crashing onto the sandstone cliffs as we landed at Sydney airport.  It is true that the image of golden sands with sapphire blue water does have a certain association with the land down under.  It was also evidence that the coast of Australia was just one giant beach!

Our Hosts

Northern Beaches

After we passed through the airport in separate queue's (Louise has an Australian Passport) we made our way into Sydney with the comfort of the knowing how to speak the local language for the first time in 9 months.  We had our first taste of food without a fried egg on top (quite a common thing in Asia) for some time, decent coffee and bought mobile sim cards.  All this before we met our hosts in Sydney,  Catz and James.  We were very pleased to see our old friends from Glasgow, for their generous hospitality and to be able to sleep in a real bed without a sleeping bag liner.  We are glad to say they managed to keep Larry under control and took us on a great drive up to the northern beaches (Louise's favourites, she likes beaches a lot). 

Fun on the Harbour

Sydney is a beautiful city, with the jewel being it's harbour.  It just goes on for miles and almost every inch of it is sought after with millionaire pads fighting for the best view, marina's instead of car parks and little yellow water taxi's buzzing around.  We enjoyed walking around the city, taking the famous ferry to Manly, paddling along some of the many beaches and taking in the sights.  All of this was interspersed with coffee, ice cream and fish and chips!

We also happened to be in Sydney at the time of sculptures by the sea, a massive art exhibition on the path between Bondi and Coogee beaches.  It was quite surreal walking along and finding a Buddha in a Hawaiian shirt!

On our travels on several occasions people told us that we would not believe how expensive Australia was.  We were well prepared for this, making sandwiches in the morning and being able to drink tap water was a big help.  We did this not entirely to save money but so we could treat ourselves every now and then and after a particular successful day of money saving techniques we decide to have a nice slice of cake...........what followed has now been renamed 'Cakegate'.  A slice of cake that was so expensive that I had to pay it before I told Louise, hoping that would contain the fury that would ensue once that knowledge had been passed on........it didn't.  We can laugh about it now, but it was almost £10 a slice......enough said.

We were fortunate enough to be taken on a trip to the blue mountains by friends of Louise's parents and got our first of many views of the local wildlife.  Kangaroo's, Wombat's and wallabies were found but

alas no Koalas but we really enjoyed getting off the beaten track and going for walks through the bush.

Our time in Sydney came to a close and we waved goodbye to our friends and made our way up the coast to Myall Lakes national park to begin the next leg of our Ozzie adventure.

Is it real.....is it a theme park....is it one gigantic airport?......no, it's just Singapore!

We had heard a lot about Singapore from people on our travels, especially from expats working there on 1, 2 year or permanent contracts for the many engineering, marketing, accounting, banking and shipping companies that operate out of the island nation. We were expecting a clean, functional and hugely more expensive last few days compared to our last 5 months in SE Asia. You know what, that's exactly what we found.

It turned out to be a very long days travel from Lombok, Indonesia. We almost didn't make it at all due to the extortionate departure tax that we were asked to pay just before we boarded our flight to Singapore. We didn't have enough cash on us to pay it all and they said we could not board the flight. After the last couple of days that we had had (see previous blog) we both stood our ground and told them that we were getting on that flight. Eventually they gave in and we got on, a small but significant victory.

So, we were gently lead through Changi airport in Singapore by the very user friendly signs in air conditioned comfort. This was compared to sweating the equivalent of an olympic swimming pool while trying to combine toilet breaks with tout avoiding emergency manouvers and generally working out if we are going in the right direction. It was therefore quite 'nice' to step onto the direct metro into town that wasn't overcrowded and took you exactly to where you wanted to go. We checked into our hostel with ease and slept deeply thinking lots of nice clean, safe, organized thoughts.

We started our exploration of Singapore like we

usually do with any city, go to the center and have a walk around. This was our first mistake as most people will know Singapore's humidity sits around the 90% mark and a short 20 minute walk can leave you exhausted, which it did.So we decided to refresh ourselves in the Long Bar at the Raffles hotel with none other than a Singapore sling, behind whose hallowed bar it was created. The thing to do in the long bar is to eat copious amounts of freshly roasted peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. We didn't believe this at first, it being Singapore, but when we walked in it was just covered in them.

We duly obliged and felt suitably refreshed and thought we'd take a walk to see some free art exhibition, another mistake as soon we were both sweating, getting very tired and more irritable and then ran out of pavement!

We eventually made it, probably breaking a few road traffic laws in the process and after a delightful couple of hours decided to make our way back to our hostel via a shopping mall. It was at this point we had a revelation and realized why there was no one else walking around Singapore.

It appears that most of the malls, shopping centers, metros, bus stations and office blocks are all connected by a maze of underground tunnels and overhead flyovers, most of which are air conditioned and are lined with shops, eateries and beauty shops in which Louise was snared a couple of times. This was also the point at which we started to feel like we were those little plastic people that appear on an architects models, that city planning had gone a little crazy here. It was almost too perfect.

Singapore, like Dubai, Hong Kong and other wealthy and densely populated areas in world do not have enough people to do all the jobs that need doing e.g. construction, cleaning, serving.... basically most of the jobs they just don't want to do themselves. It has been, for a long time, a collection of people from around the world due to British rule and it's more recent transformation as a travel, shipping and economic hub. Consequently some of the cheapest

labour they can find is from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and this resulted in Little India being formed. When we left India in May we were pleased to leave the dirt, muck and grime complemented by a lovely dollop of Chaos! We walked into little India in Singapore and were hit with incense smells, shops spilling out onto the street with every type of fabric known to man and Singapore's version of Chaos (basically a load of Indians in a small area without the dirt!)

As we wandered through the streets we dodged round groups of men chatting in the street, mobile phone shops, barbers and the ever present market which oozed people in and out. As we squeezed ourselves through between the masses we found ourselves smiling as calls of 'hello sir, you come see!' rang out and the smiling faces stared as we walked past.

We also happened to be there during Deepavali, the Hindu equivalent of new year/Christmas/thanksgiving, basically a big celebration which made everything more intense. We left little India feeling, ironically, less constricted in this overly designed and created environment.

We also made it to Singapore zoo using buses that ran on time and went where they said they were going, a novel experience. As we sweated our way round the zoo the baboons roamed freely in the trees above our heads and we seemed to be within touching distance from white tigers to 'romancing' tortoises.

It was really a good example of how Singapore does things, clean and well engineered, trying to do things the most efficient and effective way. It did make us feel the whole city is like a massive business themed theme park, with controlled fun and a million shops.

Having enjoyed the efficiency of the place for a couple of days we actually got a little bored. Every shopping mall had the same shops, your walks outside were limited by how much liquid your body could hold and everything was so, well......CLEAN!!! We were glad to head back out to the airport, which we have to say is one of, if not the best, in the world. As we boarded our flight to OZ we realised that the life of most Singapore residents must be a bit like living within a massive airport terminal, but onward we must go to the land down under and Louise could finally return home!