Adam and Michael's Travels

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-24T02:06:00.000+11:00

So, here I am, back in Uckfield. Been home five days, and it already feels like a life time ago, although it is nice to be home, it's really cold, I am freezing!!

Hong Kong was a nice place to stop off in. Cheapest place in the world, I think, to buy electrical gadgets. We bought Mike's brother a iPod and I got Mum a new laptop. Hong Kong doesn't have a sales tax, so everything here is 20% cheaper! Quite a discount on a £700 computer!

We did a bit of sight seeing here, we went up to "The Peak" which is a large viewing platform on top of the hills on Hong Kong island, you have to take an old fashioned tram up to the top. Sadly, the views weren't great, Hong Kong suffers from some pretty bad pollution. On really bad days, visibility can be something crazy like just 30%, we didn't have a clear day, so couldn't see very much. It is like a thick fog over the whole city, except you know this isn't fog, it's horrible nasty pollution. Unsurprisingly, Hong Kong has a big problem with Asthma. We also went to see the Giant Buddha, which you have to take a pretty long and impressive cable car ride to, even though we were travelling through pollution, the cable car ride was the best one I had ever been on. The giant Buddha was pretty cool, but it was only built about ten years ago, so it was all very modern and touristy.

Check out the Big Buddha and the pollution

To finish off our trip, we went to Disneyland Hong Kong. We had originally planned to come home via America, but America was too expensive for our budget, so upon coming to Hong Kong, we thought our last day would be exciting to spend at Disney, something we would have done in the States.

It's a pretty small park, and only five years old, as I'd been to Disney in Florida, my expectations for the Hong Kong park were pretty low, but we both had a really enjoyable day. Being so small and going on a week day, meant we could see everything and do everything pretty quick without queuing. As soon as we entered the park, we saw a queue of about 20 people waiting for a photo with Mickey and Minnie mouse, we had to have a picture with them, in Florida you would be waiting upwards of an hour to get a photo with Mickey! We got to go on all the rides and see the shows we wanted to see in time for the fireworks at the end of the day, sadly the fireworks were a little disappointing, Sydney New Year sadly has ruined fireworks for us now.

Our flight home with Air New Zealand was good, I even managed to get some sleep on the flight and arrived back not feeling too tired. Although the last few days have been a bit of a struggle to stay awake, I now feel pretty much back to normal.

We've had a great year away, done some amazing things and seen some beautiful places. It's not always been easy, but it's something I am so glad to have done, I'd recommend anyone to take a break from life and do something like we have done, even for a couple of months, we all deserve a break from life sometimes.

Here's just some of the things I have done on this trip that spring to mind;

Played cards and illegally gambled with some Thai men by candle light. Ate some weird food including Chicken Feet and various offal that we turn our nose up at in the UK. Flew in a Helicopter. Got to see Jamie Oliver cook up close and personal. Watched the Sydney New Year fireworks without the crowds in relative luxury. Been in the Audience for an Australian TV program. Learnt how to become a coffee barista. Visited every state of Australia. Visited 7 different Countries. Drove round New Zealand. Walked on a Glacier. Visited a beautiful tiny island about 3 sq km. Visited the Lord of the Rings set, and travelled over 25,000 miles. My carbon footprint has taken a battering, but I hadn't flown for 5 years prior to this trip, so maybe I'm not doing so bad after all!

I've started the job hunting already, but I don't really want to work until after Christmas, however, if something comes up, I am not going to turn it down. We hope to be living back in London by Easter, that's the goal……watch this space!

Bali-issimo

2010-11-15T01:40:00.000+11:00

Our 2 weeks in Bali is sadly over, but we had a lovely, and very relaxing time.

We arrived first in Kuta. Kuta is sadly not that great, it is basically Ibiza for Australian's. Full of people going a nasty shade of Lobster red on the beach during the day, and getting totally wasted at night. Not really our scene, so we quickly left for Ubud. Whilst Ubud lacks a beach (no real loss to us), it is a far more interesting and arty town. We ended up spending most of our holiday mooching round the shops and temples, drinking coffee and relaxing.

The highlight of our stay in Ubud, was a days cycling round the countryside. We started off with breakfast next to an active volcano. What with the volcanic eruptions on some of the neighbouring Indonesian islands, I was a bit worried if this was such a good idea. Luckily, it hadn't erupted for a few years, and was showing no signs of doing so at the moment. After breakfast we spent the rest of the morning cycling through the country villages, high fiving the local children as we went past, seeing the rice fields, learning how rice was grown and stopping at various temples. It was really good to get away from the really touristy areas and see some of the real Bali. One lady got a bit over emotional on our tour, said to me "This is life" and proceeded to hug her daughter, there might have been a tear or two, I suspect she doesn't get out very often!

A few days later we headed off to the neighbouring Island Lombok and up to the remote, trafficless island of Gili Trawangan. It's only 3km high and 2km wide. Apart from walking round the island and a spot of snorkelling, our 3 days here was total relaxation. Sadly, the weather wasn't that great, lots of rain, it is the wet season here.

We headed back to Ubud and spent our last few days here, before heading back to Kuta for a spot of souvenir shopping and some laughing at the stupid drunk Australians, we over heard one Australian saying that they didn't realise Ratatouille was food when they saw it on the menu, they just thought it was the name of a film.....honestly.

Today, we have just arrived in Hong Kong. Not really seen much here yet, but we have a spot of shopping planned for tomorrow, Hong Kong has no sales tax, so maybe we can pick up something cheap! Then the last couple of days we will get round and see the sights, maybe stop off at Disneyland if we feel like going. Who knows. Then, we board our flight to go home!!!

I can't believe our nearly 14 months is over, it really has flown by so fast.

The beginning of the end

2010-10-27T18:50:00.001+11:00

We have had a busy few weeks on the road and away from internet and civilisation in general. This blog has been forgotten about in all the fun, but I am now on a 6 hour flight to Bali, so have a chance to catch up.
Our 9 day trip in the Northern Territory was great fun, really hot weather, one day got up to nearly 50 degrees! Not a pleasant experience. What was a pleasant experience was meeting some great people who we hope to stay in touch with and seeing some fantastic sights. Highlights were swimming in beautiful lakes in Kakadu and Litchfield national parks, the Devils Marbles and Uluru. Sadly our Australian adventure had to come to an end, 11 months in this massive country has gone so quick and we have some fond memories of the place. On the other hand, we were so ready to leave Australia, a little fed up with the place, and definitely ready to see somewhere else and finally (very soon) come home!!
So a short 3 hour flight took us to New Zealand. First thing we noticed when we arrived in Auckland was the weather. Gone was the sun and the heat, instead we were met with grey skies, rain and temperatures we'd be used to in England. Brrr.
We had hired a camper-van for our month here, it was definitely the best way to see the country. We spent the first week on the North island. One of our big highlights (if not, the highlight!) was going to Hobbiton. I can't say much as we had to sign a confidentiality agreement, but we were expecting to see just holes in the hills. Some restoration work was being done for the new film and we were extremely lucky to see what we saw. I took some pictures but I am forbidden from posting them online. With all the hard work they were putting in, I hope the film still gets filmed in New Zealand, reports are speculating otherwise.
Another highlight on the North island was Rotorua. A town built upon a Geo-thermal area. Lots of steam coming out the ground, bubbling mud pools which provides them with a really green way of getting electricity!! Sadly the town is very touristy, over run with stupid Brits and Americans. We decided to visit a Maori village, a more authentic experience than the other commercial ventures there. They even use the Geo-thermal steam and naturally boiling water pools to cook food, the ultimate pressure cooker!!
We spent a day in the capital Wellington and then got on the ferry down to the south island. Highlights in the south island were Franz Josef. A glacier that you can hike on with a guide. We got to spend about 6 hours on the ice, squeezing through, at times, very tiny, very cold, wet cracks and crevices. An exhausting but really enjoyable day. We spent that evening in a spa soaking out our achey limbs.
The weather was a lot colder in the south island, we even woke up to snow one morning. Having come travelling packed for hotter climates, our one pair of jeans and one jumper didn't really cut the mustard! Still, we are British, we should be used to the cold. The snow sadly stopped us going for a cruise on Milford Sound. The only road there was closed due to heavy snow fall, and after hiring snow chains for the car (something you have to carry by law on this road) we regrettably had to turn around and come back.
The scenery in New Zealand is incredible. Untouched, lush green hills and snow capped mountains everywhere. After 3 weeks of it though, we were a little tired of it, and our final week in NZ had a lot of counting down to the next part of our trip.
So tonight, we arrive in Bali. We are spending 2 weeks there and the agenda is mainly relaxing, eating and drinking. A holiday from our holiday almost. Once those 2 weeks are done, we are flying to Hong Kong via a 3 day stop in Malaysia, the flights were incredibly cheap, so decided not to fly direct to Hong Kong. After 4 nights in Hong Kong, we fly back to England and normal life.
We are both really excited to be coming home, but at the same time not looking forward to finding a job and having to experience a proper winter for the first time in 14 months. Yeah, I'm not going to get much sympathy there am I?
Can't wait to see everyone, catch up and hear about what you've all been up to since we've been gone. See you soon!!!

Islands and Mullets

2010-09-17T21:13:00.002+10:00

We haven't updated this blog for a while, as, to be honest, there hasn't been much to write about. Travelling definitely has it's quiet, low and boring points and Brisbane was definitely that for us. After the excitement of Sydney and being on the road for 4 months, working, living and saving in Brisbane was a huge come down. It's not the most exciting of places to stay too long and our 3 months there, was probably too long. However, Mike had constant work for our stay, and I worked at least 50% of our stay there.

So it was with much excitement that we left Brisbane on the 6th September. It felt right, our French housemate also left to go back to France, there was a big firework display in Brisbane on our final weekend (maybe to send us off?!) and we were more than ready to leave.

Our first stop up the East Coast was Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island. We went on a 3 day, 2 night tour. You basically have 2 options when you go to Fraser Island, go on a self drive with a load of other backpackers, or go on a guided tour. I didn't fancy driving a 4x4 on sand with a load of hungover 20 year old backpackers, and as Mike can't drive, we opted for a guided tour. The difference in price was hardly anything to worry about, and it meant we didn't have to worry about anything apart from what beer we would drink.

We had an excellent time, only 5 other people in our tour, but that meant we could all cram into the Land Rover to explore this fabulous island. We swam in beautiful freshwater lakes, jumped off massive sand dunes, drank amazing Fraser Island filtered water (better than Evian!!), spotted sharks, dolphins, Dingos and numerous Whales. We met some great people where we stayed, and we all probably drank too much beer on both nights, but we were all on holiday, so who cared. We even visited the beach in the middle of the night to check out the stars. Practically no light pollution or clouds, gave us an incredible night sky.

We were sad it had to come to an end, but all good things have to come to an end. Sadly it ended with an over night bus up to our next destination. Not something we would be in any hurry to repeat.
The Whitsunday Islands was our next stop. A collection of about 75 islands off the Lower North East coast of Queensland. So many different boats to choose from to take you out. The phrase "you get what you pay for" could never have been so true up here. After deciding a "party boat" was really not our cup of tea, we opted for a boat called "On Ice." A beautiful boat with lots of water-sport activities and snorkelling, sounded perfect to us.

Perfect it certainly was. It felt like we were on George Clooney's private yacht. We were spoilt rotten. Incredible food, loads of snorkelling opportunities on the lower part of the Great Barrier Reef, paddle boards, sea-doos, windsurfing, canoeing and we also got to check out Whitehaven beach. Some people say it's the best beach in the world. It certainly was a pretty amazing sight.

Sadly our sailing trip was over too soon and we had decided not to head any further up the East Coast. Diving at the Great Barrier Reef doesn't hold much appeal to us as we can't dive (maybe I'll learn one day!) and we've seen enough beaches and coastal resorts to last us a life time, defiantly time for something different. Glad to be leaving Queensland really, as beautiful as the scenery is, it's pretty backward, the mullet is still in fashion, and it's all a bit local (there's nothing for you here!)

So we are currently heading up to Tropical Darwin, to begin our outback adventure. Hopefully in 2 weeks time, we will have seen crocodiles in Kakadu national park, experienced some of the outback, learnt about some Aboriginal traditions and watched the sunset over Uluru.

In 2 weeks time our Australian adventure is sadly over, but we are heading off to New Zealand for a month, which we are stupidly excited about. It's going to be a practice run for British weather, I can see me needing to buy a few jumpers over there! After New Zealand, we have 2 weeks in Bali, a few days in Malaysia and a long weekend in Hong Kong before getting home on November 18th!! Two months and we will be home, so excited, and we can't wait to see everyone.

Brisneyland

2010-06-28T17:31:00.000+10:00

Well, we didn't spend too long in Perth in the end. We went there purely to work, money was running out fast, and when we got there, there just didn't seem to be much work around. Western Australia is very much an area where the only work is in the mining and oil sectors. The Government are talking of bring in some mining tax, and we reckon this was having an effect on lack of office jobs available.

We knew if we stayed in Perth, we probably wouldn't have found work, and we would have to go back to the UK in a few weeks, so we took a gamble, and re-thought the rest of our trip. Two days later we were on a plane flying back to the other side of Australia, and landing in Brisbane. Brisbane is Australia's third largest city, and we quickly discovered there was much more work around. Mike has an office job working for some Architectural company, and I spent 2 weeks working for a magazine publishers, working on such exciting titles as Arabian Horse News. It was a good little job for a couple of weeks, but I am now looking for other work. I'm pretty sure I will get something, it just gets boring waiting around and chasing agencies.

Brisbane is a funny old place. If we didn't need to work, we would have only spent a couple of days here, as there isn't much to see or do like there is in Sydney or Melbourne. In fact, the best thing about Brisbane is it's Busways. Dedicated roads, tunnels and flyovers that only buses use. They cover most the city, must have cost a fortune, but means you are never late. Imagine if London had the space for them, you'd never be late to work again!!

Brisbane is situated half way up the East Coast, away from the temperate south, and nearer to the tropical north. This means, we have kind of escaped Winter. Daytime temperatures average at around 20 degrees, although it does get to a rather nippy 8 at night. Whilst 8 might seem pretty warm back in the UK, when you are in a wooden Queenslander style house, built on stilts with no insulation and little heating, you do feel really cold at night. These houses are designed to stay cool in the hot summers, where temperatures average around 35 degrees everyday!!

Brisbane is pretty spread out, yet, the city centre is pretty small. In fact, the world is pretty small place, as after two days of being in Brisbane, I bumped into someone I used to work with in London whilst in the supermarket. Hadn't seen him for over 2 years, but he is now living out here. Weird.

So, yes, we are staying in a house. We put an ad up on Gumtree asking if anyone had a flat to let or a spare room, and amazingly we got quite a lot of replies. Once we have sifted through all the weirdos and psychopaths, we were left with a couple of decent options. We went round to the house the next evening to meet Chris, a 30 year old Aussie medical student. What should have been a half hour flat mate interview, turned into a fair few beers, dinner and the offer of moving in tomorrow. So we did. We are now sharing with Chris, and a French guy called Xavier who is over here to learn English.

The predominant feature of the house (you can't miss it) is the 52" Sony HD TV. Seriously, I have never seen a TV so big, and having seen one, I can safely say that it is far too big. Still, it has been nice to able to watch the World Cup in HD (even though, I don't think HD is all that.) It's nice to have some peace and quiet and privacy again. We are going to spend a couple of months here, saving anything we earn and waiting for our tax return to come through. Once it does, we'll be planning the next and final leg of our trip.

We've been pretty boring of late. Haven't been up to a great deal, but have big plans for later on. We met up with a couple of friends we made in Sydney last week, they'd been all over Australia now, and it was good to see some familiar faces again, they had been in Australia for nearly a year now. For us, it's been nine months since we left the UK, it seems impossible.

Homesickness kicks in really hard now. We are thinking of coming home in October. Everything is so much more expensive than we had anticipated, so we will have to go to America some other time. Maybe we can do New Zealand still, with a possible stop in Asia on the way home, and then back to reality, which, weirdly, we are both quite looking forward to.

Neighbours, Everybody needs good Neighbours

2010-05-28T19:40:00.002+10:00

Thought I would spill the beans on all the Neighbours stuff I did in Melbourne. I saw a couple of comments asking for Neighbours gossip on a previous post.

I went along on the Neighbours tour, Mike opted to go to the cinema. The tour was good fun, the bus picked you up in Melbourne and shortly after everyone was on board, you got your "star meet and greet." Well, I may be a fan of Neighbours, but the lady who got on the bus, I just didn't recognise. I looked blankly at her, and I am sure she looked back at me, knowing what I was thinking. Anyway, it was Janelle Timmins (remember her? thought not.) She had dyed her hair and lost a lot of weight, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I wanted to meet Harold Bishop, Dr Karl or Paul Robinson.

Anyway, after everyone had got photos, we set off. First stop was Erinsbourgh high. It's a real school, so we just drove past, again, I didn't really recognise it, but we were told that the school they have used for the last year is completely different from this one. The tour guide told us where Kylie, Jason and Guy Pearce walked there, played basketball there, touched the door there, it was all a bit lame, I wondered why they still kept this in the tour. Anyway, I think everyone on the bus was a little unimpressed, so we sped of to the TV studios.
The TV studios was the only reason I was on this tour, I'd been to Ramsey Street before, and it's a public street so anyone with a car can get there easily. They only do the backlot tour at the weekend when they are not filming, so I just had to go. You arrive through the gates and as we drive round to the studio, they point out some fences that were used in filming recently (lame, haha), a building which they used for the dance club roof collapse story and turnstile which had been used recently in Neighbours and (not so recently) Prisoner Cell Block H! Clutching at straws here! Round the corner we went, and there was Carpenters Mechanics and Grease Monkey's. All quite exciting, but not the Coffee shop or Lassiters, we were then taken round to the allotments, saw the outside of the main studios, which still had the Prisoner Cell Block H windows on it, past the new Police Station and University set, then round to the main attraction, the Lassiters complex. It was dead exciting, it felt almost being in the TV, we got walk round everywhere, Harold's Store, Toadie's Office, Charlie's Bar, Lassiters and the lake. They are just external sets, so there was nothing to see inside, but they kept the doors locked, so not to shatter the illusion completely.

Round the back of the bar was the bridge used over the pond by the coffee shop back in the good old days. It was unceremoniously dumped out of the way, but nice that they hadn't decided to burn it.

Hundreds of photos later, we all got back on the bus and headed to Ramsey Street, or Pin Oak Court as it is really known. It's a lot smaller than you think it will be, and it feels weird being there, as people live in these houses, they must get really fed up with hoards of tourists coming here everyday! However, one guy on our tour, saw one of the residents, and he invited him inside to have a picture on the balcony of Paul Robinson's house. I think everyone was a little bit jealous, but he said the house inside was absolutely nothing like it is on the TV and ruined it all a little for him.

The Neighbours night was the following Monday in a pub in St. Kilda in Melbourne. It was a little expensive to go, but it was one of my must do's, so we thought what the hell. It was incredibly cheesy! But I wouldn't have expected it any other way. You get sat on a table with other people, and they become your team for the night in the pub quiz. Obviously, 90% of the pub were British! They build up everything, get everyone singing the theme tune, then drag out the "celebrities." We got Donna, Stingray and Dr. Karl. I said I wasn't going to go if Dr. Karl wasn't there. After a Q&A session, they all come round to every table and have photos with you, answer any questions an sign stuff for you, they really did get round and see every single person there. While this is going on, a quiz is running in the background. I was quietly confident before we got there, and even more so when I saw our table was full of British Neighbours fans. Dr. Karl gave us the answers to a couple of questions, and we came second!! Sadly, the cash prize was only for the winners, so we left with nothing.

Afterwards, they clear away the tables and the band set up, for the highlight of the night! The music! Dr. Karl is up first, and does a half hour set of songs. A couple of Killers sings, Kaiser Chiefs and a song he made up about Susan. It was great fun, even though, to be honest, he can't really sing. I have videos, even though the signs said "NO video recording please." After Dr. Karl, Paul Robinson came out and did his half hour set. Same quality of songs, as well as his 80's "hit" 'Don't it make you feel good.' Hate to say it, but singer, he is not. Still it was fun, definitely something you should do if you are even in Melbourne and fancy a cheesy night out. Mike even enjoyed it, and he is no Neighbours fan!

The Slow Train

2010-05-18T19:59:00.000+10:00

As I type this, we are traveling on a train along the longest straight stretch of railway in the world. That's 220 miles without a single bend, through the desert. Who said traveling was all thrills and excitement hey?

We've been busy, busy, busy since we left Sydney. We spent a wonderful week in the state of Tasmania. The whitest sand and bluest sea I had ever seen, amazing scenery, a few (dead) Tasmanian devils (the road kill was shocking in Tassie) and some interesting local pubs. I'd recommend anyone to go to Tasmania, we didn't have nearly enough time there.

Melbourne was awesome, by far the best city in Australia. Excellent bars, great coffee and good food. We spent some time catching up with Mike's Aussie friend Kim who he used to work with in London and got to know the "Neighbours" at the terribly cheesy but great fun Neighbours night.

The last couple of weeks, we have had a new member to our travel party, James, Mike's brother. Sadly he is now back in the UK, but we had a jam packed albeit brief time with him. We spent a few days traveling along the Great Ocean Road, taking in the awesome coastal scenery as well as paying a visit to the light house from "Round the Twist." Most of the afternoon was spent singing the theme tune.

We then spent a couple of days driving up to Adelaide through lots of backwards country towns. Adelaide, or city of churches as the locals called it (I'm sure the Italian's would have a thing or two to say about that) was an interesting bag. A purpose built city by an English man, it was very easy to navigate, but lacked anything of interest really. The main strip of bars was littered with strip clubs (maybe that's why they had so many churches, so people can repent) and in the way of sights, well, there wasn't many. Still we had fun, we hired a car and drove around some of the coastal areas near by, and got to stay in a cottage at the top of a mountain overlooking Adelaide. I'm sure all three of us will agree it was one of the highlights of the past two weeks. Our final night we spent in some student bar taking advantage of the few cheap beers, which actually weren't that cheap (what with the exchange rate being so bad). The student bar was awful, like being in an episode of "Skins" (yes, that bad), but it caused much amusement to us, and James and I showed the kids of today how to move on the dancefloor, (OK, they were all laughing at us, but we'd been laughing at them all night!)

James left on Saturday, and on Sunday, we got the train to head over to Perth. 40 hours by train, it's not for the faint hearted, but I have enjoyed it, so far. Although with 14 hours still to go, I may have changed my mind in the morning. Our luxury reclining chairs are very comfortable, and it's been nice to sit back and relax and watch the world go by for a change. We stopped at a very isolated town called Cook on the way, with a population of just 4. Living there, in the middle of the desert, just seemed so awful to me. How these 4 people survive, I will never know.

We arrive mid morning at Perth tomorrow (Tuesday, as this won't be online until I find wifi when we get there!) and we need to find work pretty pronto now. Most of our savings have gone, so we need to start earning some dollar pretty soon, or you'll be seeing us sooner than you think! Wish us luck!

Sydney - Melbourne

2010-04-25T10:52:00.001+10:00

Have not had a lot of Internet access of late, so have been bad at
updating this. We are currently in Tasmania, but will first tell you
about our trip to Melbourne.

We picked up are car in Sydney and loaded full of our stuff,
seriously, charity shops are going to love us when we ditch all this
stuff we have accumulated! We had ten days on the road to get to
Melbourne, sounds like ages, but when driving along the coast with
loads to see and covering about 700 miles, 10 days isn't really enough!

We stopped at some fantastic beaches, thankfully the weather was
mainly playing in our favour. On the whole it was sunny, but a bit of
a chill in the air as we are now heading into winter. Best stop on the
first couple of days was Hyams beach. White sands, crystal clear water
and we camped right by the beach edge. We decided to head inland for a
day to visit the capital, Canberra. We weren't expecting much, but
thought we should at least go. A purpose built city, very American in
design with not a great deal to see. We went round parliament, which
was a more modern and worse version of ours, went to a couple of OK
museums and visited the War memorial which was actually quite
intresting. Camped in the weirdest of places, a race course, but as
Canberra is up high near the ski resorts (yes, skiing in Australia) it
got down to 5 degrees. COLD.

We quickly headed back to the coastal road for some warmth and the
next night we camped in the most beautiful national park, right on the
beach with Kangaroos hopping all around us! The next few days we saw
an abundance of animals in the wild. Wallabies, more Kangaroos,
Wombats, Emus and even a lone Koala high up in the tree. Won't need to
go to Melbourne Zoo now!

Arrived in Melboune ready to spend the night in a nice warm bed, sadly
the hostel we stayed in was not great, but a warm bed none the less.

Lots to tell you about what we've been up to in Melbourne and
Tasmania, but I'll fill you in with that some other time.

Back on the Road

2010-04-05T20:41:00.000+10:00

Finally leaving Sydney tomorrow, and hitting the road down to Melbourne. Here's a map of what we are planning to do in the next 2 months. Go from one side of Australia to the other. Exciting!!

Should I stay or Should I go?

2010-02-18T10:59:00.004+11:00

Nothing much to really write about, we've been very quiet of late. Mike got a job at the school I am working at, but what with me not working over Christmas, and Mike not working in January, our money has been tight, so we've decided to do less in Sydney (we've done it to death now anyway) and save up our earnings for the next leg of our trip.

April 6th, we leave for Melbourne. We are going to drive down along the coast over a week or so and spend a day in Canberra. We really can't wait. Sydney is nice, but once you get past the Harbour and the Opera House, it really is just another city, and it's a city that doesn't even compare to London.

I'll leave you with some photos of Australia Day. Their national day is a really big deal over here, it made me feel sad that we don't do anything like it back at home. Perhaps we are ashamed to be British?

Helicopter flying the flag
Originally uploaded by theadz01

Australia Day boats
Originally uploaded by theadz01

Busy Busy Busy

2010-01-20T09:13:00.000+11:00

So, it's been a while since I updated our blog, we've had a busy month! Happy New Year!

When I last updated this I was just finishing work for the summer holidays, and I went back this week after a lovely five weeks off work. I could get used to holidays like that! Those five weeks were spent pretty busy, but as I was not earning and enjoying myself, I have spent most of my earnings, so I've got to work work work for the next couple of months.

Mum came over for a month just after I finished work, so the week running up to Christmas we spent showing her around Sydney. We all went to a Christmas carol concert and saw people like The Wiggles, Leo Sayer, Engelbert Humperdink and Katherine Jenkins. Needless to say, this was a free concert, and weirdly most people were there to see the Wiggles. Once they had done their bit, a large portion of the crowd left. I understand why though, there is only so much of Leo Sayer you can take, so we didn't see the end of the concert either. On Christmas Eve we went to see the Fireworks on Darling Harbour, Sydneysiders are fireworks mad over the festive period, there must be a firework display at least once a week at the moment. The fireworks on Christmas Eve, were pretty good, and left us all wanting more for New Year.

Christmas was a strange day, the weather wasn't very good, it rained most of the day, so apart from going for a walk, we didn't really do much. We did have a Roast Turkey though! Had to be done!

New Year though was fantastic. The school I work at has great views of Sydney Harbour, and the Harbour Bridge, the focal point for the fireworks, and thankfully, staff were allowed in to watch them in the grounds. It was so nice to be able to have space, sit down, have a picnic and not be in the crowds that were in the city centre. Sydney had 1.5 Million (yes MILLION) people there for New Year, so you can just imagine what that would be like. At 9 o'clock they have the family fireworks, four barges down the harbour all firing off fireworks, they were OK, nothing that special, but it's done for the kids who can't stay up and out in Sydney til Midnight. It started the build up though, and every hour running up to midnight a few more fireworks would fire and the image in the middle of the bridge would change. At midnight though, a spectacular 12 minute display kicked off, with fireworks being fired off the Harbour Bridge, barges on the harbour and buildings all around Sydney. It literally was fireworks everywhere. They were all timed to presision with some fancy computer technology, it really was excellent. However, if I think I had been stuck in the city with all those people, I would have completely hated it. We were dead lucky.

Mum and I took a trip off down to Melbourne a couple of days in to the New Year. Sadly, Mike had to work, so he stayed behind in Sydney. We flew down to Melbourne, and the next day, Mum and I went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. It was so peaceful down there compared to Sydney. Awesome beaches, stunning scenery and a lot less tourists. We took a helicopter ride at the Twelve Apostles, which really was the only way to see them, and we even drove past the Lighthouse from Round The Twist!! When Mike and I go there later this year, we will make sure to stop off there and sing the theme tune. The next day we walked round Melbourne, seeing as much as we could, for the nest three days, we hired a car and drove back to Sydney along the coast. We stopped off at a rather over grown Ramsey Street, they don't film Neighbours in January, so the gardeners hadn't been round, and took a few photos. We also stopped off at some beautiful National Parks and some even more beautiful beaches, saw plenty of countryside, it's a very long drive! Once back in Sydney we took a couple of days up to the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves. I think I can safely say the Caves were a highlight for all of us.

Sadly, Mum went home at the end of last week, it was really nice to have her out here, and we did a lot of stuff over Christmas that we probably wouldn't have done otherwise. Now we have the next leg of our trip to start thinking about and plan. We are going to leave Sydney at Easter, and head West over to Perth, via Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmania. Until then, we need to work and save hard. We have a few things planned until then, including some of Mike's friends visiting and a couple of weekends away, nice to have some things to look forward to as, to be honest, we have done Sydney to death now.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year, survived the snow and the flooding or whatever other crazy weather you have been having back home. Miss you all lots, hopefully speak to some of you soon! xx

School's out for Summer!

2009-12-12T07:00:00.001+11:00

Today is my last day of work for 5 weeks! FIVE WEEKS! That’s the advantage of working in a school, although, sadly, it’s 5 weeks without pay.

Although the job is pretty simple and boring, it’s been a nice easy, stress free job, and most of the teachers are really lovely and friendly. I have lunch provided, which is like getting a pay rise!

It is the poshest school I have ever been in, a private school full of very well behaved boys whose parents clearly have too much money. $20,000 will get you one years tuition! If you want to have your son boarding here, try doubling that figure! Saying that though, the standard of education and the facilities they have here are second to none. For example, they have a 500 seat theatre complete with Orchestra pit and a full lighting and sound rig, a well equipped gym, a swimming and diving pool, and a library full of thousands of books, CD’s and DVD’s. Oh, and they probably have one of the best views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge anywhere in Sydney! We’re coming here for New Year!

It’s one of the top schools in Australia, and everyone in Sydney has heard of it. If you come out of here with average to good results, you are pretty much guaranteed a very well paid job later on in life. If I had a kid and the money, it’s the sort of school I would want them to be at.

It is a Church of England school, with a lot of traditions and a strong military emphasis. They have an optional Army Cadet section here, every Monday you wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the boys in camouflage and carrying a gun, although I do believe they are not loaded! Still, it was a bit of a shock the first time I saw it. They have two sergeant majors to enforce discipline, both of them are funny, they boss the boys around, make them do all the hard work while they stand around, watch and criticise.

I got one of the detention boys last week to help me out. The Sergeant Major described him as a fat lazy kid who whinges and moans to his parents and gets whatever he wants. He couldn’t have been more right! He looked like Augustus Gloop with the selfish mentality of Veruca Salt, Roald Dahl clearly had inspiration when he wrote those characters. All he had to do was fold some letters and put them into envelopes. OK, there was 300 of them, but he did make a meal out of it. I was a bit nasty though and didn’t tell him about the folding machine that he could’ve used. He was on detention!! I didn’t want to make it easy for him! A couple of the boys have been calling me “Sir” which is very weird. I keep telling them to call me Adam, but I think with the discipline they have here, Sir just becomes second nature.

So, what are we going to do during the Summer holidays? Well, sadly Mike is working as normal, but luckily, Mum is coming out to visit next Saturday. We plan to have a nice Christmas roast dinner at home on Christmas Eve, and maybe a picnic on Christmas day. We have trips planned to the Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains and Melbourne over the Christmas break, and of course, we have to show Mum round Sydney, so we will be busy, busy, busy.

If I don’t speak to any of you before, have a lovely Christmas and a fun New Year!

Video Killed the Radio Star!

2009-11-30T21:48:00.003+11:00

Landing on our feet

2009-11-10T14:25:00.001+11:00

To be honest, we were a bit down when I last updated this blog. We had spent all week looking for work, handing out CV's and registering with agencies, to hear nothing back. I know it was our first week, but I guess we just wanted results fast, and we knew that spending our savings was not ideal. With the exchange rate as bad as it is at the moment, we worked out that "if" we stuck to our budget and didn't find work, we would run out of money mid February. Living in a hostel was getting us down, and with thousands of back packers all in the same boat, our chances looked slim.

Well, what a difference a week makes.

As quick as 48 hours, our luck turned around. First Mike got a call about a job, next day he went for an interview, got the job and started the following day. It is pretty much identical to the job he was doing in London and the money is good. I got a call the next day and landed a job at a posh boys school in North Sydney working in their print room. It's a very basic job, but the people are really nice and I'm paid OK, with free school dinners included. What a difference school dinners are at a private school! Much better than the rubbish I had at school!

Finally to top it all off, we got a flat in Greenwich, North Sydney. It's a granny flat, living above a couple who own the house, but we wanted somewhere quiet and they seem really nice. It's a small world, the lady was born in Tooting, and her son lives with his boyfriend in Clapham. They seemed to really like us, and we move in Saturday, for at least 3-4 months. So anyone thinking of visiting, do it before Mid March, and we should be able to put you up! Free accommodation!

Thankfully no more hostel misery for now or stressing about where will be staying for Christmas. That said, we have made a few friends at our hostel, and will miss them, but I'm sure we will meet up fairly often for drinks thanks to the wonders of mobile phones and Facebook.

Now we can pretty much kick back, relax and enjoy ourselves a little. We've been doing a few things this week to celebrate. We went to Bill Grainger's restaurant for some pretty good meal, been out for drinks with the people we like in our hostel, Mike and I went to the Opera house for my birthday treat to see Camille O'Sullivan (amazing!) and we went to the Sydney aquarium on Sunday. Loads of fish, jelly fish, rays and sharks. The sharks were cool, although Mike wanted them to be aggressive and attack the glass tunnel we were in!

The weather has finally improved as well thankfully. We have had pretty cold, wet and grey weather since we have been here, but today it is 28 degrees (typical when I am working!) and looks to stay the same the rest of the week. The Aussie's are just as obsessed with weather as the Brits are, it’s a regular topic of conversation here! Hopefully the weather holds for the weekend so we can get to a beach. We have only been to one beach since we got here, and I had to leave as it was so cold.

I'll get Mike to write something next time, it's been a while since he updated the blog, and I will upload some more pictures when I get a chance, I know a few of you want to see more! Feels like we have been gone months, not 4 weeks, so missing everyone loads. I'll try phone/Skype some of you soon! Keep in touch! Adam x

Sydney Pics

2009-11-01T21:07:00.000+11:00

As you can see the weather has improved, although the wind is still
pretty cold, so haven't packed away the jeans and jumpers just yet!!

G'day Australia!

2009-10-26T21:51:00.000+11:00

We arrived in Australia on Friday and have had a nice few days
wondering around and seeing the sights! Sadly the weather has been
rubbish. It's a big fat lie that it is always sunny in Australia,
apart from Saturday the weather has been wet, overcast and grey. The
wind has been pretty cold as well, so it's been jeans and jumpers the
past couple of days, forecast is much the same for the rest of the
week. So you are all allowed to laugh at our misfortune!

We have moved into a hostel, hostels are OK, but I think we are both
craving some personal space, like not having to share a kitchen with
50 other people. So I don't think we will be here too long. Got a
tight tight budget to live on for the forseeable future until we find
some work, but we have put the wheels into motion with regards to that
and have got others things done like setting up a bank account and
getting a mobile phone number. Was going for a trip up the Sydney
tower but the weather has made us wait until it's a little clearer.

So we haven't done a lot to report really! We went to see Up at the
cinema on Saturday, I thought it was one of Pixar's best films yet,
and quite sad in places, I didn't cry thankfully! Go see it if you
haven't!

Will blog again when we have done something more interesting, but keep
your fingers crossed for us on the job front, never thought I would
actually "want" to work!

7 Eleven

2009-10-22T19:53:00.000+11:00

So we finally made it to the capital of Malysia very pretty city but
also very "western" in places, you still have glimmers of the the Asia
I've grown to love with foodstalls and vendors selling an array of
bags, wallets, watches and knock off DVD's.

We went to check out the Petronas towers very impressive with a huge
mall attached to their base with tonnes of familiar named shops was
kind of nice but also the sort of thing you get back home really.

One exciting thing we got to try was the fish spa, you littrally dunk
your feet in a tank of fish who eat your dead skin, sounds weird and
it was but on the first go (which bearing in mind was only a £1 for 10
minutes) we decided to go for the smaller fish. These ones were quite
tigglish and it felt weird, but did a world of good for my feet. We
went back the next day and I went for the bigger fish, while Adam went
for having his hands done. The bigger fish felt weirder more like
running a massager over your feet but they did an even better job, I
wish I had time to go back for more maybe I'll try and bring it to
London.

We spent an extra night in KL was great fun we got to go to a theme
park and a Casino called Genting. Very funny like a crazy version of
Alton Towers with a shopping mall, cinema and a tonne of extras added
in for good measure. Was nice to take a break from sightseeing and
having a little bit of just pure fun.

We then headed down to a small town called Melaka very peaceful town
and a lot more historic, we were only there a short time but it was
very nice. The local dish chicken rice balls was delicious basically
balls of rice with a chicken flavour served with roast chicken.

We have now arrived in Singapore a very clean city, the people are
very friendly and helpful but prices have certainly increased from
what we were used to. We haven't done much really due to the prices
but Going on a night safari tonight. It's an early start tomorrow and
then it's on to Australia.

Farewell Thailand

2009-10-16T18:55:00.001+11:00

So after 10 days in Thailand, we today headed into Malaysia. Thailand
was a country that I wasn't sure if I would like, but I have really
fallen in love with the place. Friendly people, stunning scenery and
beaches, cheap excellent food and cheap drink, I'll definately be back
one day, and I'd recommend anyone to go there!

On Tuesday we went off on a speed boat for the day around the Phi Phi
islands. The beaches were awesome, white sands, clear water and lots
and lots of fish swimming everywhere. I went snorkelling, something
I've not done before and I absolutely loved it. We also went to the
beach from the film, the beach. It is a beautiful beach, but not quiet
and peaceful like it is in the film, it's busy and full of tourists,
the other beaches we went to were much quieter and more relaxing.

We went out with the guys from our tour group that night and had one
too many Changs (6.4% beer) and cocktail buckets, which meant a mega
hangover for everyone the next day. I also woke up to a swollen red
puffy eye. My eye had got infected from the sea and sand when
snorkelling. It's my own stupid fault for wearing my contact lenses,
(I could almost hear Kate telling me off for wearing lenses whilst
swimming!! Haha) so am now on anti biotics and eyes drops. Thankfully,
they are much better already, I've learnt my lesson! Might get my eyes
lasered when I am back, getting fed up with eye problems from my lenses.

So at the moment we are in Penang, an island just off from the
mainland of Malaysia. It's very different to Thailand, more Western,
lots of English names, even a massive Tesco's!! They're really taking
over the world!! Not sure how were are going to spend our day
tomorrow, but a massage of some sort might definalty be in order! We
are going to have Dim Sum for breakfast, which includes a speciality
of chicken feet!! Off to the capital Kuala Lumpar on Saturday

Cheap cheap

2009-10-13T03:51:00.000+11:00

So we had our last few days in Bangkok which involved some more time
with Trevor seeing the hidden sights of Bangkok and eating great food
+ probably a little too much beer. It's been fantastic to have someone
around to give us advice and generally knows what's going on as
Bangkok is a very confusing place.

We also met up with our tour there are five of us in the group and
they seem like a really nice bunch we have me, Adam, Liam (an English
guy from Hull), Dan (an Australian guy from Sydney) and Jo our tour
guide (a Malaysian girl from near Kuala Lumpur).

So after a farewell lunch with Trevor we prepared ourselves to start
the tour with a 9 hour sleeper train journey to Surat Thai. The train
consisted of sets of chairs that converted into bunks, Adam lost out
on our coin toss so ended up on the top bunk. A very restless sleep we
arrived at the station had a quick spot of breakfast and headed off
for a 2 hour drive in an open backed truck for Khao Sok national park.
The next 2 days were very restfull with not much going on played some
cards, ate some really good Thai food, walked around the park where I
became dinner for a leach and just got plenty of rest. It's was very
peaceful and certainly less hot and humid than Bangkok.

Today we left at 10am grabbed a mini van complete with DVD player and
headed to Krabi a very beautiful beachside town. Our hotel is basic
with aircon but very nice. While the town itself is very touristy but
enjoyed what I've seen so far. Tomorrow at 8:30am myself and Adam are
heading out for a boat tour of the islands with some snorkeling and
seeing the beach featured in the movie the beach, should be exciting.

Really getting on well with the guys from our tour and certainly
pleased to be travelling with others. We've both uploaded a few
pictures on facebook but the computers here are rubbish so will upload
more when we can. Hope everyone back home is well.

Here We Are!!!

2009-10-07T15:40:00.004+11:00

So here we are in Bangkok, it's crazy to think I was sitting at home
in Uckfield 2 days ago! We were met at the airport by Trevor, a friend
of mine who moved out here about 4 years back, to those that know him,
he is still the same lovely guy we have always known! Weather is grey
and overcast, but it is hot and very humid. 30+ degrees and humidity I
have never experienced.
He drove us to our hotel through pretty good traffic by Bangkok
standards, where we had booked a 5 star hotel with our Nectar points,
staying in luxury for practically nothing! We had our room upgraded
upon arrival and couldn't believe it when we were taken to our suite.
Lounge, kitchen, dining room, 3 bedrooms and 4 balconies on the 58th
floor over looking the river. We have never stayed in anything like
this, and probably never will again! Breakfast this morning was a
sight to be seen, whatever you want, you could have, cooked fresh in
front of you.
Last night we got a cab across town to have dinner and drinks with
Trevor. Stuff is cheap. £3 for the taxi, beer about '1 and main
courses about £3!! I've been informed that this is expensive by Thai
standards!! Needless to say we drunk a little too much for our first
night and feeling a bit tired and groggy today!
So this mornings plans have gone out the window, in exchange for a
couple of power naps and some relaxation in the hotel, something that
is all too easy to do in this place!

Here We Go!!!

2009-10-06T00:12:00.000+11:00