Ed and Imogens West Pacific Adventure

Landing in Hanoi airport we were greeted by a banner stating that Vietnam welcomes the Prime Minister of Bulgaria. We were fairly certain that this wasn't intended for us, but its always nice to be welcomed. We met two Sweedish girls in the terminal and all agreed it would be alot cheaper to get a taxi together. So, after passing customs and making our cash withdrawals we hopped in a taxi and sped off toward the old quarter. We jumped out leaving the sweeds arguing with the driver about not dropping them at the right hotel, and toddled off down the road, feeling only slightly guilty we left the swedes to it. We soon found a cheap room in the top of a nice hotel. We unpacked and went for a wander. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so hot. It drizzled a bit, and was miserable, but we were happy so it was all good. After getting completely lost twice, and nearly killed by crazy Vietnamese motorcyclists countless times, we found a restaurant called the Golden Drum. We were attracted by the pretty fairy lights. We sat on the balcony and had a very nice meal washed down with some even better cocktails, all for a very reasonable price. The next day we spent wandering Hanoi's millions of stalls and shops. Firstly I had to find a new pair of sandals, as mine had broken. In Hanoi there is a street lined with shoe shops. there must be hundreds. It took searching through a miles worth of continuous shoe stalls and shops to find a pair in my size that didn't cost a fortune. We then spent a long time finding gifts and general mementos of Vietnam. We also spent time seeing the sights around the lake. Hanoi is an amazing city. The old quarter spreads out from its central point, "The Lake of the Returned Sword". The lake gets its name from a Vietnamese myth. The myth tells, that one day the Emperor was walking by the lake side, and he came upon the sword on the shore. Knowing that this was a gift from the ancestors, he took the sword, and with conquered all his adversaries and built the greatest empire in all asia. In his later years, the Emperor was fishing on the lake, when suddenly one of the giant turtles that inhabit the lake leaped out of the depths, took the sword and returned to the lakes shadowy waters. Since that day the lake has taken its modern name. The Giant turtles are said to still inhabit the lake, though there hasn't been a sighting since 2004. The turtle spotted then was 2 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. A fairly large turtle by any standards. I thought it was interesting how similar this tale is to the legend of Excalibur. With the obvious exception of the giant turtles.

Escaping the grip of the giant turtles we took a night bus to Hue (pronounced h - way). Hue is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. The city is right by the coast of Vietnam, just upriver of the estuary. One side of the river is the modern, tourist filled city, complete with endless streets of hotels and restaurants (albeit very nice restaurants). Lying on the opposite bank is the imposing majesty of the fortified old city. Surrounded by a moat to rival the river itself, the city's thick, black, towering walls paint a picture of might and foreboding. Inside the walls you are confronted by the lush green of vegitation, and charming architecture, both ancient and French colonial. At the centre of the city is the Imperial Citadel. Walled off and moated even within the city walls, the entrance is a huge, grand and truly exquisite example of Vietnamese architecture. Inside the citadel itself, repairs from the years of neglect suffered during the war and subsequent communist rule have been half carried out. The western wing of the Citadel is almost fully restored, yet teams of builders and gardeners wander the eastern half trying to decide where to start. Despite its slightly worn appearance, the citadel still retains much grandeur. Much of this is due to the sheer scale of the complex. It is huge. Made up of nine different enclosures, each accommodating a different aspect of the royal household. From Hue i did a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), about 40 miles north of Hue. The DMZ was completely napalmed during the US Vietnam war. I was taken to see two old American outposts, the only tow remaining of the original five. Our guide explained how the US controlled the DMZ from these posts, each supporting one another with artillery fire, with backup from the sea and Laos. These outposts formed a look out chain that could survey the 90km from the Laos border to the coast. Now the landscape is filled with rubber trees they planted in place of the old jungle, as the jungle cannot re-establish itself. Where we walked it was scary the amount of unexploded ordnance and sandbags left lying around, just next to the path. We visited the national cemetery, harrowing through sheer numbers of graves. The re-unification bridge, where they had huge speaker systems to blast propaganda at one another was next. We traveled down one of the many tracks that constituted the ho chi minh trail. We were shown a rebuilt village where the craters from b52s were still as large as the day they were formed. Our final stop was the only remaining tunnel system in the DMZ. It reaches 23m underground. That was pretty amazing, scary and a bit unreal. 500 people lived in the cramped conditions for seven years. We had a great English speaking tour guide, who fought in the war, that made the experience unforgettable.

Once we had finished in Hue we moved on to Hoi An. This is another world heritage site. The old town is one of the earliest examples of French colonial architecture. Today Hoi An is the silk and tailoring capital of Vietnam. The biggest tailoring chain there is called Yaly. They are used by D&G and Gucci to source fabrics and produce new designs. And its damn cheap. Gen brought some beautiful material for a fraction of the cost of the same at home. The city itself is full of beautiful architecture. At night the streets are lit by thousands of fairy lights as the restaurants and bars all compete with each other to see which can look the most romantic. However many lights they had, the food was all excellent. There are three local dishes that we particularly enjoyed, Cau Lao Noodles, Wonton with Noodles and White Rose. The food in Hoi An is delicious but these were our favourite. We spent alot of time exploring the town, trying not to order a suit. We also went to the local beach a few time which was little short of idyllic. Once we had had our fill of Hoi An we moved onto Nha Trang.

Nha Trang lacks the character and history of the other places in Vietnam. It is primarily a beach resort. It does have a rather fantastic beach. We spent a couple of days burning in the sun, and trying to decide what to eat for dinner (the food was rather good) before moving on to Saigon.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon is an odd city. Absolutely filled with motorbikes (roughly three million of the buggers), the city is literally humming with noise from the exhausts.We spent a couple of nights here. We saw the sights, reunification palace, the committee building and various others, we found the post office rather impressive, far nicer than Birmingham's effort. We went shopping, and wandered endlessly through the streets that never seem to end. We also chanced upon the Vietnamese War Remnants Museum. It houses four seperatish exhibitions. One on the MAG (mine removal charity) foundation, and its work through old war zones around the world. We found this insightful and informative, and helped us appreciate what they do. The second was of old tanks and planes used by the Americans, which was interesting to see. Third was of pictures of the demonstrations, and international reactions to the war. The main exhibition was about the immediate and long lasting effects on the Vietnamese people, and about how the war was conducted. Both me and Gen found this display, first horrifying, in the detail of what went on. Secondly sad, that the effects are still being felt today, however, we were both acutely aware of the sense of one-sidedness that the exhibition had. Talking to others who had visited, they felt the same. It was however worth visiting.

We decided that we would love to tour the Mekong delta, and see the other side of Vietnamese life. So we booked and we were whisked off next day on a coach to a boat in My Tho. From here we cruised up and down the Mekong (which is considerably larger here than last time we were on it in Laos) and to the palm and coconut lined canals that branch off it. That was beautiful. We also visited the Floating Markets in Can Tho and the surrounding canals. We stayed a night in a bungalow, somewhere on the river. It was a very memorable boat trip along the river, full of glow worms and other creatures as the sun set. We visited a few villages, and other settlements, where they made or grew much of the produce essential to life in Vietnam. The last place we stayed in Vietnam was Chau Doc. This was our last stop before Cambodia. Oddly enough it was the first city we had visited that was really really un-touristy. Also we had one of the best meals of our trip so far. a Vietnamese clay pot with lots of rice and veg. It was really really really good. The next morning we went to see a Muslim village before getting on the boat to the next country on our list, Cambodia.

Arriving in Hauy Xai, We walked up the riverbank and arrived on THE main street/ the only street. Glancing left and right we were being stared at by an old guy smoking a cigarette in the shade. We smiled and he suddenly stood up and asked us if we had a place to stay. We of course didn't so he led us inside his wife showed us a room and we said great! Once we had sorted out we headed down the steet to see what there was. The answer to that question is not much. It was a sunday, so almost everything was closed. We found a nice resturaunt for later that evening and took some good photos of the Mekong. We booked our tickets for the riverboat to Luang Prabang and had a damn good, if simple, dinner. Next morning we were up early for the boat, we got picked up by the travel agent after an omlette and coffee and a small wait by the side of the road.

The boat was supposed to leave at 10, but we didn't get underway until 45 minutes later. We had to argue with the boat owners for another boat, as they wanted to put another 40 people on the already full boat. Once we had eventually set off, the landscape quickly became more and more mountainous. The Mekong winds its way through a valley of sheer cliffs, jagged rocks and lush mountainsides. The river swirls, sometimes it appears as if it is flowing in the wrong direction, othertimes whirlpools and rapids span the river. Smiling fishermen and their families wave as you pass. Glimpses of villages on stilts and remote hut all would have been magical had it not been for the omlette made from bad eggs. I spent the seven hour trip trying desperately not to be sick. I did great for 6 hours and 20 minutes. A particually bad sway of the boat had me running for the toilet. Luckily we landed in Pakbang shortly afterwards. Pakbng isa tiny village in the absolute middle of nowhere. We discovered on arrival that it was the envy of all the surrouning villages as it had 12 hours of electricity a day, 6 days a week! unfortuantly this meant that the fan in our room ceased to function at 9pm. This was really not appreciated, as I was feeling less than satisfactory. However at 8 the next morning we were on the boat and at 9.30 we were on our way. I sat on the floor for this trip, and it was so much more comfortable than the bare board benches, that had been so thoughtfully provided on the day before. This trip was better, as i wasn't ill. However it was still not the best, as i hadn't eaten since the omlette, and there was no available food, other than out of date pringles, that I decided wouldn't help a delicate stomach. As the trip continued the scenery got more and more stunning. After eight hours of breathtaking veiws, we arrived in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is definately the smallest city we have visited, and also probably the most beautiful. An old French colonial city Luang Prabang is the ancient capital of Laos, "The Land of a Million Elephants" Whilst there we spent alot of time with some of the guys that we had shared the boat journey with. Turns out that being stuck along way from civilisation on an oversized canoe for two day brings people together very swiftly. Nightlife in Luang Prabang was stunted due to the 11.30pm curfew on everything. As part of its World Heritage lisiting, a curfew is impossed, intended to keep the city firmly in its traditional ways. Most tourists instead have to live it up during the afternoon into the evening instead. And so an abudance of cafes and resturaunts, intemingled with elephant treks, cycling, tribe visits and trips to the waterfalls are the tourist lifeblood of this city. The watersfalls, close to the city are truely amazing. Falling inbetween trees and over sheer cliffs, we climbed to the top of the blue watered giant to survey the view of the surrounding countryside. once we hd reached the bottom we went swiming in the plunge pools below the main falls. It was stunning and blue, just very very cold. After a few glorious days in Luang Prabang we decided that all the cheap french food and Beerlao (amazing beer) was making us fat, and that we should escape to Vientaine before we started looking for property. We booked tickets for a nightbus to Vientaine, the current capital of Laos. As usual the bus filled up completely, and as usual an extra 15 locals squeezed into the aisle on little plastic stools. Interestingly the guy next to me had what appeared to be a very real semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. I thought this was exciting. Gen did not. Turns out that the road we had to travel is the most bandited road in Laos, and that we required protection.

We arrived in the capital at 5:30 next morning, unscathed and still in posseion of all our belongings. Vientaine is not as beautiful as Luang Prabang, neither does it have as much character. However it has even more cafes and resturaunts than anywhere we had been before. Fortunatly/Unfortunatly (depending on your point of veiw) they were all amazingly cheap. turns out there was little else to do, and as Gen was feeling a little under the weather, we spent much time sampling the culinary delights of french colonial cuisine. The sausage and mashed potato with gravy was particually wonderful. A couple of days later and an extra stone or two, we were sitting in the airport looking with excitment at a fairly old Lao Airlines propeller plane scheduled to tke us to Vietnam. It was only afterwards that we were told that Lao Airlines has the worst safety record of any airline in the world, ever.

Arriving in Bangkok airport we were amazed by the stark contrast between the modern design of the Bangkok terminals compared to the crumbling simplicity of Bali. The clean lines were soon replaced by filthy lines as soon as we arrived in the city centre for real. Bangkok is a very busy and dirty city. We tried to extract as much information out of our taxi driver (who nearly spoke english), on the hour and a half journey it took to get into town. Arriving on Khao San road, we spent about half an hour wandering round trying to find which one of the million or so Sawasdee hotels we had booking into for a couple of days. We were not entirely sure what we were expecting but the blaze of neon signs and huge road full of shops was probably not quite it. Confronted with an endless supply of cheap shops and eats we decided we were in a good place. Our hotel was set back from the road, it was reasonably quiet considering how unbelievably close we were to all the hustle and bustle.

We quickly found a visa service to sort out our visas for china and veitnam. Unluckily we had arrived on a public holiday long weekend due to elections, so our visa were going to take a bit longer than we had hoped they would. We ended up spending alot longer than we had hoped to in Bangkok. We booked our flight from Laos to Vietnam and our train to Chiang Mai,

Bangkok is an exciting and fast moving city with lots to do and see. But on a tight budget, there becomes less and less to do. We saw the museums and temples, the giant reclining Bhudda is very impressive, and the National museum quite enlightening. However we spent the majority of our time shoppin and eatting. There is an endless supply of food stalls and resturaunts. Thai curry is amazing. We love it alot. Also the MBK shopping centre is quite unlike anything we have ever seen. More a indoor rag market than a shopping centre, hugely entertaining though, we spent a whole day there, and I hate shopping centres, and we didn't buy a thing. We did go and see Jumper in the shiny shiny new cinema, which was pretty entertaining.

We were impressed by the bhuddist architecture in Bangkok, along with Wat pho and various other temples. We loved the golden mount, the palace and the many many temples dotted around. We had a really good time in Bangkok, but we were glad to move somewhere new.

Our night train to Chiang Mai was a busy train, and would have been comfortable, had the bed been long enough for me. But it had fans and windows you could hang out of so we wee happy, although i was nearly decapitated by a sign. 15 hours aong the line and we arrived in Chiand Mai. We found a nice cheap resturaunt, got a tuk tuk to the coach station to sort out tickets and enjoyed a wonderful curry at an even more wonderful price. We explore chiang mai a bit, which is stunning, but lack of sleep on the train forced us to hit the sack slightly earlier than we would have liked. next day we arrived at the coach station at 5:30 and jumped on our coach to Chiang Khong, at the borer with Laos. On bumpy ride and a remdition of transformers in badly dubbed thai later we arrived. We crossed the border on the "ferry" (i.e. a glorified canoe), walked through the border and immigration in roughly the aount of time it took to fill out our form and we were in Laos!

Somewhere over the south China sea, me and Gen realised that we were going to land in an hour, at 11.30 in the evening, with no idea where we were, or where we were going, in a place where we couldn't speak the language. Also we had none of the local currency and didn't know where our hotel was. To say that we slightly paniced at that point would be an understatement. We landed in Denpassar Airport (which oddly is about 30ks from Denpassar, which is quite a distance considering the island in total is on 90ks from top to bottom), we paid our $20US for our visa (luckily we did have some US$), and proceeded through the staring officals to the front door. Once we had got past the various warning signs warning us that drug offenses are punishable by death, we asked a guy in some sort of uniform where the nearest ATM was. Whether or not he understood the question I am not entirely sure but he ushered us out the front door all the same. It was here, to both our astonishment, and releif, that we were confronted by a little guy holding an STA sign saying in big bold letters MR E. LEFTWICH. I was amazed. Not only had someone unilaterally decided to pick us up from an airport in the middle of nowhere at near on midnight, but they had spelt my name right too! The Balinese guy with a sign was called Sammy. He spoke excelent English. Turned out that he wokedfo touring agency called OBB. Apparently when you book a flight o Bali wih STA they pass on your details to OBB who then arrange free airport transfers for you and offer a range of tours and hotel booking sevrices at discounted prices. Once we arrived at Taman Agung Beach Inn, we checked in (they had kept reception open especially for us) and checked out our room. Ensuite, Air-con, Minibar and all the balinese language TV you could ever want. Of course we promptly fell asleep.

Taman Agung was situated in Sanur. Like the more famous Kuta (the place that was bombed by terroists), but on the opposite side of the island and a bit quieter. "Sleepy Sanur" as it is refereed to by locals is a road fuill of hotels, resturaunts, bars and shops just off a rather beautiful beach. Sanur became our base so to speak, we did leave for a while, but we ended up returning, as it was cheap, relaxed and beautiful. Wesampled many ofthe lo9cal resturaunts and bars on our stay. mostly very cheap and all nic.
Somewhere along the line we befriended to Aussies on a break form Uni for a couple of weeks. Between us we found a rather nice cocktail bar, serving very very cheap cocktails that were all pretty damn good. As yu can imagine we spent some serious time making sure all the differnet cocktails were good, which we are happy to report they were. Incidently, one night we met the owner of the bar (called the Wayan). As it transpired he owned OBB too. We were glad that he was Balinese, and that we weren't using a foeign based tour company. We were even more glad when we got given free drinks. We ended up getting shots of Arak everytime we arrived and left he place. Arak is rather strong. It is a Rice wine of sorts, somewhere between 50-70% proof. Dangerous stuff. I also discovered my favourite dish of the trip so far. It is called Nasi Goreng. It is very simply indonesian fried rice, but it is so delicious. Unfortuantly I ate so much rice I made myself rather ill at one point. However that is neither here nor there. It tasted good.

Naturally during our stay on this beautiful island we did more than drink and eat food. We went on three different tours ofthe island wit Sammy as our guide. Firstly we took a trip to Uluwatu. This hindu temple sits, perched, on a cliff overlooking nothing but the endless ocean. We saw the many many monkeys around the temple, and whilst it is nice to see animals loose and free, I thought it was a shame that they had just reverted to beggin food from tourists. it makes a sad sight to see a monkey drinkng out of a coke bottle. Once we had visited the beautiful temple, we headed to dinner in a fish resturaunt called sharkys. The fish was so fresh that when we arrived it was still swimming.

Our next tour was to visit the volcanos that lie at the centre of Bali. Firstly we went to see a traditional Barong and Kris dance. This was a traditional sto depicted through a traditional dance. After a long drive, visiting various temples and sights along the way, including the Water temple, which is a truly beautiful temple, even though it was raining when we arrived, ironic as that is. After visiting a Wood carving Centre and a silver craft shop we headed for lunch. The resturanut was perched on a cliff overlooking the two mountains. It was a truly spectacular backdrop inwhich to eat lunch. Returning via the rice terraces for pictures, we got home truly knackered.

The final tour took us up to the very North Coast to a town called Lovina. On the way we visited another temple, a rather spectacular waterfall, more monkeys and the Dutch colonial capital. We spent three nights in a really nice hotel in Lovina. Lovina has a beautiful Black sand beach and nice main town. However it was very quiet. so we relaxed and spent time in the pool and on the beach realxing. The final part was visiting the town of Ubud. Ubud is the capital for arts and crafts in Bali. after brosing the many shops and visiting he local Monkey Forest, we crought ome things, sampled the local cuisine and headed back to sanur.

Back in Sanur It was recovery time. It was at this point that I became ill from too much rice. So we spent much time with our two aussie friends, chilling by the pool and on the beach, drinking and eating. It is not just cocktails that are good to drink in Bali either. The local beer is called Bintang. Not only is it 70p a pint but itsa damn sight better than carling back home, and better than anythng I had in NZ and Aus.

So all in all we had a great time in Bali, we enjoyed the food and culture. Butwe especially enjoyed I think the hospitality of its people.

We arrived in Sydney Kingsford Smith (named after Charles Kingsford Smith. An aviation legend, claiming the first flight across the Pacific along with various other great deeds, and is noted by none other than Bill Bryson as his personal aviation hero). Shortly after arriving at the airport we found the train station and brought a ticket to our destination for the week, Wollongong. Amazed by the cheap train journey we jumped on the next train and arrived a couple of hours later in the small sleepy city of Wollongong. From the train station we walked for about ten minutes to reach our first hostel in Australia, The Keiraleagh Wollongong Backpackers Hostel. After walking up a street of rather drab apartment blocks, and a interesting, but closed looking central shopping street, we arrived to find a wonderful, old (for Australia) building in a garden full to bursting with flowers. Entering the hostel, we were enveloped in the aroma of burning incense. After a nice chat with the owner about Wollongong (she gave us a map and told us all the where and what for local stuff), we dumped our bags in the room and headed out to explore. Wandering round the shops we discovered, to our horror, that 80% of the shops seemed to be closed until 5th January, the day we left. Luckily, on wandering further up the street we discovered, to our huge relief, that there were shops that were open all the way through the holiday. On wandering a bit further we found a cinema, showing the Golden Compass. So in we sneaked (five minutes late), found a seat that wasn't broken, and settled down to watch Mr Pullmans world portrayed on screen. Having been satisfied by the film (Both of us thought the acting was good, but like all adaptations, wished more of the actual story was left in), we slinked home to bed. Maybe not the most exciting first day in a new country, but one we both enjoyed. Our second day in Wollongong was the 30th December. Wollongong was half closed due to holidays, so after making a brief tour of all open shops and attractions, we headed to the beach. Wollongong doesn't have alot, but it does have a rather beautiful beach. Split into three separately named beaches, the golden sand stretches a couple of miles or so. When i say golden sand, i mean white hot, cant stand on it with bolstering your feet sand. The mercury hit only a modest (by aussie standards) 27.4 C. Now, whilst that isn't even close to some of the temperatures this country can reach, trust me when i tell you, after New Zealand, it is plenty hot enough for me. I burnt. Quite Badly. Even after I slathered on copious amounts of 30SPF sunscreen. There is a reason why 400,000 Aussies a year have to have Melanomas removed. The sun is fierce. Whilst Australia isn't as close as New Zealand to the Ozone hole, it often has a cloudless sky. Truly cloudless. So nothing between your skin and the UV rays.

Wollongong Lighthouse

On New Years Eve, we jumped on a train to Sydney. They had decided to do a super cheap $10 return ticket, valid to 12pm the next day, that we could use as many times as we wanted until that time. Four quid can't be argued with. Arriving in Sydney, we met up with my mates JJ, Ed, Jack and Eddy. They had been in Sydney for a while now. They showed us around whilst it was still the daytime. we also hooked up with Georgie, Cat and Soph. After having a tour of Downtown Sydney, we retired to the apartment, to prepare for the evening. We headed out to Darling Harbour to see the bars on Kings Wharf. At 9 there was a preliminary fireworks display in Darling Harbour, Which turned out to be the best firework display i had ever seen (I'm not a huge firework connoisseur). As soon as this finished we, and apparently every other person in the entirety of Sydney, headed for Circular Quay. To avoid the tube being overloaded, the train didn't stop at Circular Quay, so we had to walk. For those people not intimately familiar with the geography of inner city Sydney, Darling Harbour is normally a half an hours to walk away from the Opera House (Circular Quay). The police had closed down two main streets, George St and Pitt Rd. When we and the other hundred thousand people arrived at the Quay at 10.30 in the evening, there was hardly any room. We, by some miracle, managed to grab a spot, roughly 500m from the Bridge, directly opposite the Opera House. When the hour finally arrived, the harbour bridge seemed to explode in light. I feel it would be inappropriate to try and describe the Sydney New Years Fireworks, beyond saying it surpassed any and every expectation I could have possibly had, and that at its climax, the sky was as bright as day. The rest i leave to your imaginations. By the way my photo might as well have been from a different show. This really was the best photo I took. After about 10 attempts I stopped bothering and just stared. It was a good New Years Eve, but a really bad photo.

Bad NYE07 Photo

Anyway. We jumped on the train at 1.40am and spent the subsequent journey trying to stay awake. Got o bed about 4.30 and then went into a coma for a few hours. We didn't get up on the 1st day of the New Year. Begin as you mean to go on I say. We discovered that even when it is fully opened, there isn't an awful lot to do in Wollongong. Don't get me wrong, we kept ourselves entertained with day trips, most notably one to Thirroul, which had a beautiful beach, if not anything else. We also walked to the Botanical gardens, a short walk, where they had recreated some native Australian ecosystems very nicely, complete with spiderwebs bigger than me. It was here we realised that there are actually Cockatoos flying around (we thought they were Maccaws, they were big and withe with yellow heads). Wollongong isn't really a party town, and it doesn't have the best beach in the whole world, but all in all we enjoyed our time there, and in what seemed like no time at all we jumped onto a train and we headed off to Newcastle!

Thirroul Beach

Botanical Gardens

Newcastle is about three hours further north of Sydney. So after five rather sweaty hours sitting on a train we arrived, to be met by Leevi and Bella. Leevi Was the guy we were staying with, (he is Sarah's partner, Imogen worked with Sarah at Lush in Solihull). Bella was and 8 week old Labrador puppy. Lovely and very cute, but also a monumental pain in the ass when she wanted to be. After been shown around the coal shipping port of Newcastle, we headed to Sarah and Leevis apartment on the hill above town. Such a great location. About 15 minutes walk out of town and about two minutes walk from a really nice beach called Bar beach. We spent the next two weeks exploring the local area and surroundings.

Before I go any further I would like to apologise. due to not so great internet connections and weird computers I can't add any more photos than i currently have to any blogs. Also any photos that are added are off Imogen's camera as mine has broken. I do however still have a few photos of Newcastle floating around.

Back to Newcastle. It is at this point that our note/diary keeping got a little bit lax. so everything that we did is here, however it is in no way, shape or form, a chronological record of our time here. Initially we embarked on a couple of 4-5 hour walks to have a look around. Newcastle is (according to residents) the second oldest settlement in Australia. Whether or not this truly is the case, Newcastle is certainly one of the oldest settlements. Originally settled as a penal colony, Newcastle is the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, and is set to expand, with plans for more coal chutes to be built as soon as possible. Newcastle loaded AUS$5.3 billion in 2005. The coastline off Newcastle, is littered with coal tankers. They sit off the shore waiting to come into port for up to 19 days. Despite the heavy concentration of tankers, there have been no natural disasters involving coal off h shoreline, though there have been near misses. During a storm last year, a coal Tanker named the Pasha Bulker was washed up on Nobbys Beach whilst attempting to enter the harbour. However it did not break up, and was pulled off the beach by tugs and kind weather. We heard much on the history of Newcastle on a tour we did of he town on one of the old tramway cars that had been converted into a bus. We managed to get out a few nights whilst we were in Newcastle. Not only did we discover that Thai food is much nicer in Australia than in England, but we also experienced the national obsession with Bowlos, aka a bowling club. Now when i say bowling i don't men ten pin bowling. I mean lawn bowls. The kind where at home we have old men and women in white suits throwing weighted balls down a perfectly smooth lawn. Apparently they are the perfect location for a friday night piss up. I got told it was because of the great atmosphere and the chance to play bowls itself. I have a sneaky suspicion that really the reason is that the booze is incredibly cheap. one day we decided we were going to explore the coast on bicycles that we borrowed from Sarah and Leevi. We realised after cycling a couple of miles up a hill, that we really really weren't fit enough to be cycling. We continued anyway, and I swiftly proceeded to take out a chunk of my leg on the bike pedal. So we cycled back. I have washed that sock roughly ten times, trying everything me and gen could think of. Unfortunately the once white sock is now a nasty browny, pinky colour. We decided that after this we weren't going to be cycling anywhere again in a hurry. On our second Saturday with Sarah and Leevi we were invited to the engagement party of one of Sarah's friends. The house was situated on a beautiful beach named after its caves. The caves were a result of the constant tidal motion on a soft sandstone set of cliffs. Regretfully we didn't have the camera with us, or we would of taken some awesome photos.

One source of endless entertainment in Newcastle was Bella. Still mid training, Bella was a high spirited lab puppy. With bella we went to a dog beach, where she was first confronted with some big surf, to pelican beach where she attacked some seagulls and got thrown in a lake. Finally we went puppy training school, where she was determined not to be controlled. Sarah and Leevi themselves looked after us wonderfully. Not only did Leevi rustle up some pretty mean curries and stir-fries, but they took us to the Australian Country Music Festival.

The Country Music Festival is held in a small city called Tamworth (Gen found this very amusing as she is from Tamworth UK). Leevi was born in Tamworth, and so had a friend who was in Thailand at the time who lent us his house. Tamworth closes down its centre for almost three weeks whilst it is invaded by every country music fan who can possibly make it. I have never seen such a high concentration of cowboy hats, boots, checked shirts and jeans in one place. I thought that such high concentrations of cowboys only existed in Texas. Apparently I was wrong. They drink three things in Tamworth. Beer (all cold and none particularly great), Jim Beam Bourbon and Bundaburg Rum. If you don't drink these you are a woman. Also wearing a t-shirt that doesn't say 'Tamworth country music festival', or 'My other car is a Ute', is a sure sign that you are not normal. I found this somewhat daunting and just stuck to beer, whilst Gen discovered just how lethal dark rum is. So after watching a couple of jug bands, folk artists, and bluegrass musicians, whilst drinking copious amounts of booze, and getting stared at by weird old men in cowboy outfits, we made the 5 hour drive back to Newcastle, not sure if we were over-awed or scared at what we had just experienced.

Back at civilization, we made two final day trips. Firstly we traveled on a tour down the coast toward Sydney to the 'Reptile Park'. Which had lots of native Australian wildlife. including a really big saltwater croc, who tried to eat the park guy, called Elvis.

Elvis

We were impressed with the reptile park. It was great! (This was the last place i took photos before camera died)
here are more photos.

Flying fox

Big Tortoise

Finally we traveled up the coast slightly to a place called Port Stephens. Port Stephens is a beautiful bay north of Newcastle. A couple of hours on a coach winding its way through a swamp, and we arrived. We headed down the marina and booked ourselves onto a dolphin watching trip on a catamaran. It was a relatively wet day, and we got patches of rain, but we saw plenty of dolphins, and the beautiful bay of Port Stephens. I really wish I had some photos to sho you but I don't I am afraid

After Sarah and Leevis we headed to Sydney. Though we were slightly disappointed with the accommodation location (about 10 miles from CBD), we arrived in Dulwich hill YHA. We dumped our bags and headed straight into town. We wandered through town, walking down the streets we had trekked amid hundreds of thousands of others on NYE.
We walked round the oldest part of Sydney, the Rocks, and under the Bridge. On the subject on the bridge, it is so much bigger than i had ever imagined it to be. It is colossal, and extremely impressive. Wandering around Circular Quay we booked a tour to the blue mountains the next day, an continued round to the Opera house. Again, like the bridge it is so much larger than I imagined it to be. Oddly though, it isn't actually white. More a pale cream colour. It looks white on all the photos, but doesn't in the flesh, odd. After strolling through the Botanical Gardens, we decided to head back to Dulwich. Next morning we were up bright and early. The night before, whilst checking facebook we had discovered that Kate and Kirsten, two Geordies that we had traveled through New Zealand with were also in Sydney. We had arranged to meet them after our blue mountains tour. So we met our coach at some ungodly hour in the morning we had to meet our coach outside the Marriot hotel on Circular Quay. After transferring coaches at the star city casino we were on our way. First stop was the Featherdale wildlife park. Here we had another look at Koalas, Kangaroos and Fruit Bats. though it was here that we got our only look at a Red Kangaroo. The grey Kangaroos were plenty numerous. they are not very big very soft and docile creatures. Red Kangaroos are 7-8 foot tall probably 2-3 foot wide at its widest point and pure muscle. Thy have been known to kill people, and actually seeing one I don't doubt that fact for second. Moving on from th Wildlife park we headed into the Blue Mountains themselves. Though only just mountains at just over 3300ft, thy still took a very long time to cross. The traditional way of finding a pass through a mountain range had always been to follow the valleys and keep going until you get to the other side. This had always worked before, but not on these mountains. Roughly in the middle of th Range there is a huge canyon, maybe not as big but in its way just as majestic as the Grand Canyon. Its walls are vertical cliffs, and explorer after explorer could find no way round. This is no real surprise as the area is huge, and the canyon has its own rainforest at the bottom. It was not until three young men decided that they were going to make their fortune by crossing it, and that to do that they were going to follow the ridgelines. This was, at the time, a totally unconventional method, but the three reasoned that if following the valleys didn't work then the ridges would. It worked, and the three young men made it to the rich pasture land on the other side. The route they found is exactly the same now as when it was first discovered, and no alternative has ever been found. I did manage to upload some photos of the blue mountain, thought not its most famous rock formation, the three sisters. Sorry about that.

The Blue Mountains

More Blue Mountains

After visiting the Blue Mountains we met up with Kate and Kirsten. We had a good night out and retired to Dulwich hill at some point in the morning. The next day, feeling a little worse for wear We had breakfast and headed into Sydney to the Sydney Aquarium. Over the next couple of days we spent all our time in Sydney, taking a boat trip across the harbour to Manly beach, visiting various bars and cafes with Kate and Kirst and generally having a good time. Australia day was a good laugh, and very very busy. We spent it by the opera house and in the botanical gardens. On our last day in Sydney and ultimately Australia, we went for a meal in a very nice Italian restaurant in the Rocks, where i had the second best steak I have ever had. after bidding fond farewells to Kate and Kirst we headed home, and the next day to the airport, where we jumped on the plane and flew away over the Tasman sea, on our jolly way to Bali.