First stop on the list was Hong Kong, a collision of Chinese and British west culture which come together to create a rather confusing city. I headed up to Kowloon which is north of Hong Kong island and where there are many street markets including the bird, fish and flower markets which are literally lots of shops selling fish of all variety. This area is pretty much solid Chinese culture, the only English influence is the roads with the left hand drive and all the signs looking the same as home. Taking the ferry across the river to the Peak, really the only way to see Hong Kong through the CBD which is when the population suddenly changes from Chinese, to 50% white, showing that the western businesses are still very key here. Hong Kong has changed a lot since it became Chinese. According to some people I met the pollution is alot worse since its been in Chinese hands, and many would like to see it return to Independence (and it didn't take much to get one of the waiters to say it). I met some people in the Hostel and headed for Macau the next day, which is similar to Hong Kong but with Portuguese instead of the British influence. Here we visited some of
the old sites, watched someone do the worlds biggest Bungee (no I didn't do it in the end) and went to one of the many Casinos that Macau is famous for. Here, yes, I was a winner. WINNER! yep. all of the table limits were really high, so ended up playing on one of the automated roulette machines. Stupidly I put my $10 (about 1GBP(there's no pound symbol on these keyboards, cultural differences eat your heart out)), anyway, put it on green 0 which it landed on, couldn't believe it, the others wern't with me at that point so it was just me celebrating with a slightly worn looking macau man. Dinner was on me that night for me and my comrades (which ended up being fast food, but thats not the point). The boat back was pretty terrible with us having to do our best to avoid listening to the many people being sick on the boat. Other delights of HK were heading to Aberdeen, a small fishing town on the otherside of the island, worth a visit, although i managed to get stuck inside an inclosed area where the fishermen were unloading the boats of fish, very akward while I recieved many evil looks as I did my best not to get in the way. I also headed over to Lantau island which is where the airport is to visit the world biggest bronze budda statue, or something like that, which was a very wet affair but worth it for the bus ride through the hills. HK was a nice place to start, different enough that it felt like I was away, but easy enough to get about because everything is still written in English (Theres a transition period of 50 years, by 2047 British influence has gotta be outta there!) One last highlight of HK was drinking in the street with Simon, one of those people whos lived everywhere, and Fillipa, a Sweede also on her way to Sydney, it was a very drunk and happy affair singing and dancing in the street in the rain as the bars pumped out the music, where a random french guy gave us some free beers because we "looked like you were having a good time". The world needs more people like that man. The only down side was that I slept through my alarm for 5 in the morning and would've missed my flight if it hadn't been for another traveller also getting up early waking me up.You still with me? So I'm gonna speed up, otherwise ill never get done. So onwards.
The highlight of the flight over to Aus was helping the old Chinese woman next to me get subtitles working for 127 hours. Needless to say she gave up after about 15 minutes.
I spent a fair few days in Sydney taking everything in. I was staying in a massive hostel as recommended by Kat, a huge 8 story place which was quite daunting to start with. I was not prepared for the amount of British people that were going to be there, and then all of the Europeans. I didn't meet a single person there who wasn't European (except for 2xUSA). But it was ace, there was a lively bar downstairs and managed to meet lots of people which was what was needed as a lone traveller in Sydney. I did the main tourist sites in the first few days, headed to the circular quay which is where the bridge and opera house is, before heading off to the Blue mountai
ns 2 hours train ride west of the city. (Prepare for cultural difference number 2) They have double decker trains! Blew.my.mind. Of course I sat on the top deck, who wouldn't. The Blue mountains were awesome, very wet on the first day, I did some bush walking through the bottom of the valley before getting hte last cable car up through the rain. I also headed up to the Jenolan caves. I asked the guy on reception at the hostel if it was worth going, he replied with a tone of 'well what do you think dickhead', "They're 450 million year old limestone caves". That was that then. The blue mountains were ace, and im glad I stayed 3 days there, but it was back to the city for some skydiving.Skydiving was expensive, but by far the best thing ive ever spent my money on. It was an amazing experience and I loved it. The bit in the plane before the fall was nerve wracking ( and a bit sweary), but as soon as we started to fall it all went away. Im gonna save this bit and not write about it, just watch the video. I go a bit mental.
I loved Sydney, I thought it was an awesome place. I got to meet up with some people on Cogee beach, and Squirrel and Frenchy, 2 people from Camp America that I havnt seen in 4 years which was ace to hang out with them for a few days. I also headed to the Sydney Olympic Park to see what Londons is going to look like in 2013.
Next stop was Melbourne, I got the overnight bus to Melb to see what it was all about. It was awesome, better than Sydney in my book. all the travellers I meet along the way in Australia are always asking the same question, which did you prefer Melbourne or Sydney. Sydney is great, but the thing about Melbourne is theres nothing to see really, you just have to live there and be there to experience the life, as apposed to Sydney, which felt from a tourist point of view, Go to Bondi, See the Bridge, See the opera House. Highlights of Melbourne were meeting up with Uno from camp and Charlie and Fiona from Edinburgh who kept me amused for many a day. The very funny Bec Hill did me a favour and got me a comedy festival pass in return for some flyering which meant I got to see a load of shows for free which was awesome. One of the best parts of Melbourne for me was going to see an Aussie rules match. I went with a Dutch chef I met in the hostel and we say Richmond Tigers vs St. Kilda Saints which ended in a 95-95 tie, almost unheard of. we relied on the locals sitting next to us to fill us in with the rules which they did with the friendliness that this nation is known for. By the end we were die hard Tigers fans, with their home ground the MCG being a must see for any sports fan, its a superb stadium. Its a very cool place, especially areas like Fitzroy and St. Kilda slightly out of town, its a city I could definitely spend more time in.
In the middle of the time in Melbourne I hit the great Ocean Road. Frenchy was doing the same road trip with
some friends of his and had a spare seat int he camper if I wanted to join as well. So myself and 4 French people set off from Melbourne in a wicked camper, a company who takes old vans and makes them into these campers, none of which are the same, all with unique artwork and phrases on the boot. The great ocean road was truly stunning with some textbook examples of coastline geography, it was pretty great, and being able to do it with some pretty great French people (I know, who would have thought) as well made it doubly great.I then got the bus again to Adelaide (a nutter got thrown off within 5 minutes), and hired one of the free bikes to see the city. It was free therefore it broke after 10 minutes. Adelaide seemed nice, I only had a day there and it was raining so probably didn't have enough time to do it justice. from there I got the Ghan, a 25 hour train ride up to Alice Springs on a 640m train. The budget section at the back was quite nice, restaurant car and large reclining seats, and the journey was pretty good. Im trying to do as much as I can without flying and taking the train ended up being the cheapest way, and really gave a sense of the scale of the country.
Alice Springs was a town that I had been given alot of warning about but I think that it was actually ok. It is like stepping into a different country though, it is very outback. The indigenous population is high from here all of which speak different languages. The country still seems very segregated between aboriginal people and the 'Westerners'. The government has given alot of land back to the people and they actually own alot of the national parks which gives alot of income from the tourism. Its shocking to think that up until the 1970's the government and missionaries were still taking kids away from their parents to teach the native out of them, something which I only found out about here.
I got on a tour from Alice springs to Uluru which was worth it. Seeing Uluru at sunset and sunrise was so worth it, its pretty awesome. I assumed that it was completely isolated with not alot else there but there is Kata Tjita as well close by. This tour involved alot of walking which was what I liked, and was another excuse to meet people. Annoyingly alot of tour focussed around the aborigninal culture behind Uluru not actually how it came to be. Only a few of the aboriginal stories are shared with the visitors as we are considered children and not wise enough to be told the more advanced stories. It was great to be sleeping in Swags under the stars, best option for the budget traveller.
From Alice I got the bus up to Tennent Creek and then Katharine before arriving here in Darwin. We got into Tennent Creek at 1.30am to hoards of loacals drunk and shouting, would have been intimidating if Tony from the hostel picked us up. The first thing we saw in the morning was 2 women having a fist fight and in the evening getting a lift back to the bus station, Tony said some people had just tried to light a fire under his van. Needless to say I was not too sad to be leaving there. From Katherine I went to Katherine Gorge and did some more walking, some great views but no swimming, there are Saltwater Crocs in the area.
And So I arrived in Darwin, a city only good for Drinking and Eating according to locals. After checking my budget I decided not to visit Kakadu. Darwin is ok, and ive been reading about the war history here, I didnt even know that Darwin was attacked.
So I hope that this has given a taster of what ive been up to, though it really is a small amount of what ive been doing, but im running out of internet time so hey. I head to Bali tomorrow and then in Indonesia for about a month I think, looking forward to a different culture. I was surprised when I came here how similar to home it was, it really is very similar. I also thought it was going to be a bit more laid back, chilled out, but in the cities theyre quite up on fines and J walking is a big deal. Never sure about a country that doesnt trust its own adults to cross the road by themselves. But Australia has been great, a very expensive place, the cost of stuff is ridiculous, especially on basic stuff which becomes annoying having to pay too much for stuff. I went to buy a travel book for indonesia yesturday, RRP $35 selling in the shop for $50 (30GBP). Pretty sure ive never paid over the RRP for a book in the UK. Ive met alot of travellers along the way which has been great, its been pretty easy to meet people along the way, unfortuatly not as many australians, but a few. Im sure ill meet loads in Bali. Missing a few things from home alot, but generally very happy to be living life on the other side of the world.
So thats it, hopefully Ill update a bit more often so theres not so much to read in one go, and hopefully alot shorter in general, well done if youve made it this far. Hope everyones good back home, think you can leave comments here if you wanted to.
Peace and Love,
Mark
http://goo.gl/maps/GcFG to view my map
ReplyDelete