hi everybody,

i'm in sydney at the mo, been here since friday.  on monday we went to bondi beach which was like brighton, but colder, good fun tho. yesterday we went to manly on the ferry and saw the opera house from the sea which was amazing. later we went on a coastal walk round manly which was beautiful - clearly a rather well off area as there were loads of nice apartments looking out over the sea and lots of yachts moored in the bay - la di da.  today we went to the museum to see some aborigine art which was good, should be seeing a bit more of that when we go up north to darwin in about a month (ish). then we went to the botanical gardens which were scary coz they were full of huge flying fox bats!!! they're so big and so loud and there were hundreds of the bloody things!! apart from that we've been going round the other districts - we spent saturday at glebe and paddington markets, both of which are boho/hippie/yuppie areas that are frightfully trendy and full of fun cafes with massive cakes, so that was good.

 pre-sydney we went to singapore which makes oxford st look like ascot high street. they have malls where we have shops, lining all their roads. really nice place, if a little tight on the rules (no crossing roads where there's a crossing within 50 feet). Chinatown was really pretty as they paint all their shophouses and shutters so they were all fun colours. the night safari was amazing - saw tigers, elephants, hippos, rhinos, and one huge elephant who came running up to our tram and squirted the driver with water, then waved at us with his trunk when we were leaving! probably a remote controlled plastic one, but he looked real!

off to ayers rock on friday, going to the blue mountains tomorrow where there may or may not be kangaroos!! wohoo!