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Around the world with Sally
Good'ay Mates!!!
Lol, okay so back to Singapore briefly. Turns out i had an action packed 2 days in the end! Dont you just love it when something exceeds your expectations?!
Heres some Singapore facts....Singapore is a very diverse culture. There are four main cultures living there. There are Malays, Chinese, Muslims and Indians. Interesting mix. So there are areas around Singapore which inhabit these communities seperately. There is also four languages used in Singapore. English, Chinese, Malaysian and Arabic. Did you know that every warning or road sign has to be written in these four languages? Also if you are arrested the officer must read out your rights in at least 2 of these! By the way i was told this and didnt experience it! However, everyone there can generally speak at least 3 of them. If you are caught with drugs especially, did you realise you could actually face the death penalty? Did you know the death penalty is hanging?
As soon as i arrived in Singapore just in time to start the hostels Tony's infamous "food walk"! Fantastic as i was starving. So we head out into the city sampling all sorts of local delicacies. Before you get excited...they were no where near in comparison to my recent Chinese tastes. However, due to most of the group being sheltered vegetarians, no spicey food please and no dogs etc we had just normal food. No frogs, dogs, snakes or mice much to my disappointment. However, it was good fun to experience this food which is quite similar to Chinese.
Up early to have MARMITE ON TOAST and a coffee in the hostel. Bit of shock to the system and reminded me of home...sniff. NOT! The craving of a bowl of spicey noodles with horse meat and a boiled egg is still there. Anyway! So i jumped on the metro train this morning and headed down to China Town to get my fix! Singapore is so clean and yes its true you can get fined for dropping chewing gum! There are recycle bins everywhere in Singapore and it seems to work. I stayed for about 3 hours in China Town soaking up the culture and chatting to random Chinese people in Chinese! It was really great, i felt like a Chinese person, and i was the only foreigner not interested in all the tat for sale (cause iv already bought it!) Anyway, i visited some museums and discovered how the Chinese came to Singapore and where they went and what they did.
Next stop on the train was Little India. Quite a disappointing area. Millions of Sari shops and the usual tat shops. I visited a few mosques and temples but nothing very exciting. I didnt really get much of a feel for the Indian cuture here as its very much influenced by the western world.
So feeling rather peckish i head to a famous little Singapore eatery which is famous for the Malay dish of Laksa. A fish noodle soup which is spicey!!! Bingo! So great infact i had it again for lunch the next day too! That evening i headed to the river with my friend and we went on a boat cruise for 30 minutes. Rather dull as it rained but saw the Singapore landmark which is the "merlion" part mermaid and part lion. There was no explanation to it...
Last stop for the evening was of course a Singapore Sling in Raffles Hotel. A must do for any Singapore visitor and only a mere $30.00 (with a free bowl of olives and nuts). A funny thing was the hostess took one look at us at the door and proceeded to seat us behind an enormous vase of flowers. It may have had something to do with our dress...!
On route back to the hotel i joined the Malay / Indian culture and am now sporting a funky henna tattoo covering my hand! Dont worry mum, it washes off in a few weeks. However, iv had about 12 compliments on it already!
So on my last day in Singapore i visited the Kampong Glam village. This is a traditional and very Historical Malay area of Singapore. It is the muslim district living here today. This is where Sir Stamford Raffles first discovered Singapore back in 1819. Three main sights here include, the famous "teh tarik" which literally means "pulled tea". I stopped here for a quick brew. The hot tea is poured from container back to container from a height and mixed with evaporated milk and sugar. This way it brings out the strong tea aroma and cools the tea to make it the perfect temperature for drinking. (a taxi drivers favourite apparently!) And i can tell you what a lovely brew my friend made! Secondly, the Masjid Sultan Mosque which is very beautiful sporting a golden dome and parts made from glass bottles. Lastly i visited the narrowest street in Singapore - Haji Lane. Lovely! The traditional houses and buildings all over Singapore are all very colourful and are generally shop fronts. Which means that there is a shop on the ground floor and the family live behind the shop and sometimes above it. The nice thing about Singapore is that there is not many high rise buildings, alot of the traditional buildings are still there and in use. There are a large number of (unecessary) shopping malls which i avoided. The small boutiques are the place to go and i did find a fair few bargains and unusual quirky items there.
Then i headed to the beach to spectate the Singapore Ironman race! (another reason to come back here with a goal) Then for another Laksa dish and then to the airport. And over to Sydney it was!
Sydney...
After the 7 hour flight (plus 2 hours) i arrive in Sydney and boy did i get a shock....I was freezing cold!!! did you know its just finishing winter here now? (september) Well i forgot and was non too impressed! So i spent my mere one day in Sydney, doing practical things, having a snooze, updating the blog, calling the banks etc and i went for a nice city walk. I went down to the Harbour and saw the Harbour bridge and the Opera House. Both so beautiful espeically at sunset, so romantic. Shame that i was on my todd and with no ones hand to hold...Ho hum!!! life of the traveller and the search for him still continues!!!
Up early as today i join the Oz Experience bus and head north up to Cairns. The Oz Experience is a jump on jump off bus which stops at various places and you can stay there as long or as little as you like. So first stop (after about 8 hours) is Surf camp! We spend the evening with some beers, good food and drinking games! Next morning we are woken up early for our surf lesson! Which quite honestly was awesome!!! I loved it!!! I had already done 2 days of surf school in Hainan (thank you Dahai) so i was able to actually stand up and "surf the waves" alot! Another sport iv taken to!
After surf school it was back on the bus and up the coast to the next stop of Byron Bay. Byron Bay is beautiful, such a small town with good surf and loads of excursions. So i hired a board and practiced the surfing skills again! Also i teamed up with a new friend at 5.15am to go for a run to the lighthouse to see the sunrise! (no i wasnt drunk) It was pretty good and great to get running again, however the clouds were out and you couldnt see the sun! Average pics... The weather wasnt great here so my kayaking tour got cancelled which was disappointing. This is the furthest part east in Australia and so i like to think i was one of the first persons in the world to have first glimpse of the sun!
The next stop was Brisbane! Here i visited my relatives, Alan and Marilyn and stayed with them which was very much welcomed! I had an extremley comfy bed, great food, great wine, great chats and a relaxing afternoon by their pool! The next day we visited the Koala Sanctuary where i saw all the usual animals and got to hold the Koala (for a mere $15)...Sooo cute!!! But dear lord does it stink!!! Many thank yous for my more than comfortable stay to Alan and Marilyn! Was wonderful to finally meet. Apart from the Kaola sanctuary and visiting relatives i didnt do anything else. Brisbane is just a big city with the usual Louis Vutton, chanel etc. All the shops i cant afford. So at the end of the weekend i was dropped back to the WORST EVER STINKIEST HOLE OF A HOSTEL in Brisbane (Palace BP...) ready to get the bus in the morning.
From Brisbane i headed north up to Noosa. Noosa is a beautiful little sleepy town with stunning beaches. The first day was spent out kayaking and exploring the area which was great fun! I saw pelicans (which are huge!) and also a fair few sting rays! Pretty cool. Next day i just got out my book and sat on the beach for the whole day! It was bliss. The beach is beautiful and the sea so blue. It seems to be the best sunbathing time as its just spring so the weather is quite hot but not too unbearable to sunbathe. Best time to visit Oz too iv heard.
From Noosa i head further up the coast to Hervey Bay. This is one of the main gateways over to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a huge "hardly" untouched Island of sand! Its right off the east coast of Oz and sports so much wildlife including birds and dingoes! I joined a random group as i tend to do and hired a 4WD safari car and so the 6 of us drove over there and around on our own self guided tour. It was great fun driving up and down these huge sand dunes and over rocks etc. We had 3 days and 2 nights there which involved camping on the beach (and avoiding snakes!) We drove around alot and visited 2 stunning lakes. One call Lake Mackenzie and the other Lake Wabby. Both have clear bluey greeny water with a beach of golden and white sand. Bliss. We also headed up to a point called Indian Head and took a peak over the edge into the sea to witness stingrays, dolphins and fish milling about. Unfortunately no whales, we are just a little behind them as they are heading north with their young to teach them thier survival skills!
From Fraser Island i head further north on the bus to a little town off the east coast. We have a compulsory stop here at a cattle station called Kroombit. Only the OZ Experience stops here. At kroombit i discover all about the traditions and history of the station. We have some awesome tucker here too, a nice juicy steak (no cow ears or brain sadly) and chips. After lunch we head out on horseback to round up some pesky goats cowboy style! This was cool except for they stated a no trotting rule on the horses...gutted. After rounding them up we head over to practise some lassooing and also try our hand at lassooing and branding the goats! Muchos fun! After this we try our hand at clay pigeon shooting! This was brilliant and i was very proud of my 3 out of 5 hits! Get in!
For dinner we again have a seriously tasty couple of slices of beef with all the trimmings. The Aussies reckon its the best roast dinner in the world. I had to disagree. After dinner, the beers start flowing and then the mechanical bull is fired up! Now this is one of my weaknesses, however i stayed on for a whole 3 seconds! Until i was flying through the air. Luckily i landed near to the bar and so retired for the rest of the evening with a fair few tinnies!
Today we head out for the longest drive. We are heading to Airlie Beach. On route we stop for a calm game of bowls. Randomly! Was nice to get out of the bus and chuck a few balls around the green! A sport? that im not very good at! Too quiet and relaxing for me i think.
Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach is the main gateway to the world famous Whitsunday Islands. Its also the best place to party on the east coast of Australia. Hence the extended stay! Ha ha! So i booked up a trip to head out to visit the Islands on a catermerang for 3 days and 2 nights. Luckily my trip included an Island stay to mimimise ones seasickness! lol. However, it was inevitable and on the first day i was hanging out at the stern of the boat staring to the horizon! Whilst out on the trip we stopped a few times to go snorkling which was awesome! I saw so many wonderful kinds of fish, all rather surreal. There were some enormous fish about the size of a medium sized dog then some real small illuminous coloured ones which zipped all about the front of my mask! My favourite ones became the zebra fish (i gave them this name) and yes they were immaculately black and white stripped! So cute. The colours of the fish were beautiful it was as if an artist had painted them with gloss paint! So many vibrant colours. So after some snorkling we visit the famous Whithaven Beach. A stunning white sandy beach with the finest sand in the world. The is crystal clear and warm. Heaven on earth one could say. Unfortunately we didnt spend a great deal of time here.
From Airlie Beach i head further up the coast to another Island called Magnetic Island. This gets its name from Captain Cook and has something to do with his compass! However, one may have been too hungover to care abouts its real origin. So Magnetic Island is home to National parks and there is many walks and watersports available, not much else. My hostel is on the beach and i spend my time there sunbathing, swimming in the sea, sea kayaking, and just chilling out for a few days. On one of the days i headed into the national park to sea the old WWII forts and the wild koalas. I spotted 4 koalas so check the pics out, however the WWII fort was disappointing as the sign informed us that only one shot had been fired. Hence it wasnt really used. Anyway!
From Magnetic, the bus takes me to my last destination on the east coast of Oz, Cairns. Just before we arrived into Cairns we took at trip to a crocodile farm! This farm is a resuce place for crocs who have recieved asbo's for being a nusience. For example, George (in the photographs, he is the biggest croc ever) he is there because he has eaten about 150 cattle in his life time of 75 years! So now he is living off dead chickens in a small pen. The farm is very popular with Gucci, Prada and Chanel for supplying crocodile skin (at a fortune!). So we just wandered about watching them being fed and had the chance to hold a miniture croc, parrot (with very sharp claws...) a dingo and a cockatoo!!
So now for the interesting part...i couldnt resist not trying the dish of the day..Crocodile Pie!!! Yum yum yummy!!! Not quite a patch on blood duck. However, tasted like chicken! All good! So my trip finally came to an end in Cairns and after some extreme partying and saying goodbyes to all my newly found friends it was time to catch a stupidly early flight after 30 minutes sleep down to Melbourne.
Melbourne
So i had a mere two days in Melbourne which was spent exploring the city (via the free tram!). Melbourne has now become my favourite city in Australia, its so chilled out and relaxed and just a really nice place to be. The weather is not the best, but it is just becoming spring here and so is a little chilly. Good preparation for New Zealand i hear...!
From Melbourne i join another Oz Experience bus which is a 3 day tour to Sydney. First stop just outside Melbourne is Wilsons Promontry which is a long jutting out bit from Australia! Its a protected and very beautiful national park. Here we do a 2 hour hike on the prom out on to the furthest part south of the mainland in Australia. From here we drive further on heading towards Jindabyne. On the way our driver "bones" is spotting all sorts of wildlife and telling us all sorts of nature facts and figures. Whilst on the road we spot MILLIONS of Kangaroos! They are as common as squirrels in a country park. The more you look at them though, the more strange they really do look! Australia is full of weird and wonderful animals. Theres many types of snakes, spiders (most unfortunately), kangaroos, wallabies, echnilldas...., and millions of birds. Especially the white cockatoo (incredibly noisey and pesky creature..)
From wilsons prom we head out into the bush where i spot about another 500 kangaroos, and a wild emu!!! At least it was running the other way. Then our driver "bones" turned over and old tire lying on the ground to reveal the deadly redback spider!!!! Yikes! I took a pic using the full zoom standing about 10 feet away! Pretty ugly thing. Anyway!
From there we head up to our accomodation for the evening. We all head down to the beach for a bonfire, few beers and some marshmallow toasting! Awesome in a true Aussie fashion!
The next day we are up early to head up high into the mountains, the Snowy River region. This place is stunning and there is a ski resort there! Did you know you can ski in Australia? I didnt! Unfortunately no ski action as its just closing because its the end of the season is over, and the snow is mostly melted. However, we stand in some left over snow for the effect. From here we head to a beautiful spot by a river to have some lunch and i whizzed out in "bones" kayak for an hour or so! Muchos fun!
I was also attacked by a magpie, can you believe it?! Now i did NOTHING whatsoever to this godforsaken creature. I was walking along the path minding my own business and the little "fella" decided to swoop in on my head! Little *)&%#@%, not just once but about 4 times! I ran and ran. I was okay though so no panic. Never mind the dam deadly snakes, its those magpies that are a hazard!!!!
So all in all Australia is an awesome place and i have come to the conclusion i did not spend enough time there. I only blinked once and then im in New Zealand. My time whizzed by due to the fact i was having so much fun. Australia is such a great place, its warm (generally), its fresh, its relaxed and chilled out. The people are generally very laid back and rather polite! I was quite taken a back when in shops they greet you and ask you, How are you? But they actually seem to want to know! I loved Australia alot and its certainly very tempting to go back...i was told that they are in need of sport pyschologists.... No seriously!
(China is still my number one)
So its onto the Boeing Qantas metal bird in Sydney and over to the Kiwi land of New Zealand. Hope you all enjoy the blog again and as usual i love to hear your comments, via facebook, email, blog whatever!
Love to you all and missing you. xxx
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