Australia pt. 3 - Northern Queensland

After dropping the hire car off we took a bus trip 4 hours north to Townsville. We spent a couple of days here lazing about in the sun and walking up the 290m Castle Hill before spending 3 days on Magnetic Island, cycling, koala spotting, bush walking and kayaking. Kasia will be fit enough for an ironman by the time this trip is over :D

We then collected another hire car and have been in Mission Beach, just south of Cairns for the last couple of days.

Yesterday we went white water rafting on the Tully River which was fantastic though a bit hairy in places. The river is fed from a hydroelectric plants dam high above the Tully Gorge and with all the rain they've been having recently, the flood gates have been opened. This meant that there was plenty of water, plenty of boats going upside down and plenty of soakings. :) The most suprising part was how much Kasia enjoyed it. I was expecting a kicking at the end for talking her into it!

Today has been spent bushwalking in rainforest (yet again), looking for the elusive Cassowary (a 2m tall flightless bird capable of killing a man with its massive claws if it's pissed off enough). Unfortunately the nearest we got was a pile of fresh Cassowary poo and the glimpse of a crocadile tail as it scuttled off into the bushes. I'm sure we'll have more joy at the wildlife park we're going to tomorrow. :)

We're off to Cairns this weekend, hopefully for another visit to the Great Barrier Reef, before flying 6hrs over to Perth in Western Australia. The rain season has begun up here so it should be a but less wet down there. We've also planned the rest of our stay in Australia... After 3 weeks in a campervan around WA we fly over to Adelaide, drive the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, then pop over to Tasmania where we'll be over xmas. It's then a matter of a few days back in Sydney for New Years Eve before we head over to New Zealand at the beginning of January. Should be a good trip :)

Hope everyone of you are doing well and the european winter isn't too harsh yet ;)

All the best.

Australia pt. 2 Whitsundays and Central Queensland

Once the wedding was over, we took a 2.5 hour flight north to Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands of Queensland. Apparantly there are more Golf buggy related deaths on this tiny island than anywhere else in the world but we didn't hang about long to find out why as we took the ferry over to the mainland and found a place to stay in Airlie Beach.

I'd always wanted to come here to try out one of the sailing trips around the islands and out to the Great Barrier Reef and we were lucky to get a big discount on a 3 night yacht trip which was leaving that same day. as well as the discount, we also managed to secure the 'presidential suite' on the boat, we just means we got our own room with a double bed at the back of the boat as opposed to the bunks crammed into the tiny cupboards at the front. This was made even better when we found out everyone who had booked ahead had paid 40% more..... until i got bitten to death by bed bugs that is :(

Bites (and Kasias sunburn) apart it was a really pleasant trip. We snorkelled on the barrier reef spotting reef sharks, turtles, doplphins and ALOT of fish, we had a trip to the 8km long secluded white sand Whitehaven Beach, had a go at pulling the ropes on the sails and we also ate and drank alot.

Once the sailing trip was over we stayed in the very easy going Airlie Beach for a couple of days before hiring a car and going inland to spot Platypus, Kangaroos, Wallabies and Emus as well as checking out some of the very nice national parks. We also spent our first nights in the tiny tent my mate Guy had kindly lent us. The lack of decent pillows, the annoying birds waking upto to sing at 4.30am, Kasia hogging all the space ;) and the early sun rise means sleep is a bit sporadic but it has saved us some money and most nights have been fine with the weather being so dry. It's also been fun building camp fires and cooking on the barbie. Mind you, we did experience a huge thunderstorm one night whilst in the tent in the Eungulla National Park. I don't think Kasia has ever held me so tightly before :) Thankfully we'd pitched on high ground so the run-off bypassed us.
After this we stayed a couple of nights on a ranch where we tried out some horseriding in the bush. It was actually pretty good fun, especially since Kasia's horse (called Molly) was the most disobedient of the lot staying still when she wanted to move and galloping when she told it to stop :) The terrain was relatively challenging too with lots of steep sections and some river crossings. Not sure I'll be getting on a horse any time again soon though. Bikes are far more controllable.

Australia pt. 1 Sydney

Well we've been in Oz just over a month now and have managed to fit quite a bit in in that time. We landed in Sydney at 5am with the sun rising and with nowhere else planned, we decided to head over to my mate Jarrods place who'd said we were welcome to visit for a few days.

The last time I stayed there, Jarrod was living in a student house in redfearn (sydneys equivalent of Brixton) which was caged up like fort knox and I slept on a mattress under the dining table. So, I wasn't expecting the Hilton.

It was a pleasant suprise then to get a reply saying he'd moved to north sydney. In fact, the immaculate 2 bedroom groundfloor appartment overlooking the harbour bridge and opera house was very nice indeed. So much so that we probably overstayed our welcome and spent 10 days there :D

In this time we walked around most of the city and visited most of the bars. We did however manage a 3 day trip out to the blue mountains, spent 2 days searching department stores for Kasias wedding outfit and of course going to my friend Guys wedding.

The wedding weekend was great fun and it was nice to meet up with old university friends again who I'd not seen for a few years.

(We've got loads more pictures from the wedding and sydney but I've gone and left the other memory card in Sydney so won't have them here again until NYE :/)

czesc!!!

Wiec ja tez zdecydowalam sie napisac cos, a co, niech bedzie troche po polsku, wkoncu to strona polandontour, a wiec...;)))Tak na serio to dla moich rodzicow, stwierdzilam, ze moj tata moze chociaz raz odpoczac od siedzenia ze slownikiem przy komputerze i tlumaczenia angielskiego slangu. Zaczne od nieciekawego wydarzenia a mianowicie pozegnanie przepieknej Tajlandii, pelnej dzikich plaz, taniego piwa i przyjaznych ludzi a wkraczanie na teren tajemniczego, muslamskiego kraju jakim jest Malezja. Ludzie tutaj tez sa bardzo mili i otwarci, ale jakos dziwnie tu, szczegolnie w czasie wielkiego postu, Ramadan, kiedy to zycie zaczyna sie po zachodzie slonca, wlacznie z mozliwosca zakupu porzadnego zarcia! Pierwszy przystanek, Kota Bharu, poznalam wlasciwie w szpitalu, na izbie przyjec... zwichnelam sobie nadgarstek...tzn, tak myslalam po tym jak poslizgnelam sie doslownie na granicy i z lzami w oczach musialam tam zawitac. Okazalo sie, ze nie jest wcale tak zle, dostalam antybiotyk i opatrunek, i nadal zyje (James bardzo sie mnal opiekowal:)).

Wiec zostalismy tu 2 dluugie dni. Zwiedzilismy pare "zabytkow", wielachny targ, gdzie na straganach znajdowalo sie wszystko wlacznie z sprzedawajacymi kobietami, muslamska swiatynie, galerie o II wojnie swiatowej, ataku brutalnych Japonczykow na Malezje i ich wspolprace z Tajlandczykami w czasie wojny, teraz rozumiem dlaczego Malezyjczycy dziwnie reagowali na wiesc o wspanialej Tajlandii i "milych ich mieszkancach"...

Znudzeni ta dziwna atmosfera, zdecydowalismy ruszyc na poludnie w kierunku stolicy Kuala Lumpur. Biorac pod uwage, ze to dosyc spory kawalek drogi zdecydowalismy sie na "Jungle Train", pociag przez serce jungli. Super!!! Pierwsze 3 godziny podekscytowanie siegalo zenitu, czekajac na obraz tej dzikiej dzungli, wygladajac przez okno co 5 min, jednach z czasem nasze podekscytowanie opadalo, szczegolnie, kiedy na kazdej nastepnej stacji rozni ludzie dolaczali do nas, stare jarmarki ze smierdzacymi bagazami, bekajac non stop i krzyczac na kolejnych stacjach na swoich znajomych...Prawdziwa przygoda! Wiec James stwierdzil -zmiana planow!-bierzemy autobus do Kuala Lumpur!

Miasto jest przepiekne, szczegolnie noca. Zrobilismy pare fajnych zdjec najwyzszej blizniaczej wiezy na swiecie Petronas 452m, oczywiscie wjechalismy na szczyt..tak super by bylo, niestety widoki moglismy podziwiac jedynie z mostu laczacego te 2 wieze. Pozniej mala podroz krajoznawcza po miescie. Na prawde wartu tu przyjechac, wiele roznorodnych budynkow, pieknej architektury, wspanialych parkow, fontan i romantycznych swiatel oraz ulicznej klimatyzacji, serio nie wiem, czy wogole znajdziecie cos takiego gdzie indziej, ale my bylismy pod wrazeniem.

Sorry for the delay.. The rest of asia: Thailand pt. 4 and Malaysia pt. 2

Well, there's a bit of catching up to do. After a good start to the blog "we've" ;) not got around to updating it as much as could be done...

Anyway, I'll just summarise what we've been upto, to bring us upto date with where we are today, Airlie Beach in Queensland, Australia.

So...

Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui

After leaving Krabi we endured another typical long Thai bus journey, with endless changes of bus, getting off at various locations for "only 5 minets mistar" which usually turns out to be 2 hours at some shack of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere where they sell cans of warm coke and day old noodles for twice the normal going rate.

We eventually reached our destination of Ko Pha Ngan after a further 4 hour boat journey at about 10pm, arriving in the port of Than Sedat to be greeting by the usual throng of taxi drivers and hotel touts. Heads down and determined we pushed through (we'd had some practice of this by now) to the big row of pickup trucks which serve as the local buses and jumped in the back to be joined by a group of gung-ho american college boys who'd been drinking non-stop for the last 18 hours and were making plenty of noise, hanging out the back of the moving truck and singing along to "one night in bangkok" on their portable radio.

Once on the other side of the island I took Kasia on a mystery tour along a dark beach to find the bungalows I'd stopped in 4 1/2 years ago. "It's just around the next corner, I'm sure!" :D
Well, it appeared it wasn't, and the 3 quid a night place had been replaced by a new ClubMed style resort full of our friends from the pick-up truck.. Seems the place has changed somewhat..

Anyway, our stay here consisted of getting sunburnt on the beach, getting very drunk at the full-moon party, being very hungover the day or two after the fullmoon party, clearing the bathroom of spiders so Kasia would agree to go into the shower and eating. Not bad in all...

Once the hangover had cleared, we took the short ferry ride over to Ko Samui where we stayed just one night as we had to travel back down to Malaysia since Kasia's visa was due to expire. We managed to squeeze alot into these 24hrs, renting a moped and doing a tour of the island. This included a climb upto a couple of waterfalls, a visit to a temple with it's own mummified monk, some elephants, a local fairground and the impressive big buddha temple.

This stay was followed by a ferry back over to the mainland and a terrifying mini bus ride down to Hat Yai, about 120km north of the Thai/Malaysian border. It may have been cheap, but being cramped into the back corner of a Toyota van with no leg room and 15 other people, flying down the winding thai 'highways' at 160km/h in the dark, dodging cows and mopeds wasn't much fun. :o/

Anyway, we made it unschathed to Hat Yai and checked into a seedy hotel for the night after some local woman with a particularly bad body odour problem had hyjacked the minibus at the bus station after screaming out 'you look for otel??'. It was the middle of the night, in some dark industrial area, and we hadn't much of an alternate plan so decided to go with her. (If she did start something, I figured we could easily have pinned the 4ft6 wench down with Kasia's rucksack :) )

Back into Malaysia

The next morning after being quoted about 10 pounds to get a bus over the border, we strolled over the road to the train station to get two train tickets for about 40p each for the journey south. Mind you, the train did stop about 20 times en route and we didn't have a seat for the first 2 hours. It was a great trip though, travelling local style and we had conversations with the odd buddhist monk and bank clerk along the way.

We reached the border town of Padang Besar late in the afternoon to be greeted by rain and a mob of moped taxis waiting to take us over to the other side. Me being stubborn as ever decided we would walk the 500m (as quoted in the guidebook) to the frontier, saving 2 pounds in the process. However, yet again my estimations seemed to be a little low and 2km later we could finally see the signs for Malaysia in the distance.

As I mentioned, it was getting quite wet by this point and as we found out, flipflops and wet oily floors don't exaclty result in the grippiest of combinations... Kasia, fully loaded with rucksacks went down like a sack of spuds with a crack, landing like a turtle that had been flipped upside down.

From the look on her face, I expected the worse, praying she'd not cracked a hip or broken an arm. Luckily though, she just seemed to have a painful wrist and sore oily arse and hands with a few grazes. We got her up and brushed down then limped onto the border crossing where we managed (after some time) to get a taxi to Kota Bharu and made our first (and luckily) final visit to an asian hospital, learning happily that she'd only sprained her wrist. Kasia did persude the doctor to give her a bag of pain killers and anti-biotics though, just in case ;) )

Kota Bharu is about as islamic as it gets in Malaysia (they even had the Koran being read out over the PA in PizzaHut!!). It is also the place where the Japanese first invaded Malaysia in World War II. There are a few museums, a huge mosque and a stomach churning market displaying all manner of meat covered in flies. Unfortunately, as we found out, alot of the attractions were closed most of the day due to Ramadam and two days was enough before we woke up the chinese guesthouse owner at 4.30am to take us to the train station to catch the world famous
"Jungle Train" which would take us south for 18 hours to a place called Gemas, winding through the mountainous and dense jungle regions of the Malaysian Peninsuala. It was actually quite a scenic journey, but we'd missed out on breakfast and in the sweltering heat of the 50 year old train carriage, the only thing we'd get to eat or drink was warm cans of coke and crisps. The combination of this and "oh, there's some more jungle", "oh, there's another dead cow" and more decisively, a little incident involving smoke, the stench of burning electrical wires and the only oher white person on the train, a stocky italian lad fleeing for his life to the next carriage made us to decide to ditch the train at the next station and get a bus to Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur

The capital city of Malaysia is one of huge contrast. Some of the biggest, flashest sky scrapers, shopping malls (even some of the streets outside were air-conditioned!!) and one street away, there's run down buildings, broken up roads and open sewers. We had a fun couple of days there, seeing the sights, going up the 452m Petronas Towers (only to the 45th floor unfortunately :( ), walking through parks, old colonial buildings, mosques and chinatown. We thought about going to one of the swanky outdoor (air-conditioned of course) afterwork bar parties, but the 10 pound entry fee and ridiculously priced drinks put us off.

From here we got a bus south to the city of Melacca (There are some pics of KL in Kasia's entry above)..

Melacca

I really quite enjoyed Melacca. The place was originally invaded by the portuguese in 1511 (there is still a portuguese community today), it was then taken over by the dutch a couple of hundred years later, before the British "took care" of the place whilst Napoleon was in control of the Netherlands. As a result, there are remnants of each era including a couple of fortress ruins & churches, plenty of other attractions including a great maritime museum built inside a replica Portuguese gallion.

Other highlights were a chinese festival featuring the "world famous guiness book of records kung fu master", ken, who could pierce a coconut with his little finger; an evening trip to the portuguese settlement (where we ate fresh spicy crab and prawns only to find out that we didn't have enough money for the bill and had to walk the 5km back to the guesthouse in the dark) and finally spectating a karaoke contest in the local chinese temple.








End of asia

This was pretty much the end of our asian adventure. From here we travelled straight back to Singapore in (finally) a nice leisurely driven luxury coach and straight onto the airport for our 7 hour flight onto Sydney.

to be continued..