Sayonara Singapore

So that was it for Singapore, and we were to be leaving later in the day, so soon after arriving. We weren’t in a particular rush to get to the train station, so we allowed ourselves a little lie-in. And we needed it. At stupid o’clock in the morning a family had got up early, opened the room to their door and let their child/children run absolute riot down the corridor. The room was a fair distance away, but the noise carried through into our room and through the pillow that was now pressed against my ears. I didn’t know what time it was, but I knew it was early. I pondered getting out of bed and storming down the corridor and telling them all to shut the heck up, but that would require me getting out of bed. So I waited it out, getting more and more frustrated at the kid(s) crying their eyes out, shouting, running and getting shouted at by the parents. And then it was morning and James was showered and clumping about, and it was time to get up and get everything ready to leave.

We knew we were going to be in for a relatively rough journey there due to the lengthy walk to the station in the baking heat. We would also need to phone the hotel to ask them if we were OK to check in at 9pm, as they had a check-in time for 12:00 to 18:00 for some reason. We left the hotel and set off on our last Singaporean trip, down the usual road to the Metro we knew oh-so well. Due to it being a Saturday the train was packed and I must have knocked about 3 people with my massive bag, but thankfully no prams or anything were overturned. It was only two stops on the Purple Line and we changed to the Red Line that runs North – South. Thankfully this was much quieter and we managed to get a little spot by the doors and wait out the long trip up north.

James in the Metro...

As we were on the train we had been bracing ourselves and discussing the best strategy for dealing with the walk at the end of the Metro journey. And then the heavens opened. This would put a spanner in the works and our strategy would need a rethink. Instead of baking in the heat and humidity we would need to tool-up with our wet-weather gear. When the train arrived at our stop it was still raining so we got the rucksack covers out and raincoats and tried to cover everything so none of it would get wet in the deluge. It worked. None of it did get wet……mainly because it stopped raining as we left the train station. Typical. So we were back to dealing with the heat, but it wasn’t all that bad, apart from the fact that I had switched footwear to my flip-flops and occasionally aqua-planed along the pavement. James had a similar problem in his hiking boots, but we managed to get to our destination unscathed and only a little bit sweaty and out of breath. We hung around in the air-conditioned waiting room and packed all the wet-weather stuff back into the bags and until we had cooled down.

 It wouldn’t be long til our train would be departing so we got upstairs and into the queue. The trip would take us across the border and into Malaysia, so we weren’t sure what kind of security would lie ahead of us. Once through the ticket inspector we lined up for passport control, and this didn’t take long to get through at all. Apart from the woman nearly keeping hold of my ticket until I grabbed it off her desk. Then it was the old finger-print and x-ray machine to get through, but it didn’t look like there was a metal-detector so we shouldn’t have to de-belt and everything, which was a nice bonus. No problems there either, and that was it…we were in the waiting room, technically in Malaysia.

My iPod entertainment centre

The train pulled into the station and it seemed…OK. Nothing outstanding, but certainly satisfactory for the journey that lay ahead of us. We grabbed our seats and got lunch on the go straight away. Whilst in the air-conditioned waiting room earlier, there had been a kid screaming and throwing a tantrum for about 20 minutes. We had remarked that the kid would probably be in the seats next to us on the train to make the six and a half hours just fly by. Well, guess who walked through our carriage and settled in about 5 seats behind us. Bingo. The mum, dad and the screaming kid. But at least they weren’t right behind us so maybe we could drown out any tantrums with the ipods and suchlike. And then we heard someone settling into the seats behind us. We thought that at least they couldn’t be as loud or annoying as the kid behind, but guess who it was. They had actually got out of their seats and moved 5 seats forward to sit directly behind us. Me and James just laughed, like you have to in those kind of situations.

The train pulled out of the station, and for some reason the annoying people behind us had moved back down the carriage to their original seats, but we sure weren’t complaining! We watched the Malaysian countryside fly by and the journey was surprisingly quick. Maybe because we were using long Greyhound trips as a yard-stick.

Malaysia from the train

We pulled into Kuala Lumpur Sentral at about half 8 and began looking for an ATM, a taxi rank and some toilets. There didn’t seem to be anything working in the train station: the two ATMs we came across were both out of order and the toilets were all being reconstructed. On searching for a usable toilet I happened across another ATM that seemed operational. But I was going to withdraw Malaysian Ringgits, and had no idea what the exchange rate was. I didn’t want to get a huge amount as we would only be in Malaysia for 4 days, but I didn’t want to come up short in the taxi ride to the hotel. I plumped for RM100 and it turns out that it was about £20, which should hopefully see me through to Thailand. The taxi rank was a small office inside the train station and after telling the guy where we were going he replied it would be RM10, or £2.00……bargain. This taxi driver seemed much more competent that the ones we had come across in Singapore and we were there in no time.

The Mayview Glory Hotel seemed quite nice – certainly better than the Arianna Hotel that we had been in for the past few nights. The beds were comfy and the Arsenal v Chelsea game was on the telly downstairs. It was £10 each a night and it looked like it was worth every penny. It even had a bathroom arrangement whereby you could, if you wanted to, have a shower whilst sitting on the toilet. I won’t tell you if I ever did this. It was getting late and the Grays were getting hungry for food before settling in for the night so they went for a quick scout of the local area. We happened across a few eateries and suchlike but we thought just to play it safe we should grab a KFC and then get organised in the hotel room. Thankfully the beds had some give in them so we were in for a decent nights sleep for a change. 

The view from the Mayview Hotel

Singapore Slung

The morning began with another look on the Malaysian website and another attempt to book the flipping train tickets to KL. There was a phone number so we decided to give them a call from a payphone and sort it all out that way. When we did find one, near the famous Mustafa Centre, we couldn’t get through. So the only option left was to jump on the metro again and go all the way up to Woodlands again and trek the 1km to Woodlands Crossing to buy the tickets there and then head back. All in all about an hour and a half to two hour round trip. Not what we wanted but there seemed no other way. After lunch we completed said trip and managed to finally purchase the tickets – two “superior” class seats for the 6 and a half hour trip to KL.

The Mustafa Centre...at night

It had been a long and hot walk to get there without our luggage and the journey the next day with all our belongings was not looking desirable. But that was then and this was now. Our next metro ride was to the Geylang district, a few kilometres east of our hotel, and the red light district of Singapore. We simply wanted to have a look around and see what the place was like as we had seen some hotels there that were cheap but had decided against them due to their location. And apparently the whole industry was relatively respectable anyway. But when we got there we didn’t see anything of interest. It just seemed like another little neighbourhood of Singapore, nothing to report home about. It was another long, hot walk back to the hotel and we both grabbed a shower, stuck the AC on and began searching for accommodation in KL.

The Geylang (Red Light) District

It didn’t take long to find a good hotel and we booked it quickly before setting off for a curry. We were in Little India so it seemed appropriate, and it was……pretty good. The spicy chicken and spinach dish that I got would have been much better if the chicken wasn’t on-the-bone, which I can’t stand as you have to pick all the gristle off. James’s Murg Makhani was much nicer and I had definite food envy after the first bite. Nevertheless, we were fed and now needed to hit the harbour area again to see the city lit up at night. Before we got there we were to stop off at Raffles hotel, for a Singapore Sling, the infamous cocktail for which Raffles is famous for. I had been advised by friends that we should get one as it was “the” thing to do in Singapore. It made sense too, but after a quick search on the old internet to find out actually how much they were we quickly dismissed the idea as preposterous. We were looking at about $60 for two drinks, and as much as we like a tipple here and there that was just too much for us to handle. So we had a look round, used the toilets and generally soaked up the Raffles atmosphere before heading off again.

The Raffles gents

 Down at the harbour it was an amazing sight and slightly better than by day, even though that is amazing in itself. I grabbed some night pictures of everything and then we headed back towards Little India hoping to find somewhere selling beers for $6 or under – that is all we had between us after saving $4 for the metro on our last day.

Singapore by night

There didn’t seem to be any cheap bars around, or any bars for that matter, but we saw a sign in a local street eatery and they did just what we needed – two 665ml Tiger beers for $12. Bazinga! They were ice-cold, which was great as we were damned hot after the walk back, and they went down a treat. We drank them whilst a drunk Kermit The Frog rambled on from a table further down. We received a few interested glances our way, but we had been getting used to it by now, and it would surely be getting more prevalent as our trip goes on.

Suppin' on a Tiger (not in a building site)

It Never Rains But It Pours

So, having not managed to find anything we needed the day before we scoped out exactly where the ATM was supposedly located. It was apparently in the CBD area so even if we didn’t find it we would be treated to the sights and sounds of the inner city.

We walked down to the city centre and managed to find the Barclays in Singapore that we had found on Google. My fears were realised – it was an office, and not a proper bank. But maybe the guy behind the desk could confirm if we would find a Barclays ATM anywhere in the city. We wouldn’t, as they were just the investment arm in the area and no ATMs were in Singapore. Balls. We would have to use a non-Barclays one and take the hit on the extra % fee for withdrawing. But we needed money as we only had about $5 SGD between us and a whole lot of Singapore to see.

There's the 5% withdrawal fee...

For lunch we made our way down to the harbour and were blown away by the view. All the skyscrapers surrounded the water and the Marina 1 hotel (I think!) stood out on the other side of the water. If you don’t know about this hotel it is essentially 3 apartment blocks side by side……with a cruise ship across the top. See pic below! We had a mooch round the local area and saw a few noteworthy things before heading back to the hotel – we would need to leave reasonably early to get up to the north part of the island to get to the Night Safari.

The Marina One hotel

In order to get the train up to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday we would need to get up to the train station in Woodlands, from which we would then go to the Night Safari. The metro system was very easy to negotiate and when we got to the Woodlands stop we started searching for the KTM station. Unfortunately the guy at the metro station told us that we would need to get a bus out to the KTM station as it wasn’t actually at the Woodlands stop. Our trip was coming apart at the seams. We had to get some food and to the Night Safari that night too so we decided the tickets would have to wait til the next day and we might be able to work out how to get them online (the website is in Malaysian, and even translated into English it was impossible to work out).

At the Night Safari

It was a short (and dodgy, due to the drivers inability to see clearly) taxi ride to the zoo but when we got there it was pretty impressive. It seemed a little like Singapore’s answer to Australia Zoo; almost; like a theme park, but with animals inside instead of rides. We had paid for admission into the zoo and for the tram ride through it. We lined up with everyone else (it seemed very popular too) and then were ushered into one of the trams coaches with rolled plastic sheeting on the sides if we needed them if it were to rain, but we couldn’t see any clouds in the sky so presumed that we would be fine. We rolled through the park whilst someone at the front gave us a running commentary over the PA system, and conveniently all the animals seemed to be right near the roadside so that we could see them. Either they were fed there or they were chained there, or both.

A lion that came within touching distance...

After 10 minutes (maybe not even that) we came to the halfway point. I was thinking that we weren’t going to get value for money out of this little trip, so we decided to get off the tram and explore the animal enclosures as offered by PA guy. It was a good call, as there was lots to see including Cloud Leopards, the lions (from over the road this time) and flying leopards. A highlight was seeing the (apparently generic) leopard resting right next to the glass of the enclosure so you could get up close and personal with it. Another highlight was the bat enclosure. After seeing the massive flying foxes in Australia we didn’t think we would be impressed with teeny tiny ones. We were surprised. And impressed. When we walked in there were a couple of huge beasts munching away on various fruits hanging down from the branches of the trees. We got as close as we dared and one of them just hung there in the tree upside down……watching us. Looking us right in the eye. It was very spooky. There were also little ones flying around our heads just to add a bit of flavour to the scene. And then something terrible happened.

The bat that never blinked

Both me and James felt it at the same time and turned to each other. Rain. It was coming. What we had already gathered from being in Asia this short time was that when it rains it pours. And it’s not like the shower lasts for 10 minutes either, it’s an all-dayer sometimes. We grabbed our raincoats from our rucksacks and threw them on just in time. The deluge lasted for ages and the queue to get back onto the tram was obviously massive. We were looking at a 45 minute wait, especially as nobody was getting off at the halfway point to free-up seats for us to complete the journey. Eventually we got on one and sped off into the night. The rest of the tour was much longer, which was nice, and the rain continued on and off, with thunder and lightning in the background. It was an amazing sight to be going through the safari at night with the flashes of lightning going off in the background.

Once we had finished the tour we needed to get back and investigate the train to Kuala Lumpur. We found a direct bus and jumped on, with the rain still battering down on top of us. We got back to the hotel and James managed to figure out the booking system, but it didn’t look good – we couldn’t book tickets for the 29^th, only the 30^th onwards. We need another plan, but that would have to wait til morning.

Welcome To Asia

We had arrived. It had been an uncomfortably warm nights sleep, and the rubbish bed and pillow hadn’t helped. But nevertheless, we were in Singapore, Asia. Once we had unpacked a few things and grabbed a quick shower in the small bathroom with a shower vaguely attached to the wall and headed out into the mid-morning humidity for an initial scout round the local area.

The Mustafa Centre lay across the road from our hotel, but it looked like you needed to hand your bag in to look round as there were a few security guards lurking around the entrances, so we carried on until we hit the City Mall round the corner. It is a huge place, newly built, and obviously a much nicer shopping experience than in the Mustafa Centre. It seemed like the kind of place the rich and famous would go to do their shopping for food, clothes and gold, etc. So we perused the shops for a while before grabbing a few supplies from the supermarket. Back at the hotel we made lunch and then looked at where the nearest Barclays ATM and Visitor Centre were. Thankfully they didn’t seem too far away so we saved a map to my phone and set off into the city.

The Arianna Hotel

Unsure of the jay-walking laws in Singapore we made sure we waited for the green man at all crossings, but also because we may easily get knocked down by any vehicle you care to imagine if we would try and scamper across before we should. It was a total assault on the senses, but nothing fazed us – we consider ourselves to be seasoned travellers by now. Walking through one of the street markets was amazing – the sights, the sounds, the smells, all just battering our senses with new experiences. We got slightly disorientated by the many roadworks around the city and couldn’t find the Visitor Centre in the end, but we did at least find where one of the main shopping plazas was, that according to James would contain the one and only Barclays ATM (that would give us “free” cash withdrawals). It turned out that there weren’t any Barclays ATMs in the plaza, so that was 0 out of 2 for the day.

Bugis Street market

On our way back to the hotel we tried bobbing into one of the local parks but couldn’t find the way in, so technically that was 0 for 3, but we won’t count that one. Once we got back to the hotel it was pretty late so we got the bowl noodles on the go and tried to find out what to do in Singapore and how to get up to Kuala Lumpur by train. Neither of which was an easy task.

Taking The “Austral” Out Of Australasia

It was to be a full day of travelling for the Gray boys. We had to leave the hotel and get to the Queen Vic Markets, providing they were open, and get to Melbourne Airport for our flight into Singapore. There was no problem checking out of the hotel – “just leave the keys on the dresser” is all we were told. So we trudged down the street we knew only too well and made it to the market with plenty of time to spare. I had a wander round, looking for dual layer DVDs and any kind of cheap tat that was available. Luckily enough there was loads of it around! But no DL DVDs, so I bought myself a big hot dog for brunch. There seemed to be a communication problem as when I asked for “everything on it” meaning sauerkraut, mustard, etc I got one that had the sauerkraut, the sausage, the bun…but also tomato ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and chilli sauce. It was a strange combo to start with, but once it had all mixed in together it was fine.

Queen Vic Market innit

James also had a run round the markets but came back empty-handed. So there was nothing else to do apart from hot-foot it down to the train/coach station to get the Sky Bus to the airport. It wasn’t cheap at $17 but there seemed to be precious other ways of getting there. Once there we checked in and got through security with no problems. The score on being swabbed for explosives was made 2 – 1 to James (although we couldn’t decide if that was winning or losing) but I came back with an instant reply to make it 2 – 2. We were back on Qantas flights now so we settled in for the 8 hour trip into Singapore. We had books, ipods and laptops, but none of these were required as we had (if anything too much) TV and film at our fingertips. I decided to pass the time with a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, interspersed with Prometheus, The Dictator and Battleship films, all of which were “just OK”. The food was alright too, for airline food, but the “refreshment” we got as an early supper was a mushroom pizza. Anyone who knows me will understand why I had to pick out 97% of the bits of mushroom and just munch down the tomato-bread with precious little cheese left on it.

Before we knew it we were alighting into Asia; first time for James and second time for me. It felt great to have finally entered the big unknown that was Asia, which we had not much info or planning on, so far. We grabbed our baggage and headed to the taxi rank, after much deliberation over whether we should bus it or train it to the hotel. The guy didn’t know where the hotel was and he couldn’t really read the small map I had saved on my phone, but we managed to get there in the end. Before we removed ourselves from his “Toyota Lada” he had managed to drive for about a mile across two lanes (along the dotted line) and race a pimped-up Porsche. So getting to the hotel in one piece was brilliant. He had earned his $1 tip.

Trying to get some train info on the wi-fi

“Basic” is how I would describe the hotel room, but for the price it was good enough for us. The beds were rock-hard though, and I do mean rock-hard as there was no give in them whatsoever. The time was only half 11 but our bodies were saying it was half 1 in the morning so we clambered into bed and tried to get some shut-eye, as the next morning would surely be an interesting one.

Melbourne Monday

So, we had one last full day in Melbourne, and we had many, many plans for it. OK, so the plans weren’t exactly that exciting, but we had a lot to get through and first up was the Queen Victoria Markets, as recommended by Liam on our long drive the day before. It was easy enough to find, just straight down the main road from the Baden Powell hotel. It felt a little bit like Las Vegas with all the road crossings and taking ages to get anywhere you wanted to get to, especially as the police are particularly keen on nabbing people for jay-walking.

Half an hour later we had arrived at the markets, and the building that contained them looked pretty amazing. The thing that didn’t look amazing was the sign advising us that the markets were closed on a Monday. Swing and a miss. With no markets to explore we walked into the town centre to achieve a few more things off our long list of tasks. I had missed breakfast so nipped into a Pie Face shop to grab a very delicious, but very greasy, sausage roll. Sadly, I thought that the one I had got in Cairns was a cool independent bakery, but it turns out that they are basically the Greggs of Australia. But damned tasty though! We saw a post office across the road and poked our heads in to get a quote on sending another parcel back home and ended up grabbing some Singapore dollars as we were unsure if there were any Barclays ATMs at the airport. The quote was as good as we could get so we decided to send it, but had forgotten the DVDs of all our backed-up photos and videos, so I decided I would walk back to the hotel to get them and James would go and get a haircut, as neither of us knew the Malaysian term for “just a trim” so getting one in Oz was probably for the best.

The (closed) Queen Victoria Market

I got back to the hotel and grabbed some food and the DVDs. I met James back in the city centre at 3pm and we got the parcel posted back home, which will probably arrive near enough on Christmas Eve…… which will be nice. Now it was James’s turn to head back to the Baden Powell so we split up and I went trawling the shops for book shops to try and get a second hand copy of a South East Asia Lonely Planet or Rough Guide. I had no luck, as I only found a place selling them for $44 brand new. I walked out in disgust. I managed to locate the Parliament Building in the city centre, after initially walking in the exact opposite direction, which looked pretty grand, but as I was on a tight schedule I had to head for the hotel and rendezvous with James before meeting up with Liam and Harry for evening drinks. A $5 Pizza Hut and a shower later we were walking the familiar walk down to Flinders Street station.

We didn’t have to wait long for our companions to arrive and we were quickly taken to a bar called Ferdydurke……which I have no idea of the meaning. It was a cracking little bar, pricey by our standards, but probably pretty good by the Melbourne going rate. After a glass of wine (Harry) and a jug of beer (me, Liam and James) we wandered out to find the next cool little bar. Unfortunately, it was Monday night and a lot of places seemed to be closed. The next two places fell into this category so we finally found Cookie that was open for business. One thing about the Melbourne bar scene I will remember for a long while is that they seem to be located down the dodgiest alleys in the city, amongst wheelie bins and graffiti.

In Ferdydurke's

Cookie was great too, and Harry particularly enjoyed the shaved almonds in the tapas…… until Liam pointed out that they were actually pieces of garlic. We sank a couple more drinks before saying our final goodbyes and thanked them both for being fantastic hosts. It had been great to see them, but a shame to leave them and get back on the road, and to a new country too. Indeed, a new continent! The walk back to the Baden Powell was a now very familiar one, and a cold one too – I had even got the coat out of the bottom of my bag, something that I thought wouldn’t be needed anymore after New Zealand. Once back at the hotel we began packing our things in readiness for hitting the road again the next day. Oh, and James managed to pinch some towels from the shared bathroom as the hotel had taken our wet towels but not left fresh ones. And due to the Monday Close-down they were unavailable to get some more ones. Tip: Melbourne shuts on Mondays.

The Great Ocean Road

Some of you may have heard of the Great Ocean Road. It runs between Melbourne and Adelaide, but not all the way. It is supposedly one of the best driving experiences in the world and between us me and James had decided that it was probably a stretch too far for us to fit it into our schedule. And we would have probably had to hire a “Wicked Camper” which looked like deathtraps on wheels. But Liam and Harry had suggested that we might be able to squeeze it in on the Saturday, so that was exactly what we set out to do. Harry stayed at home with the dog and needed a bit of R & R after only being in her teaching job for a short amount of time, so the three boys jumped into the mini cooper and screeched out of the driveway.

Liam was a great tour guide, pointing out anything and everything along the way. Shortly we were out of Melbourne again and heading west. The Great Ocean Road doesn’t actually begin for quite some time so we sped along the highway whilst learning just exactly what it is that Liam does – he used to be a “transponster” apparently. We stopped a few times along the way, if anything just to stretch our legs – the mini was not built for people with long legs!

So where's the ocean then?

It was a day of two weather systems, with clouds to start with, that cleared as we got onto the Great Ocean Road, but would then start pouring down with rain, almost as if it were a game of chess between good and bad……weather. Thankfully it did not rain at the place where, according to Liam, it always rained. Apollo Bay was said place and that was where we stopped off for fish and chips. And great fish and chips too. MUCH better than the poor offering I got in Cairns. This time I went for butterfish and chips, and it was an excellent choice! Once we had been fed we got back on the road again and headed even further west.

The view from the Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road had been fantastic and it came to an end when it began turning inland. There were a couple of other points Liam wanted to show us and not far down the road we turned into a small side road. Whenever the Foulkes’s have visitors (mainly from the UK) and they “do” the Great Ocean Road drive they stop off at the place we had just done and look out for wild koalas. The last 4 times they had been there they had managed to see them, something of a hot-spot for koala-spotting. Given that since our arrival at their home the Wi-Fi had ceased to work on two occasions (although that was due to the dig chewing at the cables outside the house), the DVDs I ordered hadn’t arrived, the dog had peed on numerous rugs in the house, the Inbetweeners Movie hadn’t streamed through iTunes, we hadn’t found Harold Holt and the dog had figured out how to use the cat-flap to get into the house, we didn’t think we would see any of the furry little fellas. But amazingly we spotted one as soon as we stepped out of the car. High up in the trees and only just visible, but he was there. Liam spotted another one nearby, but there were none low down enough to get close to. Even though, a great bit of eye-work form all three of us.

The next port of call was the Twelve Apostles. These are, or were, 12 sets of limestone rocks that are being battered by the sea and wind off the southern coast of Victoria. There aren’t 12 of them anymore, they are gradually losing the battle against the elements and crumbling into the ocean. I can see why they are losing. The wind was unbelievable! There was a smattering of rain, but the wind was the killer, coupled with a rather chilly day anyway it was enough to have us retreating to the safety of the coffee shop after only 10 minutes or so. They looked magnificent, and a great finish to the days drive. It would have been a great disappointment to have come all this way and not see them so we were both very thankful to Liam for driving us all that way.

Some of the Twelve Apostles

The drive back was a rather smoother affair as we took the much straighter and flatter highway back to Melbourne. We had packed our big bags into the back of the mini so that we would be able to go straight to our hotel in Melbourne on the way back. We arrived into the city fairly late and managed to find the hotel pretty much straight away. We said our goodbyes to Liam, but we would be seeing him and Harry the next day for drinks before we left.

We checked into the Baden Powell hotel and got slightly worried when the waitress (it was located above a bar/pub) asked if I had received her email two weeks ago. That is not something you want to hear when you have just arrived at a hotel, it is late and you are tired. But apparently it was only because we would be having a queen bed rather than two singles, but that didn’t matter, so long as we had a room for the night! The room was pretty good, apart from the fact the door to the bathroom didn’t go all the way up to the ceiling (it was a high ceiling and not a saloon-style door though, thankfully!). We grabbed a quick bite to eat and sat in watching a bit of crap Australian telly – which is pretty much all of it, apart from the imported stuff from UK and US. 

Sipping Success

Morning came and we had all slept well. When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed both Harry and Liam were up and about, making breakfast and looking after the dog. He was still jumping around like a lunatic, as would be expected from a young puppy still getting to know his owners and surroundings. The plan for the day was to hit some wineries and head south of Melbourne to complete a walk that our hosts had never done before. Apparently the Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, had gone missing in 1967 after going for a swim, by himself. You wouldn’t get that these days, and his body was never found. Obviously we weren’t trying to find him, but it was supposed to be a good walk, and would no doubt go down a treat after a bit of boozing at the local wineries.

We all clambered into Liam and Harry’s mini cooper and sped off from their home in Sandringham to get out into the countryside and the wineries. It seemed like the ultimate dream, to have the beaches so close they could go jogging or walk the dog on, but then James advised that we lived very close to the beach in Southport. But it just doesn’t have the same gravitas as a golden Melbourne beach in the sun, for some reason.

In the mini cooper

 It was clearly the spring season for the grapes as the vines were bare and had few leaves on them, but it was still a cracking sight to see the rows and rows of vines across the fields. As we entered the winery we paid our $5 to do the tasting and grabbed a glass each. Well, not exactly, as Liam was driving so it was just me, James, Harry and the grapes. We had about 12 wines to taste and went through the whites, the roses and the reds before the sparkling Moscato to finish. We were advised that there was a spittoon to use if we so desired, but he obviously didn’t know us that well! It was great to have the tasting notes to check what flavours we should be getting through, and by and large they were all bob-on. We don’t pretend to be wine buffs but we certainly know what we like and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Mmmm, it has a long finish

With the wine still fresh in our bellies we headed further south towards the mouth of the bay. We briefly stopped off at Arthur’s Seat as it looked out across Melbourne and the bay. We did also try and stop in at another winery and a local brewery, but they were both closed, so we carried on our journey to try and “find” Harold Holt. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the start of the walk and we got out of the mini, stretched our legs and set off along the gravelly path. There were no real signs along the way (apart from the ones advising of unexploded bombs in the bushes) and it seemed like everyone was driving there, so after half an hour we turned back and jumped in the car. It was a good move as it would have taken us ages to get to the actual start-point of the walk. That said, we didn’t even get to there either, but to the start of a smaller walk, far away from the peninsula where HH went missing. But we wandered around the area and got down to the beach and a small cemetery. It was pretty bracing on the shore with a stiff breeze coming straight off the Antarctic. The shadows were lengthening by that point so we headed back to Sandringham for dinner.

Unexploded bombs

Harry, James and I said hello to the cats and Otis while Liam nipped to the shops to grab some stuff for dinner. They had suggested that we have a proper Aussie barbeque, and who were we to say “no” to that! The first part of the meal was an oyster shot – something that I had tried in New Orleans, but that one was in a shot-glass with vodka and Tabasco sauce. They were very nice, although a very strange sensation as they slipped down our throats. Perfect with a bit of lemon juice. After the oysters we were treated to a cracking spread of food right off the barbecue. We even had kangaroo steak and big prawns, just the ticket! We had a few more glasses of wine and talked the night away, even getting a little bit “freaked-out” when searching for ourselves on the internet – long story.

"Where's Harold then?"

 The plan had been to watch a movie later in the evening, and Prometheus had been mentioned, but we plumped for The Inbetweeners Movie instead. Unfortunately, the Gray jinx on Liam’s technology struck again and this time the iTunes movie stream was not happening, so we never got to see it. We got an early(ish) night after the disappointment of the non-stream as we would have a long day coming up the next day.

A Little Taste Of England

Our last Greyhound ride wasn’t the best, as the heater had been set on full blast, in contrast to the US Greyhounds whereby they cranked up the AC to keep us all frozen. However, we had made it to Melbourne and the last leg of our trip through Australia. We were to be staying two nights with my friends Harriet and Liam, who live slightly south of Melbourne in a suburb called Sandringham. It was only a short train ride to get there and we couldn’t help but feel that the place had a look of Leeds/Manchester about it, mainly due to the chilly weather and overcast sky.

We found the house with no problem at all, but our hosts were both still at work but had left a key out for us to make ourselves at home. We let ourselves in and were greeted with a beautiful home with lots of space, and a small brown face looking in at us through the patio doors. The face belonged to Otis, their puppy, who had only been with them for 5 days. We had been given instructions to look after him and the two cats, who were yet to show their faces, and to relax in the house until later in the day when they would be arriving. The first thing we did was obvious – put the kettle on. With a cup of hot brown in our hands we slouched onto the couches and had a perusal of the telly box. As The Sopranos was on we happily sat back and watched an early episode, followed by a few minutes of the MLS football game. It was soon time for lunch so we grabbed a quick bite and set about trying to get the internet working. As it wasn’t happening for some reason we decided to say hello to the bundle of joy that had been watching us from outside.

Otis

As we opened the patio doors a brown shape rushed in and began licking at James’s face. Otis was clearly very pleased to see us. We spent quite some time outside in the sunshine with him, chasing, throwing and playing tug-o-war trying to tire him out a little so he would settle down and go to sleep. We tried leaving him outside for a while as we couldn’t leave him inside unsupervised, but the whimpers that came through the windows were just too distressing to ignore. So we let him and played with him some more, until he peed on a rug that he really shouldn’t have done. It was like having to look after a toddler, always looking out for him to make sure he wasn’t chewing something he shouldn’t be or knocking something over.

Finding out "Who Is Liam Foulkes"

At half 5 I saw the red mini cooper pull up into the driveway and Harry and Liam get out. It had felt very strange hanging around in their house waiting for them to turn up, and now they were finally here, ready to meet and greet the Gray brothers that were just over halfway through their travels. We said our hello’s and it was a weird feeling to be seeing them in Australia, something that I had thought might never ever happen. But it was like we had not been apart for all those years and easily slipped back into the casual chats and reminiscing about university life and beyond. Otis was still running round like a lunatic and the cats were keeping their distance, probably still a little bit too soon for them to understand what exactly was going on. Harry made a fantastic curry for us and we relaxed with a few bottles of beer and wine and caught up til late into the night. Pretty soon we were all starting to flag so we called it a night and went to sleep in a nice comfy bed for a change.

The Mighty Mighty Canberra

Another country and another capital city. This time, it was Australia, and the capital city was Canberra. We knew that we would be visiting the Parliament Buildings and……that was all we knew. Apparently there was a huge flower show in town, hence why Simon had been unable to get a room at the YHA with us. With not much else on the agenda we started walking down towards the river, across which lay the Parliament Buildings.

As we neared the river we fell in with a crowd that seemed to be heading towards a bonsai garden. With nothing much else to do we followed them, and ended up in the flower show enclosure. It was free to get in (always good) and we even got a free Canberra Times newspaper, which I never got round to reading. There was the usual stuff that you would expect from a flower show, with lots of families and push-chairs, etc. We didn’t spend long in there – I was on the verge of a raging cold, and the pollen from the flowers was only going to exacerbate things with my hayfever.

We continued our walk down and across the river, stopping a while to investigate a Captain Cook Memorial. The weather had cleared up nicely and we were treated to a lovely bit of sunshine as we walked through the park areas. We were also treated to the sight of a kangaroo jumping out of the bushes to the left of us and bounding across the path right in front of us. We tried to find it in the bushes but it had skipped on out the other side. It really hit home that we were touring Australia and that iconic image was just fantastic. Soon after that we arrived at the Old Parliamentary building, and decided to see the new one before exploring the other area behind the old one. We made our way up to the New Parliamentary building and poked our heads inside. We had to go through security checks to get in and once inside we spent our time wandering through the plush surroundings and reading all about Australian democracy . We even got inside the central chamber where they were debating some kind of amendment to a dentistry bill or something. I would post a picture but we weren’t allowed cameras inside.

The New Parliamentary Building

 After lunch we wandered down to the Old Parliamentary building again and had a look around. The outside. We would have had to pay $2 to get inside, so we went elsewhere. We walked down to the river and through the sculpture park and across the river again. The next thing we hit was the American-Australian Memorial; a thank you from the Australians for the help that the US gave in the Pacific conflict. After that there was one more item to see, which was the Australian War Memorial. It seemed just down the road but took an age to get there. And when we did it was much more than we expected. It was essentially a museum for the World Wars and there was room after room after room of pieces of history and art. It took us a long time to go through everything and we didn’t even get to the end as they shut at 5pm and we were ushered out to the Reflecting Pool for the closing ceremony. By the time it had all finished it was getting late and we got back to the hostel, grabbed a bite to eat and settled in upstairs to wait for the bus.

Angel of the North/Canberra

We endured a couple of hours of kids going crazy on the floors below, thankfully they weren’t on the third floor too! Once they had gone to bed we were free to carry on relaxing and waiting for half 10 before we set off for the bus station. The short trek to the station shouldn’t have taken long but as we missed the turning for it, as it was dark and pouring with rain, we were there later than expected. Not a problem though, for we were still there early and got onto the unusually busy bus and took our seats. For only the second time in Australia me and James were having to have one seat each, but at least we had got two together, and went through our usual routines before trying to get off to sleep. 

Quizzy Rascals

It was with a heavy heart that we left Sydney, as we had had some great times in our relatively short visit. We were due down at the bus station at 12:30 for the bus that would get us into Canberra for 16:10. It didn’t take long to get there and we checked out a few hotels and hostels in Singapore on some free internet terminals in the terminal before setting our stuff down on the kerb and waiting for the bus.

James went off on one of his forays, presumably to use the facilities in the train station, and I waited patiently with the bags attempting to bask in the sunshine that was peeping through the clouds. Whilst I was waiting an elderly gentleman wandered up to me and muttered something along the lines of, “when the going gets tough, the tough go travelling” to me. I smiled and replied, “I guess so” and thought that would be the end of it. Of course, it wasn’t and he proceeded to talk to me about religion and how good Christianity is and whether I was a “believer” or not. I tried to fob him off with, “not really, but I respect everyone else’s right to believe in whatever they wish” but he just kept talking at me. I noticed some pamphlets in his top pocket, that he thankfully had not yet thrust my way. Then, as we were travelling to Canberra (he squeezed that little gem out of me from the start) he said he wanted to say a prayer for me. As he was still holding my hand from the “handshake” two minutes ago he pulled himself closer towards me and placed the palm of his hand onto my forehead. I had attempted to get out of the situation by saying he didn’t need to, etc, etc, but I don’t even think that pepper spray would have stopped him on his quest. As he continued his prayer I noticed the Greyhound bus pull up next to us (perfect timing for once!) and uttered, “ummmmm, that’s my bus” and he relented. He left me as I pretended to put my bags onto the coach (even though the driver hadn’t even opened the luggage compartment on the side of the coach) and just in time for James to return from his little journey. I enlightened him on what just happened and we chuckled about it for some time.

The priest and the smoker

We were still waiting for the bus driver to open up the coach and let us on, and in the time preceding that we noticed that the chap standing around the other side of the large pillar had been approached by the very same guy who had just been holding his hand on my head. I felt sorry for the guy as he had been peacefully smoking a cigarette and waiting for the bus, but I did nothing to help him. I didn’t want the preacher to realise that I hadn’t got on the bus and for him to try and finish his prayer. Soon enough the driver turned up and we jumped on the bus, and luckily we were first on and so we got the pick of the seats. Maybe the prayer was working after all……

We arrived in Canberra on-time and set about unpacking our rucksack straps (our bags have a zip-away feature so the straps and padding don’t get trapped in doors and such like). James went off for another of his sorties and left me guarding said bags. The chap who had also been lucky enough to receive a prayer for his travels ambled up to me and asked if we knew where the backpackers place was. I didn’t, for we were staying at the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) down the road. He had not booked anything so asked if he could walk with us there and see if there were any vacancies. We had no problem with that so the three of us left the bus station and walked towards the Canberra YHA.

Our new companion was called Simon, and was from Switzerland. He was travelling through Canada and Australia for 3 months and was about half-way through. He was truly back-packing it as he had not pre-booked anywhere and he had a tent, in case of emergencies. When we got to the YHA there was a sign in the window advising “no vacancies” but he tried asking anyway. Sadly they were fully booked so he set off to try and find a hotel nearby. Maybe the prayer works on a “first come, first served” basis.

The hostel was nice and clean, and we were booked in to a 4-bed mixed dorm room, so we were not sure who our bunk-mates would be. James was hoping for two girls to be sharing with us; I think just to have something different, but I couldn’t help think that he was expecting two young super-models to be back-packing through Canberra and who would be captivated by an English accent. Whoever they were they weren’t in the room when we opened the door at 17:00. Indications were that there was at least one girl, with the possibility of another, but we couldn’t confirm this without going through their luggage, which we didn’t think would be appropriate. We made ourselves comfortable and then had a quick wander round the local area before heading down to the Transit Bar for dinner. I had spied a Pizza + Pint deal for a mere $10 and it seemed like just the thing we needed. We ordered the food, collected our pints (proper English ones at that) and went to find a table. They were all busy or had Reserved signs on them, and it seemed like they were reserved for a quiz later that night. Well, we knew we would have to stick around for that!

We grabbed a quiz sheet from the quiz master and quickly realised from the picture round that we had a very good chance……of coming last. We realised that we were doing a quiz in Australia so a good proportion of the questions would no doubt relate, in some way at least, to Australia. Nevertheless we began the quiz with enthusiasm and we had a great start with the first few questions. Our pints were running low so I went to the bar to get two more in. We plumped for the cheap stuff, Carlton Draft, and I gave him a $20 note. When I received my change I nearly cried. Only 5 coins were in my hand, and only two of them were gold ($1 & $2 coins are gold). There must have been a mistake. He must have thought I had given him a $10 bill, so I asked how much one was and he replied $7.80. I forced a smile and mumbled “thanks” under my breath before returning to James and the quiz. We both agreed that this would be our last pint and that a second round would not be necessary.

After 10 questions in the quiz we were still doing OK, although a few more Oz-related questions had come out so we were stumbling a little, and then the quiz master changed things up. Every 10 questions he would walk to the bar and ask a question. First one to write it down and get the answer to him won a 1140ml jug of beer. Me and James looked at each other. This was our chance. The first question we got wrong. The nation that uses the most soap is Australia, not Japan, apparently. Then there were questions 11 through 20, which we struggled with. Then came the “jug of beer” question. “Which year was the Great Plague of London?” he read aloud. Quick as a flash James wrote down 1665 and handed me the paper. I ran like the wind and thrust it under his nose. I was first there and we were the ones celebrating with a free jug of beer!

Free beer!

The rest of the quiz went downhill really, lots of random questions that we had no idea about, although we held our own in the music rounds. After the 30^th question it was time to try and win another jug of beer, even though we hadn’t even finished the previous one. We braced ourselves. The question came booming across the room, “What is the most common pub name in England?”. I hadn’t heard the question properly and was thinking of pub quiz team names, but James had scrawled “Red Lion” on the paper and ushered me to get to the bar. I did so, but I was by no means first there. A few wrong answers were dismissed immediately and then he looked towards where I was pointing. Sure enough, “Red Lion” was the correct answer and as I turned to James subtly waving a fist in the air I could hear the groans from the unsuccessful teams from behind me. I felt a little guilty, but then I had another free jug of beer in my hand and it disappeared in an instant. We sat there with two pint glasses and two jugs of free beer, and tow very big grins on our faces. We didn’t win the quiz, but we had taken two expensive jugs of beer from the bar and that was victory enough.

More free beer!

Once we had retired to the hostel we were preparing ourselves for the introduction to our new bunk-mates, and we wanted to be quiet as it was almost half 10. When we opened the door there was nobody there to greet us, just the back-packs and shoes that had been left out from earlier. So there wasn’t much to do, other than update the blog, make up the bed and await the arrival of our unknown guests.

Oh, there was just one more thing. I went to the gents soon after arriving back at the hostel and I opened the door to be greeted by a sight that I truly would never have expected. There, in front of me, was a naked Philippino man washing his pants in the sink. Thankfully he had gone back into the shower cubicle when I returned from the urinal, and sufficed to say I never used that sink. 

Halfway Through...

We needed a change of plan. Our priest-host who had said that we could stay with him in Canberra had not replied to us so we had arranged one more night in the YWCA. That meant re-arranging our Greyhound tickets too, but this wasn’t a problem as we had had to pay $25 for 3 days full internet. Extortionate? Maybe. But we needed to get as much stuff uploaded to our dads computer back in the UK as possible, and we were only up to the New Orleans photos and videos, so we needed to get a move on with it.

As we hadn’t even planned anything in for the extra day in Sydney we were at a bit of a loose end. I had been advised by people at Unilever to go to the Blue Mountains for sunrise or get the ferry over to Manly, but we wanted to slow things down a bit and not rush around like blue-arsed flies. So the first thing on the agenda was the Museum of Photography, down Oxford Road, and into Paddington. We walked along, enjoying the beautiful sunshine that Sydney had to offer, and headed for where the map said it should be. After over half an hours walk we still couldn’t find it, mainly due to the lack of road names a al New Zealand. We ended up in a park, miles from anywhere, and realised that we had actually walked past the Museum…quite some time ago. So we set about having lunch in the park, whilst some tiny little chaffinch-things kept dive-bombing the grotty pigeons that were hanging around us.

After lunch we re-traced our steps and eventually found the Museum that we had been looking for. It was showing Palestinian photography and was interesting enough, but nothing that absolutely blew us away. There was one piece, however, that may make it into the Best Bits video once I finally produce it, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Watching an art exhibit

Once we were finished with the photography museum we went our separate ways: me back to the hostel to catch up on the blog and some zee’s, and James to a museum of some sorts. Either way, we had a relaxed evening in with a “Coles Dinner” and no booze, as we had much to do – search for accommodation in Singapore, check out visa’s, etc. After that we played our first games of cards in Sydney and called it a night, as the next day we would be crossing the state border into the capital city.

That Monday Morning Feeling

When the alarm went off I trudged to the shower to get ready as I needed to leave the hotel by around half 9. The reason being that I had that Monday Morning feeling and was heading outside of Sydney city centre to get to the Unilever office up in Epping. I had arranged with a couple of work colleagues that I would pop in and show my face if I was passing through and it seemed like a good opportunity to put a face to the names I had constantly seen on emails flying backwards and forwards across the globe.

I managed to negotiate the train system with relative ease, especially as it was well past rush hour. The journey only took 25 minutes, on a double-decker train with folding seats so that you can choose to sit facing where you were going or not - a great idea. I found the office and checked in at reception. It looked very impressive and had a range of products there, not just deodorants, which I realised they must have more than one category working out of the same office. Nabil met me at reception and we headed up to the office. I noticed immediately that we had the exact same glasses and he said that we obviously both had great taste. When we got into the office he showed me round and introduced me to a few of the Packaging and/or Specifications team that I deal with. It was good to meet everyone in person and before long we were all round a table and discussing the ways we could work better together. I shan’t go into too much detail here, but all you need to know is that it was a productive meeting and things should hopefully be a lot smoother when I return in January.

Just another Monday morning at work...

Once we had concluded the meeting me and Nabil went out to grab a bite to eat and we returned to the office discussing travelling in general and all the places he has been and wants to visit outside of work – he obviously has a bigger travel budget than we do. As he was due in a meeting at 14:00 I left him to it and said my goodbyes. Bridges built and networks created, I thought to myself…

On the train...contemplating

I took the train back from Epping into Central and bought a ticket to Bondi Junction. This was the only time that I would be able to the Australia’s most famous beach, although the weather was definitely not right for beach-wear. It was a fair hike from the train station to the beach and I thought it would be bigger than it actually was in all honesty. I had seen it on the telly, on a program called Bondi Rescue or something like that, and it looked very different with greyish clouds overhead and a chilly winding rushing in off the coast. But I guess that is what it is famous for, as the surf was pretty damn good. Not that I was going to do any, but I did at least walk through the small waves at the shore front along the length of the beach. It was a strange (and cold) moment, suddenly realising where I was and what I was doing. These moments tend to come when me and James are separated and you have time to reflect on things and take in the enormity of the situation. A few months ago I had been watching the TV show in a flat in Morley (Leeds) and now I was here…on the beach itself, with the waves lapping at my feet. Mind-blowing.

Me with cold feet on Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach

It was getting late, and I had told James that I would be back at about 5ish (he had gone to Miranda to get his iPod from EB Games) and it was already gone 5 before I set off from the beach. I managed to get back into the city after 6 , but at a completely different area than what I knew, so I go the map out and tried to work out where I was and where the nearest Coles was. We were having a cheap night in after the birthday celebrations, so it was a Coles Butter Chicken Curry and some tortilla chips with hummus for dinner. Plus the bottle of white wine that was still in the fridge from the night before, of course.