Brisbane

BRISSY Brisbane our next destination, a place we was unsure about, before arriving in Australia I had heard some good things about Brisbane, but a lot of backpackers have said that it isn't great, it was on our schedule and we had a hostel voucher from the company we booked our tours from so we made the trip. It wasn't far from Surfers and we arrived in Brisbane at around 3pm, the hostel itself was located in the business district of the city and only a short walk from the bus station so within 15-20mins we was there, the hostel was called "Base Central" 1 of 3 base hostels in Brisbane, the best way to describe where we was staying is 'dirty and run down' it was an absolute joke, I honestly do not know how health and safety have ever passed it as safe to open. The smell was shocking, giant damp patches from top to bottom, large plasterboard holes in the ceiling, and sockets hanging off the walls with cables showing just to name a few examples. It wasn't great, but it was very cheap, we checked in and walked upto the 2nd floor to our dorm, we thought it couldn't gets any worse then we walked into our room, and was welcomed by the worst B.O smell coming from an over weight man half naked hiding behind a sheet on his bunk, we looked at each other and laughed. The smell was so bad almost toxic, we thought we would ask for another room, and sure enough we was moved to the 3rd floor, our next room was a lot smaller and also staying was 2 young lads from Sweden and 2 Irish men around 30, they were all really friendly and we spend abit of time chatting. 

We was getting hungry so headed out of the hostels for dinner, although the hostel was manky the location was perfect, we walked literally 2mins down the street and into the centre of the city, we walked through the shops had a browse then ate at a chicken chain "Oporto" not bad fast food and it filled a hole. We headed back onto the streets and to place everyone talks about when talking about Brisbane, "Southbank" an area south of the river that runs through the city, It's most famously known for the man made sand beach that sits literally off the river, it was so strange sitting at beach in the middle of a city surrounded by big buildings and a river, we sat for a while and took a few pictures, then headed to a street just behind and found a chocolate resturant, where you can have fondues etc, you can imagine Lisa's face being a chocolate lover and we was straight in there looking at the menu, we didn't go for anything major and just got a couple of pots of melted chocolate, and to be fair they where so nice, we carried on walking a found random deck chairs sitting just under a line of Palm trees, so we sat for around 30mins just relaxing, soon after we headed back into the centre to take a look at Christmas themed windows that were being displayed in a Aussie department store called "Meyer" the first real sign of Christmas since we had been in Australia. With not much else to do we walked back to the hostel to chill, we had a chat with the people in our room then everyone went to sleep, the next day we was up early to catch the first greyhound to Noosa. 

From what I saw of Brisbane, I liked it, quite a modern city with and nice river running through, and we really liked Southbank, there is obviously so much more to see but only having one night we didn't have enough time to see it all, but I'm sure it won't be the last time we visit Brisbane. 

Surfers Paradise

We arrived in Surfers Paradise within in 2 hours of leaving Byron, it was only a short distance to travel and as I was just dosing off we were soon getting rushed off the bus. 

We heard Surfers Paradise was Australia's answer to Blackpool or Benidorm in Spain, tacky with bright lights and a bustling night life so most people turn their noses up but as we like blackpool we were quite looking forward to it. We arrived during the evening and it was dark, so all the buildings were lit up, however the bus station was a bit of a walk to the hostel so with our bags strapped to our backs we started the walk. Once arriving we were welcome to a small but friendly hostel, which made a change from Byron, we checked into our dorm and met two young British girls had a little chat then went down the common area which was actually outside and a local surf coach was doing a promotional free BBQ which was only sausages in bread but it's free so you can't turn it down, after grabbing two we walked into the centre to get some more food, didn't bother with much so just had a mcdonalds, which consisted of a quarter pounder burger with a big wedge of pineapple in it and a spicy salsa which was Banging! We had a little wonder round the shops watched abit of street entertainment then walked back to the hostel with a big ice cream cup to share.

The next day we woke early, the British girls were checking out and the hostel had free breakfast so again being a backpacker it would be silly to turn down free food. We ate as much as we could then armed with factor 30 and 50 we headed for a day down surfers beach, but first I needed to get myself a cheap beach towel as I didn't bother to bring mine from Sydney, we looked in a few shops selling towels for $50AUD but then managed to find one for 10 RESULT! it was very warm in Surfers, the hottest since we started east coast, when we got to the beach we noticed how golden and long it was, the water was crystal clear with crashing waves everywhere. However not many surfers despite its name, we had heard though that although it's called Surfers Paradise not many people like to surf here at all, but never the less the setting was nice long golden beach with a city backdrop. We laid in the sun for a few hours then went to find food, there was a Greek sandwich bar opposite the beach selling some really nice wraps so we both had one each and shared some chips, it filled us up nicely but I still had space for an ice cream, which mcdonalds was selling for 30cents a cone, which in Australia is an absolute bargain so couldn't resist. Once we finished those off we headed back to the beach to sunbath a few more hours! on the way back to hostel that afternoon we picked up some stubby rekorderlig ciders and went back for a shower.

As we had spent the last couple days budgeting, we thought our last night in Surfers we would treat ourselvest to a nice meal, we heard a resturant called 'Hurricanes' was a really good and Surfers had one so we headed there. We arrived and was shown to our seats but once looking at the menu we soon realised that maybe it was abit too expensive and couldn't really afford to be buying a rack of ribs for $50AUD. So instead we walked out and went to Vapiano's an Italian we like from home and spent half the amount. We went back to the hostel after to pack away our bits then get some sleep, there wasn't a lot of activity going on in the hostel so was never much point staying up late, the next day we was catching a greyhound to Brisbane for a very short 1 night stay.

Looking back at Surfers I enjoyed it but without spending a lot of money there isn't much to do other than lay on the beach, it's known for Australia's biggest theme parks but they were very pricey and a fair while out of the city. The night life was suppose to be lively but we never bothered looking because of money. But we enjoyed the beach and was a nice stop in general, another place ticked off the list.

Byron Bay

4th November the day we started east coast, we had a flight from Sydney's domestic airport at around 3pm to Ballina, a very small airport just 30mins from Byron bay, the distance from Sydney to Byron by car or coach was 9hours but the flight was only an hour, so we thought we start our travels with the easier option which only cost us £10 more. It was an extremely windy day and although the flight was short it had the most activity I've ever experienced whilst flighing. The plane was all over the shop and the girl next to me was packing in it LOL. The landing was a little unconvincing too but luckily we arrived safe and sound. We grabbed our bags and jump into a shuttle which would take us to the front door of the hostel.

When we arrived we realised our hostel was slightly out of town, which wasn't ideal, but we quickly found out the hostel had a free shuttle running from 7am to 10pm everyday so getting into town wasn't too much of a problem.

This hostel was to be our first dorm experience so we was hoping to have some decent people in our room, but only to find 4 young German lads who had made the dorm their own and the whole place was upside down, shit absolutely everywhere, food, rubbish all over the floor and to top it off the stink of weed surrounding the room, being optimistic we chucked our stuff on our bunks and began to chat to them, they didn't seem too bad but we soon realised they were very young and we didn't have much in common and we knew sharing a dorm with them would be a problem, so we went back to reception and upgraded to a private room, we was originally staying in Byron for 3 nights but the weather forecast wasn't great so we cancelled one night, which worked out perfect as we only really needed two anyway.

Once we were finally settled in our new room, we freshend up and jump on the hostel shuttle, and met 2 Aussies who were on holiday, they invited us out for dinner but when we got to the resturant we noticed the prices were well out our price range so went and grabbed food from somewhere else, but we still managed to hang out with them as we met back at the hostel and had a few drinks before heading to bed, the girls exchanged numbers and facebooks as we were telling them we might be looking to do farm work soon to gain 2nd year visas and she lived on and near other farms and said they might be able to help us out. 

The first full day came in Byron and we headed into town, we went into a travel shop and booked a 3.5hour surfing lesson for the following day then we headed to the beach, it was a warm day, some cloud but not much and we walked all the way along the beach, we were heading to the lighthouse which boasted the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, after trekking beaches, paths and main roads we reached the lighthouse at the very top, which had views of all Byron bay and surrounding beaches we took a few pictures grabbed a drink then walked back down to the beach, this time we walked through a track in the bush, finding a snake almost straight away, was only little but that obviously don't mean it can't kill you, so we got round it and carried on, and as we did we found 2 men setting up for a paraglide so we stuck around to watch, looked very sketching but once he was up in he air it looked good. By time we got back to the bottom it was time to get back to the hostel freshen up then back out again to pick up a dominoes, $5 Tuesdays (standard)

The 2nd day and our last day in Byron bay arrived and we were going surfing for the first time, which I was proper excited about, Lisa being Lisa had no emotion about it but it didn't take her long to pipe up when she got her first wave lol. Our surfing lesson was with a company called 'black dog surfing' a group of very friendly people. We met at their shop got wetsuits jumped into their bus and headed to their surf spot, we done a few exercises, learnt a few basic about safety etc, then how to get up on the board then headed into the sea for around 2 hours, the majority of it was them pushing us into the waves and we had to try stand up, took me a fair few goes, where as Lisa was up on her 2nd and road the wave all the way to the beach, I soon realised the lower I stayed the easier it was to catch a wave properly myself, then towards the end I manged to grabbed 3 waves myself, was BUZZING! Anyway the  lesson was over and we headed back into Byron, we quickly went back to the hostel to have showers then we needed to be back in town by 6 to catch out greyhound coach to Surfers Paradise.

Sydney and Bondi

As we sit in the departure lounge at Sydney's domestic airport waiting to catch a flight to Byron Bay, I can look back on our first week in Sydney and Australia itself. 

We started the week in the heart of Central Sydney living the hostel lifestyle in place called 'Bounce' which boasts the top spot of all hostels in Sydney. Luckily for us after a long flight then a short train journey from the airport the hostel was right outside Central train station. However we arrived at 9am and check in wasn't until 2pm, which was all we needed after having no sleep on the flight, once we did finally check in our first impressions of the hostel, clean and tidy and our private room was spacious with a big tv and air con so all was good, but we did pay a little under $750 to stay so I woodnt have expected anything different. We unpacked our bags then soon realised how exhausted we were and went to sleep at 2:30pm and woke at 9pm to grab food then straight back to sleep again and didn't wake up until the following day.

The first full day arrived and the weather wasn't great so thought we would head into town and scope it out, we went and got some information from all the big banks to decide on which one we wanted to open and we also grabbed new SIM cards with Aussie numbers. The next few days weren't to different to this first day and due to jet lag and tiredness we spent a lot of time at the hostel. We cooked breakfast and dinner most days in the communal kitchen on the top floor of the hostel which also had an outside rooftop terrace looking into the city, which was a decent setting whilst eating your food. As we were in a private room we didn't really mingle with any other guests at the hostel which we weren't too concern about because most people annoyed us anyway haha, not sure why, and we weren't being snobby but we kind of felt people living in Sydney had abit of a chip on their shoulder. Ah well on the east coast we shall be dorming all our hostels so will give us a better chance to meet people. 

The middle of the week came and we came across a travellers travel and tours agent in the city called 'wicked travel' there we planned our east coast trip and booked the important tours such as the 'The Whitsundays' and 'Fraser Island' as they were the most popular and we run the risk of them becoming fully booked, in total we spend around £650 each on our greyhound coach travel and all our tours, the rest of the destinations we want to visit we will fit around the two tours we've already booked. 

The best day we had in Sydney was the Thursday, we walked down to the 'Circular Quay' and around the harbour and opera house, it was the hottest day so far and I was roasting wearing jeans (amateur) but we grabbed some lunch at the famous 'Opera Bar' and considering everything in oz is suppose to be expensive we had burger and chips for $21 each which at the currenct exchange rate is only £13 and one the biggest tourist attractions in Sydney. After food we took a walk around the 'Royal Botanical Gardens' and laid in the sun for roughly an hour or more then headed round to 'Macquaries Point' to take some scenic pictures of the city. We had been walking all day and it was so hot and we were beginning to get tired so headed back to the hostel.

Friday arrived and it was another nice day, but a little windy. It was our last day in the City and we had seen most of it so took a cheap ferry from the harbour over to 'Manly Beach' first impressions were good a cool little area known for having a good surfers beach and the town was lively we lots of bars, resturants and decent surfer shops, we had a little walk round and sat down the beach then got ripped off for 2 slices of pizza and a drink each started to sink in abit more how expensive it can be in Australia. After we treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt and had a little look around the shops before heading back to the city. 

  That evening we made a cheap dinner then went to our room to repack as the next day we were heading to 'Bondi' to stay with a friend from home, Claire. She has been living in oz for a little under 2 years and agreed to put us up for the weekend.

We checked out of the hostel Saturday morning and headed to Bondi junction train station from Central Sydney where we met Claire, we jumped into a taxi and headed to her apartment, after freshening up we headed out to her friends place for a few drinks as we was heading out to a pre-planned event in 'North Sydney' at the 'Greenwood Hotel' which was holding a Halloween Circo Loco special. Although it was called Greenwood Hotel it wasn't actually a hotel and Claire enlightened us that most bars have hotel in their names but are in no way a hotel. We've been to many Circo Loco events before so thought we may aswell have a go at an Australian one, plus Matthias Tanzmann was headlining which is always a certainty in blowing the roof off, most the Djs were pretty average and I was really disappointed with Francesco Lomabardo's set as she has such good releases out at the moment but her set was fucking boring, that was just my opinion but there were others there clearly enjoying it as I saw one girl really having it, she almost looked like she was enjoying way too much and that maybe she was listening to something else lol, to be honest I think it may have been the drugs she most probably had consumed as it really wasn't that good. But sure enough Tanzmann jumped on and first track was a banger. 

  As our east coast trip was approaching me and Lisa were being very careful with our money and didn't really want to spend too much on drinks, however we still managed to spend 50bucks on 5 drinks, (standard event inflation). We headed back to Bondi early and left everyone and Greenwood and headed down Bondi road for dinner and found a nice little Thai place.

The following day was a day dedicated to exploring Bondi more and Claire really wanted to show us around, to be honest me and Lisa fell in love with the place as soon as we arrived and didn't really need much more persuading but was super excited to get out and enjoy it more, we went to a nice resturant called 'Neighbourhood' where we had quesadilla's and fruit juice then grabbed an ice cream from a new shop that had just opened, it was a roasting hot day and bondi was busy, we headed down to the beach to meet up with Claire's housemate as it as her birthday. We sat in the sun for about and hour then head round the coastal walk and we were lucky enough to be in Bondi during the time that they have sculptures put in place around the coast to walk round, so me Lisa and Claire headed round, the walk was very busy and when we got to the top the wind really picked up, gail forced winds were blowing everyone about the place so we headed back into the town. It was getting later on into the afternoon and we jumped on a bus to meet her housemate who was having a dinner at 'Watson's bay' a boutique hotel, the place was decent and well posh, the resturant and hotel was set on a mini fishing harbour and the back drop was a view of the city, it's known for a good place to watch the fire works on NYE in Sydney's harbour. 

As we were about to start our travels for 4 weeks money was tight and Watson Bay was slightly too pricey so we made our way back to Bondi where me and Lisa had dinner at a local rotisserie resturant called 'The Char' where we had previously had lunch the day before, food in there was so good. Would defo be a regular if we moved to Bondi, big homemade portions, right up my street.

  As the weekend came to an end we chilled at Claire's before catching some Zzzz's as the next day was the start of East Coast... 

Hong Kong and Macau

So we arrived in Hong Kong last Wednesday at 5:30pm-ish local time, into decent warmth which made a biggest difference having been in England 12hrs before. The flight itself wasn't the best managed to get a couple hours sleep but nothing more, flying in economy obviously means no legroom but compared to other airlines we have flown with Virgin was no match, shocking in fact.

Anyway we arrived finally grabbed our bags and went straight for the airport express, a train that would take you to Hong Kong Central in 25mins, from there we took a cab to the hotel where we are sure we were over charged, but being foreigners what can you say. Our hotel was situated on Hong Kong Island, between causeway bay and wan chai MTR, On arrival of the hotel we were greeted by friendly and helpful staff, and the room was decent aswell, 23rd floor over looking 'happy valley race course' and Hong Kong city.

Lisa's brother Pete was traveling the other way from Sydney- London also with a Hong Kong stopover, and was in the city the same time and as his hotel was round the corner he came over for a chat before heading back to his to sleep, me and Lisa were hungry and took to the streets to find some food, being in HK obviously the majority of food sources was chinese, but it isn't like Chinese you get at home, locally their not afraid to advertise more than you need to see on a menu, e.g a cooked chicken with its head still attached, and chicken and goose claws. Avoiding that we opted for honey stewed pork, boiled rice and tap water, which wasn't bad and filled a hole.

Day 1- the first full day came around and myself, Lisa and Pete were heading to Lantau Island home of the the 'The Big Buddha' and the 'Po Lin Monastry' and the best way to experience it was to take a cable car to the island. Not realising booking online in advance would have enabled us a shorter line we had to queue in the standard no ticket line, which took maybe a little less than 2 hours, but once we got on the cable car we had a 15min ride all the way to the island, where we had panoramic views all around, steep climbs and crossings over water. The island itself was peaceful and the Big Buddha really was big. So like most tourist we took 100s of pictures then headed back for the cable car. 

That evening the three of us headed for some Dim Sum a local favorite then headed over to kowloon across the bay to watch the 'Symphony of lights' we travelled across on a 'star ferry' which cost 2.50HK which is only 20p, we stood with all the other locals and tourists on Kowloon's public pier and watched a 15minute light show displayed by all the buildings on Hong Kong island. It was a peaceful setting but wasn't as spectacular as we was led to believe. However the bright lights of the city scape was spectacular and was a highlight of the trip.

Day 2- the 2nd day was here and we based the day around taking a trip to 'the peak' famously known for its views of Hong Kong boasting the highest point on the island. It was only me and Lisa that day as Pete had already been so he spent the day at museums. There is a number of ways you can travel to the top but we went for the popular tram ride that felt almost like a rollercoaster as we started heading uphill. It was that steep Lisa was complaining her spine was digging into the seat. Once we reached the top we headed inside the 'Sky Tower' and to the very top where we was welcomed by sick views of the whole city. We spent around 30mins taking in the sites and taking pictures then went for some lunch. We had abit of a treat as there was a 'Bubba Gumps Shrimp company' resturant just one floor below the top and we had window table so was able to carry on enjoying the views over Hong Kong. 

After we got back to level ground me and lisa spent the rest of the afternoon walking roung HK park, which had its own bird aviary, we spent abit of time in there then sat around the lakes in the centre. 

We then headed back to the hotel where we met Pete for a final catch up before he had to fly home.

 Once we said our goodbyes pete left and we headed into the city to take an MTR to Kowloon and upto Jordan to visit the 'Temple Street Market' famously known for haggling and buying fake knock off gifts. After walking half of it we soon realised that most the stalls were selling the same thing, iphone cases and shit paintings. We carried on walking to the end then got the MTR back to central on hk island. When we got back we walked to the well known 'escalator' which takes you all the way from central to Soho. As it was a friday night it was filled with many workers grabbing a drink after their shift and there seemed to be more westerners than anyone else. It's almost felt like a bar street that you find in popular European holiday places. We found a bar selling Rekorderlig and went straight in (gotta love a strawberry and lime cider)

Day 3- On the 3rd day we woke up very late, i turnt the alarm off around 10ish then woke up at 2pm lol. However the day was dedicated to a day trip in Macau which is famously known for being China's Vegas. The only real transport available is the TurboJet ferry which cost us about £50 each return and we departed that from 'Sheung Wan' which is at one end of the island line MTR. The journey itself was only 55mins so we were in Macau within no time. 

Upon arrival we found that all the casino hotels had free shuttle buses that would take you to and from all of them. But me and Lisa took the no.32 bus first that took us to Macau tower, we got inside and headed for the ticket desk, but once we got there Lisa started complaining she was hungry so we aborted that and got a bus back to the centre. There we found a pizzahut a decent change to what we had been eating. Once we were full up we started walking to and from all the casinos and dabbled in abit of gambling on the slots in the 'Grand Lisboa', 'Wynn' and the 'MGM' we won fuck all but only gambled 60HKD which is only around £5 haha. When i think now was hardly even worth gambling. Anyway time was getting on and we grab the free MGM shuttle and went back to the ferry terminal. We arrived back at the hotel in HK at about 12midnight, and i had arranged with the famalan to skype and we spent about 30mins catching up and it was nice to see all their faces :)

So now its Sunday and im sat in a pizza express in HK international airport writing this post looking out onto the landing strip and parked planes. We spent our last hours in HK with a walk to 'Victoria Park' but when we got there it was rammed with some sort of fair so didnt bother to stay long, we headed back to the hotel and got a cab straight to HK station to catch the airport express. 

Looking back at the 4nights we stayed, I would safely say I really enjoyed HK e.g. taking in views of HK Island at night, the Big Buddha and the peak but there were some things that started to grind on me, like most asian countries the locals enjoy street food, and in HK it seemed every corner had a food stall, and each one was cooking the same things so the smell of it started to really get to me and everytime i walked past i had to cover my nose with my tshirt as i always thought i was going to throw-up. Fuck knows what they were even cooking but it looked rank! Another thing was that some Chinese people have terrible habits and would publically pick their noses and wipe it anywhere they can hahaha! They also ate food hurrendously and alot of men like to 'hawk' which is basically bringing up flem, there was even signs in central saying "no hawking" But for me that was as far as the negatives got and the positives most defiantly over weighed them. 

So now with an hour before we board our next flight for Sydney i am extremely looking forward to a new place where of course we shall be spending a year travelling and working. CAN'T WAIT!!

The Trip

22nd October of this year is 'GO TIME' we depart Heathrow on a virgin Atlantic flight at 1030pm to our first destination.

Obviously London to Sydney is a long flight so usual includes a stop over, and our preferred stop is Hong Kong where we are going to be spending 5days 4nights, we also will get a chance to see Lisa's bro whos being living in Sydney for the last year so we shall be crossing paths in Hong Kong.

From Hong Kong we shall depart for our 2nd leg to Sydney!! 

Once we have arrived in Sydney we have exactly one week to get our bearings of the place, (if thats even possible in one week). It will also give us a chance to sort a few things out e.g new Australian mobile number, and bank accounts.

Then some serious exploring starts- we will be spending 6-7 weeks traveling the East coast, heading all the way north to Cairns. 

INTRODUCTION

EASYYYY!!

A little introduction to my Blog!!

About to embark on a journey of a lifetime with my girlfriend Lisa, Where we shall be traveling to Australia to explore, work and live. We plan to be away for a minimum of 1 year so i have decided to start a blog to share our journey and experiences.

I will also be blogging about my key interests in life and along the way, Hope you enjoy!

PEACE