Farewell to the Southern Cross...
And all the other friends we made Down Under.
Photos to follow.
I write this entry from an internet cafe in Hong Kong after a crazy week or so. The goodbyes that started on my final day at work continued through the next week or so... bye bye to Abs who helped me so much whilst I was there, bye bye to Jane who I was chuffed to get back in touch with, an extended bye-bye to Hayley and Meg via Longrain, the open air cinema and a crazy drunken Irish pub and then finally bye-bye to our chums Matt and Elena at the infamous Hurricane's in Bondi.
During all that we also managed to fit in a trip to Ayers Rock/Olgas/Kings Canyon which was fab - hello to the gang from there! Uluru itself was not as mind-blowing as I thought - it was so hot (43 degrees) when we were walking round it and we had to wear fly nets as the little blighters were driving us mad. But it was well worth the trip. We camped for 2 nights in swags, which are like a cross between a sleeping bag, a mattress and a tent. You sleep out in the open in real comfort under the stars - once I woke up in the middle of the night one night with the Southern Cross twinkling down at me. The first night we drank champers whilst watching sunset over Uluru (but it was cloudy so it didn't turn red for us). Next morning we were up at 4am to reach the viewing area for sunrise before skipping off to the Olgas for a brisk 7.5km walk in the baking heat. It was lovely but I was soooooo glad to reach the loos after the amount we'd been drinking (it's a sacred site so they ask you not to pee but it was a 3 hour walk and you were advised to drink 1L of water per hour to combat dehydration!) Camp that evening was fab - really remote with a loo with no door so you could look at the stars. Pete volunteered to eat a witchety grub that our guide had dug up earlier - I would have but there wasn't enough to go round (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Apparently it tasted like nutty scrambled eggs. Another 4am start enabled us to hike in Kings Canyon when it was still cool enought to do it. We finished up in Alice Springs where we were going to grab an early night but that idea was thwarted as we were having too much fun in the pub with the guys we'd met on the trip.
Needless to say we were exhausted when we got back to Sydney but still ended up going out as we couldn't leave without saying goodbye to our Sydney chums.
Friends have been a theme for me during my travels Down Under, both making new ones (Matt and El - Sydney just would not have been the same without you, and Rich, Rach and Jon - Team Ernie made the West Coast just so fab it hurts) and being shown by my old ones how much they care (how many presents and cards did I get for my 30th? And the funding from friends back home for meals and trips was so lovely). But getting to talk to some friends who I'd lost touch with was definitely a highlight of my year as it upsets me when someone you've loved so much is no longer a part of your life. I never knew why Jane and I had lost touch but who cares? Meeting up in Sydney was like we never had and I was chuffed with that as she's so much a gem and so much fun. I still think you should not live so far away Jane, as I won't get to make the most of us being mates again! As for Hayley, even when we didn't speak I knew that you were one of the best friends I ever had and getting to spend time with you and Meg and really getting back to how we used to be was worth the trip in itself.
So, enough of the mushy stuff. Apart from the friends theme, what were my highlights for the trip so far? Fiordland in NZ - the walks blew me away. Buying Tinks and driving out of Sydney with Gnarls Barkley playing. Seeing platypus in the wild. Were-cow laughter with Jane in Tinks. Moreton Bay bugs and chips at Swordfish in Cairns. The deckchair cinemas in Darwin and Broome. My 30th birthday with a great group of friends in the outback. The turtle on the snorkle drift at Ningaloo (and all of the rest of Ningaloo). The road trip with Team Ernie. Pizza at Caffe Carlotta in Broome. Christmas Eve at the Stokehouse with Pete's mam and Stewart. Fab Chinese at Billy Kwong. Numerous nights in Trinity with Matt and El plus the brunches in Surry Hills the morning after. Getting the Manly Ferry. Swimming in the Olympic Pool under the Harbour Bridge. Looking up at the stars in the southern night sky from any number of places whilst on the road. And Tinks, Tinks, Tinks.
It's been a good 10 months.
Now we've stepped it up a gear and have started our Asian adventure. Suitably hungover and after hair-drying our clothes that weren't dry from the laundry the night before we flew out of Sydney to Hong Kong. During our 3-hour stop-over in Bangkok we managed to fit in a foot massage for me and a Chang beer for Pete. Then we arrived in Hong Kong late Saturday night tired and looking forward to bed. We arrived at the hostel we had reserved around 1am only to be told in broken English that there was no room and we were to return to the deserted street to await the arrival of a woman from another hostel. The room was OK in the new hostel but when we tried to book it for 3 nights we were told that we would be required to vacate it between 10am and 6pm as it was rented out by the hour during the day. Urgh! It took me quite a while to twig as to why a room would be rented out during the day and not during the night. Needless to say we only stayed one night out of necessity. We went to bed exhausted and stressed and I woke up tired and a little jaded - Hong Kong was supposed to be the soft-entry into China! After a shower, a move to the original hostel and a phonecall from Steven, a family friend who is Chinese and lives here I felt much better. Steven, his wife Moni and their friend Mary picked us up late morning and whisked us off to the New Territories where we were welcomed into Albert's house and spoilt. I tried my hardest to learn how to play mah-jong. Albert treated us to traditional Cantonese dim-sum at a restaurant and then took us to a temple where we span the wheel of fortune for good luck. Then I tried again to learn mah-jong whilst Pete got an ankle massage from the grandma of Albert's family (as he's sprained his ankle and is limping - we're off to Steven's hospital this afternoon to get it checked). By the time we got home we were exhausted again but chuffed that we'd already seen more of real Hong Kong in a day with Steven and Moni than we could ever have done on our own in a week.
Our plans? Well, we were going to head off somewhere in Hong Kong this week and then return for the Chinese New Year festivities at the weekend but as we've just handed over our passport to a visa agency we're going to have to stay put as we won't be able to check into any other hotel without it. So we're going to do some day tours (up the peak, Lantau island etc), spend more time with Steven and the family and enjoy the parades and flower markets next weekend for the New Year. Then we head off into China in search of adventure.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg! It's going to be mad. But bloody brilliant!
Photos to follow.
I write this entry from an internet cafe in Hong Kong after a crazy week or so. The goodbyes that started on my final day at work continued through the next week or so... bye bye to Abs who helped me so much whilst I was there, bye bye to Jane who I was chuffed to get back in touch with, an extended bye-bye to Hayley and Meg via Longrain, the open air cinema and a crazy drunken Irish pub and then finally bye-bye to our chums Matt and Elena at the infamous Hurricane's in Bondi.
During all that we also managed to fit in a trip to Ayers Rock/Olgas/Kings Canyon which was fab - hello to the gang from there! Uluru itself was not as mind-blowing as I thought - it was so hot (43 degrees) when we were walking round it and we had to wear fly nets as the little blighters were driving us mad. But it was well worth the trip. We camped for 2 nights in swags, which are like a cross between a sleeping bag, a mattress and a tent. You sleep out in the open in real comfort under the stars - once I woke up in the middle of the night one night with the Southern Cross twinkling down at me. The first night we drank champers whilst watching sunset over Uluru (but it was cloudy so it didn't turn red for us). Next morning we were up at 4am to reach the viewing area for sunrise before skipping off to the Olgas for a brisk 7.5km walk in the baking heat. It was lovely but I was soooooo glad to reach the loos after the amount we'd been drinking (it's a sacred site so they ask you not to pee but it was a 3 hour walk and you were advised to drink 1L of water per hour to combat dehydration!) Camp that evening was fab - really remote with a loo with no door so you could look at the stars. Pete volunteered to eat a witchety grub that our guide had dug up earlier - I would have but there wasn't enough to go round (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Apparently it tasted like nutty scrambled eggs. Another 4am start enabled us to hike in Kings Canyon when it was still cool enought to do it. We finished up in Alice Springs where we were going to grab an early night but that idea was thwarted as we were having too much fun in the pub with the guys we'd met on the trip.
Needless to say we were exhausted when we got back to Sydney but still ended up going out as we couldn't leave without saying goodbye to our Sydney chums.
Friends have been a theme for me during my travels Down Under, both making new ones (Matt and El - Sydney just would not have been the same without you, and Rich, Rach and Jon - Team Ernie made the West Coast just so fab it hurts) and being shown by my old ones how much they care (how many presents and cards did I get for my 30th? And the funding from friends back home for meals and trips was so lovely). But getting to talk to some friends who I'd lost touch with was definitely a highlight of my year as it upsets me when someone you've loved so much is no longer a part of your life. I never knew why Jane and I had lost touch but who cares? Meeting up in Sydney was like we never had and I was chuffed with that as she's so much a gem and so much fun. I still think you should not live so far away Jane, as I won't get to make the most of us being mates again! As for Hayley, even when we didn't speak I knew that you were one of the best friends I ever had and getting to spend time with you and Meg and really getting back to how we used to be was worth the trip in itself.
So, enough of the mushy stuff. Apart from the friends theme, what were my highlights for the trip so far? Fiordland in NZ - the walks blew me away. Buying Tinks and driving out of Sydney with Gnarls Barkley playing. Seeing platypus in the wild. Were-cow laughter with Jane in Tinks. Moreton Bay bugs and chips at Swordfish in Cairns. The deckchair cinemas in Darwin and Broome. My 30th birthday with a great group of friends in the outback. The turtle on the snorkle drift at Ningaloo (and all of the rest of Ningaloo). The road trip with Team Ernie. Pizza at Caffe Carlotta in Broome. Christmas Eve at the Stokehouse with Pete's mam and Stewart. Fab Chinese at Billy Kwong. Numerous nights in Trinity with Matt and El plus the brunches in Surry Hills the morning after. Getting the Manly Ferry. Swimming in the Olympic Pool under the Harbour Bridge. Looking up at the stars in the southern night sky from any number of places whilst on the road. And Tinks, Tinks, Tinks.
It's been a good 10 months.
Now we've stepped it up a gear and have started our Asian adventure. Suitably hungover and after hair-drying our clothes that weren't dry from the laundry the night before we flew out of Sydney to Hong Kong. During our 3-hour stop-over in Bangkok we managed to fit in a foot massage for me and a Chang beer for Pete. Then we arrived in Hong Kong late Saturday night tired and looking forward to bed. We arrived at the hostel we had reserved around 1am only to be told in broken English that there was no room and we were to return to the deserted street to await the arrival of a woman from another hostel. The room was OK in the new hostel but when we tried to book it for 3 nights we were told that we would be required to vacate it between 10am and 6pm as it was rented out by the hour during the day. Urgh! It took me quite a while to twig as to why a room would be rented out during the day and not during the night. Needless to say we only stayed one night out of necessity. We went to bed exhausted and stressed and I woke up tired and a little jaded - Hong Kong was supposed to be the soft-entry into China! After a shower, a move to the original hostel and a phonecall from Steven, a family friend who is Chinese and lives here I felt much better. Steven, his wife Moni and their friend Mary picked us up late morning and whisked us off to the New Territories where we were welcomed into Albert's house and spoilt. I tried my hardest to learn how to play mah-jong. Albert treated us to traditional Cantonese dim-sum at a restaurant and then took us to a temple where we span the wheel of fortune for good luck. Then I tried again to learn mah-jong whilst Pete got an ankle massage from the grandma of Albert's family (as he's sprained his ankle and is limping - we're off to Steven's hospital this afternoon to get it checked). By the time we got home we were exhausted again but chuffed that we'd already seen more of real Hong Kong in a day with Steven and Moni than we could ever have done on our own in a week.
Our plans? Well, we were going to head off somewhere in Hong Kong this week and then return for the Chinese New Year festivities at the weekend but as we've just handed over our passport to a visa agency we're going to have to stay put as we won't be able to check into any other hotel without it. So we're going to do some day tours (up the peak, Lantau island etc), spend more time with Steven and the family and enjoy the parades and flower markets next weekend for the New Year. Then we head off into China in search of adventure.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg! It's going to be mad. But bloody brilliant!
posted by Faye @ 5:28 am
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