Where have all the pictures 'gawn?

I have cancelled my Smugmug photo account, so thats why there aren't any pictures on here anymore. I'll have to find some new webspace to upload them to, or upload them from my computer onto this here blogger, but I won't quite do it now, I'll do it when I can be assed, and have some spare timey time.

x

Hometime

So being in Hong Kong kind of put off me thinking about coming home. I was occupied with stuff to see and things to learn from my uncle and auntie, the culture, Chinese food, their way of life. Even though I spent a lot of time walking and travelling around Hong Kong by myself I still didn't think about the flight home and eventually landing back in sunny old England as there was so much to see...

So on Friday evening I stayed awake all night to catch a 4.30am bus to the airport. My backpack was as heavy as ever, as it contained a litre bottle of Tanqueray gin from Cairns airport (picked up for a lovely price of about £7.50!) and a collection of Chinese dried mushrooms and funny dry food that my Mum wanted bringing over. Just before my back gave way I made it to check-in just on time. I also at this point realised that I had left my phone at my uncles flat. Great. Lost all my numbers as well as a phone that has been faithful to me in 2 years, despite me having taken it into the sea and dropping it all over the place. I'm hoping I can get this sent over to me!...

Hong Kong airport, now, I know its just an 'airport', but of all I've seen, which is a fair few, its pretty good. Its huge, spotless, everything is well signposted and there are loads of restaurants, big sofas, plasma screen televisions and coffee shops, internet terminals and cashpoints. No fiddling around with maps looking for stuff, it makes every other airport (especially British ones) look like decrepid bus shelters. I had breakfast at Burger King (not much else open at 6.30am), and watched a bit of news whilst having a filter coffee in a desperate attempt from stopping me from falling asleep in the middle of the airport.

We boarded the plane early, I didn't have a choice of seat (window or aisle) so I got stuck between an old lady from Melbourne who now lives in Wolverhampton, and a couple of Chinese teens who didn't say a single word throughout the whole flight.. Which, by the way, was a mega 12 and a half hours.... The entertainment (and food too) seems to have come leaps and bounds since I last had a long haul flight. You get several films to watch, loads of tv shows and documentaries, music cds, radio shows and games to play with. You can pause everything, fast-forward or rewind them, and best of all, watch what you want, when you want. The coffee I had earlier from B.K. soon wore off after breakfast on the plane, and I nodded off fairly quickly. Felt quite sad to leave Hong Kong, but it was difficult to be there by myself sometimes, its kind of a place that would be good to travel along with someone else. I started thinking about Australia again, listening to music that reminded me of the places I'd been to or people I'd met.

We landed in Heathrow in good time, I thought it'd take ages to get through customs after all that kerfuffle with the planes and the bombs and whatnot, but I was pretty much straight through and only had to wait for my bag. Got confused at the National Express coach office, as the ticket I booked said my coach was at 2.30pm, but when I got there the guy told me the coach was at 1.55pm! With the time being 2.05pm I started to panic a little, but for once I was thankful that British transport wasn't on time for once and the coach rolled up a few minutes later. The bus driver was an arrogant and grumpy little man, I felt so glad to be back in England, especially when we were held up quite a bit on the motorways (good old roadworks) and it also started to rain on the journey up.. Great... Managed to sit next to a nice lass from Nottingham though so conversation up to Leicester was good which made a change from the boring people I always seem to sit next to. Sarah came to meet me at the bus station and it was strange to see her after so long!

Gotta say, after walking around Leicester a little bit, and also going back home to Melton for a night, everything really is the same. I'm always after a little bit of gossip as well from my friends, but, alas, it seems no-one has much to say! So yes, its shit to be back, but as it seems the attitude of the chavs and locals around here hasn't changed, if anything, its gotten worse. There is far too much atmosphere around and I don't know what or why it is! Can't people just relax a little and not want to pick a fight with anyone they see on the street... Seems not. The weather hasn't been too bad, its not that cold, and its nice to be back home, also lovely of course to see some of my friends and family after so long, but yes, the leary culture of England is really a slap in the face after being in places where everyone is much more friendly.

So, thats it. Whats my plan? Just gotta work a lot, save up some cash, pay off my debts, save up some more and probably go travelling again. I've had a great time, met loads of cool people and learnt so much outside of England. Going away has been, without a shadow of a doubt, the best thing I have done. Even though its financially crippled me, and I've travelled well over 45,000km (just by plane) its been great. Really. If you could sell up shop tomorrow and go, just do it. You won't regret it...

So, this is it I guess!

Love,

Steve.

Hong Kong

So, I've left Australia... Bit gutted about it really. Can't describe how I feel really, I've left a wonderful country and left behind a shitload of cool people that I may never ever see again. Staring out of the window on my flights didn't help, beautiful beaches, the Great Barrier Reef and amazing and diverse countryside making me feel pretty shitty about finally leaving Oz after almost a year.... Well, I finished off the east coast on Sunday evening and got a bit wasted in the Woolshed (surprise surprise)... Enjoyed a couple of easy nights in Cairns with Tai before setting off to Cairns airport at 4.30am. My first flight was down to Sydney, and 3 hours later I was back onto another plane bound for Hong Kong. Another 8 1/2 hours passed and I touched down in H.K. Was dark when I got here so I got straight on a bus to come and meet my Great Uncle who lives in Tai Po (an hour north by bus of the main city). Enjoyed a lovely Chinese meal of course cooked in-house, and now I'm shattered and need bed. I've been awake since 4am been travelling for about 18 hours...

Hong Kong is 7 hours ahead of the U.K., and 2 hours behind Australia. My phone doesn't work here, there is supposed to be a Vodafone carrier here but my phone doesn't work at all, so I probably won't be able to use it again until I get home on Saturday.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day of me wandering around completely clueless on the streets of busy Hong Kong City, so I need to get some shuteye.

Steve.

x

Fraser, Kroombit and Whitsunday Islands

Hervey Bay was the next stop; its the main place where you can access Fraser Island, which is the worlds largest sand island. I did a 3 day/2 night 4WD camping trip thing with several other random people from this hostel. Hervey Bay itself is a bit of a shit place, although its nowhere near as bad as Alice Springs I guess. There is a huge stretch of beach here and to be fair to it, it probably looks better around here when its not so windy and with less cloudage in the sky.

So anyway, Fraser Island was amazing. I've uploaded all my pics, they are featured on the main page of my photo gallery, the link of which is on the right, so go and look in awe.

After returning from Fraser Island, I spent a night in Hervey Bay before catching the Oz bus up to Kroombit, a cattle station near Rockhampton. Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia (I think) and we learnt how to crack a whip properly, catch, brand (thou not with a real hot poker of course it was just a cold one!) and milk goats in the rodeo! It was a bit strange but hey it was interesting to 'get involved'..... Also rode the mechanical bull and I didn't come off straight away. Go me.... I have a couple of videos of me on it and they are quite funny, when I upload them I shall post them here.

After Kroombit, erm, we went and played some lawn bowls in the afternoon on our way to Airlie Beach. Can't say I was keen on playing lawn bowls but it was actually quite good. Pretty skillful game I think.... Well after a mediocre performance from all us newbies, we headed up to Airlie Beach which is the town next to the Whitsunday Islands. Tai came down from Port Douglas and we were booked onto a 'Maxi Sailing' boat called the "Condor"

This boat was built in 1981 and has won every major racing competition in the world twice, thou she retired in the 90's I think she is still pretty quick I'm told! From the pics (again on the main page of my SmugMug front page) you can see how far the boat tilts when we are sailing... We did a 2 day 2 night trip although it was more like 1 full day and 2 nights, and did a bit of snorkelling and went to Whitehaven Beach (one of the top ten beaches in the world) Didn't do much else which was a bit disappointing, no hiking or bushwalking on the islands but the food was good and it was nice to get involved with the sailing side of things.

When we got back from the Whitsunday Islands, it was then off to Townsville which is the port for Magnetic Island. Magnetic has some lush beaches and you can do some diving from here amongst other stuff, but I threw a wobbley when we got to Magnetic and the next day the weather was awful so I didn't do anything on Magnetic at all!!! Oh well....

Next day we headed north from Townsville up to Mission Beach, which really is just a little beach with a few places to stay and a tiny town. Although I had a lovely serve of Kangaroo steaks at Scotty's hostel. Again the weather was rubbish so I didn't even go to see the beach properly!

Next up; our BBQ at a lake in the Atherton Tablelands and Millaa Millaa Falls, followed by a return to Cairns after our sad last day of the Oz bus! But this can all come another time!

Countryside, Surfing, and Bad Weather in Byron

Ok, so I've left Sydney, we stayed over at a place called 'Barrington Top's for the first night. Ate pizza and relaxed in a hot tub outside with a few drinks... It was in the middle of nowhere, felt great to be there after a few days in a busy city.

Next day, up to Surf Camp where we'd learn to be awesome surfers at the 'Mojo Surf Camp', its in a place called Arrawarra(?) just above Coffs Harbour; (home of the 'Big Banana'). We did some evening surfing and although I was brimming with confidence I couldn't manage more than a second or two of standing up. Its a lot more difficult than it looks and its all about technique! Many a time I crashed out underwater!! Feeling quite gutted at the end of the session just before dusk, I hit the beers along with everyone else and just sat around a campfire after dinner.

The next morning we got to go surfing at 8am, high tide was at about 9am and the water was so far up the beach, well, there wasn't really any beach left! With more frustration I kept getting swept off the board! The waves were harder to judge than the evening before, but in the end I did manage to stand up! Wa-hey! Several more tiny mistakes later, I got the hang of it and managed to stay on the board until the shore a couple of times. Its such a cool feeling and despite being pretty tired and full of salt water I just wanted more and more of it!

After drying off and packing up we set off for Byron Bay (driving past the 'Big Shrimp' on the way too). I'd only heard great things about this laid-back little seafront town, but that evening after a quick walk and tour of the little town the weather started to get a bit crummy.... A disappointing night on the piss (place was full of locals and hardly any backpackers in sight!) and the next morning I was (typically) in a bad state of hangovers! The weather hasn't gotten any better (rain and cloud!!!) so there is NOTHING to do here as the only things you can do (surf, lie on the beach, go for walks) you can't, because of the weather!!!

Spent a few days in Brisbane with a couple of brothers I met on the Oz bus (or BrisVegas as its locally known!) and we spent a few days eating a lot and generally getting stuck into a fair share of cider... Not much else to do in Brisbane really. Weather was getting slowly better.... Heres hoping for good weather further up north.

Steve Irwin has died!

I just got a text from my friend Tai who is still up in Port Douglas... The legendary Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin got stung today whilst diving off the coast, at would you believe it, Port Douglas. Crikey!

More of it here: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/09/04/1157222051494.html?from=top5

R.I.P. Steve Irwin.

Return to Sydney

So I haven't done much in Melbourne, although today we went for a nice lunch (again?!) and had a look at a little bit of artwork in shop random shop nearby. Last night I met up with Sara & Stuart whom I met in Port Douglas, they've been to New Zealand and randomly are in Melbourne staying with Stuart's 'sis before they fly out to travel Asia. So we met up for a drink and a good little chat. I missed the last tram back into the main city centre so I had to walk home. Unfortunately I took a trip to Hungry Jacks for food. Blergh!!!

In a few hours I'll be back in Sydney, although I do want to spend longer in Melbourne, its such a cool place full of nice people but I have to get a move on. Will be meeting up with the old flatmates Karine & Jess, I can foresee a messy night in Darling Harbour occurring and maybe a trip to the old 'local' bar; Pyrmont Bridge Hotel (24 hour pub, such a dive but you just can't resist a bar that's open 24/7)

Will stay in Sydney for a few days to see old friends from when I last spent several months there working, also will finally take a trip to the Botanical Gardens and take some nice photos. Hoping the good weather follows me when I land in New South Wales.

Again, haven't time to upload any photos onto this space, all apologies!

Lots of love, have a nice weekend,

Stevie.

x