RTW with Mike: May 2006

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Brunei Brookes

Greetings again!
I'm back in Malaysia again, but more of that later.

When I last emailed, I had just arrived in Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. Brunei is in some ways a curious country. It once controlled the whole of Borneo and the Phillipines, then gradually retrenched, the southern part of Borneo becoming part of what is now Indonesia, while Sarawak was ceded to James Brooke (followed by his son Charles), the white Rajah and Sabah became British North Borneo. As a result, Brunei lost according to the old criteria, land, but became a winner in modern times as small country and population plus plenty of oil equals lots of money for everyone, but especially the Sultan of Brunei. Brunei was for a long time a British protectorate, and only gained full independence in 1984. It stayed out of Malaysia to keep it's oil wealth to itself! It is a Malay Islamic Monarchy (i.e. not a democracy), with the Sultan having the final say (one man one vote!). He is quite probably the world's richest man, but seems genuinely popular with his subjects. The excellent Royal Regalia museum, has hundreds of photos of him, in all sorts of dress, traditional, religious, business suit, military, casual, sports...it also has the royal procession carriages, and a selection of the gifts which various dignatories have given him, I thought the crystal vase 'from' our Queen was a bit dull, the Vietnamese give much better presents!

One final comment on the Sultan, is that he came to power in 1967 after his father abdicated. How Prince Charles must envy him...

Brunei has a reputation for being a bit dull. This is certainly true in the evening, not helped by the buses shutting down at 6pm, and the rarity of taxis, forcing you to stay in one area, if you don't have a car. And...being a strict Islamic country....there's no alcohol! This isn't the first time I've been on the soft drinks on this trip, as I went dry for the first week I spent in Malaysia (for health reasons not cultural ones), but this time I had no choice. As the soft drinks in this part of the world seem to be stuffed with sugar or full cream milk, I think beer might be the healthier option!

Brunei does have it's attractions though. Firstly, it has some splendid mosques, when money is no object, you can build some grand buildings. The nighttime shots are of the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, the daytime shots are of the stunning Jame 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=802dscd.jpg&.src=ph
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=b75fscd.jpg&.src=ph
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=ab42scd.jpg&.src=ph
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=b0e3scd.jpg&.src=ph

Secondly, Kampung Ayer is an extraordinary water vilage right in the middle of the city, where 20000 people live in wooden stilt houses over the river, in self contained communities. The country could easily afford to rehouse them, but the people genuinely enjoy the sense of community living here, and they are continuing a tradition that has lasted for hundreds of years - the houses have electricity and running water, though you wouldn't want to fall off the connecting gangways, as the water below is a bit dubious!
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=55d7scd.jpg&.src=ph
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=7864scd.jpg&.src=ph

Finally, Brunei is a very green country. 70% of it is tropical rain forest, and unlike in the rest of the region, it's undisturbed and entirely protected - with all the oil money there's no need to plant the dreaded palm oil plantations. For example, after a 20 minute boat ride from the capital, you can see mangrove swamps with the very rare proboscis monkeys. I didn't get a decent picture, so include the attached to show what they look like. With their large noses and 'beer guts' the local people used to call them Dutchmen! The second picture is just a nice shot of the river.
http://www.jeannieshouse.com/jungle/monkeys/proboscis.jpg
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2586scd&.dnm=64aascd.jpg&.src=ph

If you have a stopover in Brunei, it is a good place to explore wild rainforest and see longhouses. As I'd already done this is Sarawak, I settled for the short stroll to Tasek Lama. The park was pleasant, if undemanding, so my eyes were attracted by a sign indicating a jungle track. This led up a steepish path to a ridge with a nice view back to the city. There a path indicated a 1.5 km walk back to civilisation, which seemed ok...suffice to say, the steps down to the bottom were steep and tricky (there was a rope to hold on to luckily), and instead of continuing along the valley, the path immediately went back up again! The steps were steep, or a scramble (I used the rope to pull myself up), it was baking hot, I was running a bit low on the carbs front...and just when I couldn't feel any more tired, a group of runners came bounding down this same hill, like mountain goats, just to rub it in! My thigh muscles ached for days after this extertion!

Moving on again, I took a short flight to Kota Kinabalu (KK), the capital of Sabah, the other Malaysian state on Borneo. A short flight (the plane is only in the air 20 minutes!) but one that saves a lot of time over a long and difficult water and road journey, or at least it would have down if the plane hadn't been 2 hours late! Incidentally, on Royal Brunei airlines, you get a prayer to Allah before takeoff, and are kept informed throughout the journey where Mecca is.

One curio about Brunei, is that it's population is majority Malay, whereas in neighbouring Sarawak and Sabah, in Malaysia, the Malays are in the minority! KK has an interesting mix of native people plus many Filipinos, which explains it's lively atmosphere, with lots of bars and restaurants. It also has more beggars than elsewhere in Borneo, and more tourists, I'm not sure why it has more younger western tourists than elsewhere in Borneo. It was nice to have a beer again. Malaysian beer tends to be quite strong, normal lagers are 5%, while the Guinness here is the 8% (and rather pleasant) Foreign Extra stout! Carlsberg also do quite a tasty 8% stout, and you can also get their special brew! It brought back memories of student days...

KK is famous for it's seafood restaurants, so naturally I had to visit one. Walking in you face a wall of fish tanks, full of fish and shellfish all presumably trying to look as inedible as possible! I picked a Tilapia, but didn't choose my fish, as they all looked the same, and I didn't want to see the coup de grace!

From KK I visited one final National Park, but as this was a small island, barely 3km long, it wasn't one of the more strenuous trips I've made (the beach wasn't bad though, if a bit pokey).

And so I left Borneo. Not in my original plans, but I'm glad I went there. I hope the conservatists win the battles against those who want to replace irreplaceable rainforest with palm oil plantations, but I'm not confident, especially in the little visited Indonesian area. On a lighter note, a couple of musical references. In Miri, amongst the numerous hair dressing salons was one called Haircut 100 - I would have paid a visit, but couldn't find my favourite shirt!... And on a long coach ride, the radio was tuned into Muzik FM - I knew this due to the prerecorded voice that went "Hi, I'm Craig David, and you're listening to Muzik FM!". Thanks Craig!

Back on Malaysian mainland, I flew into Johor Bharu, a dull city right at the base of Malaysia, across the causeway from Singapore. Johor was even duller for me, as the cheap 'convenient for the business district' hotel I booked was in fact 10km outside of town in a suburb! Good food though, and a surprisingly gripping (and interminable) giant game of snakes and ladders in the nearby shopping mall - 3 children were still playing when (bed)time was called at 9:30!

I had planned to pop into Singapore for a day trip, so the next day I made my way across the causeway (annoyingly Singapore and Malaysian immigration are at opposite ends) and caught an express bus into Singapore. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it was nice to be reunited with controlled traffic, proper pavements and clean toilets again! High speed internet is a bonus too, so I uploaded lots of photos (as per my previous email). A final Brunei curio, is that it's currency is tied to the Singapore Dollar, so all day I was using leftover Brunei notes and coins!

I made my way back that evening (having gained 4 extra stamps in my passport) and had a quick stroll in Johor proper to see what it was like. Well, I quickly found the prostitutes and transvestites...border towns always cater for 'cross border visitors'! Not me, I hasten to add ;-)

And so I moved on to my current location Penang - my overland adventure in Asia has ended up 30000ft overland for much of the time! Flights are very cheap here, thanks to Air Asia, the Ryanair/Easyjet of SE Asia. Incidentally, Air Asia are the "Official low cost airline of Manchester United" - handy for the fans on the Stretford End....

Mike

Photo Update

Monday, May 15, 2006

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

...The Conway sleeps tonight (before being woken up by a cockerel at 3am, and without the falsetto voice for those of you who remember Tight Fit)

Greetings from Bandar Seri Begawan, which you'll all know is the capital of Brunei. Ok, I didn't either, but remember it for the next quiz night.

When I last wrote, I was in Kuching, capital of Malaysian Sarawak in Borneo. Kuching is a nice place, but merely a stepping stone for trips into the rainforest, to see wildlife and longhouses. My plan, on arrival, was to book an overnight trip to see an Iban longhouse, but this didn't seem to be working out, so I booked a day trip to see a nearer Bidayuh one instead.

I was picked up early in the morning in a rusty old Mercedes Diesel, which looked like it had been rescued from the scrapheap just seconds before the crusher! Our first stop was the Semenggoh orangutan rehabilitation centre, where orangutan, previously held in captivity are trained to be wild animals and released in the forest. At feeding times they may or may not come back, the tourists want several to come back, the naturalists want none, as this will show the animals are finding their own food. That day we saw one, it was great seeing such a special creature in it's natural environment, seeing it swinging in the trees was very exciting! The next stop was a crocodile farm, seeing the big salties is an exciting sight at feeding time.

From here, we travelled south to near the Indonesian border, to visit a Bidayuh longhouse. The longhouse was of fairly traditional design, but fairly empty, as many people work in Kuching now, only an hour or so away by road. I got to sample some of the local rice wine and whisky, which was interesting...A sign of how things are changing was the satellite dish I saw on one of the buildings, I'm sure they all gather round to watch the Premier League.

That evening, I returned after dinner to find a message from one of the tour companies saying they had an Iban tour running the next day. Suffice to say I accepted late at night, and was packing some stuff at midnight!

We set off the next day, just the 3 of us (myself and a dutch couple). We started with another visit to the Semenggoh orangutans, but this time saw the pre-feeding time feeding, where several animals came down including a mother and baby. Several cute pictures I promise! Next, a 3-4 hour drive, stopping off to see pitcher plants and pepper(corn) farms. After this, we then got into a longboat for a 30 minute ride along the Lemanek river to the Iban longhouse, our base for the night.

The longhouse and it's surrounding buildings were still quite traditional, though with floorboards instead of bamboo, and a metal roof. There, we met the retired former chief. He had the traditional tattoos and elongated stretched ears, with gaping holes on the lobe. None of the younger men had the tattoos, they leave them to people in the west now!

Exploring the area, a mile along the river was another modern longhouse, made of brick and concrete, the old ways are changing fast. The children go to school (and stay overnight there), the younger adults often work away from the longhouse, exposing them to another more materialistic world...

Our accommodation was next door, a guest longhouse, with basic partioned off mattresses (with a mosquito net), an open veranda area (where we ate), a kitchen, cold showers and a flushing toilet!!! Two other groups were there, one of which (a German group) were kept away by their guide from the rest of us, down the other end of the veranda, which seemed against the spirit of staying in a longhouse!

After dinner (where we were joined by a cute, and very vocal little ginger cat) was the 'cultural show', where the Iban performed some dances with various degrees of enthusiam, the former chief being the most lively, the musicians looking deadly bored (I can't blame them, one of them had to hit a piece of metal continuously for 30 minutes). We tried some rice wine (which was almost pleasant) gave our presents for the children over, and let them get on with their normal lives again (probably watching television like the rest of us). As it was still early, the dutch guy and I bought another bottle of the rice wine, and shared it there in the longhouse, which was quite pleasant, it was nice having a few of us and a few of them just sitting around...the rice wine makes you sweat (must be one of the weird ingredients)

Retiring to bed, it was hot but not unbearably so. The sound of the river was relaxing, but it was generally drowned out by the miaows of the ginger cat, calling of birds, cock-a-doodle-doos of the cockerels (they started up again a 3am!) and snores, so not the most relaxed night!

The next morning, we saw a cock fight, tried out our blowpipe techniques and went for a walk in the jungle, where we were shown ancient burial sites, and how the natural plants of the jungle can be used. Then back on the longboat, and back to 'civilisation' again. We dropped off the dutch couple on the way, for their 12 hour bus ride to Miri (the far northeast of Sarawak). I flew the next day!

Miri is a dull city. It grew up due to the oil boom, but has little charm. The only reason to go there is to access the nearby national parks. There I bumped in to the dutch couple again. Sadly on their bus marathon, their luggage was broken into and their clothing stolen. Ridiculous crime really, as clothes are dirt cheap here anyway, and the sort of people taking 12-15 hour bus rides aren't going to have Armani suits in their rucksacs!

One of the conundrums on these sorts of trips, if whether to book tours or travel independently. My day trip to Niah national park demonstrates the problems of the latter approach.

I first caught a bus from the local bus station (complete chaos, no allocated stops or timetables) to the long distance bus station. There I jumped on a coach for an uneventful 1.5 hour ride to Batu Niah junction, a roadhouse stop 11km from the town and park, with no onward buses or taxis available. Eventually I got a lift for 5RM to the town (a small woman in an even smaller car!), from where I walked the 3km to the park (noting the car park full of visitors who came the easy way!).

Niah is famous for it's giant cave, where the remains of a 40000 year old woman have been found. To get to this cave, was a further 3km walk along a slippery and creaky boardwalk, while the cave path itself was slippery due to, ahem, guano, bat and bird sh excrement. Swiftlets nest high up on the ceiling of the cave; twice a year, these nests are collected to make bird's-nest soup (which from memory wasn't very exciting). My progress through the cave came to a sudden stop when I slipped on the guano covered floor - luckily I landed on 'both cheeks' so nothing hurt, though a very dirty pair of shorts resulted!

The next day I flew to Gunung Mulu national park, deep in the rainforest, so no easy land access. This is Sarawak's premier national park, and the runway has been lengthened so that 50 seater turboprops can fly there now. Smaller 19 seater Twin Otters also make the journey, via a more scenic route - on these planes, all the passengers have to be weighed to get the weight distribution right! These flights were full, so my weight remains a secret...

Mulu is famous for it's caves. A well maintained and not at all slippery boardwalk (during which our guide found a stick insect and later was given a nasty rash by a caterpillar that fell on him) takes you to the spectacular Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world (174m high, 2km long) and scenic Lang's cave. Many parts of the boardwalk had lots of beautiful butterflies, as this is where monkeys urinate at night, and butterflies are attracted by the salt in the urine...a good excuse to give the police if you are caught short I guess ;-)

Deer cave is full of bats, three million of them at the last estimation, and it STINKS!!! It's full of guano, cave cockroaches do their best to recycle it, but there's mounds of it around. What makes up for this is the bat exodus each evening, when 3 million bats fly out the 2 exits, a spectacular sight, as they come out in flowing waves. I have a small film of this, though one from the previous night was much better. On the way back, the frogs starting croaking, an incredible noise for such small creatures.

The dutch couple were here also (there's a natural progression on the traveller's route) and fancied a beer, so they forced me to go to a 'bar' just outside the park. Sadly the cafe didn't have satellite tv, so I couldn't watch the cup final - the owner was wearing a Liverpool shirt though, showing his loyalties! It was a lovely spot though, seeing giant moths and bats flying around, and watching the owner's cat pouncing on and crunching a lizard...

I slept ok, luckily the frogs shut up a bit! Next morning I got into a longboat to visit the Wind and Clearwater caves, the latter is the longest in SE asia. I joined a group of women from Penang here (they all holiday together and envied what I am doing!), they were due to follow the Caves with a long walk towards the Pinnacles, though looking at how some of them struggled with the morning's exertions, I'm guessing a hard afternoon lay ahead. Myself, I flew back to Miri, for one last night there, I upgraded my hotel room from Superior to Deluxe, well worth the extra one pound fifty!

And so on to today. The plan was to catch a coach from Miri across the border to Brunei. This wasn't running though, so I joined a shared car instead. There were 3 of us, but the driver waited 2 hours hoping for a 4th passenger to arrive. We set off to the border, where I had no problems (the British passport is easy to travel on in this part of the world) but an Indonesian man in our car was stopped as his passport had expired! So after all that, just 2 passengers made it to Bandar Seri Begawan, and we nearly didn't either as the car needed a push start to get it away from a petrol station!

Mike

Sunday, May 07, 2006

(Inter)National Express

Hello again
I've travelled a bit since my last regular bulletin, so quite a lot to cover. Bit of a long email again I'm afraid, perhaps I'll call the next one "contract proposal" or "interdepartmental coordination exercise" to make them look like work!

From Sydney, I flew to Singapore. Qantas have a very good relaxation music channel, it sent me to sleep which was a bonus! Singapore airport was it's usual mega efficient self, so I whizzed through quickly.

My hotel (Hotel 81 a budget chain) in Singapore was in Gehlang, a lively suburb to the east of the city. Gehlang has lots of late night cafes and shops, selling all sorts of goods late into the night. It is low rise, with lots of temples. It also has, ahem, massage parlours (the girls outside them tend to grab you as you walk past, and have very sharp fingernails) and 'ladies of the night'...naturally I went out to have a look, and buy a beer (my needs were of the liquid refreshment variety!).

Incidentally, in addition to the kettle and coffee sachet (with milk and sugar already included, yuk!) the room was provided with a cup of noodles, and a sachet of Milo...hmm, thinks...noodles, Milo...is Glen McMillan (ex Numerica Finance Aussie)working in hotel management these days?

I was only in Singapore last year, so there was no need to rush about seeing things, as I've already done it! It's nice to walk into town (if very hot) and revisit old favourites, such as the Botanic gardens. In addition to the lovely Orchid garden, I also visisted the Evolution garden, which as you walked along the winding path, showed the development of the various plant species.

The next day, I was picked up by my cousin Gerald, and taken back to his apartment to eat my favourite black pepper crabs (lunchtime and dinner!) and more importantly, see his new baby Ryan. Gerald is a Man U fan, but I am assured Ryan wasn't named after Ryan Giggs, just a happy coincidence
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=3a86scd&.dnm=9b1fscd.jpg&.src=ph
Ryan was very peaceful while I was there, but I am assured that he isn't so quiet the rest of the time!

That evening Gerald dropped me off at the night safari. In addition to the entertaining show, and the tram that drives around the zoo, I also took a walk along the various paths, which was quite exciting, with lots of animal noises, sights and smells all around. One highlight was hearing the wolves howl, you could hear them a long time before seeing them - on reflection, it's not surprising that the wolves were howling, seeing that both Birmingham and West Brom got relegated that day!

Back at my hotel, I got a text from Charlton, telling about Curbishley's resignation (a standard club text, not a personal one from the Chairman asking me to apply, sadly). In a state of shock, I wandered out to get a beer. Outside, all the cafes and food outlets had the tv on and everyone was glued to...Charlton vs Blackburn (they must be desperate!), so I went back to my room to watch it...

The rest of my time was spent wandering around, and visiting a couple of museums. The Sultan mosque is attractive, and surprisingly designed by an Irishman!
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=3a86scd&.dnm=4c0bscd.jpg&.src=ph

The next day, I took the bus out of Singapore to Malacca (or Melaka) in Malaysia, over the 'second' causeway. As the only non Malaysian/Singaporean, everyone else had to wait while I filled in my immigration card! The coach was quite comfortable and very roomy. Malacca bus terminal was somewhat confusing, but I found the exit and strode off (pack on back) to find my hotel. While walking along 4 local girls passed me giggling, one of them then called back that I was "very handsome"! No arguments there naturally, though they may have been less impressed if they knew I was walking the wrong way! Incidentally, that puts me one behind my holdall/backpack in terms of compliments from strangers, by bag being 'chatted' up twice in NZ and Sydney airport!

Malacca is an interesting city, the centre has a long history, as it was a major trading port, and has been rules by the Portuguese and Dutch as well as the British. It was much to see and many good museums, so I regretted slightly that I only stayed one night; I had already booked my Kuala Lumpur bus and hotel. There are also some nice Malay Kampungs (stilt houses) near the centre, which are treasured houses now. I was in Malacca 3 years ago, and remembered the terrible pavements, either narrow and uneven, blocked by street stalls or non existant, so you end up walking in the road between the traffic and the deep and open drains!

The next day I took a coach to Kuala Lumpur. There, I stayed in the same hotel as last year, right in the centre of Chinatown, so very convenient. Most of the main sights are very close by, getting there isn't so easy, the roads are terrible to cross. Whereas in Singapore, jaywalking is an offence, in Malaysia, you cross when you can make it, especially as the young motorcyclists quite often ignore red lights...

KL has a number of museums and monuments that are worth visiting, such as the National museum, and the excellent Islamic Museum. The hibiscus garden was sadly closed, so instead I went to the excellent bird gardens, a giant aviary full of our feathered friends. I also needed to do some shopping, I replaced my lost Hollywood nail clippers (as in I bought them in Hollywood, I didn't mug Tom Cruise while he was cutting his toe nails) in a small Chinatown shop with twenty different types. Next was a couple of light coloured long sleeve tops (good for mosquito avoidance). Did I buy them from the street stalls, with their fake sportswear and DVDs? Did I haggle over a price with a seller in the Central market? No, I bought them in Debenhams! Nowhere else seemed to stock such items (and they were half price too!)

One of the joys now, is that I have no deadlines, and no prebooked itinerary, so I can go where I please, that day. Hence, the day before I left KL, I booked a flight to Kuching. Not exactly overland, but then Kuching is the capital of Sarawak, part of Malysian Borneo. Map enclosed for reference!
http://www.e-borneo.com/travel/map.html
The flight was on Air Asia, the Ryanair of SE Asia, and the plane was largely a tourist free zone. On landing, for some reason we all had to go through immigration again (despite it being an internal flight) so I now have two current Malysian stamps in my passport!

Kuching is a nice place, it has it's colonial past (James Brooke the white rajah founded it), it has old Chinese shophouses, it has Malay Kampungs over the river, and it has modern shops and hotels too, all near to each other. My first night was in a very cheap Chinese hotel. It was a bit basic though, so sadly I moved out the next day, into a comfortable (but still cheap) high rise hotel round the corner. I felt a little bit guilty leaving, as there seemed to be more family members than guests there...

So far I have visited a few museums, walked along the attractive riverfront and eaten at a great sea food, food court. You pick your fish(es) and tell them how to cook it, luckily the Malay waitress guided me through all this in excellent English, or else I would have floundered a bit. Kuching means Cat in Malay, so naturally they have a cat museum, on all things feline, and very enjoyable it is too. Getting there on a local bus was an adventure too...

I will visit the rainforest while in Sarawak, hopefully the only headhunters I meet will be of the recruitment agency type!

Mike

P.S. One final Aussie irritation. In NSW and Queensland (i.e. including Sydney and Brisbane) you can't buy alcohol from normal shops, only from special bottle/liquor shops. So this gives the strange situation where I can go into a 7-11 or other such convenience store in strict Singapore or most of Malaysia (a majority Muslim country) and freely buy beer and wine, but can't in Sydney or Brisbane!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Aussie Rules...ok?

As promised/threatened, a sum up of the highlights and lowlights of my time in oz...As per my kiwi sumup, the opinions are mine alone! In tribute to Australia's game, I've picked a team of 18 (that's how many play Aussie Rules per team) but I've also picked a team of nasties too (all banned for violent conduct!)

My First 18

Sydney Harbour
A nice obvious one this, but then the view of the bridge and opera house is magnificent. If you cross the bridge (the normal way, not the climbing option) you get beautiful views back. It's quite nice on the other side, and there's a decent spit roast sandwich shop there too!

Sydney walks
The Manly to Spit point walk is on Sydney's doorstep, and is really interesting. Further out, the Blue Mountains have many fine trails. Wentworth Falls is quieter than Katoomba, with fewer tour buses, so you feel more of an explorer! It is worth mentioning that Aussie walk definitions are quite sporty...a 'medium' graded walk can be pretty difficult! I mention this, as several times I saw people who's bitten off more than they could chew, and were trying to drag understandably tired young children along inappropriate trails.

Melbourne sports events
Melbourne may not have that many sights, but it is a nice place, and a great place to see sport, with it's various top class venues. Cricket at the MCG, Aussie Open Tennis, Rugby League, Aussie Rules, Australian GP, there's plenty to choose from!

Great Ocean Road
A great trip along the coast from Melbourne to Adelaide, the 12 Apostles are the highlight (especially if you take the helicopter ride over them) but there's plenty else to see too!

Aussie Wine
Tasty and good value, need I saw more? I found the Rosé went down rather well in the warm weather over there...And to those Kiwis who say that much Aussie wine is mass produced rubbish, to be honest if it tastes good, I don't care!

Aussie Rules Footie
I rather enjoyed the game I went to, it was fast and furious. Besides, watching a local game of sport is a key part of understanding a country's psyche!

Cute Wildlife
Koala bears...need I say more? How cute can an animal be, and seeing them sleeping in the trees is a magical sight. Kangaroos aren't bad either, and seeing the baby's head sticking out of it's mother's pouch is a lovely sight.

Scary Wildlife
Australia has so many natural ways to kill you, it's amazing I survived at all. It certainly added a extra edge...For example :-
In the sea are sharks (the risk of a shark attack is overrated) and jellyfish, who are much more of a threat - one beach on Fraser island was covered with them, the sting can be agony and even fatal. There's stinging fish too!
In the water on land are crocodiles, the numbers of which have been increasing. I was in Darwin during the floods below, and no I didn't visit Katherine!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4887182.stm
Snakes are generally not a threat, as they normally run off. Spiders are much more dangerous, as they are small and easily missed (the deadly ones are tiny). They also like hanging around in bathrooms and toilets, seeing a redback as you brush your teeth is quite distracting, seeing one in the toilet stops you lingering too long.
Even the plants are at it. The most nasty is the Giant Stinging Tree a relative of our stinging nettle, but far, far worse. The sharp pain has been known to last for months, with certain species people have had heart attacks due to the agony. I saw these in Queensland.

Swagging
Sleeping under the stars is romantic and gives a great view of the night sky. Wrap up well in the outback though!

The Olgas/Kata Tjuta
This was my favourite part of the Uluru/Ayers Rock trip, The Valley of the Winds walk is stunning, and well worth the effort
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=8248&.dnm=e7d4.jpg&.src=ph

Crocodile Farm and the Jumping Crocs
Good fun to see these brutes close up, and seeing them jump out of the water to grab meat off the end of a line is fascinating, especially when you're holding the pole yourself!

Litchfield
I didn't make it to Kakadu, but Litchfield is a decent substitute. Giant termite mounds and stunning waterfalls make it a nice day out.

Aussie Blokes
In this age of the new man, it is good to see the the traditional Aussie bloke is still alive and kicking. If you're in the pub outside of the metropolitan sophisticate areas, they'll usually come over for a chat, usually with a fellow bloke (often me!) rather than the sheilas. In years to come, when they're extinct, there'll be theme parks where drunken, grubby actors dress up in string vests and swear for the public!

Kuranda
A great day out from Cairns. The journey is a major part of the fun, with the scenic railway one way and the stunning cable car back over the rainforest the other, but the town itself is well worth a visit, with lots to see and do.

Lake McKensie, Fraser Island
Beautiful clear freshwater, pristine white sand, surrounded by thick forest. A bugger to get to though, as it's well away from the coast so it's a bouncy 4wd journey to get there. At least that keeps the crowds down!

Group tours
I went on two 3 night tours. One unexpected benefit of this, was the sheer number of times I would bump into fellow tour members later on in my travels. Taking the Great Ocean road as an example, the majority of people who travel west from Melbourne to Adelaide will continue up to Alice Springs. After Alice people generally either go south or up to Darwin, a 50/50 chance of going the same way as you, and with the cities up here much smaller, and the tourist trail fairly obvious, there's a fair chance you'll catch up with each other!

Internal Flights
Australia is VERY large, and much as I wanted to travel more of it overland, it would have taken too long for my timescale, and to be honest, the scenery isn't so interesting to make 11 hours staring out of the window fun! Internal flights are good value, and the in flight service on QANTAS pretty good.

Pies
Much as Australia is trying to portray itself as international and cosmopolitan, with diverse, sophisticated cuisine, there are times when salads or sushi just don't fill the gap and what you require is a bit of dead animal in pastry! Australia is definitely meat pie heaven, with bakery shops full of them. Harry's in Sydney is a city institution now (they serve them with mushy peas and mash a little bit like the east end pie mash shops), while the Adelaide favourite is the pie floater, a pie floating in pea liquor with ketchup on top (apparently a northern english way). All delicious, though the best pie I had was in a roadhouse on the way back from Uluru/Ayers Rock!

The Nasties (all banned from the team)

Aussie beer
The Aussies in London keep telling me that although Fosters is rubbish, the real Aussie beer is much better. No it isn't!!! Most of it is still dull and bland, the best of a poor bunch is Coopers of Adelaide, at least their beer has some flavour. This was brought home to me on arrival in Singapore. I've never previously been that excited by Tiger beer, but compared with the Aussie stuff, it was heaven!

Uluru Base Walk
I didn't climb Uluru, there are many good reasons not to, both spritual and common sense ones, as the climb is steep and dangerous. It was closed on the day I was there anyway, as it was too windy. Instead we all did the base walk around the circumference. 3 hours I think it took, and to be honest, not terribly interesting. The problem was, that various areas were cordoned off as they had spritual significance to the Aborigines, but no explanation as to why was ever given, so you ended up none the wiser.

Flies
The outback flies are a nightmare, they are harmless, but so irritating! On your face, up your nose, in your eyes, in your ears...the mystery is why there are so many flies there, as there is hardly any vegetation, and hardly any animals either. The sahara desert is hardly famous for it's flies is it? What do they (or rather their maggots) feed on?

Great Barrier Reef
Unless you are a good scuba diver, or a decent enough swimmer to snorkle comfortably, don't bother going out to the reef, as you'll see very little and end up swallowing large amounts of disgusting sea water!

Sydney
It may have great sights and attractions, it just didn't excite me as a city. I'm not sure why, I guess I was expecting something better. Discussing this with other travellers, I'm not the only one who felt this. There are lots of reasons to come to Australia, but don't come just to see Sydney. It's fine, but not a patch on London, Paris or New York.

The Ghan Train
A long train journey, but not much to see! Hour after hour of the same deserty scrubland.

The Aboriginal Issue
A final depressing thought. I won't go into the appalling treatment of the Aborigines in the past here, what's more depressing is their current state, with high unemployment, 3rd world life expectancy, and high levels of alcohol and petrol abuse. They seem to be lost between a previous lifestyle that they can't go back to, and a developed world they can't adapt to, and it's very sad.

So there you have it. Feel free to agree or disagree! I had a great time in Australia, I covered a fair part of it in my 5 weeks there, but there are several places to visit on a future trip (such as Tasmania and WA). I'm now in Asia, so finally away from Australisia, and only 7 hours ahead of the UK now!!!

RTW with Mike

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Brunei Brookes

Photo Update

Monday, May 15, 2006

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Sunday, May 07, 2006

(Inter)National Express

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Aussie Rules...ok?

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