Brilliant boats and bints in Airlie

We flew to Townsville. There's Magnetic Island there, but not much else. We'd been speaking to an Italian girl who'd been living in Sydney for a while, and she suggested we head on to Airlie Beach rather than stay there. We took a look into the Greyhound bus routes, and found that for a couple hundred dollars we could get a hop on/hop off ticket which would take us all the way to Sydney, allowing us to stop off at Airlie, Fraser Island and Byron Bay en-route.

4 hours on the bus and we arrived in Airlie. We stayed at the Backpackers by the Bay, a well appointed hostel just off the main road. Not as social there, we took the 10 minute walk to the mainstreet most of the time to eat and get a few drinks. We had to wait 5 minutes though for Rick to brush his teeth.

Airlie is a holiday place both for travellers and Aussies alike. It has a great lagoon next to the beach to go and sun yourself, but more than that, it's known for the great sailing opportunities around the Whitsundays Islands. Without further ado Matt, Rick and I booked a 3 day, 2 night excursion. With a day to kill, we went and sat by the lagoon to sun ourselves, and that evening Rick made himself a drunken one-legged friend on his way back from brushing his teeth. Matt made the astute observation that she'd gotten herself legless.

Rather randomly, the night before we sailed I thought I saw a girl I recognised, Joanna, who we met in two places while we were in Thailand. I hadn't however recognised the girl she was with as her friend I'd also met so I thought it was someone else. Later that night I was on facebook and Joanna came online. I said I'd seen her twin at Airlie. I was amazed to find that it had in fact been her, and more surprised to find that her and 2 friends were going on a boat trip the following day...exactly the same one as us!

Kev Joanna Laura Me Jenine Matt

Said boat trip was a great time. 50 or so of us were picked up on a blustery afternoon to set sail in the Kora, a boat apparently worth over AU$1m. We saw Joanna again and had a small reunion with her and Jenine, meeting their friend Laura too. At the same time, we introduced them to Rick (our new addition, but he was off brushing his teeth) and met two Yorkshire lads, Lee and Kev. The 8 of us were to spend the next three days in pretty close company, especially as Matt, Rick and I shared our room with Kev and Lee. Rick went and brushed his teeth as soon as we were there.

We weren't really able to do any real sailing while on board, mainly because of the size of the group, but also because we didn't need to. The crew of three simply pushed the throttle up or pulled it back. Cheating really...! Kev did get a go at steering though which he was chuffed about. On deck it could get quite cold as the wind and spray would jump up, but it was good fun in the sun, and the views of the scenery and landscape could be breathtaking.

That first day we went to Koala Adventure Island, a fully licenced resort island with its own 9 hole golf course and beautiful bay. Our evening was spent getting merry and playing games as organised by the host, followed by dancing the night away. That is, most of us did. Kev and Lee, against all our better advice, had decided to down some Goon (for those in the dark, Goon should be kept that way. A sweet, sickly wine, it is guaranteed to make you feel ill. No Aussies I've met will drink it, unless possibly they're underage and because it's the cheapest thing they can buy) and by dinner at 7pm were steaming drunk. Kev managed to keep up with us throughout the course of the night, but Lee stumbled back to our dorm to keep Rick company, who unfortunately had taken on some food poisoning and wasn't well at all. Or maybe he was just brushing his teeth.

When the rest of us got back to the dorm we were nicely sozzled, least of all Kev who proceeded to strip stark bollock naked (when Matt pointed this out to him he was unfazed). His bed was the top bunk above Rick, and we all bedded down. All of a sudden I heard this almighty thump, followed by Rick asking Kev if he was ok through a mouth of toothpaste (he thought he was stealing his toothpaste). Having fallen out of his bed, he proceeded to search on his hands and knees (still naked as the day he was born) muttering 'I've lost my bed, I can't find it'. After a surprisingly fruitless search on the floor and in his bag, he did find a bed. Unfortunately for Rick it was his, and after shouting out 'It's a bunk bed mate, you're on the one up there!' Kev finally found the ladder and climbed back into bed. Bless him but he has no recollection of this. Kev, here's to you. The only other thing to mention of the night was the added counterpoint to Matt's startlingly soprano and disturbing snoring (in which he sounds like he's choking) by Lee, himself emmanating a Basso Profundo rattle in perfect harmony.

Our first full day in the Whitsundays started at 7am for breakfast (urgh) but was unfortunately missed by Rick who spent the day brushing his teeth. We however went on without him (guilty? nah!) and we were taken to the absolutely beautiful Whitehaven Beach. An uninhabited island, there is no electricity, no shops, no nothing, and the only people who go are those lucky enough to own or be on a boat. The sand itself is almost 98% silica, so is extremely pure, and was my second introduction to squeaky sand. We stayed there for a good 3-4 hours before clambering back on board to have our lunch, followed by a 2 hour scenic trip back to

Me, with our boat 'The Kora' in the background

Koala Island (something of a misnomer that name, there are no Koalas on the Island). I went and played a game of volleyball with some of the other people on our boat (won a free beer in the process) and then joined the others at dinner time. The evening followed in a similar (if less drunken) fashion to the previous shenanigans, and Jenine and I did manage to win some more free booze playing another group game. The less said about that one though the better, right Jenine?

Me underwater

Our last day in the Whitsundays was supposedly the highlight as it involved snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, however 90% of the people on the boat were so hungover they only lasted 10 minutes in the water. It was rather cold, and after half an hour I was ready to get back onto the boat, but not before snapping some fish (in the gloom the pictures only half came out well) and 'accidentally' taking a picture of Laura's boobs.

Laura's boobs...for those interested

We landed back at Abel Point in Airlie around 3pm, all of us knackered but happy. The girls had their own campervan and were heading down to Hervey Bay to visit Fraser Island, and needed to get a good start on the 13 hour ride. We were heading the same way but on the Greyhound which left 3 hours later. After reliving Kev's starkers nightime escapade for the 20th time, we all said goodbye and made our way to our busses and vans.

My new tattoo - hope it says what I think it does...

Hookers and homos

Before you go off half cocked, no, we didn't realise where we'd be staying when we booked it.

Matt and I flew on a rather bumpy Virgin Blue flight from Melbourne to Sydney Airport, called up the place we'd booked to stay who sent us a courtesy bus to take us the 40 min ride (after dropping everyone else of first naturally) to the hostel. The hostel itself wasn't dirty. That's about all you can say about it.

We found Rick in the room. A friend of Matt's from back home, he'd been travelling since the day before from Birmingham and had arrived about 5 hours prior to us. That evening we took a look around the Kings Cross area we were staying in. For those with conservative sensibilities, skip the next paragraph...

Kings Cross is apparently the Gay centre of Sydney, not to mention it's a bit of a red light district. This is evident when you look down Darlinghurst Road, mainly due to the big flashing neon signs proclaiming 'Showgirls Galore' 'Dreamgirls' and 'Girls Girls and More Girls'. The prostitutes on the road and the big bouncers ('Looking for girls guys? Dreamgirls guys? Adult fun, adult viewing, want a good time guys?') are also a pretty big Clue (with capital 'C'). There was me thinking we'd left that behind us when we left Asia. How wrong I was. Darlinghurst was our main way to and from our hostel, so every night when we went out for a hunt for a new bar and a drink we were accosted. As beer prices were rather steep elsewhere, Matt took to asking them how much beer was in their classy establishments. Unlike the girls, not cheap enough.

There were some decent bars close by, and a brummie girl I met at one told me of a few others, unfortunately closed for the winter though. One which was open however offered a $4 burger and beer which was great value, especially when you factor in the free pool table available. The closest bar to us, the Sugar Mill (our room was practically above it) was a good laugh too.

I'm afraid that for most of the 3 days we were in Sydney I was stricken with a certain malady. Tiredness, lethargy, loss of apptetite...yup, I had Koala Syndrome. While I recuperated in bed, Matt and Rick managed to go see the sights, namely the Zoo, the Aquarium, and I managed to catch up with them at Syndey Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I have one photo of each and none of the Botanical Gardens. Koala Syndrome had set in with a vengeance.

I did however make the trip out to Parramatta (a Sydney suburb, about the distance of Harrow from London City) on the awesome train system to meet up with Claire, the sister of one of my oldest friends in London. She's been living in Sydney since 2007, and it was good to see her after a very long time (possibly 8 years?!). We had a good chat, but I couldn't stay out late as Matt and Rick had booked our flight to Townsville for the very next morning, meaning a 4am wakeup call.

Up till now, Australia hadn't really felt much different from the UK. Grey, cold, MacDonalds on every corner. We are now however in Airlie Beach, arriving yesterday after a 3 hour flight and 5 hour bus ride. It's 26 degrees, bright blue skies and sunshine. The people are all happy (mostly British, French or German backpackers funnily enough) and tomorrow we embark on a 3 day boat trip taking in the Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling and fun and games. More on that later...

Australia? Really?!

7pm, Monday 13th July. Little India, Singapore. Matt and I are having a drink. 'Fancy going to Australia now Adam?' 'Why not Matt, why not.'

We get on a plane at a gate with 'Melbourne' flashing on its notice board. They let us take biscuits and medicine on. We get off the plane just over 7 hours later, and the receiving airport tells us we can't take any food or medicine in, so we dump it all. We get out of the airport. It's 8am, cold and grey. 'Hey, this feels like England'.

They drive on the left, the signs are all in English, there's sprawling fields with farms, very few leaves on trees, mud, rain, dilapidated warehouses, high rises, somber colours, and they have a funny accent. Did I mention it's really grey? If it wasn't for said accent, I'd have sworn the pilot took a wrong turn and dumped us somewhere in the British Midlands. As it is I'm still having to be convinced every single day.

Melbourne has turned out to be...average? I don't want to lay into it, because as a town there's nothing wrong with it. And likely it's because we've come in winter, but the people aren't as friendly, open or helpful as we've become accustomed to, the other travellers are extremely single minded (sex, booze, booze and sex - how much is beer again? too much) and to top it all it's bloody friggin' expensive. Our dorm beds are costing us 12 quid each. 12 quid!!!

There are however some redeeming factors to be had in winter. St Kilda, a small burb of Melbourne is only 15 minutes away by tram, and has a theme park and beach. We tried to catch up there with a friend we made in Hanoi (Bree) but couldn't find the bar she was on about. None of the locals had even heard of it apart from one guy and he couldn't tell us where it was. But St Kilda is nice, and meant to be amazing in summer, what with the beach and all.

Another day we rented a car with two German guys (a lovely Nissan Micra dontcha know) and I drove 630km to, along, and back from the Great Ocean Road. This was actually really pleasant. About 2 hours away and starting at Torquay close to Geelong, this is meant to be Australia's most beautiful coastal road, and I can easily believe it. Passing through Anglesea, Lorne, Apollo Bay and moving on to Warrnambool and further, it's around 270km long in total. Torquay is the home of Ripcurl and Quicksilver surf brands, and Anglesea is where the lighthouse in 'Round the Twist' (well known Aussie kiddie show from the 80s/90s) is situated. Maybe I'm being a bit sad, but it was one of the highlights!). We stopped off a number of times en-route to see a few sights: wild Koalas in trees, some only a meter away from us; random brightly coloured parrot-like birds, some of which tried to eat Matt; a canopy walk at the Otway Fly (this was an 80km detour inland from the Ocean Road, and not necessarily worth it apart from for true nature lovers due to the $22 entry fee, but it was cool to be walking at the same level as the treetops) and we then made it to the 12 Apostles just before sunset, perfectly timed I might add.

The 12 Apostles are a number of rock stacks which, during the course of erosion have been separated from the cliffs. The tallest is approx 45m high (compared with the highest point of the cliffs being 70m) and are of varying shapes. One actually collapsed in 2005, and in time the others will fall back to the sea as well, but hopefully not for a long while yet. The photos during the day and at sunset are brilliant to see, and I'll post them as soon as possible. There are also penguins which live around the apostles, but unfortunately we didn't see any.

While staying in Melbourne Matt and I have done a little bit of shopping for some more cold-weather clothes (plus new boots and stuff for Matt to replace what was stolen) and not much else. Yesterday I visited the casino (lost $200 on Poker, made $300 on Blackjack so all is good) and tonight we've been invited to a party by another girl we met while travelling through Vietnam who lives here (Chloe). Tomorrow I'm expecting to be a day of recovery, and Monday we'll be winging our way to Sydney.

Addition: It's now Sunday, I have a steaming hangover, Matt has somehow managed to ditch his and has gone off in search of the Salvador Dali exhibition and Cook's Cottage (the original cottage belonging to Captain Cook, it was dismantled and brought stone by stone from Blighty, what a pallaver!). Good party, thanks to Chloe for inviting us!

Swingapore and what laws not to break. Doesn't leave that much really...

It was time to leave KL. I was ready to go. Bags were packed, I'd said goodbye to people (those that had gone to bed only 2 hours before I couldn't wake, not naming names Shaun or Alex) and I walked to the bus station. On the way I heard a guy call out 'Singapore?' and within 20 seconds I'd paid my 30 ringit for a nice big seat on an 'executive luxury bus'. And it was pretty comfy, as this was a full size coach with only 3 seats to a row, affording each seat more space both width- and length-ways.

After maybe 4-5 hours we got to the border, defined by this sprawling modern, sterile, grey building. It was actually very efficient, both on the Malay exit and Singapore entry (though I did feel a tad silly declaring a packet of cigs with only four left in it) and the highlight was definitely the music, which was a string version of Guns 'n Roses' 'Sweet Child of Mine'. I did learn after we'd got through the Singapore side however that the box of cigarettes I had was technically illegal, that they were imported into Malaysia without paying tax. No wonder the people I'd bought them from had kept them under the counter...

I got dropped off a good 30 minute walk away from the Prince of Wales Guest House where I'd booked my bed, however set off in good heart after asking the way to Little India. About 40 minutes later and I'd just about found Little India, but with no map (Matt had the guidebook) was finding it increasingly frustrating that I couldn't locate the right road. A quick nip into a net cafe to consult a map and I was sorted, arriving at the hostel to see Matt having a beer outside with a couple of people. I dumped my stuff in the dorm and joined them.

Laws not to break in Singapore:

• Don't smoke outside the yellow box, or rather ONLY smoke in a designated yellow box (the space in between double yellow lines on the roadside doesn't count apparently)
• Don't spit in the streets
• Don't jay walk
• Don't eat, drink, smoke or spit on the MRT (Singapore Tube) otherwise $500 fine
• Don't read Malaysian National Newspapers
  

Apart from the second and fourth ones, we managed to break all these within the first day.

I'm afraid that otherwise we did jack-all in Singapore. The night I arrived I fell asleep at 10pm (somewhat amazingly seeing as I'm an extremely light sleeper and below us the bar was raging with a funk/jazz band). Getting up the next day around noon, Matt and I took a walk around Little India, managing to find the big computer/electronics centre for him to try and fix something with his camera, and after that, we sat in the bar listening to a live celtic band. Actually not that bad, complete with electric fiddle and a pint-sized 8 string electric guitar. That evening, Ivan came to meet us. This is a guy we'd met while doing our tour of Halong Bay/Catba Island in Vietnam nearly 2 months ago, and he just happened to live in Singapore too. He took us for Shisha at the aptly named Arab Street, and we had a good catch up in an Egyptian establishment, ('Are you Egyptian?' I asked the comically Indian looking waiter. 'Yes' he said) complemented by ordering some Foul Medemes. Good times.

Rose from KL turned up at some stupidly early hour the next morning, which afforded us evil looks from the girl who opens up the bar and guest house. A pretty blonde, mornings definitely don't agree with her (the bar girl that is, not Rose, but she's no early bird either really). Rose left around 9am to sort out stuff with the Indian embassy and find her friend who was staying in Singapore, and I went back to bed. Well, I went to bed, but not before finding out that the flight to Melbourne we had in our heads as being the next day was actually later the same day at 10.30pm. Nearly the biggest fail of the whole damn trip, I was convinced my calendar was wrong and that my flight was Tuesday 14th Jul rather than Monday 13th Jul. A quick check on the Emirates website confirmed I was well and truly incorrect. Shame I'd already paid for that extra night in the dorm...

We met up with Rose again that afternoon (this time accompanied by her old school friend Em) had some lunch, said our goodbyes, and made our way across the Indian Ocean to Australia...

A fine traveller I turned out to be...

Um. Heh. I'm er....(still in Kuala Lumpur).

Let me tell you what happened. When we got back to Oasis Guest House in KL, we ran into yet more people we'd seen in Laos, namely Claire and Gary, who I'm pretty sure I also saw in Siem Reap in Cambodia. We made new friends with the people who'd just arrived, and had a good night. Plus it was Matt's birthday and so we were all up late drinking and playing with poi on the roof.

Matt decided to go and find a beach by way of Pulau Tioman, and I stayed with cool people seeing as Shaun, Steve, Tom and Alam were still here. There was a new addition to the group (Rose) and for the most part, we've all been getting up late, eating late, drinking late, and going to bed early, say 8am or so.

We did organise a group trip to the Bathu Caves, a set of natural caves about one hour outside KL by bus. The entrance is dominated by a 100ft gold plated statue of Lord Muraga, and to reach the caves you must climb around 300 steps. They are numbered, so I have nothing except bad memory as my excuse to why I can't remember exactly how many there are. The caves are used as a Hindu shrine and prayer hall, as well as for festivals, where apparently up to 2m people attend at a time. We were there at just the right time to get deafened by gongs and drums marking the time to pray, and we watched in respectful silence while the service (for want of a better word) was conducted.

The caves are full of monkeys and cockerels, of which the former will try and steal anything you leave hanging around loosely. I managed to scare one quite by accident and it charged me, only just pulling up short and screeching at me. I stamped towards it and it ran off, not before it initially made me pee my pants just a little.

Another old travelling buddy from Laos turned up, Abi who we'd met in Vang Vieng and travelled all the way to Don Det with. Got to show her a bit of the city (seeing as I'm now a bit of a local) and introduce her to the local rothi canai shop (indian flat bread with a dip of either daal or chicken curry, all for RM1 which is 25p). We also went to watch Ice Age 3. Ruudyyyyyyyyy....

I am ACTUALLY going to go to Singapore tomorrow as KL, while it has charmed me and kept me entertained has now become 'just' another city, and while Singapore is a more expensive place to stay, I'm up for something new. With some luck Matt will be there within a day or so and then we fly to Melbourne.

Bag thefts and gay Malaysians in Melaka.

Just a quick one. So yesterday I finally get to Melaka to catch up with Matt, 4 days after he went there ahead of me. He was done with the place and was leaving that day to go to the Tioman Islands where I would meet him today. I went down there with two Spanish travellers, Sara and Alex, and instead of going to where Matt stayed, we chose a place in Chinatown, the other side of this small city.

About 9pm I get online to check my emails quickly, and am surprised to see some from Matt. His big bag of stuff had been stolen out of the guest house he was staying in, and he was still in Melaka. I grab the lonely planet from Alex for the map and set out to walk to his hostel. Got lost about three times en route, and then randomly passed Matt on the street outside a shopping centre. Good thing too as I was walking in completely the wrong direction...

Turns out that the owner of the hostel had contributed indirectly and not at all intentionally to the theft, and so had given Matt his own backpack. We have however had to come back to Kuala Lumpur so he can buy everything that was stolen. Luckily, this doesn't include things like camera, phone, wallet or passport, but almost everything else.

Quick word on Melaka - it has a rather nice river walk, but only if you don't have a sense of smell. The water is oily black, and your own imaginations can fill in the blanks I've left out here. It does have a large revolving restaurant at the top of a tower, and a hill walk to do where you can see over the whole town. There is also something similar to the London Eye, named in original fashion 'The Eye of Malaysia'.

It also has random gay guys (not) offering sex. After I found Matt and we agreed a plan of action, I walked back to my place at about 2.30am, almost without seeing another soul. Suddenly a rather butch Malaysian guy walks out from behind a tree and starts saying hello in an extremely camp voice. Probabaly realising this wasn't kosher on a subconscious level, I said 'no thanks' to which he replies 'I'm not asking you for sex, I just want to chat to you. As a friend'. A strangled laugh of some sort came out of my throat and I picked up the pace a little. He didn't follow.

I got back to the guest house and Sara and Alex were still up. I recounted this story, to which Alex says I should be complimented. 'Yeah, if a gay guy thinks you're attractive, it's meant to be more of a compliment than if a girl does. They're more picky' he says. I nearly smacked him.

Mum, Dad...I went rock climbing (and got a tattoo, shhhhhh)

So we never caught up with Ryan, however ended up having a pretty damn good time of it none-the-less. Krabi Town itself is rather boring these days, we were chatting to the really friendly owner of the guest house we were staying in, and he told us that a year ago all his guests booked by phone and they were almost always full. These days, he has to send someone to every bus that gets into town (how we ended up staying there) and a lot of the time they aren't able to bring anyone back. Blame the credit crunch.

There is a great night food market next to the river however, and a very friendly Irish Bar which was showing Wimbledon (go on Murray!) so we enjoyed ourselves. The main reason to go there is as a route to the great beaches around a 20 minute ride away, Ao Nang and Ao Ton Sai, among them,also known as Railay Beach.

Two highlights of Krabi. I'd been thinking of getting a tattoo for a while, and Thailand is the bamboo tattoo capital of the world. Instead of using a machine needle, the method is to get a quill and attach a sharp, flat needle of bamboo to the end. This is dipped in ink, and the design takes shape by quickly jabbing the needle into the skin repeatedly, all by hand. It doesn't scab over, and you can go into the water the very next day. Just down the road from where we were staying was a bamboo tattoo parlour, and I decided there was no time like the present. I found a translation of 'live life' in Arabic (so many people have tattoos in Thai, and I'm half Egyptian so it makes sense to me) and I took it in. About £20, half an hour and about a million needle jabs later I was the proud owner of a tattoo on my right shoulder. Mum, Dad...sorry! (but I like it).

The next day we'd booked a full day's climbing trip to Railay Beach, and bugger me if it wasn't the most beautiful beach we'd been to. You can only get there via long-tail boat, and words just don't do it justice. Over the course of the day, we took on around 5-6 separate climbs, and actually got stuck in a cave while it rained. Our instructor took us right the way through this cave (almost a rock climb in itself) and on emerging into the sunlight we found ourselves with a perfect birds-eye view of the bay and surrounding islands. The only way down was to abseil. We have a lot of photos of the two of us in spiderman-like positions (for those in the know, it was NOT a go-web moment) but Matt was the star of the day, managing to complete every single climb. I was a big fatty and managed to reach the summit of just one, booo!

I did manage to perform the trick of the trip so far, namely walking into a cut branch, head down, which left a gash maybe an inch long and a few millimeters wide on the top of my head. For those with a queasy stomach, when I put the picture up don't look at it, there was quite a bit of blood pouring out, but it quickly stopped and our instructor had some benadine which gelled it up. I got back and washed it out with alcohol (stang like a mofo btw) and it's scabbed up, so no risk of infection. It does mean I can't shave my head for a while though.

For the next day I was a bit shaky in the fingers which is to be expected, but both of us are still slightly stiff in the wrist (no jokes please!). It was a great day though, other than a slight shower absolutely beautiful weather, and the others climbing with us were a great laugh, a young couple from Melbourne who run a pub there. First stop when we arrive....

We've been in Kuala Lumpur a few days, taking in the Petronas Towers (tallest twin towers connected by a sky bridge in the world) and the KL Tower, complete with ponies and monkeys in the surrounding grounds. Maybe a little bit too much like the western world, we've also gone to the cinema and seen the indoor theme park at Times Square Mall. At RM38 (approx £7) it's slightly over our budget to allow us in. We've been staying at the Oasis Guest House right on China Town, and they've got a great social area on the top floor and roof where we've met some great people (Becca, Carys, keep on geeking it up girls, Steve, Shaun, KL Oasis Legends, and Alana who we also saw in Don Det in Laos 2 months ago, very random, good times!). Next stop, Melaka on the coast.