Living The Dream......

After being in the city for a week I realised that once I had seen the big sites, there wasn't much more to do there. Lots of drinking and meeting cool people, but I could do that anywhere! Its also really hard to find a job and flat in the city....

So I decided to get a real slice of aussie life and moved to a place in northern Sydney called Manly. Manly is a quieter place with lots of beaches (one of them is the beach they film home and away on) and a much more relaxed way of life. I am staying in a place that is about 100m from the beach (I can see it from my window!) in a room with 4 guys from Sweden and one from France.

I've been here 3 days and my usual day consists of getting up about 9am, walking to the beach, surfing for about 3 hours, getting lunch, chatting to the other guests, more surfing, lying on the beach, dinner, then couple of beers on the beach........ Its a hard life I must say.......

I managed to get a job fitting air conditioning systems, which I start on Friday so hopefully I will make a bit of money finally! I love this place and I'm worried I wont be able to leave when its time to move on!!!





The beach......



Me about to brave the sea without a wetsuit!



Trying to get on a wave



That wave was bigger than it looks......

G'day!

Been quite busy trying to sort out somewhere to live over xmas and NY lately but I've still had time to go see a few sites!

I went to the aquarium and wildlife center in cockle bay and have walked around Sydney harbour to see the opera house and bridge. Went to an area called Manly where I am trying to find a place cos its beautiful. On the ferry back a load of dolphins swam up along side us and were jumping alongside the ferry!!

Anyway, this is a rather rushed post cos I need to go look at a flat in a bit but here are some pics. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to take my camera everywhere so they are all from my fone!




A weird bird with a horn!



Some of Manly beach (where I wanna live!)



view of Sydney from the boat to Manly



The opera house!



A wallaby



Opera house again



He's not dead!

The land of Oz.....

So as I said in the last post, I got to Sydney and found the hostel with no problems. The hostel is the biggest in Sydney and it actually reminds me of being in uni halls (in a good way!). I am sharing a room with 9 other people, 5 from the UK, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Ireland, 1 from the US and one from South Africa who are all really nice.

Everyone in Australia is so friendly! You walk into a shop and the people behind the counter will chat to you for ages before even attempting to serve you.

I haven't done much sightseeing yet so there are no pics in this one I'm afraid.
I did walk over to Sydney harbor but didn't have my camera - I'll take some pics next time I'm down there. It was amazing to see though. I've spent most of the time here trying to sort out a tax file number (otherwise I get taxed 47%!!), a phone, driving license, medicare card and a bank account.

Only got the medicare card left to do so tomorrow I'm finally gonna get to go to the beach! Hopefully next time I will have something more interesting to write!

Ciao for now!

Left Hong Kong today.....The place is truly amazing, there is always loads going on and the scenery is stunning!

There are only two bad things in my opinion. Everyone is so crowded together (the smallest building I saw was 5 stories, most are 15+) that the air pollution in urban areas is ridiculous! The other thing is that the locals arn't very friendly (unless you have some money to spend.....). This might be because they are under siege from McDonalds and Starbucks, which are on every street......so they probably dont like westeners for inflicting those on them!

Anyway, the good points far outweigh the bad and its the perfect place to go for a week or two, especially if you can afford to stay in the nice hotels! So I'll probably go back one day because there are still things that I didn't see.

Just got to Sydney, the hostel is great (and it was where it was supposed to be this time) so I'm gonna catch up on some sleep (i had to get up at 5am this morning) and hit Sydney tomorrow!

Kowloon & Ocean Park

The last two days I've been quite busy!

Yesterday I went to Kowloon, one of the biggest urban areas in Hong Kong. As soon as I got off the boat I was surrounded by people trying to get me to buy cheap designer suits and copy watches.... After (finally!) getting away from them I went to the Hong Kong space museum which was ok-ish apart from one ride that recreated what is would be like to walk on the moon which was amazing, each step you take you bounce about 2 meters!



These dudes were just wandering along the streets driving a precession of remote control lorries!








After that I walked through Kowloon park to Temple Street for the night market. This place was sooooo busy there were people and stalls everywhere...... most of the stalls had the kind of market type things you'd find anywhere like keyrings, lighters, fake electronic stuff etc. but there were also a few selling stuff like oriental pottery and herbs promising to cure everything you could imagine! I didnt buy anything (cos I already have too much stuff) and walked back along the coast to see the coastal view of Hong Kong Island at night.....it looks like the inside of a computer, there are lights everywhere!



The day view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon



An arty statue outside the space museum



Bruce Lee!



The Hong Kong Convention Center, such a cool building!



View of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon



Some of the lights in Kowloon Park



Another view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon



A typical street in urban Hong Kong, I hope you like this picture 'cos I almost got run over taking it!









Today I was a complete tourist and visited Ocean Park. It is the biggest theme park in Asia apparently...... The rides were quite good and made even better by the fact that you are flying out over the sea on most of them! There is an artificial reef with all kinds of sharks, fish, turtles etc. all swimming around together. There is also a shark tank that you walk through as they swim above you, a dolphin show and an enclosure with a Giant Panda inside (I've never seen one before!).

Oh, and the park is split into two parts, one on each side of a mountain. To get to each one you take an amazing cable car journey over the mountain which doesnt look the least bit safe but gives some spectacular views!



View from the cable car



The other cars, the ride was amazing!



"What you lookin at?!"



I wish I was this acrobatic!



I found Nemo! and his friends.....



A dolphin doing a backflip



"Yaaaaaawn"

Hong Kong!

So, I got to Hong Kong fine and was rather pleased with myself when i managed to find my way using only busses (which cost roughly 3 quid rather than 40 for a taxi) to the hostel (which is on a different island than the airport). That pleasure was short-lived when my hostel actually wasnt where it should have been!
Luckily, there was a janitor at the place who told me where it now was and after expressing my displeasure, they gave me a double room for the trouble :)

That night i went out to walk around. I am in a fairly main part on Hong Kong island called causeway bay but when you get outside in the street it is like central London on a friday evening....all the time. All shops stay open til 11pm, most much later, and there are loads of random stalls on the street so theres lots to see/do all night long.

Today (friday) I went to "the peak" which is the biggest mountain in Hong Kong. To get up there you take a tram which is old and wobbly yet gets almost vertical at some points! There is a big building on top and you can go up on the roof for a 360 degree view of all the islands of Hong Kong which is amazing! I also did the "HK walk" around the mountain and the wildlife is amazing. There are millions of butterflies everywhere and they are as big as small birds!

I'm trying to upload pics but the hostel's idea of "high speed internet" and mine differ greatly.....ill try and add some more later!

Peace



View of central from the peak with Kowloon in the background




View across the mountain from the peak





View down the valley to the reservoir





Street art on top of the peak building




Another picture of central




Me!



Fish in Hong Kong park, with a turtle trying to climb out!




This is the sort of thing they put on the wedding cars over here!




My best attempt at taking a picture of a butterfly, it was as big as my hand!




A rubber tree!




View from furthur down the mountain accross Hong Kong Island

hello world!

Apart from being a good title for the first post on this blog, "hello world" is the first thing I heard when I called up to book my flights! (Its the slogan for travelocity.co.uk in case you're wondering!).

The flights are as follows:
Depart from Heathrow on the 18th Oct
Arrive in Hong Kong on the 19th
Depart from Hong Kong on the 23rd
Arrive in Sydney on the evening of the 23rd!

I was offered a free stopover in Hong Kong when I called up and, even though I knew nothing about Hong Kong at the time, thought I might as well go for it!

At the time of writing this I leave in six days and I still need to sort out a ridiculous amount of stuff (including a place to stay when I arrive in Sydney!!). Oh well, I'll probably get it all sorted by the time I arrive at the airport.....

Anyway, seeing some of the world has always been a dream for me and I can't wait to get going! Hope you enjoy reading, leave lots of comments :)