Pattaya, Russians Galore and Old Men

Friday 21st October - Hello all. Now in Pattaya, staying in a Hostel called 'Jomtien'. Located in the south of Pattaya. The hostel is family run, its basic but incredibly clean, i am in a 7 man dorm with en suite bathroom, there is no air conditioning however there are 2 fans fixed on the wall, they don't help too much, just more circulate the warm air. The room is clean and so is the bedding, however the beds uncomfortable and have had a couple of sleepless nights. Apart from one member of staff the rest speak little English, however they are friendly and always greet you with a smile, at a mere BHT250 a night (£5) its perfect. The area i am in is the quieter part of Pattaya but I like it, the beach is less than 5mins walk.

So after arriving late on Thursday and having a sleepless night I awoke feeling pretty groggy and not really feeling like doing alot. However i forced myself up and grabbed breakfast. I then read for a while and did some Internet research on my next destination, not that as yet i know where i am going but Koh Chang seems most likely. So after chilling, my stomach was rumbling to let me know it was lunch time. I walked out to the main street and found a small side street containing a number of local Thai places. I found a place, it was local not commercialised and cheap. I ate a good sized meal along with a sprite and a bottle of water, it came to less than £2 and the food was good. I was now truly back in to the backpacker rhythm. After lunch i headed to the beach, all of 2 seconds across the road. To be honest there isn't much of beach, well there is but it is lined for a good few miles with deck chairs and sun parasol's. Just like in Europe you have to pay for a chair, when i said deck chair it really was a deck chair, no sun loungers here, meaning no lying down, meaning not great for getting a tan. however some of the chairs and tables were dug into the sand right on the waters edge meaning you could dip your feet into the sea. I found a spot and paid BHT30, less than £1. I was soon lounging, top off and within minutes the sound of the small waves and sea breeze had, had its normal effect of instantly de-stressing me. I was hot and yearning for a swim, i hadn't swam since India in a hotel pool, so was straight in the not so cold see, however it was still very refreshing, I swam, splashed around and lay on the waters edge basking in the sun. After a few hours of tanning, swimming and reading I decided to go for a walk down the main street in Jomtien. The sea front running a good 2-3 miles from end to end, its lined with 7/11's on every corner, countless pharmacies, restaurants, ATM's and bars, though the latter not being that many, as i mentioned earlier this was the quieter part of Pattaya, and as i was to find out the following day, much quieter and i am glad I was staying at this end of Pattaya. It was walking around I noticed something quite strange, the whole of Russia was here!!! Looking back at my time on the beach everyone was Russian. The men, usually with beer belly's and short haircuts wearing the tightest budgie smuggling speedo's and the women, even though not always attractive all had great legs and toned torso's (and 9/10 times great rack's). I have nothing against Russian's and i am sorry if any are reading but they all come across as very rude, this maybe due to the fact that they speak no English, never mind any other language. This would explain that all the shops in Pattaya having additional signs in Russian, dedicated travel shops just for Russians, run by Russians and all menu's written in Thai, English and Russian, all the places i have been i have never seen this, usually the local language and English for the foreigners, but to have a dedicated Russian section?!?!? It really is 'liitle Russia' here or just as most cities have 'chinatown' Pattaya has a 'RussiaTown'. The second thing i noticed walking round was the amount of old men, mostly English but also lots of other nationalities, now in fairness there weren't as many here as there would be in central Pattaya, which I visited the following day but their was a lot. Of course they are here for one thing, a Thai girlfriend or bride. Again i am sorry to any readers that maybe older with Thai girlfriends but i find  this revolting, OK that's a strong word, embarrassing maybe, its just wrong! However of course the Thai women bring it on themselves and encourage it, they want the wealthy white men who will give them what they want, dope over them and buy them gifts, even if they are well into their 50's, huge beer belly's and do nothing but visit gogo bars looking for a young 20yr old to have sex with, The men get sucked in, they go home back to England with their new Thai girlfriend waiting back in Thailand for them to return.. so they think, of course they are not waiting for them, they are waiting for money to be sent and gifts but not for them and as soon as another middle age rich white man shows them attention the poor besotted, loved up beer drinking Brit is forgotten. I heard one such story from an Irish guy in a bar, he had given over nearly 10K for various things over a 6month period, sending it while he was back in Ireland, just before his next visit to Thailand, she called and said she had met another foreigner, i thought this shaven headed, 22ST man in is late 40's was going to burst into tears telling me, I thought 'what a surprise and were you really that gullible?' the answer of course yes, he still comes 3 times a year looking for his Thai beauty. All this said, from what I can gather, some of them do work out but only usually when their ages are similar, that's fair enough, however when when there is a almost 40 year age gap, I really just think its a bit sick but each to their own and its not effecting my life, these of course are just MY opinions.

After a wonder round i headed back to the hostel, feeling hot and sticky and having walked a good mile or so i decided to jump into one of the local 'Baht buses'. These are really cool, there 'cattle' like trucks with the driver sat in a cab, an open back with a roof which has cushioned benches either side. To get off there a number of buzzers, which are just in effect door bells which indicates to the driver you want to get off, you can press any time and the driver will stop there an then (as long as safe of course). There are 2 standard charges 10 and 20 baht and for 20 baht that will get you well into central Pattaya which is around 20mins away, less than 50p, on getting off you just poke your money through  the window. I really love the way this works and they are in plenty, running from around 7am to 1am, though during the week times may vary. Back at the hostel, i just relaxed and read my book which i am whizzing through, i decided I'd find a book store the following day. At around 7ish myself and 'Bram' who I am currently sharing with decided to head for some food. Bram, from the Netherlands's is 20 and has only been in Thailand a week, he actually got deported from Japan. He had been working their for 9months and left to visit South Korea, he returned to Japan this time no problem, he then left again and visited Singapore, on his return to Japan he unfortunately got caught by Immigration as, as a foreigner your not allowed to leave and return within a year. On being deported he decided to come to Thailand. We found a restaurant on the main street, this was a more commercial place and not one of the local back street places, meaning that food was more expensive. This was Bram's first try of local cuisine and from what he said, really enjoyed it. We had a few beers and chatted all the while on a huge TV screen played, quite loudly a Westlife concert, how very random!!! The only thing i could think is that the Russian contingency loved a bit of Westlife, as apart from a Thai couple we were surrounded by our Russian friends. We didn't stay too late and headed back on the way picking up some chicken on stick from a street vendor. I feel now that this will be the way forward, eating from street vendors, and as i had done for lunch local backstreet Thai places, as much as the restaurant myself and Bram went to was nice food, it wasn't a large portion and 3 times the price of my earlier lunch.

Saturday 22nd - I didn't sleep well again that night, i think it was the mattress and my back was in agony. Unable to sleep i was up at 5.30am, not wanting to wake Bram and Mick up i grabbed my laptop and book and headed down the communal area. At 7am breakfast  could be ordered, i ordered a full breakfast, which consisted of double egg on 2 toast, a raison of bacon (if you could call it that) orange juice and tea, followed by a rather large portion of red watermelon, for £2 you couldn't complain. I read some more and then headed for the beach, i felt a little rough due to my allergies and i knew a swim in the cool morning sea would help no end, it of course did. Not wanting to stay too long in Russia's version of Benidorm I needed to move on, I decided i was going to visit Koh Chang, Thailand's 3rd biggest island, located on the Thai east, 310KM from Bangkok. The cheapest way to get there would be by minibus, a 4hour journey to a place called Trat, which is on the coast and then an hour ferry from there to Koh Chang. Many travel places offered taxi services but there didn't seem to be many travel places in Jomtien, even with the 2mile stretch and 100's of shops, the one's that i did find were all Russian. This meant i needed to head to Pattaya central, the hub of Pattaya with hundreds if not thousands of bars. Of course this brought the 'white' man, and of all ages. The bars are a mixture of Go, Go bars, massage parlours (of course with the option of extras I'm sure), strip clubs, ping pong shows and somewhere I am sure just your normal bar. So after the beach i headed back to the hotel to change, Mick was in and also said he'd come along for a wonder round and said he would show Pattaya's most popular road 'walking Street'. We jumped on a Bhat bus and arrived in central after 30mins. Early afternoon only and this place was already busy, i couldn't imagine it later in the evening. We wondered round and i enquired about getting to koh Chang, prices all about the same, BHT600-700, i needed to check on accommodation before i booked transport but now i had an idea. We wondered round, at this time go , go bars and the like were not yet getting going, however massage parlours were lively, with 5-6 eager Thai women outside each shouting, 'hello' or 'massage' and my favourite 'you wanna feel good' over and over, you dare not even look in their direction, one glance and that meant you were interested, you were like a fish on the end of a hook who has just taken the bait, they would try and reel you in, i must admit alot of them are stunning but even if i was inclined to pay for a massage with a happy ending from one of these whore houses, how can I guarantee I'm not going to get a 5'oclock shadow, shovel hands and an Adams apple as big as a golf ball!!?!??!!?

So we found a bar and had a couple of drinks. It was here i realised it looked like i was with my dad. Mick, 52 from Preston, has also taken a 6month sabbatical and travelling the world. So with his age and me looking 10 years younger myself, it looked like a father and son outing. Anyway, Mick is a good bloke, well travelled and up for a laugh. we weren't going to stay out long anyway, that as always with me and most people i am sure did not turn out to be the case, a few hours later its 5pm and we have already had a few. we left the bar we were in and headed for food. By now the area was getting busy, here there were alot more foreigners other than Russians and mainly English, over 50 and over weight, of course this didn't stop the Thai girls who swarmed them like flies. We had food and played pool in a local bar, luckily not getting hassled, I was at first a little put out to why they were not flocking round me, it then dawned on me that I was too good looking, too intelligent and I would know their game!!! of course I was too young and hadn't collected my pension yet either. Mick took me down walking street, this really was something 'special', during the evening closed to cars the 20ft wide street is rammed with tourists, go go girls, prostitutes, ping pong touts, massage touts and of course Russians. It was Koh San road times a 1000. There were some decent bars and we found one playing live music, they were actually pretty good, soon enough i was on whiskeys, Oh dear was this going to be another 'koh san road' night??? Thankfully it wasn't, no disrespect to Mick but we are different ages and conversation was being had but it certainly wasn't free flowing. By the time we left we were both quite drunk, Mick actually more than me. We passed a street vendor so i stopped to look. I shortly was about to be eating locust and frogs legs! I had never seen them in Thailand before never mind tasted them, as they say 'when in Rome' and I am up for trying anything. They actually tasted of nothing apart from some flavourings the vendor put in, they were deep fried and crunchy when ate. I was a little hesitant but only by the look of them, i sucked it up and chomped down, pretty good. I was soon joking around walking with one hanging half out my mouth, I got some funny looks. We jumped on the Baht bus and headed back to the hostel. We got off a little early and decided on one last drink, we found an outside hotel bar and had a couple more before heading back to the 'bed of death', surprisingly i slept well, the 10 or so whiskeys maybe??? It hadn't been a really cheap night, prices on Walking Street are bumped up, even the bars in the surrounding streets charged more, however in the grand scheme of things I think back to my Aussie night out with Kate, for what i paid in 1 night there i could have had the same 3 I had in Pattaya.

Sunday 23rd (today) Woke early as always and felt pretty good. I headed straight out and had breakfast at a local restaurant.I had searched out some hostels on Koh Chang before leaving and was happy i had one in mind. I now needed to book the minivan for tomorrow morning. I headed back to central Pattaya and found a place for BHT600, 500 for minivan and BHT100 for ferry from Trat to Koh Chang, bargain and booked myself on. I would even get picked up from the hostel at 7.30am, result!!! I headed back to Jotien, happy that all was sorted apart from hostel, i promptly rang the hostel i had seen when i got back to my current hostel and they confirmed me in for 3 nights from Monday 24th. All now definitely sorted i headed to the beach and sea to chill. I am now back at the Hostel writing this, i will head for some street vendor food soon  before relaxing and starting my new book, 'The backpacker' yes very cliche but is a true story and about Thailand, again when in Rome. My previous book 'Into the Amazon' now donated to Bram to save space in my bag, was good and for those who like a good travel read, i would recommend it.

One last thing, i decided i was carrying too much luggage and with Island hopping on the agenda for the next few weeks, thought it was a good idea to loose some of the load, I am now minus some Tshirts, a shirt, a 2 pairs of shorts and some socks! Should be a little lighter, however i did buy 'Chang Beer' Tshirt today!!!

That's all for now folks, thanks for reading and hope you are all keeping well.

Bangkok, Tiger Temple And 1 Messy Night

Hello all, hope everyone is good and well. So back on the road again and back to being a 'proper' backpacker, gone are hot showers, my own room, SKY TV and friendly faces and hospitality. Leaving OZ was more like starting travelling again and as i stated in my last blog it felt more like home than travelling, that said it was welcomed and its not like i haven't been to OZ before. I had a 9 hour flight from Melbourne to Bangkok, I must admit i was less than impressed with the flight. Even though all my flights are with Quantas, they outsource to Jet star, a less luxury airline. There were no personal TV's and food, drinks and snacks were all chargeable. However to my joy 2 hours into the flight I was advised by the stewardess that I had already pre-paid hot meals and a drink, had I?? I am guessing this was due to the fact that Quantas had outsourced to Jet Star. I could have purchased a 'entertainment unit' for $15, however i was tired due to the heavy and late night the previous evening with Kate and friends, I also had purchased a new book after finally finishing Danny Wallace's 'join me' which had taken me nearly 4 weeks to read, which was surprising as i really enjoyed, is definitely worth a read. My new book, 'Into the Amazon' is also turning out to be a great read, a true story about a guy and his wife from Bristol in fact, who venture into the Amazon rainforest to discover unmapped lands, it wont be long before i finish it.

I arrived in Bangkok at 8pm, I had already booked a hostel for 2 nights on the recommendation of Joe, who if you remember i had met in India, it was called 'Lub'd' and had some great reviews. I had researched how to get to the hostel before leaving Melbourne and the fastest and cheapest way would be the MRT and then switch to the Skytrain. The Hostel was situated in the 'Siam' area of the city and was next to the impressive MBK shopping center with 7 floors and the National stadium. The train and skytrain altogether took 45mins from the airport at mere BHT50 (£1=BHT50) pretty cheap i am sure you will agree. I got off at Siam, and went in search of the Hostel, i had read it was directly opposite the station, this didn't seem to be the case. I asked around and finally found a policewoman, she said that there was no hostel of that name around here, now feeling tired and agitated, i was already sweating carrying 20KG's and the humidity, which isn't that bad but when your slightly stressed and tired carrying a small person, its not nice. she advised me to go to the 'Information Center' and grabbed me a tuk tuk, we drove 10mins away from Siam, I knew already that this was not good, not that i thought i was in danger but i knew the hostel was close to the station. We got to the information center, I guy greeted me and asked if i wanted somewhere to stay, at this point i was calm and said no, i have somewhere i just want to find my hostel and gave him the address. After 5mins of him trying to get me to change and sell me al sorts of trips I lost my rag, and quite bluntly said 'I just want to got to my Fcking hostel' he gave me a hard glare and then instructed the Tuk Tuk to take me to Lub'd Hostel, i was there within 10mins and the Tuk Tuk drive knew exactly where it was, I didn't pay him for the return journey and he didnt complain. The hostel was great, 24hr staff, free WIFI as well as 6 up to date PC's, also free for use. The whole place was immaculate clean, hot showers and clean bathrooms. I was stying a 4 man dorm and there was one other person in my room, who returned later, Galen, 27 from Canada. I slept well that night. The next day Monday 17th, I chilled for most the morning and figured out what i was going to do. I decided to visit the 'Grand Palace'. This was about 15min taxi ride to the west of Bangkok. I had been warned about Taxi's and the fact they should always use the meters, i jumped in one and he confirmed the use of meter, it came to BHT65, getting round Bangkok sure was cheap. I was wearing shorts, this i found out was not allowed, however of course there were people hiring out long trousers in abundance for around BHT30, Once sorted i headed into the Palace complex at a cost of BHT400. It was busy, with many large groups on guided tours, I opted just wonder around thinking there would be information as you walked around, this was not the case, no matter. The Palace and Temples were very impressive, after India and the amount of Palaces and Temples I had seem there, i had been reluctant to visit another but i am glad I did. I left an 1hr 30min later with some cool photo's. I decided to head for the infamous 'koh San Road'. popular with tourists the road is probably half a KM long and the only traffic are taxi's and Tuk Tuk's. In the day the street's are lined with the usual market stalls selling anything and everything, shops's were also in abundance and small alley ways off the road also hosted stall after stall. It was 12.30pm and when i had reached the road it was quiet, i later found out that everything doesn't get going until 2pm and then runs till around 11pm, by which time the bars, restaurants and ping pong establishments come alive, along with many food street vendors selling numerous thai delicacies. I grabbed some lunch, a Thai green curry which was awesome and had a couple of beers. I thought about staying and getting drunk and hoping to meet some fellow backpackers but I wasn't really in the mood, I need some toiletries also, so found a 'Boots' of all places and headed back to the hostel. That evening I read and got to know Galen a little more, not that hungry there was a number street vendors just outside the hostel, so grabbed some sort of noodle soup which wasn't too heavy, however it was hot hot and gave me the sweats, was nice though and of course cheap, cheap, cheap. Earlier in the evening I had also booked to stay the another night as the following day I wanted to do a day trip and it didn't finish till late, i perhaps should have moved as the all action of Koh San Road was 20mins from where Lub.d was and the skytrain  didn't pass this way, however i didn't and booked another night at BHT500, still pretty cheap. I also booked on a day tour, this would take me to the floating market, the bridge over the river Kwai and the controversial 'Tiger Temple'.

Tuesday 18th - Was up at 6am to grab some breakfast as i was being picked up at 7am. A small minivan arrived just after, there were already 4 other passengers. Indian's from Bangalore who wwere now living in the middle east, a brother and sister from the middle east and their partners. I was to have a great day with them, their English was perfect and different to most Indian's, they were very friendly and funny and joined me in their conversations. Matthew was our guide for the day, Thai from Bangkok and again luckily for me his English very good. Our first stop was the floating market. This was situated 100KM west of Bangkok and took just over 1hr 30mins to get there. Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is well on the tourist trail after the Bond films. Totally chaotic, small 'klongs' or canals are filled with small flat boats jockeying for position, expertly paddled by mature ladies ready to stop and bargain at a moment's notice. It's colourful and noisy. Long boats are piled high with tropical fruit and vegetables, fresh, ready-to-drink coconut juice and local food cooked from floating kitchens located right on the boat. We jumped aboard a long board and had a 20min ride through the canals, occasionally stopping at one of the many shops to gander at the goods they had on offer. We were then dropped off in the heart of the canal's, almost on a small island where again it was a shoppers paradise. I opted not to go on a spending spree, though was tempted by some canvas pictures of the market in black and white, size and space in my bag put a dampers on that idea. We left the Market and headed for the 'bridge of the River Kwai'. made famous by the old war film. In all honesty I was less than impressed, as from the title of the attraction it was just a bridge over the river Kwai. Not all was a disappointment here, this is where we had a buffet lunch on a floating restaurant. It was pretty good and was all you can eat, i refrained to only 2 helpings with some fruit for dessert. After lunch we headed for Kanchanaburi province, this was the home to our next attraction the Tiger Temple. A buddist temple established in 1994 its a sanctuary for wild animals including 15 Bengal Tigers. The temple is always surrounded by controversy given that the obviously the main attraction is the tigers and you can get up close and personal with them, as I later did having a tigers head on my lap. This brings the question of how does a Tiger let you do that, of course the first question on every one's lip's is 'are they drugged?'. After asking this question to Matthew, he explained no, they are just have been brought up from a young age around people and have been tamed. I would wait to see for myself and make my own assumptions. We arrived at the temple, signing a disclaimer which basically said if a tigers decide to use you as a toy and maul you like a rag doll, the temple is not to blame, fair enough i thought. We headed for the Tiger 'pit' first of course. There were plenty of tourists, all wanting to get their picture with a fully grown Bengal Tiger. For those that know me, you will know i was first in line, big cats I think are amazing, beautiful animals and of course need to be respected, with the whole drugging issue in the back of my mind it was still perhaps going to be the only chance I'd ever have to cuddle a fully grown tiger. There were around 10 tigers, all sprawled out in the shade, all with thick metal collars and chained to the floor. Apart from one, who was pacing back and forth eyeing up the tourists, he certainly wasn't drugged. I must admit on seeing them, they really all did look lifeless, only there huge rib cages lifting up and down as they breathed, gave away that they were indeed not dead. You were lead by hand by a guide, slowly moving between the tigers, they would tell you were to sit and what position to take, then a guide would take pictures using your own camera, I wasn't sure how I felt the whole time, feeling amazed at the fact I had an Tiger on my lap but also a strong feeling of in fact they must be drugged, even when the trainer placed the weighty tigers head on my lap, not once did it open its eyes. I am still now 3 days later unsure how to feel about the experience. We left the 'pit' and wondered round the grounds coming across another more enclosed pit with 3 younger tigers, these were very much not drugged and was an awesome sight to see them play fight with each other and make deep roar type noises. I got some great pic's of the beautiful cat's at play. We were soon back on the road and heading back to Bangkok, this would take around 3-4hrs depending on Traffic.

It took almost 4hrs and i arrived back at around 8.30pm. Not that hungry, checked some emails and such like and then chilled out in the communal area, here I met Kerry-Lee and Emily. Kerry 27 from South Africa but currently living in the UAE and Emily 29 from New York. We chatted for a while and decided that we were all going to head to Koh San Road for lunch the following day. This was my last night in the hostel and as yet I still didn't know where I was heading next. I knew it would be south Thailand. The previous day i had booked up for the infamous full moon party on koh Phagan island which is situated to the east oof Phucket but this wasn't till the 10th November, I would arrive on the 7th so being only the 18th October i had at least 15 days kill. I had in my mind that i would go down to Phi Phi island, which is the east of Phucket spend some days there, then head back to the mainland and stay in Phucket somewhere for a while, then head on over to Koh Phangan. I was tired and i had seen a number of travel places on Koh San Road, so when we headed there the next day i would sort it out, as i knew that it would be an over night bus down to Phucket which left at around 8pm, meaning i would check out of Lub.d in the morning and then leave my bags in storage, find a travel place and then book the overnight bus if i could for that evening. This you will soon read didn't happen!!!!

Check out wasn't until 12pm, so i chilled out and made the most of the free time, Galen had left early so had  the dorm to myself. I met with Emily and Kerry at around 2pm and headed for Koh San. We found a bar and ordered food and a couple of beers. We had been sat outside however within 20mins the rain was coming down with ferocity. We moved inside and had more beers. The rain wasn't subsiding, by now on my 4th beer i was getting bloated, then came the decision that would end all my hopes of getting the night bus to Phucket, I spotted a cocktail list, soon myself and Emily were on long island Ice teas, my favourite and for those of you that know it, strong as hell. Kerry restrained but got on  the whisky. We were soon well on our way and it was only 5.30pm. I then spotted a guy sitting alone, he made comment about a waitress who had a rather deep and manly voice, of course she was a he, we laughed and I invited him to come over. His name was Raphael from France and he was one funny guy. The cocktails kept coming, we soon had another recruit, Jay from Korea hag also been sat on his own, again we called him over, 21 and a lively and funny guy, we were all soon chatting, laughing and of course drinking. We soon moved onto the next bar, Koh San Road now fully alive with people, street vendors and tourists. We found another bar, here we gained another 2 recruits to our ever expanding collective. Ryan and Sue from the UK, again great people and very funny, the shots were soon out and the night was getting messy and so was I. We moved on again and Ryan and Sue left us, it was now midnight, at the next bar, here bumped into 2 girls from the hostel who I had chatted with the previous day about full moon. Clare and Kate both from London, we had another 2 willing recruits and soon we had more as they attracted 3 English guys, one who was living an working in Thailand, they had all met that night also. From this point i really cant remember much. I have debated entering this next bit but i think most of you will have a laugh at my expense. I was feeling the effects of the cocktails and shots and suddenly felt ill, it came on quicker than a speeding bullet, I was not going to make the toilet, i turned my head and luckily it was only myself Kerry on this particular table, yes you guessed it I chundered a brownish fluid all over the floor, 'that will be the long island's then' i thought. I was devastated, I am never sick, either on the night, during or the next day when drinking. I was hugely embarrassed, however this had given me a second wind and i felt better. We quickly moved on to another bar, with only Kerry knowing i had just painted the bar floor with the contents of my stomach. Tt was now getting on for 3am, we attempted a club but it was already closed to new party goers. At this point i then realised i was homeless, i had no accommodation and though Emily and Kerry had spare beds in their dorm, the hostel are very strict on non guests staying over and being as the dorm was all girls, the other guest may have not approved. The hostel hadn't been rammed, i was sure they had a spare bed, we got back and so they did, i grabbed my backpack from storage and passed out in my empty 4man dorm fully clothed. It had been a funny, messy, fun night, despite leaving my mark own kind of mark on koh San road.

The next day I am sure you can imagine, I was far from feeling my best, i was still drunk when i got up and showered at around 10am. I checked out still not having a plan, i put my bag in storage and sat on the sofa feeling sorry for myself and chatting with Emily and Kerry about how the hell a quiet lunch had turned into a 15hr drinking binge, the culprit out right was the Long island ice tea's. My head was hazy and i couldn't think, it got to 4pm, after considering going to go Koh Samui with Emily and then deciding it wasn't logistically going to work I still didn't know what i was going to do. Phi Phi was top of the list but i didn't want to travel 15hrs in the state i was in. So remembering that the Indians from the day trip had mentioned a place called Pattaya, which is just south of Bangkok and only 1hr 30mins bus ride at a cost of BHT113. Its a beach town and popular with Thai's due easy access from Bangkok. I made a decision that I would go, booked a hostel for 3 nights and headed for the bus station via the Skytrain, this was a very unpleasant experience in my current state, the train was packed like sardines and hot!!! I was thankful to get off. found my bus and headed for Pattaya.

Now in South Pattaya staying at a hostel called Jomtien, I am sharing with 2 guys who i haven't as yet really met. The sun is out, so on finishing this post going to head the beach for the first time since GOA in the first week of my India travels. I neither loved Bangkok or hated it, it was fun, I got to see and hug a Tiger and left my own special souvenir on Koh San Road!!!!

Melbourne, Great Ocean Rd And Feeling At Home

Hello, Bonjour, Ola, Namaste followers, I hope you are all good and well. when I say followers there hasn't really been much to follow recently, its been well over a week since I blogged. My last blog finished with me arriving in Melbourne on Friday 7th October, its now Wednesday 19th, so for those of you that follow me religiously, which I am sure you are in your thousands I apologise for my absence.So i finished my last blog finishing my 3 day OZ experience trip down from Sydney, so I will pick it up from there. I was dropped off by the bus just outside the city off the M1 freeway as my friends the Axe's lived in a suburb call Oakleigh East, this was ideal as Matt had agreed to pick me up and saved him driving into the city. So after getting a little lost (Matt still only havibg been living in Melbourne for 6months) he found me wandering the streets just before the rain came down. We arrived back at his place soon after and what a lovely house I would be living in the next week or so. I had my own bedroom and pretty much my own bathroom albeit being downstairs. That night we had dinner, a few drinks, caught up and had a few laughs. That night I slept very well in the comfiest bed I had been in since starting my travels and had a good 10 hours sleep. Matt had mentioned the night before about going to the MCG stadium, (which by the way I would constantly call MGC and on numerous occasions ask Matt, 'what is is again?', how can i forget the order of 3 little letters???). MCG or Melbourne Cricket Ground (you wouldn't believe i just wrote MGC.. WTF!??!) anyway, Melbourne if you didn't know is referred to as the sporting city of Australia, with events like the Grand Prix, Australian Open and Melbourne Cup (horse racing). Its has numerous stadiums and all these seem to be situated in the same area just outside the City. The MCG is the biggest of them all, with a whopping 100,000 seat capacity, making it one of the worlds largest stadiums. The MCG obviously hosts Cricket, given the name but also in the cricket off season, AFL, which is huge is Melbourne. The stadium hosted tours on a daily basis, so we caught the train in the city, this would take around 20-30mins and would be my regular daily journey over the next week into Melbourne. Matt showed me where the station was and how to get a ticket. The price from Oakleigh East is $7, this got me in and out of the city and able to use the city buses and trams unlimited until midnight. We arrived at the stadium, weather slightly over cloudy (as usual for wherever i go at the moment) bought our tickets and within 10mins we were being guided round the stadium by a lovely and knowledgeable elderly man. The tour lasted maybe a couple of hours, the stadium was pretty impressive and though not knowing much about either Cricket or AFL I really enjoyed it. So we left the MCG, headed into the City to grab a bite to eat. We arrived at Flinder's Street, which is pretty much the hub of Melbourne as this hosts Flinders Street Train station, the station from the outside looks pretty cool, with an old Victorian look about it. Opposite the station is 'Federation Square' with some cool funky contemporary looking buildings, a huge cafe/bar and very good Tourist Information centre.  As we approached the square we saw a large gathering, of course a street performer was hard at work entertaining the Melbourne people as well as tourists galore. The show started off poorly and we almost walked away, however we were soon laughing as the guy interacted with the crowd, danced and even got 3 members of the public to do the same and making 2 of them take there top's off, unfortunately one wasn't the girl of the 3. After it had finished we headed to the cafe and had a very good Calamari salad and a few beers, by now the sun was shining and looking over federation square with the mixture of old and new buildings, trams cruising past and the different flavours of people walking by, i was already starting to love Melbourne and hadn't even really seen more than a square mile. After a late lunch we headed back to Oakleigh and arrived back at Matt's for about 6ish, that evening we had arranged to go out for a Meal in St Kilda. It wouldn't be a  messy affair or particularly late due to Matt and Kristie having inconsiderately signed up to do the Melbourne 10K run the following day which meant a 5am start for them (and as it turns out me, not running of course just spectating). So that evening we headed to lively St Kilda, 6km's south of the city it hosts Melbourne's closest beach, has numerous eateries, bars and cafe's and is popular with locals for a good night out. Kristie had already booked a table at 'Elbow Room' which was a nice restaurant on Fitzroy Street, which is where most the action is. The food was great, the wine just as good and at this point the Axe's I think were regretting signing up for the 10K run, especially Matt who weas ready to say 'fcuk it' and get on it, however they were doing the run with Kristie's brother and i don't think they would have heard the end of it for the rest of their waking lives if they had and guilt kicked in, that of course didn't stop me, finishing the bottle of wine and later having a few more beers while they had soft drinks. Was a nice, welcoming and almost homely feel to my first day in Melbourne.

Now as you know, I can write and write and write, as I have already wrote an essay on my first full day in Melbourne and the fact I was there for 7 days I am just going to be brief about most of my time in Melbourne, this isn't to say it was boring, far from it and i will write about the Great Ocean road, Poker night and my day with my Aussie friend Kate (the girl i met on my India travels). In fact it was probably as the title of this blog states, i just felt so at home in Melbourne, it was almost like it was my life, with Matt and Kristie being at work during the day, I was getting up, chilling for an hour or so, then walking 15mins to the train station and catching the train into the city, on route listening to music and reading my book, which by the way I finally finished, if you can remember i started 'Join Me' by Danny Wallace about a month ago, despite taking so long to read it was very funny and a good read. Anyway, as I was saying it just felt like I lived there for some reason, so different from Sydney and I like Sydney, there is just a nice feeling about Melbourne. I really am considering a move to Australia at some point and Melbourne for sure would be where I would look for work, or at least an on-line Aussie lass who I could use to get into the OZ!!!! So I will be brief, with most my days and what I got up to, as not to bore you and possibly myself in the process.

Sunday 9th October.

Stumbled out of bed at 5am, was  the day of the 10k, the Axe's and Kristies brother, Mick who i had met the day before and was really cool had to be down by the MCG for 7am, both Matt and Kristie really looked like they wanted to be out of bed at this ungodly hour on a Sunday morning, however picked up Mick and headed into city. Race started at 7.30am, we arrived at 6am thinking there would be more traffic, was not the case and had a bit of waiting around to do. I walked to the start line with them, the rain had now started, i again made my apologies for bringing it with me, and off they went. I wondered to the finish line, grabbing a hot dog and a cuppa en-route, I wonder why i have put on a few pounds, perhaps eating hot dogs at 7.30 in the morning. within 55mins they had finished, I believe Mick 1st of the 3 with 52min and the Matt with 53min and Kristie just 5sec's behind, that was a great effort from all, seeing as I found out they hardly trained. We headed to breakfast on the way back to Oakleigh, feeling guilty about my earlier nutritious meal I just had fruit and yoghurt, that made up for it right??? We then headed back, all feeling a little jaded the Axe's  took a catnap and I just chilled and watched TV. Late afternoon myself and Matt met Mick at the local pub as Australia were playing in the rugby world cup, a few of Mick's friends joined who were cool and we had a few beers, Kristie picked us up a few hours later and both me and Matt were feeling the alcohol and slightly drunk. We had a roast courtesy of Kristie and chilled out for the night.

Monday 10th October

Woke up at 9ish, feeling a little tired from the previous long day. I leisurely had breakfast headed to the train station and got the 11ish train into the city. Weather was overcast but not cold, I found out that there was a free tourist bus service which circled the city, stopping at various Melbourne hotspots around the city. I found the closest stop and picked up a leaflet which showed what was at each stop. By now the rain had come and wasn't really a day for wandering the streets. Victoria Market was on one of the stops about half way round the city loop, it was under cover so thought this would be a good place to go. The bus was packed and as we neared the stop I needed the onboard commentary announced the market was next, followed by the 'The market is open every day apart from Monday and Wednesday' just my luck, the only thing i fancied doing and it was closed. I stayed on the loop and feeling a little deflated got off at Flinders street had a beer at Fed Square and then caught the train back. Rest of the evening I just chilled with the Axe's and watched TV.

Tuesday 11th

Awoke feeling energetic. Lack of exercise and the fact i had been a little too well since arriving in OZ and gaining a few pounds i decided to go for a run. This was hard work but manage to do 4K. I was now feeling really at home and decided that a venture into the city and doing something was the last thing from my mind, so just chilled watched some TV caught up with some peeps on the ole tinternet and waited for Matt and Kristie to get home. We had planned to go to the cinema that evening. Matt got home around 5 yielding some of the biggest prawns i had ever seen. He cooked dinner which was awesome and after dinner we headed straight out to to the cinema. We had planned to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love much to Matt's dismay but it was 2 against 1 however Matt soon got his own way as the last remaining seats were front row, it was a no thanks to a crooked neck for 2hrs. Instead , now to Matt's joy we watched Real Steel, it was pretty good if not cheesy in places. 

Wednesday 12th

I had been waiting for some good weather to book a trip down the Great Ocean Road. So far it had looked grim all week but I couldn't leave OZ being so close to the Great Ocean Road without doing at least a day trip. I checked the weather and it looked good for Thursday and Friday. So I headed into the city to the Tourist Info centre and booked a day trip for the following day. $130 got me a full day from 7am to 9pm, including lunch, dinner, various stops along the GOR which also included the famous 12 Apostles. The sun was actually out today too, so I decided to get a  tram over to St Kilda and walk along  the beach and pier. I hadn't known where to get off but so St Kilda street, I couldn't have been far from the sea front, I was wrong after asking a rather eccentric 50 something lady who seemed to take a liking to me and told me I was a handsome strapping young man i found out i still had a 30min walk. So off I trotted with the crazy woman still advising where to go after 5mins of explanation and me understanding within the first 30sec's where I was heading. 30mins later i was walking down the pier with some great views of the city skyscrapers in the distance, the sun was now blazing, i grabbed a Salmon and avocado toastie and smoothie on the pier cafe and basked in the sun for a while. After taking a few photo's headed back to St Kilda's main street and picked up the tram back to Flinders Street and jumped on the train back to Oakleigh. I had an early night.

Thursday 13th

Awoke at 5.30am as i needed to be in the city for 7am to be picked up for my GOR trip. I arrived a little early at the pick up point some grabbed a Tea and crossiant. The Great Ocean Road for those of you that don't know is a 151mile stretch of road running along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. It's deemed as the most scenic stretch of road in all of Australia and is a huge tourist attraction. We wouldnt be driving the whole stretch but would be going at least 100K up it. I was picked up shortly after 7. At first I must admit I thought the group was going to be a disaster. Everyone ws in pairs, 2 couples and strangely enough, well i though so anyway mother and daughter combination's, 3 of them. However i was wrong to assume, they were all cool and very chatty. We had an hour or so drive to our first stop, Torquay which hosts the internationally acclaimed surfing beach, 'Bells Beach' It was a just a beach photo stop and we had tea and cake. However this is where I learnt that Torquay was home to Rip Curl and Quicksilver. 3 friends back in the 90's had decided in a garage to start making surf boards for the many surfers that visited the area, soon after Rip Curl was established, a few years later one of the 3 went solo and he established Quicksilver, man i am full of facts in this blog eh?!??!. After Torquay we visited 'Split Point Lighthouse'. As lighthouses go and not that i am an expert of course, this was the best lighthouse I had seen. Again great photo oppurtunties as I am sure you have gathered we are along the coast. We then moved onto the seaside resort of Apollo bay, where we would be having lunch, this was an hour or so drive and i'll say again following the coastline with some amazing views, however I had done it again brought the weather with me, it was dull and cloudy. After lunch we set off towards the world famous 12 Apostles. the 12 Apostles are huge rocks just off the coastline varying in shape and size and stand almost in a line after breaking away from the sea cliffs. It was a shortish drive to our first vantage spot. We climbed down 'Gibbon Steps' onto the beach, by now the sun had come out to play and the sun was blazing, as we got down to the beach and swung a right, the first 2 Apostles stood prominent in the sea, with the rough tide crashing against them with the sun creating an hazy effect it looked amazing. Of course this was every photographers sweet shop, not that I claimed to be one but I snapped away like the paparazzi. We climbed back up the steps to the bus and the next few hours we stopped at various vantage points for more photo's. After at least 5 stops and seeing the rest of the Apostles we headed to a place called Port Campbell for dinner, this was a short stop as time was getting on we had a 3hour journey back to Melbourne. On the way back we all chatted, and the tour leader who was in her 50's and originally from Scotland played some pretty cool 70's and 80's tunes, this passed the time away as all guess the song title and singer. i was quite impressed with my knowledge. I arrived back in the city about 9 and jumped on the train back to Oakleigh, it had been a great day if not long and came away with some great pictures. 

Friday 14th

I woke earlier than I wanted to after the long previous day but the sun was shining again and thought i'd make the most of it and headed down into the city. I thought I'd have a second stab at getting to the Victoria market. I hopped on the free tourist shuttle bus and headed to the market. It was pretty big, full of souvenirs, clothes, shoes and pretty much everything else. I wondered round not really looking for anything particular though I did want a new shirt for the following evening as I was going to paint the town red with Kate as she arrived back from India today and we were going to spend the day together Saturday and then head out as one of her friends was leaving for Nepal for a while. The clothes as you can imagine were typical market quality and yeh I maybe a backpacker but I do like a nice shirt, probably confirming my 'flashpacker' status. I did however pick up a novelty t-shirt with some Aussie slur on it. So after having a delicious sushi lunch i headed to find the DFO (designer fashion outlet) which was on the river. After a long walk, having to call Kristie for directions i found the place. Full of, as the name suggests designer outlets, along with some not so designer outlets. I managed to pick up shirt for $70 not really I am sure a backpackers budget and the fact that i probably wouldnt use again until i arrived home made it even more 'flashpackery' (yes i know thats not even a word, not that flashpacker is a recognised name in  the dictionary either). So again with the sun out i wondered along the river and stuffed myself with ice-cream and headed back to Oakleigh. Mick had suggested a poker game during the week for tonight and was picking us up at 5.30 from the Axe's. Matt had picked up a slab of corona and some dubious lime, which we later figured out was lemon and Mick picked us up to take us to his house where we having the poker session. It was still great weather and Mick's house mate Steve lit up the BBQ, this was what living in OZ is all about. We soon joined by another Matt, Dave and shamefully 2 other guys who's name have suddenly escaped me. In total there were 8 of us, we put in $10, ate chicken, sausages and chips and of course sunk a few cold ones. After a an hour so we were down to 2, myself not being one of them, it was Matt and Matt, as we wanted another game they decided to split the winnings $40 each. We started a new game and by now Dave. Mick's mate was well on his way, and the fact that he wasn't to offay with poker anyway made things interesting. On the second it was me and him left, I had 2 pair J's and K's, Dave was hammered and just kept matching my high bets, he got a straight, i was gutted!! made worse by him saying i didn't even know what i was doing!! I hate playing drunks and novices, there the worst to read. We finished up the game and headed down to the pub for a couple, they had Karaoke, Matt (not Axe) decided he wanted a ago, he was confident and not that drunk, me and Axe thought he must pretty good, I am pretty sure i heard glasses break and dog's run into hiding, fair play though. We grabbed a taxi back to Axe's feeling not too bad, which wasn't a bad thing has the following was  going to be a messy one.

Saturday 15th

I must admit, even though I hadn't been hammered I wasn't feeling 'tip top'. Kate had phoned my early doors, which I was surprised considering she only got back late from India the previous day. She arranged to pick me up at 11am, she had a whole day planned taking me along the coast to one of her favourite places, 'Portsea'. She picked me just after 11 with her friend Jess, Kate hadn't got access to a car so Jess had kindly offered it to her/us for the day, which was really cool, she was off to the races for the day anyway. We dropped Jess off along route and headed for Portsea. as expected the weather was not on our side again. However the drive down was nice and it was great to see Kate, we caught up each other's travels and we had decided that we were now officially cousins. We got to Portsea just after 1pm and went to Kate's favourite restaurant/hotel funnily enough called 'The Portsea Pub'. It was huge place and regularly hosted weddings, i could see why, the rear had a big garden area and over looked the sea, at this point Kate told me this is where she wanted to get married, I thought this was a proposition and politely declined informing her that we were cousins now. The food was great and good portions, of course I had fish. To top it off Kate paid for it all, saying that the day was on her, I was touched. We then went for a short walk and along the pier and then headed back, stopping at a lovely little place called Sorrento , famous for Vanilla Slices, they were massive and delicious. We headed back to the city with our trousers buttons  almost popping off. We arrived back at Oakleigh at around 6.30ish, Kate waited while I got my glad rags on, as we would then head back to hers where she would change before heading to her friends Jess who's husband  was going to drive us into 'Richmond' just on the out skirts of the city were we would meet Jess and Pip, who's leaving might out it was. We got to the first bar at around 9ish, met up with Pip and Jess who after spending the day at  the races was pretty hammered already. The place was busy and took 10mins to get the first round in, which included a shot of black sambuca, this was the start of a messy night. As the evening went on it seemed like we had shots with every normal drink, Taquilla, Sambuca, and vodka, the camera's soon came out and drunken stupid photo's were soon being snapped, especially of me, Kate has kindly added them to facebook if you wish to browse them. We moved onto another bar and things didn't slow down, I still havent checked my account but I know i used my card, we found a dance area and boogied into the night, utterly and completely smashed. We, i think jumped in a taxi art around 2am, dropping Jess off and then me. The next morning I found out from Kate that the taxi was $96, i was like WTF? I then remembered that i hadn't given her a penny towards it, feeling guilty as hell, apologised, in true Kate style she replied 'No worries'. Top girl.

Sunday 16th

Surprisingly I didn't feel too bad, which was good as I had a 14.30 flight to Bangkok. I smooched around the Axe's, grabbed some breakfast and packed my bag. Matt kindly offered to take me to the Airport. We left around 11:15 with a 45 min drive. 

I'd had a great time in Melbourne, i was actually very sad to leave, it really did feel like home, The Axe's had  provided some great hospitality and Kate had ended my stay perfectly, I will miss all 3 of them, however I have vowed to return and I am sure I will. 

Its been a huge blog, so apologies for those that kept reading and for those that gave up, I don't blame you. Now in crazy Bangkok, I'll save that blog for another time and actually there isn't much to tell as I haven't ripped it up in true Bangkok style and to be honest, i am not that bothered. Will update you all more in my next Blog. Take care peep's.

Sydney To Melbourne Road Trip

Hello all, hope everyone is good and well. I left you in my last blog the night before leaving for my road trip from Sydney to Melbourne, so we will pick up there. Wednesday 6th October, I had an early start rising at 5:15am, packing up my bag, saying my farewell's to Ed and Lorna and catching the 6am bus from Randwick down into Sydney central to meet up with the OZ Experience bus for 7am. I arrived in plenty of time and had time to grab a croissant and a cuppa. The bus arrived and within 10min's we were off heading towards our first stop of the day, Australia's capital Canberra. Canberra is not really on many people's itinerary when travelling round OZ and I was to find out why, not your normal lively, vibrant capital city and I am sure most people who have been to Canberra will definitely agree. You would think that Sydney or Melbourne should have been the capital but for those that know the Australian history you will know that there was a huge feud between Sydney and Melbourne for who should take the title of 'Capital City' as neither city would back down an agreement was come to that a 'new' city would be built half way between the 2 cities, this city was Canberra, here 'Parliament House' was built and crowned the capital of Australia. Anyway, boring facts out of the way, we had a 2-3 hour journey to Canberra, it was still early the bus was quiet, I say quiet 'Uncle buck' was far from quiet. Uncle Buck, or as we later found James, was our tour leader for the next 3 days. Buck was a true Aussie from Sydney and had been driving tour buses around the world for over 7 years, he was knowledgeable on Australian history and had plenty to say but was also a true Aussie male, loud, crude and funny. We had 12 in the group and had a range of nationalities, German, Austrian, Swiss-German, Scottish, Italian, Israeli, Dutch and of course myself, English.

As I said it was a quiet start to the day, the 2 Scot's, Martin and Ewan found the back seats and even before we left were out for the count, I was later to find out that they had been on it for 4 days solid, good work boys, true scot's, they were both in their late 20's and both funny guys. Along with Manuela, again in her late 20's and a nurse from Austria and Kev, just a young whipper snapper at 21, a mechanic from Switzerland I was to get on and spend most my time with these guys out of the group, mainly because most of the other guys couldn't speak English. We hit Canberra at around midday, our first stop was the Australian 'War Museum'. I have to say that this and the Parliament House, which was to follow the War Museum was far from the highlight of the 3 day trip, however Buck did his very best to sell both the War Museum and the Parliament House and big them up as if they were one of the wonders of the world, this unfortunately had the opposite effect, we did see a couple of short war video's which were pretty cool and the actual Parliament building itself was pretty impressive to look at, but the tour and inside was pretty boring and I would have rather watched paint dry. What it did though was allow everyone to get to know each other a little better which was surprising given that most of us were I am sure at points drifting off into slumberland. So mid afternoon we were leaving Canberra, now knowing why NO backpackers/travellers add Canberra to their list of 'must see' cities, interestingly however was that Prostitution, Porn and Cannabis have all been legalised, funny that, as its home to the Australia prime minister as well as a bucket load of politicians visiting on a regular basis?!?!?!?.  Again on the road, we now headed for the alpine village of 'Thredbo' were we would stay the night in a local hostel called 'River Inn'.  Thredbo a Ski resort around 3 hours South West of Canberra in NSW, is the highest town in Australia from which you catch a ski chair lift up the mountains were we would be going the following morning. It was now 'off season;' for winter sports and the town would be pretty much deserted but people could still hike up the mountains, even though the season had ended they had still had 33cm of snow fall over the last week. Driving up through the mountains into Thredbo, the scenery and landscape, of course changed dramatically, it was pretty surreal, when you think of Australia the last thing you would associate with the country would be 'snow' very strange but on the other hand pretty cool, the next day I as going to be climbing the mountains to the highest point in Australia, there are not many countries where I could easily hike up to the highest point without professional equipment. We arrived at River Inn at around 6.30pm, checked into our rooms, of which I was sharing a dorm with the 2 scot's and Kev, dumped our bags and found the bar/restaurant. Dinner was included in the tour price, there wasn't any choice of meals, so we all had chicken pasta in a creamy sauce, to be honest it was pretty good and given our hike up the mountain tomorrow was very welcome. Then came the drinks, for the first time this trip in OZ I was able to order pints and at a good price too, the first couple went down too smoothly, shots were soon introduced and randomly doing shot's from a 'ski' Mmm yes interesting and hard to explain but was good fun. As the night progressed people started to hit the sack, I of course was on it and stayed up, there was another OZ experience group staying at the Hostel and by midnight all my group had gone to bed so I stayed up for a while with one of the girls from the group along with the girls which worked behind the bar, which was lucky as it closed at 11 but she had keys so carried on supplying the booze, it definitely had an 'apres ski' feel about place with near freezing temps and the snowy mountains on view from the window.

The next morning we had a bit of a lie in and was down for breakfast for 8am, I hadn't slept too well, for the first time in my life I think i had found someone to rival my snoring, Ewan was going all night like a pneumatic drill, if my snoring is as loud and as bad as Ewan's I apologise to anyone who has ever had to sleep within 100meters of me. We set off at around 9am to the chair lifts which would be a 10min ride half way up the mountains, it wasn't freezing cold but was certainly chilly and as i hadnt planned to be in such cold weather didnt have winter clothes and certainly no appropriate footwear. Luckily we were able to hire some snow boats for $8, which I was certainly glad of, I chucked on my fleece, hoodie and Tshirt, I felt more than warm  enough. After the chair lift we had a 30min up hill walk which would takes up to Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point in Australia, we wouldn't actually be able to climb right to the top due to the recent snow fall, so we would just be hiking up to ' Kosciuszko Lookout' We arrived mid morning after a pretty easy hike, at the look out the views were good bit not amazing, Mt Kosciuszko I am afraid wasn't all that impressive and compared to other mountain peaks around the world it was tame, however it was peaceful and with the weather being perfect made for great photo's. We of course being in snow ended up having snow ball fights, but with the snow being quite compact and icy it came pretty harsh when you got hit. It may not have been Everest or Kilimanjaro but it was well worth it and I can now say that I have been to the highest point in Australia, well almost.

After an hour or so at the lookout we made our way back down the mountain, by midday we were on the road again and heading for 'Wilson's Promontory' which is the most southern point of Australia and contains the largest coastal wilderness in Victoria. Also known as the 'Prom' Wilson's Promontory is a National Park and hosts outback landscape, lots of wildlife and some lovely beaches. The drive would be a long one and we wouldn't actually be visiting the park until the following day, today was just getting to the cusp of it and 'Lakes Entrance' where we would be staying the night. Lakes Entrance is the gateway to the 'Gippsland Lakes' and Australia's longest beach a mere 90miles of it. As I said the afternoon and rest of the day would really be mostly travelling, however the drive would host some amazing views as we drove along the 'Barry Highway'. Barry Highway starts in 'Jindabyne' which is where we had an hour stop for lunch and is just south of Thredbo where we had stayed the night before. The highway carry's on south down through the Australian Alps and onto the NSW/VIC border. The road is un-tarmacked and is a 100 year old cattle trail. The scenery was great, what I saw of it, the late night before and the hike up the mountain had made Ruffy a tired boy so was in and out of sleep for a lot of the journey. We made a number of stops along the way, stopping for toilet, lookout posts across the valleys and wildlife hunting for Kangaroo's, Koala's and such like. We arrived at Lake Entrance just before 7pm, our accommodation for the night would be the Riviera YHA. Before hitting the hostel, we stopped in town grabbed some beers from a bottle shop and some 'goon' (for those of you who don't know what goon is, its cheap shitty boxed wine which cots only around $12 for 5L, very common with backpackers due to how cheap it is, for $12 you would be lucky to get 2 beers, so you can see the appeal) and had a fish and chip dinner, it wasn't the greatest I must admit but cant have great food all the time. By 8pm we were at the hostel, again myself, the scot's and Kev shared a dorm with 3 of the other girls in the dorm next to us. I cracked open the goon and the girls joined our dorm, it wasn't going to be a heavy one at all but just sat around chatting, drinking disgusting cheap wine and sharing pic's. The following morning was an early start, we had to be left by 7.30am, however as we only had one bathroom and toilet between the 7 of us we had to get up even earlier. We were away by 7.30 and heading down to Wilson's Prom, which would be around a 4 hour drive, stopping along the way to grab some lunch to eat on the beach at Wilson's Prom as there were no facilities at the 'Prom'. Again we made a number of 'wildlife' stops, one stop was pretty good and we got up close and personal with Kangaroo's, Emu's and believe or not 'red back' spiders, one of the most venomous and dangerous spiders in Australia. We arrived at Wilson's Prom just after midday, with backpack, camera's and lunch we would have an hour hike which would take us up and over some rough terrain and down to 'squeaky beach'. The hike was less than strenuous and provided some great views of the ocean, surrounding beaches and landscape. We reached the beach and at one end were some giant rocks, the tide was coming in and sea was rough, we settled ourselves on the rocks and had lunch watching the sea crash against the waves and catching a few rays, the sun lately was making more and more of an appearance, thank god. The beach was empty and clean and as I always feel by the sea and sand felt relaxed and chilled, it did occur to me though that yesterday i was on top of a mountain playing in the snow and now sat on a beach in the warm sunshine, in less than 24hr hours, this was what most people associate with Australia. By 3pm we were back on the road, now heading towards Melbourne, with no more scheduled stops.

It had been a great 3 days and I was thankful that i didn't hire a car or just jump on the greyhound to Melbourne, i wouldn't have seen not even half of what I saw. Even boring Canberra, it's by far not the greatest city in the world but I can say I did it, seen it, got a T-shirt, OK, maybe not the latter, however I was chuffed with visiting the highest point in OZ and the most southern point also, I got to see plenty of wildlife and made some friends too.

So, I have now been in Melbourne for 3 nights and 2 days, I am staying with my Friends Matt and Kristie Axe. They emigrated here about 6months ago (well Matt did anyway). Kristie is Aussie born and bread and met Matt when he was travelling here 6 years ago, they have been together ever since and lived in England for a few years before getting married and decided a few years ago that they would live in Australia.  Matt is an old school friend and have known him for around 10 years. I arrived on Friday night, so was lucky to get the weekend with them, I will update you on my Melbourne antic's in another blog, as this one as gone on a little long now. Thanks for reading as always, keep well peeps.

Coogee To Bondi Coastal Walk

Hello peeps, hope you are well and for those of you in the UK enjoying the scorching temperatures. That reminds me, I was reading a the local paper in the pub yesterday and inside was an article about the soaring temperatures in the UK for this time of year, they had a picture of a packed beach, which beach? Brighton?!?!?!?! of all the beaches to choose to get a picture of, they get Brighton pebble beach, mind you, the pebbles didn't seem to be bothering probably the whole of London from sunbathing on it. I must admit i am slightly jealous, though the sun has managed to force its way through the last few afternoons it definitely hasn't been sunbathing or swimming in the sea weather, never mind i have still managed to have 2 good days.

So I haven't written since end of last week, mainly because I didn't really get up to much over the weekend, the weather was very poor, cold and raining. I did however manage to stumble across a Latin festival down in Darling Harbour. All last week i had been trying to work out how to get down to Melbourne, at the time i had 3 choices, take the Greyhound bus, which would drive straight through to Melbourne and would be around 12hrs, however I thought this was a little boring as there are few things between Sydney and Melbourne, not much to be honest but the capital city being one, Lakes Entrance and Bateman's Bay, as well as the Australia's highest peak. On this, I thought perhaps hiring a car for 3-4 days, after looking at prices i nipped this in the bud and it would be a last resort. Lorna then advised me of company's that offer 'relocation rentals'. These are vehicles which have been driven one way from certain locations and now need driving back. Due to the vast distances between main cities, company's offer $1 a day hire and sometimes pay for petrol. This sounded perfect and cheap, I found a couple of sites and a couple of potentials for when i wanted to leave, I gave them a call, but they had already been snapped up, which is no surprise even in off season. I kept looking all week for new arrivals but TNA. In the mean time i advertised myself on Gumtree, and before you comment, no I don't mean i was pimping myself out, though that could have got my hire car money!! I placed an advert on the 'rideshare' section saying i was going down to Melbourne on a certain day and if anyone had a spare seat, I would split petrol and share driving, i also looked if anyone was offering lifts, again nothing fitted in with my dates. By Friday it was looking like the Greyhound until i came across a short tour on OZ experience called 'Alpine Pass', a 3 day 2 night tour from Sydney to Melbourne. The tour goes through Canberra, Lakes Entrance and also to the top of Mt Kosciuszko which as I mentioned before is the highest peak in Australia. I decided to head down to 'OZ Experience' shop just near 'Central' on George street in the city. I spoke to a helpful Irish guy and checked first how many where already booked on, 8 was the magic number, that would do for me. It did however set me back $345 but considering I was going to get a car with petrol and accommodation, it would have been around the same, of course the Greyhound would have only been $60 dollars but this way I get to see more and get to meet some peeps, even perhaps the future Mrs Ruffy!! OK, OK, might be pushing it there. All booked up and paid, I would be leaving on Wednesday 5th (tomorrow) at 7am from Central. 

After booking, I headed towards Darling Harbour, this is where I came across the Latin Festival, they had a live stage set up, along with a good 20 or so food vendors selling various South American traditional cuisines and of course a beer tent. The event was on all weekend and was free, bonus. I headed for the beer tent, grabbed a Coopers beer (not free, unfortunately) and sat back and watched the show. It was busy and wasnt able to get any good pic's from my position but the show was great with all kinds of South American dancing and music. I stayed a few hours and headed back to Randwick. That night and Sunday was pretty much chilling days, though myself and Ed did wonder down into the city, caught a bit more of the Latin Festival, until it rained and then walked around the CBD. We finished with a couple of beers in an Irish bar, which was a bad idea, Ireland were playing in the rugby world cup that night and it was rammed to the rafters, which is actually is the norm whether rugby is on or not, for those of you that didn't know OZ and especially Sydney there is a large Irish contingency either living, working and or travelling. We headed back after a couple and chilled out. 

Monday was a bank holiday in OZ, so Ed and Lorna were off work, they had mentioned to me about a nice coastal walk from Coogee beach round to Bondi, around 6km. They weren't up for it but i was up for a casual stroll along the coast to take in some scenery and fresh air.. that was the plan anyway. The walk covered the east coast beaches of Sydney, including Bronte, Cloverly and Tamarana. The weather wasn't great in the morning so i waited it out till lunch, it had got a bit brighter around 1 so had some lunch and headed down to Coogee about 20min walk in itself. I found the coastal path just left of  Coogee beach. The sun was now out and even with the breeze off the Tasman sea it was quite warm. From the start there were some great views, I had brought my camera and started snapping away. Within ten minutes the camera had died, i hadn't even gone 1/2km, Captain Unco was back, i hadn't checked the battery before leaving and not only that, if you remember after my last battery incident last week i hadn't even packed the spare!! At this point anyone within a 50m radius must have thought I was some sort of weirdo as I let out a few choice words a bit louder than I thought. I had come too far to walk back and then set off again, I slung my camera in my backpack and did what any normal human being would and ran the rest of the way. It was a lot hillier than i thought, up and down, up and down. Despite this, it was a great route, the views and scenery was gorgeous. The Tasman sea was fierce and the surf was big, this created some spectacular spray when it hit the coastal rocks. I arrived at Bondi after about 55mins.I grabbed a seafood salad and a bottle of water and caught the bus back. Back at Ed and Lorna's I was gutted about my camera dying, feeling pretty good even after the hilly run i decided that it was only right I went back and did the walk again tomorrow.

Next morning (today) I woke early and still feeling pretty good decided that i was definitely going to do Coogee to Bondi again. The weather was cold and cloudy, I waited out till lunch as i knew the past few days the sun had come out early afternoon. I was right. I headed off just after midday and grabbed some lunch before heading down to Coogee. Today's walk was definitely a lot more on the casual side, the camera was charged and I had brought the spare just in case. It would take around 3.5hrs, as yesterday the sea was fierce and waves big, I took around 300 pic's having the settings on multi shot to catch the waves crashing over the coastal rocks and spraying many metres in the air. I was in my element, my iPOD on, camera in hand, the sun beaming and little to no sea breeze, It was a perfect day. I realised that at points i found myself staring at the sea and smiling, I find the sea mesmerizing, it has a calming effect on me, so soothing and peaceful, being near the sea, in it or just staring at it, I seem to be at my happiest by the sea. I arrived in Bondi, grabbed a mango and strawberry smoothie, sat on the famous Bondi beach, watched the surfers as high tide hit and soaked up the late afternoon sun. It had been a perfect end to my time in Sydney.

Tomorrow I jump aboard the OZ experience bus for my 3 day trip down to Melbourne. I arrive Friday where I'll be staying with my friends the Axe's for just over a week, I will also get chance to catch up with my India companions Kate and Warren, as they are also both from Melbourne, which will be cool.

Take care people, hope you like the couple of pic's I added. I'll add more to FB in the future.