Perth (the first post)

Well, what can I say? G'day!!!

I am fast falling in love with Australia. It is awesome, it seems that all the good things about home are the same but all the bad things are put right. The weather is perfect, and as I sit writing this it is 32 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and an oh so gentle breeze just so I don't over heat. The beaches are all fine white sand, the ocean is blue and warm!



I am staying in Perth, Western Australia at present. I am told that it is officially the most isolated city in the world because once you get outside there is nothing until Adelaide (which is over 3 days of driving away). I am extremely fortunate to be staying with friends of my family, Fiona and family, in a suburb of Perth named "Cottesloe". To anyone who has been to Perth before, they will know of Cottesloe very well as it is home to Cottesloe beach, one of the most well known beaches in WA.



Since getting here on Thursday I have managed to just about overcome the jetlag, which is surprising as I have been out every night frequenting the many pubs (no such thing as "bars" in oz, anywhere that serves alcohol is called the "pub"). Going out in Australia is amazing, instead of going to a club and hearing cheesy chart music there is a live band everywhere you go. They are all surprisingly good and play covers of popular tunes, all of which are from bands like Powderfinger, Motorace, Grinspoon, The White Stripes, INXS and The Living End (who are all awesome in their own right). The band we saw at the "Newport" in Freemantle ("freo" to the locals) on Saturday night were really good.

Within 4 hours of landing I had been to the two pubs that have reached legendary status in Perth. The Cottesloe Beach Hotel ("the cott" to the locals) and the Ocean Beach Hotel ("the obie" to the locals). This impressed even the locals! I was later challenged to an aussie beer tasting to see if I could guess the difference between the main local brews in the two pubs and after just two days here, passed with flying colors.

The next awesome thing is the fashion. I was out in a club last night in Claremont (another suburb of Perth) which would be the equivalent of somewhere like "Time" in the UK - wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of "thongs' (not the women's underwear but sandles for you poms). Pretty much every Aussie girl seems to be gorgeous, almost too much choice. I am unsure I know where to start...

Also, everyone in Oz has a brilliant taste in music. The bands that I love, nobody has heard of in the UK. Over here everyone not only knows of them but has the album on their ipod. Its the first place I've ever been where everyone has heard of people like Ben Harper and the John Butler Trio.



In Australia one of their main days for drinking is a Sunday and they call it the "Sunday Session". The most famous of which is the Sunday Session at the Cott, if its good enough for Prince Harry then its good enough for me. Spent an hour and a half queuing to get in for it yesterday though which was a pain for all involved but it was a good laugh in the end, had more than a few pints of Tooheys and Swan and then moved on to the Sunday Session at the Obie, before hitting Claremont. Am feeling rather fragile right now for two reasons. First cos it was the second 8+ pint night out in so many days and also because I've had more sun in the last 4 days than I have had in the last 4 years in the UK (as you may be able to tell from one of the photos! However it is going brown now, so kiss my ass!). Staying with Luke is cool as we are both into the same music and both play guitar. So when we got back last night at 1am (having started at 5pm) we decided to take the guitars down the beach and have a jam. So there we were playing out to the beach, crashing ocean and the occasional drunkards that were walking past in our shorts and T-shirt at 1.30am, it was hilarious. See the photos.








This week I am going to see the John Butler Trio in concert three times (Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday night). Thursday is Australia Day and in Perth it is celebrated on the same level as Thanksgiving or New Years Eve. I also plan to spend some days doing the tourist thing this week and spend some major time in Fremantle, which is one of my favorite places so far.

Hope all is going well your end!

Hong Kong

Seeing Hong Kong in six hours before an 8 hour flight after a 12 hour flight was hard labour, however it was worth it, and I managed not to miss my other flight! Which I am amazed at, most people on my flight stayed in the airport - losers!! However, when I discovered that I didn't even know the PIN to my MasterCard the prospect of staying in the airport was beginning to seem very real. Had no cash and couldn't use my Cirrus card. When I finally found a cash machine where I could use it, it would only let me take out $200 HKG dollars which sounded like alot at the time (but turns out it was actually £15). So I saw most of what I wanted and had dinner in Hong Kong for just 15 quid, not bad!

Hong Kong at night (when I got in it was 7pm) is a real spectacle! It was good to get off the damn plane after a 12 hour flight stuck between some fat asian dude who made Hurley from the TV show "Lost" seem like a welcome prospect, fortunately for me he didn't smell, and on my other side a mad German couple. The german woman nearly killed the woman in the seat in front of her when she shifted in her seat about 20 times to try and find a more comfortable spot (which was futile) and knocked this German woman's cup of coffee all over herself. It was quite bad as she looked like she had, had a major accident and can't have been pleasant having to sit there like that. Her response was only what I can imagine a female version of Hitler to act like. The whole of the plane were looking and staring. I managed to get some regularly interrupted sleep no thanks to a kid behind me who after one warning to stop kicking my seat I nearly throttled!



Once on the Airport Express train and on my way to Hong Kong island, I got the Star Ferry over to Kowloon (which passes through the Victoria dock, which when lit were spectacular - see photo). At 8pm I was told they do a grand lighting up of the harbor buildings, but nothing much seemed to happen. (Photo of me with harbor behind).


Then went into to downtown Kowloon which was mainly neon signs, camera shops and people trying to sell massages of EVERY body part you can imagine! I was also given the hard sell by a bloke who offered a "genuine" Hugo Boss suit for just £20! When he wouldn't take no for an answer I told him that my whole reason for being there was to avoid having to wear a suit and asked him what practical reason he thought I had for a suit backpacking round Australia. This got rid of him very quickly! The rest of my time was spent walking round what I think was the ghetto of Hong Kong, and probably not advisable to do alone. I spent most of my time trying to find the tackiest t-shirt I could find with something like "I heart Hong Kong" on but they were all surprisingly very up-market.



Not wanting to risk any disasters I returned to the airport to spend a further 8 hours on a plane. Although I did watch "40 year old virgin" on the plane, which had the whole plane cracking up.

Goodbye!!

Well, I'm off tomorrow so just want to wish you all the best for the rest of 2006, whatever you are doing.

I am flying to Perth, Western Australia first and am fortunate to have nearly six hours stop-over in Hong Kong in the middle. Particularly determined to go and see Hong Kong at night (which looks spectacular) I shall be asking the stewardess to knock me out as soon as we leave that cold wet Heathrow runway as I'll be needing the sleep if I'm to make it round Hong Kong after the 12 hour flight!

It was good to see a alot of you on Friday night out in Wycombe. Make sure you keep in touch and let me know what's up.

Please do check my blog as and when you get a chance as I plan to regularly upload photos here as I travel and will earnestly attempt to add many entertaining experiences and stories (I'm sure there will be a few!!) on what I see. You can also leave comments after particular posts by clicking on the comments text below. Please feel free to do so!

I will also be wired to my email whilst I am traveling, so if you wanna get in contact, update me on the World Cup, send insults, etc then I think you all have my address.

All the best!!
Tom
x