Around The World Trip: Fiji

Initially I found the 20 degree increase in temperature from NZ as a bit of a shock as I arrived in Nadi (pronounced Nandi for some reason). I was met at the airport by locals shouting what sounded like “EBOLA!” Worried that they were warning me about a plague of the deadly disease, I was about to turn back before realising that they were, in fact, welcoming me with the Fijian greeting of “BULA!” Oh… Bula back. After a brief wander around it soon became apparent that this was a country with the most number of blokes in skirts outside of a Scottish Highland Games. No wonder many of them seem to be big fans of the sarong-wearing mincer, David Beckham. But hey, I wasn’t going to say anything negative. They must rest their babies on beds of compost for them to grow into such big men. There was just enough time for a few beers on the first evening, so I caught a taxi to Ed’s Bar with some fellow travellers. And it was certainly an unusual taxi – stereo volume on 11 and more flashing lights than the actual bar itself! Other than that, an uneventful night. Continue reading →

Queenstown

Around the World Trip: New Zealand, South Island

I’m already on my last day in NZ. Could have done with a couple more weeks, but it’s getting cold now so I’m looking forward to Fiji next. NZ has been as picturesque as I had been told but unfortunately I’ve had to miss out on some of it due to time and money constraints. I will miss the amusing Kiwi habits of ending every sentence with “Eh?” pronouncing ‘I’ and ‘E’ the wrong way round, saying “Choice”, “Sweet as…” and “Too easy” (meaning “Okay – that’s good”) plus being every bloke’s “Bro” as I didn’t realise that I had relatives here.

So, the south island exploits… I continued south with a couple of Yorkshire lads, both called Dave, that I had been travelling with on the ‘Magic’ bus since Rotorua. They had saved enough money working overtime down the pits to treat themselves to a holiday (just kidding). The Magic bus network is a backpackers’ bus service that takes you to places of interest that you wanted to go to, didn’t know you wanted to go to or definitely didn’t want to go to, thus creating long trips out of supposedly short ones, especially seeing as the bus keeps stopping for a ‘break’ every 45 minutes.

Continue reading →

The Skytower, Auckland

Around the World Trip: New Zealand, North Island

Lake McKenzie - Fraser Island

Around the World Trip: East Coast Oz (part 2)

In my last post I had just ditched the Irish bloke (only joking Paul) and I was looking forward to an adventure-packed last couple of weeks in Oz. I headed up to Hervey Bay in readiness for a trip to Fraser Island the next day. Didn’t think much of HB and my hostel was in the middle of nowhere (1 1/2 hours walk to centre!), so I was glad to only be there for one night. When I arrived I headed down to the beach and, relaxing with a deep sigh, wondered what FI would be like as I gazed out to sea, past the drainage outlet pipes, listening to the hypnotic sound of the breaking waves, and gurgling of passing drain water…

FI (the world’s largest sand island) is one place that has to been seen to be believed. It has rainforest, sand dunes, stunning clear lakes, long beaches and plentiful wildlife. You can swim there too, if you don’t mind seeing jellyfish and man-eating sharks from the bottom of the ocean as you are dragged down in the undertow. Continue reading →

Around the World Trip: East Coast Oz (part 1)

Wednesday 16th February

My last post left me flying to Australia with high hopes but not really knowing what to expect. What I have seen so far makes me love this country! For a start, being in a similar culture is a relief after failing to blend in to surroundings somewhat in Thailand due to the obvious physical limitations! Also the people have been friendly and the scenery stunning (not just on Bondi Beach!).

On arrival in Sydney I had just missed a rain shower (yes! – still no rain since early January) and guess what? My hostel was both well situated and a decent place to stay! At last. So after struggling to really meet people in Thailand, it was the other extreme and motormouth time as I repeated the same things to countless numbers of people whilst forgetting everything they said, before burning myself out and crashing out in my bunk! Continue reading →

A Singapore Sling cocktail

Around the World Trip: Singapore

Despite the many hassles, I was sad to leave Thailand, so as I went to the airport and paid the departure tax (work that one out – if you don’t pay you can’t leave?!), I left a little piece of my heart, and a layer of skin (post sunburn) in the land of smiling faces.

The short flight to Singapore was pretty empty, so I could stretch out and enjoy the spectacular views of the hundreds of ships passing through the straits as we came in to land. Hotel Orchid 81 was the place of residence for Stewie JT 29, a hotel that holds the world record for the smallest rooms… probably. Following the common theme of my stay in Asia, the hotel was not close to anything, although the public transport system is efficient and cheap so it was no big deal this time… except that my hotel was in Geylang (the red light district). Continue reading →