Sydney, Alice, Darwin and Cairns

And so the western world approaches!

As my time in Asia came to an end I didn't have much time to reflect on my time there. Back in Bangkok myself and Anett had 3 days to do some shopping and post stuff home whilst also enjoying the last few days of each others company. As usual Bangkok was it's crazy nonstop self and so the time flew by. It was great to be back there after Myanmar but I felt it was time for me to move on and I moved my flight forward a little to make my schedule a bit more relaxed. Anett was unable to change her flight and would travel to southern of Thailand to relax for the remainder of her trip. The last 3 days were fun with lots of food, shopping and time spent with the family and the friends I had made. It did feel a little weird that I would be leaving Anett behind though. I had become very used to travelling with her and we had become very good friends.

The night before I left Bangkok we went for dinner with with Toom her brother Chai and his girlfriend Joom at a really good seafood place on the Chao Praya River. It was good fun and I went through most of a bottle of whiskey with Chai. Next day it was time to go though and we hardly even had time to say goodbye. It felt very strange saying goodbye and as I went to the airport in the taxi I felt that I really wasn't ready to leave. I had enjoyed Asia far more than I had anticipated. It is such a lively, colourful and friendly part of the world. The culture is incredible. For me the northern areas of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand had been the highlights with the north of Laos being the most amazing place I have ever been to. Vietnam had been so interesting and it had been so much fun travelling with the group I had. It's a very special country with very special people. Cambodia was a surprise and Ankor Wat is the most amazing temple. People say Bagan is better but sorry, it just doesn't compare. Thailand is so much fun. You can do so much, eat such great food and have so much fun for such little money. It's so diverse with the relaxed islands in the south, the noise, smells and crazy transport of Bangkok and the fantastic chilled out mountains in the north. For me though Laos was the best country. I say that reluctantly as tourism will change the county so much in the coming years, but it is an amazing contrast to what we are used to in the west with many people still living village life in bamboo huts. The Mekong river and it's attributaries are at their most beautiful there too. I am already thinking about spending the whole of February there next year. Myanmar was hard work and very strange but also very interesting and in dire need of change. It's very sad to see people living such a messed up life under such a rediculous regime.

So off to Sydney and no more 'No haaave', no more 'You waan eehhgg (you want egg)?'. No more rice wine, tuk tuk, or 'Hey Mr! Where you go today?' Even getting on the plane I noticed a huge change. Large people!!! Jesus I haven't seen large people for 4.5 months! It's a bit of a shock to the system but all of a sudden they're everywhere and kind of hurt your eyes. I'm very surprised at my reaction. The flight to Singapore is good but I started to get the serious blues as we got further away from Asia. Arriving in Sydney was very weird for me. It started with the rediculous form you have to fill out. The questions are so anal and I got the feeling that this place is so strict. There were sniffer dogs everywhere in customs and police with guns and there is an air of mistrust about the people quizing you that makes you feel very unwelcome. I felt very aggraphobic and did't want to leave the airport. I think I've gone ferrel!

At the backpacker hostel a teenaged spotty backpacker handed me an A4 sheet of house rules and I got the distinct impression that I was supposed to be grateful that I had parted with a large sum of cash to stay in what turned out to be a smelly dorm packed with 18-20 year old gap year hormone charged backpackers mostly from England. It felt like my first day in student halls all over again! I walk into my 4 share room to find a teenagers bedroom. It looked like typhoon tracey just came through with dirty socks hanging everywhere and empty pot noodle cartons on the floor. It has that smell of teenaged boys who have been out drinking. A bit like a dustbin! What the F***! am I doing here. I want my bamboo hut!!! Why did I change my flight! It's not even cheap at 24 aussie dollars....10 quid. I really miss Anett being around too. I keep wondering where she is. Things weren't looking good. The reverse culture shock is huge.

After some sleep I ventured out to see what the city I've heared so much about is like. At first impression it felt like a cross between Singapore and Watford! That's not a complement. Sydney is packed with English people who are mostly sleeping through the day and pissed at night. There's even a kebab shop! It's so expensive after Asia and also much more expensive than other travellerse lead you to believe. Walking around the harbour lifted me a bit. It's quite nice but it's tiny!!! Photographers and super wide angle lenses have a lot to answer for. I mean.... it really is diddy! The opera house is just a little funny shaped white building. The bridge isn't that amazing either and costs a bomb to climb....so I didn't. The sky is cool though and it's very sunny with crazy clouds. I'm freezing.... It's so cold after Asia. The harbour reminds me a bit of Reykjavik actually and the view of the houses on the hills surrounding it look like the house around Harfnafjordur in Iceland too. I spent the next few days eating Vietnamese and Thai food and getting my camera gear sorted. That was actually quite nice as I had my working head on which offers a different perspective. The pro camera shops and service centres were very good and the people were good to talk to. Which brings me to Aussies.... hmmmm... in Sydney they're a pretentious bunch and listening to an Aussie try to sound sophisticated is quite funny cos....well.... they're not. In fact it's pretty dull. I did consider writing about the things I like here but I don't like it enough so sorry!

Anyway, not knowing what to do I decided to book some activities and tours as I had limited time. I decided to fly to Alice Springs and then get a bus and camping tour of the red centre and then another up to Darwin on the Stuart Highway followed by some serious diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I had wanted to do the west coast but couldn't make it work in my schedule if I wanted to dive the Barrier Reef.

The landing in Alice was a bit crazy. I really thought he was gonna smack a wing on the runway and it was like a roller coaster all the down. Thankyou Quantus! Internal flying here is another expensive shock. A similar flight in Europe would cost a lot less. And so another backpacker place called Melanka's which again I didn't like. Alice Springs is the first time I see Aborigonal people and it's very clear that there are some problems here. The Aborigonal people look lost in their own country and there appears to be a lot of racism with a lot of white Australians appearing to be uncomfortable with their barefoot presence in the pristine modern town centre. A lot of Aborigonal people are drunk through the day and ask for cigarettes or money on the street. It's not nice to see and just feels very wrong.

The hostel is again full of pissed up backpackers but the next morning we head out on our tour at 6am. The tour is 3 days camping around Uluru (Ayer's rock), The Olgas, and Kings Canyon. At last I started to relax as we hit the road on long drives and camped out under the stars by the fire in swags which are like a big travelling roll up beds. The campsites are very well organised and setup for tourists and this seems to be the best way to see Oz rather than the hostels.

I enjoyed the travelling and camping more than the sites. The semi arid landscape is interesting but doesn't change much. I have never been able to see so far and see so much sky anywhere else on land before which is especially nice at night as you can see so many stars and at lease 1 or 2 shooting stars each night. I didn't climb Uluru as the Aboriginals don't like it. It's not the climbing that worries them, it's injuries and deaths that are the problem. They believe that the rock is inhabitted by the spirits of their ancestors and if you die there your spirit will stay on the rock with them which could be a bit weird for your spirit I should think as well as the ancestors. The rock is ...well ...a big rock and is another underwhelming site even if it does glow at sunset. Kings Canyon is a rather small Canyon and I actially found the Olgas the most beautiful site but it is all so touristy with coach loads of Japanese people pulling into Uluru, getting off the bus and walking straight up it. Any opertunity to meet with Aborigonal people seems to be through tours unless you want to stay here for a long time as they are understandable very mistrusting of us lot.

I met some nice people on the tour though. After the 3 days we had another very messy night back at Melanka's which ended in us setting fire to Sambuka in our mouths for about 5 rounds after going through several bottles of red wine. I went to bed at 3.30 and got up at 4.30 ready for the 5.30 start on our 3 day trip to Darwin!!! It was quite painful. The bus was big and comfortable. Of course I managed to be the only person to have a stranger next to me and he turned out to be a weirdo. A Danish weirdo who complained about everything. I always get the weirdos! He also snored a lot but only loud enough for me to hear! Bastard! The driver and guide was a bush man called Reg and he would drive whilst giving a dry, relaxed and very well informed comentary. He was a real Mick Dundee type and I found him very funny. On the surface he seemed a bit of a shoveanistic macho Aussie bloke but he actually knew a lot about the country and did a lot of work with Aborigonal kids. We spent the next 3 days looking at the endless bush, hearing about the history of the Stuart highway and stopping in tiny towns 'to say gooday!' some towns have a population smaller than that on the bus. The camping was good and the people on the bus were nice too.

Arriving in Darwin I could feel that I was not well. In fact I had been ill for a few days after we had a couple of snotted germ ridden Brits on the tour with us around Uluru. By the next morning I had a chest infection and had to miss the Kakadoo and Litchfield tour which I had booked and paid for with no refund. I also had to cancel some diving I was due to do 5 days later as I would not be well enough but they refunded me so not all bad. Instead I relaxed at the very nice but pricey hostel called Cavanagh. I spent a couple of days hanging out with a Danish girl called Diana who I had met on the tour. We walked to the Darwin Museum and also hired a car for the day which we spent driving around Litchfield national park. I spent the next day in the pool at the hostel and sat through the torrential rain and thunder storm in the pool with a rather amusing girl from near High Wycombe called Emma. I hired a car again the next day with Alex, Sabrina and Jackie from the tour and we went to the Didg hut which is where you can buy and learn to play a proper didgeridoo. I hadn't wanted to buy one before but then me and Alex, an Italian bloke, seemed to be naturals so I ended buying a rather nice one and posting it home. I am hemouraging money in Oz!

At last I left Darwin having almost recovered and went to Cairns to prepare for some diving on Taka Dive, the most descent boat I could find on the reef and the only one that seemed to be catering for experianced divers rather than throwing people in and out of a Padi course. I got a pretty crap hostel though. It had a damp problem which set my lungs off again and after 2 days there I had to leave and postpone the diving trip for another week which also pushed my flight to New Zealand back 10 days....more time in Oz! Aggghh! So I checked into a better place in the centre of town. It was a nice place and I slept OK but it was another party dorm and one of my Italian room mates brought a girl back for the night whilst my Korean friend who I had met on the Darwin trip was subjected to an all night threesome in his room and a repeat performance foursome the following night. Poor TK is not used to that sort of thing in Korea. 'I wish I could do that he said' he said 'but it's shameful in our culture'. I found this very amusing. He was completely bemused my some of our western behaviour.

Getting a little bored and needing something to do whilst convelessing I hired a car and got out of town. First I headed up the coast to Cape Tribulation. I got a Mazda 2 which turned out to be the most amazing little car I have ever driven. It looks like postman pats van but is like a tardis inside and drives like a rallycar. It had aircon, a great stereo and I could get all my gear out of sight. Sorry I'm getting excited about a Mazda but it was a great car. The road up to Cape Trib was amazing too with a long fast section that follows the coast and I got a bit carried away. Cape Trib itself was very nice and the ferry is sweet if expensive. There are amazing sandy beaches and endless rainforest. It's so tropical and so quiet. A little boring on your own though. I did meet some people but had decided to see as much as I could with the car and moved pretty quick. Next day I drove down again past Cairns to Townsville. The scenery was very good and the drive good too. That was until I got done by a speed camera 1 hour north of Townsville. I was on a long straight section in the middle of the Sugar Cane fields and the copper was sat in his jeep in the pitch black in a ditch off the road. Seeing the flash go off I turned around and went back to have a chat. He was quite happy about it all and informed me with a big smile that the camera was set at 111kph but I had been doing 112kph. I was composed on the outside but wanted to smash the camera on the front of his jeep. That means a $180 fine from the police and a $100 fine from the car hire company!! Bollocks! Later when returning the car I was informed that quite a few people get 5 or 6 in one trip. I got a positive bargain then. I'm still pissed off. I've never been done for speeding.

In Townsville I stopped in the hostel area late. I had been driving for about 8 hours. I saw a funny little place and went in. The woman came to reception smelling like a brewery and I reluctantly took a room but it turned out to be the best place I have stayed. It's called Globetrotters. It was quiet and full of girls!!! Cool. In the morning I recounted my police story to the owners and they spewed venom about the police 'Bloooody Nazi's!!!'....'They f**king take the piss....hiding in the f**king bushes'....'Baaastards!' And off I went down the coast 3 hours to Airlie beach with more lovely scenery and funny little towns like Ayr where country music blares out of the pubs and jeriatric men in hats sit on benches clutching a walking stick. A lot of Oz is like a retirement home. The east coast is a bit like a giant East Anglia. Airlie is the place to get to the Whitsunday islands and whilst I didn't have time to do a tour I did have a look around for the afternoon and it's beautiful with turqoise water, white sands, forrested hills and pristine white yahts in the harbour. I had some fish and chips (not as good as home) and headed back up to Townsville but arriving late I didn't manage to get a room in the same place and went to another small place. Again it was very good. In the morning a young bloke working in the hostel for his keep asked for a lift and I said ok but had to wait. As I checked out I said to the owner I'm giving that lad a lift. The very nice owner said 'Mate just go now!'...'He's a bloody bludger .... I caaan't wait for 'im to leave!!'. 'Oh!!!...cheers mate!!' and off I went. The people in Townsville seemed nicer than anywhere in Oz so far and were very helpful which I have found unusual here. Aussies love rules. It's one of those places where everyone has their own space just how they want it and everyone has rules. 'Ya caaan't paark there!'.... 'That'll be a fine of 2 dollars for staying 2 days longer than you said you would'....'What!!!'. Yes that happened in Sydney. I got fined for giving them more business.

I spent the day driving back to Cairns via the tablelands and more fantastic mountainous roads which I enjoyed in the little Mazda. Cairns is where I am now waiting to get on the dive boat after driving 2000 kms in 4 days. I'm pretty much back to normal health and am looking forward to seeing the reef and diving again. I stayed in a really nice hostel called Bohemia last night and met some nice people too so I'm in a better mood than when I arrived in Oz. I am so glad I never did the year out backpacker thing when I was 18 though. I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Anyway I'd better sign off and prepare myself for the slightly rough seas we've been having up here.

I'm missing you all very much so get in touch with any news.

Love,

Kaveh.