Sydney - Full Circle

Well mates that's it...

It's hard to believe I've been here for over 6 weeks - on one hand it really doesn't feel all that long at all (there's so much more I could see), but then I start thinking about all the things I've done and seen and experienced and I'm pretty amazed at how MUCH there is to remember - WOW!

I had one final meat pie (I really like these - there's must be someplace in Boston that makes them ;0) on Oxford (it's funny how much of this trip I remember by the food I ate - I mean that's nothing new for me I guess - but it's really been fun here - so much good seafood and new stuff like kangaroo and emu, then of course there was Thailand.... mmmm....)



Then I headed down to the harbour for one more look @ one of the most photogenic spots on Earth. I laid down on some rocks at the very tip of the pennisula and let the waves on the rocks get me into a nice mellow place while I watched the myriad of boats that come with the harbour do their thing...



Luckily some very loud Japanese tourists came along and woke me out of my trance just in time to get myself moving... I had a date @ 7:30 (how funny is that! It was newly opened stage version of Billy Elliot - it was amazing, the lead was a 12-14 year old kid, and let me tell you he could dance!

Then a nice mellow night (watching dvd's of Will & Grace of all things ;0) It felt really nice to just be in someone's home, chilling out watching tv and being 'normal'... maybe coming home isn't all that bad... besides Christmas is right around the corner (there are Christmas trees up everywhere here to remind me) and I've got great freinds and a loving family to come back to.... doesn't get much better than that!

Besides, I'll always have great memories (not to mention LOTS of great pictures)... this is a part of the world I'm going to have to see again someday... would be nice to have someone along with me next time... any takers ;0)

G'day & Cheers!!!

Cairns

Ahhh back to Australia... it really felt great to step off the plane to a happy faced Australian Sheila welcoming me to the country and MEANING it ;0) I love Aussies! Don't get me wrong, people are very polite in Asia and VERY friendly in Thailand... but it's just not the same super open, happy, laid back feeling you immediately get from Assies... nice ;0)

I got to Cairns before noon, so I had time to walk into town along a really great Esplande... it used to be a beach but they dredged it so much so ships could get in (especially during WWII) that its all turned to a big mud flat... the good thing about that is that when the tide is out its FULL of crabs...

Even if you did want to take a swim (which you can't because it Box Jellyfish season [one sting can KILL you]) I think this sign would pretty much kill any notion:

I had a great big Aussie breakfast (lots of ham-like bacon, eggs, toast) walked around the town center and the back to the hotel to catch my Rainforest Tour! Our first stop was actually within the city limits to let us practice using binoculars (the 2 Hungarian guys with us needed it) - we had some great Agile Wallabies to focus on.

Then we were off - the scenery along with way was brillant.

This plant's called a 'wait a while' - because it has these huge thorns all over it that it uses to cling onto trees and literally climb up them to the very top (they also grab onto your clothes and slow you down if you're walking through the jungle ;0) - the 3rd pic is another plant with even bigger spines on it...

And these giant fig trees grown down around other poor trees (to capture the sunlight at the top) and eventually encase it and kill it... it was enourmous... it goes Way up from here..

Alos lots of animal along the way of course (you've gotta love a tour guide who is so into his job he picks stuff up for you ;0) These are a skink and a green tree frog...

I almost stepped on this poor turtle..

Then after checking out this Water Dragon I took a very refreshing swim with the guide and found something on my own attached to my leg ;0)

Just down the road I finally saw my 1st Platypus in the wild!!! It was so fun to watch them swimming around (they're underwater most of the time hunting for food - makes it fun to spot them coming up)....

Once the sun went down we got out the spotlights and started seeing the real action... that ant is huge and it's dwarfed by that spider...

That 'cricket' is as big as your fist and that little snake probably kill with a bite...

This was a Chameleon Lizard... very cool looking (it stand super still and twitches its big tail.. which looks a LOT like a snake to scare off predators... Thats a cycade (sp ?) on the right.. they make LOTS of noise... can almost drown everything else out...

There are some cute things around too of course... this is a possum.. saw 3 or 4 of them WAY up in very tall trees... couldn't find any Tree Kangaroos but everything else was fantastic...

And if that wasn't enough for me the next day I got to go dive the Great Barrier Reef... woohooo!

These pictures are all stolen off the web (I didnt' want to spend the $60 to rent an underwater camer and besides I was too distracted by all the cool stuff!)

These are some of the more interesting thigns I saw (but I saw LOTS of fish off all types and colors.. it was so cool - especially when the guide threw food every once in a while and you're surroudned by a column of big, little, huge fish...

There were Giant Clams (we touched the outside to watch it close it's mouth) and Giant Sea Cucumbers (these are as long as your arm and all over the bottom)

These crazy unicorn fish were fun to watch - these Trigger Fish were fun too - they really beautiful and really big - unfortunately they're also really aggresive and have big teeth... they came right at me... bit me on the fin mostly, but one got uncomfortably close to my face one time... I left them alone ;0)

I also left the White-Tipped Reef Shark alone under his rock... wow they are big (I still can't believe how calm I stayed)...

What an experience!!!

That night I had some really good seafood dinner (including something called a 'bug' which is like a cross betwen shrimp and lobster.. yummmm then headed off to a really fun bar in town until the wee hours... now I'm going to dive in the pool and sip on something cool (its HOT here right now... I can't believe I'll be in snow soon ;0( ... before heading off back to Sydney...

Bangkok (#2) - Hong Kong (Macau) - Singapore

I had to cut things off a bit during my morning in Singapore (that was way too short a time to see a whole city, but it was good... more later) so I wanted to add a bit more about Bangkok - it deserves much more and it's also fun to compare/contrast it to my other "Asiatic" experiences...


All three cities are alike in ways but SO different in most others. I mean obviously they are all Asian cities so the local customs, exotic food with seafood and rice (mostly for me), doing everything on the left, the languages, etc are all crazy and weird and fun (and sometimes very trying) in the same ways so my overall impression of them is sort of 'lumped' together - but they really are all 3 vastly different places. Just the look of the cities themselves are so different...
Bangkok is a very spread out, huge city with skyscrapers every couple of blocks on a pretty much flat landscape. The streets are super crowded, messy and full of people going places during the day and full of people trying to sell you things at night. Hong Kong is very modern city (it feels a lot like NYC) packed with beautiful skyscapers all jammed together on busy (but orderly) streets because it is all built on a narrow, long piece of land between big mountains (which the city goes right up) and the ocean. Whereas Singapore while also a very modern city with two small central districts of skyscrapers is much more relaxed with large well laid out streets and lots of space - and while Hong Kong felt SUPER clean compared to Bangkok, Singpore feels absolutely sterile. There are so many signs about what you will be fined for it starts to get funny after a while - I mean this is the first thing you see when you enter the country (followed by a military guy with a MACHINE gun at the airplane exit)...



But I digress... they were all very interesting places full of polite - usually friendly people and I had a great time visting them all - I would come back to Hong Kong anytime for fun, but if I really wanted another vacation here it would have to be an island somewhere off of Phuket somewhere... NICE..

My last day in Bangkok turned out to be one of my best actually - I'd made a local friend by then so I was able to get a more personal tour ;0) It also meant I could travel using some of the more 'out the way' ways... like these canal boats full of people (super cheap) that go all over the city...



We went to a House of a rich silk trader that's been turned into a museum and checked out Thai artifacts and traditional archiecture which was very cool




And then he found me some "authentic' Thai dancing ;0) It was a great way to round off my trip there...

Then I was off to meet my friend David (from Boston) in Hong Kong, with a night's stopover in Macau first for some fun...

Like Hong Kong, this city is a 'special administrative zone', which means it's technically part of China, but follows it's own rules (which were Western - Capitalistic ones). You can see why the city is called the Vegas of the East...

Unfortuantley there wan't any poker there (crap!) so we just walked around, played some blackjack (David made money and I lost mine as usual ;0) and soaked up the Vegas nightlife for a bit (its a LOT tamer and a LOT brighter than Vegas... and I think guys I go on my yearly trip to Vegas would be very dissapointed by the length of casino girl's skirts here)...

Macau during the day is much different. When you go to the center of town you can easily imagine it's Portugeuse roots - not many of them around now (athough they're forced to have all signs in English, Portugeuse and Chinese there, which is fun)...

And after a hard day of sightseeing, you built up an apetite... I had the Duck... although Turtle soup sounded interesting....

I'm glad I had the chance to see Macau... but I was very happy to finally get into Hong Kong..

It looks a lot like some of the other cities in some parts (which means you still get all the good food and exotic/ strange stuff)...

But for the most part its a very modern... very Western place (they do a very cool lazer show every night, accompanied with some not-so-snappy music)...

Getting around there can be a bit tricky though... this is the line for the subway (luckily I had David with me so we got up there pretty fast ;0)

After that stress it was time for some relaxation:

Follwed by something I'd never done before... Horse Racing... it's very big here, in fact it's pretty much followed me around this entire trip (you'll recall i was there for THE horse racing event of the year in Melbourne...).

That's my horse NOT coming across the line first... I did win one out of 8... and it was a very fun experience... David had a little more fun as he was actually winning every once in a while... (luckily the exchange rate's ok here... so wasn't spending too much money).

Had a great time there just walking around (got lots more pics for anyone interested of course)... we also did Tea @ The Pennisula hotel (which is THE high society thing to do) - it was great... i haven't had that much sugar for a long time and lots of stuff during the days... and thankfully the clubs here were great so our nights were nice and full and active as well..

It was really great having a friend with me (especially one who knew his way around a bit).

I had to say goodbye to David eventually though and headed off to Singapore... got in late and had a good sleep before heading out to explore the city for the day... Of course I had to start it off right (thats crispy baby squid salad... yumm):

This was after my first drink actualy which was a Singapore Sling @ Raffles Long Bar... a great old colonial builidng and THE tourist thing to do... it was very sweet and good..

It's a bit on the "clean' side there and there are signs everywhere telling you what not to do (they do let you chew gum now) and I did jaywalk... glad I didnt' get caught as I found out later its a $1000 dollar fine... woops... it also has a very Western (alomst like a big mall in parts) feel to it (it was an English colony after all):

But because it's such a melting pot of culture (its a major port between all the coutnries in the region) and since it's made up mostly of Chinese and Malay people it still has some interesting things to see and do.. this also means that right next to a big ol' Christian church your likely to find a Muslin mosque or a Buddist temple or even one devoted to Hindism (like the great one below with all the Indian gods on it and some firewalkers inside - a great ritual to watch complete with some lively music that sounded a lot like jazz ;0)

I also hit the Asian Civilizations Museum... which had fascinating exhibits on all the majore Asian culutres... I like this Confusious like saying on the wall saying that while parents are alive children must not travel great distances... but I'm glad I don't adhere too strictly - although I'm sure Mom wouldn't mind ;0)

There's also a really cool statue things spewing water into the harbor (its the city mascot) called a Merlion... ok.....

It was a nice chill city to wind down my time in this part of the world before heading back to Oz.