Virtual Postcards From The Australasia Trip
January 20th - Hong Kong and Bali
Hello person who is probably living in a cold climate.
It is bloody hot here in Bali and the humidity is so
high it is like living
in a plastic bag.
Not the white sand and azure sea we had expected but
we are
off in search of them on Tuesday over on Lombok and
then to the Gilli Islands.
Hong Kong was madly expensive for all electrical equipment...dearer
than the U.K. can you believe.
So we are camcorder and laptopless.
Will be in touch soon.
February 4th - Bali
Had hell of a job either finding an email or one that
moved faster than a snails pace.
We are now in Ubud in the centre of Bali and have found
a very
fast outlet.
For your web site you will be thrilled to know that
I sold Brian's talents for hotel discount.....The hotel
manager was sponsoring the national team of Gilli Trewangan.....O.K.
So there were only 500 people on the island and only
40 eligible to play.....but he trained them every night
for a week and we got a $35 discount and the loan of
2 bicycles.
He is thinking of applying for a full time position
as it paid more than the Huddersfield Town Academy.
Some of the music here is fab..we listened to a rendition
of 'The first fut is the deepest' and 'Bream,
bream bream that I love you" and Layla doesn't
bear thinking about.
Magic mushrooms are displayed on dishes outside the
restaurants on the Gillis and the weed is served for
a sweet course. We did not participate.
The woman who told us that the rest of the world is
a piece of cake after India did not lie. You can live
like a king here for a tenner a day and that includes
car hire.
When you next go to our house could you do us a favour?
Brian managed to lose our address book at Hong Kong
airport while playing on the computers......quelle surprise.....and
we are a bit stuffed. I have a duplicate of most addresses
in a book at home.
Hope you are keeping warm
February 10th - Bali
Last night we went back to the room, which is about
10 foot square. Adjoining is the toilet, sink and shower,
which is about 3 feet square.
We couldn't get to sleep but managed to
nod off. Both woke up scratching. No mozzies so we decided
it was bed bugs. Sprayed us and the mattress with highly
toxic substances to kill anything. Two minutes later
the mozzy netting on the window fell out onto Brian
accompanied by another noise.
Up gets 'The hair ball' who checks outside
and puts the netting back. I awake with a start! Something
has run over my foot and dropped to the floor. I get
up and stand on the bed.
All Brian could find was a small lizard
which we couldn't catch but we weren't too bothered.
I did manage to squash a bed bug.
At least 2 litres of our blood in it I'm sure.
I managed to doze off again but the toiletries
on the cabinet woke me as they were rattling together.
I yelled at Brian to get the light on. It was a bloody
rat!
He cornered it at the back of the lavatory
and, as he manfully flushed it out, it ran up the door
frame and onto the bed which was unfortunate as that
was where I was too.
It finally went out the door but I stayed up for the
rest of the night with the lights on watching out for
bed bugs and anything else.
I am sure that my cries of 'My God, my
God, it's enormous!....Get it out get it out!...' made
the rest of the occupants of our accommodation think
we were having a high old time.
The upside is we went off today and found a fabulous
place to rent which we are taking tomorrow and I think
we will stay there for the duration of our visit in
Bali.
February 13th - Bali
Bali isn't what we had expected regarding beaches. They
aren't startlingly white and palm fringed. Some are
not very clean. However it is very lush - out of the
main tourist areas it is as you would imagine. Paddy
fields lush and beautiful.
The main attraction besides the scenery is the ability
to live
like royalty for a tenner a day.
We filled up the jeep today...5 pounds hire for 24 hrs.
The petrol cost 3 pounds
.We drove over the volcano and dined on the other side
for two pounds.[ Fish steaks and rice. Fresh juices
and tea]
We then drove back to the new accommodation comprising
small bungalow set in lush garden with Japanese fish
pond to the front.
We may sit in the open lounge looking at the pond after
Brian has put his sarong on and made a brew in our little
kitchen. I will then take a shower in our Balinese bathroom
while darling reclines on the
sofa in our air conditioned bedroom watching the colour
TV
All for the outrageous price of 15 pounds a night, [cheaper
if we stayed longer.]
Did I mention a little chappie pops in to clean each
day, make the beds and change the sheets and towels?
Are you getting the picture?
We will email before departing for Oz next week.
March 6th - Perth, Australia
Sorry for the long delay in replying. We travelled
to the south of Western Australia which was an e.mail
free zone.
We saw lots of dead kangaroos, Brian forced me to do
a tree top walk which scared me to death and made my
feet sweat. We then returned to Perth as it was a bank
holiday and we couldn't find any reasonably priced accomodation
on the coast.
This was a good plan until Perth had a heatwave. The
hottest temperatures since 1979. A mere 40 degrees!
Our one attempt at sending an e.mail from the non-air
conditioned backpackers email centre resulted in chronic
wieght loss through the
pores and a vile assault on the nose from 25 unwashed
pack packers writing home.
Today is a little cooler and we have come into Perth
to return our hire car. We are then on a mammoth walkabout
back to our campsite where we are now official members
of the Group 4 Campersite chain. We won third place
in the campsite lottery at the weekend - $1, yes $1!
Tomorrow we leave for Adelaide and after a quick visit
to the zoo to see live animals and a trip to the lesbian
beach area we will move on to Melbourne.
Strange country, strange people. England 40 years ago.
No style, no taste and no passion.....well perhaps cricket
and footy mate...no worries.
March 12th - Adelaide, Australia
Hello me old cobber.
Well here is the latest report.
Adelaide is much better than Perth, more atmosphere.
The people are even more friendly and we are chatted
too all the time.
We had a scream the first day. We went to the Barrossa
valley which is a wine producing area . Brian was keen
to do a little wine sampling. The first place we stopped
there was a coach trip so while Brian chatted with this
chap we thought was with the trip I wandered off and
filmed him.
Shortly after, when the trip left, we were asked if
we knew the chap Brian had spoken too. Of course we
didn't and it transpired he had pinched a case of wine
and buggered of. But I had him on video
We were offered a free lunch whilst the police were
called and Brian
tried Kangaroo steak. He reported that it was a cross
between beef and liver.
Glen the policeman arrived and after discussing hs
life history, where he bought his pet whippet and the
ranking system of the Aussie police force, Brian managed
to give his statement.
We left 4 hours later We were then asked to go to the
24hr cop shop by our caravan park so they could transfer
our film to video. Anyway ,it all made for an amusing
day.
We are going to leave Adelaide early in the morning
as we have now hired a car for the rest of the stay
in Oz.
We are driving to Mount Gambier where we will stay for
2 days then Port Fairy? where we will stay one night
before reaching Geelong near Mebourne where Andrew,
our 'best man', lives on Friday.
We will see Andrew over the weekend and then we are
heading off to Sydney but we will speak to you before
then.
The good old Aussie dollar is taking a pounding which
is great so that cheers me up no end.
Footnote from the wine taster.....we have since visited
more winerys..Peter the white wine is good the red wine
brilliant and the port is magnificent.Hic!
April 6th - Perth, Australia
We have enjoyed ourselves but we need to digest
the experience I think, i.e. we didn't like Perth at
all but now we are back here after the other places
we have seen we really like it. Will tell all when we
see you.
We are looking forward to South Africa, we fly there
on the 8th of April.
Can I ask you if you can pick us up from the airport.
I was full of 'lets get a train and then a bus won't
it be fun '...but I
don't fancy it now. Brian says, quite rightly, that
you will tell me to *!!* off it isn't convenient...so
no worries there then mate.
We arrive back in Manchester on Sat. 28th April around
11.00a.m.
P.S You can still have the prezzy! No it's not a packet
of Roo Poo, I've got that for my dad.
April 12th - South Africa
I have now looked at our flight details and see
that we leave South Africa on 28th April but arrive
in the U.K. on Sunday 29th.
Details. Cape Town to London, Heathrow. BA 0058 Departing
28th April 19.25
Arrive at Heathrow on 29th April at 06.25.
Heathrow to Manchester BA1388 Departing on 29th April
at 09.45
Arring at Manchester on 29th April at 10.40.
This is a pretty amazing country. Everything is luxury
class! If you want a 5 star break at 2 star prices this
is the place to come.
Will not bore you with the details until we can speak
to you personally in
stereo.
April 21st - South Africa
Well I can tell you that we spent Easter in the lap
of luxury. We rented a cottage at a place called Fynbros
Ridge. There were 3 cottages and a big house. None were
in sight of each other, each faced out onto the most
spectacular landscape I have ever had the good fortune
to gaze upon. A wooded valley with wild flowers and
ferns reached into the middle distance where there was
a beautiful green plateau. Beyond that mountains that
changed colour by the moment.
The cottage was furnished through out, I was sure,
by Harrods and Homes and Gardens and the Antique Roadshow.
There was a
covered patio area also with fab furniture and sun loungers.
In the day we sat outside drinking tea and staring at
the view and at night there were wonderful log fires.
The wood and the fire were laid each day and everywhere
cleaned by the maids it was amazing!
It was really hard to leave and suddenly the 54 pounds
[Yes, just 54] didn't seem very important.
We did move on Tueday and had a lousy day. We made our
way to Grahamstown, a 3 hour drive. It was billed as
historical and 'Forever England'. They must have meant
Brixton. It was dire. These townships are terrible places.
The blacks are seriously poor. Dressed in rags. Most
of them are sitting around the streets or sorting through
bins. We beat it and the next place called Port Alfred
was not too good either. It was a dull misty, wet day
so that didn't help.
After 8 hours driving we ended up at a place called
Jeffreys Bay. We found a clean B&B that was o.k
but only just. We were about to move on the next morning,
and to be honest we are getting a bit knackered now,
we tried 2 recommended places and couldn't get in .
We saw a place that said luxury apartments and thought,
what the hell lets try there.
I can happily report we are in a huge apartment for
6. We have a patio the size of 3 billiard tables and
we look directly onto the beach and ocean.
The beach incidentally stretches as far as the eye can
see. We sat there yesterday and there were dolphins
bouncing along in the surf.
The beach is covered in shells and I am not collecting
a one. I have
discovered a wondrful flat shell that is mother of pearl
and it is just the thing for the new bathroom ceiling.
Naturally Brian is overwhelmed with joy at the prospect
of getting them home. He is not helping to collect them
but is instead combing the beach for shells that are
less than tasteful and resemble the human anatomy!
As beautiful as it is I couldn't live here. All the
buildings have signs
threatening armed response for trespassing and there
is a subtle under current all the time, white versus
blacks.
The weather is great at the moment and I think we will
stay here until
Tuesday when we will drive back to Cape Town. We have
to climb Table Mountain and visit Robben Island and
the southern most tip of the Cape.
We will e-mail from Cape Town before we leave.
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