South-East Asia
Sydney
Brisbane
Childers
Darwin
Melbourne
New Zealand
Hawaii
Vancouver
Well, I've finally reached Australia and it's quite a strange feeling to have finally made it. Having not slept for about 30 hours when we landed, I think I was hallucinating by the time I caught my first glimpse of the Opera House. As I said last time, we've arrived right in the middle of gay Mardi Gras which meant that nearly all accommodation here is booked out (by the participants.) Thankfully we managed to find a hostel in the end right in the middle of the city.
Sydney is lovely. Sightseeing opportunities include the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and a vast array of bra-less cleavages.
The weather is great too, hovering around 30 despite summer drawing to a close and thankfully it lacks the humidity that we experienced throughout Asia.
I managed to watch Neighbours yesterday which was a profoundly moving cultural experience. All the Australian advertisements on the telly are weird, first you'll get a slick commercial for IBM or Coca-Cola or something, the next minute up pops some bloke being filmed by a joddery video camera advertising the cafe round the corner.
So this evening we experienced the culmination of the gay and lesbian mardi gras with the gay and lesbian pride march and float procession throughout the streets of Sydney with loads of gay and lesbians behaving, well, gay and lesbian while all the citizens of this town watched on as watching a freak show, not knowing whether to stare aghast or join in. Whatever, it seemed to be a very big deal, millions of people were here just to watch it and it was screened live on television. Some bloke on the side of the road was selling what he called "lesbian sunglasses". I didn't buy a pair.
The dilemma we have is what to do now. Sydney is nice but I'm sure it doesn't really portray the real Australia. We toyed with the idea of buying a car to tour the country in (they're really good value here, you can get a good banger for about 500 pounds) but given that my car mechanic knowledge is limited to how to put the bonnet up (and sometimes I have a wee bit of trouble with that), the thought of being stranded in the outback hundreds of miles from anyway has rather persuaded us to take the bus instead.
So I think we're going to head up to Brisbane, eighteen hours north of here by bus, and maybe try to get some work up there.
It's now 2.30 am on Sunday morning. The reason I'm on the internet at this hour is so I can listen to the football via the live feed from my BBC local radio station. That really is amazing, and would have been unimaginable even a couple of years ago. Unfortunately we're losing 1-0 which isn't quite so unimaginable.
Before I go, and to round off my earlier theme, I must just tell you that it seems not all Australians are quite so liberal as the inhabitants of this city. There was a scandal mentioned on the news yesterday about a press release from the Queensland health service who are warning all their residents to have hepatitis vaccinations and health tests just in case the gays and lesbians decide to wander into their state after gay and lesbian Mardi Gras.
Right, I'm off to the doctor.
Tomorrow I might sample Bondi Beach although it was closed today owing to a shark sighting. Well at least it wasn't a camel...
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Keep in touch everyone.
Yours,
Ian
(Sorry about mentioning breasts)