Our time living in Brisbane

Brisbane - Home in Australia

Brisbane's skyline

During our year away we stayed in Brisbane for over 7 months and we managed to build a new life and at the same time explore Queensland and the rest of Australia. It wasn't always a walk in the park to begin with but was worth it and was a shame we had to leave in the end!

Our "Queenslander"

Bedroom: Better than a sweaty dorm room!

We had spent a week in a hostel which was long enough, and after Georgia bagged herself a job we went flat hunting in beautiful Brisbane. We found a double room just outside the city centre for a bargain $200 per week (£55 each and the min wage out here is £15 an hour- so think about it!). It wasn't exactly a luxury place but with all bills included and a 5 minute walk to the city centre it seemed like luxury after paying almost double in a dorm in a hostel! Our house was split into two sections with a downstairs and upstairs and for most of the time we were the only people living downstairs which meant we had our own living room, and bathroom for the first 5 months. It was literally like having our own place, all we have to do is go upstairs in the evening to use the kitchen.

Our share house

The house wasn't as glamorous and as good as it seemed, the front room would get flooded when a tropical storm battered Brisbane every month or so as there were cracks in the wall. The oven didn't work for about 3 months and the housing agency wasn't even bothered about it, not that I even went close to the oven in the 7 months as Georgia was chef!
We also had two Australian 18 year olds that claimed to be students living with us who were proper dirty and weird (I sound like a grumpy old man). When I mean dirty, they used to throw the pots and pans away in the bin to avoid washing them up!
Our small little garden was like a jungle with snakes, possums, rats (who often would like to come in and pay us a visit) but the parrots that lived in our garden made up for it. It was almost weird to see parrots in the wild, especially in a small city centre garden and not in a zoo. I much preferred the parrots in the garden to having pigeons and cats in the garden back home.
In Australia, there wasn't no cats really and me and Georgia just jumped to the conclusion that the snakes eat them which makes sense?
The last couple of months we had an Iranian man move in who was studying who seemed a genuine nice person although there was a few cultural differences we had to agree on.


Jobs

In Brisbane we had 3 jobs each in 7 months which was probably about average for someone with a working holiday visa.
Georgia's three jobs were all located in Brisbane city centre in hospitality usually involving making baguettes and salads for the city workers but was often part time work about 20-25 hours a week. Whilst Georgia was working she decided maybe she should look for another job to get more hours and money so she applied for a cleaning job online on Gumtree which was for one day a week. When she made the phone call the man was requesting if she was young fit and healthy and he needed someone to help clean whilst he was renevating a house and his wife was pregnant so couldn't help out. Georgia wasn't totally sure about how genuine it was and she was right! I was laughing at the time and still, I was on the computer and found an advert from the same man but instead this time he changed it to "topless cleaner" and for some reason Georgia was no longer interested? I told her she should do it and she would get money but there was no convincing her!
Georgia had a bit of a rough time when it came to jobs in Australia, she left the first catering company after being racially abused and picked on by fat old australian women, how can they be racist when their parents or grandparents would have been immigrants themselves? Her second job was just a trial for a South African couple who sounded mental and her third company dumped her without any notice. In the end I employed her as my personal chef and she took up the offer :)

When I first arrived in Brisbane I couldn't believe my luck and got a job at the Ashes selling radio headsets and more importantly got paid to watch the cricket! I met a couple of people there who I became friends with and enjoyed the banter with the Australians especially thinking that England were going to smash them in the Ashes again. We was only required to work for the first 3 days out of 4 so me and Georgia decided to have a day out at the cricket even though England were losing. I was a bit sneaky and used the work entrance that I had been using the previous four days and even wore my uniform whilst Georgia went through the public entrance. It was part of a cunning plan to sneak 14 cans of beer into the ground so we didn't have to spend £4 on a small 3% beer all through the day. The game itself was a bit boring as Australia destroyed England, the best part was probably the hail storm that turned the cricket pitch into a white field! Cricket stopped due to ice! We sat with the "Barmy Army" England fans which was a laugh singing the usually convicts songs and singing "God save YOUR Queen"

One of the trucks James worked with

Anyways, back to the job hunting, I managed to find a job at a cafe as my CV may have been slightly exaggerated in the fact that I mentioned I had worked in a bar and worked in the hospitality sector all my life....well I did do 2 shifts as a barman when I was 18, so not a complete lie. The cafe was run by a young Chinese couple who constantly looked over my shoulder and was paying me below the minimum wage and was actually useless serving food as I didn't know what half the menu was! Anything was better than doing farm work in the outback in the 40C heat though.
On the off chance I applied for a job that looked interesting and something I studied a bit about at university and managed to get offered an interview which surprised me. A lot of employers would immediately not even bother looking at your job application once they knew we only had a working holiday visa as we could only work for one employer for a maximum of one month. I got offered the job after impressing in the interview ans started as a Fleet Allocator for a haulage company that transported shipping containers. I was in charge of around 15 Aussie and Kiwi truckies, half the time it was like looking after children when they had tantrums but the pay was good and I actually enjoyed it most of the time. In the end they wanted me to stay and offered me a sponsorship for four years but I turned it down as it was time to go back to "Pommie" land


Things to do in Brisbane and the Gold Coast

On the Gold Coast there were no less than 5 theme parks in which we managed to go to 3 of them. Warner Bros Movie World, Seaworld and Wet 'n' Wild that kept us occupied for a few weekends....Georgia even got to meet Bugs Bunny.

 

Surfers Paradise: Not a nice area according to Aussies!

Weirdly enough Brisbane didn't actually have a beach, you kind of just assume that everywhere in Australia does! Although they do have one in the local park which is different.
To go to the beach we had to go down to the Gold Coast which was a hour or so away and a lot of people referred it to where "Bogans" hang out which is the Australian equivalent to chavs. Looking at that picture does that look like a Chavvy place, Surfer's Paradise isn't exactly Dagenham Heathway is it? The problem with Australians is that they don't know how lucky they are! Surfers Paradise seemed more like America than Australia was often described as Florida to many people we met along the way! Beach, bars and restaurants, whats there not to like?
Further along the coast there was just endless beaches and we even tried playing barefoot bowls. The requirement in England to play bowls is usually that you have to be over 90 years old but Australians love playing a bowls in the sun whilst having a "Barbee". I think we slighlty embarrassed ourselves playing bowls as most of the balls went off the green or heading towards other peoples games. To be fair, Georgia was quite good and beat me easily which to this day is still hard for me to admit as I'm clearly not competitive.

We visited a zoo type place and was called the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which primarily looked after koalas, kangaroos and other types of wildlife you find down under. In that picture Georgia is completely petrified and they may look nice but they stink. Well it was worth the photo opportunity! There was a kangaroo field where you was able to feed and pet the kangaroos which was good although some were bigger than me! Apart from the 2 million Chinese people that were there on a tour group it was pretty good.
I managed to get a close up experience of some Aussie wildlife when I was walking back from work to the station when I heard some rustling in the grass. I turned back to notice I just walked straight past a 5ft snake! I hallucinated every time I walked home after work since that day!

Brisbane also has it's own brewery in which you can have a tour around but it nowhere near as good at the Guinness Brewery Tour in Dublin or the Heineken Brewery Tour in Amsterdam.

Mount Coot-Tha was also a favourite place for us which gave us an a amazing view of Brisbane and enjoyed the walks on top of the the mountain. We don't pretend to be professional hikers so we took the bus up and walked down to save us from passing out.

As mentioned earlier, there were no beaches in Brisbane but there was a park with a man made beach. It was a few minutes walk from our house and is such a good idea but most of the time it was so busy! Nine months of the year Brisbane is above 25C so it makes sense to build a beach and a swimming pool in a park I suppose but not sure if they anything else like this in the world, maybe someone can tell me? I was happy with just a paddling pool twice a year in the garden when I was a kid!

Beach within a park!

Brisbane has plenty of markets and we visit one near our house almost every Saturday , where we buy all of fruit and Veg for cheaper than going to one of the big supermakets. We have also enjoyed visiting the food markets here and having a range of food from all over the world. You name it we have had it. We both really enjoy the markets out here, much better than anything we have in England. There was a market that was made from old shipping containers and were converted to little food stalls which was a clever idea.

Australians are very patriotic so we decided to join in when it was Australia day when everyone has the day off work and gives people an excuse to have a beer and a BBQ, or in our case a foam party! Australia also have a day for ANZAC day which is a memorial day for the fallen soldiers in the world wars. It's good that Australia is so patriotic and think England should follow suit and have St.George's Day and Remembrance Day as bank holidays

Restaurants- We have visited some beautiful restaurants over the last 7 months living here, our favourites have been The Greek restaurant in the West End that does amazing garlic prawns and warm bread, The Indian which is the best Indian we have ever had, and last but not least the German Bier Cafe that does really good German food and 1 litre biers! We have ate in many places but these are definitely our top three!

Christmas was a strange day we had already enjoyed our day whilst everyone else was still sleeping. I made a huge roast dinner and just my luck the oven broke my luckily I had it all under control haha. Having a huge roast dinner perhaps wasn't the best idea as it was 34C, but we enjoyed ourselves. We spent boxing day at a Beach where we ate the chocolate that had been sent from home ( out here the chocolate just doesn't taste the same). New Years Eve we went out for a meal with our flat mates had a few drinks then went watch to watch the Fireworks on the South Bank.

We had such an enjoyable 7 months in Brisbane and not having to live out of a suitcase and in dorms but enjoyed the city most of all. It's not as touristy as Sydney and Melbourne but I think Brisbane is a lot nicer to live in as it's in Queensland they don't really get a winter! Also with the Gold Coast on Brisbane's doorstep there is so much to do! It obviously takes a few weeks finding somewhere to live and finding a job but it's definitely worth it to anyone thinking of doing a working holiday in Australia!!! :)

Byron Bay, Surfers paradise & the start of Brissy.

Byron Bay Lighthouse

We left Bob and Barbara (reluctantly) after 10 days and headed to our next adventure on the coast; Byron Bay. We booked a four bed dorm and shared it with a couple from the UK who were on holiday themselves from Melbourne. Byron Bay is your typical coastal town with bars, clubs and of course a beautiful Beach. We had only two nights in Byron therefore had limited time , we decided to go on a coastal walk to the Lighthouse which was about a 6km walk in the heat up to it. When we arrived  at the top we were told that we were currently on the most Easterly point in Australia. The walk was beautiful but very hot ( haven't  I already mentioned that?). We headed back to the hostel and had dinner then decided to go out with the couple from the UK, we had pre- drinks outside our room then headed to the bar across the road. The bar had a trivia night and of course I (Georgia) won several free champagnes because I am obviously a very clever person haha. Well other than go to the beach, go on a few coastal walks there wasn't much else to do in Byron. So we booked our next coach and headed to Surfers Paradise.

Byron Bay Beach

Warning to watch out for the snakes

Surfers Paradise is like Florida in America essentially. You have several clothes outlets, plenty of bars, amusements and of course another beautiful beach. The first night the hostel had a mini van taking everyone to the clubs adamant we wasn't going out that night, we obviously stayed in our luxury dorm with no air-con and got an early night, okay maybe I'm lying. We met two Irish Girls and spent the night in a club that had the bar maids dressed up in Ann Summers underwear , with cheap drinks and good music. We had a good evening and it was one of the best nights out in Aus with have had so far. After being in the middle of nowhere for 10 days it was only right that we let our hair down before we had to find a job in Brisbane.

Most Easterly Point in Australia

We booked our coach to Brisbane where we had to stay and find a job otherwise our dollar would have run out and we would have been coming home. We booked a week in a hostel not too far from the centre, our first impressions weren't so great of Brisbane because we got off  the coach  and it looked like Birmingham. Nonetheless we decided not to be too fussy and head to our room. On arrival they booked us into a 16 bed dorm by mistake.I Was adamant that I was never staying in a place that had that many people per room like The lovely Coogee beach in Sydney. After all the hassle we eventually got put in a 6 bed dorm. In the room with us,was a boy from the UK and three German boys. The room itself was okay until you got to know the boy from The UK; Gaz.

First week in Brisbane

Well what can I say he was the type of person who you wouldn't want to be friends with. He was loud, noisy always drunk and just a idiot if I'm honest ( Sorry). Anyways the hostel was okay and big enough with a big enough Kitchen for me to cook in. although it was always busy so you had to get in there by a certain time otherwise James was going hungry! One of the first nights in Brisbane a storm started, the sky literally felt like it had just cracked open, the thunder was like no other I had seen before. It was actually quite scary so we run into the room for shelter haha. We had a few nights out in Brisbane while we were job hunting and found a good bar called  'Down Under ' (original) and decided by this time that we were happy with our choice to stay here and look for a job. Everyday we were getting up searching for jobs on Gumtree, and looking for places to rent in Brisbane. After looking for 5 days searching for literally 6 hours a day, I found a job first on the Thursday and started the following Monday. I didn't have to search for very long and was feeling grateful that I didn't have to do farm work! The place I found a job in was called MYO, and I was employed as the breakfast/lunch chef . I got Tuesdays off work , so only worked 4 days a week which was good for me haha ( more time off in the sun). James also managed to secure his dream temporary job working at the Cricket selling headsets to people. This was the beginning of our adventure in Brisbane, the place we have loved and called home for the past 9 months.

Australian homestay with Bob and Barbara

After having a great time in Port Macquarie it was now time to do a home-stay that we had arranged on line whilst we were in Cambodia. We got off the bus in a small town called Maclean, and our first impression that it looked a bit stuck in time and a bit dated. We got off the bus without knowing what our hosts, Bob and Barbara looked like so we were a little nervous and didn't know who to look out for! Bob came over to us and took our bags and took us to his house a 15 minute drive away. When we arrived at their house it looked like a new one storey house with no neighbours next door, just plots of land for sale. We have noticed the housing in Australia is very different compared to back home, 95% of the housing is one storey and because there is so much land its common you buy a plot of land and design the house yourself with an architect. The house had a huge garden which should have been a sign for things to come!

Looks like he is having a bit of a scratch...

We introduced ourselves to Bob and Barbara and their little dog that they adopted after her owner died a few months back. They were so nice and showed us to our room and the first thing we done is slept as we were "coach-lagged" from the overnight trip, we must have seemed rude! The bed was luxury, the whole house and the gardens was nice to be fair. It was just in a little bit of in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception either and they didn't have wi-fi either. It was like the stone ages for us!
Bob was retired, and Barbara was semi-retired working 3 days a week with Bob being occupied with his a acre big garden most of the week. Bob asked us to help out with the garden for a few hours a day and in exchange we got free accommodation, food and everything paid for basically for as long as we wanted to stay. Georgia also agreed to do the cooking on the days Barbara was working but Georgia had a bit of a shock when we had dinner later that night and realised Barbara's food was delicious. Georgia had a high standards to meet and satisfy Bob with her cooking skills, the pressure was on!

Cindy

The next day we got shown around the garden and what needed doing. It was mainly just maintenance really such as weeding, potting and a word we became familiar with: mulching. For the next ten days we would mulch which was basically scattering a bark-soil mix over the million plant beds that was in the garden. Between the plant beds we discovered droppings everywhere, a bigger version of rabbit poo and was told that kangaroos liked to hang out in the shade in their garden. We was told not to approach them and they would not be any danger. Later that day we spotted one from our bedroom window, it was huge, around 8ft tall with a six pack. I have never seen anything that big in the wild before and even Bob admitted it was big.

Bob, Barbara and Georgia

Georgia's improvised Birthday cake

After a few days of mulching and gardening in the heat, we got offered their car for the day to drive around and see a bit of the local area and beaches. It was also Georgia's birthday the day after so we went to the cinema to watch a film and had a picnic whilst watching a bit of cricket. We went to the bottle-o(bottle shop) or as we normal people know as an off-licence, and bought a couple of drinks to go with Georgia's birthday dinner that Barbara was creating. Barbara made her own pizza from scratch that was then baked on a stone shelf which was impressive and tasty. Georgia had a few presents sent from home that she appreciated and we enjoyed the night talking and debating over a few drinks in the garden which is a bit of Georgia! 

Bob also had a go at the didgeridoo which is an Australian indigenous instrument made from wood, its hard to explain. Type didgeridoo in Google...

A didgeridoo (that's not Bob!)

Bob and Barbara took us out for dinner at an Aussie pub where we discovered Australians have a deadly combination of combining betting shops and pubs into one building. I can't imagine how many drunken bets are made, I think most of my friends would have no money left if they had that back home!
We went looking for a bit more wildlife, apparently there was a lot if wild emu's in the area but couldn't find. It was also to see so much wildlife burnt from bush fires where people have set light to the bush and it has spread over tens of kilometres where the ground has been so dry.
We decided after ten days it was time to move on after experiencing our first ever home stay and it was safe to say we got lucky in finding good hosts and having so much to talk about.....

James and Bob

Port Macquarie

Newcastle: Not a Geordie in site...

Anette (Norwegian), Johnny and Peter (Dutch) in the hostel

After leaving Sydney and sorting out our coach pass we headed up to the East Coast of Australia. We checked out Newcastle for a night but there was nothing special so we then then headed to the town of Port Macquarie. After the nightmare of our terrible 14 bed hostel in Coogee Beach in Sydney, we made sure we booked a 6 bed dorm up in advance! We were greeted at the bus stop by an Italian man by the name of Giovanni who whisked us away to the hostel and offered us a private room at no extra cost....we didn't hesitate to take up the offer. I had already recognised the pool table at reception and knew it was my kind of place! Giovanni started up the hostel with the owner Nick and another friend after meeting each other backpacking. The hostel was small and homely, probably had no more than 30 people and after a few days everyone knew everyone.
The hostel offered free surfboard lessons so I gave it a go as I was clearly a professional after my one hour surfing lesson in Bali. There was about ten of us who took up the offer and we was all pretty much useless! I gave up on the surfing and tried body boarding instead and had a bit more luck with it, although I was drifting away along the coast into rocks most of the time. I panicked a bit especially as the rest of the group was sunbathing relaxing on the beach and I was there just casually drifting away from the beach towards New Zealand. When I reached the shore I was shattered and passed out on the beach for a bit!
Me and Georgia got our first glimpse of a koala and checked out the koala hospital which looked after koalas with injuries from bush fires or car accidents. It wasn't like a zoo with cages, just a sanctuary for koalas. The people who run it were more concerned about the koalas than the tourism it attracted which was good. We also did a 6km coastal walk and came across beautiful deserted beaches and even the odd nudist beach, I did ask Georgia if she want to sunbathe but she passed on the offer. There was thousands of washed up dead birds along the beach which was strange and after asking our friend Google, they apparently make a journey every year from the north pole to the south pole but most of them don't make it. How did people find things out before Google?

Costal walk

We extended out stay in Port Macquarie for a further 3 nights but had to move to a dorm which we couldn't moan about. Our "roomies" were two Dutch guys, Peter and Johnny and two German girls, Isabelle and Katrin. We got on with them so well along with most people in the hostel including French, Norwegian and excited Canadians. Most of our nights consisted of Georgia cooking and drinking and playing games in the hostel. Georgia showed off her cooking skills by making all these different recipes whilst everyone else made the standard spaghetti bolognese most nights. We also discovered 5 dollar Domino's and goon. To anybody who doesn't know goon is cheap cask wine which costs around 6-10 dollars for thee equivalent of 6 bottles and is basically a backpackers dream although the morning after isn't great. We still had our secret stash or vodka from Cambodia, we couldn't let people know otherwise they would think we were posh pommies. The nights also consisted of me be giving pool lessons for free and Georgia being exploited by the hostel co- owner Giovanni phoning a girl working for a rival hostel as he was banned from making contact with her and the hostel.

Beer and a BBQ on the beach

Professional Chefs!

Our final night in Port Macquarie was having a BBQ by the beach with the Dutch boys whilst having a beer watching the sun set over the sea. That was one of the best moments traveling around Asia and Australia. We had such a fun time in Port Macquarie with the nice beaches, the weather and was lucky to share a dorm with Johnny, Peter, Katrin and Isabelle. We even applied for a few jobs in the hope we could work and live in the small town by the sea but it was not to be! It was time to leave as we were had a home-stay arranged with a retired couple further along the coast.

G'day Mate- Sydney

Sydney, Australia: 

We got a cheap airline to take us to Sydney , which was the equivalent of being on Easy Jet for 8 or so hours. When we landed we had no trouble going through it was very easy, unlike them TV shows you see back home. We walked off the plane, got our luggage and decided what was the best way ( or cheapest) to get to our hostel. We decided to get the local bus for only around 7 dollars each, In Sydney this is very cheap as we would soon find out. The journey to the hotel was easier than I had imagined, maybe this was because I was excited to finally make it to Australia. Last time we run out of money and couldn't go, so I

Beautiful View at Blue Mountains

was eager more than ever to make it here! We booked a bed each in a 6 bed dorm was something ridiculous, we were still use to paying ten dollars for a luxury room in SE Asia. We paid a little more to be central and to have a good hostel, when we arrived they upgraded us to a 4 bed dorm, which made me pleased. The two boys in our dorm were very quiet and worked during the day, so it was like having our own room to ourselves most of the time. The first thing we did was put our bags in the room, have a mooch around the hostel and decided that we were
hungry and KFC was definitely calling. Now we are use to eating gourmet meals for 3 dollars each, we were about to get kfc with no thrills for a mere 10 dollars each, it soon became apparent that I would be chef George for the foreseeable future. Anyway after using kfcs free wifi and eating their delicious hot wings, we decided to go for a walk. We were very jet lagged and ended up walking around 4 miles or so to see the Famous Sydney Harbour and Bridge, before we knew it, it was 1 am and we were roaming the streets in Sydney , we weren't even drunk , which makes a change.  We decided to eventually go back and try to sleep. We tried and almost failed, finally getting some shut eye at a silly time.

James at Sydney Harbour

The next day we had to go to the bank, get a bank card in Australia for when we start working out here, we also managed to sort out of tax file numbers ( national insurance for all of you wondering, keeping it legit and all that), and last but no means least a Aussie Number. Once all that was sorted we decided to go food shopping, our hostel had a huge kitchen and we defo needed to make the most of it, saving up our dollar. We was shocked a packet of mushrooms is literally 3.50 English pounds, how is that even possible? More interestingly meat was so so cheap. A huge piece of steak for 6 dollars, so it soon became apparent that we was becoming raging meat eaters because we couldn't afford the veg. we saved some much money by cooking, When I say 'we cooked' that means I cook, James watches and don't offer to wash up at the end of it. He needs whipping into shape. James's reply to him not helping out is usually along the lines of  'When your my wife in a couple of years time, you'll be a good one with all the practice I'm giving you now' , speechless. Thinking about it, I don't think anyone eats out in Sydney when they are backpacking it literally is far too expensive and I personally ain't paying 6 dollars for a bit of garlic bread that I could make better ( rant over haha).  After shopping we got some lunch 3 slices of pizza for 10 dollars, so one and half each, I'm definitely going to be loosing weight out here haha. We headed back to the hostel feeling accomplished because we had sorted out most things in an afternoon, good team work! 

Sydney Harbour

We were still so jet lagged, I ended up making us dinner, as always I have no control on portion sizes and James get fed a feast enough for two men haha. The night our hostel held a trivia Tuesday Night, we teamed up with 5 of us from the UK and one Canadian boy, who was overly excited, but a laugh. We came a impressive third in total and won lots of free drink vouchers , so we didn't spend hardly anything having a few beverages or two in the evening. Our hostel ran a free walking coastal beach tour the next day, so we had a relatively early night and got up to do the Beach tour. 

The beach tour saw us all take a bus to Coggee Beach and walk along stopping at a few beaches on the way and finally ending up in Bondi Beach. The walk was really nice and I enjoyed the walk, the weather was a nice temperature and the beaches were some of the best I have seen. This took up most of our day, a girl we met on a quiz team suggested we do the Sydney Walking Tour the next day, we was definitely going to do that. The next day we turned up to the tour, its a free tour but you pay a tip if your enjoyed it or not. The tour saw us go to all the historic sights in Sydney and explained the Aussies History of their convict past. We got to see so much of Sydney and got to

Three Sisters Rock

understand how Sydney became the city as we know it. On our tour we even got to pass the local news room and see a lady presenting the news and when it cut to a break, she got her make up done. I'm sure she appreciates the Tourists all waving at her, while she's presenting some news. The tour ended up at Darling Harbour and we finally got to see it in the light. We got told a story that if you wish to climb the Bridge you can't be under the influence of alcohol , George Clooney ,obviously had too many drinks the night before and was refused entry to climb. They take this seriously and breathalise everyone that wants to do it. The harbour has some cool cafe's, eateries and bars, all of which look beautiful, but Cinderella here had to go home to cook for her hubby haha.  We headed back to the hostel, full of facts from our tour. We were so tired as we still weren't sleeping that well since we landed in Australia, so we got an early night.

That famous huge steak

The next day we got a ferry over to a place called Manley ,which was good. The ferry was the best way to see the sights in Sydney . Manley itself is very good and relaxed a typical beach town. All you ever see in Australia is Beaches, and look another beach. So we decided to go back on the ferry. On the ferry the sky was orange , as if the sky was on fire. Unbeknown to us we didn't know there was bush fires close by and this was the reason why the skies were such a bright orange. You can see a theme through this blog :we aren't drinking or eating too much haha, maybe this is why we are doing so many excursions. We read up about a place called 'The Blue Mountains' , and decided that we was going to go there the next morning. The bush fires were still ongoing and it was very close to the Blue

The effect of the bush fires from the years before

Mountains, but we decided to risk it and go anyway. The train ride to the mountains was around 2 hours, so we left for the 9.30  am train and made our way to the mountains. The blue mountains are for those who want to go on scenic walks and visit the national parks. You can purchase a ticket for 35 dollars , which allows you to go on the worlds steepest train, cable car, sky car and another one that I can't seem to remember. After going on all four we decided to go on a walk around the National Park , and we got to see the famous three sisters. The three sisters are a set of rocks that look like you guessed it...Triplet Sisters. The walk was so scenic, I'm starting to like this trekking stuff! On our way round we got to see how the bush fires affected the national park some two years before, the trees were all black, but luckily nobody died or got injured this time. On the way back we walked through the town called 'Katoomba', it was such a peaceful, serene town and definitely looked like what Australia should be.

Blue Mountains

We made our way back and decided to check out. A few days previous we had tried to extend our stay but because it was the weekend everywhere was full, so we had to settle on a 14 bed dorm in Bondi Beach. We got a confirmation that said we were being placed in the resort down the other beach. I gave them a ring and they said that because its the weekend , everywhere was full and we had no choice but to go to their other hostel that was down the other beach. Being annoyed already, we didn't have much expectations , we just thought its only two nights, what's the worse that could happen!? We made our way on Friday night to the hostel, checked in and had to pay 3 dollars for dirty stained sheets, so you can imagine we was not impressed.The hostel was full of long term people, who basically live there so was really clicky and people weren't so friendly. We got two top bunk beds that had no ladders to on to the top, so annoying and full of people's clothes and stuff everywhere, One of the worse place I have ever been to. That night was 'oktoberfest' and the hostel gave our free entry tickets, they had however ran out by the time we had arrived. We asked a man if he had a spare ticket, seeing as he wasn't going, he said 'yes' and he went to get us it, upon his return he decided to act like the knob he was and said he will give it to us if we pay him. This made no sense, I told him no. He said if you really want it, then you will beg me for it. I literally didn't know whether to laugh or slap him haha. I decided to laugh and told him,. I'd rather pay 100 dollars

Steepest Train

than give you him any of my money, he got the hint and did one. Anyway we finally made it to the bar with a another little hick up on the way. It wasn't worth it, full of stupid drunk Australians who were generally acting like idiots. They had a rap group up on stage, now I'm found of the music myself, but really? It's meant to be Oktoberfest for god sake haha. We stayed for a while and enjoyed ourselves, then it was time to go back to the dorm. The next day we just decided to get up and go to the beach all day. The beach itself was beautiful and really relaxing. Coggee Beach is a lovely place, its just a shame we had to be surrounded with such idiots. We spent the day and the beach at at night ate our for the first time in what seemed like ages ( no cooking for me ) . I ordered a steak and no lie it was the hugest piece of meat, I have ever eaten. Well James had a good third of it lol. And all of this for only 15 dollars, I couldn't believe it.  We then took a walk for a few miles to a place called ' Randick' . it had a old fashioned cinema called the Ritz and was just generally a really good town. Our time was coming to a end, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep as we were leaving in the morning to head to a place called Newcastle and then Onto another town called Port Macquarie.

Beach

Note to anybody who wants to stay in Sydney avoid 'Cogge beach surfside backpackers'  it is filthy, dirty, a cold showers and the staff literally do not know what they are doing. 

Our time in Sydney had come to a end, and what a busy few days we had. Sydney is such a good place and we definitely want to come back sometime soon :))

Until Next Time...

Georgia and James. 

Katoomba

Kampot and Phnom Penh (Round 2)

Hello hello,

As you have probably guessed from Facebook we have been in Australia over a week now but we are behind on the blog so just think as it we are still in Cambodia!

A short journey in a minibus from Sihanoukville and we ended up in Kampot, a small French town with not much going on but there was plenty to see in the countryside including the famous Kampot Pepper plantations. When we got off the minibus, a tuk-tuk driver persuaded us in taking us around the countryside all day for 20 dollars and arranged for him to pick us up the next morning. We decided to rent a moped out and travel 30km down the road to Kep which was meant to be a good day to visit a few beaches and visit the national park.

Hiring out a moped was a big mistake, I'm sure we have said this several times but I don't learn. The road we travelled on to Kampot was probably better than the main roads in England so I assumed it would be okay to travel further down the road to Kep on a moped. What a mistake......I don't know where to begin. There was no tarmac in sight, just mud and gravel, roadworks all the way including having to dodge JCB's on our little moped, and so much dust that when I left my shirt was white and I came back with a orange t-shirt. Even my teeth had a layer of dust on! When we got about two-thirds of the way we basically slid off the road as it was a gravel road and we ended up bending the key and paying a local 2 dollars to use a hammer to smash it back into place. 5 dollars was a bargain as the man who gave us the moped could have charged as much as he liked because he had my passport as a deposit. As you can imagine Georgia was not impressed, and has now definitely decided no mopeds again!!! We decided to leave Kep and head back, luckily we didn't fall this this time. When we arrived back to the hotel and in one piece ( I had a few cuts on my knees), we decided to go to the local cinema and watch the 'Killing Fields', it was a film about the Killings In Cambodia, which was worth the watch. Everything shuts at 9.30pm, so we headed back to the room as we were up early for our tour the next morning.

The next morning our tuk-tuk driver arrived on time just as planned . We took a tour to the countryside, the first stop was at a local fishing market, there was not much to see here, so we headed back into the tuk-tuk and went to see some salt fields. The salt fields were huge and they had barns filled with every kind of salt you can imagine. Next stop was to visit the pepper plantations; we stopped for lunch here. Georgia was upset that she couldn't buy any fresh pepper because we wasn't sure if we were allowed to take it into Australia, nevertheless we had Kampot pepper stir fry for lunch and were satisfied with that. The next stop is where all the action starts...
We were on our last place to visit the temple in a cave ; it had started to rain and the roads became even worse although we didn't think that was possible Our tuk-tuk got stuck in mud literally in the middle of nowhere. We both got out and attempted to help our driver get his vehicle out of the mud. We were covered in mud and almost fell over ourselves, it was quite a funny experience when we look back. We eventually stopped and almost made it to the caves where our driver mentioned we had to walk the rest of the way as the road was so muddy. We couldn't walk it in our flip flops as the roads were so muddy from the rain so we took off our shoes and walked in mud for about ten minutes to get to the cave. By this point we were laughing and Georgia wasn't even saying it was my fault! We walked about 200 steps or so to get into the cave, there wasn't anything too impressive about the caves but the experience to get into them was funny. Our driver had to hold Georgia's hand to walk across the river back. There was no bridge just a tree trunk to walk across, Georgia wasn't confident enough to walk over it on her own so she had to have the trusty hand of our driver, who then gave her a flower at the end of it for all her hard effort ;) We have a load of photos but haven't managed to upload them onto Facebook yet!
We then took a 2 hour drive back to our room, with many locals on the way back saying 'hello' to us in their small villages. There isn't much to do/see in Kampot and we had a couple of nights spare before we headed to Australia, so we decided to visit the capital of Cambodia again; Phnom Penh....

Phnom Penh

We got a mini van to Phnom Penh , we paid 2 dollars extra to have the VIP van, In Cambodia you don't take notice of VIP anything, if anything VIP means your in for a treat and not in a good way. The minivan was literally VIP with free WIFI to help pass the journey, leather seats that were still intact  and a free water of bottle... smiles all round!
We got to Phnom Penh and checked into our room, our hotel told us all the things we could do and see, the problem being we had already visited here before and do most of them all. Phnom Penh is really busy and dusty ,as is most of Cambodia . We decided to walk around in the blazing heat to go see the Royal Palace, we made the mistake of walking 2 miles or so in the heat, got to the palace and only had our debit cards which they didn't accept, we decide to go back and go early the next day to avoid the heat and actually bring money this time. On the way back we visited a pagoda that was close to our room, and of course there is always a entry fee for

the tourists. The pagoda itself was similar to what you see all over South East Asia , fancy Buddha's and similar decorations. That night we ended up in A Indian restaurant and the food was really decent. We ordered far too much and had to take it away, our plan was to keep it in our fridge in the room and have the Naan bread for breakfast the next morning. The next morning came and we went to the Palace which was worth it as mentioned before we had seen and done everything Phnom Penh had to offer. We seemed to walk for ages in Phnom Penh, that night we rewarded ourselves with a night out after all the walking we done over two days. The night out consisted of a walk to the river front, people watching which ended up with a girl tripping and falling flat on her face (hope she;s okay now though). The weather in Phnom Penh was really hot and sticky, so we took refuge in our air con a lot of the time. We visited a Russian market with no Russian in sight.I bought Georgia a back scratcher for a dollar, which was a good investment haha. The next day was time to leave for the airport , our flight had a stop over in Malaysia so we got a hotel at the airport for a few hours to have some sleep and shower. Phnom Penh left a better impression on us this time as we wasn't depressed from visiting the killing fields this time round!
We was really looking forward to leaving Cambodia and heading to Australia.

Next Stop Australia.....

James and Georgia

Sihanoukville

We got a bus from the school to Sihanoukville which we was told would only take 3 hours. In Cambodia you expect 3 hours is roughly around 4 hours or so. We waited for over two hours for the bus to come, it finally picked us up and was over crowded with locals and a monk. I got told to sit next to the Monk and he refused me due to me having a vest top on, needless to say I was beginning to get annoyed by this, anyway I finally managed a seat next to a local girl. We were finally on our way, when the bus driver told everyone who was heading to Sihanoukville to get off and wait '5 mins', we got off and was on a motorway in the middle of nowhere waiting for another bus ( it came after 35mins). This again was very crowded, however this time we had our seats reserved probably because we paid more than the locals. I instantly felt bad because the locals had to get off our seats and stand/seat in the aisle, some of them were clearly over 70 years of age. The bus driver gave them a plastic seat to sit in the Aisle, so that made me feel much better, you can't have the elderly standing all that way! All in all we arrived some 7 hours later, 4 hours more than expected which by Cambodian standards is good going.

Otres Beach at night.

Dinner

We made our way to the hotel we stayed at before in March, it was luxury with a pool and only for $16 or Ten pounds English. We booked for 7 nights and ended up staying 11 nights. Just as we left the Village James woke up being sick and a high temperature, so when we arrived at the hotel , we went and stocked up on tablets for him. The next day I caught what James had and we were both ill for a few days, not ideal but we had 11 days to play around with. When we were finally better we managed to go out; Sihanoukville is a party place and there isn't much to do other than eat,drink and sunbathe. Feeling much better we got a moped out and headed to the secluded part called Otres Beach, where we had dinner on the beach :) 

Football in the bar and winning our bet :) 

After dinner we headed to a few bars along the beach front, I was happy that I found a bar that played Drake, Lil Wayne and others haha, I was in my element with my $1.00 vodka redbulls. After a certain time of night you can have laughing gas for only a dollar. I think James got addicted and I am now calling him Blake ( Amy Winehouse's ex husband) haha ;). To put it bluntly this place in Cambodia is like the Magaluf of Spain, you can even add ' Happy' on to anything, food, drinks etc for no extra, they practically give away weed for free! 

We decided to book a tour as all we were doing was sleeping a lot, the tour was a party boat that went to another Island called Koh Rong.The Island is secluded and only has electricity for 4 hours per day, so we decided to just go for the day. We got on the boat the next day and what a journey it ended up being. They gave away little plastic bags, which we soon found out where for sea sickness, everywhere we looked there was Chinese Tourists being sick in bags. I thought we got lucky then about a hour in I started to feel very sick, luckily I wasn't actually sick though! The tour on the boat included a lunch buffet and snorkelling,the Chinese tourists were so greedy. When we went down to finally get some lunch, it had practically all gone. There was enough rice to feed 300 people ( literally) and they seemed to be piling enough portions of their plates for 4 people, no lie. Me and James ended up with a little bit of rice, we didn't let it bother us too much though. When it came for the time to snorkel the Chinese tourists again were the first to get to the front to make sure they did it first, needless to say they annoyed me so much that I didn't end up even bothering to try snorkelling.  We was on the boat for some hours by this point and still not at the Island.We finally arrived and only had 2 hours on the island, the boat we was on was too big to dock, we had to get in little fishing boats and then jump into the water to reach the shore. I literally couldn't jump and got myself stuck on the boat, much to the annoyance of James. Anyways I finally faced my fear and jumped in the water haha, and we found a secluded part of the beach and sunbathed for a couple of hours, it was now time for the boat home ( nice and easy). On our way home our boat took a little detour, the boats captain said the waves were too high to dock at the main pier. We ended up being stuck on the boat for another few hours, it was starting to get dark and the Chinese tourists were still being demanding as ever. They got little fishing boats to take us to the main pier in another town. There was 200 people to get in to two little fishing boats, so we had to wait our turn and just about got on the third boat. The tour finally ended 3 hours over the time we were due back, and it all felt like that we was stuck on a boat all day. All in all it wasn't a good tour, laying in bed at night the room was spinning, I literally had sea sickness in bed from the boat! 

James

Having dinner on the beach.

That night we went out to the front and went to the bars again, they offered free beers or whiskey most nights which we took of course. There wasn't much else to do in Sihanoukville, other than drink etc, so one night we managed to find a casino. James will find a place to bet anywhere he goes! We visited the Casino about two times during our time there and won some dollar each time ( Only because I was so good at roulette) ;) . I don't think there was a dress code in the Casino as the local women were in their pj's betting away their money. Cambodia is so poor so it shocked me to see them betting their money away ( lets hope they were winners). 

Otres Beach

The last couple of days we headed to Otres Beach as it was so pretty and relaxed. I got a manicure on the beach for $2 , might as well for that money you can't complain. On the beach there was local children who would try and sell you things,they clearly did not like James, he told them he had 5 girlfriends and they was annoyed by this . The little girl said to James 'you are nasty and I will get my brothers to cut off your banana' haha. She then goes 'why do you need another girlfriend when your girlfriend here( me) has big boobs like Nikki Minaj'. I carried on letting them abuse James, then she got a stick and starting whacking him with it haha. That will teach him.... After a while they were calling him gay and lesbian, and carried on hitting him, so I eventually told her to stop and that he was only joking. She then goes to me 'you can lie to yourself, but not your heart'. I think she got a little crazy and I had to tell her to calm down and chill out. 

So after 11 days in Sihanoukville, we finally decided to move on to another city called Kampot.

Sorry this blog isn't as detailed, we literally slept, drank and ate for 11 days :) 

Georgia & James :)