No work for 6 months!

After flying out of Hong Kong we arrived at the brand new Bangkok international airport. All seemed very nice untill we had to que for half an hour at immigration! During our wait and my race with em to the front of the que, my 10$HK fake Diesel watch I had bought in a Hong Kong Ladies market dropped off my wrist and smashed to the floor! I suppose thats what you get for buying a cheap fake watch!

We had decided that we wanted to go to Cambodia as we had heard great things about it during our travels so as soon as we were through immigration with our backpacks on, we booked a flight with Air Asia for early the next morning. We then spent the next couple of hours in the airport trying to figure out where we were going to stay for that one evening and how to get there without being ripped off. The majority of this time was spent trying to dodge the 'where you going, where you going," Thai men wanting business. For f**k sake it was none of their bloody business! It seemed that all the Thai people we had spoke to during these couple of hours were constantly trying to con us. Non- metered taxi's were stupidly overpriced and the airport sky train to the new airport wasnt quite finished! Our newly bought, expensive and very heavy, lonely planet bible/guide book told us there was a free transfer bus to the bus station. The hostel we stayed at was perfect for the one night and was out of the tourist city centre of Bangkok. It appeared that a group of young Thai men ran the joint between them - they all looked rather camp but who were we to judge on our first night in Thailand. With excitment of seeing baked potatoes and beans on their menu we were quick to order them for our late dinner. Unfortunately the 1 overcooked green golf ball size potato and spoonfull of baked beans were not quite like what we imagined. What we had realised during our time away from the UK is that no matter what you order for dinner it will always be a surprise! We were up early the next morning and reached the airport just in time for our flight at 6.00am!

We landed in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, at around 8.30am. The cost of the visa entry was $20 each, suddenly our cheap week in the cheap country soon started off expensive. Not knowing what the exchange rate was from pounds to Reil we drew dollars from the cash machine, we later found out that most buying and selling in Cambodia is done with dollars! As soon as we left the airport we were pounced upon by people offering us taxi's, tuk tuk's, buses and bikes. But unlike at Bangkok airport they were really friendly and once you said no thanks they backed off! In the end we chose a taxi and headed into town.

We had spoken to a chap at Bangkok airport who had recomended the 'Royal Guesthouse' as somewhere good to stay. It was in town but near to the river where alot of the action was. After booking ourselves in we went for a wonder round town.

After the modern Hong Kong it was nice to be in a dirty bussling city. Thousands of bikes all literally going in all directions filling the streets, and some how not managing to hit each other, it looked dangerous but everyone seemed to know what they were doing!

That evening we had a few drinks looking over the Mekong River

and had a delicious meal of Amok Fish and drank Ankong beer at 30pence a bottle...this place was great!

The next day we had hired a 'Tuk-Tuk' for the day to go and see some of Cambodia's dark past and what the infamous Pol Pot's regime had done.

The 'Tuk-Tuk' driver had suggested that we might want to go to a shooting range first to fire and AK47, now I never really thought about doing this but why not! So of we went weaving and dodging our way through the traffic and out to the countryside. 1 hour later, and Emily and myself covered in dust and dirt we arrived at the army outpost!

Before I could even contemplate what I was doing, and with no safety talk I had an AK47 in my hand!

'psycho'!!!!
My heart was pounding at this point as the army guy put my ear protecters on, and instructed me to put the butt of the gun into my shoulder. Was this going to hurt?? So looking down the sights I squeezed the trigger, the recoil was not as bad as I had expected so shot off another 15 shots. Emily at the time was standing beside me but had to run for cover, as she was being hit by the empty bullet casings.

With half a clip left the army dude switched the gun onto automatic and pushed his hand against my back so I new there was to be quite a big recoil! Em tried to video this but had to run for cover! Two quick short bursts and the amo had run out!

Looking at the target I had been shooting at I hadnt done to badly with about 20 shots hitting the human outline. The whole experience just made us realise how powerful these guns are and how much damage they can cause to us! I cant imagine a child of 10 using an AK47 but as in many wars around the world they do!

Next stop were the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek'. We read in our guide book that the Cambodian government had privitised the site and was now run by a Japanese company! To sell the rights to such a sensitive and important national site was sick in our opinion! Anyway after we paid our admission fee we first caught site of the Giant White Memorial to the 17000 men, women and children who were executed here.

We decided to look around the site before looking inside the Memorial. The area itself was smaller than we had imagined with about 20 craters dotted around. There were very few clues as too what had happend here, but as you walked around and looked closer you began to notice the strands of clothing coming up from the soil.

And more disturbingly what you thought were rocks, were in fact pieces of human bone! On one tree a notice read that it was used to beat children against.

As we walked around the place had an eiry silence to it with no one raising there voice. The memorial itself was simply made up of shelves of human skulls, divided up into variuos age groups. The fact that children's skulls were there made it even worse.

On leaving the site we still found it very hard to comprehend what had happend here! And it now being a top tourist attraction is also slightly weird.

This was also the case with our next stop, the Tuol Sleng Museum. This was a school but was turned into a security prison named S21 under the rule of Pol Pot. It was a the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. People were taken from here to the killing fields to be executed. What was left in the class rooms were iron beds with various restraining devices on show, as we walked from each class room you began to realise the scale of the torture and suffering that went on here not too many years ago.

The most hard hitting part of the museum were the rooms filled with images of the people who had been brought here. People of all ages and both sex's were shown, the look of terror in there eyes was awful.

After leaving the museum we stopped at the Palace which was very beautiful and ornate but to be honest I think we had quite enough sight seeing in one day, a beer was needed!

After a good nights kip we caught a bus to Siem Reap. This was a 6 hour bus journey, but it was good to see some of the country. Arriving in Siem Reap we found a great hostel, with free breakfast! Siem Reap itself was much smaller than Phonm Penh. That evening we headed out on yet another tuk tuk to buy our tickets for Ankor Wat and millions of other temples. During our ride we visitedthe temple of Phnom Bakheng to watch the sun set! After a small climb to the top we were rewarded with great views of the area and in the distance you could see Angkor Wat.

The mood was only slighly ruined by the hundreds of spitting and smoking chinese tourists!! That night we went into town, and had another great meal....the food here was so good!

We were up reasonably early the next day as we headed off with our tuk tuk driver to show us round the temples of Angkor. First stop was Angkor Wat which was amazing due to its sheer size!

We spent a good hour looking around and Emily managed to see all of it, myself got slightly scared by the rather high climbs that had to be done so missed out seeeing the main temple, but the views were equally good from below!!!

From there we stopped at many more temples but to be totally honest they all began to blend into each other, I think we were slightly templed out! But here are a few images of the best ones.

Bayon - The temple of faces

Ta Prohm - A temple taken over by tree roots!

One of the many shrines inside the temple

Banteay Srei - a smaller pink stoned temple - was this built for a little girl??

Many children huhng around the temples selling all sorts, mostley postcards. After a good 10 minutes of 'why not', 'why not' we found ourselves telling the children that the man opposite said he wanted some. Cruel I know! We eneded up buying some postcards from this sweet girl.

The next day we chilled in Siem Reap and looked around the markets, selling absolutley anything.

'yummy'

Things started to look appealing after a while however after a beer and a reality check it was obvious that there was not much worth taking home.

We were staying in a fab hostel. The room was clean and had air con and the owner was very helpfull. It was a large white coloinial style building with only a handfull of rooms. It had a courtyard where you could help yourselves to bread, jam and tea - Em was in her element!
We took time out by watching some national geographic programmes and also the must see movie about the Khmer Rouge

We had hoped to meet up with Chris and Amanda (Ems friends she met at uni) and her sister Jo. But it just seemed like we kept missing them. Em hoped that we would still meet up somewhere and at last I would be able to discuss some footy!

We had booked a bus back to Phom Penh and after getting in touch with Chris and Amanda had arranged to stay in their hostel for our final night in Cambodia. That night we all met, it was great to see people we knew and to swap stories of our travels, offcourse we did this over a few beers and a great meal!

The next morning and with a slight hangover we flew out of Cambodia, it really had been one of the great surprises of our trip, especially for me who had been rather sceptical. We had a great time, and had seen some amazing sites, and met some really lovely Cambodian people.

We were both very excited about going to Hong Kong as this was going to be a completely different from the experience we have had so far.

In Brisbane we had booked 'The Now Kowloon Hostel' which was located in the heart of madness on Nathan Road in a building called Miramar Mansion. Not really sure what we were booking or where it was, it seemed ok and had ok reviews so that would be enough for us!

We landed at the airport in the foggy weather so we didn't get the best view of the collosal towers of the city or the interesting landing experience on the reclaimed land airport. I as usual picked up the leflets, collected the luggage and we quickly caught a bus to the hostel. Within minutes of getting off the bus we were hassled by people offering their hostel or guest house, selling fake watches and bags, and trying to get Rob to get a taylor made suit. As much as this was appealing we headed for the massive unattractive rundown building called Miramar Mansions. We were unsure really where to go and how to get to the hostel as it appeared there was about 6 different ones all on different floors of the building all run by different people. hmmmm. Our first hour in the hostel was intriguing. We found out from the lady cleaner that a guy was staying in the same room the night before and she was moving his stuff out the room and we must take our passports and money with us as he may come back. We were told to tell him that she had his stuff!! Great! So someone else had a set of keys to our room. We soon aired our concern to the rather unkept guy at the desk (with killer breath and the worst teeth may I add) and when doing so 3 rather large israel guys turned up wondering where there stuff was! Thankgod we met them near reception and not in the room. His key was handed back and all was sorted. Well my fear factor was now quiet high and I couldn't quite figure out what this place was. I'm sure the pictures will better describe where we were staying.

We headed out for an evening wander and to grab some food from a cheap cafe. The next day we had to move to another room on a different floor as someone else was booked into our one for the remaining 3 nights. Not a problem, the room in fact was much better. It is amazing how so much stuff can fit into such a small place. In the bathroom you could shower, go to the toilet and clean your teeth all at the same time. Ingenious!

We spent the next 3 day sight seeing. Rob enjoyed his numerous Macdonalds breakfasts, much to my disgust considering we were in Hong Kong, but for him the thought of bacon and egg noodles for breakfast was not quite right.

The first day we headed north out of town on the super fast, clean, efficient railway to The Temple of Ten Thousand Buddas. To get to the temple we walked through a typical little village where stalls we selling all sorts of products and crafts and we then started the rather long climb up to the temple. There were hundreds of steps to the top. Rob decided to count the steps just to make sure the guide book was correct. The stairway was lined with gold buddas either side, each with a different pose, some holding beads and some holding bowls. Towards the top of the hill the smell of insence became more apparent. At the top there was a number of temple buildings and structures. The main one housed the ten thousand buddas. The buddads lined each wall of the temple some with messages stuck to the cabnet. A large budda was in the centre of the temple with all sorts of givings from the locals - bananas, money, apples, and sweets. We walked around the grounds, coughing on the thick smog of incense and watching people having lunch by the buddas. It was a great experience of our first temple.

On our route back to the hostel we looked for somewhere to have lunch and walked down through Mong Kok and Nathan Road. Nathan Road is lined with numerous shops ranging from Gucci and Prada to the rather weird medicine shops selling dried bat and deer horns. The thousands of people and the extremely busy road meant you qued to cross the road while people tried to sell us the fake watches and bags all with the what bad become normal background noise of 'you want massage, follow me'!?

The second day we were up early and eager to get to Hong Kong island. We took a walk around the main centre and stared at many high rise buildings including the house of a thousand arse holes which is may favourite.

This was the first true sky scrapper in Hong Kong and the round windows and sleek simple design the buidling got its name. We took the lift upto the 43rd floor of the Bank of China. Rob stayed pretty close to the lift while I gazed down through the window on the busling city. This tower was supposidly built much taller and grander than the neighbouring HSBC bank!

From there we wandered around the Hong Kong Park. It was rather sereal sitting in a peacefull park watching the brides have the photos taken, turtles bathing on the rocks of the pond and the sound of the waterfall in the background. All this peacefullness was surrounded by the sky scrappers and thousands of city workers which seemed a million miles away. We then headed to the large avairy to see over 600 different species of birds. After a comment from me saying 'Hope they dont have bird flu' we saw a sign and was told by a park official that the park was closed due to an outbreak of bird flu!!!!! I soon ran out of the area shouting for Robbie to stop taking pictures and to hurry up.

One of the must do's of Hong Kong is to take a ride on the double decker trams. Apparently these were shipped over from UK when they were not required anymore. Personally I think we should have kept them, they are so much fun however built for only short people (not Rob)!

We took the tram to the near by Shui Tsui area where we left the city workers behind. We walked through the hundreds of food and medicine stalls dodging the bikes and lorries while at times feeling sick at the sight of such odd food products for sale.

After heading into a small mall selling traditional souveniers and heading up to a full on ballroom to interrupt the dancing we quickly headed back to the city centre to go up to Victoria Peak. We took the famous peak tram up to top to see the city from the highest point.
The day was quite cloudy however it still took your breath away looking at the number of sky scrappers. The tram up becomes very steep at points so the floor is angled to help the climb up. At the top we Rob just about made the number of escalator climbs to the top of the small mall where you can go outside to see the view. While Rob hugged the building sides I took the pictures from the edge. After about 10 minutes up the top and Rob looking like he was about to pass out (veritgo!) we quickly bought a pint in the bar and watched rugby to give Rob time to recooperate!

After our rather full day of sight seeing we decided to spend the night on the town. Most bars have happy hour so we downed a quick pint and a mojito cocktail (worst we have ever had, it was made with mint flavour and tasted of mouth wash!) before heading back to get changed into fresh clothes to hit the town in the Soho district. While in Soho we took the rather long 25 escalators up through the district. It was a rather mad having such a huge run of escalators through the town.

The next day I woke up with the worst hangover in the world to the noise of the nerby Nathan Road and the drilling by the building site opposite our room. Yuk. Not sure whether the aspirin and biscuit would stay down we went back to sleep until mid day. Unfortunately most of this day was rulled out through my feeling so for myself headache but we did manage to take a return trip on the famous Star ferry over to Hong Kong island and have a burger in an Irish bar!! (it was only 3 quid including soup and drink so do forgive us).

As this was our last night in Hong Kong we decided to visit the Temple Street Night market and do some haggling. The market was not quite as impressive as the nearby ladies market and the sellers were not the budging on the price type so we headed to the ladies market.

After Rob bought some fake CK pants and a fake watch, my head could not take any more from the 'you want bag missy' or 'how much you give me missy' so it was back to the hostel and a decent sleep to prepare for our flight to Bangkok and on to Cambodia.

After a long trip from New Zealand to the Whitsundays via Brisbane airport (6hr wait at the airport passed by with numersous games of shithead) we finally arrived in the sweltering heat. At last the sun was out! We landed at apparently the most dangerous airport, Prosperine Airport, in Australia. Due to the lack of radar signals for the pilot to land and the short run way it was a rather interesting landing. The airport was so tiny - only 2 gates, the waiting lounge was outside in the sun, and the baggage came out on the back of a truck for you to get!

We were then off on the bus to Airlie beach with no accomodation booked in hope of finding somewhere cheap. No such luck, all backpackers was booked up so we had to pay about AUS$100 for a self contained apartment. Oh well we compensated a little by eating in and not joining the crowds of 18yr olds in the packed bars lining the streets. Airlie beach was pretty much what I expected, many backpackers, loads bars, loads hostels, and not really our idea of paradise. We spent the next couple of days looking for a boat to charter around the whitsundays as this was Robs dream and also our reason for coming here. The weather was not on our side. We had come to the whitsundays in the Monsoon season which meant that it was hot, humid (which is nice) but very wet. Appartently the wettest season they have had for 5 years. It poured and poured. We hoped this would not affect our chances of sailing a 36foot yacht (ready and waiting for us for when the weather got better) but with winds at 25-35 knots and little visibility we were unable to go. Rob became quite saddened with it but we soon decided to change our plans and stay on one of the islands. We couldn't leave the whitsundays without at least staying on one if we couldn't go sailing. While waiting for the weather to change we hired a car to see some of the area or make the road kill tally a little higher with a Kangaroo (don't worry we couldn't find one!). We visited a nearby waterfall.

Rob and I managed to swim under the fall but with my fear of what else was swimming with us I soon got out.

Attacked by mosquitos and huge ants we soon headed back to the car. Everything in Aus was massive, the toads are as big as cats (ok I'm exagerating but they are huge, African toads apparently) and the ants we huge too. Thankgod we haden't yet seen any of the big spiders or I think I would have scared Rob off with my screaming. Thats one thing I have realised during our travels, I hate bugs, any form of insect that flies, crawls etc.

During our stay at the Whitsundays Rob treated us to 3 nights on Hamilton Island, one of the larger of the Whitsunday Islands. We were now used to the rain and come to terms with the lack of sailing so we headed off to an Island for some relaxation and watersports.

We caught the 'Fantasea' catarmaran over to the Island and checked into our huge apartment overlooking some of the islands (on a clear day!). For the next 3 days we swam in the pool, took a 2 person small catarman out on the sea, walked around the island, ate, drank, and hmmmm drank a little more.

The island was a bit mad. Golf buggies were the biggest form of transport on the island. Most of the resorts owned hundreds of the things to get around in.

Ours didn't so we enjoyed the walk.

There was many activities and the island was basically set up for tourist holidays - a weekly entertainment programme. sports programme, a water golf driving range, tennis courts, boat hire, watersports equipment hire and even its own small airport. On our last day we booked onto a snorkelling tour to one of the smaller islands in the north of the whitsundays. Kitted up with full body stinger suits (mine included the hat and gloves) and snorkelling gear we looked rather fetching for the fish!



We had a good couple of hours in the water swimming with the bright coloured fish and driving down to the coral bed. It was a great morning out on the sea and rounded up our stay in the whitsundays perfectly.

We had changed our flight to Sydney to the following morning so that we could get to the sun quicker and leave the rain behind.

We arrived in Sydney at about 11pm without anywhere to stay (as normal), and after phoning nearly every hotel in the city we eventually found a hostel with a couple of dorm beds available. Two other guys also were staying at the hostel so we shared a cab with them into town. This was going to be our first experience of sleeping in a dorm as in south america double rooms where so cheap. The taxi driver had some trouble finding the hostel, but we eventually turned down a street lined with transvestite hookers. Was this where the hostel was? Oh yes it was, which we both thought was very amusing. We checked in, and were greeted in the room by a huge bloke passed out on his bed...snoring! We dumped our stuff, as it was so stuffy in there we thought the only way would sleep was to get drunk! So we met up with the lads we shared a cab with and headed out. We woke suitably the next morning with heavy hangovers (ok I did, Rob), and left to have breakie at a cafe.

What we had realised by now is that Sydney was totally booked up, and was very expensive to stay in, even in hostels. So we gave my unkles brother, David a call, who lived in Manly a half hour ferry trip from sydney harbour, to see if he could help us. He very kindly put us up for the 6 nights while we were in Sydney even with such short notice (big thanks), apart from one night where we gave him a break and stayed in a hostel in town. We caught the ferry over to meet him, which in itself was great as it went past the Sydney Opera House and Bridge. That day David and his partner Michelle showed us round Manly, what a great place, really cool vibe, great beach with surf, lovely bars and restaurants. In the evening we all had a thai takeaway sitting next to Manly harbour, which finished the day off nicley. The next day David lent me his long board and off I went to surf on the Manly beach, the surf was ok and thanks to the board being the size of an aircraft carrier I managed to stand up!


The great part of Manly is if you worked in Sydney your commute was a half hour ferry journey...I know which I would prefer over the London tube!!! And you get to go surfing either in the morning before work or go after, paradise! Both Emily and Myself would love to live here.

Over the six days we explored Sydney and its attractions. We walked over, not up the Sydney harbour bridge with its amazing steel structure and great views of the city.



The Rocks area near the harbour we particular liked with great old style architecture and offcourse lots of bars. In Darling harbour we went to the Imax cinema to watch a film on the ocean in 3D, I think we looked particularly fetching in the supplied glasses, and were dissappointed to give them back when we left!

'Should have gone to specsavers'!

One of the days we bathed at the famous Bondi beach, I rented a surf board and didn't do very well apart from perfecting the art of nearly drowning! While Emily soaked up the rays and looked on as a proud girlfriend! We had heard Bondi was lovely and the place to be but we both ended up preferring Manly, with its nicer vibe....I think we have been travelling to long! The Ice Bar in the harbour was an interesting experience, after putting on our thick jackets and sexy boots we entered into the room where everything was made of ice including the glasses.

It was strange being cold with temperatures outside reaching 28deg C, as David said not very environmentally friendly! However we downed our cocktails, as after 20mins we were freezing, and headed downstairs with a couple we had met for some more happy hour cocktails!


We both expected to love Sydney and we did. Its very much like London but with beaches! And nearly everything is within walking distance!

With 2 weeks left to make our way up to Brisbane we decided to rent a campervan again, so we could drive up the coast. After a few phone calls we got a really good cheap deal. David gave us a some tips on nice places to stop and gave us a lift to collect the van. After saying our goodbyes we were on the road again in a campervan, this time however the van had a built in fridge, sink, table and sofa (turned into a bed) and was a high-top! I still couldn't stand in it thought!

First stop was 'Seals Rock', we had arrived just after dark and the sea mist had arrived making the whole place feel quite eiry! So after dinner we got an early night. In the morning we woke to glorious sunshine so we hit 'Treachery Beach', and what a beach it was '.

Sand as far as the eye could see, and amazing surf! In fact the sand was so fine that when you walked across it squeeked! The surf was huge, but with no place to rent boards we body surfed instead as well as the local population of Dolphins who seemed to be much better than us!

Now I should mention on Ems behalf that body surfing in a bikini is not recomended as it is more than likely to be removed by the wave but not worried Em caught a wave..... After standing up and shouting at me that she lost her bikini bottoms and had to pull them up, I had to kindly tell her that she was now topless!!! Classic!

After a great day lapping up the sun and surf and Em flashing the locals we headed for forster for the evening.

Next day we drove to South west rocks, where we came across giant pelicans!

Then up to the lighthouse for fantastic views of the coast, and offcourse we spied a nice deserted beach to lie on! However after 30mins off being battered by the wind swept sand we gave in and left and drove to Nambuca Heads for another swim! We decided that night to head inland to a small town called Bellingen which David had recomended to visit. The town itself was really nice, with a few local bars and quite a hippy feel, but unfortuantely the only campsite had closed down. A rather strange women offered to let us stay in the deserted campsite but she did slightly scare us so we left and ended up driving back to the coast and staying on Emerald beach.

We were on the road early this morning, determined make up some mileage. By lunch we had arrived a the sea side town of Yamba, this was recomeneded by the lonely planet. It was a lovely place with surprise surprise great surf and a great beach! We also came across our first jellyfish, but after reassurance from a local that it was not the deadly blue bottle we went swimming.

We had a quick swim at Ballina where Emily made good friends with a pelican, he wasn't to amused however when Em tried to do an impression of him walking!

That night we arrived in Byron Bay.

The campsite on Byron bay was right on the beach and close to town!

The town itself was lovely with a real hippie vibe, but the main attraction has to be the surf.

With beaches facing in all directions at least one of them would have good waves.

Lookout over the surf at 'The Pass'

We ended up staying here for 5 nights as I got slightly addicted to the surf and Emily got back into swimming. We rented surf boards and even though the weather was changing between torrential rain and beautiful sunshine we hit the beach everyday! For the first time on our trip we were getting slightly tanned!!! On the final morning I was out surfing and to be truthful I was not getting anywhere, but a surfing instructer who was at the time giving a private lesson gave me some advice! He actually ended up helping me for 30mins much to the annoyance of the guy he was supposed to be teaching. Just a few tips on where to be on the board, how to get a wave easier, and how to get up smoother and quicker, made such a difference. The first wave I tried to get I got and went along the wave for the first time, it was great. I must admit I am now totally addicted and want to spend the rest of my life surfing!
Just like these chaps:

Anyway back to reality, in the afternoon we headed up the coast towards the Glass House mountians and the Australia Zoo, home to the late Steve 'Crikey' Irwin. Enroute we drove past 'Surfers Paradise' which far from being paradise was our idea of complete hell, huge skyscrapers and loads of people, so not really worth saying much more! We arrived late at night at a campsite in the Glass House mountains near to the zoo, it was hot and sweaty and to our joy full of Mozzies!!!! So in the boiling heat we retreated to the van and ate inside, it was hot!!!

The next day it was boiling, even at 6am in the morning! We didnt mean to get up that early but had forgotten that we had crossed into Queensland and that the time goes back an hour!

After quickly checking out the glass house mountains we arrived at the Australia Zoo early having driven down the newly named Steve Irwin Way. It was very weird seeing these large billboards with giant images of Steve, knowing that he was no longer with us!

The Zoo itself was huge and very commercial.


We checked out the some of the animals in the morning and then watched the Crocodile show in the huge arena, it must have been amazing to see Steve work with the Crocs!

The show itself was cool, but heavily aimed at kids.
There was also a memorial to steve, with people writing messages on copies of his favourite shirt. It was quite sad to see this.

In the afternoon we headed over to Caloundra for our last evening by the Australian coast. There was no swimming as there had been sightings of the deadly blue bottle jellyfish, so we drank instead!

In the morning we drove to a very hot Brisbane, dropped of our van and booked into a very cool little B&B called Annies. We explored Brisbane a little in the evening but were not that impressed. Next morning we headed to the airport very excited at the thought of going to Hong Kong!!!!