Ten Days in Sydney - Trannys, HQ and Lots of Alcohol.

Okay, So this is another shortcut. Here it goes....

In Sydney I stayed at a Hostel called the Backpackers' HQ in King's Cross, Sydney. If you like nightlife, this is the place to stay. Most of the guys there are long-termers, so it's so safe and secure. HQ also had an activity organised every night, either a visit to a bar or the legendary Sausage Spectacular on a Friday night where, for a mere $3, you can get all you can eat sausages and all you can drink goon (box wine). It is a great laugh, and everyone got pretty drunk. There was a rumor that one swiss girl got so drunk that she couldn't see and had to get helped to bed. There were a few highlights of my time in Sydney that weren't alcohol related, but I'll get to the good parts first! I did have a few good nights out in Sydney, and here are the best bits. On nmy first night out we visited the Old Fitzroy theater. There was free pool, cheap food, and $3 beers. Need I say more? I ended the night by having to get Jo (one of the guys from the hostel, from england) To escort me to the nearest McDonald's, and then back to the hostel. Another place we frequented regularly was the World Bar. One memorable evening was the karaoke, with free drinks for the singers. I teamed up with a Swede and an Aussie and we completely ruined the Queen classic "We Are the Champions". And of course, the most memorable of all the nightlife in King's Cross has to be 'Tranny Bingo' at the King's Cross Hotel. They were taller than me! Some of the calls were very un traditional. 88 became two fat s**ts, and 1 is a skinny b***h. Right, not for the less alcoholic highlights. First there was manly beach, a ferry ride away from the city. It was quite nice, but it was too windy and cold to go swimming on the day we went. Next there was the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. This may seen strange, but they are a lot smaller than you think they are, and because you've seen them before, you don't really get that sense of 'wow'. But in my eyes, the best highlight was the trip to the Blue Mountains. We took a 4 hour walk though the valley, and the views and waterfalls were immense! There was a bit of a slip-up, where I accidentally put my foot straight down a hole which was full of water. My trousers got soaked right up to the knee. All I can say is, thank god no-one else did it, because they'd probably have ended up waist deep in water! Another highlight of the day was the 'adventure lunch'. we took our pies and salad out to a rock hanging out over the valley, with a 200ft drop on three sides, and no safety barries, nets or others. Now that puts a whole new meaning on 'al fresco'. So that's a quick summary of the best bits of Sydney, and you wouldn't have got much more anyway, because i was pretty drunk quite a lot of the time, and the rest is a bit blurry. So - to give a briefer do and don't. Do - go to the Blue mountains, and do stay at Backpackers' HQ. Don't - expect to be overly wowed by the Opera House or the Bridge and don't drinkk too much goon in one go. It's not good for you. Now this shall be the end on the 'Diaries' Blog for now. I'n now gonna go onto a Sub-blog, The Flying Scotsman's Travel Journal.

Day 13 - A Return Visit to Sentosa

On day 13 I awoke at 12pm, again, and I decided to abandon my initial plan of a trip to the 'Army Open House', which In had heard about on the radio, instead deciding on a return visit to Sentosa island. I headed out first to the airport to change money before taking the train to Harbour Front. On reaching Harbour Font, I decided to take the Sentosa Express monorail instead of the cable car. I was pleased when I reached the station, tucked away on the top floor of a shopping mall, as the tickets only cost S$3. The ride to Sentosa was short, but informative, and took me to my first intended port of call, the eco tours hut. I asked to book the eco adventure tour, and I was told that I could, but the next available tour was at 5pm. I told her that it would be no problem, and booked the package of Eco Adventure + Fun Ride, taking the Fun Ride immediately. After my short ride, I took the beach tram from the Monorail station down to the other end of the beach. and on arrival saw a group of monkeys sitting on a ledge. I reached for my camera, but when I went to take the picture, they had disbanded. Typical. I walked up to the snack stands instead, to get some food. I purchased a chicken burger and chips, and sat down in the picnic table seating area, only to find that I was not alone in my meal, being joined by too friendly (and hungry) peacocks, who had no trouble in helping me eat my lunch. I sensed a photo opportunity, and placed a chip on the opposite side of the table, only to have the peacock leap onto the bench and grab the chip. Several chips later I had quite a few pictures, which will be uploaded as soon as I am able to find a capable computer. I then headed to the underwater world ticket desk, and upon seeing the prices, swiftly headed away from the underwater world ticket desk. Well, I'm not made of money. I then strolled back along the beach and had (just one) ride on the Luge. After this, it was almost time for my ride, so I headed to the 7 eleven and purchased a giant slurpee and sat down to enjoy, and after that it was time. The Eco Adventure was even more fun than the Fun Ride, due to both and extended length of trip and the opportunity to mess about on a beach with a Segway, resulting in one of the other riders, a kid from China, falling off several times. If my camera had been recording, I could have been 250 pounds richer, but sadly it wasn't. Following the fun ride I decided to head into town for some food and, after a wander round the VivoCity mall at Harbour Front, found a cheap restaurant to have some food. I then headed back to the hostel, intending to head out again, but instead deciding to update my blog, and eventually I fell victim to tiredness and decided not to bother going out again. Eventually my room mates returned, and they told me they were checking out the following morning. We swapped contact details, and then I went to bed.

Day 12 - Sentosa - Skyrides, Segways and a Luge

On day 12 I awoke at around 12pm, and I decided to head to Sentosa, an island connected to Singapore by a cable car and a monorail. I took the MRT to Outram Park, and then changed to the NEL to Harbour Front. Here I took a walk to the Cable car station and purchased a return cable car ticket, which cost S$20. The cable car provided some brilliant views of Hong Kong, and I enjoyed the trip, before arriving in Sentosa. The cable car deposited me at the top of Mount Imbiah, and right next to the Tiger Sky Tower. I headed for the reason I had first come to Sentosa. The Luge and Skyride. I queued up, intending to buy an 8 ride pass for S$44, but when I reached the counter I was told that it was a family pass (with at least one person under 16 using it). Instead, I purchased a 1 hour unlimited ride pass, and headed straight for the Luge. I don't know quite how to describe the luge, so I won't bother. Instead, here's a link to their website. The hour went quite quickly, especially as it took some time to return to the top by the Skyride. I managed to take about 5 rides, although I didn't get the Skyride back up in time. No big loss, because I wanted to explore the beach anyway. I took a short walk, and found a bicycle rental shop, which was quite reasonably priced, so I took a nice bike ride along the beach, and then, after a few circuits up and down the island, I returned the bike, as I had a new objective. On my last circuit, I had met group riding past on Segways, and I had asked where the tours were. I took the beach tram up to the beach station (the beach tram was actually a road train). There I walked around the corner and found the GoGreen Eco tours hut, and (I booked a fun ride (it was my last S$10)), and it was really fun. I was a bit shaky at first, but I soon got the hang of it. The fun ride lasted a short while, and I would have liked another go, but I needed my money to get back to Singapore and to get some food. I caught the Skyride back to the top of the hill, and then the cable car back, before heading to Harbour Front Station. It was then that I noticed the sign, next to those that said the obvious, 'No Smoking', 'No Eating or Drinking', and 'No Flammable Liquids or Gases', which said 'No Durians'. How odd, I would have to ask someone at some point. I too the train back to Outram Park, and then another train to Tanjong Pagar, and the hawker centre where I had the same as day 11, with the addition of some fried Wonton. It was quite nice. I then headed back to the Hostel to update my blog again, and to await the arrival of my room mates. My room mates turned out to be Joyce and Sheryl from Malaysia, and a Japanese guy (whose name I'm afraid escapes me). I showed them my card trick (if you've seen it you'll now how effective it is. (I'll try to put it on YouTube or something), and then we had a chat about Singapore, Scotland, Malaysia and how we came to be here. It turned out that Joyce and Sheryl were at an expo to do with improving workskills, and the Japanese guy was working at the expo. I then went to bed (it was quite late) and slept.

Day 8 - Beaches, Boats and much too-short shorts

On day 8 I woke up late, around 11.30, and so I decided to see if I could find out where George had gone to, and I again found him in the internet bar after half an hour of fruitless searching. I didn't stop, just said hi quickly and found out that his great escape had taken him to the room next door to the one he was in previously, with no upgrade in size. He told me that he would be leaving for Shenzhen the following day, but that he couldn't have a get together until later, so I decided to head off for some lunch, followed by swimming. I had lunch, and discovered that I still had about half an hour before the 1pm session started, so I sat in the air conditioned centre and waited. And waited. And waited, until about 1.15pm I decided to find out why the session hadn't begun yet. That was when I saw the sign which I had missed before, informing the public that, on a Tuesday, 'Kowloon Park Swimming Pool will be closed between 10am and 5pm for cleaning and sterilisation, and will re-open as normal at 6pm'. Oh, well. Time for plan B then. I gathered my collected gubbins and headed off for star ferry. When I arrived at Hong Kong ferry terminal, I walked along until I found the boat I wanted. The ferry to Lamma Island, more specifically to Yung Shue Wan. The boat took about 45mins to get to Lamma, and then i realised that George was pretty much right in a previous conversation, where he had told me that Lamma had no cars. It didn't. It just had bicycles and small, motorised carts for carrying goods. I followed the marked out route through the small village (it was quite well signposted) and on the way, I saw such sights as the Man Kee restaurant, and a small ice-cream shop which displayed caricatures of celebrities, such as Barack Obama and Michael Jackson (when he was black). The woman inside seemed amazed as I photographed these works (on facebook), and I was astounded when she told me that she had done them herself. I was impressed, and that was what convinced me to buy an ice cream (quite nice, actually). Well, she did put a lot of effort into them! After leaving Yung Shue Wan, the path headed through dense woodland (rainforest or jungle, I'm not sure), and up and down a few hills, giving brilliant views. Eventually the path trailed into Hung Shing Yeh, and I had arrived at the reason I had decided to come to Lamma. Hung Shing Yeh beach. I changed out of my basketball top and shorts and into my swimming shorts, which, as you can guess from the title, were very short. After the quick change routine behind a palm tree, I found a spot for my towel and headed out into the surf. The water was lovely and warm, and free from rubbish, although it wasn't the clearest. That was slightly disconcerting, as on a peninsular just to the left of (and well within view of) the beach was Lamma power station. I swam about, relaxing and quite enjoying myself for the best part of three hours before finally deciding to think about heading back. I collected my stuff and headed for the changing rooms (which I hadn't seen to begin with). Upon arrival in the changing room, I found an empty cubicle and started to change, noticing when I did that in my haste to leave Tsim Sha Tsui I had forgotten to pack boxers. That left me to decide to put on the shorts I had come down in, but go commando (it may seem disgusting, but it happens to us all at some stage). That was when I noticed the huge ripped hole in the back of my shorts which i had travelled in. Plan B then, obviously (and lucky I noticed, too). I decided to put my basketball top on, but leave on my swimming stuff, and hope that they would dry on the walk up to Sok Kwu Wan.Now let me just give you the image here, so that you fully appreciate it. The shorts are so short that they could possibly classify a 1/4 lengths, and the (Yao Ming) basketball top is actually long for me. So long in fact that viewed from the right perspective, I'm pretty sure that it looked like I was just wearing the top and nothing else. So, my head hung in embarrassment, I headed off to Sok Kwu Wan, to catch a ferry back to the mainland (as recommended by the bible of Lonely Planet). The walk was longer than the one to the beach, and more hill, which was quite strenuous, but did give some lovely views of the island of Lamma. I arrived, eventually, in Sok Kwu Wan at about 7pm, very tired and hungry, and drenched in sweat. That was when, on closer inspection, I realised that every single one of the restaurants in the village sold nothing but seafood, and that the next ferry to central wasn't for another hour at least. I did note, however, that there was a ferry headed for Aberdeen advertised. Well, when I say a ferry it was more a simple boat, with open sides and no air conditioning. I hopped aboard, in the hope that I would reach Aberdeen to find some way to return to central. The ride on the boat took about an hour, and so during the course of the journey, night fell. And it started to rain. That worried me, because i was scantily clad in very summery, very short (not of my choosing) clothing. Thankfully, the rain was only momentary, and was gone by the time we arrived in Aberdeen. Upon arrival, I headed for the nearest bus stop, and upon studying the timetables, I found absolutely no hint of a bus to the central terminus. Thankfully, just as I was beginning to lose hope altogether, the beautiful glow of an approaching buses display said 'Admiralty MTR'. Salvation. I clambered aboard and, after much rummaging, extricated my wallet from the trashed shorts. After reaching the haven that was Admiralty, I headed for the overhead walkway to Star Ferry, and therefore to TST, home. On the way I was becoming increasingly self-conscious of the looks I was getting, and this merely quickened my pace to the point where I took a wrong turn, and instead of heading for Star Ferry, I headed for HK-Macau Ferry. I realised my mistake after only a short while, an upon retracing my steps, I realised which way I had to go to get back on track. Right through the heart of IFC mall, full of hugely expensive designer outlets and those with more money (and taste) than sense who choose to shop there. If Usain Bolt had been there I'm not sure he would have been able to match my pace through the IFC. I reached the star ferry in record time, and headed back for the relative salvation of Tsim Sha Tsui, to a McDonald's, a cider, and, last, but not least, bed.