Hi all, not given you an update for a while so in case you are pining for my news - here we go ..... will put some photos on later today when I can find an internet place that has useable USB ports !
Firstly though, I've been in Australia now for about 5 weeks and I estimate that I have spent one full week of those 5 standing at a pedestrian crossing waiting for the green man to come on, I've never known lights take so long to change ! To quote Toby Ziegler ...That's one week of my life I'll never get back.
So, I booked into this different hostel a week ago now and it's much better, quieter, clean and a great bunch of people (apart from the French who were here when I arrived but they got kicked out the following day for obnoxious behaviour so all good now). It's still in the Northbridge area of Perth (backpacker central) but a bit further away from town and the area is very Vietnamese and Chinese - should get me ready for South East Asia !
Been to a couple of really nice beaches, first I took a train to Cottesloe and took my first ever swim in the Indian Ocean - it was bloody freezing ! But really clear and calm, you could walk out really far and still be only up to your waist. Then I ventured a bit further and went to Rockingham which, once again was really nice, white sand and clear blue sea, lovely. I wanted to get the ferry out to Rottnest Island which is supposed to be beautiful but this week is school leavers week or something and apparently a tradition is for all the local kids to head to Rottnest for the week and drink copiuos amounts of alcohol and generally disrupt the whole place so it's to be avoided by all accounts.
So, once I was settled I rang Ricky (friend of friends I met in Ecuador) and he invited me to go out with him and his Kiwi mate Liam (known as Clumpy, don't ask) on the bikes the following day. Ricky came to the hostel and picked me up in his car. Really nice guy, originally from England (in fact, Gill, can you believe this, he's from Swavesey !!) but has lived here for 15 years. We went to his house in a suburb called Como, had a brew and a chat then Clumpy came round on his Kawasaki Cruiser, I was going to be pillioning with him for the day. Ricky rides a Triumph Street Triple.
The weather was looking a bit sketchy as we were leaving but we headed off anyway, hoping to get to a place called Quindanning. Unfortunately though the rain started coming down hard by the time we got to Jarradale so we pulled in for a break at a traditional Aussie road house / pub place to see whether the rain would pass by. At this point Clumpy just happens to mention that he hasn't actually got a bike licence ! He's riding round on a bloody 900cc bike with me on the back with no bloody licence ! They assured me that was perfectly normal over here and having judged his riding to be quite safe I decided not to go all superior about it and shrug it off. Anyway, the rain didn't stop so we headed back to Perth. On the way back Clumpy noticed a woman pulled over in a car by the side of the road so he stopped, asked the problem, she said it was just dead so he told her to pop the hood, got his head under and within 10 minutes she was off safe and sound down the road - what a gentleman !
That night they invited me round to some friends of theirs for a meal and to watch the Rugby League World Cup. Mike and Deb cooked up a lovely steak dinner, the beer was flowing and New Zealand beat Australia much to Clumpy's delight. They also spent about half an hour trying to find a Hunstman Spider as I mentioned I hadn't had the dubious pleasure of a face to face meeting with one yet ... I assured them that they really shouldn't try too hard as I was in no hurry to be confronted with the thing considering they are about the size of a hand. Thank god they didn't find one.
I stayed on Ricky's sofa that night and he offered to put me up for the rest of my time here which was really nice of him but unfortunately I'd already paid up to my departure here and I couldn't get a refund.
So, the other night at the hostel we were all just sitting around chatting, berating the cost of things out here - none of us could really afford to go out, a bottle of Tooheys (beer) is about 7 bucks - so a few of us went down to a bottle shop to get some wine to take back to the hostel. Now, there is a "wine" here called Goon, it's sort of wine anyway, it is extremely cheap and the ingredients shouldn't really be looked into too deeply if you plan on partaking .... I understand one if them is fish eggs, anyway, we got a couple of boxes of wine, the word Goon was nowhere to be seen and went back to the hostel. At the price it should have been Goon but we told ourselves it was "just one fish egg away from Goon" ... a brilliant night was had just talking about our travels, where we are going next, where we have been etc. One guy, Duncan, had just had his Land Rover delivered from England, all kitted out for off road adventures and has now set off on a 6 month tour of Australia and then he's shipping it off to South Africa where he plans to drive it all the way home, brilliant.
A couple of days ago Ricky took me up to Quindanning on his bike and we had great weather and it is quite a stunning ride, through loads of forests - real sheep shearing country. We had lunch at an "Olde English Pubbe" and he let me take his bike for a quick blast - happy bunny ! He's been really great, asking me if there's anything I want to see while I'm here and he's even taking me to the airport tomorrow night. I've told him that as a small token of my gratitude next time he comes back home I'll introduce him to the joys of Newtown to Crossgates in Wales !
Also, last week we discovered a free weekly Poker tournament that is held in the Brass Monkey so all of us from the hostel ploughed down there for a free night and it was really good fun - so, Dav, if you're reading this, I've played a live game at last ! Very intimidating at first but not for long !
So, all in all, a good week and a half - I've said it before but it's the people that you meet that make the difference.
I fly off to Darwin tomorrow night, well, I have to fly to Melbourne first and then hang around for about 7 hours for my flight to Darwin. I should try to whizz down to Ramsey Street in those 7 hours ! My dad tells me I have a vague relative in Darwin who, apparently is the Chief Harbour Master of the Port of Darwin so I'm going to try to root him out - I'm picturing Captain Birdseye !
In a couple of weeks I'll be in Singapore and I'm looking forward to that, a new culture and I'll feel lost again. I've sort of viewed this time in NZ and Oz as a bit of a break from foreign cultures but I'm looking forward to getting back to the unknown, mind you, I'm due in Thailand in a month and it's all kicking off over there at the moment. My friend from Iguazu, Martina is there now and she is due to fly home in 2 days but both of the Bangkok airports have been taken over and shut down. All good fun eh ?
Until next time ....
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