Homeward-bound

Today we make our way back to England. It is going to a long day...

Leave Cambodia 10.40am

Fly from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ~ 1 hour

4 hours in airport at Ho Chi Minh City

Fly from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Singapore ~ 2 hours

4 hours in airport at Singapore

Fly from Singapore to London, England ~ 14 hours

Arriving 5.30am on Saturday 5^th February.

After travelling for 3 months and a week it feels strange that this day has finally come....

“It is just a big rock” - 16th Jan

This is what a wise person once said to me.... in the same way as Stonehenge is just a pile of big rocks.

The closest we have got to Stonehenge is about 250m away whilst on the A303 as we motor our way to Devon (well it is normally at a pedestrian 20mph as everyone slows to take a good look at both the rocks and 'pig-city' immediately to the west). We have never stopped to walk around the perimeter of Stonehenge, if the truth be told I have not felt the urge to do so... I may be accused of even mocking those who do, by shouting “It's just a bunch of rocks” out of the car window.

The urge to visit Ayres Rock (or to give it's Aboriginal name - Uluru) is there however. It may be the fact that Australia is thousands of miles away from the UK and we may not return, or at least not for a long time. It may be that the sun will definitely be shining there, it may be that I want to make up my own mind if it is just a big rock, but the urge is there.

It is silly really as Stonehenge, being man made, is probably more impressive on paper. Maybe we will stop the next time we head to Devon...

We had finally come to the decision to make the 3 ½ hour flight to Ayres Rock whilst experiencing the torrential rain of the Sunshine Coast a week or so ago. From Eastern Australia you can only fly direct from Sydney, so we decided we would visit the city first and then jump on a plane to Ayres Rock. This way made additional sense as we could then return to Sydney airport pick up a car and easily do Bondi and the Blue Mountains before flying on to Vietnam on the 21^st January.

We checked out of the YHA early, walked the 5mins to the train station at Circular Quay and arrived at the airport 20mins later (our 5th visit out of 6 times at Sydney airport for this 3 month trip). The flight itself is 3 ½ hours and in that time the landscape out of the window changes dramatically from vast green areas to orange arid land, with a few toxic coloured salt lakes thrown in for good measure.

Salt Lakes

 We were lucky enough to be on the left hand side of the plane and as we approached the airport we got fabulous views of Uluru itself. I expected it to be almost rectangular in shape when seeing it from the air (perhaps due to the iconic pictures you see from ground level) but as you can see from the picture this was not the case.

Ayres Rock resort, where all the accommodation is based, is owned by one company which is apparently in the process of giving the running of it back to the Aboriginal people. In addition, one tour company has the monopoly on all the tours and promotes these by providing the free airport transfer to the resort.

A couple of days ago we had booked on a trip for this evening – The Sound of Silence meal under the stars – but had not been able to book the other tour that was recommended by the Rough Guide ahead of time. So once we had checked into the hotel we took a slow stroll (in 42 degree Celsius heat) to the resort centre's information centre.

There was no sign of the tour company the guide had recommended and everyone was very cagey when asking about them - “they no longer operate here” was the most we could get out of them! With this in mind, we spelt out what we wanted to do and see and settled on two additional tours operated by the dominant tour operator.

We then grabbed a sandwich, a quick drink at the backpacker accommodation bar (England were getting thrashed on the one-dayer with Australia) and, with nothing much more to do at the resort, headed back to the room for a quick snooze before the late afternoon Sound of Silence tour.

The Sound of Silence tour had got great reviews on trip advisor and so despite the expense we were keen to do it. It did not disappoint.

It started with drinks and canapés as sun set over Uluru whilst a digeridoo was played in the background. We then had a great three course meal which included a BBQ of Aussie meat like crocodile and kangaroo as well as plenty of Australian wine. We sat in large tables of 12 people and I had a good chat with a rather outspoken but friendly Aussie couple who had bravely or stupidly walked the 10km around the rock in the midday sun (42degrees). To their credit they had carried 4.5 litres of water with them to keep hydrated.



Uluru at sunset





The sun fell behind The Olgas - "Kata Tjuta"





Kata Tjuta



Around the table

After the meal an expert astronomer pointed out the main constellations in the night sky and then set up a couple of large telescopes to view in detail the moon's craters and Jupiter and four of it's moons.

From a lightbox

We then boarded the bus back to the hotel and went straight to bed as we needed to be up at 4.15am for a sunrise tour.

Having seen it with my own eyes, standing alone on the horizon, changing colour as the sun went down, is it just a big rock?.....

Sydney Day 3 'To climb or not to climb' - 15th Jan

We had deliberated long and hard about whether we should do the Sydney Bridge Climb – it would be an experience yes but they were charging AUD$200 each for this experience. We decided that as the bridge was right by the Youth Hostel we'd take a closer look.

We saw that a huge cruise liner had docked over night in Circular Quay and so before heading to the bridge we bought a flat white, latte and a couple of muffins and sat by the dock to take a look at the ship. It was pretty impressive.

This morning, a Chinese group of 350 people, who were doing a charity walk came to Sydney all wearing the same t-shirts and visors. They were everywhere and Sydney had laid on lollipop men specially to help them cross the roads, paramedics at the bridge and road sweeps to clean up after them. There were so many they'd closed the bridge to the general public for a few hours in the morning to allow the walkers to cross it. We tried heading to the bridge the same time they were coming down which turned into a bit of a battle to get up the stairs.

The view from the bridge was spectacular. We climbed one of the Pylons for $15 which surpassed our expectations as there was a really interesting museum about the building of the bridge and 360 degree views from the top. We could see the bridge climbers and whilst the experience would have been different we got the same views from the Pylon for a small proportion of the cost. The bridge climb also seemed a bit stilted with lots of waiting around for everyone to climb together. Also, whilst we could understand it, we felt put off by the fact you couldn't take your own camera and were only given one group photo with the price and if you wanted a bespoke photo you had to pay more.

There was a market in the Rocks and we bought a really nice lunch from one of the stall holders. I had a chicken kebab and Andy had a sausage sandwich. We ate our lunch down by the river and watched a female contortionist who apparently “was really good” and was one of “the best female street acts in Sydney” ...she kept telling us this in the 20 minutes she was setting up her show and limbering up. Fortunately we left before she climbed into a small perspex box on stilts. Also whilst we were eating an elderly Japanese woman came past scattering food for the seagulls right by us. It was a bit daunting seeing about 30 gulls flying straight for us and her husband was quite embarrassed and raced off in his electric wheel chair

After this we went for a wander into town to buy a camera card, get out some more money and look for some presents for people.

We then took a boat trip around the bay. This was the last one of the day so we weren't able to hop on and off but it was nice just sitting on the boat and being taken to some of the places on the other side of the bay as well as under the bridge and around to Darlington Harbour. The trip lasted 90 minutes.

We went back to the YHA for a bit and Andy went for a 5 mile run around Sydney Harbour crossing the harbour bridge as well as going round the Opera House.

We'd seen a really nice Italian in The Rocks the night before and decided to go there for dinner. Whilst there were some tourists it also had a mix of local Aussies as well and it was nice to be able to dine al fresco with a glass of wine.

We then went for a final walk around the bay to the Opera House before heading to bed. We both really liked Sydney – it had a great atmosphere and if Andy was told he had to transfer to Sydney for a year with work I'd be quite happy to come along as well.

Sydney Day 2 (and a little bit of China) - 14th Jan

We checked out of the IBIS and took a rather hairy taxi ride to the YHA in the Rocks area, which was on the other side of town. We were going to catch the train but Emma's large wash bag and growing menagerie of koala and kangaroo souvenirs were starting to make the bags a little too heavy for long distance carrying!

It would have been disappointing if this YHA was not in keeping with the others we had stopped in, ie. prison/ correctional centre decor. The room was right on message, but the en suite bathroom was relatively opulent – 50:50 is not too bad I guess.

The YHA is relatively new and has all the mod-cons. The views from the roof deck are pretty special too.

Not a bad view from the YHA roof deck.

Once checked in we made our way back to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The gallery was showing the Terracotta Army exhibition from China. We had missed it in London and so we were more than happy to spend the couple of hours wandering around it. To cut a long story short, the army was created by the 'First Emperor of China' to guard his tomb in the afterlife.



This was for sale in the Gift Shop,
 but we would not fit it in our bags. No
cameras were allowed in the exhibition.

By the time we had finished it was late afternoon, so we wandered through the parks back towards the Opera House. We then had some food on the waterfront before heading for a pre-show drink in the theatre bar.

The show we were going to see was called 'Le Cirque – Adrenaline'. A high octane modern circus act with high wires, motorbikes, trampolines etc. Our seats were almost side on to the stage and it was a real experience seeing and hearing the performers from this vantage point.

The show was great but the experience of being in the Opera house was the real motivation for going. The building is stunning outside as well as inside the auditoriums but retains a half-built, exposed piping, bare concrete look in the public areas – you may expect a little more, like a coat of paint, if you were paying $102mil.

After the show, we wandered back to the YHA along Circular Quay and through The Rocks area, stopping now and then to take pictures and people watch. It was nice to just soak up the atmosphere of the city.

Back at the YHA we read our books in the common room for an hour before heading to bed.

We had still not decided if we were going to go on the Harbour Bridge climb or not.

Did anyone order a washing machine and fridge?

Sydney-bound - 13th Jan

Last night we booked today's flight and accommodation for Sydney on the advice from Mike that we should be able to get to Brisbane Airport despite the increased widespread flooding of the South East of Queensland and the CBD of Brisbane.

The scale of the floods in Australia is absolutely huge. In Queensland alone an area the size of France and Germany combined has been affected.

The predominant focus of the country's media is on providing information on what to do, where to go and more importantly what not to do and where not to go. As non-locals we continued to be baffled by the long list of roads read over the radio that are cut by floodwater. The news is also filled with numerous stories of solidarity and goodwill displayed by the Australian population as a whole.

It is obvious that the foreign media, such as the BBC,do generalise the areas affected, as well as focus on the sensational elements of devastation so that it can fit in a 30 second news segment or a couple of pages on the internet. But having seen both news streams I can vouch for it being a near accurate representation of the catastrophe.

We awoke early, had a quick breakfast with Mike and Lyn and then headed straight for the Bruce Highway and the 115 or so kilometres to Brisbane Airport. As we left Noosa there was a partial blue skies as if the Sunshine Coast was demonstrating that it's name may have some merit after all.

The 2 hour drive to the airport went without any hitches. Intermittently, we did see flooded land and dark clouds but we got to the car rental drop off on time and sailed straight through check in and on to the gate for the plane. Once we had taken off the impact of the flooding was a lot clearer and shocking to see.

Arriving in Sydney we jumped straight onto the train shuttle to the city centre, alighting 15mins later at 'Museum' stop to make our way to the salubrious surroundings of the IBIS on Pitt Street. We did want to stop at the YHA in The Rocks, but they did not have room today. We did however manage to book in for the following two days.

Sydney has an eclectic mix of public transport (ferries, buses, monorail, train, light rail etc) and you can buy good value week long passes for all of these but given we were there for only 3 days we decided that we would use shanks' pony and save ourselves some Aussie dollars in the process.

We dropped off our bag in the room, which coincidently was very nice and better than expected, and headed straight out to explore the city (and of course send a couple of emails from the Golden Arches that is McDonalds).

We ended up doing one big loop that took in Hyde Park, The Domain, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Royal Botanical Gardens before ending up at Mrs Macquire's Point (google it if you want the reason it is called this). The Point revealed great views of both Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Hyde Park: The Archiblad Fountain, and St Mary's Cathedral

Andrew "Boy" Charlton Pool in the
Royal Botanical Gardens

"What... showing off, me, no, never!!"

We then continued to the Opera House where we had a drink in one of the many bars on the waterfront and bought tickets for a 'Le Cirque' show in the Opera House tomorrow evening.

A bottle of James Squire as recommended by Mike

We finished the day with a walk back to our hotel through the city, a quick change of clothes and a meal in Chinatown.

We went to bed undecided whether we were going to pay AUD$400 for the both of us to climb the Harbour Bridge.