BootsnAll Travel Network



Sunny 1770!!!!

March 22nd, 2010

On arrival to our hostel in 1770 who should we find sitting in the main area.. only the Fraser Boys! They had a bus to catch that evening and so were glad we had turned up to entertain them, we played ping-pong and then the girls went to town to grab some fish and chips. The hostel was really nice with a swimming pool and sunbathing area, pool table, table tennis and a big screen where you could watch dvds and tv (the beds were the most uncomfortable yet however.)

On our first full day we sunbathed all morning then at 2.30pm were picked up by a shuttle bus that took us to Rod’s place for Scooteroo! Rod is this crazy old south african biker who runs a tour called Scooteroo around the town, and how do you get around? ONLY BY HARLEY DAVIDSON SCOOTERS! There were about 50 people i’d guess on our tour and after grabbing helmets and a leg guard (to protect you from getting burnt by the engine) everyone chose thier bike (mine was pink :D) and Rod gave us the safety talk. We were sooooo scared before we set-off but after a practise circuit we were straight out onto the roads so there was no time to be nervous, with a top speed of 80ks it was sooo fun speeding along but i found it was when we had to slow down and turn corners that was the tricky part! No injurys though and you stop down at the sea to watch the sunset and eat potato wedges 🙂 Also a guy we’d met in Byron bay and then Surfers, Scott, was actually now working for a couple of weeks as one of the marshals on the tour which was wicked. Back at the hostel we made dinner and then watched ‘Finding Nemo’!

Next day we had to be up early as we were booked in for a 4 hour surf lesson, is was lots of fun and I managed to stand up quite a bit which was great. Carrying the surf boards up and down a massive hill to and from the bus however was much less fun, infact it was a complete killer! We got back to the hostel and spent a couple of hours in the sun before getting our stuff together again as we had evening kyaking planned with the same company. It was hard work. Especially after surfing. Had a good time though and on the way back the guide warned that the winds were getting up a bit… Holly and I got caught by a wave and then a massive gust of wind came and before we knew it we were in the water!!! It was hysterical and we could hardly breath from laughing and disbelief! While i flipped the boat over and jumped in Holly grabbed our flipflops and sunscreen which were left bobbing in the water! It was pretty scary as the sea was getting fierce but eventually we were both back on board and safetly back on land.

Next morning we had to be up early again to catch our Oz bus. We were totally exhausted from all the excitement of 1770 and knew there was only more fun to come!..

XXXXX

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Fantastic Frasers :)

March 22nd, 2010

The morning of departure we had to be up and ready for pancakes at 7.00am, the lack of syrup was slightly disappointing but there was no time to complain as we all had to get out into the car park where 7 4x4s were waiting to be loaded up with kit, food, booze and teams! With 10 in each team it meant on our campsites each night there was 70 people which was quite the party! Anyway Merv, (the guy who organises it all) showed us how we needed to pack the roof-racks etc and so we got right to it then he gave us a talk about being ‘Dingo, Driving and Drinking Safe”. After this – all the over 21’s who wanted to drive had a talk about how to sort the tyres and balance etc while we nipped to the shops to buy essentials like lighters for cooking, ponchos incase it rained and crisps for the boys!

In Team B there was us 3 girls, Holly, Mikalea and myself then 4 English guys in their 20’s Andy/Koala Bear, Paul/Vinegar, Josh/Madam and Seb… (just Seb). Then there was a Swiss man called Simon (aka Big Man) who didn’t talk much english but still joined in with everything and finally a 30yr old couple – Paul, and Nicole who was from Tasmania (aka Mum and Dad!)

Once packed and ready to go we drove down and got the ferry across to Frasers, Merv gives you an itinery you can follow but Josh and ‘Dad’ had already been a few years ago and so we were able to be more adventurous so instead of heading to the same lake as everyone else we went to Lake Birabeen first which was disserted. Beautiful. Fraser Island has huge fresh water lakes surrounded by white sand. We had a swim and it was so peaceful 🙂 Then we headed to Lake McKenzie in the afternoon just as everyone was leaving so had more peace and quiet to enjoy paradise. We got to camp around 6.30 – some of us set up the tents while others cooked the steaks and then the drinking games began…

On day two after a very messy night we awoke early, around 6.30am and a couple of us headed down to the beach to take in the views. One of the trucks had a group of 10 irish in and to our disbelief they were all still on the goon… having not gone to bed haha (thats the Irish for you! crazy..) After brekky we packed up and headed to the creek (basically a clear water puddle on the beach) where we wallowed for about half an hour to cure the hangovers. Afterwards we drove up to the tip of the island, Indian Head/Point, where you thern climb up the rocks and look out over the ocean – a magnificent view 🙂 On the way you pass a big shipwreck which has been washed up on the beach.

Next, we decided to try and find another lake and so started driving inland again through the trees, about an hour later we still haven’t found anything. The driving was pretty exciting though if a little sore on the bum and a couple of times we were sure the car was going to tip over! All the drivers were very responsible though! Having found nothing we decided to jump out for a quick stretch of the legs… WORST IDEA EVER. Literally the second we got out thousands of mosquitos swarmed us – we were screaming, swearing and slapping like there was no tomorrow “GET BACK IN THE *&^*^%* CAAARRRR!”

I wish we had it on video.

We eventually found a lake which you couldn’t swim in but there were loads of cute little turtles swimming about which was cool, having stopped to do the washing-up at a campsite and seeing a HUGE spider we got to the second camp around 6ish. Much like the night before we put up the tents whilst batting off the giant sand flys and the others prepared a delicious chicken stir-fry. After dinner we played a game of 21 which Seb failed miserably at leaving him drunk as a skunk and Paul was pretty gone too so later they went to mingle more with the other teams while the rest of us lay star gazing up at the milky-way and playing a cheeky game of ‘would you rather..’

Frasers is home to loooaaaaads of wild Dingos who tend to circle the camps looking for food which can be a bit disconcerting when you turn on your torch on your way to the toilet and see hundreds of green eyes staring back at you but everyone survived with no dramas and they just prowled around our trucks pretty calmly.

Getting the drunks back to thier tents was possibly one of the funniest things i’ve ever seen, a good night had by all!

Day three, we were the last ones to leave the campsite. We found another lake as we were all desperate for a swim and named it ‘The Golden Lake of Joy’ as the water was literally golden. After about an hour of banter and fun we headed off to do the washing up and then eat all the left over food including a very stodgy fruit cake before driving down to get the ferry back to the mainland. On the ferry we saw Dolphins which was the perfect end to our trip.

We had perfect weather for the 3 days we were there and renamed ourselves The Dream Team.

We re-fuelled the car, stopped at the bakery (with the bitchiest staff) and then dropped the car back at Merv’s workshop. That night back at the hostel everyone had glorious showers and the boys hrdly recopgnised us with our make-up and hair done haha – we did the quiz night and came… nowhere, goodtimes.

Next day we went with the boys up to Sandblow which is a big sand dune in Rainbow Beach to watch the sunset which was beautiful and ironically there was a big rainbow in the sky which was perfect. And also whilst in Rainbow the 3 of us got up early one morning and got a boat to Tin Can Bay where we got to feed a wild Dolphin which was pretty cool plus there was yet another rainbow!

Finally we left Rainbow Beach having had a bit TOO much time there and headed to the town of 1770…

XXX

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Not much in Noosa…

March 7th, 2010

On our first night in Brisbane we went to the bar beneath our hostel which was aptly called The ‘Down Under’ Bar where we had various anonomous cocktails, but for $3 who cares what they were to be honest!

The next day we did some shopping for essentials as Brisbane is the last ‘large’ stop on the coast for a while and then that night we went to Wagamamas! for dinner to celebrate Holly’s birthday which was the next day 🙂

March 1st, Holly’s 19th birthday… We got on the Oz bus up to Noosa a wealthy beach town with pretty rivers running through it, that night we had birthday cake and a couple of drinks with some friends in the hostel. Unfortunately Noosa is one of those places which works well when you can go to the beach everyday, kyack down the rivers and take walks in the national park but as we have been having ‘the worst rain in 100yrs’ Noosa was pretty naff really. However spending a lot of time in our hostel was jokes with these two leeds girls we met on the way from Melbourne to Sydney called Helen and Jen (they’re sisters). We went out a couple of nights too with some lads from next door and a guy in our room called Simon cooked us all an amazing Thai green curry one night which was awsome 🙂 Noosa also gave us our proper taste of BIG bugs as one day we had the boys in chasing a HUGE cricket around our room which was terrifying as it could jump miles (a guy called Kevin caught it in his hands then freaked out and let it go again which was hilarious) and then another time there was a GIANT cockroach by the bathroom which was absolutely vile.

The absolute highlight of Noosa however was getting to visit Steve Irwin’s AUSTRALIA ZOO! If all else fails i’m working there as a zoo keeper for sure 🙂 Although it rained like CRAZY all day we all invested in fetching Zoo ponchos and still had a great time – the rain meant it was really quiet and so for stuff like elephant feeding I literally got to stand there with a bucket of fruit and feed them as much as we wanted whereas normally you would get 2 bits of fruit then the next person would go. Held a koala! Held a python! Stroked a baby alligator and the kangaroos! We went to the show in the CROCASEUM where they feed the crocs etc. which was WICKED, and before the crocs come out they had a reptile show and a bird show where all these crazy parrots and stuff free-fly and we felt its wings on our cheeks as it passed 🙂

Of course there’s loads of Steve Irwin stuff everywhere – what a hero, we watched a documentary about his life on the Zoo bus back to our hostel and we all cried. What utter losers. Anyways aswell as investing in ponchos I am now the proud owner of a pack of CROCS RULE playing cards which everyone had a chuckle at when we get them out for a game.

With all the rain we hit the cinema in Noosa aswell to see the new ‘Alice in Wonderland, 3D’ which was fun if a little odd.

We got the bus to Rainbow Beach yesterday which was interesting as our driver had to divert due to flooding on the roads :/ funtimes. Off to Fraiser Island tomorrow which is so exciting – we camp for 2 nights and drive about in a big truck. We met our group today and they seem like a good bunch so will let you know in a couple days how it went!

speak soon XXXX 
 

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Surfers Paradise..

February 27th, 2010

Surfers Paradise is the Vegas of Australia.

It pretty much consists of bars, clubs, casinos, the beach, sky-scrapers, shops, BMW’s and convertables. We met loads more aussies here too from all over as it is where they all come to party and relax for a long weekend. Our hostel was called Island Backpackers and it had a pool and jacuzzi – YAAAAY! Having settled in we decided it was about time we tried to gain some kind of structure for the rest of our time in Oz so headed to the travel agents – Peter Pans 🙂 A bloke called Mark sat us down and sorted everything out for us in amongst telling us his entire life story and gossiping about his boss – we went in there most days as they had free internet and in 5 days his hair colour went from blonde to bright blue to black – he was pretty jokes. So now we have got everything booked including accomodation all the way up to Cairns which is pretty exciting and as Mikaela (swedish) has got a 1 yr working visa here she has decided to join us along the way so now we are officially a 3! 😀

The next day we decided to hit DREAMWORLD along with our mate Jenni – it’s the largest themepark in Oz! So much fun but it was soooooo hot and we were sweating buckets all the way round, nice. Our favourite ride was Tower of Terror and they also had a wildlife area where we got to stroke/feed Kangaroos which was really cute.

On the Wednesday it rained – suprise suprise (I suppose it’s great for the country as they are currently having a massive drought but not so good for us lot trying to get a tan! From the weather it seems we’ll have a permenant raincloud following us up north, BOO!) So anyway – we decided to go shopping (or should i say bargin hunting!) That night, each armed with a new outfit we hit Caville St., the main strip, with ‘Plan B’ pub crawl – it started at 5pm which was lame at first as it was a bit too early to start but by the 4th bar we were loving it – there were games, free drinks and pizzaaaa. Our favourites were ‘The Bedroom’ and ‘Sin City’ – we met loads of great people and ended up having a really good night 🙂

With a TV in our dorm we had a ‘girls night in’ one night too, watching Dream Girls and Coyote Ugly and being ‘Surfers Paradise’ we did manage to get to the beach for a few hours before the clouds came in! …This morning we have arrived in Brisbane, we’re only staying 2 nights so went down to the South Bank today and have looked around the Museum already.

XXXXX 

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Byron Bay :)

February 21st, 2010

Nimbin was wierd.

We got picked up by one of ‘Jims Alternative Tour’ buses and an old South African guy called Ivan wearing a baggy vest and no shoes checked us onto the bus. As he drove he played crazy loud music and talked of his hatred for all authority and religion and promoted free love, and doing whatever the hell you want…

We stopped at a pub along the way then reached Nimbin where everything smells of inscense and ‘pot’ to put it bluntly. Hippies galore, lots of little shops and stalls etc. From Nimbin we went driving through narrow lanes up into the forests which was fun as there is a massive hill which Ivan told us took 5mins 11secs to get down from start to finish (he has found a song exactly that length and so at the top he puts it on and then speeds all the way to the bottom and stops dead as the music finishes – clever stuff!) Anyway in the forest we went to this man called Paul’s house which is a crazy shack covered in fairylights in the middle of the forest overlooks a big lake with lillys in where we ate wild macadamia nuts and freash melon – very pretty but so strange and on walking through the forest i got bitten on my toe by some crazy bug which was horrid. Paul has long hair, a massive beard and is about 5ft tall -also with no shoes and in is baggy, broken jeans unfortunately in became apparent that he owns no pants either! After this we drove to a waterfall which was nice then finally got home. Nimbin – not somewhere i’ll be rushing back to anytime soon.

Anyway, Byron is a really great place, theres basically one main street with shops and cafes and bars and at the end you reach the beach 🙂 After our day trip to Hippyville we had a big bbq in the hostel then went out to ‘Beach hotel Bar’ which was fun.. next couple days we spent down on the beach and one night we headed down there late at night to relax under the stars… lets just say skinny-dipping in the Pacific Ocean is a MUST – you only live once right?! (<–you’ll be hearing this a lot as it’s become the gangs new motto!) haha! On the walk back to our appartment it POURED with rain which just made the whole thing even funnier.

Yesterday the canadian in our room that works in the hostel called Ben invited us to play ‘Beersbee’ with him and his mates in the yard, we thought it sounded fun till we got round there and realised we were to be the only girls with about 12 already drunk canadians who take thier ‘Beerzbee’ very seriously.  It’s basically Frisbee and there are two teams and you have to try and throw the frisbee and hit a can off a stick without knocking over any of the beer bottles below, by 8pm we were in a bit of a state already which made packing a little bit stressful haha but this morning we jumped on the bus and are now in Surfers Paradise!

Updates soon XXXXXXX

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Surf Camp!

February 18th, 2010

We were picked up in the morning around 6.30am by an Oz Experience bus, our driver up to Surf Camp was “Uncle Buck” who let us play karaoke and eat McDonalds along the way! It was a pretty long drive so as well as various ‘convenience’ stops we also got the opportunity to stop at a Koala Hospital. A brilliant little old lady showed us around and we were able to learn lots about the native animals – as well as the lady herself as she told us of how after our tour she was off to her pool for a naked swim! She was a hoot!

Surf Camp is the most laid-back place you’ve ever been times a million. When we got there a guy showed us around, we had a BBQ dinner which you just helped yourself to then after that everyone got around the camp fire and drank beers and ‘goon’ (wine from a bag in a box… in Oz it’s essential to ‘get on the goon’ before a big night out!) All the staff join in as well, we had a limbo competitionm, went on the beach to see the stars and basically hardly slept… shall we just say that the 8am breakfast call was a little difficult.

Having forced down a bit of cooked brekky we bikinied up and then a guy with long dredlocks called Josh did our ‘intro’ to surfing – he told us all about the currents and waves and rips – he went through some safety stuff and most importantly taught us how to look cool at all times whilst trying to surf, haha! We got some wet suits and our own boards but they were softer ones than the real things as we were all beginners. On the beach we all had to practice lying on our boards then jumping up to ride the waves… simple on sand so it was time to get in the water! LOVED IT. The staff would come and help you out by pushing your board into the waves allowing us to just consentrate on getting up rather than paddeling as well – i managed to stand a couple of times with thier help but mostly everyone would get to thier knees and fall. Finally i saw a wave i wanted to catch and went for it – and i stood up – BY MYSELF! It may have only been once but it was a great feeling 🙂

After a couple of hours in the surf we went and got showered then hopped back on the bus with Buck and drove up to Byron Bay. Last night we all went out to Cheeky Monkeys where they were giving away loads of stuff and our mate Jack won a trip to the Whitsundays! The louder you are the more free booze they give you so you can imagine we did pretty well off that! haha Also you can dance on the tables there which was such fun but this morning in our room you have never seen a group of people with so many bruises haha :/ 

We’re planning to stay here 5 days and the hostel is appartment blocks which is awsome as Holly, me and Mikaela (our swedish bestie) are in one room with a guy who actually works on reception there and then next door are our mates from the bus Bob, Jack and Temo plus a swiss guy and then we all share a bathroom, kitchen, lounge. It’s wicked.

Off to Nimbin on a tour tomorrow which is some kind of crazy hippie town just outside Byron so i’ll let you know how that goes!

XXXXXXX

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Soaked in Sydney..

February 15th, 2010

So the past couple of days it has been TIPPING it down with rain, as our swedish friend has learnt to say “it’s raining cats and dogs” (much to our amusement!)

Our hostel is very near the Darling Harbour and so we’ve been hanging out down there quite a bit, we went to the aquarium where they had platypuses, sharks and GIANT stingrays etc. and that evening we did another pub crawl but it was nowhere near as good as the previous one so we ended up grabbing a kebab and were in bed by 2am, haha. On Valentines day the weather was still shocking and so some of the girls decided to go to the cinema to see “Valentines Day” (brilliant movie!) as you can imagine, the place was packed.

Today however the sun was shining again and so we took a walk through Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens down to the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, very impressive! It is such an iconic sight and it certaintly didn’t disappoint 🙂 We had a delicious prawn curry down at the harbour and now it’s time to get packing as we’re off to Surf Camp tomorrow 😀

Speak soon, Alice XXX

ps. We also saw Mrs. Mcquarie’s Chair – have eaten inn a Wagamama over here (one of our fave restaurants back home) and also, we did our first wash the other day… all our whites are now pink. not cool, but hilarious.

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We’ve made it to SYDNEY!..

February 12th, 2010

It’s been a few days since my last entry which is due to the fact that we’ve just done a 3 day road trip up to Sydney 🙂

Finishing off Melbourne:

We met ‘Janelle’ from neighbours who was ‘Stingray’ and ‘Dylans’ mum..remember?! haha and then also after our tour we were just in St.Kilda and saw the woman who plays ‘Steph’ shopping 🙂 That afternoon we went and got burnt on the beach – we learnt our lesson though and have been slapping on the factor 30+ ever since!!!

Next day we did The Great Ocean Road tour, it was an early pick up at 8am but it was worth it – we saw wild koala’s, went into a pine forest, saw the 12 Apostles (rock formations in the sea, google them) and paddled on a little beach formed in a gorge – to name just a few things.

Roadtrip time:

We were collected at 6.30am by an Oz Experience Adventure bus, the Oz experience is the main bus we’ll be getting up the east coast but this was a smaller advernture bus as we decided to do the 3 night tour instead of going straight to Sydney. There were about 22 of us on the bus and our driver was Luke, fully equipped with the surfer blond highlights, piercings and aussie enthusiasm! He would speak on a mic as we drove telling us all kinds of info about everything we saw, historical, wildlife, the works plus to keep us evtertained we’d take it in turns to sit up front with him and play.. “1 minute of honesty!” in which he would ask 5 questions.. you get the idea, we’d also do things like play bus pictionary as we were allowed to draw on the windows! Our nickname was Team Cocktail as on the bus we had a real cocktail of nationalities – brits, canadians, swedes, danish, norweigen, isralie, german, french to name but a few!

The first day we went to Wilsons National Park which was beautiful and did a walk down to a white sandy beach called ‘Squeaky Beach’ due to the fact that when you walk over it, it squeaks. That night we stayed at Lakes Entrance and had a fish and chip supper 🙂 Next day we drove to a place called Threadbo and climbed mount Kosioscko* which took us to the highest point in the whole of Australia! Holly and I made it to the top first and then once we got back to where we were staying we the group made full use of the hot tub and pool 🙂 It was a small ski town and getting back down the mountain you can get a chairlift half way which was surreal riding one DOWN the mountain! After another early start we reached Canberra, the capital city of Oz. Here we visited the parliment buildings, we did a guided tour and totally unexpectedly SAW THE PRIME MINISTER of Australia in ‘session’ which was really cool! Throughout the trip everyone made good friends and we did lots of other little stops too but thought i’d just summarise it all for the blog – we also saw our first wild kangaroos as we drove along and on reaching Sydney a lot of us are in the same hostel which is nice.

SYDNEY:

So last night was our first one in Sydney, and was did a pub crawl on a craaazzzy party bus, literally, this bus had strobe lights, its own dj, and big fans, you could barely move for people and as we drove from bar to bar everyone bangs the roof along to the music and jumps up and down so it rocks about haha, it was mental. To be honest I couldn’t tell you where we went but i know the first bar was called Pontoon and was on the harbour which was so pretty… from here we started doing tequilla and yeah… you can imagine we had a pretty good time! haha

This morning we had our first lie-in of our trip then headed for BONDI Beach this afternoon, off to grab some dinner now then will probably start the party all over again, sweet.

XXXXXXXXXXX 

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Hello Australia!!! – Melbourne

February 6th, 2010

Having completed our time in HK (including getting our fortunes told, i’m very, very lucky apparently, i’ll marry a tall muscular man, we’ll have 2 houses, i’ll be successful in my career and have 1 boy and on girl!) Holly’s fortune was also VERY similar – suprise suprise haha ) it was time to head for OZ!

Flying through the night again to sydney then getting our transfer flight to Melbourne meant that Jetlag was being a pain in the arse but we finally reached our hostel “BASE”. We stay in mixed dorms of 8-10 people and on opening the door to our room – although there was nobody in there the smell hit us – BOYS, definately boys. Pants and wet towels all over the place – laaaavely. We both have top bunks and the guys below us were really lovely but they left today and we’ve not even spoken to the others yet so who knows what to expect when we get back tonight! It’ll take some getting used to but its so funny not knowing what to expect! Also theres an egg-timer in the bathroom to make sure nobody takes to long – uhohhhhh 🙂

We’re in St.Kilda which is a beach town about 30mins on a tram into the main city of Melbourne, today we went in and went up the tallest residential building in the world where they have a viewing tower thingy (SKYDECK) on the 93 flr or something ridiculous! Brilliant views anyways. We also went to the Museum of moving image which was interactive, educational and fun (yes, i’m currently writing thier promotional adverts) haha – after we decided to spend the afternoon on the beach back in Kilda and a festival has just started here so we listened to some bands, watched some dance etc.

Up early tomorrow as a bus is picking us up at 8 to take us to the NEIGHBOURS SET! Classic, can’t wait.

Also it has quickly come to our attention that Oz is officially the land of the beautiful people – everyone is so tanned and stunning and funny but hey, give us a couple months and i’m sure we’ll catch them up!

Take care, Al XXX

ps. i realise my spelling and grammar is appauling but i’m typing on a time-limit so deal with it!

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Hong Kong

February 3rd, 2010

We have finally made it to Hong Kong! (although have now been trying to keep our eyes open for 26hrs which has NOT been easy after an 11 1/2 hr flight!)

We left for the airport at 9 in the morning and boarded around 12.15 – we flew Quantas and to our delight all our cabin crew had Australian accents and a very dry sense of humour 🙂 for example over the speakers, “Jane from our crew is still bursting with joy to sell you some duty-free today..”

Anyways, too many films and a lot of food later (including a pot noodle, mars ice-cream and an horrific cooked breakfast) we arrived here in humid Hong Kong with a local time of 8.30am. We decided to buy an Octopus card (kind of like an Oyster card on the tube in London) It allows us to use buses, trams, underground MTR and the ferry with just a swipe! We caught a bus to Kawloon where we’re staying which took about 40 mins and took in the sights as we went. HK is soooo different to how I imagined – the people are all really friendly and the city is a real mix of traditional and current chinese culture.

Having found our hotel with suprising ease we wanted some food. Although we tried to find a local restaruant it’s all pretty daunting to be honest with whole geese turning on a roast in the windows and chickens feet and pigs knuckles being delicacys in the end we opted for a safe bite of KFC. HOW WRONG WERE WE! Instead of chips they serve rice and it seems ‘Hot Shots’ over here are BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF SPICY BALLS OF CHICKEN THAT MAKE YOUR STOMACH TURN :/ 

AAAaaannyway, other than discovering that the cuisine may not be for us today we have been to the Jade market where we both bought a braclet (with carved Jade stones meaning Happiness and Good Fortune) the people on the stalls come running like Hussan Bolt if you even glance at their goods though so we learnt quickly not to touch anything unless you wanted to be ‘captured’ into a bartering session!

After we headed down to Ladies Market which is where you can get your knock-off Rolex, Gucci and Ed Hardy, Holly got a very good Links of London bracelet (usually around 100 pounds for the real thing, here she paid the equivilant of 8 pounds haha!)

Then we jumped on the underground and headed to Wong Tai Sin Temple, people go there to pray and everyone carrys insence with them. We went inside the main temple and you can take a wooden pot filled with numbered sticks you kneel on the cushions and shake it back and forth until a single stick falls out, the number on it is said to be your lucky one – mine was 41?! There are lots of fortune-tellers here so if we go to one later they can apparently tell us what our number means..hmmm haha

This evening we are heading down to the Harbour to watch the light show over the HK skyline and are also going to visit the Temple Street Night market, we’re really looking forward to it but will be grateful to get into our beds when we’re done!!!

Tomorrow we are going to get the Star Ferry across to HK Island and then go up The Peak which gives view over the whole city 🙂

Love it, speak soon Alice XX

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