Hong Kong

Hong Kong was all shopping. I can't explain how sick of shopping we both were at the end of Hong Kong. The prices and selection weren't so great there. Certain phones and cameras that were already available back home had yet to be released in Hong Kong. We were really surprised to find that. Also 3 TB hard drives were non existent and 2 TB were almost as rare. At home you can easily get those a hundred places online and a few shops. We went to the biggest named shops in Hong Kong and still couldn't get them. We did have a good time in the markets though. The food was really good though we varied between Asian and Western a lot because of cost and location when we were hungry and stuff. Our hostel was in pretty bad condition and didn't really have a hostel vibe to it so no real meeting people or hanging out. A pigeon came in our window while we were trying to go asleep. A feather floated down and Brian noticed it. We did get to wander round a few places though and it is a nice city. The people are very nice. The shops have way too many assistants but I suppose shopping is a massive industry here. In the end we didn't buy a whole lot as we couldn't find one shop with everything we wanted and individually everything was more expensive than back home. I'm talking about electronics entirely here. I think Hong Kong is still quite the place to buy fashion but myself and Brian weren't really interested a whole lot in that. Final day we spent looking for a post office, turns out there was one in the airport which is pretty handy. Posted a few things home that we didn't need and that were taking up space in our bags and headed off on our flight. In the airport a family of Asians each wanted to get pictures with myself and Brian. First we thought they wanted us to take their picture but then one of them sat down between us and his wife/girlfriend took a picture and then she sat down between us and then a woman who looked one of their mother's did. Very weird indeed. BTW for those of you who heard the original plan it's changed. We are no longer heading to Osaka. After everything that's happened in Japan them seem up to their eyes in problems and everyone seems very worried about us (thanks) so we changed our flights from Osaka to Seoul in South Korea. Kelly-Anne has been nice enough to put us up for an extra week in her place and I can't wait to see her as I've missed he loads since she left to teach in Korea. So the change of plan worked out and ended up a lot cheaper without the extra boat ride and with Kelly-Anne putting us up. We would both be completely broke without our parents at this point so this should help in not having to annoy them again :) The last two weeks of the trip have been paid for since November so we aren't too badly off.

Bangkok

We got in really late the first night we got to Bangkok and had decided to book the first two nights in a hotel near the airport. That way we could relax after the crazy running around in Australia and get a lie in on the day we arrived. The hotel was about 25 Euro per room per night and was really luxurious. They had a nice bed (really hard as all the beds we've come across in Asia so far have been), an air conditioned room (its really humid and sticky in hong kong), a continental kind of breakfast and they made our towels into little elephants. We just chilled out and got our bearings that day. There really isn't anything to do around the airport but we were really exhausted so we didn't care.

Later we headed into a hostel in the shopping district of Bangkok. So we shopped. Things are pretty cheap in Bangkok so we got a few souvenirs in a market in a shopping centre and looked around the technology shops. While everything was cheap, it was also a bit behind what is available in Ireland. Anyhow, we got to see some Thai boxing outside one of the shopping centres. It was free and loads of people just turned up for it. It was quite the event. That night we had a few drinks in the hostel witht eh Scottish guy in our room and a Swiss girl we got talking to. The 7 eleven had pint bottles for about 1.50. I thought I got bitten once or twice but the next day over the course of the day about 50 bites appeared on my legs. As the day wore on they swelled as per usual (the next day about 10 turned into big blisters as well, I think my allergies for bug bites are getting a lot worse) and so that night my ankles were so swollen I couldn't really walk much. My pharmacists told me I'd be fine with the cream he gave me but I took pictures I'm going to show my doctor this time because I don't think they really know how bad it gets no matter what I tell them. The last day there was sight seeing. We headed into town and met this guy claiming to be a teacher who told us about a Buddhist temple and a ceremony in the palace there. We are pretty sure it was probably suppose to be a scam but it worked out really well for us. We got a tuk tuk for less than 2 euro for an hour who took us around to the temple which was pretty cool. We got to see this interactive presentation on how it was built and to walk up and see all the statues and the altar. Then he took us to a Jade shop but we left straight away as we couldn't afford anything. Then he asked us to go to a market but we said we had to get tot he temple for 2 (which is when the ceremony the original guy told us about was starting). After we told him no he took us to the national museum which is where we had asked. We were told the market bit was suppose to be the scam bit or something but anyway it worked out well for us so we gave the guy a tip. By that point it was a lot later than we planned so we skipped the museum and headed to the palace. We shouldn't have rushed because by the time we got our clothes (they give you extra clothes to put on free of charge as they don't allow shorts in the palace) and found our way around it was well after two. We did get to see some amazing buildings and an inspiring altar to Buddha. There were a lot of people praying and doing various things to pray like sprinkling water from a flower onto their heads and lighting incense and getting bits of gold leaf for something. It was a really interesting experience and it made me really curious to learn more about what they were doing. After the temple my legs had because unbearable so we headed back to the hostel. After a little rest we went back to shopping so we could get a few things we decided on the night before. Brian bought himself a stunning black and rose gold watch. It's an Alba watch with is a company owned by Seiko that only sells watches in Asia. We had checked them up online after the seeing the watch the day before. Seiko will repair the watch in Europe and we check all the guarantee papers and they were filled out correctly and looked good. It was also a shop as opposed to most of the stalls with watches we had seen and the price was brilliant because Alba doesn't have the same name for itself as Seiko so Brian was very pleased with his purchase altogether. The shopping was open til quite late so we got home to have a drink and head to bed before our 6 start in the morning.

Flights

Early on in the trip myself and Brian became British Airways frequent fliers so we could get points for most of our flights. We weren't really sure what we would do with the points but as it usually leads to money off things we though it would be a good idea and Aer Lingus isn't a one world company so we couldn't get points with them. Anyway our only actually British Airways flight was from Sydney to Bangkok (8 to 9 hour flight) and they were nice enough to bump us up to Business class. We checked in a half hour early as well so that may have had something to do with it. We got to sprawl out on a beds long enough for even Brian to fit. We got about 4 or 5 glasses of champagne before heading to bed. The food was delightful and really good quality. I would completely do that again for any long haul flights. Anyway I had to mention it because it was a nice treat.

Cairns

Final day in Cairns was a trip out to Port Douglas and we got a ferry along the way to see some very spectacular jungle. Port Douglas is a beautiful beach side town where Andrew, their son works in a jungle themed five star restaurant. It sounds like he really enjoys his work there. Also he had the tiniest kittens in his apartment as a stray he just took in was pregnant. We got lunch with him and wander back around a small market in Port Douglas. To finish the stay with them we headed to a BBQ with John's side of the family for his father's birthday. We only got to stay an hour but it was a nice way to chill out before the flight. We flew back to Sydney and our stay in Sydney was pretty non eventful We spent the day wandering around town before our flight to Bangkok. We picked up a tonne of books as we heard the train can be boring and we weren't sure of getting English books anywhere else.

Cairns

Next day was a sightseeing packed day. We headed out to a really high waterfall called Baron falls. Then John and Julia popped us on a gondola which headed out over the rainforest. We got to see a Ulysses butterfly flying below us because it was so bright that it stood out miles on the trees. We also traveled over the falls we looked at earlier in the day. As we were traveling we noticed that on one side of the hills the sounds of the forest where overwhelming and the other side it was quiet. There were two stops along the way to get off and see more of the forest and learn a bit about what the aborigines used the particular trees for like fishing by poisoning the fish and building tent like huts out of the various trees that were still there. Then finally we got an overview of all of Cairns as we came down from the rainforest. Later we got lunch with their daughter and grandson, Renee and Jacob. Then we all did a little shopping before getting fish and chips and heading to the beach we went to on the first day. We could see it this time as it wasn't pitch black. Finally we got back to the house exhausted. Before heading to bed Brian had organised a Skype call between Millie and Kay (Brian's grandmother). The rest of us had a good time too talking to Brian's family.

Cairns

We met John and Julia at the airport. These are Brian's first cousin's once removed and they were nice enough to let us stay for the three days we were in Cairns. They gave us a photography book on Cairns to give us more of a taste of the place as they said three days was too short. The first nice we went down to beach in Cairns where they had lived when they first arrived and had a really good dinner there. Then we headed back to their house. They have a lovely big house in the hills outside Cairns. The following day as part of Brian's birthday present, we headed to the Great Barrier Reef while John and Julia went to work. John was nice enough to drop us onto the Marina so we didn't even have to worry about buses. There are loads of pictures of it in the only album. It was a pretty amazing day. Brian even got to follow a Manta ray for a while with the camera. We got to see two different places on the reef. One had a lot more plant life and the other had a lot more fish. It's an amazing reef. We spend about 3 hours or so snorkeling on it. The whole experience took the entire day as it was a couple of hours to get to the first location and a could of hours back. We both wore suits that stop jelly fish stings as we didn't want to get completely sunburned like the reef trip in Mexico. That night, Brian's great aunt Millie came over and Julia made an amazing dinner and dessert for us. We spent the evening chatting away and looking at pictures from the day.

PIctures

Pictures for our trip are up all the way through to Australia.  Only just arrived in Thailand so it's actually up to date for a change :) https://picasaweb.google.com/113757691164438550487?feat=email

Sydney

We only had the morning in Sydney before our flights so we left our bags in the hostel and went to see the Sydney Opera house and harbour bridge. We spent some time in the big park there. In the middle of the park was this really noisy area where all the trees were filled to the brim with bats. Some were sleeping and others fighting but most making noise. There were easily over 100 bats. We also so some (I'm not sure of the word for this) areas filled with golden orb spiders. We knew them because we had seen them in the bug zoo in Canada. In certain bushes 5 or 10 of them would each build a golden web and sit in the middle of it. There were a few of the bushes around the park. After that we headed to the airport for our flight to Cairns. Brian has some family up there who were nice enough to let us stay with them.

Canberra

We were in Canberra for three days and two nights. Hostels were as expensive as hotels so we stayed in a nice hotel with a TV because there is nothing else to do. The first morning we went to the Russian embassy to get our visa (we had to go to the embassy as we had made special arrangements with them, we were told you normally can't get Russian visa outside the country you are living or working in). The website said it would take three days to get the visa but Natassia was really nice and organised the whole thing really quick. Second morning we collect our passports from the Russian embassy and decided to get the Mongolian one out of the way. Unlike the Mongolian embassy in Ireland, these guys made it seem like you were bothering them the whole time but we handed in our passports anyway and on the final day collected them. On the second day it was Brian's birthday and while the morning was spent in an embassy we did celebrate a little that night after he finally got to call home (it was a really dodgy internet connection as per usual). I had bought some really nice Riesling we both liked in New Zealand on the wine tour and we got another almost dessert wine Riesling and some Gewürztraminer and drank them with some take away. It was pretty unfortunate we were in Canberra but the wine was really good and we had a nice night in. Brian was pretty happy he at least wasn't on a plane for his birthday as he always looks on the bright side. Also we saw a whole flock of Cockatoos on the way home from the embassy that day because taxi's were so expensive and we decided to walk. There were like 50 of them digging for worms on the ground. It was such an unusual sight. We also saw some rare pink parrots we were told at the sanctuary were dying out but couldn't remember the name of and Brian saw a bright red parrot as well. For his birthday I got him flights to Cairns and a boat trip out to the Great Barrier reef as he has always wanted to swim in it and was disappointed when he found out we wouldn't be near enough to it in Sydney to make a trip out to it. The last day in Canberra and first day in Sydney Brian didn't seem to have a good day at all. The package he wanted to send home cost a lot more than it should have as it was heavier than we thought it would be even though most of the things in it had weights on them which did not add up to near what the scales in the post office said. Then we got Subway and it was horrible which is surprising as it is usually pretty standard. They were really scabby with the meat and put everything in the sandwich in the middle of the bread and left it open. Then we went to get the bus into town and they had dug up the road where the bus goes and the guys digging up the road couldn't tell us where the bus was actually going to stop or drive. In the end we had to walk a good bit away to find another bus stop after I pulled out my laptop to find a different stop. Finally when we got to Sydney he ordered a smoothie that had a texture of soup and talcum powder. The hostel we were in had the hole in the sink that was filled with stagnant water and there was stuff that looked like sick and no shower curtain. To top it all off his iPod touch couldn't get on the internet because he had bought an internet voucher in another hostel that had expired and he couldn't buy any more time without the voucher he got in the odd hostel which he didn't have anymore. Anyway he was pretty exhausted after the day so after dragging him to the supermarket so that he could find something to eat we just went to bed.

Melbourne

On our final day in Melbourne we headed out to brunch with Colm, Bobby and one of the guys Bobby used to work with and his friends. We went to this really nice cafe with fantastic juice and food. The guys had been to Canberra and were really disappointed. There wasn't much to do at all other than the museum and gallery. They had been very disappointed with the lack of night life (which isn't great as it will be Brian's birthday while we are there). Then they went on to talk with Bobby about the architecture in Canberra which was lost on us but the conversation soon turned to travel and other things. That night Bobby was nice enough to cook a roast lamb and potatoes especially for us as we were lovely. It was an amazing meal and such a Sunday meal from home. I miss being able to have proper meals. Bobby's neighbor who was also at the Thai dinner (Sarah) and her partner and mother came over as well. Sarah's mother was from Canberra and highly recommend the city, the museum and the gallery. After that Colm and Bobby dropped us at the bus station where we said our farewell. Hopefully I will get to see a good bit of them now that their little baby boy is on the way and will want to see all his family. That night we traveled to Canberra, arriving at 4 in the morning.

Melbourne

On Saturday we headed to the Victoria St markets that are quite close to where Colm and Bobby live. We got to look around a few souvenir stalls and Bobby grabbed some food for the dessert she was bringing to dinner that night. After that we headed on a walk through St. Kilda's which has a nice beach front. It was a good way to work off the donuts we got in the market. Unfortunately it also has a major abundance of cake shops and all the cakes look delicious. That was very tempting. That night Bobby's friends were having a get together which they were nice enough to invite us too. They were having a Thai dinner night. There were loads of people at it and we sat around chatting and eating from various Thai dishes and Bobby's gorgeous dessert. Then we played a game of Taboo with boys against girls. Girls won but there were two more girls than boys so there was a lot of competition and complaining. It was good fun though and everyone got really involved. One of the women there was from Canberra which is our next stop. She seemed to find it difficult to think of much to do in Canberra. That wasn't a great sign. The only thing she could think of was the gallery and Australia is really expensive so we weren't really interested in paying a lot to go to a gallery we wouldn't be that entertained in.

Melbourne

Colm had said to us that one of the big events in the Melbourne Aquarium is walking with sharks. We had checked it out online and decided that we would really like to do it so we headed off on Friday with that in mind. I feel myself and Brian have become a little immune to the beauty of aquariums after seeing so many. This one was a lot bigger than the one in New Zealand and the sharks and fish had a whole lot of space to swim in. It turns out you can walk in maybe half the bottom of the tank and you are fine to walk around in it once you don't have any problems traveling on planes. You get into wet suits and put weights on to get in the water. Then a big heavy helmet is put on your shoulders but it doesn't feel that heavy as it's filled with air and you are going into the tank when it gets put on your shoulder. We got down about 4 metres to the upper floor of the tank which is the only bit you are allowed walk on. Walking was really weird as even with the weights you float about so stopping and walking briskly are difficult. You don't get to touch any of the animals but you do get a better view of them than when you are in a cage. We saw a sea turtle go by and then we walked around for about 15 minutes with no much happening. Some sting rays were swimming up and down but they were still a bit away. Then we walked over to one side and a mantra ray swam right up to us along the floor of the tank. We got to see it right up close but then it landed on my foot. Unfortunately you can't look down in the helmets so I had no idea where it went. I had thought it was in front of me but then Brian signaled to move forward and the scuba diver who went with us took my hand and had to push the ray out of the way so I could walk off. Brian was laughing away as he could see it all quite easily :) Finally about 20 minutes in a shark came swimming up. It was a massive one, I think it was one of the biggest in the tank. He swam around with a few fish swimming along underneath him. The diver had to move me out of the way here as the shark was just swimming along really close to us and I might have been in his way if he had of kept going the way he was. After a little while the same shark making a second lap swam along by us. This time he swam within arms reach of Brian. Soon after we had to head up as you only get 20 minutes.

That night we headed to an AFL game in Melbourne Cricket stadium. Colm was able to get the four of us tickets. It's a bit like GAA with an oval pitch and a few changes to the rules. It seems really big in Melbourne and the turnout for the match was amazing. We were a bit away from the pitch but you could still see everything that was going on and it made it easier to see the game a whole. We were all cheering for Bobby's team Collingwood. They did really well and won the match by quite a large amount. It was well worth going to see an AFL match. It seems to be a really big sport over here. I don't really know that much about football so I'm not going to go into a blow by blow account or anything. The two of us caught on fairly quickly about the basic rules and almost all of them by the end of the match.

Melbourne

Thursday came and we decided to head to the Healesville Sanctuary. It was filled with Australian wildlife like Tasmanian devils, platypus and koala. It was quite nice and while there we got to spend about 10 minutes feeding a kangaroo. It was really fun. The seemed spoiled because they only want the treats and not the grass they were suppose to be eating. They are really soft. The animal feedings were pretty good around the park You got to touch a lot of the reptiles during feeding too. We saw the birds of prey display too which was worth going to see. Either birds never behave for these things and keepers just say to people that they are usually more behaved than this but they never behave when myself and Brian are there. One of the parrots refused to go back inside and stayed outside doing tricks and getting treats. Every time the keeper motioned him to come inside the bird looked away. Also a wild diamond tailed something jumped out at the diamond tail bird in the show and they both showed their talons. They were fighting over territory. Then the keeper had to hold onto the bird for the rest of the show while she made all sorts of noises at the wild bird and was very grumpy altogether. They were massive birds. In Ireland when we went to the birds of prey show somewhere in Claire the falcon was released and it was a really sunny day so he left and went for a swim in a lake and then sunbathed on the cliff. We saw the rest of the sanctuary and came back about an hour later when the bird returned for the end of the show. That night we headed out to dinner with Colm and Bobby. It was a really nice big portioned dinner in a restaurant called James Squire. We had a good time chatting away with them and getting to spend lots of time talking. Afterwards we went to a small Italian place for dessert (mostly cause I forgot about dessert in the restaurant).

Melbourne

We arrived into Melbourne in the afternoon on the 4^th of April (I feel I've left off dates a lot in the blog and I only update it when the laptop can get on the internet so it's not very consistent). We headed straight for my cousin Colm and his wife Bobby's apartment. Bobby was home from work so she came to meet us as the train station. Both she and Colm look great and they are waiting to have a little baby boy. That night we spent catching up and chatting away. Colm and Bobby still had work while we were there so during the day we kept ourselves entertained.

Tuesday we headed for a walk around the small streets and arcades in Melbourne. We toured around little boutiques stopping mostly at watch shops and to grab some food. After Brian grabbed some lunch we both went to a pretty little cake shop for dessert. The cake shop was a really high tea kind of place. The sandwiches had cucumber and the crusts cut off and they had some specialist teas with tea leaves and silver strainers. The cakes were delightful. Brian got Toblerone cheese cake and I hand a Lamington. Then we headed down to wander around the waterfront. We booked dinner for Thursday night as a treat for Colm and Bobby. That night the four of us headed out to a comedy gig just a few minutes down the road from the apartment. There were three different comedians and we got some food there before the show. The comedian's were very good, especially the last guy Dave Callan. He was an Irish guy who had been living in Australia a very long time. Wednesday we headed around the Docklands on a tour of the harbour and waterfront. I bought a pair of UGG boots and Brian looked at an awful lot of watches. In the airport in Auckland I bought a beautiful red Swatch watch that I am really happy with and since then he has upped his search for a watch. He has been looking for one since the disaster that happened with his watch in Canada. Brian had really loved the comedian the night before and found out he had an hour long show in town so we met Colm and Bobby at the train station and headed to his hour long show. It was based on a survey he did of 100 questions which he gave to 100 women to try and understand them better. He then did a very good gig based on the results. There were a lot of funny things. One of his questions was name a bad influence and two people separately came up with Ursula from the little mermaid. We then got food in a Japanese restaurant which was really nice.

Auckland

We arrived in Auckland to stay in Base hostel. It's a really generic hostel which is really hard to meet people in. Also our room was the smallest room you could fit two bunk beds in and the window just looked out onto the hall. That was kinda weird. So we hung around there for a while quickly realising that people didn't really seem to want to chat in the common area. There was free pizza in the bar and cheap drinks so we went down to that. We chatted with a few people but the bar was pretty quite and we had decided to go to the cinema. We went to see I Am Number 4. It was a cross between Roswell and Smallville. I thought it would have made a better tv series than a film but Brian really like it and is looking forward to the next one. He avidly believes girl in it serves no purpose whatsoever.

Next day we went to the Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Encounter. We wandered around and saw lots of sharks in different really big tanks and got to ride on a snow car thing around the penguin enclosure. They had these massive sting rays there. The oldest was massively long and weighed as much as three grown men. They seemed quite nice as the just seemed to lie on the person feeding them. After we had seen all the tanks and enclosures we got to put on wet suits and snorkels. Then we headed into the staff area and got into a cage (it had a perspex bottom and net sides with floats all along the top) in the shark tank. Then we got to snorkel around the tank and get quite close to a few of the sharks. It was really cool and the tank was really big. You could also scuba dive with the sharks but you need to be a qualified scuba diver and myself and Brian aren't. It was a really great thing to do and I would total recommend it. I'd say if you could scuba dive that would be even better but the snorkeling was cool too. Next day we chilled out for the day and headed out in Auckland that night. We got dinner in O'Hagans and then headed to the ice bar which was good fun. We got a few pictures and had a few drinks until my fingers were sore from the cold. Then we went out in a few different bars around the quay/viaduct area. It was a Saturday night and loads of people were out and there was good dancing. The following day we were considerably hung over. Brian didn't really leave the sofa and I was about the same other than going to the supermarket to get breakfast and dinner (I'm usually really hungry when I'm hungover). Had been doing quite well up to now cause my hangovers were usually better than Brian's but I was way worse this time. And that was the end of our trip to New Zealand. We'll definitely miss it here cause we were kept so busy the whole time.