Oz 2006

Flew from Manchester (UK) to Singapore with Singapore Airlines.  The flight was suprisingly enjoyable.  Plenty of entertainment options on the flight with on-demand audio and video.  It was a day flight so didn't need to sleep, which is a good job because I can't sleep on airplanes.  It was roughly 13 hours out (13.5 hours back).

Arrived in Singapore early morning.  The first thing that hits you is the humidity.  Within minutes outside your clothes are sticking to you.  It was a nice relief though after the very long winter in the UK.

Went straight to check-in to Carlton Hotel.  I made the mistake of telling the taxi driver that it was our first trip to Singapore.  He then tried to rip us off thinking we wouldn't understand the tarrifs or the currency.  I was jet-lagged but not that jet-lagged!

We were early to the hotel (check-in is 2pm) but they allowed us to check-in  a few hours early and gave us drink vouchers while we were waiting for the room to be ready.

Was delighted to find that our room had a beatiful view overlooking the Raffles Hotel and looking towards the CBD.


Went to bed for a few hours before venturing out for a late lunch.  We went to the first place we came across which was the food court in the Raffles Plaza Shopping Centre.  If you want a large choice of really cheap chinese food this is the place to go!

We then took the MRT (tube/subway) to Orchard St.  We could have easily walked it but we knew we would have to suffer the moanings of our 4 year old daughter!  We walked out into Orchard St amazed to find a TopShop and TopMan.  Soon we discovered that pretty much every UK brand is available in Singapore.  The shopping malls are incredibly clean and have a much greater variety of shops than in the UK.

We later took a taxi down to Boat Quay where we ate at a seafood restaurant and took a ride on a bumboat down the Singapore River.

We spent the day around the Suntec City and marina area, taking in a tour of Singapore on the DuckTours amphibious craft, which is basically a bus that travels along the road and then pops into the river.  The Fountain of Wealth was very impressive (although not a patch on the Barcelona Fountains).



Jet-lag was taking its toll.  We were wide awake at 5:30am but by 9pm we were flagging, so we stayed in the hotel that night and had room service.

I really liked Singapore.  The people are extremely friendly, there is a good mix of Chinese, Indian and Western culture, and the place is so clean you could eat your dinner off the floor!

Took a day flight from Singapore to Brisbane with Singapore Airlines.

We stayed with Cath while in Brisbane, the missus' godmother.  When we woke up that morning (very early again - still jet-lagged!) the first thing that struck us was the noise.  Parrots and Lorakeets and Crows - the beautiful sound of nature. 

We spent the day with Cath and took a ride around Brisbane, taking in South Bank (the kids had a swim in the man-made lagoon) and Manly Harbour.  We finished the day off at a Thai BYO (Bring Your Own) restaurant.  Something else I love about Australia - you can take your own booze and the staff will provide the glasses and serve the wine at no extra cost, which reduces the cost of eating out in Oz no end.

We started the day off with a bit of exercise down at the Clem Jones Centre in Brisbane.  The missus took an exercise class with Cath while I took the kids swimming.
We then drove up to the apartments Cath had booked in Sunshine Beach, Sunshine Coast.

On the way up to the Sunshine Coast we stopped off at Eumundi for the world-famous (although I'd never heard of them) markets.  We went on a camel ride and had a walk around the arts and crafts stalls.  There's very much a hippy feel to the Eumundi markets, which included women expressing themselves to eclectic music - very amusing!

We arrived at Sunshine Beach and were very impressed with our apartments.

We took a walk down Sunshine Beach in the afternoon.  Unfortunately the beach was closed to swimming as it was really rough - still experiencing the aftermath of Cyclone Larry in Northern Queensland.  We quickly learnt a lesson about the sea in Australia after our daughter was knocked off her feet by a wave that came out of knowwhere while she was walking along the edge of the water.


That evening we went for a lovely meal at an italian restaurant in Sunshine Beach.

Spent the day at Noosa Main Beach as Sunshine Beach was still closed for swimming.  This was my first experience of the Australian surf.  I was soon addicted.  It took a bit of getting used to but I was soon loving jumping the waves (simply swimming in the sea in now suddenly sooo boring!).

That evening we went to the Sunshine Beach Surf LifeSaving Club for Dinner.

On our way back to Brisbane we stopped off to spend the day at Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin fame).

The place is undergoing a huge expansion and will be really impressive in a couple of years.  Even so, we had a very enjoyable day.  I particularly enjoyed the shows - tiger show, bird show and croc show, and I was very tempted to kidnap a Koala!

Took an internal flight with Virgin Blue from Brisbane to Sydney.  The flight only took 1 1/2 hours and we arrived at our hotel pretty much exactly at check-in time - 2pm. 

We stayed at the Travelodge Wynyard.  The hotel was a bit basic but the location is excellent, with easy walking to both The Rocks/Opera House and Darling Harbour.

After checking-in, we took a stroll over to Circular Quay, had a bite to eat and then went onboard a Captain Cook Cruise boat for a tour of Sydney Harbour.

We couldn't believe how quite it was in Sydney.  We expected it to be heaving with tourists like it always is in London.  I know it's not summer but even so it was 28 degrees. 

It was fairly cloudy the entire time we were in Sydney but I guess it's a bit of a relief when you're walking around a lot.  Only problem is the photo's don't look as good when the sun's not out.


























In the evening we went and had dinner in the buffet restaurant at the top of Sydney Tower.  The view was spectacular, the food not so much, but still there was a good variety.   We even had our first taste of Kangaroo! (tastes a bit like a cross between beef and lamb).

We spent the morning walking around the Sydney Opera House and Rocks area.

















In the afternoon we took the LRT (light railway) to Bondi Junction and then took a local bus to Bondi Beach.  Manly beach is supposedly nicer but I figured you can't go to Sydney without a day at Bondi Beach!  I loved Bondi Beach nonetheless, it didn't dissapoint and we had a wonderful afternoon, me getting even more addicted to jumping the waves. 






This photo doesn't really do the beach justice.  The beach is much nicer than it appears here.





We stayed at the beach until nearly 6pm, after which we went for fish and chips at a nice restaurant across the road from the beach.

We spent the morning and afternoon around Darling Harbour.  Our day included a visit to the National Maritime Museum, which included a look around the Destroyer HMAS Vampire and Submarine HMAS Onslow.  We also went to the IMAX and saw Safari 3D.  Unfortunately we came out of the IMAX theatre to find it was raining (it was lovely before we went in). 

















We also had a ride on the monorail which goes around Darling Harbour, China Town, Paddy Market and central shopping district.  The monorail is a great way to get around it's just a shame it's restricted to such a small part of Sydney.






At the end of the afternoon we had a look around the Queen Victoria building, which is a beautiful shopping mall.






We took our return flight that evening to Brisbane.

We didn't do much that day - it was a nice relaxing day after what had been a busy week.  We went to Carindale Shopping Centre in the afternoon for a look around.  In the evening we went to the Fish Cafe in Manly, Brisbane, an excellent seafood restaurant.

On the Saturday morning we went and picked up a hire car for our final week in Australia.  We then spent the day touring the suburbs looking at areas where we may like to live, now that we have our permanent residency visa.  Our tour included Raby Bay in Cleveland which is absolutely stunning, but way out of our price range. 

In the evening we took some food and drink down to the Manly Parklands to use the public barbecues.  What a fantastic way of life, last year in the UK we hardly had any weekends where the weather was nice enough to have a barbie.  In Oz, you could virtually do it every weekend, and the public barbies are a fantastic idea, there's nothing like it in the UK.

In the morning we went in to Brisbane CBD and took a CityCat cruise up the river.














The view is stunning, I would love to own one of the properties along the river.

We also had a look around the CBD. 


I particularly like this photo I took of St Stephen's Cathedral (I think) in the CBD.  Shows the old against the new.









In the afternoon it was Cath's 50th birthday party.  It was a fantastic afternoon and evening where we got to meet a lot of the locals (Cath's friends) who made us feel really welcome.  Australians are probably the most friendly people I've ever met!

We set off early Monday morning down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast.  We spent the day on the beach enjoying the waves (me) and the sand (daughter).














It wasn't particularly sunny, which was probably a good thing else we wouldn't have been able to spend all day on the beach.  It was still hot though.  As you can see the beach scene is very different to Europe, not a sunbed or umbrella in sight - everyone just takes a towel.

In the evening we took our daughter to TimeZone which is a large amusements arcade.  We loved it at Surfers Paradise and regretted not taking any spare clothes with us so we could check in to a hotel and stay the night.  We originally planned on just doing day trips from Brisbane to save money but after a wonderful day at the beach we decided to book in to a hotel for the following night.

We managed to book a hotel online for the Tuesday night and as it was last-minute we got a really good deal at the Gold Coast International Hotel.  So we drove down again from Brisbane to stay at the GCI for one night.

This time the sun was out and it was red hot, it must have been 35 degrees easily.  It was too hot for the missus so I spent a couple of hours on the beach while the missus took our daughter to Ripley's Believe it or Not. 

Ozzies are crazy.  Yesterday when it was cloudy but still hot, about 28 degrees, the beach was deserted.  Today, when it's red hot with absolutely no shade to be found, the beach is packed (comparatively - it still wasn't as busy as the beaches get in Spain, thank God).

We checked in to the GCI in the afternoon to find that we had a fantastic view from our room again.  We had a corner room which meant we could see the Sea to our left and the river to our right.














We spent the rest of the afternoon around the hotel pool.  In the evening we were going to go out but we had such a nice view from our hotel room that we figured we'd have room service and a few drinks on the balcony instead (we were too exhausted to go out anyway - it's funny how tiring it is lying on a beach and then around a pool!).

We drove back to from the Gold Coast in the morning, returning around lunch time.  We then went out with Cath and her friend Liz to Wilson's BoatHouse restaurant in Manly to celebrate Cath's birthday.  I'm not usually a big seafood eater but I couldn't get enough of it while I was in Oz!

In the evening we babysitted for Cath's daughter while Terry - Cath's beloved - took her out for a meal to celebrate.

Thursday morning we drove down to the Gold Coast again to Sea World in Southport.  I wasn't expecting it to be as good as Sea World in Florida and it wasn't, still, we had a really good day anyway and there's enough there to fill up a day, with a good combination of sealife, shows and rides.

Our final day in Brisbane and Australia - we were gutted!  Still, we had a good last day down at South Bank in Brisbane.  The South Bank parklands area has been designed really well.  It was lovely to walk through the parks and spend a couple of hours at the man-made beach adjacent to Brisbane river.   We also  got a few property lists from local estate agents while we were there - hopefully we'd be coming back very soon.























We had a late flight that night - 11pm - from Brisbane to Singapore.

We arrived in Singapore approx 5:30 on the Sunday morning (why oh why did I book a night flight?).  We were knackered.  For some reason we didn't have much luck with taxi drivers while were were in Singapore because this time on our way from the airport to the hotel the taxi driver was falling asleep at the wheel.  At least he didn't try to over-charge us.  It's also not common to tip in Singapore, not that there was any way he'd be getting a tip.  Maybe stay awake at the wheel, that's a good tip!

We arrived at our hotel really early, praying that we'd be able to get in our room early, as yet again I couldn't sleep on the plane.  As it was very early they allowed us to pay half a day's rate and check in straight away.  The hotel and hotel room were lovely - finished the holiday off in style, and again we had managed to get a really good deal by booking last-minute.




After the night flight that big bed was bliss!








Interior hotel lifts















Exterior Hotel lifts








Cloudy day in Singapore - view from our hotel room in the Pan Pacific.








After a few hours sleep we had a leisurly walk around the Marina Square Mall which was directly connected to our hotel.

In the evening we had a meal at the chinese restaurant at the top of our hotel which has panaromic views of Singapore.

We spent our final day on holiday around the pool at our hotel in Singapore.  All in all we'd been fairly unluck with weather over the holiday and hadn't managed to gain much of a tan.  Although it was always hot it was mainly cloudy.  This apparantly was really unusual for Queensland as it's pretty much sunny 365 days a year.



So on our final day we tried to make the most of the weather.  Again it wasn't particularly sunny, more hazy.  You would have thought we had learned our lesson about the sun in Oz as for some reason we thought we'd be alright without sun cream that day.  After about an hour in the hazy sun we felt ourselves burning so immediately applied sun cream, but of course by that time it was already too late.  We went home with nasty sunburn which made the flight home hell!  Luckily we had applied sun cream to our daughter, it's only ourselves that we don't look after!

The flight home was awful.  It was 13.5 hours overnight.  I was sunburnt and again I couldn't sleep on the plane.  I certainly won't be booking a long nightflight again.

Although the flight was awful it didn't take the shine of what was a fantastic holiday that we'll never forget.  It re-affirmed our decision to emigrate - we're now full steam ahead to sell our house and move over to Oz.

I've added in further details of where we stayed and what we did in the Schedule View.  Just click on the Schedule View tab at the top and you can then click on the View link next to the items, which will either take you to the website of the place or the Yahoo Travel page for the place.