Alice Springs

Well I hate to say it as it's such a cliche, and I don't want to spread it around....but I'm in Alice Springs, and smirking at the 'real' Australia...not quite so many immigrants here (Brits!) and full of Aboriginies yelling at each other and coming in to bars trying to crash cigarettes etc. And as expected, it's bloody hot up here!
My welcome to Alice Springs was flies buzzing around me like I was a fresh stinking turd - they (the flies!) seem to be all over the place here. Instantly I longed for one of the classic Aussie hats with bits of cork hanging on strings around my face! And I've already eyed up some didgeridoos (oh, oh...wallet warning - they're priced for rich tourists!).
After finding a place for food that was reasonably affordable, I bodyswerved the backpacker home cooking and went for a meal and beers. But it's time to crash in prep for an early start tomorrow.

Perth to Alice Springs

I fly to Alice Springs in a few hours, and already say goodbye to the west coast.  There's far less people here (at least for a few years yet!), and you can swim in the sea :-)  I can't believe I've been in the area for almost a week as it's flown by, catching up with several folk I'd never normally see which has been great.  I've still missed out on loads of things to do and places to see but that's the same everywhere.

The 'budget' has taken an absolute beating here though.  It was a very depressing though looking at the bank accounts this morning as they'll be pretty much zero the day I buy transport in NZ!!! (and still got 8 weeks, plus Japan etc to go!!).  Luckily I have a reserve fund which I had hoped not to use, but I guess thats the danger of being a bit of a flashpacker and paying to cram things in.

It's unlikely I'll write much until I'm in Adelaide on Monday as I will be on a 3 days Uluru/Ayers Rock/The Olgas/Kings Canyon tour until Friday afternoon, then Saturday night will be spent in Coober Pedy on the way to Adelaide, arriving Sunday evening.

Why worry?

An old photo from accommodation in Borneo, but I just stumbled on it again. A great one.

 

Want to give me a couch?

I've just updated my couchsurfing.com profile.  After a hearty recommendation from a recent chat with a fellow traveller I may try this in NZ, Japan, Korea or China!

Updated blog and gallery

I've been taking advantage of having laptop internet access and have added a load of Australian photos to the Wanderingscotsman picture gallery.  I've also added quite a few posts, and added pictures to the Whitsundays and Fraser Island posts. Enjoy!

Drive through bottle shops - a wonderful invention

How good is this? Need to get more booze?  No need to leave your car to shop! Pablo in the drive through bottle shop.

Unofficial couchsurfing.com and Australia plans

Yesterday was a pretty chilled out day with even more plans falling into place.  I was a bit slow after trying to drag Pablo into having a few beers at his BBQ the night before (he drastically needed the hair of the dog after his works night out on Friday).  They treated me to my second BBQ this week, and I managed to toss a few things in there, so have passed my aussie test.

  Pablo took me into Fremantle for a look, then I met Gill at Cottesloe beach after a swim.  I got a call from my mate Karen in Sydney so she could re-acquaint herself with my Scottish twang....needless to say I had to s-l-o-w down until she got up to speed.  So it's all sorted, if I get to Sydney by Sat 10th I will go to a travel writing seminar with her for the afternoon.

(Pic : Pablo and I at Cottlesloe beach)

Scottie in Adelaide also got in touch and has amazingly taken a day off next Sunday, so I'll arrive there after doing the red centre of Australia, and hit the bars (although hopefully not quite as madly as we hit them during my one night in Adelaide last year!).

Alan in Melbourne also got in touch so despite his absence from the city (working abroad again) I'm going to crash his place with his housesitter/buddy/whoever is living there just now,and have use of his Jeep!  And when I hit Sydney I have a place to stay with a Brit who was on my Whitsundays boat. 

I'm also writing this in Perth at a mate's house, overlooking their pool in the garden while the forecast rainstorms are quietly sneaking in around me.  I'm just going to chill out today and tomorrow catching up with personal 'admin' (emails, downloads, the joy of broadband wifi).

I also met up with my old department boss from Edinburgh for a couple of beers last night.  He moved over here 18 months ago so was good to catch up with someone else in town.

Yaaaa, dont'cha just love friends!

Margaret River wine tour

As I could do wine tours from Dunsborough I saved myself some grief and decided to stay at the YHA for my three nights in the area.  It's a pretty good hostel, 2km out of town, but free bikes, snorkelling stuff, and boogie boards (not that there's much surf until you go round the coast).  It's a neat beach here as well - no waves like others, and you're pretty much on your own on the beach except the odd dog walker and fisherman.

It was another leisurely start today, not getting picked up until 11am by Bushtucker tours.  It was a bunch of oldies on the bus, but I still got into the 5 sets of tastings over 5 wineries around Margaret River, most of which were small outlets with minimal if any export wines.  There must have been 40+ wines to taste, with me buying a bottle of port at the first one (I never seem to resist port at these tastings, although this bottle was for a gift).  The lunch was great with loads of breads and pestos, with some local delights such as kangaroo (quite nice).

I had pretty much sobered up with my twenty minute sleep on the bus home, however I had no excuses not to go and listen to some tunes on the beach before sunset, with another swim.

I've never got into this backpacker thing in Australia of carrying cooler bags of food around from place to place - largely helped by managing to crash with friends and go on tours, so I did the only decent thing a flashpacker could.....jumped on a bike into town, ordered a coconut soup takeaway and have a beer in the 'trendy' bar in town while I waited.

Tomorrow it's the first 7am bus up to Mandurah to meet Pablo, ready for him to laugh his ass off at me trying to kitesurf for the first time.

Dunsborough and the Swan Wreck

Yesterday was a Good Day.  I woke up not too early, grabbed a bike from the hostel, and cycled the 2km to the dive shop, Cave Dive.  I kitted up, and jumped in the pick up for a lift to the dive boat.  5mm full wetsuits!  Jeez, the first time ever, and I ended up with a massive 10.5kg of weights!

The swan wreck was an old 113m frigate, scuttled in 1997 as an artificial reef.  There wasn't much sealife to be found, but I saw a couple of shoals of pufferfish, which I hadn't seen grouped up before.  After the first orientation dive, we entered again after a light lunch (this is no Thailand dive experience - no curry or stir fry, just an instant soup with roll).  The second dive we managed a couple of swimthroughs, and got into the bridge where the captain sat in previous days.  The dives were relatively short as they were 28m, but shortened by two safety stops on the way up....

A great day with a bit of a different dive experience.  I cycled back to the Beach House YHA, then walked a few metres to chill out on the beach with a wee sunbathe and swim (no stinger suits required here - yeehaaa!).  I even managed a very brief run along the beach.

I decided to spend the evening necking a local bottle of wine, talking through the joys of leaving IT behind with a belgian guy, who firmed up my thoughts on using couchsurfing.com while in Japan!

Dunsborough, WA

Only got 10 mins freebie time online, so just a quickie.
Arrived at my Perth hostel at 2am this morning, then got up to meet Gill I know from back home for a coffee when I woke up. Left some luggage at theirs then got the bus to Dunsborough this afternoon. Tomorrow I dive at the HMS Swan wreck, on Friday I go on a wine tour around Margaret River, then on Saturday morning I head north to Mandurah, 1 hour south of Perth to catch up with an indoor climbing mate from Edinburgh. He's going to try and take me out on the water and watch and laugh at me trying to ride his kitesurfing kit for the first time.
I'll spend Saturday night catching up with him, and then head back up to Perth on Sunday morning - maybe for a photo trip around Perth.
Phew - it's non stop in Australia! Too much I'm having to miss out on, but as I thought yesterday....jumping around Aus to Perth is the equivalent of me heading to Moscow for a few days from home! Bizarre - you'd probably not do it in SE Asia so readily, but the mentality changes as you are still in the same country!

Back from the Whitsundays

That's me just back from my trip around the Whitsundays on the Anoconnda III yacht.
Unfortunately the weather got the better of us so we didn't make it out to the outer barrier reef due to storm warnings. We had an option of mooring at Hamilton Island and using the resort there, but the whole boat wasn't in agreement. Unlike the 6 expected dives, we only made three. The visibility was only 3-5 metres so pretty unexceptional diving.
But...the trip was still good - a great crowd and crew, but they only put two of the sails up on the return leg back to Airlie Beach. It turned out quite an expensive trip for the few dives I got. It's no Thailand here - paying for soft drinks, water etc.
To be honest, the Whistundays weren't quite as amazing as I expected them to be. Partly due to the weather, but partly due to the amount of travelling. It's a shame but it's hard to think that *everywhere* is amazing. I think the best way to see them would be from the air. We stopped off at a beach that was meant to be one of the top three in the world according to National Geographic, but it wasn't (although the sand was the purest in the world apparently - used for the hubble telescope). I'm sure the Scottish Hebrides are just as impressive as the whitsundays - just not the same level of wildlife maybe. And it's a shame out water is bloody freezing.

Anyway, it's out for a few drinks with the boat crowd tonight, then pretty much all day travelling to the west coast (Perth) tomorrow. This trip just make me want to dive at Ningaloo Reef more, but money and time doesn't allow it.

Perth, Alice Springs and Adelaide

I'm just off the overnight bus from Rainbow Beach to Airlie Beach. Ha, and the people here complain about long bus journeys - so comfy compared to thers on my trip, and it didn't seem long at all.

As expected (and as in Fraser Island), I arrived and it quickly pissed it down, so could be an 'interesting' trip, but it clears up more than it rains, guess the views, pictures and diving may just not be, well....perfect. Anyway, I've not had breakfast yet or checked in for the boat as I've been busy catching up and spending more money booking trips to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

I now fly from Perth on Tues 4th March to Alice Springs, then pick up a 3 day Uluru Safari with Kings Canyon, the Olgas and Uluru (Ayers Rock) with Adventure Tours Australia, then join a 2 day Boomerang tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide with Groovy Grape. I had hoped to do it all as one trip with Groovy Grape but the date I had to do it was fully booked. Anyway, I've heard mixed reports about 'the big stone' but I'm glad I'm heading up there now, despite the costs. Unfortunately I've done this as my planned dive trip to Ningaloo Reef at Exmouth was too expensive as I missed the cheap flights, and Kalgoorie and Esperance just didn't quite fit in timewise.

If I got the address right, you can look at my new travel calendar.

I hope to dive south of Perth next week around Dunsborough, then head to Margaret River area, returning for the weekend in Perth on Saturday or Sunday. Tonight I head on my Whitsundays trip.

Sorry for being poor on replying to emails - the net is more expensive here, I've been rushing around from place to place, and they don't like you plugging in laptops and USB pen drive - thus the lack of photos! Keep your fingers crossed for my weather the next few days!

4x4'ing in Fraser Island

Just back from the three day 4x4 in Fraser Island. A fantastic few days, and got caught in the pissing rain and lightning a couple of times - luckily we were back at camp both times....but it can't be that bad with esky's of booze and a large banged up Toyota Landcruiser to sit in the back of!

 
Off we went, 4 Toyota Landcruisers loading onto the ferry, roofs full of gear, and trucks full of bodies. A quick intro to 4x4 driving at Dingos Resort, pre-selected food and booze, and off we went, flying round to Lake MacKenzie - an interesting intro to 4x4'ing up a sandy road! I got stuck coming downhill on a bit, but only because I didn't 'gun it' when the truck starting slowing down behind the sand. I also then took it a bit too fast along the beach, and hit a 3 foot ish drop off at a water run out - amazing how easily a fully loaded landcruiser took it - very top heavy as well!
I also managed to stick the truck in soft sand coming downhill, so thanks for the manpower folks!

 
Fraser Island is a great place - and far larger than I expected (e.g. over 115km from one point to another. Driving on the beach and sandy roads is fantastic fun. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as great as I hoped, which affected some of the views. The beach is just a (far!) larger, warmer version of Balmedie Beach just north of Aberdeen, and 'one of the most amazing lakes you'll see' which is Lake McKenzie isn't any more stunning than most Scottish lochs...albeit with far warmer water. BUT, I'm not slagging the place off, a great trip and highly recommended!

Anyway, I need a shower. Tomorrow I'm off to feed dolphins and killing myself getting up early again. I then take an overnight bus to Airlie Beach for my Whitsundays trip, and I fly to Perth on the 20th. Dive plans at Exmouth have probably been put on hold due to increasing flight prices, so it's all a bit in the air in terms of Western Australia!

G'day mate. Byron Bay, Australia

I landed in Sydney this morning, waited a few hours and flew straight up to Byron Bay, arriving here in time to enjoy the afternoon. When I got here I was in stereotypical Australia :

Surrounded by pristine beach, pristine walkways, everyone uber helpful, people cycling with surfboards, 'mate' being said all the time, everyone and everything in english....and lots of babes in bikinis, and blokes trying to impress them. It's all a bit of a culture shock for me - a bit too civilised compared to what I'm used to in Asia! It may take me a while to get used to it.

Sewage smells, people gobbing in the street, kids pissing on street corners, cheap eats on the streets, hassling street sellers...oh I miss Asia already!

Australia is also much more in-your-face-backpackers than in Asia. It'll be interesting what I think if I get stuck with a bunch of eight 20 year old pisscan party animals on my 4x4 self drive trip on Fraser Island!?!

Anyway, Byron's a lovely place, although I've seen nothing of the town. I went for a walk around the headland today, along wooden boardwalks and a bit of coastal rainforest. The last night I wasn't at 35,000 feet I was watching anteaters, porcupines, tigers, and a load of other bizarre mammals. Today....it was bush turkeys along the walk. Yesterday I was in Singapore, today I was on the most easterly point of Australia.

It's probably a good thing I'm not staying around here for long. I really want to try kitesurfing and it's perfect here for that. But then there's the diving, the handgliding, the kayaking with whales, the skydiving and many more things teasing be to blow my remaining budget overnight!
Anyway, it's about time I went to get something normal to eat. And a beer.

Leaving Asia :-( - in Singapore

Well I post this quickly before getting my cab to Changi airport in Singapore. Once again, Singapore has eluded me and I've hardly seen anything of the city. Luckily I started speaking to two English girls when I arrived, over a beer and they asked if I wanted to go to the night safari with them and their mates to make up a full complement of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. We missed their mates, but it got my lazy ass out to see it. It was quite good, saw a few animals I've never seen before, but I'm not sure if it lived up to the hype.

I was going to go for a wander around today but ended up sharing a cab to one of the electronics malls and buying another(!) external hard drive, then attempting to help out their indeciciveness buying a MacBook and a camera, so that's about all I've seen. Had a great, relatively cheap, meal in a local Moroccan restaurant for lunch though.

This evening I fly to Sydney, then hang around the airport for a few hours to catch a Virgin Blue flight up to the Gold Coast. One night in Byron Bay then up to Brisbane to meet Tony.

Half the people in this excellent hostel (Sleepy Sams - nice vibe, great people, nice area in the traditional Malay area, and to top it off.... free wifi) seem to be heading to Australia today.

I'll miss Asia, the people, the prices, the room-to-yourself, the food, any knockoff music and software you want, and all the places, sights and smells. Starting to look forward to some of the trips I've booked in Australia, and catching up with friends, but Asia - I'll be back!! Thank you for great times!

(I've already got the option of crashing in Manila in the summer for free while my sister is travelling in her summer break.....oh ooooh!)

Manila - full of goons with guns

I don't like saying this about many places, but Manila is a shithole.  It's not a bad place as such, there are great things to do, just not a lot of things to see, and the place is a lesson in how not to design a city.

Any wannabe urban planner should come here for a trip before putting any city plan into place.  There are no green spaces, and the place looks to me like America gone wrong.  Everything is here for commerce, and no-one has actually thought they may have to live in the city too.

Also it's full of security guards with machine guns that are probably getting paid peanuts!

Anyway, time for my kip.  It's almost 1am (when did that happen!) and I'm up at 5am to get the taxi before the traffic starts, then a bus to Clark airport out of town, then flying to Singapore for the night before hitting Australia overnight on Tuesday.

Australia - it's all starting! My plans....

Well I'm sitting in Manila, but finally starting to sort out Aus plans. I've just booked a Fraser Island self drive 4x4 trip for three nights from Monday 12th Feb, then a dive/sailing liveaboard trip to the Whitsundays leaving on Friday 16th for three nights.

With a stroke of good timing, one of my mates is not in Spain as I expected him to be, but has came back home and ended up in Brisbane (or Brisvegas as he called it!).  Because of this, and the trips I've booked I've cancelled my accommdation in Sydney.  When I arrive on Wednesday at 0650, I'm not even going to leave the airport .  A few hours after I touch down I'm on a Virgin Blue flight up to the Gold Coast for one night in Byron Bay, then heading up to Brisbane for the weekend sometime on Thursday.

Tony - get the beers in!

Eeek!

Kerching!

(some more links to the Annaconda III sailing info and pictures from a previous trip on Annaconda III yacht)

Back in Manila

Just a brief post tonight.  I'm back in Manila - in fact I cam back yesterday from Malapascua - boat, dodgy boat transfer, 4hr bus, taxi to airport, flight, taxi to Makati to sisters.  Long day.  Anyway, was out on a 'culinary tour' with the crowd from Old Manila Walks this afternoon, accompanying my bro-in-laws photography course.  There were some eye openers in Manila's Chinatown!  (will post pics soon).

Tonight we went for dinner and went to the Hobbit House for drinks, crashed out early, and I, as usual, have been sucked in on the net catching up with things.

There's a shedload of new pics at the Wandering Scotsman picture gallery in Laos, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia (Perhentians), Brunei, Thailand and Myanmar.  I have yet to add captions to the pictures though!

I have Sunday to catch up wtih stuff, pack, go and buy the last 'knock off' software and DVD's I may want from Asia, and fly to Singapore on Monday.   Sadly I leave Asia on Tuesday and land in Sydney on Wednesday morning!!!  Eeeeek, a Western culture!!

Perving Underwater - A fish P0rno

I did another boat dive at Chocolate Islandat 1030 this morning.  This one had a niceer entrance as the wind which had challenged my sleep last night had died down a bit.  We did a two way dive against, tehn with the current.  Nothing too great, but we did see Mantis Shrimp, several nudibranches and a 'wiggly arsed fish'....which translated into a juvenile Many Spotted Sweetlips boogying its way along the coral.  I think there was a seahorse as well.

Later on after some more homework we headed off for a night dive.  The main objective of this dive was to see some fish making out. Again we descended to the coral, and sat around carefully on the seabed around the Mandarin fish.  I felt like I was intruding, waiting there for the equivalent of a fish porn movie.  Heck we were even taking photographs - the poor bugger should have just been left in peace to have their wicked way with each other.  We watched the court each other, chasing each other through the coral.  They got frisky, the raised up from the coral, bob's your uncle, then you see a wodge of fish sperm and eggs drifting to the seabed, all in the spotlight of a few dive torches.  Bloody perverts we are!  This National Geographic artical describes the mating ritual of the Mandarin fish.

We eventually left them to it and carried on the dive which turned out to be an excellent one.  Before the circus when we met another group, we saw three seahorses (I spotted one myself!), two of which were pretty much free swimming.  We also saw some crabs, shrimp (including another Mantis), scorpionfish,  and the highlight for me - a frogfish walking along the coral on the seabed (yes, I'm real - fish with 'legs' that walk).

Unfortunately my pictures were pretty bollocks.  A lot to learn with this bloody expensive, heavy, plastic camera case!

Met a guy today on one of the dives - in his 50's, retired at 43, been here since he did his PADI in December, and travelling around Asia until 'whenever'.  Hmm....maybe I should've listened to my Dad's advice after all......

Two Thresher Sharks, and more...

Well I've realised I've spoiled myself a bit in the first year of my diving.  Philippines, yes, and yes again. Perhentians, yes.  Cambodia(?!), yes.  Sipadan, oooooh yes!  And here I am back in the Philippines, but in Malapascua Island.  I descended the mooring line around 7am in a big swell, strong surface current, and a relatively poor visibilty.  I descended 23 metres, moved a wee bit and plunked my booty down on the top of Monad Shoals just sitting there.  And sitting there.  It felt bizarre, we were laying low, and watching out into the deep blue beyond, distracted by the odd boxfish and lionfish (yawwwwwn - as I said, I'm spoiled).  We decided to make a move.

Two minutes later it was all worth it.  As usual I'm looking along the bottom, then a little nudge alerts me of the whopping great Thresher Shark over to our left, gigantic swooping tail gracefully cutting through the water.  It was all worth it.  Too quickly, it buggered off with better things to do.  This dive site is a cleaning station for the sharks, so you sit, wait, and hope one will come along, and get (ahem) sucked off by a wrasse cleaning bits off of it.

We bumped into another bunch of divers, so we waited by the wall dropping hundreds of feet below us in the bluest darkest depths.  Minutes later, another Thresher came towards us, and I had visions of it swimming right above our heads.  Unfortunately it decided to turn away beforehand, and tease me to dive again tomorrow morning.  If you look (really!) closely you can just make them out!

Thresher in the distance :

 

Thresher in the deep blue :

A Thresher's tail : 

 

Scoropionfish (Yaaaaawn, but a nice picture) :

Exotic Divers - not too exotic treatment

Well I got up at the crack of dawn (0530!) - the earliest for a long, long time, but hey, like the last early morning it was so that I could go diving.  Not exactly the end of the world!

Missing the Manila rush hour, it only took me 20 minutes and 80 pesos (around 80p) to get to the domestic terminal.  In rush hour, that could be over an hour easily...  So I had a long wait around.

Doing my usual and taking the absolute piss with my hand luggage allowance (laptop, DSLR, lenses, compact camera, magazine, books, underwater housing, strobe, mask, snorkel....oh and the odd bit of clothing), I checked in with no hold luggage!  What a great feeling.

I had taken a taxi without even leaving the terminal, negotiating a fiver off the 3 hour trip from Cebu airport to Maya port on the North East of Cebu Island.  The taxi driver stopped to check the way with the locals several times, and got a shocker as he hit the less paved sections of road at a fair lick (I could tell when he yelled, and I woke up).  We passed some real local places, trucks overloaded with sugar cane, and we finally hit the port where the 'banca' boats would take us to the island - the only place I've seen with a petrol station right on the 'beach'.

Again, it was negotiating time.  A local offered me a boat for 1000 pesos ('No other customers - private boat').  'No way' - too much.  For a moment I thought he had me by the bollocks - I had to get 8km across the water, and it was rough.  I stood around long enough to see the others waiting, watching the locals take the catches of the day off the boats.

Catch of the Day!

I then spotted a couple of Exotic Resort t-shirts.  A quick intro, and I got the boat across with them and their supplies for 50 pesos, saving me 9 pounds 50 pence...only I didn't have to pay that either.  With a quick transfer of 20 pesos to the small boatmen (boatmen of small boats, not physically small men!),it was onto the Exotic Resort banca boat.  It was an interesting crossing.   Unlike the paradise conditions I hoped for and expected, it was cloudy, and 'blowing a hooly' (a.k.a. very windy), with large swells and waves.  We were all quite damp on our arrival at the island.

Transfer boats:

I checked into my room, the only thing making it worthy of the $21 being that it was on the beach.  Yes, the only thing seperating me from the sea was a palm tree, a couple of mini banca boats, and 10m of white soft sand.  I then went to book my Nitrox and Deep Dive course, as discussed over email and the phone ('No problem, sort it out when you get here').

A similar banca to the Exotic one.

'Sorry, we can't do that - our instructor is in the city'.  Pissed off, I strolled down to Thresher Shark Divers who were more than happy to oblige with the Nitrox course, but recommended I should leave it at that.  With a complete disregard to the cost I had some homework for the evening, a PADI folder, a couple of bits of plastic depth/exposure tables, and a hefty book for my mum to take home from Manila.

Beach arrival :

My bungalow :-)