Mark & Tom's World Tour

Seattle - The home of Starbucks

2007-08-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

After clearing the Canada/USA border (with great ease!!), we arrived into Seattle. We were staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel, opposite pikes place market. Within 10mins of venturing out of the hostel we had found the first ever starbucks!! Although we managed to resist temptation, and saved it for the following day. Tom is making it his mission to have a starbucks everyday while in North America!
While in Seattle, as well as visiting Starbucks (a few times), we checked out the Experience Music Project (EMP). It was a museum dedicated to music that had come out of Seattle (Hendrix, Nirvana to name 2). You could also record your own CD, and/or make your own music video, which we did! As it was so funny we bought it! Me and tom rocking along to 'I love Rock n Roll'. Twas very amusing.
We didnt check out the space needle in Seattle, because it was quite pricey. We did go to Bainbridge island for the day, and we also went to watch a Seattle Mariners baseball game. That was good fun, we just got rowdy and joined in with the crowd!! God knows what people must have though of us!! We got a lift down to Portland from someone who was driving that way. It worked out much quicker and cheaper!

Vancouver

2007-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

Arrived into Vancouver on the 8th Aug, after the longest day of our lives. We had crossed the date line, so we had breakfast, lunch and dinner twice!! Wierd! On the first day we were feeling lazy, we put it down to jet lag, but it probably was the Fiji bug!!
While in Vancouver we went up the Tower at the Harbor Centre where we got a good view of the City at night and at Day. As we didnt have much time in Vancouver we did the Big Red Bus tour, like the one you can get in London, but obviously this one is in Vancouver!! It was the quickest way to see the city. We also checked out Stanley park, and went to the Rainbow Rubber Condom Shop. We thought it was gonna be a factory. Thats what the guide book had led us to believe, but it was actually a shop. A very entertaining one at that!
We thought about going to the casino in Vancouver, as we were old enough to drink and gamble in Vancouver, but in the end we were too tired to actually go!
We headed to Seattle next on the Greyhound

Welcome to paradise...well its about time!!!

2007-08-12T01:23:00.000-07:00

We arrived onto Beachcomber island!! Home of the Bula dance and there own version of the classic Venga Boys choon, "We're going to Ibzia", (Oldies will remember this as "We're going to Barbados"), except we were all going to "Beachcomber, back to the island. Fly away on Air Pacific, flying high, Fijian Sky!" Not sure how Air Pacific rhymes, but it worked some how!!
The Bula dance is a funky version of the macarena, but a much better song to accompany it, not so neurotic!!
Beachcomber was the party island, and party is what we did. For 3days and 3 nights we partied in the evenings and then recovered on the beach. Well we baked on the beach anyway!! It wasnt that relaxing, but it was great fun, and we met some great people. We moved to Mana island after our 3rd night. We stayed there for 3 nights. We met Ellie and Jules in Beachcomber and we went with them. We had alot of fun! It was less party like and more chilled out!! They beach had nicer sand, and there was a hammock between the palm trees. This truely was paradise!! We also managed to go scuba diving as well. We started by snorkeling for 40mins, and the coral was so much brighter and there were so many more fish here than on the Great Barrier reef. To be honest, i would have been satisfied with just the snorkeling. Saying that the scuba dive was incredible. We thought we would just see alot more coral, and a lots more fish, but we were lucky enough to see 5 sharks!!! It was crazy. One of them swam within 4 meters of me!!! That was barmy!! Loved every min of it! It was a sad day when we had to leave Mana, we had had such a great time. Also an irish chap had showed up an he looked like sam from lord of the rings, so that gave us great entertainment!!
It was time to embark on our 2nd longest flight of the trip so far!!

Welcome to Paradise...Not!

2007-08-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

Our first impression of Nadi in Fiji was not a good one! We had been greeted in the Airport by a traditional fijian band, and then after that it went down hill. We were in the Mini bus to go to the hostel, and the one we wanted to go to was fully booked, so the very smelly driver took us to another hostel, called 'The Holiday Inn'. Well i have never stayed in a holiday inn quite like this one. It was being held together by the paint work. It really was dirty, seedy and just horrible! They wanted to book everything for us, and i did not want to give them my card details! It was dodgy.
Thankfully we woke up!! We were slightly worried that we were going to be taken in the night!! We were quite suprised that we had got so far in without having any seriously bad hostels, so i guess we deserved it!!
Nadi (a main city in fiji), was dirty and crummy. Everyone that walked the street seemed dodgy. We got straight out of there and off the main land!!
Nadi seriously gives you a false impression on the real Fiji

Auckland

2007-08-11T00:23:00.001-07:00

Auckland was pretty cool. We stayed with the Woodman family, friends of the Jays. Simon used to go to school with Robert Woodman. Roger, Paula and Rob were really hospitable and we had a great time staying with them. On the sunday when we arrived Roger took us up One tree hill (although someone chopped the tree down), and also Mt Victoria. They both gave great views of Auckland. We checked out the museum later on in the afternoon. That evening we had a roast, a lovely big of New Zealand lamb!!
On Monday Rob showed us round auckland. We did the Auckland Bridge climb and went up the sky tower. Thankfully the weather improved for us just at the right time. That night we went to the pub with a group of robs mates. It was a rare treat at the pub as they had Stowford Press cider!! Sadly not from somerset, but Hereford will have to do! I want Thatchers!!
On Tuesday we went sailing with Roger and his friend colin. We went out on Colins boat. We went to Rangitoto Island, Aucklands newest (by 600 odd years) volcano. On the way back into the Harbor we were lucky enough to see 2 lots of Mother and Calf killer whales!! that was pretty crazy!! That night we took the woodmans out for a meal to say thank you for having us.
On Wednesday (our last day in New Zealand - sob sob), we went to Mission beach where we were treated to lunch, and Fejoa Sorbet. Fejoa is apparently a fruit that only grows in the North Island of New Zealand, and no where else in the world, so it was a rare opportunity that we had some! That evening we left for fiji!

Wellington

2007-08-11T00:18:00.001-07:00

We arrived in wellington and i was still feeling rough. It was quicker to fly in New Zealand and as we were only doing 2 flights in NZ it was within our budget. We didnt do much for the rest of that day, we just chilled out.
For our first full day we took the cable car up to the top of a hill which i cant remember the name right now, but we wandered round the botanical gardens, and then had a look at the city before heading the Tu Papa Museum, NZ's national museum. It was quite interesting, all about Maori heritige, volcanos and we did a cluedo style treasure hunt as well, very childish, but very entertaining.
The next day we had a day wandering round the town. To be honest, there wasnt as much in wellington as i had imagined, but it was fairly chilled out. We were up early on our last morning to fly to Auckland. Thankfully we didnt drink the night before!!

Queenstown

2007-08-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

Queenstown was brilliant!! We had a couple of drunkun nights there, well it was rude not to!! We had really got into the 'Goon' appreciation club!! It was great! Also while in Queenstown we had a days skiing up on Coronet Peak. This was great fun. Tom had a lesson in the morning to learn the basics while i headed off on my own, and then i draged him up the mountain with me for the afternoon. He did really well. That night we met up with Hodge, and then we met loads of people from the trip he was on. We had quite a few lazy days in New Zealand - this travelling stuff is very tiring, its as if we need a holiday when we get back. On out last full day we did a bungy jump. That was crazy!!! We were attached at our waists so we had to run off the ledge and plunge about 47m!!! Nuts!!! We went out that night and we really got quite hammered. We havent uploaded those pics yet, but they will get there soon!! Then we flew to Wellington. Its fair to say we were feeling a little sheepish that morning!

Goodbye Australia, Hello New Zealand

2007-07-28T03:14:00.000-07:00

We left the flat in Wollstonecraft about 7:15am to get to the airport for 8am. That was the plan, but as it was a saturday we hadnt anticipated many of the trains being out of service. We had to wait for a bus and then wait about 20 mins for the next airport train. I think it was about 8:45 by the time we checked in. Cutting it fine as usual!! We managed to send a load of post cards and thank you letters and then we had to clear immigration. Easier said than done when you are travelling with tom. As soon as you stick tom under some sunlight and let him grow some facial hair, the security level rises and tom found himself having his bag swabed and sniffed and then then had his hands scaned for bomb and drg residue! I have not had any trouble at all going through security (appart from my belt setting off the metal detectors), so far tom has had it done plenty of times. Thankfully we got through, and tom was finally given that next stamp in his passport. It wasnt long before we were boarding the plane. As we had checked in late it meant Tom was on the seat behind mine. Both seats were poor. I was sat with the group of 10 under 7's with the need to be jumping over me and then seats every 2 mins. unlucky for tom he was seated on the isle with 2 oldies with weak bladders, so he was up and down every 5 mins letting them go to the loo!
The in flight entertainment was poor as well, and the Air New Zealand stewardess's were not up to the same standard we had become used to with Singapore Airlines. The flight thankfully was only 3 hours! We were in Queenstown by 3.30pm, and after 20 questions with the immigration officer we were finally allowed into New Zealand!!

Now we had to find somewhere to stay!

Sydney

2007-07-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

We got the over night bus from Byron to Cairns, and then after some confusion about where to catch the train, we arrived at Carol's (my dad's cousin - so my 2nd cousin i guess??) at 10:45. We had arranged to meet Ross and Alison Hathway (old friends from trull) at 11am, so we were cutting it fine, but they didn't mind waiting for us while we freshend up! Shortly after Ross and Ali took us to Bondi Beach where they treated us to a lovely lunch, and we took a stroll around the clifside round to another beach, which I cant remember what its called off the top of my head, but it was abit of a mouthful. We didn't do in the water in Bondi, as it was a little chilly!!
After Bondi we headed more into the centre of Sydney where we met up with Georgie (Ross and Ali's daughter), and had a look round at her Art College, which was formerly a prison, but it seemed quite pleasant for an old prison!
We then got dropped off at Hyde Park, and took a stroll through there, and then had a look up George Street, the main street for shopping etc in Sydney.
That evening we met Carol properly and her flatmate Heidi as well. We went out to a pub for a drink and then a Thai resturant for a lovely meal. Carol then drove us up to Ball's Head where we got a great view of the Opera House and the bridge. We headed back not long after, and managed to get a relitivley early night.

Day 2
Carol was off for a long weekend away (which she had forgotten about when we first arranged for us to stay), so she let us borrow her car. We took a drive up to Manly beach. It is a much nicer beach than Bondi (which is abit of a concreate jungle in comparison). We had some lunch and then met up with Kat Krause Davis (an old school mate) and we headed towards Palm Beach aka Summer Bay from Home and Away!! Such an amazing beach!! One side is terrific waves, and the otherside is so tranquil and peaceful!!
We headed back to Kat's hostel for a BBQ (more Kagaroo), and we watched a really crap comedian!! Really he was rubbish!! We headed for the Scubar shortly after where stayed too long and missed the last train home and then had to wait 1hr for the next bus. I think it was about 3am when we finally got to bed.

Day 3
We had a day in the city. Had a look around Circular Quay, right by the Opera House. We though about getting a tour, but we had very little time left. We carried on looking round at the city, but we both realised we needed more time to see it all (like everywhere on the trip!!), and in the evening we met up with Kat again and we went for a nice meal before Tom and I went to watch a play at the Opera House. All in all it was a great end to a great time in Australia! We both agreed that we will be back there ASAP!!! Probably in the Ozzy summer though as it was getting bloody cold!

a spot of surfing in Byron

2007-07-16T17:37:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Byron Bay around 5pm on Saturday. We had a look at the beach and the surf was unbelievable! the waves were huge. The sun sets just before 6 here, so we quickly hired some body boards, and headed out. There were only about 3 of us in the water, as it was pretty cold. It was great fun though. We both caught some good waves, which last for ages. There was a massive under current, so it was pretty hard work. We surfed until the sun had set, and then stumbled round the beach, trying to find our stuff in the dark. That evening, we had a bbq, and then headed out to one of the clubs, with a few friends we'd met in Cairns and Airlie.

The following day, we took a trip to Nimbin. We went on a tour called 'Jim's Alternative Tour'. It was a great laugh. He'd made a soundtrack to go along with the drive there, which fitted in perfectly. We had about 2 hours in Nimbin. We wandered round the market, which was pretty funny. Some of the stuff they were trying to sell! Odd shoes, and broken pots etc! we then got some food from the Rainbow Cafe. Time seemed to fly after that, and we were even late for the bus! The tour then took us to Minyon Falls, where we stopped off for a while. The wasnt actually any water at the waterfall, but it was an impressive view anyway! After yet more irractic driving, which was getting worse throughout the journey, we arrived at Paul Recher's House. He looked like a hippy version of Ozzy Osbourne! He showed us round his garden, and gave us some fruit to try. Of course I didnt try any, as I dont like fruit, but apparently it was nice! We got back around 6pm. The day had tired us out, so we went to bed at 6, with the aim of getting up later that evening.

It never happened! we didnt get up til 9 the next morning. we went for breakfast, and then went to the beach. In the evening, we actually cooked for ourselves, which is a rare treat! We then started on the goon (boxes of cheap wine), and ended up turning into a pretty large night, and its fair to say, it was a struggle to get up this morning, to check out!

Brisbane!

2007-07-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

After our action packed day at the zoo, we got on the train and arrived in Brisbane in the evening. Not wanting to waste much time, we grabbed some food, and headed to a bar, where we spent the rest of the night. The following day we just wandered round Brisbane, going into a few shops and cafes. The highlight of Brisbane was the meal in the evening though! We went to a 'traditional English pub' which wasnt anything like a pub back in England, but we both had Kangaroo steaks which were amazing! They were so rare, that they were practically still skipping around! Mark enjoyed a nice pint of Speckled Hen, but unfortunately, no cider was on sale. The follwing day, we were treated to a protest march by abariginees (don't know how to spell it though). What do we want: Justice! When do we want it: Now! and so on...

Crikey!!! What a Critter!!!

2007-07-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Crikey!! Welcome to Austraaaaaaaalia Zoo!
Yes, we went to Australia Zoo and it was the stuff that dreams are made of!! As soon as we got there we put our bags in to the locker area (we had everything with us as we were travelling onto Brisbane straight after), and then we went and checked out the Komodo Dragon! What a critter!! Then after the dragon we went and saw the 'Gators!! CRIKEY!! They were beauties! We saw the Dingo's, Tazmania Devils, Camels.
After that it was off to the shop to purchase some proper Australian Leather hats. We both look right charming in them! Then we went to see the Crocs!! CROCS RULE!!!
We went to a Koala show. The good looking girl talk to us about Koala's, it was very informative!! I learnt that Koala's are not bears, even though people call them Koala Bears!
After a spot of lunch (sadly they didnt sell Croc or Skippy burgers) we went and saw the shrine left in memory of steve irwin. there were hundreds of kakhi shirts that people had left messages on, and loads of pictures and banners. it was quite amazing how much there was of it.
we went next to the Crocoseam!! The arena designed for the Croc shows! It was good! They put on a great display. First they had the Elephants, then the snakes. They had some chap from the audience volunteer to be a snake bite victim, and they carried im off on a strecher, then they chucked him in the water! HAhah he had his phone in his pocket! Then I was 1 of 4 that volunteered to have a bird land on me!! However i was tricked! I had to hold my arms out and then squwak like an idiot, apparently to to attract the birds. Then he released the birds and they all flew off!! I was humiliated and embarresed, but i did get a picture of the legend that is Steve Irwin!! Then it was the Croc show!! They fed the croc and got it to jump out the water! It was very entertaining watching a captive animal perform for food!! Once the croc show was over we checked out the elephants and tigers, then headed for more koalas (we have some great photos!!!) and then the kangaroo enclosure!! again some cracking shots!!! we just had time to check out the snakes and then we had to leave. what a splendid day out.

Noosa Heads

2007-07-13T01:29:00.000-07:00

After a good coach journey down to Noosa, we got checked into the Hostel that had free Surfboard hire, and we pretty much got down the beach for the rest of the afternoon. The waves werent very big, but we managed to get some surfing done. It was the first place we have been to where you can actually go surfing.

After the surfing, and sun bathing, we took a look around Noosa. It seems a very rich area with loads of designer shops. There is also alot of posh property in Noosa. I think when i am a Millionaire i will by a place there. They have a few rivers leading out to the beach where the houses back onto the river and have there own private jetties. Its great.

That night we went out for a Mexican. We had been eating pasta and for the last 4 or 5 nights so we treated ourselves! It was lovely. We got back to the hostel and did some laundry.

The next morning we were up early as we were to embark on another journey. A magical journey that would take us from Noosa to a location near Beerwah. Can you guess where it is. Check back soon and find out about the 'ripper'
day we had! Crikey! It was a beauty!!

Hervey Bay

2007-07-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

We had a much better coach journey over night this time! We could get off the bus if we wanted, or we could stay on. Strange rules they have here (I supose its because they are all upside down here!!)
We arrived in Hervey with the intentions of getting straight on a tour to Frasier Island, but we were too late for that for the day, so we got checked in to the cheapest hostel in town.
We were welcomed by a woman who you can only describe as Miss Trunchbull, but she just did not have a clue. The hostel its self was very basic, we were paying $15 a night which is dirt cheap, but we got what we paid for. To be honest it was comparable to Psycho. We honestly thought that Norman Bates was gonna visit in the night, it was abit worrying. Anyway, we went into Hervey, and there was litterally nothing there, it was so boring!! Honestly...there was a few shops and that was it.
Sadly we had left it too late that day to get booked on to the day tour of Fraiser Island for the following day, which was a real bugger, and because we have so little time left we had to give it a miss. We packed up the following morning and got on the coach down to Noosa Heads.

Note to self (and everyone else), dont got to Hervey Bay, you will be bored!! Go to Rainbow Beach instead if you want to go to Fraiser Island.

The Tongara!!

2007-07-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

We has a 2 night cruise spread over 3 days on board the Tongara, the best party boat in the area. We boarded the catermeran, which was conveniently the same colour as rust! But it had an engine, sails and 2 blokes, so we were in safe hands!!! As soon as we got on, we started drinking (well we had the safety breif first). It was great. We went to a place called Hook Island and anchored there for the night. Apparently the water was infested with Hammerhead sharks, so that stopped us from going from a mid night skinny dip! We slept on the deck of the boat both night, under the stars. The sky was so clear, it was an unbelievable sight. There was the stars which are in the shape of the stars on the Australian flag...that was pretty cool, as well as all the shooting stars, which were amazing and we could see the milky way as well - no not the choccy bar!!! On the 2nd day we went snorkling in the morning. We've still not found nemo!!! But there were loads of amazing fish, and we also saw a Hump back whale, not while we were snorkeling though, that was later on when we were on our was to Whitehaven Beach! There are no real words to discribe Whitehaven beach. It one of the most Beautiful places on earth! The beach is actually on Whitsunday Island (the largest of the 'Whitsunday Islands') and the sand is litterally white. It is really weird as well, because it is so fine that it sort of squeaks under your feet as you walk on it. We also saw loads of Sting rays in the water. The closest you can get to them is aboutt 3 meters, not because you want to do a steve impression, but because they swim away very quickly! We also treked up to the viewing point on the island, which gives you the most fantasic view of the beach. The water is crystal clear there, it is the perfect postcard picture, and everyone loved it so much that we actually were late back to the boat. We decided that if all 22 of us delayed, then they couldnt do anything about it, and if they left without us, we wouldnt care because we all would have happily stayed there forever!!
Anyway, back on the boat after such an amazing afternoon, we put the sails up for the first time (it was much faster than using the engine!!), and sailed properly for about an hour. By the time we got moored up we were treated to an amazing sun set!! We partied into the night. We were drinking 'goon', which is what they call boxed wine! We were playing drinking games with it (and we have a few more games to all impose on people when we get back - were looking forward to our welcome back party by the way!!!). It was such a good laugh. Mike, one of the german guys who was on the trip was so wasted and watching him try and take part in the drinking games was just hilarious. It was such an amazing day! Then just as we were going to sleep on the deck it started getting pretty rough out on the water. The boat was rocking and rolling! We had to move the boat as we were in quite a vunrable area, but to be honest it didnt really make much difference.
We soon got to sleep, and when it was morning, the water was still pretty rough. Some people didnt cope with it too well, and Massa, a Japanese chap was abit sea sick. We all survived though and after about a 2 hour journey to our next stop (because of the rough water - it should have taken about 45mins) we all went snorkling again. This time there were loads more fish, and they would swim so close to you. There was also loads of coral as well, it is so amazing that you can get all that under the sea. If you get the opportunity to go snorkeling around some coral you have to do it!!
After snorkling we got back on the boat and it was time to return to Airlie beach. All 22 of us had an amazing time, and we made some good friends there was well. There was Ross, a canadian guy, and then Team America - Alex, Joe, Marjorie, and Malissa, they were a good bunch and hopefully we are gonna meet up with Joe in LA and maybe Malissa in Washington DC. We got email address' from most people and then we all went to the Lagoon and just chilled there for the rest of the afternoon!

Later on we got the Greyhound over night to Hervey Bay, but just before, we went to Dominos for a cheap dinner! While we were in there it was really weird, this girl went up to Tom and said "Excuse me, did you go to Taunton School?" turned out she was the year above tom at Taunton. Apparently she thought he looked familiar, but it was only went i spoke to tom in a west country accent that she said something. It was really weird. Anyway, i forget her surname now, but she was called Pippa and she lives a couple of doors down from Chloe Bush in Hatch Beauchamp, but we might be meeting up with her in Fiji!

But to sum up this essay...Whitsundays Rocks!!!

Airlie Beach

2007-07-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Airlie Beach was a very chilled out town! In terms of the lay out it was similar to Cairns, but it lacked the night life of Cairns. We ended up staying 3 nights here as we had left it a little while before we finally got round to booking a cruise around the whitsunday islands! The first night in Airlie, it was fairly dull, although we has some guy who was all..."are you looking at me?? is there a problem??" and i managed to soon turn the convo from anger to rugby! then the 2nd night we hit the town (for another rubbish night). we went with our next door neighbour from the hostel. the hostel was abit like a very down market centre parcs, but it was well priced and it had a great location, it was only the very low bunkbeds which were a pain (literally as i kept smacking my head on the bottom of the top bunk every time i sat up in bed!!)
On our last night in Airlie we went to a wet T shirt comp! It was quite entertaining, and we saw quite alot of flesh, there was this one girl however, and the chanting turn from "Off! Off! Off!" to "On! On! On!" She wasnt nice!!

Big Update Coming Soon

2007-07-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been V.busy and there have been a lack of COmputers, but have lots of stories to share!!

All aboard!!

2007-07-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, its about 3am and we have just got off the bus because it needs to refuel. I dont really understand why we need to get off for this. I was quite comfortable sleeping. Anyway, hopefully we should be back on in 30mins and back on our way to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. We arrive there at about 11am (after another hop on hop off routine).
Today we went to Palm Cove where there was a beach (meant to be the nicest one in the area). We were pretty knackered and just slept for the day on the beach, topping up the tan! We then treated ourselves to a 'light snack' at the local burger joint. Light is an understatement! Anyway, only 60 seconds left on the net, so best be off. More news from Airlie Beach tomorrow id imagine!!

Finding Nemo

2007-07-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

We were up bright and breezy this morning in Cairns. I say bright and brezzy...we hardly got any sleep last night probably due to staying in bed till 3:30 on Sunday. We were to embark on a voyage that would take us 18 miles from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef.
We left the hostel at 8:10 after enduring the hostel bathroom. Some pleasant person had left a dirty brown looking 'mess' over the toilet and bathroom walls...Nice!! At 8:30 we boarded 'The Falla'. An old boat used to fish for Pearls back in the 50's. I could bore you all with the history of it...I wont!! So now it is used to transport the likes of me and tom to the Great Barrier Reef for Snorkeling and Diving day trips. It took about 90mins to get there. The sun was shining, with crystal clear water. The views were amazing!! I could have stayed there forever (if i was a millionaire!). We swam around the coral, and saw all sorts of different fish, not that i can name any of them. The colours of some of the fish were abousolutly staggering. We also saw sea cucumbers and bright blue star fish. It was amazing! After an hours snorkel we had a break for some lunch back on the boat, which was followed by more snorkeling, this time on the otherside of the reef. It was alot more shallow here and I managed to get my waterproof video camera up and running, so hopefully i will be able to put that online soon. We probably swam for another hour or so and then headed back to the boat. It was such an amazing day, and by far the best one of this trip. It was scenes like that, that you only see in magazines!! Sadly however on the way back as i was taking my new digital camera out of its case, combined with a sudden jerk of the boat, the camera flew out of my hand and over board! Absolutely gutting! Thankfully i had saved all of the photos i had from HK onto my iPod, but we had so many pics from today!! I wasnt bothered too much about the camera, that is insured and can be replaced (hopefully), but its the photos...argh!! Thankfully i still have the waterproof camera and video footage, and one of the other people on the trip took my email address so she could email us some photos. Gutting! However it was a fairly insignificant event in what was such an amazing day. I can definatley say that i will be going back to The Falla and i will recomend it to everyone we meet on the way down the coast! Sadly we didnt see Nemo, but hopefully we might see him further down the coast. I think we are gonna save a proper Scuba dive until we get to Fiji - we have heard it is amazing there!!

We have bought our Greyhound pass now, so we are going to head south late tomoro (on the overnight bus to save a nights accom) to Airlie Beach and Whitsunday island area! Hopefully it will be just as awesome as Cairns has been.

Photos

2007-07-01T04:12:00.000-07:00

It is proving abit difficult to add photos to this blog. It would mean i have to add them all one bye one - which we dont have the time to do. So i have uploaded the best ones to our group on Facebook. Search for Mark and Tom's World Tour on facebook and then join the group. I think you have to be a member of Facebook to view it which is abit difficult for those that dont have it, but hopefully you might know someone who does have it and you can peer over there shoulder in the office (when you should be working!!).

Apart from that having a fabulous time. Off snorkling on the Great Barrier reef tomorrow so hopefully we might have a few more good pics! Cheerio

Hello from Cairns!

2007-07-01T03:35:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Brisbane yesterday, about 6:30am, and managed to catch a flight at 9:45 to Cairns. It was hot and sunny when we arrived about midday. we phoned around, and booked into a hostel, and caught the bus to it. Its a bit like a prison cell, but its got some advantages, like a free meal voucher for the bar next door which is handy! yesterday we spent thw afternoon just lying out in the sun, and in the eveing, we took advantage of happy hour! they sell the beer in jugs here, and mark got through 3. i stuck to the wine, until i realised that say sold strongbow, and so got on that! we ended up in a coyote bar until aboutn 3 in the morning. there was also a band playing, and we were jumping around and going crazy at the front. all in all a good night! Today we didnt wake until 3:30 in the afternoon, and we just rolled out of bed, and onto the beach. a couple of hours later, we had our evening meal. we're blaming it on being tired from Asia and jet lag...

Greatings from the Top of Hong Kong

2007-06-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Well its another wet, cloudy and humid day in HK, but that aint stopping us!! We went to Stanley market yesterday on the south of HK Island, and wandered round the market, then went to the 'Smugglers Inn', because they sold Cider, and tom was starting to get the shakes as he hadn't had any in over a week!! As tom said the hotel is amazing, so amazing that we so comfortable this morning, that we accidentally slept in until midday!! ooops!! Today we took the star ferry back over to HK Island, and went up this massive escalator, that takes about 15mins in total if you stand on it (which we did - lazy buggers that we are!!) Tom informs me as we type that he has just recieved his 1st mozzy bite!!! He should have taken his garlic pills!! Luckily i have none as yet, but i still should be taking the garlic. Were on the peak now. It is actually nice and cool up here on the roof! Its the lowest out door temp we have experienced int he last week or so! Were on our way back down now. Were gonna check out Mong Kok for shopping - we're both after new cameras and it seems pretty cheap here. Then we are heading for the fireworks this eve. Should be good, but not having a heavy one tonight as have to be at the airport for 9am tomoro morning!! Best be off! Next update will probably be from Oz!!! Cheerio

Hong Kong!

2007-06-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

Hi all. we arrived in Hong Kong late last night, and got to our hotel about 1am. It was still really hot at that time of night (31 degrees), and pretty humid. We couldn't belive it when we got to the hotel- it was like the ritz! marble floors, massive mirrors everywhere etc... its unbelievable! we're staying in Kowloon which is north of the harbour. today we took the star ferry across to hong kong island. may go to a market in a minute, and then up to victoria peak for a view of the skyline. we've managed to get some pictures sorted, and mark is putting them on as i'm writing this. it takes a while to put them on the blogger website, so we'll just put a few on for now, and get some more on later. we'll also put most of them up on facebook, so check out our profiles to have a look later on.

Singapore

2007-06-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

In an Apple Store in Singapore, using the free internet! Being gypsys!!!! Stayed in the the YMCA last night, sadly the village people wern't in attendence. We planned to go to the night zoo last night, but we ran out of time so we just grabbed some food and then headed to raffles for a singapore sling!! It was "lubery" (lovely)!! they are a filty bunch of people there tho!! they all seemed to chuck all the shells of there monkey nuts on the floor!! dirty basterds!!! haha!\
after raffles we planned to get the train back, but we had missed the last one, and then we realised that we had also missed the last bus, and then to add insult to injury it dedided it was time for a mini monsoon!!! it absolutely pissed it down!! there was no way we were walking through that so we got a taxi! anyway, must dash as we are gonna try and get the free singapore airlines city tour, and then get back to the airport for our flight to hong kong this eve!! i think we shall have a few more slings on the plane! oh yeh! the singapore airline stewardesses are absolutley stunning!!! if only easyjet employed them, then easyjet would be amazing!!! and they would have easy stewardesses!!!

hopefully we will up load some pics in hong kong, failing that australia!!! cheerio-la (they say la alot in singapore!!!)

Day 4 in Tokyo

2007-06-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Had abit of a lie in this morning. After last night Tom was hanging a little bit, but thats what you expect when you by very very cheap white wine from 7 Eleven! We went with Peter, Maeve, Elizabeth and Jen (people from our hostel) to try and find this 'Maid Cafe', which involved spanking and feeding - all abit crazy Japanese, but it was quite busy and the queue didnt move for 20mins, so we left there and went to a sushi bar for lunch. After that Jen left the group and then we carried on along to Harajuku, where the streets are crammed with shops and markets and people. on sundays all the girls get dressed up like the gwen steffani girls, so we might try and pop back tomoro. after harajuku the girls decided they needed retail therapy so me, tom and peter went to the Metropolitan Government Buildings and there is an observitory deck. on a good day you can see mount fuji, sadly today was not a 'good day', but got a good view of the city. we then headed back and tom and I headed over to Rappongi, which we both agreed after 5mins we hated it and we wanted to get back on the tube. Literally as soon as we stepped out of the tube station we were being ambushed by big black guys, 'come to my club, i give you free entry, cheep beer and many sexy lady!! it is best deal in all of tokyo!'.....erm no thanks mate! so we got back on the train, forgetting to go to a cash machine, so we had no money to get any food tonight, as we didnt get back from rappongi until midnight, so we had to scrape our pennies together to try and get some food!! we managed in the end, but we are going to treat ourselves to a nice meal tomorrow night as it is our last night in tokyo. anyway, its late and its time to go to bed!

Day 3 of 87

2007-06-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

Got up pretty early this morning, were thinking of going to Disney land with some people who are in our hostel, but they left before we got down. we went to the Sony Building today. was amazing, all the latest tv's, hifi's, laptops, cameras etc. Mum - Sony Bravia's are definatly the way forward, but wait a couple of months, there are some splendid screens on there way over to the UK soon. Had my first ever taste of sushi today, was splendid, although we spent a good hour or 2 trying to find a sushi bar! You'd think they would be on every street corner, but it was so hard to find! Well worth the wait tho! We wern't sure what to do for rest of the afternoon, it has been raining most of the day so that made things more difficult. we decided to head towards a complex with aquarium, and museums etc, but found the main high street that runs through tokyo with all the big department stores so just spent the rest of the noon walking around there. headed back to the hostel about 6ish and went to sleep for about an hour. the jet lag was kicking in this eve, but we got up about9:30 and have had soom food and are having a few drinks. might be off to impress the crowds in a karioke bars soon, failing that we will just continue drinking locally! anyway there is cheap japanese alcohol to be consumed (1.20 for a bottle of wine) so were gonna crack on! hope all the glastonbury lot are enjoying your mud bath!!! cheerio

We've arrived in Tokyo

2007-06-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived!! Got to Tokyo at 9:30am tokyo time, then went on an adventure trying to get from the Airport to our hostel! The language barrier was quite a challenge, but at 12:30 we finally got here, although we have been waiting since then for our room, as we're not allowed in until 3. All i want is a shower and to get out of me jeans! It is pretty hot here! One thermometer was reading 37c. We have managed to get though about 4/5 bottles of water each so far. Well i think we are just about to go and get some sleep for an hour or so as we can move to our room now. Met some chap (cant work out if he is a yank or ozzy) but he has invited us to go along with him and some other people to go out tonight....we shall see how we're feeling in a couple of hours or so. Not sure of the plan for tomorrow, but will probably head into the city centre, we're a fair way out from the center and could be near the red light district!! although its only an observation!!! cheerio for now

The morning after the night before!

2007-06-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

Just under 26 hours until we jet off. Went down the winch last night for a bit of a knees up! Was a splended time. Thanks to everyone who came along, it was great to see you and have a cider or 5!

Simon and Kate - thank you so much for the t-shirts they look amazing, and i am definatley gonna wear it on the flight (under another garment of clothing, as I want to get up graded and I don't think they will let me into first class wearing jeans and t-shirt!)

Anyway, hopefully most people would have recieved the email to direct you to this blog, so check back in a couple of days time, when hopefully we will have some news and pics from Tokyo! Time to start packing!!!!

Cheerio!

12 Days to Go

2007-06-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just bought our VIP backpacker cards and sorted out the Visa's for Australia. Still need to book/sort out the internal transport in Australia, and accomodation for Hong Kong and get an idea of where to stay in Fiji.

Time is slowly ticking!!!

2007-06-01T03:08:00.001-07:00

Countdown To