Leaving Melbourne and arriving in Christchurch - NEW ZEALAND...

Hi Everyone,

Well we got up really really early... like 5.15am! Packed up the last of our bits and bobs and headed outside the front of the hotel to get picked up!

The pick up was meant to be at 6am but they finally arrived at 6.15am! I had a natter to Mummy on the way to the airport!!! When we got to the airport we were a little worried that we had got the wrong terminal because we couldn't find our departure! It turned out that the plane was delayed until 11.55am (it should have left at 8.40am). They did however give us $8 vouchers for food while we were waiting!

It turned out that the pilot who was meant to fly our plane was sent home from work in Christchurch because he was too ill, and the backup pilot had flown the night before... aviation law states that a pilot must have a certain amount of rest so basically the plane leaving Christchurch was really late and there was obviously a knock on effect! To be honest this didn't bother me too much, I sat flightside and talked to Mummy and Daddy (and Smudge) on the phone for quite a while which was really really lovely! Then I booked all our hostels for the first couple of days in New Zealand! Which is good cause it means we have someone to sleep tomorrow night! :-) And also the trans-alpine train to Greymouth!

What did annoy me was the people who KEPT complaining about the situation, they were shouting at the Melbourne Airport staff and complaining to each other, and then in our airport shuttle they were complaining even more! I really really don't understand it, I would rather the plane was really really really late and have a pilot that is well enough to fly! I kinda figure safety comes first! Plus the cabin crew were in exactly the same situation as us, one of the girls missed picking up her new car!

Anyways, rant over... lol! We took off at around 1pm. We were sitting in the front seats, which made me nervous cause the woman that checked us in was like 'are you able to help in an emergency?'. We were like, ummmmmm yes!? lol! This however turned out to be a really really good thing for me! I have a habit of staring at cabin crew when we are taking off and during turbulence, I tend to go by the idea that if they look fine (considering they fly allll the time) then everything is fine! Obviously sitting in the front seat means that the cabin crew are directly in front of you, I think I might have freaked them out cause I was staring at them a lot! lol! It however meant even though we had a bit of turbulence the flight was really really good! The cabin crew did laugh at me when we were descending cause I shouted 'sheep' really loudly (by accident) when I saw the first New Zealand sheep! lol!

Owwww the view on the way in was absolutely beautiful as well, we flew straight over the southern alps, which looked absolutely amazing! Also a lot of the farmers were burning their fields (this is meant to happen! - although we don't know the crop, they burn the cane sugar fields in Cairns), this looked really cool from above. Owwwww also the cabin crew were named, Sapphire, Tiara, Sarah and Mark - I thought that was hilarious! lol!

We were flying with Jetstar who are a Aussie budget airline, it was really good cause it was like Sleazyjet but you can hire entertainment units for $7 and watch all the films and tv shows you want! I think Sleazyjet should do that, cause it helps pass the time!

We finally landed at 6.50pm New Zealand time, which is now 13 hours ahead of you guys and 2 hours ahead of Aussie time! We had to have our hiking shoes examined by customs, they are very very strict with customs here!

We got a shuttle bus to our accommodation! Which is absolutely awesome! Its in the old Christchurch jail so we have a cell to ourselves, they have converted it so all the cells are now dorms and rooms! Its definitely worth coming to! The toilets are plastic with barbed wire in them! Theres also a cinema room and a pool table! The place is awesome! We've taken lots of photos!

After checking in and mulling around the jail we headed back into town for dinner, which we had in a pub! Then we headed to get some supplies from a convenience store because we've got 10hrs on a coach tomorrow! Fun fun fun! lol! I think what I will mostly be doing is sleeping! lol!

The plan for the next few days is...

29 - Queenstown
1 - Queenstown
2 - Milford Sound
3- Milford Sound
4 - Milford Sound to Queenstown
5 - Queenstown to Christchurch
6 - Christchurch
7 - Whale watching
8 - Trans-Alphine train to Greymouth

Thats how far we have booked, I think we're gonna spend a day in Greymouth then head down to Fox Josef to go to the glaciers then all the way up to Nelson!

All very very exciting!

I hope everyone is really good!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Ramsey street, lunch and dinner...

Hi Everyone,
Well we've had an absolutely fantastic day!
First we got up early so that we could head for Vermont South! We went to see Ramsey street guys!!!!! It was awesome! We couldn't go into 'Pin Oak Close' which is where it is because they were setting up for filming but we stood behind the barrier looking like complete nerds! IT WAS AWESOME!!!
It looked pretty much like it does on tv... not wholly surprising really! lol!
After that we headed back to our hotel and met up with Jo, David, Doreen and Bill! We headed off to southbank for some lunch! This was fantastic! I had chicken pasta... don't ask me to pronounce the proper name! lol! It was a really really nice lunch!!! The weather was really really good even though the forecast had been set to rain! We had a lovely time and very much enjoyed the company!
After that we said goodbye to everyone and had a wander down to federation square, we had a look around and popped into the victoria art gallery that reminded me very much of tate modern! Rob brought a book from a stall also!
After that we headed back to our hotel and had a nap... i was knackeredface! Then we got ready to go and see Sarah and Peter! Sarah is my mums cousin!
She picked us up from our hotel at 6.30pm! I was on time! yey! We went to Hawthorn where they live to have dinner! We had figs wrapped in parma ham, meat with lentils and green beans followed by a lovely pudding! It was a fantastic evening! I really enjoyed it! It was really nice to get to know more family that we have and to catch up on different parts of the family!
We have had a fantastic day! It's so nice to see everyone and I really hope that we can catch up with them again when they're in the UK! Or alternatively when we are back in Australia... there seems to be a lot more places that I would like to visit here! I would like to see Byron Bay and the Whitsundays and a lot of people we have met have really recommended Western Australia as well!
It seems really weird to be heading to New Zealand tomorrow! We have booked some coaches for the first part of our travels! The first night we are there we are staying in a converted Jail which will be really cool! I will try and upload some more photos of Australia asap, but we are spending quite a few days on coaches when we get there! lol!
Tomorrow is a bright and early set off... which will be fun, HMMMMM! We're getting picked up at 6am, can you here me crying from Oz?
Anyways, we've had a fantastic day, now I'm going to go and get some sleep!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Phillip Island...

Hi Everyone,
I'm absolutely knackered! Had a great day though!
I got up late around 11am, Rob had been running around doing internet stuff! We headed into the CBD because the Phillip Island tour started from there!
However we were about an hour early... yes I did say early! So we went and sorted out our coach stuff for New Zealand and booked ourselves on a few coaches to get ourselves started!
Then we left at around 1.30pm. First we headed to a cattle farm where we fed kangaroos and bird and stuff! I felt a bit sorry for the kangaroos cause the place was well touristy but they did seem to be being looked after ok! Owww we also saw wombats and a white peacock!
Rob and I also went to the cafe, I had some tea and Rob had some chocolate cake! lol! After the cattle farm we headed to the Koala conservation centre! This was really really cool, I love koala's they are so cute! I got some really good photos! The highlight of the koala sanctuary had to be Daniel the Koala Ranger (Imogen!) lol! I approve of Australia's koala rangers! lol!
After the Koala conservation centre we headed to Cowes to have dinner, I had fish and chips which was very nice! It was absolutely beautiful, we had a paddle in the sea! We decided that the Beach was nicer than Manly but the town wasn't!
After Cowes we headed over to the Nobbies, which are a rock formation! It is also where alot of seals hang out! lol! It was absolutely beautiful, I saw a burrow with Baby Penguins in it as well!
After Nobbies we headed to the Penguin Parade, which was AWESOME!!! You sit in these grandstand things on the beach and just after the sun goes down hundreds of penguins come out of the sea and make their way up the beach towards the grandstands. They are heading for their burrows! It was sooooo cool! They travel in rafts, which are just packs of them. They are only small about 30cm tall, at the moment they are quite chubby because it is coming towards maulting season! It was absolutely amazing to see! After that as we walked back towards the coach they are all making their way up past the ramp thing we walk on to their burrows! Penguins are so incredibly cute! lol!
Also because we were out in the middle of nowhere the night sky was absolutely stunning! It was so clear and you could see loads of constalations! We both have never seen a sky that clear before!
All in all its been a fantastic day! The highlight had to be the penguins who were just so adorable! lol!
I'm off to bed now cause I'm knackered! We've got an early start tomorrow morning!
I hope everyone is fantabulous!!!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Visit to Jo's and Eureka...

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday! When we got back from Jo's we were major knackeredface so we headed for bedfordshire!
We had such a lovely day yesterday!
We set off at 9.30am so we could go and trawl Chapel street for a new swimming costume for me! Mine completely fell apart, even though I tried to repair it! Unfortunately I should have listened to my mother when she told me to get a new one before I left! Whoops! lol!
Anyways, I finally found one in a sports shop! We headed from Prahnan station to Brighton Beach, which is direct on the Sandringham line. It also goes direct from South Yarra which is very convenient!
We met Jo off the train with her mum Doreen and her children, Bailey, Alex and Emily. Who are all absolutely lovely!
The Bright 'n' Sandy festival was at Green point which is a lovely spot overlooking the beach with the famous colored beach boxes on it. It has a lovely view of the city skyline! We headed into the festival and Jo tried to find her Dad. It turned out the Bill had walked in the wrong direction down the beach, but he finally made it (after a bit of a walk)! While Jo was getting food, Bailey, Rob and I went and sat down by the beach. Bailey told us about his swimming competition (which I hope went well today!). Alex and Bailey learn Japanese in School which seems farrrrr more interesting than learning just French or German.
We spent some time at the festival, Jo, Rob and I had some wine! Which was very nice. The festival organisers had set the booths up in mock ups of the colourful beach boxes. There seemed to be a big emphasis on recycling and environmental issues which was very interesting!
After the festival Jo, Rob, Alex and I walked back to Jo's house while Bill, Doreen, Bailey and Emily drove. The walk was beautiful, although it was quite windy. Completely different from how it usually is apparently! Looks like we brought the English weather with us! lol!
We walked down the road where Eric Banna used to live... so cool! lol! Alex and Rob had a chat while Jo and I did. Nana's ears where probably burning in England! lol!
When we got to Jo's house (which is absolutely beautiful) we had a swim! Jo, Emily, Alex, Bailey, Rob and I all played catch and then piggy in the middle! Bailey and Alex taught us how to squirt water through the noodles! lol! They kept getting me! lol! Then Alex, Bailey, Rob and I had a chat about Nintendos etc! It was really fun!
After swimming we had nibbles and drinks (and a lovely chat with Nana and Grandpa!) then we started the epic ENGLAND VS AUSTRALIA football match! As you can imagine this was very serious business! Rob and I vs Bailey and Alex! It was a hard match! At half time Australia unfortunately were winning! During 'half time' we had dinner, which was lamb with spuds and veg! Followed by chocolate cake and ice cream! It wasssss soooooooooo good! It was really nice to have a proper meal!
After half time we swapped teams it was me and Bailey... the mighty Baileys against Alex and Rob! Well we got to 14 all and we decided to play golden goal! Well Bailey and I took the match! Owwwww yess! We rocked! Rob tried to claim that he gave it to us but Alex dispelled this accusation! lol!
I learnt from Alex and Bailey that it turns out that Richmond football team (one of the teams that was on our plane) is actually a proper football team who they are massive supporters of! How cool is that! Also I told Bailey that at work everyone calls me Bailey he said that it must be horrible for everyone to call me by a boys name! DC team... I think you should take that and think about it! lol!
After the victory we played a bit more on the trampoline and then we took some photos outside, Emily showed us her room! Which is absolutely beautiful! Then the boys went to bed and we had a natter with Jo, Bill and Doreen!
After that Jo kindly gave us a lift back to our hotel! We had such a fantastic day! Although I was knackered after it... haven't played with kids in a long time!
Today we headed into the CBD and went up the Eureka tower! This tower had the highest viewing deck in the southern hemisphere! We got to see the whole of the city from above! It was so cool! We also went on 'the edge' which is this box which has a clear floor and it slides 3 meters out from the building! It was really cool! Then we headed for a circle around town trying to find somewhere we wanted to eat! We finally ended up in an irish pub not far from Elizabeth Street! This was really nice!
We've now headed back to the hotel to get changed, we're gonna go and see if we can find a pub thats showing the Oscars, although I doubt we will be able to find one! I absolutely love the Oscars! lol! Would be really cool if we do!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Chill out brussel sprout...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is ok! Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday, I didn't mean to worry anyone (Nic!) we got back too late from our Uncle Brian trip to use the internet!
Anyways, yesterday was AWESOME!!! Although first we had to deal with 'GANGSTER BARRY'! Basically on thursday night we headed to the grand hotel (don't be fooled its not actually very grand at all) to have dinner. When we had finished eating we were having a drink and this guy 'gangster barry' came over and asked if he could join us. To cut a long story short he was EXCEPTIONALLY freaky and after we managed to leave he decided to follow us. We managed to lose him on the street, we darted to the nearest large bar. However he ended up coming in there too. So we told a bouncer about him and headed to the nearest gay pub... considering he had already express a great dislike for the gays we thought this would be a great place to hide! Anyways, he didn't turn up there so that was all good! Very weird man! He was probably completely harmless but we weren't going to take any risks!
Anyways, friday morning bright and early we got up, I WAS ON TIME AGAIN!!!! We were collected by Uncle Brian in Gus the wonder bus, Uncle Brian was in actual fact called Finlay! We started our musical journey there...
First we drove out to the babinda boulders where we walked into the rainforest. Fin taught us about things in the rainforest to avoid like waitawhile and a scary plant to avoid. Rob ate bush fruit, which apparently wasn't very nice but not awful! We learnt about aboriginal stories of the devils pool! The babinda boulders create really dangerous rapids that 16 single men have drowned in - lured by the spirit of ulana. Rob is ok guys... don't panic! We then went back to the flat part of river above the boulders and had a swim, Fin taught us about fools gold!
After the babinda boulders we headed to josephine falls! When we learnt about green ants and both Rob and I licked a green ants butt! It tasted a bit lemon and limey! So cool! lol! Josephine falls was absolutely beautiful! Its a series of waterfalls leading down a hill! We swam in the bottom of it and slide down the waterfall! I went head first!!! It was soooooo cool! The water in all these places was completely crystal clear and is natural rainwater that has filtered down through the rainforest!
After Josephine falls we headed to Milla Milla where we had lunch! This was chicken with cous cous and salad! Followed by peach cobbler! It was yummy and in a BEAUTIFUL location!!! We then headed to Milla Milla falls where Peter Andre shot the video for Mysterious Girl and where the timotei advert was filmed! AREN'T YOU JEALOUS NOW GUYS! LOL! We started by listening to Mysterious girl! lol! This was an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL, the aboriginals count this as a male waterfall because it just drops, the waterfalls that trickle are known as female waterfalls, the respective sacred men and womens business would take place at these waterfalls. We swam around the back of the waterfall and sat on the rocks, you could look up at the water coming over the rocks, it was beautiful, although there was alot of spray! After we did this we then swam straight through the middle of the waterfall! Rob and I both did this a couple of times cause it was soooooo awesome! After we did this we tried (but really failed) to create the timotei hairflick! lol!
After Milla Milla falls we headed to Lake Eachem! This is a volcanic crate lake thats about 60 meters deep! Its soooooo beautiful! It was completely still and huge! Before we jumped in we saw turtles swimming! They looked soooooo cute! We jumped in loads! It was so lovely and naturally really warm, and of course full of volcanicity! lol!
After Lake Eachem we headed Platapus spotting! We went to two locations to see a platapus but did not end up seeing one, but in the hostel we visited to play didgeridoos on the way home we did see a green tree frog who lived in the hostel kitchen!
The day was amazing! Fin kept using the phrase "chill out brussel sprout" the whole day!!!
I'll upload photos soon so you can see, some of the places were just AMAZING and so stunning! The bus was really fun too we played games and did puzzles and sang! Randomly Fin would occasionally play parts of Monty Python films.
All in all it was a FANTASTIC DAY!!! I would def recommend that trip!
Today we got up and left the Cairns hostel! We flew to Melbourne! The flight was much better, mainly because I realised I could take two diazapam rather than just one, MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE! I managed to speak all morning before we flew, generally I don't say a thing! Although I still felt ill I was much calmer! Rob however got a migraine on the plane and kept having to go to the loo to throw up! He had a headache last time due to the pressure, anyone got any ideas how to prevent it? Painkillers do not help!
The hostel we're staying in is really lovely! The area (South Yarra) seems really really nice, it really reminds me of park slope in Brooklyn! Alot of the restaurants are BYO with no corkage which is well good! Especially for the purse strings! Melbourne seems more villagy than Sydney, it's really nice! I'm excited to see more of it!
Tomorrow we're going to see Jo and Family and go to the Bright 'n' Sandy food and wine festival! I'm well excited!
I hope everyone is fantabulous!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Opera house

Opera house
Originally uploaded by sarahalice19

Cape Tribulation...

Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone is well! Any news from England? Except obviously the awesome Man U win!!!!
Today was soooooo nice! We got picked up from our hostel at 7.50am! I was on time again!!! Three days in a row... GO ME!!!
First we drove out to Port Douglas to pick some more people up, the bus driver Brett taught us loads of bits and bobs on the way... mainly about Cane toads which was quite entertaining! At one point he stopped mid sentence and in a really thick Aussie accent went "wooooowwwwwww some weird shit just crossed the road" (I apologise for the swearing!) it was really funny though!
Our first stop was croculus, which was a boat down the daintree river that spotted and taught us about crocs! It was soooooo fun! We saw a HUGE croc he was about 4 meters long! We also saw lots of flying foxes asleep in the trees! Flying foxes are a type of quite large bat! We've seen them flying over both Sydney and Cairns!
After the croc tour we headed for the rainforest to walk through a specific path for a while! I saw a spider that was the size of my palm... AND IT WAS ONLY A BABY!!!!!!!! Would not want to meet a grown up version of that! lol! It was really interesting... pics to come tomorrow!
After that we headed up to Cape tribulation! Where I had fish and chips for lunch... although I wasn't entirely impressed with the fact they combined mackerel and reef fish in the same batter... didn't quite work! lol! We went to the cape trib beach which was sooooo beautiful! Obviously again like Cairns you can't swim cause of the crocs and jelly fish!
Cape tribulation was named by captain cook because he managed to get a massive hole in his boat here, he really didn't have a good time... you can tell from the fact everywhere around here is named really depressing things... like mount sorrow and weary bay! lol! He must have lost a lot of shipmen saving his boat due to the crocs and jellys!
Anyways, after cape tribulation we headed to mossman gorge! This was beautiful!!! You can swim in it! Although we were advised against it because (like every river around here!) it was really flooded and had very strong currents! Theres been alot of rain fall around recently... although the past two days its been clear! Its not that bad though cause its sooooo humid you really need it! Plus this only begins after about 4pm! Anyway, Rob swam in the river, I just paddled!
After that we headed back to Port Douglas, we had ice creams there, and I brought a necklace with a little turtle on it. I've made it into a bracelet though! On the way to Port Douglas we drove past a creek called Noah's Creek... I've decided that this combines two of my favorite things... Dawson's Creek and Noah!!! How awesome is that??? lol!
Finally we headed back to Cairns, along the coastal road. I think Brett could have done with slowing down a bit! lol!
It was a really really cool day, really interesting and we got to see a lot more of Queensland!
Tonight we're going to go to a mexican restaurant, I'm well excited I love mexican food! Owwwww I watched an episode of Neighbours today! Sooooo weird they've changed the start! Although I don't know where we're up to in the UK so can't really compare!
Rob has been my hero this week! HAHA! We've had two cockroaches in our room this week and he got rid of both of them! The room is spotlessly clean unfortunately this is just due to the fact we're in Australia, kinda comes with the territory! We saw some on the street in Sydney as well! So far in our friendship Rob has managed to save me from obviously killer hornets and now with the flesh eating cockroaches! Hes done good! LOL!
Anyways, tomorrow is our trip free day! I'm actually going to upload some photos... sorry I know I said I was going to do this yesterday but we ran out of time!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Snokelling...

Hi Everyone,
I've had an AWESOME day!!!!!!
We got up well early... like 6.45am - not fun.
We headed down to the marine and found (finally) the reef daytripper boat! Where we I had a coffee and signed forms etc. When we set off we were introduced to the crew on the boat. Ingrid, Mark and the skipper Mark, really really weirdly it turned out that Mark and Mark both come from Harpenden!!! How odd it that - they knew where Ware was!!!!! And Hertfordshire... noone ever knows where Hertfordshire is! lol!
Anyways, we headed out for about 2hrs (about 19 miles) off the coast of Australia in to the Pacific Ocean (if anyone doesn't know). We were told not to touch the coral when we got out there or not to pick up certain shells, not to stand up and to avoid stingrays and sharks. Although the biggest you would get would be reef sharks and they're often seen but are reasonable harmless and small!
When we got there, I was well scared! I didn't want to see a shark or go near a stingray! It turned out that Steve Irwin had died on the reef next to the first one we went too! That didn't really help my fear! lol! Anyways, when we got there I decided I should just go for it and not hang around on the boat... EVEN THOUGH I WAS WELL SCARED!!! lol! I also decided I would go around with Mark the first time so that I knew where to go etc. So I jumped in and set off! It was soooooooo incredibly beautiful! There were the most amazingly colourful fish and the coral quivered when the tide hit it. I snorkelled for about an hour, Mark picked up a blue star fish and I held it! It was so weird it looked like a balloon stuffed with sand! lol! It slowly started to close itself while I was holding it! I missed the turtle though and I would have loved to see that! I saw lots of Nemos of course! As well as the most ridiculous array of fishes and clams and coral!
Then we headed back to the boat for lunch, this was bread and meats (so glad it wasn't fish! lol) and salad, it was well nice! So nice to have something lighter, the food here is quite heavy!
Then we headed for another part of the reef, this was shallower and by this point the water was so clear you could see right down to the bottom from the boat! I swam around on my own here, it was so beautiful! While we were moored at the reef (well not moored but attached to pre-existing moor points so as not to harm the reef - its a conservation area!) Batfish were constantly swimming around the boat! They were so huge like 30cm tall and a little longer! They were looking for food, they come really really close to you in the water! Also when you're under water the fish just swim in such perfect packs together moving like they are one fish! Its was amazing! If you swim through them they split into two perfect packs of what looks like exactly the same number of fish! After a while I headed further out with Rob but I only went about a minute out and I saw a HUGE blue spotted lagoon stingray - http://animalworld.com/encyclo/marine/sharks_rays/images/bluray07.jpg
It wasn't fully grown but it was about 2 meters down from me and was about a meter or so long, hiding in a rock inlet thing! I turned around and swam really really fast away from it towards the boat! lol! It scared the crap out of me! But it was really really cool to see. I don't know what Steve Irwin was doing but the ray was hiding from me, and I don't think unless I proded him or tried to annoy him he would have come anywhere near me!
I was asking about Jelly fish, as many of you know I'm not a fan. Apparently they don't really bother swimming anywhere they are just pulled by the tides. You can't swim on Cairns beach at this time of the year because there are LOADS AND LOADS of Jellys and Crocs. This includes Box Jelly fish which if they sting you will kill you. I was soooooo pleased that I didn't see any Jelly's out there at all, I saw them on the boat on the way back though! I was talking to Mark before we went in the water and I was like, "Ow I don't really like the sea that much cause I got stung by a jelly fish when I was younger", he was like "where" and I said "Walton on the naze", he seemed to find this really funny, I think he thought it would have been at a more exotic location! lol!
On the way back we relaxed on the boat, had a glass of wine. I had a long chat with Mark about the goings on in England and Hertfordshire!
Its been such a FANTASTIC day, I'm going to head back to the hostel and try and add photos!
Hope everyone is ok! If you ever get a chance to snorkel on the barrier reef... DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is Cape Tribulation!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Kuranda...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is well and good!
We had a fantastic day today!!! We took the Skyrail up to Kuranda, which was really really scary at first!!! But i got used to it! The skyrail takes you above the rainforest so you look down at the canopy.
Kuranda is 7km into the rainforest and you stop at 2 points before you get there. The first point we stopped at we just walked through the rainforest.
The next point you stop at looks over a massive gorge which has a HUGE waterfall at it. The waterfall is even larger at the moment because this is the wet season so its completely flooded.
When we arrived in Kuranda we had lunch, well I had lunch (a chicken salad wrap) Rob had scones with jam and cream... apparently he just fancied it! lol!
After lunch we headed into Kuranda to the other side of town to the... wait for it... BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY!!! It was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!! Its the largest butterfly sanctuary in Australia, and its basically like a big green house with loads of free flying butterflies in it! They stop on you and sit! Its so awesome. Although the fluttering around me freaked me out at first! lol! We didn't manage to get a photo of me with a butterfly on me but I did manage to get one of Rob! They really tickle! lol!
After this we went to the Koala sanctuary! I love Koala's they're sooooo cute, although surprisingly vicious! I fed a wallaby!!! He was soooo cute, I named him Wally the wallaby. We stroked him and he just eat out of our hands and stuff! We also saw crocodiles, which were scary and also a lizard who was trying to jump out of his enclosure! lol! Finally I ran through the reptile cage but Rob stayed in there for a while! lol!
After this we went to the BIRD SANCTUARY! Which is the same as the butterfly sanctuary (only obvo its birds!), the birds are just flying around! We had a bag of food and they kept landing on us!!!!! It was sooooo cool, I fed 2 parrots and just had birds on my shoulders and back! :-)
Finally after that we wandered back through town and got the scenic railway home... this was amazingly scary!!! The railway goes all the way back down to Cairns! Along the mountains with the sheer drops next to them! It was mega scary but really beautiful!
Tonight we've just been for dinner at the Woolie, now we're gonna head back, play some cards with some beer. We've gotta be up at 6.30 tomorrow morning for scuba diving/snokelling!
Its been an amazing day! Hopefully I'll have time to add some photos!
Ow by the way, Rob keeps trying to do a Aussie accent... which is really really bad!!! When I told him to stop his excuse was "you hate it when tourists don't try and learn the local language"! Arg! lol!
Lots of Love to everyone, I saw the Homerton Leavers Dinner photos everyone... it made me soooooo sad to have missed it! Hope everyone is ok!
Sarah xxx

Cairns and Trips...

Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone is really good!!!
Today has been a chillax day! We headed into town to have lunch! This was
in a cafe called Lillipads opposite Gilligan's! That was really nice, I
had eggs benedict with ham and spinach which was well yummy!!! Rob had a
breakfast burritos! They're very into there mexican food here!
After this we tired to find some sunglasses (again), Rob accidentally
stood on my other ones in Sydney! Whoopsy! Finally found some, it was a
good way to see the town actually! Cairns as a town reminds me (this is
going to sound so bad! lol!) of resorts in Spain that old people emigrate
to to play golf! Its a bit weird. I preferred Sydney. There also a notable
difference in Cairns between the people, i.e aboriginal and not. I think
we saw a very affluent version of Australia in Sydney!
This said the weather is really warm and the atmosphere is great so its by
no means a bad place. The main focus of Cairns is actually the trips and I
don't think we'll be spending much time in Cairns itself while we're here!
We booked loads of trips today, tomorrow is Kuranda, so thats a skyrail
trip up to Kuranda, then we're going to go to the butterfly sanctuary at
the top. Followed by a train ride back! Its going to be awesome!
Tuesday is snokelling the great barrier reef day! Although Rob might scuba
dive, but we have to check his ears are going to be ok!
Wednesday is Cape Tribulation! Which will be awesome, boat ride over etc.
Thursday is free at the mo but we might go sea kayaking!
Friday is Gus and his magic bus! lol! We're going to the rainforest to
learn stuff and slide down waterfalls, float in volcanic craters etc.
Followed by platopus (arg spelling!) spotting!!!
I'm very very excited!
Anyways, I'm going to go and buy some washing powder then go for dinner in
town!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Sydney Harbour and Cairns...

Hi Everyone,I hope everyones ok!!!We've arrived in Cairns! Yey!Yesterday evening when we headed to the sky bar but they didn't havespace... we keep losing track of what night it is! lol!Instead we headed for Sydney harbour and had dinner there. The food couldhave been better (but not really bad by any means!) but the location wasspectacular so that def made up for it!!! We then had an ice cream afterand got the bus back to the hostel. I then had a long chat with Mummy(which was LOVELY!!!).Today we got up early, packed and checked out of Wake Up! and headed forthe airport. I was not in a good way with the flying (lets just put itlike that!), I don't think Rob got more than two words out of me or asmile until we landed in Cairns!The flight however was not bad at all! I do like the boeing 737 800edsthey seem nicer than the airbuses. They gave us lunch (which I didn't eatcause I felt too sick) and drinks etc. I saw both pilots as they both cameout for seperate breaks (which is very comforting!). I also watchedElizabeth the golden age! We got ready for landing early because they wereworried about turbulance, however it turned out that it really wasn't thatbad at all! That was the best landing so far! lol! As we were decendinginto Cairns it was BEAUTIFUL! You could see Rainforest on one side and thesea on the other.The hostel picked us up from the airport. The hostel seems really reallycute! We have an ensuite room! Which is awesome! We've actually unpackedthis time, which is really nice, it makes you immediately feel moresettled! We have chosen some tours already... we're going to go scubadiving, into the rainforest (and above it in a sky rail) and lots of otherstuff that includes swimming in a volcanic crater and sliding downwaterfalls!!! I'm soooooo excited!Anyways, we're going to head into town now for dinner! Ow I forgot, itsraining here but was soooo humid when we arrived it was a bit of a relief!Hope everyones ok!Lots of Love,Sarah xxx

Bondi...

Hi Everyone,
We started the day by queing for ages to talk to the travel guys at the
hostel. The weather forecast for Cairns in not good for the next few days
with lots of storms and rain. Mackay which is in Queensland but below
Cairns has also had torrential rain and is completely flooded.
However, we're still going to go ahead and go. It seems that the weather
forecast will suggest rain but this will only really be in small bursts,
hopefully it will be ok. I suppose if we're in the ocean it doesn't really
matter if its raining that much! lol!
We headed to Bondi Beach by bus after this and had lunch in a place called
Sahnia. This was good, and was on the road looking over the beach, so was
really pretty.
We were planning to walk along the cost line, but Rob's foot hurts (we
don't know why - he must have hit it yesterday in the sea!), also my leg
well hurts from the sunburn yesterday, I think I caught it at a bad angle.
Weirdly is ok when I walk it just hurts if I stand still.
Instead, we just sat on the beach, Rob went swimming, although the waves
and current were very strong today, I fell asleep and read a bit,
obviously not at the same time. It was very relaxing.
We've headed back to the city now and are about to get ready for dinner.
We've decided to have a drink up the sky tower (second highest structure
in Australia) tonight and then go for dinner somewhere else.
I've really enjoyed Sydney and am sad to leave it, its been really
relaxing! Although I think Cairns is going to be awesome, so more to look
forward to!
I hope everyones well and had a great valentine's day!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Manly...

Hi Everyone,
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope you're having a great day!
We've spent the day at Manly! We got the ferry over, which was really
really pretty and headed to the beach. Manly is a really cute smallish
town like place 30mins ferry ride from Sydney.
The beach was absolutely beautiful! I stuck my tootsies in the pacific
ocean! Rob went properly swimming, while I sat and read trashy magazines!
Such a funnnnnn and relaxing day!
I have learnt over the years in hot countries that my legs just don't tan
or get sunburnt... this theory does not hold up in Australia! I am now in
quite a lots of pain from sunburn. It looks reallllyyy attractive 2
considering I have a complete line across my legs dividing bright red and
pale white! Arg! So annoying!
We saw a lot of surfers surfing! Weirdly! Including a whole school group!
I would have loved to have surfing as a PE lesson at school, that would
have been awesome!
After the beach we had a lovely bottle of cold chardonnay on a balcony
overlooking the beach. Which was really refreshing!
Next door we went to a gourmet burger place (a bit like hamburger union or
gbk), the burgers were well good. The chips were seasoned with both salt
and pepper, which work surprisingly well!
Next we headed back on the jetstar (which runs at night and is faster than
the ferry) to Sydney, past the opera house which was completely lit up in
the dark. Rob did not think that it was lit up enough and that they could
of made the more of it!
Anyways, tomorrow is Bondi beach (although I think I may resort to wearing
trousers all day (lite ones not jeans) because I don't think my legs
should be in the sun! I may look like a complete prude on the beach but my
legs hurt so I don't care!
Lots of Valentine's love to all, from your burnt and silly friend!
Sarah xxx

The apology...

Hi Everyone,Well well its been an AWESOME day (thats not yet finished!). We met forbreakfast (Rob took a wander before I was up!) in Hay street to find theplace we wanted to eat at had closed! boooooo!Soooo we headed to a place opposite the courthouse on elizabeth. It wasreally really nice, although the aussie's don't understand my accent! Itsa change from Americans thinking I'm australian I guess!Anyways after breakie we decided to go and walk over the harbour bridge.However on the way down we saw a square where we they had set up a jumboscreen, this was surrounded by people. Unknown to me (although Rob hadread about it) we watched the new prime minister of Australia Kevin Ruddapologise to the stolen generations LIVE! It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING towatch it live, all the australians started to clap after his speech whenhe said the 'I'm sorry' part.It was really really amazing to watch. So refreshing to see such a clearcut apology from a politian! He literally said 'I apologise with noqualification'! i can't really describe how nice it felt to watch, itseemed so incredible sincere and said with such value! If anyone doesn'tknow what I'm talking about check out the bbc:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7241965.stm - Watch hisparliament statement, its really really refreshing to see a politian talklike this! lol!Again like yesterday I think I could talk about that for AGES! Which Ihave to Rob alllll day! lol!Anyways, after this we took a walk across the harbour bridge and a ferryback which was allll completely beautiful! I finally managed to find somesunglasses! Yey! We then had another drink in the Rocks, in a differentpub from yesterday!I have to say that I think Sydney's appeal is from how relaxing it is! Isaid to Rob that the food isn't exactly fantastic (not horrible by anymeans but just peaks at good pub food), he reminded me that this may bebecause we can afford really really good food in China. Which is totallytrue! I am really enjoying the change though!Tonight we're going clubbing so I'm going to go and get changed!I'm loving the e-mails... I willl def reply to them! I promise!Lots of love to everyone,Sarah xxxps fyi for anyone thats interested - the men in sydney are ALL WELL HOT! lol!

I'm in Sydney!

Hi Everyone,

Well we've finally made it to Sydney! Yesterday we spent most of the day
at Hou Hai lake in a Starbucks... yes I know not very Chinese but we were
quite debilitated by our luggage.

After I managed to get myself sufficiently worked up we set off for
Sydney. The journey was NOT FUN!!! 12 hours on an airbus (which I've never
flown on before -  and don't like!) with a child behind us throwing up. I
feel very sorry for the child but I seem to have inherited my mothers
problems when it comes to sick, I can't handle it and it makes me want to
throw up 2! The flight (I thought) was really rocky and had alot of
turbulence! Rob seems to think the London to Beijing was worse for
turbulence but I've decided that hes just wrong! lol!

Anyways, we finally arrived in Sydney two hours late, however it was
fantastic when we got here. We left China with a temperature of -10
degrees and entered Australia which was +27 degrees!

We made our way to our hostel after I had to prove that my diazapam (for
my fear of flying) was in fact from a pharmacy and not brought off the
street. We used the train which is basically like the tube but double
decker... its awesome! lol!

Our hostel, which is very nice although filled with very tanned people (me
and Rob look v.pale in comparison) is just across the street from Central
station. Its really nice. It started raining just as we got into our
hostel so when we decided to head out we did get a little wet, although it
was really hot so we didn't care... plus its the first rain we've seen
since we left the UK! Rob was less happy about this as he managed to step
in a giant puddle!

We headed for Sydney Harbour!!!!!!! It looks amazing, I got soooo excited!
I didn't realise that the Opera House is actually two separate buildings
and that its covered in tiles!!!! Anyways, we headed to a pub in the
Rocks, which is a really nice area. I eat carbs which was sooooo weird and
filled me up REALLY quickly! It is quite amusing that we're staying right
next to Chinatown in Sydney, the first restaurant we saw sold dumplings!
We think we're gonna pass on those though! lol!

Anyways, after wine and dinner... first wine since I left the UK, unless
you count rice wine, which by the way is very strong and not very nice at
all! Rob took such a dislike to it that he decided to physically remove it
from our hotel room! Lol!

We then walked around the harbour again, which looked ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL
as the sun was setting at that point. There were loads of bats overhead as
well.

My first impressions of Sydney are that I like it more than I thought I
would, although my feelings might be enhanced by the temperature and the
ease of 'use' compared to China! lol! Its so lovely to be walking around
in a summer dress and flip flops! lol!

Anyways, we're back at the hotel now, as we didn't get much sleep last
night on the plane! Arg!

Rob and I had a long discussion about China today. It was an INCREDIBLY
interesting place, which I really really enjoyed. Although I have to say
that I found Beijing at times to be claustrophobic and with the tenancy of
making me feel a bit nervous. There are guards and police EVERYWHERE, and
although they never interfered with us or searched us or anything like
that, it was still quite intimidating. Its such an odd place, I found it
very difficult at times dealing with the complete social inequality that
was so prevailant there. The people are soooo lovely and hospitable yet
they have to live ruled by such as oppressive government. Its a shame we
didn't have time to get to know some people better in order to understand
there perspective on their government. Its the first time I think I've
actually appreciated Tony Blair in the last 4 or 5 years. Lol (although
not that much! lol).

I would not however take this as a reason not to visit Beijing, it is very
much worth a visit and is an exceptionally interesting and at times
exceptionally beautiful place. I think My dad and I got to see China from
two different perspectives!

Anyways, I could discuss China a lot because its so interesting but I will
shut up, mainly because I haven't slept in about 24 hours! lol!

Tomorrow we are going out for breakfast in Haymarket then looking around
Sydney more. Thursday is our beach day! Yey!

Hope everyone is ok! I would appreciate it very much if my grandmothers
could stop falling over! lol! Although I can't talk cause I walked into a
bench today trying to take a photo! Whoops! lol!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

The Summer Palace and the Olympic Stadium...

Hi Everyone,

I forgot to say in last nights e-mail that on the way to the acrobatics show we drove past Jingshan Park and Tian'anmen square all lit up in the dark. Jingshan looked absolutely beautiful. These central areas look very different lit up at night. You are not allowed to enter Tian'anmen square after a certain time of night, I presume to prevent political protest.

Last nights Thai was really really good! I had Chicken curry and chicken satay ! It was yummy! In a restaurant not far from the duck restaurant called 'Serve the people'.

Today I slept while Rob went to see Mao. He said he looked fake... not too surprising really.

We then headed down to the Summer Palace. Jimmy had said this was a must. When we got there we had dumplings, which we good! lol! When we headed in the first thing Rob saw was Goldie... really really randomly! We then saw him later when we were heading up to the Buddhist temple!

We headed for the lake first which looked absolutely beautiful as it was completely frozen. Everyone was walking over it so we spent about 15 minutes walking on the ice. I got really scared at one point, not very keen on the idea of falling into freezing water. But turned out that it looked like the whole of the water to the bottom was completely frozen. Rob said I shouldn't be scared because all the Chinese people were doing it. I have learnt that this is not necessarily the best guidepost to use, many of the Chinese we have encountered completely ignore warning signs and rules! My favourite incident of this was when a man decided to get up as we were literally just about to take off from heathrow! lol!

The summer palace was really really beautiful, although I still do not think that it beats Jingshan park, possibly because Jingshan was much less busy and quieter.

We spent about 4 hours at the Summer Palace and then got a taxi to the Olympic Stadium. We got the second taxi that we found as the first driver tried to make us pay $80 for the ride that did cost and should cost on the meter about $25.

The Olympic stadium looked really cool, although unsurprisingly for Beijing on the side of a big expressway. I can't decide whether it looked out of place or not. It seems to be nearing completion so should not be a problem for the start date of the Olympics. I thought it would have a thinner parts making up the birds nest effect from the models I've seen but that in practice would actually be a bit stupid! lol!

After the Olympic stadium we headed back to our hotel, which we have really loved! We headed to a chinese fushion restaurant nearby that we wanted to try the other night but it was closing early. This was really nice. Rob had pork meatballs and mongolian lamb. I had a chicken and chilli curry like thing with rice. We shared some fried potatoes with coriander. All was reall y really nice. I did not have the stomach to try the bullfrog on the menu. My chicken curry however had all parts of the chicken in it, including lots of bone. It did also have a whole chickens claw which I had to ask Rob to remove. Lol! I think I'm just a little to scared to have a claw in my food! lol! Rob however decided to nibble it. There was not however much meat on it , just skin.

After that we headed to a coffee shop place on the same street and had a drink.

Tomorrow evening we are flying to Sydney, we should arrive at lunch time Tuesday our time. Which will at that point be about 10 hours ahead of you, for those of you in the UK.

We have decided that we have really enjoyed Beijing but there are a few things we will not miss, these being...

- The spitting
- The toilets!!!
- The staring
- The chapped lips... although thanks to DC we were both covered by the intensive moisturiser! Thanks guys... was very very needed!

Anyways, I'm off to bed.

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Temple of heaven and the markets...

Hi Everyone!

It's really really cold today, more than usual! Although very sunny and completely clear blue skies!

We went out last night to a bar. First we spent about 1/2 an hour trying to find a bar that Jimmy had left a message for us in. Unfortunately the description left of the bar, this being its next to Hou Hai on a hutong street with a sign outside and writing all over the walls meant this was quite difficult, especially considering hou hai has the most amount of bars in the whole city! lol! On the way down people were still setting bangers and fireworks off everywhere. And I mean everywhere, some people set a whole box of fireworks off in the middle of the street! Loads of cars had to swerve and stop to avoid having a firework go off under them!

We finally found a really cool bar down a street we like. Its quite relaxed with couches, tables and wooden furniture everywhere. They give you a bin full of fire... that sounds weird. Basically its individual metal waste paper bins filled with coal. That was really nice and WARM!!!

Today we headed down to the temple of heaven. I really enjoyed the structures but was less impressed by the inside of these buildings. It seems that one of the most important things for the construction of these monuments are the layout of the buildings with there paths and bridges. I did enjoy it. Although, many of the historical buildings in Beijing seem to lack something, the issue seems to come from the preservation of the buildings. They are obviously regularly newly painted which does restore them very well but they lose any sense of how old they are. It is very difficult to put the buildings in context. If that makes sense. They are no doubt very beautiful still though and extremely contrasting to the modern day Beijing buildings that surround them.

After the temple of heaven we headed to the silk and pearl market. Don't be confused by the name, although they do sell silk and pearls they sell everything else you could possibly want or need. This was a very 'interesting' experience! The aim is to get the seller down to about a 3rd of the price they first offer. Rob managed to get a jumper down from 1500 to 180 RMB. So from about 115 pounds to 13 pounds! He then decided not to buy it though! lol!

I brought a pair of walking shoes and more socks! I have to say that walking shoes are not attractive footwear in the slightest but they are very comfy and I'm def gonna need them tomorrow. It was really scary trying to get the prices down. Once the seller grabs you, and I mean LITERALLY grabs you its very difficult to get away. At one point Rob was thinking of buying a scarf and the seller grabbed him and when he said he did not want it and tried to walk away she would not let go of him at all! He was walking away with this women trailing and attached to him trying to pull him back into the booth. When he did finally get away the women continued to shout numbers at us as we walked away.

Interesting to say the least. But it was really really fun!

We have come back to the hotel now because tonight at 6 we are going to an acrobatics show!!!! I'm soooooooooooooo excited about this!!!! I think its going to be awesome! Tomorrow is the great wall hike! Being ready and outside the hotel at 7.10am is going to be interesting. I am excited for the journey though it will be cool to see a bit of China outside Beijing! Although the hike still scares me! I think its about 40 watchtowers along the way.... that up a big hill and down a big hill each time! lol!

We have got a lot of taxis today and Beijing taxis are very 'interesting'. Driving like using fireworks in Beijing can be a little erratic! Although its not too scary after experiencing the taxi drivers in Rome! The chinese use their horns alot as well, but not in a 'you've cut me up' kind of way but more of a hyacinth (?) bucket kind of 'theres a person on the pavement 200 meters away who might cross so i need to tell them that i'm coming' kind of way!

Anyways, I'm off! I'll e-mail tomorrow evening, if I have the strength to type after the great wall!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

The boss, fireworks and cuddly toys....

Hi Everyone!
We have had the most awesome 24 hrs!!!
Chinese new year is officially absolutely AMAZING!!!
After the e-mail last night we headed to the lobby of the hotel. We weretold that we could watch someone make dumplings. Instead we were treatedto what is apparently a chinese institution the "Spring Festival GalaPerformance produced by CCTV", which is basically something along thelines of the royal variety show. There were semi english subtitles thattold us the meaning of the sketches. The one I remember most was thesketch about traffic wardens who should not be treated badly and shouldnot be bribed by people saying they have connections! It was hilarious,although the chinese sense of humour seems quite slap stick.
We were given nuts and seeds, chinese sweets and offered lots of beer andtea. All the hotel staff were there and a couple of spanish girls (otherguests), we spent alot of time chatting to everyone.
About an hour into this the hotel staff laid out everything to makedumplings and everyone there helped us to make dumplings!!! It wasawesome, and a lot harder than it looks! We spent about an hour with thestaff attempting to make a decent dumpling. Rob was alot better at it thanme!
The owner of the hotel was there, all the staff especially the 3 girlreceptionists who are a year older than us call him 'the boss'. We wereapproached by the girls who said 'The boss would like to offer you adrink'. This felt like a proper sopranos moment! lol! He gave us scottishwhiskey mixed with soda... which was very strong! He also showed us thewhiskey alot!
We drank our whiskey that 'the boss' had given us while the dumplings werecooking. Then all of us sat around the big table in the lobby and eat thedumplings that we had made. This is very traditionally in china, at newyear you apparently make dumplings then sit around a big table withfriends and family and eat them together. They were accompanied by 22 dayaged garlic and soy sauce dip and chilli dip.
At midnight we went outside and set fireworks off. I cannot even explainhow many fireworks went off, the WHOLE of Beijing had fireworks going off!Again we had a message to say 'The boss' would like you to light afirework, I declined but Rob did. He still has all his limbs so that wentwell. I'm very clumpsy so I decided it might be best for me to stand back.We were given sparklers, which had smoke coming off them that was reallyreally choking! lol! Then we stood for about an hour with the mostridulous amount of fireworks going off around us. Along with this they setoff bangers which are REALLY REALLY LOUD!!!
I have to say that firework/fire safety does not seem to be something thechinese do!!! At one point one of the hutong roofs set alight! And whenfireworks had been lit and they did not go off they were approached andproded and made sure that they went off! The practice is to buy smallcatherine wheel like things that you throw at peoples feet! I got laughedat when I screamed and ran away from one coming towards me! lol! Peoplehold on to the bottom of fireworks and set them off, holding on to them asthey go off! It really was amazing no one got hurt!
After this we were offered lots and lots of beer and we went to the tikibar for chinese karaoke! lol!
It was an absolutely AMAZING night! They were so incredible hospitable!The girls on reception are students who are studying, they cannot get hometo there family for new year so everyone just spent it together at thehotel. It was really lovely to be a part of!
I don't think I can really describe how good last night was or how amazingit was to see the amount of fireworks that went off over Beijing. I'mreally glad we stayed in the hotel rather than going down to Tian'anmenwhich was our original plan! Ow and the dumplings we made were definatelythe best so far! I think if I eat anymore dumplings I'm going to turn intoone!
Today we headed down to a new year fair. This was in a park a subway stopalong from us. Rob and I felt like we had found proper chinese culture...I have NEVER EVER seen so many cuddly toys in my whole entire life! lol!It was basically lots and lots of stalls with fairground games that gaveaway cuddly toys as prices! There were soooo many people there. It washeld in Ditan Park which was really pretty. It was a bit like strawberryfair with no fights and thousands of cuddly toys! lol! If you can imaginethat!
Tomorrow we're going to see the temple of heaven and see an acrobaticsshow in the evening. Also I'm going to buy some hiking shoes because onsaturday we are going to hike from Jingshanling to Simatai 10km along thegreat wall! I'm really nervous about this but I think its going to beawesome, cold and awesome! lol!
Anyways, we're going to some bars tonight so I'm off!
Hope everyones well! Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
ps. There are still fireworks going off tonight!!!

New Year and Duck...

Hi Everyone,

Last night after the marathon e-mail sess we went to a restaurant that
Daddy recommended which did amazing duck. We got a taxi there through some
new parts of Beijing that we had not yet seen. Beijing seems so vast and
has some many different parts to it. This area had a street that looked
like the vegas strip (I presume from CSI) followed by a very large
business area filled with sky scrapers. This area was a far cry from what
we're use to in the hoi hai, hutong areas that we've spent much of our
time in.

This restaurant was AMAZING!!! Rob spent about 10 years reading the menu!
I finally decided to have the duck (obviously) and lamb with spring onion,
which was amazing and fried pork dumplings. Rob had (in addition to the
duck) goose wings.

The whole duck was trolleyed out on a cart and cut up in front of us, we
were given the skin, head, breast and leg. This was accompanied by spinach
pancakes and assorted dressings including cucumber, carrot and onions. The
skin, I personally think although Rob disagreed tasted like popcorn! You
dipped it in sugar and jam like stuff. It was needless to say absolutely
delicious! Although I did not try the head and Rob was not sure about the
brain, it tasted a bit funny apparently. Amazingly the whole meal
including beer cost us 13 pounds each, not bad for a whole duck etc.

This morning we headed down into town to go and see chairman mao's
mausoleum. This was our first trip on the Beijing subway, literally my
first trip as I managed to fall up the stairs. I shouldn't really read a
book at the same time as walking! We were a bit late to see Mao so we
decided to grab lunch first. We headed to a shopping street with lots of
neon lights on it, this was probably the first proper shopping street
we've been too, we had dumplings (as its new year) in a place just off
this. This place was EXTREMELY accommodating, as is everywhere here. You
could watch the dumplings being made. The dumplings were lovely, and were
a mixture of meat vegetable (that tasted like tea) and seafood.

After this we headed to a food market style street. This had lots of
stalls selling seahorses on sticks and baby scorpions on sticks, the man
showed us that the scorpions were alive while he was sticking them, they
were then roasted. We did not try these, although I think Rob is regretful
of this.

After this we headed to a bookshop where I brought I chinese to english
phasebook, I plan to be able to say more than hello and thank you before
we leave which is pretty much the stage we're at now.

We then tried to see Mao but it was closed as its new years eve.

Tonight we are going to watch the receptionists make dumplings in the
lobby of the hotel. At new year dumplings are traditionally made. Then try
to go down to tian'anmen square for new year.

We've been 'treated' to small children and adults letting off fire
crackers outside our hotel for the past few days, setting off car alarms
in the process, I put this down as really annoying. However it turns out
that this is done to ward off evil spirits around new year, so is now less
annoying. This is going on all over Beijing today.

Tomorrow we plan to go to some new year markets.

Happy new year everyone!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

China continued...

Hi Everyone,

I've come prepared this time, I'm wearing gloves!

Right yesterday we got up at 9ish and headed down to try the hotels
'continental breakfast' which was an interesting interpretation of
continental, brioche bread (all bread in beijing sees to be brioche) for
toast and croissants which are definitely not like french croissants, with
coffee and tea. It was nice though! We were treated to the european tmf
channel which seems to like playing eurovision 'hits' most of the time!

After that we headed down to tian'anmen square via hoi hai again. It took
us about an 1hr to walk down there but we did get to walk past jingshan
park and the forbidden city. Tian'anmen square was cool but pretty much
just a very large space, whats interesting is what its surrounded by, the
forbidden city, mao's mausoleum, the great hall of the people and the
museum of chinese history and the revolution. We just took a walk around
because of the odd opening hours (quite italian - they break for lunch),
we are going to go back to see the mausoleum etc tomorrow.

From there we took a wander down to part of the shopping district to find
some lunch, this took ages (although I did get a travel hair dryer for 2
pounds) we even considered (in our desperation) having a kfc, however I
was  put off by this because of the guilt of being in china and eating
that: I think m and d are to blame for that!!! lol! We finally found a
small shopping street with a restaurant on it, this was lovely! We had
pork dumplings (which were better than the first ones we had) followed by
chicken and cashew nuts and scallops and cucumber. I enjoyed this but not
as much as the egg plant and brocolli! We finished with unfiltered tea
which was lovely. We have been drinking a lot of Tsingtao beer which is
brewed in Beijing! Its really good!

We then got a taxi back to hoi hai for a drink. The taxi was weird we went
to get one and we got turned away and then we ended up bartering for one
with a taxi driver who after we had agreed the price flagged down another
taxi and got that taxi driver to take us! Still not sure what happened
there!!! After Hoi Hai we had a quick snack dinner in a bar called Pass By
Bar, that was really nice and on a street that was filled with loads of
bars, its around the corner from our hotel so we are going to go back!

Today was a big day, we had breakfast while listening to avril lavigue,
who is very big out here! We asked the receptionist to write down
instructions for a taxi driver to take us to the forbidden city, in the
end we did not need them because the taxi driver spoke a bit of english!
He (rather embarrassingly for Rob considering his degree) taught us how
tall big ben was and how old the tower of london was. He was also very
into sherlock holmes and kept saying 221 baker street! He also told us a
bit about Beijing history. He kept pointing to his cassette player, I read
that alot of the taxi drivers were given tapes to learn english and about
england in the run up to the olympics, I think he might have got some of
his facts from that! He was really nice though and the journey cost us a
quid!

We saw the forbidden city which was vast and very impressive, although I
don't think its as good as the alhambra, although some parts of it were
really really beautiful. From there we headed to Jingshan park which I
LOVED!!! We walked up to the top of it through pavillions with that the
most amazing names such as 'wonder appreciation pavilion', 'eye feasting
pavilion' and 'all round view pavilion'. The top had the most amazing
views of the whole of Beijing!!! It was the best 16p we have ever spent!

From there we went to Beihai park, this went up just lower than Jingshan
but had great views of the lakes and the descent was though really
interesting caveish structures, they are really hard to describe.

I've decided that Beijing is not a really attractive city although it has
its moments, the architecture is amazing though. Also the chinese really
really love there small dogs!!! I have not seen one large dog yet!

I'm going to go to dinner now. I've added some photos, but just a random
selection, so not necessarily the best ones! It would have taken ages to
add all the 422 that i've taken so far! lol!

They are linked to the blog at www.rswt2008.blogspot.com

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

I'm in China!

Hi Everyone,

Managed to get off ok, aside from being upset at heathrow a mix of saying
goodbye and fear of flying. This meant I ended up getting stared at alot
in the departure lounge!

As always the flight was much better than I thought it would be, although
the food was awful! The cabin crew were really nice though! I saw the
pilots when we got off the plane, they looked very studious and sensible,
they looked like they could fly planes, which is always good! Landing was
really smooth. We had a bit of turbulance in the air and as we were
decending I was expecting it to be a bit rocky but it was really good. I
watched Ratatoille, Nanny McPhee, Ugly Betty and Friends on the plane.
I had to ask a member of the cabin crew to translate the address of the
hotel so we could give this to a taxi driver. She didn't know where it was
and asked passengers to help her. Finally she brought a map over but still
was not sure, two chinese men became very interested in what we were
talking about and ended up helping and showing us the vicinity of the
hotel.
Rob was really pleased with BA, especially that they gave us socks 'that
means loads of new pairs of socks on this trip'.
When we went to collect our baggage a really really cute sniffer dog
licked my hand! We got a taxi straight from the airport, bit of a grumpy
taxi driver but I think it was because we both didn't understand a word
each other was saying!
First impressions of Beijing were that the motorway looked alot like
england. Don't know why but considering we were on the other side of the
world I think I expected everything to be completely different!
When we got to the vicinity of the hotel I decided based on Google earth
that we should walk in a particular direction, with really heavy bags.
Turned out this was completely the wrong direction. A really nice english
man must have realised that we looked completely lost and pointed us in
the right direction. However we then misunderstood these directions and
walked in the wrong direction again, finally a chinese man (again
realising we were lost) asked if he could help. He spoke english but did
not read it. He did get us to the hotel though! Yey for him!
After a sleep that Rob had problems getting me up from we went for dinner.
We decided we would go down to hou hai lake, but again my fault we walked
in completely the wrong direction. Realised at this point that my sense of
direction is completely fine the only problem was that I had managed to
rotate Beijing 180 degrees in my head! So am very glad that I have not
suddenly become someone who can't do directions, have just rotated a city
when I should not have!
Hou Hai lake looked amazing, it was completely covered in ice, which we
are hopefully going to go back and walk or skate on. People were skating
and walking and also they were sitting on chairs and pulling themselves
along with ski sticks, not sure what this is called!
We then walked (at first in the wrong direction) to the Goubuli restaurant
where we shared Braised egg plant, broccoli and garlic and pork and
mushroon dumplings. We overfaced ourselves and ordered too much! The food
was AMAZING, but I don't think thats the best you can get, which is
exciting! The whole meal including beer and coca cola cost us 6 pounds
together!!!!
We then wandered back to the hotel. Watched the english bbc world news and
went to bed at 9 because we were both still completely jet laged! We also
asked the receptionist to teach us how to say thank you!

Got us this morning at 5am as still obviously jet laged, just had
breakfast and now we're heading off to see ti'anamen square! VERY EXCITED!

My hands are freezing writing this so I'm off! Hope everyone is ok!

Lots of Love,

Sarah

ps its really really cold. Jimmy - what bar is the message in?