The Amazing Tokyo

I can't believe our week in Tokyo is over. Only seems like yesterday that we landed in this amazing city. 

From the architecture to the culture and just the friendly and polite people we have encountered here, it has been a very enjoyable week. Our hostel was great and we met some lovely people there. They also provided us with a free walking tour and geisha evening, and we were very close to the Senzoji Temple.

We have been to the Aikhabara district and seen many electronic and games establishments. We have also had our first experience in a Cat Cafe (quite possibly the favourite part of my day). A day in Shibuya was also an interesting experience. Harajuku Street is quite an unique shopping street with ranging styles and quite a few crepe places. Shibuya also boasts a crossing that is quite epic to watch. The vast amount of people we saw crossing at one time was quite memorising. 

We were also lucky enough to see the skyline of Tokyo, albeit, it's dotted with skyscrapers galore but still an impressive sight. We went up the Tokyo Tower and Skytree. 

On our last day in Tokyo, we were fortunate enough to go on a Mt Fuji tour. Speaking to people, it's quite rare that you get to see Mt Fuji clearly. Luck must have been on our side as in the morning we got to see Mt Fuji clearly and got some pretty decent photos. Although it was a long day, it was definitely worth the trip. 

All in all, Tokyo has been an amazing city that we throughly enjoyed and would love to explore more of Japan one day. 

Kuala Lumpur, its been interesting

So after 5 nights in this interesting city, we are off to the airport again. 

Just as I was getting used to the quirks of this city, we're off. Quirks such our free breakfast consisting of a naan bread/pancake thing with curry sauce (Kate did get a hot tea with hers!), no-one obides by the road rules; motorbikes will come at you even if there is a green man, they mount pavements and drive at you, and everyone honks their horn thinking that will get the traffic moving. 

Although there have been a few quirks, this city has a lot to offer in the way of amazing architecture. Not only the tall skyscrapers but the temples have been amazing and so colourful. The Batu Caves even offered wildlife in the way of cheeky monkeys who will steal your food and water bottle (we were fortunate enough not to fall victim to this). 

The food has also been interesting. Despite the different opinion on breakfast we found some nice meals along the street markets. 

All in all, it has been a pleasant cultural experience and another stamp to add to the passport. 

Singapore, it was a pleasure

After spending 6 days in this amazing city, we bid farewell to Singapore and head for Kuala Lumpur. 

In our time here we've experience the culture and local cuisine (Hawker Centres are a must), seen Chinatown, visited museums and even bumped into 2 friends from England. We may have even partaken in a evening of drinking in a bar where we received St Patrick's Day Guinness hats and saw some amazing views at the top of Marina Bay Sands. Also, and not to brag, but in the 6 days we have been here, I've not fallen over or injured myself once. I'm going to call that personal growth. 

After passing through this airport numerous times to and from Australia, it was nice to finally leave the awesome airport and see what was outside. 

Thank you for having us Singapore, until next time ....

Farewell Bali …

So, after an exciting 9 days touring Bali with 15 awesome people, we're packed up ready to leave for Singapore.

Over the past 9 days we've visited Temples, been blessed (that didn't help me from injuring myself), seen monkeys, dolphins and turtles, touched a snake, visited a home stay, learnt how to weave a basket, eaten numerous interesting and different fruits, and you guessed it, I fell over numerous times and even ripped a pair of trousers!!

All in all, we've had a great time with an amazing group of people and are looking forward to exploring another country.

Pinks out 😀

2 days to go ....

So, after nearly being back for 11 weeks, it's almost time for us to leave this awesome country and go back home to the cold (I'm definitely not looking forward to the cold!).

In the 7 weeks since I posted (and we were in cold Tasmania), we have managed to do a lot of things.  We've been to Alice Springs and took part in a 3 day trip to Uluru with an awesome group of people.  We hiked, slept under the stars, had dinner cooked in a campfire, saw Uluru at sunset and sunrise, and walked around the base of Uluru (as it is disrespectful to climb Uluru itself). 

After our Uluru trip and staying at Alice Springs, we traveled to Darwin.  It was our first experience using Greyhound.  The trip took 22 hours and we were grateful when we got to our hostel so we could shower and sleep in a bed.  After spending 4 days in Darwin, we picked up our camper, Mildred, from Wicked Campers (I don't think we stuck out too much, do you?).

We had Mildred for 29 days and traveled from Darwin down to Perth.  It was an experience as we had to deal with kangaroos, emus and an echidna walking in front of the camper whilst doing our top speed of 80kmph.  All of the campsites we encountered were friendly and all had their quirks.  The campsite in Kununara even had a resident crocodile.  We had an adventure whilst traveling around Kalbarri National Park.  There were parts of unsealed road and at times I was surprised nothing fell off of poor old Mildred.  In the time we had her, we were very lucky, being able to see national parks and wild life in such a sparsely populated state.  You could drive for about 6 hours before you came to another town and waving at passing cars/trucks/campers became common practice.  

We planned our itinerary day by day so towards the end of our adventures, we ended up having 5 days to play around with before we needed to drop Mildred off in Perth.  We therefore decided to see Fremantle and booked 2 nights at a campsite there.  We took full advantage of the free bus service they had there which was a 10 minute walk from the campsite, which enabled me to enjoy a cider or 2 at the Little Creatures brewery.  We also stayed for 3 nights just outside of Perth and had a surf lesson (where I think I drank most of the ocean!), had an hour session on a jet ski (I of course did all of the driving as Kate wasn't that confident), and even had a BBQ on the beach in Rockingham.  

Since being back in Perth again, it has been filled with free things such as Christmas pageants, street parties and carnivals, we have been to the local bars and even been on a floating bar.  We have done self-guided walks, been to an Anzac memorial and the Bell Tower and of course, even partaken in some shopping (fingers crossed it all fits into my bag!).

So, I know we haven't published many updates on here, the only excuse we have is that we have been having too much fun experiencing things.  

Unfortunately this is it for the blog for this year, but stayed tune for more Pink adventures next year, as there will be a few.  

Wishing you all a lovely festive season.

Pinkies out :)

 

4 weeks down, 7 to go ......

So we've been back in Australia for nearly 4 weeks, and it's been nearly 2 weeks without Kris and Andrea. It feels like we've been here away from the UK longer and without the guys for longer too, we do miss them.

So, what have we been up to in 3 and a bit weeks I hear you cry, well. We spent 2 weeks with Kris and Andrea, travelling from Canberra (capital of Australia for those of you who thought it was Sydney), to Sydney, hiring a camper for 8 days and travelling around Sydney. We were lucky enough to be in Sydney on Kate's birthday and a nice meal in Newtown with Elly and Veronika who we befriended whilst in Sydney. We also enjoyed a few drinks in the Rose of Australia, nice bar!  After Sydney we headed towards Brisbane, stopping in Port Macquarie en route for some r and r. We were lucky enough to see some wild kangaroos in the morning at our campsite. Being back in Brisbane felt weird but it was nice showing our friends a few sights and before we knew it we were back at an airport waiting for a flight to Cairns. Flying with Qantas was awesome, they played Finding Dory on the flight and we got feed! We then spent our last 4 and a bit days in Cairns. We frequented the local pub, PJ O'Briens twice, hung out by the lagoon, spent a rainy day in Daintree Forest, and went to Green Island to see some fishes. In all it was a funpacked and enjoyable 2 weeks. It was sad to say goodbye to Kris and Andrea but also exciting as we were travelling somewhere else again.

In true Jetstar style, our plane was delayed by over an hour which wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't an hour time difference in Melbourne and we didn't get to our hostel until 1am! After having 4 hours sleep we were up and ready to go on our Great Ocean Road tour to see the 12 apostles. It was a long and amazing day. Sunday was spent exploring more of Melbourne before our flight to Tasmania on the Monday.

Our flight was on time this time and we got to the hostel okay in the morning. Our next 10 days in Tasmania was mainly spent seeing all of the nature we could, doing various walks near mountains and beaches, numerous hours driving and even bumping into another Sydney friend who happened to be staying at the same hostel in Hobart!

So, tomorrow we are off to Alice Springs and will be partaking in an Uluru tour which we're both excited and apprehensive about.

We hope everyone back home is okay and see you all in 7 weeks.

P.S. Uncle Reg, I will try and do another couple of posts before we come home 😀

We're still alive .....

For those of you not on Facebook, apologies for the delay in keeping our blog up to date. 

So what have you been up to I hear you cry, well.....

We have been working in Sydney for 3 months, temping as legal secretaries, in different law firms but in the same building.  I was working in General Insurance Litigation where Kate worked in General Litigation.  I wasn't so phased by the court work due to being a litigation secretary for 7 years but Kate felt a little out of her comfort zone.  Both firms were nice and we made some good friends from them.  They even gave us farewell cards and presents on our last days!

We were hoping to find an apartment to rent but ended up staying in the hostel for 3 months due to location (only one stop on the train to work!), and cost ($500 a week for a flat share seemed quite expensive).  Hostel living wasn't all that bad but it is quite an experience having 6 other room mates though most of which were workers too so we didn't have much of a revolving door of new people to contend with.  We were also fortunate enough to make some friends whilst we were there and even met some Brits, one of which only lives 30 minutes away from us!!

Sydney itself was a lovely city to live in.  We were based in Potts Point (near Kings Cross Station, also known as the Red Light District), which was walking distance to Circular Quay (where the Opera House is located), Darling Harbour (where you could see fireworks every Saturday night) and Hyde Park for a spot of relaxation.  Contrary to my usual alcoholic self back in the UK, we rarely went out drinking, apart from for a birthday and our last Saturday night in Sydney.  

So, since finishing work on 24 June, we flew to Darwin on Saturday 25 June, explored Darwin and picked up our camper (named Zelda) and drove from Darwin to the east coast.  We have had experiences of trying to put a bed together on the first night, cooking in a confined space and evening getting pulled over by the police and breathalysed (I was completely sober!).  We have been to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, Magnetic Island, we have been to Whitsundays on a 1946 sail boat, seen kangaroos alive (and unfortunately more often than not, dead on the side of the road), seen koalas in the wild chilling in trees and have met a few different people along the way, including an American teacher who is actually living and teaching in Italy, to a French-Canadian teacher taking 12 school girls on an exchange trip to Australia. 

Anyway, that is all for now.  I hope that has made up for the lack of blogging in the past 3 months.  When we next get signal, we will do another post of our adventures :)

Pinks out :)