Arrived in Sydney on Sunday 11th July at 7ish in the morning, it took ages to get through passport control and then you had to have your bags checked for wooden stuff and seeds etc. I had ticked almost every box on the immigration form just to be on the safe side and even got my muddy sandals cleaned for me as they still had mud on them from the Laos jungle!

Checked into The Original Backpackers hostel and they came and collected me from the airport, bargain at $26 a night but so expensive in comparison to Thailand and Laos it was quite a shock to the system.

Ended up sleeping most of the day, hadn't slept much on the plane the film selection was too good! So waking up in the afternoon I grabbed a free map of the area and went exploring, didn't make it as far as the harbour as got sidetracked into the Plaza shopping centre on Pitt Street as it was huge. Sadly the shops close at 5pm so I didn't end up having that long in the shops.

Walked around the Hyde park and other streets trying to get my bearings but having missed lunch I ended up having an early dinner in the Strand Hotel (recommended on my free map as dinner was a tenner!) and had my first meal all on my tod- it was quite nice actually I had a pint and wifi on my ipod so was all set up! Made my plans for the next day and walking back to the hostel I was amazed to see hundreds of fruit bats flying overhead, all the locals seemed not to notice!