Well I've finally dragged myself away from Sydney and am about to begin the last leg of my trip (boo)!! Over christmas I found myself a job working in a subscription company in the centre of Sydney. I couldn't have timed it better starting on the day of the Christmas party where I got a 3 course meal and unlimited alcohol all for free! I made friends with 2 girls called Kirsty and Alison and we spent most days playing the category game, going for lunch on Darling Harbour, and arguing about whether Aussie's or English have the correct names for things!!

On Christmas Day we went to Bondi Beach and had fish and chips on the beach after forgetting to defrost the turkey the day before, oops! We went back to Bondi on New Years Eve for 'Shore Thing' where Underworld let 2009 in with Born Slippy and loads of fireworks, we kept having to remind ourselves we were on a beach, in December!!

My temping job finished on the 13th and since then we've been to see an open air movie at Olympic Park, seen Mr Scruff (a Manchester DJ) in a park for the first night of Sydney Festival, and absorbed lots of rays at our local outdoor swimming pool. Me and Grant also got addicted to Green Street, watching it on a daily basis for a disturbing amount of time! However the grand finale of our time in Sydney was last weekend when we went to Big Day Out on Friday, World Bar on Sunday, and to Circular Quay (where the bridge/opera house is) on Monday for Australia Day, where stages were spread out across the whole area and the streets were filled with people celebrating!

Grant left us last tuesday to go home to sort some things out (give her 2 months and I reckon she'll be back out there!!), and because this would have meant us paying more rent, and I still didn't have another job, I decided it was time to move on. Moore's staying in Oz as she's working in a boutique shop, but might be coming out to meet me in Asia in a few weeks if she decides to leave there.

So I arrived in Bangkok on Thursday, and have been chilling for the last few days before I start a 2 week GAP tour. So far I've had a tuk tuk ride to 4 of the local temples and to the Standing Buddha which was absolutely massive (as you can see from the photo, I barely reach his foot). I had the nicest driver ever! He waited outside for me at each one, and then took me to the next place, and at the end I handed him the money and he was like 'no no, it free'! I've even bumped into an old school friend Holly Aston which was completely random, she's living in Hong Kong and is just here for for a holiday. I've also enjoyed looking round the markets and sampling the local culinary delights (although I won't go into how I found an insect in my red thai curry...)! My first impressions of Bangkok are chaotic, noisy, SMELLY, and you can't go far without being pestered for something or other, but I expected nothing less and it's all part of Bangkok's charm! I can't wait to see the rest of South East Asia!