Tom: Hi all. I'm flying solo with this blog, so sorry about that. Just thought I'd say a few words about this vibrant, exciting, frankly awesome city that is Sydney. Here goes: Take a relatively small British city that can be scaled North to South/East to West on foot in 4-5 hours, say Newcastle or Cardiff - or possibly even Glasgow. Then add strong elements of London, such as small, overcrowded, but strangely cosy bars, and rather cool markets with a global in...

Tom: Another day, another continent - another customs official looking at me suspiciously. It was actually a really confusing journey regarding flight times and the general time differences. We began on the morning of the 2nd flying from Balikpapan, Borneo to Jakarta, Java (which is an hour behind Borneo), and expected a 8 hour wait at the main airport in Jakarta before our 7 hour flight to Sydney. Qantas airlines - the airline we've been flying with - has been ...