After Surfers Paradise we continued on our journey up the coast by coach over the state border into Queensland. We spent a couple of hours wondering around Brisbane taking a walk along the riverside and then we wondered around the shops and back across the park outside the city hall although we wern't there for very long fellow back packers gave reports that their wasn't much to do exept drink in Brisbane and unfortunatly we didn't have time to find out for ourse...

We visited a travel agent in Manly because we were concious that time was running out for Kate's holiday and that we still wanted to do as much as we could of the gold coast (east coast) in the time left. They booked all our travel itinery for the next 10 days and the next morning we were on a flight to an airport near Byron Bay, the first stop on our travels. The weather was warmer up there and noticably more humid as we stepped off the plane. Byron Bay wa...

We returned to Sydney the next evening and spent the next couple of days exporing the surrounding beaches at Bondi and Coogie. Bear in mind that we were now coming into winter and the winds were getting up a bit..this was more a case of 'viewing' the beaches over a coffee in a local cafe rather than lounging around on the sand. There were a few brave souls surfing between the iconic red and yellow flags on the beach- thats dedication i thought! But as we were lea...

We decided to take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains to go walking and stay in the YHA hostel there for the night as it was rumoured to be one of the best hostels in Australia. 'Oz Trek' the company we went with drove us to the national park to see a large family of Kangaroos in a clearing and we did about 4 walks that day around the area learning a little about the flara and fawna and taking in some dramaic views of the bluey misty valleys, steep cliff drops,...

I love Singapore! They really seem to have things right here- okay there are alot of rules ie. no chewing gum in the streets, no littering or displaying public affection in public, no jay walking etc. but this is by far the cleanest, most orderly, efficient community i have ever seen. There is only 2 % unempolyment here and people who live here, on the whole seem happier, more fullfilled and content with there lot. Crime is low and the Singapore goverment come do...