Making Our Way In Melbourne

Apologies for this being so late, and also for the amount of spelling mistakes there will undoubtedly be (no Spell check on the pc here) we've been having too much fun, hopefully if I do this as a bullet point list (ala KL it'll get you all more up to speed)

Basically, the set up for Mebourne was as follows; After arriving back from our mental trip in Hong Kong/Maccau we stayed with Matt in Singapore for one last night (our plane got delayed but only slightly affected our plans) we then flew in to Melbourne airport on an Airbus which is incredible, best set up in a plane ever (we only went economy and it was insane) Massive tv screens on the back of seats, every Oscar winning film for best picture of the last 25 years to watch over a 100 albums worth of music to listen to an aerial camera to watch the plane take off, you name it this plane had it. It was insane and I enjoyed it so much so I actually wished we'd been on it longer than 6 hours, intense.

On The other end we were picked up by Sirus' mum's best Friend Kirsty, who is a childrens author (Kirst Murray, look her up) who we satyed with along with her husband Ken who is a theater director and pupeteer extrodinaire, also living with them was Jocelyn who was in her 20's and was studying at the Uni in meblurne and doing insane shifts at work (night time all day etc etc). Basically we had our own rooms and our own bathroom, and we were fed and watered everyday, oh and also literally a stones throw from the train that you could get into the city. Basically it was the most awesome set up ever. If you're reading this THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH.

Here's a little run down of various things we got up to;

• Went adventuring in a nearby Creek and park that was practically deserted and looked like this;
  
  
  
• Visited The ACMI (Australian Centre For The Moving Image) one of the best musem/exhibitions of it's kind I've ever visited, located in Federation square and housed in an amazing building (google it I didn't take a picture) We spent around 2 1/2 hours here, it was insane. And Had this awesome light/shadow show that made you look like this;
  

• Went to Victoria Market, the oldest market of its sort at the nice and late time of 7 in the morning, was great fun to look around, great food and not so great tacky clothes and 'gifts'




• Hung out in Brunswick St & Smith St, effectively the Melbourne equivalent of the Laines in Brighton, awesome area, loads of vintage clothes and record shops as well as a hell of alot of coffee shops, highly recommended for anyone planning a visit.




• Ran around aimlessely attempting to get to St Kilda for the day, with us failing to get bikes, a camera and the Trams being diverted because of a death on the line




• Fell asleep on St Kilda Beach, when it was cloudy, we didn't even swim...
  
  
  
• Visited the rooftop cinema, that's right a CINEMA ON A ROOFTOP, imagine of Duke of Yorks was on a rooftop, slightly more hip and a little bit more exclusive and you're about there, we watched 'A Serious Man', I loved it, mainly due to it relating alot to Judaism and it really hitting the mark in relation to my Jewish links (Hi Dad). This doesn't run all year round but if you're in Melbourne and it's hot it's most likely open so hit it up (Located 252 Swanston Street) There is a bar a bookshop a resteraunt and a club in the same building all year round so deffos check it...






(Yeah those are deck chairs)






• Went Grape Picking for the family we stayed with as they are part of a wine co-op, was a great day out, highly enjoyable. Missed the bloody Grand Prix though which was a pain in the arse, but still Hamilton didn;t win so it wouldn't of been worth watching anyways ;).




• Helped Ken out with his Punch and Judy show, was a great laugh really njoyed ourselves.
  
  
  
• Got lost for 4 hours making our way to the Zoo (via foot), which upon arriving at discovered we only had an hour before closing, we paid the $25 entry fee ran around and had an awesome time, clearly the best animal there was the Red Panda;




Hit up the Museum, amazing, and pretty inexpensive (About $5 I think) Here we enjoyed; The Dinosaur Walk, Taxidermy, Walkthrough jungle, Mind and Body Gallery, the exhibition on the mind was fascinating, and I'd highly recommend anyone visiting Meblourne to go here, also houses the 2nd biggest IMAX in the world, didn;t go though as nothing good was on.



Libertines Reformed.

Gardened for the family we stayed with for a whole day to earn our keep and our portion of stale bread and water for the day...




Made a series of incredible puddings each day (best was Lime Delicious, Cheers Kirsty)



Went boating in a canadian Canoe togehter (me and Sirus, massively homosexual but great fun)




Went on two Bike rides, one was incredibley hard work and we ended up at a converted Convent but was a great ride, the other was along side the Yarra and we looked like this;

(You have to wear helmets or you get arressted and fined)

• Went to Anglesea for Easter and went Surfing, I managed to proeprlly surg (year that's right up on the board and everything) a good few times which was awesome. Also saw the Round The Twist Lighthouse.
  
  
  

• Visited the State Library, incredible, check it. Spent a good few hours here enjoying the relics of books and also the art gallery.
  
  
  

• Visited art gallery shows from local artists and talent, one was in a warehouse (MEGA INDIE POINTS) and was great fun




• Went to a BBQ for Sirus's friend's Brother's Birthday, was a laugh
  

• Watched an insane amount of films in the evening (raiding the people we were staying with's library of films, awesome)

And for the best bit of the whole trip a seperate section;

THE COMEDY FESTIVAL

Basically the Comedy festival ran the whole time we were in Meblourne and if you too are in Melbourne when it's running then you HAVE to check it out, you have everything from tiny little local acts right up to massive big names from around the globe (ala Reginald D Hunter, Pablo Fransisco etc) though don;t be fooled the smaller acts are well worth your time, as obviously the big acts were small acts at one point.

These are the acts we saw (for $10 each, and each being an hour long-awesome);

Mark Butler - I've Been Watching You Austrlians (But Not In A Creepy Way) - Started our comedy festival with this fella, and whilst very funny, inclduing an amazing story about a wedding and a videoed joke/ story he'd planned on sending a women's mum who thought he was creepy to revela to her that her daughter was a stripper, he paled in comparisson to the other acts we subsequently saw, this is by no means putting him down, I'd highly recommend seeing him, we did on tight arse Tuesdays ( a day where tickets for most shows costs less) and was a great way to start the night - 7/10.

Orange Adventure - After Butler's show we heading to the town hall to see if we could blag cheap tickets (outside acts and representatives of acts sell their shows) here a girl named Felicity (who looked dead like Lareese Craig) managed to convince us to come to her show, a kind of theatre production comedy show about an orange juice company, esionage and outrageous characters. It was incredible and amazingly acted (despite the techincal ligthing and musical issues, which they fabulously worked around). This was stunning I'd highly recommend this; 9/10. Sirus literally didn;t stop laughing the whole way through, as in from start to finish he barely breathed. INCREDIBLE.

Sanderson Jones - Another heartbreaking but ultimately life affirming show about death - Now this fella was nothing short of incredible, dressed in a light tan suit and with long flowing ginger hair (HELLO LUKE) this man amanged to convince us to come to his show in two ways; one it was 'pay what you think it was worth' and two 'he looked just like Luke Harris, and acted just like him too'. Now this show we went to with Sam Kendall and Alice Shaw who we met up with during the day and all of us loved it, I was in tears at points as was Sirus, Sam didn;t stop laughing and Alice didn't stop cringing, it was insanely good, delivered in an impecible style from a man on the verge of making it big (well he already has, he's the face of IKEA )

Yeah that's right Sanderson Jones is Infact Luke Harris' real father.

So Yeah that's all for now, we're currently in Sydney and we'll update you on that ASAP but I think there's enough up there to keep you going ^^^


(Pictures take an age to load so sorry if there is less in this post than normal, Ill put soem more pics up when i get the chance).

Thanks for Reading, Stay Tuned, (this one was actually written by)Ben

Yesterday as told to Luke Harris

Ben hasn't written the rest of the trip in blog form yet, but he says he will, eventually. Until then...

Luke

hola

11:34Me

Hey babyyy

11:34Luke

how are you?

11:35Me

SO AMAZING

had like the best day ever

11:35Luke

talk to me

11:35Me

hahaha welll

Was Ben's bday last night as you know

especially from Ben calling you whilst drunk

So he got smashed and we hung around Sydney he spent about an hour in a strip club whilst I was outside and we got the 2am bus back

So he was hung-over this morning

but I got up, went for a run and swim in the sea, ate some museli then we left to go the boat that my uncle and aunty own

What they forgot to say is that it's a fully fledged yacht

We all got in this with 2 bedrooms a bathroom, kitchen, lounge, upstairs downstairs

started sailing off in the sun across the water

We navigated to this completely empty creek, with the clearest water you'll ever see, and jumped off the boat and went swimming

Could not get over how amazing that was by itself

then

had lunch

went for another swim with the dog

and just mucked around

then we moved on and moored just off a completely secluded beach, Ben and I dived in a swam the 200 metres to the beach

Go there, to the pure white untouched sand

started exploring around rocks and climbing things and jumping around

Saw a huge goanna like 2 metres long, everntually after discovering loads of wildlife and climbing the rocks we swam back to the boat

and move on to a private little cove

surrounded by all this hilly Autralian bush

We stopped there, Ben fell asleep in the sun, whilst my auntie and I fished off the back with the dog, we caught fish, and the dog accidentally (she was very excited) killed two of them

So my uncle then pointed out the eagles that were soaring around the boat living in the trees in the bush

So we managed to lure it down holding the fish out, and as it flew past we threw the fish up in the air and the Eagle swiped it out of the air and took it back to feed his chicks

which was just incredible

Went for a swim here, was again the most amazing water ever

Then it was the end of the day and we boated back to the marina with the sun setting behind the mountains in our wake11:50

Luke

oh my christ you need to make a blog post of that right now!!

Love Love Love

Sisi

x

Stones Throw From The Sea

Right Just another update to let you all know we're still alive and I'll update this bad boy ASAP (probably tomorrow, we've got some sweet stories to tell of Melbourne so stay tuned)

Currently in Sydney and living as the title suggests directly on the beach, I can hear the crashing of waves outside as I type this,

Honestly it's incredible.

I miss you all xo

Stay Tuned

Ben xx

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1172+pittwater+road&sll=-33.724858,151.299311&sspn=0.00373,0.00677&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1172+Pittwater+Rd,+Narrabeen+New+South+Wales+2101&ll=-33.724625,151.299334&spn=0.007389,0.01354&t=h&z=16

Speak to Matt about that...

^ The above, is a phrase that is said most days by Ben or I, it basically arose because we were incredibly spoilt by our Singapore host Mr. Matthew Prior, who is a man of great power and responsibility, which is why if anything was not absolutely perfect whilst we were doing something we would have to "Speak to Matt about that". It's a joke.

Anyhow this leads us to how we decided to joke with Matt one evening over dinner about how he had not got us a room at the 5* hotel in Macau that he had built (he's the managing director or something highhhhh up in the hierarchy of guys that build multi-billion dollar hotels and casinos). As soon as we brought it up he immediately responded with "Oh I didn't think you guys had time for it, I'll book you in right now", we were in hysterics at how awesome that was, and one phone call later it was done. All this from just joking around.

So basically for those who don't know, Macau is 2 tiny islands off of mainland China and one bit of land attached to China, and it's an hour ferry trip from Hong Kong. So whilst staying in HK we got on the boat, both fell asleep and woke up in smoggy Macau. Matt picked us up, naturally, was a bit disappointed he didn't send the limos though (apparently they were genuinely busy).

He gave us the guided tour around two of the areas of Macau avoiding one which is just like "plants and stuff". So Macau is effectively Asian Vegas, I believe 80% of the countries income comes from Casinos. Anyhow after the tour of the islands we got to the hotel called 'The Venetian', next to the other one Matt built, the 6* Four Seasons. We drive into the VIP carpark and go upstairs in the gold VIP lift into what is called one of the 'Wow areas', named this as when you walk into it you're likely to faint from amazement.

Wow

We went through to the the VIP check in area where it smelt lovely, this is because they have their own specially formulated 'Venetian' perfume that is fed into all the air conditioning units, making it smell like a summer's evening. After for some ridiculous reason avoiding the only time we were going to be able to rinse the FREE VIP check in area buffet, we went up to our twin suite with views over the Kotai strip and the hotel's golf course. We were blown away, best room I've ever entered. Two widescreen tvs, 2 huge double beds with specialised curtains for each bed, en suite golden bathroom, lounge area, 2 sofas, dressing gowns and a full mini bar.

Excited? Yeah a little bit.

Most high class meal I've ever eaten was on the books for dinner, amazing service, amazing food and unnecessarily extravagant desserts. All the waiters (this is in one of like 35 restaurants in the hotel) knew Matt by name, in fact as we walked through the huge leisure complex that is The Venetian members of staff may as well bow down as Matt walks the corridors, he is THE MAN. Matt showed us round the second floor streets, with the 3 canals (yep second floor, indoor canals...sorry what!?) and endless rows of shops. Basically it is incredibly surreal to be inside with the 'sky' above you and Venetian canals beside you, feels like you should be walking through cobbled alleys in Venice, i.e. Matt did his job right.

Ben amazed by the shops and Matt showing Ben how to get around.

One other feature of The Venetian, is that it happens to have the largest casino on the planet in it. Ben was excited by this, me a little less so, but I enjoyed watching him go £10 pounds up and then lose £40 on Black Jack. Generally walking around the insane casino floor, laughing at prostitutes trying to lure you in and people losing mass amounts of money was a lot of fun. We walked around until about 2am just absorbing the mental surrounding. Next day we swam in the hottest of the 7 swimming pools and walked around a whole lot more, we were in Macau for a full day and the only time we left the hotel was to get the coach to the ferry port, even then I think it was still technically The Venetian's land.

So we got the boat home and thought about how lucky we were to get the whole experience completely free, although Matt said if there wasn't someone staying in the Penthouse suite we'd be in it, which we were bit pissed off about-with Matt obviously for not kicking whatever president or emperor that was staying in there, out.

Anyway The Venetian Rules.

Love Love Love

Sisi

x

How to Survive in HK

So as my good duck friend Ally will be journeying to Hong Kong within the next few weeks before coming to meet us in Australia, and seeing as it is also the location for which we have failed to write up about despite visiting those shores a number of weeks ago. I have therefore decided to structure this blog post in the style of a 'How to survive in...' list, I say that like they're really common, and everyone reads the one concerning the country they're about to visit, before travelling there, of course this is not the case and this is probably the first of it's kind ever written. Avant-garde.

Anyhow!

1. Do not when booking a twin, en-suite room in a hotel in the backstreets of Kowloon expect to be pleasantly surprised, with facilities or space. Do bring your own safe or you can just risking stuff being stolen (which is how we (or I) rolled). Make sure you're very comfortable being completely naked in front of the other person, with a piece of fully transparent glass separating the two of you, whilst one watches Tv/does anything and you shower. Make sure you're ready for the 7 year old in the room opposite to wake up at 6am and persistently ring your personal room doorbell for 2 hours until you come and out and scare him (good work Mr.Ross) Also definitely don't expect your room key to work or the lifts to ever come.

2. Do buy horrific rip offs of well known labels and brands. For example: my fresh new pair of Vaierns.

3. Genuinely do go to 'Trendy Mall' it is full of amazingly cool shops, with fair prices and A LOT of watch shops for some reason. Cord Shirts and 20 assorted types of Beatles t-shirt=Heaven.

4. Check out 'The Peak' it is lovely, great views and the train up is 45 degrees of pure fun. For some reason they take your picture just before you get on it, it's kind of weird, don't know what that's about, the guy who made these signs probably does

->

Don't buy a special ticket when getting on the train to get on to the viewing platform, it is probably a great view but definitely not worth the extra hk$50 or whatever it was, you can see just fine from outside the mall at the top.

5. Visit both Hong Kong park and The Botanical & Zoological Gardens of Hong Kong. Hong Kong park was super nice, plants, ponds, terrapins and scary Indian guys generally a nice break from the intense CBD. We nearly got scammed by 2 'Buddhists' who just wanted 'peace', apparently your bank details help out with their pursuit for this. The scary Indian of ambiguous religion, absolutely loved me. First by looking at my forehead he knew I was destined for great things, knew that 2 girls were in love with me but I only loved one back and also that I had a lot of money in notes on me apparently. He did a really simple trick with some paper that had a thermo-reacting invisible ink on it, so when he gave it to me with nothing on it and I held it in my fist for a few minutes and took it out with the 2 words on it that he'd lead me to say I WAS SO AMAZED. Then he said 'so you will pray everyday?' constantly till the park ranger told him to move on. So I thought he was just some religious nutter, until he then came and cornered us under the waterfall, where he gave me a special rock, showed me his religious teacher back in India, and recited a verse over and over whilst tapping me and holding his wallet open for me to put money in it, like he had just put me in some kind of trance where I was going to throw my money at him. After honestly about 3 minutes of just reciting and tapping, i told him I have no money, and despite him being adamant that I did (which I did), I managed to give him back his rock and walked off. So yeah if you come across him, he's a barrel of laughs, as in genuinely funny, but do make sure you're holding on to the zips of your bag and know where your wallet is at all times. After him go visit the bird aviary and then head to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens. If you see anything there, make sure you see the Gibbons, this fellow in particular ->

He was INCREDIBLE. He was an acrobatic genius, and a really lovely guy. We had a chat, he did some flips and then we just chilled.

6. Go to the end of Kowloon island, looking over to Hong Kong island, this is one of the best views of a city you'll get anywhere I reckon. It is amazing in the day, but it is so so cool at night, make it there for 8 o'clock to catch 'The Symphony of Lights' where the skyscraper's lights a mile away from you dance to a soundtrack play right behind you, it is pretty spectacular.

7. If you're on Kowloon and want to get over to Hong Kong, which you will. First get an octopus card, for one thing what an awesome name! Octopus card! Also very helpful for any form of transport and basically anything from getting coffee to buying clothes. Once that is acquired get the Star ferry across the water to HK island, it's the way to travel, sure the MTR is faster, but this is 20p (or if you wish to splash out and go on the top deck-24p!) and you get to go on a boat which is just tons of fun always, and you see the city a little more.

8. If you wish, travel to what is incorrectly named 'the largest escalator in the world'. Prepare yourself emotionally though. It was not one escalator, I'm telling you now. It was a sequence of reasonably long travelators and escalators placed in quick succession of each other. Be warned also once you reach the top and you nearly cry 'cause it's stopped and it was not what you thought at all and you have to use your legs again, you will have to walk all the way back down.

9. Don't try and get free wireless in HK it's impossible (except in the airport :) )

10. When getting noodles, dumplings or any foodstuff that is accompanied with a soup for it to soak in and offered the choice of normal stock soup or hot and sour soup, please oh please choose normal stock. It was genuinely the hottest, spiciest, lip burniest experience of my life. I honestly thought I might pass out a few times whilst eating it. I got a horrific rash for a few hours on my face and had a numb yet painful tongue for the rest of the night. I set myself the challenge to eat it all, but really shouldn't have, it required soy milk and vanilla wafers to be bought afterwards, which was awesome, I advise those, just don't (or do if you want a hallucinogenically outrageous spice adventure) order the hot and sour soup.

11. Find the super amazing second hand clothes shop they have in Hong Kong and Kowloon. It is literally so great, like Dirty Harry's but half the price and the clothes are 3 times as cool. Make sure you have enough room in your bag for the clothes though, that took some swift skills to avoid the one piece of hand luggage per person rules on Tiger Airways.

12. Do what you want in Hong Kong, don't listen to me, just have fun and do whatever.

(13. Go to Macau... To be continued in next Blog Post)

Love Love Love

Sisi

x