St Andrews Day

Wednesday 30th November 2016

Today is important for two reasons.....it is St Andrews Day, patron saint of Scotland and celebrated by Janice for her quarter Scottishness.  A quarter Scottish is probably enough to get in the Scottish football or rugby team, not that I am saying that Janice could get in either!  Maybe netball or curling!  It is also an important day because we are moving on from Manly and flying up to Cairns.  It doesn't seem far on the map but it is over a two hour flight, certainly a couple of thousand miles.

The flight was full and was a bit more cramped than a long haul flight.  We went with Tigerair, a budget company.  I couldn't complain it's just that I could hardly move my legs for most of the flight but the leg room is no different from Easyjet or Ryanair, it is just sufferable for a short time.  The views of the Aussie coast were pretty good throughout the journey.

I think this is a view of the Sunshine Coast.

On arrival at Cairns we got a shuttle to a place called Port Douglas.  It's about an hour north of Cairns and is a place that Janice visited on her previous visit about 8 years ago.  We chose it because it was more scenic than Cairns itself and we could still get Great Barrier Reef trips direct from the resort instead of going back to Cairns.  

We had booked a self catering apartment in the centre for 6 nights.  The apartments are called Central Plaza and it is close to the centre but feels quite quiet.  There is a nice pool and 'barbie'facilities (I am getting the gist of abbreviating my words).  The apartment is super, it has a big living room, separate kitchen, separate bedroom, ensuite and balcony with table and chairs.

I think it will do nicely, (I cut my toenails specially for the picture - too much information)!

We didn't do too much in the evening.  We went out for a meal and both had the barramundi (not a Barrawednesdi) fish which is considered to be an Asian Sea Bass.  It was lovely with a nice lemongrass and ginger sauce.  We will probably do our own catering for now on as we can't keep eating out.  One thing we have noticed though is that Fish and Chips British style is very popular with battered fish.  It is mainly an eating in meal rather than a take away but we have seen the occasional take away.  We haven't tried it yet but will give it a go sometime.

In the evening there were loads of large fruit bats flying around on the street outside the apartment.  Surprising it wasn't as scary as I thought.  

Circus of Sun.

Tuesday 29th November 2016

Our day was a long build up to our special treat in the evening.  The treat was a trip to see a Cirque de Soleil show near to Brisbane Airport.  Janice had wanted to see a Cirque show for a long time and it was an opportunity too good to miss.

During the day we had a long walk up the coast passed a town called Wynnum.  The weather was gorgeous and hot without being unbearable.

We had a sandwich lunch and returned to the hotel for a lazy afternoon.

We had to book taxis for the trip to the Cirque show.  I was excited to see the clowns, the elephants, the bare back riders and lion tamers.  Janice broke it to me slowly that they probably wouldn't be part of the show.

The big top held 2,500 people....

The show was called Kooza.  We aren't sure what it means?

I can try and describe to you what it involved but it won't do any justice to the performance.  There were actually some clown characters who had buckets of popcorn and kept spilling the popcorn over the audience.  There were contortionist women, a unicyclist who juggled a woman whilst riding, a man who built and climbed a stack of chairs.  There were tightrope walkers and probably the best bit involved two wheels that were connected and spiralled around in the air.  Two men ran around inside the wheels and that propelled the wheels, end over end, over themselves.  Then to our amazement the men climbed on top of the wheels and ran around the top with a skipping rope and leaping off the top.  The whole thing was accompanied by live musicians and singers who were really good.   I did say that my description wouldn't convey the magnificence of the performance...sorry.  You can look up a preview on YouTube by typing in Kooza.  I recommend it.  Apparently one of the Cirque performers last Sunday fell from a height and is in Brisbane Hospital seriously injured.  I'm not too surprised.  Sorry we don't have any performance photos, they were not allowed and they rarely show the scene properly with bright lights and fast movement.

We had a memorable night we will never forget.

Banana Benders.

Monday 28th November 2016

A man at the hotel recommended a trip to Stradbroke Island, known locally as 'Straddie'.  It is a thin island of sand about 18 miles long.  To get there we caught the train to Cleveland, then a free bus to the ferry and caught another bus on the island to Point Lookout.  It is obviously a local tourist spot for great beaches, whale spotting and wildlife.

Point Lookout was named by Captain Cook in 1770 and what a point for looking out it was.  

We walked along a specially constructed Boardwalk and then walked down to Frenchmans Beach, which was almost deserted.  

The waves were pretty good too.  We found a little shade next to some rocks and had our first dip in the Pacific.  We walked along the beach and had an unexpected find....

It came at me whilst I walked in the shallows but I managed to overpower it with my superior strength and agility and throw it onto the beach!  You can't believe it!  OK, it was already dead and lying on the beach but it made a good piccie.

One thing we have noticed in Oz is that they abbreviate everything, Stradie for Stradbroke Island, piccie for picture, Brissie for Brisbane etc.  Not a bad idea.  I am often called Richie and I could start calling Janice, Jannie and we are both Pommies.  Which makes we wonder why we are called Pommies?  I will look it up.  Another thing is I tried to buy my first pint and a half of VB (Victoria Beer) and the barmaid didn't understand a 'half', I should have asked for a pint and a 'pot'.  There is lots of slang to pick up on.  Apparently, people from Queensland are called Banana Benders!  I'm not sure if they are called it to their faces?  I'm not going to try it just in case!

On our way back from Stradie we were told to look at some Gum Trees near the ferry terminal for koala.  Amazingly we saw one really close to the road.  Here is a piccie.

We have been eating in the room in the evenings since we arrived.  I particularly need to cut my food intake.  I will be mistaken for a humpback whale before long!

It is not really clear how we got the title of Pommie or Pom.  It may be an abbreviation of pomegranate which rhymes with immigrant (not much of a rhyme) or, as I prefer, it comes from the fact that many British arrived as convicts and had POHM on their convict clothes, meaning Prisoner of her Majesty.

Answers to the quiz and becoming Dubiously Manly.

Sunday 27th November 2016

Here goes with the answers to yesterday's quiz.

1. White Shark

2. Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry King of the bush is he. Janice knows the whole song. (extra 1 mark for singing the song)

3. Duck billed platypus, Echidna and Snapper Turtle. (1 mark each)

4. Carpet Snake (very popular with the ladies!) and a Cockatoo. (1 mark for the snake, 2 marks for the Cockatoo)

5. Hairy nosed Wombat.

6. Bandicoot.

7. Tasmanian Devil (I bet no one got this one).

8. Possum

9. Gecko, on the branch on the right.

10. Crocodile that has bitten off more than it can chew!

Maximum 15 marks.  

No animals were harmed by this quiz (they were already stuffed), just in case you are a member of the Animal Liberation Front.

Brisbane has been a great place to visit.  It is a lovely, clean and friendly city.  The mix of old and modern buildings is great and the food, shopping and cultural activities mean there is lots to do.  People seem very friendly and although we saw one or two homeless people we never saw any anti-social behaviour.

This morning we had a little walk before breakfast and then took a train trip to Manly.  

When I was at school we had a lady chemistry lab assistant called Mrs Manley, we nicknamed her 'dubiously Manley', it seemed funny at the time to our teenage sense of humour, it sounds a bit silly now.

We chose Manly as it has a nice sailing harbour and coastal walks.  It is also easy to access from Bribane and is accessible to the airport for our next move.  We have also arranged a special planned event. I will keep you in suspense for the time being.

Manly has a Sunday market which is in the background.  The town is pretty with a range of shops and restaurants, just what we wanted to get out of the cities.

The hotel room is nice and spacious.  This is the view from our balcony, the land in the distance is Stradbroke Island.  We were upgraded to a sea view room without asking, that's nice!

I am still waiting to see a kangaroo and a koala in the wild but did see a pelican and lots of fiddler crabs on the beach today.  They all disappeared down their holes when I approached but they popped up again and I took this 'snap' of one.

They are only quite small but have one really big claw and one small one.  I'm sure this one is smiling for the camera.

A nice quiet night is just what we want. 

Animal quiz.

Saturday 26th November 2016

The weather has dipped today....down to 26 degrees, decidedly chilly.  So cold we managed an early morning jog.  It still felt very hot, although we did get a little rain whilst we ran but none since.

We spent a relaxed day walking along the river in a direction we hadn't previously been.

We visited the Art Museum and the Queensland Museum on the Southside.  

These are Papua New Guinea totems and roof and there were some aboriginal art too...

 The Queensland Museum had some animal exhibits that I thought would make a great quiz, so here goes.

1. 

No I don't want you to identify Janice!

2. 

These are all variations of the same breed of bird.

3. 

I want all three animals (ignore the bird legs) and I want the variety of turtle!

4. 

The type of snake please and extra points for identifying the back of the white bird.

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

You have to spot the animal before you can guess it.

10. 

Lastly, can you guess the skull!

Answers tomorrow.

Had our evening out and stayed up late till 12.30am to watch Burnley v Manchester City on a pub TV.  I got excited when Burnley scored first but sadly they lost 1-2 despite a valiant effort.  Janice's tripadvisor rating goes off the scale for watching with me.

O Come All Ye Faithful.

Friday 25th November 2016

When we were in Hong Kong many of the buildings and shops had Christmas  decorations up but in Brisbane this evening we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at King George Square, outside the City Hall.  Several thousand people were there and we had a Children's Choir and two singers from Australia The Voice TV programme.

It's the biggest Xmas tree in Australia (not real of course, but still pretty) and solar powered.

It felt strange to sing Christmas carols in November in a hot climate wearing t shirts and shorts.  The crowd was great, well behaved and polite.  From there we had some take away food and walked around.  We had a drink in the Treasury Casino building which was a massive building of gambling, bars and music.  We walked through the largest casino room just for the experience.

What a mugs game!  They must have money to throw away.

There was also an open air Salsa Disco in a main square.  The dancers were far too good for my random moves.....we need to do some proper classes.

Anyway, I had better back track to earlier in the day.  First thing we went to the Tourist Information and organised our next destination.  We have a flight from Brisbane to Cairns sorted for next Wednesday so we needed somewhere to stay from Sunday to Tuesday.  It was the most attractive Information Centre I have been to.  It was in an old cinema, see the photo.

The person who helped was great.  We decided to go to a smaller place on the coast outside Brisbane called 'Manly'.....it suited me down to the ground!  It looks nice with a harbour and beach with coastal walks.

We had a walk around the City Hall and clock tower.

It is a grand building that contains the Museum of Brisbane.  We learned of the creation of Brisbane from the discovery by Captain Cook to its exploration by John Oxley.  The city was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane who was a Scot who funded the exploration.  We went up the clock tower which makes the same chime as Big Ben and enjoyed the views.

We went to cool down at the city beach and pool and had a cooling dip.  Those of a nervous disposition should turn away now!

Later we had a free trip on the City Hopper Ferry on a trip up and down the river, past the Storey Bridge and back to the Botanical Gardens.

That's the little ferry between the bigger boats.

Then it was a freshen up before the Xmas tree ceremony.

Another day another continent.

'Thursday 24th November 2016

I managed zero hours sleep on the overnight flight to Brisbane but on the bright side the plane was about one third full and I managed to move seats to get extra legroom.  Janice managed about 3 hours sleep as she could use two seats to lie down.  I watched the last of the Hobbit films.

We arrived in a very hot Brisbane Airport at 6.15am. We were hot waiting for the shuttle bus into the city.  The shuttle bus was actually quite a nightmare.  The driver was a man who drove on the edge of road rage all the time.  He drove in heavy traffic right up the backside of the car in front, crunching gears, braking sharply and accelerating hard when there were no opportunities to 'make progress' (a term used in police driver training for overtaking and driving fast).  We were the last drop off the bus so had to endure the driving the longest!

Our hotel is the Ibis Style Hotel in central Brisbane.  I had a little haggle with the receptionist and managed to get a river view without the upgrade price.  Was it worth the effort, well judge for yourself....this is the view from the window of our 19th floor room.

The buildings below are colonial style buildings of some grandeur that I hadn't expected. The buildings behind us are all high rise commercial buildings.  Despite our early morning arrival and lack of sleep we managed to get out for a walk on the Southbank of the Brisbane a River.

I didn't realise that being on the underneath of the world would affect the camera so much!

There was a swimming pool and a man made beach on the Southside of the river. I managed a little paddle today but it was seriously hot walking with bare feet on the sand.  We were told it was up to 34 degrees today.

We walked around the botanical gardens and saw plenty of ibis birds.  It was quite apt seeing as we were staying at an Ibis hotel.  They were all over the place, hanging around like seagulls at St Ives, trying to feed off human scraps.

We retired for a much needed afternoon nap and then came out for a walk and evening meal.

This is the Anzac monument.  I was an adult before I realised an Anzac was not just a type of biscuit my mum used to make!

We had our evening meal outside looking across to the Treasury Casino building.  It was the first time I had used a knife and fork instead of chop sticks for a few days.  We both had steak salads which were lovely and made a nice change from having rice.

Following my recent tripadvisor reviews I have put Janice on notice that I will do a review for her next time.  So far she is getting a five star rating but I need to keep her on her toes.

Brisbane is looking good.  I am on the look out for kangaroos, koalas and venomous snakes but no sightings yet.  I am hoping for undisturbed sleep tonight, fingers crossed.

Now for the history lesson.

Wednesday 23rd November 2016

Today we leave Hong Kong.  We have an overnight flight to Brisbane so we will have a bit more jet lag. However we took the free morning opportunity to visit the Museum of Hong Kong History.  And a very good museum it was too.  

We wanted to see a 'junk'.  There don't seem to be any still used on the water anymore!  We were a bit shocked about the pearl diving that went on around Hong Kong where divers were tied to heavy stones to keep them deep enough to collect the oysters!!  I don't think they had 'health and safety' risk assessments in those days and many divers were drowned, not surprisingly.

 I was particularly interested in the period of history that involved Britain.  I'm a bit sketchy on some of the dates as I am working from memory but we seemed to have be involved in some trading with China through the British East India Company from prior to the 1800's and of course we were a powerful maritime force with colonies in India and Australia already established.  The First Opium War started in 1839 because China wasn't happy with us selling them a load of opium from India, making millions of Chinese people addicted.  So, to protect our drugs trade we went to war and won!  China were forced to cede Hong Kong and the New Territories to Britain.  Hong Kong was only a small place back then but it must have been seen as a good deep water harbour for further trade purposes.  The Chinese got a bit uppity and we had a Second Opium War around 1860 to teach them a lesson.  We actually attacked and occupied Peking until they agreed further concessions. 

The next significant occurrence was in 1898 when we agreed a 99 year lease of Hong Kong with the Chinese government.  Shortly after this the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 took place.  Apparently some groups in North China were fed up of foreign powers pushing their governments around and they protested against the foreigners and against their own government.  They believed they were impervious to foreign weapons! They were wrong.  The Boxers were given their name not because they wore loose fitting shorts but because they primarily fought by hand, which was probably not a good tactic when we had guns and cannon.  A multi-country force that included Britain, Japan, Russia, France, Portugal and Austria (mainly, British, Russian and Japanese) attacked the Chinese forces and quelled the rebellion.  The alliance was one of convenience because all the nations had a vested interest in exploiting China for trade purposes.

Since these times Hong Kong has grown immensely, in population and in international importance as a trading and financial city. 

On 30th June 1997 the 99 year lease ran out and we handed Hong Kong back to China on the basis that it was a Special Administrative Region of China with self control for the following 50 years.  I get the impression that Hong Kong is probably happy to escape British control but wish to retain the lifestyle and many of the freedoms that they currently have.  

That's a lot of history...I hope it gives you a bit of an overview.  I hope you are still awake.

We certainly enjoyed the Museum.

Overall, we were very impressed with Hong Kong.  We always felt safe.  The hotel was good and in a really good location.  I felt very tall amongst the local people and Janice felt very blonde (purely in a hair colour sense).  There is certainly lots to see in a smallish area and it is visually stunning especially when the 'humidity' stops.  Most people speak some English and they are courteous.  I expected to be jostled in crowds of rushing people but that never happened even when we were on busy streets.  I even enjoyed being grumpy about our dodgy meal.  It is certainly in my top five world cities to visit.

We are currently waiting at the airport for our flight.  The temperature in Brisbane tomorrow is 34 degrees, we could be in for a shock but we will tough it out!

On the market.

Tuesday 22nd November 2016

I woke this morning still thinking of the meal we had last night.  I've had better tasting washing up water.  It was funny because we struggled through the first three courses before we both admitted that we weren't enjoying it.  There is more fish in a fish finger than there was in all the fish balls we had last night.  Our 'pudding' was almond tea with egg white.  I tried to convince myself it would be merangy! but no, it was like the whispy bits of egg white that failed to bind to a poached egg floating in a hot, thin liquid of sweet almond.  I couldn't eat it....and that is something coming from a self confessed glutton.

Anyway, so, here's the thing.....we managed a good sleep and decided that we would visit a nunnery and some markets.  Janice did some tai chi in the room.....

But I thought she was doing a Hong Kong Phooey impersonation. The peaceful Tai Chi turned to Kung Fu especially when I said 'Enter the Dragon'.

We travelled north on the train to Diamond a Hill.  The Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden were next to each other and were good to visit despite the 105% humidity (Janice called it Scottish Mist)!

It is not as old as it looks.  Initially opened in 1930 but completely rebuilt to traditional methods in 1998 without the use of any metal fixings.  It was very tranquil.  There were several polished rocks that displayed wise words of peace and fulfilment and other Buddhist stuff.  You can tell that I have a true sense of Khama or Dhama or whatever Buddhists do?

The Nan Lian Garden was pretty.  It had a picturesque Pagoda and nice ponds with Koi carp.

We called into a nice tea shop whilst the humidity got a bit heavy.

We caught the train again back as far as Mong Kok (no jokes please).  Apparently it is the most highly populated area on the planet.  It was certainly busy and 'proper' Chinese.  Shops that sell the same products seem to be clustered together.  There was an area where household renovation shops sold wall and floor coverings and there were streets of pet shops together with dogs or cats or turtles or rabbits etc in the window.

There was a goldfish market.....yes several shops, all selling varieties of goldfish and aquarium supplies.  I don't think they were for personal consumption.

There was a flower market that covered several streets.

There was a market called Ladies Market but I couldn't find any for sale.  I think it was actually a ladies clothes market.

We tried some 'dim sum' from a street vendor and took a pick and mix approach because I didn't have a clue about what was inside.

The only one that surprised us was the octopus in batter but I ate it anyway.  It was all more tasty than anything we has eaten the night before. 

Back to the hotel for a late afternoon siesta (not sure if you can have a siesta in China)?

The humidity was persistent in the evening but we had a walk to see the bright lights of the city.

This is looking back to Hong Kong Island.

We plumped for a small cafe for our evening meal.  It was so much better than last night.  The staff were kind, the meat was present and correct and we got rice (no soup thank goodness). Just need to complete a tripadvisor review for last nights restaurant before I go to bed.  What a grouch I am!