Down Under :-)

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne at 6am local time on April 1st. We chose the cheapest hostel in the lonely planet (needs must and all that!) at AUD 20 we thought this was very expensive but found it really is the cheapest you can get in Aus. Coming from Asia this was a shock, i suppose thats another drawback of doing Asia first as the prices smack you in the face almost immediatley!
Our hostel here is called Bev and Micks and when we rocked up outside it was a beaten up old pub with rooms/dorms upstairs but we knew this was the cheapest. Luckily one of the live in residents here ( there a lot of them as they came to stay here and 6 months later they havnt left and are working in Melbourne) saw us as he was leaving for work early and let us sit in the common room ( which is actually in the bar - just some skanky old sofas with flees in them and a big t.v). We checked in when Bev came to work about 10am and slept untill 4pm as we were so tired from the flight and the manicness of Singapore caught up on us! We decided to head into town on the tram to see what Melbourne was all about. We were too late to find out about the city from the info centre though so we took a short walk around before heading back to the hostel. When we got back i had a nice hot shower and was just about to chill out when one of the guys from downstairs come and dragge us downstairs to join in the pub quiz - errrr do they know how rubbish we are at facts???! Oh well we got on with is and didnt do too badly, we recruited the help of another team - joining forces :-) Then Natz got called up to do the practical round. It was a tub full of water ( murky water so u couldnt see) with about 8 pool balls in the bottom ( they dont float), using only her mouth she had to get the balls out for points. I have to give it to her, she did great, didnt win but gave it her best, infact i have pictures of her almost climbing into the tub - very funny. I think she still has coffee in her ears now.......! hahaha! The drink ( wine) of choice here for a travellers is Goon, i thought for the price of it that it would taste like vinegar but its actually nice and for AUD 2 a glass we filled our boots. After we finsihed the quiz and failed miserably we all sat around and sang along to the guys playing their guitars. Yessssssss i can hear you all saying - dear lord why did they let Danielle sing ahahaha! But it was fun and we were all a little worse for wear so knowone heard me sounding really bad hehe!
What a quality night it was but another 3am turn in caused a goonover (my new word for hangover) and a late rise the next day which in turn meant we once again didnt have long in town. We went for a nice long walk along the river, watched the sun go down and took some good pictures of the scenery. Melbourne is a very pretty city, like a little London but less built up, warm and clean.
Today ( Friday 3rd April) we woke up early ( well done us!), booked our camper van to do the Great Ocean Road. We leave tomorrow afternoon, after our Neighbours tour ( a must apparently). We have this camper for 5 days, im not sure you can call it a camper its a van with a bed in the back and a make shift cooker and a sink - we will report back about this once we have finished. I think its going to be interesting, but hey ho it was the cheapest option. The organised tours cost $395 each and the van onlly cost $200 each so we are off to the supermarket to buy some rice and beans! ha!

Singapore

We arrived in Singapore on Saturday 28th March, were dropped off in the middle of knowhere ( well thats what it felt like). We got out our lonley planet and tried to find our way to the centre of Singapore where we had already found a hostel to stay in ( hoping they had a dorm for us!), 45 mins with 21 kg on my back in 35 degrees heat later, we arrived.......! That was my workout for the week, my legs were about to give way! blurrrrrrgh!
Luckily they had 4 beds left in a dorm ( we pciked up a stragler on the bus!) so we settled in for a bit then Nat called her friend Adam. Adama nd his girlfriend invoted us to stay......dam it we had already paid for our hostel ( SGD 14 it cost each which is around 7 GBP......a lot we thought as had been paying 3 pounds in the rest of Asia). Never mind, at leadt we wouldnt be putting Adam and Carlene out. They invited us to their condo ( thats what they call flats/apartments over here) for drinks and then took us to a beach party at KM8, excellent night out and all paid for which was gr8 for us pikey travellers :-)
On Sunday we all woke up with slight hangover to say the least.......ooops, thats what free booze does to you :-( but all was not lost as Adam and Carlene had invited us over yet again so relax by the pool, best cure for a hangover there is. It was really strange being in the middle of a city with huge sky rises for condos and swimming complexes. Around 4pm we showered at Adams and Carlene gave us huge white fluffy warm towels from the dryer.......pure heaven for us travellers who use their micro towels to dry normally - not the most comfortable towel in the world! ahhhhhh how these little things please us! ha! We then set of for thier friends BBQ in yet another swanky condo in town. This condo the lift is fingerprint activated and the lift door opens into your particular apartment - very impressive. It was really nice to eat home cooked food, normal food at that and not have to order from a menu - the novelty of this runs out after about 3 weeks we are craving a bit of normality now. Rob ( adams friend) is australian so likes his wine and we all shared a few bottles of red, which again was bliss as wine is not really drunk in Asia and if it is then its very expensive and not in our budgets.
On Monday we got up early(ish) and set of to do some sightseeing. We visited the harbour front, stopped by Raffles for the infamous singapore sling, sat outside Bugis and watched the water features and then made our way to the night zoo. This was really impressive, though no flash photography was allowed so no great pictures from me on this one. We has been told to visit little india and knew we had to do this that evening to be able to fit it in so we did, the nicest curry I have had in 2 months - yum. Somehow we also managed to get back to the hostel at 3.30am, having spoken to family and friends on the net for so long. We discovered skype and web cams, was so nice to catch up ( mum, dad - you have to get a webcam you will love it)
On Tuesday we were up and packe early doors to checkout but luckily Jet was staying another night before she catches her bus and plane to Laos so we dumped our bags in her dorm. We then headed to Clarkes Quay for the afternoon on the MRT, which was really nice.
All in all Singapore was a great experience, its the most westernised city in Asia ( that i have visited) , although it is obvious there is a real divide between the ex pats and the singaporians this isnt as big as the hostility between the singaporians, chinese and malaysians - its racism at its peak. Very strange and quite obvious too. Despite this Singapore is a very liveable place, I will definatly be coming back here for another visit someday.