Author: Chiquita

Singapore – a great stop-over!

We left Australia on the 19th of March and headed onwards to do Singapore in two days, before going home.

After checking out of our hostel in Cairns we got a lift from the hostel by their own shuttle. When arriving at the airport Peter and I had a silly little argument about what to eat for lunch, maybe we were nervous about going home.

First we flew Cairns-Darwin. I sat next to a very talkative guy (bordering too talkative), but I took my mind of flying a bit so that was fine.

We spent around an hour at the very small airport in Darwin, before flying onwards to Singapore where we landed at 19:40 in the evening.

We grabbed a taxi to our hotel  Parkroyal on Kitchener in Little India. The hotel looked quite exclusive even if the area it which it was located did not. The district in which the hotel was located was very busy and had lots of cheap little food places and a huge, hectic, and famous mall called Mustafa. However we were exhausted after our travels from Australia and decided we’d have a early night in order to feel well rested for our one and only day in Singapore.

When we woke the following morning the skies looked quite grey. One of the things we were eager to to was visit Sentosa Island and the beach. But since the weather didn’t look that great we decided we would start with some shopping on Orchard Road. But before heading out for a busy day of sight-seeing we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. To my delight you could order your own omelet and eggs, according to your own wishes.

Then we headed for Orchard Road, to which we travelled by subway. The Singapore subway certainly lived up to Singapore’s reputation of being very tidy, not a single piece of garbage to be seen anywhere. We did Orchard Road in a couple of hours, my purchases accumulated in some cheap but cute earrings. We were getting very warm and hungry and decided to head for lunch at Sentosa Island.

You can travel to Sentosa by several ways, we took the cable-car, taking only minutes to get there from the city and enjoying a great view. Sentosa Island is a very well kept little island with lovely beaches, beautiful gardens, a marine park and feel a little like an amusement park with beaches. To get to the beach from the cable-car station we took some bumper like cars down the hillside, this was a fun way to start our afternoon on Sentosa, which within minutes fell in love with.

After a stroll a long the beach we ended up at a lovely restaurant, Café del Mar, where we decided to have lunch. They had a whole concept including music, a swimming pool and beach club. Perfect as they warned for marine creatures in the sea and I didn’t feel brave enough to go in, so the pool came well in handy. But this time it was really warm, maybe the warmest we had had during our whole trip.

Peter had gone for jeans and a long-sleeved shirt on this day, judging the temperature to be cooler after having woken up to grey skies. So he was more then happy to change to bathing trunks and enjoying a cool pool and bears!

After a lovely afternoon on Sentosa we headed for Raffle’s Hotel and of course the famous Singapore Sling. Yes, it was expensive, being a total tourist trap, but you can’t travel this far and then be to mean not to have one… However it tasted good and we enjoyed ourselves, peeling the famed peanuts and enjoying and slurping on our drinks.

Then we headed for Clarks Quay, a lovely area full of restaurants in the harbour. We were both struck by the enormous amount of restaurants, and neither of us believed to have seen so many in the one and same area. Of course we had a difficult time deciding which one to go to, being totally spoilt for choice. Eventually we chose a cosy one right down by the water and enjoyed a meal before heading back to the hotel, after a long but very good day of sightseeing.

The following day we decided to go back to Sentosa, after having enjoyed it some much on our first day. It was much busier getting there, since people seemed to be on Easter holiday I guess. We went to an other beach then the first day and enjoyed more sun, food and drinks on the beach. Then we headed back to our hotel, had a swim at the hotel pool and cleaned ourselves up after the beach.

Before heading for the airport we had a quick look at the Mustafa mall, but it was a bit to hectic for us and we decided to leave it and head straight for the airport.

Singapore airport is great! We enjoyed a very tidy and peaceful airport with free Internet, sweets and massage machines. Then came our longest flight during our whole trip, 12 hours to Frankfurt.

We arrived crazy early in the morning after a good flight (had 3 seats to share, which allowed us to get some shut eye) and found Frankfurt airport to be under construction with very confusing and misleading signs. This resulted us in running around for quite some time, confused and frustrated as to where to check-in for our onward travel to Gothenburg. But, finally we managed.

When we arrived at Landvetter it was 10:20 in the morning and a total winter wonderland, with masses of snow, quite a contrast to what we had experienced during our 5 weeks of travels! Anneli, Peters sister, drove us home, passing my parents on the way to pick up plants and say hi and then finally dropping us off at our home sweet home on Klareborgsgatan 36C.

Airlie Beach, Whitsunday’s & The Great Barrier Reef

We arrived in Airlie Beach around 9 o’clock in the morning (11th of March) after approximately half a day greyhound bus ride out of Hervey Bay. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, when I say half the bus was full of Swedish or at least Scandinavian speaking passengers between the ages of 18-22. Even before I arrived in Airlie Beach I had a notion I would really like Airlie Beach… 

Our bed and breakfast was on a steep hill about 5-10 minutes walk from the town centre, we took a taxi as our bags were weighing us down and we didn’t really know where we were going. Also taxis are way cheaper in OZ then in Sweden, so this was luxury we treated ourselves to many a time during our holiday. Our B&B turned out to be just lovely with an almost private pool and a great view. After checking-in and leaving our bags we headed back down to town for some breakfast and to explore our new surroundings. We ended up at the man-made lagoon (as you can’t swim in the see due to the deadly jelly-fish), which for being man-made really was quite lovely. After relaxing at the lagoon for a while we headed for some lunch. The restaurant we chose was nice but we got the least service-minded waitress in history I think… In a somewhat bad mood after our not so great lunch experience, we headed back to our B&B to meet the lady who I had booked our stay with. She wasn’t available when we checked in and now we were to have a brief meeting to receive our voucher for the excursions we had booked through her and also adding an other excursion to our plans, a trip to The Great Barrier Reef. Included in our package I had booked at the B&B there was sparkling wine and chocolates included. We decided to enjoy this out by the pool, this was not difficult! In the evening we went back to town for dinner and ate some beef I believe and finished off with a drink a few doors further down. We didn’t make it late as we knew we had an early morning next day.

On the 12th of March we had an outing to Whitehaven beach with The Camira, a very purple Catamaran, with a pick-up early morning. The weather wasn’t picture perfect but good enough and we were excited to do some snorkeling and to see Whitehaven Beach, ranked as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Our first stop was to do a little snorkeling just outside one of the many (74) Islands belonging to The Whitsunday’s. After putting on our stinger suits for protection against the deadly box jelly-fish we plunged into the water. Unfortunately this was no good at all and all we saw was brown water and sand… A little disappointed we continued our trip towards Whitehaven Beach. As we started to get close to the beach we were very lucky to see a giant sea turtle in the distance. The beach was beautiful and very bright as the sand was so white. The high percentage of silica even made it possible to polish jewelry (just like the sand at Lake McKenzie). Back on the boat after an hour or so at the beach, we enjoyed a delicious grilled lunch on board the boat heading back to Airlie beach. It was first on our way back Peter realized it was an open bar and made sure to make the most of that before getting of the boat in the late afternoon… After having freshened up back at our B&B we went to town for some dinner and drinks. That evening Peter kept on “collecting” friends for us in the bar and we ended up with an English vet, an English marine biologist and a young back-packer from Switzerland I think it was at our table.

The next day (13th of March) after having changed rooms (as we decided to stay on it was necessary to change rooms) we finally had a bit of a “slow” day and we enjoyed a pick-nick by the sea and a slower pace. In the evening we had dinner at The Hogs Breath, that we had been recommended by the cabdriver on our first day in Airlie Beach.

On our last day in Airlie Beach (14th of March), after yet another early start, we headed out to a pontoon on The Great Barrier Reef . The trip to the reef was to put it least “difficult”. Even though I had taken a seasickness pill I felt very sea-sick and just managed to make to the Reef a couple of hours out of the port without throwing up. The crew warned everyone about the rough sea and highly recommended anyone who was prone to seasickness to take seasickness pills. Even though, many people were sick and the crew were busy handing out bags to throw up in, nice… not! Despite the rocky boat ride to the potoon it was well worth it! After getting into our stinger suits and snorkeling gear we jumped into the sea and this time not to be disappointed. The first fish to greet us was a huge bright blue fish that they call Wally. Even though his size, we were not intimidated as he was a very kind fish and we could pat him without difficulty. We continued to enjoy a guided tour in the water by a marine biologist and saw many other beautiful fish and sea-creatures. After lunch aboard the potoon we headed home and even if it was a very bumpy ride, I felt much better then on the way out. In the evening we had dinner at the same place we had dinner on our first evening in Airlie beach, before heading to the bus-station and Cairns…

Busy in Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane early afternoon on the 5th of April and it was nice an warm even if the skies were a little grey. We could tell it was getting warmer, the further North we were traveling. It was very exciting seeing Kristina and Mike again, especially since they are having a baby very soon!! When we arrived at their apartment, just outside of Brisbane, we had some drinks and caught up little before going to Kristina’s mum, Gunilla, for dinner. Gunilla’s house was only minutes away and it was great to see Gunilla again and also meet Kristina’s dad Barry for the first time. Kristina who grew up in this house took us for a tour of the house. Before dinner Gunilla had us harvest a pineapple from her garden. To our, or at least my, surprise this grew on a little bush and not a tree as I thought! After this, we had a very tasty chilly fish, that Kristina’s mum is famous for and I can understand why, it really was very good!
 
The next day (6th of March) we traveled 45 minutes to Surfer’s Paradise and had a swim and a look around. It was fun to see, since one has always heard so much about it. After that we went to have a gorgeous steak for lunch back in Brisbane. This was followed by a trip to Garden City mall, were we had a quick look around and then went to the movies, so called Gold Class movies. Mike had been very secretive about this part of the day (Kriss was eager to tell us, but Mike wanted it to be a surprise) and we were excited to learn, that we would enjoy very comfortable reclining seats and being served drinks, ice-cream and other goodies through out the movie. After this, we all said we never wanted to go to the regular movies again! After a busy day we relaxed at the apartment in the evening.
 
We probably had one of our most busy days throughout our whole trip on the 7th of March. In the morning Kristina and Mike had to go a doctors appointment for the pregnancy, so Peter and I just hung out at a café for a bit. When they returned we all went to The beautiful South Banks, where we had breakfast at a restaurant down by The Brisbane River. The weather was lovely and breakfast was tasty. Then we went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens to get to the pier where Kristina and Mike had book us all on a cruise along The Brisbane River. While enjoying the sights of the River we also enjoyed cheese and wine, which was included in the tour. This, while an unusually small and somewhat strange man, who I believe was the boat’s captain told us about Brisbane. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear a word he was saying but that was fine and we went onto the deck and enjoyed the sun. After the boat tour, we continued to enjoy The area of South Banks and I cooled my feet off in the water at the very nice man made beach (there are sharks in the Brisbane River and for obvious reasons one can’t going swimming there). We strolled along the River to the museum for an interesting and colorful exhibition featuring Andy Warhole. At the exhibition, there was the possibility to have your photo taken and rearranged to look like the famous Andy Warhole pictures with four pictures in one, each fourth being in a different shade. This was fun but for some reason Peter and I kept on looking like complete morons in our photos haha… After this we had dinner at a very tasty Turkish restaurant still in South Banks, followed by a comedy show at the theater. Mike and Kristina had arranged for the best seats and we really, really enjoyed the show. Also, it felt good to finally take on something cultural during our vacation! After this I started to feel quite sick like I was coming down with a cold, Peter and Mike felt it a bit too, so we headed off the pharmacy for some drugs…
 
The next day, 8th of March, we all felt a little better after a sleep in and we did a trip to the mall Carindale. I enjoyed shopping, whilst the others went to a movie, 10’000 BC. While at the mall Kristina and Mike also showed us the very spot where the met in the children’s toy department. Then back home for a a rest, before we went to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout and The Summit Restaurant which offered a great view of Brisbane by night. After dinner we were supposed to go to a desert place in The Valley in the city, that Kristina really wanted to take us to but unfortunately the line was half way around the block and we decided to change our plans. We went to “Cold Rock”  instead, where you can pick lots of goodies to be crushed and mixed in with your ice-cream and then headed home.
 
On the 9th of March, Kristina and Mike very kindly drove us 2,5 hours North of Brisbane to Noosa, where we were to start the part of our trip that would be carried out by Greyhound bus. When arriving in Noosa we where all starving and headed staright for lunch along the main street of Noosa. After lunch we headed for the beach and had a lovely walk and foto session. We also caught a qlimtz of a surfing contest! Then we headed back to the mainstreet of Noosa, had ice-creams and checked out a little gallery with some really great nature pictures of Australia. Then it was unfortunately time to say good-bye and Krisitna and Mike headed off home and Peter and I waited for our ride North at the bus-station… We couldn’t believe how much we had managed to fit in during or time in Brisbane, this of course all thanks to Kristina and ike’s very well planned tour of all of the best Brisbane has to offer! Kristina and Mike, we really can’t thank you enough, we had an amazing time! 

Koh Samet

We are writing to you from the Island of Koh Samet, South of Bangkok. We have been here for 3 nights now and have 1 one more to go. After our long journey to Thailand, this has been a wonderful little break before taking on the rest of our trip. Before coming here we spent one night in Bangkok where we had just enough time to do a little sight-seeing, take a tuk-tuk ride to a mystery restaurant (we asked to go to a restaurant our hotel recommended but ended up a completely different restaurant), which luckily turned out to be a rather good one even if it was a bit of a tourist trap. We also managed a massage for a whole hour for 50 Sek per person (!) at a spa, cheap! Since arriving in Koh Samet we have enjoyed the beach, very cheap and tasty thai food and the warm and sunny weather (+30 wonderful degrees every day). We have had dinner every night at very cozy and romantic reaturants located on the beach with the table and chairs directly in the sand. As you can all imagine we are enjoying ourseleves very much!! Tomorrow we are off to Bangok to spend one night at my Thai friend Gift’s house. She has promised to show us some highlights of Bangkok, should be lots of fun! We hope to write again soon and post some picture.

Hungry Jack is very tired

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