In February 2007, we were highly fortunate to head out on a month-long trek to Australia. On our outward leg we stopped off at Hong Kong and soaked up the culture of this vibrant city, heading up to the Peak and sampling some terrific food. The time/weather gap was best exemplified when we were in a bar drinking Tsingtao near the river at 9pm on a sweltering evening and a TV in the corner was showing the lunchtime Merseyside derby from a freezing snow-clad Anfield.
We flew onto Melbourne and then drove the Great Ocean Road whilst playing some Husker Du before heading north to Sydney. En route we stopped at various motels including staying in a small hamlet called Marlo. On arrival there, we were taken aback as the end of the track brought us to a hotel on stilts just before the sea. Visions of the Deliverance movie sprang to mind, but they could not have been more friendly and fresh fish and a crisp bottle of Oyster Bay whilst watching the sunset completed a fine evening.
Further up the coast we stopped early one morning at a beach where kangaroos sometimes resided. We unfortunately didn’t witness any roos but did hear some suspect rustling in the undergrowth before a giant lizard peaked his head out, suffice to say we left it to its own devices!
We undertook all the requisite tourist activities in Sydney, including a tour of the Opera House and its atmospheric concert hall, a trip to the Blue Mountains and in the incongruous location of a shopping arcade basement I sampled the finest ever Laksa I have encountered in my life. Sydney was a vibrant, enjoyable yet infinitely smaller city than I had envisaged it would be. We then flew onto Hamilton Island which was a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef where the main mode of transport was little golf buggies and the occasional bus.
Nearby our accommodation was the Reef View Hotel Bar where we one night we were having an aperitif and a chap called Piano Man started tinkling away. It was low quality loungecore and we escaped as soon as we were able. We undertook a brief stopover in Singapore on the way home. Quaffing a Singapore Sling in the famous Raffles Bar, a trip to the slightly surreal Sentosa Island and visits to a couple of the numerous fantastic food halls completed a rather excellent holiday.
Our earlier initial jet lagged arrival in Melbourne was around midnight and when the taxi landed in St Kilda our first sight was of a couple of lads spilling out of a local pub and brawling on the grass – welcome to Australia! The following day we caught one of the archaic trundling trams into the city, where we had our first ever drink in a bar opposite Flinders Street station, which felt like a landmark moment as you are literally at the other end of the globe.
Melbourne was a pleasant bohemian style city though many of the pubs seemed without local knowledge to be hidden in basements, so much so one night we encountered a Scottish chap who upon hearing our accents, politely enquired ‘Where are all the f%@$*£g bars in this toon’?