Thanksgiving in Oz

Toby and Teri making the dinner

One small entry before we start traveling again.

Because we’ve gotten to know Teri from Chicago, we ended up having Thanksgiving one Thursday about a week ago. We provided the house and Teri provided the cooking (together with Toby (see picture above) who has seven years experience as a chef and couldn’t stay out of the kitchen…the slight bickering between the two over gravy and turkey was quite hilarious) while we invited Amy and her sister Tori, and Teri brought along some friends from her hostel.

from the left: Cecilia (Sweden), Amy (Aussie), Hennie (Germany), Andra (Germany) and Tori (Aussie)

All in all we were three Aussies, two Norwegians, a Swede, two Germans and an American enjoying a lovely and tender turkey breast with an excellent stuffing (crackers, onion, chicken buillion and bacon) as how Teri’s mum usually makes it, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, gravy and cranberry sauce with a succulent apple pie to finish it off. We all agreed that we quite like this American holiday where the premise is to stuff your face with food and we enjoyed listening to stories of Teri’s Thanksgivings back home where the basics is women cook in the kitchen while they bitch and gossip, and the men watch American football.

from left: Cecilia, Amy, Trine, Tori, Teri, Henriette, Toby, Andra and Hennie

There is also apparently a tradition to start your Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving and stores will open at 4-5 in the morning with massive limited sales and people will queue from midnight on Thanksgiving to get the good stuff. At least a couple of people die each year from the fights and crowds that ensues. Crazy Americans.

Trine, Teresa and Teri: The Three Ts :D

Teresa (co-student from Contemporary Media Practice at University of Westminster) came over to visit one weekend while on her trip along the coast with her parents. Teresa is also staying for a year of working holiday in Australia, but will be based in Sydney at first. We had a hell of a weekend going out and introducing her to the wonder that is goon (cheap Australian wine on a box, don’t ask us or them why they call it goon, they just do) and taking her to Buddah Bar where they brew the local Byron Beer (oh yes they have their own beer). We usually prefer to drink a low-carb beer that they until recently called Bimbo (“may I have a schooner (pint) of Bimbo please?” I had fun saying that) but someone complained that it was offensive and they have now changed it to Blonde (I am sad :( ;) ).

Now Christmas has arrived in Byron Bay. We can tell by this wonderful, plastic Christmas tree (pictured above) they have decorated the main road with (oh yes it is as ugly as it looks). We are rather trying to forget that it is Christmas and hope that we can fool ourselves to believe that we are only on a very long summer holiday :D

Right now there is a big school holiday in Australia, which basically means that the entire Gold Coast, especially Byron Bay and Surfer’s Paradise (Aussie’s answer to Miami) are filled to the rim with “schoolies”, also known as 17-18 year-olds. As you can imagine, us now into our twenties don’t find it so amusing to walk around and be reminded of how much of a twat we were only half a decade ago, so we are not all that pleased. What schoolies basically has meant for us is a hell of a lot more police around and everyone being asked for ID. Still, it is a testament to how small this place is when the other day this was one of the main headlines (see picture below).

I for one found it rather sweet that someone would ever write this in bold and put it at the front. But then again the other week one of the newsstories sporting three pictures in the free local newspaper Byron Shire News, was the graduation party of the level 12 pupils of the local high school (and we are talking nice dresses and suits, not robes and funny hats;). This makes us realize just how small Byron is.

Another thing that made us realize how small Byron is, was the other day when Toby took us to Tweed Heads for the day (50 minutes drive north of Byron). He was going to do some team building there with his job and suggested that Henriette and myself go check the city out for a change of scenery.

The first ecstatic moment came when we saw a McDonald’s on the way there!!! Byron only sports a couple of Subways and a lonely Domino’s to prove that there is a world outside it’s borders. The rest is locally owned and run restaurants and cafés, which we appreciate, don't get me wrong, but it was a rather exotic moment to glance upon the big, yellow M again and feel like you were approaching civilization.

see if u can spot the surfers...

There were even tall buildings and shopping malls!!! :D
Henriette and me practically spent all our time in Tweed Heads and the neighbor city Coolangetta (from 8.30-16.30) going through a shopping centre and a shopping street. It was not that we bought anything, but it was just so nice to go through different shops than the ones we trudge through in Byron. And just the mere size of them were astonishing. We did manage to take a little scenic walk however around Point Danger (named so by Captain Cook to warn people of the treacherous rocks below). The ocean was teeming with surfers and they all rather looked like little sea ants from the viewpoint we had (pictured above).


This area is apparently an important stop for professional surfers (as opposed to Byron where there are mostly beginners) with long and unbreakable waves making it possible to surf for upto 1500 metres in one go. It really was a beautiful beach, with Surfer’s Paradise (pictured above) popping out of the sea like a science fiction city in the distance and a lowly Christmas tree (pictured below) trying cheerfully to pretend that the decorations he had been given were any good.


The fun about this place is that the border between New South Wales (NSW, where we are staying) and Queensland (QLD, further north) is just in the middle of Coolangetta. And as we were jumping from one side to the other of the line they had painted up to signify the border (pictured below), we realized that we were actually time travelling, jumping one hour back and then one hour forth again in time because QLD doesn’t have any daylight-saving time so when we were in NSW the time was 12.00. Then we stepped across the line and it was 11.00!! Fun times!!! We heard rumours that there is a pub built exactly over the border and that on New Year’s Eve they simply have two countdowns! Now that would be a fun New Years ;)

Tours have been booked for the end of December, so then we will be getting out of here and we are quite happy to. Byron Bay is, as I have stated a lot in this entry, a very small city and can only be interesting for so long. We have gotten to know loads of fun people, but now we feel ready to travel and see some more of this vast country.

I would like to point out that this was originally a half a page entry, which has now turned into two. Hope it isn’t too long for anyone, I must obviously enjoy writing these ;)

Cheeky Monkeys, Muffins and Friends

We have acquired some places in town where we are regular costumers. I already mentioned Bohemia, a café where we get free wireless, an excellent cup of latte (or chai tea latte if you’re like me) and on Saturday we indulge in one of their succulent muffins.

Mars and caramel muffin. Let me say no more. Words cannot describe them.

We are also quite frequently to be found in the backpacker pub/nightclub, which is called Cheeky Monkeys (pictured above). This is where all backpackers come on their travels through Byron Bay, mostly due to the cheap food and alcohol. We often come here and have dinner, which we can sometimes get for $2 (£1, 10NOK), or burger and beer for $5 (£2.50, 25NOK), which is way cheaper than making it yourself and it actually is a decent size meal. Downside is that we get tempted to stay and dance on their tables, which were especially made to be danced on (it is essentially their dance floor). Another reason to come here is their themed evenings (they have a new theme every day). Our favorite is Saturday which is ladies night (a glass of free champagne to the ladies) which includes an Amateur Male Strip Show (pictured below) , which can be quite entertaining (if you can see anything behind all the guys cheering their mates on).

A couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend partying with some lovely Swedish girls (Camilla pictured with me below, Jessica in mustache) who were traveling around the world in 3 months. Henriette was very excited about speaking Norwegian again and they were quite good at understanding us (Swedish people can sometimes be a bit stupid when it comes to understanding Norwegian) although they were surprised that we had absolutely no problems understanding what they said cause they had to pay strict attention to catch everything we said. They have now moved on to New Zealand where they are complaining about the cold and longing back to the warmth of Byron ;).




Our token “out-on-the-town” buddies are Christina (22 year-old actress/creative writer born in Fiji, raised in UK and Australia) and Emily (21 year-old Brit from near Nottingham). They are both absolutely crazy (pictured below, Emily is the blond, Christina the strapless one), which of course is a lot of fun. They both work here in Byron in a coffee shop and pub respectively. We have also started to hang out with one of our fellow Travel Bug, Teri from Chicago, who is perhaps the most American girl we have ever met in our lives, but she is very sweet.



Both of us are currently saving as much money as we possibly can without being completely confined to the house watching films (cause is TV reception) and eating noodles (we need to have SOME fun), and Australia is proving quite cheap food wise so thus far it is looking good. The only thing which is straining on us is the cost of sun lotion (they hardly sell below SPF 30 here, so it is important that we use lotion, especially Henriette ;) and also the fact that the two weeks worth of clothing we brought with us is now starting to get on our nerves. We can honestly say that we hate every single item we brought with us because we wear them ALL the time. And clothes is not something we feel we can spend our hard earned dollars on. The one thing we have purchased ourselves is a pair each of thongs (also known as slippers/sandaler, pictured below). Because we walk so much we felt it was an appropriate “waste” of money. The big thing within the Australian thong market is Havaianas, an extremely popular brand, which only costs a whooping $30 (£15/150 NOK) compared to Europe where they go for £40/399 NOK. Down here everyone seams to be sporting a pair of Havaianas in one shape or form, even little kids.

Henriette requests that it is pointed out that she has indeed new Havaianas, although the picture shows her old slippers currently on their forth year. It is just, like so many things, that the new ones (which are black with slim straps) aren’t quite as perfect on the foot. They will get there ;)

That’s it for now. Unless something remarkable happens, this is what we’ll be doing till Fredrik (my cousin) comes to visit us for Christmas and New Year. Our plans for then are not set yet, but we will be going to the outback at that point. Hopefully the traveling will make for more frequently updated blog.

PS: If anyone are wondering why there are so few pictures of Henriette, it is because she has had some annoying allergies on her eyelids which makes them itchy and red and she doesn't feel like posing for photos at the moment.

Professional Sanitary Personnel and Promotional Staff

Both Henriette and me are sporting two jobs at the moment, and we both work for the same people mostly at the same time. How we are not already sick of each other I don’t know, but it is working remarkably well sharing bed, food, house and jobs.

We have started calling each other “Vikram” from the “Friends” episode where Phoebe creates a fake boyfriend called Vikram to fake that she has had a long-term relationship so that her new boyfriend isn’t scared off. The idea is that after a year together we will practically have been in a long term relationship, although a fake one, so we can be each other’s Vikram if it is ever needed (since none of us has had a long term relationship before). Explaining this has just made me realize how much information there can be in one piece of internal humor between two people.

Never mind.

Our main job is cleaning holiday apartments for a cleaning company called Jelly Beans. They are starting up a department here in Byron Bay after becoming relatively successful along the Gold Coast. Currently they have only hired the two of us, and Amy (pictured above) who is a lovely 21 year-old from Tasmania who moved over here with her sister. The three of us have become quite the little team of super cleaners going through an entire house with tremendous speed. The apartments or houses we clean are mostly gorgeous which makes it just the more satisfying to clean them. A perk of the job is that we are allowed to take any food left behind (obviously we only take unopened stuff but that has so far included a pack of 12 eggs, a bottle of wine and a packet of cone ice cream so we’re doing quite well from that privilege).

Our boss is called Hamish and is a recently separated man with two children. He has lately gotten into the habit of texting us in the morning changing the time of our cleanings right before we do them, which has gotten a bit tedious, but he is otherwise a good boss, always smiling. We do wish the job would require us for more hours a week then we are currently getting, but with the summer coming up we are assured that we will get busier and more money will be rolling in.

www.travelbugstore.com.au

Our second job is for a traveling company called Travel Bugs who cater mostly for backpackers such as ourselves. The job involves standing outside the shop and give out flyers that allow backpackers and students 30 minutes free internet access. We are also encouraged to chat to people about their travels and we are given an extra hour pay if we help them make a sale. They mostly sell skydiving, surfing lessons and trips to Fraser Island and the Whitsunday islands. These two places are where most backpackers seem to be heading. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and has loads of fresh water lakes on it where you can swim. Most backpackers hire a four-wheel drive and spend two days driving around the island. You can’t however swim in the sea off the island, as it is a nesting place for tiger sharks. The Whitsundays is a cluster of islands off Great Barrier Reef. The most common thing to do is sail from island to island because staying on one of the islands themselves can cost you about $2000 (£1000, 10 000NOK) a night. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to experience these places, but currently they are not on our to-do list.

The job at Travel Bugs isn’t lucrative as we only get paid $10 an hour and HAVE TO spend it in Travel Bugs. This might sound like a bad thing, but we have found that it forces us to save for travels, which essentially is what we are here for. The shifts are also short, only 3 hours long, but believe us both when we tell you we couldn’t have lasted a second longer than 3 hours as Byron Bay isn’t a big town and you find yourself constantly asking the same people over and over again. The job is however a good way to meet new travelers and locals. Walking down the street we practically recognize everyone we walk past or at least they are all vaguely familiar, which can be a little frustrating since we never remember if we actually spoke to them or if they have just passed us.

Living it up in Lilli Pilli

Our apologies for the late update. We have been settling into our daily routine and believed our landlord when he said he would get broadband set up soon. Now we have come to realize that this will more than likely not happen anytime soon (and we’re not sure we want it to because currently he only stays at the house for a night or two a week which means we have a whole house to ourselves which is nice, if he suddenly were to get internet it would probably mean he would stay here a lot more). So we have come to the conclusion that we will just have to drag our laptops into town and use the free internet we have discovered at the local pub, The Beach Hotel, and our favorite café, Bohemia. Now make sure you have done all the washing up and that you have a steaming cup of hot coffee or tea and some yummy chocolate biscuits in front of you cause this is bound to be an entry of vast length (Again I will divide it up so that it is easier to read and there will be loads of pictures).

We are currently sharing a bed in 41 Lilli Pilli Drive, a one story, lodge looking kind of house.

Here we share kitchen, living room and bathroom with Toby (the bald one in the picture below), a 29 year-old Aussie who works in an old people home and trains to become a fighter (?).

Toby is a weird specimen of a man. He is very clean (cleans the house before we can manage to get to it), folds our clothing on the line, talks in one syllable words and he worked for 7 years as a cook, and has so far made us four delicious dinners. Most notably among them was when he came home on a Sunday and made us a full on Sunday roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and chili with gravy and a delicious cut of meat which neither me or Henriette could pin point what was. It looked like beef, but tasted more of pork. Toby had the biggest grin on his face when he revealed, after we finished eating, that we had indeed eaten a kangaroo. Henriette was slightly troubled by the experience, and sad that she had eaten a cute little Skippy. Carnivorous me wanted to know where I could get some more of that meat cause that was the most tender and succulent cut I have had in ages! Mmmmmmm! :D

Toby also has a car, which can be useful as the walk into town is 27-45 min (on 27 minutes we practically ran), a walk we generally do back and forth at least once a day. The bad location is worth it in the end as our rent is next to nothing and because we in essence have a whole house to ourselves. The only problem is that we get spoiled by the space, which means whenever our landlord actually comes here (which sometimes includes girlfriend, his 3 year-old son, two daughters and eldest daughter’s boyfriend) it can get really crowded and we get really annoyed. Especially because we never know, until we see their cars in the driveway, if they are coming or not, and if you’ve had a long day doing two different jobs and walking back and forth into town, you don’t want a hyperactive 3 year-old dragging you into the spider (pictured below) and snake infested woods to hunt for Captain Hook (although at times it’s quite fun).

We had another incident in the house worth mentioning. One day we came home to an empty house (yay!) and I started preparing dinner while Henriette went to the bathroom. Suddenly I hear a piercing scream and Henriette comes running out of the bathroom in a panic. I immediately jump to the conclusion that there is some form of innocent bug in the bathroom and bounce to the rescue (by Henriette’s tremor and wide-eyed look of fear, it was bound to be a big one, pictured above).

Looking into the bathroom I can’t see a bug at all but an absolutely massive Iguana snuggling on the floor (pictured below). He generally wanders around outside, we’ve named him Sigurd and his female counterpart Gudrun. Henriette hadn’t seen it at first when she came into the bathroom and had turned around after washing her hands to face the big, green monster. That would have startled me too. We were hungry so we just left it in the bathroom and while we ate Gary, our landlord, came home and dragged it out by its tail. By the way, a running iguana is one of the funniest images I have ever seen in my life, especially when it runs into glass doors as well.

Later Toby revealed that he had spent 20 minutes ushering the iguana into the bathroom to scare us. Henriette was not so amused, and I can’t believe he LEFT the house and missed the uproar!?! I am surprised he wasn’t sitting there with a tub of popcorn and a beer grinning his face off when we came home urging us into the bathroom.

Byron Bay aka Paradise

So we had reached the surfer's paradise, Byron Bay (picture above)

With no hostels open at this time in the morning, AND our very heavy backpacks, we ended up just sitting outside a YHA (youth hostel association) hostel till one of the management came and took pity on us and allowed us to sleep in the TV room till he opened his reception. We were accompanied by Melrose the cat :D

We have both agreed that if we should ever go on a trip that is of a 2-3 month kind, we will NEVER pack more than 10 kg each because after walking for about 15 minutes with 15 kg PLUS small backpack, it becomes unbearable to carry these things around. Also laptops are a no no if you are not planning to stay put in one place for significant amounts of time, VERY heavy to drag around.

As much as we appreciated YHA for letting us in, we realized quickly we had to get to a different hostel. It would have been a great place if we were on a vacation, but since we are looking for jobs and a place to stay we needed our sleep, and in a party hostel with drunken people wandering in and out arguing about cigarettes, it becomes difficult.

We booked ourselves into Arts Factory Lodge, which is a 10 min walk outside Byron Bay central (also called cluster of restaurants and shops. There are only 9000 inhabitants in Byron Bay, the rest are tourists/backpackers/surfers) where we managed to get a “two-bed-tent-kind-of-thing” (pictured above) by a lake and some trees for the same price as YHA. We can now hear birds singing (some of them in a weird manner by the way), hear turkeys walking around outside and cicadas chirping. The quiet and calm is tangible. We LOVE it!!! `We did however have a girl last night who drunkenly thought our tent was hers twice during the night, but that was mildly amusing and expected on a Saturday for one of Australia’s most popular student and backpacker destinations with an infamous night life.

We are saving it for after we’ve had a job for a while ;)

On our first day in Byron Bay, we went on a viewing about a 50 minutes walk from central. A dad, ex-DJ, and his 3 year-old were renting out two double bed rooms in their house. If we shared one double bed this would mean 87,50AUSD (about 500 NOK/£50) a week in rent (AMAZING). So we turned up the charms (pictured above...:D no I jus promised Henriette to add some pictures of me and not just her) and Henriette dragged out her nanny skills and bonded with the kid, and later that evening we had a place to stay from Monday. The long walk to central will be the only issue we have to deal with, the rest was perfect. This family man also has two daughters who live with their mum, but might come over from time to time. Their other house is in the bush, I thought this house was in the bush since it was surrounded by a jungle, but apparently the bush is where the next neighbor is kilometers away and there are Kangaroos a-jumpin and Koala bears a-fallin out of trees. We hope we are also invited to this place at some point to experience some proper aussie action.

After acquiring a place to stay we have now surged the restaurants, shops and hotels with our respective CV’s and are now waiting for the Sunday to become a Monday so we may get some more CV’s out and possibly some positive responses. Currently there are some nibbles here and there because a school holiday of some sort is coming up and they are in need of people. We’re crossing our fingers.

The Sunday was spent hiking to the Cape Byron Lighthouse (pictured above), the easternmost point of Australia (pictured below) where we got ourselves a good work-out, a tan and experienced wild hunchback whales and dolphins migrating south. It wasn’t up-close, but we saw splashes and fins. The Byron Beach Beach (and the smaller beaches next to it) are absolutely dazzling. White, soft sand makes it feel like we are stepping trough flour and the constant breeze makes the heat bearable. When the sun goes down the warmth goes with it, but we’re hoping that will change as the weather gets slightly warmer with the approaching summer.

Now all fingers crossed for jobs, we need to save some money, and we want to start NOW!

Sydney - the city where we got serious

Get out your popcorn and Coke Zero (official sponsor of our trip, as we have drunk a lot of it), this is going to be a long one. I am gonna split this into two, first Sydney, then Byron Bay. I normally would neglect to write because nothing special has happened. On the contrary loads have happened since the last entry, but a restriction on internet access has made “updating the blog” exchangable with “searching for jobs” and “filing for tax number” which we felt you would understand :D

Now, we arrived in Sydney on the 20^th of September and even though we arrived quite late, we quickly hurried over to the Sydney Harbor to have a look at the bridge and the iconic Sydney Opera House, which were beautifully lit and had loads of teeny tiny seagulls flying around them. The seagulls are disturbingly small, the Norwegian seagulls could eat them as a snack between meals. :D

Our hostel in Sydney is OK. It lacks the charm that made us fall in love with Sleepy Sam’s (Singapore), and we feel more like we are on a conveyor belt in a large factory. There are seven floors (we’re on the sixth which apparently is called South America) and there are loads and loads of people either coming to Australia or leaving. We shared a room with six others where there were new people everyday, although we managed to bond with an Irish girl, Leah, who is very sweet and talks a lot. She is staying in Sydney looking for a job in an office (she remarkably has a major as an accountant, something which we both found astounding, she doesn’t seem like a numbers kind of person at all) so we have made a deal to see her for New Year’s when we are planning on getting back to Sydney to celebrate.

A good thing about our hostel is that it provides guests with a free tour of the city. Thinking this would be a good opportunity to get to know people, and an excellent chance to get a promised pint of lager at the end, we set out expecting the whole thing to take about an hour… how wrong we were… 5 hours later we sat down in the hostel bar (named Sidebar) and took a well deserved break.

Joe, the guide (picture above), gave us a very thorough walk of Sydney and gave us loads of interesting tips (and loads of dry jokes). Apparently we are lucky for coming to Sydney after the Australian bicentennial in 1988 because half of the sights we saw were gifts from nations of the world (or McDonald’s) for that celebration. We had lunch on the stairs of the Sydney Opera House, which is as gorgeous up close as it is on pictures, majestic and stunning, and were told that the designer (apparently Danish) didn’t think of white sails when he designed the opera house, but rather the peal of an orange… You think about that one till I come home and explain it (unsuccessfully;). We also tried out the toilets in the facility, but were disappointed as they were nothing compared to the ones in Orchard Street, Singapore.
Trough the botanical gardens we met cacadoos (above), spiders and flying foxes (aussie for bats, pictured below). The bats were hanging upside down in the trees in broad daylight. Evidently they eat leaves all night, which intoxicates them and hang on the trees drunk all day. We were warned that should we experience a bat falling down, we can laugh oh yes yes, but I it starts crawling towards you, GET THE HELL AWAY!!! Now, bats can’t take off from the ground like a bird, but has to have a drop to be able to fly. If it happens to think your leg is a tree it can crawl up in, you might get infected with a deadly decease that some of them carry. Last girl it happened to was in isolation for two weeks before they were sure she didn’t have the disease.

The rest of our days in Sydney were spent doing practical stuff like taking our RSA’s (a six hour course about alcohol law in New South Wales (NSW). ANYONE serving alcohol needs to have one), getting our Medicare cards (so that we don’t have to pay for a normal doctor’s appointment, which saves time dealing with insurance companies) and bank accounts (Commonwealth; because they have the most ATM’s in Australia and Australia, being a bit behind the times, still charges your account if you withdraw money from another bank’s ATM?!?).

We decided quickly we wanted to get away from Sydney, not because we didn’t love it, because we think it is one of the most gorgeous big cities we have ever seen, but because we DO still think it will be easier to save money in a more rural community. So we bought our train tickets for Byron Bay, a surfers paradise 13 hours north along the east coast, 2 hours from Brisbane. There was a lot of snoring, baby crying and general annoyance on the train (and being the stingy girls we are, we didn’t opt for a bed so were sleeping in a chair) which made it difficult to sleep. But after 13 hours, the last two of which were in a bus with a bright yellow sunrise entertaining us (well at least Trine who was awake), we reached Byron Bay at 5.50 in morning were we are planning to stay for the next 3 months.

Single over en Singapore Sling

Singapore has been a blast and we feel we've managed to cram quite a lot of stuff into our scrummy four night stay. We feel it is the perfect length as long as we can't do any shopping anyway (considering both money and luggage space).

Our first night I had my first meeting with the dreaded jet lag monster, consequently making me wake up after two hours sleep thinking it was morning and then being unable to fall asleep when I again woke up at 4 am. However, I am pleasantly surprised at how soothing the 5.40 am prayer from the Mosque is, considering all the complaining I have heard from other people. The guy who is singing the prayers must be a really good one ;)

On our first day we walked (with some mishaps and detours) from our lovely little hostel to the central Singapore area with the Marina and the iconic skyline. The cute thing about Singapore is how the big, massive skyscrapers (the tallest one being the Swissotel where they hold a vertical marathon every year up the hotel stairs, maybe a new challenge for you Pappa ;) and the picturesque colonial houses live side by side (picture above). It's also very colourful everywhere. Everyone paints their houses a different colour and even some of the apartment complexes are sporting bright colours.

Just looking around and getting to know the city was basically our day. We were both still very tired from the flight and were still adjusting to the insane humidity and constantly swooped into shopping centers for that life saving extreme air condition chill they set up in there. We had ourselves a pint and a meal by the riverbank where there was a row of colonial houses used as restaurants, pubs and bars. Gorgeous! (picture above)

Later that evening we joined our roomie Natalie (York, UK) for the Nightsafari in the zoo (picture above). It was an amazing experience and can be recommended to everyone who comes here. It was so relaxing and quiet to walk through the spotlighted paths. Especially the bat enclosure was exciting as the bats were free to roam and they were absolutely humongous (the size of a rather large fat seagulls) and when they were flapping their wings there was loads of screaming (you just don't want that to fly into your hair, especially mine where it could get stuck;). We were the last ones to leave the park at midnight, but before we left we had a 5 min. spa with a type of doctor fish (picture below). The fish eat dead skin cells off your feet and apparently this is exfoliating to the skin and a natural spa treatment. It tickled as hell, especially the larger fish when they nibbled under your feet, but kinda felt like putting your feet in a bubble bath with tiny bubbles. The funny thing was they all really seemed to enjoy my feet the best (another woman next to me had only about 5 on her feet, mine were covered) which should probably tell me to use some more moisturizer on my feet :D The staff even managed to convince Henriette to put her feet in with the fish, even though she started off being very very skeptical :D

For dinner we went to a food court where they sold Singaporean specialties. It's called a hawkers market and the food they sell is the kind you find in the street stands (just under more hygienic surroundings) Really cheap to eat there, a full plate would be somewhere around 4-6SGD (which is about 20-30 kroner or £2-3).

On our second day we were refreshed after a good night sleep and wandered up to Orchard Road which is the main shopping street. Here we found a really beautiful shopping center, really up-market and luxurious, where we ventured into the toilets and found that we could get a wash while we went. A button would spray you down there and another would dry you :D it cause a lot of giggling and some screaming, but was a hilarious experience. There were also escalators on the outside of the building (picture below) which was fun for me, but Henriette realized suddenly that she is afraid of heights and experience vertigo so was looking mildly scared as we went up.

This was also the day we decided to take the trip to Raffles hotel find the Long Bar and sit down and have a Singapore Sling (picture below) (apparently consists of gin, cherry brandy, orange juice, pineapple juice and limejuice) and eat peanuts still in the shell and throw it on the floor. Good times. Although the drink did set us back 27SGD (135kr, £13.50), but it was worth it :D The guy behind the bar says he makes hundreds of Singapore Slings every day and that next week when the Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 is on, he's gonna make about 1000. Very hectic. The Formula 1 here is apparently the only one that runs during the night and it runs through the streets of Singapore (loads of construction workers putting up stands and railings everywhere). Unfortunately it isn't till the 25th of September, so we just miss it :(

We then ventured into Chinatown and had a looksie at a Hindu ritual in the Sri Mariamman temple and covered our bare shoulders (and Henriette's long legs) to go into a massive Buddhist temple where there loads of figurines everywhere. The ones in the photo are supposed to protect people born in the year of the Ox and Tiger. Everywhere people were burning random things in front of their stores, so at last curiosity overtook and we had to ask someone. Apparently it is the end of month 7 and you burn stuff to wish for more money/business for your shop. We thought we mite try that at home ;)

At dinner we started chatting to some 50-60 year old Singaporeans (ethnic Thai) and although some of their English wasn't good we had a blast and they even managed to convince us to join them for karaoke. Here there were more people our age and we ended up staying till the bitter end, both me and Henriette sporting the microphone at some point or another (because no one can be worse than the Asians when it comes to karaoke) and there was a lovely atmosphere, just us two Europeans and locals :D Random, but good night :D Only bad thing was we missed Natalie leaving because we stayed out late. She was traveling on to Malaysia. We now have an old German woman as our roommate, and she is a bit weird.

Today we've been taking it slow and just did a sightseeing bus trip. The world's largest water fountain (Fountain of Wealth) was turned off. I was gutted. Judging by the size of the hole and the fact that there is a food court belonging to a shopping centre around the bottom, it would have been a spectacular sight. We were supposed to meet up with the Norwegians we met on the plane (actually we've planned that every day) but something has always come up and we have now agreed to meet in Sydney (they will join us in 3 days) where we will be staying at the same hostel and we just can't possibly have another excuse ;)

Now we are packing and preparing for our departure at 6.30 am for Sydney and we are both looking forward to finally reach Australia.

Finally in Singapore

After 13 hours on a rather huge British Airways Jumbojet, which sported fancy sleeping cubicles (although none of that luxury for us) we have now finally landed in humid, sweaty and lovely Singapore. We have now been travelling for over 24 hours and are starting to feel the strain. The long flight was made short by us falling asleep for about 7 of the 13 hours and although our feet are swollen and our asses are aching, we consider the flight to have been not so bad. :D

Already on the flight from Oslo to London we stumbled upon four other Norwegians, all of them 21 from Stavanger and a girl from Fredrikstad who also were going to Singapore (for a week) and then to Sydney for a year of Working Holiday. This is when we stopped feeling special. We exchanged information and are meeting up with them tomorrow to tag along when they have a local friend show them around. They had a hotel in the prostitute area, we on the other hand have opted for a hostel, Sleepy Sam's (picture below) about £10 pr nite (100 kroner) including wireless internet and breakfast. Alright we share the room with 4 other girls and there is a communal shower and toilet AND we are situated right next to a mosque (picture above) which has already greated us with some Arabic prayers, but I'd still say that is value for money.

Cutest thing was we had to take off our shoes in the hallway before entering the hostel :D

We have now made friends with a British girl in our room, travelling Asia for 3 months on her own, and we might join her tomorrow for a Night Safari at the local (apparently world reknown) zoo.

Did I mention this place has aircondition? Think we'd die without it!!!

Right outside our door is a little pedestrian street (gågate) with restaurants and shops. We are now going out for a bite to eat (neither of us really keen on the airplane cousine (I was thinkin of giving it to you Hannah;), although the British breakfast we were served this morning was edible. Now we want something proper :D and then we'll go exploring the area before we have a nice sleep in beds, BEDS oh yes beds not a chair!!!! :D:D:D

By the looks of this gorgeous city there will soon be loads of pictures to enjoy :D

C u soon!!!

Singling from Trine and Henriette
(from the local dialect singapore + english = singlish;)