The Szewczyk's

Never been to Ibiza, never been to Napa so why in hell did we end up in the Aussies version Kuta in Bali! Tacky tourists, loads of people selling crap, loud, obnoxious, hundreds of crazy people on scooters playing ping-pong with pedestrians. Why would Aussies come here? The beach is filthy, full of litter and with a layer of brown foam on the sea (people were swimming in there!) the sane stuck to swimming pools. It is the cheap booze and drugs, but still.. Why, its not that cheap?!!

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We wont lie, we did have a good night out with some 'local Aussies'. Well when Sky Garden is offering free booze, snacks and fire throughout entertainment (they aren't stupid it is to get the crowd in at 11pm and again at 2am for 1 hour) why would you say no!

So why did we end up here for 4 nights? - We arrived in Bali, Indonesia at 12 midnight with our hostel owner holding a sign with our name at the airport (free pick-up! great) we arrive at this nice secluded area with several huts, started chatting to an Aussie for 3 hours and then decided it was bed time at 3am. We did our usual bed bugs check and there they were and so we left. The party town Kuta was the only place open at 3am, so that is where we headed and checked ourselves in.

The next day we rapidly realised there was no way to get around the island apart from scooters and taxis, too dangerous or too expensive. We had no options but to stay, see the Bali as quickly as we could and get out before Silent Day. The Hindus in Bali believe on the 5th March demons come to Bali and if they see a light they will attack - this is very serious, no one is allowed to leave their house (or hotel) and no lights or candles are allowed to be lit. As we drove around the island a few days before we saw villagers getting ready for their biggest festival with a competition for the best demon statue, hand made from bamboo and wood, scary demons up to 5m tall. Fascinating looking at all these statues that they spend so much time and effort into building – just to burn them!
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We were warned numerous of times about the monkeys at the temples. Our first stop Ulu Watu at sunset. Within seconds a monkey grabbed our camara case right out of Chris' hand and ran up a tree, then a nice old lady tried to lure the monkey to give back the case which it eventually did. Of cause this was all a set up, the lady wanted payment in return for the case, typical! This was the same nice old lady who was offering us free nuts to feed the monkeys, even tough we didn't take any, it was the perfect opportunity for the monkeys to take anything from us. Fighting through the monkeys we made our way to watch the most traditional story in Bali and to our surprise is was Ramayana, the same story told in Indian, Thai and Malay when we were in Singapore. This was a brilliant performance with lots of bright and scary (bad characters) costumes, chanting, singing and slightly comical show even playing with fire.

With the only realistic way for us to see Bali we booked ourself on a day tour around Bali. Finally, we see what Bali really has to offer, villagers working in bright green rice terraces, temples at every corner – with over 10,000 temples there are said to be more temples than homes in the small150km wide and 110km north to south island. We then enjoyed the serenity of one of the many spice garden and tried lots of locally grown tea and coffee (Gingeng coffee was our favourite), including the Kopi luwak where the coffee berries have been eaten and then pooped by the Civit cat. It tasted like any other coffee to us but is the most expensive and lowest production coffee with a taste like no other, very rich and smooth, (apparently these cats odours are also used in perfumes!). We had a filling lunch with a great view overlooking volcano Butar in a misty sky, maybe we took too long enjoying the view but unfortunately we did not have enough time to see 2 out of 3 of the temples we were promised! typical, they wasted time taking us to all the markets and artisan shops first!

With an early transfer out of Bali we head to Gili Air, a 'relaxing' island for eating, drinking and diving.....what could go wrong with that?

So here we are in Asia. It’s hard to say it; we are in the last leg of our journey with only 5 months to go, all within Oriental Asia. What better way to start it than in an English speaking city where everyone is super polite, named one of the best cities for good food, free city wifi access (everywhere) and it is really cheap, clean and a great transport system, a dream city! Singapore.

This little island is a perfect mix of the modern and the ancient. Walking around the city on our first day we were amazed at the unusual architecture, a boat floating on top of 3 skyscrapers right next to a ball with the top cut out (ok you have to see it).

This was a stunning and stark contrast to messy Asian markets and tiny windy streets with Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim Temples right next to each other with the masses praying.

Of cause the first thing Michal had to do was buy a Netbook to fit is with all the locals addicted to being connected and gaming, we even saw a 4 year old girl glued to her Iphone playing a game.

Later that day we met a friend, Eng Cher, who we met in Argentina. She gave us our own personal tour of the city and introduced us to the underground world of Singapore. You can travel pretty much get anywhere in the city by the dizzying interlinking shopping centers, good idea considering it was either 30c and very humid or pouring down with rain every day at 5pm.

Oh, did we mention the food… The days in Singapore just disappeared as we walked from food court to market stalls trying all the different food. Chris’s curiosity for weird food was finally satisfied. You can walk into any Hawker centre and with a few pounds keep tasting dishes for hours.

The one thing everyone undoubtedly recommends while in Singapore is Singapore Zoo, definitely worth the visit. As a cage-less zoo it felt more like a wildlife park, with the animals grouped and set up with the plants of the country they came from. There’s something about turning the corner and seeing a 500kg Rhinoceros or a lion on your footpath. This is of course an illusion as there’s a large ditch protecting you, but nevertheless a surreal experience. They had such an assortment of different monkeys….and with some roaming the grounds, Chris managed to lure one of the cute little monkeys as it looked at her curiously and took the flowers to eat.

As always the rain hit at 5pm and although most the monkeys where clever enough to get shelter some came out to look at the one silly girl getting drenched as Chris was determined to see the whole Zoo.

This Zoo also offers a night safari, where you see the nocturnal animals. No, this is not the same zoo at night, the Singaporeans actually built a completely separate zoo for this. It’s definitely worth the visit - lions looking hungrily at you, flying squirrels running around gingerly and bats just barely missing you as they fly after mosquitoes.

Eng Cher also took us to something off the beaten track to a part of Singapore impossible to get to without your own car to see the firing of the entire 10m Chinese dragon kiln. This is the first time the entire kiln was fired in 4 years. This 2 week event brought all pottery lovers together with a real community feel sharing experiences and information and a BBQ, no sales pitch.

Our final day seeing the city was the museums, proud of their mixed ethnicity and culture (70% Chinese, 15% Malay, 7% Indian and the rest other), a museum was celebrating the origins of it’s mixed heritage and the Peranakan people (Singaporeans of mixed ethnicity). We had the opportunity of seeing a popular legend, Ramayana story, about the good and bad which was re-enacted in Thai, Indian and Malay dancing, singing and acting. The colourful costumes stunned us, but what we truly found amazing was the Indian version which had some serious acting and strong facial expressions. We almost regretted not having India in our itinerary this time round.

Singapore was “founded” by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles the 1st European/ British who visited the island in 1819 to set up a more accessible trading route between Europe, India and China. Europeans ended up staying here for 6 months to avoid the monsoon season so a small hotel was built for them - the Raffles hotel. Although it's now one of the most expensive hotels in Singapore and Michal did get a discouraging look we did manage to get in and have a look at their museum which covered weird tidbits like an egg cup “borrowed” by one of the guest and returned by one of his children half a century later.

As Eng Cher mentioned, foreigners will always get in! We finally went on her recommendation and in our grubby 7 month backpacker clothes went straight up the 17 floors to an exclusive bar overlooking Singapore city, where everyone was dressed up. All the interesting architecture was lit up (the boat is in the distance on the top right – a city viewing point above a casino where only foreigners are allowed in for free and locals are discouraged to gamble with a $50 fee). We saw the amazing views, then looked at the prices of the drinks and quickly left. We can get a nice cheap Bintang (Beer) right next to our hostel.

The Australian wave – a method of getting rid of flies near your face. These aren't the kind of polite flies you get in Europe, which leave you for a couple of minutes if not more when you wave them on. No, these pesky b*£$%£$rds come back to the same spot almost instantaneously. We were doing Australian windmills at some point while desperately running to and from the car and point of interest. And the cork hats are a big myth, as nothing but a full bee-keeper suit will give you some protection.

But through your waving hands you can peek at some pretty amazing sights. We started off in Perth and drove inland to Hyden. This is true outback scenery with red sand and forever stretching roads with just bare bush land stretching as far as the horizon. There we came across Wave Rock, a truly unique sight created by underground weathering.

Right next door to it as a cave full of aboriginal hand paintings.

Then we headed south through what could only be described as an outback version of the Norwegian Vigelands park. Hundreds of these statues were stationed among the road and provided ample entertainment in the rather boring country side drive.

We eventually ended up on the coast in Albany. The scenery here is stunning, the best we have seen in Australia. Turquoise clear waters splash against flour like white sand surrounded by dramatic cliff edges. You can see the sea bed for miles and walking along the cliff edges you can even spot the outlines of large fish or sharks.

Then there's the natural art – bridge rock and elephant rocks and again hardly any people in sight.

And forests where you can park your car in the tree. Well you used to before they realise the weight of the cars kills the roots and eventually the tree, so now you're not allowed. And Caves road where there are hundreds of caves one of which was found and then lost again for 30 years. We then drove to Margaret river, yet another Australian wine region, but with a chocolate factory with enormous bowl of milk, white and dark chocolate for sampling, so everyone goes around a couple of times pretending to look at their products while busily scoffing down as much as they can. Well what do they expect, its right by the entrance with no one watching!

Heading north of Perth we made our way to Monkey Mia a 10 hour mammoth drive and lucky for us not a mile further north as the highway was closed due to yet another cyclone without any signs warning us of this. Even the flies cannot deter you from the magic of this place, a World Heritage Site, one of the few which covers all 4 criteria (don't know what they are but it sounds Impressive).The most important for us was the Bottle-nose Dolphins which come right up to shore. You can feed these wild Dolphins while they swim around your ankles looking up at you in their 'cute' I want food face! It was so hard not to reach out and touch them. Don't worry, the feeding is under the regulations of the department of conservation and are not fed too much so they lose their ability to hunt.

While we were in the area we also saw some other amazing sites. Shell beach, an original name for a beach where the sand is actually millions of coral sea shells. They're quite small, but the whole place is rather surreal. As we walked through the quarry area for the sea shells used as a building material we came to the oldest living thing on earth Stalimaties, which gave us oxygen! Although these have not survived the 15 billions of years and are only a few thousand years old, it was pretty interesting to see what the sea may have looked like 15 billion years ago and they are only now found in a few areas.

Heading yet further south you stumble upon [name of park]. Following the winding coastal road you are constantly forced to stop to take in the breath taking red cliff tops contrasting with the dark blue sea below. Slightly further south we came across a pink lake. Yes it is actually pink due to some odd algae mix and hopefully not due to locals wanting to get more tourists to visit the location.

Closer to Perth there's the pinnacles, a strange and mysterious forest of limestone columns stretching for miles and only partially uncovered from the sand dunes. While there are several theories, so far no one has actually came up with how these were formed.


As to Perth, well it's a nice city and all, but we only found Kings park to be worthy of a visit. We watched a glorious sunset in Freemantle and could only think what a fitting finish this was to our Australian adventure.

Cancel the scuba diving and the flights! Mother nature really is not kind to us in Oz. After avoiding the floods in Queensland we booked some flights to Cairns to go diving on the reef, which was the one thing we really wanted to do while in OZ, so what next? Cyclone Yasi is in town, the day our ship should be happily sailing off into the ocean the worst cyclone in Australias history is hitting Cairns. Needless to say we didn't quite feel like putting our diving gear in these conditions. Change of plans again...

While we anxiously watched the news a few days before we continued exploring Sydney and got an all day ferry pass and watched the Sydney skyline disappear from all different directions as we made our way to the numerous beaches surrounding the city.

Our last stop was the most unexpected, as we blindly followed recommendations from our Sydney city guide - Cokatoo island. As we arrived on the ferry we all looked at each other in horror - what is this place, it looks like a dump? shall we even get off the ferry? the dump part was a former prison and dockyard and as we walked round the island we were amazed at the untouched historical site so close to Sydney. Then as we turned the corner we saw colourful umbrellas, load music and cocktail shakers flying in the air- yep, a hawaiian style bar, very cool!. The half rusting buildings from the past provide an eerie backdrop to this bar which has an outstanding view of Sydney and harbour bridge. We can definitely see why people rave about the lifestyle here.

Having cancelled our flight to Cairns we're stuck with a flight voucher and no real idea how to spend it. We finally decide the best option would be to visit Tasmania and in the process see Melbourne, but properly this time. We arrive at a hostel in Melbourne and what a shock it was. It's our first hostel on our travels since Auckland and we were met with a massive 10 story building crammed full of backpackers and with very relaxed hygiene standards. awful! so we quickly found alternative accommodation. We were fortunately invited to stay at a friends place. Thanks so much Vicky!

We thought we would have another go at the Great Ocean Road, with the clouds dark and low luckily we didn't... Instead we meandered through the back streets of Melbourne, finding hidden away coffee shops and restaurants and finally completing the museums. That evening we experienced natures fury first hand. Looking outside Vickys window we saw a completely dry street transform into a river within a few minutes as a downpour caused a flash flood and covered cars on the street beyond door level. A friend of Vickys almost got hit by a tree and another ones parents had a ceiling collapse and water in their living room. How much are insurance premiums and how do people live in this country?!?

We finally flew over to Hobart in Tasmania. Our first experience was ending up in a blizzard on top of a small hill near Hobart. It's the middle of summer and the temperature is around 5 degrees and it's snowing, what's going on? (thankfully it didn't last too long). For the first few days we drove east along the coast and saw some large empty beaches, and a rather short by our standards 9 mile beach, but from the tip of it you had a gorgeous 360 degree view of the sea. We came across some stunning remote nature spots, a stark contrast to main land Australia. From unusual rock formations on the beach to sheltered serene lagoons. The most unique spot in Tasmania was Eaglehawk neck, where stresses in the earths crusts have created natures version of a pavement.

Going through another wine district in the north (the cheese tasting was much better) and a roadside bushfire - another Australian peril, we made our way around the tiny island and saw the vast amounts of road kill everywhere - kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, possums, everything nicely flattened by the side of the road. A guide in one of the national parks even told us off for wanting to drive at night. In this country even cute cuddly wombats are attempting to assassinate you. Driving at dusk has it's advantages as it means you have your own private wild life show, which we did several times driving slowly and braking a lot.

Our next stop was the 'nicest' national park in Taz, Cradle Mountain, There are some fairly nice views with walks, but the most spectacular view was at the starting point of the walk, so sort of defeats the point of the walk! Oh well, it was good to get out of the car for a day.

Apart from road kill and late night road safaris we also saw a lot of wildlife up close in national parks. We got too close for Michals comfort to at least two snakes (someone also told us a large tiger snake crossed the path just after where we went) and Chris spent hours taking pictures of Echidnas, wombats and wallabies which didn't seem to mind the paparazzi attention. The wildlife here is by far to most active we have seen in our travels.

As everything closes at 5pm we also came across some great accommodation deals by pure chance. There's no feeling like getting a deluxe sea front room or an apartment surrounded by amazing mountainside views for the same amount as we would pay for dorms in bigger cities. These posh accommodations was by far one of our highlights in Taz.

"Mummy, look at that cute baby tent! It must be for kids to play in". Then us 3 crawl out of it to leave the kid scarred for life. Fellow campers winking at Michal, all 3 in that tent? and smiling back at Chris and Katie. Yep, this comment followed us throughout our trip. It really did look bigger than it seemed, promise!

Not another road trip and camping! But this time we have a third in our 3 man tent, our adopted second wife - Katie. We will now be reaching a new level of acceptable hygiene - with friends.

Our first stop up the coast was Newcastle, a town that Lonely Planet has named one of the top ten places to visit for 2011. Arriving at 4.30pm we were met with a town that was pretty much closed so we had to hit the road to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Lonely Planet may have been confused with Newcastle-upon-Tyne or they got paid a lot of money... let the conspiracy theories emerge!

The only thing Newcastle has to offer is Blackbutt Reserve where we got to see the most active koalas we have seen making them a lot cuter. They normally just sit in the tree completely unresponsive to the world around them not surprising as they are nocturnal, drugged up on eucalyptus leaves and need to eat loads of them to get the smallest amount of energy. Katie tried but failed to feed an emu (there is a video to be entered into evidence) and we saw wombats, numerous native parrots and snakes (this time behind bars), not bad for 2 pounds. We then headed to Nobby’s Beach, the prettiest part of the town, although the massive industrial port backdrop was off putting it was interesting watching the big tankers being transported into the narrow port.

The night – we stayed at Watagans National Park, not the best move as Michal is petrified of snakes and Katie of spiders. Katie slept in between a married couple out of fear with every sound outside equating to something worse than it probably was, the noises were very loud and we will never know what was out there, apart from the wild turkey who joined us for dinner. No, we didn't eat it although the thought did cross our minds.

After a few wine tasters at Hunter Valley, famous for its Chardonnay, Shiraz and some great views of the valley, we headed to Port Stephens to see Nelson Bay and check out some promising beaches. With everything perfect there was nothing better to do than to spend the day on the several beaches on the peninsular, we took a lovely scenic walk along Fingal Bay where we splashed our way across to an island with the waves crashing into us from both sides.

That night at the campsite we enjoyed our BBQ with wine a-flowing, a possum that bit Chris' finger and the friendly resident Kangaroo and Koala.

With an uneventful day we found ourselves at the Smokey Cape Beach campsite, one of the most perfect campsites (OK no showers and with drop toilets which Chris had to hold Katies hand to pee) but we watched the sun set over the beach with a lukewarm pizza and wine and as the spectacular stars and galaxies began to appear... there comes a a few heads popping out of the sea, no - they are in a boat and the waves are knocking them out. After reaching land, they bring out a couple of 2 meter long fish. Wow that was a sight, they said they had free dived to 20m and caught the fish, but almost lost them all as the boast was close to capsizing on the waves. Amazing.

After being unimpressed by Coffs Harbours' claim to fame - the Big Banana, we hammered it up to Byron Bay. So it is touristy but it has a nice hippy vibe and lovely coastal views. We decided it was time, after watching those massive waves crash over the suffers we fearfully booked our surfing lesson. As soon as we saw the surf board which was literally 2 time the size of Chris and Katie we thought there was no way we would be able to stand for the 40m they promised or your money back. Anyway, we got into the water and with the help of the guide we were off, OK a lot of the time not standing but Chris did manage to stand at least 6 times and Michal took to it like a true surfer boy.

Well, with no sings of flooding and having got this far north, we decided what the hell and went over the border to Queensland and onto Surfer’s Paradise. Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast is very much like Miami, sun, sea, sand and lots of high rises. It was a good mix, with a fresh atmosphere and great place to enjoy Australia Day, 26th Jan. We started off watching a surfing competition on Burleigh Heads with the 3 best junior surfers in the world doing tricks, making it look so easy. With a stroll down Surfers Paradise beach and shops and everyone covered head to toe with the Aussie flag, we felt a little sad St. Georges day is not celebrated in the same way.

The best bit though was an event hosted by Gold Coast City Council where we got to see a rodeo with bucking broncos (amazing) and bull riding, with lots of other family activities - Chris finally got to see a sheep sheering and Michal finally drawing up the courage to touch a snake (although some cruel people think it's only to seem brave in front of the little kids).


Our final night was spent in Nimbin, famous for its general hippy commune ambiance and everything that comes with it. Great place where you can have some rather odd and intriguing conversations with people, but almost everyone is on acid.

No sign of flooding yet except for some minor damage, but now it looks like there's a cyclone around the corner...