Goodbye Singapore, g’day Brisbane

After two weeks in Singapore, we finally went on our way to Brisbane, our first stop in Australia.  After hot and humid Singapore, and hot and humid Thailand, Brissie is a more than welcome change, here it’s just hot.

Singapore Airport
Our flight from Singapore to Brisbane was at 9pm, so after a slow day we left our beloved Prince of Wales hostel at about 5pm, not knowing that it was rush hour.  Backpacking through the Singapore subway, sweating, stinking, crammed together…  not much fun for our fellow passengers.  There were four of us that had to go to Changi Airport and we had to take three different subs to the airport.  We wanted to check in fast so we could grab a bite to eat, but some asian jackass at the checkin counter decided that he would triple check our Australian visa’s, we weren’t even in Australia yet!  At ten to 9 he FINALLY cleared us, so no food and pissed as hell we got on the plane.

Qantas Airways
On the plane, a seven hour flight, we were looking forward to the entertainment set on board.  Every seat has a plasma screen in the back so you can view a nice selection of movies on demand during the flight.  The plane took of, Tom switched his screen on, nothing… They resetted our screens four times, still nothing… So Tom had the opportunity to listen to the sound of engines for seven hours! 

Welcome Brisbane
From the airport in Brisbane we took a train to the city centre, still not sure how to get there.  BUT, the weather was awesome.  Compared to Singapore you can at least breathe normally.  It’s still as hot as hell, but less humid.  We’re still stinking, but that’s because we urgently need to wash our clothes.
After a few detours we arrived at the Brisbane City Backpackers Hostel where we would stay for the next seven days.  We booked in advance, not knowing it’s ‘The Ashes’, an anually held, 5 day long cricketgame between England and Australia…  So our dorm is full of English drunks who have a lot of tattoo’s and we’re all very afraid of them, really, they’re huge and all look like they didn’t stood first in line when God decided to give people a brain.

So Cricket…
Remember when in Belgium, cricket was on BBC and you quickly changed to a more important program?  Like some guy promoting a new set of knives that can cut through a coke can? 
Cricket is the most complicated and unnecessary game in the world.  It looks like some gay version of baseball, some examples:

They all dress in white polo-shirts (that’s making a bold fashion statement)

They swing the bat just like a gay guy would (that’s coming out of the closet, in front of 40,000 people)

They throw the ball like they have some birth defect (that’s just funny)

Even the colour of the ball matches the colourscheme of what they wear (that’s sooo gay)

But it’s big in Australia, and when someone tried to explain the rules to us we looked like some cow standing in the field, chewing some grass, taking a dump…  it can’t be done, it must be like an extra chromosome they all have…

Going Out in Brisbane
Like the cabdriver told us last night when we looked at a absolutely gorgeous girl: ”There’s a lot of talent in Brisbane the last few months”.  We nodded along.  Seriously, you either got real fat talents or absolutely stunning talents, luckily the first ones don’t come out at night.
Apparently going out in Brisbane is a big thing.  Everybody dresses up, looks their best and there we are, in our best ‘who farted?’ t-shirt, trying to prove that Belgium has the best beer in the world.  Little known fact by the way, Australian people hardly ever drink Foster’s, in Brisbane they drink ‘XXXX’, a Brisbane brewed beer.  It smells like the devil himself ate five plates of beans and decided ‘to let it all go’. 
On our first night we went to a annualy held Beach Party, Australian style, drunk… Our second night we stayed in the hostel pub, drunk, the third night we had some nice wine together with Himalayan food (fancy name for Indian food with herbs that don’t mix), still… a little drunk.  Our livers are protesting right about now, they even held a petition demanding we would slow down.  So today, healthy exercise and hiking!

Koala’s and kangaroo’s
When in Rome…  we just had to see some kangaroo’s and koala bears so we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  (pictures will be up tomorrow)  And alpha males as we are, we took a lot of pictures of those cute little koala’s…  and some of his friends.  They smell like shit, actually, most things in Australia smell…, but they are sooo cute, just amazing.  The ‘roo’s were cool too, we could just walk among them, pet them, take pictures,…  a really nice experience.

Today going hiking, that should be fun (remember our amazing fitness capabilities when we tried something similar in Thailand?)  Monday we’ll probably rest all day and as of Thursday we should be somewhere in the countryside to harvest something for the next two weeks.

Your Raiders (finally) Down Under

Singapore brawl

About two days ago we were just sitting outside at the POW, seeing this.  We quickly recorded it and asked a professional translator to translate it from Mandarin to English.  We’re not sure if we can trust the translator, but hey… funny time…

Remember Eugene?

Does anybody remember Eugene?  Our New Zealand native that showed us Belgians how a real haka is performed?  Well, the video is up, you can watch it now.  If you want to see more pictures of Eugene in smoking hot action, click here.

And some information for you unknown to ‘the haka’.  The haka is a triballike dance performed by New Zealand rugby team ‘the All Blacks’ at the beginning of the game.

The Thailand experience…

So fourteen days in Singapore is way too long.  Not only is it too hot, everything is so close together you can visit entire blocks in under three hours.  That’s why we decided to book a flight to Krabi, Thailand.

Flying Tiger Airways
Krabi, about 50 kilometers from well known Phuket is the ‘newest’ tourist place in the region.  With the low cost flyer Tiger Airways, we booked a returnflight for about 360 Singapore dollar, that’s about 180€.  A good bargain and an excellent opportunity to live the Thai-experience (cheap, women, gorgeous beaches and a climate better than in Singapore).  If you ever should be in the region, fly with Tiger Airways, it’s a real experience.  Firts of all, security isn’t their biggest concern, we were all checked in in under four minutes.  We passed through the detector, it beeped like crazy, went on for a manual check, beeped even more and we could go about our ways.  Good thing we put those 15 knives in our pants.  But hey: “Is no problem, you can go, is no problem…” 

First steps in Thailand
Compared to Singapore it’s still hot as hell out here.  We’re sweating like two disgusting pigs and the locals don’t even break a sweat.  So smelling like a sewer we’re picked up by our driver that knows two words English: ‘fourteen’ and ‘yes’.  So imagine the conversations in the car:
Tom: “Is the hotel far from here?”
Driver: “Yes”
Tom: “How far?”
Driver: “Yes yes”
Tom, pointing at watch: “How long will it take?”
Driver: “Fourteen”
So fifty minutes later we arrive, it’s well dark, but it looks gorgeous.  A bungalow resort with a bungalow to call our own.  Our own toilet, own shower, hot water (or for that matter, adjustable temperature).  Our driver is till smiling like he just won the lottery… wait ’till he smells the backside of his car.  Yes, yes our ass…
It was kinda late so we had some diner at the resort and visited the bar where we tought some Swedisch guys how to dunk a B52.  (We got sorry for them, they even got the tequila shot wrong…).  Our overfriendly bartender Mnu shared us some news about his family.  His brother has had his kidney removed, his nephew lost an arm, his sister couldn’t have anymore babies, his mother just died,…  He was a real sunshine at the bar.  After a few cocktails and some laughs at the expense of our Swedish friends, we went to the bungalow for some wel deserved rest.  After all, it was a huge hike from the bar to our room.  We had some laughs with our invented drying machine in our room, watched a James Bond movie and fell al sleep… airco steady at 22°C, no noisy Brazilian guys,…  so peacefull…  Watch the pictures of us living the backpacker’s way of life.

First day out in Thailand
After a few steps in the town of Ao Nang, in the Krabi region (remember the fifty minute drive) it was still too hot to do anything during the time the sun was up.  We walked past the beach and ended up in a bar where the popular bartender generously shared us he had made a lot of fuckie fuckie with girls from fifteen to fourtytwo years old.  The funny shook our hands and that’s when we realised he once misread the instructions for a box of fireworks…  Where there used to be five, there now was only one.  But he had no regrets, remember the fuckie fuckie…  What else does anyone needs, besides holding a broomstick with one hand? 
He told us about the promised land where women bathed in the nude and had nothing but sex on their mind, where grass grows freely and where the sandbeaches are white as snow.  Obviously we didn’t make it there and got stuck in a bar, drunk, playing with other girls.

The Thai experience
About 50 meters across from our resort was a typical Thai street.  A lot of noise, a lot of bars and a lot of women selling their goods.  We walked into a bar called “Amy69 Bar”, where the girls looked friendly and we imagined these girls too honest to take advantage of us tourists.  Little did we know…
Honestly… there was a pole in the middle of the bar, that was the main reason we entered…  The innocent school uniform helped. 
So here we are, two guys in a bar with about 8 Thai girls (or so we hope it were girls).  After swallowing a few Tiger beers (not too bad actually) the girls started to act really friendly.  Still convinced they had our best interests in their minds they asked if we want to play ’some games’.  Loaded as we were we didn’t mind, they could do whatever they wanted to do (remember the school uniforms).  So with zero resistance we started to play with these nice girls, took some pictures, really hot stuff.  You might even say they are the ones that nailed us…

The day after Amy69
With only four days in Thailand we were smart enough to book a trip to some caves in the neighbourhood.  We actually wanted to do a James Bond tour (they filmed “The Man With The Golden Gun” near the Krabi region, so it’s a big thing).  It was a great tour, riding elephants, racing with a speedboat from island to island, visiting the place where they filmed Bond,…  just great.  We had to get up at half past seven, but because we only went to bed at five in the morning we overslept and had to settle for either another trip or cancel everything.  Dumb and still loaded with alcohol we chose another trip.  Canooing through some caves at nine in the morning…  it was hell.  We were just like two idiots peddling away…  we WERE two idiots peddling…  With a Canadian that thought everything was AMAZING and a guide that asked us fifteen times if we’ve seen the crabs and the walking fish near the riverbanks we got mental and showed us from our best behaviour.  What can we say… we had two hours sleep and were still drunk when we got in the cano…  But it all was all sooooo beautifull (or so they say).  That’s the last thing we plan something… 

Last day in Thailand
For our last day we had to relocate to a resort about 20 meters from our resort.  Like real backpackers we took our bags from our old resort, put them in the trunk of our driver’s car, drove the full 20 meters, took our bags out of the car and headed to the place where we would spend our last night in Thailand.  Sounds romantic?  It was a James Bond marathon with Oreo cookies.

And now… back to Singapore… back home… back to the POW.