Strewth! Bonza! Shrimp!

Well, here I finally am, taking the first steps on this rather exciting journey!

The flight from London to Hong Kong was, so I believe, uneventful, as I managed to sleep nearly the whole way.  The food on Cathay Pacific was actually very nice and, unlike other airlines who seem to want to charge you extra for using the toilets nowadays, the stewardesses seemed more than happy to keep me topped up with Johnny Walker Black Label, free of charge, while I watched the crap film that is 'Wanted' (this and the whiskey may have been the cause of me sleeping so soundly for the rest of the flight....).

"Ni Hao!" I exclaimed to anyone of remotely Chinese origin...

Hong Kong airport was very impressive, although a bit deserted, and I spent about an hour browsing through their art and sculpture displays before finding myself a seat at the bar of 'Champions Bar' where United shirts were pinned up everywhere and all the TV's seemed to show a repeat of United v Villa from the previous weekend.  I didn't have the heart to tell the excitable bar staff that it was a rubbish 0-0 draw.

I should probably tell you that I spent a lot of my free time, when not sleeping, listening to my Learn Mandarin Chinese audio CD collection and was feeling rather confident.  "Ni Hao!" I exclaimed to anyone of remotely Chinese origin, and had even had my attempts at writing the numbers from 1 to 10 in Chinese approved by a waitress in the Champions Bar.  Bouyed with confidence, I therefore decided to strike up a conversation with someone on the flight from Hong Kong to Sydney, which was also with Cathay Pacific.

My stewardess for the flight was called Sue (not the most oriental of names, I admit) and seemed friendly enough, so I decided to flex my linguistic muscles.  "Ni Hao!" I said, flashing a big grin so as not to scare her off.  Sue looked me as if I was a bit special before mumbling "Hello" and practically running back up the aisle.  My grin faltered slightly at this, but I was determined to press on, and when dinner was handed to me I smiled again at Sue and said "Xiexie (Thank you)"...

...Unfortunately the only response I got to this was a terse "I'm not Chinese, I'm Korean!", and I quickly put paid to any further attempts to speak the language, at least until I am sure I am speaking to someone Chinese!

Anyway, after watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall (brilliant) and Wall-E (crap - I couldn't understand what any of the bloody robot things were saying) and sleeping some more, I arrived at Sydney Airport and spent all of 10 minutes going through Immigration and collecting my luggage before being greeted by my Uncle David and Grandfather, who shall from now on be referred to as Grumps.

Uncle David lives about half an hour's drive north of Sydney in a suburb called Mt Colah, and on the way he was kind enough to drive through Sydney's CBD, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and through one of the national parks that are incredibly close to Sydney city centre.  It's all very low-density and its amazing how quickly you can go from driving between skyscrapers and office blocks to winding between trees and gorges.

It wasn't until my second day in Australia that I returned to Sydney, armed with some addresses of backpacker hostels and a map of Sydney city centre.  The majority of hostels were located in Kings Cross, an area Grumps (in all his worldly wisdom) told me was the red light district of Sydney.  It most definitely is.  Not only was I approached by a very unattractive (apologies if she is reading this) prostitute, but was also nearly blinded by flashing neon signs for establishments such as 'Porky's Nite Spot', 'The Pleasure Chest' and, my personal favourite, 'Two Hands Required'!  Superb!

It seems a very 'happening' part of Sydney, and is full of backpacking hostels, so I will probably end up staying around here somewhere, and will be sure to let you know!