So here I am, back in the UK. I actually got back last Wednesday but I've been wandering around in a bit of a daze for the last week or so stuck in the throes of jet lag. And it's cold. Bloody cold. Bit of a contrast from Australia, where it was 30 degrees C in the shade...
It took 13 hours to Singapore, 2 hours in Changi Airport, 7 hours to Brisbane, an overnight stay in Brisbane and then another 2 hours to reach Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Honiara feels rather like a third-world township with a strip of shops, hotels and public buildings along the seafront with a sprawling mix of modern housing and ramshackle shanty buildings behind it going deep into the hills of the island. For the most part the native people are happy and friendly but you can feel the cultural divide. The people are not stupid but they have a simple outlook - they are quick to warm to you, but also quick to anger. Scarcity of resources and using money to pay for things are alien concepts to them which they are still coming to grips with. The islanders are used to their environment to providing an abundance of fruit and fish, wood and shell, so why should things like fuel, batteries and clothes be any different? Trying to 'westernise' them and giving them jobs hasn't always worked out because their tribal 'wantok' system means that any possessions or assets accrued by an individual can be rightfully claimed by anyone else from the same village. 'Westernising' also hasn't really worked because the new system is being exploited by corrupt ministers and politicians who have found easy ways to abuse their power and pocket the aid money being distributed by foreign powers in the islands. The Australian army is present to ensure that there aren't any more cases of violent unrest like there was a decade ago, but despite this apparently some rioters burned down the local football grounds a couple of weeks before I arrived because their team lost a match. I didn't see any trouble, but there was some talk about things flaring up in mid 2010 when the national government next holds it's elections (due to people not wanting corrupt politicians getting back in again).
My stay in Honiara was brief however because I was just passing through on my way to Upei, an island on the Morovo Lagoon, the largest enclosed salt water lagoon in the world, which has an average depth of about 30 metres, and which is shielded by (and full) of endless fields of untouched coral reefs.
I did a series of scuba dives to earn by SSI Open Water Diver certificate, with the last dive taking place on the morning of Christmas Day. I would've liked to have dived more but I had a little trouble with my ears after each dive and so had to pace myself. It was an amazing experience though - I saw dolphins, manta rays, lion fish, sea snakes, turtles, barracuda, and a ton of reef sharks. In fact the resort had a reputation for getting you close to sharks - you coud literally scuba and snorkel right up to them and they would swim around you.
The resort itself was tropical paradise just like you would imagine it. Leaf huts right on the beach. No hot water, no phones and no Internet. They did have electricity provided from their own generators, but that was it. The food was all freshly grown, or fresh out of the sea, and lightly grilled/barbecued - white fish & lime, crayfish tails, squid, jumbo prawns, whole lobster and crab - so delicious. Christmas (after the dive) was spent on the beach, then on a barge drinking cocktails followed by a turkey dinner on the veranda.
On Boxing Day we headed back to Honiara, and then from there back to Brisbane and onto Sydney.
The city was a real change of pace but I made sure I crammed in as much as I could. We did the Maritime Museum, the Australian Museum, the Tower, the Opera House, the Sightseeing Bus tours of the city and Bondi Beach, a trip to the Blue Mountains and back plus shopping in the Queen Victoria Building and elsewhere. I also took my folks to see Avatar at the Sydney IMAX (awesome) and to see Andrew Bird perform live at the Opera House (even more awesome). We did get a bit of rain a few days after we arrived, but thankfully it cleared up again for New Year's Eve.
My folks treated me to a Captain Cook New Year's cruise so we ended up right in the water and right by the bridge for the night. Free food and drink all night and an excellent view of the fireworks. There were two displays at 9.00pm and 12.00am, both of which were amazing. Apparently they used over 400,000 kilos of explosives in approximately 12 minutes, with rockets launched from 7 different barges along the water, plus pyrotechnics on the bridge and on the rooftops of some of the skyscrapers in the city centre as well. So awesome, a real once-in-a-lifetime experience that will be difficult to beat.
After all that coming back to the UK was something of a downer, particularly when I was confronted by the snow and had to battle an extra 5 hours just to get from Heathrow across London back to my place in Loughton. Tsk.
I doubt you guys had quite as much as I did, but I hope you all had a good Xmas and New Year yourselves? Anyone have any resolutions for 2010? Will you all be coming out to play on the 30th?
It took 13 hours to Singapore, 2 hours in Changi Airport, 7 hours to Brisbane, an overnight stay in Brisbane and then another 2 hours to reach Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Honiara feels rather like a third-world township with a strip of shops, hotels and public buildings along the seafront with a sprawling mix of modern housing and ramshackle shanty buildings behind it going deep into the hills of the island. For the most part the native people are happy and friendly but you can feel the cultural divide. The people are not stupid but they have a simple outlook - they are quick to warm to you, but also quick to anger. Scarcity of resources and using money to pay for things are alien concepts to them which they are still coming to grips with. The islanders are used to their environment to providing an abundance of fruit and fish, wood and shell, so why should things like fuel, batteries and clothes be any different? Trying to 'westernise' them and giving them jobs hasn't always worked out because their tribal 'wantok' system means that any possessions or assets accrued by an individual can be rightfully claimed by anyone else from the same village. 'Westernising' also hasn't really worked because the new system is being exploited by corrupt ministers and politicians who have found easy ways to abuse their power and pocket the aid money being distributed by foreign powers in the islands. The Australian army is present to ensure that there aren't any more cases of violent unrest like there was a decade ago, but despite this apparently some rioters burned down the local football grounds a couple of weeks before I arrived because their team lost a match. I didn't see any trouble, but there was some talk about things flaring up in mid 2010 when the national government next holds it's elections (due to people not wanting corrupt politicians getting back in again).
My stay in Honiara was brief however because I was just passing through on my way to Upei, an island on the Morovo Lagoon, the largest enclosed salt water lagoon in the world, which has an average depth of about 30 metres, and which is shielded by (and full) of endless fields of untouched coral reefs.
I did a series of scuba dives to earn by SSI Open Water Diver certificate, with the last dive taking place on the morning of Christmas Day. I would've liked to have dived more but I had a little trouble with my ears after each dive and so had to pace myself. It was an amazing experience though - I saw dolphins, manta rays, lion fish, sea snakes, turtles, barracuda, and a ton of reef sharks. In fact the resort had a reputation for getting you close to sharks - you coud literally scuba and snorkel right up to them and they would swim around you.
The resort itself was tropical paradise just like you would imagine it. Leaf huts right on the beach. No hot water, no phones and no Internet. They did have electricity provided from their own generators, but that was it. The food was all freshly grown, or fresh out of the sea, and lightly grilled/barbecued - white fish & lime, crayfish tails, squid, jumbo prawns, whole lobster and crab - so delicious. Christmas (after the dive) was spent on the beach, then on a barge drinking cocktails followed by a turkey dinner on the veranda.
On Boxing Day we headed back to Honiara, and then from there back to Brisbane and onto Sydney.
The city was a real change of pace but I made sure I crammed in as much as I could. We did the Maritime Museum, the Australian Museum, the Tower, the Opera House, the Sightseeing Bus tours of the city and Bondi Beach, a trip to the Blue Mountains and back plus shopping in the Queen Victoria Building and elsewhere. I also took my folks to see Avatar at the Sydney IMAX (awesome) and to see Andrew Bird perform live at the Opera House (even more awesome). We did get a bit of rain a few days after we arrived, but thankfully it cleared up again for New Year's Eve.
My folks treated me to a Captain Cook New Year's cruise so we ended up right in the water and right by the bridge for the night. Free food and drink all night and an excellent view of the fireworks. There were two displays at 9.00pm and 12.00am, both of which were amazing. Apparently they used over 400,000 kilos of explosives in approximately 12 minutes, with rockets launched from 7 different barges along the water, plus pyrotechnics on the bridge and on the rooftops of some of the skyscrapers in the city centre as well. So awesome, a real once-in-a-lifetime experience that will be difficult to beat.
After all that coming back to the UK was something of a downer, particularly when I was confronted by the snow and had to battle an extra 5 hours just to get from Heathrow across London back to my place in Loughton. Tsk.
I doubt you guys had quite as much as I did, but I hope you all had a good Xmas and New Year yourselves? Anyone have any resolutions for 2010? Will you all be coming out to play on the 30th?
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means a lot xx