China says no!

Day 147 - Sunday 8 July 2008

Now Sydney's been a surprise because I've been very generously hosted by Ash and Carly who I met in Peru (why I do now say this stuff like it's normal!) - they live (and so have I for a week) in Bondi Junction (ish!) nestled between the CBD of Sydney and Bondi Beach (from where I sit and type!)

Here the lucky blighters are - but not in Bondi (you'll hear why later) - don't they set Lake Titicaca off beautifully!



















Now the reason this clearly isn't Sydney is because of the missing factor - solid, heavy rain - it's been wazzing down all week - not quite what I expected but a small price to pay for being in the Rockies in January and the Himalalyas in September - it has to be Winter somewhere right! - I've definitely not been put off and have just got wet - in some ways it's fun - we normally spend all our lives diving under cover and hopping from indoor spot to indoor spot when it rains - so we can turn up to another pointless meeting looking presentable - but no one cares what you look like when you're on the road - it's refreshing!

But you have to look around for indoor things sometimes (to dry off at least temporarily) - and when you're at Sydney Opera House what else to do but see some opera - well - I tried - but there was none on this week - so instead I dived right into the best the SOH had to offer - and spent a very cultured afternoon seeing the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antoin Dutoit (who also does the Royal Philharmonic) perform the Jupiter and Alpine Symphonies (Mozart's Symphony No. 41 in C and R Strauss' An Alpine Symphony) - now to hear over 100 musicians all in full flow at, arguably, the best place in the world for music literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up (and there were quite a few 'cos I really needed a haircut - which is sorted and extra short to keep me going through hot and steamy Asia) - guys - get some tickets and treat your girls - dress smartly and soak it all up - as I put in my Moleskine - 'an afternoon of maestros, endless polite clapping, hot cellists, no cameras, comfy seats and light, emotionally uplifting Mozart' - I'm loving the big M and hoping for some more in Europe - my fave composer by a streak!

You can get a good shot if you're a rule breaker (see how I've changed!) or, more accurately, if they don't make it clear until they TELL you not to take shots - this was when they were tunning up I might add and I'd never take a shot during the performance - but why not snap now - how can this be their Intellectual Property - or put them off - it's not a sound file!

This shot above was when I took the ferry across to Kirribilli and walked back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge - I passed on the whole bridge walk Dad - the visibility's just been terrible - and you actually get an incredible view of the CBD and Sydney Harbour/Port Jackson from foot level - it just didn't make 100 quid's worth of sense - see!

Now - this shot above and the following (taken late afternoon from the best vantage point for iconic shots of Sydney at Mrs Macquarries Point) are my faves of the last few weeks and maybe the entire adventure - I've just bought and am digesting Lonely Planet's 'Travel Photography - A Guide to Taking Better Pictures' - maybe it's working - if subliminally - I'm wading through the jargon and technical section at the start!

Now Sydney's a lot older than I expected - I guess I'd been led along by the Olympics stuff and what that brings to a city (I'm thinking of Barcelona's 'beach') - The Rocks sits under the CBD end of Sydney Harbour Bridge next to Circular Quay and looking across to Sydney Opera House (if you can't find it now you never will!) - it's the oldest part of Sydney and has really retained the old port feel - the Rocks Discovery Museum made me feel like a drunken, 19th Century sailor - but as recently as 1973 there were plans to destroy this history and replace it with modern developments - the Green Bans soon stopped it and people power won out - thankfully!

So it's been a week of urban living including: the State of New South Wales Library and the World Press Photo 08 exhibition, Hogarth Art Galleries, St James' Cathedral, Govindas for watching Be Kind Rewind horizontally (even better second time around), Hurricanes awesooome BBQ ribs and the Museum for Contemporary Art

But Sydney is very clearly one of the world's greatest cities because a stone's throw from all these urban joys is this ...

I'm so glad my one sunny day here coincided with a trip to Bondi Beach - it's everything it should be and you'd expect - huge surf (even on crap days, like this one that Ash passed on surfing 'cos it wasn't good enough, it's better than Cornwall) and it's a stunning cove (quite different to Santa Monica's miles and miles long stretch of sand) - probably the best beach I've ever seen - and it was helped that during my Bronte to Bondi cliff top walk I saw my first ever whale - a beautiful humpback lolling around just metres from the cliffs but miles from the beach - I didn't jump into the ocean and follow it but I did swim in the pool at Bondi Icebergs in this shot - you'll see that the Pacific Ocean crashes into the pool here and so it's the freshest salt water swimming you can buy for $4.50! - I obviously stood on the surround and enjoyed trying not to get washed onto the rocks below by the waves!

And Bondi has such a hippy, urban vibe to it - I think it reckons it's edgy - but it's not - for that go to Iquique in Chile - there's also too many other nationalities for that to be the case - and so it's not REAL Australian beach life - it does have some very talented graff artists though - which I love - this is top, free art!

And before I knew it my country number 6 was over and I'd sampled Australia from a home base - and sampled is what I've done - so take these summary thoughts and views of Australia - as thoughts and views of Melbourne, Sydney and some of the space around them - it's way too huge for these views to be generalised across the rest of it - from my Moleskine notes Australia's ...

Enormous with most roads 4 lanes
Got a lovely lack of a class system and everyone seems equal
Has a work/life balance and can fill a Sydney movie showing at 1900 hours (why army speak Jez?!)
Pretty wet at times in Winter!!!
Chocolate is very, very expensive (a quid for a Cadbury's bar)
Healthy and outdoorsy (probably fat tax on that chocolate!)
Like New Zealand in it's obsession with flat whites
Aboriginal style of art with spots and lines is simple yet very effective

Real estate market gives you lots of house for your money

Awesome at teaching kids emergency information from a young age (contact numbers, names of parents, parents mobile numbers, etc - or Jo Rouse is anyway!)

Got the best animal in the world in the kangaroo

Golf rough is worse than Open hay to escape from - it's mega-dusty and if you get a fraction behind it you duff it - 'well out!'

Covered in pointless tagging but next to some awesome graff!

Cherry Ripe chocolate is heaven

Orange soil when you get inland is mesmerising

Slang is a joy to behold - 'got your budgie smugglers on mate?!'

Thank you so much to my friends for putting me up here and 'do I love Australia?!' - maybe but not really - it is lovely and I do love my friends who live there - but it's too familiar and easy for this point of my journey - I'm craving a more adventurous Indiana Jones feeling again - well brace yourself Jez - how's your Japanese?!

(Footnote: China wouldn't let me go to Beijing - under their new rules they finally confirmed that I can only apply for a visa back in the UK - well I'm just not ready to head back to England yet - so the Great Wall of China will have to wait - and I have a reason to go travelling again - yep - let's trek it Rich - in the meantime - I hope the Olympics goes ... horribly - only joking - I wish them no ill - they've just reminded me to 'control the controllables' as Robbie Jackson would say - there's nothing I can do - so it's not worth worrying about - Qantas have re-routed me from Tokyo to Hong Kong - a part of China that needs no visa - go figure!)