Frank and Joan's news for August 2005 in Northern Cyprus

Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus

Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

One week to go and then we are off, so this week will be rushing to make sure all the business links are completed and then I suppose I will have to find out how much space I have been allocated in the suitcases, I don't suppose it will be very much. I have also been told that the hedge has to be cut before we go away, there is just no peace for the wicked.

Because a number of us are going away it was decided that we should have an evening out at The Silver Grill in Karsiyaka.

Jill and Roger have their grand daughter Laura over on holiday at the moment and Jill is taking her back to the UK next Wednesday and then spending some time herself there, to get in some family visiting etc. George and Susan are going off to Paphos to visit some friends there and of course next Monday we depart for far away places, so it may be some time before the Lapta Layabouts reconvene. I think Ali and his wife at the restaurant where a little surprised to suddenly get a party of 11 people and it meant some hard work in the kitchens, but as always the food came up piping hot and all together.

Ha Ha, that got you all fooled. George and Susan were actually going off to UK for a surprise family celebration, but we were not allowed to say as their turning up was going to be the big surprise of the day. Hope it all came off as you wanted George.

This evening Joan and I met Steve and his mother Kath at The Grapevine restaurant. This had been arranged by Steve because his mother lives in Perth, so we were able to pick her brains a little about places to go and things to see. She won't actually be there whilst we are visiting as when she leaves TRNC she has planned a stop off in Bali and actually arrives back in Perth the day after we move on to Sydney. Shame really because it would have been nice to be able to take her out to a couple of her favourite eateries whilst we were there.

Weekly newspaper day. A lot of fuss about the fiasco of a draw to win a house. The first winning number drawn was declared to be an unsold ticket, so on the night the supposed winner, a radio station general manager from London was feeling quite elated at having won because he had the next number drawn, only to discover the following day that in fact the first drawn number was in fact valid and in the ownership of a local man, who has now been declared the legal winner. Oops not a very well controlled event, still I suppose in he end the charities benefited to the tune of almost £65,000 and that was really what all the effort was about.

A lot in the paper about the protocol signed by Turkey as a prelude to commencing EU entry talks. It is still being said that despite the signing, that Turkey will never recognise the Greek Cypriot administration as the Republic of Cyprus. Also it is noted that Greek and Greek Cypriot reaction to last weeks direct flight in to Ercan airport was very muted and that no other country had raised any objection, maybe the start of the end of Turkish Cypriot isolation from the rest of the world.

Interesting that 8 traffic wardens have now been appointed to patrol Kyrenia streets. The idea is to curb some of the totally illegal parking that goes on here and therefore improve the traffic flow, only time will tell. Strikes me that if the illegal parking is done by your third cousin twice removed, if you get my meaning, then it is not going to be very effective.

Well that about it until 7th September when we get back, unless of course I am able to update our adventures whilst travelling. I am taking the laptop to keep the diary and photos built up so maybe with some luck I might get to upload to the website also. Don't whatever you do expect any answers to e-mails as firstly I guess my mail box will fill up in a few days with all those offers of mortgages, Viagra etc. etc which keep coming in despite spam filters and secondly I am going to be on holiday. I have set up a temporary hotmail account and given that to a selected few who might need to contact us over the next 5 weeks, but I am as sure as hell not going to publish that here, Joan would murder me.

Tomorrow Richard and Paul take up residence at our home to look after the cats, the pool and I think the BBQ, hope they enjoy the change of venue.

First full day in Singapore, after a flight that lasted 11.5 hours from Istanbul and overnight as well. The arrival was in fact 2 hours late as, firstly we were 1 hour late leaving TRNC for Istanbul and ever so slightly worried about getting our connection. We need not have worried as the flight from Istanbul was almost 2 hours late leaving due to connections from somewhere else.The final arrival was, with the 5 hour time difference at 6.15 in the afternoon of Tuesday 9th; now where did that day go to. Unpack and then a walk to Chinatown, where we found a street side restaurant that did a brilliant meal washed down with Tiger beer. First impressions is of a very clinically clean city with some ultra modern buildings. Having slept for 10 hours straight we finally made it to breakfast at around 10 o'clock and then decided that a walking tour to orientate ourselves was the best move. Before we set off I discovered that I maybe have an in room internet connection, so here goes with e-mails and maybe a website update. One thing for sure is that Singapore is a shoppers paradise. We have never seen so many shopping malls in one town and we have found more M & S shops than they have in the whole of UK I think. Every mall seems to have one and all the malls seem to be full of people, locals and tourists alike. We found some of the more famous places to browse such as The Raffles Centre and Orchard Road and Joan found more shoe shops than she has ever seen in her life before and they even included Bata Shoe stores, but with styles and prices that make your eyes water.I was also able to buy myself an advance 25th anniversary present, a new digital camera. For a long time now I have lusted after a Nikon SLR digital but have been put off by the cost, well in a specialist Nikon shop here, after some negotiation I managed to get one complete with a few extras, such as a 1 gigabyte memory card, carry case an an upgraded lens for less than half the UK price. So look out folks and George in particular, you may get even more photos than you bargained for in the future.This evening we walked down to the river and dined at a place called Clarke Quay. A bit like dining down Kyrenia harbour, a tourist trap for prices but something you just have to do whilst here, just the once! Have to admit that the king prawns were delicious and so very, very, big

The animals came in two by two, so they say, so we decided to join them at Singapore Zoo today. All the brochures say that this is one of the best in Asia and for once they where probably right. The area covered was huge and because of the constant humid atmosphere here the tropical trees and plants make the whole stunning. They have a number of special exhibits such as the white tigers and one sensible pussy decided the only cool place was in the swim. There where three of them in the big enclosure and they seem very much bigger than the conventional tiger we all know. They had a large pool and rock area with two polar bears, apparently the smaller of the two, if you could call it small, is the only polar bear ever born in the tropics. They had many areas with the usual monkeys of every variety, one had actually got out, but only as far as the restaurant area, reptiles, giraffes, zebras etc., a special area for the children with pony rides and animals that they could handle, in fact all of the things you would expect to find, even a KFC. There was a rather special cat area, which Joan loved and she even thought that this one looked like Tiggy, but guess our Tiggy would have just have been an afternoon snack to this one. All in all well worth a visit but a blooming long walk.

After a rest and a G & T in our room we ventured out again for food and found a restaurant that said it was a Tai and Chinese Wok restaurant. After we had sat down we discovered that it was a non-alcohol restaurant but decided to stay put anyway and drink home made lime juice with our meal. The food and the drink where absolutely delicious but nearly broke the bank at £10.50 for the two of us, then back to the hotel for a couple of beers and a glass of wine, which cost more than the food we had just eaten.

Joan had been reading the tourist guides and discovered an island to the north east which was worth a visit, so off we went on the underground metro and then a bus to the ferry terminal. The journey took over an hour in total but is worth mentioning if only that it gives me an opportunity to say just how stunning and clean the whole system is. I know that the London underground is much older but it is the overall cleanliness that strikes one. That is not just in the trains and buses but everywhere. We even saw student types putting paper in their bags and pockets to take home, rather than throw it around everywhere. Nowhere do you see anybody smoking or eating on the streets or just throwing the old bus ticket down. The fines are heavy for littering, but you don't see policemen walking the streets either. Guess its just an overall national pride that makes the people the way they are and an incredible refreshing change after TRNC.

Anyway enough of that and back to the island. Puala Ubin it is called and only 7 x 3 kilometres. From the mainland you get what is called a bumboat, a bit of an oldie with a powerful diesel engine and arrive on the island jetty. We found an information office and a bicycle hire place which seems to be the most popular transport for tourists and even some of the islanders. There were tracks through the rubber plantations and tropical forest areas ideally suited for us to explore. It was possible to get round most of the island which had a couple of beaches, but these where up on the Jahor Straits where a lot of shipping went through. We even found that they had built a fence off the beaches to prevent the immigrants from coming ashore. Apparently they used to come ashore here and then get across to Singapore proper, to find work and handouts, but the Singaporean's seem to have a way of dealing with it, the next boat home... After a couple of hours exploring we decided to stay and have some seafood as it came highly recommended. We found that our bike hire shop was also a family cafe, so ordered a dish of fried noodles which were delicious and a large plate of king prawns fried in garlic. Now I just had to suddenly remember to share these with you, before we ate them all, as at £6.00 for the whole dish full I thought you might think we where being extravagant.

Another good day out and I think a quiet drink this evening will round the day off as tomorrow at 7.30 p.m. we are on the flight to Perth.

Last day in Singapore as we are on the flight at 7.30 this evening to Perth. After packing and depositing our luggage for later, we decided to go over to Santosa Island by cable car. Santosa Island has been developed in to a recreation area and dare I say it a tourist trap. It has been commercialised bordering on the obscene. You pay for the transport across either by cable car or bus and then pay an entrance fee to the island, after that you find four golf courses, two huge hotels with man made beaches and lagoons, underwater world, dolphin lagoons, butterfly parks, dungeons from world war two, a lost city, a concrete version of "Merlion" the symbol of Singapore etc. etc.. Each and every item costs and costs, a family of four could blow £200 / £300 before you even have a drink or food, just on a day trip. We took the cable car across because the views are stunning and then the rotating tower which rises 135 metres and then circles slowly around to allow you to view the whole. It allowed me to take these stunning pictures of Singapore, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Considering that Singapore has developed since it gained it's independence in 1965 and most of the properties have been built on land reclaimed from the sea you have to wonder at the commercial heart of this city and it's huge high rise developments. When we got back from the island we took a government sponsored taxi drive around, these are available to tourists at as fixed rate for a guided tour. We only had 1 hour to spare but we enjoyed this mans knowledge of the city and he even showed us a Buddhist Temple which was a haven of peace and tranquillity right in the middle of all the towering structures. Our taxi driver said he was a retired policeman with a wealth of knowledge about Singapore and one interesting point he made, was to say "Singapore is an island, mostly reclaimed from the sea and populated by 4.5 million people, what if the tsunami had reached here?"

Am actually sitting in the hotel room on the morning of 16th writing these notes, why, because it's persisting down and the promise is for more of the same today. I suppose we can expect a little of this as Perth is just coming into spring so it was never going to be as warm as the TRNC. We spent yesterday walking around parts of Perth getting orientated and buying essentials such as a tourist guide. Perth is built around the banks of the swan river so gave us some lovely places to walk within 10 minutes of our hotel. We were able to stroll along the river and in only a few minutes this pelican came to see what we might have for him. Apart from the regular things you might expect like herons and other river birds, there are the most beautiful parrot types, bright green with red and black heads and some pastel pink and grey, all look as if they might have a nasty sharp beak, but will try to get some photos when the weather is a bit sunnier. We found that there where ferry services that run swan river wine cruises, among other things, but maybe we will give that a try. On our way back to the hotel, along the river we saw two dolphins, close in shore playing and chasing the little fish. Perth city itself is very modern with lots of green open spaces around and a very good traffic system which seems to keep the volume down. There is a brilliant free bus service which runs around three differing areas of the city and one stop is right outside our hotel, so that's a bonus. Our guide book tells us that there are things to see around the city itself so maybe if the rain eases a bit we will take advantage of the free service and take a look. Among other things I want to find an internet cafe that will allow me to take this laptop and log on to update the site

And still it rains and I mean rain, still at least they have some drainage in the streets so it is not like Kyrenia on a day when the heavens open. So first up to town to buy myself a waterproof jacket, good job the sales are on, then breakfast to set us up for the day and then to the convention centre.The Perth Annual International Boat Show started today, so who cares if it rains? With any luck the weather will start to pick up from tomorrow so we have taken a flyer and booked a hire car to get around a bit. First though the boat show because those of you who know us well, know that this is something we sorely miss. There are some beautiful boats, many way out of any price range we could think about, but a couple of them we really liked. First there was a 24 foot Glastron, complete with trailer and all the gear you could want to be able to stay on board sometimes. But the one we really fell in love with was the latest version of the 26 foot Wellcraft, a boat we spent our honeymoon on 25 years ago this month. This boat has been seriously upgraded since we owned one, with somehow or another lots more living space on board, a full double bed built under the floor area and a shower on board, in that space, amazing. Who would ever have thought of having microwaves and TV with DVD on a boat! Maybe we will one day get a decent marina in TRNC and be able to think about something like this

We tried last night at two Internet Cafes, to get a laptop connection to their network to keep the updates going, but to no avail, so looks like we will have a big update to do when we get home.Today, as the weather was improving a little we decided to test out the local transport system. It really is quite brilliant, within the city boundaries, that is from our hotel area to the city, it is completely free. For a fixed price we can get a day ticket which allows us to use all the transport facilities within zones. Getting on and off where we want and switching train to bus to ferry. Armed with a day ticket each, we set off to Fremantle getting off at two places of interest on the way. One of these places was Cottesloe Beach, which was quite lovely, miles of pure white sand and obviously in the height of summer a very busy place. Today we where able to watch the surfers at play as there were some quite large waves and they seemed to be taking advantage of it all. Whilst we were sitting having coffee, we watched what we first thought were seagulls around the grass areas but closer inspection showed them to be pure white parrots, strange to see.From Cottesloe we went on to Fremantle and there looked around some of the older parts of town, then naturally for us, the Challenger harbour which was built especially for the world cup races. We also visited the Maritime Museum where Australia II, the winning Australian boat is now housed. A very interesting museum but at the moment the lower floor exhibits are being maintained so we had to do a lot of our viewing from over the upper level rails. One advantage was that we got in for nothing, or at least in invitation to put something in the donation box only. A further walk around the waterside revealed a very interesting find, a working brewery with pub and restaurant area attached, now I call that a real bonus, especially when the plates of meat are beginning to complain about all the walking. As we were on public transport I was able to sample a couple of their brews, a dark wheat beer that was very nice and a standard pilsner. A popular place and it is easy to see why.This evening, armed with our day tickets we went up to the north of Perth to a restaurant that came recommended in the guides, The Elephant and Wheelbarrow. Brilliant, an English style pub with Speckled Hen, Boddingtons and Newcastle Brown on tap and a good restaurant menu which for us this evening meant T-bone steaks with chips and salad. Very enjoyable indeed and a change from all the noodles we have been eating of late. Think they might get another visit from us before we leave Perth as we spotted fish in beer batter with chips and salad on the menu, very English, but who cares

This morning we picked up a hire car for the rest of our stay here. The weather had improved so now its time to explore a bit more.

As by the time we had sorted out the car and paperwork it was mid morning we set off along the northern part of what is known as the sunset coast. The whole of the area is nothing but a continuation of white sandy beaches. We drove along City beach, Scarborough beach and then stopped off at a place called Hillarys Boat Harbour. It wont seem very strange to you by know that we chose somewhere like this to stop off. A huge marina with boats aplenty and many for sale. We spoke to a guy who originated from Leeds, 7 years ago and now runs a boat sales and repair yard on the quay, he had some lovely boats that made us envious of all the opportunities here and allowed us to clamber over a couple that would have been just right for us. We have to admit that the opportunities made us think and discuss the possibilities, but when we looked at the massive housing estates that they are building over here, with only a car width between properties we realised that we could not give up what we have in the TRNC, just to go boating. I guess that what has happened over here is that the huge yearly inflation in house prices has now made Western Australia an expensive place to buy and to live. One Estate Agent told us that house prices had risen 23% in the last year.

From Hillarys, we went further up north to Yanchep and Two Rocks and this is where we talked to an Estate Agent, as we considered that we where 60 kilometres north of Perth so prices of land should be reasonable and consequently property too. This was a lovely place, on the coast with its own marina, but when the lady told us that all that land clearance we had seen was for developments of housing villages up to a total of 45,000 properties, with all the added amenities needed for such a population growth, over the next 5 years we thought no thanks, not for us.

So now it's dream on about the boating opportunities and lets get down to some real sightseeing. So there you go folks, anybody who took on a bet that we would buy here, just for the boating, hand over your money, you just lost.

Yesterday was quite warm and today has gone a little cloudy again, but all in all we are able to get out and about.Yesterday we went across the river to have a look around south Perth and then found the Perth Zoo so had to give that a visit. A bit disappointing in comparison to Singapore but they still had some fairly large animals around, like this croc. who look a bit huge to me, the keeper lady said 6 metres long. Clearly the opinionated one in the zoo was this Emu, who could just stand and stare as if to say, "get off my territory". When we went to the elephant enclosure we found a keeper with a long fishing net trying to retrieve a pair of glasses that somebody who had dropped over the bridge into some quite mucky water. These two elephants thought it was a bit of a headache, so ignored the whole procedure and when we left they were still fishing. We where a bit surprised to find that in the whole of the zoo there were only two Koalas, considering it is supposed to be one of the native animals that everybody associates with Australia, and all in all the animals did not have enough space to exercise, even this beautiful Tiger looked a little bored with it all. Today we went up the Swan Valley to an area called Whiteman Park. This is a huge area of bush land which has been preserved as an amenity area for the people of Perth and for tourists. There are many attractions such as a vintage tramway and railway to take you round the park area, designated bush paths to walk around and some very well planned picnic areas with coin operated BBQ's so you can bring your own food. There where large groups under big shaded gazebos, who had clearly booked in advance to come to the park for that special occasion, all in all a well organised entertainment area. We walked for quite some time and found many wildflower areas that were well worth a view and then we went into the Caversham Wildlife Park, which we had been told at the hotel was really worth a visit if you wanted to see the native animals. There was a huge open area for the kangaroos, where the kids could even stroke and feed them and Joan found this mother and child basking in the sun. Many of the native birds where around in a very large netted area with room to fly, some of the parrot variety are really quite beautiful. In one special area Joan was able to sit alongside the young keeper with this huge cuddly Wombat on her knee, she said that she was quite heavy, but very soft and happy to be handled. Finally we also found that they had Koala's everywhere and in one feeding area, under the watchful eye of the keeper we were finally able to get some lovely pictures close up. The keeper did say that they had, had to stop the handling as Koalas have very long sharp claws and know how to use them. A good day out, much better than the Perth Zoo, wish we had found this one first.Finally I have heard that there might be a place, operated by the Tourist Board, where I can use this laptop, so that is tomorrows task

Well that failed miserably, the so called IT man from the tourist office did not know his network address so we could not link up my laptop. Oh well just have to wait a bit longer, sorry folks.

Yesterday after trying to get on-line we went back up to the north again especially to go and view a Marine Exhibition, which everyone says is one of the best. True. Some of the tanks full of coral and tropical fish where stunning to see but the best part of all was the underwater section. They had created a 400 metre long tube which actually went out under the sea in a full circle. This meant that they had retained some of the original rock formations as a background. So as to make life easy for visitors they had built a slow moving travelator which you could just stand on and be taken around at a leisurely pace. The tank was very well stocked with Sharks, Rays, Turtles and hundreds of other fish. "Smiley" here was a favourite of ours. Sorry about the overall blue colour but I couldn't use flash, as it bounced back of the Plexiglas. WE also found the obvious things such as a seal tank and a young "Sammy" in there kept Joan amused for ages with his antics, I guess we got the full performance from him as there where not too many people around at the time.

This morning we set off going south to the Margaret River region. Wine growing country, so an obvious attraction there. We stopped first, around lunchtime, at a place called Mandurah where we took a boat trip around the harbour and an area called "Little Venice". Here the rich build their properties and moor their boats outside the door, but even when they develop some stunning houses they are still pressed up against one another, something we find difficult to understand. If you have that much money, then buy two blocks of land and build in the middle. We cruised passed one house which supposedly has it's own cinema and outside a 70 foot Sunseeker boat that cost 8 million dollars, how the other half live !!!!

We pressed on further south and stayed overnight in Bunbury at a pub/hotel called The Prince of Wales, you have got to believe it ! Comfortable and friendly, probably unlike the real one. We took a walk up town to eat and found ourselves in a super place called The Walkabout Cafe. We spent sometime talking to the guy who owned it, Steve Walkley and had a superb porterhouse steak done with garlic king prawns. Comes highly recommended and when I am back in Cyprus I am going to link his website on our restaurant list. www.walkaboutcafe.com.au" target="_blank">www.walkaboutcafe.com.au">www.walkaboutcafe.com.au Great place, great people and above all great food. You never know, maybe one day somebody amongst our readers will find this place and remind Steve of our visit.

We drove further south this morning and booked in to a very homely B&B at a town called Busselton. This town is well known for its 1.9 kilometre jetty, which used to be used by some very big ships and even had railway lines to carry cargo to and from these ships. Now it is just a tourist attraction but we had to do the walk. Let me tell you that 1.9 kilometres is a long way out to sea and it is even further coming back. There is an underwater observatory built on the end but due to the inclement weather they have been having of late it was not open, shame really it would have made the walk more worthwhile, but have to admit we knew before we set off.After this morning exercise we set off down the Margaret River valley stopping off for lunch in the town of Margaret River itself, then we found a couple of wineries. After a couple of samplings we bought a bottle of Chardonnay from a winery called Chapman Creek, we also found a cheese farm where they made an excellent brie and sold the table water biscuits to accompany. On the way back to the hotel wealmost passed the Bootleg Brewery, so suddenly it was Joan's turn to drive back to our B & B. Really I only had a couple of very small glasses of tow of their brews, strictly for testing purposes and anyway I didn't want to miss out on the wine and cheese back at our base. They obviously knew the region and their customers well as there where two wine glasses in the room and a fridge to keep the wine in.

Before heading off back to Perth we went to visit the Nglici caves. There are a number of cave sites around the region but this one was the most famous and in fact found in 1899. They are now very carefully preserved and protected and open to view only with a guide to accompany you over the first section. After descending through this first section and standing on a viewing gallery we where given a lecture on the caves and the rules. We were then left to explore over the stairs and pathways which have been built. Joan and I went down first to what is known as the auditorium cave and wow is all you can say. Apparently the acoustics in this gallery are tremendous and they have on one occasion had an opera singer, with piano and pianist, down there to give a concert to a selected audience. Apparently these caves and the stalactites and stalagmites are still forming due to the moisture penetration through the earth from normal rainfall. As you go deeper into the caves you see differing formations and trying to take pictures was fun because I was having to use the illumination they provided, flash was useless as it did not penetrate far enough. It was a case of hold your breath and hold the camera steady during long exposure times. In some places they had carefully illuminated the entrances in to smaller caves where you could see the formations taking place. We were told that it can take up to four months for the rainfall to reach the bottom of the cave areas and on the way through the earth the moisture collects chemicals which create the differing colours and forms the crystal like shapes. At the bottom of the caves, we were 37 metres under the earth, about the height of a twelve storey building, and we could feel the humidity level rising as we went lower. At the bottom you can clearly see the differing forms that the stalactites take, but the whole can only be described as stunning and well worth the effort of climbing down and up more than 600 steps. I took more than 40 successful photos and am going to put them on a CD so that the school can have a copy and so that we can view them on our TV at home, I only wish that the bandwidth of this site allowed me to put this slide show on for you, as by now you will have realised I was overwhelmed by what I saw during our 2 hours underground.

Today we returned our hire car as we wanted to do some last minute shopping and to visit some of the local places we had so far not had time to see. We climbed up countless steps again at the back of our hotel to reach Kings Park. An area of the city which is fastidiously maintained for everyone to enjoy. The park and botanical gardens are beautiful and one can only imagine how it must look in another couple of months when spring has really arrived. There were a number of viewing points, one was immediately above our hotel and supplied a lovely view of the river, parkland directly in front of us and the high rise of the city. There were numerous commemorative plantings and memorials to both world wars and also the Bali bombing, where many young Australians fell victim to terrorism, but for me the flame of remembrance was the most significant and a place where every school child should be taken, in every country, to show them the tremendous losses which occurred and to teach them about the stupidity of war

Our last day in Perth and a very special treat to ourselves, a helicopter ride over Perth and the coastal area. We booked this trip yesterday afternoon in the hope that the weather would remain nice and sure enough we awoke to bright sunshine this morning. Joan got to sit alongside the pilot in the second seat and she looked real happy about that. (Eat your heart out John. Sorry folks, local TRNC joke). The whole trip lasted about 45 minutes and we first flew over Perth city having taken off from the heliport alongside the river, then up the coast to the north, as far as Hilary's Boat Harbour, which is also where Joan and I had driven last week. From there we worked our way back south along what is known as The Sunset Coast, just look at all those sandy beaches. We got a tremendous view of Fremantle from up here, you can see all three of the harbours and the entrance to the Swan river. On our way back to Perth we flew up the Swan river and you can see how it winds its way back up to eventually reach the Swan Valley region, which is famous for its wine growing. A super trip, over far too soon but something we both really wanted to do. After we got back in to Perth, Joan and I then got a train to Fremantle again, because when we had visited the Maritime Museum last week we had been unable to get on to one of the submarine visits, as you need to book these up in advance. Outside the museum, parked up on what used to be one of the slipways, is the now decommissioned, HMAS Ovens and you can get an escorted visit in groups of 10 people. They told us that a total crew of 62 people lived and worked in this confined space with some even sleeping in the torpedo room area. The crew bunks where what you might call cosy, with each man getting a very small amount of personal space. Over the whole there was a smell of diesel which must have been there always, as this class of boat used diesel engines to charge the batteries which drove the electric motors, the main propulsion unit for the vessel. Our friend George, back in TRNC, is an ex-submariner so know doubt will get to find out if these conditions where the norm on submarines. It is difficult to imagine spending weeks on end, underwater, in such a confined space.

Our first day in Sydney and the date of our silver wedding anniversary. We arrived yesterday evening after the flight from Perth and only had time to slip out and get a snack after unpacking. We are only here for 2.5 days on route to Bangkok so need to get in as much sight seeing as possible and find a really nice place for dinner tonight.We discovered from the concierge in our hotel that you can get an explorer ticket on a special bus service that travels all over the city and allows you to get on and off at will. Also the guy booked us what he said was a super restaurant for this evening, so here's hoping he is right.The explorer bus was brilliant we got on near the hotel and hopped off at numerous places of interest. The first had to be of course The Sydney Opera House. When we got around there the place was swarming with police and we learnt that there is a big business conference, to be opened by the Prime Minister starting tomorrow evening and they where concerned about demos. We were allowed to walk all around the concourse but there was no possibility of a tour inside, never mind, next time maybe. The Harbour Bridge was quite nearby so we walked along to take some pictures of that also, The area around this is called Darling Harbour and is the place where everything happens. You can see the business district in the background, but all along the quayside are restaurants, shops, cinemas, museums etc. etc. so we spent sometime exploring and also identified the recommended restaurant for this evening. We spent the whole day hoping on and off these buses and exploring various things of interest and taking dozens of pictures, but again the restriction of the website prevents me from sharing many more with you, shame really. We both came to the conclusion, after spending some time in a very extensive tourism information place, that Sydney is the place we should have spent most time in. Conclusion, come back here and be prepared to travel on two day and three day trips to outlying places and everybody says that March/April is the time to do it.The concierge did not let us down, the recommended restaurant on Darling Harbour was superb. We started with Tempura Prawns served with asparagus and a complimentary glass of white to wash the prawns down, then chose Fillet Mignon with stir fried vegetables and a bottle of 1996 Australian Shiraz to wash that down. The concierge must have told them it was our 25th as they came up with a small steamed pudding with ice cream and chocolate sauce, served up with a couple of sparklers to set it off. After coffee to finish off we set off back to the hotel, suitably glowing after our evening out. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our special day

Our last full day in Sydney, as this is really only an impromptu stop over on the way to Bangkok and eventually home. The thing therefore to do was to select a way to see as much as possible with the help of the Tourism authority. We chose to take a three hour cruise around the entire Sydney Harbour area as it is positively huge and there is no way you could get around so satisfactorily. The ferry service is very effective in getting people around the smaller towns surrounding Sydney and also runs this tourist trip. There are numerous small bays and towns where it would be wonderful to live, if you had the money. Again we took many pictures and today Joan had put here travelling bear in her handbag for some reason, so he got a picture taken also, at the Opera House.

On our way back to the hotel we where delayed by the demonstration which was working its way down to the business conference escorted by the police of course. Our bus driver was doing some serious muttering up the front of the bus at the delays.

This evening we are going back down to Darling Harbour, but this time to a speciality seafood restaurant. Guess it will be just as good as last night.

Arrived in Bangkok at 10.30 this evening and low and behold there is an internet connection in our room so now we can update......