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Check out the Forum I made a new one. Its the only other page working apart from this one. I'll add more pages as I get time. You all have to resignup fo the forum since the password files were lost too. Sign up here.

Off to the Blue mountains for a few days tomorrow.

Me and Dan are back in good 'ol Sydney and it feels like being back home. Ezzy has gone Back to Melbourne and is leaving for Perth in a weeks time.

After losing the site the new look will be like this

Good old Cazzy had a saved version of the page before it went down. A true IBM'er! So at least we have something recovered from before. No Discussion Board messages though sorry. But I am trying to get another one going.

-=Recovered Messages=-

Griffith NSW and Adelaide SAPosted Tuesday, March 13, 20017:36 GMT by James

It was too expensive to get online in Adelaide (couldn't be arsed), so here's what has happenedsince the last little update:
Ezzy left Sydney for a trip down to Canberra and some of rural Australia, before meeting the others in Griffith. Since moving on we have found out (from everyone we speak to) that this small town is nationally renowned as the marijuana growing capital ofAustralia and run by the Mafia.
So anyway we ended up on a farm of 60 acres, picking grapes at 77 cents a bucket ($54 or £21 a tonne - a tonne being 70 buckets), living in our tent inside a barn with concrete floor (see future pictures.)
The farm was owned by an Italian called Jim, who had an unpronounceable surname. To be fair he never knew our names either. He was convinced that "the winery bastards - they f**k the little man over".
Our co-workers included:
1. Chiko. A Japanese traveller (not fat). Farmer Jim couldn?t decide whether he was Chinese or Japanese, but he knew that he worked hard because he was from a poor family in a poor country (Yeah right). He was even thinking about donating one of the rusty old bikes that we shared our living space with, to him, so he could presumably do up and use it to travel the rest of the country (See he is a nice farmer).
2. Barry. A toothless, miserable, drunken, old bastard, on the run from the old bill for a number of offences including a hit and run, and suspected armed robbery of the Billabong Bottle Shop in Griffith), not to mention his 5 year stretch in prison for ?running down a black fellah - accidentally, mind you, although I was pissed! That was back in my home stompin' ground up in the Northern Territory?.
3. Gypsy. Barry's dog - who he lovingly calls "S**tbag!" Apparently, everyone knows her from Griffith to Willbriggie.
4. Sir Norm. A vet' from Korea and 'Nam, who was knighted for his service in the airforce in a courageous act (saving some US soldiers who were surrounded by the VC, by ditching his plane straight into the enemy). He sustained 2 bayonet wounds which he proudly showed us. He has also cycled round Australia 7 times since then (see pick coming soon). He is now 72 years old. Suspected heart attack whilst picking - went home early (by bike).
After picking we were taken in and given a good feed and lots of homebrew, by Kerry and Gary Shearer, our adoptive parents for the weekend. There?s only oneKerry Shearer!
After 10 days of picking, the grapes ran out, and so did we. Next stop was Adelaide with a few extra hard earned bucks. We immediately set out looking for a car and ended up buying a Holden Kingswood - 6 cylinder, 3.3 litre engine, goes like stink and smells like it, and looks like it. (Affectionately known as "The Turd".) You are all cordially invited to its 30th Birthday party in June - we will bake a cake, a Chocolate one of course.
Stayed in a really nice hostel, apart from the owners. who were very strict - worse than living at home. Quote "Things haven't been the same since those backpackers came here". Bumped into Jamie from Sydney and also hooked up with Bentley for a quick game of pool and a cold one. Felt like old times. We then set out for the Great Ocean Road and Melbourne somewhat sceptically in The Turd........

Griffith, NSW Posted Sunday, February 18, 20013:45 GMT by James
We?re in some small farm town picking grapes at 77 cents a bucket, so there won?t be any updates for a while. Just wanted to quickly say, that if sending any parcels/letters to Sydney, we are not there any more, and they only hang on to mail for a month, so please wait a while if anyone is sending anything, since we won?t be back for over a month - make sure a returnaddy is on it too!

CBD, Sydney Posted Thursday, February 1, 20010:36 GMT by James
Well, we?re still here.... Dan is Mr Paralegal and Ezzy has been employed a few times and then got the sack or been ejected due to a personality defect. Tool. We now have an Irish guy in our dorm who we think is an action man with no genitalia due to the fact that he Pulls his pants up so high that it would critically injure most men (see Dan?s attempt at this on himself in the Pics2 page!) He also sleeps until 3.00 pm because he Doesn't get in from his continuous "nights on the razzle" until 6.30 am waking us all up with a conversation so loud it's surprising the whole hostel can?t hear his boring stories. He also has an annoying habit of saying...."How's Things?" Every time he sees you and in such a way that you can't understand so have to keep answering ...."what?" And then he says "How's things?" Again....sad.
Me and Dan have been playing football with the long term residents of the hostel...which now include us. Ezzy found an olympic size swimming pool over by Hyde Park so we?ve been going there a bit recently too. Last weekend we tried to watch the Opera in the Park but it rained so hard that everyone took shelter in the portaloos - sadly the opera didn?t even start and had to be called off because the stage got flooded and they "lost audio 'n visual!" In the words of a nearby stage hand.
A few days ago two big butch German girls moved in (Obviously lesbos) and we were pretty scared that they were going to beat us up in the night just for laughs. Unfortunately they left yesterday morning and there was no action either way.
A lot of the regulars from the hostel are moving on. Tonight I'm checking out a house that we might move into. Or I might just go fruit picking. Who knows... but I think I can safely say Sydney is wearing on us all. We'll try and make the updates a bit more regular infuture.

CBD, Sydney Posted Tuesday, January 16, 20012:11 GMT by dan
We are now staying in the classy part of Sydney, the Central Business District under the illusion that it would be easy to get work here. No such luck, all the Uni students are on summer vacation and have nicked all the jobs (but I got one - looks as J & Ezzy are gonna be picking oranges!). After we said goodbye to FJ and his crew we got on the boat to Manly Beach, a northern suburb. Found out there was no accommodation, and couldn't be bothered to go back to the city, so we spent half the night on the beach, then upgraded to the benches in luxurious Manly Cricket Oval. It was cold. Spent a few days on the beach, got sun burn, and watched ladies' beach volleyball championships. They were all good. At volleyball that is. Impressions of Sydney so far? Best totty in the world.

Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia Posted TuesdayJanuary 2, 2001 11:12 GMT by james
We got to Sydney on the 29th December. It's a little bit cooler than Bali - which is nice - but it's still warm. We heard all about the snow - Unlucky! Our hostel is nice, we're living in a dorm room with 3/5/7 (we're not exactly sure) other people from Japan, one of which we call FJ (Fat Jap) because his mates go out and leave him asleep in his towel nappy, waking every 5 minutes to take a drag on his ever present rollie.
It really comes alive here at night time, with karaoke on one side of us (which you can hear through the wall), a live sex show on the other (which sadly you can't) and a drug dealer just outside the door (for convenience). I think Cooper would like it here. Unfortunately, we're moving to Manly for a bit tomorrow, so we can't take advantage of these public amenities.
New Year's Eve was good and included lots of fireworks, but would have been greatly improved it alcohol had been allowed. However, we did manage to find some to kick the night off. Dan took his old soft drink cup back to Burger King half full of gin to get a refill with Sprite. Ezzy did this three times (-Pikey) and is still using the same cup he bought 4 days ago! Have you noticed Burger King share prices fall yet?
By the way.... we now all have a mailing address: James C Mellor/Daniel J Winter/Michael O Esbesterall at:
Poste RestanteGPO310 George StreetSydney 2000Australia
So we now EXPECT mail from everyone. Until next time - all the best for the year 2001!

Legian, Bali Posted Tuesday, December 26, 200012:04 GMT by ezzy
Due to difficulties in pronouncing Dan's name the locals call him 'Tangs'. This includes Lis who took a shine to him while we were at Sanur (and stalked him for the rest of our stay - she wanted to marry him).
On Friday, we took a day trip to see some of the island, driven by Agung, the boss-eyed head of the Balinese mafia who had a terminal phlegm problem (he kept on coughing and spitting inside the van). In addition he seemed to have a fear of changing out of 1st gear, although he did like to play chicken with the oncoming drivers. Agung always won. Locals seem to use the horn as a mark of homage to Agung, beeping him liberally for no apparent reason (in his view). We went to loads of places including a local dance performance, a volcano, a cock fight andsome rice terraces.
Left Sanur on Saturday to come to Legian (where crazy Danish guy has made another appearance, only we couldn't talk to him as he was on a bike at the time). Spent Christmas Eve shopping for presents for each other, and went to a big surfers hangout, Tubes, in the evening. Dude.
Got up on the 25th, went swimming in the pool, finished our shopping (spent UKP2.50 each) and wrapped the gifts in the local free newspaper. Opened our presents about 10 mins later, then headed down to the beach for some sun and swimming (and to get harassed to buy local junk). Came back and went for our 3 course Christmas dinner (a WHOLE half baby duckling, with all the traditional trimmings of 3 blocks of pumpkin, beansprouts, rice and some chilli stuffing, followed by some raw, uncooked, rubber Christmas pudding), which all made for an interesting experience. The meal was complemented by the atmosphere - an empty restaurant and a local singing cheesy Xmastunes.
We have 2 more days lounging on the beach here, and then we head off to Sydney - we have just heard that we have somewhere to stay!

Sanur, Bali Posted Tuesday, December 19, 200013:43 GMT by dan
We are in Sanur now, a beach town in southern Bali. It seems to have gotten even hotter so we have taken to doing bugger all, just sleeping, eating and having a few beers. Had our first drinking sesh for 3 weeks last night, we all got quite drunk on a shamefully small quantity of beer. Some things never change! The people seem quite friendly here, but they do hassle you a lot on the beach. Someone wanted to cut James' hair and another felt I needed a manicure and pedicure. No one wants to touch Ezzy's feetthough.

Singapore Posted Friday, December 15, 200012:37 by james
We left Kuala Lumpur and went to Malaka by coach, where we spent 2 nights and met a crazy Danish guy. Then we jumped on another coach down to Singapore, only to find the crazy Danish guy in the same guesthouse! It's all really Christmassy here with lots of decorations and Carol singers with big Afros. Prices have pretty much doubled once we crossed the border from Malaysia, which means we've still not had a good drink since Thailand. There's not really much to see in Singapore unless you have lots of money to shop 'till you drop - we don't. We're leaving for Bali on the 17th December for some sun, sand, surf....and more surf. Sorry about the boring update, but it's been boring. Laters.

Kuala Lumpur Posted Friday, December 8, 200016:30 GMT by dan
Malaysia is trapped in 1984 - the Mullet is king, and shell suits are cutting edge. We have photographic evidence! They don't do things by halves in KL. Not only have they got the longest hair styles, they've only gone and built the tallest building in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers, where we had a good look round today. And it is. Tall. The rest of the day was spent buying pirate music CDs and Video CDs for a quid or two each. We are staying in a backpackers hostel that costs 2 quid a night and is run by a Malaysian called Vince (who is surprisingly mulletless). Need I say more? We (that's me and James) are in a Cyber Cafe at 12.25 am writing e-mails and doing the site because the city goes all Muslim on a Friday night and there is nowhere to buy beer.

Jarentut, Malaysia Posted Monday, December 4, 200014:26 GMT by james
We got a train from Kota Bahru this morning - an express one which took 5 and a half hours. But it was comfortable and had air-conditioning. Cost us Rm 20 - about 4 pounds. We're now in Jerantut, a very small town which is the gateway to the national park rain forest, which is at least 3 hours boat ride upstream to the main HQ. We're going to stay at a place further up than that called Nusa Camp for two nights. We leave for there tomorrow morning. Right now we're staying in a real cheap hostel and the owner (Mr Tan) is very knowledgeable about the National Pak and organizes it all for us. Plus he is genuine and not trying to rip us off like all the Thais seem to do. Next destination is KL. Anyway...you'll hear about it soon... Oh, we really need to do some washing big time...hand washing really doesn't cut it and clothes never get dry due to the humidity.

Koh Lanta Posted Tuesday, November 28, 200013:39 GMT by dan
We are now in Koh Lanta, an island just off the main coast of Thailand. We spent 3 nights in Koh Phi Phi in a shed all sharing one bed with numerous roaches, lizards and one rather large sea crab. The hut was on stilts and moved so much we all got sea sick. A sharp contrast to where we are now, a luxury bungalow with air conditioning on the beach for only 4 quid each.Not bad.
Today is our last day here before we move on to Krabi early in the morning. We had some death defying thrills today as we hired motorbikes to explore the island. Thais don't drive all that well, but I think we were worse. But is was worth it cos we got some great views and had a whole beach to ourselves. Only regret is that we are now completely crispy withsunburn.
Missing England lots, honest!

Koh Phi Phi Posted Friday, November 24, 20008:37 GMT by james
We've heard it's been rainy like this for ages and everyone keeps saying it gets better next week and it apparently doesn't get better each week! We're off to Koh Lanta Sunday morning for a night and then to Krabi - probably Railey Beach for a night or two before we head down South to Malaysia andSingapore somehow.
Internet access here in the island is a plenty. Weird considering where we are, and the rate is 3 baht a minute, which reminds me I been on here over half an hour, so I'm gonna get off and go buy a new t-shirt I been wearing the same one for the whole journey here.Yuk.

Leaving Posted Monday, November 20, 20008:24 GMT by james
We're leaving today - night flight to Bankok........

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