Back to Doha - last stop with this host family

We arrived safely back in Doha after another long airplane ride.
I knew I was about to be packed up and sent off to England for another family to host me.

I enjoyed a few last minute views of the new Doha downtown area. These pictures are taken from an apartment on the 24th floor. You can see all the building work, and the sea.



Hope you enjoyed my first set of adventures. I am looking forward to having many more!

Bye bye!

Hong Kong morning

We had a couple of hours before our plane left so we took to the water in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is made up of several sections, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon being the two most famous. There is a ferry service that runs between the two, and there is also a subway that goes under the water.


We had fun taking the ferry and tried both the top deck and the bottom deck on the ferry (if you travel on the bottom deck it is cheaper!)

Hong Kong here we come

After visiting all the family in Australia, it was time for my host family to go back home to Doha. But as it is such a long flight - they had a stop over in Hong Kong on the way. We weren't there very long, but we managed to squeeze in a few fun things.


We went to Hong Kong Island and saw lots of lots of people out and about and lots of shopping malls. There are busses, trams, cars and taxis everywhere. Can you spot the double decker bus and the double decker trams!
The blurry blue is a tram, and there is a yellow one behind it. They are tall and skinny, while the busses are tall and fatter.

To get to the top of Hong Kong Island to see the view you can take a tram. It is a a funicular tram and gets pulled up the mountain. It is a very steep ride.



The view from the top is amazing. We went at night time and the lights of the city were sparkling everywhere. Don't you think it is a beautiful view?!

Family, family, and more family

The whole reason for this trip was my host family were back in Australia to visit family. They travelled from one side of Melbourne to the other, and out into the country side too.

Here I am on the balcony of Great Auntie Jude's house. Can you see the gum (eucalyptus) trees in the background. She just built a new house so the garden in the back isn't finished yet.



I also went to visit Uncle Joe and Auntie Julie at their dairy farm. Uncle Joe has to milk the cows twice everyday. He has machines that do the milking, but he has to get all the cows in order, and put the machines on their udders and keep everything clean and fucntioning.



You saw the cricket game at the MCG - big with lots of grass. But families will play cricket anywhere. Here is a game on the drive way of a holiday house down on the coast in Anglesea.



Anglesea is know for its golf course which has wild kangaroos on it. There are special rules of what to do if your ball hits a kangaroo! We went to visit and found some kangaroos on the side of the course.



Here's a picture of the family I spent Christmas with. There is a Nanny and Poppy, lots of aunts and uncles and even more cousins to play with.

Lygon street gelato

When it's hot in Melbourne - then head to Lygon street and have some gelato from one of the many gelato shops. Gelato is Italian ice cream and Melbourne has some of the best gelato outside of Italy. There is a large Italian community in Melbourne and you can find lots of traditional Italian meals here... not just pizza!




Casa del gelato is my host family's favorite! Some of the flavors we had were, banana, strawberry, lemon, orange, passionfruit, coconut, peach and cherry. There were so many more to choose from - I'll have to go back again!

Tram rides around Melbourne

One of Melbourne's unique features is its trams. There are tramlines all over Melbourne and they are a great way of getting around. Most trams are modern, very sleek looking and airconditioned inside. But there is a special tram route just for tourists, the City Circle tram. It is an old style tram that gives you a free ride around the outer loop of the central business district.


It was a very hot day, so most people opted to take the new air-conditioned trams!



We went past lots of beautiful gardens.



Here we are passing Flinders Street station - a Melbourne landmark and the main train station.

Cricket at the MCG

Cricket is one of Australia's national sports - and the home of cricket in Australia is the MCG - the Melbourne Cricket ground.

The stadium seats over 100,000 fans.


Cricket is a complicated game, but basically there are two batsmen who stand at either end of the pitch. A bowler bowls to one of them trying to get them out in a variety of ways. The batsman must defend the wicket (the three posts behind him) and make runs together with his partner.
Some games, called test matches, can take up to 5 days to play!

Melbourne

Melbourne is a city of around 3 million people in the south east of Australia.
Below is picture of the skyline.



It is on a river called the Yarra.

Red Center

I forgot to mention that on the flight from Bangkok to Sydney, we flew over the red centre. (note centre spelled differently in Australia)

The interior of Australia is mainly desert - and the desert is red. Here you can see a picture of some of the land we flew over. The black spots on the ground are the shadows from the clouds!

Animals at the zoo

I saw a koala eating gum leaves (eucalyptus)

A kangaroo going for a hop.

An echidna going for a waddle (and sucking up a few ants)

And a kookaburra (not laughing) in a tree!

Sydney's Taronga Zoo

I rode another ferry to Taronga Zoo. Here I am with a big stuffed koala, but I saw lots of real ones too. I also saw kangaroos, emus, echidnas and platypus. What fun!

More Manly Beach

Here you can see some of the beach at Manly. It is on the coast north of Sydney on the Pacific Ocean.

The surf life savers were going out in their boat to make sure people were ok. There were strong under currents that day and surfers with their boards could surf the entire beach, but swimmers had to stay at one end where the life savers could watch them more closely.

Here is a young girl catching a wave. Lots of boys and girls were surfing that day!

Manly beach

One of the ferries I took to Manly Beach where I met a surf life saver named Jamie. It was a windy day with rough beach conditions so the life savers were very busy making sure every one was safe.

Off again to Sydney

Here I am across from the Sydney opera house and the Sydney harbour bridge. Again the weather was nice and warm, but this time I have moved to the Southern Hemisphere where it is summer in December. Sydney is on a harbour and I took ferries all over the place visiting lots of fun places.

Bangkok food

Here you can see some of the food that was for sale on the street. Lots of people got their meals as take away (or to go) from these street vendors, but many also sat and ate their meal at small tables right on the sidewalk.

There were fruits, nuts and vegetables that we had never seen before.