Climbing a 338m tower. My idea of a holiday..

So after my jaunt though Taiwan, I spent a few days in Hong Kong/Macau exploring and doing things that I ran out of time to do last year. One of those was climbing to the top of the Macau Tower's antenna, a mere 338m off the ground. Despite a wind speed of over 40km/h causing the last 20m to sway and creak, I think I did pretty well. That's 2 world records that Im a part of now! Took around 2 hours to get to the top and back down, with plenty of time spent hanging off the top to enjoy the view, tho the thumbnail youtube chose suggests that I was freaking out at the top :D

Hong Kong Highlights

Only in Hong Kong, real fish with hats and fake eyes glued on.

After a day in Macau, I spent the next week exploring Hong Kong. I was expecting it to be more of an asian city but it is really westernised. I couldnt find an local restaurant within walking distance from the hotel, yet there is a McDonalds every 100m! Speaking of hotels, the one I chose off the internet turned out to be awesome (The Salisbury, Hong Kong). They upgraded my room on arrival (perks of arriving on my birthday!) so that I was looking over the harbor and then got me some bolt cutters when I realised my luggage lock had been mangled by Qantas. Also the room had the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on, I really should ask them what brand it was. For more photos, click here.

  

Macau Tower - Tallest bungy in the world

7 hours on a plane & 1 hour on a ferry for a few seconds of falling off a building. Yes, I am crazy!

Macau

 As my birthday present to myself for 2012, I decided to do a little trip to Macau to do the tallest bungy jump in the world and to also see the sights of Hong Kong. Macau is a weird mix of chinese casinos, slums and old portugese architecture. I only spent a day there and I probably saw & did everything with the exception of checking out the casino. But I had better things to waste my money on, like jumping off perfectly good buildings!!

India

Namaste. Welcome to India! Yes that is the most touristy photo possible but when in rome India :) It was quite a culture shock after the relatively relaxing trip through Jordan. It took my brain and my stomach a couple of days to adjust to the sensory overload! Also (as expected) Indian food is definitely better in India. It seems everything there is in a constant state of chaos but yet it still works. Was a little sad to leave India, I definately want to go back one day and see the rest of the country. I'd made some good friends and came home with plenty of stories (refused entry to Dehli airport then lost my passport and 2 airline tickets an hour later !!)
 For many, many more pics click here --> India Gallery (344 photos)

  

  

Jordan

Jordan was suprisingly not what I expected, and thats a good thing! I was expecting a country similar to Egypt yet Jordan is much cleaner, safer & friendlier. You can walk down the street and the locals barely even notice you. If you learnt abit of arabic, you could easily explore the country at your own pace rather than on a tour. Having said that, my tour leader was excellent and I learnt so much about Jordan in such a short period of time. Swimming in the Dead Sea, hiking around Petra & camping in the desert were some of the highlights of this trip.
For many, many more pics click here --> Jordan Gallery (300 images)

  

  

Dubai Stopover

Honestly I was quite unprepared for this trip, finished packing the bag only a couple of hours before I flew out!

The journey from Perth to Jordan would take nearly 24hours. After a 10.5 hour flight to Dubai in which I failed to impress the girl I was sitting next to with my terrible Arabic :) , I had an 8 hour stopover before my (Business class!) flight to Jordan. I'm not going to hangout in an airport unless I'm forced to so I cleared immigration, caught a taxi and headed towards the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.
Dubai really is a crazy amazing city in the middle of nowhere and I wish I had spent a couple of days there exploring the sights. Have to add it to the to-do list for the next trip!

Click the link below for more images from Dubai

Dubai Gallery (30 images)