Great Ocean Road - Victoria, Australia

So i've been very lazy in posting since I got to Australia, simply because I am having the best time. But i have done some things worthy of note which could be useful to anyone travelling over here. In terms of getting out of Melbourne I have only escaped the once so far between working and playing and that was to do the Great Ocean Road in one day a pretty hefty task especially when you don't drive, luckily one of my friends volunteered as driver and we set off on my first Australian road trip. It is one of the most beautiful routes i've ever driven down and there was so many stops to see but this is the route we did if your interested in taking a day and doing it yourself, The time to drive the whole route and back including stopping time and wandering around took roughly 15 hours and my poor friend had to drive all of it as i've been too lazy to get my drivers license.

First of all we missed out Torquey somewhere I definitely want to go see but we thought it would be better to get the first stretch of road out of the way, the first 'landmark' was the gate of the Great Ocean Road a memorial to the workers that built the road itself and of course I had to get a super cheesy picture under it.

after we went past Lorne where we went to Erskine Falls, it took around 20 minutes to walk down to the falls from where you could park and it was beautiful, pictures do not do it justice.

After Erskine falls we travelled on through down to Wye River, where we walked up Grey River road a popular place to spot Koalas (which we did) and also the birds there red and green lorikeets were super friendly and would come and sit on you. As you can probably tell by the pictures I was super happy by seeing some Australian wildlife after being in the city for so long.

After this we drove through more of the national park (Ottway) in the hope of spying some kangaroos but no luck although we saw more koalas in the trees which was pretty cute, and a kookaburra. We then drove through to Cape Ottway where we stopped for a break and walked to the lighthouse, but it was 20$ just to go look at it so we skipped and walked to the view point instead which was great. After a few more walks and minor waterfalls along the way the sun started to get pretty low so we decided to drive through to the 12 apostles.

while it was great to see something so famous, I thought the 12 apostles weren't that mindblowing, pretty sure there also isn't 12 anymore, for something that is built up so much it was a little disappointing but the coast line of the cliffs is still impressive to look at. After this it got dark so we started the journey home along the quicker route towards Geelong, we had such good weather all day which was lucky as I don't think the journey would be worth it unless you had blue skies and a bit of sun. 

Batu Caves - Kuala Lumpur

I only had a day or two in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while I wait for my flight to Melbourne to start the next part of my adventure. I heard the Batu Caves were unmissable so thought I would go check them out and see if they compared to other places I had seen on my trip like Marble Mountain (previous post) The Batu Caves were incredible the most sacred Hindu temple in Malaysia, the ornate statues and the size of the cave itself was like nothing I have ever seen, like a whole other world. The temples themselves are Hindu temples protected by statues of their Deities, the largest being a 140ft statue of the Deity Murugan whose sheer size is mindblowing. The caves are definitely worth a visit the biggest cave and the one worth seeing above the others is free entry which is a bonus! One of the smaller temple caves is 5 MRP to get in and was worth paying to see the statues inside of the cave. Outside the caves are monkeys hanging about, you can buy bananas from the nearby stall holders to feed them if you dare but they do jump and they will bite if they feel threatened not that it stopped me going and hanging out with them but consider yourselves warned! if your in Kuala Lumpur for a day or two get to Batu Caves there only half hour away by train and was the only thing I found worth doing in my time here.