The last time we heard from POMbear (aka George) he was struggling to sleep on his long haul flight to Aus, but that is clearly a distant memory as his most recent post is about his Hong Kong experience.

“When flying over Hong Kong the views from the plane window was something out of Sim City. There were so many tower blocks, too many to count through a tiny airplane window. I hadn’t ever been this far away from home and neither my friend Sam who I was traveling with; this was going to be a great experience.”

His time there took him on a trip up Victoria Peak on the safest tram in the world (a bold claim surely asking for trouble? It hasn’t had one reported incident in a 100-year history), gambling at Happy Valley Races where he finished the evening up and visiting the markets to pick up knock-off goods.

This was only half of it though. George’s favourite experience came discovering the Chi Lin Nunnery and the Nai Lin Gardens,

“I found that this place was what traveling was all about, discovering hidden gems away from tourists.”

Has anyone else been to the nunnery and gardens? The final night saw George trying to watch the sunset across Hong Kong, unfortunately the evening was overcast, but this didn’t hamper the photography as the view of the lights coming on throughout the city was most impressive.

And George’s final thoughts on his Hong Kong experience,

“Leaving Hong Kong for Australia was hard […], as there were still many more things to do, see and find. Perhaps I could live there one day…. in the fantastic Chi Lin Nunnery!”

During his long haul flight STA Explorer POMbear, one of the lucky £10 Poms who benefited from STA Travel’s summer deal, has offered a flying goodbye.

Although not posting on his farewell until now, George (that’s his real name), had been fortunate enough to be able to say all the goodbyes he needed in the flesh,

“In the week before leaving I should have done some kind of final English blog. About saying goodbye to friends and family. And the reason I didn’t is that I was too busy having a great time saying goodbye. […] I was able to see all my friends and family before leaving, and I had had a great time, in a fairly intoxicated state.”

That sounds like the best way to do it to me. As he typed his latest entry, 30,000 odd feet up, he bemoans the ‘want to sleep, can’t sleep’ conflict of long distance air travel. He’s not the only one, Alice in down-underland, another £10 Pom, gets a mention as she was also struggling with getting some shut-eye. Anyone got any tips on catching Zzzz’s while in a winged tin can? If so let us know.

There was a glorious moment when George did manage drift off to the land of nod – only to be awoken by a rather alarming request from a member of the cabin crew…

The two latest additions to our Harlem globetrotter-esque super team of travellers are Lancastrian to Australian Steven and POMbear George. Both were rewarded for their commitment to queuing with £10 Pom tickets to Oz as part of the STA Travel 30^th anniversary offer.

Steven is will be taking in Bangkok for a week or so and then heading on to Aus to spend New Year in Sydney. After that fate is his guide, but he hopes to get to Niue, Fiji, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Central America and maybe Pitcairn and the Galapagos Islands. Obviously this is a lot and he reckons he’ll be happy to make it of five of these. I’d be happy with five of those.

George is a freelance cameraman and will be working for a year in Melbourne. He is aiming to incorporate into this some serious exploration of Australia.

You can see their bios on the Australasia and Africa Explorers page…