Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia: My experience

I want to share my experience of Mardi Gras in Sydney. They happen every year and each year is different with a new theme. The one I went to was as gay and wild party as ever!

Going with my Thai friend, we stayed with his friends living in Sydney. Therefore we stayed in a flat on top of a Thai restaurant, and stayed in another Thai guy house which was a moment's walk from the parade route. This saved us a lot on hotels and gave us a glimpse on living locally.
The customs and immigration in Sydney airport was so strict, they THOROUGHLY went through my travel bag with a fine toothed comb!( I arrived off a Bangkok flight if that influenced it )  I am not the drug looking or hippy looking type, so I can't imagine what treatment they would get.

During the Mardi Gras festival there were plenty of drugs and intoxicating things to get into, and I did have my samples of this, but since we were dancing from night until dawn anything I did take burned off and I didn't get any side effects or hangovers!

I remember the music, the lights and dancing being really good and fun, lots of attractive people everywhere. We went pub hopping and saw crazy drag shows. The parade was great fun too, and in my opinion beat the Pride Parades in San Franscisco several times over. More fun and less politics.

After Mardi Gras festival was over, we did our independant tour around Sydney seeing the ubiquitous places which are icons of the city,


and the surrounding towns. We also went to a small nude beach and splashed briskly in the sea as it was too cold to swim.

Other than the typical beef pasties and cornish pies (The kinds I would eat in England- sort of) I had mostly Thai food because of our friends.

If I did have an opportunity to visit Australia again, I would venture around Melbourne area next time, and of course try to experience it locally and not so much like a tourist would.
Any suggestions?



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