Nicole Conquers (part of) The Southern Hemisphere

Hometime!

2008-03-04T20:14:00.002+07:00

im home! yay!

i got home on wednesday, after The Longest Day Of My Life (or, TLDOML). i left sydney at 3 pm on wednesday, traveled for 27 hours, and arrived at 1 in the morning on wednesday night. very logical

anyways, almost a week on, im working through my horrendous jetlag, slowly adjusting to the cold and have pretty much surprised everyone i planned to (though i couple fell through.. it happens...)

i was sad to leave at the time, but im SO glad to be home now, and have my feet on the ground, sleep with my cat, use my own bathroom etc...

thus ends this Travel Journal for nicole, and thankyou all for coming

Malaysia pictures and paradise

2008-02-23T15:40:00.002+07:00

Some photos of Malaysia/Singapore:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95362&l=3eee4&id=66112047

my time spent in Ko Chang was far too short. there are 2 ko Chang's in thailand. one is just a couple hours under bangkok, and is a VERY popular holiday island for Thai people, which means its VERY expensive, and VERY populated. The other, is somewhat of a backpacker urban myth. talks of a tropical island that only has a handful of guesthouses? isnt in the guidebooks? vastly secluded and peaceful? no tourists?! such a place couldnt possibly exist! well, im here to spoil the secret. this place exists, and it just as fabulous as everyone says it is. The 2nd Ko Chang is out of Ranong, which is a small fishing village, famous only because it shares a river border with Burma (meaning visa run, more on that later...). Until ko Chang came along. its only a 45 minute ferry ride (i use the word "ferry" very loosly here, its actually the grocery boat taking supplies out to the island 3 times a day), dropping people off at carious guesthouses around the island. the main beach has about 15 guesthouses, all set back from the beach. the whole island has 2 internet cafes, and 3 minimarts. My chosen bungalow was in a completly private beach about an hours walk north of the main beach. 20 minutes through the north trail (there are 2 "roads", the north one, a track through the forest, the other, the south one which leads to an actual asphalt road (for the 3 motobikes on the island)). During the day the power was solar, and at night we had light until the generator ran out. i spent my days laying in my hammock, and at night listening to the waves. in short, it was paradise. I have never been so happy to be without TV, internet, and a mass of people to talk to. there was a giant bookshelf of (mostly) english novels, and a stack of outdated magazines. plenty for me to do. Unfortunatly my time to leave came far too soon, and i can honestly say there was a serious pang of regret as the ferry (grocery boat) pulled away from the island. but, some ko chang is better than no ko chang, so im happy i got to spend at least a bit of time there.

the morning before i headed off to the island, my night bus from bangkok arrived in ranong. ranong shares a river with burma (myanmar), which makes it a popular place for tourists and locals alike to do a visa run. basically this consists of going through thai immigration on ranong, getting your exit stamp, walking 10 minutes to the pier (which makes me wonder, if id gotten my thai exit stamp, and no entrance stamp, what country was i in?) where you take a boat to the border, and burma immigration. there you get a burmese entrance stamp, signed and dated, then immediatly get an exit stamp, signed and dated the same day. back on the boat, to thailand where you get a brand new thai entrance visa, valid for another 30 days!! well, i didnt need to do a visa run, but i desperatly wanted to go to burma, so i took the run anyways. i was hoping id be aboe to at least walk around and take some pictures, but i was hustled back onto the boat pretty quickly. im glad i did it though, now ive been to burma!!

2008-02-17T17:47:00.002+07:00

My last day in Singapore was spent on Santosa Island. Apparently when Singaporians (?) go on vacation, Australia, NZ and the rest of South East Asia isnt good enough. they need to make their own holiday resort. Enter Santosa Island. "Plastic Fantastic" is fairly descriptive. man made beaches, giant floral displays, cheesy attractions, and a gigantic "merlion" (half fish half lion). Obviously i loved it. All other backpackers ive met scorned it, and then stared open mouthed at me while i explained that the cheesiness was part of the fun! These are probably people that hate disneyland as well. weirdos. Anyways, that took up pretty much an entire day, that evening i went to the Chinatown markets, which were alright.

The next morning i left for KL again, i had a bus all to myself, which was sweet, but the bus driver apparently thought that meant he could do whatever he wanted. Like put on "Rambo". Ironically that movie takes places in the same part of the world im in. (if you havent seen it, dont. really.) My half day in KL was uber-productive. Shopping for purses and movies, then watching said movies and gazing adoringly at my new bags.

Flew to Bangkok last night, and spent all day today at Chatuchak Markets, which is a MASSIVE outdoor weekend market. I actually came back to Bangkok just for these markets, and met a couple guys on the plane who were doing the same thing. There are thousands and thousands of stalls, and no just of crap, really nice stuff too! the only blemish on the day was accidently wandering into the "pet" area. Lots of sad puppies, and a cock fight to top it all off. Awesome. Its crazy humid here right now, the sun hasnt been out much but the heat is so uncomfortable. it poured this afternoon for about an hour, which left like ten thousand people hiding under the market awnings, waiting for it to stop. i took the plunge and kept shopping. (not surprisingly)

Singapore; where everything is illegal!

2008-02-13T19:50:00.002+07:00

I spent 2 nights in Kuala Lampur. Didnt do a whole lot besides shop and walk around, which is a good way to get to know a city.. the downside to malaysia is that they're very conservative people, so yesterday morning i leave the house in my customary "its 35 out" outfit (meaning, shorts and a tank top) and i got cat called and leered at SO much in the first 2 blocks i had to turn back and change. Ick

Arrived in Singapore this afternoon, its only a 6 hour bus ride from KL and besides the customs stoppoints i slept almost the whole way. Speaking of customs, a few fun facts about things you cannot do in Singapore:

- Bring into the country, under any circumstace the following: anything (lighter, toys etc) shaped like a gun or weapon, Chewing gum (im not making this up), Bootleg movies, Drugs, prescription or otherwise (you actually need a prescription for ibprofen here)
-jaywalking (they actually hand out tickets for this here)

amazing. there are signs all over the customs areas that say "Drug smuggling incurs an automatic death penalty. i kid you not.

In any event, i made it through just fine, and met a girl on the bus, Tina. We went out to Raffles Hotel, which is famous for having invented the Singapore Sling. Obviously we had to go into this incredibly fancy hotel and have a drink. The magic was somewhat diminished when we realized that
a) the drinks are $25 each
and b) are not handmade by some fancy bartender, but come out of a spout automatically, like a pop machine

Despite all this, we each had one, took a lot of photos, and i (stealthy backpacker that i am) took a ziploc bag of complimentary peanuts from the bar. Tina left for the airport, and i headed off to the Singapore Art Museum, then took a walk down Orchard Rd, which is a really long Rd, FULL of shopping malls. and not just regular everyday stores, like 3 leves Chanels, and stores id not expect to see in Asia (like A&W for example?? and MAC?). There are no great deals in Singapore, its pretty high class, but its fun to waltz into the stores and pretend like i belong there.

Malaysia

2008-02-11T21:26:00.000+07:00

i know, i know. 2 posts in a row. amazing.

stayed the night in bangkok yesterday, which was a lot of hassle for very little sleep. and holy moses is it HOT here! id slowly started adjusting to the biting cold in taiwan, and then im thrown back into 34 degrees and humidity. its awful! anyways, i flew to Kuala Lumpur this morning. im staying in chinatown, which is a pretty happening place. lots of shopping to be had. there isnt a LOT to do in the city, the twin towers, which is the 2nd tallest building in the world (1st place until taipei 101 was built). there are some caves outside the city im going to tomorrow, and on wednesday i might take a bus to singapore (i love that i can just "take a bus to singapore") and stay there for a couple days. i wandered through the markets tonight, and somhow emerged with a giant Fendi suitcase. im not entirly sure how it happened.. theyre so efficiant/manipulative! you agree on a price and before you know it, its packed and in your hands! i walked away twice and got the price down significantly (like 1/5 of what he wanted) ut now i have to carry around another suitcase... there may also have been a couple louis vuittons thrown in there... (so cheap! how can i not?!) luckily i stayed away from the dvds.. for now...

the humidity is still killing me, but my guesthouse only had an a/c room left, so i "settled" and am now sleeping in semi-cool comfort. air conditioning and fendi. high class backpacker

A fond look back at Taiwan

2008-02-10T16:41:00.000+07:00

Im off to Bangkok tonight, and, as usual am at the airport WAY too early. The plus being that ive found a free internet cafe to kill some time on.

Yesterday A'lo and i tried to do an Obscure Museums Tour of Taipei (self guided of course). I discovered, much to my delight, that the there are musuems on the following:

- Nougat
-Drinking Water
-Miniatures
-Paper
-Baking

No. really. These are all legitimate museums. Our first stop was the bakery museum, whch was a bust. what kind of museum do you need an appointment to go see?? honestly! Next was the miniatures, which was magical. Though by the end we were both in need of something normal sized... The paper museum was closed (new years and all..). By this time it was almost 5, raining, cold and we both needed food. So we 86ed the last 2 and had dinner instead. So, our obscure museums tour turned into a tour of 1 musuem and a lot of failed attempts.

Taiwan has a real fondness for free samples. Which is awesome for a couple different reasons. First, as a poor backpacker, ill take anything free can get, especially lunch. 2nd, i can try things in small amounts that id never have tried without it being handed to me. somethings im still not sure what it was i ate. anyways, my point is, the airport gift shops will be re thinking theyir free sample policy after i depart. Over priced airport food + hungry backpacker + free samples.... not a hard calculation!

Taiwan photos and a lot of marble

2008-02-07T23:35:00.000+07:00

Taiwan photo album: (arent you impressed at my promptness??)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=91678&l=dd493&id=661120474

A'lo and I took a voyage out to Hualien, which is a city about 15km outside of Taroko Gorge National Park. The city itself is sort of "eh". It had a beautiful temple, but other than that there wasnt much to see. It poured rain all day (all week actually) so we hit the night markets for street food and possible shopping. After spending so much time in the Taipei night markets, small city ones werent much use to us. It was Chinese New Years Eve, so we figured it would be party town. Not so much.. we wandered through city center for 2 hours looking for a bar, restaurant that served beer, or really any place we could sit down and have a drink, besides the bench outside the 7-11. It seems that New Years over here is a family event, and not the wild drunk fest it is everywhere else. eventually we stumbled on the only open establishment in the city. it turned out to be really good. Live music! and i tell you, there are few things better than a Taiwanese band covering "Final Countdown" on New Years Eve. Magic. On the way home i ran into a street performance with a lot of cymbals and interprative dancing, which was very cool

This morning we had a (surprisingly) early start, heading to Taroko Gorge first thing. The gorge is a really famous tourist destination in Taiwan. its massive, and completely made of marble. Its incredible! We spent pretty much the whole day there, doing various walks and enjoying the scenery. Taiwan is the 2nd most thermally active place in Asia, but there were no hot springs in the park, OR in Hua lien, which is dissapointing. i actually carried my bathing suit around all day today and yesterday, just in case we ran into one!

Ive got a few days left in Taiwan, which may or may not be spent shopping and trying to stay warm!

Taiwan etc.. (also a photo link)

2008-02-06T13:02:00.000+07:00

For all non-facebook members (its hard to believe) heres a link to my Thailand photo album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87838&l=2bb37&id=661120474

I arrived in Taipei on Feb 1st. Taipei is in the very north of taiwan, and its winter here right now. i have been living in balmy summer sonditions for roughly the last 7 months straight. sunny, 30's almost constantly. i get here (dressed in my summer clothing) and its raining and 10 degrees. i am FREEZING. hard to sympathize im sure (- 35 in sk the last i heard...) but i am not prepared for cold weather anymore. anyways, my friend amy logan is living her with her boyfriend, theyre both teaching english, and she has very generously let me stay in her apartment. we've toured around taipei quite a bit, the (current) tallest tower in the world, taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, which has over 700 000 chinese artifacts. its an amazing place, we only stayed a couple hours (they want you to leave when the museum closes apparently) but i could have looked around for days! Also we're been doing quite a lot of shopping. the best purchase ive made so far is a sweater, but there are a lot of other items which have added to my ever increasing backpack.

Currently we are in Hualien, which is a couple hours south (but no warmer incedently). The Taroko Gorge is about 15km away, which is a huge gorge made of marble and there are lots of hiking trails and hot springs. The hot springs are definatly more appealing right now! its chinese new years all this week, so the trains and hotels are really busy with holiday makers celebrating. ive learned a couple random facts about chinese newyears:

-a spirit/demon (i cant remeber his name) who brings bad luck is afraid of the colour red, which is why everything suring new years is red. also afraid of firecrackers, so you have to be on the lookout when walking down the street for people just randomly lighting small fireworks in the street.

-all this week, wearing white (death) and black (something else bad) is considered a bad omen
- on feb 10th, no one should leave their house
-all this week, all garbage is to be collected in the middle of the house, and not thrown away until the 11th, marking the end of last year, and a new beginning.

im not entirely sure how many of these traditions are still followed, but it'll be interesting to see the celebrations, as tonight is new years eve, the party night.

my furture plans have taken somewhat of a drastic change. deciding im not ready to go back to thailand yet, ive decied to go to Kuala Lumpar, whch is in Malaysia for a week or so, and see how that works out. Its also really close Singapore, which is conveinent...

tigers!

2008-01-29T17:07:00.000+07:00

I spent my last day in Chiang Mai yesterday on a trek. Normally treks are all about hiking up a mountain and camping out etc.. as i am limited on time (and money) i did a one day tour. The day started out with an hour long elephant ride. Everyone else in my group was a couple, so being the odd one out i got to sit on the elephants neck instead of on the seat on her back! it was really cool, but really bumpy (i was on her shoulder blades after all..) and quite hard to balance. the uys sitting behind me had to keep me steady a couple times. it was so amazing though, ours name was Lina and she ate everything in sight. Like uprooting shrubs as we walked by them. I was proud. Next was visitng 2 hill tribles, which was a bit of a let down. i expected to see their whole village very authentic. Mostly it was a a whole bunch of stalls with people selling stuff. nice stuff, handmade clothing, wovem blankets etc.. but not what i was expecting. We "hiked" to a waterfall next (a 30 minute walk down a road... more to save on gas i think..) which was freaking cold, but it was really humid that day, so it was kind of nice. Last on the agenda was bamboo rafting, which is basically a whole bunch of big bamboo sticks wound together with a guy at the front making sure you down crash into anything as you drift down the river. Luckily our guide ad us put our bathing suits on first becasue youre on the raft, but its pretty much submerged in water the entire time.

I had just enough to get back to my guesthouse, change and get on a night bus to Bangkok. I spent all of 45 minutes there and was on yet another bus to Kanchanburi, which is where i am now. The big attraction here is Tiger Temple, which is sort of a giant animal sanctuary, and you can pet the tigers and get photos. Its 300B to get in, which was fine, its for tigers after all.. Technically its a temple because the monks take care of the animals. Not thinkin about this first, i show up in a tank top, which is of course a big nono. it was an hours bus ride to get a different shirt, so what do it do? well! they seel shirts at the temple! of course they do. So 300B later im sporting a brand new, hardly tacky "thailand tiget temple" short. now i realize 300B is only 10$ canadain, but here some perspecitive. Im paying 90B fr my hotel tonight ($3) and i paid 20 for lunch today (75 cents). so 300 is a fairly obnoxious price. To gain some closure for it, i took 2 completmentary water bottles (yes you heard right. 2) and took a giant roll of toilet paper (no bathroom ever has toliet paper. just a hose). Then i go into the temple area (buddha statue on a cement block.. pretty unimpressive) and a monk has the nerve to ask me for a donation before i leave! I very polietly said that i had just "donated" 600B to get in the temple and i thought that was enough. Then i left laughing to myself. I realize i just told a story about how i laughed at a monk, but i was a bit put out.

Motorbikes

2008-01-25T17:22:00.000+07:00

Ive been in Northern Thailand for about a week now, and i think its my favorite area so far. i spent about 5 days in Chiang Mai, touring around all the temples (there are over 300 in the city alone!) venturing out to a small town where they specialize in handmade paper and umbrellas (i bought a tiny one) and managed to do 2 cooking courses! They were both a lot of fun, one was just an independent one and the other is run by a famous thai chef. that one was a lot more intense, and i learned more, but the first one was a lot more fun. basically the whole day is spent cooking and eating. which of course, rules, but it becomes difficult to move after a while and even more difficult to convince yourself to take a walk to burn some energy.

Chiang Mai has 2 really good markets, the night bazar which is everynight and takes up like 10 city blocks. its lots of bootleg dvds, designer knock offs, purses, clothing etc.. lots of fun, but if you even slow down to look at something the vendors are on you like stink on a monkey "i make you good price! how much?! try on!" its a bit much after a while. the other really good ones are the sunday night markets, and i may have gone a little overboard at those ones. lots of handmade clothing and some of the northern hill tribes come into town with their stuff, lots of natrual cotton. anyways, i have a lot of really pretty items form that night..

im currently in Pai, which is a smallish hippie town, only 135 km from Chiang Mai but it takes 4 hours to get here becasue the road is so twisty. i met a girl on the bus who is travelling with 2 guys she met randomly. we are sharing rooms at a guesthouse by the river and today we rented motorbikes, and drove up to a waterfall. it was really beautiful but freezing cold! then i dropped my helmet down the waterfall and had to scramble down to get it befre it fell into oblivion. I wasnt real keen on driving, but i decided to give it a whirl, and it was way easier than i though it would be! i made it about 500 m, turned around sucessfully and went back. i was so proud of myself. next step, buying a harley. (ha!)

en route to bangkok

2008-01-18T19:41:00.000+07:00

the last week or so has been pretty busy, ive been to 3 different islands (all with fairly nauseating ferry rides) but theyve been so beautiful. Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Tao were the last 2, i stayed a couple nights on each, and managed to find little huts on the beach to stay in. it was so nice, id go for a hike in the day, then lay in my hammock until dinner. the snorkelling on Ko Tao is amazing, its one of the best palces in the world for it, and i managed to sqeeze in a quick trip before i left this morning. ive never seen so many fish in my life!

im in Chumphon right now, which is pretty much a stopover town for people going to, or coming from Ko Tao. Im taking an overnight bus to bangkok and then straight theough to Chang Mai in the north, which is well known for cooking courses and elephant trekking. The people are apparently much friendlier as well. The novelty of people yelling/pointing/staring at me as i walk down the street has worn off.

Thailand!

2008-01-12T16:06:00.000+07:00

I arrived in Phuket last night, which is the major touristy town in the south of the country. i didnt get into a hotel until about 830pm, so there wasnt a lot of time for exploring. I did manage to find a cafe close by and get a late dinner. i can tell ill be exploring the cuisine of thailand quite extensively (meaning: ill be eating a lot). I ordered rice with shrimp and basil, brothy soup and a beer and its came to a grand total of 55 BHT. Or under $2 Canadian. Magical. Air conditioning is a luxury that costs, so most choose to go without. it makes for uncomfortable days, but suring the night its not too bad.

This morning i took an early bus to Krabi, about 2 hours south, and a jumping off point to Ko Phi Phi ( or pee pee island as they call it) a really beautiful snorkeling island. im staying in a guesthouse (hostels arent a big thing here). i have a room to myself, 2 beds, a fan (the most important), hot water shower (another thing that costs extra, but why someone would ever want hot water in this country i dont know) for 15$ a night. The cheapy places cost 3-4$ a night, but tis the high season and im not booking aheda, just showing up and begging for rooms.

i took a bus (which is a pickup truck with a cage over the bed and benches installed) to Ao Nang beach (at least i think thats where i was...). The first thing i noticed was that everyone swims fully clothed. not a bathing suit in sight. I waded in to my knees for a bit of a cool down. i look behind me, and see 15 children following me. or course they all start yelling outall the english words they know "hello!" "thank you!". i was completely charmed. A bit later, i was walking down the street and a lady asked if she could take a picture with me. I feel like Paris hilton. the people in general are incredible friendly, one lady offered my an apple while i was sitting waiting for the bus. they also ask really personal questions like how much you weigh (hasnt happened to me yet, but ive heard stories) or if you have a boyfriend (almost every thai ive talked to has asked me this). they dont mean to be intrusive, im told tourists of any kind are just a facination. there are, however, the people (men) who ask if you have a boyfriend, and then offer to stop by your hotel later. they probably mean to be intrusive. (dont worry mom i said no)

Christmas and beyond!

2008-01-06T07:58:00.000+07:00

Brett and i declined to trade gifts this year. Instead we decided that our presents to each other would be our trip to Tasmania, and the exorbitant amount of money we paid for our campervan rental. Being that Christmas and New years is the middle of summer, and therefore high seanson for campervan rentals, and we waiting until 3 days before xmas to inquire as to rentals (i was actually laughed at by one employee) they pretty much charged whatever they wanted. We flew in on xmas day, and immediatly drove down to the tasman Penisula, and the historic town of port arthur. Our christmas dinner was pasta, complete with santa hats! it may be my new favorite way to spend christmas! As we were paying so much for our rental, we refused to pay for campsites. Just outside Port Arthur we found a youth hostel. We stopped to stretch our legs and take a look around. As it turns out it was abandoned. It couldnt have been abandoned for very long though. There were still dishes in the drying rack, new garbage bags in the bathrooms (which were open, working and full of hot water) and even a washing machine hooked up. We obviously hit the goldmine on this one, and set up shop for the night. While this was all very cool, the whole "abandoned hostel" thing was fairly eerie. Sort of like the setting of a slasher movie.

Next day we drove up the East Coast to Wineglass Bay, which is a famous scenic lookout and hiking area. We hiked up to the lookout, and then down to the actual beach (shaped oddly like the edge of a wineglass..) which was beautiful. We stopped to make dinner in a place called Bicheno. Its sort of a blah town, except for the magic that happens at dusk. Around 10pm everynight hundreds and hundred of fairy penguins come out of the water, up onto the rocks, and into the fields. im not really sure what they DO in the fields, i mean theyre penguins, but it is a magical experience. Obviously flash photography freaks them out, so my pictures arent great, but they were so cute. Theres nothing quite like sitting on a rock, perfectly still and bein swarmed by a group of tiny, tiny penguins. The strange part is, we were walking back to the car, and there were about 20 of them scattered all over the path. Then, as we pull out of the parking lot, our headlights catch a whole other group! in the parking lot!

The next couple days, we went to various national parks and did hikes with amazing scenery. One night, we stumbled upon lake Barrington, which is, by and large one of the most beautiful lakes ive ever seen. Camping there is technically not allowed, but the gates are closed at 9, so basically if you dont get found out before then, youre good to go! We parked right beside the lake, ate dinner, and watched the sunset. It was amazing. Brett woke me up at the ungodly hour of 645 the next morning, but more than made up for it by cooking me breakfast. We, reluctantly, left lake barrington and moved onto our next hiking spot.

On the 29th we headed back to Hobart, returned the campervan and spent a couple days there. We were lucky enough to be there during the taste of hobart festival, which is like the tast to saskatchewan, but there are no perogies, and its more expensive. But very delicious. There was also the "Sydney to Hobart" boat race, which is a big deal, so there was a mini-fair on the peir as well. Very cool.

Back to Melbourne on New Years eve. It was 42C all day. god only knows what the temperature was come the evening, but it was really hot. A large group of us from the hostel went to federation Square to watch the fireworks, which was very cool. New years day, we were all fairly under the weather, and it was 42 again, which made the hostel VERY uncomfortable. So the best thing we could do was go to the beach!

brett left on the 3rd to do the great ocean road, and now im in sydney staying with some friends. on friday i leave for thailand! Wow... that came fast!

more pictures soon!

Christmas?

2007-12-23T12:22:00.000+07:00

Brett met me in Melbourne a couple days ago, and we'll stay around here until the beginning of January when i head back to Sydney. We were couchsurfing when he first got here but that didnt *quite work out. After the house got broken into and the contents of my backpack were spread out and rifled through, we got a little spooked. Luckily nothing of ours was taken (with the exception of $10 american dollars, which wont get them very far, and some allergy medicine) even though bretts Ipod and sunglasses were sitting in plain sight. Good karma i guess. We returned to the hostel id been living at since i got here and is pretty much home to me now.

As far as christmas goes, we are going to Tasmania, renting a motorhome, and driving across the state in 4 days. Its a pretty small place. We've also decided that, keeping in the spirit of motorhoming, drinking port and playing bridge is essential. It doesnt feel like christmas at all over here. there are decorations all over the hostel, and santas are everywhere doing photos, and carols play in the shops, but its hard to get in the spirit when you walk around in the heat all day. Though its been miserable weather the last couple days. Hilariously though, it snowed in the north of Tasmania yesterday, so we may get a white christmas after all! What are the chances of it snowing in the middle of summer on the hottest continent on earth? only for a couple Canadians i guess..

Those are the plans thus far, my last couple weeks have pretty much been working until Brett got here, and eating a lot. Melbourne is like the delicious capital of Australia. its impossible to say no to anything

Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone, love the snow for me!

phone calls etc...

2007-12-05T12:26:00.000+07:00

well i (sort of) have a job now.. working in a clothing store on the weekends and in my hostel during the week. its not too bad, keeps me busy though theres no shortage of things to do in melbourne thats for sure.

Apparently calling my cell phone is quite a process. if you suscessfully get it to ring most of the time some random guy answers, and when you ask for me he puts the phone down for 10 minutes. the average number of times you have to call me and actually reach me is about 3. dont be discouraged. if i dont answer just try again

job hunting.. again!

2007-11-27T07:56:00.001+07:00

This time it's in Melbourne...

brett and i spent about a week in brisbane. we tried out couchsurfing for the first time and it was so good! Our host Ben was amazing! he took us to a reggae show, and completly opened his house up to us. heres the site if anyone is interested:

www.couchsurfing.com

brett and i went to the Australia Zoo, which is the Steve Irwin zoo, and it was really good. very expensive to get in (46$) but we got to feed elephants, watch a crocodile show (they move SO much faster than youd think) and watch baby tigers. Pretty sweet. I hung out for a few days after he took off for the east coast, and now im in Melbourne! Job hunting! yet again! I have high hopes though, when i called to book a hostel and i said i was looking for work, the response i got was "oh, good!". theres a few help wanted signs that ive seen just walking around, but if i can avoid working at subway, i will

And now.. a few handy tips for backpacking in australia:

- If you are at a book exchange and you see "The Backpackers Bible" do not trade your well loved trashy novel for it, thinking its a sweet guidebook full of backpacking hints. its not. its actually a bible.

- Do not waste any time looking for the dippers (big or small) they're not here. trust me

- "root around" does not mean the same thing here as it does at home. in fact, it has a very different meaning.. therefore, when you go into a shop and are asked if you need help, do not respond with "no i think ill just root around". what you will basically have said is that you are going to have sex in various places in the store. there will be a very awkward silence. trust me

Brett, burns and Byron Bay!

2007-11-15T07:43:00.001+07:00

Im such a lucky backpacker! First i get a visit from my darling mom, then i happen to meet up with one of my friends from high school in Kings Cross, THEN brett arrives! Its like christmas! He got here just under a week ago, and recovered from jet lag amazingly fast which was good cause we had a lot to see. 2 visits to Bondi beach (we were a day late seeing Hugh Jackman) and 2 different sunburns, one aquarium trip, 1 walking tour and a whole lot of wandering we were ready for some mellow hanging out. Enter Byron Bay. this is my 3rd time here, Circus and i came here twice, and i love it just as much the 3rd time. we already have a tour lined up for tomorrow and other than that its the beach for us! or maybe the pool

god. life is full of tough choices

free internet! (and more pictures)

2007-11-09T07:48:00.000+07:00

i lucked out with a hostel this time. its really cheap (about $15 a night), free breakfast (which is just toast so i cant eat it, but still!) and free internet!

the last couple days ive mostly just been wandering.. i met up with my friend david who happened to be here for a couple days. I made the supreme mistake of going to get a personality test at the scientology center, thinking it would be hilarious. No, it wasnt. It was rather scary actually. The test itself was alarmingly accurate, and the whole thing is very manipulative. i watched a brainwashing film which was funnier, but still unsettling. i left after about 2 hours feeling fairly violated and not very amused.

i tried to get some work in my hostel to balance out the cost of living, but that doesnt seem to be happening. i offered to clean the gross kitchen but no ones gotten back to me. i have to fight the urge to do it for free

Ive posted quite a lot of pictures in the last little while, so here they are:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54790&l=5438f&id=661120474 (everything before alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59952&l=101b3&id=661120474 (life in alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68340&l=4d240&id=661120474 (pictures from moms visit)

2007-11-05T09:55:00.000+07:00

Mom left about an hour ago for the airport, and its hard to believe its been 2 weeks already! Amazing!

We rented a car, whom we lovingly named Harvey and drove down to Margret river, which is the wine region (or one of them) in westeran australia (wa). It rained almost the entire time we were in WA, but we had a fab time anyways. Our first full day in margret river we hopped on a wine tour. altogether we tested about 60 wines at 6 different wineries, though mom was very sensible and passed on some. I didnt.. and as a result fell down some stairs and sprained my toe. Always the picture of grace.. after all the wineries we went to the chocolate factory and the cheese factory, and by the end of the day we were much poorer in money, but WAY richer in deliciousness. The next day we went to 3 of the main cave tours, which were amazing, but by the end of the day our legs were screaming from climbing so many stairs..

eventaully we made our way to the south coast to a town called Walpole. They have a tree top walk, which is about 40m above the ground and its beautiful! the trees are called "giant tingle trees" and they are indeed huge. most of them have been hollowed out from fires, and some of the trucks are big enough for a car to drive through. the rain stopped for a bit, so we had a nice view..

after a frustrating visit to rockingham (aka suckingham) we got back to perth and spent the night at our cousins. the next morning we ere off just north of perth to Yanchep, which is really small, but they had AMAZING beaches. so beautiful! the weather was sunny, but it was super windy, so we didnt really enjoy them as much as we could have. theres also a national park with koalas and another chocolate store! we only stayed for a night and before we knew it we were flying back to sydney!

now im sort of at a standstill.. brett comes down on the 10th which is a nice excuse not to do anything for a while, because im not really sure where to go! in any event, ill post pictures as soon as i can..

mom! perth!

2007-10-25T15:43:00.000+07:00

picking up mom from the airport was somewhat of an adventure.. i didnt bother to get her flight information or anything. all i knew was she was coming in from north america "around 6am". thinking to myself on the way to the airport "how many flights could possibly be coming from north america at this time of day"?

well.. quite a lot...

14 to be exact. after 35 minutes of running back and forth between 2 gates i finally called Brett and got her flight number, and eventually we found each other. We stayed in Sydney for the night and the next day we jumped on the Indian Pacific railway to perth! Its a 3 1/2 day journey from coast to coast (hence the name), and we were lucky enough to have a sleeper car. Its pretty expensive, but sitting in a seat with no bed or shower for 3 days did not appeal to either of us. Our room was somewhat different than we expected. It was quite small, and the bathroom was *just big enough for me to have a shower in. The toilet and sink both folded down from the wall, thats a whole different story there.. The scenery was amazing, but after a while we realized that mostly old people take senic railways, and there wasnt much to do besides eat and read. Now normally im fine with this but by the 2nd day i was starting to get a bit antsy. It was really amazing though, and we're both glad we went... but we'll probably never go again

We had a car rental set up, and mom was (understandably) nervous about driving on the opposite side. Since im too young and "misplaced" my licence several months ago, i was the navigator. After a couple minor incidences (mom turning into the wrong lane, hitting the curb, me getting us lost a couple times) she was totally rocking the bizzaro driving and my sense of direction has improved. We're at my cousins house right now, he's in the National Police, and is away 4 months at a time so we dont get to see him, but his wife Deb and their daughter Taylor have made us completly at home, and perth is a really beautiful place. I wish i could stay on the west coast longer but its really expensive to get over here, so not many backpackers venture this way.

Tomorrow we're off to Margaret River, which is the wine region. Theres all sort of nature walks and caves to be explored.. and of course the wineries!

Coober Pedy, Adelaide, Sydney. whew

2007-10-18T07:25:00.000+07:00

Well it's been a busy couple of days.. i left Alice at 7 on tuesday morning for Coober Pedy. We got in around 6pm which gave us just enough time to take a tour of an underground home and for me to rush out and take as many pictures as i could. its a pretty crazy place. The lady giving the tour said that 50% of the population lives underground. No one is really sure what the population is. According to the tax office, its 100. The post office says 4000... Im fairly enraptured with the whole lifestyle. getting and underground home dug costs about 70 000$, and take about 3 days. Housing is SO expensive here, so thats as much a bargin as youll ever find. The tempurature is an almost constant 24C, even when its 50+ outside. theres no need for heating or air conditioning. the only downside is the dust, and the its musty smelling. Im sold. Opal mining is illegal in the town, so the people who have underground homes do a lot of "renovating" and if they just happen to find opal in the process its theirs to keep! Apparently theres a house in town with 21 bedrooms..

Wednesday we left Coober Pedy at 6am. our first stop was a giant salt lake, called Lake Hart. its about 120km, and from far away it looks a bit like snow... then we went for a walk on it, and its about half an inch layer of salt on top of the lake bottom. If anyones ever seen the movie "Nothing", thats sort of what it reminded me of. There was an old dock with pillars still stuck in the ground.. kind of eerie actually.. We got into Adelaide at dinner time, which was perfect, because the hostel i stayed at just happens to have free BBQ night on wednesdays!

This morning i was up just before 5 (yes.. AM) to catch my flight to sydney, and now here i am.. impatiently waiting for my room to be cleaned so i can have a nap. Tomorrow morning im picking mom up from the airport and then we're off to perth the next day! Im so excited, i cant even sit still.

(just in case anyone was keeping track, thats 4 days in a row ill have been up before 6am)

Productivity is WAY up

2007-10-14T15:40:00.000+07:00

I am sad to report that i am working my shift at global gossip! truely a sad day for me. ill have to actually start paying for internet again! blasphemy! one of my friends threw me a going away party last night, which was awesome. she even made me lasagne!

despite my sadness over leaving im really excited to be on the road again. I leave Alice on tuesday and take a bus to Coober Pedy, which is where opal was first discovered. it can get as hot as 50C through the summer, so most of the houses and hostels are underground! Im completly excited, even though im only there overnight. the next morning i take a bus to Adelaide, which is in South Australia and from there i fly to Sydney to meet mom! This is a pretty runaround way of getting to sydney, considering theres an airport in alice, but believe it or not all this was cheaper and ive been itching for a good road trip for a while now. Mom and i take the Indian Pacific railway to perth, which is a 3 day journey through the desert and im SO psyched for it. its like the ultimate australian experience. its also quite expensive, so thank god for moms!

in other news ive found a new way to amuse myself at work, and its called google earth. ive been really busy visiting the eiffel tower, the vatican. i had some trouble with the great wall of china though.. ive also been creepily looking at peoples houses, so next time your in your yard look up and wave!

Gadzooks!

2007-10-07T14:26:00.000+07:00

Just when i thought i was starting to adjust to the weather...

Weather for Alice Springs NT
Add to iGoogle
39°C
ClearWind: W at 27 km/hHumidity: 4%
Sun39°C 22°C
Mon38°C 21°C
Tue37°C 21°C
Wed31°C 16°C

i mean this is just WAY too hot. my store has 2 air conditioners, but they might as well be off as far as i can tell. Gaz (my co worker) and i actually put a floor fan in the drinks cooler today, until the fridge started overheating (oops!). Last night, at around 930, it was still 30C. I had to drink a lot of beer to cool off, let me tell you

my job is going really well. with the exception of a few creeps, its one of the most painless customer service jobs ive had. the free internet is a nice perk as well...

work time!

2007-09-26T06:51:00.000+07:00

I'm officially employed! I was really excited about it at first, my bank account will be a little healthier, ill have something to do all day instead of wandering aimlessly around Alice Springs. Then i started my job, and realized that i now have to get up and.. well.. work! Its been a bit of a chock to my system. Luckily its an internet cafe, so i get to talk to backpackers all day and go on facebook, so im slowly easing back into the real world..

Alice Springs and beyond!

2007-09-23T16:07:00.000+07:00

Ive sort of settled in Alice Springs for a while. I found a job at Global Gossip which is an internet cafe. I went in for my first day on friday and it seems pretty good. All the people are really nice, and i caught on pretty quickly. I didnt have to go in until monday (tomorrow) so i took full advantage of that i booked a 3 day tour to Uluru, kata Tjua and Kings Canyon.

Uluru and Kata Tjua are both in the same National park, which is owned by the Aboriginals. They're basically HUGE rocks in the middle of the desert, and you can do hikes, go on a story tour and watch the sunride/set. My tour did pretty much everything we possibly could in 3 days...

Day 1: Leave the hostel at 6am, drive 5.5 hours to Uluru and do the base walk. Uluru is one rock (albeit a very large one) and the walk is 9.4km. It was the middle of the afternoon when we got there, so it was pretty hot, but so amazing! Our guide told us stories about different formations, colours and coves in the rock. Some of the places are sacred, and if yorue caught taking pictures, its a 5000$ fine. yikes! anyways, it was really good, and not once did i think "ok.. im just walking in a big circle around a rock..." We then watched the sun set over the rock and ate dinner.

Day 2: Up at 5am to watch the sunrise over the rock, and then off the Kata Tjua for a 7.4km hike. Kata Tjua (or the Olgas) are 36 huge rock formations, and are a little more interesting to look at, but much more challenging to hike on. It took about 4 houts to do the "valley of the winds" walk, but it was so nice.

Day 3: Up at 530am, and off to Kings Canyon. This was by far the best hike. About 5.5km but the most difficult. the forst part is almost completly vertical, and 7 people in the last 5 years have died doing this hike! i walked very slowly. We walked for 4 hours along the top of the entire canyon and it was just incredible. Luckily we got there early (like730am) so it wasnt hot at all.. actually in some parts it was a little chilly!

we camped both nights under the stars, one night in a site, and the other in the middle of the desert. The stars are pretty amazing the the outback, its hard to want to sleep with them above you!

Alice Springs.. and it wasnt easy!

2007-09-17T08:12:00.000+07:00

It was somewhat of an ordeal to get here.

My last day in Darwin was spent at Litchfield National Park. I spent the whole day in and out of various waterfalls and rockpools. It was so beautiful and i was fairly reluctant to leave. It was a long day though, so by the time i got back to my hostel (about 7pm) i was totally ready for bed, and being that i left at 715 the next morning for Katherine, i figured sleep was in my best interest. Alas, it was not meant to be. When i got home some of the girls in my room were going out for dinner. I said i was just going to bed, but they guilted me with the whole "its your last night we'll never see you again" backpacker seech. Its hard to say no to. So, off we went, intending ONLY to stay at the pub for dinner and nothing else. Of course we ended up staying until almost 1am. To my credit though, i didnt drink anything but water, which was robably the smartest thing i ever did. It was quiz night, which mostly consisted of us doing embarassing things to try and win drinks (we didnt win, but were sufficiantly embarassed). So we get home, i set my alarm for 6am, and fall asleep. Sometime around 7am i actually wake up, realize i have all of 15 minutes to pack and make my way across town to catch my bus. Panicpanicpanic, and the fastest cab ride ever and i make it. As im sitting, waiting for the bus, quite roud of myself for managing to make it on time, i realize that i forgot my food bag. Not a big deal, i can always buy more food. But no. If only it were that simple. I realize, in a horrifying moment of clarity that i have left my beloved Swiss army knife in the food bag. I cry the whole way to katherine (rememeber im functioning on very little sleep) and promptly call the hostel in Darwin. They found it and will mail it to me asap.

Well im feeling a lot better at this point, until someone at the hostel tells me that because katherine is so small, sometimes the mail "just doesnt show up". fantastic. Having exhausted all the culture of the town in one afternoon (woolworths and the library), i send my days laying by the pool and slowly making my way through the enormous pile of outdated trashy magazines in the tv room. Finally, it arrives after 5 days of waiting and i am on the soonest bus to Alice Springs.

whew. I also managed to squeze in a trip to the Katherine Gorge, which was really beautiful, but WAY overpriced.

Im off today to find a job, which im told wont be hard. In fact the girl at my hostel said id have one by the end of the day "if youre not picky". waht that means remains to be seen...

More Darwin!

2007-09-08T15:33:00.000+07:00

Well not much has changed, its still really hot, though im adjusting slowly. I now wear my bathing suit instead of any real clothing. it seems to be the norm here anways. Im taking a day trip to Litchfield National park on monday, and passing on kakadu altogether. while its apparently really pretty ive also heard its incredibly overrated and a little too expensive for my blood.

last night i sat by the water and watched the sunset, then went to see West, an australian film at the deckchair cinema. it was so cool, being outside, watching a movie and seeing all the stars at the same time

tuesday morning i leave for Katherine, which is a small town a couple hours south of here, and then im thinking about taking a bus to Broome, which is in Western Australia, and is about a 25 hour bus journey, but is suppossed to be incredible.

also, technical genius that i am, here is a link for all you non facebookers to see my pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44406&l=23426&id=661120474

Darwin!

2007-09-06T12:57:00.000+07:00

holy crap its SO hot here... Darwin is australias most northern city, which, in the backwards land of oz, obviously means that its the hottest city as well.. its still technically winter here and its about 35C here everyday. i cant even imagine what the summer weather is like. darwin itself isnt terribly big, only about 70 000 people. there's a lot of markets and aboriginal art though, which ive recently developed a fondness for. luckily the hostel im staying at has a pool, so i spend a lot of time in and around said pool. and the rooms are air conditioned. cant really ask for much else. most people come to darwin as a jump off point for Kakadu national park, and Litchfeild national park. im going to try and do both, but we'll see.. im told that Kakadu requires at least a couple days to see everything, which if you dont have your own 4x4 can be pretty expensive. luckily litchfeild is much smaller so that shouldnt be a problem!

my last days with my cousins were really great, the weather was fabulous, and i spent a lot of time outside with blade, collecting sticks and planting leaves.

2007-08-26T17:23:00.000+07:00

Im currently staying at my cousins place just outside of Gympie (most unfortunate name ever) which is on the east coast a couple hours north of brisbane. ill probably be here for another week or so. its really nice to sleep in a real bed, in a room by myself, using a bathroom that only 3 other people use(first bathtub ive seen in 3 months!), eat real food, and not have to go through the typical backpacker question and answer sessions: how long are you travelling for? where have you been? where are you going? where are you from? wheres saskatchewan? etc etc...

there are 2 little ones running around here, so my days are spent poking at bugs and mud with Blade, or bouncing and find new and non swallowable things to give Naree to suck on. its been raining a CRAZY amount here the last couple days, one of 2 bridges into town was completly underwater (stay tuned for pictures). but finally today it was nice and sunny and i even had to wear sunscreen! yes!

its been really nice staying with family and seeing friendly faces again. and also to see the Naree who is only 6 months old and id never met before. she has the most pinchable cheecks, but puts up somewhat of a fight so i have to catch her off guard..

Pictures!

2007-08-23T09:53:00.000+07:00

Honestly, I SWEAR! pictures are actually up on my facebook now. really. go check. ill wait here....

Sydney- so far so good!

2007-08-20T08:06:00.000+07:00

Well it's been 4 days since Circus left me, and i think im doing pretty good. I took a walking tour of The Rocks, which is the oldest part of sydney. its really beautiful, lots of the original buildings from the 1840's are still intact and some of the house frames still have furnature in them! The streets are really narrow, so in order to pack as much business as possible into a small space the front doors sometimes lead down hallways from the street to the back where there's a pub, or restaurant. my favorite part of all this though is that these businesses are numbered 79 1/2, or 411 1/2. Very Harry Potter. i spent pretty much an entire day down there, there are lots of little alleyways and streets to get lost in (i didnt though!)

saturday and sunday i drowned myself in markets, but managed to keep my spending under control. It started raining on satuday night and hasnt stopped since. it absolutly poured all day yesterday and some of the rooms in my hostel flooded and people had to change rooms. i didnt really believe this until i went to the bathroom and saw the entire hallway was being rained on. i immediatly ran to my room and covered my valubles (camera) in my rain jacket. Then, we're all settling down to a movie and the fire alarm goes off. naturally no one moves, which is the smartest instinct of all, until someones comes into the room and tells us all we have to evacuate. nothing was actually on fire, the rain collapsed part of the ceiling or something.

Downsides to fire alarm going off:
-standing in the street in the rain with no shoes

Upsides to fire alarm going off:
-australia firemen

Rainrainrain

2007-08-16T08:06:00.000+07:00

Well its official, Im on my own! Cirucs left me about an hour ago, and after a tearful airport sendoff, im left to fend for myself. Luckily shes been training me to tell time by the sun (because i have no watch) and to read a map (because i have no sense of direction). im embarassed to say i got lost on the journey from central station to the hostel (a 5 minute walk when you know where youre going)

In any event, its raining and gross here so i think a day wallowing in my own self pity is on the agenda, then i have to drown my feelings in a box of wine, and then ill be ok!

my plan, as it stands now, is to hang out here for about another week, then im heading up north to see my cousin Kristen and i totally excited about that. After helping them move ill probably be going up to Darwin, or somewhere else way up north where its hopefully warm and sunny. I actually had to wear a touque the other day! Can you believe that!

2007-08-11T11:54:00.000+07:00

Edit:

i have failed in my mission to upload pictures.

progress coming soon. promise

PICTURES!!

2007-08-11T11:40:00.000+07:00

Can you believe it?! i got off my lazy bum and actually accomplished something! Pictures are officially posted on my facebook profile. If you havent got facebook you have 3 options:

1. Make a facebopok profile
2. Makes friends with someone who has one
3. Wait until i get home (christmas)

It'll be worth it to see them TRUST ME

Not for the faint hearted

2007-08-10T10:16:00.000+07:00

Just in case anyone was feeeling like looking at something really gross this:

http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/huntsman_spiders.htm

is the spider that was on the tent the other night. imagine if you will this thing sitting in the dirt. IMPOSSIBLE to see. and they bite. awesome

also jsut for intrests sake, there is an antidote for the funnelweb spider (most poisonous spider in the world and resides only in sydney) so if i get bit theres still hope for me

spiders!

2007-08-09T15:03:00.000+07:00

We left Cairns for Brisbane just under a week ago. While we were waiting for our airport shuttle Circus discovered a large nest of spiders in her backpack. Not even joking. there were hundreds and hundreds of them crawling out of the backing. We were completly horrified and proceeded to scream, whack and drown them in a frenzy of bugspray. It was quite a sight.

We are now currently in Byron Bay (again) where we've set up the tent and plan to live the hippie life until tuesday.. We played trivia night again, but lost horribly this time so we just got drunk instead!

Last night, we 're laying in bed and all of a sudden i see a very large shadow crawling on the outside (thankfully not the inside) of the tent. it was completly demonic looking and i swear i heard screetching violens playing. I got out to tkae a picture of it and lo and behold, it was the size of a small dog. ok not quite but it was massive and horrible.

Ive had enough spider experiences for one trip thanks..

Cairns!

2007-07-31T09:56:00.000+07:00

We finally made it to Cairns! The end of our east coast journey! We've been looking forward to coming here, mostly because it's hot and sunny all the time. Though we've recently run into a string of really hot weather (and subsequently sunburns) so that's been nice. We only just got here last night, so we went for our free meal at the pub and watched the International Goldfish races. Canada lost, FYI. This morning we wandered around town, i managed to recognize the hotel i stayed at when we were all here 10 years ago (what are the chances that id remember?) and go shopping.

The last couple days have been spent with the arduous task of moving past our lost pictures. Ice cream was a large factor in this process. We spent a couple days on Magnetic Island, which is a 15 minute ferry ride from Townsville. It was so amazing. I wish we could have spent more time there. The whole island is a national park, and basically a giant koala sanctuary. There are different walks to take around the island, and you can see shipwrecks, koalas, and all sorts of beautiful scenery. There are like 10 different bays, and they all have beaches, so i rented snorkel equipment on our last day, and spent like an hour in the water. Ill have to just buy a snorkel, ive spent so much money renting them!

After Cairns we are flying to Brisbane and then back to Sydney becasue circus is LEAVING me! i literally have no idea what ill do once she leaves. You'll all see my face on the news "Canadian Backpacker Gets Lost; Blames Friend"

No seriously. its gone

2007-07-25T12:41:00.001+07:00

so if anyone who reads this happens to be in Townsville right now and finds my camera in the Queensland Museum, could you let me know?

yeah thanks

Whitsunday Islands!

2007-07-23T11:44:00.000+07:00

We have just nicely gotten back from our 3 day cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, which i will now lovingly refer to as Booze Fest '07. Our first day was spent on the boat (catamaran) getting to know one another. There were about 50 people on our boat so we had a lot of people to meet. We got to the island where we would be living for 2 days, had dinner and happy hour. Our capitan, Skippy Van Goonbag (not his real name) was more then generous. After a round of drinking games, we headed to bed early. Wake up call was 6 am and i sure didnt want to be seasick.

The next day we headed out to Whitehaven Island, one of the most photographed places in Australia. Its the picture perfet whitesand island. Even though it was overcast and not the nicest day the island is SO beautiful. The water is the clearest blue/green ive ever seen. Circus and i ventured over to a little stream at one point, which wasa big mistake. As it turns out thats the stream where all the crabs live! And not just little sand crabs. Gigantic blue, very fast moving crabs. Have you ever been charged at by a heard of crabs? I have never screamed so hard in my life.

Today (our last) we boated out to part of the great barrier reef and snorkelled for the morning. It was raining a lot which made it freezing but there were a lot of fish out so that was pretty cool. After lunch we started for home. It was SO windy the waves were completly insane. We stood at the very front of the boat and when the boat hit a big wave the whole front end would shoot like 15 feet in the air. It was so fun! except when that giant wave covered me head to toe.

So we're back in Airlie Beach for tonight then onto Townsville. From there we head to magnetic island and then Carins! Its hard to beliee we've almost made it to the top!

Airlie Beach

2007-07-19T09:48:00.000+07:00

In 2 days we head off to a cruise on the Whitsunday Islands. We pretty excited about it. I thought id be all prepared and upload all my pictures to a memory card first. My guess was i had around 400 pictures at the most. Turns out i ahve more like 1400. yikes. needless to say this trip is well documented!

Great Barrier Reef

2007-07-13T15:35:00.000+07:00

I was up at an ungodly hour this morning. i didnt even know there was a 630am in australia! It was worth it though, becasue i went on a catamaran tour to Lady Musgrave island, which is a national park/island about and hour and a half from 1770. Its completly surrounded by the great barrier reef, so for 4 hours i layed with me face in the water, poking fish and taking pictures with my new underwater camera (side note, i now have 5 cameras... excessive?) i wasnt sure if i would be able to do it, i have this fear of sticking my face into the water and breathing... its sure a strange feeling! I got up to it eventually and it was SO cool. I found a piece of coral where all the sea turtles go to get cleaned by strange underwater creatures, i found Nemo, and a piece of coral cut me! Its so easy to get carried away though, Id get into such a daze floating there that id all of a sudden be VERY far away from the boat! Im completly waterlogged now, but it was so great

1770/Agnes Water

2007-07-12T09:57:00.000+07:00

With some level of difficulty (like the midnight bus that dropped us off in the middle of the highway.. thank god for shuttle buses!) we have arrived in Agnes Water/The town of 1770, so named becasue it was the first place Capitan Cook arrived in Queensland. in 1770 apparently.. the whole town has a population of about 80 people so its really cozy. We're in a hostel for the first time in i dont even know how long, so Im pretty happy about my new situation involving walls and electricity...

Prior to this we were in Rainbow Beach, which was really beautiful. Lots of coloured sands and dunes to run down (or up if iw as feeling REALLY motivated)

We spent 4 or 5 days in Hervey Bay, which was a little too long for our liking but we didnt really have a choice! It was really nice just to relax and lay around...

In a couple hours i am embarking on a sunset kayak tour and tomorrow im going on a great barrier reef snorkelling tour, which im pretty excited about.

Surfing!

2007-07-03T09:19:00.000+07:00

We are now in Noosa, the "Hamptons" of Australia. It's pretty fancy, everything is REALLY expensive, but the beach is really nice and the weatherhas been beautiful! i Even sort of have a tan!

Circus signed me up for surfing lessons yesterday, i was slightly apprehensive so it took a little convincing. She sat on the beach and took pictures of me as i fell repeatedly. But eventaully i got up! It was pretty exciting acytually, but im really sore today, and have a saltwater/surfboard rash on my legs. ouch.

We're onto rainbow Beach tomorrow, camping right on the beach. im pretty excited about it. i imagine there will be a LOT of laying on said beach.

paraside? really?

2007-06-25T10:07:00.000+07:00

We are currently in Surfers Paradise. I use the word "paradise" VERY loosely. Our luck here so far, not so great. The beach is really nice, but its been rainy and not beach weather at all. Last night some guy broke into our room and stole Circus' MP3 player and another girls camera and wallet. The really frustrating part is that we saw him come out of our room and didnt realize until the next morning that he wasn't staying in there, and probably laughed to himself the whole way home. So we all go to the police station, fill out a form, the police come to "asses the crime scene" and by that i mean stand in our room and tell us to be more careful. One officer actually told me he's "not surprised" that our room was broken into. So we decided a little shopping would make us feel better. after i got yelled at by a bus driver, we finally managed to find a mall and buy something. whew!

We leave for Brisbane tomorrow and are determined NOT to get robbed.

Byron Bay!

2007-06-20T11:36:00.000+07:00

It's been a while since Ive been near a computer.. Byron Bay is pretty amazing, we're staying at the Arts Factory Lodge, which is almost a city in itself. It has its own movie theatre, recording studio, restaurants, and wild turkeys! The turkeys are interesting, but they sort of lose their appeal when youre walking back to the tent after dark and they fall out of trees right in front of you. We're also meant to enjoy "natures soundtrack" which so far has consisted of what sounds like a rabid monkey fight every morning at around 630...

We've gone to the beach a couple times, and the sun is nice but it gets pretty windy this time of year so the sand sort of gets in everything. Its worth it though. We went to the bar last night for trivia night and we won! I couldnt believe it! there were 5 of us and the pot was about 200$ and circus and i got a free day trip to Nimbin, a small, very colourful town just outside Byron. It was certainly and eventful night!

Our days are certainly packed though.. get up around 11.. lay around.. wander into town around 1.. lay on the beach... wander back... have a drink.. lay around... may go to the pool. yeah. its rough.

Sydney!

2007-06-15T20:08:00.000+07:00

We've been here for a couple days now. Circus' cousin and her boyfriend have taken us in a shown us a really good time. we're off to Byron Bay on Sunday, which is hippie central, we're obviously pretty excited about that. the weather in sydney hasnt been great its raining a lot and there are floods everywhere so we're hoping byron bay will give us a little sunshine. we'l also be camping a lot in the next while so that should be an aventure!

Farewell New Zealand!

2007-06-11T10:04:00.000+07:00

We leave for Sydney tomorrow morning, and Circus' cousin is taking us in for a couple days. Our last day in Rotorua was spent at a thermal wonderland. The colours are amazing. its just a park of rocking, geysers and very smelly steam. It poured rain all day but it was still really cool

Unfortunatly it seems that im deathly allergic to Rotorua and am crrently covered in hives. hopefully they will dissapear the further away from thermal-land we get.

wish us luck in the land of oz!

Rotorua!

2007-06-09T11:20:00.000+07:00

Our last couple days in New Zealand before we head off to Australia! I think we've chosen well.. Rotorua is FULL of thermal activity. which means 2 things:

1) the entire city STINKS of rotten eggs, becasue of all the sulpherous gas

2) there are thermal spas everywhere, and lots of boiling mud ponds

Needless to say our entire morning today was spent in a 108 degree thermal pool. SO nice. we're off to a "Thermal Wonderland" tomorrow with exploding gysers and all that fun stuff. then back to Auckland for a night, then to Australia!

We left Queenstown a couple days ago, where we went to a kiwi habitat (it was all i could do to keep circus from trying to steal one) and "luged" down a mountain in a 3 wheeler cart! So fun. Then, the morning we left it snowed. Im not even kidding. we were happy to leave..

Wellington

2007-05-31T07:07:00.000+07:00

Well, our climbing of the volcano didnt go *quite as we'd planned.. as it turns out hiking for 3 days is a lot harder than we thought! we didnt leave the visitors center until almost 3, and the first park of our hike was really beautiful! we saw Mt Doom from lord of the rings (i got a play by play from circus, my live in commentary) and the landscape was really amazing. then after about 2 hours we were starting to get a little panicked.. we couldn't see out hut and we hadto make it there before dark. by around 5, it was dark and the hut was but a small speck in the distance. finally we made it. ive never been so exhausted and cold in my entire life. ever. there were some parts of the track that were completly vertical! there was no path, just run off from water! we zipped our sleeping bags together, slept for 14 hours and left early the next morning.

since we were in the middle of no where, we had to spend the night in this small small town called National Park (or as i now refer to it, Craptown). the only plus was that the hostel had a hot tub and heating pads in the bed. our bodies still havent forgiven us

Currently we are in Wellington, the capital of new zealand. we have set up camp in the backyard of a hostel but its so ridiculously windy today that the tent frightens us. so we've set up shop in the tv room with a deck of uno cards

we leave for the south island tomorrow, and im doing my best to talk circus into snowboarding on a glaicier! she was quick to remind me how our last very amibitious ourdoor adventure turned out...

and, shocker, ive been bitten by a mysterious new zealand bug. on my ankle. its very swollen and itchy. theres also a new one on the top of my hand. i brought lots of allergy medicine though!

Climbing a Volcano.. Wish Us Luck!

2007-05-27T08:26:00.000+07:00

We are currently sitting in a hostel in National Park village, where a very nice man has offered to give us a ride to tongarino park, where we'll be living in the mountains and volcanos for 3 days. i imagine many things will bite me, and it will certainly be a learning experience

LAX

2007-05-24T04:46:00.001+07:00

Well, we've made it this far! Unfortunatly we're only about 1/3 the way through what circus and i now lovingly refer to as "the longest day of our lives". In any event we're getting pertty excited, and as soon as out 7 hour layover is over, we'll be even more excited!