Dear New Zealand,
If you could stop raining, that'd be really great.
Kthanxbye!
Love, Krista
No but really, I must say it's as beautiful as everyone said it would be... but only about 10 percent of the time. I guess that's what we get for coming in the cheap shoulder season. Jared and I are just about finished with the South Island, moving on to the north in a couple of days. Our trusty campervan has kept us warm(ish) and dry. It's a converted van with a bed, sink, and small kitchen. It even has a microwave! (We only get to use that when we're spoiling ourselves and pull into a powered site) The distances are pretty small compared to other places (I'm lookin at you, Australia and America!) so the days driving is normally only an hour or two, usually filled with "woooow!" if the clouds have parted. Jared has invented several different wow noises so that he can say them in succession, delivering the correct amount of awe per vista. The only problem with being a small island nation tucked way out in the Pacific is that gas is a luxury item, coming in at almost $9 a gallon! ouch, they didn't advertise this bit! Also, our house on wheels is about as far from a hybrid as you can get, so on each short trip you can practically see the dollars flying out of your tailpipe. It makes for a symphony of wow's and soft sobbing as you drive through the countryside.
During our first couple days, we blindly drove around a bit before I convinced Jared to let me buy the holy grail of travel guides, The Lonely Planet New Zealand. (Nothing stokes the sense of adventure like turn by turn instructions for your entire trip! - Jared) As you can see, this is a source of disagreement, but Lonely Planet has been there for us when cellphone reception has not! (which is frequently)
I want to show you everything beautiful we've seen, but the only thing New Zealand doesn't have in abundance is internet access. But you really don't need it with a landscape like this! Do a quick google image search of New Zealand and you'll see a ridiculous amount of natural beauty and every landscape you can imagine crammed into a very small country.
Some of the highlights have definitely been the wildlife, some of it not so wild. The main crop here is sheep, and don't think we've gone a single day without seeing hundreds of them! Since it is spring, they all have little lambs, and I have seriously NEVER seen anything so freakin CUTE in my life! It's now my mission to shear a sheep while I'm here, and bottle feed a lamb. Then sneak it past customs back home if possible. We also did a penguin tour, where we were able to see yellow eyed penguins in a wild sanctuary. Apparently they are the rarest and most endangered penguins on the planet, which of course was reflected in the price of the tour. We got really lucky a couple of days after this and actually saw one in the wild, at which point Jared suggested that we throw some money at it with which to line it's nest. The next day we camped at a remote Department of Conservation site right on the beach, and woke up to sea lions lolling on the sand like a cat in a sun spot. The only sound disrupting this peaceful morning, and the other campers dutifully videoing from afar, was our van escaping our muddy campsite at the upper end of second gear...woops! Our next wildlife encounter came in the small town of Kaikoura, which has a faithful colony of seals that bask on it's rocks. While they look (and smell) dead, they are actually very much alive, as evidenced by a great video Jared shot. An Australian tourist edged closer and closer to one very large seal that had decided to camp out on the boardwalk, looking pretty sleepy and uninterested...not so! When he got too close, the seal leaped onto his front flippers and lunged, which made for some great tourist watching, as you don't normally see people move that fast! Video available upon request!
Soon thereafter it was time to have a shower and class ourselves up a bit for the Marlborough wine region... the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world! I was really looking forward to this, and it didn't disappoint! We got someone to drive us around as we drank from 10 in the morning, "tasting" and using words like "quite!" "oaky" and "hints of" this or that. It was a great break from our backwoods camping and the stinky camper. Obviously, we're experts now and will be happy to go on and on about this when we get home, no prompting needed!
At this point, it had started to rain, and hasn't let up since. We tried to escape to the west coast, but it found us there too. We did get about 5 minutes of sun at one of the glaciers, but since then have been lost in a grey and dreary haze. Today we are camped out at the thermal springs town of Hanmer Springs, where we spent the afternoon consoling ourselves in the hot sulfur springs. You can imagine what the camper smells like now...eggs anyone? Last night the rain decided to go and change itself to hurricane force winds, so we are kind of stuck here. We're waiting for the rest of the day for downed trees to be cleared and power to come back on, and then we're off to the North Island, where hopefully the weather will be better.
With all that said, I'd like to take this time to mention that we will be back in the job market soon! If you know anyone who's looking, our skills include having lots of great stories, and no practical experience. Don't miss out on this great opportunity, supplies limited, call now!
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Continental Shift
We have very gladly made it to New Zealand, finally! This country couldn't have come sooner, it's what we both have been looking forward to the entire time. So with that said, lets quickly sum up SE Asia with 10 do's and don'ts! What fun!
DO:
1. Take a train! They're cheap, efficient, and make you feel like you're really a part of it instead of 38,000 feet above it.
2. Eat local! It's yummy and cheap, and whatever western meal you just ordered will be 3 times the price and taste like crap.
3. Buy a ridiculous knock off of something. It's the cheapest place in the world you'll ever buy a Rolex! ;)
4. Take a class or do an organized activity. It lets you interact with the locals and see things a different way, and you may meet some great people to hang out with in the rest of your time there!
5. Rent a motorbike! They're everywhere, and are by far the easiest way to get anywhere, but do be careful, as there are basically no road rules and accidents happen all the time.
6. Eat at McDonald's! I know, seems like the absolute wrong thing to do, right? But actually, McDonald's in other countries serves some weird stuff...chilli sauce instead of ketchup, chicken rice porridge for breakfast!
7. When your server asks you if you want it spicy, say yes, then watch them laugh at you when you attempt to drown yourself in water to try and cool your poor mouth down.
8. Learn to say no! To begging kids, scam artists, and that mom that just asked you to buy her starving kid milk at the shop. She's got a deal going with the shop owner, and sells it back to him for half the price.
9. Support a worthwhile cause. Even though you're normally looking for the absolute best deal, sometimes it's good to pay more when you know what it's supporting. Education, jobs, animal rights, find an excursion that can help the people doing good to stay in business.
10. Do stop, look around, and take a second to appreciate all those pesky rules / laws from back home...zoning, building permits, easements...ooooh, that's why they have those!
DON'T:
1. Don't pay full price for anything! If you get them down to 3/4 of the price, well, you're new at this aren't you? 1/2 price? Yeah, that's probably fair. 1/4 of the price? Wait, you think you're gonna pay local prices? Haha!
2. Don't drink the tap water! Or brush your teeth with it in some places... Bali Belly, Montezuma's revenge, whatever you want to call it, it really ruins your day :(
3. Don't be polite- you'll never
a) get a meal
b) cross the street (this one is tricky, as you don't want to die, but do want to stop standing on that street corner)
c) be able to let go of that door you're holding open
4. Don't do your border crossings over land at notoriously awful crossings... we could have flown from Bangkok to Siem Reap about 20 times by the time it took us to navigate all those scams!
5. Don't ride an elephant. Or play with tigers. Yeah, it looks fun and cute, but there is a horrible history of abuse, mistreatment, and drugging with most of those animals. (wash them instead)
6. Don't give your passport to anyone! You'll spend 40 hours and $400 going back to get it.
7. Don't step in the puddles....just don't.
8. Don't forget to smile! It's the local currency... it will lower prices and smooth over most misunderstandings!
9. Don't forget to take off your shoes! In temples, shops, houses, it's very disrespectful not to. Also your shoes have puddle on them. Ew.
10. Don't forget to go with the flow. If you expect things to happen on time, get what you really ordered, or cost what you were quoted, go somewhere else, cause that ain't here. It will, however, be full of gorgeous landscapes, friendly people, and great food!
All in all, it's hard to sum up, everyone should see it, it's a great place to visit...
We spent a few days in Melbourne, which was a strange transition...going from hot sticky tropical chaos to cool sophisticated Melbourne was a shock, mentally as well as physically as we are both now in the middle of a really nasty cold. Melbourne is one of the first places abroad where I would really want to live. It has some of the best coffee in the world, a great public transportation system, vineyards to the north, and world class coastline with penguins in the south! What more could you want! No worries though, Jared and I are both really looking forward to coming home, and can't wait to see everyone. We picked up our campervan rental a few days ago in Christchurch, New Zealand, and are on our 3rd day touring around the south island. We have lots of photos but won't be uploading until we get our hands on some free internet...New Zealand is pretty stingy with this. So far the country is really beautiful, Jared has already seen a glacier (and almost gotten lost in the wilderness) and everything is looking very Lord of the Rings-y. Next stop, Mordor! Just kidding, it's Dunedin. Talk to you soon!
DO:
1. Take a train! They're cheap, efficient, and make you feel like you're really a part of it instead of 38,000 feet above it.
2. Eat local! It's yummy and cheap, and whatever western meal you just ordered will be 3 times the price and taste like crap.
3. Buy a ridiculous knock off of something. It's the cheapest place in the world you'll ever buy a Rolex! ;)
4. Take a class or do an organized activity. It lets you interact with the locals and see things a different way, and you may meet some great people to hang out with in the rest of your time there!
5. Rent a motorbike! They're everywhere, and are by far the easiest way to get anywhere, but do be careful, as there are basically no road rules and accidents happen all the time.6. Eat at McDonald's! I know, seems like the absolute wrong thing to do, right? But actually, McDonald's in other countries serves some weird stuff...chilli sauce instead of ketchup, chicken rice porridge for breakfast!
7. When your server asks you if you want it spicy, say yes, then watch them laugh at you when you attempt to drown yourself in water to try and cool your poor mouth down.
8. Learn to say no! To begging kids, scam artists, and that mom that just asked you to buy her starving kid milk at the shop. She's got a deal going with the shop owner, and sells it back to him for half the price.9. Support a worthwhile cause. Even though you're normally looking for the absolute best deal, sometimes it's good to pay more when you know what it's supporting. Education, jobs, animal rights, find an excursion that can help the people doing good to stay in business.
10. Do stop, look around, and take a second to appreciate all those pesky rules / laws from back home...zoning, building permits, easements...ooooh, that's why they have those!
DON'T:
1. Don't pay full price for anything! If you get them down to 3/4 of the price, well, you're new at this aren't you? 1/2 price? Yeah, that's probably fair. 1/4 of the price? Wait, you think you're gonna pay local prices? Haha!
2. Don't drink the tap water! Or brush your teeth with it in some places... Bali Belly, Montezuma's revenge, whatever you want to call it, it really ruins your day :(
3. Don't be polite- you'll never
a) get a meal
b) cross the street (this one is tricky, as you don't want to die, but do want to stop standing on that street corner)
c) be able to let go of that door you're holding open
4. Don't do your border crossings over land at notoriously awful crossings... we could have flown from Bangkok to Siem Reap about 20 times by the time it took us to navigate all those scams!
 |
| Elephant Rescue Park |
6. Don't give your passport to anyone! You'll spend 40 hours and $400 going back to get it.
7. Don't step in the puddles....just don't.
8. Don't forget to smile! It's the local currency... it will lower prices and smooth over most misunderstandings!
9. Don't forget to take off your shoes! In temples, shops, houses, it's very disrespectful not to. Also your shoes have puddle on them. Ew.
10. Don't forget to go with the flow. If you expect things to happen on time, get what you really ordered, or cost what you were quoted, go somewhere else, cause that ain't here. It will, however, be full of gorgeous landscapes, friendly people, and great food!
All in all, it's hard to sum up, everyone should see it, it's a great place to visit...
We spent a few days in Melbourne, which was a strange transition...going from hot sticky tropical chaos to cool sophisticated Melbourne was a shock, mentally as well as physically as we are both now in the middle of a really nasty cold. Melbourne is one of the first places abroad where I would really want to live. It has some of the best coffee in the world, a great public transportation system, vineyards to the north, and world class coastline with penguins in the south! What more could you want! No worries though, Jared and I are both really looking forward to coming home, and can't wait to see everyone. We picked up our campervan rental a few days ago in Christchurch, New Zealand, and are on our 3rd day touring around the south island. We have lots of photos but won't be uploading until we get our hands on some free internet...New Zealand is pretty stingy with this. So far the country is really beautiful, Jared has already seen a glacier (and almost gotten lost in the wilderness) and everything is looking very Lord of the Rings-y. Next stop, Mordor! Just kidding, it's Dunedin. Talk to you soon!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Thailand, we meet again!
In yet another installment of "planes, trains, and automobiles" we made the 36 hour journey from Singapore to Koh Samui Island in Thailand. Almost every part of the transport somehow caused us to miss the next leg. This turned all of our 1 hour layovers into 7 hour layovers...but hey, it's all about the journey not just the destination, right? Unfortunately, the western monsoon at this time of year shuts down diving in the Andaman sea, which is one of the top diving destinations in the world. So, running from the bad weather, our first stop was an island in the Gulf of Thailand off the eastern coast, also know for it's beautiful water while being a bit more crowded than the other side. We found Koh Samui (the largest in this island group in the gulf) to be a pretty standard touristy destination with busy streets, and bar lined beaches. Krista came down with a cold almost immediately, and the internet in our bungalow was surprisingly good which caused us to take an unexpected break from jam packed itinerary mind set to just lay around and plan the rest of our way home. As i have been to Thailand before, all this down time and unlimited internet combined to create some wild ideas for alterations to the travel plan. The growing realization that we're not likely to be in this part of the world again helped me to create some pretty amazing alternative plans, each more wild and unrealistic than the last. Krist's response to most of these was: "What? Really? uuuggghhhh..." In the end, we decided to move from Samui to a nearby island popular for diving to help these crazy ideas to pass...
And that's what we're up to now...parked on Koh Tao at a very nice dive shop with rooms. We did a few dives yesterday and being one of the most economical places in the world to dive, Krista had decided this morning to do her advanced open water certification here. That will include a deep dive, a night dive, and three elected dives. There's no good internet...so no uploading photos, but we hope to have plenty when we leave...This place has a really great feel to it compared to Samui and we think we'll hang here a while a see what happens!
And that's what we're up to now...parked on Koh Tao at a very nice dive shop with rooms. We did a few dives yesterday and being one of the most economical places in the world to dive, Krista had decided this morning to do her advanced open water certification here. That will include a deep dive, a night dive, and three elected dives. There's no good internet...so no uploading photos, but we hope to have plenty when we leave...This place has a really great feel to it compared to Samui and we think we'll hang here a while a see what happens!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Singapaw
Disclaimer: This post is going to be super long, since there is just so much to see in Singapore. Abort now if you haven't had your coffee yet!
Singapore is an interesting place in that it used to be a dangerous place full of pirates, thieves, and prostitutes. Today, it is one of the cleanest, most modern cities in the world, where up until a few years ago, it was illegal to chew gum. Talk about a 180!
Walking through the airport was our first clue that Singapore was going to be nothing like Indonesia. Can you drink the water? Yep! Are there signs EVERYWHERE telling you where to go, in English? Yep! Does it smell like sewage? Nope! Are there taxi drivers yelling at me? Nope, AND there's a metro! A metro that stopped basically at the door of our hotel! Yeah, that's right, we got a hotel... we've decided to splurge a bit since this is our only sophisticated big city experience for a while.
I'm convinced that nobody in Singapore even needs to own a kitchen... every corner has a hundred hawker stalls, selling any kind of asian food you could want, each meal for about $3. They've also got pretty good coffee, or kopi, made with condensed milk. On our first day, we wasted half the morning attempting to do our laundry. In Bali, it was a couple bucks for 3 Kilos of laundry, and they fold it and package it up all nicely for you. Why we didn't take advantage of this, I have no idea. We thought it would be easy to find a place in Singapore, but it was now about 15 bucks for the same amount of washing, and nearly impossible to find anywhere to do it! I don't know what Singapore does with all their tire changers, laundry services, and general non flashy stores, but they hide them well. We finally found a place on the edge of Chinatown, and discovered that today was the start of the Hungry Ghost Festival, where ghosts of their ancestors come back to visit for a whole month. They light candles for specific people, and offer huge feasts for the ghosts so that they don't take out any ill will on the people. They don't recommend swimming (in case a ghost drowns you), going out after dark (in case a ghost latches onto you), or walking alone (in case a ghost befriends you). I think we did all those things. Whoops.
Laundry taken care of, we decided to take an informative river boat tour. I'm all about the tours, while Jared prefers to do it all himself. I love reading all the signs, and then he asks me to give him the "condensed, interesting version". So, I've just decided to drag him along on all the tours with me. A super cheerful recorded woman gave us the history of the river and it's settlement by the Chinese, the Malaysians, and the British. Good background stuff for the whole visit.
Next, it's off to the Botanical Garden. I wasn't too excited about this one, seeing as plants don't really do much, they just sit there and...plant. Can't be all that interesting. But, it was supposed to be amazing, so gotta do it! It was so worth it. They've got medicinal herb walks, jungle walks, river walks, palm walks, etc. etc.! However, the National Orchid Gardens were by far the most impressive. They even had a cool greenhouse mimicking a mountain forest with waterfalls and everything. (And pitcher plants!)
The zoo was scheduled for the next day, and I was super excited about this. Singapore's zoo was supposed to be one of the best in the world...for people and the animals. However, after standing in line for approximately 798 years, I just couldn't get that excited anymore. It was nice, but I think I'd rather watch David Attenborough on the Discovery Channel. The one highlight...Jared got to profess his love to a plastic human sized Mangosteen, his absolute favorite fruit ever that he endlessly searches for at markets and buys as much as our backpack will hold. Tragically, he'll have to part with his true love once we're back in the states.
That night, it was off to downtown to do some sophisticated stuff...Gardens by the Bay light show, then maybe go to the Marina Sands, Singapore's crazy ship in the middle of the air.
The Gardens By the Bay is this amazing light show that is set from these metallic tree like sculptures with live plants all along the trunk. It's set to music, and frankly it's one of the coolest, most beautiful light shows I've ever seen. Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera that night, so this picture isn't ours, but it's better than I could have done anyways.
So it turns out that backpackers aren't good enough for the Ku De Ta restaurant on the flying ship... we didn't have the right shoes. Considering we probably would have blown about $50 on one round of drinks, I suppose it's for the best. While exploring, however, we discovered that it's ground floor is made up of a casino, and the nicest mall I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, it's an indoor Venice. With an ICE SKATING rink! What! Jared quickly steered me out before I could set foot in any of the stores.
The next day just so happens to be Singapore National Day...like their July 4th. It turns out you need tickets to go to the parade/ceremony, however, so we spent the day like most good Singaporeans do...shopping and drinking! First up, Chinatown! Tiny markets crammed everywhere, smells they definitely don't allow in downtown Singapore...still no Tire shops though! We wandered through the fresh produce/meat market, and definitely didn't gain an appetite...there were buckets of slimy wriggling things, fish blood all over the floor, and cages of huge frogs. A Chinese woman grabbed one of the frogs and started beating it over the head with a hammer while she chatted away to her customer. Gross. We escaped into a giant temple across the street. There were no frogs, however, there was the tooth of Buddha! Someone had apparently stolen it off his funeral pyre in India before they burned him thousands of years ago, and it was encased in a total gold little house with the floor of the room paved in gold tiles. In the temple itself, we got to hear monks chanting and read a bit about Buddhism. Overall, Chinatown was a very cool sub culture (some would say the dominant culture) of Singapore.
Next stop, Little India.
We got out and walked around for maybe 15 minutes before we got back on the metro. Creepy stares, the smelliest of smells, and more creepy stares were our souvenirs from this part of town. What the heck, Little India?
Finally, time for a cocktail in the fancy pants part of town again, then back to our hotel to watch the parade and fireworks.
The National Day Ceremony was...there really isn't another word for it...hilarious. It was just so...cheesy! Example: they kept panning to the old president and current president, and if they were doing something noble, like waving their Singapore flag, the camera would stay on them forever. But sometimes, the poor old guys got a bit bored, and were reading the back of their peanut bags. The camera panned away real quick! There were also a bunch of cheesy skits, a CGI Merlion swam over and sang a song with a bunch of kids, and the government said how much everybody loves each other no matter what race, and how we all come together to create a "better Singapore!" Oh yeah, and they say it Singapaw, which Jared and I found quite funny and we will now say it no other way. Still, they sure do know how to do fireworks. We really loved Singapaw, but just cannot afford to stay here any longer. We're off to Thailand, a budget friendlier place!
Singapore is an interesting place in that it used to be a dangerous place full of pirates, thieves, and prostitutes. Today, it is one of the cleanest, most modern cities in the world, where up until a few years ago, it was illegal to chew gum. Talk about a 180!
Walking through the airport was our first clue that Singapore was going to be nothing like Indonesia. Can you drink the water? Yep! Are there signs EVERYWHERE telling you where to go, in English? Yep! Does it smell like sewage? Nope! Are there taxi drivers yelling at me? Nope, AND there's a metro! A metro that stopped basically at the door of our hotel! Yeah, that's right, we got a hotel... we've decided to splurge a bit since this is our only sophisticated big city experience for a while.
I'm convinced that nobody in Singapore even needs to own a kitchen... every corner has a hundred hawker stalls, selling any kind of asian food you could want, each meal for about $3. They've also got pretty good coffee, or kopi, made with condensed milk. On our first day, we wasted half the morning attempting to do our laundry. In Bali, it was a couple bucks for 3 Kilos of laundry, and they fold it and package it up all nicely for you. Why we didn't take advantage of this, I have no idea. We thought it would be easy to find a place in Singapore, but it was now about 15 bucks for the same amount of washing, and nearly impossible to find anywhere to do it! I don't know what Singapore does with all their tire changers, laundry services, and general non flashy stores, but they hide them well. We finally found a place on the edge of Chinatown, and discovered that today was the start of the Hungry Ghost Festival, where ghosts of their ancestors come back to visit for a whole month. They light candles for specific people, and offer huge feasts for the ghosts so that they don't take out any ill will on the people. They don't recommend swimming (in case a ghost drowns you), going out after dark (in case a ghost latches onto you), or walking alone (in case a ghost befriends you). I think we did all those things. Whoops.
 |
| Jared in front of a Hungry Ghost Mobile |
Laundry taken care of, we decided to take an informative river boat tour. I'm all about the tours, while Jared prefers to do it all himself. I love reading all the signs, and then he asks me to give him the "condensed, interesting version". So, I've just decided to drag him along on all the tours with me. A super cheerful recorded woman gave us the history of the river and it's settlement by the Chinese, the Malaysians, and the British. Good background stuff for the whole visit.
 |
| Jared viewing Singapore's famous "merlion", half fish representing Singapore's original Malaysian fishing village roots, and half lion, for the Lion a prince reportedly saw on it's coast before turning it into a huge port. |
Next, it's off to the Botanical Garden. I wasn't too excited about this one, seeing as plants don't really do much, they just sit there and...plant. Can't be all that interesting. But, it was supposed to be amazing, so gotta do it! It was so worth it. They've got medicinal herb walks, jungle walks, river walks, palm walks, etc. etc.! However, the National Orchid Gardens were by far the most impressive. They even had a cool greenhouse mimicking a mountain forest with waterfalls and everything. (And pitcher plants!) 
 |
| When he finds them it's kind of like watching Gollum find the one ring to rule them all.... |
 |
| Marina Sands |
The Gardens By the Bay is this amazing light show that is set from these metallic tree like sculptures with live plants all along the trunk. It's set to music, and frankly it's one of the coolest, most beautiful light shows I've ever seen. Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera that night, so this picture isn't ours, but it's better than I could have done anyways.
So it turns out that backpackers aren't good enough for the Ku De Ta restaurant on the flying ship... we didn't have the right shoes. Considering we probably would have blown about $50 on one round of drinks, I suppose it's for the best. While exploring, however, we discovered that it's ground floor is made up of a casino, and the nicest mall I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, it's an indoor Venice. With an ICE SKATING rink! What! Jared quickly steered me out before I could set foot in any of the stores.
 |
| Giant whirlpool (named the " Rain Occulace" or something like that) in the ceiling that released a torrent of water into the pool below a couple of times a day...exciting? Yes! Unnecessary? Yes! |
The next day just so happens to be Singapore National Day...like their July 4th. It turns out you need tickets to go to the parade/ceremony, however, so we spent the day like most good Singaporeans do...shopping and drinking! First up, Chinatown! Tiny markets crammed everywhere, smells they definitely don't allow in downtown Singapore...still no Tire shops though! We wandered through the fresh produce/meat market, and definitely didn't gain an appetite...there were buckets of slimy wriggling things, fish blood all over the floor, and cages of huge frogs. A Chinese woman grabbed one of the frogs and started beating it over the head with a hammer while she chatted away to her customer. Gross. We escaped into a giant temple across the street. There were no frogs, however, there was the tooth of Buddha! Someone had apparently stolen it off his funeral pyre in India before they burned him thousands of years ago, and it was encased in a total gold little house with the floor of the room paved in gold tiles. In the temple itself, we got to hear monks chanting and read a bit about Buddhism. Overall, Chinatown was a very cool sub culture (some would say the dominant culture) of Singapore.
 |
| Monks chanting in Buddhist temple |
Next stop, Little India.
We got out and walked around for maybe 15 minutes before we got back on the metro. Creepy stares, the smelliest of smells, and more creepy stares were our souvenirs from this part of town. What the heck, Little India?
Finally, time for a cocktail in the fancy pants part of town again, then back to our hotel to watch the parade and fireworks.
 | |
| Krista drinking a Singapore Sling |
Ubud, Bali
One short boat trip and looong taxi drive later (road rules don't really exist in Indonesia, and each trip makes you wonder if you really wouldn't just like to walk the 35 miles you need to go), we arrived in Ubud. Ubud is a mountain town in Bali that became super popular after the book and movie "Eat Pray Love". Every shop and tour operator promises the Julia Roberts finding yourself experience, and there are plenty of middle aged and lesbian women running around in yoga pants.
We stayed in a couple of cute little guest houses, which are really more like family compounds with extra rooms.
They are all right on the main street, which itself is noisy, dirty, and busy, but once you step just inside the gate, its like a peaceful family farm, with chickens and cats running around, and the family temple in the center kept spotless with flower offerings every morning and afternoon.
Unfortunately, neither Jared or I were feeling 100 percent after the motorbike accident, so while we had planned some very ambitious hikes around the rice paddies, we actually stuck mostly to the city, where a cheap warong (restaurant) and beer were never far away. We did manage to make it to the Monkey Forest, a national park filled with temples that a greedy little band of Macaque monkeys has taken over. While the temples were certainly beautiful,
the monkeys stole the show. A woman sat outside the park selling bananas (even though the sign right next to her said it was illegal to feed the monkeys), and the smart monkeys would hang out just beyond the entrance and rob all the tourists of their bananas. Glad we had decided to forego the bananas, we watched a french woman hold her last banana high above her head and yell "Not yet! Not yet!" as a monkey scaled her head and grabbed the banana. Yep, definitely right now. Even being bananaless, I still got climbed. I think they thought the yellow straps might have been banana flavored, but when they found out they weren't they tried to unzip everything to see if we were withholding anything. They're cute, but you definitely don't want to get bitten (rabies is pretty prevelent in Indonesia, and we hadn't got shots), so I shook them off as they started fighting over me.
Back on the streets, we learned to hone our haggling skills after we both got scammed out of about 15 bucks each (me for a sarong, Jared for chocolate!) You'd think we'd be better at this by now (after we got scammed in Perth, anything expensive we would parrot "SCAM!!" back and forth to each other), but it really takes a while to get back into it and realize you're not being rude when you offer them back less than half of what they just quoted you. The first sale of the day is considered lucky, so you're more likely to get a good deal then. Jared walked away with a $4 pair of "raybans" that are falling apart about now.
On our last morning, we took a silver class together. You can buy some really cheap silver in this part of Bali, so it's a popular thing to do. I learned a lot, mostly that I should never be a jewelry maker, but we walked out with some souvenirs and a cool experience. I made a necklace that kind of looks like a 5 year old made it, and Jared, being the perfectionist that he is, made me a beautiful ring I've been wearing ever since.
If we would have had more time, or had been feeling less injured, I would have loved to have stayed in an Ashram (temple like accommodation) and done yoga all day, toured the rice paddies, and tried some civet cat coffee at one of the plantations, but we just weren't feeling up to it. It was nearing the end of Ramadan and the city was PACKED with Muslims coming over from Java for their holidays, so not a bad time to be moving on. Thanks for a good time, Bali. Terima kasih! (Thank you sounds like "Tear out my car seats" if you say it fast, haha) Next stop, Singapore!
We stayed in a couple of cute little guest houses, which are really more like family compounds with extra rooms.
Unfortunately, neither Jared or I were feeling 100 percent after the motorbike accident, so while we had planned some very ambitious hikes around the rice paddies, we actually stuck mostly to the city, where a cheap warong (restaurant) and beer were never far away. We did manage to make it to the Monkey Forest, a national park filled with temples that a greedy little band of Macaque monkeys has taken over. While the temples were certainly beautiful,
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| Monkey attack |
Back on the streets, we learned to hone our haggling skills after we both got scammed out of about 15 bucks each (me for a sarong, Jared for chocolate!) You'd think we'd be better at this by now (after we got scammed in Perth, anything expensive we would parrot "SCAM!!" back and forth to each other), but it really takes a while to get back into it and realize you're not being rude when you offer them back less than half of what they just quoted you. The first sale of the day is considered lucky, so you're more likely to get a good deal then. Jared walked away with a $4 pair of "raybans" that are falling apart about now.On our last morning, we took a silver class together. You can buy some really cheap silver in this part of Bali, so it's a popular thing to do. I learned a lot, mostly that I should never be a jewelry maker, but we walked out with some souvenirs and a cool experience. I made a necklace that kind of looks like a 5 year old made it, and Jared, being the perfectionist that he is, made me a beautiful ring I've been wearing ever since.
If we would have had more time, or had been feeling less injured, I would have loved to have stayed in an Ashram (temple like accommodation) and done yoga all day, toured the rice paddies, and tried some civet cat coffee at one of the plantations, but we just weren't feeling up to it. It was nearing the end of Ramadan and the city was PACKED with Muslims coming over from Java for their holidays, so not a bad time to be moving on. Thanks for a good time, Bali. Terima kasih! (Thank you sounds like "Tear out my car seats" if you say it fast, haha) Next stop, Singapore!
Lembongan Island, Indonesia
The local boats (left) take people, building materials, chickens...just about anything across to the island, but frequently sink in the deep waters between Bali and Lembongan. As one had sunk just off the beach the day before, we elected to take a speedier passenger boat with life jackets...
Within just a few minutes of hitting the beach we got set up with a nice cheap bungalow on the beach with a sunset view...Ahhhh! That evening, with cold Bintang in hand and kidneys in place, we got our feet up on the beach for our first sunset in paradise.The next day we rented a motorbike and set out exploring the island...beaches on one side and really impressive cliffs on the other with crashing waves, blow holes, and tide pools. Then there was a lot more putting our feet up.
The best thing we found was a snorkel spot on the back side of the island where manta rays come to feed. A boat drops you at a u shaped cliff where water from the depths wells up and crashes on the rocks and the mantas come to filter feed. The guide / captain from our hotel got us there very early, and as there were only a couple of us in the water, they would swim wide circles around us with their mouths open, and sometimes turn and swim right at you only to lift a wing and sweep off in another direction at the last minute...a very cool experience.For our last day on the island we decided to step it up a bit. There was another island (Nusa Pedina) behind the one we stayed on which is rarely visited...we thought it would be a unique experience to catch a boat over and check it out. Our friendly guide Ketut from the hotel who had done the manta swim for us agreed to run us over on his boat and arrange motorbikes to show us some interesting places on the island. It was a refreshing step back to just before tourism takes hold...no souvenir shops, the people seem friendlier, and the kids make you feel like a celebrity offering up as many high fives as you could return.
Our first stop was one of Indonesia's most sacred temples inside of a cave, which people (Hindus and Buddhists, but not the Muslims...as Ketut put it) travel from afar to visit and make offerings. Everyone going in was asked to cover up with sarongs, and then we squeezed into a small opening in the rock behind the temple which opened up into a massive cave with several different temples and areas for prayer. It was particularly interesting to see two religions coexisting and sharing some of the same spaces. Services continued as we passed through mostly unnoticed and made our way to a different exit in a cliff face at the far end of the cave. As we exited, I asked Ketut if the monks minded the intrusion by non Hindu / Buddhists into what was a very important place for them, and was told that it made them feel as though their temple was well renowned. 
We then rode to the far side of the island to see the high sea cliffs and a tempting but decaying stairway descending down to the waves. As no one else wanted to go down, I made a hurried but careful descent by myself. Knees shaking, I put a toe out to check the strength of each next rusted step and slowly crept halfway down only to find local workers below carrying massively heavy sections of a new pipeline down the steps as if it was nothing. Not too keen to try to climb over them, and knowing that Krista was imagining all the ways I could stumble and fall, I headed back up full of adrenaline. I was also reminded of how a year of office work and no exercise can take its toll as was evidenced by 10 full minutes of sucking air at the top which cast a doubt in my ability to hike to the Mt. Everest base camp as a climatic end to our travels...we'll see. Anyhow, the day was getting late, so we made our way back to the pier to head home and I decided that everything had gone a little to perfectly, so I decided to crash the motorbike in some gravel going around a corner. Having ridden these quite a bit by now, I had assumed that this would happen to me at some point, and I finally got my chance...and just when Krista was starting to trust me as well...bummer. Luckily, we were going pretty slow with the roads being in awful condition and came away with only minor scrapes and bruises to the pride...oh well. Ketut got us off the hook for the scratches on the bike for a small fee to the owner, and all in all we left felling pretty fortunate. On the up side, I did get to leave a little bit of myself on Nusa Penida, which was well documented by Paul, an Australian that joined us for some of our adventures, and if I can get ahold of his photos I'll add them later.
After that we were pretty well done with the beach and island scenery and got ready to head to our next stop in the heart of Bali, Ubud...
LEMBONGAN ISLAND PHOTO SET
Sunday, August 4, 2013
On the Road Again: 2013
Hello? Is anybody out there? It's been a while...so I don't blame you if you drifted off over the last year or so, but we're back in action as we make our way home from Australia by way of SE Asia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. There is so much from our last year of working in Newman that there is no way to share it all, so we'll try and put a slideshow of our favorite memories together and post that up soon.
We wanted to ride off into the sunset, but that didn't prove to be very practical...so we sold all of our stuff including our faithful car (baby b), and flew out instead...but this is how it would have looked...
We wanted to ride off into the sunset, but that didn't prove to be very practical...so we sold all of our stuff including our faithful car (baby b), and flew out instead...but this is how it would have looked...
Goodbye Newman!
Keep an eye on the "trip photos" link to flickr at the top of the page...tons of new photos added (from last year...lazy, i know), and more to come...We'll be back in the states on November 10th!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
ESCAPE !!!!
Well HI there all of you who are probably no longer reading! We don't blame you...things haven't been that interesting, but we have been working at the red sands for 3 months now and it's time for a break! We're taking 10 days off for a taste of the outside world before heading back into the red wasteland for another 3 months. So...two days ago we flew to Perth (the big city), and everything has been going great since then. The plan was to buy a cheap car and make our way up the west coast back to Newman. We were worried that car shopping could drag out, and every day it took was a day off of our vacation time, but we lucked out and found the perfect car within a few hours of landing in Perth! Her name is Baby Beluga (Baby - B for short). She is a 1996 Holden Apollo Wagon and she looks like a big white whale! After finding the car we managed to return the rental car without smashing it which was good. Then we set out to outfit it to be a comfy "motor-home". We lucked out again and found a foam warehouse, and they had the exact piece we needed for 75 % off. The car is now more comfortable than our bed back at the red sands and we're off on a nine day adventure...will post photos upon getting back to Newman!
Cheers!
Cheers!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Newman, Western Australia
Hi Everybody!
We're well settled here in Newman now and it's high time for an update, wouldn't you say? We were both ready and reluctant to put Perth in the rear view mirror...it was a very cool city, and the third most expensive place in the world to live. Despite what we heard elsewhere about the golden streets, the job market was competitive and it wasn't a great recipe for re-lining the pockets with cash.
So we got a ride share, said goodbye to our new friends, and headed 12 hours north to Newman, rocking out to aussie music hits of the 80's all the way. The drive itself hinted at the isolation of Newman...the Great Northern Highway is a thin, 2 lane strip of asphalt that cuts a lonely path through thousands of miles of vast emptiness. We saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabys along the way, although most were not alive. Apparently they aren't the brightest when it comes to traffic and will often hop right into it. They're a big problem out here and many people don't drive the freeways at dusk or dawn because the chances of hitting one then are really good. Passing the road trains felt pretty dangerous, but we arrived safely all the same.
We reached Newman in the late afternoon. It is a smallish mining town in the heart of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Mt. Waleback (the largest open cut iron mine in the world) is it's only reason for existing...and it is pretty obvious that there is a lot of iron in the ground here...even the dirt rusts. The closer we got to Newman, the redder everything got. Nothing that was meant to be white (street signs, walls, etc.) stays that way and everything here has a red tint to it. Some days it has a post-apocalyptic feel to it...especially when the dust kicks up and the sky turns red as well. The town is basic and is honestly pretty uninteresting. It is big enough for a full sized grocery store, a Chinese takeaway, a hotel, and of course, The Red Sands Pub / Restaurant where we are now employed.
It's only geographically redeeming quality is it's closeness to Karijini national park, which is said to be Australia's most beautiful and unique, so that is high on our list of things to do. It's about 2 hours away by car so we're not sure how were going to get there...we may wind up buying a junker car to get around with and do some exploring. Keeping in mind all the while that we are here to refill the bank and are just going to work as much as we can without going nuts.
So far the job is going well...the Red Sands is a clever three in one business, with a large pub, restaurant, bottle shop, and soon to be coffee drive through sharing the same location. With so many hats to wear there are a lot of hours to go around, and the pay is good. We work with a great group of people and things are going pretty well. Rent is the reason that people don't come here to find jobs...on average 1,000 to 1,500 a WEEK for a very basic place. Because of that situation, you would wind up earning very little, so the pub has put up dongas (basically a shipping container for people) out back for the staff. So we have a place to stay, a hot meal most nights out of the restaurant, and as long as we don't go nuts, we'll do well here.
It's a very strange and interesting place...a modern frontier really, and the amount of money and opportunity surrounding this town in the desert is incredible...but more on that next time...
We're well settled here in Newman now and it's high time for an update, wouldn't you say? We were both ready and reluctant to put Perth in the rear view mirror...it was a very cool city, and the third most expensive place in the world to live. Despite what we heard elsewhere about the golden streets, the job market was competitive and it wasn't a great recipe for re-lining the pockets with cash.
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| Road Train on The Great Northern Highway |
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| Mt. Whaleback Iron Ore Mine |
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| Karijini National Park |
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| A Standard Donga ! |
It's a very strange and interesting place...a modern frontier really, and the amount of money and opportunity surrounding this town in the desert is incredible...but more on that next time...
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Easer Sale: Discounts on Life Lessons
Happy Easter everyone!
It was a beautiful sunny Easter day here in Perth. We got up early and packed our things for a trip to the wine growing region down south to start new jobs at a vineyard. Unfortunately this evening we are right back where we started, a bit more guarded and with slightly lighter wallets. It turns out that there was no job and we (and 40 others) were scammed by a pretty impressive con artist. The upside...if you can be famous for getting conned out of 300 bucks, then I am definitely famous. TV, radio, print...you name it, I've done the interview. I want everybody and their mom lookin' for this guy. Autograph requests can be sent to Jared Holm, Crimestopper.
The story: Backpackers conned out of 300 Large
The worst part of this mess is that we and everyone else quit their jobs and checked out of where they were staying for this, and most people had nowhere to go. Finding a place to stay in Perth is hard most days, let alone Easter Sunday. We were very fortunate to be taken back in by the people we have been staying with, and have been tirelessly looking for a job over the last week. In a complete change of direction, we are now heading to the outback town of Newman where we have bee hired to work in a bar. This job came through a legitimate recruiter, so we can rest our scam detectors on this one.
It's been a fun and difficult two months trying to decide where we'll settle in to recoup our travel funds, and it looks like we've found it. It would have been nice to work and live in Perth, but it's so expensive that I'm pretty sure it would have been in one pocket and out the other. On to Newman...
It was a beautiful sunny Easter day here in Perth. We got up early and packed our things for a trip to the wine growing region down south to start new jobs at a vineyard. Unfortunately this evening we are right back where we started, a bit more guarded and with slightly lighter wallets. It turns out that there was no job and we (and 40 others) were scammed by a pretty impressive con artist. The upside...if you can be famous for getting conned out of 300 bucks, then I am definitely famous. TV, radio, print...you name it, I've done the interview. I want everybody and their mom lookin' for this guy. Autograph requests can be sent to Jared Holm, Crimestopper.
The story: Backpackers conned out of 300 Large
The worst part of this mess is that we and everyone else quit their jobs and checked out of where they were staying for this, and most people had nowhere to go. Finding a place to stay in Perth is hard most days, let alone Easter Sunday. We were very fortunate to be taken back in by the people we have been staying with, and have been tirelessly looking for a job over the last week. In a complete change of direction, we are now heading to the outback town of Newman where we have bee hired to work in a bar. This job came through a legitimate recruiter, so we can rest our scam detectors on this one.
It's been a fun and difficult two months trying to decide where we'll settle in to recoup our travel funds, and it looks like we've found it. It would have been nice to work and live in Perth, but it's so expensive that I'm pretty sure it would have been in one pocket and out the other. On to Newman...
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wild Wild West
Traveling through and getting settled in are very different things. We have been here in Perth a week now, and things are just starting to come together for us. If you imagine Australia as the US, Cairns (where we were) would be about where Maryland is, and Perth would be Los Angeles. Our eyes ache from looking at jobs, cars, and places to live on the computer. The amount of competition for everything here is incredible. When a decent add for a job or place to stay hits the websites, it is not unusual for it to have 500+ views in a couple hours!
Anyhow, as always it usually comes down to who you know. The people we were staying with over the last week have introduced us to some really nice friends of theirs who had an available room, so now we're very well set for another week. I have gotten a job here in the city selling solar panels door to door. Not what I saw myself doing exactly, but the money is (potentially) good, and it's not as bad as you would expect. New experiences...Meanwhile, Krista and I both had an interview for farming jobs driving giant modern equipment for wheat seeding. Pretty exciting as we'll never get to do something like that again, and the money is good as well. We don't have the experience they wanted, but we think they liked us, so we have our fingers crossed. We should hear back on that soon. So, this time round Krista gets to sit pretty and wait to see what happens while I work...last time it was the other way, so fair is fair.
We have some leads for work one way or the other, so we're a bit less freaked out. When we first got here I felt a bit like a minnow in the crashing surf that is Perth, but it's calming a bit now....chat to ya soon, a lot should be happening!
Anyhow, as always it usually comes down to who you know. The people we were staying with over the last week have introduced us to some really nice friends of theirs who had an available room, so now we're very well set for another week. I have gotten a job here in the city selling solar panels door to door. Not what I saw myself doing exactly, but the money is (potentially) good, and it's not as bad as you would expect. New experiences...Meanwhile, Krista and I both had an interview for farming jobs driving giant modern equipment for wheat seeding. Pretty exciting as we'll never get to do something like that again, and the money is good as well. We don't have the experience they wanted, but we think they liked us, so we have our fingers crossed. We should hear back on that soon. So, this time round Krista gets to sit pretty and wait to see what happens while I work...last time it was the other way, so fair is fair.
We have some leads for work one way or the other, so we're a bit less freaked out. When we first got here I felt a bit like a minnow in the crashing surf that is Perth, but it's calming a bit now....chat to ya soon, a lot should be happening!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Catching Up
Hi everyone!
I know its been a while since we've written, and so much has happened! Through some friends at the hostel, Jared got his dream job, just what every boy dreams of...solar panel telemarketer! He charmed the pants off everyone and managed to make a sale his first day...this was quickly followed by a more expected day, in which the first person who answered told Jared "You can go **** yourself!" I will never be mean to telemarketers again (probably)...anybody else got a guilty conscious? (Dad...? haha)
I was still working at the seafood restaurant, but not very happily. Another waitress who had just been hired had come from Perth, and she couldn't say enough good things about it. This was about the umpteenth Perth endorsement we'd heard, so on a whim Jared purchased some cheap plane tickets and we were committed to going across the country! I was dreading quitting the restaurant since they had treated me pretty well (the first day I was thinking about telling them I was quitting they first offered me half a bottle of 200 dollar wine...needless to say I put it off another day!). When I finally did tell them and give them a week and a half notice, they took me off the schedule! Jared had a similar experience with his shifts being cut, just when we really needed the moolah.
After saying goodbye to our friends in Cairns, it was off to Perth...people had been telling us that Perth was really crowded and it might be hard to find a place. We really should have looked earlier, but that day before our evening flight we exhausted every resource for accommodation we knew...and that's a lot. Hostels, Couchsurfing, Air BnB, and finally it was down to the dreaded hotel. Jared and I have stayed in a grand total of 0 hotels since our trip began last February, and we were ashamed that it had come to this...paying full price for just a bed! But when you have landed at 10 pm and want nothing more than to sleep, your standards go down...or up, whichever way you look at it. We booked the absolute cheapest thing we could find online for 110 bucks and caught a cab across town. When we got there they said that the room was not actually available anymore but they felt sorry for us so they gave us the last room they had...a business suite, for the same price. Yay!
In short, I have never ever seen a city with less accommodation for the thousands of people that come through daily (it's a mining town, so there are tons of people who stay a week before heading back to the mines)...If 10 new hotels opened up tomorrow, there would be no rooms left in about 10 minutes. This lets the hotels that actually do exist charge ridiculous rates...as much as 400 a night for just an ok hotel. Apparently Perth is the fourth most expensive city in the world, for living in general. So much for thinking the streets of Perth were going to be paved in gold...apparently everybody else thought so too, and I guess they just ripped up all the gold to pay for the crazy cost of living here.
After a day of panic, we have managed to find ourselves a share house for 400 a week and reverted ourselves to a mild level of panic. We hope to find a job this week and are basically devoting ourselves to the job hunt every second of every day, so keep your fingers crossed for us! We'll update as soon as we know anything.
P.S. We don't want to hear any I told you so's yet!
I know its been a while since we've written, and so much has happened! Through some friends at the hostel, Jared got his dream job, just what every boy dreams of...solar panel telemarketer! He charmed the pants off everyone and managed to make a sale his first day...this was quickly followed by a more expected day, in which the first person who answered told Jared "You can go **** yourself!" I will never be mean to telemarketers again (probably)...anybody else got a guilty conscious? (Dad...? haha)
I was still working at the seafood restaurant, but not very happily. Another waitress who had just been hired had come from Perth, and she couldn't say enough good things about it. This was about the umpteenth Perth endorsement we'd heard, so on a whim Jared purchased some cheap plane tickets and we were committed to going across the country! I was dreading quitting the restaurant since they had treated me pretty well (the first day I was thinking about telling them I was quitting they first offered me half a bottle of 200 dollar wine...needless to say I put it off another day!). When I finally did tell them and give them a week and a half notice, they took me off the schedule! Jared had a similar experience with his shifts being cut, just when we really needed the moolah.
After saying goodbye to our friends in Cairns, it was off to Perth...people had been telling us that Perth was really crowded and it might be hard to find a place. We really should have looked earlier, but that day before our evening flight we exhausted every resource for accommodation we knew...and that's a lot. Hostels, Couchsurfing, Air BnB, and finally it was down to the dreaded hotel. Jared and I have stayed in a grand total of 0 hotels since our trip began last February, and we were ashamed that it had come to this...paying full price for just a bed! But when you have landed at 10 pm and want nothing more than to sleep, your standards go down...or up, whichever way you look at it. We booked the absolute cheapest thing we could find online for 110 bucks and caught a cab across town. When we got there they said that the room was not actually available anymore but they felt sorry for us so they gave us the last room they had...a business suite, for the same price. Yay!
In short, I have never ever seen a city with less accommodation for the thousands of people that come through daily (it's a mining town, so there are tons of people who stay a week before heading back to the mines)...If 10 new hotels opened up tomorrow, there would be no rooms left in about 10 minutes. This lets the hotels that actually do exist charge ridiculous rates...as much as 400 a night for just an ok hotel. Apparently Perth is the fourth most expensive city in the world, for living in general. So much for thinking the streets of Perth were going to be paved in gold...apparently everybody else thought so too, and I guess they just ripped up all the gold to pay for the crazy cost of living here.
After a day of panic, we have managed to find ourselves a share house for 400 a week and reverted ourselves to a mild level of panic. We hope to find a job this week and are basically devoting ourselves to the job hunt every second of every day, so keep your fingers crossed for us! We'll update as soon as we know anything.
P.S. We don't want to hear any I told you so's yet!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Slow Days...
Well, the last few days have been a bit slow....with the exception of an exciting job prospect in one of Australia's best fishing and diving areas. It would be far too discouraging to describe it in full in case it doesn't happen...so more on that later. In the mean time I am going to cut corners and copy/paste an email I wrote when I was less lazy. A few people have asked me about Australia (when to come and the like), and in an effort to possibly drum up more potential visitors, here is some handy info! A fair warning though...if you are already a bit tired or bored, definitely don't read on! More on the exciting job soon!
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Well Howdy,
Luckily for you, I don't even need to waste time researching...I am, at present, a fully saturated sponge of Australian knowledge. For example: Did you know that Australia once lost a Prime Minister as unceremoniously as you might lose a left sock? He jumped in the the bay one day for a quick dip, accompanied by the expected procession of staff, and was never seen again.
Anyhow, and more to the point, I am excited you might visit, and I do have some opinions that I feel could help. Firstly, $1300 is not an unreasonable round-trip price as it is a very long way away. Skyscanner.com is a great resource. That said, I would be surprised if you were able to find it cheaper than $1200 - $1300 anyhow...;( With Skyscanner, search LAX to Australia and it will show you prices for all the different airports.
As far as where to go, that's the hardest question of all. Weather wise, it will be the middle of winter here in May. The north jungilly bits will be dry and mild compared to the hell sauna they are now. The south of the country (Sydney and definitely Melbourne) will be cold and grey from what I hear (50's in the day). Also, the "winter" in the north is a great time to do the reef because all (most) of the awful stinging killing things migrate elsewhere leaving the waters relatively safe. Cairns is the city to go to for the reef...you can venture further north, but you'll still fly into Cairn's regional airport. It is also a great place to see the rainforest in relative safety (great hospital in Cairns) and the Altheron tablelands...a beautiful fruit growing jungle area full of waterfalls and the like. So, in short, for that time of year, I would fly into Sydney to see it, then fly to Cairns for the jungle and reef. From Cairns, do a flight to the outback (Alice Springs or somewhere else) and then return to Brisbane, Melbourne, or Sydney for a flight home.
I definitely agree with not trying to see the entire country. The size is a bit of a shock, and ground transport is completely out of the question. You'll have to leave the south coast and the west for another trip and another time of year.
Despite a sizable bout of laziness at the time of this email writing, I did get up and walk to the travel desk to find the price of getting a full dive certification on the reef. Unfortunately the guy was occupied with 4 Swedish girls, and as I approached I heard one of them ask "so, do you guys offer trips to the reef." Knowing how long that was likely to take, I immediately gave up and walked back to my room. It would be a fair question except for the fact that the reef is the only reason anyone comes to this town, and any travel desk that didn't offer a reef trip would be promptly laughed out of the business. So, I don't really know the total cost, but it's about $80 a dive and you would need 4 over 2 different days to go home certified. Equipment seems to always be included in the price, so I would guess the total cost at about $600 (possibly less) for a nice experience with a good company (ocean freedom's power boat out of Cairns is a very friendly and well run operation with a very cool Scottish Captain). I would say it would be totally worth it. Do it!
As far as landmarks go, Uluru rock is as classically Australian as the Sydney Opera House. Beyond that, Australia is full to the brim with strange formations and geologic oddities. You'll just have to a bit of searching. For ideas, I like trolling pre-packaged tours that tell you all the stops.
Unfortunately, I can't say where we'll be tomorrow any more than I could say where we'll be in May, but I am sure we can get together!
...
With all that quality info, I expect boatloads of visitors!
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Well Howdy,
Luckily for you, I don't even need to waste time researching...I am, at present, a fully saturated sponge of Australian knowledge. For example: Did you know that Australia once lost a Prime Minister as unceremoniously as you might lose a left sock? He jumped in the the bay one day for a quick dip, accompanied by the expected procession of staff, and was never seen again.
Anyhow, and more to the point, I am excited you might visit, and I do have some opinions that I feel could help. Firstly, $1300 is not an unreasonable round-trip price as it is a very long way away. Skyscanner.com is a great resource. That said, I would be surprised if you were able to find it cheaper than $1200 - $1300 anyhow...;( With Skyscanner, search LAX to Australia and it will show you prices for all the different airports.
As far as where to go, that's the hardest question of all. Weather wise, it will be the middle of winter here in May. The north jungilly bits will be dry and mild compared to the hell sauna they are now. The south of the country (Sydney and definitely Melbourne) will be cold and grey from what I hear (50's in the day). Also, the "winter" in the north is a great time to do the reef because all (most) of the awful stinging killing things migrate elsewhere leaving the waters relatively safe. Cairns is the city to go to for the reef...you can venture further north, but you'll still fly into Cairn's regional airport. It is also a great place to see the rainforest in relative safety (great hospital in Cairns) and the Altheron tablelands...a beautiful fruit growing jungle area full of waterfalls and the like. So, in short, for that time of year, I would fly into Sydney to see it, then fly to Cairns for the jungle and reef. From Cairns, do a flight to the outback (Alice Springs or somewhere else) and then return to Brisbane, Melbourne, or Sydney for a flight home.
I definitely agree with not trying to see the entire country. The size is a bit of a shock, and ground transport is completely out of the question. You'll have to leave the south coast and the west for another trip and another time of year.
Despite a sizable bout of laziness at the time of this email writing, I did get up and walk to the travel desk to find the price of getting a full dive certification on the reef. Unfortunately the guy was occupied with 4 Swedish girls, and as I approached I heard one of them ask "so, do you guys offer trips to the reef." Knowing how long that was likely to take, I immediately gave up and walked back to my room. It would be a fair question except for the fact that the reef is the only reason anyone comes to this town, and any travel desk that didn't offer a reef trip would be promptly laughed out of the business. So, I don't really know the total cost, but it's about $80 a dive and you would need 4 over 2 different days to go home certified. Equipment seems to always be included in the price, so I would guess the total cost at about $600 (possibly less) for a nice experience with a good company (ocean freedom's power boat out of Cairns is a very friendly and well run operation with a very cool Scottish Captain). I would say it would be totally worth it. Do it!
As far as landmarks go, Uluru rock is as classically Australian as the Sydney Opera House. Beyond that, Australia is full to the brim with strange formations and geologic oddities. You'll just have to a bit of searching. For ideas, I like trolling pre-packaged tours that tell you all the stops.
Unfortunately, I can't say where we'll be tomorrow any more than I could say where we'll be in May, but I am sure we can get together!
...
With all that quality info, I expect boatloads of visitors!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Lions, Tigers, and Jobs, oh my!
So it's been a couple weeks and I think we are finally getting settled in...the clothes are strewn about the room in a pattern that looks pretty homey and even with our SPF 50 we are both getting tanner...it really hasn't been long, and we've seen quite a few new things, which brings me to a new section of our blog entitled...TODAY'S POTENTIAL DEADLY ATTACK! Australia is full of them, which we knew before we came here, but we’ve been amazed at the countless ways the land down under can try to kill us. Sure, some of them are expected, like the crocodile, but others are just strange...try the cassowary, for example. Basically a living dinosaur bird creature that would love nothing more than to stab you in the chest with it's head butting bony thing. Ok, it probably has other things it likes, but the sign was pretty intimidating when you're trying to enjoy a nice jungle trek. The trees are also out to get us, and the spiders have been the biggest I've ever seen (which is saying something coming from Florida). We have escaped unscathed so far, except for a few bug bites. 
In other news, I have a job, while Jared continues to lounge around the hostel drinking beer and eating bon bons. Just kidding, he's been a pretty sweet boyfriend, occasionally working my breakfast shift when I have to go to work later that morning. I am getting schooled in fine dining at the seafood restaurant I'm working at, and am pretty happy I'm not doing dishes with all the cutlery we go through...5 forks for this entree, 10 knives for this one. The chefs have won all kinds of awards apparently, and each dish is expertly crafted into a tower of deliciousness with some random whole crab perched on top.
Yesterday Jared and I both managed to get the day off, from the restaurant and the hostel, and got in a bit of diving on the great barrier reef. We saw turtles, sharks, giant fish, giant clams, and tons of coral. We have been bit by the diving bug, and are currently searching out volunteer opportunities on live aboard dive boats.
I have the next couple days off again, so we'll continue to explore and see if we can find anything that pays better than what we've currently got. We'll update you soon!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Arriving in Cairns (Cans)
It's been a week since we arrived here in Cairns, (pronounced "cans"...the aussies don't like r's) and we're beginning to settle in. We have our first jobs about figured out...we are working a few hours each day for free room and board (pasta and toast) at a hostel. I'm a bus driver... adding another completely random job to my ever growing list, and Krista handles breakfast. I like my job alright...the 3am "last call" run is the most interesting for obvious reasons. As far as the paid work goes, nothing yet, but the search is starting to warm up a little. Krista is way out in front having already gotten three offers. It turns out they don't really want men working in the bars...who would have thought?
Trying to find work has distracted me almost entirely from daydreaming ...but I have managed a few random thoughts...Firstly, lets put the whole "toilets flushing the other way" thing to rest once and for all...what a bunch of crap, no pun intended (ok, maybe a little intended). But in all seriousness, I was genuinely disappointed. In fact, they do a sort of front to back flush...not at all exciting.
Also disappointing is the realization that I seem to be somewhat less attractive than the average male specimen here. Now obviously this isn't something that I am particularly used to, so it came as a bit of a shock. Seriously, I'm not a terribly self conscious person by nature, but these people are in ridiculously good shape, and their magnificent ozone layer hole bronzes them like rotisserie chickens. How am I going to compete with that? On the up side, I think I have learned one of their secrets. Upon landing in Brisbane, to get a taste of home, I went immediately to a fast food burger joint for lunch. There I noticed that their large sized soda cup was the same size as our small. Very tricky Australians...but I'm on to you...
Trying to find work has distracted me almost entirely from daydreaming ...but I have managed a few random thoughts...Firstly, lets put the whole "toilets flushing the other way" thing to rest once and for all...what a bunch of crap, no pun intended (ok, maybe a little intended). But in all seriousness, I was genuinely disappointed. In fact, they do a sort of front to back flush...not at all exciting.
Also disappointing is the realization that I seem to be somewhat less attractive than the average male specimen here. Now obviously this isn't something that I am particularly used to, so it came as a bit of a shock. Seriously, I'm not a terribly self conscious person by nature, but these people are in ridiculously good shape, and their magnificent ozone layer hole bronzes them like rotisserie chickens. How am I going to compete with that? On the up side, I think I have learned one of their secrets. Upon landing in Brisbane, to get a taste of home, I went immediately to a fast food burger joint for lunch. There I noticed that their large sized soda cup was the same size as our small. Very tricky Australians...but I'm on to you...
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Back in the Saddle Again!
G'Day Mate!
After a great three months at home, the new year is well on its way and I'm back on the road again. Due to a hostile takeover, the blog has a new contributor and a new coat of paint. I can't guarantee the writing will be any good, but she is crazy about taking pictures, so we definitely won't be lacking in that department. As you may have guessed, we are on location in beautiful Australia, land of poisonous creatures and $7 beers. The name of the game this time around is to make a little $ while traveling. If your favorite posts from before included "I just spent 500,000 on sushi" and "Cliff diving into piles of money" you might be a little disappointed from here on. I will be working a lot of the time, but I promise to keep it as interesting as possible, and to do something exciting every now and then. I'm still recovering from the 18 hour flight (blood only just started moving again), so I'll sleep now and be back with more later...
After a great three months at home, the new year is well on its way and I'm back on the road again. Due to a hostile takeover, the blog has a new contributor and a new coat of paint. I can't guarantee the writing will be any good, but she is crazy about taking pictures, so we definitely won't be lacking in that department. As you may have guessed, we are on location in beautiful Australia, land of poisonous creatures and $7 beers. The name of the game this time around is to make a little $ while traveling. If your favorite posts from before included "I just spent 500,000 on sushi" and "Cliff diving into piles of money" you might be a little disappointed from here on. I will be working a lot of the time, but I promise to keep it as interesting as possible, and to do something exciting every now and then. I'm still recovering from the 18 hour flight (blood only just started moving again), so I'll sleep now and be back with more later...
Monday, October 24, 2011
Made it to LA
Howdy...after just an awesome 30 hours of traveling, I have made it to my dad's place in California. Just one more flight to Florida and I'll complete the full round the world trip...took a hair over 80 days though!
I'll continue to post photos to the photos page over the next couple of days if you are interested...I still have Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to put up.
Thanks for following the blog and for all the comments along the way!
I'll continue to post photos to the photos page over the next couple of days if you are interested...I still have Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to put up.
Thanks for following the blog and for all the comments along the way!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Mangos: For eating...not for rubbing on the skin !!! (Saigon)
Made it to Vietnam... Arrived unexpectedly late and wound up walking for a while and meeting Dylan and his wonderful girlfriend Grace for dinner in District 1. It was a very strange feeling to be walking through such a chaotic and foreign place, and then to see a familiar person standing there in the scene! Saigon seems unique against some of the other Asian cities I have been to...not sure exactly why yet, maybe the pictures will show it...give me a couple more days. I have been borrowing an extra motorbike from Dylan and riding around the city with him. INSANITY...no road rules, hundreds of thousands of people on motorbikes, on foot, in buses beeping and merging through each other at intersections in a way that makes you want to live for today...there will be photos and possible some video! One of the first things we did was go and visit some local fruit markets...being in a tropical rainforest this place has cheap access to loads of amazing fruit....more than half of which I have never laid buds on before...very exciting. I discovered the best fruit ever...not a great fruit or an amazing fruit mind you, but the best fruit. Now, you might say to yourself, "well that's a bit subjective"...but you would be wrong. It's called a mangosteen, and it's right up there at the top of the page, and it's the best fruit ever...passion fruit is pretty tasty too.
Dylan then discovered that he has a pretty serious allergy to Mango sap...this photo is actually from the early stages...those blisters continued to grow over the next day or so and are now about three times as big with several new arrivals as well. At first he thought it was the very serious flesh eating bacterial skin condition "necrotizing fasciitis" which wouldn't be out of the question here in the jungle...but after I got a touch of it as well we put our heads together and narrowed it down to mango sap from the fruit market...apparently it can have effects similar to poison ivy, and in some people (like Dylan) cause severe skin reactions! He seems to be recovering somewhat, but it is still pretty gross. Getting used to the currency here takes a little time...I have gotten used to doing the conversions in my head, but this is the first time I have had to deal with being a millionaire...in Dongs anyway. The other night we went out and got about half a millions' worth of sushi...I was responsible for about 300,000.00 worth of the damage personally...
I am looking forward to getting to try all of the things that you can sometimes miss when you are just traveling and passing through a place. Dylan has been here for over a year, and that is a pretty cool perspective. I am also keeping my fingers crossed that my blisters don't grow to the size of his, and that I didn't scratch my backside during the critical spreading time window!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Cambodia
I don't think I can say that I "saw" Cambodia...I really just passed through. I was ready to be in one place for a while and keen to make it to Vietnam. Also, it wasn't originally on the plan, so I didn't have any idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to see. But, I am really glad that I did pass through because it is an interesting and unique place...with a very rich history. I arrived in Siem Reap from Laos and did the Angkor Wat temple complex and Tong Sap Lake. Siem Reap is surrounded by hundreds of temples built around 1100. They are magnificent accomplishments, especially for the time period, and are definitely landing a spot in my top cultural attractions of the trip...they are an awesome sight. Tong Sap Lake is mostly the result of a weird phenomenon caused by the rainy season making a portion of the Mekong river backfill the valley creating an enormous lake (12,00 km2) for part of the year. I took a boat trip to see one of the famous "floating villages" , which turned out to be another great experience. Although popular with tourists, it appealed to me because tourism was not the sole reason for it's
existence...you could tell it was life as usual as we slowly made our
way up main "street". The village stands pretty far out out in the lake, above the water level, and is full of people getting on with everyday life...but in an unusual way. It made me wonder if Venice might have looked like this at it's beginning. Probably the most notable departure from normal village life were the pig pens built outside the houses on stilts above the water...I guess they can tire of even the freshest fish after a while!
Leaving on the bus for Phnom Phenh, I was on the last leg of my brief shared journey with my new Australian friends...another couple of great people I have gotten to know along the way. I said goodbye to them at the station, got a room, but quickly decided it was time I made it to Vietnam. The following morning I set off for Ho Chi Minh city. It was a beautiful bus ride, taking about 6 hours. Sitting on the bus, I had the sudden realization that my adventure was coming to a close (well, this one anyway). It's funny because this was the expected finish line from the start, but as I got further and further along I think I forgot that it was all to be done in a year, and that there was an end to it. I now have some decisions to make about what to do next, and all I know is whichever I choose has to include making some money, which has a terrible habit of running out!
Leaving on the bus for Phnom Phenh, I was on the last leg of my brief shared journey with my new Australian friends...another couple of great people I have gotten to know along the way. I said goodbye to them at the station, got a room, but quickly decided it was time I made it to Vietnam. The following morning I set off for Ho Chi Minh city. It was a beautiful bus ride, taking about 6 hours. Sitting on the bus, I had the sudden realization that my adventure was coming to a close (well, this one anyway). It's funny because this was the expected finish line from the start, but as I got further and further along I think I forgot that it was all to be done in a year, and that there was an end to it. I now have some decisions to make about what to do next, and all I know is whichever I choose has to include making some money, which has a terrible habit of running out!
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