All Good Things Are Wild and Free... I'm in Vietnam!

Dec 26, 2011 to Dec 31, 1969

I'm headed go the other side of the world on a 6 month adventure to live life to its fullest! I'm writing this blog so my family and friends can follow along as I embark on this great journey!

Ottawa, Ontario , Canada

December 26, 2011

Leaving my hometown, with a quick stop over in Vancouver, and then the adventures begin!

Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada

December 27, 2011

Journey End

July 1, 2012

Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada

December 29, 2011

Soaking up as many caesars as I can! My 16 hour flight to Sydney is delayed by an hour, so thank goodness for the wonderful Lindsay Wilson for keeping me company as we spend our last hour together sipping on Caesars and drinking wine! Let's start this trip off right! See you soon Brody Jones!

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

December 31, 2011

Arrived alive! After spending a 16 hour flight in the aisle seat beside an extremely overweight couple who pee a lot, it was nice to see a friendly face come pick me up from the airport.  Brody and I were all smiles once we were reunited again! Brody lives in Darlinghurst, which is about a 25 minute walk from 'The City' (the opera house & Harbor Bridge).  He lives with 3 friends in such a cute house with a beautiful terrace and a giant kiddy pool to lounge in if it gets too hot! On New Years Eve, Brody took me to the restaurant he used to work at called The Cut.  It is a steakhouse/french fusion mix menu ... Amazing food!! We shared a dozen rock oysters, chicken liver pâté, prime beef tartar, Sher Fi Wagyu Fillet and a couple sides.  I don't think I need to eat for another couple days!... Nor do I want to! Everyone in Sydney is in such great shape and so good looking! After dinner, Brody and I walked down to the harbor where there were seven barges shooting off fireworks.  We didn't have the best view, but it was still a spectacular show!  Wishing everyone a Happy New Year tonight & a safe and healthy 2012!  For family and friends who would like to contact me, my new phone number is +61 0410934072

Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia

January 1, 2012

"You must be the new girl" is what I kept being addressed as on New Years Day! All of Brody's flatmates had to work on NYE so their party started at 4:30am and kept going throughout the morning!  Thank goodness for the jet lag, I didn't wake up once.  Once I rolled out of bed, I walked out to the terrace to find 20 people excited to meet the new Canadian! Five of us decided that we were going to spend the day at the famous bondi beach.  Unless you flag down a MaxiTaxi, you can only fit four people in the cab.  As two of us distracted the driver, one of brody's friends jumped in the 'boot' (trunk) for the 25 minute taxi ride. Bondi Beach is amazing and I found it the most perfect way to spend new years day! We stopped at a beach bar on Campbell Parade in South Bondi called Archor and Brody and I were so happy they served Caesars there! My first official day in Australia and I already can find a caesar! 

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 2, 2012

Today was a LONG day! Brody and I walked through Kings Cross, saw the famous Coca-Cola sign, down to Potts Point, down to Woolloomooloo Wharf and then over to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The garden was massive with gorgeous flowers, huge trees, and a bunch of birds flying around that I've never seen before in Canada! Then we walked up to the Opera House, had a drink at Opera Bar, with a wonderful view of the Harbor Bridge. After our drink, we walked over to Circular Quay (this is where you can get a ferry over to Manly) and then up to the Rocks on George Street (this is where we watched the fireworks on NYE).   Brody and I went to his old restaurant, Felix, for lunch, where I ate the biggest shrimp I've ever seen! If you know my love for prawns, I was in heaven! After lunch, we went to The Sydney Tower Eye in Westfield Sydney (the big tower downtown) and took the SkyWalk around the tower.  We were harnessed in at 280 meters above sea level! It was really cool to see Sydney from that view, and it really helped me get my bearings for when Brody leaves me in a week.  Before you get up to the top of the tower, they make everyone do a breathalyzer test to make sure no one is drunk when they go up.  Brody and I were laughing because we had already had a couple of drinks throughout the day... How embarrassing would it have been to be denied entry! After the SkyWalk we walked down to Darling Harbor, a very touristy sight with not much to look at!  It just has a bunch of restaurants and sharks in the water!  The weather has been incredible since I've arrived! People keep saying I brought the good weather with me, I hope it stays this way!

Manly Beach, New South Wales, Australia

January 3, 2012

After far too many half price margaritas last night at El Loco, Brody and I thought the perfect way to spend today would be to lie on the beach.  We took a half hour ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly Beach.  Manly Beach is the second most famous beach in Sydney and a definite tourist attraction.  It was packed!  The promenade is full of over priced coffee shops and surf shops.... And surfer babes! Although, the eye candy wasn't quite as good as the other day at Bondi Beach! The water at Manly had some of the biggest waves I've ever seen, the swimmers were only allowed to swim waist deep between two flags because the rifts were way too dangerous.  I hear every beach in Australia makes you swim between the red and yellow flags.  It makes swimming not as enjoyable because everyone is squished into one area of the beach... So I stay away from the water and just lay in the sand and bake! Brody and I had a great pizza dinner at Hugo's while we waited for the ferry to take us back to the city.  Later that night, Brody, his flatmates, and I went down to The Star Casino for some famous dumplings (which i cant remember the name of the stand) and a cocktail at Cherry Lounge.  No gambling for this lady, although I did get a bit tempted when I saw the 1 cent machines tucked away in the corner!

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 4, 2012

January 4th.... Hottest day of summer yet! So where do you think I spent the majority of my afternoon?... At the beach of course! Brody and his friend had  decided they wanted to do the Harbor Bridge climb before Brody leaves Sydney, but since we had just done the SkyWalk tour a couple of days ago, I opted out this round and headed for the beach!  I went to a beach in the city, Redleaf, with Brody's flatmates Doren and his friend Lara.  Redleaf is known for being either a gay beach or a family beach... It was def a family beach when we went.  There were kids everywhere!  It's summer holidays here so no one is in school yet.  The appeal of Redleaf is it's only a short cab ride from the city.  All the other beaches you have to make it a day event to go, whereas here you can just lounge for a couple hours and then head to work.  When Doren had to leave to go to work, I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon shopping down on Pitt Street while I waited for Brody to finish his climb.  Pitt Street is basically an outdoor mall, with an indoor mall (Westfield) really close by.  I was in the market for 3 things: sandals, not flip-flops (you can't get into any bar or restaurant after 6pm without wearing proper sandals), a beach bag (because I realize it's not cool to bring my backpack to the beach, the only other bag I have that will fit my beach towel), and a hair straightener (because I blew mine up on NYE when I plugged it into the outlet.. Ooops!). Anyways, shopping trip was a success! Later that night, Brody had some other plans, so Min (one of Brody's flatmates) and I checked out a couple of local bars.  The first bar was called Shady Pines.  It was down an alley off of Oxford Street with absolutely no signage.  It was just a white door with a small handwritten sign that said Shady Pines.  When we got in, it was packed!  It's basically a cowboy saloon with stuffed animals on the wall, peanuts everywhere, with really loud country music.  Not really my scene, but I heard it was one of the 'hip' bars to go to, and I guess the appeal is that it's so hard to find, that once you've found it you must know what's up! I only knew about it because Lara's boyfriend works there, and she described it as an 'American Bar'... I've never been to Texas, but it's what I'd imagine a Texas bar would be like!  Our next destination was just around the corner called Pocket.  It was packed too, but way quieter music so we could actually chat.  It was more of an older crowd, but I really liked it! In Sydney, all of the café's turn into pubs at night, as well as every hotel is also a pub.  Basically, there are hundred of pubs to choose from, and then there are the restaurants and nightclubs too!  No wonder people say Aussies know how to party... They have a lot of opportunity to practice!

Bronte, New South Wales, Australia

January 5, 2012

Since I got to Sydney, I've spent pretty much everyday at a beach because it's been beautiful hot weather with clear blue skies! Today it was overcast, so I decided that instead of laying on the beach, I would walk along many beaches that are connected (kind of like the seawall in Vancouver).  Brody I took the bus from Taylor Square to Coogee Beach to start our beach tour.  It's about a 2 kilometer walk from Coogee to our destination Bondi.  Along the way we walked by Gordon's Bay, Clovelly Beach (which is a beach with no sand, only pavement... It looked kind of weird seeing people suntanning on pavement!), Bronte, Tamarama (also known as 'glamarama' because all the swim suit modeling photos are taken here), and then Bondi beach.  We walked along crazy cliffs and the ocean looked beautiful! Between Bronte and Bondi, there are mini workout areas with bench press bars and many other bars to work out other parts of your body.  I guess it's a good way to stay in shape, just a weird place to have gym equipment! After our beach tour, Brody showed me a couple neat pubs in the city.  We went to The Baxter Inn, which is the same owners as the pub I went to yesterday, Shady Pines.  Again, it was an unmarked bar where we had to go down an alley, through a random door, down some stairs and then there is a bar packed full of people!  I guess this is the new(ish) trend for bars in Sydney.  The more hidden it is, the better of a bar it is.  Then we went to another bar called Stitch, which was alright, nothing to write home about... And then onto a famous bar called Eau-De-Vie.  This bar is hidden inside the Kirketon hotel in Darlinghurst.  It has won numerous awards in the Gourmet Traveler for best cocktail bar, best bar of the year and best new bar.  They had some fancy fancy cocktails made with liquid nitrogen.  It was amazing to watch the bartenders at this location!   To end this note... If I have one piece of advice for people traveling to Australia, even on overcast days - WEAR SUNSCREEN!  

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 7, 2012

I've been here a week now, and starting to get used to Sydney's backward traffic laws! It's still a bit strange when getting into a car or crossing the road, but it's becoming a little bit more natural to me to look right instead of left.  I've done all the major touristy things to do already, so the last couple days I've been hanging out with Brody's roomies doing local things.  I hit the Sydney gym, went for a run around the city (didn't even get lost!) and just been hanging out at home.  On Friday it was 'Brody's last Friday Night' so a few of us went on a pub crawl around Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.  I still can't get over how many bars there are in this city!  I swear, every single cafe, laudrymat, hotel, and restaurant turn into a bar at night... And they are all busy! Today was a beautiful day once again, so I decided to take a walk around the city and find an aquatic center where I could just lounge by a pool all day.  I walked down to Wooloomooloo Wharf (about a half hour walk from Brody's place) and found a lovely pool by the ocean so I could just listen to music and watch all the boats cruise by.  Today was the first day of Sydney Festival, it runs for 3 weeks and highlights different artists around the city.  Min and I went down to the festival grounds in Hyde Park and listened to a variety of musicians and djs.  We popped into the art gallery and saw an awesome Polka band and so many old people were dancing about.  Loved it! Later on, Min got a phone call from a friend saying she had 2 extra tickets to see Calvin Harris... We jumped on that boat! Free concert tickets, yes please! 

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

January 10, 2012

Just landed in Perth and it is HOT! My last couple of days in Sydney were super chill... Sunday was supposed to be Brody's last day, as he was scheduled to fly out at 10pm.  A large group of people got together at The Tilburry to have some drinks and say farewell.  The party ended at about 6pm, so Min, Doron, Sam and I all went home for an amazing roast of lamb dinner that Min made.  There was a huge thunder and lightning storm on Sunday evening, so Brody's flight was cancelled and he was able to spend an extra night in town! Turns out he got two DID NOT DEPART from Australia stamps on his passport over the last couple days, so here's to hoping he gets on his plane today! Yesterday I met up with my friend Johnny who I met at coachella last year - he is good mates with Brenton and Grant (my friends that I'm staying with in Perth). We had a nice lunch at the opera bar with a great view of the harbor bridge and then walked around the city for a while.  Just as I was beginning to find my way around Sydney without any problem, I leave the city and fly across the country! Well, now I'm in Perth... Writing while I'm on the shuttle that takes me from the airport into the city. I'm meeting my friend Taryn who I went to Western with for a quick beach session before I meet up with the boys.  Who knows what this week will have in store! I'm excited to take on Western Australia!

Kalbarri, Western Australia, Australia

January 11, 2012

Kalbarri is about a 6.5 hour drive north from Perth.  We drove for hours without seeing anything but bush and dead kangaroos along a desert highway.  Actually, that's a lie.... I saw my first Emu (two of them) prancing about! I'm determined to see a live kangaroo on this trip, and I may even leave just a little bit of food out on our campground so I can see a Dingo too! Kalbarri is a little town of 1,800 people on the Indian Ocean.  There were beautiful gorges and white sandy beaches.  I saw my first Australian sunset since I'm in Western Australia now!  The only downside to the heat and the desert are the flies.  There were flies everywhere! I've learned to just let them crawl all over me or else I'm spending my whole day waving my arms around in the air swatting them off me. Our campsite was very clean and cute, right across the street from the beach.  Thank you Aunt Gay for taking me camping all those years ago... It came in handy when putting up and taking down our campsite!  Another early night, had to be up early to drive another 3 hours north to Monkey Mia and Shark Bay to feed the dolphins!

Shark Bay, Western Australia, Australia

January 12, 2012

Shark bay... Hmmm... I wonder how it got it's name! Today's drive seemed a lot faster than yesterday because Grant and I stopped at a lot of different sites on our way to Francois Peron National Park.  Our first stop was at Hamelin Pool to see the Stromatolites.  They are rocky looking lumps in the water resembling the oldest and simplest forms of life on earth dating back 3.5 billions years.  It was cool to see, although it was soooo hot and swimming wasn't permitted so we left there quickly.  I didn't want to go in the water at Shark Bay so we just did a quick drive by and stopped at Shell Beach for a swim.  As you can probably guess, there was no sand on this beach, just a ton of little white shells.  We went in the water and could walk really far before it started getting deep.  While I was swimming I came across a massive black and yellow snake at my feet.  It was about a meter and a half long with yellow stripes.  I didn't stay in the water much longer after I saw that... creeped me out so much! It was a beautiful beach though... It looked like the beach had transformed into a palette of the most intense greens and blues.  Our next stop was at the Little Lagoon, a calm and secluded little beach just off the main trail.  On our trip we've been driving a Toyata LandCruiser with 4WD.... So we've been able to drive along sandy beaches without getting bogged.  I've never done this before so it was great! Once we got into the national park and reduced our tyre pressure, we were able to drive down all the sandy (red sand) and bumpy roads full of lizards, rabbits and emus trying to get out of our way! We stopped at a beach/campsite called Gregories because we heard there was a great reef - perfect for snorkeling.  The water was pretty rough and it was about 5pm so the water wasn't as clear as we had hoped.  I still saw some pretty cool fish and even a sting ray! Sting rays are not small creatures! I need to get over my fear of sea animals before I go diving at the Great Barrier Reef in a few weeks! As we we driving away from Gregories, we drove past what Grant calls a 'whirly whirly' - I call it a cyclone or a tornado. Apparently they get them here all the time.   Grant and I found an awesome place to set up camp right on the beach at Herald Bight.  It was a very windy set up and take down, but it was worth it because I saw the most beautiful sunrise :)

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

January 10, 2012

After taking the 45 minute shuttle from the Perth Airport into the city, I hopped on the city train to meet Taryn and her boyfriend Marty in Karrakatta.  This suburb is beautiful and very close to the beaches.  We spent a few hours at Cottesloe beach while we waited for Grant to fly in from work up north.  Taryn and Marty left soon after Grant arrived because Taryn had to fly back to Canada.  I keep meeting up with my friends just as soon as they need to head back to Canada! That night Brenton, Grant and I went into Leederville for some dinner and a catchup.  We ate at Little Caesars Pizza... Which is totally different from our Little Caesars in Canada! This pizza shop had won tons of awards for their various kinds of pizzas.  Sweet, savory, salty... They had everything imaginable! After dinner we went to Kings Park and had an outstanding view of the city all lit up.  There were tons of little walking trails to explore, and lookout areas.  Early to bed that night, Grant and I had to be up at 5:30am to start our camping adventures!

Monkey Mia, Western Australia, Australia

January 13, 2012

The two finger Aussie wave... Such a weird thing.  When driving in the outback every time one car passes another, the drivers give each other a wave that somewhat resembles a peace sign. It's a bit strange, but I don't ask questions!  Today we drove about an hour north up to Monkey Mia -a dolphin national park.  They feed the dolphins three times a day between 8-12pm, whenever the dolphins choose to come and get food.  Grant and I saw two feedings and we got chosen out of the group to feed one of the dolphins on the second feeding! With the amount of teeth they have (about 104), they are surprisingly gentle! After the feeding, we did a bit of snorkeling in the area but again the water was too foggy we didn't get to see much.  About 11 Emus graced us with their presence that afternoon.  You know it's hot in Australia when the emus are getting into the ocean! They are rated the biggest bird on the planet... I'd say they are the skinniest bird when wet!  We stayed there long enough to get pretty red on the shoulders then drove to Ellendale Pool to get a campsite for the night.  Very misleading... This is not a swimming pool.  It was a river that had warning signs all over not to swim or else you'll get some super infectious disease. (can't remember what it was called). Had a nice steak dinner that night with an enormous side of beets root.  I am now obsessed with beets root! 

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

January 14, 2012

Drive thru bottle shops. A concept I believe to be foreign in Canada.  Two lanes... Express (someone walks up to your car and takes your order) and regular (you have go walk into the shop yourself to get your own cases of beer).  It's such a cool concept and I've seen them all over Perth. Didn't notice them so much in Sydney, but now I've got my eyes open for one!  Camping trip came to an end today. Grant and I drove back to his house to find about 15 friends helping his room mate tearing up the garden.  We all had a nice swim when the boys were done and a big BBQ.  It was a very relaxing day! Just what I needed after a relaxing camping trip :)

Scarborough Beach, Western Australia, Australia

January 15, 2012

Basically there are four main beaches along the coast near Perth.  Fremantle is the most south, then Cottesloe (where I went my first day in Perth), Scarborough Beach and City Beach.  Today Brenton picked me up from Grant's house with his friend Scott and took me to Scarborough beach. There was a huge surfing competition, as well as a beach volleyball competition going on today. We could see a bit of the competitions from where we had set up our towels, but we spent the majority of our time in the ocean battling the waves. They really kicked my butt! Pretty intense waves with big rips but we all survived! Later that day the three of us met two of Brenton's other friends at restaurant called The Windsor.  It had a cute little patio outside where we sat and enjoyed some pita and hummus.  I spent the night at Brenton's in a suburb about half an hour south of the city.  He has an awesome house with a pool (and swim up bar!), pool table and his backyard is covered with frangipani trees! His sister was house sitting so I got to stay in her room and had a big huge bed to myself tonight! Glorious!

Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

January 16, 2012

It's Monday, which means back to work for Brenton.  His sister, Chloe, had the day off so she and her friend Tamara took me down to Fremantle. Fremantle kind of resembles a fishing town with many restaurants specializing in fish and chips.  There was a huge ferris wheel by the water and a nice walk along the coastline.  It would have been better for me to go to Fremantle on the weekend, as there are normally markets and venders on the streets, but I was a day too late! It was a bit too windy on the beaches in Fremantle, so we drove up the coast to Cottesloe and had a quick swim and suntan session there. Chloe dropped me off in the city, where Grant picked me up a bit later.  It was a very low key evening, as Grant has to be back up north for work so we just had a nice dinner at home and watched a movie. I started to plan my travels from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road tonight, but soon realized I had buggered up the dates and had missed the bus tour that I was planning on taking.  The Australian version of craiglist or kijiji is called 'gumtree' so I looked all night for people who were driving from Adelaide to Melbourne.  I found a couple people who are driving around the same time I would like to leave, so let's hope they write back soon!

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

January 17, 2012

Grant and his room mate both went back to work today so I had the house to myself for the morning.  Thank goodness for their lovely pool, I went a nice swim in the morning and had the weirdest breakfast.  I guess it is really common here to have canned spaghetti on toast? Anyways, I tried it.  Nothing special. Kind of a weird taste to be honest, but I guess it's better than eating vegamite on toast! (a very common breakfast for Australians - it's a very salty paste full of vitamins... If you listen to the song 'I come from a land down under', you will hear them talk about vegamite). I ended up hearing back from a few of the people I wrote to on gumtree about getting a lift from Adelaide to Melbourne, and one of them offered to pick me up from the airport when I land in Adelaide.  Brenton picked me up in the afternoon from Grant's house to drive me to the airport. The Perth airport is quite small, with only 11 gates, which makes the airport more confusing than it needs to be! They had about 4 different flights departing through the same gate as me, all at the same time! You really need to pay attention to which plane you're getting on! I arrived in adelaide safely, and this guy named Daniel gave me a ride to my hostel.  He is driving to melbourne via the great ocean road on the same days that I would like to go, so I think I will drive with him and split on fuel to save some moulah.  My hostel is pretty nice.  I'm staying in a 7 bed mixed dorm with some pretty friendly people.  One guy is actually from New Market and went to Guelph University.  Another guy is from France, and a girl from Holland.  I also met a group from Ireland who have been living in this hostel for a couple of months now.  I think I'll go to the beach with them tomorrow because it seems like they know their way around the city!  Haven't slept in a bunk bed, let alone the top bunk, since first year university... I hope I get a good sleep tonight! Actually, come to think of it, I didn't sleep in a bunk bed then... It was a single bed! This should be interesting...

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

January 18, 2012

Adelaide isn't as bad as people had told me! I kept hearing there isn't anything to do here and to get out quickly. I had so much fun the first night I was here, I decided to stay for a second night and I'm so happy I did! During the day I went to Glenelg with this boy from Ireland.  Glenelg was actually pretty cool! There's a permanent amusement/water park there, right next to the beach.  Garry and I went down all the water slides with the kids, it was pretty hilarious.  We were by far the oldest people there!  We spent a little bit of time at the beach and in the ocean and then went for lunch.  Garry had never tried sushi before so I made him try it - but he was not a fan! I must admit, I think I take Vancouver sushi for granted because nothing here is even comparable and I miss it so much! After Glenelg, I came back to the hostel and met up with the girl from Holland, Anna.  She was meeting some friends from Texas who she met along the Great Ocean Road a couple weeks ago, so I tagged along! They were really cute!... And it was nice to hear an accent that sounds similar to mine! There was a free BBQ tonight at my hostel, followed by a game of 'killer pool'.  I didn't win, however, I was the last girl still in the game! It was nice to socialize with people from all over the world. I did meet a hippy guy from Vancouver, he and I stuck together for the night and decided to meet the guys from Texas at their hostel and go out on the town.  Well, there's not many bars in this little city, so it wasn't hard to choose where to go! One bar named Sugar. Five guys to one girl ratio... I got a lot of looks! I wasn't really feeling the bar and all the staring so I came back to the hostel to find many people still awake drinking Goon.  Goon is similar to wine, except it's not made with grapes.  I think it's made with eggs or something, and you buy it in a box.  Anyways, I've heard it's a backpackers drink because it is super cheap and after you drink it, you can blow up the bag and use it as a pillow for your travels! It's really awful tasting, so let's hope my funds keep me afloat and I don't need to sacrifice my pallet the whole time I'm in Australia! 

Stawell, Victoria, Australia

January 19, 2012

One way or another I will make it to Melbourne! When I arrived in Adelaide I met that guy Daniel who said he would drive me to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, but I really didn't feel comfortable being alone in a car with him.  Thankfully, when I got back to my hostel yesterday after Glenelg, I met this nice British girl named Kimmy who said she and her friend Matt were driving to Melbourne via The Grampians National Park.  They were super nice and really funny so I decided I would ride along with them instead.  Once I'm in Melbourne, I can take a day trip towards the Great Ocean Road and see the highlights then.  Kimi and Matt picked me up this morning and away we went! We drove for about 4 hours, arrived just outside the Grampians, and found a free campsite for us to spend the night.  There was another camper van with three young people from France on the same campsite as us. The 6 of us hung out for the night - yes mom, I did speak to them in French! I was the only one out of the six of us who hasn't worked in Australia.  In order to apply for a second year visa, you must work at least 90 days on a farm picking various types of fruit. I'm not sure if that's my sort of job!  I think I'd rather get sponsored by a company rather than spend 3 months up in a tree! 

Grampians, Victoria, Australia

January 20, 2012

I SAW A KANGAROO! Finally! Or maybe it was a wallaby, I'm not really sure how to tell the difference, but either way, I finally saw a jumping creature that resembled a kangaroo! Their tails are way longer than I imagined, and they swing their arms quite a bit! This morning we packed up our campsite and drove the rest of the way on really bumpy roads to the Grampians.  The Grampians are the richest indigenous rock art site in southern Australia and is located about 235km west of Melbourne. There are tons of hiking trails and amazing scenery.  We walk a long trail down to the base of a couple waterfalls. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to swim in the water, but I dunked my head in anyways! It was way too hot, I needed to be refreshed! We only stopped once along the way because the car we were driving was not built for roads that bumpy - Our exhaust almost came off! We drove to Melbourne and I said goodbye to Matt and Kimi.  I may be meeting them again in Sydney next week, and if not, then I'm sure they'll be coming to Canada for a visit! Those two love to travel!  The hostel I'm staying at in Melbourne (Hotel Discovery) is way bigger than the hostel I stayed at in Adelaide.  It used to be an old high school, so it's multi-leveled with giant rooms and the washrooms are huge as well.  My dorm has 5 bunk beds - I was lucky to get the bottom bunk this time! After I got settled I met up with my friend Tim who lives in Vancouver, but is from Melbourne.  He hasn't been home in 3 years, and just so happens he decided to take a trip when I'm in the city!  He took me to a party for the magazine 'zinc'... It was in a warehouse and was Mexican themed.  Sponsored by El Jimador, all the booze and food was free!  I'm not the biggest fan of tequila, but there was nothing else to drink so I couldn't be picky! It was a very artsy party, various artists from the city painting the walls, and many different styles were there!  Pretty cool party! I left Tim and met up with a girl named Hillary (from Ottawa, met her at my hostel) at Croft Institute.  This is a bar that used to be an insane asylum... It had pretty cool decor - even had a hospital bed in the washroom! 

Lorne, Victoria, Australia

January 21, 2012

Last night at The Croft Institute I met two guys from Toronto who mentioned they were going to drive the Great Ocean Road tomorrow (as in today), so I asked them if I could tag along and come for the ride since I missed it on my original route to Melbourne.  A group of us put some money together to hire (rent) a car and set off early in the morning.  We stopped at Erskin Falls, a beautiful waterfall that made us feel like we were in the rainforest.  It was amazing!  We all got into our bathing suites and took photos of us under the waterfall.  Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the day so I didn't get many pictures. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... I thought I lost my camera yesterday when I left my rideshare and got to my hostel.  Thank goodness Matt was still in Melbourne, he was nice enough to drive across town and drop it off to me this morning.  This is why it wasn't charged enough for all the pictures being taken today.  After the waterfall we carried along the GOR towards the 12 Apostles.  I took on role as navigator (scary) with no maps and managed to get us there...eventually! No one believed me when I kept saying I thought we were going the right way.  Sure enough we made it there, only took us about 4 hours! Never realized how far along the road it actually is! The pictures I took can't even describe how amazing of a feeling it was to be there (I used the camera on my iPad - handy little thing!) They kind of resemble the flowerpot rocks in the Maritimes, except they weren't red.  So it was me, two guys from Toronto, a guy from the Netherlands, another guy from London and a girl from Germany.  Yup, 6 of us in a car... Which means someone had to ride in the boot the whole way - you probably guessed it, we got pulled over.  Not too sure why, because Buckley was hidden pretty well, but we figured some guy we stopped and asked for directions told the cops we had an extra person in the car.  The aussie cop was really nice and let us off with no fine at all! He just said he would keep his mouth shut if we got out of his town right away! I've learned my lesson - in Australia, as well as every other country in the world, it is illegal to have a passenger ride in the boot! Today has been quite a journey to say the least!

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

January 22, 2012

Melbourne is known to have the worst and most unpredictable weather in all of Australia.  It can be 40 degrees in Perth, and be 19 degrees in Melbourne the same day.  Sure enough, yesterday was a crummy overcast day, but as soon as we left Melbourne and got on the GOR it was sunny and beautiful! Today was a different story... Sunny sunny sunny, and 32 degrees! I walked around the city today with a guy named Des from Rotterdam.  We went to Federation Square, it's an area in the city where most things revolve around.  The Australian Open is going on right now, so there are screens all over the city playing tennis, and everyone sits on the ground and watches.  We walked over to the front gates of the Australian Open and contemplating going in to watch a couple games, but it was far too expensive to pay for a sport that, in my opinion, isn't all that exciting! It was really cool to be around all the action, kind of felt a bit like the playoffs all over again because everyone is so into it! In Federation Square we checked out 'acmi' (Australian center for the moving image).  It was a free museum all about television, video games, and movies.  My favorite part was the 3D box, where they have 80 small cameras around you to tape your every move when you're in the box.  The movement resembles Trinity from the movie The Matrix when she is in mid air, slow motion, doing a kick.  Pretty cool, I emailed myself the footage! (kind of hard to describe if you've never seen the matrix!). I also got to play really old video games, including the classic nintendo that I kick butt at! Walking down the street, I ran into this guy named Spandy Andy.  He is from Vancouver and famous for his street performances.  I always see him dancing at the beach, wearing spandex and grinning ear to ear.  I heard he was going to be in Melbourne, but didn't think in a million years I would see him! It kind of felt like I was back in Vancouver for a few minutes! Melbourne is known for it's arcades and lanes.  I grabbed a brochure and did a 2.5 kilometer walk around the city, going down alleyways and little streets that are full of street art, coffee shops and little stores.  The tour took me back to my hostel, where I met the guys from Toronto to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  I'd have to say, they weren't as impressive as the gardens in Sydney, but it was still a beautiful walk.  Came across the Shrine for Remembrance where the boys got pretty creative with their pictures, and then walked back to the hostel.  I met up with Des again for a BBQ on the roof of the hostel, and he cooked me kangaroo burgers.  I was expecting them to taste CRAZY, but no, they taste just like a normal burger! Anyways, feet are sore from all the walking today and I've gotta check out of my hostel tomorrow morning.  I'm currently homeless tomorrow night, as all the hostels are booked up for the Australian Open - but I may be able to sneak into a hostel for a couple hours to lay my head! 

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

January 23, 2012

Today I took on Melbourne all alone! The friends that I've made at my hostels all work during the week, and I had to check out of my hostel this morning so there wasn't much opportunity to meet new people to do adventures with! I hopped on the free city tourist bus and went around the city.  The bus has commentary, which I found to be extremely helpful.  My first stop was at Harbour Town - here I saw the docklands, did some shopping (huge outdoor shopping mall) and had a coffee at New Quay Promenade.  It was a very cute area, but I didn't have much time because the bus comes to the stops every half hour.  I didn't make it to the Medibank Icehouse, but it has two Olympic sized ice rinks for hockey and curling. I didn't think Aussies did those sports!   I hopped back on the bus and rode past a couple stops until I got to the Crown Entertainment Complex.  In this building there is a huge casino and very high end shops.  I started chatting with the security guard and he suggested a few things I check out around town.  I went across the street to the Melbourne Aquarium where I saw tons of crazy looking fish, PENGUINS, sharks and much more.  This aquarium is the only aquarium that houses fresh water sharks in the world.  The cutest creature I saw was a leafy sea dragon - males can give birth to up to 250 babies in their lifetime! I also learned that the octopus has 9 brains, 3 hearts and blue or green blood!  I was by far the oldest person in there (that wasn't a parent), but I still had a really good time! After the aquarium I took the tram from the city to St. Kilda.  St. Kilda is a beach town just outside the city of Melbourne, with a man made beach and an amusement park.  I didn't go in the amusement park, but it sure looked like fun! I spent a couple hours sun tanning on the beach, then walked down Acland Street where you can find tons of little pubs, restaurants and shops out on the sidewalk.  I took the tram back to the city, and met the boys from Toronto at my hostel.  They were nice enough to let me stay the night at their hostel down the road for free! We had to sneak me in though, but it all worked out! Unfortunately I didn't get to finish the free bus tour today, but I'll probably hop back on tomorrow to check out Chinatown, Lygon (Italian area) and the arts center.  Oh yes, another exciting thing today... I booked my trip to New Zealand! 

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

January 24, 2012

I may fall asleep halfway through this post, but here goes nothing!  Last night I had to sneak into the hostel down the street because there were no beds available anywhere else in town since the Australian Open is on.  Buckley and Brent (the two guys from Toronto) had a doubles room (just two beds in one room) so it was easy to sneak me in without anyone noticing.  I offered to sleep on the ground, but they were real gentlemen and decided to push both single beds together to make one giant bed.  Since I lost at rock-paper-scissors, I had to sleep in the middle... Which was not the most pleasant.  The beds were basically on wheels and halfway through the night they separated and I went straight to the floor. Lovely! Not the best sleep of my life, but I guess it was better than being on the streets! In the morning, the three of us went over a huge plan of things to do and see around the city.  We had every intention of each hiring a bike and riding around the second half of Melbourne that I missed yesterday, beginning at the Queen Victoria Market.  Well, we spent about 3 hours at the market! It was full of small vendors selling fruit & vegetables, clothing, shoes, souvenirs and anything else you can imagine an Asian person selling!  We mostly did browsing, as my bag already weighs about 13kg and I don't want to spend the next 5 months breaking my back.  Anyways, the market was fantastic but since we took so long there we had no time to rent bikes.  We decided to walk around chinatown to get some cheap lunch and have a look around.  Got back to the hostel to find out that their friends were having a big BBQ on the rooftop so we all joined in.  About 15 of us from all around - Canada, USA, France, Japan, Netherlands, and Germany shared some laughs and good times :) The boys have to be up early for work tomorrow, so I said my goodbyes to everyone and brought my bags back to my original hostel where I'm going to wait in the lobby until 3am to catch a bus to the airport.  I'm flying out of the Avalon Airport in Melbourne, and let me warn you (because no one told me), this airport isn't actually IN Melbourne.  It is about an hours drive west of Melbourne.  So even though the flights are cheaper, I'm debating if the bus ride will be worth the money I saved! Back to Sydney I go where I'll have my own bed again for the next couple of days!

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 25, 2012

I'm sorry if I scared anyone yesterday about all the homeless talk. I wasn't entirely homeless, I just didn't have a bed - but I was in a sheltered place! Not exactly on the streets! Anyways, I made my bus on time, got to the airport, flew to Sydney, arrived at Brody's old house and SLEPT! Boy did I need it! This whole week is supposed to be rainy in Sydney, so I'm not too upset that I spent the majority of my day dozing in and out of sleep.  Also, this gave me time to catch up on a bunch of tv shows that I've missed this past month! I know, I know, I'm traveling so I shouldn't be concerned about The Bachelor... But I can't help my obsession with that show!  Min has a friend named Jackie visiting from Singapore, so the three of us hung out for a bit at home and then went to The Argyle for a 40th birthday.  I saw quite a few people tonight that I met the last time I was in Sydney. It was great to catch up! Everyone was asking about all the places I've been the past three and a half weeks, and it turns out I've already seen a lot more of Australia than most people who live here! I've got the whole east coast left to do as well!  Tomorrow is Australia Day - basically the same as Canada Day - where people dress up with flags and temporary tattoos and cause a rukus around town! I bought an Australian bikini when I was in Melbourne for the occasion, but I didn't know it's supposed to rain tomorrow... So we'll see if I end up wearing it after all! 

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 26, 2012

Happy Australia Day mate! I reckon we will have HEAPS of fun this arvo! Haha I'm basically Australian, right? Starting to get the lingo down, but I refuse to speak with a fake Australian accent.  Partially because I suck at it, and well, I guess that's the only reason actually... To avoid embarrassing myself!  This australia day wasn't as crazy as last year.  Last year I spent it up in Whistler, where you are hard pressed to find a Canadian in the winter months.  It was a huge party, everyone was decked out in their Aussie gear and I had tattoos allllll over me! This year started out a little more calm.  I went for a nice breakfast with Min and Jackie at Forbes&Bourke... A cute little cafe where you can sit outside (the rain held up a little bit) and eat in the fresh air.  Ps... I'm loving all the Forbes signs all over the place!  After breakfast, the girls had to go out of town for a road trip, so I said my goodbyes to them and hung out at home for the afternoon.  Sam and Doron (the two guys that live in the house I'm staying at) both had to work so I messaged a few people to see what options I had to choose from for the day! I ended up meeting with Lara (one of Doron's friends I met in my first week here) and we went to her work Xmas party.  It was sci-Fi themed and there were some intense costumes! I ended up just wrapping myself in tin foil, wore a hot pink wig, covered my legs and arms with Australian tattoos, wore a flag as a cape, and went as the 'Australian Alien/superhero'.  I didn't stay in costume for too long... I don't recommend wrapping your body in tin foil, it becomes quite itchy and as soon as you move a bit, it starts to rip! We had an amazing dinner... Like amazing! All free food and booze all night long.  I think I spent $5 the whole day, and that was on a taxi.  Cheapest Australia Day ever! There were magicians and dancers performing after dinner, who later mingled with the crowd - I obviously followed the magician around trying to figure out his tricks... No luck! 

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

January 27, 2012

I'm heading to New Zealand tonight, so I'm trying to downsize my belongings a little bit.  After sending about 10 articles of clothing back to Vancouver via sea mail, I don't understand how my bag can STILL weight 12kg (that's like 26lbs).  I even threw some stuff out too! Thank goodness I'm in no rush to send anything home, it take 2-3 months to send anything by sea! I had a pretty mellow day today... Free booze all night doesn't lead to a clear head in the morning! I met up with Dad's friend Bill for lunch.  They grew up in St. Bruno together and he's lived in Sydney since 1981.  We went to a chinese restaurant where the waiters roll around carts full of food and you just take what you want to eat off the cart and enjoy!  It was tasty! After lunch I thanked him and said goodbye, and went home to finish the last of my packing.  With all the back and forth from the airport, I've got the Sydney transit system figured out and made it to the airport with plenty of time to hit up duty free! 

Christchurch, New Zealand

January 28, 2012

Arrived in Christchurch at 1am this morning. Got off the airplane, and into the most chaotic airport I've ever seen.  I'm not sure if it's because so many Asians who don't speak english were on my flight, or what, but it took over an hour to get through customs. My friend Ashley who I met in whistler last season, was there to meet me at the airport.  He lives in Queenstown, but came to Christchurch for a birthday party.  We're staying at a hostel that used to be a jailhouse.  It's pretty cool! Our room is an old jail cell, with a legit cell bathroom attached.  After the worst sleep of my life (once again on the top bunk!) we decided to drive around Christchurch (or what's left of it). The main city center was totally destroyed by the earthquake, but life goes on.  There was a big fence around what used to be the shopping center, now there are little pop up shops everywhere.  Maybe that's not the right word, but they were basically massive shipping containers that had the sign of the store on the front and all the merchandise inside.  The temporary stores are placed on the original parking lots, and the new parking lots are placed where old buildings had fallen down.  Pretty cool to see. Afterwards we went to Brighton Beach where there was a big kite festival.  Tons of people were around, flying thousands of kites.  We originally went because we heard people talking about a kite festival and we thought it would be a kite surfing thing, so when we arrived we were a little confused as to what was going on! We grabbed a case of beer and hung out on the beach - watching all the different kites, from batman, to squid and jellyfish, to a kite with the New Zealand phrase "Beached As Bro." We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours, but we decided to leave after getting covered with sand by all the kids kicking their feet or grabbing hand fulls of sand and throwing them in the air.  Sometimes I don't understand children! After having a MASSIVE dinner at Speights Pub, I mean massive (Ash ordered the large size of ribs and it came out on a platter... Enough ribs for about 4 people to share), we went back to hostel to get ready for the birthday party.  In New Zealand and Australia, a 21st birthday is a massive deal.  Sure, we celebrate it in Canada because you are now legal in the states, but here people celebrate it as becoming an adult. As dad would say, "you invite 100 of your closest friends", rent out a venue (she rented out a place called Joe's Garage) with open bar and when the parents feel like cutting off the tab, everyone moves to party all night at someone's house.  I felt really old at this house party, it was like a high school reunion for everyone - which I knew no one but Ash and two other guys from Whistler.  All I have to say, is I'm happy the party wasn't at my house!

Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

January 29, 2012

So apparently since I've been in Christchurch, there has been about 5 mini earthquakes.  I didn't feel any of them, as they were only 4 point something, but I heard you can only feel them if you're doing certain things. Back in February 2011, Christchurch suffered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake and they are still in the process of rebuilding the city.  Certain areas are flagged off as unsafe to be in, and they are no longer allowed to construct buildings taller than 5 stories.  On the way back to Queenstown, we were going to drive down by Sumner Beach to see all the houses along the coast that were destroyed by the earthquake, but we didn't have enough time.  Instead, we drove around Hagley Park - the world's third largest city central park behind Central Park in New York and Stanley Park in Vancouver.  Today was the last day of the busking festival going on in the park.  Anyways, we 'escaped from jail' (checked out of our hostel), picked up the other Whistler boys coming back to Queenstown with us, and hit the road.  It's about a 5/6 hour drive from Christchurch to Queenstown.  On the way we passed Lake Tekapo, where you can take a dip in the hot pools nearby.  We just stopped quickly to take a look at the turquoise water, as we were on a mission to get to Mount Cook.  On the way, we passed Mount Cook Salmon Farm where I had the most expensive salmon sashimi of my life! Apparently it's super famous, and it was delicious, but very pricey! The Mount Cook National Park is New Zealand's highest alpine region.  Only three of its peaks aren't over 3000 meters. I've never done the drive across Canada, but approaching this region of New Zealand is what I think it would be like to drive from the Prairies to the Rockies... Flat flat flat and then BOOM, mountain range! I've never seen water so blue and calm in my life as I did at Lake Pukaki.  So peaceful! There are 22 mountains that are over 3050 meters high in this area. The Tasman Glacier is also there.  At 27 kilometers in length, and three kilometers wide in parts, this is the largest glacier in the world outside of the Himalayan region (yes, I quoted that from my tour book...thought you'd find that interesting information!) Anyways, got back in the car and drove down to Queenstown - mountains at our side the whole time! Queenstown is a cute little town, with a lot of opportunity for adventure! It reminds me of whistler in the sense there are mountains everywhere, a ton of tourists, ski hills, hostels, restaurants and pubs.  I ate at the famous Fergburger for dinner and boy was it delicious! We grabbed it to go and ate it by the water, with a great view of the mountains.  Ash lives just up the hill from Queenstown, in a really nice house with an outdoor hot tub! I'm pretty jealous of his crib!

Wanaka, New Zealand

January 30, 2012

Before I write this blog, I just wanted to let you know I'm not actually in Wanaka (yet), but this website doesn't seem to know where the Adventure Capital of the World is, so just wanted to let you know I'm actually in Queenstown.... Here we go! So, one thing I can say about Kiwi's so far, and yes, this is only being based on the two towns I've visited, but nobody seems to wear shoes here! I walked around town today while Ash was at work and so many people were in bare feet! I get it if you've been at the beach all day and you're grabbing a quick snack from a vendor, but today was WAY too windy to be a full on beach day and so many people were shoeless.  So weird.  To each their own I guess!  Anyways, I woke up today with the most beautiful view ever.  Ash lives at the top of a mountain overlooking Lake Wakatipu and a gorgeous mountain range.  It was a beautiful day today... A little bit windy later on but the morning was perfect and sunny.  I walked into town (about a 25 minute walk downhill) and grabbed breakfast and a latte.  Ate my breakfast in the park and just people watched.  Afterwards, I went to a couple tourist locations to figure out how I was gonna spend my day.  I decided on hiking up the local mountain (not a ski hill) and going for a luge ride at the top.  Before I set off for my hike, I wandered into a couple hostels to meet some new friends who may wanna join me on my adventure, but I reckon (hehe I said reckon) I went too late and most people had already set off on their day because the hostels were empty.  So I went alll by myself! I started on the Tiki hike - about an hour to the top (similar to the Grouse Grind) got about 1/4 of the way up with no water and not the appropriate footwear so I turned around and decided to take the Skyline Gondola up instead.  The view was crazy up there! I got 2 luge rides at the top - the first one was pretty lame, but it's mandatory to get the stop and go's down pat, but the second ride was SO MUCH FUN!  I was airborne at one point during the second run - freaked me out a bit - but then I saw that little kids were doing it too so I figured I would (wo)man up, go for it and put the pedal to the medal! Afterwards I spent about an hour at the top of the mountain chatting with a local about things to do in town while sipping on a corona.  I can't tell if I'm wind burnt or sun burnt, but I'm a bit red now! Oh well, it'll turn brown eventually!  Ash was done work early today because of the wind (he works at nzone - a skydiving company about half an hour from town) and they can't fly if the wind is too strong.  It's supposed to be pretty windy the next couple days which means Ash will have the days off to hang out with me, but it's too bad it won't be the best weather! We went for sushi tonight, although the only sushi restaurant that wasn't crazy expensive was out of tuna and tofu... So it didn't leave much for us to chose from! It was tasty nonetheless, did a little walk around town afterwards, stuck my head into a couple cheesy bars and then came home.  I'm keen for another hot tub session before bed! May as well take advantage of it while I've got it, right? 

Gibbston, New Zealand

January 31, 2012

I don't know what it is about New Zealand, but it is WIIIIINDY!! Today I got woken up by the wind crashing against the glass railing! Ash had the day off today because of the weather - high risk of westerly winds - so I had someone to enjoy the day with! We went for a nice and cheap breakfast in town, and then hit the road to do a wine tour.  Most the wineries in the region are in a place called Gibbston.  Unlike the Okanagan or Naramata, they are all on the same road which makes it really easy to find them all.  That being said, there aren't nearly as many as in the Okanagan. We checked out about 5 different places, all with delicious wines.  I always feel bad when a winery has free tastings and I don't buy anything, but luckily this time I could use "I'm traveling and don't have anywhere to store it" as an excuse! I ended up buying 2 bottles of wine... A Sauvignon Blanc (my fav) from Mt Rosa Winery - It's an amazing wine, but the entertainment alone at that winery is what sold me.  The guy who runs it was so funny and so personable (he was most likely drunk) we just had such a good time with him! I also got a nice Riesling from Brennan Winery, only because rieslings aren't normally my thing and this one blew my mind! Along the same road there was the Gibbston Cheese Factory, where they had quite a large variety of cheese to sample, and I've got an unhealthy obsession with cheese so I obviously bought some! On our way back to Queenstown, we passed A.J. Hackette Bungy... The first bungy jump in the world! I was surprised they were still letting people jump because the wind was insane!  It was pretty tempting, but at $180 a jump I'd rather spend my money on a 15,000ft skydive.  (yes, I will be doing one while I'm here, eeeeek!!) Just outside of Queenstown there is a ski hill called Remarkables, we drove up a dirt road to get pretty high up the mountain for a spectacular view! It was a pretty scary ride up... If you don't have complete control of your car, you may go over the edge! While Ash and I were at Peregrine Winery, I met a really nice girl named Kristy from Minnisota who is now living in Queenstown.  She invited me to do a Zumba class with her later on, so of course I went! Mom, you've always raved about Zumba, so why not do my first class in NZ!  All I can say is it's a whole lotta butt shaking! The rain came in during the evening, but I'm not too disappointed...a night to relax with one of my bottles of wine would be amazing!

Gibbston, New Zealand

February 1, 2012

Again, I'm actually in Queenstown but this website can't seem to find it on a map... Note to self... Never wear shorts while doing an extreme sport.   I had a really chilled out morning today, skyped with a few girlfriends from home and just relaxed.  I received some amazing news from one of the girls, but I can't say just yet as the information has not gone public, but I'm sure it will be out very soon! Anyways, another windy day today so Ash was called off work mid day and we decided to go fishing.  Well, he went fishing, as there was only one rod, and I found a nice spot out of the wind to lay and tan.  I don't want to lose my Aussie tan while I'm in New Zealand!! At around dinner time, we went ROCK CLIMBING! I guess rock climbing wouldn't exactly be considered an extreme sport, but it's the most extreme thing I think I've ever done! (other than crazy snowboarding with Kurt!)  We went to a nice spot out of the wind, where there were 3 surfaces to climb.  There were 6 of us in the group, 3 of which were taking a course, and 3 of us who were newbies (I was the only one who's never done it before).  It looks a lot easier than it actually is.  All the equipment was provided for us (special shoes, harnesses, ropes...) and we climbed for 2.5 hours for just $20! Ash went up first and made it look simple...but he's been before in England so he knew what was in store.  I went up next and had a full fledge panic attack! I got about halfway up the climb when my whole body started shaking.  I was trying to climb with my knees instead of my fingers and toes (my legs are so torn up now!) I'm pretty sure I was so scared I forgot to breathe! It's so weird what your body will do in a state of panic! I didn't realize that since I was harnessed in, nothing would happen to me.  It felt as though if I were to let go of the wall I would fall to the ground and die.  I wimped out on my first climb, but the instructor was great and taught me how to climb small areas while the others were doing their climbs.  I finally got the courage to do the first climb again and I killed it! In the end, I made it to the top of all 3 climbs without fail, ready to take on more! Hoping for good weather tomorrow, skydiving is on the brain! New Zealand just keeps getting better!

Gibbston, New Zealand

February 2, 2012

Ohhh Myyyy Godddd!!! Today was by far the BEST day of my trip!! I woke up to a super cloudy day in town, but I got a phone call from Ash saying it was sunny around his work and they were operating all day with skydiving. I didn't flinch for a second... I had a huge urge of courage and decided to book a skydive right there on the spot. 11:30am... booked in to jump out of a plane! Ash lives with three other people, two of whom work at nzone (skydiving company) with him, and the 4th is Bonnie (she works for a bungee company). Ash worked out a deal at work that if I only paid for a 9,000ft jump, I could get a 15,000ft jump, and his roommate Fiji is a camera man so I could get all the videos and pictures for free. Totally worth it! A $700 jump for $200... great deal! I got to the jumping zone and had to be super sneaky because I wasn't actually doing the jump that I had signed up for. Luckily, Ash filled everyone in on what was going on and I ended up getting a really awesome tandem master named Nicky and she made my jump a lot of fun! Loaded the plane and was feeling pretty good about everything! it was only when I saw on the dial that we were only at 4,000ft that I got pretty nervous. We were already SO high I couldn't believe that we still had 11,000ft to go before jumping. Everything happened so quickly. As soon as the first camera person opens the door of the plane, you jump right out. I was the third jumper in my plane... Fiji (my free camera man!) went first and just hung out on the side of the plane and video taped us while we are about to jump. All I had to do was hang on by the door, with my feet hooked under the plane while my tandem master rocked us back and forth until we fell out. It was the craziest feeling of my life! Just dropping in mid air, my chubby cheeks just flapping all around and you forget how to breath! It was pretty cold above the clouds. but I had written "sweet as" (a kiwi term) on my hands, so I couldn't wear gloves. You're so high in the air you don't even think about the temperature though! We were free falling for a couple of minutes before we pulled the shoot. Nicky let me control the parachute once we were gliding in the air which was really awesome! I flew us around in circles all around the mountains, with a crazy view of the town! We had a super smooth landing - we basically put our feet up and landed on out bums... not exactly how I thought a landing would be but it was super comfy! Anyways, after my jump, the nzone bus drove me back to town and i HITCH HIKED back to Ash's house... hitch hiking is really common around here... I actually did it twice today! Why would I ever pay for a ride again?! I've got a video of the skydive that I've been trying to upload, but facebook keeps deleting it because of copywrite so I'll do my best to upload it again because I think you'd LOVE it!!

Te Anau, New Zealand

February 3, 2012

Again, this website is unable to find my actual location, so Te Anau is the closest to Milford Sound it could find... Today was my last day in the Queenstown area.  Since Ash had to work today, and I've already done a lot of the main tourist attractions, I decided to take a tour bus to Milford Sound.  Milford Sound is a fjord in the south west of New Zealand's south island, right on the Tasman Sea.  It is acclaimed to be New Zealand's best tourist destination and the eighth wonder of the world. Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world.  It rains about 200 days a year, but luckily I went on a dry day!  There are 5 permanent waterfalls, but hundreds of small waterfalls that become active for 2 hours after rainfall.  The tour included a 5 hour (very informative) bus trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound, stopping in Te Anau (small town on the lake) and many other sightseeing locations as well as a 2 hour boat cruise around the fjords.  On the way up, we stopped at Christy Falls to fill up our water bottles with super fresh drinking water.  There is also a huge tunnel built in the 1930's that takes you through a mountain on the way to Milford Sound.  Just before entering the tunnel, our driver stopped the bus and pointed out the leftover residue from an avalanche that had fallen last season.  Still quite a bit of snow around, not only at the top of the mountains!  Milford Sound is definitely a destination location.  There was nothing around for miles!  The boat cruise had great commentary and the captain drove us super close to some of the active waterfalls! He even put the nose of the ship underneath one of the falls! We also saw about 15 teenage seals, just beaches out on some rocks - they didn't move at all so I think they may have been sleeping.  I took many photos of the mountains and the falls, but unfortunately it became very cloudy in the afternoon so they aren't the best.  Tomorrow I'm leaving Queenstown and going north of the mountains to Wanaka where it is rumored to be better weather! I've got a couple fun days planned ahead!

Wanaka, New Zealand

February 4, 2012

Wanaka... Basically a smaller and more chilled out version of Queenstown! Not as much of a tourist destination normally, but today there was a music festival in town called Rippon.  I arrived in Wanaka at around 10:30am, too early to check into my hostel.  I went to a coffee shop not far from my hostel and waited to Skype with mom and dad for a while, then realized that the time change was off and I was 2.5 hours early for our Skype date! I left the coffee shop and walked for about 20 minutes to a place called Puzzling World.  It was sooooo cool! Basically, for those of you who have been to the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, it was the Krazy Kitchen times one thousand! The whole exhibit was nuts! The first portion was an illusion exhibit.  There were about 25 holographic photos that are created in a laboratory situation using a laser beam.  The "regular" wave length is fired at the object to be photographed.  The object disturbs the laser beam and the reflected beam is etched into the holographic plate.  I tried to take a few pictures of these images, but they don't come out the same on the camera as they do to the eye.  Next, there was the Hall of Following Faces. It is the only one in the world and it was pretty trippy! It was a room of inverted faces, but when you close one of your eyes it looks as though the faces are coming out of the wall and follow you around the room.  Kind of hard to explain but it was really neat! My favorite part of this exhibit was the "arc room". The room is so angled that one side of the room makes you feel like a giant, and the other side of the room makes you look like a midget.  I've got pictures, you will laugh! They use this effect in The Lord of the Rings.  The second half of the exhibit was a labyrinth maze.  It has 1.5 kilometers of confusing passages and most people walk between 3 and 5 kilometers.  I spend about 2 hours in the maze, completely lost, until I gave up and went through the emergency exit.  I walked back to town, stole wifi from the cafe I went to this morning to try and connect on Skype again (again no luck!) and then I could finally book into my hostel.  It's about 2 blocks from the beach.  This time I'm in an all girls dorm, but cabin style! We have our own kitchen and ensuite bathroom with 3 bunk beds.  I got the bottom bunk... Score! Ash ended up getting called off work again, so he and his friend Renee drove to Wanaka for the day to hang out with me.  So guess what they wanted to do? Yup, Puzzling World! So back I went for the second time today to take on the challenging labyrinth! We spent about another 2 hours getting lost in the maze before we threw on the towel again and took the emergency exit out.  I'm not sure if it's even possible to do, there must be some secret passage way somewhere! Anyways, I was told to check out the Rippon Winery, but unfortunately today was the only day of the year that it is closed due to the festival! Instead, we drove to a beach quite close to the festival to lay in the sun and listen to the music.  It was a bit hard hear over the motorboats and other music at the beach, but it was still a nice afternoon!  New Zealand has barely any wildlife.  You can walk for hours in the forrest and not come across any animals.  But, one thing they do have are hedgehogs!  Tonight at my hostel, I was sitting outside with some kiwis and along ran a hedgehog, so we picked it up for pictures and then watched it run away! So cool! I remember when I used to want one as a pet, didn't realize that on the other side of world they are considered wildlife! Currently I am in a food comma.  I had to say goodbye to the boys because I ate way too much Indian food tonight, I needed to lie down! Plus, I have a big day ahead of me! 5 hour bus ride followed by a 4.5 hour glacier hike! 

Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

February 5, 2012

Franz Josef is a really small town on the west of the south island.  I'm talking, two streets for the whole town.  Basically, just restaurants and motel/backpacker accommodations, and that's it! The main tourist attraction of this town is the glacier.  There are only 3 glaciers in the world of this sort...two are in New Zealand (side by side) and the other is in Argentina.  What makes these glaciers different from others is the fact that it is right in the middle of the rainforest.  It's super weird! I took a 5 hour guided hike this afternoon.  It started with about 40 minutes trekking through the rainforest, really humid and sweaty.  Then we walked another 2km uphill on what I thought was a mountain of rocks, but it was actually the beginning of the glacier just covered with rocks that had fallen from the mountains above.  We stopped before we got to the really icy bits and put crampons on our shoes (picks - they really helped a lot!) Our guide was very informative and I tried to remember most of the info she gave us... Unfortunately, I didn't :(. I do remember her telling us that it snows over 40 meters a year on the top of the glacier, making it the second biggest snowfall next to the himalayans! Franz Josef Glacier is also the steepest guided glacier in the world! Since I only had time to do the half day hike, our tour didn't go to the highest point of the glacier, but we did get high enough to walk through a cave.  It was pretty wet inside from all the ice that was melting, but it was definitely the best part of the whole hike! What really surprised me was the colour of the glacier.  The only really clean part was at the top where no one has ever walked.  Otherwise most of the ice was pretty dirty, like muddy dirty.  I was expecting it to be crystal clear but the water streaming under the glacier was dirty as well! On the way down the mountain, we stopped at a waterfall to drink some glacier water.  It seems like a lot of places in New Zealand have amazing drinking water! I've felt really Eco-friendly this trip, I keep reusing the same water bottle and the water is better than what you get in store! On my hike I met a nice girl from Vegas (Carolyn) who has been living and traveling around New Zealand this past year by herself.  She and I went to the hot pools in town after our hike (pools were included in the price of the hike) and they were fantastic! Four pools in the rainforest between 36-40 degrees... It's really nice to relax in them after a long hike!  She and I arranged to meet up later on in the evening for a beer, so we went to the only bar on the town and met the most hilarious kiwis.  I haven't seen a kiwi (animal) yet, but I have met some pretty interesting kiwis! OH! I did see a live possum today! I thought it was a pig!

Hokitika, New Zealand

February 6, 2012

My travel journey in New Zealand is coming to an end soon.  I need go get from Franz Josef Glacier to Christchurch, but unfortunately there are no busses that do a direct route from point A to point B.  Another option would be to take a very scenic train, but that is the most expensive form of transit because there are no other trains in New Zealand.  Since my options are very limited, I decided to take a 2.5 hour bus ride north of Franz Josef to a small town called Hokitika.  Hokitika is a big town compared to Franz Josef, but it is still tiny.  Only about 3,000 people live here...and most people only stop in town for a quick pit stop on their journey up the west coast.  There are a lot of jade and greenstone shops in town, a lot of museums, and not as many restaurants as the other towns I've visited so far - which is good because this means tonight I can actually cook at the hostel!  I'm staying at a very cute hostel about 3km from town, right on the Tasman Sea.  Once again I scored the bottom bunk because of my early check in, so I'm guaranteed a good sleep tonight!  I decided to spend my afternoon walking along the beach into town and seeing what there is to check out.  It took me about half an hour to walk, but the clouds came in quickly so I wasn't able to go for a swim in the ocean.  I put my feet in and it was freezing! The average temperature in Hokitika in February (its hottest month) is only 20 degrees, so no wonder the water doesn't heat up at all!  Today is a New Zealand holiday called Waitangi Day, which is basically like Canada Day.  Unlike Canada Day and Australia Day, I haven't seen anyone really celebrate it! I only noticed it was a holiday because a lot of the shops in town were closed, and then later found out about the holiday.  One place in town that looked cool (that was open) was The National Kiwi Centre.  Here they have two kiwis (a male and a female), as well as tons of eels!  At the beginning of the exhibit, there were a bunch of baby eels - which were still pretty big!- but it wasn't until I got further into the aquarium did I see the ginormous eels! They were seriously huge! Most of them just lie there, but I was told if I come back in the morning when they are fed I will see more action...so I may go back!  These eels were between 15-100 years old and the 'grandma eel' was 140 years old! I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, but they assured me the grandma was in there! They also had two tuataras.  The tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia.  The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago.  Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates (lizards and snakes).  I got to watch a feeding which was neat, but tuataras are actually pretty stupid!  They each got fed two crickets, but neither tuatara could actually see their dinner (even though they have a third eye on the top of their head!).  They have no external ears, but can somehow hear their prey, and only run for it when they can hear and see them moving.  At one point, the male tuatara missed its prey but kept chewing thinking it was in his mouth.  Their dentition, in which two rows of teeth in the upper jaw overlap one row on the lower jaw, is unique among living species.  Anyways, enough about lizards, but they were pretty cool!  The main reason I went to the exhibit was to see the KIWI! They are nocturnal, so their sanctuary is kept dark throughout the day so people walking through can see them.  Kiwi eggs can weigh up to one quarter the weight of the female and usually only one egg is laid per season. The kiwi lays the biggest egg in proportion to its size of any bird in the world, so even though the kiwi is about the size of a domestic chicken, it is able to lay eggs that are about six times the size of a chicken's egg.  Unfortunately the kiwi were stubborn so I only got to see the nose (more the size of an enormous beak) of the female so I'll most likely go back in the morning as I was informed they are awake at 9am on the dot! May as well see them in action and watch the eels move at the same time!  The exhibit was pretty small so I went through quickly and didn't have much else to see in town.  Here goes another 3km walk back to the hostel, but this time it was in the rain! I decided to walk down the highway, as it was getting pretty cold and the wind from the ocean wasn't helping! A nice guy driving down the street offered me a lift to my hostel....I didn't even need to stick my thumb out this time! People in New Zealand are so nice to hitchhikers! I'm back at my hostel now, and most likely to stay in by the fire tonight.  There are a nice group of people here - one girl from Burlington actually!  Back to Christchurch tomorrow for a quick stop over before I head back to hot and sunny Australia!  Hope you all enjoyed Madonna's performance at the super bowl! I didn't get to see it, but I hear she's still got it!

Christchurch, New Zealand

February 7, 2012

Well, my last full day in New Zealand has come.  Woke up this morning with the sun shining over the Tasman Sea! Of course, the sun finally decided to come out on my last day here and I'll be spending the majority of my day on a bus! Last night I went on a journey with a couple other travelers staying at my hostel to find the famous New Zealand glow worms.  Luckily they weren't too far from our hostel.  They were really neat! We walked into a Dell (a part of the forest that is a dead end with a sheer stone wall covered in shrubs) and they were covered with glow worms! It kind of reminded me of fire flies, except they didn't move at all.  Once my eyes adjusted, it looked like a bunch of stars on a clear night right in front of me.  Very cool! Anyways, just felt like adding that in, but back to today!  My bus didn't leave until mid day and I had to check out of my hostel by 10am, so I paid my "late check-out fare" by taking the hostel dog for a walk down the beach.  I know, me walking a dog seems kind of foreign, but this dog was actually very well behaved! He stuck right close to me the whole time! My bus came to pick me up from my hostel (which saved me a 3km walk into town) and off to Christchurch we went.  We took a very scenic route through Arthur's Pass - a gorgeous mountain range you must drive through to get from the west coast to the east coast.  It was actually pretty beautiful and some of the mountains still had snow on the peaks!  I got to Christchurch and was planning on sleeping at the airport to save money on accommodation since my flight leaves super early in the morning.  Ash's friend, Olivia (the girl who celebrated her 21st birthday last week when I was in Christchurch), couldn't believe I was planning on crashing at the airport and invited me over to hang out and have a quick nap before my flight!  We grabbed some Indian food and a case of New Zealand cider and just hung out and caught up on some tv shows.  (television in New Zealand is just terrible - they are about 2 seasons behind in everything!) It was nice to relax a bit before what I know will be a very hectic day tomorrow! 6:15am flight to Brisbane! You know what that means, I have to be at the airport 2 hours early for my international departure... I've really got to start booking later flights!  All in all, I found New Zealand to be quite similar to Canada in regards to the landscape.  Mostly Western Canada with all the mountains, lakes and ocean.  12 days was JUST enough time to see the majority of the South Island (although I did miss some of the winery towns up north!)  I'm really happy I came, and if I ever come back, I'll make sure to check out the North Island - I hear Auckland and Wellington are wonderful places to visit! 

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

February 8, 2012

This morning was my ideal flight.  The negative side to flying with the cheap airline Jetstar is there are no TVs to make your trip fly by, but who needs TVs when you've got a whole row of seats to yourself! I sprawled out along all three seats and slept the entire way to Brisbane!  Queensland is one of the only states that doesn't believe in daylight savings, so currently I am 21 hours time difference from Ottawa, and 18 hours from Vancouver (for those of you who are planning to Skype with me the next few weeks). I arrived in Brisbane this morning at around 8am and it was already 25 degrees.  Bring on the heat! I missed it while I was in New Zealand! I'm staying at a hostel right in the city, with a rooftop pool, bar, pool tables, and a great view of the city!  I chose this hostel because my friend Peter from high school and his girlfriend have been staying here and they said it was cool.  A bit of miscommunication between the two of us, they planned to head to Byron Bay today, while I already booked a night in Brisbane! No worries though, I'll just meet them in Byron tomorrow!  After they got on their bus, I took a stroll across the bridge into an area called Southbank.  In this area there is a man made pool/beach which is pretty awesome! It's the first time in 5 weeks that I went swimming and didn't have the salt water burning my eyes! Just as I dried off and started to walk back to the city, a huge black cloud swept in and it started to down pour! Good thing I was still wearing my bathing suit! I'm back at my hostel now, where everyone is crowded in the same area to get out of the rain!  Brisbane has the nickname 'Brisvegas'... So this gives me the opportunity to meet up with another Whistler friend tonight (JD) and he can show me around town tonight! For those of you who know my love for Vegas, I have a feeling I'm going to really like this city at night! 

Ballina, New South Wales, Australia

February 9, 2012

Brisvegas... Such a good time!  It was great to catch up with JD...and to my surprise he invited another mate (mate... I'm turning aussie) named MJ who is also a whistler friend.  It was great to catch up with the two of them.  We went to a local university pub, but it was quite far from my hostel.  Luckily MJ had to work in the morning so I jumped in and got a lift back to my hostel with him.  There was a bar right beside my 14 bed female dorm room tonight that had some great karaoke going on, so after MJ dropped me off I may or may not have sang a song on the mic! Well yes I did, and I actually got complimented by a few people on my singing! Maybe I should have stayed in Brisbane and gone somewhere with this voice! Just kidding! Anyways, this morning I left nice and early for Byron Bay (about a 2 hour drive south of Brisbane) and arrived during a terrible rain storm!  There was a free shuttle to my hostel - it was my saviour!  Torrential downpour on a vacation...the WORST!  As the rain started fading we took a walk around town.  Byron is an amazing town! If I were to have to choose right now out of all the places I've visited and where I'd like to live if I ever came back, Byron would be the winner!  Peter, Cait and I took a 4 hour surf lesson this afternoon at Flat Rock beach in Ballina (about a half hour drive from Byron). The waves were insane! It was pretty frustrating in the beginning when I couldn't even get out deep because the waves kept pulling me in, but in the end I got the hang of it! This surfing was WAY harder than the surfing I did with Devon in Hawaii... There was no way to keep any of us on our boards this time! Surfing is a lot of work, so obviously we were starving after our lesson...nothing better than American pizza... Dominos!  The hostel we are staying at tonight is out of this world!  It's called Art Factory and it is so amazing.  It's in the woods, and you have the option of camping, staying in a tipi or staying in a normal dorm.  Staying in a tipi would have been cool, but rumor has it they leak a lot so we are just staying in a normal dorm.  They have so many workshops - from yoga to juggling, you can even learn how to make a didgeridoo! It is a very hippie and laid back place, kind of out of this world!  Tonight was Peter and Cait's first time drinking goon! We masked the awful taste with some cheap orange punch we found in the hostel and it turned out tasting amazing! Night on the town with those two was so much fun! We went to a backpackers bar called Cheeky Monkey... Packed with foreigners dancing on tables... It was such a fun night! 

Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

February 10, 2012

First things first. I am in love with Byron Bay! I wish I had more time here to explore, but I always try to jam as much as I can into one day.  This morning we all woke up stoked to surf again today!  Unfortunately there weren't many boards left to hire (that means rent) so Peter took the board out while we all hung out on the beach and watched.  When I say we, I mean Me, Cait and two other people we met from Toronto who are in my room at the hostel.  The waves were huge again today, it was a lot of fun to play in the water and body surf!  When Peter was worn out from surfing, we all had a nice lunch in the shade while we watched a guy from Germany 'slack line'.  This is similar to tight rope, except way more stretchy and buoyant.  Feeling pretty confident, Peter and I decided to ask if we could give it a shot (the German guy made it look so easy!) ... Well, it is not easy at all! I could barely stand on it without holding someone's hand, let alone walk, run or jump on the rope! This guys got a serious talent! - he said it's a very common sport in Europe - that must be why I wasn't so good!  We spent another couple of hours in the sun because today is meant to be the only nice day in Byron Bay for the week (luckily I'm leaving tomorrow, I hope it's better weather in Surfers Paradise), and then made it back to our hostel in time for happy hour! Since we did a lesson at Soul Surf School yesterday, we got a few coupons for free dinner at Cheeky Monkey available any night.  We decided to use it tonight because who doesn't like a free dinner! It was kind of disgusting...pasta with red sauce...very plain.  Oh well, it was free so it's hard to turn that down! We had every intention on going out again tonight (as I had from friend Western arrive in Byron bay today) but the food made us all feel extremely ill and we all passed out!  I guess free food isn't so good after all!

Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

February 11, 2012

First things first, Happy Birthday Lauryn!! There are no squirrels in Australia...only hundreds of lizards everywhere! Outside the common area of my hostel there is a giant pond full of eels.  I've tried to see the eels everyday, but it's always too dark when I remember to have a look at them.  This morning I had to check out of my hostel, so I was sure to be awake early.  I went down to the pond to see the eels, looked down at my feet and saw about 10 lizards just hanging out around me! They are quite big, and they run really funny too! Peter wanted to try surfing again today (it's raining so I opted not to surf again) so Cait and I hung out at the surf shop while Peter caught some waves.  Once the rain cleared, Cait and I went down to the ocean and Peter was actually surfing! We were so proud of him!  My friend Tyler (I met him in college) lives in Surfers Paradise (about an hour north of Byron bay).  He and his friend Brandon drove to Byron to meet up with us.  The 5 of us went to the lighthouse and went on a walk that took us to the most easternly point of Australia.  We were looking for sharks and dolphins in the water, but no luck! The sun came out in full force, so we had one more quick beach session before heading to Surfers Paradise.  Brandon used to live in Byron Bay so he knows all the good spots that aren't too crowded to go swimming.  The waves were perfect for surfing at the beach he took us to, it was too bad Peter already returned his surf board!  We drove to Surfers Paradise and it's awesome here! These east coast towns and cities just keep getting better! Surfers Paradise isn't very big at all and it's very similar to Miami with all the tall buildings and the beach being so accessible.  There was a sand castle competition going on at the beach with the head of Pirates in Paradise.  I thought of Aunt Nathalie, Uncle Ian, Uncle Ross and Aunt Katie when I saw the sand castles. They were seriously incredible! I took a couple pictures...I can't believe someone made these pirates out of sand! We had a really fun night out with Tyler and Brandon, we even ended up meeting up with two other friends from Western (Mat and Kristin), who I plan on traveling up the east coast with! Having the time of my life, can't believe I leave Australia in 3 weeks! I definitely need to come back! 

Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

February 12, 2012

There is no weather man in Surfers Paradise.  The weather is never the same as predicted, and it really worked out in our favor today!  Tyler (my friend from Fanshawe College) lives in a gorgeous apartment in the heart of Surfers.  It's not a very big city, so everything is pretty close to each other.  It's his friend Brandon's birthday today, so a large group of us rented out two pontoon boats to take out on the Nerang River (a salt water river that connects to the pacific ocean).  The forecast was for rain, but we had beautiful blue skies all day long! There were 10 people per boat, but I feel as though that was pushing it a bit! At one point the nose of our boat was underwater and it felt like we were sinking! Oh well, just adds to the adventure! Both boats had a BBQ and a cooler full of beer and wine.  We had a ball! We anchored the boats for a few hours right by an island, went for a long swim and had some lunch.  I met a nice girl named Courtney (also went to Fanshawe) who is interested in doing part of my Asia adventure with me. We had a great afternoon together, so I feel like she will be great to travel with! After a few too many glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, Tyler, Cait, Peter and I grabbed some fish n' chips and headed home.  Peter and Cait had to catch a bus back to Brisbane, so we said our goodbyes, but I'll most likely see them again in the next couple days as I'm heading back to Brisbane on my route up the coast.  Early night to bed because Tyler has to fly to work up north tomorrow, and I may have another big day ahead of me.  The plan is to rent a car with Mat and Kristin and start our journey together! 

Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

February 13, 2012

It feels so great to be reunited with some fun and loving people! I hadn't seen Peter in a couple years, so it was great to see him again and meet his awesome girlfriend Cait.  Also, it was so fun seeing Tyler (I've seen him more recently than Peter, but we still had a blast) and I'm so excited for my next journey with Mat and Kristin.  Mat was one of my first friends when I got to Western. He lived in Saugeen with me and introduced me to one of my favorite beverages - beer! (or at least a beer I could actually enjoy!)  Kristin and I tried out for a hip hop group together while we were in first year university, neither of us made it but we still had a lovely time! She also lived in Saugeen so that year the three of us had tons of fun together!  Since university Mat moved to Toronto and opened up his own painting company, and Kristin danced on a cruise ship for a year and has been practicing yoga - her aim is to become a yoga instructor! Her energy has been so great and it's really rubbed off on me the last couple days!  The three of us decided to spend our last say in Surfers Paradise at the Wet n' Wild water park, before leaving to Brisbane.  As I mentioned in an earlier note, there is no weatherman in Surfers Paradise, so of course was a beautiful day when we got to the water park, went down one slide, and then a thunderstorm rolled in and the park in temporarily shut down.  Just our luck! Kristin kept everyone very positive the whole time, and sure enough the sun came out again! We were the first ones in line for the 'scariest ride'... It's an enclosed tube where you stand in the beginning and the floor falls out from under you, sending you free falling down a tube for enough momentum to shoot you around in a couple circles and then the ride ends.  Well just my luck, I got STUCK in the slide! Talk about claustrophobia! I wasn't exactly sure what was going on (since I've never been on the ride before) but all of a sudden I was going backwards and a bunch of steam was getting shot in my face! In a bit of a panic, I started to push myself down the slide, and then I looked up there was a trap door and someone ready to rescue me! Oh thank god! Meanwhile the others were waiting at the bottom of the slide all concerned because the girl in the orange tube never came out! Anyways, I'm safe, and the rest of the day at the water park was so much fun! We grabbed our bags and took the cheapest way back to Brisbane - a city bus, then a city train. We saved $12 each! Our hostel in Brisbane isn't as nice as the one I stayed at last time I was here, but it's in a different area so we will have the chance to explore this part of Brisbane in the next couple of days.  Bottom bunk again... I'm on a roll!

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

February 14, 2012

Happy birthday to Lindsay Wilson! Such a great gal to be born on such a romantic day! Roses, roses, everywhere.. and I've got three valentines! Mat, Kristin, Liz (a girl we met in surfers who is at our new hostel in Brisbane) and I had such a great day exploring today!  I'm staying at a different hostel than the one I stayed at last time I was in town, but I'm happy about it because this gives me the chance to explore a different side of the city! We are staying in Chinatown, which isn't really that far from the city center, but it gave us the chance to walk through the Botanical Gardens to get to Southbank this afternoon (refresher...Southbank is the manmade beach in the center of Brisbane). This morning Mat, Kristin and I planned our whole trip up the east coast.  We had a lot that we wanted to do in a short amount of time, so we spoke to a travel agent about the best possible routes to take.  I feel like we got a great packaged deal - busses, accomodation, food and excursions along the way! After we got all our travel stuff sorted out, we went for a wonderful $4 breakfast at a cafe near our hostel and it was probably the second best breakfast I've had my whole trip! (first one being at Forbes & Burton in Sydney, but that one was definitely not $4!) While our food was digesting, we went for a beautiful walk through the Botanical Gardens.  We felt a bit slummy because so many people were taking part in bootcamps in the gardens!  Such a nice place to excersize - large gardens and big open lawns with enormous shady trees so you don't get too hot.  The trees were crazy though! The roots were all coming out from the ground, so they were interesting to look at, but great for photo ops! Quite a bit of bamboo too!  We had a nice swim at Southbank, followed by a romantic chocolate snack at Max Brennan (a famous chocolate store in Australia).  The four of us shared a 'chocolate fondue for two' and a banana chocolate crepe... Ohhhh my it was tasty! We literally licked the fondue pot clean! Not even joking.  Long walk back to our hostel... Stopped by the library (we heard it's really cool, but it looks more like a book store than a library), Queenstreet Mall (an outdoor mall that runs a couple blocks downtown), and the scenic tour of Chinatown.  We had a nice $5 mexican dinner at our hostel, followed by a love themed trivia game. The winner won a $100 bar tab, but unfortunately we came second.  I bet it was rigged...three girls on a team clearly know more about love than a team full of boys!  Wait...maybe that's why we're all still single! Valentines day is the best day to go out all year because most people at the bar are single and ready to mingle, so our plan was to go out on the town tonight, but our bus to Noose leaves at 7am tomorrow, so no mingling for us!  We will just have to have a Canadian Valentines Day celebration tomorrow night at the bar in Noose instead! 

Noosa, Queensland, Australia

February 15, 2012

Up at 5am to leave Brisbane and catch our bus to Noosa.  Noosa is the first stop on our journey up the east coast.  It's a surfer town, similar to Byron Bay, except less tourist shops and it's really tiny.  Mat, Kristin and I are staying at a cool Nomads hostel right in town (with a pool!) - in a 20 person shared dorm - and only about 15 minute walk to the beach.  Every Saturday and Wednesday there is a hippie marked about half an hour out of town, so we thought we'd check it out, but we ran out of time :( Instead we rented a couple surf boards and hit the beach!  The first board I rented was awful!  It was so wobbly and too advanced for my skills, so I felt a little discouraged when I couldn't get up on the board and ride the waves like everyone else.  I was going to return it when a nice (sexy) surfer offered to give me some pointers (for free)! So I got a bigger board and hit the waves again.  I got up every time! It was such a good feeling to be out in the water surrounded by other surfers and have them watch me ride the waves!  I think I've found my new favorite sport... But practice makes perfect! After surfing for a few hours, we were pooped and hungry, so we had a nice lunch with a few of Kristin's friends she met at her yoga teacher training course.  They were very positive, mellow people!  Nice group though! Got back to the hostel and had a fun volleyball session in the pool with some guys from Denmark.  Kristin and I love it because we both have been traveling with boys for our entire trip and now we have another girl to go and mingle with! And it's the best because when people ask us our names, we just have to say we're both Kristin from Canada... Easy! We made a delicious pasta dinner in the most crowded kitchen I've ever cooked in and got a free 'welcome' glass of wine (it tasted like gasoline - nice gesture, but 'goon' (cheap wine in a box) tasted pretty good afterwards!) After listening to a great band in our hostel bar, our entire hostel went out to a local bar and had such a great time! Kristin and I decided to show off our gymnastic skills (I have none) and started to do back bridges inside the bar! It was pretty funny until I fell on my shoulder - it'll be a nice bruise in the morning! 

Beerwah, Queensland, Australia

February 16, 2012

The Australian Zoo... Home of the Crocodile Hunter! Steve Irwin did an incredible job with this venue it was probably the best and coolest zoo I've ever been to! The animals all looked so happy (except for one little wombat) and the zoo itself was so beautiful.  We entered South East Asia and visited the elephants! We all got to feed an elephant - it was so so so cool! There were three elephants and they all ate differently. Some of them wrap their trunk around the food and then put it in their mouth, and others sucked the food into their trunk and then put it in their mouth.  Really neat! I could pet majority of the animals - kangaroos, koalas, camels... I really wanted to hold a koala, but they charged $25 to hold one so I thought I'd save my money and just pet one instead! In Africa there were the most beautiful tigers.  About 100 years ago there were around 100,000 tigers in the wild, and now there are only about 4,000. We watched a tiger show and the tiger was having a ball! Doing tricks and jumping in the water, such a great show! There was another show at the 'Crocoseum' that blew my mind! Watching beautiful birds flying overhead and interacting with the audience was one thing, but it was another when they brought out the most massive crocodile I've ever seen! (not that I've seen any other crocodiles up close before today, but you know what I mean!) We had a great day followed by the most ridiculous evening.  We grabbed some pizza with other people staying at our hostel who bought a live chicken when they got to Australia.  So there were about 15 of us drinking goon together in the company of a chicken! Haha! 

Noosa, Queensland, Australia

February 17, 2012

Again, this site doesnt recognize Rainbow Beach... Another early morning... Off to Rainbow Beach today! We almost missed our bus though! I was the first one at the bus stop about 20 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave.  I saw a Greyhound bus in the station but just figured it wasn't ours because it was so early! Well, after 15 minutes no other busses arrived, so we decided to check where the other bus was headed and it turns out it was our bus the entire time!  Unfortunately, we didn't have the greatest seats, but that's alright because Coyote Ugly was playing and it brought back some awesome memories! It's about a 3 hour drive north from Noosa to Rainbow Beach.  There isn't much in Rainbow, only a couple stores and a couple hostels.  The only reason people come here is to go on the Fraser Island tour, which makes it a great place to stay because people are either coming from the tour or leaving to go on it so the vibes here are amazing! We had a tour breifing in the afternoon which kept us from going and exploring the beaches, but it's alright because we had a beautiful pool in the center of the hostel where everyone was hanging out around.  There are a ton of Canadians at our hostel tonight - even a few girls who think I served them at the Keg I'm Vancouver! Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world - and apparently infested with dingos! I saw a few dingos at the zoo yesterday, but finally I'll get to see some in the wild! Since it's an island, everything there is so expensive so we picked up our alcohol in town to save some money.  5 boxes of goon and a 24 case of beer for the 3 of us... I hope we grabbed enough!   Our tour leaves at 7am so we are all deciding whether we should get to bed early, or have a couple glasses of goon to get the adventure started!

Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

February 18, 2012

Maybe the dingo ate your baby! (that was a Seinfeld quote for those of you who don't get it!) And yes, I did see real dingos that weren't at the zoo!  They are skinny little things... Hanging around our campsite trying to eat our leftovers!  But wow, what a great 3 days! Fraser Island is truly a magical place! It's only about a 20 minute ferry ride from Rainbow Beach and you're in pure paradise!  Our trip had 32 people (8 Canadians!) so we were put into 4 groups to ride together.  Each car had 8 people, and anyone can drive if they have a liscense and know how to drive manual.  We let the boys drive first because they were so keen on driving in the sand, but I got my turn on the second day! (which turned out to be way more difficult driving than the first day!) Our guide got the hard hikes out of the way first.  The first stop we made was on the beach right beside a rainforest.  We had to do a 40 minute hike through the forest to get to our destination.  Oh man, it was worth it!  All of a sudden the trees opened up and there were huge sand dunes that led to a beautiful lake.  It reminded me of what I think the middle east would look like, the only thing missing were the camels! We swam there for about an hour and got back into the car to head to a fast flowing river.  We emptied our water jugs and all took turns floating down the river with beers in hand! The water was really fresh, so we were able to refill our jugs at the top of the river to have water for the evening.  Our tour was organized through Dingos, so they provided all the camping equipment and food - and it was good food! For dinner the first night we had steak and potatoes (hard potatoes because the water took WAY too long to boil!) and lots of goon! All of the coolers were packed with silver bags full of gross wine! The first night was so much fun - huge dance parties with all different countries. We had Scotish, Irish, Canadian, German, and Sweedish all showing each other classic dance moves from each country.  I shared a fun dance with a Scotish lad that was basically a lot of spinning and skipping! And of course we all sang our national anthems for each other.  Everyone was very impressed with the Canadian national anthem because we had everyone singing together and half of us sang in French while the other half sang in English.  I learned the first night that Canadians are apparently natural born campers!  We were the only ones who didn't have the instructions out trying to set up our tent!  We ended up setting up everyone else's tents for them to save time! After our dance party, Kristin and I thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk and find our guide to party with him (he was really cute!)  So we set off on our journey down the beach, making a sand dune and a stick our landmarks to find our campsite again.  Well, we walked for about 5 minutes down the beach and realized that where we thought our guides campsite was was actually really far away, so we turned around to go back to camp.  We ended up passing our campsite, walked another 10 minutes in the other directions (with coconuts in hand) when we started to panic.  We turned around again and started discussing how we would sleep in shifts so we don't get attacked by the dingos if we had to sleep on the beach!  Thank goodness we found our campsite - Mat was starting to organize a search party for us because he didn't know where we went!  The next morning we got woken up at 7am by our guide and everyone got attacked by these enormous flies (similar to horse flies) that infest the island.  This was my time to shine behind the wheel! Of course I got stuck as we were leaving the campsite, and I had a bunch of backseat drivers trying to tell me how to drive. It was pretty annoying! Driving is deep sand is a lot harder than it looks.  I ended up reversing the car and getting out of the sand and had a great drive for the rest of the day!  We stopped by a giant shipwreck and took some fun photos, and then drove along to the "champagne pools". These pools were amazing!  Natural rock pools right beside the ocean with the waves crashing over the rocks onto you - spectacular! We had a long swim there and a nice lunch, and then hopped back into the car and went back to the river to wash the salt water off of us.  It's a good thing there are a lot of lakes on Fraser Island because you can swim in the ocean.  The current is way too strong, and the water is infested with jelly fish and multiple kinds of sharks.  The next lake location was a natural tea tree lake.  When we arrived at the docks there were so many turtles hanging out on land - we got to hold them! I never knew that if you turn a turtle on it's back it will die.  The water made our hair and skin feel so amazing.  The water was pretty dark (like tea) and very warm. On the drive back to camp, we stopped on the ocean to pick up salt water mussels burried in the sand.  You can only eat the males, so we had to put some of them back in the ocean, but we brought quite a few back to camp and cooled them up for dinner.  All you need to do is boil them in goon with garlic and you're all set!  We paired the mussels with a delicious Asian stir fry.  Gourmet camping meals!  Kristin and I treated ourselves and had some nice boxed red wine to accompany our meal.  People weren't really up for partying too much tonight, except for the Canadians!  So only a few of us stayed up to hang out together with the dingos roaming around out campsite! Another 7am wakeup call on our last morning, and another morning of being attacked by the giant flies.  We took down our campsite and set off for Lake Mackenzie.  The water at this lake was the clearest water I've ever seen in my life.  It was so blue and you could see the bottom of the lake the whole way across.  White sand and clear water - how does this not exist everywhere! We got to spend about 3 hours at the lake before we left the island.  I got to drive again, and this time it was on the main roads in town!  I panicked a little bit when I had to put on my signal, as everything in the car is reversed and I didn't want to accidentally hit the wipers when trying to signal! We had a great night at the hostel - after spending 3 days straight with people, (no showers or toilets) they start to feel like family! 

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 21, 2012

Im not quite in Cairns yet, this website just doesn't recognize the little towns between Fraser Island and Cairns. Today was a day of goodbyes.  Kristin and I spent morning at the beach in Rainbow Beach.  Rainbow Beach got it's name because it's supposed to have many different colors of sand.  Unfortunately the tide was high so we didn't see many colours, but it was still nice to splash in waves for one last time with Kristin.  Mat, Kristin and I said goodbye to all the cool people we met on Fraser Island and started our 15 hour bus ride to Airlie Beach.  We had a 3 hour stop over in Harvey Bay, where Kristin left us to stay and meet a friend.  We had a nice lunch with her and a walk on the beach before getting back on the bus.  Harvey Bay is another gateway to Fraser Island, but it's a bit farther away from the island so that's why we decided to stay in Rainbow Beach.  We got back on the bus at 5:15pm and didn't arrive in Airlie Beach until 7:30am the next day.  That was my longest bus ride since I've been on vacation - and it was a full bus...which means we didn't have much room to sprawl out! Thank goodness for my partial narcolepsy - I can sleep just about anywhere - so I woke up in Airlie Beach well rested, other people did not! 

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 22, 2012

So, we got to Airlie Beach this morning at 7am - too early to check in - but luckily they were nice enough to let us use the facilities and have a shower since we just got off a 15 hour bus ride.  Mat and I booked a day tour around the Whitsunday Islands for today because we don't have much time left in Australia and want to do as much as we can on route to Cairns before we leave.  Most tours around the Whitsundays are 3 days/2 nights, where people sleep on their boats and really explore the islands.  It would have been a lot of fun to do one of those tours, but this was faster and saved us some money as well.  The Whitsundays were outstanding! They consist of 74 islands - we cruised by several of them in our blow up boat, but only stopped on 3 islands. Our first stop was at an island where we went snorkeling for about an hour and half.  We swam in so many schools of beautiful fish and very colorful coral.  It was amazing! Mat and I ended up being on the same boat as a girl we met in Surfers Paradise (Liz) and we had a great day with her! The three of us sat on the side of the boat while it was cruising to get a bumpy ride! The next stop was at a lookout point where we could see Whitehaven Beach (whitest beach in the world) in it's entirety.  7km long - whitest sand against the bluest water. Gorgeous :) After our hike to the lookout, we ended up having a buffet lunch on Whitehaven Beach that was provided from the tour company.  It was amazing - cold meat sandwiches, mussels (yum!), potato salad and many more delicious treats! Our tour guides were absolutely hilarious too, which made the day trip even better!  Once we got back to our hostel, we checked into our room and enjoyed happy hour with two guys we met in Noosa from Whales.  As we were enjoying $8 jugs of beer, two girls from Toronto that we met in Rainbow Beach came and sat at our table! It's amazing how many familiar faces you see when traveling up the coast.  Most people are going in the same direction (not normally as fast as Mat and I are) but it's likely we will run into more friends on our journey up.  We played some fun games of life sized Jenga and Connect 4 at the pub before heading to bed. Mat and I have one more long day of bus rides ahead of us before we can chill out a few days! See you in Cairns tomorrow!

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 23, 2012

Auto bus, auto bus, auto bus... Today was another long daybof bus rides.  11.5 hours to get from Airlie Beach to Cairns, but it's the last bus I'll have to take in Australia!  Mat and I basically slept the entire way to Cairns, so we were ready to hit the town as soon as we got here!  We are staying at a famous hostel called Gilligans - it's probably the nicest hostel I've stayed at so far.  Free dinner every night for the guests staying here, as well as discounted drinks all night long.  To sum it up, it's a party hostel.  We had a great time partying and met some fun people from USA and Ukraine.  I stayed up a bit later than I wanted to.  Didn't end up getting to bed until about 3:30am, and I have to be up at 6am for a full day of scuba diving tomorrow! 

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 24, 2012

Rough morning, but I woke up on time!  Mat and I went on the Ocean Freedom cruise around the Great Barrier Reef today.  We drove the boat for about an hour to get to the reef, and then anchored the boat for a few hours. After quite a long briefing about diving, we suited up and went scuba diving! In the beginning I had a bit of a panic attack because I've never had to breath underwater before, so it took me a while to get used to breathing really slowly and deeply through my mouth.  Once in the water, we did a couple drills with our dive master -  how to get water out of your mask underwater, and what to do if your air supply falls out of your mouth mid dive.  Each dive master took two divers out, and we had to hold their hands for our entire first dive.  My dive master was from Vancouver, and she let me let go of her hand for a quick picture with Nemo (clown fish).  We saw the most outstanding fish and really colorful coral.  This specific cruise line is the only ship that has a permit to dive in the location of the reef that we were on, so there was a lot to see and no other divers around from other ships to disrupt the ocean life.  They provided an amazing lunch - all you can eat shrimp (score!), cold meat for sandwiches and many different kinds of salad.  After lunch they gave everyone the option of doing a second dive for half price.  Well, I got hooked after my first dive so I paid the extra money, suited up and jumped in the water again.  On this dive we were in much larger groups, and we didn't have to hold on to the dive masters hand at all.  She stayed really close to us and was around if we were having problems underwater.  On this dive I saw a stingray (very bright blue on the top), and loads more fish than the first dive.  I even got to hold a huge sea-cucumber! The other group diving saw a massive crayfish - but I couldn't find it on my dive! Too bad!  When we weren't diving, there was the option of going on a glass bottom boat through the reef, with commentary from a marine biologist who works on the ship.  We saw turtles, sea cucumbers, huge clams, and many different kinds of coral.  We also went to a tiny sand island in the middle of the reef where we found the most interesting shells, but we had to keep them on the island :(  After our cruise, I met up with the American boy (Eric) that I met last night.  He took me out for a nice and fun dinner - it was so much fun to go on an awesome date in the middle of paradise! He's in Australia getting certified to scuba dive alone, so he got me pretty tempted to get my own certification.  I've heard it's a lot cheaper to get it done in Thailand or Bali, so I'll most likely wait and get it there in the next couple of months! 

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 25, 2012

Most Saturday's are hectic, but this Saturday was a day of rest.  Mat left this morning to fly to Sydney and I had no day trips planned, so I literally spent the whole day relaxing with absolutely no schedule.  I slept in (for the first time in a few weeks), spoke with the family over Skype and got some things for Asia organized.  In the afternoon I met up with a girl, Kathy, that I met on my Whitsundays snorkeling trip a few days ago.  She is also traveling alone and is staying at the same hostel as I am.  Kathy and I decided to tour the city of Cairns, but soon realized it consists of about 4 streets. - so our tour ended quickly.  Cairns has a beautiful lagoon right beside the ocean where many people swim and sunbathe.  Since it's croc and stinger season, the lagoon is the only place where people can swim safely in the city.  We only stuck our feet in the lagoon because we had already gone for a long swim in the infinity pool at our hostel earlier in the day and didn't want to get wet again.  We planned a day trip for tomorrow to check out the rainforest and waterfalls about an hour and a half south of Cairns.  During the evening I could barely keep my eyes open so there was no way I am going out tonight.  It'll be nice to be well rested for my day trip tomorrow!

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 26, 2012

Another early morning, up at 7am to catch our 8am bus with 'On The Wallaby' to the rainforest.  As we were leaving Cairns, we passed a field full of 'pretty face wallabies'.  These are the first wallabies I've seen on my trip and I can now differentiate between them and a kangaroo.  Basically they are smaller, a different shade of brown, and they don't need to have their tail on the ground to jump.  Kangaroos use their tail as a third leg to balance while walking or jumping.  Unfortunately it wasn't the nicest day today - first day of rain in a while - but it didn't really matter since we were in the rainforest anyways.  Our tour guide, Syd, was amazing.  He was so informative with all the different trees, plants, fruits and animals in the rainforest.  I learned about all the different poisonous plants and berries in the forest, and what to stay away from.  Our first stop was at a fig tree cathedral.  This tree was between 500-800 years old, and is taller than a 5 story building.  It was probably the most enormous tree I've ever seen, and to make it interesting, fig trees don't have roots at the base of the tree - they grow downwards from the canopy of the rainforest which makes the tree look a little bit like an organ, hence the cathedral part of the name.  Next we stopped at a beautiful waterfall, but since it was raining it took quite a while to get people in the water because it was so cold. This specific waterfall is where the Herbal Essenses commercials are filmed.  A bunch of us girls attempted the famous hair flip from the commercial, but none of us got it captured correctly on our cameras :( A delicious lunch was provided for us from the tour group so we ate it by a lake where kids were jumping in the water out of tree branches.  I was tempted to go in, but I had already dried off and didn't want to get sick.  It would have been a different story if the sun was out! After lunch, we hopped back on our bus and Syd took us to another rainforest hike that lead to a inactive volcanic site.  I can't exactly remember the details, but it was basically a giant hole in the ground with an algea covered lake in the middle.  Syd threw a rock in the water and it sounded like a gun shot - that stopped everyone from joking about jumping in the lake! We were so high up!  We had one more quick stop at another waterfall and then off to see some platypus! There were two sightings, could have been the same platypus both times, but now I can check that off on my list of animals I've never seen before! The majority of the people on the tour at all staying at the same hostel I am, so we bunch of us had our free dinner together when the tour was over.  Grisly beef curry isn't the most delicious dinner, but I guess you can't complain when it's free!

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

February 27, 2012

We are right in the middle of Cairns' rainy season, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised when it's raining! It's my last day here, with no tours booked, so I used today to pack everything up and get organized for my flight tomorrow.  I stayed at Gilligans Backpackers for 4 nights (longest I've stayed in one particular hostel) and it begins to feel like home a little bit!  Eric got back from his scuba course today and is now certified.  He took me out for such a delicious seafood dinner - we shared some white wine (not goon!), oysters, and two mains.  After dinner we met up with the group of people he took his course with and had some drinks at a local pub.  It was so nice to get out of the hostel life, especially since they make everything so convenient for you at Gilligans so you don't ever have to leave! After dinner we hung out by the lagoon and listened to the millions of bats chirping away! I can't get over how many bats their are in Cairns! - everywhere in Australia actually! I remember when I was in Sydney walking through Hyde Park being amazing by the amount of bats flying around! Anyways, last night in Cairns was definitely one i'll never forget :)

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

February 28, 2012

I didn't really look at a map of Australia before I booked my flight to Bali back in October.  I saw that the cheapest flight to Bali was departing from Darwin in the Norther Territory.  The amount that I saved flying to Bali from Darwin was way less than the amount I paid for my flight from Cairns to Darwin.  I should have just flown straight from Cairns! Oh well, now I can technically say I've been to just about every state and territory in Australia! (New South Whales, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and now Northern Territory).  When I flew from Perth to Adelaide, a nice woman named Julie sat beside me on the plane.  We were discussing my travel plans and she mentioned that her son lives up in Darwin and insisted I stay with him!  We exchanged information and each went out own ways.  A few weeks ago I contacted her son and told him I'd be in town and he offered for me to stay at his place while I'm in Darwin.  He had to work during the day, so when I landed I stored all my luggage at a hostel downtown and walked around the main streets.  Darwin is HOT! Very very hot, and very very humid.  Darwin is another small town, bigger than Cairns, but not really much to do here.  Apparently there are a few crocodile exhibits in the area, but I've only got a night here so I won't be able to check them out.  It also doesn't help that it's rainy season here too so I didn't have much time to wander around today before the rain came in.  Brad picked me up from the hostel when he was done work and drove me around a bit.  We had dinner at the wharf with a beautiful sunset and then came back to his apartment and hung out with his room mates.  I'm getting really antsy for tomorrow - Bali bound! 

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

February 29, 2012

I am now at the 2 month mark of my trip.  My Australian travels have come to an end, and I am now ready to take on South East Asia! After 9 flights, 11 bus rides and 2 countries, I've had a lot of time to reflect.  Coming to Australia I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I knew everything would be fine, as I have so many friends here to help me along my way, but I just wasn't sure what to expect originally when it came to staying in hostels and changing locations so often.  Brody was a great help when I first landed.  He got me set up with a cell phone, let me stay in his sweet pad in Darlinghurst (Sydney), and showed me the ropes around town.  He explained a few of the word differences between North Americans and Australians - for example, capsicum instead of pepper - which really helped when going out to dine.  After my first week in Sydney I realized I would really have to start budgeting.  I've never been used to not having an income, and your money goes pretty quickly that way!  Perth was my next stop, where I met Grant and Brenton.  Grant had the whole week off work, so he took me north of Perth all the way up to Monkey Mia to feed the dolphins.  That was definitely one of my highlights so far.  Next I had a quick stop over in Adelaide where I had my first experience with Gumtree (craigslist).  I needed a ride from Adelaide to Melbourne, so I put up an ad on the Internet to see if anyone was heading that way.  I got a lot of replies but ended up getting a lift with two people from the UK that I met in my hostel.  Kimi and Matt were awesome to travel with and very good company.  My first night in Melbourne I met a couple Canadians who I ended up spending the majority of my time with.  We did the Grean Ocean Road together, another highlight (except for when we got pulled over by the cops) but I guess that just adds to the experience.  Melbourne was a cute city... A lot of people I meet simply love Melbourne.  I'm not sure if it's a place I would like to live in if I came back.  I'm more drawn to the hotter places with nice beaches and St Kilda Beach didn't really blow my mind too much.  I flew back to Sydney to enjoy Australia Day with some locals I met in my first week there.  We had a lot of fun, although it wasn't nearly as crazy as Australia Day in Whistler! My next stop was New Zealand.  I met Ash in Christchurch and we traveled down to Queenstown together.  He let me stay with him in his great house overlooking a beautiful lake with huge mountains.  Queenstown was awesome! Skydiving was awesome! Rock climbing was awesome! I did a lot of fun things when I was in the adventure capital of the world! I did a nice day trip to Milford Sound, although if I were to do the trip again I would skip that part.  Maybe I take mountains and lakes for granted since I've got them at home, but I really wasn't that crazy about the tour and I felt like it cost more than it should.  Fjords are cool and everything, but not worth $160! I really recommend anyone traveling up the west coast of the south island to check out Wanaka.  It is a cute little town, similar to Queenstown, just way more chilled out and not so adventure tourism in your face.  Next stop was Franz Josef Glacier which I REALLY recommend!  With time constraints I was only able to do a half day hike, although I wish I could have done the full day.  It's suitable for many different fitness levels as they split the group up into fast or slow so no one is keeping anyone back.  It is one of the only glaciers of it's kind, as it is located in the middle of the rainforest.  Really neat, and totally worth it to check out.  I made my way back to Christchurch, stopping in the small town of Hokitika for a night and visited a glow worm Dell.  Very cool! After being in Christchurch twice, I really want to YouTube footage of the big earthquake from February 2011.  It amazed me how everyone just carries on their everyday life with huge parts of the city being closed down and unsafe to drive through.  I would like to visit New Zealand again, next time do the north island (and the north part of the south island) and bring warmer clothes!  I flew back to Australia, into Brisbane, where I met Peter Seaby and his girlfriend Cait.  We all went down to Byron Bay and all I can say is I LOVE it there! The hostel we stayed at (arts factory) was unlike any I've ever seen before.  I met people who initially came for a vacation and have lived in arts factory for 6 months.  Its very hippie, with yoga and didgeridoo workshops daily.  Definitely my kind of town, with all the surfing and beaches and sunsets. Oh I could go on forever.  The vibe was amazing, as if no one had a care in the world, and nothing could ever go wrong - just hang loose dude! I wish I had enough time to spend a day in a town called Nimbin.  Maybe next time! My friend Tyler met us in Byron and drove us up to Surfers Paradise.  He was so nice to let all 3 of us stay at his amazing condo right downtown.  The pontoon boat adventure we had in Surfers was another highlight.  I met so many cool people, some of whom may be potential travel buddies! I left Peter and Cait in Surfers, but met up with Kristin and Mat the next day.  The three of us made our way back up to Brisbane together, stopping at the most amazing waterpark on the way (wet n wild)! Brisbane isn't a city I particularly enjoyed.  I have a few friends who live there so it was fun when we were hanging out and when they were showing me around, but it's not somewhere I would like to live. I found everything very spread out, which isn't ideal when you're a backpacker! Southbank lagoon was gorgeous though - that's something I love about Australia, any city you visit that doesn't have swimmable ocean water will provide another place for you to swim.  Sometimes it can be refreshing to have some non-salty water to splash in! We made our way up to Noosa next, where I had such an incredible day surfing.  The waves couldn't have been more perfect and the people we met couldn't have been more awesome! We hit up the Steve Irwim Autralia Zoo on our way to Rainbow Beach which was such a cool experience.  It was so neat to feed elephants, pet koalas, hang out with kangaroos and see tigers swim.  Rainbow Beach is the gateway to Fraser Island, so we spent one night there before and after our 3 day adventure on Fraser Island.  To anyone who is debating going to Fraser Island, don't even think twice - just go!  4X4ing in the sand, getting bogged, camping with tons of foreigners and swimming in the most beautiful and clear lakes, is something I would never pass up on and memories I'll never forget.  After Rainbow Beach we had to leave my Kristin sidekick behind and it was just Mat and I on our way up to Cairns.  We stopped at Airlie Beach and did a day trip of the Whitsundays.  We were on a huge time schedule so we weren't able to do an overnight trip.  That is something I would do if I have the chance to come back.  We had a great day trip snorkeling on the great barrier reef and hanging out at Whitehaven beach, but I met so many people who said the overnight trip is the most fun they'd had on their entire trip.  I've had tons of fun with everything so far, so I wonder what happens on that ship that is so awesome! Cairns impressed me way more than I thought it would.  I'm not sure if has to do with my amazing time scuba diving, the crazy hostel that we stayed at, the beautiful rainforest adventure, or the really incredible guy that I met - but I had an amazing time in Cairns.  I would have liked to spend more time in Darwin, as I feel like it has a lot of potential.  Maybe next time I come I won't come during the rainy season so I'll be able to walk around more! I also regret not checking out Aires Rock, Alice Springs and Broome.  I feel like I connect well in Australia, like I belong here.  Who knows, maybe this could be home one day!  As I sit on this plane, with my extremely awkward money belt around my waist, I'm trying to prepare myself for the culture shock that is about to happen.  I believe that traveling Australia first was a great plan as it was a mellow stepping stone for traveling solo. I'm really torn because I'm excited to experience a place that is not 1st world, but I'm not looking forward to seeing all the poverty and all the Balinese people begging.  I guess they come hand in hand so as long as I use my head and stick to the safe areas I will have nothing to worry about.  I can't wait to get off this plane! 

Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

February 29, 2012

Wow.  Bali is nothing like I expected! When I got off the airplane,  I went directly into the visa on arrival area and payed $25 US to enter the country for 30 days.  They weren't nearly as strict as the boarder patrol in Canada or the US, they didn't ask me any questions or even speak to me for that matter, and let me directly into their country.  As soon I grabbed my luggage off the carousel, I got surrounded by porters asking to take my bag for me.  I was warned in advance to decline because they are known to rip people off.  Well, everyone in Asia is trying to rip white people off, I just need to learn how to haggle in order to get a better price.  Tino waited for me for 5 hours outside the airport in the most extreme heat.  I owe him my life because there is no way I would have been able to handle my first few minutes in Bali without him! He has spent the past few months traveling around India and Thailand, so Bali is really tame for him.  $1US = $10,000 in Indonesia.  After I hit the ATM I felt like a millionaire! I've never held bills with so many zeros before! We paid $125,000 for a taxi from the airport to the hostel, which apparently was a rip off - although the taxi ride was close to an hour in traffic so $12.50 seemed really cheap to me!  I can't even explain how many crazy scooter drivers are on the road weaving in between all the cars - and everyone is driving really fast!  Girls are sitting on the back of these scooters on their cell phones, some scooters have their whole family on them with kids kneeling in the front... It's so dangerous and crazy to see!  Tino picked a hostel that is a little bit further from the action than we expected.  It's alright because it only cost us $52,000 to get to Kuta (the main strip) and keeps us far enough away that we can get some sleep.  Our hostel has a beautiful pool, free (slow) wifi, and lizards running all over the walls!  Tino and I went for a walk around the area to find the beach and look for a place to eat.  Well, the beach was nothing compared to the beaches in Australia... It was so dirty, garbage swaying with the tide, but the food we found was amazing!  We were told to only eat where the locals eat, that way we won't get sick.  We found an awesome little shack that served different kinds of stir fry(ish) food with rice.  Tino and I split a meal for dinner because they were so big and it cost us $7,500... Thats 75 cents US! Beer costs about the same price too!  After our journey, we came back to the hostel and met a bunch of other travelers hanging by the pool.  They are all so awesome!  7 of us are headed to the Gili Islands together on Friday - I'm excited! First night in Bali, we may as well go out in Kuta! We took a 30 minute taxi for $52,000 and it dropped us off in the middle of party central.  It reminded me a bit of Cancun with all the locals trying to sell you anything from bracelets to cocaine.  Tino and I couldn't believe the amount of people offering drugs to the tourists.  We assume they have a deal with the police that as soon as someone buys some, they notify the cops and then they get arrested.  Not that long ago a 14 year old Aussie boy came to Bali with his parents, got caught with marijuana and went to jail for 3 months.  It's a serious offense here! We each spent about $7,500 all night on drinks... Most of the drinks were free for guys and gals... I'm still trying to figure out how they make money off that!  After a few hours at the club, drenched in our own sweat from doing nothing (Bali is the hottest place I've been to in my life), we decided to head back to the hostel to get some sleep.  No air conditioning, just a little fan... This is a time I'm happy to have the top bunk!

Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

March 1, 2012

Zim Zimmer, who's got the keys to ma scooter?! Tino, Arthur (a fellow Canadian from Calgary), and I hired scooters so we could check out Bali.  The guy who rented them to us warned us about getting pulled over for not having an international drivers license, but we didn't care.  It was only $60,000 ($6) to hire the scooter for 24 hours, so we figured it was worth it regardless if we got a fine or not.  Sure enough, we got pulled over not even 5 minutes after leaving the hostel!  We tried talking our way out of the ticket, but no such luck.  $250,000 was our fine.  It would have cost us more than $25 to take 'taksi's' around - and driving a scooter was way more fun! I still can't get over how insane the driving is here.  We were weaving in and out of cars, scooting past everyone!  Our hostel is in Sanur, which is on the east side of Bali, so it took us around 30 minutes to scoot over to the west side (Kuta).  We parked our scooter for $2000 (2 cents) and went to the beach.  In Bali the steps are very uneven and I find myself stubbing my toes a lot! I stubbed it really hard before getting to the beach and it was bleeding everywhere! I had some nice Balinese ladies help me out with rubbing alcohol while Tino went and got me some bandaids.  I took it like a champ though, no tears for this girl - how can you cry when you're in such a beautiful place! Kuta beach is known to have the best surf around Bali so Tino and I hired surf boards for a couple of hours.  I think the waves were too big for my skill level because each of us only got up once! Or maybe it's because I couldn't balance correctly due to my toe, who knows!  We got our butts kicked by the waves for a while before we decided to pack it in.  We found our way back go the hostel (way easier than it was to find Kuta), with seconds to spare before a massive storm came in.  Thunder and lightning - torrential downpour! We spent the night hanging out at the hostel watching movies with a bunch of other travelers.  We decided not to go out because a large group of us are leaving early in the morning to head to The Gili Islands.  There are 3 islands in the area, all offering different things.  Tino and I plan on staying on Gili Trawanga for 2 weeks to do some diving and relaxing.  Sounds good to me!

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 2, 2012

Bintang's are my new best friend! It's an Indonesian beer that goes down so smoothly and it's so cheap.  I'm still getting used to haggling and paying close to nothing for food - basically anything really.  The 8 of us woke up really early to take a bus from Sanur to Padangbai.  We waited there for about 45 minutes until our boats arrived to drive us to the islands.  I have a feeling they make you wait on purpose to give the locals a chance to sell some of their fruits, knockoff sunnies, cigarettes, water, etc... We paid 450,000Rp for a return ticket to Gili Trawanga.  The boat ride took about an hour and half, stopping at a couple different islands along the way.  Lombok is a main island close to the Gili Islands, and has it's own language different from Balinese or Indonesian.  There are over 300 indigenous languages in Indonesia... I don't think I'm going to be able to pick one up quickly! I have learned a few words since I've been here - thanks = terima kasih, hello = Salam... That's about all I can say so far! Arthur booked a guest house a few days ago with two beds, so Tino and I said we would share the room with him.  This guest house is incredible! It's not far from the main beach and has a beautiful garden area with a refreshing pool.  The first thing I did when I arrived as jump in the pool and play with the indonesian kids!  They didn't speak any english, but who doesn't love a good water fight! We relaxed in our guesthouse for a couple hours before venturing around.  There are tons of stray cats around, most of them are kittens and it's so tempting to pick them up and cuddle them - I was warned ahead of time that most of them have rabies and to stay away! On the Gili Islands there are no motorized vehicles.  The islands aren't very big so it's common to travel by foot, but otherwise people get around on bicycles or horse and carriage.  It's such a nice change from Bali and being surrounded by all the traffic.  Gili Trawanga is so peaceful! Our guesthouse is only booked for one night as it's way more expensive than we were planning to pay, so on our journey around town we found another place to stay for the rest of our visit.  Tino and I are planning to stay here for a couple weeks so the price of our new place was very tempting.  $5CND each a night for a room with two beds, a ceiling fan, on suite, and free breakfast.  I read about it in my lonely planet book and they said it was the best of the cheapies.  They even have on site laundry which I'm excited for! We watched the sunset at the end of the strip while we sat under a straw hut and took in the paradise that was in front of us.  I really like Balinese people.  They are all so friendly and always want to help everyone out.  A few of them notified us that tonight is the night to go to Rudy's Bar.  Tino isn't feeling the greatest so he's going to stay in, but Arthur and I are going to check it out for a bit.  I hope Bintangs are on special! 

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 3, 2012

Ruby Bar has to be the sweatiest place I've been to in my whole life! It's hot outside to begin with, and they made the dance floor underneath a massive hut with no air circulation, so by the end of the night we could literally ring the sweat out of our clothing. It was disgusting, but I've never had so much fun dancing in my life!  In the beginning all the Balinese boys (and I mean young boys) would crowd around all the girls and try to dance with us which was really irritating, but as soon as the guys came and saved us we all danced together in a big group.  Balinese people are hilarious dancers! This morning we had free breakfast at our guesthouse (1 egg scrambled with two pieces of dry toast) before we checked out and moved on to our cheaper house :) The people who run our new house are very friendly and informative.  The whole family have never left Gili Trawanga and they all work at the guesthouse.  After getting settled in, we met the other 5 members of our posey at a cafe on the beach.  We ended up having a second breakfast (because our first one didn't fill us up at all) right on the beach laying in bean bag chairs and listening to the ocean.  We hung out there for a few hours, most likely because of the free wifi, before we moved on down the beach to some more huts close to a snorkeling location.  Unfortunately it was a little hard to swim because all the broken coral was in the sand, but we managed alright.  Between the 8 of us we hired 3 snorkel sets to share and explore the coral.  Most of it was dead, but we did see a giant turtle! We most likely harassed it more than we should have, but he was so fun to take pictures with! We spent the afternoon playing beach volleyball and lounging in huts on the beach to hide from the rain.  It is the end of the rainy season so I'm hoping we can go one day without any rain soon! During the evening there is a huge market (tons of food stalls) located right in the center of the main strip on the island.  It is a lot cheaper to eat from one of these stalls than to keep eating at the restaurants.  We were encouraged to eat where the locals eat, so we figured it would be alright to eat here.  I'm starting to get a little better with all the spicy food (I hear everything is way more spicy in all the other countries I'm visiting), but it's still a challenge.  I was told the curry wasn't spicy at all, and sure enough I had to guzzle my entire giant water bottle as I was eating it!  This was the first time I've had chicken my whole trip.  Still being a little paranoid, I only had a small bite! After dinner our posey migrated to a bar called Suma Suma where they have a live local band playing awesome reggae music all night long.  Even songs than aren't actually reggae were changed a bit to sound reggae.  It was a blast!  I'm really enjoying my time with our big group.  Everyone is so relaxed and up for anything, but I guess how could you not be - we're in paradise :)  

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 4, 2012

Two things I've learned today... First: when a travel book says it's the end of the rainy season, it's actually still the rainy season... And second: Indonesian sim cards really really suck! Anyways, enough of my venting.  Regardless of the rain today, we still managed to have a good time.  Woke up with a free banana pancake breakfast (better than my one scrambled egg breaky yesterday!) and then met our posey at our meeting spot - the beanbag chairs on the beach! We hung out there for a while in the morning before we saw the rain about to set in.  Like routine, we ventured off to our wonderful hut down the beach for some shelter.  Played a little bit of volleyball until a full on monsoon set it.  Since the cheap hostels have salt water showers, a few of us decided to rinse off in the glorious fresh rain water to feel clean.  Tonight was mine and Tino's last night with our new friends, so we made sure to say goodbye with a bang! We all went to an Irish bar on the main strip where there were half price drinks for girls.  Strategically all of us ladies got two drinks at a time (one for the boys too), but the bartenders didn't seem to care. We were all pretty happy when the drinks came to $1.80 each :).  After a massive dance party on the street, we all said goodbye with hoped to meet up for breakfast at the beanbag chair at 'half eight' in the morning.  I hope I wake up in time! 

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 5, 2012

Goodbyes are always hard, but fortunately they are getting easier. Every time I say goodbye, I think about a situation in the future where our paths may cross again and leave on that note.  You never know where this world may take you! After our last breakfast together at the beanbag chairs, our 6 friends set off on a boat back to Bali.  Tino and I spent a few hours at the cafe just hanging out (more like hiding from the rain!) before we decided to make something of the bad weather.  Tino went for a snorkel down the beach while I set for my first Indonesian massage.  Wow, it's different, that's for sure! I've never had a massage where someone pulls my hair and deliberately cracks my knuckles!  She even put massage oil on my face and started rubbing my forehead and temples.  Super weird, not sure if I'll be getting another one! As I mentioned before, I want to get PADI certified to scuba dive.  Today I signed up for the open water course, and I'll be starting my training tomorrow.  It feels like I'm back in school all over again.  They handed me a large book and a take home quiz and told me to have chapters 1-3 read and have the quiz filled out before my course starts at 9am tomorrow!  I started reading the first couple chapters (so dense) until I decided to just watch the mandatory DVD on the same material.  I should have just listened to Eric and Tino when they told me not to bother with the book! (they are both certified already). Tino will be taking his advanced certification this week and hopefully we'll be able to dive together on my last day of the course.  When Tino and I were in Bali, we met some people in our hostel who were planning on coming to Gili a few days after we arrived.  It worked out nicely - one group of friends left as another group arrived (Karolina, Rob and Daniel). We had a fun night with them, but we didn't stay out too late - diving tomorrow! Weeeee!

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 6, 2012

Today was amazing! My PADI scuba diving course is three days and today was day number one.  I woke up and had my usual free banana pancake breakfast, and then set off to my dive school.  Today was the first day since we've been in Gili that it wasn't raining when we woke up.  I did a little but of theory and tests in the morning before jumping in the pool to practice drills.  Luckily March is a slow month on the island as I got my own personal instructor, Pablo.  After lunch we jumped on a boat and went out to sea! I dove at 12 meters for 65 minutes.  We saw some awesome life underwater - eels, tons of clownfish, turtles, parrot fish, snapper and so on.  I learned how to assemble and disassemble all my gear which is something I didnt learn on my first two dives in Cairns.  It's pretty simple and straightforward really.  Once we came to the surface, a full on monsoon had hit the island while we were underwater.  Are you really surprised though? It seems to rain here WAY too much :( it's beautiful and everything, but common! I want sunshine in my tropical paradise! Pablo had some great feedback for me - he said that it seems like I've been diving forever! Yay for being comfortable in the water! Another thing that brought a smile to my face today was a phone call from Afghanistan! (thanks Eric!) There is a full moon party (Thailand style) on the island tonight that we had every intention in attending, but the rain is making us think otherwise.  Eating dinner in the market under tarps to hide from the rain is just about as much as I can take tonight, let alone partying outside on a beach in the rain! I got sick a couple days ago from eating indonesian food, but for some reason tonight I had an urge to eat local fish that was caught today.  I split a giant red snapper with Rob (I hope I didn't see it swimming around during my dive) - eyeballs, whole body smack down on a wicker plate... It just weirded me out that I got to pick my food before they cooked it on open flames in front of us! Putting the weird stuff aside, red snapper is one of the most delicious fish I've ever tasted! 

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 7, 2012

 Day number two of my open water scuba diving course! I had to write my final tests and exam today and passed it with flying colours! I'd be pretty embarrassed if I didn't pass.  Aside from a few under water math equations, the majority of the exam is common sense.  I did a few drills in the pool in the morning, had lunch, and then went out on the boat to our diving location.  We didn't see as many different fish today as we did yesterday, but the location we went to was still pretty cool.  There was a bunch of coral that are nearly dead, so the island has surrounded them with an electrically charged fence to try and bring them back to live.  In most cases, the coral is a lot more vibrant now than it used to be! The rain finally let up for the afternoon, so I was able to hang out on the beach and catch some rays while Tino and Rob snorkeled.  I'm beginning to get used to island life.  Aside from the rain, this has been a very relaxing week!  The locals have finally stopped harassing us to guy stuff and some of them even know us by name! The only motors I've heard in 6 days have been from boats coming and leaving the island - either for daily scuba trips or to head back to Bali.  Tino and I have a week left on the island, and we're now trying to map out our next journey.  Our next stop will most likely be Ubud - where the movie 'eat, pray, love' is filmed - before we make our way across indonesia to Jakarta.  Now that I've gotten over my fear of eating fly covered fish from the local market, I had a lovely Travelly for dinner.  It was far more meaty than the red snapper I had last night, and it was cheaper too!  One more night of being the sober girl at the bar... Graduation drinks tomorrow!

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 8, 2012

Today was the last day of my open water dive course.  I didn't have to do any drills in the pool so they let me sleep in a bit before my first dive in the morning.  We went out on the boat to an area called Shark Point.  There were 3 other girls doing a fun dive today, so they came and dove with me and my instructor.  Unfortunately they used their air supply way faster than I did, so my first dive wasn't as long as the other dives I have done.  Another group dove off the same boat as us and they were lucky to see a shark, but our group didn't :( - I want to see a shark!! We saw quite a few turtles though! After lunch I did my second 18 meter dive of the day.  We had to do a few skills at the surface and underwater before the dive in order for me get my certification.  The skills were the same as the ones I practiced in the pool, although they were a bit harder to do in the ocean.  My least favorite was taking my 4.5 kilo weight belt off and putting it back on - it was hard! For this dive it was just me, Pablo and Victor again, it's much better to be in a smaller group! We went to Han's Reef which is off of Gili Air (another one of the 3 Gili Islands).  We dove at 18 meters again and saw a couple octopus and two different kinds of shrimp! I wanted to eat it (the shrimp that is!), maybe for dinner in the market tonight.  Anyways, I am now certified as an open water diver and it feels good!  I'm definitely hooked and plan on joining Tino in a couple days for his night dive!

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 9, 2012

So we are at the one week mark on this tiny little island.  It's rained about everyday, at least once a day, since we got here.  It's becoming a little bit old since there isn't much to do except for diving when it rains. The rain let up a little bit before dinner so Tino and I walked 519 steps up to a lookout at the top of the island.  We were able to see all three islands quite clearly, with Lombok in the distance.  Today was my first day with absolutely nothing to do and it was nice.  I got caught up on some travel planning and was able to relax for a good portion of the day. Tino and I are going to leave on Monday and check out what else Indonesia has to offer.  The sun came out for about an hour today, just enough time to give me a little bit of a sunburn before a monsoon came in!   100 days left of my trip... I can't believe how quickly it's gone by so far! 

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

March 10, 2012

After being on Gili Trawangan for over a week, here are some things that I've learned: the Gili Islands can be the most beautiful place on this planet when it's not raining outside, Bob Marley and Jack Johnson are the only two cd's most bars and restaurants own, the locals love singing Adele (we probably walk by at least 4 people singing her a day), scuba diving is a HUGE part of life here, no one wears shoes, the places that offer 'free wifi' require you purchase something and then charge a 21% service tax to the bill, you're able to haggle prices down to about half what the original asking price was (not in restaurants though), and even though the locals are really annoying and creepy at first, most of them just want to be your best friend.  Tino and I have stayed at Edy's Homestay for all but one night we've been here.  They have treated us so well - free breakfast every morning, they play their guitars and sing for us, they even lend us umbrellas when it's raining.  Norman is our favorite local - he claims he will come to Canada and visit us soon! Today was Tino's last day of his advanced scuba diving course.  His last dive was a night dive (which really appealed to me) so I joined him for the adventure.  I was a little bit nervous at first... There is quite a bit of equipment to prepare before the dive, then learning new hand signals and adding a torch to the equation made me a little anxious.  We dove with Pablo and Victor again which helped calm me down (I've done all my other dives with them) and once I got in the water all of my worries were gone.  It was so peaceful to dive at night.  You don't see as much as during the day, but what you are able to see is way more concise.  You've got one beam of light, and the rest is pitch black.  Once my eyes adjusted a bit it was a lot easier to see around.  We saw many star fish, an octopus, a couple different kinds of crab, tons of sea cucumbers and a couple humungous fish who woke up and came to say hello.  At the end of every dive we do a 3 minute safety stop - where we slowly ascend to 5 meters below surface level and hover for 3 minutes.  During our 3 minutes, we all turned off our torches to see the bioluminous plankton that were surrounding us.  We waved our arms aggressively around and everything around us lit up.  It was so cool! Tino and I started doing some crazy dances underwater to make the sea glow! After our dive, our instructors and other course mates hung out at the Big Bubble bar for some graduation drinks.  The instructors and dive masters must drink a lot... It seems like everyday someone new is graduating from a dive course! Once we had enough of Bob Marley, a large group of us ventured off down the road to a bar called Sama Sama.  This is a ragae bar with a live band every night.  You'll never guess who their favorite artist is.  One hint... Dreadlocks.... You guessed it - Bob Marley! Haha I'm beginning to feel like they only play chilled out music so the island has a certain feel to it.  Whether that's the case or not, I had to get out of there!  Too much Bob Marley and swaying back and forth will put me right to sleep! 

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

March 12, 2012

Back to scooters, over crowded markets and busy streets again today.  Tino and I left paradise island 5 days early because the weather was so bad, and what do you know, this morning we woke up to unbelievable weather.  Doesn't it always happen that way? We took the fast boat from Gili Trawangan back to Padangbai, where we sat on the roof of the boat for the hour long trip (we needed some sunshine)! The were about 15 of us who sat on the roof of the boat, even after the crew warned us there was a big swell in the ocean.  With the language barrier we all pretended we didn't understand and just stayed on top of the boat!  For the first 20 minutes of our ride it was beautiful - books were out, people were sun tanning - then all of a sudden the waves became massive and we all got soaked! And I mean SOAKED! The splashing lasted for the majority of the trip, which sucked, but we just had to laugh it off.  We arrived in Padangbai to the sounds of beggars - do you need taksi? Special price for you... Sarong? Cold drink? Transport? - bah! It was nice on Gili... People stopped asking us to buy their stuff after a while because they began to recognize us but I guess that will only be the case on such a small island.  Tino and I took an hour bus ride ($5!) to a small town in the center of Bali called Ubud.  We were told in advance by other travelers that there are many middle aged, single, white woman who come to Ubud to find love (eat, pray, love) and it's definitely true! After settling into our new home stay, which is identical to where we stayed on Gili except we have fresh hot water showers now (yay!), Tino and I wandered around town.  Ubud isn't as big as we thought it would be... There are basically three main streets that form a closed U shape, with a monkey forest sanctuary at the bottom of the U.  Monkey Forest Sanctuary houses 3 beautiful temples, but the experience of walking in the sanctuary is one in itself.  When Tino and I were hanging out at the dive shop on Gili, we met a nice man name named Lindsay who lives in Ubud.  He told us a sneaky way of entering the sanctuary without having to pay admission (it was only 15,000Rp each so I'm not sure why we cared so much!) but anyways, we snuck in and these monkeys are nothing like I've ever seen before.  Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen monkeys up close before, but still, these guys were freaky! We entered the sanctuary through a side pathway, only to have the monkeys scare me so much that I ran out!  I was carrying a grocery bag and the monkey really wanted to see what was inside! Tino took all of my belongings and put them in his pocket so we could carry on with our walk.  I can't even explain how many monkeys were roaming around us - some jumping from tree to tree, others biting each others tails while fighting for food, hissing, the cute little babies hanging off their mothers tummies - it was such an experience! We stayed in the sanctuary for long enough to see a monkey steal someone's water bottle, unscrew the cap, and drink the whole bottle! It was hilarious! We came back to our home stay to look for other touristy things to do in my lonely planet book, and it turns out everything in Ubud closes rather early!  So with no recommendations on where to have dinner, we hit the streets and found a lovely organic restaurant to eat at called Baliwood.  The owner was so happy to talk to us and literally stayed by our side for the entirety of our dinner! We are planning on seeing some more temples about 20km outside of the Ubud tomorrow.  Our plan was to see quite a few temples actually, but taking we've already seen 3 and we're growing tired of them already, plans may change! I just can't wait to see Tino in a sarong! 

Tegalalang, Bali, Indonesia

March 13, 2012

Two days of sunshine in a row!  Seems like a record for Indonesia! Tino and I rented scooters today and decided to go searching for some temples.  Unfortunately the majority of our maps don't have Ubud's surrounding area, or street names for that matter, so we had to wing it.  Goa Gajah is the closest temple to Ubud... Only being 6km away we thought we'd check it out.  We ended up scooting right past it with no way to turn around.  On to option number two: find another temple.  Before we left our homestay we took a quick look at where they are all located, so we had an idea of which direction to go in.  In an attempt to find Tirta Empul (a temple with holy bathing water) we stumbled upon Gunung Kawi - 'the most impressive ancient site in bali'.  I personally found the drive to the temple more impressive than the temple itself, but that's just me.  After parking the scooter, we got bombarded with little ladies trying to sell us sarongs to wear in the temple... Thank goodness I read my lonely planet ahead of time - sarongs are included in the price of admission!  The little Balinese ladies were trying to rip us off!  The temple was beautiful, and so were the rice fields surrounding it.  We found a nice waterfall just beside the temple where many others were having a swim.  It felt a little unholy wearing a bikini close to a temple, but the locals assured me it was alright as long as I wore the sarong inside the temple.  There were quite a few steps leading down to the temple, so by the time we had to walk back up I felt as though it was a good time to buy a fresh coconut from a little lady on the side of the pathway.  I've never drank coconut water straight from the coconut, and the coconut meat made for a nice snack on the walk up! After one temple, Tino and I decided we were all templed out for the day and scooted our way back to Ubud - just in time to have the famous suckling pig from Warung Ibu Oka.  We were encouraged to order the 'spesial', and boy were were happy we did!  For 30,000Rp we got a ton of food - delicious pig, with pig blood sausages (which were actually pretty tasty!), rice, some crunchy stuff, and a potato type thing.  Most of the time I have no idea what I'm eating here! Massages are a lot better priced here than they were on Gili Trawangan, and they are in legit spas too.  I'm a sucker for a good massage, so I got an hour massage, including reflexology, for $5 canadian! I may have to go in everyday we're here to pamper myself! We got back to our home stay just in time before the thunderstorm came in.  Well, we almost had two full dry days!  The forecast isn't looking so good for the next 14 so we've changed our itinerary a little bit.  Scratching the temples, and finding more dive sites! 

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

March 14, 2012

LOUIS!! Woke up this morning to a wonderful rooster singing right outside our door.  Luckily I'm a heavy sleeper, but Tino wasn't the happiest person this morning!  The only place to get wifi at our home stay is in a shrine... So I was hanging out in the shrine when all of a sudden I hear a French accent and it's Louis!  Tino and I met Louis on Gili Trawangan during our dive course.  He noticed the tattoo on my foot this morning and couldn't believe we were staying at the same home stay!  Ubud is full of small home stays so it was a great coincidence that we could all hang out together!  After I sent half of my backpack back to Canada, the three of us went to Monkey Forest Sanctuary to see a cultural ceremony in the temple.  None of us really knew what was going on so we didn't stay long.  Instead we snuck into the sanctuary to see all the monkeys again! It was way different this time though.  There weren't as many monkeys hanging around - it may have been because there were so many people around that the monkeys were all hanging out in the trees, but it was a bit of a disappointment!  We took a few laps around Ubud (it's very small), before finding a nice place to eat.  We picked a vegan restaurant that was recommended in my lonely planet book - Bali Budha (the restaurant we went looking for the other day but never found!) It had a great selection of really healthy food, and a ton of single middle aged white women dining alone.  This place really is a great spot for men to visit to pick up ladies! They are everywhere! It was Louis birthday a couple days ago so Tino and I took him out on the town!  Unfortunately Ubud has no nightlife, so we were pretty much the only people in the bars we visited.  Lindsay recommended a couple good spots - The Melting Pot where the walls are covered with flags from all around the world that you can sign, and Boom Boom where there we should take the famous shot called the rainbow (12 shots in a row from blue to purple).  After the slew of shots and singing our flags we decided to call it a night.  Probably not the most exciting birthday celebration Louis has ever had, but at least he didn't spend it alone! 

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

March 15, 2012

Once again this application can't find my exact location. I'm so in the middle of nowhere I wouldn't be able to find my location either! So we've noticed that most of the places that Lonely Planet encourages people to visit are always packed with tourists, which kind of alters the culture aspect of our trip.  Tino and I decided to leave Ubud (although we actually really enjoyed it and the weather held up for us too!) and head down south.  We've changed our travel plans a little bit and have now decided to chase the beach instead of the temples.  We took an hour and a half bus ride, followed by a 45 minute taxi, to a surf town called Ulu Watu in the Bukit Peninsula.  Ulu Watu is definitely not packed with tourists!  The only thing Ulu Watu is known for is its amazing surf - recommended for advanced surfers only - and only touristy during the annual surf competition.  We are staying in a home stay on Bingin Beach, where the majority of the home stays are vacant.  To get to our home stay, we had to walk down the steepest rock staircase I've ever seen carrying all our luggage - a backpack is a must!  Our place is right on the beach, although it's probably the most disgusting room I've stayed in yet - but for $3 each a night what can I really expect! When we arrived it was high tide and the water had risen so high there was no beach to be seen.  Tino and I rented a scooter and drove to the other side of the mainland (Nusa Dua) to get some beach action in.  Nusa Dua was way father than we expected so there was no time to beach it before heading back to Ulu Watu in daylight. Oh well, now we know how to get there tomorrow! We are currently sitting on our patio listening to the waves, drinking Bintangs, while we wait for Courtney's plane to land!  With no cell reception and no internet connection, I hope she finds us alright! 

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

March 16, 2012

Worst. Night. Ever!! That is the only appropriate way to begin this post.  Finding Courtney was a mission in itself.  Since her flight was delayed, Tino and I had no idea what time she'd be arriving.  Our home stay was so close to the ocean that we had no cell reception and limited battery power on our cell phone.  Since we are literally in the middle of nowhere, her taxi driver had no idea where we were staying and drove her in circles round Ulu Watu.  Tino and I took the scooter out, yelling Courtney's name at the top of our lungs, pulling over every taxi that we saw!  In the end, we found her!  Tino and I laughed the entire time.  After playing catch up with Courtney it was already 2:30am so we decided to head to bed.  Tino did his routinely check of the mattress for bedbugs and guess what... Our bed was infested! The live ones were crawling all over the walls, and dead ones all over the bed when we moved the sheets.  I guess it pays not to cheap out on rooms! We moved the foam mattress onto the balcony - this is where Courtney and I 'slept' for a couple hours.  Tino slept sitting up, but none of us actually got any sleep.  With the crazy winds, I woke up every 5 minutes thinking there were bugs all over me.  We checked out at 7am and moved to a luxurious home stay up the murderous staircase where we have cell reception, a swimming pool and a clean bed to sleep in! I put away my training wheels this morning and rode my own scooter! Now that there are three of us we need another driver! It's actually not as hard or scary as I had imagined - and it's becoming normal to drive in the left lane! We drove all over the place today.  In the beginning we were driving around the side streets so I could get used to the roads, but in the end we ended up driving to the monkey sanctuary (not the one in Ubud!). At one point I almost killed Courtney... I was 'testing out my breaks' while she was behind me and there was a bit of a slide out.  We are all still safe :) While we were driving back to our new palace we ran into our favorite French man again - Louis!  I couldn't believe we saw him for a third time!  We are honestly in the middle of nowhere... I didn't think anyone would be able to find us! We hung out with him and two girls from Montreal at the beach for the afternoon and got quite a bit of sun!  Sis days straight of sunshine... We're on a roll!!

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

March 17, 2012

There were 3 in the bed and the little one said... Thank goodness there are no bed bugs here! Haha our new place is awesome although we're in such a small town, 2 days is enough.  We left Ulu Watu this morning and headed back to Kuta to celebrate St Pattys Day.  We had to heckle the price of our accommodation down a bit, but we got another nice room just off of Poppies 2 with hot showers, wifi and a swimming pool! Last time Tino and I were in the area we staying a bit farther from all the action in Sanur, so it was nice to stay somewhere new this time.  Since we haven't had Internet connection in a couple days, we spent a lot of the afternoon organizing our next travel plan and everything has changed so much! We have decided to skip Java altogether (as it seems to be mostly temples and volcanos) and check out Sumatra instead.  Unfortunately the three of us have already purchased a ticket from Jakarta (that's in Java) to Singapore that we are all going to lose money on since we won't be using it anymore, but this plan seems to be a lot better.  I had a nice Skype conversation with Eric in Afghanistan this afternoon. It was the first time I've seen his face since we both left Australia- I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day! After a couple hours on the internet, we hit the town to find some green!  The three of us got semi matching outfits - Bintang shirts with bright green sunglasses! There weren't many people dressed up when we went out so a lot of people thought we were Irish! I just like to dress up! We did quite a bit of bar hopping... Hit up the same club as last time we were in town - Sky Garden (free drinks again!) and then Courtney took us to a couple new spots.  She's been to Bali 4 times already, so it's great that she is able to show us around! We had a great time... Definitely a St Patricks Day I will never forget! 

Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

March 18, 2012

Such a fun party last night!  It's the first time I've been out with Courtney and I feel like we have an awesome 3 months ahead of us!  We didn't do much today.  The important thing was booking our flight from Bali to Sumatra, but after that was taken care of Courtney and I went to the spa while Tino went looking for a book on Cambodia (he's heading there next).  Courtney and I were able to haggle down the price for a mani/pedi/massage, but I'm not sure the $10 we spent was worth it! The mani/pedi consisted of a polish change, and they didn't even use oil for courtneys massage! I suppose that's Bali for ya! We did some haggle shopping at night - managed to bring down the asking price for two shirt from 400,000Rp to 80,000! We're pros I should have gone lower! As I said, lazy pampered day... I guess one day in Kuta really is enough! 

Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

March 19, 2012

Wow, what a day it has been! Bye bye Bali, hello Sumatra! We left Bali this morning at 7am to catch our flight to Jakarta.  I've realized that I'm more than likely able to get by without checking my bag, but I'll wait until my flight out of Indonesia to try that out.  Since I sent about half of my luggage home, Tino has figured out a way to make my backpack look far smaller than it actually is (and it is now less than 10 kilos!) We had a two hour layover in Jakarta - thank goodness we decided to skip that city! Apparently there was a 4.9 earthquake this morning that we must have just missed. We've never been stared at so much in our whole lives! We were the only white people that we saw in the airport - there were tons of Indonesian people smoking everywhere - it was disgusting.  At one point I needed to use the washroom and they made me take my flip flops off (I'm assuming this was because there was a prayer room right beside the toilets), but the floors in the washroom were full of water... Gross! I snuck back to grab my sandals but got yelled at by the cleaning lady, who then gave me a pair of rank sandals to wear in the washroom.  It was a squat toilet, luckily there was toilet paper, but I guess the locals use the hose beside the toilet to wash themselves, hence all the water on the floor.  Great, they wanted me to walk in bare feet in someone else's toilet water.  I'll take the gross sandals over pee water any day! Getting on the plane was next best part of the experience.  We loaded by the rear to save some hassle, but it was probably the longest boarding process I've ever seen!  We had been sitting in our seats for about 20 minutes by the time everyone was all settled and the plane could take off.  People were pushing each other down the tiny aisle trying to rush to their seats, which only made the process way longer!  It was only about a 2 hour flight to Sumatra from Jakarta - we landed in a city called Padang.  Padang has a population of about 960,000 people, far less developed than Bali, we didn't see any tourists as most backpackers fly into Padang only to catch the first bus out.  Our intention was to stay one night (as lonely planet encourages us to do so) and then head to the Mentawai Islands the next day.  We hopped in a taxi and asked them to take us to a cheap home stay in the city close to the harbor so it will be easy for us to take a boat the next day. All of the information in lonely planet about Padang was out of date, but luckily our taxi driver could speak a little bit of English and understood that we needed a place to sleep.  As soon as we arrived at the home stay and inquired about the boat, reception informed us that the boat was leaving in 5 minutes and there wouldn't be another one until Thursday!  Well, we jumped back into the taxi and drove as fast as we could to the harbor to find the boat just taking off.  They made it seem like the boat was going to wait for us, but no, it left and it felt like we were stranded on a dock in the middle of poverty central.  I've never run so fast on rickety  wooden ladders connecting one dock to another to catch a boat that had no intention of waiting for us!  Of course there were people waiting on land with fast boats readily available to drive us to the boat for a fee.  I feel like they must all work together - why would a boat wait for us in the middle of the ocean, but not wait for us close to the dock.  It makes no sense to me.  Anyways, we paid some guys to drove us in a tiny 'speed' boat (Courtney and I thought the sides were going to cave in the whole ride) to the big boat where we were promised to have a nice cabin to sleep in.  As our boat was approaching, there were so many little Indonesian heads popping out the windows looking at us!  One lady told Courtney that her shorts were too short, and since she's in Indonesia, she would be wearing pants!  I'm wearing shorts, they never said anything to me!  I don't know how the women here wear so much clothing, it's honestly the hottest place I've ever been (hotter than Bali), I couldn't imagine wearing more clothing.  Yes mom, I know I'm in a Muslim country...  And I do dress more conservatively here, but it feels like they expect us to wear a snowsuit or something!  Anyways, Courtney and I plan on hiding from that scary women for the whole boat trip!  I forgot to mention, the ride is 10 hours long on an old wooden ship.  The good thing is it's overnight so we can sleep, the worst thing is the cabin they promised us doesn't exist.  There were no more beds so we had two options: sleep on the floor on the deck where a ton of locals and their children are sleeping, or take turns in one small bunk we found that wasn't taken yet.  We are all splitting the bunk.  We met a nice guy named Edward from Jersey (not New Jersey, he's from the island in-between England and France) who has offered to share his bunk in the rotation so we all get a little bit of rest.  Oh, and to add more fun to this adventure, since we were in such a rush to get on this boat we didn't have enough time to hit the ATM... So we collectively have $10 to last us until we find a bank machine.  Rumor has it there aren't any on this island.  We may have to leave sooner than expected! 

Pulau Siberut, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

March 20, 2012

"Well, things could be worse..." I tried to stay positive all day, but everything seemed to be working against us.  We arrived on an island called Siberut at 3am, with no map and not a clue where to go.  Edward had the number of the home stay he had arranged to stay at and offered to help us out once it was an appropriate time to call them to pick him up.  The four of us, along with many locals, hung out at a 'warang' (little shop with snacks and cigarettes) for about 4 hours until the sun came up.  Everyone was trying to rip us off by offering to take us to town for way more than we should pay, so we declined.  One man offered for us to stay in his jungle home and ensured us it was a nice place to stay.  Since Edward and I are the only ones taking malayria pills, we thought it was best to not go jungle trekking! We didn't have much of an option but to stay at the shop until sunrise since we spent about $6 out of our $10 on the boat over for food.  Once the sun came up, we started our 7km walk into town to find Internet and someone who spoke English so we could figure out the fastest way to get back to Padang.  Luckily I packed some American dollars in my money belt, so I was able to change over (for a terrible rate) my money and we could buy a ferry ticket back to the mainland. Internet was a little hard to come by - we found the Internet cafe with wifi, but since there was an earthquake in Jakarta yesterday, the connection was down.  Perfect... things are working in our favor haha! We decided to take a motorbike back to the ferry (same rickety wooden one we took here) several hours early so we didn't have a chance at missing it.  The motorbike that drove us was hilarious!  It was a motorcycle with a wooden carriage on the left side where the three of us had to squish with our luggage for a 25 minute ride.  Since things could get worse, they did.  On our drive, the wonderful clouds decided to get angry and torrential down pour on us and all of our luggage.  It was lovely.  We were drenched when we boarded the ferry, and most people were confused as to why we were back on the boat.  No one spoke English so we assumed that's what the weird looks were about.  I guess we'll never know.  So now we've been back on the boat for about 7 hours (of course it didn't leave early again today since we were here with time to spare) with another 2 hours until it's scheduled to leave.  I've already finished one of my books today, gone for several walks on a mission to find Bintangs and encountered some pretty awful squat toilets.  The trip won't be getting better for a couple of days.  Our next adventure is to Lake Toba, a 17 hour bus ride from Padang, where we will see volcanos and hang out by a lake for a few days.  We've each got a couple friends who have recommended it, so we won't be left in the dust this time.  Lesson learned: if Lonely Planet only has a couple paragraphs written about a location, with no information on accommodation or anywhere to eat, do not go without doing more research in advance! Our first 'off the beaten track' adventure was not a graceful one! I will fight both Tino and Courtney for first dibs on the next shower! I must add: the reason we initially wanted to come to the Mantawai Islands was for the incredible surf and amazing culture.  In order to get to the great surf, one must take another 4 hour fast boat ride to another island where a local fisherman will take you on another boat out to the surf.  You must have a lot of time to do this trip, as it's quite a mission to get to get a good spot! We clearly didn't do any research so we wouldn't have had enough time to get to the surf spots before it was time to leave ( we budgeted 2 days for the islands.... We've already spent two days here and we haven't seen anything!) We met two Brazilian guys on the ferry back to Padang who just spent 3 weeks on the surf island.  The pictures they showed us made the trek look totally worth it.  I'm very jealous!

Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

March 21, 2012

I think I'm beginning to understand how celebrities feel when paparazzi are constantly taking pictures of them.  We arrived in Padang early this morning to a huge crew of indonesians waiting the arrival of the ferry.  At the harbor there were so many people snapping photos of us, walking down the street people were pulling out their cell phones and taking pictures of us.... It's beginning to get rather tiresome!  We're trying not to be rude, but we've had enough of it here.  It's amazing how different the people in Sumatra are as opposed to Bali.  Both places try to rip you off on anything you do, but the people in Sumatra are just so rude about it.  Courtney and I just pretend that we don't speak English so we don't have to deal with it anymore.  We found a lovely home stay (Brigitte House) to have a long cold shower and relax at.  After spending so many hours on a boat we decided we would rather pay a little bit extra money to fly to Medan instead of taking the 17 hour bumpy bus ride - we met a nice Czech girl on the ferry last night who informed us that the bridge on the way to Medan broke down a few weeks ago and it may not be repaired yet.  Thank goodness we met her, knowing our luck we would have taken the bus only to realize we couldn't get to our preferred destination! We all hit the ATM in advance this time - none of us want to be put in a broke situation again!  I was careless and ended up leaving my debit card in the machine, only to realize I didn't have it several hours later.  I went back to the bank and the lovely security guard retrieved my card from inside the ATM machine!  It was my lucky day.  I honestly don't know what I would have done with no debit card with 3 months left of my trip! Our flight was a little bit delayed, but we got to Medan safely and made sure to prebook a hotel (yes a hotel, not a hostel!) before we got here.  The people in Medan are so friendly and nice, no one is taking pictures of us and people can actually speak English!  I've been eating mie goreng (friend noodles with veggies) for a month so I was ecstatic to see a pizza joint attached to our hotel! In any other case the pizza would have been completely sub par, but in this case it was heaven on earth! Back to western toilets, real (clean) bedbug-free beds and English television.  Thank god we don't have an early checkout in the morning! 

Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

March 22, 2012

Imagine yourself in this situation... You wake up in a clean hotel room, after the best sleep you've had in about a week, with hot showers and fluffy pillows.  You step outside your hotel to a city that is so dirty and completely chaotic.  You are in Medan - better described in Lonely Planet as regularly taking honors in "the worst place you've ever visited" conservations.  You are offered free breakfast from the hotel clerk that consists of rice, noodles, and toast.  No surprise on the rice and noodles, it's most likely leftover from the night before, so you settle for toast covered in funny tasting butter and chocolate sprinkles.  The sprinkles really do add a lot of flavor.  The hotel arranges a car to pick you up to take you to Lake Toba - the deepest lake in the world surrounded by inactive volcanos, about 4 hours drive from Medan.  The car that rolls up is rather luxurious- leather seats, air conditioning, and smells good.  You start to get settled in for the long drive ahead of you when the car stops at a shop and a bunch of people are telling you in their broken English to get out of the car.  Another car is coming to pick you up. A couple busses pull up, with spacious  seats and big TVs.  None of them are your bus.  About 45 minutes later a minivan pulls up and it's your transportation to Lake Tabo.  You and your travel mates get settled in the van with no seat belts, and get informed that there are still 3 more passengers to pick up so it's better to all sit next to each other.  They must have miscounted because 3 adult passengers join you, along with their 2 children.  The children are very well behaved until the driver goes completely insane.  He spends more time driving on the right hand side of the road than the left and uses his horn more than you would blink your eyelids.  He weaves so dangerously between every single car that you can actually see your life flash before your eyes.  Turn out the driver grew up in the jungle... Perfect. So now you are surrounded by screaming children as you fear for your life for the next 3.5 hours.  Sound like fun? That was our journey to the most beautiful place we've seen since Gili Trawangan.  We couldn't decide what was worse, the 4 hour drive from hell, or the 32 hours straight on a rat and cockroach infested wooden boat full of Indonesian men staring at us.  I think I'll take the crazy ride - who needs skydiving, just come to Indonesia for an adrenaline rush! At least the destination will be a beautiful one!  Lake Toba is simply stunning.  Again we barely made the ferry, but this time we didn't feel rushed or ripped off when buying a ticket.  70 cents for a 45 minute ferry to paradise sounds pretty good to me! We met a nice indonesian man with pretty good English on the ferry who offered us to stay in his guesthouse.  Turns out his place is the number one pick in Lonely Planet so we took it.  At $6 a night ($2 each) with internet, hot showers, western toilets and right on the beach, it was hard to say no!  We cheers'd with an ice cold Bintang to the success of our arrival.  Now it's time for some well deserved R&R! Oh, and happy birthday Danny!

Pulau Samosir, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

March 23, 2012

Mmmmm the smell and feel of clean laundry has never been so great!  Especially after all of the contents in our bags were still wet from our nightmare of a boat ride! The past month I haven't had to do my own laundry and it's been lovely! We had a pretty calm day today, which is pretty unusual for us, but it was very nice.  As I mentioned before, Lake Toba is 900 meters above sea level, it is 100 kilometres long, 30 kilometres wide, and 505 meters at its deepest point. It is the largest lake in Indonesia and the largest volcanic lake in the world. We are staying in an area called Tuk Tuk, which is connected to the main island of Samosir by a small road.  Tuk Tuk is really small, it only takes about 35 minutes to walk around the whole thing, and it's filled with guest houses and tiny shops.  Samosir is the size of Singapore and houses beautiful waterfalls and hot springs.  We rented scooters today and drove around Tuk Tuk and into Samosir to find the hot springs.  After 2 hours of scooting around and a very numb bum, we finally arrived at the hot springs.  We were picturing something beautiful... instead they were two pools, (one for girls and one for guys) separated by a large stone wall, filled with steaming hot murky water.  We made the executive decision to skip the hot springs and swim in the turquoise lake just beside.  The lake was so warm it was worth the drive! We hopped back on the scooter to head back to Tuk Tuk and find the waterfalls.  For some reason the ride back only took half as long (there are no speed limits here so we really didn't know how fast we were going!) but no luck finding the waterfalls.  All of the locals were steering us in different directions we thought we'd save the waterfalls for tomorrow so we can ask new people.  On the drive we passed many traditional Batak houses, which have very pointy roofs that curve out at the bottom.  Also, the tomb stones on this island are pretty neat - they are about the size of a miniature dollhouse, and have so much detail! We are spending the next 5 days here to relax, so I apologize in advance if my posts aren't full of crazy adventures!

Pulau Samosir, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

March 27, 2012

Happy Birthday Mom!! The last 4 days have been filled with rest and relaxation.  In bed by 9pm most nights, and up at the crack of dawn... Life feels so much different here than at home! We changed accommodation after the second night of 3 of us in a double bed covered by a mosquito net that doesn't breathe.  Just next door we found a much nicer place to stay, where there were many more backpackers to hang out with.  We met two Swiss guys (Bert and Ben) who we've been hanging out with for the last couple days.  Tino went on a nice hike with them to find the waterfalls, while Courtney and I rented bicycles to go shopping one of the days.  Unfortunately nothing was purchased, but it was still nice to get a bit of a work out in since we haven't done much moving around this past week.  Here is an idea of what our days have been looking like: Wake up early, have eggs on toast with cheese, accompanied by hot ginger tea for breakfast (it's a nice change from the banana pancakes offered everywhere in Bali), catch up with friends and family on Skype, grab our books and hang out by the lake, go for a swim, tan, read, lurk on Facebook, play volleyball and badminton, go for another swim, canoe trips attempted and failed (those canoes are skinny and very wobbly. Courtney and I actually tipped our canoe, go figure!).  Sometimes if we're tired from our full day of relaxing we'll have an afternoon nap, wake up for $2 dinner and then spend the rest of the evening drinking Bintangs while playing cards and yatsy with the boys from Switzerland.  Why is our life so hard?! Bedtime is Tino's most dreaded time of the day - while Courtney and I are nuzzled into our big bed with a light mosquito net draped over us (it reminds me of a princess bed a little girl would have) dreaming of another beautiful sunny day ahead of us, Tino is awoken by the two of us snoring.  He says we are never in unison, so it's one loud, constant snore! Neither of us even knew that we snored.  I feel bad, Tino hasn't had much sleep! Lake Toba truly is a magical place.  Even though there really isn't much to do here, it still feels like our days are filled with fun moments.  On our first night in the new accommodation, we were lucky enough to sit front row for a traditional Batak dance and song show.  I take after my mother, so of course I was up there dancing with the girls when they asked for volunteers! The dance was rather simple (and to be honest, kind of boring), but it was still a good laugh dancing in front of everyone.  The song portion of the program was amazing!  There were about 7 old men that looked so happy to be singing in front of an audience.  The music was very upbeat and it was definitely the highlight of the show.  Anyways, we're leaving Lake Toba tomorrow morning to head back to Medan.  We may check out Medan in the afternoon, given the taxi ride back is better than the one here!  Hopefully our next driver won't have done his driving test in the jungle! 

Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

March 28, 2012

Well, now that I've been to Medan twice, I can officially say (and agree with Lonely Planet) that it is the worst place I've ever visited.  Actually, Padang is right up there, but Medan is so dirty I can't even explain.... And the ride getting back was just as gross.  Fortunately this time we didn't fear for our lives, but we took a public bus to save some money and when we got off we had a layer of dirt on ourselves.  Courtney and I wore pants to avoid getting harassed by the locals, so not only were we uncomfortable in the dirt, we also were wearing pants in 45 degree weather.  We could really feel the temperature change once we got closer to Medan.  It is much cooler at Lake Toba due to the elevation, and the air just felt so much cleaner.  I miss Lake Toba! Everything was just so simple there.  The people were friendly, our home stay was clean, it was quiet... And we had wifi.  Tonight we are staying in a 'hotel' close to the airport since we have an early flight out in the morning.  We're ranking the room with being comparable to sleeping on the wooden boat full of rats and cockroaches.  We can't decide which place is worse!  At least on the boat we had the scenery! Both places we felt trapped because there is no way I'm wandering the streets in Medan!  Good thing there is really nothing around to check out! Our room had one dirty double bed, no sheets, and a toilet that didn't flush.  Beside the toilet lay a giant tub filled with dirty water and a scoop - this is to assist you in putting water in the toilet bowl to make everything go down the drain.  A shower was the first thing we needed but the showers were so dirty it was hard to decide if we were cleaner before or after the shower.  Good thing there was no water available at our hotel so we didn't need to make that decision!  To top things off, our hotel was surrounded by a few mosques.  The squealing, I mean singing, can really get to you after a while.  Thank goodness it stops at around 7pm, but it's right back in your ear come 5am! Let's just say, we are happy to get to Singapore tomorrow!  Courtney has warned me that I will want to kiss the ground when we arrive - it's so clean! 

Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

March 29, 2012

I've been out of Canada for 90 days now.  60 of which were in two first world countries, 30 in a 3rd world country - although I'm not quite sure if I would call Indonesia a third world country.  Tino and I were having this debate when we got to Padang and started noticing all the nice cars people were driving.  I found it a bit weird that people in the big cities were driving luxurious cars alongside scooters and Tuk tuks.  Everyone here seems to get by and are content with the things they have, able to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families.  Of course there will be people trying to rip you off to make a couple extra bucks, but that's what's expected when you travel to a tourist destination.   I preferred Bali over Sumatra as a whole.  I didn't meet a single unfriendly Balinese person in the 3 weeks I was visiting Bali.  I felt comfotable walking around in North American clothing because the majority of people living on the island of Bali are Hindu, not Muslim like the rest of Indonesia.  It's too bad I didn't have the chance to check out Java, but there is always next time.  I would like to say I'll come back to Sumatra, but if I did I'd have to bring a lot of patience and money.  It would be cool to do the Mantawai Islands the right way - steel ferry to the correct island where you can buy food, have a place to stay and be surrounded by other surfing tourists. I found Sumatra to be a lot cheaper than Bali  - perhaps this has to do with the lack of tourists so they haven't inflated their prices.  In Bali we were spending about $20-$30/day, whereas on Lake Toba the bill was about $15/day.  Pretty good!  I began to get used to stray cats and dogs around, most of the time not even noticing their presence.  It was normal to have to honk your horn to remove the chickens, cows and sheep off the road while driving your scooter! Hot showers became a luxury, if you've got running water at all.  I'll never complain about water pressure or temperature ever again after spending 2 weeks bathing in cold, salt water showers, one drip at a time.  I will also never complain about traffic laws - I'm now happy they exist in North America! I'm also happy that seat belts exist, and doors on vehicles that actually close. Oh the small things in life you take for granted!  Now I'm on a flight to Singapore - it feels like first class travel compared to the budget airlines we were taking around Indonesia! I'm excited to be able to drink tap water again and save some money and the environment by not buying bottles of water all day long.  90 days left of travel.  I'm happy to start it off fresh and clean again! 

Singapore, Singapore

March 29, 2012

WOW! Singapore is amazing! To begin, the airport is massive and has a butterfly sanctuary in terminal 3! Free Internet everywhere (remember, I'm not used to this at the moment!), escalators, Burger King, and Duty Free! It doesn't feel like we're in SE Asia anymore! Courtney and I picked up some vodka from duty free to save ourselves some money - the last time she was here she paid $40 for a jug of beer... eeek! We're budget travelers, duty free makes us smile :) The transpiration in Singapore is also very advanced.  It felt like I was back in Vancouver taking the sky train from the airport to the city.  $500 fine for eating or drinking on the sky train, $1000 fine for having a water bottle in public, death penalty for trafficking drugs... Singapore is intense! Along with those fines are... No Spitting (thank goodness! Although I did see a couple dirty Asians spit and was tempted to act like an undercover cop and charge them - I could use the cash!), No Smoking (basically anywhere - which is a huge change from Indonesia.  In Indo you can smoke literally anywhere... on busses, while you're going to the washroom, even the people making your food are puffing on a cigarette, possibly ashing in your meal... So this no smoking thing is nice!), No Chewing Gum (you can't buy it anywhere here, and if you're caught with it going through customs they'll take it away from you until you leave the country!).  I don't get it... They'll take the time to remove gum from your handbag, but (again) they didn't take my swiss army knife out of my carry on? They mentioned it when I went through security, but let me keep it.  Ohhhh priorities.  We're staying in an area called Little India, which is about a 50 minute train ride from the airport - multiple transfers and we didn't get lost! The hostel we're staying at is similar to the ones I stayed at in Australia and New Zealand - bunk beds, clean, and similar in price too.  Singapore is a very expensive city, I'd say comparable to Australian prices... Good thing we're only staying for 3 days! After having our first shower since Lake Toba (remember, there was no water for us in Medan), we decided to take on the city!  Our first mission was to find some Laksa (one of the only signature dishes in Singapore).  It's basically a huge bowl of soup with a coconut curry(ish) paste, filled with tons of different kinds of seafood.  Next we roamed around the city... Found a couple multi-level malls where every store was a camera and electronics shop.  Luckily I will have a lot of selection for who fixes my camera, but this kind of mall wasn't exactly what we were looking for! After walking through Clarke Quay (bar and restaurant district), and into the high-rise area of town, we spotted it.  Our dream destination - Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  This hotel was built a couple years ago and has everything you could ever imagine inside.  There are 3 hotel towers connected by a large boat object on the roof.  The boat is actually a swanky club during the evening, with an infinity pool overlooking the entire city for daytime use.  Our mission for the next 3 days is to somehow get up to that pool! Only hotel guests are able to use to pool ($700/night for a room), so we need to make friends with people staying there! Besides the nightclub, swimming pool and hotel rooms, there are also 4 floors of shopping at the base of the towers.  All the high end shops you would imagine (including a cell phone shop - Vertu - where cellphones range from $8,000 to $60,000 without a plan... That's not indonesian prices anymore!), the most incredible food court, a massive casino and an indoor skating rink!  Such a cool building, but we definitely felt a little bit out of place! Tomorrow we're going go check out Orchard Road (shopping), Sentoza Island (beaches) and maybe Chinatown.  I love Singapore! 

Singapore, Singapore

March 30, 2012

Touring Singapore on a budget is more difficult than I thought it would be! We said goodbye to Tino this morning, he's off on the next part of his adventure, so now Courtney and I are left to explore SE Asia alone! After having the spiciest Indian food for breakfast, we took the train from Little India to Orchard Road to check out the shopping scene! We were blown away when we got off the train... The mall was enormous! It had multiple levels, offering anything you could ever imagine, with far more selection than just cameras and electronics.  Both Courtney and I blew our budgets today.... Oh well, when in Singapore! Since I've been living out of a backpack for the past 3 months and I sent a lot of my clothes home, I had to get an outfit for the bar because the backpacker look does not fit in well in Singapore! Courtney and I got all dolled up for the first time in a while and hit the town! We got approached by some club promoters who asked us to come to a bar called Artica, where there was free drinks all night!  Now that's on my budget! We ended up getting invited into an area called the 'white room' (a super exclusive VIP room behind the DJ booth) where we hung out with the producer of Fashion Television Singapore, some Russian and Asian models, and Chris Brown's official DJ - DJ Babey Drew! He played some really great music! I'm just about ready to hit the beach life again, clubs in a big city are a bit too much to handle right now! 

Singapore, Singapore

March 31, 2012

Checkers Inn... Such a great hostel in Little India with free breakfast, fast wifi, really clean facilities and friendly, helpful staff.  It's not listed in Lonely Planet, but I definitely recommend it to anyone traveling on a budget.  We first attempted to nurse our hangover with the free breakfast, but after a failed attempt we basically slept away the day until we felt upbeat enough to explore more of the city.  After several hours of moping around, we finally hopped on the train to Sentosa Island - a manmade island about 25 minutes from Little India.  On the way there we stopped by a hawker center for dinner.  It's similar to all the markets in Indonesia, with tons of cheap food to choose from, all of them being different ethnicities.  It was a bit of a trek to get there, we had a take a couple of trains and find our way through another crazy huge mall, but once we arrived it was amazing!  Sentosa Island is basically Disneyland for adults.  It houses Universal Studios, tons of over priced restaurans ($10 for a bottle of water), an indoor skydiving ride (weird concept), a couple outdoor bars with surfing rides (very cool!), 4 beaches and much more.  We went at night so unfortunately we couldn't lounge on the beach, but I can imagine it being really popular and busy during the day since it's the only beach area around Singapore.  We spent a couple hours just walking around, checking things out, before heading back into town.  There's not very much to do if you can't spend a lot of money, but we ended up running into the same club promoters from last night who offered us a couple free cocktails before heading home.  It would have been rude to decline, so we accepted their offer and hung out on the rooftop of a club looking over the beaches and ocean.  We attempted to take part in earth hour tonight, but Singapore didn't really do much to support it.  The entire city was still lit up from 8:30-9:30, perhaps there were more candles out than usual, but I was a bit disappointed by their efforts.  I ended up seeing the majority of the things I wanted to see while I was here.  3 days really is enough time to check out this tiny country! Up early in the morning... Next stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! 

Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia

April 1, 2012

From Canadian currency, to Australian, to New Zealand, back to Australian, to Indonesian Rupiah, to Singapore Singapura and now Malaysian Ringit, my brain is about to explode! Trying to stay on a strict budget when currencies are constantly changing is very difficult, but it helps not to spend as much because I take so long to figure out how much it is in Canadian dollars that I lose my urge to impulse shop! Our journey from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur was very easy and stress free.  We took the train from Little India to the airport (I'll never let down how amazing I think Singapore transit is!) at 6:30am to catch out 9:30am flight.  It was only a 45 minute cruise in the sky before we landed at LCCT airport in Kuala Lumpur.  There are two airports in the city, and they are very far away from each other so it's important to double check where you're flying out of! Courtney made that mistake last time she was here and almost missed her flight! We got off the plane and paid 8MR (less that $3 each) for an hour bus ride into KL Sentral.  From there we took a taxi to our home stay right in the middle of the city.  Overall the journey took about 7 hours, but it was so smooth we didn't care! For once things were going our way.  During the afternoon we wandered around KL, checking out some of the shops - mainly looking for cheap knock off handbags, but no such luck yet.  On our way back to our home stay we passed multiple massage parlors so we got suckered into having a back massage and foot reflexology.  The foot massage was amazing, but the back massage was something else!  This little old lady basically beat me up for 30 minutes straight! Courtney was in the room next to me and could hear her whacking my back! Hers was a little more calm, but I guess Malaysian massages are nothing compared to Thai massages.  Thai massages actually make you cry... but I'm willing to try it out for the experience!  Courtney and I met up with mom's friend David Gerard and his friend Carol for dinner.  Carol is from Malaysia, so she ordered a large variety of signature dishes that she thought we would enjoy.  There was so much food, and it was all delicious!  Carol was explaining that there are 3 main races in Malaysia - Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian.  We had dinner at an outdoor market called Jalan Alor and our spread consisted of butter crab, beef satay, fish ball soup, black duck noodles (yummy!), tofu, broccoli, and another type of noodles.  We were stuffed.  It was so great to meet both of them and they gave us great advice for the rest of our travels!  Courtney didn't get much sleep last night, and I was tired from having my ass kicked so we called it an early night tonight.  We'll check out the Patrona Towers and Chinatown tomorrow once we've got more energy! 

Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia

April 2, 2012

Ohhhh Chinatown... I love you but I hate you at the same time.   Courtney and I woke up to a torrential downpour, sounding similar to a bucket of water constantly being poured over KL, but no rain in sight once we got our lazy butts out of bed and into town.  It turned out to be a really nice and hot day, which makes the malls so appealing with their blasting air conditioning, even though the merchandise in the malls are really subpar.  Just like Singapore, Bukit Bintang (one of the main shopping areas in KL) is floor upon floor of shops selling cameras, mobile phones, tablets and computers.  If you're not in the market to buy any of those items, like myself, you may find yourself just enjoying the cool air conditioning while observing the strange things that Asian people do.  After a Wendy's breakfast and sushi for lunch, Courtney and I ventured off to Chinatown - the beginning of the end.  We spent 3 hours bartering with vendors for deals on watches, handbags, hair scarves and clothing.  By the time the 3 hour mark hit we were pooped and had to rush to a post office to mail everything back home.  3.8 kilos later, all my souvenirs are on their merry little way by sea and should be arriving in Ottawa anywhere within the next 1-3 months.  Over the last couple of days in KL I've noticed the really high sky rises in the city.  Two of them are the Petrona Towers (twin towers) which are really cool to look at but you can only go about halfway up to look over the city.  It would have been cool to see at night, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time as we had to pack and get to bed early for another big day of travel tomorrow.  Another cool thing would have been to go to the Time Square Building, where they have an amusement park on the top floor - roller coasters included!  Again, not enough time!  We need to be up at 3am to catch our flight to the Perhentian Islands!  We're beach bound baby! (.... I'm beginning to think McDonalds for dinner wasn't such a good idea!)

Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

April 3, 2012

Early flights may be the cheapest option, but they are definitely inconvenient in Kuala Lumpur.  After only allowing ourselves 5 hours to sleep (and not getting much sleep because we are staying in is a party hostel), 3am came way too early.  A 20 minute teksi ride and hour bus ride later, we finally arrived at the LCCT airport. By this point I've carried my luggage onto 4 flights, and now the security has finally noticed that I've been flying with a Swiss Army Knife, nail scissors and a couple bottles over 100ml.  I was curious if I'd be able to get away with it, and now I know which airports have leaner security than others.  Somehow Courtney got through with a bottle of vodka, but I won't cause a fuss... The vodka is far more important than a swiss army knife! We landed in Kota Bharu, where we arranged at the airport to take a teksi to Kuala Besut so we could take a ferry to the Perhentian Islands.  A bit of a mission, but I slept the whole way :) Courtney on the other hand informed me that this teksi ride was very similar to the one we took on Sumatra, and we almost died about 3 times!  I'm happy I missed it!  Anyways, after another long journey we made it! And it's absolutely breathtaking! White sandy beaches, the clearest turquoise water, and lots of backpackers!  The atmosphere reminds me a little bit of Gili Trawangan, but I suppose that's what island life is.  We plan on staying here for about 4 days so Courtney can get her PADI Open Water, while I do a couple fun dives.  I'm praying to see a shark! 

Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

April 4, 2012

"Wake up; swim; lie on beach; nap; snorkel; eat; wander; snooze".  When I received my Lonely Planet book a year ago for my birthday, I opened it up right in the center and the first page it landed on was the highlights of Malaysia - the above quote being the first thing I read about the Perhentian Islands.  I told myself that if I only make it to one place in Malaysia, this would be it.  I'm so happy I'm here! The only thing I would add to the quote above is scuba diving.  Courtney was in class today so I went for two dives, both with great visibility and lots of different fish than Gili Trawangan.  My first dive was to a dive site called 'Temple of the Sea'.  I saw tons of sea urchin, clown fish, parrot fish, a really long and slithering eel, and multiple sharks! FINALLY! I've been on 8 dives now without seeing one, but today was my day.  They were bamboo sharks - just tiny little guys without real teeth so they are harmless.  They were all sleeping under coral so the majority of them I could only see either their mouth or their tails that were sticking out.... But one shark was sleeping under a coral with a huge hole at the top so we were able to stick our hands in and pet it! I was a little nervous at first but as soon as I saw the others do it, I was fine.  One of the people I was diving with was still pretty nervous in the water, so he used up his air fairly quickly.  I've never seen anyone have to share their air supply before, so that was kinda cool, but a bit annoying because it cut my dive shorter than I'm used to.  I still had about another 20 minutes worth of air in my tank! My next dive was to a site called T3.  I met a nice girl who's been diving around here for a couple weeks and she said if I were to do only 3 dives here, her recommendations would be Temple, T3, and Sugarwreck.  So those are the ones I signed up for (sugar wreck is tomorrow).  Anyways, I noticed I was paired up with the same group as my morning dive and really didn't want to dive with them again because I felt like I didn't get my entire money's worth on my first dive.  They wouldn't let me switch groups so to make a long story short, I only got to dive for about 30 minutes before the same guy ran out of air again.  To put that into perspective for those of you who don't dive... That's a really short and shitty dive.  Normally my dives are about 60-70 minutes.  I wasn't too happy, so I mentioned it to the owner of the dive school and he assured me my dives tomorrow would be longer.  Here's to hoping!  In that half hour under the sea at T3 something pretty scary happened!  I was diving with my little asian buddy when I looked to my right and saw this giant fish! (later I realized things look bigger under water so it most likely wasn't THAT big!) I got my buddy's attention and signaled to him what I saw.  He swam over to it and all of a sudden it started attacking him! It was darting around so quickly around us it was making me a bit nervous, but apparently it was a triggerfish.  You're supposed to stay away from triggerfish because they are quite dangerous, but I didn't know what it was and I didn't see our guide make the sign for triggerfish - but now I know what to stay away from! I guess it's nesting season at the moment, and my buddy did stir up a lot of the ground when he was panicking, which probably only make the triggerfish even more angry!  Anyways, that was pretty exciting! I met this guy from England, Charlie, on my dive boat who has been traveling all over SE Asia the last 5 months and gave me some great tips on what to check out.  Charlie, Courtney, and I took a walk (after we splurged and had a lobster dinner! Yum!) over to Long Beach on the other side of Kecel Perhentian.  None of us were in the mood to party, but Charlie wanted to check out the nightlife since it's his last night on the island.  I guess we got there rather early, because there definitely wasn't a party!  We all sat on the beach with tiki torches surrounding us as a source of light, while we watched a really cool fireshow.  Hey Tino, if you're reading this, I stubbed my toe again on my walk home! Courtney and I need you to take care of us! We miss you! 

Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

April 5, 2012

It feels like today was the first day I've been able to sleep in in the longest time!  Courtney and I switched rooms yesterday from a hut on the beach with a fan and mosquito net (and door handle that kept falling off) to a dorm room in a nice resort with air conditioning and no mosquitos, cheaper too!  The people who ran our first place were super unfriendly and our room felt claustrophobic.  We may be sharing a room with 8 other people, but at least we can sleep in a cool environment!  Anyways, had a great sleep in while Courtney went to her second day of her open water certification. The people at Quiver Dive School have been on my case the last few days about getting my advanced certification and I keep having to tell myself that it's a waste of money!  Realistically, I need to think about how beneficial an advanced certification will be in Vancouver.  I honestly don't think I'll dive very often when I get home so I keep having to keep my backbone in check! Today I went on a wreck dive to Sugarwreck.  It was really neat, although it would have been way cooler if I was able to 'penetrate' the wreck (their words, not mine!) basically we weren't allowed to go inside.  We just swam around and looked at all the crazy coral growing off the ship and all the colorful fish living inside.  My group today was far better than yesterday, and we were able to stay down for a full hour before some people started to run out of air.  I guess there is a course you can take to be able to go inside the wreck... Tempting, but again, how many wrecks will I be able to get my hands on is the question.  I'll stick to my fun dives for now, and in the end I'll be able to check out more dive sites.  My afternoon consisted of having a delicious lunch in the sun, then lying on the beach reading a book, then dinner, then a lie down... It's pretty relaxing here! Some people I've talked to have been here for a couple weeks and I can see why!  Courtney keeps reassuring me that the beaches in Thailand are incredible and we've got loads of them coming up, so we can't stay on this island for too long! Anyways, tonight I got suckered into doing an adventure deep dive tomorrow morning.  It is part of the advanced PADI certification, and will allow me to be able to dive up to 30 meters on my recreational dives.  Now I'll be able to dive almost any site without my advanced certification! Sweet! 

Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

April 6, 2012

Monitor Lizards... Not your typical, cute, friendly little lizard next door!  Charlie mentioned to me a couple days ago that there were giant lizards hanging out in the swampy water behind our favorite restaurant.  After dinner tonight, Courtney and I decided to check these lizards out!  They are more like the size of a mini crocodile, although some are venomous, they are eaten by locals and their meat is considered to be an aphrodisiac.  I'm not sure if I'm adventurous enough to try it, but I'm sure it's delicious. Not! Anyways, finding the lizards were pretty much the most exciting thing that's happened to us on this remote island paradise! I couldn't imagine how I would react if I was sunbathing and saw one sauntering around along the beach! I woke up early this morning to do my adventure deep dive while Courtney did the last day of her course.  Although we only went to 24 meters (I'm able to now go as deep as 30 meters), it's amazing how much cooler the water is between 18-24 meters!  Also, when you're down that deep, colours begin to lose their pigment.  The colour red totally disappears, and orange gets slightly darker as well.  We did some course work underwater for the first 5 minutes of our dive, and the rest of our dive was a fun dive.  I saw another giant triggerfish and begin swimming towards it when my instructor made the triggerfish hand signal.  Before I got too close, I started swimming directly in the other direction so I didn't piss it off again! I don't know why I'm so drawn to these fish.  They are so miserable looking! Huge lips and they always look like their pouting!  They seem to always be alone too... Maybe they just need a buddy to cheer them up! I've noticed that in each area that I've been diving, each dive site pretty much as the same fish.  Even though I'm totally addicted to diving, I think from now on I'm going to do only one dive in each location - this should save me some money too! Anyways, this is our last night on this island before we hit the next.  Big day of relaxing on the beach tomorrow before our journey starts in the evening.  Overnight bus adventure to the other side of Malaysia! 

Pulau Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia

April 8, 2012

Courtney and I seem to be getting better and better at long journeys.  It all began with a lovely morning of lounging on the beach before the miles began.  We took the ferry from Kecil Perhentian to the mainland of Kuala Besut, then hopped in a minibus for a 2 hour ride north to Kota Bharu where we had to sit and hang among locals for 4 hours while we waited for our overnight bus to the other side of Malaysia.  Lonely Planet says Kota Bharu is a cool place to check out, and there is more to see than just an overnight stop. Courtney and I thought otherwise.  We had just spent 5 days on a beach surrounded by other tourists, and now we were surrounded by locals starring at us again.  It felt like we were back in Sumatra!  We ended up hanging out at a McDonalds right beside the bus station just so we wouldn't be harrassed any longer! 10pm couldn't come any sooner!  Jumped on our double decker bus to start our 7 hour drive to Penang, an island on west side of Malaysia.  Again, we were the only white people and no one spoke English.  Luckily we woke up in time to check our clocks and knew it was about time to get off the bus.  We used or judgement and assumed we were in Penang, and it turns out we were right! From there we took a taxi to an area of the island called Georgetown so we could catch our ferry to Pulau Langkawi - our island paradise.  Since we arrived at 5am, the ferry terminal wasn't open yet so we hung out at a 24 hour Indian restaurant for a couple hours to kill some time.  Again, another awkward moment as we tried to nap and read our books at the back of the restaurant so we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves.  Jumped on the 8:30am ferry and 2.5 hours later we made it!  It only took us about 24 hours, and cost $76 each to get to the other side of the country and hop 3 different islands! Anyways, now we are at Langkawi and couldn't be happier!  Although the Perhentian Islands are more beautiful, the appeal of Langkawi is that it's a duty free island, so a lot of things we much cheaper here than the rest of Malaysia - mainly alcohol! The Langkawi area is made up of 99 islands, some of which were really turned upside-down during the 2004 tsunami.  We are staying at a wicked backpacker home stay right across the street from the beach and have already met some people from Vancouver! The Yaletown Keg being one of their favorite places to dine! - how can you blame them, Yaletown has some of the friendliest staff! Ha! While we were in the Andaman Sea splashing about, a nice local came over to us and offered us a ride around the islands on his jetski.  We gladly accepted considering if we were to have paid for that trip it would have cost us about $200 each.  Ohhh the glories of being a girl sometimes!  Anyways, since it's Easter Sunday, and we haven't had a drink in over a week, we think we'll celebrate with our new Canadian friends tonight! Happy Easter! 

Pulau Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia

April 10, 2012

Wow, a Happy Easter turned into a not so happy hangover :( we all had a little too much fun on Easter Sunday - partying with locals on the beach til 5am - that our entire next day was completely ruined.  Not much to blog about for Monday, since we all basically lay around our guesthouse all day, except for when we decided to go on a mission to get sushi at a famous restaurant on the island.  Just our luck... The restaurant was closed when we arrived, so we had to hang out at a resort nearby until it opened again.  It was totally worth it though. The sushi was by far the best sushi I've ever had and the staff was very helpful and friendly.  The chef came by our table at one point to 'do surgery' on Courtney's spicy California roll since it was too hot.  The chef took some chopsticks with her tiny nimble fingers and so delicately took each individual chili flake out of the roll.  It was impressive! But yeah, that was literally the extent of our day which was a real shame. Since we did nothing yesterday, we made sure to have an eventful day today. Courtney and I have been hanging out with an English couple (Joanna and Tim) for the last couple of days, so the 4 of us decided to hire a car and explore the island.  The car we got was hilarious. It looked like it was from the 80's... The smallest tin can car I've ever had the pleasure of riding in.  Tim is 6'3" so it was pretty funny watching him get in and out of the drivers seat! Luckily all three of us girls are pretty short, so he was able to get plenty of leg room.  Our first goal was to find Seven Wells - a famous waterfall about a 20 minute drive from the main beach area we are staying on.  With mine and courtney's luck finding waterfalls, I'm surprised we actually found it! There were 271 very steep steps to the top of the waterfall, where there was a beautiful look out with hot springs to relax in.  Luckily the water was freezing because by the time we got to the top of the falls there is no way we would have enjoyed a hot water rinse off!  The water had formed the most interesting patterns in the rocks, that it made a bit of a water slide if the water was streaming quickly enough.  We all had the pleasure of taking a few turns sliding down the rocks into giant pools of water!  Next we walked back down the steps (far more enjoyable on the way down!) to the bottom of the waterfall where there were far more tourists and even more pools of water.  Courtney and I had quite a challenging climb up the rocks to the base of the waterfall and the way down was even worse!  I ended up slipping on the rocks because they were so wet that the stream took my feet right out from under me and I slid the whole way down.  God must have been looking over me because it could have been a disaster and I didn't even break a nail! I drew a lot of attention to myself since I was screaming so much and everyone couldn't believe I didn't smash my body against all the rocks that were around me.  I don't think it could have gone so well if I had planned it! Anyways, I'm safe and it was a pretty fun ride to be honest! We hopped back in the car in search for the Oriental Village and Cable Cars.  They turns out to be quite close to the waterfalls so we didn't waste any time getting lost.  Unfortunately the clouds came in so we decided against the cable cars since we wouldn't have been able to see much of a view, but we heard that on a nice day you are able to see the Thai Islands from the top of the lookout.  We're headed to Thailand tomorrow, so I'll get enough Thai islands while I'm there! In the Oriental Village we came across a nice Malaysian couple who had two bags with snakes inside.  The larger of the two was a python, 8 years old, and it was massive! Sammy (the owner of the snake) said that the python sleeps in his bed with him every night and he's raised the snake since it was only a couple of months old.  I can't remember what the smaller snake was called but Courtney got the snake wrapped around her for a quick picture. I was tempted but I couldn't bring myself to have it wrapped around me! Sammy is in the Guiness Book of World Records for living in a cage with 200 venomous snakes for 36 days.  He was missing half his thumb and his face as all demented... Definitely had the scars to prove it!  After we hung out with the snakes for a bit, we were all being silly and taking photos sitting on plastic tiger figures in the grass when a Malay woman came out of a coffee shop and told us she had a tiger in there that we could see! So random! The tiger was sleeping, but it just seemed like such a weird thing to have a tiger hanging out in a cafe.  We left Oriental Village and headed for Black Sand Beach.  The map was a bit difficult to read as there were no roads marking the turn off, but we think we found it.  There was a bit of black sand, but not nearly as much as we were expecting.  It was a bit disappointing, but oh well... For the amount of white sand beaches we've seen on our trip, any other colour is a change.  We had planned on visiting a bat cave on the way home but we were all so tired that we decided to skip that too.  We literally did the entire island of Langkawi in one day.  It was a good idea to rent the car! For dinner the 4 of us went drove to a Mediterranean restaurant that had outstanding reviews online and in a few guide books.  The food was delicious and the staff were so involved in our dining experience.  I'm pretty sure I saw our server in the kitchen making the food at the same time as she was waiting tables.   Good thing it wasn't too busy or I'm not sure how she would have been able to handle it!  Anyways, Courtney and I had to say goodbye to Joanna and Tim tonight, as they are headed south and we are headed north.  We are leaving bright and early for Phuket... Only another 12 hours of travel ahead of us :)

Krabi, Krabi, Thailand

April 11, 2012

TSUNAMI WARNING!... Of course there's a tsunami warning.  We were on our way from Langkawi to Phuket this morning so we could enjoy the beautiful beaches of Ko Phi Phi and other surrounding areas for the next couple weeks before we hit up the full moon party in Ko Pha-Ngan at the beginning of May. Courtney and I got picked up at 7:45am from our hostel and taken to the ferry that took us over to Satun, a border crossing in Thailand.  Our ferry was late arriving in Satun, so we ended up missing our bus to Phuket.  Nobody told us this though until we inquired how we were going to get from Satun to Phuket in 6 hours instead of 8.  Once on the bus we ran into a couple people we met along our journey, all headed to Phuket as well! What started off as a fun bus ride soon changed when 3 girls from Finland informed us that their friend just called and told them about a tsunami warning in Indonesia and the west coast islands of Thailand - just where we were headed.  For about 20 minutes we hesitated what to do, but as soon as we heard that there was an 8.9 earthquake, the sea level dropped about 10 meters and it was estimated to hit Krabi and Phuket within the hour, we jumped off the bus and took the first taxi we saw to the other side of the mainland.  Two guys from Wales (Josh and Dan) followed our lead and shared the taxi.  It was about a 2 hour drive to a town I can't even pronounce and we were contemplating spending the night and heading up to Bangkok in the morning.  After reading what Lonely Planet had to say about this town, and taking into consideration the bombing that happened last was half an hour away, we asked to get dropped off at the train station so we could take the next train to Bangkok tonight.  It ended up costing us more to travel by minibus, ferry, taxi, bus, taxi, and then a train than it would have to fly direct... But I guess you don't know these things when you're in a state of panic! So now, finally, the four of us are an air conditioned sleeper train headed to Bangkok.  We've had to completely rearrange our plans (again), and we'll be back to visit this part of Thailand in a month and a half. Let me just say, my first day in Thailand was not how I expected it to be! Oh and to top it off, as far as I know right now, the tsunami has yet to happen.  As I've said multiple times this trip: "things could be worse!" 

Bangkok, Krung Thep Mahanakhon, Thailand

April 13, 2012

Happy New Year! I couldn't be happier we ended up in Bangkok when we did! From April 13-15, Thais celebrate Sangkron - a new years celebration.  Basically, everyone drenches each other with water to cleanse their bad habits and start the year fresh.  It was so much fun! We are staying at a hotel right off Koahsan Road (the main street) in such a nice room and it has a rooftop pool! The past two days all we've done is buy water guns and head out on the street and shoot people! After a few hours of that, we head back to the pool and shoot more people there!  It's been a really fun two days!  All the streets in the downtown area are closed off and stages are put up for DJs and other performers.  It's the best when a good song comes on and the entire crowd stops and starts jumping all together, singing and soaking people as the party is going!  Bangkok is famous for 2 things - ladyboys and ping pong shows.  I have yet to see a lady boy (I think), although I hear it's very hard to tell if they are a boy or girl.  So I probably have and just didn't notice.  And as for the ping pong show... A large group of us went together to see what it was all about, and it's not at all what I was expecting! I won't go into detail here, but if you're curious, just google ping pong show! 

Ko Samet, Rayong, Thailand

April 14, 2012

After two days and one night of constantly being splashed in the face with water and having chalk thrown all over us, we decided to leave Bangkok and hit the islands just offshore.  We all wrapped our luggage in plastic as we took the back exit out of our hotel in order to stay dry.  It didn't exactly work out as planned, as soon as we got in a Tuk Tuk there were people lining the streets with water guns and buckets. Oh well, at least we tried! After being driven to a tourist information center and having them quote us 7X the price of a ticket than we researched, we finally made it to the bus station where we paid a reasonable price for a bus and ferry combo and we were on route to Ko Samet!  Ko Samet is actually farther from Bangkok than it looks on a map, and is known to be a popular vacation spot for a lot of Thais who live in the city.  Songkran festival is being celebrated on the island too, but there are far less people here, so we only got a little damp on our way to the beach.  We found a nice (and squishy!) bungalow on the beach to sleep in.  Ko Samet is pretty pricey so we are all having to cram in one room while we stay here in order to save some money.  Napping on the beach may be a necessity! We had a pretty quite night... Josh and Dan weren't feeling the greatest since they decided to party last night in Bangkok while Courtney and I slept, so we had a nice dinner on the beach while we watched a couple fire shows.  Fire shows are amazing!  The performers are little Thai boys, no older than 15, who blow the audience away by their skills with fire! I definitely wouldn't be able to throw flaming sticks in the air, and catch them directly in the center where there is no flame.  You know me with performances.... I was loving it! 

Ko Samet, Rayong, Thailand

April 16, 2012

Ko Samet is definitely a place I could see myself vacationing at for a while, and it turns out we are staying here longer than we anticipated!  This is partly due to do with the fact that we are all waiting on our e-visas for Cambodia to be accepted, but also because the last two days have been so relaxing and enjoyable we don't want to leave!  During Sangkron a couple injuries occurred -  Courtney got squirt in the ear with dirty water, resulting in a nasty ear infection, and Josh stepped on a shard of glass and is unable to walk properly, so they both went to see the doctor and are both on medication that prevents them from drinking any sort of alcohol.  Dan and I are using this as an excuse not to drink as well, and it's a good way to save money! The 4 of us have been playing a lot of cards, lounging on the beach and reading.  I've now read 7 books since I met up with Courtney a month ago... She's become a good influence on me! Yesterday Courtney and I went for a Thai massage - probably the best massage I've ever had.  The girl massaging me was slightly smaller than I am, and was using her elbows and feet to massage every single muscle on my body.  Some of it was fairly painful, but I made sure to tell her 'gentle' before the massage began.  I've heard of horror stories.... Tino said when he got one the little lady made him cry! We switched resorts this afternoon... We are now paying 400 Baht between the 4 of us, which is $3 Canadian each a night - another reason we don't mind staying here a couple extra days!  As long as all of our visas go through alright, I predict we will be here for another 3 or 4 days doing the same things day in and day out, so I'll write more when new adventures begin to happen! 

Ko Samet, Rayong, Thailand

April 18, 2012

I feel like after today I can say that I can pretty much drive a scooter in any road condition.  We rented 3 scooters between the 4 of us today and decided to take them around the island to check things out.  Dan has been running everyday on the island, so he had a bit of an idea on where to explore first.  The road conditions around here are nowhere close to as good as the roads we drove on in Bali or Sumatra.  Today was the most challenging driving I've ever done in my life.  The roads were so bumpy with rocks everywhere, and 4 inches of sand overtop of it in some places.  It was so hard not to skid out, so most of the time Courtney and I didn't accelerate at all and just let our scooters roll down the hills with our hands clenching the brakes as hard as we could!  I had my first scooter crash today though, but no injury! I need to get a video camera to document all these falls I keep having! Apparently the one today was pretty impressive! The bike slid out and I jumped to the right side so my hand was still clenching the accelerator and the bike totally flipped when it was in my hand! I chipped my nail polish a bit, but nothing too serious! Between having a panic attack and almost dying, we did find a stunning private beach where we hung out for a couple hours.  Turquoise clear water, white sand and free (or at least we think they were free) beach chairs to lounge on.  Even though Courtney and I had a Thai massage a couple days ago, we decided to get one today because we couldnt resist the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below the huts where the massages take place.  This massage was similar to our last, but this time I had a little Thai man who was very strong. The foot massage was my favorite.  I think next time I'm going to do an hour of just my feet! It's too bad we got our massages at the beginning of the day, because the effects of our massage totally wore off during the crazy driving! We no longer felt relaxed! We spent the evening like we normally do - sampling different Thai dishes for dinner on the beach, watching fire shows, playing cards, and being surrounded by the oddest couples imaginable (many groups of white men with Thai women, old white men with young Thai boys, old white women with young Thai girls, two white men with one Thai woman...etc). I guess anything goes in Thailand! 

Siem Reap, Siĕm Réab, Cambodia

April 20, 2012

Well, we arrived I'm Cambodia with far less hassle we had anticipated.  The four of us got our visa's without any trouble, and set off the island this morning bright and early.  Dan woke up with a terrible ear infection this morning, so it just added a little excitement to our morning when we almost missed the ferry to Ban Phe because the doctor took a while to examine Dan's ear.  We most likely got ripped off with the price we paid to get from Ko Samet to Siem Reap, but we travelled in a private air conditioned minibus for our 9 hour journey, so it was worth it! Once arriving in Cambodia, we had a nice guide take us through immigration and explain to us about the begging children and pick pocketers to be aware of.  We got totally ripped off exchanging our money at the border (I lost about $60 canadian), so I advise anyone traveling through the Poipet border crossing to change your money once you get into Siem Reap, and not at the first currency exchange place in sight.  A bit of a bummer, but life goes on.  The first thing I noticed when arriving in Cambodia was that they drive on the right hand side of the road.  It actually brought a smile to my face, and a bit of confusion since I've gotten used to traveling on the left hand side of the road for the last couple months. Also, gambling seems to be huge in Cambodia, and we learned that a lot of Thais cross the border to do some gambling since it's illegal in Thailand.  I don't even gamble when I'm in Vegas, so there's no way I'm gambling while I'm here!   I'm not on that kind of budget... although a nice winning would really make my day! Not even going to tempt myself! Once arriving at the tourist center in Siem Reap, we met an English guy named Ben, and a guy from Norway who's name I cannot even attempt to spell, let alone say properly.  They came along in our posse and the 6 of us travelled into town to find a place to stay.  We ended up finding a guest house for $8USD/night, so we took it. What a steal! We learned a lesson though, when things seem too good to be true, they probably are.  About half an hour ago (12:30am) Dan and Josh woke Courtney and I up asking us if we were being bitten.  Thankfully we were okay, but Dan's whole body was attacked by bedbugs.  Poor guy, not only does he have a terrible ear infection, he's also covered in swelling bites all over his upper body.  Other than getting ripped off by the currency exchange place, and getting bedbugs, things in Cambodia have been quite lovely!  Siem Reap is such a cute area, and it's a lot more lovely than I had imagined.  It is 13km from Angkor Wat, where we are headed to in 4 hours to check out the temples at sunrise.  I better attempt to get some sleep or I'll be a grumpy girl in the morning!

Siem Reap, Siĕm Réab, Cambodia

April 21, 2012

6 hours of temples on barely any sleep was a bit tiresome! I'm not sure how people spend an entire week checking out the temples, one day (for $20) was definitely enough!  We got picked up from our Tuk Tuk driver at 4:30am so we could see Angkor Wat at sunrise. Even though we aren't traveling during peak season, it was still quite busy at all the temples.  A young girl by the name of 'Harry Potter' approached me as we were walking the boardwalk to Angkor Wat and offered to show us the best place to take pictures and view the sunrise.  I was surprised when she didn't accept any money, she just wanted us to buy a coffee at her mom's breakfast shop located beside the temple.  Angkor Wat at sunrise was breathtaking.  There was a beautiful reflection on the lake in front of the temple, showing off all 5 towers that you are unable to see while looking straight on.  We took some amazing photos while we waited for the temple to open to the public.  Once inside, there was so much to see!  I think you could have a serious gave of hide and seak because there are so many pathways that lead to a dead end (this is true for many of the other temples as well).  The Angkor Wat temple itself was built by Suryavarman II (r 1113-50), it is the heart and soul of Cambodia, and is the largest religious structure in the world.  Thinking about it afterward, it would have been nice to have a guide to tell us what we were looking at.  The detail in the walls and all the inscents in different rooms were really cool.  We prayed on a few inscents, and were told that we would be given good luck after giving a generous donation.  Sure enough, I turned my head after we walked away to see that our inscents had been blown out and they were using them to scam some more tourists!  Oh well, I refuse to believe I don't have good luck coming my way!  After visiting Angkor Wat for about 2.5 hours, we were happy to see our Tuk Tuk driver still waiting outside to drive us to the next temple - Angkor Thom. It was pretty awesome having a personal chauffeur for the day who gave us some (limited) information on the temples we were about to see.  Angkor Thom was a lot smaller than Angkor Wat, but it was still super interesting!  Surrounding the temple there are five 20 meter high gates, each decorated with stone elephant trunks and four gargantuan faces of Avolokiteshvara. In front of each gate stand statues of 54 gods, and 54 demons, a motif taken from the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk.  It was still the beginning of the day, so I was able to remember slight details that were given to me about the temples! There were a few small temples in the middle of the tour that I don't remember quite well, but the last one we visited was called Ta Prohm.  This one interested us quite a bit because it's where the film Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie was filmed!  It was a beautiful temple, and we met a young boy who kind of just followed us around explaining what everything was without us asking.  We actually appreciated it because it was a large temple and we would have definitely gotten lost if it weren't for him.  Ta Prohm was built in 1186 and is cloaked in dappled shadow, it's crumbling towers and walls locked in the muscular embrace of century old trees.  Most of the walls are carpeted with moss and creeping plants, shrubs sprout from the roofs of monumental porches, and many of the corridors are impassable, clogged with jumbled piles of delicately carved rocks.  It was very cool!  Around Angkor Wat Park there were many people selling different souvenirs, most of them being young children and it was so hard to say no to buying anything!  We were told in advance not to buy anything from the kids, as they shouldn't be encouraged to skip school to make money for their parents.  Most of them were so cute though, and I wanted to take every single one of them home! Once returning into Siem Reap, we quickly changed accommodation because we didn't want to risk getting no sleep and being bitten again.  The staff were extremely rude to us when we said we were checking out and wanting our money back, so we couldnt be happier to get out of there! Courtney and I split from the boys for tonight because we wanted to spoil ourselves with a really nice place to sleep - with a swimming pool, air conditioning and free breakfast!, but they're not far. We all had dinner together and had intended to check out the night market, but since we had a full day on no sleep, we all just passed out! Tomorrow is our last day in Siem Reap so we'll make sure to do touristy stuff before taking our night bus to Sihanoukville in the south! 

Sihanoukville, Preăh Seihânŭ, Cambodia

April 23, 2012

Urghhhh being sick while you're traveling reallllly sucks! I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I had been hit by a bus. It crossed my mind a couple times that I may have dengue fever, but I don't have all the signs and symptoms so it's safe at the moment to say that this feeling may pass! The boys found a place that sold 25 cent draft beer, so we all hung out there for the afternoon drinking - in an attempt to cover the pain I was in! We met two ladies from Calgary who have done a crazy amount of traveling, so they joined us for a couple beers and shared some of their travel stories.  They were telling us different ways the Cambodians scam tourists... The most popular one being - having a 12 year old child carrying a crying baby asking for milk, not money.... But they only want the expensive powdered formula (which is about $4), once they get the formula, they bring it to their mothers stand where she's got heaps of milk already and she'll be returning it to the store in the morning for cash.  The amount of street kids in Cambodia is crazy, and their level of English is far better than the kids (and adults) in Thailand. We took an 11 hour overnight bus last night to Sihanoukville.  The first part of the journey was alright because we got sleeper chairs that reclined the whole way back, but after we switched busses in Phnom Pehn it was a very squishy ride!  The bus stopped numerous times for people on the side of the street, and they would have to sit on plastic stools in the aisle.  I basically had a man sitting on top of me.  On a hot bus when you've got a fever, it's not the most pleasant ride! We were all very pleased when we got to our destination - Sihanoukville.  This is where Cambodians go for a holiday, being the only beach resort area in the country.  Are you surprised I found it?! We've heard a lot of great things about Sihanoukville... How this is what the islands in Thailand used to be like before tourism really took over.  Don't get me wrong, this place thrives on tourism, it's just not as busy and other places we've been to! It's also very cheap here... Big BBQ dinner for $3! I hope I get my appetite back soon so I can indulge in all the yummy food! Mmmm, prawns! Oh, and Happy St. George Day! I've never heard of it before, but apparently it's the equivalent to the English (UK) St Pattys Day.

Sihanoukville, Preăh Seihânŭ, Cambodia

April 24, 2012

"ohhh you need manicure?", "pedicure for you?", "oh you so hairy, I take care of that for you".... I was feeling a little bit better this morning, so I decided to head out to the beach with everyone for some fresh air.  We weren't even outside for 5 minutes before we were ambushed by little Cambodian ladies offering to fix all of our flaws! When I was in Bali at Kuta beach it was similar, but not quite so aggressive.  As soon as you said no to one offering they would walk away.  Here, if you say no to a manicure they will tell you that you need a pedicure too, and if you decline the pedicure they will tell you that you need your eyebrows threaded and so on.  I was warned of this beforehand so at first I kept saying no no no, but I'm such a sucker and finally caved.  A few hours later I ended up having basically my entire body threaded.  Each individual hair pulled out one be one with the root... I think it was more painful than getting any of my tattoos! Since the gang went out last night, and the clouds came in for the afternoon, and I'm still relatively sick, the 5 of us stayed in all night watching movies in our hotel room.  It's been a while since any of us have watched a movie, so we had a legit movie marathon for the entire evening while everyone recovers before we attempt to explore Sihanoukville tomorrow!  I found an ad for a Canadian restaurant in a brochure... They specialize in poutine... I'm determined to try it and be the judge of that :P

Sihanoukville, Preăh Seihânŭ, Cambodia

April 25, 2012

So, the exploring of Sihanoukville didn't consist of very much.  It's a big place, but not a lot to see.  The place we are staying at is right on the beach, so it's an uphill walk to "downtown".  We hired a Tuk Tuk for $5 to take us downtown and back so we could check out the markets with 'good' shopping.  The shopping was terrible! It was a very strange market though... Full on make shift hair salons available, houseware departments, pharmacies... All under a tent.  There were small children following us around, praying at our feet, begging us for money.  It was really annoying.  The only good thing at the market was the fruit selection!  I indulged in a delicious mango for 20 cents, peeled and ready to enjoy! We drove back into town and checked out the little stores along the street on the way to the beach.  There were many dive shops, one of which we decided to sign up for a couple dives with.  We leave tomorrow for a two day dive adventure on a remote island called Koh Rong.  We also stopped by a store where you can buy movies and songs for your iPad and iPhone.  While Courtney and I got quite a few movies to help distract us on our long bus rides ahead, Dan and Josh rented motorbikes to check out the other beaches in the area.  They came back with their heads hung low, as apparently there wasn't anything extraordinary to see anywhere around serendipity beach. With that information we were happy we booked the dive trip tomorrow! White sandy beaches on a paradise island, here we come!

Koh Rong Sam Lem, Kaôh Kŏng, Cambodia

April 26, 2012

Koh Rong is absolutely beautiful.  It is by far the nicest island I've been to on my trip... for many reasons.  It has the whitest sand (bonus!), the nicest people, and the least amount of tourism.  The island is about the same size as Hong Kong, but only one section of it has people living on it.  There are about 10 two story bungalows on the beach, all with about 10 beds in each and a tiny restaurant on the main floor, all specializing in a $4 fresh BBQ seafood dinner.  Everything is so cheap... It's a nice change since nothing has been marked up for profit.  Along the 7km long white sandy beaches there are friendly puppies who just want to play with everyone who walks by, along with random water buffalo walking up and down the beach.  The buffalo really freaked me out at first - they are far bigger than I had imagined! We decided we wanted to do some diving in Cambodia, and Koh Rong is just the place to do it.  We paid $50 for 2 dives, a two way boat transfer from Sihanoukville to the island, and free breakfast and lunch.  The first dive alone was worth $50.  This is the first time Courtney and I have had the chance to dive together - it was fun diving with a buddy I actually know! For our entire first dive we had a giant barracuda following us around the whole time.  It was pretty freaky looking, but I think it was just curious. We saw many different fish here (Gulf of Thailand) than we did in Malaysia.  Our second dive wasn't quite as good as the first... The visibility was pretty limited and the dive site housed smalled fish than the first dive site.  I only find the big fish interesting! We found a cute (but hot) bungalow to sleep in, but didn't spend much time in our rooms at all.  We spent most of the night hanging out at Coco's Bungalow where many other travelers were hanging out.  We were speaking with the bartender and he told us that writers for Lonely Planet were on the island last week doing research.  He informed us that they were thinking about building an airport for easier access to the island, and building huge resorts on the beach.  In my current version of Lonely Planet, there is only one sentence mentioning Koh Rong... I have a feeling the next issue of Lonely Planet will have an entire section about the island, completely ruining everything we loved about it so much.  It was so nice being somewhere that is not overrun, it'll be a shame if big changes are made - but I guess it's a good thing we enjoyed the island at it's current peaceful state! 

Sihanoukville, Preăh Seihânŭ, Cambodia

April 27, 2012

Most terrible sleep of my life! There was no fan in our room so it was incredibly hot last night... I must have woken up about 10 times! Brutal! Anyways, the weather went south so we decided to head back to Sihanoukville for one last night before we hit the capital, Phnom Pehn.  Had the weather have been nice, we intended to take a 45 minute jungle trek to the other side of the island, where there is 7km of untouched beach to enjoy.  Instead, we took a 20 minute walk through the jungle to another beach not far from the main one to hang out while we waited for our ferry to the mainland.  We passed a few beaches on our walk, all with different colour sand.  It was pretty cool! White sand, red sand, black sand... All within a couple meters of each other, with only small trees separating each beach.  We took the 2 hour slow boat journey back to the mainland (I'd imagine there will soon be a fast boat, it really shouldn't take 2 hours) and found new accommodation.  We ended up just having another chilled out movie night which is a bit disappointing because I had heard so much hype about Sihanoukville being such a good party place and, because I was sick, I never got to check it out! I guess I'll just have to come back to Cambodia some other time! 

Phnom Penh, Phnum Pénh, Cambodia

April 28, 2012

Whoever said getting a Vietnam Visa would be a challenge was lying.  Courtney and I realized it's Saturday today, which means the Vietnam embassy in Phnom Penh will most likely be shut when we get there.  A couple Cambodia ladies at the bus ticket booth in Sihanoukville overheard us and said they could get us our visas within half an hour.  We trusted them and handed over our passports.  Sure enough, 30 minutes later, they came back with our passports all stamped and ready to go! This was way more convenient, and cheaper too! Now we are set to enter Vietnam in 2 days! In the meantime, we're going to check out Phnom Penh.  We took another uncomfortable bus ride back - thankfully this time I didn't have anyone sitting in the aisle beside me! Once we got into Phnom Penh the traffic was insane.  We opened our blinds and I was blown away by the amount of people that get shoved into one car.  One van was jammed full, and also had about 10 people sitting on the roof! They definitely believe in carpooling here! Before we even got off the bus, we had Tuk Tuk drivers with signs right up against our window, pleading to give us a ride somewhere.  We ended up sharing the love and taking two Tuk Tuks ($2 each) to the riverside to find accommodation.  Tino was here a couple weeks ago, so he gave me some tips and good places to check out.  We are staying in the same hostel as Tino did, really cool vibes with a rooftop hang out area - pool table included! We ventured out on the street to find cheap food, but most of the restaurants in this area are pretty expensive (which is weird because everywhere else in Asia has been super cheap). We finally decided on one restaurant, and I'm really happy we stayed! We had Indian food, and it was probably the best Indian food I've ever had in my life! $4.50 for a meal... That's the most I've spent my whole trip! It'll be hard going back to Vancouver... This has been a real eye opener for me.  I guess I won't be eating out so much! 

Phnom Penh, Phnum Pénh, Cambodia

April 29, 2012

I can't believe the amount of smiling Cambodian faces there are in Phnom Penh considering what the country went through only 30 years ago.  Today we began our day by  checking out S21 Prison, followed by the killing fields.  It was a really sad day.  I had always heard about the genocide, but I didn't really understand it until today.  Basically, from 1975-1979, Pol Pot imprisoned thousands of people who were more intellectual than him.  He transformed a high school into Office 21 designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after confessions from the detainees were received and documented.  Prisoners would stay for 2-4 months before being blindfolded and told they were going to a 'new home' - that being the killing fields where they would be tortured, some even buried alive. When Khmer Rouge came into Phnom Penh, all the residents were forced to flee to the country side.  Our tour guide was one of the millions who fled... She said it took her a week to walk to Vietnam from Cambodia, and she lost her brother, sister and father along the journey due to starvation.  She said she can still remember when Khmer Rouge first came to town, everyone was so happy... Things were so bad they were under the impression that some positive changes were going to happen.  Nope, the exact opposite.  After the prison, our Tuk Tuk driver took us to the killing fields located just outside of the city.  This is just one of the many killing fields located all over Cambodia.  The killing fields gave tourists complimentary headsets explaining what everything meant, including stories and memoirs from the 7 survivors.  There were bones and clothes protruding from the ground, skulls with blindfolds still on them, and many teeth scattered around.  There were two areas that I found quite upsetting.  The first was called 'the killing tree' where women and children were stripped down, raped and beheaded before being dumped into a hole in the ground.  The children would get smashed against the tree until they were dead, or other techniques were to throw the baby up in the air so it would be impaled on a spear, or any other sharp object.  I found it really sad.  The other area that upset me wasn't far from the killing tree, it is called 'the magic tree'.  This tree was not by any means magical.  The tree used to be covered in hanging speakers playing revolutionary music to cover up the loud screams of those being tortured.  The headset provided sample music of what it would have sounded like, and it was just awful.  I really feel for Cambodian people now.  A few of the leaders are still alive today, some on trial for what they did, but others are free.  Anytime we saw an older Cambodian man we would wonder if they were one of the torturers.  The people working for Pol Pot at the time were usually quite young, and come from the countryside.  They were uneducated peasants - the best to manipulate.  Some of them today are extremely sorry for the terrible pain they caused, others aren't at all.  Anyways, just thought I'd inform some of you who may not know what went on.  It was such a sad day, but I'm happy I got a little bit of culture.  

Saigon, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

May 1, 2012

After a 6 hour bus ride and a crazy border crossing, Courtney and I made it to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam.  We said goodbye to the boys this morning, as they are on their way back to Thailand for the next 3 months.  We are all hoping to all meet up when Courtney and I head back to the southern islands in about a month.  Anyways, the border crossing into Vietnam was so unorganized! Everyone was so pushy, and they take your passport in advance and then call you out by name one by one... Which seems like it should be organized, but it was complete chaos! Once arriving in Saigon, and a little bit of confusion, we met up with Kristin (I traveled with her in Australia and we went to Western together).  Unfortunately her taxi was unable to find our home stay so she spent the night at another hostel, but we found each other on a main street and shared travel stories over 75 cent Saigon beers.  These beers (like Chang beers in Thailand) don't contain an alcohol percentage, so you never know how much you're actually drinking when consuming one.  Part of the fun, right? We were both pooped from full days of travel so we didn't stay out late and aimed to meet up early in the morning.  Sure enough, we all met up this morning and Kristin checked into our home stay for tonight.  We spent the day exploring the city!  Courtney and I had heard from other travelers beforehand that Saigon doesn't really have much to offer so we weren't too excited to check things out, but we were incredibly impressed and happy we did so! It's a crazy city... The cars and motorbikes don't stop for anyone, so we were advised to just walk into the middle of the street and not make eye contact with anyone and the drivers will maneuver around you.  Sure enough, it worked! We checked out the local market and it was amazing! I finished off the majority of my souvenir shopping (which is a relief), and got a couple nice things for myself.  The three of us are huge fans of pho (a Vietnemese soup with beef and noodles... Mom and Dad, you had some when you were in Vancouver), so it's awesome that you can get pho just about anywhere for dirt cheap.  Same with spring rolls... Mmmmmm!! So far the food has been one of the best parts of Vietnam!  Today we booked our open ended bus ticket.  It takes us all the way up to Hanoi, and we can jump on and off whenever we see a place we'd like to visit.  Tomorrow we are headed to Mui Ne in the afternoon - a beach town (obviously) with awesome kite surfing and sand dunes.  We also went for a Vietnemese massage this afternoon.  We really wanted to go to a place where blind people massage you, but it was a holiday today so unfortunately it was closed :(. We settled for a normal massage, but it was still amazing.  Now I can say I've had a massage in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This one will certainly not be the last! I better sign off now.  We are being picked up early in the morning to go on a tunnel tour before we hop on our bus up the coast.  We are checking out the tunnels where soldiers used to hide during the Vietnam war.  I'll have more information for you about it tomorrow! 

Saigon, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

May 2, 2012

Imagine walking around in a forest and not having any idea that there is an entire village living and operating beneath you.  During the Vietnam war the beautiful village of Cu Chi, located about 70km away from Saigon, moved their village underground so it wouldn't get disrupted by all the bombings.  A few years into the war, they started using the tunnels for soldiers to hide out in.  People lived for years in the tunnels without seeing daylight- babies were even born in them.  I had the opportunity to explore the tunnels today and I have no idea how people could live underground for so many years at a time. I mean I guess I'd do it if my choices were die or live underground, but I would never voluntarily live there.  It was so clausterphobic and tiny... We all came out of the tunnels dripping from sweat.  That was one of the only times I felt fortunate for being so short! At one point we had to crawl on our hands and knees, downhill, to get to another section of the tunnel.  They set up bamboo traps to catch the Americans and French if they came across the tunnels to avoid invasion.  Those traps were pretty crafty though! They had about 10 different kinda of traps, all somewhat similar with huge spikes to injure the enemy.  After the tunnel tour, we were given the opportunity to shoot weapons if we had the desire.  I've never shot a gun before, and I'm not sure the next time I'll have a chance to do it, so Kristin, Courtney and I shot an AK47.  The feeling of shooting a gun was insane! One of the guys in our group shot a machine gun, and it was so loud! We had to wear big headphones so we didn't hurt our eardrums.  Thankfully the gun was on a mount, and there was a Vietnemese person there to help us, so there wasn't any opportunity for injury.  There were elephant targets for us to shoot at, but I guess my aim was so off that the Vietnemese guy asked me if I was trying to shoot a helicopter! I don't think shooting guns is in my future, but it was definitely an adrenaline rush! Another stop on our tunnel tour was to a handicapped handicraft warehouse.  It is where the majority of all the souvenirs are made - with such an incredible amount of precision.  It was interesting to watch all the handicapped people hard at work, producing such beautiful artwork.  Anyways, our tour ran a little bit late which wasn't a good thing.  It was supposed go end at 2pm, and we had a bus to catch at 3pm, but at around 2:40 I looked at my watch and we weren't even close to the city!  After a couple phone calls to the tour company, the bus ended up waiting for us as we rushed to get all our things to from our hostel.  It was a little bit stressful, but we got on the right bus and set off up the coast to Mui Ne - a small beach town known for it's good waves and large sand dunes.  

Mũi Ne, Bình Thuận, Vietnam

May 3, 2012

Surf's up in Mui Ne... But not the typical surf that you think I'm talking about.  The main beach in Mui Ne is littered with kite boarders, wind surfers and newbies all trying their hand at Mui Ne's signature sport.  We looked into giving it a try, but it was way out of our budget so we just sat on the beach and watched everyone instead.  Some of the Vietnamese boarders have some serious talent - they are amazing! We met some people last night (one from Kanata actually!) who came for dinner with us to a tiny seafood shack.  Between the 9 of us, these were the things that were ordered: frog, snake, chicken feet, oysters, scallops, prawns, crab, pho and fried vegetables.  Kristin, Courtney and I shared the oysters... They were the most giant oysters I've ever seen! But they were delicious! Mui Ne is known for their fish sauce, but unfortunately we have yet to try find it and try it.  I think we'll spend one more day here to check out the sand dunes and fishing village before heading up north to another beach town.  

Mũi Ne, Bình Thuận, Vietnam

May 4, 2012

Not only is Mui Ne known for it's amazing waves for kite surfing, it's also known for having different coloured sand dunes in the area.  6 of us signed up for a sunset jeep tour to take us around the dunes and the fishing village.  Our first stop was to a 'fairy stream' where we walked along a stream with water about ankle deep and checked out the different formations made in the sand.  We climbed a couple sandy hills, but stopped once we remembered we still had the actual dunes to climb later in the day.  Along the stream there were also a couple ostriches that we could ride.  So, for $2 each, Kristin, Courtney and I each rode the ostrich! It was pretty fun! Such a weird feeling though since he had the skinniest little legs - I was worried they were going to snap! The next stop was to the fishing village, which we didn't get to explore at all.  We just stopped on the side of the road and looked at it from above.  I'm not sure why they consider it a tourist attraction, but whatever.  Next was the white dunes - the best!  Small children wait at the entrance of the dunes selling sheets of plastic (crazy carpets) so tourists can slide down the sand.  It was about a 10 minute walk to the top of the dune, but the view alone is totally worth it!  Kristin and I rented slides and had races in the sand.  We came pretty close every time since we didn't get too much speed.  By the end of it we were covered in sand...everywhere! Such a natural exfoliant! On the way to the red dunes we stopped at a gorgeous canyon.  From above it looks like flat ground, but it areas the ground has broken apart and you are able to walk within the canyon all the way to the south china sea.  We arrived at the red dunes in time for sunset.  It was so beautiful.  We all just sat at the top of one of the dunes and watched the sun fade away.  Such a nice end to a wonderful day! 

Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa, Vietnam

May 6, 2012

Môt hai ba dô!! That means "1,2,3 cheers!" in Vietnamese. After a 6 hour hour sleeper bus ride up north, we made it to Nha Trang.  The buses in Vietnam are very convenient.  Open bus tickets are available where you select your departing and arriving destinations and you're able to stop anywhere in between any day you want.  Nha Trang is another beach town with more of a party atmosphere than Mui Ne.  We are staying at a backpackers house, loaded with heaps of people from all over the world.  We got a welcome drink upon arrival, and a free bucket with our meal.  Recipe for a party night! It was Cinco de Mayo... It was only necessary! This morning we woke up with every intention of going to the water park in town, but we woke up a little late and not feeling completely up to it.  Luckily it was raining in the morning we didn't feel like we missed out on anything! Courtney stayed in bed all day so Kristin and I decided to venture around Nha Trang.  We found a great sushi restaurant for lunch and then took a motorcycle to Dam Market.  I've noticed that most of the markets we go to are similar, but this one had a giant section with dried fish that we hadn't seen in any other market.  It was "different". We signed up to go diving tomorrow so it'll be an early night tonight! I'm starting to get too old for all this partying! Only 6 more days of being 25... Better get it out of my system! 

Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa, Vietnam

May 7, 2012

Two dives, free breakfast and lunch for $50... Ummm yes please! We had to wake up super early this morning to meet the bus to take us to our dive boat.  A few people were doing some courses, so while we did their first dive we just hung out on the boat and caught some rays.  Diving in Nha Trang was different than diving in other countries. Of course we saw new things, but here you are able to touch stuff under the water.  It may have just been the dive company we went with, or our specific dive master, but it was really cool to touch a few different types of coral.  We played with some big clownfish, just teased them a bit, but they are pretty feisty! I also got to hold a sea urchin and some pretty cool starfish.  The visibility is amazing around Nha Trang - we could see about 30 meters very clearly, it was so beautiful! The second dive site wasn't as great as the first, but we saw a massive moray eel with such amazing coloring.  They have really white mouths... Weird. When we got back to land we relaxed a bit before hitting the town.  Kristin and I did a pub crawl, which consisted of the only 4 bars in town and many free drinks.  So much fun!

Hội An, Vietnam

May 9, 2012

The hop on/hop off bus in Vietnam is wonderful. Having a sleeper bus instead of a sitting bus is even more wonderful. Cruising in a sleeper bus during the night so you don't have to spend money on accommodation is even better.... Except when you get the last 3 seats available which are cubbies right at the back of the bus.  Kristin, Courtney and I were squished in the smallest beds possible beside old Vietnamese men who smelt like bad liquor.  It was terrible! We each probably slept for about 3 hours out of our 11 hour bus ride and arrived in Hoi An incredibly tired.  We checked into our hotel (3 single beds instead of two! - normally two of us have to share a bed or one sleeps on the floor) and slept for a good amount of time before checking out the town.  Hoi An is the cutest place we've been to so far!  So many little cafe's along the water (some old boats on the water are turned into restaurants), lots of people biking around, and over 400 customs tailor stores to get clothing made.  We spent about 2 hours in 'Kimmy's' tailor shop getting suits, maxi dresses, tops, skirts, pants... You name it, made to fit us perfectly.  I don't want to go into how much we spent, but it was less than I would have spent at home- and this stuff is custom made! At least that's what I keep telling myself when I feel guilty about it! Anyways, we'll probably be spending a couple days here while we get everything altered perfectly... good thing there's a nice beach not too far away! Exactly the way I want to be spending my birthday week... Relaxing on the beach with a cocktail in hand! 

Hanoi, Ha Nội, Vietnam

May 11, 2012

Over the last two days I've felt like some sort of superstar getting custom clothing made.  It's quite a process to get everything to look exactly how you want it to and I'd say only 2/3 of the times it actually work out.  This was our experience... Day 1: we arrived at the tailor with multiple pictures we found on the internet that we wanted the tailors to duplicated.  Once they saw the items, they drew every single one out in a little note book while they made suggestions on style based on our body types.  Next came the colour and fabric.  The tailor shops don't have every shade in every fabric, so it takes a while to decide on what to choose.  These little ladies must have a lot of patience because I must have hummed and hawed over every item I chose.  After the big decisions were made, they measured every inch of my body to get the clothing to fit perfectly.  Off to the factory our little ladies went.  Day 2:  Kristin, Courtney and I didn't have to be in for our fitting until 2pm so we spent the morning renting bicycles and riding to the beach.  On the ride back we were in the strongest heat of the day so when we got to the tailor we were all so sweaty and disgusting - not how you want to feel when you're trying on suits in 40 degree heat! Anyways, out of the 12 items I got, only one thing fit me right.  It was really discouraging.  My suggestion to anyone thinking about going to Hoi An to get clothing made would be: refrain from getting any pants (other than suit pants) made.  I asked for two pairs of jeans and they were both awful.  Luckily I was able to get 3 shirts made in exchange of the jeans because there is no way I could have worn those things! Kristin didn't like anything she had made, and Courtney was about 50/50.  They marked down the changes that needed to be made and immediately sent our clothing back to the factory to get fixed.  We returned at 8pm for another fitting - this one was a little better.  Most of my items fit me right, pretty much all of Courtney's items were perfect, and again, none of Kristin's items fit properly (nor were they even similar to the pictures that she provided).  Day 3: we had a but to catch at 1:30pm, so we arrived at the tailor at 9am to try on everything again.  By this point if there was anything to be changed they fixed it right in the shop.  Only one of my items needed to be changed, but I was pretty impressed how they can whip up anything you want in less than 48 hours.  Courtney had the same luck as I did, but again, everything Kristin wanted was wrong.  It became a bit of a joke by the end of it because everything seemed to look like pajamas! Fortunately they gave her a full discount so she didn't end up getting anything after all.  She did get a pair of really cute sandals made though, so her Hoi An experience wasn't completely ruined.   Everything was shipped home today by airmail and should arrive before the end of my trip! Mom, the jacket I had made for you is my favorite thing! Hope you like it!  Hoi An has two specialty dishes that were both so delicious and a nice change from eating Pho all the time.  The first is Cao Lau, and I can't say it's similar to anything I've ever eaten before but I can describe it as being noodle soup with minimal broth.  Thinly sliced pieces of beef are placed on top of the noodles with fresh mint and fish crackers.  Very filling and incredibly satisfying.  The other dish is called White Rose - which is basically a mix between a dumpling, gyoza, and wonton.  They are in the shape of a rose and the middle is filled with pork and shrimp.  Very yummy as well! I'm not sure why they are both Hoi An specialties, but I'll definitely be looking for them in Hanoi just incase I was provided false information! I'd be interested in taking a cooking class while I'm there as I've really enjoyed Vietnamese cuisine.  So, I'm currently on a 17 hour overnight bus heading up the coast to Hanoi where we will be meeting TINO once again! I'm so excited to see him and hear about his past month and a half in Asia without me! We have better seats on this bus ride than the last, but it's not exactly the way I'd like to be spending the first 7 hours of my birthday! Oh well, our Halong Bay boat trip coming up will make up for it!  Signing off on my last post as a 25 year old :(

Hanoi, Ha Nội, Vietnam

May 12, 2012

Birthday girl today! I feel so lucky to be able to spend my 26th birthday in South East Asia.  After being on our sleeper bus for 20 hours we arrived at our backpackers hostel to a smiling Tino waiting our arrival.  It's so great to see him again! The girls treated me to a day at the spa for my birthday, so the 3 of us indulged in a massage, pedicure and facial.  It was lovely!  While we were in the spa, Tino snuck around Hanoi in search for birthday cake (all kept a secret from me of course).  I guess it's hard to find because it took him 3 hours to get his hands on some cake!  We all met up in time for happy hour - which continued on until the end of the night.  After dinner everyone in the hostel bar sang me happy birthday, while Tino walked out with the cake and a bottle of champagne.  I was in such shock! I was not expecting to get anything this year, let alone champagne!  We popped the bottle open and discovered that Vietnamese champagne is ruby red... It tastes a little strange but it does the job! We had such a fun night out, hopping from bar to bar and meeting loads of new people!  Definitely a birthday to remember!

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