We made it, whew! We successfully navigated the last 24 hours and ended up arriving in Bangkok in one piece, stayed in the country for approximately 8 hours, and are actually leaving for Cambodia this morning. We spent a wonderful night in the newly opened Marriott Courtyard Hotel (good use of points!)- actually, it was more like 4 hours to sleep / shower, the night staff were still there when we left at 5:30AM, kind of a weird experience.
The taxi ride from the airport last night at midnight was the most white-knuckle experience of our lives. Speed limit on major motorway: 80kph, speed limit of our taxi driver: 150 kph. We would have asked him to slow down, but he didn't speak much English and my Thai isn't quite useful. We have ALMOST mastered "thank you"- almost.
Now we fly out to Siem Reap, Cambodia for a few days, and then we'll be back to Bangkok after that. It took us 3 months to see two countries previously, now we'll see 2 countries in 2 days!
We are in an airport lounge (free to international passengers) and I have a couple of interesting things wrapped in banana leaves- haven't had the courage to open them up.... actually, i don't know how to eat them so am waiting for someone that looks like they know what they're doing to copy them. Good news is they serve good ol' filter coffee. Yay!
It's time to figure out the "breakfast" food- Steve just got back so hopefully he can help.... wish us luck!
Anna
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Last night in Australia
The time has finally come to leave Australia, and we officially have about 8 minutes left of internet time (and since we're down to our last $10 Aussie dollars, this has to be quick!)
We are in Adelaide, and fly out tomorrow to head to Bangkok, where we'll eventually meet up with a couple of friends in Siem Reap, Cambodia.... got that?
We have REALLY enjoyed our time in this country, and the last week and a half have been no exception. We had the chance to meet more of Steve's extended family outside of Melbourne (thank you to Rob, Chris, Jess, and Andrew Erskine for being such amazing hosts, and to Nan for making homemade lamingtons for us, they were delicious!)
Fate worked in our favor and it turned out that concert tickets we had bought weeks ago to see Ben Lee was actually down the road from where the Erskines lived. It was an amazing concert- definitely recommend checking out Ben Lee if you have a chance.
After that, we had adventures getting into Melbourne and returning the rental campervan. We were sad to say goodbye to it, but after navigating Melbourne's crazy roads and toll system it was a ctually a relief to hand it in!
We flew to Adelaide a couple of days ago and have been hanging out in the city since then. We've been a bit lazy as far as doing touristy things go, spending most of our time in the library searching for flights in Southeast Asia.
We just finished a wine tour of the Barossa Valley (well-known for being home to Jacob's Creek, Penfolds, and other vineyards). It was a great day and we met some excellent people.
Time is running out, so will update more when we're in SOUTHEAST ASIA!!!!
Cheers,
Anna & Steve
We are in Adelaide, and fly out tomorrow to head to Bangkok, where we'll eventually meet up with a couple of friends in Siem Reap, Cambodia.... got that?
We have REALLY enjoyed our time in this country, and the last week and a half have been no exception. We had the chance to meet more of Steve's extended family outside of Melbourne (thank you to Rob, Chris, Jess, and Andrew Erskine for being such amazing hosts, and to Nan for making homemade lamingtons for us, they were delicious!)
Fate worked in our favor and it turned out that concert tickets we had bought weeks ago to see Ben Lee was actually down the road from where the Erskines lived. It was an amazing concert- definitely recommend checking out Ben Lee if you have a chance.
After that, we had adventures getting into Melbourne and returning the rental campervan. We were sad to say goodbye to it, but after navigating Melbourne's crazy roads and toll system it was a ctually a relief to hand it in!
We flew to Adelaide a couple of days ago and have been hanging out in the city since then. We've been a bit lazy as far as doing touristy things go, spending most of our time in the library searching for flights in Southeast Asia.
We just finished a wine tour of the Barossa Valley (well-known for being home to Jacob's Creek, Penfolds, and other vineyards). It was a great day and we met some excellent people.
Time is running out, so will update more when we're in SOUTHEAST ASIA!!!!
Cheers,
Anna & Steve
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Photos, take 2
Ok, let's try this again, a few photos from our time in Queensland, Australia:
Steve on the Jungle Surfing tour in Cape Tribulation (Daintree Rainforest).... we didn't do every zip line upside down, just the last one:
The koala and its (not so small) baby on the left that we spotted while hiking on Magnetic Island:
One of many beautiful sunsets we've seen, this one in Townsville.
On our way to snorkeling in the Whitsundays:
6:30AM on the beach in Cape Hillsborough National Park, making friends with the locals:
Steve "sand-surfing" on Great Keppel Island- this happened within minutes of getting off the ferry, when we're getting picked up to go to our hostel (which we loved).
Some of the local fauna- a huge (non-deadly) jelly fish, or a blubber fish according to our guide:
Not for the faint of heart. Taken in Hervey Bay, after our wonderful day of whale watching, this was our very desperate attempt at blocking out the booming music (mostly Bon Jovi, lovely) from the hostel's bar downstairs. We had an extra bed in the room, so we used the Lonely Planet-recommended twine that we'd packed to hang the mattress in the window, and the bed frame to keep it from falling down. It worked decently well actually. Now THAT is putting a couple of engineering degrees to use!
Steve on the Jungle Surfing tour in Cape Tribulation (Daintree Rainforest).... we didn't do every zip line upside down, just the last one:
The koala and its (not so small) baby on the left that we spotted while hiking on Magnetic Island:
One of the amazing overlooks on Magnetic Island:
One of many beautiful sunsets we've seen, this one in Townsville.
On our way to snorkeling in the Whitsundays:
6:30AM on the beach in Cape Hillsborough National Park, making friends with the locals:
Steve "sand-surfing" on Great Keppel Island- this happened within minutes of getting off the ferry, when we're getting picked up to go to our hostel (which we loved).
In a perched lake on Fraser Island. Perched lakes are pretty rare, as they're fresh water with a sand bottom (no soil.) They're formed when leaves, organic matter, etc. decay and form a sort of barrier so that the sand can actually hold water in. This lake was completely clear, with amazing reflections:
The gi-normous 4-wheel-drive buses we took on the Fraser Island tour:
Some of the local fauna- a huge (non-deadly) jelly fish, or a blubber fish according to our guide:Not for the faint of heart. Taken in Hervey Bay, after our wonderful day of whale watching, this was our very desperate attempt at blocking out the booming music (mostly Bon Jovi, lovely) from the hostel's bar downstairs. We had an extra bed in the room, so we used the Lonely Planet-recommended twine that we'd packed to hang the mattress in the window, and the bed frame to keep it from falling down. It worked decently well actually. Now THAT is putting a couple of engineering degrees to use!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Finally, some photos!
It's amazing how people have figured out how to put so many restrictions on computers- no downloading, no uploading, etc. I was hoping to get a lot of recent photos added here, but our tiny hostel in Foster, Australia (that's about an hour+ east of Melbourne) has locked the ability to upload photos from a camera, so I'll just have to settle with uploading some photos of our time in Queensland (that's northeast Australia, basically the area around Cairns south to Brisbane.) Disclaimer: I am on unlimited free internet right now, so this may be a long one!
Since leaving Newcastle, we spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley Wine Region (we discovered verdehlo- a white varietal that's typically used in fortified wines but they actually bottle here.) The tour we did was a lot of fun and definitely recommend if you're in the area, because it's not as crowded as the more well-known wine regions of Australia. After that we headed to Sydney, where I saw the opera house for the first time (it really is as beautiful in person as in photos.) I was surprised to find out that the roof is actually covered in tiles (think bathroom sized tiles)- and they're all off-white and beige, I was relieved to find out that the color choice was intentional and not because they're faded- always the skeptic- the different shades help to reflect the curves of the roof even on really sunny days. We did a tour of the interior of the opera house, it's definitely not as impressive as the exterior, but they're in the process of remodeling so that may change soon. Outside the opera house we even happened upon a marriage proposal in process (she said yes) :-)
We had the pleasure of meeting up with the friends we met in New Zealand while snowed in at Mt. Hutt- thanks to Lauren and Jared for being such great tour guides of their home town. We also met up with a friend from school, Casey Taylor, who's there for a work project- lucky girl!
After Sydney we travelled to the nation's capital in Canberra- we spent a full day being true tourists. We checked out Parliament House, and happened to be there right when the Governor General's Secretary was announcing that the Prime Minister John Howard had (finally) called elections so Parliament would be dissolved until elections would be held on Nov. 24. There were TV cameras, etc. set up for what we thought would be a very profound announcement, they had school children lined up all around to watch- it was actually about 20 seconds long, and no one asked questions or anything. A bit anti-climactic really. After Parliament we went to the National Museum- an excellent place to visit if you have trouble paying attention for extended periods of time.... or for more than 60 seconds really. All the displays were very interactive, lots of videos, bright and flashy things to look at- our tour guide totally fit the museum, in one hour he skipped around from exhibit to exhibit getting us thoroughly lost. By the end, Steve and I were begging for a map and 5 minutes just to figure out what- typical type A's, ha! We then made our way back through the museum in a very orderly way, left to right, reading all the signs before moving onto the next exhibit.
We then left Canberra in search of Melbourne, which we're still on our way there. We're currently parked in Foster, taking a bit of a breather from big cities and planning to do a couple of hikes tomorrow in Wilsons Promontory National Park- the southernmost area of Australia mainland.
Since our time in Australia is (very sadly) coming to an end in a week and a half, here are a couple of observations:
How to talk like an Australian: shorten words and add "ssy" or "y" to them, e.g. breakfast = brekky, Australian = Aussy, sunglasses = sunnies, mosquito = mossy, and the ssy is pronounced more like ZZY (that's an instant way to pick out a foreigner- they say Aussie instead of Auzzie, that's according to our Sydney friends that we met in New Zealand.)
Bikers (as in cyclists) are allowed on the motorway- so you're driving at 110kph (about 65mph?) and pass a cyclist- crazy people, honestly.
Outside of Sydney, they have built koala bridges across the interstate. They're these wire contraptions, about 30 feet above the roadway, that cross 4-6 lanes of traffic. Apparently, as we've heard, it was a developer's crackpot scheme to get around ordinances related to building a giant highway through koala territory. We haven't actually SEEN a koala on one of these. We have photos, I'll hopefully get one of those up soon to demonstrate.
We've been here long enough to start calling things by the "Aussie / non-US" name and not even think twice about it, e.g. cilantro = coriander, bell pepper = capsicum, cell phone = mobile, college = university.
Steve and I have uncovered what we think is either one of the greatest conspiracies or cover-ups of our time (ok, maybe that's a bit overly dramatic), but here goes. We walk into a store that is called "The Big W" and notice that everything bears a striking resemblance to Wal-Mart.... all the employees have the same nametags, the price signs are the same, even the same slogans. (Now remember we're two consultants here, so interested in these kinds of things the average consumer would probably have zero interest in.) We asked the checkout clerk if they were owned by Wal-Mart and she nervously answers, um no, we're owned by Woolworth's (basically one of the big grocers here.) So on a separate trip we ask another clerk and get the same type of response- so, either Big W/Woolworth's has completely ripped off Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart has gotten sneaky in making its way into Australia. Perhaps you find that interesting, perhaps not..... ok, onto pictures now:
hmm... experiencing technical difficulties with blogspot.... will try to post photos in a couple of hours.
Cheers,
Anna
Since leaving Newcastle, we spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley Wine Region (we discovered verdehlo- a white varietal that's typically used in fortified wines but they actually bottle here.) The tour we did was a lot of fun and definitely recommend if you're in the area, because it's not as crowded as the more well-known wine regions of Australia. After that we headed to Sydney, where I saw the opera house for the first time (it really is as beautiful in person as in photos.) I was surprised to find out that the roof is actually covered in tiles (think bathroom sized tiles)- and they're all off-white and beige, I was relieved to find out that the color choice was intentional and not because they're faded- always the skeptic- the different shades help to reflect the curves of the roof even on really sunny days. We did a tour of the interior of the opera house, it's definitely not as impressive as the exterior, but they're in the process of remodeling so that may change soon. Outside the opera house we even happened upon a marriage proposal in process (she said yes) :-)
We had the pleasure of meeting up with the friends we met in New Zealand while snowed in at Mt. Hutt- thanks to Lauren and Jared for being such great tour guides of their home town. We also met up with a friend from school, Casey Taylor, who's there for a work project- lucky girl!
After Sydney we travelled to the nation's capital in Canberra- we spent a full day being true tourists. We checked out Parliament House, and happened to be there right when the Governor General's Secretary was announcing that the Prime Minister John Howard had (finally) called elections so Parliament would be dissolved until elections would be held on Nov. 24. There were TV cameras, etc. set up for what we thought would be a very profound announcement, they had school children lined up all around to watch- it was actually about 20 seconds long, and no one asked questions or anything. A bit anti-climactic really. After Parliament we went to the National Museum- an excellent place to visit if you have trouble paying attention for extended periods of time.... or for more than 60 seconds really. All the displays were very interactive, lots of videos, bright and flashy things to look at- our tour guide totally fit the museum, in one hour he skipped around from exhibit to exhibit getting us thoroughly lost. By the end, Steve and I were begging for a map and 5 minutes just to figure out what- typical type A's, ha! We then made our way back through the museum in a very orderly way, left to right, reading all the signs before moving onto the next exhibit.
We then left Canberra in search of Melbourne, which we're still on our way there. We're currently parked in Foster, taking a bit of a breather from big cities and planning to do a couple of hikes tomorrow in Wilsons Promontory National Park- the southernmost area of Australia mainland.
Since our time in Australia is (very sadly) coming to an end in a week and a half, here are a couple of observations:
How to talk like an Australian: shorten words and add "ssy" or "y" to them, e.g. breakfast = brekky, Australian = Aussy, sunglasses = sunnies, mosquito = mossy, and the ssy is pronounced more like ZZY (that's an instant way to pick out a foreigner- they say Aussie instead of Auzzie, that's according to our Sydney friends that we met in New Zealand.)
Bikers (as in cyclists) are allowed on the motorway- so you're driving at 110kph (about 65mph?) and pass a cyclist- crazy people, honestly.
Outside of Sydney, they have built koala bridges across the interstate. They're these wire contraptions, about 30 feet above the roadway, that cross 4-6 lanes of traffic. Apparently, as we've heard, it was a developer's crackpot scheme to get around ordinances related to building a giant highway through koala territory. We haven't actually SEEN a koala on one of these. We have photos, I'll hopefully get one of those up soon to demonstrate.
We've been here long enough to start calling things by the "Aussie / non-US" name and not even think twice about it, e.g. cilantro = coriander, bell pepper = capsicum, cell phone = mobile, college = university.
Steve and I have uncovered what we think is either one of the greatest conspiracies or cover-ups of our time (ok, maybe that's a bit overly dramatic), but here goes. We walk into a store that is called "The Big W" and notice that everything bears a striking resemblance to Wal-Mart.... all the employees have the same nametags, the price signs are the same, even the same slogans. (Now remember we're two consultants here, so interested in these kinds of things the average consumer would probably have zero interest in.) We asked the checkout clerk if they were owned by Wal-Mart and she nervously answers, um no, we're owned by Woolworth's (basically one of the big grocers here.) So on a separate trip we ask another clerk and get the same type of response- so, either Big W/Woolworth's has completely ripped off Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart has gotten sneaky in making its way into Australia. Perhaps you find that interesting, perhaps not..... ok, onto pictures now:
hmm... experiencing technical difficulties with blogspot.... will try to post photos in a couple of hours.
Cheers,
Anna
Sunday, October 7, 2007
It's raining in Newcastle...
Which is actually a really good thing, because this is (literally) the first time we have seen any rain since we arrived in Australia a month ago. We're in Newcastle until tomorrow, as we continue to make our way south with plans to be in Sydney in a few days. It's been a while since the last major update, so here's what we've been up to:
Last week we had the absolute pleasure of staying with some of Steve's relatives (2nd cousin and his family) in Brisbane. We had so much fun meeting and getting to know another part of Steve's family. We enjoyed great food, a guided tour of Brisbane, Erskine family pictures, Air Conditioned bedroom - a first since leaving Atlanta- time relaxing, and most of all terrific company. It was really re-energizing to have a few days to relax in the same place and to not feel as much like we were living out of a suitcase. Thank you to the Erskine family for putting up with us for several days!
While in Brisbane, I got to hold a koala named David at a koala sanctuary. He was really cute but boy did he smell!- that photo will be posted soon, we visited the Australia Zoo (previously home to the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, they still had images of him displayed everywhere which felt a little strange, but the park was great)- we saw giant crocodiles (don't worry Dad, we were safe behind a fence), wallabies, kangaroos, tigers, even a Tasmanian Devil. '
Also while in Brisbane we traded in our Toyota Camry for a camper van. It's no ordinary campervan, though, as it goes by the title "Hippie Camper"which is painted in bright colors on the side and complete with purple and yellow daisies and butterflies. It's kind of the antithesis of a true hippie campervan, as it's almost brand new, and the paint is still really shiny, but it's entertaining to drive and it's giving us a break from staying in hostels for a while which is nice.
So, what exactly were we up to in that big chunk of time between Cape Tribulation and Brisbane? Well, we got to see some of the most beautiful beaches, Australian fauna in their natural habitat, and meet some great people along the way.
Here are the highlights:
1) Magnetic Island- named by Captain Cook because his compass went crazy when they sailed passed it.... but to this day scientists can't find evidence of any sort of magnetic presence in the area and hence no explanation of what happened.... while here we went on a hike- the site of an old army fort- where we spotted koalas in their natural habitat. I found out I'm actually really good at spotting koalas in eucalyptus trees from over 10 meters away- they basically look like small gray bumps, and when you get closer you realize it's actually an animal. They really are the most lethargic animals ever- but very cute. We even saw a mom and a baby- that was the highlight.
2) Whitsunday Islands- taking a snorkeling day cruise that basically ended up being a private cruise (there were only 5 of us that day) and meeting 3 new fantastic people- Aussies Libby and Daniel, and Clive the Londoner- as well as our (ex-US Army) captain Josef. The 5 of us really hit it off and had a blast that day (despite the one uncomfortable moment when we thought Josef was going to get into a bit of a skirmish with another vessel that was illegally parked at Josef's mooring.) Anyhoo, -the snorkeling was amazing- the fish would swim right up to you and even run into your mask-one of the coolest things was that if you stuck your ears under water you could hear the parrot fish munching on the coral. The 5 of us ended up hanging out and grabbing dinner together after the cruise was over- we were sad that we were heading out of town the next day and didn't get to hang out more!
3) Cape Hillsborough National Park- waking up at 6AM to watch wild kangaroos get fed on the beach. One decided it really liked me, or thought I had food, and hopped right over to me and tried to jump up which caused me to totally overreact and scream my head off. Steve caught all this on video, luckily. After it happened, a little girl told me "-oh, that one likes to jump up on people"- right.... i picked up on that.
4) Great Keppel Island- spending a couple of nights on this beautiful island- one day we hiked over to a beach and went snorkeling in a small reef off the beach- only a couple of other folks were in the area. We saw a couple of small stingrays (we kept our distance) and a sea turtle- it was amazing to watch it swim through the water- a lot more graceful than it looks on land! We met a really nice American couple that have been living in Brisbane for the last 25 years- we're looking forward to their tips on hiking in Patagonia :-)
5) Fraser Island- taking a 4WD bus (as in a large motor coach) through one of the largest completely sand islands in the world. We saw a dingo on the beach (while we were safely in the bus- as the guides told us, they're getting more and more bold and vicious, and there are signs everywhere to supervise children at all times because they've had problems with dingo attacks- we tried not to quite the Seinfeld line "maybe the dingo ate your baby"too loud- didn't think they'd find it amusing.) By this tour we're a bit jaded at all the beautiful sites we've seen, so although this really was a beautiful island the tour was a bit anti-climactic after the whale watching the day before.
It's been a VERY busy last few weeks, but we have had an amazing time and have loved being in Australia. Only a couple weeks left and we head to Southeast Asia to meet up with Tom and Christina :-)
Cheers,
Anna
Last week we had the absolute pleasure of staying with some of Steve's relatives (2nd cousin and his family) in Brisbane. We had so much fun meeting and getting to know another part of Steve's family. We enjoyed great food, a guided tour of Brisbane, Erskine family pictures, Air Conditioned bedroom - a first since leaving Atlanta- time relaxing, and most of all terrific company. It was really re-energizing to have a few days to relax in the same place and to not feel as much like we were living out of a suitcase. Thank you to the Erskine family for putting up with us for several days!
While in Brisbane, I got to hold a koala named David at a koala sanctuary. He was really cute but boy did he smell!- that photo will be posted soon, we visited the Australia Zoo (previously home to the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, they still had images of him displayed everywhere which felt a little strange, but the park was great)- we saw giant crocodiles (don't worry Dad, we were safe behind a fence), wallabies, kangaroos, tigers, even a Tasmanian Devil. '
Also while in Brisbane we traded in our Toyota Camry for a camper van. It's no ordinary campervan, though, as it goes by the title "Hippie Camper"which is painted in bright colors on the side and complete with purple and yellow daisies and butterflies. It's kind of the antithesis of a true hippie campervan, as it's almost brand new, and the paint is still really shiny, but it's entertaining to drive and it's giving us a break from staying in hostels for a while which is nice.
So, what exactly were we up to in that big chunk of time between Cape Tribulation and Brisbane? Well, we got to see some of the most beautiful beaches, Australian fauna in their natural habitat, and meet some great people along the way.
Here are the highlights:
1) Magnetic Island- named by Captain Cook because his compass went crazy when they sailed passed it.... but to this day scientists can't find evidence of any sort of magnetic presence in the area and hence no explanation of what happened.... while here we went on a hike- the site of an old army fort- where we spotted koalas in their natural habitat. I found out I'm actually really good at spotting koalas in eucalyptus trees from over 10 meters away- they basically look like small gray bumps, and when you get closer you realize it's actually an animal. They really are the most lethargic animals ever- but very cute. We even saw a mom and a baby- that was the highlight.
2) Whitsunday Islands- taking a snorkeling day cruise that basically ended up being a private cruise (there were only 5 of us that day) and meeting 3 new fantastic people- Aussies Libby and Daniel, and Clive the Londoner- as well as our (ex-US Army) captain Josef. The 5 of us really hit it off and had a blast that day (despite the one uncomfortable moment when we thought Josef was going to get into a bit of a skirmish with another vessel that was illegally parked at Josef's mooring.) Anyhoo, -the snorkeling was amazing- the fish would swim right up to you and even run into your mask-one of the coolest things was that if you stuck your ears under water you could hear the parrot fish munching on the coral. The 5 of us ended up hanging out and grabbing dinner together after the cruise was over- we were sad that we were heading out of town the next day and didn't get to hang out more!
3) Cape Hillsborough National Park- waking up at 6AM to watch wild kangaroos get fed on the beach. One decided it really liked me, or thought I had food, and hopped right over to me and tried to jump up which caused me to totally overreact and scream my head off. Steve caught all this on video, luckily. After it happened, a little girl told me "-oh, that one likes to jump up on people"- right.... i picked up on that.
4) Great Keppel Island- spending a couple of nights on this beautiful island- one day we hiked over to a beach and went snorkeling in a small reef off the beach- only a couple of other folks were in the area. We saw a couple of small stingrays (we kept our distance) and a sea turtle- it was amazing to watch it swim through the water- a lot more graceful than it looks on land! We met a really nice American couple that have been living in Brisbane for the last 25 years- we're looking forward to their tips on hiking in Patagonia :-)
5) Fraser Island- taking a 4WD bus (as in a large motor coach) through one of the largest completely sand islands in the world. We saw a dingo on the beach (while we were safely in the bus- as the guides told us, they're getting more and more bold and vicious, and there are signs everywhere to supervise children at all times because they've had problems with dingo attacks- we tried not to quite the Seinfeld line "maybe the dingo ate your baby"too loud- didn't think they'd find it amusing.) By this tour we're a bit jaded at all the beautiful sites we've seen, so although this really was a beautiful island the tour was a bit anti-climactic after the whale watching the day before.
It's been a VERY busy last few weeks, but we have had an amazing time and have loved being in Australia. Only a couple weeks left and we head to Southeast Asia to meet up with Tom and Christina :-)
Cheers,
Anna
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