Update About Pictures

I just wanted to let you all know that I won't be posting any pictures until I get back to Australia.
The computers in vietnam are a little slow and it takes way too long to upload them.
I'll post pictures next week, and I'll email everyone to let them know about it.
: )
Cheers,

Roberts

June 10th - Hanoi Hilton, Walk-About

Since we had booked our trip to Haolong Bay for Sunday-Tuesday, and booked our train ticket for Tuesday evening, Saturday would be our only day in Hanoi. After reading through our trusty Lonely Planet, we decided on a bit of a walking tour to satisfy our appetite for the Vietnamese capital. One of the first things you notice is that everyone drives a moto, and since the population is much larger than Cambodia, there are significantly more of them around. As with Cambodia, there don't seem to be traffic laws, but when you cross the street they all seem to miss you, so don't worry too much.
Anyway, our first stop was the Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple, which is on the middle of the Hoan Kien Lake. Inside there was a replica of a giant tortoise, said to have inhabited the lake.
Despite the rain it was a pretty nice place to visit. To be fair though, any temple we visit won't hold a candle to Angkor Wat, but I'll still let them try. Our next stop was the post office, where Graham sent some things home to England. Even though Graham doesn't get back to England until September, he will still beat the package home. After exchanging the last of my $US for Vietnamese Dong, we walked to the Hanoi Hilton, th prison used during the Vietnam War, but found it to be closed until 1:30. So, this knowledge in hand, we walked to a nearby cafe to have lunch before coming back.
The Hanoi Hilton was pretty small, but it was interesting to walk through it and read about how the prisoners were treated. (apparently very well by all accounts) Even though some of it had the ring of propaganda, I'm sure most of it was true.
We leisurely walked back to the hotel, taking a short break by the lake, and even managed to talk to some locals about football. For obvious reasons, I said very little, since Canada isn't that football (soccer) crazy like Vietnam and Graham are.
We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon, and took a little break before heading out to the bar to watch football and have something to eat. This time, however, it was England vs Paraguay, so we donned our England jerseys and found a British style pub with lots of England supporters to catch the match. Despite not playing terribly well, England managed to turn an early own goal into a 1-0 victory. Everyone in the pub breathed a sigh of relief, and after exchanging email addresses with a few brits we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. We head to Haolong Bay at shortly after 7 tomorrow, so we need our sleep.

June 9th - Plane Tickets, Hanoi, and World Cup!!!

We got up at 8 this morning to check out of the hotel and head to the airport to get tickets to Hanoi. Well, wouldn't you know it?, you can't book plane tickets at the Phnom Penh airport, you have to buy them at a travel agency or at the airlines head offices in town. We wrote down that little nugget of information and proceded to get a taxi to take us back into town, to the Vietnam Airlines office to pick up tickets. We got to the office and were lucky to get the last two tickets on the 3:30 flight to Hanoi. Our adventure wasn't over yet, since the power went out in the Airlines office, so we had to go to an ATM to take out cash. Our cab driver, however, took us to a bank instead, so after Graham's failed attempt to get a cash advance on his credit card, I cashed the remainder of my traveler's cheques.
With cash in hand we went back to the Vietnam Airlines office and paid for our tickets. The adventure almost complete, we went back to the airport and waited for our flight.
With a stop-over in Laos to pick up passengers, we arrived in Hanoi shortly after 7 and took a taxi into town to get a hotel room. The first place we tried was full, but they directed us to a nearby hotel where we managed to get a decent room for a decent price. We also managed to book our trip to Haolong Bay and a train ticket to Hue, so pretty good in an hour's work.
Our bags safely in our room and us getting pretty hungry, we headed out to a local bar to watch the World Cup match between Germany and Costa Rica. After frantically searching for our hotel at 1 in the morning, - we finally found it after walking around and checking addresses- we managed to get to sleep just before 2.

June 8th - The Killing Fields, Physio Centre and Quiz Night

We woke up just after 9, had breakfast and found ourselves a Tuk Tuk to take us out to the Killing Fields. The drive out there took quite some time and we even spent some time on some dirt roads, which among other things got our clothes filthy. The killing fields are pretty powerful place, but there was a certain serenity surrounding it which was actually kind of nice to feel. S21 was too emotionally draining and I wouldn't have been able to take another day like that. We hired ourselves a tour guide who spoke fantastic elnglish and was a great example of the new breed of Cambodian who believes that they need to educate people on the attrocities of Khmer Rouge to ensure something like it never happens again. To this day they have found about 9000 bodies in mass graves throughout the field. There are several thousand that remain unretrievable since they are buried under water. As you walk around the fields you can only imagine how brutal a place it must have been, since time has made a lush green environment. that being said, there are several pieces of clothing, along with some bone fragments, that are seeping up through the ground. Much like S21 it is not for the faint of heart, but a great educational experience.
After about 45 mins in the fields we said our goodbye to our tour guide and got back on our Tuk Tuk.
We took the Tuk Tuk back to the riverside where we met Sally for lunch. After a nice lunch, we took another Tuk Tuk to the physio clinic where Sally worked. Currently she is spending a 3 month work term helping out local physio's with diagnoses and treatment options that they just aren't that familiar with. To Graham and I it just looked like she got to play with kids all day, but we're just bystandards. We took a tour of the prosthetics manufacturing facility, which was quite interesting, before watching Sally and her staff help a few young kids through a series of exercises. The kids were amazing and its great to see what wonderful work volunteer organizations are providing to this part of the world. After Sally closed up, we went back into town, however this time by motobike (sorry Mom) to have a drink at a cafe near the hotel.
We headed back to the hotel shortly after 5, and enough time to shower and get changed to head over to the pub for quiz night.
After confusing the Tuk Tuk driver with the name of the bar - we called it the Lucky Gecko, but the bar was actually called the Lazy Gecko - we got to our destination. Initially it appeared that the Tuk Tuk driver was leaving us in a dark alleyway, but sure enough, there was the bar shortly down the alley.
The rest of our team members showed up and we ordered food and tried to get our game faces on. We ended up doing fairly well, although a couple of questions I'd like back (I won't bore you with them, suffice it to say that sometimes it is better to go with your gut, while other times you should think things over) and ended up in 3rd place, a few points out of first.
All in all it was a fun night, and it will be sad to leave Cambodia tomorrow. : (

June 7th - Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda, National Museum and S21

As you can tell from the subject of today's entry, it is going to be a full day! We arranged for a Tuk Tuk to take us to the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum.
Our first stop, the Royal Palace, was pretty stunning. Since the king was in residence, part of the palace was off limits to tourists. (I even think that these certain parts are always off limits, whether the king is in residence or not)
We walked through all the temples, and took a few pictures. (as always)
The main attraction of the royal palace is the Silver Pagoda, whose floor is tiled with silver plates. It's quite a unique place and it was kind of busy to be sure, but worth it. We left the Royal Palace to hit our next stop, the National Museum. The museum, at least for me, was a bit of a letdown. It is almost completely full of sculptures from the temples at Siem Reap and really, after a while all the Vishnas start to look the same. There were a few interesting stories written about certain pieces and was well worth the entry fee of $3, but I must admit I was a little dissappointed.
We took a walk after visiting the museum and had lunch at a restaurant by the river. We got into an argument with one of the street vendors, but I paid $4 to settle it. After lunch we walked around the street market, before catching a Tuk Tuk to take us to S21, a school that was used as a prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The story of S21 is almost as heartbreaking as viewing it in person. The coles notes version is that during the Khmer Rouge regime, anybody who was educated, such as teachers, doctors, lawyers etc. were arrested by the regime, brought to prisons like S21 and forced to confess to things that they didn't do, before getting executed in the Killing Fields, just outside of town.
The whole experience of walking through the rooms where some prisoners bodies were found, and seeing the pictures of their lifeless bodies was a horrific, but important thing to see, as it shed some light on the attrocities of the regime. After walking through every room in every building, seeing every picture, and reading every story, we watched a 45 documentary about two specific prisoners, and what happened to them up to their execution. It was interesting, moving and sad all in one.
The entire experience was deeply saddening but made us realise how truly remarkable the turnaround in Cambodia has been. They lost an entire generation of around 2 million skilled people, yet they are a growing nation, whose strength of spirit is staggering.
The two of us were emotionally broken by the time we got back to the hotel, and had to preoccupy ourselves to ensure that we wouldn't mope around. We had showers and changed for dinner. Tonight we were meeting Jo's (my little cousin Joanna) friend Sally who also brought along one of her housemates, Lucy, who volunteers at an orphanage. The dinner was a much more uplifting experience than our trip to S21. The restaurant was run by an NGO, and it employs street children, teaching them the Western method of cooking and serving. Each street kid or "Student" is paired with a "teacher" who follows them around while they take orders etc. Not only was the service amazing but the food was utterly fantastic. It was nice to have good meal while helping a good cause at the same time.
The conversation was great, especially since Graham and I hadn't had a female point of view for quite some time. After dinner, we went to a local bar and had a couple of drinks, made plans to visit Sally for lunch tomorrow, followed by a tour of the children's clinic where she is a volunteer physio. We also made plans to meet up for dinner at a local pub for quiz night.
After such a long day, we had no trouble getting to sleep.

June 6th - Bus to Phnom Penh

We got up early to catch our shuttle to the bus station and made our way to Phnom Penh.
The bus wasn't too bad and I managed to sleep most of the way. The trip took 6 hours and when we got off the bus we took a Tuk Tuk to the hotel. We put our bags in the room and decided to take a walk around the riverside to get our bearings. Our hotel was located in central Phnom Penh so our walk wasn't too difficult but managed to kill a couple of hours. The weather is noticeably less humid here as well which makes things a little easier. We headed back to the shower in the early evening to have a shower and head out for dinner. Dinner was nice, at a restaurant close to the hotel and we managed to get to bed at a decent time.

June 5th - Angkor Wat - Day 2

Although we didn't have as full of a plate as yesterday, and the temples weren't nearly as large, we still wanted to get an early start so that we could beat the crowds.
Our first stop was Banteay Srei, the Pink Temple, aptly named because of its pinkish hue. The drive to Banteay Srei was a little long, but we got to drive through some vintage Cambodian villages along the way.
In the heart of a forest (or jungle more likely) Banteay Srei was my favourite temple of the 2nd day (seems like the first temple of the day is always my favourite -- maybe that's because my shirt isn't soaked yet). It has a special charm about it and looks to have been built in miniature, with only 1 level and no towers to climb. It still seemed majestic in its serene beauty and with very detailed architecture it easily stands out from the rest of the temples. We spent a little over 45 minutes there, and luckily we beat the tour buses which showed up just after we left.
Our next stop was a small temple, Banteay Samre, somewhat isolated from the rest of the temples, was still a wonderful piece of architecture, but as would be the case for the remainder of the day, a lot smaller than the one's visited yesterday.
We left the temple and bought water from the children sitting at the entrance, ran into a rather rude american couple who kept asking the little girls why they weren't in school. (for the record, most children do attend school but only for half a day, but even still, Cambodia is a very poor country and some families simply cannot afford to send their children to school. Ignorance is no excuse for rudeness.)
Our next stop was East Mebon, a pyramid type temple of receding terraces with five towers. A small temple, it was a nice exploration, but nothing special.
Preah Rup was the next temple, the sister of East Mebon and among its best attributes is the fact that you can see Angkor Wat in the distant horizon.
Although it might seem like I'm rushing through these temples it must be said that the majority of these temples are beautiful in their own right, but aren't nearly as unique as some of the bigger one's.
Ta Some, the next stop was a great example of the symbiotic relationship demonstrated by the Jungle Temple from yesterday. On its east side there is a beautiful tree root intertwined with the wall of the Temple. As Graham remarked it seemed almost faked, but of course was entirely real. Neak Pean was one of the favourites of the trip despite and possibly even because of its simplicity.
An island temple, when there's enough water, this truly magnificent place was aptly nicknamed the coiled serpent. Graham and I took a little rest, admiring this temple and be sure we weren't the only one's.
The next temple we stopped at wasn't even in the guide book which led us to believe it might have been found relatively recently. It was in ruins, but it still had an undeniable charm to it. Banteay Prei was seemingly insignificant when compared with the popular temples but it was still an interesting stop. Our last 3 stops were the Royal Palace, Phimeanakas, and Baphuron. These 3 sights were located near the Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King. The Royal Palace wasn't altogether impressive but Phimeanakas had a great high tower which took a while to climb and had a great view. Baphuron was a pretty large Temple that was under construction bit I could easily see it being one of the more popular temples should the reconstruction be successful.
As this was our last temple we said our goodbyes to wonderful Angkor Wat, leaving through the South Gates and stopping for lunch in Siem Reap.
We were pretty exhausted but after a nice lunch outside, we had our driver take us to the Land Mine Museum, which is run by a very interesting man by the name of Aki Ra. His story is worth re-telling. Aki Ra's parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was young, at which point he was forced into the life of a Khmer soldier. When the Vietnamese Army invaded, he was captured, and was recruited to fight for Vietnam against the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. During this time he planted numerous land mines which were used to neutralise the Khmer attacks. Ever since leaving the army, he has been at the forefront of removing the landmines which are common throughout the rest of rural Cambodia. The museum itself houses children who have been affected by landmines. Here, these kids are taught vital skills and receive an education provided by western volunteers.
The museum is pretty eye-opening and any money donates goes directly into helping Aki Ra remove landmines throughout Cambodia. After spending 45 minutes reading all the stories and looking at all the exhibits (donating $7 as well) we went to our last stop, the miniature Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei.
The mini Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei were sculptures made by an artist, that are exactly to scale. Educated at a french Cambodian school for fine arts, the artist spent 4 years making the sketches by hand and then carved each piece himself. Remarkable stuff. He was a lovely old man, and I was able to speak french with him. Mine was rusty, but his was perfectly understandable.
We got ourselves a picture with him, and went to pick up our bus tickets to Phnom Penh, before getting dropped off at an internet cafe, where we paid the driver, said our goodbyes, and updated our blogs. We got back to the hotel and chilled out for a while before having dinner in the hotel and getting to bed early in order to be able to get up for our bus which leaves at 7:30 the following morning.

June 4th - Angkor Wat - Day 1

Today is going to be a loooooong day!
Graham and I woke up at 7AM in order to have breakfast before meeting our driver at 8.
One thing you notice about Siem Reap as soon as you step outside is how hot and humid it is in this jungle city. Our driver arrived promptly at 8AM and he drove us to pick up our Angkor Wat passes. After paying our money, we continued on through the South Gates. Our driver advised us that the South temples are better viewed in the morning light, while Angkor Wat is better viewed in the afternoon. It is best to view the south gate by walking across the bridge in front of it. As with almost everything else in the Angkor are, it is incredibly majestic and impressive. (I'll be using a lot of adjectives today)
I suggest you either hire a guide (for $US 20) or do what Graham and I did, and buy a good guide book when walking around Angkor.
Our first stop was Bayon, a 3 tiered temple that would be my favourite after the two days of touring around. We walked around for almost an hour, and even then I could have spent longer here. Built in the late 12th to early 13th century and nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat, it is important that you walk around all 3 levels to fully appreciate all it has to offer, especially it's wonderful view from the tower on the top tier.
Our second stop was the terrace of Elephants, and Terrace of the Leper King. Both of these sights can be walked through in under a half hour. One important thing to note about the Terrace of the Leper King is that the actual statue of the Leper King resides in the National Museum in Phnom Penh, while the one on the terrace is simply a replica.
Our next stop was Thommanon, one of a pair of temples strategically placed outside the east gate of Angkor. We spent about a half hour walking around before we headed to Chau Say Tevoda (its counterpart). Chau Say Tevoda is very similar to Thommanon except it was a little more rundown.
Our next stop was Ta Keo, built at the end of the 10th century, an unfinished temple with 5 square towers. We walked around for a while, but to be honest Graham and I were looking forward to seeing our next stop, Ta Prohm, the jungle temple. Now to the general public, this is the same temple in Lara Croft's Tombraider. This temple is definitely more spectacular in person, and we spent the better portion of an hour walking through it.
Everywhere you turn you see nature merging with the temples, as trees grow throughout the ruin.
We spent quite a while in this ruing fighting through hoards of South Korean tourists but it was well worth it.
Our next stop was Banteay Kdei, a less busy temple which still retained a certain charm. We started to get a bit tired, and the heat was getting a bit oppressive, so after 30 minutes we were ready for our last temple before lunch. Our last temple before lunch was Srah Srang, the royal bath, which was right across the road from Banteay Kdei.
After Graham made a girl of about 7 years old cry (he had promised to buy water from her, but when I bought two waters from another child, Graham figured they were working together....they weren't, and he had to spend another 5 dollars on a t-shirt, coke and postcards to make her feel better....we think they were crocodile tears, but what can you do?)
This drama behind us, we stopped off at a restaurant suggested by Kwan (our driver) and relaxed for an hour or so. I've said it before, but this traveling gig is tough.
After lunch we had a slightly less crowded itinerary, since we were going to visit Angkor Wat, the main temple. To say that Angkor Wat is impressive, would be an understatement of epic proportions. It's sheer size is only surpassed by its magnificence in design and detail. As described in our tour book "Angkor Wat, in its beauty and state of preservation is unrivaled. Its mightiness and magnificence bespeak a pomp luxury surpassing that of a Pharaoho or a Shar Jahan, an impressiveness greater than that of the Pyramids, an artistic distinctiveness as fine as that of the Taj Mahal." Now that's very well put!
It is easily one of the finest monuments in the world, and spending 2 hours here seems to be not enough time to appreciate everything that it offers, but it was time well enjoyed.
My highlight was the Bas Reliefs, galleries that are located on the walls of the first level.
Our last stop for the day was Preah Khan. Now, although this temple is a beautiful specimen in its own right, it still seems like a step down after the majesty of Angkor Wat. We walked around for about 45 minutes before heading back to the car and calling it a day.
The weather looked like it could rain at any minute, and shortly after getting back to our hotel and going down to the pool, it started to rain.
And by rain I don't mean a shower, I mean R A I N!!!!! When we decided to have dinner in town, we got ourselves a Tuk Tuk to take us there. We might have been better off hiring a boat, what with the streets under about 2 feet of water. God bless the Tuk Tuk driver who earned his $2 fee and got us to our restaurant, The Red Piano, quickly and safely. We had a wonderful and cheap meal and watched the rain soaked streets for an hour or so, before taking a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. We had another big day ahead of us, so we went to bed at an early hour.

June 3rd - Arrive in Siem Reap

We slept in a little bit, made sure our bags were packed, and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
Our flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, wasn't until 2:50 but we decided to leave a little early to make sure we got to the Airport with plenty of time to spare. (plus, we were sick of Thailand, and couldn't really wait to get out)
The traffic was brutal on the way to the airport, and it was a good thing we gave ourselved so much time to get there. We got the airport with about an hour and a half to kill, so we checked our bags and walked to the food court.
After having a brief meal, we walked through security and got to our departure gate. Graham was a little apprehensive that the plane to Siem Reap would a twin prop plane, and low and behold his apprehensions proved to be correct. The plane was pretty small and was a twin prop, but we managed to survive the 40 minute flight to Siem Reap without any ill effects. As you fly into Siem Reap you notice that it isn't nearly as built up as Thailand, and we were glad to be there. We breezed through customs (the agent actually cracked a smile) and went to the taxi stand to get taken to our hotel.
The taxi driver was really nice and spoke pretty good english. As he dropped us off at the hotel he asked if we needed a driver for the next couple of days. We figured we'd probably get one from the hotel, but he was really nice so we agreed on a fee and arranged to meet him @ 8AM the next day.
For the remainder of the evening we had a dinner in the hotel restaurant and played some pool, before heading to bed shortly after 10. (we have a B I G day ahead of us!!!)

June 2nd - Internet Cafe, Lounging Around

After getting to our hotel, and sleeping for a few hours, we got a little hungry and went downstairs for some food. We spent the better part of the next 4 hours on the internet trying to put a dent in the blogs that we don't have up to date and probably won't until we get back to Australia. (at this moment, I am writing this entry in Hoi An, so you can see how far backed up I am) After getting our fill of writing in our blogs we stopped for lunch and then went back to the hotel to sti by the pool and read for the afternoon. In the evening we walked around Khao San road, stopped off at a restaurant for dinner, before retiring fairly early. (still tired from the overnight bus of the previous day)
After 10 days in Thailand, Graham and I are ready for a new country.

June 1st - Checkout of Hotel - Bus to Bangkok

We got up just after 11 and checked out of the hotel at noon. Our bus didn't leave until 4:30, so we went down to the beach for a late breakfast before picking up our bags and taking a taxi to the bus station in Phuket town, about 30 mins from Patong.
After picking up our tickets at the bus station we wlaked around, unsuccessfully, to find an internet cafe. We decided, instead, to watch a movie on the ipod to kill time before our bus left at 4:30.
As soon as we got on the bus we realised that this was definitely the way to travel. The chairs were almost as big as beds, and reclined to an almost totally horizontal position. The only strange thing was that we were the only tourists on the bus.
Although the bus ride took 13 hours to get back to Bangkok, we did our best to sleep most of the way. With thai tv shows blaring over the speakers, the task was made all the more difficult. After a brief stop for a late dinner, we finally arrived at the station at shortly after 5AM. Graham and I took a cab to the Buddy Lodge, paid for an early check-in and went to sleep.

May 31st - Patong Beach

We had a bit of a sleep in today to recharge our batteries, before having a late breakfast on the beach. We located an umbrella with two loungers and sat down. We didn't sit for too long, however, as it began to rain. After confirming with the attendant that we could come back, we ran off to an internet cafe to wait out the storm. About an hour later, the rain stopped and we were able to get back to the beach. Along the way we stopped at the Aussie Bar to have a drink. (nothing like rain to put a man in the mood for a beer) We lounged on the beach for most of the afternoon, watched people ave accidents with parasailing (no one got hurt, but they came really really close) and dog's surfing (photographic evidence is available) and read our books.
We got back to the hotel and had dinner at a restaurant close by.
We then watched a couple of movies and went to bed. (I am kind of dissapointed in the lack of nightlife in this town)

May 30th - Elephant Treking, Sea Kayak, James Bond Island, Monkey Temple

We got up at the same time as yesterday in order to catch our minibus for the tour. The drive to our first stop, Elephant Treking took a little over 45 minutes. The elephant treking was a lot of fun, even though you feel a little sorry for the elephants. Our elephant was a little smaller than the rest, but she treked quite nicely through the muddy path and the pond. She also seemed to have a mind of her own, especially when Graham had a turn to steer her. After the trek, we got introduced to the baby elephant and some of the tricks that he could do.
After the baby elephant show we went to our next stop, the harbour, where we got onto a longtail boat to get to the sea kayaking spot. The scenery along the way was quite breathtaking and along with a nice breeze it made for a pleasant journey.
Graham and I got paired up with a guide and went in to the sea on the kayak, visiting caves, paddling through lagoons and generally having a good time. Our guide was quite funny and was hitting on all the single femaile tourists. None, unfortunately, were trerribly responsive nor all that cute, but it was good fun. After about an hour of kayaking we got back on the longtail boat to head to the next stop - James Bond Island. As the name suggests the island was featured in a James Bond filme, called Dr. No. We took some great pictures of the island and walked around for a bit. It was pretty neat and I'm hopeful that some of the pictures will come out well.
We stopped for lunch at a floating village where we ate with a couple from Toronto. We never did get their names, but the guy was actually friends with someone I went to camp with - Peter Dilworth, so hopefully Pete your friend sends you an email and you can read about this on the blog.
After lunch we made our way back to the mainland and caught our bus back t the hotel. Along the way we stopped off at the Monkey Temple, where Graham fed monkeys, and at a cashew store where we bought some cashews, and finally made it back to the hotel at 6. We went out for dinner and did a little shopping before heading to bed at around 10.

May 29th - Ko Phi Phi

We got up at 7AM in order to have plenty of time to get ready for our tour to Ko Phi Phi. We were traveling there by speedboat from the town of Phuket. We met our tour group at the marina and shortly after 9 we left to our first stop Maya Bay. For anyone who's seen the Dicapprio movie "The Beach", Maya Bay is where the movie was shot. The beach is stunning, albeit crowded with tourists. We took a swim in the lagoon, walked around the beach a little bit and took a few pictures.
Our next stop was Pih Leh Cove for snorkeling. For some reason most of the people on the tour elected to stay on the boat while Graham and I went snorkeling. It was a pretty amazing experience and I managed to see some Dori fish and other colourful sea creatures.
After about a half hour, we made our way to Monkey Beach, and stopped briefly at Viking Cave for some pictures. (people actually live in viking cave) Now because of the tide, we couldn't actually get out onto Monkey Beach but we still managed to feed the monkey's who are actually dependent on tourists to feed them. According to our guide, after the tsunami hit Ko Phi Phi, and tourism pretty much stopped, the monkey's starved and guides like herself had to find a way to get out and give them some food. Their population still dwindled but she said it is back, growing every year.
Our next stop is Ko Phi Ley for our lunch stop. Graham and I sat with a nice middle aged couple from Las Vegas and an American woman traveling with her 5 year old son. They were very nice indeed, and the meal was quite pleasant. After lunch we walked around the island, took some pictures and admired the beauty of the scenery.
On our way back to Phuket we stopped at Khai Island where Graham and I went snorkeling again. I saw a dead jelly fish and one very alive and poisonous sea snake. Needless to say, I got out of there as quickly as possible but Graham (the tough brit) stayed.
We got back to the marina shortly after 4 and boarded the van to take us back to the hotel. From all the sun, and possibly the rough boat ride, I wasn't feeling too well, so after getting back to the hotel I went to bed, while Graham went to dinner. While he was out he booked us on another tour for the following day.

May 28th - Patong Beach

After our marathon travel from the previous day we didn't start off too early, deciding instead to recharge our batteries and got up a little later than usual.
We got up at 11 and slowly got ready to head down to the beach for a nice relaxing day. We stopped off at the Aussie Bar, a popular spot in Patong, which is owned and operated by native Australians. Our hunger sated, we walked past the gauntlet of street vendors and got to the beach.
We found a couple of loungers under an umbrella for 100 baht, and settled down for a relaxing afternoon.
We read our books, I listened to my ipod and generally wasted the afternoon, and to be honest I had a great time doing it. After a few hours of lounging on the beach, and of swimming in the ocean we decided to walk back to the hotel. The previous night we had picked up a few tour pamphlets and had decided on taking a coupe of them while in Phuket. The first tour was for Ko Phi Phi Island. We booked the tour for the following day, and confirmed our pickup time for 8:00 AM.
After showering and getting changed we headed out to see the nightlife in Patong Beach. Much to our dismay but not altogether unexpected, the beach was kind of dead and the majority of people were dirty old men (called Dom's) looking for youg thai girls (or in some cases young thai boys) or older couples on vacation. We did manage to find a good meal at a local Irish pub though, so that's a positive thing. After walking around for a little while after dinner we figured we should head back to the hotel to get some rest for our trip the following day.

May 27th - Phuket

The bus journey was rather long and with a 2 hour layover in Suret Thani and another 4 hour slow bus to Puket we finally arrived at our destination. Along with three other brits (recent high school grads who made us feel extremely old) we took a tuk tuk to Patong Beach and got to our hotel shortly after noon.
The total journey took well over 18 hours and we decided we would find a better way to get back to Bangkok.
After unpacking our bags and taking a swim in the pool, we took a walk down to the beach, passing through a gauntlet of harassing masseurs and finally getting to the beach to have lunch.
We walked around for a bit, but we were pretty tired, so we went back to the hotel and crashed for the afternoon.
I went to bed relatively early and Graham went out for dinner on his own. Hopefully as good night's sleep will do us some good.

May 26th - Golden Palace & Bus to Phuket

Our hangover fully recovered from, we were able to get up early and make our way to the Golden Palace for just after 10.
The place was pretty busy, and it was a good thing we wore jeans since long pants, and closed toed shoes were required. The Golden Palace is pretty stunning and we took as many pictures as we could and that were allowed. (you can't take pictures inside temples)
We walked through the vasta array of murals and marvelled at how vibrant they still are. We then walked by the reason why.....someone was renovating the murals. We walked around for another hour or so, witnessing the procession of the Royal Guards, and viewing several other temples along the way.
After we left the Golden Palace, we walked towards Wat Po (the reclining Budha), but along the way several Tuk Tuk drivers told us it was closed. We ignored them, and when we got to Wat Po we found out that it wasn't closed, but that there was a ceremony on at the moment, and we would have to return in the afternoon.
Since we had to catch a bus in the afternoon, we took a Tuk Tuk back to our hotel and skip Wat Po. When we got back to our hotel, Graham noticed that he didn't have his camera. We searched through our bags but couldn't find it.
On the bright side, he didn't lose too many photographs, but it was a x-mas present from his parents, so it was still kind of a bad break.
While waiting for our bus, we watched a couple of movies on Khao San Road. We went and checked our email as well, and I googled the voglee scam, and found out that it was a real scam and that it had happened to numerous other people. This bummed us out further, but we figured the worst case scenario was that we lost some money.
Anyway, our bus did in fact pick us up at 5:30, so we breathed a sigh of relief and we got on the bus for the long journey to Phuket.

May 25th - Hangover and Suit Fitting

Today wasn't nearly as exciting as yesterday, primarily because both Graham and I had a little (by little I mean A LOT) too much to drink last night and had to sleep off a pretty decent hangover. As a result we didn't get up early enough to go and visit the Golden Palace. We did, however, have to get up in time to make our fitting at noon.
We were still pretty groggy but we managed to find a tuk tuk to take us to our fitting. However, he didn't take us directly to Voglee, instead he drove us to some place called Manhattan. Now Graham and I were in no mood to get swindled so we tried to get the driver to keep going but one of the other attendants who spoke good english told us that if we simply walked into the store and spent 5 minutes looking around, that the Tuk Tuk driver would get free gas. We didn't have the strength to argue so we just walked around the store for 5 minutes and headed back out to our tuk tuk driver. We managed to get to our fitting shortly after noon and tried on our suits. I have to admit that the suits fit pretty well (they better, for how much I spent) so we signed off on them and they assured us that they would be ready for shipping the next week. The tuk tuk driver then took us back to our hotel and since we were pretty exhausted by this point, we simply crashed in our hotel for an afternoon nap.
We woke up with just enough time to catch up on some news via the internet and have an early dinner, before writing in our journals and heading to bed.

May 24th - Bangkok, Budhas and the Voglee Scam

We caught the taxi to the airport shortly after 7AM. Our flight left at 10AM, and we got there just after 8AM with plenty of time to check our bags and make our way to the departure gate. The flight took a little less than 2 hours to Bangkok, but since there was a time change of 1 hour, we actually arrived in Bangkok at around 11AM. Customs was a little scarier this time, as the customs official barely spoke a word to me, but I managed to keep my mouth shut (could someone see how Hell is doing, it being so cold and all) and eventually got through. I'd compare it to how you get treated at the US border these days.
Anyway, we quickly got our bags from the carousel and got ourselves a taxi to our hotel, the Buddy Lodge on famous Khaosan road in Bangkok.
The hotel was pretty cool and the room was big with a thai touch of authenticity. We dropped off our bags and decided to make the most of our afternoon by walking over to the Grand Palace, about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. This, as they would say, is where things got interesting.
Now, both Graham and I had read through the Lonely Planet guide, and we were aware of the possible scams that local Thai people can run. (like offering a 20 baht Tuk Tuk tour around the city that just so happens to stop off at a suit tailor along the way)
So as we were walking to the Grand Palace in our board shorts and t-shirts, a lot of unsavoury people started coming up to us and offering us Tuk Tuk's, tours etc and telling us that the Grand Palace was closed. We politely turned them down and as we got closer, less and less people started coming up to us.
It was about 2PM in the afternoon and could see the palace in the distance when a well dressed guy slowly came up to us. Now, just for the record, we were a little skeptical since the Lonely Planet says to watch out for the well dressed people, who seem friendly, cause they're just trained actors. But the guy seemed pretty genuine and we decided to talk to him. (although he did come up to us and everything he seemed awfully shy about it, which is a sign of a true local)
He told us he was a University student and that the Grand Palace was indeed open, but only until 3:30PM. Plus he said that you require long pants, and that they don't lend out sarongs or baggy pants to tourists. He suggested we come back at 8:30 the following morning when wearing long pants won't get too hot. He asked us if we had a Lonely Planet guide and pointed around to different temples on the Bangkok map that we could see this afternoon and not have to wear long pants. He pointed out the standing budha, and the sitting Budha. He also said, and this is where our lights switched on, that if we were interested in getting some nice suits (cashmere or silk) that he knew of a good tailor. (Notice how he said "if you're interested" as if he didn't really care either way?)
Although we were kind of skeptical we figured we'd write down the name anyway. Now here comes the second part of the scam. Now, to be fair, scam isn't a good word, more to the point it was a charade. Anyway, he then told us that we should only use Tuk Tuk's with white license plates, since these were government operated, while the yellow ones are privately owned and operated. He said that the white Tuk Tuk's are less corrupt and cheaper than the yellow one's.
As he said our goodbye's and good luck's, a couple of Tuk Tuk's stopped beside us, both with yellow plates. We waved them by, and then a white license plated Tuk Tuk stopped. We showed him where in our travel guide that we wanted to go and he quoted us a price, equal to what the guy told us we would have to pay. (60 Baht, or around 2 dollars)
Our first stop was the Standing Budha, which was a magnificently giant gold statue of a, you guessed it, standing Budha. We took some pictures and walked around the temple a bit before getting back on the Tuk Tuk and heading to our second stop, the Sitting Budha.
The sitting Budha wasn't as impressive as the standing Budha, but it was still rather spectacular. We took a few photos inside the temples and funnily enough, the Budhist monk sitting inside the temple was none other than the monk on the cover of the Thailand Lonely Planet guide. For those of you who have it, he's the one on the far right of the cover. We didn't feel comfortable taking his picture but it was definitely him.
Anyway, here is where the third stage of the charade begins.
As we walked back to the Tuk Tuk driver, he asked us to wait while he went to the bathroom. (In the back of our minds we're thinking "Why didn't he just go while we were in the temple?")
So shortly after he left, another well dressed Thai man walks up to his parked Mercedes (right next to us) and opens the driver's side door. He notices us sitting there, politely says hello and gets into his car. Before closing the door he leans out and asks where our Tuk-Tuk driver is. We tell him that he went to the toilet, and he kind of laughed and says something about how they have a tendency to wander off. He politely asks us what we had seen so far, and we told him.
He asks what elese we're doing and we showed him the map - which the other Thai guy wrote in and he asks us who wrote down Voglee. We tell him some other Thai student did, and he kind of nods and says that it's a good store and that his father bought suits from that very store. He then pulls out his wallet and shows us his very worn VIP Voglee card and tells us that we can get a couple of nice suits for around $500 US. He tells us to have a good trip and gets into his car. Shortly after, the Tuk Tuk driver gets in and asks us where to go next and we both point to the Voglee name in the book. (at this point they got us, and we didn't even realise it....such poor saps we are)
He nodded in agreement and we drove over to Voglee. Now to be totally honest we were still a little apprehensive, but we figured we hadn't spent any money yet so no harm done.
We got to Voglee and as we get to the front door a nice man escorts us in and takes us up to a private room where we discuss what we are looking for. (there were plenty of other people in the store, so at least we weren't the only suckers on this day)
He gets us something to drink, and to be honest was very impressive. We told him what we were looking for, had our measurements taken, looked through the catalogues to pick our styles and then we choose a couple of shirts. We also got two extra pairs of pants for the suits so that we could wear the pants by themselves and not be concerned with wear and tear. He asks us if we would like a wool coat as well, and shows us the sample. (it was really nice actually, and if they ever mail the suits and coat, I'll show you them someday)
He then quotes us a price of around $800, and to be honest, it was well within range of what we were expecting. For starters, they were going to be shipped within a month, to guarantee that they get back in time for my brother's wedding. (Graham wants to wear one of the suits for the wedding) Second, the quality of the material was pretty good (and I've tried on a lot of suits in my day). Third, I was planning on paying about $500 for two suits in Vietnam, that might take longer to get delivered, and I wouldn't be so sure of the quality.
Anyway, we went downstairs, paid the guy and he gave us the official receipt and a business card to arrange the fitting for the next day as well as giving us a VIP card, like the guy in the mercedes had.
We left the store feeling content, and not really thinking about being scammed at all.
Out Tuk Tuk driver was ready to take us back to our hotel when stage 4 of the scam started. He asked us if we had picked up our tickets to Phuket yet, and we told him we hadn't. He said there was a tourist office just down the road and we agreed to check it out.
When we got to the tourist office, we asked the guy at the desk what we were looking for, and he quoted us the exact price we were expecting. We figured it wasn't going to be as good as going by government bus, but he showed us the type of bus we would be taking, and it didn't look too bad. We paid him for a return trip (a bit of a mistake we would admit later on) and walked out of there pretty happy that we had sorted out so much in such a short period of time. On top of it all, we now had one less thing to worry about in Vietnam and we could spend more time exploring.
We got back to the hotel shortly after 4 and took a brief swim in the rooftop pool. After getting changed, we went out and experienced the nightlife of Khao San road. Had a few beers, did a little shopping and had a blast.
We met up with two Aussie guys and drank with them for a while, getting a little too drunk, and eventually getting kicked out of the bar just after closing.
Hopefully the hangover wasn't going to be too bad.

May 23rd - Butterfly Park, KL Covered Bird Park, Petronas Towers

Today we got up and after a light breakfast we made our way to Petronas Towers to pick up tickets for the Sky Bridge tour. By the time we made it to the appropriate lineup (let's go with the lineup without the guys in suits) the earliest time we could get was @ 3:00 PM. We got our tickets and decided to cab it across town to the Butterfly Park.
Now, to be perfectly honest, the Butterfly Park was a bit of a letdown but I still managed to get a couple of pictures nonetheless. After an hour or so, we decided to take the short walk to the KL Covered Bird Park. I have to admit that I kind of felt sorry for these caged birds, but most of them seemed well taken care of.
Among other things, we saw a few eagles, Pink Flamingo's and absolutely tons of peacocks. At the end of our walk through the Bird Park we still had a little over an hour to kill so we decided to take a cab back to Petronas Tower and have lunch in the shopping centre. By this time my shirt was almost soaked through and it was a great relief to walk through the air conditioned confines of the shopping mall. We had lunch in the food court and slowly made our way to the Sky Bridge tour. We walked through the tower museum and watched a video on the manufacturing of the two towers as well as the Sky Bridge. (which was actually made in Korea, put together there, then taken apart and shipped to KL) According to the same video the two towers are the largest office buildings in the world. They didn't seem that big, but I'll take their word for it.
Our tour time finally got called and we took the high speed elevator up to the 40th floor, where the Sky Bridge is located. Now it's interesting to note that the Bridge itself is built to sway in high winds, so at either side there is a gap of about 1.5 feet between the actual bridge and the tower walls. On a very windy day you can actually feel the Sky Bridge move. (thankfully we weren't there on a windy day)
The view was pretty neat and we took a few pictures before heading back to the base of the towers. It was about 4 in the afternoon, so we decided to take a brief walk through the KLCC park, around the rather large reflection pool and back towards the rail station.
We took the train back to the hotel and got there shortly after 5.
We had a chance to change our of our rather dirty clothes, have a shower and do a little laundry washing. (in the sink again)
Much like the previous night we went downstairs and had a walk through Petalang street. Dissapointingly, it wasn't as lively as the previous night, but we had a nice stroll through the remaining vendors before having a nice meal @ the hotel restaurant. Tonight we also bought the Swiss Tower, a rather giant pitcher of Heineken beer. (The picture will explain it better)
We got a bit tipsy, but knowing we had to get up early to catch a taxi we stayed up only till about 11PM before heading back to the hotel room and crashing.

May 22nd - KL Tower, KLCC Shopping Centre

Today we spent a little time in the morning, getting ourselves familiar with the rail system in KL before having some breakfast and heading to KL Tower.
To be honest, I still haven't got over the culture shock of Malaysia as of yet, but hopefully it will get better, the longer I am here.
Now obviously KL Tower is similar to the CN Tower and the Sydney Tower (except of course, for the view), but it does have one unique feature that the other's don't, and that's a rainforest at the base. (kind of unique I imagine)
So after taking a tour through the observation deck we took another walk through the rainforest for an hour or so.
When we exited the rainforest at the base of the tower, but on the opposite side where we began where the bungee swing is located, we noticed what appeared to be an Amazing Race Flag. (red and yellow striped) Sure enough, a couple of meters down the road there was a security guard standing by another Amazing Race flag, just at the entrance for the bungee swing. Now we didn't stick around to see if we could spot any racers, and to be fair I didn't want to take any pictures for fear of being accosted by the security guard, but if you see the racers in the next installment having to do a bungee swing task @ the base of KL tower, you didn't get that information from me.
From KL tower, it is just a short walk to the Petronas Towers (they of Entrapment fame). Attached to the base of the towers is a large shopping centre, a perfect place to have lunch in the nice air conditioned building. After lunch, and stopping off at the post office to mail some packages, we walked to the tower to see about the Skybridge tour. To our dismay, the Skybridge tour was closed on Monday's so we decided to take the train back to our hotel and take a walk through Central Market before taking a late afternoon nap. (Trust me, the heat is almost unbearable, and I bet I shed about 20 lbs of water this afternoon). After an hour or so we walked down to Petalang Street (famous for street vendors and right outside our hotel)
After a walk around some of the street vendors and dropping our donation to the "Keep KL Economy Surviving Fund" we had some dinner at the restaurant just outside our hotel and watched the world go by with a few beers and went to bed shortly after 10PM.

May 21st - Kuala Lumpur

Our flight to Malaysia didn't take off until later in the afternoon, so we checked out of the hotel and left our bags at the front desk. We went to the internet cafe downtown to do some work on our blogs, grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel to grab a taxi to the airport.
The flight to KL took about 6 hours, so after breezing through immigration (with a couple of jokes from the custom's guy about my picture in the passport -- where I have long hair) we located a limo to take us to our hotel.
The drive from the airport took about an hour (just a word to the wise, that the airport for KL is about 100KM outside the actual city) and by the time we got to our hotel is was pretty late and we were ready to get some sleep.

May 20th - Footie & A Movie

Today Graham and I took the 1:30PM train to Subiaco, just outside Perth, to see the Footie match between Fremantle and the Kangaroos.
Subiaco isn't nearly as modern as the MCG (and we later found out is due for a 250 million dollar renovation) and there wasn't a lot of space in the cramped seats. Fremantle fared much better than last week and pulled out a rather convincing victory in front of a boisterous home crowd. After the game was over (shortly after 4) we went back to the hotel to drop off our backpacks before heading out downtown to go to a movie and have some dinner.
We had a nice dinner in a pub just around the corner from the movie theatre and attended the 8:30 showing of the Da Vinci Code. Now, I understand that the movie got panned by critics, but I thought it was pretty good, although the book was much better, but that's usually the case with these things anyway.
I suppose the only problem I had with the movie was Tom Hanks' hair....that shit was frightening. (doesn't he have a stylist or something???)
Anyway, we headed back to the hotel after the movie, packed our bags for the flight the next day, and went to bed.

May 19th - Valley Of The Giants

Graham and I had to wake up early today in oder to meet up with our bus, that would take us 500KM south of Perth to the Valley of the Giants. The trip down took a few hours, with a couple of stops along the way, including the Diamond Tree, which has a ladder you can climb up to the viewing tower 50M above the ground. I, quite naturally being afraid of heights, chickened out after about 4 metres, but Graham managed to climb the whole way up and take some nice pictures of the forest canopy.
We got to the Valley in the early afternoon and it was pretty spectacular. What you do here, is walk among the tree canopy on a giganic platforms about 60M above the ground. The views were amazing, and after the walk we took another trek through the forest floor, where you can walk through the burned out trunks of the giant trees. (a pretty cool experience) I got some pretty neat pictures of Graham and I walking through the trees as well as some of the other cool trees that you couldn't walk through.
We got back on the bus just before 4PM and made the long journey back to Perth, with a stop for dinner along the way.
We were dropped off right at our hotel at around 10PM and exhausted, we went straight to bed.

May 18th - Rottnest Island

Although we had every intention of getting up early today, we still managed to sleep in past 9AM. We had a small breakfast before taking the train to Fremantle (apparently we just love this suburb) to board the ferry to Rottnest Island.
Now for those of you unfamiliar with Rottnest Island, it is a popular holiday spot for Western Australians, and is about a half hour ferry ride from Fremantle. (for those who watch amazing race, the island was also featured during the swing through Western Australia) You are not allowed to bring a car with you on the island, but there are bikes for rent and there are buses that can take you and your belongings to any of the resorts on the island.
We got on the 11AM ferry and rented bikes once on the island. We got ourselves a map and came up with route with which to bike. Our aim was to see how much of the island we could cover before having to get back for the 4:30 ferry back to Fremantle.
We biked for about an hour, including a stop for some water and snacks as well as a stop on a beach, before realizing that my back tire was flat. Graham rode back to the convenience store (luckily only a few km's from the beach) and I rode/walked my bike back. The bike rental place was quick to drive out and replace my bike, so after a half hour glitch we were back on the road again.
The weather was warm but not overbearing so were able to cover a lot of ground, and take a lot of pictures of the beautiful surroundings. We made a stop off at Salmon Bay Beach and a few picturesque locations throughout the journey, making our way back to the Bike Rental place at around 3:30PM.
We grabbed a pizza and a beer at the beachside restaurant before boarding the Ferry back to Fremantle.
We were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel so we had a light dinner and went to bed fairly early. Good thing too, since we are getting up early tomorrow to head to the Valley of the Giants for a bus tour at 7AM.

May 17th - Rest Day, Fremantle Prison

We got up rather late this morning, and as Graham wasn't feeling very well we decided to take a rest day. I went down to an internet cafe, updated my blog (as best I could) and walked around downtown, grabbed a late afternoon lunch and got back to the hotel at 5ish.

That evening we had booked ourselves on a tour of the Fremantle Prison (if you watched the Amazing Race, you'll see the Prison during the daylight hours) and caught the 6:30 train to Fremantle.
The prison is still intact and was much more enjoyable tour than the Melbourne Gaol, with even a few surprises along the way. The prison was in use up until 1991, so the tour guide was able to talk about some more recent stories, but the more interesting stories came from much earlier. Highlights included the jail cell that was fortified on the inside with wooden panneled doors and no window, to keep a certain prisoner, who had the uncanny ability to escape prisons, from escaping. It didn't work, as he managed to escape while in the yard doing some yard work. All in all it was good fun and well worth the $20.
The tour ended at just around 9PM and we spent a long time trying to find somewhere to have dinner. We ended up having to eat at McDonald's, since the entire town of Perth looks deserted in the evenings. I suppose everyone lives in the suburbs so they get out of the city as fast as they can once they are done with work.

May 16th - Fremantle

We got up a little earlier today and had breakfast in the hotel before walking to the train station to head out to Fremantle (just south of Perth on the coast).
Armed with a walking tour map of Fremantle we took a very slow meander through the small coastal town. We stopped off at the Maritime Museum where Graham took a tour of a big submarine. Since I get a little claustrophobic I decided to pass on the event and walked around the museum instead, spending a lot of time reading about the Australia II boat that won the America's Cup in 1983.
Graham's tour took just over an hour, and when he was done we were getting a little hungry so we headed down to the pier to have some lunch at a local fish and chip shop.
After a leisurely lunch we made our plans for the afternoon to stop off at the Ship Wreck museum, where there was an exhibit about a Canadian Ship called the Eglinton (heyo! Canada).
It was quite interesting to learn about all the different shipwrecks and the reason's why they all ended up off the coast of Western Australia (a lot carried convicts from the UK or spices from India and China).

It was getting quite late, so a quick walk around the rest of the town was all we had time for before catching an early evening train back to Perth.
We had dinner at a local restaurant before getting back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

May 15th - King's Park in Perth

Graham and I got up at a leisurely 9am this morning, and walked downtown and out the opposite end of the city to King's Park - home of the Perth botannical gardens. (if you saw the episode of Amazing Race where they were in Perth, you will see the Anzac day memorial)
We took a nice leisurely walk around the gardens and took some nice pictures.
After having a brief respite in the cafe just outside the garden we went back into town and stopped off at an Internet Cafe before booking some tours for the week and heading back to the hotel.
We had an early evening and went to bed after having a nice dinner close to the hotel.

May 14th - Flight to Perth, Sleeping the Afternoon Away

As mentioned in yesterday's blog, we got up early this morning to catch our 4 hour flight to Perth.
Luckily for the two of us, we had stayed awake long enough the previous evening that we didn't have much of a hangover today, save for the fact that we were pretty tired from lack of sleep.
We arrived in perth just after 12PM (Perth is two hours behind Melbourne) and checked into our hotel room at about 1:30.
We were pretty exhausted so we just took a little afternoon nap before getting up in the early evening to go and find some food. We found a nice little italian cafe but we were still pretty tired so we couldn't eat too much and ended up not finishing our meal and headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. Tomorrow we plan on walking around Perth and checking out some of the local sites.

May 13th - Footie, Beer and General Drunkenness

This morning we got up a little late, and after getting some inspiration from Jack Johnson, we found a recipe for Banana pancakes on the internet, and went about to making a batch. Let me tell ya, probably the best idea I've ever had.....not that I have many good ideas, but this one was a doozy.
After finishing up our breakfast we headed down to the MCG to catch the Melbourne Demons against the Fremantle Dockers in AFL (Australian Football League) action. We ended up getting some pretty sweet reserved seats in the second deck, just steps away from the bar. We started drinking as soon as we got there, and to be perfectly honest, the entire afternoon is one giant blur. Caela took some pictures of the beer drinking festivities and emailed them to her boyfriend during the game.....he wasn't too pleased.....and I think there was something about drunk dialing after the game....but to be honest I was pretty smashed, so I could be making that up. Oh yeah...I think Melbourned won the game...but can't be sure.
After the game we got a little hungry, and decided to go to the grocery store and buy some things with which to make dinner. For the record I made Chicken, stuffed with feta cheese and spinach. It was pretty good, but then again I was pretty drunk so I'd like pretty much anything at that point. We called Craig to set up something for the evening, but apparently Kari and him had drank a little too much at the previous evenings footie game and they were still sleeping it off on the couch. He said the odds of them going out that night were somewhere between not a chance in hell and zero. That's ok, cause the three of us were still pretty drunk and weren't ready to go anywhere (at this point it was about 8ish)
We ended up staying in and drinking, Irene decided to come over at about 10ish (she had spent Friday afternoon at a work function and didn't remember how she got home) and we watched a couple of movies.
Irene left just after midnight and Graham and I stayed up late to watch the FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham. For those of you who caught the match, we almost woke up the entire neighbourhood when Gerrard scored in injury time to send the game into extra time.
Pretty exciting extra time, and a penalty shootout later and Liverpool was the victor.
We ended up going to bed pretty late, and managed what can be only described as a long nap before getting up at 7 in order to get to the airport for our 10AM flight to Perth.

May 12th - Illness Recovery

Today was a very uneventful day, since I slept most of the day, trying to get rid of the cold for good.
I succeeded, and was finally glad once it was out of my system.
Graham spent the day walking around Melbourne and booked us a night tour of the Melbourne Gaol.
This tour wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the tour of the Quarantine Station in Manly, so I'd suggest just walking through it during the day.
Tomorrow is footy day, and I can't wait.