Roberts In Australia

Update About Pictures

2006-06-21T09:37:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T16:12:00.000+10:00

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!!!

2006-06-18T15:56:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T15:55:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T15:22:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T15:18:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:53:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:28:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:19:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:14:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:08:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-18T13:03:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T15:44:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T15:23:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T15:10:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T13:47:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T13:38:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-15T13:31:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-02T14:27:00.000+10:00

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

2006-06-02T13:45:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-31T16:37:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-31T16:33:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-31T16:32:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-31T16:15:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-23T18:49:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-23T18:36:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-21T14:10:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-21T13:53:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-21T13:41:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-21T13:26:00.000+10:00

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

2006-05-21T13:20:00.000+10:00

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.

May 11th - Great Ocean Road

2006-05-17T15:27:00.000+10:00

My words won't be able to do this blog entry justice. So I'm not going to add much in terms of words, but I will try and post as many pictures as I can. (as soon as I can upload pictures, I will)
Briefly now is what we did:
This morning we got up early to pick up the rental car (actually Graham got up early to pick up the car, since my cold was still going strong) to drive us to the Great Ocean Road, which is about 1.5 hours west/south west of Melbourne.
I slept for most of the drive down to the Ocean Road and then I spent the next 4 hours with my camera handy trying to make sure I took as many pics as I could.
Along the way we stopped at the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, The Arches, and the Grotto. I'll let the pictures do the rest when I get them posted.

We got back into Melbourne at about 6:30, in time to have dinner with Caela and Irene (meal was fantastic, even if the restaurant was called "Graham's"), and met up with Kari Morine, and her boyfriend Craig for drinks afterwards. I hadn't seen Kari since she moved out to Australia so we spent some time catching up and enjoying a few beers. She promised to try and find out where the heck Simon Kalechstein is, and I filled her in on all the goings on in Canada. (such as Tim and Laura's wedding, Taps having a son, and upcoming weddings -- sorry to Brebner and Sam that neither of us will be able to come to their wedding...but I will bring back a gift I promise)

We made plans to get together with Kari and Craig on Saturday, but let's just say that beer and footie prevented that from happening.

May 10th - The MCG and Sports Tour

2006-05-17T14:50:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I promised Klatty that there would be no more "puppy dogs and ice cream" type blog today, and hopefully this one won't disappoint him.
We got up early this morning, because we were taking a tour of Melbourne's sporting sites, including: the MCG (kind of like Australia's version of Maple Leaf Gardens, or the Forum in Montreal i.e. historic and such), Flemington Race Course (think Churchill Downs - Australian style), Albert Park Grand Prix Track (think; driving down lakeshore pretending the indy is on in your slow minivan) and the Telstra Dome. (think Rogers Centre).
The tour picked us up in downtown Melbourne at 8:30 AM, so we got there with plenty of time to spare and met up with the rest of the people in our tour. For the record, 2 Aussies (a father and his friend, whose daughters bought them the tour for their birthday's), 5 Brits, (my cousin, two friends who just moved to Melbourne, and a couple from England who were touring through Australia and New Zealand) and me, the lone Canadian. So, as you can imagine, there were lots of jokes about our national football (soccer) team and how the last time were in the World Cup was in 1986. Since none of them care about hockey, I really had no comeback, except to ask the Aussies if they really thought that they had a chance winning any games this year. I told the brits....well...I told them nothing, cause the only thing I could think of was that their weather was worse than mine. (I'd take cold and snowy over damp and rainy any day)
Anyway, so formality's out of the way, we drove to Flemington Park to walk around the stands and actually step into the winner's circle. The track was massssssive, and had a really cool straightaway track that was used for one of the National races, where the horses sprint down a straightaway with no curves. (imagine 100M sprint with horses, and less testosterone than Ben Johnson). I got some nice pics of the rose bushes and the gates at the front.

Next, we drove through the athletes village from the recently held commonwealth games, which were located right next to a Juvenile detention centre. Funny story, during the games, two teenagers in the juvenile detention centre managed to sneak out one night and wander through the athletes village. Unfortunately they were caught before they could get to the canadian delegation and join our track team. Booooyahhh.........seriously kids...that was funny. (the kids, by the way, did manage to sneak out of the juvenile detention centre, and were caught a couple of hours later)
Third stop was the Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open is held, along with, interestingly enough, Stars on Ice, which tours here during the Aussie winter months. For an extra $60 you can play on one of the tertiary courts (can't play centre court), but unfortunately with my cold I couldn't bring myself to play.
2 brits went to play tennis, while the rest of us went to the MCG for a guided tour.
The MCG was pretty cool, since the building can hold 92,000 people and is absolutely huuuuuuuuge. This is where many international cricket matches are held and where Graham, Caela and myself will be attending a Aussie football match on Saturday. We got to walk on the sidelines of the stadium and look up at the massive stadium complex. We toured the dressing rooms and went into the member's section where the urinals have a window so that male members can still watch the action while they....uhhhhh...well...relieve themselves.

Anyway, so after the MCG tour, we met up with the rest of the group to head over to the Aussie Grand Prix race track. We drove one entire lap in about 10 minutes (it takes a race car about 8 minutes less) but it was kind of cool to drive the course, having seen it on TV before.
Our last stop was the Telstra Dome, (which is eerily similar to the Rogers Centre (a lot of concrete)), where we stopped for lunch before getting driven back to the drop off point.
At this point I was starting to get really tired (the cold was trying to overtake my body) so I decided to take the tram back to Caela's, while Graham went for a walk around the Melbourne Gaol (jail) and go to the internet cafe.
I spent the afternoon sleeping and when Graham got back in the early evening, we went out to grab some dinner at a really cool burger joint in Port Melbourne, before retiring for the night. Since Caela was away in Sydney, Graham was able to have his own room, and not have to sleep on the floor - he generously allowed me to sleep in the bed - so we both went to sleep at our leisure. (me about 2 hours before him...hopefully this cold is in its last throws)
Talk to you tomorrow.

May 9th - Philip Island and the Little Penguins

2006-05-17T14:28:00.000+10:00

We got up later in the morning, with me fully immersed with a powerful cold, and Graham being somewhat indifferent to what time we start our day. Graham, thankfully, doesn't let me sleep in too late though, and has booked us on a coach tour to Philip Island to visit the Little Penguins.
The tour left downtown Melbourne @ 1:30PM so we made our way down on the tram and waited for the coach.
The bus didn't go directly to Philip Island, but rather we had a few stops along the way; 1 stop @ at an Australian animal farm (Kangaroos, wombats and the like) for afternoon tea, and another stop at a Koala reservation. One thing I have to mention is that our bus driver had a bit of a problem with awkward silences (not unlike yours truly) and had to speak the ENTIRE time we were on the road. And it's not like he was saying anything all that interesting for most of it. "And here on your left you will see a car pulled over at the side of the road in one of Australia's emergency stopping lanes, introduced just for the very purpose of emergencies" AHHHHHHH! And he wasn't a bad bloke, just needlessly talked while he was driving. (shouldn't he be concentrating on not getting us killed or something?)
Anyway, we got to Philip Island close to dusk, got a nice tour around the island of some of the beautiful views overlooking the cliffs to the ocean below, before heading off to the Penguin Sanctuary.
Now for those of you unaware of the Little Penguins and what people do while visiting the sanctuary I'll do my best to describe their activities.
During the day, the Little Penguins leave their homes along the shores of Philip Island (their calle burrows) and go out into the ocean to fish. They can swim quite a long distance (assuming that food supplies are high enough) and don't get back to their homes until the early evening. In order to avoid their predators (foxes, eagles etc) the Little Penguins wait until dark before exiting the water. That's when, usually in groups, they waddle out onto the beach and make the trek up to their burrows. This is the phenomenon (the coming back to their homes) that Graham and I were about to witness.
We had purchased special tickets that allowed us to get closer to the Penguins (like 2 feet away from them at times) and it was well worth the additional $AUS 10.
We got off the bus in the pouring rain (not good for my cold) but we were surely not going to let a little rain stop us. We made our way down the boardwalks towards the ocean and got there just in time to see a group of about 30 Little Penguins waddle out, get scared and waddle back into the ocean, get a bit more courageous and make their way out again.
One of the most fascinating things about the penguins were the noises they made (almost like a loud squeaky cry) while they tried to find their burrows, and probably more likely their families. The whole experience was quite surreal and the penguins were indeed little and adorable. We spent close to an hour with the penguins and enjoyed every minute of it. If you ever have a chance to go see them, I suggest that you do.
We got back on the bus at about 8PM and made our way back to Melbourne, with a stop along the way for dinner. We got back to Caela's shortly after 11PM and crashed asleep at about 2 minutes after getting in through the door. Tomorrow I promise there will be no more puppy dogs and ice cream blogging, cause I know that Klatty would be disappointed if I didn't cease and desist.

May 8th - Walk Around Melbourne

2006-05-15T17:11:00.000+10:00

Graham and I got up shortly after 10, and made our way into the city to get our bearings. We figured out the transit system and how you don't have to buy a ticket to get on the train, but if you don't buy a ticket and one of the transit officers asks for your ticket when you get off the tram, you could be in for an old fashioned Melbourne transit cop beatdown.
We walked through the major shopping centre, I picked up an Australian rugby jersey, and stopped off at an internet cafe. We booked a couple of tours for the upcoming week: Tuesday: Philip Island & the Little Penguins and Wednesday: MCG sports tour.
We stopped and had an afternoon coffee before taking the tram back to Caela's. We stopped off at the IGA along the way to pick up some food for dinner. I have to admit that eating out at restaurant's is getting a little old, and I think it's been weeks since I had a good homecooked meal. (in fact almost 2 weeks to be precise)
We had a late dinner (since Caela's a workaholic) and watched some TV before heading to bed.

May 7th - Travel to Melbourne

2006-05-15T17:05:00.000+10:00

Not an exciting day today, since we are flying to Melbourne but just to be consistent, here's what I did.

I got up just after 10AM, went for another run (my last in Sydney. : ((((( ) and packed up my bag for the flight to Melbourne.
We dropped John off and then the rental car, before getting on our flight to Melbourne. Caela was flying with Virgin Blue, whilst we were flying on Qantas, so we took Caela to her terminal and then walked to ours.
The flight takes about an hour, and after picking up our bags, we met up with Caela who had parked her car in the long term airport parking lot.
We drove to Caela's flat in Port Melbourne (about 10 mins from downtown -- by car), a beautiful 2 bedroom flat with a view of the harbour.
It was cold and rainy, so we ordered some take away for dinner, and went to bed early. I have to admit, I was starting to get a cold, so going to bed will do me some good.

May 6th - Bondi Beach, Olympic Park and Rugby

2006-05-15T16:51:00.000+10:00

Had a little bit a sleep in this morning, but I think I deserved it, I've been doing a lot of traveling lately and it's taking its toll. I'll give you all a few minutes to wipe away your tears of sympathy.......
Anyway, since the weather was beautiful outside, I figured I'd take another run along the side of the harbour. (this time by myself)
I got back to the flat, just in time to make some breakfast before heading out to Bondi beach. It of Olympic Beach Volleyball fame!
Because of our late start, we didn't get to the beach until about 1:30, and since it's the fall, the sun is starting to creep a little low in the sky, but Graham and I still managed to do some body surfing and swimming in the ocean. (water was a little cold, but not too cold...not like the cottage in April when you have to put the dock in)
After spending a couple of hours on the beach we went to a nearby cafe and had a late afternoon lunch.
We dropped Caela and John off at John's flat (since he had to work that evening, and Caela figured she'd watch a movie and have us pick her up when John got off work -- Graham's a good chauffeur)
Graham and I got back to the flat, put some warmer clothes on, and headed out to Sydney Olympic Stadium (now called Telstra Stadium) to watch some Rugby between the Melbourne Storm and the South Sydney Rabitohs. Olympic park is quite nice and spacious, but it was a little cold in the stadium so when I purchased a South Sydney scarf, it was more for warmth than for team support.

South Sydney made the game close for the first half, but Melbourne blew the game open in the second half and South Sydney seemed to give up towards the end, giving up a few long trys.
The game ended shortly after 10PM, so we got in the car and drove back to Maroubra to pick up John and Caela.
We got back to the flat just after 11PM and stayed up drinking and talking for a few hours. I think Graham was happy to have a fellow brit to talk football with (soccer for us Canadians).
Got to bed around midnight, and a good thing too, this traveling is just killing me!!!!!!

May 5th - Sydney Tower and Maroubra

2006-05-15T16:41:00.000+10:00

After checking out of the hotel, and leaving our bags at the front desk, we walked about 15 minutes to the Sydney Tower. It's a bit of a tourist trap, and to be perfectly honest, it's just a poor man's version of the CN Tower, albeit with a different view. (you know...it being in Sydney and all)
It was kind of cool to see all the places in Sydney we had been from atop the tower, but if time is tight, it's not a mandatory attraction to visit. Heck, because of the fact that there are numerous tall buildings between the tower and the Sydney Opera House, you can't even see Sydney's iconic landmark, so let's say it something you do when you have to kill a couple of hours, or you've already purchased a ticket when you visited the Aquarium.
We spent the early afternoon catching up with our Blogs and with the Blue Jays. Bluuuuuuuue Jayyys!!!!
Since we learned from our previous weekend in Sydney that a rental car would actually save us money in the long run, Graham and I picked up a rental car that we could return to the Airport on Sunday.
We drove towards the airport to the small suburb of Maroubra, where Caela's boyfriend John lives. We met up with John and had dinner and drinks at a bar by the ocean and played pool for a few hours until Caela's flight came in from Melbourne.
You'll all be pleased to know that my pool game hasn't improved from university and the 7 beers did little to change that.
We picked up Caela at a little after 9PM and drove back to Caela's flat just outside the city centre.
We had a few drinks and called it a night, shortly after 11PM.

May 4th - Canberra Is A Ghost Town

2006-05-05T15:44:00.000+10:00

Today Graham and I drove into Canberra to apply for our Vietnamese visa's.
Now, I'm not one to judge a city's vibrance, but OH MY GOD!!!! Canberra is a ghost town of parking lots and government buildings. I think I saw a grand total of 6 people walking the streets, but about 4 billion cars in parking lots. Maybe people are just so dedicated to their government jobs that they don't go outside during the day, but let's just say that Canberra didn't do much to impress me.
The vietnamese embassy is just on the opposite side of Capital Hill (which was kind of nice, despite the fact that it looked deserted) and the man at the front desk was quite pleasant in answering questions about the visa application.
Of course Graham and I forgot to go to the bank beforehand, so Graham drove to a nearby bank machine and we managed to pay the vietnamese government $140 to get our visa's.
Unfortunately we had to return the rental car by 6, so we had to let the Vietnamese government take our passports and hope that they mailed them to Caela's address with our visa's.
I have to say that I'll be a little jumpy until I get my passport back.
After figuring out that Canberra wasn't all that exciting, we went to a local internet cafe (took us 45 minutes to find one) and booked our hotel for the evening back in Sydney.
Let's just say that the hotel room was actually a 2 bedroom apartment for $99 right in downtown Sydney. Pretty sweet huh!
Anyway's, we dropped off the rental car, and went to see MI: 3, which was actually pretty good for what it was. A couple of logistical flaws to be sure, but people got blowed up real good, as did some bridge. We got back to the hotel and went to bed just after 11PM.
Caela will be back in Sydney tomorrow night, so we'll be staying at her apartment.
Have a good night!

May 3rd - Jenolan Caves

2006-05-05T15:21:00.000+10:00

This morning, Graham and I are heading to the Jenolan caves on the far end of the Blue Mountains.
The road to get there is quite narrow and windy, but Graham, being English and all, is not fazed and drives quite well through the treacherous stretch of road.
The caves themselves are pretty similar to any other caves I've visited (like the one's in Barbados) but there was something I couldn't quite put my finger on that made these caves more imposing. It had the same kind of history talk of millions of years of limestone water, ancient underground rivers etc, but maybe it was the fact that you physically walked through the caves (with low ceilings, cool damp and dark tight spaces) but I enjoyed them much more than any of the other one's that I have visited.

The tour took an hour and a half, and after exiting the caves at about 1:30 we decided to take the long drive to Canberra, or at least to make it as far as we could along the highway.
We drove until about 6PM and exited the motorway about 100KM outside of Canberra and stayed at a cheap motel at the side of the road.
We watched some TV (they have a very deep fascination with Big Brother over here) and headed to bed at a relatively early hour.

May 2nd - The Blue Mountains

2006-05-05T14:52:00.000+10:00

Graham and I got up early and checked out of the hotel to pick up the rental car, for out trip to the Blue Mountains, with a further trip to Canberra (Sydney's capital) to apply for Vietnamese visa's.
The drive to the Blue Mountains took 2.5 hours, including a stop for breakfast along the way. Now for those of you who don't know what the Blue Mountains are (they get there name from the fact that the Eucalyptus Leaves in have a blue green tinge to them) located just outside of Sydney and are somewhat akin to the Australian version of the Grand Canyon. It is quite a tourist trap, but as you can see from all the pictures below, it is still pretty spectacular.
We took a long hike down to the rain forest floor next to the Three Sisters (I'll let you guess which pic relates to those) and a tram tour to a boardwalk just across the valley.
We also took a trip on the steepest train in the world and had a nice dinner at a local pizzeria. (trust me when I tell you, it's pretty steep)
As promised, here are some pics from the day.

May 1st - Rest Day (kind of like on a Canoe trip)

2006-05-05T14:40:00.000+10:00

Caela, Keen and Eleri had to catch a plane at 9AM, so we split up into two cabs, said our goodbyes (Keen and Eleri will fly home before I get to Melbourne) and Graham and I drove to our hotel in Sydney.
Now, for those of you who have been on a long canoe trip of 10 days or more (I can think of at least three of you: Lisa, Gareth and Lint) you end up having rest days, where you don't canoe at all, sleep in and try and do as little as possible.
Well, today is one of those days for Graham and I. Seeing as we have lots of time left to travel, we took a rest day to write in our blogs, go to an early evening movie (V for Vendetta....and it was pretty good) and get to bed early.
We're heading to the Blue Mountains tomorrow, so we'll have plenty to discuss tomorrow.

April 30th - Morning Run, Footie & Ghost Tour

2006-05-05T13:56:00.000+10:00

So yesterday I managed to spend the entire day drinking, which I don't really do unless I'm at a cottage party and such actions are expected of me, or I'm back at Queen's and figure that everyone else is doing it, so why don't I, so as you can probably imagine, I tried to sleep in as late as possible. Easier said than done, but I did manage to sleep in until 10ish, and sat outside on the deck with Irene, Graham and Eleri. (I still can't quite figure out how Irene was up so early, since she stayed out at the bar until 5:30AM!!!!!!)
Irene suggested a run, and at the time I thought that would be a great way to wake up. Besides, when else was I going to get the opportunity to run along the shores of Sydney Harbour. (plus, when have I been known to turn down anything that cute girl offers?....yeah...can't think of anytime when I'd do that either)
I bet you I was still drunk, and didn't really have my wits about me, but regardless, there I was running along the shores of Sydney harbour hoping I didn't collapse and die in the process.
Thankfully, Irene was kind enough not to run too fast, and after a brisk 45 minutes or so I actually felt more awake, tired/in sever pain, but awake. (I neglected to realise that my calves would still be sore from the previous day's climb, but hindsight being as it is, I at least didn't cramp up)
Everyone slowly woke up as they day progressed, and it was decided that some people (let's call them "the girls") would go shopping and that some people (let's call them "the boys") would go to the Rugby match @ the Sydney Cricket Ground.
After Graham filled us in on the rules (rugby league is quite a bit different from Rugby union, which I'm more familiar with) we had a great time as the home team, the Manly Sea Eagles defeated the Paramatta Eels with a last minute drop goal. Graham has photographic evidence of the most die hard Manly fan. I believe he never stopped screaming throughout the match which was actually kind of nice [when compared to those suits that attend Leaf games where golf clapping is about as rowdy as they get], here are just a few of his wondrous comments:
"Go on Manly.....Have a go then!!!!"
" I've never liked [insert paramatta player's name], he's a big wuss"
" I've always liked [insert Manly player's name], he's always tried so hard"
and my personal fav; when the PA asked who was at the last game between Manly and Paramatta (in 1976) at the SCG he responded: "I was there, I was there!!!!!": priceless.

Thing that was so interesting about him, was that he was all by himself, and it was if he was talking to everyone at the stadium at once and no one in particular.
After the match we headed back to Caela's apartment to have some dinner before sending Shannon, Ryan and Irene to the airport. (they're spending the week in Melbourne)
The remaining six; Caela, John, Keen, Eleri, Graham and I, got into a cab and traveled to the Manly Quarantine station for a ghost tour. Now before everyone rolls their eyes, I have to admit that I would consider myself pretty skeptical, but the whole experience was still kind of eerie and our guide was very adept at story telling. Plus, she scared the living crap out of Caela so it was worth it just for that. It was such a lovely night that the walk was kind of enjoyable on its own so I'd say that although I didn't see a ghost, I would still recommend that people try one of those ghost tours if they have the opportunity.
We took a ferry back to the mainland, instead of taking an expensive taxi ride and tried to take some pictures of the skyline at night. For some reason we couldn't get our cameras to work in the dark, but I'm sure by the end of the trip I'll have figured it out.
We were all thoroughly exhausted when we got back to the hotel and decided to crash in our rooms as soon as we walked through the door.

April 29th - Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb, Pub Drinking, Sydney Harbour Cruise, Making Dinner, Drinking some more, heading to a bar...and drinking

2006-05-04T16:19:00.000+10:00

So, for those of you who don't have a lot of time to read this blog, the title should give you at least a sense of what went on in Sydney on Saturday. (it is Saturday right???? Caela responds YES....thanks Caela....I've kind of lost track of the days)
So the 5 of us going on the bridgeclimb got into (something that is quickly becoming my favourite Aussie term) a maxi taxi to take us downtown.
Although the weather seemed like it was going to ruin our bridgeclimb by raining the entire time, we were fortunate that by the time we were scheduled to climb up, the rain dissappeared, and the sun came out. The climb takes about 3 hours and it was a whole lot of fun. Not something you need to do more than once, but fun nonetheless.
The views are quite spectacular (and at 9:15 AM, I got my first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House) and they take a bunch of nice pictures of your group at the top, and then charge you $60 for a CD of them back at the bottom. (kind of smart when you think of it..they don't allow you to bring your camera's...for "safety" reasons....whatever....there are at least 60 other reasons I can think of). I have to wait until I get to Melbourne to post the pics, since Caela has the CD with her.
As it was about 11:30 when we finished the climb, we decided to have an early lunch at a local pub, and we figured we should drink some beer as well except Irene who had a nice, clean glass of white wine. (I Don't judge!) The rest of the non climbing gang, Graham, Keen, Eleri and Catherine met up with us at the Pub to partake in the beer drinking festivities. A couple of drinks later (you know, to kind of take the edge off the fact that it was 22 degrees and sunny) and we headed down to circular key to check out the outdoor market, took some pics of the Opera House before going on a Sydney Harbour cruise.

On the cruise we were able to get some nice shots of the Harbour, managed to ruin Keen's shorts with a Tide pen...(i'm sure he'll tell you all about it when he gets back next week), and had some more beer (or wine...seriously I'm beginning to think that's all the poor girl drinks).
By the time the cruise was over, it was time to head to a grocery store to pick up some supplies for dinner. Some meat for the BBQ, some much needed vegetables and of course...Beer. (this time Eleri joined Irene in the wine drinking....I think Eleri just wanted to make sure Irene didn't feel left out)
The dinner was fantastic, despite the obvious underestimation of the BBQ's power, (totally Keen's fault by the way) and we hardly even noticed the amount of beer we were consuming. (wait...why's that a bad thing?)
Several hours, several beers (or glasses of wine), and one impromptu game of blackjack later (who knew blackjack could be so much fun without money) and we decided to head to the cargo bar in downtown Sydney.
Much like every other club on the planet (with the sole exception of the Shot on a wednesday, and maybe the Cocomo on a friday - when they're both deserted) if you didn't arrive with a bunch of girls, good luck with getting in. Thankfully I was behind Catherine and Irene, so I managed to bypass the bouncer's initial rejections. I believe the "I'm with those girls...i'm with those girls" might have helped as well. After getting our way to the bar (I must confess it was Catherine was the champion at sniffing out the appropriate line to wait in) and getting some drinks (and guess what...Irene had a Smirnoff Ice!!!!!!!! I suppose she didn't want to pay the corkage fee for the white wine) we found a nice spot to continue our current state of drunkenness and take some pictures of some unsuspecting drunken bar patrons.
And low and behold, whom did I find than none other than Matty Mcevoy (a comm 04 for you Queen's people) a longtime friend (known him since he was a baby....someday's he still is...OHHHH SNAP) who, for some reason (and in my state there was no way I was going to figure it out what/why/how) was standing 8 feet from me, in a random bar, in the middle of Sydney, 30000 km's away from our home's in Toronto. (mom make sure you tell Kathy about this blog, so she can see what her son is up to in Australia) It was quite a funny moment when we spotted each other.

No one else could appreciate (save for Keen, who also knew Matty since he was a UBG regular when we were at school together - stephan, sing everyone a verse of "I Used to work in Chicago" the next time you're out) the sheer randomness of the event. (I think I frightened his girlfriend a little bit, but it was funny nonetheless)
By the way Gareth, Matty says he'll definitely be attending your wedding and will be sure to help me run up the bar tab as much as possible. (Krista I promise to be on my best behaviour - scout's honour)
A funny side note for the Robert's family to read -- the rest of you feel free to skip this paragraph -- it seems that Matty and I have a tendency to run into each other in the most random places. Case in point 1) at the U2 concert back in 2001, we ended up next to each other in the line outside (both our ex girlfriend's can attest to this event...not that I suggest you ask either of them), and got to the front of the stage right beside each other. 2) Heathrow airport, when I was returning from grandad Roberts' funeral and he was returning from an exchange from Belgium. We ended up randomly being assigned seats right behind one another on a 350 passenger plane. 3) A bar in Port Carling called The Landing, which might not seem all that random, unless you realize that it was my first time ever going to a bar in Port Carling, and that both our cottages are nowhere near Port Carling to begin with, so why would we be at a bar there. 4) Sydney Cargo bar. It's getting to the point where we don't need to actually make plans to meet up, since we'll eventually run into each other at some point.

Back to the blog: We got home from the bar @ 3 in the AM and although we had every intention of going to bed - we stayed up and drank a few more beers before finally crashing and getting some much needed sleep.

April 28th - Travel to Sydney

2006-05-04T16:07:00.000+10:00

Graham and I travel to Sydney in the evening, so we decided to spend the morning and early afternoon driving up to Mount Coot-tha to take some pictures (not exciting, so not posted) of the view of downtown Brisbane and a walk through the botanical gardens. Before you start thinking that it sounds strange for two grown men to walk through a botanical garden, you should know that our Grandfather Roberts was an avid gardener and some of my most vivid memories of him involve walks around the botanical gardens near his home in Harrogate. I suppose to Graham and I, there is something oddly therapeutic about the experience.
Our flight from Sydney was @ 8:30PM so we got to the airport just after 5, checked our bags and had a few beers in the airport bar.
The flight from Brisbane took all of an hour, so we got into Sydney just before 10PM.
We got our bags and to a cab to Caela's apartment in the Sydney suburbs. (actually it's her company's apartment, since Caela lives in Melbourne, but it's more hers than mine)
Dave and Eleri had arrived from Cairns, and were staying in the large 3 bedroom apartment along with Caela's boyfriend John, her friends Catherine (a native Aussie who works with her at Buchanon) and Irene (she's from Yellowknife and goes to Caela's gym) who works for BHP Bilton in Melbourne and her friends Shannon and Ryan, who just got married. Despite the fact that Caela, Irene, Shannon, Ryan and I had to get up at 7ish to get downtown for the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb at 8:45, we still stayed up until the wee hours, drinking beer (or wine in Irene's case). Can't wait for that alarm clock to go off at 7.......boooooo

April 27th - Why Does The Cable Guy Have Short Shorts???

2006-05-04T15:57:00.000+10:00

We got up early and had a lite breakfast before taking some stuff over to Jamie's. He was being nice enough to let us store some crap that we wouldn't need for our trip (I seemed to have packed wayyyyy too many long sleeved shirts), and in exchange we told him we'd wait for the cable guy to arrive. In truth, Jamie would have let us leave some stuff irregardless, but Graham and I thought we'd be nice for a change. We went out in the morning (since the cable guy said he'd get there at 1PM) and picked up some movies food before setting up shop in front of the TV.
Strangely enough, the cable guy arrived on time and were it not for the short shorts, he was an ok guy. (please....don't bend ov.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
After he left, we repacked both our backpack's to ensure that all space was optimally used, and when Jamie and his girlfriend Colleen arrived back from work, we all got into a car to head to the city for some dinner.
Graham, Jamie, Colleen, Graham's friend Schalk (nickname Chalky, a south african on secondment @ deloitte) and I went to a very nice restaurant on the river bank. I managed to do my best to highjack the conversation, but Colleen (god bless her) managed to put me in my place. I believe, just a future reference for all of you when you think I'm sabotaging your conversation, her exact words were, "Excuse me David. But could you put a sock in it please? I want to hear what other people have to say." I'll give you all a moment for some silent reflection/happiness/standing ovations.
After dinner we headed back to Jamie and Colleen's to watch some footie on TV and go to bed.

April 26th - Packing Graham Up

2006-05-04T15:52:00.000+10:00

Woke up after a late sleep in and meandered into the city to write in our blogs, but mainly to avoid the task of packing up Graham's Australian life (the part not going back with his ex-girlfriend). We ended up attending a matinee movie since we were meeting up with Graham's friend Jamie for coffee in the early evening. (and if we headed back to his apartment, we'd be stuck having to pack up all his stuff.....so we decided procrastination was the lesser of two evils)
We got back to Graham's apartment later in the evening, packed our bags into the car so that we'd be able to get up and head over to Jamie's without having to rush. Then we headed to bed, since we had to get up pretty early to get over to Jamie's before 9AM.

April 25th - The Sunshine Coast

2006-04-26T12:54:00.000+10:00

Today, Graham and I decided to sleep in and take a leisurely drive up the Sunshine Coast (the Sunshine Coast is the coastline north of Brisbane, while the Gold Coast --surfer's paradise-- is south of Brisbane.)
We took a walk around the beach, marvelled at the massive waves (much bigger than Surfer's) and Graham was brave enough to take a swim in the ocean. I could only go in the ocean for a little wade, but I might have made the right decision when Graham came back with a sore shoulder after a run in with a giant wave.......the wave won.
We took a little nap and admired the ahem scenery before having lunch at a beachside cafe. (Klatt would get into a lot of trouble on this Beach...but officer...that's a big half...huge even)
We drove back later in the afternoon and proceded to pack up all of Graham's stuff to take over to his ex-girlfriend's place (she is sending all his boxes back to England for him....wish my ex-girlfriend's were so nice) and spent some time trying to plan our trip to Western Australia and Asia.
I'm just checking up on some hockey scores and AJ Burnett's arm (which I predict will fall off by mid June) before we go pick up some things for our trip and have dinner at the pub.

Till next time.

Dave

April 20th - 23rd - Fraser Island

2006-04-24T12:11:00.000+10:00

I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to do the next few days justice, so let me just preface the following entry with this note: Fraser Island is more spectacular in person, so if you ever get the chance to visit it, I strongly suggest that you take it. That being said, here's what I can remember of the long weekend.

We picked up the rental car [Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD] and made our way up the Sunshine Coast to Gympie and stopped for lunch. I managed to catch some z's on the drive towards Rainbow Beach, before getting awakened by the car coming to a stop at the gas station. We picked up our 4WD permit, lowered the tire pressure, locked the hubcaps, filled up with diesel and took a brief walk around the shops before meeting up with the barge to take us across to the island.
Before I go any further, I should point out that Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. (checked with Graham to be sure) There are no proper roads and everyone drives on the beach. Let's just say that the entire experience is surreal.
Driving on Fraser Island.jpg

With seemingly endless shoreline, and beautiful rough sea's (shark infested, so no swimming allowed) the drive towards the resort was amazing. We drove past Hook Point and about 45 mins later we arrived at Eurong Beach Resort. It was getting quite late so we decided to take a respite in the pool/jacuzzi before cracking open a bottle of wine and having a lovely leisurely dinner. (kudos to Eleri the chef)

April 21st - Lake Wabby and Mackenzie
We decided to have a bit of a sleep in on Friday morning before taking a drive further up the Eastern Coast of the island. Because of our late start the incoming tide made it difficult for us to get past Poyungan rocks, so we decided to travel inland and explore some of the fresh water lakes. Our first stop was Lake Wabby, a beautiful lake in the middle of a desert. (Again, if my IPOD didn't break I'd be able to show you some pictures of it) We took a little swim in the lake and admired the serene surroundings and gorgeous views.
Lake Wabby.jpg
After a couple of hours, we decided to head back to the Resort to have some lunch. Upon finishing our meals, we headed back onto the road towards Lake Mackenzie. Although not as unique as Lake Wabby, Lake Mackenzie is still a glorious white sandy beach with crystal clear water. However, this lake was far busier than Lake Wabby so it might have lost some of its charm.
Lake Mackenzie.jpg
After a spending a few hours in the water we headed back to the resort for an evening of good food, good wine and pleasant company. (except for me, since I'm still loud, regardless of what continent I am on)

April 22nd - Maheno Wreck, Champagne Pools, an Eli Creek
In order to not get caught in high tide, we got up a little earlier than yesterday and drove up the eastern coast again and got easily through Poyugan rocks, past Eli Creek towards the Maheno Wreck.
Maheno Wreck.jpg
We stopped to take some pictures beside the wreck and acted like Canadian tourists for 10 mins. I got some great shots so I suppose it was worth it. We got back in the car and made our way up past Indian Head towards the Champagne Pools.
Indian Head.jpg
The Champagne Pools are stunning coastal pools of warm ocean water, created by waves crashing over rocks and settling into crevices on the shore. The views were amazing and the water was wonderfully relaxing. The bubbles (hence the name Champagne) surprised us a couple of times but mostly you felt wonderfully at peace.
The Gang @ Champagne Pools.jpg
With the sun beating down on us, we decided to drive back down the coast and stop off at Eli Creek (a natural rain water creek that runs into the ocean) and take a stroll in the cold water to refresh ourselves. Although the water level was a bit lower than normal, it was still quite interesting to walk around in it.
Having spent a full day in the sun, we had a welcome relaxing afternoon in the shade of the resort and once again cracked open a bottle of wine (seeing a trend here) before having a wonderful meal (Keen, nice job on the potatoes and corn) before heading to bed fairly early to ensure we could get up to catch the sunrise at 6AM.

April 23rd - Sunrise and Southern Lakes Scenic Drive
We woke up at 5:30AM, and walked down to the beach, quite proud that we came up with such a great idea about watching the sunrise. We quickly realized we weren't doing anything all that unusual, as about 15-20 people had the exact same idea. (including some dingoes - of which Eleri got a great video) We got a nice spot on the beach and waited for the sun to peak through some clouds, before taking some lovely pictures.

Having woken up early, we figured we might as well have an early breakfast and get on with our day. We started to pack the car when we realised that the 4 way hazard lights were flashing. We tried everything we could, before calling the rental company, who told us to just remove the fuse. With the mini crisis avoided we finished packing the car and drove off towards Lake Mackenzie, in hopes of finding it less busy. Luckily for us it was indeed less busy, but the weather wasn't cooperating and we had to take some pictures in the middle of a little rain shower. (that' it...shitty weather??? I'm never coming back here)
The pictures still came out nicely though, and we got back in the car to head on down the Southern Lakes Scenic drive.
With Graham enjoying the drive a little too much we went off down towards Lake Birrabeen and Boomanjin. Lake Birrabeen was a beautiful beach, much like Lake Mackenzie, but much less crowded, so we decided to play some beach cricket.
Lake Birrabeen.jpg
(Keen and I looked more comfortable holding the cricket bat like a baseball bat though) The next lake was Lake Boomanjin, and although not as beautiful as Birrabeen, it was more remote and had a certain charm to it.
After a runin with a slasher (a maintenance vehicle on the island, used to cut down overhanging trees on the roads - picture a tractor with a huuuuge circular saw attached to it) we drove back down towards the beach to catch the barge to return us to the mainland.
We all said our goodbyes to Fraser Island, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we'll most likely be back someday.
I'll be spending the next couple of days in and around Brisbane (getting my Ipod fixed...which means they'll remove all my music though....which kind of sucks) and getting ready for the next leg of our journey to Sydney/Melbourne and Perth.
This will also give me plenty of time to catch up on the Blue Jays and the hockey playoffs. Not that I'm missing either of them too much though, cause getting a nice tan is much more fun.

Cheers,
Until Next Week

Dave

April 19th - Australia Zoo

2006-04-24T12:06:00.000+10:00

Today was a day to be a typical tourist and walk around with zinc on the nose, the camera bag in tow and baseball hat to block out the sun.
Graham thought it would be fun to head up to the Australia Zoo, and to his credit it was a wonderful experience. We got to see Crocodiles up close (although Steve Irwin was lobbying some government types so he wasn't at the Zoo) and let me tell you that TV doesn't do these big guys justice. They are absolutely masssssssive. We saw several native Australian animals (Kanagaroos, tazmanian devils and the like) were able to walk up and feed Kangaroos and pet some Koala's and had a generally nice stroll through the Zoo.

On the way back we stopped to take some photos of the Glass House Mountains and took our time getting back to the city.

We went to bed early in order to get up at 7AM to make our way to Fraser Island.

April 18th - Surfer's Paradise

2006-04-24T11:56:00.000+10:00

Partly due to jet lag, but mostly due to excitement, Eleri, Keen and I (thanks again to Mr. Lint...what would I do without your help with my grammar) got up rather early to pick up a rental car for the day. My cousin had some things to do in the city, (he's moving back to England after our travels) so we took the car down the Gold Coast to Surfer's Paradise.
The coastal beaches were beautiful, and the waves (at least for me) were gigantic. One of the locals told us that the waves were pretty small, but to Canadians they were huge.

We spent a couple of hours soaking up some sun on the beach (need to get rid of this pasty white colour I seem to have) and had lunch at a nearby cafe in a little fresh air boardwalk. We spent a little time playing football on the beach and reading in the shade, before heading back to Brisbane. (about 1 hour away from Surfer's) - We won't discuss Eleri's driving or my map reading skills, but let's just say they are both going to get better - (at least Eleri has the excuse that she's not used to driving on the wrong side of the road)
We met up with Graham and had a nice dinner at a quaint Greek restaurant by the shores of the river.

April 17th - Wow....I'm Old

2006-04-24T11:37:00.000+10:00

Under the advisement of our Austrlian (nee British) tour guide we didn't sleep once we arrived @ Graham's apartment. Instead @ 7:30AM local time, Keen, Eleri and I (thanks to Lint for the grammar correction - May 1st), celebrated my 27th birthday in style. (with a couple of beers) If I could get my camera to upload my pictures correctly, and if my IPOD (brand new by the way) didn't break already (both my Shuffle...and the New Video one) I'd be able to show you all some photographic evidence. (Ipod now fixed!!!)

It'll have to wait I suppose, until after I get back. (so much for my brilliant idea of using my ipod to store all my photos...luckily I haven't deleted the photos off my camera as of yet)
Anyway, back to the blogging. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon walking the streets of Brisbane. Plenty of ice cream and sweets were purchased to boost our energy levels and an afternoon swim in the fake Beach (I'll explain with photos later) cooled us off in the afternoon sun. The city is beautiful, nestled on the shores of a lovely river, and the weather was fantastic. We stopped off at an internet cafe, just long enough for me to check up on the fact that the Leafs didn't make the playoffs, and to worry about Roy Halladay's arm.
After getting back to Graham's apartment, we struggled to keep our eyes open. Keen needed to submit some work, so after having a bite to eat, we went back down town and Eleri, Graham and myself went to a movie, while Keen finished off some work. (We went to Inside Man for those who care, and it wasn't a bad movie, but it took so much energy just to stay awake that I didn't really enjoy it) After the movie we stopped by the Starbucks to pick up Keen, and then made our way back to Grahams for some much needed rest. I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.

April 15th - 16th

2006-04-24T11:10:00.000+10:00

All in all, an uneventful, albeit lengthy journey from Toronto to Brisbane. Along the way I learned a couple of things:
1) American Airlines is a pretty shitty airline, but unlike Air Canada, it doesn't lose my luggage. (even with a layover in LA, and a switch from AA to Qantas)

2) LAX is an extremely confusing airport. Case in point: it has both numeric and alpha terminals. (ie. Terminal 1, and terminal B). Maybe they should just stick with one or the other. (just a suggestion) Luckily for me, I was in such a daze that I kept asking people for directions and was able to find my way after a few minutes of aimless wandering.

3) No amount of pre-planning and expectations can prepare you for a 12 hour flight. Seriously...Nothing....Except maybe some mild tranquilizers. I'd suggest either heavy sleeping pills, or pull an all nighter at work the day before. That last one seemed to work quite well for Dave Keen as he was able to sleep for 10 of the 12 hours.

4) Despite their appearance, customs officials are evil. There are NO exceptions!!!! Be sure to
remember the last name/address of the person you are staying with in Brisbane. Saying "I'm staying with Graham....In Brisbane" didn't work too well for Keen and Eleri. Also be sure to declare all food items ESPECIALLY the potato chips that the Australian flight attendant, gave you on an incoming Australian airline!!!!! The quarantine dogs are cute, but cunning.

5) Graham J. Burley (my cousin) is dependable/reliable/and above all else, CRANKY at 6 AM. "Good to see you mate (hug)........It's bloody fuck!ng EARLY!!!!"

Day 1 - Pearson International Airport

2006-04-16T00:07:00.000+10:00

Hey world wide inter-web,
I'm just about to head out to the airport and wanted to confirm that my blog works.
At this point I've
a) over-packed
b) under anticipated the weight of my bag
c) shaved my head to the point that I'm making hairless cats jealous.

I'll update once I've arrived in Australia. (and if my math is correct, that'll probably be sometime Sunday evening for you North American folks)

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Easter/Passover.

Cheers

Roberts