Where's Shan Now?

The list

2010-10-22T12:07:00.001-04:00

Way back in July 2009, I posted some of the things I hoped to do or see over the course of my travels. It was a wish list of sorts, certainly not a score sheet (especially seeing as how I had mostly forgotten all about that list and what was on it until a few minutes ago). The only things I didn't do included seeing a football match at Camp Nou (too expensive) and practicing yoga in India (although I did in Thailand and a bunch of other places after my friend the yoga instructor wrote up a practice suited to me). As for everything else...check, check, and check with bonus points for doing things I wasn't sure I'd be able to do at all and for doing things earlier than I expected to!

So, by popular demand (oh, alright - two people asked to see it!), I'm posting the list I mentioned the other day. I'm just typing it up word for word, as I wrote it originally, and not adding anything that I happen to think of now. It's mostly chronological because as I started the list, I went back to the beginning of the trip and worked my way forward.

What I SAW:
* La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)
* ancient Roman ruins (Barcelona)
* gothic architecture (mainly Barcelona, but Prague too)
* Prague Castle
* Europe untouched by WWII (Prague)
* Acropolis (Athens)
* Hagia Sofia (Istanbul)
* Blue Mosque (Istanbul)
* Great Pyramids (Giza, Egypt)
* world's tallest building (Dubai)
* Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
* world's largest reclining Buddha (Bangkok, Thailand)
* Halong Bay (Vietnam)
* Hanoi Hilton
* Angkor Wat (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
* Petronas Towers (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
* orangutans in the wild (Sumatra, Indonesia)
* Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
* Sydney Opera House
* sea turtles and sharks (Australia and Indonesia)
* Southern Alps (south island, New Zealand)

What I DID:
* stayed in lots of strangers' homes
* made friends with those strangers and lots of others
* learned how to navigate
* got better at converting to/from metric system
* rode a camel
* pet tigers
* rode elephants
* took cooking classes in three countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia)
* volunteered at a school for orphans
* learned how to scuba dive
* pet a kangaroo
* had my first overnight plane, train, and bus trips
* tried lots of new foods
* bungee jumped
* experienced heaps of diverse cultures
* met people from 44 different countries
* hiked a glacier

What I THOUGHT or FELT:
* confusion as to what exactly I was doing as I flew into London and BCN (and a city or two after that)
* smallness at the pyramids
* life is a blink of an eye in Athens
* utter chaos upon arrival in Mumbai
* utter peace walking the grounds of the Taj at sunrise
* welcome relief for large cities in Bangkok and KL
* crushing homesickness
* appreciation for what I have
* surprise at my own accomplishments
* gratefulness for the kindness of strangers
* lost, scared, frustrated, angry, annoyance, shame
* happy, excited, thrilled, amazed, proud

That's a hell of a lot crammed into one year, wouldn't you say? I'm pretty sure there are things I've forgotten, too. Does anyone out there have anything to add to my list?

Home

2010-10-20T20:08:00.000-04:00

So I'm enjoying being home, right? Of course I am and here's why.

I'm having lots of great conversations with my parents (and not all of them are around the kitchen island!). Dad's time tends to be in the morning before I head off to work (or while I drink my first cup(s) of coffee since I'm not currently working). Kathy's time tends to be in the evening since Dad goes to bed earlier. Some of the conversations are about heavy and/or weighty matters and some are more basic how's-it-going-how's-your-day stuff. All had been seriously missed and I'm thoroughly loving it.

Driving. I'm rediscovering my love of driving - even taking six hour weekend road trips (with more planned in the near future) - and it's great. I love my car and the freedom it allows me.

Cooking. The random instances of cooking in a communal kitchen at various hostels just wasn't cutting it. Besides, I get to try out some of those recipes I learned in cooking classes, too, and my friends and family have been willing guinea pigs.

As an addendum to that last one: texting my sister yummy looking pictures of the things I cook. What can I say? We're competitive like that and like trying to out-do one another! :-)

Being home means I'm available to help out when my sister or my friends need me to keep an eye on their kids for them. And it's nice being able to see my niece and nephews in person instead of just on Skype.

I'm calling people just because I can, because I don't need to schedule a time to do it (while keeping in mind, of course, that there's a nine hour time difference. Or, wait. Is it 12 hours? Wait. Where am I again?! Yes, scheduling those calls could get complicated!).

Yes, I've been busy catching up with everything I missed while I was away, but I've been trying to work in some down time, too. I'm enjoying sleeping in or spending the whole weekend in my pajamas just because I can. And it's nice to not feel guilty about not being out doing (or seeing) something.

I guess none of this sounds particularly exciting, but home has been good for the heart, ya know?

Wrap up

2010-10-19T14:14:00.000-04:00

Since I've been home from Scotland for almost three weeks now, I suppose it's about time to (finally) do a RTW trip wrap up.

It's hard to know where to begin, really, because I did, saw, and experienced SO much. I saw architecture as varied as ancient Roman ruins, La Sagrada Familia and the Blue Mosque, the Taj Mahal, and the Sydney Opera House (just a few of many, many examples). I saw the Great Barrier Reef, orangutans in the wild, Halong Bay, and more instances of Earth's natural beauty than seems possible. I met people from 44 different countries; took cooking classes in three different countries; volunteered at a school for orphans. I hiked a glacier, bungee jumped, and learned how to scuba dive.

(One of the few places to find peace in India)

In Athens I realized that my life is a mere blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things and at the pyramids I felt that smallness again. I felt a welcome relief for large cities in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, but I felt a crushing homesickness in Vientiane and Melbourne.

I actually wrote out lists of all the things I saw, did, and felt over the course of my 44 weeks abroad. If anyone is interested, let me know and maybe I'll post the whole thing.

(Diving the GBR)

What would a trip wrap up be without me sharing some of my favorite moments? Without further ado and in no particular order, here they are:
* walking the grounds of the Taj Mahal at sunrise and feeling utter peace and happiness
* whiling away the days in Muang Ngoi, Laos, doing nothing but reading in a hammock, chatting and drinking with locals, and having nightly bonfire sing-alongs on the beach
* seeing my first shark and sea turtle on dives in Indonesia and Australia, respectively
* learning that not only was I willing to try kokorec, but it's also one of my favorite things to eat
* seeing rainbows galore, literally dozens of rainbows throughout the world; you just never get tired of the surprise of seeing them :-)
* celebrating the Thai New Year in Railay
* truly getting to know local people in Cambodia, India, and Indonesia

(They're friendly in Cambodia!)

Sure, there were some moments when I was tired or annoyed or frustrated, but there were heaps of times that I will forever look back on with fondness and nostalgia and I wouldn't trade or change a single aspect of my trip.

So what's next for me? It's to be determined, actually. Short term travel plans are as simple as a potential trip to Key West over New Year's. Long term travel plans. . .ah, my wish list of places to go grows by the week! I doubt that I'll take another trip as long as this one, but one which is one to three months in duration seems doable. I've heard really great things about Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine, plus I'd like to spend more time in Turkey and the Czech Republic, so Eastern Europe is definitely up there. I'd also like to officially relearn Spanish, so South America is up there, too (especially since it's a continent I haven't been to yet!). For now, though, I'm really enjoying just being home.

Edinburgh the Second

2010-10-06T23:19:00.000-04:00

I've been home for five days now and I still haven't even finished telling about our last few days in Scotland (but to be fair, the first two days back I didn't leave the house and didn't get dressed. What? I was tired!). Wow, so much to catch up on!

So, we had to be in Edinburgh by noon on 29 September (last Wednesday) in order to drop off the rental car which meant that we got a pretty early start leaving Perth (not a whole lot to say about Perth, btw; I don't think I even took a single picture there). It stormed hard the entire way to Edinburgh, but by the time we got there it had slowed down to just a drizzle. I thought it might be the perfect day for a pub crawl or maybe a visit to a museum, but DSH had other ideas. We ended up walking in the West End and Leith neighborhoods and by the time we ended up back in Old Town (where we stayed the first time around), we knew exactly where we were. By early evening, the sky was clearing up and our last full day in Scotland (uh, what we thought was going to be our last full day before all of the delays) was shaping up to be really pretty.

Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day. The day started crisp and cool, but the sun was shining brightly and the skies were blue as could be. Definitely not a day to be stuck inside pubs or museums. :-) I love the look of British pubs, though, so I took lots of pictures of them and did pop into one for a beer later in the day. So how was the day spent then? Well, souvenir shopping, of course! And by "of course" I mean that DSH did lots of shopping, I just helped, lol.

I guess that about covers it, so let's get to the numbers:
* 664 miles driven on "the other side" of the road
* 8 distilleries visited on three islands (Islay, Skye, and the mainland)
* Stayed in 2 hostels, 4 bed and breakfasts, and 1 hotel
* 0 couchsurfing hosts or events, but we did meet a friend of a couchsurfing friend
* countless full Scottish breakfasts - I'm done with bacon and eggs for a while!
* 1.5 days of rain (3 half days over the course of two weeks)
* Only one picture of a statue with a cone on its head (the cone was missing by the time we were back in Edinburgh)
* Serenaded by bagpipers, oh, at least a dozen times
* Ate black pudding three times before it was forever ruined for me
* LOTS of castles and ancient ruins

All in all, a good trip. Also, not all of the Scotland pics have been uploaded to Flickr yet, so be sure to check in about a week, they should be up by then.

Full circle

2010-10-01T19:55:00.018-04:00

One year ago ~~today~~ yesterday, some time between this and this, I left for my solo RTW trip. How ironic then that ~~today is~~ yesterday was supposed to be the day I return from my little jaunt across the sea to Scotland? One year to the day and I didn't even plan it that way! I don't have much else to say about it at the moment, especially since this was a scheduled post and I'm probably dragging my jetlagged self off the plane in the real time, but there will be more to come shortly. Trip wrap up on its way!

**Yup, for some reason this didn't post as it was supposed to, but ultimately it doesn't even matter because the flights were delayed anyway. We were going to end up missing our connecting flight in London and British Airways only has one flight a day from London to BWI. BA rescheduled our flights and put us in a hotel for the night. Our first flight of the day was at 9:10am which meant that we had to be at the airport by 8:10am. That meant that my alarm went off at 6:15am today. So after 10 hours of actual flight time, plus six hours of layover time, PLUS flight delays, we're finally home. It's now after midnight, but my body thinks it's about 5:30am. Right now, me=tired.

Trip wrap up still on its way!

Narrow

2010-09-28T17:01:00.000-04:00

I mentioned that the trip from Islay to Skye was pretty harrowing, but you may be wondering what exactly I meant by that. Well, we narrowly avoided being killed with boredom as we waited for more than two hours for our ferry in Port Askaig. The ferry trip was mostly uneventful, although it was delayed in leaving, so we didn't get to the mainland until later than we expected. I thought our drive up the west coast to Skye would then take about 4-5 hours, depending on how many stops we made.

What I didn't know is that the A85 and the A87, two (supposedly) major roads in Scotland are n.a.r.r.o.w. Like, narrower than the word I just stretched out using periods. I'm talking country lane narrow. Add in the fact that they were also crazy curvy, ess curve after ess curve, pretty much non-stop. So top speed was, what? Maybe 40 mph? Then it started getting dark. Then random animals kept jumping out at us - a HUGE buck scared the living daylights out of me, but luckily stayed on the shoulder, and an owl or some other fairly large bird that actually flew into the car as we were driving. And I had decided to take a turn at the wheel, so I was the one driving (shhh. . .don't tell DSH, but I'm *much* better at it than him!). The driving portion of the trip ended up taking nearly seven hours (including our pit stop for dinner) and by the time we got to the b&b (at 1am, our poor, poor host!), my neck and shoulder muscles were in a gross, twisted bundle.

Skye was pretty and we had good weather again. Go check out the pictures for some amazing scenery (oh, and maybe another distillery shot or two, also).

For the two days between Skye and our return to Edinburgh, we didn't have an itinerary. We figured we'd kind of wing that part and see where it took us. Fortunately for us, we narrowly missed staying in Inverness (gateway to Loch Ness) which would have been a mistake. It's not a particularly good looking part of Scotland, or maybe we're just spoiled by the loveliness of Islay and Skye, and it didn't seem like there was a whole lot to do there. So we kept going until we got to Pitlochry.

Pitlochry had more charm in half a block than Inverness had in its entirety. Plus, it had the added bonus of being less than three miles from the smallest distillery in Scotland, Edradour. :-) We checked in to a b&b - our biggest, nicest room yet - and then headed out for some walking, exploring, and the hunt for dinner.

Which (finally) brings us to today. We're in Perth until tomorrow when we head back to Edinburgh for the last days in Scotland.

* * * * *

Completely unrelated to anything, but funny enough (I thought) to warrant a mention: Breakfasts with DSH have been, let's say, interesting. The traditional Scottish breakfast consists of all or a combination of the following - a fried egg, black pudding (made from blood, oats, and seasonings, it actually tastes a lot better than it sounds), sausage and/or bacon (it's more like Canadian bacon), grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, and a potato scone. What makes it interesting is that DSH hates fried eggs and grilled tomatoes, but he always at least attempts to eat them because he doesn't want to be rude to the b&b host. This means that he fast chews his way through it and you can tell he's trying really hard not to taste anything. Because I wouldn't be me if I just let this go, I of course teased him about it. It was all well and good until he made a comment about the black pudding being like a scab. Ewwwwww. He got his revenge, but I really haven't been able to eat black pudding since then.

Whisky

2010-09-26T16:54:00.000-04:00

The Isle of Islay was all about whisky. (And no, "whisky" isn't spelled incorrectly, even though Blogger is underlining it with a red line for me. Whisky is spelled without an 'e' when it comes from Scotland and with an 'e' when it comes from Ireland or the US.) It just so happens that Islay produces DSH's favorite kind of whisky and there are eight different distilleries on the island (an island, btw, so small that only about 3,500 people live there). Although I like whisky, Islay whiskies are too peaty and/or smoky and/or medicinal for me, so I was glad to play DD and just take pictures everywhere we went.

Actually, my first shot of the day made me very happy. Why? Well, only because I got a picture of something I really, really wanted to get a picture of while in Scotland.

It's a Highland cow! And they're not at all like the shy sheep that run away from you. This guy and about five of his friends came right over to the fence we were standing at to say hi. I think they probably thought we had food for them (we didn't), but at least we got some pictures out of it.

So of those eight distilleries, we went to six of them over two days, some of them twice. They all have a very distinct look about them and it's one that I happen to find very photograph-able (uh, easy to photograph may be a better word choice? lol). The walls of the buildings are whitewashed and the distillery is always on water. We got a great weather day, too, so I ended up with lots of shots with bold color - whitewashed buildings, lush green grass, and crystal blue water. Here's just a taste of what I mean:

Being on Islay was fun, but we were really looking forward to seeing Skye - we'd heard it was one of the most beautiful places on the planet. If only we'd known how intense the trip would've been, we could have prepared a bit better...

Pigeon legs and church bars

2010-09-22T16:17:00.001-04:00

We hired a car, got outta Edinburgh, and headed to Stirling and Falkirk before ending up in Glasgow. In Stirling we had a very odd pub meal and took pictures of a cool old castle and cemetary. The destination in Falkirk was the Falkirk Wheel, something we'd both heard about years ago. I have to say, the wheel was interesting, but I'm glad we hadn't planned on staying in either Stirling or Falkirk overnight; there was just enough to see and do for a couple of hours and that's it.

(Me at the Falkirk Wheel)

When we finally arrived in Glasgow, it couldn't have happened a moment too soon - being in the car was turning out to be highly stressful. The car we hired was a manual and of course the driver sits on the right. Neither DSH nor I had ever driven on the other side of the road before, but we decided to give him the first go at it and I'd be the navigator. Navigating tends to be stressful for me on a regular day, but add in the fact that I kept having to tell DSH that he was WAY too close to the curb/line and, well, I couldn't wait to be out of the car.

Day one in Glasgow was spent wandering the city centre. We went in and out of shops and walked all over taking shots of cool old buildings. I can't tell if it's because of the economy or if it was the weather or what, but Glasgow seems pretty depressed. The buildings are solid and dark and drab. Edinburgh may have ranked as the more interesting of the two to look at, but so far neither one of them are on my top 10 cities list.

(Oran Mor)

All of the walking and perhaps a bit of lingering jet lag meant that we were ready for a rest by mid-afternoon. We headed back to the guest house, watched a movie, and took a nap. We woke up refreshed and ready to head back out to meet Marion, a friend of Toto's who he'd told me to reach out to when he found out I'd be in Scotland. Marion took us to a part of Glasgow called the West End that we hadn't explored yet. We had a drink first (I don't remember the name of the place) and then had dinner at the Ubiquitous Chip. Marion made all kinds of recommendations - we had venison haggis and pigeon legs, both very tasty - and introduced us to Irn Bru (pronounced "iron brew"), a Scottish soda brand that outsells Coca-Cola (it tastes a bit like bubble gum for some reason and really isn't my thing, but Scots love the stuff). Afterwards we went to Oran Mor, a church converted into a bar that had pages and pages and pages of whisky to choose from (DSH was a happy man!). We eventually said goodnight to Marion, but not before she told us to be sure to call her if we needed anything or if we wanted suggestions for what to do when we leave the Isle of Skye (I still haven't figured that bit out yet).

This is why couchsurfing is so cool and why I recommend it so highly. Marion isn't at all involved with CS, but Toto is and that's how we ended up meeting her. I wouldn't have had Scottish contacts if it wasn't for Toto and CS, and we never would have found those really cool spots if it hadn't been for a local. It's nice to get off the tourist track and find out what the locals are getting up to. My piece of advice? Even if you're not comfortable with the idea of couchsurfing, you should still make every effort you can to talk to other people and get to know the people who live in the area you're visiting. I can guarantee that it will only enhance your experience.

Anyway, for day two in Glasgow, we decided to go back to the West End. We popped in and out of vintage stores, grocery stores, cupcake stores, and the Botanic Gardens. We also took lots of pictures of the University of Glasgow buildings and grounds. In other words, we did heaps of walking and wandering. :-) In a bit, we'll go out for dinner - I have a hankering for Indian food - and then we'll probably call it an early night. Tomorrow we leave Glasgow for the Isle of Islay, but we'll make a pit stop at Loch Lomond on the way.

Edinburgh the First

2010-09-20T05:42:00.000-04:00

The flights to Edinburgh were good and uneventful - on time arrivals and not a single crying baby in sight! It was a little more "eventful" when it came to accommodations and I put that word in quotes because I mean it in a bad way. Without typing it out and having to relive the frustration of it all, I can sum it up by saying that the communication from the apartment owner was a bit lacking which meant that we lugged luggage around Edinburgh a lot longer than we should've had to, never very fun when you're short on sleep.

(A view of Edinburgh from the castle)

But we're here now and settling in nicely, I think. We'll be circling back to Edinburgh before we leave, so there was really no gameplan for the first full day here. Our agenda seemed to be "let's wander around and see what we see." We ended up seeing a lot - Edinburgh Castle, Salisbury's Crags, the Royal Mile, the National Museum of Scotland, street performers, Scott Monument, a couple parks, the University of Edinburgh, and heaps of cool shops and pubs - so I'd say the plan worked.

(Window of The Scotch Whisky Experience)

Plus! I've eaten haggis twice now. The first time I had it with neaps and tatties (mashed turnips and mashed potatoes, the traditional accompaniments); the second time it was on the best pulled pork sandwich along with some chili jam (the combination sounds weird, I know, but it was SO yummy).

Vacation vs. RTW

2010-09-17T14:16:00.000-04:00

In less than seven hours my flight leaves for Edinburgh. Wow, where did the time go? It seems like just last week I was in New Zealand.

I've been crazy busy these last couple of weeks with trip planning and it got me thinking how different the planning is for a vacation versus a round-the-world trip. For one thing, I know where I'm sleeping every night for the next 14 nights (well, mostly; there's a night or two that's still up in the air). Transportation has been secured - in the form of a car rental. Packing is almost finshed. Boarding passes have been printed. And the soon to be famous Shannon L. Kirkpatrick travel folder of awesomeness is compiled.

[Aside: What? You don't know about the soon to be famous Shannon L. Kirkpatrick travel folder of awesomeness? Well. . .When I start planning for a trip, all of my notes go into a folder. These are notes on potential itineraries, comparisons of car vs. train travel, reminders of who I inquired regarding room availability, must do's or must sees, etc, etc. Then, once I start getting confirmations I put those in the folder, too. Everything is highlighted and in the order that I'll need it for easy access (i.e. flight confirmation followed by car rental confirmation followed by directions to hotel followed by hotel confirmation). Makes sense, right? It helps keep me organized and sane. I don't save these folders generally, but an added bonus is that if I wanted to add ticket stubs or a few favorite pictures or whatever, it'd probably make a good keepsake of the trip.]

Anyway, there's been no mention here of a travel folder before because RTW travel is a whole 'nother animal. When I was traveling through India or Thailand or Indonesia, I rarely knew where I was sleeping in two night's time, let alone two weeks into the future. I reserved a spot on a bus or train only hours in advance, if that. Packing was pretty much always done (for those quick getaways!) and boarding passes were something I got right before I walked through security.

It's two completely different ways to travel. One is more structured and one is more by the seat of your pants. You might not think that the same person could travel in these two different ways, but I honestly enjoy both and think there are pros and cons to each. It really depends on your trip goals.

What kind of traveler are you? Do you plan out each and every detail, or do you go with the flow? Maybe you use a hybrid of the two?

Now with added detail!, Part 2

2010-09-12T09:11:00.000-04:00

I'm calling this version the "photo quality isn't great, but the story behind it is" version. :-) For part one go here.

The above shot was taken in Prague. I'd met Danilo and Elin, two really cool couchsurfers, and we were all in great moods. If I remember correctly, it was a Friday night and we were ready for a night on the town. As we walked to the meeting place for the CS party that we were going to, I stopped in the middle of the street to take this picture. The light isn't great and the shot ends up looking a little fuzzy and out of focus. I like it, though, because with all the good mood vibes in the air and the excitement of a night out with cool people, I was feeling kind of warm, fuzzy, and out of focus myself.

See those colorful, swirly blobs? Yeah, those are koi fish and in case you didn't know, they are very hard to photograph. (Well, at least they're not running away from you like sheep do, but they're fast and taking pictures through water is hard to begin with.)

I took this shot in Bangkok; it was a jam-packed day of activity and this was taken at the Jim Thompson house. I seem to remember being in a good mood on this day, too, and was so dead set on getting a picture of the koi that I literally spent 30-45 minutes taking shot after shot, going for the perfect one. I never did get it (you can see my other attempts here, here, and here), but I sure had fun trying and I had a big, goofy grin on my face the whole time.

Finally for today, we go back to Muang Ngoi in Laos. You may recall that me and Laos didn't exactly get off on the right foot and it was all downhill from there (I won't link to it because, well, the word 'explosive' should be the only reminder you need). Then I got to Muang Ngoi and all was right with the world again. People were friendly, the vibe was laid-back, and I started to feel like myself again at last.

This shot is terrible because I'm zoomed in super far which doesn't really work so well for a point and shoot camera. I was trying to get a good shot of the moon - if you squint and have a good imagination, you can kind of see it in the top of the shot, towards the left. The rest of the photo is a view of the restaurant that was directly across from my bungalow. I spent most of my afternoons and early evenings in Muang Ngoi laying in the hammock on my porch, watching the night get darker and darker, as I listened to the chatter coming from the restaurant. The peacefulness of it all makes me smile even now.

I suppose this edition of the story behind the photo should have been called the "good moods and happy times" edition. ;-)

* * * * *

In case you're wondering how my friends in Christchurch fared, everyone is fine. Sean tells me that the damage was mostly not as bad as the media portrayed, and most Kiwis just looked at it as preparation for "the big one." I thought 7.2 on the Richter scale was pretty big, but I guess in the en zed it's only big if it's an 8 or higher, lol.

Thoughts

2010-09-05T17:22:00.000-04:00

I just got around to finally mentioning the volcano eruption that happened awhile ago in Indonesia and now there's news of an earthquake that measured 7.1 on the Richter scale in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I've reached out to my friends there, but haven't heard back from them yet. I'm (mostly) sure they are fine, but keep them in your thoughts for me.

Bungees, volcanoes, and aerials

2010-09-01T12:48:00.000-04:00

None of these items really warrant a post all on their own, so today you get a hodge-podge of a few things I’ve been meaning to write about recently.

I thought the bungee jump I did in Queenstown was from a pretty high height at 134 meters. That is, until I found out about the one in Macau that garners the title of world’s tallest bungee jump. It’s more than 300 feet taller than the jump I made! Obviously, it’s not a jump I took – I would’ve mentioned a trip to China. J I did take a MUCH bigger leap recently, but it was with a parachute attached to me rather than a bungee cord. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get them.

The islands of Indonesia lie on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” which essentially means that Indonesians experience heaps of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and events like tsunamis that are often a result of said earthquakes. In fact, there was an earthquake in North Sumatra when I was there back in May. Well, the ring of fire has struck again and you’ve probably heard or read by now that there was a volcano eruption a few days ago. The volcano hadn’t erupted in 400 years. Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated, but the good news is that only one person has died (the last time I heard, anyway). The other interesting thing to note is that the volcano is only 40 miles from Medan, the city that I flew into when I first arrived in Indonesia. I can't say I'm disappointed to have missed the eruption!

And finally, Laura sent me a link to one guy's aerial photos awhile back and it was really neat looking through all of them. The photographer is Yann Arthus-Bertrand and he spent five years taking those shots. Laura sent it to me because she thought she'd remembered that I'd been to some of the places featured. As I scrolled through, I thought she was crazy because I wasn't seeing any place that I'd been to, lol, but eventually there were a handful that were familar to me. These include Fraser Island, Australia, Bazaar of Istanbul, Turkey, Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, Varanasi, India, and Los Angeles (although I didn't see the particular shot that Yann had b/c I never left the airport). A couple of my favorite shots are below, all credit to Yann Arthus-Bertrand, of course.

Stockholm, Sweden

Machu Picchu, Peru

Walled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia

What shots do you like? What places would you like to visit after seeing the aerial photos?

Postcards

2010-08-24T08:30:00.001-04:00

I sent myself postcards while I was traveling. Did I ever mention that? (Oh, wait. I just checked and it turns out I did mention it!) I thought it would be fun to read them when I got home 1) for the memories and 2) to get a sense of how I was feeling at different times during the trip. I’ve officially been home for three weeks now and finally got around to reading my postcards over the weekend. Well, it’s not so much that I “got around” to it, so much as I was saving them. In the last three weeks, I’ve surprised all the people I needed to surprise, I interviewed for and started a new position, I’ve caught up with a bunch of friends and former colleagues, I’ve unpacked boxes of clothes that had been in storage, and I’ve done heaps of other small errands that have allowed me to settle down a bit and feel at home for the first time in nearly a year. And yes, Scotland is still coming up in less than a month, but for all intents and purposes, my RTW trip is over. Holding onto and saving the postcards was my way of stretching out my experience just a little longer.

My postcards came from Barcelona, Turkey, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia, and New Zealand. Pretty dead on for beginning, middle, and end of trip thoughts, although I hadn't planned it that way. There were some common themes as well, but I hadn't planned those either. Early on I talked a lot about getting out of my comfort zone; I'm pretty sure I did that in a big, big way! See: drinking tap water in India, getting over my fear of deep and/or dark water, eating intestines, hedgehogs, and other random things, and getting over my fear of heights for just a few examples.

The other major theme essentially related to me wanting to remind myself that what I experienced on the road doesn't have to end once the trip ends. I could (and probably will) write a whole post about this, but what it boils down to is that there is still a whole lot of world to see and a whole lot out there to do. I wanted to remind myself that this didn't have to be a once in a lifetime opportunity if I didn't want it to be.

The postcards did exactly what I wanted them to do. They took me right back to where I was when I wrote them and they made me see how far I've come - not from a physical perspective, but rather from a personal one.

Now with added detail!

2010-08-16T10:36:00.002-04:00

I took a LOT of pictures while I was traveling, probably about 5,000 or so, but not all of those made it on to Flickr (I deleted about a thousand of them that didn't turn out or that I just didn't like) and only a tiny portion of them made it on to the blog (the incredibly slow internet speed in some places would've made it impossible). The other night I was looking through some of the pictures with a friend who didn't read my blog or look at my Flickr page while I was away. How do you share nearly 4,000 pictures with a person without making them comatose with boredom? Well, if you're me, you go straight to the Personal Faves set. It only has 92 pictures in it. :-)

What I realized looking through this set, besides the fact that there are SO many good memories just in that album alone, is that a lot of those pictures were posted without a whole lot of additional information. A shot might be labeled "Fraser Island" and appear in the Australia set as well, but that's it. So I thought I'd share some of the background info on some of my favorite pictures, just to add a little something to the picture.

The picture above was taken three days into the beginning of my trip and was the first shot I took of myself (included in this blog post originally). Oh, okay, there may have been one that someone else took and one other that I took, but this was the only good one. I'd been wandering around this park in Barcelona, saw this cool tree, and decided that I wanted to take a picture with it. What I love about this picture is that I look so damn happy (and look at how short my hair was back then!). Everything was still pretty surreal then and I had to pinch myself to be sure that I wasn't dreaming. It was around the time of this picture that I really started to enjoy myself.

This next picture was taken while I was lost. I know, surprise surprise, right? I'd gotten turned around in Athens on my way to the Acropolis. There was a big main road leading to the Acropolis that I'd seen from a distance, but I had trouble finding it and instead found myself in this little village. The houses and narrow, winding paths themselves were very cool, but thinking about how people had lived in those very houses for thousands of years kind of took my breath away a little. The houses were whitewashed with brightly painted doors and gardens were growing out of every nook and cranny. I was enjoying being lost on this particular day, but what sealed it and made it a personal-fave- worthy photo opportunity was the handwritten sign giving directions to the Acropolis:

One more for today and since I started with surrealism, I'll end with surrealism, too. The day that I left Queenstown, New Zealand for Franz Josef Glacier was an early, foggy start. After about an hour, maybe less, we made our first "comfort stop." I was kind of grumbling to myself about how if we kept making stops like this, it was going to take us forever to get there and jeez, why couldn't we just get a move on? But then I looked up and saw this outside the bus window:

It was so pretty and ethereal looking that I couldn't help but not be mad. It made me remember that the journey is part of the trip, if that makes any sense at all. It also reminded me that attitude is a choice. I could choose to be annoyed at the number of stops we were making, or I could choose to sit back and enjoy the ride. My choice this day was the latter.

Now what?

2010-08-13T10:47:00.001-04:00

Way back when (and why does it feel like it's been ages ago instead of just a couple of weeks?), when I was wandering the streets of San Francisco by myself as I waited for Will to get home from work, I came across this street sign that had me LOLing right there in the middle of the city.

There I was, last day in SF, last day of RTW travel, heading home the very next day, and I saw this sign as kind of a personal sign from the universe to me: End Shannon. Like, you've been on the road for a long time and now it's time to call it quits and go home. Just End Shannon. I was amused by it, but you know what? It's not really the end.

I've officially been back in the States for two weeks now and home for just over one week. So what's next on my agenda, you ask? First up is a shorty-short recruiting contract that I trained for on Wednesday and officially start on Monday. An added bonus of being a recruiter is being able to schedule, interview for, train, and start a new position all in less than two weeks after returning from a country on the other side of the world. :-) The contract will last for just over a month and then I'll take a two week vacation. What? I'll need a break after all that work! Gotta ease into it after not working for so long, lol. Nah, in reality, a friend asked me if I wanted to come with on a trip to Scotland. I'll also have a chance to see Marina and Rhian in our sixth country, so I figured why not. You only live once, right?

The plan after that is a bit more up in the air. I'll try to get a longer term contract beginning around Oct 4 after I've returned from Scotland. And I'll stay with my parents for awhile so I can save up some money for an apartment. But this is most definitely not the End Shannon as far as traveling goes. More of a pause, really. There's a whole lot of world to see out there! I don't think I'll travel again for the same length of time as this trip, it's just really tiring after awhile. One to three months is probably more ideal. Not that I'm already planning my next trip or anything, but I think for my next one I'd like to go to Eastern Europe or South America.

As for the blog, things may be quiet around here for the next month or so. You may see some stories or other random items that might be of interest (photos, Scotland ideas, etc). I'll save the RTW trip wrap-up and highlights til I'm back from Scotland. In the meantime, if there are questions you have for me or aspects of my trip that you'd like to hear more about - speak up and tell me all about it!

American As, Part Two

2010-08-10T08:38:00.002-04:00

I already talked about my time in California, but should I back up a bit and explain how I got to SF to begin with? Yes, I suppose I should.

I actually decided towards the end of June that I'd come home early. The idea was born with the homesickness that sank in deep after Will left Sydney. I'd been road weary for awhile before then, but with homesickness and seriously dwindled funds added in to the equation, coming home early really wasn't a hard decision to make. ToadMama asked me once when I'd know it was time to come home. I told her that I wasn't sure because I hadn't felt that way yet. But by the end of June, it definitely felt like it was time.

Researching flights is always a good first step to getting home, so I started doing that right away. And remember when I accidentally bought two tickets for the exact same flight, same day and everything? That actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Originally I thought I'd fly back to the US from Auckland, but in a conversation with the Melbourne hostel owner about the ticket snafu, he mentioned that flights to the US were usually cheaper out of Sydney so maybe I could use the Jetstar credit for a flight back to Sydney. I ended up getting a refund and didn't need to do that, but the flight really was cheaper out of Sydney (by about $600), so I decided to go that route anyway.

So, on 29 July I boarded a flight from Auckland to Sydney (leg #1). I left Auckland at 3:30pm and, after a four hour flight, I arrived in Sydney at 5pm where I had a three hour layover. The next flight (leg #2) was 14 hours long and left at 8:30pm meaning I arrived in LA at. . .5:10pm? Yup, 5:10pm and it's still the same day. Another two hour layover (plus a little bit of a delay) and an hour and a half long flight, and I was in San Francisco (leg #3). If you're keeping track, I got to SF less than six hours after I left NZ, but it actually amounted to 24 1/2 hours of travel time. It's good that I'd planned to be in California for a few days because when it came time for my fourth and final leg from SF to BWI, I don't think I could've handled another nine hours of travel time (two hour flight to Phoenix, layover, nearly five hour flight).

Will told me it took about a week for his sleep schedule to be back to normal when he flew back from Sydney, but I must be much more awesome than him because surprisingly enough, I haven't really been experiencing any sort of jet lag. I didn't sleep at all on the first leg and decided to delay sleep as long as possible on the second leg, so I watched two movies and about five episodes of Glee. (Btw, if you have to do a long haul flight and have the chance to fly V Australia, a subsidiary of Virgin, I highly recommend it. The in-flight entertainment is great, the staff were awesome, and the food and snacks were good and plentiful.) I slept for about six hours, but it felt like much less because of the three rows of children sitting opposite me who somehow felt it necessary to be awake and yelling at each other in the middle of the night. Then I woke up, watched five more episodes of Glee, and had breakfast before it was finally time to land in LA. No sleeping on the third leg and I was up for about four hours before going to bed in San Francisco. Do you have any idea how surreal it is to essentially gain an extra day? Sooo surreal.

Anyway, now that I'm back on the east coast, I think jet lag has been a little worse flying from CA to MD than it was NZ to CA. I'm not sleeping at super odd times or anything, but I am going to bed later than I probably should and am feeling sluggish mid-afternoon, early evening. Ah, but that could have more to do with all of the excitement of surprising my friends and family with the news of my early return.

Surprises

2010-08-09T08:06:00.055-04:00

Aren't surprises just the best? I knew ages ago that I wanted to keep my return date a secret so that I could surprise my friends and family, but when two different people told me they'd had dreams that I showed up unannounced on their doorstep, it was basically a done deal.

My parents live pretty close to the airport, so I knew it would be easy enough to get a taxi there. Of course, my biggest worry was that I'd get there and they would have picked this week as one of the ones to work remotely from their other house. And, in fact, that's exactly what happened. Luckily, I had a backup plan. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. . .

I got to my parents' house and it looked awfully dark. I took a shot at ringing the doorbell anyway, but when the dogs didn't start barking, I knew for sure that they weren't home. I went to let myself in through the garage and, oops!, they'd gotten a new garage door opener AND a new code for it while I was gone. So it was 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, the taxi had just left, I didn't have a cellphone, OR keys. What the heck was I gonna do? I saw that the neighbor's light was on, so I headed over there to ask if he happened to have a spare key. The poor guy had been watching television in his underwear and wasn't exactly expecting the daughter of his neighbors (who he's never officially met) to show up on his doorstep. :-) Once inside, I was fortunate to find that my parents have been keeping my car keys in a logical place, so I grabbed them and headed straight back out to go to my sister's house.

I knew that with three kids and a deployed husband, there was no possible place my sister could be at 10:30 on a Tuesday night other than at home. But as I got closer and closer, a fear crept in that maybe she and the kids were in West Virginia with my parents. What would I do then?! She was home, though, so I didn't really have anything to worry about. Her dog started to bark as soon as he heard me at the door, Amy looked through the peephole, and slooowly opened the door. She told me later that she knew there was a person on the porch, but it wasn't registering who it was. Once the door was open, she started squealing (couldn't wake the kids or neighborhood by yelling!) and asking what I was doing there. She was very surprised and I'm pretty sure I saw her eyes welling up. ;-) We spent a few hours catching up and I went to bed knowing that I'd get to surprise my niece and nephews the next morning.

The kids were sleepy for their surprise. They kind of looked at me and blinked a few times like, "Huh? What's Aunt Shannon doing here?" But in no time at all they were climbing all over me and asking questions and telling stories. It was like I hadn't even left at all. The best, though, was when it was time for them to go to daycare and my three year old nephew, with all seriousness said to me, "Aunt Shannon, you STAY here, ok? Stay here." It was as if he thought I was going to disappear again and he wouldn't see me for a long time. So sweet.

Next up on my surprise list was my grandmother. She wasn't at home when I got to her house and that was when I seriously started to reconsider the whole concept of showing up unannounced. Good for me, though, she showed up literally just a minute later. As she was backing into her parking space, she glanced over and saw my car. I drive a Smart car and they're not very common, so I know she was thinking hey, I know that car. She kept staring at the car and at me as she continued to park until finally I saw the lightbulb go off in her head as she realized it was me in the car. No sooner had she put the car in park, Grandma was all but out of the car and running my way. She was asking me when did I get home and what I was doing home so soon and did my father know? I spent a few hours with Grandma catching up and gabbing before I had to head to my second surprise spot of the day.

I've known my best friend Laura for almost ten years and I knew I could expect a good reaction out of her. She didn't disappoint. :-) Her husband answered the door because she was in the other room with the baby. We were chatting as we walked in, but Laura didn't hear a thing. He asked her to come into the kitchen because he wanted to show her something and she answered him in an exasperated kind of way as she came into the room with one-year-old Ruby. Ruby was walking in front of her and Laura was looking down. When she looked up and saw I was standing there, she literally jumped over her baby and came running over to me, screaming. Many hours later, we were somewhat caught up, but still have heaps to talk about, as it usually is with old friends.

Finally, the big surprise. My sister had found out that my parents were intending on returning home on Saturday night or Sunday morning, so I figured I'd stay at their house Saturday night and just wait for them. I wanted to get their reaction on video and was keeping an ear out to hear the garage door open. But. . .I didn't hear it, it's SO quiet! So they ended up surprising me almost as much as I surprised them. :-) Kathy came in first, wondering why Eric (my brother who doesn't live at home anymore) would be there watching tv. She looked pretty surprised and wanted to make sure that Dad was just as surprised so she may have spoken to him a bit gruffly, lol, as he was unpacking the truck in the garage. Dad was so shocked that his eyes may have started to leak a little. I had started to worry that maybe they were picking up on my clues, but they really had no idea. They really thought I was still in New Zealand! We spent the next four hours or so talking. I told them all about how I'd planned to trick them and they told me what a brat I was. :-D Our first night all together and we were already hanging out around the kitchen island!

The surprises are all done now, now it's more about catching up with people and letting them know that I'm back. That will be just as much fun, though.

American As, Part One

2010-08-08T04:25:00.002-04:00

Did you pick up on the clues and vagueness? Most people who need to know already know by now that I am back in the States since I surprised them with the news in person. I arrived in Maryland on the evening of 3 August, but I got to the States on 29 July and spent a few days in San Francisco before heading east.

I couldn't tell anyone that I was going to be in San Fran because I knew they'd rightly assume that I'd be home sooner rather than later. So only two people knew anything ahead of time: V (because she lives in upstate NY and I knew I wouldn't be able to just pop in on her as a surprise) and Will (because he lives there and kind of needed the heads up). Although Will's only been there for about a month, I left the planning up to him because I was a ball of stress (and excitement!) like you wouldn't believe. He'd email me every now and then asking how I felt about a particular sight or activity, but that's about it.

So Will picked me up from the airport and proceeded to tell me that he'd planned an all-American Welcome-Home-to-the-US weekend. Awesome! On Friday we headed to Great America in Santa Clara for some amusement and water park fun. (The first picture I posted the other day was of the oddly Australian themed water park, Boomerang Bay. Sneaky, eh?) That night we drove to Santa Cruz and hit the boardwalk. It was a typical, mid-size city's boardwalk complete with carnival style rides, corn dogs, popcorn, and arcade games. Originally Will wanted us to go to the beach in Santa Cruz on Saturday, but we both ended up getting more sun at the amusement park than we'd bargained for. Instead we opted for a movie and hours at a bookstore, plus just some general laying around laziness.

By Sunday we finally made it to San Fran. The American-ness of the weekend continued with a baseball game at AT&T Park, SF Giants vs. LA Dodgers. We had excellent seats 11 rows back from the field. But guess what? It's pretty chilly in San Francisco, even on the first day of August! We were wearing jeans and hoodies and it still wasn't enough. The Giants ended up beating LA which also meant that they swept them in the series, so the fans were in good moods despite the weather (although, I'm sure they're used to it and it was just us having a hard time grasping that we were watching baseball in August and were cold doing it).

(Before we had to put on the hoodies)

Will had to go back to work on Monday, so I was on my own for the day. I went to Chinatown and Union Square, and got photos of cable cars and crazy steep San Fran streets, but I was feeling particularly low energy and only spent a couple of hours out and about before deciding to head back to the hostel to take it easy while I waited for Will to get out of work. He returned around 3:30pm and the plan was to hit a bunch of tourist spots since it was my last night in town. First up was pictures of Alcatraz from the top of one of those crazy steep streets. Then it was Fisherman's Wharf and the resident seals. We wandered into an old timey arcade and then went to Joe's Crab Shack for beers and crab nachos (which were actually a lot better than I expected). After stopping to take a picture that ToadMama would love (and a few others, too, for good measure), we headed to Lombard St., the world's crookedest street, having eight switchback turns in a single block. To round out and wrap up the day, we planned to park the car nearby and walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. And here's the big secret that you may or may not know about San Francisco and it's most famous bridge: it's usually completely covered in fog. It's true, it is. We actually got to a spot where Will pointed and said "there's the bridge" and I literally couldn't see even an outline of what might be a bridge. I figured it was getting late, we'd seen enough for the day, and I could always return to Cali to see the GGB another time.

That's pretty much my time in California in a nutshell and I think Will did a good job of making it "all-American." I told him jokingly that the only thing missing was apple pie. :-)

If you happen to be wondering about the logistics of the travel and how I managed to keep it all a secret, well, stay tuned for American As, Part Two.

Pandamonium

2010-08-06T15:35:00.004-04:00

How's this for a hint? Any help at all?

Hints

2010-08-05T07:29:00.006-04:00

Since my goal was to be settled for a bit, I'm working on some travel stories and don't have a whole lot of news to share. But I do have some hints in the form of pictures for you.

(You might have to zoom in a bit to get the hint. Beware, this is a tricky one.)

(Come to think of it, I don't think hint #2 is any easier.)

Aaand, that's all you're getting. :-)

Sweet as

2010-08-03T06:58:00.027-04:00

I love all of the various sayings that New Zealanders have, so much so that I'm positive some of them will make it into my regular repertoire even after I'm home. There are some that are British or Australian influenced. Examples include chuffed (meaning pleased or happy), zed (as in the final letter of the alphabet), knackered (really tired), rubbish (and the "bin" it goes into), take the piss (when someone is teased or ridiculed), whinge (aka whine), and good on ya. Others are Kiwi through and through and I like them, but I'd probably never use them: pack a sad (meaning moody or uh, sad, but it can also mean something is broken, i.e. "my car packed a sad"), sparrow fart (very early in the morning), and dairy (a convenience store).

Then there are the ones I like AND use, the ones I'm already trying to slip into conversation every chance I get. Eh (rhymes with pay) I already say, but I use it more like a Canadian uses it, like a question. Kiwis say it at the end of nearly every sentence (or so it seems) and it's definitely not a question. There's "heaps" which is a more fun way to say a lot and "wop wops," the Kiwi equivalent of the boonies. Cheers is the NZ version of aloha in that it has multiple meanings. It can mean thank you, you're welcome, and enjoy your drink. Jandals are flip flops, but what I really like is the phrase "you can't handle the jandal!" I looked for a proper definition online, but didn't come up with anything that seemed dead-on to me. The closest I can come to an explanation is that it refers to a threatened punishment or is another way to say get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.

My absolute favorite is "sweet as." At first I thought it was meant like "sweet as ___" with the blank being whatever you wanted it to be because what's really good to me may be different for someone else, but no. Essentially it means that something is very good and no, nothing follows it, it comes at the end of the sentence. It's really versatile, too, because practically any adjective can have 'as' follow it for the same effect, with the 'as' taking on the meaning 'very.' Therefore, expensive as means very expensive, hot as means very hot, and new as means very new. Urban Dictionary has some other explanations, but you'll have to see for yourself because I don't want to confuse things more than I probably already have.

And that's about it for my lesson of the day. I do have lots to say to bring everyone up to speed on my last few days of exploration and adventure, but it will have to wait because I'm totally knackered right now. :-)

Crickets

2010-07-29T21:08:00.003-04:00

Now that I'm in Auckland and have the base I've been waiting for, I'm off to explore for a bit. This means that you're going to be hearing crickets around here for the next few days or so because I'll be out of pocket and nowhere near a computer. I promise I'll be back soon, though!

Have you been to my Flickr page recently? Lots of pics over there, so that should keep you busy for awhile. :-)

Bird poo

2010-07-28T18:08:00.000-04:00

Since I plan to be here in Auckland for awhile, I'm taking it pretty easy so far. As proof: I arrived in Auckland on Tuesday around midday and met up right away with James, my CS host. He was on his way to visit his 93 year old grandmother and asked me if I wanted to come with. Sure, why not? Within a few hours of my arrival, I'd met James, his cousin, and his grandmother, all Kiwis through and through (well, except for grandma, but she's lived here for more than 50 years, so that's close enough). James had other couchsurfers staying with him, but they were out when we returned to his house so we spent the night listening to music and talking about our various travels. It was a chill, low-key, but still fun way to spend the evening.

Low-key was just what I needed since I woke up Wednesday morning and went for an adrenaline rush first thing. If you've been around here for awhile then maybe you've figured out by now that the bird poo title is in reference to my father's thoughts on bungee jumping and, if you've gotten that far, you've probably also figured out that I did another bungee jump.

I hadn't planned on it, actually, but the Marshes told me that there was a winter special and you could jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge two times for the price of one. So it was their fault (and with their encouragement) that I decided to go ahead and make it three bungee jumps in three weeks time. :-)

These two jumps were from one-third the height as the last one, but I jumped in different ways each time, so all three jumps were totally different. I got the added bonus of walking up the bridge to the jump off pod, getting views of the Auckland skyline along the way. It was first thing in the morning, it was crisp and clear, and I was the only one jumping; what a way to start the day!

Afterwards, when my legs were no longer jelly, I walked to the area of city center known as Sky City where the Sky Tower is located. Sky Tower is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere (328m) which means that I've now seen the tallest structures in both hemispheres (although one is actually the tallest in the world and beats out the Sky Tower by quite a bit). I had fun snapping pics and had the same happy I'm-in-a-city feeling that I had last week in Wellington.

Like I said, I'm taking it pretty easy, so not much else exciting was on the agenda for the rest of the day. I ran a couple of errands and hung out with James and a couple of other couchsurfers. Oh! And I tried hokey pokey ice cream, a New Zealand tradition!

Eggy

2010-07-26T05:31:00.001-04:00

Rotorua is nicknamed Sulphur City and for good reason. There's heaps of geothermal activity happening and that means that there's a distinct eggy smell throughout town. When it doesn't smell like eggs, it smells like. . .smoked meat? Odd, for sure, but not altogether unpleasant, I suppose.

I head to Auckland tomorrow so I wanted to fit in as much as possible today AND not spend too much money. I was g-chatting with my CS host in Auckland last night and he referred to Rotorua as Rotovegas which isn't too far from the truth as there are all kinds of ways to spend your money here. You can: white-water raft, kayak, climb an indoor rock wall, sky-dive, take a scenic flight, ride a luge, go zorbing, or bungee jump, just to name a few.

I'm feeling cheap (ahem, frugal), though, so I decided on a walking tour instead. I started out with a walk through Kuirau Park because I'd read that it's one area where you can soak your feet in thermal pools for free. I ended up not doing that because the water wasn't quite as warm as I'd hoped, but I still got steamy, bubbly water pictures. You should be glad these don't come to you via smell-avision!

(Steamy thermal waters at Kuirau Park)

From there I walked to St. Faith's Anglican Church and the Tamatekapua Meeting House to see some traditional Maori carvings. Both are located on Lake Rotorua and by then the previously cloudy day was clearing up and getting sunny, so it was really quite nice.

(One of the carvings at the meeting house)

(St. Faith's Anglican Church)

Right around that time I was feeling peckish and started thinking about lunch. That's when I came across a chocolate shop. I figured I could either have lunch OR some expensive chocolates and tea, but not both because I didn't feel like spending the money. Hmmm. What do you think I chose? Here's a hint. Yeah, that wasn't a hard call at all! :-)

(Chocolates for lunch!)

My energy back up, I made my way to the Government Gardens. The gardens borrow some English concepts and have croquet lawns and bowling greens (where you play the game bowls, but I have no idea what that is!). The Bath House, opened in the early 1900's, and the Blue Pool, swimming pools dating back to the 1930's, are both here, as is the Rotorua Museum of Art & History. I briefly considered going into the museum, but seeing all the pools and spas was getting me in a relaxing kind of mood.

I haven't stopped my DIY run, apparently. I headed back to my hostel, changed into my swimsuit, and got into the "spa pool," aka hot tub, there (for free!). I also did a mud face mask courtesy of a souvenir that I bought for myself last night. I spent a grand total of $13 on today's DIY spa treatment rather than the $50+ I would've spent at one of the spas in town.

And now? Well, now I go on a search for dinner and have a quiet night since I have an early bus to Auckland tomorrow.

Mish-mash

2010-07-25T05:58:00.000-04:00

I've had another couple of days in a row where not much happened and it was kind of just what I was looking for. There's not a whole lot of coherency in how I can recap it all, so I think bullets are in order.

* My whole point of going to Napier was for the wine. It's serious wine country there and there are wineries all over the place. It's really easy to get from winery to winery by bicycle and that woulda been a great thing to do. . .if it was summer rather than winter. Besides, it rained all day on Saturday AND I figured I didn't really need to spend another $100 on a wine tour. So what did I do? DIY wine tastings, that's what! I went to the Pak 'n Save, the cheapie grocery store here, and bought a couple of bottles to share with Joe and Paul, my CS hosts. Both bottles were from the Hawkes Bay area (where Napier is located) and I gotta say, I had just as much fun with this tasting as I did with the last one.

* I've had a lot of couchsurfing firsts recently. I'm sure Grandma was happy to read about Diane, my first ever female host. Then there were the Marshes, the first family I ever surfed with. And finally, Joe and Paul were the first gay couple to host me. Everyone was great, as usual; it's just cool that even after all the traveling and surfing I've done so far, I can still experience some firsts.

* This has nothing to do with the last few days, but. . .my hair fits in a ponytail now! Remember when it didn't?

* I went out for breakfast this morning before leaving Napier for Rotorua. At my table were an American (me!), an Aussie (Joe), and a Kiwi (Paul), plus Nico (French) and Ruth (Taiwanese), two other couchsurfers. How cool is it that there were five nationalities represented? And how come this doesn't happen to me more often in the US? Is it just because as a traveler I'm hanging out in traveler circles?

And, uh, I don't know. I guess that's all I got.

East is east

2010-07-23T00:33:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you have to go to a place just because of what it is and not necessarily because there's a lot to see or do there. The last time I did this was in India when I went to Kanyakumari because it was the southernmost tip of the country and a convergence of three waterways. That turned out to be not so great, so I was a bit hesitant about my latest plans for a special trip.

[As an aside, there were actually two potential special trips that I could choose from. The one I didn't pick was a trip to the place with the world's longest name: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.]

The trip I did choose was to Gisborne which has the distinction of being the very first city to see the sunrise every day. If you're going to try to fact check me on this by Googling or looking at a map, you'll probably notice that there are other places farther east than Gisborne**, in particular the Chatham Islands, also part of New Zealand. I noticed the same thing and asked Sean about it when I was in Christchurch. His answer (and the one I'm going with, too) is that sure, there are other places east of Gisborne. But you wouldn't exactly call them "cities." With a population of about 35,000, Gisborne is a proper city, at least by NZ standards, and that was good enough for me.

The bus ride from Wellington to Gisborne was a long one, about nine hours. It was rainy and gray the whole day and I was beginning to think that this special trip o' mine wasn't turning out to be such a good idea. After all, there are no spectacular sunrises on rainy days. But I'd checked the weather ahead of time and saw that it was supposed to clear up, so I just kept my fingers crossed.

I checked into the Flying Nun Backpackers, a former convent with heaps of character. (If I didn't already have a CS host lined up in Napier, my next stop, I'd stay at a place that used to be a prison as recently as 1993. Talk about character!) During a walk around the city in search of dinner, it didn't take me long to be glad that I was only staying one night in Gisborne; there was not much of anything to see or do. Before I went to bed, I looked out the window and saw that the skies were clearing up. My hopes for a photo-worthy sunrise looked promising. . .

And, well, not too shabby. I didn't have the absolute best vantage point because that would've required a car, so I made do with a 30 minute walk to the beach instead. My pictures are just so-so, not at all fabulous, but that's okay because the point was more about being able to say that I'd seen the first sunrise of the day, rather than photograph it.

**In doing some fact checking of my own, Wikipedia has another explanation entirely, but I'm still gonna stick with what I already had.

Revival in the city

2010-07-20T08:09:00.000-04:00

Everyone probably knows by now that I'm a city girl through and through. And yet, I still seem to be surprised by it myself occasionally. Since leaving Christchurch I've been in "cities" that have fewer than 10,000 people. Today, walking around Wellington, I felt revived and rejuvenated. (Guys, it's a city of less than 400,000. It doesn't take much for me, really, I just like when it's a proper city.) I had an extra spring in my step that had been missing the last few days. I was taking pictures for the first time since my glacier walk. While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and be cheesy about it, too: I was happy to be alive and walking around (yet another) brand new, never-before-seen-by-me city.

One of the reasons why I think I like it so much is because it reminds me a lot of Seattle, on a smaller scale of course. They have a cafe culture like you wouldn't believe - more coffee shops per capita than NYC which, I think, puts it at the top of the list. Like Seattle, Wellington is a city built on a hill. Here, take a look for yourself:

And, oh, I don't know, I guess those are the only two reasons why it reminds me of Seattle. Maybe because I was in such a good mood that I couldn't help but think of other places that make me happy and Seattle is a place that I like so much I'd move to in a heartbeat?

Anyway, I took a bus into town from the Marsh's house. I checked out the parliamentary buildings for awhile and then I met up with Lefki Marsh for coffee and a cheese scone because she works in the area. More wandering followed, into and out of shops, just kind of going where things looked interesting. (And, by the way, not getting lost at all even without the help of a map! I've come so far!) I had lunch at a kebab shop run by an Iraqi guy who was very intrigued by the idea of traveling by myself for so long ("why didn't you ask a friend to come with you?") and who was also a bit surprised when I thanked him in Arabic as I left. :-)

I wrapped up my wandering with stops in two museums. The first was a tattoo museum that I'd been very keen to visit because I wanted to find out more about moko, Maori tribal tattoos that are commonly inked on the face. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown because they've recently moved locations and are still in the process of putting everything back in place. It was kind of a hassle looking through everything, so I didn't end up spending much time there at all (but at least it was free!). I didn't arrive at the second museum, Te Papa (all about NZ history and culture), til about 4:30pm. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to look around before they closed, but I wanted to check out the museum shop and also get an idea of a game plan for my visit there tomorrow. Yes, a game plan is actually needed. There are six or seven levels and I've heard that a whole day can be spent on one level alone. I only have one day, so I have to be choosy about the exhibits I go to.

Afterwards I made my way back to my adopted-for-the-next-few-days home and well, hung out with the family. We had dinner, cleaned up the dinner mess, chatted, and watched television. A good, full, happy day and now I must sleep.

Base

2010-07-19T07:37:00.000-04:00

I've been on the move quite a bit for the last few days, so much so that I've barely had time to even mention them. Ready for the rundown? (ToadMama, are your tracker map listening ears strapped on, lol? The SPOT updates just are NOT working!)

(A terrible picture, really, taken through a moving bus window, but goes to show that not all of NZ's mountains are snow-covered.)

As I already mentioned, I spent a night in Greymouth, a total of less than 24 hours actually. There's not a whole lot to do there, really, it was just a good stopping point on my way from Franz Josef to Nelson. What I did manage to do was a brewery tour. I figured since I did my first winery tour on the road, why not add a brewery tour to the list also? For $25 I got a brewery tour, seven beer tastings and one cider tasting, a glass of beer of my choosing, and a meal afterwards. We could choose one of three restaurants to go to, but I'm pretty sure my entire group went to the same place. I met a bunch of people and had a lot of conversations, but there was one really funny conversation to tell about. (Background info for this story is that as one of the few females present, I was getting quite a bit of attention.) Olly, who I believe was one of the owners, kept introducing me to people. At one point he introduced me to a group of old guys. One of them, who had to be at least 80, shook my hand, kissed my cheek, and asked me if I was from Greymouth. I told him I wasn't, I was from the US. His response? "Oh! I thought you were from around here. Ah, well, you're still pretty cute anyway!" I was cracking up!

From Greymouth I went to Nelson where couchsurfer Diane picked me up for the night. Diane is from the States and just moved to NZ about a month ago. We didn't do a whole lot during my stay, but she showed me around a bit and pointed out the very center of New Zealand. The day was crisp and sunny, so perfect for being out and about and walking. For my second night in Nelson I checked into a hostel. Diane mentioned that she's been late to work every day since she's started her new job and I figured I wouldn't add to her morning stress. :-)

The next morning, today, I left Nelson and headed to Picton. I was only in Picton as a transfer spot for the ferry, so I spent all of three hours there. Good thing, too, because it didn't look like there was much to it! After a four hour ferry ride, I landed in Wellington where I was met by the Marshes, a couchsurfing family that will be hosting me for the next few days.

I'm looking forward to being in Auckland and having a base for a few weeks. Not that I'm not looking forward to the places I'm going to hit leading up to it or anything. But having Auckland as a base will allow me to feel a little more settled than I've felt recently and I will still be able to take weekend (or - heck, I'm on vacation - mid-week!) trips to explore.

Population. . .2?

2010-07-17T06:22:00.000-04:00

One of the things that makes traveling in NZ different from anywhere else I've traveled so far is the population size. There are just over four million people living here (and about 36 million sheep!). Don't quote me on those numbers because I'm pulling them from memory based on what I've been told or have read, and I'm too lazy to go look it up. You may be wondering why this affects travel and I'm about to tell you.

With so few people spread out over a comparatively large space, it means that cities and towns tend towards the small side. Let me give some examples. Approximately one-quarter of the population lives in the capital of Auckland. Greymouth, where I just spent one night, is the largest city on the west coast of the southern island with 8,500 inhabitants. And on the drive from Franz Josef Glacier (pop. 321) to Greymouth, our bus stopped in a place called Pukekara. Population: 2. (Yes, only 2! A husband and wife.)

Did you catch that? Our bus stopped in a place that only has two people living there. And this is what makes travel different. I think New Zealanders figure that if busloads of people are making their way from one end of the country to the other, they might as well capitalize on it. Because although these stops are called "comfort stops," they should really be called what they are: encouragements for you to spend your money on snacks, hot food, coffee, souvenirs, pellets to feed goats, pellets to feed salmon, and whatever else is on offer. After all, with a toilet on the bus there's really no reason to stop once (and in a few instances twice!) an hour. The amount of time the bus is stopped ranges from just a few minutes for a photo opp up to about 45 minutes for a meal break. As you can probably imagine, all of this stopping lengthens a trip quite a bit, usually making it about twice as long as it would be if driven by car. The buses I'm referring to, by the way, aren't even tour buses per se; they are public transport buses similar to Greyhound.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly saying that I prefer the crowded-with-people-and-livestock buses of India or the treacherous road conditions of Indonesia. The buses are comfortable and the roads are in great shape. It's just that every now and then I'd like to shake the driver and tell him "We JUST stopped! Do NOT stop again! KEEP driving!" Oh, and there was that one driver who took a breath, started talking (over the P.A.), and didn't stop for almost four hours. Yeah, I wanted to shake him, too.

Glacial

2010-07-15T23:35:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so, about that glacier walk. I arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier Guide center at 12:30pm, got geared up with rain jacket, over trousers, boots, and crampons, got on the bus, and made the 10 minute journey to the starting point of the hike. You can see the glacier from across the valley and it doesn't look that far away, perhaps a 10 minute walk. It's an optical illusion, though, as it's actually 2.5 kilometers and about a 35-40 minute walk.

I chose to do a half day walk, so I had about two hours of ice time. I was hoping for photo opportunities to rival those of someone else I know, but - to be perfectly honest - I felt kind of meh about the glacier itself. I actually thought the surrounding scenery of the glacier valley and the glacier guide was much superior! It was fun tramping around on the ice, though, glad I wore two pairs of socks. :-) Seeing the blue color of the ice and knowing that the water was clean enough to drink were pretty neat, too.

Franz Josef Glacier

2010-07-15T02:51:00.000-04:00

My internet time is just about expired, so I'm just going to share some photos from the glacier walk that I did today and I can tell more about it at another time.

Wide awake me

2010-07-14T09:38:00.000-04:00

Would someone please remind me that since my coffee consumption has greatly decreased over the last 10 months I no longer have the tolerance level I once had? That where once having a cup at 3pm or 8pm was no big deal, it actually now is a big deal? That if I do this to myself I.will.not.sleep?

Grrr. I've been awake since 6:30 this morning; it's now 1:30am in NZ and sleep doesn't look anywhere in sight.

How about a pretty picture of my drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef Glacier today to take my mind off of it?

Southern Alps

2010-07-13T05:03:00.000-04:00

As I said before, the drive from Christchurch to Queenstown was lovely. The day was crisp and the skies were blue. The conditions were perfect for viewing Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in Australia and New Zealand at 3755m (12,319ft). Also seen along the way were lakes (including the largest one in NZ), lots of sheep, and of course the Southern Alps, a mountain range running along the west coast of NZ.

Queenstown itself is a quintessential ski town. It's cute and quaint and the streets are filled with tourists going into and out of the overpriced shops. It's very pretty, though, and everywhere you look you can see snow-capped mountains. My hostel is a bit further out of the town center than I'd like, but the price was right and I'm only staying for two nights so it's not a big deal.

Today I slept in after being kept awake for two hours by a drunken roommate who made her appearance at 4am this morning. Dorm life is grand, eh? Then I. . .well, actually, this is where fathers and grandmothers - or at least MY father and MY grandmother - might want to stop reading or skip ahead quite a bit. Queenstown, after all, is the extreme sports capital of the world.

It's the extreme sports capital of the world AND the birthplace of the bungee jump. Which means that I did what my father couldn't comprehend and "emulate[d] bird poo." I took a 40 minute drive out to the Nevis river and the world's first gondola bungee jump. It also happens to be one of the tallest jumps in the world at 134m/440ft. There were two guys riding out with me who were clearly very nervous and they kept asking me if I was scared or anxious. And actually, considering that I do have a little fear of heights, I wasn't really nervous at all. That is, until I was standing on the ledge, about to make the leap overboard. I may have uttered a few words that are blog-inappropriate. I may have screamed my head off. Then I was falling and bouncing and the skies were blue today also so the scenery was amazing. It was perhaps one of the craziest things I've ever done and I can't wait to do it again sometime.

(That's me!)

Once back in town, I treated myself to a glass of mulled wine to take in the scenery. Oh, okay - and bring my heart rate back down, too. It's an early night for me because I have an 8am bus tomorrow to Franz Josef Glacier. I've never seen a glacier in real life before, so I'm looking forward to some good photo opportunities.

Catching up on Christchurch

2010-07-12T12:43:00.001-04:00

Hey, so, I'm in Queenstown! I barely managed to say anything at all about Christchurch and I've already left. Unfortunately, that's how it's going to be for the next week or so as I make my way around the south island because I'll be on the move quite a bit.

So let's catch up on Christchurch (CCH), shall we? It shouldn't take much to cover my days there because I didn't do a whole lot. I kind of feel like just picking a city in NZ, hunkering down, and staying awhile. In fact, if I didn't know that I'd hate myself for doing it, I'd fly straight to Auckland and do just that. But the south island is pretty and nature-y and stuff like that, so I'm here for a little while at least. Anyway. . .

My first full day in CCH got off to a late start because I didn't wake up until almost 11am. I hadn't been sleeping well my last few days in Melbourne, so I guess my body was catching itself up. Then it took me awhile to get out of the house because I was trying to time my leaving in between rain showers. I was staying with couchsurfers near Lincoln University which meant I had about a 1km walk to the bus stop followed by a 40 minute ride into the city center. (Oops! Forgot to mention I was surfing. My hosts this time were Sean (Kiwi), Merf (British), and Christine (German)). Once into the city, I followed Sean's advice and hit up some of the more popular sightseeing destinations: CCH Cathedral, Canterbury Museum, and CCH Art Gallery. I wandered around a bit, too, taking a few pictures, even though it was cold. In the evening I met up with Sean so that he could help me experience some of the CCH nightlife. It was quite fun. We went to a lot of pubs that had heaps of character and then wrapped up the night with cheap and tasty falafel sandwiches.

Saturday I didn't leave the house. That's it. That about says it all. (And no, I wasn't hungover. I was just feeling lazy. It was cold outside and the fire inside was warm and cozy.) Oh, well, wait a minute. Merf and Christine had a bunch of friends over for brunch on Saturday and I was welcomed into the fold. Most everyone in the group were expats, but there was one Kiwi to balance things out. It was interesting to learn people's reasons for moving to a far-off country and the french toast and bacon was yummy, so it was a good time.

Sunday I almost didn't leave the house again. Then I came to my senses and realized how silly that would be. Around 1pm Merf and Christine went out to run errands and Sean was doing some work on his car (his "ute"), so I figured I might as well get out, too. I ended up just hanging out in a coffee shop, doing some writing and people watching. I thought I might meet up with a friend, but she never showed and I just assumed she didn't get my email. After a couple of hours, I met Sean at the bus station because we were going to go to a little town outside of CCH called Lyttelton. Guess who wandered over while we were waiting for the bus? None other than Marina! No, it wasn't totally coincidental, I'd told her I would be there at that time, but I was having my doubts that she'd show. Unfortunately, she couldn't join us for our trip to Lyttelton because she had other plans, but at least we got to see each other, however brief it was. We also forced Sean to take a commemorative picture, lol - five countries now! He probably felt a bit like Will did, listening to us blather on and then be all goofy waving goodbye from the bus, but oh well. There's not much to Lyttelton except a harbor, but it was pretty and I got to see another kitschy, character-y kind of bar, too.

Finally, today, Monday. The plan had been to wake up early, super early, like 5:30am early, to go into town with Sean to watch the World Cup final game between Spain and the Netherlands. I was scheduled to be on a bus at 8:30am, so it was the only way I'd be able to see most of the game. The waking up was painful, but I managed it. Everything was going according to plan. Then. . .the car wouldn't start. Grrr. The car is more than 20 years old and I think it was just too cold for it. Sean and I grudgingly conceded defeat and went back inside to watch the game there instead. I stayed as long as I possibly could before I had to catch the bus into town and Sean figured he'd give the car one more try. Damn thing started up right away, wouldn't it figure? We were in town early enough to pop into a place that was showing the game, but couldn't stay til the end (don't worry, I heard on the bus that Spain won. Yay, that's who I was rooting for!).

I made it onto the bus - with a hot coffee in hand (legally!) - and settled in for an eight hour trip south to Queenstown, where I am now. It was a lovely ride, but more on that later. . .

Same same, but different

2010-07-12T06:15:00.001-04:00

Now that I've been out of Oz for a few days and have had time to reflect on it, I suppose it's a good time to tell about my overall impressions of Australia. The big thing is that it's really similar to the US, but there are enough differences that it's noticeable. It's a bit hard to describe in writing, but there's a saying among backpackers, particularly in Asia: "same same, but different." (And, actually, I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it here before. I know I sent a shirt home for my brother with this written on it, though!) What comes closest for Americans (or at least Marylanders) is the phrase "same difference." In comparison to the US, it describes Australia well.

The biggest and most obvious similarity is that both countries are English speaking. You can find Target, Costco, KFC, and a lot of other familiar stores and fast food chains - but not Burger King! (A local chain was already called Burger King and they refused to sell out to the bigger chain. Instead, the exact same restaurant, complete with Whoppers, are called Hungry Jacks.) Bathrooms with hot showers and toilet paper are the norm. Before anyone questions why something so silly would be included on this list, you have to remember that I spent six months in Asia where the same could not be said. ;-) And french fries/chips! For the longest time for me, fries were a special treat that were hard to come by and usually overpriced and/or not that good when you could get them. In Australia chips come with everything. Sure, it makes sense for fries to come with burgers or sandwiches, but lasagne? That's just weird. Aussies like their chips so much, that I'm pretty sure if you cut them, they'd bleed chips.

As for the differences, let's put them in bullet form because there's quite a few more of those.
* Americans could learn a lot from the water conservation practices of Aussies. There's almost always a drought somewhere in Australia so everyone is really conscientious of their water usage. It's a bit hard to enjoy those hot showers when there are signs everywhere encouraging showers lasting four minutes or less! Also, toilets are equipped with two flush modes; one gives a full flush and the other gives a half flush, so you can choose how much water you're using.

* Larger than life food portions. I thought portion sizes in the US were huge, but I think they're actually bigger in Oz. After a few meals, Will and I realized that we could save money by splitting entrees. When he left, I continued to save money by turning one meal into two.

* Expensive! Yes, at first I had sticker shock just because I was used to prices in SE Asia. Eventually, though, I realized that everything just costs more, even when you take into consideration the currency exchange (which is pretty crappy for Americans right now, almost even to our dollar). A cocktail costs $17, a pair of souvenir underwear costs $20, a movie costs $18, internet is at least $4/hour, and a candy bar is $3. I even saw a box of PopTarts for sale that I was initially VERY excited about. . .until I saw the $17.95 price tag. I get that it's imported and all, but it was still five times as much as in the US.

* No drip coffee and coffee with names like flat white (cafe latte) and long black (espresso with hot water added). Took me awhile to figure those out. The coffee's still good, though, it's just espresso based instead. No Nescafe in sight!

* Early closing times/shorter business hours (or "trading hours" as they're called there). With the exception of a handful of 24 hour supermarkets or McDonald's, and Sydney where most places are open late, everything closes early. My first night in Perth, Will and I were catching up over a beer when we realized that the bar was closing. At first I thought we must've been chatting for hours and hours for it to be closing time already. In reality, it was only 8:45pm. In Melbourne, I went into a restaurant/bar at 5:30pm and was kicked out a half hour later because they were closing. Even shops are generally open from 10am to about 5pm and that's it (with even shorter hours on the weekend).

* Music videos. This is a bit of an odd one, although it's harmless and even a little bit fun. Lots of bars and restaurants in the States play music in the background as they do in Australia. But in Australia, the music video that goes with it is always playing on at least one of the large screen tvs.

* (Road) Rule followers. Aussies love to follow the rules! At crosswalks only a few rogues dare to cross before the little green man tells them it's safe to do so. If the speed limit is 80km/hr, you can bet that that's how fast people will be driving. No hot drinks are allowed in cars or trucks and bus drivers and tour guides actually enforce it. (Hot drinks aren't served on planes either. I think it's an actual law of some sort. I have no idea how Aussies make it during a morning commute without coffee for the road, though.)

I'm sure there are many others that I'll remember as soon as I hit 'publish,' but this is a good sampling, I think.

Two remaining thoughts as I wrap up Australia: 1) The similarities between the US and Australia are what made me so homesick because the sameness of it all only made me remember how far away I was from home. But those are the same things that make it easy for Americans to travel to Australia, so YOU should go if you ever have the chance. 2) If and when you go, try to spend more time on the west coast than the east coast. People were super friendly there and there's not nearly as many tourists. I wish I'd spent more time there and that's where I would head if I come back.

What's left of the plan

2010-07-09T00:32:00.002-04:00

I made it to New Zealand! I'm officially on the other side of the planet from home!

I was g-chatting with ToadMama the other day and she commented that she enjoyed seeing my "map points getting closer and closer to North America" on the tracker map. It made me realize that I haven't updated anyone with my itinerary recently, so I thought I'd do that now.

I will be in New Zealand for seven or eight weeks, spending the majority of my time on the northern island, most likely in Auckland (the biggest city in NZ). From there I will spent about two weeks in Fiji before heading back to the States (flying in to San Francisco). I haven't quite decided how much time to spend in California. Part of me really wants to do a two week driving tour of the California coast and also hit up Napa and Sonoma valleys for more wine tastings. But the other part of me knows that California isn't going anywhere and I can do that trip any time. So, it's still up in the air, but either way I'll spend at least a few days in San Fran before heading back to B-more.

And there you have it, what's left of my plan. Is anyone else kind of amazed that after all this time, there's only weeks left to my trip instead of months? I know I am.

Rules are made to be broken

2010-07-08T00:14:00.034-04:00

Today I'm breaking my own (unspoken) rule about only using my blog to wish family members a happy birthday. Will's birthday is today (maybe you figured that out from the picture of him on a hippo? lol). He's in a new city and his friends and family are far away, so he can't celebrate with them. I know a little bit about this (although what isn't mentioned in that post is that I celebrated my birthday with a friend of Toto's named Emily who was also celebrating her birthday; I still got a party even though I didn't know anyone!), so I just wanted to say Happy Birthday, Will! Even though I'm now almost a full day ahead of you - 19 hours with me in New Zealand and you in San Francisco - I wanted you to know that I'm thinking about you and hoping you have a great birthday.

Something to wine about

2010-07-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

As I wind down my time in Australia, there was still one thing I wanted to do before I left: a wine tour. Australia is pretty well known for some of their wine varietals and since I've never been to a winery for a wine tasting before, I figured now would be the perfect time.

(The view at Domaine Chandon)

The wine tour that I chose was suggested to me by the owner of my hostel (who has been super helpful in more ways than one). We rode an hour outside of Melbourne to the Yarra Valley to get us started. At the first winery there was an informal wine tasting tutorial of sorts. We were taught the process of tasting wine - look at the wine color, swirl the wine in the glass, notice the aroma, take a small sip, and finally take a bigger sip and kind of "chew" the wine to help aerate it. Afterwards there were a number of wines that we could choose to taste, both lighter and heavier varieties.

At the second winery there were more tastings, but this time the goal was to choose a wine that we wanted to have with our lunch. I'd selected a lamb ragu pappardelle for lunch and decided that a pinot noir would be a lovely pair for it. Our tour group consisted of probably about 24 people and at lunch I was able to chat with Americans, Aussies, Kiwis, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indians, quite the international group. The restaurant also serves and sells a dozen different types of fudge and after lunch we were able to have free tastings of as many of them as we wanted. I'm pretty sure I tried almost all of them!

After lunch there were still two more wineries to visit with the last one being Domaine Chandon (of the Moet and Chandon family). At Domaine Chandon we were given full glasses of wine instead of just tasters and I chose a sparkling shiraz because I'd only ever had a sparkling red wine one other time before. Along with the sparkling wine there were cheese and chutney plates, as well.

(Not a great picture, but it was one of only two of me taken during the tour.)

When all was said and done, we were given the opportunity to taste 60 different wines at four different wineries. I lost track of how many I tried, but I didn't even come close to trying half of them. I just know that I tried chardonnay, fume blanc, sauvingnon blanc, cabernet sauvingnon, sangiovese, fortified cabernet, dessert wine, and a number of sparkling wines. So, uh, yeah, I tried a bunch. :-) We had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed really pretty scenery on the way to and from the Yarra Valley. I'd say that's a great way to spend a day!

Three

2010-07-05T05:15:00.002-04:00

When I left the States back in October, my youngest nephew Joey was a few months over two years old. He couldn't say "Aunt Shannon" so he just called me Sha-Sha (which was cute because that's what his mom used to call me when she was a kid and couldn't pronounce my name either). About six weeks later, I was Skyping with ToadMama, my sister, and all the kids. Luckily someone blogged about it because I just checked and it wasn't me. What isn't mentioned in that post, though, is that at one point during the Skype call, Joey ran over to the computer screen, grabbed at it, and said "Aunt Shannon, got your nose! Got your nose, Aunt Shannon!" before running off again. Ok, so that's cute because of the got your nose game happening via Skype, but the only thing I could think was, "When did he learn to say my name?! I haven't been gone for that long."

And now, today, Joey turns three. I realized way back in November that this little guy wouldn't stay two just because I was on the other side of the planet. I can only imagine how much he's grown (literally and figuratively) since then. I've missed it and that makes me sad, but I know I'll be home soon enough. Til then, Happy Birthday, buddy! And to use Joey's words: I miss you whole bunch! Someone give that kid a big hug and kiss for me!

Brings back memories

2010-07-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

It's the age old backpacker's question: "So, where are you from?" For me this late in the game, if I haven't been to the asker's hometown, we've at least traveled to a lot of the same places, so there's some common ground there.

(On the St. Kilda pier where, as you can tell, it was quite windy.)

When I met Nagla on my first full day in Melbourne and he told me that he was an Egyptian from Cairo, well hey, I've been there! And we were off with the chatting. It was already late in the day because a) I was being lazy and didn't even shower until 1:30pm and b) Nagla, having flown direct from Cairo a couple of days earlier, was jetlagged and slept until after noon, but we decided to continue our chat and pal around for awhile. We walked to the St. Kilda beach area and hit up the shopping area of Chapel St. on our way back. The next day Nagla woke me up bright and early (8:30am, at which time I begged for an extra half hour of sleep!) and we went into the city. We went to the Immigration Museum, shopped at Queen Victoria Market, and wandered Federation Square. Blah, blah, and it's not all that exciting and you can see pictures of it here. That's not the point of this post.

The point is that spending time with Nagla has made me recall my time in Egypt and in Dubai, and all the friends that I made while I was there. I spent more time with Amiri (who, wow, didn't get an official mention until well after I'd met him, sorry Amiri!) than with anyone else and I was glad to find that all of the slang Arabic words and phrases that he taught me (those that I could still remember anyway) came in handy all these months later. It's wild how much you can see culture in a person. By this I mean that the way Nagla acts or talks or feels is really similar to how my other Egyptian friends act, talk, or feel. A lot of times when he says something, it reminds me of Peet or Morgan or Mickey. I find myself having to explain to Nagla why I'm grinning at something he just said or did, so that he doesn't think I'm laughing at him. :-) Also, I think Egyptians more than anyone else I've met are the ones who are trying their hardest to improve their English (even when it's already damn good and WAY better than my Arabic). They are persistent and will say a word over and over again to get it right, often using it in a sentence at a later time. It's really cool.

This is coming out all mushed sounding and I have no idea if I'm making any sense. I guess there's really two things I'm trying to say: 1) Culture and the things in life that join together to make a group of people who they are is really fascinating, and 2) I really miss all of my Egyptian friends! I hope you're all well and that our paths cross again soon. Sorram ya nefisa sorram if my words to describe how much it means to me to have met and gotten to know all of you aren't as eloquent as they sound in my head.

MADE my day

2010-07-04T05:55:00.001-04:00

The other day when I was experiencing travel FAILS and feeling particularly homesick, I got an email from my friend David that totally made my day.

David is a Canadian that I met in Istanbul. I never mentioned him by name (sorry David!), but he's one of the CSers mentioned here. He and I stayed in touch over the last few months and even thought that we'd meet up somewhere in SE Asia, but our schedules never jived. You see, he spent four months in India and Nepal, even doing some serious trekking, before heading to Thailand. By then I was long gone. And he'll be coming to Australia, too, but won't get here until about a month and a half after I leave. So about that email. Attached was this picture:

See what I mean about it making my day? Don't worry, I asked his permission before I posted it. Just so you don't think that's the only picture he sent me, there were others, too:

(Annapurna in the Himalayas. David and his friends trekked for 26 days to a height of 5400m/17,716ft. Wow!)

Thanks, David, for cheering me up just when I needed it most. I'm still hoping our paths will cross again at some point soon.

Travel FAIL

2010-07-03T05:58:00.000-04:00

I don't know if you all have heard about FAIL Blog, but it was the first thing I thought of when I experienced a major travel FAIL this week (this, of course, after my minor travel FAIL, also this week).

On Monday, I booked a ticket from Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand on 8 July.

On Wednesday, I booked the exact same ticket. Because I FORGOT that I had already booked it. I mean, it was only a difference of two days. How could I have forgotten??

Of course it was a non-refundable ticket, those are always the cheapest ones. I figured I'd call the airline and see if they'd have pity on me. I thought that even if they didn't refund it, perhaps I could use it as credit on another flight without penalty. My explanation kind of went like this: "You see, I've been traveling for 10 months. I must be getting tired. My brain is mush."

And. . .it worked! The airline refunded the second ticket I purchased which was actually the more expensive ticket. All's well that ends well, I suppose, but let's hope I don't make this mistake again because I don't think the airline would buy it a second time!

Seven minutes

2010-07-02T08:56:00.000-04:00

Seven minutes doesn't seem like such a long time, does it? I didn't think so, either, but apparently it is to Tiger Airways. I missed my very first flight ever (out of 20 flights in the last 10 months and many dozens of flights in years prior) trying to get to Melbourne from Sydney. Check-in closes 45 minutes ahead of the flight with Tiger; it seems to me that most other airlines close a half-hour ahead of time. I'd like to blame slow trains or long lines or even Tiger, but the reality is that I just didn't plan very well. I have no one to blame but myself - I made a stupid, newbie mistake in not allowing enough time to get to the airport and I should know better after all this time. Although. Part of me also says "come on! seven minutes?! an exception? please?" Particularly since as I was sitting at the gate, there were multiple calls for five other passengers who weren't on the flight yet while I was sitting there, waiting, ready to board a flight! Grrr.

It's not really that big a deal. I booked myself on the 7pm flight instead of the 4:35pm flight (although the $70 fee I had to pay is about the same amount of the original flight, so that sucks). So why was I in tears as I walked toward my gate (and no, I'm not PMSing)? I was in tears because I want to go home. And instead of being stuck in the airport as I head home, I'm going to Melbourne. Where it's cold. And I'm kind of tired of traveling. Plus, I got used to having a travel buddy in the last month and I'm back to being alone again.

BUT! I will be okay. I've suffered homesickness before and I won't let it stop me this time either. Besides, I may not ever have another chance to visit Melbourne and I'm already here so I HAVE to forge on to New Zealand. I finally got into Melbourne around 10:30pm or so and I'm having Tim Tams (my new addiction!) for dinner. The picture below relates to nothing at all, but I like it and wanted to share it. :-)

(My last night in Sydney was spent writing postcards with chocolate and a glass of wine close at hand.)

Will has left the building

2010-06-29T22:24:00.001-04:00

Well, actually, he's left the whole country. On Tuesday I walked him to the subway station and sent him off to the States. And, believe it or not, because of the time difference and the direction he's flying, he arrives in San Francisco just a few short hours later, even with a layover in Fiji and another in LA. :-)

I don't know if I lost a bet or what, but I somehow managed to promise Will that I'd write up a glowing post about him and how great it is to travel with him. Oh, and how he was the only person from home who managed to meet up with me on the road (I think that's supposed to make him better than the rest of you? lol) (But there's still time to change that! I'm not home yet! Any takers??)

Ah, wait. I remember now. I insisted on having permission to post this picture of him and he agreed, but only with the above conditions:

(Will ironing his tie. While he's wearing it.)

Oh man. This makes me giggle every. single. time. I see it. This wasn't even taken in Australia, but rather in Vegas when he was driving cross country from Philly to San Fran with his friends right before he came here.

Yes. So. We had a lot of fun. Will and I both agree that the Oz highlights were diving in the Great Barrier Reef and petting 'roos at the Perth Zoo. Actually, we both liked the west coast of Australia (what little we saw of it) better than the east coast and wish that we'd spent more time there instead (Perth is on the west coast). All of the pictures of "Serious" Will were fun to take and a great running joke to have (one example can be seen here). Having an open ended game of rummy kept my competitive little heart going. For the record, I won - 7230 to 6905 (and we only started keeping score in, Airlie Beach, was it?). Four weeks and one day of traveling together and I only barely wanted to kill him - that's something he already knows, so don't feel bad that he'll be reading it here for the first time, btw.

I guess that about covers it. I was really glad to have a travel buddy and even gladder that it was a buddy from home. If it weren't for Will, I'd be feeling SUPER homesick right about now because Australia is so similar to the States and yet I'm so very far away still. Ah, but that's a whole 'nother topic and one I'll write about soon.

How'd I do with "your" post, Will? :-) I miss you already. See you in San Francisco!

Laziness reigns

2010-06-28T22:20:00.000-04:00

So, I'm really loving Sydney. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Pacific Northwest, an area that I would move to in a heartbeat. I've been enjoying walking around, checking out the neighborhoods of Kings Cross, Chinatown, Darling Harbour, and others that I don't remember the names of. We've really just been taking it kind of easy. After a month of traveling, Will seems to be growing weary of it and has been happy doing a whole lot of nothing for his last few days here before he heads to San Francisco to start his new job.

(Not a great shot of the Sydney Harbour, but I was digging the way the clouds looked.)

(The Sydney Tower there in the middle.)

There hasn't been much to talk about since our day of symphony and soccer. We've gone to the grocery store so that we could save money by not eating out and I've really enjoyed being in the kitchen and cooking again (even with the bare bones facilities that the hostel offers). And, actually, just doing a whole lot of nothing saves money, too. Besides the neighborhood wandering, we're also doing a lot of reading, card playing, travel related research online, movie watching, and Nintendo DS playing (well, Will is anyway).

So that's about it. On Tuesday the 29th Will heads to San Fran and the day after that I head to Melbourne. I'm also finalizing plans to move on from Australia, but more on that later.

Sydney Day One: Symphony and Soccer!

2010-06-24T06:35:00.000-04:00

We arrived in Sydney a bit late on the 22nd. There'd been a mistake with the reservation, so rather than being in the dorm room that we booked, they gave us a private room with two single beds instead. Being in a private room was a nice treat, but it meant that we had to check out the next morning and move into the dorm. Not a huge deal, it just ended up meaning that we were kind of stuck at the hostel. Then it ended up really not being a huge deal because it started raining with a vengeance and Will and I decided to turn lemons into lemonade by doing laundry and soaking up as much free internet as we could.

The rain eventually stopped which worked out perfectly for us because Will had surprised me with tickets to the Sydney Opera House. He's as good at keeping a secret as my sister which is to say that he's not, lol. They both get so excited about the surprise that they can't help but tell you all about it. So I actually knew about the tickets a couple of weeks ago.

Will didn't own a suit so we went shopping for one during our whirlwind tour of Brisbane. And I didn't really have appropriate symphony attire either (I sent the little black dress that I got in Dubai home ages ago), but Rhian had given me a dress that I thought might work. I just needed to get something to wear over it since warm weather wear isn't working so well in Sydney's 12C/55F temps. Getting dressed up to go to the symphony was really fun; I put on makeup and everything! :-) Even Will got into the idea of dressing up and most guys don't usually go for that.

The symphony was fun, but I almost liked taking pictures of the Opera House more than the concert itself. Will and I were hamming it up and totally marking ourselves as tourists by taking cheesy picture after cheesy picture. I particularly like that we both wore Chuck Taylors to the symphony. Sydney is just laid back enough that it worked.

After the concert we made our way back to our hostel's neighborhood to a sports bar that we'd looked up earlier in the day. You see, with the time difference we haven't been able to watch any of the World Cup soccer games live - the USA games have been airing here at 4:30am. But last night they played against Algeria and it aired at midnight. We figured we were already out so why not? We made a pit stop at a 24 hour pie shop called Pie Face where I pretty much was in heaven and wanted to eat every sweet and savory thing in sight. We settled for a shared slice of cheesecake instead. :-) The England/Slovenia game was airing at the same time as the USA/Algeria game so it was a divided sports bar, especially since the outcome of each game could affect who moved on. Every time we heard the England fans cheering we had to quickly glance over at their screen to see what was going on (and maybe boo just a little bit). Eventually we were just too tired and decided not to watch the rest of the game. Unfortunately, that meant that, like ToadMama, we also missed the US game winning goal. Grrr, so frustrating. We found out the score this morning when we woke up.

If you ask me, not a bad start to Sydney. . .

Sand and more sand

2010-06-22T21:46:00.000-04:00

(Female dingo on the beach at Fraser Island)

Have you ever driven a car on a beach before? I don't think it's something most people get a chance to do because most beaches frown on that kind of thing. I still haven't driven myself across a beach, but the driver of the tour that Will and I joined did a lot of beach driving particularly since Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island.

And there was definitely a lot of it. We saw soft sand, hard sand, yellow sand, orange sand, red sand, black sand, and sand that was so fine and mineral laden that could use it to polish your skin AND your jewelry. For two days we were driven around the island, stopping at different spots along the way for pictures or a walk through a rainforest or a break by a lake. There were only six of us in our group, plus the driver, and that was kind of nice because in the peak season there could have been as many as 28. Rather than being in a huge bus, we were in a Land Cruiser and we were able to tailor the trip to the things we wanted to see and do.

The first night we stayed at a place called Happy Valley which is also where we had all of our meals. After dinner we played Scrabble with some of the others in our group and then called it an early night because we wanted to get up to see the sunrise. Come time for actually getting up, though, and I decided that my bed was warm and it was cold outside and I'd rather sleep in. Besides, I'd seen the sunrise during our overnight trip from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay. I guess I never mentioned that, but then again, I also never mentioned that I finally crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere back during my overnight trip from Lake Toba to Bukittinggi, either. Details.

Highlights of the trip: We saw a handful of dingoes and that was pretty cool. They can be dangerous and there's signs all over the island about dingo safety, but the ones we saw just kind of glanced at us, saw that we weren't going to feed them, and moved on. Indian Head, in the north of the island, was one of my favorite spots. You had to walk up a 60m hill and from there you could look out and see for quite a distance, or you could look down into the ocean and see what kind of marine life you could spot. We saw dolphins and another woman in our group saw a stingray. Walking back down from Indian Head, we saw our driver pointing out to the ocean and we realized he'd spotted whales. Humpback whales have started their migration, so we stood watching for awhile to see if we'd spot them, too. We did, but to be honest, it was mostly blowhole splashes and a flicker of a whale tail. They were pretty far out so it wasn't as exciting as you might expect. But at least I can say I saw a humpback whale!

(The view from Indian Head)

We spent another night in Hervey Bay when we returned from Fraser Island and then left the next morning for Brisbane. Brisbane gets the whirlwind treatment as ~~we're~~ we were only ~~here~~ there for about 24 hours before we ~~have~~ had to catch our flight to Sydney. I think I would have really liked Brisbane - I'll have to explore it more another time if I have a chance - but we decided that since we'll have a week in Sydney, a huge city, we'd spend our time on Fraser instead of Brisbane, a much smaller city.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T07:36:00.040-04:00

Way back when I decided to take this trip, I held off on telling family at first and only told friends and colleagues. When I finally went to Dad with my plan, I expected at least some push back from him. But he surprised me by throwing his full support behind me. I even found out that that kind of world travel appealed to him, something I'd never known about him before.

The point is that today, on Father's Day, I want to thank my Dad for being supportive and encouraging and understanding. Of course he was all of those things when it came to this little trip o'mine, but he's always been those things. All fathers and daughters go through phases or periods of difficulty over the years, as we did, but I'm glad to say that today I'm closer to Dad than ever before.

Dad, I miss you and our conversations at the island in the kitchen as you start dinner and I keep you company. I'm so excited that you're getting to do some world travel of your own (right now!) and I can't wait to join you at the island to hear all about it. I love you!

Overnight bus trips are the same no matter what country you're in

2010-06-18T02:33:00.000-04:00

I said goodbye to Rhian and Marina yesterday (so sad!) as they took off north up the coast, going the direction we just came from. After we checked out of our hostel, there wasn't a whole lot for me and Will to do, so we decided to play cards, have a couple of beers, and just hang out until 8pm when we'd board the bus for Hervey Bay.

It turned out to be a good way to spend the day, especially since we sat on the balcony out in the sunshine. There was a tiny little wrench thrown into things at the first restaurant where we stopped. I'd ordered a chicken caesar salad. It wasn't good. At all. It was swimming in enough dressing for three salads and the bacon wasn't cooked all the way (yes, I know, bacon doesn't even belong in a caesar salad, but I was willing to forgive it since maybe Australians don't know that, lol). I asked the server if I could have another salad instead, she complied, but then turned back to say that she was still going to charge me for half of the caesar salad (that I hadn't eaten), plus the full cost of the second salad. At first I agreed because I was starving, but by the time she came back, I realized that was crazy. I again told her that I didn't think I should have to pay for a salad that I hadn't eaten and that I couldn't eat anyway because of the half-cooked bacon. She disagreed and said that since I ordered it, I had to pay for it and she cleared dishes and walked away. I realized that she'd taken my beer bottle even though I hadn't finished with it yet. When I asked her about it, she commented that she thought it was empty. She brought me a beer, but it clearly wasn't my original beer. For one thing, the bottle was icy cold, but it was strange because there was more beer than I'd had. The only thing Will and I could figure was that she opened a new beer and poured some of it out to approximate how much I had before she mistakenly took it off our table. Here's where it gets really weird. She came back to our table to pick up the check she'd dropped off, but we hadn't paid it yet. She told us that she wanted us to pay immediately and then leave because she didn't like my attitude. Wha?!?! Oh man, there's so many wrong things about this whole experience, but I think you all can probably figure it out on your own. I was so freakin' annoyed (and hungry! still!) at that point that I wanted to leave anyway. The whole thing was strange and had me shaking my head in wonderment for the rest of the day. It didn't stop us from our card playing session as we waited out the bus, though. In fact, the next place we went to had an awesome server who was just great.

8pm rolled around and it was time to head south to Hervey Bay. We've now been on four different Greyhound buses as we've traveled down the coast and none of the buses have been even close to capacity. Last night's bus was no different and this was a good thing as we were able to spread out a bit (ghetto upgrade anyone?). Spreading out only works so good, though, so neither of us slept too much (although the codeine I'm still taking probably helped me a little bit). We arrived in Hervey Bay right on time and were picked up by our hostel at the station. Considering how tired Will and I both are, I'm surprised we managed to bicycle around for hours today like we did. Then again, it is only 4pm now and we're like slugs in our room, with barely enough energy to even consider watching a movie. :-)

Tomorrow we are off to Fraser Island for a couple of days. Fraser is the world's largest sand island and can only be driven across with 4WD vehicles. It also has rainforest, lots of lakes, and DINGOES. I'm looking forward to the dingoes! So, just a heads up, I may not be around for a couple of days. . .

Four

2010-06-16T22:30:00.001-04:00

Magnetic Island was the prettiest little island ever. There's something really nice about having beaches backed by mountains and that's just what Maggie was like. We stayed long enough to rent bikes and ride around the island a bit; Will got in some fishing and I got in some reading, so it was all perfectly relaxing. I hadn't been feeling better so I saw a doctor before we got to the island. This doctor informed me that since the antibiotics didn't seem to be helping, I most likely had a viral infection and I'd just have to let it do it's thing and go away on its own. I wasn't thrilled to hear that, but he prescribed acetaminophen with codeine for the pain, so that was something. That is, until I realized that since it was Sunday the pharmacy was closed and it was closed the next day because it was the Queen's birthday. Ugh, waiting two days for pills that I knew would make me feel better...

We headed off to Airlie Beach and look who we ran into:

(It wouldn't be Marina and Rhian if we weren't pulling faces.)

Well, we didn't actually run into them, not by chance or anything. It was a good week of figuring out the logistics and then a couple of days of us being on a boat and Rhian and Marina being on an island, but it was all worked out and we got to meet up. That makes four countries now that I've hung out with the British girls that I met way back in Pai. Poor Will, though. He was caught in the middle of a scream when Marina and I saw each other for the first time at the hostel and then he was treated to some serious girl talk as the three of us caught up. :-)

Mission: Incomplete

2010-06-13T04:39:00.000-04:00

Will and I arrived in Mission Beach on Friday afternoon after a very pretty two hour drive south from Cairns. There’s not a lot to do in Mission Beach; we mostly chose it as one of two stops between Cairns and Airlie Beach, an 11 hour bus ride. Mission is known for two things, however.

The first thing is skydiving. Most people seem to come here for the skydiving. Although this is something I want to do, I’m saving it for New Zealand, so Dad will be happy to know that I haven’t jumped out of any perfectly good airplanes. Yet. If I’d been feeling better, I probably could’ve been talked into skydiving, but unfortunately I seem to be feeling worse. The antibiotics don’t seem to be doing their thing. I have a couple of days worth of doses left and if I’m not better by then, I’ll have to head back to a doctor.

The second thing Mission Beach is known for are their cassowaries. Are you familiar with these guys? They are big, flightless birds, kind of similar to emus but supposedly pretty dangerous. Like, one local told us that the government is trying to relocate one cassowary because he’s killed a number of cats and dogs in the neighborhood. They’re a little crazy looking and I’d love to see one. Considering how I feel, though, and how I barely left my room the entire time we were in Mission Beach, the cassowary sighting has been a bust.

Actually, since we leave Mission Beach first thing Sunday morning, the whole place has kinda been a bust. But we’re hoping that Magnetic Island will see me feeling better and doing more than sleeping and reading all day. Fingers crossed!

Underwater

2010-06-11T06:53:00.000-04:00

So would you like to see more of what I saw while I was here? I thought I'd share some more pictures since they weren't all available to me when I posted last.

(pink anemonefish)

(giant clam - they come in all kinds of colors, not just this bluish color)

(Regal angelfish)

(Hawksbill sea turtle. Although my favorite shot of him is this one.)

If you'd like to see even more, they're all up now over at my Flickr page.

GREAT Barrier Reef

2010-06-10T01:31:00.000-04:00

We’re back from the liveaboard and Will and I both agree that it was totally worth the money (even though I only did seven of the 11 dives; more on that later). They were long days that went like this: dive, eat, sleep, repeat three more times. Days one and two consisted of four dives, including a night dive on each day, and day three there were three dives.

For the first dive, Will and I both ran out of air pretty early, with our dives only lasting about 23 minutes. We had to get our dive feet (flippers?) back on and get used to things. By dive two we were feeling more comfortable and it just kept getting better from there. Our air was lasting longer, our buoyancy control was greater, and we were able to goof off a bit and have some fun. This was the first time that I was diving with a dive buddy that I knew and now I kinda think that I’d prefer a known dive buddy in the future. Particularly on longer dives where we’d seen pretty much all there was to see but we wanted to still make the most of the air left in our tanks, that’s when we’d start chasing each other, doing flips and twirls, and taking out regulators to stick out tongues. You know, general silliness.

Eventually it came time for the first night dive. Perhaps you’ll remember that I have a fear of dark water and this was one of the reasons that I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to scuba dive. Coincidentally, I was feeling a bit feverish just before the night dive on the first day, so I decided to sit out that dive. People asked me why I wasn’t diving and I said that I wasn’t feeling well. Oh, and that I was a little bit terrified. J I figured the fever was the universe’s way of telling me that I wasn’t ready for a night dive yet.

How could I possibly detail every dive or everything that we did for the past three days? I couldn’t so you get highlights instead:

* Day two, dive three. We rented a digital underwater camera and Will was in charge of taking as many pictures as he could. He got pictures and video of a sea turtle, including a few seconds of video that had me and the turtle in it. I also got some funny shots of Will wearing sunglasses underwater.

* Day two, dive four, night dive. Yes, I actually went on a night dive. Can you believe it? Because I can hardly believe it myself and I was there. I made Will promise not to leave my side, whether we were underwater or on the surface. Will saw a lot more on the first night dive – shark, lionfish, turtles, baler shell, huge potato cods – but on the second dive that I was on, we saw a hawksbill sea turtle that the divemaster described as being the largest he’d ever seen. It swam right past us and we got a really good look at him, we didn’t have to search for him sleeping in a cave or anything.

* The accommodations and food. The rooms were small but comfortable and we had a nice view of the ocean and sunset every night. As for the food, in addition to three daily meals, there were snacks, coffee, and tea available all the time. There were a couple of misses (the powdered eggs for breakfast one morning comes to mind), but for the most part the food was actually pretty good.

* The ProDive staff. I highly recommend this dive shop if anyone has the opportunity to dive or snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone was really nice and very helpful. Tim and Dan in particular had awesome personalities and were just fun guys.

So I mentioned that I only did seven out of 11 dives. The fever that I had on the first night was back in full force not long after we returned from the night dive on day two. Luckily Will had prescription strength ibuprofen with him so I was sucking those down, but I still decided to opt out of all of the dives on the last day. Will had to find a new dive buddy and I spent the majority of the day sleeping in my cabin.

When we got back to Cairns I figured it would probably be a good idea to see a doctor. There’s a 24-hour medical center a block and a half away from the hostel. It was perhaps the best doctor’s office experience I’ve had in a long time, if not ever. I walked in without an appointment and was seen by a doctor less than 15 minutes later. I explained to the doctor that I had a mixed bag of symptoms: a throat/jaw/ear pain that I first felt sometime in March, fever, and sore lower teeth and a numb lower lip that I suspected had something to do with the dive regulator. He checked me over and determined that I had a throat infection and an ear infection, and that diving with these infections made equalizing my ears more difficult and caused trauma to my ears. I actually had bleeding inside my ears. Oops. He prescribed an antibiotic which I was able to pick up on site. In less than 45 minutes I saw a doctor and got a prescription and it only cost me $79AUS. Damn good service, if you ask me.

As it usually is with antibiotics, I’m already feeling better after just two doses, but we’ve decided to stay in Cairns an extra day to help me recover a bit. The plan is to take a bus tomorrow to Mission Beach.

Thai flashback

2010-06-08T07:26:00.001-04:00

Not too long ago my friend Zach emailed me saying that he FINALLY remembered to send me some of his Thailand pictures. I really liked Zach's shots and his camera is more expensive and fancier than my point-and-click, so he got shots and angles on things that I couldn't manage.

Anyway, I asked him if I could share some of them here and since I'm in the middle of nowhere diving the Great Barrier Reef for a few days, I figured now would be as good a time as any.

All of these pictures were taken in Ayuthaya, Thailand.

On a liveaboard

2010-06-07T07:46:00.000-04:00

Will and I leave this morning for our three day Great Barrier Reef dive adventure, so I'll be out of touch for a couple of days. I hope to have some awesome pictures when I'm back because we've decided to split the costs and rent a digital underwater camera for a day.

Check back tomorrow, though. I have a special picture post planned. Hint: There are no beaches in these pictures, so you know I'm going back a ways for this material.

Not in Asia anymore

2010-06-05T03:56:00.000-04:00

Remember when I had Not in America posts way back when? Well, now that I've spent the last six months in Asia, I have to remind myself that I'm not in Asia anymore instead. Things are so very, very different. The weather in Perth was a lot cooler than I've encountered in ages. I actually had to put on jeans and was very happy that I'd asked Will to bring me a hoodie to wear. Once I got over how "cold" it was (50 degrees at night), I remembered that it's fall weather and, oh hey, I love fall! I'm also experiencing sticker shock on a daily basis. Wait, what? The dorm room is $30 instead of the $5-10 that I'm used to. Meals cost $10-20 instead of $1-5. An 11 hour bus trip costs hundreds of dollars rather than tens of dollars.

Crossing the street is easy and you don't doubt that you'll make it to the other side alive. But here, everyone waits for the go ahead from the little green man to cross. I don't have that kind of patience anymore as I'm so used to just crossing when there's a break in traffic. People are so incredibly nice and helpful and they're not just doing it to sell you something, either. I think there must not be too many Americans traveling in Australia because people have stopped us a number of times to chat with us (they hear us talking to each other and recognize our accents). And the food. As much as I loved Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Indonesian foods, I was well sick of noodles and rice after awhile. Eating in Australia is just like eating at home. Meaning, I can get all of the above types of food (passable, but not as good as it was in that country), but I can also get burgers, pizza, sandwiches, salads, sushi, and really anything else my heart desires.

So there's been a bit of an adjustment period, but Will and I are really having fun, too. We've been to the Western Australia Museum and we've met up with local couchsurfers. We took a day trip to Freemantle on the very easy to use train and saw the Freemantle markets and the Western Australia Maritime Museum (well, Will saw it. As a Coastie he's more interested in that kind of thing that I am, so I happily stayed outside in the sunshine and took pictures instead.) And I've been enjoying having someone to watch sports with. Will's beloved Phillie Flyers are in the Stanley Cup, so we've watched a couple of those games, and tonight we'll be cheering for America when they play against Australia in a World Cup warm-up game.

We're in Cairns (pronounced 'cans') now, btw. We took what was quite likely the worst red-eye flight ever. We flew Jetstar, had seats that didn't recline, and had crying children (not even babies which made it worse, I think) behind us. In other words, no sleep at all. Then when we arrived at our hostel, there was no one around to check us in for awhile. Eventually we were checked in, but we were still hours ahead of the official check in time, so we crashed on couches instead of our own beds in a dorm room. We're pretty beat, but the hostel is actually pretty cool. It's very centrally located, there was a free barbecue at lunch today, free dinner is included every night, and we got vouchers to get in free at a local club.

Also, the big news of the day is that we booked ourselves on a liveaboard boat beginning on Monday. A lot of people recommended Pro Dive as a good dive shop in Cairns and our research had us agreeing with what people were saying. For $545 (including all dive equipment and a $50 reef tax) we get three days and two nights on the boat, all meals, and 11 dives. A fantastic deal, if you ask us, and we're really looking forward to it - particularly Will as he's only ever dived in a quarry with 50 degree water before, lol.

Intro to Oz

2010-06-01T23:17:00.000-04:00

From the air, Australia looks really flat compared to Indonesia. Indonesia has volcanoes, mountains, and lots of big, green hills. Australia, at least the area over Perth, has none of that.

I made it to Perth with no troubles at all, my flight actually landed earlier than it was supposed to. Will picked me up at the airport and I could see him waiting for me just beyond the customs area. It was so, so great seeing someone from home. You have no idea how much I’ve missed seeing familiar faces.

My first full day in Australia, I was up early and then back to sleep after breakfast. Apparently I needed a nap after all that eating! Ah, ok. In reality, Will is still fighting jet lag after his 20 hour trip here the other day, so I figured I’d nap when he napped. When we were both finally up, showered, and ready to go, we headed out for some sightseeing.

I told him ahead of time that it’s good that he’s here because otherwise I wouldn’t really be feeling up for the sightseeing. After many months of temples, museums, cathedrals, markets, mosques, world’s biggest this, and world’s oldest that, I haven’t been in much of a sightseeing kind of mood recently. Having Will here with me, though, gives me motivation to get out there and see things. He just traveled 8,000 miles and 20 hours after all; he wants to see stuff!

Our first stop was the Perth Mint which, while seriously overpriced (and not just because I have sticker shock after being in Asia for so long), was actually kind of cool. We got to watch a 200 ounce gold boullion being poured and I now know my weight’s value in gold – over $1.8 million!

After the Mint we went to the Perth Zoo, probably the coolest zoo I’ve ever been to before. It’s set up in such a way that most of the exhibits hardly seem like exhibits all, not the kind you’re probably used to with bars and glass and huge dividers between you and the animals. In fact, one exhibit called the Bush Walk allowed us to get seriously up close and personal with birds, wallabies, and kangaroos. So close that I got to pet a kangaroo! At the zoo!

Well, more later since this is already a day late. . .

Pamper time

2010-05-30T10:22:00.000-04:00

I took a shuttle bus from Padangbai to Kuta today and because I described it as a ride from hell yesterday, I was pleasantly proven wrong for today's ride. There were only six people in the van, including the driver, and it was one of the easiest trips yet (aside from the roads, of course, which always seem to be horrible in Indonesia).

Anyway, my big plan for the day was to check in to a hotel and then go get some pampering done. I ended up with a room for 100,000 rupiah which is, quite frankly, more than I've paid anywhere else in Indonesia. But that includes breakfast and there's a pool which figured nicely into my idea of pampering. I walked into a salon nearby, saw that they had a menu, and just started saying, "I'll take that and that and that. Can you do all that today? Great! I'll be back in a half-hour after I eat lunch." A few hours later I was painted and waxed and scrubbed and rubbed and steamed and feeling pretty great. When all was said and done, I had a pedicure, a wax, a massage and a facial for just under $18. Not a bad way to spend a day's budget, if you ask me, particularly since I know I won't be able to do that in Australia. Then I went back to the hotel and laid by the pool for awhile with a book.

I am really going to miss Indonesia. Maybe it's because I mostly took things slow here and spent a lot of time in fewer places rather than a little time in lots of places, but I really felt like I knew the places that I visited. Or maybe Indonesians are just super friendly and that helped me feel right at home. Regardless, everywhere I went people knew me by name and I had my regular places - mini markets, cafes, bars, restaurants, bookstores. Generally if I'm not gonna be in a place for very long, I don't like to go to the same place twice, even if I've had the best meal ever. But when I'm staying put for more than a couple of days, I do like to go to the same place because you get to know people more easily. There's something comforting in feeling like you're at home when you're thousands of miles away.

Indonesia has everything. Mountains, beaches, jungle, volcanoes, diving, trekking. All kinds of stuff. There's so much of Indonesia that I haven't seen, so I feel like another trip here will definitely be in my future. And did you know it's the fourth largest country by population after China, India, and the US? I had no idea.

The other thing I really enjoyed about Indonesia was the attitude. People were friendly and laid-back everywhere I went. And my musician friends would like that music is MUCH appreciated here. Locals and foreigners alike are constantly playing an instrument, singing, and trying to get others to join into the festivities. I feel like my description isn't doing it justice, so I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it. Or visit yourself one day!

In less than 24 hours I'll be in Australia, my fourth (and final) continent of my trip! Will is already there - due to a goofy scheduling issue, he made it there three days earlier than he thought. But I'll be sure to say "I told you so!" when he picks me up from the airport. :-)

Road rules

2010-05-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

Still more thoughts as I prepare to leave the developing world for a first world country. This time my thoughts are focused on transportation.

Plane, train, bus, car. You name it, I've taken it in the last eight months. Rickshaw, tri-shaw, tuk-tuk, pedicab, bemo, moto. There are a million variations depending on what country you're in. One thing's for sure. The rules of the road are a world of difference compared to the U.S.

Let's just have it be said right from the get go: Sometimes there are no rules. Complete chaos reigns supreme. Lane splitting. Babies not in car seats. Needing to walk in the road because the sidewalk is used for motorcycle parking. Regularly seeing vehicles going the wrong way on a one-way road, even on on and off ramps. I think you get the idea, but let me give some specific examples, as well.

Remember my 29 hour train ride from Mumbai to Varanasi? I don't believe I ever shared what I witnessed right before I got on that train. Passengers were forming a line on the platform. Men that I assumed to be police or security were yelling orders. They began to check tickets and then all hell broke loose. Batons came out and passengers were beaten. Women with babies were yanked from line and tossed aside. More yelling, more physical abuse. I had no idea what was going on and was just trying to stay out of the way. I asked a man what was happening and he explained that those were general seating passengers. General seating costs about $2, consists of hard, wooden benches, and the ticket was a number. People were supposed to be lining up according to number, but apparently there's always some line jumping in an attempt to get a better seat. Hence the aggressive police/line monitors. For comparison purposes, my ticket was at the complete other end of the spectrum, 2AC. It cost about $16 and consisted of a soft bed with blankets and pillows in a semi-private, A/C room. As the man explained it, these general seating passengers were poor, stupid, and needed to be beaten (!). I'm paraphrasing, but yes, that's essentially what he said. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

Sometimes I'm convinced that public transportation is a major feat of clown car engineering. There have been many bus rides with every seat full. That should be that, but usually even more is crammed in. From crates of chickens or eggs to huge bags of flowers, the aisle is always good for transporting something. If it's not saleable goods in the aisle, it's people. Minivans should accommodate 8-12 people. Figure in bags and luggage, however, and the comfortable max is eight. There are never only eight people in these things. Usually it's closer to 14 or 15.

Then what about the number of people on a motorcycle? The most I've seen is six, three adults and three kids. But I've also seen one man and two dogs on a motorcycle, so that has to be some sort of human/canine record.

It's not just people and dogs that overcrowd motorbikes. They are a main source of transportation and I've seen them loaded down with everything from plastic bottles bound for recycling to huge piles of cut down vegetation. I'm no longer surprised when I can barely see the motorcycle under the load it's carrying.

The state of the roads themselves makes for long, bumpy, often uncomfortable journeys. Add in super curvy roads like those in Mae Hong Son, Thailand and you get to deal with motion sickness, too. What? You don't think being jammed in with puking people sounds like your idea of a good time?

Red lights don't mean anything and there's no qualms against passing whenever the driver feels the urge, even on blind corners. Horns are used so often they start to sound like ducks with sore throats. Dying ducks with sore throats. A regular game of chicken is happening on roads around the world as people drive straight at each other, veering off at the last possible second.

I've said more than once that if I don't think I'm gonna die at least once during every trip, then it hasn't been a trip worth taking! Because, you see, a lot of this lunacy could be avoided. There are executive, VIP buses and private cars and fast ferries. All of these cost more, of course, but plenty of travelers opt for them. I choose not to, and not just because I'm a cheap sonofagun. I go with the option that most locals take. After all, I didn't come all this way just to spend most of my time with other foreigners; I want to experience what the locals experience. And I gotta say. Some of the nicest people I've met and some of the kindest things I've had done for me have taken place on public transportation, regardless of the craziness of the journey that led to those meetings.

Australia's next and I have a feeling that my experiences on the road are going to ease up a bit. Only time will tell. While part of me will be glad to leave the madness behind, the other part of me will miss it. But just a tiny bit. :-)

No English? No problem.

2010-05-27T07:20:00.000-04:00

In a few days, I head to Australia, my first native English speaking destination since London. And, really? Can I even count London since all I did there was spend a night at Heathrow? So, for the first time in eight months, I'll be among native English speakers again and it's got me thinking.

Not knowing the local language and lacking an ability to speak a language other than English has been less of a hindrance to me than I could have expected. I had the hardest time in Barcelona (although I know a little Spanish), but for the most part people I interacted with knew at least a small amount of English.

Except when they didn't:

* An old woman, noticing my difficulty in crossing a busy Saigon street, gave me a knowing smile, grabbed my hand, and walked me across. She gave me a friendly nod and walked off before I could even thank her.

* In Lombok I was on a bemo on my way back to my guesthouse.I was the only foreigner among six or so locals. It was getting dark and I was intently watching the road for where I needed to get off; I had a habit of walking or riding right past the guesthouse and I didn't want to make the mistake again. The man across from me said something in Bahasa, the woman next to me patted my leg and said something else, and I smiled and shrugged because I didn't know what either of them were saying. The man watched as I looked out the window and he made the same comment again. I surmised that he was asking where I was going so I said Pondok Siti Hawa, the name of my guesthouse. From that point, he kept a watch for me and had the driver stop when it was time. I said kasih (thanks) and selamat tinggal (goodbye) as I got off the bemo and was rewarded with smiles all around.

* In southern India I was looking for a cathedral that I'd seen from a distance. I stopped at an intersection, trying to pick which road to take. A woman yelled to catch my attention and, when I turned to look, she was smiling and pointing to the other road. I'd chosen wrongly, but her simple direction got me right to where I wanted to be.

* My host Dina deposited me on to local transport, but I wasn't really sure how to get to the museum, even with her directions. I got of f the bus when it stopped only because everyone else got off. I'm positive I looked more than a little confused. A guy questioned me in Arabic and motioned for me to follow him when I said the museum name. He walked me all the way there, clearly going out of his way because he turned and went back the way we'd come once I was dropped off.

* On a bus in Sumatra a man turned to me and offered a cigarette. (It's the polite thing to do in Indonesia and they're always offered all around.) At his stop, he gave me a nod of his head and a wave of his hand in goodbye and he was off. He never spoke, either in Bahasa or English, but the kindness in his gestures told me all I needed to know.

I'm sure there are many more examples, but these are what came to mind straightaway. A good number of others involve me pointing at a dish at a food stall and the vendor showing me the exact notes I'd need when it was time to pay the bill. :-)

The moral of the story is that not knowing the local language is NOT a reason to stay at home. Particularly if you take the time to learn even a few basics - hello, goodbye, please, thank you - people will be kinder and more helpful than you could ever imagine.

SHARK!

2010-05-26T07:48:00.000-04:00

I came to Padangbai on Monday and barely made it here with my head. There was so much for sale on the ferry - water, chips, cigarettes, t-shirts, cookies, instant noodles, fruit, rice, dvds, knives (!), blankets, matresses, peanuts, drinks, gum, hats, towels, jewelry, honey, and newspapers (yes, I actually made a list just so I'd remember) - and I said 'no' so often that I was sure I was gonna nod my head right off my body! But I made it here and I'm staying at a place called Kembar Inn, just a short walk from anything that I could possibly need.

After my five hour ferry, I decided to treat myself to a beer. I walked into Sunshine Bar and no one was there, but a local by the name of Newman introduced himself, talked to me for awhile, and said that live music would be starting in an hour. Awhile after that, when more people had streamed in, I turned to the table next to me and asked if any of them were divers. They all kind of laughed and I couldn't figure out what was up. So I went on to say that I just arrived, wanted to do some diving, and was looking for a recommendation for a dive shop. As it turns out, they laughed because they all work for dive shops! Happy coincidence for me, huh?

I really liked Gabby and Chris with OK Divers, so I decided to dive with them the next day. It was just me and them which was awesome. There were lots of new things about these dives compared to the ones I've done previously. Full wetsuit with booties instead of a shorty wetsuit without booties, a new type of boat to the dive site, a different way to enter the water, using toothpaste on the goggles to keep them from fogging up instead of plain ol' spit. And, perhaps you've figured it out by now. . .I saw a shark!! A whitetip reef shark, to be exact. How cool is that?! We saw two, actually, but we think that it was the same one. He apparently wasn't particularly large, but everything looks bigger (and closer!) underwater and I didn't care anyway, I was just excited that I got to see it. We also saw a cuttlefish hunting and catching a shrimp, lots of very colorful nudibranches, nudibranch eggs which look like a ribbon of pink tissue, and a huge clam. All in all, they were two awesome dives.

Today, after a breakfast of Bali coffee, a pineapple jaffle, rambutens, and mangosteen, I walked 20 minutes or so to a pretty, secluded beach. There's a much closer beach to my hotel, but I specifically chose this one because it's so quiet. I spent the rest of the day, lying on the beach in a shady spot, and putting a huge dent in the book that I'm reading. Tomorrow I expect I'll do more of the same. :-) I'd been planning on leaving on Friday to go back to Kuta, but I think I just decided tonight that maybe I'll stay here a bit longer. Kuta was rowdy/drunk tourist central and not really my scene. Padangbai is quieter and just lovely.

Sunbathe, dive. Sunbathe, dive.

2010-05-22T06:36:00.000-04:00

I alluded before to the fact that I needed some down time. Partially that's because of the crazy amount of travel I've done recently and partially it's because I know I have a crazy amount of travel ahead of me. When my friend Will joins me in Australia, he's only going to have a limited amount of time before he has to head back to his new USCG base in San Francisco. The plan is to fly into Perth, spend a couple of days there, and then fly to Cairns in northeastern Australia. From there, we'll (somehow) make our way to Sydney from where Will will fly back to the States. Here's the thing. If you've ever flipped through a Lonely Planet guidebook, you may have noticed that they give sample trip itineraries. The OZ LP designates a 6-8 week time frame for the Cairns-Sydney portion alone. Will has about 3 1/2 weeks. So, uh, yeah. It'll be crazy. No worries, though. Once he leaves, I'll probably turn back around to spend more time in places and do them "for real."

Anyway, for now, that down time consists of me doing one of two things: sunbathing or diving. Oh, okay, there's reading and eating and a few other not so strenuous activities thrown in there, too, but that's about it. Gili Trawangan (GT) beaches were perfect for relaxation and now I'm in Senggigi. I'm staying at a place called Pondok Siti Hawa where I have a bungalow that's practically right on the beach. It has a porch where I can read and listen to the waves crash, and an open air bathroom (so cool! well, until I hung my towel up to dry and it got drenched in the downpour we had this afternoon). The best part is that I totally have the beach to myself so it's really peaceful. There's no diving here in Senggigi, but I did get two dives in while I was still on GT. I saw LOTS of sea turtles which was just amazing and I also saw cuttlefish. The neat thing about these guys is that their skin changes colors to camouflage themselves and/or to communicate. Watching it happen right in front of my eyes was awesome.

In a day or two I'll leave Senggigi for Padangbai where I'll be able to do more diving. Then I'll head back to Bali for my last few days in Indonesia. Sunbathe, dive. Sunbathe, dive. :-D

Cinnamon trees and big-ass lizards

2010-05-21T00:33:00.000-04:00

I'm back and that means it's finally time to post about Bukittinggi! It's been a week since I left Bukittinggi; talk about stringing you along mercilessly, huh?

Not too long after my arrival in Bukittinggi I met a local by the name of Lala. He suggested a hotel for me which, honestly, was kinda crap, but he still turned out to be a pretty cool guy. He told me about a hangout cafe that was nice and very much needed after my long overnight bus ride from Lake Toba and then he offered to walk around with me and show me some of the sights. We went to Panorama Vista with very good views of the mountains Singgalang, Sago, and Merapi (a still active volcano). Next we checked out a couple of the markets (one of my very favorite things to do in a new place) and scoped the old clock tower in the center of town. When I finally decided I was so tired I couldn't possibly walk another step, Lala and I went back to the cafe for a coffee and some chatting. (Lala, btw, is a pretty interesting character and I'll have to tell you more about him some time. Someone remind me!) I was trying to figure out my game plan for the rest of my time in Bukittinggi and made arrangements to spend the following day with Lala on the back of a motorbike checking out the surrounding areas of Bukittinggi (it means "tall hill" in case you were wondering).

The next morning Lala had something come up and he couldn't do the tour after all, but he introduced me to Roni (as in the San Francisco treat) and I went with him instead. There were a number of scheduled stops for the day and after the amount of time that's passed, I honestly can't even remember the order of things, but it doesn't matter much. We started out by checking out a couple of villages, making stops along the way to take pictures. For one of these stops, Roni pulled some bark off of a tree and told me I could chew it if I wanted. The last time this happened was in Bukit Lawang when my guide handed me some bark from a quinine tree. It was very bitter and took forever to get that horrible, medicinal taste out of my mouth, so I wasn't in such a hurry to go tasting random tree barks. I smelled it first and immediately recognized it to be cinnamon. I tried it, expecting it to be at least a little bit bitter, but it was quite pleasant actually. Did YOU know cinnamon came from trees? Because it honestly never even occurred to me. Cinnamon wasn't the only plant I got a lesson on, either. Next Roni handed me a tiny, slightly closed up yellow flower bud that almost looked like a smaller-than-pinky-fingernail version of a chrysanthemum and told me to chew it. He hadn't steered me wrong yet so I didn't even hesitate this time and was only slightly surprised when my mouth started to go numb. Apparently this flower is used by locals for toothaches and other mouth injuries. And finally in the area of plants, Roni pointed out a type of fern that is sensitive to touch and actually closes up when you get near it (I'd also seen this in Malaysia and it's so cool), and we chatted with a guy who was harvesting coffee cherries.

Alright, so enough about the plants. We also saw lots of water buffalo (some super close to the road and making funny faces at us), flying fox bats, and monitor lizards. Now, monitor lizards aren't nearly as big as Komodo dragons (which live on the island of Komodo in Indonesia and isn't an island I'll get to before my visa runs out), but they're still pretty big, hence the "big-ass" descriptor in the title. And though we did see two of them, only one truly lived up to that, the other was downright tiny in comparison.

In addition to seeing more of the mountains I mentioned above, we also went to Lake Maninjou and Sianok Canyon. The lake was absolutely stunning and made for an awesome place to stop for coffee. But the road surrounding it, 44 Bends (or so called by Roni anyway), definitely added to it and was a lot of fun on a motorbike. Sianok was no Grand Canyon, but it was cool, too.

And the villages. One was known for their brown sugar making and one for their silver making; we watched both activities for awhile before moving on. At lunch time we stopped at a place where I met the little guy in the picture. He was super shy at first, but he came around. :-) He must've been about four or so and in between spurts of playing he was working in a school book, the kind that preps you for reading and writing. It was with him that I learned (at least) four new Bahasa Indonesian words and had a great time doing it. If I'd stuck around even longer, I'm sure I'd know more.

The tour ended around 7pm, I took a quick shower, and went out for my last dinner in Bukittinggi. It was an earlyish night since I had to catch an 8:30am bus to Padang for a flight.

You're probably not keeping track of the amount of travel involved between Lake Toba and the Gili Islands. Let me recap for you. It started with the 17 hour bus trip from Lake Toba to Bukittinggi. A 17 hour bus trip made much worse by the fact that Indonesian roads are pretty horrible. You'll be tooling along and then all of a sudden have to come to a dead stop because the roads are rutted and rocky and, well, non-existent, actually. Two days later I spent the better part of nine hours on the back of a motorbike. The day after that I went two hours by bus to Padang, flew to Jakarta (two hours), had a one hour layover then flew to Bali (two hours). Two days after THAT, I rode 1 1/2 hours by bus to Padangbai, took a five hour ferry to Senggigi, rode one hour by bus to Bangsal, and (finally) took a 45 minute shuttle boat to Gili Trawangan. Is it any wonder that I wanted to do nothing for a few days (or weeks!) after all of that??

Gilis

2010-05-17T07:09:00.000-04:00

I know I promised a Bukittinggi update, but it's going to have to wait a little while longer. I'm currently on Gili Trawangan, a tiny little island (no motor vehicles, pop. 800) off of Lombok. Internet is ridiculously expensive, so I'm gonna be kinda scarce for the next few days or so. But here's what I can tell you so far. There are volcanoes jutting up from the horizon, the water is crystal blue, and the sands are white, black, and super soft. And tomorrow I go diving!

Short update

2010-05-15T03:17:00.000-04:00

I have LOTS to catch up on and not lots of time to do it, but here's the basic gist. Bukittinggi and the people I met there were great. I'm in Kuta on the island of Bali now (met up with Rowan again) and heading to the Gili Islands tomorrow. I'm in the process of writing a nice long write up on Bukittinggi, but wanted to go ahead and throw something up here to let everyone know where I am and where I'm going.

Stay tuned. . .