Singapore
Now, the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore can be incredibily cheap. I saw some for like $30 CAD, but I've heard they have literally been as low as $1 with taxes. I voted to see more of Malaysia by taking the bus. On the bus, I met a doctor who highly recommended I check out Borneo, an island shared between Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, containing one of the biggest, thickest, most full-on jungles in the world, and the highest mountain in South East Asia. He said he had a friend from Germany who had made camp on one of the hundreds of uninhabited islands off the coast, and stayed there for 2 years, never once told to leave, or hassled in the least, all at no charge. Sweet.
Now, my Singaporean experience was very focused on one specific thing that was very far out of my control. Food. The guy I was staying with, Jeffrey, who happened to be friends with Chin Chin, was a chef turned investment banker, who was very much a food enthousiast. He was wealthy, and would take his family on 'food tours' in different asian countries every few months for over a week at a time, which often involved taking along a chef from that country. It was a non-stop feast for 3 days, starting with 'half-boiled egg's....basically egg yoke with seasoning that he made me drink in Rocky-esque fashion to prep my stomach for the days to come. He even brought me over to Malaysia just to show me the top restaurants of the country; an elite list that he'd compiled after more than 30 years of careful 'research'. One of these places even let me prepare some of the food. Before I'd even finish half of one thing, he'd drop another plate in front of me, or drag me off to another restaurant to try half of something else.
I was a little worried before arriving at his place on that first night, because judging by his couchsurfing profile, he seemed like a bit of a clean freak. He was very clear that he expected me to change my full outfit at least twice a day, and shower the same number of times, at least, and wash everything I had before arriving. A tad excessive, I thought, but it turned out to be with just cause, due to the slew of stinky travelers they'd hosted in the past who had stunk up a number of different mattresses. Escaping the smelliness in the constant heat did indeed require quite the effort, but the cold showers were more than welcome. He and his family turned out to be amazingly friendly and generous people. I left there with not only fond memories, but souvenirs, bags of snacks, and a pack of delicious instant malaysian coffee (they've mastered their instant coffee over there). He also chauffeured me around Singapore, taking me hiking and sightseeing, and sending me to some other really cool spots.
Singapore can be described as a chain of rooms with air conditioning, between which you dash only when absolutely necessary. It's very close to the equator....it is HOT!
On my last night, in the wee-est hours of the morning, after a late night nap, Jeffrey took me out to coffee shops for a tour of the night life. And believe me, there was nightlife. The city was booming. And the lights were all set up for the annual Formula 1 nighttime race all around town, which is featured in many video games.
Trip home
At around 3am, Jeff brought me to the airport. I was in terminal 3, which is the newest and most modern of the terminals at the Singapore airport, which is the most modern airport in the world. Not a bad place to wait around for a few hours until my 6am flight. However, after a few minutes of laying down, I started feeling something brewing inside me. Started as mild abdominal pain, and ended in gut wretching indigestion, feverish sweats, dizziness, and severe diarheaa. At this point, I really couldn't tell if I had H1N1 or food poisoning, and wasn't sure if I should be getting on this flight. I decided to suck it up and hope for the best. Luckily, the guy I was seated next too was from Hamilton and we had lots to talk about, so it kept my mind off of it, and he didn't seem to notice my trips to washroom in 10 minute intervals. We landed in Hong Kong, I managed to get some dry food and water in me, and I started to feel peachy again.
After a few delays, as we were sitting in the plane awaiting the taxi, we received an announcement to remove ourselves from the plane right away, because the crew coulnd't locate the emergency axe, and one of the passengers may have yoinked it. They searched all of our bags very very thoroughly (again), and 3 hours later, we were back on the plane ready to take off. 15 hours later, in and out of sleep, random movies playing on the big screen at the front, an hour wait at US customs in Chicago, another hour wait to have my baggage rechecked, and I missed my connecting flight by several hours (duh). For the first time that I can remember, the woman at the desk was actually nice, and helpful! Rather than have me wait for the midnight flight, she offered to put me on a less packed flight at 9am, and set me up with a nice hotel room and a free meal. Best sleep I've ever had. Other than almost missing my flight in the morning (waiting in the mammoth line with what I thought was a flight ticket, but was actually a receipt I needed to exchange for a ticket, but they let me in anyway) the last leg home was splendid. I had a seat in the middle of the emergency row with an empty seat next to me. Leg room! It's not a myth! Another beautiful nap, and I landed in TO, tracked down my bags that I was convinced were still somewhere in Asia because everyone else was long gone, and was greeted by my sister and her boyfriend. We headed straight to my friend Chris's cottage, where Ash and Andrew were chilling for the weekend. Perfect end. A weekend of music, wakeboarding, camping food and beer, and I was Canadian again.
What I Learnt
Everywhere is different, but everywhere is the same.
I am the same person no matter where I am.
Everywhere is beautiful.
Thanks for reading. Stayed tuned for the next trip :)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Malaysia Part 2
Pilau Pinang
I set up a host in Penang, and jumped on a bus, where I met a few chinese dudes from Beijing who I'd see again later on. My host, a middle aged Chinese guy, swung by the bus station on his motorcycle and gave me a lift to his place (with my giant pack and guitar). He was responsible for the organization of most Chinese cultural events that took place in Penang, like operas, dragon dances, kung fu, drum shows, the list goes on. And I happened to have rolled into town on the 1 year anniversary of Penang being declared a UN World Heritage Site, so there was no shortage of interesting things to see, with front row or backstage access no less. Wasn't so lucky with my living arrangements though. Contrary to the spare room I was told I'd have to myself, which was being taken by a fellow couchsurfing couple (he had double booked), I was sleeping on a stained mattress in a storage room. Did I mention he lived in the Fight Club house. Pretty close. It was POURING rain outside, and the roof wasn't so watertight, so I was basically sleeping on a dry 3 x 5 patch on a filthy mattress, waterfalls dumping down around me, in a room filled with shelves of pails, buckets, and mops, all with an inch and a half of dust on them. Just before the first night, my host tells me "oh....if you hear any sounds, don't worry, it's just the rats chasing the cockroaches". I woke up with small red bites all over my body, and surely enough one of the other CSers woke up to find rather large bites taken out of his recently purchased pears, and his baseball cap. Needless to say, I didn't care to stick around this place for very long. Turned out, my host was jam packing his place with travelers because he was writing a book on them. Hosting allowed him to interview them and compile the feedback.
I had one other night at his place before we were saved by his friend Chin Chin. She offered to take the couple and I to her house for a few days. It was like night and day. She lived near the beach resorts on perfect crystal blue water, by lush green mountains, surrounded by palm trees, in a beautiful, pristine house, nay, palace. Well....house. There was no turning down her continuous offers to buy us meals and drinks, give us malaysian cooking classes, present us with feasts of fresh fruit, chauffeur us around the island, give us a tour of her friend's vegetable/fruit garden, a textile factory, and so many other interesting places. I think she showed us every restaurant worth eating at in Penang.
On my last day with her, I thought I'd check out a 'Fish Spa', which is a place where you put your feet in a pool of water and let the hundreds of fish nibble at the dead skin. Its a mix of being ticklish, and painful, but you feel like a million bucks coming out of there. Then I caught a ride to a national park, and hiked for a few hours, until I reached the remote 'Monkey Beach', which contrary to its name had no monkeys at all, only dozens of sea-doos and vacationing Arabs. Malaysia, being a partially muslim country with halal restaurants and countless mosques, is an ideal beach vacation getaway for muslims. I went for a dip, chatted with some locals, and paid a boater for a lift and bike ride back home. The next day, I said a sad farewell to Chin Chin, and the american/polish couple, and headed off to the Cameron Highlands.
Cameron Highlands
The chinese dude I had met on the bus had sent me a message that he lost his buddy and wondered if I'd be interested in some hiking with him. So, we met up again in Cameron Highlands, land of the mountains with a perfect climate for tea plantations. I only had one full day to spend there, so we made haste. Joined by a british dude, we did some jungle hiking, hitchhiked in the back of a 60s truck that reeked of goats or something, and explored a tea plantation with flowers of every color. The walk back from the tea plantation was about 2 hours long through the green hillside. By the time we got back and took off our boots...it was like "aaaahhhhhhh". Yup, one of those.
That night I was looking at a map on the wall and a western girl pointed out some other good hikes for me. She looked strangely familiar, so I told her so. The 'where are you from, who do you know' game ensued, and she turned out to be the T.A. from my first field course in geography! No joke. In a small town in the mountains of central Malaysia, I ran into my T.A. from a first year field course. We all stayed up chatting and reminiscing, had a run in with a Syrian guy who was angry at the world, particularly at us 'Americans', then we called it a night after some street pad thai. The buses were sold out, but I caught a ticket on the 'locals' bus. A rickety old thing with springs sticking out of the seats pulled up at 8 am, and I laughed out loud. It turned out the be the nicer bus behind it that I'd be riding. Phewf. It was the milk run, which was fine by me because I got to soak in some more scenery. A quick transfer back in KL, and I was bound for Singapore.
I set up a host in Penang, and jumped on a bus, where I met a few chinese dudes from Beijing who I'd see again later on. My host, a middle aged Chinese guy, swung by the bus station on his motorcycle and gave me a lift to his place (with my giant pack and guitar). He was responsible for the organization of most Chinese cultural events that took place in Penang, like operas, dragon dances, kung fu, drum shows, the list goes on. And I happened to have rolled into town on the 1 year anniversary of Penang being declared a UN World Heritage Site, so there was no shortage of interesting things to see, with front row or backstage access no less. Wasn't so lucky with my living arrangements though. Contrary to the spare room I was told I'd have to myself, which was being taken by a fellow couchsurfing couple (he had double booked), I was sleeping on a stained mattress in a storage room. Did I mention he lived in the Fight Club house. Pretty close. It was POURING rain outside, and the roof wasn't so watertight, so I was basically sleeping on a dry 3 x 5 patch on a filthy mattress, waterfalls dumping down around me, in a room filled with shelves of pails, buckets, and mops, all with an inch and a half of dust on them. Just before the first night, my host tells me "oh....if you hear any sounds, don't worry, it's just the rats chasing the cockroaches". I woke up with small red bites all over my body, and surely enough one of the other CSers woke up to find rather large bites taken out of his recently purchased pears, and his baseball cap. Needless to say, I didn't care to stick around this place for very long. Turned out, my host was jam packing his place with travelers because he was writing a book on them. Hosting allowed him to interview them and compile the feedback.
I had one other night at his place before we were saved by his friend Chin Chin. She offered to take the couple and I to her house for a few days. It was like night and day. She lived near the beach resorts on perfect crystal blue water, by lush green mountains, surrounded by palm trees, in a beautiful, pristine house, nay, palace. Well....house. There was no turning down her continuous offers to buy us meals and drinks, give us malaysian cooking classes, present us with feasts of fresh fruit, chauffeur us around the island, give us a tour of her friend's vegetable/fruit garden, a textile factory, and so many other interesting places. I think she showed us every restaurant worth eating at in Penang.
On my last day with her, I thought I'd check out a 'Fish Spa', which is a place where you put your feet in a pool of water and let the hundreds of fish nibble at the dead skin. Its a mix of being ticklish, and painful, but you feel like a million bucks coming out of there. Then I caught a ride to a national park, and hiked for a few hours, until I reached the remote 'Monkey Beach', which contrary to its name had no monkeys at all, only dozens of sea-doos and vacationing Arabs. Malaysia, being a partially muslim country with halal restaurants and countless mosques, is an ideal beach vacation getaway for muslims. I went for a dip, chatted with some locals, and paid a boater for a lift and bike ride back home. The next day, I said a sad farewell to Chin Chin, and the american/polish couple, and headed off to the Cameron Highlands.
Cameron Highlands
The chinese dude I had met on the bus had sent me a message that he lost his buddy and wondered if I'd be interested in some hiking with him. So, we met up again in Cameron Highlands, land of the mountains with a perfect climate for tea plantations. I only had one full day to spend there, so we made haste. Joined by a british dude, we did some jungle hiking, hitchhiked in the back of a 60s truck that reeked of goats or something, and explored a tea plantation with flowers of every color. The walk back from the tea plantation was about 2 hours long through the green hillside. By the time we got back and took off our boots...it was like "aaaahhhhhhh". Yup, one of those.
That night I was looking at a map on the wall and a western girl pointed out some other good hikes for me. She looked strangely familiar, so I told her so. The 'where are you from, who do you know' game ensued, and she turned out to be the T.A. from my first field course in geography! No joke. In a small town in the mountains of central Malaysia, I ran into my T.A. from a first year field course. We all stayed up chatting and reminiscing, had a run in with a Syrian guy who was angry at the world, particularly at us 'Americans', then we called it a night after some street pad thai. The buses were sold out, but I caught a ticket on the 'locals' bus. A rickety old thing with springs sticking out of the seats pulled up at 8 am, and I laughed out loud. It turned out the be the nicer bus behind it that I'd be riding. Phewf. It was the milk run, which was fine by me because I got to soak in some more scenery. A quick transfer back in KL, and I was bound for Singapore.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Malaysia Part 1
I had been pretty comfy renting a room in Perth for 2 months, so flying into Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was both refreshing and terrifying. As soon as I stepped off the plane, the equatorial heat slapped me in the face and my clothes instantly took on that dampness that didn't go away until I got back on the plane to leave. For me, Malaysia was all about the couchsurfing. Right around the time of my arrival, I had decided I'd be heading home in 3 weeks, so it was time to fully experience couchsurfing for the rest of the trip. Best decision I've ever made.
It didn't take long to realize Malaysia is a very culturally rich place. The East India Trading Company brought many workers to Malaysia, and they never left. So you find a mix of the native Malay people, who speak Malay and are Muslim in majority, then the Chinese, who speak Mandarin and are primarily Buddhist, and the Indians, who speak Tamil and are mostly Hindu. Most people speak English as well, which makes it a pretty easy place for westerners to navigate. The social and political situation there is very stratified and extremely interesting...one could do a thesis on this I'd imagine. The best part of all this: the food! I can't say enough about it. Three amazing cuisines converging into a land of fusion restaurants, all with so many delicious options. I'm a fan of dips with bread, and there's no shortage of that. I was there during fresh fruit season as well...some of these fruits look like medieval battle axes...some of them smell like garbage in the sun.
Kuala Lumpur
My first host was Agnes. I stayed with her in Kuala Lumpur for 4 or 5 days that were filled with amazing restaurants and spectacular sights. It was definitely action packed, never a moment to rest, which was exactly what I needed. Through her, I met most of the avid KL couchsurfers, mostly in one shot at a picnic in the park behind the Twin Towers, and some at random dinners throughout my stay. I went to visit a hindu temple in a giant cave up a thousand steps in the side of a mountain, with mango eating monkeys all around me trying to pick my pockets. Agnes also brought me to Melaka, the cultural center of Malaysia, to her friends traditional chinese wedding, and I got to participate in all the activities. One of these activities basically involved keeping the groom locked outside until he and his posse coughed up enough money that we'd agree to let them in to see the bride (this is age old tradition apparently...and they made me keep the money too). A six course chinese dinner followed, in a huge hall, no other foreigners to be found. Melaka is so beautiful, especially at night because it has a small village feel, with no structures more than two stories high, places of worship of 4 or 5 types all within a few blocks of each other, and everything lit up. We had a midnight dinner at a world famous hot pot restaurant.
Back in KL, I managed to score the last ticket to go up the Petronas Towers and walk the 'Skybridge' in between (they only give out a limited # each day). Agnes was really good at keeping me in the dark on the plans, so I'd never know what was coming next, even sometimes minutes before. I'd just go to bed when I was told, get up when I was told, and know that I'd be seeing really cool things that day. Pretty exciting. Side note, I was invited to volunteer with another CSer at a soccer game, and had to decline, but later found out the game was the national team versus the visiting Manchester United, and I would have been a bodyguard for a Manchester player. The wedding was cooler though.
If ever your couchsurfing in Malaysia, ask me about the host who runs an elephant sanctuary where you can volunteer to work with the animals. He also trains people in jungle survival, which you can tag alone for as well. It's definitely on my list for the next time.
I stayed for a few nights with Zul, a really interesting guy who lives at the other end of the city. There was an amazing view of the Towers from his balcony. He's the one who took a lot of the guitar playing photos I have on my facebook music page. We had a good chat until the wee hours of the morning. While waiting for him outside his apartment, I also met a cool Tamil guy who became my impromptu guide for the night and took me to his uncles restaurant where we ate and drank and chatted.
To be continued...
It didn't take long to realize Malaysia is a very culturally rich place. The East India Trading Company brought many workers to Malaysia, and they never left. So you find a mix of the native Malay people, who speak Malay and are Muslim in majority, then the Chinese, who speak Mandarin and are primarily Buddhist, and the Indians, who speak Tamil and are mostly Hindu. Most people speak English as well, which makes it a pretty easy place for westerners to navigate. The social and political situation there is very stratified and extremely interesting...one could do a thesis on this I'd imagine. The best part of all this: the food! I can't say enough about it. Three amazing cuisines converging into a land of fusion restaurants, all with so many delicious options. I'm a fan of dips with bread, and there's no shortage of that. I was there during fresh fruit season as well...some of these fruits look like medieval battle axes...some of them smell like garbage in the sun.
Kuala Lumpur
My first host was Agnes. I stayed with her in Kuala Lumpur for 4 or 5 days that were filled with amazing restaurants and spectacular sights. It was definitely action packed, never a moment to rest, which was exactly what I needed. Through her, I met most of the avid KL couchsurfers, mostly in one shot at a picnic in the park behind the Twin Towers, and some at random dinners throughout my stay. I went to visit a hindu temple in a giant cave up a thousand steps in the side of a mountain, with mango eating monkeys all around me trying to pick my pockets. Agnes also brought me to Melaka, the cultural center of Malaysia, to her friends traditional chinese wedding, and I got to participate in all the activities. One of these activities basically involved keeping the groom locked outside until he and his posse coughed up enough money that we'd agree to let them in to see the bride (this is age old tradition apparently...and they made me keep the money too). A six course chinese dinner followed, in a huge hall, no other foreigners to be found. Melaka is so beautiful, especially at night because it has a small village feel, with no structures more than two stories high, places of worship of 4 or 5 types all within a few blocks of each other, and everything lit up. We had a midnight dinner at a world famous hot pot restaurant.
Back in KL, I managed to score the last ticket to go up the Petronas Towers and walk the 'Skybridge' in between (they only give out a limited # each day). Agnes was really good at keeping me in the dark on the plans, so I'd never know what was coming next, even sometimes minutes before. I'd just go to bed when I was told, get up when I was told, and know that I'd be seeing really cool things that day. Pretty exciting. Side note, I was invited to volunteer with another CSer at a soccer game, and had to decline, but later found out the game was the national team versus the visiting Manchester United, and I would have been a bodyguard for a Manchester player. The wedding was cooler though.
If ever your couchsurfing in Malaysia, ask me about the host who runs an elephant sanctuary where you can volunteer to work with the animals. He also trains people in jungle survival, which you can tag alone for as well. It's definitely on my list for the next time.
I stayed for a few nights with Zul, a really interesting guy who lives at the other end of the city. There was an amazing view of the Towers from his balcony. He's the one who took a lot of the guitar playing photos I have on my facebook music page. We had a good chat until the wee hours of the morning. While waiting for him outside his apartment, I also met a cool Tamil guy who became my impromptu guide for the night and took me to his uncles restaurant where we ate and drank and chatted.
To be continued...
Monday, January 4, 2010
Australia Part 2
Once the end of Ashley's teacher's college program came around, we got rid of her old Corolla, with which I had just learnt how to drive standard (on the left side of the road), and we rented ourselves the cheapest campervan we could find, although still not really that cheap with all the insurance we needed to cross the Outback. A little tip that I wish I would have known before hand ---> www.standbycars.com.au has a 'relocation' program that rents out vehicles to be brought back to a specific destination within a specific timeframe for sometimes as cheap as $1 a day, to save them the trouble of doing it themselves. Anyway, over the next 30 days, we made our way from Brisbane down to Sydney, to Melbourne, along the great ocean road to Adelaide, then through the 3-4 day stretch of the Nullarbor Plain (the southern portion of the outback) to the south-west of Australia, and around to Perth. We spent several days in all the major cities, and spent nights in many places in between, sometimes in a hostel, sometimes in caravan park, sometimes in abandoned parking lots or backstreets.
We saw so many amazing things, but there were definitely highlights for me. The Great Ocean Road/The Great Australian Bright are both drives along intimidatingly sheer cliffs dropping into the Southern Ocean, with no shortage of natural sculptures standing alone in the water, the remnants of ancient shorelines. Breathtaking. Also, the drive through the Nullarbor was amazing, particularly one night spent parked with the van in the middle of the vast nothingness, campfire fuelled by loose brush, and the risk of dingos always present. The number of stars we could see that night were unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. There were even fainter stars within the usual gaps between the stars, and fainter yet in the gaps between them. There was almost more white than black in the sky. The only audible thing were the road trains (long transport trucks passing on the highway we left behind about 400m ago. You could hear the slightest sound coming from kms and kms away. Otherwise, it was the kind of silence that leaves a ringing in your ears.
A lovely surprise was Esperance, a small beach town we had no particular aim to visit, but rather just stumbled upon looking for a place to sleep. A national park near this town called Cape Le Grand held probably the most beautiful beach I've been fortunate enough to set foot on --> Lucky Bay. Crystal clear blue waters, plunging into the Emerald green several meters out from the white sand laden beaches, with grains so fine they are bordering on silt.
Lastly, back in the first days of the trip, a great event came in the form of a secret parking spot for caravans in Sydney. After a night parked in a sketchy neighborhood, we were advised by the cops to get out of there for our own safety (should have known from the shaddy characters we could hear throughout the night) and to check out some areas further east. Not 20 minutes later, we found ourselves driving along a park at least a km in length, along the shore of a bay, with multi-million dollar homes on the other side of us, and no parking signs in sight. You learn pretty quickly that no signs = good to go. Not the best part yet...there were only a couple of other vans parked there, half a km from us...we could set up our chairs and cooking gear...and...the other side of the bay, which was filled with yachts and sailboats, was the Harbour Bridge, the famous Opera House, and downtown Sydney. The daytime view was spectacular, the evening view was indescribable. We thought it must be too good to be true, until a police cruiser pulled up beside us, we tensed up, and he gave us a smile before he headed over to sit by the water and admire the view. A home owner later came out and told us how lucky we were to find this spot. It was worth holding on to for 2 or 3 nights.
My trip with Ash finished in Perth in early June, when we said our tearful goodbyes as she boarded a plane home, and for the first time on this trip, I was traveling alone. What to do now. Not a day into it, I decided to drop a line to my friend Drew, who I had met in Russia on the train a year prior with Kyle and Justin. He was back home and wanted to meet for beer and to watch the footie game on tv. A few beers later, he invited me to stay with him at his house. It was the perfect set up. I checked out early from my stinky, overcrowded hostel and ended up spending 5 or 6 weeks at his place, waiting out the rain and preparing for the next part of my trip. I managed to do a lot of fun stuff throughout that time, like tour a submarine, tour some underground tunnels by boat beneath a jail, volunteer on a sail boat, and catch a ride up to Broome in the north of australia with a car full of travellers.
That trip to Broome was pretty interesting, because the car was on it's last legs, and we ended up breaking down in some interesting places. Once of which was in front of a senior's caravan campground, on party night. So, we ate and drank with the seniors in the mess hall. Side note, the morning, the world found out Michael Jackson had died. Anyway, we fixed the car, and it broke down again, this time for good, directly in front of the campground in Broome. It was pretty perfect. Did some cool stuff while I was there, like go to an outdoor movie theatre that was actually featured in the movie 'Australia', held a crocodile, and rode on a camel that was also featured in the movie. Also met with a couple of friends of friends for drinks. This is the point where I realized I'd never have a better opportunity to go skydiving. So, I bought my ticket, and spend 3 agonizing days thinking of nothing else but falling from a plane. The night before, when I was at my maximum stokedness, I got a call saying the plane had been broken all week and they were trying to fix it, so it was a no go. Blast! I got a full refund, but the exchange rate had fluctuated and I lost $40. Double blast!!
Another highlight of Australia was couchsurfing with Ash at Alex and Karen's house. They were this cool couple in Adelaide who showed us the ropes. We played lots of poker, they taught us how to make sushi, and they humbled us in terms of partying, staying up all night and all day pounding the drinks hard, then going to band practice completely wrecked, while we slept like babies hehe.
There are also a few other cool things I should mention, because, well, they are cool. One, the Australian money. It is super colorful, indestructible, and waterproof incase you forget it in your swimming trunks. Two, Coober Petty is this awesome place up in the outback that we didn't get to see, but heard lots about, where the residents live in homes underground to beat the heat. And three, picking up hitchhikers with a campervan is fun, because you never know what kind of crazy stories or good advice they'll have for you, and if you run into them again a day or two down the highway, it's like running into an old friend.
Go to Australia, it kicks kangaroo butt.
We saw so many amazing things, but there were definitely highlights for me. The Great Ocean Road/The Great Australian Bright are both drives along intimidatingly sheer cliffs dropping into the Southern Ocean, with no shortage of natural sculptures standing alone in the water, the remnants of ancient shorelines. Breathtaking. Also, the drive through the Nullarbor was amazing, particularly one night spent parked with the van in the middle of the vast nothingness, campfire fuelled by loose brush, and the risk of dingos always present. The number of stars we could see that night were unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. There were even fainter stars within the usual gaps between the stars, and fainter yet in the gaps between them. There was almost more white than black in the sky. The only audible thing were the road trains (long transport trucks passing on the highway we left behind about 400m ago. You could hear the slightest sound coming from kms and kms away. Otherwise, it was the kind of silence that leaves a ringing in your ears.
A lovely surprise was Esperance, a small beach town we had no particular aim to visit, but rather just stumbled upon looking for a place to sleep. A national park near this town called Cape Le Grand held probably the most beautiful beach I've been fortunate enough to set foot on --> Lucky Bay. Crystal clear blue waters, plunging into the Emerald green several meters out from the white sand laden beaches, with grains so fine they are bordering on silt.
Lastly, back in the first days of the trip, a great event came in the form of a secret parking spot for caravans in Sydney. After a night parked in a sketchy neighborhood, we were advised by the cops to get out of there for our own safety (should have known from the shaddy characters we could hear throughout the night) and to check out some areas further east. Not 20 minutes later, we found ourselves driving along a park at least a km in length, along the shore of a bay, with multi-million dollar homes on the other side of us, and no parking signs in sight. You learn pretty quickly that no signs = good to go. Not the best part yet...there were only a couple of other vans parked there, half a km from us...we could set up our chairs and cooking gear...and...the other side of the bay, which was filled with yachts and sailboats, was the Harbour Bridge, the famous Opera House, and downtown Sydney. The daytime view was spectacular, the evening view was indescribable. We thought it must be too good to be true, until a police cruiser pulled up beside us, we tensed up, and he gave us a smile before he headed over to sit by the water and admire the view. A home owner later came out and told us how lucky we were to find this spot. It was worth holding on to for 2 or 3 nights.
My trip with Ash finished in Perth in early June, when we said our tearful goodbyes as she boarded a plane home, and for the first time on this trip, I was traveling alone. What to do now. Not a day into it, I decided to drop a line to my friend Drew, who I had met in Russia on the train a year prior with Kyle and Justin. He was back home and wanted to meet for beer and to watch the footie game on tv. A few beers later, he invited me to stay with him at his house. It was the perfect set up. I checked out early from my stinky, overcrowded hostel and ended up spending 5 or 6 weeks at his place, waiting out the rain and preparing for the next part of my trip. I managed to do a lot of fun stuff throughout that time, like tour a submarine, tour some underground tunnels by boat beneath a jail, volunteer on a sail boat, and catch a ride up to Broome in the north of australia with a car full of travellers.
That trip to Broome was pretty interesting, because the car was on it's last legs, and we ended up breaking down in some interesting places. Once of which was in front of a senior's caravan campground, on party night. So, we ate and drank with the seniors in the mess hall. Side note, the morning, the world found out Michael Jackson had died. Anyway, we fixed the car, and it broke down again, this time for good, directly in front of the campground in Broome. It was pretty perfect. Did some cool stuff while I was there, like go to an outdoor movie theatre that was actually featured in the movie 'Australia', held a crocodile, and rode on a camel that was also featured in the movie. Also met with a couple of friends of friends for drinks. This is the point where I realized I'd never have a better opportunity to go skydiving. So, I bought my ticket, and spend 3 agonizing days thinking of nothing else but falling from a plane. The night before, when I was at my maximum stokedness, I got a call saying the plane had been broken all week and they were trying to fix it, so it was a no go. Blast! I got a full refund, but the exchange rate had fluctuated and I lost $40. Double blast!!
Another highlight of Australia was couchsurfing with Ash at Alex and Karen's house. They were this cool couple in Adelaide who showed us the ropes. We played lots of poker, they taught us how to make sushi, and they humbled us in terms of partying, staying up all night and all day pounding the drinks hard, then going to band practice completely wrecked, while we slept like babies hehe.
There are also a few other cool things I should mention, because, well, they are cool. One, the Australian money. It is super colorful, indestructible, and waterproof incase you forget it in your swimming trunks. Two, Coober Petty is this awesome place up in the outback that we didn't get to see, but heard lots about, where the residents live in homes underground to beat the heat. And three, picking up hitchhikers with a campervan is fun, because you never know what kind of crazy stories or good advice they'll have for you, and if you run into them again a day or two down the highway, it's like running into an old friend.
Go to Australia, it kicks kangaroo butt.
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