Australia's East Coast: Speed Mode

After my last entry, Steph and I continued down the east coast. After leaving Airlie,we took a 16-hour bus ride to Noosa, a posh beach town just north of Brisbane. We only stayed for a night, so all we really had time for was to walk around town and take a stroll along the beach. We also indulged just slightly by staying at the Flashpackers Hostel; it's still at hostel, but is beautifully designed with an inviting lounge area and a giant kitchen. After two nights on a boat with no showers and one night sleeping on a Greyhound, we were very willing to sacrifice the 28 dollar price tag, not to mention throwing in eight bucks for all-you-can-eat pizza night. In town, we once again braved the shops - Steph and I tell ourselves that we shouldn't shop because we're both on strict budgets, but we know we're going to do it anyway, so we instead we make bad jokes about our shopping habits to laugh it off and ease the tension of our bank accounts.
 The next day was Steph's birthday, and unfortunately, it started with an early morning three hour busride to Brisbane. We had originally planned to rush to the koala sanctuary, so that Steph could hug a koala for her b-day, but once we found out that our hostel offered a special tour leaving the next morning, we decided to hold off. Instead, we opted to do what we do best: shopping. Once we checked into our twenty bed dorm (ridiculous...), we took off to the downtown core, rushed into the nearest Starbucks, and then shopped til we dropped... And until all the stores closed, so we really had no choice but to stop. Steph had looked up what was going on in town that night, and discovered a venue with some interesting DJs, so after power naps, we headed for a night out. Even though it wasn't my usual thing, the DJs were admittedly pretty good, but we had definitely entered the hipster zone. After realising the set ended fairly early, we decided to club hop and make up for a lack of nights out. We checked out mainstream ones, and even delved into a salsa night (which ended quickly after Steph ran into herself in one of the bathroom mirrors...very trippy). All in all, despite the lack of koalas, I think - or at least I hope - Steph had a satisfying birthday.
 The following morning it was finally time to check out some koalas. After a stop at a viewpoint to see the entire city of Brisbane, we arrived at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - located in the adorable suburb of Fig Tree Pocket. We didn't really know what to expect other than the koala hugs and photos, but the whole sanctuary was actually quite serene and seemed to host a lovely habitat for all kinds of animals. Steph and I started with the koala show - where I decided to pet one instead of doing the cuddle - and then Steph went for her koala experience. At the end of the day, it really was just posing for a photo. Steph was basically told to stand like a tree while the koala rested on her; not so much a cuddle as a statue. At the very least, we got some cute photos. We then discovered that there was an area where you could feed kangaroos, so we bought some food, and wandered around the field, interacting with dozens of kangaroos. I didn't realise quite how domesticated kangaroos could be, it was almost like going to a petting zoo at home and feeding the goats, except the kangaroos didn't try to eat everything on you. It was without a doubt one of those surreal moments where you think how the hell did I end up hand feeding kangaroos in Australia.
 That night, we kept up with our speed pace and took a bus to Byron Bay where we had planned to stay for a few days. Our first day, we dove right in and went for a surfing lesson; after all, you can't come to Australia and not surf. Needless to say, Steph and I both sucked, and only managed to actually stand a couple times, but it was great fun and we both spent the afternoon in hysterical fits of laughter over how disastrous each attempt was. That night, Steph had arranged to meet up with her cousin who she hadn't seen since she was two years old - even before Steph and I had met! After meeting Juniper and her fiance, Adam, and hitting it off, we ended up having dinner and drinks and chatting for hours. They offered for us to come stay with them, but since we'd already paid for the hostel, we declined. Things changed drastically, however, when we discovered that someone in the hostel had stolen our English muffins (a true travesty), and we immediately contacted Juniper to take them up on their offer.
 Before moving over, we relaxed at the beach for a day - braving the chilly weather - and did a tour to Nimbin. Nimbin is known as the drug capital of Australia. While drugs are extremely illegal in this country, the police have turned a blind eye to Nimbin, and allowed this hippie community to flourish into a marijuana mecca. Soon after we boarded our hippie school bus, the tour guide explained to us that, while all activities of the day were more or less illegal, he didn't give a shit, so we could pretty much do as we pleased. First, we made a rest stop along the way, where he encouraged us to load up on alcoholic beverages for the busride - again, very illegal in this country. Next, we headed straight to Nimbin, where he told us the best places and prices for weed. Steph and I already knew about this, and while Steph doesn't engage with that sort of thing, I decided to follow my 'you only live once' mentality and purchase a weed cookie. It was sort of humorous really, since I've never bought drugs of any kind of my life, and don't know the first thing of how to go about it. Luckily, it's not too hard in Nimbin, as all kind of hippie characters are constantly offering you weed as you walk down the main street. I opted to purchase only one cookie, as I've never been a big stoner, and just wanted to try it out the once. After about an hour, it started to hit me, and I just got extremely tired. To Steph, I think I just looked like I was in a daze. Either way, it was an experience. Our driver then took us to a park where he cooked up a BBQ lunch ( I'm sure you can imagine that a bus full of stoned backpackers are probably all dying for food by this point). After a brief stop at a national park viewpoint, we headed back to Byron, at which point thankfully, my one cookie wore off.
 We moved into Juniper and Adam's place that night. The two started their own granola company, and live just outside of Byron Bay, in a loft space they created in their warehouse. While some may think it doesn't sound ideal, they've created an amazingly trendy space that features a lot of Juniper's ecclectic style and ceramics. They made us an amazing home cooked dinner, and I finally got to buy Steph a birthday cake that we were all able to celebrate together. In the morning, after trying out some seriously good granola, Steph and I utilized our day to do some seriously productive... shopping. We checked out every shop possible in Byron, including the Salvation Army, and went back to enjoy homemade pizzas and wine with Juniper and Adam before catching our overnight bus to Sydney.
 Originally, we had hoped to couchsurf in Sydney - an organization that connects travelers with people that have a spare bed or couch in locations all around the world - but after a failed attempt to find a host, we picked the cheapest hostel we could find. Minus the fact that we had to find our own way there carrying all our luggage and groceries (which has grown monumentally due to the shopping), the hostel wasn't actually that bad, it even featured free wifi, a rare find in this country. Being on an increasingly strict budget, Steph and I had marked down all the free art galleries in the city, and decided to take on those first. We only managed to get to one on our first day, but also saw the botanical gardens and the library (sounds dull, but they were showing some photography, so I couldn't resist). With bad weather, we were running out of indoor activities, but after a quick Google search, I found that there was a Lindt Cafe nearby, and there's nothing better than chocolate on a crappy day. Chocolate waffles, two hot chocolates, and several Lindt chocolates later, we were stuffed, and headed back to the hostel.
 We had planned to visit the Blue Mountains the next day, and agreed it was better to do it ourselves, rather than book a tour. We started our morning with a two-hour train ride through the Blue Mountains to the town of Katoomba. As soon as we arrived, it was clear that we had picked the wrong day. Not only was it pouring with rain, but the fog had rolled in and you couldn't see a thing. Steph and I decided to make the most of a bad situation, and buy the hop-on-hop-off bus tickets anyway. After buying a wool hat, bundling up, and chatting up our bus driver, we managed to do a short walk by some waterfalls, check out chocolate factory, walk down to the edge of the Three Sisters - where because of the fog we could only actually see one sister (three rock points famous in the Blue Mountains), check out umpteen gift shops, and do a short walk through the Leura Cascades and Leura village. After a reasonably full day, we felt we'd given it all we had, and - both soaked - loaded onto the train back to Sydney.
 On our last day in the city, we planned to do some of the more typical tourist activities, but first I had planned for us to meet up with Mel. If you can vaguely recall, Mel is an Aussie I met in Vietnam. I'd spent several days with her there, and was more than happy to see her again while on the road. After a disastrous train ride getting slightly lost along the way, we met her in the suburb of Newtown, a more artsy/hipster neighbourhood. We caught up over coffee and lunch before Steph and I had to head off and squeeze in our day. We headed straight to the harbour where we took cheesy tourist photo after photo of the Sydney Opera House, and then headed to the Contemporary Art Gallery, where funny enough they were featuring a Vancouver artist that I studied in university. We wandered through parks and into King's Cross before deciding to head back down to the harbour to catch the beginning of Vivid - a lights festival in Sydney where they bring in light technicians from around the world to project light shows on all the buildings. We were so thankful that we managed to see it even for a bit; it's not often that you see all kinds of crazy lighting graphics being projected on the Sydney Opera House. We rushed back just on time to catch our Greyhound to Melbourne, whch is where I now find myself.
 Melbourne is our last stop in Australia, and my last destination to explore on my trip (I'm not counting my stopover in Bangkok of course, as I've already been there twice). I briefly went through every place I've been to on this trip in my head the other day, and it was quite a long list. While so much at this point seems like a blur, somehow I've managed to cram so much into five months, while also really getting to experience certain people and places. I go home in one week, and like I've mentioned in previous posts probably, I'm not really sure how I feel about it at this point. I guess it's mostly because I know that my life at home is what it is, and will always be there, but there is so much of the world I want to see and experience, and I truly do enjoy constantly seeing new things and meeting new people in all kinds of unexpected ways. Anyway, I think I only have one blog post left after this, so I'll leave it until then to really sum up the trip. Seven days to go!

How ya going?

 Well, I have finally made it to my final country: Australia. This is my tenth country since I started back in December. It also happens to be my final continent to visit (other than Antarctica, but I can live with that... for now).

Steph and I loaded up at Caravella

 Steph and I started off by meeting up in Cairns. Now, I can't remember if I've said this before, but Steph is my oldest friend. We met in our first year of kindergarten when we were both four years old. We were best friends through most of elementary school, and after I moved to Vancouver, we had a few hiccups - only normal in that long of a friendship. When the opportunity came about though for Steph to join up with me on my journey, she jumped at it with great enthusiasm, and it was booked almost immediately.
 In Cairns, we stayed at a hostel called Caravella, and it was probably one of the better hostels I've had along the way (though nothing will beat the Sunflower in Hoi An, that hostel was truly epic). After our first day of exploring the city, however, the weather decided to turn sour, and I had to brave the rain for the first time in months. Steph and I easily filled the time though by fully exploiting every shopping option in the entire city - which isn't actually that much - but if it was there, we found it. We also visited a couple art galleries, and even picked up some kangaroo fingerpuppets to join us on some of our Aussie photo-ops. While sitting outside a travel agency stealing their wifi, one of the workers managed to lure us in, and before you know it, we'd spent a thousand dollars on our bus passes and tours.

Charlie from Wicked Travel with Koala and Sharkie the kangaroos

 

 Our first tour was a day out on the Great Barrier Reef. I was debating if I should dive or not, but when life gives you lemons...Of course, I dove. Twice. Steph, who wasn't as adjusted to being on a boat in rougher waters, opted for snorkelling, and I joined her between dives. The diving was alright, but I think that after my liveaboard in Komodo with Saskia, there was serious tough competition. Plus, one of the divers in my group lacked experience, and continually bobbed up and down, constantly landing on coral and breaking off pieces of the reef. With people like that allowed to dive, it's no wonder that even divers are contributing to the speedy deterioration of the Great Barrier.
 After a second day of shopping and stealing wifi, Steph and I went on a tour of the Daintree Rainforest, just north of Cairns. On the way, we briefly stopped in Port Douglas, and Mossman Gorge - a beautiful protected rainforest. After crossing a ferry across a crocodile infested river, we drove through the forest up to Cape Tribulation where we stopped at the beach. Steph and I also convinced our driver to make a brief pitstop at a local ice cream shop that used jungle fruits to make their flavours - a stop that the entire bus fully took advantage of. Our last activity was a river cruise looking for crocs and various birds. While the weather wasn't phenomenal, Steph and I still managed to have a great time (and I think Steph was slightly relieved to be doing a tour on solid ground).

On the move in the Whitsundays

 After spending our last day in Cairns taking full advantage of our hostel's pool, we hopped on our first Greyhound and headed for Airlie Beach. Almost twelve hours later, we arrived at a hostel for the night, and got a bit of sleep to prep us for our next leg: the Whitsundays.
 When booking our Whitsundays tour, Steph and I had requested a more laid back boating experience, not a booze cruise, and that's exactly what we got. The sailboat had about 25 passengers including the three crew members.Steph and I were also lucky enough to share a double bed directly under the hatch, so we could watch the stars while lying in bed. This snorkel experience was much more calm and successful for Steph, and although we didn't see any turtles or sharks, we did see some giant napoleon fish and parrotfish, and some beautiful coral. On the second day, we visited Whitehaven Beach, rated the second most beautiful beach in the world. Steph and I walked around the water edge, taking it all in, and even finished with some meditation on the sand. We cruised around visiting more snorkel spots in the afternoon, and working on our tans (which unsurprisingly turned into sunburns...). After one last snorkel at 6:30 am, we returned to Airlie, and are now waiting to board a bus to our next destination: Noosa.
 There is only a little over two weeks left in my trip. It feels like practically nothing. The challenge now is to live in the moment as much as humanly possible and take in every little thing before I have to return to my confusing and chaotic reality back home... Challenge accepted.
P.S. My title is just the common greeting here in Oz.

No hurry, no rush, this is our party

 Well my last entry was two weeks ago, and while I probably should've added something half way through my Indonesia trip, it was way too crazy to even think about taking out my laptop.

Making new friends at Monkey Forest, Ubud

 I spent my last night in Bangkok with Hannah - the German girl that had been traveling with the British guys and I - and Alex - a Brit who had traveled with Hannah a few weeks prior. Hannah had been planning on doing a meditation retreat, but ended up returning to Kho San Road, and instead of praying, she ended up shopping and getting piercings with Alex and I (she actually fainted after getting her bellybutton done... scary, but hilarious). The next morning, I boarded my flight to Bali, and waited not-so-patiently for Saskia's flight to get in. For those of you who don't know, Saskia is one of my closest friends from high school. Originally from South Africa and from a worldly family, it is of no surprise that she's well traveled and always up for a new international adventure. Last summer, before I'd moved to Toronto, we were sitting in Argo Cafe in East Vancouver having lunch, and somehow schemed a plan for her to meet up with me for a couple weeks during my travels. We had traveled together before - first in Galapagos during high school, and then to San Diego as a grad trip - so neither of us were too worried about being compatible travel buddies. We decided on Indonesia and worked out dates that would match up, and before we knew it, we both had flights to Bali and had booked a liveaboard diving trip to top it off. When she finally arrived, I was overwhelmed with relief to see a familiar face, but also slightly saddened to think that I was already so far into my trip. We immediately took a taxi to Ubud - Saskia got her first taste of my bargaining obsession - which is a small town in central Bali. While Ubud is quite touristy (mostly because of the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love), it is filled with traditional Balinese culture and charm, and is a great hub for visiting local temples and rice terraces. Saskia and I didn't really have too much of a plan, but quickly found a driver to take us around to see the sights (we also realised that Balinese people have five common nicknames for Westerners to call them, meaning that almost every local we had encountered was named Nyoman). First, lush green rice terraces, then a view point of a volcano and lake, next to a coffee plantation where we sampled all different coffees and teas (including Luwak coffee, made by feeding the beans to an animal who then poops them out before the beans are grinded for consumption). We followed this up with three temples, renting sarongs at each one to cover our knees, and being asked by Indonesian tourists to pose for pictures as if we were celebrities. One of the more humorous aspects of the day was that each temple has a sign clearly stating that it is strictly forbidden for women who are menstruating to enter the temple. Apparently it brings bad luck upon the entire community. Let's just say, one of us committed very sinful acts all day long. That night, Saskia had already planned for us to attend a local dance performance, showing off Balinese theatrical costumes and makeup to tell stories of the island.
 The next day, we decided to partake in a Balinese cooking class. As I already knew, and was confirmed during my Thai cooking class, I am a mess in the kitchen. Luckily, everyone in the class took turns preparing different items, so there was minimal room for me to screw up. We made satays and curries, vegetable dishes, and fried bananas, and Saskia and I plotted to repeat the recipes for family once we'd both returned back home. We filled the rest of our day by visiting the monkey forest - a park where monkeys roam around freely and willingly climb on you looking for food - and getting cheap, but totally amazing and necessary, massages. Even after eating all day long, we still managed to feast that night, each having giant portions of delicious satay (spelled sate in Bali, the place it actually originated).

It was around this time that Saskia and I decided that instead of our trip being like "Eat, Pray, Love", we were more along the lines of "Eat, Explore, Dive"; to us, this sounded way more fascinating.

Taking in our fate at a market in Bima

 Our next destination for the trip was to Labuan Bajo on Flores Island, where we had booked our diving trip. In an effort to save a few bucks, we'd booked our flight on Merpati, a cheap local airliner that was blacklisted in pretty much every other country. After a strange landing filled with unusual noises and odd pressure changes, we were ushered into a waiting area where Saskia and I assumed we were placed while they unloaded our baggage. Thirty minutes later, Saskia went to look at a map and discovered that we weren't actually in Labuan Bajo, and that we had somehow missed that we'd made an emergency landing in Bima, a town on the island of Sumbawa, just west of Flores.After some research and eavesdropping, we found out that we'd made an emergency landing and that the breaking system was broken. Five hours later they finally decided that we'd have to stay in Bima for the night, and threw us in cabs to a hotel for the night. Saskia and I were obviously panicked about potentially missing our boat, but after a phone call, found out that we would actually still make the boat. We saw this as a blessing in disguise and set out to explore Bima.
 Dressed appropriately in proper t-shirts and long sarongs, we wandered to the Sultan's Palace and through the streets and marketplace. Saskia's guidebook suggested that Bima was an awful town with nothing to see, and where locals were rude and unwelcoming. We found quite the opposite. It immediately became apparent that tourists did not come here, and seeing two young white girls was somewhat shocking. We were basically celebrities that everyone wanted to talk to, and pose for pictures (perfect since Saskia and I took the opportunity to do some street photography). Everyone was curious, yet extremely welcoming and friendly, greeting us as if we had blessed them with our presence. In the end, Saskia and I were the ones who felt blessed - blessed that we'd had this odd turn of events that had resulted in such a genuine experience.

Sunset over Komodo Island

Best dive buddy a girl could ask for

 After a shaky plane ride, we finally touched down in Labuan Bajo and headed for the dive shop. While waiting for the boat, we quicky found a spa and indulged yet again in some fabulous massages, and of course spent hours using wifi ( it has unfortunately become my guilty pleasure on this trip). We then boarded the giant sailboat called the Jaya and set out for Komodo. The crew was filled with interesting characters and backgrounds: a crazy New Yorker couple and their friend, a young Aussie couple, a French father and son accompanied by a friend, a young Dutch guy with Indonesian heritage, and a young New Yorker backpacker, Mike. We also had several divemasters, including Diego who was Saskia and my instructor for our advanced course, and funny enough, happened to have instructed Kim, a girl I'd met in my first few nights in Thailand. The boat was beautiful; Saskia and I had our own room (which quickly turned into a cyclone of clothing), there was a seating area for meals and a lounging area on the deck for sunbathing, and outdoor sleeping, which we fully took advantage of. For three days, we would wake up, have a coffee, dive, eat breakfast, dive again, eat lunch, dive again, then dinner (or dive again, as we did on our second day with a night dive). We also got some breaks for snorkeling, a hike up a small island to watch the sunset, and of course, to visit Komodo National Park to see wild komodo dragons. Saskia and I also received intermittent lessons for our course. While some people on the boat probably immediately notice our high energy level, we were more than happy to show our enthusiasm and goof off a bit for the sake of having a good time. Well apparently, a good attitude pays off because Saskia and I had some of the most successful dives. Every dive got better and better; first we saw a couple sharks, then we lost count of how many sharks and sea turtles, and then we saw seven manta rays on one dive, with one of them swimming right over us. Even our divemaster took out his regulator to mouth "What the fuck". It was truly incredible. We also got our first taste of a deep dive, where we both suffered a bit of narcosis (underwater drunkenness), and got slightly goofy, messing up our underwater numbers game and having an submerged laughing fit through our regulators. We also fell slightly inlove with one of the divemasters, Marcel - a local from Flores who had somehow done over 800 dives in two and a half years - who was so adorable every time he did our briefings, routinely stating "No hurry, no rush, this is our party". When our three days were finished, the group met up for a parting dinner. We had also invited Mike to join us for our trek up Rinjani on Lombok, meaning that he would be traveling with us for a few more days. We decided to stay in Flores for one more day, and Marcel offered to show us around on motorbikes. I, of course, wanted to drive my own, and Saskia rode on the back of Mike's. Well, my two days of prior experience in Vietnam meant nothing on the roads of Flores. It was a constant snaking road through the mountains filled with gravel and potholes. When we got close to the waterfall, we turned onto a dirt road full of bumps and even log bridges. I wasn't doing half bad until I got stuck on some rocks going uphill and rammed myself into a bush...I opted to ride with Marcel the rest of the way. On the way back, however, I was a little shaken up and managed to fall off my bike when going down a tight corner with another bike coming up over some gravel. I was totally fine (except a slightly sore foot), but learned my lesson that motorbikes cannot be mastered in a period of a couple days. Besides that, the waterfall was beautiful and a local cut up some fresh coconuts for us on the way back, letting us take in the local village.



 In our mission to leave Flores more smoothly than we'd come to it, I dropped the ball. I had accidentally booked our flights for the wrong month, and we were stuck buying tickets directly before our flights in an attempt to get to Lombok as early as possible. Twelve hours later, we had found our way to a hotel in Praya, Lombok, and had organized a ride to the base of Rinjani.
 We began our trek extra early, getting picked up at 5 am, and heading up the mountain by a few hours later. The hike was grueling at times, but the occasional sighting of monkeys and the sounds of the jungle kept it interesting. When we arrived at the top nine hours later, we were greeted with a gorgeous late-afternoon view of the giant volcanic crater, the lake, and the small crater that had formed in the middle. After settling into our tents, we watched the sunset behind the surrounding layer of clouds, had an early dinner, and gladly went straight to bed.
 The following morning was a leisurely descent down the mountain, followed by a long car ride to our stop for the night, Sengigi, a small beachtown on the west coast of Lombok. After traveling with Mike for about a week, Saskia and I continued on our own back to Bali.
 We decided to head to Ahmed, a small quiet town on the east coast, close to a shipwreck that we had been hoping to dive. We asked our driver to drop us off in the town centre, so that we could search for accommodation, and the first place he could pull over was right infront of Uyah Lodge, a beautiful beachside ecolodge. We decided to look at a room, and despite the price, we were immediately sold - Saskia by the modern, dreamlike decor of the room, me by the two swimming pools right outside our door. Needless to say, the next two nights were extremely relaxing.

Testing out the muscles on Rinjani

 We immediately found a dive company, and headed to the wreck the next morning. While we knew our standards had been set extremely high by our dives in Komodo, we didn't expect to be quite as disappointed as we were. It was mostly because our divemaster treated the dive more as a tourist photoshoot than a dive, but also because the wreck was crammed with divers. If I was any kind of fish, that is the last place I'd want to be, and it was made pretty clear when our divemaster went right up to a sea turtle and let off a flash straight into its eyes. Saskia and I finished our day with our own photoshoot by the pool, playing around with her underwater camera. After spa visits, tanning by the pool, and lots of food, it was time to part ways. I was off to Australia, and Saskia was staying in Ahmed for a couple days (where Mike was planning on joining her). After a giant hug, I headed off to the airport.

Wreck Diving in Bali

 Right now, I'm seated in the airport in Darwin, Australia. After what I hope will be a somewhat decent sleep on an airport couch, I'm headed to Cairns to meet up with Steph for the last leg of my trip. I have now officially been to ten countries on my trip (Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Australia). For the past few days, the idea of going home has become extremely daunting and stressful. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I found out when I was in Laos that I was accepted into Ryerson for my Master's degree in Professional Communications. In the meantime, I've also been put on the reserve list for entrance into a similar program at the London School of Economics. I have three months when I get home to Vancouver to save up and figure out what the next year is going to look like for me, but because I'm in a bit of a transition and my life has been divided across the country, I feel like there's no solidarity when I get home. Everything will continue to feel like limbo until I get settled in the fall. And what if I go to London? Then I've got a whole new adventure ahead of me with a million unknowns. I'm trying to shed the fear of returning to reality, and hold on to the excitement of seeing family and friends, but I have a feeling it might be hard for me to do that until I'm boarded on that final flight home. Maybe this is just one of those moments in life where I need to calm down and say to myself "No hurry, no rush, this is our party".
*many photos courtesy of Saskia Nowicki!!!