Thursday, December 16, 2010

Aussie! Chapter One

Oh Australia! How long I had waited for the day I would grace your fair plains! And I did have to wait a long time- it took me 23 hours to get to Sydney, door-to-door, from the Gili islands. I had a boat ride, a bus ride, a plane ride, a long layover, another (long) plane ride and two train rides. Dang. I was therefore absolutely WIPED when I finally got to my hostel in the Kings Cross area of Sydney on the morning of November 14, and slept until the mid-afternoon!

Once up, I decided I'd better go and see what all the fuss is about so I set out for a long walk to the Royal Botanic gardens (the first of many I would see down under. It used to be forts, now it's gardens) and through to Bennalong point to see the Sydney Opera House and the harbor bridge. Well folks, it is fantastic. It was a beautiful day and the water glittered around the harbor. I had a lovely mosey around, stopped to listen to some live music, then walked to the opposite side to visit the area known as The Rocks. This is where the city of Sydney began when European settlers claimed the land in 1788. Lots of little windy streets and boutique-y shops- lovely place to wander around, after which I walked all the way back the way I came to the hostel aaaand passed out!

The next day was poury rainy so I hid out in an Internet cafe for most of the day. Nothing interesting to report UNTIL...I decided the time had come to start celebrating the best day of the year: MY BIRTHDAY! I managed to corral a guy staying at my hostel to join me for a pre-birthday tipple...just the beginning of what would be a very LONG birthday celebration, given the MASSIVE time difference to the States- 16 hours to the East Coast and 19 to the West!

The next morning I woke up to phone calls and messages from friends and family wishing me a happy Australian birthday. I took myself out for a PROPER brunch after that- I was not doing peanut butter and apples for my 27th! At the restaurant, I opened a few cards and things that my dad had brought to me in Singapore, leading the waiter to inquire about the occasion. I told him, and at the end of my meal I was presented with a little heart-shaped cookie and a candle! I was SO touched by this, especially as it was the only candle I would blow out that day. Whoever you were, waiter in Sydney, THANK YOU.

Once fed and watered, I had a little think: What's the best way for a poor backpacker to spend her birthday on her own? Why, spending money she doesn't have of course! Armed with my credit card, I set off. Though I felt a bit of a traitor to all that comes with backpacking, I decided I couldn't take ONE MORE MINUTE without a pair of high heels. So, yes folks, I bought a pair and...aaaah! It was like putting on a comfy pair of woolly slippers! They were a good buy though, because it meant I was ready for my birthday date...with someone who's already been made famous by this here little blog of mine.

Perhaps you recall a tale from many moons ago in Croatia about a slightly awkward Italian man, an extremely premature proposal of marriage (or something) and a daring rescue by a brave young Australian? Well, you guessed it, I had a birthday date with Fabrizio!

Ha! Only joking! My dinner date was with my Australian savior, Kyle. It was EXCELLENT to see him again and swap travel stories. Afterwards, the icing on the cake was a drink with my friend Kate (a high school pal who now lives in Oz) and her boyfriend Paul. I hadn't seen Kate in, oh, five or six years, so it was a real treat to catch up with her as well.

The next day I packed up and faffed around, getting ready for my overnight bus to Byron Bay. I had another fantastic treat before I set off though- Kate's mom and sister were visiting from our hometown in Connecticut and I got a delicious home cooked meal and we had a lovely time catching up before I hopped on the Greyhound bus. Where I found cockroaches. What is this folks? India?

I arrived in Byron Bay- famous for its laid-back vibe, beautiful beaches and excellent surf- at about 11am the following day. As you may have gathered from past updates, the overnight buses are killer- for me at least- and I was wiped so I hopped straight into my bunk. In the early afternoon I joined a Canadian from my dorm room for a walk to the supermarket. I didn't feel quite satisfied with this being my only activity of the day, however, so I decided to go to a yoga class- Bikram, which I've never tried. It was, um, hot. I know lots of girls like to say that we don't sweat, we glow, but sorry folks, I sweat like it's my J-O-B and let's just say I don't think I'll be doing hot yoga again anytime soon...

Still, I felt accomplished and once back at the hostel had a nice evening chatting with folks and watching Office Space which, horror of horrors, some of the little kids (the 1988ers and so on) had never seen! It was therefore a pleasure to introduce them to this classical classic!

The following morning I was feeling unusually energetic, and though it was (surprise) raining, I decided to go on a 'run' along the beach to take in the lovely views. It didn't turn out to be much of a run in the end, because I stopped every few minutes to take photos, and climbed up to a lookout to watch the surfers. I was much engaged by their skills (ahem, sexy surfer bodies. What? Sorry?), and it was quite some time before I could tear myself away.

I spent the rest of the day Internetting and the like, and in the evening joined hostel friends for some 'goon' drinking (boxed wine- THE thing to do in Australia. Why? I don't know). We then went out for one of my favorite activities- KARAOKE! No doubt that my rendition of Pink's 'U + UR Hand', accompanied by new friend Laura, was one of the best that Byron Bay has ever seen. Fact.

The next morning it was off to Brisbane. It's only about two hours from Byron, so I was settled at my hostel by mid-afternoon. I went for a stroll around the city and along the river that runs through it- it's a fairly small city, manageable but there isn't TONS to see. Later that evening in the hostel I met Sara and Julia, from Holland and Germany respectively, and joined them for a trip to once of Brisbane's nightclubs, Victory. It was a good time with a live band playing Men at Work songs (yep), but it was jam-packed so we decided to head to a highly recommended bar called Down Under. (This amused me, as did restaurants in India with names like 'Taste of India'. You don't say.) It was good fun, and there were surprisingly quite a few Australians in this Australian-themed bar in Australia. Other than that, it was backpacker central, with many a drunken European stumbling about. We stuck it out for the free ladies drink at midnight, and got outta there.

The next morning I went on the walking tour of Brisbane as laid out by Lonely Planet. Awkward thing about this- one tends to keep running into other travelers doing the same thing. I think one Dutch couple thought I was following them and, well, they'd be right! I ended up at the Botanical Gardens where I people-watched for a bit and documented recent happenings in my journal. In the evening after some supper I rolled back to the hostel, where I met Shane and John from Idaho (awesome) who were in town for business. We had a lovely chat about the trials of spending time in Oz (um, there aren't any) and made a plan to have breakfast the following morning before they had to go to meetings and I had to bus up to Hervey Bay for my trip to Fraser Island, where part two of this tale begins...

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Indoblog*

After the wild party that was Singapore, I departed with Dan and Jen bound for Ubud in Bali, that most famous of Indonesian isles. We arrived in the late evening of November 5, and unfortunately I was a bit out of sorts for that night and most of next day, thanks to some serious Singapore-lag after all the revelry and some general freaking out about only having six weeks left of the trip. Dan and Jen were lucky enough to have to deal with my completely insane self, and for this I am both extremely grateful and very apologetic! I imagine they are now thoroughly sick of me gate-crashing their holidays, though I like to think of it as 'chaperoning'.

Anyway, once I was back to normal-ish and had relocated to my own room at the Ubud Sari Health Resort (oh yes dahling!), I joined the ever-fabulous Whites for dinner and we made a plan to do some sightseeing with a driver the next day. Wayan (as those who have read Eat, Pray, Love will know, there are only about four names for both men and women in Indonesia) picked us up in the mid-morning and we set off to see some of Ubud's incredible sights. Although I was a bit of a dummy and didn't write down the names of everything we saw, we visited a few temples and what's considered the most impressive ancient site in Bali, Gunung Kawi. We were having a lovely wander around when, suprise surprise, we got monsooned on! (Seriously folks, if it starts to rain when I'm around, blame me. I appear to have carted rubbish weather around the world with me). We figured it would pass in, oh, maybe ten minutes. Nope. An HOUR later we were still crammed into a sheltered pavilion with a number of local holy people, who had been praying at the shrines just as the rain hit. Wayan must have either thought we'd gotten lost, drowned or been converted to Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever! EVENTUALLY we made it back and the rain had stopped by the time we settled down for lunch overlooking beautiful terraced rice fields. It was breathtaking and romantic, and as we chowed down on classic Indonesian fare (satay and rice and pumpkin soup) I thought to myself, 'I REALLY cannot win! I end up in the most romantic places in the world either with my brother or alone, OR with a super-in-love, gorgeous couple like the Whites!' Sigh. My time will come, eh?

Later that afternoon we made more plans with Wayan for sightseeing the next day, and wrapped the day up with a dinner out followed by some hookah-smoking to cure my withdrawal! The following morning Wayan was there bright and early to pick us up and we set out to see some gorgeous lakes around which we planned to hike, but guess what? It started TIPPING down. (I'm sorry I'm sorry!) So, no hike. Instead we went to see the famous floating lake temple which was lovely, and followed that by another delicious lunch overlooking more stunning rice fields. To burn off our luncheon, we spent the remainder of the afternoon hiking through some MORE rice paddies, which was fabulous. Beautiful terraces of rice plants as far as the eye can see.

In the evening I did a little gift shopping (recipients of these gifts better freakin' love them, given that I've been carting them around for almost two months, AND we all know how rich I am. Just joking- I love buying pressies- really!) and then it was time for the FINAL DINNER with the Whites. I was very, very sad to say goodbye to them- as Dan pointed out we have now partied in FOUR countries! Quite a feat, methinks! Though I imagine they were glad to see the back of me, I want Dan and Jen to know what a FANTASTIC time I had with them and how lucky I feel to have them as friends. You guys rock- I will pop up again in your lives again as soon as I can! (Evil cackle)

The next morning I was up at an un-Godly hour to start my journey to the much-celebrated Gili islands. This little trio of tropical loveliness consists of Gili Meno, Gili Air and Gili Trawangan. The last, Gili T (as it's affectionately known), is the party island and my destination!

At 6:30am a lady called Ayu, through whom I had booked my journey, came to pick me up on her moped. I looked from her to the vehicle to my GIANT backpack in disbelief- how were all three of us (yes, the backpack is BASICALLY a living thing at this point!) going to get down the road to the bus on her little scooter? Ayu, however, is a pro at this- she clambered on, then I clambered on, backpack tightly strapped to me and me clinging to her, and we wobbled our way down the bumpy street to the minbus. Phew!

It was then a two-hour ride to the port, then a VERY bouncy two-hour speedboat ride to Gili T. The boat pulled up to the beach and everyone waded ashore across the beautfiul white sand in the dazzling sunshine, holding backpacks and suitcases above their heads. All the passengers were then bombarded by locals yelling at us about accommodation, and in the confusion I found myself following a local boy (man? He was definitely young) named Yudi down a dirt track to a guest house. It was decent enough, though a tad out of my price range, so I haggled a bit and batted my eyelashes and wore Yudi down, with the approval of his boss.

After a little nap, I ventured out for lunch and to hang out on the beach but GUESS WHAT? It started to POUR with rain out of nowhere! Luckily I entertained myself at the restaurant with three Aussies from Brisbane who gave me lots of tips for my upcoming trip to Oz. In the late afternoon the rain eased off and I did manage a bit of beach time before heading out to meet the Aussies again for the evening, during which much bar-hopping and beer-drinking took place. Standard.

The following day was more beach laying, and in the evening I took myself out to a yoga class. Ah- heaven! The class took place in a beautiful outdoor studio and began just before the sun started to set. Relaxed and happy, I then went to meet the Aussies and some other travelling friends of theirs from Austria and Italy. We went to a massive beach party at the local Irish bar, where I THEN met travelers from San Diego! Having not met any Americans for a while (other than the Whites, but I expected to see them!), it was actually good fun to chat about the homeland. In fact, when one of the Cali guys and I started singing the Fresh Prince theme tune at the top of our lungs, another guy ran over to us and said, 'You guys MUST be American!', and he turned out to be from D.C!

The next day was, guess what, more beach and more yoga. I had plans to meet the Italian and Austrian girls for dinner, but when I couldn't find them, I ended up joining the San Diegans instead after running into them on the street. That's what I love about travelling- no fixed plans, just go with the flow. Gili T very much encourages this too- there are no cars or anything on the island, and no police force, so everyone is just strolling around, high as kites (but not yours truly- am far too good a girl!), up for anything.

After dinner and a few drinks, I turned in early because I wanted to take a yoga class the following morning. I strolled back to my guesthouse and upon entering the bathroom, noticed I had a little friend in there- a scorpion. Now, under normal circumstances I might have freaked out, but a Bintang or two too many meant that actually, I stayed pretty calm. 'Hmmm,' I said to myself, 'I know the little ones are the most dangerous, so what do I do?' After musing on this for a minute or two and watching the little guy (he didn't move), I thought, Aha!, and ran for my family-sized bottle of bug spray. Well, big surprise, that did nothing but agitate him! He took off running around the edges of the bathroom while I did a crazy dance to keep him from under my feet, going at him with the bug spray every couple of seconds.

OK, I thought, new plan- I'll drown him! I managed to fill a bottle of water from the sink while lil Scorps was on the other side of the room and then proceeded to pour the whole thing on him. Nope, that didn't work either, he just ran away. Moving on.

During the water attack, some toilet paper that was on the floor had gotten soaked, which led me to my next idea- 'I'll suffocate him!'. I then proceeded to start throwing wet toilet paper at Scorpi, which drove him NUTS and his little stinger just kept curling up tighter and tighter.

All right, I thought, time to get serious. I closed the door to the bathroom and went outside my room, where I looked around for a rock or something. It was about 1am at this point, but luckily, Yudi happened to be walking by and I told him I needed help. Though I'm pretty sure he was stoned out of his mind, he came into my room with the end of a broom handle and proceeded to mash my venomous little friend to death with it. I was relieved that I would be able to sleep in peace, but as Yudi unceremoniously carried little Scorpi's body outside in an empty toilet role, I actually felt a bit sad for the wee creature (the scorpion, not Yudi!). I mean, with a November birthday I'm a scorpion myself. Had I just set myself up for a horrible 27th birthday and unlucky 28th year? Mehoped not.

Despite the scorpion episode, I did manage to get up for my yoga class the next day and spent my last day on Gili T just lounging in the tropical paradise. In the evening I took myself out for a goodbye drink and met some lovely Irish folk at the bar. I turned in quite early again that evening (carefully checking for poisonous things in my room!) as I had an early start and a LONG journey to Sydney the following day.

All in all, my short time in Indonesia was a real treat. The people are lovely, the food is delicious, the scenery is fantastic and I was lucky to spend part of it with great friends. Selamat tinggal, I'll see you again.

*A word on the title: This post has been on my to-do list for ages as 'Indoblog' and now I can only think of it as such!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

More Travel by the Numbers and Other Thoughts

With just under three weeks left of my journey (yep, sorry folks, that's how fast time has flown!), it seems a good time to update some of my numbers from a few months ago, and maybe add some more. Here we go...

Plane rides: 27
Train rides: 14
Boat/ferry rides: 27
Airlines flown: 16
Books read (not including travel guides!): 26
Mosquito bites (cumulative): It's horrific...
Longest time without a shower: Still 3 days
Family members travelled with: 3
UNESCO sites visited: 49 (I decided I'd look at the list and count all the ones I've ever seen in my life to make myself feel better- now I only have 862 more to see!)
Dollars spent: About $11,000 (Ah yes, I am SO broke folks, so broke...)
Biggest local currency exchange rate to the dollar: $1 = 8600 Indonesian Rupiah
Watches broken: 3
Sunglasses lost/broken: 3
Nationalities encountered most often (unscientific): The Brits dominate, followed by the Germans, Dutch and Swedes in equal numbers, then the Israelis, the French, the Aussies...and a smattering of others. Very few Americans- come on folks!

- A girl CAN live on apples, peanut butter and bread for a week, but I DON'T recommend it!

- Many travelers I meet are Atheists. I find this, well, just interesting, really. I believe that I believe in something, and I suppose I'm surprised that more folks don't think there's something bigger than us, given the incredible natural wonders and whatnot that we've all seen. (Note: I do not intend to start a religious debate here, it's JUST an observation!)

- I hate how money can get in the way of stuff I want to do- eating, going on a cool day trip, buying something awesome I can't get anywhere else. Everything (especially at this point) has to be calculated, and it can take the fun out of stuff. I think society should revert to bartering: "A dirty travel towel and an Old Navy pair of leggings for a hostel bed?" or "A pair of used earplugs and some Ziplocs for that sandwich?" Yeah, I think that would work.

- A load of clean laundry can brighten a traveler's day more than you can imagine!

- In hostels, it's always the GIRLS who snore like overloaded freight trains. Eye masks, ear plugs and sleeping pills are also sacred to the budget traveler!

- I love my travels, but I'm looking forward to going home and seeing everyone (Plus, Christmas carols and decorations in hot, sunny weather is a head trip!)!