Aussie Rules

Tours, Tours, Tours

2006-12-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Well we decided to squeeze it as much of Thailand as we could in our last week or two here. As you know, the boys are on a dive trip and Heather and I are alone in Phuket. We didn't want to miss out on some of the beautiful Islands around here so we booked a trip to the Similanisl Islands. A bus picked us up at 6:15 in the morning and we were off on a two hour bus ride to part of the main land to catch our boat. Heather and I were a bit tired since we decided to book this trip at 11 last night, so we slept some of the bus ride. Once getting to the pier we found our group and headed off on our speed boat.
The boat was a bit small for how many people they fit on it, but it was a quick ride. With in 80 minutes we were at some of the most clear, calm water I had ever seen. We were both so excited to finally get to snorkel again. I was the first one to jump in....and the first one to FREAK OUT! I waited until Heather got in and calmly asked her to take a nice good look in the water to see if she happens to notice any jelly fish. Once she did so and came up with the same stroke of fear across her face that I had moments ago, we both began to squirm around and not know what to do. We tried to stay calm since no one else appeared to have noticed them. After swimming around only trying to avoid them and not watching any sea life we decided to calmly swim back to the boat. By this I mean we couldn't get up the ladder quick enough. Heather did not take off her flippers and went first so I had a few more fearful moments in the water.
We watched the group in the water and no one was upset. How could this be!? We waited until our instructor came in and asked him. He told us that they are fairly harmless. They only feel like pin pricks. Deep down I think we knew this, but a few "pin pricks" was enough to keep us out of the water at that sight. Next we went to a beautiful beach with the whitest sand and bluest water. The wound on my knee was feeling a bit sore from the salt water so we laid on the beach a bit. We went to another snorkel place with big fish and no Jelly fish. Much better! Our last stop we went to an island with a rock climbing opportunity. I got about 2 minutes in and realized that I would not make it. My fear of heights kicked in. Heather was a trooper and made it up with the camera. I sat at the bottom and watched everyone hit the sand and cheer for making it down. Not my thing. lol
Just as we thought the day could not get any better we saw the most perfect thing. I pod of dolphins decided to fallow our boat. There was about 15 of them and them loved us. They swam along side and even did a few tricks. They liked to show off. I got some of it on video. It was amazing. We had to leave them behind to get back, but it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The man said that never happens. So I guess we were just really lucky.
Speaking of lucky! We had another tour booked for today and it was to pick us up at 7:30 or 7:15. Our alarm did not wake us up and we woke up at 7:40. We thought for sure we were done for, but just at we went out and sat down a van pulled up. Someone was on our side.
We first stopped at some elephant trekking. It was so cool. Heather went and sat on the neck of Owen (he does have a name) and I sat safely on my sided seat. The elephant was the biggest of them all and was 42 years old. He was so cool. We went to a monkey cave next. There were little monkeys running around every where. They even stole bananas out of your hand if you were not careful. It seemed that most of them were outside the cave. Once we went in there was mostly just there smell left behind. They were so cute!
We took a long boat over to James Bond Island. There were some amazing islands on the way. They all were straight up in the air....Completely vertical. Once at James Bond we took some canoes around the islands and through some tunnels. It was so beautiful. We had to duck sometimes just to make it under some of them. And even better news, we had our own personal rower. Life is good. We stopped for an amazing lunch and then back to Phueket to meet the boys. Turns out this place has so much to offer.
Tomorrow we head to Phi Phi. This is where the beach was filmed. Should be good. Only one week left in Thailand. Miss you guys!
love Ash

The Craziness That Is....The Full Moon Party

2006-12-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

So the reality that there is only two weeks left in this trip is sinking in and I can't say that I like it very much! I knew from the minute I left that this would be the fastest 3 months of my life...but it really was. Why didn't time go that fast when I was going through Finance 317 in University? Something's not right here...

Anyway, from Ko Tao we took a 45 minute ferry to Ko Phangan where the Full Moon Party takes place. December 6th was the big night (full moon was actually on December 5th, but that was the King's Birthday...so no parties allowed) and we arrived a few days early to ensure we found a nice place that was far AWAY from Haad Rin Beach where the party is held. Break-ins happen frequently on that beach, so it was best to avoid staying there. We managed to pick up a new friend named Ladda (a Thai Canadian...very convenient for translation purposes!) who joined us in our Bungalows and stayed with us for a few days. That woman has a HUGE personality...she's super high energy and is not afraid to strike up a conversation with anyone, anytime. It was fun having her around.

The full moon party was exactly as we thought it'd be, but even more fun. The beach gets packed, there are buckets of SamSung being sold everywhere, and lots of different kinds of music. You spend most of the night running around making sure that you've still got all your friends accounted for. The best was the firedancing that was taking place...these guys are talented. A super drunk guy decided to give it a try and ended up hitting himself in head with the fireball on the end of a chain...I could hear the sound from where I was sitting. Luckily nothing caught on fire...I think his ego was bruised though.

Ryan got in the party spirit and decided to get a glow-in-the-dark tattoo painted on his belly...and decided to go with a yellow and orange gecko. We've been tremendously entertained by the "gecko hunting" that takes place by the light bulb outside of our bungalows. I think all four of us have gecko obsessions...we literally sat on the porch the other night and watched one hunt flies for two hours. Hey, we have important things to do.

Back on topic. The full moon party was super fun, but we were all pretty tired the next day when we had a full 12 hours of traveling to go through. Eventually we all made it to Phuket. Useful tip: when traveling long distances in Thailand, always, always, ALWAYS fly. You get quite the run-around if you take the bus and it takes waaaay longer then it should. Second useful tip: when traveling long distances, never, ever, EVER do it the day after the full moon party.

So here we are in Phuket. Besides Bangkok, it's much much bigger and busier then the other places we've been. It's really crazy seeing the "Tsunami Evacuation Route" signs near the beach. I can't believe that actually happened here around this time a few years ago. Right now it is just me and Ashley...the guys are on a four day dive trip in the Similan Islands. Ash and I took a day trip to those islands today to get some snorkeling action. It was awesome! The islands are breathtaking...I did a climb up to the top of some rocks (Ash's fear of heights told her to stay on the ground) and got an amazing view of it all. The snorkeling was cool, but the best part was the trip home....DOLPHINS! We had a pod of dolphins swimming and splashing alongside our boat for about 10 minutes. I've ALWAYS wanted that to happen...yay! They were super playful and there was probably about 15 of them. That alone made the whole trip worth it.

We're looking into heading to James Bond Island (how touristy is that name?) in a couple days to do some canoeing and elephant riding. Weee!!

I will see you all very soon!

-Heather

Ko Tao

2006-11-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

Hello from Ko Tao!

This island rocks. It's much smaller then Ko Samui, less commercialized (only two 7-11's, not fifty), and really chilled. The beach isn't great as there's not much sand and there's lots of coral chunks, but the water is beautiful. Most people come to Ko Tao to dive...there are tons of dive shops and many bungalows will only provide accommodation if you're diving. Ryan and Damian went for a morning dive yesterday (on D's birthday! Great way to start it off) and they are gone again today. We went to Ko Nang Yuan for a couple hours yesterday and Ashley and I are going to head there again today. You take a 10 minute 'water taxi' from Ko Tao to get there...and your jaw hits the floor when you arrive. It's beautiful. It's two small islands that are joined together by a sandbar. I've never seen anything like it. To assist in your daydreaming and to help you mentally escape the -40 winter weather, go here: http://www.nangyuan.com/ and have a lookie. Sigggggh.....

The full moon party is on December 6th, so we're planning our travels around being there. I think we'll head to Ko Phangan a few days early to make sure we can find a good place to stay. After that, the boys want to try out a live-aboard dive trip for 4 days in the Similan islands. I'm not sure if I'll tag along, or maybe I'll just sink my feet in the sand in Ko Phi Phi and soak up the sun. Life is rough.

Heather

SameSame ...but different

2006-11-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we pulled this off.

Ashley, Damian, Ryan, and myself flew from different places at different times and managed to all meet in Bangkok flawlessly. How often is something like this going to happen in a lifetime?

We spent two days in Bangkok and it was awesome. We toured two temples: Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew (in the Grand Palace) which houses the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha (actually made of jade...ask me what the difference is and I couldn't tell you) is pretty small and sits on top of this elaborate, super tall thrown made of gold. Wat Pho is the temple of the reclining Buddha. This thing is HUGE...46 metres long! It is gold and has mother of pearl inlays on the bottoms of it's feet. I've never, ever seen anything like it.

Both days we managed to fit in Thai massages...it's a rough life. We found a place with certified masseurs (who learned at Wat Pho). The first day we all laid in a row on mats and got Original Thai Massages at the same time. I don't think Ryan was prepared for the fact that they rub your feet and legs too...he is SO ticklish there and ended up just laughing the whole time. ashley and I went for foot massages the second day at it was heavenly. It cost eight dollars to get an hour massage! I think we'll manage to fit a few more of those in before we leave.

Tuesday night we went to the Muai Thai stadium to see a real Muai Thai fight. We got ringside seats and had a really good view. The energy there was really cool...it was filled with Thai people yelling and placing bets. In total there were two knockouts...the first from an elbow and the second from a kick. It was weird seeing that right before your eyes. It was super cool to watch Muai Thai in the place where it originated.

Wednesday night we caught a flight to Ko Samui and that's where we are now. We managed to get a hut on the beach (after waking up a guy who worked here...we arrived pretty late) and the view is beautiful. We plan on getting up early to see the sunrise tomorrow but who knows if we'll be able to pull it off!

Random tidbit:
"samesame...but different" is something a lot of Thai people say to white people about absolutely anything and it doesn't make much sense. It's never really used in the right context. For instance: Damian to cab driver "how old are you?" cab driver "same same...but different." It's halarious! They even have tshirts that say "samesame" on the front and "but different" on the back.

So far this place has been awesome. I can't wait to see what else it has to offer.

Heather

???

2006-10-26T17:57:00.000-06:00

Okay, so, I'm well aware of how long it's taken me to update this blog...I'd like to say I was lost at sea for two weeks or some other good excuse like that, but that didn't happen. We're in Byron Bay for a few days praying for some good weather, and then we're going to hit a few little surf towns on the way to Sydney. I will update this thing as soon as I can force myself to sit in front of a computer for longer then 15 minutes...promise!!

Please stay tuned! :o)
-Heather

Fraser Island

2006-10-17T23:36:00.000-06:00

Alright, so, Ash and I are both very aware that it's been a while since our last post but I'll try my best to make up for it by talking about the island of sand!! That's right folks, the biggest sand island in the world is Fraser Island and we were there!

Our trip was a 3 day/2 night self-drive tour with a group of 11 people (ourselves included). We drove around in this massive (3 tones) 4x4 and followed an itinerary for the 3 days. We camped at the same site for two nights, using that as our home base and driving around the island from there.
(Heather got a bit tired. I am writing now)
Day one was a trip to Lake Mckenzie which is one of the most beautiful things we have ever seen. The water is so fresh and constantly filtered by sand that you cannot wear any sun screen or perfume or anything. This is not a good thing for a little white blonde girl, but we managed to splash around and get some pics before I put the sunscreen on. Heather was fine. She is as brown as they come and does not need to worry too much. We could even swim and drink water at the same time. It was the cleanest water we have ever tasted. We had a very rushed lunch with our very cool group and then went to a ship wreck on the beach. This was so cool. We were not supposed to go in it, but there were too many perfect photo ops to ignore this. The next thing to do was to find our campsite. Gareth (our travel buddy from the UK) literally drove us up and down the beach for about 45 minutes making the world record for U-turns on a sand highway. Finally we arrived just in time to miss out on the mosquito protected soft beds and to set up our own tents in the dark. Heather and I prepared most of the dinner and the boys "cooked" it on the fire and BBQ (they may have over cooked the steak). We sat around the fire with some aboriginals and heard stories of spirits on the island. A few people were even lucky enough to see some dingos.
We got up early to make it out to Eli creek. We were supposed to be able to go down this fast moving creek on our backs. Lets just say that those who did it spent a lot of time pushing. We then headed to Indian head and the champagne pools. Indian head was the most amazing view I have ever seen. We saw a pod of dolphins swimming by and turtles and rays from above. The champagne pools were amazing, but we got a really bad 4X4 that wouldn't make it up the hill so we had quite the walk. Once we got there it was very cold and rainy and windy so we had to fight it all to get back. On the bright side we did see a humpback whale breaching off in the distance a few times. It made up for the glass like sand blowing into our legs and the wind and rain freezing us. Once we finally made it out we went back to camp and had tea and biscuits with our almost all British group. We sat around and had a few drinks at night and played some cards. I still hadn't seen a dingo and everyone else had. Every time I would go to the washroom one would come to the kitchen where everyone else was. Toni (another travle mate) and I were walking to the bathroom and we finally met one. She was on her way to the kitchen to miss me again and we caught her on her way. I have to say I am glad I wasn't alone. What a great day.
Our last day was not so good. Because of the storms the high tide came in early and we got stuck on the beach. Our car actually got stuck and we had to dig whenever the tide would go down. It was fun, but a bit scary. We made it back to Eli which was not part of the plan and had to sit there for a few hours. We even saw a car actually go under water. The man thought he could make it and ended up being in water up to his windows. They managed to pull him out and he drove off down the beach even further. Crazy man! must have been a rental car! The rest of the day involved trying not to get stuck and making it back to the ferry in one piece. We did it! we even got all of our bond back. All in all this was an amazing trip. I was the most knowledgeable camper and next to me Heather was. That does not say much so lets just say that we all did a good job.
Next we will write about our trip in Surfers Paradise. There are some good stories from this one..keep up!
cheers
Ash & Heather

Island Breeze

2006-10-05T05:25:00.000-06:00

We are back in Airlie Beach after a 2 night/3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands! We got up bright and early on Sunday morning to meet our boat, the Matador, at the pier. Just to get you up to speed: At 24.9 meters in length Matador is the largest International Offshore Racing Maxi ever built. Matador was designed, developed and constructed at a cost of over US$20 million in 1991. The boat holds about 30 people, but we got lucky because only 18 were booked to sail. It takes a lot of people to get this thing up and running. We had to help with raising and taking down the sails every day. Ash and I preferred to hide and leave this job to the guys as often as possible, but we helped out (well, TRIED to help out) a couple of times. It took FOUR girls to raise one of the sails, and trust me, we were using all our might. Often when the boat is sailing it tips reaaaally far to one side, and everyone is required to sit along the raised edge of the boat and hold on for dear life. This boat clearly wasn't designed for a relaxing sail along the ocean, but it was super fun.

The first day was pretty cold and windy, so we skipped out on jumping in the water at all as we thought we'd never get our body temperature back up to normal. Monday and Tuesday, however, were great. It is cold when the boat is moving, so I was super glad I brought some warm clothes (my trip around the great barrier reef taught me exactly how one should pack for a boat trip). When the boat anchored and the sun was shining, the weather was great.

The islands were beautiful...so lush and full of plants. We headed to Whithaven beach super early on Monday to get there before it was packed with other tourists. I've never, ever, seen anything like it. Even though it was early and still a bit chilly, we couldn't resist taking a dive in the crystal clear water. The sand was amazing...it looked and felt like flour. Later that day, we went snorkeling, ate some delicious food (best food we've had in a while!) had a few drinks, and went to bed.

Tuesday morning was another early one (it's impossible to sleep in on a boat, especially when the Skipper starts the engine at 6:30am to intentionally wake everyone up with a LOUD "buzzzzz" sound). We literally shoved some breakfast down, threw our stinger suits on, and jumped in the water. We swam at Blue Pearl bay where a local fish named Elvis lives. He is a massive Maori wrasse fish who is quite accustomed to having people around. We brought bread bombs into the water and sure enough along came Elvis (he got his name because of the big bump on his forehead...looks like Elvis hair). He is super tame and lets you pet him. He actually came up to Ashley's leg and rubbed up against it like a cat!

The rest of the day was spent laying in the sun, eating more delicious food, and sailing a 4 hour sail back to Airlie Beach.

Later that night we met up at a place called Beaches in Airlie beach for a few beers with the crew and our fellow sailors. It was a great time!

We're taking the 11:50pm bus from Airlie beach tonight to head to Hervey Bay. It'll take about 12 hours, but at least we'll save a night's accommodation by sleeping on the Greyhound.

Cheers, Mate!

-H

Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation, Magnetic Island

2006-09-28T01:39:00.000-06:00

The Great Barrier Reef was everything that is was worked up to be. We went for a day tour on Sunday. A big boat picked us up at 7:30 in the morning and we headed out to sea. It was looking a bit choppy and of course I was a little worried ( I tend to get a bit sea sick). Boy was I right. I felt sick the whole day. Even Heather was starting to feel a bit sick before we got to the reef. Once you are in the water it feels a lot better though. Thank God!
We were suppose to get an intro dive with our package, but it turned out we would not be joining those fish at the bottom of the ocean. Apparently if you are on Antibiotics or have fainted a couple times in your life you can't dive. So we had to settle for snorkeling, but the view from the top was breathtaking. Heather said she felt like she was in an aquarium. There were so many bright fish and she even saw a shark. I missed it because of all the commotion. There were even a few finding nemos to be found. so cute!
I have to say that the sea sickness was totally worth it. I have never seen anything so amazing. Needless to say we were both so tired and cold by the end of the trip that is was an early night.

Monday a Kiwi man (New Zealand man) came and picked us up in a tour bus. We took off in a hurry toward the rainforest. This man was crazy. The roads are so thin and so windy and he was driving as though we was late for his wedding. Heather dosed off a few times, but woke up pretty fast with her head rocking back and forth. Wales (the tour guide) took us to a crocidile river for another tour. This boat drove around until it located a crocidile and then followed it for a while. The one we saw was 75 years old and 1000 KG. We also saw a baby one. He was only like 12 inches long. He looked very cute, but we knew better then to reach out and pet him. Where this is a baby there is a mom.
Next we went up to the rainforest and took a very brief walk. Heather and I both wish it was longer and that we saw more. I can't describe home beautiful this place was. I have never seen so man trees. The smell was even amazing and the humidity does wonders for your skin. (not forHeather's hair though).
We stayed at a place called the Beach house for the night. It sounds luxurious, but it really wasn't. It was basically like camping in the middle of the rainforest. Heather and I loved it. It was quiet and beautiful. The other city girls (American) we were with did not feel the same way as us. We heard a lot of complaints about the dirty, buggy environment. Kind of funny. Oh and then it rained for a whole 3 minutes and we heard about the "down pour" and how "cold" it was for another few hours. Some people are just hard to please.
Wales picked us up at a ripe hour of 1 and we were off again. This time we made a few stops. First to a look out point where we could see all of the daintree rainforest and then off in the distance the sight where Steve Irwin died. Next we stopped in Mossman and went up to the most beautiful, natural freshwater swimming hole we have ever seen. The water was so familiar in the sense that it was freezing just like canadian water, but it was so hot out that it felt wonderful. Heather even had the pleasure of running into a very venumous snake all by herself. Isn't she lucky. She didn't know that it was dangerous at this point so she stuck around long enough to snap a few great photos.
Here we are on Magnetic Island. We are staying right on the beach and the ocean can literally put us to sleep. We are in heaven. Tomorrow we are going to go for a nice hike up to a look out point and then figure out our next stop (hint: we are thinking the Whitsundays might just be in order)
until next time
miss you guys
Ashley (Heather is sitting here promting me)

2006-09-23T00:29:00.000-06:00

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy!!

Hello from Cairns, Australia! We've spent a few days here getting ourselves oriented and figuring out where to go next. Cairns is cool...its a small town and you can get anywhere you want by walking there. There is not much for ocean/beach, so we've spent most of our days laying out by the pool at Gilligans. Food here is CRAZY expensive (ie: $7.00 or more for a sandwich, $3.00 for water) and I'm hoping it is not like that everywhere. This morning a market was open RIGHT beside our hostel where they had all sorts of fresh food. Ash and I had the best yogurt we've ever had in our life here! It's interesting to see what things are expensive here, that are usually cheap at home. Bananas are really expensive, and kind of funky looking, and grapes are $12!!

We've met a lot of nice people here. If you want to check out our hostel, go to http://www.gilligansbackpackers.com.au and take the virtual tour. The first night we had a roommate named Hans from Switzerland (how appropriate). He was nice, and kept to himself, which was a relief because a lot of people here are rowdy. Last night a couple of his friends from Switzerland met up with him, and our room was filling up fast. They were all very polite and it was easy to share a room with them. We learned a few German words (apparently Swiss people speak German...I didn't know that!) which I can actually pronounce okay but Ashley has trouble rolling the R's :) . We also learned that Homer Simpson, speaking German, says "nie!!" instead of "doh!!!" Weird.....Anyway, we taught them the Slap Game card game (you'd be proud, Nate...it's moving all the way to Switzerland!) and that was fun to kill some time. One other person named John was put in our room, and it was full (6 people). John was from New Jersey and seemed like he didn't trust his own reflection in the mirror. I've been sure to lock up my stuff very tight ;)

Anyway, we've booked a trip to the Great Barrier Reef for Sunday. Were going to do an into dive, as well as snorkeling. We are really excited to see the ocean!! On Monday we're going to head to the rainforest and beach in Cape Tribulation, just north of Cairns. This will be an overnight trip, so you won't hear from us for a few days.

Ashley and I have said that we feel like we aren't as far away from you all as we actually are. We feel like we're sitting in California, and not on the other side of the globe. I think when we see the ocean it'll sink in how very far away we are.

Until next time!!

Heather

2006-09-18T18:02:00.000-06:00

Well, it is the night before the big day! Our flight leaves at 10am on Tuesday. From Calgary we fly to Vancouver, from Vancouver to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Cairns! That will be about two days of solid traveling. We have a 5 hour stopover in Vancouver, and that'll likely be the worst one because we'll feel as though we've been traveling forever...but we'll still be in Canada! Ah well, we'll just have to consume as much Tim Horton's coffee as we possibly can during that time...I have a feeling we won't be seeing that stuff for a while.

My 65L bag is all packed and ready to go. It's huuuuuge and bulky, but the weight isn't too bad. The way I look when I carry it kinda reminds me of the way an ant looks when it's carrying something back to the queen...the bag is about twice the size of me!

We're going to leave at 7:30am tomorrow to fight deerfoot traffic and attempt to be at the airport an hour and a half before the flight. Wish us luck!

The plan is to land in Cairns, travel all the way down the east coast, and fly out of Melbourne in mid-November. The only thing we've booked is our hostel for our very first night and we're going to take the rest day by day.

As soon as we are settled in Cairns and have access to a computer, we'll keep you posted. Check back for more later!

Australia...HERE WE COME!!

Heather