James Bond Island

We decided to do a day trip while in the Phuket area. This was the first taste of the real beauty of Thailand. Now I know where they got the inspiration for the floating islands in the movie Avatar. It was just awesome. For about 30 per person, we were driven over to Phuket Town, and the marina, boarded a large boat, motored over to 4 different islands, were feed lunch and snacks, got a long tail boat ride, were entertained, got to do some kayaking and were given tours. It was a good day.

The first stop was the bat cave. They dropped the kayaks in the water, guide/paddle boy included if you wanted, and away we went, grabbing some bananas on the way off the boat. Of course Brian wanted to do the paddling so we hopped in and headed towards the masses assembling at the cave entrance. As we paid the guardians, a bunch of monkeys – literally – our pilfered bananas, we entered. It was a huge cave and you could hear everyone’s voices echoing off the walls. I was amazed to see huge stalactites and stalagmites all around us. Then we flipped on our headlamps as we paddled deeper in. Up above us, there they were – bats – and a lot of them. It was really cool, even for a scaredy cat like me. We went all the way back until we literally had to lie down in the kayak. We could see light emanating from the water at the rock line, but the tide was too high to get to the other side. Alas, we turned around and headed out, feeding the last of our treats to the gatekeeper monkeys!

The next stop was equally amazing in a different way. We kayaked through a cave that opened up into a fern like grotto. Then we went through another out the other side. We paddled around the island, taking in all the beauty.

The third stop, and the most famous was James Bond Island. We didn’t take the kayaks and the boat was too big so we all had to load up on a long tail boat and taxi over. It was a hard sell, once you stepped off the boat and hit the shore as all the vendors were lined up and waiting for us. It was a zoo.
We finally made it over to the “famous” part out of the movie. Took our picture and then the camera battery died. Figures. Anyhow, we tramped around for a bit, bought some postcards in lieu of photos and then got back on the longtail to our boat.
Our last stop was a random place for everyone to go for a swim. Since I saw one to many huge jellyfish in the water, we opted to grab a kayak and do some more paddling. Well, Brian paddled, I just came along for the ride.
We found another awesome cave, and paddled back into it until we hit beach. We disembarked and started to explore this huge cavern. It was so neat, but we had to cut it short when we heard the departing horn. Back to the boat!
It was a good day.

View all the amazing pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625145867383/

Thailand

Getting a massage on the beach while having my feet scrubed and a pedicure done simutaneously all for $10 bucks, I am in heaven. Balming warm weather, fabulous beaches, minty water, yummy veggie fair everywhere, cheap prices and I LOVE Thailand.

Phuket was our first stop in Thailand and I was so excited. We landed in the airport, going from 17 C to 25 C with humidity. I breathed a sigh of AWWWWWWWW - Warmth. I am happy already

However, one of the first things we do is lose my camera with all our great Australia photos on it, starting with Brisbane, in the mini van on the way to our hotel. I had found this really great place online, called Club Bamboo. Although, it technically was in Patong, famous for it’s beach and rowdy nightlife, it was located up a hill just a bit away from the downtown mayhem.

Okay by us. It had a pool, spa, restaurant, fitness center, and bar. Oh, and a free shuttle down to the beach/night scene, just a km or two away. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a cold delicious juice and told we were being upgraded to a Jacuzzi suite! Awesome, this was starting out right. And all for the outrage price of $17/night. That’s right, outrageously grrrrrrrrrreat! Good thing I booked 2 nights because we ended up staying 5! So it cost $23 / night for the following 3. It was costing up to $35 to stay in a carpark in Australia. Wow, what a huge difference.

Did I mention that I had the most delicious veggie green curry for dinner for a mere $2.50! Yes, yes, very happy kitty. Meow!

Bye Bye Australia

(written by Brian, edited by Kat)
Waking with a start from my 3rd dream of over sleeping and missing our flight, I look at my watch and see that I still have 45 minutes before the 1st alarm of 3:15 am, goes off. Paranoid, we have set 3 different alarms, fully testing each a couple of times. Fat chance of falling back to sleep now.
Our task for today was to be at the airport 2-3 hours before our Virgin flight to Thailand left. V Australia is a bloodhound at finding ways of extra charging you, and checking later than 2 hours before a flight will get you barred.
Things were looking good, as we had spent the previous day sorting and sifting down our camper van of equipment to something we could carry. Kat had cooked up a huge dinner using all the leftover food the night before and were fully travel ready at 3:40 am. 20 minutes to travel and a 7:00 am flight, we were over coming the dreams.
Every airport in the world has some kind of construction going on that involves moving important directional signs, and Brisbane was right up there, so when we pulled up to the International Terminal at 4:05 am without an error we were stoked. A feeling that was not to last...
Kat standing on the curb outside the international terminal and screaming at me while I’m in the long term parking garage about 500m away, wasn’t a good sign. Sorting through the reasons I could hear her voice from so faraway made me realize she wasn’t in trouble, we were. Our international flight was leaving out of the domestic terminal and there was nothing open to provide the ride over. Rushing back to the van I could fell the dreams creeping closer. Trying to start the van, I broke the accelerator cable. With the tools handy and the parking structure lights, it was a quick fix. Cursing the luck I fumbled for coins at the prepaid both and lurched out into the airport maze without my co driver and sign reader. Kat, standing on the curb, heard the noisy van pass one roadway below her as I had blown a turn and was at arrivals. On the next lap, the cable fell free again. This time, in the pitch dark, the repair took much longer. Kat saw the van appear at 4:39 and chucked the luggage while hopping in as we gentle roared off, dreams right on our heels. Like an ant at a picnic we somehow found the terminal in short order. Kat again ejects out ahead to the line while I try to park amidst the construction. Jogging the ¼ mile from parking, I was feeling good about over coming the event and my pace of stride. It was at the terminal that it dawn on me that I had forgotten my day bag with ID and computer, and now had to sprint back for it. I arrived at the terminal just as Kat was walking up to the counter and we were most gracefully checked in at 4:59. With 2 hours to kill we recounted the things that had been forgotten, like pre-cooked breakfast and universal power adapter. Good thing we had some leftover AUS dollars ‘cuz airport prices are rock bottom! Not.
It is with great joy that we arrive in Melbourne a few minutes early. We can have a sit down “breakky” and relax until our next flight. Having just out run the dreams, I still had a quick pace in the airport to our next check-in. Luck would have it that we needed every spare minute. Dear old Virgin Australia raised her ugly head and cast us away from check in because we had no proof of a Thailand departure. US residents don’t need to provide evidence of return flight in Thailand, but Commonwealth (British affiliates) residents do, so we had to jump online and book a quick flight to Malaysia. Of course it’s not as quick, as immigration info must be filled out. The counter people knew what we were up against, as they put us in this spot. Concurrently, we were being paged over the airport by the same person who denied us our boarding passes. Yeah, not funny. We finished booking a throw away flight and took a digital picture of the conformation. Presenting the new info at the desk we were now informed that our luggage, previously checked in, was over weight and we must pay $ 10/lbs. Of course you must pay the cashier/supervisor, not the gate agent helping you. The line was empty behind us, but 3 people were on the phone ordering paging instructions and gate holds instead of helping us. Our flight was to board at 10:00 am. We left the desk hearing our names being paged and still having to check out of Australia at 10:05 am. After proving we weren’t Koala smugglers, we ran up the terminal, hoping to make the flight. The overwhelming stench of perfume blocked our patch as we stumbled into the duty free section that was a house of mirrors. It turns out the V Australia announces early boarding time so you can $pend some time in the duty free maze and not be late to the plane. Following the tiled signs like the yellow brick road, we escaped from the maze with only a couple of $8 sandwiches for damage, and arrived at the gate to see everyone sitting around bored senseless as the plane was being delayed until 11:20 am. Our helpful agents had released our seats on the window and stuck us in the back without our veggie meal requests, while not informing us of the plane's delay. On arrive to Thailand immigration told us that US citizen need only a passport to stay 30 days. Nothing more.
THANK YOU VIRGIN AUSTRALIA.
Bye bye!

"The New Deal"

Plan....what plan are we on now -"N" ? I feel like we've been though the alphabet with all the different plans we have gone through and changes. Well, here's the deal, hehehe, Australia is just too expensive. The Aussie dollar is now equal to the US dollar from $1.30 when we got here - a 30% drop. So, we are going to Thailand. We were planing on going to attend our friends wedding on 10/10/2010 anyhow, so now we'll just be a bit early!

Our plan of traveling around the world is coming to an end. October 17th, 2010 will mark two years of trekking the globe. Hard to believe, but we have no plans so we will just have to wing it. Stay tuned.

Camping out - Boring

Totally bummed out about our trip being cut short and not making it up to Cairns or Darwin, we started to head back towards Brisbane. Since our little Fuzy could only reach max speeds of 70kph (like 40 - 45mph), we needed to stay off the highway, but close enough to civilization so if she halted completely we would not be stranded. Since we had a week before our flight left we had a little time to do some short hops down the coast. The first one being boring.

Actually, it was Booreen Point, in the Noose Heads area, but it is pronounced "Boring Pt". This was no car park but a full on family/RV camp ground on a huge lake. We didn't realize we would be there at the start of "summer break". Which meant invasion of the short warriors, otherwise known as children in the wild. Even though we set up our tent, it was way too cold to sleep in it, and with Brian predicting heavy rain overnight, we stayed in the van.

I did get in a nice run through the little town and Brian and I got to be harassed by the locals when we went out for a glass of wine at the historic hotel. We left the next morning, packing our tent and gear in the pouring rain, as a huge monsoon storm rolled in and down the coast. We drove through the very swanky, but highly expensive town of Noosa heads as we hit the coast.

Later we would learn that it flooded the campground out. Good thing we moved on. Wet kitty = unhappy kitty!

Stuck in Gympie

Not the place you want to be stuck in.

Kidding aside, we were heading up to Rockhampton to go geming. Yeah, that's right, we were going to hunt opals and sapphires in the dawn early hours. Alas, it was not to be as on the way our little Fuzy broke. You can imagine my disappointment. Looking for shinny rocks to bead with, well, it's an obsession.

A cracked piston was the reality, so actually we could still drive her, but not very well. Hence, stuck in Gympie. We managed to pull into the nearest car park for the night to re-evaluate the situation and sniff out some options. Three days later, we concluded that ending our Australian trip would be for the best. Believe me, we thought of everything, but it came down to money mostly. Did I mention Australia was expensive! So, we would just spend more time in Thailand before attending our friend's wedding on 10/10/2010.
Warm weather (again) here we come.

Rainbow Beach & Inskip Point

We camped in the car on the street one night and cooked dinner in the park overlooking the beach, then camped in our tent for the first time. We stayed 2 wonderful nights right on a fabulous beach! To top it off, it was the cheapest option verses a car park. Bonus!

When I said on the beach, I meant it. We were so close but back far enough to not get run over. Yes, one could drive on the beach! Our spot was directly across from the car ferry over to Fraser Island - home of the famous 80 km long, white sandy beach.

We drank champagne, sat by the campfire, and frolicked in the warm ocean water. We played cards, read, and I even got to puzzle. I even went running every day. I was starting to really enjoy this road trip. Warm weather here we come!

Crickies! Steve Irwin's place

We visited the Australian Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. I usually don't like the zoo. I hate to see animals in cages, or I get mad that they are not in their natural habitats, being exploited, or that we have to have them in here to protect them from us. You get the point. Anyhow, this was different, completely, somehow.
Brian had been to the park before, but what it had evolved into was something totally different. Every animal was in a natural setting and was lovingly adored by the the incredible staff. The croc stadium was just that. It must have 500o seats! We got to hand feed elephants, kangaroos, pet kolas, and see tigers close up. For me it was an absolute thrill and we stayed until the very last minute.
Unfortunately we lost our camera with all the great pictures on it, a complete bummer.

Brisbane

From everything that people have told me, I wasn't expecting much. But that's the thing with low expectations, usually a place will exceed them and this was no exception. Brisbane was a hip, bussling metropolis.
Its a river town with many cool bridges crossing the ferry laden river. We camped the Fuzy in a caravan park for just $33 a night. After spending $75 in gas for the day, I'm not sure this is the inexpensive way to travel. Fuzy need some new brakes and some bushing for the steering/ suspension, so she went to the hospital. I'm not kidding the name for the place was the Auto hospital. We hopped on a local bus and explored the city. Brian had been to Brisbane before, but seeing it now it was a totally different city. After a fun walk and a $7 slice of pizza we headed back to our home on 4 wheels. The boys were behind schedule due to parts arriving late and were in a complete wrench tossing furry that took until 6:30 pm on Friday night. Later,with the van nestled into a tree covered site, I cooked up a great meal on our camp stove and enjoyed some of our Aussie wine with Brian. Looking up we could see that the fruit bats or flying foxes were having a grand time eating the berries in our over head tree. They got hammered and started screeching at each other until the wee hours of the night. A dawn the bats were replaced by Parrots and they were more belligerent than you could imagine.

Byron Bay (& Surfer's Paradise)

We have made it to the sunshine and it is glorious! Not to mention this little beach town is very swank indeed.

It's a world famous right handed surf break and now its become a laid back beach side like Soquel in Santa Cruz. We camped the Fuzy van in a sandy spot and Brian started repainting. He painted out the rims and the front end as well as the rear bumper. She is looking less punk and more Kitty! It was so much fun to wake up on the beach and be warm. The camp site had instant hot water so we could make lattes and enjoy the views. Thanks goodness for Nescafe!

We lost our camera in Phuket and hence the rest of our photos startin with surfer's paradise :(

But here's the Byron Bay Pictues: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625189435136/

Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley

Home of Yellow tail shiraz, and we just had to check it out. A day of wine tasting in any country is a fun day indeed! Oh, and it happened to be Father's Day in the land down under. We drove our little van to six different wineries , knowing that we could just crash out in the back, but Brian spit out most of the wines just to be safe.

This was great as the tastings were free, not like Napa now. And, they let you try everything. It was a great way to drink some wine on a budget, since Australia is very expensive. We also stopped a a cheese factory and gobbled down huge portions of cheese while pretending to be interested in the presentation. We still havent seen any live kangaroos yet. We seen a bunch of dead ones in the ditch and I'm getting bummed out. We are in Australia and I want to see something hopping around! Meow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625064572371/

Exploring the Jenolan Caves

Although I've been to various caves before, each is unique and these caves are no different. Starving, we rushed little Fuzy through the mountains down to the Caves and arrived just afternoon and grabbed a quickly lunch. Alas, the brief chow down caused us to miss the highly recommend tour. Brian started pouting and whining but sucked it up enough to book a different cave tour. It turned out to be a great visit with a small group. The guide, aware of the sniveler (Bri), lead us to some off tour sites and it was a stunning tour that had Brian smiling and apologising at the end.


Visit the Cave (via pictures): http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625064516513/

Katoomba - The Blue Mountains

What can I say, if you come to Australia, this place is not to be missed. But, I'll let the pictures do the talking. It's not that it is very high up, but the physical features are unique, beautiful, and quite accessible. Meaning you can hike all over the place, and really feel connected to nature. The wild cockatoos just add to it.
This is Australia's tallest mountain range ( about 4500 ft) that features what would be Australia's version of the grand canyon. It is steeped in aboriginal history to boot ( white man didn't get to screw it up until 1850). The most prominent being a rock feature called the "3 sisters", at Echo Point. The town is Katoomba and resembles something out of a old western mountain town. We had a pizza one foggy night at small cafe where we ate by the fireside and drank a bottle BYO of "cheeky red" wine.
Even though it rained while we stayed hear, and it was fiercely cold, we had a blast. As the first stop on our tour, this was a first time experience for us both. If you ever make it here, don't miss hiking the scenic walkway at the bottom of the Ferber stairs. It is a rain forest at the bottom of the canyon and a pine forest on top. Then ride the converted coal train back to the top (I suggest you take it back up like we did unless your a masochist - 1800 steps). This is a 52 degree grade, which feels like a 90, that takes you back to the top in mer minutes!

For pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625189293230/

Suzy, the little van that could!

Our new Australian home parked outside of a great winery

The plan, buy a van and drive it up the East coast to Cairnes, then West to Darwin. Did I mention everything is backwards here - they drive on the wrong side of the road, we have to go north to get to warm weather, and we are on the east coast! Hmmm...

Anyhow, we found it, the little van that would - "Suzy". Soon to be renamed "Fuzy", as in our little fuzy van. It had right hand drive and a 4 speed manual shift on the column, it was funky. She could drink oil faster than Brian can drink beer, but we had big plans and she came with everything - tent, esky(cooler) complete with food, spices, games (smash ball, volleyball, boomerangs), chairs, cook stove, candle lanterns, oil lamp, pots/pans, cookery, folding table, maps, sleeping bag, etc. Some new tires and we would be golden. Oh yeah, and she was going from a punk paint job by the previous owners, to a new cat like, fuzy one.

After a thorough cleaning, & a few groceries, we were one our way. Car camping, caravan parks, and campsites oh my! Totering along at almost 100 kph (about 60mph), we headed north to the warmth.

Fuzy would soon get a face lift!

The land down under!

Yes, we are in Australia and it is cold. Sydney to be somewhat precise :). All kidding aside, I finally made good on my promise to visit my friend Regina, although not in Micronesia as originally intended. We were also lucky enough to be able to stay with her & her boyfriend, Craig at his home in a Sydney suburb. It was great. Normal bed, actually super comfy, normal litterbox with hot water showers, laundry, normal kitchen and kick ass espresso maker for morning coffee! It was a treat, but we ended up staying a bit longer than intended.

Sydney is a very clean, very neat city. I really enjoyed walking around it and visiting some of the sites. We also ventured out to some of the surrounding areas and famous beach communities – Bondi Beach, Manly, Watson’s Bay, etc. Craig and G took us for a drive in the Royal National Park. It was great to get to see a large area in a short amount of time. In boat years, the same drive would have taken us several days. Besides it was way too cold to get into the water and (for me, attempt to) surf.

Brian had a birthday while we were here and I took him to a NRL game at the huge ANZ stadium in Olympic park. The Rabbitohs vs. the Eels – it was a blast. The only bummer was both Craig and G had to work (and Regina had school too), so we didn’t get much time with them. We did however get to go out to dinner which was a blast.

Game On!

Sydney at night

Rarotonga, Cook Islands (Aug10th - 20th)

It was a fairly uneventful 3 day sail over in which we caught no fish. Getting moored up in the tiny harbor however, with room for 8 boats, 6 already there, was a different story. Backing up a 53 ft, full keel ketch is not really a joy, and we enlisted the help of all the other yachties we could find on the seawall. It went mostly smooth and once secured, we all jumped off to go exploring.

It was late so we made it downtown just in time to go to the bank and locate an internet (which turned out it was a 24/7 place). I am already liking this county. Oh yeah, we now need New Zealand Dollars, right! We ended up at a night festival that was only running 3 days that week. Crazy thing was the food booths were selling mostly breakfast items, Schweet.

The next day we had to go through quarantine and the boat was sprayed. A fellow sprayed a little Raid in the air and charged 20 bucks. Interesting, but now we could "officially" be on land.
The island was great, small enough in area and population to be unspoiled, but big enough to have all the amenities one could desire. The people friendly, the beaches beautiful, and things affordable which always makes it a bit more fun and it only took 1 hour by bus to circle the island. Unlike French Polynesia where everything shut down at 6pm, there was a total night life and music scene. We ended up meeting one local musician who sounded like a Joss Stone / Janice Joplin, real groovy voice. We even got her CD - it's fab.

Taking the advice of a former crew - Lyz - we did the cross island trek. It was truly beautiful and a just enough of a challenge to be fun, not exhausting. Other than that we really just enjoyed. I even started running again!

The Whatever bar view where we later saw Humpback whales swim passed

Just another beautiful end to a fun filled day

A real map at the start of a hike? What a treat

Made the the summit after 40 mintues of straight up!

Post hike cocktail hour

Just another waterfall

Making friends

This is the place we finally got off the boat. I can't believe we were on Nyami Nyami for about 4 1/2 months! Wow! We spent a whole week on land which was heaven. We stayed at Backpackers International in exchange for re-doing a couple of their showers. We met a bunch of really cool people that hopefully we will see again soon. And again, we had way too much stuff!

Australia here we come and I am looking forward to some Planes, Trains and Automobiles for a while.

Message in a Bottle

Heard the song (like a million times), saw the movie, loved the concept, and had the perfect bottle. What's a girl to do? Well, put a message in it and drop it in the drink. And that, I did on the way from Maupiti to Rarotonga.

So if you want to know the message, keep your eyes peeled because it is out there!