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!