West Coast Journey Pics Part2

There were Emu's all overExmouth. And they are scavangers. A pack of about five stole my lunch of noodles, an apple and crackers as soon as I turned my back.
The pelicans at Monkey Mia Marine Park. They were amazing to watch and not afraid of us at all, making themselves quite comfortable in the sand next to Daniel. You can see how close we were to them.
The famous dolfins of Monkey Mia, they come right up onto the beach, and I got to feed one!
Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province. Bet you didn't know there was another country on the Australian continent. Well we went, and got our passports stamped of course. They have been an independant countyr for over 30 years now, and seperated originally over weat taxation disputes. They have their own currency, post office, liscence plates, and many citizens (it costs only 500$ to become one!).
Crammed into the back of that car on one of our last days. I have no idea how we all fit.

West Coast Journey Pics

My first crocodile spotting....don't worry she's behind bars.
Met this baby kangaroo at a roadhouse. She was rescued when her mother was hit by a car, and will be released when she is old enough. I guess this is a regular thing for many outback Aussie's. You can buy roo milk at the grocery store in some places, just for this purpose.
Carla on the beach in Broome.
Karanjini National Park, after we climbed through Weano Gorge. By far the best day of the trip.
The wind in Coral Bay. It was nice to be back near the ocean, but the wind was ferocious, we could hardly fit in our tent at night, and woke up with nylon plastered to our faces, lovely.

Look who's not afraid of the fish!!!!!

At the fish feeding in Darwin...it was all good. I even had my feet in the water at one point with 1/2 meter rainbow fish, and cat fish swimming around. All was well and good until this last fish bit me! That's right he bit me! and drew blood! I have a witness....

The town of Fremantle...love it!

Hi everyone!

So we are still living in Fremantle, just south of Perth, and still enjoying the +40 degree days on the many beaches that surround our little town here. It's a great place, and i'ts been a great 2 months. We're getting ready to leave in just over a week, but here's a bit of what we've been up to and what's to come...

So Carla and I stayed in the Fire station hostel for a few days. Very cool hostel. Very cool staff, and tons of freebies. Carla started working at an Italian restaurant, Marconi's, doing her usual waitressing gig. She's since started bartending at a local club a couple nights a week. Not her favourite job, and also picked up some work at a pizzeria, La Porchetta. We live in a very Italian neighborhood. As, I am working at a Gelato place, Il Gelato. And also at the supermarket again, Coles. Very glamorous as you can all imagine. I work with a couple really great girls at il gelato though, and so even though its not the most challenging job, or busy for that matter, I'm having a great time. Carla still lives at the hostel and I have since moved into a granny flat with Jun, a very nice young man I met in Darwin. He's from England, and loves to mock my accent..."its called English babe, not Canadum". Well I'm sorry to tell you hun, but you are starting to pick up a bit of my canadum accent.

And so we have this flat, behind a house occupied by a nice old English man named Pat. I was worried it would be like living with my parents at first, and was aware of the noise level, but we have our own separate entrance, its a whole seperate building for that matter and privacy hasn't been a problem. Plus he's great company, and a wealth of information about the neighborhood. He's introduced us to the best butcher and cheapest vegetable market. Which pretty much satisfies Jun and I just perfectly. He loves to cook... i love to eat. ok, i love to cook as well, as you all know, but for some reason he just isn't as impressed with my pancakes or ants on a log, or hamburger gravy as most people are. So, I live with eating his fancy risotto, Japanese curry, and many pasta dishes (he's half Italian, and half Japanese) every day, and don't complain. Ok, I love it, plus how can I compete with that. I buy the wine, and all is even. We also live by a little bottle shop that supports local wineries... perfect for this wino.

So Carla is still at the hostel partying it up and spending all her money on Strongbow and Stella, nothing new there. She is heading to Thailand in a couple weeks to see her sister and some Bowen friends, and will travel there for a month. Then we'll meet up in Melbourne after that. Jun and I are heading on a week tour of the southern wineries and Margret River. Hopefully catching some of the best know surf in the country. Very Exciting, and then off to Melbourne we go.

Fremantle has been a great temporary home for us. Australia day in Perth was fabulous. I worked the busy day, but managed to catch the fireworks display in town, on the Swan River. Two barges blew up apparently, and no one was injured, although we were too far inland to see any of that. It was a great day, and even though I still don't feel like I can pass for an Aussie, some people (mostly tourists) have stopped questioning my accent, and a few still think I'm Irish!?, but most still note the Canadian accent after just a quick "hello"...or "that will be $4.80, thank you"....haha. Freo is a small town of sorts, just a quick 30 min train ride from the city. With tons of bars and restaurants, and fish and chips, sandwiched between a harbour and beaches, beaches and more beaches. No complaints here. Although there is a bit of a brisk wind off the water, called Freo Air conditioning perefct in our hot summer days, and a black dust that covers everything, and gets into the house. Most people don't even notice it. But when you're a neat freak like me, well, you notice.

Anyhow. That's about that. Will be back on asap with more photos and stories for you all. Keep checking the blog, and i hope you are all enjoying the end of winter over there....did I mention my permanent tan? hehe

...xxR

Aussie Babe

Another adorable pic of Miss Emily

West Coast Journey

So after 23 days on the road, we finally made it to Perth in one piece. Or rather, more surprisingly, the car made it in one piece. In Darwin we briefly met Daniel and Jenny a young German couple who purchased an 84' Ford Falcon Station wagon in an appalling shade of lime green and were looking for travel companions. So Carla and myself along with Mathew (not his real name!?) from Korea, crammed ourselves into the car and headed down the coast.

The trip all in all was great, although for the first week, before arriving in Broome, it was brutally hot. We obviously had no air con in the Green Monster and sticking your head out the window for a breeze was like putting your face under the blow dryer. I was literally drinking 4.5 to 6 Liters of water a day and never have to pee...now that is sweating. yuck! But upon Broome we enjoyed the cool ocean breeze and humid days. The beach in Broome is gorgeous, even though we still couldn't indulge in a swim because of the box jelly fish, which are by the way deadly. Although we did still see a couple brave swimmers, I wasn't up for the risk.

So in three weeks I managed to pet a baby kangaroo, see many roos (dead and alive) by the side of the road, see crocodiles up close (scary), swim with a few different species of sea turtles, and snorkel alongside rays. We had to hide our shoes at night from the Dingos, and a pack of Emu's ate my lunch one afternoon. We got as close as one can get to a Dugong in the wild. A mama and baby may I add, while on a boat in Monkey Mia, and I got to feed a hungry wild dolphin his lunch of local fish. Here parrots and cockatoos roam like pigeons, Pelicans the size of Carla sit down beside you on the beach and the fish are a foot long in knee deep water. I love it!

We climbed thru an amazing set of gorges in Karanjini National Park, which at times required some Spidey-like moves, or swimming thru cold clean fresh streams and waterfalls. It was great!! We visited Stromatolites, which are 35 Billion year old living organisms, which look like rocks, which are responsible for moving oxygen from the sea water into the air making us able to live on earth...that's pretty cool. We saw giant turtle nests, as they come up on to the beach after 5o years of life to lay their eggs. And I mean huge nests! We visited the mysterious Pinacles in the desert and dinosaur footprints on the coast. We met about every German in Aus along the way as well, and there are heaps...and of course a couple Canadians.

The car broke down like clockwork every sunday, which meant waiting till monday to get the thing fixed. But the junker got us here and in one piece. And of course a holiday wouldn't be the same without a trip to the hospital with Carla. She had boiling water spilled on her leg, ouch! But don't worry she walked away after two weeks of healing unscathed. Although had to miss out on some swimming in the middle. We only got stopped by the police three times, and once was for "illegally showering", don't worry mom, the cops laughed at that one too.

We saw a giant: prawn, crocodile, banana, and rock lobster. We saw a couple amazing lightning storms from a distance, but rarely got rain. Although we did get wind. We had a couple nights where putting up the tent was not so easy when it was blowing away, and did you know that tent pegs don't work so great in sand? It always is a treat waking up to nylon pressed to your face and the sun in your eyes as the tent has caved in around you in the night.

It was great and even though we are gearing up today to start work again and an apartment and settle in Perth for a while, we've already lined up our own car for our next adventure heading East. There's so much more to see...or conquer as we like to call it.

Merry Christmas to All!!!!!

xxRobin

Some more Elcho Island

So here we are starting our last weekend on the island. And we are very excited to go. Not that we haven't enjoyed our experience here, we just thought it may be a bit different. You see, as it turns out, it is not easy in three weeks to really penetrate society here. To get to know people and join in their social activities, as we'd hoped. The general consensus seems to be that we are here to work in the store, and serve them, and for nothing else. Oh ya, except to give out free food to and from work. It is assumed that anytime we leave the house we are going to or coming from work so that's the reaction we get. I am disappointed, but realise I have learnt quite a bit about their culture and daily lives and rituals. I did see what I was planning to; sober and culturally involved Aboriginals living their lives in a traditional way.

There is one major cultural difference here that really starts to get to Carla and I: they yell. See, for us, in our culture, yelling is rude, and that is not the case with them, sometimes. They have no native word for "please" or "thank you", simply for lack of requiring it, because before we emerged I guess those sentiments were always assumed as part of a transaction. But in our culture we want to hear it. I sure as hell don't feel it here if no one says it. So sometimes we scold the teens, in a nice way. Always smilling...ok always trying to smile.

There was a disco last night, which is the flood lights are turned on in the basketball court next to the shop and music is played out of the back of a jeep with an mc and everything. It was so cute. And good music too. Made me want to go out and join in the dancing. There was even this really adorable group of boys. They must have been about age 7 to 11, and were dancing in sync all in a line. My favorit ewas to "Ice Ice Baby". Although at one point as they were throwing lit flares at each other, the mc threatened to shut it down reminding the kids "that's fire!". There are so many kids here, it is unbelievable. There must have been a few hundred munchkins under the age of 13. And they stay out all night. Even the 5 year-olds. Must be all those 1Litres of Coke and Sprite they drink, and chocolate bars they eat for dinner.

So we went walking yesterday to find Mission beach. Where the Macassans used to land to trade with the Aboriginals on the island. his is the first Aussie land that made contact in trade with the outside world. So I thought I'd include a bit of history on the relationship. This is also the only Aboriginal land tat flies flags, so that when the Macassans come back, they will know where to land (they never did understand why they stopped coming).

Macassan traders from the southwest corner of Sulawesi (Indonesia) visited the coast of northern Australia for hundreds of years to fish for trepang (also known as sea cucumber or sandfish), a marine slug prized for its culinary and medicinal values in Chinese markets, used for flavor enhancing, as a stimulant and as aphrodisiac. These visits have left their mark on the people of Northern Australia — in language, art, ecomony and even genetics in the descendants of both Macassan and Australian ancestors that are now found on both sides of the Arafura and Banda Seas. They first arrived around 1720 to Elcho and stopped trade in 1906 due to new trade laws and taxes.


While markedly different from their experience of colonisation by the British, the Macassancontact with Aboriginal people had a significant impact on their cultures. The visits are remembered vividly today, through oral history, songs and dances, and rock and bark paintings, as well as the cultural legacy of transformations that resulted from the contact.
(which is how we learnt it, from the interpretation of a painting, here on the island, in the art center)

The Macassans exchanged goods such as cloth, tobacco, knives, rice and alcohol for the right to fish in Aboriginal waters, and to employ Aboriginal labor. Such products brought with them new opportunities as well as new challenges, such as the dangerous combination of knives and alcohol.

Some Yolngu (Indigenous Australia People of the North) communities of Arnhem land re-figured their economies from being largely land-based to largely sea-based with the introduction of Macassan technologies such as dug-out canoes. These seaworthy boats, unlike their traditional bark canoes, allowed Yolngu to fish the ocean for dugongs and turtles.

Some Aboriginal workers willingly accompanied the Macassans back to their homeland across the Arafura Sea. The Yolngu people also remember with grief the abductions and trading of Yolngu women, and the introduction of smallpox, which was epidemic in the islands east of Java at the time.

A Macassan pidgin became a lingua franca along the north coast, not just between Macassans and Aboriginal people, but also between different Aboriginal groups, who were brought into greater contact with each other by the seafaring Macassan culture. Words from the Macassan language can still be found in many contemporary Aboriginal languages of the north coast. A widespread example is the word Balanda meaning 'white person' (which originally came to the Macassan language from the Dutch, "Hollander"). Some of the goods traded by the Macassans spread far across the country, even to the south.

So that's a bit more history for you. It is all very interesting, and I feel very privileged to be able to be in such a historical place.

-R

A bit about Elcho Island...

Elcho Island is an island off the coast of beautiful Arnhem land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem Region. The island's largest community is the settlement of Galiwin'ku (which is where we live).

Elcho Island is approximately 55 km long and 6 km across at its widest point. It is bounded on the western side by the Arafura Sea and on the east by the Cadell Strait.

Galiwin'ku, located near the island's sourthern tip, is the main community on the island. It is the largest Aboriginal community in northeast Arnhem Land, the second largest Aboriginal community (in terms of concentrated population) in the Northern Territory, and ranks eleventh in population of the 69 local government bodies in the Territory. There are a large number of tribal groups, with up to 22 different dialects being used in the community. The people of Galiwin'ku retain their tradition and culture for future generations by strict traditional methods, and through education, embrace the wider Australian community.

They all refer to us as "Yappa", which means sister, and to each other they say the same. "Yakka" means no, and "Yo" means yes, and "byno" is a general word for "not available". Otherwise we are learning items in the shop like "mapo" is eggs and so on.

The island is home to the largest Aboriginal community in northeast Arnhem Land, with approximately 2,000 residents living in the main settlement of Galiwin'ku. The total population of the island is 2,200 people, including 70 non-Aboriginal people. The population of Galiwin'ku varies during the seasons, with many outstation residents migrating to the community during the wet season due to inaccessibility. The community also serves approximately 25 outstations with a total population of approx. 450 people. 48% of the population is under 20 years of age, with 7% over 50.

Galiwin'ku is a traditional Aboriginal community with restricted access; permission to visit is required by law and can be made through the Northern Land Council directly or via the Galiwin'ku Council. Total alcohol restrictions apply and there is no gasoline available on the island; all gasoline-powered vehicles use Comgas as a fuel substitute.

The settlement was originally established as a Methodist mission in 1942, with the arrival of Harold Shepherdson, a lay associate of the Methodist Overseas Mission from Milingimbi. It remained under Church direction until 1974 when it became self-managed. Eighteen connected clan groups within the Elcho Island locale have close cultural ties with mainland Arnhem Land clans and language groups. The most commonly spoken languages are Djambarrpuyngu and Gupapuyngu (both Yolngu Matha languages). However, there are at least twelve more languages in use in the region.

All in all a petty cool place, with alot of history and a strong culture. There is no industry here, and the well equiped school is poorly attended, which is unfortunate. So as far as we can see the people's days are filed with eating the junk we sell at the shop (not much available in terms of healthy food), playing cards, the women play for dollars, and the kids for silver (20 cent pieces), and performing ceremonies. It appears they live pretty much entirely off of government funds and are not doing too badly.

And also we have been told that this is actually the first place in Australia that ever traded goods with the outside world. They began to trade with Indonesia, and the Indonesians told them that people would come and take over their land, so I guess when the Methodist church came, it wasn't such a surprise. No Christian influence here as far as we can tell, other than the housing beeing western, and clothing somewhat, and the time schedules of the schools and shops, although there is a run down church, I haven't heard any bells on Sunday.

Life on Elcho

So here we are on Elcho Island. Took us about an hour and a half in the smallest plane I've ever been on, about 12 passengers, and no airconditioning on it at all, but we arrived safe and sound. We are living right in the middle of the community on the island and about 5 minutes from the store we work at. The town as you may call it consists mostly of run down houses with dirt roads and bare trees. Not much looks alive here as we await the rains of the wet season, although there are still plenty of mangoes dropping from the trees. We are living in an apartment where we share a bathroom with the lady next door. Nice to have our own space again...mostly to ourselves. The heat is amazing here. 39 today, and that's without a humidex and in the shade. Even so, we wandered down to the beach to have a walk around and managed to get great sun burns...not much shade here. Ahh well. The ocean is the most amazing shade of blue, so beautiful, and its beauty and brezes make up for the dry dusty earth around us otherwise.

So our days are pretty much filed with wandering around introducing ourselves to everyone, reading, watching tv and movies and that's about it. Not really much going on these days. There were three deaths recently on the island, so there were some ceremonies to watch. Nothing too amazing, although it is interesting to be here among the community, even tho we feel more like observers than participants. A couple more weeks here and that may change. We will see.

Work is quite routine. Serving food stalking shelves, making fish and chips. Pretty easy. The worst part: no airconditioning! It is so hot in the shop. I was hoping to adjust by now, but no such luck.

So hope to report some exciting news to you all soon....that is if anything ever happens in this tiny town.

cheers, R

Darwin: gotta love it.

Ok, ok, I know its been a bit ridiculous, but we're still here, and I've made a new promise to myself to keep this thing up. So probably the main reason we haven't written in a while is beacause: we haven't done sh*t.

Ok, not completely true, but we arrived in Darwin Australia at 7am on a hot August morning, and haven't left. Darwin is a small town, lets' say somewhat like Barhaven. Rich suburbs, 2 Universities and an Army and naval base...which means lots of young boys. Which means the bar scene here is booming, and not much else. Although you can all imagine that does keep Carla and I entertained.

So recap for the last two months:

We arrived amid the Darwin Cup, a massive celebration, which meant the entire town was fully booked. We thought we were going to have to sleep in the streets until the nice receptionist at the Youth Shack slipped us in the back. We stayed there for two weeks, but it was loud, busy, huge and impersonal...and expensive. Although I took the very glamorous job of cleaning rooms right away to pay for our own. So after two weeks of that we moved to a long term housing in the back of another backpackers lodge, Elkes, where we still are today. We love it. Now I will say, it is more like a shack and if I had seen the state of the kitchen before we moved in, or tested the beds I would have run in the other direction. But as it was we showed up here with all our stuff in a stolen shopping cart with a hangover and 3 hours of sleep and that was that. There was no turning back.

The house turned out to be great. Hence the two month stay. There were 14 people from all over the world living there and it was a party. The perfect communal living, where every evening brought the house together in our outdoor living room to drink and sing to OJ's guitar playing. Although things have gotten quiet lately, the weather here is sooo hot. And I mean like you are stuck in the desert withought a breeze hot, so most of the house has moved on.

Suposedly the wet season was to start about a month ago, and we are experiencing the worst drought in Aussie history and also getting into cyclone season. So you may be asking yourself: if everyone else has left town what the hell are the two of us still doing here....good question.

I guess it's partly because we couldn't afford to leave. Not until now. And now we really like it. I was working my butt off at three jobs for a while. Acting as a slave at Energy2Go, a sandwich shop run by the new entrpreneur Kat, who has some serious social impairments that pretty much make her the worst boss ever! I'd come home feeling like "I know how to make a sandwich!" She would pretty much tell me how many peieces of bread to use every day....so irritating. And also I was doing time at Darwin Souvenirs and Gifts. The most boring, unchallenging job in the world. Where my boss, who saw the fact that I had a degree and past working expierience on my CV would be so surprised if it took me under 20 minutes to fold 5 tshirts! I think she's just never had an inteligent employee in her life. So frustrating. But in the end the boring retail job won over the stressful Deli. Why stress when I can spend the day sitting on my ass and get paid the same.

Although about two weeks ago I left them both for the classy position of supermarket checkout girl. A job I was also juggling along wit the rest. You can imagine my social life with three jobs: not much past a movie and a home cooked meal in the good company of Jun, my new number one. Actually Carla and I are just packing up and ready to hit the road. We've got ourselves a 3 week work contract in an Aboriginal community on an island in the north, Elcho Island working at a take-away food shop. Sounds beautiful, and should be an amazing cultural experience. There is no industry up there, and it is a very traditional lifestyle. As our boss describes it, the people like to paint themselves and jump around and sign all the time. Sounds good to me. I have to perfect my digereedoo playing at some point.

So we are leaving on our charter plane tomorrow morning and will be back in Darwin at the end of November. I am hoping to fit in a few more days at Coles Supermarket to secure a transefer to Perth...where we'll be heading next. And hopefully we'll be able to go to Kakadu national Park as well, which is pretty much the and the only reason people actually come up here.

We did make it to Litchfield camping, where we saw the giant magnetic termite mounds and swam in the various picturesque crocodile free waterfalls. Although there was an oversized lizard or two bathing with us, no crocs yet. It is beautiful up here. I do reccomend it fr the scenery and sunsets and markets.

So I am sad to be leaving. I've grown very comfortable and happy here in Darwin. But it is easier knowing that I'll be back soon and don't plan on cutting any ties in the meantime. PLus I think ou should all be a little affraid for me: Carla is quitting smoking! the island is dry, with no smoking or drinking at all. So that's it. Cold turkey. Carla is very confident and determined, as I am stalking up on chocolate and sedatives....that's not pecimistic is it?

love you all. xxR

Faye's little princess

This is Miss Emily Lyn Pears for all of you who haven't met her. Faye and Peter's little Princess, and so adorable I just had to show her off to all of you.

Things are heating up in Darwin

Hello everyone,

So life in darwin, what can I really say about it. Carla and my life, since we got here, has pretty much consisted of working all day, everyday, and sometimes late into the night, and then going out to discover Aussie beer and goon, and stumble home to out bunkbeds. Ain't life grand.

Actually we have just moved into a house with 12 other people, also travellers. It's behind the hostle, but isn't part of it. Which means we don't benefit from things like maid service, but we do benefit by having no rules. No curfews. Things don't close at certain hours. It's great. It's like a college dorm or something. We've met a ton of cool people there too and there are always new people coming and going. So we are happy. It's a bit further out of town, but not too far to walk.

I've discovered the thursday and sunday night markest at Mindi Beach here in town. very cool. Cheap stall eats, and live music, and tons of shopping to tempt us. Saturday night I snuck into a festival concert with some friends at the botanical gardens, great venue. There was no way I was paying 70 bucks to see some Aussie bands I'd never heard of. The night turned out to be great though, Youth Group and Gomez were the highlight...not sure if you've heard of them, but they are apperently quite popular over here. And they're not techno! The amount of techno here would drive any Canadian mad. I mean what happened to playing top 40 at the bar at a regular speed. I see no need to create mass convulsions on the dance floor. Just play the song at a speed we can all naturally move at!

Saw another band last night at the ski club (water ski that is). Although it was a soothing kinda music, and not what I needed after a 10 hour day and only a few hours sleep the night before. But we still caught a gorgeous sunset which made it all worthwhile.

Carla is sick with a flu again, poor baby, and is really working in her new matress at the house. Actually such uncomfortable beds. Like sleeping on thin foam and metal slats...actaully that's exactly what it is! Horrible. and still bunk beds. But that's what you get for economic lodging.

So here I am heading into another crazy work week, and the weather is getting sooo hot. And I rarely complained in Aisa, or Ottawa for that matter. This is a diferent kind of hot. Especially when you work in Aircon all day... One more month until everyone vacates the Northern Territory and its horrible heat. And the plan is we go too....

cheers all, R

Darwin, Australia: it's no Asia

So here we are in the north of Aus suffering culture shock at the hands of Darwin City. I have to say Carla and I were quite nervous about leaving Asia. We got quite comfortable there, I mean I can't say that I don't enjoy bathing a million times more now that the showers are hot...and real showers for that matter. I can truly appreciate the western ideal of seperating the toilet and where we clean ourselves. But at the same time, it is soooo expensive here. I want to retreat.

Bali was wonderful, although we spent our last week fighting with Garuda for our flight, we stayed in Sanur a patch of white sand beach just south of the airport. We shopped the markets in Denpasar, sunned on the beach, watched all the kites fly all day (this is a big Bali thing; kite building and flying). We met some nice boys at Jimmy's Bar, including Nyoman the hottest deaf surfer this side of everywhere. Stumbled upon the charms of Mike Sunglasses who drives the hardest bargain on the boardwalk, and told us about all the latest and greatest horror films we'd been missing. Including Hostel, which we still refuse to watch, since we have to stay in one. And of course Scott from the Westcoast of Aus who warned us about the bad mining boys in Darwin(no complaints yet), and let us chill and crash at his Villa, with the spa and pool...we really wanted to stay on in Bali for this one. And who shared with us our alcoholic tendencies in our last couple of days at the Beachside Bar, and didn't let us get sentimental about the loss we were feeling in leaving. Thanx for the fond farewell Scotty.

Asia was great, as a whole, if we could generalize here for a minute. The food, most often delicious, and for give or take a mere 1$ a meal. All I ate for the last month and a half was Nasi Goreng, ie Fried Rice with prawn crackers and sambal of course, my two new obsessions and the only two Asian import foods I managed to smuggle into the country. The two months before that geen curry....i miss you stall lady in Bangkok. Plus, the people are always willing to tell you more than you need to know about every town and city and what there is to do there. Even if we managed to see no further than the beach or beach side bar in 7 days, we still felt like we were touring and enjoying the 'culture' of the various countries. Our only stress when we rolled into a new town was do we pay 5$ for a rat free room or 2$ and risk invasion. ahh the good life....

Then there is Darwin, as soon as we got off the plane with 6$ Aussie between us, I knew there was going to be trouble. We arrived on a Sunday, first mistake, with a holiday monday following, second mistake. Therefore no banks were open. Not even the one at the airport(if you could call it that). All the hostels were full, because of the holiday; The Darwin Cup, and we were considering putting a tent on the Visa and busing it to the nearest campground.

But after about 4 hours of super stress, we found a bed (at 22$ each a night!!!!), and were given meal tickets for 1$ pub grub. Actually this is the best deal in town. We get coupons from the hostel and get to eat real meals like roast beef and mashed potatoes for a dollar. Which is a great help in substituting our new otherwise diet of grilled cheese and instant noodles(with sambal!). So don't worry moms, we're getting our veggies. Things since that first meal have been slowly falling into place.

I secured a job at the hostel to pay for our beds. Carla has three trials this week at various restaurants, pretty much meaning she'll have her pick for jobs. We found the mall, and there's a free shuttle to it! And even better, we found the bottle shop and the cheapest boxed wine they offer (10$ for 2L). And so we're settling back into small town western life slowly but surely and plan to make our mark on this town before we leave.

So things are good. The plan is work our asses off, drink in the down time, and get our buts on the road. We'll be there in no time Jess, i promise.

miss you all, R

Malaysia Underwater Camera, Yeah!

Of course we couldn't resist buying the sunscreen that came with a free underwater camera (Vaseline Intensive care brand, the best in underwater cameras I'm sure) The first time we used it the pictures didn't turn out so great seeing how there was no film, so, we took some pictures of sea turtles (this one also has Robin's hand in it thanks to my advanced skills as a photographer) in Pulau Keci in Malaysia and of the shipwreck in Bali, and it was a bit more impressive than it looks in the pictures.
OOOH! BARRACUDA!
Robin swimmin' like an egyptian surrounded by fish, lots of fish!very cool rainbow fish
Christmas tree coral, if you touch it, it disappears into the rock

Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, Flores: The long way across Indonesia

So the first bemo (local bus) droped us off at a transfer point, where we waited for our next bus on the corner and were instantly surrounded by local men. I don't know what it is with Indonesia but there are so few women around, very strange. We managed another tiny cramped local bus with locals peering at us like rare birds at every stop. The bumpy ride dropped us off in another town where we had to take motorcycles to the ferry port. It took alot of hassle to get on the boat, without a ticket across Sumbawa, but we managed. The ferries here fill with locals before departure: kids scrambling to collect bottles and cans to recycle, men and women selling food, water, snacks and kids signing for the crowd asking for a bit of change in return. This happens even if you are on a bus getting on the ferry, they all come on your bus, and faking sleeping doesn't work to avoid these salesmen! They are persistent.

We took the ferry across to Sumbawa, and met a Dutch couple on the way doing something similar. We finaly managed to get ourselves on a local bus to the capital city 3 hours away, negotiating only to pay double the local fare. The first bus was alright, but it broke down rather quickly leaving us on the side of the road. Patricia and Alfonso decided to take an aircon bus that puled up to Bima, and we decided to keep it local. The next bus we got on, we sat up front with the driver, staring at the road as it passed beneath our feet thru the rust holes in the floor. A little daunting. Well the bus started chugging and stalled a couple times. Once at the bottom of a hill. So some people got out, I assumed to wait for another bus, but then they shooed us back on and all the men starting pushing it, little by little up the hill so we could push-start the bus. Well after this slow process of a couple minutes, much to the locals surprise we jumped out of the front and started pushing, and in one swift go, we pushed the bus up the hill and jumped back inside. Everyone was laughing and happy when we started down the road again, probably thinking we were either the strongest or heaviest two little foreign girls they'd ever seen!

Well it obviously didn't take long for the bus to um...loose its brakes! and as the driver down shifted to stop the bus, we thought "what is going on!" But again, a third bus came along pretty quickly and we shuffled onto it. I insisted the bags go on the roof, so no one sat on them, cuz this one was packed! And you'll never guess with what: I climbed on only to be shuffled to the back where I leant on about 50 gas cans! Great. When Carla got on smoking, and was surprised when someone said "no smoking on the bus" since in Indonesia you can smoke everywhere(!), she looked puzzled till I explained. Well the only benifit of this was that after not showereing for three days now, atleast the locals couldn't smell me over the fumes!

We took this bus to Sumbawa Besar, finally, where we had to wait for another "big" bus to take us to the port. It was suposed to be 20,000r, and ended up being 70,000, not a pleasant surprise. We waited 4 hours at the deserted bus station, starving, surrounded by men, again, waiting. When the bus finally arrived, it was full of men with two seats left. There was no way we were sitting apart, so they gave us two seats together at the back, in the smoking room! An actual glassed-off section of the bus, also holding the toilet and a refridgerator. Fun! So I took my headband and covered my nose and eyes, and drugged up to sleep on this long overnight bus. Carla woke up to Pervy McPervertson smelling her armpit and snuggling up, so had to stay awake the rest of the night.

We were dropped off at 5am in the port, where we pulled out our sleeping bags and slept on a platform outside a restaurant waiting for out 8am ferry to Flores. Well, keeping with how our day was going we woke up in the am to find out there were no ferries that day, seeing as it was Tuesday!! So we were determined to get on any boat we could and get out of that dock, filled with creepy guys wearing dirty clothes and still not having showered for going on 4 days now. We met the couple from the ferry again in the port and they very nicely offered us to join them on their chartered boat to Komodo and then onto Flores the next day for free. What a treat! So we managed to get some real food in us and hop on the boat for another 6 hours to Komodo. It was a gorgeous and at times slightly wavy journey on this tiny boat where the "toilet" was a blocked off section at the back of the boat with a floorboard missing. nice. I also woke up at one point afetr sleeping on the deck to sliding quickly towards the ocean...a bit scary. Luckily I was caught by the tiny railing and caught all my things before they went overbaord.

We arrived on Komodo and were slapped with a new "fee" to even step on the island. It also turned out to be mating season and so it was not guarenteed we'd see many Komodo Dargons. Well I was more concerned at this point of showering and changing the clothes I'd been wearing for 2 days and one night. Our only accomodation options came with a mandi, and not a shower. I was soo sad. A mandi is just a tub of water and you bucket shower. Which is alright sometimes, but sometimes, is really inefective at washing your hair and this one was dark and dirty. So no clean hair for another day for me.

We did see two giant Komodos, up close. Pretty cool, but they were near the camp, on our hour walk of the park we saw only other wildlife, although the "Flying Lizard" was pretty cool. We got back on our boat to head to Flores and what was suposed to be a great port town. Not exactly. We did stop to swim on the way which was nice, and got some sunbathing in on the roof of the boat. We also stopped at a tiny island fishing village to buy some Bintang beer. We arrived to hoards of screeming kids: Touris! Touris! Mister! Mister! Every kid in town came out to gawk as we walked thru the town. It was so fun. the locals smilled and wanted to be in pictures and we bought candy to hand out to all the kids. We taught them to sing "Ole, Ole Ole Ole..." And they sang it as our boat puled away and we waved good-bye. So fun!

We got to Labuanbajo to find that all the accomdations were full except two rooms in the whole town. It was also quite pricey, and a run down fishing port. Patricia and Alfonso changed their flight to go back to Bali the next day and Carla and I stayed for a couple days, but we couldn't even afford to got snorkelling, and the trip to Kilimetu (the tri-colored volcanic lakes) would have taken us 7 days, that we did not have. So we stayed a couple nights, not feeling very comfortable, and paid one bus company a motherload to take us straight back to Dempasar in a 32 hour bus and boat journey.

So here we are, back in the Bali that we love, staying in Sanur beach and preparing for Australia. We leave on the 6th. We are sad to go, Asia has been wonderful, but still looking forward to the new adventure.

-R

Bali: Tulamben and Padang Bai

After our great Volcanoe adventure we hopped on a shared charter to Tulamben, a town with nothing, and no one, where the only attraction is a US Cargo ship Liberty that was torpedoed in 1942 15kms south of Lombok. Attempts to tow her into the port failed as she filled with water and beached at Tulamben. Then an erruption of Gunung Batur shifted the hull into deeper water. This made for a very cool snorkelling site. Although accompanied by a strong current, and a dozen divers, the coral life on the ship was very cool, and the fish just as interesting. It took us two tries as we had to wait for the proper time of the tides to get in the water so we weren't swept past the ship and onto the wavy beach.

Then we went on to Padang Bai, the port town to Lombok, where we decided to give our super touring a rest and spend two nights. We got the coolest Bungalow, which was more like a barn with three big beds upstairs and the bathroom and a lounge area below with couches and chairs, where they brought our free breakfast in the morning. It almost felt like a real house with our own living room. And a bit of luxury is nice once in a while. The beach was so cool, composed of coral beads not completely ground down, so you sunk very deep into the earth, but like lying on a waterbed. We also arrived in time to see their annual festival which was a colourful parade through town.

Then we jumped on the ferry the next morning to head to Lombok and the Gili Islands. Gili Trawangan was great. And island free of police, filled with handsome young Indonesian men, fun bars, open pot smoking, "bloody mushrooms", beautiful beaches and a great bungallow. We could have stayed forever, but thought it best to keep going after 6 days seeing as we have a limited time to see all of Indonesia. In retrospect we should have just stayed.

We went back to the mainland and took the bemo to Senaru and hiked to the waterfalls, which obviously the locals told us we would never find by ourselves. The second and larger waterfall was gorgeous, like thundering water jetting out of the foliage of the mountain. It is belived that swimming in the pool at its base is a fountain of youth and grants you an extra year on your life. Well, we found out why: the water was freezing! The spray alone, when the sun went behind the clouds was enough to make me want to run. But it was also amazing, like standing in the middle of a hurricane.

The next morning we split from Paul as he was heading back to Bali to fly to NZ (we miss you!!), and Carla and I went east towards Sumbawa. We thought we would be able to take local transport as our cheapest option across Lombok and Sumbawa to Flores, which we read was amazing. Well the trip was a bit more difficult than we thought....

R

Bali: Gunung Batur

So after some simple public transport we arrived in freezing cold Kintamani on the crater rim to a raging wind, in our shorts of course...we didn't really think of the possiblilty of a drastic weather change. Oh well. After tons of hawkers offered us some of the lowest prices for their goods I've seen so far in Asia...never a good sign of their situation, we got in another Bemo (local bus), heading down into the crater to the tiny town of Toya Bunkah. We met some heavy pressure to pay 45$ USD each to climb the volanoe the next morning...as we were planning on doing it for free, alone, this was quite annoying. We settled into a nice Guesthouse, sharing a super kingsized bed between the three of us, Carla, myself, and our friend Paul to sleep for a few hours before our 4 am wake up call to start our climb. We ended up paying a guide about 10$ CAN each to lead us in the dark about 1.5 hours up to watch the sunrise. It was freezing when we started, but as we quickly found out, climbing straight up a mountain 1717 m high takes a bit of work, and sweat. And it was good we had a pack of guides too,because on the last 40 minute straight up part over the volcanic rock, even with our flashlights there was no clear path. Plus, one of the porters, who brings up drinks to sell at the top at an incredibly inflated price, practically hoisted me up the last leg, as I was having trouble breathing in the altitude and had to stop frequently. Meanwhile Carla found herself a bit behind with our guide struggling with her breathing as well. As it turns out, climbing a volcanoe is not the easy task we had thought it to be. ha. But so rewarding! The sunrise was not amazing due to cloud coverage, but as we explored the old craters and new crater, and saw the smoke rising from the active volcanoes, I felt on top of the world. They cooked us breakfast in the steam in the groud. Boiled eggs, and cooked bananas...a delicacy. It was a very cool experience. As we ran down the volcanic sand, full throttle in the early morning sun, I really felt like we accomplished something. Gunug Batur has errupted more than 20 times since 1800, the last time in 1994. The scene is left with it in the middle of a crater thought to be caused by a meteorite with a lake at the bottom, and natural hotsprings inside. A very cool scene. There were erruption warnings of the new crater at the time that we visisted, so we were not able to get too close to the new one, but did feel the heat of the steam of the active volcanoe in the older crater.

Bali

Arriving in Bali was about the most relaxed border experience we've had yet. The Visa guys flirted with us, and the xray guy was writting a text message on his phone as my bag (and 2 pounds of Hash...kidding) went thru the machine. Although it would have been that easy. I handed the last guy at the door my customs card, not really giving him a chance to look at it and walked out...not that he would have bothered asking any questions anyway. I though to myself, Bali is so relaxed, this is what I need....and then I arrived in Kuta.

Kuta Beach is insane, filled to the brim with holiday travellers, 90% under 23 years old, and the beach filed with amatuer surfers. We found a guest house off PoppiesII , an alley off an alley. We spent most of our nights with the rest of the inhabitants chilling on the GOYA steps drinking 8,000 rupiah (1$) beer:Bintang. When the party shifted to the clubs...well we tried to join...but it didn't quite fit. The bars are so cheesy, we started at Raggea bar for little dancing and 1L "tropical" drinks, meaning we have no idea what was in it. Then on to Bounty which starts off as a kareoke club and then you enter a giant makeshift ship, where the staff is all dressed as sailors, and the dancefloor is packed with Aussi teens on vacation. It goes on and on. the worst part is, these clubs I found out the next night either don't allow locals in, or they charge the locals a huge cover and let the tourists in for free! Now how does that make sense? Everyone comes to Kuta to blow cash and so why not make us pay (ok, not us, the backpackers, but us, the package tours). That pissed me off a tad and after trying to get one of our local friends in thinking they must bend the rules a bit to make the tourists happy, and it failed, we went back to our favorite haunt, The Secret Garden for cheap Balinese wine...love it!

So after four days of debauchery and attempting to drag our hung-over asses down to the beach everyday before sunset, so sad, we left for Ubud and here we are now.

Ubud is north and located in the interior of Bali. It is surounded by gorgeous ricefields and mountains and exudes culture. The religion here encompases every aspect of daily life and is so colorful and inviting. We went to the Kecak and Fire Dance two nights ago. Which is composed of a chorus of about 100 men seated in a circle around a large candelabra chanting various rythms of song and "chukit, chukit", with coresponding arm flailing and such. As the kidnapping scene from the Ramayana is played out through song and dance in the middle of the circle around the fire. The dancing is so beautiful, so ornate and specific, using eye and small finger gestures as moves. Then there was the trance dance where two young girls performed a long dance in unison with their eyes closed to a chorus of men and women signing with a bowl of insense burning to bring the Gods down to the earth. Then another man in a trance dances around on a wooden horse walking through and kicking burning coconuts in bare feet. It was amazing. After they are finished they are brought out of their trance by being blessed by a priest.

Yesterday we rented bikes and toured the city. Visiting the Elephant cave, and Royal Palace, and watched young girls practice their dancing in the square, so adorable. The Palace was quite different. It is all open air, with few closed rooms. All are simply raised and under roofs with stone pillars, kind of like gazebos with garden in between. I will try to post pictures to better explain. We finished the day by watching a full moon ceremony in the temple on our street where all the women in the neighborhood brought large offerings of fruit and incence in large baskets they cary on their heads then place on an alter. There was singing and music and it was all really inviting. And today we attempted to take a tour of some temples in the mountains, although got rained out and the mist was too thick to see the view. Gorgeous landscape none the less. The architecture is very different here compared to the rest of Asia so far. All the homes have inner courtyards and their own mini temples. We are staying with a family, as here it is more a homestay syle, versus hotels and guest houses. It's very nice.

So tomorrow we are moving on to Kintamani to hopefully climb a volcanoe, weather permitting...we'll let you know how it goes.

-R

Southern Malaysia

After our wonderful Jungle Adventure, Carla and I decided to hold up in a more developed part of the country for a while and spend a week in Kuala Lumpur. The city was quite drab, even being the capitol, and had not much to offer in night life, or culture for that matter. But we ended up at a fantastic guesthouse, Wheelers, where we met loads of cool travellers and staff. We spent our evenings on the roof top bar or hallway bench drinking bottles of whiskeywith our Canadian friends Shane and Cody and dancing to Kelly Clarkson...that was when the footy wasn't on. And our days roaming the streets and the Chinatown market for great deals on "brand name" items. What the city lacked in ambiance it definitely made up in bargain shopping. It was so hard to resist. I have never seen better fakes in my life...or tour of Asia I guess.

We did venture out one day with the lovely Irish duo of Owen and Wally to see the "park". We were planning on seeing deer and birds and buterflies at this so-called oasis in the middle of the city. Well it turned out the park was being built, or renovated in many places and all the "animal parks" were closed, although not due to renovation, due to death actually. Turns out all the deer died. Oh well they were imported from Holland anyways, and so not much of a Malay flavor there. And the buterfly park was like 5$ to get in, and so we toured the gift shop and figured we got the same thing except the butterflies weren't exactly moving, persay. Anyhow, a good day anyways, and of course finished off with yet another bottle of quality whiskey. Malaysia is a very Muslim country and so alcohol is kind of hard to come by, for our standars and really expensive in the bars to boot. About 8 Rm(2.50$) a glass of beer, and that's happy-hour. Crazy!

So after putting off packing up our stuff again for a couple days and becoming the un-official KL/ Malaysia tourguides for all the new Wheelers guests we left for Palau Tioman, to join a few of our friends, Paul(England) and Jenny and Johnny(Scotland) on the duty-free island. We also grabbed a fellow Canadian, Marie-Helen(Quebec), to pass the days in our hammoks enjoying the sun. The evenings we spent at the little bar on the beach with all the local boys....too many actually. Seemed to me there was a shortage of young women on the island. Leading to many locals I nick-named Chester for reasons you could all probably guess. After running away a few times, they kinda got the hint and stayed away...kinda. All in all great time. The local drunken chef made us Poutine for Canada Day and the boys built us a bonfire. We recruited another Quebecois and sang the National Anthem on the beach, after spending the day snorkelling and drinking beer of course. We represented and then took off for Singapore a couple days later....the end.

-R

Singapore: Asia-lite

Hello Everyone,

Carla and I are in Singapore at the moment experiencing Asia-lite. It is so clean and organised. the buses are never late, the metro runs on time and everything is a fixed price, pretty much. Very different from the rest of Asia. Oh ya, and did I mention it was expensive! Well at least according to my newly adjusted standards. But the shopping is amazing girls, and I have been really good and only buying those few "necessities". We've been here for about four nights now, and fly out to Bali (yay!) tomorrow...on a real plane and all. Who knew travel wasn't always by bus?

Anyhow, Singapore is pretty good for a country where it costs you 1000$ fine if you don't flush the toilet. We visited the Zoo, which was amazing, as you will all pick up on when I send out the hundreds of photos I took there! I had to change memory cards in the middle of the Orangutang feeding...but have no fear, I still got plenty of photos of the Zebras and Giraffes. Animals rock! We also went to the night safari, also pretty cool, yet a bit creepy to be walking around in the dark with giant cats and such. We also went to the Aquarium, slightly less exciting seeing as at this point we're all cocky like "I've swam with bigger sharks than that" But there were still some pretty cool sting rays and a 4 meter spider-crab from Japan.

Sentosa island is like a kind of fantasy-island created by the tourism board, pretty much symbolising the lack of history Singapore has, and its desire to become one of the world's "shopping destinations". The whole thing is quite the show, and features a giant Merlion: the symbol of Singapore/its mascott (half lion half fish), designed by the tourism board and errected in a 500 foot statue covered in lights with laser beam eyes, that you can pay 10$ to take the lift into its mouth and look over the enormous shipping harbour. Too bad we missed that one. Although we did see the spectacular "water show", which Carla misinterpreted as "magic show", and we watched a water fountain dance to "walking on sunshine" and such other lovely tunes...need i say more.

So today we slept in a bit missing our free breakfast at the guesthouse of self bbq'd eggs and toast. And then wandered around getting our flight to Bali (yay!) for tomorrow, and to little India where a parrot "read Carla's fortune" and we got henna tattoos and also sampled all the great Indian food we could possibly fit into a day. So good. So that's it tomorrow we're off to Indonesia, and back to the beach....see you in the sun. R