ozamina

Home sweet home!

2006-05-30T09:02:00.000+10:00

Well everyone- what a trip! Amazing. The flight home was good. From Sydney, to Japan for the night. And from Japan to Vancouver and then straight to Calgary. Too long, about 24 hours. Japan was so expensive, but i met a cool couple on the plane that were at the same hotel as me , had dinner and drinks so that was cool. My room was a cool little single, emphesis on little! and the TV was all japanese, so I pretty much read while i waited! But i was so excited to land in Canada- Finally! I really missed it. And i appreciate it so much more now!! The whole trip was amazing, but I am just ready to be home! So I stayed at my cousins house in Calgary, and had my aunt do my hair- much needed. And we went out on the town one night. Good to be home. Sour Puss and 7-up- my favorite drink, the went down way too easy!! mmmm. And Canadian beer! So after sleeping our hang overs off, we headed to Camrose to see my grandma and cousins. So good to see familiar faces. Just a treat! Had a few days of R&R before i headed to Red Deer to meet the nephew Tyrell. What a gem. He is so sweet and cute. Just amazing. The biggest blue eyes you have ever seen! Constantly smiling! I got to go for the 1st hair cut and the first day at the beach! So cool. So i spent a few days there before hopping on the greyhound home. The bus was full so the 1st part of the trip was shit cause the biggest weirdo on the bus decided to sit next to me. CREEP! But thank goodness, he was only on the bus for45 mins or so. My buddy Colin picked me up from the bus station and took me home. So good to be in my own bed and own house, I just love it! So the Thursday i got home was a big party, I was trying to surprise my boos and not tell her, but Shana spilt the beans, but I did good, she didn't know till about 2 hours before we were going to go to the bar! What a night, I really don't remember much. I was told a few things though- would rather not elaborate! But all in all a great home coming! Just good to be back.

So i have been home about a montha already, and things are going good. I am back working at god ol' loony toons bar, and i have taken on a day job at a lingerae store called isabelle's boutique. Super busy and just trying to make all my moola back!!! I'm sure all my fellow traveller friends know what thats about!- sucks!!! The last month has been good and bad all at once, mixed feelings about being back, and one of my best friends- Joel was killed by a drunk driver. (So please don't drink and drive. ) That was a hard week. Such an amazing friend and had a heart of gold. Also I lost my voice for like 2 weeks, so that sucked. But on the up side- I am working, almost paid my brother off, and put a good dent on the CC bill, so i figure a few more months and i should be good to start saving for another trip! We had our annual Bar tenders olympics last weekend, That was a blast. All the bars in town get together at Jack Fish Dundee's Pub and drink all day, and you enter teams of 4 and do funny relays and look like an idiot all day! So fun! And this weekend is Canada Day- woo hoo! So because the bar is union, we are closed on Saturday night. So that will be a big run away too! Not often all the bar staff have a Saturday night off! So not much has changed. Still drinking way too much!! oh well, your only young once. But just wanted to say thanks to everyone who blogged with me! loved the comments and feed back. So glad i met all of you and keep in touch. If you ever come my way, the doors are always open!! Love you long time! and take care. I will be posting a few pics from the olympics and home, so stay tuned. I may try to keep this going to. So keep stopping in!!!

Thai pics

2006-05-14T10:21:00.000+10:00

Our room in Railay, Sunset, The pool

Phi Phi, James bond tour, James bond island

Where we went swimming. M+D elephant riding at fanta sea, Me with an elephant! How cute, he was posing!

Part of the fanta sea building, part of the table seating for the buffet. it was like 10x that big, mom and dad!

Phuket, the beach infront of the hotel

Heaven

2006-05-14T09:34:00.000+10:00

So we boarded a packed ferry over to Krabi. We had pre arranged accommodation on Railay beach. You can only get there by boat. That was pretty interesting. By the time we had arrived, the tide had gone out, so we had to carry our huge bags on the muddy slippery sea bottom. Quite a while I might add, and then hop in a long tail boat! We made it fine. I was sure I was gonna duff, but my stirdy sea legs never let me down!!! We arrived on Railay East and made it over to the West side where we were staying, It is called sunset beach, and rightfully so. They are beautiful every night. Even if there is cloud cover. Just gorgeous. The beach is closed in with two huge rock formations on either side. The whole place is like that. It is a rock climbers heaven. So beautiful. M+d and I hung by the pool, had great food and explored the island. I decided to get the heavy guns out one day and oil up, after all I couldn't let dad beat me on the brown factor!!! He came pretty close though. Bugger! Took me a year to get this dark! On one of our excursions, Mom and I held a monkey. So cool. Mom was right excited. Too bad we weren't carrying our camera. One day we went over to Ao Nang. Just a little town 10 minutes by long tail boat away. Shopped a bit and had a great Italian meal! Got a bit soaked on the way back thoygh! The sea was rough! Dad and I were drenched! Was good fun though. Railay was my favorite stop of the whole trip. Just beautiful. Will definitely be going back there some day. The beaches were just so nice and tranquil, so relaxing. There was a hotel on the island that costs $4500 US+ a night. We walked over to the beach one day and I kept expecting to see some stars! But never. I suppose it would be pretty hard for me to recognize some of them anyway!!!! Was sad to leave here. We headed into the city to catch our flight to Bangkok. Our trip was coming to an end and it was time to get some shopping in! So basically I had a day and a half before I left for Australia. We went mad!!! Shopping that is! Dad caught the bug REALLY bad! All he could do was buy buy buy! was quite amusing really. Mom and I had a good laugh. It got to the point when we couldn't even be by a market and dad felt like he had to buy something! We went to the jatachuk, pat pong and koa san markets all in one day! needless to say we were exhausted by the nights end! But bought some really cool things. Cool clothes and couldn't leave without a fake rolex!!! Its hard to stop spending here! Everything is so cheap and you lose track of what you are spending. The bartering is good fun though. You really have to push. Sometimes we would just walk away if they didn't give us the price we wanted, but they always came and grabbed us for the sale! Really fun. Some of them are big scam artists! Thailand was such a blast. I was there for 1 month and I never seen half of what I would have liked to! Will definitely have to go back here! I had such a great time with my parents. It was really cool to see them on the other side of the world! Was really glad they enjoyed themselves! Was hard to leave them again (their flight was the next morning) But not long till I come home now, June is just around the corner! Hard to believe a year has come and gone! Wow.

So I am back in Australia now. Flew into Brunei for a 2 night layover before I made it though. Had a hotel room all to myself! took advantage of that by having undisturbed sleeps, long showers and movies galore! Plus some good room service! Flew into Darwin for a layover and then to Brisbane straight after that! Met up with Dave and Kate- love you guys! and hung out with their friend Reg-(Thanks for the excellent BBQ! Had a great time!) Shopped around town a bit, and went to MI:3 and just been hanging out really. Pretty broke at the moment so not much else to do! But that is about it for now. Will write soon. Miss you all!

P.S. Thanks mom and dad for everything you did. Love you guys so much. Miss you a ton and really I can't wait to come home. Not long now. You guys are the best! xoxox

sun and sand!

2006-05-09T18:37:00.000+10:00

Well I waited at the airport in Phuket riddled with anticipation. I seen my mom and dad through the gates and i started to jump and get all excited, that was until people started staring at me! I had a few minutes to compose myself before i actually seen them though, can't say that for my mom! She was a mess. Well not that bad! (It wasn't like watching a walk to remember or anything!!) But we got a hello's and tears out of the way and we headed into Phuket. We stayed at Patong beach. One of the places the tsunami wiped out. But you really couldn't tell, other than some things being new and some pictures they had up. Mom and dad couldn't believe how hot it was! I had been warning them! There glasses fogged up every time they went outside too! We spent the first few days relaxing and catching up. They brought a crib board with them, so we played that a lot too! I just learnt before i left, but it didn't take me long to skunk them both!!! Mom burnt the first day, she had tons of sun cream on too! Dad was a mad man, getting all the sun he possibly could. They have this thing about tanning, being the darkest! He looked like a roasted rack of lamb! sweating to beat hell! It was quite amusing when he did fianally admit that he burnt a bit! Mom and i kept thinking he had just got out of the pool, when actually it was just sweat!

Everything here is spelt pheneticlly here so m+d sat by the pool drinking pina carattas! pretty funny after they had a bad experience with a daquiry that ended up in the shrubbery! Dad really enjoyed the cuisine. I felt like i was back at home at boston pizza. When dad orders first, the waitress thinks it is for the whole table and starts to walk away!! He was a hungry boy! i think all the staff thought it was funny cause they kept coming over and couldn't believe how much he could eat! Some of them were quite humorous! Made my night anyway!

We did a bit of shopping in Phuket and and took a few tours. One to the fanta sea show. Which was like a vegas style production. Very good. Loved the elephants and story line. I got a few pictures with an elephant and a baby tiger who was so cute and cuddly. Mom and dad rode an elephant and we shoped around the complex a bit. It was huge, we also went for the buffet dinner- dad was in heaven!! I was too for that matter!! I have taken to eating a lot over here! suppose that will have to change when i get home! There must have been seating for thousands of people there, no kidding. It was huge. That was a good night, and the next morning we headed out on the James Bond island tour. There is actually an island called that here. They filmed, the man with the golden eye/gun, (not sure what the real name of the film is, sorry all you bond fans, I know i will hear about this from colin- sorry buddy!) It was quite cool anyway. The tour included going to the island, walking around a bit, swimming at the beach and my favorite part of the day, canoeing into caves. Really cool. we didn't even have to do the work, they had people to row for us, was just relaxing. Lunch was a bit of a production though. Everyone was so hungry! m+d and i were waiting paitently in line- or what we thought was the line, and by the time we got up there most of the food was gone! It was like buzzards at a shit wagon! Reminded us of cartoons when all you see is a big cloud of smoke and when it settles alls thats left is a chiken bone!!! Really funny! We had a big supper that night! I can't think of too much else we did in Phuket, seen lots of lady boys, watched terrencial rain! goes as quick as it comes, and it is still hot! Relaxed in the ocean, oh yeah- mom lost her sun glasses in a wave and her skirt too! pretty funny. It is just such a crazy culture. Power lines all over the place.No order on the roads! Just crazy. Had a really good time in Phuket, but it was off to Phi Phi (or fi fi as dad pronounced it!!) for 2 nights. This is the island closest to where they filmed the beach, you can take day trips out there if you wanted to. Phi phi was good. was still lots of construction and restoration going on, dirty too. not my favorite place. Did a bit of shopping here, but mostly played crib and slept. I had a throat infection that kept me in bed for a few days. Dad spent most of his time on the internet listening to hockey- it is the playoffs you know!! and mom spent it lounging around, reading and playing crib with me. Was quite relaxing. But i will leave you with that for now. Krabi is our next location, stay tuned!

Sorry for the bad spelling, but you get it! you would think i was in thailand still!

Songkran

2006-05-09T18:15:00.000+10:00

A truck load of freezing cold water!!! Song Kran- the pumps they put in the streets for the event, Water gun stall on the side of the road. I'm sure she normally sells fruit! Koa san road- backpackers hub of Bangkok.

Thailand Pics

2006-05-01T14:07:00.000+10:00

Cooking class, Sweet and sour chicken- my fav so good! The whole group.

Trekking. The river we rafted down, the shower at camp, scenery

Em and i eating with our bamboo plates/chopsticks, Wit and Jame making our plates, The waterfall where we had lunch.

Corn and Julian playing shit head, Tribe boy making candles, Tribe kids- so cute!

Hanging out! Our sleeping quarters, supper time!

Trekking. Wit our fearless leader! Elephant riding- so cool!

Elephants. Crossing the river!

Island hopping!

2006-04-29T14:25:00.000+10:00

Well I have been trying to pictures up for a bit now and I can't seem to find a computer that works!! Never fear I will keep trying!

Anyway! Ko Tao- we got there on the ferry! After a long journey Train/bus/ferry/taxi we made it to out beach bungalow! Seashell resort. It wasn't on the beach though about a 1 minute walk though! Emily and I checked in and made ourselves at home! We took a walk down the strip a bit and turned around and went back for some snorkeling equipment. We spent some of the day on the beach and snorkeled! The other part of the day Emily decided to go for a walk, I was lazy at that point and opted out of it, I stayed in and read my book! After about 15 mins I got bored though! I went looking for Emily cause I thought she had walked one way, but turns out she went the other way! I did manage a good walk though, went into the main town and shopped around a bit and used the internet! The scenery was fabulous! pretty much a beach walk the whole way! When I returned Emily was home! so we got ready and headed out for supper. We has BBQ so good, on a beach front restaurant. Heard the nice relaxing sound of the waves while we were eating. We had a few drinks and while Em had gone to the bathroom these stray cats started to fight next to me and the one was spraying all over the place!! eeew. If he had been facing the other way I would have been covered! Gross. Needless to say we left shortly after that. The meal was great though! We had an early night and got up early to catch the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan. When we got off the ferry we were hounded by people with accommodation and taxi's as usual. They are everywhere. Sometimes they are really helpful, but most times they are annoying! Anyway we stayed in Hat Rin. The place they have the full moon parties. We missed the party, as we were in Chiang Mai for the new year! A good trade I think! But we stayed at the coco hut for 2 nights. However I didn't get up to to much here because of my tummy troubles! Just took a walk in the town and sat by the pool and read on the beach and slept a lot! Boy was I tired! But it was just nice relaxing. I think Em really enjoyed herself too! She finished a HUGE book in just one day! Speedy!!! We both agreed it was great just having some down time! The room we were in was 2 steps from the beach. So nice, we could hear the waves all day, Better when we didn't have the fan on (which never happened!!! Just too hot!!) The mosquito's were really bad here too. I hate that! But a great stop anyway. Our next stop Ko Samui! We loved it here. We stayed at a really nice hotel, Baan Chewang. We were living large! Really nice pool area and right on the beach again! We had a great time wondering the streets and getting pedicures/massages/manicures, whatever we could fit in! Really relaxing again! Just what the doctor ordered! (yeah right, that is what I have been doing for the last year! However I am sure hard working Em loved it) I did really enjoy it too! Nice to be in one spot for more than a day! We stayed here 3 nights? Maybe 4 I can't remember. I was obsessed with the TV! I haven't seen it in so long! I wasn't over my tummy troubles yet and I was having the worst cramps ever. But Em to the rescue!!! she went and got me some medicine that cleared me up after just one dose! Bless her! What a relief that was! It was smooth sailing from there! We just loved Ko Samui. I ran into a guy I met in Sydney- Craig, small world! And it was just so relaxing, I'm sure our nice hotel room had to do with that! But we had to move on. We gathered our important documents from the microwave!! (As Em mistook the safe for!! Funny- an honest mistake, it looked like one!!) Emily was leaving in 2 days and my parents were arriving! So off to Phuket we were. We took the Ferry/bus/taxi again. We managed to get a taxi from Surat Thani to Phuket. 4 hour ride, and I think it was like $40 or something like that. So cheap. By the time we arrived it was dark, we checked in, to an unmade room at first!!! And were moved to a made up one! The bell boy was hanging around for so long for a tip, but us being so cheap didn't give one, he even resorted to calling us lovely!! We had our free drink in the bar and a quick bite to eat and off to bed we went! They must have been so glad to get rid of us cheap buggers! We booked on a Phi Phi island tour the next day! (where they filmed the beach) In the morning, like 20 minutes before it left! But we made it. We snorkeled at 2 different places had a wonderful lunch. Toured the island and home we went. At the second place we snorkeled- monkey beach there were little monkeys all over the place. So cool. I didn't realize this at first, until I looked up from the water to see what all the fuss was about on land! Was enjoying snorkeling!! Haha. But I made it over there and had a good laugh at them fighting over banana's! Really cool. We headed back to the mainland with a hotel voucher in hand. We were staying at the gold diggers hotel (awful name!!) but nice hotel. It was right next to the airport which was a good thing cause Em was leaving (BOO!!) and my parents were arriving (yaay!) We headed into patong beach for our last night together and had a lovely supper on the beach and walked around shopping a bit. I found a hotel for me and my parents to stay in. And we took a cab home. It was a fair journey in a taxi, and it cost 500 bhat! crazy expensive for taxi's around here. You can sure tell where the most tourism is. The North is so cheap and the south is quite a bit more expensive!! We finished the night off with some cake from 7-11!! haha and went to sleep! Emily left at 8 am and I slept till 11. Went to the airport to meet my mom and dad...............

Trekking

2006-04-27T20:52:00.000+10:00

hello all! sorry it has been so long! So where did i leave off....... Chiang Mai... Trekking! Well we arrived in the wee hours of the morning. To be carted to the Guest House to wait till 9 am to start the trek. We signed up for a 3 day 2 night in the pai region. Suppose to be the best one?? Anyway, packed a little day pack, or in my case a big day pack, i don't know what i was thinking. I really had no idea what we were in store for! We loaded up with sun screen and bug spray and off we went. Our trekking guide was named Mr. Whiskey- for the first 2 days till we found out his real name, Wit. He was Thai and a great trekker. All they have is water and a machetti! Very cool. He took us on the easiest trail, so he says, but the shape i was in by the end of it..... unreal. I was full of a thick grime of dirt, sweat and god knows what else, branches and sut! I was a mess. The first little bit was challenging... but the last bit was a killer. When i say last bit, i mean after 10 minutes!!! It was a three hour trek up hill. My goodness. I couldn't make it in the jungle! And i wasn't even carrying my bag! Wit took it off me after he seen the state i was in! he kept yelling " come on miss Canada" I was always the last! The scenery was really great. There is so much bamboo in the jungle here. Really different that what i am used to! But lone behold i made it! And Wit gave me a celebration coke for all my hard efforts!! haha! We stayed that night with a Lahu Red hill tribe, Very interesting. They cooked us a great meal. And we had a good night of playing cards with the family and the kids showing us tricks, making candles and drinking whiskey! Good times! The sleeping quarters consisted of padded mats on the floor with blankets and a pillow, all in all very cozy!!! It was a hot night! I think it is always hot here! The next morning was started with an excellent breakfast. Boiled eggs, toast and fruit. Coffee and tea too! After our goodbyes to the family, we were off. We met up with the other group of people and headed to our next location. We stopped at three waterfalls. The second one we swam and had lunch. Where Jame and Wit made us plates from bamboo and chopsticks! (and yes i can FINALLY use chop sticks!!!) Very cool. Wit also made me a bong!!! that was really cool too, of
course i didn't use it though, it was just for show and it had no holes in it. Would have loved to take it home, but pretty sure i can't carry bamboo over the border! let alone a bong! Anyway we arrived at our location, not a tribe, just a few huts and a shower. Very cool to see these whole communities sprung up in the middle of the hills. Very cool to see what they use to work with and how they survive. I loved the cold river water showers after a long day of trekking. We had a fire and a great supper again. The brekky was great again! The third day was by far the best. We hiked about 30 minutes to the elephant camp!!! yaay. I finally get to ride an elephant! They are absolutely massive. Huge feet and trunk. I love them though! Emily and I were on one together. We took about a 40 minute ride and crossed the river twice, I sat on his head too. The hair on them is like a wire brush. So thick and hard. And i don't know why the call them grey, they really aren't that grey, more brown. But that could have just been dirt! But it was so cool. I loved every minute of it! Far better than a camel, however about the same speed. After we dis-mounted we headed white water raftine. The river was very mild. It was the last time they were doing the rafting till the wet season again. The water was fairly low. But boy was it fun. We had the best boat! We keep over taking everyone and drenching them all! after all it was songkran (their new year, they have a huge water fight but more on that later) We got stuck on the rocks a few times too but all was well. We finished the trip off with a nice relaxing bamboo raft ride down the river, right back to where we started. There was a little frog that hitched a ride. He sat on my hand for a bit! We had some more great thai food for lunch and waited for our truck to to pick us up. He was running a little late due to the huge water fight in town, the traffic was backed up! On the way back to the guest house, we were belted with water from all directions! there is no messing around here. We were in an open back truck and everywhere we went there were buckets of water flung at us from all directions. And in most cases FREEZING cold. You may think that would be nice in this hot weather, but no!!! It was so cold. Full of ice! Sneaky people! You could always tell when someone got hit with the ice water there was fits of screams! Pretty funny. The city was in complete mayham. People all over the streets and in the boxes of trucks with big barrels of water. The city puts up temp. water pumps all over the streets so everyone can join in. Most people are thrown in the lagoons. And the streets are over flowing with water, running all directions. Really a sight to see. They get right into it. Plus it lasts five days! So plan on being soaked for 5 days, there is no way of avoiding it. We had to walk around with all of our belongings in plastic bags!!! Funny stuff! Really an experience too. They do this all over Thailand, but Chiang Mai is suppose to be the best!!! So cool. Would love to do it all over again. We did manage to catch the last day in Bangkok and the north is by far the best i seen! In Bangkok they had this white paste they coated you in! Don't ask me what it was. Maybe a flour water mixture, pretty dirty anyway. But we made it to the guest house in Chaing Mai, which was really nice and it only cost 125 bhat a night each. Like $5. So quite a bargain. That trekking tour was so cheap. For the bus ride up there and the 3 days, and all that stuff we did, it was under $90 so cheap here. I love it. We stayed here a few nights, went to the night markets,
and on our last day, when we had had enough of the water we booked into a cooking class. We were picked up in the morning and headed off to the market to get a feel for the ingredients and shop a bit. It was a very well put together course. You chose your dishes and then you all got your ingredients and chopped them and then headed to the kitchen. I made pad thai, egg rolls and sweet and sour chicken, a papaya salad, hot and sour soup, a yellow curry and i am sure there is more, but I cant remember. The food was really good. Compliments to the chef!!! I was so full after the day cause you ate it all as well. And we had a wonderful pumpkin in cocunut milk for dessert! so tasty! The course lasted all day! Emily and i had checked out of the guest house and took all our luggage. We were dropped off at the train station to catch our overnight train to Bangkok. The train was so comphy! The bed rolled down into a double, so i had one of the best sleeps. The next day was kinda a waste. It was a holiday and nothing was open in Bangkok. So after driving all over the city and a failed attempt to see the emerald buddha (our pants were not long enough) we settled for some beers on ko san road! After watching the songkran here we headed to the train station again. Over night to Chumphon. To catch a ferry to Ko tTao. We had top bunks this time, but it was fine. Just slept anyway! But that is all for now. Have so much more to tell you about Emily and My's adventures. Stay tuned for......... Ko Tao, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Samui, Phuket, My parents arrining. Thai boxing, Phi Phi, James Bond Island, and so much more. Plus pictures to follow! Bye for now!

Oh my buddha!!

2006-04-17T23:47:00.001+10:00

** Warning, Warning, some of this may not be suitable for childrens ears**

Hello everyone, sorry it has been so long. I have no excuse this time other than being incredibly busy and not wanting to be on the computer when there is so much going on around me!! Thailand has (as i knew it would) turned out to be amazing. I am really loving it. I have so much to tell you so it may come in stages, I will start with my arrival......

Well I made it fine, as you can imagine! I took all the percautions of locking and checking my baggage constantly, afraid of something being planted! But i made it fine. But no wonder people smuggle so much in this country, they don't even check your baggage, You walk through the 'nothing to declare' gate expecting there to be an x-ray machine just around the bend, and before you know it you are being wisked away in a taxi!! Unreal. They must have some heavy duty tip-offs from people. But in the taxi we went, I had met Emily is Brunei after my 10 hour layover! I rented a room by the hour to catch up on some sleep! pretty funny, anyway we had our reunion and off we went! The Century park proved to be a great hotel, with the best continental breakfast ever. Biggest spread i have ever seen, I was in heaven. We met a few of Emilys friends from NZ the first day, Rachel and Cindy, great girls. They were in the same hotel so that was really convienent. We took full advantage of the first day. Went to Kaoh San road and did a bit of wondering looking at the market stalls, purchasing a few things, cause everything is incredibly cheap! and Emily and i booked a 3 day excursion to Chiang Mai for an elephant trek!! (more on that later) After that we headed over to the chatachuk markets. They are actually huge. It would take 3 days to see everything. It was kinda a big shock to be there though. There were people missing legs dragging across the filthy ground and people hassling you left right and centre. Plus poor animals all over the place. Crazy culture here. What they consider "normal." We had our first thai meal here. Very good. The rice came in cored pineapples. And i had the best watermelon shake in history! mmmm. From the markets, we decided to go back to the hotel and take advantage of the facilities with a nice relaxing swim, in the roof top pool. (5th floor) It is crazy how such a nice hotel can be sprung up in the midst of rubble and shacks. It is like that all over the place though. Another shock! We had a bit of a cool down in the pool. Did i say it is incredibly HOT here. There is no suck thing as staying dry! I swear i have had a mad case of swass since i got here!! Even in the A/C you still sweat!! So after a much needed break from the hustle and bustle we headed straight back into it. The famous pat pong night markets!! OMG!! I thought it was crazy in the day! We were badgered by many men trying to get us to go to their "pussy" show as they put it. We finally said we were just there to eat when we were escorted down this dodgy alley way, all of us thinking- The lonley planet warned us about this!! But we made it to a restaurant ok. The thai meal here was great. I stuck to rice again, and it was the best rice ever. I was pretty full from earlier though, so i opted just to drink beer! Like that helped! But it made the night interesting! After dinner we walked back into the alley to find our 'escort' waiting for us, boy are they presistant. We were headed for the pussy show!! OMG again! What a show it was. After you pay an incredibly high amount of money, 400 bhat! ($12 about!) for a beer and the entry fee. The show begins. And let me tell you the girls in the panflet must have been on holidays, cause their replacments were sure not mush to look at! There were 2 vetrans of the group. Maybe early to late 40's and wrinkly and saggy as anything! But they did have the best tricks. I don't know why they call it the ping pong show, that is by far the lamest thing they do. Here are some examples- Smoking ciggarets, Pulling anything from ribbons to rasor blades to strings of nails out, popping bottle caps off, and they hit the roof. Writing letters, shooting darts to pop balloons, the grosest thing i seen was a girl had 2 clear bottles of coke, one full, one empty, she put it into her clear and it came out black, like a coke. My god it was disgusting!!! I'm glad i got that off the agenda! Besides it being way too expensive, and having ugly girls, that really hated their jobs (who could blame them) It was the slowest show i have ever been to. It took forever and all they did in between shows was stand on the stage. However it was funny to see all the lady boys around. Most were better looking than the girls, I could see why some men prefer them over here!!! We shopped at the markets after the show, looking at knock off bags, Louis Vitton and Prada. Pretty funny stuff! Very real though. I bought a few T-shirts and a change purse-.50 cents and some fisherman pants-$3 so cheap here! All in all a great first day! The next day. Emily and i were off North. We were a bit afraid of the bus we may or may not be on, the LP said booking from where we did could turn out to be dodgy!! But thank goodness all was fine! We left at 6:30 pm and arrived at 5:30am. Long journey, but the seats reclined a lot which made it easy to sleep. Emily and i are having a great time so far! Although, I still have yet to get the hang of the squat toilets, i will be surprised if by the end of this i am actually able to not piss on my feet! It's hard work. I hate having to use that hose to rinse practially from the waist down after every use. Been staying away from them as much as possible! Kudos to all that can do it. I just can't get the pressure/aim/flow going!!! haha! anyway enough about that! Chiang mai was amazing, but more on that later. This is big enough for now! Gonna head to the bungalo soon. Am having a bit of problems with my tummy! (if you know what i mean) anyway enough about that!!! That is all for now. Hope you enjoy. Have some amazing pics to show soon and some more amazing stories, the best is yet to come! But mom and dad get here in 7 days, can't wait. Talk to you all soon.

Pictures- last night

2006-04-06T14:33:00.000+10:00

I have no idea what we are doing here. MMMM munchies!, Gavin Kevin me and Ro.

Ro and I, Gavin in the "didgeree doo" competition! Ro in the ball throwing for free beer. Kevin was the only one that won in our group!

Me. Ro cracking up at Jamies rediculous dancing! Ro and Jamie- nuff said!

Jamie, me, Kevin, Gavin and Ro at the bar!, gavin me and Kevin, Fish feeding.

There is a ray there. Fishies! Ro, Alex and Leafie.
Don't know how you guys made it to your tours/ flights! good job guys! Hope to see you all soon.

I hate rain!

2006-04-06T13:59:00.000+10:00

Where did i leave off? oh yes Broome. Well..... The bus ride sucked. As usual. It was another really long one. But we made it to Kununnara fine and dandy! We arrived in the morning and checked into our hostel, and had a much needed nap! We went here to see the bungle bungles, but the park was closed due to all the rain fall that they have had. Damn rain! But there was another park, just on the outskirts of town that you could walk to and do a hike that took about 2 hours. Me being as lazy as i am, opted out of this one. Ro and Gavin went though, said it was good. I spent my time shopping! And got a great bargain. $20 bikini! Much needed i might add, and i used the internet facilities. On my way back to the hostel, I got lost! whoops, had to stop and ask for directions, It was dark by the time i got back, but perfect timing because Ro and Gavin had just arrived. We cooked a lovely pesto pasta meal and some garlic cheese bread for supper. Very good. And did not much else in this little town! I finished my book, and I think Ro and Gavin also read quite a bit. But pretty boring here. Off to bed it was. And we woke the next morning with ants in our pants! No, just joking, but there was a huge infestation of them in our dry food bag, so that sucked cleaning them out and shaking them off! But i managed! We caught the bus at 9 am, and just our luck the A/C and movie machine were not working. These damn busses! But thank god our driver took it to get fixed, The a/c that is. It would have been hell riding all the way to Katherine with no windows or a/c. I started and nearly finished a new book on the bus! Katherine was good. We didn't do much here either, cause of the rain again. We were meant to see the Katherine goerge, but the water was too high and i guess you were only allowed in the first goerge. I think there are like 15 of them all connected? Anyway, I had already seen it on my Northern Territory tour, and i wasn't too bothered. So we got a bottle of wine and some beer and drank the night away!! We met Kevin and Jamie from Scotland here in our hostel! They are really great guys and we seen them in Darwin again! Caught the bus again to our final destination - Darwin! Very hung over ride! Arrived and are staying at meleluca on mitchell again. We met Kevin and Jamie and Leafie and Alex here again, so that was great to see them all again. Darwin has been really good so far. Not as hot as the last time i was here! Thank goodness. Plus it has been raining a lot. We went shopping the 2nd day we were here. Was looking for a new phone, but decided against it, waste of money for me, only having 1 month left in Oz. We did the coolest thing too, we went fish feeding. It was great. You are allowed in the water up to your knees and you get unlimited bread. Some of the fish were HUGE! and there were big sting rays too, babies too- they are so cute and boy are they camoflage! Ro and Gavin managed to get a free trip to Litchfield National Park. The company had over bookked and they volunteered to go the next day and got there money back!! Good score there. They actually managed to make money cause they got a free meal voucher too! So last night we all went to the Vic for a free meal and too many drinks! Gavin was leaving on the plane at midnight and Jamie and Kevin had a tour to catch at 5 am! We went home pretty early, 1am or so i think. But not before going to coles on a mad munchie mission! Chips and dip- soooo good!!! Think everyone made it on there flights/tours, cause no sign of them this morning!!! Good thing! So i am off to Thailand tomorrow morning. I have to be up at 4:30 to catch my 5am shuttle bus to the airport!!! woo hoo can't wait to get there. Oh and now i have a 2 day layover on the way home in Brunei. So i will hhave time to explore, and add another stamp to my passport! Should be fun! New adventures are always so fun!!! Sorry the blog was a bit boring! But i tried! The next one should be amazing!! Thailand here i come!

Broome

2006-03-28T15:10:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I am fine. None of the 3 cyclones have come anywhere near here so things are good. However the weather is suppose to be getting bad here, just a regular storm though. And let me tell you the rain is heavenly! It is so humid and hot here, I am dying!

We have basically been stuck in Broome for the last few days because of all the bad weather and the flooded roads, but that was OK. Atleast it is a small city (if you can call it that) I think it is known as a shire! But is has been good. The first 2 nights Ro and I stayed at the last resort backpackers, it is a YHA. It was ok, but you had to PAY for the A/C- ridiculous. $1 for 4 hours. We spent like $4 a night just trying to keep it cool to sleep. So after 2 nights of paying for A/C we decided to move across the street to the Kimberly Club. It is also a YHA. WAY better. The A/C here only comes on at night, but that is ok, atleast it is free and you can sleep! And it is a much better atmosphere here and so much cleaner. Has a great pool and bar area and a really good lot of hammock like chairs to sit in, they are so comfy! Love to read in them!

Yep so enough about the hostel, lets get to some adventures! Well Ro, Gavin, Alex and Leafie and I all rented a car on Saturday to explore all the sights around Broome. What a luxury to have A/C at our finger tips! (really, it is THAT hot up here) I feel like I will have to go to A/C anonymous when I get out of here, I have become addicted!!!!! Anyway we started the day off by going to the markets, lots of cool stuff here, I bought a new sarong cause my other one is pretty beat up and ripped. But for some reason I can't bring myself to get rid of it. Something about having it for 9 months and using it so much, I am attached. Think I will convert it into my towel and get rid of my big towel that I am lugging around. And use the new one for the beach! Form the markets we made a mad dash (which we did all day) to the car to get the cool air on us! We headed out to Gantheaume point to go see the rock formations and Anastasia pool. Very nice colors in the rocks and the pool was really cool. Pretty tiny. It was built by an old lighthouse keeper for his arthritic wife! Right on the rocks. Lucky girl! Out here on low tide- which we were not here for, it comes on Wed and Thur, and we will be leaving today(Wed). You can see dinosaur footprints there is 3 sights of them. Very neat! Wish we could have seen them, but I guess you can't have it all! Oh, there were so many dead crabs all over the rocks, I even picked one up!!! From here we went to town beach to the cafe to have a bight to eat! i had a home made burger and it was delish! mmmm. Very good stop. Cable beach was next on the agenda. It is voted the best beach in WA, but I didn't think it was all that great. The sand isn't very nice and all it has really is that it is 22km long. Really nothing to rave about. There are much better beaches! But it was a nice day for a bit of a tan and a dip. We went for a little swim in the ocean. Big risk for us though. But it is just too damn hot not to. There are stingers in the water. Box and iragangie- they can kill you. But you can be treated if it is really bad. So it was a bit of a risk, but not that bad. Lots of people were swimming so we figured "why not." we made it out alive! No stings, just fear! I seen a dead frog here too. Yuck. Pretty cool though. It must have died from the heat, it looked like it was in mid jump and just seized up! Poor thing. Anyway enough about dead animals. We went to the crocodile park here. CRAZY! These animals are so HUGE. They had one there that was 6 meters long. Very intimidating. Scared me. We went on the feeding time tour. They fed them whole chickens feathers and all. Those things are so powerful. I would never want to come face to face with one. FREAKY! Oh and I seen a green tree frog, almost held it but it hopped away too soon!. But I did hold a little hatchling crock. Very cute, besides it shitting on me! I think I have had my fill of crocodiles in Australia now. Too freaky! We decided to go to the pub for a beer after that, to calm my nerves! Just joking! But a beer was needed anyway, I say a beer is always needed! After the beer we headed for sunset over cable beach. Magnificent. Beautiful colors. A perfect end to a perfect day. We took the car back the next morning. We contemplated sitting in it all night till the a/c came on in the room!! (joking) we aren't that bad-yet!

Went to a few movies here. The pink panther and Jar head. Really liked both of them. And we also went on a tour at the pearl luggers. Very informative. Told us all about the history of Broome and the history of the pearl luggers. Really enjoyed it. Seen all the old uniforms and boats and how they worked. Very cool. Just really been chilling a lot in Broome, It is good to do that every once in a while though. Went shopping to good ol' target for some much needed clothes, shorts and a few tops. Went around looking for a new phone, but can't find anything that will suit me! Maybe try in Darwin, we will see. And today we checked out of the hostel and are headed to Kununurra on the bus tonight at 7:30. Another long journey that I am not looking forward to! But it must be done.

Oh, I must tell you about the grasshopper in the shower the other day. Well at first I thought it was a bat! It was huge, I know why they eat them now! I didn't notice it until I went to turn on the tap, of course I was half naked and went screaming out of the stall trying to cover myself the best I could! Thank god no one else was in the bathroom! I moved myself and all my stuff 2 stall down, and I was paranoid that it was gonna hop over to my stall. Which wasn't all that far off, when I got out of the shower, it was in the pounce posiston heading my way! So creepy, I booked it out of there and didn't go back till the next day! What a chicken I am! But honestly it was the size of a grown mans hand. eeew! What a loser I am. Atleast it wasn't a spider, and you have to give me some credit. I did stay in the same room as it to shower!

Well guys that is about it for me. Hope you have enjoyed the last pictures. I will keep you all posted on the cyclone situation, but it sounds like it will be fine. But gonna go grab a bite to eat and get ready for this long bus journey, atleast I can sleep! Anyway miss you all lots.

West Coast Pics

2006-03-26T15:39:00.000+11:00

Some fishies when we went kayaking/ snorkeling. Gavin looking at the fishies!

Ro in her hot snorkling gear. Me in my snazzy gear! wow look at all the fish! and finally the ever flamboyant Rod! funny guy.

A blue spotted ray, Turtle Dude!, a blue clam.

du na du na du na- Sharks!
Gavin and I hard at work in our kayak!

Rod Ro,me, Gavin getting ready to go! Gavin Ro and Rod and i am there, but i am taking the picture, our last dinner in Coral Bay before Rod jumped ship! Rod and Ro trying on some much needed fly hats!

Sun set. The huge pelican at Monkey Mia. Scarey looking. The sail boat we were on to see the dugongs.

A dugong. The dolphins at Monkey mia.

Dolphins. We were swimming just to the left when they came for a visit! The famous shark tank, now you know why my phone is broke!!! Can you see the stone fish? he sits on the rocks and if you step on him he can kill you, very poisonous.

Shell beach where we swam, the flies were so bad. The shells on the beach, it looks like white sand from far away. The shell blocke, it is a natural formation.

This is where the cut all the blocks from, very cool, the bricks in the church are all shell blocks, this is a natural formation, beautiful. The shell is what they use for baptising, the base is made of the shells!

Where we swam after sand boarding. Me in my arab gear trying to get away from the flies, Irma's back covered in flies, and this was the mild part of the day

The dune I went down and almost died climbing up! Me riding the sand! GO, GO, GO!!! fun fun fun.

The ocean at kalbarri. do you see that big reddy brown line in the back? that is the dirty water from the goerges spilling into the ocean. Island rock, you can see some of the dirty water here too and this was 16km away. The "z bend goerge"

Me in my borrowed fly net! Natures window looking out to the loop goerge, really beautiful, wish the flies were better though! A stromatolite.

Pinnicales. The kangaroo. Can you see him?
Do i need to explain this one? now you know why it is the most cuddled!!!

Me at the pinnacles. Well hope you all enjoy!

The West Coast is AMAZING!

2006-03-19T15:12:00.000+11:00

Well what an adventure this has been so far! I really am having the time of my life! Well my adventures started in Cervantes, my first stop. I went here to see the pinnacles desert. I took a sunset tour. It was really interesting. These are only found in Australia. They are big rocks in the desert just pointing out all over the place! There are thousands of them, I want to say they are limestone, but I forget. Got the coolest picture of one that looks like a face and one like a kangaroo and a platypus, and one Farley pornographic one, you will know what I mean when I put up the pictures. The guide said it was the "most hugged" rock of them all! Pretty funny. I restrained myself from hugging it though! The pic was enough for me! The sunset was pretty good too, it would have been better if there weren't so many clouds! On the was there we seen a bob tail skink, which is like a lizard like thing with a blue tongue, and of course kangaroos, lots of them! I stayed 2 nights in this town and I met one of my travel partners here. Rod who is a 66 year old man! He is great and I have been having a blast up the coast with him, I hope when I am his age I am that spry!!! He is just a riot! Reminds me of my uncle Ron! Anyway I took a walk out to lake thetis and seen the stromatolites, (Jason and CA would probably have an appretiation for these, being the geologists in the family) However when I seen them, if I didn't know that they were there I would have walked all over them!! They just look like rocks. They are one of the earliest life forms and were responsible for 20% of the earths oxygen. Pretty neat to think about. On the way back from the lake I got asked if I wanted a ride, and me being as lazy as I am. I couldn't refuse!!! The couple was Canadian and just my luck she was a geologist too! So she explained them all to me. I definitely had a better appreciation for them after that! From here it was back on the bus to Kalbarri!

Kalbarri- Home of the national park where you find beautiful views of the Goerges "the loop" and "the z bend" and a rock formation called Natures Window. This is where I met my next travel partner, Ro, she is from London and really great fun, we get on very well. We all took a tour of the Goerges, and the tour was cut short cause he usually takes you on a walk down the "z bend" goerge, but with all the cyclones on the west side, the goerges were full of water. They are usually bone dry. The guide reckoned that they were over 10 meters deep. It was really a sight to see. The water had traveled 800km to reach there and it was a brownie red color from the soil. The poor town though, it all emptied into the ocean and there was so much of it some of the town flooded. They were in a mad rush to sandbag everything. The ocean was so crazy to look at, there was a very distinct line of brown water and blue water, it really was crazy. Glad I seen it. They think it will take probably 6 weeks to clear up. Just amazing. The best part of this tour was that I seen a wild echidna! It was so cool, just climbing out on to the road. I felt the spikes and let me tell you (Janice and Karen) it was nothing like Elvis! They were really hard and hollow like. It was also huge, I didn't think that they were that big! That was the first one I seen. Very cool. We also took a ride out to the coast and seen Island rock and Natural bridge, Very nice. We seen a sea lion here, just swimming around! I must say though the flies were so bad here. In all my years I have never seen anything like it. I thought Rainbow Lake was bad. Boy was I mistaken. I walked around with my sarong on my head the whole time I was here. I needed to cover my ears and mouth and nose. I swallowed a few and choked on a few and pulled one out of my ear and had about 4 fly up my nose, it was awful. I did manage to make it out of the town without buying a fly net so I think I did pretty good. Wow have I ever come a long way! At home I don't think I would have left the house! The next day in Kalbarri was the best. I want SAND BOARDING!!!! Finally made it. And my god it was hard. And the flies were almost worse here than at the goerges. It was another early morning start. 7:45. But I made it! My sleeping in days ended the minute I left Perth! The sand dunes were huge. We practiced on a smaller dune before we went to the big one. We had 4 positions to try. Laying down front and backward, and sitting front and back! It was so much fun. You go bare feet and bring a pair of socks cause by mid day the sand is so hot you cant stand on it. After we were done the practicing, we headed to the BIG dune, It was huge and you are only allowed to go down one way- Face first, kinda scary, but so fun. I went down two times, and I almost died coming up the second time, the sand is so hard to climb up. I needed to get help. It was really a good day though. We went to a natural lagoon after and snorkeled a bit and after lunch we went and practiced standing up. It was such a good day. We got back to town at 1pm or so and I caught the shuttle bus to the Binnu gas station where we connected to the greyhound. That was the ride from HELL. The bus driver fell asleep at the wheel. Yes he almost killed us. He veered (not like ronald's) over to the other side of the road and hit a post, drove right over it. Ro and Rod were yelling at him to wake up, i never even seen it happen cause I was facing back and talking. Really scary though. But thank god we made it. Was glad to get off that bus. From here we caught a bus to Denham/Monkey Mia.

Denham is where we stayed, cause there is more there. And there is a free shuttle bus to Monkey Mia anyway. The hostel was cool. Right across the road was the sea. So beautiful here. The first day we were here we took a tour with Jenny a local here, she took us all over. It was a really good day. We started out touring the town which has a population of 600 I think. Really small. So beautiful though. We went out to the Eagle bluff look out and seen reef sharks swimming around, they are harmless. The water here is so beautiful. Like a light green and so clear, you can see forever. We went to Hamelin Bay telegraph station and seen where they make cardiid cockle shell blocks. They just cut them out of the ground, they are beautiful. Just little tiny shells formed together over the years. I would love to have a wall in my house with these. The town church is made of them, and it is just amazing. There is a 110km beach here made of them. They look like white sand from far away, and when you get close, they are just millions of them. We had time to go for a swim here and thank god cause the flies were so bad. But when you get in the water they seem to subside. So it was a nice relief. The water was so clear. You can walk 100 meters and it is still only up to your knees. So great. That was my favorite part of the day. From here we went to Oceanic park where we seen some stone fish- They are fish that camouflage with the rocks. If you stand on one they can kill you. Very scary. We seen turtles and fish and sharks, and a sea snake. They are 4 times as deadly as any of the land snakes here, That is really scary! I also dropped my phone in the shark tank, so needless to say it is broken, about time! It would be nice to get all your numbers again though! Just send them to my e-mail please! Ha! We also seen some more stromatolites here, these ones were far more impressive than the ones in Cervantes! We also seen some emus on the road, so all in all it was a great day of wildlife and exploring. Had a really good time. Went home and cooked a good supper for us, yes I cook! It was really good too! Then ro and I got a few beers and watched Oceans 11. Went to bed early cause we had to get up early for the bus to Monkey Mia. It was just amazing there. The dolphins come right to the shore 3 times a day and more to get fed. We were swimming just to the right of where they feed them and they came over for a visit. They are such graceful animals. So amazing to see them. The flies here were WAY better. We swam all morning and went for a bite to eat at about 11. I had the best BLT ever! mmmm, so good. In the afternoon we went for a sail. To spot some dugongs, they are like a seal/whale cross, I didn't even know they existed. Very cool to see though. We also seen rays and turtles, It was just great to be on a boat and the weather was amazing, couldn't ask for more! There were also emus walking all over the place and there huge pelicans everywhere, They must be the biggest bird I have ever seen. Mom you would have started crying on the spot!!! Way bigget than a parrot!!!! Monkey Mia was just amazing. Crystal clear water and such nice wildlife, I must say I have been really lucky over here so far.

I am now in Coral bay. Made it safe and sound, no sleepy drivers! The flies have finally left, there are only a few here which is so good. Really love it here. Went to the beach yesterday and went for a swim, it is the nicest sea I have ever been in, so clear and it was like stepping into a bath it was so warm. Just unreal, really paradise on earth! I can't believe how lucky the people here are. I would love to live here. Even though the town is small, even smaller than the last. It is just so beautiful. Today we went for a kayak and snorkel. We went out to the outer ningaloo reef. Seen some really cool things. 3 sharks, 2 turtles, a ray and a ton of tropical fish and coral. The sharks were really big too. Just so cool. I love it here, did I tell you that already!!!!? Tonight at 1: 35 in the morning Ro and I are headed up to Exmouth, Our next destination. We will hopefully be swimming with whale sharks here! How amazing would that be? I just can't wait. Rod will be leaving us tonight, he is going right to Broome then to Darwin, he is running out of time! will be sad to see him go, had some brilliant times! The rest of the day for me will be taking pictures with my under water camera out on the reef and lounging on the beach. Oh what a life, I could get used to this. I must say that the West coast is the place to be, It is really so natural and untouched. Not so commercial. Really beautiful. I am so glad I did this, Its almost like I am saving the best for last! However there is still Thailand! And did I tell you guys my parents are coming to meet me in Thai for 2 weeks!!!! How cool is that. I just can't wait to see them, I told my mom I will be an emotional mess, she said don't worry she would be surprised if she made
it to china without crying!!!! It will be about 10 months away from home by the time I see them, I just can't wait. I miss them so much! So that is my news for now, sorry it is so long, it is just internet over here is so expensive. $7 an hour! My next post should hopefully be cheaper though and full of more adventures. Miss you all and LEAVE SOME COMMENTS DAMNIT!!!! Love you guys and take care. xoxoxoxo Oh and pictures to follow shortly so stay tuned!

Pictures

2006-02-27T15:29:00.000+11:00

Laura(my roomate) and I on a night out, A funny sign by the place i had my fish and chips, My fish and chips i had in Fremantle right by the sea! Authentic, they came in paper!

The view at Rottnest island
A quokka, The pink lake, so salty. A view at one of the bays on Rottnest, this is where we seen the snake.

The snake. Another quokka, weird looking things, remind me of a big rat with that tail. View on the island again.

Me by our bikes and tent, yes it fit 2 people. Quite cozy! The Perth skyline. A BBQ in the park. Emma, Amy, me and Paula by the BBQ.

Big day out in Perth, the main stages. My bed at the hostel, those are pics of Tyrell and friends my mom sent me on the wall! And the pole dancing!!! Christy, me Josta and Helen. So fun.

And finally me in my wheelchair when i hurt my ankle, was quite fun!

Rottnest Island

2006-02-26T18:15:00.001+11:00

So I made it to the island. I was planning on going for 2 nights but only had the time to go for one. Helen and I went and had a great time. Helen had borrowed a tent from a mate at her work and we went camping, which was great cause it only cost $8 a night! We rented bikes when we got to the island and cycled around the whole island, well most of it anyway, we missed a bit of the south. But had a great time, there were so many great bays and crystal clear water and white sandy beaches. It was paradise. It was also one of the hottest days ever, not a cloud in the sky! We opted to save $5 and get the one speed bikes instead of the multi speeds- big mistake, the island is not flat! which we were decieved by! was a bit of hard biking, but we trudged through. It probably only felt hard because i have done hardly and excersize in the last few months! Oh well, we made it. The island has salt lakes on it that are really cool to look at. They are so salty it looks like the out skirts of them have snow all over, but it is salt! pretty funny. And they shine pink! really neat, the only other pink lake i have seen was in the Northern Territory. Really cool. You bike right through the middle of them! We seen so much wildlife on the island. Peacoks and Quokkas- which are endangered and they are a part of the wallaby family,only smaller. They are like the size of rabbits. They have pouches and look just like a wallaby. They also only have one baby a year. And they are vegetarians. They are mostly only on Rottnest, but can be found in a few places on the West coast. They are rampid at night. They are really friendly too. They let you pet them and everything. And a few were trying to get in our tent!!! We also seen a deadly snake, it came slithering out of the rocks when we were on the dock, it went right up to these people that were on the beach sun bathing, scarey! The survived though. It acted like it never even knew they were there. Pretty cool to see one in the wild though! I was a bit freaked walking to the bathroom in the dark later!!!! What else happened.... Oh i went snorkling, that was fun, didn't go too much but did see some fish and some cool rock formations and stuff. The bay that i went at was full of rock cliffs under water and were hard to navigate around and get over. Ended up scratching my knee on the way back. I survived though! Was really scary with the waves pushing you into the walls and into shore. Had a good time though. I just love snorkling, even if i don't see anything, just like to mess around in the water!! Ate at the dome cafe while we were there it was really good. They have hotels and a hostel, and a few camp grounds. I would love to go back before i leave. Had a blast. Was sad to come back to the hostel.

Not too much else is new. work has been going great. Really love the people there. Have to leave soon, my time is running short! On the 15th i plan to head up the coast for some more adventures. But other than that all is well. Hope all is well with you! Pictures are on their way. Sorry they are taking so long! Bye for now.

Update

2006-02-17T15:51:00.000+11:00

Hey guys, once again I have been shit at keep up on this thing, but once again I am not doing too much but work!!! So lets start with that. Things at Jackson's are great. I had a $500 tip last night, not too shabby! Guess I haven't lost my touch! Too bad we have to devide it up between everyone. I have come accustom to drinking after work, wine, and not boxed wine! I have been trying a whole bunch of new flavors and they are all great. Not too keen on the sav blanc though, more of a chardonnay girl I guess! The other day we had a wolf blass function- An Australian wine company, and we raffled the left over bottles off after work and I won! A sparkling wine, mmmm! So we proceeded to drink it and headed to the boag- a bar here that is open till 6am, and everyone kept saying " you've never been to the boag, you are in for a treat!" and I was, reminds me of the dill! But had amazing fun with my co-workers, and didn't make it home till 6. Good night out! The hostel is going very well too, hate getting up at 8am! What a tragedy! but I manage, and it is good for me to be up before 2! What a life I lead. Really enjoy the laundry task, and free rent is always a bonus! That is it for work. Applied at subway, but I guess I am not cut out to be a sandwich artist cause I haven't got a call back- bastards!!!!

Anyway I have amazing news..... I am headed th Thailand for a month on April 7th. I am going with a friend Emily that I met the first week I arrived in Sydney, she is great! And we are so excited. Em is only staying for 3 weeks so I will have 10 days extra alone, hopefully I can find a friend to travel with in that time. We are going in the height of the hot season, so I amazing it will be unbearable and I will be black by the time I get back, but I cant wait. I really want to ride an elephant, and if anyone wants to join, feel free! we fly into Bangkok on the 7th!

My foot is all healed up. Walking normal again- about time! Not too much else is new. I will be heading to rotness island for a night in the next few weeks, maybe tomorrow. Then I will take a tour to the Margaret river area, have a wine tour, and tasting. And then on the 15th of March I am headed up the coast to arrive in Darwin by the 7th to catch my flight to Thai!!! I will be stopping off at numerous places up the coast, but I am really excited to go sand boarding and swim with the dolphins. Don't know how I will be getting there yet. If a tour or catching a ride, we will see when the time comes. But that is about it for me. Miss you all and luv ya. Sorry about the pics, may be a while, need a full card before I dump my disk. Too expensive otherwise. But hopefully soon.

P.S. I know I cant spell, so sorry.

Perth......so far

2006-02-06T03:21:00.000+11:00

Hey guys, i just wrote this whole thing last night, and it wouldn't post. What a piss off. So here goes again.

Perth has been great so far. The day after we arrived we met up with a friend of Helens from uni, Paula and her sister (great girls) We spent the day out at adventure world! It is like movie world and wet and wild all in one. There were really cool rides and some very exciting water slides. I stayed away from the rides, but i had my share of the water slides. Really liked the ones with the crazy carpets. They were a blast. We had a really good day there and met the next day for a BBQ out at cottlesloe beach. Emma joined as well (really cool chick too) We basically had a whole park to ourselves, as there were no bbq's to use by the beach. What a feast we had. Hamburgers, sausages, salads and even some kangaroo. That stuff is great, very tender when it is cooked properly! Not bad for a few "girls"! The next day we moved hostels and you all know what happened from there- Foot! Owey, owey, owey!

Well after i could walk a bit better i went for a walk up to the grocery store, and on my way back i seen a sign in the window of a restaurant- servers wanted. I was so excited to see it i just called it up. I arranged an interview, not even knowing what type of place it was. Well i showed up and it is called Jackson's. Western Australiand #1 restaurant!! very posh. They were kind enough to give me a trial (that is what they do over here, try you out before they are obligated to hire you) even though they knew i had no fine dining experience. And this is FINE dining. 9 to 11 course meals and three "silent courses" the chef gives you for free. The food is like - pea and mint ice cream wrapped in smoked salmon, and grilled watermelon, and oysters and so much more. The chef is award winning Neal Jackson. So needless to say i was a bit nervous going in. But all turned out well and they were very pleased with me, so i got the job. On my second day they gave me my own section, so they must have been well pleased! And i got to try the chicken and beef. Amazing. I am so excited to be doing something that i have never done before, and so keen to learn every aspect of it. Things have just been looking up from here. I am now working at the hostel 10 hours a week for free rent!! woo hoo bonus! and tonight i just finished my shift at big day out. It is a huge concert that they have here. It travells all over Oz. Bands like Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, Iggy Pop, Too many dj's and wolf mother. To name a few. It was great I met a whole bunch of cool people. I started off in the arena bar and was soon moved to the VIP section. It was great. I'm sure i served a few celeberties, but i wouldn't know the difference!!! What a dork i am! Was a great night and a quick $100. I think that i will head to the subway tomorrow and put in my resume for some day shifts. I will be devestated if i can't become a sandwich artist!!! Its my life long dream and at this point i think it would be good to try the "jared" diet out!!!haha.

Let me see, went for a huge walk the other day, all over Perth. Down to the espanage and around the river to Kings park and the botanical gardens. On my way there i ran into jacobs ladder. Which i decided to climb. The most stairs i have seen in my life- I know i say this all the time. But it truely was. I think Australians have this big competition who can build the highest climb. I almost passed out on the way up! But it was well worth it when i made it to the top. The botanical gardens were beautiful. They remind me of a golf course, so put together, and very short tidy grass! I went on a little suspension bridge along the tree tops, hense "the tree top walk" and over to all the water pools. I made a wish in the wishing well, saw the Bali memorial , and the war memorial. Took a look in the shops and stopped to check out the magnificent view of the city scape. After that I headed back into town, stopped to viset Helen at work but she was too busy so I headed to my favorite cafe for a well deserved meal!

This will make you laugh.... I am now a certified pole dancer. I know what you are thinking. But all the work i did i never even earned one penny!! I'm not that hard up for cash! It was an aerobics class and it was a riot. I have never sweat so much and i was so sore the next day. I know what you are thinking again. I swear it was an aerobics class- get your mind out of the gutter. With moves like stripper push up's and search me's, how could i go wrong! Plus it is on Oprah, so it is okay! Helen, Christy, and Josta (my cool roomates) went as well. We had a great laugh afterwards. Will deffinately be doing that again. Was sad to see Josta go today. After all she was the one who turned us on to "the pole!!"

What else. Celebrated Helens birthday over here. I couldn't participate in the festivities too much because it was in mid foot recovery. But still had a good time. I must say that Perth is a ver clean city and a lot less expensive for things like toiletries, but drink is much more over here which kinda sucks, but i guess you cant have it all! Oh and i must tell you about the hostel. It is great. Has a really nice pool area and a very clean kitchen. It is cleaned 3 times a day which is so good. Most places you are lucky if it ever gets done. It has 2 great TV/movie rooms, and a gym. Pretty sad attempt, but none the less, a gym! And a good reading room. There is also a little cafe here. So that is handy. But i have saved the best for last. I have the best bed in the place. It is a single. No more bunk. I am glad i scored that one!! plus i have a little fridge and an end table and a night light right next to me. It is like my own little corner. I love it. I have been told i have the best bed in the place by the cleaners!!! so that is cool.

Not too much else is going on. Im sorry it has took me so long to write i know some of you were waiting for it (mom). I am headed into work tomorrow to learn how to make coffee, i know that sounds strange, but it is a huge production over here, big machines and art work with the froth. Should be fun anyway and i get payed for it so cool. I really don't understand it though. Maybe if i drank it i would! I am just really glad for the change of scenery. And i suspect my time will be spent concentrating on work and making money. I am planning to head to Thailand for a month, month and a half before i come home. Not for certain yet but fingers crossed. I will also be spending a lot of down time by the pool reading. Which i have come to love, so if you have any good book suggestions, send them my way! Planning to take some tours, but will write about them as they come. Can't wait to go swimming with the dolphins! A few friends of mine Dave and Kate from the dreaded pie cafe are on there way over here so it will be good to catch up with them. Aside from that i am pretty boring. Will be posting some pictures soon, this computer won't let me right now. So don't fret they are on there way!! Stay tuned. Same time same bat channel!!! I miss you all so much and hope all is well. Love Amanda- aka. "pole dancer".

Kow-A-Bunga dude party party party!!!!!

2006-01-19T15:37:00.000+11:00

The Pool party gets kicked off!, Keg stand, Raco and I by the lighthouse. It was a bit of a hike up there.

Everyone getting some shade, Matt(the owner) after one of our drinking games wins, we had to skull our drink and put on the underwear and flip our cup upside down, this was right after our team won, and he proceded to wear the underwear most of the night!- told you he was nuts!, Nas the carpenter- and the keg!

Me Raco and Tracey, The drinking game table!, me in the nice luxourious pool. It was such a relief after being in the hot sun all day.

The walk up to the lighthouse, that is the beach we surfed the second day when we went "out back", Raco standing up. There are no pics of me as i was the one with the camera, and if there were the camera man would have had to be very quick, as i sucked and didn't stand for too long!, Zeffer- Matt's dog, he was a real trooper.

The view of the first beach we surfed-Seal Rocks, The second beach where we were when we seen the dolphins, some waves and scenery on seal rocks beach

Raco, Matt, and me and the american guy- sorry i forget your name!, The pool party and BBQ set up- beautiful place, me on my board, in my lovely wet suit, got some great tan lines from that baby!

Hope you enjoy!

Surfs up Dude!!!

2006-01-16T16:44:00.000+11:00

Well let me just begin by saying....... WOW what a f**king weekend. We started out on Friaday night outside of the Sydney central YHA. We were picked up by the waves crew, who by the way were amazing, and headed off to Seal Rocks. Which is located 3 hours North of Sydney on the East coast. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery, 3 lakes and amazing beaches and of course the ocean! We headed to the botthe shop before we hit the road for some drinks. So much for my no drinking weekend and just relaxing and getting away. What was i thinking??? Anyway, we arrived about 11pm to this beautiful set up. There was an amazing pool and BBQ area, and the accomadation was great. So clean and great to get away from the cock roackes for a bit. I absolutely loved it. The cabin we were staying in was a short walk away from the pool area, but it was great. I would love to own a place like that some day. So we dropped off our things at the cabin and headed into the pool area. Most of the group went to bed early, because we were due to get up at 7am. But Raco and I and Tracey (this cool milf we met!) and an american guy stayed up with a few of the crew members. Ecca, Matt, and Nas. We proceeded to drink a tonne of goon and have a good laugh playing guitar and just getting to know one another. Loved it. We didn't head to bed till about 3:30, which i sure felt in the morning!!!

We were off the Seal Rocks beach for our first lesson, and what a beautiful day it was, not a cloud in the sky and a scorcher. Raco and i went through a whole bottle of sun screen and we still managed to get burnt! My face is killing me and poor Racos is even worse. The conditions were perfect for beginners- so we were told, and they must have been right cause i managed to get up a few times! It was really fun. Really hard too. Probably one of the hardest things i have ever tried, you use muscles you don't even know you have! Mad props to anyone who can do it! So the beach was goergous, we did a little cliff jumping and swimming and when we wearn't doing any of that we were just chillin, working on the tan. After a great day in general, we were on our way back to the cabin for a pool party, for an even better night! We all chipped in $10 bucks in the morning to come home to a nice cold keg and a few tubs of sangria!! and of course goon. mmmmmm it was so good! The pool party kicked off as soon as we got back and lasted through the night as you can imagine. The whole crew got pretty drunk playing drinking games and having keg stands, dancing, and some people even skinny dipped. (no i wasn't one of them, but i bet i probably would have if i had been dared. The state i was in!!) everyone had a great time. And by the way, my team won all the drinking games!!! we were awesome. The crew of waves sure know how to party, and the owner Matt is a maniac!! halarious. Good times though.

Sunday was another early start. 7:30. We headed out to another beach to go surfing again, but Ecca mis-judged the surf and we had to pack up and head another place. Here the waves were huge and you had to go "out back" which is farther away from shore to get the nice waves. I tried it out, but i ended up getting dragged into the beach by Sam's cord around my body and felt as though i nearly drown. It was intense, deffinately a ride. But the best part was we were all sitting on our boards and a pack of dolphins swam by us there must have been atleast 10 and they were no more than 10 feet away, beautiful. I didn't go "out back" much after the first time, just too advanced for me, but Raco was an allstar, she is a great surfer and the instructors said if she didn't keep doing it they were gonna kill her!!! So i just got a little more sun and went swimming, which was when i was stung by a blue bottle jelly fish, those little buggers hurt. I got one on my ankle and one on the back of my knee. The one on my knee swelled a bit. You just poar water on them and the stinging goes away after about 5 minutes or so. Thank goodness they wearn't deadly, however we aren't in the area where the box jelly fish are. So really no chance of that happening. After the day was over we packed up and carried the boards up the huge hill to the car, the lengths you go for good surf!!! no wonder surfers are so fit!!! it is such hard work. After a wonderful weekend we were headed home- Sydney i mean! I would reccomend "Waves" surfing to everyone. So much fun, i would do it again in a heart beat. Although my "career" as a surfer was short lived and consisted of only a few successful stand ups, i will keep trying whenever i can. It was a blast. We didn't end up going sand boarding, because when we tried to book with that company they were full, but i hear the best sand boarding is on the West coast, so off i go! anyway will be putting some pictures of the weekend on here shortly. These computers don't have camera hook ups. So stay tuned........

Happy New Year

2006-01-02T16:47:00.000+11:00

This is what we were above at the opera house, big party, Minel and I ( i hate this pic, i look awful but... the sacrafices i make for you guys! hope you enjoy!) my new years snog!
The Drummers Preforming.

The opera house and an idea of where we were standing, by the end of the night there was no where to stand, it was crazy. And finally this is the big finalle of the fireworks and that is the Sydney Harbour bridge lit up-amazing!

Hello all! and Happy new year! things in Sydney are really good. New Years was great. I spent it at the opera house watching the fireworks, which were amazing! The day started out with me meeting Minel, Ada, and Stacey at the opera house. We spent all day baking in the sun, +35 to get a good spot for the show. It was well worth it though. We were situated above the Opera bar and they had a big party going on with drummers, and this guy swallowing swords and hanging irons from his eye sockets, crazy man, dancing girls on stilts, and they had a really cool dj and band to take us through to the new year!! And the best part about that was we got to watch it all for free, when everyone who was below us paid $150 plus!!!! woo hoo! I decided to drink vodka! but let me assure you i was fine, i remember everything and i really didn't drink that much!!! (which is probably why i remember it all!!!) but i had a good buzz on!! The fireworks were amazing, they had 2 sets, one at 9 and one at midnight. The theme was hearts, and there was even fireworks in the shape of hearts! There were 4 places that the fireworks went off all at once, it was awesome. And the ones from the bridge were so cool. Hard to believe you see it on TV every year and i was in the hub of it all. Amazing. The amount of people that were down there was unreal. Millions, the streets were swarmed. No one could drive vehicles for probably about 7 blocks away from it all. Too many people walking through the streets. More than i have ever seen in my life!! After the fireworks, i took it easy. Didn't want to ruin a good night waiting in line all night for a club and paying an obscene cover charge to get in!! But i had a great night all in all. Got my midnight snog (kiss) from Minel!!

I have the best news....... I am leaving Sydney!!!yaay!! headed over to the west coast. Perth. I am gone on the 20th of January, Got an amazing price on a flight so i didn't hesitate! i am so excited to start travelling again! will have to gat a job for a bit though, but it is all part of the experience! Oh, and i am headed on a surf weekend on the 13th, should be a blast. Free sand boarding too! wicked!! I am so excited to get my adventures going again! woo hoo. I am going with Helen, so i am not alone, which is great and she is so cool too, we are gonna have a blast!

Oh, and i have booked my flight home, see you all in June. Love you and take care.

I hate roaches!!!

2005-12-27T16:10:00.000+11:00

Me and my favorite Irish Laurane Peter and Audry! love you guys, The view from the Manly ferry- sydney harbour bridge, Manly beach-wow!, Jenny Bobby and I at Omallys our local watering hole here in the cross!, My Fav Irish again at Omallys- i fell down the stairs that night and got a HUGE bruise on my ass and i broke my watch! what a state i was in! flippin irish are bad influences on me!!!!! and finally me in bed with my cock roack spray at this horrible hostel i am staying in- so gross they crawl all over the walls next to my bed. Havn't had a good night sleep in over a week. Awful can't wait till Christmas prices go back down and i can afford to live without roaches! Anyway love you all and hope all is well and i will keep you updated. Miss you.

Christmas Day in Oz

2005-12-27T15:31:00.000+11:00

Hello all, here are some photos from Christmas Day in Australia! It was a hot one, not a cloud in the sky. Amazing. I spent most of the day on the beach! Crazy thought i know. But it was so busy, there were Christmas trees and people in santa hats all over the place. It sure is a different feeling over here for Christmas, it is too hot to even realize that it is here. And it is gone just as quick as it came! But i will tell you what the pics are noe. #1..... Is Ada, Roco, Audry, Peter, Helen and Laurane on Cooge beach in the afternoon, Peter and his santa "purse", he had all of his worldly belongings in here careful not to lose any of them!, The christmas tree out at Manly beach, with palm trees in the back- this is just wrong!, The festivities at cooge beach after dark, My advent calander bratz. the coolest one i could find, Bondi beach early in the day, it was twice as busy by the afternoon, not a place to sit, Me in my santa hat on bondi, Roco me Ada and Helen sending our christmas cheer on Bondi! Anyway guys I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Santa was good to you all! Will see you in the new year!

HUGE!

2005-12-17T20:09:00.000+11:00

Just wanted to show you all Jo, he is only 18 he is huge. With Kelso and Raco!!!! We travelled with him and his brother Josh. This is in Airlie beach

I know you love them!

2005-12-17T19:20:00.000+11:00

Jenny, who i worked with at the pie cafe, The Christmas tree in darling harbour, my henna tattoo i got at the kings cross festival,The concert, kings cross-during the festival, bondi beach, Katy and georgia, Raco and i, Peter and olly,my tattoo, the night i quit/got fired - as i told everyone with helen and jenny- i dont remember being there!, The pie cafe, sam emma and steves leaving party, George and jenny- last night drunk off their faces! Me and Raco after the greenday concert- i have no idea who that guy is!

Pictures, pictures, pictures- mostly halloween

2005-12-17T19:05:00.000+11:00

Georgia and I, SJ and I, Sean as beetlejuice, Me in a silly hat, Mike, Hamish the horse being "rode", Nial, Katy as wonder woman and Natalie as Lara Craft, Steve as Austain Powers, Emma Shane Sam Me Dave Nial Katy and Lara.

GREENDAY ROCKS

2005-12-17T18:26:00.000+11:00

So i have done it....... the one thing i really wanted to do while i was in Australia.... Go to a live concert, and i must say i picked a great one. Not only because i am a huge fan, but also because they put on one of the best preformances i have ever seen, and i have seen my fare share. So i bought the tickets the day before the concert... I thought they would be sold out, but they wearn't. (let me just say from the amount of people that were there, it had to have been sold out by that time) It was packed. One of the busiest concerts i have ever been to. A great atmosphere. They were so good, they had 2 kids come up on stage and spray water on the crowd. And they also had 3 people come up and play a song. One on the bass, one on the guitar and one on the drums. It was so cool. Billy picked a 12 year old boy to come up and play the guitar, and when he was done, he gave him his guitar!!! i was so wishing i was him at that moment. And the guy who played the drums- he did a huge stage dive, took a run at it! it was so cool. What it must be like to preform for all those people, what a rush. Amazing. There were lots of fire works and fire as well. All in all a great preformance. Had such a great time. I went with Raco, and we decided to go into the mosh for a bit- what a crazy place to be, i am never wearing thongs to a concert again! my feet were so trampled! but i guess that is part of it. It was so hot in there, and whenever they sprayed water it always hit me right in the face, no one else, just me! like i had a big beakon on my head or something!!! But i was soaked none the less. All worth it in the end. What a riot. When we finally got out of there to safer ground- we just rocked out all night. Amazing. I must say that Raco is a great concert buddy. (don't worry Colin, you will always be my #1!!) After the convert we decided to get out of the cross (kings cross where i live) and go to george street to the side bar. Which was great, it is all backpackers- they don't let australians in, strictly backpackers, which is fine by me. In fairness backpackers know how to have a good time!!! and Australian men (and women for that matter) are pretty cocky! We had a blast, met so many hot guys and just danced and drank our faces off! it was a blast. So much fun. I have been drinking entirely to many yagger bombs over here, but they are just so darn good! mmmm. And draft beer as you all know i LOVE my draft! All in all one of the best nights in Australia so far.

Well what else is new... oh I quit my job. over a ceaser salad, yes i said ceaser salad!!! My boss jenny wanted me to charge a lady $13 extra for bacon and parm. cheese, (not even the real parm) i said that was crazy. She thought i said she was crazy and it was all down hill from there! She speaks good english, but when she doesnt want to deal with something she pretends she doesnt know what you are saying, In the end i just told her to pay me and i would leave! I couldn't be bothered to argue with her when i knew she knew what i was saying. Now i really do think she is a crazy korean lady!!!!

It is my sixth month anniversary today. I landed here in Sydney to this day 6 months ago, hard to believe that i have been away this long. I would have to say that it takes a good 3 months before you are settled into the changes then it is all gravy from there! All i can think now is that i am running out of time! there is so much i still want to do, like go to the west coast and maybe do a side trip to Thailand! that would be amazing, I hope i can fit it all in. So far the plan is to stay here for New years and then right after go in a surfari and learn to surf up to Byron Bay and stay there for a week then come back down to Sydney. Then head over to the west and get a job for a bit! can't wait to get out of Sydney, i have had enough of it. It is just not for me. And the worst part is that i have to come back here once more to catch my flight home. Hopefully by then i will have been away long enough to learn to appreciate it again! Not too much else is new here, I plan to go to the beach christmas day, yes the beach- a little out of the ordinary, but cool all the same. Ant watch the fireworks on new years in the sydney harbour. Can't wait, should be a blast.

Well that is all for me this blog. Merry Christmas to all and all the best in the New Year. Miss you all. Keep in touch. xoxoxo

P.S. Mom give tanur a big hug for me and give Tyrell lots of love. And Colin Thank-you so much for watching my man for the holidays. Really appreciate it. Glad he is not alone!

Just a quick hello

2005-12-07T14:57:00.000+11:00

hello! i know i have been rubbish on keeping my blogs up lately, but i am just so damn boring lately. I am sorry. Anyway as i said, not much is new, went to Bondi beach yesterday. It was beautiful. And if you can believe it i got burnt, my whole back side!!!! funny, it hurts! I wnt to the beach with Raco Helen and SJ, lovely girls i have met in my travells. After the beach, I stayed in Bondi, and met Kate and Dave and Daniel from work and had the best meal at hurricanes, I had ribs and a baked potato,chicken wings and garlic mushrooms. mmmmmm!! i even wore a bib!!! what a mess i was!!! But it was fun, and i didn't feel like such an idiot when i seen half of the place had bibs on too!!!! Havn't had such a great meal in a very long time, think that we will be making it a ritual soon!!! Every Tuesday, cheap movie and hurricanes!!! What else is new....... just been going out a lot, with the girls from work. Jenny and Katy. We head over to Omally's atleast 3 times a week, they have live music in there every night and it is great. Georgia works there now so we visit her as well. Work is going good. I told my boss i didn't want to work Christmas and New Years, and she has cut my hours, big surprise, but i didn't come all the way to Oz to work the best time of the year, I am headed to the West coast soon after the New Year anyway, so i don't really care, I would be surprised if i still had a job come a week or two. Jenny my boss has a way of writing people off the schedule and not even telling them they no longer have a job!!!! haha!!! oh well. hummmm... lets see. I am getting fat!! but it's my own fault! i just keep eating shit all the time, i havn't bought groceries in a very long time! but there is a place around the corner who has the best breakfast... i get 2 fried eggs, 2 pieces of toast, bacon, fries and gravy and a coke for $6.50. I can't go wrong! But I figure you are only young once and i am sure i could lose it if i wanted to, but i just can't be bothered at this moment!!! It probably has more to do with all the beer and wine i have been drinking, rather than what i am eating! and there is no way i am quitting drinking!!! The hostel i am staying in is disgusting. I hate it. The air conditioning is broken and there is no air circulating in the place so it is starting to smell funny and the cleaner is a psyco and is the worst at her job in history, and the bathrooms are a sight for sore eyes, i feel even dirtier AFTER i have a shower, it is so nasty!!!! but when you are low on funds you have to take what you can get! So needless to say, i can't wait to move on! I am planning to catch a ride down the coast and over to the west with Dave and Kate- who I work with, but we will see what happens!!!! So Christmas is coming. Very soon i might add, and i will not be home, i am pretty sad about that, but like my mom said, it is only one day! and i don't want to fly home just for one day! But i am really sad that i will be missing Tyrell's first x-mas. Hope there is lots of pictures when i get home (hint,hint mom) I'm sure there will be!!!! It doesn't feel one bit like christmas here, after all it is like +40!! or something rediculous like that! Crazy. What else is new????? Oh, Shane has not called me since he left!! so needless to say i am sure we are no longer together, freaking men! they are as rubbish in the southern hemisphere as they are in the northern!! oh well. Don't really want to have any attachments while i travel anyway, so it is all for the best in the long run. Well i must get going to get ready for work. Am working at 5 today so take care and i will be writing soon, I promise!!! bye for now.

Kings Cross

2005-11-08T13:06:00.000+11:00

hey guys. How is everyone? I am doing good. Have been in Sydney for almost a month now. I am staying in Kings Cross, which is the more excentric part of Sydney to say the least!! Great entertainment though! there is so many weird people in this area. Prostitutes walking around. (which wear the same outfits EVERY night. Hate to see what an infared light could pick up on them! eeew.) I am staying at the funk house in a room with Georgia and Katie, they are great, from England, and a riot. I have been hanging out with Shane the last few weeks and having a great time. Going to movies, walking around Sydney and going out. I was really sad to see him leave on Friday, but hopefully i will see him in the near future! I miss him! But other news is that i have found a job in Darling Harbour, working in a cafe, the view is amazing and the job is super easy, i don't deal with cash at all. All i do is seat people and take orders and serve food, it is great. I have been working 10 or so hours a day, trying to make some cash, after all the tips are no where as good as there. On average we each make $15 a night!!!! what a discrase! but oh well, Jenny and Neil- my bosses are great, they give us free food and drinks and ice cream and cake all the time, and Jenny also goes out of her way to give me a ride home every night. Very nice of them. I almost feel like i am taking advantage of them cause the work is so easy! But not much else is new with me. I am pretty boring and probably will be for a few months while i get some money together, but i hope to hear from you all soon. Luv ya all! Bye for now

Cairns- Again

2005-10-10T16:42:00.000+10:00

Well here i am in Cairns again! and i am having a much better time this time around! i think it is the company! (Janice and Karen i love you, i mean that iwas not alone for the whole time) anyway we have been staying a few different places, The international Backpacker and Caravellas and now we are at Coronas, it is great only $15 and a free meal. Works for me. I had my big birthday bash here and it was amazing. I went bungy jumping. I think it was probably the scariest thing i have ever done. Thank god Shane came with me or i don't know if i would have went. It took me like 5 minutes to jump off the platform and the guys had to pry my hands off the bars! but it was well worth it as soon as i jumped. I would deffinately do it again, if for nothing else to really experience it. The first time i was so scared i never even paid attention to anything other than not dying! I now know what fear tastes like. It was so cool though. It has been a good few days of drinking as usual. I went out for my birthday and was a mess! did you expect anything else. It was a great time. Nothing really eventful happened, just yoiur usual eating pizza on the side of the road, dancing on tables, not being able to walk! just your run of the mill stuff! Kristin and Shane and Naille and Paddy, Paddy and Figgs all came out and it was a blast. I have just been partying way too much here. But it is fun. One night Kristin and i ended up in a contest for free drinks. We had to feed these guys crackers, do a scavanger hunt, have a fake orgasm contest, how many sexual positions you can get into in 30 seconds and some cowboy game!!! anyway it was a blast and me and my partner came in first and Kristin came in second so we were set for the night! Again i got totally wasted and never made it home till 4am or something like that. Fun times. After tonight i am going to take it easy. The girls came up and met us and we headed up to cape trib for a night. It was good. Very peaceful, it would have been better if the weather was nicer but what can you do! Kristin is no longer with me, she is on her way back to Canada, for a school thing, I hope she does well and gets in! I already miss her. I am headed down to Sydney again to get a job and meet Shane. I will probably be there for a few months. Last night we went to the freestylers dj at gilligans, and they were awesome, the girls ended up in the VIP room and meeting the dj, by this time i had got hungry and tripped over the hot dog cart outside, i have no idea where it was, but i have a huge bruise on my knee from it!! I really need to learn how to walk when i drink. Nothing much else is new here, having a great time. I can't wait to get a job! but that is all for now. Keep in touch. And Happy Birthday to Tara. Miss ya.

More Random Photos

2005-10-05T17:26:00.000+10:00

Our boat, the big spider,toga party,foam party, toga- again!, sand dune, me Kristin and am at the bundy factory. Us with the bundy bear behind the bar.

My Birthday Celabrations

2005-10-05T16:51:00.000+10:00

Sailing the Whitsundays

2005-09-29T18:23:00.000+10:00

Hello all. This trip was amazing. I had such a blast, and if i wasn't tanned before, i am for sure now. I think i am darker than i was last summer! Anyway the trip- We left from Airlie Beach and boarded the sexiest boat in the marina- The card. There was 13 of us which was a perfect nimber. Not too crouded. Let me give you some details on the boat. It is 23.81m long, 6m wide and has a depth of 5.1m. The mast is 75 feet tall and the sail weighs half a tonne. It takes 6 people just to put it up. The rudder is 3m long. It was built in 1987 and at that time it cost 20 million dollars. It sleeps 25 + 3 crew members and in 1988 it placed 4th in the whitbread. Yeah so it is an awesome boat. We had the best crew. Jeff-the capitan. Tessa the hostee and Scotty the deckie. They took great care of us and Tess made the best food. The first day we headed to tongue bay to the hill inlet lookout, this is the 3rd most photographed place in Australia. After the opera house and the Sydney Harbour. It was beautiful i can see why. It over looks the most crystal clear water and it goes for miles, you can see the most beautiful beaches with white sand from here. Just breathtaking. From here we headed over to chalkies beach to have a snorkel. It was really cool, this beach is made of silica, so soft and white. You can expholiate in it. Which i did. I was covered in sand and i never got one scratch. We "parked" the boat off of White haven beach for the night. First thing in the morning we headed to the beach for a few hours. This beach is in the top 10 in the world. So unspoiled and again silica. Kristin and i took a hike to the bathroom and i seen the biggest spider ever. Jen you would have died. Even i was hyper ventilating. It was just sitting in its web right outside the door to the bathroom. Kristin must have had to go pretty bad cause there was no way i would have ever stepped foot in there. I opted for the ocean!!!!! thats what it is there for!!! From here we sailed and i mean real sailing over to boarder island where we had lunch and a quick swim before we headed over to South Molle Island. This is where we were allowed to have a swim in the luxurious pool and hot tub of the resort, play tennis, golf and have showers. It was great. After we were all done our activities we headed to a private bar to have supper. There is normally just our boat and one other there. But that night there was 4 other boats, there was 150+ people there it was quite the party. After the bar we went back to the boat and had a toga party, which carried onto the next day. To give you an idea how the night went. We were woke up by our capitan who had mis placed his wallet and keys the night before. No harm done, we found them in no time!!! We headed over to Hayman Island for a snorkel in blue pearl bay, which is the inner barrier reef. It was the best snorkel that i have ever done, amazing. The coral was so colorful, bright yellows and blues and there were zebra fish and rainbow colored fish. Turtles and this HUGE fish named elvis. He is probably 3/4 size of my boda and a lot wider. He follows you around and lets you pet him, he has huge bright green eyes. He is really slimy. I loved him i just followed him around for like 20 mins. It was so cool. This island is the home of an amazing resort that all the stars stay at. It costs upward of $7000 a night, and all the staff travells through the resort via underground tunnels as not to disturb the guests. Crazy. I wish i could stay there!!! The boat was so cool. Basically you just lazed around all day tanning and relaxing. I never got sea sick once. It was awesome. I was pretty worried about it!! I would reccomend this to everyone who ever comes to Australia!! What a life. We also seen a lot of turtles and dolphins in the water. Beautiful place. I was sad to arrive back to Airlie beach. We were staying at Magnums in Airlie and it was cool. I went to the foam party on Monday. What a blast. I had lost everyone i went out with (go figure) so i thought it would be fun!!! and it was a blast. I met a few friends i knew already in there so that made it even better. I was doing like a bananna slide dive through the foam. I had so much fun. However they are kinda dirty and gross, but that is the last think on your mind. I ended up back in the room to find everyone climbing the rafters and Racko and Kristin having an alcohol fight!!! What a night. I had a great time. I should probably tell you that before this all happened i was kicked out of every bar in Airlie!!! I was a bit drunk and loud! But i went and put my "disguise" on, which consisted of pants and my contacts and my hair up and none of the bouncers recognised me anymore!!!! I had a really good night!!! The next day we had to get up so early and catch our bus up to Townsville. But we made it. From there we caught the ferry over to Magnetic Island. I rented a scooter today and toured the whole island, honestly there is not much to see, but the scooter made up for it, i love scootering. There are a few nice beaches and a ton of beautiful houses here. But not much else. I am headed to Cairns tomorrow for my birthday on Saturday, Sunday to you at home. But i should have a blast i am meeting a ton of riends there and the Irish will be there also. Can't wait. Well i am writing a book here will be sure to keep you informed on my journey from here. Miss you all and Take care. xoxoxoxo

sorry again

2005-09-28T16:20:00.000+10:00

guys i am so sorry i have not been able to put any pictures on here lately, but i had the worst thing ever happen to me. I took my card in to get downloaded and checked it afterward, and there were pictures on there but when i went to down load them i noticed that more than half of them were missing. All the pictures that i took from Movie world in Brisbane all the way up to Airlie beach were gone. So that means all my Fraser island, Noosa, Rainbow Beach 1770 and so much more. I have none. I felt like i was going to cry. So needless to say i am a bit sad and i will have to try to get some of the pictures that i actually got on here soon, but again the disk wasn't working so i may have to wait till i fill anothe card and get it down loaded. I am so sorry. But i hope you understand. I will be doing a blog for sailing very soon. Maybe later. It is just that my journal is upstairs and i need it for all the info. But i will try soon. So hope you still look at this even though i have no pictures, and i hope that you still enjoy. Sorry again. And p.s. anyone travelling in australia NEVER take your pictures to get downloaded at the internet cafe in magnums in Airlie Beach. Bye for now

Agnes Water and the town of 1770

2005-09-21T17:05:00.000+10:00

hey guys. I had the most amazing time here. I absolutely loved this little hidden treasure. We arrived with the intention of only staying one night, and stayed 4. So great. It is this little small town with amazing beaches and the cheapest tourist stuff to do. We stayed at the cool banannas hostel and it was so immaculate, hard wood floors and tiles, huge kitchen and great common room. The bathrooms were great you never ran out of hot water. and there was a bon fire every night and 3 hammoks to relax in. It is by far the nicest hostel i have ever seen. I had the best day in Australia here. It started out by taking a free tour of the town. There were too many people so Amy got her own jeep to drive and kristen and a women we met sharon went with her. We went 4x4 on the beach and had a blast. on the tour Ray announced that they do scooter tours at 3pm every day, so after a day on the beach we went for a scooter ride, Kristin and i were gonna double so it only cost us 17.50 each. As it turned out Kristen just rode with Ray the whole time so i had a scooter for myself. We toured the whole town and i seen the biggest kangaroos that i have seen yet. We went fish feeding and stopped at a pub to get a drink to take down to the beach while we watched the sun set. It was great. The best tour ever. I would reccomend it to anyone! Whe Kristen and i arrived home Amy had cooked us a lovely veggie curry for supper and i got a free clay facial from the clay man! it was really good made my skin so soft. After all that the drinking started and i met some more great irish people! had the best time, love the irish! Greg the owner of the hostel got us drinking dahu! it is a shot. You take a whole bottle of bundaberg rum and add alittle bit of pineapple juice. You pour that in a glass and add champagne, swirl it around on a target 3 times then bang it and it starts fizzing then you chug it! gets you pretty messed up very fast. From here we went to the pub which they turned into a night club for the first time. Wasn't much of a club the dj was just playing music from his i pod and it closed at 12!!!! It was a hoot though. I got the best picture with a mullet and i chatted up a cop for the better part of an hour. We went back to the hostel after to have some munchies and ended up at a mansion singing songs all night long. It was such a great day and night, i didn't realize till the next day that it was my 3 month anniversary! that is why i had such a great day!!! The owner of the hostel was great! he took us to this really remote beach with champagne pools. Which are rock pools that when the tide comes up they fill and bubble! Just the best few days. Partied again this night but only at the hostel and it was a pretty early night. The last day that we were there we went for a sunset kayak with Luke. It was so fun. We seen dolphins and kangaroos and they had a big forest fire that burned right to the beach, was really cool to see. We got back to the hostel in time to have a quick shower and head to the bus. We had to catch a greyhound bus to a town called Miriam Vale where Kristen and i ended up falling asleep on the welcome mat of a gas station waiting for our bus that arrived at 12:40 am! A trucker tried to pick us up so after that we hid in the dark till our bus arrived! it was an experience for sure!!! but we made it safe and sound to Airlie Beach. And the best thing happened. All the Irish we met from Fraser island and Josh and Jo from Canada and the Irish we met in 1770 were all together so we had the biggest party last night. It was a toga party for a bit! It was so fun to catch up with everyone. They are great! we started drinking at noon and i lasted till 3am. I'd say i did pretty good! had a great night. The other girls arrived from Noosa today and we go sailing on Friday. Can't wait. I really hope i dont get sick! But i'm sure i will be fine. That is about it for now. Making a ton of friends and having a ball. Hope all is well with everyone and thanks for the comments. Keep them coming!

Fraser Island

2005-09-14T09:34:00.000+10:00

Wow what an amazing place! I absoulutely loved it here. We started out at Rainbow Beach and we were staying at dingos hostel. I really didn't like it here, the beds sucked and the kitchen was the size of a bathroom and it only had two burners and the rooms had 8 people in them and only one bathroom you could use. It sucked. I always ran out of hot water!!!! but enough about that, onto the good stuff- Fraser. We booked through Peter Pan and we started off at Dingos, had a big video to watch and an orientation on dingo safety and got put into our groups. I was with 10 people, us 5 and 3 from Germany and 2 guys Josh and Jo from BC as well. We had areally good group. Our first day was great, we headed to lake Wabby and had to hike through this huge sand blow, which is basically a whole bunch of sand. I felt like i was in the desert. Then out of no-where we stumbled upon this lake. It was amazing. There was this huge sand hill that led into it that we ran down into the lake. The weather was awesome. Here we met one of the other groups, who i became very close with. They were great people and i loved having there company. We called them the Irish, which is weird cause there was maybe only 4 out of 10 from Ireland! But my favorite 5 in particular that i hit it off really well with were, Audry, Laureen, Laurane, Patrick and Peter. They were so great. Such humor. I absolutely loved them. From lake Wabby we headed up the island to try to find a camping spot. We camped close to Indian Head so we could go see it in the morning. The first night is a bit of a blur, thanks to the goon (boxed wine) It was crazy though. I woke up in the morning with the biggest bruises on the back of my legs! Apparently in my drunken, THC inspired delirium i decided that it would be a good idea to scale our laundry line upside down!!!! I wrapped my hands and feet around it and slid to the other side. It was halarious. Got the biggest rope burn ever! Oh well good fun always has a price i guess. I am really on a role over here!!! The next morning we woke up fairley early and seen a whale right in the ocean in front of out camp site. Just beautiful. After we packed up we headed to Indian Head which is a huge look out at the top of this hill. It was almost a 360 degree view. I seen baby sharks and manta rays in the water. It was so cool. We headed to lake Allom from here and went to see the baby turtles. You stand in the water and clap your hands and they come towards the vibrations. They were so cute. Really neat to see. We stopped at the ship wreck, it is so cool. It is just on the edge of the island fully exposed and it is awesome for pictures. Off to Mckenzie Lake from here. This was amazing, crystal clear water and such soft sand. We swam here for a bit before we went to find a camping spot. Tonight i told myself that i was gonna take it easy. Yep that didn't happen, I was one of the last ones up with Audry and Peter, who are two of the funniest people i have ever met. We seen dingos in our camp site. Freaky! but they keep their distance. Just great! I managed to be the first person up the next morning at 6 am, that doesnt happen too often. We went back to Lake Mckenzie for half of the day and i got sun burnt on my face! ooops. Took the 1pm barge to Rainbow Beach. I had such a great time here, thank god we met the Irish. We managed to smash a tail light and the truck was very smokey at one point when we got stuck! i thought it was on fire! No harm done though, we never had to pay for anything, i think that he missed the tail light!!! I hope in the future that i will be travelling with the irish, they were so much fun. Cool people. I would love to see them up the coast. Peter and i have already spoke about going bungee jumping! hope that works out. Well that is all that is really new. Kristin and i are headed up the coast to Cairns and the girls are headed back to Noosa. We will meet in a week in Airlie beach to go sailing. This makes me really happy cause i really need a break from them. I think we all need a break from each other! But that is all for now. Keep in touch! Luv Amanda Oh i forgot to tell you that all this partying has caused me to loose my voice, seriously i cant even speak it is the worst thing ever. Going on day 2 now so we will see how long this lasts, hopefully goes away sooner than later!

Noosa

2005-09-10T10:48:00.000+10:00

Hey guys how are you all! I am great, Noosa was awesome. It is beginning to feel like i am actually on a holiday! I know that is a bad thing to say, but sitting in the sun on the beach is my idea of a holiday and that is exactly what i did here! The beaches were so beautiful. The sand squeeks when you walk on it. The waves were awesome to watch. And the hostel, dolphins that we stayed at was so great. There was a TV in our room! wow luxury! It was just what i needed. I am travelling with Team Canada Girls Squad + 1 now, I am with 4 girls from Vancouver and Amy from England- the +1. It is good. A little bit too many of us, but on the plus side it is a party everywhere we go. We went out one night in Noosa to The Reef and Koalas. Once again I was so pissed, and you could sure tell. I thought i was a professional irish dancer! ha it was halarious, but just ask me i was great. It was a ton of fun, i really had a good time. I have been drinking wine a lot, but i am totally done with it now i believe. Kristin and I went on a nature walk in the national park and stumbled on a nude beach! what a show that was, we stayed to the side lines and this old man was trotting around, balls flapping all around!!! it was awful. Then he was walking in front of us on the stairs and honestly there is something wrong with old man ass walking up stairs. It was awful. Kristin and i kept slowing down to let him get far ahead, but then he kept slowing down too. Then he decided to sit down and try to start a convo with us, all the while touching himself. I was so traumatized. We booked out of there as quick as possible!!! Not much else happened here. It was just so relaxing, and the shopping was really cool. I really enjoyed it. But off to Rainbow Beach for a few days and then to Fraser Island to camp with the dingos. Will talk to you all soon.

Brisbane

2005-09-04T14:34:00.000+10:00

hey guys how are you all? I am fine, been hanging out in Brisbane for the last few days. Having a blast! Janice and I had a fun filled, adventure packed few days! It started off at Wet n' Wild waterpark. It was awesome! They had a huge tube ride that fits 6 people in one tube and some terror slides where youy are 2 to a tube and travel through in the dark. There was the crazy carpet ride and the twister-didn't like that one cause it was hard to breathe with all the water going in my face! They had the best wave pool i have ever seen. The waves were huge! Loved it you just sit in there and laze around in tubes! and they have the swim in movies in the summer! on the big screen! Very cool. I had a little incident with an ice cream cone it fell and landed right on my boob! Janice had to rescue it with her hands full as well, it was good for a laugh and a stain on my bikini! Thank god Janice is so talented I was ready to eat it off the ground. It cost me like $5. From there we went to Movie world, which is like a mini universal studios! You would all be so proud of me I went on the roller coasters. The scooby doo one twice and the splash mountain one(can't remember what it is called) and the mother of all coasters-the lethal weapon one! it was crazy! i had to take off my glasses and sandles just to ride! I can't believe i did it, but i really had fun and i never even got sick! I bought a few pins to add to my collection, yes i know i am a loser! but i like to see everywhere i have been. The next day we went to the Australian zoo, home of the crocodile hunter! We had to get up super early to get ready for our koala pictures cause last time Janice had a really bad one i guess! The zoo was really cool, we seen a snake, bird, tiger, and crocodile show. The tiger show was so cool they play with them like they are puppies, running and jumping in the water and playing with a ball. They have huge crocks here as well! and I seen my first wombat! they are so cute and cuddley, i really liked it here. By far the best zoo i have ever seen. I never seen Steve, but he was there riding on his motorbike, we missed him though! The next day was a really sad day for me. Janice left! I am all on my own again, but i managed to meet up with these really great girls from Vancouver. They are a lot of fun! It is good to be traveling with someone again! We sat on the deck and watched the big fireworks they have for river days here, it is a big festival! they were amazing. They lasted a long time and were from boats and a whole bunch of roof tops. All to music! We went out to the Valley last night it was a lot of fun and i had my first kebab! they are pretty good. But then again i was drunk so any food is good! Today we planned our whole trip up the coast to Fraser island and the Whitsundays, I am going sailing! i hope i dont get sea sick, or bed bugs! I think after that we are headed up to Cairns again, I hope to go bungy jumping this time, then after that I may get a job or fly over to Perth to see the West coast! Or maybe New Zealand. We will have to see about the money sitcheation! I would really like to go back to Byron Bay before I leave though so i may have to make a little side trip!I am really excited to finally be going up the coast, i hope the weather just keeps getting better! It is so hot here already, i love it! Other than that not much else is new just having fun! I really love the weather here, they say itis +22 and it feels like +40 cause the UV is so strong. I will have to start wearing sun screen every day just to be safe! But as always i hope all is well and i really miss you all! Take care and keep in touch Luv Amanda

Bula from Fiji!

2005-08-30T19:39:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone! or bula as they say in Fiji! how are all of you? I am great Fiji was amazing, we started our trip off in Nadi, we stayed at the macombo resort, very nice. Janice and i got up-graded to a better room because the people in front of us wanted to be closer together, so we had a king size bed and a view of the golf course! I must say that the people in Fiji are so great they go out of their way to make you happy and they are always smiling and happy. I loved them, they all called is Canada! That night we met a local star Smiley, he was the bartender on the island that they were filming a TV show,its something like temptation island, we got an autograph and pictures with him, he sure lived up to his name! From the macombo we headed to beachcomber island, it took about 20 minutes by boat, the island is very small, you could walk around it in no more than ten minutes, it was so pretty though. It had a coral beach and the buildings were all so nice! It is also known to be a party island, which Janice and I proved to be correct the first night! we got completely pissed! We had a few mis-haps- Janice in her drunken stooper flipped out of a hammok, not once but twice in 2 minutes, and I being as smart as I am went walking on the beach and let me remind you, A CORAL BEACH, in the middle of the night and pitch black. I tripped on the coral and practically did a face plant! I stubbed my toe so bad that the whole thing is purple and should be falling off in a few days! eeeew. And I almost lost my glasses! (they were on the sand, not on the top of my head! incase you are wondering Janet!!!!!) It hurt so bad that as drunk as I was I couldn't even fall asleep. That is okay though, i managed to see the sunrise. So i guess it was all worth it! That is what i tell myself anyway! The island was great, but the weather could have been better. The only really sunny day was the first one. After that it was really over cast and windy, it rained almost every night too. I still managed to get a tan though so that is okay! We relaxed so much here. I read a whole book! I am a reading machine now! We kept ourselves busy by going snorkling out to the reef- amazing fish and coral! and we went mini golfing and i kicked Janices ass, we also went fish feeding and turtle feeding. This was all a lot of fun and very relaxing! We stayed in the dorms which was not what i expected, there was probably over 100 beds in it! but that is okay, we got to meet so many cool people. Danni, and Kyle and Jake to name a few. Danni is from Melbourne Kyle if from Saskatchewan and Jake from the UK. They were all so cool had a great time with them all! hope I will see them in the future some day! Oh and I must mention the food, it was so good, they had a selection of so much at every meal and fruit all the time, it was so great and the deserts were really awesome too! We met an old Viatnam vet Ken who has been retired since he was 22 due to being shot (in the head) he is paralyzed on one side, but he was so cool. He got around great and he was so interesting to talk to. He has been going to that island for 16 years! It is amazing the people you meet! I had so much fun here. It was just so relaxing as they say, "you're on Fiji time!" and I was! I bought a few post cards and a shell neclace and a really nice sarong! I really enjoyed it here and would reccomend it to anyone. We are in Brisbane now and Janice is leaving me on Saturday. I will be all by my lonesome again! It really sucks, but I am sure I will be fine. Think I am going to get a job! but who knows. Well i hope all of you are good and I hope you have been enjoying my blogs. Take care and I hope to hear from you all soon. Luv Amanda

Melbourne

2005-08-23T16:03:00.000+10:00

Well hello there everyone, how are you guys? (and I expect an answer in the comments section of this blog!) I am doing fine, this is our last day in Melbourne, we have been here for almost two weeks, we decided to stay at the friendly backpacker on kings street- which is right in the centre of the city and close to everything we need. All the necessities like famous amous cookies, unlimited malls and shops, internet and lots of food and most of all good bars! Oh and a 7-11 2 doors down. (and yes they are all run by packies!) We have been up to no good here, going out all the time, but having a blast doing it! The pubs and bars here are so much fun. I'll tell you more about that in a bit, now for the constructive stuff we have been doing..... We went to a footy game, which I already told you about, We went to neighbor's night with Karen cause she is a huge fan, it is an Australian soap opera and I guess it is really popular in the UK. We got to meet 3 of the stars and see the live band that plays on the show (pictures below) it was really fun and we met some really cool people that sat with us! Janice and I got makeovers from M.A.C. macup, which was good until my eyes crusted over!! I think I might be allergic to the macup, I hope not cause I love M.A.C. and I have so much of it, but I will not wear macup for a bit and then try it again!!! What else.... we went to the old Melbourne gaol (which is jail) last night and we had a performance there of what it was like in the old days of the jail, it was kinda creepy cause it was all dark and scary! and I kept thinking someone was gonna jump out of one of the cells and make me "shart"!!!!! but thank god that never happened. It was the home of one of Australia's infamous criminals Ned Kelly. He robbed banks and killed cops. He was hung at this jail. Very informative and fun, we met Juliana and Christy and Lachlin and Lynn. (Janice's friend and her family all very nice) and Pauline also came! After the jail we went to an Irish pub and proceeded to drink our faces off and dance like fools! it was fun though. Well worth it! What else did we do..... We went out last Friday and Saturday, we have been drinking lots of wine, in boxes ofcourse! before we go out cause it is so cheap and lots of it is really good. Friday, Janice Mike(Red Deer) Mosan which we call mossman (Iran) and I went down to Brunswick street and got wasted we had such a good time we made complete fools of ourselves on the tram, but all in all it was a good night. And just a word of advice for all the ladies- don't put your macup on when you are drunk, Janice had a little mis hap with the eye liner and she looked like one of the Edmonton Eskimos! but I couldn't even save her from the embarrassment cause she had her aviators on when we left the hostel. Boy what a surprise I got when she took them off. Very funny, it only added to the laughs of the night. Saturday night we went to the spy lounge, it is on kings street and we got free entry and booze for 2 hours, it was awesome you could order 4 drinks at a time and go bake like every 5 minutes, we never spent a dime and we got completely wasted, awesome, those are my kinda nights!!! We went out with some people from the hostel and mossman and mike got completely wasted, however we all were but they were really funny. Oh and we got a free massage from the college down the road couldn't pass that one up, also i got a pedicure for $5. Cheap! Had such a good time in Melbourne, I just want to thank Pauline for taking us all over the place and for being such a great friend! Will have to come visit you in Paris some day! Well we are off to Fiji to relax for 5 days!!! We are leaving Karen who is so cool and the trip just won't be the same without her! she has been such a great friend. Will have to come visit you in England too, oh all the travelling i have to do! anyway talk to you all in a bit. Luv Amanda

Random Pictures

2005-08-17T16:42:00.000+10:00

Me with a band member from neighbours night, The band playing, Karen and I, the monkeys we seen in the park in Tasmania, me with a star from neighbours-(it is a famous soap opera here), Elvis the echidna and patches the horse, i got patches from Mcdonalds and Janice and Karen gave me elvis as a travel companion. A sign in lower crackpot. Neighbours night- Laura, janice Karen, me, Kiren and diane from neighbours night, me and the girls, Janice and I after our MAC makeovers, We thought our hot dogs were bad, they sell theirs in a can! The church at Port Arthur, Port arthur, The city scape of Melbourne, Janice got shat on by a bird! Pauline George and I, Janice and I winning at the fair, The group from the great ocean road tour, the 12 apostles from the helicopter, Bells beach and McKenzie falls.

Footy

2005-08-14T18:42:00.000+10:00

One of the mascots!, The team we were cheering for essendon, the stadium, me with a meat pie! it was really good, me and the girls, notice the scarf i bought!

hey guys this is just a real quick blog, we went to an australian rules football game today- over here called footy! It was really cool and it only cost us $13. We were cheering for essendon the team that lost, they were playing against hawthorne but they put in a good effort! Janice and i are such losers, we had to buy scarfs for our team, now we want a refund! we had lots of fun though, i think the rest of the group thought we were crazy, especially janice (you know how she is!!!!!! funny girl!). We hopped a tram back to our hostel and went grocery shopping considering we ate out for the last few days and it is getting expensive. Melbourne is great. Having a really good time. Will talk soon. P.S. I have a phone now, so if you want my # e-mail me and i will give it to you, we can text and you can call me and it doesn't cost me a thing!!! cool. anyway hope to hear from you soon.

Tasmania

2005-08-10T11:50:00.000+10:00

These are pictures of Tasmania, The tasmazia mazes and Janice and I in one of the "goals" you had to find. And Port Arthur and the old jail. The inside and out.The one is me in the church in the jail the prisioners had to stand in these and you could only see the priest. And a typical street sign over here.

Hello everyone! We arrived via Jet star airlines on the 3rd of August! When we arrived the weather was okay, not too cold, but definately NOT warm! We picked up our rental car at the airport and started on our journey, only to find out that the radio did not work! apparently we needed a code that we did not have. We called the place the next day and i wrote the code on a piece of paper, and lost it, but i was sure i had the right code. We tried all day to get it to work when we finally took it to the euro-car place and had arrangements to get a new car the next morning. We came back to the hostel and I found the code! I had been putting it in wrong all day, but on my defense i was close, the code was 1167 and i thought it was 1667!!! Silly me, so i called the place and told them to cancel the arrangements for the new car! thank god i wasn't talking to the same guy, i would have felt even more like an idiot!! Haha oh well! That very first night was a stressful drive trying to find our hostel in the dark in a city we had no idea how to get around and on the left hand side of the road. But Janice did an outstanding job and got us there safe and sound. I am glad i wasn't driving under all that stress. As Karen would say, " oh bless her!!" We stayed at the YHA and we were in a room with two older chinese women, which was fine until they started snoring as loud as chainsaws, and that wasn't even the best part- they farted all night. Now don't get me wrong, i understand the need for a good fart every once in a while but honestly, no joke it smelt like rotten chinese food!!! awful. The next day made up for everything, we went on a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory! it was so cool, chocolate everywhere, a river running through the center of the room, attached to a waterfall, a water slide full of chocolate, ooompa loompas running around everywhere!!!- no just kidding a figment of my imagination, i wish, but there was still chocky (as australians call it) everywhere. On conveyer belts and mixing in these big vats. White, dark and brown chocolate, and did it ever smell of chocolate. And we asked where the ooompa loompas were and apparently they were at nestle!!!! The tour was great, we seen how it was all made and packaged and wrapped. and the best part we got to eat a ton of it. mmmmm. I ate way too much and felt sick. Small price to pay i guess, come on FREE CHOCOLATE! And did you know that they sell a 10kg chocolate bar with over 1000 squares in it for $140. Crazy. That night was just a relaxing night at the hostel reading- (yes i have been reading mom, can you believe i am on my sixth book, pretty good if you ask me!) The next day we left Hobart and headed for the Tasman pennicula, and on to the town of Port Arthur, which is an ols settlement town used for convicts. It was really cool here we were able to go into all of the old buildings and houses that were still standing and not burnt down from a terrible fire they had. The jail was still standing and had been restored although the roof was missing and some of the walls we were still able to tour through it. We went into the lunitic asylum ( i was shopping around, and this one is definately not for me. The rooms are far to small and i would have had no company!!! will have to keep looking, maybe i will check out ponoka next!!!) We also toured the wardens home and most of the original furniture was still there an antique buffs dream! The doctors home and old hospital and a church and so much more, it was very cool. However this place was the site of a terrible massacure in 1996 not too long ago, a man came there and opened fire killing a total of around 30 people from here and surrounding areas, they captured him and he is locked up and no one knows why he did it. The staff here don't like to talk about it because some of their loved ones were the ones involved. Very sad. There is a memorial garden here for them. I really enjoyed walking around and hearing all the history behind the place, and we also took a ferry ride around the isle of the dead, which is an island where they burried all the people who deid in the settlement. Creepy, you can take walking tours here, but we did not have time. I would reccomend this place to everyone. We left Port Arthur and made our way up the coast where we stopped at a little town called swansea for the night. We got a really good deal on our hotel. Like $40 off. It could have something to do with the receptionist being drunk! Oh well worked out good for us. The next day we were off to Launceston, we spent probably 30 minutes trying to find the YHA only to learn that it had burnt down in December! we ended up staying in an apartment style hotel for 2 nights and basically did nothing. We watched TV and lazed around, however the last day we were here we went to the park to see the monkey enclosure, really cool except that they had been fighting just before we got there and a little baby monkey was cut on its hand, pretty sad, but i guess common with the type of monkey. The following day we went to Deavonport and drove around, had lunch and checked out the town we then made our way to Cradle mountain. On the way we ended up on this little gravel road in the middle of no where which we thought was a drive way for the longest time. I was sure we were lost when we pulled out onto a main road only to find the coolest thing ever- A maze complex! it must have been fate! It was in a town called lower crackpot!!! It was the funnest thing ever. There were 8 different mazes and each one of them had a goal to reach. Im not sure what the crop was but it was really cool. It is the largest maze complex in the world. Janice and I had a blast, Karen decided to sit this one out. It took us 2 hours to finish everything, There was a ton of little things to find, like the fork in the road and the hidden treasure and many more, we spent the last half hour trying to find the fork, but we were determined to finish everything! I am so glad we stumbled upon it. We drove from here to the YHA in Cradle mountain, we were in a little room and it was cold, I had to get up in the middle of the night and walk to the bathroom, really scary! the trees were blowing and it was raining like crazy and so dark. I thought i was gonna get attacked by an antelope or something!(little joke for you mom.) Regardless it was scary. I had a horrible sleep, to get up the next morning to go see the actual mountain, which we couldn't cause the weather was shit! all rainy and cloudy. Oh well I got a postcard. Guess that is okay. We drove back to Hobart from here and are staying at the pickled frog hostel. Pretty funny name. It is okay. Internet is cheap. We will be staying here for 2 nights and then off to Melbourne again, we have a 6am flight-insane, we have to get up at 4am just to be there on time. I'm sure the plane ride will be quick, i will be sleeping the whole way! well that is all for now, will write about Melbourne soon have a lot on the agenda, have to go see the jail, and the lion king and we want to go to a footy game, should be fun! talk to you all soon. Luv Amanda Don't forget to leave a comment!

SORRY

2005-08-07T16:12:00.000+10:00

hey sorry guys. I am in tasmania and i hhave no good internet, it costs a fortune, i will be posting a new blog when i arrive back to the main land and everything is cheaper. Just to let you all know I am fine! been busy navigating around in our car, went to Port Arthur-the convict town and to the Cadbury Chocolate factory. but more on that later. Hope all is well and it is ok to comment over and over! i LOVE comments. Oh and it will probably be a bit till i can get more pics on here, i need a full disk and i am not even half full-sorry. I am trying my best! Take care and miss you all! bye for now

The Great Ocean Road

2005-08-01T17:16:00.000+10:00

This is me out with all of paulines friends. Me by the 12 apostles, the helicopter we frew in, the whales we saw, a koala, and an albino kangaroo-very weird looking, then the one with all the fog is the wiew from the top of the grampiens!!!!

Hello everyone, things are good here, we have made it to Melbourne, via the great ocean road. The tour was really good for the value of money. We seen a lot of things along the way and did some pretty cool stuff. We started out in Adelaide where our tour guide Peter had slept in 45 mins so he was late, that was okay cause all we were doing that day was basically driving, we did see some albino kangaroos though, they were really neat to look at- all white! weird. The wildlife here is so strange. Oh and we did go to McKenzie Falls, by far the nicest waterfall I have seen since we have been here. It had 3 different levels. Janice had a big wipeout on a log here, pretty funny to watch! it was in slow motion and I think she did a few rolls in there. She was ok so I didn't feel bad laughing! We stayed our first night in the Grampians, which to date are the oldest mountain range in the world. They are sandstone. We stayed at a place called the asses ears wilderness lodge!! it was nice, we just watched TV and hung out for the first night, nice to relax a bit. The next morning we took a hike (I call it a hike, but it was like what I imagine walking to hell and back would be like!) It was the hardest ever and Janice and I had to be the first ones done, so we were flying through it, i am surprised I didn't die from utter exhaustion and dehydration. Way harder than the hike we did to Kings Canyon, this one was climbing over rocks that were all wet from the rain and it was uphill-BOTH WAYS!!! unreal. Okay maybe I exhadurated a little bit, but none the less very hard. And the biggest disappointment of all was that when we made it to the pinnacle all you could see was white fog for miles! From here we stopped at a whole bunch of rocks in the ocean, I liked them, definitely something I have never seen before, they were like mini 12 apostles. One of them was called London bridge, except the "bridge" part no longer exists. We stayed at the Port Campbell YHA that night and Pete cooked a BBQ, I had pork chops, YUMMY! close to being one of the best meals here so far. My favorite part of the day was Logans beach and seeing a southern right whale playing with her babies, amazing. The last day of our journey we went to the 12 apostles where Karen and I took a helicopter ride, the view was amazing, the color of the water, and you could see for miles, well worth my $50. And it was Karens first time in a helicopter, and it is always fun to experience it for the 1st time with somebody who has never done it! She loved it. We also stopped at the world famous bells beach, where they hold the rip curl pro-(I think that is what it is called) every year and also the movie point break mentions the beach in it. The beach part is actually very small, but great waves for surfing. Oh and one of the days we had lunch in the crater of a volcano, which you would never know it was a valcano if somebody didn't point it out. Here we seen koalas again, but these ones were interesting, they actually moved. They were on the ground and eating and climbing all over the trees. Koalas generally sleep 19 hours of the day so it is very rare to see them as active as we did. Pretty cool. Along the way Pete told us a lot of stories of the shipwrecks and history of the road, very interesting. I had a really good time on the tour. We are in Melbourne now exploring. We met up with a friend from the Northern Territory tour Pauline, and Karen and I went out with her and her great friends Andy, John, Joel, Clay, Birte, and George on Saturday. Had a blast we went to a bar called arcadia with a live band, they played all the music that is great to sing along to like the Proclaimers, Bryan Adams, and Live, to name a few. Really fun. We are off to Tasmania on Wednesday, we have rented a car so it should be nice exploring all on our own and listening to music again! We will be back in Melbourne for two weeks before Janice and I go to Fiji. Can't wait for nice hot weather. Anyway, will write soon and don't forget to comment!!!!! luv Amanda

Kangaroo Island

2005-07-26T12:13:00.000+10:00

Well Kangaroo Island was amazing. We arrived by ferry t 7:30 pm and made our little hike up the hill to the YHA. We had met a girl name Sherry, so she joined us on our journey! The YHA owner Ray was great, he gave us our own room with a double bed and he even took us for a little cruise around to see the wildlife at night. Very cool. There is thousands of little penguins running around and wallabies-which are just small kangaroos. I love the penguins they are so cute the way they waddle! and they are a really pretty blue color. We cooked supper and headed for bed, we had a tour starting at 9:30am. The tour was great, we started the day by going to Seal Bay, where we got a guided tour down to the beach to see sea lions, they were amazing, all differens sizes- from babies to 400 kilo males, we were so close to all of them. We seen them interacting with one another. I loved it have never seen anything like it! We went to lunch at a farm and had really good veggie soup. We took a walk and seen koalas and kangaroos and more wallabies all in the wild, which is the best way to see them. From there we went to remarkable rocks, It was so windy up there, they are huge rocks by the edge of the ocean that over the years of erosion have been formed into really cool shapes. People have died here from getting too close to the edge and falling over, i could see how it is possible it is so windy up there, thank god i have a bit of meat on my bones, or i would have been blown away!!!! From here we went to Admirals arch which was amazing, again a rock that has been eroded into an arch way. There were New Zealand fur seals here they just hang out on the rocks below, the scenery here was great. You look right through the arch to big waves crashing in and the ocean, amazing.Very windy here too. We went to Flinders Chase national park and to the visitors center, here i bought some postcards and some really good cookies! That was it for our tour! I wish we had a few more days here, there is so much i wanted to do but didn't have time, like explore the caves and go sand boarding. Will have to come back i guess! That night we went for a walk to look at some more penguins, we found some and they decided to give us a show- the started mating!!! i felt so dirty, just being there!!!haha. We've had our fill of penguins now. The next day we had all day to wait for the ferry, we just hung around the hostel and watched crocodile dundee! It was cool to see that we had been most of the places in the movie on our Northern Territory tour! The ferry was 45 minutes across then we had a 2 hour bus ride to Adalaide. As usual i wasn't feeling well, that damn ferry makes me sick!! and the bus ride was no better! We arrived at the YHA around 11pm. We have 1 more night here then we start our Great Ocean Road tour to Melbourne, where we will meet up with some friends, Pauline,Matt and Jo from the NT tour! should be a blast. Well that is all for now. Talk to you soon. Miss ya all!

Adalaide #2

2005-07-26T11:37:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone,
well adalaide is a cool city, it is full of old buildings and churches, it is only fit that one of their good bars is called heaven! Janice and I went out there one night. It was a really cool bar. It was huge it was like a house, it had probably 8 different rooms and bars in each one of them, stair cases, and it holds 2500 people. They had a dj from the UK there Simon Hill he was ok, it was like a big rave, we weren't used to it!!! none the less it was cool to watch and the highlight of the night was the "podium dancer" we met!! He told us he wanted to be a professional dancer so we asked him to show us his moves, but it was a big disappointment, he would start moving his arms and be like "oh I got distracted or somebody touched me, I lost it" it was hilarious. I think he sensed that we were making fun of him cause then he said- I "reckon" Canadians don't put out!! Janice put him in his place and said I "reckon" we have standards!!!!! We told them we were going to the bathroom and left!!haha it was funny! Honestly he must have been almost 40!!! I hear that heaven is a good place to go on Wednesday! will have to try that next time!! We went to Glenelg, which is right by the beach- there we just shopped some more and then we went to the Rodney Fox shark experience- he is famous for surviving a shark attack, he is in the Guinness world records. It was really cool they had records of the last reported shark attacks and scale models of their jaws and teeth and so much information. Janice and I decided to spend $10 dollars on kiddy grab bags! we gost some pretty cool toys! Oh what dorks we are! Fun though! We also went to the central markets- big disappointment! it was only food, like a farmers market, not what we were looking for. Oh well. That is pretty much it for Adalaide. Off to Kangaroo Island.

Adalaide

2005-07-19T17:25:00.000+10:00

The beach and boardwalk
Janice and i goofing around, we are in our lockers they are huge!!
Me at Rodney Fox's shark museum

hey guys all is well, just wanted to write a quick hello and see how everyone is, we are in Adalaide at the hotel which is great to have a real bed, a bathroom of our own and a fridge and TV with movies!!! oh the luxury. We have just spent the last few days relaxing and shopping!! i know it is bad to shop when you have no money, but i cant help it!! i got a really cute skirt and a shirt and sweater to go with it! we are heading to the YHA tomorrow and we are planning to go out to a club named heaven!!! we will see how that is, i guess Wednesday night is suppose to be good. Well i hope all is well and i will talk to you all soon. Luv Amanda

The Northern Territory

2005-07-15T23:43:00.000+10:00

Me janice and gary-our guide. Mount Connor! whoops!

Our whole group. Me by a huge termite mound

Karen Janice and I by the kakadu sign then infront of our tent
Kim and I riding Kenya the camel
Me holding a snake at the bar and Dinky the singing dingo!
Hey everyone how is it going? i am fine and i am in Alice Springs i just finished our 11 day tour of the outback! it was a lot of fun and i am very glad that we decided to do a tour because everything is so spread out. well here we go......... on day one we met in Darwin which was unbelieveably HOT it was crazy i felt as though i was melting. There were 24 people on our tour from all over the world. Some from Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada-Grande Prairie of all places! Switzerland, France ,England, Whales, Japan, China, USA all over the place it was cool to meet all them. From Darwin we drove to Litchfield national park, there we seen some huge termite mounds (which are made of shit-literally they were so huge) very cool never seen anything like it before. Then we went swiming in 2 different falls, Florence and Wangi falls they were really nice, i went right under the falls it was cool and in the 2nd one you could climb the wall and there was a warm water pool it was not very big around but very deep it was hard to stay afloat with nothing really to hold onto. we stayed in Jabiru in Kakadu national park for the next 2 nights where there were all these little lizards crawling around at night, all different colors it was cool. The next day we just lazed by the pool. it was so hot here also it was unbelieveable the water from the pool was eveporated in like a minute when you got out of the pool. we went on a little hike to a viewing point to see a sun set and on our way we seen some really old aboriginal rock art it was thousands of years old. The next day we went on an EARLY morning yellow water billabong cruise where we seen some more crocodiles and lots of birds then we were on our way back to Darwin for the night. I had a great sleep at our hotel. We were off to Edith falls from here where we swam again- it is so cool to swim in fresh water waterfalls i love it it is really amazing, then we went to Katherine goerge where we had a choice of a cruise or canoeing. Janis and i went canoeing- i wish i had took the cruise cause it was hard!! i was so sore the next morning, we had 2 hrs of canoeing we went to the end of the first goerge had a little swim then went back and swam a bit more, there were fresh water crocks here but you can swim with the fresh water ones they won't hurt you unless you bug them, we never seen any though, seen a snake though! from here we went to mataranka a clear water thermal hole, it is like hot springs but not as hot or stinky, it was like a warm bath, very relaxing. then we went to one of the most famous pubs in Australia- Daly Waters Pub it was plastered with all types of money and pictures of people who had been there and credit cards and any type of ID that you could leave, so i left my airmiles card-if you ever go look for it!!!! tonight we slept in swags at Banka Banka station, i had the worst sleep i was so cold!!! but cool to sleep under the stars though. janice and i organized a game of capture the flag which was a ton of fun until people got hurt-rough terrain!!!! The next day we went to devils marbles which were just huge red marble looking rocks that were red-kinda neat. Off to Alice Springs next. we went to the Simpson gap then had the afternoon off. The next day we went to Uluru (Ayers rock) which was amazing i couldnt believe how big it was we were suppose to watch the sunset, but our plan was interrupted by the rain-which by the way it never rains here it was the first time in 11 months, it was really cool to see all the waterfalls that run off the rock though, some of them are really big, there is over 100 falls when it rains, we got to see the rock how hardly any body sees it, really amazing, i am kinda sad i never got to see the brightness of the sun and how it changes color, but there are always pictures for that i guess, maybe i will have to come back now!!! The rock was still really red though but it was darker, and had some maroon and gray in it when we seen it. we went to the olgas too they are just some more huge rock formations did a 1hr hike here too. The next day it rained ......again, it was so cold, i had to wear a toque- IN AUSTRALIA-----CRAZY! I took my first Harley Davidson ride around the rock so i never had to walk it in the rain! i did a little walk the night before though! it was really amazing. The next day was a travel day we went to Kings creek station where we camped for the next two nights, the rain had stopped by now thank god! the ground all over the outback is all red all the sand and everything it is really neat to see it is red cause it is iron oxide and it is partially baked by the sun! very weird. The following day we hiked kings canyon-amazing it was a four hour walk and we went right into it and to the other side of it! there is a hill that you have to climb the very first part of it, it was so hard i thought my legs were gonna give out, it was like climbing 500 steep stairs but after that it was well worth it it was so amazing i had never seen anything like it. i loved it. From here we went back to the campsite where Karen Janice and i rode camels. it was so much fun, they just trot around, very slow! not like you see them in the movies, it was cool i really enjoyed it. We slept one more night then packed up and went to Aice springs on the way we stopped fro lunch at a pub and we seen a singing dingo!! Dinky was his name he is famous around the world.really funny you play the piano and he hops up on it and sings it is halarious!! never thought i would ever see that! and that brings me to the end of our trip!!! last night the whole group went out in Alice Springs to bo jengles it was a really cool dance bar and we all got completely pissed!! Me and Sarah a french canadian were the last two out we made it home at 4 am and i had to get up at like 8!! am a bit under the weather today, but very well worth it. i had a really good time on the tour and met a ton of cool people that i will for sure keep in touch with!!! We are in Alice Springs tonight then we hop a train to Adalaide tomorrow at 2pm and get there at 9am the next day!! not looking forward to that but the cheapest thing we could find!!! we are staying in a four and a half star hotel-little reward for all the early mornings and the hostels we have been staying in!!! i cant wait! well i am sorry this was so long, but a lot to cover!! miss you all and keep in touch. Luv Amanda

Cairns #2

2005-07-03T15:34:00.000+10:00

A kangaroo with a joey in her pouch
My henna tattoo- i wish it was real!
Me drinking coconut milk-wasn't too great!

hey guys, well i have met up with janice and karen now which is so cool, we have been lucky and been able to stay in the same room at all the hostels so far so that is a bonus. so what can i say! the yha in cairns was a little weird, first there was a naked man running to the laundry room all the time and let me tell you old man ass is not very attractive to look at!! nevermind what else he was sporting!!!!!! he must have been 50! Then there was this little chinese man that kept making funny noises in the computer room, almost like he was gagging- then karen caught him looking at teen porn! like videos and stuff-sick people, then there was this other old man who was popping pills with a bottle of vodka in a PLASTIC bag! it was halarious! then someone stole janices barbie towel. that is the experience from the hostel other than that it was great. we took a tour to cape tribulation and daintree it was so cool, we got to feed kangaroos and i was feeding these 2 and one of the kangaroos got pissed off that the other one was stealing all the food from me and smacked him on the head!! it was so funny! Then janice stepped in kangaroo poo! iknew it was there but i thought it would be funnier if i never told her, i was right!! we seen koalas and birds and all kinds of australian wildlife. The daintree river tour was very cool we seen huge crocodiles in the wild and we also seen a baby hatchlink-which i guess is suppose to be very rare to spot them. We seen green tree frogs and lots of snakes-creepy. From there we had a bbq and went to the mossoman goerge and took a swim, it is a fresh water runoff from the rainforest very beautiful. It was a great day! The other day in the cairns central mall which is right across the street from our hostel Kate Bosworth and Orlando Bloom were there- we missed them though, but still cool! Did some shopping while i was here. Karen and i went to the markets today while janice went and bunji jumped and did the minjin swing! crazy girl. i think i will do that in NZ where it is 3 times bigger!! SCARY!! I got a henna tattoo on my foot today it is so cool, i love it. Also bought some neclaces. Well that is all for Cairns. we flew into Darwin tonight, the weather is HOT and our tour starts in 2 days so i cant wait for that. Anyway hope all is well and take care! luv amanda

Cairns

2005-06-27T11:30:00.000+10:00

The lagoon in Cairns
Me with kangaroos
The kuranda train
hey guys, things are going well. i am in cairns and it is okay nothing like byron bay though. i have been keeping busy. I went to the great berrier reef on Saturday and did a snorkel and i could have done a dive but i was feeling like shit and didnt want to throw up!! i will have plenty of time to do that though and hopefully when the weather is nicer!! the ocean was really rough and it was overcast but that didn't take away from the reef it was so cool i seen 3 big turtles and i touched some fish and seen flourescent coral and lots of sea clams and cucumbers it is so cool how it all interacts. and the lunch they served was awesome!! Sunday i went to kuranda it is a town in the rain forest. i took the sky rail up the mountain and seen kangaroos and lots of birds. And some beautiful waterfalls on the train ride back! then i explored the town and all the markets. I went to the butterfly sanctuary where you got to see and touch all the butterflies they fly free and land on you all the time, then i went to the koala sanctuary seen and pet kangaroos. also seen lots of koalas and some fresh water crocks and snakes and yucky stuff like that!!! it was cool though the joey hopped right into the mothers pouch right in front of us! Tonight Kathryn and i are meetine Ben and Scott for supper we met them on the dive trip and we may go out tonight for a bit! should be fun. tomorrow i am just gonna take it easy may do some laundry and try to find a hair dryer and straightner that works in this country! im sick of pony tails! i have been doing good though have not bought one souvineer yet!! i have my tour all booked for the northern territory i leave on the 4th of July but i fly to Darwin on the 2nd to check it out for a few days, and i will be meeting up with janice in 2 days cant wait!! i am very excited to hear a canadian accent!!! will be in cairns for a few more days and then off to Darwin i will keep you posted! miss you all so much.

my first week

2005-06-24T11:55:00.000+10:00

The light house in Byron Bay
A close up of the lighthouse. Yes i had to walk all the way up there!
The Sydney Harbour Bridge
Beach at Byron Bay and the Opera house

hey everyone how is everything? i am fine i have been travelling lots this past week. i arrived in sydney on friday- what an amazing city there is so much to do and see. i went to the zoo and seen all the australian wildlife and then over to the australian aquarium. That was really neat because i actually seen sharks close up in an underground tunnel it was very cool. I got to touch star fish and sea cucumbers they were really slimy. and i seen the buggest fish i have ever seen in my life I toured around the city and went to the opera house and the botanical gardens, the chinese gardens, darling harbour, manly beach and across the sydney harbour bridge! it was all amazing. the weather was okay it was sunny every day although pretty windy and chilly. You could definately tell thet it was there winter. The hostel i stayed in was very nice and i went on a few tours with them. one night i went to the festival of the stars and seen lots of interesting stars through telescoes and the city even turned the lights off on the bridge for it and the next night i went to the ballet at the opera house, not what i was expecting but still very good. i quite enjoyed it. From Sydney i went to byron bay on the bus which was like a 12 hour bus ride and i was sick the whole time it sucked!!! but i am feeling much better now. Byron bay was really beautiful. it is like a little hippy town i fit right in just what i like. the beach was amazing and the sand was so white and it squeeked when you walked on it! it was cool. I went to the lighthouse on the treatourous walk up like a million stairs it seemed like, but it was well worth it, and i actually got to see some whales in the distance-very cool. i went to the most easterly part of australia on the walk. the town is so laid back and the hostel there was cool too! however i was in a room with 3 japenese people who did not speak very good english. but they sure could drink!! every morning i woke up to a room smelling like a brewery! it was funny. but i met an irish girl George-ruth who was very nice and hung out with her for a bit. all the hostels have pool which is good for the weather. and they are so cheap. like $22-$25 a night. as i move up you can sure feel the difference, however it was still a bit chilly at night. Today i took a plane to cairnes where i will be meeting janice to go on a tour of the northern territory. she should be here in a few days which will be nice to see a familiar face. the weather is very humid. and it gets dark at like 5pm which ir really throwing me for a loop. and the food is really expensive here too. like $2.50 for a water. it depends where you go though. They also garnish there burgers with beats. weird!!!ha anyway love ya all and will talk later. remember to write me!