Finally, Some Pics!!!!

Ok, so here is the deal. I am in Koh Tao, Thailand and because I have been moving a mile a minute, I have not had time to write an entry for everywhere I have been yet, but im getting on it. The uploading on to this blog is not working so I have a link where you can find the photos. It is my friend's, Adam McDonald's, site so don't be confused. Please let me know if it is not working for you. http://www.flickr.com/photos/amcdphoto/sets/72157594559903573/

The City of Cairns

I arrived in Cairns (pronounced "Cans") in the afternoon after a short flight there. Getting there I realized the enormous differences in Australia. I had been in a barren, dry wasteland in the middle of Australia and was now in an amazingly lush, tropical environment that had recently been flooded. I met some Danes on the bus from the airport to the city and we were all looking for a place to stay. We ventured around a bit and found a pretty cheap place, right on the boardwalk in the city. After we got settled in we went around the town exploring what it had. The city was mainly built for shopping and dining, so there wasn't too much to see. We picked up some beers and headed back to the hostel to hang out there for a bit. Amazingly enough, as we were walking through the city, the Danes saw some people that they went to school with, small world I guess. They came back with us and I had to try every second to start a conversation in English but it always kept going back to Danish. Later that night we went out to the bars and saw some live music. It was a real fun night and I showed everyone how to play speed quarters. It is a game where you try to bounce a quarter into a glass like a race, for those of you who don't know. We had fun playing this and drew in a lot of people who wanted to play too. The next morning I decided to get out of the city a bit. I walked all the way down the boardwalk and explored off of the streets. There wasn't a beach there and most people just hung out at this community pool that was right on the boardwalk. After walking around for some time I realized that Cairns is not really a place within itself to visit. The main thing that people do there is excursions. They usually go out to the Great Barrier Reef, or Whitsundays for sailing, or into the jungle to go ziplining. This cost alot of money and I thought most of it was horribly overpriced. Just to go snorkelling was aronud A$180. I wasnt about to pay that to swim around the surface of the water. Besides, I will be getting my fair share of marine venture in Thailand. I didn't get to see too much in the city, as it didn't offer much, and was very happy to just have a day of relaxing and not moving around all the time. That night I took it easy and just hung out some with the Danes. I had a flight in the morning back to Sydney. I realized that Cairns is only there for tourism. There was not much character to the city and not much to do without paying for an excursion. I was still glad to have gone there and seen it, though. I had a great time there as well which made my whole Cairns experience very fulfilling.

The Heart of Australia

I left Adelaide on Wednesday morning on the only airline that flies to Alice Springs, Qantas. This little town is located in the center of Australia and is known for its large number of aboriginals and Ayer's Rock, or Uluru as the aboriginals call it. This is the world's largest monolith and part of aboriginal heritage. It is a gigantic rock out in the middle of the desert and when you see it on the map it looks real close to Alice Springs when in reality, it is about a 5.5 hour drive away. When my flight landed I was sitting in the last row of the plane on the aisle. I stood up and took a couple of steps back because I figured I would be the last one off of the plane. As I stood there waiting my turn I was tapped on the shoulder by a flight attendant who politely told me I could exit at the back. I was amazed because I had never been on a flight where this was so. I walked down some metal steps that were pulled up to the plane and went down to the runway. As soon as my foot hit the ground I was immediately attacked by something I had heard about from many many people before I got there, the flies. Just like that I had about 30 flies vigorously attacking my exposed areas, especially my nose, mouth, and the worst, my eyeball. These things would fly around your head and no matter how many times you would swat away, they were relentless. I quickly ducked into the main building of the airport where there was only one baggage claim and about 4 or 5 check-in counters. I don't think I have to tell you that this place was small. I was able to catch a ride with a bus that was chartered by the hostel I was going to stay at. They gave me a ride into town and directly to the hostel where I stayed. I decided I would look at some options for tours to the rock. After I talked with the staff at the hostel, the only option I had for going to the rock would be a day trip since I really only had one full day there. It was $200 dollars just to ride for 11 hours and see the rock for maybe 3 hours. Since I live about 45 minutes, if that, from the world's second largest monolith, I figured it was not worth the money. I had also heard that there are hundreds of tourists there and also a let down when you see it, considering it is just a rock. I decided to do the option that waq more fit for my kind of lifestyle. There is this park right outside of town called the West MacDonnell Range National Park. It has many different sights to see and as many watering holes to jump in and swim. They told me that it was not very crowded and I should have most of the places to myself. The option I had was to rent a car from them, less than half the cost of the Uluru daytrip, and take myself around at my own pace to wherever I wanted to go. This was much more my flavor. I went ahead and booked it and decided to have a walk around the town. Alice was full of aboriginal people walking all around the place. They are known as huge alcoholics as well as the fact that they don't regularly take showers, both of which were apparent. The "abos" as most Aussies call them are very distinguishable. They have a distinct look to them and really look like they are straight from the outback. I realized that they are kind of like the American Indians in America. They were killed and persecuted and nobody respected them. While the Indians in America are alot further up the social tier nowadays, abos are still at the very bottom. There is alot of racism towards them and they earn very little respect in the community. I picked up some food for the next day at a local supermarket and headed back to the hostel. When I got back, I met the first two Americans on my entire trip, minus the 75 year old woman from Seattlethat was on the train. They were from Vermont and being that Americans are like magnets in foreign places, I guess, we hung out the rest of the night. I went with them to get some food and then some drinks at a bar where the group that they had gone to Ayer's Rock with was at. It was alot of fun getting to meet everyone there and having a group of people who all knew each other pretty well by that point. I woke up real early the next morning and picked up my car from across the road. Throughout the trip I have kept gettting closer and closer to feeling truly Australian, and driving on the left hand side of the road was just one more step. It took awhile getting used to but I soon got the hang of it. The biggest problem for me was the turn signal. If you didn't know, the turn signal is on the other side of the steering column so everytime I signalled to turn, the wipers would go off and usually give me a jump. The first place I stopped at was known for Black-Footed Rock Wallabies. If you come in the morning or are very silent, you usually see one. I walked down the trail looking for them when I rounded this big boulder and found myself no more than 10 feet away from one. I quickly took a couple of pictures before it hopped away into the rocks. The next few stops were full of beautiful sights, gorgeous gaps, dry creek beds, and all sorts of wildlife. It is hard to believe that there is that much wildlife in such a dry desert. I had lunch at what is know as the world's oldest river. It has not changed course in 100 million years. Trust me, it looked like nothing special. I guess imagining it being in the same place for that long is what made it cool for me to look at. I had a fly net over my head the entire time and I realized that when the flies don't get their way of eating your face, they get pissed. They would get louder and louder until finally they would land on the net and look for an entrance to get a suckle of my sweet eyeball juice. Somehow, one would ocassionally find its way in and have his way with me. I was starting to think that maybe the same flies were just following my car around the entire day because I couldn't imagine what they do when there isn't a person around to harass. What is their life for if not to irritate me beyond belief? The rest of the day was filled with refreshingly freezing cold swimholes, magnificent overlooks, long straight desert roads, absecences of people, and familiar animals and insects with all sorts of different colors you don't find in America. I left the MacDonnell Ranges that day with a new appreciation of the Outback of Australia. I saw what the desserted areas look like and also the spectacular sights out there that so many people pass up on their trip to Alice Springs. It truly set in that I was driving through Australia when a kangaroo jumped across the road on my journey home. I literally started yelling and cheering to myself in the car when I saw it. It was so perfect at the moment too, driving across a straight desert road with slowly undulating hills hiding the dried out creeks at the bottom of them right as I was reflecting on how awesome Australia is. I couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. When I got back into town that night I booked a little excursion to the world famous desert park before my flight the next day. The park is known for having the largest nocturnal house in the world and also some of the best desert set ups in the world. When I went there the next day I spent three hours going around it. The park was done from an aboriginal perspective and showed more birds than I cared to look at. The coolest part was the nocturnal house and the kangaroo and emu section. They had about 20-30 different species in the nocturnal house, most of them threatened or endangered. It was really spectacular seeing the night species because most of them will probably be gone from the planet by the next time I come back to Australia. The kangaroo section allowed you to get real close to them and, even though you weren't supposed to, pet them. The emus were awesome close up too, as they have these amazingly huge, sharp claws that reminded me of the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. After my trek through the desert park I got a ride to the airport and caught my next plane to Cairns.

Adelaide, City of Parks

While I was on the train across the Outback, I looked at this guy's guide to Australia for possible places to stay in Adelaide. I found a hostel that said you could sleep on the roof if you had your own tent and what not. It said it was the cheapest option in Adelaide and also sounded like the most fun option I had. When we got off of the train the Brit that I had been hanging out with got picked up by his Aunt (or as they say "Aunty") and offered me a ride into the city. She dropped me off right in front of the hostel. The guy, Gordon, who was working the front desk was an absolutely crazy Aussie. He had a way about him that made every situation feel kind of awkward and out of place. When I told him I was from the states he became even more weird. He said most Americans have a look at the place and decide to go to a hotel. He informed me, as well, that not a lot of people come to Adelaide as a destination. Needless to say, I was a bit skeptical about the city and the hostel. I decided to have a look at the rooms before I made my mind up about staying there. I was throughly surprised to see the room. It was not dirty, had a great view, and was all-in-all a very good room. He even put the sheets on the bed for me. Most hostels will just hand you sheets and send you on your way. I was very confused about why he said most Americans don't stay there because I saw nothing wrong with it, plus they had free rice. I decided it was fine and headed out to find some grub. I came upon this place called Sushi Train. It was in the Chinatown section of Adelaide right across from where I was staying. It is a restaurant where they make a bunch of different rolls right in front of you. They cut them up and put them on different colored plates that stand for different price ranges. They then put the plates on this conveyor belt that goes around in front of you and you just grab whatever you want to off of it. It was a very clever idea and certainly caught my attention. I went back to the hostel to lay down after seeing a bit more of the town. When I got back I met these three Irish people who had been traveling around the world for a year and a half. They had been driving around Australia and working for about 4 months. There was a rugby match later that night that they invited me to go to with them. Of course, being that it was in Ireland, it was at 1:30 in the morning. We went to a Irish sports pub which of course, had more Irish people in it for the match. As we sat there exchanging stories, watching the match, and drinking pints of Toohey's, I learned all about rugby, Ireland, and the deal with North Ireland being part of the UK. It was a fantastic time and I really took in a bunch of information about places in Europe, Australia, and Thailand that they had acquired from their travels. The Irish ended up losing to the French in the final seconds, which I really didn't care, but I had a blast watching and learning. The next day I took a tram out to a small suburb by the beach called Glenelg. It was a really cool beach town and had all sorts of things to do. I mainly hung out on the beach, but it was definitely a hopping town (Australian Kangaroo pun intended). I walked away from that day with a sunburn and an experience of what one Aussie called "the best beach in all of Adelaide". I was going to go to Kangaroo Island the next day, but when I got back to the hostel there was a note asking if I wanted to go to a baseball game with the guy I had met on the train. I would not have been able to go to the island and make it back in time for the game, unfortunately. Being that it was a free meal and a free game, I decided to stay in town for that. Besides, there was still some stuff I wanted to see in Adelaide. I went around to all of the parks and checked out the different universities and churches that were spread across the city. There is a river, of which I can't recall the name right now, that runs through the city. It is absolutely stunning and had many birds on it that I had never seen before, for instance the black swan. This bird is a bit bigger than American swans and is all black except for a bright red beak. It has a walk to it that looks very strange with its long neck all twisted and contorted. I headed back in time to meet up with the Brit at 5. I waited and waited until it was past the time the game started. I was real pissed that I got stood up by some bloody bloke from England and had to miss Kangaroo Island as well. I found out later that he had gotten real sick and was bed ridden all day. That still did not ease my anger. I still had a good day, but damn that guy and their horrible excuse for a country. Anyway, the night was spent hanging out with a very nice Swiss girl and another German girl. We all swapped different music and stories while discussing that Adelaide was more of a place to work and not play. It is a beautiful town but just was kind of lacking in the whole "travel here as a destination" kind of place. Gordon, the crazy Australian, was right. Oh well, I still made the most out of it and got to see some beautiful sites. By the way, I fixed the site and you can now post replies on it. I will have some pictures up shortly and more posts coming. Stay tuned America...

The Indian Pacific

I caught a train in Sydney called the Indian Pacific. Actually, the portion of it I took was called the Great Southern Railway. The Indian Pacific goes all the way from Sydney to Perth through Adelaide (being a 62 hour ride, blah). I got on in Sydney and took it to Adelaide. It was a 24 hour train ride but a spectacular one at that. We travelled across tons of country-side on our way to Adelaide and I got to see what the deserted, farming areas of Australia were like. We went through the Blue Mountains which are right outside of Sydney. They got their name from the oil in the Eucalyptus trees in the region that seeps out of them from the high temperature in the afternoon. It makes a magnificent blueish tint on the mountains. There were alot of shear cliffs and a couple times the train went right over them. We passed through a little mountain town called Katoomba. It looked so quaint and had a comfortable mix between a rural Australian town and something like Dahlonega. I really wish I could've gone through it. It was quite frustrating for some time of the journey beacuse there were times I could've gotten out of the train and ran faster than it was creeping along. I am pretty sure the 80 year old with the walker a row up could have done the same. It was like this for an excrutiatingly long time too. About two hours in to the trip I saw the most amazing thing I had seen yet. Something so exhilirating that I actually jumped to the other side of the train, screwed like a girl, and stared in amazement like a kid does on Christams morning. It was my very first pack of wild kangaroos that I have ever seen. Now this might not sound like much but there is a much different kind of thrill when you see your first kangaroos in Australia, especially in the wild and not in some zoo. They have such a graceful bounce to them when they run that looks so fluid and easy. It is alomst like it is their main means of transportation, oh wait... nevermind. Anyway, the train went on through the night as I made friends with a guy from England and a girl from Sydney moving out to Perth. They were very nice and it was good to have company on the train for that long. The next morning, after a very comfortable sleep in my chair, I awoke to a sunrise over the outback of Australia. It was spectacular and looked alot like I had imagined the outback to look like. There were little shrubs, few trees, and barely any signs of life besides the farm fences. We arrived about an hour later in a town called Broken Hill. This was a very small mining town that literally, and I do stress literally, had NO ONE in the streets; not even a car. It was 8 in the morning, but you would think maybe at least a car. We headed out to find some breakfast and after a long confusing walk past Broken Hill's finest closed establishments, stumbled upon a Mcdonalds. Now I made a promise to myself that I would avoid any fast food restraunts while I was away, but this was the only place open. We went inside and I realized that it was a McCafe. Somehow or another Mcdonalds tries to be classy in Australia and serve little pastries and the lot. I decided to get something not available in America, the Brekkie Roll, a hoagie with bacon, ham, eggs, and a spicy tomato sauce. If it weren't for my heart slowing a few paces I would say it was the most amazing Mcdonald's I have ever had. After our Mcdonald's experience we headed back to the train. It was another 6 or 7 hours to Adelaide. The rest of the ride was filled with packs of emus running through the bush, more kangaroos, and even more nothing. It was a fantastic ride, none the less, and I really felt like I got to see a lot of rural Australia, that being my whole intention for the train ride. We finally pulled into the station 24 hours later after we left Sydney to find ourselves in Adelaide.