All about Ubud

 So we caught a flight out of Melbourne to Bali, but since we are poor we took the cheapest flight we could find, which meant a layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is strange how it can be cheaper to take two flights in a supremely round-a-bout fashion than to take one flight, directly there. So after a full day of travel we arrived in Bali and were instantly inundated by men asking us if we wanted a taxi. We were under the impression that if we walked a little bit towards the parking lot exit we could find cheaper taxis, but we didn't know where the exit was. So after walking around in a big circle and being hounded by cab drivers the entire time, we found a cab for a semi-reasonable rate into Kuta, most people's first stop in Bali. The traffic here is horrible, at times it felt as though it would be faster to walk, but we eventually made it to Kuta, and were then stuck with the task of finding a place to sleep. To tired to wander around dark side streets for a good deal, we ended up splurging on a fairly expensive option just so we could lie down.

The next day we got up, walked across the street to the beach full of souveneir hawkers and tourists and decided we didn't feel like sticking around, so we got a cab up to Ubud, Bali's arts and culture centre. After more horrible traffic we finally got into Ubud and found a nice guest house with a even nicer view which we said we should take a picture of and never did. We took a nap, went and got some dinner, wandered around a bit, and went back home to do some reading before bed. Miranda already read a lot at home, but my reading output has skyrocketed since we left Canada. My elementary school teachers would be so proud.

The following morning we slept in, because we are on vacation and we can, read some more, and decided to find a cheaper place to stay. We quickly found one about a block away for 2 thirds the price of the first place. The view wasn't as good, but thr bed was bigger. The owner was also raising roosters for cock fighting, which was interesting. Apparently Balinese people really like cock fighting. After getting settled we meandered down to the Sacred Monkey Forest where there were lots of monkeys, as one might suspect, as well as temples and shrines. There were many a photo taken of baby monkeys and their cuteness. 

That evening we went to the Palace in the centre of town and took in a Balinese gamelan and dance performance. It was really cool. Very elaborate costumes, and intricate movements which were a real departure from western dance (not that I know much about western dance that is).

On our last day in Ubud started with sleeping in again, getting lunch, searching for an ATM that would work, which seems to be a repeating theme on this trip, and finding a cool little book store to replenish our depleting supply of new sentences to read. We then found a trail out to some picturesque rice paddies where many more photos were taken. We stopped at a little restaurant in the middle of the paddie and split a coconut full of coconutty goodness, and then wandered back to town. This was my favorite part about a Ubud. It was peaceful and quiet, there was barely anyone around and for a good two hours not one person asked us if we needed a taxi.

We then went a got some dinner where one beer turned into 6 and we eventually went home with more beer and played gin on thr porch until past our bed time. We awoke the next day slightly hungover and packed up in order to meet the bus which would take us to our next destination: the island of Nusa Lembongan.

Penguins, Trams, and Cheap Food

We arrived in Melbourne after an overnight Greyhound bus from Canberra, smelly, hungry, and tired. I'm beginning to sense a theme here. We wandered out of the bus station,  and thanks to my impeccable sense of direction almost got on a tram to the opposite end of the city. Thankfully, a kind local who happened to overhear us talking pointed out that we were standing directly in front of the hostel in question. Even luckier, once we got over our embarrassment, our room was ready even though it wasn't even 9am. Huzzuh! It was naptime.

After a nap and a shower, we realized we were starving and went hunting for food. We found a cool place called Kinfolk, a non-profit café that is almost entirely volunteer run and directs 100% of its profits to development projects in Australia and abroad. It was definitely the most expensive meal we ate in Melbourne but it was delicious and for a good cause. Fair warning: I'm going to talk about food a lot this post.

After getting Cole some new shoes in an outlet mall, we hopped on the free tram that runs around the outside of the city during the day. (Note to Vancouver: this is a good idea. Bring the little train thing that ran from Granville Island to the Canada Line during the Olympics!) We got off the tram at Federation Square, this cool place with museums, restaurants, outdoor stages and free Wi-Fi, and were immediately drawn in to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image due to the giant DreamWorks kung-fu panda out front. The centre's usual exhibits are free to explore, but the DreamWorks exhibit cost money. Thankfully my UBC student card is still valid, so we got the student rate.

The DreamWorks exhibit had tons of cool stuff. There were original models - in some cases, multiple incarnations - of the main characters from almost all of their movies, little behind-the-scene clips, explanations of how they did stuff, like make water look real (which is apparently a bigger challenge than you would think), and even this dragon flight panorama type video, where you got the dragon's eye view of the town from How to Train Your Dragon. (I'm pretty sure that last sentence was a run-on sentence but I don't have the brains right now to make it not one, so moving on). We spent a ton of time lost in animation before checking out the permanent exbibit upstairs, which was essentially a museum of notable people and acheivements in Australian film and television. I looked at a Moulin Rouge exhibit, and one of Cate Blanchett's actual Oscars. Cole played Super Mario.

After all this exploring we went looking for some street art, which is all over the place in Melbourne's well-utilized narrow alleyways. Then, we wandered through Chinatown, into another narrow alleyway, and up three flights of stairs to Ferdydurke. Yes that's its actual name. Yes those are their house rules below. It was a pretty hipstery place, but the server was nice, the food cheap, and the decor interesting. Two insanely good $5 specialty hot dogs and a jug of cheap beer later, we headed home. We met some Europeans on the roof of our hostel and drank our taster pack of Australian beer before falling into bed at the end of this very long day.

On Tuesday I seriously contemplated staying in bed all day, but Cole convinced me otherwise. We went to the sprawling Queen Victoria Market instead, passing Batman Park, Batman Hotel, and Batman Street on the way. We thought these crazy Aussies were super obsessed with the Dark Knight, but it turns out they're all named after John Batman, a founder of the settlement that grew into Melbourne. The market was cool. Lots of jewellery, iPhone cases and Australian souvenirs.  We bought ourselves a bucket of strawberries for $1, and meandered across the street to a tattoo shop I'd researched, and I got inked. That was also cool.

My arm nice and plastic wrapped, we went back to Federation Square for the National Gallery of Victoria. We spent most of our time in the Indigenous Collection. So much of the work dealt with loss of varying types, and there was a very somber atmosphere in the Gallery. I was struck, not for the first time, by how horrible people can be to each other.

We spent a bit of time checking out another futuristic exhibit and, after agreeing we don't really get most art, went in search of this burger place I'd heard of called Huxtaburger. It was a very hole-in-the-wall dinery place towards the back of an alley, but the Bill Cosby Show inspired burgers were delicious and reasonably priced. I'd go back again.

On Wednesday, our last day in Melbourne, we rented (or hired, if you're Aussie) a car and headed south to Phillip Island, where more than a thousand little Fairy Penguins make the nightly trek across the sand to their burrows from the sea. Cole was pretty nervous about driving on the other side of the road, but he was an excellent driver. Combined with my previously noted incredible navigation skillz, we made it to Phillip Island without incident, and even managed to avoid the abundant toll roads. While we waited for the sun to set, we got up close with some Australian Pelicans, which are the biggest type of pelican in the world.  They get some fish scraps from a local restaurant every day at noon, and a bit of a crowd was there. After, we took an easy hike up to the lookout on the tip of Cape Woolami. Finally, it was penguin time! We took the advice of  Emily and Sunny and got there by 5:15 to get a seat near the front.

Not for the first time on this trip did I wish we had chosen to bring binoculars. When the penguins finally began to emerge from the ocean, it was nearly 7pm. The entire crowd disregarded the instructions of the park rangers to keep quiet and not take photos (so you wouldn't scare the penguins), so the penguins steered clear of the stone bleachers we were sitting on. After a few minutes of watching them waddle up the beach it started to pour. I'm not talking a drizzle, but an actual downpour. Of course we were in shorts and light sweaters because Australia isn't supposed to be cold, but we stuck it out and were rewarded with super up close penguin views on the walk back up to the parking lot. They were soooo cute. I didn't want to leave, but we had to get up at 5:30am to catch our flight to Bali, so we drove away into the downpour. 

We hardly can beara to leave Canberra

I will not apologize for the title.  Don't even ask.

Awesome puns aside, Australia's capitol was the site of the wedding of my dear friends Bre and Brenden. For those who do not know, Bre and I traveled through Peru, Chili, and Bolivia together during the first part of 2010 (see above). It was in a hostel in La Paz where Bre and Brenden met. I like to take credit for their meeting as it was I who decided that we were going to sit "with those dudes over there" and then promptly abandoned Bre with the large group of Australians where she was then seduced by Brenden's charm and magic tricks. Normally one shouldn't leave a female friend with a large group of male strangers, but in this instance it worked out for the best.

So to get to this most excellent wedding we flew out of Gold Coast, saying good bye to Taryn, Karl, and the most adorable Alice, and headed to Sydney where we then caught a Greyhound bus, which was red in colour (crazy backward Australians) to Camberra. We got in late and caught a cab to our hotel, a nice little place in the Kingston area of town near the parliament buildings. After sleeping in the next day, we wandered out to explore the neighbourhood / kill time before the welcome reception that was being held in Bre's parent's hotel room that evening. We had lunch in a pub by a little park, found an Australian decoration for our Christmas tree, and struggled to find an ATM which would give us money. After calling Scotiabank twice and being told that they didn't know what was wrong and maybe we should just wait and try again later, we finally got some cash and headed over to the lovely Hotel Realm. After a great evening of food and drink with Bre and Brenden's families, we wandered home, shivering, wishing we had brought sweaters, and wondering how it could possibly be cold in Australia.

The next day was wedding day and the shirt, pants, and dress shoes I had been lugging around were finally going to be used. The wedding was held at the National Arboretum which is located on a hillside with an amazing view of Canberra. Brenden looked very handsome and dashing and all sorts of other Princely adjectives, and Bre was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, as Brenden lamented in his speech later at the reception, just when Bre came in some dust flew in with her and got in Brenden's eyes. Very unfortunate.

Following the ceremony we headed down to the Hotel Realm and ate and drank the afternoon away with other wedding guests until we could head upstairs to the reception hall. Whoever decorated did a great job. The hall looked amazing. The food was delicious, the speeches entertaining, and there were even s'mores packages for each guest at the tables! We cooked ours over a candle. The Australians were confused, but then delighted when we explained what they were supposed to do with the graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow. Then we danced and danced until we yawned and yawned because we are old and staying up past 10 is apparently impossible for us now.

The next day we checked out of our hotel, went to a Pizza Hut for a $5 large pizza (the only inexpensive thing in the entirety of Australia. That and 30 cent ice cream at McDonald's) and caught a ride with Bre's aunt and uncle out to Bre and Brenden's place south of the city. We had a lovely BBQ (no, there was no shrimp, and apparently it's prawns anyway) and hung out with the families, both of which are exceedingly cool.

After the BBQ we got a ride back into town and decided to kill the 6 hours until our bus to Melbourne at the movies. The first movie we saw was a Kiwi mockumentary called 'What We Do in Shadows'. It is about vampires living Wellington and it was hilarious. See it if you are able. The second movie we watched was 'The Giver'. Unlike most people I did not read this book in school. Perhaps if I had I would have liked it more. I have always had difficulty suspending my disbelief when it comes to films, TV shows, etc. I will point out that in real life a person would have called someone on the phone to have a 30 second conversation instead of going across Manhatten to have it in person, but that doesn't make for dramatic television I suppose. I also suppose that it is annoying to have such gaps in logic pointed out for you when you are trying to enjoy show. Such is the fate of my wife I guess. Anyways, the point is that couldn't get over the idea of a single person transfering memories that they never actually experienced to another person by grabbing their arms, or that by such a person crossing an invisible barrier suddenly everyone else miles and miles away would suddenly know what the colour red is. Didn't make sense. Couldn't get into it. That being said, I am completely able to get into a movie about mutated turtles who know ninjitsu.

Following our movie adventure we caught a bus (with assigned seating?) and were off to Melbourne.

A Golden Trip to Gold Coast

We got into the little Gold Coast airport at noon on Sunday.  The sun was shining and it was - thankfully - warmer than Sydney. I was beginning to regret my decision to only bring one pair of pants. I was so excited to head through the gates to see my cousin Taryn, finally meet her husband Karl, and tickle the little toes of their six month old daughter Alice. We immediately headed out for lunch at a favourite restaurant of theirs, Montezumas.  It was at a different location of that restaurant that they had first met, and Cole and I got to meet Karl's mom and sister before digging into some deliciously cheesy Mexican food.

After lunch we went for a walk by the ocean and Taryn told me to pick out the tallest building on the Surfer's Paradise skyline. I did, and she said that Karl had arranged for us to stay there that night! A short drive later we made our way up to the 42nd floor of Q1, our enormous suite, and some incredible views. It was a pretty awesome surprise. We planned on watching the sunset from the observation deck so as the sun sank we headed for the elevators. Or course, everyone else had the same idea and the lineup was huge. We went back to our suite to catch the last of the amazing evening rays.

The next morning, we woke up pretty early, found coffee, and went for a walk on the beach. We chatted, collected shells, and collectively itched for a swim in the ocean. Instead, we went back to Taryn and Karl's lovely home in Coomera for our first lazy afternoon in weeks.

I woke up incredibly excited on Tuesday morning. Today was the day. The day I'd get to hold a koala. I had literally waiting for this day since the first time I saw a koala when I was 8 years old. We arrived at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary pretty early in the day. There weren't a lot of people there and entry was fast because we'd purchased our tickets online in advance (saving 10% off an already inexpensive gate pass compared to the zoos in the area).

After a few hours in the park (you can read my post on the Koala Sanctuary here), we ate lunch in the parking lot picnic area and headed for Southbank Parklands in Brisbane for a riverside stroll and some ice cream. The exciting bunch that we are, we all got the same flavour - white chocolate raspberry - and set off down the river. Taryn pointed out her favourite building, Gotham Tower. It's not it's real name, but lots of people call it that because it totally looks like a place that Batman would stay in. See if you can spot it in the picture above.

On Wednesday we took a day trip out to Byron Bay. While getting ready in the morning Cole and I both realized we left our swimsuits at Q1 because we're losers. Thankfully it was on the way to Byron Beach and Taryn is awesome and didn't mind stopping for us to pick them up. Before long we were on the beach! It was Alice's first beach day and we were all excited to see how she would react to the water. Sand was definitely eaten and she seemed to really like the waves. Cole and I swam a bit and he lost his sun glasses in the surf because we are bad at hanging on to our stuff. 

After removing the pound of sand poor Alice had trapped in her swim diaper (baby powder was miraculously helpful) Taryn took Alice for a walk around the surfside town and Cole and I lay in the sun and read our books. He almost escaped without a sunburn but I am bad at my job and missed a patch on his back. Whoops.

After we had lunch we headed up to the Byron Bay lighthouse, which is at the Easternmost point of Australia. We got to the top and found out parking was $7. We almost didn't pay it but changed our minds at the last minute and decided to stay. Boy are we glad we did! The views were lovely, but just as we were about to leave Taryn thought she saw a whale. We decided to stay a minute to see if she was right and she was! We saw at least six different humpback whales out in the water, and a bunch of dolphins leaping out of the water hearding a school of glittering fish into the bay. It was something else and the best $7 I've spent so far. 

That night we went out for dinner with some of Taryn and Karl's closest friends. It was really nice getting to know them and we had a lot of fun,  but all 6 of us were yawning by 10:00. Apparently parents of young children and jetlagged travellers turn into pumpkins at 10:00pm. 

The next day was another relaxing morning before it was time to catch a flight back to Sydney. Despite being very excited for Bre and Brendan's wedding and the next adventures, I was really sad to leave. It was so great to get to spend time with Taryn, and getting to know her and her family. We had an amazing visit and I can't wait to see them all again, hopefully soon... at least before Alice is a teenager! We're already planning our next trip back...

Koalas Everywhere!

We've had some pretty bad Internet connections since we left Gold Coast, so please bear with us as we catch you up on our adventures.

On Wednesday, while we were visting my cousin and her family in Gold Coast, we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary just outside of Brisbane. I definitely recommend it over some of the bigger zoos in the area unless you are really into seeing animals the sanctuary doesn't have. The enclosures at Lone Pine are really nice, you get get really up close with the animals, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

We looked at the birds first. Brightly colored Princess Parrots, big Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, and chatty Sulfur Crested Cockatoos greeted us at the gate. Cole tried to make them say hi and I snapped a few photos before entering the Platypus area.

The sanctuary had two platypodes (I had to look up what the plural was) a male and a female. They were a lot smaller than I expected, but  that only made them cuter.

 

Coming out of the platypus area we got our first glimpse of the koalas: moms and joeys.  Some of the joeys were really little and clinging to their moms' backs or fronts. I was freaking out a little from all the cute.

One of the things I really liked about the Sanctuary was that they had a lot of different areas for the koalas, and they were free to roam high in the trees if they wanted to, and some did! They had a retirement area for the old koalas who mostly just slept, and a bachelor pad for male koalas, and even a kindergarten area for joeys recently separated from their moms.

 We passed by the dingos, something Cole had been looking forward to, and the Tasmanian devils (who are much sweeter than the cartoon portrays) on our way to the highlight of my day. We got to the main koala enclosure - which wasn't very enclosed, the koalas were free to climb as high and as far as they wanted - and no one was there! After a brief moment of panic where I thought it might not happen because the ticket machine for the koala cuddling wouldn't take the bills we had, I went to the front and waited for them to bring me a koala.

Kiaper is a really handsome three year old male who was super into the eucalyptus leaves he was being fed. He was heavier than I expected he would be and his fur was soooo soft and thick. I was feeling a little bit like Kristin Bell when she met a sloth for the first time, only without the outward hysterical crying. On the inside I was totally losing it though, don't worry.

After they made me give Kiaper back, I vowed to work there one day so I could hold koalas all the time and we went into the kangaroo enclosure.  Wallabies, kangaroos, and a few emus were wandering around. They were all super tame and happy to let you pet them. Even the moms with joey feet sticking out of their pouches were just lying in the dirt, soaking up the sun and the attention.

We headed to the main enclosure for a wildlife talk, where some of the keepers talked about their favourite animals. We met a young crocodile named Doug who was the king of his enclosure despite being the smallest croc in there, a Lorakeet that had been found obviously domesticated and unable to be released into the wild who was scared to fly down from trees, and a dingo that was so in love with his keeper that he stared at her the entire talk.

After a meander over to see some sleepy wombats, and a peek in at the adorably fat kookaburra, we called it a day and had some lunch at the parking lot picnic tables before heading into Brisbane for a look at the city.

Things are backwards here in Sydney. Or are we?

We were very smelly when we landed in Sydney. We had not showered since roughly 7 am Monday, Vancouver time, and by the time we made to the apartment we were renting, it was 10:30 Thursday Sydney time. Granted we crossed the international date line in the middle there, but even so. I did the math and it was 57.5 hours sans shower. Gross.

So we land in Sydney, all stinky and tired, and found that Vancouver isn't the only city that over charges people to use the train system from the airport. $32 later we made our way to the apartment we rented with Miranda's friends Sunny and Emily in Sydney's Potts Point neighbourhood. It was really nice. A former ballet studio renovated into a nice little apartment with a Murphy bed and a loft with another bed over the laundry room like a super cool adult indoor tree fort. You can probably guess which bed I wanted.

After washing up and relishing the feeling of clean, we set out to see what we could see. First thing we did was get some meat pies which are so awesome and Canada should totally have these everywhere. There just like chicken pot pies but bigger and beefier and gravy-er and  better. Then we headed over to the botanical gardens which are right downtown beside the opera house. Very beautiful. We came around the bend to a spectacular view of the Opera house and pictures were taken. We then strolled along the sea wall toward the opera house and passed bus loads of Asian business men taking photos of seemingly everything, naval recruits running up and down stairs making us feel out of shape and worthless,  and plenty of young couples holding hands and generally feeling good about life. When we made our way over to the opera house and had poked it to verify that we were indeed here and that this was real, we decided it was well time for a drink,  so to Opera Bar we went. This is a bar right beside the Opera House, with a good view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge too. It is nice.

After drinks were drunk we set out to find a phone to let Emily know where we were. This proved difficult.  We apparently don't know how to use Aussie pay phones because neither at the airport when we were trying to contact the guy to give us keys to the apartment or at this time trying to phone Emily could we get them to dial or at least stay connected for more than 10 seconds. We eventually found some free wifi and were able to contact her and sort some stuff out. After walking home we met up with Sunny and Emily and headed out again.

We took the train to Chinatown and had Thai food. I ate a super hot chili by accident.  It hurt. Then we went out to Newtown which is the University district and had Gelato from The Cow and Moon which won the Gelato World Championship or something.  There was a 50 person line up out the door and around the corner and dispite the fact that we were falling asleep on  our feet, it was totally worth it. Side note: the trains in Sydney are awesome. The stations are huge and the network comprehensive. The trains are like real trains, like west coast expresses running under the city and arriving every 10 minutes.

The next day we took the ferry over to Manly which is like Sydney's version of White Rock, except as with everything else, bigger and better. We rented some kayaks and headed over to Store Beach which was the site of a small pox quarrentine station. It is also the sole remaining nesting ground for fairy penguins which are small and cute. We saw many tracks, but no birds. Which is probably good because disturbing them would be bad. We went to another beach and hiked up a cliff and decided that we were hungry and headed back to port. After getting mediocre fish and chips and meeting very brave and aggressive sea gulls we took the ferry back to Sydney.

We then went to Cockle Bay wharf and to the Lindt chocolate cafe and ate supremely decadent chocolate stuff which gave me a headache. We were sitting beside a spoiled little brat who would not stop whining about wanting chocolate and screaming nonsense and her parents who did nothing about it other than sweetly ask her to stop. They were the Dursleys and she was Dudley. We then wondered back through Chinatown and Miranda and I bought cheap stainless steel rings to take the place of the gold wedding ones we left back home. We were married again. After getting home we rested a bit and then headed out for dinner. We ended up finding a little basement bar with a  band playing banjo covers of Micheal Jackson songs. It was cool. Then we slept. I feel that the days of drinking until 3am are fast escaping me. So tired!

Yesterday each couple did there own thing, and Miranda and I headed out to Bondi Beach and wandered around for a while. We then headed back into town to 'The Rocks' district which is the oldest part of Sydney. We climbed up the 200 stairs to the Pylon lookout of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and learned all about it's construction, took photos, and watched people get married on the shore line below. Seriously.  It is wedding season here. We saw 4 separate couples taking wedding photos at Observation hill (there's an observatory up there with big trees, a gazebo and beautiful views of the city) and a huge group of at least 100 women who were all part of Bachelorette parties down by the wharf later that day. Side note: don't do the Bridge Climb unless you like spending lots of money. We watched people doing it from the Pylon Lookout, and for less than a 10th of the price we saw views that were almost as good, and didn't have to spend 3 hours doing it. AND we got the added bonus of the museum. The Pylon Lookout isn't very well advertised and I suspect that it is because the Bridge Climb is privately owned whereas the Pylon Lookout is a public thing and often publicly owned attractions don't have much in the way of advertising. But I could be wrong about that, just a hunch.

But anyways, after the lookout, we wondered around The Rocks and made our way up to Observation Hill and then on to The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel which is the oldest brewery pub in Sydney. Beer was had, bangers and mash were eaten and rugby was watched. We then wandered down to Darling Harbour and saw all the Bachelorettes and waited a bit to watch the free fire works that they put on every Saturday because fire works are awesome. Seriously Canada, you could learn a lot from Australia. Again, we were going to go out partying, but we slept instead.  An old married couple we are.

So now we are at the airport and I am typing this and getting frustrated with auto correct. We are headed up to Gold Coast to stay with Miranda's cousin Taryn. There is a baby there is is cute beyond words. I like her a lot.