Archive for August, 2002
Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve written in the journal, over 3 weeks I think. The time has absolutely flown by since I’ve been in Australia. And with my family being here and then the website being down for almost 2 weeks, well I just didn’t have a chance to keep up. But I’m back now, yeah, time to document again.
I left Sydney last Sunday and I’ve been on the Gold Coast ever since. I’m staying with a friend who I met while in Sapa, Vietnam back in January. His name is Alan, he’s 74 years old, and he’s been volunteering the majority of his time helping the H’mong people in Vietnam for the last 6 years. With him having spent so much time there and me having been completely Asia-ed out when I arrived here, we have a lot in common and much to talk about.
It’s been a great break from travelling to be able to stay in a house with my own room and bed and real sheets and blankets.
We haven’t done very much at all this week actually besides walk on the beach and sit around talking and watch tv in the evening and I’ve been completely content with that. It’s only a 10-minute walk to the beach from Alan’s house and a 20-minute drive up to Surfer’s Paradise so it’s a perfect location. I was really fortunate that he invited me to stay anytime.
I can’t believe that I’ve been in Australia for 4 weeks now that I think about it. The time has really flown by, I know I’ve already said it, but it has. For now I’ve got a flight back to Bangkok on September 10th, but I already feel like I want to stay longer. I guess I’ll decide about it once I leave Alan’s place and am back in the backpacker world again. I plan on heading out either tomorrow or the next day.
My friend and walking buddy Alan
Tropical rainforest
August 30th, 2002
Just a few more things that I’ve been up to in the last few weeks:
1. Travelling to Sydney from Cairns with the Happy Family and staying with them in a nice hotel for another five days. It was great seeing everyone again and getting to spend time catching up.
2. Checking out the Sydney aquarium with the family. The best part was the shark exhibit where you walk under the tank and the sharks and rays swim right over your head.
3. Going to the top of the Sydney Tower, at 250 meters high, it has an incredible view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and all of Sydney below.
4. Doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb with my mom and sister Kristine! Very cool experience, walking along the arch of the bridge to the very top, enjoying amazing views of the city and harbour below.
5. Participating in the family memory lane day where we first visited the hospital where I was born in St. Leonards, then going to St. Cecilia’s elementary school where my sister was in school for 4 years, and to the church at St. Cecilia’s where I was baptized. Also checked out the old house on Glade Street where we lived while in Australia for 5 years.
6. Seeing my family off back to America. Just a quick 2-week holiday for them but still a really good time. When they left they dropped me off at a hostel on Glebe Point Road in Sydney. I spent another week in Sydney at the hostel on my own, and met some really good people there.
7. Going to a real Aussie rules AFL ‘footy’ game in Sydney with a family friend, Grant. Although I’m not much of a sports fan, I was excited to check out a real Aussie game and enjoy their national pasttime with them. Very, very different from American football. No helmets, no pads, no nets behind the goals (meaning the footy flies into the stands at every goal). Thanks to Grant I actually learned a bit about the rules too! I think it was the Sydney Swans vs. the Melbourne somethings.
8. Walking around Sydney for a few days, enjoying Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, and all the other nice spots in town. Truly a great city.
9. Walking from Coogi to Bondi Beach along the coast – about 4 km or 2 hours of walking. Five star scenery, and good company too, went with my friend Winston, one of the guys at the hostel.
10. Surviving a pub crawl sponsored by the hostel – a first for me, and even though I was a bit leery of the thought of doing an all-night bar hopping mad drinking mess, it actually turned out to be really cool and rather mellow. There were about 20 people or so who went and in the end we only’crawled’ to 3 different bars, one of which had live acoustic music which I really enjoyed.
11. Walking from the Spit Bridge to Manly along the coast with Winston again. A 10 km walk with views of North Head, South Head, Sydney, and Manly Took about 3 hours in total. Very very nice walk.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: Well that’s about it. Although I’ve been really bad with documenting my time in Cairns and Sydney, I am back on the ball with writing daily entries and promise to have more juicy details in the upcoming entries. By the way, I’ve finished adding all my pictures from Myanmar so feel free to go back in the journal list to check them out.
The Happy Family in Sydney – Jim, Kristine, Morgan, Jess, and Mom
Jennifer, Kristine, and Mom on the Harbour Bridge
Walking from Coogi to Bondi Beach
August 28th, 2002
Wow. The time has really flown by over the past 3 weeks. Australia seems to suit me well. I am having a blast. There’s too much to tell to get all the details so I’ll just have to list some of the highlights:
1. Diving in Cairns with Tusa Dive – 2 excellent dives at Thetford Reef (the Horseshoe and Magic Garden). Saw one cuttlefish (cool!), a stingray, and a yellow boxfish just to name a few.
2. Hang gliding with Sanne off the coast north of Cairns. All went well for Sanne’s run, and mine lasted about 30 seconds until we lost the lift and crashed onto the beach. Still a great time!
3. Going to Reef teach, a 2-hour talk about the Great Barrier Reef, given by Paddy Colwell, a marine biologist who’s been working to protect the reef for 12 years. While at his talk I asked him about privately guided dives, and he agreed to take me out to the reef for a day of naturalist diving with him. It was like diving with a human encyclopedia – he knows so much about everything including hard and soft corals and all the fish. We went to Micamas Reef and just a few of the things that I saw included fish swimming upside down, fish changing color, coral changing coral, and much more.
4. Meeting up with my family in Cairns! Stayed at a swanky beach-front 3-bedroom condo with my mom, dad, sister Kristine, brother-in-law Jim, and nieces Morgan and Jessica.
5. Diving at the reef again off of one of the pontoons at Agincourt Reef. I had 2 great dives at the Nursery Bommie and Point sites and saw a carpet shark (wobbygong), unicornfish, several barracuda, and 2 lionfish. My parents went along as well and snorkled off the pontoon while I went diving.
I have to break this up into 2 entries so I can include more pictures. So the rest of what I’ve been up to will be included in the next journal entry…
The harbor in Cairns, Australia
Me and Paddy Cowell doing our naturalist dives
Thetford Reef, at the Great Barrier Reef
August 27th, 2002
Have I been living on a different planet for the last 10 months??? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Everything here is so absolutely normal!!! How do I even begin to explain the complete state of culture shock I have been suffering from for the past 2 days since I arrived in Australia?? It’s unbelievable.
People actually speak English everywhere here, what a concept. It may sounds silly, but I have been so completely isolated in SE Asia for the last 10 months and well I just got used to not being able to understand background conversations, music on the radio, local tv, and basically everyone in general. Now all of a sudden I understand everyone again! Even as I write this people are walking by where I’m sitting and I am able to pick up a piece of each conversation as they pass and it’s SO nice!
Then, at the airport in Cairns, I found the shuttle bus into town and when I got on the driver announced, ‘it’s a law in Australia for everyone to wear their seatbelt so please buckle up.’ I’m looking around like WHAT?? I haven’t even seen a seatbelt for 10 months. In most of Asia they cut them out of the car and absolutely NO ONE uses seatbelts. I mean, come one, this is the land where I saw SEVEN people on a motorbike at one time!!!! (one adult, six children) Road safety does not exist.
The supermarket yesterday was another highlight for me – an entire aisle of cheese, a whole section of mustards, pickles, olives – all the things you can’t get in Asia. Ok, you can get Kraft mustard and Kraft singles, but that’s only if you’re lucky. And they had a produce section here with apples, broccoli, alfalfa sprouts – I was in heaven. How did I survive without so much for so long? I have no idea.
Last night in the hostel I was hanging out with some other travelers – a girl from Holland, and a guy and girl from the UK and they’ve all been in Australia for 3-8 months already and they were just laughing at my amazement over everything being Western again. They told me I will be bored of it in a few more days, but I don’t know. I just didn’t realize how hard the traveling I’ve done has been until I landed here. There’s no hassle, no haggling, no people following you saying – you need taxi, where you from, where you go, change money, buy something, want massage, special discount, etc, etc etc. You can actually walk down the street and no one even looks at you!!! I am absolutely loving it.
Yeah so I’m in Australia now. In Cairns, on the coast of Queensland, one of the main port towns for visiting the Great Barrier Reef. The Happy Family is due to arrive on August 8th, so I’ve got another few days to check out the sites on my own.
Today I was meant to go hang gliding (a first for me) with Sanne, the girl from Holland, but there wasn’t enough wind so we’re going to try again tomorrow. It was a relaxing day, hanging out at the hostel with Sanne, the 2 Brits, eating (are you ready?) hummus and pita!! Wow. Very exciting. Finally around 2pm I decided to go out and about so I went down to the waterfront and spent the afternoon walking around the shops and marina. I also booked some diving at the reef for the day after tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I love being here yet? Ok then. I’m about to go buy a bottle of red wine and some Doritos (hooray!) and go back to the hostel to work on conforming to Western society. Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday I spent 3 hours in an art gallery because I was so amazed with the beautiful aboriginal art collection there and in the end I bought 5 paintings!! That was my first real souvenir I’ve bought on this trip. Hey I deserved it!
One last kudo for the land down under and that is the weather! There is NO HUMIDITY in Cairns! This is really, really wonderful. I have been living in a sauna for almost a year. I’ve heard that you folks at home are suffering from a heat wave, well imagine 10 months of exactly that in third-world countries with no air con anywhere? You can’t even breathe without sweating. Now I’m here and although the sun is warm, there is a wonderful breeze just like in springtime at home. And at night it gets chilly!!! It’s ALL so great. Life is good.
Getting ready to fly!
Friend Sanne (from Holland) in the air
Me, still happy after the crash landing
August 4th, 2002