East Coast with Wicked Van

Pics:

1) The Whitsunday Islands

2) My first Aussie burn...not good

3) Aussies don't get the term 'cougar,' but I thought this was a hoot

4) Me on the van watching the sun set

5) Sign at Australia Zoo: Home of the Crocodile Hunter

6) Koala

7) Croc

8) Me playing Croc Hunter

9) Surfer's Paradise

10) Byron Bay

11) Ocean view from most Easterly point in Australia

12) Lighthouse at Byron Bay: The most Easterly point in Australia

13) Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia

14) Big Bighorn Sheep in Goulburn

15) Australian Parliament in Canberra

16) Wicked Van "Deluxe Thoughts"

17) Wicked Van front

We rented a camper van to drive down the East Coast in. Turned out to be a great idea, we had a great time. Jordan learned to drive stick for the first time (don't forget we were driving on the wrong side of the road) and we had our home and transportation all in one. We stayed at roadside turnouts all over the country, visited our friends in Byron Bay area, chilled at beaches, went white water rafting in Tully, kayaking in the Whitsunday Island area, etc. Don't have a lot of pictures to be honest, but our route was as follows: Cairns-Mission Beach-Airle Beach (Whitsunday Islands)-Hervey Bay (Fraser Island)-Brisbane-Gold Coast (Surfer's Paradise)-Murwilumbah (visiting friends we met in Thailand)-Byron Bay-random country towns in New South Wales-Canberra-Bateman's Bay-Rye in Victoria (where we visited Shae). I know, lots of places in two weeks, but we made it work. We had a blast in any case. Best beach? Byron Bay. Beautiful girls everywhere (some didn't like to wear tops either, and although Jordan and I were offended, we dealt with it), squeaky sand, beautiful water temps, etc. Didn't learn to surf only because there had been shark warnings in the area.

Sydney and Cairns, Australia

Alright, so we flew into Sydney. Didn't have the highest expectations...kinda figured Sydney would be the Toronto of Australia. Pretty much right. In my opinion, Sydney was just another big city. It wasn't really THAT beautiful as others say, but it was ok. The Opera House is kinda disappointing. I expected this amazing, shining white piece of architecture, but it's really just a tiled off-white coloured building. Granted we did have crappy weather while we were there, but what can I say? We did meet up with a friend we met in Thailand, so that was good.

Next, we flew to Cairns in Queensland. Holy hot Batman, 30 above and humid. But that's alright, we ended up taking our open water divng course (scuba diving), and dived on the Great Barrier Reef. Now that puts Sydney to shame. The largest living organism in the world, it can be seen from space, and it shows. Not to mention the beautiful sea life in and around the reef. We're now certified to dive up to 18 meters deep. Nice!

Pics:

1) Harbour Bridge

2) Sydney Opera House

3) Sydney Harbour

4) St. Paul's in Sydney

5) The dive deck in Cairns

6) Me on the boat

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, what a crazy town. The people seem to be pretty cool in the 'lots of things happening' city. Noise pollution's a huge issue, but you get past that once you get used to the million and one smells available on the city streets. I wish we got a little more time to spend here; although we had the time, we caught up on some rest and much needed laundry doing type stuff when we first arrived, I wish we saw more of what this city has to offer. I'm happy we got the chance to go to the Grand Palace, see the Reclining Buddha, and experience the rush of haggling like crazies at the night market (I haggled for two soccer jerseys: original price, 1500 baht for one ($45) down to 700 baht for two jerseys ($23ish).) We tried to check out the night life, but had trouble finding a club that was either legit or inexpensive. It was neat walking in the Nana district at night, because like you women at home who experience getting hollered at by construction workers, we were being hollered at by 'masseuses' and 'lady boys' as our tour guide Nan so affectionately described them. Thailand was a really great cultural experience, but towards the end (seeing as we've been in the Middle East and Asia since October), we were looking forward to Australia. Not for the ease of it all, but simply because we were sick at being asked where we were going everytime we walked down the street. Being a visible minority isn't something a lot of us understand, especially in Canada where anyone of a minority group could be Canadian.

Pics:

1) The skytrain system in Bangkok

2) Jordan shopping at the night market

3) Asian Ronald and I...Jordan and I laughed, cuz since I got my hair cut, I look really funny in a ball cap

4) Temple at the Grand Palace

5) Figures of the Grand Palace

6) Grand Palace

7) Ditto

8) Reclining Buddha

9) Ditto and I

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is probably my favourite Thai city that we got to experience. It's got an amazing night market, a seemingly cool nightlife, great people, and beautiful sights. Plus we bungy jumped here, so that just made it all worth while. All in all, there's just loads of things for tourists to do. We also went for a one day jungle trek to a hill tribe village, and that was an amazing experience. We played soccer in the mud, played with the kids who were full of energy (Jordan and I couldn't figure out why our arms hurt so much the next day, but we were lifting them all over the place), tried bugs, etc. We even got to dance with the locals, they sang for us, and we were asked to sing to them, so what did we choose? Bohemian Rhapsody of course! We got to ride elephants on the way back to Chiang Mai, and bamboo rafts where it turned out to be an all out battle fighting to make everyone as sopping wet as possible. Jordan and I even ran into Mel who we met in Germany, I stayed at her place in London etc. But it was completely random. She didn't even recognize me cuz I had such long hair and a nasty beard. Good times! On the night train back to Bangkok, we had a hoot with the train crew. One of the tourist policemen wanted our empty bottle of Beefeater, so I got a picture with him (he even gave me his hat and he wore my Oilers cap!!) Pretty funny stuff. We were also pouring drinks for one of the waiters, it was a pretty funny night.

Pics:

1) Wat Phrathat steps and I (306 steps lead to the temple)

2) The entrance to Wat Phrathat

3) A Chinese style Buddha

4) A Thai style Buddha in the temple

5) Buddha's for each day of the week (you can make a donation based on what day of the week you were born for good luck)

6) Traditional Northern Thai dancing at dinner

7) The jungle trek

8) A rainbow after a nice terrential downpour

9) Me eating a bug

10) Jordan playing with the locals

11) The soccer crew

12) Nan (our tour guide) and Jordan rocking out to traditional Hill Tribe song and dance

13) An elephant and I

14) Jordan, Mel and I in the night market in Chiang Mai

15) Sean bungy jumping (no pics of me, Jordan took a video instead...trying to upload it, we'll see)

16) Team Bungy: Steve (Ottawa), Sean (NZ), Me (Edmonton), Laurie (Quebec), Jordan (Edmonton), and Alice (Melbourne)

17) The tourist police officer and I

Ayuthaya, Thailand

Ayuthaya was a pretty good stop on the trip. We got a chance to see two more ancient temples in Thailand, Wat Pra Maha and Wat Ratcha Burnna. We rode bikes around town which is always fun, then took a night train to Chiang Mai, the gem of the North.

Pics:

1) Buddha at Wat Pra Maha

2)Buddha parts at Wat Ratcha Burnna

3) Me at Wat Ratcha Burnna