Long post about melbourne, brisbane, cairns

So I got to Melbourne and I walked around the city a lot… everything was very cheap compared to Sydney which was nice. Melbourne is a beautiful city and probably a really nice city to live but it is small compared to Sydney. One of the things that I liked about Melbourne was that a lot of things were free, for example, there was a tour bus that you could hop on that would give u a tour of the entire city in about an hour and a half and you could hop on and off at different stops (there were 13 stops in total) and just get picked up by the next bus. There was also a free trolley that went around the city which was cool. However, the coolest thing in Melbourne was the arcade walk.

What one of the guys told me was that other than the main city streets, Melbourne – for the locals at least, is made up of a bunch of connected arcades/walkways. Basically little alleys that are closed off to cars similar to 3^rd street promenade in LA or ben yehuda st. he told me that the best bars/coffee shops/restaurants are found in some of the dingiest alleys in the center of town. He gave me a small map and when I got to the beginning of the tour it took me about 20 min to find the entrance to the alleyway b/c it was so narrow, and I would’ve never even seen it w/out the map. Walking in was so cool, really like being in a totally diff world. Grungy looking shops lined the way (some of the shops were so tiny that it was just a counter) but they were some of the coolest places I have seen. Also, the people changed from very business-ey to trendy. After walking through that alley you come to a different one which looks like you are in the middle of an English palace, with marble floors, arched ceilings and cool statues on the side next to the fanciest shops imaginable, tiffany’s, Gucci, etc. to get to the next alley you had to walk downstairs and it was a little asian alley (separate from Chinatown) selling food and massages. Anyways, I don’t remember the rest of the alleyways but it was really cool. As a side-note, Melbourne was freezing cold and I really had to push myself to go outside b/c all I had was a zip up long sleeve shirt to wear.

Next, I was off to Brisbane which is where Joanna and Ken live. For those of you that don’t know, we know Joanna because she babysat me and Alex when we were young and lived with our family for a few yrs. since she’s awesome, our family has remained in touch with Joanna (as much is possible w/ someone that lives in Australia) over the yrs. Anyways, my flight from Melbourne was delayed and I had planned to walk around the city in the morning and then make my way over to joanna’s in the afternoon, but instead Joanna and her younger son, zach, just came and picked me up from the airport which made it simpler for me. Joanna’s house is awesome and looks like something straight out of a Disney movie. When we got to the house we were greated by yogi, a really cute labradoodle who gets so excited when ppl come home that he can’t contain himself so he runs around the yard, then comes up to you and stands on his hind legs and tries to waltz with you. It was soooo nice to have ppl that I knew, home-cooked meals and my own room/bathroom that I didn’t have to share w/ someone else. I needed to do a lot of research about Vietnam b/c I hadn’t booked anything yet for it (more on that later) including hotels/flights and I wanted to make sure I had all that. I hung out w/ Joanna and ken (after ben and zach went to bed, ken taught me a little about rugby so I wouldn’t seem like such a retard w/ the locals and then went to sleep. All my flights have been at 6am so I’ve had to wake up at 4:30 which really kills me for the day, but flights are cheapest early in the am so it’s worth it.

The next day was awesome, we went to zach’s little league rugby game (I slept through ben’s game which was at 8am I think) and it was hilarious! I have no idea what happened during the game, but zach kicked ass during the game (I think) and scored a try (aka, touchdown). After the game, we went to lone pine which was a koala sanctuary. They had a million koala’s that you could get within a few feet of touching them w/ just short fences in between you and the koala which was really cool. They are really cute/weird looking creatures but they’re the face of Australia so I’m glad I got to see it. However, the highlight of the trip was definitely getting to go to the “kangaroo fields”. It’s just a large area where there are maybe 40 kangaroos relaxing and you can literally go up and sit down next to them. Joanna bought us some food and then they all came up to us to get a little bit, although a lot of them were clearly well fed and didn’t bother getting up. The big male in the group just sat there flashing his gigantic balls at us, not sure if he was trying to impress us or not, but we were def all impressed. Or at least I was.

Joanna served me some pretty sweet dinners, even more so considering the crap that I have been eating, and we watched some rugby and went to bed. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I got to sleep in my own quiet room that was pitch black… I think I slept at least 10 hrs every night. The next day (or the first day, I don’t remember the order of which day was which) I went to the downtown area while Joanna, ken and the boys went to a communion for one of joanna’s nieces who is also her god child. The city of Brisbane is really nice although not very different from many other small to mid-size cities. It had a nice, charming downtown area and then an area called southbank which is the more artsy and cool area. One really funny thing they had was a beach in the middle of the southbank area (not on the water, it was completely man-made) where they just set up some sand and water that went up to 10-15 feet deep and ppl were playing volleyball and swimming as if it were the regular beach. That night me and the whole family went to a bbq for zach’s school which was pretty funny. All the kids were running around doing their thing and the parents were sitting on the side drinking/eating and listening to the band or just playing rugby. I had a catch (we stuck out like a sore thumb playing baseball) w/ ken and ben for a little while and pretty much ate the rest of the time. It was great seeing joanna/ken and co. and if you’re reading this… thanks so much, you guys rock.

The next morning I left to cairns which is the main spot for the great barrier reef. Unfortunately the reef isn’t on the shore, it begins about 30km out into the ocean and the really good part doesn’t start until even further out. I decided to do an all day snorkeling thing with one free scuba dive with a tour group that was at least somewhat reasonably priced and got good reviews from everyone I spoke with. It was about a 1.5 hr trip on the boat to actually get to the reef and I was put in the first dive group (meaning that when we first got there I was going to dive rather than snorkel first and then dive). I got all my stuff on and dove and it was pretty sweet. We went about 20 feet under the water and got to see the reef pretty far down. You don’t realize it but often when it feels like ur really deep b/c of the pressure, u are actually only a few feet deep and there was one point I thought I was really deep but I stuck my hand up and the tip of my hand was above water. It is cool though when ur deep under water and u flip over and look up and there’s someone that’s 15 feet above you. After that I went snorkeling which was also really cool. I think I may have enjoyed the snorkeling a bit more b/c when ur diving ur concentrating real hard on making sure ur ears are ok and they don’t explode and trying really hard to breathe and making sure ur deep enough, etc. and it’s hard to concentrate on what’s actually there. But when you’re snorkeling you can really just look at the fish and the reef and it’s really cool. The boat left at 8am and at around 11:30 they served us lunch (all you can eat buffet where I obviously forced myself to eat and then got a little sick later) and moved the boat to a different reef. The second reef was way better b/c the reef itself was much more crowded w/ fish and was only about 2-3 feet deep so you could float over the reef and literally touch it (although you’re not allowed to touch it b/c it’s delicate and I think some of the stuff might be poisonous). There were some really cool fish, some that were really colorful and 4-5 feet long. We also saw a ton of stuff that you see on places like planet earth (the show, not the planet). Some ppl saw sharks (not dangerous to humans) and the big sea turtles but unfortunately, I didn’t see any. Either way, it was pretty cool and def an awesome thing to do.

When I got back I wanted to rent a car b/c I thought driving on the other side of the road would be fun and b/c I wanted to go to cape tribulation. Basically, it is a beach that is in the middle of the rainforest. I met 2 girls in the car rental place who were also going to cape tribulation (a 2.5 hr drive) and so we decided to all go together to split the costs. The cars that they rent out after 4pm count for the next day so we rented it on Tuesday night and had to bring it back by thurs morning and only had to pay for one day. We decided to leave in the morning. That night I got a free dinner b/c my hostel had a deal w/ some restaurant and I met some german guy at the restaurant, we hung out for a little while but he was really weird and I think trying to hit on me so I left. The next morning I picked up the girls at about 630am at the place we had arranged to meet and we left for cape tribulation. They were cool ppl, one was living in Thailand helping refugees get into the US and the other was living in DC but they were from Utah and Illinois originally (which is how we met b/c we heard each others accents and realized we were all American). Anyways, the girl who lived in thailand loved it and the one from DC was going to visit her in thailand but b/c of the violence there they decided to meet in australia instead. After a little while of driving we were in the rainforest. It looked exactly like what you’d imagine. There was just a 2 lane road cut through the forest and it was so dark at the bottom b/c the canopy was covered in trees and plants that during certain parts of the drive, we had to have our headlights on b/c there was so little light. It was really awesome. Also, at one point we stopped to get a snack and when I got back on the road without even thinking, I got on the right side of the road (there were no cars around to remind me they drive on the left). After a few minutes of driving a car came up and we all almost died but thankfully I was able to swerve out of the way and not die but it was pretty exciting. Other than that one near death experience, the driving on the left was fine.

We got to cape tribulation at about 10am and went to the beach. If I hadn’t met the girls I was planning on just relaxing at the beach and maybe walking through the rainforest a little bit but they seemed more intent on going through the rainforest so I was happy to do that and we did a few walks through there. I got the shiiiiiit bitten out of me and I have mosquito bites all over my body. At least 20 of them all up and down my arms and legs but maybe more. The beach was insane and looked like a screensaver since it’s maybe 20-30 feet of sand and behind that is a lush, mountainous rainforest. It turns out that teaming up w/ the girls prob saved my life b/c I would have gone swimming in the water (and tried to convince the girls to go as well, but they didn’t want to) but it turns out that the shallows are patrolled by crocodiles that are btwn 10-15 feet and weigh between 500-1500 lbs that kill ppl frequently so no one is swimming in the water. The beach was completely deserted and there were no signs to warn you but we found that out when we were eating lunch a little later. Once we found that out we decided to go on a river boat tour looking for crocodiles, which we did and was awesome. We saw a few crocs, the biggest of which was about 12 feet long and weighed about 700 lbs. however, during lunch they mentioned that they had met while living in salt lake city and I asked if they were mormon and they said that they were. I didn’t think much of it until before the river boat tour we were offered a cold beer for free (it was really hot outside) and they declined and took a luke warm drink. Now, even if you don’t like beer you would’ve still drank it just b/c that was the only cold drink they had at this place and we were all thirsty. At that point I realized that they were prob pretty religious since they don’t drink so on the way home (which took about 4 hrs b/c we took some detours to stop and look at a few beach towns) we discussed Mormonism which was pretty interesting to me. When I told them I had never met a mormon and everything I knew about the religion was from big love they laughed. As we got more into it they were clearly relatively devout ppl and had even gone to church the week before when they were in Australia. The girl living in DC was one of 7 children and the girl in Thailand was one of 14 children. 14!!!!!! I asked what her dinner table was like and she said that by the time all 14 children were born some of them were out of the house (so it was only 10 children at a time instead of 14, pfft, easy). Anyways, I grilled them about being mormon and beign a part of such a big family and they had really funny answers. It was really cool hearing about it, I did feel like a retard though quoting what happened in big love (to the regular ppl, not to the family that has 3 wives) and they were like… ya, that’s not Mormonism at all, it’s all inaccurate. One of them actually watched the show and knew exactly what I was talking about.

That is where I’m at now. I fly to Vietnam in a few hrs, into ho chi minh city and I plan on staying there for a few days, then going up to hoi an, then to Hanoi and then flying back down to ho chi minh so that I can take a bus to Cambodia. I was going to go to laos and kuala lumpur in Malaysia but flying out of Vientiane is nearly impossible and to get to china (the next stop) would’ve been an 18 hr layover in Kunming, china, which I don’t feel like doing. Also, it’s cheaper b/c I can take a bus from Vietnam to Cambodia and I would’ve had to fly to both laos and Malaysia. In Cambodia I think I’m going to do phnom penh and angkorwat (which I’ve heard was cool) but I haven’t bought any tickets yet so it can change at any second. Also, I don’t have an outward ticket from Vietnam b/c I’m taking a bus and the buses aren’t very high tech so u have to buy a ticket in person, so what I did is book a ticket out of Vietnam on Vietnam airlines but say that I’d pay later in-person (within 24 hrs) and now that I haven’t paid it has been cancelled, but I was able to print out proof of my ticket while it was still valid so hopefully they’ll let me into the country (since you need to have an outbound ticket in order for the visa to be valid for Vietnam). If not… then that would suck.

I’m leaving Australia but it has been awesome. Next time I come back I’m going to explore the outback more than the cities. The cities were cool but if you’ve seen one you’ve seen em all.

I didn’t have time to proof-read this so if it doesn’t make sense, too bad. Pictures to come in the next post hopefully.