Cyclone Hamish

Hari, Mary and I flew up to the north of Australia to see Fort Douglass and Daintree. We stayed at this awesome hostel resort, Dougie´s Backpacker Guesthouse, that is exactly the way a backpackers hostel should be. A perfect hostel kitchen area ie. huge refrigerators, lots of room to hang out, great swimming pool, and bar happy hours. No wonder people stay here for months at a time.
Our first day at Fort Douglass was beautiful weather so Mary and Hari took bikes to check out the town, while I made an appointment and went to the doctor to see if my eardrum was healed and if I would finally be able to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. I went to the doctor and he told me that my ear was not healed and that I could not go scuba diving. I was devasted. Again I was not going to be able to go scuba diving and would have to sit out, just like I had to in Thailand and Indonesia.

This was probably the toughest period of the trip for me. Besides the worry that my ear was still not healing correctly, I was facing the realization that Mary would most likely go with Hari to Argentina and I would be going to New Zealand alone. Clearly their relationship was now a life commitment and it didn´t make sense nor was it fair for me to tag along with them. Although Mary and I had planned on going to New Zealand together, I knew it wouldn´t make either of them happy to leave eachother. Each time Mary and I had split up from Hari they had always made an effort to meet up and travel together again. Naturally, they wanted to be together, travel together... I just didn´t really know where that put me or what I would do when I got to New Zealand, which was now about a week away. I clearly had never planned on traveling alone for such a long period of time.

The next morning as Cyclone Hamish blew through Fort Douglass, I basically told Mary and Hari they had made a life commitment to eachother and going off and traveling together just made logical sense. It was ultimately what I think they both wanted. New Zealand would alway be there and Mary could go there anytime. About her leaving me and our plans of travel together, I guess that often life does not work out as planned. Mary and I would be meeting up again in Chile as we had a Peru trip booked- trekking the Amazon and Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but the trip dynamic had changed.

The next day the Cyclone was still in full swing but we made to decision to rent a car and go see if the Daintree Discovery Center (rainforest walk) was open. Unfortunately it was closed, but we made the best of our day and went on a river cruise to see some crocodiles. Althought the rain was pouring down we did see some Crocodiles, Fat Albert being one. The tour guide and owner was an awesome guy who knew all about each crocodile and where they liked to hang out. The crocs were like his kids. We saw a small snake which Mary and Hari managed to take a small peek at (they are both terrified of snakes) and a cool looking green frog.

The next day the weather had cleared and we took another trip to the Daintree Discover Center where we walked in the rainforest. We were able to get close up to rare plan life and see all the different levels of the rainforest. The Center provided lots of information about the different plants and their purpose in the rainforest. When we looked up through the canopy of the trees we could see small rays of sunshine, it was quite beautiful. We then went north to Cape Tribulation where we walked along the beach and discovered awesome mangrove treeroots. Our final stop was at a winery were we were persuaded into buying two horrible bottles of wine, one was even left unopened- yes it was that bad.

The next day it was time for us to say good-bye. I had booked a snorkel-scuba trip leaving from Cairns early that morning because I couldn´t miss out on seeing the Great Barrier Reef, even if it was only from the snorkel surface. Mary and Hari were of course going to get their scuba diving on and still needed to find a trip down in Cairns. We would see eachother again in South America.

Sydney and Kangaroo Valley

We had an awesome time with Megan down in Melbourne and driving the Great Ocean Road. It was a great start to our time in Australia and we had even more to look forward to...from Melbourne we´d fly up to Sydney where we would stay with our traveling buddies from Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos, Brad and Esther! And even more exciting for me, Hari would be waiting for me at Brad and Esther´s apartment...after separating in Indonesia we weren´t sure how long we´d be apart for, and as it turned out, it was only about a week. Our flight landed and Hari and Esther picked us up at the airport. We were all excited to see each other and were looking forward to the weekend - it was Esther´s birthday and she had planned a big celebration in Kangaroo Valley.

Just a short 2o minute ride from the airport we arrived at Brad and Esther´s pad in Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is an extremely happening area of Sydney with kilometers of stunning beaches and views. Their apartment was just a 10 minute walk from Tamarama Beach, and their terrace had a perfect view. Not only did their place have an ideal location, but the apartment itself was spacious and comfortable. It is a 2 bedroom, but Brad had converted the second bedroom into the ¨Man Room¨ - Brad is a musician and works in website design so this room is full of computer and music recording equipment, guitars, and a plethora of other testosterone pumping gadgets. After our tour of the place we settled down and started catching up on everything that had been going on since we had last seen them in Laos. Our flight landed in the morning so Esther had a delicious breakfast spread waiting for us, and then we´d pack up their rental car to head 2 hours south to Kangaroo Valley to ring in Esther´s birthday.

Esther and some friends had planned to properly celebrate her birthday and rented out a house, okay not really a house, more like a mansion, in Kangaroo Valley. There would be about 20 people staying at the house so Sarah and I were told to prepare ourselves for some hard-core partying. After a nice breakfast we packed up some small weekend bags and got ready to hit the road. Now there would be 5 people in a rental car (Brad, Esther, Sarah, Hari, and me) so our space was limited...rental cars are always quite compact so we had to squeeze a lot of stuff into a small trunk. We started laying out everything we were bringing, mostly backpacks of clothes and such, when Brad came out of the Man Room with armfuls of stuff - a croquet set, blow-up pool toys, laser tag. Laser tag? Brad, do you really think we are going to need to bring laser tag for a 2 day trip? The answer to our question was ¨ahhhh, yes¨. Brad and Hari did some strategic packing and we somehow managed to fit everything in the car. Soon enough, we were on our way.

The 5 of us were the first to arrive at the house and like kids in a candy store we ran around checking out our first-class lodging for the weekend - at least 5 massive bedrooms, a huge kitchen that opened up to the pool area, proper well-kept grass tennis courts, a huge yard area (good thing we brought the croquet set), a billiard room, and a bbq area. Quite a change from the dodgy hostels we were used to staying in, but we had no trouble adjusting. We quickly unpacked the car, claimed our beds, and were on the tennis courts to play some sets and absorb some sun. We spent the day living like socialites, sipping on some delicious rum, mint, and ginger beer concoctions, playing tennis and croquet, and dipping in and out of the pool. It was the perfect start to Esther´s birthday weekend. We welcomed Esther´s friends as they arrived with drinks in hand and were ready for the festivities to begin. For dinner Brad cooked up a spinach and cheese pie that was to die for, and we partied until all hours of the night.


I could go into more detail, but in summary the rest of the weekend was spent living in luxury and partying - we spent our days sipping cocktails in the sun by the pool, on the tennis courts, or playing croquet. We had some interesting American Gladiator type games in the pool with the blow-up toys and water guns that Brad brought. Hari and I became addicted to laser tag and spent hours running around the house shooting at each other (I´m sorry we doubted you on that one, Brad, it was a good call to bring the laser tag!). We feasted on bbq for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as one of Esther´s friends manned the grill and was constantly cooking up something for everyone. Johanne even made an appearance! He was also in Sydney for the weekend and we insisted that he make the trip out to Kangaroo Valley so he borrowed a friend´s car and came for an evening. He was the hit of the party, as he is an artist and draws some funky, cool designs on plain white shoes...everyone wanted a pair, but only Sarah, Esther, and I were lucky enough to receive authentic Johanne Silva custom-made kicks. It was one of the best weekends I´ve had on the entire trip, aside from the awesome house, we got to bond and party with great friends.

We were all pretty beat after our weekend and headed back towards Sydney to recover. We stopped off at Brad´s mom´s beach house for an evening where we watched a few movies and ordered in pizza. Unfortunately the weather was not too nice so we didn´t get to spend time on the beach. The next morning we headed back to Bondi Beach and spent the afternoon walking along the bike/running trail that lines the shore. Brad and Esther showed us some local places to get some good eats and were beach bums for the afternoon. That evening we relaxed back at their pad and watched Slumdog Millionaire - if you have not seen it, go see it ASAP, it is excellent.

After Esther´s crazy birthday weekend and spending a few days relaxing, we made our way into the city to explore more of Sydney. Hari, Sarah, and I walked along the bridge that overlooks the Sydney Opera House and did all of the touristy things that you have to do while in Sydney. It is a beautiful city, one that I could definitely see myself living in at some point in the future. It has all of the big city sights that I love, but also has the ideal beach location and weather. I am a huge fan of Sydney. We just walked around and wandered for an entire afternoon. Hari and I indulged in a big sushi lunch, I LOVE sushi and had not had it in so long. After a few hours on our own Esther met us in a park and we headed back to Bondi Beach. Hari, Sarah, and I were heading north to Cairns and had to have a goodbye dinner with Brad and Esther before our journey continued. We had the greatest time with them in Sydney and Kangaroo Valley and were so happy to spend time with them. We were all a bit sad to split again, but we had a feeling we´d see them again somewhere along the way...

What a great,Great Ocean Road

Megan suggested that we see one of her favorite parts of Australia and go on a roadtrip along the breath-taking coastline of south-west Victoria on Australia´s famous Great Ocean Road. This was one of my most favorite things that we did in Oz. Not only was it a girls roadtrip with good tunes and good friends, but it reminded me a lot of driving up the coast of California with its beautiful ocean views and cliff formations.

We made loads of stops along the way as Megan is quite a pro when it comes to the GOR; she knows all the best things to see and do. Our first stop was to try and spot wild koalas in their trees at an area known for koala bears. And did we see koalas!! We saw about seven of them, mostly just looking all cute and being lazy sleeping in their trees. One koala was actual up and moving and we got up close and personal with it. We watched it climb down his tree then he gave all his spectators the evil eye as he got off the tree and darted across the road to the other side. Once I saw the vicious look in his eye I bolted out of there- all I could think of was the monkey bite episode.

It was a cloudy day in Oz, but we still made several stops at lookout points along the 4 hr journey. We also had a nice picnic lunch of wine, cheese, fruit, and crackers. We also kept our eyes open for kangaroos, the other wild animal we hoped to see while in Oz. Unfortunately, we didn´t see any roo´s during this road trip. Our last stop that day was at the world-famous Twelve Apostles. These are a series of amazing rock formations that stretch along the coast. That night we arrived at our destination and looked for a room to stay in for the night before we started our journey back the next day. The only thing we could find was this amazing suite-apartment type accommodation complete with two rooms, a huge kitchen, and living room. We were in heaven and felt at home immediately. We had brought a movie, ´Tropic Thunder´to watch that evening, and for some reason our amazing suite didn´t have a DVD player. We ended up sitting in Megan´s car with her computer and a couple bottles of wine watching the movie with our spacious accommodations unoccupied.
I awoke the next day to the sounds of coffee being made in the kitchen and a beautiful day outside. We had perfect weather for our day back to Melbourne and we took advantage of it. Our first stop was for Mary and Megan, who love cheese, at a place appropriately named Cheese World. After we got our cheese on, it was time to make all the rock formations stops in this beautiful weather. We stopped again to see the world-famous Twelve Apostles and made other stops at Bells Beach, Apollo Bay, the Surf Coast and many others. It was a full two day roadtrip and we all had a great time just getting away from the city and spending some great time together.

Melbourne

Sarah and I had both been excited to get to the Land Down Under from the very beginning. Neither of us had ever been before, and we had heard from so many friends that Australia is an awesome place. Plus we had met so many Aussie travelers throughout our journey that we wanted to meet up with again. Megan, a close friend of my sister´s from Villanova, moved to Australia after graduating and is now happily married to Matt, one of the sweetest Aussies we have met so far. They so generously invited us to stay with them and their adorable puppy, Lola, for as long as we were in the area.We arrived at the Melbourne airport and Megan and Matt were anxiously waiting for us at the arrivals gate. I had not seen Megan in at least 2 years and was excited to catch her up on everything that had happened since the beginning of the trip. Megan is also a fellow traveler, so she was able to relate to a lot of our adventures and traveling stories. After lots of hugs and excitement, we hopped in the car and were on our way to Megan and Matt´s place. We arrived and were happily greeted by Lola who was so excited to have company that she ran around the house in circles for several minutes. Megan and Matt showed us around their place and within minutes were making us as comfortable as possible - Megan had stocked up at the supermarket on all the goodies she knew we´d be craving (popcorn, candy, and other munchies) and Matt made us some delicious cheese and tomato toasties. It was so nice to feel at home and in a place where we could unwind and be comfortable. Megan and Matt are huge Seinfeld fans and had the entire series on DVD so we quickly popped on several episodes in the background while catching up.
Megan does not yet have her Australian work visa so during the day she would be able to be our personal tour guide. After sleeping in a bit and doing some laundry (so nice to have a washing machine at our disposal), we piled in the car and drove around to get a feel for the city. Megan and Matt live just minutes from the beach so she took us to a cute little cafe for breakfast and then we just walked along the shore for awhile. Megan also took us to a popular area of the city where people go to get a glass of sangria while soaking up the Melbourne sun. Let me just say, the Aussies are very attractive people...it was funny coming from straight backpacking life in SE Asia where girls never wear make-up and guys wear the same outfit 3 days in a row (hey, if it doesn´t smell, it´s not dirty!) to a chic metropolitan city where everyone is all done up and beautiful.After Matt got home from work one evening he promised he would cook us up an authentic Aussie bbq so we stocked up at the supermarket and made a huge feast, he is a bbq expert. We had everything from burgers to pasta salad to chips and guac, it was all delicious. We also picked up some Vegemite, as it had been talked up by every Aussie we had met along the way and we wanted to try for ourselves. Matt promised he´d make us a ¨proper¨ Vegemite sandwich - a thin layer of Vegemite, avocado, and tomato. It was...okay. Really salty, really just...interesting. Sorry all you Aussies, it´s definitely not something I would indulge in often, but the way that Matt made it was alright. I certainly would not want to eat a spoonful of the stuff, though. It is an acquired taste, kind of like how we Americans love our peanut butter but some cultures find it nasty. To each his own.

Megan and Matt live closer to the beach scene in Melbourne, so we had to hop the train to get into the city proper. Megan walked us around some of her favorite areas - the botanical gardens, the farmer´s market, and all along the water. I really loved the feel of the city, it was very laid back and chilled out, yet at the same time in the Financial District area there was a bit of the same hustle-bustle of New York City that I love. The weather was gorgeous, sunny but not too hot, a perfect day to walk around the gardens and explore.
Another reason Sarah and I were excited to get to Melbourne was to meet up with 2 friends who we met at the very beginning of our trip, Johanne and Peter. We shared a hostel with them in Berlin and they promised us that when we arrived in Melbourne that we would all meet up, so we had planned on getting together for some drinks and dinner in the city. After walking around for several hours, Megan headed back home and Sarah and I went off to meet Johanne. It was so great to see him again, even though it had been 6 months since we had seen him last we picked up right where we left off and immediately began sharing traveling stories and catching up. Peter joined us a short while later and we enjoyed a few pitchers of sangria at a hip rooftop bar. After a few drinks the boys we grabbed dinner, walked around a bit more, and eventually they drove us back to Megan and Matt´s to hang out there for awhile. It was really great to meet up with Peter and Johanne again.

Megan has been living in Australia for about 2 years now and has done quite a bit of traveling around the country, so we asked her suggestions for must-see places. Her first recommendation was taking a drive on the Great Ocean Road...so we hopped in her Outback (how appropriate) and were off.

Gili Air

Just off the coast of Lombok lie the Gili Islands - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. These 3 tiny islands are a popular destination for travelers and backpackers who end up on Lombok. Just a 30-45 minute boat ride away, they offer quiet beaches, scuba diving, a wide variety of chill bars and restaurants, and spectacular views of Mt. Rinjani, the 3700 meter mountain on Lombok. Gili Trawangan is known as being the party island, Gili Meno is the super quiet island, while Gili Air is somewhere inbetween. We all opted to head to Gili Air, as we didn't need a huge party island but did want the option to have a few Bintang beers on the beach while socializing with other backpackers. We took a long, extremely indirect local bus from our hotel on Lombok to the port where we could catch the boat to Gili Air - had we taken the logical road the bus ride would have been 30 minutes, but instead we had to go all through the center of town to make other stops so the bus ride ended up taking almost 2 hours. After finally arriving at the port, we found our boat and quickly realized that this boat would be insanely crowded - the boat itself was quite small, in reality it probably had room to seat 30 people comfortably, but we would end up cramming 60 people plus baskets full of food on this little boat. Since the Gili Islands are so small and secluded, almost everything has to be imported from Lombok, hence everyday the boats that go to and from the Gilis are filled with fresh fruits and veggies, bread, eggs, meat, you name it. Thankfully the boat ride was only about 30 minutes, so despite being crammed onto the boat, we didn't have to endure discomfort for too long.

We arrived on Gili Air to quickly see that there are NO cars or motorbikes on the islands, the only mode of transportation is horse-drawn carriage, bicycle, or foot. It was so nice to be surrounded only by the sound of the ocean and the click-clacking of horses hooves on the dirt road. Sarah, Hari, and I found some cute beach-front bungalos complete with hammocks on the porches and decided that we would easily be able to park there for several days. After dropping off our stuff, we walked along the narrow white sand beaches and explored the island. Gili Air is so small that you can walk along the entire beach front perimeter of the island in about 1.5 hours. I immediately loved this island, it was so peaceful and while there were other people around, I still felt completely secluded and not at all like I was on a tourist island.

Another reason we chose to spend our time on Gili Air was because Hari´s has a family friend, Kelly, who insisted we stop by there - Kelly is married to a Sasak man who was born and raised on Gili Air and now owns a bar/restaurant on the island. Kelly and her husband currently reside in the US but her husband´s brother and friends are in charge of Zipp Bar. Kelly told us that if we made it to the island to go to Zipp and ask for Didi, who she promised would take good care of us. Since the island is so small we found Zipp Bar very quickly and as Hari approached the bar, Didi was there waiting for us. He could not be nicer - Hari had contacted Kelly a few days earlier to tell her that we would be going to Gili Air and she told Didi to expect us. Didi immediately made us a drink introduced us to ¨The Boys¨, the rest of the crew who help out around the bar. Zipp Bar had a first-class location on the island, it was on the nicest part of the beach and had awesome views of Lombok.

We spent a lot of time at Zipp hanging out with Didi and The Boys. The food at Zipp was delicious, I ate the chicken and pineapple salad almost daily and they had a wide variety of fresh, Indonesian specialties. We spent most of our time on Gili Air relaxing on the beach, walking around exploring the island, and snorkeling. During that time Hari and I both had a lot on our minds - at this point in our journey not only had we become extremely close, but we were now a couple. Based on our general travel plans we would have to separate after Gili Air, as Sarah and I were on schedule to head to Australia for about 3 weeks, while Hari was going to spend more time in Indonesia and make only a brief stop in Sydney. After that we would all head to South America, but Sarah and I had a completely different path in mind than Hari so we did not think that meeting up in South America was really a possibility. Neither of us were really sure about what was going to happen when we separated but we did know that we were not ready to be apart...

Sarah headed back to Lombok a few days ahead of us because she wanted to spend a few days in Singapore before we flew to Australia. I had gone to Singapore with Hari before Indonesia so Sarah and I decided to meet at the airport in Singapore in a few days time and fly to Melbourne together. Hari and I thought that these would be our last few days together, so we spent every second together. We managed to get in a few scuba dives off the coast of Gili Air, but aside from that we relaxed on the beach and had a few romantic dinners. On our last night, we went to Zipp Bar to have one last dinner and hang out with Didi and The Boys.

We arrived at Zipp just before sunset. After a drink and a few rounds of Hold Em with The Boys, Hari and I looked at the sky and saw pink, orange, and yellow as we had never seen it before. It was, by definition, the perfect sunset. Hari asked me if I wanted to go for a walk on the beach and of course I said yes. We walked along the edge of the water and watched in awe of the brilliant colors illuminating Mt. Rinjani on Lombok. Along our walk we found a perfectly situated log on the beach and sat down to take it all in. We started chit-chatting, nothing out of the ordinary at all. Hari was a bit quiet but I didn´t think much of it. After spouting out some random thoughts about missing friends at home and blah blah blah, Hari took a deep breath and started talking - he told me how happy he was that we were able to meet in Vietnam a few months earlier, and that we were able to continue our travels through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Indonesia. We were both very concerned about what was going to happen when we separated, especially since he was supposed to be moving to Africa for 2 years to join the Peace Corps. Somewhere along the way when we realized that our relationship was much more than a fling, I asked Hari if he would be willing to stay with me even through his journey in Africa. In his ¨speech¨, he told me that he had given it a lot of thought and that he wanted to commit to me even when he was in Peace Corps. At this point I wasn´t really sure what to think, I could tell this was not just any regular conversation...but the next thing I knew, Hari said that he had gotten me something on the island and pulled the most beautiful coconut wood ring out of his pocket. Before I could even realize what was happening, he asked me to marry him. I was shocked, thrilled, ecstatic, so many things at once that I could do was give a little giggle. Poor Hari thought that I was laughing at his speech and rejecting him, but that could not have been further from what I was really thinking. Without an ounce of hesitation I said yes and with that neither of our lives would ever be the same...

After embracing and realizing that we were ENGAGED, we headed back to Zipp Bar as future husband and wife. We enjoyed a quiet dinner and found ourselves just sitting and smiling at each other through the whole dinner. It was nothing short of magical, I couldn´t have asked for anything else in the world. To be honest, the rest of Gili Air and Lombok is kind of a blur to me...we did head back to Lombok for a night, and then had to sadly split for an undetermined amount of time. We were sad to be leaving each other, but given that we had just committed to each other for life we knew that we would figure out a plan for the rest of our travels to work for us. And so I headed to the Singapore airport to meet Sarah and tell her the news - she screamed, jumped out of her chair, hugged me, and even cried a little, it was so sweet. Sarah is the one person who watched my relationship with Hari unfold from the very beginning - we met in Vietnam as friends from work who hadn´t seen each other in several months, and ended up falling in love and agreeing to spend our lives together. Sarah and I hopped a flight to Melbourne and were both excited to start the next leg of our journey...Down Under.