Patagonia - Torres del Paine

Hari and I flew from BA down to El Calafate, a small town on the Argentine side of Patagonia. This town is a common starting point for trekkers who are interested in heading to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and the famous ¨W¨trek that leads to Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia. We spent a few days in El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno glacier and to prepare for our trek. Hari had been wanting to trek in Patagonia for years, he was especially interested in the "W" trail in Chile that leads to Torres del Paine. The trail itself takes 5 days to complete and is in the shape of a ¨W¨. It is lined by glacier capped mountains, crystal-clear blue lakes, and lush forests. This trail is very popular for trekkers, as it leads to the famous Torres del Paine sandstone mountains that hover 3000 meters above a lake. Unlike many other mountains in the area, they do not gradually ascend in a classic upside-down ¨V¨mountain shape - instead they shoot up out of the ground in 3 abrupt, spectacular points. The photos I had seen plastered throughout El Calafate blew me away, I could not wait to see them in person.

Before heading towards the trail, we stayed in El Calafate for a day to see the Perito Moreno glacier which we heard was a must. It did not disappoint...it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. The glacier itself covers 250 sq km, reaching nearly 60 meters high. As one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world, Perito Moreno moves a drastic 2 meters per day and these movements can easily be seen by eye. We arrived at the glacier and I was blown away at its size - of course I knew that 60 meters high is insane, but actually standing in front of it made it seem so much larger. The boats on the water near the glacier looked like ants. Within a few minutes of being at one of the lookout points along the water we witnessed our first calving, the breaking off of massive chunks of ice caused by the movement of the glacier. We always had warning that a calving was about to occur, as we could hear a crack in the ice as loud as thunder followed by pieces of the glacier as big as buildings crumbling into the water. These calvings happen about every 20-30 minutes. Some occur deep in the heart of the glacier and can only be heard, but when they happen along the shore the crowds at the lookout points go wild and try to quickly snap photos of the ice crashing into the water below. As the ice chunks hit the water they cause massive waves to dissipate to the shore line, it is really quite a show. We stayed at the glacier just watching and anxiously waiting for calvings for 4 hours, and neither of us were ever bored. We saw several calvings, one in particular was massive and Hari very excitedly caught the end of it on video. Like I said, it was one of the most beautiful and coolest things I have ever seen, so much more than I anticipated. It was an amazing afternoon, and the cherry on top - as we were heading back to El Calafate on our bus a rainbow formed over the glacier. Simply amazing.Now onto the trek. I guess you could say that we were a little bit unprepared for the weather. Having spent all of my trip in summer weather, I had only 2 long pants, shirts, and a fleece jacket. To this point, I had hardly used them but since we were now in the southern Andes, it was freezing. El Calafate is a tourist town, and since it is not exactly in a heavily trafficked area it is quite expensive. I picked up some gloves and a hat but skipped out on buying any other warm clothing - I figured that layering everything else remotely warm that I had with me would suffice. The 5-day "W" trek that leads to Torres del Paine does have some refugios along the way where you can sleep, but we wanted a true trekking experience so we decided to tough it out and camp. This meant that for the duration of our trek we would have to carry everything we needed on our backs - tent, sleeping bags/mats, clothes, and food. We rented the camping equipment and stocked up at the local supermarket on good trekking food: granola, energy bars, peanuts, instant soup packets, oatmeal, bread, cheese, apples, etc. We managed to fit all of our equipment into my large pack and Hari´s small backpack and were ready to go.

We took a bus to the Chilean border where we would go through customs and get to the starting point of the trek. I guess it slipped our minds that we were crossing a border and that you are often not allowed to bring fresh food from one country to another while Hari and I were stocking up at the supermarket. There were signs everywhere at the border stating that it was forbidden to bring any produce, or animal products/bi-products from Argentina into Chile. Oops, we had a bag of 14 apples, cheese, and salami in our big pack. At first we contemplated not declaring them but in the end our consciences told us to be honest on our customs forms. The result: all of our apples and salami were confiscated, but somehow the customs officer let the cheese go through. We were out about $10, no big deal, but this of course would mean that we would have to rush to another supermarket to replace the food we´d lost before we started our trek. Good thing we were honest, though...Sarah told us that when she flew into Chile from New Zealand that a guy on her flight had 2 apples in his backpack that he had forgotten about. He did not declare them, and was busted by customs officials and charged $100 per apple! Had Hari and I been busted, I would have had to cut my trip short, as the fine could have been thousands of dollars!

After the border incident, we made it to Chile and were ready to start our trek. We took a small boat across Lago Pehoe to the starting point of the trail and were already amazed at the scenery - we were surrounded by huge glacier capped mountains in every direction. We arrived at the camp late in the afternoon and would start trekking the next morning, so we pitched the tent and relaxed in the nice, warm refugio. The trail has refugios along the way, so even though we were camping we would luckily be able to defrost in the common areas of the refugios in the evening. We got to bed early, anticipating an early start for our first day of trekking. We woke up to the dreaded sound of rain on our tent. This was not a good sign. We put on all of our trekking gear and went outside to assess the situation - the rain was not that heavy, but if it held up all day we would inevitably be soaked. Being on a time schedule, we had no choice but to head out in the rain. Instead of packing up camp and taking all of our gear with us to the next campsite, we decided we would do the first part of the ¨W¨ as a day hike. We walked for 3.5 hours in the rain, so we were cold, wet, and pretty annoyed; however, when we reached Grey Glacier on Lago Grey we cheered up a bit - it´s pretty hard to be in a bad mood when you are standing in front of a brilliant, blue glacier. We snapped tons of photos, had our lunch, and headed back 3.5 hours to our camp. By the time we got there our socks and shoes were soaked through. We bolted to the refugio to warm up but knew in the back of our heads that there was no way our shoes would dry out overnight, so we´d have to wake up to wet shoes. Oh well, maybe the rain would stop and they´d dry as we were walking the next day...

The rain didn´t stop. Again we woke up to the sound of rain pouring down on our tent. We were not happy campers, but we tried to remind ourselves that we were in Patagonia and that things could be a lot worse. So we put on our wet shoes and headed out for another day hike, and luckily at this point the rain had slowed to a drizzle. While the surrounding views on the trail were beautiful, the trail itself was a wet, muddy mess. At some parts the mud was shin deep, so we had to try to find less traveled trails. Sometimes we were successful, sometimes we were not but our shoes were already soaking so a little mud wouldn´t hurt. This steep section of the trek went up the Valle Frances along a massive waterfall. Hari and I scrambled up the rocks and made the most of it - since we were already soaking wet from the knees down, we figured that we may as well have fun and slosh through the running glacier water...the water was freezing (obviously, it´s glacier water), but it is sparkling clean so at least our muddy shoes got a cleaning. On the top, we got some great photos of Hari faux hurling himself into the waterfall and on our descent, the clouds cleared and we saw our first hint of sunshine. The rest of the walk back to camp was dry, and the sight of the sun reflecting off the glaciers was incredible. The weather warmed up and our pants started to dry off, so things were looking up. The wind was so strong that I was able to lean my entire body weight into it and still be held up standing perfectly straight. In higher spirits, we got back to camp, hung out in the refugio, and hoped that the weather would hold up the next day.

On day 3 we did not wake up to the sound of rain on the tent, so we were excited to get up and get going. We got an early start to the next camp with the sunshine on our shoulders. This campsite was awesome, we could see the 3 Torres from our tent and the refugio was first-class - it had a really nice sitting area, bar, and wood stoves where we´d be able to set our (still) wet shoes in front of to dry. After our walk, we set up camp and relaxed in front of the nice, warm fire, as Hari wasn´t feeling too well. Being in the cold rain caused Hari to come down with a pretty bad cold, so when we woke up the next morning he didn´t have the energy to do a full day hike. Luckily despite the initial bad weather we kept a good pace and had a bit of extra time so Hari relaxed for most of the day and we just hiked around the area for a few hours. The next day we would complete the ¨W¨ and make it to the Torres, so we wanted to make sure Hari was well-rested and ready to go.

Thankfully we woke up on day 4 to a perfect day. There were no clouds in the sky and it was actually quite warm for Patagonia. We anxiously got ready and started our trek, which was the most physically challenging section of the trail. It was mostly uphill, but having the Torres in view made us keep our pace and we made it to the base of the Torres in great time. From the base you have to walk up a steep, rocky path for 30 minutes to reach the lake where the Torres begin. We raced up the trail and was breathless, the view was picture perfect. The Torres were 100x more beautiful in person than they were in all the photos I had seen. The sky was clear and the sun reflected off the blue-green lake. The lake is at 750 meters, and the Torres shoot up an additional 2000 meters into the sky. Hari and I were both speechless, we must have just stared at the perfect view for 15 minutes before we took one photo. Sitting in front of the Torres on this perfect day made it worth hiking in the rain for 2 days through muddy trails.

We sat for awhile, had lunch, and admired the views before we headed back to camp. As we made our way down the mountain, clouds started to roll in and we were very thankful that we made it to the top while the sun was still shining. We were both pretty quiet for the rest of the evening, as we were both reflecting on our adventure and the perfect views of the Torres. The next day we headed back to El Calafate where we indulged in a nice Italian dinner and a nice, hot shower at our Hospedaje. Patagonia was definitely a highlight of the trip for me, the air is clean and the whole area just feels so untouched. We flew back to Buenos Aires where we´d stay for one more day, then off to Mendoza.

Sweet As

New Zealand is beautiful. It is a place where on every turn in the road the scenery can take your breath away. It was a different kind of beauty then the sunny beaches and ocean I had been surrounded by for the last several months (not that I am complaining). NZ is truly gorgeous and an outdoor enthusiast and thrill seekers dream. I decided to focus most of my time in NZ on the south island which is known to be more beautiful with more outdoor activities to offer travelers.

I arrived in Christchurch which is a cute little town with a great weekend market that is very welcoming and brought a completely different vibe then Australia did for me. Much more chill, outdoor focused, and backpacker focused I thought. Mary and I had originally planned on renting a car and driving around the south island exploring it for ourselves. Since plans had changed I spent my first day in Christchurch checking hostel message boards and posting my own notes looking for people that wanted to roadtrip the south island with me. I also began looking into other options for travel which focused on the various groups hop on hop off backpacker buses that circled New Zealand. I decided to book a two week tour with the Stray bus because they focused on getting off the tourist beaten track giving travelers a more alternative, NZ cultural focused experience. Most of the travelers were a bit older then the 18 year olds high school grads that are usually drawn to the ´green f--- bus´(as it is lovingly referred to) backpacker bus. All the bus does is bring us from place to place and the accommodations we book and activities we do in each town is our choice. Luckily I ended up with a really great group of people who I stayed with almost my entire journey of the south island. I really loved my experiences in New Zealand and it remains one of my favorite countries of this trip.

After two days in Christchurch I boarded the orange Stray bus and we were off to Kaikoura where I took a beautiful hike all along the sea cliffs checking out the seals (got a little too close to one) and just enjoyed my first of many beautiful NZ days. The next day we drove up to Picton and took a boat trip around the Marlborough Sounds. We got an AMAZING dolphin show while on the boat, all the dolphins jumping, playing and swimming with the boat. Then it was too a local Scottish bar to catch some March Madness games. My other main focus during the trip was to catch as many college NCAA tournament games I could- specifically Villanova games. With a 21 hour time difference it was pretty challenging and required some bribes with bartenders, 9am games, and complaints from locals that wanted to watch something else on TV. If you have met me you would expect nothing less. Let me just say March Madness doesn´t have the same following in NZ as it does in the States. In Picton we had some interesting 70 to 80 yr old guy roommates in our dorm who announced, in advanced, that they all snore very badly and even offered us the extra earplugs they carry around for people staying in the same dorm as they are. Note- great earplugs are an essential backpacking item (thanks Snugs). That night to help us get some sleep we went to a local Irish bar the carried the best Guinness in NZ. I have do doubt that it was, even TJ, our resident Irish bloke, gave it the thumbs up.
The next day we were to change buses and met the core travel group that I hung with over the next week. My bus was filled with mostly English backpackers, a few Canadians, Team Sweden, and TJ. I was the token American on the bus and was reminded of it often. Our driver was B.P. which stands for British Petroleum because of a streaking incident through the BP gas station during his Stray driver initiation. He filled our long drives with hilarious stories as well as loads of New Zealand facts and history. He also used the phrase ´sweet as´all the time, as do all NZers. Basically ´sweet as´is used to say almost anything like- sure, OK, it was great, amazing time, let´s go. You can really just say it at the end of any sentence if you want.
Abel Tasmin was one of the most beautiful stops on my NZ journey. It is a gorgeous national park (one of many) set along the beach and lakes. We camped for two nights here, enjoying the nightly bonfires, huge Kiwi BBQ, fresh mussels from the sea, and the silence of being in the middle of paradise. During the day a few of us decided to do a beautiful 12 km hike through the Park to Anchorage Beach. Once on the beach we had a catamaran (Straycat) waiting for us to take us back to our campsite. On our journey back I saw my one and only penguin, more seals, and the impressive cliffs over the magical blue water. Sweet As.

Buenos Aires - Mary lands in South America

Before heading to Daintree and the Great Barrier Reef, we said our goodbyes to Brad and Esther and were not sure when we´d see them again...well as it turns out, we´d see them only about a week later. Hari and I both modified our travel plans for the coming months so we´d be able to spend more time together and with our changes we´d be flying out of Sydney to South America, so back to Brad and Esther´s apartment we went. We were only there for a day, but that gave us time to hang out some more, have yet another goodbye dinner, and say hasta luego for real this time...since they were back to work in Australia and we were off to South America, bumping into them again along the way would be extremely unlikely.

Hari and I hopped a cab and headed to the airport to catch our 14 hour long flight to Buenos Aires. We flew out of Sydney at 1pm on March 16th, and landed in Buenos Aires at 11am on March 16th. We crossed the International Date Line and magically gained an entire day. After some research in our Lonely Planet South America Books (Lonely Planet books are often referred to as the backpacker´s bible, everyone has it) we decided to stay in the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires - it is an older part of the city and therefore much less expensive than the chic Palermo area. We found a guesthouse on an old cobblestone road near a square that was lined with antique shops and restaurants and immediately hit the sack. The long flight was quite comfortable and painless, but we were both exhausted and spent our first 2 days in Buenos Aires sleeping and being totally lazy. Luckily, we were not in much of a time crunch and did not have to rush through Buenos Aires so we didn´t feel too guilty wasting 2 full days.

After adjusting to the time zone, we set out to explore the city. It had a very European feel and I quickly learned why so many people had told me that they could easily spend weeks just bumming around BA. We spent several entire afternoons just walking around and checking out the many plazas and squares. We also quickly became addicted to empanadas, which are available on literally every street corner. They are a delicious snack or meal, and they are extremely cheap, only about 50 cents per empanada. Buenos Aires certainly does not have any shortage of cafes, restaurants, or parrillas (steakhouses) - we had been told by friends who had traveled to BA that one of the highlights is the cheap steaks. Knowing that dinner does not even start until 10pm, we scoped out our neighborhood during the day and picked out a few places that we wanted to check out for dinner much later in the evening. We arrived at our first parrilla just after 10pm and it was still nearly empty, but we were too hungry to wait any longer and ordered a nice bottle of wine and 2 steaks. Everything was delicious, the steaks were excellent quality and cooked to perfection. While a dinner like this in New York City would cost at least $100 for 2 people, our meal cost us only about $40. Yes, this is a huge price difference, but I do have to say that I expected Argentina to be a little less expensive. I know that $40 for a nice steak dinner with wine is a deal, but keep in mind that we were coming from SE Asia where we were getting nice dinners for less than $8 for two people...BA is not the most backpacker-price friendly city in South America, but then again we were in one of the nicest, most developed cities in all of SA so we hoped things would be a bit cheaper in less popular cities.

After being in BA for just a day I got some great news - Britt, one of my closest friends from home, would also be in BA and I would get to spend a few days with her! This was a great surprise, I knew that she and her roommate, Kat, were planning a trip to BA but the last we had spoken we did not think that our dates would overlap. Due to me changing around my schedule, I ended up in South America almost a month ahead of schedule so it worked out that Britt and Kat were there at the same time. They had rented an apartment for a full week in Palermo, a really hip area in the northern part of the city. Thanks to craigslist they were able to find a nice 2-bedroom apartment to rent for a full week that ended up being much cheaper than staying in a hotel. Plus they had a full kitchen so they were able to stock up the fridge and cook some meals at home. They invited us up for drinks and dinner one evening so Hari and I hopped on the metro and made our way up to their area. I was most impressed with the metro in BA, it only costs about 30 cents a ride and is quite clean and consistent. It took us about 30 minutes to get up to Palermo and after a short walk through a pretty little park, we found the apartment. After being let in by the doorman we ran upstairs and Britt opened the front door and jumped into my arms. I had not seen her for about 8 months and was so excited to reunite in BA. She had the nicest engagement card and a bottle of wine waiting for us, and we started catching up right away. We were probably talking to each other a mile a minute, so much had happened and we didn´t even really know where to start. We talked for easily over an hour before realizing it was nearly 11pm and we should get going for dinner. We all headed toward a street near their apartment that had lots of restaurants and picked a parrilla. Throughout the whole dinner we just kept talking and talking and were so excited to be together.

Before we knew it, it was getting quite late so we all decided to meet up again the next day to do some sightseeing together and Hari and I headed back to San Telmo. The next morning we woke up a bit early because we wanted to go to the Japanese and Botanical Gardens before meeting up with Britt and Kat. Another metro ride later, we were at the parks and walked around for a few hours. The weather was beautiful, sunny and not too hot, and the gardens were huge and very well kept. They reminded me a little bit of strolling through Central Park with no particular mission except for enjoying the day. We took tons of photos and headed over to Palermo to meet up with the girls again. We wandered down the main street and eventually made our way to the Plaza San Martin where the United Buddy Bears Exhibition was set up for a few months - these life-size bears are painted by artists from all over the world to celebrate diversity and teach about other cultures. Each UN-recognized country gets a bear and an artist is selected to paint the bear any way he/she chooses - some of the bears were really beautiful and creative (especially Iraq, Cambodia, Egypt, and Moldova), while some were quite cliche and weird (for example, the US bear was the Statue of Liberty, and the Netherlands bear was just weird and random). The bears were set up in a huge circle in the plaza and tons of people walked around checking them out and taking photos with them. We all had a great time checking them out and taking silly photos with them. The afternoon started to come to an end so Britt and Kat headed back towards Palermo while Hari and I went back to San Telmo for pizza (Argentina actually has really good pizza).

The next day was Britt´s last day so I went up to her apartment to say goodbye to her and Kat. It was great to see them and an unexpected reunion. Our goodbye would only be temporary, though...Kat´s family is from Colombia which is my last stop in July before returning back to the US. Kat has family living in Bogota and goes back often so she and Britt are in the midst of planning to meet me and Hari there in early July for a few weeks, I´m so excited that I will be seeing them again for Part II of our South America journey together! I said my temporary goodbye to the girls and rushed back down to San Telmo, as Hari and I were going to a River Plate futbol game later in the afternoon. Through my travels I have become more and more of a futbol fan since it is the most popular sport everywhere in the world except the US and is always on in bars and restaurants. Hari and I had heard and read that Argentine futbol fans are by far the craziest so we had to see for ourselves. The 2 main teams in BA are River Plate and Boca Juniors. Boca Juniors are probably more well-known, but they were not in town while we were there so we had to see River Plate play instead. We took the metro to the train station and after literally running along side a moving train (Slumdog Millionaire style, Hari said I reminded him of Latika but unlike her I made it on the train after being pulled on by some locals!) we made it to the stadium. We had to walk for a good 15 minutes along the highway to get to the stadium, the whole time we were surrounded by fans covered in red, white, and black, who were singing and waving their jerseys, scarves, and flags in the air. We scalped some cheap tickets and got into the stadium in time to see the club teams celebrating as if their team had just won The World Cup - there were full marching bands, people painted head-to-toe, non-stop singing and dancing, and confetti everywhere. It was really the most enthusiastic show at a sporting event that I have ever seen, they did not stop singing or dancing for the entire game! The opposing team scored a goal within the first 2 minutes but this did not put a damper on the River fans and they tied up the score mid-game. The fans continued cheering and in the 93rd minute of the game River scored a penalty goal to win the game. The celebrations were unreal, they continuted for a solid hour after the game was over - security is so tight as these games because of riots that after the game is over, the opposing side is let out first and all the home-team fans have to wait inside so the opponents can safely get out of the stadium. The opposing team section is even fully fenced in and lined with barbed wire and guards in full riot gear to protect them, so crazy. My first live futbol game is one that I will never forget, the Argentine´s are so passionate about their futbol!
Hari and I also decided to take the local ferry over to Uruguay for 2 days. Being less than 2 hours away we figured we had to go check it out, so we got tickets on the Buquebus ferry and made our way to Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. The new part of the town was nothing special, lined with shops and very crowded, but the colonial part of the city is quite beautiful and much more quiet. There are tons of antique shops, and one in particular was very special to both of us - Hari had given me a beautiful coconut ring engagement ring in Indonesia that I love, but his mom and sister busted on him a bit for not getting me a ¨real¨ ring. I told him that I didn´t mind either way and didn´t need to get anything big or fancy. We were just walking by one antique store and one caught my eye - it was perfect, not too big and very unique, definitely more my style than the typical large diamond engagement ring. We said we´d think about it and the next day Hari bought me the ring, I absolutely love it. The streets of Montevideo are lined with artists selling hand-made jewelery and antiques, it is very quaint and quiet. During our stay we also had the best steak dinner, even better than anything we had in Buenos Aires (and also a bit cheaper). We only had 2 days in Montevideo, but it was a wonderful time and I would highly recommend heading over to Uruguay if you are already in BA and have a few extra days.

Back in BA we started discussing where we would go next and what other cities we wanted to see while in Argentina. We both definitely wanted to see Mendoza, but Hari had also been dying to do some trekking in Patagonia for years. I also love trekking, so we booked a flight to El Calafate in southern Argentina near the border of Chile where we would do a 5-day trek of Torres del Paine.

A dingo ate my baby

I arrived in Harvey Bay before we set off for Fraser Island and kept my fingers crossed for good weather. Because of Cyclone Hamish, each morning I woke up praying for nice weather. I knew that Fraser Island had been shut down for four days because of the damage the Cyclone did and I hoped the weather would hold so I could enjoy this little spot of paradise. Fraser Island is a national park that requires people to drive 4 wheel jeeps in order to get around the dirt paths, beach, and roads around the island. Because of the storm the roads were a lot more dangerous and many of them were closed down with detours everywhere.
For the trip there were three groups of 8 people, who were all randomly assigned to jeeps. I was with my friend Marja from Holland and we happened to get paired up with hellish group, by that I mean 6, very sheltered 18 year old girls from London on their GAP year, reuniting on this trip for the first time after 5 months of traveling. There was lots of screaming, gossip, and general excitement between the six of them over things that Marja and I had no clue about. I felt like the first day in the jeep was spent with Marja and me trying to hear each other over all the screaming in the car. We had one guy in our group, Patrick from Ireland (go figure), who was very easy going and he took the reins on driving the huge jeep for the three day trip. Luckily the other two cars with us were filled with people that we got along a lot better and had more in common with making the overall trip a blast. The deal with Fraser Island is you get a jeep, buy all the food and alcohol you will need for three days, tents and all camping equipment. Our group had a designated campsite for the two nights we were there and a map of the island showing us where we could go and what the tides would be like during our three days on the island. Coolest part is that roads really meant we were driving on the actual beach and when the tides were high there was no beach for us to drive on. Driving on the beach with nothing but paradise around us was pretty damn cool. Driving on the dirt roads were crazy because of all the rain we were on bumpy roads that weren´t regularly used and there would be times we would all just hold onto the bars in the jeep as we went barreling down a dirt road. There were times we were all screaming just like Indian Jones in that Disneyland ride (ok it was not that dangerous).
One thing we did have to watch out for were the dingos which were all over the island. All of our food had to be locked up in our jeep at night and all of the trash cans had lids that locked on them. Those dingos are very clever and are always lingering around looking for food. One night we left an empty cooler out and locked, in the morning we found that a dingo had managed to get the lock open and inside the cooler. Along with the dingos there were other amazing creatures on the Island from enormous geckos, crazy red colored birds, huge horneytoed frogs, to terrible annoying large beetle bitting things. Only in Australia do many of these creatures exist.
We explored the nearby lakes, finding a lake filled with little turtles and surrounded by a jungle trek (and I soon found out hungry mosquito's). We spent one day at Indian Head rock, a beautiful piece of beach, and the nearby champagne pools. When the waves swept into the pools it bubbled just like champagne. It was a blast. There was also a ship wreck on the beach from a huge cruise liner that was sunk nearby and washed onto the beach. McKensey Lake is also a big attraction of the island. Besides our last day, we hardly saw anyone else on the island outside of our group which made it like our little island sanctuary. At nights we would cook our dinner, either BBQ or pasta, play drinking games and then retreat to the beach to watch the stars and hang out late into the night.

It clearly was a very unique experience and I became close to several of the people on the trip. We all went off to Brisbine together to celebrate St. Patricks Day before I left Australia for New Zealand.

Great Barrier Reef

After an awesome time in Daintree, Hari and I headed to Cairns where we would book some diving in the famous Great Barrier Reef. We spent a few days in Cairnes to hang out and find a good dive shop to book our trip. Cairns itself is a very backpacker friendly town, the main drag is lined with hostels/hotels, surf and dive shops, and restaurants. While the town is on the water, there is no beach but instead a massively long boardwalk where everyone hangs out, jogs, and rides bicycles (I was really psyched to get in some runs along the water, I had been missing running as part of my daily routine but was trying to get it back in my schedule). There is a huge public swimming pool area along one section of the boardwalk that was always bustling - it had fountains where little kids splashed around and tons of people sun bathing along the faux-shoreline. It was a cool place to walk around, but we didn't spend too much time near the pool, as we were on a diving mission.


We were a bit nervous when we first arrived because we weren't sure how the cyclone would affect diving conditions, but luckily the dive shops we spoke to said within a few days visibility should clear up so we booked a 3 day/2 night trip to depart a few days later. In the meantime, we parked in front of the TV/DVD at our guesthouse and very excitedly caught up on several episodes of Lost from the new season, as Hari's mom sent us a DVD of all the episodes in Australia.


Our departure day finally came and we anxiously headed to the dive shop to be on our way. We could not wait to get back in the water and to see the Reef after hearing so much about it. We got all of our equipment together and hopped on board the speedboat that would take us to the live-aboard a few hours offshore. Thankfully, unlike the bumpy speedboat ride in the Similan Islands where many people got seasick, this ride was a lot smoother.


We got to our live aboard, met our fellow dive team, and were briefed by the head DM, Vincent, on the diving protocol in Australia. It was quite different than diving in Thailand and Indonesia - for starters, all certified divers went under without a DM unless you opted to pay an additional AUD 15/dive to have a DM show you around the sites. While Hari and I both successfully completed our underwater navigation tests during our Advanced Open Water dive courses, we had never navigated dive sites ourselves without a DM guiding us...doing it alone would definitely be a new learning experience! Also, in Thailand there are really no regulations as far as air consumption is concerned but in Australia every diver legally has to surface with at least 50 bars of air remaining in their tanks - this is a bit of a conservative regulation, as in Thailand we would start our 3 minute safety stops when we hit 40 or 50 bars, often leading us to surface with only 10-20 bars. What this regulation means in essence is shorter dives, but I guess it's always best to be safe. Another difference with the GBR is that we had to wear stinger suits to protect us from the deadly marine stingers that were brought in by the currents instead of wet suits - because the water was so warm (about 28-29 degrees Celcius), we would not need wetsuits to keep us warm which was a huge plus for me since I tend to get cold underwater very easily.


After getting briefed we got into our gear and were ready to hit the water. For our first dive it was required that we had a DM take us down just to make sure that we were really qualified and safe to be navigating a site by ourselves. Unfortunately, because we were with some beginner divers, our dive time was a mere 30 minutes. At least we passed the test to dive by ourselves and would be able to stay down longer in our future dives.



It was great to be underwater again, but to be completely honest, Hari and I were both a little disappointed with the quality of the Reef. I know that we were only in a small section of the southern part of the Reef, but I was very surprised as to how damaged and bleached most of the coral was. Maybe my expectations were a bit unrealistic, I imagined that the acquatic life and coral would be 100x better than that of Thailand, but unfortunately it was not. Due to rising water temperatures and the holes in the ozone layer above the reef, much of the coral is bleached white and lacks the brilliant colors that we saw throughout both eastern and western Thailand. It is a shame that the changing environment keeps damaging the coral more and more every year, I just hope that the damage slows, otherwise the entire reef will be wiped out.




But don´t get me wrong, despite my expectations being a bit too high the acquatic life was still really great - on every dive we saw tons of Nemos, humbugs (adorable black and white striped fish that are about the size of your pinky nail, some of my favorites), rainbowfish, parrotfish, etc. We did get ¨lost¨ a few times underwater, but overall we made our way around pretty successfully. One thing that was really cool is that we would station at one dive site in the morning and get 2-3 dives at each site, which gave us the opportunity to learn our way around and make sure that we saw all parts of the reef instead of having to rush around. One of the dive sites had a massive drop off that was actually pretty scary - we were under about 20 meters or so when all of a sudden there was a wall that dropped off over 1000 meters. Looking down was really intimidating, I kept my distance from the wall...even though there was really no chance of falling into the abyss, I still wanted to be cautious!




Overall we had a great time on our dive trip. Even though we were a little let down on the conditions of the Reef, we still did get in some great dives and saw some great marine life. I would like to return to the more northern section of the Reef in the future, perhaps the conditions in other sections are in better condition...either way, it is up to us to be environmentally responsible so the damage to the Reef does not continue. And that´s my little ¨go green¨ cheer for the blog, do your part and protect our planet!

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.