Dahab and Cairo

Got on the bus to dahab and met this crazy american guy who wrote for a paper in turkey (although I'm not sure I believe him). He would not stop talking to me, just rambling on about nothing!! What a poor representation of our country, at that point I understood why a lot of people didn't like americans. I got 'rescued' by an older egyptian man and a french couple. It turned out that this was a worse option. I got stuck next to the egyptian man who kept trying to kiss my hand and put his hand on my leg. I tried to laugh it off at first but he got pretty grabby and kept saying he loved me. I was on the verge of flipping out when he had to get off the bus (thank god). The rest of the ride to dahab was pretty much uneventful. We made quite a few bathroom breaks to pee in holes in the ground (and pay to do so). I finally got to dahab and ended up chatting with 2 american girls from NYC. I got a ride to my hotel with them and checked in. Walked around for a bit and checked out the coast. Got some food in a little cafe and relaxed for a bit. I got back to my room around 1pm and decided to take a nap. The nap ended up lasting until the next morning. Lol. Took a shower only to find out that they use heated up salt water. Great! Grabbed my stuff and went to the beach to relax for the day. The water was bright blue and you could honestly see saudi arabia!! Layed out, read my book and went for a quick swim. Walked around for a bit, grabbed some food and headed to the bus station. I had a ton of time to kill so I figured I'd walk. Probably not the best idea to be walking to a bus station in egypt in the dark by myself, but I ended up making it safe and sound. Caught the bus to Cairo and immediately passed out. Woke up with a guy sitting next to me. I oroginally thought he was egyptian but it turned out he was canadian, I immediately felt better. At one of the stops there ended up being a fight between the bus driver and one of the passengers. Apparently the bus driver wouldn't open the compartment with the mans stuff because he had put it in the compartment for the nwxt stop. Haha. We arived in cairo really early in the morning and I set out with the canadian, his siter and friend, abd a german guy to find the metro. After walking around forever we found it. They headed back to central cairo and I went to check out islamic cairo. I checked out the mosques in islamoc cairo and tried to go to the infamous market but it was too early to be open. I decided not to wait around and instead head back to central cairo for some pizza hut! Unfortunately pizza hut was closed until 11 so I ended up hanging out in mcdonalds, where I ran into the canadian again. Pizza hut finally opened, I grabbed some delicious food, grabbed my other bag from the hostel and headed to the airport to grab my 3:00 flight to greece. My taxi dropped me off at terminal 1 and I confirmed with the security guard that I was at the right terminal for aegean airways. I waited around for a bit and decided to ask information just to make sure. Turns out I was in the wrong terminal, typical, and terminal 2 was pretty far away. I ended up lucking out and the bus to terminal 2, which only ran every hour, would be there in 5 minutes. I took that bus and then had to take another one to the actual terminal (ridiculous). I butted like 20 people in the security line so I wouldn't miss my flight and finally checked in. An older greek man asked me if I was travelling alone, I said yes and he looked at me in disbelief. Lol. He assured me that egypt was a very dirty country and greece was nothing like this. I could only hope. Got on my flight to athens, got some delicious quiche and a brownie, and passed out.

Sketchy train station, Luxor, and a double dose of idiocy

The train station at Giza was interesting to say the least. I was trying to figure out where to grab my train from and some guy ended up telling me that it had left even though I was like and hour and a half early. I started freaking out at which point a canadian and american tour group noticed me. They had their guide read my ticket and as it turned out I was on their train (which definately hadn't left yet). I ended up chatting with the head of the canadian group who was a history teacher who was appalled that I was travelling egypt by myself and obsessed with american politics. So for the millionth time on this trip I got dragged into another political debate. Luckily they were on the sleeper car and I was in the regular car!! Met some students from yale and then passed out. Woke up in luxor!! It was pretty early so I decided to go to the bus station to get my ticket to dahab for that night first. As it turns out it was really early and nothing was even open yet. I pretty much had no idea what I was going to do for the day so I went to Mcdonalds (the only thing open at 6:30 in the morning) to grab some food and figure it out. I turns out almost everything was closed until 8, so I decided to walk to the furthest thing away and hope it was open when I got there. This ended up being the Karnak temple which looked like it was about a mile away. Luckily I had stored my big backpack in Cairo and had just brought my little one. I headed on my way and was immediately harassed with honks, hissing and 'Oh my gods'. I definately was regretting my decision to not wear a headscarf. At one point this man stopped to offer me a ride on his horse drawn buggy and ended up following me for a good 10 minutes. As I got closer to the temple the scenery got more and more distinct. At one point I was walking through a steet full of run down houses that looked as if they were made of clay. Outside there were donkeys and children in torn robes. Lying in the middle of all of this were ancient egyptian ruins. The remains of a row of sphinx statues and columns covered in hieroglyphics. It was weird how out of place they seemed against the poverty stricken background. I found the temple and it was unbelievable. There were columns and statues and hieroglyphics everywhere. I wandered around for a bit listening to some of the english tours and taking pictures. Spent about an hour there and then headed back to town. Grabbed a bus ticket to dahab and stopped into the tourists office to make sure it was actually q bus ticket and ask how to get to the valley of the kings. Turns out I had to hire a cab for the day that would cost 100 pounds (like 15 dollars). I grabbed a cab by the nile and ended up getting a really nice guy. He put on a music station that played some hiphop and turned it up after I started singing along. He also had a red fuzzy klennex holder and some fake fur on his dash. Reminded me of the lyrics from the fresh prince of belair song. Haha. He took me to the valley of the kings and the guy inside told me which tombs were the best to see. We had to take a tram up the hill and once the guys who ran them realized I was alone I got 'VIP' treatment. This guy Alli put me in the front sear if his tram and then drove me up the hill (with no one else in the tram). I ended up meeting 2 Russian guys who asked me if I gad an isic card (I don't) and tagging along with them. We hit up the first tomb and it was basically just a passageway with colored hieroglyphics on the walls and an opening where the sarcophagus had been. All of the valuable things had been taken out and brought to the museum. One of the russian guys took some pictures inside the tomb and was immediately detained. He ended up deleting the pictures of his phone but they still wouldn't get it back. We went on to another tomb and after some serious language barriers I found out that one owned a bar and one owned an IT business. The last tomb was a little different, the sarcophagus was still in the tomb and the hieroglyphics were brighter with more gold. The russians were travelling with 2 friends and they ended up inviting me to come back with them to where they were staying. It ended up being pretty far away so I couldn't go if I wanted to make my bus at 4. I got reunited with my driver and he took me to the next stop, a temple. On the way he stopped and got both of us a water. He tried to talk to me but his english was only a little better than my arabic. He dropped me off at the temple and I went to explore. Again I got vip treatment, but this time they asked me to give them baksheesh, which I didn't. Haha. I checked out the temple and had a woman take my picture a couple of times. An american couple ended up coming over and volunteering to take some more pictures (I think they felt bad because I was a fellow american travelling alone). After that my driver took me to see some huge statues of a pharoh and his wife. I grabbed some pictures and then asked him to take me back to luxor so I could check out the temple there. He stopped in a little shop and got us both some ground up sugercane drink (which was delicious). After that he dropped me off at the temple and I paid him. Within 30 seconds I realized that I had left my purse in the cab. Shit! I kind of starting flipping out when a guy asked me what was wrong and took me to the tourist police. They asked if I remembered the numbers on the cab. I remembered my guy telling me but couldn't remember the numbers, I thought It was 405. I am such a dumbass!! Honestly who forgets their purse oin a cab in egypt. He raidoed some people and after what seemed like an eternity they told me that they had found my purse. I was sooo relieved. They brought my driver with them and made me check to make sure nothing was missing, of course nothing was, my driver was the nicest guy!! They let us all leave and I thanked everyone profusely!! By then I didn't even want to go to the luxor temple, I just wanted to relax. I walked over to mcdonalds (my american safehaven) got a shake and read my book until I had to grab the bus to dahab.

Mummies, Pyramids and Camels. Oh My!

So I arrived in Cairo and was really happy that I had arranged for the hostel to come pick me up!! There was a man waiting for me at the airport and he took me straight to the hostel. He pointed out some important landmarks along the way as we jammed out to some Bob Marley!! I had booked the Canadian Hostel and it ended up being pretty nice for how much I spent to stay there. I didn't end up doing much the first night, I was pretty exhausted so I passed out early!! The next day I met an american girl who was in the peace core in Botswana. It was soo nice to meet another american to chat with!! We had a nice Egyptian breakfast and then I headed out to try to see the pyramids. The plan was to take the bus to the pyramids. I ended up getting a little overwhelmed when I ventured out into Cairo. I didn't get harassed as much as I was expecting, but it was still more than I wanted. The men in Egypt have a tendency to hiss at you as you walk by. Its very annoying. Luckily I had adopted my policy of ignoring people from Bali and was pretty successful. I ended up checking out the Nile for a bit and then heading over to the Egyptian museum. It was really amazing! I got to check out all the things from King Tut's tomb and a whole bunch of mummies! I even tried to follow around an english tour group for a while and learned a little bit about the history. I had planned on checking out the pyramids but realized that there was no way I was going to find the bus to take me there and didn't really want to brave it on my own. I settled for the museum and decided to grab the metro to Ramses station to get my train ticket to Luxor. The metro was definately an experience! Not only did it take me about half an hour to figure out where I was going on the cars, they have seperate cars for women!! I went to get on and it was literally just a mob scene. All of the women just push until they get on the metro. At one point two women started screaming at each other in Arabic, it was unbelievable! I finally got to the train station and had just as much luck trying to get a ticket to Luxor. It took forever to figure out which line to get in! After that I headed over to Coptic Cairo, which was supposed to be the christian area of the city. I got out at Coptic Cairo and headed over to St. George's church. The church ended up having a cemetary attached that was pretty cool looking. After that I checked out one of the Jewish synagouge and latched onto another English speaking tour, from Georgia. It turns out that the alter is supposedly where the basket that moses floated down the river in was placed. After that I checked out the hanging church of Mary and got back on the hectice metro to head over to get some food at pizza hut!! It made me feel pretty good to listen to Hotel California and eat some delicious pizza away from all the hassle of the city! After that I headed back to the hostel to meet up with the American girl I had met earlier, Meghan. She had talked to a couple of the guys that ran the hostel and they decided to go out for the night, of course I decided to join. In the meantime I met another american girl who was travelling alone through asia and india, Sierra. She was planning on going to the pyramids the next day and we made plans to go together. I showed my train ticket to one of the guys at the hostel to see if it really said I had a train to Luxor, and he told me it was for poor people. I flipped out and thought that they had given me some sort of food stamps instead of a train ticket, but it just turns out that I donated 2 egyptian pounds to the poor and the acutal ticket was a little piece of paper they had given me. haha We went out to the Hard Rock Cafe, which turns out to be the hot spot in Egypt. The only place where you can drink and dance and not wear headscarfs. :) Two Canadians guys ended up going us as well and we had a pretty good time dancing to Arabic music and getting stared at! The next morning Sierra and I caught the metro (a little less hectic today) to Giza and then grabbed a taxi to the pyramids. We ended up renting camels for 2 hours to explore the area from a guy named Allie!! It turns out that he had two wives and a Greek girlfriend!! He ended up being a really good guide and took us around to see all the pyramids on our sweet camels. We got tons of pictures of the pyramids and ended up chatting about a whole bunch of things. Sierra had travelled to the most interesting places by herself and I just couldn't get over it! I was pretty jealous even though I had been travelling for 2 months. I added about 100 places to my list of places I want to go! After our camel tour we went to go check out the sphinx and get a closer look of the pyramids. they are amazing!! I don't know how they managed to construct these massive things but they are really impressive! After that we decided to explore the inside of one of the pyramids. It was pretty much just a collection of really cramped tunnels. At the top was an open room with a sarcophagus. The pyramids closed at 4 so Sierra and I stole some pyramid rocks and headed to search for some food. We walked around Giza for a bit and couldn't find anything to eat so we grabbed a cab to the train station hoping to find some places. By the time we got there we had our hearts set on Hardees and went searching for one. We finally found one and scarfed down as much delicious fast food as we could handle. We headed back to the train station so I could grab the train to Luxor and Sierra could grab the metro back to Cairo.

Chillin in the middle east

I can understand why people speak of the peace and serenity in bali. It is truly something I had never experienced before. All the streets smell like incense and the beauty of both the land and the temples is overwhelming. I think that the feeling is similar to the what you experience listening to the beatles when they started being influenced by eastern music and the sitar. I hope that I'm able to transfer this idea of serenity to my life. Anyway, I hopped on a plane from bali to Doha, Qatar. I flew Qatar airways and it was awesome!! They gave us tons of food and a night kit with a sleeping mask and toothpaste. I had a 8 hour layover in Qatar, a random country in the middle east. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect the middle east to look like. Lots of sand and tons of people in robes and head scarfs. I hung out for a bit trying to sleep. Qatar airways gave us free breakfast at the cafeteria!! I boarded my plane to Egypt and immediately realized I was the only woman not esorted by a man and not wearing a head scarf. It was pretty uncomfortable!! Anyway got fed again on the plane, watched the movie australia and arrived shortly after in Egypt. The first thing I ended up doing in Egypt was paying to use the bathroom. As it turns out anyone who does anything for you in Egypt expects a Baksheesh or a payment of some kind. (Even the bathroom staff). And if you don't give it to them they will demand it.

Kuta, Bali part II

I arrive in kuta for the second time!! I'm getting sick of the taxis honking at me so I decide to walk to the new arena hotel that one of the girls in australia told me about. It ended up being 200,000 rupiah a night. A little more than I wanted to pay but I was sick of walking!!! It ended up being a pretty nice hotel!! It had a gorgeous pool and a pool bar. It also had a pretty nice restaurant attached. Definately not bad for $16!! I got into my room and immediately took my first hot shower in days. It was amazing. I went for a swim and walked around a bit before deciding that if I was going to go out that night I would definately need a nap. I napped until about midnight and then dragged my butt out of bed. I headed for legian street where I had been told all the night clubs were. I stepped into a place called paddy's. There was tons of people dancing but I couldn't just join in. Haha. I'm completely uncoordinated and hadn't had anything to drink. I grabbed a beer and sat down in an open chair. There was another guy sitting at the table and struck up a convo. It turned out that he was australia and there with a bunch of fiends. I ended up meeting all of them and hitting it off pretty good. They eventually convinced me to start dancing and we didn't stop tl they kicked us out around 3. Haha. Well we decided to head to the place next door which was still kicking. We hung out there until aroind 4:30 when they closed and then they all invited me back for beers at their hotel. We didn't end up drinking any beers but I did borrow a pair of shorts and we swam until around 6 when we saw the sun start to come up. Lol. I decided it was time to head home to grab some sleep because I had a flight to catch out in the am. I walked back to my hotel at 6am sipping on a beer watching the sunrise in bali. Ridiculous!! haha. I slept until about 11 and then packed my stuff. Had breakfast, stored my stuff and booked a shuttle to the airport. I walked around for bit trying to take it all in. At around 3:30 I decided to have another massage at a place called kuta bungalows. I got a hot stone massage. It was awesome and the place was pretty nice. After that I got some authentic indonesian food and bought a book for the trip. I headed over to the beach and relaxed until the sunset. after that I headed back to the hotel to grab my shuttle to the airport.

Ubud, Bali

I had heard so much about bali being an absolutely beautiful country but it was hard to grasp while being hassled 24/7. As I had mentioned I decided to escape the main city of kuta and head north. I had booked a private taxi for the day for like $50 to drive me around for the day and end in ubud. The brochure said the drivers spoke english so I was pretty excited to have my own tour guide for the day. I woke up early to have some breakfast and pack my things. The car showed up and I explained to the guy in charge where I wanted to go (pretty much all over the island). He told me it was impossible to do all those places in a day and I ended up having to compromise (surprise surprise). We ended up kind of agreeing on a route and I climbed in with my driver. Of course it turned out that he spoke "english". About enough english to tell me what city we were in and point. Beautiful!! Another day with no one to talk to. Haha. Anyway we started heading north and stopped at a placed called tanah lot. It was an absolutely magnificant temple perched on a cliff over the ocean. It was amazing the way it spread over the entire landscape and met the ocean. Everything was green, there were plants and flowers everwhere. I walked around for a bit and began to understand the things I had heard about bali. I started to recognize the feeling of peace and serenity that seems to surround both the country and the culture. I am so glad I left the city to explore everything else that bali has to offer!! After visiting that temple we moved on to another one. I'm not sure of the name but it was inland. Impressive but not as awe-striking as the previous one. I climbed up one of the temple tower things and got a sweet view. After this we went to another temple, this one known as the elephant cave. It was called that because of this cave that supposedly looks like an elephant. I didn't really see the similarity. I had to put on a sarong before I entered this temple!! It was a pretty standard temple until you reached the lower level. This level didn't really have too many buildings or structures, but it was like a huge garden! It was really beautiful. It had a tree where the roots appeared to disappear into each other and it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended. To top it off there was a waterfall! After that we passed through a small woodcarving village. It was absolutely amazing to see what these individuals had made out of pieces of wood. Complex and detailed pieces of art. It vlew my mind that they were just sitting along the road, it seemed that if they had been in the states they would be in art galleries or in front of peoples homes. It seemed as though almost everyone in bali was an artist and had a talent fo making beautiful pieces of art (while going largely unrecognized)!! Out next stop was yet another temple. This one also required a sarong (which was provided at the entrance). It was amazing how each temple seemed to be unique. This one had a place for people to pray in the water, sarongs and all. Most of the indonesian people gathered below foutains and prayed. In another pool there were bright orange colored fish. At ome point I asked an woman is she would take my picture.I'm not sure what nationality she was but she wore a headscarf. She did but then one of the girls she was with wanted a picture with me. I didn't have a problem with that even though it was kind of weird seeing as they didn't even know my name. Well one thing led to another and their guide ended up telling me that if I didn't mind they all wanted their picture with me. It was really weird!! I felt like some kind of celebrity as all these peopole lined up to take a picture with me. Haha. So somewhere out there are like 25 poctures of me with random women. (One woman even got her son in the pic). Lol. I finally escaped and headed back to the car!! The next stop was Mt Bafur, which is supposed to give an excellent view of a volcano in the backdrop. I'm not sure if it was particularly foggy that day or if you can't ever really see the volcano, but I definately couldn't!! I had an italian man take my pic anyway. He pretended to run away with my camera (NOT funny). He's lucky he stopped running because I honestly would have run him down and tackled him. Lol. At this point it started to rain, abd by rain I mean absolutely pour. We stopped at the temple beside the mountain and I walked around for a couple of minutes but it really wasn't that great in the pouring rain! I got back in the car and he started to drive me to what was considered the most important temple. Along the way there were tons of rice paddies, which are gorgeous. They are terraced layers of completely green rice surrounded by water. It really is an amazing site! Along the way I got to see how balinese people trully lived. For the most part the houses were very poor and reminisent of fiji. At one point we passed a group of girls bathing in a nearby creek. Another interesting thing was that the women carry absolutely everything imaginable on their heads! It doesn't matter how big it is. They just wrap a towel around their head and put whatever they want to carry on top. I also forgot to tell you about the motorbikes and mopeds. They are absolutely everywhere and definately contribute to the free for all that is driving in bali. I'm told the legal age to drive is 17 but the youngest person I saw driving a motorbike was probably about 7. They are everywhere!! Anyway, while driving along I also saw a father and 5 children on one motorbike. I honestly don't know how they all stayed on!! We reached the temple and the driver ended up half telling and half signaling to me that I would need a sarong. I ended up bartering for one for like $4. This temple also required that you 'donate' in order to enter. When I finally got to the temple I was further informed that I would not be allowed to go inside unless I had a guide because some ceremony was going on, which of course cost more money. Haha. I got one anyway. It was an unbelievable temple and I'm glad I got a guide. It was nice to have someone there to tell me about the temple and the gods that were worshipped. The higlight of the temple trip was when he invited me to pray with the 'priest'. We sat cross legged in front of the altar and were each given a traditional basket with flower pedals in it. It turned out that each flower had a meaning and had to be held in your hands while you prayed. I can't remember what all of them were for but one was definately for luck. At the end I had to drink the holy wayer and then they stuck rice on my forehead. I also had the pleasant experience of using a bathroom, which of course I had to pay for. There was no where to flush either. After that temple my driver man and I headed towards ubud. Before dropping me off he took a detour up to where the most beautiful rice terrace was. Of course my camera died so I couldn't take any pictues but I'm guessing it extended about 6 stories down into a valley. It was amazing to see!! Anyway after that he took me to ubud to hunt down a place to stay. I had read about this guest house called teba house online and asked him to take me there. It ended up being booked but they took me to the uncles place doen the road. I got a room for really cheap, 80,000 rupiahs or like $7. It was actually pretty nice too! No hot water but the view was really pretty and it had two beds (not that I needed them) but good for the price. It was a walk into town so I got rid of my bags and figured I'd head in and check out the nightlife. It was literally non existent. There were a bunch of people out but it was mostly couples or groups. I got the feeling ubud was a place you came to relax as a couple. It ended up being a pretty lonely night. :( I bought another converter and had some desert at a nice restaurant to cheer myself up. It ended up being really good, but after that I was out of ideas. I headed back to my room and passed out. I had planned to get up early the next day to go to the monkey forest and maybe the elephant park. I also decided to head back to kuta that day, ubud was a little too lonely for me. I got up to find it pouring!!! I had my coffee with some peanut butter and btead and relaxed while I waited for it to stop. One of the guys who worked there came over and chatted with me for a bit and then it finally started to let up. I headed out to the monkey forest. There were really monkeys all over the place!! it was a pretty cool temple too and I spent about an hour exploring and hanging out with the monkeys. After that I wanted to head to the elephant park. I told this to the guy at the guesthouse and he brought me to his friend, a kinda travel guy. He offered to take me on his minibike for like 50,000 rupiah. I objected at first because I thought my bag was too big for his bike but he persisted. We picked up my bag from the guesthouse and headed out. He stopped at his house, where he decided my bag was in fact too big. Haha. I called the elephant place because the advertised shuttles. No such luck. I ended up grabbing a cab, I figured I could grab a shuttle back to kuta from the elephant park, this was also untrue. Haha. I paid to see the elephants, and got some good pics. It was way too expensive to ride them though, even to sit on them for a picture. Even though I had been told I could. Oh well. After that I had to grab a cab back to ubud and then take a shuttle to kuta!!

Kuta, Bali

I arrived in denpasar midday and grabbed a cab into town. I hadn't booked anywhere to stay but had heard of some good places. I got into the cab and told the driver to take me there. he asked if I had reservations and I said no. Mistake number 1!! He ended up taking me to his friends place so I could see the rooms. They were nice enough and I talked him down to $24 which seemed reasonable It turned out that this was twicw as much as I should have paid and pretty far from the main part of town. I decided to go explore the city and find somewhere else to stay for the next night. The streets were filled with people trying to sell you something. They would hassle you like crazy, promising a good price. I walked down towards the beach and up and down two of the main streets, poppies 1 and poppies 2. I eventually found one of the hotels I was looking for and it was a third of the price of the other one. I booked a room for the next night and wandered back towards my hotel. I spent the night trying to figure out what I would do for the next couple of days and ended up passing out pretty early at like 7. Lol. The next morning I relaxed and got some breakfast. It was delivered to the patio outside my room. Sweet!! For the rest of the morning I walked around a little more, checking out the mall and the beach.I also wanted to check out the local temple. In bali all of the people set out offerings in baskets made of plants. In each of them is a small offering of flowers and incense. As a result the whole city smells of incense, it seems to give a relaxed hippy feeling, despite the constant hassling. The temple is absolutely beautiful! It really is the epitome of southeast asian culture. I checked it out a bit and watched.a couple local women place their offerings at the temple. After that I headed back to my room to grab my stuff. Luckily I was getting the hang of ignoring the hassling and the correct answers to the constant questions. If I wore a hat, sunglasses and didn't smile I got bugged way less. (A pretty hard feat seeing as I usually smile 100% of the time). "Is this your first time in bali". Correct answer: No I've been here 6 times. "Are you travelling alone: No my boyfriend is at the hotel taking a nap" haha. And of course "Are you married: YES". Lol. Anyway, I successfull grabbed my stuff and a taxi and switched rooms. This room was just as nice as the other one had been. Grabbed a burger for lunch which was only like $2 or 25,000 rupiahs. Bartered for some sweet gifts for my mom and heather, went for a swim, hung out on the beach, and shower up for a night out. On the way out I attempt to plug in my camera and drop my converter on the floor!! I try to piece ot back together with pretty much no luck. I try to plug it in and then it immediately sparks and the room goes dark!! I clearly blew a fuse. Haha. Turns out no one goes out until at least 1am in bali. I decided to take a nap until then. Of course I couldn't get my butt out of bed when my alarm went off at 1 so I just slept til the am. I had arranged a car to take me around for the day wherever I wanted. The plan was to end in ubud and stay there for the night.

Kangaroo hunting, randomness and idiocy!

So I showed up at the airport and had to repack everything outside because nothing was organized from the boat trip. As I was packing I ended up chatting with the security gurad and the other guy he was talking to. We got on the subject of how I hadn't seen a kangaroo yet. My plan was to go to the zoo the next day because my flight to bali didn't leave until 8pm. It turned out that there were tons of kangaroos right around the airport. I finished packong my stuff, checked my bag and decided to go kangaroo hunting in the forest next to the airport. The other guy,chris, decided to come with me. We walked around for a bit but only saw some from far away. Chris ended up being on my flight and was headed to sydney the next day for a poker tournament. we actually ended up with seats next to each other too. Lol. When we got to brisbane he asked me if I wanted to get a taxi with him to the airport hotel. The airport was way closer to the zoo than the city. He said the rooms were like 60 a night (more than I've paid for the whole trip) so I asked if he wanted to just share a room. His flight was at like 7am anyway. We agreed on that and took a cab to the hotel. It ended up being 90 but I wasn't to upset because it was the first real hotel I'd stayed in for a while! We walked around to try to find some food but didn't have any success. Instead we ordered a pizza and hung out watching tv and chatting. I asked the woman at the front desk how I could get to the zoo. She said I could take the bus and then I asked if it went to the zoo. She said no, but it goes to the city. (The opposite direction of the zooy). How helpful!! There was a bed and a bunk so I grabbed the bunk. He said goodbye ridiculously early in the morning so I just rolled over and went back to bed. At like 7:40 I woke up to check my phone and email. I had an em-l from my mom saying that she thought my flight was at 8am not 8pm. I ripped apart my baag, grabbed my flight info and found out she was right. I was soo pissed at myself for being such an idiot!!! I had either read it wrong or was thinking about my flight out of bali. CRAP!! I freaked out for a few minutes before deciding to call customer service. I got disconnected like 4 times but eventuallt found out that they would wave the 24hr before policy for changing flights and let me change it. Unfortunately they only have one flight per day so I would have to wait until the next day. Damn I'm a moron!! Also I had to pay the airfare difference $250. Peace budget!! I was really pissed for a couple hours and then realized it could be worse. I wasn't hurt and I still had my passport. Also I would get to go to the zoo to check out the kangaroos. Most expensive zoo trip ever but honestly there was nothing I could do about it. I took my bags to the front desk to see if they could hold them for the day so I didn't have to lug them to the zoo. Of couse not!! Apparently the hotel is part of the airport and bags couldn't be left unattended. Perfect. Well I headed out to find the train station (turns ou there is a train to the zoo) with about 65lbs of bags. it was ridiculously hot and of course I got lost because the hotel gave such great directions!! Along the way I ended up meeting this flamboyant guy named hallie. It turns out he was looking for the train station too. Eventually he got fed up with walking, got a cab, and offered to pay. Thank god!! We got to the train station and said goodbye because he was headed to the city. Took the train to dakabin and met two girls and an australian who were headed to the zoo as well. They said it was about a mile walk. I wasn't ecstatic about carrying my bag but it didn't sound that far. We ended up taking a wrong turn and accidentally trespassing at a school. when we got back on track a guy in a truck stopped and offered us a ride!! How amazing. The zoo let me keep my bags in front and I went off to explore. I petted cute fuzzy little koalas, hung out with the kangaroos and checked out some monkeys. I'm not sure if it was worth missing my flight to bali, but I did get to see some cute animals. headed back to the train station (this time without a ride :( ). I ended up figuring out how to rest my bookbag on my butt so it wasnt that bad. After that I grabbed a train to the airport, I was definately not missing this flight again!! Got to the airport around 7, found a comfy leather couch and passed out. Woke up on and off and got up at 6 for my new flight to bali. I had a lot of time to think in australia. The first thing I realized was that all travel agents are evil and 100% trying to rip you off. More importantly I realized that the things you experience in life are largely shaped by the people that you share them with. Also I had a lot of help from complete strangers so maybe I should start doing a bit of the same.

Airlie beach and the Whitsundays

Worst bus ride ever!! The seats were assigned and I had an inside seat. I couldn't sleep because anytime I did my head bobbed to the left onto the shoulder of the girl next to me or into tha aisle. Anyway, I got to airlie beach around 9:30 and found a place to store my luggage for the next 3 days. After that I went on a mission to find a wespac (the bank linked to mine) so I didn't have to pay an atm fee. I ended up having to walk to the next town over and I have honestly never been so hot in my life!! I had to stop about 5 times to cool down in the shade. Went and paid the fee to the sailing place and then walked around for a bit. Used the internet and bought a book. I also checked out the man made lagoon they had because you couldn't swim in the ocean (jellyfish season). At 4 we had to line up to get on the boat, the pegasus. Luckily I had grabbed the only box of wine left from the fraiser island trip so I didn't have to buy any. I had been told by wicked travel that they had upgraded my boat but I'm pretty sure that was a complete and utter lie!! The boat was definately what you would call a 'budget' boat. Moral: travel agents are evil and if in the states I would have talked to crocker and sued them HARD. There wasn't anything I can do about it so I just decided to have as much fun anyway!! On the bright side all the food was included. The girl I had met at noosa ended up being on the boat as well. I ended up sharing a bunk with an american from wisconsin. The crew ended up being pretty awesome and really funny. The first day we headed out towards the whitsunday islands which is in the great barrier reef. We had steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, which I don't usually like but ate anyway. Travelling has definately made me appreciate any sort of food. I ended up signing up to go diving the next day. That night we all hung out, drinking and chatting. Everyone was pretty exhausted so it was an early night. The next day we were up early to head to whitehaven beach. This was honestly the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. The ocean was turquoise and the beach was as white as snow. Hung out there for a bit and then headed back to the boat. We set off to the place where we would be snorkeling and diving. We had to wear this wetsuit type things called stinger suits so we wouldn't get killed by jellyfish. Haha. I ended up snorkeling for about an hour with 3 english guys and an irish guy that I had met. We saw some HUGE fish, some really pretty coral, and a massive purple clam thing. Next was my first try at diving. It honestly wasn't that hard, just like wearing a SCBA except with bubbles. That's the only thing that kind of threw me off. We dove for about a half hour and didn't see too many different things than snorkeling, only one really cool looking brown and white fish. After that we were back on the boat sailing again. The scenery was really amazing. That night we celebrated laura's friends bday with some drinking games. I met quite a few more people including an irish couple and an english girl. The stars we absolutely beautiful from the boat so I ended up sleeping on deck under the stars. The next morning there was more snorkeling on the agenda. On our way there we saw a pretty big turtle float by but nothing really different than the day before while snorkeling. Back to the boat to head back to shore. It ended up being a rough journey back and I had to take some of the motion sickness medication that I had grabbed before I left. We got back to airlie beach and I headed back to grab my luggage with the american and irish guys. Booked a bus to the airport to catch my flight to brisbane and relaxed until it left. At 4 I headed out to the prosperpine airport with absolutely no plans for when I got to brisbane. Lol.

Hervey bay and Fraiser island

The next stop after noosa was hervey bay for a self drive island tour. I was a little worried about the whole 'self' drive thing but they assured me that you only needed 2 drivers and I didn't have to be one. Thank god!! Showed up at the hostel and was told we had a meeting at 7 to go over all the details for the trip with our groups. Basically they put 9 people in a big 4x4 truck van thing and send you onto Fraiser island for a camping trip. From what I understand its the biggest sand island in to world. It turned out that only people over 21 were allowed to drive. Leaving only me and this english guy. :o. To top it off it was a standard (which I don't know how to drive), on the wrong side of the road, and most importantly the wrong side of the car (including the stick shift). To make it worse there were like 900 things you could do to lose the $1000 'bond' on the vehicle, including driving in any kind of salt water. Great! Well I felt bad for the english guy so I told him I'd give it a try but was not guaranting anything. We left the next morning at 10 to go to the market to get some stuff to eat. We decided to just get a bunch of stuff and share it. Our group ended up being two girls from denmark (who were not very friendly), one guy from norway and 5 english guys. Next stop was the beer store. Well it turned out that the 4 english guys that came together only wanted to drink!! We had decided to split the beer too and it ended up being 3x more expensive than the food. I wasn't too happy because I knew I wouldn't drink anywhere near as much as them. We headed over to the ferry and backed the truck on (luckily the english guy was driving!). I ended up getting nicknamed team america. Which was eventually shortened to america or replaced with yankee doodle do or yank. Lol. When we got to the island we went over to the central station and then headed for the coast. The ride was ridiculously bumpy and if we slowed down we got stuck in the sand!! Drove up the east coast for a while looking for some creek we were supposed to camp at. Couldn't find it so we just picked a spot. Cooked up some burgers, played some cards and had some beers. The sky that night was absolutely beautiful. You could see a ridiculous amount of stars from the beach. The next day we couldn't be on the beach until 11 because of the tide. We hung out until 10 and then decided to try to go up to the camp grounds to cook some lunch and shower. We couldn't swim in the ocean because of jellyfish and absolutely everything was covered in sand!! The english driver, dave, had went for a walk so it was decided that I would drive and pick him up on the way. Hahahaha. I got the truck started and into 1st and then stalled it shifting into 2nd. (Apparently you're supposed to do that a lot faster than 1st but they forgot to tell me). I did it again and then immediately got stuck in the sand. Dave ended up driving for the rest of the trip!! We checked out a shipwreck on the way and then went up to a place called indian head. it was a huge cliff that overlooked the ocean! Really beautiful. Ended up finding the creek we had missed the day before and floated down that. After that we went on a search to get beer (the english guys demolished the beer we had bought). On the way we made a detour to a lake for a swim. It turned out to be the most disgusting lake ever! Most of us didn't swim. Got beer and headed to the campsite for the night. Ended up drinking some boxed wine or what they call goon here. Spent the night listening to all the sweet music on one of the guys' ipod. The next morning we went to lake Mckensie. It is an absolutely beautiful lake with crystal clear water and white sand beaches. Hung out there for a bit throwing the frisbee around and then headed for some food and the ferry. Got back to the hostel with enough time for a beer and a shower before I needed to catch the bus up to airlie beach for a tour in the whitsundays.

Noosa

I showed up in noosa and had some time to kill before they picked us up for the everglades trip. I grabbed a spot by the lake and relaxed for a bit. They picked us up and took us grocery shopping for the next couple of days. I got some stuff to make grilled cheese!! At this point I learned that the trip was 3 nights instead of the 2 that the travel agency had told me it was. This messed up all of my bookings for the next week!! Anyway, they took us to the middle of nowhere in what they called a bush camp. It was basically just a glorified camping site. There were boyscout style tents or 'dorms' that had beds bunked in them. that was where we were staying the first night. There was a tv area and kitchen in the same kind of tent thing except much bigger. I immediately went to call the travel place to try to get it figured out. They were 100 % not helpful at all. I think if I was in the states I would have sued them. :) I ended up talking to the guys at the 'everglades' place and they said I could just skip a day and grab a ride back into town. The first day was supposed to be a day canoe trip to go check out some kangaroos. The second day was an overnight canoe trip to camp out, with a park that had some kangaroos as well. I decided to just do the overnight trip. Hung out for the day playing cards with a bunch of english boys and a german guy. Taught them a sweet card game so we played that for most of the night. I ended up going to bed pretty early. Woke up the next day to pack and get ready for the overnight trip. I ended up getting paired up with a german girl for the canoe trip. We paddled up the river for a while until we came to a creek. Went down to the creek for some lunch and to play on a rope swing. Met some americans from buffalo!! One was a doctor who had quit his job and the other was a photographer. Also met a really nice girl from england, laura. Hung out at the rope swing for a bit and then headed to the camp site. The girl I was paddling with got a cramp in her hand so I ended up having to paddle both of us to the camp. :( I guess it was good exercise though. Lol. We set up camp and then decided to go check out the park. We only got about half way before it started getting dark. Didn't see a single kangaroo. We all sat around chatting for a bit then headed to bed. Got up early to paddle back to the camp. The german girl I was with kind of paddled on and off so it took forever to get back!! Got back, packed and grabbed the shuttle to the bus station so I could grab the bus up to hervey bay for the fraiser island 4x4 trip

sufers paradise

Grabbed the bus to surfers paradise. Got there around 2 and needed to find somewhere to put my bag. Tried to store it at a couple hotels abd hostels but no luck. I ended up storing it at the bus station. The time was an hour off on the lockers. My next bus up to noosa didn't leave until 5:45am so I was just going to walk around for the day. I honest didn't end up doing to much. Checked out the city and relaxed in the sun until it got dark. There was quite a few nice side streets where cars weren't allowed with shops and stuff. I was worried I would have anything to do that night but I lucked out and they were showing a film festival live on a huge tv in one of the squares. I got some food and watched that for a while. It was just a whole bunch of like 5 minute films. Pretty good. After that I just walked around, hung out and got some coffee. I ended up running into the canadian guys I had met in fiji in mcdonalds! Chatted with them for a bit and then headed to the bus station to grab my bag seeing as it was like 2:45am at this point. I showed up to find the bus station locked but found security and they let me in. Grabbed my bag and sat down to wait for the bus. 5:45 came around and no bus showed up. After waiting about 45 mins I was starting to get really worried and almost left. Luckily the bus showed up shortly after. The clock on the bus said 5:45 though. There was a time change the day before and no one had told me. Haha. Good thing I waited. Hopped on the bus to head to noosa heads for the everglade trip.

Byron bay and Lennox heads

So I hadn't been able to book a place to stay in byron bay. I was just winging it.Haha. Either way I have a hammock and a sleeping bag worst case scenario. I got off the bus and there were a couple shuttles to different hostels. I asked one of the guys if he had any rooms available and he said yes. Way easier than I had expected!! He said the place was like 15 mins away. I hopped in the shuttle with like 5 other people and of headed back the way we came. Lol. It turned out the hostel was in some place called lennox heads. It was actually a really nice place!! All the rooms had their own kitchens, there was a pool and a area to just relax with a hammock and some music. I took the bus back to byron bay and walked around for a bit. Its pretty much a hippie town with lots of shops and places to eat. I went down to the beach and hung out there for a bot and then grabbed the shuttle back to the hostel. Walked around in lennox heads for a bit and relaxed at the hostel for the night. In the morning I decided to go surfing. The hostel rented surf boards for 5 bucks for 2 hours. I got to the beach and realized it was nothing like hawaii. Instead of being pretty shallow for a while it got deep really quick and close to the beach. I was all by myself so I didn't want to swim out really far in case something happened to me so I stayed where I could still touch. I unsuccessfully tried to surf for about an hour. I was too close to the shore to actually stand up. I decided to get out when a group of 12 year olds seriously showed me up. :( I went back to the hostel to grab my stuff so I could catch the bus into byron bay and from there a bus up to surfers paradise.

Sydney

I can't remember exactly where I left off. Anyway, from melbourne I took a bus out to the airport pretty late in the evening. I had another flight at some ungodly hour of the morning. I just hung out for the night at the airport and grabbed a bit of sleep. The flight was pretty good. Got into sydney relatively early around 9. Took a train into the city at hyde park (I honestly think I spend more money going to and from airports than I do on food. Lol ridiculous). I was staying at this place called the Y hotel that was only a couple of blocks away. I arrived and it turned out that this was actually run by the YWCA. For a minute I got really nervous thinking that somehow I had honestly been booked at the YWCA. Fortunately a couple families were coming in and out of the hotel so I think they just ran it. Relieved I checked in an by some miracle my room was ready. I went up and there wasn't a single other person there. I showered and tried to lie down for a nap because I was still feeling pretty sick. Laid down for a bit but couldn't sleep so decided to go explore. I ended up going to a place called wicked travel to figure out the rest of my trip up the east coast. They had this deal where you could get 6 nights in a hostel, a everglade trip, a 4x4 sand island trip and sailing on the whitsundays for a pretty good price. I sat down with the girl and figured out the dates for all my tours and stuff because I had limited time in australia. She said the boat that came with the package was awful and convinced me to upgrade. she also booked me a greyhound bus ticket up the coast so I could get around. She had to finalize some stuff so I went to walk around town. I went up to darling harbor and it was beautiful. I already liked sydney 900x better than melbourne. I there was soo many boats. A pirate ship, a navy ship, and a submarine. I climbed up one of the lighthouses and got a really nice view. after that I headed to check out the harbor bridge and the sydney opera house! On the way a saw a man that looked exactly like dean winner. I tried to take a couple pocks but he caught on pretty quick so I only got one. The sydney opera house was pretty sweet. I was thinlking about getting a tour but they were pretty pricey so I decided against it. After that I went throught the botanical gardens and randomly ran into a library. I went inside to use the internet and ended up having to get a library card. Anyway I went back to the travel agent to pick up my info. It turned out that those 6 nights were not really inclided at all. They just gave you vouchers for discounts. Also they weren't able to book me a place in byron bay (my next stop) because the hostel they worked with didn't have any openings. So basically travel agencies suck!! Anyway, I wasn't going to let it ruin my vacay! After that I decided to head to bondi beach. Grabbed a bus to the beach and took a quick nap. There waas a band playing in front of the visitors center so I hung out and listened to that for a bit. Walked aeound and then took the bus back to the city. I was going to go out but still felt like crap so decided to stay in and enjoy my room to myself (no one else had shown up!!). The next day I decided to go to manly beach. I had a pretty good breakfast and headed up to the opera house again so I could grab the ferry. On the ferry I met THE sketchiest old man ever. He let me sit down across from him so I could take pictures and didn't stop talking for the whole time!! Luckily he ended up striking up a conversation with a group of 3 boys on the boat and eventually introduced them to me. It turned out they were from denmark and studying in sydney. They invited me to tag along with them to the beach. Two of the boys wanted to go surfing but I didn't feel comfortable leaving my stuff on the beach so I stayed with the other guy. The other two boys went to rent surf boards. As soon as they got back there was an announcement that a shark had been spotted in the area everyone had to leave the water. Pretty funny timing. We all hung out on the beach chatting and relaxing for a bit until they had to leave to meet up with the rest of their group. I hung out on the beach for a while and then decided to head back to sydney. Stopped at an aldi's and bought some granola bars and bread for my trip up the coast! On the walk back from the ferry I met a nice swedish couple and talked to them for a bit. Went and checked out hyde park and then back to my hotel to use the internet. Bummed around for a bit and then headed to the greyhound station to grab my night bus up to byron bay. I got really lucky and got 2 seats to myself so I basically slept the whole way.