Adelaide, Australia

Phew! Sorry for the long delay between updates. I've spent the last three days on a bus tour of the Great Ocean Road and surrounds. I have about five million pictures (give or take) of things like the Twelve Apostles, lots of cool beaches, etc, etc.

I also went on a wine tour in Melbourne to the Yarra valley, which was very nice. Met Steve the Army Engineer and his friends and had a laugh with them and watched Steve repeatedly get in trouble from the tour guide.

Oh, and before that spent my Australia Day dancing at a huge mega-bar called the Espy in Melbourne with some British girls.

And I just finished a flurry of bookings over the past hour and a half for the next 11 days of my trip. Which include:

• Staying two nights in Adelaide at the hostel I'm at now, Backpack Oz. I splurged for a private room even. I could use some solitude after three days packed in a bus with the same 22 people.
• Flying to Alice Springs On Saturday.
• Starting a three day tour to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) on Sunday.
• Flying to Perth on Wednesday
• Staying in Perth for at least 4 days. I have to leave from there on the 17th.

It''s an exhausting life I lead.

Now I am going to go scrounge up something to eat, before meeting up with the people from the tour for drinks!

Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne is a nice little city. I'm not actually in Melbourne though. I'm in St. Kilda, which is connected to Melbourne and about a 20 minute tram ride from to Melbourne downtown (they have trams here! How quaint!). My guide book described it as "casual and atmospheric", which I later found out meant "grubby and full of whores". And not the good kind of whores. Actual whores.

But I actual do like this area. It's full of backpackers and is more casual than Melbourne Proper. I went downtown today, to explore and see what it was all about. The first thing I noticed was, and I say this with no intended effront to my bi- and homo-sexual friends, urban Aussie men dress super, super, really gay. You don't need gaydar in Melbourne, you need gaygoogles, to block out the plunging metrosexual necklines and bright retro lines. Chris, you'd love it! But I gotta admit, I did buy a new shirt so I could blend in a bit better. And it was on sale! Aw shit, I might be going gay. Again.... no offense.

Other than that.... my first night here I got into the hostel and 15 minutes later was picked up and whisked off to a night out with this girl I met in Fiji and her husband and friends. We didn't get to do a pub quiz as planned, but the husband and I did engage in a Aussie beer tasting, which turned out very well, with my sleeping in their spare room and him showing up to work an hour late and unshowered.

Yesterday I just recovered from the night before and the night before that (Never, never go drink for drink with random Aussies you meet in the pub. How many more times before I figure that out? Actually, I think I surpassed them at one point. Man. Oh... and there's more to this segway. I had to be woken up by housekeeping the next morning at 11:30, to be told that checkout time is 10:00 and people need my bed. Then a mad, painful, painful, oh so painful rush ensued to get to the airport for my 1:15 flight.).

Now I have extended my stay in Melbourne at a hostel down the road which is a bit nicer. And for some reason I just don't mesh well with the people here. A bit too loud and drunken for me. Jesus. Gay AND old.....

Anyhow, I hope to go see some tiny penguins on an island south of here before I leave and go on a budget winery tour (they exist! I'm taking one!). I'll let y'all know how that goes.

PS - Saw Juno today too. Really good! Jason Bateman is unexpectedly creepy.

Sydney, Australia

Castaway! Part 2 (Nadi, Fiji)

I ran out of time yesterday so had to post it without completing my story.

So anyway, we hiked through mud, had to gather logs to roll one boat onto shore, and then the manager of the Octopus Resort coralled a couple boats to take us over to the Yasawa Flyer, which is the only big boat that comes to the Yasawa islands, and the only boat that was still running.

Oh, and the reason I had to go through all of this in the first place!

So after it started raining, and gusting, and generally getting worse and worse we found out the reason was because two cyclones were converging off the coast of Fiji and heading our way. So all boat transfers were cancelled indefinetly, except for one last boat leaving yesterday. And since I have an early morning flight tomorrow, I made the decision to get out while I could, and here I am, back in Nadi one day earlier than planned.

So taking the little boat was pretty horrific, we were getting thrashed in the waves pretty badly. A lot of people were pretty worried about getting on a boat this day. You'll see pictures and video at some point, and be able to appreciate why. To add to that, the staff decided to play the Titanic theme (twice!) at lunch, and have the boats pick us up from a graveyard. Oh, those crazy Fijians!

But only one girl of our group, Jasmine, threw up, and other than the initial boat ride over to the Yasawa Flyer, and the intial 15 minutes of the Flyer getting out of the bay, it wasn't so bad.

Today the plan is to walk over to the local Hindu temple and check out the market with the people I've been travelling with.

So my next post will probably be from Sydney in a couple days!

Castaway! (Nadi, Fiji)

So people make a big deal about the words "cyclone" and "evacuation", but that really overdramatizes the whole event. It's really not that bad.

But to that later.

Right after posting my last blog I went to the shuttle pick up zone and ran into three other people who were going to Octopus Resort as well (and whom I am still hanging out with after all of us escaped the island). We all went down and took the boat out to the island. It was a little iffy weather-wise on the way there, but when we got there it was fantastic and we immediately spent the rest of the day on the beach, tanning, reading, swimming, snorkelling. It was exactly what I had imagined of Fiji.

The next couple days.... not so much.

It started raining the next day and didn't really stop till now.

The highlights of the rest of the trip was visiting a local island and seeing a bit truer side of Fiji, a quiz night/talent show (Dancing Quenn will never be the same for me. Don't ask.) and leaving by way of hiking through mud and forest, rolling a boat unto t

Nadi, Fiji

Made it! With my bags, even!

Vancouver was good, great to see people again. And as was astutely pointed out , the day i get back is St Patty's day! So another good Van visit ahead!

Vancouver to LA was fine, it was in a little CR7. And I learned an important lesson. Do not go through LAX. It is so massive and every airline has its own terminal, and if you are switching to another airline, good luck trying to connect. Especially when trying to checkin after finally finding the checkin desk and finding out you lost your bagagge tags and having to run back to another terminal to get the numbers.

However, it really is true what they say about "Fiji Time". After rushing through the terminals and getting a special escort through securiity to make my flight on time, the flight was 40 minutes late anywayy.

On thee flight they were very nice though. Youu got your own TV, a blanket, pillow, eye shades, toothbrush and paste and socks (??? Those goofy bastards). However the seatts were intended for verry narrow people, so not the most comfortable ever. I got 4-5 hours of sleep, 1 hour at a time.

Getting of the plane, the first thing i noticed was that Fiji smells just likke Costa Rica. I hadd fforggetton Costsaa Rica even had a smell (okay.. thiiss keybboard likes to double letters a lot for no reason... i'm siick of going back and chhanging it, so peoople will just have to ddeal).

Ourr flight got in at about 5:30am Fiji time (9:30am minus a day Pacific) and getting through cuustoms and baggagee claims and checkss took about 2 hours. Now I am in the airport terminal, killing time till my shuttle comes in 20 minutes.

Fiji is, of course, beautiful. I would llike to go out exploring, but there are no baggage locker here. Oh, and another thing. When did people my age travel with tonne (the key between a and d no longer work. Weird) of bag? I have the leat amount of bag of annyoone I ee.

Okay, thi i jut gettiing ridiculou.

On the reort I won't havve any interrnet coverage, no one freak out when I don't pot anything for the next 3 day :).

Off to lounge on a beach!

Vancouver, Canada

Well I made it to Vancouver. My bags didn't, but hopefully that will be rectified soon.

Most of my university friends got together last night and went out to a pub, after some finagling by Lauren. It was great to see everyone again, after three years.

Right now I am sitting half naked in bed with my gracious host Kyle, drinking some coffee, getting ready for the day. (that sounds worse than it is)

Today's plan is to go for some good ol' sushi and meet up with May from Nicaragua and plan some of our SE Asia trip together.

Right now I have to shower and get ready because they are picking me up in 15 minutes!

Yellowknife, Canada

Alright, time to fire this baby back up!

I just got back from one last night out with the boys, I am glad to say I behaved myself and am very-nearly sober. It will make tomorrow's trip all that much easier. And leave room for all of tomorrow night's Vancouver/University reunion adventures :).

This time I am off to Fiji by way of Vancouver, Australia, Thailand (probably), Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Wish me luck!