Bula Fiji!!

There’s no better way to postpone the “I’m leaving Sydney and I want to cry” feeling than by spending 5 days in paradise. The Fijian Islands are only a short 4 hours from Sydney, Australia and are the most beautiful place you can imagine. After a tearful goodbye to our friends and Sydney (and an awesome goodbye breakfast at everyone’s favourite cafe with Mom and Dad before they headed back home) and plenty of rearranging our luggage, Liza, Shannon, Bryan, Sean and I boarded the plane and landed in a place where the air was dense with humidity and hot rain was falling. After gathering luggage, storing bags, exchanging money, making a few friends and spending an hour with a very nice Fijian travel agent to book our first night’s hostel and boat transfers for the week, we finally made it to our air conditioned bunks, had a bite to eat and got some rest.

There are only two words that we know in Fijian: Bula, which means hello, hi, how are you, good morning, good evening, nice to see you, welcome, greetings… and Vinaka, which means thank you.

We woke up to a blue sky and an early boat transfer to Beachcomber Island, about half an hour away from the main island port of Denaru. Beachcomber is the stereotypical deserted island – the only structures on the island belong to the ‘resort’ and all of the inhabitants are tourists or staff. We were there for one night only and immediately dropped our bags in the locked cupboards under our bunks and hit the beach. It may have been morning, but resting on beach chairs and taking occasional dips in the crystal clear water to cool off were just screaming for a pina colada to complete our fantasy. We indulged with the cool slushy drinks and reapplied sunscreen as we soaked up the sun, the water and the breathtaking view. Walking around the island took about eight minutes to complete and we quickly discovered a shallow, salt water, tiled swimming pool on the other side of the island. With the shade of a tree and the tile benches in the water, we spent time there meeting a few fellow travelling students. We also took a little boat trip on the glass bottom boats owned by the resort to feed the fish and check out some of the reef life around the island. Later on, we fed the turtles (not wild, they’re kept in pools near the back side of the island) and we even got to hold them!

Beachcomber is known throughout Fiji as the “party island” and that night proved to be a fairly tame, but satisfying night. We danced and played games and listened to music with our new friends and then made our way to the main hut, where we saw a traditional, but lacklustre Fijian dance performed by some of the staff and local people, followed by a tasting of Kava, a popular Fijian drink. Kava is disgusting – it is made in a large wooden bowl and served in coconut bowls and both resembles and tasted like muddy water. Large quantities of Kava are supposed to give the drinker a very relaxed feeling, but all I felt was my gag reflex telling me that dirt water is not to be consumed. I kept the nasty liquid down, but that was enough to tell me that I was not interested in drinking more. The people at Beachcomber were very friendly, we had a great time with the other travellers, and that night one guy we met was yelling through the screen at Shannon to wake the girl with the purple pants, who he said he was madly in love with from afar and needed to talk with immediately. The conversation went on for about half an hour, until ‘purple pants’ decided to get out of bed and have a chat with the boy. Altogether, it was a pretty funny evening.

The next morning we boarded another boat to Manta Ray Island, about two hours further north in the Yasawa Island chain. The island itself is much larger than Beachcomber, the resort took up only a small part of the land – the rest was full of rocky beaches and hills. We splurged for our own rooms for the three nights (well, two rooms for the 5 of us) and got ready for a few more perfect days. The sand was rocky, as it was at the other island, but the staff was super friendly, the food was incredible (islanders serve a lot of fish, I was in protein-deficient heaven). The days were super hot and the random clouds and breeze were definitely welcomed.

At Manta Ray, we spent our days kayaking, making coconut bracelets (a huge process which involved gathering coconuts, tearing off the outside, sawing the bracelet, sanding the bracelet and digging out the meat), drinking coconut milk, laying on the beach, reading in the hammocks, chatting with the locals, hiking around the nearby beaches and just enjoying our last few days of summer.

On our last day, we took quick showers after lunch and boarded a boat towards the main island. After riding for a few hours, we arrived at Port Denaru, with about 6 hours to kill before our flight to Los Angeles. We decided that our best plan would be to find dinner at the open air mall near the port and then head back to the non-airconditioned airport. We saw signs for a Hard Rock Café, and, though we knew it was incredibly stereotypical of us, we ventured up the stairs to the restaurant. 7 smiling waiters greeted us at the door with a big “BULA” and asked if we had a reservation… obviously, we did not. They seated us anyway (there were plenty of tables) and then handed us a paper menu, one page long, with a short list of entrées and deserts and a note that soft drinks were complimentary. The night was their test party, a pre-opening of sorts where staff from North America was there training the Fijians to be the best Hard Rock staff in the world. For us, it meant endless Coca-Cola Light, and free dinner and dessert! Wired on caffeine, and after a lot of laughs with the folks at Hard Rock, we went back to the airport to rearrange our suitcase, get bitten by a million bugs, and finally cross the Pacific back to America.

~ Rachel

More Photos, of course

Mom and Dad in Sydney!!!!

Of course Mom and Dad's trip to Oz wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the city where I have spent the past 5 months. I had three and a half days to show them around, here's how it went:

Sydney Harbour and the Opera House - The very first night we went to the opera house for a show! It was called Gilgamesh, and it was performed by three actors in a sandbox. That's all I can say. In addition to the unusual theatrics, we saw the set for Australian Idol's Grand Final and walked around the Botanical Gardens for a while - there were a bunch of bats hanging from a tree!

The Rocks Market, a Harbour Cruise, Pancakes on the Rocks, and the Rocks Discovery Museum: A full day of Circular Quay with a little bit of arts and crafts, a few phenomenal views, a touch of history, and several delicious pancakes.

Paddys, Chinatown, Darling Harbour, the Queen Victoria Building, the Earth from Above artwork: On the other side of the Harbour, we checked out the best shopping in Sydney, from cheesy souvenir markets to coutour, live music, artwork, and the Christmas Parade ~ there was a little bit of everything.



Hunter Valley Wineries: A day of wine tasting, beer tasting, and crazy liquor tasting around the Hunter Valley in a van full of other friendly American tourists.

Bondi Beach: The market, the sand, the surf lifesaver trainees.

Coogee: My apartment, my beach, my ocean, my cliffs... and a goodbye breakfast at the Globe before I fly to Fiji and they go back to America.

(the pics are in the same album as the Melbourne photos)

Cheers!
Rach

Melbournes cool.. just not as cool as Sydney

Spoken like a true Sydneysider - Melbourne is a great city, but I'll never say it's better than Syd.

We arrived early in the morning, too early to get into our hotel for a nap. I was sick and grumpy...

For starters, we walked over to the Queen Victoria Market, but the intense amount of stalls, smells, sounds, and general overwhelmingness had me ready to leave immediately. We hopped on the city tram to check out another part of Melbourne.

Our first stop off of the tram was the square in the middle of the city. It boasted really interesting architecture, museums, a riverfront view, and was right across the street from an antique-looking train station. In the square we stopped for breakfast (again, I need to apologize profusely for my grumpiness, I was really unpleasant that day) and took some time to check out the Centre of the Moving Image where there was an exhibit showing the work of Marclay. Marclay viewed the world differently than most of us. Dad and I are convinced he’s probably autistic, but brilliant, nonetheless. He heard every noise as a part of music and the exhibition was full of videos and films and noises compiled together from fragmented movies or self made that somehow made music from the crash of pans falling or the ringing of a telephone or the flipping of pages in a book or the smashing of a guitar. It was incredible.

After a visit to the information centre and setting up a tour of the Great Ocean Road for later in the week, we took off towards the Old Melbourne Gaol (translation: Jail, Prison). Though Victoria is the only Australian state not founded by convicts, the Gaol is famous for its large number of hangings and brutal conditions. Most famously, it is the site where Ned Kelly was hanged. While we were there, they had a Ned Kelly performance and we got to see the tragic story of the man himself (play-acted by two lively Aussies).

We went back to our hotel to wash up a bit, I took a very long nap to kill off the sickness that was making me so grumpy, and Mom and Dad did some more exploring around the city. Melbourne is known for its great shopping, red coat wearing tour guides, interesting architecture, and general big-city bustle. They took a walk towards the harbour and ran into Greek town (where we went later for dinner), China town, and some sculptures.

Day 2 – I was feeling much better and ready to handle the crazy Queen Victoria Market in the morning, if you’ve been to Sydney, it’s like paddy’s on crack. Soooo many stalls, types of food, raw meat, cheeses, olives, fruit, toys, souvenirs, clothes, shoes, jewellery, it was a lot of fun!

Then we met our guide for a Penguin Adventure! We spent the afternoon on a long drive towards Phillip Island. On the way we took a tour of a koala park, stopped at an old farm (they had baby animals and old ladies dressed up like 1823) really beautiful grounds, stopped at a gross winery with a great view, stopped to check out a great surfing beach.. and then to the penguins at sunset. Katie, our tour guide, is Mom’s new best friend, she was really talkative and gave a great tour of the area. The Fairy Penguins, as they used to be called, are about 1 foot tall and blue! They have been coming up on shore at this beach and many others along southern Australia and New Zealand for hundreds of years, visitors have been watching them for so long that it’s not a problem for them (though photography is prohibited) and groups of penguins come on shore each night at sunset to trade places and sit on their eggs. The chicks will one day return to the same beach. People have been watching them from this spot since the 1920’s so the lights and stands are now part of their existence, they don’t seem to mind the tourists that are there every night when they come on the beach. They are counted daily for the first 50 minutes… 650 the night before we were there. No photos allowed outside, but we took some in the visitor centre. We sat on the sand in front of the bleachers built on the beach to watch them come in. The surf in groups of 10-50 and when they decide its safe, waddle on shore and up to a mile towards their dens. We sat watching them for nearly 45 minutes, they’re so goofy looking, but we couldn’t take our eyes off of them! We got back to Melbourne around midnight and crashed in bed, the next morning we were up early for our drive down the Great Ocean Road.

Great Ocean Road: Full day trip with Mr. Grumpy tourguide. Travelled along the Great Ocean Road (created btwn 1919 and 1936 mainly as a tourist attraction with limited tools – lots of early regulations on who and what can establish towns there, it remains a very quaint area). Stopped at some beautiful lookouts, the whole road is really magnificent. As a special bonus, we stopped at a location where koalas live - in the wild! Finally we got to the 12 Apostles – limestone cliffs in the water that were once part of the mainland, but the area between has broken away and they now stand alone in the water. The formations were beautiful, it’s a huge tourist attraction. There are only 11 standing now, one fell into the ocean about 18 months ago. Others are starting to deteriorate, but more are forming from the mainland as well. We also saw the “London bridge” rock formation and the Loch Ard Gorge, where two people who were lost at sea on shipwreck coast washed ashore. The entire coast is known for its great surf beaches and huge number of shipwrecks in the area between mainland and Tasmania, the Bass Strait.

They’re off to Cairns, I’m off to Sydney.

Aaaaand here's the album :)

More Sheep Than People

Mom and Dad visited me!! We started our adventure in New Zealand on November 10, then went to Melbourne on the 18, they went to Cairns on Nov 20 (I returned to Sydney to pack up my apartment) and then they joined me for my last few days in Sydney on November 24. Here's what happened::

Mom and Dad landed in Queenstown about an hour before I did, they were ready with open arms and a rental car to begin our journey through New Zealand’s south island. The big “Keep Left” sign on the dashboard of the car helped Dad get used to NZ driving and we haltingly made our way out of the car park and into Queenstown.

Queenstown is adorable, the town is a tiny tourist area perfectly situated on a lake surrounded by incredible mountains. Just a few hours from the Milford Sound and a few hours from the Franz Josef Glacier, it is almost quant, small enough to walk from end to end and full to the brim with tourists and restaurants. The sun was out and we were ready for some fresh air, so we started walking along the path by the lake, after only a few minutes a familiar face started running towards us, a friend of mine from DG who had moved to New Zealand! We stopped and chatted for a bit, she’s busy travelling and working in NZ, avoiding corporate America for as long as possible since graduation.

We had some time to enjoy the town, have dinner, enjoy a nice New Zealand beer and get some rest before heading off to Milford Sound in the morning. Milford Sound is one of NZ’s most famous scenic routes, and while it’s a fiord, not a sound (the discoverers likely thought it was a legitimate sound when then arrived). The 6 hour bus ride was crowded with Japanese tourists and their tourguide on short-wave radio translating the commentary, and the day was a bit rainy, but the drive was beautiful and the stops were scenic, and while our boat ride around the sound was very wet, we had our share of laughs. At one stop, we drank pure water straight out of a stream not far from the road – all the companies brag that they’re bottled at the source, and I’ll admit, the water was pretty tasty. While we were on the boat, the boat driver was able to find a penguin! It didn’t move in the 20 minutes we stood watching it, and he happened to know exactly where we would find it, but that shouldn’t make us doubt its authenticity.. right? The best part, though, was that the moment the Japanese tourguide mentioned the penguin, at least 40 Japanese tourists literally ran to the front of the boat to check it out. Seriously. A long bus ride back to Queenstown and we were ready to rest up with some cocoa in our little villa before adventuring more the next day.

Me and Mom holding up one of the buildings at Puzzling World

I feel like our activities for this next day deserve a little bit of an explaination on my part: we had a free day and a rental car in Queenstown, NZ. The weather was threatening rain (so long hikes are out) and Mom wasn’t thrilled about the idea of taking a little gondola up to the top of a mountain to see the area, and river rafting was going to be ice cold…. So I decided that we should go to Puzzling World in Wanaka. The town was about an hour an a half drive away, with a stop at the apple orchards in Cromwell (where you are not allowed to pick you own apples) are located. Puzzling World was hilarious – they had themed toilets (Roman), a labyrinth maze that we chased through for a few hours, and rooms full of huge illusions, including walls with concave faces of Einstein and Mandela and friends that seemed to follow you as you walked, a sideways room with water flowing uphill, holograms, and dozens of other puzzles and games. I was thoroughly entertained. We then went into the town of Wanaka, walked around the lake a bit, and saw more of the beautiful scenery around the area. The next morning we were to wake up early to drive up to Franz Joseph Glacier.

Me, Mom and Dad in front of the Glacier

The town of Franz Josef doesn’t have a stoplight. Its just three blocks long and has a few restaurants, a few eateries and a few crazy people who will take you hiking or flying over the Franz Josef Glacier. We hiked up the glacier on a beautifully sunny afternoon (and no, I’m not pantless in the photos, it was just a long jacket over my shorts) and the views were breathtaking. After donning waterproof coats, heavy duty socks and boots, gloves, and ice talons to the boots we hiked up stairs carve into the ice by our friendly guides. The glacier is one of only three in the world that meet up with a cool temperate rainforest (the others being Fox – about half an hour away, and a glacier in the Patagonia region in Chile). The massiveness of the ice makes it look much closer to you than it really is, and it took about 45 minutes just walking on a dry riverbed just to make it to the ice. For the first bit, the ice is dirty, not that blue, and not that exciting, but all of a sudden we were walking through a crevasse in the ice, surrounded by smooth, chillingly blue walls and walking on clean ice. We continued through an ice cave and stopped to take tons of pictures in the light blue world. It was a pretty phenomenal experience that you MUST do if you’re ever in New Zealand’s south island.

Mom got to work out her mommy skills and made us dinner in our mini hotel kitchen, and the next morning we were up bright and early to drive to the transalpine train station, where we would make our way to Christchurch. The Transalpine Railroad is a scenic railroad through the Southern Alps, past lots of grassland and plenty of sheep - even though the clouds and rain, the ride was breathtaking.

The fountain at the botanical gardens

The next day was spent exploring Christchurch New Zealand. The town is the largest in the South Island, but we spent most of our time in the central tourist areas. There is a local tram that drives around the city every few minutes, and we hopped on to see what there is to see. After stopping at the art gallery, a very modern looking building covered in thousands of panes of curved glass, we made our way to the botanical gardens and then to the “art centre” and saw some arts and crafts, woodwork, jewellery, and their famous fudge shop. We used our extra time to shop around for souvenirs and trinkets from the land of sheep and the next morning, we woke up for an early flight to Melbourne, Australia.

Don't let me forget the most important part!! Photos, for your enjoyment :)
New Zealand Part 1
New Zealand Part 2

With love,
Rach

The Australia Museum

We wanted to go skydiving.

But it was too windy and rainy, so we weren't allowed to fly. Instead, we went to the Australia Museum, just a few minutes walk from the skydive centre in the CBD.

The museum is a natural history museum, focused on the natural history of Australia, of course. There were lots of gemstones and stuffed dead animals and a really interesting exhibit on the history of Indigenous Australians as well.


(a skeleton reading a book)

I went with my friend Sid and we gave ourselves time to pose with the all of the dead animals, and talk to the few live ones in glass cages. The museum isn't huge, but it was a great way to make something fun out of a very windy day.


(me as a turtle)

~ Rach

NO MORE CLASSES!!!

The best thing about starting school in July... finishing school in November!

Here's the quick list of exciting plans for the rest of my time in Oceania:
Nov 11: Queenstown New Zealand. WITH MOM AND DAD!

• Milford Sound, Franz Joseph Glacier, Christchurch... exploring the south island.

Nov 18: Melbourne with Mom and Dad!

• Penguins, Great Ocean Road, Museums.

Nov 20: Back to Syd to pack up my apartment

Nov 23: Showing Mom and Dad around Sydney

• Harbour, Markets, Wineries...

Nov 27: Mom and Dad head back to America.. I take a detour to the Fijian Islands

• Beachcomber Island, Manta Ray Island, here we come!

Dec 2: Home Sweet Home

Trick or Treat?!

Halloween isn't a big deal in Australia - one of my Aussie friends was telling me that this was the first year that any kids have ever knocked on his door. However, we're American uni students and we love to dress up!

After a not-so-nice email from study abroad threatening to evict us if we even though of a having a party at any of our houses, a few boys I know rented out the tennis club in Coogee to throw a Halloween party of their own. It was a bit ridiculous, but we (as always) had a fun time, made our way from the party to our local bar in costume and showed the Aussies a little about Halloween in America.

Surf's Up!

This past weekend I spent a few days in Crescent Head, one of the premier surfing spots on the Central Coast. The area is about a 5 hour drive north of Sydney, between here and Byron Bay (another well known surfing town).

Back in July on our orientation program, we all signed up to go surfing with a group called "MojoSurf" - one of our orientation leaders works for the company and we got first dibs on the spaces for the weekend. We were so excited to sign up for our end of the semester reunion.. when it hit us that it's now the end of the semester, it was a little scary.



Crescent Head is a small town, and our accommodation wasn't in town - we were in the country at a bungalow owned by MojoSurf. There were dozens of bunk beds, a kitchen area, surf hut and place where the instructors slept, a party hut and lots of trees. It was about a 5 minute walk to the beach and from there all you can see is white sand. The way the waves were coming in, we walked along the entire beach for about 20 minutes to get to the best learning spot. All along the way, there wasn't another soul. The beach was perfect, barely touched, and simply beautiful.

Crescent Head was on of Australia's most popular surf spots in the 1960s and now is just a quiet country town with a few dedicated surfers on miles and miles of clean beaches. We invaded the empty beach with our huge foam surfboards (for learners... they hurt less), and wetsuits. We laid down on our board on the beach and the instructors taught us how to "have fun and look cool" and paddle out properly and pop onto our feet and balance on the waves. They're good teachers, I'm just not a fast learner.

The hardest part of surfing is just getting yourself and your 8 foot board past the breaking waves without drowning. Then the hardest part is picking a wave that's actually going to work for you. Then the hardest part is standing up. Then the hardest part is staying on your feet. After about an hour, we were exhausted.

We surfed all morning, went back for lunch and a siesta, surfed and sunned in the afternoon, had dinner, had a little party, slept, woke up, ate breakfast, surfed more, had lunch and then went back to Sydney. With all that practice, even I was able to catch a few waves!!! I may not be going pro, and I don't really have the desire to continue surfing at all (too much waiting and tough work to get out there to enjoy the few seconds you get trying not to fall off the wave...), I can finally say I've surfed Australia.

:) Rach

A Little Delta Gam Reunion

My pledge sister and future roommate, Kai, is studying in New Zealand this semester and came to visit during her reading week!! She was able to change her flights around and spend a whole week laying on the beach in Sydney - and we even went to a few places in Sydney that I'd never seen before.


Manly Beach



A 30 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay in Sydney harbour is a suburb called Manly, one of Sydney's most popular beaches. There were tons of little shops and a looong sandy beach for us to lay on. We spent the day taking pictures on the ferry and admiring the harbour while enjoying our time on the beach. It's a bit far from Coogee, but the white sand and beautiful ride over was well worth it. We went to Manly with Liza, and of course, we took plenty of DG-esque pictures in front of the opera house!

Featherdale Wildlife Park

In Blacktown (which I have since learned is one of the most 'dangerous' neighbourhoods in Sydney.. its a little run down, poor area just a little bit out of town) there is a perfect place to play with Kangaroos! Featherdale Wildlife Park is situated in a residential neighbourhood, but is several acres of enclosures with dingos, birds of all shapes and sizes, crocodiles, echidnas, bats, owls, wallabies, kangaroos and koalas! We played with the kangaroos and koalas for the afternoon and then hopped back on the train to Coogee.

Oktoberfest

The UNSW Unibar has several infamous parties each year, Kai was lucky enough to join us for Oktoberfest! Thousands of people, all afternoon and evening, hanging out at our university and having a crazy night. We may not have studied abroad in Europe, but everyone enjoys Oktoberfest!

We also spent plenty of time house hunting, hanging out on Coogee beach, watching movies, going to markets and hanging out with my friends..... all in a week's work



:) R

Thailand Pics, quick and easy

Here are the links to the 3 Thailand photo albums:

Bangkok and Beyond

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle

The Sun and the Sand

Enjoy!

xo

Swimming in the Rain

We waited on the side of the road with one of the guys from Treetops for the local bus to arrive to take us to Phuket. After watching a child play with rocks and picking out what we could of a couple of Thai men’s discussion about the conflict in Burma, we boarded the bus. It was air-conditioned (thank goodness) and the a/c was nice enough to drip all over me on our 5 hour drive. In addition, about 3 hours in, our driver put on a dvd of Thai music videos. Not only did it play on repeat, it was deafeningly loud and the music was really screetchy.

Our first day in Phuket was spent walking around shopping for souvenirs and checking out the beach, swimming in the hotel pool and we went to a fancy dinner and ordered drinks with star shaped pineapple pieces and flowers sticking out of them. Our hotel was just off the boardwalk, and after a few painfully hot hours we got them to turn our heat to air conditioning! The three of us cuddled in our huge king bed (with the twin bed empty next to us) and finally got a decent night’s rest.

Day two, we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel and went straight to the beach. They don’t call it the rainy season for nothing.. what started off as a relatively sunny day soon turned into drizzle and then a downpour! We ran into the ocean to escape the rain and splashed around in the warm waves during a monsoon!! Eventually, the rain was just too stinging and the thai ‘lifeguards’ recommended that we wait it out. We took advantage of the break to check out the famous Thai Massages at a place on the boardwalk. “Friendly Massage” was an interesting experience. We were naked except for our bathing suit bottoms and a towel, and for an hour we were rubbed with oil, sometimes a little too exposed, with Mariah Carey in the background for a little while. We left, laughed hysterically on the rainy walk towards our hotel, and spent the afternoon playing card games and drying out. We then decided we needed henna tattoos. At the nearest tattoo parlour, where there was a white guy tattooing a Thai guy, for about a dollar fifty we got henna elephants on the insides of our wrists.. no worries, they rubbed off in about a week.

That night we attended the famous Simon Cabaret. A lip synching show of transvestite performers all dressed up to resemble dancers in Vegas. I sat next to an Israeli couple and we tried to figure out if any of them were women.. the jury’s still out. We were front row to see these lady-boys, as they’re called, and laughed hysterically throughout the performance, it was insane!

The next morning we headed back to the beach for one last attempt at soaking up the sun. It was cloudy, but we finished the morning a little rained on and sufficiently sunkissed. After a full day in the shops and on the beach, we got a taxi to the airport, and prepared for a long night of flying back to Sydney.

As requested, photo album #3

Rachel

Chang, Chang, Chang!

Our trek in the jungle began with an adventure on the overnight train to Surat Thani. Our guide Wan gave us some advice about talking to the Thai people, ordering food on the train to help out the locals and remembering to carry toilet paper wherever we go.

You may have noticed the photo of us with the ‘praying’ Ronald McDonald – in Thailand, placing your hands together is how you say “hello” and show respect. Touch your thumbs to your chin for people of a lower status or casual friends, to your nose for older people, and to your forehead for royalty and religious leaders.

Once on the train, we ordered dinner from a transvestite with a green necktie. It arrived under plastic wrap on pink plates and bowls, and it as pretty gross, but oh well. We played a few games of cards (the first of many) and managed to communicate to the attendant that we wanted our beds put down so that we could sleep. We didn’t sleep much, but woke up early as we approached the station at Surat Thani. We ate breakfast at a local shop and were taken on a van to Kao Sok National Park, where we met a longboat to take us to the rafthouses, our home for the next two nights.

Quick note about the general lack of safety laws in Thailand: on our way out to the boatdock, our driver stopped for a beer at 7 eleven. On the longboat, the driver had to fill the tank with petrol, which he did by pouring the gasoline from one plastic barrel into another.. with a lit cigarette between his lips.

The crazy morning turned into an incredible day. We arrived at our rafthouse (which is not floating freely, it is attached to one of the many small islands on the lake), inspected the Gilligans Island-esque accommodations – the three of us were to sleep together on a mat on the floor with a green mosquito net draped very close to our sides.

At the rafthouse we ate our first of many incredible Thai meals there, and began our adventures for the afternoon. Our tour group consisted of the three of us, a lesbian couple from Brisbane, and an adventure seeking couple 30+ couple from Holland. Our guide, Poo, loaded us onto a longboat and we made our way to another island. We parked the boat at a little patch of dirt that didn’t resemble any kind of dock, and walked through a few trees to the base of a waterfall. Poo pointed at the waterfall and said “ok, we climb up.” The rocks were surprisingly not slippery. Poo informed us that the limestone is formed surrounding the tree roots and branches by mineral deposits in the water – so no moss grows on it! The water rushed over our sandaled feet and we climbed up, albeit not as easily as Poo did, but we made it! As Barrett put it, ‘we looked like the lost boys from Peter Pan.’ At the top of the waterfall, we took a few photos and played in the water before making our way down. When we got to the boat, we saw that it had started raining a little, there was a rainbow in the distance, and we were on our way to the fisherman’s village to pick up dinner!

At the fisherman’s village we got a glimpse at what life is really like on the lake in Kao Sok. The lake was formed with the creation of the dam (near where we were picked up in the first longboat). It’s enormous, with over 150 little islands. The government commissioned the building of the dam to increase jobs, create fishing opportunities, and drown out the communists who were hiding in the caves. On each island there are different animals, including gibbons, birds, and a few wild elephant! There are 7 fisherman’s villages with about 10 families each and they too live in raft houses around the lake. They have very minimal luxuries, a radio, an old tv, images of the King and Queen… we saw the reserves of fish in ‘tanks’ built out of nets and wood in the lake – they have to sell the fish within two days of catching it, so its very fresh. None of the fishermen spoke English, so it was a little tough to make friends during our half hour visit, but it was very nice to meet them.

Our third stop was to go swimming! In a cave! In the dark! It was one of the caves that the communists used to live in, and Poo shined a flashlight so that we could see through the darkness. There were some pretty cool stalactites to see . It was barely wide enough for us to swim through with our heads above water, and Poo informed us that in the dry season, the cave will be nearly dry. On our way back to the rafthouse, we saw some gibbons jumping in the trees on one of the islands --- our stories sound less believable as the days go on…

Back at the rafthouse we decided to take a bath in the lake (where else?!) Emily kicked us a LOT with her ‘eggbeatering’ legs trying to stay afloat but it was pretty fun. We read a little, and walked around the rafthouse until dinnertime. After dinner we relaxed with some Thai beer, card games, and played party games and mind tricks with the other group at the rafthouse – 10 more Dutch people! Can YOU hold one foot behind your back with both hands and bend down and pick up a bottle with your mouth? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Day two, we woke up at 6:30 am and climbed on a few canoes. We travelled around the island to watch the sun rise over another island while drinking coffee and tea. After breakfast, we went on an incredible hike. A short longboat trip away we climbed to the top of one of the island cliffs. It was about an hour and a half hike to the top, complete with tons of mud and swinging on a vine (I almost fell off, it was terrifying). The final 20 minutes of climbing were up jagged rocks, and we had a fantastic view of the entire lake. We were hot, sweaty (jungle breezes don’t exist), covered in mud, bleeding a little, watching out for leeches and very, very tired. No worries though, when we made it to the bottom, our longboat was filled with brightly coloured butterflies!

The rest of the afternoon was downtime; we floated on tires on the lake, read our books, played a few dozen rounds of card games, chatted with our travel buddies and relaxed for the rest of the day. At night, back in our raft, we slept very little while Mutsy, Barrett’s stuffed dog, attacked me. But we were up early again to head back to the land and our next home – a treehouse!

The treehouses are located near the river in Kao Sok and are one of many similar accommodations. We arrived in time for lunch and before even checking out our treehouse, left immediately for our afternoon of fun. First, we rode elephants! The elephants were equipped with benches for us to sit one, me and Emily on one, Barrett and Poo on another, and we plodded along a path towards a waterfall. On our drive over, we saw an elephant by the side of the road, and when were got to the elephant riding place there were dozens of elephants! Emily and my new friend was named “San-wee” meaning ‘beautiful girl’ and Barret and Poo rode an elephant named “Plai-Kam” – nature duck (or something). The elephants splashed through rivers and in between rubber trees. We could see the scrapings on the bark and white rubber dripping to cups below each scraping. Poo said they empty the cups of rubber once each week. After about 45 minutes of bouncing on the elephant seats, we arrived at a waterfall and gladly shed our clothes to go for a swim (yes, we wore swimming suits underneath). We hopped back on our elephants, with the guide sitting on Sanwee’s head, and returned to the beginning of the path to feed our elephants a few piece of sugarcane – they eat 300 kilos each day – and the adventure continued!

We stopped at a quick lookout point on the side of the road with a beautiful view over Kao Sok and then got to feed monkeys! It was a safe haven for macaw monkeys (I think that’s misspelled, you’ll have to excuse my translation of Poo’s accent). There were dozens of monkeys and we fed them bananas and toast – the took it right out of our hands and caught what we tossed at them! They were running around and playing in the trees. We really liked the little ones who were getting picked on by the older monkeys. After a few too many bug bites we jumped back in the van and went to a nearby river. We had inner tubes and rafted down next to other tree top resorts (including a Marley themed party hut). On the river, Poo taught us a children’s song about elephants. We tried to make it a ‘repeat after me’ song, but were very unsuccessful. Poo was nice enough to write it down for us and draw a picture of an elephant’s butt – here goes:

Chang Chang Chang,

nowls khouw hen chang,

pou phaw, chang mon thow tho mai bow

cha mook, yamw yanw, rink asa, gnuw mee kaew

Thai gnuo rink wa gna mee hoo mee ta hang yanw .

Basically, Chang means Elephant, and the rest of the song is describing the attributes of an elephant. Good luck with the Thai.

Our treehouse accommodations were incredible, real beds with white princess nets, running water, a toilet that flushed, a balcony… and all about 30 feet off the ground. We were high in the trees with the company of monkeys and showers that ran cold water out of a waterfall like spout and an open window facing the forest. We ate another delicious meal, played about 200 rounds of card games, watched to make sure Poo wouldn’t cheat and finally got some rest.. kind of.

One last meal with our tour group and we were off to our island paradise in Phuket!

Of course we took pictures ~ Check out album #2!

xo, Rach

ps - yes, I'm backdating these posts, October was full of studies and adventures, I'm catching up now.

A Taste of Thailand

This post is a few days delayed, but there is so much to say, it has taken me a while to find the time to dedicate to writing it all down. Luckily, my travel mates and I were smart enough to keep a journal together throughout our trip, with fresh stories every day, it is a really great collection of our different perspectives of the 9 days we spent in Thailand.

We arrived on Sunday after a 9 hour flight on Jetstar, an airline I plan on avoiding in the future (paying for drinks, not having enough mini entertainment systems and chairs so close together even my short legs had trouble moving.. really not my thing). We finally landed at Bangkok International Airport and moved quickly to baggage claim and customs, all the while staring wide eyed at the Thai sculptures decorating the terminal. From there a taxi to our hotel and we were ready to find some authentic Thai food for dinner before collapsing in bed. The area where the D’ma (pronounced Dee-Mah, or D-M-A or De-mah, depending on the Thai person we were talking to) Hotel is located is a small street near some local markets and lots of little local shops and food stands. We ended up at a nice looking place called Tom Yum’s and ate delicious Thai food.

The next morning, we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel (Barrett set a croissant on fire, but they had awesome pineapple jam and noodles and tofu next to the pancakes – touristy and wonderful) and made our way to the Grand Palace, one of Bangkok’s most famous destinations. Getting there is not so simple though. Thailand is famous for its scams, especially with taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. On the way to the Grand Palace, we got caught in one of the most classic scams of all. Our ddriver agreed to take us to the Grand Palace for 100 baht (about $3 American) and as we hopped in he offered to take us to a gem factory “just to look, you no have to buy,” and when he found out it was our first day in Thailand, he took us to a tourist agency too! Guess what, he gets a commission if we make purchases at the gem factory or tourist agency, he even tried to convince us that the Palace wasn’t open until 11 (it opened at 8:30, our guide book said so). The tourist agency was a total waste of 10 minutes, but the gem factory was actually pretty cool. We saw workers polishing the stones and making jewellery and then they attempted to sell us about four hundred different rings and necklaces. We took a pass on making any purchases, but they had some nice souvenirs that we ended up going back for the next day! Finally, we made it to the Grand Palace.

It was about 85 degrees outside, sunny and humid – and the palace requires that your knees and shoulders be covered. We were a little warm. The Grand Palace is an active Buddhist temple, it is huge (grand..?), we kept thinking we’d seen it, but the entrance an other buildings are so massive and so beautiful that we could hardly believe that we hadn’t yet seen the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is gilded, mosaiced, mirrored, sparkling, intricate, breathtaking, sacred, expansive and generally humbling. I have never seen anything so massive and so beautiful.

This is one very, very small statue in the Grand Palace.

We have a bunch of photos, but they hardly do the area justice. Many of the most beautiful temples (including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the world’s largest jade Buddha) do not permit photography. We walked around for a while, taking in the Guardian Giant statues and the small ponds with water lily pads and burning incense, and taking our shoes off to enter the different temples. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was the most exquisite of all. It was filled with gold and jewels and a few guardian statues. The walls were covered with a mural of the Buddha’s life, and atop a high altar was the Buddha statue. It was beautiful. We sat there for at least 20 minutes, unable to take our eyes off of it. It is made of a solid rock of Jade, probably 2 or 3 feet tall and covered in a shawl of gold and jewels. We saw dozens of thai people enter and pray during our time there. Everyone is careful not to point their feet towards the Buddha, as the feet are the lowest and most unsacred part of the body (the head, obviously, is the highest and most sacred, making it improper to touch another person’s head). When we reached the Grand Palace itself, it was a magnificent white building and we saw the guards change. After that, it was time for more bottles of water and a new adventure.

We had read in the little corner of our lonely planet tourbook in a section called “freaky Thailand” that there is an amulet market near the Palace where you can purchase little treasures and Buddha images for necklaces or as souveniers. We walked the few blocks to where the market was, and with the guidance of a very zealous Thai man, found a few blocks where people sat with blankets on the sidewalk selling coins, amulets and small versions of the Buddha. It was a little creepy, and pretty unimpressive.

Near the D’ma we walked to a wholesale market and made friends with a woman who just wanted to hug us and sell us pewter flasks. She giggled a lot and was really working on her English, it was weird, but endearing…? The mall was MASSIVE, you can find almost anything there.. and we did. From knockoff handbags and wallets and sunglasses to sweatshirts, dresses and jewellery, this market had a lot of everything. And the most commonly heard phrase of the day “ohhh discount for you madam.” On the way home, we rode a Tuk-Tuk (the pictures are hilarious) its like a motorcycle with a cart for people to sit on in back. Our driver though we were funny…

Another Thai food dinner and we were exhausted, bedtime for the American girls.

Day two in Bangkok was another adventure. We had to meet up with our tour group in the afternoon, so we decided to explore Chinatown and do a little more shopping during the day. After a quick workout in the hotel gym without air conditioning, we attempted to get a regular metered taxi to Chinatown, scam-free. After several attempts in front of the hotel, we walked to the main road to hail a cab. We ask if it’s a ‘taxi meter’, he nods, so we hop in and ask to go to Chinatown. The driver just grumbled and shook his head as he begins to drive. We ask again, “Chinatown, ok?” Again, he grumbles. As slowly as possible we ask where he’s taking us, can we go to Chinatown, we show him a map… he continues grumbling and driving! We ask him to stop, please stop, let us out, please stop driving, stop… finally, we open the door in the middle of the road and spill out. Thank goodness there are three of us, and Barrett had the video camera on the entire time.

Chinatown was HUGE. There were signs in red and gold and alleys filled with stands and shops and smells so strong they could knock you over. The humidity in Thailand is so strong that scents linger longer than you expect.. its nice when the lady with the flowers walks by, its gross when the guy selling fish walks by. We attempted to follow a route that the tourbook recommended as a walking tour of Chinatown. Unfortunately there are no street signs there and we had no idea where we were, so we just wandered for an hour or two. Finally, it was too crowded, we were too overwhelmed and hot, and decided to head back towards the D’ma for a little wholesale retail therapy and snacks from the really nice vendors on the street (though we did pass on the fried crickets and other bugs in front of the Seven Eleven).

Two pairs on sunglasses and a few souvenirs of Bangkok later, we met Wan, our Intrepid Tours staff member at the hotel to go to the overnight train into the jungle!

As you can tell, the Thailand blogging is taking a while. I’ll type up our jungle adventures tomorrow (I hope!) but for now, enjoy Thailand in bits and pieces! And PICTURES, of course! There are three albums total, but here's the one all about Bangkok :)

Rach

G'mar Tov... now let's go to Thailand!

Yom Kippur begins in a few hours, and spring break began a few hours ago!

Though most of my friends are on their way to faraway places, I'll be in Coogee for one more day for Yom Kippur and then I'm headed to Thailand on Sunday morning!

We have a week off of school, and everyone is taking advantage of the time. Here's what people are up to:

• West Coast Australia - a tour from Brisbane to Cairns, including the Whitsunday Islands, skydiving, white water rafting, snorkeling the reef, going to the rain forest.
• The Outback - camping near Uluru and Alice Springs.
• New Zealand - touring the islands, with some hiking and extreme sports in the mix.
• Thailand --- We leave Sunday for Bangkok (it's about a 9 hour flight to get there) where we'll spend 2 nights exploring the city, going to night markets and visiting the Grand Palace (I hope!). From there we start a tour that takes an overnight train to Surat Thani and we will then spend a night in a tree house and two nights on a rafthouse in a national park. We'll go swimming, rafting, hiking, and hopefully see some of the wild elephants, exotic birds, and other animals that live in the Jungle. After our tour is over we'll board a bus to Phuket island where we'll have two days to spend on the beach, at the markets and enjoying the luxuries of Thailand!

No worries, I have lots of camera batteries, my typhoid vaccine is up to date, plenty of travel insurance, malaria medication and bug spray with DEET. It's going to be an adventure!

I'm going with my flatmate Emily and Liza's roommate, Barrett. We'll be back October 2 with lots of stories, pictures, and only 4 weeks of classes left before finals and travel time.... 8 weeks until we go back to America. Time is going to fly.

G'mar tov ~ have an easy fast. More lifeupdates from me after Thailand!!

Much love, Rach

L'Shana Tovah!!

Rosh Hashana in the land down under is amazingly similar to Rosh Hashana anywhere else in the world. It was great to celebrate here in a similar way as we do at home.

First night, I had 13 of my friends here for dinner. We crammed around the dining room table and used the couches and coffee tables to fit everyone in the apartment, and it worked out beautifully. Apples and honey, pomegranates, challah, chicken, salad, dessert.... everyone helped out and we had an amazing night. I went to shul for the first day at the Coogee Synogague that I've mentioned before. The place was crowded and really really loud! I'm not used to things like assigned seating and quite that much talking - it was a little frustrating, but an experience nonetheless. And everyone loves to hear shofar :) For Tashlich, a few of us went out to our favorite cliffs over the ocean and Jamie brought the Tashlich service from her shul back home. It was a really beautiful setting and a great way to cast off our sins from last year and move onto the next.



Second night, I went with my friend Abby to her mom's cousin's house in North Sydney for dinner. There were about 13 of us again and Abby's cousin cooked a delicious traditional dinner. I spent the night there with Abby and in the morning went to shul with her cousins. Abby has a cousin our age and we sat with his girlfriend in the more informal hall (the synagogue is massive, there were two services going on at once). It is a mostly South African community and they had so much energy! It reminded me of a very large, young version of home. We had lunch with the cousins and then headed back to Coogee for the night.

Rosh Hashana is a time to think about the past year, all of the opportunities you've had, the good things, the tough things... it's been a really phenomenal year, and I can't believe that I'm lucky enough to begin the next year on the beaches of Australia. There are so many things to do, so many things to see, and time is so limited. I wish you all a happy, healthy, sweet New Year full of new adventures, wonderful friends and taking advantage of all life has to offer.

L'shana tovah u'metukah!
Rach

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

I hate to admit it, but last weekend was the first 'nothing' weekend I've had in Australia. The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation) dominated Sydney, changed the bus routes, put a fence around the center city, diverted the end of my favorite beach walk path, and combined with mediocre weather, kept us inside for a few days.

The APEC conference attracted over 20 world leaders, including prez bush, as I'm sure all of you have heard, and security was a little over the top. We didn't even try to go into the city, businesses all around the conference area were hurt by the decrease in foot traffic, overall it was really tough for Sydney-siders to balance the complications with the benefits of having so many world leaders gathered in their city.

The weather was a little gross, a little windy, a little rainy, a little cold... so we kept a low profile until Sunday, when we went to Bondi for the annual Festival of the Winds - Kite Festival! We switched between watching our friends surf and watching some of the coolest kites I've ever seen



Sadly, thats about the end of my exciting news - I'm headed to the campus health center tomorrow for anti-malaria meds for Thailand... woo hoo!!!!

Lots o'love, Rach

PS --- DG: Good luck with recruitment!! I love and miss you girls!! xoxolitb.

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands

Our long awaited trip to the Whitsunday Islands was a great success! We flew to the Whitsunday Coast (about a 3.5 hour flight north of Sydney) and spent the weekend on a sailboat, sailing around the islands, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and hanging out on Whitehaven Beach. The weekend is a little difficult to put into words, but I'll give you the bullet-pointed rundown so that you can follow of our amazing adventure:

A little basic info...

• Weather wise, it was cold and rainy for most of the trip, with brief, much-appreciated bouts of sunlight just in time to watch the sunset both days, go snorkeling a few times, lay on Whitehaven beach and eat most of our meals on the deck of the boat.
• There were 15 of us from UNSW, we all came together, and were joined by 7 others (3 couples and one of the couple's friends). 3 from England, 2 from Italy (a really sweet couple, I liked talking with them), and a pair who clearly didn't speak the same language... English as the common ground was pretty funny for us all to watch.
• The crew was 3 sailors from the ProSail company, really relaxed, wanted us to have fun while still appreciating everything around us.
  
• We slept for two nights (before and after sailing) in a hostel on Arlie Beach. One of the nicer hostels I've been in.. the sheets were clean, and the bar downstairs had live music!
• On the boat, we slept underneath the deck - 22 people in a space that could probably have fit about 5 comfortably. It was cramped, stuffy, stinky, uncomfortable and kind of fun!
• Our boat, "The Hammer" (yes, we woke up to 'Hammer Time' each day), was probably 50 feet long, and one of the fastest sailboats in the area. We sailed most of the time, wore crazy yellow raincoats when it rained (very 'Perfect Storm'), hung onto the railings when the boat keeled (for all you non-sailors, to 'keel' is when the boat is angled against the water, it makes you go faster and sailboats are built to travel nearly perpendicular to the ocean), and found the most comfortable spots to lay on the boat deck (and stretch our sore backs from the under-deck 'beds') during sunny moments.

What we saw...

• Snorkeling around the Reef in the Whitsundays was INFINITELY better than our snorkeling experience near Cains. This part of the reef is more remote and therefore much more protected from evil tourists. The colors were more brilliant, the fish were more plentiful (and friendly!), there were more types of coral, and the water was crystal clear.
• Animals: really big sunfish, lots of small colorful reef fish, whales (against the sunset on our first night), turtles that looked JUST like Crush from Finding Nemo, sand sharks, rays... more turtles (they were sooooooo cool).
• The 4th most photographed place in Australia, overlooking Whitehaven Beach and the Islands.
  
• Whitehaven beach. One of the purest beaches on the planet, with crystal clear water, white powdery sand, and not a piece of litter or building in sight. I wanted to stay there forever. It looked exactly like what you imagine paradise to be.
  

The pictures are here ~ check it out!

And the theme of the weekend: Suns' out, GUNS OUT!

Dreaming of paradise, Rach