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