Java, Indonesia

So last I left off I was planning to go down to Kuta and come back to Ubud, but the date to come back for the final visa visit was only two days later so I went to Sanur instead to just wait it out. Not much to say about Sanur, just an overpriced quieter beach resort area. Just poached a a nice resort's pool for a day cause there wasn't a lot to do, then made my way back and finally got my visa extended. I guess in hindsight I would have just paid the extra 80 dollars or so to have an agent do it for me. Visa in hand, it was finally time to make the trip to Java. There was a definite learning curve in taking public transport from 5 days ago when I first got to Java. while in Bali and Lombok, special tourist mini bus routes are set up making it very easy, while not overly comfortable, to get around. Public transportation on the other hand can be very hard, especially when people try to sell you fake tickets or jack up the price because your white or lie about how far the bus goes. from Bali, I got a ride on the back of a scooter to the bus station, and was worried about finding a bus to the right place. This was a mistake. The bus was not only full, and swelteringly hot, but I was the only white person on the bus and not one person spoke English. Also, the leg room was made for shorter Indonesians so I had to have my knees up at my chest. On top of the uncomfortable bus/ferry ride to Java I timed it horribly so I got to Banuwangi in the middle of the night. When I pointed to the hotel in the guidebook I was trying to go to, I was told to jump off the bus in the middle in the city full of anxiety. Luckily, a scooter rider who spoke broken English saw me on the side of the road and took the opportunity to make some money and drove me to basically the only hotel in town. I spent the night in by far the dirtiest (and cheapest) place of the trip and had to spray some cologne to cover up the smell. But I made it through the night and the next morning hired another scooter to take me to the bus station. The scooter driver was a guide to Ijen Plateau (really wish I could seen it, but there were not enough tourists for me to join a group) and spoke English so he gave me tips on taking buses like catching the bus outside the bus terminal and paying on board to avoid scammers and see how much others were paying. The next destination I was headed was only an hour north called Baluran National Park. Getting dropped off at the park entrance on the side of the road, I paid the entrance fee and hired a ranger to drive me on his motorcycle the 45 minutes on a dirt road to the Bekol outpost. Bekol was really cool, but I expected there to be more there. All it was was a ranger station, a lookout tower on a little hill to see wildlife, a little building with 5 rooms where you could stay, and a building where the park rangers and maintenance crew lived. Right now is the low tourist season because it is the wet season so of course I was the only visitor to the park and none spoke English. I also discovered through broken communication that you are supposed to bring your own food into the park, but luckily at the ranger station they had a little shelf of instant noodles and water for sale that had to make due with for a few days (just as my sickness wore off and I had my hunger back again for the first time in two weeks). Baluran was really cool though. It didn't have English speaking guides for hire like my guidebook said, so I had some anxiety waskign the 6 km trail by myself. Balurans landscape has savanna, grasslands, forest and jungle all within a small area. Wildlife in the park includes Timor deer, Water Buffalo, Benteng (wild cattle-like creatures), Jaguars, Wild dogs, the worlds longest Python, king cobras, boars, and a couple kinds of monkeys. While hiking I was able to see a lot of the Timor Deer, a few Bentang and monkeys that scared the life out of me some times. I also saw a bird like a peacock, but almost twice the size which was surprising. After two nights and a full day, I left back to the main road craving vegetables and meat. As I was leaving I ran into two Dutch guys, travelling the other way (first white people I'd seen in 3 days). The told me they had just come from Mt.Bromo that just started erupting two days before. I had seen lots of bromo on the news besue of seismic activity they closed the crater a few days before it actually started erupting, but the dutch guys said you could still climb the neighboring peak and it was a sight that you couldn't miss if you were passing by. so I decided to go check it out. Calling a bus down from the park entrance I made my way to Probolingo (sitting next to 12 chickens a couple of guys brought on) When I got to Probolingo station, usually a mini-bus takes you the hour up to Camero lewang which is the gateway to Bromo. Unfortunately, the mini buses don't leave until they are full and after two hours of waiting not one other person came to fill the 10 person bus to I had to hire a scooter driver to take me up. This was a ride I'll never forget. About 10 minutes in it started raining lightly and 5 minutes later it was a full on downpour so hard I had to put my sunglasses on to see. So there I was, rain jacket cinched up, riding up a steep mountain road on the back of a scooter, lightening ripping across the horizon, all in route to get to get to exploding volcano. I guess if I was looking for adventure, Java has been giving it to me. However, the rough trip up was definitely worth it. Mt.Bromo is a volcano that, along with two other cones, is located in the pit of a huge crater. Camero lewang on the edge of the big crater just outside the 3 km no entry zone the police and military put up. I stayed at a nice little chalet type guesthouse that also had a few Japanese and two french people staying in it, but for the most part was empty because the owner said all the tourists cancelled their stay when the media made a huge deal of the eruption, which happens from what I could understand every 5-30 years, so I was pretty lucky to witness it. I arranged transport to the neighboring peak and got up at 3 am along with a french, enmglsih and German couple to get to the viewpoint by sunrise. The van took us as high as it could then we hiked in the dark the 30 minutes up the steep path to the viewpoint, usually packed with tourists. The view from the top was amazing, one of the most surreal scenes I have ever seen. Mt.Bromo was puffing away ash and gas 1 km into the air. Normally there is a little steam coming from bromo, but it was really going now. After about 50 or so pictures we made our way back down, forced to skip the actual climbing of Bromo because of the no entry zone. Back at the guesthouse, I decided to take an extra night to just relax and enjoy the cool weather up in the mountains. After descending from bromo, I took the bus to Surarbaya, and the train to Yogayakarta (caled Jogja) where I am right now. The trains are by far the best way to travel and I am going to try to take them as much as possible to get around. Jogja is the first big city I have been to in Indonesia and am going to explore it and the area for the next few days. Its nice because there are a lot of educated people who speak English so I am enjoying the city so far. Will talk about it in the next post.

Ubud, Bali

So my time in Kuta, Lombok went from awesome, to really really terrible in a very short time. I am not sure what I ate, but a severely upset stomach turned to fever, sweating, chills, hypersensitivity, body aches, head aches, nausea and being bedridden for three days. So far I have really enjoyed a lot of what traveling alone allows you: ultimate freedom, easier approachability, self reliance. Getting sick is one of those times when being alone absolutely sucks. Anything or any medicine that you need, you have to get on the scooter and go get. One thing that really sucks about getting sick while traveling also is there is no TV to distract you and I couldn't read so it was just me staring miserably at the ceiling fan in a 90 degree room. Horrible. Okay, enough venting about that. After being sick I realized I was out of money and had to make the hour long scooter ride to Praya where the nearest ATM is located. In the city I of course got lost because there is no reasoning to any of the street layout, but eventually got there thanks to a couple helpful locals. While at the ATM I was also approached by a guy named Dunn or something close to that. He was very excited to meet me to practice his English and invited me to his house for lunch. On the way he also brought me past the village where his sister weaves traditional cloth that takes sometimes up to a month to make one shawl. There he insisted I put on the traditional wedding outfit. I just laughed to myself while writing this envisioning how funny I must have looked getting a full tour of the village while wearing a brightly colored shawl, jacket and headdress, but he insisted even in the heat. Then he took me to his house where I met his parents and wife and gave him am hour long English lesson over lunch. Near the end it started to get a bit awkward when he started openly asking how to get a tourist wife with his wife only 10 feet away in the next room, but it was an interesting experience. Back at Kuta I spent two more days surfing, then made the 10 hour day journey back to Kuta, Bali to start working to extend my visa. The process is a real hassle. You go in the first time to fill out paperwork, then they give you a date about 4 days later when you have to pay, then give you a day about 4 days later when you have to pickup the visa. 3 trips for 14 days more is a lot of hassle. From Kuta I made it through the hassle of the first visit to the zoo of an immigration office where they hold your passport for the whole process. After getting back to Kuta, I booked the first ticket to Ubud. Ubud is amazing. Up in the lush more mountainous central region of Bali, Ubud is the cultural and artistic center (drawing a big tourism industry too) It has gotten recent fame and an onslaught of middle aged women travellers being the location of "love" in the book/movie "Eat,Pray,Love" Getting to Ubud, I found a nice homestay where an unbelievably friendly Artist named Sulendra lives with his family and rents out two rooms. I think one of the best things about traveling on a budget is staying at homestays and getting to know local families. The room I am staying in has a balcony that overlooks a calming jungle river gorge, very tranquil. The second day here I signed up to go river rafting, which was definitely a good way to see some jungle scenery. Also im Ubud, there is a monkey forest with a temple right next the the village. The excitement and exoticism of seeing and playing with monkeys is very short lived. They are aggressive little bastards. I had bought fruit at the market that morning as soon as I pulled out the bag to give a little bit to a small monkey, I was swarmed with monkeys climbing on me and showing their teeth. I just dropped the bag and had to retreat. I also made my first trip to the doctor here. My stomach was still not better after getting sick a week ago so I went to the Doctor and got all sorts of meds that have made things a bit better, but I still lack an appetite. I think I may have a parasite so if things don't get better in a few days I may have to go in for blood tests. Fun. While here in Ubud I have also gone to a couple traditional Balinese dances which most the time are a bunch of guys chanting in a circle around a storyline usually involving a king fighting against a devil or animal of some sort to protect the queen or princesses. I can't say that I am particularly entertained by the performances, but the costumes and temples which they are held at are very visually cool and its good to see more of Balinese culture. I have to say that for the first time since leaving I have felt homesick. Ubud has been great, but I haven't put the effort into meeting people and when your traveling alone and you don't make the effort in Asia, your going to stay alone because its mot like Australia where you are in a Hostel set up for meeting people. Don't get me wrong, its good to be alone. I causes you to face your own thoughts and I have had the most in depth internal reflection that I ever had in my life, but everybody needs some social aspect. Its weird here though, because there seems to be a ton of solo travelers, but its difficult to build up courage to at a restaurant or cafe to simply ask "can I join you" and there are not many bars here. I guess I just need to set a goal to be more out going this week. I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous of the snow in Seattle right now sweating in the 90 degree heat of this Internet cafe. I think the heat is finally going to force me to cut the tangled mess of hair that I've let grow. Tomorrow taking 1.5 hour bus back to Kuta to do the second visa visit, then coming right back to Ubud. Will post soon. Memiliki minggu yang baik

Around Lombok, Indonesia

Wow, so much to write about since my last blog post. So after spending the 5 or so nights in Kuta to get adjusted, I decided to move east in order to escape the hawkers, crowds and traffic. On my way to Lombok, I took a bus to the little fishing/diving/ferry port village of Padangbai.Only stayed their one night so there is not really a lot to say about the place, but spent the night drinking terrible tasting moonshine Arak (made from coconuts but definitely not Malibu) with some local fisherman and dive guides. The next day I decided to make the journey to the Backpacker haven known as the Gili Islands just off of Lombok. I had my first experience with Indonesian Ferries which are not very fun. Sitting on the sundeck was blistering hot, but seemed like the better option than below with the funky smell, chain smokers and blasting US country western music from the 50’s. On the boat it was also evident the who the experiences travellers were because they were able to create tent like shade out of shalls and pick the best places where the sun wouldn’t hit. After the painfully slow 4 hour ferry, caught a bus to the next harbor and started to learn the meaning of rainy season. It started pouring like I have never seen before and at one point the van was driving through almost 2 feet deep water that kids were swimming in. It was also pretty epic scenery on the drive though and for the first time in my life I saw monkeys in the wild. Finally after another two hour layover (schedule determined by when the transport is full not when they tell you it is going to leave), we took the fishing boat to Gili Trawanagan. Gili T is the largest and most visited of the 3 Gili islands and has the reputation of beautiful beaches and good nightlife. It was definitely a nice change of pace because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. Thinking back on it Gili T is a place where you sort of lose time. I had planned on staying there 3 nights and ended up staying a week, just snorkeling, reading on the beach and relaxing. The clubs were also very fun. The locals there sure like to party. It was kind of funny because the average Trawanagan is probably 4’6’’ so looking across the dance floor you could easily pick out the groups of travelers towering above. Another kind of funny thing that happened while there was the TV show the Amazing Race had the island as one of the stops. Originally walking by and seeing the elaborate set I asked and they said it was a corporate video, but I asked one of the local carriage drivers dressed in traditional garb rather than the usual surf T-shirt who was part of the transport and he said it was for the amazing race. Seeing a couple teams of two along with a camera men in toe walking back to town I think confirmed it (Inside info for Vegas bets anyone). I am just wondering how they are going to edit out all the white people walking around from their helicopter shots. After the week on Gili, I decided to head back to Lombok in route to the other Kuta Beach on the southern part of the Island. All I have to say is Kuta Beach Lombok is better in every way than Kuta Beach Bali. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was pretty happy to getting dropped off to see just a small village of shacks on the beach and guesthouses set against some of the most amazing white sand beaches and coastal mountains I have ever seen even from post cards. Renting a motorbike and a surfboard here are about 4 dollars each so I have been spending the last few days just exploring and surfing. The surf here can get pretty heavy at times and the shallow reef is a bit scary too, but it is still fun. The drives to the beaches have some spectacular scenery too, but it’s unfortunate you can never look at it because the roads look like they have taken years of shelling form bombs and it is kind of like navigating a maze. Along with this you have to avoid the occasional buffalo or goat running across the road. Originally I had planned to spend a bit of money and do a 4 day sailing trip to Komodo to see some Komodo dragons, but the visa situation here is a bitch and I will not get back in time to extend my visa which you are detained and fined if you do not do. So it looks like I am heading back to Bali, extending my visa, then heading west to Java to trek around the Jungle a bit and where a reliable train system should ease traveling. Off to eat some Nasi Campur. Post again when I can.

Kuta Beach, Bali

Asia...wow. Love this place but it definitely takes some getting used to. After the six hour flight I stepped off that plane and was so out of my element. Arriving in Bali at midnight, I got a taxi to Kuta Beach because that was the place I had heard from other travellers come up the most, what I didn't realize was how hectic it was. I got to the area where I planned to stay and there were scooters whizzing by everywhere, fireworks going off, people hustling you to buy things or get a ride on their moped. I looked down the street where all the Losmans or cheap places were supposed to be and it was just a dark alley along the street. I finally found any place (and not a very nice one) to stay and was able to calm down a bit. I woke up the next morning still fully immersed in my culture shock ready to take things on in the daylight. Bali is a really unique place. While the vast majority of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is over 90% Hindu which is very evident in the architecture and monuments found here. Almost every shop has a small palm leaf dish with flowers and bits of food as an religious offering. Kuta Beach, however, is a bit different than the rest of Bali in that it is the tourism hub for Australians which also brings a lot of tacky souvenir shops and people trying to sell you everything. The surf is good in Kuta, there are still places to escape to western society, and there are plenty of things to do here so I decided it was a good place to chill and get used to Indo. Let me describe a day in the life at Kuta: get up at seven and have a full breakfast for $1.50, surf all morning, eat lunch for also very cheap, get a $5 hour long massage, go surfing in the afternoon, eat dinner maybe have a few beers. Not too bad. I have made friends with some Indonesian surf instructors and have been tagging along with them to all the best and cheap places to eat. Most of them are from Sumatra and moved to Kuta after the Tsunami hit in 2004. They call Indonesia the land where Mamas always crying because if its not one natural disaster its another. Even right now in the news A tsunami hit the islands off of Sumatra and there is a volcano erupting in Java. Along those lines I also visited the memorial about a half kilometer away from where I am staying where in 2002 (and 2005) there was a bombing in a nightclub here. Its amazing how popular this place is though because despite this its as popular as its ever been. Alright enough downer talk because Bali overall has very happy people who are very welcoming (cliche statement but true, except for the store hustlers). Today I finally mustered up the courage to rent a scooter and go explore the island a bit. This is not for the faint of heart. Driving here is crazy where lanes, street lights and common sense are thrown out the window. It is kind of an andrenaline rush at first, but gets tiring having to constantly always be aware of everything. I had to keep $5 cop bribe money in my pocket because I didn't have an international license, $2 is the standard rate but I wanted to be safe. Setting out I decided to go to the coastal temple Tanah Alot. Taking directions from the guy I rented the bike from got me very lost, but it ended up being really cool exploring random backroads in the countryside filled with rice paddies and volcanoes. That was one of those moments where I just smiled about how different a situation I am in from just two months ago and it made me smile. Finally,after 3 hours I finally felt my way to the right place. Tannah Alot was cool, its a temple carved inot the side of a seaside cliff. Unfortunately there is also a maze of "Kuta" souvenir shops you have to walk through before getting to the temple and combined with the crowds of people kinda takes away the spirituality of the place. Wish I could post pictures, but I lost my cord that connects my camera to the computer and can't get one until probably Singapore. Tomorrow I think I am moving and taking a boat to Lambok in route to the Gili Islands and possibly a three day trek to the top of the Ranjin Volcano crater, but my plans are still pretty lose. I had to buy a guide book and reading it is making me possibly rethink my itinerary. Will post soon when I can.

Melbourne to be Wild

Thought I would make the post titles a little more interesting. Today is officially my last day in Australia and its been a good run. Just spent the last week and a half in Melbourne and really like the city. The first 5 days I spent in the St. Kilda area which is about a 20 min train ride from downtown by the beach. St. Kilda is a cool place made up of a healthy mix of artists, bikers, backpackers and prostitutes. Another cool thing about the area is one evening walking along the beach I saw a group of people taking pictures and went over to see a bunch of penguins, which I was excited to see in the wild. Melbourne is a big sports town so I decided last week that I needed to check out a cricket match that was being played. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds stadium is located in a sort of sports arena plaza area where there is the soccer stadium, competition swimming pool and the Australian Open Tennis courts. Although it was cool to go into the MCG and walk around, I quickly realized that I am not a fan of Cricket. I can see how it could fun to a game with your friends on a sunny summer day and just hang out and drink beers, but the game is too long for me. Its like the more boring version of baseball which I didn't think was a phrase possible, but regardless I gave it a shot and it was worth seeing. After a few days I left the St.kilda area because it was so far from the city and, despite the positive of cool people, the hostel I was staying at was filthy and i woke up and realized I had my first run in with bedbugs. Moving to the downtown area it was nice being within walking distance of everything. I spent a couple of days checking out free museums, markets and other things. I was still waiting for my card to be sent so I could really move anywhere, so I got a little bored for a few days. Melbourne is a great place for working while travelling, but like any city you can only wander around looking at things for so long. Finally yesterday my card came in the mail and I bought a ticket to Bali, Indonesia (and a $12 flight from Jakarta to Singapore fro visa reasons). I am just starting to realize how different tomorrow is going to be from yesterday and am super excited. I love Australia, but it is very similar to the United States and I am looking forward to a new culture, some adventure and a far more favorable exchange rate. I'm going to savor the last few hours of semi-cool weather for a few months and then head to the Airport. On the other side.

Some final notes on Australia:

• There are loads of Germans here because I guess this is the place that everybody travels to take a year off. Often times I would find myself in a dorm room with all or mostly Germans. The Australian government just stopped giving out working holiday Visas a few weeks ago.
  
• The backpacker meal is pasta or stir fry and I am so sick of both (again excited for Asia)
• I didn't see a Kangaroo, but I saw a Wallaby, Monitor lizard, Hand-sized spiders, Bearded Dragons, Snakes, All types of Lizards, Bats with 3 foot wingspans, Turtles, and tons of crazy colored birds and Cockatoos
• I am not a fan of the Australian coin money with the 50 cent piece being way too big and bulky and the most expensive 2 dollar coin being the smallest and very easy to lose
• Melbourne was founded by a guy with the last name Batman and in its early days the city was called Batmania (and its pronounced how you hope it would be)
• You would have to be rich to be a alcoholic here
• After a month and a half I am still having close calls getting hit by cars from looking the wrong way before crossing the street
• Kangaroo is really good to eat if done right. I had it as a steak, sausages and burgers. Its super lean and better for the environment
• I think I have met a traveller from every single country in Europe and people from every part of the world and have learned so much just talking to them about their lives and travels
  
• I think there is a man in Australia who is the most intersting man in the world's twice as intersting older brother: XXXX Beer
  
• Favorite Australian phrase: "No worries" , pretty much sums up their layed back, friendly lifestyle
  

Brisbane/Byron Bay, Australia

So I finally have found time to write another blog post and looking at where my last one finished I realize i probably need to do them more often to keep them shorter. Well, my time in Brisbane was fairly short lived. The "labor job" I landed turned out to be scrubbing ash off a fire damaged warehouse about an hour outside the city. The whole time the job was implied to be cash in hand, but at the end of the first day the boss gave me papers which I did not have the proper visa for so that fell through. Probably my biggest regret of the trip so far has been not spending $500 a working holiday visa as I have seen lots of work opportunities to stay a few weeks in one place, but was unable to act upon it. Anyways, the ash scrubbing job wasn't the greatest anyway. Brisbane was a pretty average city in my opinion. It had a nice river running along the downtown area, cool live music scene in the Valley, a lot of modern buildings and a nice free museum. I enjoyed my time there, but after about four days I decided it was time to take the bus down to Byron Bay. Unfortunately, my first days in Byron Bay were very stressful. When I got there, I was thrilled to find out that somehow one of the transactions I made had a virus that tried to hack into my bank account and Bank of America decided to cancel all my cards, leaving me with $60 dollars cash to figure it out. Thankfully after two days of phone calls my Parents were able to wire me $100 in which I was able to use my last $3 to log onto the Internet to get the Western Union code(Thanks Mom and Dad). Finally two days later BOA was able to wire me more money to my Australian Bank account and I am now waiting for my card to be delivered to me here in Melbourne. After all that stress I was finally able to settle in and enjoy Byron Bay. Byron is a quiet little surf town that has an awesome beach and had done a good job at fighting off developers licking at their chops to build resorts there. I stayed at a hostel that had free surfboards to use and although the surf was pretty flat, got a good three days out in the water. It was a pleasant change to the freezing waters I am accustomed to in Westport, WA. Byron also had a really good group of travellers that were staying there and was a really fun place to sit out on picnic tables drinking goon (cheap boxed wine) or making bonfires out on the beach with somebody playing sing along songs on the guitar; also while drinking goon. While in the area I had to make the 1.5 hour bus ride to Nimbin. Nimbin was the site of a hippy Aquarius festival in the early 70's out in the middle of the the countryside. So many people liked it so much that they just decided to stay and thus Nimbin was born. Now it is not as authentic as I imagined as the main street (i.e. the whole town) is mostly catered towards tourism, but it was defiantely and interesting day trip. Leaving Byron, which I admit was really hard to do, I took the bus back to Brisbane and made the flight to Melbourne to wait for my card and to enjoy my last stop in Australia before heading to SE Asia. Melbourne I can already tell is my kind of city. Even the airport was way more comfortable to sleep in. I'm not going to elaborate too much because this is only my second day here, but I really like the sports focus and faster pace of the city. Will post about it soon and give my final thoughts on my time in Australia as I have realized I have left a lot out. Also, I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Airlie Beach / Brisbane, Australia

So after 11 days I finally made it out of Cairns. I was having trouble finding rides that followed through and thought that taking the bus lacked the adventure I came on this trip to find, but finally got a ride down to Airlie Beach. Responding to a post on a hostel message board for people needed to share fuel costs, I eventually got a ride from who I thought was going to be a backpacker but turned out to be a woman in her mid 50's with an affinity for professional poker tournaments who had lived in Cairns for the last 25 years and just this past year decided to move to Sydney. So Liz, another french backpacker named Antoine and make the 10 hour drive south to Airlie Beach, that ended up taking two days. Liz was great to us, cooking us really good meals in her RV trailer all the way down, but was a very slow driver and did not like to drive for long periods at a time. So me and Antoine had a nice first night sleeping in the back of her car being eaten alive by bugs. It was also a nice change of pace though as she took us on tours of all the towns as we went through on the way like the Military city of Townsville. Finally after two full days we made it to Airlie Beach and I split ways with Antoine as he was leaving on a boat to the Whitsunday Islands the next day. Looking back I didn't do a whole lot in Airlie. Its a really pretty place, with a nice beach and tons of sailboats both personal and for taking tourists to the Whitsunday islands. During the time I was there was "footy weekend" where tons of Australian football armature club teams go somewhere together, wear their jerseys, drink and watch the championship game of pro Australian football. I don't really get it, but I guess they like to match and it was fun to party with them and see the "Yankees" of footy beat the smaller team (it was actually the second footy weekend, the weekend before the game ended in a draw so they played a whole new game a week later. Again, not a lot of reasoning to it). Speaking of sports, I had an interesting husky football experience where the only way I could follow the game is to call my parents long distance and have them put the phone by a radio. All the people in the Internet cafe must have thought I was nuts with a phone to my ear, not saying anything, just periodically jumping up and fist pumping; but it was worth it in the end when we kicked the winning FG. Another thing I am starting to notice is that the backpacker trail is pretty well established, because I am starting to see the same faces around hostels. I think this is good because it makes travelling easy and fun, but sometimes you wonder if you are just going with the flow. I am meeting some very interesting people though, and just talking to people learning a lot. After some time of failing to find a job on one of the sailboats and laying on the beach, I found a really cheap flight to the city of Brisbane. The two hour airport shuttle bus was a 45 min late, and despite this and the pleas of a few of us on the bus, the driver decided to take his "state mandated" 15 min break right in the middle of the 1.5 hour bus ride that is an "airport shuttle" intended to get peopel to the airport to make their flights. So, we got to the airport with 15 minutes until takeoff and about 5 of us sprinted as fast as we could through the airport, only to find out the flight was delayed (I guess everything in Australia is late, but at least things worked out.) After the flight it was too late to get to the city and find accommodation, so me, an Italian ski instructor named Victoria and a German trying to escape the rain of Melbourne named Max, spent an extremely uncomfortable night on the floor of the Brisbane airport. Today I mader it to the city, found a hostel and landed a "labor" job paying pretty good money that kinda just fell into my lap, so tomorrow I start that job that is supposed to last two weeks and will almost pay for all my time in Australia. May not be a lot to write about while I settle in for a couple weeks, but hopefully I will get to really know Brisbane for better or worse.

Cairns, Australia

Made it to the land of kangaroos, boomerangs and Didgeridoos. The plane ride over was exhausting; 32 hours of being in Airports or on planes. I was fairly lucky though on the overnight flight to Auckland, NZ though because I sat next to another guy from Yakima that was starting his year long solo trip around New Zealand and it was reassuring that he was having the same anxiety/fear/excited feeling that I was having also. Also, a really cool part of the flight over was when approaching Australia we flew over the great barrier reef which was pretty amazing to see from above. When I finally got to Cairns it was pouring rain (as was it in Seattle, San Fran and Auckland) and felt and sounded like one of those tropical bird sanctuaries at the zoo that are really hot and humid. I originally started to walk the three or so miles to town, but turned back and opted for a taxi after a short while because a stream came up right beside the road I was walking by and I didn't know the crocodile situation, which it turns out there are a lot of them in the region. Cairns is cool because it is really beachy vibe, despite not having a good beach because of the mud from the mangrove rainforests right on the coast. I noticed that there are a huge amount of Hostels and backpackers because Cairns is the starting or ending point for a lot of backpackers traveling the East coast. There was a while I was having the "what the hell am I doing" thoughts when I got lost and hadn't talked to a person in a long time, but I was able to get over that pretty quickly and I am getting more used to life where you have to meet new people everyday. When I finally got back to the Hostel I went down to the hostel bar happy hour and honestly never found it easier to meet people. Within an hour I had new friends from Brazil, Germany, Norway, Oz and France. After we all went to a local backpacker bar called the Woolshed and danced like there was no tomorrow. The next day I got up early and rented a car with three Australians from Adelaide to go out and explore the rainforest. The plants and just the sounds of it are pretty incredible and I felt like a little kid just looking around at the wildlife and scenery. After a few short hikes and scenic drive we went a volcanic crater lake that the locals told us it was okay to swim in and escaped the heat for a while. The next couple days were lazy just hanging at the beach and exploring the city with some friends I made. Yesterday I decided to make the hour boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef and all I can say is AMAZING. Whoever had the job of getting to go to the reef everyday and document the 4000 kinds of fish had to have one of the best jobs in human history. Some of the colors of the fish were so cool, like the fish decided to throw an 80's neon themed party. There were also giant clams that got up to 6 or 7 feet wide that shut really fast if you touched them (scared the daylights out of me at first). Cairns lifestyle of drinking and daytrips is finally starting to catch up with me and my wallet, so tomorrow I am trying to leave town and search for some farm work.