amazing how time is going by...
So somehow I only have a little over a week of class left in Australia, could someone please tell me when that happened? Cause I feel like I've just gotten here and I'm already thinking about packing to come back the USA...kinda weird.
Anyway, this past weekend was simply awesome. Lara, Mville and I along with the amazing help of our Aussie friend Claire took a trip down to Margaret River...one of the biggest winery regions in Australia. So needless to say we did some wine tasting over the course of the weekend.
We left on Friday afternoon and got to MR around 3:30 where the three of us had some time to walk around the town before most of the shops closed at 5. We got some time to relax then before getting some quality dinner at the Goodfella's Cafe where the three of us split a bottle of wine between us. After the meal we met up with Claire and her boyfriend at one of the two bars in the town for another couple drinks before headin back to the hostel to sleep cause we had to be up ealry for our tour in the morning on Saturday.
Saturday Cheers Scenic & Winery tours picked us up at 9AM at our hostel to take us on a half-day tour of the area. We first went to the Lake Cave where we climbed down and back up over 300 steps to see one of the 50 caves in the area but one of the more popular ones. After the hour tour of the cave we got driven down to the Kari Forrest and then up to Redgate Beach for scenic views. From the beach we were taken to the Redgate winery for a tour and a tasting of the wines. After trying around a dozen wines we were then taken to a few more sites along Surfpoint before heading back to the hostel around 1pm.
For the afternoon we walked up to some shops and got some lunch in town before coming back and relaxing in the hostel for a bit. Fellow Eloners Shannon and Justine were actually in MR over the weekend too and saw us walking around the town that afternoon and then we later learned that they were staying in the same hostel as us. So we met up with them late in the afternoon to hang out before the 5 of us went to dinner together that night.
Shannon and Justine made the trip for me though when they let me take their hired car out for a drive during Saturday afternoon. They had hired the car so that they could do some site-seeing of their own on Sunday but when Lara told them that it's been a goal of mine to drive at some point in Australia they gave me the keys and let me drive for a bit. I loved it and it definitly only made me want to drive more! You have to concentrate so hard on what you're doing tho because its not so bad to be on the other side of the road, it's the sitting on the left hand side of the car that really throws you off. Saturday night was really chill, not like their was a whole lot to do in MR anyway but yea we went to bed kinda early.
Sunday was a day to waste because our ride home was picking us up around 1 from the hostel so we just hang around the town for the morning and kept trying to figure out ways to waste time basically until we were going home. Ended up having some brekky...sitting in the "park" for a bit (the park consited of a short walkway, some grass and a bench)....and then getting some lunch and doing a bit more shopping. On the way home we stopped in the MR Chocolate and Cheese Factories and stopped at Sandalford Winery for a tasting. We then drove up to Busselton where we had lunch along the beach and saw the largest wooden jetty (or pier) in the southern hemisphere..over a mile long. Then we made an express trip home to get some work done before classes on Monday.
Basically at this point I only have two papers for one class and a final exam in each of my other two classes to do before the semester is over. We have one week of class left next week, followed by a weekend trip to Rottnest Island, then a study week, then Lara and I head over east to Sydney and Melbourne before coming back for the last of our finals and pack to come back the the US.
That's about it for now.....until next time!
the 6 of us at Nature's Window
Life since the outback...
So since we've been back from our expedition to the Outback classes have pretty much taken up most of the time.
I've turned in my big politics paper, taken my second Law test and started preparing for my presentation in my gender studies class. All that I have left for the semester is two finals and a paper for my gender studies class....and three weeks to take care of most of that.
Last weekend was really low key, didn't go out at night at all, but we did some more exploring around Perth and found this place called Harbour Town...basically a huge mall, but of outlets with really cheap stuff in them and lots of good deals on stuff. We pretty much spent all of last Sunday there after doing absolutly nothing on Saturday.
I was suppoesd to start my volunteer job at Boronia (women's correctional facility) this week but the women I would be working for forgot I was supposed to come and didn't plan anything at all for me to do....so that pretty much was a dud. She claims that she's going to get it worked out this week and I can start this coming Wednesday....but we'll see if that actually happens or not.
Friday was Oktoberfest...curtin uni style.....basically school sponsored drinking in the Guild (same as if Elon sponsored an Oktoberfest and held it in Moseley). It cost us $15 to get in and that got us a free 500mL beer stein to fill with one of the dozen beers they had for sale.....to fill the stein tho it cost $7 so yea only did once cause I didn't feel like wasting that much money on a beer. The event took place from 4pm till 11pm and then they had a free bus to Northbridge afterwards but by 11 no one was in the mood to head all the way into the city so we just went back and ate some food (a Sandy's or Domino's delivery would have come in handy right around that time....but not in Australia).
Yesterday (Saturday) was one of the best day's that we've had weather wise since we've been here. So Lara, Mville, Sandra and I hoped an early bus and headed down to Fremantle for most of the day. We walkled around some of the markets before getting some ice cream and coffee and relaxing along the street for a while.
Now we're gettin ready for another week of classes and trying to see if we can squeeze anything else into the time we have left here cause it feels like all the weekends are disappearing way too fast. Kinda weird to think that I only have a month and a half left here....seems like I just got here yesterday but at the same time I think about all we've done and yea....we've done a hell of a lot since we got here back in July.
Until next time....
Lighthouse at sunset...
awesome sites and lots of nothing
So this was a 7 day tour which covered the same amount of distance as driving from New York to Miami and back again in the US (only without the traffic). The road we drove on was the MAJOR Highway for the state and all it was was a one lane road in each direction going straight up. No hills, no trees, no nothing except the bush and the occasional kangeroo or emu walking around. We had to stop at every gas station we came too because they are so far apart that you couldn't get to the next one on one tank of gas.
We stopped in a different town every night on the tour starting with the first night just outside of Geraldton at a bed and breakfast place on the beach. The first day was pretty much all driving just to get up near Kalbarri and such. The second day we went to Kalbarri National Park where we saw Eagle Gorge on the coast...spent a little time in Kalbarri while our tour guide Rory went to get the tire on our trailor fixed (yea we broke down twice on the trip with flat tires on the trailor, fun times let me tell ya). Then we headed deeper into the park where we saw Nature's Window and "the loop" which is a huge gorge with a "river" running through it creating the shape of a loop (I say "river" cause their wasn't actually any ater in it when we were there)...that night we stayed at the Monkey Mia Dolphin backpacker resort.
The next morning we got up early to go out and watch the dolphin feeding along the shore outside of our resort and then took an hour long catameran tour out along the bay were we saw more dolphins. We then drove for a little while to Shell Beach for lunch. Shell beach is exactly what the name says it is... a beach of ALL shells. For as far as you can see it's all shells...absolutly gorgeous. We then drove for a long while to get to our overnight at Coral Bay...a old rundown farm area that looked like it was something out of Psycho...but it worked for one night. The next morning we drove up to the main Coral Bay area where we got the chance to go on a glass-bottomed boat and snorkel over the Ningaloo Reef. Despite the FREEZING cold water that was definitly one of the best parts of the trip because where else can you snorkel over a 240km reef? We had lunch at Coral Bay before taking off up the coast to our last major stop in Exmouth. When we got to Exmouth we were told to quickly drop off our stuff in our trailors (yes we stayed in trailors for two nights in Exmouth) so that they could take us for our sunset suprise. The tour guides drove us out to the lighthouse in Exmouth and gave us all a glass of champagne to drink as we watched the sunset over the Indian Ocean. Can you beat that? I don't think so.... We came back for a mexican dinner that night (tacos on the barbie).
The 5th day we got up relatively early to head out to Turquoise Bay. Now if you haven't figured it out by now, Australians are real original with the naming of places.....(SHELL beach and the LOOP) so when they say TURQUOISE bay they mean that the water is...you guessed it turquoise. And since we were still behind the Ningaloo Reef there weren't any waves except those crashin over the reef in the distance. We got to spend the whole day reading and laying in the sun along the shore of the bay. We had lunch there and stayed until about 3 in the afternoon before going back for dinner at the camp. Rory collected some money from all of us (except Lara because of her problem with eating things that swim in the sea) and went to buy some fresh fish for us for dinner that night. We had calamari, prawns and red backed emperor....all (except for the calamari) had been caught earlier that day. Probably the best fish I've ever had...even though I really didn't care for the calamari. The next morning it was time to make the first half of the long haul back down the coast to Perth so we left early and ended up REALLY late. We didn't get in to our overnight until around 9 and had dinner around 9:30.
The next morning was our final day on the tour and we left early to get to Jurien Bay for lunch before going to see the Pinnacles. the Pinnacles are rock formations that kind of stick up from the ground all over the place...kinda hard to describe (check my pictures when i get them up to see what I mean)...and then wee made the final drive home to get back here by around 7pm.
Overall I really enjoyed the trip, it was a ridiculous amount of driving and a huge amount of nothing all the time. The road is just straight up with hardly a turn or hill. Their were a few hard times with the accomadation and the alte night driving and even later dinners but the tour guides tried their best and all in all got us to see everything we wanted to see.
The last day of our tour we all got some scary news coming out of Bali with the three suicide bombings happening their. Luckily (as far as I know) no one that we knew was affected by the bombing but obviously hundreds were. We all were feeling very lucky to have gone to that wonderful island when we did becuase we could have just as easily chosen to go this week and we all would have been there when the bombs went off. The scariest part was that they were so close to where we were, the two in the restaurant in Kuta was right down the street from our hotel and the on at the bay was just down from the restaurant that we all ate at on our last night in Bali. I only hope that people continue to visit that wonderful place and keep those people going because without tourists they really have nothing.......
On a lighter note...now that I'm back I have to get the rest of my work and papers done for the semester in the next 4-5 weeks before I'll be flying over to Sydney and Melbourne for 4-5 nights in each city.
Stay tuned!
Ok so it's been a while...
Yea so I've gotten kinda sidetracked since I've been home from the Outback and haven't had a chance to update yet. SO let's backtrack a bit and talk about the weekend before the tour up the west coast.
So the weekend before the trip turned out to be a pretty busy one. Our RA's here in George James organized a Friday night trip to the theatre in Perth to see a ballett presentation of Cinderella. Yes yes I know....ballett, but I figured I might as well go see the theatre and get a bit of culture while I'm here so Lara and I went along with 14 other people from Curtin to His Majesty's Theatre. It actually wasn't that bad in the end, just longer than it needed to be I think.
Then Saturday was Grand Final day in Australia, which is the same as Super Bowl sunday in the US. The local team from Perth, which ironically is also the Eagles, was playing in the game against the Sydney Swans. It was an awesome game, but unfourtunaly the West Coast Eagles ended up losing a close one to the Swans. So due to the loss that night ended up being pretty quiet and we went to bed kinda early so we could go to the Perth Royal Show the next day.
The Royal Show runs for a week here, but since we were going away on Monday and woulnd't be back until after it's over, Sunday was the only day for us to go get our first Royal Show experience. I guess you could say it's equivalent to a state fair in the US, but at the same time it wasn't just rides and food....their was a lot of livestock, animals and other things going on to keep you occupied when you weren't riding on one of the $6 fair rides. (Yea, $6 for a freakin ride....kinda ridiculous!) But they have these things called "show bags" where all the companies and vendors come and sell bags of their stuff for really cheap prices. Anything from clothing/sports teams to obviously candy and chocolate. We ended up buying 3 Cadbury chocolate bags for $10. Went to a really cheap fashion show on the side and saw a hypnotist show where we watched Mville get hypnotized...quite humours as well. We spent almost the whole day at the Royal Show before heading back into Perth to meet up with a bunch of other friends to go out to dinner to celebrate Sarah's 21st birthday since we were going to be on the tour when her actual birthday happened.
After dinner we came home to pack up our duffle bag and get up way too early the next morning to leave on our tour....
Cottesloe Beach....
A view of the beautiful Cottesloe Beach....
Gettin ready for anther week off....
Yea so the past three weeks have flown by, seems like I just got back from Bali and I turn around and here's another week off to take advantage of.
Since Bali I've had to actually do some work (yes a whole 4 page paper!!) and take a Mid-Term test in my Legal Framework class. Otherwise the weekends have largely been relaxed.
This past weekend was slightly busy, but in the good kind of way. Friday morning we got up early and took the train to Cottesloe Beach for a few hours until lunch time when we came back to do a little work in the afternoon. Friday night was spent doing a little drinking and watching some "footy" (Aussie Rules Football). Saturday was a long day with me, Lara, Kate and Mville goind white-water rating down the Avon River. My very first time rafting and it was definatly a good time. Water was a little cold but I really wish there was more rapids on the trip. It was a really flat river for the most part, but the guides did a good job of keeping us entertained and making it a fun 2 and a half hour trip. We were so tired after that that Saturday night was an early night. Sunday was relaxed as well with some reading and a little work and a nice dinner at the Subway across the street with some other Eloners.
I have a few more classes this week to finish out this three week study period and then on Monday it's off on our 7 day Outback Tour up the West Coast of Australia to Exmouth.
I'll be sure to update as soon as we get back from that on the 2nd of October.
Then it's back to classes for the home-streatch...about 6 weeks of class left.
Amazing how time flies by...
MONKEY!
One of the many monkey's that we fed bannana's at the Monkey Park.
Note on Hurricane Katrina...
It's a weird feeling watching all of the pictures on the TV of New Orleans and all the destruction that Hurrican Katrina caused that area...knowing that I'm on the other side of the world from that and watching those people suffer so much in a major American city. It is beyond me how the richest and most powerful country in the world is not capable of acting faster to help those in desperate need within our own borders. We are so fast to go and provide aid in so many nations across the world and set up democratic governments all over the world but yet we can't even save our own cities and citizens.
I know some will say not to blame the government (and I am by no means blaming the President because their are many people below him that should have acted much faster...not to mention that it really isn't his job in the first place)....but this is something that many geographers and scientists have said could happen for many many years.....we knew that that city would not be able to withstand this kind of disaster so why did we not do anything about it long ago? Why not build levys that CAN withstand not just a Level 3 but a Level 5 Hurricane? My thoughts go out to those who have suffered and continue to suffer allong the Gulf Coast and I only hope that time will heal that area and bring it back to what it used to be a little more than a week ago....and I hope that our government learns their lesson in better securing our own borders and people before we go spending billions of dollars everywhere else around the globe.
so...Bali was amazing
So as many of you know I spent the past 6 nights and 7 days in Bali, Indonesia and I must say that it was one of the best experiences of my life....
Saturday
We arrived around 10:30PM on the island and were picked up at the airport by Ngurah who turned out to be one of the main reasons that our trip went so well and the reason that we got to do as much as we did in the short time we were there. We stayed at the Legin Paradiso Hotel which is located in downtown Kuta/Legin and was an ideal location for us to shop and a very easy walk to the beach.
Sunday
The first day we were there was spent mostly lounging around the pool...reading, drinking and eating until mid-afternoon. We then got dressed and headed out onto the streets for the first time and it was quite a shocking experience to say the least. It was not anything that we didn't expect from talking to peope who had been before and reading online but hearing about the haggling and poverty does not prepare you for actually seeing it first hand. We all kind of went out separate ways and walked around for a few hours exploring the shops and walking out to the beach to get a feel for the Balinese shore before going back to the hotel and re-grouping to go out to dinner. Our first night's dinner was at a place called Nero's a block away from our hotel and it was a pretty good dinner for ya know $8.
Yea did I mention that almost everything in Bali is ridiculously cheap? Our American dollar gets you about 10,000 Rupiah so when meals at dinner only cost about 25,000 Rupiah.....thats $2.50 for an awesome pasta dinner or whatever. The whole week I don't think I spent more than $15 on any meal (except for the last night but we're not gonna talk about that cause it just makes me angry)
Monday
Anyway the next day we again laid around by the pool for most of the morning...the wonderful ladies I was with for the week got pedicures or something at the hotel in the morning then we all got cleaned up and made our way to the beach around 5:30 to sit and watch the sunset which most of us ended up missing because we were bargaining with people on the beach for different items....yes they even haggle you while you sit on the beach. After a few purchases we walked up the beach to Papa's Cafe which overlooks the ocean for "The Best Italian Food in Bali" and it was just that....we sat at a table upsairs in the restuarant outside overlooking the beach and ocean..absolutly amazing.
Tuesday-
We scheduled a bike tour of the Bali countryside with Ngurah for today. They came to the hotel at 8:30AM to pick us up and drive us 2 hours away (pretty much the other side of the island) to the top of a mountain where we had a small breakfast overlooking three active volcanos. They then drove us another 10 minutes up the road to a small road where we were given bikes and helmets and our tour guides rode with us down the mountain and through the countryside for 250km...about 3 hours of bike riding. We went through a number of villages on the way down and were able to stop and watch a funeral procession in one of the villages, we got to walk around a traditional Balinese house, and we saw a number of their villages Temples. Oh and we saw a TON of rice paddies and rode through some of the most amazing countryside I've ever seen and I don't think I've ever said "Hi" so many times in my life cause the children would see us coming and run out to say Hi and give us high-fives as we rode by them.....We finished our bike tour just outside of Ubud where we got a traditional Indonesian lunch before being driven back to our hotel in Kuta. After relaxing for a bit in the hotel we all decieded we wanted to go out and get massages at one of the many places right outside in Kuta....yea a $5 massage never felt so good....we then went back and showered before going to dinner down the street from our hotel and doing some shopping before heading back to the hotel and getting some much needed sleep.
Wednesday
Lara, Mville and me along with Britany, Whitney and Kati all went with Ngurah up to Ubud for the day today where we were toured through native wood carving, silver molding and fabric making shops and then taken to the Monkey Park where literally hundreds of monkeys are just walking around looking for bannanas (which you could buy before going into the park)...Nguarh toured us through two Hindu Temples and taught us a lot about their religion and culture before letting us roam around the Ubud Markets and get some late lunch. We went back to the hotel after and relaxed by the pool for a bit before going to a mostly Indonesian restaurant down the street from our hotel and doing some more bartering and shopping in the streets of Kuta.
Thursday
Our last full day in Bali was quite relaxing as we spent most of the day by the pool reading and enjoyed some lunch by the pool as well.....later in the afternoon we went out around Kuta because the girls wanted Facials at the place where we got our massages and such...so I just kinda hung around there while they did that and went to an Internet Cafe and such....then we went back to the hotel where Nguarh had arranged for us to get picked up at 5:30 and taken to a restuarant for a Sunset Dinner on the beach. Literally the restaurant we ate at was on the beach and we sat at tables over looking the waves and sunset with our feet in the sand. They should seriously make places like these in the USA cause its such an awesome place to enjoy a dinner....They drove us back to our hotel and we went out again in search of more shopping and some dessert which we found (sort of) and then went back to the hotel to spend our last night in Bali.
Friday
We woke up early for a quick breakfast before heading out for an hour or so by the pool before we had to go back and pack up to check out by Noon. The hotel held our luggage while we walked around Bali for the afternoon (because our flight wasn't until 6pm) We split up and Lara and I walked around doing some last minute shopping and eating (we stopped for a Carmel Frapp at Starbucks cause they don't have them in Australia) before being driven back to the airport by Ngurah and taking the 3 and a half hour flight back down to Perth.
All in all I have to say this was one of the best trips of my life and definiatly gave me a whole new perspective on my life and what I am so blessed to be able to do.....
Freo Markets
The main entrance to the Freo Markets
Well this weekend I....
We had an awesome time in Fremantle Friday and in Perth on Saturday night. Fremantle is this little port city and it reminds you a lot of Charleston with all shops and restaurants and the open market. They have two markets (we only got to see the main one) that are only open from Friday till Sunday each week with people selling all kinds of stuff and a huge farmers corner with all kinds of fresh food and veggies and stuff. We walked through and the people try and get you to buy some by giving out free samples so we just pretended to be interested so we got some free food :) Finally ate dinner out for like the first time on our (meaning not free food supplied by Curtin Uni) own since we've been here and tried to find a good Italian place which proved hard to do but we ended up at this place called Benny's that was a really modern looking place but the food wasnt too bad and I'm really still getting used to the fact that we don't tip here...not that my wallet minds any.
Then we had the Fremantle Prison tour which was CRAZY! It was a torchlight tour so they try and scare you with ghost stories and people dressed up like prisoners jumping out and tellin stories and stuff. Our guide was awesome....but it was really weird to be in there though knowing what happened there only 14 years ago. (cause it just closed in 1991).
Then we kind of relaxed all day Saturday and had an eventful night when we went into Perth to a few bars and clubs at night. Quick explaination..basically Renee got robbed by a couple of Aboriginal girls on the train into Perth but it was only $5...we still told the police and they're gonna get back to us soon. Then poor mville almost lost her MultiRider in the machine before having to run through the train station to catch it back to Oats Street....then we were all stranded at one point or another at the train station waiting for a taxi to pick us up and take us away from the dodgey homeless aboriginals wandering around. We were all home safe tho and that's what matters!
Sunday was a work day cause I had a lot of reading for my Gender Studies class and we have a draft of a paper due the week we get back from Bali so I want to get that mostly done this week before we leave, which shouldn't be a problem at all.
FYI BALI ON SATURDAY! I'm looking forward to buying tons of stuff for like no money at all! :)
OH! And today we FINALLY got a TV! So tonight I got to watch Friends and the news and stuff for the first time since I've been here! Quite exciting ya know....but yea...that's about it for now. Just one more day of classes on Thursday then its packing Friday and off to Bali on Saturday! CHEERS!
