Malaysia

The 8th of May me and Tara packed up and headed for our first trip outside of Australia.  We were on our way to meet Corin and Ryan in Malaysia.  Corin and Ryan had already been touring around for a week before we left and they'll have another two weeks after we leave.  We're just joining them for 10 days in the middle of their adventure.

We began by flying down to Melbourne in the evening.  If you know your geography you'd ask why on earth did we do that, it's very far out of the way.  Well the flights were a lot cheaper if we did, so that pretty much made the decision.  Once in Melbourne we boarded our Air Emirates flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Maybe it's just been awhile since I've been on an international flight, but Air Emirates impressed us.  Complementary drinks, an actual menu, metal cutlery and Arabic on the announcements.  Corin and Ryan were scheduled to arrive at KL one hour after us, so we had a plan meet at the airport.  If this plan didn't work we'd meet at the Burger King and if that plan didn't work we'd meet at the hostel.  Nothing worked.  Corin and Ryan never showed up and they weren't at the Burger King.  We should have just gone to the hostel but we were worried where they were because they could not have gotten through the airport without us seeing them.  Turns out they landed at another airport.  Long story short it took the whole day to find out way to each other.

The first two nights we spent at a hostel called Palmers Guest House.  It was sort of crappy, but not the worst.  We were stuck between the Central Markets and China Town.  We roamed through lots of markets and saw a good bit of the immediate area.  The first morning me and Corin went down to the Petronas Towers to buy tickets to the sky walk, but it turns out everything is closed on Mondays.  So I got to see the towers, but not go up.  Next time.

For the rest of the day the four of us went for a nice long walk through a bird sanctuary and a Muslim history museum.  Both were very interesting.  It's fair to say that none of us really loved the city.  Simply enough it's just another big city.  After the second night we jumped on the bus and took off for our next destination.

After a 6 hour bus ride we ended up in the Cameron Highlands at a town called Tanah Rata.  It's incredible how quickly the city turned to rainforest and little shanteys, then into the fancy English architecture of the highlands.  This area is known for tea and strawberries.  Needless to say we got to try both.

Here we stayed at a place called the Fathers Guest House.  This hostel was amazing.  We had our own rooms and toilets.  The restaurant made such good food, the people running the place were so friendly, the weather was perfect and entire hostel was just the greatest place.  We had ourselves scheduled to stay for three nights.  The first day we went on a tour.  It included a visit to the rose gardens, the butterfly sanctuary, a bee farm, a tea plantation and a strawberry farm.  The strawberry farm left a little to be desired, the bee farm was miniature and the butterfly sanctuary was alright.  The rose garden was amazing and the tea plantation was a highlight.  

The rose garden was an endlessly huge garden up the side of a hill filled with beautiful flowers.  We only had half an hour to walk around but we could have stayed longer.  There was just so much to see.  The tea plantation was incredible.  Turns out this plantation was started about 80 years ago I think, by a Scottish man.  He came over with a few tea trees from the UK and started a farm.  The hills were just covered by tea trees.  We learn that although they look like a little shrub, a tea tree will grow into a full sized tree if left to grow.  They said since Asian and Indian people and short they have to keep the trees well pruned (in actuality the leaves get to spread out when it's left as a tree).  Once we finished walking around the plants we went to the factory and saw the equipment they used.  We sat down and sipped some tea overlooking the plantation.  Very beautiful.

The rest of the day we spend relaxing and hanging around the hostel playing cards, chess and drinking Tigers (beer).  This is what we did with most of our time.  

The following day we went for a jungle walk.  There was a nice trail that winds up on the hills to a nice little peak looking back at town.  It then wanders back down to a "traditional" village.  We all geared up for a nice little walk but found the hill to be reasonable steep.  Eventually we made it up and saw a nice view of the town.  I forgot my camera so I can't post a picture till I get the pictures from Corin and Ryan.  You can also look at their blog for pictures as well (www.corinandryaninasia.blogspot.com).

Again we spend the rest of the day relaxing, playing cards, chess and drinking Tigers.

The next morning we got on a mini bus to head for the east coast.  The bus ended in a city called Kuala Besut where we boarded a ferry boat that took us to the Perhentian Islands.  We stayed on the small island at Long Beach.  Since it's a backpacker style island, it's difficult to book rooms unless you're staying at a fancy place.  We were able to book one night a place in the rainforest so we did.  One we got there we realized it was not ideal.  The room was just a hut with a mattress on the floor and a mosquito net.  I don't think I mentioned it yet, but it's summer there and close to the equator (aka it's about 35 and humid as all get out).  We had some supper and chilled out before going to bed.  This was difficult considering the geckos, spiders and ants that were crawling around (plus the stinky heat).  After a rough night we all woke up with the intention of finding a new place to sleep.

The night before Corin and Tara had gone for a walk to see if there was any more accommodation open.  There was nothing in the evening but they said to check in the morning because things often open up when people decide to leave.  There is no such thing as telling them how long you're going to stay.  Once you get in a place you stay until you leave and you pay each morning for that day. 

But luckily when Corin and Ryan walked down the beach they found a place with two rooms (with a proper bed and an air con).  We took the rooms and moved our stuff down the beach to the new place.  It was 5 star compared to the huts.

While on the island we did some snorkeling off the beach which was really good. Then we we went on a morning snorkeling trip to three spots.  The first stop we got to snorkel with a bunch of black tipped reef sharks, then with a ton of little fish and lastly with a giant sea turtle.  All were amazing.  That evening we relaxed on the beach and drank some monkey juice.  

Then it came time for me and Tara to head back to civilization.  Corin and Ryan stayed on the island as we took the ferry, bus, train and plane back to Cairns.  A wonderful trip all around and so nice to visit Corin and Ryan.  It's difficult to return to work, but we need to pay for this travel somehow.

Nick

Leaving the country

We're heading out to Malaysia today to visit Corin and Ryan.  Well, to visit the country as well.  I'm pretty exciting to get out there.  It'll be a nice break from work and a change of scenery.

When we return it's almost time for Lacey to come down.  The weather has been perfect lately, so everything is great.  Later.

Nick

Visit from Ken

Wow is it hard to stay up to date on blogging.  It was easy for the first 6 months but now it's becoming difficult.  So Ken stopped by for a visit a couple weeks ago.  After a whirlwind journey through New Zealand he arrived at the Cairns airport ready for a break.  That was doable, we know how to relax.  A lot of time was spend on the patio reading the paper and sipping on an ice cold beer.

The first week that he spent here Tara took time off.  They visited such places as Hartley's Crocodile Farm and the Barron Gorge generating station.  Ken had the privilege of feeding a croc, and I hear he did his best at giving that croc a hard time.

Most days I came home for lunch to find them relaxing on the patio.  I went back to work then came home again at 5.  They were still on the patio.  That's the life.  Tara might be able to blog more about that week because I was working.

Once the weekend came around Ken was pretty keen to take on the Great Barrier Reef with his new found eye sight.  We first assumed that he wanted to go for a snorkel, but it turns out he wanted to jump right in and do a dive.  Impressive.  So that's what we did.  We took off on a dive boat to the outer reef for a little bit of scuba.  He did amazing.  No worries at all and now he has one successful dive under his belt.  There's ever proof.

The following week Tara had to go back to work as well.  Ken continued to have a relaxing time during the week taking in the available sunshine and pool water.  A couple meals out, a magic show, trivia night and a few games of blackjack at the casino and two weeks was gone.  We saw him off at the airport last weekend and I think his New Zealand / Australian adventure was a success.

Nick

Don't worry we're still alive

Hello. I know it's been a long long time since our last post. I'm sorry. I hope that we're not losing your interest. The last month or so has been a lot of relaxing. Taking it easy on the weekends and lying around the pool. Nothing worth blogging about. That being said I need to put something up so that you don't forget about us. We're doing good, just relaxing.

We'll be back up and at em soon. Ken will be here in a few weeks for a visit and we're off to Malaysia in a few months to visit Corin and Ryan. Then Lacey pops in for a month and the middle of the year is here in no time.

Talk to you later.

Nick

Back at home with company

Well after that last blog my fingers were tired. That's why it took so long for me to do this post. After we arrived back in Cairns with Don more adventures began. First off Tara had to go back to work. But before she did we all hung out for the weekend. I wish I could remember if we did anything special but I can't, too long ago. I think we mostly relaxed. Then Tara went to work.

Me and Don got up to a couple of things. Early in the week we went for a couple of fun walks. We walked the Mangrove Boardwalk because it's beautiful, even though the mozzies are ridiculous. The next day we did another walk that we shouldn't have. We wanted to go up the Pyramid but we slept in a bit. They say not to try to walk the Pyramid if you start after 9. We're dumb. We started at 10:20 and didn't bring even close to enough water. Nearly passed out. But we made it pretty much to the top and back down again. Along the way we crossed a beautiful monitor. It was probably about 4 feet long and fast. Very impressive.

The next day we did a bunch of little stuff around town and then went for a walk through Centenary Lakes. It's just a simple chill out walk. The the good stuff started. We went reef fishing. It was expensive but a blast. We took a big boat ride out of Port Douglas to the reef and threw in the lines. We both caught a couple of fish and each got to take one home to eat. The ones we took home were tasty. Mine was smaller but tasted amazing, Don's was bigger and pretty good. This guy in the picture is the little stripey that I caught and ate. Small but tasty.

Then we chilled out for another day and did some planning for Don's trip out of town. It was tough to decide if he was going to drive down the coast or fly over it because of flood, in the end the flood won. After that we went for a snorkeling trip to the reef. Amazingly this was the very first time I've been swimming on the reef. It was great, although I would have preferred diving. Next time. Then on Sunday we met up with Shannon Enns who was also in town. Turns out he was living in the same building with some friends. Small world. I had to go back to work Monday morning, but Don stuck around for a couple more days. Then on Wednesday morning him and Shannon packed up and flew to Melbourne to do some road tripping. Back to normal life for Nick and Tara.

Nick

Sydney, Blue Mountains, and Hunter Valley

Here we go. It's been a long time since I've done a blog, but now we've been up to lots and it's go time. The week from Christmas to New Years was spent in Sydney to take in the celebrations and visit the icon of this country. Originally our plan was to hop in the Rav4 and take a drive down to Townsville where we booked our flights from. It was way cheaper to do it that way so we did it. Turns out this year is the year of massive floods in Australia, so the road to Townsville was cut off the day before we had to leave. We quickly booked a flight from Cairns to Townsville and all was well.

So Christmas morning we fly to Townsville then fly to Sydney. Exciting, as we fly in we could see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Once we landed we hopped on the train and zipped off to the hotel. It was nicer than I was expecting. It was pretty much the cheapest place I could find in Sydney outside of the hostels which were all booked. Good to go, right on the edge of Darling Harbour. I send Don some messages on how to get to the hotel so that we could find each other the next day. For Christmas dinner me and Tara went for Thai food. I ordered a plate that came with full mini octopus and some oysters with all the guts inside. I didn't like it (and couldn't eat it). Moving on.

Don came in the next morning. We successfully met him at the train station with just a little delay. Then we walked back to the hotel. I can't be sure, but I think we just walked around and had some food. Most of what we did in Sydney was walk around. We walked around Darling Harbour a bunch and walked to Circular Quay several times. We also had a nice supper with Carina and Corey Friesen. We saw a lot of markets and took lots of good pictures, like this one.

Typical picture eh. I have nicer ones, but this was just too typical I had to post it. We walked around a lot and just soaked in the city. One of our final days we went to the Maritime Museum. It was free to walk around the museum but you had to pay 20 bucks to go on the submarine and the destroyer. The museum was monstrous. We spend the day there and didn't see everything. The destroyer was cool but the submarine was awesome.

The morning of the 28th we walked down to the car hire and picked up a car for the next three days. It was a bit more than we had expected, but in the end I wouldn't have done it differently. We then drove back to the hotel and loaded up our bags and checked out. We also made arrangements with the concierge to hold our bags for us on New Years Day while we hang out around the fireworks. We turned on the GPS and headed west to the Blue Mountains. We had looked up a room in the town of Katoomba that looked alright. We got there and booked the room, it was rather sketchy. We carried on to look at the sights. The weather was dreary.

We went to the main tourist attraction to look at the Three Sisters, below.

There's only one way to describe it, disappointing. It's just three piles of rock. I don't understand why thousands of people flock here to see this. So it goes. Then we got back in the car and went for some scenic driving. We ended up in another town called Mount Victoria where we were going to go to an old hotel for supper. While we were there we saw that they have rooms also, turns out it's way nicer and 34 dollars cheaper. So we went back to Katoomba and I got out money back, so we stayed in Mount Victoria instead.

After a nice night and complementary breakfast we packed up and drove to Wentworth Falls. Here we hiked the National Pass walk which ended up taking us a long time, but it was gorgeous. This walk made up for any disappointment in the Three Sisters. All three of us were absolutely amazed. Here's a picture of the actual falls. The rest of the pictures from now on are from Don's camera, some from Don and some from me. I forgot the charger to my camera.

Pictures won't do this justice. There is just no way. The walk is just so crazy. After we finished walking around we grabbed a lunch at the cafe and piled back into the car. The next stop was wine country in the Hunter Valley.

It took about 3 hours to make it there, almost directly north of Sydney. It was later in the day so we just grabbed a hotel quickly. It was nice, but awkward because I hold the guy we only had 2 people when we had three. I don't like it that they charge extra for not getting anything. But I think he saw us walk in so it was odd. No worries though, it all worked.

The morning of the 30th we spent the day touring around wine country. Driving from one winery to the other just to sip on wine. Some of the places were sort of snotty and we didn't get a great vibe. But one place was very open and friendly and had the best wine. All three of us agreed that we preferred their wine. We bought a couple of bottles of our favorites and carried on. We also went for a nice supper at the Potters Brewery where we did some beer tasting as well. It was a really cool place that I'd love to go back to. Look how tasty these beers look.

Since we needed to drop our rental off at 10 am we decided to stay the night somewhere closer to the city. We drove down the beautiful coastal road and stopped along a nice beach to relax and watch some people do some surf fishing. It looked like fun.

We tried to get a hotel in a place called The Entrance. It's where there is this big tidal inlet and there were tons of people fishing and having fun. But it was booked. We travelled a little farther towards Sydney to the town of Gosford where we got a room to stay the last night. We all got a good sleep for the next day and set off early in the morning. Perfect scheduling meant that we got to the hotel to drop off our bags, then take the car to the rental garage exactly at 10 am, perfect. Now our bags are safely stowed away and the rental car is gone. We're free to talk around enjoy New Years Eve in Sydney.

We started off by walking to a cool little cafe that we went to one of the earlier days. It was so great that we wanted to go back again. We had some breakfast and coffee and relaxed. Then we hoofed it over to Circular Quay and hopped the ferry to Toronga Zoo. We didn't get as much time at the zoo as we would have liked, but everything was shutting down early because of the fireworks prep. We saw lots of cool animals including these awesome giraffes and zebras.

Then we floated back on the ferry to the city to sort out our day waiting for fireworks. Don asked an info booth where we should go. We got directed to this area that is open to the public for viewing so that's where we went. It was 3 in the afternoon when we got in there and it was already crazy busy. We found a spot and settled in. It was hot, a little over 30 I imagine and not a cloud in the sky. We were roasting, sitting on a little patch of grass sweating like crazy. We sat there for the next 9 hours waiting for the fireworks. Then it happened. The Sydney New Years Eve fireworks and we were there to watch them. It was amazing. It also turns out that we didn't have the greatest view of the most of the fireworks, but we had a perfect view of the bridge. Not to mention, the greatest thing was just being there. I was a great moment. In the buildup to the fireworks I also played around with the long exposure, makes for some neat colours.

Then the 1.5 million people around the harbour started flowing into the streets. Wow. We sort of just walked with the mob and saw some crazy stuff. Very drunk sick people in the streets and some fun looking parties. We ended up back at our hotel where we picked up our bags. The we found out that cars are not allowed that close to the harbour at that time. So we had to walk through the crowds of crazies until we finally reached a street that had cars. We grabbed a taxi to the airport.

Unfortunately when we got to the airport we found out that it's not even open until 4 am. So we had a couple of hours to sleep on the sidewalk in front of the terminal. It wasn't that odd though, there were lots of sleepers. Then eventually they let us in the terminal where we cleaned up a bit in the washroom before going back to sleep in the terminal. A long time later our flight came up and we zipped off to Townsville. We rented a car and drove the last bit up to Ciarns. We were exhausted. A fun and happy trip to Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley and the wonderful Sydney Harbour fireworks. Beautiful.

I will post again with the fun we've been up to in Cairns since getting back. But you'll have to wait for that.

Nick

Undara Lava Tubes

This weekend we went for our first overnight trip away from Cairns. We've done a fair few activities in and around the city so now we need to venture out a little farther. We hopped into the Jeep and went for a ride to the Undara Lava Tubes. To get there we headed south of the city to the Gillies Range. This is a pretty exciting road up the mountain range. Lots of switch back, a bikers dream. The climb takes a little while because the speed limit is 40kph and there aren't any guard rails. Eek.

Once you make to the top you reach the Tablelands. It doesn't take a very long time for the humid rainforest to give way to beautiful green rolling pasture land. It was almost surreal how green the greens were. This is the part of world around here where they grow all the tasty fruits and veggies. There are lots of little towns along the way, one of the best spots was just a round a corner where a bunch of windmills popped up. It was probably the most comfortable temperature we've felt in awhile. Not that I don't love the heat, but it was pretty refreshing up here. It also felt a lot like home, agriculture and all. It actually felt like Alberta, but that's close enough to home. Here's a picture of Tara playing with one of the windmills.

We kept traveling. Soon after this the lush fertile landscape gave way to roasting hot heat (the A/C in the Jeep isn't working). We watched the temp climb up to 34. We though this was hot until we drove back on Sunday when it it got up to 36. Anyhow, we cruised into scrub. It's not the kind of outback where there is nothing at all but red dirt. The dirt is red, but it's got grasses and tall trees. It definitely was vast though. On our way back we went for a short 1hr walk up this volcano crater and around the rim. Here's an example of the view from up top.

There's not a lot out there, except hotness. Anyhow, the reason we made this whole trip. You see in that picture above the line of darker green trees. There's a lava tube there. These lava tubes were formed when volcanos back in the day were slowly spewing lava. This area is all gradually sloping towards the west, so when a big shield volcano was slowly releasing lava it all ran downhill to the west. Then the top of the lava flow would harden, but the hot lava would keep flowing in the middle. Eventually the lava stopped coming out of the volcano and the rest of it drained out of the tubes. Now what's left is huge caves were the lava used to flow. That dark green in the bush is where the tubes have collapsed. They hold more water down there and it's a lot colder. Plus the rock walls don't let the bush fires get in. That's why it's green.

So there are tubes that aren't collapsed. That's what we got to go in. Like this.

This one made for nice picture. There were a few that you got to walk a fair ways in. Far enough in that it is pitch dark. It's was pretty amazing. I was half expecting this place to be a bit of a disappointment, but it proved me wrong. It was amazing. It makes the recommend list.

Then after all of this we went home. Back to work tomorrow. Next weekend is the AECOM Christmas party. Merry Christmas everyone. Talk soon.

Nick