Down Under to the Lion City

Leaving Byron Bay, we hit up Fredo's Famous Pies, and tried mince with vegetables, chicken curry mornay, feta with spinach, and apple. Yummy, no wonder they've won awards! It started to rain as we drove to Hat Head National Park, where we were going to camp at Hungry Gate campsite. We spent a wet, rainy night with a family of kangaroos (little one in pouch included, sorry about the fuzzy photo, but it was the only one we got of the little guy!):

The next morning we decided we should check out the famed Hunter Valley wineries, so we headed south. Needless to say, a 2 hour drive turned into a 4 hour one, when a car accident closed both lanes of the only main road through the area. Luckily, we had a good map and found a roundabout way of getting to Singleton, our destination. We ended up driving through lovely eucalyptus forests, farmland, and little towns on our detour, a lucky break!

After a nice night at a friendly caravan park (we've found that the nicest people and spots are inland a bit), we started our wine tasting...with the Bluetongue Brewery of course! We'd seen the beer around, so decided to try it. Their ginger beer was surprisingly tasty and refreshing, but the rest were not all that great. We tasted wine at 2 wineries, but neither had very good wine, so we called it a day. After a tasty pasta lunch at Enzos restaurant, it was time to head back toward Sydney.

We stayed at Lane Cove Tourist Park that night, getting a poor spot right next to the bathrooms and tents full of noisy kids; unfortunate, as we had to wake up early to go horseback riding!

A 2-hour drive in the morning landed us at the Megalong Heritage Center in Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Once there (we arrived about an hour early), we got some animal food to feed the sheep, pigs, goats, ponies, chickens, llamas, etc., then got our helmets on and met our riding leader. Sarah was from Ireland, and had been in Australia for a few months, with this job. Pretty nice! We saddled up, with Ryan on Tammy and Anna on Niner. Tammy was a little slow, Niner was kind of boring, but it was great fun! Especially when we got to trot!

We rode over to a little gazebo, said goodbye to our friendly horses, and sat down to a nice picnic lunch overlooking the Heritage Center. We got chicken, ham, potatoes, salad, fruit, and lemon tarts, and an interesting bottle of Megalong Valley chardonnay, evidently hand-picked from grapes grown there in the valley. It was a lovely end to a wonderful horse ride experience!

We still had much to do that day, however. We drove back into Sydney to drop off our Jucy campervan. A final odometer look showed we had driven 10,242 kilometers, 6364 miles, or, to put it in perspective, a quarter of the way around the world, in 36 days!! We are never doing that again. We took the train to the Sydney Beachouse YHA Hostel in Collaroy, a town north of the city, had dinner, and fell fast asleep, dreaming of koalas...

We woke up early again the next day, for something very special - Breakfast with Koalas at the Sydney Wildlife World at Darling Harbour. We got to pet a koala, have a nice breakfast, and get a few pictures taken with them:

We're so glad we took advantage of the breakfast! We got to explore Wildlife World afterwards, mostly by ourselves, as it wasn't open to the public yet. We met Leon, whose Aboriginal name we sadly cannot remember, who played the didgeridoo to "his boys," 10 kangaroos lazing about in the sun. He told us all about how they play the instrument, and how it's made (termites!)

The rest of the day was given to running errands. Luckily we didn't have to get up early again, because that night the fire alarm went off twice. Twice! False alarms, of course. But we were looking forward to our next and last day in Australia. Back in the city, we each had an hour of spa pampering awaiting us at Endota Spa. 2 hours later, with refreshed feet and massaged bodies, we floated around, waiting for our final Australian event - dinner at Jordon's Seafood Restaurant on Darling Harbour. We had just sat down when they brought out a huge seafood platter (we had booked this in advance), consisting of a platter of fish and chips, scallops, mussels, oysters, calamari, and BBQ octopus.

Heaven. The calamari was our favorite, and Ryan found a beer he loved - Pikes Oakbank. Waddling back to the bus stop, we couldn't think of a better way to have celebrated our last night down under. We even got to see both of Sydney's well-known landmarks lit up at night:

An 8:15am flight the next morning to Singapore got us excited to really start the adventurous part of our trip. Especially since we got free Singapore Sling drinks and Tiger beer on the plane! After getting our baggage (oh, we've had to check our bags on the last 2 flights we've taken as they have been over the weight limit for carry-on, so much for the carefully choosing them as carry-on sized!), we entered the realm of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit, or MRT. Super-efficient people movers, these trains are wonderful. Screens tell you how long until they get there, maps are in every place you look, so we finally found a train system that works!

We got to our hostel, The Hive, and right away decided to explore the nearest hawker center, an area filled with food stalls and tables.

We decided to try the char kway teow (stir fried Chinese noodle with cockles and chicken, one of our favorites), and laksa (noodles in spicy sauce). Both these for S$5.50, so about US$3.75, a steal for dinner! Ryan had to try durian, a sickly sweet fruit, which is banned on the trains and buses, and in most hotels. It has a unique smell, and we decided it was not for us.

The next day, after a free breakfast at the hostel, a nice bonus, we cruised around Little India, and tried a sweet potato curry, with prata (flat-bread) and mutton curry. Mmmm. So far, the food here has been excellent!

Hearing Chinatown was in the midst of Chinese New Year celebrations, we took the train there for the evening, and had a blast just experiencing the madness of the markets, trying more dishes, and browsing the stalls. We ate Hainanese chicken rice at one stall, wonton noodle with BBQ pork and Tiger beers at another, and ah balling for dessert. All very delicious!

Wax duck, a delicacy during the Chinese New Year


Our dessert of ah balling

This year is the Year of the Ox, and oxen were portrayed everywhere, from giant cartoon-like ones, to paper streamers of them, the ox and the color red were overwhelming! We're lucky to have been around for this celebration...

The next day we took the train to the Raffles Hotel, home of the original Singapore Sling, but did not indulge in their $22 version of it. We had lunch at a mall food court, walked, quickly, around Orchard Road (Prada, Gucci, you name it, it's there), and found a place to try Hokkien prawn noodles, cheese prata, and fried carrot cake.

As all we'd being doing, it seemed, was trying new dishes, we decided we needed some exercise, so we took the train to Changi Village, in the northeast part of Singapore, then a bumboat ferried us over to Pulau Ubin, the last area of Singapore with rainforest and mangrove forests. We ate lunch (seafood stir-fried rice and mee goreng), rented bikes, and set off around the small island. The Chek Jawa wetlands were interesting, full of mangroves and sea grass, and the island has a historical house that has the last fireplace in Singapore.

On our way back, we noticed where everyone lives - in super high-rise apartment buildings. There were a few very nice houses and condos, but the majority of people live in huge complexes. That night, we headed to Clarke Quay, on the Singapore River, for dinner. Lights, people, riverboats, there was a ton going on. We had heard there was free concerts going on, so we found the waterfront at Marina Bay, taking in the sight of the odd Merlion statue (lion with a mermaid tail, you guessed it!), and got a cup of corn, which we thought would be mixed with something interesting, but was just very buttery corn. Guess they don't get corn here?

This morning we took a last trip to the mega-market (you can find absolutely anything you need there), and stocked up on some medicinal things, as Indonesia probably won't have much. Ryan wrestled his surfboard aboard the train to the airport, and we flew southeast to Bali, landing at 7:15pm, and getting a shuttle to the Hotel Sorga in Kuta.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Indo!

Slip, Slop, Slap

Sorry it's been a while since our last entry but things have gotten very crowded and expensive since arriving at the Sunshine and Gold Coasts of Queensland. "Slip, slop, slap" is their saying for putting on sunscreen, clothing, and hats for the sun. Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world!

Ryan bought another surfboard the day we left Noosa Heads and couldn't wait to get into the warm water. We spent the next two nights about 20km inland from Maroochydore, in Yandina, because of the peak rates and swarms of families that invade the Gold Coast during the kids summer holiday. During the day, however, we explored and surfed some of the numerous beaches up and down the Sunshine Coast. Peregian Beach was a notable little beach town with some great cafes.

Our next must-do was the Australia Zoo, home of the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin. Crikey! We were able to pet the 'roos and saw a great croc and bird show, complete with Terri, Bindi, and little Robert Irwin. We were surprised they actually showed up!

The weather was quite hot and you can only spend so much time at the beach here until you get fried to a crisp, so we beat the heat and took in a movie..."The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
We free camped another dreadfully hot night in Landsborough and in the morning drove to Brisbane to celebrate Anna's birthday and ring in the New Year. Ryan suprised Anna with a sushi dinner downtown and the next thing we knew it was 2009! Happy New Year!
The heat in Brisbane was starting to get to us so we decided, enough of this for now, let's go inland and up in elevation, so we ended up in Mt. Tamborine. They call this area "The Green Behind the Gold" due to it's western proximity to the Gold Coast and for good reason. It was about 10 degrees cooler here and the quaint town was lined with fudge shops, boutique wineries, and cafes. We bought some excellent triple cream brie and Italian herbed gouda from the Witches Chase Cheese Co. and sampled some tasty beers at the Mt. Tamborine Brewery. We also picked up a bunch of 20 cent avocados. The area was surrounded by Nationakl Parks, so we also got to hear the whip-crack call of the male Eastern Whipbird and the Cookaburra laugh.

With our bellies full after a day splurging on gourmet foods, we drove south to the Binna Burra campgrounds in Lamington National Park where we took a pleasant 3.6km hike. The beach was calling our names again, so we drove back to the coast and down to Fingal Head right in time for a new swell to arrive. Ryan surfed right out front of our holiday park at the reef, which he soon learned was very close to a shark breeding ground. Luckily, no sight of any.
The next day, the waves were on, so after a quick morning surf at the local beach break, we headed a little north to Kirra Beach. The waves were about as good as they get in the 5-7' range and Kirra did not disappoint. These were by far some of the best waves Ryan has seen in his life!
After Kirra, Byron Bay was our next destination, with more surf, sand, and sun. We enjoyed the Byron Bay beaches, and Anna even got into the surfing action. However, the amount of people in town was completely overwhelming and after two days it was time to move on.

Now we have only 3 more nights until we say goodbye to the Jucy campervan, good riddance. It's frustrating living out of a van for almost 3 months. After that we have a few nights in a beachside hostel in Collaroy and then...Singapore!