KUTA, BALI, INDONESIA

As you may remember, Kuta was the location of two horrible terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005. Since then, here's been a real downturn in tourism to Bali. In addition, the Boxing Day tsunami of 2005, while not directly affecting the island, hasn't helped Indonesian tourism, either. I can't say that I've noticed the impact of all this--I don't know what the crowds were like before, but it's still pretty hoppin' around here, especially on the weekends. Not many Americans, but it's become pretty clear to me in the past three months that Americans just don't travel overseas like Europeans do.

Anyway, for the past couple of days I've been getting used to Kuta, which admittedly is a crazy place. It's a hodgepodge of little Indonesian shops and restaurants, mixed in with big western staples like Starbuck's, McDonald's, and the ubiquitous Hard Rock Cafe'. (And strangely, there are lots of Circle K convenience stores everywhere.) The streets and alleys are hot and hectic, but there are some really nice restaurants that offer relaxing courtyards to chill in just off the main drag. And you can get really good Indonesian and Western food here really cheap: For example, I had a great dinner of rosemary chicken breast on a bed of spinach and peppers, with oven-roasted garlic potatoes on the side, for about US$3.50. Not bad!

The main attraction of Kuta, other than all the tourist shops and restaurants, is Kuta Beach, which is nice enough (although not spectacular as beaches go), and appears to have some pretty decent surfing waves. It's an interesting place to people-watch, too, as it's where everyone, tourist and local, hangs out, and there are vendors selling everything from surfing lessons to massages, pineapples to temporary tattoos.

The one thing I still haven't figured out are the streets--the small "lanes" of Kuta really are a maze, and I've gotten lost more times than I can count. Once it took me over 40 minutes to find our hotel, and I know I was probably never more than several hundred yards away from it! One lane I call "bat alley," because it's a straightaway that little bats do high-speed runs down after dark, right at eye level. They come right at you, and at the last moment, pull up and fly over your head--kind of like X-wings in the Death Star trench. And there are bigger fruit bats that flap across the same alley over your head, just to add to the fun.

KUTA, BALI, INDONESIA

Our goal today was to see some of the sights of central Bali while we're in the area, then head south to Kuta, the most popular tourist area of the island. Instead of taking a package tour, we figured it would be just as easy to hire a taxi driver for the day (only about US$30) and create our own itinerary. We managed to track down the guide that the Canadians had used yesterday, a nice guy named Kadek, who agreed to have his assistant take us to most of the places on our list.

I mentioned before how Ubud is known as a center for Balinese arts--painting, sculpture, woodworking, etc. But on our way out of town, the number of retail shops and workshops we passed, one after the other, was absolutely jaw-dropping--each was filled with hundreds of the most intricate wood carvings you can imagine, some over ten feet high. Often the carvers were on the floor of their shops, carving away at statues of dragons, people, and animals, as well as abstract designs. On the street we drove on alone, there were over five kilometers of wall-to-wall wood carving stalls--just unbelievable.

Our first stop after leaving Ubud was at Tellalang, where we had a great view of the terraced rice fields that are common here in Bali. It's amazing how the farmers use every inch of space, carving hundreds of flat terraces into the steep hills--the whole landscape is just layer upon layer of green; just beautiful. I took a few pictures, then was besieged by several souvenir-sellers who just wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. I almost had to close the car door on one guy that was trying to sell me some chopsticks. Sheesh! I'm afraid that much of my next few months in SE Asia will be spent avoiding these people, which I'm not exactly looking forward to.

We then drove through winding roads to Tampaksiling, where we visited Gunung Kawi, an impressive site along a river where the hillside has been chiseled out into huge statue-like stone carvings. The carvings date to the 11th century, and the temple itself is still in use. In order to enter the site, we had to wear saris (provided at the entrance), and remove our shoes to walk through one of the most sacred areas. It's a very serene place, and quite beautiful, even though the carvings are heavily eroded.

Impressive Temple #2 on our list was Goa Gajah, or the Elephant Cave Temple, discovered in 1923 by a western archaeologist and excavated years later. (The "elephant" in the name actually refers to the Hindu god Ganesh, rather than actual elephants, which aren't found in Bali.) On walking down into the site, a guide immediately appeared and began showing us around the place, first telling us to wash in the holy water of the temple fountain, which we dutifully did. He then walked us into the elephant cave itself, which has an elaborately carved exterior, but inside is just a dark tunnel lit by candles, with a few shrines and some hollowed-out niches where monks used to sit and meditate.

In addition to the Hindu temple, there's an equally ancient Buddhist temple a short distance away, which the guide led us to. Well, it's actually no more than a few large moss-covered carved stone blocks sitting in a stream, since an earthquake in the 1800s collapsed most of the temple. Still, it was an impressive sight.

After pointing out a few more places of interest, our "guide" then asked us for money for his services--turns out he didn't officially work there, but was just a local guy with a little bit of knowledge about the place trying to make some cash, which I had pretty much figured out by then. He first suggested a tip of US$20, which we just laughed at--we ended up giving him a dollar, which was plenty!

After lunch at a little restaurant in the middle of some rice fields, our driver took us to our next destination, the Royal Temple of Pura Taman Ayun at Mengwi. Built in 1634, this served as the family temple of the Mengwi dynasty, whose kingdom survived until the late 1800s. It's famous for its exquisite wooden merus, or pagoda-like shrines. We couldn't walk up to the shrines themselves, as they're surrounded by a moat and enclosed within a stone wall, but we could view them over the wall, and walk around the nicely-landscaped grounds, which were crisscrossed with paths and surrounded on three sides by a snaking river.

Our last temple of the day, appropriately, was the "Sunset Temple" of Tanah Lot, on Bali's southwest coast. This is the most famous of Bali's sea-temples, built in the late 15th or early 16th century, and it sits on a rocky island that can be reached from the shore at low tide. On the cliffs above are a maze of small shops and restaurants, where Chris and I had dinner overlooking the sea, watching the sun set behind the temple. Not surprisingly, it's Bali's most-photographed site.

It was getting dark, so we then had our driver drop us off in Kuta, the tourist hub of Bali. It's a crazy maze of neon-lit restaurants, nightclubs, temples, and hotels, along narrow "streets" that are really no more than alleyways. On a Friday night, it was crowded with hundreds of motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians, which we had to avoid as we wandered through the labyrinth looking for lodging. We soon came across the Hotel Sorga, which was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, and booked a room there. For a "budget" hotel, it's pretty posh, with a beautiful garden courtyard complete with Hindu shrine, infinity swimming pool, and stone fountains. (Actually, many of the hotels and restaurants in Bali don't have much of a streetside facade, but have really spacious interiors with lots of courtyard greenery.)

UBUD, BALI, INDONESIA

At the south end of Ubud is the Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana, or Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, a site dating back to the mid-14th century. It's a series of temples, moss-covered statues, stairways, bridges and walkways, set within a thick jungle of giant banyan trees and strangler figs, and it's a really beautiful, ancient, and mysterious-looking place. The forest is also home to about 240 monkeys, or more specifically Balinese macaques, which are fed daily by the keepers (and the visitors).

After breakfast, we walked down the street from our hotel to the sanctuary to check it out, being careful not to step on all the little food offerings the shop owners place on the sidewalk every morning to placate the spirits, a ritual specific to Balinese Hinduism. (Apparently the spirits are partial to rice, flowers, and Ritz crackers. Who knew?)

Perhaps the most dramatic place Chris and I visited in the forest was the strangely monkey-free Holy Bathing Temple, at the bottom of a dark jungle ravine partially covered by the hanging roots of a huge banyan tree. The stone carvings here, as throughout the park, were intricate and beautiful, covered with a thick layer of green moss. The most dramatic figures here were two huge Komodo dragons looming over a cliff, looking down at the stream below--recent additions sculpted in the 1990s.

The rest of the park was lush and beautiful, too, and the monkeys, which had the run of the place, were amazing to watch. There were adults, youngsters, and cute little baby monkeylings, in family groups and alone, and they were everywhere--in the trees, wrestling on the ground, playing in mud puddles, and trying to grab things from visitors! Quite a few of them (the youngsters, mostly) actually jumped on my back and head, and tried to grab whatever was in my pocket and unzip my backpack! Most of them were just having a good time, although one adult monkey, for whatever reason, decided he didn't like me, and came at me with teeth bared like he was going to attack! That was a little unsettling, although these are wild animals, after all. In any case, it was fascinating to watch their behavior, much of which is very human-like.

In the evening we attended an outdoor performance of some Balinese dancing, another one of Ubud's artistic specialties. We saw two traditional dances, both featuring the gamelan suara, or human orchestra--instead of musical instruments, an a capella chorus of more than 50 men provided rhythmic singing and chanting accompaniment to the dancing.

The first dance we saw was the kecak, part of the Hindu epic Ramayana--the story involves the kidnapping of Prince Rama's wife Sita by the demon Rahwana, and her rescue. Some elaborate costumes and very mannered moves; quite dramatic and interesting. The second was the trance dance, or sanghyan djaran, wherein a single dancer riding a large hobby horse is lulled into a trance by the singers and kicks around a bunch of burning coconut husks without being burned. And yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

One final surprise tonight: After leaving the dance performance, Chris and I walked into an internet cafe' and ran into the same four Canadians (Ed, Colin, Bridget, and Candace) that we first met in Fiji, and then ran into again in New Zealand! Yes, the girls that won the crazy hat contest and their boyfriends--looks like they're traveling on more or less the same itinerary as us, as they were in Australia the same time we were! We traded a few travel tips, then jokingly made plans to meet again somewhere in Thailand. I really won't be at all surprised if we do see them again.

UBUD, BALI, INDONESIA

Hello, Bali! Our first taste of Southeast Asia, and now things are getting a little more exotic. Our first stop is Indonesia, which for you non-geography majors is a chain of something like 17,000 islands stretching over 5,000 kilometers and encompassing a whole range of cultures, climates, and landscapes. Bali is a relatively small island smack in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago, and one of its main tourist destinations.

It took us around six hours tonight on Garuda Indonesia to fly from Brisbane to Bali, and the town of Denpasar, where we hired a taxi to take us to the hotel we had booked online. We didn't realize, though, that the hotel is about an hour's drive north of the airport! Luckily, taxis are cheap here (along with everything else), so it didn't cost us much to get there. And as it turns out, our hotel is in the town of Ubud, a really interesting place that's known as the artistic center of Bali--its streets are lined with all sorts of interesting galleries, museums, stores, and workshops, as well as a lot of artsy cafe's and restaurants.

AUSTRALIA RECAP

In six weeks we drove over 4,389 kilometers (more than 2,700 miles), and still only explored a fraction of the country--and that's not even including the distance we covered in Tasmania! Australia is friggin' huge, and it would take a lifetime to see it all. But in the short time we spent on the east coast, here are some of my impressions of The Land Down Under (cue cheesy Men at Work song):

Favorite Things About Australia:

• The wildlife. I saw more than I expected, and even though I only got to see a wombat in a zoo, I did manage to encounter a host of other cool Aussie critters in the wild: kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, koalas, echidnas, platypuses (platypi?), dingoes, goannas, flying foxes, cockatoos, lyrebirds, and a whole host of parrots and lorikeets. No deadly snakes or spiders this time, which was a little disappointing, but maybe on my next visit?
• Sydney. An incredibly vibrant, modern, cosmopolitan city, and certainly one of the world's most photogenic. Sharing Sydney's many sights (and coffeehouses) with my good friend Tom, who journeyed all the way from Gainesville, FL, made it even more special this time.
• Sailing the Whitsundays. Even with sometimes-blustery weather, it was an awesome trip, and a relaxing break from all that driving. Nothing beats three days of sailing, sunbathing, snorkeling, and steaks!
• Hangin' in Tassie with Eric. Tasmania is a unique place; a little like parts of Australia and New Zealand combined, and it has some beautiful sights. Catching up with my ol' buddy Eric Iversen after all these years in Hobart and road trippin' around was one helluva lot of fun, too. We must do it again soon, Eric--you can bring the Smokie CD.
• It's a lot like the U.S., only nicer. The streets are cleaner, the cities are greener, the people are friendlier, and it just seems like a more pleasant place on the whole.
  

Least Favorite Thing About Australia:

• It's a lot like the U.S. (only nicer). Too many areas are succumbing to a world of strip malls, fast-food joints, superstores, and generic subdivisions.
  

Biggest Regret:

• Not having time to visit the Red Center, Darwin, or the west coast.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

After traveling to Cairns in Australia's far north, you would have thought it would make sense for us to fly from there to our next destination (Indonesia). But for some reason our travel agent had to route us through Brisbane, so today we backtracked south and caught an early (6 am) flight here. On the flight Chris was stuck talking to the guy next to him, who tried to convince him, among other things, that the moon landings were faked and that the ancient Egyptians didn't build the pyramids. This is why I don't usually talk to people on airplanes! (I was in no mood for talking to anyone this morning, anyway, as they confiscated my cappucino as I boarded the plane as a possible weapon. No coffee--John angry!)

We arrived to a surprisingly chilly morning in Brisbane--Autumn is really kicking in Down Under, I guess. Walking through the city, I noticed that everyone on the street was wearing jackets with military medals on them. Which at first I thought was an odd fashion statement, until I realized that it's Anzac Day, the equivalent of our Memorial Day, and the medal thing is a tradition.

Like Cairns, we really haven't had much time to explore Brisbane, as we've been running around town taking care of business, trying to prepare ourselves for SE Asia while we're still in "civilization." Anyway, Brisbane seems like a nice enough city, if a bit nondescript--a little like Ft. Lauderdale, maybe?

CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

The weather's been lousy, and we've had some catching up to do with our website, so we really haven't done much in Cairns until today. Which is a shame, because it's a pretty happening lil' tourist town, and there's a lot to do here, weather permitting. We did venture out last night to the mall multiplex to see Ice Age 2, which Chris liked, and I thought was pretty terrible.

Today the weather cleared up a bit, though, so after returning our rental car, we took a half-day trip to Green Island, in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Preserve. It's a tiny coral cay surrounded by a fringing reef that somehow also supports a hotel resort, a crocodile park, and possibly the smallest national park in the world. We took a big tourist boat out there through choppy seas, and went snorkeling off the beach--once again, the water was pretty murky, and the mask I rented was leaking badly, so it wasn't the greatest experience, although I did get to swim up to a green sea turtle, which was pretty cool.

Chris and I then walked completely around the island along the beach, which only took 20 minutes or so, and then did a nature walk through the rainforest in the national park. Nothing much to see, except some little hen-like birds, and Australia's ubiquitous fruit bats.

Still, it was a good day out, and good timing, too, as it began raining again as soon as we headed back to Cairns.

CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

I was behind the wheel all exhausting day as we made our way north to Cairns--probably our longest driving day in Australia. Queensland, like Florida, is billed as "the Sunshine State," but it's been raining more here than in New South Wales or Victoria. A local told Chris that it's been the wettest April on record here. Grrr....

As we drove north, we passed through the town of Innisfail, which was devastated by Cyclone Larry just four weeks ago (a Category 5 storm). It was sobering to see the miles of stripped rainforest, downed trees, smashed signs, and missing roofs--a lot like South Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The town's banana crop was apparently ruined for this year, although much of the sugar cane fields looked like they weathered the storm okay. Fortunately, it seemed to be a pretty compact cyclone, as the damage didn't appear to extend to Townsville to the south, or Cairns to the north.

AIRLIE BEACH, AUSTRALIA

In the morning, we got our first good look at Whitehaven Beach: Seven kilometers of unbroken snow-white sand on an uninhabited tropical island. Not bad! We were shuttled over to the beach in the zodiac, and hung out there for a couple of hours. It was a cloudy day, unfortunately, so it wasn't quite as brilliant as in the postcards, but it was still really nice. When I walked down the beach, I saw a small shark and a big stingray cruising around in the shallows, as well as some little jellyfish washing ashore. I couldn't tell if they were box jellyfish, but they looked similar, so I decided to stay out of the water, just to be safe!

After lunch, we set sail across the Whitsunday Passage again. This time, to preempt any possible seasickness, I took two of my prescription anti-nausea pills. Which worked fine, although they made me so sleepy that I immediately conked out in my bunk and only awoke as we were pulling into port.

Later, after showering and changing at our hostel, Chris and I met up with our fellow shipmates at Beaches restaurant and bar, and shared some pitchers of beer. A fun bunch, all of 'em.

WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS, AUSTRALIA

Another awesome day in the Whitsundays. And it's 4/20! :-)

By morning the sharks had all gone, but we went snorkeling anyway after breakfast and got to meet "Elvis," a four-foot blue-and-green Maori wrasse that lords over this particular bay. Like all Maori wrasses, he's absolutely huge and kind of funny-looking, with a giant bump on his head, and he's curious enough to swim right up to you and let you pet him! He would also swim up to the surface and eat bread out of Matt's hand, although it seemed like a minute later he would always cough up the bread and other fish would eat it. (Maybe that's why he was always being followed around by about a hundred other fish.)

After that, a few of us did one last snorkel at the next bay over, Manta Ray Bay. We didn't see any manta rays, unfortunately, but this location had the nicest reef, with tons of soft and hard corals, lots of fish, and giant clams. The resident Maori wrasse here was "Wally," who like Elvis swam right up to the zodiac to be petted and fed.

We had been staying close to Hook Island because the seas were still a little choppy, but after lunch our crew decided to move on and sail for the largest island in the group, Whitsunday Island. Again, the ride was pretty bumpy and wet, and I got more than a little seasick, but we eventually made it there by sunset. We moored off Whitehaven Beach, probably the most famous destination in the Whitsundays, as it was recently ranked the #3 best beach in the world(!) When we arrived, Andy grilled steaks for dinner, which of course I had been craving since Rockhampton. A sailboat with a grill--you gotta love it!

WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS, AUSTRALIA

For the next three days and two nights we'll be on a live-aboard sailing tour of the Whitsundays, a group of coastal islands that are part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Reserve, and a World Heritage Area. We're sailing on the Ragamuffin II, a 53-foot racing sailboat that previously competed in Australia's Admiral's Cup. (From the number of similar boats offering Whitsundays cruises, it seems like this is where all the old racing boats are put out to pasture.)

After arriving last night in the backpacker party town of Airlie Beach, we were picked up this morning by bus and taken to Abel Point Marina, where we climbed on board and met our skipper, Matt, first mate Andy, and our ten fellow passengers (see below), most of whom are American exchange students on a semester break. (It should be interesting to be around so many Americans again, after three months as a minority....)

After motoring out of the harbor, Matt and Andy raised the sails and we cruised through the Whitsunday Passage (named by Captain Cook, like everything else in the Pacific) . The crossing was a little rough, as we're getting some weather from Cyclone Monica far to the north. On the bright side, the gusty winds meant we could sail at a pretty good clip, so it didn't take long for us to reach our first destination, Hook Island, where we moored in a sheltered bay.

The Whitsundays are surrounded by fringing reefs, which means there's some great snorkeling just offshore, so Andy took us closer to the beach in a zodiac and we jumped in. In this part of Australia, it's still "stinger season," which means that deadly box jellyfish might be floating about, so we all wore stinger suits, which are basically lightweight nylon wetsuits. Not very sexy, but functional. Unfortunately, because of the weather, the visibility wasn't too great, but we did see coral and a large number of fish species (parrotfish, wrasses, damselfish, angelfish, butterflyfish, clown fish, triggerfish, etc.). We also saw a school of some pretty large reef squid, which kept changing color from blue to red as they cruised the reef in formation.

After a lunch of sandwiches and quiche, we cruised to a different bay, and Chris, Chase and I tried snorkeling again. This time, we fed slices of bread to the fishes, which swarmed around us en masse. It was crazy--there were so many that you could reach out and touch them, and they wouldn't even swim away! I also spotted a large potato cod (grouper) and a red-and-white crayfish (spiny lobster) in a hole in the reef.

In the evening, we relaxed on deck, talked with our shipmates, and had a great spaghetti dinner. As we were eating, we heard strange splashing noises all around the boat--on investigating, we discovered that dinner was being served in the water, as well: Small fish were being attracted to our boat's lights, which in turn attracted massive schools of squid! As the squid went after the fish, they attracted larger predators--namely, medium-sized grey whalers and reef sharks--we saw up to six or seven at once! So for several hours, fish, squid, and sharks were all darting about and jumping out of the water to attack their prey and/or avoid being eaten--it was unreal! That experience alone was worth the price of the whole sailing trip.

People met today:

• Matt and Andy, our Aussie crew.
• Liz, a teacher from London, who's had the most sailing experience of any of us passengers.
• Peter, from Holland, four months into traveling around Asia and Australia.
• Brian, Mark, and Kyle, from the U.S. and studying for a semester in Sydney. (Brian and Mark are from Chicago, while Kyle is from Las Vegas.)
• Henrik, from Denmark, friends with the above three, and studying at the same school.
• Chase (from Maine), Kara, Rose, and Tom, Americans studying for a semester in Brisbane.

ROCKHAMPTON, AUSTRALIA

After driving Sven and Brett to the airport (they're flying back to Sydney today), Chris and I spent the rest of the day driving north on Route 1. We made it as far as Rockhampton, which we discovered is famous as "The Beef Capital of Australia." To drive home the point, there are giant fiberglass cows mounted everywhere throughout the town--on top of buildings, signs, and other ridiculous places. All of which got me in the mood for a nice juicy steak--but it was not to be, as it's Easter Monday. Meaning all the businesses and restauants were closed, with the exception of the fast-food joints, so I had to settle for a sweet chili chicken wrap from KFC. Not the same.

Australia Fun Fact:

• Of all the Australian colloquialisms, the one that takes the most getting used to is the standard greeting. Instead of saying, "How are you doing?" they usually say "How are you going?" The expected answer, of course, is "Fine, thanks," but I always feel like I should give a much more involved answer than that.

HERVEY BAY, AUSTRALIA

What better way to celebrate Easter Sunday than waking up on the beach, eating a hot cross bun (an Australian Easter tradition, according to Sven), and going for a 7 am swim in the ocean? Well, sure, we weren't supposed to go swimming on account of the maneating sharks and all, but what the hell--Sven, Chris and I were feeling pretty lucky today, so we went for it. And lived to tell the tale.

We also discovered that during the night, a dingo had come into our campsite, got hold of one of our milk jugs, and bit holes in it. (Of course, "the dingo drank my milk!" doesn't have the same ring as "the dingo ate my baby!" but whatever.)

After breakfast, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and drove inland to the island's second-most-famous lake, Lake Wabby. In contrast to crystal-clear Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby is pea-soup green, and filled with catfish and turtles. The thing that makes it interesting is that it's in the process of being swallowed by a massive desert-like sandblow, so there are steep sand dunes running down into it. It's impossible to resist the urge to run like mad down the dunes and dive into the water, so that's just what we did. Some guys there were crazy enough to somersault backwards down the dunes into the lake, but we'd been warned that people have broken their necks here, and that seemed like a pretty good way to accomplish that, so I didn't try it.

Before leaving Fraser, we had time to drive by Lake McKenzie again, and unlike the last time, it was sunny, so it was a little nicer swimming there. We then hurried to catch the ferry back to the mainland, because we'd been warned that the ferry captain wouldn't wait for stragglers. Later at the hostel we hung out with some our fellow campers, reflected on the fun we had, and drank some more of the beers we didn't get around to finishing on the island.

FRASER ISLAND, AUSTRALIA

To start off day two of our camping trip we drove north along the beach to Indian Head, a rocky headland that's the highest point on Fraser Island. To pass around the head, we had to execute the trickiest maneuver of our itinerary, driving uphill a hundred meters or so through soft sand. This is where a lot of people get bogged, but with Sven driving we did fine. We then climbed to the top of Indian Head, which gave us some great views of the island and the sea below. People often spot sharks and dolphins from the top of the cliffs, but we just saw some fish, a dark blob that might have been a stingray, and a couple of sea turtles. Still, it was an impressive view.

A little further on from Indian Head we came to the Champagne Pools, which are large round tidal pools fed by crashing surf. This is the only place on Fraser that it's considered safe to swim in salt water, as the beaches, though immaculately beautiful, are patrolled by potentially maneating tiger sharks (this is one of the world's biggest breeding grounds for them). Ah well! So we swam in the pools for a bit, then headed back south down the beach.

We stopped again at Eli Creek, a cold-water stream running down to the ocean that's popular for swimming, tubing, and otherwise floating down. There's a long boardwalk running beside it which I followed to a drop-in point upstream, then I waded through the creek down to the sea.

At this point we were running really behind schedule, which could have been a real problem, since it's only safe to drive on the beach when the tide is low enough. Because of the rising tide, we ended up stopping early for the night and making camp in a different place than we had planned, off the beach behind some sand dunes. For dinner we (the non-Israelis, that is) made spaghetti, which was a lot less hassle than yesterday's steaks, then we lay on mats beside our tents to watch the stars.

At one point a dingo walked up to our campsite, probably wanting some Bolognese, but it ran away when I tried to take its picture. A few years ago, a nine-year-old boy was tragically attacked and killed by dingoes here on the island, but I really haven't felt threatened by them at all so far. Still, we've been cautious around them, just like with any wild dogs.

Australia Fun Fact:

• Even though Foster's relentlessly advertises itself as "Australian for Beer," no self-respecting Australian actually drinks the stuff. In fact, every Aussie I've met hates it, and is acutely embarrassed by the fact that everyone around the world thinks that's what they drink here. (They do drink VB, Toohey's, XXXX, and Bundy rum.)

FRASER ISLAND, AUSTRALIA

We began the day with another talk from Crocodile Chris, who gave us instructions for driving a 4WD through heavy sand, as well as how to extricate ourselves if we get bogged. He then played us a rather sobering video of news footage about recent 4WD fatalities on the island (tons of people visit, so there are a lot of accidents). We then loaded up our beaten-up white Toyota Land Cruiser and drove to the ferry, which took us on a 30-minute trip to Fraser Island.

A bit of background: Fraser Island, at 120 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, is the world's largest sand island, supposedly containing more sand than the Sahara Desert (although I'm a bit skeptical about that last part). In addition to big sand dunes and nice white beaches, though, it also has some extensive forests and more than 200 freshwater lakes. It's also home to lots of wild critters, most famously dingoes (Australia's wild dogs, introduced from Indonesia thousands of years ago). The dingoes on Fraser are considered the most genetically "pure" in Australia, as they haven't interbred with domestic dogs as they have in other parts of the country.

On arriving on Fraser, we made our way on sandy trails through the forest to our first stop, Lake McKenzie. It was a rough ride, as the trails are uneven, deep sand, and although I hate to say it, our first driver, Yanay, was completely bloody incompetent driving a 4WD. We eventually made it to the lake, although for awhile I thought there might be a bloody coup before we got there.

Anyway, the lake was amazing--it's one of several on the island that are completely swimming-pool blue, with crystal-clear fresh water and snow-white sand. No plants, no fish, just deep blue water, which made for some great swimming. We also had our first wildlife spotting: A big goanna (monitor lizard), about three feet long, skulking around the parking lot.

We then had lunch at the picnic area there--Sven, Brett, Camilla, Chris and I made ham sandwiches, while the Israelis, in what would become a regular habit, got out the gas stove and pots and pans, and cooked a complete meal. Which was admittedly impressive, but took forever. The whole cooking thing would eventually cause some friction, as it made us late for everything.

After lunch, we switched drivers to Brett (thank god!) and drove the rest of the way through the forest to the east coast, where we proceeded north up the beach. Driving on the beach was much smoother, and we could travel much faster (the speed limit on the beach is 80 km/h), but we had to be on the lookout for washouts (where creeks meet the sea), as well as other cars and airplanes (the beach is also a designated runway!), and rising tides.

Along the way, we saw a dingo on the beach! They're really beautiful yellow-orange dogs, a little like shepherds, but very lean, almost like greyhounds. They're pretty shy--this one ran off behind the dunes when we drove up. We also drove past The Pinnacles--some colorful sand cliffs--and the shipwreck of the Maheno, a passenger liner that ran aground in 1935 en route to a Japanese scrapyard. Now it's a rusting hulk, half-buried in the sand.

We stayed the night at an Aboriginal-owned campground, where we set up our tents and cooked dinner. At first it seemed like this might be a disaster: We had been told there was a grill at the campground, so Brett and Sven had bought steaks, potatoes and sausages for a proper Aussie BBQ. But on arriving there, we found out that the grill was inoperable, as it was missing some vital pieces! To top it off, while we were trying to figure out what to do, a mouse jumped from behind the stove and took a bite out of one of the steaks--yikes! In the end, we improvised by broiling the steaks (sans mouse), frying the potatoes, and cooking the sausages in a pot. Not the same as grilling, but they tasted pretty durn good, anyway.

After dinner, one of our hosts, a really friendly 22-year-old guy named Smiley, did a traditional dance for us in full body paint, and told us a little about Aboriginal culture, which was very cool. Most of us then walked to the beach, hung out, and drank goon (that's Australian for cheap boxed wine). The moon was so bright that everything on the beach was casting shadows, and the water was reflecting light just like during the day--really an amazing sight.

HERVEY BAY, AUSTRALIA

To make it to Hervey Bay, the departure point for our trip to Fraser Island tomorrow, Chris and I had to leave Coff's Harbour this morning at 6:30 and drive most of the day through northern New South Wales and into southern Queensland. Unfortunately, this meant bypassing major points of interest along the Gold Coast like Byron Bay, Surfers' Paradise, and Brisbane, but by doing so we were able to just make it to our hostel in time for our 4pm orientation meeting.

The reason we need an orientation? We're doing a "self-guided tour," which means the tour company throws us together with eight other campers, supplies us with a 4WD vehicle (the only kind allowed on the island, as it's all sand), camping gear, and a rough itinerary, and drops us off on the ferry to the island. Three days later, we catch the ferry back to the mainland and they pick us up. Kind of like Survivor, come to think of it.

Our orientation was conducted by a guy named Chris, an almost comically stereotypical Australian (think Crocodile Dundee), who gave us a ton of helpful advice on things we might encounter during our safari: "Right! Dingoes--Dahn't be a deeckhead and fack with a facking dingo! Got it? Right! Spiders--Don't fack with a spider, and it won't kill ya...."

On meeting our fellow campers (see below), it became clear that we might have some problems buying supplies, as five of them are Israelis celebrating the Jewish holiday of Pesach (meaning no pork, no wheat, no alcohol--yikes!). We wisely decided to buy groceries in two groups, and sent our representatives to the store, while Chris and I had dinner at an awful Chinese restaurant on the Esplanade, where the hundreds of lorikeets and bats flapping around and screeching in the trees made for some interesting dinner atmosphere. Afterward, we mingled with our fellow campers at the hostel bar, drank a lot, and even danced on their cheesy little 10-foot-square dance floor.

People met today:

• Sven and Brett, two Aussie guys from Sydney who met at Uni, where they were both Sports Science majors.
• Camilla, 19-year-old Danish girl, in Australia to learn English and traveling on the Oz Experience bus.
• Yanay, Rinat, Shimrit, Shiran and Gila, four girls and one guy from Israel, just out of the army.
• Laurens, a really fun guy from Holland also traveling on the Oz Experience bus with Camilla, who unfortunately is going on a different tour than us. (We had a good time hanging out in the bar, though.)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

After a pleasant lunch at an outdoor restaurant at The Rocks, Tom, Chris and I spent most of our last day in Sydney at Darling Harbour. First we visited the Australian National Maritime Museum, which ordinarily I wouldn’t be too excited about, but admission was free, so I figured what the heck. Actually, they did have a couple of interesting exhibits: one on Australia’s response to the threat of Japanese attacks during World War II, and another about the Vikings. (I was crushed to learn that they didn’t actually wear horned helmets. What the..?)

After that, I think Tom had enough learnin’ for one day, so he went back to the hostel to change, while Chris and I walked to the other side of the harbor and checked out the Sydney Aquarium. Considering it’s one of the best-known aquariums in the world, I thought it was just a tad underwhelming, although I'm probably just be turning into an aquarium snob. Still, it’s always cool to see the fishies.

Tom returned to meet us afterward, and he and Chris treated me to dinner at an Italian restaurant on the harbor (did I mention it’s my birthday?). We then stopped for a quick drink at a bar called Pier 26 before heading back to the hostel, where we had birthday cake. Thanks, guys!

Speaking of which, big thanks to everyone who emailed me birthday greetings! It’s great to hear from y’all, especially when I'm so far away. I have to warn you, though, that I'll probably forget yours--I used to have my Outlook calendar to remind me, but that's gone now. :-(

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Today we went on an afternoon excursion with Des, a really nice kiwi guy who works at our hostel. We took a bus to the suburb of Watson's Bay, near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, then walked to the beach at a secluded spot down the road called Lady Bay, with a nice view of the city across the water. Turns out it's a nude beach(!)--call me a prude, but I'll be damned if I was going to take off my swimmers. We then walked up the road to an overlook where we could see the tall cliffs at the harbor entrance, had some gelato, and caught the bus back to King's Cross.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

I haven't done that much in the past few days, as I've caught a cold (Chris had it a few days ago) and have mostly been trying to catch up on my rest. Tom has been off on his own, checking out the local markets and doing some souvenir-shopping, while Chris, who's much happier away from the city, returned to the Blue Mountains on Friday to do some sort of Aboriginal Walkabout tour. While he was gone, Tom and I had a relaxing day just wandering around the city, napping on the grass in the Botanic Gardens, drinking coffee, and watching crazy cockatoos strip branches from the trees for no apparent reason.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

To see the Blue Mountains up close, we did a three-hour hike today into the “Grand Canyon,” which, although much smaller than its American namesake, was spectacular nonetheless. The trail led from a forest of tall gum trees down into a narrow canyon with terraced rock walls, with a riverbed of rainforest and tree ferns at its base. Much of the track followed rock ledges along the canyon walls, with overhangs above our heads. There were caves along the way, and at times the canyon floor dropped so low we couldn’t even see the stream below. At the bottom, the wind blowing through the narrow canyon walls made a constant whistling sound, which was kind of eerie. All along the trail, the rainforest combined with the rock outcroppings made for some exceptional scenery.

The hike back up to the top of the canyon was pretty steep, but the view at Evans Lookout, at the top, was great—very much like looking over the “real” Grand Canyon, only with more trees. We didn’t see much wildlife on the trail, with the exception of a lyrebird, which is a ground-dwelling chickenlike beast with a long tail like a peacock. (Supposedly it can imitate the sounds of other birds, and even man-made sounds like sirens and chain saws. It would have been great to hear that, but unfortunately this one was silent, and mostly focused on running away from us.)

After our trek, we were pretty tired (and I think Tom had enough of country life for awhile), so we headed back to Sydney.

KATOOMBA, AUSTRALIA

The Blue Mountains are one of Australia’s best-known tourist destinations, and they’re only a couple of hours west of Sydney, which makes them a popular day trip. They get their name from the blue haze that often shrouds the mountains, supposedly the product of the eucalyptus oil evaporating from all the gum trees. (Of course, there’s a similar phenomenon associated with the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, so it may just be plain old water vapor that makes them look blue.)

Anyway, today Tom, Chris and I drove out to the mountains to see for ourselves. We're staying in the town of Katoomba, a former hippie enclave which now consists entirely of trendy cafés, or so it seems. We had lunch at one of the most famous ones, the Paragon, a 1920s Art Deco Tearoom with an amazing original interior of opulent carved wood. They also have some really good, but decadent, food (for example, the full Devonshire Tea with scones and cream).

We then rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and down the street to Echo Point, a scenic overlook with a dramatic view of the surrounding mountains and the Three Sisters, the area’s most famous landmark. We took the short, steep trail that led down to the first “sister,” a rock column jutting up from the valley below. There were other walking trails that descended to the valley floor, but they involved thousands of steps, so we decided to pass.

Fortunately, the town’s other attraction is a place called Scenic World, which allows visitors to travel into the rainforest at the bottom of the valley via the world's steepest incline railway (at a maximum angle of 52 degrees), or by cable car. We chose to ride the railway down and the cable car back up. Which was fun, I guess, although the steepness of the train ride made me wish that it moved a lot faster, like a rollercoaster. Instead it just sort of slid down the mountain at a medium clip. The reason the railway is there in the first place is that it used to transport coal up the mountain--parts of the old coal mine are still left at the bottom.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

After several days in Sydney, we figured it would be good to get out of the city for a bit and check out the surrounding area, so we started this morning with a brief stop at world-famous Bondi (pronounced bond-eye) Beach. We walked down the ocean and watched the surfers for a bit, but no one really wanted to spend a day at the beach, so we piled back in the car and drove north about a half-hour to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, where there are some nice forested areas and walking trails. I figured this would be the best chance for Tom to see some kangaroos in the wild while he was here, and sure enough, right outside the visitor’s center were two wallabies poking around in the bushes! These were the first we’ve seen that actually had joeys in their pouches, which was really neat to see. One of the joeys was so big, in fact, that its feet were sticking out of the pouch the whole time, and the pouch was just about dragging on the ground! The mother wallaby must have been hating that.

We then stopped for lunch at a marina in the strangely-named town of Bobbin Head, then drove through the park to the West Head Lookout, a high point of land that overlooks the ocean and several islands. It’s apparently a great place for whale-watching, although it’s not the right season for that. Our last stop was the Red Hands Cave, an aboriginal site with red handprints on a rock overhang, possibly dating back several thousand years.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Yesterday we took Sydney's light rail to The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, at the base of the Harbour Bridge. Most of the old buildings have now been converted into touristy shops and cafe's, but it still has a lot of cool colonial architecture and retains a lot of character. On the weekends there's a big street market there, so we wandered around for awhile, had lunch, and then walked halfway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (on the pedestrian walkway, not the much-touted, extremely expensive bridge climb which goes over the top of the bridge). Still, it's pretty high up there! We then took a one-hour boat cruise around the harbor, which provided some great views of the area, although we really couldn't hear any of the guide's narration because the boat was so loud.

We spent most of today at Taronga Zoo, across the harbor from the city. It's got a decent collection of animals, with a good emphasis on Australian creatures like kangaroos, wombats, and koalas, but what really makes it special is it's location on a hillside, with fantastic views of Sydney across the water. Since I last visited a few years ago, the "zoo with a view" has added a new Asian wildlife exhibit, and they're in the middle of building several other displays, so some of the place had that "under construction" look, which was a little disappointing. Still, it was a good time. My favorites: The meerkats, the bird show, and the nocturnal display with crazy Aussie creatures like bilbys, bandicoots, possums, and gliders.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

G'day! We've been busy seeing the sights in Sydney, and it's been a lot of fun, because today my good friend Tom ("It's Not Unusual") Jones flew in from Gainesville, Florida to meet us. He's here for ten days, and is really excited to be on the other side of the world. I'm excited too--it's really great to be once again hangin' with one o' my homies from stateside, so take note everyone else, and start making those travel plans!

Of course, the first thing we had to do after picking Tom up at the airport was take those obligatory opera-house-and-bridge photos, so we walked down to the harbor and took in the view--Sydney has an amazing city skyline that you really have to be in the middle of to appreciate.

After a nice lunch beside the famous Sydney Opera House, we walked through the extensive Royal Botanic Gardens next door. The plant life there is interesting enough, but what really sets the place apart are all the flying creatures that inhabit it: For example, one entire grove of trees appeared to be heavy with fruit, but then we realized the "fruits" were really thousands of hanging bats! These were grey-headed flying foxes, big fruit bats that are really kind of cute up close. Most of them were trying to sleep, but a few were flying around, or fighting with each other for the best hanging spot. The gardens are also patrolled by ibises and parrots, and in one area, beautiful sulphur-crested cockatoos were perched in the trees! One of them actually swooped down and brushed my head with its wing, and another landed on a water fountain and really looked for all the world like it was trying to figure out how to use it! It was really funny.

We finished out the afternoon by taking a short ride on Sydney's monorail, which makes a circuit through the city center and across Darling Harbour. It's not really that practical as transportation, but as a tourist sightseeing device it's okay. After making a couple of loops, we walked down to Sydney's Chinatown and had dinner there.

Australia Fun Facts: In Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jack's. They have the Whopper and everything. The Hungry Jack's logo is just like the old BK logo from the '70s, and even the workers' uniforms are like old Burger King uniforms. It's very strange. I'm sure there's an explanation for this, but I haven't heard it yet.