Well, I'm being a bit dramatic, but it certainly felt that we were in the middle of a full blown gale at times!! Welcome to life in Tasmania. The country itself is beautiful, a sprawling terrain of rugged mountains, jutting snow peaks, yellow and green patchwork farmland, and soft sandy beaches. Aside from the breathtaking views, the weather is another topic altogether. As soon as I arrived, the rain gods decided that they would treat me to the best they had to offer. It drizzled, it snowed, it poured cats and dogs, it blew in sideways, it sprinkled, it hailed, it [View Full Entry]

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Where's the queue? Where do I sign up to become an Australian citizen? I don't think the government is very savy about giving us visas for extended periods of time, but if they did, I would be the first in line. Love it, love it, love it. I'm currently lying on a glorious beach in Lorne, one of the many small towns along the Great Ocean Road. I've stunned. These types of crashing waves and roaring seas only existed in my imagination and the scene is truly hypnotic. I've never seen anything like it - what a surfer's paradise. My travel [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Australia!! I'm back on track again and will hopefully get my act together to start posting regularly. Although I'm sure not as many people read this as I think there are, it gives me an excuse to talk about myself when other people won't listen to my stories! I spent a lovely two weeks in Sydney where I stayed with my sister and brother-in-law. Carrey and Wes were more than welcoming and took me on many ocean-side excusions during my stay. During the week, I was left to my own objectives and I wandered around the city, beaches, and [View Full Entry]

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Yes, I know that I have been slacking in my weekly writings and I truly apologize for leaving everyone hanging in the air about my travels. The truth is that I've been re-adjusting to life in the U.S. where I can take a hot shower, drive a car, and use a microwave in my very own kitchen, all things that I took for granted before my Asia wanderings. I flew home in September to greet fields of swaying golden cornstalks and country roads crowded with combines. My sister's wedding was to be a backyard affair, on the hill behind our white [View Full Entry]

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Rising 4, 101 meters, Mt. Kinabalu is an Asian icon, a travel desination for the avid nature lover and skilled mountain hiker (and those of us who simply think that we can mountain climb and then spend days in agony after struggling up the inclines.) I don't know where the idea came from. I think it was one of those 'rainy day, laying on the bed flipping through the Lonely Planet' kind of brainstorming. Nevertheless, we wound up on Mt. Kinabalu, hiking our way to the tippity-top of a cloud covered summit. Our climbing day started off at sunrise when caught [View Full Entry]

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I’m roused out of my sleep by the distant trumpeting of elephants and singing of thornbirds. It is morning on the Kinabatagan River and the animals announced the day's commencement. (Actually, it was the roosters outside my window that first awakened me, but I have learned to ignore them by now. Besides, it is much more entertaining and exotic to claim that I was awakened by wild elephants rather than the domesticated birds!) I have to kick Liz a couple of times before she finally rolls over and grumbles about waking up so early. I agree, but we have to hurry [View Full Entry]

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Butterflies can be hypnotizing. Tiny splashes of vibrant color twirling in graceful, solitary little circles. Purple, orange, and an unearthly shade of blue, they flit from one flower head to the next, creating a kaleidoscope of color, waltzing to their own musical melody. Poetry in motion! I was allowed to sleep in this morning, only to be awakened by the sound of children's voices singing "happy birthday" in the nearby school. I was alone. The eleven beds around me were a jumbled mess of twisted covers, discarded clothing, and other odds and ends trailing from open backpacks. Our front d [View Full Entry]

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I’ m officially hooked. Rock climbing is my new passion. There is something incredibly exhilarating about clinging to a rocky pinnacle while balancing on a ¼ inch toehold 20 meters above ground. The two days on Rai Ley beach were fabulous afternoons spent hanging precariously on giant limestone cliffs and abseiling over the Andaman Sea’s emerald waters. By the end of our lesson, my muscles were trembling with fatigue, I was covered in caulk and scrapes, and my fingertips were bruised and bleeding, but I had found a wonderful new hobby. Amazing experience! I'd love to give a pl [View Full Entry]

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We were warned. Other travelers, travel agencies, locals around town, and even the handy Lonely Planet guidebook deemed that the 25 hour bus trip from Hanoi across country to Laos was one of the worst in Asia. However, with our budgets, we were faced with either a $12 bus ticket or a $175 plane ticket to get us back to Thailand. It didn't take long to make the decision and we were soon waiting on the corner of a busy downtown intersection waiting for our bus. The approaching vehicle looked promising. It was certainly a large bus and fully lit up [View Full Entry]

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Wow! These past few weeks have passed by in a whirlwind. We sped through the rest of northern Vietnam, slept on a few trains, rode more night buses than I can remember, spent way too much money on "fun" clothes (strictly business suits of course), hugged Jen goodbye, and wasted some calories racing through a mini olympics in the mountains. I'm not sure where our sudden bursts of energy came from but we have certainly toned some muscles and raised our heart rates to considerable levels. Jane Fonda would be proud. Unfortunately, our threesome is once again a twosome as Jen [View Full Entry]

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