KdK

* November 19 - Dec 7 - Return to Melbourne for last couple weeks of summer down under * December 1 - 2 - Mornington Peninsula * December 7 - Flight to San Francisco I returned from Adelaide to spend the last couple weeks in Melbourne. We made one last little excursion to Mornington Peninsula outside Melbourne. These were a pretty quiet couple weeks, but I enjoyed it - I soaked up the sun as much as I could. It was hot and the flies were out. It was strange to think of this year coming to a close. It was even stranger to think of heading back into the cold, cold winter. We had one last night out and I headed to the airport the next day.... read more

* November 1 - 2 - Airlie Beach * November 3 - 5 - Sailing aboard 'Powerplay' in the Whitsundays Check out this cool video I uploaded from one of our dives in the caves - having a little fun with a sting ray. No, didn't want to end up like Steve Erwin, but you have to really mess with them for them to be aggressive! Queensland is full of these fun diving and sailing trips out to the reef or the beautiful Whitsunday island. I did take a really amazing boat trip in the Whitsundays. Highlights like this trip and the diving trip out of Cairns sort of make up for the backpackers experience in between... I took the Oz Experience bus down from Townsville to Airlie Beach, again kicking myself for having been ... read more

*October 25 - 27 Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef live aboard dive boat trip *October 27 Cairns *October 28 Day trip out of Port Douglas, Queensland - diving on the Great Barrier reef I flew up to Cairns from Melbourne on Wednesday night. Early the next day I left on a two day dive trip to the Great Barrier reef with Deep Sea Divers Den. The diving was beautiful, especially the last two dives at a site called Troppos on Norman Reef. The weather was absolutely perfect, virtually no waves, little current, great visibility, warm water, and lots of sun! It still wasn't as wonderful as the diving at Sipidan in Borneo, but I think that set such a high standard that is virtually impossible to top. On the first dives I noticed a ... read more

*Sept 21 - 25 SydneyWe finally said goodbye to Southeast Asia. It was so strange to leave Asia and get back to an English speaking country. Arriving in Sydney at the same time as about 50 other international flights, we stood in the immigration line for about an hour and a half - and that's before even getting to the baggage claim. We then waited in another hour long line to get through Australian quarantine. I was surprised at how unorganized all this was. I lost Jen in all the madness and ended up meeting her outside the terminal. Immediately we noticed how dry and cold the air was - probably in the upper 50s, lower 60s. I think after months in hot and humid southeast asia, my blood had thinned, and I have lost my ... read more

Sept 1 - Slow Boat to Pakbeng Sept 2 - Slow Boat to Houy Xai Sept 3 - Into Thailand and a bus to Chiang Rai Sept 4 - Jeep tour of Chiang Rai, Hill tribes, the Golden Triangle and up to the border town of Mae Sai Sept 5 - tour of Tachilek, Myanmar and journey down to Chiang Mai From Luang Prabang, we got on the 2 day slow boat up the Mekong to the Thai border. Of course, you could make it all the way to the border in 7 hours on a fast boat, if you wanted - but they say that on the speed boats, 'fatal accidents occur with alarming frequency.' That is, there are fatal accidents - WEEKLY! That's just crazy - and Lao Airlines was sort of out of ... read more