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Published: September 26th 2005
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OY from Sydney!
These past few weeks have been a bit crazy, what with us moving from Ecuador to Fiji (shooting through LA) and then rather quickly on to Australia. We had a marathon day on September 15th, 30 hours of travel time including a hurried stop in Houston and a lengthy stay in LA. We somehow managed to clear Houston customs and immigration, pick up our bags and get to our flight in the meagre hour and a half we had between flights -- a feat we expected to fail miserably. The flight from Houston to LA was rather uneventful, but when we got to LA we knew we were in a different world when the first thing we saw was a Buddhist monk talking on a really nice cell phone (probably talking to his stockbroker). Hmmm, you don't see that everyday. We had an eight hour layover in LA, so with the help of a very informative fellow at the Info desk, we made our way by bus to a pier called "Santa Monica" - neither of us knew much about it, but Nick remembered it was mentioned the lyrics to some Sheryl Crow song so we figured
Sarah in front of Santa Monica pier
"I wish they all could be California girls...I mean Vancouver, dear" the place must be well known (we're fairly sure Suman is choking down laughter now).
We wish that info guy had told us that we were DEFINITELY underdressed for an excursion to Santa Monica, however, because we'd never seen so many stylish people in one spot....of course there were also the stereotypical LA "fruits and nuts" as well----Nick was devastated that he missed an opportunity to gain wisdom from Boris the Psychic Cat, perched on a small stool under a tree at the roadside with his master collecting $3 from each unsuspecting Canadian tourist. The pier itself was impressive, big enough to hold a ferris wheel, but the beach and the beach walkway were the stuff of Beach Boys songs....perfect!
We whiled away a few hours there, then made our way back for a marathon 10-hour flight to Fiji. During our final days in Ecuador we had been researching the costs of Fiji more, and determined quickly that we couldn't actually afford to stay there too long. So we decided to bite the bullet and move our flight up 3 weeks, and spent only a week at Tubakula, our favourite little beach bungalow resort on the Coral Coast.
We noticed while we were there that new expensive resorts had moved in nearby, causing prices to rise dramatically (the most tragic of all, beer), and knew we had made the right decision to cut this segment of the trip short. We did, however, spend a wonderful anniversary sitting in an open air cafe watching the sun go down along the beach. Five more days of naps, reading and (well, Nick anyways) sun tanning were enough to make us look forward to a faster-paced country. The final straw of course was the night we spent in Nadi before our morning flight to Sydney. We caught a lift from a nice Aussie from Tubakula all the way to Nadi (saving us a good $15 in bus fare) and looked in on the "backpacker information centre", where a nice man directed us away from the cheapest "noisy" hostel on the main road towards a slightly more expensive but "quieter" hostel 500 metres down the road. Humph. If we catch that guy......I think even Sarah would hit him in the mouth. We were extremely hot and tired when we got to the hostel so we made only a cursory check of the room
Coconut Nick strikes again
Tom Hanks, eat your heart out. A fellow could do very well as a castaway here. before taking it, seeing that it had a ceiling fan AND air conditioning, as well as a nice little backyard, outdoor patio "cafe". Well, after looking at the extensive menu at the cafe, we each decided what we'd like for dinner, then made our way to the front desk (to the only two employees at the hostel) to place our order. We were met with a scene at the sitting area immediately in front of the desk: three guys lounging about, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Corelli's Mandolin on television. We approached the closest one, and asked if we could take dinner on the back patio, placing our orders in the process. He casually looked up at us with the most unenthusiastic face we've ever seen, and replied "we have fish curry". Beaten by this lack of choice, we fired back "we'd like 2 fish curries please". And so he gradually got up and made his way back to the kitchen to commence the cooking. Did we mention that he had no shirt on the entire time, looked like he'd just gotten out of bed, and chain smoked like it was going out of style? We are still hoping he
butted out before or sometime during the cooking of our meals. The following night was absurd, constant bizarre noises coming from down the hallway, ranging from loud tv, to hooting and hollering, to something that sounded like ice cream truck music....no idea. The only thing we know is that we got virtually no sleep. At least the cockroaches we saw in the bathroom sink the next morning spared us during the night. AWESOME.
And so yesterday we made it to Sydney, our land of promise where we can replenish everything from cheap books to bathroom products. And so far, we absolutely love it! It reminds us so much of Vancouver (minus the mountains of course), right down to the rain....of course today, the day we'd picked to walk around the city and get National Geographic-esque pictures of the opera house, it rains. And rains. Luckily we ducked into the aquarium to see our first up close and personal platypus (with which, like sea otters, Sarah has this strange connection). And now we're headed back to our hostel to look over our WWOOF book to see if we can do a farmstay or two. WWOOFing (which we think stands for
Et voila!
This only took two hours. Nick was devastated that she refused to do armpit OR back hair. Rip off! Willing Worker On Organic Farms, or something along those lines) is fairly big in Oz and New Zealand, and offers travelers the opportunity to stay with a family on a farm and do some work in exchange for free room and board. We think this is a great way to see the country, and have signed on as members to get the book of listings from all over Australia, including Tasmania. The best part is we can do it without a work visa, since you actually don't earn money, just your keep. So now we have to survey the locations and jobs listed to see where we go next. In the meantime, we'll tour Sydney (and hopefully get out to Hunter Valley for a wine tour) and try not to get hit by the cars, which insist on driving on the wrong side of the road. Talk to you soon!
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moni
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CANT BELIEVE IT
i cannot believe you didn't know what the santa monica pier was. It is practically a landmark. Also, the sheryl crow song was about the santa monica boulevard-not the pier. It's funny that just one month before you guys I was standing in the same spot on the pier-I even rode that ferris wheel. Anyways, have a good time in Australia. Try to get a pic of a tazmanian devil!