The Outback and our Escape to Asia -- Sarah and Naomi's forum of coolness

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Date Posted: 02:56:55 07/30/03 Wed
Author: Nome (and Sare sitting beside me!)
Subject: The Outback and our Escape to Asia

Well, we're here in Bangkok again, and it's hot! Luckily the food is still super yummy... though decidely lacking in homemade chocolate chip cookies....mMmmMmMmmmm... we'll be expecting a piping hot batch of cookies from each of you when we get back! ;)

We tried to move our return date up from the 24th of August to the 10th. Unfortunately all flights from Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles are fully booked for the entire month. We've put ourselves on a waiting list for an earlier flight, but most likely we'll still be coming home on the 24th. We've been travelling for over 5 months now, and are starting to tire out a bit... it takes a lot of energy to explore Asia in this heat!

So back to Australia...

Our outback tour went really well. We were in a group with 17 other people as well as our tour guide. We walked around rainbow george, Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Valley of the Winds (the Olgas), and drove past Mt. Connor (which everyone thought was Ayers Rock until our guide told us otherwise ;).

We spent every night camping out under the stars in our swags, it was really cool! A swag is just a canvas bag thing that you slide your sleeping bag inside. It allows you to sleep under the stars while protecting you somewhat from the elements. It was a little chilly, but we just layered up, and we were ok. It was awsome lying in bed at night staring up at the stars :)

Each night we socialized and sat around a roaring bonfire. Sarah and I roasted marshmallows (but only I ate them of course... she put her skill to good use in feeding hers to me, yum!) We all had a try at the digeredoo (sp?) but only succeeded in making funny farting noises.

We went on a lot of hikes during our adventure, it was nice to get off our lazy bums for a while!

We did a 1 hour hike at rainbow george which was very colourful and very pretty.

We did an amazing 3 hour hike at Kings Canyon... Sarah and I were 2 of only 4 people who braved the COLD swim in the Garden of Eden at Kings Canyon. The swim was definately worth it though... we got to swim out and see a view along the canyon that nobody else could see, we'll show you the pictures when we get home.

We wanted to climb Uluru (Ayers Rock), but didn't because the Aboriginal owners prefer you not to. Instead we did a 2 hour walk around the base... it was certainly impressive! There were a lot of sights marked off as being sacred sights where you couldn't go very close to the walk and couldn't take pictures, but it was interesting imaginging what used to go on around the rock hundreds of years ago :)

We did a 3 hour hike through the Valley of the Winds (the Olgas), which was also amazing! There were so many HUGE rock domes towering over us, and we got to walk right along between them... it was so cool!

It's starting to seem a trend for us to have at least something go wrong on each organized tour we take. On the Great Barrier Reef cruise we went on that big seasick adventure to find the glass bottom boat. On Fraser Island I lost my wallet. On the outback tour our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere! We spent 5 hours stranded in the dessert, it was quite an experience. We passed the time throwing rocks, attempting to juggle, playing a jumping over sticks game, and playing tag. After a few hours we started to get really hungry (we were supposed to have been back for lunch), so we broke open the boxes of dry cornflakes... Mmmmmm Boy!! After 5 hours another bus arrived from Alice Springs to drive us back to town. A few of the people had hitchhiked out earlier, so that they wouldn't miss their bus/plane connections... that was fun, trying to stop cars which might have room for extra people.

After our outback safari we caught a plane to Sydney. We were just in Sydney for one night, but I managed to meet up with a friend whom I had met in Bundaberg, which was cool. The next day we flew out to Kuala Lumpur.

It was so nice to be back in Asia... we could finally do the things we'd been missing while we'd been in NZ and Australia! We went straight out and bought ourselves some "Teh Tarik"- a sweet milky Malaysian tea which is soooooo yummy!! We met up with Aried and Morx, whom we had met last time we were in KL. They took us out to see Morx's friends band, which was really really good! It had been so long since I'd seen any live music, I danced the night away! Unfortunately Sarah was still pretty tired from the plane flight, so she was happy to sit calmly and listen to the band. Luckily Aried can't keep still when music is playing, so I was able to drag him out onto the dance floor ;)

We spent just 1 night in KL, before catching an evening bus up to Had Yai in Thailand. We arrived at Had Yai at 7 am, and then took a night train to Bangkok, arriving yesterday. We had a bit of an adventure in the cab from the train station- the taxi driver told us that his meter was "broken", and tried to drive us all over town and take us shopping. We were very firm with him, and he eventually just drove us to our hostel.

We'll probably stay in Bangkok a few more days, and then maybe head out and relax on a beach somewhere. (hopefully we can find one that's free of jelly fish, gulp!)

Thanks to Grams and Gramps for posting on the message board... it's always so good to hear what's going on with you! I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Buddhist temple, we've certainly seen some beautiful ones here in Thailand. I wonder how they compare.

A big welcome home to Loyd and Cathy (though I realize it's a little late! ;) We're so glad you enjoyed your trip, and look forward to seeing the coolio 3-D pictures! :)

Congratulations to Mommy and Daddo on completing the big move... sorry we couldn't have been there to help! We're so excited about seeing it.

We look forward to seeing you all in a month!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

Nomi (and Sarah sitting beside me! :)

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Replies:

Re: The Outback and our Escape to Asia -- Timothy (aka Fnord), 14:50:26 07/30/03 Wed