Perth and WA

After our day of R&R, Mark and I finally arrived in Australia. Perth was a nice city, full of really nice parks and beaches. It definitely had the feel of a much smaller city (i think it's almost 2 million), kind of felt like being in the suburbs...everywhere. After a staying in a hostel for a couple nights a friend of ours we met in South America named Luisa offered to let us stay with her. Given that a dorm room costs $30 a night each, this was a no brainer. Luisa and her mom Elena treated us to some proper Italian hospitality, we even met the extended family. We like to think we're now part of the family.


After 4 days in Perth and a couple good nights out, Mark and I headed out in a camper van for a week.


DAY 1:
Uneventful, mostly driving to get down the southern coast. However, a stop worth making was the "Wave Rock." Very cool.



The not unlike our wine purchasing tactics in Argentina, our camper van selection was the second cheapest. The extra headroom was a nice addition, and it also had a second bed.


Apparently the second bed is good for starting over the edge like a weirdo at the guy below. I have no other explanation for this picture.


DAY 2:
Now we know we're in Australia..

The first real destination, Esperence was finally reached. Much of the shoreline is protected as national parks, so the beaches are almost deserted (this may have also had something to do with the fact that it's currently winter in Australia).




The cold weather was no match for Mark and his boxers though. T, if you're wondering, Mark's quest for a bathing suit continues. One might think that finding board shorts in Australia would be easy. And...it is. Unfortunately Mark is a man who knows what he likes, and it aint what Australia's got.


We quickly realised that being winter, the sun sets quite early, usually around 5:30. After that, there isn't really much to do when you're camped out in the middle of nowhere. And thus, the "goon bag" (as they call box o' cheap wine in Australia) was discovered. It worked well at facilitating early bedtimes so we could wake up at the crack of dawn and get a full day of activity in. Unfortunately, while helping with the early bedtime, it also helped with sleeping for 12 hours at a time.


Day 3:
Our first kangaroo sighting...

And a trip up to the top of "Castle Rock."


Continuing with our trend of avoiding campsites where you had to pay (typical rate it $20 per night), we were forced to get creative. Not only are Woolworth's parking lots well lit, they also have plenty of obstacles which work well for frisbee golf.


DAY 4:
The day started off with a hike to the top of a lookout in Albany...Mark was happy.

The rest of the day was spent driving through amazing old growth forests. These huge eucalyptus trees rot in the middle as they age, then are often gutted by brush fires. The result is massive hollow trunks.


It's hard to see me, but if you can find me on the left of this one below hugging the tree you can get a sense of how big this thing is.

Next stop, the canopy walk...


And finally, the 'imposing' coast line outside Pemberton was home to the "Natural Bridge."





DAY 5:
Once again, we started the day with a hike to the to of a scenic lookout.

Followed by more old growth forests. This region had a couple old fire lookouts that the public can climb to the top of and enjoy the view. This was BY FAR the sketchiest thing I've done on this trip. The "ladder" to the top, was a spiral staircase made up of 1" metal rods drilled into the tree. Though there was a cage set up so you couldn't fall off the side, there was nothing below. I'd even find this surprisingly dangerous if I was in Bolivia. With nothing but these metal rods spaced out every foot or so, we climbed to the top of this 75m lookout. The view...average to good.


And of course, yet another amazing beach.

And this time, instead of hiking to the top of a scenic lookout in the morning, we just set up shop for the night on one. We never determined if this was allowed, but I'm pretty sure not.

After some more frisbee tossing, and subsequent struggles from Mark, I held a little seminar before bed. Next lesson....hackysacks.

DAY 6:

The original plan for day 6 was to go on a wine tour in Margaret River. However, we had heard good things about whale watching this time of year from a few people. Turns out, this time of year is their migration, and after a long hall they stop to rest in a bay outside of the town we were in.

Though the pictures naturally won;t do it justice, this was really cool. There were 4 whales which were swimming all around our boat for the whole 2 hours, getting within about 30 feet.

With the boat dropping us off at 1:00, we figured we could still check out a few wineries on our own. We were quick to realise, it's just not quite the same as doing a tour.

DAY 7:

The night before, we set up shop in an IGA parking lot right in the center town. Easy access to bars and restaurants, it worked out quite well. We met a Canadian fella who was heading out with some friends who we joined for a rather large night. Mark ended up bailing out at about 11:00, which was a blessing, because I awoke to the hangover of all hangovers. 5 litres of cheap wine...not advisable. Mark took one for the team and handled the 3 hour drive home while I slept in the back.

The one quick stop on the way was Bussleton Jetty. Apparently one of the worlds longest jetties.

And then back to Perth we went. Luisa and Elena put us up for another couple days before we headed out. Thank you once again for your hospitality.

Hotel Pan Pacific, Kuala Lumpur Airport

We were back in KL on our way out. Upon returning to the mall to watch Indiana Jones 4 (good, see it) T and I decided to do a little browsing. He recommended this hat. They tell me that even if purchased the sticker is not to come off.
Next day we head to the airport to close out our time as a 3-man team. Turns out Paul and my flight to Oz was cancelled a month prior, but due to a system error they neglected to contact us. We were given a choice of flying through Singapore with a 6-hour lay over or being put up in the Hotel Pan Pacific for the night with complimentary meals. We chose the later, it turned out well.

We settled right into the life of luxury with our bathrobes and saw T off.
With the tearful good-bye outta the way, we got straight down to business.
I jump like an orangutan. The complimentary buffets came with, among other things, a sushi bar.
Not to mention a desert island, with a chocolate fountain the middle.
feeling a little sub-par in the dress department we decided to try to fit our environment for dinner.

Here's me checking the legs in my uhhhh, water - alcohol not inclusive.
Paul enjoying the delicacy of this food.
Being a little lethargic from taking full advantage of the buffet, we had to lie down a for a bit. Unable to roll myself over I called room service for a little assistance.

Gibbon Experience, Laos (Bokeo Nature Reserve)

We took a 2 day slow-boat along the Mekong to Huay Xai. Decent scenery along the way. Met a generous, alcoholic Burmese man who didn't quite grasp the fact that we didn't speak chinese. I tried my best, but, just couldn't get it.
Got to Huay Xai, slept and set off on Gibbons the next morn. The experience starts with a 3 hour car ride out into the jungle. About a half hour out our truck broke down.
So they sent another, which also broke down.
One more truck and we made. Just look at how happy T was to finally get there.
We set off into the jungle with our harnesses and before long we were zipping at roughly 50 clics, 150m off the ground.
First day was we just hiked and zipped 3 or 4 lines out to our tree-house for that evening.
View from the bathroom of the tree-house.
Dining room.
Tea room.
Day 2 we woke up at 5:30 to head out on a trek looking for the gibbons.
Like many before us, we didn't find them. Not to worry, twas a foggy sunrise, which made for cool zip-lining.
After breaky we head out towards a waterfall, near treehouses 4 and 6 where we would sleep that night. The waterfall didn't meet the standards of our blog. After lunch at the waterfall, the guides told us it was free time 'til dinner and we could use the zip-lines at our leisure. So we spent the next 3 hours doing exactly that, cruising and zip-lining through the jungle, essentially just the 3 of us. it was ridiculously fun.
That last pic there is of tree-house 4, the setting of an ominous tale. Our group was 8. 6 were to sleep in tree-house 6, and 2 to sleep in the seclusion of tree-house 4. There were 2 couples in the group, however for some reason neither wished to take the opportunity of a night alone in the jungle. Paul suspects hard-core religion, I think it was fear of intimacy, Dr. Phil taught me that. This gave Paul and I the chance to start spending some quality time together. So we have dinner at tree-house 6, head out and get to tree-house 4 just as it's getting dark. The wind picks up and the tree starts swaying. We had been informed in the opening video briefing that if the wind gets too strong, the guides will come evacuate you, but wait for the guides. Then swaying picks up. We call down to the guides on the ground about 200m away. They yell something back. This exchange happens a couple more times. Two massive trees across the valley fall and crash into the jungle. We decide to get the hell outta there. Upon arriving at the guides' huts they explained to us that they were yelling at us to come down. Apparently we were only in danger code orange, not red. In orange the danger is just enough to have weaker guests fearing for their lives, while the guides yell stuff at them in convoluted english, adding confusion to the fear and compounding the stress. We missed this part of the video briefing.

The wind calmed down and we returned to the hut. Already on edge I lay shaking in the fetal position. Just as I thought the sweet release of sleep would take me away, a tremor hit the jungle shaking the tree once more. I called to Paul in his mosquito net to see if he too needed a new pair of boxers. Groggily he told me to grow a pair and get back to sleep.