Taxi? Tuk Tuk? Suit? Masaaaaage?

We arrived in Thailand safely, although we had some scary experiences. The Canadian government had issued a travel advisory for the border we were to cross (“Avoid All Travel”), so we thought we may have to change our plans which would have added on another couple of travel days. Because the south of Thailand is Muslim and the rest of Thailand (90%) is Buddhist, there are religious clashes that are very unpredictable and have been escalating in recent weeks with bombings and shootings. After speaking with other travelers, we were reassured that it was safe (albeit a huge risk) to use this border crossing. We took a taxi to the border and walked across the bridge from Malaysia into Thailand (we were told that 30 years ago you would see foreigners who had been hanged on the bridge for attempting to take drugs into the countries) and then hopped on motorbike taxis (I totally crossed some cultural lines by grabbing onto the driver for dear life) to the minibus station. We had a three hour drive in a minibus (like a 15 passenger van) to the transit and commercial hub city of Hat Yai. We were stopped at least 8-10 times by police and army road blocks and within seconds our vehicle would be surrounded by men carrying huge rifles. They would glare through the van windows at us with “we’re not %^&# around” faces. We were two of three white people in the van (one other French guy who was heading to Ko Samui where he has lived and worked for the last year). At one point, the police stopped our van, made the driver get out and opened the side door because he saw us “white people” in the back seat. He spoke in Thai for a few minutes as we sat there in silence hoping he would let us through. The French guy we were with understands some Thai and explained to us that he was talking about us and saying that we were a good “opportunity” for them, as they could search us and demand money. My heart rate was extremely high at that point, but we remained calm and he suddenly closed the door and waved us on. It was a really scary experience and something that I probably wouldn’t risk again, but everything worked out in the end and we completed our 12 hour travel day when we arrived in Krabi where we would catch a ferry to Ko Phi Phi the next morning.

Ashley and Ryan (our friends from Edmonton) were meeting us in Koh Phi Phi and we spent an amazing four days with them on the island. It was unbearably hot (45 degrees without the humidity), so it was a sweaty, but fun few days. We all shared an air conditioned room (to cut on costs because prices are double for rooms with AC) at a small resort that was still under construction from the devastating tsumani that hit Koh Phi Phi on Boxing Day in 2004. The locals don’t like to talk about that day, but it was evident that the island had to be completely rebuilt. We hired a longtail boat to take us out for 4 hours to the many little islands that surround Koh Phi Phi and spent the day snorkeling in crystal clear water with amazing reef and fish. Having recently snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, we thought we couldn’t top what we saw, but it certainly gave it a run for its money. (We payed $150 each to see the Great Barrier Reef and $10 each to do the same in Thailand!). Our driver took us to some great spots and waited for us for as long as we wanted while he lay in his hammock on the boat. He stopped at Monkey Beach, where there were tons of monkeys hanging out. We fed them and watched in amazement as they cruised around the beach with their babies. The other days on Phi Phi were spent on the beach, in the sweltering hot water and of course getting Thai massages. I could write an entire blog on Thai massages…they are quite the experience and no, Clem didn’t go for the “happy finish”. These Thai women are so strong and they don’t spare any body parts while massaging! They aren’t very aware of the curtains either so I was there for the world to see on a few occasions.

We left Koh Phi Phi and took a ferry to another smaller, more chilled out island called Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta doesn’t see as many tourists and isn’t even in our bible “The Lonely Planet” so we are off the beaten path a little bit but loving every minute of it. We spent three nights at a small beachfront resort and feel like we are the only people in the world! It was so relaxing and beautiful that you could spend weeks here and never want to leave. We rented motorbikes and drove around the island for the day, where were saw elephants, snakes, and monkeys in the wild. The island is 32 km long and 8 km wide at it’s widest so it is easily seen in one day. We stopped at a beach and went for swim, drove through the jungle and some small villages to visit with the locals, which is an experience I can’t even blog about. I find it frustrating as I write this because we have so many stories that we would love to share, but writing just doesn’t do it justice. It is an overwhelming feeling that we can only describe as “too much goodness at once”.

Terima Kasih Malaysia and Sawatdee Kaa Thailand!

We spent an extra night in KL so we could go out for dinner with Matt and Camelia one last time. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant on a bustling street and then went for a couple of drinks at an Irish pub. The boys were happy because they were replaying a recent NHL game! We left the following day to head to the bus station to catch our night bus to a small fishing village (Kuala Besut), where we would catch our small boat to the Perhentian Islands, 21 km off the northeast coast of Malaysia. All went smoothly (even with the bus driver passing around corners and stopping at a sketchy rest stop at 2am) and we arrived in Kuala Besut at 5 am to the sound of roosters and the call to prayer. It was Clement’s birthday and I completely forgot until I saw our boat ticket! We had been up all night and it just didn’t click. I felt really awful, but it was only 7 am when I remembered so I’m still in the good books! We were walking through the deserted streets and had no idea what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed to go. It was very dark, but once the sun rose we were on our boat and heading to paradise! We spent four amazing days on Pulau Perhentian Kecil, which is the smaller of the two islands. There was nothing to do besides sit on the beach and relax or go snorkeling. We stayed in a small hut high in the jungle (walking up the old wobbly stairs was an experience in and of itself) and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The beach water was crystal clear and the coral was just 2 feet away from the shore. There were fish everywhere so we spent many hours floating in the water under the sun! It wasn’t only the beautiful beach that we loved about it, but there was something really neat about being on a small island 21 km away from the mainland. The island’s power is created by generators which are only turned on overnight. The food was amazing and the people were great but there was one downfall….Malaysia is a Muslim country and the Perhentians belong to a conservative state so we weren’t able to enjoy a cold beer while soaking up the rays. Some people found this too hard to handle and it seemed to ruin their time in Malaysia but when you see what you are surrounded by, the last thing you are thinking of is drinking! If any of you ever have the chance to go to Malaysia, you must not miss the Perhentians!

We left the Perhentians to head north to the Thai border because our friends from Edmonton were going to be in Thailand and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to travel with them for a week or two. It wasn’t without some interesting experiences though…We arrived at the pier back in Kuala Besut and planned to catch a bus to a border town where there is a Thai Embassy (so we could get a Visa longer than 15 days). The taxi drivers were swarming us for business but a bus was far cheaper and went on an hourly basis. The taxi drivers kept saying “No bus come, you come with me”, “No bus here”, “Don’t go bus”. We ignored them thinking that they were just trying to get our business, but after waiting in the bus station for over an hour and half we realized the bus wasn’t going to show up. Nobody seemed to know why, but apparently it is a regular occurrence. I guess maybe we should have trusted the taxi drivers this time! So, after wandering around trying to figure out how we could get to the next town (the taxi drivers had all left because the last boat had arrived and it was “night” even though it was only 6pm), we came across a young guy that said his friend would take us. He called him and took off on his scooter. We thought it was a little bit sketchy, but there was an Italian girl with us so we stuck together and went with it. Two minutes later, this young guy is chased down the street by four or five men who were trying to fight him! We got a little scared, but nothing major happened and his friend showed up in a pimped out car (for small town Malaysia). He and his girlfriend drove us the 1.5 hours to Kota Bharu and dropped us off right at our guesthouse. He blared Indonesian love songs the whole time and sang at the top of his lungs so we had a nice quiet laugh to ourselves. It got even funnier when we told him we were from Canada and he blared (like car-shaking blared) Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”!! He knew every word and proudly sang along. It was an eventful ride as we almost rolled the car while dodging a sprinting cow and a truck full of monkeys, but we got there safely!
We spent two days in Kota Bharu, a town that doesn’t see many foreigners. All of the locals stared at us everywhere we went and would ask us our names. They were so friendly, yelling “Welcome to Malaysia” out of their car windows, but it was very obvious that they weren’t used to us white people in their town…especially me with extremely white skin and blond hair. We had heard a story about one Swedish couple who stopped there for the same reason (Thai Visa) and the local women would spit on the girl. She learned the hard way that she must dress more conservatively, so I took that as a hint and wore pants and a long scarf over by body to be sure that I covered up what I could without dying of heat. We spent a really interesting two days there and got to see the “real Malaysia”. Everyone was very welcoming and made us feel right at home (as long as we were dressed appropriately). We got our Thai Visas with no problems and were on our way over the Thai border…..

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in a very humid Singapore from Brisbane on April 8, 2010 and were so excited to get out first taste of Asia. We arrived at 11pm, so it was quite the site when the two of us were walking through the streets of Singapore with our map and backpacks at 1130 pm trying to found our hostel! People were greeting us on the streets and welcoming us to their country. We were really taken aback by the friendliness of everyone, especially hearing that Singaporeans aren’t even friendly on the “friendly-scale” compared to the other SE Asian countries. We arrived safely at our hostel and crashed hard after travelling all day….crashed hard until 5 am when the call to prayer rang through our window! Because it was dark when we arrived, we didn’t realize that our hostel was located right next to the largest Mosque in Singapore (Sultan Mosque)! Clem jumped out of bed and yelled “What the hell is that?” I, having booked and researched the hostel, knew that we were staying in the Muslim Quarter and not far from Little India so although it startled me, after a second I realized what it was. It was so loud though, it was as if a man was sitting on the end of our bed praying! After a giggle, we got back to sleep…until 8:30 am, when it started again.

We only had one full day in Singapore, so we spent the morning walking around Little India which was a site in and of itself. They say that Little India is a world away from the rest of Singapore and that it is! It was fascinating to watch how these people live and run their businesses. The attention from the Indian men got to be a little much (and I was conservatively dressed), so we made our way to Orchard Road, which is Singapore’s main shopping district. They say that the two main activities in Singapore are eating and shopping and it is clearly evident. We strolled through a couple of malls (ok, we were really just loitering because we were drenched in sweat from the humidity) and they were so elaborate and completely spotless. Women (and some men) were impeccably dressed in the latest designer fashions so we had a great afternoon people watching. After walking around the city for the day (with multiple stops in air conditioned businesses, including McDonald’s where we bought ice creams just to make it look like we were there to have a snack and not to loiter in the AC) we were completely beat. We went out for a Turkish meal at a restaurant that was close to our hostel and hit the sack as we had to be up early to fly to KL. Although our time was short-lived in Singapore, we really enjoyed what we saw of the city. We were so impressed with its cleanliness, efficiency, and friendliness that we would definitely stop through again if the opportunity ever arose.

While we were in Singapore, we booked a hostel in Kuala Lumpur (the one that one suggested as a favorite by The Lonely Planet). Just before we were leaving, I checked Trip Advisor, which was flooded with comments from the past two weeks stating that the place was infested with bed bugs! We quickly decided not to stay there and took our friend up on his offer to stay at his place. Matt, who is my cousin’s cousin (how’s that for an Island connection?) lives in KL and we had been in contact with him and hoping to meet up for a drink when we were in town. We aren’t related but spent many summers on Brackley Beach together and hadn’t seen each other in about 18 years. We arrived to the KL airport to find a man standing with our names on a sign to pick us up! This was such a nice surprise, considering we had heard horror stories about being ripped off by the taxis here in Malaysia. We waited outside for him to pull his car up and Clem jokingly said “Oh, here he comes” as a beautiful Mercedes pulled up….it was our drive!! Matt had arranged to have his driver pick us up and take us into the city to his condo, which is located right in the city centre next to the Petronas Twin Towers. When we arrived, there was a key waiting for us! We were so excited and could hardly believe it. We had our own bathroom and bedroom complete with a king sized bed! After reminiscing over a couple of drinks, Matt and Camelia (Matt’s girlfriend), Clem and I headed out for some Saturday night fun in KL. We went to a rooftop bar called “Luna Bar”, which is on the 33rd floor of a hotel with 360 degree views of the city. It was amazing! We then met up with a couple of more Maritimers and the “Lord Tunderin” and “By Jesus” were flowing…along with the “cold pops”. We went to another bar called “The Beach Club”, which is full of prostitutes. Camelia and I watched in amazement as they worked their magic, while the boys had to literally fight the women off of them. Matt had warned Clem and told him to “follow through with the punches”, which he had to do on a few occasions as the women were relentless. It was quite the sight! To top it all off, our cab ride home was interesting. Besides the lack of lanes, crazy scooters and speeding lunatics, Clem had his head out the window yelling “Terima Kasih”, which is the only Malay term he knew (meaning thank you). Matt told him to say “Terima Kasih ______ (another word that I can’t remember) and so Clem obliged and said this to a group of men standing at a stop light…only to find out it means “Thank You Honey”. We had a good laugh over that and ended the night at 5am with a massive order at McDonalds…half of which is still sitting in the fridge.

Camelia, who is a Chinese Malay was born and raised in KL. Her and I hit it off right away (and let the boys do their thing) and she has been so excited and eager to share her culture and country with us. She taught me more in the last 24 hours about Malaysia than I could ever learn from any book or tourist experience. We had such a great weekend together and hope to see her again before we leave KL. Either way, she is a beautiful person that I will never forget. I feel like we have known each other for years. We are so grateful for her and Matt's generosity that we don't know how we can ever return the favour.



We spent today in Chinatown at the markets and enjoyed some of the many culinary options in KL. We then spent some time at the gym and in the pool at the condo and will go out for dinner tonight. We have one more day in the city, when we will hopefully head up the Petronas Twin Towers and catch a few more sights before boarding a night bus to the Perhentian Islands, off the east coast of Malaysia. There are no cars and just beautiful beaches on the island, which is completely powered by a generator, so we are going to chill out there for five days before deciding whether or not we can go to Thailand. There have been major protests in Thailand (specifically Bangkok), and they have escalated in the past couple of days to the point where many people have been injured and killed. All Malays have been advised to return home if it is safe so we aren’t sure if we can safely cross the border. We really hope we can experience Thailand, but if we can’t then we’ll head to Cambodia directly from here.

Change in Plans

We had originally only planned for one month in SE Asia, but we have come to find out that it is not nearly enough time to see what we want to see. Having said that, we have decided to postpone our visit to Europe and to spend more time in Asia. We figure that we can do Europe any time very easily as it is relatively cheap to get there from Canada. We instead, are going to spend about 2.5 months in SE Asia and then if we have time and the funds, we are going to visit Nepal for a couple of weeks. Everyone we have met that has been to Nepal says that it is one country you cannot miss. If we can swing it, we definitely will so we’ll keep you posted on that. I guess you can say this is more of an Australasian tour rather than a trip around the world!

We leave for Asia in the morning and will be staying in Singapore for two nights and then flying out early Saturday morning to Kuala Lumpur. Our plans are to spend about 2 weeks in Malaysia, 3 weeks in Thailand, 2 weeks in Cambodia, 2 weeks in Vietnam, 10 days in Laos and then we’ll probably make a stop in Bangkok before taking off to either PEI or Nepal! Either way, we’ll be back in PEI around the beginning of July to attend all of our family and friends’ weddings and then have our tickets booked back to Edmonton on August 2nd!

Farewell to Tim Tams, VB, and white porcelain toilets….

We thought we would blog one more time before we head to Asia tomorrow. We’ve had a great time in Australia. The beaches are beautiful and we certainly spent our fair share of time on them. We spent a great couple of days in Byron Bay and got around paying the $85 they were asking for a campsite. We ended up spending the nights on a roadside rest stop. It was quite funny because when we went to sleep (which was usually around 9pm in the campervan because it gets dark at 6pm), there were a few vans parked there. When we woke up, the vans were lined up bumper to bumper, four lanes thick! You could barely get in to the rest stop because of everyone that was sleeping there. It didn’t matter to us, because we had avoided paying the ridiculous prices they were asking to camp.

We made two big mistakes in Byron….I mentioned in our last blog that the Blues Fest was going on when we were there. Well, the tickets were really expensive (minimum $150 per day and it went for 5 days), and because of that we didn’t even look into going because we figured we wouldn’t know any of the bands playing. We were really wrong. We found out last night that Jack Johnson and The Fray were both playing!!! Had we known that, we totally would have splurged and gone for at least one day. It’s our own fault for assuming wrong! Our other mistake was not taking a surf lesson in Byron. We had planned on taking lessons somewhere along the coast and we decided that Byron would be the best place to do it. Once again, when we got there the town was a gong show because of all the people for the festival. We decided that we might as well wait and take lessons in Surfers Paradise, where we would be spending a couple of night before returning the van in Brisbane. We arrived in Surfers only to find that the surf was dangerously wild! The beach was lined with surfers admiring the four of five of their mates who were risking their lives in the crazy waves and currents. These waves were just like you see in the movies. It was great to watch, but we knew we couldn’t attempt it as there were no “learn to surf” groups to be seen. We spent some time in the water but even that got scary and would only last five minutes. We ended up staying in Surfers for an extra night because our friends Ashley and Ryan (from Edmonton) were coming into town. We thought we may get a better day and try surfing then, but it only got worse. One surfer who was braving the elements wasn’t so lucky and was rescued from the ocean with a broken neck. We knew then, that we wouldn’t be trying surfing in Australia. We are a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do it, but it was our own fault once again, for not trying it in Byron even if it was crazy busy. Either way, we had a fun time in Surfers. We hung around “Main Beach”, which was a couple of km from the Surfers Paradise “city centre”. We spent most of our time around the beach, walking and running along the path that follows the coast, and we met up with Ashley and Ryan the night before we left which was awesome to see them again.

We have returned our beloved Chowder to her home in Brisbane. It was sad to see her go, but we are happy to continue onto a new adventure. We are here for two nights before taking off to Singapore tomorrow morning. We are really looking forward to seeing all the SE Asia has to offer and have only heard great things!

Chowder

We’re not talking about clam chowder here, but “Chowder” a famous Australian cartoon and the name of our second Wicked campervan. We rented this beauty from Cairns and have 16 glorious days to spend in her. She is so unique that she deserves a blog all to herself. She’s a bit of a mutt with a Ford front end and a Mazda steering wheel and owners’ manual. Oh yeah, and also Econoline on one of her doors (which we believe is a Ford brand). She has rusty rims, squeaky doors, a stiff clutch and grinding gears. She has had more than a few paint jobs, with the odd one showing through her many dents and scratches. They happened to give us a three person van (because ours wasn’t ready 4 hours after we were supposed to pick it up), but we are firm believers in fate and we were meant to meet her and spend this quality time together.

The journey started out just as we had anticipated, with her 350,000 km we were puttin’ down the streets of Cairns. We were on our way….but only at 80 km/hr. She starts to shake uncontrollably at that speed and her engine can overheat if we work her any harder. It’s been a slow 2000 km so far, but just the way we like it. We cruise down the highway listening to “staticky” radio with our seat heaters on full blast. Did we mention that she comes with luxury? She has her very own seat warming system that is the engine underneath our bums. This is just what we were looking for in +35 degree heat and humidity! We have to give her a good rest before we pack it in for the night because it becomes hotter inside than out if we don’t.

So by now, you know that she is unique. She even comes with her own distinct scent. We couldn’t figure out where the powerful smell of a grown man’s body odour was coming from until we put two and two together and realized it was occurring every time we turned on the AC. The scent is so strong it’s enough to knock someone out. Needless to say, we prefer to use her manual ventilation system (i.e. windows down).

She’s not only a beaut on the outside but is a warm and inviting soul on the inside. She is so inviting in fact, that she welcomes large rodents in through her engine where they have free roam of our seats and have no problem leaving large turds all over the floor and around the gear shift. With her pink and red painted ceiling, graffitied walls by past renters, and her tin can feel she is every budget traveler’s dream. Her tailgate even wears the slogan “I make more money than you can spend”.

Speaking of her tailgate…she’s got quite the upper cut, making us duck and dodge every time we open her….until one day when she became stubborn and didn’t close at all anymore. After spending a couple hours in the parking lot at Rainbow Beach trying to fix her ourselves with none other than WD40 and a butter knife, Clem tied her shut and was off to the mechanic. A short hour later he was back with her and her rear end in mint condition. He had found a mechanic late on a Saturday afternoon in this small town’s industrial area and of course, nobody would turn her away.

So here we are enjoying our last four days with Chowder. She has been an absolute pleasure. We only hope that future travelers take good care of her. We’re leaving her in Brisbane on Thursday, April 6 but she’ll no doubt be with us for the rest of our journey.

(Pics to come, but we are out of internet time!)

Crikey! Look at the size of that bloke!

It’s been a couple of weeks since we blogged, so we’ll try to fill you in on our East Coast Aussie adventures. We had a nice couple of days in Cairns where we took a tour to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing and like nothing else we’ll ever see. You couldn’t have painted the colours of the reef they were so vibrant. We saw thousands of fish, small and big but luckily no sharks. They said we would be really lucky to see a shark as they have been overhunted and are dwindling in numbers. They have a “Save the Sharks” program that they are all very passionate about….if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be saving any. We had a beautiful day on the water and were really lucky because the skipper told us that for the previous two weeks it had been cloudy and rainy with huge waves that overtook the boat so nobody could sit outside.
We hit the road after three days in Cairns in our campervan “Chowder”, who you can all read about in her own blog. We have been staying in roadside rest areas for free and showering in places where six months ago wouldn’t have even attempted it. With frogs, toads, lizards and of course spiders hanging out, we quickly wash off in the cold water. We have even used the showers at some gas stations. If feels pretty weird to go fill up and then grab your towel, shampoo and soap and head in for a shower! We’ve stayed at some really nice places too with clean facilities and beautiful scenery.
Our first destination out of Cairns was to Mission Beach, but it was pouring down rain so we didn’t get to enjoy it in the sun. It looked like it would be beautiful on a sunny day with coconut trees lining the white sand beaches. One thing that bothered us about the north was that you can’t swim in the ocean because of the deadly box jellyfish. Some beaches have “stinger nets” where a section of the beach is roped off with nets protecting you from the jellies but for the most part you can’t swim at all. These jellyfish can kill you within a matter of minutes as they release a neurotoxin that attacks you in no time. It’s unfortunate that in the hottest places in Australia, you can’t enjoy the ocean but there isn’t much you can do and it’s certainly not worth risking it. Most towns and cities along the way have swimming pools right by the ocean so that is what most of the locals use to cool off.
We continued on to Airlie Beach, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. It was a small coastal town filled with backpackers eager to see the islands. We unfortunately, couldn’t do a Whitsundays tour because of a huge cyclone that hit a couple of days earlier. There were trees down, flooding and a lot of other damage that they have estimated will cost in the hundreds of millions to repair. Many of the tour boats were also destroyed in it, so the tour companies were struggling to get back up and running as soon as they could. We were really happy that we decided to see the reef in Cairns and not there.
We put in a couple of long driving days to get through the heavy rains. There wasn’t much to see for quite a few miles, except for banana plantations and sugar cane. We stopped at a couple of rest stops for the night along the way until we arrived in Rainbow Beach. We have tried to make it somewhat of our mission to avoid the tourist traps. It seems that everyone is on the same route and schedule but we are tired of tours and other money grabbing tricks so we have stayed in some really unique places with very few people around. We skipped Hervey Bay (the gateway to Fraser Island) and went to Rainbow Beach instead. Some people think we are crazy for coming to Australia and not going to the Whitsundays or Fraser Island, but we are completely content with what we’ve been doing and seeing. We met some amazing people there (one Flemish guy, one Greek girl, and an Italian guy). We spent the day and night with them camping on the beach and had a great time barbequing up a storm and drinking too much “goon” (4L $10 boxed wine). We hung out for most of the second day as well before continuing on to Noosa (where the surfing gets good). Alex and Alex (the couple from Greece and Italy) were also heading in that direction so we made plans to meet up with them and camped with them for a second night in Sunshine Beach, just outside of Noosa.
Since entering the areas where you can safely swim in the ocean we have been spending a lot of our time at the beach and in the water. The waves are huge and the rip currents strong, but it’s a lot of fun. The water is like bath water so you can stay in for hours and not get cold. After Noosa, we said goodbye to Alex and Alex as they had to be back to return their van in Sydney and we drove to a small town called Caloundra where we camped at a rest stop and visited the home of Steve Irwin- the Australia Zoo! It was a really cool day and we took in a crocodile show.
After the zoo it was off to Nimbin. For those of you who haven’t been or don’t know, Nimbin is a small village that is stuck in the sixties and full of hippies. It’s only one small street lined with Hemp stores, “Herbal High” stores and of course your fair share of pot dealers on the street. It really feels as though you’ve entered a time warp…everybody had dreads and nobody wears shoes. We spoke with one lady who said the cops have been cracking down lately, but as an outsider you would never know it as we were asked at least 6 times if we wanted to buy any weed. We spent the night at a small campground there and left the next morning for Byron Bay.
When you are travelling you seem to lose track of a dates and times…that we did. We completely forgot that it was Easter weekend and were unaware that Byron Bay hosts their annual Blues Fest on this weekend. It took us 20 minutes to get into the town and when we got there it was jammed. It’s a great thing to lose track of time like that, but on the other hand we got caught as there was no place to camp for free and the campgrounds were charging a minimum of $85 for an unpowered site. Yes, you read that correctly! We couldn’t believe it. To us, that is essentially $85 for two showers and you would have to be crazy to pay that. We stayed just outside of Byron and are contemplating now whether we will head back in today. Like I said, we are trying to avoid the touristy places to a certain degree and with 85,000 people expected to be in small little Byron Bay that’s probably not where we want to be!
We return our van on Tuesday in Brisbane so we have a couple of more days to spend on the coast and then two days in Brisbane before flying to Singapore on April 8. We haven’t planned any further than that, but we will only spend a night in Singapore before flying to….maybe Kuala Lumpur? We are going to put it a solid planning shift here tonight over some more goon so we’ll keep you posted on our destination!