ASIAN INVASION

So my last post left off with me arriving in Sydney.

I arrived sometime between 9 & 10am on Saturday the 6th of December. Being a knowledgeable previous visitor of this great country/city I decided to take the train from the airport to downtown. I'm not entirely sure it's still valid but having studied here a year ago I am in possesion of a valid student card with concession sticker. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have the concession sticker upgraded every year but plan on feigning ignorance and confusion if stopped. How you might ask? With a carefully pre-planned script in french.

Anyways. The train is a pretty sweet deal because with concession it only costs $10 to go to the middle of downtown and there's a train every 15-20 minutes. PLus the trains in sydney are completely independent of the roads so no issues with traffic!

I arrived at central station and headed for the Sydney Central YHA. I waited calmly in line only to find out that there was some stupid concert weekend on and they were booked solid. They're never fully booked! The guy said there might be room at their bondi site but I wasn't keen on trudging out there so I headed for the wake up hostel on another corner. No line this time but they too were fully booked. At this point I'm starting to feel tired, hot, and pissed. I usually book these things in advance but as I said before, availability isn't usually an issue. Wake up suggested I try a place down the street saying they definitely had at least one bed. So off I walked with all my bags to a place called 'maze' backpackers. When I arrived there I was told they too were booked solid but by this point (having walked 10 minutes with all my stuff) my patience was wearing thin and I said I was assured there were ope beds. The guy actually checked his computer this time and sure enough there were beds. I was told the bed wouldn't be made (not a problem) and was given my key.

The room was okay. 4 share which was nice but a little cramped and the entire hostel seemed to be in need of a makeover. One of the girls wh checked in after me told me of a place beside the YHA that was supposed to be nice. So later that evening before grabbing something to eat I went to check it out (she was right.. nicer and less expensive!)

I must have still been on asia time because I was a good four hours behind average people in common tasks like meals. So instead of being hungry at 6pm I didn't start feeling like dinner until about 10pm. Being 10 not many places were still open or at least still serving food. I came across a turkish kebab shop (that god for kebabs) and while eating my late night meal ran into some guys taking a snack break while celebrating their friend's stag party and a pair of Canadians who actually made it intot he YHA. Next thing I knew I was next door in the basement of the YHA at "scubar" partying with a bunch of Canadians and Aussies. At about 2 (?) I decided it was best to head back to the hostel and head to bed.

The next day I checked into my first of 3 nights at "790 on george". I hadn't planned on staying in hostels for my first four nights but nursing a cold and getting myself set up with a cell phone and such took longer than expected. Plus with Mel no longer able to join me in Australia I decided to take the opportunity (and cheap flights) and head to Ayers Rock in the Australian outack for a couple of days. I was able to reconnect with Ole Moerk (a friend I made while touring new zealand the year before) and he was kind enough to let me store my big travel pack at his place in the city.

Anyways, my first few days in Sydney were more or less spent getting myself caught up on the internet, obtaining posession of a cell phone and sim, foraging for groceries, and getting off asia time and onto aussie time.

Stay tuned for new from my trip to the outback and the big rock.

ps.. I called home when I got my cell phone set up and after being mistaken for my sister am reasonably certain my mother started crying at the sound of my voice on the phone. it made me feel special and is hence why it made this blog entry. Love you mom!

So my last post left off at Phuket airport (the highlight of phuket due to it's functional post office.. even on the king's birthday!).

Thankfully when I booked my flights a few months ago I booked out of phuket (maybe deep down I knew there were going to be issues with bangkok airport?) Anyways.. I flew jetstar from phuket to sydney. For those of you who don't know aussie air carriers.. jetstar is a budget airline under qantas where you get nothing and pay for everything.

I bought a sandwich and water in the airport (because the price and quality was surely going to be better than anything the plane could offer). Well we passed through the gate and partway down the gangway there were airport staff going through people's bags confiscating water! I can understand when you're clearing security but we all bought these in the airport! Out of principle myself and a few others chose to chug our water right in front of them and throw our empties onto the pile (sweet sweet satisfaction). On the plane they did give us small 200ml bottles of water but the generosity ended there. I had pre-booked a window seat and was sitting beside a nice girl from England. We talked about Australia and the places she was going to visit as the plane took off but shortly after we got into the air she mentioned that she was separated from her friend who isn't such a good flyer. I felt bad for them but was really looking forward to my sandwich and the nice 8 hour sleep I had a head of me. The girl went to check on her friend and brought her back with a sob story about her being in tears during take-off. Being the nice person I am I switched seats with her.. moving to an aisle seat. Not ideal for sleeping but at least it wasn't in the middle of the plane.

I'm pretty sure they lied to me to sit beside each other. I say this because a) the girl didn't look as if she had been crying and b) the three girls she had been sitting beside looked confused when I said I heard I was replacing a nervous flyer. Turns out the girls I had moved beside were the nervous flyers and one had even thrown up in a barf bag. Whatever.. I can deal. I ate my sandwich, put on all my layers of clothing, and curled up into the fetal position to sleep.

You may think that was a little excessive but resally it wasn't enough. Because jetstar charges extra for everything they blasted the a/c in hopes that more people would purchase the blankets for the flight. As a result I now have a cold. Thank you jetstar! (*there was high sarcasm in that*)

Anyways.. aside from freezing and not having a window to rest my head on I made it back to Sydney all in one piece. And thankfully so did my luggage!

Stay tuned for more on my arrival in Sydney and the adventures I have during my month in OZ.

That was probably a little harsh.. Phuket was only a disappointment for two reasons:
1) my suitcase finally realized it's own cheapness and broke (both wheels had almost come off completely)
2) I went to phuket town to mail some stuff home but the office was closed due to the king's birthday

I talked a tuk tuk driver down from 100 to 20 baht for a ride to the bus station to catch a bus tot he airport. You might think wow.. but I knew exactly where the bus station was and knew he was trying to rip me off. In fact, I only went with him because i didn't want to have to carry my now useless wheeling suitcase.

Originally I was going to spend a day or two in Phuket but I spent longer on Phi Phi so i could do the dive course. I made it to the airport and joy of all joys the post office int he airport was open! I managed to mail my stuff for a decent price. The man at the post office quoted me two months but I'll believe it when I see it. Though I at least have a tracking number for it. I threw out my busted bag and waited for my plane to leave.

But more about the plane ride and my arrival in Sydney another time.

Koh Phi Phi... what a fool I was to not go straight to you!

The boat got into phi phi sometime around 9:30/10:00am. I got off the boat and pretended to have a place so as not to be hasseled by the many people offering accomodation and bag transportation at ridiculous prices (my book had warned me against these guys). I stopped at an ATM and pretended to check my balance so i could steal a look at my map. I continued on and after asking at a few places found one that only wanted 600 baht. I was tired of dragging my bags around and it looked nice so i decided to pay for one night and look around to see if there was anything for either a better price or offering more for the price I was paying.

For 1000+ baht I could get places with a/c, minibars, etc.. but I haven't even been using the fans at most of these places so those seemed like frivilous things to spend my money on. Eeventually I found a place advertising backpacker dorms for 250 baht.. intrigued I decided to have a look and it seemed nice enough. I told the lady at the desk that I already had a place for the night but that I'd be back in the morning to check in for one or two nights.

While on my walking adventure I found anice little bay that was quite deserted early int he morning but packed by about 1 or 2pm. I also ran into a nice girl named Claire at one of the many dive shops. We got to talkign and it turns out that among other places she's lived in Hamilton and Chatam! The two of us got talking about scuba diving and after going back to my room to think it over I decided to go for it.

It was so fast! That night I was doing my in class with some other girls who had signed up earlier int he morning and after moving rooms the nest morning I was suited up and in the bay doing my confined. Confined is where you learn your basic skills.. we did it in a somewhat secluded bay but at other places this is done in something like a swimming pool. It was awesome.. I was a complete natural! The other girls had issues here and there but overall did quite well. One girl was having problems with her weighting and stressed herself out to the point of giving up for the morning.

That afternoon we were on aboat headed out for our first two open water dives. I told you it was fast! the dives were awesome. I didn't even think about the fact that I was breathing tens of feet under the water. I was too busy looking around and wishing I had an underwater digital camera! When we got back to the shore the girl who had given up in the morning was waiting for her friends. She completed her confined while we were on the boat and was going to do her two open water dives the next morning. That night I slept like a baby in the huge dorm.. though the water smelled like sulfur so I decided the following night I'd sneak back to my old guesthouse and use their shower (it didn't smell funky).

The next morning we got to the shop to find out that our group was going to be diving off a longtail boat! I was kind of excited because the longtails looked like fun but obviously I wasn't going to hire one all by myself. On the other hand I was worried.. how do they expect me to get off the boat in my gear?! Thankfully our instructor and her apprentice knew exactly what to do.. when we got to our dive sites they would prepare our gear and one would be in the water and one on the boat and our gear would go into the water then we would go in and slip into it. Putting on your gear in water is actually one of the manditory skills so we just got extra practice. On our first dive I saw things like moray eels and lion fish (I was scared of the lion fish because I remember my dad saying they are highly poisonous). After our first dive we went for a swim and some impromptu caving and walked through to the famous Maya beach.. cove where a portion of the movie "the beach" was filmed. It was nice.. but wayyy too crowded for my liking. When we had all had our fill we went back to the boat to get ready for our second dive. On the second dive I saw more moray eels and even a lobster! Too bad I couldn't take him home for dinner! I had a little bit of a problem equalizing my left ear so we went up and once I got it sorted out started to go down again.. only for me to have a problem with my right ear! I was starting to get frustrated with myself and didn't want my dive to be cut short so I was happy when both ears decided to cooperate and I could continue the dive. We had a little over an hour to ourselves before the rest of our classroom stuff and final exam. For those who are curious I got 100% on the four tests and 98% on my final.

That night our dive group met for dinner and then met up with the entire dive shop for drinks (there were a couple of birthdays and a newly graduated divemaster amongst them). It was an awesome night and I had a great time. I was sad when we all went home because I knew the next morning I was off to Phuket. I was happy because phuket meant Sydney.. but sad because I was really enjoying Koh Phi Phi!

I would DEFINITELY come back and would suggest it to anyone and everyone. There's lots of beach, diving, and snorkelling to appeal to everyone. I absolutely fell in love with banana-chocolate pancakes (crepes) and probably had one a day while I was there.

Next stop.. Phuket to catch a plane back to Australia (yay!)

So when we arrived in Koh Lanta our crabby (not krabi) minivan driver bombed right past my backup guesthouse as well as everyone else's guesthouses. This guy didn't know where ANYTHING was on the island! I've never been here and I'm pretty sure I could have done better.

After driving up and down most of the island about six times we foudn the first people's guesthouse (though he went down the wrong driveway so he dropped them off on the wrong side of a large cement wall). The next couple didn't even fair that well! The driver couldn't find their place so he dropped them off on the side of the road somewhere and told them someone from the guesthouse they were staying at was going to pick them up. I thought the one girls eyes were going to pop out of her head completely! No wonder though.. I wouldn't like being dropped off on the side of the road somewhere. I tried telling ym guy where my backup guesthouse was and his eyes went even further than the girls! We has PISSED that we were soo far away from it. Pissed at me no less... like it was my fault he drove past it at breakneck speed!

He was going to drop me off with another minivan driver (so he said) but i refused to get out of the van. And you all know I have staying power! Anyways.. this nice thai guy in our van said he worked for a guesthouse on a nice beach nearby and although it was probably too expensive for me he was sure I could find somewhere for the same price as the other place. I didn't know what to do but eventually put my faith in this guy and hoped I wasn't makign the biggest mistake of my life. the place he was going to take me to was full and so was another one.. my blood was starting to boil under my skin.. what had I done? A few more huts along the beach we found a place that had no more bungalows but had a "dorm" for 120 baht a night. Well I couldn't argue with 120 baht (more $$ to use in phi phi.. which i KNOW is expensive). I looked at the place and although 'rustic' is was decent enough. And I had the whole dorm to myself.

I spent two nights there.. going for a 30 minute run on the beach followed by what a tuk tuk driver told me was a 10 kilometer walk up the island (I went beach hopping to compare my beach to others.. mine was pretty good).

The one problem with Koh lanta is that unless you go with people you'll be pretty lonely. It doesn't have that get out there and meet people feel that most backpacker places do. I did meet some nice guys from England and Scotland (Andy and Callum).

And in regards to my title... Thailand is pretty (and by pretty I mean VERY) strict on drugs.. though Koh lanta seems to be an exception. Weed was EVERYWHERE! I went out for dinner at what I would classify as a nice restaurant and when I went to leave the two guys at the door were smoking up!

I booked my boat ticket to Koh Phi Phi but chose to leave accommodation to chance and find some when I got there. Will I find a place to sleep? Read on to find out!

ps...the place I was tentatively booked at looked nice (pool and everything) though I paid less for two nights at my rustic dorm than I would have for one night there so who knows that the better deal would have been.