TravelStream™ news feed for member lukeanna on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lukeanna en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:14:19 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lukeanna/1/1218974760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lukeanna/1/1218974760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lukeanna/1/1218974760/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:14:19 -0400 Luke and Anna, Around the World in 81 days!!

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

After a brief stop in Bangkok, we went to the north of thailand to the city of chiang mai. We saw some amazing temples and got to visit some good markets. The highlight of the trip however was the jungle trek. We started off with a few hours walking through the jungle to a traditional thai village. This involved crossing rivers on rickety bridges and trekking in the boiling hot weather! After that tiring episode we decided that it was time for us to take a break so instead, we all hopped on the back of some elephants who took us for a ride though the jungle! Sitting on an elephants head is one of the most fun things to do EVER and I highly recommend it!! We also had some banannas to feed them and our elephant got a bit greedy and kept asking for more. After the elephant trek we stopped for lunch which some local thai people prepared for us. We then went to a near by waterfall for a swim (had to cross another rickety bridge!) The day ended with a leisurely bamboo raft down the river.
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

We hopped on the plane which jetted us even further south to Melbourne where it was freeezing cold, so we invested $5 in a wooley hat each. The best thing about visiting melbourne is that you get to go and visit Ramsey Street! (one of the highlights of australia). We did a half day tour which first took us to Erinsborough high, and then we went to see some more of the neighbours set. Then we were driven round the corner to Ramsey street and it was amazing to be there in real life (although it was much smaller than it looks on TV). After lots of cheesey photos with the street sign we went to meet one of the cast which was also quite cool!

Other than the neighbours tour not that much happened in Melbourne other than quite a good museum!
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Sydney was easily our favourite stop in Australia and definately lived up to our expectations. The whole city was packed as it was the World Youth Day festival, so there was a really good atmosphere and lots going on out on the streets.

On our first day in Sydney we visited the Chinese Garden which is a really cool quiet area to chill out in and is right in the centre of the city. We sampled some Chinese black tea (which tasted like mud) and relaxed in the gardens which have mini chinese temples and waterfalls throughout. After a relaxing morning we headed out into the crowds and slowly made our way to the Sydney Aquarium which is right on the harbour front. The aquarium was amazing and had all sorts including a number of sharks and also the cast from Finding Nemo! We spent the evening at Darling Harbour with a few drinks and a game of underground neon bowling followed by a good few hours of people watching, (the pilgrims for World Youth Day are actually quite rowdy and were very entertaining!). We became regular visitors of the Darling Harbour area, it is very lively waterfront with a number of very nice bars and restaurants and we found ourselves outside with a few drinks on a number of occassions!

The Sydney Opera House was the obvious must see attraction whilst we were in Sydney and it really is quite impressive! We were taken on a guided tour inside and visited some of the most popular theatres and given a background talk on the architecture and problems faced during the construction. We even managed to find a roof top beer garden (always a bonus!) with amazing views of the Opera House during sunset which was great.

Due to Sydney's location, it has very good seafood and a very popular fishmarket, we visited the main fish market in Sydney and the amount of seafood was out of this world! They had eveything you could think of and we did our best to sample as much as possible between us!

During our final day, we met up with some of Anna's family who live just outside of Sydney. They took us for a lovely meal and gave us a guided tour of the sites which included a stop at Summer Bay (the beach from Home and Away). Next up was a flight to Melbourne, and we are both agreed that Sydney will take a lot to be beaten!
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Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

So, we are now in Thailand, but have been soooo busy we are a few weeks behind with updating you all, sorry!!

Once we arrived in Brisbane, it was clear that it is a very nice city, with a river front and man made beach etc, but there isn't a great deal to do! We visited an art gallery for a bit of culture, but the main highlight of our stay in Brisbane was visitng the Castlemaine XXXX Brewery. We were given a guided tour behind the scenes and of course, got to sample a number of different beers at the end of the tour in the bar!

We only spent a couple of days in Brisbane and then headed off to Sydney where there was a lot more going on and a lot more to see.
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Noosa, Queensland, Australia

Our next stop was called Noosa, a popular destination for surfers. Noosa has really nice beaches, bars and resturants so on our first day we decided to check out the night life. We ended up in the surf-club which has cheap drinks and great food so suited us perfectly! The next day we went to one of australia's most famous markets called the Eumundi market. Its defo one of the best markets we've ever been to. There was so much to see and do, for example there were lots of different food stalls from around the world. Anna had a hearty lunch of stir fry noodles and then 12 mini pandcakes, yes 12!, with strawbs, chocolate and cream, tasty!! There were loads of good artists around, some good live bands too and circus performers.

After spending all morning at the market, we then went back to noosa and did a 3 hour costal walk back to our hostel and saw a few more koalas on the way, some dolphins and plenty of surfers! After the trek we stopped for a well deserved drink at the surf-club and relaxed that evening with a film.
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Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

For our trip to Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world), we decided to rent our own 4 wheel drive rather than go on one of the guided tours in a larger group. The terrain is quite rough and sandy so a 4x4 is the only possible way of getting around the island. We rented somthing that looked a bit like a pick up truck, it was just as big too, but a bit nicer! The day started off with us having to reverse onto the ferry, which was pretty tough! The ramp was steep and very narrow and one wrong turn of the steering wheel would of ended up with us in the water! It was quite hairraising stuff.

When we got to Fraser Island we had to let down the tyre pressure, another challenge, in order for us to have more control whilst driving on the sand. When we got on the makeshift roads it was pretty cool driving through the rain forest. The first place we stopped at was called central station (looks nothing like a station though) where we did a rain forest walk with amazing scenery. We headed to Lake MacKenzie for a picnic lunch, which has crystal clear water (its like swimming in evian!) and is understandably the most popular location on the island.

The route to the beach was an extremely bumpy track filled with large tree roots, rocks and sand so it took a while to get there but we made it eventually. When we got the the beach it seemed quite surreal driving up it as the sea was so close to us. The beach is classed as a proper road with speed limits and left hand driving etc, just a lot less smooth! We could only drive on the beach for one hour because of the tides, and it gets dark early so we looked for a camp ground (this took a while!). By the time we found a camp ground the sun had gone down and we had to pitch the tent in the dark. By this time we had realised that anna had forgotten her sleeping bag...oops!! It was freezing and the thought of a cold night ahead was not nice! So we put together our gas cooker (with a little help from a nearby aussie) and made ourselves a hot meal of pasta, dolmio and cheese! We decided it was so cold that sleeping in the tent was not an option, so we spent the night in the car which was maybe a degree or two warmer. At one point we decided that sleeping in the toilets might be the warmest option but luckily it didn't come to that. It was, without a doubt the worst nights sleep ever!

We were very happy to see the sun rise in the morning and it was the start of a nice sunny day. We packed away our things and went to see some more of the island, including a shipwreck on one of the beaches and a clear water creek. That evening we stayed the night in the nearest town called hervey bay and enjoyed a nice warm bed, instead of cold car seat!
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Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

The next leg of our journey was a big one (11 hours) so our driver stopped off on the way for us to take part in a game of barefoot lawn bowls. We were then taken to the outback of Australia and we spent the night at a cattle station, we were literally in the middle of nowhere! During the evening we experienced a number of traditional activities and foods, including tasting goat, learing to crack a whip and riding a mechanical bull. The following day we were awoken at 6am and rounded up ready to participate in a competitive goat rodeo (way too early, but was good fun and worth experiencing). We were in teams of three and had to catch a goat, pick it up and lay it on it's side and then brand it (but not with a hot stick). This is not as easy as it sounds when you are running around a wet muddy enclosure covered in goat poo! We put in a good performance though and came in at a respectable 2nd place.

In keeping with the hands-on experience, we were treated to a close up viewing of a goat giving birth, not nice!
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Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia

Airlie Beach is basically the gateway to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands and this group of islands is the main reason people stop off at Airlie Beach. The group who we had been travelling down the coast with were touring the islands during three days on a live-aboard boat, however we were only planning on doing a day trip of the islands. We had become good friends with a number of the group and as we would be going our seperate ways from now on we had a farewell gathering in the hostel bar on our first night in Airlie Beach.

The day trip that we took to see the islands was great and the boat was literally a giant speed boat with four motors on the back. The boat was a lot faster than the live-aboard sailing boats which meant we could visit all of the main hotspots in one day. The highlight of the Whitsunday tour was Whitehaven beach. The sand is apparently 99% silica and is pure white and very fine (comfortable to walk and sleep on!). The waters surrounding the islands was also crystal clear and we whilst we were snorkelling off of the boat we spotted and swam with a couple of giant turtles which was really cool.
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Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia

We headed further down the coast to a place called magnetic island, just a short boat ride from the mainland. We were travelling the same route as many people from our last hostel which was good and got to share a room with them. The beach was nice here, and the weather was great (they only get about 20 days of rain a year!!) So we spent a lot of time on the beach. In the evenings the bar was pretty much the only place to go, and one night we took part in the pub quiz (came third, not bad!) Whilst we were at magnetic Island we also go to go on a Koala walk, where you get to see koalas in the wild and some amazing views of the island bays. We then decided to to a four hour bush walk, which also took us up a mountain so was quite tiring! We got to end it with a brilliant steak sandwich when we arrived at horseshoe bay.
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Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia

On our journey from Cairns to Mission Beach, we stopped off at a crocodile park which was home to many other australian creatures. The zoo keeper greeted us by throwing a baby crocodile into lukes hands (mouth taped up!) Then we got to feed some kangaroos, who were very friendly. One of them had a little joey in its pouch too! We we given lots of other creatures to play with such as parrots and snakes (I kept away from the snake but it tried to steal lukes wallet). We then went to watch the crocdile feeding. They were HUGE. They guy fancied himself as a bit of a Steve Irwin, and he was throwing meat into their mouths for lunch. We also got to see some Dingos and Cassowaries (large, violent australian birds!)

After that little stop we went on to Mission Beach, a quiet little town with not much going on apart from a lot of skydiving and a good hostel. (They upgraded us from a dorm to a double room for free!) The hostel has a bar which does free wine and cheese everyday at 5.30 so we became regulars there! That evening we managed to get a group together to do an aussie style BBQ which was good fun. Luke had some of the local beer and I had Malibu and coke in a can (not actually that nice).

We made some good friends here and spent most of our time by the pool and watching skydivers fall from the sky right next to us on the beach.
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