TravelStream™ news feed for member vagabonderz on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/vagabonderz en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:42:55 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1246351321/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1246351321/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1246351321/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:42:55 -0400 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Check out this video, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKWUWkvHQSI
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1214305080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1214305080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1214305080/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:40:00 -0400 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Check out our video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3jfJFLP38
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1206484980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1206484980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1206484980/tpod.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:08:21 -0400 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Seeing as we've put away our traveling shoes for the next little while, we're pressing the pause button on this travel journal. Our Australian work visas are valid until next January, but our hope is that we will be able to extend our stay - after all, we're only just getting ourselves firmly planted. Regardless if we extend or not, our plan once we're finished living here is to drive around Australia and New Zealand for six to nine months. We have grand visions of buying a "blank" van and camperizing it ourselves; only time, patience, skills and tools will tell if this dream will be realized or not! Our tentative plans when we finally head back "up-over" (we can only assume this is the opposite of down-under) is to go back the way we came...overland through Asia and Russia, ending up back in Europe where we will probably live and work in London for a while. Yvonne is hankering to be closer to her family in Germany, and it will be an excellent base to do more traveling around Europe. In the meantime, we've opened up another blog at http://thelonglayover.blogspot.com/ to jot down random thoughts, post pictures, and type up stories for posterity. So, if you are at all interested in what is going with the Alcoses, please pop in for a visit from time to time!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1204361040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1204361040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1204361040/tpod.html Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:46:17 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Well, we think it must be around fall time here...the leaves are turning brown and floating down from the trees, making for those postcard pretty autumn streets. It's now been almost two months since we've arrived in the land down under, and we have yet to spot any kangaroos or glimpse any koalas. Hell, we haven't even had a dingo try to eat our baby. Not that we have a baby, but if we did I would at least expect one of these wild dogs to have a nip at it by now.Aside from our wildlife disappointments, we are settling into Melbourne life pretty rapidly. As soon as Yvonne got the call that she landed a contract, we hit the streets in search of our own flat. It didn't take long. Just a few days later, while I was at a job interview myself, Yvonne acted quickly on a large two bedroom, second level apartment in a very quiet area of Elwood. The day after we submitted our application we got another good-news call; it was time to fly the coup and move onto greener pastures. It is on the top floor of a small building with only five units, has a wood-burning fireplace and stairs in the back leading down to a private courtyard. All the windows have leafy outlooks and we even have a gigantic palm tree right outside our kitchen window. The downsides are there is no heating (that fireplace will come in handy in the winter), the bedrooms have no closets (or, as they are called here, built-in robes, or BIRs) and it didn't come with fridge. Oh well, you can't have it all; correction, you CAN have it all if you pay an extravagant amount of money. We rented a car on moving day and after bringing our meager possessions to the new flat we scoured the Melbourne streets looking for items to furnish our much bigger space - that is to say we looked around in the shops; we weren't running around picking up furniture discarded on the roads.We decided to outfit our place with second-hand furniture. Melbourne is idyllic for this; there are dozens if not hundreds of recycle and second-hand shops. Salvos (Salvation Army) and scores of other non-profit stores dot the suburbs and I think we hit every one of them up. What we've discovered is that we are pretty good treasure hunters. It's become a bit of an addiction, popping into the random Op-Shop just to see what we can find. For some reason we've become obsessed with old suitcases and trunks. We ended up with three classic, fifties-style suitcases and two gorgeous trunks from early to mid 20th century. They even have the original owner's initials on them - J.A Thomas, D.M.L. - and stickers from old rail lines. We bought a record-player (albeit a modern one complete with MP3/CD player and USB port) and I am now fixated on flipping through all the dusty old LPs in these shops, searching for hidden gems. During the weekend move we drove around and purchased items from various stores, taking home what we could in the tiny Toyota Yaris (you'd be amazed what you can fit in those with the back seats folded down). Despite our best intentions, we did end up at Ikea for some things, but only small bits and pieces, no furniture! On the following Monday we hired a small moving truck and picked all the big items up, including our new (used) fridge. I'll be honest; I had grave doubts that Yvonne would be able to handle carrying up the heavy stuff, like the queen mattress and box-spring, and especially the refrigerator. But, as usual, she proved me wrong and we managed to do it in record time. The fridge was the toughest - we took it inch by inch and stair by stair, a flurry of curses flying out of our mouths as we laboured over it, but we managed. The last task for the moving truck was a trip to Bunnings, the Australian Home Depot (literally, it looks exactly the same - wonder if they have the same owners?), where we rushed around to beat closing time, picking out lumber and tools to build our bench-style couches and wardrobe, and paint for refurbishing the furniture.In addition to the hectic-ness of getting our flat in order, this week Yvonne started her new job running the office for a very small engineering consulting firm. She is on a five month contract, covering for someone who is going on maternity leave. As for myself, I have just signed a contract with Australia Post to work on a project to upgrade all their computer systems around the country. They will be flying me, along with a small team, all over Oz to visit their major offices and upgrade the systems. The flip-side to this great sounding job is that it has to be done over the weekends, which means I will be away from home Friday to Monday every week. The contract is finished at the end of June so it is only a temporary thing anyway. It will be another test for me and Yvonne - we survived being around each other 24 hours a day for almost a year; now we'll see how we fare barely seeing each other for a few months. The prospect of working is obviously not something we're all that excited about. For the past year we've been nibbling at our piece of the pie, but now that there are only crumbs left, it's time to get another slice.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1202864700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1202864700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1202864700/tpod.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:15:25 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Well, we are slowly getting some semblance of a normal life back. We had our nice clothes and other items sent from home that we haven't seen in over eight months, and that we would need for job interviews. It was like Christmas going through that box; our eyes lit up at each dress or collared shirt or skirt that we pulled out. Today we picked up another box that we had shipped from Germany; stuff that we left after the Europe part of our trip, before donning the backpacks. It was the third Christmas in just over a month for us. We are starting to feel human again. No more carrying loose plastic cards and cash around, or wearing a money belt (this just never feels right in the city you live in) - it's real, proper wallets for us! After being part of the 0.01% of the Melbourne population that wears spectacles around, it will be nice to again stick some contact lenses in and slap on the sunnies too.It's now been twenty-six days since we arrived here. Sadly to say, we're not a whole lot farther than we were since the last post. We're still unemployed, but pounding the pavement hard. We are recognized locals in the library now, seeing as we spend at least a few hours a day there. It's a great place - free wireless Internet, free good DVDs, and of course, free books. There are lots of job postings and we've been submitting our resumes to many advertisers. We've been called for interviews by recruitment agencies. I even had an interview directly with a company for a position. He really liked me, but after he found out that the company's pool cars weren't available to contractors he couldn't hire me since we don't have a car yet. Oh well, everything happens for a reason; hopefully something will come up for us soon. Keep your fingers crossed!We've grown to dislike St. Kilda. It's a backpacker's haven, teeming with young rowdy twenty-somethings full of booze and testosterone. In other words, we would have loved it about eight years ago! The flat we are living in right now is part of a block of other furnished suites, rented out mostly to backpackers. At least once a day it feels like we are living in the 'hood as our neighbours blast hip-hop at ear-popping levels. There are actually hookers working the streets near our place too. Now, it's not exactly Whalley, if that's what you're thinking, but it just didn't turn out to be the ideal place to live for a thirty-something married couple. We just want some peace and quiet and close access to a beach. Is that too much to ask for? We actually briefly went apartment hunting, but after going to our first open house and having to admit that we don't have jobs, and feeling like complete knobs, we decided it would be best to wait until we're employed. So, once that income starts rolling in we will find our own flat. This time we are looking in Elwood, one neighborhood over, and still on the beach. It's much quieter, still has nice shops and cafes, and has a beach of their own.So besides job-hunting, what have we actually done since we've been here, you ask? Well, as I said, not a whole lot. But there have been a couple of things we've tried to check out. We had to drive to the airport to pick up the package my parents sent us so, to make good use of the rented car, we made a little side-trip to a town called Woodend. According to Yvonne, it looks like an American mid-west town. It has one main drag lined with real-estate agencies, restaurants and bakeries. We didn't stick around long and made off for an attraction called the Hanging Rock. Only, we never made it there. The road to it was closed, so we followed the signs for the detour. They took us to another road that led to the Hanging Rock. The only problem was, this road was closed too. So we tried to get around but couldn't find another road into it. We cut our losses, turned around and headed back for Melbourne. On the plus side, we did see the rock from a distance. It was a nice rock, as far as rocks are concerned.Yvonne found a Lululemon store (we were shocked to find out there are also three in Sydney and over fifty worldwide - when did that happen?) and went nuts stocking up on clearance items for her thrice weekly beach yoga classes at 6 AM (believe me, that is the first time I've ever used "thrice"). We also had lunch at a vegetarian curry house where they don't put prices on the menu. Their shtick was "eat and then pay whatever you feel is right", which at first sounds pretty cool and progressive, but in the end you probably overpay because you don't want to feel like a cheap bastard. We bucked up a reasonable $30 for two average lunches and one not-so-good hot chocolate and when I handed her a fifty note, she asked "do you want change?" - uh, yeah.About the only other thing worth mentioning that we did was go to the 28th annual St. Kilda Festival, which was held this past Sunday. 300,000 people flocked to our neighbourhood and filled up the car-free streets. 50 bands from all the genres played on numerous stages around the festival grounds. Sitting on the dead, dry, yellow grass in front of an outdoor stage brought back fond memories of the Lollapaloozas, Arts County Fairs, and Another Roadside Atrractions past. There were swing, tap, and salsa dancing demos you could join in on, kite-surfing and wakeboarding demos, and a pro beach volleyball tournament. We hungered for the sugar-donuts and ice cream on sale around, but when we saw a small cup of "gelato" going for $8 we lost our appetites. The uber-cool (Yvonne's term, which I like) were out in full force. It would be our estimate that 99% were the uber-cool crowd, trying to out-cool each other. And not just young people; moms, dads, and grandparents were making us feel like absolute nerds. Melbourne is just that kind of city. We lasted about three hours in the craziness before we retreated to the cool, quiet comforts of our pad. When did we get so old?As a last note, Wednesday February 13, 2008 is a historical day for Australia. The government is giving a formal apology to the aboriginal people of Australia, admitting to all the wrongs they've done them over the past many decades, especially to the "stolen generations", the thousands of aboriginal children who were taken away from their families and put into foster homes and social care. It has been all over the news for the past while and is a major topic of discussion right now; aboriginals are flocking to Canberra, the nation's capital, to see the official apology in person. Hopefully this is the first step in erasing the huge black mark in Australia's history and dealing with the modern problems of today.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1201136340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1201136340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1201136340/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:02:24 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Melbourne, Australia

Not twenty minutes after landing safely at Melbourne's Avalon airport on January 17th, we were on the highway heading into the big city. We rented a car and, with my UK driving experience of driving on the "wrong" side of the vehicle and road still somewhat fresh in my mind, we were moving along in fine form. It wasn't until we were cruising the city streets that we hit our first snag. Our compass was broken. Everywhere we turned, it pointed north. That can't be right, can it? As we swore Mountain Equipment Co-op up and down for selling us a crap piece of navigational equipment, we realized the err of our ways. We were in the wrong damn hemisphere for it to work! We mildly chuckled about it and went about figuring out where we were. St. Kilda was the neighborhood of choice according to many Australian backpackers we'd met along the way. It had the beach, shops, cafes and a hip vibe. We pointed the car in that direction and found parking on the street. It was a reconnaissance mission to scope everything out before apartment hunting. We walked to, and then along, the beach and later found the black and white checkered sidewalk of the main drag, Acland Street. It certainly was full of cafes, restaurants and young people. Before we left Brisbane we made arrangements with Hendrick, a German ex-pat living in Melbourne, to stay with him in his rented house. We found him on hospitalityclub.org and he was willing to take us in on such short notice. Seeing as we were arriving smack dab in the middle of the Austalian Open tennis tournament (meaning accommodation was extremely scarce) he was literally our saviour. He was in our shoes not so long ago and was a valuable source of information and a good sounding board to bounce our ideas off of. We killed time until he was off work, then drove to his place in Hawthorn East, a Melbourne suburb only about twenty-five minutes from the CBD. The CBD is the Central Business District and is where, if you haven't already figured it out, most of the business offices are. Thus it is full of tall and large concrete and glass buildings. However, it is not at all what we would describe as a concrete jungle. On the contrary, it is extremely visually pleasing. The city planners have done a bang up job. No two buildings are alike and all are interesting, especially the Eureka tower, a 92 story residential high-rise, the tallest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Suburbs in Melbourne are not like suburbs at home (or Brisbane). They are simply self-contained areas surrounding the CBD. Each one has its own unique character and main streets that are full of everything you need. What's more is Melbourne has a pretty extensive train, tram and bus system so getting to the CBD and surrounding 'burbs is made awfully easy. The suburbs here are what we'd call neighbourhoods at home, like Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Mt. Pleasant, False Creek, etc.One of my best buddies, Mr. David Vesterback, and our old friend Meg were in Australia on a holiday. They'd arrived in late December and were at the tail end of their vacation. They stuck around in Melbourne a couple of extra days to meet up with us, so we did just that the following day. We met for breakfast then made off for Melbourne Park where the Australian Open was being held. Tickets for the Rod Laver Arena, where the biggest names were playing, were sold out, so we settled for the Vodaphone arena. It was still early in the tournament and we saw some big names knock out unseeded opponents, namely Serena Williams, Richard Gasquet and Maria Sharapova (who went on to win the 2008 Championship). We wandered the grounds and watched Amelie Mauresmo warm up (for a match she would later lose) and later Yvonne would come mere feet from Venus Williams as she plodded on by. It was a very exciting day, not only because we were drunk from drinking beer after beer and wine after wine, but also getting to see some close friends from home after being so long on the road. It was also my first ever Grand Slam tournament and I am now one quarter on my way to fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams of going to each of the four big ones: the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open. At the end of the day, we all went out for curry, and then said our goodbyes as Dave and Meg were flying to Sydney early the next morning.The next few days Yvonne and I familiarized ourselves with our new home and took the first few steps of settling in. We picked up cell phones (of course, here they are called mobiles), opened up a bank account and found some temporary living arrangements in St. Kilda. A fully furnished studio apartment is to be our new pad for the next little while, as we search for jobs and a permanent flat. For my 32nd birthday, Yvonne bought me a ticket to the Australian Open on January 20, but this time to the Rod Laver Arena. I had to see it for myself. I was lucky enough to watch the big surprise of the tournament, unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who ended up playing, and losing, in the final. His match against fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet was excellent, high-quality tennis and I enjoyed every minute of it. I also saw the lone Canadian, Daniel Nestor, play in a 3rd round doubles match that he and his partner won. I also got to watch Ana Ivanovic, who played in the final against Sharapova, warm up on a practice court.Just as we suspected, Melbourne is a lot like Vancouver (minus the mountains). It has a laid back feel; any city where the majority of people walk around in shorts and flip-flops is our kind of place. The climate is even similar to Vancouver in the summer, although it has a tendency to get quite a bit hotter when the air is still and the sun is beaming down. But it does also get chilly. The saying "four seasons in one day" definitely applies to Melbourne. We've been caught out with no jackets when a cool wind is blowing and when it rains (yes, it rains too) and it's not exactly pleasant. We are very happy with our choice to settle here; it already feels like home!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200530520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200530520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200530520/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:43:53 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Brisbane, Australia

Our plane touched down in Brisbane at 13:20 on January 11. The itinerary from Siagon included a stopover in Sydney where we had to go through the entire baggage claim, immigration, customs and quarantine processes, not to mention taking a shuttle bus from the international airport to the domestic one nearby. And how long do you think they gave us to go through all this and make the connection? Ninety minutes. We were always skeptical that this would be enough time, but we thought if it wasn't possible then they wouldn't make such an itinerary. But let us tell you something...it is not possible!First of all, our bags were just about the last to come off the airplane. As we stood in the "Other Passports" line to go through customs, we were asked by a lady in uniform why we don't just go to the "Australian/New Zealand Passports" line, which had a much smaller queue. We replied, "oh, are we allowed to?" to which she playfully responded "hel-lo! I work here!" while tugging at her uniform top. We decided that this is our kind of country! After going through customs and immigration and getting our work holiday visas stuck into our passports, we had to go through quarantine. This was the first time we've ever gone through this in an airport. To put it in a nutshell, if you don't know much about Australia's natural history, many things have been introduced from the outside world, a lot of it to the detriment of their native eco-system. Hence, they are pretty strict about this process. As we stood in the massive line, anxiously shifting from foot to foot because of the plane we were about to miss, we asked one of the staff if we could jump to the front. She asked us if we had anything to declare and we said No. Rewind a bit to when we were on the plane and had to fill out the landing and declaration cards. The usual response to these when you know you aren't bringing anything into the country like fruits and veggies, a kazillion dollars, or weapons of mass destruction, etc. is to automatically check off the "No" box all the way down the list. Well, one of these, as we found out going through quarantine, asked if our shoes had any dirt or soil on them, to which we checked No, naturally. When the quarantine staff saw the hiking boots we were wearing, she asked to see the bottoms. Yvonne's were fairly clean while mine had some clumps of dirt (possibly dung?) stuck in between the tread. Not a big deal she assured us, but I would have to remove them and have them scrubbed clean. When I brought my boots over to the counter to get this done, the guy there issued us a stern lecture about checking "No" on the declaration card. He made it clear that this was a serious no-no and that if we were entering New Zealand we'd be given an on-the-spot $250 fine ("if you aren't sure, always check Yes"). Anyway, after disappearing for a few minutes with my boots, he returned them squeaky clean and we were on our way. Talk about a great welcoming service at the airport - free shoe shining!We were met at the Brisbane domestic airport by some of my newfound family, Tita Pat and Tito Basil (who are actually my dad's cousin and cousin-in-law, but in Filipino culture, EVERYONE is your Tita and Tito). After the introductions they led us to their truck and sped us to their humble home in Lawnton, a Brisbane suburb about thirty minutes outside the city. They, in fine Filipino fashion, constantly told us to eat. Whether it was emerging from our slumber in the morning, or coming back from a day in town, we were always led to the dining table to where a spread was unfailingly waiting for us. We spent the next few days eating, sorting ourselves out doing laundry, shopping for needed items, and acclimatizing to the hot and humid Queensland weather. We were quite disappointed when we first took the train from Lawnton into Brisbane. It is much smaller than we imagined. And the people dress weird. Like, Surrey weird, if you know what I mean. It's as if they are a decade or so behind. Denim mini-skirts, pastel tank tops, neon flip-flops - I don't know, maybe it's just Queensland chic? And the people are surprisingly large here too. Like, American large. Well, that may be a bit of a stretch (pun intended) because who can compete with them? But all the same, they shattered our image of the lithe, fit surfer/lifeguard/swimmer Australian image. And there were a lot of dodgy people about wandering the streets; the kind that, at home, you'd see congregating at the entrances to Skytrain stations. But anyway, back to Brisbane the city. It's kind of hard to explain. It has some nice buildings, and nice little areas, but there is just something about it that doesn't feel right. It seems to have a split personality; it's like it can't decide if it's a city or a suburb. While we were on the road, traveling with some Aussies, we were shocked to find out that Brisbane wasn't right on the ocean. There is no beach. All along we'd thought there was. We were assured that there is a man-made beach, and we confirmed this when we were there. It's called Streets Beach, and it's in the middle of the city in the southbank parklands. A tiny strip of sand with shirtless sunbathers lines what is basically a large salt-water swimming pool. It's quite sad really, and it was helping to ruin the little Australian paradise in our minds. Australia is supposed to be miles of sandy beaches, as far as the eye can see; massive, pounding waves; man-hungry sharks with limbs hanging from their jaws. But, as far as we were seeing, it was just another country with regular people doing regular things. The decision not to settle in Brisbane was looking genius to us now; we promptly found an Internet café and bought the cheapest and earliest plane tickets to Melbourne. We couldn't wait to get the hell out of dodge.To pass the time, we aimlessly wandered around the city and visited some of the sights. The Queensland Natural History Museum was one of them, and it was a very pleasant surprise. For one, it was absolutely free. And for a free museum, it was exquisite and large. There were displays teaching about the history of transportation in the area, from planes to trains to automobiles. The marine life exhibit was very nice, about the turtles and crocs and the pesky cane toad that was brought from Mexico to Queensland to rid the area of a beetle that destroyed sugar cane (only they ended up poisoning almost everything else except these beetles and are now a serious threat to the eco-system and one of the country's most wanted super-pests). Upstairs was more on reptiles and things that go bump in the night, like funnel-web and red-back spiders and snakes that could kill you in five seconds flat.As part of the public transportation system, there are high-speed ferries that cruise along the Brisbane River. We hopped one to get some views of the city from the water and we can attest that from this vantage point, Brisbane looks a lot better. Some parts reminded us a lot of Vancouver, of the False Creek area with the seawall - moored sailboats bobbing up and down in front of tall residential towers with cafes and restaurants taking up the ground floors.We discovered that a lot of things in Australia are much more expensive than at home. And it's not just that we'd come from Southeast Asia where you can have a five-star day and night for $20. Things actually were (and are) very expensive. For instance, a Snickers costs around $2.50. A can of pop is over two bucks. Prepared food is expensive too. My theory is that there is a junk-food tax. I have to research this a bit more. But other things seem overpriced as well, like clothes and shoes. We'd been used to paying the equivalent of thirty cents an hour for Internet (when we weren't getting free Wi-Fi in our hostels) in Asia and to find it at $4 or more per hour here was a shock too. Pat and Basil didn't have Internet at their house and we had so much to do and to research, we had to figure something out. That's when I took our laptop for a walk around their complex and found an unsecured wireless network outside one of their neighbour's house. A spot just behind the fence where we could remain somewhat incognito became our new hangout for a few days. We brought a couple of garden chairs out with us and surfed the 'net with nature, just like I'm sure it was intended to be. Rain or shine, we were there, taking turns holding the umbrella to keep the laptop dry.Back in the city, we walked along the Queen Street mall, stopping for brief moments to watch a juggling busker or a man balancing his young daughter on his shoulders, all to the delight of a crowd of people gathered in a ring around them. We made our way to Fortitude Valley (or, as locals know it, "The Valley") and walked along this area's pedestrianized mall. The Chinatown here was a big disappointment - unlike Vancouver's which actually seems like a miniature China, complete with the back-alley stenches of rotting vegetables and fish and hard-working Chinese rushing about, this one constituted a few gentrified shopfronts and restaurants (which many weren't even Chinese, rather Vietnamese or Thai) with clean and modern Asians hanging out in the doorways.Our Aussie friend Natalie, who grew up in Brisbane, insists that it's not as bad as we make it out to be; that we should visit with her and she can show us the "real" Brisbane. She is probably right, it most likely isn't as an un-livable place as we think; we were only there for six days. But then again, first impressions are everything.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199589540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199589540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199589540/tpod.html Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:03:00 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Rach Gia, Vietnam

As we've explained in previous entries, everything we'd done up to this point in Vietnam had been through booking agencies and tourist buses - mainly because it is by far the easiest way to get around and usually the cheapest (because of the level of overcharging of tourists by public transport). It has rubbed us wrong the whole time, but fighting the system in place was very tiring, so we succumbed to the flow and swallowed our pride. As the last of our days in Vietnam - and for our travels for that matter - were winding down, we wanted to give it one last go at some independent travel as we headed into the Mekong Delta, the low-lying flatlands to the west of Saigon. Along with Mark and Natalie, we left Saigon and headed for the bus station. We found a bus to take us to Ben Tre, a small river town just a couple hours out of the capital. We finally found a little distance from other travelers as there was only a handful here. Just to price it out, we went to a tour agency and asked how much a boat would cost to take us to Vinh Long. There are a couple ways to get there, the more common one (as it is much shorter) being a bus and ferry, but we wanted to do it completely by boat. For the seven hour ride they quoted us 950,000 dong ($60). We read that it was possible to hire private boats, but since it is not a legal practice we had to go on a bit of a stealth mission. That night we asked around near the river and were told to return early the next morning. We did just that and met a very nice and good English-speaking boatman who went by the name of Liam. He agreed to take us for 650,000 dong ($40). After gathering our bags from our hotel and returning to the river to meet Liam, he told us that we would be joined by two other tourists, but that he would give us a discount. In the end, the four of us ended up paying 500,000 dong ($31) altogether, and the other two paid 950,000 dong! Happy with our deal we headed off to his boat.It was quite a bit of a shock when we got there. This thing was tiny! And I mean TI-NY. There were six of us travelers, plus Liam, his wife and their dog. The boat was long and very narrow, maybe five to six meters long and no more than one and a half meters at its widest in the middle. Liam plopped down six folding chairs for our comfort, staggered and balanced on the sides so we wouldn't tip. At first we were pretty scared of rolling over since any sudden movement caused the boat to sway heavily to one side. We eventually got used to it and just made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed the ride. The boat was very slow, powered by a little propeller, but Liam was an expert with it and turned out to be an excellent guide. After a few hours in he took us down a narrow canal into dense jungle and parked for a few minutes so we could get out and stretch our legs and just wander around a bit on our own. It was proper jungle here, with huts spaced sparsely throughout the thick foliage. The inhabitants on this tiny island were very friendly, waving at us as we passed by. One was just returning from a fishing trip of sorts, except his catch was more of the four-legged variety. Dangling from a rope he held in his hands were a bunch of frogs. He smiled at us as we stared and let us take some pictures of him. A few hours later, after more slow boating, we stopped one more time on another island for a toilet break and a coffee. We had a chat with our man Liam and after some digging by us found out that he has been taking tourists out since 1995. In 1989 when things were very bad in Vietnam, he fled the country in search of a better life, but was captured in Cambodia and held in a detention camp for a month before escaping back into Vietnam. We were surprised at how good his English was; he explained he has learned mainly through tourists and reading. He said at the moment he was reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". Not the easiest subject matter, even for English speakers!It was great to finally make it to Vinh Long after so long sitting in the tiny boat. We had sea legs for a bit after getting off but solid ground was very welcome. Since we arrived a bit late, we didn't have much time to search ourselves for a place to stay, and we wanted to head straight off to another island to sleep a night in a homestay. The area here is popular for this - the homestays supposedly a way to experience typical life in the Mekong Delta. We found the only open booking agency in town and ended up taking a package that included a boat to the homestay and the accommodations with dinner and breakfast included. We were very disappointed when we reached the place. It was not at all what we expected (a quaint, cozy home shared with a local family) but instead was pretty much a hotel in the jungle. In the rooms it was like being in a cage, since there was no privacy except for vertical bamboo poles that felt a little too much like prison bars. We tried to make the best of it anyway and in the morning we were off again after negotiating a private boat through the owner to take us for a tour of the area for a few hours around the little canals that split up the islands. Because the Mekong River has tides we had to wait a while before we could leave, and even then we passed through some canals where the water level was so low we were constantly scraping the bottom. At one point we had to just stop and wait a bit for the water to rise. Since the one time on this Mekong Delta trip that we went with a booking agency turned out to be a dud, we were even more determined to make the rest of the trip on our own. After our boat tour of the canals we were dropped off again in Vinh Long. We made our way to the bus station to find a ride to Binh Minh, where we were to take a ferry across the river to Can Tho. We found our bus and asked the driver how much. Wouldn't you know it, but the relatively short ride was going to cost us 30,000 dong each. With our experience traveling around Vietnam we knew we were being taken advantage of, and after a little digging, we found a price list on a wall in the office. Our destination was listed at 6,000 dong, one-fifth the asking price! We argued and argued with them, refusing to back down, and got them down to 10,000 dong each. They insisted that we had to pay more because of our big backpacks. Of course this was all bullshit since locals didn't pay anything extra to bring their boxes full of clucking chickens and god knows what else, but we had no choice so we finally succumbed and climbed aboard. The rest of the journey to Can Tho was thankfully uneventful.In Can Tho we found a nice, cheap little guesthouse with a helpful and friendly owner. This town is popular with tourists for the nearby floating markets - sections of the river taken over by small boats hawking all sorts of things - meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, you name it. The neighbour to our guesthouse owned a boat and we arranged to hire it and the driver to take us to two floating markets the next morning. Once again, when we went to the boat at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM the next morning, we were a little surprised at the size of it. This one was even smaller than the one that took us from Ben Tre to Vinh Long. There were two small wooden benches stretching from side to side, one behind the other. Yvonne and I took the front one while Mark and Natalie sat behind us. The driver stood at the back controlling the propeller and expertly guided us along the river, at times having to point the craft into the wake of larger and speedier boats so we wouldn't end up in the river. At the first floating market we were greeted by a boat that sold the Vietnamese coffee that we've all grown to love (and become almost dependent on). After our caffeine and sugar fix we stared in amazement at the goings-on around us. The boats crammed themselves together in pockets while tourists whizzed through and around them. Trading happened back and forth between boats, money passing one way while pineapples, bananas, melons and all sorts of things passed back in return. The second one we went to was much smaller with hardly any other tourist boats and definitely no coffee boat, which was very disappointing for us since we were more than ready for another shot of caffeine. On the way back our driver took us down a canal where we spotted a bunch of Vietnamese men and boys neck deep in the river, surrounded by a net. Some of the boys were sitting above them on tree branches like monkeys. We navigated the boat in their direction and close up we could see what they were doing. The net was a trap for fish and these guys in the river were catching the big ones with their bare hands. Sometimes they would disappear under the water and come up with one to put in a bucket. Many times they would catch them too small and return them to the river. The fish were jumping, trying to escape, but the net was too high and they only succeeded in getting themselves tangled up in it. The Vietnamese had to shake the net to get them to fall back into the water. They didn't seem too bothered by us tourists watching them; our driver even got in there a bit and lent them a hand.All together, the tour on this tiny boat with cushion-less benches was seven hours. By the end of it we'd had quite enough of boats and rivers and were more than ready to move on. After returning to Can Tho we caught our pre-arranged bus to Rach Gia on the west coast of the Mekong Delta. This town is the gateway to Phu Quoc island, where we would spend the last few days of our trip, basking in the sun on the white sandy beaches and whiling away the time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200023280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200023280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1200023280/tpod.html Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:53:21 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Phu Quoc, Vietnam

Our first mistake was buying plane tickets back to Saigon from Rach Gia in order to catch our flight to Australia in time. It meant that we would have to leave Phu Quoc island a day earlier than we wanted in order to make the flight. Once we arrived on Phu Quoc though we did some ground work and found that we would be able to stay an extra day if we cancelled the flight and took a morning ferry back to the mainland on the same day that we flew to Australia (you following?). It would mean pushing it really close - it was a three-hour ferry ride early in the morning, then a six hour bus ride back to Saigon to catch our 21:00 flight to Brisbane. We decided to go for it. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that Vietnam Airlines allows you to refund an unused flight ticket for up to ONE YEAR; we would only have to pay a small percentage in administration fees. In the end, we did make it to the Saigon airport in the nick of time. After getting ripped off in Saigon by a taxi driver who drove the long way round to run up the meter (and in the process, making us almost miss our flight) we ran into the airport and got to the check-in just in time - in fact, they began closing shop as we were still getting our bags weighed.Before all that excitement though, we enjoyed four lovely days on the beautiful island of Phu Quoc, with its white sandy beaches and amazing turquoise waters. We were again with Mark and Natalie, our last trip together before parting our separate ways as they were moving on to Cambodia, and we were heading to find jobs down under. We all checked into our rooms in a hotel right on Long Beach and settled in for some serious down time. That night Yvonne and I had a little visitor in our room. As soon as the lights went out and we were drifting off to la-la land, we were suddenly awoken by a horribly loud shrieking/chirping that sounded like it was right by our heads. I jerked up in bed, grabbed a headlamp and shone it through the mosquito net around the room. Nothing. As we lay in bed, we would hear this noise off in the distance, then, in response, the same loud noise from our room. It only happened once in a while and we were able to sleep through it mostly, but did awaken throughout the night by it. We were pretty sure it was a lizard or gecko of some sort, but we searched throughout the room the next morning and found nothing. Nothing, that is, until I opened the drawer of our armoire and saw something leathery skittle away to the back. I removed the drawer and found this huge brown/grey and red lizard stuck to the inside. This was the culprit! After the hotel staff finished laughing at us, they removed it by its neck and that was that.Our time on the island was spent on the beach reading and swimming in the calm warm waters. We rented scooters one day and drove around the island on the dusty red roads and got covered in rust colored dirt. The north of the island is covered in dense forest and the tracks lead right through them. As we drove, we heard eerie high-pitched sounds coming from the trees. It was like a sound from a horror movie - Freddie Kreuger scraping his knife-blade fingers on water pipes. We realized it was crickets or some kind of insect. The island is rimmed with long stretches of quiet, untouched beaches, a couple which we stopped at to take a refreshing dip. We were actually very surprised at how little developed it is. We were expecting something quite different. We are sure, however, that this will not last too long. It is inevitable that the big resorts will, sadly, move in. After the scooting around for hours, and all with sore asses from the bumpy ride, we spent the next several hours playing cards. On my and Yvonne's last night on the island we all went out to celebrate Mark's 32nd birthday (he is 9 days older than me) with a nice dinner at a French restaurant on the beach. Once again, the evening was topped off with some competitive card playing before we said our goodbyes. The next morning we caught the early ferry back to the mainland, took a bus to Saigon, and boarded a plane bound for Brisbane. It was the end of our eight months of traveling, from Europe through Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam. It was very anti-climatic. We were really sad to say goodbye to this lifestyle, but at the same time were excited about settling down again. We were missing the little things - the things you take for granted at home. A well-stocked fridge, home-cooked meals, cars stopping for you at cross-walks, and most of all, the English language!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199227260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199227260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vagabonderz/thebighoneymoon/1199227260/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:42:23 -0500 A newlywed couple and the ultimate test: Our journey around Europe and Asia, and a temporary settling in Australia.

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It was pretty sad to say goodbye to the sun, sand and surf (and good food) of Jungle Beach, where the only sound was puppies playing and waves crashing. Before heading into Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City, but we prefer Saigon because it just sounds better, and is quicker to say) we had a brief overnight stay in Nha Trang, a beach resort town and gateway to the Vietnamese capital. It was a horrible tourist trap of a town with a bad vibe, and even our short time there was too much. We did have some trouble on our way out of town though. On all the overnight tourist buses we'd taken to this point, they had all been first come first serve when it came to beds. We were among the first to board the bus and claimed some good ones for ourselves. The bus "organizer" started yelling at us to get to the back of the bus, but we refused, knowing that there were no reserved seats (the back is NOT somewhere you want to get stuck as they cram you in like sardines). This guy kept yelling and threatening to kick us off the bus or, if we didn't leave, the bus wouldn't go to Saigon. We stuck our ground, insisting that he show us someone's ticket that had reserved seat numbers. He never did this, so we stayed put. As the bus drove around hotel to hotel and filled up, it became clear that some did indeed have reserved seats, but most did not. The last two passengers, a German couple, got on the bus and after being told they to get in the back of the bus they started a commotion and insisted that they had reserved seats, in fact the ones we had occupied. Too bad for us because in the end, the bus organizer finally played his trump card and told the staff to take our bags off the bus. This is when we knew we had lost and moved. If he had been nice and polite about the whole thing, we would have moved at the beginning. It really just became a matter of principle when he so quickly elevated the situation and lost his temper. It was actually pretty funny to us to get him riled up like that. We arrived in Saigon on New Year's Eve just after six in the morning and woke up the staff at our hostel to let us in and store our bags as they cleaned our rooms. We happily found a place to have breakfast to kill time. After checking into our rooms we made a walking tour of the city. It is very different than Hanoi - it felt roomier with the bigger and wider streets, but one thing that was the same was the traffic. More cars, motorbikes and scooters filled the larger roads. Locals were busying themselves setting up stages, blocking off roads and putting up lights in preparation for the night's festivities. After brief naps in the late afternoon we got ourselves dolled up and hit the streets. We were a group of eight as a few friends of Mark's met up with us and another Aussie girl we met in the hotel joined us. After a sub-par meal, which included them leaving out some of our dishes, we headed to an open-air bar on the corner of a busy (not with cars, but with people) street. The mood was very festive and I think the locals were enjoying themselves just watching the foreigners drink themselves silly and act like lunatics. Half-way through the night the bar jacked up its drink prices by about four times the real price, so everyone started crossing the street to buy cheap drinks at the little market and going back to the bar. We readied ourselves for 2008 with small bags of glittering confetti and a bottle of bubbly and popped it when the clock struck midnight. Everyone surrounding us were covered head to toe in glitter. Shortly after, we left the bar and walked along the packed pedestrianized streets. We stopped for a bit at a stage with a Vietnamese rock cover band belting out Bon Jovi's "It's My Life".After a couple more brief stops at drinking establishments, the night ended at about 2 AM and, with Mark's persistence, culminated with me playing a couple songs on a borrowed guitar for the Vietnamese-packed place, who all clapped along at my drunken rendition of Kenny Rogers "The Gambler". It was a New Year's to remember!
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