Adventures of Pamela and Dave

Natural Bridge - Rainforest Fun for All

2012-06-07T15:01:00.000+10:00

The view from inside the cave at Natural Bridge

The Gold Coast of Australia is famous for many things including seemingly endless stretches of golden beaches, theme parks galore, second to none fishing and boating, non-stop nightlife and lavish hotels. What many people don’t know is that the Gold Coast region is home to amazing sub-tropical rainforests and beautiful mountainous regions and valleys where you can escape the crowds at the beach or theme park and still enjoy a great day outdoors.

Our three nephews, ages 2.5, 7 and 8, and their mom were visiting so we needed an activity the whole family could enjoy. Extreme trekking was out and we had already done enough shopping for one weelks time. We looked through the tourist magazines and decided to visit a place called Natural Bridge in the Springbrook National Park. Located about an hours’ drive from Surfers Paradise is where you’ll find this family friendly outdoor paradise. The drive itself is almost worth the trip, you’ll go through some amazing countryside, truly indicative of country Australia, where small towns and large farms dominate the landscape.

Pamela proves you're never too old for rope swings

Pulling into the empty parking lot on a weekday afternoon we were soon off on the well signposted one kilometer track. Along the way we marveled at the sheer size of the magnificent trees and varied collection of flora. This area is part of the Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage Area and we certainly saw why as we were soon immersed in the rainforest. Along the way there are many signs detailing different plant species of the rainforest. Also along the way are the many Tarzan type vines which were great fun for kids both young and old. The track drops down into a small valley, crosses a creek via a wooden bridge and then climbs back up to the actual Natural Bridge formation.

Quickly scurrying ahead I saw my first glimpse of the Natural Bridge formation and was very impressed. The photos I had seen didn’t really do this cave with a waterfall coming down through the middle of it justice. By themselves the cave would be awesome and the waterfall awesome, put them together and you’ve got a sight to see. The large hole in the cave from the waterfall erosion allows light to penetrate the cave giving you a surreal sense of awe experienced at any great natural landscape.

Once at the formation you can follow the path deep into the cave for great photo opportunities, just beware that you might get a bit wet and the path could be a bit slippery. While in the cave you’ll probably notice a pungent smell, yes, that’s bat poop. Way past the trail end at the back of the cave are quite a few bats, but it’s a cave and that’s where bats live, we didn’t have any issues with the bats except for the smell. If visiting later in the afternoon then you might want to stick around for dark as then you’ll have the opportunity to see the cave’s resident glow worms. Other attractions in the Gold Coast will charge you to see their glow worms, here you can see them for free and stay as long as you’d like. Just remember to bring a torch with spare batteries for the walk back to your car if you’re planning to stay into the night.

We loved the Natural Bridge and already looking forward to going back. It’s a great place for individuals or those travelling with families to visit, not to mention it’s a great value, with the only expense being your cost for petrol to get there. Other attractions in the area will charge you for a similar rainforest experience, here it’s free. We made the mistake of visiting a park that charges for their rainforest walk before we visited Natural Bridge. We found the Natural Bridge trail just as well signposted with educational information and an equally good experience, plus you have the added benefit of the cave and waterfall. Additionally, any other place in the area will charge you to enter their man-made cave to see glow worms, here it’s free.

Here are a few tips if you’re planning a visit to Natural Bridge:

- No matter what time of year it’s always a good idea to bring a jacket or jumper. It’s always several degrees colder in the Hinterland, especially under the canopy of the rainforest.

- Bring a torch/flashlight with spare batteries if you’re planning to stick around until dark to check out the glow worms.

- There’s not much in the way of food nearby so it’s a good idea to bring your own snacks, or better yet plan for a picnic.

- There are drop toilets at the trail head but nothing along the trail itself.

I would definitely recommend a trip to the Natural Bridge during your stay on the Gold Coast, especially if you’re here visiting from another country. The Hinterland is a beautiful place and a ‘must do’. You’ll be thankful you did.

More info on the Natural Bridge including directions can be found here: http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/things-to-see-and-do/natural-bridge-rainforest-circuit/index.cfm

Take a look at some of our photos from our day at Natural Bridge:

There are plenty of trees to hide-out in.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Our Least Favourite Hotels

2012-06-05T16:10:00.002+10:00

Okay, we did a list of favourite hotels so I guess it’s time to do a list of the hotels we liked the least on our around the world honeymoon. During our nine month honeymoon we stayed at over 70 different properties ranging from rough campsites to five star properties. This list of our least favourite hotels is in no particular order:

Hotel Tulsi, Pokhara, Nepal
Two words: Bed Bugs

Royale Residency Hotel, Agra, India
There was nothing royal about this place. Our room on the 6^th floor was adjacent to a large construction or demolition sight, we couldn’t tell if they were building up or tearing down. It’s too hot to work during the day so most of the construction occurs at night so it’s very loud. The dust from the project carries through the hotels ventilation system, eventually causing something close to an asthma attack. One night, never again.

Park Hyatt Paris, Paris, France
The only five star hotel on this list and quite possibly the most expensive hotel of our entire trip. I’m a Hyatt fan with this being one of six Hyatts we stayed at during our trip. At the time we stayed the average room went for around $900 US a night. We found the staff very unfriendly and everything severely overpriced for the poor service you were receiving. This was our honeymoon, with only two nights in Paris we were so looking forward to this hotel, not once did we receive any help for anything. My wife accidently left a sweater in our hotel room. After we left we called the hotel and the sweater had mysteriously vanished. Sad to say but probably my least favourite hotel of our whole trip.

Sipahi Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey
Our sink in the thing that resembled a bathroom was literally falling off and unusable. The shower worked a little but the heater didn’t. Not a good place to stay in the cold.

El Tonsy Hotel, Cairo, Egypt
Okay, this place scared the crap out of me. The hotel itself occupied floors 16 – 18 of an otherwise empty building. The elevator was terrifying, often only opening its doors when you were halfway between floors, forcing you to crawl out and hope the thing didn’t start again. Worst of all, you could see outside when you looked up in the elevator. Yes, there was no roof. I was so glad it didn’t rain during our stay. Other bad things about this place was the constant smell of cat piss, terrible and overpriced food and a constant feeling that you were being watched.

Courtyard Marriott Miami Airport West, Miami, USA
We booked this hotel specifically because of the late night free airport shuttle. The hotel had us waiting over an hour on arrival at the airport. We called numerous times and were always given the runaround with terrible customer service.

Cedar Creek Resort, Gold Coast, Australia
Two more words: Bed Bugs

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Feel free to post any feedback.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

A Look at Expenses from our Around the World Honeymoon.

2012-06-05T15:18:00.004+10:00

You can't put a price tag on this much fun.

Thinking of planning a trip around the world? It's really not that expensive and honestly worth however much money you spend. You can't put a price tag on the fun you'll have and the lifelong memories you'll make.

Now that we’ve been back for about a month, I’ve had some time to analyze expenses incurred during our 268 day honeymoon and come up with hopefully helpful information to others embarking on long-term travel. For those of you not following our travels, we were married in Fiji last August and immediately departed on a trip encompassing 20 countries and 100,000+ kilometers, finishing up at the end of April in Australia. This was our dream honeymoon and therefore we had a much larger budget than we normally would have given ourselves on this type of trip.

We’re now living on the Gold Coast and trying to fit back into a normal everyday routine, all the while greatly missing our travels. Each day we find ourselves looking at photos from our adventures and dreaming of our next big trip, whenever/wherever that may be.

Below you’ll find a small list of basic expenses in US dollars and averages per day when appropriate. These figures are based on two of and include a brief explanation.

Lodging Cost: $10,170.44
Average Per Day: $37.95
We booked and paid for our own lodging except when on an organized tour. When we booked our own lodging we stayed in at least three star properties except the infrequent night of camping. Lodging prices fluctuated based on the country we were located on with the most expensive being the Maldives and the cheapest being Cambodia. This cost doesn’t take into account fifteen nights we used on hotel points or the seven nights on a cruise. While on our road trip through Australia we only booked timeshare bonus weeks giving us super cheap and semi-decent accommodation. We could have easily reduced this number down by any number of ways including hostels, couch surfing, camping and not staying in pool villas, but it was our honeymoon.

Food Cost: $9540.43
Average Per Day: $35.60
Our second biggest expense was no surprise. We love to eat and thoroughly enjoyed trying the local cuisine in every country we visited. Some may be shocked this number is so high, especially considering we were travelling through relatively cheap countries, but like I said before, we love to eat. The high cost is mostly due to us not cooking for six straight months. We mainly ate two meals a day, with large breakfasts holding us over until dinner. Once we started our two month road trip we cooked most meals which greatly reduced our meal costs. It was money well spent except the $15 coffees from the Park Hyatt Paris. I’m still irked about that.

Local Transportation Cost: $2938.08
Average Per Day: $10.96
Definitely a big expense but also some of the most fun expenses. This category includes all types of local transportation but doesn’t include any air travel. Types of transportation included are: Train, Bus, Car, Taxi, Minivan, Boat, Ferry, Camel, Donkey, Tuk-Tuk (so many tuk-tuks), Horse and Carriage, Songthaew and many more. This also includes petrol and parking costs during our two month road trip through Australia. Surprisingly the most costly portion of our trip transportation wise was the petrol costs in Australia.

Souvenir Cost: $1159.96
Average Per Day: $4.33
This number could and probably should have been quite a bit higher. Pamela is the shopper between the two of us and I gave her a bit too much grief over souvenirs. In retrospect, I would have much rather stayed in cheaper accommodation and bought more stuff to bring home and as gifts. In any case, we did get something from every country including magnets and stamps. The biggest problem we had was carrying the extra stuff. We had one bag each which was already full.

Tipping Cost: $896.18
Average Per Day: $3.34
Tips for porters, guides, drivers, leaders etc are one of those expenses that I found hard to plan for. How much tipping we did depended greatly on the country we were in and whether or not we were on a tour. For the most part the tips were well earned so it’s all good. One thing to mention is that this number does not include tips for dining at restaurants as I calculated that as part of the food cost.

Visas and Departure Tax: $732.71
Unfortunately there’s no getting around this expense if you want to travel to many countries. India was by far our most expensive (and biggest pain) Visa with Vietnam coming in a close second. Thankfully the only departure tax we had to pay was in Jordan when we left via ferry.

Shipping: $205.73
With all the souvenirs comes shipping costs. We didn’t really spend that much with the bulk of this coming from one shipment to the US from Thailand and one shipment to Australia from Turkey. Unfortunately the only time we ever had anything stolen from our postage was shipping a small parcel something from Abu Dhabi to Sydney, otherwise the international postage was all good.

ATM Cost: $135.62
Average Per Day .51 Cents
This is one of those nuisance expenses. We weighed the cost of carrying large amounts of currency around with us before the trip and decided it would be safer to just use ATMs when cash was required. When purchasing things we tried to use our credit card as much as possible as we have a card with no international transaction fees. We found the most expensive countries to withdraw money in were Thailand and Nepal with an average cost around $5 US dollars.

Toilets: $18.82
Another nuisance expense but a necessity are costs to use the toilet. Thankfully many countries don’t charge for using the toilet. We accrued most of these costs in the Middle East. I think even looking at the WC in Turkey costs money, not to mention the constant allure of the tea.

I hope this article helps others planning a trip and we always welcome your comments or questions. There are obviously other costs associated with a trip of this magnitude and I hope to include some of those, including insurance and medical costs, along with lessons learned, on a future post.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

The Warrie Circuit Walking Track – A Gold Coast Highlight

2012-05-31T11:36:00.000+10:00

Seventeen kilometers of beautiful sub-tropical rainforest track, seven waterfalls and amazing vistas make the Warrie Circuit walking track a highlight of any visit to the Gold Coast. When some people think of the Gold Coast they immediately think of long stretches of beautiful beach, great surfing, boating and theme parks. What some people don’t realize is the Gold Coast contains some great hiking and biking tracks just a short drive from Surfers Paradise. In fact, it’s one of the reasons we moved here, not many other places give you such easy access to beautiful beaches and amazing mountain scenery.

A forty minute drive from our home in Surfers Paradise brought us to the Tallanbana Picnic Area where we started our adventure on the Warrie Circuit. The Aboriginal word Warrie means ‘rushing water’ and truly defines this walking track. Leaving our car we slowly descended into sub-tropical rainforest where we were treated to magnificent views up the vertical canyon walls. Following the well sign-posted trail we continued right bypassing the Twin Falls Trail (more about that on a future article). Goomoolahra Falls, the first falls visible on the track, quickly comes into view. Several photos later we were on our way deeper into the rainforest.

The walking track zips further and further into the rainforest canopy where you’re soon surrounded by amazing examples of flora and fauna. Gigantic trees spring towards the sun and beautiful ferns line the single track. On the walk we saw several small wallabies and many different species of birds. What we didn’t see was many people, we did the trail on a Monday and came across three other hikers in the five hours plus on the trail. Due to the large amount of water in the area the trail can get a bit boggy in some parts. We did it on a very sunny day and still found areas of mud which require a bit more care to pass.

Two hours into the trek we came across the Ngarri-dhum falls where we had a break and took some photos before starting the trek across the canyon floor towards ‘Meeting of the Waters’, a beautiful spot where all the creeks of the canyon converge into one. At the 10 kilometer mark, this is a great place to stop and eat some lunch with plenty of large rocks to sit on and enjoy the view. From ‘Meeting of the Waters’ you will start your ascent up from the canyon floor where you will come across views of Gooroolba Falls, Poonyahra Falls, Poondahrya Falls and Blackfellow Falls before reaching the rim at Canyon Lookout. This last seven kilometer stretch was the most difficult portion of the trek as it’s primarily all uphill. Don’t let this deter you though, the uphill really isn’t that steep and it’s definitely worth it for the amazing scenery.

The full loop took us a little over five hours and that’s stopping to take a lot of pictures. We would recommend someone with a moderate fitness level and ankle supported hiking shoes try the full Warrie Circuit in one day. Leave yourself five or six hours to follow the well sign-posted track. This should give you plenty of time to enjoy the views and take plenty of photos. Also keep in mind that the Springbrook area is nearly 1000 meters above sea-level and therefore can be much cooler than other areas of the Gold Coast. We packed plenty of water, rain jackets and trekking sweaters just in case. We went in late May and Pamela found it cold for just a t-shirt. She wore her trekking jumper the whole way where I went with a t-shirt most of the way.

If you are a hiker and have a spare day in the Gold Coast area then we would definitely recommend the Warrie Circuit. On a clear day you will be treated to magnificent views back to the coast and of the surrounding mountain regions. Those looking for a little easier day will enjoy plenty of other shorter walking tracks and viewpoints in the Springbrook area so it’s definitely worth a trip. Stay tuned for future articles on other tracks and sights not to miss in the Springbrook area.

Below are some of the photos from our trek. Additional photos can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/WarriTrackSpringbrookNPGoldCoastQLD?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The trail passing through some large rocks

Control children is right

Standing behind the falls

Enjoying the falls

That's definitely not the trail.

Pamela found a hiding spot in this massive tree.

Just one of the many great trees you'll see along the track

Photo spots are endless on this track

The track is very well maintained and sign-posted.

Meeting of the Waters

Waterfall lovers will never tire of this track

Standing on the edge is optional

Towards the end, this was the last falls of the day.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Jordan in Photos - Highlights from our Time in Jordan

2012-05-21T14:00:00.000+10:00

The Jordan portion of our Honeymoon was amazing. I picked out a few photos try to capture some of the highlights of our time in Jordan. Travelling through Jordan was a great experience that shouldn't be missed.

Sunset over the Dead Sea. At night the lights of Bethlehem can be seen.

We had a great time with the Dead Sea mud.

Yes, you really can read while you float in the Dead Sea. It's that buoyant.

Relaxating, Dead Sea style

Sunsets from the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea are amazing.

The beautifully calm environment of the Dead Sea.

Looking down the jagged coastline of the Dead Sea.

Our first sight of the amazing Treasury structure in Petra.

Petra was basically empty during our visit.

Pamela makes friends quickly.

The natural colours in the rocks in Petra are amazing.

Lots of opportunities to challenge my fear of heights while hiking through Petra.

Amazing views from amazing places makes Petra a must visit.

The gigantic "Monastery" or Al-Deir is definitely worth the walk up while visiting Petra. Looking closely you can see me in the monstrous doorway.

A closer look at the doorway of the "Monastery" in Petra.

Having a lot of fun in Wadi Rum

The sand here is so very red and fine. All of our shoes were completely filled with the stuff. Even weeks later the fine sand was still seeping out.

The tented camp where we stayed in Wadi Rum. There were seven of us in the whole camp. Definitely an amazing experience and one of the highlights of our trip.

Nothing like watching the sun fall on another day in Wadi Rum. Bring a jacket, a big jacket, if you plan on visiting in the winter.

The iconic photo of camels crossing the desert at sunset in Wadi Rum. A magical experience in a magical place.

Vertical monoliths are the skyline in Wadi Rum. A climbers paradise.

The colour and texture of the landscape is something not to be forgotten.

While visiting the port city of Aqqaba, Pamela took a camel ride through town. Any place you can ride a camel down the street is okay in our book.

The ancient Roman city of Jerash is a must visit on any trip to Amman.

The remains of Jerash are a tribute to the engineering marvels of these ancient civilizations.

A collonade lined ancient street reminds us we're not in Kansas anymore while walking through Jerash.

It's hard to appreciate the magnitude of Jerash until you're standing in the middle of it.

The River Jordan provides a natural border between Jordan, near side, and Israel, far side. This interesting experience was part of our tour of the Baptism Site.

The reported site of Jesus' Baptism

The ancient map of the Promised Land in the floor at the church in common day Madaba, biblical Moab.

The view of the valley looking down from Mt. Nebo

Nothing like spotting a castle used during the Crusades while driving down the road.

Yes, Jordan is that good.

We hope you enjoyed the photos from our time in Jordan. Please let us know through comments if you have any questions about our time in Jordan.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

My Career Break – Fears, Gains and Why I’m Now More Employable

2012-05-19T19:34:00.000+10:00

The 12^th of May, 2011, marked the end of an 11 year career at my former employer and the beginning of an adventure that would take Pamela and I around the world and back again. A year later, now that we’re back in the “real world” it’s time for me to seek out new employment and start a new life in a new city. I’d like to try and describe some of the feelings and reservations I had about quitting my old job, taking a year off and hopefully finding a new job. I had made the decision to quit my job about 10 months before it actually happened so this whole experience has stretched for quite some time.

About Me

Let me start about talking a little about me and my old job. I spent most of my 11 years in one form of Information Technology role or another. I really enjoyed the job and for most of the time felt blessed to work for a good company surrounded by good people. I always seemed to be working on fun projects which taught me quite a bit about different aspects of Information Technology and really took advantage of my organization and planning skills. Yes, I’m a planner. I was promoted a few times during my tenure and didn’t really consider myself a slouch when it came to work, I felt interested and motivated for the most part and think I did a relatively decent job. What I’m trying to get at is that I’m employable and worth a decent salary, at least hope that I’m employable.

Oh Crap
About five months prior to quitting I went through what I would call an extremely nervous phase which I refer to as the “Oh Crap” phase. It lasted about a month. Cyclical thoughts of negativity ran through my mind which had me doubting my skills, experience, personality and therefore ability to one day get a new job. Not only was I taking a year off and living off savings, but I would eventually be looking for a new job in a new city in a new country where I knew few people. Needless to say I was scared. Some of the questions and thoughts that ran through my head were:

Would I find a job doing similar work? I’ll need to support myself.
Will I forget everything I know? I don’t want to take a huge pay cut.
Are employers going to think poorly of my for taking a year off?

Thankfully I had a very supportive fiancé at the time who helped me through this negative phase, whether she knew it or not. Overall I’d say this phase lasted about a month and caused me quite a few sleepless nights. Interesting enough I never had these type of feelings when it came to getting married, it was strictly about losing my job and therefore means of financial support. I would also be holding back if I didn’t say that I had some of these same thoughts while we were travelling. Unfortunately my fear sometimes got the best of me and I’d lose a night or two of sleep thinking about this crap.

Oh Yeah
Negativity gone. It was awesome to think that in just a few months I’d be married, debt free, jobless, homeless and travelling the world one country at a time with my new wife. No Blackberry, no daily grind, no commute, no conference calls, no notes……WAHOOOOO, I was stoked. Most days I came to work happy as a clam. In some cases I think I developed a short timer syndrome but I really tried to stay as functional and responsive as possible. I’m sure my coworkers would have some input into how functional and responsive I actually was. In either case, I tried my best to get my work done and leave on a high note. I didn’t much care whether or not I’d find another job, I just knew that I was leaving this one, getting married and travelling around the world.

Time to Go
Turning in my keycard and Blackberry then walking out of work on my last day was one of the best feelings I can remember. Not that I don’t miss the crew from work, they’re all awesome. I just felt great to be un-tethered. All that was left to do was work on plans for our Fijian Wedding and get ideas for our round-the-world trip. It was at this point that we got our finances together and determined an adequate budget for our big trip ensuring we’d have enough left over to set up somewhere new. The thought of spending so much money was a bit daunting but I knew it would be worth it.

Going, Going, Gone
The wedding and honeymoon were amazing. Over the course of time the plans changed and we ended up staying on the road for approximately nine months versus our original planned year. During the nine months we visited 20 countries and travelled well over a hundred thousand kilometers. Our forms of transportation ranged from first class airfare to a donkey in the Middle East. It was such a great experience and one that will live in our hearts and mind forever. From a budget stand-point we ended our trip with a couple thousand dollars to spare, another reason to be happy.

Next Steps
With the trip over it’s time to start life over in a place called the Gold Coast. We chose this location because of the nearby activities, cost of living, job prospects, weather and overall atmosphere. So far we love it and spend as much time as we can outdoors, whether by the pool, at the beach or in the nearby mountains.

Now it’s time for me to polish up my resume and start applying for jobs. Unfortunately those same questions and negative thoughts start to circulate in my head. This time with a bit of added pressure as we need to pay our new found bills. Thankfully some of the answers to my thoughts are starting to work themselves out.

Would I find a job doing similar work? Although not a huge job market, there does appear to be IT jobs available here in the Gold Coast with some pretty decent positions coming available every couple weeks.
Will I forget everything I know? I did forget some things but overall I say I retained more than I thought I would. What I did forget appear to be small details but my overall knowledge base seems to be intact.
I don’t want to take a huge pay cut. Thankfully jobs here seem to pay more so I hope to be looking at a little rise in my salary. Granted cost of living is a bit higher so it will probably work out even-steven.
Are employers going to think poorly of my for taking a year off? From talking to various recruiters it doesn’t appear my year off should hurt my employability too much. Thankfully the year off thing is more common here in Australia.

What I’ve Gained
Yes, I’ve forgot a few things in the year off work but overall I think I’ve gained far more than I’ve lost. I’d even go as far to say that I’m probably more employable now than I was before my year off. You may laugh at that statement but here are some of the reasons why my year abroad made me a more employable person:
Increased Self Confidence: This endeavor and associated experiences has given me a much greater sense of self confidence. Self confidence is helpful in any job and increased self confidence will aid in decision making, allow more autonomous thinking and I open up leadership potential, and or, make me someone a better leader.

Improved Interpersonal Skills: Let’s face it, in this era of globalization the chance of you doing business with someone culturally different from you on a daily basis is pretty high. Travelling the world gave me the opportunity to live amongst and meet people from so many different cultures far different from my own. I’d like to think that doing so has taught me how to more effectively and appropriately communicate with people from these various cultures. I saw how locals were raised and lived in countries whom I routinely communicated with, thus giving me a bit more insight into a culture and therefore a person which I didn’t have before.

Additionally, language barriers are sometimes not a bad thing. I think that I, as an American, tend to be too wordy at times. Existing in a place where English is hardly spoken taught me to use less words when communicating, basically not muddying the waters with my jibber-jabber, when all I needed to do was say the most direct words to get my desired outcome.

Improved Negotiation Skills: Many people negotiate at work, for someone in sales it might be on a regular basis and their negotiation tactics directly impact their take home pay. Others, like someone in Information Technology (IT), may negotiate on a rare basis and their tactics may not directly impact their take home pay. Thus the person in IT has far fewer opportunities to negotiate and less of a reason to improve their tactics. Prior to leaving on our trip I’d done a bit of travelling and had honed my basic negotiation skills on short two week trips here and there. I wasn’t very good at it and generally gave in pretty quick.

Anyone who’s travelled a bit knows that negotiation skills are essential to ensuring you pay a fair price for most things. Negotiating for goods, transportation, laundry, lodging, food and just about everything under the sun is a routine occurrence while abroad. Doing this over a two-week holiday is one thing but doing it over an extended period of time is a whole different animal altogether. Thankfully I had Pamela with me to show me the ropes, at the beginning of the trip I was a rookie. Over time the constant negotiation for everything taught me how to more effectively get what I want at a price that was both fair to me and to the person providing the goods or service. This taught me not to show my hand, when to walk away, when to keep pushing and when negotiation was absolutely futile. This experience was gleaned across multiple cultures where negotiating could be slightly different in each region and when the goods or services I was negotiating for directly impacted our bottom line. In any case, I’m a far better negotiator now than I ever was at my old job.

Increased Positive Attitude: Before I left I like to think I had a pretty good outlook on life and didn’t complain all too much. Since embarking on this trip I have a new perspective and even greater appreciation for life. I truly understand that I shouldn’t really complain about anything in my life. Witnessing and living amongst intense poverty for extended periods of time has taught me to appreciate what I have and what we in the western world can sometimes take for granted. Nothing I’m ever asked to undergo in any workplace would be as bad not having food on the table or a toilet to use.

On a less serious note there are certain experiences which I’ll always be able to look back on for comparison. No meeting will ever be as bad as a 17 hour bus ride through the back roads of Cambodia listening to Cambodian karaoke. No overnight work project could ever be as bad as our 2^nd class train voyages through India and no conference calls could ever be as bad as our terrible overnight train experience from Luxor to Cairo. These are the type of experiences that I look back and laugh on now but ultimately give me a more positive outlook on any situation and provide some good stories in the process.

Aftermath
If asked whether I’d do it all over, the answer is unequivocally yes. This has been a great experience that no money nor corporate job could ever provide. Not to mention I’m now married to the most wonderful woman on the planet. Looking back, I should have done this when I was 18 years old and then again when I was 25 and then again when I was 30.

Only time will tell whether or not I succeed in finding a good permanent job but as long as I stay positive I think it will all work out. Thankfully Pamela is highly employable as a Travel Consultant and has already started her new job which has greatly reduced any financial pressure we were feeling. Our big trip has only added to her travel resume and given her much more insight into the world of travel sales.

Hopefully this long post will help someone else who may be thinking about a career break. I’d definitely recommend.

Cheers for Now –

Dave

How We Used United Frequent Flyer Miles to Travel the Globe

2012-05-17T13:25:00.001+10:00

Airfare can often be the most expensive portion of a trip, especially if travelling to dollar friendly destinations such as Asia or South America. With that in mind, I'm going to try and describe how and why we were able to use frequent flyer miles to save money on our airfare during our round-the-world Honeymoon and provide you with some helpful tips at the bottom.

It Started as a Dream.

Seven or eight years ago I developed a dream that at some point I’d quit my job and take a trip around the world. A dream it was, to start I really had no idea where I wanted to go, what I’d do and how I’d finance my big trip. At the time I was travelling a bit for pleasure and found I really loved exploring new places, interacting with local cultures, trying new foods and most of all learning about the history of a region. Truth be told, I never thought I would actually have the guts to quit my job, get rid of my belongings, at least most of them and travel the world. After all it was just a dream…

Where Rubber Meets the Runway

At the time I was making a living as an “IT Guy”in Southern California and travelling for pleasure quite a bit, mostly by air, although never on a consistent airline. Self-doubting aside, to help me realize my dream I decided that I’d use frequent flyer miles to purchase most, if not all, the airfare for my big trip if and when I actually went. With this in mind I started flying the same airline and network of airlines, in this case United and Star Alliance, whenever I could. I chose United for a several reasons; LAX was one of their HUB airports offering many flights to many destinations daily, United was part of the Star Alliance and therefore had worldwide reach with their affiliate airlines, lastly I felt their frequent flyer program, Mileage Plus, offered the most benefits for frequent flyers.

Next I registered for the United Airlines credit card and used it to buy everything and I mean everything from groceries to utilities to the kitchen sink. To this day I don’t think I’ve ever paid a dollar of interest on that card which in my opinion is the only way to do it. Credit card in hand I made sure I booked all my flights on United or partner airlines whenever possible and economically feasible. I flew in and around North America on United, I flew to Europe and Africa on Swiss, I flew to China on Air China, South America on Taca and eventually to Australia numerous times on United. For the record I did not fly exclusively on United or partner airlines as in some instances another airline would be so much cheaper that it would be dumb not to fly them. In that case, I made sure I was part of theirs, or a partner of theirs, frequent flyer program to accrue at least some miles or points.

Once I was in the United “elite” category of flyer I was also given other perks like extra checked bags, lounge access, the occasional upgrade and most important of all a mileage bonus for every flight on United I took. The mileage bonus points started out small but soon graduated to a 100% bonus for every flight. For example, on my Los Angeles to Sydney flights I was received the approximate 7400 miles flown plus a 100% bonus bringing up the miles accrued to almost 15,000 miles each way. This makes a roundtrip from L.A. to Sydney worth nearly 30,000 miles to my mileage plus account and as you’ll soon see, I did this quite frequently. Not to mention that United was also one of the cheaper L.A. to Sydney return flights with my average cost of a ticket being somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 USD. Pay dirt, especially for someone stockpiling miles for a big trip.

While stockpiling my miles I did have the occasion to use miles a couple of times to book trips. This taught me a bit about the system including how far in advance you can book, 330 days, and the different type of award. I wanted the cheapest in Economy Saver, which normally was nearly half the miles required to book a Standard Award ticket. Check out the current United/Star Alliance Award and Upgrade Chart to see the differences between a Saver and Standard ticket. In most cases you really need to book in advance to capitalize on the seats requiring the fewest miles.

My Dream Resurrected

Five or six years on I had almost given up the thought of quitting my job and travelling the world. I was content with the job I had and the occasional holiday break which always ended up right back where it started. It was then, on my 30^th birthday by chance, I was on a two week safari in Africa when my life was changed forever. I met a very special Australian girl, Pamela, who would eventually become my wife. As you can imagine a long distance relationship between America and Australia is not an ideal one. It took many long flights and sleepless nights from both of us to make our relationship work. Thankfully she stayed with me in America for quite a while before heading back to Australia. The plan was for me to quit my job, move to Australia and for us to get married. Then my dream hit me like a bat, we could use this time to take an around-the-world trip for our Honeymoon.

Planning and Booking our Departure

It was time my dream finally became reality and we started planning. With about 10 months before our wedding date we started planning our dream Honeymoon. We had such a great time choosing destinations, some were places we’d been individually but most were places we’d both never been and both always wanted to go. Once a departure date was set and a tentative roadmap in place it was time to call United to book our plane tickets.

Initially we considered booking Round-the-World award tickets at a cost of 200,000 miles each. In talking to United and reading the fine print we soon decided against this type of ticket as we didn’t see much flexibility once we started our trip. All segments of the trip were booked together and therefore nothing could be changed. This wouldn’t do for us, we wanted the ability to cancel an existing portion of our trip if wanted or needed. It turned out to be the right decision as our plans changed several times during our trip which required changes or cancellations. In most cases when you cancel an award ticket you are charged a fee for that cancellation, the fee itself could be more than the actual tax you paid on that ticket. Fortunately for us I was a United “1K” member at the time and therefore any changes or cancellations to our award tickets could be done fee free.

We decided to book a series of one way award tickets that would take us all over the world and also give us the greatest flexibility in the event of a change or cancellation in our plans. At this point I started booking the award tickets with United over the phone. I used the http://www.staralliance.com website ahead of time to check for all available flights to a particular destination. Once I had our desired flight I would call United to check if they had Saver award seats available on the flight(s). In most cases I did get the flights I was after as I was booking in advance. I can only think of one instance where I didn’t get the flights I wanted and ended up on three different flights to get to Los Angeles from Abu Dhabi.

How it all Worked Out?

When all was said and done we used 11 one way Saver award tickets each at a cost totaling 475,000 miles and $891 USD in taxes. We had initially booked several more award tickets but cancelled due to changes in our plans. There were instances where we couldn’t use miles, flying to the Maldives, or it didn’t make sense to use miles, like from Miami to St. Thomas, where we ended up just paying for our tickets. Overall we visited 20 countries over 9 months and flew nearly 83,000 kilometers doing it. During our trip we utilized the following Star Alliance carriers for our award flights: Thai, Lufthansa, Aegean, Turkish, Egypt Air, Air New Zealand and United. Non Star Alliance carriers we flew for various reasons were Southwest, Delta, Sri Lankan, Vietnam Airlines and Jet Airways.

Money Saved

Unfortunately award tickets are still not free. There are still taxes to pay when booking a ticket and the taxes you pay could depend on the airline chosen, segments and the arrival/destination of the flight. Over the 11 trips, 22 tickets in total, we paid an average of $81 dollars in taxes per trip and a total of $891 USD. In my opinion this is a great average and total, especially considering the high taxes I’ve seen on booking award tickets on other airlines, Qantas in particular.

Next it’s time to calculate the savings we achieved booking award tickets vs the cheapest available flight. When I booked an award ticket for a certain segment I also found the cheapest available flight for purchase for that same segment and compared the cost of the award ticket flight taxes vs the cost of buying the fare on the cheapest carrier. Please keep in mind that most of the times the cheapest carrier was an airline not known for their quality, service, food or safety standards and more often than not involved many connections over multiple days. Think Aeroflot and Air India. In the end I calculated we saved a total of $6,683.00 USD using the award tickets vs the cheapest available carrier. This works out to be a dollar value of .016 cents per frequent flyer mile used.

Would I do it Again?

Absolutely, without a doubt. What’s not calculated in the total savings are the many-many hours we were able to spend in Business Class lounges all over the world as part of my Star Alliance Gold privileges. Many meals and showers were had at those lounges, we may have looked a bit scabby at some points of the trip but were sure glad to know we had a lounge to get cleaned up at before our flight. What’s also not factored in are the excess bags we were able to take, sometimes several, and the amount of time spared by accessing the Star Alliance Gold lines/kiosks at airports throughout the world. In most cases we were given seat priority, special attention and the occasional upgrade which made it all the more worth it.

Tips

I don’t profess myself to be an expert but here are some things I learned that may help someone else:

Stick with one airline and one alliance whenever possible. I vote Star Alliance but that’s just my opinion
Star Alliance Gold status definitely helped us throughout the trip. Research the different award programs and find out if any programs allow you to get to Gold status faster than others.
Get the airline credit card and use it for everything. Just don’t pay any interest on it as the interest rates are usually a bit higher and negate the money you’d save on award tickets. It’s hard enough to swallow the annual fee that comes along with the cards.
Once reaching elite status, try and fly as much as possible on that airline. The bonuses will help.
Register for every bonus opportunity that comes up no matter if you don’t think it will apply to you. You never know what will have you flying out of Denver or Miami for a particular reason.
Don’t convert your hotel rewards over to airline miles. You might be surprised I’m saying this but I never saw the value in it. You’ll earn more rewards sticking with the hotel point program which you can use along the way. I prefer Hyatt but that’s just me.
Don't be too distraught if your particular award seat is not available. Availability can sometimes change so keep checking back.
Be creative. Sometimes you might not be able to get the award ticket you're after but there could be a nearby airport that does have tickets available. For example, I've never seen award seats to Male, Maldives but I have seen plenty to the nearby island nation of Sri Lanka. You can always purchase tickets for the shorter route.
Never, never, never give up on your dream, whatever that dream may be. Quitting my job and travelling around the world has been the best thing to ever happen to me.

I hope this article helps you out on your travels. As always, I welcome your feedback.

Cheers for Now –

Dave

Honeymoon Favourites – Hotels and Resorts

2012-05-16T16:07:00.000+10:00

During our extended Honeymoon we were fortunate, or sometimes unfortunate, to stay at over 70 different lodging accommodations over 270 nights. The accommodations ranged from basic camp sites with no services to luxury five star properties with all the services you could possibly imagine. Albeit there were many more four and five star hotels than basic camp sites but it's our Honeymoon so we had to splurge

This list is our top eight hotels/resorts factoring in location, value, amenities, food and service:

1. Sheraton Full Moon Resort and Spa, Maldives

The Sheraton is such an amazing place and was our true Honeymoon. It all starts just after you clear immigration and customs at the Male airport. Your boat drivers are there to meet you and escort you to the resorts speedboat where you are soon zoomed over to the private island that is the Sheraton. Our room, an private and freestanding Ocean Bure, came complete with our own plunge pool, unobstructed views of the ocean and sunrise, espresso machine, outdoor shower, magnificent bathroom including huge standalone tub and the most comfortable bed you could ever hope for. Especially after spending the previous 20 days in Nepal.

When not enjoying our Ocean Suite we swam in the crystal blue waters of the Indian Ocan, snorkeled, went to the gym and took many-many photos. Some of which can be seen in our Paradise Part 1 and Part 2 articles. Finding a good meal was not a problem on this piece of paradise. There are several well-priced restaurants at the resort. We normally ate so much at the breakfast buffet that we couldn’t eat again until dinner. Having been travelling in Asia for a while I already, I loved the beef burger and fries. The Maldives are a dream destination for many, including us, and definitely lives up to the bill. We’re already talking about going back as soon as we can.

2. Six Senses Hideaway Resort and Spa, Hua Hin, Thailand

This was our first stay at a Six Senses property and boy were we impressed. Upon check-in your private butler escorts you to your suite where you’re given the grand tour which includes your private plunge pool, espresso maker (you can tell this does it for me), outdoor bath and shower, entertainment system and 24hr a day phone number for service. Whatever we needed at whatever time, we were instructed to call the butler service. The resort grounds are beautifully tended and stimulate your ultimate relaxation. If your tired of your private pool you can visit the the large, ocean-facing, pool for the guests staying at the sister Evason property (both on the same grounds).

The food at the Six Senses was second to none. Home-made ice cream from the bar and milkshake and smoothie concoctions that soothed your soul had us convinced already that we were in our own culinary heaven. It wasn’t until we tried the Beach, the resorts Italian restaurant that we discovered true bliss. An ocean-view and fresh lemongrass set the stage for a true culinary delight. No matter what we ate, my favourite was the cannelloni, we could tell the meal was prepared to the highest standards possible and used the best ingredients. If you prefer Thai, the resorts indoor/outdoor Thai restaurant serves amazing Thai dishes under the stars while you enjoy live music. We really loved this resort and hopefully will return to either it, or another Six Senses brand property. Click here to read more on our time at this resort.

3. Hyatt Regency Sharm-El-Sheikh, Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt

When I think about this place three words come to mind: service, service and service. The only Hyatt out of several to make our top list is situated in a beautiful location on the Red Sea. The staff here really know how to make you feel special in their attention to detail and overall hospitality. If snorkeling or diving is your thing then this is a must-visit. We loved this place so much we never left the resort and you can read our entire article about our visit here: Completely Spoiled inSharm-El-Sheikh

4. Movenpick Dead Sea Resort and Spa, Dead Sea Area, Jordan

Do yourself a favour and visit Jordan. The country in a whole is a great place to visit and one of our favourite in the world. Do yourself an even bigger favour and visit the Dead Sea while in Jordan, it’s an amazing experience and definitely one not to be missed. While at the Dead Sea give yourself a huge treat and stay at the Movenpick Dead Sea Resort and Spa.

The resort is situated right on the Dead Sea and includes several great restaurants, a world-class spa (seriously world-class) and arguably is filled with some of the best ice cream in the world. In each and every eating establishment you can order any one of a range of dessert platters, ice cream coffee drinks or just plain ole’ ice cream if it suits your fancy. Pamela ended every breakfast buffet with freshly prepared pancakes topped with swiss chocolate ice cream. Heaven over and over again and all for about $130 USD a night. Come for the Dead Sea and stay for the food and dessert, you won’t regret it.

5. Le Meridien Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai, Thailand

I'm sure there are some great places to stay in Chiang Rai but for our money the Le Meridien Chiang Rai is the place to be. The amenities, service and food are all impeccable. We felt like royalty staying at this property and would go back anytime. We loved the pickup/dropoff airport service and the rides into and out of town. The property can arrange escorted tours for you at really good prices or you can go out on your own and negotiate with your own guide/driver. Overall it was a great place to spend our time in Chiang Rai.

6. Wadi Rum Camp, Wadi Rum, Jordan

The only camp to make our list and to be honest we don’t know the proper name for the camp itself. Our group of five were the only visitors at this camp which looked like it could accommodate ten times that amount. We were treated to a four wheel drive tour before heading to camp to watch the sunset and dine on one of the best meals we’d had in a long time. The freshly cooked traditional meal was cooked in the ground and was just what the taste bud Dr. ordered. Despite being below freezing that night, we were warm in our blankets and treated to a morning breakfast and fire before heading off to explore the rest of this beautiful area of Jordan. Click here to read our post from Wadi Rum

7. Nirvana Resort and Spa, Bang Bao, Koh Chang Island, Thailand

Unfortunately for us it rained, more like poured, almost the whole time we visited the Thai island of Koh Chang. Fortunately for us we were staying at Nirvana to ride out the storm. The Balinese inspired resort boasts some great rooms complete with large bath, high ceilings and monkeys who try to break-in. The monkeys weren’t the best part but it was entertaining to watch them try to open our front door. Value is what gets this property on our list. It was off-season so we paid about $30 USD a night and for were given an awesome ocean-view room complete with an amazing cooked breakfast. Dinners at the resort were equally impressive albeit the menu was a little small. The property has built walking tracks around the headland where you can catch some amazing views while relaxing on the purpose built deck. The staff are great and the DVD library was definitely a blessing during all those rainy days.

8. Tara Angkor Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia

This four star property in Siem Reap was a last-minute decision as we decided to stay a couple extra nights in Cambodia. For approximately $40 USD a night we were treated to four star standards, a full breakfast each morning and two half hour massages. The in-house restaurant serves up some amazing dishes including a fish curry in a coconut that had to be one of my favourite dishes from the whole trip. After dinner you could venture into the bar where you could play a dart game for drinks. After many days of temple touring it was great to relax and indulge ourselves at the Tara Angkor.

Hopefully our experiences can help you out on your travels. A couple notes from the author; there are three different Thai hotels on this list which hopefully shows you how good Thai service can be and two of the eight are in Jordan, we loved Jordan. As always, we welcome your feedback.

We’ll definitely be coming up with our list of least-favourite hotels very soon, some of which may surprise you.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Ready or Not. Here it comes….life that is.

2012-04-30T15:22:00.000+10:00

Is that normal life I see in the distance? Ahhhhhhh….it just might be. Although to call our lives normal to any extent is probably a bit misleading. I'm not even sure what a normal life is these days.

We haven’t posted anything in a while so I wanted to give our followers a quick update.

Eight months and twenty-eight days later I bring the unfortunate news that our Honeymoon has come to an end. Over these last 8+ months we’ve traveled 108,000 kilometers (67,500 miles) through 20 countries, stayed in over 75 different hotels and resorts and taken 18,000 photos of the most amazing people and places in the world. We had such a great time and feel so blessed to have undergone such an amazing experience. Our lives will never be the same again.

On Friday, the 27^th of April, we moved into our new apartment here in the Gold Coast. We were super stoked to land a high-rise flat with ocean views that we can call our home. I think it’s ironic that we just finished a huge trip staying at 75+ hotels, only to find ourselves living in a hotel. You’d think we’d be sick of it by now, but I guess not.

Thanks so much to everyone who followed us around the world for the last 8+ months. We’ve been super lucky to have such great family and friends who’ve supported us the whole time. In the near future we’ll be coming out with some additional articles of our favourite places, how we actually planned and executed this mammoth honeymoon and how we spent and where we saved money along the way.

What’s Next?

The bags won't stay unpacked for long. Travel is in our relationship DNA. We met traveling, married on a holiday and have spent the better part of our first year of marriage on the road. We’re by no means done traveling and have already booked our flights to North America next February and are seriously considering a trip back to the Maldives in October. In the near term we’ll be taking some weekend trips from the Gold Coast to places like the Sunshine Coast, North Stradbroke Island, Byron Bay and many more.

We’re both now looking for jobs with some good prospects on the horizon. Our blog will continue as we have a lot of writing to catch up on. We will eventually focus our efforts on posting articles based on our new area here on the Gold Coast of Australia. There’s so much to see and do in the Gold Coast and surrounding areas that we’ll have plenty to write about. Hopefully it will encourage our friends and family to visit more often.

Stay tuned for what will hopefully be some regular articles.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Our Own Piece of Paradise...

2012-04-04T20:45:00.000+10:00

Looking down on North Smoky Beach from Captain Cook Lookout

For the day at least. About 25 minutes away from the Pacific Highway near Kempsey lies the Smoky Cape Lighthouse and surrounding beaches. Perched high atop the headland in the Hat Head National Park is this beautiful lighthouse which seems to burst from the seams of a desolate wilderness. Constructed in 1891, this working lighthouse is now managed by the National Park service and is home to one of the best located Bed and Breakfasts I’ve ever seen. For a fee you can hire out one of the larger rooms on a weekly basis or stay in the B&B for the night. We didn’t stay here but would have loved to if our budget permitted.

From the parking lot of the lighthouse you are at Captain Cook Lookout with easy access to a picnic and BBQ area but more importantly you have access to the Jack Perkins Trail. This trail leads you eight-tenths of a kilometer down to our version of paradise, the North Smoky Beach. Walking down the trail you’ll be treated to magnificent views of this unspoiled beach, the nearby Green Island, beautiful forest and some great looking spiders. For those arachnophobes, the spiders are off or above the track so you’ll be all good.

Down at the beach you’ll be treated to white sand, turquoise water and spectacular views of the lighthouse above. The sand is so clean that you won’t be able to stop your feet from squeaking as you walk along. Setup your towels, take a dip and soak up paradise. If you’re lucky, we were, you won’t see a single other person all day. We had this beautiful beach all to ourselves for the entire day and enjoyed every second of it. Your only company might be the kangaroos which may come down later in the afternoon to graze on the grass near the beach. We spent all day lounging on the beach, looking for shells and having a fish. One warning, we did notice some pretty strong rips in the water so it’s probably not a great place to bring small children who want to swim. We headed back to the car at the end of the day and were off, definitely missing our own little piece of paradise.

Here's a few of our pics from our little paradise:

Looking down on a long beach in Hat Head National Park

Pamela checking out the lighthouse

Looking towards Green Island from the beach

One of the few spiders on the way down.

Truckin it down the trail

Looking back up on the lighthouse from North Smoky Beach

Our lunch spot

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Eight Months On the Road – Update from Pamela and I

2012-04-04T18:36:00.000+10:00

Looking down on Hat Head from Smoky Point Lighthouse

The 5^th of April marks the eighth straight month of our trip and we wanted to send out a quick update on our progress. It seems like these last two months in Australia have gone in the blink of an eye. Pamela and I are having a great time checking out the coast of New South Wales. So far we’ve spent two weeks in Batemans Bay, a week in Sydney, two weeks in Forster and a week in Coffs Harbour. The New South Wales coast has so much to offer that we could easily spend another two months exploring as we just love it. Up next it’s the Queensland coast, where we will spend at least the next five weeks traveling between the Gold Coast, Bundaberg and the Sunshine Coast. We’re really looking forward to meeting up with family and friends in the Gold Coast area.

In the whole we’ve been on the road 245 days and over these past 245 days we’ve traveled nearly 110,000 kilometers (58,000 miles) which is more than twice the circumference of the Earth. If that seems like a lot to you then you’re right, it was actually too much all at once. The first six months on the road had us seeing and doing so much that it was quite hard to keep up with where we were and what we were doing. These last two months have been quite the opposite; reading, sleeping, cooking and beaching are on the agenda most days with the most critical thing being shell collecting. Life has been really-really nice and relaxing which is quite the contrast of the first portion of our trip. Pamela is as tan as I’ve ever seen her and thankfully my tan line is the only thing receding on me. Don’t worry parents, we go through sun block like water these days so no sunburns.

Work…Unfortunately it’s getting closer to that time when we need to start looking for jobs and a more permanent place to live. Believe it or not I think it will be good to get back to work, at least for a while. I’m not sure how hard it will be to find a job but we’re not too worried. We’re estimating sitting down and really looking for work during the month of May but don’t hold us to that just yet. As for housing we’re constantly on the lookout for beachfront or near beachfront apartment deals somewhere in the Gold Coast area but we’re still not 100% sure. We know we definitely want to live close to the beach so it will be just a matter of where we can find work or quite a few prospects for work.

Health-wise we’re both doing pretty well. We’re both much tanner than when we left eight months ago and I’ve definitely gained some weight. Unfortunately I cracked a rib about four weeks ago so have been off any rigorous exercise since then and I’ve definitely felt the lack, especially with all the ice cream. Thankfully the rib is nearly healed and I’m already back swimming a bit, hopefully I can surf again in a few weeks. Pamela’s still in great shape, I’m not sure where she puts all the ice cream though. Oh to be 26 again…

Thanks so much to everyone who continues to read our posts and look at our pics. We hope you’re enjoying the stories and pics. For those of you outside of Australia I hope the photos inspire you to come visit.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

One Week on the Coffs Coast

2012-04-03T21:04:00.000+10:00

Friday to Friday is all we had in the beautiful Coffs Coast region of Australia and we were determined to make the most of it. The central city of the Coffs Coast region is Coffs Harbour. This city of approximately 30,000 full-time residents is located on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales. Approximately six hours by car from Sydney and a four hour drive from Brisbane has you smack dab in the middle of vacation paradise with miles and miles of empty beaches, more tourist attractions than you can shake a stick at, great fishing and surrounding countryside for any taste. Basically, if you can’t find something to do here, you probably can’t find something to do anywhere.

Looking down on the Moonee Beach Reserve

Saturday it was our mission to find a beach with more kangaroos than people. The third time was a charm when we landed just south of Emerald Beach in the Moonee Beach Reserve. It was just Pamela and I surrounded by many-many kangaroos in the parking lot and nearby headland. We spent the day fishing, taking photos and watching the hoppers bounce around. In the evening we were treated to several rounds of kangaroo boxing from two pairs of male kangaroos fighting next to the parking lot. After shooting some videos and photos we headed back to the Korora Bay Village Resort which was our home for the week.

Kangaroo Boxing

Sunday had us at the Harbourside Markets in Coffs Harbour for some great deals on fruit/veg, candles, soaps and some other stuff that I can’t really remember. The markets are definitely Pamela’s thing, I just feel bad that she has to put up with me during the hours we spend there. Immediately after the markets we grabbed some take-away and ate a good lunch on the beach. Full from lunch we took our fishing gear out to the harbor break and caught several fish. We ended up keeping two of the bigger fish for dinner that night although we didn’t do such a great job with our makeshift filet knife.

Looking down on Coffs Harbour from Mutton Bird Island

The small communities of Urunga and Bellingen were next on our weeklong Coffs Coast adventure. Urunga, situated on the coast about 20 minutes south of Coffs Harbour, is a neat little town of about 2000 people where the Bellinger River meets the Pacific Ocean. The name Urunga reportedly is an aboriginal word meaning place of long white sands and this place lives up to it’s name. An elevated boardwalk stretches from town, over the mangrove filled lagoon and out to a magnificently long beach where you can walk for miles along pristine white sand. From the boardwalk we drove over to the prime positioned Anchors Wharf Café for a coffee alongside the river.

The Urunga Boardwalk out to the Sea

Many many photos taken we were on our way to the inland town of Belligen for a quick gallery tour. Scenic and artsy Bellingen, population 2800, lies on the Waterfall Way and is home to many beautiful scenic walks, cafes and galleries including the old dairy farm that’s now home to several different types of stores including a leather shop, furniture store, art gallery and café. It’s definitely worth a stop on the way through town. Also worthwhile is a stop at the bridge over the Bellinger River where you can picnic, swim and get some great photos. Urunga, with its stunning coastline and boardwalk and Belligen, with its scenic farmland and artsy culture are a must visit on your way through the Mid-North Coast section of New South Wales.

A bridge over the Bellinger River

Boambee was up next on our Coffs Coast agenda. Located along the Boambee Waters and Boambee Beach, Pamela had grown-up holidaying at the Boambee Bay Resort and was really excited about going back there and giving me the grand tour. After touring the resort we headed out for a walk along the Reserve followed by a very long walk up and down the virtually empty beach. It was great to see Pamela reliving the memories from her youth. Listening to them you can tell she really loved Boambee and cherishes the time she spent there with her family.

Boambee Bay Reserve

We had such a good time and crammed as much as we could into our seven days on the Coffs Coast. Had we spent two weeks there we still wouldn’t have had the time to do everything we wanted too. On our next visit we’ll make a stop at the Big Banana, take a deep sea fishing trip, make the drive to Dorrigo and stop in at the Pet Porpoise Pool for a kiss from a dolphin. Hopefully this will give you some hints on what you can do if you’re planning a visit to the Coffs Harbour area.

More photos from our week in Coffs can be found at the following URL: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/TheCoffsCoast?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Completely Spoiled in Sharm El Sheikh

2012-03-28T11:25:00.000+10:00

This about sums it up.

Half a world away and just over three months ago we were travelling through Egypt ending up in the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh at the very bottom of the Sinai Peninsula. Sitting here in Australia it feels like that part of our round-the-world trip could have been a lifetime ago. Looking back on that part of the trip puts a huge smile on my face and our five nights in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El Sheikh really stands out from the crowd. We had just spent an exhausting 10 days touring Cairo and Alexandria then travelling up and down the Nile via train, boat, donkey car and any other means of crappy transportation available. We were definitely in need of some rest and relaxation and were very excited to get to Sharm for a much needed break.

The view of marine park Ras Mohamed from the airplane.

A very scenic morning flight from Cairo had us to the Sharm airport by 10:30am. After a long argument with a taxi driver we were off to the Hyatt Regency Sharm El Sheikh where we were to spend the next five nights. We used our Hyatt points to book a room in the Regency Club section of this property, it only cost us 50,000 points for the five nights and was well worth it. This was the fourth or fifth Hyatt we’d stayed at on our Honeymoon and were sure looking forward to the hospitality and service that comes along with Hyatt, especially with the Regency Club.

Home away from home for us :-)

Checking in we were given an overview of the services at the hotel which included many restaurants, pools, beaches, gym, spa, waterslide, nightly entertainment, house coral reef and so much more. We were stoked and off to our room for a quick change before hitting the beach. Quickly admiring the amazing views from our room we were off to the Regency Club private beach area where we were met by Beach Butler Gomma, who saw to our every need while on the beach. Seriously, this guy had our ideal beach chairs set up and coffees ready for us after day one. Pamela was under the weather so Gomma made her a special herbal tea every day. This was the type of great service, and this just one example, of what we experienced while at the 471 room resort.

Admiring the sunset from our room.

Prior to the beach or pool every morning started the same way, with a trip to the included breakfast buffet. Of all the breakfast buffets we’ve had on the trip, and we’ve had many, this was one of the best. An egg chef masterfully cooked up whatever kind of eggs you wanted while you added to your plate any number of breakfast items including freshly dripped honey from a honeycomb. After downing the eggs we’d head over to the pancake and waffle chef for freshly cooked Belgian waffles topped with chocolate, strawberries, coconut, nuts and anything else we can throw on there. Fresh strawberry and orange juice would wash it all down before rolling out of the buffet. Thinking about it all now makes my mouth water.

Pamela thoroughly enjoying the breakfast buffet.

The Red Sea is renown for it’s amazing diving and snorkeling and boy did it not disappoint. The Gardens Bay Reef was literally a stones throw away from the beach at our resort. Swimming out in about one minute, I was quickly blown away by the variety of hard and soft coral formations and colors that seemed to jump out of the water. It had to be one of the best examples of shallow reef I’ve seen in a long time and it was right on our doorstep!! I only wish our underwater camera worked as we would have some great shots of the colorful coral and fish.

One of the beaches at the Hyatt. You can see the wall of the reef just off the shore.

Our original goal was to spend the days at the resort and visit the town of Sharm El Sheikh at night for dinners and nightlife. In the end we never even left the resort. Prior to dinner we’d head over to the Regency Club lounge for appetizers and drinks, each night was a different theme including a sushi night and fondue night. We loved it!! The resort was decked out for dinner choices including a beautiful Thai restaurant called Sala Thai serving up some of the best Massaman Curry we had our on trip. Chatting with the head chef we also tried several other amazing dishes during the couple nights we dined here. The Souk, another dinner option, is an open air restaurant that allowed you to choose from many different types of cuisines including seafood, Mediterranean, local cuisine, Asian and a dessert shop. While dining you can watch a different entertainer each night, we saw a good belly dancer and a great troop of acrobats.

With the Chef at Sala Thai Restaurant

Enjoying dinner

When not snorkeling or stuffing our faces we lounged by the pools, there’s at least four of them, worked out at the gym or relaxed in the spa, sauna and steam rooms. The latter being the favorite of Pamela as we all know she loves a good soak, sweat and steam to get her through these tough days. The waterslide and grotto in the main pool area was a nice touch along with the poolside libraries when you were done with a book. Some of our best times were just lounging on our patio watching the sunrise over the Red Sea and distant Saudi Arabia.

Acrobats at The Souk

The belly dancer at The Souk

Departure day came all too fast along with our 6:30am flight back to Cairo then onto Abu Dhabi. We picked up our packed breakfast boxes and jumped in our resort provided transfer back to the airport. I’d have to say that getting a transfer from the resort is so much easier than dealing with the local taxi drivers. The taxi drivers try and charge a ridiculous amount of money for a short ride, save yourself an argument and let the resort take care of your transfer for you, it’s worth it.

Sunrise view from our room

Our time in Sharm El Sheikh, really the resort, stands out amongst the crowd as we approach the eight month mark of our Honeymoon. We’ve stayed at over 70 properties around the world and this experience was right up there with the top. The exceptional personalized service has you feeling like you’re at a luxury boutique hotel rather than a large 471 room property with hundreds and hundreds of guests. This has to be the best use of hotel or airplane points/miles I’ve ever used. For only 50,000 Hyatt points we were treated to five nights of pampering luxury that we won’t soon forget. A huge thanks to the staff at the Hyatt Regency Sharm El Sheikh for making this part of our Honeymoon so special.

More pics from our time at the Hyatt Sharm El Sheikh can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/SharmElSheikhEgypt?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Forster, Week 1 – Beaches, Fishing and some Junk

2012-03-28T08:23:00.000+10:00

Shelley Beach in Pacific Palms

A quick four hour drive from Sydney had us in Forster, the third stop on our East Coast road trip. We managed to book a timeshare bonus week at the Seashells Diamond Beach Resort which is about 20 minutes North of Forster and close to the small beach towns of Blackhead and Red Head. We had spent the previous week in a surprisingly sunny and warm Sydney, where we able to catch-up with friends and spend some quality time at the beach.

Pamelas' latest painting titled "Maldives Bliss"

The Seashells Resort is an older style property with some nice amenities including two spas (one adult only), game room, sauna and gym. The property is on the beautiful and un-crowded Diamond Beach with just a small sand dune separating the resort from the sand. A two minute walk from our room had us on the beach where we could fish, unsuccessfully I might add, admire the surf or search for shells on a seemingly endless stretch of sand. Unfortunately the many days of rain hampered our enjoyment of the beach just a few steps away from our door. One of the hot tubs at the resort was an enclosed “adults only” tub on a reservation system which had you sign-in on a white board when you wanted to use it. It was funny to walk by the adult hot tub while it was reserved, day or night, and listen to the sounds coming from the room. As it was enclosed there were just screens for windows so all sounds came through. I’m glad we don’t have kids just so we didn’t have to explain all the different noises coming out of that room.

Morning stroll on Blackhead Beach near Forster.

Sunday morning we headed to Pacific Palms, one of our favourite places in Australia. Pacific Palms is a small beachside community about 25 minutes south of Forster near the Booti Booti National Park. Home to fabulous beaches including Elizabeth, Shelley, Boomerang and Blueys and bordering the beautiful Wallis Lake, there is seemingly endless waterways for swimming, surfing, boating, fishing or whatever else floats your boat. Fishing and beach gear in hand we parked and took a bush trail 500 meters to the beautiful and private Shelley Beach. On the way we spotted some awesome butterflies and a very large monitor lizard. Once at the beach we spotted something even more surprising, naked people, lots of naked people, lots of large naked people, lots of large naked people letting it all hang out. Unknowingly we visited a nude beach, a large nude beach for that matter. No matter to us, we were there to enjoy the beach and fish. Casting into the water I was just careful not to catch any “junk” so to speak. Even without catching any fish, or unexpected sunburns, we had a great day at the beach.

Our car imitating a male kangaroo. There's actually squid bait in the bag.

The area around Forster is full of amazing beaches and scenery.

On subsequent days we visited other beaches in the area including Blueys, Cellitto, Blackhead and Red Head. We also attempted a bush walk in Red Head but were soon covered in leeches, so much so that we decided turning around was our best bet. After searching for some decent fishing we finally found it on the Forster jetty leading out to the ocean. Using squid we managed to catch and release three fish while getting many-many more bites. So far this has been our best fishing experience of the road trip. We’ll definitely be visiting this jetty again during week number two in Forster. Our first week in Forster was great. When the weather was half-good we visited beautiful beaches and national parks. When the weather was bad we cooked some good food, watched some good TV and Pamela painted an amazing scene from our time in the Maldives.

We're back in Forster for another week so stay tuned for another post from this beautiful part of New South Wales. Here's more of our pics if you're interested: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/ForsterNewSouthWales?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Soaked in Batemans Bay

2012-03-14T06:48:00.000+10:00

Patting 'wild' kangaroos at the Murramurang Resort in Durras

Following our first impressions of the Batemans Bay area we were both really excited to spend two weeks in this beautiful area of Australia. We had a list of all the different beaches we’d visit, bushwalks we’d take, markets to visit and so on. We also had big plans to catch waves surfing and many fish as this area is known for its great surfing and fishing.

Take away fish and chips beach dinner in Malua Bay.

Two and a half days into our stay it started to rain, and it rained and rained and rained and rained and…..you get the picture. Most days it wasn’t just soft little raindrops, it was like the sky opened up and dropped, more like threw, buckets of water at you, wherever you might be standing. With roads in the area flooded the only real safe thing to do was hang out inside our “lavish” accommodations. I say lavish when I really mean crappy.

The rain did bring about some good, Pamela painted two amazing pictures, one of the Dead Sea and one of a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. It’s amazing for me to watch these paintings come to life from a blank canvas. Other rainy day activities included watching terrible daytime television on our 19 inch TV with only 6 channels, reading books, cooking and playing the Wii. Thankfully we brought our new Nintendo Wii which helped us weather the storm. I can safely say that we’ve both become pro’s at golf, bowling, tennis, ping pong and many other sports we practiced over and over during those long days of rain.

Guerilla Bay, along with being a great place to snorkel, is just one of the many quiet beaches in and around Batemans Bay.

During the rainstorm, Pamela’s mum and brother joined us for a weekend of Nintendo Wii. While they were visiting we drove down to Moruya to visit the outdoor markets. Fortunately for us, the few vendors that did brave the weather were pretty good. We walked away with fresh honey, peanuts, avocados and other things that I don’t recall. When I go to the markets I tend to tune out a bit so my recollection of the event isn’t always that great. From Moruya we drove down to the beautiful seaside town of Narooma to take some photos of the area and have a coffee at a really cool boathouse café called the Quaterdeck. It’s a shame the weather was bad as we would have loved to spend more time in the little picturesque town. On our way home from Narooma we stopped at a cool dairy/café in the very small town of Bodalla where we picked up some cheese, fresh yogurt (they packed it for us) and some cool photos.

With our car at Lonely Beach

Enjoying Pebbly Beach in the Murramurang National Park

Eight days after the rain started it stopped for about a day and a half. The sun was out and we took advantage. Two mornings in a row of successful surf lessons, read about them here, had us in the little town of South Durras which is about 20 minutes north of Batemans Bay. The town, which lies in and around Murramarang National Park boasts some amazing beaches and the Murramurang Resort which has an amazing location on a small protected beach at the north end of town. Following our surfing lessons we headed to the resort for a coffee and a day at the beach which would include patting wild kangaroos, spotting the many dolphins that frequent the area, fishing off the beach or rocks, collecting shells and just lounging about. This place was one of my favorite of the whole trip and I would recommend it to anyone. At the most we saw five other people on the beach at any given time so it’s safe to say there are more kangaroos than people. Fishing, although not fruitful, was still very relaxing. The views of the surrounding beaches and islands are amazing and the steady stream of dolphins really helped brighten up the day. Who doesn’t love dolphins?

Dallas, Jannie and Pamela enjoying the views from Narooma

Surprise, surprise, shortly after our day and a half of sun it started to rain again. We spent the next couple days inside practicing our Wii, not that we need much practice anymore and watching terrible TV. The day before we were about to leave the rain stopped for a few hours so we headed off to the river for a last ditch fishing attempt, we hadn’t caught a thing so far. Casting our lines into this new area we started to get nibbles just about right away. Unfortunately, most of the nibbles turned out to be just that…Until I landed one! Not a whopper by any means but just the same it was a fish. Throwing the little guy back we were just happy to not leave this place without catching something.

A very quiet and relaxing beach at Murramurang

The last day we packed up our car and headed north with just one more stop to make in the area. We’d heard about a park in this area that lets you cuddle wombats and were confident that Birdland, just on the outskirts of Batemans Bay, was the place to do it. The $20 dollar fee gets you into the park to look at the many examples of Australian wildlife including two koalas, many kangaroos, birds and best of all the wombats. Birdland, should be called Wombatland, is a rescue for orphaned wombats and twice a day they bring a young wombat out to run around and play with guests. The trainer brought out “Bubbles” whom we got to pat and then hold on our laps. These cute, furry, little animals can run up to 40ks per hour (over short distances) and are not light by any means. I felt like I had a bowling ball with fur in my lap while I was holding her. I’m not much on cuddling animals but if I could have taken this wombat home with me I would have. Needless to say I spent the next 24 (more like 48) hours talking about how we have to get a pet wombat. The next day, walking around Bondi Beach, I thought how great it would be to be able to walk my pet wombat up and down the beach.

Pamela and her new friend "Bubbles"

Holding "Bubbles" the wombat

In the end we made the most out of our 14 (11 of them wet) days in the Batemans Bay area of New South Wales. We played with captive wombats, pet ‘wild’ kangaroos, learned to surf, caught a fish and enjoyed the pristine beaches and countryside. Most of all we got to spend some quality time together in a semi-normal environment. We cooked all but one of our meals and stayed in the same place longer than nine days which had been our previous record over the last seven months. Although a bit far from any major city, I’d definitely come back to this area again and hopefully stay at the Murramurang Resort when it’s not so wet.

More pics from our time in Batemans Bay can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/BatemansBayAreaNewSouthWalesAustralia?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Surfing Lessons – Day 2

2012-03-13T07:32:00.001+10:00

The alarm went off and we slowly rolled out of bed for our second morning of surfing lessons. Click here for our article from day one. Pamela was having a hard time lifting her cereal bowl and was seriously doubting her ability to get in the water. Fortunately for us her arms started feeling a bit better and we were out the door to meet Graeme, our Soulrider surfing instructor, at the beach in South Durras.

An empty half moon shaped beach at South Durras was calling our name. It will be hard to go back to the very crowded beaches of Sydney or Los Angeles after spending so much time at these untouched gems of beaches here on the South Coast of New South Wales. The smaller waves were perfect for today’s lessons of paddling out and catching waves in deeper water. Prior to paddling out we reviewed popping up and standing styles to correct some of our errors from lesson one. Several practices under our belt we strapped on our leash and paddled out into the blue, more like green, water of the Tasman Sea.

The first few waves were definitely warm up and just refreshing or memory from the day before. It wasn’t until Graeme called out a challenge to see who could ride a wave the longest that Pamela and I both caught the same wave together and rode it into the beach. Riding the wave together was so much fun, I really think we’re hooked on this sport. Pamela ended up riding that wave all the way back to the sand and therefore won that competition. From there it was paddling out to try for wave after wave. Thankfully we took some breaks relaxing on our boards and having a good chat waiting for the next set of waves to arrive. Graeme caught a bunch of waves to show us how it’s done and was always there providing tips, and sometimes a nudge to get us on the wave.

After about two hours of lessons we had each caught quite a bit of waves and felt a lot more comfortable out in the surf. The hardest part at the end was trying to get our weary muscles to push up on the board to stand-up. The lessons from Graeme at Soulrider have really paid off, his lessons have really provided us with what we need to know to go out on our own and start surfing. If you're looking for surf lessons on the South Coast we'd highly recommend Soulrider. We’re both excited to surf again and have started looking at purchasing wet suits of our own with the hopes of surfboards in the near future.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Surfing Lessons – Day 1

2012-03-12T18:39:00.000+10:00

Totally exhausted but very happy. That’s how we felt just after our first surfing lesson. Pamela and I have decided that since we’re planning on living the beach here in Australia that we should learn how to surf. We’d heard it was great exercise but had no idea just how exhausting it was going to be.

Pamela catching one of many waves

We kicked off the first of our two lessons on a beautiful Monday morning in the small beach town of South Durras on the South Coast of New South Wales. We hadn’t seen the sun in seven days and were beginning to get cabin fever so the surfing and sun couldn’t have come any sooner. Situated about twenty minutes north of Batemans Bay, the small town (pop 400) of South Durras, looks to be more beach that anything else. Large, empty beaches line the coast here and we couldn’t think of a better place to learn to surf.

Having a great time trying not to fall off

Having a fun fall

We met our instructor Graeme, from Soulrider Surf School, beachside at 10:00am. A bit nervous, Graeme’s chilled out demeanor put our minds at ease as we put on our provided wetsuits, grabbed some foam type boards and headed to the sand. With the sun shining on our faces we practiced popping-up/standing on our boards again and again with Graeme demonstrating then providing feedback on our techniques. Confident that we got the pop process, we headed out to the waves. As this was the first lesson we simply held onto the leash and walked the boards out to keep them pointed in the right direction. From the beach the waves looked a bit small but as we walked out the waves seemed to loom larger and larger.

Dallas showing us how it's done

Once in the surf, Graeme helped us by telling us when to jump on the board, telling us when to paddle and telling us when to jump up. For the first few waves he even helped us by holding the back of the board to keep it straight. Catching the first few waves sounded like this Paddle-Paddle-Paddle-Paddle, Up-Up-Up-Up. Within the first few minutes all three of us had stood up on boards and caught a wave. Standing up for the first time was such a great feeling. Over the next 90 minutes we practiced catching waves until we could no longer lift ourselves off the board. Our arms felt like they had anvils attached near the end there and we were relieved to pull our boards in for the day. It was a great first day of surfing and we definitely got what we came for. Up next, day two!

Dallas, myself and Pamela completely buggered from our first lesson

More photos from our first day of surfing can be found on the Soulrider Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.197471743691952.35561.142365005869293&type=1

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Reno - Good Friends and Good Times

2012-03-12T17:49:00.000+10:00

In search of good friends and good snow we boarded a plane from Los Angeles to Reno on a sunny January Friday afternoon. The day before we spent a beautiful day on the beach in Hermosa so were a bit skeptical of the snow quality in the Lake Tahoe area. Landing at Reno airport we waited a few minutes for the free shuttle to the Peppermill Resort Casino which was to be our home for the next three nights. We were excited for the jacuzzi suite we had booked and were not disappointed especially considering the low price per night of $100 USD on Friday and Saturday and just $70 USD for Sunday night. Dropping her bags, Pamela (aka The Sultana of Soak) immediately fired up the hot tub and was in her element for the next few hours.

Our jacuzzi suite

Our good friends were driving in that night and I really tried hard to wait up for them. I found myself at a nickel video poker machine until about 11:45 just trying to stay awake. Near catatonic I gave up and fell fast asleep as soon as I hit the four poster bed in our room. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to catch the 8:15am ski bus to the Mt. Rose ski area. Boarding the bus we met up with our friends Patrick, Jen, Kevin and Alicia. The forty-five minute bus ride was full of laughs as we had some time to catch-up before our day of snowboarding.

Dave, Pamela, Alicia, Kevin, Jen and Patrick taking a break at Mt. Rose

We had a great day snowboarding with our friends! The recent (and only) snowfall in the area had occurred just the week before so the slopes at the 9500 ft high Mt. Rose were still in good shape. The mountain was celebrating Chinese New Year which included fortune cookie deal, skiing dragon and food/drink specials. We hopped on a run with the dragon and scored some buy one get one free deals and crappy $5 dollar tee-shirts. After a full day we jumped on the 4:45pm bus back to our hotel in Reno for a big night out.

Pamela, Alicia and Jen

That night we were celebrating birthdays for friends Patrick and Connie. With a group size of 21 we headed to the Peppermill Island Buffet for a colossal meal consisting of everything from crab legs and prime rib to mammoth ice cream sundaes. Rolling myself out of the buffet we headed up to Patrick and Jen’s suite for after dinner drinks. Hanging out with our friends from Northern California was such a good time, it was great seeing everyone. While we were in the room an anonymous person, whom we’ll call Jason, pulled out a bottle of moonshine. The next thing I know I saw my wife and some of the other girls taking pulls off the bottle and Jason is having a good laugh at the whole thing. I’m not saying it was Pamela who started it but I have my suspicions….the next thing I know the girls are wheelbarrow racing down the hall of the top floor of our hotel.

The girls wheelbarrow racing down the hall.

Patrick, myself and Robert lounging after a big dinner

Nonsensicalness behavior finished we were off to the casino for some roulette and craps. Fortunately Pamela has a talent for roulette and was able to sit down with only forty dollars and play for hours, all while accumulating a mass of free drinks. The cocktail waitress was a bit terrible, all Pamela wanted was a vodka soda and of the five times she ordered it not a single time did the waitress get it right. In any case the drinks were free and they kept coming so she wasn’t complaining that much although I did here at least one expletive after each drink delivery. Finally, much to my happiness, sleep in our four poster bed was calling our names.

Enjoying a last attempt to win some cash at the Reno airport

The next day we said goodbye to our friends and were on our own. I tried my hand at roulette and promptly lost $40 dollars in about 5 minutes. I didn’t hit a single thing….with the dealer telling me I needed a break we took the rest of the day and relaxed. We had a 6:30am flight the next day to Salt Lake so we ended our trip to Reno with a quiet night of sleep. Looking back, it was so great catching-up with friends and definitely had us missing living in the US but hopefully we’ll see everyone again soon. Maybe in Thailand? :-)

More pics from our great weekend in Reno can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/RenoAndMtRoseNevada?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

First Impressions of Batemans Bay

2012-02-27T14:19:00.000+10:00

Our trip to Batemans Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales started on Friday afternoon with a four and half hour drive from Pamela’s parents house in Carcoar. The mostly small country roads wound through beautiful scenery including rich farmland, lush rainforest and rolling foothills. With five minutes to spare for check-in we pulled into the Moorings Resort, our home for the next two weeks, and were given the keys to our two bedroom apartment style room.

The Moorings Resort, situated in the small town of Tomakin and on the banks of the Tomaga River, is very basic in nature. Semi-clean grounds, a sandy tennis court and an indoor solar heated pool (it’s not really heated) are the highlights of the resort. Lowlights of the resort include the proximity to the main road which can be noisy, very small television and the lack of an oven are really the only things we can gripe about so really we don’t have much to gripe about at all.

With 83 unique beaches, several national parks, plenty of rivers and lakes this outdoor paradise of New South Wales called the Eurobodalla Coast is branded the ‘Land of Many Waters’ and for good reason. Seemingly around every corner lies a new pristine beach, slow moving river or calm inducing lake. This region, lying about four hours drive south of Sydney, stretches from the town of Shoalhaven in the north to Tilba in the south and is full of small town charm. Holiday activities in the area are abundant and include snorkeling, skydiving, cuddling wombats, gallery tours and big game fishing. Basically, if you have a pulse you should be able to find something to do around here.

After checking into our hotel and unloading our very-packed car we realized we were starving so we jumped back in the car and headed north. About 10 minutes later we were ordering take away fish and chips from a beachside café in the small town of Malua Bay. We spread out our beach blanket and ate our food on the beach watching the surf roll in; perfection.

Saturday morning we woke-up and paid a visit to small but mighty Guerilla Bay for a snorkel. This small beach and two secluded bays are in the Batemans Bay Marine Park and therefore protected nature reserves. The snorkeling in the calm bay was pretty good and consisted of many colorful fish and some corals although I wish I’d had a wetsuit as the water was a little cool for my liking and too cold for Pamela. If snorkeling isn’t your cup of tea then you can sunbake, look for shells or take in the beautiful surrounding views.

Following our morning at Guerilla Bay we headed down to the beach at North Head Maruya. Adjacent to the small Maruya airport we were able to watch the skydivers coming in just above us. The long, uninhabited beach was perfect for relaxing until the wind kicked up and covered us with sand forcing us to make a quick exit to the car and on to crowded but wind free Broulee Beach. Broulee is perfect for lounging on the beach, snorkeling or swimming in the calm and patrolled crystal blue waters. Walking around the point at Broulee takes you to another more private beach with equally pristine waters connecting to Broulee island with bushwalking trails and a reported Emu or two. Fully cooked from the sun we headed back to our resort for a dip in the pool, and a game of tennis before dinner.

Sunday morning we made our favourite ‘Haloumi Slam’ consisting of poached eggs on top of buttered toast with avocado, fried haloumi cheese and a squeeze of lime. Completely satisfied from breakfast we headed 20 minutes north to Murramarang National Park where we spent the better part of the day lounging on beautiful Pebbly Beach. The park, famous for its kangaroo beaches, is home to a beautiful rainforest and several unspoiled beaches which are inhabited by grazing kangaroos at dusk and dawn. Although we didn’t see any kangaroos (we were there at midday) we did see quite a bit of kangaroo crap on the grass next to the beach so we know the little hoppers are around. The best thing about these beaches are the lack of people, we were there on a Saturday and felt like we had the place to ourselves.

So far our first impressions of the Batemans Bay area are very good. The small town feel, empty beautiful beaches (remember there’s 83 of them) and lush national parks are the stuff Australian dreams are made of. We’re so looking forward to spending the next 10 days exploring more of the area and quite frankly are going to have a tough time fitting in all that we want to do in that time period. Hopefully our next report will include us catching a fish and a wave.

Sorry about the lack of photos in this article. Unfortunately we're only able to utilize a terrible Wifi connection at a McDonalds about 15 minutes drive from our resort. We'll get some photos in ASAP.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

We're back in Australia

2012-02-23T08:54:00.000+10:00

Yep, it's true...we're back down under and enjoying what's left of Summer while we plan the next stages of our life together. It wasn't an easy decision to make but we felt it was the right one as our budget was running low and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to explore potential places to settle down and join the real world once again. South America just wasn't in the cards for us this time but it's definitely still on the radar.

We surprised family and friends here by literally just showing up on doorsteps or in lounge rooms, the surpised looks on some faces were priceless. We've been back for about two weeks and in that time have bought a car, planned a two month roadtrip and visited with many family and friends. Yes, we've been busy.

What's Next?
The honeymoon is not over yet! We've still got at least two more months of travel left in us while we conduct a thorough search of places to live and work between Batemans Bay, New South Wales and Bundaberg, Queensland. As of now the short list of places to live are beachside properties in and around Kingscliff, New South Wales but we really need to visit many places to be sure which is right for us.

Our Roadtrip

Here's the tentative plan/timeline for our roadtrip beginning tomorrow:
2 weeks Batemans Bay, NSW
1 week Sydney, NSW
2 weeks Forster, NSW

1 week Coffs Harbour, NSW
1 week Gold Coast, QLD

1 week Sunshine Coast, QLD
2 weeks Bundaberg, QLD
***Settle Down Somewhere***

We'll also be throwing in some fun on our roadtrip. We plan on working on our surfing skills, fishing, boating, bushwalking, sightseeing and just relaxing on the beach. The free time should also get us caught up on blog posts, of which we're behind by many. So please stay tuned for more posts from our time overseas, upcoming surfing adventures and house/job/life hunting.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

We Love You Park City

2012-02-14T09:22:00.000+10:00

Heading up to The Canyons Resort in Park City

In case you can’t tell by the title of this article, we love Park City. With first class snow, an awesome mountain town atmosphere and great dining what’s not to love. We were having so much fun that we extended our planned three night stay to a five nights and would have stayed longer if we had the time.

We caught an early morning (6:30am) flight from Reno to Salt Lake City in order to take advantage of the Quick Start Program which allows you the chance ski/snowboard for free on the day you fly into Salt Lake City. We landed at 9:00am, were quickly chauffeured to the Park Plaza hotel, checked in and on our first chairlift at Park City Mountain Resort by 10:30am. Anyone going to Park City for a ski holiday should definitely check into the Quick Start Program to see if you can save yourself $96 USD per lift ticket the day you arrive.
After our day on the slopes we ended up back at the Park Plaza hotel hot tub to soak our weary muscles. Unfortunately our peaceful soak was interrupted by a very obnoxious middle-aged Dermatologist (he told us 20 times he was a Dr.) who couldn’t go one minute without saying something rude to someone. I’ll refer to him as Captain Annoying. He told Pamela she was going to get skin cancer about 30 seconds after meeting her, he then proceeded to tell us, and everyone else in the hot tub, many-many tasteless and not very funny jokes. Abandoning Captain Annoying we hopped on a free shuttle to Main St. to check out some of the many art galleries before dinner. Dowtown Park City, aka Main St., has quite a few different galleries to peruse and admire. One of our favorite was a galleria featuring the nature photographs of Michael Fatali.

There are so-so many places to choose from for dinner in Park City. Our first night we tried out A Taste of Saigon for dinner and walked out of there completely stuffed from a beef stew and chicken curry. Our second night in Park City we had dinner at the Wasatch Brew Pub, where Pamela had a beer called Polygamy Porter which looked more like motor oil to me. We also tried out Bangkok Thai on Main St. for a dinner consisting of great satay and massaman curry, we can highly recommend them both.

One of Utah’s advertising slogans is “Utah, the greatest snow on Earth” and to the best of my knowledge they are not wrong. There are three main ski resorts within minutes drive of downtown Park City: Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons and the ski only resort of Deer Valley. We snowboarded three days at the Park City Mountain Resort and had relatively decent snow on two of the three days. On the middle day the snow was more like pavement but a couple inches of snow overnight softened things up a bit. We also had a bit of celebrity sighting while on our lunch break, we were eating our lunch and noticed Josh Hartnett was sitting next to us.

Our fourth day of snowboarding was spent at The Canyons Resort. The Canyons is such a huge place, the fifth largest resort in North America, and is complete with the Orange Bubble Express chairlift with heated seats and an orange chair cover for protection from the wind and snow. Our après ski experience at Canyons was spent at the “ski beach” watching live musicians and sitting by a fire. While snowboarding at Canyons we ran into Captain Annoying again, this time he was harassing some other young people at one of the ski lodges. One of the girls was recording his ridiculous rants and subsequently uploading them to YouTube, it was pretty funny.

Pamela testing out a thin coverage area

Empty slopes means lots of picture taking opportunities

The Sidewinder run at Canyons. We loved this run

Unfortunately the time came around for us to fly back to Los Angeles. Had we more time we would have definitely stayed longer, maybe we’d even be there now if the snow was good. Hopefully next year or the year after we’ll be back in Park City for another snowboard trip.

All the photos from our trip to Park City can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/ParkCityUtah?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Enjoying the views from Canyons

Pamela and I on a really slow chairlift. I feel like I aged a bit.

Looking down on the town of Park City from the top of Park City Mountain Resort

Ready for a massive meal at the Wasatch Brew Pub

Main St. trees at night

Checking out Main St. Park City

Six Months Down - Highlights and Lessons Learned

2012-02-13T12:20:00.000+10:00

Pamela having a little rest at the Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah

Wow! February 5th marked the sixth month, and planned halfway point, of our round-the-world honeymoon. I can’t believe we’ve already been on the road and married for over six months. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun, it seems like just yesterday we tied the knot in Fiji.

This last month of travel has had us bouncing across North America searching for good snow, cruising through the Caribbean and relaxing with family and friends in California. We’ve had a couple bumps along the way but overall this last month has been awesome. We’ve been so busy that I’m almost a week late on this article and several weeks late on many other articles. Hopefully this week I’ll have some time to catch-up as we’ve had some great times the last few weeks and heaps to write about.

Lessons Learned from Month #6

- Cruising, at least in tropical destinations, is probably not for us. Our cruise was a good experience and something we’re thankful we did, but would have enjoyed spending longer times in each port with less people.

- When visiting the US Virgin Islands, especially St. John, it is very helpful to hire a rental car. Taxi prices are ridiculous, even charging for your baggage, which makes the cost and freedoms associated with a rental car a better value. Had we hired a car for our St. John trip we could have seen and done a lot more without having to depend on very expensive taxi services. For example it cost us over 70 dollars to get from the airport to the hotel which could have paid for that full days hire car.

- Using online lift ticket services, like Liftopia, are a good deal when visiting Park City. We saved about $25 USD on each regularly priced $96 USD ticket because we booked in advance. $96 USD is a lot to pay for a single day skiing, especially if you’re on a budget.

- Eco-lodge travel is definitely hit and miss when it comes to your comfort level and what you’re willing to put up with. Definitely thoroughly read into your destination ahead of time to ensure you’re up for the creature (dis)comforts some of these resorts offer.

Highlights from Month #6
Pamela – Banff was beautiful but I really-really loved Lake Louise. Walking on the lake with the ice castle was like a dream come true. I also really loved visiting Key West for the day. The artsy town and all of the beautiful galleries really made my day.

Dave - Thankfully during this month I got to travel to some of my favorite places so practically the whole month is a highlight. I loved visiting family/friends, snowboarding in Banff and Park City and spending several days on the island of St. John.

Lowlights from Month #6
Pamela – Easy, all of the bug bites I received in St. John. It’s been nearly a month and I’m still itchy in a couple of places, not to mention all of the new scars from my scratching. Never again will we be eco-lodging it on St. John.

Dave – Watching Pamela suffer with all the bug bites in St. John was not fun at all, I felt so bad for her. It was really hard to enjoy the natural beauty of the island when my wife was suffering so much.

Looking Down on Park City from the Park City Mountain Resort

Stay tuned for upcoming articles from our time snowboarding in Park City and the Reno/Tahoe area.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Cruising the High (and Low) Seas

2012-02-01T02:33:00.000+10:00

Pulling up at the Port of Miami to board the ocean liner Carnival Glory was a little overwhelming. Lines stretched out the door like cattle being herded into a paddock, checked bags stacked meters high, swarms of buzzing taxis and a mammoth sized ocean liner in front of us. Herded from one line to another we finally registered, boarded and were into our surprisingly large ocean view stateroom on deck number one. Close to starving we jumped on one of the 20 different elevators to deck nine where we had a late lunch and waited to cast off. Once all 3500 guests and 1200 crew were aboard we slowly pulled out of Miami and headed for the Caribbean.

Our Surprisingly Large Stateroom

We’ll write more about the individual ports of call later but here was our 7 night itinerary:
Day 1 Miami, Florida
Day 2 At Sea
Day 3 Cozumel, Mexico
Day 4 Costa Maya, Mexico
Day 5 Roatan, Honduras
Day 6 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Day 7 At Sea
Day 8 Miami, Florida

Leaving Miami

Our first night on board we decided to indulge ourselves and dine at the fancy Emerald Steakhouse. The $30 dollar per person additional charge was well worth it, the food and service was exceptional and definitely our best meal of the week. Pamela chose a filet mignon with mashed and I picked a New York top sirloin with mashed for my big dinner. For dessert I had the largest piece of glorious cheesecake I’d ever seen and Pamela had a chocolate sampler dessert that could have been a complete meal in itself. Completely stuffed we rolled out onto the upper decks for some pics and then rolled back to our stateroom for some much needed sleep.

Mammoth Cheesecake

Walking Along the Top Deck

The next morning, our first day at sea, we woke up late and finally made our way up to one of the top decks where we able to find two sun chairs together. On warm sea days it’s pretty tough to find a chair in the sun if you’re up past 10. That day was spent relaxing on deck as we sailed just outside Cuba for most of the day. We were fortunate for the good weather on day number one as our second sea day, the last day of the cruise, was spent indoors as it was cold and windy on the top decks. During the second sea day we attended a long art auction and almost walked away with a Thomas Kinkade painting that Pamela had her eye for the whole cruise.

One of the Cruise Elegant Nights

To say there was plenty to eat on board the boat is an understatement. Most of our breakfasts consisted of cereal and fruit, avoiding the buffet lines. We did spend two mornings in the proper dining room for a hot breakfast which we felt was just okay, nothing spectacular. During lunch we took advantage of the 24 hour pizza bar which was pretty good even though the pizza man was super cranky. We tried out the fish and chips restaurant once which was pretty good but hardly ever open. We also tried out the Mongolian grill - not very good, the deli, the grill and the burrito bar. All but one of our dinners were in the Golden Dining Room with varying daily menus consisting of food that ranged from just okay to pretty good. Each night they’d have something exotic on the menu ranging from alligator to frog legs. The chocolate lava cake was Pamela’s favorite dessert while I mostly ordered the fruit plate. Overall we weren’t all that impressed with the food except for the night we paid $30 USD each and ate at the Emerald Steakhouse.

Pamela with her Daily Dose of Chocolate Lava Cake

While on board we focused our attention on two activities; relaxing and watching the entertainment. Late afternoons and early evenings were always spent in one of the many hot tubs on board the boat, I counted 8 tubs but there could have been more. Getting a seat in the adults only Serenity hot tubs was a bit tough so more often than not we ended up in a big hot tub filled with kids or adults but with a nice view of the large outdoor TV. Skin completely wrinkled we’d get ready for dinner then go watch one of the Broadway style performances in the Amber Palace theater on deck three. We saw three good musical reviews, an illusionist and a hypnotist which were also both very good. There was a ton of other entertainment onboard including many-many comedy reviews, lounge singers and nightly dance clubs.

Enjoying the Sunset from the Hot Tub

Moving around the mammoth ship was pretty easy once we figured out the many different elevators and where they ended up. The downside of the elevators is sometimes you’d have to wait a long time for an elevator up or down. The elevators are weighted up to 3000 pounds or 16 people but we found due to the size of the people onboard the elevators only held about eight people at any given time. This also affected how many people fit into a hot tub, pool or possibly a lifeboat.

Pamela and Our Ship

Onboard alcohol is pushed to you around the clock. Sitting outside at breakfast you’re never far from a waiter holding a tray of tropical drinks. We noticed some waiters get really cranky if we didn’t buy a drink, even for breakfast. On the other hand we noticed many, many, many people trying to drink the ship dry but to the best of our knowledge none of them succeeded. That made us feel better, for our lack of alcohol consumption, knowing that the cranky waiters were getting their mandatory 15% tip from each drink purchase. Probably enough to put a down payment on a Mercedes.

Ice Sculpture at the Midnight Buffet

Disembarking the boat back in Miami was slightly easier than boarding. We waited on the top deck until 10:15am when our group number was called. From there we walked off the boat, found our luggage, and joined the long Customs and Immigration line that moved slightly faster than a snail. Through Immigration we joined another line to get a taxi, and were eventually outta there.

Pamela Enjoying a Massage on the Beach in Mexico

We found that the ports you mostly visit when on a cruise ship are not a true sample of the country and culture of that country. The ports are often designed by, and wholly owned by the cruise lines themselves. So while you are on the physical land of Honduras for example, you only get to experience a very small man made cove of beach, in which to get to you must walk through a whole area of shops that are identical to those that are already on board the ship for the most part. This certainly allows for a very controlled experience of culture shock, and ensures a safe environment to visit (as a lot of the Caribbean islands aren’t exactly known for their safety records) so I can see how this appeals to a lot of people for a very easy and safe holiday, as you never really experience the unknown. It’s also a good way to get an overview of the area – visiting a lot of places, but just a short amount of time in each, to see which ones you would possible want to come back and spend more time at. For us I think we prefer a little more adventure and freedom to explore on our own, without quite so many time constraints and guidelines.

The Beach in Honduras

Rainbow over another Ship

Some of the shore excursions were great activities, but were so over priced, unfortunately we didn’t participate in any of them. You could swim with dolphins at several of the ports, hold sting rays, rent ATV’s (quadbikes), visit ruins, snorkeling/diving etc. At times these activities were triple the price of what you could get things for from a company operated externally of the cruise line, but most the time the way the ports are set up, they don’t really allow you the opportunity to book anywhere but through them directly.

Disembarking the Boat in Cozumel

She's a Strong One

Overall we had a pretty good experience on the cruise, we’re definitely glad we did it. We liked the fact that we just had to unpack once to see several different places, liked some of the food onboard and loved the shows. We disliked the large amount of very-very drunk people onboard the boat at all hours of the day, we disliked some of the food and disliked the lines associated with getting on and off the boat at the ports of call. We also disliked the large amount of announcements from the Cruise director and staff which seemed to constantly pump through the boat starting very early in the morning.

Watching the Waves in our Stateroom

I can see us taking another cruise in the future but probably not with Carnival, as they are a little too party orientated for our preferred style of travel, and probably not to tropical destinations where we’d prefer to stay on the land, and explore places at our own leisure (avoiding lines and waiting in queue quite so much).

More pics from our cruise can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/OurCaribbeanCruise?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Roughing It on St. John

2012-01-27T11:56:00.000+10:00

Karate Kid?

The term “roughing it” can have many different meanings to many different people. Some could say a four star hotel is roughing it and a three star hotel is close to cave living. Others could say digging your toilet and catching your own food would be roughing it and a hotel room is close to cave living.

Conch Life

When travelling as a couple it’s sometimes difficult to find a place that suits both of our tastes especially when it comes to roughing it. I’m finding that some places I’ve loved going to in the past no longer fit in with our travel style. Both of us love nature and the outdoors but we both don’t have the same love of roughing it. Pamela’s as tough as they come but her idea of a good time, nor mine for that matter, does not include some of the things we experienced on the Caribbean island of St. John.

Little Maho and Francis Bay

Twilight on St. John

After our cruise we flew to the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands for five days of island life. From St. Thomas airport we caught a rather expensive cab then a ferry over to St. John, the smallest and least developed of the US Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands National Park comprises two thirds of the 20 square mile island so development is very restricted which leads to beautiful virgin beaches, mountainous trails, abundant wildlife and high price tags for hotel rooms. The National Park and high priced hotel rooms on the island have opened up a market for camp style accommodations at the beautiful Cinnamon and Maho Bays.

Little Maho Bay

Big Maho Bay

We chose to stay at the Maho Bay Camp while on St. John, $140 USD per night plus tax. I (DW) have stayed at the camp a couple times before and always had a good time. When booking a room at the camp you’re actually booking a wood framed, canvas tent cottage, with screen or synthetic windows which open up to a wood deck with ocean views.

The living room of our cottage

Cooking up some soup on the camping gas stove

The construction style of the tent cottage allows for a oneness with nature that you normally don’t find in a typical hotel room. Lying in bed you can drift off to sleep to the sounds of the lapping ocean waves or conversing tree frogs. Also lying in bed you’ll have the chance to kill or escort out cockroaches, millipedes, large flying insects, crabs, rats, lizards, iguanas and anything else that can crawl, walk, fly or scamper around the jungle. Five shared bathhouses throughout the camp allow you access to shared toilets and cold showers. Flashlights are a must though as there are no lights on the elevated walkways throughout the camp. The lack of lights at night makes for great stargazing opportunities from your deck.

One of our many lizard friends in our cottage

Escorting a millipede out of our room

The essentials when coming to St. John

The Maho Bay Camps are located towards the end of the island in a great location allowing for easy access to beautiful beaches of Big Maho Bay, Francis Bay and Little Maho Bay. A close proximity of hiking trails allows for easy access to Cinnamon Bay, Leinster Bay, Salt Pond and even Reef Bay via the Reef Bay Trail. While on the island we hiked over the Leinster Bay and snorkeled around the crystal blue waters of Waterlemon Cay. The snorkeling around St. John is great, on a sunny day the visibility in the light blue water is great, your chances of spotting rays or turtles are very high.

An iguana above our tent cottage

Enjoying Francis Bay at sunset

The Maho Bay Camp is also well known for its art programs ranging from ceramics, batik and a recycled glass program allowing guests to watch professional glass artists practice their trade from 6:30pm to 9:30pm most evenings. During the day guests can pay to join ceramics, batik or glass blowing glasses with each class creating something unique for you to take home. We felt the prices for the art programs were a bit too steep so we settled on watching the glass artists in the evening. The pieces you watch being created in the evening are then for sale in the Art Gallery the next day. This allows you to see a piece from start to finish and then take the piece home with you.

Watching the sun go down on St. John

Sunset at Little Maho Bay

If the thought of all the critters mentioned above in your room turns you off then Maho Bay Camps is probably not the place for you. Unfortunately in our case it proved not to be the place for Pamela either. While staying at the camp Pamela developed many-many-many bites over her back and arms consistent with bed bugs. Although the camp staff insisted the bites were from sand flies they were nice enough to change the mattress out, give us new sheets, and finally let us leave a night early due to the increasing number of bites on Pamela. In our four nights at the camp we also dealt with rat poop on our bed, cockroaches crawling over us, Pamela being stung by a jellyfish (just bad luck) and dodging flying poop and pee from the large green iguanas living in the tree above our deck.

One of our iguana friends

On the trail to big Maho Bay
Is this Pamela or the sherpa?

St. John is a beautiful island and I would recommend travelling there to anyone; although far from Australia I hope to see the island again myself. Needless to say this is the last time we’ll be roughing it at Maho Bay Camps as it’s just not the place for us any more.

Showing Off

A death apple tree on the walk to Waterlemon Cay from Maho

All our pics from St. John can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/StJohnUSVirginIslands?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Art Deco in South Florida

2012-01-27T05:15:00.000+10:00

Art Deco Weekend in Miami

Our seven night Caribbean cruise finished up in Miami on a cool Sunday morning. We grabbed a rental car and headed to South Beach that afternoon for a day at the beach. The first problem was finding a parking spot, we drove around for about 20 minutes before finding a spot up near 18^th street and Washington Drive. After parking we spent about an hour lounging on the white sand beach while watching kite surfers and others swim in the clear blue waters of South Florida.

Hanging out on South Beach

Watching Kite Surfers on South Beach

Walking down to the Art Deco district of Ocean Drive we discovered the street blocked off and a large street fair called Art Deco Weekend happening right before our eyes. The 35 year running art festival celebrates Miami’s rich art history through music performances, car show, food and film. We walked up and down the streets admiring the exhibits and shops while taking photos of the buildings, cars and people that make up this culture rich area. We put some of the more artistic settings on our new camera to good use while in South Beach. Art Deco complete, we left South Beach and headed to a Cuban café for some great food.

Art Deco in Miami

The next morning we hopped in our rental car and headed down Florida Highway 1 to Key West. Along the 150 mile scenic drive we stopped in Islamorada for a great country breakfast and then made a pit stop to Bahia Honda State Park for a walk along the beach and abandoned bridge/railway. It was a great drive along what seemed like endless bridges along crystal blue water.

Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys

Abandoned car and railway bridge in the background

Arriving in Key West we hopped straight to a beach where we proceeded to get blasted by the wind and sand. After about 30 minutes being pelted by sand we headed off to the Southernmost point of the Continental United States and a very long line to take pictures in front of the point. We declined the line, and grabbed a snap of the landmark quickly in between the groups of people getting there picture with it, and continued over to the main Street - Duval St. where we ate lunch at Willie-T’s Bar and Restaurant then hit the Sunset Pier with about 5,000 other people where we watched a magnificent sunset. Sunset complete we headed back to Duval St. and checked out some of the many great art galleries in Key West. After consuming an amazing and giant ice cream from Kilwin's, we hopped in the car and made the three hour drive back to Miami. We would have loved to stay in Key West longer and hope to get back there someday.

Driving over the long bridges down to Key West

All our pics from South Florida can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/SouthFloridaUSA

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave