On My Lonesome....

It's Steff here, reporting from Sydney, Australia and ahem, on my own. Yep, alone, just me holding the torch continuing on our world travels. Justin has flown to Toronto to attend his sister, Krystal's wedding and for a family reunion. A worthy cause for sure. Sydney is a beautiful city, but at the moment, i am suffering a bit of culture shock, or P.A.D.- Post Asia Depression. After having been in Asia for the last 8 months, it is certainly a shock to the system to re-enter into 1st World living standards, lifestyle and pricing. I suspect it will take about a week to adjust, just as it took about a week to adjust to India after we left England.

Sydney is a beautiful cosmopolitan city and from what I can tell so far, life here and the history as well, is a lot like Canada, which may be why we Canadians and Aussies all get along so well. And I must say that Australians are definitely a very friendly bunch indeed.

I've also had a wonderful opportunity to spend time in Port Macquarie, a chilled-out seaside town, 4 hours up the coast from Sydney. Our friend April and her family have warmly welcomed me into their home and have kept me well entertained. We lived with April years ago in Vancouver and it has been absolutely great to catch up with her. April and her sister, Sarah have been introducing me to Australian music and we had the fortunate opportunity to go see a band in concert called 'Kid Confucius'. We all danced like maniacs which was fabulous! The sandy beaches here are beautiful and there are great waves to play in.... when the water gets a bit warmer! It's only Spring time here, so wet-suits are still needed for surfing and boogie boarding.

I was very keen to meet some kangaroos and koalas, so we headed out to an animal reserve with Sarah's 3 year old daughter, Olivia. I was just as excited, if not more than Olivia to see kangaroos and wallabies bouncing around everywhere. We even had the chance to pet and feed them corn. We also visited with the koalas, which are a very cute and funny animal. They are so sleepy, despite sleeping 18 hours of the day and this is because the eucalyptus leaves that they eat have very little nutritional value (like white bread!) The koalas just recline and laze the day away in their trees and sometimes fall out on account of being so dopey from such a poor diet!

After two weeks, I took the train back to Sydney to meet up with Justin and continue on with our travels.....together. :-)

Town of Ubud, Bali

Our last 3 days in Indonesia were spent in the town of Ubud, right in the centre of Bali. It is a very touristy town with gift shops galore, glorious coffee shops and tasty restaurants, so we didn't mind it, especially after being on rustic, isolated islands. Ubud it is touristy for a reason. The charm of the town is present on every street with its intricately decorated temples, beautiful tropical gardens among them and lush, green rice paddies surrounding the town. Every morning the Balinese Hindu women carefully place small offerings of flowers, rice and candy in strategic spots to ward off the bad spirits from their homes or businesses. Women wear a traditional, patterned long skirt and a flower in their hair while performing elegant, dance-like moves of precision and thinking a short prayer. It was truly a lovely aspect of the culture to observe.

We hired a shooter one day and explored one of Bali's two volcanos. We drove our little scooter right to the edge of the volcanic crater and to our surprise, there were roads, farms and villages located inside the crater!!! Not exactly our idea of the ideal place to live!! Oh and yes the volcano is active, but hasn't exploded since the 1960's. So of course, we had to go and venture down into these towns just to see what life is like. The roads were totally funny to drive on, because they were laid on old lava flow which made the roads feel like a mini roller coaster ride, dipping up and down like a wave! totally bizarre. Land has got to be cheap here!!

Overall, our time in Ubud, was a picturesque, relaxing, tasty experience.

Please check out a few photos in the Indonesian gallery.