Clouds hover above Sydney..

The sun still hasn't shown itself :(
at least its not raining anymore!!

Last night I met up with Florian and Andi and their friend Alex, also German hah. We joined two English girls at a bar downtown and had a few drinks. Funny how a 3$ beer seems so expensive compared to the 50 cent ones in Thailand! ohhhh..
I managed to make friends with 7 Swedish guys outside the bar who loved hearing about how cold the Canadian winter is haha

Today me and the boys went to a market, bought some souvenirs (MORE STUFF?? AARRGG!!) I was terrified at the realization that many of the shops were selling, not only kangaroo hides, but their testicles as key chains and their little paws as back-scratchers!! Sick, sick. just sick. Im not a fan..
I realized today that it is Thursday and I only have 3 more days until i go home!!! Its kind of weird that the trip is coming to a close, and I feel a bit sad, but the sad feeling is drowned out in the anticipation for a HOME and my family and friends!! Oh how lovely it will be to sleep in MY bed (no bedbugs!) and eat home cooked meals every day... aaah yesss!!!

There are giant Christmas trees in all the shopping centers and scattered around town.. there are also huge banners that say Merry Christmas with cockatoos and bushbabies on them haha its weird without any snow... and an abundance of shorts adn t-shirts!

Bonne Fete Maman!!!

Well, while I am aware that I am in the future and that it is not yet the 10th of December in North America, it IS the 10th HERE in Sydney, so Happy Birthday maman!!!

Sydney is pretty awesome so far. I am lucky enough to be staying in a wonderfully amazing hotel (merci encore!) at the moment, and having a flushing toilet and a shower that is more than just a hose stuck on the wall next to the toilet, is just pure luxury!!!
Yesterday I landed in Sydney at 7am, with only a few hours of sleep on the plane. I left Katie in Bangkok, very sad, but not as sad as when we parted ways the first time (phew!). After doing a much needed load of laundry at a laundromat nearby, I grabbed my map and set out to explore. I walked through the busy streets eating a sandwich i had bought at Woolworths and people watching. In the middle of the city is what appears to be a financial district of some kind, and all of a sudden everyone is wearing a shirt and tie... I found a huuuge Christmas tree in the middle of the street, very beautiful old architecture, and finally I made my way to the Royal Botanical Garden!!! Ahhh so gorgeous! There are actually a TON of bats in the garden adn they have to try to get rid of them every year becasue the eat the vegetation. They were all hanging in the trees throughout the garden screeching and stretching their wings. Dont worry, I took many more pictures than was necessary!

The Gardens led to a harbour, and there was the Opera House! What a surprise! I walked up to it, very impressed, stared at it for a while, and headed back toward the hotel (i was about to fall down).
Today I am going to meet up with Florian and Andreas, the german boys i met in Adelaide...
Too bad its cloudy and a bit windy.. my original plan was to head straight for the beach!!!

Oh Thailand!

Its Sunday in Bangkok...we left the beautiful Phuket beaches last night and took the night bus (we dont learn our lessons...) to Bangkok and got here early this morning. We decided to splurge and get a double room at a small inn on Koh San road instead of a guesthouse... Its super pretty, clean, and has A POOL ON THE ROOF!!! For 400 B each (10 bucks? not bad!).
Needless to say our tans are looking pretty spectacular, as is our shopping list.
Tomorrow night I fly back to Sydney for a few days...
Last night in Thailand!!!!

Finally, an island!

We are in Phuket! We made it to the south!!!! Sukhothai's ruins were amazing... but it was nice to get out of that town.
The bus from Bangkok to Phuket was utterly ridiculous. Left at 6 pm, as soon as we boarded, they put on a video called "magic memories"... some live concert of a weird thai guy with crazy outfits, stage contraptions, and dancers. It was SO loud, i couldnt' turn up my ipods volume loud enought to drown it out. THen after that was over, they played Hellboy II in Thai, just as loud. Then when it was over, finally we are like 'phew we can sleep now' it was about 10 pm. At midnight, for a reason know one knows, all the lights on the bus turn on, adn they start blaring what sounded like a spanish-inspired Thai song as loud as they can. We woke startled, not understanding what was going on.... we stopped at a rest stop.
Im starting to hate the vendetta Thai people have for not putting toilet paper in the bathrooms...
So we got to Phuket, rode on the back of motorbikes with our huge packs to a guesthouse, showered nad finally went to the beach!!!
aaaah its so beautiful! There are palm trees lining the beach with white sand, blue clear water, and surrounded by hills covered in more palm trees and banana trees. THe water is very warm adn the sun is very hot... we saw an elephant by the side of hte road!!!
TOday we are going to a Gibbon Rehabilitation Center in the north of the island!!
We are leaving Bangkok monday, and im going back to sydney for 2 weeks before coming back to north america for christmas woo!!!

What date is it again??

So its saturday in Sukhothai. The rooster outside of our room's only windwo has been enthusiastically cock-a-doodleing since, oh, maybe 5 am, much to our dismay. A few blocks down, a small restaurant decided to set up giant speakers proppd up against an old truck, playing cheery sounding Thai music.
The last few days have been spent in Chiang Mai as well as Pai. Pai was reached after a 4 hour minibus ride through the curviest mountain roads ive ever witnessed. Passengers were sick with motion sickness on our way there, and back... very understandable. It was much smaller than Chian Mai, more relaxed, nestled in the hills and farm lands. Very picturesque! We rented a scooter and drove to see a waterfall, hot springs, and the Pai canyon, all the while singing "Born to Be Wild" to ourselves. So much fun!!!
We got to Sukhothai last night, intending to stay for a short amount of time but I think we may stay here a bit longer than expected as katie is feeling a bit under the weather.
Next stop, we anticipate, is Phuket.

The land of smiles...

Sooooo Im in Bangkok!
Katie and Noah came and got me at the airport and took me back to the hotel on koh san road... tiny little room with a very interesting bathroom. We went out and danced and had some pad thai... for less than 1 Us dollar. SOO great!
Bangkok is phenomenal...its so different in every way. There are so many people everywhere, it smells, the taxis are BRIGHT pink, everyone is a crazy driver, there are men driving motor bikes with huge carts somehow attached to the front of them weaving between traffic, tuk tuks, food carts, stray cats and dogs, pictures of the King everywhere, orchids, temples....
amazing.
Everyone is very nice, the food is delicious, we all got 1/2 hour thai massages today for 100 B (2.50 usd?) which were so amazing.
We saw the Grand Palace today and walked around town for quite some time. In one of the temples there was a gigantic reclining Buddah which was about 50 meters long...GOLD!!! Just took my breath away.
Me, Katie and Noah all got matching fisherman pants (we ARE a team!), and Im making mental notes for all the Christmas presents i will bring back ;)

Sooo, change of plans.

I have returned to Adelaide on short notice. I am flying to Bangkok tomorrow!!! Katie and her friend Noah will be there waiting for me, ready for adventure!

Wwoofing with the Builders was amazing. What a great family! They treated me like one of their own, and Marco and Lola were so much fun too! We played quite a bit of chess, although i would get really antsy and get bored of the game... Rita was a great cook, which i will miss, but it was a very fun experience.
Today i ran all over the city getting my things together. I got immunized, talked to my bank, sent postcards... blah blah. all good fun.
Now im going to go to sleep because i have to catch a bus for the airport at 5:20 am! Ouch!