Chapter 8 - Last Days

We discovered Ed's Place, which is a bar frequented by tourists, where we met a lot of Aussies and Kiwis (New Zealanders). Matt (who lives in Australia) took us to Natadola Beach, which was about 45 minutes from Nadi. Once again, this beach was beautiful - white sand, blue water - what more could you ask for?

Before we knew it, time flew by. For some reason we thought we were leaving on Monday, when it was actually Sunday. Good thing Elaina checked our tickets on Saturday! We were a bit sad to leave, especially when we thought we had one more day, but all good things must come to an end...

Pics -
1. Partying at Ed's Place
2. Natadola Beach
3. Sunset from our resort
4. Coming home...

Chapter 7 - Bula Fiji!

Fiji is beautiful!! We arrived on July 31 and are staying at the Club Fiji Resort, which is right on the beach. We are staying in a bure (pronounce bu-ray), which kinda looks like a thatched hut. So far we've spent our days relaxing on the beach, paddle boating, and getting to know the resort staff. Last night, Bola (the bartender) and his friend took us out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant, and then to a bar/club nearby - After Hours. The bar was cool, and the DJ played my current favourite song (Hips Don't Lie by Shakira). He also played some Kwaito, Reggae, local Fijian music, and even a Ugandan song. Fijians are a mix of Indian, Polynesian and Chinese. The Fijian women all wear their hair in the same way, which kind of looks like a square 'fro.

Fiji is made up of about 300 different islands, and we are staying in Nadi (pronounced Nandi), which is on Viti Levu.

Downtown Nadi is full of all kinds of activity. It could easily be downtown Kampala – sans the boda bodas. There are the usual souvenir shops with people beckoning you to enter them, markets, etc. I thought I would be able to blend in with the locals, but I keep getting stares. Maybe it’s my hair - I knew I should have left it out! We were warned not to tell anyone our names coz apparently there are con-artists who quickly carve your name into a wood souvenir, and you are forced to buy it. I don’t know why you wouldn’t just say no. So far no one has tried that on us – they must know we’re from New York J

Today (Thursday) we left the mainland and took a ½ hour boat-ride to Beach Comber Island. This is supposedly the party island in Fiji, so we wanted to check it out. Most of the outer islands also have much better beaches and clearer water. The highlight of this trip (for me) was snorkeling. I had never done this before, and after I learned how not to get water in my pipe, I was blown away by the whole experience!! The water was absolutely clear, and we didn’t even have to go far out before we could see the fish and coral. There were all sorts of bright colors and I even saw about 7 electric-blue starfish!! Absolutely breathtaking!!!

Views from our resort...

Chapter 6 - Minus 5/Night life

I had read about this lounge called Minus 5, and was trying to convince the girls to come with me. For some reason, they weren’t as thrilled at the idea as I was. Basically the whole lounge is kept at a temperature of at least -5 degrees since everything is made of ice - the tables, chairs, glasses (which are shipped in from New Zealand). You pay a cover charge, and are allowed in for only 30 minutes. Before you enter, you are given a huge Eskimo coat, two pairs of gloves, and some winter boots to put on. Even after losing the sensation in my fingers, I would have to say that the experience is definitely worth going through – only once though.

Night Life

The party scene in Sydney was alright. I wasn’t thrilled with the music selection since it didn’t vary over the course of the night. There’s only so much house/techno music I can take. Also, what was considered hot was actually not - eg. the song with the Pussy Cat Dolls and Snoop. If you were looking for a hip-hop or reggae club, you were limited to finding out when the hip-hop or reggae night was. Luckily we had met MacDonald (from Zimbabwe) who took us out on the hip-hop night. The DJ did a pretty good job of mixing it up, but as the night wore on, I felt like I was Down South. Call me biased!

To summarize SYdney we:

- Walked around and photographed the Opera House

- Climbed the Harbour Bridge

- Checked out the Rocks – Australia’s birth place and tourist hot spot

- Partied in Kings Cross

- Shopped at the Paddington markets near Oxford Street

Chapter 5 - Sydney

We are in Sydney!!! Got in at about 9pm on Thu, and headed straight to the hotel, which is in Darling Harbour, right near the aquarium. Sydney is MUCH colder than Darwin – around 15C during the day. Too bad I only packed my light jackets :(

On Friday we climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which took 3.5hrs. It wasn’t as scary as I thought, just a lot of stairs. A group of about 12 of us were chained together, and we had to make sure we spaced ourselves evenly when climbing up or down the 1,260 steps. The views from the top were amazing!!! You can see the Opera House and the city skyline. They don’t let you take anything up with you – no cameras, no keys, no earrings, nothing. Our climb left at 11:30am, which was a good time since it wasn’t too cold. It would have been nice to do the twilight climb, and see the sun set, but it gets really cold.

We got some decent weather on Sunday, and spent the morning at the Taronga Zoo. I guess it’s like any other regular zoo, but I haven’t been to one of those (unless you count a safari). Since we hadn’t seen any kangaroos or wallabies yet, this was our last chance to see them in person. Neither were as impressive as I had imagined, but maybe it was because they had just eaten, and were lazing around. Speaking of, did I mention that I tried a kangaroo burger in Darwin? Quite yummy, but I don’t know if I would eat it again; I felt a bit guilty for some reason…

After the zoo, we walked around Circular Quay since it’s a nice spot to hang out when the weather is good. There are a bunch of restaurants and shops, but most importantly, the Opera House is located here. Yes, it’s amazing to look at, and postcard-perfect! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take a tour.
1. Suiting up for the Climb
2. At the zoo
3. Sydney Harbour Bridge that we climbed
4. Me with the Opera House in the background

Chapter 4 - More sightseeing

Water Gardens:
At the Parap Market, we got chicken satays from a vendor that Yas usually goes to, and he invited us to his daughter’s 21st birthday party, which was taking place at the Rapid Creek Water Gardens. On the day of the party, we got there late, and the party was pretty much over. We found the birthday girl and gave her her card, then spent the rest of the time strolling through the Gardens.



Litchfield National Park and Jumping Croc Cruise:
Elaina finally got here late Monday night, so we hired a car on Tuesday and drove to Litchfield, which is about 2 hours away. The prime activity here is simply wandering from one pristine swimming hole to another, or bushwalking. First we stopped at the Cathedral Termite Mound, and then walked the trail to Florence Falls, then lazed around the beautiful pool, which was surrounded by a monsoon forest. We also stopped quickly at the Tolmer Falls, which offers beautiful views of the valley (see pic).

We had scheduled a 3pm jumping crocodile cruise, and had to make a mad dash to make it. Thankfully the tour operator waited for us since there weren’t that many people going on it. It’s called a jumping crocodile cruise coz the guy holds out a piece of meat on a stick for the crocodiles, and they actually jump to get it. I was only able to get one good action shot.

Chapter 3 - Out and About...

I learned (in Karama) that the slang for an aboriginal person is "black fella". Darwin is supposedly more diverse than any other part of Australia, and I've seen a small mix of Asians and Aboriginis - not that many though. Most of the market vendors are Indonesian, Malaysian or Indian it seems.

Met up with Yasmin's old flatmate and her friends and learned how to fish at Buffalo Creek. Didn't catch a single thing :(

Going to the markets is the thing to do in Darwin, so we went to the Parap and Mindil Beach Markets. Watching the sun set at Mindil Beach is also a huge fanfare with hundreds of people showing up...

Chapter 2 - Karama

Darwin is in the Northern Territory of Australia, so it's actually very warm here as opposed to the rest of Australia. On the night I arrived, Yasmin and her flatmate James, insisted on going to a pub in Karama. Karama is a neighborhood in Darwin that was compared to the Bronx in the Northern Territory newspaper. So Yasmin, being from the Bronx, was eager to go check it out. We get there to find 6 people and the usual pub scene - pool tables, a few arcade machines, etc. For a Friday night, it was a slow night, and I'm still trying to figure out why this place was compared to the Bronx. We played a game of pool with 2 locals (they beat us badly), and then left.

Yasmin - Representin' the Bronx

Chapter 1 - The trip - July 19 - 21

So I'm off to Australia to visit Yasmin who has been interning there this summer. Her other friend Elena will join us in Darwin, and from there we'll go to Sydney and finally Fiji. This is my summer before going to b-school, so I wanted to go out with a bang :)

JFK -> LAX I didn't want to sleep on the 5 hr flight from JFK to LAX, since I knew that I would have to on the Sydney leg. So far so good; we have about half an hour left until we board. I'm kind of tired, but not yet restless. I sat next to a nice woman who lives in Melbourne, and who had been on a 4 month long vacation in US and Canada. 4 months! Her and her husband rented an RV and drove all over - that's definitely something I'd like to try at some point.

LAX -> SYD: 2nd flight - this was a looong a** flight - 14 hours! I slept, I read, I talked to the lady next to me, I slept again, and we still had 7 hours to go! The movie selection was wack, so I didn't even bother. I watched the news and a documentary on hypnosis. We got to Sydney 1.5 hrs later so I missed my Darwin connection, but they had booked me on another one that leaves in 20 mins. This one goes from Darwin to Mumbai so there are lots of saris floating around.

SYD-> DAR 4hrs later, I arrived without my bag, because of the change in connection. The Darwin airport is tiny and the forex office was closed. I was able to use an ATM though. I took a shuttle to meet Yasmin at the Marrakai flats which are right in the middle of town. The drive from the airport took about 20 mins, and there wasn't much to see in terms of scenery. Lots of palm trees, and low buildings

View from our flat (East Timor sea in the distance)

Just arrived