Road Trip, take two

What day are we? Sunday? Monday? 24th? 25th? Don't know!

Time goes by at a fast pace but stays suspended at the same time. When you have fun... and you're not really ready to go back home... I don't know yet if I could go on for years, but I'm not afraid that I will need to give up before the end of the six months I planned.

The last week was very intense. And I need a little bit of time to recuperate and think. I'll make sure it happens in the next week.

Blue Mountains

After a road trip on the Great Ocean Road, the one between Melbourne and Sydney was unique too. Exactly 24 travelers in a bus for three days... you make friends. We drove through the most southern point in Australia and the longest beach of the country. From there, we walked up the highest australian mountain before stopping in Canberra parliament.

Even if all the travelers I had fun with are now in different hostels in Sydney, we stay in touch and we try to meet again for an activity. Five of us have went to the Blue Mountains together today. Those mountains were named because of the eucalyptus steam above it. It's the Grand Canyon of Autralia. There, you can find a cable car which leans to an angle of 50 degrees... That is something.

When we came back, we shared a kangaroo and cranberries pizza before spending the evening next to the Sydney Opera.

I have now booked my hostel in Hong Kong where there is not a lot of places when you search for a dorm. I still need to plan the time I'll spend in China and Japan to plan how I'll get my visas.

I'm under the impression that I'm throwing all my money by the windows, but I still hope that Asia will be cheaper. I haven't checked yet the amount I have in my bank account since I left home. And I don't want to.

Tips

- For those who wish to book a hostel online, hostelbookers and hostelworld are the most popular websites. If hostelworld is easier to use, there are booking fees of 2 $ each time you use it... unless you get a gold card, which costs 20 $ and will cancel all the booking fees for a year. For a round-the-world-trip, it's totally worth it.

- Talking of surcharge,  most hostels add 2 or 3 % to your bill if you pay by credit card. You must know that your bank would add some fees anyway if you were going to an ATM. Both end up costing the same thing most of the times.

- To get to know a new city, the best way is often to go on a free tour. You can find some in a lot of cities in the world. Most of the times, they are offered by students or young adults who only get paid by the tip you give them according to your appreciation of the tour. Don't hesitate to ask them if there are cheap ways to travel with the transportation system. They know most hints needed to save on train tickets, trams, buses or subways. They will also be able to tell you what event is going on at that moment.

One month - Assessment

For those interested, I have been gone for a month now. I'm happy to realize I used EVERYTHING I have in my luggage, excepted some medicine. Nothing useless then. 

I had some problems, like I have told already. The most recent one is my ticket for Hong Kong I bought online but the company refused to approve it because of supposed problems with my credit card. On the other hand, the amount was billed on my credit card as soon as I bought it. It was removed afterwards. Now, everything is ok. 

Here are the cities I've been in in the forst month : 
Sherbrooke (CAN)
Burlington (USA)
San Diego (USA)
Los Angeles (USA)
Auckland (N-Z)
Rotorua (N-Z)
Taupo (N-Z)
Wellington (N-Z)
Queenstown (N-Z)
Milford Sound (N-Z)
Queenstown (again) (N-Z)
Franz Josef (N-Z)
Christchurch (N-Z)
Melbourne (AUS)
Phillip Island (AUS)

The koala scam

Sleepy koala in Ballarat, Australia

Short words to tell you about the koala scam.

Without any predators, sleeping all day long, those small cubs are still protected in Australia. It seems it's totally forbidden to touch them. If you do, the police could track you.

But you can touch a koala in a natural reserve. There is the entrance fee, between 15 and 25 $, usually. And, if you want, you can buy food to feed to kangaroos, which you can touch as much as you want. But for the koalas... the koalas...

Touching a koala? They will charge you 10 more dollars (or 25, maybe). A picture with the koala? They will take it for you for another 10 $... And the price keep on rising if you want the whole family on the picture.

We, on the other hand, went around that rule in Ballarat. Around 2:30 PM, an employee took the koala out of it's enclosure so we could pet it. We could take pictures. For free. There you go. That is called magic.

Driving on the left

Great Ocean Road, Australia

Monday night. End of thre road trip. Ready for another road trip, but a little bit tired of those four days of driving. Poor me...

No, I didn't get involved in an accident by driving on the left... but on the right. Left side of the road, steering wheel on the right.

Friday, I got my hands on a gleaming blue Holden Cruze, opening roof, a/c, leather seats, electric windows and too many controls on the steering wheel. Not that bad for the cheapest car I could find in Melbourne.

With a French guy and a German girl, I left on the Great Ocean Road, starting in Melbourne and stopping in Geelong, Torquay, Lorne, Apollo Bay, Cape Otway and Warrnambool. Other than the rain that would start every time we were stepping out of the car on Friday, the remaining of the week-end was perfect. From sunny day to sunny day. From opened roof to opened roof.

True, I often activated the wipers instead of the flashers. I often searched for the stick on the right. And I drove one little time, early in the morning, in the right lane instead of the left lane. I got mixed up.

But everybody got back alive. Friday, the beaches were the most popular thing. Saturday, we saw koalas in the trees and the popular Twelve Apostles.

During the evening, we met with a French girl who was sleeping in the same hostel we were in in Melbourne. She was traveling with 4 other girls. The seven of us left for the Grampians, beautiful mountains. The next evening, while driving down one of those mountains, kangaroos were everywhere along the curvy roads. Danger! But nothing happened. And today, on our way back, we stopped in Ballarat, in an animal sanctuary where we could touch an alligator, a koala, some kangaroos again, and a wombat.

Leaving those new friends after four intense days was heartbreaking. But everyone has to go their own way.

I'm leaving early tomorrow (6:30) in a bus that will go to Sydney in three days. On the way, we'll stop on the highest mountain of Australia and we'll see Canberra.

This time, I'm not driving.

Karma is a b****

Melbourne, Australia

It cannot always go wrong. I mean that the unexpected events, at some point, must stop.

Still, the next unexpected thing cost me two deposits for a room in a hostel. I took the time to plan everything. I chose a tour that would bring me from Mebourne to Sydney in three days, instead of taking a boring bus or a train that would link the two during the night. With that tour, I'll stop in some other cities on the way, one of them being the capital Canberra.

The problem is, that tour goes three times a week. And the day I wanted to leave is already fully booked. Thanks Grand Prix!

After choosing to leave Melbourne earlier to book that tour (that's why I lost my deposits on the rooms), I stopped to eat. I bought a dessert in a small shop where you pay your frozen yogurt  based on it's weight... unless you guess exactly the weight of your own little cup. And guess who got it totally right, right on the dot? ME!

Ok, karma is like income taxes. You give, you give, and when it's time to get something back, you always get less than you gave. A free frozen yogurt in the Grand Prix frenzy? Makes my week. Karma! (I hear Marie-Eve say : he won something again... damn!)

Karma in action, the travelers stuck to leave Melbourne because of the Grand Prix are now all searching for solutions and plenty of them are offering to share the rent of my (small) australian car. I thought it would cost me so much... I might be able to get away with it for less than 20 $ a day for the car. Not too bad!

I'm leaving tomorrow for the Great Ocean Road, driving on the left side of the road as much as possible. And I'll be back in Melbourne on Monday. Departure is on Tuesday towards Sydney. One week later, I take off to Hong Kong for the beggining of my asian adventure. The ticket is freshly booked.

And I didn't say anything about the kangaroos I fed. And the penguins I saw. I will do next time.

Meanwhile, it has been a month since I'm gone. Five to go. Time goes by very fast and I still have so much to see. Looking forward to explore Asia and to get good exchange rates...

Race... to leave Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia

Country number 3 : Australia. Here I am in Melbourne, where the adventures are... interesting. Let's say it that way.

Lessons are coming in at a fast pace.

Lesson "number" Z (!) : When you say to the border patrol that you don't have a return ticket, try to refrain from looking nervous. That one was nice and saying "no worries". But the fact that I couldn't tell where I would be three days from now bothered him. I will make sure I have an answer to that in the more sensitive countries. Consolation prize : the border patrol in Christchurch wouldn't stop calling me "My Love". 

Lesson number 12345.1.2.3 : when you buy a flight ticket, make sure you get in a city you don't know while the sun is still shining. Or let's say not after 8 P.M. Looks like having to walk all Prague around midnight, without any money, last year, wasn't enough to convince me. Here, the shuttle I was told to take to get to my hostel is not running after midnight. And since I spent a lot of time trying to cross the border... Plan B : another shuttle and a tram. BUT... no more tram. Plan C : share a taxi with another stuck traveler and have the hostel worker welcome me with « I was wondering where you were... »

Lesson that goes with the pink TZ form you can find on the 12th floor : when you choose a destination, make sure there is not a very big event in that city. Just in case you would have missed out on booking a hostel or a hotel two years ahead.

It's just that the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place this week-end. It's just that the track is... right across the street, in front of my hostel. It's just that there are no rooms available anywhere starting Wednesday. But my hostel got a cancellation for Wednesday and Thursday. I will be able to stay at least until the action begins.

So, in the list of things that make me say "I don't like Melbourne, but only for the wrong reasons", we can add : 1. Having a dog smell my luggage in the airport, while I was standing on a painted line on the floor. 2. Having another dog peeing on me while I was sitting on the ground, in a park, trying to eat my lunch. 3. The owner of the dog whispering "I'm sorry"... Well, you better be "sorry", because there is nothing more you can do but control your freaking dog. 4. Being in a hostel where decibels are at all time above the legal limit, where people knock very hard on the door in the middle of the night to greet their one-night partner. Youngsters... 5. A wi-fi with which you need to fight for ten minutes before being able to use it.

So, nothing too important. Nothing I can't forget in a few minutes. Nothing to make me forget the beautiful 23 degrees of this end of summer. And the anticipation of seeing penguins and koalas tomorrow.

Before Wednesday, I'll try to see if I can rent a car for the week-end to run from the frenzy of the Grand Prix. Kaching! You have to do what you have to do. Trying to get over stuff by thinking I'll be able to find a room for 5 $ in South-East Asia.

The sun and a big ice cube

Franz Josef

Free wi-fi in the airport. Woot! Rare in this country. Which allows me to post an update.

I made my way, earlier this week, between Queenstown and Franz Josef and had to go through the eight hours bus trip between them. The bus company stops in every little village on the way. And it pauses for 30 minutes in the middle of nowhere so we have to buy food sold at very high prices. We abandonned or bus in one of those nowhere city for a restaurant made of wood logs. The noodles and vegetables soup was recommanded. Only 9 $ for a bowl. And you couldn't eat the bowl, I should say. (Not a bowl made of bread for Jeannot... and no grapes either.)

When I got in Franz Josef, I was hoping to book a hike on the Franz Josef glacier for the next day. Since once again, me getting somwhere enabled the city to get rid of the rain they had for two days, everybody had already booked that expedition. No choice : have to stay one more day at the bottom of the mountains.

The choice was interesting, allowing me to relax and explore the trails in the nearby forest. The next day, a very bright sun was shining on the glacier. Doesn't happen too often I was told. That's why they give us a raincoat. But we didn't use it. We had short sleeves on the glacier. That's special. Between that and a museum, I would choose the glacier all the way.

That adventure was followed by another day of traveling, first on a bus to Greymouth, going throught a weird wild food festival in Hokitika, and on a train, to cross from the west coast to the east coast, across the New Zealand Alps.

Finally, I spent a day in the mostly destroyed center of Christchurch, where the earthquake pictures are breathtaking.

One lesson : always make sure the bus stop isn't hidden somewhere close when you get out of the train station. That can prevent you from paying too much for a taxi ride.

I need to go now. My plane for Melbourne is calling.

To conclude, I'd like to say to my colleague Serge that my striped t-shirt, which he thinks is ugly, is very popular everywhere I go. When you're the only one not thinking like the others... (I hope you miss me on Sundays Serge...)