Sawadee Thailand, and G'Day Australia!

Hi guys,

Didja miss us? :-)

So we last left you with our last days in Pai and Chiang Mai. We flew back to Bangkok and arrived in the early afternoon. We were exhausted since we had to get up at 5:30 am (you heard right) to catch our flight. Since I hadn't been to Thailand before, I really wanted to see the temples and palace that we hadn't had a chance to see yet.

I went to the bus stop like a big girl to catch the bus, but the one I needed didn't stop the first time it came around. This is because, despite letting you know that the Thai bus system is insane, and you need to run 50 meters in either direction to catch one, I didn't take my own advice. So I missed the first bus because I had the audacity to blink.

After waiting another 50 minutes for the next bus, I got royally pissed (hence my Facebook update), and went back to the hotel. The temples close at 15:30. and it was already 14:00 - no use in going anymore. About 4 minutes after I got to the hotel, it started to rain. Hard. As in, I wouldn't have made it anywhere anyway. So Rony said it was meant to be that we go together the next day.

That night, we went to the Patagon mall again and had some yummy dinner, and then I had a Cinnabon (for real!!) and bought some cheddar cheese Gold Fish (for real!!) that I bought at the big grocery store that Rony swears is the Monoprix with a different name.

And then we went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 at the IMAX. It rocked. :-)

On Sunday we got up early in the morning to go to the temple and the palace. The Wat Pra temple is gorgeous and there was a cute group of kids that were, most likely, practicing for some kind of a show that night. And of course, we saw the Reclining Buddha, which is much more impressive than the pictures can show.

Reclining Buddha

We then walked to the Palace, only to find out that it was closed because of the holiday. So in essence, Thailand was like, "Oh, well, guess you have to come back!" and we're all, "Fine! We will!"

Now you've seen as much as we have of the Palace

That afternoon we flew to Sydney,Australia, which is where we are now, but only for a few days. Tomorrow night we fly to New Caledonia for 2 weeks, and then we will be back to Australia for a whole month.

We arrived very early in the morning and were happy to find out, the night before, that our hostel has a free shuttle from the airport. Our flight landed at 6 am, and Rony was kicked for about 8 hours straight, and the person in front of me put his chair all the way back (I could barely see the TV screen!), so neither of us got any sleep. Luckily, they let us check in early, and we were both out in 5 minutes flat of making it up to our room.

In the afternoon we went exploring a bit and walked to Hyde Park and back. We're in the King's Cross area, which is really close to everything, so we took a long walk around and got back and crashed into bed. :-)

We were planning on making a fairly early start - breakfast is until 9:30 - so we woke up naturally, cause we never sleep late anyway, and it was suddenly 11 am. No fear, however, we walked sooo much today, you have no idea. We were so proud of ourselves!

If we would have to describe Sydney in 2 words, those words would be "gorgeous" and "expensive." We had no clue that it would be this expensive. No guides we read or websites we surfed let us know about that. Some places wanted $3 for a small bottle of water!! Australian Dollars and US Dollars are basically the same now.

We walked over to the Sydney Harbour (that's how you spell it in Australian), and, while we noticed how gorgeous everything was, the main thing we saw was that everyone was jogging or sprinting. Seriously - everyone. The people through the pier and the park were divided into two: 1) The joggers/sprinters 2) The tourists taking pictures of them.

The Opera House

We decided we were going to have a long walking day - and we did. We walked through the beautiful Botanical Gardens. They are absolutely gorgeous. And I loved the sign at the entrance that said that we should all walk on the grass and smell all the flowers. We saw many plants we knew, and many more we didn't.

One of the cool flowers at the Botanical gardens

As we were walking through, Rony looked up and found that there were approximately a bazillion bats hanging upside down from the trees! I mean, I am used to seeing bats, but only at night when they're pooping on my car! It was so amazing. Some of them flew around, too. Rony thinks they were having turf wars, which is entirely possible, but we probably stood there, looking up at the bats, for like 10 minutes.

Bats

More bats - I couldn't choose

Then we went on towards the Darling Harbour and walked back to Oxford street by taking the long way, including going through - what else - China Town.

Finally, in the evening we split up for a couple hours so Rony could finally get his birthday present. His birthday was in August, but I got him a one-on-one DJ and spinning course. I heard the end (I didn't want him to be nervous with me in the area, so I left), and I personally think he sounded great, as did the teacher who suggested he take more classes back home.

Dj Rony

We got back to the hostel, where we are now, and found out that we are sunburnt, even though we technically were barely in the sun - we spent most of the time in the shade, plus there was such a strong breeze that we weren't even warm at any point. Also, it still counts as spring here, so it's not really hot yet, about 25 degrees during the day, and sweater weather in the evening.

One final word before we sign off: The commercials here are almost as insane as the ones in Thailand! We will try to locate some of them on YouTube for you, just so you see what we saw.

Tomorrow we are being picked up at 7 am for an all-day tour in Blue Mountains, and then we fly to New Caledonia, so I'm not sure when we'll be able to update again.

Until then, bye!

Pics from the last day in Thailand:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573068&id=906005363&l=564ad07944

Pics from Sydney:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573076&id=906005363&l=ce56c3e0a1