May 2008

Australia. Oz. Aussie, aussie, aussie. Oi Oi Oi. Kangaroos. Pavlova. Cricket. Ahh...

Our arrival in Brisbane late at night on November 26th was akin to popping out on the other end of a black hole. We were majorly culture shocking the moment we stepped off the plane. I guess that's what a sudden jolt back into the "West" (in one of the technically most eastern of countries) after half a year in Asia will do to you. Brisbane is so orderly, tidy, safe, and, well, plain in comparison with Bangkok, and SE Asia in general.

Our flight from BKK to Brisbane mysteriously detoured to Sydney, first. While we waited in the Sydney airport for our onward flight to Brisbane, we were comforted (and a little weirded out) to see Christmas decorations everywhere. That's right, it was the end of November. All in all the journey took about 11 hours. 11 hours, for which we only paid about $150 each in airline tickets. I still don't understand what sort of black magic travel agency voodoo our travel "guy," Nick, at circletheplanet.com did to get us these tickets. And I'm not complaining. Or asking.

We landed in Brisbane and linked up with some other travellers from the UK to share a taxi into town. Our immediate shock was at how bloody expensive everything was in Australia. Much of this has to do from the relative strength of the Aussie dollar, helped by the mining boom out west around Perth. Most of it has to do with the general suckiness of the greenback these days. In Asia, where many of the currencies are pegged to, or affected by fluctuations in the dollar's value, this was less easy to recognize and didn't really affect us. In Australia, we were hurting. Our double room at a backpacker's (The Bunk) in Brisbane was $80! Unbelievable. Long gone, we found, would be the days of $3/hour massages and $1 meals. Oh well.

We spent our first day in Brisbane reliving the glory of sidewalks, crosswalks, and other Western world phenomenons ending in "-walk," and did a stroll through their beautifully manicured Botanic Gardens. Everything seemed to clean and orderly. The public toilets were delightful. Catt had to hold me back several times from walking into oncoming traffic... in Asia, the cars just go around you. Sadly, we didn't spend too much time seeing the sights as we were agonizing over onward travel, renting cars, and the general headache that is arranging holidays during the peak season in Australia. Also, my (Megan's) parents were rumoring to come for a visit, but without tickets in hand, we weren't sure when and where to plan to meet them.

Pictures of us wandering around Brisbane, Australia:

Skyline in Brisbane. We couldn't get over how clean and clear the air felt.

During our stay in Brisbane we made a trip out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the "world's first and largest koala sanctuary, with over 130 koalas." No kidding, there are tons of the narcoleptic, cute little beans there. They sleep upwards of 20 hours a day, perched lumpily on branches of trees, eyes shut, in blissful sleep. They're really adorable, and hysterical to watch. Here are the stars of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, doing what they do best:

This is before the koala keeper handed the koala over to us for the below photo. She kind of looked like an Eastern European ice skater or something.

They had a "retirement area" for some of the older koalas. This lady was quite a grannie.

A big attraction at many zoos featuring Australian wildlife is having a "cuddle" photo. You pay an extra $15, or whatever, that goes towards the upkeep of the sanctuary in exchange for having a "koala cuddle" caught on camera. We decided to take advantage of this and get a picture. The koala looks like our child:

Proud Parents

In addition to the koalas, the sanctuary also had some wombats, cassowaries (large, flightless, brilliantly colored birds native to Oz and Papua New Guinea), and kangaroos. Like many zoos in Australia, the 'roos are housed in a separate portion of the sanctuary where they are free to hop around. You can buy some snacks for 50 cents to feed to them; awesome.

Here are some more pics of the wildlife at Lone Pine:

A wombat. We really wanted to cuddle a wombat, but it wasn't an option. Damn.

Feeding a juvenile kangaroo

Aussie sheep herder

Sheep herder with his dog. These canines are seriously smart animals...

A beautiful lorikeet at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Wombat love shack

After Brisbane, it was time to head north up the Queensland coast...