Thailand- Phuket & Phi Phi Don Island

Phuket Town

My first stop in Thailand was Phuket town. I arrived at Phuket airport after a long two days of travel and an overnight sleep in the Brisbane airport (not as bad as one might think!) I arrived at 8pm so I was a little worried about finding a cab into the city at night. I was a little wary of non metered cabs but to my dismay they were all gone when I walked out of the airport, so I had to take my chances with a non metered taxi (although I wouldnt exactly call it a taxi...just an old man offering rides into the city-or wherever you needed to go) We agreed on a price before I left ($400 bht ($12) for a 45min ride) and we were off! I was relieved when we actually did pull up to my hostel 45min later...but not after a stop at a travel agency and much persistance saying that my hostel was full and I should go to this or that hotel. I think I lucked out with my hostel...free internet and very clean and modern....which i was very thankful for since I have heard many horror stories of thailand accomodations. Phuket town was an interesting place to stay....there were very few tourist around...I could walk all day and never see a western face, which was a nice relief from just being in Australia. The town is alive with energy of tuk tuks, moped and cars (the only cars i saw were pimped out trucks or suv's...obviously owned by westerners or the really wealthy, but I couldnt tell bc all the windows of these cars were always tinted???) anyway...it was an interesting first couple of days in Thailand!

near my hostel in Phuket town...it was very interesting walking around the streets...with mopeds racing by and the hustle of normal day life.

round-about in Phuket town

fruit market, Phuket town

outdoor market in Phuket town

Phi Phi Don Island

Phi Phi Don island was so amazing. I spent 5 days and 4 nights here. It is pretty touristy but nice. It was hit really hard by the tsunami. One of the residents here told me that something like 800 people were found dead and 1600 were never found, just washed out to sea. It took them months and months to clean the ocean and they moved thousands of pounds of debris off the ocean floor. stuff like fridges, childrens toys, bicycles, lawn chairs etc all littered the reef and ocean floor. I stayed at a guesthouse here called "the rock" and luckily the tsunami waters just reached the base of the guesthouse. The Rock is cool, it is actually built into a rock and it looks very different to the new developed hotels and guesthouses. It has a lot more thai charm. Living in Thailand has some getting used to....things i take for granted at home arent available here. Clean water, hot showers and flush toilets do not exist. But there are ways to manage...bottled water is only $.30 and its ice cold so very refreshing since it is so hot here (getting into the hot season now). And since it is so hot...who needs hot showers? But the toilets took me awhile to figure out. I searched and searched for a flush button...but found none. Finally after a couple of days I realized that the bucket of water sitting next to the toilet was a sort of "manual" flush! haha I should have know. The smell is also something to get used to...I could not stand the smell when I was in Phuket...it made me sick to my stomach. I had originally thought the smell was bc of the dirty surroundings in Phuket but I have come to find out that the smell is that of the Thai street food...with that said...I have yet to try thai street food. :) But all in all I am loving my time in Thailand so far and it hasn't yet been a week!

near the pier on Phi Phi Don Island

view of Phi Phi Don island from the lookout point. before the tsunami the strip of land between the two bays used to be covered with palm trees, so much you couldnt even tell there were buildings but now thats not the case.

thai boy using a cooler as a boat....so cute!

Maya bay....where the movie "the beach" was filmed. truely gorgeous beach!

there were these crazy/amazing rock formations surrounding the islands

this is a thai longboat...the main way to get around. they all have colorful scarves and garlands of flowers decorating the front of their boats...i believe its to pay tribute to Budha.

view from monkey bay...yes I saw monkeys but those pictures I am saving for my "wild animals" post.

cool bar on the beach- you can rent those beach chairs for $2 per day! what a steal!

they are still trying to clean up from the tsunami. the thai government put restrictions on the rebuilding stating that all new buildings and business have to be at least 51% thai owned, which is good so that foreign investors dont over take the island.

the town area in Phi Phi....great shoping and bargaining. no cars just bicycles and walking...a nice relief

Fraser Island/Whitsunday Islands

Fraser Island

packing the 4X4 to leave for fraser island. i got paired with 10 other people and then were sent off to basically fend for ourselves on the largest sand island in the world for 2 days. it turned out to be a great time and the majority of the people were cool.

another way we cooked....out of the back of our 4X4. you have to pretty much through away all notions of cleanliness as we were eating out of rusty bowls/plates and cooking out of a sandy/run down truck. oh well i survived.

the whole gang at the shipwreck

a shipwreck on fraser island...the australian airforce used to use it as target practice so it is pretty beaten up but still a cool sight on the beach.

view above the champagne pools

the champagne pools on fraser island....probably my favorite spot on fraser. the waves crash over the rocks filling it with pools of water.

the whole gang at lake mckenzie on fraser island

how we cooked and ate our delicious (yeah right!) dinner, the food was good but seriously who has baked beans and spaghetti on toast for lunch? (its a british thing, yuck!)

our tents on the second night campin. we had an encounter with a dingo (wild dog) this night...a drunk guy from a campsite further down on the beach passed out in a tree by our tents and the dingo was circling him...possible looking at the best way to attack! but fortunately for this drunken soul we rescued him from his likely doom! haha

our 4X4 vehicles and campsite on the second night

beach at fraser island





Whitsunday Islands

part of the whitsunday islands
there are 70+ islands that make up the whitsundays. we went sailing for 3 days and spent the night on the boat for 2. we did a heap load of snorkeling and had to wear stinger suits (a thiner wet suit) to protect us from the jelly fish.

sunset during our first night on the boat. the first night on the boat was horrible...it rained all night so we couldnt go out on the deck and sleep. we were cramed in the bottom of the boat and my bed had no breeze at all. i resorted to pouring water on me to cool off. to make things even worse the whole gully smelled of toilets...ahhh yuck! at least for the second night the rain stopped and we all slept out on the deck under the stars. awesome!

the tide was high when we went to the lookout for whitehaven beach....what a disapointment. Oh well ill just buy the postcard.
whithaven has been ranked among the top 3 beaches in the world for the past 30yrs. the sand is 99% pure...NASA even got permission to dig some up to turn into the lens for Hubble.

me and our "creepy" skipper. he was trying to get a german girl to give him a massage in exchange for a candy bar. needless to say, this picture was the closest i allowed myself to get to him...haha

chillin on our boat at sunset

Byron Bay-Coolum

Byron Bay

Byron Bay at twilight

scenic views of around Byron

the eastern most mainland point in Australia

in my room at my hostel were two guys from Norway...and of course being from europe lived for football so we made our way down to the beach, recruited two swedes and a dane and played a little game of beach soccer. (my team won...of course :)

main drag in Byron Bay....no McDonalds, Hungry Jacks (aka our "Burger King) or KFC! it was a quaint town with a lot going on....i could see how people come here for a couple of days and stay months.

yours truly

view of the main beach in Byron

Village Backpacker's hostel in Byron Bay....nice but expensive$$$$ but so is everything in Byron Bay. (run by a bunch of 20yr old canadians...they and their damn canadian flags were EVERYWHERE!!!ahhhhh)

view of common area of hostel in Byron

Coolum Beach

Neal and I went to a surf comp in Noosa (14k's north of where the guys live in Coolum). It was pretty cool but towards the end of the comp a huge storm rolled in and down poured! Here is Neal taking a pic of the paddle surf comp with the storm coming in the background.

Noosa Surf Competition

this is called "paddle surfing" it was the first EVER Comp of paddle surfing in the world. It is a pretty cool sport that is just starting gain in popularity. The surfers control their boards with the paddle and can slow themselves down or speed the board up so they can do turns/tricks.

being tourist/travelers from the states we just HAD to try Kangaroo! I would say it looks like beef but taste more like chicken, although the boys said it has a "gamey" taste to it.

my hosts for the weekend..Neal and Kip

I met these boys in Fiji back in January. They are from Montana and working in Oz for a bit before going back to Uni.

for some reason i love going to the beach at night??? so tranquil and peaceful!

Adios Melbourne...hello east coast!!!!

Me and my AWESOME Melbourne guides out on the town!

andrew and me

chris and me

My tour guide, Andrew and I at the observation deck. Thanks for showing me all the sights!

One of my last days in Melbourne...this is the view from the observation deck in Melbourne.

Andrew took me to an Aussie rules Footie game. It is a very exciting game and the action never stops! It was the first pre-season game and I am so happy I got to attend! Footie is the number one spot in Australia and I am pretty sure they dont play it anywhere else. There are at least 7 teams just in Melbourne (where it originated)

at the famous opera house in Sydney...it is beautiful but a bit of a let down. Sydney is a cool big city with beautiful harbours. I visited the fish market and had some fresh fish and chips (french fries) Did a lot of walking and met up with two american friends I met while in Fiji....sydney is a great international city with tons of international neighborhoods/areas. From street to street you can be in a different world! I didnt have a very good experience at my hostel in Sydney...alot of them are really dirty and I thought I was in a pretty safe/decently clean hostel but, boy, was I sure wrong.....4/10 people in my room had bed bugs...YUCK! (its a pretty common thing while traveling but my first close encounter with them)

I was lucky enough to meet up with my friends Shane and Megan (met in Fiji) and they showed me around where they lived...Bronte which is a 20 min beautiful coastal walk from the famous Bondi Beach. This pic is of Bondi and for those wondering all the famous celebrities visit bondi...Paris Hilton was here during New Years!

me, along the coastal walk to Bondi Beach.
The coastal walk is really rocky and an easy place to hide...there is actually a bum that has lived in the rocks for 7 years and he has a decked out bum house. Multi leveled with 3 huge unbrellas, all the comforts of home and probably the best/cheapest view in Bondi!



This is at my first stop outside Sydney...Coffs Harbour. It was a quaint little town with some awesome beaches and harbours. Relaxing!

Coffs Harbour at sunset

Now, this is at Byron Bay at sunrise this morning. I will post more pictures of Byron later. It is an awesome little beach/backpackers town with breathtaking beaches and coastal walks. I am trying to beef-up my surfing here bc my hostel has free surf boards! Sweet as!

Byron Bay at sunrise

ps. I tried to write a bit more about my trip on my dad's request. I hope this is a bit better???