What a difference a boarder makes

Crossed over into Johor Bahru, Malaysia and off the beaten tourist path. I was honestly surprised to be the only backpacker and probably the only english speaker, on the bus. The process was pretty simple and efficient. The confusion started on arrival in JB. I came out of Singapore with very little money and was thinking since I was arriving at a transportation hub, there would be an ATM close by. My experience with money changers hasn't been all that favorable so far, it's much better to just get cash from an ATM. After wandering around in a massive shopping mall for an hour or so, I finally found a bank with a row of ATMs. After waiting in line, the ATM rejected my card and I was starting to worry. Luckily the bank across the street had one that accepted my transaction. Then it was a matter of negotiating the mall maze back to JB Sentral so I could purchase a train ticket to Kuala Lumpur. The train is super cheap (about $8 US for an 8 hour journey) - I hope it's a reasonably fun experience.

With my first two goals achieved, it was time to make my way to the hostel. They had sent me directions that involved taking a completely different way out of Singapore and would have made the trek to the hostel pretty straightforward, but I wanted to get my train ticket bought and as near as I could tell, the only way was to show up at the ticket counter at JB Sentral. So after stumbling around for awhile, I found my way downstairs to a noisy, busy area where buses were coming and going. After studying the system map for some time I realized it was hopeless and was toying with the idea of getting a taxi. I'd read some nightmare tales about taxi ripoffs in JB and was reluctant to go there just yet. So I started walking and saying "Nusa Bestari?" - a shopping mall next to the hostel - if I could get close, google maps would take me there (best thing since the invention of the internet!). After boarding 2 wrong buses, I got on one that claimed that was where he was going and started praying and following along on google maps. Some 30 mins later I jumped off pretty close to the hostel and was hit by overwhelming joy as I walked through the door.  I'm booked in for 3 nights and wishing it was just 2. There isn't much to see or do here as far as I can tell and no one speaks enough english to be able to ask and understand the answer. It will give me some time to make plans and get rested up after many exhausting days in Singapore so is probably a good thing.

I asked both at the departure desk from Singapore and the entry desk into Malaysia if I would be able to re-enter the respective country and they both indicated it wouldn't be a problem. I had thought this to be the case but couldn't find it definitively on line and wanted to confirm. This clears the way for a round trip sojourn to Bali from Kuala Lumpur!  

Singapore!

I really didn't know what to expect from Singapore beyond it being a very large city (which it is...). I've found it to be quite extraordinary and endlessly interesting. I went to the Asian Civilization museum yesterday and took a short tour that included a quick overview of the history of the area. Singapore has long been a trade hub and a melting pot for the whole region. Monsoonal winds coming south from China to the east and India to the west cross and thus terminate at Singapore. Trade ships would follow the wind down, leave their cargo and then wait for 6 months until they could get back home. Their crews established second homes here often with second families as well. It split from Malaysia in 1965 after a period under English rule from the mid 1800s. I was just a few days too late for their 50th anniversary celebration.  They have been a busy 50 years. Singapore is a well designed, modern city on par with what I imagine Dubai to be like. They have the best public transportation system I've ever seen.

I spent one of my first days here at the Gardens by the Bay area. It's perhaps the most iconic area in Singapore. The architecture is incredible. I came away thinking that some really brilliant and brave people planned and executed the development there.

There are several of these large "trees" covered with plants and lights. They have 2 free light shows every night where the tree lights are timed with a musical program. There's also a laser light show a short walk away at the harbor where images are projected onto a fountain of water accompanied by music. The hotel in the background is unbelievably impressive. You can kind of make out the palm trees on the roof and get some idea of how massive the building is.  

Evidence of the wealth of the city is everywhere. At the base of this hotel is a huge shopping mall full of large stores with just a few hand bags or a couple of racks of clothing in them. With this being a small island country, real estate is very expensive as you can imagine. The contrast is that it's a just a short train ride to Chinatown where an entire walmart's worth of goods is packed into a space the size of an American bathroom. Great food in Chinatown as well for 3-5 Singaporean dollars ($2-3 USD).

Other stuff I've done here:

A day at the botanic gardens - it's big enough that my feet gave out before the places to see did. They have a beautiful orchid garden area with many rare species.

Haw Par Villa - an elaborate sculpture garden built by the founders of Tiger Balm. There are many intricate scenes depicting Chinese legend and tales as well as other larger sculptures - all quite colorful and interesting.

Little India - a much touted shopping/eating area that I found less compelling than Chinatown

Buddha Tooth Relic temple - a relatively new temple in Chinatown - very elaborate and ornate. They have a pretty nice museum of Buddhist artifacts upstairs and a floor detailing the life of the Buddha.

Pulau Ubin - an island off the coast to the north east that has been set aside as a nature reserve. Much of the stone that was used in the early days of the city came from quarries on this island - the quarries are now lakes. A few people live on the island and support the tourist trade with food, drinks and bicycle rentals.

I think it was a mistake not passing through Bali on my way here - I might try get a round trip plane ticket and head there for a couple of weeks but will need to do a bit of research into re-entry visas and figure out the best way to go about it. I had a bit of trouble at the airport in Darwin - the airlines required proof of onward travel before they would let me on the plane. An explanation of my travel as a lifestyle and a desire to travel over land by train (tickets only obtainable at the train station) through Malaysia did nothing to dissuade her. She informed me I had an hour before check in for my flight closed to figure it out. So, cursing and grumbling, I moved off and found a website that books bus tickets out of Singapore. I took a stab at how long I might want to stay here and just booked the cheapest bus I could find ($15 US) to Kuala Lumpur. That ticket is good tomorrow but I've had some time to research the bus company and have decided it's not worth $15 to subject myself to the types of horror tales that are being told online. Long story short, I'm paid up at this hostel through Sunday night and will likely move onto Malaysia on Monday but I will take some time tomorrow or Sunday to do a little research into Bali options before locking in the plan. 

Litchfield National Park

I've been on the go and have fallen a bit behind in my posts so will attempt to get caught up. I've added some pictures and video to the last post (Kakadu) as well.

The highlights for Edith Falls (northern Nitmiluk) and Litchfield Natl park were the swimming holes at the base of a series of waterfalls. The days were so oppressively hot, hiking was out of the question after about 9 in the morning and a nice swim was a welcome relief. I hadn't realized that sitting under a waterfall was on my bucket list but now it's been crossed off!

Edith Falls

  The termite mounds at Litchfield were interesting. I had thought the mounds were just a rubbish heap reflecting how deep into the earth they had built their homes. I couldn't get over how inefficient it seemed to keep going higher instead of spreading the dirt out! lol show's what I know... turns out the mounds themselves are their homes. They build up so that they don't get flooded out in the rainy season. There are termites in Litchfield that build their mounds in long thin blades along a north/south axis. It's the only place in the world where they are known to exist. They've experimented with artificially changing north using magnets and determined the termites detect magnetic north. The thinking is that it helps them regulate temperature better.

I pulled into the campground at Wangi Falls mid afternoon, changed into swim gear, made a sandwich and headed for the falls. I took 3 steps from the van and this bird:

 swooped down and took a half slice of bread off the ham sandwich I was carrying! I never saw him coming it was incredible.

Beth had requested a picture of a kangaroo with a baby in pouch. I really doubted that I could make it happen. But there were a bunch of wallabies eating outside of a visitor center I went into and a couple of them had babies. So Beth - this one's for you!

Kakadu and beyond

Picked up my camper van rental last Friday and headed to Kakadu Natl Park.  I don't know what I expected exactly but it was no where close to reality.  By the end of Friday I was sorely disappointed.  The drive was much like the drive out to Watch Hill station - mile after mile after mile of short somewhat sparse trees and scrubby brush. Took a walk to a swampy place (they call them billabongs an aboriginal word perhaps?) that had a lot of birds and was somewhat interesting but honestly I was thinking what the hell.  

Mile after mile after mile of this...

Then it got better. A LOT better. Saturday was a whole new day that started much like Friday with a drive to Ubirr.  On the way, I took a walk through a micro climate rainforest along the east alligator river. Got sight of 3 different crocodiles in the river and had the eerie feeling that there were many many more. I have a video of one swimming down the river that I'll post it at some point if it turns out. This was the walk that had a woman's only area men weren't allowed by aboriginal culture. Apparently there are men only areas as well.

Ubirr itself was the place that made the entire trip worth doing. It's a 1 km walk past several extensive aboriginal rock art sites ending with a climb to spectacular views of the surrounding areas.

Flood Plain - during the rainy season this whole area fills with 2-3 meters of water

Rock Art Site

Stone country - there are an estimated 10000 rock art sites in this forbidding country - about 5000 have been documented

Third and final walk took me through an interesting rock and canyon area that sort of reminded me of Utah.

Kakadu has more to offer but many places require a 4 wheel drive and more time than I had. So on to Katherine and Nitmiluk Natl Park.

I stopped at the information Center in Katherine yesterday to inquire about hikes in the area.  The woman there convinced me to check out the free public hot pools down the street. The heat here has been oppressive - I spend every day bathed in sweat.  So I thought I'd just go for a quick dip before heading up to the canyon for a hike. 2 and a half hours later, I was finally able to talk myself into leaving. The spring source was maybe 200 yards upstream so the water crystal clear and beautiful. There were a series of pools,  the last of which had a short waterfall into it. It made an infinity pool space where you can swim among the bubbles endlessly without ever going anywhere, or wedge between the ladder and the waterfall and let the water massage sore neck and shoulders. Or go up and slide down the moss on the waterfall into the pool. Too much fun.

I did manage to hike a bit late yesterday and get a glimpse of the gorge that defines Nitmiluk.  Heading back north today. There is another way into Nitmiluk to a place called Edith falls. Apparently they have put up a metal fence to keep the crocs out so swimming is allowed there.  One night there then on to Lichfield for my last 2 nights.

Croc video:

 

Farewell to Cairns (homeless again)

Flying to Darwin in a few hours. I've already booked my ticket out to Singapore in 2 weeks time. I'll have a week to kill in Darwin and then have booked a campervan for a week in order to see Kakadu and Litchfield national parks and some of the surrounding area.

We've been celebrating my departure for the past week. I made fish tacos on Tuesday and Andrew showed off his extraordinary chef skills for the past 2 nights making some delicious curry on Weds and then amazing Asian fish cakes last night. I can only dream of cooking so well...

My family for the past month - left to right - Lisa, Andrew and Nina:

I love you guys and will miss you ever so much. Many thanks - I couldn't have asked for a better group of roomies. Best wishes for the best that life has to offer!

Watch Hill Station

It seems like some of the best experiences just come out of the blue, totally unexpected. My visit to see Cloudy and Bram at Bram's cattle ranch certainly falls into that category. I was excited to see Cloudy and the outback but I didn't think it would turn out to be SO MUCH FUN! First a bit about the road to get there.

I spent Sunday walking and hiking around Kuranda, followed by a short night in my tent at a roadside camping area. Andrew had suggested that I camp at a place called Davies Creek, but the road was rough to get to it and it was a violation of my rental agreement to take the car on unpaved roads - something I wanted to save for getting to Watch Hill... still, it would've been nice to see Davies creek it sounded really beautiful.

Barron Gorge National Park is just outside of Kuranda. A really nice elevated boardwalk through the rainforest leads to a view of Barron Falls - although it looked pretty big to me, it is apparently just a trickle compared to the rainy season:

Mount Hypipamee National Park was a short stop and hike to nice waterfalls and a deep volcanic crater - the picture on this sign is better than any I was able to take and hopefully you can read a bit about the area:

I also sidetracked to Undara Volcanic National Park. Apparently there are lava tubes there that run for many miles. It is a closed area and can only be accessed via an organized tour. Much to my disappointment, I got there a bit late to see them - I wanted to be sure I got to Watch Hill before dark. I did take a hike to the top of a volcanic cone (Kalkani) with wide views of the surrounding lava plain - very forbidding country.
A couple of small kangaroos were on the path - I got a picture before they took off but it's a bit rough:

The drive to Watch Hill was mile after mile after mile of pretty much nothing but road. There were these lumps all over the place - at first I thought they were rocks but they didn't really look like rocks:

Turns out they are termite and/or ant hills. Some of these were as large as the little car I was in, the ones at Watch Hill are shorter (maybe a foot or 2 in height) and pointy and all over the place. They turned out to be a part of the obstacle course that made Tuesday so much fun.

I got to Watch Hill late afternoon on Monday (August 10) and found the place completely deserted. I had no idea what to expect, but this wasn't it. After waiting around for maybe an hour, I finally heard some noise and saw dust rising in the distance on the other side of the house. I made my way down to a maze of steel pens to find Cloudy and Bram running cattle through a series of spaces that narrow down to a chute that forced them to dive into a pit of tick dip. Watch Hill is in tick country and the cattle have to be dipped before transport to market. It was dusk and they were just wrapping up but Cloudy wasn't near to being done for the day - she still had animals to feed and dinner to make - we all dropped into bed probably around 10. I slept like a rock. Among the animals she feeds are the orphaned calves (they call them poddies) - she bottle feeds them a powdered milk mixture morning and night. She had me feed one - I think I ended up with more on me than it got in it's tummy - they are very enthusiastic about feeding time and kept yanking the nipple off the bottle.

Tuesday was chopper muster day - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muster_(livestock). It was a chopper muster because Bram hired a small helicopter to help him chase the cattle out of the bush. With 38,000 acres and over 4000 head of cattle, you would think it would require a small army to run the place but it was down to just Bram and Cloudy. Bram's father was in the hospital (a bit of a heart procedure - he's going to be just fine) and they have an open position that Bram is trying to find someone to fill. This was quite lucky for me as I was drafted to ride the 3rd quad bike. Bram did a great job of explaining what needed to be done and we had a very successful day of bringing the cattle home. It was just too much fun :)!

I posted some pics on facebook (for those of you who haven't found me there yet - my profile name is Rasta Pasta and pic is of my siberian husky Rasta)

GBR and Daintree Natl Park

I visited the outer reef on a snorkel and dive boat last Tuesday.  There is a shelf drop off at the outer edge of the reef where the visibility is supposed to be greatest.  So I paid the extra money to have the best experience possible and it was worth it. We visited 3 different spots. I snorkeled the first and last and took an introductory scuba dive at the second site. The reef was so close to the surface,  it turns out that diving was really unnecessary but it was an experience of a lifetime and I'm glad I did it. I might consider certification at some point in the future but only if I find myself somewhere where a long boat ride to dive sites isn't required. I must admit to a bit of sea sickness in spite of the prevention pills.
There is a fungus that grows on the reef that makes it a reddish-brown color and thus more subdued than I had expected. The fish were beautiful and there was a lazy old sea turtle we interacted with a bit on my dive. Overall it was a wonderful day.

I have hired a car for a week and went north to Daintree Natl Park. It is a world heritage area and apparently is the only place in the world where the rainforest grows into the ocean. The mangrove forests at oceans edge makes it unique. It's a beautiful rainforest and I took all the walks I could find.  I'm posting this from my phone so pictures will have to wait.

Headed for Kuranda today.  I've stopped at an area called the Crystal Cascades,  shortly outside of Cairns. It is a beautiful river and waterfall area,  part of the water system where most of Cairns water comes from.