A Sydney Affair

Dad came and visited me last week for a (very) short stay. It was great to see him, as I've been missing family for a little bit, and we got to catch up over a few days.

We met up at the airport in Sydney after his long flight, and my hour-long jump, and made our way to the harbor.

We got to explore Sydney for a day or two together. I will say, despite seeing a limited portion of the city and not having a lot of time to explore, I really liked Sydney. It was vibrant and pretty, though it was a brief love affair. I felt like there were some hidden gems on the waterfront that I will hopefully get to see more on another visit.

I decided that Melbourne is a bit like the downtown of Manhattan (maybe a bit of Brooklyn too) in the sense that it is a lot of culture and food. Sydney, on the other hand, is more like uptown Manhattan - from 14th street up; it was crisp yet romantic.

My friend Esther and her partner met up with us as well and they ushered us around the city. It was so nice to have some people who actually know the city guide us along for a day. Also, they are both fantastic people, so their company with us was perfect for our daylong adventure.

We ate some fish & chips on the harbor and started our tour of the area on a cruise for a few hours. We took in the harbor area and admired the cliffs near Manly, as well as the expensive houses in nearby suburbs on the coast. The harbor really is lovely - I think it's great that Sydney is on the water, and the Sydney Opera House is as impressive in person as it seemed to me in pictures. It also helped that we had a beautiful day with barely a cloud in the sky. We didn't stop at the beaches because I wanted Dad to be able to relish the beaches in Queensland, and we barely had time to sit down and breathe while we ran around the city.

We wandered slowly through The Rocks, which was an adorable old area, despite having a pretty soiled history. We grabbed some drinks and ambled around a little while before stopping in for dinner at The Argyle, a fun outdoor bar area tucked away from the main streets.

One again in Australia, I was charmed by a harbor city.

We also got dressed up for a play at the Opera House. It was funny for me to realize how some of my impatience comes from being my dad's daughter - he was anxious that we weren't at the theater 45 minutes in advance! I have let my impatience melt away somewhat here, as I learned that it was a futile exercise in a country where everything is remarkably laid back.

We saw "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf, and I liked it a lot! Poor jet-lagged Dad passed out during the play, but I was captivated by a curious plot of someone who survived hundreds of years and changed sexes in the middle somewhere.  In some ways, it was the perfect play for me to see, as it was about learning how to understand and accept oneself while the world around them shifts and evolves.

The next day we went on one of those silly double-decker buses that tour cities for tourists with little time to explore - my idea! Our ride along the main drag of Sydney was interesting and I thought Hyde Park was great! I just wish I had had more time to get off of the bus and go a little deeper in some of the cuter areas, like Kings Cross.

Dad was anxious to get to the airport early for our flights to Brisbane, so our adventure of Sydney was cut short, and I ended up intimately acquainting myself with the insides of the domestic terminal for a few hours while I waited to fly back to Queensland. Now that I've got a taste for Sydney, though, I hope to go back and learn more about it in the future.

But, for now, there are other, further, more exotic adventures to be had. Starting tomorrow night!

The Accent That Never Was

I've been in Australia for a bit under nine months. Normally, when I live abroad, it takes a couple months (three or four) before I can start picking up how to speak like a local. In London, after a while I could confuse locals with my British lilt and pronunciation of "schedule". In Paris, I learned how to say certain words quickly with a Parisian accent, so as to avoid head spins in local shops.

By now I had expected to be speaking with a curly Outback drawl and abandoning the hard "r" and use of the word "afternoon" (Aussies read this as "arvo").

This time, though, I can't for the life of me get the accent.

While I hang out with locals and practice the accent (by obnoxiously repeating everything they say under my breath), I sound like an American doing a horrible job at a British accent. Sometimes, I start channeling several different types of Aussie accents with snippets of words in my otherwise very General American Accent.

What is frustrating about not acing the accent is that whenever I'm in public interacting with strangers, it becomes obvious I'm not from here. This means that, more often than not, the Aussie talking with me will pause somewhere in the exchange (whether it's ordering a smoothie, attending a yoga class, or networking) and ask me, "So, what are you here for exactly? Are you from Canada or USA?"

With an infuriatingly perfect Aussie accent!

On a side note: It is seen as polite to always ask Canada before considering a US passport, because Canadians can get sorely offended to be asked if they're American.

This exchange always takes some wind of of my sails because it reminds me of my temporary status. It also reminds me of my incredible failure at assimilating through adjusting my accent, something at which I'm normally so good.

And yet all Aussies I've met have nailed an American accent effortlessly, which only adds to my fury. They attribute it to Hollywood. I'm still not pleased.

For one thing, American voices are just plain loud, so compared to the more breathy accents of Australians, my voice nicely echos off of the buildings in the nearby suburb. We audibly stick out, and sometimes that is not what I'm going for.

Another thing is, I don't think my brain has been able to completely discern between the soft, mumbled accent of a Queenslander (where I am studying) to the more harsh twangs of a Victorian or New South Wales person. And bogan accents (aka hicks) are the ones I understand the best because of my watching of Kath & Kim when I was sick a few months ago. The accents here by region are subtle, yet noticeable after living here a while, and I still don't fully understand how to tease each separate type apart from the others.

I just saw an article come out about how the Aussie accent(s) first came to be. It says that it could stem from the early settlers being avid imbibers of alcohol, and their British accents got drawled out and warped by their drunkenness. I admit, this makes me feel better, as I reason that my decent British accent has not been able to develop into the complicated Australian one because I am not one who enjoys the spiked beverage very often, and therefore have little understanding of how to shift the "r" sound from regal to rough.

Maybe I will never be able to accomplish the Australian drawl. For now, I keep my conversations brief and end with a "Ta!" (which means "thanks"), mumbling as much as I can when asked for my order before running away.

The Australian accent is really difficult.

Holiday Surprises, Already

I was at the post office a few days ago mailing my passport off to the Vietnamese Embassy (more on that later) when I saw some odd holiday material staring at me in a basket. Christmas-related material.

There were two things that disturbed me about this encounter:
(1) It's October.
(2) It was a wombat wrapped in a wreath of ivy and poinsettias (I wish I had gotten a picture).

Let me start with the first disturbing thing; being that it's October, I had expected another, more festive holiday to appear in card stocks and decorations around. I mean Halloween. What I mean is, Australia is not about Halloween, really.

As an American, Halloween is a very important part of my holiday kick-off celebrations. In a way, it is what staves off December-related holidays for a while longer - it's the bread crumble that lures us to the holiday season with excitement.

And I love Halloween. I know some people see it as a capitalistic ploy to drug ourselves with sugar and buy things we don't need. But, for me, I see it as a holiday where I get to celebrate imagination and explore other-worldly realities without being considered a morbid occultist. I love watching Hocus Pocus while eating witches hats. As a kid, I loved going to school Halloween festivals to bob for apples, eat popcorn hands, and listen to the music alternating between "The Monster Mash" and "Thriller". It's a brief holiday that encourages people to get outside of their comfort zone and socialize with each other, maybe bonding over different topics drinking (let's say for example) a punch of ghoulish origins.

But Aussies are not keen on Halloween, and decorations are sparse. It does have a small following in pockets here and there, but I have found myself sitting in my room alone listening to YouTube Playlists of Halloween favorites while trying to find excuses to bake and share witches hats. This year I will have to miss the Halloween magic, sadly.

And I have so many costume ideas in my head!

Anyways, back to the issue of holidays cards two months in advance...

The second part of what bothered me was the poor wombat. Normally, in the Northern Hemisphere, that picture wouldn't bother me that much because it is getting colder, and kangaroos swaddled in red stockings would look comforting and appealing as I start bundling up.

But here, we are going into summer. I have been starting to sweat while standing outside in the shade. Thinking of a wombat surrounded by winter flora as I glistened in the warm post office seemed alarming to me. The Aussie animals wintry holiday stockings and sweaters in the other cards made me feel very sorry for the poor things being suffocated in warm attire. 

I asked Kylie about this, and she mentioned that there is a kind of romantic lure to the frigid winters around the holidays - perhaps the Aussies crave to be snowed on during the holidays, since the northern media have a stronghold on holiday movies and shows. They've grown up seeing us in ugly sweaters and turtlenecks, surrounding by a fire. Conversely, they are peeling off what few layers they have here so as not to melt into a puddle with the brewing heat.

I knew these things before coming here, too. I knew that Halloween wasn't celebrated as much in Australia. And I understood that the holidays would be during sweltering summer heat. I guess I didn't fully grasp what that would mean (or feel like) until I've started to be in it, now. And now that it's here, I am realizing how important this time of the year is to my memory bank, with the cool weather and celebratory atmosphere. I admit, I miss this part of the US right now (but that does not mean I miss the cold).

Fortunately, I plan on being in Vietnam for Xmas, so I shouldn't die from heat exhaustion.

Tasmania Mania

I just had my Spring Break 2015 trip with some friends!  

While many college-enrolled students would go somewhere they can relish in week-long debauchery, my friends and I had a different idea for our holiday - we went to Tasmania! No, not Tanzania. Tasmania, the little island off the southern coast of Australia, where the Tasmanian Devils originate. Tasmania is not known for its crazy nightlife – it’s known for its nature.

Five of us water ladies booked a six-day adventure through the island’s key natural destinations. We landed in Hobart, hopped into an intimately-sized car, and drove into the wilderness. I did not really keep track of the agenda for our trip, as I felt Colorado Meg and Malaysian Densie had already thought things through, so I essentially arrived at the airport on time, and followed them for much of the trip. I think Indian Pritha & Nepalese Niru may have had the same strategy as me on the trip.

I was a bit nervous about our trip. Five women together in a small car driving through the quiet hinterlands of Tassie sounded like it could very well become a chaos of tears and rage. Happily, we had a great time all around, and no one emerged maimed from the adventure.

My overall perception of Tasmania was one of pure, clean nature. The air was crisp and fresh and the temperature was brisk (though it did get cold with the Arctic winds blowing in). The landscape rolled with hills and mountains, and the greens that painted the earth was always incredible. Farms filled with sheep, cows, and Shetland Ponies guided us on each road. There was wildlife everywhere - sadly, that also means we met a lot of roadkill. The people were pleasant and helpful, as well as quiet like their island, as if the whole area was sitting in a constant Zen meditation while we journeyed around.

My biggest complaint about Tassie is not much of a complaint. While my friends were able to eat anything and feasted on decadent (at least I think) meals, my burden of gluten-free eating meant that all of my meals ended up being much healthier. For example, whenever they got fish and chips, my option was to get a salad with grilled fish on top. The downside is I did not get to enjoy some really rich food – the upside is that I did not feel gross by the end of the trip.

Okay, and the other complaint I have about Tassie is that the hole in the ozone layer lies just above the island. Which means I am currently a bright lobster red color all over my nose/chest/neck/ears. Reminder to self: never, ever!, leave the house without SPF on every inch of skin.

Day 1

We drove for a few hours on arrival and spent our first night in the Freycinet National Park so we could see Wineglass Bay in the morning. Freycinet is on the east coast and takes a bit of a drive through nowhere to get there. Not having expected just how remote our drive would be, we did not pick up anything to eat before getting in the car at lunch time, which means we had five rather hangry women hunting for food options on our scenic drive through the hilly lands. We grabbed fish and chips by a beach.

Once we arrived at our tree-laden cabin grounds, we realized our evening would be us keeping each other company and have a ladies’ night of wine and conversation….if only we could find a place to buy food and wine! Fortunately, the cabin area had a little country store, where we stocked up on cheese, wine, and crackers for our evening chatter.

Day 2

We woke up early in the morning to frosted windowpanes and got ready to hike Wineglass Bay. We arrived at the parking lot and got greeted by some very precocious wallabies (even one had a baby in her pouch!!), and we spent a good half-hour capturing their fluffy goodness as much as possible.

Then we hiked. Meg and Denise had been prepared for an intense and steep hike – the other three of us (Pritha – Niru – me) were thinking it would be a pleasant hike up and down a gentle hill to see the beach. We were wrong. We heaved and hyperventilated as we hauled ourselves over the rocky terrain and steep levels for a while before making it to a lookout. My fear of heights were probably the hardest part for me, as it slows me down significantly. I am glad that the others were sympathetic to my irrational whines.

I was thrilled to see that Wineglass Bay is just as beautiful in reality as it is in photographs. The white beach with the vibrant blues of the water, hugged with some elegant hills on three sides, was simply gorgeous. We decided to go down to the beach and frolic; this meant, for “us slow ones”, that we would have to struggle down the stairs for a while longer (and then back up). Once we got down to the beach, we enjoyed the freezing waters and wandered around the sand barefoot for a while before we braved the steep slope once more.

After our successful morning with wallabies and wineglasses, we drove to Hobart for an evening rest.

I really loved Hobart. We were not there nearly long enough to enjoy it, but the atmosphere of the town and the design of the older buildings charmed me completely. It is a town that revolves around the harbor, and the social scene circles the pier’s old landmarks with lots of hip bars and restaurants that stay awake into the late evening. It reminded me a lot of Newburyport in Massachusetts, only with more people – or Reykjavik or Oslo, in its character and layout. Its thick river weaves through the city, while hills full of houses lurk on both sides of the beds. I was so charmed. It was the kind of town I could see myself living in happily when my hair is grey and I need to have a quieter existence for a while.

We walked around the pier for a few hours, ate some dinner, and got some pretty flawless desserts at the aptly-named Honey Badger Dessert Café. We went back to our adorable hostel, Montecute, and hung out with the hostel’s enthusiastic puppy while we figured out what to do in the city the following day.

Day 3

The hostel owner strongly encouraged us to go to the MONA – The Museum of Old and New Art. It’s one of the linchpins to Tasmania’s economy, and is run by some filthy rich gambling dude who likes to collect art about sex and death. The museum is situated on a beautiful vineyard just outside of the city that gives great scenic views. The artwork inside is stuff that I like (odd – esoteric – abstract), but I know that it was a bit too much for some of the other people there. My favorite exhibit was the Digestion Machine (I called it the Poo Machine), which imitated the entire digestion tract with real food so you could see what your insides look like. It was so neat!!!

I also liked these two exhibits that were showing:

• Mathieu Briand's "Et In Libertalia Ego"
• Candice Breitz's "QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna)"

After a successful wander through the museum, we packed ourselves back into the car and drove five hours to Cradle Mountain National Park. We got another cabin in the woods and bought some food to make dinner and hide from the freezing cold outside in the alpine area with some television.

Day 4

In the morning we hiked Cradle Mountain – well, Meg and Denise woke up earlier to hike the whole mountain for eight hours, while the rest of us decided to have a much less intense three-hour hike. Even so, the hike was not one for wheelchairs; we panted and crawled up some pretty precarious areas for a good amount of our hike. Truthfully, I’m not even really sure how some of the hike could be considered legitimate trails because they seemed so difficult to find and manage. However, it was a more forgiving trail than the one at Wineglass Bay. We got to run into some wild wombats and wallabies on the way up (to which I exclaimed I could be smote by lightening on the spot and be happy). We saw some beautiful backdrops of lakes and forested hills, and got to rest by a waterfall on the way up. We met some pretty nice people while hiking, as well.

Cradle Mountain, I think, would have been just as good for me if I didn’t hike up it because the view of the mountain peaks from the lower-level lakes were my favorite part. Maybe I am too much of a city girl, in that sense...but I think my favorite part about mountains is looking up at them, not looking down from them.

After we all finished the hike and met back up, we went to Devils @ Cradle for a night feeding tour of the Tasmanian Devils. There, we got to learn about these strange-looking animals and listen to them as they screeched and howled at each other. We enjoyed attempting their noises, and I personally found them to be more endearing once I learned more about them than before – they are cute because they’re kind of ugly, like pugs. And they have some horrible social skills, which make them endearing.

Day 5

We drove off to Launceston for our final night in Tassie before our flight out there. First we stopped off at Devonport to see if there was anything there to admire (there was a lighthouse, but that was about it). When we arrived at Launceston, I was startled by the stake difference between this town and Hobart – Hobart charmed the pants off of me, while Launceston felt like a more quiet, less charming town. It was a nice town, and I liked it fine…I just much preferred Hobart.

We went to the very pretty City Park and studied some Japanese Macaque Monkeys that lived there in an enclosure surrounded by flowers, which admittedly confused me a lot (why where there macaques in Tassie?!). We got some dinner, but the city on a Saturday night was all but completely shut down and deserted for a footy game. We luckily found an indoor crazy golf center and spent our final night teaching each other put-put skills and chuckling over the strange outcome of our last night.

Day 6

Our flight was in the early evening, so we had a lot of time to kill before leaving. The town is pretty small, though, and we had scaled the CBD area pretty thoroughly the day before. We decided to visit the Cataract Gorge just on the skirts of the town. The gorge has been made into a lovely reserve park with bridges and restaurants to entertain locals. We walked for a while around the gorge and ended up going on a surprise hike that took us up a steep hill so mystery and back to the gorge in a strange circle. The gorge had a nice basin, though, full of interesting rock formations covered in trees.

We were distracted by a lot of our walk/hike around the gorge by the sound of a wailing bird. Pritha remarked that it sounded like a peacock, and we ended up at a café that was indeed swarming (infested?) with peacocks howling and crowing at each other. This also confused me a lot, as I’m pretty sure peacocks are not native to Australia/Tasmania, but the effect was still beautiful.

After eating a large meal of fish and chips (or, for me, fish and salad), we walked around the riverfront of Launceston and slowly made our way back to the airport, where we celebrated a very lovely, successful, relaxing holiday together.

I’m so glad I went.

Fairs & Flus

*This post is written in memory of Vivian Wusthoff - my grandma who passed away this week. I was trying to post this piece earlier because I knew how much she loved reading my blog. Sadly, she died before I could.*

It has been another month since my last post about my life here!

I can explain.

I had the plague flu for 2 weeks straight; Influenza B, probably. As the large numbers of people battled this really wretched plague flu in Brisbane this winter season, I became a statistic halfway through August. I battled a fever, hacking coughs, and overall horrible-ness for an inconsiderate amount of time. I was really frustrated with this, as I had two (TWO!) flu vaccines since last year. This particular Influenza B was taken out of the vaccines a few years ago and has seen a significant come-back over the last few months.

After two and a half weeks of struggling to breathe, I'm finally alive again.

The day before my plague flu came into full-blown awfulness, I went to a huge event in Brisbane called Ekka. Queensland's August Ekka (short for Exhibition, as Aussies love abbreviations) is a week-long fair that hosts carnival rides, shows, animal competitions, cabarets, art competitions, and lots of food exhibitions within an intimate fair grounds. The way I saw it was a cross between a US State Fair and/or a 4-H Showcase, with a bit of carnival flair added.

I was feeling overwhelmed with studies and felt like taking a solo romantic adventure morning walking through Ekka. I mostly spent my time in the animals sections, which truthfully was the only part I had planned on visiting in the festival, anyways. I got to hold a baby chick, feed some baby goats and sheep, and socialize with well-groomed puppy competitors. I also tied a free colorful balloon to my wrist as I walked along the grounds and ate a strawberry ice cream that was rich and delicious. It might have been strange to the other guests with small children to see a grown woman eagerly bouncing up and down for animal cuddles with a balloon strapped to her arm, but I refuse to apologize for anything.

I made my way through a exhibition of competitive fruit cakes, decorated cakes, jams, vegetable displays, and crocheted blankets (among other things). I was perplexed that these prized food competitions were displayed behind glassed shelves, and I wondered how we know which one was best when all we can do is gaze on the fruit cake like a vision of Mary in a slice of toast.

I was surprised how American everything felt there. The crowd seemed to be mostly farm and country folk as I made my way through the fairgrounds, and there were lots of people aimlessly wandering around the Ekka. There was one difference, though; there were not nearly enough heavily deep-fried foodstuffs on sale. Some of the food for sale even seemed healthy! I was alright with this.

I was starting to feel the drain of the plague flu as I explored the Ekka, and I ended up going home early to nap. I had seen the animals, and that was all I needed.

Once I was bedridden, my life became isolated in my bed for days. I did not want to give anyone my sickness, so I hid from my friends and classmates for a week. In a refreshing display of civilization, my client refused to let me work (neither in the office nor at home) while I battled my fever, saying that "we don't do that in this country". So, in the end, I found myself with little to nothing to do for a very long period of time. With little ability to read and work on assignments, I ended up watching an entire Australian show - including all of the show's seasons and two movies - called "Kath and Kim".

"Kath and Kim" was a show that ran for a few years here, and it reminds me of a strange mix of the "Beverley Hillbillies" and "Arrested Development". Essentially, the show focuses on a strange mother-daughter pair living near Melbourne, and their bogan (read as: hick/redneck/hillbilly) lifestyle. The show is always ridiculous, and you can never tell if the characters are from the 80's, 90's, or modern time. They eat short hot dogs (called "footy franks") regularly, and they are very hard to understand sometimes - at least for my NYC ears.

I found myself completely involved in their lives for a number of days, and learning a lot of little pieces about the Australian culture I hadn't already experienced. For example, I now understand that people are quoting the show when they say, "I feel it in me waters!"

The downside of my anthropological research in Australian bogan lifestyles was that it was the only human interaction I had for a week, and it started to mess with my communication/social skills a bit. It took a few days to get out of it once I was back in the outside world.

Now that I am better, I am stressed again with school and work, and I am currently trying to catch up with life. I doubt I'll be completely caught up until two weeks from now.

Liebster Award Nominee - Answering Questions

The reason for today’s post is because I was lucky enough to receive the Liebster Award. What is that? It's an award to help bloggers like me (with less than 200 followers) to connect with others and spread awareness about our travel writings.

I received this from a fellow blogger through the Pink Pangea network - the impressive Meghan King, whose writings will help me when I'm in Asia soon.

As an Award Nominee, it is my duty to answer a number of questions. You may already know these answers, but in case you're new to my world, enjoy learning about me a bit more.

Where are you from?

I really never quite know how to answer this question. I was born in Buffalo, New York...but we moved around when I was younger.My childhood was mostly in North Andover, Massachusetts. When people ask me this, though, I normally say that I am from New York City - I moved there when I was 18 years old, and feel like that is more my home than most other places, and I lived there the longest than anywhere else.

What was it that first motivated you to travel?

Probably what gave me the travel bug was that my dad traveled a lot when I was growing up, and we watched travel TV shows together. We would see the most beautiful places on TV, and he would point and say, "I've been there!!" I wanted to be able to do that, too.

He would  also bring home my sister and me gifts from his travels that were special to that area (a wooden doll from Japan, some papyrus from Egypt), and I was always fascinated that people had such different stuff than what I was used to.

Golden Temple, Amritsar, India

What is your best travel memory?

While I have loads of favorites, one of my favorite travel memories was visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. The place was so beautiful, and I was overwhelmed by how peaceful and beautiful the place was (physically - spiritually). I started crying by the water surrounding the temple, unable to completely digest where I was. A big (BIG) Sikh man in a bright orange guard outfit walked over to me, looking rather stern. He had a scepter, guys! When he got to me I was nervous...but, he bent down, and made a big smile while asking me, "Hindi hai??" He was so excited to ask me if I was Indian, I couldn't help but chuckle. 

What festival would you like to visit the most?

I know this sounds morbid but....I would love to visit Madagascar while they have a ceremony of "the turning of the bones". It sounds like a beautiful and fascinating festival, and I would love to understand it better by experiencing it. Is that creepy/a festival?

What has been your scariest travel experience?

The scariest experience was when I woke up in my shared house in Kigali one morning to find all of my things (not my clothing, luckily) stolen. Waking up in what was a locked house to find the door pried open and my things - hard drive, laptop, camera - completely gone is horrifying; someone with malicious intent was in my house while I was sleeping! I was also terrified that my banks would be depleted and I would have to go home immediately, but fortunately my cards had my pictures on them.

Blue Lagoon in Iceland

Where is your favorite travel destination?

My favorite travel place is probably Iceland. The place is gorgeous in a surreal way, the food is delicious, and the people are charming and have great senses of humor. I visited Iceland for a short trip, but it has not yet left my mind when I think of peaceful travel. Even if I'm ill and dying, I'd feel comfortable and happy traveling through Iceland.

What’s the strangest food you’ve ever eaten abroad?

I guess it's sad that in a way I have not been to enough places with strange food and that the weirdest food has been while living in NYC eating raw foie gras (not recommended). 

While traveling abroad, maybe the strangest food I've eaten has been choncholi in Lima - basically, animal intestines, chopped and fried in some magical sauce. It was strange to a Western girl, definitely, but it seemed pretty run-of-the-mill to the locals. I thought it was delicious!

Do you prefer traveling solo or with company?

I prefer traveling solo. While it can get lonely as an extrovert traveling abroad and not talking to another human for a while, I have learned that I would rather be alone than travel with someone who ridicules me about my travel style, is dependent on me, or are rude and ignorant to the locals. Luckily, I've avoided that kind of company for a few years now.

If you could only travel in one country, which would it be and why?

A tea estate in Himachel Pradesh, India

India has so much to offer in both culture and geography; I would be happy to travel only in India for the rest of my life. It may smell a bit like toilets (but I'm going into WASH - why would I care?) and things may not run on schedule, but the people are fun and the food is amazing! I could die happy on an Indian diet. And everything always seemed to work out beautifully (with a little bit of flare) while I was there.

In the south, there are boat rides and tropical explorations. In the west there are deserts and camels. In the north you've got the Himalayas. What else would you want for one travel spot?

How long have you been blogging?

I have had this blog since 2006, when I moved to London for a semester. I guess that means I'm almost at my 10-year anniversary!!

What inspires you?

Puppies. I know it sounds silly, and you may roll your eyes at me, but puppies inspire me even in my travels. They are fully in the moment and enjoy every adventure, just like what I aspire to be in my travels. Whenever I am sad and lonely, I look for the puppies in the area (if there are any), and normally they're doing something that makes it hard for me to resist a smile. In Costa Rica, my friend Linda's dog came into the house with a fish head! How funny is that?! Even if they're feral, they're awesome.

Now that you know more about me, my nominees! It's hard to find 11 folk, but here are the great blogs I did find!

1. Aga from To Where the Wanderlust Leads
2. Rina from Girl in the Metro
3. Shannon & Cammy from Wandering Lesbies
4. Amanda from Maps & Memories
5. Jen from One Year 75 Times
6. "It's Just Me" from It's Just Me
7. Vanessa from Girls Drink Stout
8. Michelle from Kalopsia Metanoia

Instructions for Nominees:

• Create a blog post on your site, answering the questions that I’ve provided below.
• In your post, be sure to link back to the blog who nominated you (aka myself, Kim of the kim times, with a thank you and shout out).
• After completing the questions, add a section for your nominees. Select, list and link 11 other bloggers with under 200 followers. Provide these instructions. Finally, create 11 questions for them to answer.
• Notify your nominees and provide a link to your post so that they know what to do.
• Once you’re done, come back here and comment with the link to your post so I can check out your answers.

Questions for nominees (and visitors!)

1. Where are you from?
2. Why do you travel?
3. If you had a Round-The-World ticket, what would your itinerary be?
4. What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done while traveling abroad that you'd recommend others to not do?
5. In which country could you see yourself retiring?
6. What is one things about the culture of the last country you traveled that surprised you?
7. What is one dish you ate abroad you would love to learn how to cook?
8. Do you have one country you do not plan on visiting? Why not?
9. What has been the strangest comment you ever got from a local in your travels abroad?
10. When you travel abroad, what is your method to packing?
11. How could you picture yourself telling future generations of your travel?

Lady Musgrave Island

On our day off in Gladstone, a bunch of us got up before the sun, got in our vans, and drove. We sleepily arrived at the quiet beach of Seventeen Seventy (1770) an hour later (Yes, that is the real name of the town. Something about James Cook landing there or something. Despite the strangeness of the name, it is a really nice beach area).

Why were we there? Because one of the islands of the Great Barrier Reef is just east of this area. We were off to the coral cay, Lady Musgrave Island.

The nice thing about Lady Musgrave Island is that it is not heavily loaded with tourists, unlike Cairns and Port Douglas further north. Most of the people who come to this area are Australians, and there are only a few boats that goes out there. For some reason I had been under the impression that we were the only people who were getting on the boat. There were maybe 80 other people on the boat with our group, it turned out. I barely noticed.

I had a packet of Kwells, as I am now well known for my motion sickness. I popped a few while getting on a low-riding boat that would bring us out of the beach area to the boat during low tide. The little, slowly-tugging boat felt like we were wading through the Everglades in the US (as far as I could tell) until we got onto the bigger catamaran.

On our way to the island, the boat flew over waves and rocked back and forth for over an hour. As my fellow classmates were vomiting around me into the little discrete bags the boat had for seasickness, I was sleepily taking in the rolling of the boat with my Kwells-induced peace.

Our boat slowed down and attached itself to a pontoon in the water, close by the island.

Lady Musgrave is gorgeous. We were there on a beautiful, sunny day, and the shallowness of the Great Barrier Reef and the island in the water made the ocean dazzle in almost unreal shades of blue. The island shimmered in the distance with its white sands and bright green trees. It was so peaceful there.

We snorkeled around in the light blue water for an hour or so. I floated on a swimming noodle and lazily hovered over the reef, enjoying the brightly colored fish and intricate designs in the coral. Unlike my last experience on the Great Barrier Reef, the pills meant that I did not have to worry about puking all over the fish (though they might have enjoyed that), so I swam further afield than before. And there were turtles!

Some of the classmates went scuba diving, and they mentioned they could feel/hear whales in the not-so-distant distance talking to each other.

After lunch, the tour took our group to the island to learn a bit about the ecology of the coral cay and the reef in general. A pleasant man took us out on a tour of the reef on his glass-bottom boat, and we got to look at more rare fish that way without hurting them/ourselves. We looked at some mammoth sea cucumbers, which are adorable for slugs. They peacefully lie around, eating whatever gunk is on the ocean floor and keeping everything nice and light - nature's vacuum cleaner. I decided I want to have a sea cucumber and name it Francis.

A bunch of turtles surfaced right next to our boat, too; our group nearly lost it with excitement.

The beach, though beautifully white, was very painful to walk on - it was old and dried up coral pieces that broke off and wash up onto the banks over time. Coral is already extremely sharp and rocky when alive, so in its white bleached beachiness, it was like walking on shards of glass in some places. The tinkling sound of the coral moving around on the beach, though, was beautiful.

The walk on the island was sharply different from the tranquil, lazy floating we just did in the water. The tour guide told us about how the trees on the island are almost completely made out of water, and birds use the roots of the trees to burrow and nest. The thing is, the trees make these sticky seeds and drop them all over the place, which ultimately kills about half of the bird population each year (taking into account new birds, don't worry) because the residue gets stuck on their feathers and they are unable to fly. They starve to death, and the dead birds end up composting on the ground while the trees consume the nutrients from their corpses!

Basically, the carnivorous island in Life of Pi is real, and it exists in the Great Barrier Reef!

Anyways.....

The day was relaxing, beautiful, and fun. We got back to the beach, and our tents over in Gladstone, feeling happy and even maybe a little more enlightened about the beauty of the world.