Adventures of the Unemployed

2004-04-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hello to all

As Karen has said the good times have ended and its time for work and reality to return. The trip was something that I'll never forget but hopefully someday will get to do again. The people we have met and the things we've seen will be in my mind forever. I'm currently in Wisconsin freezing my ass off but it should be Warming up soon. Just want to say hi and goodbye one last time to all and thanks to everyone for making this the best. I hope that some of you will stay in touch and if you ever get state side let me know and I'll be a tour guide for ya.
For those of you who might not have my e-mail it is r_erbach@yahoo.com
Also I put up some pictures of Vietnam and a few more in the Thailand folder.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the blog and the pictures.
For the rest of you still out there traveling IM jealous and for those of you back home I know what you are feeling.
Be safe and have fun.
Robert

2004-04-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I guess this will be the last entry from me for this trip. Robert and I spent the last 3 days of our trip in Bangkok. We ran into our old friends Kev and Fay who we originally met in Bali. As it turns out Kev and I have the same birthday (April 5th) so we had a great night of food and many many drinks. At dinner Robert arranged to have two cakes delivered to the table for both Kev and I, It made for a very memorable birthday. In Bangkok we saw the Grand Palace, Wat Po and an interesting S.. show. We left Bangkok unbearably early on the 7th of April and arrived in LA on the morning of the 7th of April. We first had to stop over in Japan then on to LA, it was the longest day of my life unfortunately bribing the flight crew with chocolate this time did not work. Coach all the way for us..................
The novelty of being home is has already worn off. At this point I'm in the process of planning the next big adventure!
I just want to say it was so great to meet everyone and I'm so jealous of all the people still traveling.
for anyone who doesn't have my email It's khatfield_1999@yahoo.com
please keep in touch
Karen

2004-03-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hello again to everyone out there

Well where to begin I don't know but the best place would be going to Vietnam from Lao.

We left on the evening of the 21st since our visa for Vietnam was not valid until the 22nd, so we took an over night bus to the boarder. The bus picked us up at 7pm and made one more stop to pickup passengers and then we thought we would be on our way.......Well our supposed "vip" bus was far from that and after a stop to pickup up 10 crates of Thai mangos and 4 burlap bags of Geckos we were on our way making stops to pickup the locals that need a lift on our dime but that's the way things go around here and we have gotten used to the idea so no big deal. So after being on the road for awhile we stopped at this cafe in the middle of now where and the drivers don't say a word and get off. It is now like 3 am and we thought it was a food stop, Karen and I weren't hungry so we got off to streach and potty. After about an hour we are starting to wonder what is going on so we ask this girl who proceeds to tell us that we are only an hour away and the boarder is not open until 8am. So we have something like 3-4 hrs to kill before we leave again and the driver never said a word.

So after we get to the boarder at around 9am they tell us to get off and do the departure for Lao and then we would walk across a bridge to Vietnam immigration. Well now it is foggy misting and looks down right scary. The whole process takes like three hours for us and to search the bus which at some point the geckos had suddenly vannished. So now we are on the road again and the road is on a hill side and under construcation so this make the road narrow and muddy and in some places their are no guard rails and it is a long ways to the bottom. After about 30min in to this journey we are stopped by a rock slide that has to be cleared but we are lucky and this is only a 20min wait. As we cont'd on we are moving through a construction site and as the bus is squeezing by a huge back hoe and scrapes the side of the bus and it was right where Karen was sitting. So this whole process of whose fault it was takes 2hrs and some shoving and hitting by all parties involved and also by people who are waiting for us to clear out. When we finally arrive at our first official food stop at 1pm the next day they tell us the bus to Hue will pick us up here because the bus we were on is going on to Hanoi. So we wait and in ten min they are saying our bus is here then that's not it then it is then its not then it is. Now this is a public bus that runs from Hanoi to Saigon and is full and we are the only westerners on the bus so of course we are getting some strange looks. Now the seats are built for little people and I'm not little so I have to sit sideways with my legs in the aisle for 10 hrs and in that 10hrs I thought we were going to die at least 10 times. They drive like crazy people around here passing when ever and what ever they want and we were head on a few times with semis and countless motorbike. But we made it at 10:30 in the evening on the 22nd. We got dropped off in Hue and two guys on motorbike pick us up and take us to a hotel bags and all it was quite the ride.

Next is the day trip we take around the city by motorbike. Our guide Bill worked on our side during the war and now does tours, we had a great time and Bill was so nice. People who worked for the U.S. during the war were sent to "Reeducation camps" and Bill had spent 1 year in one. The government knows every person who worked on our side and they cant get real jobs and their children can't go on to college, but just with in the last few years the government has allowed outside company's to come in and a lot of them are tourism related which is good because most of the people like Bill speak English very well and get hired by these company's. The people at least in south Vietnam are great and this is one country that likes us (Americans). The next day we decide to go to Kha San and again we go by motorbike which was a big no no. Kha San is in the DMZ (demilatrized zone), a 5 k wide line that divided north and south and was the site of one of the biggest battles of the war. Now it took 4 hrs to get there and yes 4 hrs back. It rained and we also had to stop due to blasting up the road. After we get there its not quite what I had excepted cause the actual base is no longer there but we got a good idea of what it was like from the museum that is there.

The next leg takes us to Hoi An. Now Hoi An is the place where you get clothes made, there must be at least 1000 tailors and Karen was in heaven. I'm sure that you guys will see it all soon enough. On the bus ride to Hoi An we met An a guide on the bus (again on our side and the camp). His family has a tailor and gives us directions to it and they did a very good job.

From Hoi An we move on to Na Trang for a little beach action for a day. Then on to Ho ChiMin City (Saigon) and all most everybody still calls it Saigon. Here we did a day trip to a temple that has made up its own reglion, kinda the best of the others and also to the Cu Chi tunnels about 70 k NW of Saigon. Now I'm sure that everyone know about the tunnels form movies and history books but to know that people lived in these for years is amazing. We got to go through some made for westerners and then into the real deal and they are hot and tiny. I couldn't imagine living in them at all. After the tunnels we got to go to a shooting range, and now that Karen has the shooting bug we both shot an AK47 and I took a go at a 30cal. Now both of these are fully auto and a blast to shoot, I was all smiles after wards and after the shock of the Ak47 Karen was having a good time also.

So we are leaving Vietnam on the 3rd to go to back to Thailand and spent a few days in Bangkok then we have to come home because Delta has called us back to work in May. As soon as we can find a computer to do pictures we will put them up(probaly in Bangkok).

So long for now
Robert

2004-03-21T00:30:00.000-08:00

HI,

Oh where to begin, I guess we could start with the slow boat to hell oh sorry I mean Luang Prabang. The boat was nothing short of Torturous. It took two long days of 8 hours each day. The seats were little wooden benches big enough or a Lao ass not a western ass ( at least not these two western asses). Although the ride was madness we meet several great people. Luang Prabang was a nice little city, we spent three nights there having dinner with our new friends and checking out the sights. From there we took a mini bus (I can't emphasize MINI enough) to Vang Vien. Vang Vieng was even smaller than Luang Prabang in actuality these cities are just villages. Here we tubed down a river in big tracter tire inner tubes for 5 hours. The scenery in Laos is amazing. Plus due to the fact that the tubing is a big tourist adventure the locals have set up make shift bars along the the river where you can pull over and have a Beerlao. Beerlao is the only beer one can drink in Laos. Vang Vien is also famous for there "magic shakes" and Magic pizza's" that's all I'll say on that subject. From there we went on to Vientienne where we are now. Vientienne is the capital of Lao but it's not much to see. There is a heavy French influence left over from the French occupation but it's not all that scenic. We rented bikes and rode around the city, Robert played Bocci ball game with some locals. The cost of admission into the game was a round of drinks on Robert. Small price to pay. Tonight we are on our way to Vietnam. We leave on a bus at 6:30pm and arrive in Hue Vietnam 22 hours later..........................
Till then
Karen & Robert

2004-03-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

Sa wa dii Kha,

After two Thai language classes with our new friend Ting Robert and I are both fluent in Thai. Well not exactly but we like to think so. We wanted to be able to say more than hello and thank you, so now we can say how are you as well......
Basically we have spent the last week just waiting for our Laos and Vietnam visas to be ready and thank God they are. Today we leave for Laos. Apparently it will take us 5 hours by mini bus to get to the border where we will spend the night then tomorrow take a 2 day slow boat down the Mae Kong river.
till next time
Karen & Robert

2004-03-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

Hello to all

Just got back form the three day trek that Karen told you guys that I went on with Emer. It was great to see places that aren't caterted to for tourism and to see people in a natural setting.

To start with we were picked up at 8:30 am and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. After we drove for and hour and a half to see a water fall, well it is the dry season so the water fall sucked but after wards we had lunch and it was very tasty. After lunch we drove for another hour parked the truck and started our hike, it took about another hour and a half to reach the village (Lousa) we were going to spend the night. This place was primitive no power bathing in the stream and the buildings were on stilts and very wobbly.
After we had arrived and relaxed a bit Nok (our guide) asked if we wanted to learn how to play a local game that involves a ratan ball that is a little bit bigger than a softball. So the gang all went down to give it a try, it is some thing like volley ball but you use everything but your hands. Very fun and I am going to buy one and play it when I get home. The second day we started off at 8 am and hiked until around one where we arrived at a Chang camp (elephant camp) this is where we had lunch and then would cont'd on the elephants to the next village. It took around one and a half hours to reach a Karen Village but I cant remmber the name of it, this one was larger than the one the night before but you could see that they were self sustaining and had very little need for out side goods. The accommodations were the same and we stayed up playing card and talking with Nok about the area and the people. The next morning was bamboo rafting and it was a work out we departed at 8 and would only stop once around 11 and we finished at 2:30. Unlike Karens rafting we actually had to put effort forth to keep from crashing in to rocks and propel our way down the river. Due to it being the dry season the rafting took three hours longer than it normally would, Nok said that during the wet season there are usually 3-4 deaths a year from people rafting down the river but we were in no danger what so ever.
after the rafting we had lunch and then a two hour ride home that seem to last for ever. After a nice hot shower and a nice dinner and a few drinks I slept like a baby.

We put up some new pictures for Malaysia and Thailand so go take a look.
www.photos.yahoo.com/r_erbach

Happy days
Robert

2004-03-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

HI

So we got the good news from Delta that we don't have to come home and be working members of society. This was good news, so the travelling continues........
We have run into a friend of ours named Emer from our time in Australia. So the three of us have been checking out the sights of Chiang Mai together. Emer and Robert went on a 3 day trekking trip. I stayed behind due to some stomach problems and the fact that 3 days trekking is not really my thing. I did however go on a one day trekking trip yesterday. We visited some hillside villages one of the villages being named The Karen Village ( for real I'm not making it up). We went on an elephant ride and bamboo rafted on a river. The bamboo rafting was really cool, the raft consisted of 8 big poles of bamboo tied together that's it. There was a navigator in front and we took turns in the back. All you had to do was use a big bamboo stick and keep the raft moving while avoiding trees and rocks. No problem............
as we drifted down the river we saw many Thai teenagers hanging out by the river and swimming, they thought it was great fun to splash all the tourist rafting by. Needless to say I was quit wet when we reached the end. It was great fun though. I got some amazing pictures which we will put up as soon as we find some where to do it. Plus I'm sure Robert will have some good stories as well as pictures when he gets back.
Karen

2004-02-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone,

Well after reluctantly leaving the beaches of Ko Phi Phi we headed to by bus up to Bangkok then on to Kanchanaburi. The journey took us 15 hours in total. It was a long day and night. In Kanchanaburi we visited the Death Railway and the bridge over the river Kawai. The Death Railway is a railway built by POWs during the second world war to connect Thailand to Maynamar. Close to 90,000 POWs died under Japanese rule building this railway. At Hell's Pass which is a section of the railway that was especially grueling to build there are still tools lodged into the side of the mountain. There is also an amazing museum run by the Australian government, it's very moving. There is a section of the railway still in use today. We took a train ride on the Death Railway over the river Kawai where we met a fascinating old Thai man. We talked with this man for a while and he told us that he has learned English through talking with tourists and reading English newspapers. We took his picture and he made us promise that we would send it to him.
The next day we enrolled in a one day Thai cooking class. The instructor brought us (by bike) to the local market and explained all the different Thai vegetables and spices. Before we went into the market she told us that if anyone got sick that she would just meet us outside and she also asked us not to scream. I thought this sounded odd until I got inside and saw several large pig heads stacked up on top of each other staring back at me. She then informed me that "Thai people eat everything" enough said. We got to choose 6 different dishes to cook then to eat. It was a great day, the instructor really made it an unforgettable experience.
Next we took a 12 hour over night train ride up to Chaing Mai. This was an experience. The two chairs turned into a bed then another bed folded out from the ceiling. It was actually pretty comfortable, the steward on the train however was another story. He insisted that we all go to bed at 10:30pm he even went as far as to lock the car door. Our new Canadian friend next door got locked out all night. He runs a tight ship.
Here in Chaing Mai we have done a lot of shopping which you can imagine has made Robert not a happy camper. Most people come here to go trekking however due to our uncertain schedule we have not yet done any trekking. Yesterday we went to a shooting range. If you can believe this I shot a .22 caliber gun ( 50 bullets) and really enjoyed it! It was a totally new experience for me. You just walked in and they gave you a menu and you just got to choose what kind of gun and how many bullets you wanted. Robert choose a gloc 9 mm and a .45 caliber. I know it's crazy but it was fun.
Today we did in my opinion the best thing we have done yet, we went to an elephant camp. This place was so amazing they have in total 75 elephants. We watched them play soccer, play the harmonica, give a massage and paint. Yes I said paint! We even went as far as to purchase a piece of this art work. I guess no one else can say they have art work done by an elephant.

til next time
Karen & Robert

2004-02-18T02:54:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I'm not sure where I left off last time but right now Robert and I are in a place called Ko Phi Phi. This is the Thai Island where they filmed the movie The Beach. We arrived in Thailand on Saturday after a 9 hour bus ride from a place in Malaysia called Penang. On Sunday morning we set out for an island called Ko Lanta. We spent three glorious days in Ko Lanta. If it wasn't for our new unwanted time schedule I think we would have stayed there for a long time. The people at the resort we stayed at where just great, very nice people. The resort consisted of 25 bungalows right on the beach. It was just a relaxing three days of course the Thai massages on the beach assisted in the relaxation. The island we are on now is the second most visited island after Phuket so in our opinion not nearly as nice. Tomorrow we are off to Bangkok. Another 12 hour bus ride should be fun.
Karen & Robert

2004-02-11T05:06:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Well when I last left off Robert and I were on our way to Kuala Lumpur with our new travel buddies Jo and James. We arrived in KL ( as everyone refers to it) mid afternoon and then spent the next couple of hours trying to find a decent place to stay. Of course my standards are a tad bit higher than Roberts I was glad to have another girl with us. We finally settled on a hotel rather than a hostel due to the fact that the hostels were Disgusting! Although, the hotel wasn't that much better. We stayed in China town because that is where the budget accommodations are located and also because that's where all the markets are located. We basically spent 3 days shopping, the place is a shoppers paradise. They specialize in really good knock offs such as Louis Vuitton and Hermes. One day we did attempt to do something other than shop we went into the city to see the Petronas Towers. Apparently they used to be the tallest buildings in the world. They were quit impressive. On Monday we took a bus north to a place called Kuala Selangor. In Kuala Selangor we went on a night time boat ride down a river to see fireflies. There were 30 different species of fireflies grouped together by the thousands in the trees lining the river. We only stayed one night then moved on to a place called The Cameron High Lands where we are now. In order to get here we had to take four different buses in total it took us 6 hours to get here. The Cameron High Lands are about 4500 Ft above sea level so it's a lot cooler than we are used to (although no one is complaining). We are staying at this lovely little family run Chalet. We had our first hot shower in months yesterday I can not even describe how wonderful it was. Today we went on a tour of the village. The tour included a Buddhist Temple, A rose garden, a tea plantation, a butterfly farm and a strawberry farm. It was a great way to see the area. We are so happy to be travelling with our new friends the four of us get along wonderfully. Tomorrow we move on again to an island of the west coast of Malaysia after that it's on to Thailand.
Karen&Robert

2004-02-05T01:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of new pictures at:
photos.yahoo.com/r_erbach

2004-02-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Hello,

We have finally left that dreadful place called Bali. Just quickly some of the hightlights: Being bit by a monkey (Karen), Dungue Fever (Karen), 150,000Rp fine for driving a motorbike with no international license (Robert), Trash filled beaches, Smelly salt water showers, Muslim chanting broadcast through out the island of Gilli at 4 am, Osama Bin Laden's face as a screen saver on a cell phone, Flooded streets after a rain shower, and finally a 950,000Rp Dr.'s bill (Karen). Other than that we had a great time!
We returned to Singapore for 3 days where we stayed at the Inn Crowd Hostel. The hostel was located in the Little India section of Singapore. The hostel itself was brand new it had only been open for 1 month, however they only had an 18 bed dorm and a 30 bed dorm. Naturally we stayed in the 30 bed dorm, not much sleep in Singapore. Kevin and Faye some friends we met in Bali also stayed with us in the 30 bed dorm. Yesterday we left Singapore by bus headed for Malaysia. We arrived in a small city called Malacca it took us about 4 hours on the bus from Singapore. Malacca is an old historic city with not much to see. We are staying at a Muslim guest house called the traveler's Lodge. At the hostel we met another English couple named James and Jo and we've spent the day checking out the sights with them. I think that we've seen everything there is to see here in two days so tomorrow we are off with our new friends to Kuala Lumpur.

2004-01-29T05:33:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone,

Not much new to report we are still in Bali with 3 more days to go. We were due to leave today but I came down with something called Dungue Fever. You get this from being bit by a mosquito. The Dr. told me that lots of people get it in Bali. It just makes me love this place even more. Due to the fact that I have a fever we couldn't go to Singapore because they make you walk through these heat sensor things. With some Antibiotics I'm starting to fell better already. We are definitely leaving on Sunday. Robert's been busy trying to perfect his surfing skills while attending to poor old me. Next stop is back to Singapore briefly then on to Malaysia. I hope everyone is enjoying the cold can't say I miss that.
Karen & Robert
PS eventually we'll get some more pictures up

2004-01-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

Hi

We are now in Bali in an area named Kuta. This is the area of Bali that has the most tourist. We are really disappointed in it. The beach has trash all over it, I actually stepped on a few USED condoms. However it is cheap so we are staying in a really nice hotel with a great pool for about $11 US a night. Yesterday we went on a day trip around the island we say some great old temples and a traditional Balinese dance performance which involved a guy walking through fire. Mostly everyone living in Bali is Hindu and right now they are in the middle of a holiday so everyhouse has offerings outside there door for the Gods. Of course our tour GUID was not Hindu he was Muslim and he thought it was pretty funny to tell us he was the same religion as Osama Bin laden. Tomorrow we are moving on to the Gilli Islands they are just outside of Bali. We have heard from many people that they are beautiful and relaxing. With the tickets we bought we have to stay here until the first of Feb. So we need some place to just hang out for a while.
Karen & Robert

2004-01-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

Hello

well we are still fumbling our way around Singapore it seems like there is more to see everyday. We happen to be here during the Chinese new year 77% of the population is Chinese so it's a BIG deal. Yesterday we decided to go to China town unaware of the fact that the new years celebrations are going on and also apparently that it was Saturday. It was out of control. I have never seen so many people crammed into one area in my life. I guess it was similar to New Years eve in Times Sq. I loved it though, so many great bargains to be had. I did my share to keep the economy going!
The food here is so cheap we eat dinner for about $5 each and that's Singapore $'s.
The hostel is also inexpensive however you get what you pay for. It's clean and the guy who runs it is nice but it's spartan. The room has a mattress and boxspring on the floor and that's it. The room does have a window with an airconditioner but you can't exactly see out the window. The shower and I use that term loosely (it's a shower head attached to the wall) has no hot water. I guess that'sa question we won't forget to ask next time! It's really not that bad though due to the fact that it's so humid out you really don't need hot water. All in all the place is pretty good as long as nothings crawling on me I'm happy.
Right now Robert is on the next computer trying to find a cheap ticket to Bali. The trip by ferry and bus takes a long time and there are some security concerns, so we have decided to try and fly instead.
when we can find a place that will let us put pictures up I'll let you know.
Karen & Robert

2004-01-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

Hello to all

We just arrived in Singapore this afternoon and we are wiped out due to staying up all night with our friend Simon and catching a 7:45 am flight this morning.

Our last few days in Oz were very good, we rented a car a drove south from Pert to a place called Margaret River. It is a popular place for surfing and for wine tasting so I'm sure you can guess what we did and it wasn't near the water. The area is loaded with vineyards like you would not believe 50 of them in a 20 square mile radius. It was good fun and quite tasty and of course we ended up with a few bottles and only have one left.

As for now we are to tired to really get into the site seeing right now but after a good nights rest well be good to go. So after we soak up some of the culture beer and food and a Singapore Sling (created here) well tell you all about it.
Hope everyone had a great New Years
Robert&Karen

2003-12-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

Merry X-mas and Happy New Year

Since we last left you we have been to Carins where it was wet for the good part of the time. While we were there we did a tour of the rain forest and surrounding area. From there we set off to Pert on the west coast of oz.
In Perth we met up with Neil, a friend from Delta who was down visting family here. We were lucky enough to stay with him and family for x-mas, which I must say is odd when you are running around in a swim suite and a pool cause it is around a 100 degres out. Neils family was great they took us in as one of their own which made our holiday all the better. After x-mas we moved camp to downtown area called Northbridge, it is where most of the night life is in Perth. We have also been hanging out with a friend we met in Sydney. Simon who lives just out side Perth has also been showing us around and put on a bbq for us, for an englishmen he does a good job of an aussie bbq.

We hope eveyone has a safe and happy New Year

Robert & Karen

2003-12-14T01:58:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone,

well a lot has happened since the last blog entry, while we were in Noosa we went to the Australia Zoo. This is Steve Irwin's (the crocodile hunters) zoo. Unfortunately Steve was not there that day due to the arrival of his baby boy appropriately named "Bob". The zoo was pretty amazing the Kangaroos are friendly enough to feed and they just wander around. We also got to have our picture taken with a Koala. The Crocodile feeding wasn't to bad either.

Next we went to Frasier Island which is the largest sand Island in the world. We went with a group of 11 people from our Hostel. There were actually 3 sets of 11 people each. It was a 3 day camping trip with a 4x4,two tents, a map, and copious amounts of alcohol. We are still trying to get all the sand out of our bags. They were three very crazy days however we made some really good friends.

From there we went to a place called 1770. 1770 is this small little town that has only had a paved road for 10 months. This is the most southern point of the Great Barrier Reef. We had such a good time there. The hostel was the best onewe have stayed at yet. It was also new and very relaxing. Everyone who came there ended up staying longer than they originally planned. We were actually sad to leave. While we were there we did a day trip to Lady Musgrove Island which is part of the Great barrier Reef. It was so amazing we saw so many fish and Turtles and the water was just beautiful. Of course I had the worst 90 min of my life on the boat on the way over. The water was really rough almost everyone threw up. The snorkeling more than made up for it though.

Last night we got on a bus at 8:30pm and we arrived this morning at 10:30am in Townsville. We are here for just a few days before we move on to cairns. We have a lot of great pictures to put up but this computer doesn't allow for the hook up so be patient and we will get those up soon.
Karen & Robert

2003-12-03T02:30:00.000-08:00

Hi

well, we have worked our way up to a cute little town called Noosa. We are staying here for a few days of relaxing beach time. On the way up to Noosa we met two new friends John (American) and Andrew (Canadian). Yesterday the four of us went on a 3 hour kayacking excursion where the three guys had a good time freaking me out about aligators. Oh by the way once again there were no dolphins spoted on our dolphin kayacking day. We did however see some turtles. I guess better luck next time!

Happy 4th Birthday to my most favorite little man in the world!
I love and miss you Nick!

2003-11-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

Today we have a guest writer: Me! Mary Clare . . . Karen and Robert picked me up at the Sydney airport last Saturday, which was also the World Rugby Final. Australia lost, so the city was a bit schizophrenic my first night. Everyone wearing green and yellow (Wallaby fans) was sad and dejected, while everyone in red and white (England fans) was running around singing, drinking, and waving English flags. Since the entire city had filled with rugby fans, I spent my first five days in Australia at The Funk House, a hostel that defies description. It's painted bright purple on the outside, all the other colors on the inside, and filled with some very "interesting" individuals. It was also exceptionally hot in our room, which was made worse by the fact that Karen wouldn't let us open the window as she was afraid a cockroach or a giant bat may fly in the room.

To be fair, the bats in Sydney are ENORMOUS. Probably two feet long. During the day they hang upside in trees and look cool, but during the night they fly around the city making scary screeching bat noises. Karen and I almost had a heart attack the night we walked back from seeing a play in the Sydney Opera House. We walked though the Royal Botanical Gardens to go back to the Funk House. The gardens are very beautiful; filled with all kinds of exotic flowers and plants. But since the bats are fruit bats, they too love the Botanical Gardens, and at night they fly very close to you, screech loudly, and look exactly like Vampire Bats.

Anyway . . . the day after seeing the play at the Opera House we rented a car and started to drive up the east coast of Australia toward Brisbane. The only difficult part is that we have to drive on the left hand side of the road, which is not too bad except for some reason all three of us stay way too close to the left hand side, and are always running up on the shoulder. This is fine unless there's someone riding a bike next to the car. The best part is that you can see kangaroos by the side of the road. We say a whole herd of them, including a mommy kangaroo with a baby in its pouch!

We spent the first night in a little town called Tarragal, which wasn't all that exciting. The next day we drove nine hours straight to Byron Bay, but didn't book a room in advance so we promptly had to drive another 20 kilometers back down the coast to find a room. Now we're staying in a place called Lennox Head, which is amazing. We're a five minute walk (we can hear the waves in our hostel) from a seven mile beach that is absolutely gorgeous, and we are almost the only people there.

For Thanksgiving we hung out on the beach all day, then went into town to do some grocery shopping. We brought a bottle of wine which we drank on the beach, then came back to the hostel to prepare our Thanksgiving meal: turkey sandwiches for Robert and me, Veggie Burger for Karen, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and pineapple for desert. Except we were too full to eat the pineapple so we had it for breakfast this morning. Then we drove back up to Byron Bay, which is where we are now. Now we're getting ready to go sea kayaking with Dophins!

2003-11-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Thur Nov 20 2003

Hello again from the unemployed down under.
We are taking a little break to say hi and relax from the hard day at Bondi Beach. It is a nice beach not real big but the water is clear and cold and the waves are good for body surfing. Last night the two of us went on a night cruise around the harbors to see the city and the other sites at night. Last night was also the last night for Australian Idol and it was being taped outside the opra house. Other than that we are taking it easy and in a couple of days we will have a third person to share the adventures with for a few weeks.
There are some new pics up so go take a peek and soom we will be removing the New Zealand pics to free up some room.

Robert&Karen

2003-11-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone

well we are in Sydney now. Another great city, although lots of partying going on. Last night Australia played New Zealand in the world cup rugby semi finals and everyone except Robert and I were glued to a television. People started drinking and celebrating around 11am. Madness really!
Due to the craziness we had a little trouble finding somewhere to stay, however the "Funk House" still had room. Now the name speaks for itself! There is a roof top "garden" where everyone hangs out and at night you can see BATS flying around. Big huge black BATS!
we have meet some nice guys from Perth who are willing to hang out with us even though we are "Damn Yankees"
We plan on spending some time In Sydney so when we get some pictures we will post them. Should be in the next couple of days.
Karen & Robert
A big HAPPY Birthday to Mary Clare!!!!!!!!!!!! and Yippy MC is coming to visit in 6 days

2003-11-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

HI,

We have now left Melbourne and we are in Canberra. Canberra is between Melbourne and Sydney. We stopped here because the drive straight to Sydney was to long to do in one day. Canberra is Australia's capital city, the layout is similar to Washington D.C. Today we went to the Parliament House, it is a pretty cool looking building. It was just built in the 1980's. The previous building sits behind it and now serves as a museum. This city is nice but there is not much going on, we only plan to stay a few days and then move on to Sydney.
Karen & Robert

2003-11-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

G'day from Melbourne

We have finally made it to Australia and some what warmer weather. We arrived on tuesday which is the day they have the Melbourne Cup. This happens to be the biggest race on this side of the world, and on thursday is the Crown Oaks cup race which we went to. Everyone dress up and the women all wear hats so we did a little shopping and did the best we could with the limited wardrobe that we had. We meet a few guys and things got a little silly ( due to the champaign ) but thats what happens at the races.

Melbourne is a beautifull city and has alot of great buildings and parks.( well get more pictures up later) Today we went to the Victoria Market which has over 250 booths ranging from fresh food to leather goods and such, so we were in there for quite awhile. Tomorrow we are off to the zoo, this is suppose to be the oldest zoo in the world.

We posted a few new pics under the old folder and put a new folder up for Australia ( for u shank ).
I know the new one doesnt have alot in but give us a few days,the internet places are running win 98 so it makes it hard to hook up the camera.

Robert&Karen

2003-11-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

Hi to everyone,

well tomorrow we are leaving New Zealand for Australia. So sad to be leaving. We have had an amazing time here. yesterday our friend Dave picked us up again and took us to a few places we had not been yet (of course Joyce had sent a picinic lunch for us all). One of the places we went was the Antartic center. Christchurch is known as the gateway to Antartica. The center was a museum based on the research center in Antartica. They have this exhibit where they simulate a storm. It was pretty cool, they had fake snow and a wind machine that made the "storm room" feel like the wind was blowing 40 miles and hour and the temp -10 degrees. Poor Dave was wearing shorts. We then visited some other places and Dave informed us that Joyce expected us for "tea" at 6. Of course "tea" here means dinner. So, for the second night in a row we ate a three course meal with 2 desserts at their house. They have been so good to us, I feel so lucky to have met them. For an older couple but they have more energy and more fun than most people I know. We definitaley plan to keep in touch with them.
Karen & Robert
P.S Talk to you again from Australia.
HI NICK

2003-10-31T21:51:00.000-08:00

Hello to all from Christchurch

This is the last stop in New Zealand before we head off to Austraila.

Last night was halloween here and unfourntally they really don't do much for the holiday, but there were a few people dressed up for the occasion.
Today we meet up with this older couple(Dave 65 and Joyce 70) we meet in Hanmer Springs having cocktails. I'm not sure if we mentioned this in the past blog but they told us to give them a call when we got to Christchurch. Well we did give them a call and they invited us to their place for lunch and a drive around the city to see the sites. Joyce made quite the spread for lunch with two desserts, and of course the wine that was poped open before noon. They have been married for 18 years and are the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet. It is quite fun to hang out with them cause they are both always talking at the same time, finnishing each other sentences and have the oddest sayings that are very funny. Joyce gave Karen a quiche recipe to take home and try but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to get made. It seems that we have made a great impression on them for Dave wants to pick us up and talk to see some more places. Well give you an update on that later.

Robert & Karen

2003-10-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

Hello to all from Dunedin.

Queentown was a cute little ski type town that has alot of character. As was stated in the last blog it is the adrenaline capitol of the world. So we decided to be different and do more relaxing things like the Earnslaw steamship cruise and getting reflexoligy, but I did do the gondola to the top and a luge ride.

Dunedin is a cool college town so we are the old fogies here. So far we have gone to see the Yellow eyed penguines, fur seals, and sea lions. The hostel we are staying at is over a hundered years old and is said to be haunted and the bus driver told us it was a women.

Going on the "wild kingdom" tour was interesting, we were only ten feet from the sea lions and we watched the penguines come in from the ocean and waddle up the beach to their nest.

We have posted some new pictures.
Next stop is Christchurch.
Robert & Karen

2003-10-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hello

Well today we are in Queenstown. Queenstown is known as the adrenalin capital of New Zealand. Everyone comes here to go skydiving, bungyjumping or skying/snowboarding. For the past two days we were in Frans Joseph. In Frans Joseph we hiked up a 6,000ft Glacier. We only went up about 2,000ft but it took about 8 hours total. we were given special boots with spikes and an ice axe. There were 2 guides who had to chop out the steps with their axes as we went. At one point we had to climb through an ice hole and pull ourselves up on a rope. Of coures it was comical watching me try to do this, however I made it! So much for a relaxing vacation on the beach. We posted some great pictures of the glacier
(Photos.yahoo.com/r_erbach)
well today we are off to go on a steam ship ride around the lake. The views here are amazing.
Karen & Robert

2003-10-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hey

well we have waited almost 4 days to see some damn whales or dolphins but apparently it's not in the cards. yesterday the weather cooperated but they couldn't find any dolphins. we are taking it as a sign to move on. We did however go horseback ridding yesterday. The scenary was pretty amazing. Of course i got the horse who didn't like water, our trail involved crosssing not one but two big streams. luckly with a little kick she decided to cooperate. It was fun however we are both just a little sore today.
Karen

2003-10-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hey from the unemployed.

Not a lot going on right now, we are in Kaikoura on the south island. For the past two days we have tried to go whale watching and then tried swimming with the dolphins. The weather seems to be against us so maybe better luck tomrrow.

The main thing is we now have pictures posted. You can see them at (photos.yahoo.com/r_erbach), just a small selection but will update as we can.

2003-10-10T22:39:00.001-07:00

Hello

well today we are in Blenheim, it's a small sort of industrial town however it has several dozen vinyards. Today we dicided it would be a good idea to go wine tasting in the rain ridding bikes. The hostel we are staying at lent us some bikes. So Robert and I and two other guys from the hostel went riding about 8 miles in the rain for free drinks. It was highly worth it, however seeing us riding down the road in rain pants a rain coat and bright green helmets was quit a sight. Tomorrow we are moving on down south to swim with dolphins and see some whales.
Karen & Robert

2003-10-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

2003-10-09T01:15:00.000-07:00

Thur Oct 9 2003

Hello again form the unemployed.
Sorry it's taken a few days to get things updated, but weve been busy doing what were doing.
Sunday while we were sill in Taupo we did the Tongoruro Crossing a 17k(10mile) hike that went up to an elevation of 1900 meters. It was a mostly self guided hike but we did have one person along in case something did happen. It took around 8hrs to finnish and we were completly wasted after wards. I got then funniest sunburn you have ever seen due to the hat I was wearing.
Monday I(Robert) went for a little jump from 12,000ft in a tandem skydive. We hade a 45sec free fall and around 5 minutes of open chute time. The view from up there was excellent and I highly recommend that everyone try it. (Rod Stewart has a house there)
After the skydive we hopped on the bus to Wellington where we are now and will be taking a 3hr ferry ride to the south island tomrrow.
We've meet some great people from all over who are travelling in the same direction as us. It's nice to run into people you know at the hostels. Hi to all of you if your reading this. Best to all, happy travelling
Robert and Karen

P.S. If anyone knows of a site to post pictures let one of us know.
P.P.S OF course I did not go skydiving only crazy people jump out of planes!

2003-10-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hi

Well today we are in a town named Taupo. Most travelers come here to go sky diving or bungy jumping. I of course will be doing no such thing. Yesterday when we arrived it was raining so hard you could barely see if front of you. We asked a guy for directions to the hostel and he said "oh get in I'll bring you there". He also gave us free coupons to the coffee shop he owens. This is our second experience with people offering to bring us places when we're lost. The people in New Zealand could not be nicer. Today we went on a two hour hike to see Huka waterfall. When we got to the look out part we asked someone to take our picture, while we were having our picture taken Roberts backpack hit the railing and his water bottle got pushed out and fell into the rapids bellow. We didn't even notice until a little asian man who didn't speak very much English motioned over the railing and said "you bottle missing".

Just a quick note to describe our living conditions at this particular hostel, I have one word: CELL. Robert thinks it's about 4'x8'. I do believe even prisoners have more space than that. OH well it's the right price!
Karen & Robert
PS HI DAD

2003-10-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Oct 3 2003

Hello again form New Zealand.
We are enjoing another beautiful rainny day here and we are going to be on our way to Taopu. Yeterday Karen and I met two travlers for England, John and Susan(traveling seperately). Susan had a car and offerd to take the three of us to see hot springs and mud pots. There was also a geyser that by droping soap in to the hole caused it to erupt. This takes place at the same time everyday. The sulfur(hundreds of rotten eggs) smell was the worst thing you could ever imagine. The scenery was amazing and for a change the sun was out and the temp was nice. Next we were off to go for a four hour hike with more hot springs that ended at a lake. This was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. I hope to be able to set up a site for some pictures, i'll let you guys know when and where to go. Get back to you from Taopu.

Robert & Karen

2003-09-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

Hello again to all.
It is wed. oct 1st, and the adventures contiue in Rotoura. The cave exploring in Waitoma was very interesting, we went tubing through a cave to see Glow Worms. These are worms that before changing in to some sort of fly give off a substance like a spider that glows and that is how it attracts it food. It looks like blue green stars on the cave ceiling, but this is just the begining. After suiting up in wet suits and drving/hiking to the cave entrance and given an inner tube the floating begins. After a few minutes of waliking through ankle deep freezing cold water(plus it was raining and cold to start with) we stop and get in the tubes to link up by our feet and we turn off the lights and float through the cave. Looking up at the ceiling to see the glow worms and for anyone who knows Karen she was a little edgy we could hear a water fall up ahead. It turns out that its about a six foot drop that you fall backwards with the tube on your butt. Karen didnt like the idea too much but did it like a champ. The floating contiues through tight twist and low ceilings with a grand finnish. A 20ft slide that was a blast(at least I though it was fun, Karen was given a little shove), then a hike/drive back to hot showers and soup and toast.

Well give you an update on Rotoura and an adventure or two but from what weve seen and smelled, it's something like Yellow Stone.
Untill next time be safe and toss back a few.
Robert & Karen

2003-09-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

Our flight to New Zealand was pretty uneventful. Due to the genius Idea of Roberts a $30 box of chocolates got us an upgrade to business class. Well worth every penny due to the fact that the flight was 13 hour long. The weather here is a lot colder than we thought it would be but we're brave. Today we are going on a walking tour of Auckland. Tomorrow we are moving on to Watomia, were we are going to see cave with glow worms in them (will explain later). K and R

2003-09-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving tomorrow morning. More to come.