Surfing and an older LH

Hi all!!

Man have we been busy!! Learning to surf, turning a year older...lots to tell!!! We arrived in Surf Camp (close to Coffs Harbour) after Sydney and it was POURING rain! We froze our tails off that night, but woke up to a very sunny morning for our first SURF lesson!! Both of us stood up a couple times, got some great pics and definitely want to do it again. Unfortunately we can't put up ALL our surf pics on here, although we'd love to!

One night in surf camp, then on to Byron Bay - the little surf town that basically consists of surf shops, travel agencies and places to eat. Oh and the beach:) We got our own little apartment to stay in...and when I say our own, I mean 2 bedrooms with 2 bunkbeds each and a shared kitchen and bathroom. We haven't done any more surfing here, but we might try some body boarding? Surfers Paradise is our next stop which sounds like a reasonable place to surf:)

Lauren's Birthday!! We shared our dorm room with two cute english girls that LOVED the fact that it was Lauren's birthday...she got a serenade at midnight of the birthday song:) They threw a little party in our place and then we went across the street to Cheeky Monkey's..the infamous backpacker bar. Great time!! Now what was NOT smart of us to do, was book a sunrise tour the next morning...that means we were awake at 4:30 AM...after a birthday night. EW. BUT the sunrise was absolutely gorgeous and well worth it, plus now we can say we've seen the sunrise from the most easterly point in Australia!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Nimbin, which is a small HIPPIE town about 2 hrs from Byron Bay. We got picked up in a rainbow bus with a wicked speaker system that was driven by a 50-year-old pink-pant-wearing hippie...who better to be our tour guide? Nimbin specializes in "herbs" and "baked goods"...so it made quite the interesting visit. After stopping for a few hours in Nimbin, we went to "Dr. Wrecker's" house...pretty much a hermit living in the middle of the woods. He planted a botanical garden back in the 70's and has been there ever since. He met us off the bus wearing no shoes and a holy shirt and took us back to his place for some macadamia nuts before we headed out...man this sounds weird writing it...On the way to Dr. Wrecker's house, our bus driver took us on a "roller coaster ride" on crazy windy roads, BLARING Pink Floyd....quite the experience:)

I'd say we've had our fill of Byron:) We're off tomorrow afternoon for Surfer's Paradise, only an hour and a bit from here. We're still adjusting to the Australian style of travel...it's SO much more laid back. There's a lot of beach bumming, sun tanning and surfing, and it's weird! Definitely an adjustment from our Asian craziness...not that we're complaining:)

Thanks for all the b-day messages for LH - made her day! :)

Misses and hugs,

Laur and Laur

Sydney, Australia!!

Welcome to Australia!!!

Where do we begin....6:30am, Sydney airport, Anna (France Anna) met us off the plane! What a nice change!! Most importantly, before actually socializing, we were able to have a Starbucks coffee..that is a BIG deal! 2 months without Starbucks! After 24 hours without sleep!! We were definitely too excited to sleep once we arrived, so we decided to do a tour of the city before heading back to Anna's house, which is about 45 minutes by car from the center. Anna gave us a guided tour of the city after taking us to a cute little cafe for brunch. We headed down George street to Circular Quay and got to see Sydney Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge!! Sensational!!! It was SO sunny out, but we are NOT used to having to wear more clothes here!! We actually had to go out and BUY warm clothes to be comfortable. Too bad eh?

We had our FIRST home-cooked meal, a warm bed and a fantastic family to stay with (Thank you Anna!!!). We are so lucky!

Next day we went to Taronga Zoo...ferry from Sydney harbour and then a gondola up to the zoo!! Still in an asian frame of mind, we wore tank tops and t-shirts and absolutely FROZE on the ferry AND at the zoo. BUT we got to see koalas! And kangaroos! And a platypus!! Claire and Catherine (the other Rennes girls from France) met us at the zoo. It was quite the reunion :)

Still freezing, we went for dinner at "The Rocks", the old quarter of Sydney, and met up with another canadian friend Rachel for pizza and we tried our first Australian beer!

Our tour guide (aka Anna) took us on a road trip to the Jenolan caves (more stalactites and stalagmites) and the Blue Mountains..which was a lot like the Grand Canyon with trees. SO gorgeous! It was a LITTLE windy, and COLD (check out the pic)!!!

Seeing as we're taking full advantage of the Vidot family's hospitality, we decided we should do something for them, so we made them french toast for breakfast (see pic)!! We even bought maple syrup, to make it a true canadian breakfast, but unfortunately it wasn't the real stuff. Later that day, we went to the famous Bondi beach and had fish and chips for lunch...we did the walk along the coast to Bronte beach, but again, not too warm! No swimming or suntanning :( Are we going to lose our tans!?!?

We're so spoiled being able to stay with a family here, we took advantage of the shopping and the REAL coffee and the cute little restaurants before booking our bus up the east coast. We leave tomorrow morning bright and early on our Oz Experience bus for Surf Camp, yay!! It's only an hour lesson, but hopefully we'll get lots of time to practice up the coast! We spend one night there then head to Byron Bay, and then who knows! BY THE WAY...LH turns 23 on monday, which we will be celebrating in Byron Bay. She will be accepting cheques directly deposited into her bank account :)

We're not too sure how often we'll be able to e-mail, as internet here isn't QUITE as cheap as in Asia, so keep checking and we'll do our best!

Lots of love and hugs,

L and L

Tastes of Asia

Seeing as we've finished Asia, we decided to put this together to give you a taste of some of the things we had a chance to eat while we were over there.



Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our fave Thai beer

Lunch in Vang Vieng, Laos
Kayaking Day Trip

Fried Rice in Banana Leaf with BBQ's Shish Kababs

Breaky in Luang Prabang
FanTASTIC bread with pineapple jam
It was very french!!

Hanoi, Vietnam

Chicken Stirfry with veggies

Arrived from Laos exhausted - lifesaver :)

Lotus Seeds - yummy snack
Four Thousand Islands, Laos

An example of some of the interestingly translated food and dRink menus :)

Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh) and Cu Chi Tunnels

We are leaving south east asia in 19 hours!!! NINETEEN!! We can't believe that our 2 months here is done...it has certainly been an experience. A mixture of amazing moments, and ones that test your patience. It's also been very humbling to see some of the things that we've seen, along with the people and living conditions. One last blog from Asia...

Saigon is the BUSIEST big city we've been to, and we have NEVER seen so many motorbikes in our lives. It took us 2 hours to go 70km today to the Cu Chi tunnels because of motorbike traffic jams getting out of the city. It is INSANE. Check out the pics of some intersections...sometimes you just don't need traffic lights, you know? And crossing the road? You really just go. Just anytime, just go. LH is becoming much braver at defeating traffic! Round of applause :) We couldn't get any pictures of us caught in the middle because we wanted to make sure we always crossed the road TOGETHER :) The city itself is sort of an asian London...lots of bright neon lights, fancy hotels and lots of people. It's also nicer than Bangkok to us because there's trees here!!! It's a tiny bit cleaner than Hanoi...there are garbage cans here...but people still throw stuff on the streets and burn it. We're staying in a cute little hotel in "mini hotel alley", and it really is mini...they had to take us up the elevator with our bags cause we couldn't fit up the staircase...and we barely could either (see pic).

Tunnels today were pretty cool to visit...although we did have the 2 hour bus ride each way to endure...the visit itself was educating only because we had a great tour guide. We got to walk through the tunnels too, and neither of us could imagine living in a space that small. They were about 1m high or shorter at some parts...we were totally bent over, sometimes crawling, through a pitch black tunnel. We think we lasted 30m? When we finally made it back to the city, we went to the War Remnants Museum. It was comparable to Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia, impact wise. It was so interesting, and very shocking to see what happened only 30-40 years ago. We were both pretty speechless when we left.

Now we're off to repack Greg and lil Lowe for the big plane ride tomorrow...eeee!! Final thoughts on Asia - it was a great learning experience and has made us stronger in many ways :)

Much love to everyone, thank you SO much for all your messages, we get SO excited to hear from you and hear what you think of our stories and pictures!! PLEASE keep it up for Aussie!

Love and misses,

L and L

Hoi An and Nha Trang

3 new coats, a pair of shorts and crop pants later...we left Hoi An for Nha Trang :) We WERE going to post pictures of us in our coats for you..but then we packed them...and are NOT getting them out until Australia when we can LEAVE them while we adventure up the coast. We are SO pro at stuffing stuff in our bags now...let me tell you. Greg and lil Lowe (yes, we named our bags) are FULL to the brim, ready to explode...it's a good thing we have somewhere to leave stuff in australia.

Other than having over 200 tailor shops, Hoi An has lots of cute little cafes and restaurants, handcraft shops, art displays of gorgeous paintings and a cute little market that sells LOTS of jewelry and scarves. We stayed in the old town, which is super quiet for motorbikes compared to what we've seen and you can actually walk down the little dirt streets without getting run over! We did a day trip to My Son ruins, which was pretty...but hard to fully appreciate after having been to Angkor. Are we becoming historical site snobs!? It was HOT in Hoi An and we found ourselves wishing we'd stayed somewhere with a pool...good thing Nha Trang had a BEAUTIFUL beach:) (see pics)

We did our LAST night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang, which we both decided was the worst one yet, only because we got the least amount of sleep on it and felt GROSS arriving in Nha Trang at 6:00am. We got some breaky and walked down to the beach to take a look...WOW. We were super impressed...especially being there so early, we got to see it at it's quietest hour. We spent the day at the "Louisiane Cafe" which is a western style beach resort with a pool and beach chairs and umbrellas on the sand. So nice!

Wanna know what we did on the second day?!? SCUBA DIVING!!! That's right, a whole 6 meters under water!!! No, it was really unreal...it was an intro scuba tour, it was one on one, and the dive instructor was with you the whole time as you went down. But being able to experience it and see some cool fish and wildlife was amazing...and we're planning on doing it again if we can on the barrier reef!!! Quite addictive, you might say. Check out LH in her wetsuit ready to go :)

Saigon is officially our last big city in Asia that we visit before we head off to Aussie...don't worry, we'll post one more time with some motorbike traffic and Cu Chi tunnel pics!!

Until then..

Love L and L - scuba pros

PS - We found a picture of our morning hair...just thought we'd add it so you could check us out...

Sapa trekking

Pictures will do most of the talking here....Sapa is a tiny mountain town north of Hanoi close to the Chinese border. It is much cooler and way less humid than anywhere we've been so far, because it's so high. Our tour had 2 nights on a night train (9 hours each way) and one night in a hotel, with 2 days of trekking. The town was a lot like Banff...very touristy, and a lot of the tribespeople come up and sell their metal, handcrafts, quilts, bracelets..etc. LH had a big problem with this and wanted to buy it ALL. LT has a smaller bag so....you know...less fits in it:) The first day we only did a 3 hr trek down to Cat Cat village and back up for lunch. Day 2 we trekked for about 5 hrs, with a lunch stop, and then got a jeep back up. We got to see two tribes (Lao Chai and Tai Van). We should also mention in here that after lunch, we were walking on a dirt road, and LH almost stepped on a dead snake. SNAKE!!! LH's biggest fear! She almost died...and freaked out a little, but dealt with it really well :) LT had to go back and get a pic to document the moment. We are both DEFINITELY feeling our legs today, and are SUPER stiff. NOT too excited about a sleeping bus tonight! Felt really good to get some fresh air though. Our tour guide was great, the hotel was gorgeous and the town itself was so breathtaking..right on the top of the mountain with great views of rice fields and farm lands. Our 2 nights on the night train were great, we got free mini waters and free fruit!! And the comforters were great! We'll leave it at that...we're going to get some food for our night bus...wish us luck!!

Love and hugs,

Lellies

Halong Bay - A tale of two cockroaches

BOY do we have stories for you!!! Got into Hanoi on the plane from Laos around 8pm at night...trying to find a guesthouse in the dark and then a place to eat on a sunday is more difficult than we thought! Next day was pouring rain...and we spent most of it wandering from tourist office to tourist office trying to find some good tours to Halong Bay and Sapa for trekking. We managed to book at 3-day boat tour to Halong Bay, a 2-day Sapa trekking tour and an overnight bus to Hue (and then Hoi An) all in one day!! This meant not staying in a hotel for 5 nights out of 7...two nights in a hotel were included on our tours.

Halong Bay was absolutely STUNNING (see pic). Our tour consisted of 3 days, one night on a boat, one night in a hotel on Cat Ba island and then back to Hanoi. The boat was super cute...the food was a little too greasy and pretty much all sea food, but we managed!

ANYWAY, day 1 we spent sailing to these superb caves with stalactites and stalagmites (see 1st pic), then to a beach..sort of...for swimming, and then found our anchor spot for the night. You might be wondering what this cockroach business is about..LT does NOT like cockroaches. At all. We're in our teeny room (see pic)...sleeping away, and LT feels something on her shoulder, in her BED..and rolls over to squish it...a little freaked. Gets up to turn on the bathroom light to see what it was (meanwhile LH still sound alseep, totally unconscious to the world)....and sees the smear of some cockroach on her pillow, but no cockroach. EW. There it is! Crawling up the wall! Hides in the curtains for alittle, then falls onto LH's legs and starts crawling on her bed. LT will NOT have it crawl on her shoulder too, so she grabs a flip flop and SMACKS LH in the leg. LT -"sorry sorry sorry..."LH - "it's ok...um..yeah...no prob..." (still half asleep). LH gets up to stand up...LT - "um yeah you might wanna keep your feet on the bed...cause there's a cockroach..", LH - "ok, sure...yeah.."...we look down and it starts CRAWLING towards the bathroom!! It flips on it's back...bound to be almost dead..and another smaller one crawls out from under LH's bag. So...LT squealing on her knees on her bed...LH - "ok, it's ok, we'll just cover them with a cup"...LT - "UM NO WE WON'T....they have to be dead"..LH - "well I can't kill them..." LT - "k, give me the flip flop..." and that is how LT killed her first 2 cockroaches :) In a tiny teeny room, on a boat in the middle of the ocean off the coast of vietnam! Took her awhile to fall back asleep and a few night's recovery, but the hotel in Cat Ba island was beautiful..and clean..and cockroach free (see pic)!! The rest really isn't that exciting...next day we got to bike, trek and kayak, which was awesome. Weather turned out for us, although we woke up to pouring rain again. Luckily the day we left rained all day, and all we did was see a floating village (see pic), head back to Halong and eat, and then drive back to Hanoi! We're going to post as many pics as we can with this because it's sensational and we loved it :) Well worth the cockroach scare!

On to Sapa!!

Love L and L