Farewell, Ciao, Adios, bye!

Location: New Zealand
Date: May 11, 2000

Greetings! This is our last e-mail from Oz. We're a bit sad to be leaving but are looking forward to the challenge of SE Asia. Today we board a plane for Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia and then it's anyone's guess as to which direction we head from there. The last few days we have been selling our camping gear. Linda must have asked about 500 people (Do you want to buy this nice tent?)in town and everywhere we were instantly recognized.

Before I talk about our last week in Northern Queensland, here is a bit of our sked: Malaysia, then possibly over to Sumatra (not sure about that yet). Then to Thailand and north out of Bangkok to Chiang Mai. After that it's Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, then back to Thailand and some relaxing on the beach. Finally it's back to KL before Sept. 8 for our flight to Hong Kong. We plan to spend a week or less there before we fly back home (scary) mid September. Of course the direction of our travel could all change with weather and the intermittent rebel fighting that still occurs. We would also like to go to Burma but that will remain to be seen when we get to Bangkok. As we have said before, everyone is welcome to visit us anywhere along the line.

OK, so now we are in Cairns. What can I say about Cairns except that it's loaded with heaps of English backpackers. They're everywhere! It's a nice place to get stuff done (shopping, e-mails) but get out as soon as you can before you get sucked in. before Cairns we were in Mission Beach. It's a bit South of here and is surrounded by rainforest. We slept in a hut that had all sides open to the forest (it was protected with screens to keep the bugs out). Great to listen to the sounds of the jungle at night. We were also lucky enough to see a Cassowary, a huge, ugly, prehistoric looking bird. They can be pretty feisty when they have babies with them. This one did and didn't like me getting too close. They really can run fast!

>From there we headed North to Port Douglas and the Cape Tribulation area. This is where the "rainforest meets the reef". Sounds kind of lame but because it's in all the brochures but it really is an amazing place. So many things to see such as waterfalls, swimming holes (nice on a humid day), unspoiled rainforest. We had some nice weather for our week or so there considering that they had 25 inches of rain the week before. In the town of cape Tribulation we stayed at a place called PK's Jungle Village. It's pretty crazy backpacker place that really goes crazy each night. They have crazy theme nights like "Sex Change" night where the women dress like men and vice versa. It's a lot of fun (we have photos) and the bondage show is a little scary. I guess it prepares us for the cheesy sex shows in Bangkok. Besides that you can do a lot of walks on the beaches and can do some walking thru the rainforest at night.

We didn't see any "crocs" there although Linda made a point of going into all of the croc infested areas to find one. Apparently you can se them on the Daintree River but we did hear of one 15 footer in Cooper's Creek. Besides that, you have more of a chance of getting stung by a box jellyfish (can be deadly) or getting kicked by a Cassowary (which almost happened to me).

We spent the last few days of our trip seeing a bit of the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns. We rented a car and drove up to the little town of Kuranda to see the markets. It was sort of cheesy but the waterfall outside of town was going crazy due to the recent rain. It managed to rain for the entire time we had the car which made the waterfalls really awesome but made camping a pain in the bum. Around the Tablelands a lots of opportunities to see crater lakes, small patches of rainforest and wide open countryside. It's a bit sad though. All of that land used to be rainforest before it was cleared in the name of progress (cattle).

Other than that, here are a few things we are leaving behind:

30 cent McDonald's ice cream cones (17 cents US, Linda would live on these if I let her), Crocodile Dundee (I think I saw him in Cairns), those crazy leather bushman hats that all of the Euros love to wear, 19 year old English backpackers living on baked beans and toast (they really eat that for breakie), and Men at Work (the Aussies really do play it all the time on the radio).

So as I said before you are all welcome to come and visit us before we return. Keep the e-mail updates coming and we will see you in less that 4 months (ugh!). We are also not looking forward to finding work. Mike still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up (I think Doctor, Lawyer or Fireman is out of the question now). Cheers to all,

Mike and Linda

P.S. We will write soon from Malaysia

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