Sharing our Traveler's Diarya

Monday, June 20

Despite not being fully recovered (in our 30s now some hangovers are 2 days long), we set out to try and do a hike.

When I was here before I went hiking every weekend with a Busan hiking club. One of the things I love most about Busan is how close the hiking trails are to the city. There’s mountains popping up throughout the city and you can always take the Metro or a bus to the base of a trail and start hiking.

I went back through the blog I had written when I was here before. I had stopped after only a few months but still there was some helpful information (and it was fun to remember). One of the first hikes that I’d done with a hiking group was Eomgwangsan mountain. I remembered it was a good example of hiking in Busan because it was relatively easy to get to, had views of ocean and mountains, and had little fitness parks hidden all over.

We followed my old blog instructions of taking the metro to Jungang station, getting out at exit 5, and taking bus 186 up the hill. When we got out of the station we realized we actually needed to go the opposite way and should’ve taken exit 7. Also, bus 81 went the same way so we hopped on that.

In my blog I had said “when the hill got really steep we got off the bus and crossed the street to find the trailhead”. I could tell that these vague instructions made Carl uncomfortable. Rather than waste time arguing about where to start he found a trailhead that began right behind a temple and we decided to get off there.

It was hotter than we had anticipated, and the sky was hazy. We also realized there were about a gazillion trail routes to choose from. Using our different apps we steered ourselves toward the top to try and summit something. We made it to a peak and celebrated.

We realized there were several peaks on the mountain so we followed the saddle and went to a couple more peaks. Then we felt ready to leave and tried to find a way down. The trail we chose to descend was awful- super steep and incredibly rocky. We both slipped several times and cursed the low hanging branches.

Eventually we made it down and found ourselves in a little neighborhood. We decided to get lunch at one of the restaurants. Again, not a lick of English on the menu and no pictures but the man working there was really nice and he welcomed us in. He pointed to different things and said ‘beef’ or ‘tuna’. We gave him the thumbs up to bring us whatever he thought was best.

He brought us tuna kimbap and bulgogi (marinated beef) stew. They actually went well together and it was a perfect size meal for after a hike.

On our way back to the Airbnb I made us get out at Seomyeon station where there is a big underground mall. I think because it was in the middle of a weekday it was nowhere near as crowded and chaotic as it used to be. Still, there were tons of teeny tiny shops mostly selling clothes with ridiculous English phrases written on them.

As we turned a corner and there were fewer people around, a man came up to us and asked where we are from. We tend to slowly back away from people like this, keeping a mental note of where our wallets are. We told him the truth -USA- and he started to reach into his bag to get something. Oh no, we thought, he’s going to try to sell us something. He pulled out a little pin that had an American flag and a South Korean flag together and handed it to Carl. He bowed and speed-walked away. We were so surprised. We called thank you after him. Further proof that South Koreans are the nicest people and will melt the hearts of jaded travelers like us.

We then went home and rested in preparation for Makkoli Monday.

During the peak of when I hated teaching in Korea I would live for the weekends and then dread having to go back to school each Monday. It got to the point where every Monday night I would look for plane tickets back to CA but would chicken out by the time the weekend came.

My friend Paddy and I co-founded a weekly event called Makkoli Mondays. We would go to our favorite Makkoli (Korean rice wine) bar called Tony’s on Monday nights and invite whoever could make it. MMs gave me something to look forward to on Monday and then Tuesday I’d be too hungover to care about whether I should stay or quit. Then it would already be Wednesday and we’d be close enough to the weekend to have hope.

The group brought a bunch of different foreigner groups together and was a symbol for world peace. After Paddy left, the group changed to Tony Tursdays and after I left I saw rumors of Friendly Wednesdays. I think the group fizzled out within a year after I left but I’ve still been talking about it for the last nine years.

So, we decided to revive it for at least one night. Our Makkoli place, Tony’s, didn’t even have an official name when we started MM. The owner, Tony, is a hilarious and generous guy that would gladly have broken English, drunken conversations with us and then bring us some free Korean food to try. We were lucky Tony was there when we went because he has since opened up two more shops and is a busy business man now.

I relied on memory and a map that honored member Charles made and we found the place no problem. We turned the corner to find the place looked EXACTLY the same and Tony was standing at the front door, identical to my memory but with some gray hair. We walked up and asked for a table and he paused. He pointed at my face – he remembered me! I showed him a photo we took on the night I fled Korea and he was so happy, he took a picture of it with his phone.

Our old friend, Parky, joined us just as we arrived. Parky used to play rugby with the Irish boys and he now works for a major Korean airline. He has always been the nicest person.

We ordered the kimchi cheesy pajeon- which you can’t get anywhere else in the world. Tony’s latest gimmick is that he comes out with a blow torch to melt the cheese on top. He did a little fire show for us and almost lit Carl’s crotch on fire.

We looked for where we had written our names on the walls. We found Paddy’s name and a precious MM member had written “I heart Makkoli Mondays”. Doeyeon joined us and we ate some more pajeon and grilled fish. Then Tony brought out some spicy chicken feet. Somehow we had never tried chicken feet before. It was as chewy as I imagined but not bad! It was a little too spicy for me and poor Carl can’t leave food waste so he ended up eating most of it.

Drunk and full, we said bye to Tony and went to KSU area to see what was going on. Kyungsung university area used to be the place to party on the weekends but it sounds like all the foreigners stick to other areas now. It was also a Monday night so the nightclubs were quiet. We wandered a bit and then found New Tony’s! The newer makkoli bar that Tony had started and that was more popular for the college kids.

We decided to see what new Tony’s was about. They brought out free finger food of grubs, Beondegi, which are silkworm pupae. They were not good. When we looked around we saw none of the young kids eating them either. We ordered two omelet roll type things that were ok, but I’ll stick with OG Tony’s next time.

Then we went next door to a photo booth shop. Since I was here there had been an explosion in the number of shops that offer fancy photo booths. Basically you try on props and then go into a booth to take photos. No one even works there and these places are making a killing in Korea. Why didn’t I think of it. We nearly suffocated with laughter after trying on all the props and got some quality photos.

We had stayed up past our bedtime again and it was time to go home.

Tuesday, June 21

We woke up feeling awful but we had made plans to meet up with one of my former Korean co-teachers, Elia. So we rallied. She picked us up from our Airbnb around 10am and drove us over to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. I had taken my parents to this temple when they visited and nearly killed them by forcing them to walk most of the way there. Elia offered to drive because it is not the easiest one to get to for tourists.

Most temples in Korea are located in the mountains. This one is unique because it sits right on the coast overlooking the ocean.

Elia and I caught up in the car while I tried not to distract her too much from driving. When we got to the temple we were grateful that our plans had forced us out of bed because it was a beautiful day and there weren’t that many people. We took a ton of photos and I even bought a prayer candle. I wrote a message of love and happiness, lit it, and set it with the other candles to burn out.

We hadn’t eaten yet and were feeling hungover hungry so we opted to go get lunch and asked Elia to pick the place. She chose a really nice restaurant that had a parking lot that rivaled Disneyland’s and was full of cars. We had to wait a little bit for a table but it gave us more time to catch up.

When our table was ready they brought us into a big room and it felt like we were in an old, traditional Korean house with the paper walls and wood everything. Elia ordered us the Bulgogi. The amount of banchan (sides) that came with it was absolutely ridiculous. We sat at a huge, wooden dining table and there was hardly enough space for all of it. I could nearly not fit it all into one photo. We stuffed ourselves and more. Then I was so tired I could’ve slept in the middle of the room with all the wait staff stepping on me.

Elia took us to get coffees in a fancy area by the ocean, next to the Ananti Hilton hotel. The area was very cute and we took more and more photos.

Elia had to work in the afternoon so she took us back to our Airbnb and we said goodbye for now. Although we were pretty tired, the weather was nice and we still had a lot of daylight left so we rallied again to go to Nampo and Jagalchi area.

We started by going to the Busan Tower which they now call the Diamond tower. It used to be you take the escalator to the park, elevator to the top, look around and that’s it. This time there was more happening in the tower including a QR code game. We played along and won a nice pen and a shot glass! The views from the top of the tower were great and there were art exhibits that was fun for more photo opps.

Then we walked down the hill to Nampo. I used to love going to Nampo by myself and getting lost in the weird food markets. There’s also a good amount of street food here so I tried to get Carl to work up a hunger again so he could try some. We strolled through the markets and bought some rice cakes.

Then it was on to Jagalchi Fish Market. I also loved coming here because of all the crazy fish and sea creatures that they keep alive in little seawater filled tubs until it’s time to eat. We walked down the main alleyway to see what they had. One woman flagged us down and gave us her card when we said we aren’t hungry. But just as we started to walk away I noticed they sold sea penis. I asked her for one order and she laughed in my face. When she realized I was serious she asked for here or take away.

We decided to eat there because eating sea penis is enough of a trauma in itself, we needed to have good seating. I had tried it before while walking the coast along Igidae and remembered it was the weirdest thing I’ve eaten in my whole life.

She chopped it up and removed the insides before serving it to us. The chopped up pieces were still wriggling. Carl put a piece in his mouth and chewed. Very cartilage-y. To his credit, he ate most of it, despite the pieces still moving the whole time.

I’d say nothing could top that weird seafood wise so we looped around and went through one of the hawker buildings before heading back to Nampo.

We found a food cart near the Busan International Film Festival Area. We weren’t hungry, but felt the need to get street food so we ordered some fish sticks. She served us little cups of broth again. We had just enough cash so we got some tteok-bokki too. Fully satisfied and quite exhausted, we finally headed home.

Wednesday, June 22

Another good weather day meant another day of not sleeping in. We met Karen in Mipo at about 10 and got tickets to do the Sky Capsule. This thing, and the park it sits in, is all new since I was here so finally a first time experience!

The Sky Capsule is a rail track that goes from the north end of Haeundae (Mipo) around the bluff and up the coast toward Songjeong Beach. There are about a dozen, little, rail cars that seat four people and ride independently along the track making for a perfect cutesy photo opp. We had read the cars move slowly and it was true. We watched as an older Korean hiker walking on the path below overtook us and then passed us out of view ahead. Still, the ocean and the forest were beautiful.

At the stopping point there is a little town that spills down the mountain to the shore. Karen found the CUTEST cafe called Rooftop Cafe. We ordered coffees and a lemon cake and just stared at the ocean for a bit.

Then we noticed a sky walk up the coast so we went to check it out (another new activity). There’s no fee and they give you little soft booties to put over your shoes so you don’t streak the glass. The whole thing is still under construction. They plan to make it one big loop, with more glass floor to stand on. We were able to walk out to about the halfway point and there was enough glass that it was exhilarating. I snuck up on Carl while he was standing on the glass and scared him good.

From here we decided to walk to Songjeong Beach and find something to eat. I was holding my phone up to all the restaurant signs trying to translate them. It was like ‘country of re-enactment’ all over again but funnier. So we decided to randomly pick a restaurant.

We ended up choosing a spicy octopus restaurant. We had just decided to stop eating octopus because they are too smart and don’t even taste that good. The restaurant literally served nothing but spicy octopus but we were tired and hungry so we said this would be our last octopus meal. We got a big seafood pancake (like pajeon) that came with a vinegar dipping sauce. It was really good and unfortunately the octopus was cooked well so it actually did taste good.

We went to the beach and marveled at all the surfers! It ended up being a sunny but windy day and there were tons of people out. We found a cafe that served beers and we sat on the porch and watched the hoard of beginner surfers run into each other whenever someone caught a tiny wave.

Then we walked along the northern bluff out to a pagoda. At the point the wind was so strong it could knock you over. It was crazy!

From here we decided to walk back and take Dalmaji road back to Haeundae Beach. I remember walking Dalmaji road with my parents and telling them “just a bit further now”. Their trip had been in July and it was already so humid in June- I don’t know how we did it. Sorry for death marching you, ma and pa.

There are great ocean and forest views along Dalmaji road and then we dove back down toward the beach. We decided to get the subway back and rest a little.

Later we met up with Karen on Gwangalli beach and then went to Gorilla brewing. Some of our Irish friends that taught in Korea helped to found Gorilla and they kept telling us to go try it. We liked the beers a lot but they didn’t have much veggie food for Karen. Also, we would’ve bought a sweatshirt but there was nothing on it to indicate that the brewery is in Korea. Still, they had actual delicious IPAs and, if it had existed when I lived there before, it would not have been good for me.

For dinner Carl and I went to a Korean fried chicken and beer place. We sat at the window bar and people watched as we ate a tower of nicely fried chicken and shared a pitcher of light beer. We spotted a couple of our friends from the other night and waved. They were going out to drink on the beach before the weather forecast turned bad for ten days. We went home, looking forward to cloudy days to give us an excuse to take it easy.

Thursday, June 23

The forecast said it would be windy during the day and the rain would start in the afternoon and last for many days. So we figured it was our last chance to try to hike.

We went to Beomeosa Temple and figured if the rain started early, we would at least have seen the temple. Beomeosa sits on the northern edge of the city and is one of the most famous temples in Busan. I had been to this temple a few times before and it was usually packed with people. But; on a rainy weekday, we were nearly the only ones there.

We walked around and admired the architecture and paintings while listening to the monks chant. The low hanging fog gave the temple a cool, spooky vibe but also meant we would probably see nothing when we hiked up the mountain behind the temple.

It wasn’t really raining yet, and we had the energy so we decided to go up. I had done this hike once before with a coworker and the trail had taken longer than we’d expected and then the cable car at the end had been closed so we had to -unplanned- walk the whole highway way down.

This time we went up the right side of the temple and came down under the North Gate- avoiding the probably closed cable car altogether. We had some issues finding the trail but, like the other hike we had done, there were about a million trails to choose from.

The fog was even thicker in the forest and there was no one else around. It was just like hiking in the Pacific Northwest. We even saw a big frog!

As we neared the peak we saw a sign directing us down a path to see the 12m tall carved Buddha in a rock. We figured we weren’t going to see a view from the peak anyways, so we went to see the Buddha. It was much further than the sign had suggested. We hiked up and then far down the other side.

This little venture also made us realize that we had been protected from the weather by hiking up the southwest side of the mountain. When we cross over to the northeast side we started to get blasted by rain sprinkles that seemed to come from every direction. Finally we spotted it- a Buddha face carved high up on a big rock. It was so foggy you almost couldn’t see it. We bowed a few times and then climbed back over the hill to the dry side.

From here we headed toward the peak. At the very top there were multiple wooden platforms with sets of stairs. Then there was a metal spiral staircase! We held on to the handrail, afraid of slipping and falling to our deaths. Somehow there was a group of men at the top. We hadn’t seen or heard them the whole way up, so maybe they went a different way or we were always just right behind. We all looked at each other and laughed because of how ridiculous it was to be on the top of a mountain, surrounded by a big wet cloud. Carl and I took a picture next to the peak sign and then hurried off, to walk down the other direction.

We walked down toward the North Gate, a gate that is part of an old fortress wall. As we approached, the gate appeared out of the fog and we heard a man laughing. Turns out there was a guy sitting in the gate, eating his snacks. Carl went up to get a picture while I stayed below.

I heard Carl say hello to the man, laugh, say ‘camsamnida!’ (Thank you), laugh again, say good bye, laugh…finally I said “what’s going on up there??!” When I didn’t get a response I followed him up. Carl was standing next to the guy and they were both eating some type of melon. Carl said the guy was waving a knife at him and then indicated he wanted Carl to cut the fruit and eat it. When I joined the man also gave us some coffee candies and chocolate. I’ve heard other people have similar snack-sharing experiences on hikes in Korea so we offered him our rice triangle and he seemed happy to receive it.

The hike down was rocky, but gradual. We made it back to Beomeosa temple and found the bus stop. We had just enough time to eat a melon popsicle before the bus came, all the while the sky was threatening to rain but never did.

We went back to the Airbnb and rested before going out for bbq at Seorae one more time. We thought about trying a new place but the reviews on google for Seorae were so good and it is hard to search for restaurant names when everything is in Korean. So we went back, and were happy we did so. We felt like we finally knew what we were doing this time. Carl cooked the meat perfectly and I was in charge of keeping the beer and soju flowing.

Afterward we went back to HQ for trivia night! This time Tim joined our team and also our friend Nav joined late so we finally had our team of five. There were fewer people playing and still we didn’t do as well. We started off well but lost a lot to true or false questions. For the final questions we competed amongst our teammates and loser had to buy winner a beer. Well I don’t think Nav was even listening and Carl got the most right (of course) but Nav ended up buying a round which started a vicious cycle of buying the next round. Again, we drank too much, closed out the bar, and then ran home in a crazy rain/wind storm.

Just before we got home we realized we had the drunchies. So we went to 7-11 and got some rice triangles. We went to our Airbnb and ate our snacks but then realized we wanted more AND that we should buy the little hangover prevention drinks that Doeyeon had bought for us the last time we were out.

When we went back to 7-11 the guy seemed to be amused by us. He made us get three hangover prevention drinks (it was buy 2 get 1) and then he gave us some free spicy chicken skewers. He knew we needed his help. I’m not sure the drinks worked as well as they did before, but we we were happy to have all the help we could get.

Friday, June 24

We finally had a good sleep in. In the afternoon I went to get some lunch with Karen. We went to the location where a place we loved called Burger and Pasta used to be. It’s now a New York Burger and their menu was (unfortunately for Karen) mostly meaty burgers. I got one and it was therapeutic. Karen got cheesy fries and a shake that looked pretty good. All was well.

When I walked back along the beach to the Airbnb the sun started to come out and the beach was beautiful. I got so nostalgic for Busan, I almost cried. But in my hungover state I was already too ugly by Korean standards, so I held it in, for now.

Later that day Carl and I met up with Karen and Doeyeon to go to Busan X the Sky, the second tallest tower in Korea. Doeyeon somehow got us a discount and arranged buying the tickets for us (what would we do without her?)

We went up just before sunset so we got to see the city in both daylight and when the night lights came out. It was still a little cloudy but we could see the Gwangalli bridge and tall buildings in the distance.

Afterward we decided to get dinner and our friend Tim K joined us. Doeyeon picked the place- one she had been to before. We followed her, snaking through some back alleys of Haeundae beach to get there.

The place was a seafood place and Doeyeon ordered us a seafood broil. She also did all the cooking. It had clams, crab, some sort of sea mushroom?, seaweed and who knows what else but it tasted very good. We also got some bibimbap (rice bowls) and toward the end of the meals she ordered noodles that we put into the soup to soak up the rest of the yummy broth. It was so good. We wouldn’t have been able to order it without Doeyeon helping us every step of the way.

Tim was excited because it was Friday and he didn’t have to work on Saturday. Carl, Karen and I were still tired from the night before and Doeyeon did have to work on Saturday so when Tim suggested we go to Thursday Party for some foosball we weren’t so eager. We said we would go for one beer and one game and this seemed to appease him.

Of course, whenever you say “just one” it’s never just one. But Carl and I were exhausted and I needed to flex some self control so after one beer and a couple of foosball games I said it was time to go. Just at that moment Namkyeon arrived. Doeyeon had texted her and told her to come join us playing foosball. She was so mad that we were about to leave. I debated staying but, if we didn’t leave then I worried we never would. So we disappointed Namkyeon and all the others and Carl and I left.

It was especially weird saying goodbye to Karen after so many months traveling together. I know we will meet up again somewhere in the world, but it feels strange to not know where or how long in the future that will be. My grandpa used to say to Karen and I that our friendship is a symbol of world peace.

If only he could’ve seen the group of us, drunk and playing foosball in Korea again he would’ve laughed and said something like, “if only world leaders could be friends like you guys are…” But for world peace’s sake, I hope global leaders stay away from Haeundae’s Thursday Party.

Thursday, June 16

Nine years ago I came to Busan, South Korea to teach English for almost one year. I loved living in Busan. I love the food, the hiking, the beaches, the cutesy Asian culture, the temples, and especially the incredibly nice people. But, I hated my job. I worked at a private school that was more interested in making a profit than it was in the wellbeing of the students or the teachers. I have many a funny horror story from this school. I decided to leave early and break my work contract. Foreign teachers in Korea call this a midnight run. I was not the first from this school to do this, which shows how toxic it was.

When I left I technically violated my work visa. For the last nine years I’ve wondered if they would let me back into the country or if I’d be flagged somehow. Or, if I managed to get through, whether they’d alert the old school manager and she’d be waiting for me at the airport ready to wring my neck.

So, when we made it through Jeju immigration I was extra stressed. But we met the COVID requirements and nothing was said about my former teacher status. As we hung out in Jeju I wondered whether anything could go wrong when we went to the mainland, to Busan.

Well, sure enough, there was passport control at the Jeju airport. I watched Carl breeze through the automated stall and get his photo taken. Mine flashed red and I was told to see the attendant at the desk. My heart started pounding.

She asked for my passport and my ID card. I looked at her, confused because my passport is my ID. Then I realized she was asking for my old ARC card that was given to me when I was a teacher. Back then, the ARC was needed to do anything like get a bank account, a phone number, rent bicycles, etc. I have no idea where this card is but I’m guessing I didn’t give it back to the South Korean government when I left because, well, I didn’t want to advertise that I was leaving.

Perhaps luckily, her English wasn’t great. I tried to hand motion that I used to be a teacher but no more. She gave me a face like “I don’t get paid enough for this” and let me through.

Korea’s current COVID entry requirements are proof of vaccination, test before arrival and a test within three days of arrival. We doubted that the Korean government was really tracking whether we got the test after arrival but we wanted to play by the rules so we went ahead and scheduled one for our first day in Busan.

We got a taxi from the airport to the COVID testing center. They were very efficient and there were few people there so they breezed us right in. The woman that administered the test was outside, in a little glass room that had gloves arms sticking out of it. I couldn’t help but think of bubble boy.

I watched as Karen flinched away as the woman dig deep into her skull with a q-tip. Another staff person came up from behind Karen and held her head in place so the bubble lady could jab her. It was horrifying. For my turn they didn’t hold my head but I flinched and the lady jabbed the q-tip so hard that I felt something pop. It hurt so bad.

When I entered back into the room where Carl and Karen were waiting we were all holding our noses with tears welling in our eyes. My face still really hurt. Then Karen looked at me wide-eyed and said “your nose is bleeding”. I freaked out and ran to the bathroom. Sure enough, it was like I had a runny nose but it was blood. It was awful!

As I cleaned myself up and looked for a new mask one of the staff people came in to see how I was. I pulled the tissue away from my face just as she walked in and I think I freaked her out. She came back with a handful of free masks and seemed to gesture ‘are you ok??’

We got in a cab toward the beach and my nose kept hurting but the bleeding stopped. All of a sudden there was commotion ahead of us. We saw that a taxi had hit a motorcyclist and the motorcyclist was trying to get the taxi to pull over.

Then we realized our taxi man was trying to get involved in the situation. We thought our taxi driver was trying to block the other one so that the motorcyclist could get his information. We joined in on the gesturing and shouting saying “ya pull over!”

Then we realized we were on the wrong side. Our taxi driver was trying to block out the motorcyclist to let his taxi friend get away. We were mortified that we had been shouting and gesturing and the poor motorcyclist thought we were on team taxi. Before we could see what happened, our taxi drove away from the situation.

We still had a few hours to spare before our Airbnbs would let us check in. We decided to head to the beach where we are staying and get some lunch while we waited.

Gwangalli beach used to be THE place to hang out. Day or night we would go to the beach, admire the bridge, and then go drinking at one of the many western bars. These days none of the bars we used to go to are still there. So we went to a place called Mad Dogs and got some fried chicken and beer.

We finally checked into our Airbnb and dropped our stuff. It was so cute! There was a loft area for the bed and so much storage space. Even the refrigerator blended into the white cabinets below the stairs.

We headed down to the beach for some reminiscing time. The weather was perfect. Warm but breezy. We took tons of photos with the lovable bridge and sat on the beach for a bit.

For dinner Carl and I tried out a place near our Airbnb. We reasoned that we couldn’t eat barbecue every night, so we would need to try some other Korean restaurants. This place looked like a no frills diner with pictures on the walls of rice bowls and soup.

Once we went inside we realized the menu was totally in Korean and there were no photos indicating what things are. I used the camera function on google translate to try to translate to English. The translation seemed wrong. One of the dishes was translating to ‘acupuncture’ and another was ‘country of re-enactment’. I gave up on translating and pointed to the least expensive one and one of the middle priced ones. The waiter seemed fine with this.

They brought us cold barley tea that I loved. Then they brought out bibimbap – a rice bowl with lots of veggies on top, and another entre that looked like a pile of cabbage topped with crushed peanuts and dried fish. They served us banchan (side dishes) and soup. The soup was awful. It was a clear broth with a bunch of pieces of some kind of seafood. They were like clams but small and round like little fish eyes. The main cabbage dish wasn’t great either so I ordered us some makkoli, a rice wine, to help wash it all down. The makkoli and the kimchi were the best parts of the meal.

We had already been tired from travel and I think the emotional weight of a bad meal completely exhausted us. Carl went back to the Airbnb to do laundry and go to bed. I decided to not be a flaky croissant and met up with Karen.

We walked along the beach and over to an area where there is a luscious flower garden. There were tons of sunflowers and flower arches. It was pretty to see the colorful flowers with the bright city lights glimmering behind.

We decided to pop into HQ, a western bar on Gwangalli beach. It definitely wasn’t the same as Beached, the bar that used to be the go to for foreigners, but it was just as good. The beers now have more hops in them, at least.

Right as we entered the bartender announced that trivia was starting. We love trivia! I was sad Carl was missing it, but we played on in his honor. An English teacher was hosting and she treated us like rowdy students saying things like, “if you don’t like it, you can host”.

We recognized a friend from when we were here before, Tim. He already had a team of 5. Karen recognized someone else that I hadn’t met, Gerry. We invited him to our team and he seemed surprised and honored. Having Gerry was a lot like having Steve. Gerry was very insistent on several answers, some of which we knew were not right. We gave him some and changed others.

Gerry proceeded to get very drunk. At one point the host paused the trivia to announce that there was a huge strawberry moon. We all ran over to the window to see this huge, red moon hanging over the glittering bridge. It was magical. Gerry stared at it too long and when he came back to our table he couldn’t see. Karen suggested he have some water, or go home and lie down. Gerry interpreted this as Karen saying he was too drunk and should go home. He did not like that. As Karen tried to help him he called her mean. While I sat by with indifference he said I was nice. He was gone.

We ended up doing pretty well – about 3rd place amongst 6 or 7 teams. We were proud considering it was basically just me and Karen and the occasional firecracker of a third teammate.

Karen walked me home and on the way we stopped and got a mint and chocolate chip donut and it was the most delicious thing. I’m still thinking about it.

Friday, June 17

For our first full day in Busan we thought it would be proper to go back to where we used to live and work and take a stroll down memory lane.

We started the day by a trip to the top of Aqua Palace, a fancy hotel on Gwangalli. We got the code from the front desk and went up to the viewpoint on the 30th floor. We had the place to ourselves and the weather was perfect. One side of the terrace has a skywalk platform where you can walk out over where the pool is and there’s a glass floor to see through allll the way down.

Then we got a bus to Mangmi Jugong, our old work. We used to work for a private English school called Kids Club. We taught every age from about teeny little 5 year olds all the way to teenagers. Sometimes they’d ask us to teach kids from the kindergarten on the first floor who had absolutely no English. The kindergarten was still there but Kids Club had since closed. We were able to go inside and see the cutesy artwork still on the hallway walls. Outside, the school’s sign was still hanging up but it was worn and dirty looking.

We quickly walked up to a park where I used to take my breaks- walking around a small circular path over and over. Then we went back down the hill. Our favorite cafes were gone but somehow there was still a place called Pizza School that made weird, slightly awful pizza. We got some kimbap – Korean sushi – from a cafe and kept moving.

We got the bus toward our old apartments. I didn’t recognize the steep driveway down to our building, but luckily Karen did. We went into the hallway and up onto to the third floor rooftop. The apartment building kind of smelled like dust and cigarette smoke but there was also a hint of something I couldn’t name that just reminded me of living there 9 years ago.

We crossed the street and went to Homeplus, a grocery + everything store. Besides getting groceries here I would sometimes just walk around and look at all the stuff. There is a whole pet section that has fish, hamsters, and sometimes other weird things like ferrets and I used to go and stare at the animals as a kind of free zoo on rainy days.

Then we went to Daiso, a fancy dollar store. There didn’t used to be one so close to us (probably for the best) but we used to go to one near the subway so it fit under the category of nostalgia shopping. We walked to Yeonsan metro station – our old home base and I realized we used to live right in the middle of the city.

On the way we stopped to get some street food. Carl and I shared some tteok-bokki, finger sized rice cakes covered in a spicy red sauce. Busan is apparently known for their fish sticks so the tteok-bokki came with some pieces of fish stick and a side of fish stick broth. It sounds kinda gross but it’s basically like chicken noodle soup, except fish.

We journeyed back to our Airbnb to rest for a bit before heading out to dinner.

Carl and I reasoned it had been over 24 hours since we had barbecue so we were due. We went to a place called Seorae, which is located just one block inland along the main drag that connects the beach to the subway station exits. Nine years ago our group of friends would go to Seorae about every other week or so.

It was fun to reminisce here and even better, the food was still amazing. They (mostly) let us cook our own meat. We got marinated short pork rib (galbi), spicy pork skirt, and pork belly. When I took my first bite of galbi, I started to tear up. We had some meat shots (soju shot followed by a grilled meat chaser) and wraps where we fill a piece of lettuce with meat, rice, gochujang (thick hot sauce), and pickled onions. We washed the whole meal down with Hite, a Korean beer, and felt great.

We walked home along the beach. The bridge has a light show every hour that we watched. There are also a few art exhibits like some swings that light up. For a bit we watched a magician who played with fire and put his entire body into a balloon. There was also some sort of Korean singing competition being filmed, with various singers doing bits flanked by dancers. Korea was just as great as I had remembered.

Saturday, June 18

Our main plan for the day was to go to a baseball game. I never made it to a Korean baseball game before but had heard they are more exciting than American games. First, there were cheerleaders. When our team was up to bat, everyone in the bleachers stood up and the cheerleaders would lead them in choreographed dance and song.

We found out too late that you’re allowed to bring food and beer into the stadium. We felt silly that we didn’t bring our own beer but then the stadium’s beer was actually really cheap.

The teams themselves didn’t seem that good and we realized we had gotten tickets for the wrong side (Busan Lotte Giants vs. Seoul Incheon Landers) but it didn’t matter. We met up with a few other people I had known from before: Tim K., who kindly organized buying all the tickets, Doeyeon, a Korean teacher who used to work at my school and has since opened up her own classes, and also JJ (and his wife), Nav, and Brian. There were some new faces for me: Namkyeon, Tony Vu, and Nav’s girlfriend and his 2 friends from school. I don’t even know which team won, but we had a great time.

Afterward we went to Haeundae Beach to go bar hopping. We started in Thursday Party, an old time favorite. This place used to have free popcorn that we would devour, but no more. Now it’s $3 a bowl! We got some anyways, for memories sake. Some of our group went next door to eat and joined us later. When they walked in they also didn’t know the popcorn was now paid for and started going to town. Karen was shouting, “you have to pay for it now, ya know!”

We played many rounds of foosball and got to know Allan, Nav’s coworker, who taught in China for several years but was able to leave during COVID.

Then we went on to the Irish pub, the Wolfhound. This is where I had first met the big group of Irish friends back in the day, and the place was exactly the same. There was a foreigner rugby team in town. They were all dressed as pirates and were filling the bar. We also met some foreigners that lived in Seoul and were in Busan for the long weekend. We played beer pong and darts until we nearly closed out the place.

So we moved on to Noraebang, Korean karaoke. We went into the basement and were given the VIP room because we had so many people. Somehow we figured out how to use the remote that was all in Korean and we picked songs from a massive song book. Memories are fuzzy from this point on but all I know is that the next day my wrists and ankles hurt from such aggressive dance moves. Several videos were taken but I think it’s still too soon to watch or share them.

After two rounds of Norae we went back to Thursday Party to watch them close and play one last foosball game. When we finally went out to find a cab, the sky was lightening and the sun was coming up. It took us forever to get a cab but we finally got one back to our Airbnbs and passed out.

Sunday, June 19

We were proud of ourselves for getting out of bed and meeting Karen for brunch at a reasonable hour. We went to a place in Suyeong that Karen had found. We ended up ordering a crunch wrap supreme and some Japanese noodles. How international.

We felt queasy and exhausted but it was a beautiful day out so we forced ourselves to the beach. We went to Haeundae, the same beach we had partied at the night before. The water was absolutely freezing but Carl and Karen found the courage to go in. I refrained and just sat, frowning on the beach.

For linner we went back to the Wolfhound. I guess their menu had changed and Karen had a hard time finding something vegetarian. She ended up creating a custom burger where she substituted the meat patty with two hashbrowns. The Korean wait staff thought she was nuts but I think she is onto the next big thing. Carl and I got chicken tendies and they were restorative.

By the time we got back to Gwangalli it was near our bedtime. Although we didn’t accomplish much while the sun was out, we were proud we did as much as we had.

Wednesday, June 15

To get from Singapore to Busan we found that the cheapest option was actually a flight with a 25 hour layover on Jeju Island. We had wanted to go to Jeju anyway (I never went before when I lived in Korea) so we booked it. We thought maybe the flight was cheaper because it was overnight and a long layover but turns out it was because it was the first time Scoot airlines was flying direct from Singapore to Jeju.

We took off from Singapore at about 1:30am. Just seconds after the plane’s wheels had left the ground the right side of the plane dropped. My first thought was, “I forgot to tell my mom I’m flying to Korea today!” Wondering if we were about to die, Karen and I just looked at each other and didn’t say anything. The plane immediately corrected itself and we were ascending again. It only lasted for a few seconds but it was so terrifying. The way the plane had dipped it was like the pilot had dropped their iced coffee and had reached down to get it, accidentally steering right. Then they came over the intercom and announced that it was Scoot’s first flight to Jeju. We asked aloud whether it was the pilot’s first flight EVER.

We started to prepare ourselves to sleep but Karen noticed the stewards were all hustling about over something. We wondered whether the dip was a symptom of a larger problem…Then the curtains flew open and the stewards announced that they were holding a raffle to give away prizes as a way to celebrate the inaugural flight.

Remember, at this point it is nearly 2am, and anyone that was paying attention during take off thinks they just had a near-death experience. So while six overly-energetic, squeaky-voiced, smiling staff said ‘good morning ladies and gentlemen- we have prizes!’ we stared at them in disbelief. Then they announced that they would give out free round trip tickets to any Scoot airlines destination. We had no idea where Scoot flies to, but we perked up and paid attention.

They started by drawing seat numbers out of a bucket. They would say, “18A congrats!” and then run back to see who was sitting there. The first half dozen numbers they pulled were duds because either the seat was empty or there was a minor sitting there. So they kept calling numbers. We could tell the head steward was starting to get annoyed as she had to keep drawing over and over only to confirm that, again, no one had won yet.

We wondered how long it would go on for. Then they called the seat RIGHT behind me. “4E! Congratulations!!” There were three men sitting behind us and they were all completely passed out asleep. We turned around to watch as the steward violently poked the middle guy awake. He opened his bloodshot eyes and looked around in a kind of dazed terror as all the staff loomed over his head shouting, “congratulations!!”

When he finally realized they were waking him up for a good reason (not, wake up we are crashing!!) he smiled. They asked to see his boarding pass to confirm his seat number. He was still half-awake, bleary-eyed and probably thought he was dreaming as he fumbled through all his stuff to find his boarding pass. When he held it up for them, the mood changed. The man sitting in 4E, the middle seat, had a boarding pass saying 4F.

So then they woke up the guy sitting at the window. They aggressively jostled him awake to tell him he won!! as the guy sitting in the middle seat came to the slow realization that he was not actually the winner. The poor guy. First, he doesn’t even get the window seat that he was supposed to have, then he gets rudely awoken from a deep sleep, and then is immediately told he lost a game he didn’t even know he was playing. We watched the whole roller coaster of emotion play out in front of our eyes. Being so tired ourselves we nearly died crying with laughter.

Because we were so close to the front, the stewards saw us smiling and laughing and they laughed along with us. Then they passed out Scoot signs and had us take pictures for Scoot’s Instagram. Our hands and hair made it into the chosen photos, and they looked good.

Then they gave away more prizes to people that answered trivia questions correctly. The questions were easy but the steward didn’t see our hands up so we won nothing. Finally they wrapped up the games and we were relieved to be able to sleep. Then they said “food service time!!” It was past 3am and near halfway through the flight already. But, the food was only for those who had ordered it so, we put eye masks on and slept.

The South Korean COVID requirements and immigration was surprisingly easy. They asked for our negative COVID test results and scanned a QR code from an application we had to fill out. That was it. When we exited the airport there was a big crowd gathered to greet us. There were huge cameras with flashes attached and a large TV camera rolling. They handed us a bag of goodies and yelled, “Welcome to Jeju!” We realized it was a Scoot-sponsored event and they were keeping the inaugural flight celebrations going. We wondered if anyone knew why the plane had dipped.

The rest of our time in Jeju was no where near as eventful as the flight to get to it. When we showed up to the hotel they said the room wasn’t ready until 3. So we left our bags and went for a stroll.

We walked by a row of seafood restaurants that had all their fresh, still kickin’, sea creatures in aquariums out front. One woman gave me her business card and I gestured that we would come back later.

We walked out onto the pier and saw several people fishing and a few in wetsuits that looked like they were getting ready to dive. In South Korea the female divers of Jeju are famous for being the breadwinners in an otherwise patriarchal society.

An older man came down the pier riding a bicycle with a trailer on it. He said hi to us in English and we ended up talking to him a little bit as he set up a chair and table at the end of the pier. We tried to ask “what are you doing?” and he said he was setting up to eat barbecue later. “At 7pm! Party! Bbq!” We said we’d stop by later and see what he was up to.

We found a cutesie cafe with good WiFi to spend some time in while we waited to check in. We got so used to there being some English written everywhere that Korea was actually a mini culture shock again as we realized we would have to go back to miming and pointing at things. Carl pointed at a sandwich he wanted and later the guy brought him the wrong one. It ended up being tasty, so it wasn’t a big deal.

We finally could check in. We dropped our stuff off and set out to go see something in Jeju. We had wanted to go to Loveland, the honeymooner’s park that is full of erotic statues, but read that it was closed for renovations. So instead we got a taxi to the nearest, nicest beach. We decided to go to Hamdeok Beach.

We got a rice triangle as a snack and then walked along the mountain on the east side of the beach. We must’ve not been on a proper trail because it abruptly stopped as soon as we rounded the hill and found ourselves standing on a pile of black volcanic rock that spilled into the ocean. We doubled back and found a trail that wound through an area of low lying trees until this also abruptly ended. So we turned around for good and went back to the beach.

I wanted to put my feet in the water so we climbed over a berm of rock to get to the tide. The water was ICY cold. There were a lot of people swimming in the ocean and once I felt the water, I couldn’t believe it. I guess we got spoiled in our recent diving and beach trips. As we walked back to the main drag, Carl and I took different paths. I waded through the water but he still had his boots on so hopped over rocks.

I thought I overheard him talking to someone but when I looked, I didn’t see him. Turns out he had fallen and let out a deep “GAH” as he fell onto the rocks, into the water. He only got a little wet and nothing really hurt except his pride. His damp clothes didn’t even put a damper in his plan to not unpack his bag at all during our 25 hour layover in Jeju.

We walked a little further along the boardwalk and then suddenly realized how exhausted we felt. It took a minute to hail a cab, but then it was a smooth ride back to our hotel.

We went straight to a barbecue place on a notable street Carl had read about. Jeju is known for its oranges and for its black pork, which is a distinct species of pig found on the island. Lucky enough there was a black pork street right next our hotel so we went to the busiest looking restaurant there.

Another unique thing about the Jeju barbecue experience is that the grill to cook the meet on is a black volcanic stone. They tilt it slightly to one side so the grease can run off. We ordered the black pork combo special and they brought out all the banchan (sides) and multiple cuts of pork.

The waiter put the meat on the grill for us and got upset when we started moving it around so we let it be. Then a woman who seemed to be the manager stopped by and essentially took over in cooking the meat the rest of the way for us. We would’ve felt like loser foreigners except we looked around to see they were helping other tables cook too.

Satisfied with our meal and our Jeju experience, we went back to the hotel and I packed my bag (again!!) and Karen helped me dye my hair pink while Carl fell asleep watching a movie on tv.

Saturday, June 11

We landed in Singapore just before 9am. We had heard great things about Singapore and it’s efficient airport. We were therefore not impressed with the arrivals hall that had 7 different lines to go through immigration. But, we were in no rush because the hostel we had booked said they wouldn’t let us check in early so we were killing time where we could.

After we were granted entry to the country we decided to go see the attractions at the airport to use some more time. Also, some of the ‘must see’ things are actually in the airport. Once you leave the official arrivals/departures area the huge airport is like a big mall. The main event to see is the worlds largest indoor waterfall. We found it but the bottom part wasn’t flowing. We found an area above it that was called a rain vortex and took some photos there.

We went to the food court to get some food. There were only two options that had coffee-like beverages and the lines for those places were out the door. So we just got some weird pastries – something with hot dog, something with red bean. The free airport wifi was 10x faster than any WiFi in Australia had been. It was so nice to be able to catch up on blog postings and book some flights for the next stages of our trip.

Finally we had killed enough time so we headed out. We stopped by the waterfall again for a peek. They were holding an event there so we were about to turn away. Then a woman invited us to join. As part of the country’s fitness promotion program in June they were offering free fitness classes in locations around the city.

She asked us if we wanted to join the free Zumba class next to the waterfall. Had we felt like humans we would’ve joined, but we felt sick with exhaustion. With bags under our eyes, headaches forming, and heavy bags on our shoulders, we politely declined.

We got a taxi from the airport to our hostel and went inside to check in. The location of the hostel, Cozy Corner Backpackers Guesthouse, was perfect. But the place did not live up to the pictures on Booking.com. We later found out that several Malaysian families were living there after being stuck in Singapore during COVID and then deciding they liked staying there.

There were shared showers and bathrooms with no toilet paper (each room was allocated one roll). The bathrooms were cleaned regularly but that meant that they were always soaking wet and one time I almost slipped in. There was an oven on the roof terrace, but no refrigerator. At night we heard rustling noises that were likely rats and by day it was constant construction sounds like a guy hitting a metal can with a metal stick. Again, location was unbeatable but the place was in rough shape.

We took a nap for a couple of hours. We had to force ourselves to get up and go see some city before the day was over. We walked to the nearest hawker food center. In Singapore everything is expensive but there are many outdoor food courts called hawker centers that have different food stalls that sell goood food for cheap.

We got pork with dry noodles and a fried carrot cake. The pork was breaded in something absolutely heavenly. The noodles were crunchy and chewy. And we discovered an umami sauce at the bottom of the bowl. It was the best meal we’d had since the Philippines and it cost about $3 US dollars.

The fried carrot cake (chai tow kway) was an impulse buy and it was the most unexpected food of my life. First, by ‘carrot’ they meant white daikon radish and by ‘cake’ they meant omelette. You can order it white or black (with sauce) so I ordered the mixed plate so we could try both. The radish was soft, like soft squishy tofu and the seasoning was really nice. I think we preferred the white cake better, but both far exceeded our expectations.

Then we went to explore the city on foot. We found a craft beer bar and stopped in for a drink but then nearly spat out our beers when we saw how much they cost. For two small pints we spent $25 Singapore dollars, about $18 US Dollars. Given the county’s extremely strict drug policies and the heinously expensive alcohol we realized it was going to be a mostly sober couple of days and we’d have to just be high on life (and light shows).

We walked over to the ‘Chinatown’ area. It wasn’t much of a Chinatown, more like Little Midtown Manhattan, but there were some restaurants and temples. Singapore is chock full of photo spots. On our walk we passed giant shiny globes, a historic pedestrian bridge, buildings with trees growing out of their terraces, a dynamic paper light exhibit, and a skyscraper atrium that had legs like white mangrove roots with little pink lanterns strewn about.

Then it was on to the classic photo op place: Marina Bay. Everything was lit up with vibrant purple lights. The sky was a little cloudy but we could see that the moon was nearly full. The fancy hotel, Sands was all lit up and stood nearly directly across from the famous Merlion statue, which was also lit up purple. Singapore is like Disneyland.

We walked around the bay and then met with Karen to watch the water and light show but our viewpoint wasn’t great so we decided we’d need to go back for another showing. To walk home we wove through a series of malls and pedestrian cross overs until we finally made it to Cozy Corner.

Sunday, June 12

Singapore also reminded us of DC. As it was Sunday, we decided we must go out to brunch. We walked through the Muslim Quarter to a place called Tolido’s Espresso Nook. The place was busy and it was about a half hour wait to get a table (better than DC).

I ordered an iced pumpkin spiced latte and it was so delicious that I was glad to be already seated because I went weak in the knees. For food we got Pandan (a type of leaf) pancakes with coconut ice cream and maple syrup and a plate of shashuka. The pancakes were great, and the shashuka was ok but the bread was the best part.

After brunch we walked back through the Muslim Quarter again. It was so cool to see the mix of the old, Islamic buildings -like the mosque with the golden turrets- squished in between exquisitely modern high rises. We found a pedestrian alley and walked down, checking out the cutesy shops and the colorful murals.

Then we made our way over to Marina Bay again and popped over to Gardens by the Bay. This park has all the major Singapore icons like the indoor cloud forest with huge waterfall and the Supertree Grove: a grove of massive trees that are made out of bright purple metal, winding plants, and lights.

On our way into the park we stopped by a xylophone garden- an interactive grove full of xylophones of different shapes and sizes- and played around for a bit. Then as we tried to take a photo in some statue near the entrance a group of women came up and asked to be in the photo with us. This happened to us before in India but we were surprised to be the token white people in Singapore which is so diverse and full of all nationalities. We obliged and took tons of photos with them and it was hilarious because they kept asking for more photos and adding more people into them.

We started in the cloud forest and were really impressed with the layout and how cool it was inside. They were very strict about mask wearing so, unfortunately, we had to have masks on for all our photos. We wound up, around, and down the forest, and then needed a break.

We walked over to the food court to see what they had. It was kind of like a hawker center, but more expensive. Poor Karen ordered pasta with mushrooms and it was one of the spicier things I’ve tried on the trip. She could barely eat it.

Carl and I got a bunch of barbecued chicken wings, Popiah (like a spring roll), and Rojak. Rojak is a vegetarian dish that is a mixture of fruit and vegetables tossed in spicy palm sugar dressing with crushed peanuts on top. The sauce was thick and dark and you wouldn’t know what you’d put in your mouth until you chewed, like ‘oh that was tofu’ or ‘green apple’. It was weird. More of a try to say you did dish than something I’d order again.

Satiated, we moved to the Flower Dome which is the largest greenhouse in the world. On the way we passed an area where we had seen a sign saying ‘otter crossing’. We assumed it was some sort of Disneyland style mascot but then we actually saw a group of river otters! They were playing near the river bank and rolling around in the sand like cats roll on an outdoor patio. They were so cute!

The Flower Dome was having an event theme of rose gardens in European landscapes (i.e., Tuscany, South of France). We walked slowly and looked and smelled the flowers until we had our fill. The best part was the mask-cop robot. It was near exact the same evil robot from Wall-E. This thing was two feet tall with a big lens on its face. It was going around reminding people to wear masks. We followed it around for a bit, so amused as it snuck up on people and scared them as it declared “please wear a mask at all times”. There were also human staff policing the mask wearing; it was serious business.

We then walked over to the Supertree Grove. This is a grove of about 12 huge fake trees. They are metal purple structures with big circular canopies than are covered in tons of plants and LED lights. Apparently the trees are covered in 162,000 plants of over 200 species and they perform similar functions to real trees like converting sunlight into power (solar panels) and passive air filtration.

There is a sky bridge connecting two so you can walk high above and admire there trees. There was also a light show at 7:45 that was great. All the trees light up in time to very dramatic orchestra music. It was like watching Disney’s Fantasia in real life.

To get home we walked through the Sands mall, and out next to the art and science museum before taking the double helix bridge. The whole city is like a mall / Disneyland – always a light show, always a photo opp.

Monday, June 13

We got breakfast at Toast Box. We got coffees, traditional Kaya toast (toast sandwich with honey and butter), and some sort of sweet bun. We decided to take a taxi to Sentosa Island because getting the metro + monorail would take four times as long and it was possible that the monorail would cost more than the taxi.

The driver dropped us off in an underground parking lot. It reminded me of Vegas. We went up the stairs and found ourselves in a resort courtyard – amusement parks in every direction. We walked past universal studios and the aquarium to get to Adventure Cove water park. Tickets were $36 Singapore dollars (about $26 US). It was lucky Carl read online and made a reservation because the park was sold out for the day.

We got a locker and put all our stuff in it and went to the nearest water slide. They told us to put all our belongings in a cubby but we snuck a go pro in. The first slide we did was Whirlpool something. I don’t know how Carl snuck the camera out, got a video, and put it back into his pocket. The video is absolutely terrible. But it’s amazing he captured anything at all because the slide was SO fast. It shot us down a steep tube into a whirlpool where we got turned around and then went down the next tube backwards. I was screaming so loud the whole time.

We decided to put Karen’s go pro away for a bit and focus on riding slides. We also rode the one next to whirlpool which was fun but not as fast. Then we waited in line for an hour for the best slide in the park. It was called Riptide something. Like a roller coaster, we got into a raft at the bottom and a track pulled the raft (with us in it) up to the top of an incline.

We flew down over the hill and then, at lightening speed, a track brought us back up to the top of the next hill where we shot down again. It was crazy. This repeated three more times until we shot out into the pool so fast that we flipped over, my swimsuit not fully around my parts, and a gallon of water shot up our noses. It took us a couple seconds to get re-oriented and out of the pool, holding our faces because it felt like our sinuses would explode.

We did two more water slides near Riptide and then went to the dueling racer track where we rode foam mats and raced each other down a water slide (Carl technically got to the bottom first but I went a centimeter further).

We went to the lazy river and went around the whole thing. Toward the end the river winds past the turtle and sting ray pool. We got to see so many huge rays flying right next to us, behind glass, as we floated by.

Over the loudest intercom (squid game style) it was announced that the park would be closing in 30 minutes. We floated back around and went back to our first and favorite slide. We road it twice more before closing, the last time I think the guy was being nice and letting us through. Thanks dude.

Instead of everyone leaving the park, people swarmed the bathrooms and showers. There were lines outside all the bathroom buildings because women were taking full on showers – shampoo, conditioner, everything – and then getting changed. I did a quick fresh shower and changed in a bathroom stall and then was the only person leaving the park with not perfect looking hair.

We were hungry so we walked over to a Malaysian street food court. It was like Disneyland with fake buildings and fake street signs, as if we were really eating on some street in Malaysia. We got pork with dried noodles again and it came with dumpling soup. We also got a tasty lychee drink that had little lychee jelly balls in it. The food was so good, especially considering it was in a resort food court.

We decided to try to walk back to the mainland and go from there to the light show area again. We walked over the bridge along the Sentosa boardwalk. About halfway across there was a bar that had a happy hour special. The sun was starting to go down over the water and the sky had a nice golden glow. We decided to take a break and have a 2 for 1 beer. In Singapore they call this deal a 1 for 1 which is ridiculous but they can’t be good at everything I guess.

When we walked over to the mainland we saw there was a hawker center near the bus station. We decided to pop in for one more snack. We got a roti bread that was filled with mutton and came with a spicy curry sauce. It was so good and potentially better than meals we had in India. We also ordered some satay- chicken, beef, pork, and guts- but they took a long time to cook for some reason so we ordered them to go. We realized we were running late and realized we weren’t going to make the light show. So we enjoyed most of the satay and saved some of the little rice balls, cucumbers, and potato samosas for breakfast the next day.

We went back over to the mall (and nearly got lost in it) and grabbed a taxi from there back to our hostel.

Tuesday, June 14

Our first activity of the day was an appointment at a health center to get COVID tests for our flight to Korea. We got a taxi to a hotel that had a testing center behind it. Overall the process went smoothly and they were able to print and email our negative results.

From here we walked over to Fort Canning Park. Unbeknownst to anyone not on Instagram, there is a pedestrian tunnel with a tree in this park that is a famous photo opp. We walked over to the tunnel but it was already so hot and humid. We took a break in a cafe in a YWCA which was actually a 4-star hotel.

Then we walked around and made it to the tunnel. We had to wait our turn to take photos but we got some good ones. Karen’s phone has a wide lens feature and this proved essential to capturing the perfect shot.

Even though we felt like we were melting we decided to trek over to Little India for a look. We had heard there were many colorful buildings, good food, and Indian shops. We went right to the hawker center and got the best Palak Paneer of my life. We also got a drink called Chendol Special that was a coconut milk and palm sugar drink with every kind of jelly and candy floating in it. Considering all the stuff in it, it wasn’t overly sweet. It was a perfect pair to the spicy Indian food!

Then we walked around and took photos. Walking through the small, busy streets it really was like being back in India for an hour. Afterward we went back to the hostel for a couple hours to rest and WiFi.

That evening we went to the hawker center near our hostel for a final dinner. We finally got to order Laksa – a signature Singaporean dish that is essentially a soup with coconut milk and fish paste broth. It was good, but a little too fishy for us.

Then it was time AGAIN to try to see the Sands light and water show. We walked over the double helix bridge again and realized the sun wasn’t going to set until after 7pm. So we had gotten the times wrong, the show was actually at 8pm and we had an hour to kill.

We ordered drinks from a fancy bar (Le Noir) on the boardwalk. I got a Singapore Sling just to say I had one in Singapore. It was good but I think Tiki TNT in DC made it better. Carl got a lychee martini which is always fun because they assume it’s for me.

Finally it was time for the show. We got a nice spot on the upper deck. The show was great! They used water and light to create crazy optical effects. Like spraying water to make a field of mist that they then shined lasers at to make pretty moving pictures. The music was also so dramatic like a scary scene from a Disney movie. Overall it was worth it.

We went back to the hostel to pack. Sometimes packing is easier and sometimes it’s harder, I’m never sure why. This time it was really difficult but we were able to shove everything in and get a taxi to the airport on time.

Tuesday, June 7

We arrived to Darwin in the early evening. The temperature change was so dramatic that Carl’s and Karen’s glasses fogged up as we got out of the Uber – so humid!

When I looked for places to stay in Darwin there were only two options for under $100. One was a cabin at a family camping resort and the other was a 4 bed room in a hostel. As I was looking at the options, the camp resort booked up. So Youth Shack Backpackers hostel it was. I was able to reserve 4 beds so we could have the room to ourselves. I’m not sure whether this was the best idea or if we should’ve gambled and let ourselves be separated or have a weirdo solo traveler stay with us. The place was smelly, and the people there were young and weird so I think we made good decisions.

As we stood at the counter to check in one of the staff came in from the pool area and plopped something on the desk. It was a handful of colorful dildos with pool rings around them. He brought his eyes up to meet ours and explained, “it’s for the games later”. When we stared at him blankly he added, “for cock toss”. This made us feel very mature (old) and out of place. But it was in our price range so we laughed and went with the flow.

The hostel offered free curry at 7pm followed by games (e.g., cock toss). We decided to try the curry because it was free food. Of course, poor Karen the vegetarian got the spicy pumpkin curry and she could barely eat it.

So we went next door to Shenanigans Irish pub to get her some more food. It so happens they were about to start trivia night! So we got some beers and some trivia sheets and sat down to play.

Karen and I were debating what our team name should be and Carl was at the bar ordering when a tall, disheveled man named Steve sat at our table, in Carl’s seat. He had a trivia form and looked like he was sincere in playing, so we didn’t tell him to move and just shifted over. As the trivia started we saw him struggling on his own so we offered he could join our team. The first place prize was $150. We told Steve, our token Australian, first place was one free pint and it would be his if he could help us win.

One of the first questions was what is the name of the monkey mascot for the cereal, coco puffs. Our guess was that it was probably coco so I started to write that down. Steve was insistent that the answer was coco puff. We assumed he didn’t hear correctly so we repeated the question. He was adamant, “coco puff! Coco puff!” As he yelled he seemed to have a dazed look. The three of us looked at each other and decided this guy must not be on our level or he had recently suffered a serious head injury.

Then there was a question we really needed an Australian for. They were asking about the 2021 National Rugby champion. Steve looked like he was on another planet. We asked him to name ANY rugby team. “Any team at all,” we said. He said “Darwin”. Knowing nothing about Australian rugby, we knew that wasn’t the answer. We hung our heads in sorrow that our Australian didn’t work, and hoped we could get the next question.

We had long given up on Steve when the announcer asked something like “what is the word that starts with the letter ‘L’ that means a corporation’s responsibility to pay. In between chewfulls of steak Steve mumbled “liability”. The three of us were still trying to understand the question and Steve looked at us and shrugged, “liability?” Which was definitely the answer. So he wasn’t totally brain dead after all!

Steve answered another question about a prime minister after that but, we didn’t win despite his help. We did get fourth, which we thought was pretty good, considering. We noticed that the first place winners were sitting at a table that had a plaque above it with their team name on it so, they’ve been at the game for a while.

Steve told us he worked in refrigerators and that earlier that day he had “a blew-ie”. We discovered that this meant that his clutch blew out. We asked if he was hurt because of this but he didn’t understand the question. So our best guess is he was in some kind of car accident and likely hit his head pretty hard.

We were neither proud or ashamed of our trivia ranking as we walked back, next door, to our hostel and discovered the hostel had trivia planned for the next night. Opportunity for redemption!

Wednesday, June 8

Carl and I booked a tour to Litchfield National Park for $160 per person. We had also wanted to go to Kakadu National Park but those tours were $250 per person so we had to cut that idea. If we had more time we might’ve rented a car or a camper van, but with the three of us and only there for three days, day tours were our best option.

We met the tour van outside our hostel at about 815am. When we got in the van was already full of elderly Australians. It was like our wine tour in Margaret River, and we loved it. Elderly Australians shower us with attention (so many questions about what it’s like growing up in US) but they are also well traveled, open minded people so they have plenty of similar stories themselves.

Our first stop was Berry Springs, a thermal pond area. The water wasn’t hot, but it was warmer than river water. And there were no crocs! We swam around and upstream to waterfalls before getting out to enjoy some coffee and biscuits brought by the guide, Abby.

On our way to the next site our guide pulled over on a roadside turnout. As we got out of the van we saw, looming above us, a giant termite mound that was about 13 feet tall. Abby explained that termites build mounds to protect the queen and to have a place to mate and store the young. For most mounds that we see only 1/3 of it is above the surface, with another 2/3 below the ground.

As she spoke she identified the old and new parts of the mound. Older parts have hardened whereas the newer parts are like crumbly dirt. While trying to get a photo, one of the women on the tour accidentally shoved her thumb through a fresh part. A hundred termites came pouring out and surrounding the hole, trying to quickly repair it. We were able to peek inside and see the honeycomb shaped interior structure.

The next stop was Wangi Falls. The falls were beautiful and made even prettier by the fact that there was no one swimming in the pond in the foreground. Every year following the end of the wet season the park rangers will check for crocs in the waters. They hadn’t finished checking, so the pool was closed until further notice. We hiked to the right up a trail and some stairs for a bit but there were no views of the falls.

Then it was on to Buley Rockhole. Unlike the name suggests, this area was not one hole but instead a series of swimming holes fed by a trickling creek. We started on the lower side and found some nice swimming holes and then slowly worked our way upstream in search of the perfect spot. The place was surprisingly busy and filled with every generation. It was good wholesome fun. Afterward we walked up the trail to find our guide and the rest of our tour group eating lunch at a picnic table. The tour included a pretty good chicken wrap and some candies that we all shared.

Then we went to Florence Falls. A giant metal staircase takes you down to the base of the falls where the ponds were full of people swimming. We then took a meandering trail back up the hill to the car park. The trail went through the dry, grassland type of bush that is all around Darwin but interspersed were pockets of monsoon forest, or tropical forest.

We were able to stop again on the way home to see more termite mounds. Abby pulled over to an area that had the magnetic termite mounds. These mounds are built along the earth’s magnetic fields with the thinner edges facing north and south.

These termites use a slightly darker dirt and build the mounds to about 3 feet high. The result is that a field full of these magnetic termite mounds looks just like a natural graveyard filled with dark and spooky tombstones. Scientists think the termites build mounds along magnetic lines in order to keep cool. I think it’s because they have a flair for the macabre.

It was at this stop that Abby had us try green ants. She had been talking about them all day and then she found one for us to sample. She came over to us holding a squirming ant with a bright green butt in each hand. She said to bite the butt off and chew. It was like a very sour green apple candy. It was so sour it stung my tongue.

When we got back to the hostel we prepared for the hostel’s trivia night. As we ordered drinks and sat down we felt like the parental chaperones to a high school dance. Some young girls next to us (later found out they were 18) asked if we were staying at the hostel. When we said yes they looked surprised and said they hadn’t seen us around. Not every day you get to play drinking games with your elders, I guess.

The first round was recent news stories. Many were European or Australian stories and we didn’t stand a chance. Then there was a picture round and a music round. The picture round was outlines of different countries and we crushed it. We did pretty well on the music round too considering the speaker was broken and we could barely hear. One of the last rounds was a challenge to make one person a mummy with toilet paper. I thought we did well, but we were too thorough on the top and ran out of time. All in all we came in fifth place. After the results were called we left to get some kebabs down the street.

Thursday, June 9

We met our tour bus down the street in front of an address where all the tour vans seemed to meet. There were about 10 people all shifting their feet, most of them were waiting to go to Kakadu for the day (and we were mildly jealous).

The van showed up and we all piled in. The driver had a microphone and she explained some things as she drove. Much of what she said we had already heard from Abby the day before.

We were driving for about an hour until we pulled off down a road that seemed to be someone’s farm. We came to a two story structure that had a cafe and gift shop on top and a huge fake croc statue below. We took photos and milled around while we waited to join the boat for the jumping croc tour.

As we boarded the boat we saw a juvenile croc on the mud, just hanging out. As soon as we pushed out there was a big croc following us, waiting for play and snack time. The guide told us we had to push away from the dock before he was allowed to feed any crocs. The first croc was named Wonk Eye on behalf of his wonky eye that was probably chewed on by another croc.

Wonk Eye put on a good show for us – jumping up with a little wiggle – each time he went for the meat hanging off the end of the stick. The guide drove the boat so that both sides could have a chance seeing him in front, without having to stand up and lean over. We were told where the life jackets were but warned that if we fell in, drowning would be the least of our problems.

As we scooted down river we saw another lady croc, but she wasn’t too interested in playing with us. Further down still we found mama croc and several of her little baby crocs. The babies were as small as lizards! They were so cute!

The guide said that less than one percent of crocodile eggs actually become mature crocs. Many of the eggs never develop and even if they do, the young ones are picked off by all sorts of predators, including other crocs.

On the boat ride back to the dock the croc feeder fed some meat to the birds. Some massive hawks followed the boat and then came swooping down to pluck the meat out of his hands.

The guides told us many croc facts and jokes as well as a few near-death stories. Back on dry land we got back into the van for a one hour drive back to the city. We went next door to Shenanigans for lunch. I got a Cesar salad that was fine and Carl got bangers and mash, the lunch special. His ended up being barley cooked hot dogs on top of plain mashed potatoes with some peas. It was not good, and still expensive.

Carl went to take a nap while Karen and I had a wander. We went to a pedestrian street and looked at some of the old lady clothing stores and book shops. We met back up with Carl and we all went over to the museum.

The museum was, surprisingly, free. And worth it. The main reason I wanted to go was to see the Sweetheart Crocodile, a monstrously big croc that was accidentally killed when humans tried to move him from a fishing creek to a croc farm. We paid our respects to the taxidermied croc.

The museum also had many natural history sections and some aboriginal art. There was a whole section about Cyclone Tracy which hit Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974, destroyed the town, and killed 71 people. The before and after satellite photos were incredible. There was also a room you could go into to hear a recording that was taken during the storm. The room was totally dark and the sounds of the storm sounded similar to a freight train running over us. It was spooky.

After the museum we walked over to the Darwin Ski Club to get some drinks and look out over the water. When the lady at the museum suggested that we go to the club I asked “water ski?” (clarifying that it wasn’t a snow ski club as the name ski club implied) and she didn’t bat an eye as she said “of course”.

At the ski club the view was nice and the tunes were classic. Carl and I ordered ciders as a nice alternative to overpriced light beer. Once we finished our drinks we walked down the hill to the Mindil Market. The market happens every Thursday and Sunday night from 4-9pm. There were a ton of different food stalls and lots of artsy things for sale.

Carl and I got a croc burger to share. We had learned on the tour that crocodiles were overpopulating the Darwin area as humans killed off the predators that usually eat their eggs. Locals were killing crocs that posed a threat to fisherman, but not doing anything with their bodies. At least by eating their meat we were actually doing something with the crocs, and saving eating meat from other, non-sustainable sources.

We were told that everyone goes to the beach at sunset and claps when the sun drops below the horizon. Well, we timed getting our food perfectly but as we sat down on the sand we noticed there were big thick clouds right over the horizon. As the predicted time for the sunset came and went we wondered whether anyone was ever going to clap. I started clapping to see if everyone needed inspiration but even Carl and Karen just stared at me.

After the un-celebrated sundown we walked back to the market and got some tropical flavored ice cream before calling it a night.

Friday, June 10

We slept in a little and then Karen and I walked down the street to a nail salon. Despite having made appointments it took them a long time to seat us and do our nails. They were surprisingly busy for a Friday morning.

As we walked into the shop we heard a familiar episode of Friends playing. We looked all over for the tv but couldn’t find it. Then we realized it was right above us and that everyone getting their nails done had just sat silently, watching us look around for Chandler Bing like a dog looks for a treat. We then watched about 7 episodes of Friends while getting our nails done.

Afterward we rejoined with Carl and walked over to the wave pool. For $8 we were given admission to one of the coolest places in Darwin. They had plastic lounge chairs arranged under huge beach umbrellas, as if we were at the beach, and some grassy areas for suckers like us who didn’t get there early enough.

We waded into the pool and discovered that the waves come on every 15 minutes or so and last for about as long. We were trying to figure out which kid we could rob a pool ring from when an alarm went off – time for waves!! We each grabbed a boogie board and went for it. The waves were powerful and they knocked us over more often than we could catch one. It was so fun!

At the next interval we found some pool rings. The inner circle was a bit too small for my bum so I either had to sit atop or squish in like a cork. I chose cork and just bounced along atop the waves, taking videos of Karen and Carl with Karen’s Go Pro.

On the next pause we managed to snag some beach chairs under an umbrella and we sat there, enjoying the breeze, as if we were on the real beach. Of course, the real beach in Darwin is croc city with a sprinkle of deathly jellies.

Later that day we went to the Deckchair Cinema. During the dry season, Darwin’s Deckchair Cinema shows new art films outside and most of the seating is deck chairs. We got their early so we could save seats and grab some food truck food before the movie started.

As we waited for the movie we watched the sun set and spotted an orange footed scrub fowl hanging out on the lawn. The previews came on and we could spot so many teeny tiny geckos on the screen. Then the flying predators came out. I couldn’t focus on the first 20 minutes of the movie because I was trying to see whether the big flying creature was a hawk or a megabat. And then the stars came out and it was magical. The movie itself – Night of the Kings – was good, but the showstopper was the theater itself.

We walked back to the hostel and packed our bags again. At 2:30am we got an Uber to the airport. As we waited outside we saw the Darwin city nightlife: all the drunk humans. Each group expressed sympathy that we were catching a flight instead of drinking with them. But, then we were off to Singapore! Bye (for now), Australia.

Sunday, June 5

Despite going home ‘early’ the night before, when we woke up on Sunday we still felt like we were dying of a hangover. Later we found out someone on the boat had a cold, which somehow Carl caught Saturday night. So on top of being hungover, he was sick.

We had planned to spend the day at the Lagoon and have a barbecue but we couldn’t motivate ourselves to leave the Airbnb. Plus the weather was very overcast. Plus I had a lot of blog writing and Instagram posting to do (this thing doesn’t write itself!) So we took a recovery day, which is needed every once in a while when traveling for a long time.

Monday, June 6

Rather than pay $200 per person for a guided tour to Daintree National Park we decided to rent a car. We reasoned we could also go up to Cape Tribulation to see the only place on earth where two UNESCO world heritage sites border each other: Daintree National Park and the Great Barrier Reef. We also convinced a guy we met on the dive boat, Matt, to come with us and split the costs.

The rental places had closed too early the day before so we chanced it and left it until the morning of to find something. We walked down the street to a place called Cruising just after they opened at 8am Monday morning. The guy at the desk was obviously absolutely swamped. There were multiple phones ringing and he couldn’t get a word out before someone came in to tell him something. He told us there was only one rental car available for that day, available at 10am.

As he went to reserve it for us, it booked up. Then he found a car that would be available at 10:30am so we said we’d take it. It was a later start to the day than we’d planned, but it was better than nothing. So we hung out at the Airbnb until 10 and then walked back to get the car.

We drove by Matt’s hostel and he was waiting outside, ready to go. We hoped he didn’t regret choosing to come with us versus a guided tour, but it was too late for him to change his mind and he was way too nice to admit he was disappointed, so we told ourselves everything was fine.

It took a little over an hour to reach the Mossman Gorge Visitor Center. I’d read that there was a shuttle from the center to the gorge but I didn’t realize it was required. The signs discouraged personal cars and pedestrians along the road. I agreed in principle (fewer personal use cars into the wilderness) but not financially, especially when the shuttle cost $12 each and it was about a 6 minute ride. We reasoned that because the park entrance was free, they had to get funding somehow and they chose a short shuttle ride.

We timed it perfectly and didn’t have to wait at all for the shuttle, which then took us just up the road, further into the park. We walked along the boardwalk trails for a bit until we built up a sweat and needed to jump into the water. There were many signs posted that warned against swimming in the gorge. At this place, crocs weren’t the issue. It had been raining that morning and the water was high, and running fast. Still, everyone and their mom was in the water. When we saw a young couple with a baby we decided it was safe enough for us.

At the end of one of the trails we found a little pond with a teeny waterfall that looked perfect for a dip. We got in and had to submerge our bodies completely because the swarming mosquitos were unbearable. I’m hardly ever affected by mosquitos but after about 3 painful bites to my butt and face I was over it and we decided to get outta there.

It was a very jungly hike back to the shuttle stop. We saw huge trees with broad root systems and vines going everywhere. There was also a Boyd’s forest dragon hiding in the tree. At the water’s edge were a couple of brush turkeys, just in case you forgot you were in Australia where everything is weird.

Our next stop was the Daintree Discovery Center. I had book marked this spot thinking it was the visitor center for the park. To get there, google maps told us to take the ferry. As we approached the water’s edge we didn’t see instructions for how to take the ferry. We wondered if ferry in Australian meant ‘bridge’.

Then all of a sudden there was a toll booth with the NICEST lady working it. We quickly paid for the ferry and drove right onto it, just as it was getting ready to leave. We weren’t allowed to leave the car and it was a slow ferry so we barely noticed we were moving and then all of a sudden we were on the other side.

We drove up to the discovery center to find it was a fee for entry boardwalk and activity center. We were reluctant to pay to walk on another boardwalk. The staff person couldn’t believe that we had just shown up (4pm), weren’t staying the night, and hadn’t been to Cape Tribulation yet. He advised us to go up there before the sun set. So we drove onwards to the cape.

We parked in a big parking lot and used the bathroom before starting our walk. That’s when I saw the biggest spider of my life. It was sitting in a massive web at the entrance to the ladies room. She was beautiful but just about the last thing you want to see before pulling down your pants and hovering over an open hole.

As we stared at her a woman came up and explained that it was an golden orb-weaving spider. We then noticed that her massive web had a golden tinge to it. It was a beautiful site to see this huge spider sitting in the middle of her golden web.

In 1770 British explorer James Cook ran his ship into the reef off of Cape Tribulation and was quoted to have said, “and here began all our troubles”. We liked this quote and started to say it as dusk approached and we walked along the boardwalk near croc-infested waters.

The sun had just gone behind the big mountain to the west, starting an early sunset. With the beach (and Great Barrier Reef) to our right and the tropical rainforest-covered mountains to our left, we truly felt like we were on an exotic adventure.

As the sky darkened we reasoned we had time for just one more walk. We drove south a bit and got out to do the boardwalk trail at the Dubuji trail. Dubuji is a Kuku Yalanji word that means ‘place of spirits’. We were nearly the only ones on the trail. It was getting dark and the cicadas were humming loudly. On the way back we heard what sounded like a huge frog somewhere in the forest.

We got back into the car and headed south toward Port Douglas. Despite being a Monday the downtown was hoppin’. We found a place that served craft beer and burgers and managed to order just before the kitchen closed. We got another Australian style burger with beets on it. We also ordered mac and cheese croquettes and it only came with two measly croquettes. At least it was enough for us each to have one!

We drove back to Cairns and dropped Matt off at his hostel, saying goodbye but acknowledged that we’d probably see each other in the airport. Then back to our Airbnb to pack and sleep.

Tuesday, June 7

We had to check out promptly at 10am and so had some hours to kill before our flight that afternoon. We walked over to Smith Street Cafe and got some nice iced lattes to kill time. At first I ordered an iced coffee and the woman asked if I wanted ice cream and whipped cream. I said, “no thanks, just the coffee and milk…and ice”. She said, “oh ok so you want an iced latte”. I relied, “yes, please, an iced coffee”.

That’s when another staff intervened and explained that an iced coffee means it comes with ice cream and whipped cream and an iced latte is just an iced latte. The line had lengthened and I must’ve looked stupified so they said forget it and just made me an iced latte. Oh, Australia.

Frustrated with the lack of WiFi (hence delay in posting these blogs!), we decided to go to the airport early. At the airport there is free wifi outside and guess who we saw sitting there- Matt! So we sat with him for an hour or so. When he left for his flight we joked we’d see him again inside. Later, we did see him but as I waved he quickly said “see you later, I’m boarding”. Poor guy had had enough of us.

Thursday, June 2

We walked outside and over to the Oasis Motel at 6:05am and found the dive shop van waiting for us. The van picked up some other passengers but it was near silent as we were all still waking up and coming to grips with reality. We had a quick stop over at the dive shop for all the people that hadn’t read the instructions to stop in the day before, and then it was off to the boat. It was a little creepy driving onto the pier so early in the morning with no one else around. It felt as if we were about to turn the corner and see a group of mafia guys leaving, brushing the fresh concrete dust off their hands.

Once on board, they gave us breakfast and a briefing and then showed us to our room. We were so happy that we got a double sized bed instead of a bunk bed! Our cabin was also on the same floor as the salon (kitchen and dining room) and we had a window. It was spacious, air conditioned, and clean.

After we dropped our stuff off, we had some time to hang out on the boat as we cruised toward the outer barrier reef for the first dive of the day. We had chosen a three day, two night liveaboard trip that would include a total of 11 dives. This came out to four dives on the first two days and three dives on the third day. I finally wrote down all the dives I’ve done since being certified and my total came out to 30 dives. So the trip was about to increase my dive count significantly!

There were about 25 people total on the boat, including staff. Over the next few days we spoke to almost everyone and became friends with a handful. It seemed like most of the participants were Australian, taking advantage of their newly found freedom after being in COVID lock downs for the better part of the last two years. There was also some Europeans (one English, one Dutch, one Spanish), another American, and three Canadians. About 1/3 of the participants were getting their open water certification and another 1/3 were getting advanced certification. There were about 6 of us not doing a course, just being recreational divers.

I think we were a little late arriving to the first spot, but the crew hustled and we had our dive briefing and prepared for our dive on time. Just as everyone was coming upstairs for the dive briefing the captain spotted a turtle. It was just a little guy but by the time everyone arrived, the turtle had dived back into the depths and they had missed it. Carl and I hoped this turtle luck would continue.

For every dive Kevin, the French dive master, would show us on a white board where we should go on the dive. Before this trip, 99% of the dives we’ve done have been led by a guide so we didn’t have to pay attention to where we were underwater. This time, right off the bat, we were on our own.

We felt very safe because of the abundance of security measures (counting us twice every time we got back on the boat), we were never swimming very far from the boat (and, if lost, could surface and see it), and often ran into other dive groups under water doing the same route. Still, there were times of anxiety when we didn’t know exactly where we were.

We started off at Milln Reef at a dive spot called The Swimming Pools. Of all the dive routes we were given, the first one was probably the most complicated. I took a picture of the route and now I’m laughing as I’m looking at it because the drawing looks more complicated than the dive really was. We didn’t see any sharks but we did see a big barracuda hanging out between two rocks.

We also saw a new fish that was black and white with stripes and spots which we identified later as probably a juvenile Midnight Snapper. Overall I think we were more focused on navigating than on looking at fish. We did see a lot of tropical fish, but this was probably the least we’d see of all the dives and Kevin told us that every dive would get a little bit better.

We got back on the boat and had a nice lunch during our surface interval. During the second dive we stayed on the same reef, but took a different route. Instead of starting West from the boat we went directly South, along a reef wall. As we went along we spotted a large bush of reddish stag horn coral and we must’ve surprised the stingray that was hiding out here because all of a sudden it shot out from its hiding spot in the sand and glided around us.

We chugged along this wall for a bit, then circled back to the barracuda rock before hanging out in the shallows East of the boat. As we crossed the sandy areas we saw two more stingrays (one might’ve been the same one twice) that seemed to have no fear of swimming close to us. We also saw a big Sweet Lips, a Unicorn Fish, and – the pièce de résistance – a Humphead Māori Wrasse! (Also known as a napoleon fish). It was about the same size as the one we’d seen in the aquarium.

As we meandered in the shallows we thought we got lost but somehow we found our way back to the boat’s eastern buoy. During the next surface interval we were fed warm banana bread. This is when we realized that the three days were going to be a repetitive cycle of dive, eat, nap, dive, eat, nap, etc.

For the third dive of the first day we stayed on Milln Reef but went to a new spot. We jumped off the back of the boat and headed northwest toward a big reef wall. We swam along the wall for a bit and then turned around and headed back to the boat. We saw most of the same fish but we think we also saw a smaller, female Māori Wrasse.

As we left the wall and followed our compass to intercept the boat we somehow overshot it. When we noticed new rocks we hadn’t seen before we decided to surface and see where we were. We did a safety stop and then surfaced and, sure enough, we’d somehow gone past our boat.

Totally calm, we started swimming back to the boat. One of the staff saw us swimming back and decided to get the dingy to come out and get us. We didn’t need the lift but we agreed to hold on to the rope and be towed back. He told us to put in our regulators. Carl, closer to the dingy, had a head full of ocean water. When we got back he said it was like all his sinuses had been cleared with a giant netti pot full of salt water.

We were fed dinner and then we watched the sun set and the stars emerge as we prepared for the night dive. During the briefing, Kevin tested us by telling us that in order to make hand signals underwater we should take our regulator out and put the flashlight in our mouths to use both hands. I think we were all so anxious and intimidated by the night dive that it took us tooo long to realize he was joking. And then, the thought of doing a night dive and getting to keep my regulator in my mouth the whole time was very comforting.

Because we had never done a night dive before they offered to guide us for the first one. Carl and I were lucky to be the pair directly behind the instructor, Martina. We were all given small flashlights and told not to shine lights directly at the eyes of any animals, especially any sleeping turtles that might wake up. They also warned that if we shined a light at a little fish, a bigger fish would be waiting nearby, happy to have your assistance in eating the little guy.

As soon as we hopped in, we were swimming in the middle of swarms of big fish. It was predator o’clock and they had all come toward the boat because of our lights and food scraps from cleaning our plates after dinner. We were surrounded by big, teethy silvery fish in every direction. There were also lots of big red bass. I felt out of place like the protagonist spy in some action movie, trying to blend in at a party attended by all the evil villains. It was super creepy!

We got into formation and a fellow experienced diver named Daniel fell in line directly behind us. He brought his own light and it was much brighter, lighting up areas past me and totally negating the need for my light. So, I mostly kept mine covered with my hand to prevent being the accomplice to any fish murder. Carl, on the other hand, went up to coral and shined his light in and found tons of tiny little fish hiding in the nooks of the coral, looking like they were scared sh**less. He also saw at least one get swallowed.

Very soon into the dive we spotted a black tip reef shark swim by us on the left. It glided by gracefully and then back into the dark. As we circled back to the boat we saw another one that hung out for slightly longer. In comparison to the swarm of big fish below the boat, the shark seemed so cool, calm, and collected. The ultimate cool guy (or gal) at the late night party. The night dive was short, but incredible.

Back on the boat we were fed once more: desert. We noticed a group playing spoons so we joined in. I was out almost immediately but Carl stayed in until the final three (of course). Then it was 10pm and we all decided to go to bed to prepare for another full day of diving.

Friday, June 3

We woke up just as the sun was rising and the clouds were tinged with a beautiful shade of pink. We hadn’t moved during the night so our first dive of day two was the same spot we’d done the day before. This was fine with us because we wanted a chance to redeem our navigation abilities after messing up on the third dive the previous day.

We started at a buoy east of the boat and then swam under the boat to the next buoy. As Carl was looking down at his compass to get the direction right, I noticed a turtle swimming down from above us – beelining a path right for Carl’s head. I pulled on Carl’s arm and yanked his head up to attention just in time for the turtle to swim RIGHT in front of us. If I hadn’t had pulled him up, they probably would’ve collided. It definitely would’ve been the turtle’s fault, but the ocean traffic court is probably more sympathetic to turtles than us, so good thing it didn’t happen!

We redeemed ourselves and navigated successfully and also felt generally more comfortable in the water after having dived most of the day before. We saw a trumpet fish swimming straight up and down and some Eggplant Fire fish, which were so weird they took us by surprise. We also saw another big Humphead Māori Wrasse.

After the morning dive, we cruised to a whole new reef: Flynn Reef. The second dive of the day was at a place called the tennis court because of the shape of the sand patches. Here we saw a giant clam with a teeny, tiny nudibranch in the sand right next to it. Looking underwater at these two very weird, very different creatures it’s hard to remember that they are real, and living on planet earth.

We saw lots of Moorish Idols (think Gill from Finding Nemo). We thought we saw another Māori Wrasse but then realized it was something else. I didn’t even know this fish existed but we later looked it up and confirmed that it was a Bumphead Parrotfish! Imagine my favorite parrot fish but HUGE and with a big, protruding forehead. As we hovered and stared at it in awe we watched it bite off a huge piece of coral with its massive beak and chomp on it like it was popcorn at the movie theater. It was nutty.

For the third dive we stayed on Flynn Reef but moved to a new spot called Gordon’s. This was another complicated route through poorly described landmarks (coral marks?) and I didn’t like having to focus so much on where we were going.

Kevin told us to head toward the Mickey Mouse rocks (underwater didn’t look like that at all), then to ‘The Maze’ and then ‘The Fishbowl’, before heading back to the boat. It felt like we got lost a bit but somehow we navigated our way back to the boat. This ended up being a practice run for the night dive which we were going to do in the same location, without a guide.

We sat atop the boat again as the sun was setting. The ‘dad’ of the group (older man who brought his two adult children) was usually found upstairs, smoking near the ashtrays. He strolled near us and mumbled something about Minke whale bait while pointing out to the ocean. We followed his finger and saw a dingy out there, right in front of the setting sun. Apparently one of the instructors had dropped his dive computer during the last dive and had to go out and go get it. But that was a couple hours ago- why was the boat still there?

We realized, at the same time the staff did, that the dingy had been tied up badly and had started to float away. Kevin ran out onto the deck and Martina said (very calmly) “get in the water, Kevin”. Kevin jumped in and swam as fast he could out to the dingy, which continued to drift further away into the setting sun. He managed to catch it. He stood on top the dingy as he rode it back and, hearing our cheers as he approached, he did a little circle, putting on a show for us. It was very James Bond esque and concealed the fact that they almost lost their boat.

On the night dive I told Daniel we’d love if we had his bright as flashlight again and he said “ok!” and joined us to make a dive group of three. We went back toward the Mickey Mouse head and as we pushed through ‘the gate’ Daniel spotted a HUGE turtle hiding on the ground, partially concealed by the rock. The turtle’s shell was as big as our old IKEA dining table. I later heard people refer to the turtle as Brian, which seemed fitting. We didn’t see any sharks that time but because there were less predators I felt comfortable looking into the coral. Sure enough there were lots of little fish hiding in there, nearly shaking with fear the poor guys!

That night we went to sleep early because we had to wake up at 5:40 the next day for the early morning dive.

Saturday, June 4

For our first dive of day three, the boat stayed in the same spot but we swam northwest of the boat, toward a big wall. When we hit the wall we swam west, along it, toward the cut through which would indicate where we were supposed to go around and then swim up the other side of the wall, going east.

Well, we must’ve missed a turn because somehow we ended up on top of the reef in the location marked as ‘too shallow’. Indeed it was way too shallow and I started worrying because we were basically surfacing after being deep, without having done a safety stop. Underwater we communicated this to each other and managed to do a safety stop by swimming in the shallows before we agreed to surface to discuss where to go next. We came up and saw the boat and agreed we needed to swim over the reef, back to the south side, and head back to the boat.

When we went back down we saw a turtle swimming by. We headed toward the boat and I felt that we were going the wrong way and we were still so shallow we may as well have been snorkeling. I was about to rest my knees on the sand so I wouldn’t ascend while we conferred and I looked right in front of me to see a playful stingray. Like a cat it seemed to be rubbing itself on the sandy mounds, swimming around us, not shy at all.

We ended up surfacing again and I had been dead wrong about which way the boat was. We re-aligned and then went back under to swim to it. I was frustrated about getting lost but also was consoled by the fact that we saw a ray and a turtle in the shallows that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

For the third dive we went to a new spot on Flynn Reef called Coral Gardens. The day before I’d asked Kevin about renting a dive camera for one dive, but he had forgotten in the chaos of preparing for the third dive. He remembered for the second to last dive and offered that we could use the camera for two dives, for the price of one. It was a nice cannon camera in a big, buoyant plastic case (that only floated up and hit me in the face a few times).

Daniel joined us again and impressed us with his ability to spot animals. We went deep along the coral wall against the current and immediately he spotted a shark below us. It seemed to still be asleep, just hanging out there. Pretty soon after he spotted a ray hanging out in the sand. We also saw a big puffer and another big Humphead parrotfish.

We headed back to the boat to do our safety stop. While we were hanging out we decided to take a selfie with my rented camera. As I tried to position us all into the frame I felt something touch my back – it was the boat!! We had accidentally ascended without realizing it and we were running into the bottom of the boat! What amateurs!

We pushed away and went back down and collectively agreed to do another safety stop, this time on the safety bar. We still showed off our flips and tricks, but at a safe and consistent depth.

For our third dive of the day and final dive of the trip 😦 we went to the same spot but swam the opposite way along the wall and stayed a little shallower. We saw a giant trigger fish, another puffer, and clouds of tiny fish. It felt like the most fish we’d seen on the trip. I had fun taking pictures with the camera and am excited to see how the photos turn out.

Unfortunately, instead of sending us the photos, Kevin just popped out the SD card and handed it to us. Back in the US I have an SD card adapter but here, with my carry-on backpack, I don’t even have a laptop to plug the adaptor into! Carl looked at the card and said “what are we supposed to do with this??”

So, we don’t expect to be able to access or share those photos for a while. In the meantime, there were lots of divers on the trip who had go pros and were happy to share photos with us. So all photos here are stolen from them, for now.

After our last dive we had to pack up and then it was about a two hour boat ride back to Cairns. When we got back to the Airbnb Karen had made a big pot of pasta and broccolini for us! We ate and rested a bit before heading back downtown to meet everyone from the boat for a farewell drink.

We met at a German beer hall right next to the Lagoon. It was funny drinking with a bunch of fellow divers because we all still felt like the boat was moving (and held on to things as we walked, Jack Sparrow style). Plus, all our ears were plugged or waterlogged so we were all shouting at each other and still saying “what??!”

We planned to just have a beer or two but then the party moved upstairs to a cocktail lounge and we couldn’t resist. I think we were just starting to get into drunk politics talk when the party moved to a nightclub. We followed everyone but I didn’t have my ID with me so we couldn’t get in. I was really sad because I wanted to see Kevin dance. Carl and I walked home. It was sad to end the night ‘early’ but also better for our wallets and heads for the next day.

(Australians don’t pronounce the letter ‘R’ so this town is pronounced ‘Caans’)

Saturday, May 28

When we landed in Cairns around 7am, our Airbnb wasn’t ready for check in yet. We tried to hang out in the airport for a bit but it meant going back through security and Karen had already collected her checked bag. The security agent harped on asking us if we had nail clippers – the least of our problems when Karen also had about a liter of micellar water- but it was funny anyway.

We did some googling and found a nice looking restaurant within walking distance of the house. We went to Guyala Cafe and it was close enough to the waterfront park so that we could see some water glimmering in the distance. We got some delicious flat whites and split tropical avocado toast (with tropical fruit) with a poached egg and bacon.

The food was good, but expensive. We sat there for a while, drank a whole jug of free tap water and started working on our second, when the waitress asked if we needed anything else. Taking the hint, we checked the Airbnb app and found the cleaners had finished early and we could check in!

We walked over to the apartment, happy to find it clean and not too hot. We all took a nap for several hours. When we woke up, Carl and I decided to explore the town on foot. Cairns is THE hub for trips to the Great Barrier Reef. It used to be a rowdier, party town but – perhaps because of COVID?- it felt a little washed up. Our Airbnb was technically located in Cairns North, in a neighborhood that didn’t feel as rich as where we brunched, but not necessarily unsafe.

We headed toward the nearest grocery store. Along the way we spotted a sushi train restaurant and we couldn’t resist. The last and only time I’ve eaten off a sushi train was when I was 11 years old in Japan, staying with a host family who picked out the food and paid for it. This time, we had to carefully check the price of each plate as we eyeballed all the amazing looking types of salmon and tuna. Sigh- if only we had our own travel show on the food network so we could try everything!

We made up for the slightly expensive lunch by getting groceries to make lunch and dinner for the next few days. At the checkout we spotted on the wall cctv pictures of people with notes written on the photo about what they had stolen. One photo was of a sad looking older man in the grocery asile and it said “stole cheese” another one was something just as pathetic like “stole one onion”. These photos seemed unnecessary and sad, and made us realize we weren’t the only people feeling like Australia was too expensive.

After putting groceries away we decided to do some yoga in the park. On the way we spotted some strange tall-legged birds hiding behind an apartment building. Later we’d see these birds again and again- they were like the pigeons of Cairns.

Carl and I walked along the waterfront park toward the downtown area. There were lots of people out, exercising or enjoying their Saturday afternoons with family. We reached the lagoon, a public pool right on the water front. Because the coast right off of Cairns is croc-infested, people can’t enjoy the beach like they would in any other beach town. To make up for this, Cairns built the nicest little fake beach – sand and all!- and public pool called the lagoon. We walked around and noticed they had even had lockers! My favorite thing at a fake beach! We vowed to come back another day for a swim.

The sun set as we walked home and gave the sky a pinkish tinge. We watched some kids throwing sand on a volleyball court and were mesmerized because the sand seemed to hang in the air. With the pink sky, funky birds, sandy air, and crocodile warning signs throughout we really got the feeling that Cairns is a weird, but wondrous, place.

Sunday, May 29

We slept in a little and then had to rush over to the aquarium before it closed. The aquarium was overpriced (like everything in Australia!) but it was well laid out. When we got there we rushed to the first show- creatures of the deep- where the guide mainly spoke about the coral reef. We learned a lot including how reefs get bleached. We also learned that the Humphead Māori Wrasse is one of the few species that can eat the crown of thorns sea star.

This sea star eats coral and has become overpopulated in the Great Barrier Reef thanks to humans (of course). Trying to get rid of the pests, humans had chopped up the sea star and thrown it back into the ocean, not realizing that the sea star can regenerate an entirely new sea star from every chopped off leg – thus the population exploded exponentially.

We then ran over to the shark and ray show and were stunned when we saw the size of the rays in there. There was a ray as big as a double size bed. Afterward we had to exit the aquarium and re-enter in order to see all the exhibits we had passed over when rushing to the shows. The whole thing is laid out to follow the cycle of water as it starts in freshwater areas, flows through mangroves, out into the sea.

While we were looking at a massive python we noticed it was slithering ever closer to a frill-necked lizard. All of a sudden their two faces seemed to meet and the lizard opened his frill to make himself big and threatening. It was so cool to see that happen! We stood there for a while to see if the two would face off but the snake seemed to not want to fight that day and slithered back down the branch.

We ate sandwiches in a park next to the aquarium before meeting up with Karen for a bit. Afterward we went over to Hemingway’s brewery because we had a discount coupon that I found in a guide book in the Airbnb. We ordered a flight of different beers, mostly all their IPAs, which flustered the waitress because they were all priced differently (yet she never told us ‘no’). Then we flustered her more with the discount coupon. She said she’d never seen it before but the coupon didn’t have an exportation date, so she honored it.

As we walked home we had several animal encounters. In the downtown area it was like a scene from the movie The Birds. As the sun set, the sound of birds chirping was deafening. As we walked down the street we realized that hoards of green parrots and cute little black birds were all flocking to the three leafy trees in front of the casino. Clouds of black birds swooped in low, and I thought they were going to attack us.

Then a couple blocks up we heard a chittering noise in a row of eucalyptus trees. We saw a huge bat-like figure fly out of the tree. It was a flying fox! Looking up, we could hear and just barely make out the shadowy outline of about 10 flying foxes in the trees. An Australian man walked by and advised us to close our mouths as we looked up because “they might poop in your mouth”. Lovely. Imagine just being use to having these megabats in your neighborhood!

For dinner, Carl made delicious tacos. Then we waited for Karen to go to sleep so that we could sneakily bake her a cake and decorate the apartment.

Monday, May 30

Karen awoke to find pastel-colored streamers and a mountain of balloons blocking her door. She seemed surprised, which was funny considering how loud we had been when setting things up the night before. We all got ready quickly and then hopped in an Uber to go down to the ports. We were going to take a boat to go snorkeling for our first time on the Great Barrier Reef!

It took over 2 hours on the boat before we reached the reef. We didn’t mind the long journey because the boat itself was so nice. We spent most of the time on the bow, lounging in the big net hammocks that hung directly over the ocean. There were several safety briefings and instructions given. They even told us how to put on a snorkel. Compared to our recent diving experience in the Philippines where they practically threw us in the water without introducing themselves, it was comedic how much hand holding we were being given now.

Finally we reached the reef and it was time to go snorkeling! They outfitted us with a snorkel and mask, fins, and a sting suit. They said the water wasn’t cold enough to need a wetsuit but that there’s jellyfish and stinging plankton, so it’s better to wear something that covers your skin. The sting suits had mittens and hoods and we looked like we were gearing up for a dive in Antarctica except the suits were so thin.

We swam around by ourselves for a bit and then I was happy we found a guide with an orange buoy so we could just follow him and cruise around. He pointed out a GIANT clam the size of an oven and led us to a school of huge sweet lips fish. Finally the camera guy came around and we were able to get him to take great photos of me and Karen holding the famous GBR sign that she had seen on Instagram.

Back on the boat they served us heaping portions of curry, with different types of side salads. We stuffed ourselves and then we were all craving something sweet. I had wanted the captain himself to bring Karen her cake, but when I asked the crew, they thought I was joking and didn’t take me seriously. So I brought it out to her myself. It was amazing how intact it was considering I had carried it in a tote bag onto the boat and nearly sat on it before hiding it in the boat’s refrigerator. Again, she seemed surprised which was funny because the whole apartment had smelled like chocolate before we left that morning.

We ate a bunch of cake while the boat was driven to a new location on the reef. For the second snorkel session, Karen stayed back to enjoy the boat and Carl and I went for another swim. We borrowed Karen’s go pro and had fun taking pictures of ourselves and our favorite fish.

I got out early because I was freezing and I joined Karen for some sun worshiping on the boat deck. I had told the crew it was her birthday (more than once) and yet they never made an announcement or anything. I was starting to be annoyed by this when two staff came out and -acting like she was in trouble – told her she MUST come to the bar for a DRINK. Well, Karen doesn’t drink and when she told them this it looked like they were going to cry with disappointment. Instead they gave her a chocolate bar, which made her happy.

We enjoyed the rest of the boat journey sitting on the bow in the sunshine. We docked back into Cairns at about 5pm. We decided to take showers and regroup before going out to eat. Karen picked an Irish pub for her birthday dinner. We walked down there along the water and told people it was her birthday whenever people looked at us and asked why Carl and I were wearing party hats.

Karen got a vegan burger that looked nice and Carl and I split a full rack of ribs that was small, but tasty. We also discovered a happy hour type deal for the XPAs, our beer of choice, so we were happy. That night we watched some classic episodes of Friends before going to sleep early. Happy 34 years Kare Bear!

Tuesday, May 31

Still recovering from not sleeping much the previous night (because we were trying to bake and decorate in silence, which of course, was not silent), we slept in a bit. We were a little later getting out the door than we had planned but we still managed to walk to the botanic gardens by 11am. Behind the botanic gardens is Mount Whitfield Conservation Park which contains several hiking trails. Some of the trails take 5 hours which, we would have done if we had known about them and hadn’t slept in so long. Still, we did the red trail up to a lookout and took the yellow trail back down and around the mountain.

Near the top of the red trail we stopped to look at a sign and then spotted a little marsupial in a bush. Turns out there were three of them, all scrounging or munching on leaves. They were very cute and a fun animal to stumble across on a trail.

The view from the top of the red trail looks out onto the airport and the Cairns bay below. Near the bottom of the yellow trail we saw an Orange-footed Scrubfowl (we called it a jungle chicken). At the base of the yellow trail we walked back toward the botanical garden. This park is huge (and free to enter!) with different sections like the rainforest boardwalk, salt lake, freshwater lake, garden, and evolution garden (mosses and ferns).

Entering this area, we saw a couple of very shy Australian Brushturkeys (AKA jungle turkeys). The rainforest boardwalk was really cool but full of biting bugs to the point we felt we were being eaten alive and had to walk faster. After the gardens we walked back to the house to regroup. Then we headed to the public lagoon.

When we finally got into the lagoon (pool) we found the water colder than expected. And then the sun went behind a big cloud. Brrr! Still, it was refreshing and afterward we sat on the grass near the sand and read as the sun went down.

Karen came to meet us and we all went to the Night Market for dinner. The Night Market is essentially an Asian food court in an outdoor shopping mall. Many of the stalls were closed but it was hard to tell if they were temporary or permanently closed. Carl and I got fish and chips, our first in Australia. We got the Barramundi fish and it was really good! If anything it wasn’t battered enough, which is usually the opposite of my complaint for fried fish.

For some reason we were still hungry so we went to the Chinese food stall and loaded up on greasy “Chinese” (American Chinese) food like fried chicken in sweet sauce and lo mein noodles.

Then we had some time to kill before we went to the Irish pub for trivia (and to get that XPA deal again!). We decided to go to the arcade thinking maybe we could use the $2 coins we had accumulated when trying to rent a locker at the lagoon. The games were $2.50 to $3 each, which is criminal. We played air hockey a couple times and then skee ball. Carl dominated both, of course. If only we’d had enough money to play whack-a-mole, I would’ve been able to win something.

We went to the Irish pub. We were told the night before that trivia would be at 8pm. But, when we got there the sign said 9pm. We had plans for the next morning, and beer is expensive, and we are elderly, so we decided to go home and watch Friends instead.

Wednesday, June 1

We got an Uber to the Cairns railway station and collected our tickets for the 9:30am train. After the train in Machu Pichu and in Patagonia we were ready for another fully tourist, non-authentic train adventure to ‘the rainforest!’ The ticket came with a map and guide to tell us what we were going to see along the way, but they also announced it over the loudspeaker and, unlike real public transportation, you could actually here what the lovely voiced announcer was saying.

Even though the ride was 2 hours and the train car was warm with a breeze that could lull anyone to sleep, we managed to stay awake and listen to the guided tour the whole way. Perhaps the best part was going over the old bridge with the beautiful falls on the sheer rock wall next to us.

At one station, the train paused and we were allowed to get out to look at Barron Falls. The river was dammed so the falls are skinnier than natural, but during the wet season they let the dam overflow and the falls swell up, eroding the rocks around them. The effect is that, in the dry season, you can see the path for the falls and the different levels of pools.

Upon arrival at the adorable, vintage rail station (with some vintage staff working the vintage cafe) Karen got a delicious looking cheese sandwich (toastie) and a mango smoothie that I snuck a taste of. Then we strolled up the main street to look at the shops.

As we had feared, the tourist activity of ‘going to the rainforest’ was really take the train to a bunch of shops, that happen to be in the rainforest. But, there was lots of indigenous art (questionable how much was authentic) and opal shops, in addition to the cheesy tourist shops. Also we saw some familiar faces – the loud, belching couple that had been on the flight next to Karen had also taken the train to Kuranda for the day- small world!

Carl and I decided to pony up for a trip to the butterfly aviary. It was overpriced (duh) but an exceptional site. We’ve been to a couple of these butterfly houses now (key west, Peru,) and we think this one may have been the best. Right upon walking in we saw tons of beautiful butterflies.

I think our favorite butterfly was the Cairns Birdwing butterfly, the largest Australian butterfly. The female is brown but the male is as big as the palm of your hand and is bright blue and green. We saw a few of these flying around us, in addition to some very pretty blue ones, lots of yellow, and a few that had iridescent purple spots and may have been moths actually. There was also a caterpillar nursery and some Hercules moths emerging from their cocoons – those things are massive!!

Afterwards we met back up with Karen and went over to a burger place to get something to eat. We shared an Aussie burger that had a big slab of beet on it! Then I was hankering for an iced coffee but as we walked back toward the train station we found that all the cafes and restaurants were closed! Like any tourist place, they closed the same time all the day-trippers left. So, with nothing open and not enough time to do any kind of hike, we decided to head back.

On the way down we took the cable car. The system was identical to the teleférico we had ridden in La Paz and Medellin so the three of us had our positions and roles down (warn Karen when we are approaching the station).

We soared over the canopy, at first parallel to the river and then crossing over it- it was so cool! It was like being a drone over the rainforest. Then the cable car came to a station and we got out to look at the Barron Falls from the opposite side. The platform was built recently and the designer had decided to put a glass floor over the ledge.

Most of the tourists were not fans of this scary drop away and were tip-toeing around the edge while cursing under their breath. We enjoyed looking at the falls from the other side and decided they should really open up one of the waterfall pools as a swimming hole, in the dry season.

Back in the cable car and then we stopped at another spot for a nature walk. We walked out onto a wooden boardwalk that winds around massive trees. Signs described the competition for light that happens on the forest floor. Then we ran into a park ranger speaking to a group of tourists. He told us about the basket ferns that grow in the canopy and create their own soil and ecosystem, high up in the trees.

Walking back to the cable car we read some really well designed signs about Australia’s evolution. To summarize, when Pangea broke up ( 175 million years ago) it become two parts: Laurasia (North America and Asia) and Gondwana (everybody else). Eventually (85 million years ago) Australia drifted apart from the Gondwana team and about 43 million years ago started colliding with the Asian plate. Actual land didn’t touch again, but sea systems and islands did, so birds and fish mixed but mammals didn’t. This explains why Australia has such different (weird as) mammals and scary things, but many of the same fish and birds as in other parts of Southeast Asia.

We then took the cable car down the rest of the way, admiring the view of Cairns bay as we dropped down the cliff side again. At the base we got an Uber back to our Airbnb to drop Karen off and then Carl and I headed downtown to go to the dive shop. We signed our liabilities away and got fitted for gear, in preparation for a multi-day liveaboard trip the next day.

Then we walked over to a bar called The Pier that our Uber driver had recommended for their happy hour deals. They had the XPA on tap so we had two and then headed back to the house to make a dinner out of everything else left in the fridge.

Friday, May 27

With one day left in Perth and a good weather forecast, we had just enough sunshine time to make a trip to Rottnest Island to see the quokkas. The Dutch were the first Europeans to happen upon the island back in 1696. When they saw all the quokkas they mistook the cute little guys for rats and called the island “rat nest” island, hence Rottnest. Then in 2018 the famous tennis player Roger Federer took a selfie with a quokka and set off a trend. Now there are tons of blog articles on how best to take a quokka selfie. We definitely wanted to see the cuties, and scope out whether we could snap a pic without disturbing them too much.

We got the 9:30am express ferry out to the island. The whole round trip ferry ticket wasn’t cheap, about $60 each, but then every day activity in Australia seems to cost an average of $100.

Upon disembarking on the island we went to find the bathroom. Right away we saw a quokka who had just hopped into some shade to take a nap. He didn’t seem to mind me, so I practiced some selfies. We saw another one just outside the bathroom, but he was in a deep sleep so we let him be.

We walked over to a shop called Pedal and Flipper to rent bikes for the day. No cars are allowed on the island so you can either get a tour van around for the day, rent bikes, bring your own bike, or walk. Bikes cost about $30 each ($10 more since the blog I read about it!) They we’re surprisingly nice bikes though.

We took off toward the area that has a pink lake. In summer months, micro-algae accumulate in the salty lake and turn it a vibrant, hot pink. We weren’t sure when this happens, so we were a bit disappointed when we arrived and the lake was a normal lake color. But we still learned something.

From here we biked uphill and over to Catherine Bay. The weather was absolutely heavenly. It was about 75 degrees, sunny, with a light breeze. We enjoyed the views for a bit and then let Carl go southward to explore the whole island while Karen and I headed along the northern shore, back toward town.

Back in town we found a cute cafe that had tons of quokkas outside. We both ordered salads and it was so nice to eat some fresh vegetables, though they were doused in dressing. Carl came and joined us, showing us his immaculate quokka selfies. I was determined to get one for myself so we went out on the cafe porch and had a photo shoot.

The key is to get your phone on the other side of the quokka, just below his face, and hope he sits up. If he sits up with his mouth open, it looks like he is smiling. It’s adorable. They were obviously used to humans (and being fed!) but we didn’t feed them or seem to pester them while we were snapping pictures.

The day went by quickly and all of a sudden it was 4pm and time to get back on the ferry. We met Martin at Gage Road, the same brewery we had gone to on our first day in Perth when we had missed the ferry. We watched an amazing sunset from the bar’s patio area.

We deferred to Martin for where we should eat dinner before we had to head to the airport. He wanted to take us to one more bar before eating, so we tagged along. You wouldn’t have noticed it from the street, but as we ducked into the dark and crowded room, we could see it was a popular spot. The place was called Darling Darling and it was old timey nautical themed with huge coils of rope lining the walls. Empty peanut shells littered the floor. At the entrance, three big, white candles burned on top of a barrel with what looked like years worth of melted wax piled onto it.

We had some beers and reminisced over our time in Perth. Then we needed to eat something if we were ever going to make our plane. We went over to a Mexican restaurant. Martin warned us to not have high expectations but it was still disappointing. Carl and I split a ground beef burrito and the three of us split a margarita fish bowl (there was a discount for them on Fridays). Then we all piled into a cab back to Martin’s place. We still had some packing to do so Martin put on some loud hype music and threw us another beer to motivate us. It helped for the packing but then by the time we got to the airport, we felt awful.

Our flight was a little delayed but we didn’t care. I got a nice nap while we waited to board and somehow got some sleep on the 6 hour journey across the country from southwest to northeast. We had a smooth flight overall except that Karen had to sit next to the Australian couple version of Ren and Stimpy.

Wednesday, May 25

Carl and I woke up early to get on the road. Karen decided to stay in Perth for a couple days to check a few more things off her list.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive south, down to Margaret River. The road was paved and nice the whole way yet with the red dirt and giant eucalyptus groves on either side, we definitely felt like we were driving into the bush.

We got to our hotel and parked the car with enough time to walk down the main street for a couple blocks before meeting our Cheers tour van. The van pulled up to the hotel parking lot and a huge man (Chris, Hagrid’s beardless brother) got out from behind the driver’s seat to slide open the van door and welcome us on board. The van was full except for two single seats next to the door, where we placed ourselves. Chris explained that everyone else on board was doing the full day tour which had started at 9:45am whereas we had signed up for the half day tour.

We looked around at the other passengers. All were Australian. There was a younger pair of women and four older women (all retired nurses) from Perth, and an older couple from Queensland. They had already been to two wineries that morning and they all were being very friendly and talkative.

On our way to the first scheduled stop Chris made an impromptu stop at a brewery. Colonial brewing happened to be the same brewery that makes the yummy pale ales that we’d been devouring out of Martin’s fridge. Chris told us we only had 10 minutes but we decided to order a beer quickly. We both got IPAs and mistakenly ordered a pint size, which is somehow larger than an American pint. An American pint is 16fl oz or 473ml but in Australia a pint is 570ml. Turns out Australians have several specific beer sizes including Schooner (425ml), Middy (285ml) and Jug (1,140ml). We didn’t know this at the time, but have since studied this terminology.

As we drank our large beers quickly, we looked around the brewery grounds and admired the green rolling hills buffeted by eucalyptus and other, wild looking plants.

Next up was our first winery, Jarvis Estate. Carl and I had decided to go with a wine tour (rather than winging it on our own) because we genuinely want to learn more about wine so that we will be allowed to live in California again. But perhaps because everyone else on the tour was already sauced, the wine pourer didn’t mess around and just poured several wines in quick succession, telling us to read the tasting notes ourselves. The chilled rosé ended up being our favorite, because…duh.

She did give us a glimpse into the winery process -and we got to pet the nicest, softest winery dog!- as we went behind the scenes to sample port out of a barrel.

Our next stop was Cowaramup Brewing Company, in the neighboring town, Cowaramup. As we drove there Chris explained that the word Cowaramup is from an aboriginal language. “Up” on the end of any word means “from here” and Cowara is a purple-crowned lorikeet. So the place means that there is a beautiful bird from here. Chris showed us a building that has two Cowara birds painted on it. Of course, modern Australians saw the word Cowaramup and decided to nickname the place ‘Cow’ and install hundreds of cow statues throughout the town.

At the Cowaramup brewery, the full-dayers were given a full lunch while Carl and I got beers and wandered around the grounds. It was a beautiful sunny day, not unlike a beautiful sunny day in Napa, CA. The only major difference was a strange looking bird every once in a while and a fear of getting too close to any pond in case it had crocs in it.

As we drove, Chris explained some of the history of the place. As Perth was being developed, lumber was needed. So the government sold tracts of land in Margaret River to pioneers with the deal that if the homesteaders could chop down all the trees they could sell the lumber to the government and keep the remaining farmland. The soil here isn’t great, so many farms ended up raising cattle or sheep. These days, farms are being bought up and converted to wineries. Chris had a comment that many of the farms are a standard 80 acres in size which he noted “isn’t a lot of land when you’re an Australian”.

Next we went to a cheese factory and then a chocolate factory for free samples. One of the older, retired nurses befriended us and bought us each a Chocolate Quokka.

On the way to the next place we were slowed down by a hoard of sheep that had gotten out of their paddock and were crossing the road. On the radio the song, “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealer’s Wheel was playing and our driver Chris started singing “Stuck in the middle with ewe”. The comedic timing was phenomenal.

Next stop was Bettenay’s Winery and Nougat Company. At this late stage in the game, many people were sitting out of the tasting and just listening to the chatty banter. Our new retired nurse friend decided she wanted to work at Bettenay’s and was genuinely asking the wine pourer for a job application. The poor wine pourer was a good sport, and she let us interrupt her while she kindly explained the wines. We were surprised we liked the whites more than the reds. We also got to try some nougat.

The last stop was The Grove Brewery and Distillery. Before we arrived Chris warned us that we might get offended by the owner, who was known to tell lewd, offensive jokes. As if to warm us up, Chris told us a few off color jokes of his own. I’ll spare our blog audience from having to read these, but if you’re really curious ask me about beef stroganoff later.

At the grove we were served very sweet liquors like coffee liquor. We took a sip (and found it overwhelmingly sweet) but then they added chocolate and fresh cream to it and it tasted sooo good. The owner did offend some, but we had prepared for it so it didn’t seem as shocking. We tried some beers too, that were ok. By that time in the day we were too drunk anyways to be doing thoughtful tastings.

As we left the bar, our retired nurse friend pointed to a sign on a tree that said ‘watch out for drop bears’. Carl told her that the American embassy had issued an official warning about drop bears and she looked at us in surprise and said “really?!” (No, not really, but google it).

Chris then drove us back to our hotel. We knew we needed to eat, but the all day drinking had made us lazy and indecisive. We walked to a nearby restaurant called Burger Baby. The place had an old timey aquarium vibe to it and served craft beers and craft burgers. We split a burger and somehow managed to drink a couple more beers. The first beer we got was a spicy and juicy peach and habanero IPA. It was pretty spicy!

We stumbled back to our hotel. We stayed at the Bridgefield Guest House, a historic hotel that was built in 1889 and claims to be the first guest house along Margaret River. Our room seemed to be an add on to where the covered porch used to be. The common area had wood paneled walls covered in collected knick knacks. There were several large couches and a big tv on the wall (and none in the room) so we made ourselves at home. We watched some Australian version of jeopardy before heading to bed.

Thursday, May 26

We woke up fairly early to get on the road. Our first stop was to Hamelin Bay to try to see some stingrays. We’d heard that there were tons of rays here and that it would be possible to see them from the pier. Well, the tide seemed far out and the pier seemed demolished so we couldn’t see any rays. But, the beach was still gorgeous. We walked up and down a bit before getting back into the car.

Feeling a bit nauseous from the prior day’s activities, we weren’t in a hurry to get breakfast. We let fate take over. Indeed, in the town just before our next location we discovered a cafe that sold meat pies. When I visited New Zealand I had been a vegetarian and had missed out on meat pies. On this trip I couldn’t wait to try one. I got a beef and cheese pie and Carl got some sort of minced meat with carrot. Both were good and proved a perfect hangover snack.

Shortly after we arrived to Gloucester National Park. The main attraction here is the Gloucester Tree which was used as a fire lookout in the 1950s. At some point, rebar pegs had been drilled into the tree, in a clockwise direction up and around it.

These pegs are still there and visitors can climb them, all 53 meters to the top. There’s a net on the right to keep you from falling to the side. There’s also two layers of pegs so in case you slip and fall off backward, pegs might catch you. If you slip and fall forward, through the pegs, you die.

I thought Carl would at least be a little scared but he scaled right up like an eager, energetic koala. I, on the other hand, was realizing with physical clarity that I was hungover and shaking. Some deep, measured breathing, and out loud self motivation, and I was pulling myself up, one rung at a time.

Every once in a while Carl would shout down to ask whether I was ok and I’d realize how high up I was and get scared again, flummoxed that he wasn’t having any issues with it. Finally we reached the top platform and looked around at the surrounding canopy. We were really up there!

I asked Carl to go down first, to scare away anyone that might be thinking about climbing up while I wanted to climb down. It was bad enough climbing up, imagine trying to go down while someone else is trying to come up at the same time! Luckily for us, there were very few people in the park. The only other car was a tour van full of an elderly group that had a picnic at the base of the tree. They had no interest in climbing but were eager to hang around on the ground and tell us how brave we were and ask ‘so waddya see up there?’

We had a nice 1.5hr drive to the next stop, Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk to see the Tingle and Karri trees. Tingle tress are big, old (~400 years old), reddish eucalyptus trees that are endemic to Western Australia. They have sensitive root systems so the best way to bring tourists near them is via an elevated, metal walking path that winds through the trees, 40 meters (130 ft) in the air. It was a pricey admission fee but we were nearly the only people there. Walking amongst the crown of trees, we were able to appreciate how tall and old the forest is. Later, as we came out of the bathroom, we heard a kookaburra laughing at us.

After the skyline walk we decided to do the ancient empire walk which winds along the forest floor around the hallowed out trunks of prehistoric trees. A lot of the tingle trees have trunks which have been hallowed out from pests or fire or both, with the rest of the tree living on around it. It was like the big redwood trails in CA where you can walk through trunks except these were all naturally formed.

Then it was time to get back in the car to begin the long journey home. After leaving the park the next several towns were all tree themed with restaurants like ‘tree view cafe’. We stopped at a gas station cafe to get some coffees and a snack before the 5 hour drive. They sold meat pies so we thought “why not?” and got two.

Unlike your typical gas station coffee, this place had a full espresso machine. We asked for coffees and the guy responded “what kind?” I shrugged and said “like an americano would be fine.” He looked at me like I was speaking another language. That’s when I remembered the Australian terminology for coffees (how could I have forgotten??) I asked for a flat white and a long black. Then he nodded in understanding.

Then I asked if he could fill up my water bottle with tap water. He looked at me with disgust and said, “you don’t want to drink the tap water here” and then got out his personal! water bottle from the fridge. He said the station’s tap water is treated and tastes horrible but he brings his own water – collected rain water – from his house. I tried to refuse his offer but he insisted.

So, refueled, we drove back to Perth. We admired the sunset from the car and after, ogled at so many stars as best we could while driving down the freeway.

Finally we reached Martin’s house at about 8pm. We hadn’t realized but Karen and Martin had been waiting for us to eat dinner. So Martin sneakily went out and got some curry chips – french fries with sides of curry and gravy – and some fried onions, and crab sticks. We ate and caught up on the past two days before heading off to bed.