Category Archives: The Big Trip

Sydney

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We got to Sydney around 4pm yesterday.  The flight was pretty quick (just under 3 hours), and we easily grabbed our bags and hopped in a taxi.  We were pretty surprised that the taxi driver wanted the address to the hotel.  I think that the Park Hyatt in Sydney is fairly well known.  He was Asian and there also seemed to be a slight language barrier (which we weren’t expecting).  Luckily, we both had SIM cards in our cell phones, and we quickly looked it up.

Justin warned me that the Park Hyatt Sydney does not do automatic suite upgrades for the diamond members.  However, they are supposed to upgrade you to the the best available non-suite room.  Most of the hotel has an incredible view of the Sydney Opera House and a balcony overlooking the harbour.  We didn’t get either of those things.  The person checking us in said that the hotel was completely booked, and they couldn’t upgrade our room.  Justin was pretty disappointed by this, as he was really looking forward to taking pictures of the Opera House from our room (I’ll let him go into more detail about it).

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Singapore Wrap Up

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Singapore was a very quick stop for us.  We were there for 3 nights, and one of our two full days was raining.  That said, we liked what we experienced of Singapore.

Singapore culture is a blend of many different cultures.  Per Wikipedia, the majority of the country is of Chinese ancestry with “significant minorities” of Indian and Malay people.  We definitely noticed the Indian population; the Malaysians were probably pretty difficult to distinguish from the Chinese.

As a result of all the different backgrounds, Singapore has four official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.  English is the most common with roughly 80% of the country literate in English.  Also, all official government business is conducted in English.

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Singapore In Pictures

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Here are our pictures from Singapore…It may seem like a lot of zoo pictures, but that was mostly what we did in Singapore: our first day was the zoo and the second day it rained.

Also, I just wanted to remind y’all that our Smugmug site serves two pruposes:  The first is to show our pictures to everyone.  The second is to act as a backup for us should some sort of computer disaster happen during the trip.  So, if the pictures seem repetitive, that is the reason.

Anyway, I think they came out alright.  Here are some; the rest are at the link.

 

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/Singapore/27927966_hqCNqb

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Port Douglas

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I can’t belive that it’s almost time to leave Port Douglas!  We have had so much fun, but we’ve been busy!

Yesterday, we visited the Wildlife Habitat and had Breakfast with the Birds.  The Wildlife Habitat is a little different than a zoo.  You really got to enter into their environment, rather than observing the animals from an enclosed space.  There were tons of birds flying around.  I am not a big fans of birds…..bad childhood experience (those birds in City Park are aggressive!). The highlights of the Wildlife Habitat were: getting to hold the koala bear and feeding the kangaroos/ wallabies.

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Thailand Wrap Up

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“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”…This was our reaction stepping off the plane in to the Bangkok airport.  We left quiet, orderly Japan and arrived in louder, unorganized Bangkok.

Although we and Thailand got off to a rocky start, we’ve grown to love it.  The activities have been so much fun, and extremely reasonably priced.  The food has been delicious and dirt cheap.  Plus, not having to get dressed up for dinner every night was just what the doctor ordered.

The Thai people have been extremely friendly and are just as trustworthy as the other Asian countries we have visited.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect because I had read some things about Bangkok and tourist scams that made me have my guard up (though I am sure the scams/pickpockets even in Bangkok pale in comparison to Europe).

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Great Barrier Reef!

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Well, we made it to Australia!  Australia and New Zealand are how this whole trip got started, and I can’t wait to see what they have to offer!

We took the Qantas airbus A380 from Singapore to Sydney (a super big double decker plane). This was our second first class flight (the other one was the Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong). Of course, we wanted to get the full experience!  Go big or go home. Well, we should have gone home. The flight was only about 7 hours.  When they woke us up for landing, we were both sick as dogs! It’s hard to resist free flowing booze. We’re only human…..although neither of us felt human by the end! It must have been poisoned wine.

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Koh Lanta, Thailand In Pictures…aka: Sunsets and Diving

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I apologize for the excess of sunset pictures (again)…It was just the photographic equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel with the beautiful sunsets everyday.  The rest of the pictures are from Scuba diving.  Some have much better color than others; the shallower depth the picture was taken at the better it could be corrected by adjusting the white balance.  Deeper pictures (past 40′ without strong sun light) tend to look greenish blue either way.

Some pictures are below.  All of them are on the Smugmug site in full size:

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/Koh-Lanta-Thailand/27842153_dQtMQS#!i=2348549074&k=dS5QCwF

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The first class “flu”

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We both got it 🙁

Probably due to a combination of factors: too much fun in the lounge and in the beginning of the flight, too short of a flight (ie not enough sleep), and the fact that we had to get off the plane at 3:00 am Singapore time.

We both felt “like ass” (Justin’s words) getting off the plane and grabbed our barf bags for the first time.

Luckily, we are starting to feel human again.  Our next flight leaves in about an hour.

No pictures this post…..we are not looking too good :-/