Monthly Archives: March 2013

Beach Bums

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I can’t believe that our time in the Maldives is over half way done!  We have been having a great time!  I think that this was the perfect ending to the big trip before we start heading home (6 more nights!).

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We have been doing alot of snorkeling and hanging out by the beach.  The snorkeling is incredible.  We have seen tons of tropical fish, coral, and reef sharks.  Unfortunately, I got sunburned the first day.  The sun is incredibly hot.  The Maldives is pretty much on the equator.  Even though I put on ALOT of sunscreen and had on my swim shirt, the back of my legs and butt burnt!  Now, I have to wear my wetsuit to snorkel, and I hate hate hate putting on my wetsuit.  Ugggggghhhh!

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The Great Ocean Road and South Australia In Pictures

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Here are the pictures from the Great Ocean Road and South Australia portion of the trip.  I put a bunch in this post – probably too many.  So, this post may be slow to load.  The link to all the pictures in full size is below:

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/Great-Ocean-Road-and-South/28486539_W9V4sX#!i=2413731568&k=CBxDDpJ

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Maldives

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We made it to the Maldives yesterday around 5am after 20 hours of traveling.  As I was sitting in a boat in the middle of the night after three flights, I was thinking “this better be worth it.”  To be perfectly honest, if someone told me that I could go to the Maldives or go home, I would have chosen to go home…..without hesitation.  I just wasn’t sure that I had another long day of travel left in me.  I was so terribly exhausted by the time we got here.  We collapsed into bed and looked forward to seeing the beautiful beach and water in the morning.

When we woke up, all the hours of traveIing immediately became worth it!  It looks like we stepped into a postcard: clear water, blue sky, and white sand.  It’s hard to describe and better than it looks in the pictures.

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Australia and New Zealand Wrap Up

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I’m working on getting some of my wrap ups done and will probably have more time in the coming days, but – until then – here are some thoughts from the second portion of our trip.

Trip Itinerary (click to enlarge)

Trip Itinerary (click to enlarge)

Arriving in Australia was great (outside of the fact that we felt like we had been run over by a truck).  Being able to have conversations with everyone around you for the first time in nearly a month was a very welcome return to normalcy.  Being able to look at a menu without being confused at all was another welcomed change…Outside of the fact that Aussies call appetizers “entrees” and entrees “mains.”

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Maldives, Here We Come!

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We are on our way to the last major stop of the big trip, the Maldives.  This is going to be a very long day!  We left the Chedi Club around 9 am, and we will arrive in the Maldives around 3 am!  It’s going to take 3 flights and a boat ride before we get to the hotel.  This is the itinerary: First, we fly from Bali to Singapore where we have a 5 hour layover (thank goodness for lounge access!).  Then, we fly from Singapore to Male (the main island of the Maldives).  Then, we fly to a closer island to the one we are staying.  Then, we have about a 1 hour boat ride to finally reach paradise!  I hope it’s worth it!

I’m typing this from the lounge in Singapore, so we have a while before we get there!

Here are a couple of pictures of how we spent our layover (plus one picture of my very favorite travel shoes!)

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See ya in the Maldives

XOXO Alyce

9 nights and counting……

 

 

Melbourne, Australia In Pictures

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Sorry for my absence posting lately…Between all the driving, managing the pictures, and keeping up with the planning – I’ve fallen behind.

Here are the pictures from Melbourne.  There are not that many, as we were only there for 3 days and did not take a whole lot of pictures.  I’ll try to upload some below; I know there have been some problems with opening up pictures on the site.  I’m not really sure why that is, but I’ll try to look in to it.  Though as always, it is best to view the pictures on the smugmug site.  Here is the link:

http://justinandalyce.smugmug.com/Other/Melbourne-Australia/28452745_Jf9khx#!i=2410186736&k=jCz2ZpM

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Exploring Bali

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We spent the day today touring the main attractions in Bali.  Around 9 am, our driver/ tour guide (Made) picked us up from the hotel.

First, we stopped at the Tanah Lot temple.  The temple sits on a large off-shore rock that has been formed by the ocean tides.  Because it was high tide, we weren’t able to get to the temple. But we took plenty of pictures.  The tour guide has really great about helping us get pictures together (something that is usually pretty difficult!).  Made explained to us that most of the people in Bali are Hindu, then Muslim, and lastly, Buddhist.

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Bali Scuba Diving

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Today was our first full day in Bali, and Justin arranged for us to go scuba diving in Padang Bai (a coastal city of Bali).  It takes about an hour to get there from Ubud, so we had to leave around 7 am.  They arranged for the restaurant to open early for us so that we could have breakfast before we had to leave.  We even ordered the night before, and they had it ready to go when we got there at 6:30 am.

The group we dove with is called Geko Dive.  The dive shop is located right on the beach.  It was only the two of us diving with the guide, so we got plenty of attention (4 staff on the boat plus us).  We did a 2 tank dive.

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