Noosa

Our original plan went down in flames this morning. Our intention was to ferry to then walk across Fraser Island and spend the night at a hostel on the ocean. Instead we were told that our planned hike of 35km was futile in a single day due to the remoteness of the island and that guided tours (at a few hundred a person) were the only way you could visit. We also overslept and didn't have any food, didn't pack for the excursion, didn't have a room on the island and didn't know the ferry schedule so I guess this wasn't too much of a surprise. So after a quick breakfast in Hervey Bay we set our sites south for Noosa National Park where we spent the day hiking through forest and along coasts and bays - probably amonst the nicest either of us have seen. In additon to the landscapes we also spied exotic birds, Australian turkey, a flock of naked men sunning on rocks (we learned that Alexandria cove is the home of the annual nude Olympics), and a koala bear!

After watching the sun set with a glass of Australian wine at Dolphin Point we headed on further south and are now settled into our studio apartment just north of lovely Brisbane.

1,183

That is the number of kilometers it took two Americans to perfect driving on the left side of the road and the number of kilometers from Sydney to Hervey Bay which is about 300km north of Brisbane. What has brought us here is the lure of the largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island, which was previously known by the aboriginals as Paradise. So after 15 hours of driving a highway that seemed reminiscent of stories we here about travelling Route 1 prior to I-95 we have arrived and have no idea what this place looks like but we can hear the ocean from our motel (we 'splurged' into a budget, off-season room) so that is cool.

Our plan for tomorrow may be futile in that we likely have not planned enough, but if successful would result in an overnight, oceanfront stay on Fraser Island. We will be up early to give it our American best and if we fail we are sure we can find something to do in tropical Australia.

Here are a few roadtrip highlights:

- we were dropped off at the rental car agency in a Mercedes...that is something right?
- we spied 2 wallougby's, 1 kangaroo and 0 koalas on the way up.
- this country has the most respectful, law abiding drivers anywhere in the world. We literally saw one person pass on the left (equivalent of passing on the right at home) and maybe 4 speeders. In 15 hours!
- Amanda shocked us all with the following quote at a rest stop north of Brisbane: "so we are sure we don't want McDonald's french fries?" We got french fries :)

Another Manly Day

Yesterday (June 28th) began at the Queen Victoria building. Not to see the architecture, which is very nice, but to buy our very first travel book of thos trip, the impaxt of which will be felt this upcoming week. With a modest success behind us we set out for a walk through the Sydney Harbour National Park in Manly. The place is incredible on its own merit, but when you consider that this is the harbour to a world city it is even more impressive. We didn't think that it coild take too long to walk (how big could this park be?) so we were pleasantly suprised to spend nearly the entire afternoon there. Here are some pictures so you can see what we are talking about...

Rooty to Surry

Yesterday was a cool, rainy day here in Sydney so we kept it easy and saw Prometheus at the world's largest iMax (no big deal) and ate at Din Tai Fung - our new favorite restaurant that we were first introduced to in Shanghai.

For today we relocated from Rooty Hill, a pretty boring town and a hell of a commute from Sydney, to Surry Hill, a really nice burrough of Sydney. Our host for the next few days is Ron, a retired cattleman from Perth who is trying AirBNB for the first time. He is a pretty funny, really nice grandpa type who LOVES Betty White and thinks American politics are a train wreck. We have lots to agree on, until he finds out we are veggies.

For other activities we sauntered down to Circuilar Quay before deciding today was a Bondi Beach day. This is an area just south of Sydney proper which is really cool in the winter but must be awesome in the summer. We were finally able to dip our toes in the Tasmanian Sea, which was still rather warm (Brian should know, he got caught by a wave), and caught sight of a double rainbow but only most of the way across rhe sky.

Good on ya.

Sydney Manly

We have only spent one day exploring Sydney and yet we cannot identify any large city that is quite as nice. We first visited a botanical garden that felt like a out-country park despite being just feet from the harbour. We then navigated around the thousands of exercising Sydnians  on the harbour path, seeing the opera house, Circle Quay and the harbour bridge. After a brief tour of downtown we ferried around to Manly beach and the adjoining areas. We can't wait to see more tomorrow.

Southern exposure

Just a note, we have completed our travel day from Shanghai to Australia and are currently in Rooty Hill outside of Sydney. As a result of leaving the Chinese censors behind we were able to get our pictures updated for our China posts.

Also another time update. We are now +14 hours EST.

A Shanghia bar crawl

First to catch up we had a nice, relaxing Thursday where we walked the Bund (old colonial center of Shanghai) and had dinner and drinks at Pat and Michelle's. This rather calm day was in preparation for our last night in Shanghai which we celebrated last night with Pat, Michelle and Erin.

Stop one: 60 minute full body massages

Stop two: Italian dinner on a rooftop patio

Stop three: Drinks at Kommune in Tianzifan

Stop four: Drinks at Bell in Tianzifan

Stop five: Drinks at a misc restaurant that offered us half off and our own patio...still in Tianzifan

Stop six: Outdoor tiki bar...still in Tianzifan. Have we mentioned that Tianzifan, or 'Tons of Fun,' is awesomw?

Stop seven: Nightclub on the 93rd floor of the World Financial Center. And nightclub is a loose term, we were the only people there (despite the place being brand new and about 1200 feet high) and still could not get a request played. Fortunately iPhones have made DJ's obsolete so we played our own set and sang Sweet Caroline loudly which probably confused/scared the Chinese staff.

Stop eight: Pat and Michelle's until sunrise.

And with our bodies recouperating we are preparing to hop our plane to Sydney and return to the world of strangers after such a nice week with friends.

Communist Party Museum

Today we took a trip to the Communist Party Museum where the Communist Party of China was founded.  It was a lot more understated that we expected, to be honest, but probably the most interesting aspect of this museum is how you get there (we have a great map drawn by Michelle that we will share when we get to Australia).

You go to the Xintiandi shopping district, a really nice / upscale outdoor shopping area, go past the starbucks and a series of outdoor restaurants and take a left before reaching the multi-plex theater and mall.  If you get to the antiques dealers you have gone to far. Probably more than any other trip so far in China that one best sums up the contradiction.

For today, it appears we have nice weather so hopefully a nice walk to century park and a ferry ride are in order.

The Next 48 Hours

Another 48 hours in Shanghai and we are still as impressed as when we first got here.  From the couch we are writing from we can see a building changing through rainbow colors spelling out positive slogans in English and Chinese, can see the Pearl Tower, the 90 story YinMao building, the 100 story World Financial Center (bottle opener building), another under construction to dwarf them both and an uncountable number of other sky-scrapers.  We keep waiting for the weather to clear to go have a drink in the bar on the 93rd floor of World Financial Center which will hopefully happen in the next few days.

Since we last wrote we have had the pleasure of meeting Pat and Michelle's friend Erin who joined us for Thai food and drinks last night (we limited our day to food shopping where we were baby'd from the second we walked into the supermarket until we left) and who today served as our guide for a tour of the Yu Garden's, temple and some side alley's so we can see how the "other" China lives.  Tomorow's agenda includes the Communist museum, a European square and, hopefully, a jog around the Bund to see Shanghai straddling their river.

72 Hours in China

After about 21 hours of travel we finally made it to Shanghai on Saturday where we were welcomed by Pat and Michelle (and Mr. Shu).  Rather than sleep we powered through the day, first stopping for lunch, margaritas and bootleg DVD's at a shockingly good Mexican restaurant.  Afterwards we spent a few hours relaxing in the Pat and Michelle's amazing apartment in the Pudong district, which is near the famous Bund and surrounded by 80+ story buildings, before heading out for a Chinese dinner followed by drinks at Sasha's.

Sunday was another productive day where we went about an hour outside of Shanghai to Zhouzhang for a walk around it's water town (akin to Venice on an older, smaller scale) where we learned several important lessons from Pat like: 1)check the tops of water bottles to make sure they weren't filled with untreated tap water and glued together; 2)wash utensils and plates in hot tea water before using, 3)Mao Zedong oversaw the creation of some really creepy propoganda videos, and 4)Chinese really love pork knuckles.  After this was delivery for dinner (they have a service here called Sherpa which will pick up take-out from about any restaurant and bring it to you for 14 chinese yuan, or $2) and finally a long nights sleep.  13 hours to be exact.

Regarding these posts, we will unfortunately not be able to add pictures until we get to Australia.  Websites that allow people to blog are blocked over here so we are using a virtual private network to get around it, unfortunately our pictures are on our phone and not this computer.  We will let you know when the pictures have been updated and they will be worth looking at as this city is visually very interesting and just the view from the apartment we are staying in is spectacular.