Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
A is for: Asia and Australia, HERE WE COME!
Hello Mates and Selamat datang!! Come along with me on a long-anticipated journey to the island of Bali and a 2-week “walkabout” to FOUR destinations throughout Australia. If you’re interested in hearing about the stories we create as we wander Down Under, hop onboard, subscribe on in, say G’day, and leave a comment. I know perfectly well that this is not a Disney Parks trip report, but this is where I’ve posted since 2007 and until they kick me off to the other sub-forum, I’m going to defiantly stay here.
I’ll start by introducing myself. I go by Steppesister around here; once upon a time a million years ago, I lived on the windy, barren steppes of Central Asia (for about 10 years) in the loneliest part of Kazakhstan. For those of you who I’ve had the incredible privilege of meeting or talking to in person, you know me by Liesa.
I have a passion for international travel and got much of my inspiration and “calling” through growing up in the Disney parks. I even worked a short stint at Disneyland as a hostess in the Blue Bayou Restaurant in college. There are so many places that the Imagineers brought to us from around the world and my heart wants to see, taste, touch, smell, and experience the real thing.
Aside from loving Disney and travel, I dabble in photography, live half my year in Kentucky and half in Tucson. I am currently in my 4th of 5 terms of Nurse Practitioner school and, at the time we set off for this trip, I’ll (God-willing) have completed ALL of my coursework didactics and be starting my Clinical rotations in May. I’ll be spending time in a Family Practice, in a Community Health Clinic, and at an Urgent Care. There’s light at the end of a very, very, very long and extremely difficult tunnel.
I have 5 wonderful “kids”- 3 married (more on this in a bit), and 2 still single. Best of all, I have 6 beautiful grandbabies and another on the way. They are all scattered to the winds, and I don’t get to see most of them as nearly as often as I’d like. But my 5th is my “traveling buddy”. Anara went with me to Italy a year ago and we seem to travel well together.
Now… onto the particulars. None of these destinations were really even on my bucket list when the opportunity came up to head that way. So why AM I even going then? My middle daughter (#3) is getting married about 3 hours south of Manila in Batangas/Laiya. She’s already legally married on paper but wanted a destination wedding/Honeymoon so I thought it was kinda important that I help her celebrate. Her all-inclusive looks lovely!
Of her 4 brothers and sisters, only Anara is able to financially swing it. She wanted to go to Cambodia and Thailand (where she was born) but couldn't find anyone to go with her. I’ve been to Thailand 3 times and wanted to experience someplace new. At first, she sort of begrudgingly agreed to go with me because she’s got the wanderlusts as bad as I do. Now she is as super excited to go as I am. She has been a great trooper in helping me plan a bit and we’ve found ways to connect over clothes shopping, list making, even virtually packing together on Instagram Video.
After the wedding Anara will spend the next few days with her dad and stepmom (not gonna lie, it’s going to be fairly awkward with my ex there) somewhere else in the Philippines (not sure where but maybe Palawan?). While she is doing that, I am going to head to the island of Bali for 5 glorious days of touring the rice fields, ancient temples, and waterfalls.
I’ll be staying in Ubud, the cultural capital of the island and have so many plans!!! The Sacred Monkey Forest is on my list, along with a half day spa treatment (for $65!!!!!), a half day cooking class, 2 long driving loops with a pre-arranged driver, tasting Indonesian coffee (yes, I’m going to try Kopi Luwak- look it up!), and visits to a couple of traditional villages. All of this is independent travel. I try not to do group tours as I want the freedom to pace the day myself with plenty of time to photograph without someone telling me it’s time to get back on the bus.
From Bali, Anara and I will meet up in Adelaide, Australia and continue our touring. We’ll only have a very short evening in Adelaide-just long enough to do laundry. LOL! Early the next morning we’ll catch a coach transfer to the ferry that will take us to Kangaroo Island just off the coast south of Adelaide.
For the next 4 days our dream is to see as much wildlife as possible! Word has it that kangaroo and wallaby are ubiquitous. So much in fact, that we’ve been warned to not drive past dusk as crashes with animals are pretty common. But beyond that we really hope to see KI Seals, echidnas, platypus, koalas, and the many birds on the island. We’ve got not one, but two, private guided wildlife tours booked and have 3 driving tours all mapped out which will take us to 3 lighthouses and scads of beaches over the 4 days.
After our wildlife and hiking-heavy stay on Kangaroo Island we’ll head back to Adelaide before we fly to Hobart, Tasmania for a 4-day whirlwind driving tour of that island. Once again it will be heavy on the landscape and scenery type of tour. But we do have some fun things planned. We’ll stop at Seahorse World in the north, visit some tidepools, and take a boat cruise to Wineglass Bay all hoity-toity like. Anara is going to pass for some alone time and sit on the nearby beach. As we complete our circuit back to Hobart, we’ll stop at Port Arthur to visit the historic penal colony compound and learn more about the history of the prisoners that were exiled here to live out a harsh life of toil.
The Red Center is our next destination. From Hobart, we’ll fly direct to Alice Springs so we can explore the red interior, The Outback, The Bush, and do some hiking at both Uluru and Kata Tjuta- the massive monolith red rocks that are so iconic of Australia. I am having some pretty serious issues with my knee and really hope that I can do these hikes. If you have followed me long enough, you might remember that when I moved to Bowling Green, KY I stepped wrong with a box coming off my U-haul and tore my MCL. I had surgery on it, and it was fine for a couple of years, but something went very wrong with it again a few months ago and I probably need another surgery to fix it. Other than hiking some on the only couple of trails out there, there isn’t much to do, so our plan is to head back to Alice Springs where I have a lovely Airbnb reserved for a couple of nights. Taking it easy and resting, maybe doing some laundry, and a trip to the Desert Museum is probably all we’ll do.
Our next stop on our grand tour of (some of) Australia is Fitzroy Island off the coast of Cairns. Big cities just don’t interest me quite as much as finding places with fewer people and that are more nature-focused. I know that Australia is world-famous for its Great Barrier Reef so I couldn’t leave the country without experiencing it for myself. While I don’t SCUBA (yet- I’m seriously thinking about getting certified!) I have done some snorkeling. I spent weeks researching the best places for beginners to go to see the best reefs and fish and wanted a place that I could snorkel from shore. Fitzroy was affordable and has easy access, as well as being shore-accessible. So, I booked us 2 nights/3 days on the island at their resort which also has some nature walks, 2 restaurants, a turtle rehab facility, and rentable gear.
Back in Cairns, I’ve got us booked at 2 separate places, one mid-end, and 1 cheap hostel for 2 nights. We added an extra day to our trip because when I started researching flights and prices, the difference truly was made up with a cheap hotel AND a rental car than taking the earlier flight. But this was perfect because when I made the decision to add that extra day, I needed to find something to do. I had NO idea that the Daintree Rain Forest is RIGHT there! It’s the oldest rainforest in the world and is home to the giant cassowary bird. Holy smokes! I was stoked to learn that and can’t wait to go on a cassowary hunt just like Russel and Carl!! Yes, we’ll be very careful.
And that, my friends is how to take a long, well-deserved break between classes and Clinicals. Best of all, I get to connect with one of my kiddos and make some nice memories with her. I wish I could say that I’m closer to the other kids, but they are busy with their own families and can’t travel with little ones.
A few miscellaneous tidbits:
Both Anara and I have committed to traveling with ONLY carry-ons for this month-long, international trip. YIKES!! Can it be done? With camera gear, clothes, everything we need? We’re about to find out! We did our packing together just yesterday and for now, everything I need seems to fit into my two small bags. The last thing to go in is my mother-of-the-bride dress which is still being altered.
We’re taking 10 flights total; it’ll be very, very interesting to see if any are cancelled or delayed along the way!!!!
I needed 2 country-specific visas, one for Indonesia, and one for Australia. Yes, you read that right! Tourist visas are needed for Australia! Traveler beware!
The amount of time I’ve taken to obsessively plan and make arrangements for this trip… from hotels, to itineraries, researching hours of operation for every single thing I’ll be visiting, and where to go and what to see… everything… has taken months. And I still, even up until last night found some mistakes! I caught not one, but two hotels I’d forgotten to cancel which would have amounted to about $250 in wasted money! I’d even forgotten that we weren’t flying home from Cairns and we didn’t have a flight from there to Sydney. Jeez Louise!
Anyhow, I’ve got 11 days left before we leave. I’m going to go ahead and post this now, so there is a place to post a few, like 5 or so, from each day. In the past with all of my other TR’s I’ve posted a Pre-TR then turned it into the regular one so it’s all in one place. I’ll stick with that since it’s worked well so far. However, a word of warning and a request for grace. I’m still trying to finish up my TR from my Italy/Greece trip a year and a half ago and am pretty focused on that as well as writing my LAST 2 papers for my program before I go. (The last 2 papers of my didactics/coursework before Clinical start). I have several things I want to do here on my 5th wheel as well if there is any time leftover, so my replies may be very delayed. I will absolutely do my very best to give this TR the attention it deserves but sometimes it may have to take a bit of a backseat until I return on March 22nd. But rest assured, I will 100% read all of your comments and notes and will try my very best to give you daily sneak peeks of the trip in real time.
I will also forewarn you that it will likely take me a year, quite possibly more (maybe even much more) to finish this report. I won't apologize; I have many other commitments that come first.
So, sit back, put another shrimp on the barby, toss back a cold one, and enjoy Steppe’s Awesome Asia-Australian Adventure!!
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for sure!
