It’s been a crazy couple weeks. My cousin Barry, currently living in Malaysia, came to visit. It was a week I won’t soon remember. He did get me to try some Chinese “cuisine”. How it goes: He makes fun of me for not wanting to try it, Eva says that I’ll like it and I put it in my mouth. I survived!
We’ve been looking for medical masks for our flights and haven’t found anything that can arrive within 3 weeks, and we leave next Friday. A mask won’t change this, but it is a concern: if it’s determined upon arrival that one person on your flight has Coronavirus, the entire flight passenger list is quarantined for 4 weeks. We’re only supposed to be in Vietnam for 3 weeks and in Japan for less than 4 weeks. We are not, however, in the most fatal demographic, and we’re STOKED for the next, more exotic location.
Speaking of which, I’m gonna have PTSD from the past week at our AirBnB. Our host has been a meticulously overbearing passive-aggressive pest the entire time we’ve been here. Sometimes I don’t even know how she knows that we’ve given her something to complain about. She’s threatened to kick us out for hair in the bathroom and my not sitting down to do my wizz-biz. I’ve been seething the last couple days. We will NOT share an AirBnB for a long duration (2+ weeks) again.
On the plus side, we met this really great designer from Columbia who’s coming here to be a student and it’s exactly what we were hoping for on our travels… meeting interesting people with interesting life experiences. Eva’s out with her right now getting some quality girl-time and giving me some quality blog-time.
Sunday, we went to the Sydney Road “Street Party”, in quotes because the sign at the entrance said “Alcohol Free Zone” and they didn’t have free alcohol, so I had to assume this phrase meant it would be a very uninteresting “street party”. Beware: vendor tents and loud music and bored people abound.
Yesterday, we went on a tour to see the 12 Apostles, which is a series of 6 sea stacks (giant rocks jutting from the ocean), cleverly named to draw tourists to a very windy, very hilly, but mostly grassy area of coastal south Australia. We were later taken to an unpaved road lined with trees where we observed several Koala in the wild, a couple of which were actually awake! Great tour, highly recommended.
We’re wrapping up our Australian stay. We leave for Vietnam next Friday, March 13th and I couldn’t be more ready. Australia has been amazing apart from the beast who’s hosting us. Before then, I have 1 or 2 more concerts to go before I can write my Music Junkie’s Guide to Melbourne, Australia post, coming up next.
Tips:
Be thoughtful about long stays in shared apartments
Know that conditions will interfere with your plans and try to have a positive outlook – being over-cautious can get expensive and upset your adventure
Don’t go to the Sydney Road Street Party, it’s a long way to nothing
Really enjoyed hanging out with you guys! Happy travels & be safe!!