Feels like Florida

Yep, it's been four days now, and apartment life is bliss. Our complex is all painted in cheesy pastel colours and our view is of the tennis courts. The pool is a short walk through the grass, and the beach is just down the road. It's almost like we skipped the whole "real-life" thing and have retired in Florida. Maybe on Friday night we'll whip out the backgammon and reminisce about the good ol' days...

Check out some pics from our new place! And come on over for a visit, while you're at it. (We're the orange townhouse in the middle)

Movin' up

There will be no more drunken dinner serenades of "Sweet Caroline" for us-- we're officially moving out of Dougies Backpackers!

Thursday is the big day, where we pack up all of our worldly belongings and head a little further away from the tourists and more with the locals, to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-storey, furnished townhouse with our cool Canadian friends, Karen and Mark. We're all very excited to not get bug-bitten (me), not get our brand-new bottles of Coke stolen from the fridge (Adrian) and not have bandicoots rummaging through our tent (yes, one snuck into Karen and Mark's, and was caught red-handed, eating all of their bread). We're also very excited to have a TV we're in control of, solid walls (although Adrian and I had a good giggle when we heard one night, loud and clear, a real ripper of a fart emitted from a nearby tent), oh yeah-- and an oven and a freezer! First thing we're going to eat is hot apple pie with ice cream... mmm, have been dreaming about it for ages!! And in other news:

1. New address to come, and of course, photos!
2. We've been [finally] putting up pics on Flickr from Koh Tao, Koh Pha-Ngan, Hong Kong, and our first time in Melbourne. Sorry about the confusion... but we thought it was about time to make everyone drool over Thai beaches (and show you all what we did for the last bit of our real "vacation").
3. The Lonely Planet video contest deadline was extended to May 31. So help a traveller out and give it a watch/rate it if you have a chance! http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/Clip.aspx?key=1AFA989A02E84BDC .... Thanks everyone! xoxoxo, A&D

There's a Bandicoot in our Vestibule

It's always scary when you go to unzip your tent and you hear something -from inside- WHAP! against the tent wall beside your hand.

That's what happened last night when I went to get a sweatshirt. "Oh my God!" I shrieked, as a funny little rabbit-sized creature scooted out from under the front vestibule fabric (or, as I like to think of it- our porch) of our tent, and disappeared into the woods. I don't know what he was doing to our shoes, and I really don't want to know, either.

He's pretty fast (hence I have no picture of my own) and runs/hops like a bunny, digs like a groundhog, and rummages like a raccoon. Some of our camping neighbours have given him French names. The bandicoot that hangs around our campground is usually really cute and tame, but sometimes he just scares the crap out of you.

The bandicoot is just one of the creatures we'll miss if we finally leave the campground... but good news is we may be getting an apartment in Port Douglas. My legs are very happy, because maybe they'll get just 3 or 4 bites a night instead of 14.... And it's not mosquitoes (or mozzies, in Oz speak) that are the problem here, it's pesky critters you can't even see, called sandflies. We've had to coat ourselves nightly in bug spray, and I'm not even sure whether it's working. (Where's my 95% DEET when I need it?) Adrian doesn't get bitten as much as I do, but he's still appreciating the best Australian product we've discovered since Tim Tams- Itch Eze cream. It's like Afterbite, but instead of stinging your bites, it's got anaesthetic in it so your skin actually goes numb for a bit so you can actually get a decent night's sleep (or get through a job interview without looking like you have fleas). Maybe we'll start importing it into cottage country!

In other news... we have been following the Jays, thanks to their website, our people at home who send us news (thanks Dad, Bliss, Laura, Graeme, Neil, and everyone else!), and a cool podcast we found on iTunes called Jaycast. We love listening to it for a little nostalgia, and were absolutely thrilled when Jayscast hosts Colin and Steve read our email and said hi to us on the air! (Download Episode #6 to see how famous we are ;) Somehow the world feels smaller all the time.

Finally- the Lonely Planet video contest closes on Tuesday, so keep watching our monkey video.... pretty please! Miss you all, and keep in touch. And a big Happy Mother's Day to our moms and any other moms who may be reading (except down here you're a "mum")
-- Love D & A xoxo

Thoughts on behalf of Captain Planet...

Being in such a naturally beautiful place like northern Queensland definitely gets you thinking more about the environment. Last Thursday, Adrian, I, and a fellow Canadian hit an environmental forum at the town's community centre about the climate change and its effects on the Great Barrier Reef.

While some of what we heard was very much along the lines of the film An Inconvenient Truth (if you haven't seen it yet, now's the time!). Sure, we all know that climate change is happening, but what can we do about it? While we're trying to do our best to recycle and not litter along our travels, how do you deal with living in a hostel (ie. Dougies) that only recycles cans and corrugated cardboard? And worse, our workplace doesn't recycle anything-- and when we asked the office manager on our second day, she pretty much shrugged it off and said that even though Port Douglas residents have different bins for garbage and recycling, she's heard they all end up in the same truck anyway and are sent off to the dump. And while individuals in this country seem to be fairly eco-conscious, Australia (along with the U.S.) has still not signed onto the Kyoto Protocol. And then there's the masses of old cars idling and polluting on the roads (and the guilt we're feeling from wanting to buy a van and add to it...)

We also learned at this forum about coral bleaching, a phenomenon that's been happening more and more in the past few years. Basically, coral gets stressed out from water temperatures rising (as well as from changes in salinity, disease, pollutants, etc.) and bleaches, and if conditions don't normalize soon enough, a good portion of the coral dies. Apparently it's been happening all over the world, including the Caribbean, not too far from home. So, enjoy it while it lasts...

But despite all the doom and gloom, there are good things happening-- we hear more about green energy sources all the time here, and there is a lot of land (and water) being watched over by national parks. One great thing happening here in Oz is the progression from plastic shopping bags- grocery stores encourage shoppers to use eco-friendly reusable bags, and at $1 apiece, it's a small price to pay to reduce plastic use. I thought Canada was a little behind with this, but I just received an email from President's Choice promoting their own "green" grocery bags, and offering PC bonus points for shopping with them. Hurray! Maybe we'll return to a plastic-bag free country!

Extracurricular reading (c'mon, you're not on summer holidays YET!):
--> Info on coral bleaching from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

--> More about coral bleaching

--> The debate on how good these "green" bags actually are

--> Good job, Canada! Green bags by President's Choice

We need your help!!

Remember me?
Originally uploaded by bigquestionmarks.

Hey everyone!
Now is that time in our trip we need REALLY your help (and no, we didn't get all our bags stolen, and we didn't go broke at the casino... not THAT kind of help)

We entered a Lonely Planet's contest for coolest travel video, and we need you at home to watch and rate our awesome video as many times as you can! (pretty please :) At stake is a prize pack of everything Adrian needs to become a superstar travel videographer (Macbook & software, video camera) and money to buy our van!

We have until Tuesday, May 15th to get tons of votes. We're a lot behind since we just found out about the contest yesterday... tee hee but we have faith in our Angkor Wat monkeys! (and we've brought 'em back for the contest)

Please tell everyone you know to vote/watch (a few times is even better). Just click on the link and follow the instructions:

click here for our awesome monkey video!

Thanks so much to all of you for reading and watching!
Love Adrian and Dayle xoxoxo

Happy 100!

Captain Ron
Originally uploaded by bigquestionmarks.

Last night we thought for fun, we'd check the calendar and see how long we've been travelling. And we were both blown away by the fact that today is our 100th day! We would have a big party or something, but we happen to be spending it in a little town without a cinema, a convenience store, or even... GASP... a McDonalds! So instead, we did a bit of grocery shopping, applied for a (quasi) credit card, shared a really overpriced iced coffee, and I bought a cute $10 t-shirt. Who said we don't know how to party!
--------

In other news, yesterday a group of us set off into the mangroves in a teeny metal boat (think the ones you win on the Price is Right) in the heart of croc country. You know, craving a little danger. Well, it did get a little spooky when we almost got stuck in the mud (taking a few tree branches with us), but for the most part, I think we scared the crocs way more than they did us. We managed to spot two or three crocodiles, but couldn't get all that close. There's a lovely photo or two in our pics that you guys might mistake as a floating branch. Well, it's not! But the sunset cruise made for some nice scenery, and a whole bunch of new bugbites. Adrian showed off his new "humps" at karaoke later that night...







Indian Cow on Vimeo

The mystery has been solved!

Our little skittery friends from the beach have now been spotted-- and we have a positive ID. Read all about them here; apparently they can see 360 degrees, they eat flying bugs, and burrow at 45 degrees. We just love sitting on the Port Douglas beach and watching them making fields of "snowballs"... those crafty little devils.

Oh yeah...

Oops, just realized I wrote our postal code wrong... it's 4877 (NOT 4871). And check out our new pics on Flickr. (boy, we have a lot of spare time on our hands!)

Knock, knock... housekeeping!

We're very hard at work in our glamourous hosekeeping jobs... we've done 4 days now, and that's 4 days closer to getting that cool campervan. It's not the most fun, but there are perks, like watching March of the Penguins or music videos (on a pretty decent MTV-like channel) all day. Today we cleaned around a big green treefrog who was so lazy, he kept on sleeping while we windexed, vaccuumed, and mopped around him. He was even still around for a photoshoot, hours later when we were done our shift! (SOOO CUTE!)

We've also had a couple off-days- yesterday they didn't want to pay us a ton of money ($34 an hour) since it was Anzac Day, a public holiday, so we got the day off. Of course we spent it by the pool! There were festivities around our hostel, which was cool-- free BBQ, and then a bizarre gambling game called "Two-Up" which isn't much more complex than betting 10 bucks on heads or tails (see the photos in Flickr). Aussies love their gambling!

And Sunday we played tourists and hopped in a teeny rental car with French guys Martin and Stephane... we checked out the Tablelands- a big plateau with really different landscape than the coastal beach/jungle we're used to. We weren't as excited by some of it as our friends (ie. a bog that looked kinda like Algonquin Park, a lake that looked just like cottage country), so maybe we're a little spoiled for scenery in Canada. But some of it-- a giant, 500-year-old fig tree, huge
butterflies, a rainforest turkey, and even a brief glimpse of a platypus were pretty cool. (Our very-exciting platypus sighting consisted of roaming around a muddy creek at dusk, until we saw two slimy black rodent-like creatures splash out of the water and scurry under the roots of a giant tree. Maybe next time we'll try the zoo)

Bye for now- we're off to find some ant killer for our new roommates living above our tent... (they bite HARD and apparently you can make ice cream out of their hindquarters. ew!)

PS. Adrian is super-psyched about the new Flash CS3 beta and the Final Cut 6 release from Apple, but at the same time is sad because he can't tinker with any of it - it's the cruel duality of man and monster.

PSS. Adrian also started thinking in French because he's been hanging out with too many Francais' at Dougies.

The Big Tease

We just got off a sweltering, gorgeous couple of hours at the beach in Port Douglas. Workin' on our tans a little bit, playing with sand crabs, etc. It's all loads of fun until you think "Wow, it sure would be nice to go for a dip in that beautiful blue ocean a few metres away from our beach towel."

BUT YOU CAN'T.

Because the ocean up here is filled with tiny "marine stingers" that will hurt you really badly, or maybe even kill you if, in a lapse of judgment, you jump in. These little creatures are, most of the time, too small to see, and too transparent to really know if they're around. We're starting to wonder if the Aussies are just playing a big trick on the tourists...

But the countdown's on... the "locals" (which is another weird Port Douglas phenomenon-- nobody's REALLY, ACTUALLY from here originally) only a couple more weeks till we can go swimming, yay! In other good news, we got jobs without a problem; without even an interview... and worked our first day as housekeepers/porters at a gorgeous jungle-y hotel called Hibiscus Gardens. It was a lazy day of giving hoilday apartments the illusion of being clean and making some beds. Decent pay, and we made it to the beach by 3 p.m. Not bad! I think we could get used to this place. Except for waking up in a sauna of a tent today and wishing there was a store where we could buy a fan, that wasn't an hour away by car...
Missing you all, hope it's warming up back home :) xoxo, D&A