Fraser Island and The Gold Coast

Hey everybody! We've come to the end of our time in Australia, and it has been seriously great. In the last week we have: woken up in a bungalow in the middle of the jungle, faced-off with wild dingos, and caught fish so large, entire jetties broke under their weight (see pictures!).

Tomorrow, we'll be heading off to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as the cool kids call it, and then jumping off to the beautiful islands of Lombok and Bali in Indonesia. We're crossing the equator and moving from the sub-zero Australian winter (more like 80 degrees, actually), to the blistering heat and humidity of the Southeast Asian summer. We're looking forward to beautiful beaches, great food, cheap stuff, and climbing a 12,000 foot-tall volcano. Try not to be jealous. ADVENTURE HO!

Crikey! We're in Brisbane!

G'day mates! After a whirlwind first day in Australia, we've finally found some time to get to a computer. Brisbane is a beautiful city, and to answer what you're all thinking, yes....toilet water does drain in the opposite direction here...and it's awesome!

Brisbane has a very European feel and a very nice downtown with lots of bars, restaurants and parkland. The hotel that my dad booked for us in right in the city center within walking distance of pretty much everything. The best part about Brisbane is the amazing wilderness surrounding the city. You can literally be in rain forest and eucalyptus groves within minutes of downtown, snuggling a smelly Koala or, in Fiona's case, falling in love with and trying to steal a Kangaroo.

Before any reasonable hour tomorrow we'll be heading north to Fraser Island, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the world's largest all-sand islands. I'll try and put out another post while we're 4-wheeling it across the beach. 'Till Then.

LAX Terminal 5 is very fancy.

Hey everyone! It's May 17th and our trip has officially begun! Let me tell all of you that it has been 100% full-throttle action/adventure since minute-one. First stop? Fabulous LAX terminal 5. In case you've never had the pleasure of seeing it yourself, the carpet is a nice shade of off-blue and the french fries at the McDonald's here....awesome. Best I've ever had no joke (thanks for the tip, Agnes!)

Ok well that's all for now, check back in a few days for our first post from Brisbane, Australia. Until then, "Namaste you guys!"

Welcome to our Travel Journal!

Well, it's already May and in less than two weeks Fiona and I will begin our grand Australasian adventure. We're both super excited and busy gathering supplies, getting vaccinated (just finished my Typhoid pills today, score!), and taking care of last-minute logistics. For those of you who haven't overheard us bragging, we will be traveling through Australia and Southeast Asia for the next two months. Some of the countries we plan to visit include Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. Right now our plans are very fluid and we only have major airfare booked. Though we plan to do some trekking and volunteer work in Indonesia, beyond that we are just going to wing it and see what happens.

Over the course of our trip, Fiona and I will be updating this website and accompanying blog with pictures and commentary about our travels. As we make our way through Australia and SEA, our photo map will fill up with lots of little photo-linked thumbtacks showing where we are and what we have seen. We hope that you check back every so often to see how we're doing and try to live vicariously through our awesome adventures.

Anyway, that's all for now. We are leaving Los Angeles on May 17th so look for some awesome blogs from the road (or sky) around that time. Peace!