I Miss Tacos Already

Gili T., Indonesia

maxvedder — Sat, 8 Mar 2014 19:56:00 GMT

Situated between Bali and Lombok (Bali’s Eastern neighboring Island) are the Gili’s. Three small circular islands that form a kind of tail off Lombok. Gilli Tarawangan (aka Gili “T”), the largest, is supposed to be an incredibly relaxing spot void of cars, motorbikes, dogs, and police. Our friend Terri talks us into taking a trip to meet her there and we agree it sounds good. We take a fast boat over and relax on the roof of the boat as we whizz by tiny islands. We stop off at Lombok, Gili Air, and Gili Meno before finally arriving at Gili T. We befriended a French/Dutch diving couple on the boat over so we decide to find accomodation together since we will have more buying power as a group. We get a decent room for about $10 a night and head out for a swim in the white sandy beaches. After we take a walk around the island we sneak into a 5-star resort pool. Two couples from Brazil and Finland who we could have sworn had been together for years, but had actually just met that morning on the boat as well chatted us up in the pool. We all promised we’d party later and Hil and I head back to the hotel after grabbing some booze. The room that looked decent during the day is dreadful at night. There are worms crawling out of the shower, mold on the walls, the bed looks like a crime scene investigation, and the door won’t lock. Hilary is doing everything she can to avoid crying. A few drinks in at our room we decide we are going to sneak back into the 5-star resort and sleep on the comfy lawn chairs next to the pool. We run back into our Brazilian/Finnish friends at the pool (who are REALLY getting to know each other now). They laugh at our predicament and tell the hotel guards that we’re with the band. This works like a charm and we fall asleep under the stars.

The next morning we relocate and rent some snorkeling equipment. We are walking down the road when we overhear some people next to us being hassled to rent some snorkeling gear. One of the girls replies, “I’m too drunk to buy anything!” Hilary laughs and commends her on a good excuse. After talking we realize these people are mutual friends of Terri the girl we were supposed to meet! (Terri never ended up making it to Gili T). We end up getting lunch together and renting stand up paddle boards. In their group it’s Luis from Mexico, Jessica from Florida, and Leiyana from California. I ride on Hilary’s board while she paddles and Leiyana grabs her own board and we paddle across to the next island over(Gili Meno) about 900 yards away. Its pretty hilarious watching these girls fall over every 100 feet screaming and laughing. They get the hang of it and we make it across and back. We hook up with the Frenchies and have a big feast with everyone. Hilary goes home early with the French couple so they can do yoga in the morning. I stay out drinking with Luis, Jessica, and Leiyana. Early in the morning I’m walking home to our bungalow when a 20 year old man in drag accompanies me. We are shooting the shit and he keeps getting touchier as we talk. He then offers me “his oral services”. I decline as politely as possible and we walk another 30 feet before he asks, “How about now?” I decline again, but he gets aggressive and jumps to his knees trying to untie my shorts saying, “this will be for free”. I scream “get the hell off me!” and start running. I run smack dab into a mosque. The daily 5am prayers are about to begin. I start walking and as soon as I hit the beach I come across one of the prettiest sunrises I’ve ever seen.

Hilary wakes up early the next morning and does yoga and breakfast with the French couple, and lunch with our other group of friends. Meanwhile, I’m nursing a little hangover. We end up all taking a glass bottom boat snorkeling trip (the glass bottom boat uses windows taken from somebody’s house) to each of the islands. We see a huge ship wreck, massive sea turtles, huge purple jellyfish the shape of slinkies, lion fish, and colorful coral. We end up all going out for seafood on the beach after. Hilary, Jessica, and Leiyana decide on the way home from dinner that they’re in need of some fish therapy. They try out a fish foot bath where Turkish fish eat dead skin off your feet! After her feet feel as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

We wake up and all say our goodbyes and hop back on the top of another speed boat back to Bali. We drink Bintangs, blast some rolling stones, and enjoy a rocky ride back to the mainland.

Photos: Gili T., Indonesia

maxvedder — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 21:16:00 GMT

Ubud, Bali

maxvedder — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 21:06:00 GMT

We learn that if we want to get out of the party areas and see more of the cultural side of Bali that we must take a trip up to Ubud. It’s still a touristy area that caters to the crowds and even more so since the release of the book “Eat, Pray, Love”. It’s a 1.5 hour trip which doesn’t seem far but can be daunting on a scooter. We start riding through the chaotic capitol of Denpasar and soon the big city leads to small towns, then little villages and finally green rice paddy’s and palm trees. We get lost several times but there is always a helpful local to point us in the right direction. It’s obvious to us when we arrive in Ubud. There is colorful and painstakingly detailed art that is displayed in the streets, on clothing, jewelry, and architecture. It begins pouring rain the second we pull into town. Big fat droplets come down. Not the kind that sting but the kind that will soak you in seconds. We grab a villa to stay in which looks like an Indiana Jones Jungle temple. We drop our stuff off and realize its Valentine’s day so we look for a restaurant. We find a great spot and end up ordering several large Bintangs (the tasty local cheap beer of choice) and have a great conversation with a couple 18 year old German and Italian kids about their journeys working in a circus in Australia. The next day we visit the Monkey Forest. Again it’s obvious we’ve arrived at the right place. The crazy macaque monkeys are everywhere! Scampering on people’s parked scooters, climbing power cables, and stealing peoples’ water bottles out of their hands! We pay an entry fee and buy some bananas. I wrap my bananas in newspaper because we had just watched a woman get her bananas robbed by monkeys within seconds of buying them. The forest is more of a jungle with a giant temple in the center. We wear sarongs (aka batiks), which are required to enter and check out the ancient temple which has monkeys hanging out everywhere. We grow braver watching how the monkeys interact with each other and people until we feel comfortable to let them climb on our shoulders and ride around with us. I open my newspaper to hand one a banana when another monkey figures out my tactic and runs at me and rips the newspaper out of my hand! Luckily there was only one left. He wasn’t satisfied that he got them all, and he meticulously turns each newspaper page one by one, giving the hilarious impression that hes catching up on world events. I tried grabbing the newspaper back as not to litter this holy site and he slaps my hand away! Another monkey steals a security guard’s rain jacket and runs into the tree with it, and the security guard responds by spending the next 30 minutes trying to shoot it down with a slingshot, having a standoff while the monkey obviously teases him! The funny thing about Ubud is it does give off a sort of “yuppy” vibe. There’s a lot of middle aged white people here to “find themselves” fueled by the book “Eat, Pray, Love” and the all-inclusive yoga retreats. This isn’t a bad thing, but you can tell there is a lot of phoniness in the way people talk about their experience here. “Oh that $30 dollar free form drawing class was so uplifting Rich, it really helped to release all the shackles society has been putting on us all these years. And, “this gluten free, free -range sandwich is absolutely scrumptious! I will have to take a $50 cooking class to show those fools back home what real cooking tastes like.” There’s a lot of 50 year old men clinging to ponytails and flowing white robes and single women looking to find their one true love. It’s not all a bad thing but it just seems like people want this place to be the one experience that will change their lives. Some people are trying way too hard to sound like they know the real magic of Bali, when they have only spent their vacation holed up in their all-inclusive retreat. Enough ranting… We do feel that there may be something to some of the classes and we do a yoga class in a huge wooden villa set in a garden valley as the sun sets. We also check out traditional Balinese dancing which is accompanied by an orchestra of 30 men playing gongs, flutes, and xylophones (aka Gamelin Players). The dancing is incredible and the crazy eye and finger movements of the women are just as much a dance as the body is. Ubud, for all the touristy happenings, is quite an extraordinary place, but we decide we want to go deeper into Bali’s undiscovered places. We take our scooter to drive up to the rim of an active volcano just north of Ubud. Along the way we get flagged down by a local who would like to show us his uncles coffee plantation. His uncle shows us his incredible property including caged Luwaks (or mongoose) that eat the coffee berries, let them ferment in their stomachs and then poop them out. This coffee is then roasted and ground and sold to places like L.A. for $50 a cup. He lets us try about 10 different coffees and teas including the one I spoke of. The man that flagged us down shares some Arak, a very heavy rice alcohol, before we head on our way. We end up doing a very similar tour on mountain bikes the next day that drops you near the volcano. From there you ride down through small villages, temples, and rice paddies, as little kids walking home from school throw out their hands for high fives as you ride by.

Photos: Ubud, Bali

maxvedder — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 18:28:00 GMT

Bali, Indonesia

maxvedder — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 18:20:00 GMT

After a layover in Singapore we arrive in Bali at about 10 pm. We are exhausted but its instant madness with about 30 taxi drivers grabbing our bags and trying to get us into 30 different cars. We fend them off and grab one candidate and get a ride to a hotel we had reserved in Kuta. It’s a got a beautiful garden in the courtyard and a huge swimming pool. The room is also super clean with A.C. (the weather here today is like living in an arm pit so A.C. is huge).

The next morning we head out to Kuta Beach to check out the scene. When we heard Bali is a paradise we imagined something a lot different. Kuta is disgusting. The beaches are full of trash; you wade out into the water only to have garbage bags wrap around your ankles, you get bombarded by locals asking you to buy things, and there are hammered 20 year olds everywhere. Trash, we find out, is relatively new to the island. Plastic bags and bottles were introduced to Bali as recently as 15 years ago. Just like in the 50’s in the United States when you would have a picnic in the park then simply shake off your blanket of trash into the lawn and head home. There is the same sort of mentality here. People just aren’t sure what to do with it so they either burn it (We’ve seen plenty of piles of just plastic bottles burning on the side of the road), or just toss it into the river where it will float out to the ocean. We grab a beer trying not to hyperventilate on this huge bummer of a place. Tim, a guy from Arizona, strikes up a conversation with us. He assures us this shithole area is only Kuta, and not a good representation of the rest of Bali. I turn around to see if Hilary is hearing this good news and I have to suppress a laugh. While Tim and I have been talking Hilary has been swarmed with woman trying to give her massages, pedicures, and sell her bracelets all at the same time.

We go back to the hotel and get on facebook and start chatting with Dustin Ederer, (who funnily enough was in Dustin’s and Bryan’s grade and has an older brother named Brendan Ederer). He lets us know he and his roommate run their house as a sort of hostel and we could stay there for about 12 US doll hairs a night. We check out his place and it’s huge! It’s basically a two story duplex with two of everything (bathrooms, kitchens, 2x rooms). We can even leave our huge backpacking backpacks there while we travel around the island on day trips. Matt, Dustin’s Hawaiian native roommate, sets us up with a scooter rental for the month. We are a little worried about this because we’ve heard horror stories about 3 Australian’s dying daily from motor bike accidents on Bali alone, and the way we have seen people drive so far we believe it. There are basically no laws and the police pull people over at their own discretion for bribes. We actually get the hang of it pretty fast and its ridiculously fun. If there are cars piled in front of you, you weave through traffic like a game of frogger or hop on the sidewalk to pass as many cars before traffic starts moving again. Everyone is constantly honking and it’s not in a “move it asshole!” kind of way. It’s more of a notice saying, “hey I’m coming up from behind and passing you, so be aware of where I’m at”. It saves a ton of money on taxi’s and we are able to go anywhere we want at a moment’s notice. Gas is ridiculously cheap as well. We drive every day and spend about $2 a week. Although one week, driving cost us $20 as we hit a police check point coming home from surfing. About 20 officers had 30-40 motorcyclists on the side of the road and were hassling everyone for cash. One pulled Hilary and I aside and said “Listen you guys don’t have international driving licenses and I could give you an expensive ticket where you will spend hours in Denpasar (the very hectic capitol) trying to pay it. Or you could fork over 250,000 Rupiah now.” Luckily, Hilary separated our cash a minute before so we showed him we only had 200,000Rp (we had just pulled out the max amount of US $200 at the atm). After talking to Dustin about this he told us that it’s a scare tactic to give you a ticket because they never do. It takes too much of their time to deal with having to go to court for a ticket so they just threaten people. They take as much money they can get off you and then move onto the next person. Mind you, they take you over into dark corners or alleys to threaten and hassle you and the reason for these corrupt checkpoints is usually because they have their Hindu ceremony coming up and everyone needs money to buy goods to offer for ceremony.

Most of our time in Bali is spent sightseeing or at the beach. In Seminyak (where we’re staying at Dustin’s) we drink beers in beanbag chairs watching hilarious Indonesian 90’s cover bands sing “Wonder Wall” and even flow with their best impression of a 90’s croon. In Uluwatu (Southern Bali) we surf one of the world’s best surf breaks. You walk down these zigzag steps that work down to the beach that have been built in the last 15 years to accommodate the surf culture. Then you walk through a beach cave and BOOM! a beautiful break is in front of you. The only problem is that there is about 100 yards of ankle deep water over live coral you have to walk over to get there. We see the locals walking over it barefoot just fine so we follow. About 50 yards in we are in serious pain. The locals never wear shoes and basically have rubber soles and all the white dudes, we come to find out, wear booties. We slowly make it out with some bloody feet but are rewarded with some of the longest left hand breaks of our lives. I even get a barrel! However. every wave sends you into the reefs where you try and keep your body as flat as possible or risk dragging your body against razor sharp reef. We leave and both our feet are cut up pretty good. We even pull a pretty good sized chunk or coral out of Hilary’s foot the next day. We also surf Canguu’s and get some good surf, but really it’s all about watching the locals who effortlessly sport aerial moves like the pros.

Living here is cheap but definitely not as cheap as the $10 a day lifestyle we read and heard about. Its about $13 for a room (if you’re lucky), $4-5 for each meal, $5 daily scooter rentals, and then paying for whatever fun thing you want to do that day. The rest of the time we kick back at Dustin’s place reading and writing, and watching $1 bootlegged movies you can buy anywhere on the street. I read Stephen King’s “The Shining” while Hilary reads Anthony Kiedis’s “Scar Tissue”. We also hit up cafes for free wifi and cheap tea. We each get sick once, after surfing because of the pollution in the water, but remain healthy besides those boughts. Dustin gets Dengue fever, a rare tropical disease that makes you feel as if your back is broken and causes you to crawl into a fetal position for 10 days. We are definitely wearing mosquito repellent after watching him suffer, however the mosqiotoes are almost immune to repellant and relentlessly sniff us out! The locals, meanwhile, are immune and it’s difficult to find good repellant that doesn’t cause your skin to melt.

It’s our last full day in Bali before we soar over the Indian Ocean to Phuket, Thailand. I have spent our last week in Seminyak ill in bed, so when my sickness subsides, Max and I are ready for one last mini adventure. We’re thankful though that we haven’t gotten even sicker. Apparently, almost every newbie to Bali gets “Bali Belly”, an adjustment illness that resembles food poisoning (Thank you probiotics!). Anyway, we decide that it may be one of Max’s last opportunities to surf for a while (Thailand isn’t a surfer’s paradise) so we might as well get him some waves while I soak in the Vitamin D and some sights. We head to Tanah Lot. From what we can tell online, Tanah Lot is a Hindu water temple that sits on an isolated cliff that looks as if it rose out of the ocean. There are surfers in the water in the photos, so we figure Max will get his chance at some waves. We arrive only to discover a sea of tourists and hawking stands. We have to pay not only to enter but also to park and we’re skeptical as we pull in. After zigzagging like cattle through the merchant market we can see the temple and the waves……that are crashing right on the rocks. A guy walks past us and scoffs at Max and his surfboard. We’re not convinced there isn’t surf to be had, so we walk around some tide pools toward a more southern beach. Walking along I notice a pack of young Balinese boys sticking their fingers in the crevices in the tide pools. Curious, I watch. I see and crab and point, when one in heart printed boxers shows me the little fish they’re catching, not crabs. He then sees Max and runs over to him, yelling “You surf?! You surf?!” Max asks him if there are more waves down further and he points to where we’re headed. Excited we continue, but the boy follows and a few others join him. The boy starts leading us to the shallow pools 50 feet away and starts pointing at the small residual waves crashing on the tide pools. “Ohhhhh….the boy wants to surf the baby waves!” Having seen little boys surfing on makeshift materials, we understand their enthusiasm and can’t help but enjoy it. The boy points at the board then to him, and Max is hesitant to relinquish the board because of the rocks. After all, we are borrowing the board from our host and don’t want to ruin it. I encourage Max to just go out with them to help them steer clear of the jagged rocks. Once the boys realize Max is going to let them go for a ride, they start running into the water, one even stripping down naked and sprinting in after Max. Max props the boys up one at a time and helps them catch waves while they eagerly shout “This one! This one!”. I can’t help but laugh, it’s such a cute scene, the boys splashing and playing, jumping all over Max and looking over at me for cheers and applause when they stand up for 10 seconds of glory! Max tries to high five them on their success, and their smiles fade and they start pointing to his opposite hand. Max was holding up his left hand, aka your wiping hand. They don’t want high fives from your poo hand! It’s so funny to see that immediate association and the reaction on their faces.

After a half hour of fun, it’s time for us to move on. The boys run off back to their tide pools and we continue to have no luck in search of waves. We give up and decide to go walk around the temple. We can’t enter the temple, but at the bottom there’s a fresh water spring coming out of it and we have the opportunity to wash ourselves like the Balinese do before they go in. We wash our hands, then our faces, and take a sip of the holy water and are then blessed by Balinese men with the water and have rice put on our foreheads and flowers in our hair (the rice on the forehead symbolizes that you have been to “Hindu ceremony”, similar to ashes on the forehead from Ash Wednesday). Our frustration melted into complete satisfaction and we scoot home to share one last meal with Dustin.

Photos: Bali, Indonesia

maxvedder — Mon, 3 Mar 2014 23:34:00 GMT

Melbourne, Australia

maxvedder — Mon, 3 Mar 2014 23:16:00 GMT

Melbourne is an amazing place. Everything is designed, and I mean everything. It’s a metropolitan city, but you never feel closed in. There are beautiful interesting parks every few blocks that have insane gardens plugged into every nook and cranny as well as eye popping sculptures that flow seamlessly with the landscape. The architecture of buildings is so open and inviting and vibrant that you don’t mind being surrounded by these towers even in the most dense areas. It also helps that we’re being hosted by Lexie, her sister Zoey, boyfriend Pat, and roommate Verity who are enthusiastic about showing us their city, and do it with much hilariousness at every stop.

We start off being taken by Zoey and her mom to the Victoria Market, a massive outdoor market where you buy all your meats(including Kangaroo meat), seafood, fruits, veggies, and breads by screaming dealers. We find out there’s a one-day music festival with some big names such as Lorde, Chvches, Earl Sweatshirt, and Frightened Rabbit. Without tickets again we have to plot and scheme how to get in. We will be coming out with a book next year: “Jumping fences, scaling mountains, dodging security, fake mustaches: how to sneak into Concerts”. We hit up a few salvation armies to find fluorescent vests(fleuros); the preferred uniforms of cheap security worldwide. We arrive at the show, me with the vest on and Hilary in all black trying to blend in as a food truck worker. We keep our story simple: Hilary got in a wreck on her way to work and now she’s very late and I’m supposed to escort her in. The first door we try the guy looks us over and exclaims: You can’t just put on a fluorescent vest and pretend you work here!” Are we that obvious? A little let down we try a few more and get more refusals. Finally we find a laid back worker who feels sorry for this pretty blonde lady who’s late for her burger flipping shift. Were in! Really great shows, but hot as hell all day! We get home to hear Lexie screaming. We run into the bathroom to find a 4” giant huntsman spider in the shower, I grab a bowl and slide a paper underneath and chuck the thing across the street. Hilary is thoroughly freaked out by now of a spider night raid on her body. After checking the room and assuring her everything is ok we pass out. Sure enough we wake up to find a massive, nipple-looking, spider bite on her neck. They smelled her fear!

We spend the rest of Melbourne hanging out with Hilary’s long lost cousins who throw us a “Welcome to Australia Party” and are extremely kind, fun and send us off with vegemite (disgusting) and tim tams (scrumptious) as well as a few bottles of local wine. Pat the youngest boy of the family takes us to see the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds), a massive 100,000+ person stadium. We also spend our time biking around the city with Lexie checking out museums and the inside of a few bars. The girls also take me to get my nose pierced (I’m a bleeder). Lexie’s mom’s friend lives in the Eureka tower, Melbourne’s tallest building. We are invited up for drinks and a panoramic view of the city. We are also schooled on the rules of cricket, where there are sometimes games that last 5 days and they incorporate breaks for tea. For our last couple days we are taken to an animal sanctuary (for Hilary) and the Cranbourne Gardens (for me). At the Healesville Animal Sanctuary we see duck billed platypus’, Tasmanian devils, tiny marsupials, we pet wallabee’s and have huge birds soar inches over our heads. At the gardens we see beautifully designed native plant schemes. The next morning we say our goodbyes and our off to Bali!

Photos: Melbourne, Australia

maxvedder — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 21:09:00 GMT

Lorne, Australia

maxvedder — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 20:47:00 GMT

Lorne- Wednesday January 29^th:

Lexie takes us on a day trip down the Great Ocean Road to a little place called Kennett River. We see koalas nestled and grumpily sleeping in Eucalyptus trees and head to the beach for some surfing! We’re lucky because her Uncle’s house has a massive supply of wetsuits and surfboards we can use. Max catches some waves and we relax on the beach for the rest of the day. Once it starts to cool down we head back home to the Jacuzzi to wind down and cook a feast. The house also has a Slurpee machine that makes alcoholic drinks. We decided this will be our first purchase when we own a home…

Lorne-Thursday January 30^th:

We pack ourselves back in the car and drive 3 hours along the coast to see the 12 Apostles, Australia’s answer to the Grand Canyon. The parking lot is massive and full of every type of tourist you’d meet in the states. There are plenty of Asian Selfie photos going down left and right. Also we spot a fad that we hope to bring home; Korean couples that buy matching clothes. I’m not talking about buying the same “I Love Australia” T-shirt, I mean buying the same $130 pair of neon yellow Asic running shoes, American flag shorts, and bright pink t-shirts. The 12 apostles are large rock formations that have been interestingly shaped by large waves crashing over the Millenia. Its like the Grand Canyon where you stand there and it’s really beautiful and interesting to think about the waves and time that shaped it but you kind of go: “huh, so there it is” and then pack up and go home. We check out a real rainforest on the way home and we have a Wallabee sighting. Basically a mini jungle kangaroo. On the way home Hilary screams “STOP THE CAR!” I swerve off the side of the road barely missing a guard rail thinking its some crazy emergency only to hear her say while pointing out the back window “KANGAROO!” We all hop out and see about 10 kangaroos just chilling and feasting and they let us get about 15 feet away to snap a few shots. Time to head back to Melbourne

Photos: Lorne, Australia

maxvedder — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 20:21:00 GMT

Rainbow Serpent, Australia

maxvedder — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 19:58:00 GMT

We arrive in Melbourne Friday afternoon and it’s chaos! The Rainbow Serpent festival starts on Friday but we wouldn’t be getting there until the middle of the night. There’s prep to be done and sneaking in instructions to be reviewed multiple times. We grab groceries (pb and jelly ingredients) and booze, pack some random clothes in a bag, shower, and eat a dinner prepared for us by my Lexie. There’s salad, vegetable stew and steak. Or at least that’s what we thought. Halfway through chomping on a piece of meat, Max is informed that we’re eating Kangaroo meat!! We’re eating a Kanga before we even see one! It’s delicious! It tastes like venison, and is very lean. We head out of the house at 11pm and we grab coffees, preparing for a very late night. As we arrive in the town (Bellarat) right outside the festival grounds we go over our plan. It’s 2am. Max and I are to run through grasslands, trek through the bush (aka forest) and scale a mountain arrive at what they call the “Bush Duf”; you can hear the music going “duf, duf, duf” hence the name. Terrified of snakes and creatures you only see living in Australia on TV, I play it cool and we’re dropped at the side of the road, just behind Lexie’s sister Zoe and her boyfriend, who will be ten minutes ahead of us. Slightly panicked and still taken off guard that we’re actually doing this, we make a run for it pausing to duck and army crawl to avoid being seen in the open field, the moonlight shining on us. It’s like we’re in a Bourne Identity movie. We make it to the hill. Oh, this is no hill! It’s a mountain full of ferns and bracken (blackberry like bushes). We make it up and over and are stunned by the size of the festival. There are campgrounds everywhere and the music is pumping. We case the joint and we have to book it once again in open field for 500ft. This is where it’s most likely we’ll be caught! And if we are we have to figure out how we’d make it back to Melbourne without our friends who all paid for their $400 tickets. We’re gonna make it, we have to make it! Go!! Max is running ahead of me and all of a sudden he falls back like a board! He just sprinted into a fence, haha. I try not to laugh and keep our eye on the prize. Go, go, go! We climb the fence, and take small fast steps across the field. We’re starting to come into campsites. We made it!! It’s 5am, and our adrenaline is pumping. Time to find our friends and have a victory beer.

Rainbow Serpent Day 1:

We head to bed as the sun is rising but our entire campsite starts to come alive around noon. We eat our pb and jelly’s and crack open some drinks. The party preparation has begun. Colorful people, colorful costumes, colorful art installations and 4 stages. People here are some of the most interesting we’ve seen. It looks as if each person blindly grabbed clothes from a gay pride parade, army surplus, and Lady Gaga’s closet to create some of the wackiest ensembles. Max and I get peacocked out as best as possible and with the help of Mother duck Lexie. We head out across the grasslands to check out all the different stages that are playing very loud, thumping, electric dance music. Not our favorite style, but it doesn’t matter because it’s fun to dance to and it feels like one giant Halloween party! We dance from the day into the night.

Rainbow Serpent Day 2:

Dust, dirt, and barefeet. This festival is an evolving and changing entity. With a thick layer of dust on everything and everyone, it’s beginning to look as if everyone lives out here. There’s a sort of quiet comradery, 14,000 people getting down and dirty together. Max and I take a break from dancing today and go to the outskirts of the festival grounds to take it all in and watch the sun set. It looks like we’re in Africa, but it’s beautiful. I’ve honestly never seen so many stars in my life. It’s as if a bottle of Lady Gaga’s glitter was spilled in the sky.

Rainbow Serpent Day 3:

It’s the last full day of Rainbow. There is a sense of urgency in the air to finish any leftover booze and get in all the dancing we neglected the day before. We drink a goon bag (bag of wine), take our shoes off and dance in the dirt that has now turned to mud because of some serious misters. It’s over 105 degrees out here! Max and I dance it out until we can’t and take a break to wander the festival grounds and join in a workshop. Rainbow Serpent, we learn, is an Aboriginal god and the digireedoo(after the drums) is the second oldest instrument that is used by men for healing. We also get the chance to carve some designs on fifty foot long, 3’ diameter drift wood. We head back to the stages to continue dancing. Day 3 comes to a close and we make it back to our hillside to watch people mill around and watch the sunset.

Rainbow Serpent Day 4:

The party still isn’t over for some people. One stage is still in full swing, but the majority of people pack up, gather trash, and say their goodbyes. A whole city is beginning to collapse, dust and all. We haven’t showered since Friday and it’s now Tuesday! We also haven’t eaten much besides pb&j’s. We’re so ready for some modern comforts, some good food, and a long shower. We head straight from camp to the Australian coast to do a few days of relaxing in a coastal town called Lorne. Lexie’s uncle has a house overlooking the beach. We unpack and admire our tans, only to discover in our first cleansing ocean swim that it’s just dirt! It’s time to relax.

Photos: Rainbow Serpent, Australian Bush

maxvedder — Thu, 6 Feb 2014 21:14:00 GMT

Sydney Australia

maxvedder — Thu, 6 Feb 2014 19:18:00 GMT

After our buds seeing us off in Auburn, and then an amazing family and friends party in L.A. (thank God for those tacos) we were off! Sort of. We had a great heart felt goodbye to family and friends the morning of Saturday Jan. 19th. Hilary and I had previously purchased standby tickets with thanks to Marsha and her many years at Delta. The hope is enough people don't make it on the plane to open up spots for us on the standby list. You sit there watching your name on a screen with all the standbys getting on one by one while seats open up. Sitting there clutching your boarding passes shouting out your own names like a horse race; come on Vedder! come on Worland! Get yer asses to the finish line! My name is up, I made it on! Just one more for Hilary. But it doesnt come. I have to forfeit my seat to someone traveling alone. We make friends with some other passangers who didnt make it on, one who works with Delta. She shows us the inside scoop online and it looks like tomorrow's a winner. Brandon picks us up for one last night in L.A. The next night things run smoothly and we're on our 15 hour flight to Syndey and we just happened to snag seats next to each other for the flight. Free booze and cartoons! Seriously. We watched "Despicable Me 2" and drank complimentary Jack Daniels.

After arriving in Sydney, we set up on Wifi and book a great little hotel in the city center. We strap on our backpacks (ridiculously heavy, we may need to lose some weight later on) and get a shuttle out. Its pouring in Sydney, but the rain abruptly stops once we hit our hotel. Our hotel room is about a foot bigger than the actual bed on all sides but its clean and cheap. Heading out to the city we stop to get some beers. Holy Shit these prices! $25 A SIX PACK, $20 cigarettes, $40 for cheap vodka. We settle on some wine, which seems to have the best bang for the buck. I was starting to wonder how hobos survived in this city. We make our way through the gorgoues Hyde park which contains the stunning St. Mary's cathedral. Hilary's Catholic upbringing came out full force as she went running in and started lighting candles like we were in a black out. After some prayers and sneaky photos (NO Photos allowed Sir!) we continued on foot to the Sydney Opera House. The walk and the city is beautiful. Everything seems to have been carefully designed (besides the street circulation) and constructed to impress.

The Opera house was fantastic, a real architectual work of art. After finishing our bottle we found a recently deserted wedding dance floor with the opera house looming over head. We turned on some Beirut and did some drunken swaying (Max's form of dancing). We weren't able to gain entrance into the actual theater (there was a men's flute troupe playing?) but just being inside the building was spectacular.

The next day we took a bus out to the world famous Bondi Beach. Its insanely gorgeous beach matches its insanely gorgeous people. It almost makes you mad how fit and tan every person on this beach is. Even the tanned speedo guy with a gut and a Syslvester Sam Mustache is breaking hearts out here. We get our tan on, go for a swim and do some exploring.

Final day in Syndey: Our flight out isn't until 4pm so we head out to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The garden is one of the best we've ever seen, and I do my thing Hilary hates so much and tell her every species name I recognize. As we are headed through the rain forest section, Hilary jumps back screaming, "Komodo Dragon!" A 3 foot lizard goes running across the path while I supress my laughter. It may have been the biggest lizard either of us has seen in the wild, but it might also be the smallest komodo dragon anyone has seen. Thats it for Syndey! We had a wonderful few days but it's time to see our friend's in Melbourne!!!

Photos: Sydney, Australia

maxvedder — Thu, 6 Feb 2014 17:52:00 GMT