Uluru etc.

We're out of the outback and on the Eat Coast now, in a town called Hervey Bay. I must say, when we saw our first traffic light I was a little sad. The outback was such a different and cool experience. I heard someone say that a big city is a big city, they're all a bit alike, but there is nowhere in the world like the outback.

From my last post, we headed north from Adelaide up through the middle of Australia. We stopped for the night in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town. The hostel we stayed in was underground, which was pretty cool. From there we headed north and took the road to Uluru. Uluru (Ayers Rock) is about 3000 million years old (according to the Lonely Planet). Its HUGE and pretty much in the middle of the country.
We decided to put our tent to use here and save some money. When we arrived we set up camp and then drove off to see The Olgas, a rock formation about 20km or so from Uluru. Here's Oli standing in front of The Olgas:

We spent a restless night in a very hot tent but got up early to hike around Uluru. The park recommends finishing all walks by 11am because of the heat so we made sure to do that. It was probably around 40 degrees Celsius that day and all sun. That evening we went for sunset which was pretty unreal, the light on the rock changes constantly as the sun goes down, it was magical.

We got up for sunrise the next morning and then took off to head further up north. I love all the red sand in the outback, so we stopped at some dunes to walk around a bit.

We called it a day in Alice Springs. From there we headed further north and then east and drove about 11 hours before getting to Mt.Isa. We did stop to see another rock formation, the Devil's Marbles along the way:

Just before we got to Mt.Isa it started pouring rain but all seemed well in the morning. We got about 120 km east to a town called Cloncurry when all the roads (all 2 of them) toward the coast were closed due to flooding. We waited it out all day but ended up staying in a motel overnight. The next morning the roads were still closed and we were hearing that it could be a few more days. The creeks had all flooded over the roads and were expected to rise over the next couple days. We explored the option of heading towards the west and doing the western coast but they were also expecting a cyclone and it would be about 9000km more to drive. So we thought we could wait it out a couple more days before having to backtrack the 4000km we had already driven back through the outback. We spent the day exploring the small town. This is where the Flying Doctors originated and where the first Quantas flight landed, so it's a bit of a historical place. We had some good food and drinks at the Post Office motel and met some other travelers who were in the same position as us. The next morning, the highway to Townsville was still closed so we altered our plans and took the now open highway towards Rockhampton. We made it to Barcalade (about 300 km from the coast) before the roads started to fill with water again. After a night here, we successfully made it to the coast and down to Hervey Bay. From here we'll they to get to Frasier Island and then down to Noosa and Byron Bay. So far today the weather looks pretty good, but I'm not uncrossing my fingers just yet.

Outback bound

Greetings!! We arrived in Melbourne on the 20th and spent a couple days there. It's summer in Australia, so it's a nice climate change from China and Japan.
Our friend Megan took the overnight train from Sydney and met us for the weekend. We also got to see a couple of Oli's old friends from the hostel days. It was great spend a couple days catching up with good friends!

Melbourne is a really nice city, we could've spent a lot more time there if we had it. The Australian Open was going on while we were there so the city was hopping.

Today we got our rental car and drove just over 700 km to Adelaide. We're just spending the night here and then heading to the outback tomorrow. We picked up a tent in Melbourne and plan to put it to good use over the next few days. We'll try to get to Coober Pedy tomorrow and then head up to Ayers Rock on the 25th. From there we'll head towards Cairns and down the eastern coast.
We have just 26 days here and a lot of ground to cover!

Cheers!

Tokyo

We leave for Melbourne tonight and while it'll be nice to be in a summer climate again, we'll definitely miss Japan! This is the most welcoming and friendly place we've been during our travels. If you have even a slight question mark written on your face, someone is guaranteed to come up and offer help. Just getting off the metro we had an older couple offer to help us find our hostel, getting on the phone with reception and walking us the whole way there. Even the ambulance drivers are polite. They come down the street with a nice easy siren and wave while saying "arigato" (thank you) for getting out of their way.
We stayed in Asakusa which is a very lovely area of Tokyo. We were close to a famous temple, Sensoji, which is surrounded by many shopping streets. Here are a couple photos taken at Sensoji temple.

We spent our time in Tokyo exploring the many different districts. Tokyo is a very large and fast paced city. Here's a photo from Shibuya, a popular shopping district. This intersection is said to be the busiest in the world.

We also got to spend a day at the Sumo tournament. We were there for day 9 of the tournament and even with general admission tickets, we and a really good view. It was entertaining to watch and interesting to learn about the sport. There are so many rituals involved and the wrestlers are all so proper and composed. It was different than I expected, I'm really glad we went.

While we were here we got to see (and I got to meet) a couple of Oli's old friends. We also met a lot of fun people at our hostel bar. We tried great Japanese food and drinks (I'm a big fan of plum wine, sake still not so much). We even did some karaoke. I hope that we'll be able to come back and see more of Japan some day, one week wasn't enough!

China (in summary)

This website was blocked in China so I didn't get any updating done. So I'll just sum up Hong Kong and China in a nutshell.
We were in Hong Kong for 5 days. It's a big place with lots to see and do so it was a bit overwhelming at first. Hong Kong is a good place to make your introduction to China, the weather is mild, most people speak English, and the subway system is very easy. While we were there we took the Star Ferry a few times, took the tram to Victoria Peak, walked around different areas of the city, and went to Lamma Island. We took the ferry to Lamma Island on NYE day, it was really pretty. There are no cars on the island so it's much quieter than the city (even though there were a lot of tourists there). We got some really good, fresh seafood when we got off the ferry and then did a hike to the other site of the island. Victoria Peak was cool, you can get some great views of Hong Kong from up there.

It was a bit hazy when we were up there, but you get the idea.

We took a very comfy 20 hour train ride to Shanghai that got in on Jan 3. The train was really quite good. We shared a cabin with a nice couple from New Zealand and drank a few of cans of Budweiser, which is what the train served...seriously. Shanghai is another big city and much much colder than Hong Kong. Once I got my hand on a coat I was much more comfortable. Our hostel was really close to the river so we walked along the Bund, which has a great view of the skyline.

The Bund is also surrounded by really pretty old buildings. I imagine in the summer the place must be packed with people. We spent a lot of our time in the city just wandering about. It would be a shoppers paradise but seeing as how we are not in for shopping, we were ready for a new location when it was time for Beijing.

We took a really fast train to Beijing on the 7th, it only took us 4 hours. We stayed at Kelly's Courtyard, a guesthouse in one of Beijing's famed Hutongs. Kelly's was the best place ever! The owner, John, was so helpful with everything. He really made our trip to Beijing so much easier. He recommended places to go, things to see, where to eat, and then (the most helpful part) showed us how to get there. Our trip would not have been the same if we had stayed somewhere else.
Here I am in the Forbidden City, which is huge!

Beijing also has a really cool art district called 798. You could spend all day here and probably never do it justice. It's packed with different art exhibits and galleries. Another place that I'm sure is well beyond packed in the warmer months.
This guy was in a parking lot, made out of car parts:

And of course, the Great Wall of China. This is one of those things that was so surreal to me. For one thing, I never thought (before planning this trip) that I'd ever see the great wall. And then when I knew we were going I thought I'd just be able to walk up to it and wait with the crowds to have my photo taken.
With Johns advice, we went to Jinshanling, about 140 km outside of Beijing. We went with 3 other people from the guesthouse and took the subway followed by a bus and then a taxi to get there. The 3 hour trip was well worth it. We were the only people in sight. It was just an all around magical experience. Every bend of the wall showed another breathtaking view and you really felt like it was just you up there. Just another amazing experience that reminded me why we're doing what we're doing. I'm so glad we continued on, grandpa would have been geeked to hear about this experience!

I wish we had more time in Beijing, there's so much to see and do, and EAT! We went out to eat a few times with our new friends from the guesthouse, and had really really good food. We might have to come back.