one last post

afraid it is all over now. the last 10 days in Perth were a whirlwind, with Interhash and the following 'wine' tour. Great to see friends from Red Deer and great to get out and do some running (and maybe have a beer or two). Runs included a pre-amble in Fremantle (gorgeous port city near Perth), the Red Dress run (over 2,000 hashers in red dresses in downtown Perth), the Saturday Interhash run (hills outside Perth that almost killed us), the Sunday Interhash run (beach location, most of us skipped the running thing) and four runs during the wine tour in various cities/towns south of Perth.

Good times had by all but good to be home.

Thx all for reading - anybody know where a man can find a job???!!!

back to perth

bloome was a great place to kick back and relax. small city with 22km of white sand beach just outside town. we went in the off season when it is too hot and humid for the Auzzies to vacation there. I think everyday was 35 or higher and very very humid. did some wandering around town - they have a Chinatown market area and lots of pearl shops. pearling was the original reason for the town to be established. Did a fair amount of walking/running on the beach and a little swimming. The beach near our hotel went on for about 7km and was probably 500 metres deep. the one afternoon there was us and one other couple in this whole area. kind of a neat feeling.
did the sunset beach camel ride one night, which is a broome tradition. it was great and the sunsets were all amazing.
one day on the beach was lucky enough to see a huge (10' diameter?) manta ray just offshore, I was maybe standing 20' away while he circled back and forth, must have been feeding. way cool!!
most days we tried to get back to the hotel by mid/late afternoon. with that heat nothing felt better than the hotel pool!!
our last day we went to one of the local watering holes where the Goose Club was having a fundraiser. Met some nice people, had a couple of pints and did not win anything in the raffles (just like home).
flight to perth was fine and had a couple of days in perth to wander around and see the sights. Yesterday (Tuesday) met some friends from Edmonton (Gregg & Brenda aka Premmie and G-Spot) and ferried to Rottnest Island (a vaction/wildlfie sanctuary just off the coast) and then back to Fremantle for a "pre-lube" run. Both places were great and the beer and the hashers as always were a lot of fun. Today the rest of the Red Deer gang arrives so should be entertaining.
hope everyone has a great easter - see you soon...

the land down under

sorry to be so long away but internet connections have been all dial up since we left Perth. A brief history:

the driving tour was pretty ambitious for miles. Day 1 was about 6 hours driving to Kalbarri. Nice place. Had a great seafood meal at a really neat outdoor place and did a short hike the next morning on a deep river valley. The picture of Monique at "Nature's Window" is from the hike. From there we drove to Denham, a small resort city near Monkey Mia. We got to spend 2 nights at a great little apartment and spent the free day at Monkey Mia. It was one of the best days of the trip. Saw the wild dolphins in the morning and Monique was picked to feed one. Really neat to stand knee deep in water with 6 or 8 dolphins swimming close (a few feet) by. In the afternoon we saw group sex, Australian style. Basically a gang ('alliance') of males corral a female, chase her and trap her so that the leader can have his way with her. They were dolphins by the way. We had gone on a wildlife sailing trip and saw this, lots of other dolphins, some dugong and turtles. At one point we stopped for a swim (the water was a brisk 30 degrees C.). However, after only a couple of minutes the guide called us all out of the water because he was sure he saw a 3 meter tiger shark nearby. We tried to pursue in the boat but lost him so we stopped for another swim. Not sure that was the smartest idea in the world. In the evening we went on the sunset sail (picture above). It was a converted racing boat and the wind was decent so had a great sail.

Next morning off to Coral Bay, a resort on the Ningaloo reef. Another 2 night stay with a free day that we spent on the beach. I snorkelled most of the morning, it was phenomenal! In the afternoon went for a glass bottom boat ride and saw more fish and coral. No reef sharks though, which were supposed to be quite common.

Then to Karratha for 2 nights. Basically a resource town, lots of mining. Toured around during the free day and had lunch at Moby's Restaurant - best fish and chips in Western Australia (according to the advertising anyway). Spent the late afternoon and evening at the hotel pool with an Aussie fellow which somehow ended up in a lot of beer and wine and maybe a little bourbon.

From there an 850 km drive to Broome. It is beautiful here and sure we will muchly enjoy our 4 days.

Miss you all - see you soon

Randy & Monique

once more to singapore

well it is around midnite and we are back at our favorite late night hangout - Changi Airport. Left Bali just after 8:00 pm and now await our flight to Perth at 1:30 a.m.

all goes well here - I think the 9 days on Bali were the quickest 9 days of my life. Didn't feel like we did much - pretty relaxing.

the picture on the last post, in case you wondered was taken around noon at Bali and I believe the sun was pretty much straight up (not much shadow if you look).

anyway, we are off to Oz and greatly looking forward to it. Hope everyone is well

Randy & Monique

time flies when you are having fun?

it is hard to believe we have been in bali for 8 days but that is what the calendar says and it is time to head on to Oz tomorrow. we have done 3 tours, laid on the beach, hung out by the hotel pool, wandered aimlessly and had a massage. The tours were alright, particularly when driving and seeing the countryside. Each one involved a temple though. Temples are nice but seen one, seen them all kind of sets in. Each tour also involves a "craft" stop where you spend 5 minutes watching someone do something (woodcarve, stone carve, batik paint, etc.) and then far longer than that shopping at their store. Nice stuff but...


we had really hoped to go hashing here but Monday and Thursday we were on tours and therefore planned on doing the Saturday run. Left a message at the phone number on the website to meet the hash bus but did not hear back. Went to the hash bar early Saturday and they said come back in the afternoon, all the hashers would be there. We went, but they weren't. An Aussie at the bar knew one of the hashers so called on cell and it turned out they had made 'alternate travel plans' and therefore no bus and no hash. it was too damned hot to run anyway so we stayed at the bar, drank beer and played pool. Happy birthday to me!!


met lots of Canucks on the tours and at the hotel. Went for dinner one night with a couple from Penticton. it was quite nice. Food choices here are amazing, Indonesian food is a little dull after Thailand but plenty of options to eat Thai, western, Indian, etc.
one of the pictures here I took of my feet on the beach. Anyone notice something unique about this picture that you would never see at home?? Other picture (sorry - it would not downlaod) is from the "Hall of Justice" which we toured. Lots of paintings that relate what will happen to you in the afterlife if you do bad things in your real life. in this one, if you did not nurse your baby then in the afterlife you had a snake breastfeeding for eternity. Passing gas was also a mortal sin so think I am damned..

miss you all, will update from Oz after we arrive.

beautiful bali

after a lovely night at the Changi airport where I was only awoken once by a guy with an automatic rifle, we made the flight to Bali. Hotel here is gorgeous, much nicer than the guest houses on the backpack trail. Lights, furniture, the whole works!

Lot more people here than I would have imagined, quite a populated island. we have done a couple of tours (arts, crafts, shopping and some traditional dances). Kind of nice but the roads are a little scary. I could never drive in Asia, there seems to be a no fear mentality.

The beach is a short walk from our hotel, miles of sand. Kind of an older crowd in Sanur (where we are) so we feel young. We spent one day in Kuta (party beach) and it made us feel old.

Today our big plan is to go for a massage, then maybe some time on the beach or by the pool. Maybe the pool bar??? It is a tough life.

Pics are from a dance and a sideways of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

hope everyone is doing well - miss you all!!!

Randy & Monique

a quick tour of Malaysia

it is 2:00 a.m. on Friday Feb 23 and I stand in Changi airport in Singapore awaiting our 9:30 flight to Bali. Our plans to catch a sleep at the airport hotel were quashed as they are full so looks like we are napping in chairs. And how did we get here???


the bus from Hat Yai, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia was interesting. I had no idea what to expect in Malaysia, thought it would be like Thailand, only maybe poorer. Very wrong. As soon as you cross the border you notice the improvement in the highways and the care in the landscaping around them. They also have much nicer cars. When we reached the 1st city there were new developments that looked just like suburbia at home. Very nice, very modern.


Arrived in the city of Georgetown on the island (there is a bridge) of Penang. Hadn't done much reading on this either, expected a small city and got a large, densely populated one. Quite late when we arrived so we went direct to the recommended guest house. They had no rooms with a private toilet and it was too late to go searching, so we took what they had. It was a lovely (?!?) attic room, accessed by climbing what was more like a ladder than stairs. Room had 2 beds and nothing else and faced the main street. Not much sleep was had.


Penang being not what we expected, we booked a bus out for the next afternoon, did a little wandering b4 that. I think it is a nice island once awy from Georgetown, but did not find out. The plus and minus of not planning - we ended up somewhere different than expected but were able to leave right away.


the afternoon bus we took went to a city called Tapah. I thought it was going to Tanah Rata. Close though, both are generally in or near an area known as the Cameron Highlands. There were a couple of ladies on the bus who also wanted to go where we wanted and offered to share a cab from Tapah but it was quite expensive and our bus driver insisted it was better to sleep in Tapah and catch the 8:00 a.m. bus to Tanah. There were 2 hotels we could see so we went to number 1. For lack of a better term, it was a shithole. Dirty, water leaking and some lumps on the floor that looked remarkably like mouse dirt. It seems $12 doesn't buy what it used to. But we stayed. Being late (after 9:00), we went looking for a place to eat. Choices were a small roadside cafe or KFC. The cafe won - no English on the menus but the waitress spoke a little and we managed to get some pretty decent chicken and rice.

Next morning we caught the local bus to go to Tanah. The bus was obviously painted with a brush and looked like it was homemade 40 years ago. After a quick stop to get a gallon of oil, we were off. The bus actually did quite well, covered the 52 km. in just over 2 hours. All uphill on a narrow ashphalt road carved in the side of hills/mountains. Lots of switchbacks, one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on.

Tanah Rata is a very nice little city, surrounded by tea plantations and gardens. Went on a little tour that afternoon and saw a plantation, rose gardens, strawberries and a butterfly farm.

The big draw to the area is the cooler weather and jungle hikes. Next morning I headed out with a map (Monique was not feeling up to hiking). Ended up in the jungle for about 5 hours and saw 5 other human beings that whole time. Hike was great, but very difficult with steep climbs and descents. I loved it!!! By the way, we found a really nice little guest house here to stay in for 2 nights.

Thursday morning it was time for another bus (a much nicer one!) and we headed out for Kuala Lumpur. Stayed right in Chinatown at a decent place. Arrived around noon so had lots of time to wander. Next day we did the Petronas towers (they were the tallest buildings in the world until 2003). Great views. And did more wandering, train and monorail rides and a little beer and food. Quality time b4 we caught an evening bus that 5 hours later got us to Singapore. Where the airport hotel is full and I stand at an internet terminal, now at 2:30 in the morning.

Hope everyone is doing well - miss you all!!

PS. Malaysia was great, would love to come back sometime and see some of the stuff we missed.