Airlie Beach, Australia
7 October – 9 October
Australia: after two months in Southeast Asia we’re back down under. It was only a few weeks ago we said to each other we wished we hadn’t booked flights all the way to Australia as we were having too much fun where we were, the smart money was on Bali and Gili Trawangan. That being said, as the day our flight to Australia approached, we became more and more excited.
Airlie Beach Lagoon, QLD
It was a hell of a journey here from Ko Phangan: tuk-tuk to the pier, ferry to Ko Samui, taxi to the airport, flight to Singapore, flight to Brisbane, train to domestic terminal, flight to Proserpine, coach to Airlie Beach. Travel time = 27 hours. It was now Pezza’s birthday, we had a few hours in Brisbane airport and it was here I gave her her cards from the family I’d been concealing for eight weeks and the present I hastily purchased from Singapore airport nine hours earlier (it wasn’t an ‘I Love Singapore shirt’). Even though we were only three hours ahead of Thailand time we were goosed from the journey and once we arrived at our hostel we commenced the usual drill of nap, shower, out.
It’s apparent that the hostels in Australia are very different from Asia. In Asia you get a room/dorm and maybe there’s a bar however in Australia they are much more communal in the sense that they tend to have a bar, a games room, sometimes a TV room and they go out of their way to arrange social activities during the day and night. The price is a bit of a shock – for US$20 in Bangkok you get a very nice en-suite room in a decent hotel, the same here will set you back over four times that amount (granted, the Aussie Dollar has gone nuts against the US Dollar and the Pound in the last 18 months or so).
Nick was the overwhelmingly enthusiastic co-manager of our hostel in Airlie and he was right on the ball giving Pezza a free bottle of Airlie Beach sparkling wine for her birthday and informed us there was a nightly quiz about to take place. We won the quiz and received yet another bottle of Airlie Beach’s finest, a good way to set the night up.
Nick was a bit surprised we had nothing planned when there. We picked up that people who spend their year out travelling through Australia tend to be a bit more organised that their Southeast Asia equivalents, maybe it’s because it was low season in Asia and people could afford to be more liberal with their plans – I haven’t fully worked it out yet! We chatted to him and he booked us on a boat to sail the Whitsundays over three nights (there’s a full post on this coming up in a day or so, as soon as it’s ready I’ll link it from here). Suffice to say it’s probably the best thing we’ve done over the last nine weeks, so make sure you read the blog when it’s up.
Airlie Beach’s only industry is tourism so aside from the accommodation, bars & restaurants they need to make sure the days are taken care of. Aside from the beach there’s a man-made freshwater lagoon and artificial beach for those who dislike saltwater, it’s here that we spent the days taking in the books we just picked up from the book exchange and having the usual conversations with people making their way up and down the East coast.
Next stop Whitsunday Islands & The Great Barrier Reef…
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I love all your blogs – I feel like I’ve been hiding in your rucksack along the way. xx
Is that why it’s got heavier?!! x