I’m heading on an extended vacation in Sydney, Australia and Phuket, Thailand for a few weeks… or at least that’s the plan. It appears that I need Hurricane Gustav to cooperate a little. My wife, being in the military is on notice that she may be necessary for the relief work. I guess no one is willing to take a chance given the Hurricane Katrina. It’ll be interesting because my wife is more of a health educator vs. a dispensing pharmacist at this point – I don’t think there will be much of a physical need for her to be there.
If they do call her in though, it’s likely a loss of $5000 or $6000 for us. Not that I would travel without her, but since we are using the military flights for part of our travel, I would be ineligible for them without her. We’d have to start canceling everything and I doubt that we’d be able to. Getting refundable connecting flights and hotel rooms were twice as much, so we decided it wasn’t worth it. Why pay double when there’s just a sliver of a chance that you won’t be able to make it. She has never been deployed against her will in the ten years she’s been in the military.
Provided we are able to go, I will be doing some writing from road. I’m hoping to write something once or twice a week. In addition to that, I’ve had authors from some very good sites contribute their writing to help me out.
If you’ve ever been to Sydney or Phuket, I could use any tips of things to see or do… places to eat… all that jazz. We have a couple of tour books, but I’d definitely love to have a little direction.
Hope it works out Lazy Man. And thanks to your spouse for her service to the USA.
Can’t help you with travel tips although traveling there is on my bucket list.
i hope it stays clear for you!!! i’d love to hear how Australia is! we’re hoping the weather stays clear for us, too, since we’re flying to myrtle beach a week from monday! here’s to clear weather and fun vacations!
I really hope it works out for you Lazy – it would really suck for you to loose out on your vacation and the money because of something beyond your control. Unfortunately sometimes that’s just the way life works. :(
Have a great time man!
I am here in Miami, Florida.. Yea… Gustav and Hanna.. and I think there is another one is forming right behind Hanna… And I am old enough to remember Andrew that blew through Miami in 1992, only 3 weeks after I arrived to Miami from Russia.
I will keep my fingers cross for you, Lazy.
If you go, don’t forget to send us some pictures from the road. I recently discovered Qik.com that allow me to ‘broadcast’ video clips with my Nokia N80 cellphone, right to the web. Not great quality video, but I discovered that few people cares about the quality.
The fact of presence and information that the video carries is just as important than quality.
Here are some clips taken with my N80 Nokia cellphone from my client’s South Florida mansion right on the ocean: http://is.gd/1VMB
If you can send us some clips, that would be awesome.
And don’t forget about twitter.com I don’t know if you twit. If not, try it. Can be done from your cellphone. I get lots of helpful info from following some people on twitter. Don’t know if anyone learns anything from me (LOL), but I try be informative and helpful rather than chatty.. here is mine: http://twitter.com/mylifeandart
Must be nice taking a vacation on the taxpayers tab
Interesting comment, as someone who is a taxpayer, I don’t mind supporting the military… and I felt that way before I married into it.
Nice — hopefully things work out and your enjoy the trip. My wife and I are planning a trip to Sydney, Hunter Valley next month – would like to hear how it went.
In Sydney, there is a beautiful botanical gardens next to the Opera House. This is not your typical botanical gardens, you just have to check it out. There are very interesting species of plants and animals. You can climb the Harbour Bridge but I think it costs 100. Take a Harbour Cruise. I’m not talking about a huge cruise ship but a much smaller triple decker that strolls around the harbor while they serve dinner (or buffet). They have an excellent train system which is very cheap. Hop on a train from Sydney to Cronella, Wollongong or Katoomba (not sure if I spelled these towns correctly) to check out the old towns and the mountain areas. These towns are just a few hours train ride.
I’m from Aus, currently residing in Ohio.
You’ll have a blast, providing its not to windy / cold.
Public transport is your friend – though be prepared to wait for trains. But it is the most handy way to get around the Sydney area.
Is it too late to buy travel insurance? Even from third-party?
I think maybe it’s too late for travel insurance. However, at this point, it’s not about Gustav as it’s died down to a level that she won’t get called in. I don’t think travel insurance covers military duty anyway.
Our biggest issue is that we are trying to travel for free – via Space-A and we’ve run into a perfect storm of bad luck. We think it will change tomorrow as everything looks good for us traveling out.
I actually live in Sydney Australia!
What sort of things do you both like to do? Feel free to email me directly if you’d like a run down of cool things to do, I just need to understand what you two would think is cool! :-)
Thailand should be fun for you at the moment, you have heard about the riots etc I presume?
Ahhh, Lazy Man, you will LOVE Sydney and the Australian people.
We were fortunate enough to attend the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Now, most of our time was well spoken for with all of the events and such, but we did manage to tour around Sydney a bit, and I second what post #9 says about the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens and the Harbour Bridge. Also, I would add Bondi beach to the list. Of course, things may have changed in the past 8 years since we were there, so Bondi may not be a cool and fun as it once was.
We did take one day and do some tourist shopping downtown, and that was a ton of fun.
But, hands down, the Australian people made our 10 day visit very special and enjoyable. So much so that we could easily see ourselves living there.
Yes, the water in the toilet bowls really does “swirl the other way” in the Land Down Under, we didn’t care too much for the Vegamite Sandwiches, and don’t forget to look to your *right* first before stepping off a sidewalk to cross a street. We did witness one American tourist getting hit by a car as she forgot that traffic flows in the opposite directions as it does in the states. Fortunately for everyone, it was a slow moving car.
Enjoy, blog about it, post pictures, and have a wonderful time! :-)
I’ve never been to Phuket but I’ve been to Thailand numerous times. Have fun and enjoy the Land of Smiles, it’s a different world out there.
I never been there but just hope that whenever you come back you will write a post for discussing places you visited or whatever good you found there .. Best of luck for your trip :)
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Naruto Ninja
I would add Bondi beach to the list. Of course, things may have changed in the past 8 years since we were there, so Bondi may not be a cool and fun as it once was.