Wonderful world of Oz

(Wednesday October 15th 11:45pm Crown Gardens Apt #307 Sydney, Oz)
Next morning (10.14.08) I woke up at 6am and grabbed a quick shower. Bethany who had been up all night working on graphic design, made me breakfast and called a cab to take me to the airport. I had a quick 1 ½ flight to Bangkok. On the plane I ran into four people I’d seen earlier in my travels: a couple that were on the bus from to Dalat, and two different guys that came thru the Good Bar on different tours. I caught a cab with one of the guys to Khoa San Rd. where I bought a few more t-shirts and check my emails. Mimi was supposed to send me details on how to get to her house. I had left a large bag of stuff there so I wouldn’t have to carry so much while I was traveling. I checked for the email but it wasn’t there, luckily I still had her address but it was quite far and a cab would have been expensive so I tried to find the canal taxi we had taken last time I was in the city. I didn’t have much luck so I began asking how much for a motorbike or tuk tuk. They wanted 200-300 baht. I found out I could catch a bus to the subway and make it that way. After getting on two separate wrong buses I decided I would just pay for a tuk tuk. When I got to her apartment I was disappointed to find that her keys were not in the basket at the front desk as she said it would be. I went up and knocked on the door hoping her sister was home but she wasn’t. I called her and she apologized and told me her sister would be home from work shortly and let me in. When Niki arrived she let me in and left her keys so I could come and go. I wanted to mail some a package home to lighten my load but Niki told me the post office was already closed. I sat at the house killing time until my 8:30 mtg. After the mtg I caught a cab to the airport for my midnight flight. THAI AIRLINES is the most AMAZING airline company ever! I was excited to find that I would get not one, but two full meals on my 9 hour flight to Sydney. They also give you free liquor, coffee and other drinks the entire flight, even in economy! To make it even better I had the middle three seats to myself! I arrived to Sydney airport a little after 1pm the following day (10.15.08). On my immigration form I checked the box “yes” for having been convicted of crimes in the past. The immigration officers took me to their office for further questioning. I had to fill out a form detailing the nature of my convictions, the sentence and whether I had completed my sentence. If you have been sentence to more than 1 year in jail they refuse you entry to the country because you need to have a special clearance that must be obtained before you arrive. I luckily was able to squeak thru immigrations an hour and half later. I was able to get them to look up my record on the Clerk of the Courts website for Escambia county and see that I was only sentenced to 11 months 15 days. However the 5 year suspended prison sentence raised a lot of concern. The officer let me know that she should legally turn me around but she was gonna over look the suspended sentence and let me through. However next time I needed to get cleared in advance. I followed the directions to Emily’s house; my couch surfing host. We went to an internet café where I had a “long black” for 5$. Apparently they don’t brew coffee in Oz, its all espresso shots. So a “long black” is the closest thing to a real cup of coffee I could get. I used the internet to search for canoe clubs I could paddle with and found several in Sydney. I made plans to paddle the following night at 7pm. We returned to her house and dropped our computers and she took me to the harbor so I could see the Opera house and city! Sydney is such an amazing city, it’s beautiful! Her parents are both in the medical field and own the apartment she lives in, which is in an upscale suburb of Sydney called Woolloomooloo. There is a sick balcony view of the city and harbor and Russell Crow lives down the street. I can stay here tonight and tomorrow night but I have to leave Friday morning because her parents are coming to stay for the weekend. So I’m gonna go meet some other Couch Surfers at the Blue Mountains on Friday. Tomorrow morning Emily is gonna show me around the city and I’ve got to get to bed. A hui hou!!!
(10.21.08 Sydney Airport)
Well the next morning (10.16.08) I meant to wake up and attend a 7am mtg however when the alarm sounded I just turned it off and rolled back over. I before I fell asleep I looked out the window and saw that the sun was coming up over the harbor and casting amazing light on the skyscrapers in the city. I had a hazy thought to get up and take pictures but it faded just as quickly as I did back to sleep. I ended up waking up at 10ish and walked into the city to attend a noon mtg. It was so great to be at a “real” mtg. While in Asia I had only attended 4 mtgs and there was almost a month break in between the last two. The room was full, about 30 people and message really recharged my batteries. I was asked to lunch after and I joined a few guys downstairs at a deli. After lunch I went to use the internet and sort out my future couch surfs in Byron Bay, Gold Coast. I got sucked in and almost two hours passed before I got away. I was also dealing with the rental car accident I got in my last day on Oahu before my trip. I had to email documents to Thrifty and Visa so they could sort it all out. I called Emily who was in the city a few blocks away at a book store and she came over and met me. She suggested that since I didn’t have much time, that maybe we should ride the monorail to get a quick tour of the city. It was a nice thought but the views weren’t so great and it was kinda a short ride. We went back to her house and I got ready to go paddle. I had found a club in the city; Pacific Dragons that invited me to come train with them at 7pm. I caught a several trains and ended up in the suburb of Glebe and walked to the Harbor. The sun had already set and it was pretty cold out which made me a lil apprehensive about the paddle. When I got there I met Todd, the coach I had talked to, and he gave me one of his blades to use. The canoes were equipped with lifejackets, flashlights and flashing lights on poles connected the iako’s. It was kinda different, since the canoes we paddle in on Maui are always completely bare except the crew and paddles. Apparently the canoes are considered the same as any other boat/vessel and have to abide by the same rules while on the water. I suppose the lights were a good idea since it was night time and there were larger ferry’s zipping around. We had a two hour paddle and went out around Cockatoo island and there was a beautiful view of the city at night. After practice I walked to Felicity’s house, a Couch surfer who lived in Glebe, for dinner. He got her lefts and rights mixed up in directions she gave me so a mile and half walk turned into a 5 mile walk. I finally made it to her house right as dinner was coming out of the oven. It looked great! Two large pieces of meat slow cooked in the oven on a bed of sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes and peppers. I was starving and dug in. It wasn’t til I was more than half way done that she told me it was KANGOROO!!!!! I couldn’t believe it! Here it was, my second day in Oz and I had just got done paddling in the harbor and was now eating Kangaroo! I ended up hanging out til around midnight and then caught a cab back to the city to go to bed.