7/29 - Fraser Island, Day 1

A couple weekends ago, I went to Fraser Island, which is touted as "the world's largest sand island." It's got so much sand, they used to mine the sand and ship it all over the world. Now, Fraser is a national park -- part of "Great Sandy National Park." This shows you how creative those Australians are (there's also a Great Sandy Desert, which is even more redundant).

Fraser Island is a popular backpacker destination, and normally people will do these 3-day "self-drive" tours where your hostel/tour company tries to stuff as many kids as they can in a 4-wheel drive, hand them the keys and a map and send them off on their own. Hilarity soon ensues, since there are literally 9 people stuffed clown-car-style in the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser and since the 2 amateur drivers have no experience driving in sand (there are almost no paved roads on Fraser).

Anyway, as fun as that would have been, I decided to do a 2-day guided tour with the Fraser Island Company instead. I didn't really have too much time to take off from work, and I figured that a driver that knew what he was doing would hit as many sights as amateurs would in 3 days. I was a little worried that I would be stuck with a bunch of old people, but it turned out to be a great choice. The rest of my group was mostly Europeans in their 20's and 30's, but they weren't obnoxious college kids who just wanted to party.

On the Fraser Island Company bus

After getting picked up at my hostel on the coast, the bus took the ferry to Fraser Island. We first had to cross the island to get to the ocean side. This led us through the very unique rain forests, which actually do grow on sand.

Rainforests on sand? You betcha

A self-hollowing fig tree in the rainforest

After luch, we finally made it over the huge dune that is Fraser and to the island's Pacific side. We stopped at Eli Creek, and on the recommendation of our crazy guide/driver Paul, we attempted to float down the creek. The creek itself was great -- the water is ultra pure since it has been filtered for many years by the sand -- but it was much to shallow to float in without hitting yourself on rocks and branches.

Me after "floating" down Eli Creek

Fraser Island: where pyramids, castles, and the Sydney Opera House can coexist

Later in the afternoon, our 4x4 bus plowed up the beach to Indian Head, which is this volcanic rock formation on the northeast coast. We saw a few dolphins and a whale spouting in the distance from Indian Head (Hervey Bay is a favorite stomping ground for Humback whales this time of year).

Racing up Indean Head

A view of vegetation, sand dunes, and volcanic rock, from Indian Head

The view from Indian Head

Me at Indian Head

The group kicks back on Indian Head

Indian Head from the Champagne Pools

After Indian Head, our last sight for the day was the Champagne Pools. Normally, you can't swim on the Pacific side of Fraser Island due to sharks and bad rip currents, but the Champagne Pools are rock formations where the waves break and fill the bowls with a gentle, bubbilicious froth that is safe for humans and fish alike.

The tour group frolicks in the Champagne Pools

Waves crashing into the Champagne Pools

Happy and exhausted after playing in the champagne, we headed to Cathedral Beach, where our camp was. "Camp" is relative though -- our tents had hardwood floors, and the kitchen area of our site had, not one, but two dishwashers. After dinner, some people attempted to play Trivial Pursuit, which is a lot harder with the Australian version. We went out to the beach to look at the millions of stars you can see without light pollution (and a big ozone hole). Finally, we tucked ourselves in our tents, resting for another day's adventures.

7/23 - Glass House Mountains

On Sunday, I visited the Glass House Mountains, which are about 2 hours by train north of Brisbane.

To put this trip in context, you have to understand that for the past 2 weeks, the weather forecasts had been predicting rain every day. For the most part, during the week, it barely rained at all, but by Friday, it always rained enough to make you think that the whole weekend was going to miserable. Of course, by the time that I realized that a day was perfectly gorgeous, it was too late to plan and travel to wherever I would rather be.

So this Sunday, I decided that rain be damned, I had to get out to the Glass House Mountains since I was going to be away for the remaining few weekends. The sky alternated between threatening and cloudless, but it turned out to be a beautiful day nonetheless.

Mt. Tibrogargan & the Glass House Band, seen from Mt. Nungun

The Glass House Mountains were named as such by Captain James Cook because they reminded him of his childhood in England, where his mum would say: "Throw not stones in glass houses less they become picturesque volcanic remnants in eastern Australia."

The Glass House Mountains are a popular hike in the Brisbane area and are well known for their rock-climbing. Not rock-climbing as in ropes and stuff. People actually climb up the fairly steep rocky faces of Mt. Tibrogargan with no safety gear at all.

Mt. Tibrogargan

I didn't want to get stuck on the side of a mountain by myself in the middle of a potential downpour, so I chose to hike the easiest of the mountains, Mt. Nungun.

Mt. Nungun trailhead

There was no real rock-climbing on Nungun, but it still got pretty steep.

These people don't know I'm using them for scale

They're trying to escape through the underbrush

The good part about hiking up a less interesting mountain is that you have a good vantage point for the cool ones.

Mt. Coonowrin & Mt. Beerwah from the Mt. Nungun Summit

After making it down Mt. Nungun and still not getting rained on, I decided to hike down the road to get a better look at the pillar-esque but off-limits Mt. Coonowrin.

Mt. Coonowrin

Mt. Coonowrin & Mt. Beerwah

Cows for Clara

On the way back from Mt. Coonowrin, it finally began raining in the distance, but that made for some nice scenery.

Rainbow over Mt. Nungun

I managed to make it home weathering only a light sprinkle and with the satisfaction of a weekend in Australia not gone to waste.

7/22 - Garuva (Brisbane)

Saturday, Jan, another EAPSI-ite studying in Sydney, came up to visit after living it up at the Gold Coast. We hit the New Farm farmers market and made a lunch out of free samples. At night, we met up my fellow EAPSI-Brisbanite Vanessa at this funky restaurant called Garuva in Fortitude Valley. The Asian-fusion Garuva is known for its atmosphere, which consists of hiding the entrance, making you sit on cushions on the floor, and pulling white curtains around each table. Garuva is so popular that we had to make reservations 5 days in advance. Apparently, people like sitting on the floor.

Vanessa and Jan sittin' on the floor in Garuva

The food was, by consensus, decent but a little disappointing given the incredible build-up caused by the popularity and the atmosphere. Jan had a tofu stir-fry, I had some good prawn and pumpkin fritters (probably the best out of the three), and Vanessa got bold with some Turkish octopus.

Vanessa with a Turkish octopus in her clutches

An interesting tidbit about Australian dining, particularly in Brisbane, is that basically it takes forever to have dinner because the waiters won't do anything unless you lasso them and reel them in by their underpants. Even then, it takes about 15 minutes to get your order taken, and we were waiting around for 45 minutes after eating before we finally got our check. It's just curious that, given the popularity of the restaurant, they probably could have served twice the people if the staff had the American attitude of turning tables to maximize profit. Not saying it's bad -- just curious.

After escaping the hidden tranquility of Garuva, we hurried to a gelato place before it closed. On the bus ride back to the city center, some yahoos threw rocks at our bus and shattered the back window (not typical in Brisbane). The first reaction of a couple thick-necked guys in the back was to yell, "Hey driver! You gotta stop the bus so we can mess some people up!" When the bus stopped, the guys ran off in search of their mess. Since this is the bureaucratic nightmare of Queensland, the bus couldn't keep going with a cracked window, and we had to run to catch another bus lest we miss out on gelato (we didn't).

7/16 - Me, Myself, Manly, and an Emu

In order to contemplate the events of a year ago, I decided to get out of Brisbane and go to the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, since it had pretty much been a crummy weekend, weather and otherwise, I hadn't made any plans and I slept in. By the time I got my act together, it was too late to get to a completely isolated place, so I hopped on the train and went to Manly, which is a quaint seaside harbor mainly known for its marina, which is the 2nd largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

Clouds over Manly

Manly Marina

A dog and his boat

After getting back to Brisbane from Manly, I decided to go for a good Australian meal, in honor of Ben and Giulia's love for fine food, and in the tradition of the "food as celebration/mourning" theme that our memorials have taken on. So I ended up in the Berkeley-ish suburb of West End, where I passed by Tukka, which is known throughout the Australia for serving excellent gourmet food using indigenous ingredients.

Tukka

I had a hard time trying to decide between the wallaby and the emu, but I decided to be adventurous and try the emu. Apparently, wallaby is kind of like kangaroo, which you can eat for cheaper at other places in Oz.

The menu

To start out with, they brought out a complimentary appetizer of a Queensland mussel with chili lime sauce. It was so good, I ate it before I could take a picture of it (I wasn't the only one taking pictures of the food -- there was a table of Hong Kong tourists that was doing the same thing). Then they brought out damper, which is a bread made without yeast, with macadamia oil and a nut paste. It also came with a pepper leaf that was supposedly really hot, but wasn't that spicy at all.

Damper (unleavened bread) with macadamia oil and nut paste

Finally, the main course of rare emu fillet with watermelon glaze and baby turnips:

Rare emu fillet with watermelon glaze

The emu was a lot like very tender and rare beef, which was strange to me since it's a bird. The waiter said that it would be gamier than beef, but I didn't notice that at all. Even though it didn't look like a lot of food on the plate, it was actually a lot of meat and very filling. Afterwards, they brought out some complimentary samples of Australian fudge, but sadly, I had to decline them.

Everything was fantastic, but the only problem was that, the whole time, I kept thinking of that movie, The Freshman, with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando. In the movie, Brando's Godfather-spoofing character is involved in an underground restaurant that purportedly serves endangered species...[spoiler alert]...but unbeknownst to the high-paying customers, they're really just serving smoked turkey, or something mundane like that. [/end spoiler] Anyway, I don't think I was being duped, but the emu was definitely beef-like.

In the end, I'm not sure why I decided to actually go in to Tukka -- it's way out of my price range -- but I'm glad I did. It proved to be well worth the money, and it would definitely have been a place that Ben would have tried at least once for the food and the expeience.

7/16 - Ben and Giulia, we miss you...

Ben Boussert and Giulia Adesso

One year ago today, my Berkeley labmates Ben and Giulia tragically passed away in a car accident along with another friend in the Chemistry department. Ben and Giulia were a big part of the Alivisatos group, and their memory remains strong with us at Berkeley. I deeply regret not being able to join the memorial service for them in Berkeley, but here from Australia, my heart goes out to Ben, Giulia, Jason, and their families.

Brisbane

So last time I told you about my daily life in Dutton Park and at the University of Queensland. So far on the weekends, I have been exploring Brisbane and all that it has to offer. Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia and is the capital city of Queensland, the northeastern state in Oz. Brisbane is a gorgeous city that has a lot of the good features (climate & diverse, laid back people) of California while being very clean and safe (there's not really any place I'm afraid to walk in Brisbane at night). Culturally, there's a lot of stuff to do in Brisbane. On the weekend, there are a lot of concerts and free dancing in plazas, and there are major arts festivals more than several times a year. There's a suburb called West End that is much like Berkeley with an alternative culture, farmers markets with organic food, good restaurants, and overpriced housing.

Intellectually, Queensland is putting a lot of money into research, and this license plate indicates that I chose the right place in Australia to study:

A real license plate

...Even the graffiti is smart.

Geeky graffiti

In terms of scenery, if you look up from that bench, here is what you see:

Brisbane skyline

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Mt. Cootha, which is one of the taller "mountains" or hills in the Brisbane area. From there, you can see Brisbane from above:

Brisbane skyline from Mt. Cootha

From my house, it's a 40 minute walk to downtown Brisbane, which doesn't bother me anymore, despite the fact that I have worn out my shoes. Brisbane is basically built around a river, and I have to cross a bridge from South Bank to get the the central business district. There are many bridges in Brisbane, all with spectactular views:

The Brisbane skyline from a bridge

You can also get around the city very fast on these fast catamaran ferries called "CityCats":

The CityCat ferry docking in downtown

As the sun goes down, the city lights up, both the bridges and the buildings. A lot of new buildings have been built in the past 15 years, leading to a modern skyline and a nickname of "BrisVegas."

Brisbane at dusk

The Brisbane River at night

Brisbane in the early morning after a World Cup game

Anyway, that's Brisbane for you. I haven't been to Sydney or Melbourne yet, but Brisbane is as nice a city as I've been in. I'll let you know if my opinion changes later on in my travels.

7/10 - One month of World Cup madness comes to an end...

After a meager three hours of sleep following a full day of hiking on the beaches of North Stradbroke Island, I dragged myself out of bed and limped downtown one last time to see France and Italy duke it out in the final game of the World Cup. At a packed British pub called Union Jack's, I met up with my French labmates, Elisabeth and Jean-Marie, and their French cohorts, a.k.a. "Team France." They were, of course, decked out in full French garb, with flags and face paint. They even (forcibly) painted little French flags on my face. Obviously, I had to root for France, but not just because of these crazy French dudes (who react very violently if you do call them crazy). I was also very anti-Italy given how the Italian team really only made it to the final after some "referee help" in games with my other two teams, Australia and the USA (more on that later). And finally, my late labmate Ben had been a big France supporter (although coincidentally, Giulia was Italian).

Sadly, France lost with Zinedine Zidane's bizarre meltdown, and with that, the World Cup was over. My French friends were crying. And I, as an American, had to shamefully walk home through the streets of Brisbane at 7 in the morning with little French flags still on my face.

But the World Cup ride had been worth the loss of sleep. One of the highlights was watching France beat Brazil at Union Jack's. The pub had been packed shoulder-to-shoulder two hours before gametime with both French and Brazilian fans. The Brazilian fans set up an impromptu Samba pit in front of the big screen and seriously did not stop dancing for a full hour and half. But after the game, it was the French fans that were dancing and chasing down cars in the streets, while the Brazilians were in tears.

Of course, at heart, I am still a die hard United States National Team supporter. Unfortunately, there was not much to root for, with pretty the American's biggest stars and brightest young prospects falling flat on their faces.

Having waited 4 years for this moment, I think I would have been more upset at the USA's dismal performance had I been watching in Berkeley. But one reason why I was able to shrug it off was because Australia's team succeeded where the US did not. With a team of pretty much equal caliber players, the Socceroos used hustle and teamwork normally associated with the US team to win its way into the knockout rounds. In fact, I probably enjoyed the Aussie success more than an American one, because I was able to join in the fun of rooting for the Socceroos with the natives at pubs and public amphitheaters.

Aussie fans at a pub

You're not a real fan without an inflatable kangaroo

Sunrise and the second round at the big screen at Suncorp Piazza

7/9 - North Stradbroke Island

OK, so now we're going back in time -- to a time when I was too lazy to put pictures up on my blog. A couple of weekends ago, I went to North Stradbroke Island, which is right across the Moreton Bay from Brisbane. After taking the train to the coast and then a ferry across the bay, I ended up in Dunwich, which is not that interesting.

Dunwich

The beach near Dunwich

Then, I took a bus to Pt. Lookout, which is on the Pacific Ocean side of the island. Pt. Lookout's claim to fame is that it is the eastern-most point of all of Australia. So pretty much, there is nothing but ocean until you get to South America. From Pt. Lookout, you can see huge waves break against the cliffs. I spotted some whales blowing in the distance and a school of dolphins playing in the waves not too far away.

The Gorge at Point Lookout

N. Stradbroke has miles of beaches. There's even a beach called 18 Mile Beach, which is weird because everything in Oz is in kilometers. I guess 29 Km beach doesn't quite sound the same.

Main Beach, from Point Lookout

Main Beach has huge waves for surfing. Today, swimming there wasn't even allowed because the waves were so powerful. I talked to some surfers, who said the waves that day were great -- big, but clear. Check out a close-up of the waves and a crazy guy who decided to brave them:

Them waves is big

Mmmm... dead fish

After spending most of the day hiking along Main Beach from Pt. Lookout, I headed back to the western side of the island to catch the sunset.

Me at the beach before sunset

My stuff at the beach

I ended up at Cylinder Beach, which, being on the bay side, has calmer waves for swimming. After a long day of hiking, I hopped in the waves, which were still pretty strong. After that, the day was almost over...

Sunset at Cylinder Beach

Sun go bye-bye

Night settles in at Fisherman's Beach

So that's my day at N. Stradbroke Island. After making it home on the train, I got a few hours of sleep before yet another early morning adventure...

[To be continued...]