Dhara Devi

My stay at the Dhara Devi resort has been like a dream.  After my grand entrance (see previous blog), I stayed in my villa for at least a full day just taking it all in.  Just my villa alone was breathtaking!  Here is the view out my back door:

The property is huge, and you could spend weeks just wandering around and looking at everything.  The architecture here is so detailed and beautiful.

There are fascinating statues everywhere

One of the highlights of my stay was a ride on a water buffalo and the opportunity to plant rice like the Thai do.  That is backbreaking work, I only did about five minutes and I was over it.  The mud is at least two feet deep and you get sucked down in it every time you step.  So imagine spending your whole day having to lift your feet out of mud every time you step and bending over and planting individual rice plants by hand, one at a time.  Wow!  

Riding the water buffalo was so much fun!  He was so sweet and just interested in eating his lunch, he hardly noticed us.  

The last night I was there I got to see a traditional Thai dancing show.  That was very nice!

I thought there was something different about their fingers and I probably would have just put it out of my mind if one of the girls' fingers were not bent so drastically I couldn't ignore it.  When I got back to my room I looked it up and sure enough, from a young age, dancers bend their fingers back because it is considered beautiful.  Fascinating.  

I am so thankful I got to stay in this beautiful place.  It was too expensive to stay there long term but definitely an experience I will remember forever!

Journey to Chiang Mai

Wow, it’s been a roller coaster week, 3 countries in 5 days!  I said goodbye to my sweet elephant friends in Taro and headed to the airport for Singapore.  I had booked a room at Hotel Clover the Arts because it looked clean and artsy.  It did not disappoint.  I went to my room and opened the door to find I had gotten the elephant room!  I had not requested that, in fact I didn’t even know there was an elephant room.  Out of all the rooms in the hotel, what are the odds I would get the elephant room right after leaving the elephant park?  Here is my video of that room.  I love Singapore!  After three weeks of third world conditions, it was such a nice break to be in a clean, modern city!  I went to the Chinatown market that night and ordered a deep friend sea bass for dinner.  It was really good!  The waitress admonished me for not eating it correctly and said “next time, you order steamed fish, you eat the whole thing!”  I wasn’t trying to waste food, there’s a technique to eating fish like that and I haven’t had much practice.  Luckily, the table next to me ordered a steamed fish and I got to see how the pros did it.  They ate every part of the fish, skin and all except for the tail fin and backbone.  I watched in fascination as the guy put the entire fish head in his mouth and spit out the bones!  I resolved to do better next time.  Chinatown night market, Singapore. The next day I was on a mission: I had some supplies I really needed to restock, mostly personal and first aid items.  I went back to Chinatown and started perusing the shops.  I was thrilled that I was able to find everything I needed by lunchtime!  I dumped my finds in my hotel room and set off for the Gardens by the Bay.  If you look at any tourist information on Singapore, you will see these iconic towers. In addition to the towers there are two domes, the flower dome and the cloud dome.  I was already tired and hot so I opted to explore only one dome.  I chose the cloud dome because it sounded mysterious. I bought my ticket and got inside the front door and immediately ran into a crowd of tourists that had stopped just inside the front door, causing a traffic jam.  Once I got around them, I saw why.  Right in the middle of the dome was a huge waterfall, going all the way up to the top which was five or six stories!  I took a lift up to the top and then walked the circular walkway down.  It was breathtaking!  It is brilliantly designed with plants, waterways, and sculptures all harmoniously placed together.  The walkway took me around to the back of the waterfall, then around to the front, and so on.  After that, I was officially tired and verging on heat exhaustion so I went back to my room.  I packed up all my new supplies and the next day it was back on a plane for Bangkok!  The hotel I booked in Bangkok, the Shanghai Mansion, was by far the coolest room I’ve stayed in yet.  Video here.  It is set right in Chinatown so that night I had the opportunity to visit the night market and sample some street food.  My favorite was a duck and noodle dish.  It was so good, about 20 minutes I went back for some more and they were sold out!  Darn. I was still overtired from Singapore so the next day I just laid low in my hotel room, easy to do since it was so amazingly beautiful, and only went out to eat and come back in.  It was exactly what I needed.  I learned after Bali to take heat exhaustion and dehydration very seriously.  And I am learning to listen to my body and be patient if it needs more time to heal.  View from inside the waterfall in the cloud dome. Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. After a nice relaxing day in Bangkok, it was time for my final plane trip for awhile (I hope) to Chiang Mai!  It was an easy flight, business class was only about 30% full so we all had plenty of room to stretch out.  In Thailand I have read that scammer taxi drivers will take you somewhere other than where you want to go in order to get more money out of you so I had booked a car from the resort.  It was about 1/2 hour drive and then I felt like I was in “The King and I!”  They drove me into the resort and up this grand ramp in front of what I swear looked like a palace!  I was ushered out of the car, my bags taken, sat down in the lobby, given a flower necklace, cold cloth and tea.  I filled out the paperwork and my butler, a very sweet young Thai lady, asked me to follow her to a golf cart.  She said “I hope you don’t mind we upgraded you to a villa.”  I was completely overwhelmed by this point at the size and beauty of the resort I just kept nodding and bowing and smiling.  The drive to my villa took a good ten minutes.  She opened the door and gave me a full tour, bathroom, kitchen, sitting area with tv, balcony with private pool.  I was just starting to wonder where the bedroom was when she said "follow me please" and we went outside, up a flight of stairs and into another building!  This was the master suite with a queen size bed with mosquito netting (Thank God) and a whole bathroom suite with walk in closet.  She sat down with me and went over every single aspect of my options, tours, food, shopping, and asked me if there was anything she could do for me.  I said no thank you and after more bowing and smiling she left me to my new abode.  I spent the first hour wandering around in a daze.  I had booked the smallest, cheapest room in the resort so I was awestruck at the beauty and deeply grateful to be given this incredible gift.

I am going to stay here and relax for a few more days and start looking for my next place. Until next time, have a great week!

Adventures In Mailing

I went to a shack labeled Post Office earlier today to mail a package.  I have a few things I want to send home but I decided to just send one and see how it went.  There didn’t appear to be anyone in the shack at first but I figured they were somewhere.  I walked up to have a look around and there was a lady laying on a blanket on the floor behind the desk.  She jumped up and said hello.  I said I would like to mail a package and I took a wrapped gift that I had bought for my sister’s family and another piece that I wanted to send with it (I don’t want to spoil the surprise for her) and laid it on the desk.  The lady dug around in a pile of plastic bags and came up with a very well used gift box or maybe food container.  Hard to tell.  She placed the gift in the box and it took up less than half the space.  She started to put the lid on, she was going to send it just like that.  I noticed a smaller box underneath the desk and asked her if we could use that.  She said yes so I took the box this time, placed the gift inside and asked her for some newspaper.  She took a piece and began to fold it.  I took it out of her hand and crumpled it and packed the gifts in the box and put the lid on.  She then took a roll of shipping tape and tried to find the end but couldn’t so she gave it to me!  I found the end and handed it back to her and she wrapped the entire box in shipping tape!  Good luck opening that, Liz! Then she took the package and weighed it on a bathroom scale.  It was a very light package so of course it didn’t even register.  She asked me to tell her how much it weighed.  I said it looks like one kilogram.  She asked, “how many grams is that?”  I told her 1000.  She called someone on the phone and spent quite a while asking them what the prices were and finally got off the phone and handed me a shipping label book.  She said to fill out the top portion with my information and the bottom with the recipient’s.  I filled it out and then she examined it.  She pointed to the box with the return address and pointed to the box and said “for?”  I pointed to the return address and pointed to me.  This is kind of hard to describe in writing but it was hilarious.  We had a conversation that went something like this: (point to return address) “FOR”, (point to mailing address) FROM.  Me: “no (point to return address, point to self) ME, (point to mailing address, point to box) SEND.”  She pointed to the boxes on the page and said “FOR, FROM,” which was the opposite of what she told me to do.  So I said “I’ll rewrite it.” She said “no, it’s okay!” I took the book from her, drew a big X through the box I had just filled out and re-wrote it the opposite way.  We went through it again (point) “FOR,” (point) “FROM.”  At this point I started giggling and she did too. “Sorry, sorry, so confused!” she said.  I said “it’s ok” because really, what else could I say?  Then she gave me a sharpie and pointed to the box.  I wrote the address on the box, grateful that at least I had a better chance of it getting sent to the correct address.  I paid her and we smiled and said “thank you” and I went on my way.   So Liz, I hope you get your package.  She said it would take about three weeks.  I saw a different “post office” on the way back to my lodge.  I think I will try them next time. 

Eeeek! A Spider!

True confessions: After my run in with the spider, I went walking down the street and saw that every other building is an accommodation of some sort.  So I started inquiring.  I found a place called TunJung Mas Bungalows that is the same price and the rooms are clean and the doors close properly, no huge gaps.  So I packed up my stuff and moved.  

Quick recap for those of you that weren't there for the epic Facebook conversation.  I checked into my beautiful but tiny little room in Ubud, Bali.  I was a little surprised because I had this picture in my head of what Bali would be like and I thought I was going to be in a quieter part of town but it turns out the place I booked is right on the main street and the town is super busy!  So I was a little thrown off by that.  But such is the life of a wanderer so I was determined to keep an open mind and explore where I landed.  Even though I felt very exposed, the grounds were absolutely gorgeous!  So after doing some walking around, I settled in for the night.  I woke up at 3:30am (as I often do - touch of insomnia) to find a huge spider on my door!  Not tarantula size, but about the size of my palm, quite big enough to scare the bejeezus out of me!  I grabbed my laptop and started writing status updates about it.  The nice thing about the time difference is that when it’s 4am here, it’s the middle of the day for Sacramento where I come from so all my friends were up and commenting.  (Status updates in red)

“OMG you guys it is 4am and I just found a giant spider in my room! Eeeeeekkkkk!!!!!”

After I wrote my first status update, I looked at the door and it was gone!

“Ok, so I looked up from my computer and he's not on the door any more. What's worse, seeing a spider or not seeing a spider? Oh Sh*t, he's on my desk now!”

“I called the reception guy and he came in but now we can't find it. All I can think of is it's behind the bed. Aack!”

The reception guy tried his best to find it but in the end he failed.  

“So I've got at least two hours to hang out with my arachnid friend until sunrise... There's no way I'm going back to sleep. I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's only my first day so I'm freaked out!”

I sat in the center of my bed in the middle of the room until sunrise.  Finally a bird started singing and I felt better, knowing the worst was over.  I still shuddered to think that spider could be anywhere!  So after breakfast I wandered down the street and decided to find another place to stay.  

It wasn’t just the spider that made me decide to move.  It was a number of things that all added up.  First, the location,  imagine buying a cheap storage shed at Home Depot that hasn’t been put together properly and so has big spaces in between the doors.  Now put it on Howe Avenue (for non-Sacramentans, a very busy street) and try to live there.  That’s what this place felt like.  Even though they have done their best to create a beautiful oasis, the fact remains that you are sitting right on the street.  I read the reviews and I think I just lucked into getting the worst room.  There are other rooms further back with better features.  But when I asked to change rooms they said there was no availability.  The spider was just the cherry on top and with the way that room was constructed I knew there was no stopping a hundred other critters from coming right in.  The staff was really nice about trying to help me out but in the end they could not solve my problem, so I tried to be as gracious as possible when canceling my reservation.  I paid a small cancellation fee - uderstandable - and packed up my things and moved to my new place.  I felt better in this place knowing the door was pretty airtight.  It had this fantastic shower which was on rocks, kind of like an outdoor shower but totally screened in so I was confident no spiders could get in.  I unpacked and went out to explore the city.  I came back later that afternoon and took a shower, which was an interesting and fun experience!  I went out again to find some dinner and when I came back, to my horror, there were giant ants making their way en masse from the shower into the bathroom!  Seriously, they were easily 2mm long and fat!  We used to have red ants like that in Carmichael so I knew those suckers wouldn’t die easily.  I killed all the ones in the bathroom but five minutes later there were just as many!  I looked online for natural remedies and made an ant-killing concoction of water, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, and clove oil and sprayed the heck out of everything!  My room smelled amazing but it didn’t seem to deter the ants.  I dumped a bunch more clove oil in but it destroyed my spray bottle.  So I finally went down to reception and told them the situation and said I’d like to change rooms to one with an inside shower.  They asked me if I would let them clean it first and see if that solved the problem.  I said ok and minutes later had three staff guys in there looking for ants. They said “there aren’t that many” and I said “that’s because I already killed them all!”  They came in with some kind of pesticide and sprayed all over the shower which killed most of the ants but made the whole bathroom smell like pesticide which couldn’t have been healthy for me to breathe!  I told them I would stick it out for the night but would probably still want to change rooms in the morning.  I spent a very nervous night not knowing what I would find every time I opened that bathroom door!  I did make it through the night and woke up with a fresh bite mark on my foot.  At 8am I went down and requested a room change.  This time I have a room with an inside shower and a good fitting door.  I dumped the rest of my concoction on a towel and pushed it up against the gap at the bottom of the door and saturated cotton balls with tea tree oil and clove oil and placed them by the door and in the bathroom.  I was a nervous wreck as night fell, hoping I wouldn’t have another freaky bug battle!  I didn’t get much sleep but by about 2am I hadn’t seen any more bugs I finally started to relax.  I do have the cutest baby gecko which makes me feel more comfortable.  Why do I love lizards and hate spiders and ants?  I don’t know, but it’s how I am.  As of this writing it is 6:30am the next morning and as far as I can tell, I am still bug free.  It’s not that I expect to be completely bug free all the time; there were plenty of bugs at the first place I stayed (the Elephant Safari lodge) but they made sense.  A couple of ants which came out of the fruit tray they brought in, the occasional spider.  This was not a man-eating spider chasing me around a tiny room or an army of determined ants forging their way toward me.  I have learned a few valuable lessons from this experience.  I definitely look for clean rooms with tight fitting doors when I book lodgings.  I am much more interested in learning about essential oils now and plan on expanding my collection.  At 2am all alone in a room in a foreign country it helps to have some essentials oils to concoct remedies for problems.  I am optimistic about this new room; third time’s a charm I guess, and I am looking into my next move to hopefully something less bustling and more like the Bali I was hoping to find.  

Adventures in Ubud

**Disclaimer** There is a bit of overlap between this post and the "Eek! A Spider" post, but there is enough detail in each that is different, I decided to include them both. Hi all!  Last time I left you, I was thoroughly enjoying my stay at the Elephant Lodge.  After my blissful three days there, it was time to go to Ubud and see about whether it was a candidate for a longer term stay.  It didn’t start well.  I packed everything up and went down to reception to check out and confirm where I was going.  They all nodded and said they knew exactly where that was, no problem.  So I got in the car and the driver asked me “where we going?”  Not a good sign.  I told him the name of the hotel and he said “you know how to get there?”  Uh, no I didn’t!  Then he just started driving.  I said, “we’d better go back and find out where we’re going!” I don’t know what he was planning on doing.  We went back to the lodge and I went to reception to clear the matter up but the driver said he talked to the other drivers and he knew where to go.  I said “are you sure?” and he nodded.  So off we went.

Not my driver from the hotel, but a good picture of my first ride on a motor scooter later that week! After about an hour of driving, he dropped me off in the street in front of a sign that said “Yoga Barn” and another that said “Ubud Aura,” which is what I had booked.  I was a little shocked to be right smack dab on the busy street in the middle of the city!  That was not what the pictures showed.  I shouldered my backpack and rolled my suitcase down an alley, having no idea where I was going, and the driver took off.  About a block down the alley I found it, a tiny little enclave in the middle of a very busy area.  I have to say the landscaping was beautiful.  Their photographer had caught every possible angle, making it look like an all inclusive retreat when it was just a few tiny buildings and a pool.  I checked into my room, which was right in the front.  Nevertheless, it was a darling, tiny room with beautiful woodcarved doors.  Wanting to keep an open mind, I settled in.  Pretty soon, I began to eye those doors.  The beautiful woodcarving also meant a hundred holes which creatures could fly or crawl through easily.  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I settled in for the night. All the sidewalks have gaping holes in them, not all this big, but you really have to watch your step or you could fall pretty far and seriously injure yourself! I woke up at 3:30am (as I often do - touch of insomnia) to find a huge spider on my door!  Not tarantula size, but about the size of my palm, quite big enough to scare the bejeezus out of me!  I grabbed my laptop and started writing status updates about it.  The nice thing about the time difference is that when it’s 4am here, it’s the middle of the day for Sacramento where I come from so all my friends were up and commenting.  (Status updates in red) “OMG you guys it is 4am and I just found a giant spider in my room! Eeeeeekkkkk!!!!!” After I wrote my first status update, I looked at the door and it was gone! “Ok, so I looked up from my computer and he's not on the door any more. What's worse, seeing a spider or not seeing a spider? Oh Sh*t, he's on my desk now!” “I called the reception guy and he came in but now we can't find it. All I can think of is it's behind the bed. Aack!” The reception guy tried his best to find it but in the end he failed.   “So I've got at least two hours to hang out with my arachnid friend until sunrise... There's no way I'm going back to sleep. I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's only my first day so I'm freaked out!” I sat in the center of my bed in the middle of the room until sunrise.  Finally a bird started singing and I felt better, knowing the worst was over.  I still shuddered to think that spider could be anywhere!  So after breakfast I wandered down the street and decided to find another place to stay.

Sweet gecko that decided to hang out on my bathroom mirror.  I love lizards and hate insects and spiders.  I know that doesn't make any sense, I don't understand why either! At the risk of this newsletter becoming VERY long, you can read the rest about the ant invasion here if you haven't already.  After two consecutive nights of bug drama, I finally got a good room with a minimal amount of bugs.  Then, to give you a brief overview of my time in Ubud, I got heat exhaustion followed by Bali Belly, so I was basically sick the whole time.  Even if I weren't sick, Bali just wasn't what I was hoping for.  There are places outside the city that are more peaceful, but another problem I had is it is way too hot!!  When I said I wanted to move someplace warm, I didn't mean hades-hot!  So all that taken into consideration, I decided to spend my last five days in Bali back at the Elephant Lodge.  After that, I am going north to Chiang Mai to seek slightly cooler climes.  I have learned a lot from this adventure; I look for very different things when I book a lodging, for example I am less concerned with decor and more interested in clean rooms with tight fitting doors. I am also learning to read between the lines of hotel adverts.  "Situated in the heart of the city" is now a key phrase for me to avoid.  So I book something really nice for a few days and then get my feet on the ground to inspect longer term potential lodgings in person. I am still learning to be patient with myself and remember I am not going to get all the answers in one day. This is a journey, and I am enjoying the ride. My first taste of rambutan, a local fruit.  It was delicious! For more up to date information, videos and pictures, follow me on Facebook or on Instagram @suzernathy.  Have a great week!

Hello From Bali!

Hello from Bali, I finally made it!  The flight over here was blessedly uneventful.  I have a confession; I am officially addicted to business class.  Before you judge, let me explain why.  Besides the roomier seats and better food, there are other things that make it worth every penny.  You get a fast pass so you get to bypass all the lines! I saved myself at least an hour at check in and security.  That may not sound like a big deal but when you’re traveling, tired, in a new city, you can use all the help you can get.  Plus, by using SkyScanner, an app you can download to your smartphone for free, I got the ticket for half price, which would have been a good deal even for economy.  On the flight, we had real Brie and crackers for an appetizer and Mediterranean style lamb meatballs which looked like they came out of a real restaurant!  No hint of anything airplan-ey.  They had tablets which we could watch movies on so I amused myself with “Saving Mr. Banks” and before I knew it, we were there!  Best flight I’ve had in years (on Virgin Australia, by the way).

I got into Denpasar and hustled to the front of the line.  Customs was easy, I just gave them the paperwork and they waved me through.  Phew!  I found my driver and off we went.  Right away he asked me “are you nervous about the traffic?”  I said “I’ve been to India so I’m ready for anything!”  And it turns out I was right.  The traffic was unusual by Western standards but nothing compared to Chennai.  Although I do have to say, no ride in Asia is complete without some serious games of road chicken and this one did not disappoint.  As it turns out, the passing lane here is also the lane with oncoming traffic, in other words there is no center turn lane.  If you want to pass someone, you beep them to let them know to slow down, then move into the other (oncoming traffic) lane, pass them and get back into your lane.  We did this about once every two minutes.  After a couple of hair raising close calls, I just quit watching and looked out the side window.  This was a source of endless fascination, all the shops and temples and people going about their business.  There is a lot that happens right out in the open so driving through is not boring.  After about an hour, we got out of the city and into the rice fields and more rural settings.  It was beautiful, just like the pictures you see in the travel books.  There were a ton of dogs running around and they didn’t seem to care that there were cars on the road.  They would just walk wherever they pleased and we had to swerve around them or wait for them to move. . We finally got to the Elephant Safari Park and Lodge and there they were; elephants everywhere!  It was so surreal and everything happened so fast!  The driver dropped me off at reception, another guy took my bag, another guy showed up at my side with a fruit drink in his hand.  The lady was telling me all about my itinerary but at this point I was too overwhelmed to understand her.  They took me to my room and told me the elephant chauffeur would be by at 6:30 to take me to dinner.  There was this deafening screeching that started about that time and I thought it might be birds.  I asked and they said it was cicadas. At 6:30 all the elephants came down the path between the lodges and picked up everyone for dinner.  That was so cool!  The cottages are set with the door at elephant height so when they come to get you, you just step out your door and on to the elephant’s back. Dinner was great; I had my first taste of traditional Indonesian fried rice, satay chicken, and some sort of breaded fish.  I don't know what, but it was good!   The next morning was go go go again, breakfast at 7, elephant bathing with a hose and brushes, then the big deal, “swimming” with the elephants. It was kind of scary, those elephants are so big!  I’m not scared of them but the handler didn’t line up the elephant very close to the side and told me to “jump on” the elephant’s back!  Eeek!  I thought I was going to fall.  And then I sat too high, right on her shoulders which move a lot!  Finally I slid down to her neck right behind the handler which was much better.  The handler told me to hang on to him but I was twice his size and afraid I would fall and take him with me!  But I had to trust him so I did and fortunately we had no mishaps.  He dipped us down into the water which, by the way, was filled with elephant poop and pee and little fish and God knows what else, and had the elephant rear up and a bunch of stuff while the other guy took photos.  I kept looking the wrong way because I forgot about the photographer.  I went back to the room to take a shower and scrub the heck out of my swimsuit and sarong then went back out.  I went on a ride through the jungle on another elephant which was really nice.  The weather was nice and cool and it was mostly shaded so I really enjoyed it.  Much like a trail ride horseback only bigger and with a trunk!   The whole experience was so incredible.  I have been fortunate to be able to visit many nice places in my life but this one takes the cake!  I was in heaven the whole time I was there, hanging out with elephants every day in this breathtaking park.  I am so fortunate to have had that experience.

G'day from Australia

G’day from Australia!  This was my first time down under and I was very excited!  First we went to Sydney. The ship docked right by the opera house, so that was a really cool sight to see first thing in the morning!  Sydney is a fantastic tourist spot.  There is so much to see there I don't know if you could see it all even if you stayed a month!  The first day I went on a tour to the Featherdale Wildlife Preserve and the Blue Mountains.  I got to feed kangaroos and take a picture with a koala and a tawny frogmouth, the bird you can see sitting on my hand in the upper right picture below.  There was a lot of fog at the Blue Mountains, so we didn't see many of the landmarks, but we did ride what they said was the steepest train in the world (or something like that) which turned out to be the track for an old coal mine.  Then we took an ariel cable car back up the mountain.

The next day I went out on my own to a place called The Rocks, which kind of reminds me of Old Sacramento, historical and bohemian.  They had a craft faire there so I got to do some shopping.  I got hopelessly lost on the way back though, and walked for hours trying to find the ship!  What I learned about maps that day is they're not very helpful if you don't know which direction you're going and which direction the map is facing.  That might sound elementary but I never thought about that before and I've used maps plenty of times.  But I think it was mostly in Sacramento where I had a general idea of where things were.  So I bought a compass at a local camping supply store.  We'll see if that helps.   I've started wearing these headscarves pretty much every day because it's humid here and I sweat so much my glasses fall right off so this helps keep my ears dry so the glasses stay on better and also keeps me from outright dripping everywhere.  That's something I didn't anticipate but it works really well.  Anyway, our second stop in Australia was Brisbane, where I disembarked the ship.  I am happy I did the cruise, it was definitely more fun than that long flight.  I learned a lot about British people and made some friends.  But I will not miss British food!  Not one bit!   I had one full day in Brisbane before my flight to Bali was scheduled, so I took a river cruise to the Lone Mountain Koala Sanctuary.  A friend in Sacramento had recommended it so I was glad I was able to go.  It was really nice!  I got to play with more kangaroos and they had emus wandering around, which was cool.  I love emus and ostriches, I think they are the most fascinating birds!  Being the animal enthusiast that I am, I was quite happy to spend another day with the wildlife and I learned a few more things about Australian species.  I did take one really cute picture, shown below, of what I thought were wombats.  But when I got back and looked up wombats I realized that that's not what they were.  Someone said they are wallabies, but when I look up wallabies, they look like miniature kangaroos.  So I'm still not sure what these are.  Someday I will solve the mystery.  Here's the picture... After we got back from the koala sanctuary, I walked around South Bank for awhile, which all the young people told me is the ONLY thing to do in Brisbane.  I could see their point, it is very hip with beaches and hangout spots, chic stores and restaurants.  I learned my lesson from Sydney, when I had had enough I went to a main street and hailed a taxi back to my hotel.  Much better. I'm learning!  I found Brisbane to be very expensive and not as much fun as Sydney.  I would go back to Sydney if the chance arose, but probably not Brisbane.