A Chance to See Beyond Oneself

Here is a link to some pictures from my time in Australia, they can also be seen in my picture gallery on my profile:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/size/M/users/lost%20again/tags/Australia/

-Karl

The Story

After sailing around the Whitsunday Islands I made my way north to Townsville to catch a ferry to magnetic island. The island was fairly small, consisting of a few small townships but mostly geared toward tourism. While there I went on a few hikes to beaches and lookout points. It was a great opportunity to see wildlife as I was able to see several koala's eating eucalyptus leaves in the trees as well as a mother walking with her baby on her back just a few feet in front of me. I was able to see some wild kangaroos (pretty common in Oz), tree kangaroos, wallabies, and other wildlife species I don't know how to classify. I also had the cool experience of being able to ride a horse bareback up the beach half submerged in water. The night before I left I met up with a German guy and a french guy who I traveled with up to Cairns (a larger town with access to the great bearer reef, jungles, tablelands, etc). There were also some Swiss girls from the island that we also ended up meeting in Cairns.

Arriving in Cairns brought quite a surprise as I happened to meet a friend from college who graduated the same year I did - Sara Park (its also good to know our graduating class was only about 400 people). Neither of us knew we were going to be in Australia and we just happened to be right next to each other in a line inside a large club when she turned around and recognized me...what are the chances. We also both happened to be going north to Cape Tribulation and staying at the same hostel up there the next day. After a while though, these sort of things loose their shock value as they surprisingly happen to a lot of people.

The next day I took a bus up to Cape Tribulation which is a small town, if you can even call it that - more like several hotels/hostels, "where the jungle meets the reef" as the slogan says. It was a quite beautiful place to take walks in the jungle to swimming wholes and stride along the mangrove bordered beaches. We were able to see some wildlife such as crocodiles, unique rodents, parrots and cassowaries (big birds like ostriches but a lot meaner). Cairns is quite the party town so you get to know a lot of people, enjoy a lot of fun late nights, and spend lots of money on alcohol - probably a good reason to keep on moving.

I fly down to Sydney after exploring Cairns for a few days to meet up with my good friend Lukas who I traveled with in New Zealand. My original plan was to stay in Sydney for about three weeks to work and save some money and spend Christmas in Sydney. I started working at a hostel but on my 5th night I decided to leave the next day. It is amazing how things never really work out as expected. I enjoyed the city but felt the need to keep moving - can't really explain it but you have to follow your feelings.

I took a 14 hours overnight bus ride to Melbourne, which is a large city on the south portion of the Australia. I met a Dutch girl and German guy on the bus and we wandered about the city looking for a hostel at about 5 am when our bus arrived. After finding a hostel we further explored the city, enjoying the architecture, parks, galleries, museums but the heat discouraged extended exposure to the sun. I went to a Tibet film festival and met up with my friend at a jazz club on the other end of town. The musicians recommended we go to this latin club later in the night where it turned out that some of the best musicians in town were playing there that night. The band was large and so talented, a great experience to see a free good latin band.

The next morning I saw a flyer of people looking for someone to help share gas on a drive up the Great Ocean Road which is a beautiful coastal drive along the southern coast of Australia (you see the 12 Apostles along this drive which is often seen in pictures of Australia). So I called them up and they picked me up 15 minutes later to drive to make our way west to Adelaide - another unexpected experience. It was a relaxed ride with an english guy, english girl, and two german girls. All the hostels on our half way point stop only had room for the three girls so myself and the english guy slept in the car and sneaked into the hostel to cook and shower.

When arriving in Adelaide we spent the day exploring the city and visiting some beautiful hidden botanical gardens outside of the city as well as a wildlife park, not to mention getting attacked by a vicious black swam. When we returned to the hostel I noticed a flyer advertising a trip to Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Adelaide. So I called them up and we left the next morning to go spend two days on the sparsely inhabited island. We saw plenty of kangaroos everywhere and did some spectacular walks through eucalyptus forests and on to rugged coast lines inhabited by seals and pelicans. Unfortunately we were unable to see any platypus which lived around some water holes we walked around. I was given the fun opportunity to sheer a sheep at a hostel/farm we stayed at the first night on the island. We also saw these rocks, titled "remarkable rocks" which were...well quite remarkable. These very oddly shaped boulders were once part of a large dome overlooking the ocean and has been slowly eroding over thousands of years (or however many). They look like some type of extra terrestrial related shapes...whatever that means.

I was then planning on making my way to the west coast to see the highly renowned city of perth but instead decided to make my way up to Alice Springs to see the world famous ayers rock. So myself, a dutch girl, and a german guy (two of the three people I went to kangaroo island with) are making about a 10 day trip into the outback. We leave in about an hour...it should be quite hot and barren the whole way but an incredible sight to see.

The Reflection

Unfortunately I don't have time to relay my recent contemplations (and the experiences above are long enough). Things have been fairly rushed lately, going from one place to the other, not knowing where I will be from one day to the next. It makes it difficult to ponder and make any progress on a single topic.

Christmas has been pretty much nonexistent for me. There have been all the usual decorations and music surrounding the city space but I feel completely removed from it. I have never been very festive so I don't mind, I think I will be driving on the road back from the outback on christmas. It still does make for a unique feeling, realizing the rest of the world has this significant day of the year on their mind right now and that many in the traveler community give little value to the celebration of it. Most of the travelers all went to Sydney already to celebrate Christmas and new years.

Something I have slightly been pondering is how virtues should be manifested in the vocation of a traveler. Sometimes traveling can be very selfish because everything is planned around me: what I want to see, where I want to go, what I want to do, etc. There is often very little sacrifice that needs to be made - obviously always the little compromises when traveling with other people but so little compared to the compromises that need to be made when you live in some type of structured community. Sometimes it feels selfish to travel because I have no responsibility, so much freedom, and the rest of the world is working 9-5 (or more) and often don't have the privilege to travel. In another perspective it is important because you learn so much from it...I don't really know, like usual I don't feel to strongly one way or the other, just passing thoughts.

Its time to head to the outback...hopefully we won't hit a kangaroo with the car.

K

The Story

Australia has become my new frontier to explore. I flew into Brisbane on November 16th and stayed with a couple from couchsurfer.com. It was a great experience to get to know Beni (Australian), a musician and factory worker, and Wencke (German), recent imigrant to Australia, as well as their friend Eva (German) who were so hospitable to let me stay at their apartment for several nights and show me around the city. We tramped through the city, enjoyed some view from several mountains, and highly appreciated the warmth of the Sunshine Coast (just north of Brisbane).

From Brisbane I hitchhiked north intending to go to Hervey Bay but ended up staying with a lady who picked me up that lived in a small beach town just north of the city. As her husband was at sea and her kids with their father, she was happy to have the company and show me around her small town. It is such a pleasant experience to stay with locals and obtain a glimpse of the similarities and differences with my experience of an American lifestyle.

When I arrived in Hervey Bay, a rather dull beach town, I made plans to set out on a four wheel drive excursion to Fraser Island which was right off the coast. Myself and nine other people rented a large jeep and explored the all sand island for a few days. The interior consists of mostly dense forest, with the occasional crystal clear lakes for swimming (Fraser's coast line has sharks and jelly fish that sting), and coast line has become the freeway for getting around on the island. Our group got along quite well, poking fun at each other's nationalities and enjoying our similar interests - a pleasant journey.

After taking an over night bus north I arrived in Airlie Beach, a beautiful but wretchedly touristy town. I took two day cruise into the Whitsunday Islands where were able to enjoy the warm waters of Whitehaven Beach (picture perfect beach) and snorkeled at several of the reefs. The scenery was nice but the company was mediocore; occasionally on group attivities you will get small two's and three's that have been traveling together and prefer to stay in their little group without meeting other people. My bus ticket allows me to ride all the way up the east coast, so I am leaving this morning for Townsville (what a name) to catch a ferry out to Magnetic Island and spend some time in nature, as I haven't really had the chance to do that thus far.

The Reflection

As I have been considering my vocation as a traveler for this time in my life, I have been vexed by some internal struggles with my exposure to other travelers (especially inspired by this over touristy town I am in that seems to be filled with only billboard travel advertisements and practically no locals).

I am confronted by a large backpacker community that prefer bus tours, partying day and night, and prefering only a slight taste of their new environment with no discomfort or risks. I have met a large majority of travelers who often leave a country remarking that they haven't met any locals, besides the bar tenders or tour guides yet had the "best trip" and love "traveling."

I am struggling to understand why I have feelings of disaproval and a lack of respect for their value system and style of travel. It seems the basis of differences is the varying value of embracing hardship and striving for that which is difficult to achieve. Is the difference between the words "tourist" and "traveler" really just a means of priviledging those that value their style of travel of the others? Often there seems to be a consensus of similar tension among those that travel in less convential ways with the camera addicted, bus touring, backpacker bar going, occasionally obnocious, tourist/travelers. Perhaps my frustration stems from the fact there are few people to relate with...

What does it mean to be a traveler? Is a true traveler defined by experiencing the new culture in as many ways as possible? Or rather is the term "true traveler" an individual expression for achieving personal growth in the breadth and depth of travel experiences? We are all tourists, whether or not we pay large sums of money to do preplanned activities that are more about excitement of the senses than experiencing a new land, people, and culture. I have many questions and no time left to finish my thoughts on this tension of traveler vs tourist, the ways power priviledges one term over the other, and how to better respect those of different travel styles choices.

The end
KS

Look in the gallery to find pictures, here is a link:
http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/lost%20again/tags/New%20Zealand/

The Story

Bungee jumping down a gorge with a river 440 below...ya...quite a good thrill. I was surprised that I wasn't really nervous about jumping out off the suspended gondola where you watch others fall to their doom only to be rescued 10 meters above the water by the elastic savior. But it all goes so fast you really don't have a clue what is going on. You are just gasping for breath on the way down shocked at how fast you are falling and then thoroughly relieved when the tension of the bungee chord kicks in and you fly about half way back up. It was a fun experience but I don't know if I will do anything like it again - I can't ethically spend so much money on such experiences for less than a minute of pleasure.

After Queenstown we (my german travel companion and I) took the incredible drove to Milford Sound where we were surrounded by snow capped mountains with waterfalls coming down all sides of the hillside as the snow was melting in the sun. After spending the night there in a hostel we took a cruise around the sound enjoying the view of the steep hillsides meeting the water of the sound. There were dolphins swimming along side of us part of the way and vast water falls filling the sound from the mountains above.

The next day we took about a two hour hike back through a forest to find ourselves at a secluded lake surrounded by jagged mountains all around us - it was one of the most serene places I have been in a long time. We spent a few days driving along the southern portion of the south island which were spent mostly in the car and outside on occasional walks and tourist stops. The further south we got, the weirder we found the people and places to be. For example, there was a sign for a national park that had the skins of several dead animals draped over it and a cows head situated on one of the posts. There was a supposed water fall called "Niagara Falls" and it ended up being nothing more than a small rapid in the water that we went out to see in the pouring rain. When we got to the falls, there was a sign explaining that someone made the falls official on all the maps for the humorous sake of playing off the name's relation to the US's Niagra falls. Another odd site was a man that sat in an old bus that he converted to an invention/trinket/odd-things you-have-never -seen-before tourist site. He sold a few post cards and jewelry but the rest was all for simply observing his nick-nack creations. To give an example, there was a train that goes around the room that has a sticker on it that says "of thought" and a button near the front door that says "press out of curiosity" that causes a little statue to squirt water at you. Both my travel companion and I started getting a little crazy as things in the southern portion of this island just felt odd.

We made our way to Christchurch (largest city on the south island) where Lukas (my traveling friend) flew to Australia and I began work at a hostel here until I leave for Australia on the 16th of November. It has been interesting to live with the family that owns the hostel and experience all their idiosyncrasies and family dynamics. I have met some interesting people here but I mostly hang out with an Irish girl that is staying at the hostel right around the corner. I have loved my time in NZ but am ready to move on to Australia.

The Reflection

This has really been the first time that I have been settled in one location for more than two or three days. It has been nice to be able to slow down, reflect, read, and wander. Something I have always struggled with is pinning down what exactly I "know." What does it mean to "know"? There have been so many times in my life when I supposedly knew something to only find out I had it completely wrong - or perhaps misunderstood. Perhaps there is no wrong way to know, only different ways to know...perhaps better ways of knowing is simply dependent upon individual value systems. I am reading a book called The Man Without Qualities and I often feel I can relate as the main character who lacks defining qualities. I feel quite uncertain about how to perceive the world in which I live. Each time I hear an opinion or perspective, I feel as though there are so many other valid perspectives that could be "logically" argued in the same manner. I state "logically" in quotes because logic has come to be such a relative concept in my mind as I have trouble declaring a right and wrong logic, it simply all depends on value systems (a lot of this is coming back to my earlier reflections).

So...what do I know? I can't really say much of anything to answer this question I have experienced a western education that has taught me a few valid things but do I completely comprehend them...no. There are obviously degrees of knowing which means I have a vague idea about a few things in life but I feel I can't really say anything for certain about them. I could say the color of my shirt is grey, I could say that I am typing on a keyboard right now, sure that is all great and peachy but beyond my physical senses, can true knowledge exist in the mind? Are questions really the answer? (haha I like that one). A quote from the book I am reading goes as such: "So it must be said that if a man [or woman] just starts thinking a bit he [or she] gets into what one might call pretty disorderly company" - Robert Musil.

So how is one suppose to live without knowing a whole lot? Tricky business this living thing; but that's how it goes. All I really have are questions and I am clueless if that itself is a good thing or not - sure some people might say it is, others say it isn't and is there actually a way of proving who is right? Maybe...maybe not. So hopefully travel will continue to give me new questions because after a while some of the usual meaning of life ones get a little tiring to cope with.

conclusion:
And so we change. we breathe new air from new places and see different shades of color in the old places. we feel and we think...or at least try to. and we usually don't know a whole lot about anything except for when we are hungry and when we are lonely. but sometimes we smile while on a stroll at the park and breathe a sigh of relief that our minds still have some room for life's humorous moments. our quiet rooms know us better than our best of friends and the Sunday afternoon silence finally gives us some space to sit. and so it goes that with each sunset comes a new death of ourselves and each morning brings a rebirth of opportunity (...to paraphrase someone famous). and that's how it is, one day, one hour...one moment of a chat with a stranger, one coffee with two sugars, one panting dog waiting to be pet, and a wee bit of everything else thrown in...

Karl

PS - Pictures are coming soon!