A Day in Phuket Town

We're only in Phuket while we wait for a ferry across the Andaman Sea. The ferry only runs on certain days in the off-season, so we have to wait to catch the next one on Sunday morning. So, we spent the day exploring Phuket, finding a good deal on a ferry + taxi, buying some groceries, and chilling in the air conditioning of our hostel room. 

Garden in the city center

Golden dragon that is the "heart" of Phuket Town

Upper tier of the park

Bicycle statue art

Concert area

We walked thru several of these gates around town

We wandered into a mall and enjoyed seeing everything that was for sale. There were several familiar brands, including Levi jeans. We concluded that living in Thailand would provide much better jean selection for Brandon. His small waist size is normally so hard to find in the States, but here it seemed to be the most common size. 

We did our exploring in small stints returning to our hostel room for air conditioned respite from the muggy, smoggy weather. The hostel is right in the Old Town, so it's easy to walk around everywhere. An added perk is that the hostel provided a light breakfast, which was good even though we weren't sure what we were eating. It was some type of breakfast cookies and pastries that with a google search revealed they probably had pineapple jam filling. While we ate we enjoyed looking at the lobby decor as well. 

Pineapple jam filled cookies

We felt right at home with the I-80 sign

Pretty cool wall art of Phuket Island

We spent a lot of the day figuring our the ferry. There doesn't seem to be a direct ferry to Tonsai Beach where we want to go for rock climbing. We're pretty sure that we have to take a ferry to Ao Nang and then a longboat from Ao Nang to Tonsai. At least this is what I've pieced together from several websites. Fingers crossed! 

Then we did a lot of cost comparing of ferry + taxi services online, at our hostel, and at several local travel agencies. The local travel agencies are similar to what we experienced in Guatemala. All the prices are about the same and everyone (agent, taxi driver, ferry company, who knows who else) takes their cut. Your payment includes the ferry fare and a taxi pick up at your door. The trouble was that no one seemed to know where our hostel was located, so we were a bit skeptical about actually being found and picked up. Our hostel also acts as a travel agency and so we looked at their price as well. We knew the taxi service they contracted with would be able to find us, giving us peace of mind. However, their price was the least competitive. The online ticket price on the ferry website was the best deal, but once again we were skeptical the taxi would find us. 

Finally, we decided to separate the transactions. We bought the cheaper ferry tickets through the actual ferry company online and we arranged with the hostel to have a taxi pick us up in the morning. This caused confusion with the front desk, because they really wanted us to do the ferry + taxi deal, a deal that doesn't really seem like a deal to us. But, it should all be sorted. Hopefully our taxi shows up and the price is what we were quoted...never dull. 

After all that work we felt deserving of a good dinner. A random contact in Thailand (son of a co-worker of my mother or something) had suggested Suay Restaurant. We've found that finding food in a foreign country, especially when there are so many options, can be stressful. So, it was wonderful to have a recommendation only about a kilometer walk from our hostel. It turned out to be an amusing, delicious experience. 

As we were enjoying our delicious lemongrass ice tea and strawberry, orange, passion fruit frappe and waiting for our food orders when a man sauntered over. He explained in a clearly Australian accent that he was a photographer for Pacific Magazine doing a piece the restaurant and that he need some subjects in his photos and would we please, please do him the favor of posing for him. We wanted to warn him that he was choosing very non-photogenic people for the job, but we were pretty much his only option as the restaurant had just opened for the evening. So, Brandon and I sat in some chairs and desperately tried to have normal conversation as he took picture after picture. Yep. This happened. We're probably famous now. 

The ambient Suay Restaurant

Brandon appreciated the fancy napkins

Our nice cool drinks on a sweaty day

We were released from our photo shoot and our food arrived. We shared a delicious Thai salad with pomelo and sweet chili dressing. I had roti (think flatbread) with yellow chicken curry, kaffir lime leaf, and picked cabbage. And what did Brandon have? No surprise. Tacos. Chicken curry tacos with sour cream and guacamole and Thai salsa all on a roti taco shell. It was all amazing and filling.

Our delicious array of food

When we were done we had the "do we tip or not in this country?" moment of panic. We had forgotten to research that. Oops. After the fact, we looked it up and were relieved to find that we had followed the correct protocol and left any coin change behind. Phew. 

Shortly after we returned to our hostel it started down pouring. Buckets and buckets of rain. And, it's still pouring an hour later, so, I think we're in for the night. As I write this, Brandon is channel surfing Thai television which is pretty amusing. You can watch chicken fighting, martial arts, the movie Thor, soccer, Fox new, cartoons, and more. 

That's our Phuket experience. Hopefully all goes well with the taxi and the ferry and finding accommodation tomorrow. It'll be an adventure. If we don't post for awhile don't worry. We're not sure of the internet access for the next week while we're attempting to find some rock climbing. But, we'll check back in as soon as we can! 

Our Top 5 Experiences in Melbourne

We explored and did so much in Melbourne in just a month! We decided to reflect and challenge ourselves by making our own top five lists. Each experience we list is linked to its corresponding blog post. 


Katie: 

1. Great Ocean Road trip
2. An evening of eating dessert and seeing the Little Penguins in St Kilda
3. Attending the VFL final
4. Blind date with Flowriding and Mad Moose pizza
5. Moon Dog Brewing

Brandon: 

1. Great Ocean Road trip day 2 (hand feeding parrots and scenic driving)
2. Katie's Blind date with Flowriding and Mad Moose pizza
3. Eating unlimited tacos at Maya Tequila Bar
4. Rock Climbing in Melbourne
5. Randomly finding James Squire Brewery and getting tons of information from the barkeep on our first day in Melbourne

Travels to Phuket

Yesterday was initially a bit of a sad day while getting things packed. We had really come to like spending time in Melbourne. It felt very familiar and homey. But it was time to head off on our next adventure: Thailand.

Our host, who time and time again went above and beyond her normal host-ly duties, offered to drive us to the airport. We declined at first, but then came to our senses since sometimes you just need to take people up on their hospitality. It helped make for a much better overall day of travel.

We again were flying Jetstar, this time out of the Tullamarine Melbourne Airport, and again had a really good experience. Two for two, Jetstar! From check-in all the way to bag pickup, it never really felt like a budget airline. The line to check-in was super short, at least when we arrived. Security and passport processing at this airport was super simple. They don't do the whole take your shoes off and pull out your liquids thing, which was a little confusing cuz we did do that and had to put them all back in our bags. But they were kind and patient about it. And the international terminal of this airport had a good number of shops to look through as well as free WiFi to use while we waited. We were most tempted by the Merino wool (from New Zealand) clothing shop as well as debated picking up one of those fancy neck pillows, but didn't end up getting any. 

Finally it was time to board the airplane. The one little hiccup was that we were worried we weren't sitting next to each other. We were in the same row, but there was a gap in the seating letters. As it turns out the just don't use the letter "I". Also we had the added perk of having an open seat next to us, so we got to spread out across three seats. So great! 

Leaving Melbourne

Our fanciest flight yet. Three seats and in-flight entertainment.

The reason Jetstar is considered budget is simply that they make you pay for most comforts other airlines normally just include. If you want food or drinks, you pay for it. You want to use the in-flight entertainment, you pay for it. Being budget travelers we get around this by packing sandwiches, snacks, and water. For entertainment we have our devices, a coloring book, and plans to just sleep. But this go around they drew us in with the in-flight entertainment. They had at least 4 movies we had been wanting to watch, and it was only $10 AUD for all access. So we caved. I figured we could just activate one screen and then use our new headphone splitter to watch the movies together. In the end, we might not have needed to. Not too long after I swiped my credit card in the center seat the other two seats said they were being given complimentary access. So I have no idea if I actually got charged or if the free service came cuz we activated one screen. Either way it was still worth it. We watched Inside Out and Spy together. I watched part of Ant-Man and Welcome to Me and even got in a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. Pretty deluxe. 

Over 8 hours later we landed in Phuket. Again passport processing was pretty simple. We didn't have to wait too long for our checked bag. And our mission of finding an ATM to get cash went smoothly as well.

The dark and foggy view of the Phuket Airport.

Our last adventure of the day was trying get from the airport to our hostel. We can't catch our ferry to where we'll be climbing until Sunday, so we booked a private room through Expedia to stay for the couple of nights we're in Phuket. So to get to our hostel we had to get a taxi. We wandered around outside, looking a bit lost until finally someone asked if we needed a taxi. We said yes and tried to explain where we were going. They seemed to at least understand we were trying to get into Phuket City. They threw out the price of 800 THB. We couldn't remember if that was a good price or not so we just went with it and followed this young guy to his car, got in, and we were off.

The taxi ride was quite exciting. I'm pretty sure we found the fastest taxi driver in town. He was whipping in and out of traffic, using turn lanes and bike lanes to get ahead of slower drivers. I'm pretty sure most of the time we were going twice the speed limit. While we were driving I pulled out my phone and tried to get the GPS working. Eventually it found where we were and it helped assure me we were heading in the right direction. 

We made one stop that was not our hostel. I think it was their head quarters or some kind of travel agency because he just got out the car and some nice lady came and talked to us to figure out where we were trying to get to. Our hostel was either new enough or changed names so that they didn't know what we were talking about. After about 5 minutes he got back in the car and just asked me if I could give him turn by turn directions. So I'm very very thankful my GPS started working so that I could do just that, else it might have been more complicated.

Waiting for our taxi driver, not quite sure what was happening. It's all part of the adventure

We eventually got to the spot I had saved on my map and sure enough our hostel was there. I wasn't 100% it would be since sometimes addresses don't always show up correctly. Even with our stop we made it in record time. We paid the taxi driver 900 THB since he only had 100 THB in change. Maybe a little sketchy, but it was late and in the end that's still only $25 USD for what was supposed to be a 30 minute taxi ride. Seemed worth it.

We are staying at the Bed Hostel. It had really high reviews on Expedia and was still really cheap, even for a private air-conditioned room. Check-in went smoothly. They were waiting for us and had our paperwork all ready. They showed us to our room. And that was that. Finally... with great relief... our travels for the day were complete, and we could sleep. And sleep we did.

Our room complete with some cool artwork over our bed.

Solo Travels

Yesterday was already our last full day in Melbourne. What?! The time seems to have flown by. This afternoon we're Thailand bound. We've realized that we're going to be spending a lot of time together in Thailand until we get used to the area we're staying and feel comfortable venturing out alone. So, we decided to do some solo travels for our last full day in Melbourne since we're very comfortable now with the suburbs and train system. Here's what we ended up doing! 

Katie: 

I decided to return to Yarraville and explore the area more in depth. You don't have to go to the city center to reach it, and it's only a twenty minute train ride from Altona. Though it's quieter than the city center there's still a lot to take in. 
The first place I stopped was a pop-up shop. Pop-up shops are a new trend in Australia. It's essentially a shop that "pops-up" using a short-term lease wherever it can find sale space in a suburb. When the lease runs out the shop "pops-up" in another suburb. Pop-up shops are often used collectively by local artists to display and sell their wares. The one I went to had all sorts of handmade purses, jewelry, clothes, teas, cards, artwork, etc. It was a lot of fun to wander. 

Next, I stopped in a private physical therapy (or physiotherapy as they call it in Australia) clinic called Physiotherapy & Clinical Pilates: Yarraville Village. One of my co-workers recently suggested seeing what physical therapy looks like in Australia, which I thought was a brilliant idea. I purposefully went during lunch hours not to interrupt too many patient sessions. I was able to talk shop with with a kind female physical therapist for a few minutes, but didn't want to steal too much of her lunch time. She explained that the physiotherapy clinic was initially stand-alone at another location in Yarraville, but recently moved in with the pilates and barre studios. They have found this merging of businesses into one space to be very helpful in continuing care with their patients. There are three physical therapists on staff as well as some staff for the studios. Manual therapy techniques are a main focus of treatment. Unlike in Michigan, physiotherapists are allowed to order x-rays and do dry needling. I didn't get a chance to ask about length of visits or amount of visits, but the therapist did mention that the care at this clinic is one-on-one. It was a fun and interesting visit, and I wish we had had more time to chat. 

Outside of the physiotherapy clinic

You can see they provide a lot of great services to the community. They also have a sign stating that they are members of the Australian Physiotherapy Council, which seems to be an indication of good practice. 

Inside the gym area with pilates and exercise equipment. The three doors in the rear are manual therapy treatment rooms. 

I then continued wandering thru the streets of Yarraville and in and out of shops. One of the main draws in Yarraville is the historic Sun Theatre. The art deco architecture has been preserved and movies are still played in six theatres that seat between 23 and 200 people. In the affiliated Sun Bookshop next store, I was tempted by and bought an adult colouring book. Just like in the States, these seem to be all the rage in Australia. I justified the purchase because it should provide good entertainment for our flight and provide a technology-free, relaxing outlet for me when we have down time. Plus, one of the colouring pages is of Sydney, Australia! 

Brandon: 


I decided to head to downtown Melbourne. I had only one must stop place, and that was more of an errand than anything. Katie and I discovered on our last flight that'd it be nice if we had an audio headphone splitter so that we could be listening to the same bit of music or audio book and both have our own set of headphones as opposed to sharing one set and getting to only listen in one ear. So I went straight away to the location that had said splitter and found it with ease.

For the rest of my time out, I just wandered aimlessly. If I saw a shop that looked interesting, I stopped and looked in the window or went in. I stopped at a couple of outdoor shops. I kept my eye out for a good juice or smoothie place and stopped at a couple to price them out. I even went back to one to actually buy something, but they didn't accept credit cards. Stymied. But about 10 min later I found myself in a mall we had been in a few times since that's where our church is located, and there was a juice shop I kept eyeing, so I decided to give it a go. I got a watermelon, orange, and strawberry ice frappe. Well worth the hunt.

A cool Dr Seuss art shop I stumbled across. I thought my dad might appreciate this since he's a big Dr Seuss fan.

An alley converted to be fancy with a bunch of coffee and food shops 

I then made my way back to Federation Square where I had heard there was an information center where I could get a free sticker of this rhino on a skateboard. We've seen the signs on the trams as safety promotional thing. Sadly they didn't have any. But I did get a button that says "Heart your trams". I suppose that was a pretty good consolation prize. And they gave me some other places to ask, but those didn't pan out either.

The sticker I was hoping to find.

After that excursion my time was running out. My "curfew" was 6:30, so Katie wouldn't worry about me. I had just enough time to get off the train in Newport and stop by a shop that sells a good variety of local craft beer to pick up some brews for dinner. 

The drink selection for our last evening in Melbourne.

I made it home and then Katie and I went to the grocery store to pick up dinner. The original plan was to get some kind of turkey or chicken patties to make burgers, but a chicken roast dish with bacon and cheddar and cream cheese that I had been wanting to try was finally back in stock. So we went with that instead even though it was going to take at least 3 times as long to cook. It ended up taking even longer cuz I did't realize the oven turned off after the first timer went off. Still totally worth it though. 

Our delicious dinner that was TOTALLY worth the extra wait :)

We agreed it was a great way to spend our last full day in Melbourne. Thailand here we come!

Everyday Life in Altona

We've posted a lot about specific adventures around Melbourne, but we've also had some really nice down time that we've spent in Altona. Melbourne locals always act surprised when we say we're staying in Altona. Probably because it's further than other suburbs from the city center, there's no night life, and there are a lot of retirees. But, we've grown to love Altona with its quiet small town feel, sea smell, shoreline trails, bustling main street of cafes, conveniently located grocery store, easy access train station, our Airbnb home away from home, and a place just a couple doors down from home where Brandon got his hair cut. 

Everyday life. Our everyday laundry. 

As an added bonus, here's a video of our everyday surroundings. Caution: I am not an expert videographer and the shakiness may make you nauseous. Yes, it is that bouncy even after YouTube claimed to do its anti-shake corrections. Sigh. You've been warned. 

( https://youtu.be/e6ofXGnKeds )

City on a Hill

Spending a month in one city (in this case, Melbourne) rather than traveling all over the country has been an intentional decision. One of the reasons we have chosen to do this is community. Community, we felt, would lead to better understanding of culture, more local information about the area, invitation to participate in activities, and a sense of connection in a new place. One of the ways we find community at home is our church. We also want to use our sabbatical to grow spiritually. So, it made sense to find a church in Melbourne to regularly attend. 

We have a church in Lansing called Riverview that we closely identify with. It is part of the Acts 29 Network, which is comprised of churches with several key characteristics including gospel-centered teaching. So we decided to see if there were any Acts 29 churches in Melbourne. As it turns out, there are two such churches in Melbourne, both known as City on a Hill. One was on the west side of Melbourne, which is where we are, but not easily accessible via public transit. The other was located in the movie theater of a mall in the city center. The basement of the mall also just so happens to be a train station. Perfect. 

We had trouble finding the church the first Sunday, because it is a really, really big mall and at that time we didn't actually know the church was in the movie theater. Mercifully, we stumbled upon it and were only a few minutes late. We settled into the super comfy theater seats (maybe too comfy during a sermon) and were able to worship with Christians in another country. We learned some new songs and the teaching was gospel-centered and expository, which we relate to well. Pretty cool. 

The pastor giving the sermon that morning was actually visiting from the west side church and we were able to briefly meet him on the way out. We discovered his name is Luke and he lives in Altona near us, so we exchanged email addresses in order to meet up sometime. Pastor Luke ended up being the guy who loaned us his car for the Great Ocean Road. At that point, we had not even met up with him yet. We finally were able to meet him at a cafe and chat yesterday! Again pretty cool. 

City on a Hill church in Melbourne

Now for some reflection. I was hoping to expand our community through regularly attending a church, but I didn't really know what to expect. In order to facilitate meeting people, I was hoping for a greeting time. I must admit that I normally hate greeting times at churches. Yes, hate. They are usually forced and awkward making them feel insincere. As it turns out, there was indeed a greeting time. And, yes it was forced and awkward. In fact, once, we couldn't get anyone to talk to us. I don't bring this up to blame. I bring this up to reflect on myself. Now having been the outsider who actually wants to meet people, I have been convicted of making an effort to meet new people when I have a home church again. Brandon and I have previously discussed intentionally meeting new people at church and actually inviting them into our home for more personal, real conversation and community. But, we've only actually followed through once. Interestingly, the reason I started going to the church we attended in Holland is because a family did just that; they invited me over for dinner the first time I was there. And, you know what? I, and now Brandon, are still in contact with this amazing family. I know that something miraculous like that isn't going to happen every time I step out of my comfort zone. But, I still feel convicted to be more hospitable and sacrificial of my time as Christians are commanded to be. More than the sermons I've heard recently, this has motivated spiritual change for me. 

I've also been trying to cultivate spiritual growth on this sabbatical by personal Bible reading. I've been working my way through the New Testament and have recently been reading a lot about the early church, including Acts 4:32-35 which says, 

• "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, and brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need."

Wow. Pretty radical for our self-driven, independent culture to hear. This is of course just a description of the early church at that time. Nevertheless, this has stood out for me for a couple reasons. First, because our friend group in Grand Rapids has been trying to create such a community, one that generously shares food, resources, time, emotion, and spirituality. We've been trying to build that community by meeting once a month and having intentional, deep discussion not just the surface "How are you doing?... Good." conversation. It's been challenging, but it's been real. And, I miss it. 

Second, because of Pastor Luke's example. He gave his car to us, strangers from another land. Crazy, generous sharing among believers as in Acts. And then he shared his time with us chatting about all manner of things over warm beverages. Simple, but meaningful spiritual community. 

So, yes, I think I've found both community and spiritual growth. Or at the very least I've found the beginnings of those things, which I hope would continue to root if we were able to spend more than a month in Melbourne. 

Katie's Australian Blind Date

A couple of weeks ago Katie took me on a blind date. She already wrote about it in this post. But needless to say it was quite fun. So the pressure was kind of on to come up with a quality blind date for her since she is always so good at coming up with good ones for me. I started thinking off and on about different ideas until finally I came across this really good option while browsing Groupon. So here is said blind date.

We set off around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 20th after a bit of a delay due to my last minute planning and note taking. Turns out the location wasn't quite where I thought it was, so I had to do some last minute research. But I think it helped add to the mystery of the date. I also learned that what we'd be doing was actually outside, not inside like I originally thought. Luckily we had still had some warm weather, but it was turning cold that night. *Phew*

Katie experiencing the non-sights and sounds of public transit.
She didn't have to wear the blindfold for long, as Katie talked about in her post, it is a bit too sketchy to lead someone around blindfolded in a busy city. Plus the stops are announced over the intercom, so there's no point.

After about an hour of travel on two trains and a tram, we arrived at our first destination: Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center.
At this point she was guessing that we were doing some kind of swimming, but there was still more to the surprise.

The surprise is revealed. We're surfing!.. well fake surfing. They call it flowriding.

Yup, that's right. I found a sweet groupon deal for this surfing machine. All day passes for two people for only $35. And that includes entry to the other aquatic center stuff like an indoor wave pool. It's something I've always wanted to try, but when I've seen them at other water parks they were always so busy and cost extra. So as we often do for blind dates, I found something I really wanted to do and dragged Katie along with me. I think it worked out. We both had a lot of fun. 

You first start out on a bodyboard. And then from there you work your way up getting on your knees on the bodyboard.

Katie bodyboarding.

Me bodyboarding.

Katie picked it up quite quickly.
Her second or third time she was already getting up on her knees.

I picked it up pretty easily as well.

Our instructor was awesome. He was really interactive, joked with us a lot, and was just overall a lot of fun. But as a result he pushed us pretty quickly into the real deal surfing. They do a really good job of easing you into it. 

For our first few times we start out on the front of the "wave" and our instructor helps ease us into the flowing water.

We then get a chance to figure out how to balance and turn on the flowing water while holding onto a rope. It felt a lot like wakeboarding at this point

Once you get that down you're moved to the top and taught how to drop into the wave.

Me being helped my first time down into the wave

https://youtu.be/fjp6HFwuDIM
Here's a video of me dropping in semi-successfully.

We then took about an hour break. The flowrider was reserved for an hour by a private party. We were a little bit bummed, but it worked in our favor to take a bit of a break. And as a perk we got to go into the water park area and enjoy the wave pool and eat a snack.

Chilling by the wave pool.

After our break we got right back out on the waves and practiced some more. It took a bit to warm up again. We both had some nasty falls. But eventually we managed to have some pretty good rides too. It helped that the lines were short and the other guys that were there were a lot of fun to be around. Everyone would cheer you on if you were having a good ride. If you fell down early a couple of the guys had some hilariously awesome phrases they'd yell at you to get you to take another turn (imagine all of these in a heavy Australian accent): "Have another go, mate! Have another go!" and "Come on now, step in time... step in time!" (Gotta love the Mary Poppins reference).

Katie tearing it up!

Hang Ten Mate!

https://youtu.be/wFStFJjRoRA
One of Katie's best rides. 
She even had a pretty graceful dismount at the end there.

https://youtu.be/lYY1FAlwik0
 One of my best rides.
Notice the stirring motion my arms are making to keep balance. The guys would yell out "And he's stirring the pot! That he is... stir that pot". It was quite funny at the time.

We ended up being there way longer then I thought we'd be. It helped that we both exceeded our own expectations of how good we would do. Katie didn't think she would even try the stand-up surfing. But as you can probably tell from the pictures and videos, she did awesome! Success!

At this point we were pretty tired. I had looked up a few other things we could have done in the city, but given the time and our energy level we decided it best to head back home. But I had one more surprise. On our train ride home we stopped a few stops early in Yarraville. Katie was a bit confused at first, but then she quickly figured out what we were doing. I still tried my best to keep it a secret.

Even though she more or less knew where we were going, I still blindfolded her for good measure.

It's a Katie-moose.
Seemed like a must take picture. I wish I had found a box for her to stand in.

Mad Moose is a pizza joint we found while exploring Yarraville a couple of weeks before. They looked like they had some really interesting and tasty options. So I stole the idea from our to-do list for this blind date. It was really tough to decide what to get because there were so many good options. But we ended up with this:

Our Pizza!
We got a pizza with half Oasis and half Plucka.

Oasis: Garlic, napoli sauce, tasty cheese, Spanish onions, roasted red capsicum, green capsicum, diced tomato, falafel and a sprinkle of chilli. topped with tzatziki

Plucka: Plum sauce, tasty cheese, peking duck breast, topped with cucumber, carrot and coriander.

Katie approves!

Both types of pizza were amazing. We ate it all in one sitting. So it was well worth the stop even with being exhausted from our earlier activities. It was a good way to end Katie's Australian blind date.

And that was that. I hope you enjoyed my retelling of one of our last Australian adventures of the month.

Cheers!

p.s. We definitely paid for some of our falls the next day. Both of us had some pretty sore necks and shoulders. But due to lack of time and a previous commitment with another house mate, we still went rock climbing one last time. It wasn't our best performance, but at least we didn't make it too much worse.

Rock Climbing in Melbourne

Being rock climbing enthusiasts, rock climbing gear was an essential for Brandon and I to bring on our travels. We have checked out a few indoor rock climbing gyms around Melbourne and found a favorite one. We also found an outdoor bouldering area under an overpass. We were hoping to meet some people and tag along on an outdoor rock climbing with them, but that hasn't evolved. A month probably just isn't enough time to establish such a connection. Oh well. We've still enjoyed the climbing we've done and will look forward to some real rock in Thailand. 

The first place we checked out was Hard Rock Climbing Gym. They have two climbing gyms, one in the city center and one in the far flung suburb of Nunawading (which is also a mouthful to say correctly). We checked out the city center gym, but it was busy as kids were on holiday from school and there was no bouldering. The gym was set up on the third story with full length windows all around, so at the top of the wall, you could look out over the city. I imagine you'd feel like you were climbing a building, so maybe we'll have to get back and try it.

The Nunawading location had boulder as well as top rope. We tried the bouldering, because it was cheaper; there were no specials on the top rope and it was pretty pricey. It was okay, but required a lot of power moves, which is not our favorite style of climbing. 

Pretty sweet boulder set up at Hard Rock Nunawading

Working through a bouldering problem

Trying a tough overhanging climb

Impressive ceiling moves

After getting some bikes, we were able to check out Cliffhanger Rock Climbing Gym. It's about 3.5 miles from where we're staying, but the train doesn't directly access the area. We'd have to take a train and then a bus that runs only every hour. Kind of a pain, so the bikes make it simpler. Turns out the gym was well worth the effort. It's definitely our favorite. The walls have a lot of features and the routes are well set to take advantage of these features for a more outdoor climbing-esque feel. There is a good mix of power and skill required to complete the routes and we are being challenged in new and good ways. The walls are also very, very high. The highest spots are probably three times higher than the walls in our gym, which is good for endurance training. Also, we were able to purchase a new member punch card for three climbs for only $30, which is by far the best climbing deal we've come across in Melbourne. Win!

Checking out the boulder area

The wall straight ahead is a negative incline. You get good practice uncliping quickdraws from the rope as you climb. There is also a ladder and rope in the center of this area that you can climb. 

This routes on this wall are my favorite.  In just one route you can go from straight to a corner to over the outcropping on the right to a slab to a negative incline to an arete. 

Another bouldering area and an extreme ceiling route on top rope

The blue wall is one of the tallest in the gym. The yellow wall to the right of it is a slippery slab. Further right you can see a wall of hexagons; the hexagons have features that simulate real rock. 

The only thing we don't like so much about the gym is their belay set up. It is very complicated with both a carabiner lock and figure eight for the climber and a floor anchor and grigri device for the belayer. These are good for safety for school groups or new climbers, but kind of bulky and annoying for experienced climbers and not a good practice for the reality of outdoor climbing. 

Carabiner lock and figure eight for the climber. In the background, you can also see some of the floor anchors for the belayer. 

Grigri for the belayer who is also anchored to the floor

Our housemate did a bike ride around Melbourne and discovered an outdoor bouldering area under an overpass for us. We checked it out with low expectations, but it was pretty sweet. The one downside was that being under an overpass and next to a walking/running trail there was a smell of old urine, hopefully dog not human. Thankfully, a nice breeze took the majority of the smell away. Also, the view of the Yarra River beyond the trail was entertaining with boat tours and crew teams. There were three climbing walls, one vertical, one negative, and one very negative. There were several traverse routes of varying difficulty, which were my favorite to attempt. The non-traverse routes were harder to find, but there were some rewarding ones. We talked to a couple people working the routes, but most seemed to just stay and climb for 10 minutes as part of their workout routine rather than do focused climbing for a few hours. Surprising, because there was a lot to take advantage of. 

Me traversing the vertical wall

Negative wall

Highly negative wall

Brandon conquering a traverse route

As you can see the walls are under an overpass next to a trail and the Yarra River

As you can tell Melbourne has satisfied our desire for indoor (and under an overpass) climbing. We're still anticipating some real rock to come.