Cambodia and Vietnam

Mitch and I have finally finished our planning for the last few months we are residing down under. All it took was about 15 solid "planning sessions", 10 phone calls to the Chinese Consulate, 3 trips to STA travel, and 4 phone calls with Air New Zealand. (not to mention the countless emails and phone calls with our parents) After all of our deliberation, we are going to visit Cambodia and Vietnam. Our plane leave on July 20th from Sydney to KL. There we connect via Air Asia to Siem Reap. Making our way to Phnom Penh in 3-4 days, we will be crossing the border via bus and traveling to HCMC. We will be taking the Reunification Express (the Vietnam railway) all the way up to Hanoi. Although we have several stops in mind, our plans are completely flexible and open, the only thing we have to make is our return flight to Sydney on August 5th ( arriving on the morning of the 6th). We have one day in Sydney to collect our belongings, cancel any bills/bank accounts/ etc. and rest up for our flight out on the 7th to Fiji via Auckland, NZ. A week in Fiji for our last bit of paradise and we will be home in LA on August 15th. Preparing for our final trip home is exciting, and bittersweet. Knowing we are leaving a country we have called home for the past 8-9 months is an interesting feeling. I am so excited to come back to Texas .....trust me there is NO Tex-Mex here that even slightly compares. But I will miss Australia once I am finally gone. ;)

The Red Dirt

We went on a FABULOUS tour to Uluru and the red dirt center of Australia this past weekend. I think I came home with over 200 pictures of one red rock....Our day started on Thursday morning where we caught the early flight to Ayers Rock. From our hotel (the Outback Pioneer) we were picked up at 2pm to start our day at the viewing platform, then continued our journey to the sunset viewing area where we were served wine and canapes. Uluru is my favorite at Sunset, the color of the rock agains the blue/purple sky is unforgettable, and honestly much more enjoyable in the evening over a glass of vino than at 5am with coffee and your PJ pants wrapped around your neck improvising a scarf because you didn't bring enough warm clothing for a 7 degree morning. But, the rock is much more of an orange color in the morning, its the orange that I would imagine the famous "Ayers Rock" to be, right after the sun comes up over the horizon, and is shining fully on the front.