H-moon Recap: Always take the advice of locals

We had some amazing food experiences in Australia and Bali.  The best thing I can suggest for future honeymooners or travelers is to ask a few locals what their recommendations are for restaurants.

On our way down from the rainforest retreat in Australia, we saw a little 'cafe' that we thought we'd stop for breatkfast at. Unfortunately, they just opened at like 10:30 or 11 am and didn't serve breakfast...just sandwiches that were basicly grilled cheese. When we asked for avocado on mine, they came out later and said they had no ripe avocado and then they forgot to put cranberries in Mr Fix It's sandwich. But the trip was salveged when we struck up a conversation with the three people at the table next to us. Two of them were fellow Americans but one was a local who suggested a restaurant for us close to our hotel back near the coast.


The suggestion led us to Ashmore Steak & Seafood.  It was incredible!  A bit pricey but totally worth it for the quality and amount of food you get. 

In Kuta, Bali we found a restaurant called Nero Bali and loved it so much we even went back a second night!  They had insane food and Mr Fix It ended up buying shots for a couple about to get married after he offered to take their photo so their whole group of friends could be in a picture.

We also had a concierge at a casino in Surfer's Paradise suggest we check out Omeros Bros seafood in the Marina and that again was a high end but ever so yummy find!

I highly recommend you check out these places if you ever visit these areas!

Do any of you have fellow recommendations for dining near your home towns?  Do you typically ask for locals to suggest places for you?

H-moon Recap: Hiking in the Rainforest

I am nearing the end of both my honeymoon and wedding recaps.  Today, I wanted to share one of  my final honeymoon recaps with you (only one more to go!). 
We spent most of the week in Australia on the Gold Coast near the beach and surf spots.  But for one day in the middle of the week, we decided to drive about an hour and a half inland to this rainforest for a one night stay at O'Reilly's Retreat.  It was a great side trip in the middle of our 'beach' vacation.  And it was actually one of the funnest things we did on our honeymoon. 

We arrived in the late morning and checked into our room.  Then we immediately headed over to the front desk to obtain some maps and info on the hiking trails around the retreat.  They recommend that you take a guided tour with a guide but we didn't want to do that.  So we asked about a good hike that would take us to a few waterfalls and not be too short but not an all day thing either.  We didn't want to be out while it was dark!

The cool thing is they have a little sign in/sign out sheet so that if you go on a trail by yourself, they know what trail you are on and when you left.  That way if you don't sign back in they know when and where to go looking for you.  So smart!  And comforting too since there were literally only about 2 or 3 other hikers that we passed on our four hour hike!

We are pretty good at reading maps and of course there are some signs, but there's still that chance that you took a wrong turn somewhere when out in a tree infested rain forest.  The weather was perfect and it did sprinkle on us a little bit at one point but it felt good and the sun would shine through in a few different places.  Thankfully, we came across a lone hiker about an hour into our hike.  Since Mr Fix It is a chatter box, instead of the brief little nod hello that you usually give to passing hikers, we somehow managed to stop and chat with him for a minute.  He was an experienced hiker and we randomly mentioned which trail we were taking to which he informed us we took a wrong turn and we were on a totally different trail that was like twice as long!  UGH!  So glad we ran into that 'angel' on the trail because we were able to turn around and go back the right way so we didn't end up stuck on an 8 hour hike out in the dark!

There were definitely some scary parts of the trail where we were on a very small narrow ledge high on a cliff type walk.  Being that Mr Fix It is afraid of heights, we both thought it smart not to look down much and just keep moving carefully.  I love that my loving hubby is so thoughtful and protective of me as in several parts he would reach out and take my hand to help me get across sketchy areas. :)

We finally came to the end of the hike after having seen some very cool waterfalls.  It was a great day, we were a little tired but it was the perfect length and we had a great memory.  Mr Fix It even went a little crazy and took off all his clothes at one waterfall for me to get some pictures of him in it.  Beware ladies, these photos are a little 'R' rated, though I hid most of his personal parts well in the shots :)

Share Time:  Did you do any adventurous or workout type activities on your honeymoon?  Did you do anything scandalous or provacative?  ;)

H-moon Recap: An open letter to the women who massaged us

Mr Fix It and I are huge fans of massages.  I even have my own personal aesthetician who does facials and massages and waxings for me on a regular basis - she was even at my wedding :)  One way Mr Fix It coaxed me into going to Bali was by raving about how you can get these cheap massages on the beach for like less than $5 for an hour!  Sign me up! 

Unfortunately, the women who offer these massages on the shoreline or on the cliffs are typically really old ladies who are not the cleanest people in the world and while I love immersing myself in the culture and truly do like interacting with the locals, they hound you about a massage even when you don't want one which becomes quite annoying.  Most of my time on the beach was spent faking that I was asleep :)

Before we left the land of Oz, we decided to get a massage in a place we passed at the local shopping mall we visited.  Below are a few letters to let these people know what we thought of our experiences:

To the Asian guy who gave me a massage in Australia:

I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful full body massage you gave me while I was visting the Gold Coast on my honeymoon in April.  $60 for a 60 min massage is pretty typical of the price we pay in the states and you did great considering it was a 'walk in' joint.

I do, however, want to apologize for my husband.  I guess having 'rooms' that are really only a bed with curtains between them might not be the greatest idea when you have customers who don't appreciate your services.  At first I didn't think anything of it when I heard him say a couple times that his girl was pushing too hard on him.  That is really unusual considering he usually likes deep tissue massages.  And maybe she didn't realize that he had just pulled his back surfing the day before which was why he was trying to get the muscles worked out.  Instead, he felt like she was reinjuring him instead of helping.

I felt really bad for her once he finally sat up in the middle of the massage and told her that he was done and wanted her to stop.  He tried to maintain his patience and be polite.  But when your manager came in to see what all the fuss was about, he couldn't keep it in anymore and just had to say that 'she didn't know what she was doing' and she shouldn't be giving massages.  You really didn't need to keep apologizing for her.  I felt bad that I think he almost made her cry.  It wasn't your fault and you did a fabulous job on me so no worries.

Thankfully, I found my hubby shopping down the mall and just let him vent for a few minutes about what a sucky job she did on him.  Next time, I'll just come by myself :)

To the two young ladies who work at the Balinese massage parlor we stopped in on our first night in Bali:

How can we ever thank you for the fabulous job you did when we stopped in for a massage during our honeymoon?  My husband had a horrible experience in Australia the day before and after a six hour plane ride, we were so excited to stroll past your shop just around the corner from our hotel.  Though your massage was about $25 for an hour, which was definitely more than the lovely old woman on the beach was offering, it was way worth it!

I would say you both had magic hands.  I must admit that I wasn't totally excited about *every* part of the 'Balinese' massage though.  I am not a fan of having the balls of my feet slammed against with your fist.  And the slapping sound I heard as you smacked my back at that one point was not anything I'd ever heard before whilst getting a massage.  It was also interesting to see you try to stretch my legs in ways that made me believe you thought I was a Gumby doll.  Unfortunately, I'm just not that flexible.

But regardless, I still felt great afterwards and my husband was feeling totally restored and repaired at this point.  It was a great end to our first night in Bali.

Kind of a bummer that we came back a couple nights later and you both weren't working :(  We ended up with a guy and girl that didn't quite meet up to the standard you had set.  By that point, I was truly over the whole massage experience in this part of the world.  Mr Fix It was not impressing me with these massages he raved about.  Oh well.  At least we had *one* good experience abroad...so thanks for that!

Source

To the old woman who wouldn't leave me alone while I was sunbathing at Bingin's beach:

I appreciate that you make your living by preying upon all the people who frequent the little eatery up there on the cliff top.  It was nice to have a place to grab some grub and lounge around for a few hours while my husband was out surfing in the water.  It was not so nice however to have you continually 'pinch' me in an effort to entice me into employing your services for a 'may-sauge'.  Really?  Pinching my arm up and down while I am trying to listen to my ipod and lay on a mat is not my idea of relaxation.  Maybe that's your idea of a massage but definitely nothing I've ever experienced before. 

I should have just given you $5 to get you to leave me alone and go away, but I was trying to be polite.  Thankfully, Mr Fix It did not make me go back there again the next day when he went to surf.  Lounging by my resort infinity pool was way more enjoyable than being attacked by the likes of sand crabs who think they are masseuses. 

Personal Photo

I like doing this (above) as opposed to this (below)

Kuta Beach Massages Source

At our final resort at the Blue Point Bay Villas, we scheduled a couples massage at what was truly a resort type spa...while not the greatest full body massage I've ever received, it was at least decent.  However, I felt the 2 ladies who were running their hands all over me and Mr Fix It's body were maybe just a little too friendly.  The woman who was massaging me gave me my first ever experience of a breast massage...something that most masseuses I've worked with have never done before.  When I mentioned it to Mr Fix It as we left the spa, he indicated that his lady also got a little touchy feely and came very close to his manhood at least one or two times to where he tightened up a bit wondering if he was going to be offered a 'happy ending'?

Source

This (above) was not as relaxing to me as this (below)

Source:  Blue Point Bay Villas

We ended our honeymoon with one final attempt at the Bali massage experience by getting a 30 minute head, neck and foot massage in the airport in Denpasar.  That was actually not that bad and you can't complain about getting a massage while stuck in an airport :) 
TODAY'S TIP:  Don't think that one culture's idea of relaxation will translate well into another culture!

H-moon Recap: Me, Tarzan...You, Jane!

One of the very coolest things we did on our honeymoon was a tree top walk in Lamington National Rainforest in Australia.  This little 'hike' was part of O'Reilly's Retreat where we stayed for only one day. 

I loved O'Reilly's because it reminded me of those summer or science type camps you would visit out in the middle of the woods in nature.   We had a great time hiking through the rainforest which I'll share in a future recap...but for today, I just wanted to share a few pieced together personal video clips of this little walk through the trees.

You walk along a boardwalk through the woods...we did this the morning that we left O'Reilly's and the sun was out and the birds were chirping and it was so nice out weather-wise.  Just off the boardwalk is a little set of chained together bridges that take you 'up' into the trees.  Most of the 9 suspension bridges that you walk through the trees are about 55 feet above the ground.  Though it's weird because you don't feel like you are really off the ground at all...that is, until you get to the two observation decks.  These are actually 110 feet off the ground and are only accessible by a metal ladder which is surrounded by a protective wire cage.  You'll see all this in the video.  So take a look...

It was actually somewhat scary climbing those ladders.  As I have mentioned before, my tough guy, Mr Fix It is afraid of heights.  So I spared him the embarassment of the video that shows where he started to panic a little climbing to the lower observation deck.  He didn't make it up to the second one like I did but I was so proud of him for pushing himself and climbing up with me. 

This was by far one of my favorite activities on our honeymoon.  What was your fave thing you did on your h-moon?  Or if you haven't gone yet, what are you most looking forward to on your h-moon or what was a fave activity on a previous vacation?

TODAY'S HONEYMOON TIP:  We found out about this little hiking adventure through the resort we stayed at.  So be sure to check with resorts and hotels you are visiting to ask them about referrals and suggestions on local activities and entertainment.

H-moon Recap: Thievery all over the world

This post will not include any photos...because how do you take photos of total crooks?!? 

Our honeymoon was a great experience...except for two specific things/incidents. 

After spending a glorious 7 days relaxing and basically doing nothing in Australia, we packed up all of our belongings into the rental car, said goodbye to the amazing husband and wife managers of the apartments we had been staying at and headed off for the airport.  We needed to re-fuel the rental car so we pulled into the gas station right next door to the apartments.  Mr Fix It ran in to pay for the gas, buy some Rockstar energy drinks (bleck!) and then pumped the gas and jumped in the car.  As soon as we pulled out of the gas station, he reached for the sunglasses he had placed on top of his head since the sun was out...only to realize they weren't there.  He frantically began looking through the car and then suddenly said "Oh man!  I think I set them down on the counter when I was paying for the gas." 

Now why he would take them off of his head to set them down I don't know, but whatever.  We made a quick u-turn and headed back into the gas station.  Only when Mr Fix It jumped out and ran in to retrieve them, the man behind the counter informed him that the gentlemen who was in line behind him had picked them up and carried them off.  What a total thief!!! I swear, we weren't even gone three minutes before we came back and some loser in Oz had to ruin the last moments we had in the country by stealing something from us! 

Mr Fix It was not happy but what are you gonna do?  He ended up buying a cheap pair of $4 sunglasses in Bali to get him through the next week til we returned home.  Which leads me to my next story...stay tuned tomorrow!

H-moon Recap: Wildlife encounters

This week, I get my wedding video back and I was waiting for that before I start full blown recaps...even though I've had my pro pics for over a week now.  I will explain it all in a post in the next day or two.

But for now, I wanted to share about the little creatures we encountered (mostly in Australia) on our honeymoon.  I was super excited about the wildlife we might see as I have heard Australia is known for it's different and unique wildlife.  I was sad we didn't go to the Australian zoo since we were only about 2 hours or so away from it.  But we still had a few moments...

In Burleigh Beach, we woke up one morning and stepped out onto our balcony to find the most beautiful little bird.  Mr Fix It quickly told me to throw him some bread and the little colorful beauty immediately walked over to him and began chowing down.  I grabbed my camera and caught the following:

A few minutes later, there were FIVE of them on our balcony!  One night while we were in the jacuzzi, the managers of the apartments came out and told me to come out on their back porch.  I wrapped a towel around me and headed out with them to find Graham feeding these kookaburra birds (known as the Laughing Jackasses of Australia) out of his hand.  He was feeding them raw ground beef!!!

When we headed up to O'Reilly's Retreat in Lamington National Park, we came across a few other little critters.  As we headed to our room while unpacking the car, I jumped about 5 feet in the air when something just to the left of my foot caught my eye.  Mr Fix It laughed hysterically at me (after he freaked out wondering if I had just come across a snake) and we calmed down enough to find that the retreat was covered with these little ones:

We called them mini kangaroos but one of the retreat workers told us they're called pademelons.  There were a ton of them along with these little turkey looking birds off of our back porch in the field by our room.

On the way back down the mountain, we came across the Alpaca cafe where we had lunch on a patio with a gorgeous view of the valley...and these alpacas I caught on video:

Finally, there was our big 'I can't believe that happened to us story!' in Australia.  We only spent one night at O'Reilly's rainforest retreat.  So while we were there, we decided to do a good long hike through the rainforest of course.  We spent about 4 1/2 hours hiking through some muddy but beautiful foliage finding waterfalls and such.  (I'll share more about the pretty sights in a future recap.)

At one point on the hike, the trail map indicated you will have to wade through water that could be up to your waist to get to the other side of the trail.  I told Mr Fix It that wasn't happening...but thankfully, when we got to the crossing point, it was only just above the ankles.  Still, we didn't want to get our tennis shoes and pants all wet, so we decided to roll up our jeans and carry our socks and shoes across. 

As I took off my shoes I noticed this huge red blotch stain on the heel of my sock.  I took off my sock and said to Mr Fix It "Is that blood?  Did I cut myself on something and not know it?"  He looked at it and said, "Yeah, what the heck did you do?"  I told him I had no idea.  I proceeded to take off my other shoe and guess what?  The same exact thing on my other sock and heel!  Only this time, I noticed a tiny little black worm like thing in my sock.  I said to him "Oh my gosh!  Are those leeches?!?  There's leeches in my shoes!"  Sure enough, we had both had some little leeches find their way onto our shoes and they were sucking on our skin through the socks.  They didn't come off easy either and Mr Fix It only had a couple little spots of blood...not nearly the big huge amounts that they got out of me! 

The rest of the trip, we cracked jokes about the thirsty little blood suckers that attacked us in the rainforest.  I tried to get a shot of them but this was the best I could do...we found this one on Mr Fix It's shirt while we were standing on a deck at our hotel...no idea where it came from!  Watch closely, he's only there for a second...

Bali didn't offer us much in the way of animals other than insects like mosquitoes and this one cow I would pass each morning on my walk to the internet cafe.  It was a scraggly sickly looking thing but Mr Fix It said that cows are apparently worshipped in Bali.  Whatever.  They also had some pretty mangy looking dogs roaming the streets while we were shopping.

Overall, it was fun to come across a few animals and such on our trip.  I think I liked the leeches the best just because it gave us something truly memorable from our big day. 

H-moon Recap: Nothin' to do

Is it wrong to go halfway around the world just to lay by a pool or on a beach?  Cuz that's mostly what I did.  Considering we flew almost 35 hours in total on planes between Southern California, Brisbane Australia and Bali, Indonesia, we didn't do much of anything while we were there.  And definitely did not do a lot of touristy things...no visiting the hustling bustling city of Brisbane.  No ferry trips to the many islands off the coast there (something I actually wanted to do was visit Moreton Island but hopefully we'll make another trip back there one day).  No theme parks or the famous Australian zoo.  Just layin' around pool side and shoppin' in the malls in Australia and the streets of Kuta in Indo. 

Doesn't it look like that fountain is trying to pee on me?!?

We slept a lot!  A lot more than I do at home.  In fact, in Australia, we would go to bed at like 8 or 8:30 at night.  Then we'd wake up in the middle of the night at like 3 or 4 in the morning...have some fun messin' around (wink, wink) and then turn on the tv and watch Good Morning America from the States (one of the only things we could get on the tv at that time of the morning in Australia).  Then we'd nap from like 5 to 7 am and get up for the day. 

Funny thing was, in Australia it seemed like the whole city would turn in early.  I mean the weekend night life was a bit more 'lively' but during the week we noticed that most shops and stores and such closed fairly early...some places even closed at 6 or 7 pm!  I am way too used to being able to get just about anything I need at 11 pm here in Cali. 

I think we just really needed some rest after all that had been going on with the wedding.  In Bali, we definitely stayed out later....shopping, eating, getting massages (more to come on that later).

I should clarify, that even though we didn't feel like we did much (other than drive to different beach spots and surf in Mr Fix It's case), we definitely had a few fun moments and activities and encounters that made the trip memorable.  And we met some great friends along the way too and had great conversations with locals and fellow tourists.

For now, I'll share a few pics with you of randomness...more to come though about the 'fun' we did have and all the little critters we encountered on the trip, too!

The entrance to a resort called Dream Land in Bali.  Looks pretty, right?  We ran into some friends who said it was not so 'dreamy.'  They said there was trash floating around them when they went into the ocean and that the vendors on the beach would not leave them alone while they were laying out.  My sister visited this resort on her honeymoon 3 years ago and said you just need to go further down the beach away from the crowds right in front of the resort.  We didn't bother...just stopped while passing by to snap this shot.

A shot we took of ourselves on the patio where we sat at the Alpaca Cafe on our way back down the mountain from Lamington National Forest in Australia.  What a pretty view we had while we ate lunch, right?

I don't know why Mr Fix It wanted me to pose in front of this funky statue in the Bali Airport but he did.  So I obliged and smiled pretty...this was just before we boarded the flight to Hong Kong and then onto LAX on the last day of our honeymoon. 

H-moon Recap: Eat, celebrate, swim with lots of photos!

So today's recap is going to be a little random, as in all over the place.  But I'll try to offset that by not writing too much and just sharing lots of pictures!

We'll start off with the incredible infinity pool at the last resort we stayed at:  Blue Point Bay Villas.  This is me in the pool.  You could sit on the edge of the infinity pool and look out at the ocean to the surf below where there would be at least a good 60-100 surfers on any given day.  I like this because Mr Fix It could surf down there and I could hang in the pool and watch from above, though I couldn't make him out from that far away. 

In Australia, we ate mostly seafood..a LOT!  We both love seafood and we asked a few locals to make some referrals for us.  They didn't let us down.  One gentlement from Sydney told us to head about 15-20 minutes from our place in Burleigh Beach to a place called Ashmore Steak & Seafood.  I have to admit, I am a horrible blogger...I didn't take a ton of pictures of lots of the food we ate and the few I did get are from my crappy camera.  I really should get a better camera if I am going to keep blogging - and start taking more pictures!

Anyway, this place looked like a huge car dealership with the way the windows and lights were set up.  It was not like any other eating experience we've ever had.  They let you see the meals in a glass display case when you walked in...that's right, raw steaks sitting out for you to view.  Mr Fix It liked this cuz he could see how big they were before he ordered.  His meal was served up like this:

I got the lobster with a new thing I found called Avocado Seafood...it's an avocado filled with seafood - DUH!  Since I am a huge fan of both, I was in heaven!!!

We also ate at a place called Omeros Brothers in Surfer's Paradise.  Very, very yummy food!  Then there was an Italian joint where we met an exchange student from Germany working as a waitress.  Mr Fix It wasn't in love with the bruschetta we ordered...it was like tomatoes on pizza bread.  There was a super yummy, authentic Mexican type place downstairs from our apartment where we met a Canadian waitress.  What was with all these foreigners serving us our food?  :)

In Bali, at Blue Point, we found a bowl of fresh fruit in our room when we arrived.  See that thing in the back left of the bowl?  It's kind of prickly...Mr Fix It couldn't remember the name of it but he peeled it and made me eat it.  It was really interesting...tasted like berries, apples and other sweet fruits all in one.  Very different.

Also at our resort in Bali was their restaurant.  This is a view of the room where we had breakfast and dinner a couple times.  (I would eat lunch by the pool - I got this tempura type seafood and vegetable thing with these yummy fries that was so good I ordered it two days in a row.  It came with this insane crispy asian salad that I scarfed down like I had been starved for a week!)  Anyway, you would see the same people in this restaurant each morning and night because the resort is not super huge and it is really your only eating option other than driving into town - which we did do on the very last night.

This table right in the corner of the room was what I determined to be the best seat in the house because it was right in front of the open windows overlooking the surf and ocean below.  The first night we were there, it wasn't open so Mr Fix It asked if we could reserve it for the next night.  They said they couldn't because there was a wedding reception happening there the next night.  But....

...instead they said they'd let us eat dinner upstairs which had a good view out the window.  Mr Fix It went to check it out to be sure.  The next night when we arrived, they walked us up these stairs to our own private room!!!  We had this all to ourselves...a view of the ocean, the pool, the wedding chapel.  It was so super cool!  And we were all by ourselves!

Here is a view of the ocean below from our private room...we got there at the perfect time as the sun was just about to start setting and by the time we left it was dark.

Here is another pic on my crappy camera (and through a window) of how pretty the wedding chapel looked like all lit up at night.  And let me say, that wedding chapel was PACKED!  The resort is known for weddings...and they did 'em up right.  While I laid by the pool, there were at least 2 weddings each day!  They were all Japanese couples (very beautiful brides) and they were mostly just the bride and groom - no guests.  Though I did see one or two weddings that had about 5 or 6 guests (looked their parents or siblings). 

See that umbrella by the pool that's on the far left of the picture but up on the higher level above the 3rd one in?  THAT was my spot - every day!  It was perfect.  It was right by this pretty tree on the edge of the cliff and it was the only lounge chair in the entire pool area that you could lay in and see the surfers down below over the cliff edge. 

Mr Fix It decided to get a picture of the girls all dressed up for the wedding reception entrance

Before we got to Blue Point (while we were sill at the Wina Villas), we went to a beach called Bingins that Mr Fix It likes to surf at.  He had told me about this place saying that you walk down these stairs on the cliffs in Bali and they have these hut type houses built into the side of the cliff.  People own them and use them to offer food, massages, shops, etc for the surfers who must walk through them on their way down to the beach.  While Mr Fix It surfed, I would lay on a little mat/lounge on a table watching/listening to my iPod. 

When we got there, we met this woman named Wyan.  She totally remembered Mr Fix It from 4 years earlier!  She made us lunch one day while we waited for the surf to pick up and I don't remember what it was called but it was DEE-LICIOUS!  I jokingly referred to it as a high end version of Top Ramen :)  But seriously, so good!  Noodles with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, fried egg and other sauce and such.

Here is a pic of the little 'hut' type things I was trying to explain.  Mr Fix It is sitting by himself at that little blue table in the middle.

And finally, here's me in the pool again - this time with my hat on.  Yeah, I spent a lot of time in there because man, it was so hot!  You needed to cool off...and that pool was scrumdiddlyumptious!

Here's what would have been my favorite picture of our entire honeymoon if Mr Fix It wouldn't have been making that stupid face wondering if the camera was going to go off...whatever!

H-moon Recap: This is not seriously a 'hotel'!?!

As I mentioned, Mr Fix It had been to Australia and Bali before and he did not feel the need to book any type of travel accommodations like hotels, car rental, restaurant reservations, touristy type attractions or tickets, etc.  We had our airline tickets and we had a couple nights at two different resorts booked and that was it!  And I didn't get him to book the resorts until literally 2 to 3 weeks before our wedding!

So when we arrived in Brisbane, Australia, I totally trusted him to figure it out.  Thankfully, I did convince him to rent a Garmin GPS system with our rental car which was a huge lifesaver in helping us get around!  He knew he wanted to check out Burleigh Beach (a place on the Gold Coast just over an hour south of the Brisbane airport) so we programmed in the city and took off.

When we arrived, we just started looking for hotels close to the beaches.  We found one that he said we should check out and as we walked up the steps to the door, Mr Fix It looked at me and said he just wasn't feeling it.  So after entering and seeing no live person to assist us, we followed his gut and walked out quickly.  We drove just a little ways away and found this place called La Pacifique apartments.

Now I'm telling you...this was a score!!!  We walked past an okay sized pool and into the front office and found a very tiny little front desk with an older looking bearded gentlemen sitting there.  We asked him if they had anything available for about 2 or 3 nights.  He said they didn't do one night stays but they did have a place available for 3 nights.  So we asked if we could see it and he walked around the corner and opened the front door to what was the apartment he lived in.  He called for his wife, Robyn to come out and asked her to take us up to #36 on the 12th floor. 

The second we walked in, we looked around, smiled at each other and told Robyn "Sold!"  So we headed back downstairs and booked the room for $150 a night.  Granted, it wasn't really a room at all.  In fact, it was a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment! 

Here's a pic of the living room. 

We stayed there from Monday until Thursday when we were heading to O'Reilly's Rainforest.  We had only booked one night at O'Reilly's and we were so thankful for that as you will see in tomorrow's post.  So on Thursday morning, before we left La Pacificque, we asked the manager, Graham if they would save us the same room for us to come back and stay at for Friday and Saturday night as well.  They were so sweet and accommodating, they totally said no problem.  In fact, they gave us directions to a local grocery store and we bought some groceries to make breakfast and lunches each day since we had a fully stocked kitchen.  When we left for the one night to stay at O'Reilly's, Robyn and Graham even let us keep some of the groceries in the refrigerator.

Here is Mr Fix It making me breakfast one morning:

We totally enjoyed Graham and Robyn.  They were very sweet to us and we would run into Graham walking around the beach across the street sometimes.  They referred us to a few malls, shops, etc and even called me into their apartment one night to watch how they fed the wild birds off of their back porch from right out of their hand!  It was something you would probably never see here in So Cal. 

When we came back for the last 2 nights, they discounted our room for the 5 night stay since we had stayed 3 nights and then another 2.  So overall, we only paid about $110 US a night at most including taxes.

Our unit had apparently just been remodeled and so the cable tv in the living room wasn't working.  They called in their repair man, John to fix it and we became quick friends with him.  He shared lots of stories about how he came from Austria to Australia and his life.  He would stop and chat with us when we would run into him around the apartments.  One day when we ran out of laundry detergent I asked Robyn if we could get some more packets.  She didn't have any so she just gave me the box of detergent from her own apartment. 
Here's a pic of Mr Fix It looking out the kitchen window.  Every morning I would wake up and go look out this window to see the surfers in the water and what the weather was like. 

The cool thing about this place, too was that I could get up each morning and walk across the street to a little convenience store that had internet access which is how I was able to chat with my daughter, Little Miss on Facebook each day and keep up on a few blog posts, too.  Overall, we scored on our 'hotel' stay in Australia and would totally recommend it for anyone who travels there!

And here is a little video tour from me of our apartment.  Please excuse the racy pics of me in my undies in the mirror reflections :)  And sorry that the lighting is not fabulous on video:

So would you ever consider 'winging it' for a vacation in another country?  As much as I was freaked out to do this and wouldn't do it regularly, I have to admit that Mr Fix It did not let me down on our honeymoon.

H-moon Recap: How rain affected our plans

Our honeymoon was pretty amazing.  Though I have to admit, I felt guilty about traveling halfway around the world just to lay around and be lazy.  We didn't really do any 'touristy' type things.  I really wanted to see the Australia Zoo while we there and we considered it, but we just decided to hang around and not do too much.  Our h-moon was mostly about laying out at the beach and surfing.  Unfortunately, we didn't do as much of that in Australia as we hoped since it rained a little much.

If you remember, the honeymoon was all Mr Fix It.  And he did not believe in making reservations.  We booked our airline flights through his credit card air miles and we did book a one night stay at a resort in Australia as well as 3 nights at a resort in Bali, but the rest of the time we were there, we had no plans and no reservations!  So once we landed in Brisbane, Australia, we got a rental car (of course one big enough to fit Mr Fix It's surfboards and we were surprised to fit them into a regular mid-sized car) and headed straight out of Brisbane towards the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise.

For whatever reason, Mr Fix It didn't want to stay in Surfer's Paradise.  He had been talking about it a lot but I guess he felt it was too expensive.  So we went a little further south to a surf spot called Burleigh Beach. 

I'll share more about our hotels and such soon, but for now, I'll just share some pics of the weather and surf.  The first three days we were in Burleigh, it rained off and on was cloudy.  That didn't stop Mr Fix It from still making sure he got out in the surf for at least a couple hours.  As soon as we rented our hotel, we headed across the street to Burleigh Beach and he jumped in.

This is a pic of the beach where he would surf.  The waves prevent you from seeing that there are actually about 60+ guys out in the water.  It was like that almost every day, even on the rainy days.  It was not this nice on the first afternoon we were there (this was taken a few days later), so I just laid on a towel in my pants and a sweater and took a little nap while Mr Fix It surfed :)

Here's another pic of the same beach spot where we would go when the weather was nice.  That little building on the right was a little place with several different restaurants.  We thought about going there to eat one day but ended up deciding to head somewhere else as we thought it was a little pricey and not very enticing:

In the coming days, we drove down the coast even further south out of Queensland and into New South Wales to look for more surf spots and beaches.  Here are some pics from a few places we stopped.  As you can see, the weather was not great and there weren't a whole lot of surfers or surf.  But they were still very pretty spots and beaches.

This spot was one of the more popular places called Kirra Beach.  It is a popular place and had about 100+ guys running around trying to catch waves right up until the sunset!  I didn't even get a picture of the chaos of the surfers just to the right of where this shot was taken.

The clouds in these shots (in Austalia) are just simply amazing!

This was a shot we took while driving down to NSW. It shows how ridiculously rainy it was. I took it through the car window because Mr Fix It thought it was cool how they carved a tunnel out of this mountainside:

Even with the rain, Mr Fix It did have a few fun days of surf in Australia.  And I had one or two good days laying out on the beach, too. 

In Bali, it was a totally different story.  There was a brief shower the first night we arrived in Bali while we were out shopping and checking out the town.  But the entire rest of the week we were there, we had beautifully sunny and WARM weather.  Humid, too, but it wasn't that bad.  Here is one shot of the sunset in Bali from the last resort we stayed at in Uluwatu. 

More to come with video and such - overall, the weather and surf was pretty good in both places. We didn't mind a little rain. The trip was still relaxing. Funny thing was, we both admitted that we totally overpacked! Since we were gone for two weeks we thought we'd need several outfits, but ended up not wearing probably half of what we each brought! :)

Headin' down unda, mate - the Honeymoon!

Today's post is supposed to be about our honeymoon...but now I almost think it might be the honeymoon that isn't.  :(  Not sure what is going to happen to our honeymoon plans as Mr Fix It and I have had a rough weekend.  On Friday night, his work van broke down and he is concerned that if his motor is totally shot, it could be a HUGE expense (we're talking thousands of dollars) that would put a big wrench in our honeymoon plans.  Especially since Mr Fix It is currently looking for more work.

As I mentioned before, he is a self employed flooring contractor who installs any and all types of floors, showers, countertops, etc.  He does full bathroom and kitchen remodels as well and this business has kept him well provided for for many many years now.  In the six years we've been together, I have never known him to not have work lined up other than when he got in his surfing accident at the end of 2008 and couldn't work for 4 to 5 months.  So here it is, the beginning of 2010, our wedding year.  And Mr Fix It's end of the financial burden of wedding related items consists of my engagement/wedding ring, the remodel of his house before my daughter and I move in and the honeymoon.  That's it.  The honeymoon is his big huge responsibility.

So when he told me last summer that he wanted to take a trip to Indonesia I was pretty excited.  Mr Fix It is a surfer:

Yup, that's my little hottie.  And that's him in Indonesia...he loves to surf there and has made several trips.  And so since the wedding is mostly 'mine,' I knew that the honeymoon would be mostly 'his.'  :)  Then he mentioned spending two weeks in Indo.  Now I am all about laying on the beach watching him surf while I get some oceanside massages and do some cool shopping (Mr Fix It says the deals on designer things in Indo are insane and prepare to shop til we drop!)....but I didn't think 2 weeks of that type of lifestyle was going to keep me very satisfied.

I quickly put my mind to work and thought about the fact that I have always dreamed of going to Australia...and you can surf there...and Mr Fix It actually lived in Australia for several months many years ago.  So I suggested that maybe we go to Australia for a week and then go to Bali for a week...so that way we both get to go somewhere we love and do things we will enjoy.  Mr Fix It jumped on the phone and had booked our flight within minutes...and the cool thing?  He was able to use his air miles for the trip from LAX to Brisbane and from Bali back to LAX.  So he only had to pay about $740 for the entire airfare (from Brisbane to Bali and some taxes).  Yea us!

So here is our trip on a map:

The wedding is on a Friday night.  We will spend Saturday hanging with family and then head to the airport about 8 or 9 pm on Saturday night.  We'll take the red eye from LAX to Brisbane and arrive first thing Monday morning.  We'll spend 7 days in Brisbane and then on Sunday we head to Bali where we spend another 5 days before heading home on Saturday.  So all in all, we leave April 17th and return May 1st. 

As I mentioned, this is all up in the air now as our financial status is taking a huge hit with unexpected expenses (medical and auto related) and a lack of income on Mr Fix It's end.  There's more to come on this honeymoon post, like sharing some of the hotels I am hoping we will get to stay in and where we'll be...so stay tuned. 

But for now, do you have your honeymoon plans set yet?  Where are you heading and for how long?  And who/how did you decide on where you would be going?