Australia

Australia has everything you could ever want in hundreds of different varieties. Well, that's the case in Sydney and Melbourne. Both busy, crowded cities like San Francisco full of tourists and people from all over the world.

We've been out of Vanuatu for only about a week and I already miss it. Well, I miss some things. I definitely miss the buses in Vila. Get on anywhere and the driver will take you anywhere. Here you have to think about where the stops are and which line will take you where and then the fare depends on how far you're going. And the most difficult thing for me is that you can't get the information from the driver. No, you've got to read the instructions and figure it out for yourself. Maybe I've been living in the jungle for too long, but city life seems more complicated than it needs to be. I tried setting up a prepaid mobile phone account and thought I'd be able to start using my phone right away, like Jason Bourne does in one of his movies where he slips the phone into the guys pocket and then calls him on it so the CIA can't listen in on the call. Well, it's nowhere near as easy as Jason Bourne made it look. You have to call and activate it and talk to a recording for about 10 minutes before they activate it.

Anyways, lots of things about city life are great, and lots of things will take some getting used to again. We're here for a few more days and then off to Bangkok. That should be interesting.