If you follow us on social media, you may have realized that we’re currently in Australia. Surprise! After three months in Asia, we were starting to feel a bit “Asia’ed out”. We had eaten enough rice, noodles, curry, and meat to last a lifetime. We were a bit worn out from the hustle and bustle. We were sick of constantly haggling and sick of being ripped off. So we decided it was time to leave.

While in Phnom Penh, we started looking at house sitting opportunities in Australia. Once we arrived in Bangkok, we finally were able to narrow in on a great opportunity in Melbourne. We had three days in Bangkok, and then we flew out. Our three days in Bangkok were great – we ate lots of noodles and mango sticky rice, saw the big weekend market (Chatuchak), and went to Wat Pho for Thai massages. I was a bit sad to leave Thailand because I’ve always wanted to go there and we only dipped our toes in, but our hope is to go back once we are finished in New Zealand and before we fly to Europe.

We got to Australia on the 22nd of December. We had 3 days to explore the CBD (central business district), work on our jetlag, and relax before starting our house sitting gig on the 24th. We’ve now been in our house for two weeks and it has been a much needed “return to normalcy” for us. We’ve been cooking up a storm, I’ve been baking, and we’ve been exploring Melbourne like locals. Our hosts left us bicycles, so we have been going on lots of bike rides and it gives us more freedom to go to the grocery and get around. We also did a two-day, one-night trip to the Great Ocean Road, which Shawn will be writing about next.

Here are some photos of our latest adventures: