Friday Nov 2/07 - Byron Bay

Fancy Pants Surfer's Paradise

The Funky Abodes at the Arts Factory

Jen and Nicola down at the beach


The beach at Byron Bay, great for surfing


Take it easy buddy.....


Nicola chillin' out in the hammock


Fire show put on by hippies at the Buddha Bar

Well we managed to get out of Brisbane and catch the bus to Surfer's Paradise. Surfer's Paradise sounds like a relaxed village full of young surfers living life one day at a time. However it is actually a very ritzy resort city on the beach. Skyscrapers are everywhere and the place is actually home to the world's tallest residential building at 78 stories, taller than the Trump Towers in New York. The surf is good here, but ironically there are much better places to surf in Australia than Surfer's Paradise. That being said, Surfer's Paradise turned out to be Jen's Paradise. A city with great shopping, flashy stores and malls everywhere, Jen was truly in Heaven. Nicola and I spent one day at the water slide park about 20 minutes out of town while Jen spent the day shopping. We all had a great time but after a few days of expensive accommodation in a sub-par hostel it was time to move on. We're now in Byron Bay staying at a place called the Arts Factory Lodge, this very unique place was started 45 years ago by some Californian draft dodgers. They decided that apposed to going to war they would rather surf, smoke pot, and create music, and that's how it all started. These days it is a great backpacker accommodation loaded with activities and things to do. You can learn to play the didgeridoo, take a massage or yoga class, go on nature walks, sunrise tours and heaps of other things. Though now it is not the pot smoking hippy hang out it once was, you can still get a serious hippy vibe throughout the 5 acre site. Dreadlocks are common here, yet bras are not and everybody is very relaxed. The accommodation ranges from more traditional style dorm rooms to teepees and strange canvas cubes that surround the small lake.

So far in Byron we have just been relaxing and enjoying the friendly atmosphere. The downtown area is small and loaded with great little shops and restaurants. At the hostel we've been going to the "Buddha Bar" for trivia night, live music, and a fire show. On Thursday Jen and I took a day tour to a small village called Nimbin. Nimbin is tiny place tucked into the forest about an hour inland from Byron Bay. It was started during the Vietnam war by draft dodgers who created co-op farms in the hills. Today the town exists as a centre for alternative lifestyles and everything else which runs against the grain of society. Though there are police there Marijuana is de-criminalized, and the town hosts the annual "Mardi-Grass" festival. The bus driver took us to his hippy friend's nature reserve in the middle of the Jungle where we ate as many fresh Macadamia nuts and fresh berries as we liked. The strange hippy living there was originally from Long Island New York but has been living in the Jungle Paradise he calls home for 30 years. Mixed with his Australian accent was still a thick New York accent coming from a man with long hippy hair down to his shoulders, wearing no shoes or shirt even..I assure you it was an entertaining, yet extremely unusual day. From here we will head down to Sydney on tomorrow night's overnight bus. After 4 days in Sydney we will fly to Tasmania for the last leg of our Australia experience.