I haven't done a Tightwad Tuesday post in forever, but the holidays are approaching and there are some websites I need to tell you about.
(Side note -- I just slipped and typed "Tightwade" Tuesday. Flash of genius? Maybe there's a future for TightWade Tuesdays??)
Anywho, first up are local team buying sites. Each day, they email you a local deal that's only valid for that day:
The way most of them work is that the more people who buy the deal, the lower the price goes (until a limit is reached). Through these sites I've purchased a spa mani and pedi for $30, a $20 certificate to our favorite butcher shop for $10, Coldstone gift certificates, and a 2 hour house cleaning service for $36.
If you're not in the Raleigh-Durham area, each site offers lots of other (usually major) cities. Or, you might find a deal so good that it's worth the drive to your state's capital.
Next, there are shopping sites like Rue La La and ideeli. I'm new to ideeli, but am loving me some Rue La La. Each day you get an email telling you the sales, or "boutiques," starting that day. Sales usually last around 2-3 days, but good items will sell out fast. There are fashion brands, housewares brands, and travel/resort sales.
Lee and I had talked about upgrading our food processor, and when Rue La La had a Cuisinart boutique, I snapped up a fancy one for half off. Yesterday, they had a Kate Spade and Kate Spade Home boutique. I was *thisclose* to buying sunglasses, but they're pretty hard to buy without trying on first. And it's a really good thing that the Kate Spade Home boutique didn't have any pieces from my china pattern or I might've easily dropped a paycheck there.
There's also woot.com. They do a single daily deal as well. Sometimes it's small stuff, like today's water leak alarms for $12.99. But a lot of the time it's tech related like laptops or flat screen TVs on the cheap. There are also home goods sometimes like kitchen appliances or Dyson vacuum cleaners. If it's a really good deal, they'll sell out pretty quickly. I haven't purchased anything on here yet but I've got my eye out for Dyson, Cuisinart and KitchenAid.
I'm sure there are thousands more of each of these sites, but these are the ones I frequent and can recommend. I should also mention, each of these sites reward you for referring friends (once your friend makes a purchase you get a $10 credit, for example). So if you decide to join any of them, make sure you use my links in this post, since I was kind enough to give you the scoop ;-)
And even though this isn't a deal site per se, don't forget Wishpot. I've found it super helpful over the past few weeks as I've been thinking of things I want on my Christmas list. I've also made a private list to store gift ideas for others. And they did send me an email recently saying that one of the items on my list had dropped in price, so that's pretty helpful.
Let me know if you luck up on any good deals, and happy shopping!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Australia Chronicles, Part 2: Cairns
Our next stop was the tropical city of Cairns (pronounced "Cannes"). Cairns is a beautiful beach town surrounded by mountains.
As soon as we landed in Cairns and found it free of bugs and a comfortable 85 degrees, we were feeling much more at home. We checked into the Bay Village Tropical Retreat and headed down to the Esplanade.
The Cairns Esplanade is a waterfront section of shops, restaurants and public facilities like a boardwalk, pool, splash park, and skate park. This was where we went every night for dinner, shopping and to walk around. We loved the atmosphere of Cairns. Walking to dinner on a Sunday night, all of the public barbecue areas were packed with groups of people cooking and hanging out. Of the three cities we visited in Australia, if we had to pick one to live in it would definitely be Cairns.
One of the best parts about Cairns was happy hour. Our hotel had a great happy hour and we frequented it every night we were there, making friends with the bartender and soliciting restaurant recommendations from her each night. I think I drank at least 20 cranberry & vodkas at that bar. But we were on vacation, so it was ok.
On our second day in Cairns, we were booked on a catamaran cruise out to Michaelmas Cay on the Great Barrier Reef.
The weather was looking ominous and the ride out was rather rocky, but we manage to not get sick and the skies parted just as we reached the reef.
The snorkeling here was absolutely amazing. The pictures just do not do it justice. The coral was beautiful and colorful and there were fish EVERYWHERE. Big, small, colorful, gorgeous.
Lunch was a seafood buffet on the ship, followed by more snorkeling. Lee and I swam out further to get away from the other snorkelers and see a new part of the reef. By this time we had used up all of the film in our disposable underwater camera, and of course that was when we spotted a huge, beautiful sea turtle. Lee and I swam with him, all by ourselves, for about 10 minutes. It was amazing. We couldn't pull ourselves away. You could even hear him crunching on the coral he was eating underwater.
Finally we let him be and it was time to go on our semi-submersible boat tour, which is basically a glass bottomed boat that allows you to view the coral without getting wet.
Definitely not as fun as being in the water, but at least I did get my turtle picture:
The homeward sail was rocky again, but we slept some and champagne made it better.
Now, I want to pause here for a moment and talk to you about the bats. Australia has these huge bats, called fruit bats or "flying foxes." If you know that I don't like birds, you should know that I REALLY don't like bats. And these suckers were gigantic. And they all congregated in these certain tall fruit trees. Around 6:30 each night they would start flying around everywhere, usually when we were on the way to dinner.
Or one night in Kakadu when we were walking back to camp through the woods after watching the sunset. They kept swooping down at my head and it was getting dark. When we finally got out of those woods, the parents of the two young boys who were staying in the camp with us were telling the boys "you did so good, you were very brave."
Then Lee looked at me and told me the same thing. Then I looked at him and told him if he ever brought me to Australia and made me go walking in the woods at dusk with the fruits bats again, the marriage was OVER.
Anyway, of course Lee loved the bats and made the screechy bat noises the whole trip and took pictures of them.
Ok, no more about the bats. I'm getting worked up just thinking about them.
Our second day in Cairns was a tour of the Daintree rainforest. This was our ride:
Cape Tribulation:
Australia has some of the most deadly jellyfish:
Probably the coolest part of this tour was lunch, which was practically in the middle of the rainforest. Out of nowhere, they served us steak, fish, sausage, salads, bread and wine.
Then we stopped for ice cream at the Daintree ice cream company. The flavors that day (they all come from rainforest materials) were berry, jakfruit, wattleseed and soursop. I didn't care for it, but Lee liked it.
Next we did a cruise on the Daintree River where we saw more crocs:
And I put my zoom lens to the test on the boat:
The last stop was Mossman Gorge:
We had our final day in Cairns free to spend doing whatever we wanted. This was our first full day without a tour or a flight and we loved every minute of it (well, except the minutes I spent doing laundry, a necessary evil even halfway across the world). We went shopping, had NY pizza for lunch, went to the bank for more cash, went to a bottle shop (aka ABC store), checked email, lounged by the resort pool all afternoon, and of course hit up happy hour.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Cairns and head off to heaven on earth, also known as Heron Island.
P.S. -- If you're wondering why I haven't talked about any of the food, I've decided to leave that for a separate post.
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Australia Chronicles, Part 1: Kakadu Culture Camp
Our trip began with a 36-hour marathon of travel. From RDU to Dallas, then Dallas to LA, then LA to Brisbane, Australia, then Brisbane to Darwin.
The flight from LA to Brisbane was 13 hours. We passed the time by sleeping fitfully, eating two full meals and playing around with the personal entertainment systems. I watched Twilight Saga: Eclipse and two episodes of Modern Family.
When we finally landed in Australia, the last thing we wanted to do was get on another 4 hour flight to get to our final destination, Darwin, but there was no avoiding it. We got to Darwin around noon, checked into our hotel, and seriously wanted to crash. But we had promised ourselves that we'd stay up until bedtime to try and avoid jet lag. We walked around Darwin a bit and had dinner, then went to bed at 7:00, which was as long as we could stand it.
Our tour bus picked us up at 6:00am the next morning for our 3-day camping "safari" in Kakadu National Park. Our guide was a nice middle-aged man named Kerry and the only other couple on the tour were an older Canadian couple named Carol and Wally. Wally did NOT smell good. I knew it was going to be a long three days.
There was supposed to be a family from Scotland on the tour as well, but one of their two sons had gotten sick so they had to cancel. (They actually ended up joining us later on in the tour though.)
This was our ride:
After a two hour drive from Darwin to Kakadu National Park, our first stop was an Aboriginal rock art site called Ubirr. Kerry explained all of the rock art to us, along with information about Aboriginal history and culture, and then we climbed to the top of Ubirr for some awesome views.
We stopped beside the South Alligator river to see if we could spot any crocs (the river is erroneously named, there are no alligators in Australia, only crocodiles). We didn't see any crocs but saw something much more interesting -- this road train crossing this river:
Road trains are 18-wheelers with multiple trailers attached to them. They're pretty scary when you pass them at high speeds on a two-lane highway. Anyway, this one was crossing the river and we were fascinated. In this part of Australia, they have a dry season and a wet season. October (which is their Spring) is supposed to be the very end of the dry season, but this year the wet season had come early and a lot of the roads and areas were flooded earlier than normal.
The entire camp where we stayed gets completely flooded (under about 6 ft of water) during the wet season. It was amazing to think that the camp and most of the places we were visiting would be completely inaccessible and under water in just a couple of months. And that each year the water recedes and things go back to "normal." I should also mention that the beginning of the wet season means the beginning of the heat as well and it was HOT. Like highs of about 95 and very humid.
Anyway, because of the severe wet season in the Northern Territory, almost every truck and SUV you see has a snorkel on it. We first noticed this is Darwin, and then when we got to Kakadu and learned about the wet season we realized the purpose of them. Here's a regular truck with a snorkel crossing the river. You can also see the marker that indicates how deep the water is, so vehicles can judge whether they're able to cross or not:
On our way to the next rock art site, Nourlangie, we saw this little gal, a female black wallaby (there are no kangaroos in northern Australia, only wallabies, which are basically smaller kangaroos):
Nourlangie:
Then it was finally time to head to camp. Kakadu Culture Camp is run by an Aboriginal woman named Jenny and her white husband Andy. Jenny's brother Dougie also helps out. Jenny and Dougie were very reserved and quiet, and Andy was all over the place. You can definitely tell he runs the show, but puts Jenny and Dougie up front for their "cultural" appeal.
Anyway, this was our "deluxe eco safari tent":
It was actually pretty cozy, and would have been totally acceptable accommodation if it hadn't been so hot. Sleeping in the tent, with obviously no air conditioning or fan, when it was a sticky 80 degrees outside (and inside) was not really my idea of a perfect night's sleep. But we were so worn out from the activities of the day that we still managed to sleep pretty well.
So back to Day 1. We arrived at camp, got settled into our tent, took a shower (at the public campground showers) and then it was time for the Aboriginal cultural demonstrations. Andy talked to us about crocodiles, Jenny talked to us about women's matters like basket weaving and cooking and Dougie taught spear throwing and how to play the didgeridoo.
I should take a moment here to mention the bugs. All of Kakadu was infested with these gnat-like bugs that were focused solely on one thing -- getting in your ears or up your nose. We were constantly swatting and fanning and no amount of bug spray helped. I'm not sure which part was worse, the heat or the bugs.
Anyway, next up was the nighttime crocodile cruise. The camp is situated on a billabong, so we hopped on a boat while Dougie drove, Jenny used the spotlight to spot crocs, and Andy filmed the whole thing for marketing purposes. He was first and foremost a businessman, and was more concerned with that than being a host, and we quickly got irritated with him.
We saw a few crocs, some birds and a snake, but by this time it was 9pm and we still hadn't eaten dinner, so that was pretty much the only thing on our minds. Finally we got back to the camp and dinner was served -- buffalo stew (like beef stew) with rice. It was actually pretty good, or maybe that was just because my stomach was eating itself by that point.
We headed to bed and then woke up somewhat refreshed for day two. After a gourmet breakfast of toast, we left camp and headed to Gunlom Falls.
Although we had been lectured on the dangers of crocodiles for two straight days, Kerry told us it was ok to go swimming in the pool at the base of that falls.
It didn't escape us that Kerry didn't join us in swimming, but we were too hot and the water was too refreshing to care. Can you spot Lee?
After a picnic lunch, we hiked to the pools at the top of the falls to go swimming again. It was a long, very steep climb, and very very hot. I was thinking there was absolutely nothing that could be worth that hike, and then I saw this:
It was breathtaking. Sort of a natural infinity pool with amazing views all the way around. There were smaller falls there too:
This was the second most beautiful place I have ever been (the first was to come later in the trip). We swam and lounged for a few hours and then reluctantly headed back down the mountain and back to camp.
Here's a picture of the "mess hall" at camp:
As I said, the whole camp gets flooded during the wet season, so everything is temporary. Every year, Andy packs everything up and drives it to higher ground, and then brings everything back to set up for the next dry season. I would not want that job.
Dinner on Day 2 was barramundi (fish) and more buffalo, but grilled like steak this time, with french fries (called chips) and coleslaw. Again, not gourmet, but edible.
Day 3 was our cruise of the Yellow Water Wetlands.
We saw some amazing wildlife and this is where our new zoom lens came in super handy.
Aside from the wildlife, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Blue skies with puffy clouds, and perfectly still water that reflected the beautiful sky.
The cruise was followed by a visit to an Aboriginal cultural center/museum and then a long hike to the secluded Gubara pools where we swam again.
I'll spare you the details, but our trip back to Darwin was disastrous. We were supposed to be back in Darwin by 6pm but instead finally made it back at 10pm. After dinner from McDonald's we fell into (our air-conditioned) bed for a short snooze before our 5am wake up call. We were off to the airport again, to leave Darwin and Kakadu behind forever.
We had seen some amazingly beautiful sights, but honestly, with the bugs and the heat, I was ready to get the hell out of there. And get out we did.
The flight from LA to Brisbane was 13 hours. We passed the time by sleeping fitfully, eating two full meals and playing around with the personal entertainment systems. I watched Twilight Saga: Eclipse and two episodes of Modern Family.
When we finally landed in Australia, the last thing we wanted to do was get on another 4 hour flight to get to our final destination, Darwin, but there was no avoiding it. We got to Darwin around noon, checked into our hotel, and seriously wanted to crash. But we had promised ourselves that we'd stay up until bedtime to try and avoid jet lag. We walked around Darwin a bit and had dinner, then went to bed at 7:00, which was as long as we could stand it.
Our tour bus picked us up at 6:00am the next morning for our 3-day camping "safari" in Kakadu National Park. Our guide was a nice middle-aged man named Kerry and the only other couple on the tour were an older Canadian couple named Carol and Wally. Wally did NOT smell good. I knew it was going to be a long three days.
There was supposed to be a family from Scotland on the tour as well, but one of their two sons had gotten sick so they had to cancel. (They actually ended up joining us later on in the tour though.)
This was our ride:
After a two hour drive from Darwin to Kakadu National Park, our first stop was an Aboriginal rock art site called Ubirr. Kerry explained all of the rock art to us, along with information about Aboriginal history and culture, and then we climbed to the top of Ubirr for some awesome views.
We stopped beside the South Alligator river to see if we could spot any crocs (the river is erroneously named, there are no alligators in Australia, only crocodiles). We didn't see any crocs but saw something much more interesting -- this road train crossing this river:
Road trains are 18-wheelers with multiple trailers attached to them. They're pretty scary when you pass them at high speeds on a two-lane highway. Anyway, this one was crossing the river and we were fascinated. In this part of Australia, they have a dry season and a wet season. October (which is their Spring) is supposed to be the very end of the dry season, but this year the wet season had come early and a lot of the roads and areas were flooded earlier than normal.
The entire camp where we stayed gets completely flooded (under about 6 ft of water) during the wet season. It was amazing to think that the camp and most of the places we were visiting would be completely inaccessible and under water in just a couple of months. And that each year the water recedes and things go back to "normal." I should also mention that the beginning of the wet season means the beginning of the heat as well and it was HOT. Like highs of about 95 and very humid.
Anyway, because of the severe wet season in the Northern Territory, almost every truck and SUV you see has a snorkel on it. We first noticed this is Darwin, and then when we got to Kakadu and learned about the wet season we realized the purpose of them. Here's a regular truck with a snorkel crossing the river. You can also see the marker that indicates how deep the water is, so vehicles can judge whether they're able to cross or not:
On our way to the next rock art site, Nourlangie, we saw this little gal, a female black wallaby (there are no kangaroos in northern Australia, only wallabies, which are basically smaller kangaroos):
Nourlangie:
Then it was finally time to head to camp. Kakadu Culture Camp is run by an Aboriginal woman named Jenny and her white husband Andy. Jenny's brother Dougie also helps out. Jenny and Dougie were very reserved and quiet, and Andy was all over the place. You can definitely tell he runs the show, but puts Jenny and Dougie up front for their "cultural" appeal.
Anyway, this was our "deluxe eco safari tent":
It was actually pretty cozy, and would have been totally acceptable accommodation if it hadn't been so hot. Sleeping in the tent, with obviously no air conditioning or fan, when it was a sticky 80 degrees outside (and inside) was not really my idea of a perfect night's sleep. But we were so worn out from the activities of the day that we still managed to sleep pretty well.
So back to Day 1. We arrived at camp, got settled into our tent, took a shower (at the public campground showers) and then it was time for the Aboriginal cultural demonstrations. Andy talked to us about crocodiles, Jenny talked to us about women's matters like basket weaving and cooking and Dougie taught spear throwing and how to play the didgeridoo.
I should take a moment here to mention the bugs. All of Kakadu was infested with these gnat-like bugs that were focused solely on one thing -- getting in your ears or up your nose. We were constantly swatting and fanning and no amount of bug spray helped. I'm not sure which part was worse, the heat or the bugs.
Anyway, next up was the nighttime crocodile cruise. The camp is situated on a billabong, so we hopped on a boat while Dougie drove, Jenny used the spotlight to spot crocs, and Andy filmed the whole thing for marketing purposes. He was first and foremost a businessman, and was more concerned with that than being a host, and we quickly got irritated with him.
We saw a few crocs, some birds and a snake, but by this time it was 9pm and we still hadn't eaten dinner, so that was pretty much the only thing on our minds. Finally we got back to the camp and dinner was served -- buffalo stew (like beef stew) with rice. It was actually pretty good, or maybe that was just because my stomach was eating itself by that point.
We headed to bed and then woke up somewhat refreshed for day two. After a gourmet breakfast of toast, we left camp and headed to Gunlom Falls.
Although we had been lectured on the dangers of crocodiles for two straight days, Kerry told us it was ok to go swimming in the pool at the base of that falls.
It didn't escape us that Kerry didn't join us in swimming, but we were too hot and the water was too refreshing to care. Can you spot Lee?
After a picnic lunch, we hiked to the pools at the top of the falls to go swimming again. It was a long, very steep climb, and very very hot. I was thinking there was absolutely nothing that could be worth that hike, and then I saw this:
It was breathtaking. Sort of a natural infinity pool with amazing views all the way around. There were smaller falls there too:
This was the second most beautiful place I have ever been (the first was to come later in the trip). We swam and lounged for a few hours and then reluctantly headed back down the mountain and back to camp.
Here's a picture of the "mess hall" at camp:
As I said, the whole camp gets flooded during the wet season, so everything is temporary. Every year, Andy packs everything up and drives it to higher ground, and then brings everything back to set up for the next dry season. I would not want that job.
Dinner on Day 2 was barramundi (fish) and more buffalo, but grilled like steak this time, with french fries (called chips) and coleslaw. Again, not gourmet, but edible.
Day 3 was our cruise of the Yellow Water Wetlands.
We saw some amazing wildlife and this is where our new zoom lens came in super handy.
Aside from the wildlife, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Blue skies with puffy clouds, and perfectly still water that reflected the beautiful sky.
The cruise was followed by a visit to an Aboriginal cultural center/museum and then a long hike to the secluded Gubara pools where we swam again.
I'll spare you the details, but our trip back to Darwin was disastrous. We were supposed to be back in Darwin by 6pm but instead finally made it back at 10pm. After dinner from McDonald's we fell into (our air-conditioned) bed for a short snooze before our 5am wake up call. We were off to the airport again, to leave Darwin and Kakadu behind forever.
We had seen some amazingly beautiful sights, but honestly, with the bugs and the heat, I was ready to get the hell out of there. And get out we did.
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