Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Monday 02nd April 2007 Journal brought to you by a very hippified SophieThis morning Tami and I took advantage of the free Tai Chi lesson in the volleyball court at 9. It was good fun and very relaxing. At the beginning I was very fidgety and couldn?t get into it (you know what I am like ? all go go go). However by the end I was extremely chilled out and weirdly felt like I had control of the energy of my body. I know you are probably thinking it is all in my mind but it was quite surreal. If only I had time to do that sort of thing at home. England really is far too stressed out for my liking. Yes father I am turning more into you every single day. Not that you would ever be caught doing martial arts or any sort of alternative thing. I do love you for being traditional. Today we went on a trip to Nimbin which is basically an alternative hippy colony that encourages the growth and sale of weed. The whole village started due to a music festival that was held there in the 1970?s. Legend has it that during the festival two revelers were arrested by the Police for dealing marijuana. Disgusted by their treatment the other 998 people busted them out of jail and carried on with the party. The Police could not do anything about it. After the festival was over a lot of people remained behind to settle and thus the town of Nimbin has grown. We went along with Kat and Kush (the people we had met on the sun rise tour) and with a company called Jim?s alternative tours.Just before we arrived in Nimbin we were told several stories including one about the fact that when the Police patrol the area the first person to spot them shouts TAXI so immediately everyone who is selling or doing pot etc packs their stuff away because there are no taxis in the area. Our guide told us that drugs were "very bad" and that we should not do it. However if we were to buy anything we should buy only from the adults and not expect to pay more than $10 for three hash cookies. On arrival we were offered hash cakes and marijuana by the bucketload but of course Tami and I being responsible adults did not touch a thing. IN any case you get pretty high on the atmosphere of the place and have no need for illegal substances? All the shops were named hilarious things like ?The Happy High Weed Shop? and ?Bringabong? (as opposed to Billabong (a famous clothes shop) for all those that are not aware of this fact.).We ate lunch and Tami and I bought some Buddhas to add to our ever expanding collection. We then went to the museum there that apparently, according to our guide, makes more sense if you are stoned. It was like someone had taken the 60's era and put it in a blender. (Tami's rather fitting analogy). It was a bizarre place and we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves.After this crazy experience we got back on the bus to drive to someone's property. It was owned by this guy called Paul who could have fitted quite easily into Nimbin. He had bought the forest with one tree on it and spent twenty years planting a great big rainforest with a pond in the middle. Some of the trees were as tall as 200 year old trees so I don't know if he had given them something that he had bought from Nimbin but it was not natural. We ate some fruit and nuts in his house and were given a tour, whilst he explained the healing properties of some of the vegetation. Once back on the bus it was clear that some people had bought some cookies as these three girls were hysterically laughing for a good 20 minutes at nothing and swaying all over the place and the guy sitting next to be looked like he had been on LSD. Everyone also clearly thought I was on something as well because when Kush told me a joke I laughed for about 5 minutes and all the sober people turned around to give me a disapproving look. I swear I only ate my own food whilst there!We had a quick stop off at Minyon Falls which was very picturesque but probably not a safe place to let the stoners out at. Once back at the hostel Kat and Kush had to catch the greyhound to Brisbane so we helped them carry there bags to the stop and had pizza on the way. I impressed them both with my pizza eating skills. Apparently Kush turned around to ask me how my pizza was and couldn't believe it had already gone....I didn't think I ate that fast but clearly I do. Must get that ability from my father...Before going to bed we spent an hour in the pool and hot tub with Odin and this English girl called Isabella or something and then went to sleep. I LOVE having a hot tub in my backgarden!
- comments