New Zealand here I come

A little bit confused I made my way to the airport...Again another country was lying ahead of me and eventhough I knew I would meet those two Irish girls it felt strange. My flight was 1,5 hours delayed and seriously-there is nothing much to do at Melbourne Airport. After take-off I tried Qantas inflight entertainment and was even more confused. You can chose of hundreds of movies, CDs, comedies, and other things on demand. I spent the three hours just zapping around cuz I did not know what I wanted to do. But I thought "hey, you've got an 11 hour flight to L.A....enough time to watch several movies, comedies, and listen to several CDs. I was quite exhausted when I arrived at my hostel, the ACB, one of those party hostels. It was already after 21h and so I went down to their bar with my 2-4-1 beer voucher. I just sat down at a table with my two huge glasses filled with delicious tap beer when that girl appeared from the dancefloor. She asked me if I mind to dance and because she seemed to be nice I followed her back to the dancefloor and as it is difficult to dance with two beers in your hand, I gave one to her. We ended up spending all night together doing barhopping. The next morning we met for breakfast. I wore this nice shirt Nina gave me for my birthday present. Emerald, that is her name, and I sat down at Auckland's Marina and enjoyed our coffee and a nice choclate croissant. Not for long though...In front of us were tons of sea-gulls and sparrows waiting for us to feed them. Except for one little sparrow-bas....This small little bird suddenly jumped up, opened his humangous beak, stole my choclate croissant out of my hand, and after that, for a faire punishment, got attacked by the other sparrows and sea-gulls. I frightened so much, that I spilled coffee all over my shirt-Sorry Nina!!!

I had to wait two more days for Eithner and Andrea till we could pick up our campervan. I found out that Auckland is not the most beautiful city but yet learned some stuff about the Kiwi culture when I did the free STRAY-bus city tour. This experience made clear to me, why the STRAY Bus or the Kiwi Experience Bus is called the "vagina liner". Anyway, ouir first journey in our orange spaceship lead us up north to the Bay of Islands. When we arrived we could not quite understand what we were doing there. It was nice but very touristy and also raining. The only thing we really did was finding a place to spend the night so that we could go down south the next morning. And so we did, all the way passed Auckland down to the Waitomo cave where we had our first adventure: Blackwaterrafting. Pretty much what it is, is putting a tube under your butt, hock into the person in front and behind of you and have somebody pull the whole group through dark caves in really cold water. A highland was to jump of a small waterfall. Because it is so dark you can see thousands of glowworms. Amazing and the hot shower and tomato soup afterwards made up for the cold water! After we were done we took-off to Rotorua, a small city where we faced our second challenge: Wildwaterrafting including the highest commercially raftable waterfall-7 meters. The guys leading the group were those smoking weat chilled sort of guys which really did not seem to be trust worthy. But hey, we were in New Zealand-the country with thousands of adventures. We took a raft, brought it to the starting point, went for a pee, learned what to do at what time so we wouldn't fall out of the raft and finally started. The first burden was to jump about 2 meters into that freakin' cold water and swim to the raft. The first rapids were easy. Eventually we came to that high waterfall and after we managed the drop we went down along the river till we arrived after 45 minutes. All save, some wetter than others. At the end we did wave-surfing during which a small English girl had to sit in the front and was covered by that wave for minutes. We had fun, if she did I don't know :) If you do not understand what I mean look at the picture!

After we had dried we continued to Taupo. We were on a tight schedule because neither the Irish nor I had enough time left for New Zealand and we knew that there was a lot to do on the south island. On the way to Taupo we stopped the famous mud pools and hot springs in which we chilled with a couple of beers and those small brown fatal miningitis worms that get into your body via nose and mouth. I told this story to everybody who entered the pool. The idea to share a pool with those annoying little creatures was kind of scary but if you kept your head above the water you were fine and the skin enjoyed a free Spa sulfur treat. The mud pools were nice to watch because the boiling mud shot out of the earth. The smell was not very entertaining-neither was the piece of boiling mud that hit me on my arm...The next stop was Taupo were the girls skydived. I would have loved to do another one after Rainbow Beach in Australia but I was out of money and decided it was fun enough to flirt with that overly beautiful looking girl at the reception of the skydive place. Before their jump we had breakfast at Lake Taupo, a huge lake, and while eating my Fruit Loops I discovered the joy of feeding them to the ducks. Unfortunately they could not chew them but still, I had fun. After the girls had safely arrived back down we drove all the way to the Tangorio Crossing. It is a one day hike along vulcanoes, apparently the best in New Zealand. We spent the night listening to the rain and when we woke up the next morning it was still raining and very cloudy. No way we could do this hike! Very disappointed we took of to Wellington where we crossed over the next morning to Picton on the South Island. The evening before we went to the Te Papa Museum (Kiwi culture and all about New Zealand), the best I've ever been to. Besides its interactivity I could to a virtual bungyjump which was to prepare me for Queenstown where I did the real thing....

Whitsundays and Diving - Paradise

After a two day ride up to Airlie Beach we were looking forward to do a sailing turn to the Whitsunday Islands. By that time we recovered from all those annoying march flies from Fraser Island and could not wait for the pictures landscape - white sands and turquoise water. We also met two Irish girls, Eithner and Andrea, who were in our 4WD Fraser group. Coincidentally they were booked on the same sailing ship as we were; an old three mast boat that has been operated by an Italian cook. The boat left Airlie beach in the afternoon and because we had not enough wind we started of using the engine. We spent the afternoon sailing towards Whitehaven Beach, yet anchoring the boat about two hours away to spend the night. We had delicious dinner, talked, had a couple of drinks and were all fascinated by Flipper (a dolphine :) that was circling, jumping, and dancing around us for about half an hour. The first night not many of us slept on deck but I took my matress and squeezed it in the front on deck. I made myself comfortable, listened to music, thought about Melbourne a lot and how much I missed it, and enjoyed the stars in the sky. It was totally dark around us and the Milkyway is just incredible. At 7a.m. was served and soon after we went to our first snorkeling destination. Before we jumped into the water though, we had to put on our funny looking stinger suits because of the jellyfish which are quite nasty in that area. I saw a couple but all that stinger suit wearing is more an insurance issues. I was driving everybody crazy about snorkeling and how cool it is but all three snorkeling sites were rather disappointing after having been to paradise at the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. But Whitehaven Beach made up for it and we spent all afternoon there, observing thousands of little crabs that were digging themselves into the sands once you got to close to them. Swimming was not really possible because also here you needed the stinger suits. After enjoying the incredible scenery we went back to the boat, had dinner, jumped of the mast - really shaky and scary up there - had a social night and went to bed again, this time almost everybody was on deck. The next morning we snorkelled again and went back to Airlie Beach were we stayed another night partying, going bathing into the lagoon and later to bed. From there it took us up to Cairns where we again met up with Andrea and Eithner.

We were really lucky getting to Cairns without any problems because everybody we met further south told us about the huge amount of rain they had and that they were stuck in Cairn because the roads were closed. One thing was sure, it would be very humid up there. The first night we slept in our campervan but the next Nina left for New Zealand to see her hostfamily and I booked myself into a hostel. Dinner was included and served at P.J.'s (Irish Pub). Waiting for my food I went up to the bar to order a drink and could not believe what I saw. Behind the bar was that good-looking blondgirl working that was working only three weeks earlier at P J's in Melbourne - it is just funny where and when you meet people again when you travel. After dinner my two Irish girls and I went to the Wool Shed, the 'IN' bar there with a wide variety of girls waiting to get picked up...I had to get up early the next morning to catch my boat to my 2-day-1-night diving trip I was so excited for. On the boat I met this Irish girl Sinead and I knew my destiny - I would never get rid of those Irish (remember, I worked also with Irish girls in Melbourne; where are your boys? :-). Sinead and I got along quite well and so we decided to body up for the six dives we had, three the first day and three the second. We dove on two different reefs, Hastings and Normans Reef. Diving to me is just something so incredible and I enjoyed the underwater world at the Great Barrier Reef a lot. The most comfortable thing was that the water is really warm and there is pretty much no fish that can do you harm. We saw so many different kinds; Maorie Wresses (see picture below), sharks, clownfish (my favorites), other colored fish, rays of any kind, and on our night dive even a big sea turtle. If ever you get a chance to dive, to it!!!! After the sixth dive we had lunch and had to get ready for the ride home. They offered boomnetting on the way home. If ever you get a chance to do it, DON'T!!! I swallowed as much salt water as during the six dives or more. They spread out a net behind the boat and you pretty much hold on to it and enjoy the salty taste in your mouth.

The next day I flew back to Melbourne, excited to see all my friends again. The two German girls I met in Byron Bay txted me two days before that they would also be there - wow, I was just a lucky dude :) Because everybody had to work I mainly spent my time with Hannah and Loosie. Luckily Tess, my Melbourne-special, found some time for me and together with the Irish girls (Mary and Bob) we went for breaky once.Before I took of to Auckland I organized a job for my German ones at World. They wanted to stay till the beginning of March and as I found out lately, yesterday, in the middle of April, was their last shift. It felt good to know, that I was not the only who got stuck at World - it is a good place, it makes addictive, and does incredible things to you!!!

...And The Other Two Weeks

After not being caught we left Noosa the next day, after we spent the morning and the afternoon at the beach. We booked our trip to Fraser and the Whitsunday Islands there and just had to pay for the latter trip. Why? I don't know, but why would I care ;) We arrived in Rainbow beach at night and parked our car at a Pipi's, a backpacker. For a small charge we could use their facilities, which meant finally a real toilet and shower again. We cooked dinner and after that I played cards all night long with that Swedish/English couple. The girl lent me her Nokia recharger which Calum didn't give back to me after I borrowed it to him in Byron Bay-Thanx Calum!!! I expected the next morning with great excitement as I wanted to skydive from 14.000ft (4200m). However, the weather represented a little problem at first. But an hour later I got a call and the guy said we can jump now. They picked me up from the hostel, made me sign those forms saying that if I die I have no rights (of course not, I am f.... dead!!!), took me down to the beach to measure the wind, and then to Rainbow Beach International Airfield. It was just a piece of grass and the runway was marked with plastic buckets. The small plane took of and after 20 minutes of a scenic flight over the bay and Fraser Island my tandem dude buckelt me up to him and opened the door. It got suddenly really windy and chilly in the plane but I just enjoyed the view and the Pacific Ocean and rainbow beach. We sat on the edge of the plane, my legs hanging out the plane (a great feeling) when he stood up and jumped with me. We tumbled twice (which I loved) and then enjoyed 65 seconds of free fall and 6 minutes gliding. We landed on the beach both wearing just a shirt and shorts, no shoes. It was one incredible experience!

In the afternoon we had to attend a meeting preparing us for the three-day 4WD trip to Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. We really didn't learn much which was beyond common sense and so we left the next morning after we loaded our cars with tents, food, and of course some alcohol to enjoy the nights. Marvin, promising us good times at least once in a phrase, took us to the ferry and from then two Irish, two English, three Danish, a Swiss, and two Germans were for themselves. We deboarded the ferry and to a really bumpy road to the beach. Yep, the beach was the road and you relied on the tides wether or not you could drive. We made our way up to Lake Mckinsey which was inland. The deep sandy road seemed not to end but after an hour and a half we finally arrived at this amazing blue with a white beach looking lake. It was time for a refreshment and so we jumped in to cool down. After a group picture we were the lasts to leave. On the way back Kenneth made our car jump, not on purpose - a great but yet very scary feeling - and after we checked if everybody was ok we continued our sandy drive to our campground. We put up our tents and lucky as we were we had a chef in the group, a 21-year old English guy, who prepared our dinner both nights. The next morning we were woken up by the heat and those freakin' March Flies annoying the sh... out of us. They were just some stinging bastards. Without breaky we left for Lake Wobby by food. It was a good 45 minutes walk and two thirds of the walk were like walking in the dessert. Around us were only sanddunes with no vegetation. An incredible scenery. When we were back, all looking forward to enjoy our break our chef got stuck with the car and it took us about two hours in the midday heat to free our 4WD, all with empty stomachs. We called the company and they sent a mechanic to us, diagnosing a dead 4WD and so we had to wait another two hours for a new 4WD which wasn't to bad as we could use a pool while we were waiting. In the afternoon, all confident with the new car, we left our camp and drove up to a shipwreck and the Ela Creek which I walked up and floated down with the stream in exorbitant cold water. For dinner we drove back to our camp. Whilst the preparations I really had to pee and had to look for a good spot (there were no toilets). I thought I found one where I could spent the next 30 seconds without being caught but not so...behind me drove a 4WD by full of boys and girls watching me doin' my business. A little bit embarassing but Kenneth and I still thought it would be a good idea to play some games with them at night. We went to their camp with a couple of beers and at the end of the night Kenneth hooked up with that German girl from Hamburg...a fun night but a bad morning the next day. We broke up our camp, drove all the way up to the Northern part of the Island with a great look out and the champagne pools were we went into and drove all the way back South to catche the ferry to Rainbow Beach...Now I've written enough for today. I'll write more about our sailing turn to the Whitsunday Islands and my diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef where I saw this in 12m depth...

A Month Full of Excitement-The First Two Weeks

Sydney not only hooked me up with the new love of my life but said good-bye to me with big fireworks at Darling Harbour. It happened that I spent Australia Day (the day Captain Cook first stepped onto Australian soil) in Sydney as well, my last day there. At The Rocks with the Opera House next door, many stages with a lot of life rock music made my day with a couple of cool beers. I met some nice poeple and even though I went to Sydney by myself I was not by myself once. After the concerts I made my way to Darling Harbour where the big fireworks were to go of at night. I met two girls from Canberra and with them and thousands of other people I watched the fireworks. The night ended in the YHA bar with some Koerean dude and to many jugs of beer, but oh well, it tastes good.

The next morning I took the bus to Byron Bay, a cute little town between Sydney and Brisbane, with beautiful beaches and a lighthouse on top of a hill. On the way to the lighthouse you meet some funny looking turkeys, lizards, and if you swam many fish (including dolphins and rays). Just a little before the lighthouse you pass the most Eastern Australian Mainland Point. It is on a cliff and the day I was there, some dude decided to fall down the cliff (1st version I heard) or some dude went fishing and hurt himself (2nd, much more embarassing version for the dude) and I could follow a rescue mission with helicopter and people climbing down the cliff to reach the dude with first aid equipment. I met really cool people in Byron Bay, rode the waves with a bodyboard and learned how to properly bodysurf. It is a lot of fun if there wasn't all the blue bottles, some harmless stingers (jellyfish). After three nights I went straight up to Brisbane to catch up with Nina and to pick up our campervan which should bring up all the way to Cairns. Nina and I spent the night at the Bunk hostel and at night went down to the bar for some food and a couple of drinks. As we were eating I pointed out a guy to Nina and told her that he really looks like one of Andy's mates (a good Scottish friend of mine I used to work with in Melbourne) but that it could not possibly be him because he is still in Melbourne. WRONG!!! It was him...the world is small. Together with him, Nina, and the campervan we left for Byron Bay for two reasons. I convince all three of them that Byron Bay is worth visiting and I wanted to catch up again with two German girls I met when I was there the first time. They both are from a place near Freiburg, Andrea and Hannah. Andrea got the nickname Losie from me because it didn't matter what but she always lost it. Calum (Andy's mate) was so happy in Byron Bay that we left him behind. From there, Nina and I drove via the Hinterland all the way up to Noosa, which is north of Brisbane. The way took us along backroads, the Naturalbridge, the Springbrook Nationalpark, up to Noosa. The Naturalbridge is a small cave in some kind of rainforest. It has an opening through which a waterfall drops and at night the ceiling of the cave was illuminated by hundreds and thousands of glowworms (and millions of flashlights from Asians visiting the cave at night. At least 10 busses unloaded on the parking lot which is equal to about 400 Asians...unbelievable!!!. We spent the night on the parking lot with three girls we met. We were not allowed to because it was a national park but we asked the rangers if they would fine us...They said "no" and that they left at 10:30pm so we just stayed. The next morning after breaky we left for Noosa, stopped in a little village to buy fresh pineapple, and visited a big waterfall and a lookout at the Springbrook National Park. The area around the waterfall was really hot and humid (a good environment for those poisoness snakes) but as soon as we got to the lookout which we reached after a 45 minutes trip along windy mounting roads we were freezing and had to put on a jumper. At night we arrived at Noosa where we cooked our dinner at the beach, took a shower at the beach and parked our car in some backroads to spend the night (we had to because camping is not allowed at those nice spots and they'll fine you if you do so)...

The Love of My Life

I finally found her, the love of my life. I knew already as a child that I would find her some day but I was yet to young to realize how far I had to travel. I was overwhelmed by her beauty. Suddenly she was there, right in front of me, in all her beauty she could possibly deliver. Her shape is incredible unique, her curves perfect in relation to the rest of her body. A few months ago I thought I found her already, but I was mistaken, sorry to break your heart. You are not far off but the one now is better, I would almost reckon unbeatable. When I saw her the first time I missing all the words, just did not know what to say. I felt more comfortable the second time and things worked out better. Tonight I saw her again, from the back, the sides, and the front, and oh my God, once again I was overwhelmed by her beauty, her perfectness, her uniqueness, her shape...I was an incredible moment: once again, I knew already I would find her some day, just did not know it would happen here and today.

Dear Patronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, I was impressed by your size and the way you are climbing to the sky. I called you the best in the world but in my young stupidness I was not quite sure about my emotions. I have to say good-bye to you, because my heart is fully dedicated to the Opera House Sydney, she is perfect, well curved, and beautiful, does not matter if during the or at night. I love her!

Still in Melbourne - all good!!!

Yep, I am still here in Melbourne. I've really fallen in love with this city! The last few weeks have been quite exciting because I've done more than just working. Eventhough I have to admit that work is fun most of the time. The team is great, the customers nice and at the moment we have a lot of functions going on, xmas parties and dinners, DJs etc. It is summer now overhere, for some reason they start their season on the 1st instead the 21st...Today it had 41 degrees, I tell you, way tooooo hot!!! Last week we had our Xmas party, the restaurant closed and we all met in St. Kilda and had a good night out. Everybody was in a good mood, the alcohol was for free and my secret Santa gave me a very nice looking gift. In the morning some of us went fishing. We met at 7h at the boat which took us out to the sea. About 30 people tried their luck catching fish and enjoying a b.b.q inbetween. I caught some fish, but they were the same kind all the time. That is why I gave up very soon and enjoyed some beers in the boiling sun. I also caught a Japanese star fish which probably gave me the award of the World's (being the restaurant's name) best fisherman. It was given to me on the party and I felt quite hornored because I suck big time at fishing...didn't even know how to put the bate on the hook ;) The day after I met two of my mates in St. Kilda for a late breaky before I had to go to work again. They have very nice bars/cafes down there. The next day I went swimming, went out for dinner, watched the new James Bond at the movies, and finished the day with a couple of drinks. The weekend was quite busy and now I am at work again but it is so quiet that they made me start working an hour later, that is why you can read this update...

Meanwhile, I also made up my mind where I am gonna go, for how long, and when I will return to good old Germany. I will stay in Melbourne till the 19th of January, go up to Sydney and Queensland. On the 21st of February I am flying from Melbourne to Auckland and will spend a month and a half in New Zealand. From there I fly out the 24th of March to LA, stay there one night, fly to Florida to meet my oldest brother. After a week of "the" Spring break I am flying to Boise, Idaho, to visit my host family. From there I travel to Boston, spend some time there and fly to London on the 27th of April. I'll spend some days there and fly back to Berlin on the 1st of May. That's my plan, flights are booked and so I think it won't really change...

Alright, gotta go...just one more thing: My email account doesn't really get many mails at the moment :( Keep in touch guys...Hugs, Jan

Greetings from Melbourne. Yep, I am still here and probalby stay here for another three months. I found this good job, in the worldbar restaurant, and work really hard to finance the rest of my travelling. Here some rumours that I am gonna try to clarify. It is true that I thought of going home earlier for several reasons which I have now overcome. From the current point of view I will finish my year as planned in April. Ok, well, that was actually the only thing I wanted to clarify on this page *g* I am starting to make some friends over here and get know some bars and the nightlife of Melbourne, though I have to work most of the time on the weekends. My stay in Melbourne becomes more and more enjoyable. Anyway, I need to go, the computer is needed. Pictures from Melbourne will be out soon...so keep on reading...

FINALLY - Look at my photo album!!!

Hey guys, I know it took me a long time and many of you asked me, when I would publish some pictures. I always promised in a few weeks and in the end it took some months. But thanx to my brother here they finally are. Look at http://janmo.ja.funpic.de and surf through my pictures. You now know what I've been up to the last four and a half months. Thanx again Aiko for your help. Other than that I am fine. I now enjoy my stay in Australia and especially in Melbourne. I quit the job at the Transport bar because collecting glasses all night long turned out to be rather boring *g* Also, at the restaurant "Worldbar" where I am working at offered me more shifts which I can only work when having one job only. I like the place a lot and learned pretty fast to carry three plates at the same time and to carry a tray with tons of glasses without dropping them. Nothing special for some of you but I had to practice a lot ;) My parents sent me my runners so that I could participate in the marathon. However, they made it only to Sydney and are now deposited in the quarantaine department because they had two grams of German soil on them. Now isn't that just funny. I had to decide whether to destroy the items, get them cleaned or have them send back to Germany. Cleaning was the cheapest option and so I hope, that they'll arrive here in Melbourne on time. The other day I went to the aquarium which turned out to be very interesting. Now that I've been diving some more I actually get interested in all the fishes - especially if they are poiseness or not *g* Also, I love those massive sting rays. One of which killed the Australian legend Steve Irwin two weeks ago, aka "The Crocodile Hunter" Whole Australia was sad about the loss...More to come soon...

Melbourne - a great city

After twelve and a half hours of an annoying train trip, I finally arrived in Melbourne Spencer Street where I was welcomed by a muffin and my good old friend Nina from Freiburg. She ist studying her Bachelor here. Why was the train ride annoying some of you probably ask themselves? Well, if you ever complained about the German trains you really should experience a train ride here in Australia. The trains are slow, stop everywhere...Before you may bord the train, every cabin in front of you is filled up and then it is your turn. You have to check-in at the station of origin, just like at an airport...Just more things like that are really tyring. Nina and I went to a bar and had a beer while we were waiting for my ex-apartment mate Anne from the first year I studied in Freiburg. She came some two hours later and took me to her apartment where I am living at the moment with her and her boyfriend. The first time here in Melbourne was an emotional roller-coaster...The first ten days I was looking for jobs in bars, restaurants, and hotels. Till they replied, if they did after all, it took ten days until I had my first trials. These first ten days were really not so nice...I just was tired of travelling, had to fill every day to do something, did want to see the cultural sights of Melbourne and had some troubles at home. All I did was sleeping, exercising for the Melbourne Half Marathon on October 8, eating, and wanting to go home...But then I have started to work in two bars and since then things are getting steadily better. I begin to make friends, work some 40 hours per week and life comes back to normal...Let's see what the upcoming weeks bring up but I am rather positive...The city itself is awesome, I am living in the CBD which is made of nice-looking skyscrapers and inbetween you find those old houses from a century ago - a very good combination. I found a good place to run and hopefully I will run under 1:55h on the day of the Marathon...

Coober's Pedy and Adelaide

The distances here in Australia are amazing. Adelaide was once again some 1500 kilometers away. So I decided this time to spent a night in Coober's Pedy because I heard some people talking about it. Coober's Pedy is a mining-area for opal, a precious colored looking stone. Many Australians made a fortune there starting in 1915. As it gets more than 50 degrees celsius in summer people commenced to use the old mines as there homes or just dugged their own home. The backpackers I stayed in was also under the ground, some 10 meters. It was an interesting experience and the sandstone gave a good looking pattern - a brownish red white design. There are some good stories about people living there. For example there is this one guy living with his wife and a daughter in one of those underground houses. And everytime his wife needs something new he just digs in his house, enlarging the living room at the same time, until he finds some opal he can sell for a heck of a lot of money...One day was definately enough. I looked at an old mine and went to the annual horse racing which filled the day well. At night the bus to Adelaide left at 6 and wow, the bus driver was not one of the politest one...This time I did not care to much, sat in the very back, red a lot, watched the orange moon rising and eventually went to sleep after a good night beer. I arrived early in the morning in Adelaide and checked into the same hostel as Oli. We got along well so I was happy to have somebody I knew there. I even was in the same dorm. We had a nice time there, I spent three nights. On the fist day Oli showed me around, on the second day I had to do some shopping, although I was short of money, because I had to get a pair of jeans and a winter jacket - I was tired of freezing. It was an outlet mall, so things were cheap and I once again happy. Adelaide was the first town since to weeks that had some sort of civilization and hey, I liked it there. On the way back from the mall I jumped of the

bus at the beach, walked along the beach, called my gorgeous girl, and hopped on the bus again to Adelaide. The next day I went to Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide were I spent the time on the pia, reading, writing postcards and seeing the first sunset in my life during which the sun sets at the horizon, sinking into the sea. Satisfied I went home and left early the next morning with the train to Melbourne - again an interesting experience...

Alice Springs - Ayers Rock and back

I took the day and night bus from Darwin to Alice. The ride took 22 hours through the outback. I enjoyed the ride and the first 1500 km were taken from my bus pass I purchased in Germany. This was a good idea because Greyhound Australia is really over-priced when you buy the tickets here. Well, that was good because the bus was close to empty and thus I could lie over four seats at night, giving me a good sleep. We arrived early in the morning in Alice and suddenly I felt like being in South East Asia again, not because of the looks but because some guy waited at the bus station trying to make me check-in in his guest house offering a free ride too. I thought that was quite nice and so I did that which was once again a right decision. Darwin and Alice Springs as cities do not have to offer too much so you do not wanna spend to much time there. All it has is some local attractions, Australians getting drunk at noon (not joking...these Australians cannot handle the consumption of alcohol), and tons of aboriginies that were not able to adjust to the Western life-style and became alcoholics and homeless. AgainI asked myself: Why the heck is everybody wanting to go to Australia?! In the hostel I met this German guy Oli and we decided to rent a car because that was the cheapest way to get to the Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon, and back. We rented the smallest car available and asked those to French ladies to join us so we could devide the costs by four. They turned out to be rather boring, so it was them and us. Once again we were lucky though, because they did not have a small car and so they gave us this big looking, air conditioned, cruise controlled Hyundai. Nobody would buy that car in Europe, but hey, Hyundai makes good cars! I smiled because the car was my tent and I knew, I would have a big bed. It took us four hours through the Outback to get to the campground near the Rock itself. We booked into the campground and as we found out that they would not check whether you did or not, we stayed the last night for free. After putting up the tent for the others we went to the sunset spot where dozens of cars parked to watch the Ayers Rock changing its red tones every few seconds during the sunset. It sure is an amazing show and for the second time, after them dangerous crocodiles, I was happy to be in Australia. The following day, after not having slept well because it was freakin' cold that night (1 degree celsius, 34 degress fahrenheit) we made our way to the sunrise area looking the same as the sunset area. The only difference was that you had to get out of the car and walk a little to see the sunrise. Good idea, still being an ice pickle from the night and having to get out of the car again into the cold...It was also nice but not even close to the sunset. After that we went to the cultural center where I ran into two girls which I met in Darwin. I sat down with them and ordered an over-priced coffee still hoping to warm up. After that Oli and I went around the Ayers Rock and for the first kilometer we joined a tour (free of charge - wow!) and learnt about the history of the Rock and the aborignie culture. And again I feld bad...I really do not understand their culture as it sounds more like a ferry tale to me and others. I really feld bad because I want to respect their culture but after having met all those drunks and now learnt about all that it is really difficult. The "real" aboriginies distance themselves from foreigners and you have to purchase permits to travel into their territories. So it is almost not possible to get "the real" picture of them. The rest around the Rock we walked by ourselves, some 10 kilometers. On whether or not we climbed the Rock I do not comment at this stage. It is an ever discussed issue and everybody needs to decide for him/herself whether to climb it or not. On the third day we went to the Olgas, some 36 smaller mountains forming almost one and being as red as the Ayers Rock. We did a four hour trek there and because that was not enough another one hour trek. The scenery was really nice and the sunset their an experience because it was full moon (the night before at the Ayers Rock) and that gave an awesome picture. The moon ascending from the horizon beeing orange and changing its colour the higher it gets to a bright yellow. In front of that the red mountains...exciting. Hope to get this picture stuff managed soon *g*. On the forth day we travelled to the Kings Canyon, Uli said also a must. Mmh...after climbing the canyon, again for some 4 hours I started to question myself...Yes it was nice but going there when it is not on your way...mmh, I do not know. From there we went back to Alice, 700 kilometers, me being the only one who could drive. When it got dark we really had to watch out for kanguroos and other stock. And hey, I saw two being alive and ten being dead...This four day excursion was very nice and I was happy to move on from Alice to Adelaide...

Australia - a new continent to explore

I finally made my way to the other end of the world - Darwin, Australia. Much excitement accompanied me as everybody is just into that Australia thing...Thus, having a good feeling I boarded my plane at around midnight which I almost missed because of all those extra security checks - felt like flying to the US. I arrived early in the morning and the customs took me apart completely. Well, gotta admit that it was my fault after all because I had some instant noodles containing eggpaste in my carry-on luggage. Honest as I was I ticked "yes" on the immigration card, yes, I have dried food. Wrong!!! Should have left this damn thing in the plane and tick "no". It took me about an hour to get through customs and in the end they knew everything about me, my contents of my backpacks and whether I had contact to drugs...I checked into the YHA in Darwin, got the last bed so I was lucky this time. However, I realized that the YHAs are not better than any other hostel...After relaxing a bit I did some stuff I had to do, buy food, get a cellphone number, tax number and that sort of stuff you need when you wanna work in Australia. This little excursion was a shock to me because I realized that I was again in a Western culture and not in Asia anymore. The culture shock made me rather unhappy and Australia just "pissed me of". I bought a pizza and arriving at the YHA I was going to the kitchen to put it into the oven, this delicious piece of food. Next thing that went wrong: Most hostels do not have ovens, that meant that I had to prepare the pizza in the microwave...Not a good thing to do, but at least it was not frozen anymore. After my exciting pizza experience I met some guys from cologne, my first social contact. They were leaving for the Kakadu National Park the next day so I also booked the two day tour for 200 euros. That is what you do when you arrive in a new country the first days are always the most expensive ones. The trip was quite nice because I saw some aggressive crocodiles, amazing animals, and some nice nature spots which however, are also found in South East Asia. This nationalpark is the second most visited and everybody told me it is a must but after all I thought it was nice, but a must is a little exaggerated. So that pissed me of and also the fact that the whole backpacker scene here in Australia is based on companies selling trips which are way to expensive and take all the money from the poor backpackers...I hate it, backpacking is a way to travel as cheap as possible around the world, but nothing like that in Australia. And it is a fact: Australia has gotten lots more expensive within the last few years. After five days in Darwin I made my way to Alice Springs and hoped that things would change to the better...

Bali - my last destination in South East Asia

My last stop in South East Asia is Bali - twelve days one of the most wonderful places I have ever been to. I arrived late on 19 July and knew exactly where I wanted to go to. I went to Sanur, the town I spent four and a half weeks in 2001. From those weeks I haven't any pictures because I lost my camera. I remembered a lot though and know I am happy that I took a hell of a lot of pictures during the last twelve days. I checked into a guesthouse and took some money (I was a millionaire at that time 1.500.000 Rupiah :) and checked out the next bar for the first drink. The next day I looked for the house we stayed at in 2001 without any map, just by memories - and after one hour of walking I did find the place. I rang the bell and the same nice person opened the gate who used to prepare a fresh mango juice for me every morning. I was very happy! The next morning I left for Ubud which is further in the north. There you will find palm tree forests and the most beautiful rice fields ever. I had a nice guest house up there for the next six days and spent most of the time with locals and in the Putra Bar, the only place to meet people in Ubud. I did several excursions on a motorcycle from there...went to Mount Batur, a vulcano that last erupted in 1945, got to meet a local's family where I ate Balinese style, i.e. with fingers - and hey, that is not as easy as it sounds, I made a big mess :) After that we went fishing at the black lava beach where I bought a 2.5 kg heavy tuna fish. They made it for me at night over an open fire in the guest house - that was so cool. I learned about them, their culture, Hinduism etc. And even though they have strict rules in Hinduism the teenies in the end behave like "Western" teenies *g* I had a great time in Ubud and stayed a day longer as planned. From there, one of the locals took me to Seminyak with his motorcycle. Seminyak is north of Kuta (the most aweful place on Bali...) and has a nice beach and high waves. On my way back from the beach on the first day here I saw some desperate Austrian girls looking for accommodation. So I told them where I stay and we ended up being neighbours. That night we went out to get some drinks and with one of the girls I ended up going to Kuta to the Bounty Disco (a disco that looks like an old sailing ship). We had lots of fun there and walked back at 5 o'clock, went to the beach and into the water, came back, had some more beers and went to bed at half past eight - she in hers and I in mine :). I had great fun!!! The next day started late and I realized that I had troubles with my stomach. First I thought it was because of the alcohol, now I know that my stomach is screwed up...I do not what, but I hope it is getting better soon. Today I went to Putra Tanah Lot, a temple on a big stone in the sea. There I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets in my life - just amazing! I wanted to take pictures but unfortunately my batteries were empty...Luckily I met a nice Korean couple who borrowed me some and as soon as I put the pics online you can see what I mean. Tomorrow is my last day here and I will visit another temple which is situated on a cliff - very beautiful. If you plan your next vacation: Think of going to Bali, it is a very wonderful place!!! In about 24 hours I will change continents and go to Australia...

Singapur - a city, a country, and an island

The last three days of our travel, Uli and I spent in Singapur. The ride with the nightbus was rather annoying. It was a very comfortable bus being also a host to many small cockroaches crawling all over the place leaving at midnight. At 3:30a.m. we had to "check out" from Malaysia and some thirty minutes later we "checked into" Singapur going through the same procedure when we came from Thailand to Malaysia. We arrived really tired at ten to five and walked our way to Little India where we luckily found some drunken Irish guys who were sitting in front of their guesthouse. It had a small area with bean bags and they let us in (you needed a key for that) and we spent the rest of the night on the bean bags. Surprisingly, as the hall filled with people, nobody really cared about us and we had nothing to pay for that "overnight stay". So we checked into the most expensive of all guesthouses we have had so far and went up to our beds placed in a dormatory. The price included breakfast and we had a kitchen, a pool table, and free Internet access (which broke down most of the time - maybe that is why it was for free :) I liked the guesthouse a lot and I think it was one you find everywhere in Australia. I am looking forward to that. The other half of the first day we spent in Orchard Road, once again a street full of malls. Which was good because I tried to wash my shoes in the guesthouse, with real soap to get rid of the bad smell of mud and jungle, when I had to realize that the part where your food stands on started to dissolve. So I just threw them away and got new Vans for just 25 Euros - lucky me :) Uli and I decided to go to the movies at night to watch Pirates of the Caribbean II and so we bought two tickets. The movie started at 10 p.m. and we wanted to buy some popcorn. We standing in line when Uli suddenly said: "Look Jan, I think we know those two!" pointing at a guy and a girl waiting in the line next to us. I did not believe what I saw there - we said good-bye to them in Tama Negara being sure we would never see them again and then, somewhere in Singapur, we meet again those two in South Korea Studying Germans...So we spent the night with them and as it turned out, they lived in a guesthouse next door to ours...We got to bed really late that night. The next day we again did some sightseeing, sneaked into a 60 story high building to enjoy the breathtaking view over Singapur (Thanx Maggi for sharing this "secret place" with us) and walked along some nice buildings ending up in a former WW2-Bunker where the Singapurians decided to surrender to Japan in 1942. I have to admit that I did not think that Singapur was as clean as everybody says eventhough you have those high fines for littering. At some points we saw ten signs telling you what you are not supposed to be doing always telling you the fine if you still did it. There was one telling you if you rode a bike at that place you are fined 500 Euros - imagine that in Freiburg - all students would go bankrupt :) The next day was Wednesday - the day Uli and I had to say good-bye. It came so suddenly and at this point once again: Thank you very much Uli for the last ten and a half weeks. I had a great time with you and was happy about the bracelet you gave me. Hope you got one for you too :) Keep in touch body! Later I made my way to the airport, bought to beers from my last Singapurian dollars and went on the plane to Bali - all by myself :(...

Kuala Lumpur - a great city

We arrived early in the morning with the night train at KL Sentral. The night was loud because the door between our and the next car was broken. Very tired we took a taxi and checked into Wheeler's Guesthouse, a place those to in South Korea studying Germans recommended to us. Indeed it was a nice place at a reasonable price, just near China Town. Kuala Lumpur is a shopping paradise - you can walk for kilometers through malls which are connected to each other without seeing daylight or getting wet in one of those monsoon rainfalls. We spent quite some time in those and I bought a new MP3 player and an electronic shaver. I just cannot live without my music although I have to admit that it is time for new songs because listening to the same over and over again is annoying in the end. On the first day in KL we went to the Patronas Tower, the second largest building in the world (after a skyscraper in Taipee). This building is just amazing - Uli and I just love those towers. Interestinly, the architecture embodies designs of the number one religion in Malaysia - the Islam. We decided to rather get on the observation deck of the TV tower because it was higher than the one in the Patrona Towers. We did that the same night trying to catch the sunset but unfortunately some Malay told us the wrong way and we were almost to late. When we arrived at the top we could still see the sun - a red ball surrounded by fog. We spent quite some time up there and enjoyed the view on the lightened city below. From there we went home and enjoyed the Internet in our guesthouse and a beer on its roof top bar before we went to bed. The next day we again did some sightseeing, looked at a mosque near by and a building belonging to the sultan. Malaysia has 13 provinces ruled by nine sultans and four ministers. Every five years a king is elected from the sultans (just some information input :). From there we tried to catch a bus a big park and while we were looking for a bus stop to Malay girls were passing us in a car, yelling at us "handsome, handsome". So I said to Uli: "Hey, they at the red light - let them take us to the park." And so we asked them if they could take us and so they did. In the park was some "Flora and Founa Faire" so it was full with poeple. Later we went to China Town at bought some fake music CDs and DVDs as well as clothing. I have not heard anything of Uli yet if he arrived safely in Gemany - I hope the custom did not bust him for a backpack full of fakes :) After that we again enjoyed a beer on the roof top bar...The next night we left for Singapur with a night bus. I love Kuala Lumpur and I love Malaysia. I was really surprised by realizing that Malaysia is far ahead of Thailand concering infrastructure, transport, and in terms of Western influences. The most impressive issue about Malaysia is that Indians, Chinese, and Malay embodying the three big religions Islam, Hindu, and Christian, live together peacefully!!!

Tama Negara National Park

We took the so called "jungle train" from Kota Bahru in the north to Jerantut - a ten hour train ride (yet a short distance) leading through the jungle. It sounds better than it is because in the end it is just trees passing you by. By then we were luckily some trained travellers - whenever you go to South East Asia be sure to have long sleve pants and shirts with you even though it is 35 degrees outside. Why? Because they tend to try every time how cold the air conditioning can actually be. Well prepared we were still freezing our a.. of. Being overwhelmed by the heat when we got off in Jerantut we had to take another bus for 60 kilometers to get to the national park. This time we were sweating because there were just some windows...Once we arrived we looked for a nice hostel and on our way, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we met these two in South Korea studying German guys we met on Ko Tao. Big surprise because they wanted to travel some other places. So we hung out with them, yet in another guesthouse because their's was booked out. The same night we did a four-wheel-drive nightsafari trying to spot some animals. I really do not get the point of it: Having a big torch in your hand you wait until you see the light being reflected in an animal's eyes. Being happy about finding one you try to figure out what it is. In the end you never know because they run or fly away...seriously, I am not made for this. But hey, we saw a leopard like looking cat and some birds - congratulations :) The next day we hiked with those two Germans to a cave, took our torches and a lighter to get rid of the annoying leeches (we were used to them by that time and continued the hike - not like in Thailand were we paniced and ran back :). The cave was great! Sometimes you could walk, sometimes you had to climb up some stones, and sometimes you had to crawl. Very soon we came to a spot at which we were not so sure whether we should continue our expedition or not. In front of us was a new chamber in which hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of bats were hanging on the stones having decorated the stones below them with bat sh.. :) In the end we agreed to continue, saw more bats, and more bats until we arrived at a point at which we all decided to better turn around. A great experience!!! In the afternoon Uli and I took a boatride up the river to get to our overnight hide where we again wanted to spot some animals. The scenery was very nice and also the 45 minute trek was ok with almost no leeches. The overnight hide is somewhere in the jungle, you get there before dark, make some dinner (Uli and I chose toast with cheese-just keep it simple :) and stay up all night to see if some creature far away is reflecting the light. I went to bed at some point because at that point we haven't seen any animal. But hey, it was fun talking to the other people, trying to get a fire started to cook some water and using the same fire to toast our toast. The next morning we started early to hike all the way back to the headquaters. It was supposed to be a five hour hike but Uli and I were in a hurry because we had to catch the last boat out of the national park and still wanted to do the longest canopy walk in the world. So we just needed four hours, however, this time tons of leeches hanging on to our skin sucking all our blood supplies. Once we arrived we got rid of them and hurried to the canopy walk. Done that in one hour and hurried again to the boat, taking us three hours through a wonderful scenery back to Jerantut were we took the night train to Kuala Lumpur.

The Perhansian Islands

The way to those islands in the west was one of those scary ones again. The worst part was the moment when we arrived at a construction place with our minivan as one of the workers directed us onto the lanes that belonged to the traffic coming from the front. First we thought those cars would know but soon we had to realize that they would and kept on speeding on that highway similar road. Everybody in the van kept sitting up right and very tight and it really was a good feeling to get back on our lanes. In the end we arrived safely in paradise after a 1.5 hour long boatride. We stayed on the smaller islands because it is made for backpackers (considering the price level). There were no cars, no roads, no motorcycles - just some beaches and a lot of jungle. The first night we stayed at D'Lagoon, a beach with only one guesthouse. No bars, no restaurants...just mosquitos and the guesthouse. In the morning we rented some snorkling equipment and walked to the turtle beach. What expected us there was amazing. I am used to diving and have never snorkeled before. We just walked from the beach into the water, put on mask, snorkel and fins and started our little journey. The water was really shallow and you could touch everything (which you of course do not do!!!) and with us were tons of small and bigger colorful fishes. And hey, we were still close to the beach. At one point I yelled to Uli: "Hey Uli, I saw a shark, come here, hurry!" And indeed, I did see a shark for the first time in my life - a black tip shark. The locals call them friendly sharks and it was really hard to follow them because they were fast swimmers. After we came out of the water we were still amazed and wanted to go snorkeling at our D'Lagoon beach. And so we did, seeing more beautiful fishes, more sharks, and hoped to see a turtle (unfortunately we did not). Therefore, we saw big double headed butterfly fishes, humangous in size! But I also like those small trumpet fishes swimming just below the surface...In the afternoon, already a little sun burnt (the first one on my trip) we took a taxi boat to Long Beach which had some more guesthouses and also some bars helping us to socialize during the next days. The guesthouse we found sucked big time!!! Just run down and we better not talk about the showers and toilet. We got used to a lot and I for sure will use any toilet in Germany but that was just below everything. And once again we were lucky: some local working in a shop let us use his shower. He was cool and so we booked a snorkling trip for the next day. Nothing much to say - just the same beautiful nature as before. The water was so clear and blue which I have never seen in my life before and which I will never forget! If you make it to Malaysia one day be sure to go to those Islands - we even met honeymooners :) Additional to all those fishes we even saw a turtle...Of course we had to use the bars also and so we did. The first night there was nice and it was the day for the Germany - Portugal game. I did not want to see because we had to get up early for the snorkeling but I met some nice girls from Stuttgart and so we watched the game - luckily without overtime and penalty shot out. One night we went to another beach to enjoy some BBQ fish for dinner and we had to accomplish a 10 minute walk through the jungle to get to the other side of the island. It was not a big deal to get there but we forgot our torches for the way back (no more daylight at that time) and additionally it started raining - big drops...So we had to wait but at one point decided to go anyway as we did not want to spent the rest of the night there. And so we did, using my cell phone to give at least some light. The path was just one big puddle and half way my cell phone would not work anymore. We finaly made it, being still scared of snakes and leeches and again, luck was with us and nothing happened. It was a good preparation for our next destination though - the Tama Negara National Park.

The Cameron Highlands

The Cameron Highlands was the best place to get away from the freakin' hot climate at Malaysia's beaches with far over 35 degrees and a humidity which was not human at all. We spent the next nights on 1600 meters with a temperature of some 10 to 15 degrees at night. That gave me reason to finally try my new sleeping bag and hey, it is a great one. And guess the colors: It is black and, jep, correct, YELLOW :) The Highlands were not only cool but at the same time very beautiful. The first night we watched the game Germany - Italy and stayed up until six in the morning. Lets not talk about it any more...So we slept in the next day and in the afternoon we made our way to the nearest highest summet on 2031 meters. The trek led us once again through jungle looking forests (even though the locals call it Mountane Forest) luckily without any leeches which we were to meet some other place in Malaysia. Arriving on the top we had to find a way home and I told Uli: "Hey, don't worry, somebody will take us...Lets just hitchhike once again." There was exactly one car at the top. The family from Kuala Lumpur was really nice and rich and we could enjoy a 12 kilometer lift home in a car with air con and leather seats. We made some stops to take great pictures of the tea plantations, designing most of the mountains surfaces. We spent most of the nights in our great Guesthouse with a couple of beers. For the next day we booked a half-day excursion to have a look at a Boh Tea Factory, a butterfly garden with all sorts of colorful butterflies (I remember my brother tearing them appart when he was younger), a honey-bee farm, and a temple. The tea plantation was great, it is just a nice view on those small tea trees and quite interesting how they make tea out of it. Boh Tea produces four million kilograms tea each year equaling 5.5 million tea cups a day - unbelievable. The temple was not to great - Thailand definately has the most precious ones. Right in front of the temple of a line of Chinese people and we first thought they would be waiting to get into the temple. Luckily not - they were waiting to see that one holy priest telling them what they were suffering from and curing them at the same time....strange, strange....At Mr. Boh Tea's souvenir shop Uli and I bought some Teacino with vanilla taste and enjoyed that the next weeks with our breakfast. Try it, if you can get it. In the afternoon we did a short trek with two British girls (sometimes I think the British don't like their country because there are tons of them travelling South East Asia :) The next day we left for paradise...

George Town - Our first stop in Malaysia

We left Ko Tao with one of those touristy Catamarans taking us to the mainland where we caught the nighttrain to Butterworth. The ride was extremely fast and wet and so we thought it was a good idea to sit inside. We arrived the next morning in Georgetown after a comfortable, air-conditioned overnight train ride. Early in the morning we had to get off the train to "check out" from Thailand and "check in" to Malaysia. The scariest part was again the custom but as always they did not want to see our bags being already filled up with fake Billabong and Quicksilver cloths :) There is nothing much to tell about Georgetown. It is situated on the Penang Island and already the ride with the ferry from the mainland revealed that it is not a very beautiful place. We stayed there for two nights in a guesthouse with one of those over friendly and "never stop talking" owners. The best of Georgetown was the mall with tons of shops. I got my glasses repaired there because one of those nose things broke. A few days later the thing keeping it on your ear broke of and so my glasses are now back in Germany and are hopefully repaired soon. The next day we went on Penang Hill with a Swiss-made Mountain train. We saw a humangous lizzard and enjoyed the cool breeze and the view over Penang Island. But that was about it and so we left for the Cameron Highlands the next morning...

The Thai Islands: Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngang, and Ko Tao

After all this travelling Uli and I were really looking forward for the relaxing beach-sea-palmtree-party atmosphere on the islands in south-eastern Thailand. We did have a great time and some nice accommodation, too, almost luxury considering a backpacker that has a pool. The most time we spent on Ko Pha Ngang where we met some Canadian and English guys with whome we played beachvolleyball every day. On the first day I did well, however, my body was hurting for the rest of the stay. Arms were sore, my toes swallen, my knees got some wounds (and hey, Uli also turned into a crippl :) but now we are fine again. The rest of the time we just relaxed, read books, wrote postcards, watched some soccer games on big screens set up on the beach, and had some fun. On Ko Tao I extended my diving skills I first achieved on Bali. I did the Open Diver Advance Course and did five dives. One went down to 30 Meters and another one was during the night. A torch led your way and it was real fun to wake up the fishes :) During another dive I lost my left fin because some 20 cm fish would not let me alone and suck onto my legs. So I got a little bit nervous, started panicking and kicking around, and yeah lost my fin because of this small "sucker". Please do not tell anybody this story or otherwise the people might think I am this "whiner" sort of kind *g* We really enjoyed the islands, met lots of people and ended our Thailand experience with the success of the German team of Argentina. Iam sure we win the tournament by now. Who are the Italians?!?!? Tonight in about three hours our nighttrain to Malaysia, Georgetown, is leaving and takes about 14,5 hours. Let's see what Malaysia has to offer?!

Angkor Wat and our way back to Bangkok

In Siam Reap we found a new, cheap, really good guesthouse almost having a hotel style. When we got of the bus thousands of tuk tuk drivers with advertisments of different guesthouses in their hand gave us a warm welcome, making the police helping us to get our backpacks and chosing one of those annoying guys to take us into town. We wanted to go the first evening to Angkor Wat to see the famous sunset, however, our driver told us that it would rain and that it would not make sense. Indeed it did not rain and it turned out to be an amazing sunset with rainy clouds on the one side with two rainbows stretching across them and a beautiful sun setting in the most amazing colors - bad luck for us. The next morning our drive took us to Angkor Wat. It was a day excursion and how it always happened: I had really bad stomach cramps all afternoon. But still, the Angkor Wat area with hundrets of old Buddhist and Hindu temples being built thousands of years ago was really impressive. As we went only one day because of the high entrance fee we saw the major temples: Angkor Wat itself, the temple used to film the movie "Tomb Raider" having these trees with them humangous roots growing through the temple, some other smaller ones, and the wanted sunset on a little mountain overlooking the surrounding plaine. After a hot nice day we went back to Siam Reap and enjoying one or the other cool drink in the Angkor What bar. The next day we did some shopping and relaxing, watching the opening game of the Word Champiochip Germany-Costa Rica with a Cambodian girl we met during her work in a restaurant and two British girls we met on the 4000 Islands. Looking at the result it was a fun night. Early the next morning we left for Bangkok: 165 kilometers in 7 hours to the Cambodian Thai border - do I have to say anything more to it?! The way to from the border to Bangkok was ok, however, once we only touched the city border we needed 1,5 hours for 1 kilometer because the Thais were celebrating their king's 60th anniversary of being king. So we grapped our backpack and walked the rest of the way and we were lucky because we got to see some nice fire works!

Some more info: I cannot put up more pics on my page because of the capacity available to me but my brother and I will find an alternative!!! Also, the page is almost up to date: We spent 4 days in Bangkok, Uli being really sick for two days. We spent the nights at friends of my aunt who were really nice to us. Thank you very much Didi, Tom, and Fabienne. Tom showed us arround in Bangkok with a special highlight: A bar on the 59th floor on the second highest building in Bangkok. Very nice, I can tell you! Now we are on Kho Samui enjoying the sun, beach, and sea...

The 4000 Islands and an adventure of its own kind

The time on the 4000 Islands was really relaxed. We booked into a guesthouse having bamboo bungalows directly at the shore with a view over the Mekong River on the West side of the Don Det guaranteeing awesome sunsets the next three nights. On our arrival day we booked a tour to watch some of the last existing sweet water dolphins and a huge waterfall were the Mekong River drops into the deep. In fact we got to see some dolphins but unfortunately very far away. The scenery has been just impressive and the weather was really hot. On our second island day we rented bikes and rode them over the island and its neighboring one which are connected by an old train bridge introduced by the French. We followed the old train route and got eventually to places where the Laos people used the old steel tracks as bridges. We carried our bikes over those bridges having nothing underneath them but empty space - scary I can tell you, but we survived :-) We also visited another waterfall which was nice but half as impressive as the other one. With our last cash money, no ATMs were available on the islands, we booked our trip to Siam Reap in Cambodia because there was no way getting there with public transport. This is the time when "The adventure of its own kind" started.

The trip started at 8 a.m. in the morning and the first part went very well. We were taken to the Laos-Cambodian border, got our Visa for Cambodia without becoming victims of corruption (just some overcharging of 6 US dollars) and continued our journey to Stung Treng with a nice minivan with airconditioning as promised. In Stung Treng our guide took us on a ferry to cross once again the Mekong River and we all had lunch in a nice little restaurant we were taken to. Jep, I know why guides do that, have been one myself with Rainbow Tours - Commision!!! Anyway, we were waiting for the next minibus taking us to our overnight place, and here the horror began: the minivan was completely rusty (so much that it had holes in the floor, giving us a nice panorama of the street, it had two seats more than there was space for and some local people put on the roof, the windshield was cracked (so the drive had to push his hand against it every time a car came on the other side of the road), all cables in the front were visible, no rear lights and only one working in the front (which became an issue when it got dark and the drive rode the bus over those bumpy dirt roads), and last but not least a driver who must have been a Japanese Kamikazee in his first life. The next 12 hours we were on that car and for those who do not know: Cambodia has only a few European styled smooth roads, all others are dirt roads...We arrived at 9p.m. at our overnight place, all dusty from the dirt of the road being in the car, in our backpacks, in our nose and lungs, and on our clothes. One good thing was that the hostel he took us to was mentionned in the Lonely Planet. We spent the night and got up early in the morning to take a public bus for the rest of the route to Siam Reap. Once we opened our eyes we realized that it was not a nightmare but real and were happy to be alive :-)

Tubing in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is known as Laos' tubing capital. So what did we do?! The first morning we went to the rental plce for the tubes, jumped on a tuk-tuk with 13 tubes and 13 people plus the driver (amazing, just have to see it, full is really full here in South East Asia :). To clarify: morning is 1p.m. because most poeple start that time and we were just tired in the real morning. Also, we enjoyed a long breakfast in our most favorite cafe/restaurant/guesthouse which we named: The FRIENDSbar. Why? Because from 8a.m. to 11p.m. they showed the comedy show FRIENDS and in the end I started to like it. We ate there pretty much every time chilling in a half-lying position in front of two TVs and nice food. Hey Nadja: you and Sandra would have definitaley enjoyed this place :-) Anyway, we were dropped of the tuk-tuk at the starting place for the tubing, the sun shining and the river at a slow speed. Just after 100 meter the first bar with a zipper invited all the tubers for a drink because if you wanted to use the zipper you had to buy a beer. Actually they also offered Pepsi, which for some unexplainable reason was sold out *g* After doing the zipper a couple of times, droppping you in the middle of the river, we continued to the second bar only 50 meters further (we thought we would never made it to the end) and again had to consume in order to use a swing of some 3 meter hights. Uli tried some backflips succesfully while I just had the feeling to drop safely from the moment you let of the swing until your body touches the water. And yes, it was a good exercise because the next swing started at some 9 meters hights forcing you to let go at some 6 or 7 meters hights. It was so much fun that we jumped over and over again being a challenge every time. After the third bar we floated down the river for another 50 minutes enjoying the sunset. We had so much fun that we decided to stay longer in Vang Vieng and do it again the next day. It was much fun again, this time with rain but more fun people and a 60-year-old lady doing everything we did, amazing and lots of fun to watch going down that big swing. The next day we started our longest journey to southern Laos, the 4000 Islands in the Mekong River. We started at 10 a.m. in Vang Vieng and had 4 hours ride to Vientiane where we spent the day to visit the major sights. Vientiane has nothing much to offer so the afternoon was enough time to explore the city (which was confirmed by an Australian goverment official we later met at a traffic light. Later that night we took the nightbus to Pakse and celebrated Uli's very good graded diploma thesis (got to his grade this day). After only 2 kilometers we had a flat tire but Lao poeple are good in repairing and fixed it very fast. After changing the mode of transport twice to another bus and a ferry we arrived on Don Det where we spent the next three nights.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a very nice town somewhere in Laos. It has a nice market, some wats and some good bars we later went to. The first night had an impact on us making us sleep-in the next morning. After grabbing some breakfast we looked at the major wats being nothing special after those in Thailand and got on a pick-up taking us to a very amazing waterfall. It has to major drops after which some smaller drops form cascades leading the blue water down the river. We climbed up to the very top and jumped into the pools where the water dropped into. In the second pool a swing made it easy for everbody to enter the water.After we came back to Luang Prabang we climbed the small local mountain with a wat on top, sitting down and looking at the sunset being destructed by some annoying mosquitos. Later we enjoyed some Beerlao (very good) and got to bed to travel to Vang Vieng the next morning. One of the best things was that we paid for a fan room only and managed to get the airconditioning running being in our room (Two smart persons, an engineer and a tourism manager, what do you expect :). The journey to Vang Vieng was very beautiful offering a breathtaking scenery. For the first time we decided for a more expensive way to travel - a minibus - because the route from Luang Prabang via Vang Vieng to Vientiane (the capital) used to be very dangerous. And eventhough we again saw some machine guns on the way we were to experience some great days in Vang Vieng.

The slowboat trip from Huag Xai to Luang Prabang

There is nothing much to write about Chiang Khong, because there is nothing. Also Huag Xai, the border city on the Laos side of the Mekong River had nothing much to offer. We just made one experience confirming the prejudice of Laos being a very laid back country. We arrived with ferry at about noon in Laos and found out that all busses and boats in any direction leave one time a day in the morning - we were stuck but a Canadian girl recommanded a good guest house to us and we could relax and do some reading, writing diary, and sleeping. Early the next morning we boarded the famous slowboats floating down the Mekong till Luang Prabang. The boats look nice, however, only have wooden benches sampling a high challenge to our bums. The scenery on the shore was very beautiful, jungle and mountains, but remained the same till Luang Prabang making the whole story a little boring in the end. Still we enjoyed our ride and chatted with other people and once again read (so that I could finish the Davinci Code - nice book, can just recommand it). The night we spent in Pak Beng a small village full of guest houses. The next morning nobody was sue when the boat was about to leave, everything between 7:30 and 9 o'clock was spread. Taking the middle, 8a.m., we got on the boat, with us three with machine guns armed military persons and another guy with a briefcase spreading once again a feeling of discomfort. But again we were lucky and arrived safely with an unhappy bum in Luang Prabang.

Trekking and elephant-riding in Pai

The busride to Pai started eary in the morning and led over a curvy road through the jungle to Pai. At some point police or military officers stopped the public bus to see our IDs, not bad at all, however, they wore some machine guns with them making us feel a little uncomfortable :) Not being shot or arrested we checked into Mr. Jan's Guesthouse, feeling attracted a little by the name of the hostel. The first day we just walked around and booked our trekking for two days. It started at 9a.m. and a pick-up truck drove us some 1,5 hours into the jungle to a Karen village (a hill tribe finding its origin in Burma). From there our trek started with some 9 people and 2 guides. The trail led us over bamboo-bridges and through all sorts of vegetation which can alos be found in Europe except for the rice field which seemed to be a little boring at this pint. However, the more we good into the woods, the more the vegetation changed and suddenly we stood in the jungle like everybody knows it from TV. Amazing trees and bananatrees growing close to eachother hosting spiders and all sorts of other 6 or 8 legged, crawling, not so friendly looking animals including our best friends from the Khao Yai Nationalpark - leeches. One good looking girl from a rich familybackground got bidden and behaved quite manly: Congratulations :) After a long and tyring walk we arrived at a very beautiful waterfall which we used to cool down a little. After further 45 minutes we arrived at our dinner/overnight place, a Lahu village (also a hilltribe). The Lahu people cooked for us in our bamboo hut over open fire (definitaley not in accordance with European fire regulations :) a very delicious meal. After dinner we had a chat with our guides and enjoyed some beer and Lahu Whiskey (very delicious also) putting us to a deep sleep some hours later. The next morning the constelation of the group was rather astonishing: deducting all injured and sick people, only four people could continue the track. After some 6 hours and lucnch in another village we arrived safely at our starting pint and were brought back to Pai. The way home turned out to be a fun adventure because once again the rainy season caught us. Very strong rain made the road slicky and two times Uli and I had to pull the truck up a hill respectively jump on the back to give the rear axis some grip. In between we crawled under our raincoats with the two girls accompanying us.

The next day gave our life another fun experience: Uli and I riding on an elephant. Those animals are really hairy rubbing of your skin on the legs but it was fun anyway. We rode through the jungle on the animal's bare back. After one hour of being shaked around and enjoying the funny laugh of our guide we arrived at the river hosting brownish water which later, after the guide gave the elephant some instructions we did not understand, colored our swimming suites. Yeah, the elephant threw us of and after that we played with this animal for some 30 minutes in the water: climbing on the back to be thrown of again: Real fun, I swear!!! Afterwards we tried to clean our close, without any luck...The next day was a travel day once again and for some 13 hours we rode the bus to the Thai-Lao Border at Chiang Kong.

Chiang Mai

The bustrip to Chiang Mai took some seven hours. We had enough space enjoying the fan throwing fresh air to us, reading, writing diary, and like always sleeping. We arrived in Chiang Mai and the first foot out the bus door, thousands of tuk tuk driver (like taxis) tried to convince us to go with them to town. We did not like the first guesthouse we went to and so, the next day, we checked into another one, slightly more expensive but recommanded by our English couple we met. It was worth it! Chiang Mai is a rather big city so it took us a while until we felt like home again. The first night we just went to a roof-top bar which was in the roof on the fourth floor overlooking the old city walls of Chiang Mai. The bar had no windows but was open and decorated completely in a Raggae-Style. Those of you who know me well can imagine how much I liked that bar...for all others: a heck of a lot!!! The day after our arrival we slept in a while because the vodka from that bar gave us quite a hang over :) We decided at 3p.m. to yet get out and go to the royal summer residence and Doi Suthep, which turned out to be the most astonishing wat we have been to. The palace was unfortunately closed by the time we got there but Doi Suthep, which means "Mountain of the good God" was amazing, 300 steps led aus up the hill to that golden temple with tons of different Buddhas. The temple was on a mountain, so we also could enjoy a nice view over Chiang Mai and its aiport *g* After we left we had dinner with a Thai girl we spent the day with. The good thing about it was, that she could speak English and finally we were able to learn more about the Thais and their culture. The next day we had to get up early and made our way to Doi Inthanon, which is the highest mountain of Thailand. The first couple of hours we took a local bus and then we had again to hitchhike to get to the summet, lying in a national park. The family who took us was really nice and showed also some waterfalls to us, amazing!!! The sad thing was that it rained and also it had only 15 degrees making us shiver a little. Luckily we had our raincoats because once again we had to sit in the back of a pick-up. Even though the sight was really foggy we enjoyed our time there. From there we travelled to Pai, a paradise for backpacker up in the mountains of Thailand...

Sukothai

Early in the morning we left Phitsanulok after our second night for Sukothai. In Sukothai we booked into a guesthouse which was recommanded of two of Uli's friends, turning out to be a good joice. For the first time we had our laundry done which we got back more or less clean and dry. The same day we went to Old Sukothai were millions of temple ruins could be found. The Historical Park was so big that we decided to rent bikes. On our way to the park the busdrive wanted more money than the actual price was and luckily the woman from the bike rental place helped us negotiating with success. After we settled the little dispute we took the bikes and rode around the old temples, taking pictures of them an the respecitve Buddha. By now I know a lot more about Buddhism, their values and habits. We really liked Sukothai a lot. On our way back to the hostel we met a couple from the UK who has been travelling for 7 months already through India, Nepal, South-East Asia, and countries I do not remember. We exchanged how to handle the threat of malaria be present during this time of the year. We met them again twice, first when we got dinner in New Sukothai and the next in the bus to Chiang Mai, this time also offering enough seats. By the way, pictures are to follow...

Lopburi and Phitsanulok

...after our experience Uli and I both were pretty tired and looked forward to a two-hour bus ride to Lopburi, having a seat and a nice air-conditioning. Yet not so...the bus indeed had an airconditioning as booked, but the seat turned out to remain a dream. The bus was full, and once again, it is not the European-American full, but the Thai-full. We were the last two to enter the bus and the last two who could possibly fit in the aisle...or so we thought. At the next station some other 10 people wanted to go to Lopburi and thinking they would not fit was naive. Some Thai woman came into the, yelled something we did not understand, and the people scewed up more and more so that the unbelievable became true: Everybody fitted in the bus. Lopburi itself turned out to be rather boring and the only amazing thing was that the city inhabits more monkeys than people. So we left early the next morning for Phitsanulok. The 6 hours ride was finally one on which had seats all the time. But that it would not become boring for us, the bus broke down and had to be repaired. Once arrived in the early evening we found a really nice hostel with a room on the forth floor, being the roof with a terrace and a view over the town. We had a look at two temples (Wats) and were amazed to see tons of Thais jogging along the riverside. Funny how they jogg...We stayed two nights before continuing to Sukothai, also being a former Thai capital.

Pak Chong - Khao Yai National Park

We started our next journey with the train from Ayuttaya to Pak Chong. Not only was our train late but it took also about one hour longer than the timetable stated. But it was worth it because the train rode through tons of different kinds of landscape, including dry plains, hills and mountains, rice fields and rainforests. Once again we did not get a seat and that is why we stood for about 3 hours. During the ride we gestured with some Thais, yound and old, and really regretted that they could not speak English at all. They are friendly people worth starting a conversation. Once arrived in Pak Chong we were welcomed by a lady who recognized us as Farang (meaning stranger) telling us why we should definitaly book into her guesthouse. And because we wanted to go there anyway, we went with her. The guesthouse was a needy place and in the late evening we went to the night market in Pak Chong. It was just like the other ones :) We expected the next day with great excitement because we visited the national park Khao Yai with all sorts of animals not seen in Europe. Unfortunately Uli and I do not have a car available and so we checked out a transport for free. Once arrived in the park we hitchhiked through this big area and met welcoming Thai families. We also trekked through the jungle by ourselves being confident we would not need a guide. In fact, the trek was well marked, however, almost half way at our destination - the waterfall from the movie "The Beach" Uli recognized some small red animals on his socks. It revealed to be leeches all over his socks and, as I took my shoes of, also over my socks. After getting rid of them we decided to go back and google the Internet to find out if those littler monsters transmit deseases...luckily not. We hitchhiked to the impressive waterfall and back to our hostel. In the car we were one American (daddy), one Thai lady (mom), three children, one grandma, and us two. This equals eight persons in a car constructed for five. As we arrived back in Pak Chong a bus took us to Lopburi, once again, the word "full" became a new meaning...

Sorry!!!

Hey everybody, sorry I have not been updating my blog since a while but it is really hard to find a cheap Internet place around and to take enough time to do it properly. Uli and I are well off and enjoy our days in Pai, northern Thailand. The last to do days we were crawling through the dschungel, playing once again with leeches and other species which like European blood :-) We safely returned yet had to pull out our truck from the mud. Really exciting, except the two girls who were with us, they got kind of scared. The next 7 to 10 days are spent in Lao and we hope that we will not meet any corruptive plolice officers longing for our money. Well, now you are up to date and I promise to write more about our last stops (quiet a few). It is amazing here!!! Miss you all, yours Jan