Which way is home?

G'day from New Zealand

24.10.2007 - 28.10.2007 20 °C
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First things first: There have been lots of firsts recently. New Zealand is full of them for us Northern Hemisphere folk. We saw penguins for the first time, saw feeding and mating dolphins from really close by for the first time, I even heard them do their 'love talk/squeak' for the first time, we saw stingray's for the first time,etc. ...The only thing we didn't see were the local Kiwi birds. They only come out at night and we were to tired to go hunting for them, too.
It's been hectic and fast here in New Zealand. Upon arrival we spent a day in Auckland, but quickly decided to move on and admire the natural beauties of this country. The countryside vegetation is of the most intense green we have ever seen and the tiny population (4.2m) makes for a really rural settings as soon as you leave the capital. We spent the following two days in the Bay of Islands near the northernmost point of this country where we camped in Paihia and spent the coldest nights of our trip so far. We survived and went on a catamaran trip through the islands where we saw all the beauties I mention at the beginning and which you can see on the pictures.
Now we're back in Auckland, ready to catch our next plane tomorrow afternoon and because we don't like long-haul flights we decided we won't cross the entire Pacific, but will instead stop in-between....Tahiti, French Polynesia (in case you didn't know). Yes, T-A-H-I-T-I!!!!!!!!

Posted by solccs 27.10.2007 23:59 Archived in New Zealand Comments (1)

Monica has fallen in love...

18.10.2007 - 24.10.2007 28 °C
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...with Sydney. And I am finding it hard to resist the temptation of the Australian way of life, too. The first thing that struck us upon arrival - being the first time in the Southern Hemisphere - was that thing were indeed a little up-side-down. First the place looks like England, but then you think twice and you wonder: "..., but it's sunny!. This can't be!" Indeed the world gone looney!

Anyway, we started our week of camping around Sydney in the northern part where I got a chance to see all those world-famous surfing beaches I used to read about in the magazines. We obviously didn't miss the chance to catch a wave, so I can confirm that Monica has caught her first wave on Manly Beach, Australia! When she got too cold I had a bit of fun for an hour or so. Great fun day topped off with a portion of Fish & Chips in the sun!

After our days at the beach we moved to another (cheaper) camping site in the (Sydney-) bush where Monica immediately got acquainted with the locals... (see pics)

During our stay here we've made the best of a weekly ticket that lets you take all public transport including ferrys across the city and so we've seen the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from many angles and they don't seem to amaze us. In general the city has been the nicest 'big city' we've visited so far. The work hard-play hard mentality of the Australians + the embracing of outdoor life here is really infectious, so we've seriously thought about the possibility of staying a little longer, but then again there is still so much to see before we get back to Europe (i.e. the money runs out!) so we're off again. Next stop Auckland, New Zealand!

Posted by solccs 22.10.2007 22:40 Archived in Australia Comments (2)

Visiting Bangkok and saying good-bye to Thailand

13.10.2007 - 17.10.2007 30 °C
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We're spending our last few days in Thailand in Bangkok. The city is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's noisy, hot, sometimes dirty, sometimes clean, then pretty in some places ugly in others... just seems to have a little bit of everything. Or better, a lot of everything, because its huge!
We have been visiting most of the historic cultural sites (which is what most pictures show) and have been doing a bit of shopping on the markets. In the evenings we just have walks in our neighbourhood. It's very lively with all the touristy nightlife you would expect. Even if we don't spend our money on lots of booze it's still fun to go round and have a look at it all.
Anyway, to be honest, our minds are starting to wander off into the future most of the time. We've reached saturation of: "Hello Sir, cheap suit for you Sir! Buy from me! Tuk-Tuk, Sir? Need a taxi, Sir? Where are you going today, Sir? You want T-shirt? I make you good price! How much you want to give me?" After a while it gets to you, so we've decided we need to move on and we've come to the conclusion that a well-developed country would make a nice change. And since we've never been to the Southern Hemisphere we decided the best place to go would be Australia! So on Wednesday we're off to Sydney... Can't wait to tell you about our travels there, but here are a few pics of our days in Bangkok.

Il nostro soggiorno qui in Tailandia e' quasi finito e stiamo passando gli ultimi giorni visitando Bangkok. La citta' e' immensa e noi abbiamo visto pochissimo, a parte i principali siti turistici. Abbiamo passato abbastanza tempo nel nostro quartiere-ghetto turistico, dove ci sono piu' turisti che tailandesi, e ne abbiamo approfittato per fare un po' di shopping a buon mercato.
A dire il vero siamo giunti a un livello di saturazione con la Tailandia, a volte e' proprio stressante passare le giornate a dover sempre dire di no ai milioni di persone che ti si affiancano per cercare di venderti qualcosa! Quasi quasi, ci vuole un'altra vacanza....! Credo che sia arrivato il momento di cambiare aria, di spostarci e questa volta verso un paese sviluppato, l'Australia!
Domani abbiamo il volo per Sydney! Che bello! Sembra che la carne di canguro sia buona e a buon mercato.... finite le noodles asiatiche!

Posted by solccs 16.10.2007 06:22 Archived in Thailand Comments (0)

Thai cooking and massage

06.10.2007 28 °C
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I think most of our family & friends will love this entry. Monica and I have signed up for Thai cooking and massage courses respectively. Personally I'm not a big fan of massage, receiving or giving; at least I didn't used to be. But I know Monica is very fond of it, so I signed up for a foot massage course in the hope of learning a little about it and raising my interest on the subject and making Monica a little happier. Monica in turn decided she wasn't going to sit around doing nothing for the day and signed up for a Thai cooking course.
What does this mean for our family, friends and readers... well hopefully delicious Thai food and relaxing foot massages for free upon our return...Sounds good? Well, I can't wait to taste some of that Thom Yam, Green Curry Chicken, or Banana in Coconut milk....Mmmmmmh yummy!

Posted by solccs 09.10.2007 02:23 Archived in Thailand Comments (0)

Making our way to Chiang Mai

03.10.2007 - 06.10.2007 27 °C
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Angkor Wat didn't really live up to the expectations. We went early in the morning to see the sunrise and beat the crowds, but that turned out to be wishful thinking. Angkor Wat sunrise seems to be a pre-breakfast special organised by many tour operators so we had to share the experience with hundreds of early risers. You can't have it all I guess...
After the sunrise we had a lengthy visit around the buildings themselves. They are in very good condition considering their age, but after marvelling at all the other surrounding temples during the previous two days we felt we'd seen most of it before so it wasn't anti-climatic, but it didn't blow us away either. One thing is for certain: If you visit Angkor and only see Angkor Wat you've missed the best bits...
We had hoped to see a little more of Siem Reap and Cambodia, but I got a stomach bug (probably due to our fearless habit of eating at local open air markets) and so we just spent another couple of days at the hotel, Monica taking care of her patient. As soon as I felt fine again we went started our journey to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, in the extreme North of the country. On our way we stopped at Ayutthaya and Sukhotai, both smaller towns with a few cultural sites worth a visit. We felt particularly at home in Sukhotai. The temples there are very well kept and our accommodation at this location was super-comfortable with great food, very clean rooms, etc....so we took our time in moving on to our final destination.
Angkor Wat