Around The World Gaby and Gu 2006-2007

Camping in a Van after our comfy stay in the Blue Mountains looked like it was going to be tough...but actually it was way better than we thought. Probably because we found a very nice camping spot which wasn't too crowded. The next day, we open the sliding door and first thing we see is a big Goanna trying to find leftover food from our neighbours !! That's the kind of thing you like to see in the morning except when "the beast" gets too close to you ;O)

This is the place we actually couldn't get away from !! Cozy, beautiful and more importantly held by two very nice persons that made our stay in The Blue Mountains unforgettable. Thank you David and Anthony, we had a lovely time with you. By the way, the address is following.

...gorgeous ! Yes they are gorgeous and this time again we had an amazing weather that made the whole place look even more beautiful !

Today, the weather is much better...but even if it had been bad, we would have gone to Jenolan Caves since they are...caves no need to have sun ;O). There are actually many caves with different sorts of stalagmites / stalagtites / stromatolites and other amazing mineral formations. We only visited one cave but that was enough to impress us ! Today also...introducing a parrokeet fighting a raven for the sake of a french frie and our first encounter with wild kangaroos (see closely the last 2 pictures...) ! Yeah, what a day ! ;O)

Too bad !! We are not lucky with the weather...kinda normal, it's the end of the summer and we are in the mountains where it can go from sunny to rainy in one hour. Today, we just went for a walk around the Leura Falls close to the Three Sisters...and because we're some sort of Turtle Style people, where others only take one hour to visit, we take like two and a half hour to enjoy it. That's real life !! ;O).

Wow, if there's one thing you can't miss when you are in Sydney, it's definitely The Blue Mountains National Park. It's so close and convenient to get there that it'd be a pity not to go. Planning to stay four days we finally stayed seven because it's such a lovely place to relax and do some nice trekkings around. One of the things we are really starting to like about Australia is all the wildlife one can see (and is not used to see...). By the way, we are officially WICKED, if you know what we mean...even if we didn't sleep in the Van the first nights ;O). Wanna know more about the Three Sister rock formation...check it out here...there's a nice legend behind it The Three Sisters Legend!

That's it ! We are in Sydney and we won't rush to visit it all in 2 days. In fact, we have decided to make of Sydney our australian headquarters. We will be leaving in two days but coming back in nine to pick up my sister, with whom we'll visit more and more of Sydney. That said, it's a wonderful and green city...but we keep wondering...when do Aussies stop running around and doing sport to work ?!?!?! :O)

Perth is a nice city, Australia seems great but we still have trouble re-adapting to a more relaxed lifestyle. We miss the asian dynamism and its diversity. That's probably normal and we'll get used to this new rythm very soon... starting now by chilling out in downtown Perth, visiting the Swan Bell (a tower with twelve 16th century Bells) and taking a walk in King's Park where we noticed that Aussies really like doing sport !!!!

It is with great sadness that we left the Asian continent but also with lots of expectations about our new destination : Australia ! We had initially planned to stay 6 days in Western Australia but had to reduce it to two days because we extended our stay in fabulous Malaysia. Not a bad thing when you see the prices in Australia : so expensive (or maybe we are not used anymore to the "western" prices... :O). Anyway, here we are in Fremantle, a cute little town about 40 kms south of Perth for our first visiting day in the land of the 'roos !!

Singapore, our bridge to Australia, our last place in the fabulous southeast Asia, where we have spent such a great time in the past 4 months, where we really felt so comfortable travelling, meeting new cultures and people...so many mixed feelings are crossing our mind and heart at the moment. Next stop is Australia and we are quite curious about it !

Ahhh...we were sooo sad to leave our little paradise in the Perhentians. But that's Ok, because we still have a lot to see including Melaka, an historical city, mostly known to have been one of the most important trade centers around the 15th and 16th century. It was invaded by almost everyone :O)...meaning Portuguese, Dutch then British and finally Japanese for a short period more or less before the country's declaration of independance in 1957. We enjoyed ourselves very much in this quiet town which represents one of our last stops in Southeast Asia :O(

...NO COMMENT... :o)

Another thing we didn't know about when arriving to the Cameron Highlands is that we could find the biggest flower of the world : The Rafflesia ! And since we arrived at the end of the Moonson...just in time to see it that means...we decided to take our chance and look for one. Our luck was to find a fresh one (1 to 2 days old) thanks to a local that discovered it the same day. Those flower last about 7 to 9 days once they bloom so we were quite lucky and impressed when we finally arrived to its spot somewhere in the east malaysian jungle... :O)

One thing we didn't really know about Malaysia is its fabulous tea plantations and the not less much tasteful tea that is produced in this country...plus check out the landscape. They reminded us of Sapa in Vietnam. This specific plantation is part of the Boh Company, a famous one in Malaysia...mmhhh, it's tea time, we gotta go and have ours ! ;O)

For our first trekking in Cameron Highlands we got the weirdest guide you can probably ever meet !! The guy would just walk like 1km ahead of us in a quite dense jungle without saying anything except for asking us some teaching about french words...but the more we advanced in our trekking, the more we got used to his way and the more we liked this very strange character :O).

When we arrived to the (very) green Cameron Highlands we reall thought we'd spend 3 days under the rain since a heavy storm even flooded part of our cute english-cottage-style hotel. So we decided to walk around and hope not to have to sing in the rain ;O)...but too bad, we get caught in the middle of our first afternoon walk ;O)

Malaysia...aaah Malaysia...probably the most insignificant country in our itinerary, the one we didn't know much about, the one we thought..."OK, let's include it since we have to take our plane to Australia in Singapore". Well, this country turns out to be one of the best we have visited so far in many ways : People are friendly, the overall atmosphear is just so laid back (very few people trying to rip you off) and there is plenty of fun places to visit and adventurous activities to do ! But let's start with Kuala Lumpur, definitely nice because quite small, green, lots of different cultures living together without conflict and above all it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooo calm. We just love Malaysia !!