I arrived in Wellington on the 24^th of July 2010, and decided to go around the South Island first before moving on north.

I knew little of New Zealand before arriving, of course was curious to see the landscapes of the country of Lord of the Rings, but nothing has prepared me to what I got to see. It was breathtaking, spectacular, magnificent, inspiring; there are no words that can describe this amazingly picturesque and volcanic land.

The indigenes name of New Zealand is Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud), land of Māori people. As soon as I arrived in Wellington I was nicely welcomed by ‘Kia Ora’ which in Māori language means Welcome.

I had no idea what would be the best way to travel through New Zealand. Initially I thought renting  a van with bedroom in it would be ideal, but upon arriving I realized it was really cold and was not really up for a freezing cold adventure at night without access to hot water. I also wasn’t sure if the roads in the South Island, some of them covered in snow, would allow me to drive spotlessly without bothering about the tire chains on the car.

First night in YHA in Wellington I met some people and talked about which means of transportation would be wise to choose in this season. Many suggested ‘hop on, hop off bus’. Prices of the buses were relatively low as it was a low season and this would give me an opportunity to meet some people while travelling. After reviewing many options, I decided to buy a bus ticket with Magic bus that would take me around the South and North Island.

My first impressions of NZ were incredible, especially was draw my immediate attention was the kindness of New Zealanders and their always ‘willing to help you’ attitude. As soon as I left the Wellington airport looking for a local bus to take me to town, a very nice lady approached me, pointed out to the bus I needed to take and took me to YHA. Locals seemed so relaxed, are talking of NZ with a lot of pride and emphasize their indigenes origins and richness in culture. NZ people are very hospitable, friendly, are proud of their diverse culture and speak with great pride about historical events such as NZ was the first country in the world to establish pension scheme for elderly people. Also woman received their vote as the first nation in the world. NZ is a very tolerant country with an open society that welcomes tourism with open arms. New Zealanders have great knowledge of the history and their traditions that they love to share with visitors, what a nice welcome!! And all of this really interest free, just for a smile, exchange of stories or just a sign of hospitality and friendship…

Wellington, located in the south of North Island is a lively ‘town’ in my eyes. Although it is a political centre of NZ, it has nothing of a cosmopolitan city; it resembles rather a small, cozy town with a fresh fish market on Sundays. The fish is being sold by a fisher man directly off the boat. Next to the fish market there is a covered market with fresh pastries, salad dressings (my favorite called ‘design dressing’) and great coffee, what a chill… Everyone so relaxed and so kind… what a great place to visit, to stop for a while and relax, amazing…Near to town there is a Victoria hill, which I decided to climb. It takes about 1 hour and gives a spectacular view over Wellington. The architecture of the town is interesting, the parliament building is definitely worth a visit and there are several ‘Victorian’ style buildings in the city centre.

The main attraction of Wellington is however ‘Te Papa’ museum (which in Māori means ‘Our place’). The museum is free of charge and it has a collection of various exhibitions about the creation of NZ (its nature, volcanic grounds, and tectonic plates). There are amazing interactive tools available to play with such as an ‘earthquake house’, 3D movie on wild life, 7 m long skeleton of octopus and more. The 4^th floor is fully dedicated to the Māori culture. I am not a huge fun of museums but this one, everyone got to see. It is almost like a NZ home, where you can spend the entire day, or two of three without getting bored of it at all. Must do in NZ!!! On the day I went to visit Te Papa, there was a performance of Papua New Guinea children, doing traditional dance performance. All time at Wellington I stayed in YHA, amazing hostel with a view over the clock tower, amazing facilities and a great atmosphere.

Before leaving Wellington I decided to take a one day tour to Abel Tasman National Park, which is famous for its turquoise coastal waters and spectacular nature. Abel Tasman was named after a Dutch sailor who arrived in NZ in the 17^th century looking for suitable grounds for colonization. As his sheep and man were not welcomed by Māori tribes, Māori killed 10 members of his sheep as they misunderstood the gestures of Europeans and considered them dangerous. Abel Tasman, after these events, considered NZ not suitable and hostile for colonization and decided to return to South East Asia where he reported back to Dutch authorities that NZ was a ‘NO’ go. It took almost 200 hundred years more before brave Captain Cook, British sailor arrive in NZ and open the doors for colonization and population of NZ. Several ‘unfair’ deals were signed with Māori tribes, taking away their land, without their knowledge and full consciousness (Māori thought they were signing for received gifts, history later showed otherwise). It took 2 centuries to correct these mistakes by ZN authorities and pay Māori people a large sum for their lost lands, but lost lives can never be brought back…

From Wellington I took a ferry to South Island by ‘Interislander’, arriving at Picton harbor and from there continuing to Nelson. Nelson was only a stopover before continuing to the west coast of South Island. On the way to Greymouth we visited impressive so called pancake rocks. These rocks look like layers of pancakes. Their origin and formation is still unknown to the scientists. What is know is that they rise from under the sea and over thousands of years they will again be reclaimed by the sea and its destructive powers.

From Greymouth we drove with Magic bus to Franz Joseph village to climb the famous Franz Joseph glacier, one of the two twin glaciers in that area (the other is Fox). We were supposed to start a full day trek on the glacier the following day, however with an enormous amount of rain and wind, it was not possible, and we had to postpone it for 3 days after arrival, due to bad weather conditions. Finally we were there…Wow, what a sight!! I had never been on a glacier before, I was blown away. We were allowed to hike a full day over the glacier and go through tiniest tunnels created by the ice. It was fantastic.

Day by day I was amazed by everything I saw in NZ. I had never been into a place that would have surprises for me every day. My mouth was constantly open by amazement, this country has so much to offer and it is so beautiful, indescribable…I have no words…

From Franz Joseph I continued to ‘Lake Matheson’ that reflects the tallest mountains of New Zealand: Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Did a hike around the lake and admired views and reflections seen in the lake. The origin of this lake is actually due to the retreat of glacier Fox, which has been happening over the past thousands of years.

From the lake we drove to Wanaka where I did my first Sky Dive experience, the coolest jump experience off 15000 feet. My buddy was Eric from Zimbabwe and Olgier who was from Poland, was filming the whole event. The cold, the adrenaline, the excitement was all I was feeling at once, no fear at all; there was no time for that. What a thrill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wanaka is a beautiful little town, with Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, surrounded by mountains. I climbed the Mountain Iron to admire the view of both lakes and snow picks. Magnificent…thrill of NZ goes on and doesn’t stop for a moment…

From Wanaka I made it to Queenstown, stopped half way before Queenstown to watch the bungee jumpers jumping off a tall bridge. I was fascinated to see everyone jumping without any hesitation. Although I said to myself that I would never do bungee jump myself, I started to convince myself that I should be able to do it someday since everyone around me was doing it without hesitation…Still thinking about it a lot, however not quite ready yet…

Queenstown – mainly a ski resort packed with New Zealanders, Australians and other ski funs. The town itself is lovely, with Lake Wakatipu and its beautiful Remarkable Mountains (the name after its discoverer who acknowledged that ‘Remarkables’ are positioned in the straight line from north to south, he noticed it was rather remarkable and therefore they were names Remarkables.) Queenstown itself is full of tourist, loud music at night, a real party town, with a fabulous ‘Ferg’ burger place to enjoy after the whole day skiing or snowboarding. Queenstown is famous for its thrill: everything is available in this town from sky dive, bungee jump to canyon swing, any extreme sports, you name it and I guarantee you, you can find it in here. From Queenstown I took a day trip to Milfordsound, famous lime rocks, lakes, forest, mountains admired from the boat over Tasman Sea.

While travelling through South Island, I learned more and more about the Māori culture. Their belief in Gods and spirits, strong connection with the nature, visible in several legends and stories connected to creation of glaciers and mountains. The richness and spirituality of Māori culture is well maintained and visible in books, media, films, stories… Māori and New Zealanders are very proud of their indigenous traits. Māori were great sailors, came supposedly from Polynesian islands in waka’s (canoes that could fit up to 150 people on board). Māori language, which is the official language in NZ, Māori membership in parliament, Māori arts, Māori dance, Māori TV and radio stations, Māori presence is strongly marked in NZ life. Māori people represent 15% of NZ population and that number is growing…

Many travelers who visited NZ are attracted to the beauty of this country but also to its spiritual origins. That happened for example to a writer Sarah Diamond, who after migrating to NZ and opening a spiritual centre, has published a book on her spiritual life and experience in NZ, published under the name of “Migration to Heartland”. Read it if you can, really inspiring.

From Queenstown it was a short trip to reach Lake Tekapo where I admired another time the breathtaking Mount Cook from a distance. Lake Tekapo was covered completely in snow, the views were spectacular. From Lake Tekapo we drove back to civilization – Christchurch. Christchurch, a Victorian, English style city, with an old tram track looping over the city centre, that nowadays is a main tourist attraction. The Christchurch is known for its Antarctica centre, main supply centre to the scientific base of Antarctica that departs from harbor of Christchurch.

Off from Christchurch to Kaikoura Peninsula, tiny little town on the west coast of South Island, that is scarcely populated. Sleepy little village with few houses, and little more. The town is vibrant in the summer years, known for its fish industry, and nature watching such as whale spotting from a helicopter, dolphin and seal swimming, but at this time of the year, the town is deep in its winter sleep. Off from Kaikoura to Picton again from where I caught the ferry back to Wellington (North Island) and continued the next day to Napier.

Napier was almost entirely destroyed during an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt as Art Deco town. Nice little town in front of the beach, with little to do here really. I spent here only one afternoon and next day took off to Lake Taupo, one of the largest volcanic lakes in the world (width more than 30 km and depth more than 400m). Lake Taupo is a stop where you can take the trek to the Tongariro National Park and do Alpine crossing trek to the summit of one of the three volcanoes of the park.  As much as I intended to do this trek, it was unfortunately snowing a lot in the past days and the crossing hasn’t been available for several days. Since it was a rainy day in Taupo I decided to hop on the Magic bus that took me to Rotorua, thermal wonder world with all natural hot pools, thermal baths, geysers and mud pools.

You can smell Rotorua from a distance (a smell of a rotten egg ha ha) but after a while I got used to the smell.  Rororua is famous for its Māori settlers and heritage. They migrated here from the cold South Island, looking for warm and heat. There are several reconstructed Māori villages around Rotorua worth visiting, where Māori present their rituals and introduce travelers into their rich culture with ‘Haka’ – the so called war dance, ‘Hangi’ – earth meal cooked beneath the earth and ‘Hongi’ – the nose to nose greeting. Very interesting although nowadays a bit commercialized…

After Rotorua I was planning to go directly to Mount Mongonui but I realized that I left my bag with my documents, wallet and money in the YHA of Lake Taupo. Can’t continue travelling without the most important bag in my life!!!! Luckily YHA found it and nothing was lost but I had to make it back to Lake Taupo to collect it. After retrieving my documents and wallet I carried on to Mount Mongonui – beach town on the east coast of North Island. The same day upon arrival I climbed the hill that offered spectacular views. From there it was really straight to Auckland, city surrounded by volcanoes. While in Auckland, it was raining a lot, what a shame…Auckland, metropolitan centre of NZ. I met up with a old Kiwi colleague, was running around the city to find a friendship Māori pedant for my lovely Chilean friends and was ready to take off to Chile, Santiago, to meet with very special friends of mine I met while travelling in Asia. I was excited to see them and to go back to tropical climate after cold winter of NZ. Quick stop over in Santiago before heading off to Colombia, last stop of my world-around trip…

I am becoming melancholic, time goes by really fast but although things pass, my memories will stay with me forever. Good bye the land of Māori, I will miss you. I am convinced that I will return to NZ in the future as you have stolen my heart for ever.

After being over 9 months in Asia, I wasn’t really sure if I was ready to continue my journey and leave this continent of diversity of unbeatable paradise. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go back to ‘Western world’, that at current time, seemed very remote and awkward to me. During my 10 months of travelling through Asia, I got well acquainted with Asian culture and lifestyle and reached a certain level of comfort in it. Nothing would longer surprise me nor seem ‘out of this world’. I learned to appreciate and value the luxurious comfort of espressos or fresh bread because they were seldom during my trip, often inaccessible. However each opportunity I had to enjoy them, I took, as I knew, it might be a long time again before I can appreciate them once more. Surprisingly, this feeling of ‘missing the luxurious’, was pleasant and gave me an opportunity to look forward to things and enjoy them more when they were momentarily available. Departing from that world of ‘less comfort’, would mean that everything was going to be available again, like if it was exposed on a shelf of a supermarket, I only needed to stick out my hand to get it. That thought was calling a lot of resentment inside of me, because that would mean that I could get everything again with little or no effort. In Asia, each time I needed a face cream or something as simple as a dental floss, I needed to be in a big city to find these. In the ‘modern world’ I will be surrounded by all these items. This made me wonder: will these things still have the same meaning of importance to me as before? And will I be able to appreciate them as much as I do now?

The other thought that was concerning me about exploring Australia was its history. Most of us are familiar with the history of European settlers in Australia, mainly of British origin, that began populating this land after the arrival of Captain Cook on its shores.  The discoverer Captain Cook called Australia a land ‘suitable for colonization’ and mobilized the British government to start populating and utilizing this uncultivated land. What I was keen on to learn and to experience, was the aboriginal civilization of Australia, its original inhabitants and their culture. I was sad to learn later on that this culture is nearly extinct in Australia with no real prospective to be rescued nor preserved…

My trip to the East Coast of Australia began in Cairns, middle-size city, in the north. When landed, I had no plan yet on how to travel Australia. Should I book a ‘hop on, hop off bus’, should I rent a camper van, I had no idea what would be the best option. I was hoping to pick on some brains in the hostel where I was staying; meet people that were coming from the south and already had experience, or could exchange ideas. The initial though I had, was to take the bus, for its convenience. However, I was not up for a ‘tour’ experience, where all your itineraries are known up front and I wouldn’t be able to take my own decisions where to go and what to see, get off the beaten trail…if I felt like it.  When looking into a possibility of renting a camper van, it seemed like an excellent option, prices were really down due to low season (after all it was the Australian winter), this would give me a lot of flexibility to visit places of the beaten track, plus I would have my bedroom right next to me, and could spend the night anywhere I wanted. So I decided to go for it and rented a ‘mini’ van from ‘Auto Baarn’ rentals, a small car with all the facilities necessary, such as sleeping bags, gas cooker, utensils, you name it, all was included. I was amazed all of these items would fit into this little car, but they did and there was plenty of space left for sleeping. I was happy with my decision and ready to explore the yet unknowns world of Australia.

The first 3 days of Australia were mainly sorting out logistics, organizing a car, pre-booking trips etc., it felt like a waste of time but it was necessary. Finally I got on the road and the first destination after Cairns was Cape Tribulation, north of Cairns. Every brochure was speechless about this spot, famous for its beautiful coast line where the rainforest meets the ocean. I was excited about this trip although I knew that even though it wasn’t very cold, it would be impossible to swim in the ocean as the water would be freezing and filled with inhospitable residents (salty crocodiles J). I wouldn’t take my chances to swim in it. The coastline of Cape Tribulation was indeed amazingly beautiful, I could spend the entire day on the beach as it was deserted, peaceful and picturesque. I haven’t spotted any crocks wondering on the beach, but plenty of birds and other wild-life. The very few people that were on the same beach happened to be all German (did the entire country moved to Australia as 90% of travelers I met later on were all German?).

Cape Tribulation is situated within the National Park of Australia. That means that there are hundreds of limitations for backpackers who travel with a camper van. I wasn’t able to park the car and spend the night anywhere; I had to find a designated parking area where one night of parking was costing 30 dollars. Hmmmm, wasn’t the whole purpose of renting a camper van to save on expensive accommodation? I decided to take the risk and parked the car in a grass field within the National Park, where there were no signs indicating ‘no camping, no overnight stays, no dogs, no swimming, no fire no…….and so on’, I can’t really recall how many ‘no’s’ there actually were posted all over East Coast of Australia J. While almost getting ready to sleep, all of a sudden, I heard a noisy siren coming from a ranger’s car. I thought I got busted and was going to receive my first fine in Australia for ‘illegal camping’, uupppssss, I was petrified. Luckily, they passed by without stopping so I decided to stay the night; I felt it was my omen to stay without being caught. The only challenge left for the night was making use of ‘nature toilet’. While driving up to CT, I spotted a giant snake on the road and I knew that Australia is full of them. Most of them are venomous, so I decided not to take any chances, and had to be very careful when ‘going to the toilet’, I will spare the rest of the details of how…J

From Cape Tribulation I drove back in the direction of Cairns, crossing the Daintree River in which salty crocs reside. I was not lucky to spot them but had later another opportunity to meet with them face to face.

Next day I was moving south, and decided to take a quick stop at Kuranda village. Kuranda is a small town, north-west of Cairns, mainly know for its ‘hyppie’ and relaxed atmosphere. There are nice walks down by the river which I decided to explore. I also visited a Koala centre where for the first time I met with Koalas. There are the cutest animals in this world, I swear. What a pity that they sleep 20 hours a day and I had little opportunity to see them active, they are ssssoooooo incredibly cute.

Kuranda’s life dies after 3 PM (when the last tourist bus departs) and there is not much left there to explore, it really becomes a ghost town, so it was time for me to go and look for a place to spend the night.

Port Douglas was my next destination, driving south along the East Coast. I stopped there before, on the way to Cape Tribulation, and was trying to arrange diving excursion to the Great Barrier Reef for the next day. Unfortunately everything was booked up for the following day, so I decided to continue to Cape, and return later to Port Douglas to explore the underwater life of Great Barrier Reef. Port Douglas is a lovely little holiday town with an amazing beach and its main attraction – diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Most snorkeling and diving excursions for the Reef leave from Port Douglas. I took a diving excursion with 3 dives included in the outer part of Great Barrier Reef. The underwater life of the Reef is spectacular, with plentiful of colorful big fish, fascinating turtles, and other creatures the names of which I can’t remember. Although the visibility wasn’t the greatest, it was good enough for admiring the remarkable corals and its inhabitants. Since I was diving 3 times, the day was a bit rushed with little time for snacks and lunch, but it was a great day with amazing underwater views!!!

Since I was enjoying myself so much in Port Douglas, I decided to stay one extra day and chill on the beach, do some hikes around the town and simply enjoying the wonderful sunshine and blue waters. The facilities of Port Douglas were outstanding, public barbeques all over town. The evenings are bursting with backpackers and locals, barbequing sausage rolls or fresh catch of the day, and enjoying a glass of wine over the stars of Southern Hemisphere. I wish I didn’t have to leave Port Douglas next morning to continue my journey through Atherton Tablelands. However, time was pressing and the numbers of kilometers I had to make down to Brisbane were not insignificant, so I needed to leave. I was driving to Atherton through Tablelands and was blown away by beautiful landscapes, waterfalls and nature surrounding me. I felt a warm feeling of adoration and harmony that blew through my body while driving the highlands and stopping at different viewpoints to admire this intriguing nature creation. Atherton town itself, famous for its green stones, was nothing more than a tourist attraction with several souvenirs shops and little to experience the real Aussie life. So I kept on going.

The following day I was continuing my journey through the East Coast to the next town called Innisfall, known for its Italian migration after the World War II. It was a cute, little and quiet town with very few people spotted on the street. I made a stop there to enjoy a real Italian espresso but strangely enough I was not able to find any cozy café where they would serve one J. Well, I guess it’s a reason enough for me to continue my journey down the East Coast.

When driving onto famous Mission beach, I was keeping my eyes wide open for spotting a wild cassowary, an intriguing Aussie bird that can be very dangerous in self defense, if you come near it. I drove for hours to be able to spot this fly less bird, but there was no sign of him to be seen.  My disappointment was great although I got to admire beautiful Mission beach itself.

The thing about Australia is that there are many beautiful places to be visited, but the distances among them are horrendous. It takes sometimes hundreds of kilometers to go from one place to another, so very often I had the feeling I was spending most hours in the car than really at the outdoors of Australian countryside. 5 weeks in Australia, at the beginning of my journey, seemed like a descent amount of time, but the more I was driving, the more I realized that the country is too big to be fully explored in 5 weeks. I needed to gave in and compromise on sites so that at least I would be able to enjoy the places I visited instead of rushing through them in the direction of next destination. That made me feel stressed at times, because I wanted to be able to see it all, but when I accepted it wasn’t going to happen, I eased my journey and started to enjoy it more.

While exploring the East Coast, I was frequently looking forward to get in touch with the aboriginal culture, but to my disappointment, there was very little to be seen or learned about. Few aboriginal people that I met on the streets, with whom I was hoping to start a conversation and get acquainted, were totally drank. The picture of ‘drank aboriginals’ was dominant in the very few places that I was lucky to meet them.

I got intrigued by this, thinking, why these people are so invisible in Australia, their land, and why there are so few places left relating to their aboriginal heritage and culture? The longer I travelled in Australia, the more I came to realize how devastated and forgotten the aboriginal culture is and how much prejudice was there, expressed by ‘native Australians’ (I am not sure what that term really means) against their race.

My journey continued to Townsville, the capital of Queensland. I was so happy to arrive there as the town was full of live and beautiful sceneries. It is one of these places where you tell yourself: ‘I could probably live here’. I like the idea of a city by the sea, as it offers great outdoor activities plus the comfort of life within a city. On the day of my arrival I decided to explore the city on foot and hiked onto its hill, from which the boarders of the city were well seen with the views of the blue sky ocean and the Magnetic Island seen in far. Everyone was jogging, surfing, doing some sort of an activity; all life seemed to be happing outdoors and I must admit I loved that vibe. Townsville people were energetic, friendly, smiling and I could see they were enjoying their lives in Townsville. I also liked the town for its intimacy and proximity. Although it is the capital of Queensland, the city gives a sensation of a small, cozy town, with its beautiful beaches and luxuries of a big city. I really enjoyed my time at Townsville and if the time wasn’t an issue, I could easily spend several more days in Townsville and explore its corners even more. But the time was calling upon me and at the same time I was excited about my next stop. I was driving direction Arlie beach from where I was going to take a 2 day cruise to the Whitsundays!! I couldn’t wait. The more south I was going, the colder and chillier is got. Since I was in a camper van, I had no luxury of hot hotel showers; I was taking cold showers on a beach and it was bearable until now, but day by day it was getting chillier and chillier. I booked my Whitsundays cruise few days ahead as I knew this was one of the top attractions so I didn’t want to lose on this opportunity. The ‘Iceberg’ sailing boat is a middle size boat with a maximum of 15 passengers including crew. The next morning I met the crew and my cruise mates who were sailing with me in the following two days. The boat had 12 passengers on board and was comfortable enough, even though it felt quite small at times.  We started sailing early in the morning; wind was strong and powerful. We took off direction Whitsunday and Hook Island. It was a very chilly day and after about an hour, we were all rushing through the boat, trying to find some warm cloths. After 3 hours sailing we arrived at our first snorkeling spot. The crew provided us with wetsuits. I was shivering from cold, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to snorkel with this weather. But it appeared that I was the only one hesitating, everyone else was already in the water, so I needed to get over my chills, and jumped into the sea, following everyone else. Although the underwater life was breathtaking, I could’t stop shivering and felt my lips were turning blue. After 5 minutes I got out of the water, not being able to speak, I felt frozen. The other fellows didn’t seem to mind the cold and stayed in for half an hour before returning to the boat. I felt like a wimp, being surrounded by beautiful islands and not being able to swim in blue sky waters. Luckily, the crew prepared hot tea when we got back on board; I had two mugs of tea at once, trying to warm up my body. It worked and while we were enjoying the amazing views surrounding us, the crew kept busy, preparing our lunch/dinner. Whereas the crew was preparing the food, the wind calmed down, it was getting darker. We enjoyed our delicious dinner looking at the amazing stars of the Southern Hemisphere; the sky seemed never more beautiful than this night. We sat there for hours, all exchanging our stories, brought from many travels; we enjoyed each other’s company and the quietness of the ocean. It took me a while to fall asleep as I am not really good with sea sickness; I swallowed a couple of sea motion pills and was off to the dream land till next morning when I was woken up for breakfast. The wind was too weak to sail so we turned on the engine and went off to the White Heaven Beach. My God, WHITE HEAVEN is a REAL HEAVEN, I couldn’t close my mouth out of amazement, I was HYPNOTHISED by its beauty, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There is nothing in this world that would match the white powder sand and blue-green waters of WHITE HEAVEN with a big numbers of stingrays, floating on the shallow waters. My mouth is still open, even in this moment, unable to contemplate this view, this Goddess creation. I still don’t understand how this can exist in our world and be so untouched and unspoiled; this is a nature’s glory in its full meaning.

We got to spend the entire afternoon on the WHITEHEVEN beach, before taking off back to shores of Arlie beach. The wind picked up and while sailing away from Whitsundays, a feeling of nostalgia overshadowed me, was I really there or was I just dreaming???

The next morning it was time again to continue my journey, but the feeling of being overwhelmed by the Whitsundays was so intense, that it almost felt like being in trans, nothing that I was going to see in the next weeks, perhaps even years, could match with the WHITEHEAVEN, I was certain of that.

On my way down south, I drove by Rockhampton, the cattle capital of Queenstown. I decided to stay outside of the city centre and stopped at a nice open water park, where I took my Yoga mat and did some stretching, before continuing my journey. I was getting tired of driving, and there were still so many kilometers to be covered before arriving in Brisbane… After stretching, I felt like a new born and went to get a cappuccino to go, before getting back on the road. I was served by a lovely chatty girl and we got into a long conversation about everything and nothing, life, travel, family, race etc. It appeared she was originally form Tanzania, and had a tremendous sense of humor. We were chatting for over an hour as if we were two friends who just met over coffee, I didn’t even realize it was getting late and I needed to get back on the road to reach Bundaberg by downfall.

Bundaberg was a quick stop over. While staying there, I enjoyed the Art Deco architecture of the city, climbed an old volcano hill to admire the city from high (it was foggy and cloudy so I didn’t really see much ha ha) and at night I finally had a chance to see the 2^nd part of ‘Sex and the City’ movie; it was a great relaxing day. But, time was pressing so I had to be back on the road by next morning, driving to Town 1770 on the coast, where I was hoping to spot some wildlife. It was a cold day and the Town 1770 was deserted. The beach was empty and not one alive creature was visible on the street. All cafes and restaurants seemed to be shut down during winter season; it was a somber and grey town with a soft rain and a chill wind blowing from the ocean. There was no reason for me to stay there so I continued until I reached the Rainbow beach. At this time of the day, the sky cleared up and sun was shining right at my face. It was a beautiful day, despite the chilly wind, that gave a blow every now and then. I decided to take a walk to the Carlo Sandblow dune that is famous for its colorful sands. When I reached the dune, I was taken away by the most remarkable views of the east coast line of Australia. The view was breathtaking and I could not reflect how it was possible that such a gift of unspoiled nature was still present in this world and left intact. With the low tide, it is possible to drive a 4 wheel car, on the beach from the Rainbow beach all the way down to Noosa, , and see the beautiful, shiny and glowing rocks of sands raising over the sea. I was sitting on the dune for several hours, watching the blue sky waters of the ocean, families with little kids racing over the sand dune and sliding on the sand as it they were sliding over the snow mountain, the time stood still…

By dawn, I made it all the way to Noosa Heads where I found a quite, deserted place by a fire station to spend the night. Noosa Heads makes a part of Noosa National Park which is famous for impressive coastal line and its wildlife (wild Koalas living in the forest!!). It is also a surfer’s town, and the beach was dotted with hundreds of surfers trying to catch the wave while I there. Next morning I went for a hunt, I was determined to spot a wild Koala, hiding in the Eucalyptus trees of the National Park. I walked for hours and hours, getting off the trail and into the bush but I wasn’t lucky enough to see them. I was slightly disappointed with the fact that I haven’t seen any wild Koalas but my hike was well worthwhile. I got to admire the beauty of Noosa National Park and its million dollar views. Next to the nature surrounding the town, the town itself had a pleasant atmosphere, everyone seemed to be getting along and speak one common language of ‘Earth’. Everyone was absorbed by nature’s beauty and was living in harmony with it while enjoying the resources of the Earth provided. There are very few places in this world like Noosa, a perfect living spot. I was enjoying myself so much that I wanted to stay for a while longer to be able to explore all corner s of this place and earn the feeling of belonging, but I knew that I needed to leave next day if I wanted to make it on time to Brisbane. I only could hope that I will get another chance to return to this place, a thought that left me with ecstatic and pleasant feelings.

I continued my drive direction Brisbane and had made a quick stop at the View Point of Glasshouse Mountains, sticking its mountain heads out of thousands of forest trees. The views were spectacular. After spending the afternoon at the Glasshouse Mountains, I drove for a while and found a deserted, quiet spot along the highway (resting area), where I decided to cook supper and spend the night. The famous Steve Irwin Australian Zoo was on the agenda for the following day, so I needed to get some rest and a good night sleep before the exciting day tomorrow.

Everyone who is watching Discovery or National Geographic would be a big fun of the crocodile hunter – Steve Irwin. His somehow controversial approach for conservation of nature and wild life earned him a well deserved status among biologists, environmentalists and even politicians. It was very sad news to learn about his tragic death by a sting ray sting, but his knowledge and passion for nature are well preserved by his family and relatives. The Australian Zoo is a perfect example of that. It has a collection of main Aussie animals such as Koalas, kangaroos, lizards, all sorts of crocks, laughing kookaburra, cassowary, giant tortoise and it is a great and interactive place to gat familiar with the nature, wild animals, protection and conservation of their environment. I spent almost my entire day at the Zoo and still did not manage to see it all. It is one of the most well managed animal parks and it was enjoyable seeing Steve’s team in action performing several croc shows and feeding animals.

After leaving the zoo, I was finally ready to arrive at Brisbane, to only spend the night there and continue further on through Cold Coast to Byron Bay. But as soon as I arrived at Brisbane, I knew I made a terrible mistake trying to find a spot for spending the night there. The city is full of traffic and parking on the street costs as much as 22 S per half hour. I was in despair. I run into the supermarket to make some food supplies for the night and by the time I was getting back to the car, the police was preparing the pool the car away, under the pretext that the parking in the centre was only allowed for a maximum of 1 hour. How could I have missed the sign? I begged them not to take the car and they were willing to let me go as soon as I move the car immediately. I was turning on the engine in the next second, driving for another 1,5 to find a place to sleep. Everywhere around Brisbane the signs were indicating: no camping, no sleeping, no no no….it took forever to find a place to sleep and I had no energy left to cook anything for dinner. I gave in for ready-made fast food as it was the only option available and I felt into deep sleep right after consuming the food; I was exhausted and terrified to face Brisbane again next morning.  However I needed to drive through it again to reach the Cold Coast, but I decided to leave the worries for the next morning.

I was driving Australia for nearly 4 weeks already. Public showers on the beach became colder and less available and nights in the car were getting chillier and chillier. The more south I was heading; the cooler the weather was turning to be. I was back on the road, driving through Brisbane, reaching its giant highway bridge to take me to the Gold Coast, which is one of the wealthiest and most developed cities of East Coast of Australia. Indeed, the GOLD Coast felt like GOLD castle, wealthy and rich. I couldn’t hide my amazement, the villas, the cars, the restaurants, the shops, the fashion, the people; everything was screaming MONEY and LUXERY. After haven driven almost 4000 km in the past weeks, I couldn’t pass the temptation of some sort of luxury treatment while I was there. First, off to the beach to find a shower. It was a sunny day and the ice cold water didn’t feel as ice cold as usually. After the shower, all I really wanted and needed was to find a delicious coffee bar with a wi-fi and sit there for hours, zipping cappuccino’s and espresso’s and catching up on my emails, news, pictures etc. The outside world didn’t exist for me that day. The only thing I could see were the delicious pastries, tasty cups of coffee and connecting with the world. After catching up over internet for several hours, I was enjoying the rest of my evening, walking overcrowded boulevards of the Cold Coast and watching the fashionistas passing me by. I wished I had my high heels and proper make up with me to be able to fit in a bit; I forgot what it feels like to be a real girl. I haven’t dressed up in months and I don’t even have cloths for a night out except for shorts and flip flops. Most of all, I missed my heels that evening!

I lost track of time in Gold Coast but I knew I couldn’t stay here for more than a day, it will ruin me financially, all the tempting coffee shops, ice creams, bars, restaurants and cloth shops. I needed to run from there before spending all the remaining savings. Next morning I left direction Byron’s Bay, which is the hippie town of Australia, with high concentration of back packers. When I arrived there, it was already late, so I needed to find a place to cook a decent dinner and find a spot for spending the night. For the first time is days it felt really chilly. I was wearing all the warm cloths I had with me and I was still shivering from cold. Finding a place to sleep wasn’t easy as the town was filled up with backpackers, all of them trying to secure free of charge spot for the night. I stayed outside of town in an industrial area, surrounded by several residential houses. I feared one of the residents might call police on me  but luckily nothing bad happened that night. Next morning I couldn’t wait to start moving as my fingertips were frozen, it was a cold night. But I was also desperate for a shower that day, so it was going to get even cooler, public shower on the beach, was I going to survive?? I had no choice; I waited till the sun was strong and warm. Only by then I felt confident enough to change into my swim wear and get into the shower. I got a lot of friendly smiles and people telling me: “are you from Antarctica?”,ha ha, very funny. I just gave them a smile back saying, “no worries, I am used to it”, pretending I was actually enjoying it. For the next half an hour I was zipping jars of hot tea, trying to get my hypothermic body back to normal temperature. By the time, I was warm and comfy again, it was time for exploring the coast line of Byron’s Bay and beyond. The deserted beaches, several kilometers away from Byron’s Bay were empty. It was an ideal place for meditating or just getting away from the rest of the busy world, and certainly from all the backpackers of Byron Bay.

Driving back towards Brisbane, I was looking forward to get rid of the car as soon as possible and spend the night in a hostel with hot shower and warm bed before taking my flight off to Sydney. The car was sorted out almost in an instance, no formalities, no screaming saying: “how in the hell did you get this huge bump on the right side of the car” (not that I have any idea, my guess is that someone bumped into my car, while it was parked in front of the Australia zoo), but I was happy I didn’t need to take the responsibility for something that I didn’t cause in the first place. Off to the hostel, hot shower first, hundreds mugs of hot tea later I was ready to take off for the downtown. Brisbane is an amazing city, with fascinating Victorian architecture, lively music scene, open cinema playing old Merlyn Monroe movies and plenty of night life surrounding it. I was a happy bunny and regretted that my flight was scheduled for early next morning. I wish that I had more time in Brisbane as it left me with warm and joyful feeling. But I wasn’t feeling miserable for a long time as tomorrow I was going to be in SYDNEY!!!

The moment I landed in Sydney and checked into Eva’s Backpackers, I ran towards the Opera House, I needed to see it the same day. Wow, wow, wow, it is an amazing Danish design, from which ever angle I looked at it, it looked fantastic. I stayed in Sydney for nearly 7 days (expect for 2 days I spent in Blue Mountains) and each day I went down to the Opera House to be able to see in with sunrise, sunshine, sunset, clouds, rain, you name it, I even saw a rainbow over it. Sydney is fascinating, I love cities situated by the sea, surrounded by amazing beaches. Manly beach is quite outside of town, where I had to catch a ferry to get there. The beach was quite deserted at this time of the year, but even with this weather there were plenty of surfers to be spotted; that is what I call passion and love for the sea. I wanted to visit the Bodni beach same day, which is known as the most fabulous beach of Sydney, but was running out of time and had no chance to get there. I think though I had enough time to enjoy Sydney and its surroundings. Although Sydney is a big and metropolitan city, it felt really like a small, cozy town to me, filled up with many delicious international restaurants, bars and cafes. Perhaps it was the time of the year as the city was quite empty and grey, but regardless of fresh air and cold wind, I enjoyed Sydney a lot. From Sydney I took a 2 day trip to the Blue Mountains National Park and spent two days trekking in these glories landscapes. I settled myself in little town called Katoomba from which many trails start, but Katoomba is also the viewing point for the so called ‘Three sisters’ of Blue Mountains. The views are just breathtaking, with the sun falling on the picks of the mountains and overshadowing its lower base.

Next morning I took the train into the next little town called Blue Blackheath from which I got a different angle of Blue Mountains and could explore other trails. I knew that my trip of Australia was reaching its end, however I wasn’t feeling really sad. I still had few more days to enjoy Sydney plus I had New Zealand on the horizon of my next ‘voyage’, so I was taking it easy and enjoying every minute I had left of Sydney. My flight to Wellington, the capital of NZ, situated in the south of North Island was scheduled for the 26^th of July. I was enjoying the last days of relatively mild winter of Sydney before taking off to real winter!!!

I regret I had no chance to visit the West Coast of Australia; people say it is very different from the East, less touristy and crowded, less developed and more authentic. The rumors spread however that even the West Coast is caching up with its East neighbor and is being more developed for tourism in the recent years. It won’t be long when its image will change into a booming tourist destination. That thought is scaring me. Nowadays with cheap air fares available, the world is getting smaller and more accessible to anyone, and with the increase of tourism comes unavoidably the decrease of aboriginal culture which I did not really encounter to my greatest regret. .. It is time for me to leave now and reach the land of ‘The Long White Cloud’.  Bye Aussie land, bye for now…

When I arrived in Malaysia, I was feeling happy. Since I have been travelling already for several months, I must admit I was getting a bit tired of constant move, and I was getting to feel a little homesick. I also started to look for different experiences in my trip. In the beginning everything was about seeing as much possible, meeting as many people as possible and exchanging travel experience. With the time, I was less keen on seeing more museums, more tourist places of interest and was more interested in integrating with locals, chatting with local people while visiting markets or meeting locals in local street restaurants. I was also feeling happy spending time with someone who is really special to me in my life, I was glad I was sharing this trip with someone dear.

First time I arrived at Penang, George Town, it was only a stopover of 2 days to past through to Sumatra, Indonesia. After however I travelled Sumatra, I returned to George Town and was able to enjoy this beautiful colonial town. George Town is beautifully situated by the sea and is an important harbour town when transferring to Indonesia. It is a town that is booming with young Malay students, at nights the restaurants, bars and café’s are filled up with young, hip and educated people and conversations over English are heard everywhere. Although Malaysia has retrieved its independence from British Empire since 1957 and official language of Malaysia is Bahasa Malay, English is well spoken all over the country.

I took my time to walk through the city and admire the old colonial architecture that is very well maintained. The city has also an organized free of charge tourist bus that takes you all around the city, it is a great well to quickly visit all the important spots of town.

Malay people are very friendly and talkative but I noticed on the first day that they are also excellent businessmen. When it comes to the asking price, I was still on the Thai time when asking price was always flexible and changeable. In Malaysia there was less room for negotiation and standard of hostels were lower than high standard that I met in Thailand. But, nevertheless I was open for a new experience and needed to realize I was in a different country now with different culture.

After exploring the George Town it was time again for some relaxation by the beach. I took a very long journey and went to the opposite side of the country (east) to spend some time on the Parenthian islands. I took 6 days to enjoy beautiful beach and sunbathing and I really loved the snorkeling area around the islands. I was lacking however the Malay experience. The island where I stayed on was packed with Europeans and other tourists and I was told by the Malays that the island is actually not inhabited. It means that Malays come there only for the seasons to work in hotels, restaurants etc. but there is no Malay people that live on the island permanently all year round. I really loved the beaches because they were amazing but I had no feeling of being in Malaysia while being there.

After deserved rest of several days it was time to go and explore ‘true’ Malaysia. I took a connecting bus to Kota Bharu to be able to connect on an early (5.40 A.M.) ‘Jungle train’ next day  that will take me to Taman Negara National Park, considered the oldest jungle in the world. I had one day in Kota Bharu and I fell totally in love with this place. This is what I consider true Malaysian town, with its traffic, vibrant life, little shops and restaurants all over the place and lovely locals serving you amazing street food. I really wished I had more time to spend there, but I needed to continue as my schedule was way behind. The jungle train took around 10 hours and through the window I could admire the landscapes and forests of Malaysia. 60% of the country is rainforest and the Malay government protects it natures as it is an important aspect of Malay economy and tourism industry. I arrived in the little town near Taman Negara and needed to spend the night there in order to continue the journey the next day to the heart of the jungle. The idea was to spend 2 days in the jungle trekking through forest and spotting wild life while trekking. Next day, by the time I arrived in the national park, by the time I found a descent accommodation, it was too late to start a long trek that day. So instead I took a walk along the river, visited several info shops that gave me maps and information on trekking possibilities. Next day the plan was to wake up early, cross the river and enter the jungle for a several hour jungle trek. Unfortunately when I was up the next day, the sky was really gray and it seems like the rain was going to arrive very soon. Nevertheless I didn’t want to waste any time, and took my rain jacket with me and started the trek. The rain arrived very soon and the forest was wet and muddy, with the trails almost invisible. But I was determined to continue since the weather forecast for following days was even worse. After 2 hours of trekking I noticed that I was literally followed by forest leeches and that they were on my trousers, jacket, and socks, everywhere. When I notice these disgusting parasites, I started screaming. They were trying to get into my skin and suck on it. I managed to get rid of them but as soon as I continued walking, they were more and more of them everywhere.  It was really getting ugly and I decided to change the route and took a trail that was shorter and would take me out of this misery sooner. Since I was all wet because of the rain, and kept my eyes constantly open for the ugly parasites, I hardly noticed any other creatures in the forest nor took the chance to admire the jungle. At the end of the trail where the forest was a little bit less dense, I met with some other travelers, and saw them battling with the parasites. The worse was that they already had them on the skin sucking their blood, it was an awful site. We were all screaming like crazy trying to come out of the forest as soon as possible. At the end of the journey, a strong shower of rain poured over us and it was the thing we really needed at the end (ha ha). When arrived back in the hotel I started packing my backpack saying that I am leaving this town first thing tomorrow morning. I had zero intention to go back to the jungle and be attacked again by these disguising creatures.

I really wanted to get back to the civilization so I headed directly for KL – Kuala Lumpur. Once there, I searched for a hostel in China town that was recommended to me by some good friends. The hostel was conveniently located and had good facilities so I was happy to be there. The next day the exploring of KL started. Most people thinking of Kuala Lumpur usually refer to the ‘Petrona’s Twin Towers’ that are symbol of prosperity and are still the tallest Twin Towers of the world. Owned by the government, the Petrona’s oil company is one the big income source in Malaysia. Petrona’s have a connecting bridge on the 42th floor and it is also a viewing point that can be visited by tourists. The only problem is to get the tickets as there is an X amount of people they allow very day. I arrived the first time at the ticket office at 8 AM but I was too late as all the tickets were already sold. I was told that I had to be there around 6 AM to be able to visit the viewing bridge. It took me a lot of effort to get up this early but the next day I was there at 6.30 AM and I got the tickets. It was a wonderful day as the sky was clear and I was able to take great shots of the KL from the 42^nd floor.

While exploring the city I was totally carried away by the international culture of the city. Malaysia is a mixture of Malays, Chinese, Indian, Indigenous and European population and it was wonderful to see all that mix in one place, where different populations maintain their culture, demonstrate their traditions through wearing traditional cloths or offering locals delicacies at the street. The Malay’s are very friendly and warm people and very keen on telling their stories as well as listening to ours. There are colonial districts in KL with beautifully reserved architecture and while I was there, there was an International Festival of Colors. The theme was ‘Malaysia is a multicultural country’ and through a street parade, various cultural dances and absolutely beautiful costumes were demonstrated, while lively music was accompanying this spectacular event.  The highlight of this event was the arrival of the King with his wife and important members of the parliament. Throughout the whole day young artists and musicians were performing and there was an enormous amount of young talent visible throughout the city. It gave me a felling of Rio carnival because it was so lively and colorful.   I must say I got stuck in KL for many more days that I initially anticipated, I totally gave in and I fell in love with this beautiful city and its rich and interesting culture. It is one of the places where I say: “this could be my home, I could live here”. What also helps a lot to integrate is that the language is not very difficult to pronounce and quite easy to learn. This to be is an important plus while choosing a country to live. I am fascinated by KL as it is a vibrant city, full of life, culture and things to do. I know that I said before, “I fell in love with Hong Kong”, there is comes again: “I am in love with KL”. I totally took my time and enjoyed every minute I spent in KL, enjoying the local cuisine, meeting locals and travelers all over KL and catching up on my travel blog. When I was rested and ready to move on, I took a trip to Melacca. It was only a short ride by train to reach Malacca, which used to be a capital of Malaysia, and today is one of the most beautiful colonial towns featuring Portuguese, Dutch and English architecture, a World Heritage. A beautiful characteristic of Melacca is its Clock Tower situated in the centre of town and City Hall (with its original Dutch name on it “Stadhuys”). There is a beautiful St. Paul’s Church to be admired and several museums with interesting historical artifacts. Outside of the city there are several European settlements such as Dutch and Portuguese, and I think also Japanese, although that one I had no chance to visit. It was a great time as I met with my Dutch friend and we were chatting over our travel stories while enjoying fantastic weather of Melacca and great street food.

Melacca was my last stop of Malaysia before moving on to Singapore.  I needed to continue my trip, there was no looking back.

The trip to Singapore was short and pleasant and there I was saying good bye to Malaysia for now and entering a new country with its strict regulations of drug restrictions and contamination of the city. When I arrived in Singapore, I must admit the city was spotless clean, not a bit of garbage to be found on the street.  I wasn’t very lucky with the weather though as it was quite rainy for the few days I stayed in Singapore.  My expectations of Singapore didn’t really fail me: full of shopping malls, full of expats, luxury items all over the place, tall buildings, multicultural although dominating majority is Chinese (over 70%).  Architecture is impressive and modern and the streets are beautifully organized. I was however not taken away by Singapore, for me the city was lacking a soul, it is so well organized that it lacked any sense of spontaneity of adventure. I am an admirer of modern cities with its splendid architecture, and although I really liked Singapore, I don’t think I would like to live there, it seems like it was a bit claustrophobic and overwhelming for me.

My trip of South East Asia at last came to an end and it was time to leave this amazing continent which I ADMIRE and to go to a completely new part of the world, totally undiscovered by me yet, OCEANIA, here I come.

Good Bye Asia, only for now until we meet again.

The ferry boat took only 5 hours from Penang to Sumatra and brought me directly to Medan, the major harbor city of Sumatra. I must admit that after travelling Thailand which can no longer be considered an undeveloped country, I was a bit anxious of going to Indonesia. My expectations of Sumatra were slightly similar of those of India and in reality I wasn’t disappointed so much. My expectations were right.

Indonesia is a huge country consisting of hundreds of islands and travelling between or even within the islands is a challenge. Distance in Indonesia has absolutely no meaning as trip of 10 kilometers can take sometimes more than 2 hours. So if you ever decide to take a look at the map and say to yourself, ‘oh, it is only 100 km from there, we can make a day trip!’, FORGET IT RIGHT THERE! 100km is literally a DAY trip where you travel the whole day to your destination, reaching it only at dawn, if you are luckily to make it that far.

The initial plan was to visit the north of Sumatra, catch back the ferry to Penang, George Town in Malaysia, go overland through Malaysia to Singapore and catch the flight further to Java. So being planned, so being done.

After arriving in Medan, again, the feeling of being almost back in India hit me at once: masses of people, overcrowded streets, rickshaws everyone and everyone…. I thought, oh my God, can I do this again? But my feeling was only superficial. As soon as I found a rickshaw driver to take me to a cheap hotel, I was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the driver and his genuine willingness to help me to find a good place to spend the night.

Medan is really not a place to stay several days. Most of the people go through Medan only to connect to their next destination, so was I. The driver took me to Blue Angels hostel, the popular backpacker stay in town, just next to the big Blue Mosque. Unfortunately the place was full, so the rickshaw driver was kind enough to take me free of charge to another hostel, only two blocks away from the Blue Angels. I got accommodated, place was simple and not spotless clean, but good enough to spend one night. Of course I have forgotten the hotel was next to the big mosque, so while deep asleep and resting after long travel, I was brutally woken up at 5 AM with the loudspeakers of the mosque. Once again, I felt like I was back in Agra…

The next morning I was ready to move on, my destination was Bukit Lawang, national park in the north of Sumatra, one of the only two places in the world (Borneo is the other), where you can admire orangutans in their natural habitant. The journey was not too bad and before dark, I arrived in Bukit Lawang village, beautifully situated along the river. Finding accommodation was easy and I was sharing a van with some guides (of course, Indonesia is full of them) who could point me out to the nearest recommended hotel. That is how it works in Indonesia, everyone knows everyone and everyone is connected somehow to tourist industry. Anyways, the guys sharing the van with me were musicians, and that night, they gave a ‘life concert’ to us, free of charge, or at least it seemed like it, although the whole night had a deeper purpose . They wanted me to buy a 2 day trek to visit the forest. But I was smart enough and didn’t waste my time while I was there. I got information already on the prices of guides and treks and had a pretty good idea what it all was worth so at the end, we were able to find a suitable agreement and I decided to go trekking with them and another English couple, who was supposed to join. Excited about the trek next morning, it turned out that the English couple was sick (in fact, I think there was no English couple at all involved in these negotiations ), so instead we were assigned another guide and two Dutch tourists, father and son. My excitement of the trek was still on, as I was really looking forward to seeing wild orangutans. We started early, together with our guide Thomas, Jan and Rick, our Dutch companions. It took only minutes and we spotted gibbons hanging on the trees in front of us. Our guide was really pleased because he says that in all the years that he is trekking with tourists, he does not have the pleasure to admire gibbons so often because they are really difficult to spot. We continued for few hours more, but no orangutans to be seen. It was time for short lunch break and rest. As soon as we cut open a sweet pineapple and began to enjoy its juicy flavor, a huge orangutan started approaching us from the top of the tree. He was enormous, masculine and amazingly beautiful. At first he didn’t come very close, but as soon I finished my pineapple and had thrown the skin of the fruit into the ground, he came around and pick it up and was sacking on it. He was only 1,5 m away and it was fascinating to see him from such a small distance. His face was very expressive, like ours, humans. He was really enjoying the juice of the fruit and I could read satisfaction on his face, he was happy.

We continued our trek for another couple of hours and we were reaching the camp where we were going to spend the night. We were slightly disappointed that we haven’t seen more orangutans, but at least we had the pleasure to admire one, so the day was a success. To approach our camp, we had to cross a small river and as soon as we approached the place, there were a mother orangutan with a little baby, hanging on a tree and engaged in a game. We approached our camp and they continued the play undisturbed. We were exhausted, trekking for several hours and it was such a perfect ending to the day. We were just sitting, resting and enjoying a drink while the two amazing orangutans were going about their business for the next hour. I don’t know how young the baby orangutan was, maybe only several months, but it was strong enough to be hanging on the branches of the trees and be teasing his mother, looking for more attention and games.

When it was getting darker, the orangutans left the tree to find a more secure place to sleep and built the nest for the night.

We, on the other hand, enjoyed a fabulous 3 course jungle meal, prepared by Thomas’ assistants, and enjoyed playing jungle games till late, until I started to fall asleep while sitting, out of the tiredness. It was the time to call it a day. We prepared the tent (just few plastic bags hanging over few wooden pals), put the mats on the ground and fell into a deep sleep, ignoring all the mosquitoes, spiders and other creatures crawling over us.

The next morning we woke up by the sun light. Next to the camp was a small river with a little waterfall. Before continuing our trek back home, we took a swim in a cold, fresh water, enjoying the nature surrounding us. It was so quiet, no one around, only us. The excitement was high to see one more time an orangutan, before reaching our hotel. We started walking down the river, back to the hotel. As soon as we stopped for lunch, again, the same thing happened; a huge orangutan approached us, most likely looking for some food. They must smell it from a distance . The guide warned us that this orangutan was aggressive and he showed us scars of his assistant, who was bitten several time by this pal, while trying to protect the tourists from being hurt. We took notions and admired the orangutan only from a distance and very quietly. At some point, he was gone and we continued our walk along the river. At one point, we had to cross the river for the last time to arrive at the camp, from which we were going to tube the river down, and arrive at the hotel on a rubber tube. At first I thought that crossing the river would be a piece of cake, it looked small and peaceful to me. However, as soon as I started the crossing, I could barely keep my balance as the strong current was pushing me to the sides. At last, Thomas, our guide, came back and helped me crossed the river safely. We arrived at the camp from where we got on the tubes, and rafted down the river, back to our starting point. It was a great trek with a lot of fun and beautiful sights. Bukit Lawang national park is so well preserved and there are more than 6000 wild orangutans living in the forest. 70 of them are semi wild, they were rescued from captivity and are now being reintegrated back to their natural habitant. By doing this trek, I realized how pressure the life of orangutans is and how far the humans had taken them to almost extinction. I am glad that the government of Indonesia is so supportive of this preservation and that the tourism in this place is well controlled, so that it doesn’t destroy the natural habitat of wild orangutans.

My next destination in Sumatra was the famous lake Toba. Lake Toba is an old crater and the entire lake is bigger than Singapore. In the middle of the lake, there is an island called Tuk Tuk, and it takes around 100km to go around the entire island, so imagine how big the lake itself must be.

When I arrived in Tuk Tuk (the island), I was taken away by the beauty of its place. The water of the lake is crystal clear and perfect for snorkeling and admiring the underwater life. But at the same time there was a cloud of nostalgia over this place. It used to be one of the most touristy destinations for Malays, Singaporeans, Japanese and local people in the 90’s; the island is full of resorts and hundreds of hotels. But almost all of them are empty and there are only very few tourists to be spotted. Thailand, due to its blue crystal waters, cheap accommodation and convenience of transportation (cheap airline), has taken over the tourism away from lake Toba. But it is a great shame, because Tuk Tuk offers everything to a tourist and even more.

I stayed in a nice hotel with a big balcony, right in front of the lake, for nearly 3 EUR a night! That is a bargain.  In Tuk Tuk, apart from swimming and snorkeling, there are many other activities the place has to offer: treks to the nearby villages, treks to the tops of the mountains in order to admire the lake from high, cycling tours through Batik villages and more….

The greatest thing about Tuk Tuk are the locals who are welcoming tourists with joy; quality of service is extremely high. And since there are so very few tourists, the locals are genuinely interested in you, where you from, what you do for living, why you come to Indonesia etc. It is also fascinating to be able to observe the whereabouts of locals from very near, kids running to school every morning, their parents running some sort of small businesses to be able to support the family. Everyone lives in a harmony and people are very open for conversations. Next to the hospitality of the locals, the island is beautiful, rich in natural resources such as fruit and spices (coffee trees, fruit trees, clove trees are seen everywhere) and offers the locals a healthly soil for growing their own food.

I spent several days in Tuk Tuk, no having a real agenda really but just cycling around the villages, meeting with locals and enjoying freshly cooked meals. The kids were running everywhere on the streets and were always keen on saying ‘halo’s’ and few other words, the few ones they knew in English. Older ladies were selling fresh, ripe fruits on their verandas, and although most of them could say no word in English, I still enjoyed the interaction with them as they were picking the best fruit for me and pealing the skin of fresh papaya so that I can fully enjoy this delicacy. Tuk Tuk is a not just a vacation destination, it is actually a place where people can retire, grow their own organic fruits and live in harmony with the nature and Indonesians. Also Bahasa languages begins to sound familiar in my ears after a while and its pronunciation is easy; locals appreciate few words of Bahasa spoken by tourists such as ‘Tremah Kasi (thank you)’ and ‘Bogus’ (good). I must say, I was pleasantly taken away by the kindness of Indonesians, and the beauty of the Sumatra. I begin to get more excited about seeing other places of Indonesia, although I was warned that Java and Bali would be a totally different world from Sumatra, much more spoiled by tourism industry. Well, I was ready to give it a go to find out by myself.

After returning to Penang, George Town, Malaysia, I made my way down to Singapore, from where I took a connecting flight to YoYagarta. I decided to skip Yakarta as I was not keen on a most populated city of Indonesia with the highest pollution and traffic rate.

YogYakarta, on the other hand, is a friendly town, with plenty of things to do. The most famous sights of Yogyakarta are the Borobudur Buddhist temple (one of the Unesco Wordl Heritage) and Pram Banan Hindu temple. Although I have seen already so many temples during this trip, these are ‘must see’ of Indonesia and really worth seeing. Both within the reach of the city, are important historical sites and worth visiting, only to learn that both religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) have lived and still live in a great harmony among each other. If you want to visit Borobudur in a proper (Buddhist) way, you are supposed to walk around the 4 levels of the temple clockwise 3 times on each level and then reach the stupa, located at the top of the temple. I did circulate all levels only one time (as the temple is really big), but if you are more spiritual than me, do it the proper way, three times each level.

Next to Borobudur and Pram Banan, YogYakarta is a quite vibrant city with many good local restaurants, malls and street markets. Since it was my birthday to celebrate, I decided to treat myself with the most exclusive and expensive coffee of this world (Indonesians say): ‘Kopi Lawang’. This coffee comes from Java and is famous for its aromatic and mild flavor. The specialty of this coffee is that it is being eaten and digested by civet (sort of wild-cat animal) before it is drank by people. Therefore it is also known as ‘poo coffee’ , but do not be disappointed. The coffee bean (berry) goes through a digestive system of civet unbroken and comes out as it went through, but more aromatic than before. So when you drink it, drink it black without adding sugar or milk, because only then you can taste the true flavor of KOPI LAWANG. I spent USD 8 on only 1 cup that was served to me in a porcelain cup, with a golden spoon. Was it worth, absolutely YES.

After YogYakarta it was time to discover some of the very many Indonesians wonders: an active VOLCANO. I continued my journey to Probolingo, in the west of Java, to visit the famous and well known ‘BROMO’ volcano. Bromo is famous because it is still active and because in is surrounded by two old craters, which add to a fascinating view of three volcano’s over sunrise. Getting from Probolingo to Bromo is though quite a hassle. Most people decide to take an organized tour where you are being taken to the place by jeep and don’t have to worry about anything. I, of course, resent organized tours, and was determined to get to the place by ‘public means’. There are no public buses going to Bromo, there are only minivans and they will only leave if full, full means 20 or more people. I was waiting on the station with 4 other people for over 2 hours and the van wouldn’t move a bit. I figured it was the strategy of the driver to let us wait for a long time until we would get tired of waiting and offered him to pay to the entire van (meaning for 20 people). But stupid as we might look as tourists (that is at least what Indonesians think), we decided to regroup and started walking away, looking for a driver that was actually willing to take us there. That worked immediately and, as soon as we started walking away, all of a sudden they found 15 other passengers to share a van with us and at last we departed in a swamped van for Ceromo, a village nearby Bromo. When arrived in Ceromo, the first sight of Bromo from a distance was impressive, a volcano, full of hot steam coming from the bottom of it. The next morning we decided to trek to the view point for  sun rise (instead of taking a jeep tour). We started the trek at 3 AM and arrived at the top at 5.15, just ready for sun rise. The place was packed with jeeps and hundreds of tourists, but I didn’t allow this to spoil my experience. I found myself a good view point, from which I could admire Bromo and 2 other volcano’s near it. The sight was breathtaking; the sky was crystal clear on this chilly morning. The trek was very rewarding despite the fact we needed to start at 3 AM. After the view point we walked for another 3 hours to reach the top of Bromo and be able to look inside of this majestic volcano, releasing mountains of hot steam. This place is very scenic and should not be rushed by 1 day organized tour, it is much more rewarding to approach this place on foot and admire it for hours, as it really is beautiful.

After returning to the hotel I was very lucky to get a minivan right back to Probolingo from where I was hoping to connect the same day to Bali and Lombok. I arrived at the bus station in Probolingo, and received good news that there was a night bus leaving in 1 hour, all the way to Lombok, Mattaran, from where I could easily connect to the Gili islands, east of Lombok. That excited me as I was exhausted after whole day trekking around Bromo, and was looking forward to resting on the bus, during the long 17 hour journey to Lombok. While waiting for the bus, it turned to be 1 hour delayed, then 1 hour became 7 hours. By then I was exhausted and decided to stay one more night in Probolingo, just to catch a good night sleep. I wasn’t ideal, because Probolingo is not an exciting place to stay, but I was too exhausted to wait for the bus that might or may not arrive. Besides, the bus agency seemed also a bit doggy. From the beginning they knew about the delay, but still would lie into our eyes saying the bus actually was about to leave in one hour. So Probolingo it was for another night, I had to give in due to my tiredness.

The options for a budget hotel in Probolingo are limited. For most of the hotels, the shower is a luxury and if you decide to take a room with a shower, it is triple the price than room without one. Back to basics…   I decided to stay in a room with a bucket shower, meaning, there is running water and there is a bucket to put the water over you, the only compromise I could give for that one night. The heat in the room was difficult to get used to, the mini fan that I believe was actually meant for dolls was not doing its job, I finally gave in and fell asleep.

The next day I had to stay in Probolingo till 5 PM to wait for the connecting bus. What a waste of time!! But I needed to find internet cafe to find out if I could move my flights to Australia, in order to spend more time in Indonesia. Before going to internet, I decided I needed to have some breakfast as it was already noon. Of course Probolingo only serves local food, so rice it is for breakfast!! I had however decided to try something new of the region: nasi Pecel. It is fried rice but with a topping of a sweet chili peanut sauce, served with some sort of green leaves (something similar to spinach) and peanut crunchy cracker. I was pleasantly surprised how tasty it was, and although it was still early for rice breakfast, I had no choice but to enjoy it, and the nice atmosphere in a tiny local street restaurant, that was filled with local Indonesians, taking a lunch break.

After my call with the airline, I received disappointing news that postponing my flight to Australia was not possible, as all the flight for the next month were fully booked. So I needed to leave Indonesia after one month, enjoying the last few days to its maximum.

Finally it was time to take off to Gili islands, a group of small islands off west Lombok. The bus journey was going to take 17 hours but this duration was not concerning me too much. I was exhausted and was actually looking forward to taking some good nigh sleep on the bus, if I only knew…

Soon we arrived at the ferry terminal of Java to Bali. We had to go through some sort of quick security, to enter our bus again and continue the journey to Bali, and later to Lombok. Everything was going great on schedule, this time no delays foreseen. We crossed Bali and arrived at the next ferry terminal to be able to cross to the next island, Lombok. Again, some sort of security check and there we are again on a ferry, but this time the bus driver tells us we can’t stay in the bus and have to stay on the ferry for the next 4,5 hours. Great, I was just getting comfortable to sleep. Luckily the ferry is equipped in beds and I was able to lie down again and try to catch some sleep, it wasn’t easy, the air con was blowing icy air with a temperature no more than 15 degrees. I always get fascinated by Asian countries. They love the aircon to the point of icy. All the shopping malls have their air con in full capacity and shopping becomes always an icy experience. Now I learned that whenever I am in a shopping mall or some sort of public area, despite the fact the outside temperature is above 30 C, I need to have a sweater on me, ha ha.

4,5 hours later, finally I am in Lombok, very near to the Gili’s, it seems. The bus takes me to the next city Mattaran, from which I need to get another bus connection to get me to the Gili’s. As soon as I arrived, there, I met several touts, offering me the ‘best possible deal’ to take me to the Gili’s harbor. I politely refuse, insisting that I will take the local min van. Everyone tells me there is no such thing, as they always would. I insist there is and go and look for one. It doesn’t take me long to find one. They look like prehistoric, almost falling apart, but I decisively got on one and waited patiently for over an hour until it fills up. Filling up means that there are more people in the car that it can take, so I sit there, squeezed in, hardly able to breathe, but don’t give up and don’t lose my patience. After more than 1 hour, the car starts moving, but it drives with the speed of 20 km per hour, stopping at every corner, trying to take mare people, although there is no single space available inside. 3 hours later, I finally arrive at the little harbor, from where the boats to Gilis leave. Again I am being welcomed by several touts, trying to take me to the islands directly, without waiting, for the best possible price. They surrounded me in such a way, in their hope that I wouldn’t notice the formal office of the harbor, but they are too naïve. After travelling already for 8 months, I know that there is an office and I even know the exact price of the boat. I finally make my way through to the office and buy the ticket to one of the islands, Gili Trawanan. The lady at the counter is trying to convince me that I should consider a private boat as the public one take long time to fill up. I tell her that I have all the time in the world and will wait. It took only half an hour and the boat was full and ready to go. 20 more minutes and I was finally, after 24 hours of travelling, going to enter a well deserved paradise.

Welcome to Gili Trawangan. GT is the largest island of the three, and most developed. After 1 hour of searching for a nice accommodation, I found a perfect spot, 5 minutes away from the main beach. The island is great in the sense that there are no cars of any other sort of vehicle, except for horse rickshaws.

The beaches of Gili are nice and sandy and taking a snorkeling tour is well worth it as they will take you to amazing spots where coral is still unspoiled and you can spot beautiful turtles and colorful fish. Snorkeling is really the highlight of Gili’s, I must say. Although Gili has really beautiful beaches, it is definitely missing the local spirit a bit. The islands are really a tourist attraction in that sense that there is little local life visible. Don’t get me wrong, the islands are amazingly beautiful but I always enjoy places more where there is healthy a mixture of tourists and local people, like Sumatra had, for example. Gili’s only existence is because of tourism, so in terms of cultural experience there is little to live in Gili’s, but to admire the beautiful sunsets, corals and local marine life.

Few days in Gili were nearly the last stop of Indonesia, before continuing my trip to Australia. I have seen little of Indonesia as it is such a big and diverse country but I believe I got a taste of it. The landscapes, volcanic nature, beaches and diverse culture of various islands is a reason enough for me to come back one day to Indonesia and explore more remote and less populated islands. I enjoyed Indonesia and mainly the people of Sumatra that well very kind and had a lot of sense of humor. Despite the fact that Sumatra is less developed than Java and Bali, for me Sumatra really is the spirit of Indonesia. Java and Bali, on the other hand, reminded me a bit of India, overpopulated and badly spoiled by irresponsible tourism. I have never met so many touts and had so many attempts to be cheated literally on every single purchase (was it being chicken sate stick bought on the street or bus ticket) as I was in Bali and Java. People on the public bus stations are unkind, corrupt, and that includes local security officers that are wondering there in theory to keep the order. But this negative experience I had over Bali and Java, had not influenced my fantastic impressions of Indonesia, because I still think that Indonesia in its spirit, is a wonderfully fascinating country, full of history, traditions and variety.  I look forward to my return to Indonesia in the future where I can explore Papua, Sulawesi, Sumba and other, more remote islands of Indonesia.

Being now 6 months on my journey and looking each day at the purpose of my trip and the inner understanding of one self, I have been walking with the thought of doing a meditation retreat in order to be able to reflect on my travels and all the things that happened during it. While travelling, the thought of doing meditation was crossing my mind more and more. The more I thought about it, the more people I met who do it and had told me what a wonderful and life changing experience it has been for them. I was inquiring more information and speaking more with people about it just to understand what I should expect if I decided to join a temple for a insight meditation retreat.

Meditation stands for mental development in a personal experience. The insight meditation technique teaches you a path to a better, peaceful life through clear understanding about one self. This practice focuses on contemplation of the Body, Feeling, Mind (Thought) and Objects of the Mind. Acknowledging is the heart of the Insight Meditation. It is the continual work of mindfulness to be aware and acknowledge. Insight meditation is being continually mindful of what happens to body, feelings, perceptions, mental formation and consciousness. We should be conscious of what we are doing both physically and mentally in the present moment.

While being still in Laos I made up my mind that I was going to do a 10-day meditation retreat in the north of Thailand. I started my research on the temples that were offering such a retreat. When I arrived in Chiang Mai, the next day I decided to visit 3 temples that were offering meditation. I signed up for one but wasn’t sure about the place. The temple was beautiful and in the city, but the information and introduction I received there was not satisfying me. I decided to continue my search knowing that in the worst case scenario I already had a secured place. After 2 days of visiting several temples, I arrived at a place called Wat Ram Poeng (or Tapotaram), 4 km away from Chiang Mai. The foreign office was unfortunately closed early due to a Buddha day so I couldn’t inquire information that day, but at the gate, I was immediately helped by a very friendly woman monk, who took me around the area of temple and told me about the meditation. I got so excited that I decided to come back the next day and sign up for a retreat. I gave myself another 4 days before starting so that I could prepare myself mentally for being quiet for 10 days.

The first day I arrived, I wasn’t alone. I convinced a friend who I met while travelling Asia, she would join me. At least I didn’t feel lonely the first day, although from the moment of arrival we were pretty much banned from any eye contact and talking to one another. There were 5 other foreigners starting on the same day, so we were in total a group of 7. The first day was a long one, but mainly occupied by organizing the logistics such as room, showing us around the place, explaining to us the rules of the retreat. We finished the day at 10.30 PM with a 2 hours meditation.

From the day 2^nd, it got really hard. The routine of the day was: wake up at 4 AM and time for meditation practice till 6.30, breakfast time. After breakfast, taking a shower and then again time for meditation practice till lunch time, 10.30 AM. Lunch is the last meal of the day. After this we were not allowed to have any more food till the next morning breakfast. We were allowed though to eat natural yoghurt and drink as much as we wanted. After lunch, we went off meditating again until reporting time. Reporting time is the time we meet the ‘Teacher’ and tell him about our day and meditation practice, how many hours we did and what difficulties we were facing. After reporting what is really left for the day is to meditate and meditate as much as you want. But the Teacher is however really strict and expects that while you stay at the temple, you do your best effort to meditate at least for 10 hours a day.

On my second day I managed to do 8 hours of meditation but was really exhausted by the end of the day. I started with a simple technique and did 15 minutes of walking meditation (where you walk really slowly, concentrate on the movement of your legs and repeat in your mind: “right goes thus, left goes thus”). Then you do 15 minutes of sitting meditation in a meditation position (Buddha position: legs crossed and right hand on top of the other). While sitting, you focus on your breathing and acknowledge the falling and rising of the abdomen, sitting still without movement, and ignoring all the sensations you might feel such as itchiness, pain or anything else. Every time your mind is walking away, and you start thinking of past, future or anything really, you must return to yourself and concentrate on your breathing or walking.

I really had a low moment on the 4^th day. I was exhausted by waking up every day at 4, and I was literally falling asleep while meditating. One of the rules of meditation is that you are not allowed to sleep during the day as it is disrupt full to the ‘Mindfulness’. I was struggling to keep myself awake by drinking tons of coffee and trying to stay focused. I did 8 hours that day but the Teacher was disappointed I didn’t do more, and that really put me down. I admit, I wanted to quit, I thought I was not going to last the 10 days. But I got up the next day at 4 AM and did my best, managed to meditate for 10 hours and it was getting better and better by each day, regardless of the physical exhaustion you are experiencing all this time. I learned to stay still for more than 40 minutes on both sitting and walking meditation and with more practice, it gets easier and easier.

Can you imagine that people that do the 26-day course, the last three days of the course they must meditate for 3 consecutive days and nights’ non-stop without sleeping? I spoke to one student who was at the end of his 26 days course, and he was so happy he did it, was thinking of doing it again in the future. I have a huge admiration for people like him with so much determination and self-discipline.

I am now at the end of my retreat, enjoying the last day at the temple and being able to use the computer for the first time. In 10 days I was here, I haven’t talked, red and got any distractions. The temple is really a perfect environment for being absorbed with one self, and it is not easy. I was missing interaction with people, at the last days of my retreat. Don’t get me wrong, the temple is full of monks and visitors, but the monks are keeping a good eye on us that we don’t interact, so that we can profit from the meditation retreat as much as possible. I am at the end of the retreat. I do know what impact it has had on me, perhaps I will forget about it soon as come back to my normal routine of life. I don’t know yet, I don’t particularly feel any different. One thing is for certain, in those 10 days I’ve learned how to be patient, how to appreciate food and people you are surrounded with. I’ve also learned that I should focus on the present moment and forget about the past or future, at least for a moment. It is incredible to know how strong your mind is, much stronger that I would ever imagine. When my body was failing me on the day 4^th, my mind was telling me to continue and ignore the pain, going beyond the limits I would ever think were possible. At the first day I could not imagine I could be quiet for 10 hours and focus on breathing and walking exercise for so long. People that know me well know that I am the most impatient person and I get bored easily. But I was constantly telling to myself: you can do more, you can do better, you can ignore all the things your body is feeling, you can ignore hunger because your mind can over win all distractions. It has definitely been a unique experience, nothing like I had ever done before. I can’t tell yet now if I feel any different or not, I didn’t have any expectations that meditation will significantly change my life. But I do feel a huge excitement of being able to accomplish this and not give up half way through. From our group of 7, 3 people fell off and I thought also for a moment, I was going be one off them, but I made a conscious decision that I was going to stay and that I was going to give it 100% or even more. I am standing here and I am feeling greater than ever…

While being in the temple, it was great to observe the whole routine of monks and their constantly mindful life style. There is so much routine and discipline in their life, waking up at 4 AM every day, eating last meal at 10.30 and for the rest of their day, chanting, meditating, studying, and practicing their knowledge, mindfulness and wisdom. I can’t contemplate why it is that they believe this life is so worthwhile, but they shine their gratitude and happiness of life in their being, so I guess there must have a bigger cause than any of us would ever be able to understand.

Have I been able to get the understanding of the inside, I guess this is just the beginning of a long journey, but at least I feel I am on the right track and learning more and more day by day.

Lord Buddha gives 5 purposes for insight meditation:

1. To purify the mind
2. To get rid of sorrows and lamentations
3. To get rid of physical and mental sufferings
4. To understand the truth of life
5. To extinguish suffering and gain Nibbana (Nirvana)

It takes more than 10 days of practice to achieve the 5, it is a life time practice to get where we all want to be, Nirvana. So instead of sitting still and feeling pity for one’s misery and misfortunate, stand up and make a first mindful step into changing your life…for better, more peaceful and happier…

I entered Laos’s from the south, exiting Cambodia, settling myself down on the Mekong’s 4 Thousand Islands, Island Don Det. Don Det is still unspoiled by tourism, where you could admire laid back life of Lao village people. I stayed in a bamboo bungalow with a hammock, overlooking the Mekong. Dot Det is a place to chill and to forget about rushing though all Asian countries. It is a place where you forget you are a back packer and slow down the pace. As the bamboo bungalows are located next to the houses of village people, I was able not only silently to observe the laid back life of Lao Mekong people, but I could also participate in their daily life as much as I wanted. I was picking up little kinds and played with them in the mornings, then was having a lunch with them where the kids were posing for my camera and had the most hilarious laugh, looking at their own pictures. Everything in the village was happening around me, killing a pig or chicken, fishing, washing kids in the river or doing the laundry, cooking and eating. Lao people are so relaxed that they don’t even notice there are few tourists around them and they mind their own business.

One day I went to an opening of a new guest house restaurant (I know it sounds really fancy but the whole restaurant was few bamboo sticks put together, few mini tables and little cushions to sit on) where Lao owner invited village people and was celebrating with dance, music and beer. I was dancing with Lao people and they were teaching me the moves to the Lao music.

There is no such a thing as time on Don Det, you don’t know which day it is, an hour matters even less. Initially I planned to stay only 3 days there but it soon became 6 and it was hard to leave this place.   I became really friends with the local family and I was so relaxed that packing my backpack and getting back on the road seemed almost impossible. One of the few attractions of Don Det was a ‘happy shake’ which I dared to try on my last night before leaving. Happy shake is a shake with ‘happy’ marihuana. I asked for a super happy shake but I think they must have run of the stuff as I was as happy after drinking as I was before J. I guess it is all in our heads J

After 4 Thousand Islands I continued to Pakse where I stopped for a day to admire Bolevan plateau, filled with wonderful waterfalls and coffee plantations. I decided to rent a motorbike and explore the plateau on the motorbike. I was surrounded by beautiful nature and could taste organic coffee sold at the plantations everywhere.

The south of Laos’ infrastructure is not perfect, the roads are narrow and dusty, not always well paved. The north is even worse. Laos is developing with a rapid speed, especially now that the tourist industry is booming, but is still years behind Thailand, Vietnam or China.

After exploring the south I arrived in the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is a quite a modern city but it didn’t blow me away. On the contrary, the constructions by the river took away the charm of the city and I was actually happy to leave it quite soon after arrival. The only memory I kept from Vientiane was the Golden stupa and deep-fried sticky rice balls sold by the river.

My next destination was Vang Vieng although I hesitated if I should visit that town. VV is a picturesque town surrounded by little villages and beautiful line stones. It is however overtaken by partying and drank tourists as this is a place know for its ‘tubing’ experience. While I was there I could not resist the ‘tubing’ so I went to explore, it is one of the things you got to there while you are there. I didn’t get the tube at the end but was swimming from bar to bar enjoying buckets of liquors, loud music, dancing, meeting other travelers and of course, main attraction: swinging (not that kind J; I know what you are thinking already!! Swinging on a swing!!). The bars set up high swings above the river where you could swing from a few meters high and then throw yourself into deep water. That was amazing and I could feel my muscles for the next two days for holding onto the swing.  I have to say that it is something no one should miss, amazing experience. After tubing everyone was going back to town, chilling in bars with good food and of course watching ‘Friends’ for hours until the next activity, which was going out to night bars and continuing drinking and partying… ha ha ha, that is Vang Vieng.

Luang Prabang, my next destination in North of Laos was much more spiritual than Vang VIeng. Luang Prabang is known for its picturesque location on Mekong river and is UNESCO World Heritage, with its famous Buddhist temples.   Luang Prabang is amazingly beautiful due to its temples and location, but also it is a place filled with monks that gives it an extra spiritual feeling; locals were amazingly friendly.

At nights I was walking through the night market that was selling wonderful crafts and jewelry and the market food (grilled fish or chicken) was selling the tastiest food I had so far in entire Laos. After eating so much of noodle soup which is the main meal in Laos for breakfast, lunch or whatever, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of food in Luang Prabang. Everyone is greeting you with their “Sabadee” which means Hallo or welcome. I really enjoyed Luang Prabang and also met wonderful people from Chile there, with whom I instantly became friends. We clicked so well that it felt we knew each other for years. It is amazing to meet people like them because that it what makes the trip so worthwhile. One evening before they left, we went out and got ourselves two bottles of Laos whisky for 1 EUR each (ha ha, super good quality). We had a night of laugher and jokes and stories of travels and life. It was so nice and intense, we made a promise we meet again. The next morning we said good byes with tears and each of us continued our trip in various directions.

After Luang Prabang I went up North to Muang Sing to visit some authentic tribe villages. In the North of Laos there are still quite a lot of minorities living in small communities. Most of them live a very simple life, not having electricity and the luxury we Westerners are so used to. While being at Muang Sing, I rented a bicycle and cycled all the way to the Chinese border. On the way back I entered one of the unpaved tiny roads which was leading me into several minority villages. The houses of the villages had particular characteristics depending on which minority was living in that village. Some houses were lifted off the ground; some were built directly on the ground which is typical for Kmong minority. The houses were very basic with no sanitary facilities inside. Usually each village has one water pomp where all social activities are happening such as washing, laundry, cooking etc. When I arrived in one of the villages, all of a sudden I was surrounded by kids and they all wanted to take a ride at the back seat of my bike. I took each one of them on a bike ride and they were having the time of their lives. It didn’t matter we didn’t speak the same language; we could perfectly communicate with gestures. I regretted I didn’t have any small gifts or toys to give away; it would have made my day. In the villages the local woman were selling some of their crafts, still very authentic and all hand-made.

After the visit to the tribe village, the next morning I took a forest trek together with a German and French travelers so that we could learn more about the nature of Laos. Our guide was a Kmong man and before we went to the forest, he took us first into his village where he explained to us the ‘rice noodle’ and ‘rice paper’ making process. We could see the village woman preparing the rice paste. He also has invited us to this house where he introduced us to his mother, wife and two little children. His house was very basic where the soil was decorated with beer bottles coming from a Chinese brand, simple but beautiful.

After the visit to the village, we went trekking through the forest, but it was a dry season so the vegetation was very dry and there was actually not much to admire. I guess it must be extremely green with the rainy season, but I was not able to see that during this trek.

From Muang Sing I returned to Luang NamTha and took a night bus to cross the border to Thailand in Huaxay. The ride takes forever as there is nearly no road infrastructure so we were riding on a local bus, I was the only foreigner and the only woman on the bus. The bus was nearly empty, there were 5 other men. We were driving by night and all of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere, the lights of the bus went off. Since the driver was driving with a speed, he needed to bring the bus into stop instantly, that was scary, it was f…. dark like hell. I was there on my own, in the middle of nowhere, with 5 random Lao men, and I was thinking, shit, what is going to happen if they don’t manage to fix the lights. We will need to stay and sleep on the bus till the morning. Luckily after 30 minutes the lights of the bus were working again. We continued only for 30 seconds and the lights of the bus went off again. At this point I had no more hope we were going to make it to the Thai border. But I was wrong, it took a while but finally they fixed again the lights and this time they were working all the way till the Thai border, I was so relieved we made it. Ufff, don’t want to be in that situation again where I am totally alone in the middle of nowhere…

My overall reflections of Laos are mixed. I loved the laid back culture of Laos people although sometimes it is annoying if it takes 1 hour to get a fruit shake J. Most of the time they forget and go back to their hammocks. I was not taken away by the Lao food and was starving at the end of my trip in Laos, I could not stand the look of Lao noodle soup any longer J. But this country has a lot of potential too and its Mekong site has scenic and beautiful sides which I really loved. I guess it is a place to return to in few years time, or maybe even soon before the mass of tourism is going to arrive. For now I am happy to leave Lao so that I can continue my spiritual journey onto Thailand and start working on my mindfulness: meditation retreat is coming closer and closer, I need to get ready for that.

I started my journey through Cambodia in the south where I crossed the border on the Mekong river, coming from Vietnam. Since I have been travelling already for several months, I decided to take my first stop in Shinoukville, on the sea side where I could chill for a while and take on some sun (as if I didn’t have enough sun and heat coming from Vietnam J) and relax. You know, travelling is hard work, you are constantly on the move, and the journey never stops really.

Sinoukville has a number of beautiful beaches, I stayed on a more touristy side (Serendipity beach), just for the comfort of good food and proximity to the beach. My guest house room was maybe 20 meters away from the beach, this is the compromise I was willing to accept J (hey, I could have chosen for a bungalow on the beach!).

Being on a beach, catching up on my books, taking a pedicure and pedicure for only USD 5, enjoying fresh grilled fish and seafood was exactly what I needed for few days. Don’t go to Shinoukville for Cambodian experience because you are not going to find it there, it is as Western as it gets.

After chilling for few days in the south, I finally continued to Phnom Penh, the capital. I was amazed how beautiful and well structured the city is. It is easy to get around on the bike as the city is really well designed and small. First few days I was just cycling around the city (the Dutch blood must be in me although I am not Dutch J), visiting the river city and surroundings.

Cambodia has a long and dark history and no one really talks about it anymore, everyone wants to forget the Khmer Rouge regime and its cruelties of the past. But you are being confronted with it while visiting the killing fields and learning more about the history of Cambodia. Since the Khmer regime has killed the intellectual class of Cambodia during the regime with very few survivals, the low education level is quite visible all around Cambodia. One of the signs of it is, that most people have absolutely no idea what a map is and how to read it, so don’t try to show a map to a Cambodian to find out where you are, they will not be able to help you.

Despite its cruel history, Cambodians are well-hearted people and extremely curious about the foreigners. They want to know where you’re from, what is your marital status, what do you do in your country etc. Their curiosity is pure and kind and I found Cambodians overall very hospital and friendly.

In Phnom Penh I had the luxury of staying in a nice 3-star hotel for 4 nights, which was offered to me by my lovely ex-colleague’s hotel-voucher present. For a moment I felt again like I was an important business woman, on an important business trip. The hotel doorman was opening the door for me every day with a huge smile. While having breakfast and updating on my travel blog stories, I was surrounded by Chinese and Korean businessman and I was pretending that I also was working on a very important business report. It felt really funny, but I enjoyed it a lot.

After Phnom Penh I continued my trip to Battambang, located on the north-west side of Cambodia. Battambang is situated on a river side and surrounded by beautiful temples, tribe villages and water. In Battambang I took the famous bamboo train, the old fashioned way of transportation, which is still used for transporting goods but mainly as a tourist attraction. I got on a train with two other travelers and our driver. Since the train only has one rail track, when there is another train coming from the opposite direction, the rule is that the train with less people gets dissembled and is taking off the rail so that the other train can pass first. It was I guess not our lucky day, our train got dissembled 3 times and we needed to wait for the other train to pass through, so unfair!!! J

Since Battambang is surrounded by many villages, there is a lot of NGO-work going on there. I met quite few NGO people and I didn’t really understand that in such a small place like Battambang, there are 130 different NGO’s. Most of NGO’s I met, were young Europeans, sponsored by their own government and actually being there for own self development than really to help develop Cambodia. I got a wrong picture of NGO over there but maybe I am on a totally different wave, don’t know, didn’t get it at all.

After Battambang I decided to take a slow 9 hour boat to go to Siem Reap. It was an amazing experience. The river water was very low so we got stack several times on the bottom of the river, but along the way we could admire the tranquility and simplicity of village people, living by the river. The kids were all screaming Hallo’s to us and running along the river after our boat until we disappeared. It was beautiful to see the river life and its people.

My last stop of Cambodia was Siem Reap, which is the base for sightseeing Ankor temples. There is not much I can say here, it is one of the must things to see! The temples are really spectacular although Ankor Wat is certainly not my favorite. I was taken away by Bayon temple and some other smaller temples, located further away from the city. It is an expensive experience as the tickets are USD 40 for 3 days sightseeing but there is nothing like the Ankor of Cambodia. A must do for everyone.

I liked the diversity of Cambodia and the hospitality of its people. While visiting Ankor, in the heat of a burning sun, I decided to take a rest under the roof of the tuk tuk car, and had a nice chat with the tuk tuk driver for about 40 minutes. He told me his entire story about his family, children, grandchildren (he was only 40 years old) and his USD 2000 tuk tuk loan he needed to pay off. Then he was asking me a lot of questions in his broken English about me. As soon as he asked me my age and found out I wasn’t married, he offered his help in finding a suitable husband for me as he had many tuk tuk drivers’ friends. I insisted I wasn’t looking for a husband and finally he dropped the subject, but when at the end of the day he brought me back to my hotel, he asked again if he could offer help on finding a suitable husband. It was hilarious as he was so warm-hearted. But I said no of course. Or should I consider his offer??

Cambodia has left me with a very warm feeling; this is a place to return to, mainly for its beautiful and warm-hearted people. Off to Laos…

The HK Island is impressive with its skyscraper architecture. HK Island is mainly occupied by corporate companies but while taking the train to the the Victoria Peak to admire the city from the mountain, I could see a number of luxuries apartments along the way with crystal chandeliers and beautiful marble floors. Whoever can afford living on HK Island is a millionaire.  I wanna be one of them!!!!

You can’t get bored in HK. There is plenty to do in terms of sightseeing and shopping. The main attraction are obviously the Victoria Peak which is a must do for anyone who ever visits HK. Taking a Star ferry to cross waters to HK Island is also amazingly interesting as you admire the island from the waterside. Also the 2^nd or 3^rd largest Buddha statue in this world is located nearby (Latau island) which is an impressive and spiritual sight. If you get enough of the city, take a tube or bus and go exploring the beaches, some of them still unspoiled and beautiful.

In terms of HK cuisine, everything in HK is possible. A friend of mine who I met in India (Iris, she is from HK) invited me for a typical HK lunch, servings of multiple dumplings served over hot Chinese tea. The Chinese cuisine is rich and tasty, full of meat, veggies and exotic spices. We spent several hours enjoying multiple dishes and catching up on our travel adventures over drinks. It is always great to meet someone from the city you are visiting, as they are the perfect introduction to its culture and sights.

One day I decided to take a one day trip to explore Macau, a former Portuguese colony, known for Hazardous lifestyle. Macau is full of casinos and of course I couldn’t resist but to enter one of them and try out my luck. I lost 10MD but had lots of fun J.

As much as loved HK, I had to move on to the next destination, Vietnam as time was pressuring me. However, I am determined to come back to HK and I truly believe t is my future destiny. I got some contacts of head hunters in HK and when my trip comes to an end, I will be hunting jobs in HK so that I can explore HK more and learn more about this marvelous place. HK, I am in love with you… till we meet again. Off to Vietnam.