Somewhere in Australia.... looking for kangaroos

So we have left successfully Adelaide and started our long journey to Melbourne and to Sydney in our new homely campervan "ABBA". We got kind of a decent theme on it, after exchanging it for a "cocky" topic, which might have been offensive to some people:) It is a very basic but as well a great car (it is ours afterall) and it will be our 5star hotel on the 4000km long journey (it is nice change though to all the unpacking and packing back of our backpack everyday).

So where to go first? That was a very easy question and we were heading to the oldest German village in Australia:) no we are not crazy, but this little touristic village Hahndorf was on our way through lovely wineries (but French route de vin is obviously better) and it was on the way to one of the beaches we really wanted to see. (und nur so am Rand, in diesem Dorf hat niemand aber wirklich niemand Deutsch gesprochen, nur ein Paar von den verlorenen und sentimentalen deutschen Touristen und ein Paar Kinder in der Grundschule, die ein Paar Plakaten fuer den Dorf vorbereitet hatten - German class is over - Ende)

The beach was excellent with amazingly clean and transparent water with dolphins not far away of the shore! They were just there, we didn't have to pay any dolpin watching or swimming with dolphins tour - they were just there. We should have learned from this experience and not to pay a quided tour for penguins' parade in Victor's Harbour. The penguins were in some weird phase of their life and in an hour, for 11 australian dollars EACH! We have seen 4, yes 4 whole penguins - in a very cold and rainy weather (the rest of them were hidden God knows where), but I have to say that they were really sweet! When we are already at the animal topic, I must say that there are lots of signs around the roads. Apparently there are lots of koalas, kabgaroos or roos by the streeet, but i think that it is another tourist attraction:) Oh yes, we have seen animals - koalas, kangaroos, wombats,possums... But unfortunately all of them were dead, lying on the side of the street (as I am writing this entry on our way, waiting to catch a wireless and upload the blog - things might change, as we are currently in the small town Healesville in Yarra valley, with our coutch servers and will go to sanctuary, with all the strange australian creatures - but like this things are not explained properly). To not to bore you for more longer I will make the explanation quicker.

Next day we continued on driving towards the great ocean drive, but we stopped for a night in Mt. Gambier witha Blue Lake. The colour of the water was so blue, that I didn't believe that it is natural. It looked like someone painted it. We woke up the next day with a very strange noise. It was like a spaceship sending its signals to the space, or a robot talking (my mind and thoughts went crazy - yes, it is happenning, the E.T.'s exist and they chose our caravan to take us with them!) when I opened the curtains, I saw a lovely black and white bird "singing":) it was the most strange birds singing I have ever heard (I promise not to complain about our lovely birds at home ever again:)

The great ocean drive is fantastic. Cliffs, lovely views, beautiful colours, buses with Japanese tourists:) We took our time and stopped almost at each view point, to satisfy my japanese genes and to take dozens of photos. We are passing Melbourne, staying overnight in Phillip Island and going to see Healesville, where we met Ruth & Toni, who kindly offered us their place to stay. They have a lovely house, with great garden and terasse and we talked and talked about travelling as they are preparing their 6 months long travel to Europe!
We will be heading to Sydney and hopefully before I will have the possibility to upload our blog and the photos.

But before I finish for today I hope that all of you are familiar with Skippy the bush kangaroo, as he is the one I am looking for. He is the most intelligent kangaroo and the best friend of all the girls and boys, he understands how we speak and we understand his language - he is a big help but as well a great friend to play with. So wait for the next stories, may be I will meet him soon:)

Somewhere in Adelaide...

To start correctly I would still have to say something about Singapore. It is really a great city and country! It was a lovely place to finish our trip of Asia ( though you can't compare it with Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok). As they say Singapore is a really fine city:) Everything is spotless, big skyscrapers, lots of cafes, bars, restaurants, very very cosmopolitan. It was as well great reminder on how the prices really look like! After 5 weeks in Asia we got used to different budgets... Singapore got us ready to face the prices in Australia:) We stayed just 2 nights in fantastic hotel in Chinese quarter, but at the end of the day we have realised that there is lots to explore and we wouldn't mind to stay longer.

The flight to Adelaide was too short! As we had Air Singapore flight it was a really good experience even in the economy class, and 6 hours didn't give us much time to enjoy all the movies:)

But... we are soo happy to be in Australia! Everybody is so friendly! We have a nice studio in Adelaide, so we went shopping and cooked a nice steak (our first home made dinner in 7 weeks:), of course we couldn't resist and we bought a nice bottle of red Jacob's Creek wine, which was delicious. It looks like that we are as well in a nice "student friendly area" as the bar we went afterwards was just crowded! We were the oldest - but one of the guys says that we don't look soo old, so we can stay:) (Was it a compliment?:)

Anyway... tomorrow we are hiring a campa van from "Wicked Campars", so you be sure that our car will be wicked:) We have decided to hire a car, as we are staying just 6 weeks... (it is really not long at all!). We will camp mostly and sleep in our new home - Mama Mia car:) and will travel from Adelaide along the east cost up to Cairns. Than we fly back to Sydney and from there to New Zealand.

Be ready for lots of stories and photos. We will try to get to the internet cafes as much as possible and let you know how are we doing in the country of Oz! Can't wait to meet Lisa, Brian and Irina in Sydney in a week time.

And for those who wants to stay in touch, here is our Australian phone number: +61 4321 79105

Somewhere in .... Singapore airport:)

We owe you short story about Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, but this would have to wait a little bit. We are just waiting for our flight to Adelaide - Australia! We have spend approximately 4 hours at the airport in Singapore. OK, we love it - live jazz band, behind the corner classical concert, free movie, gym and I am writing you these comments from free internet cafe:) Could you wish for more? Btw - Singapore was an amazing place with lots of skyscrapers, modern buildings, cafes with free internet and above all we have arrived in the beginning of the chinese new year! So the chinese town, where we stayed, was completely deserted!:) Nice way to explore things around. In Australia we will write more and upload some more photos as we have to go and try to play some x-box (for the "connesseurs" to be jealous)....

So everybody .... KUNG HEI FAT CHOI ! (which means happy new year! - in a very liberal translation)
We are off to see some kangaroos:)

Somewhere in Melaka...

So we have just left the sleepy, friendly town of Melaka. A historical town which makes a huge contrast to the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur, Melaka has gone through many hands, first a sultanate of itsown, then the Portuguese took over in 1511 but only for 130 years when the (evil) dutch came into the scene, followed by the brits in mid 19th century, and back to the Malays with the independence of Malaysia in 1957. But it is not the old Melaka which impressed us, not its old Portuguese forts and churches or the archaelogical sites which uncover 500-years old portuguese relicas (one of which, a coin, we are now the proud owners of), it is not even the magical little streets with varied colonial styles, home to budhist and hindu temples, churches and mosques, all in one place. It is the live Melaka which captured us and made us stay longer than planned. It is, in fact...

- the person advertising some guesthouse who makes sure that we get to the right bus to town even though we have already something booked elsewhere

- the little chinese lady to whom we ask directions for the bus station on the way back, who actually drives us there in her car!

- Lancelot, the chef, Portuguese descendant (called Portuguis, there are still a couple of thousands of these so-called "bastards of the empire" who speak a very old, simple portuguese), who invites us over to his table and buys us all the drinks and food for the rest of the night and then at 3am drives us home back to the hotel

- Catarina and Ana, the Filipino girls learning to be chef with Lancelot, who want to know every about our countries

- Alfonso, the Portuguis fischerman, amazingly knowledgeable and clever who loves the sea and Melaka and despite having been around the world and having had good offers to stay elsewhere, remains in Melaka, where he knows so well the wind, the currents, the tides and the fish

- Big Ben, owner of one of the local restaurants, wearing a Portuguese football hat, talking about the portuguese football exploits in theWorld Cup which were followed in Melaka in a big screen by all thePortuguis, and who tells very good dirty jokes

- Papa Joe, one of the leaders of the Portuguis community, who recognised me as Portuguese as I was walking down the street and immediately bought us a drink! Joe, who owns a restaurant, plays the guitar and sings old portuguese folkore songs, and has done so on Malaysian TV, for the king and government of Malaysia, and elsewhere in Macau, Germany, etc. but despite hollow invitations, has never managed been to Portugal

- John, a 79-years old Dutch who tells us old stories of Asia and himself - he worked all over Asia since 1947 as a Phillips engineer,and has now settled down in Melaka where he feels more at home than back in Holland

- Mohan, the Indian owner of a Cafe, whose girlfriend is a young promising vietnamese artist, 27 years younger, who also drives us back home at the end of a lively evening at Papa Joe's restaurant

- Peter, Chinese who loves to sing along to Portuguis songs and even speaks a bit of portuguese, and his friend, a Chinese 66-year old retired teacher, who loves to dance to all the songs

- Jason, a Chinese Melakan archaelogist who proudly shows us all the work he has done, and which has been recognised by Unesco and the Malay and Portuguese governments, in uncovering so much of Melaka's Portuguese past

- Mark and Stefan, two German expats from Shanghai who we dragged along to Papa Joes and had a night they will remember!

- Lena, who fed us breakfast every morning and kept our address to write us a postcard

This was Melaka.. I have a feeling that if we stayed longer, the list would just get bigger and bigger, but unfortunately it is time to leave, the Chinese New Year is coming and we have already planned to celebrate it in style in Singapore.

So now, it is "Muito Grande Merci, Melaka" and we will certainly see you again!

Somewhere in .... (ceska verze)

Jenom zkracene...

Mili rodicove a biologove,

byli byste na me moc moc pysni! Byli tam tarantule a skorpioni a netopyri a ruzna jina havet! Dokonce jsem se nechala i premluvit a sla na nocni vylet dzungli! FUJ! Kolik haveti jsme videli....:) Ale prezila jsem, nic me nekouslo ani neoslizlo a velkym pavoukum jsem se vyhybala.

Takze moje trauma ze stuttgartske zoo a pavilonu brouku prekonal vylet do destneho pralesa Taman Negara!

Dejte pozor, aby se ze me jeste nestal prirodovedec a dobrodruh! (Uzijte si fotky, ty haveti jsou specielne pro vas:)

Somewhere in 3 places in Malaysia...

We haven't written for a long time. Not because nothing was happening, but we were in places with no internet or mobile access! Yes, such places still exist on this earth:)

After Georgetown we sat for 6 hours in the bus, which took us to the Cameron Highlands. Already by the name you could see that it wasn't a place on the beach, but 1500 meters above sea level. Perfect place for tea plantations, vegetable, strawberries & flower farms. Place, where there is no more than 15 degreese ( I am not complaining), where it rains in the evening and it can get quite foggy! Perfect place to relax, do some hiking, drink lots of tea (the most famous is BOH tea) and to chill out. This is exactly what we have been doing as well. We have stayed in the Father's questhouse, the oldest hostel in Cameron Highlands, after hiking we were drinking tea and were watching films in the common area of the hostel.... For night we packed out our sleeping bags and were enjoying the cold and fresh air.

After two days we have decided that we would like to see more nature and we left to the national park Taman Negara - approximately 8 hours way from Cameron Highlands. Taman Negara, the oldest rain forest in the world ( 130 million years!) was expecting us with all its secrets and strange animals - our quest to see tigers, wild boars, monkeys, bats, tarantulas or scorpions was quite successful. We haven't seen tigers, but we have remembered Calvin & Hobbes by observing strange insects by the night jungle walk. We stayed in the Nusa Camp and for another 3 days we were hiking, trekking, going up and down the tahan river and exploring the forest and the life in it. All the trees which are as tall as 15 floor building and soo green, with lianas hanging from them and the forest so deep that you can't say the difference between trees, were amazing.

The longest canopy walkway in the world (o,5 km), night jungle walk (with scorpions, tarantulas, glowing frogs and bats) and exploring waterfalls - these were not the only adventure in these days. We have decided to explore one of the caves in the national park and we have decided to do it alone -without a quide as the other activities were quite easy! We got our torch and get on our way. The walk to the cave was really nice, passing the orang asli village (village of the locals:). The cave itself was looking quite challenging... not an easy walk and torch was definitely needed as it was completely dark in it, with lots of passages, where we had to crowl in the water or crossing from stone to stone. Of course with our luck the torch went off in the middle of our exploration and did'n't start again! Just in the part where dozen of bats were hanging from the ceiling. Of course they got excited by our conversation what we will do next, as we really couldn't continue and started flying all over the place (this was like a scene from Indiana Jones, when the bugs in the cave start flying - or at least this is how I felt)... Bravely enough we have made our way back as we knew approximately what we can expect. It was still a very long path and probably the biggest adventure we have had in Taman Negara....

This rain forest offers lots of beautiful places, creatures to see and it shows you lots of hidden paths you can wonder along.

We have left our hiking adventures and water taxi down the Tahan river and we have exchanged it for a glamorous and chaotic cosmopolitan city Kuala Lumpur. We are staying in China town (full of chinese stalls:) and exploring the town in an imense heat! ....

I was as well successful and uploaded the missing photos from Ko Samui and our trip to Malaysia (as Pedro's picasa is full, please click on the lik Pictures II - where to look to get access to see them)

We will let you know how the trip through Malaysia will continue and until then - have fun! (Pedro might share with you later on his thoughts on how humans are destroying rain forests!)

Somewhere in Georgetown, Malaysia...

Yes, we have left our beloved Thailand! My visa has expired and it was time for us to move on. It was very hard and we were speculating at least for 2-3 days if we should stay longer and visit the Full moon party and probably another island Ko Lanta, which looked really fantastic. We thought if we can't keep the timetable of our travel for the first country, we won't get anywhere and that is why we sat in the ferry and bus and crossed the border to MALAYSIA, Penang island - Georgetown. It was a definitely an experience to go there. We chose a state bus, which played for 6 hours a private collection of songs from the bus drive's Ipod:) And something amasing on the border happend! For the first time the Czechs beat the Portuguese! As I have got my visa for 90 days and Pedro just for 30! So celebrate with me:)

The journey to Georgetown by the minibus from the border should have taken not more than 2 hours, but we got stuck in a huge traffic. We were wondering why, as it was Thursday evening. There were lots of Indians on the street, in really fancy dresses and make-up and at once we have realised we are in the middle of some Hindu celebration or festival. It really scared us when we saw some men walking on the street and from their bodies were hanging iron wires with iron balls on them. Au! But they looked very serious....Well, it took us around 4-5 hours to get to Georgetown. Even if you take a state line bus, they stop where ever you wish - it is like cheaper taxi. Of course it can be a little bit annoying as you are a foreigner and always the last one:) Our hotel in Georgetown didn't hold the reservation for us as we were late and they were fully booked, so we started our hunt for a room, which was very easy in the turistic area we were dropped off.

Georgetown is very special. It is like three or four different worlds living together in one place. This old colonial town, owned by British in the past, has Malay people, together with Chinese, Indians, Arabs, who lived in one town and practise their own religion - Budhism, Islam, Hindu, Christianity... Amazing and no problems what so ever. Beside the old historical town, which consists from the old colonial buildings (which were once white), you can see China town, Little India ... and on the other site of island 5star hotels with fantastic white beaches (unfortunately not so good for swimming, as it was jelly fish season)

Tomorrow early morning we will be leaving this island and we will go by bus to Cameron Highlands ( to taste some proper tea as there are famous tea plantations). From there - we will see, either it will be the national park Taman Negara or Kuala Lumpur, what ever seems more convenient. We will stay in Malaysia for 14 days (approximately) and head down to Singapore and Australia (where we will meet with Lisa H., Brian, and Irina S. - to check how is the Mars life going).

And by the way we have a new Malaysian number, so feel free to text us or call us: +60143090654
Unfortunately I can't download the photos from Ko Samui yet, as there are no USB ports in the PCs:). Hopefully soon!