The moment you set foot on Dutch soil, time starts to fly again, you start to think about everything you have to do and organize, you start running, going to bed late and waking up early, but also eating the good healthy food you've missed, seeing the friends you've missed, walking the charming little cobblestone streets of Utrecht, and you dive into a new semester full of interesting stuff, thick books and a lot of essays :)
Still, just three weeks ago I was in Kuala Lumpur...it seems ages ago!
And now it is time to select the pictures, make a book, and digest everything I've seen, learned and experienced. Browsing through the hundreds of pictures I am overwhelmed by a feeling of profound thankfulness for all I was able to see and do! So many beautiful places, so many wonderful moments, such nice people...
From now on Australia, and especially Melbourne, will always mean something special to me! I will always think of the sunsets at Brighton Beach, the evenings in Lentil as Anything, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the sunrise at Uluru, the weeks at the farm in the Northern Territory, the waterfalls of Kakadu National Park, the millions of lights after dark in Sydney, the beautiful beaches, the sunrise at Byron Bay, the hundreds of kilometers behind Wicky's steering wheel, the majestically blue water of Witsunday Island and the fire at the Clairview camp ground with a big, big smile!
The best part is that it doesn't even stop here, and I have one more month full of interesting, new, sometimes heavy, sometimes hilarious, sometimes tiering, sometimes relaxing, but most of all amazing experiences in Cambodia and Vietnam to remember.
These seven months have given me a lot, but probably the most important thing they gave me was a home. More than anything else this time away, in the end, made me realize that, maybe not for ever, maybe not even for a very long time, but definitely for now, Utrecht is my home. And home is the place where you wanna be.
This doesn't mean that I'm not already planning the next trip :) So stay tuned, in five months I'll take off again! Destination is still unknown, but that's part of the adventure :)
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for flying tenBrinke Airlines, it was a pleasure to have you on board, and I hope to see you again in the near future!
vrijdag 17 september 2010
maandag 23 augustus 2010
Scooters, beach and mountains
A few weeks of research have made me conclude the following:
On one scooter you can transport the following elements:
- three adults
- two adults and 1-3 children
- 3 full-grown pigs (they need to be dead though...)
- 3 cages of geese
- the entire contend of your vegetable garden
- around 20 bags with water and gold fish
- 1 cubic meter of flat cardboard boxes
- at least 4 bags of litter
- a glass plate (1,70 x 1,00 meter)
- whatever more seems impossible to you!
After the two amazing weeks in Cambodia Sterre and I needed some peace and quiet and so, after one day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, we continued our journey to the north and ended up in the beach town of Mui Ne. There we enjoyed 5 days of sun, sea and sand, complete relaxation, time to think, to read books, to make plans for next years challenges (fieldwork)to talk a lot and to enjoy good food :) We even managed to move ourselves more at the end of our stay and visited the beautiful white sand dunes near Mui Ne...
Then on we went, to Dalat, a place that the Lonely Planet promised us to be a charming mountain village...in the end it was more a city than a village and the things to see where too crowded by fellow tourists to be able to enjoy it...but we managed to find its charms! Highlights were the nights in which the whole city comes to life around the market, the market itself and the cute little train that brought us to an amazing pagoda, where Gaudi meets China and every single square centimeter of wall is covered by colored pieces of glass and broken china, making the pagoda and incredible piece of art where you can be amazed by every single detail!
Another long bus trip left us back in rainy Saigon, where there is much to do, plus free internet in the room (...), good food and the prospect of being home again in exactly one week!!! (something we are both very much looking forward to despite all the good things traveling has to offer!)
For now the prospect is: two more days in Saigon, two days in Malaysia and the rest of the week will be traveling...
On Monday, the 30st of August at 9.00AM we will put foot again on Dutch soil in Eindhoven!
See you very soon!
Sara
The place we called "home" during our beach days
The beach
Fishing boats in Mui Ne
The beautiful white sand dunes with a surreal water hyacinth pond
The feeling you walked into the Sahara
Beatiful little street and beautiful little lady in Dalat
The colder weather inspired us to refresh our knitting skills :)
Where Gaudi meets China
Beautiful detail in a pagoda completely covered by pieces of glass and broken china
Somewhere one the 6th or 7th floor...
Temple in Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam and its development potential :)
On one scooter you can transport the following elements:
- three adults
- two adults and 1-3 children
- 3 full-grown pigs (they need to be dead though...)
- 3 cages of geese
- the entire contend of your vegetable garden
- around 20 bags with water and gold fish
- 1 cubic meter of flat cardboard boxes
- at least 4 bags of litter
- a glass plate (1,70 x 1,00 meter)
- whatever more seems impossible to you!
After the two amazing weeks in Cambodia Sterre and I needed some peace and quiet and so, after one day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, we continued our journey to the north and ended up in the beach town of Mui Ne. There we enjoyed 5 days of sun, sea and sand, complete relaxation, time to think, to read books, to make plans for next years challenges (fieldwork)to talk a lot and to enjoy good food :) We even managed to move ourselves more at the end of our stay and visited the beautiful white sand dunes near Mui Ne...
Then on we went, to Dalat, a place that the Lonely Planet promised us to be a charming mountain village...in the end it was more a city than a village and the things to see where too crowded by fellow tourists to be able to enjoy it...but we managed to find its charms! Highlights were the nights in which the whole city comes to life around the market, the market itself and the cute little train that brought us to an amazing pagoda, where Gaudi meets China and every single square centimeter of wall is covered by colored pieces of glass and broken china, making the pagoda and incredible piece of art where you can be amazed by every single detail!
Another long bus trip left us back in rainy Saigon, where there is much to do, plus free internet in the room (...), good food and the prospect of being home again in exactly one week!!! (something we are both very much looking forward to despite all the good things traveling has to offer!)
For now the prospect is: two more days in Saigon, two days in Malaysia and the rest of the week will be traveling...
On Monday, the 30st of August at 9.00AM we will put foot again on Dutch soil in Eindhoven!
See you very soon!
Sara
The place we called "home" during our beach days
The beach
Fishing boats in Mui Ne
The beautiful white sand dunes with a surreal water hyacinth pond
The feeling you walked into the Sahara
Beatiful little street and beautiful little lady in Dalat
The colder weather inspired us to refresh our knitting skills :)
Where Gaudi meets China
Beautiful detail in a pagoda completely covered by pieces of glass and broken china
Somewhere one the 6th or 7th floor...
Temple in Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam and its development potential :)
zondag 8 augustus 2010
Two faces of humanity
My dear all!
Yesterday was a day of two extremes, of two faces of humanity, it was quite an experience...
We started the morning at Tuol Sleng prison (also known as S-21), a place I thought I would never set foot, and yet there I was, facing the thousands of scared faces, black and white, people looking into their horrible deaths after being imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge soldiers...
Between 1975 and 1979 over 2 million people (a quarter of the population) perished under the regime of Pol Pot. I had read about it for my course of Culture, Violence, Trauma and Reconciliation and the horrible stories and testimonies I had read all came back to me while I was standing between those walls of Tuol Sleng. After my visit I wrote a few words, that now sound very strong, maybe too strong, but still I think I want to share them:
"My heart aches, my eyes want to shut themselves, my feelings do not want to feel.
How dare these gardens be green and how dare the birds sing? Why have they not forever turned grey, dead, in honour of those who perished here?
Why does the sun still feel warm and the breeze soft? Why do we whisper, why do we not scream?
How has this city gone on after this? Is it forgotten, forgiven or forbidden memory?
My stomach turns with pictures I do not want to see, no, I want to see, no, I don't...
How can these doors, of tiny cells, now hanging open but once definitely shut, have something almost beautiful about them in the light shining through barred windows? How dare they?
How can these gardens have something peaceful when they once have been filled by screams of which even the memory can chill to the bone?
Is this a place to keep in your heart with compassion, forgiveness and respect, or is it a place to expel from your heart forever?
Is accepting and forgiving legitimate?
I. Don't. Know..."
However depressing it was, it is part of this city, part of this country, and part of the world. People have done the most horrible things to each other...they still do...But what is so incredible about Cambodia and about Phnom Penh is that it is only 30 years ago and yet the city is an exotically and lively center of life...The most bizarre smells drift by, varying from the odor of my dog when he has rolled himself in a since long dead animal, to incense and spices. On the market colorful and beautiful vegetables mix with half dead fish on metal plates, pieces of meat full of flies, smelly durians and big piles of eggs! Through all this dogs sniff, kids play, scooters pass by and people bargain. Above them one pole sustains thousands of electricity wires that in more and less secure ways provide electricity to this city. Scooters beep, cars and trucks snore, tuk-tuk drivers shout "Lady? Tuk-tuk?", tourist answer "no thanks!", kids beg "lady? postcard?" tourists turn their heads away and say "no thank you". Mobile phones ring or play the last hits on that characteristic high pitched tone, and somewhere the calm figure of a bright orange monk moves through the chaos. And somewhere in the back of your head you think: 30 years ago this city was dead, literally dead...
But yesterday night we saw the other face of humanity: We went to a modern Apsara show. The Apsara dance is the very elegant and traditional classical dance of Cambodia, but the place we went combined this with shadow theater and circus, it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! I haven't been completely mesmerized by a dance before, but this was really really good! Not all the performers were exceptional, but some of them really were :) The elegance, the strength and the way they moved...I would go again every night of this week if only they performed :)
And so it came that we rode home (I still love tuk-tuks!) with a big smile, wondering how something so beautiful and fragile has survived with so much strength.
This morning we dipped into the horrors again visiting the killing fields were too much people were killed with an ax in their necks, hands tight behind the back, knees on the dirt in front of a mass grave and blindfolded. Children were hold by their legs and smashed against a tree...
How? Why? Questions without reasonable answers...
But the city carries on with her busy life and we dived into the so called Russian Market to stroll through mini corridors packed with people and goods, happy to be in Cambodia in 2010 and not in the 1970's...
Tomorrow is our last day in this city of contrasts, Tuesday we say goodbye to Ilse who flies back while we venture by bus into the next destination: Vietnam!
Much love for you all!
Phnom Penh traffic :)
Phnom Penh from a rooftop
Royal Palace
Sterre being Zen in the tropical rain
Tuol Sleng Prison
The doors of the cells now hanging open but once definitely shut
Modern Apsara
Horrid killing fields
Russian Market
Yesterday was a day of two extremes, of two faces of humanity, it was quite an experience...
We started the morning at Tuol Sleng prison (also known as S-21), a place I thought I would never set foot, and yet there I was, facing the thousands of scared faces, black and white, people looking into their horrible deaths after being imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge soldiers...
Between 1975 and 1979 over 2 million people (a quarter of the population) perished under the regime of Pol Pot. I had read about it for my course of Culture, Violence, Trauma and Reconciliation and the horrible stories and testimonies I had read all came back to me while I was standing between those walls of Tuol Sleng. After my visit I wrote a few words, that now sound very strong, maybe too strong, but still I think I want to share them:
"My heart aches, my eyes want to shut themselves, my feelings do not want to feel.
How dare these gardens be green and how dare the birds sing? Why have they not forever turned grey, dead, in honour of those who perished here?
Why does the sun still feel warm and the breeze soft? Why do we whisper, why do we not scream?
How has this city gone on after this? Is it forgotten, forgiven or forbidden memory?
My stomach turns with pictures I do not want to see, no, I want to see, no, I don't...
How can these doors, of tiny cells, now hanging open but once definitely shut, have something almost beautiful about them in the light shining through barred windows? How dare they?
How can these gardens have something peaceful when they once have been filled by screams of which even the memory can chill to the bone?
Is this a place to keep in your heart with compassion, forgiveness and respect, or is it a place to expel from your heart forever?
Is accepting and forgiving legitimate?
I. Don't. Know..."
However depressing it was, it is part of this city, part of this country, and part of the world. People have done the most horrible things to each other...they still do...But what is so incredible about Cambodia and about Phnom Penh is that it is only 30 years ago and yet the city is an exotically and lively center of life...The most bizarre smells drift by, varying from the odor of my dog when he has rolled himself in a since long dead animal, to incense and spices. On the market colorful and beautiful vegetables mix with half dead fish on metal plates, pieces of meat full of flies, smelly durians and big piles of eggs! Through all this dogs sniff, kids play, scooters pass by and people bargain. Above them one pole sustains thousands of electricity wires that in more and less secure ways provide electricity to this city. Scooters beep, cars and trucks snore, tuk-tuk drivers shout "Lady? Tuk-tuk?", tourist answer "no thanks!", kids beg "lady? postcard?" tourists turn their heads away and say "no thank you". Mobile phones ring or play the last hits on that characteristic high pitched tone, and somewhere the calm figure of a bright orange monk moves through the chaos. And somewhere in the back of your head you think: 30 years ago this city was dead, literally dead...
But yesterday night we saw the other face of humanity: We went to a modern Apsara show. The Apsara dance is the very elegant and traditional classical dance of Cambodia, but the place we went combined this with shadow theater and circus, it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! I haven't been completely mesmerized by a dance before, but this was really really good! Not all the performers were exceptional, but some of them really were :) The elegance, the strength and the way they moved...I would go again every night of this week if only they performed :)
And so it came that we rode home (I still love tuk-tuks!) with a big smile, wondering how something so beautiful and fragile has survived with so much strength.
This morning we dipped into the horrors again visiting the killing fields were too much people were killed with an ax in their necks, hands tight behind the back, knees on the dirt in front of a mass grave and blindfolded. Children were hold by their legs and smashed against a tree...
How? Why? Questions without reasonable answers...
But the city carries on with her busy life and we dived into the so called Russian Market to stroll through mini corridors packed with people and goods, happy to be in Cambodia in 2010 and not in the 1970's...
Tomorrow is our last day in this city of contrasts, Tuesday we say goodbye to Ilse who flies back while we venture by bus into the next destination: Vietnam!
Much love for you all!
Phnom Penh traffic :)
Phnom Penh from a rooftop
Royal Palace
Sterre being Zen in the tropical rain
Tuol Sleng Prison
The doors of the cells now hanging open but once definitely shut 
Modern Apsara
Horrid killing fields
Russian Market
donderdag 5 augustus 2010
Pictures!
Tuk-tuk!
Bayon Temple
How exotic...
Nature taking over...
The beautiful Angkor Wat
Walking through Cambodia's countryside you see wonderful things
In the river at Kbal Spean
zondag 1 augustus 2010
Lady? Tuk-tuk?
Lady? You want tuk-tuk? I make special price for you! Not today? Tomorrow then?
Lady? You wanna buy a scarf? Lady? You wanna by postcards, 10 for $1...
Lady? You wanna by bracelets? 5 for $1...ok 10 for $1...ok 15 for $2...
Lady? Cold water? Lady breakfast? Lady...? Lady...? Lady...?
Welcome to Cambodia!
All I knew from Cambodia was its dark past, the cruel things people did to each other here...I arrived in a sunny friendly country, with mega polite people, always with a smile, also toward each other. It gets me wondering how superficial that smile is, or whether Cambodians really succeeded in moving on. Today I heard the first reference to killing fields and the Khmer Rouge, I've been here for more than four days.
The last three days we have been busy visiting the temples of Angkor. Driving around in a tuk-tuk, or rather being driven around has become one of my favorite ways to pass the time. The rather warm and humid air turns bearable while sitting in a tuk-tuk, you can look around and never get bored, things don't go by too fast, but also not too slow and most of all...it gives the real Asia feeling!!! We had a very nice driver: Bun who brought us everywhere we wanted. The first day we visited the old city of Angkor Thom with the beautiful Bayon Temple. After that we visited several other "smaller" temples, gazing, mouth open around every corner. The heat and all the new impressions and the prospect of an early morning made us dive into our beds early. The next morning came at 4.00 o'clock as we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Although it was cloudy and there was no actual visible sunrise it was beautiful to discover Angkor Wat as it got lighter. The other positive part was that there was barely a soul inside the walls at that time. Angkor Wat is impressively big, though other temples are at least as beautiful and less intimidating :) I kept wondering how it had looked in its full glory, but somehow that seems too much to imagine...it must have been magnificent!!! (If only I had a time machine!)
When it got really warm (9.00) we got back into the tuk-tuk and Bun drove us to the Tonle Sap (Lake) which would become a special though also a bit uncomfortable experience. Vietnamese immigrants, landless and jobless, inhabit the so called floating villages on this lake. In the dry season, when there is not much water, the villages are concentrated on the lake, but in the wet season (now) the water in the middle gets too deep and they move their houses/boats to the fringes of the lake. This means that they change places and thus also neighbors at least twice a year. From the anthropological perspective I thought this is incredibly interesting and I could immediately see many possibilities for research there...but from the tourist point of view I felt terrible...sitting in a boat, being navigated past all these houses I felt like a big intruder, staring into peoples houses and into people's lives, into what I consider people's privacy. I had not really been prepared for that...
Still, it was impressive to see how these people organize their lives on and with the water. Floating goose cages were the max I thought...but also floating fish nurseries, floating toilets, floating everything!
At the end of the day we climbed a mountain to see the sunset around the temples of Angkor, something a considerable number of other tourists had done as well...
Yesterday was my favorite day! We went to a temple farther away, which means: longer in the tuk-tuk! :) just that would have made my day...but it got better...somewhere half way we had a leaky tire...Bun kicked us out of the tuk-tuk and went looking for a new tire. You might ask yourself why this is good, but it meant we had to walk for 20 minutes and that was an entire new way of being in the countryside of Cambodia! Everybody greets you with a questioning look, children wave and shout "hello" and you have time to look around, and see that ox carriage you would have otherwise missed...it made me feel like taking a month to hike to Phnom Penh (though that would be a little warm...)
We then went to a beautiful little temple called Banteay Srei. Though very touristy as well I enjoyed looking at the rich and beautiful reliefs in the red sandstone.
But the best part was Kbal Spean. The river Sien Reap runs through this mountain before getting to the temples of Angkor and the village. In some far distant past people carved gods into the stones in the river, making the water holy before it gets to the temples. It was a beautiful hike, rewarded by beautiful reliefs and the freshness brought by the closeness of the water.
After another nice tuk-tuk ride we got off again at Angkor Wat to cast a last glance at a, once again, practically deserted Angkor Wat, it was beautiful!
Today we have a day of rest, which we really need after three days of getting up early and ignoring the warmth, exploring temple after temple... tomorrow we retake the streets to see some nice stuff in and around Siem Reap and I think that wednesday we will make the journey to Phnom Penh, in search for the awful remains of Cambodian history, the remains that here seem to be silenced by the magnificence of the past before 1975...
This internet connection is too slow to upload photos, so that will follow as soon as possible...
Australia seems already a world away, although you all seam already much closer to me (in time and in space)!
Much love from a warm and sticky but beautiful and impressive Cambodia!
Lady? You wanna buy a scarf? Lady? You wanna by postcards, 10 for $1...
Lady? You wanna by bracelets? 5 for $1...ok 10 for $1...ok 15 for $2...
Lady? Cold water? Lady breakfast? Lady...? Lady...? Lady...?
Welcome to Cambodia!
All I knew from Cambodia was its dark past, the cruel things people did to each other here...I arrived in a sunny friendly country, with mega polite people, always with a smile, also toward each other. It gets me wondering how superficial that smile is, or whether Cambodians really succeeded in moving on. Today I heard the first reference to killing fields and the Khmer Rouge, I've been here for more than four days.
The last three days we have been busy visiting the temples of Angkor. Driving around in a tuk-tuk, or rather being driven around has become one of my favorite ways to pass the time. The rather warm and humid air turns bearable while sitting in a tuk-tuk, you can look around and never get bored, things don't go by too fast, but also not too slow and most of all...it gives the real Asia feeling!!! We had a very nice driver: Bun who brought us everywhere we wanted. The first day we visited the old city of Angkor Thom with the beautiful Bayon Temple. After that we visited several other "smaller" temples, gazing, mouth open around every corner. The heat and all the new impressions and the prospect of an early morning made us dive into our beds early. The next morning came at 4.00 o'clock as we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Although it was cloudy and there was no actual visible sunrise it was beautiful to discover Angkor Wat as it got lighter. The other positive part was that there was barely a soul inside the walls at that time. Angkor Wat is impressively big, though other temples are at least as beautiful and less intimidating :) I kept wondering how it had looked in its full glory, but somehow that seems too much to imagine...it must have been magnificent!!! (If only I had a time machine!)
When it got really warm (9.00) we got back into the tuk-tuk and Bun drove us to the Tonle Sap (Lake) which would become a special though also a bit uncomfortable experience. Vietnamese immigrants, landless and jobless, inhabit the so called floating villages on this lake. In the dry season, when there is not much water, the villages are concentrated on the lake, but in the wet season (now) the water in the middle gets too deep and they move their houses/boats to the fringes of the lake. This means that they change places and thus also neighbors at least twice a year. From the anthropological perspective I thought this is incredibly interesting and I could immediately see many possibilities for research there...but from the tourist point of view I felt terrible...sitting in a boat, being navigated past all these houses I felt like a big intruder, staring into peoples houses and into people's lives, into what I consider people's privacy. I had not really been prepared for that...
Still, it was impressive to see how these people organize their lives on and with the water. Floating goose cages were the max I thought...but also floating fish nurseries, floating toilets, floating everything!
At the end of the day we climbed a mountain to see the sunset around the temples of Angkor, something a considerable number of other tourists had done as well...
Yesterday was my favorite day! We went to a temple farther away, which means: longer in the tuk-tuk! :) just that would have made my day...but it got better...somewhere half way we had a leaky tire...Bun kicked us out of the tuk-tuk and went looking for a new tire. You might ask yourself why this is good, but it meant we had to walk for 20 minutes and that was an entire new way of being in the countryside of Cambodia! Everybody greets you with a questioning look, children wave and shout "hello" and you have time to look around, and see that ox carriage you would have otherwise missed...it made me feel like taking a month to hike to Phnom Penh (though that would be a little warm...)
We then went to a beautiful little temple called Banteay Srei. Though very touristy as well I enjoyed looking at the rich and beautiful reliefs in the red sandstone.
But the best part was Kbal Spean. The river Sien Reap runs through this mountain before getting to the temples of Angkor and the village. In some far distant past people carved gods into the stones in the river, making the water holy before it gets to the temples. It was a beautiful hike, rewarded by beautiful reliefs and the freshness brought by the closeness of the water.
After another nice tuk-tuk ride we got off again at Angkor Wat to cast a last glance at a, once again, practically deserted Angkor Wat, it was beautiful!
Today we have a day of rest, which we really need after three days of getting up early and ignoring the warmth, exploring temple after temple... tomorrow we retake the streets to see some nice stuff in and around Siem Reap and I think that wednesday we will make the journey to Phnom Penh, in search for the awful remains of Cambodian history, the remains that here seem to be silenced by the magnificence of the past before 1975...
This internet connection is too slow to upload photos, so that will follow as soon as possible...
Australia seems already a world away, although you all seam already much closer to me (in time and in space)!
Much love from a warm and sticky but beautiful and impressive Cambodia!
maandag 19 juli 2010
My final decision is maybe
Sun, sea, increasing warmth, gorgeous beaches, hours behind the steering wheel and camping in little towns: I'm on the East Coast!!!
With our Wicked Campervan that displays "My final decision is: Maybe" on the back we have been driving up the East Coast, from a rainy and cold but beautiful Sydney, to a warmer Byron Bay and further up, chasing after the sun! I won't make it too long here, but the summary is:
- Camping on nice little campgrounds, or in the wild
- Having breakfast, lunch and dinner on beaches along the way
- Seeing dolphins and wales in incredibly blue water
- Making campfires on the best campground ever
- Watching the sun rise from the ocean
- Singing very loud in the van, saying hello to all other wickets and truck drivers
- Putting fuel in the van every 300 km's because the fuel meter is broken :)
- visiting the Witsunday Islands and snorkeling between blue, pink, yellow and green fishes
- Enjoying life very much!!!
And now only a few days left until Cambodia, that feels very weird...especially the idea of leaving Australia after all this time! However economically it will be a relief to our purses :) And it is also an adventure we are looking forward to!
Cheers to you all and here are some pictures!
Sydney Opera House by night
Botanic Gardens and Opera House by Day
Sunrise in Byron Bay
Dolphins!!!
Sunny Byron Bay
More Beach
Camping
Our Camper Van
Witsunday Island
With our Wicked Campervan that displays "My final decision is: Maybe" on the back we have been driving up the East Coast, from a rainy and cold but beautiful Sydney, to a warmer Byron Bay and further up, chasing after the sun! I won't make it too long here, but the summary is:
- Camping on nice little campgrounds, or in the wild
- Having breakfast, lunch and dinner on beaches along the way
- Seeing dolphins and wales in incredibly blue water
- Making campfires on the best campground ever
- Watching the sun rise from the ocean
- Singing very loud in the van, saying hello to all other wickets and truck drivers
- Putting fuel in the van every 300 km's because the fuel meter is broken :)
- visiting the Witsunday Islands and snorkeling between blue, pink, yellow and green fishes
- Enjoying life very much!!!
And now only a few days left until Cambodia, that feels very weird...especially the idea of leaving Australia after all this time! However economically it will be a relief to our purses :) And it is also an adventure we are looking forward to!
Cheers to you all and here are some pictures!
Sydney Opera House by night
Botanic Gardens and Opera House by Day
Sunrise in Byron Bay
Dolphins!!!
Sunny Byron Bay
More Beach
Camping
Our Camper Van
Witsunday Island
vrijdag 9 juli 2010
One month of Northern Territory
Dear all,
Such a long time ago...I'm sorry...but now, finally I found some time to write a blog about the past month!
Where to start...I might start at the beginning: 5 hours delay when flying from Melbourne to Alice Springs. But is that the beginning? Maybe I should start with all the stress of the last week and all the saying goodbye...but that is boring :)
So, the 5th of June Sterre, May and I flew to Alice Springs. On our way to the hostel we met Eveline, a girl from Switzerland who would become our 4th team mate. Together we hired a car in Alice Springs and drove down to Uluru, almost 500 km trough the outback. Driving through the outback was wonderful! Long highways, through a slowly changing landscape which, to my surprise, was not boring at all!
And then there it was, the big red/brown monolith, rising from the ground in the middle of nowhere, it does give a special feeling when you see it, suddenly, after a random curve in the road. Sunsets and sunrises give the rock an incredible, though very short, moment of splendor! We took a day to walk around Uluru, which was a beautiful hike in the shadow of that big red rock, although it also felt a bit intruding after all the things I learn about Aboriginal issues and Aborginal relationship to country and sacred sites. The following day we went to Kata Tjuta, less known, but at least as beautiful, a group of rocks where you can also hike and be amazed by the landscape, the colors and even some camels (!) in the distance!!!
On the 10th of June our ways parted, May went back to Melbourne, Eveline stayed in Alice, Sterre took the bushbus to an Indigenous art project north of Alice Springs and I took the plane to Darwin, to go wwoofing for two weeks.
I stayed with a lovely family, with four kids aged 2, 4, 6 and 8. There I picked pawpaws, planted zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes and basil, played with the dogs, got completely pierced by mosquitoes, escaped a few dangerous snakes, lived together with frogs, spiders and cockroaches, played nanny, learned how to operate a wipper snipper and gazed at the sky completely loaded with stars until the mosquitoes drove me back into my caravan. Two weeks of warmth, hard work, lovely people and peace in my head, exactly what I needed after a busy semester in University.
On the 26th of June I met Sterre again in Darwin as well as Sissel. So nice to see them again! We chilled in the park, enjoyed the warm weather and exchanged stories. On the 28th Sterre and me went on a 3 day tour to Kakadu National Park which was absolutely fantastic!
During those three days we camped under the stars, cooked on the fire, hiked to waterfall tops to jump in there for refreshment, saw crocodiles, birds and of course a lot of mosquitoes and enjoyed beautiful landscapes! It was absolutely relaxing and exiting at the same time!
I was not looking forward to go back to cold Melbourne after that month of warmth everyday, but once I arrived there I felt so at home...I didn't realize I had made myself so much at home in that city until I felt how normal it was to sit in the train again, to walk those streets, see certain people, go to certain places...I almost felt like I could start a new semester there right away...but then...it was cold, there were too many plans and I'm too much looking forward to go back to Holland to even consider the thought of staying there!
And then, on the 5th of July Ilse arrived! At 5 o'clock in the morning I was trying to stand strait up on the airport to welcome her in the city that I have been calling home. The next days were very busy with everything Sterre and me wanted to show Ilse and also still wanted to or had to do ourselves before leaving. Days flew and before I realized my nose was glued to an airplane window after Holland jumped to the finale on the world cup, hoping to see a last glance of Melbourne, a glance that was stolen from me by the clouds that might have wanted to make saying goodbye easier by painting Melbourne in an unattractive grey but who only succeeded in making me sad.
Sydney was here to welcome us next, with a dazzling urban landscape, I think the prettiest I have ever seen, especially by night, when all the lights seem to mirror a sky full of stars, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge majestically gazing over the deep and dark waters of the bay. Although the rain pours down almost every hour of the day we managed to see the botanic gardens, visit the world press photo exposition, go to a modern art exposition on Cockatoo Island, walk through the CBD, and, of course...go to the Opera in the Opera House!!! That was really very nice :)
Today we bought a guitar and tomorrow we get our campervan, the road trip can begin! We'll try to get north of Brisbane in a few days, like birds traveling after the warmer weather, in search for sun and the good life...
Love to you all
Sara
Uluru by sunset
Walking around Uluru
Kata Tjuta
The farm
Being Nanny :)
Croc in Kakadu
Beautiful wetlands
Campfire
Top of a waterfall
And bottom of another one!
Winter in Melbourne
My beloved skyline for the last time!
Such a long time ago...I'm sorry...but now, finally I found some time to write a blog about the past month!
Where to start...I might start at the beginning: 5 hours delay when flying from Melbourne to Alice Springs. But is that the beginning? Maybe I should start with all the stress of the last week and all the saying goodbye...but that is boring :)
So, the 5th of June Sterre, May and I flew to Alice Springs. On our way to the hostel we met Eveline, a girl from Switzerland who would become our 4th team mate. Together we hired a car in Alice Springs and drove down to Uluru, almost 500 km trough the outback. Driving through the outback was wonderful! Long highways, through a slowly changing landscape which, to my surprise, was not boring at all!
And then there it was, the big red/brown monolith, rising from the ground in the middle of nowhere, it does give a special feeling when you see it, suddenly, after a random curve in the road. Sunsets and sunrises give the rock an incredible, though very short, moment of splendor! We took a day to walk around Uluru, which was a beautiful hike in the shadow of that big red rock, although it also felt a bit intruding after all the things I learn about Aboriginal issues and Aborginal relationship to country and sacred sites. The following day we went to Kata Tjuta, less known, but at least as beautiful, a group of rocks where you can also hike and be amazed by the landscape, the colors and even some camels (!) in the distance!!!
On the 10th of June our ways parted, May went back to Melbourne, Eveline stayed in Alice, Sterre took the bushbus to an Indigenous art project north of Alice Springs and I took the plane to Darwin, to go wwoofing for two weeks.
I stayed with a lovely family, with four kids aged 2, 4, 6 and 8. There I picked pawpaws, planted zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes and basil, played with the dogs, got completely pierced by mosquitoes, escaped a few dangerous snakes, lived together with frogs, spiders and cockroaches, played nanny, learned how to operate a wipper snipper and gazed at the sky completely loaded with stars until the mosquitoes drove me back into my caravan. Two weeks of warmth, hard work, lovely people and peace in my head, exactly what I needed after a busy semester in University.
On the 26th of June I met Sterre again in Darwin as well as Sissel. So nice to see them again! We chilled in the park, enjoyed the warm weather and exchanged stories. On the 28th Sterre and me went on a 3 day tour to Kakadu National Park which was absolutely fantastic!
During those three days we camped under the stars, cooked on the fire, hiked to waterfall tops to jump in there for refreshment, saw crocodiles, birds and of course a lot of mosquitoes and enjoyed beautiful landscapes! It was absolutely relaxing and exiting at the same time!
I was not looking forward to go back to cold Melbourne after that month of warmth everyday, but once I arrived there I felt so at home...I didn't realize I had made myself so much at home in that city until I felt how normal it was to sit in the train again, to walk those streets, see certain people, go to certain places...I almost felt like I could start a new semester there right away...but then...it was cold, there were too many plans and I'm too much looking forward to go back to Holland to even consider the thought of staying there!
And then, on the 5th of July Ilse arrived! At 5 o'clock in the morning I was trying to stand strait up on the airport to welcome her in the city that I have been calling home. The next days were very busy with everything Sterre and me wanted to show Ilse and also still wanted to or had to do ourselves before leaving. Days flew and before I realized my nose was glued to an airplane window after Holland jumped to the finale on the world cup, hoping to see a last glance of Melbourne, a glance that was stolen from me by the clouds that might have wanted to make saying goodbye easier by painting Melbourne in an unattractive grey but who only succeeded in making me sad.
Sydney was here to welcome us next, with a dazzling urban landscape, I think the prettiest I have ever seen, especially by night, when all the lights seem to mirror a sky full of stars, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge majestically gazing over the deep and dark waters of the bay. Although the rain pours down almost every hour of the day we managed to see the botanic gardens, visit the world press photo exposition, go to a modern art exposition on Cockatoo Island, walk through the CBD, and, of course...go to the Opera in the Opera House!!! That was really very nice :)
Today we bought a guitar and tomorrow we get our campervan, the road trip can begin! We'll try to get north of Brisbane in a few days, like birds traveling after the warmer weather, in search for sun and the good life...
Love to you all
Sara
Uluru by sunset
Walking around Uluru
Kata Tjuta
The farm
Being Nanny :)
Croc in Kakadu
Beautiful wetlands
Campfire
Top of a waterfall
And bottom of another one!
Winter in Melbourne
My beloved skyline for the last time!
woensdag 2 juni 2010
Last weeks Melbourne - a combi of everything!
And than suddenly there's only a few days left, you are selling your dear guitar, thinking what to send home, what to take, what to leave, making exams, finishing papers, being ill, organizing cars, hostels, a wwoof farm, vaccinations; saying goodbye to friends and attending a whole range of interesting activities linked to Reconciliation Week...crazy!
The past weeks have indeed been quite crazy, but apart from me having quite a bad flu/cold and feeling a little stressed about organizing the coming months, I did really nice stuff!
For example, I went with Sterre and Julie to Wilson's Promontory, a national park, 2,5 hours drive from Melbourne. Incredibly beautiful! The weather was really nice, and we did a few nice short hikes, climbed a hill top, went to squeaky beach (were the white sand (quartz) makes a squeaking noise under you feet) and saw a whole bunch of kangaroos! It was really good to be away from the city and from all the uni work for a day!
And then, last week was Reconciliation Week and on friday Sterre and I went to a hip-hop thing, with three bands, all young people rapping about reconciliation, racism, and the sort! One of the bands was really good, with the guys doing incredible beat-box, dance, freestyle, etc, it was quite amazing! And monday we went to a poetry evening, with poets, singers, theater writers and our poetry-slam-performing tutor (from the indigenous course at uni). I heard beautiful things there, very powerful language, almost a bit confronting at times, but I guess that's the point of it all...I love Melbourne precisely for that, for the fact that if you feel like doing something, the only thing you have to do is look around, there's always something going on!
And well, friday my laptop goes on a journey home, three months before I follow him. It's going to be weird...we have never been apart for such a long time since we met! Hopefully our relationship will survive the separation :) But I'm going to mis him for sure...and that means that it will also be harder for me to keep in touch with you! I will try to keep my blogs going, but email/skype/facebook are going to be on low activity levels...
Well, I guess this is where the real adventure begins!!!
Cheers
Sara
P.S. Here are some pictures from Wilson's Promontory National Park
View from the hill top
Julie, Sterre and Sara enjoying the view
The hill top
This really looked like a fairy forest, because the bushes looked like trees and were around 1,5 meters high, I could practically see the fairies dancing around there :)
Squeaky Beach jump
Kangaroo family!
CUTE
The past weeks have indeed been quite crazy, but apart from me having quite a bad flu/cold and feeling a little stressed about organizing the coming months, I did really nice stuff!
For example, I went with Sterre and Julie to Wilson's Promontory, a national park, 2,5 hours drive from Melbourne. Incredibly beautiful! The weather was really nice, and we did a few nice short hikes, climbed a hill top, went to squeaky beach (were the white sand (quartz) makes a squeaking noise under you feet) and saw a whole bunch of kangaroos! It was really good to be away from the city and from all the uni work for a day!
And then, last week was Reconciliation Week and on friday Sterre and I went to a hip-hop thing, with three bands, all young people rapping about reconciliation, racism, and the sort! One of the bands was really good, with the guys doing incredible beat-box, dance, freestyle, etc, it was quite amazing! And monday we went to a poetry evening, with poets, singers, theater writers and our poetry-slam-performing tutor (from the indigenous course at uni). I heard beautiful things there, very powerful language, almost a bit confronting at times, but I guess that's the point of it all...I love Melbourne precisely for that, for the fact that if you feel like doing something, the only thing you have to do is look around, there's always something going on!
And well, friday my laptop goes on a journey home, three months before I follow him. It's going to be weird...we have never been apart for such a long time since we met! Hopefully our relationship will survive the separation :) But I'm going to mis him for sure...and that means that it will also be harder for me to keep in touch with you! I will try to keep my blogs going, but email/skype/facebook are going to be on low activity levels...
Well, I guess this is where the real adventure begins!!!
Cheers
Sara
P.S. Here are some pictures from Wilson's Promontory National Park
View from the hill top
Julie, Sterre and Sara enjoying the view
The hill top
This really looked like a fairy forest, because the bushes looked like trees and were around 1,5 meters high, I could practically see the fairies dancing around there :)
Squeaky Beach jump
Kangaroo family!
CUTE
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