Koh Phi Phi - Phuket - Bangkok

The bus ride and the ferry to the island Koh Phi Phi took ages but I finally got there in the afternoon. Kwang was already waiting for me, had organized a hotel and a plan for the next day! We pretty much got everything for free because her father has lots of nice friends, who own hotels etc. :) After sleeping in the really nice big bed, we had breakfast on the beach, had a nice but VERY sweaty walk up to the view point and relaxed on the beach until we had to get on the ferry to Phuket. Arriving in Phuket Kwang's family welcomed us and took us to Patong, which is a touristy but very nice area in Phuket. There we went to our hotel, had really nice buffet dinner and went to a Ladyboy-show afterwards! You really can't tell that all those "Ladys" are actually men!! It's amazing how they hide things ;) Next day, Kwang and me went on a Raya-Princess-tour. They take you to two different islands near Phuket. First one was Coral Island, where we stopped for one hour to swim and have a look around. The second one was Raya island, where we had lunch, had some time on the beach and did snorkeling. Amazing place!! One of my favourite places... In the evening Kwang, her family and me went out to have dinner, walked around at the city market and went back to our new hotel ;) Three nights, three different and nice hotels, and all for free :)) Lucky me again! The next morning we took a plane to Bangkok, walked around China Town, had dinner at Kwang's aunts house and went back to the airport, from where I took my flight to London. That was all about my two weeks in Thailand. Now only five more days in London and I am going to be back home again...:)

Thailand-The land of a 100 smiles

After one week in Thailand I am ready to write a little bit about my past week. As I was thinking before, the culture shock hit me right at the airport, when I realized that I was going to travel around Thailand for two weeks...and the worst --> by myself! ALL ALONE in a totally different country! And Bangkok with its very busy and confusing atmosphere didn't help at all. I was pretty much lost at the airport, since I had not booked a hostel and couldn't figure out how the taxis worked. At the end I figured it out and went to the one place I knew the name of...Khao San Road. That's in the touristic area of Bangkok! I found a room straight away and just went to bed ;) The next day the world already looked a lot better. I found a hostel in a different and better area in Bangkok and met people there. Yey, finally not by myself anymore. It's a lot more fun and easier to wander around with someone else who doesn't have a clue eather :D Josephine (from Germany) and me discovered a little bit of the city but couldn't help ending up in the hostel watching TV...its soo hot and very humid at the moment in Thailand that normal people can not stand being outside the whole day. Raintime should be coming up soon but probably not until I am leaving the country. At least I am getting a little bit of my tan back, which I surprisingly lost in New Zealand and Australia ;) After a few days in Bangkok I booked a bus to Chaing Mai, which is the biggest and most important city in the north of Thailand. I had already heard a lot of it and got some advice where to stay and what to do. The bus I took was amazingly comfotable, you had air-con, lunch included and a service lady who was giving you water and snacks! :) I guess a little more expensive than the shitty tourist buses but so much better! In Chiang Mai I met some really fun and nice girls in my drom bedroom and spend the past four days with them. I did a Thai-cooking-course, a one day trek with elephant riding etc. and discovered the shopping-centres, markets and temples of Chiang Mai. Yesterday I took a tourist bus back to Bangkok, from where I am going to take another bus to Koh Phi Phi Island. The bus ride was okay, but I hope I don't have to take another one in a while ;) Since I have the whole day in Bangkok I decided to visit the Grand Palace, which is a very important Temple in Thailand and supposed to be very impressive. Before that one of the Tuk-Tuk-drivers convinced me to do a little sightseeing tour with him for free. Since I was too early for the palace anyways and didn't want to walk around in the heat I came with him. Of course non of the Tuk-Tuk-drivers would do a tour like that for nothing, you have to do something in return^^ He took me to some clothing or jewelery stores where I had to look around a little bit, pretend to be interested and eather buy something or not. If you buy something the Tuk-Tuk-driver gets two coupons and if you just look he gets one :D Weird but funny system. And if you want to get from A to B for cheap, a good possibility! Now I am waiting in a free wifi café for my bus. It's too hot to walk around outside all day... hasta luego amigos P.s. Noch 10 Tage liebe Freunde aus Deutschland!!!

Pictures from everything and everywhere...

Footy game in Melbourne

With Hugo's mum

Botanic garden in Sydney

Living on a boat in Brisbane :)

Most eastern point of Australia in Byron Bay

Kangaroo in real wild life ;)

Australia...

On a dirt road in the middle of no-where

walking over the Harbour Bridge by night

Blue Mountains with the "three sisters" on the left

Tanita trying to avoid the mud :D

Last five days in Australia...

After Luke had droped me off in the city, I went to an internet café to see if my Cochsurfer had wrote me the directions to his house. A few minutes later he picked me up from the café and took me home, showed me my couch and introduced me to his housemate Courtney. Went a lot easier than I thought :) They were both really nice so I felt comfortable straight away. I was really glad to have the last ten days with Luke over with and enjoyed my last days in Syndey.  I discovered a little bit more of Sydney, went out with Mark (my couchsurfer) and met other cool people. The last day Tanita finally arrived from Melbourne. We met up early and went with the train to the Blue Mountains. Its really easy going there with the train and takes only about 1 1/2 hours. The town "Katoomba" where you get off, is cute, really nice to walk around, shop a little secondhand and have lunch in one of its cute restaurants. The view from the several look-out-points is pretty amazing too.  We were also very lucky with the weather and could enjoy the view with the sun even more :) All in all a great last day in Australia!  And now I keep moving towards Thailand for two weeks. I am excited and of course a little nervous too. Its probably gonna be a little bit of a culture shock ;) but as I heard from everyone who has been there, an awesome experience. See you later and as the australians say "Cheers", Nina

10 days traveling apart from civilization...

I traveled with Luke ten days. There isn't that much exciting to tell you about those days. We spent hours and hours in every National Park in New South Whales, where Luke was looking for special plant-seeds. He owns a little Nursery, where he grows plants and all that. He also sells those seeds to customers in Japan, Germany etc. and I guess gets good money out of it, since he does this trip every year. Well, the first time I joined Luke on his search trip through a National Park. But after we got lost and walked for f*** five hours off track, through the bush (which is why my clothes have wholes now), I learned my lesson and never joined him again!! I prefered waiting by the car, listening to music and being bored, since there wasn't anything to do in the middel of a National Park :D It wasn't all bad and boring though...I also had some highlights. I saw Kangaross, all kinds of lovely colorful birds and other exotic animals! The stars were pretty amazing too. Short post for ten days, I know...but it wasn't as perfect as I thought it would be ;) Gotta have some not so good experience, too! Cheers, Nina

Australia

I had contacted my friend Hugo, who I met at the christmas party in Buenos Aires, before and he said he had a spare room for me and Tanita (friend from Germany). Since Tanita and I had different flights from Auckland, we met in the city and arrived at the Glen Iris station at 5pm, where Hugo was already waiting to pick us up.
He had bought us all tickets for the Footy game, Hawthorn vs. Collingwood, which is a pretty big deal in Australia. Footy is a mixture of Rugby and Soccer and is only being played in Australia.
After a quick rest and having a look on our awesome, big and comfortable bed, we took a train to the stadium, where we met a couple of Hugo's friends and later on his sister, Bridget, too.
Some people there were a little fanatic but fun to watch them being so into the game. Lots of people there were drinking beer and watching the game on the TV provided at the bar, because they weren't allowed to take alcohol up to their seats. They all payed for their seats but beer seemed to be very important to them;) I already realized that the australians really like drinking alcohol on my flight from Auckland to Melbourne. The guy next to me ordered one wine bottle after the other and didn't stop until he was pretty drunk :D I guess it was for free but on all of my flights I haven't seen anyone doing the same. And I have been on quite many flights...
Whatever, the game was fun and cool, since I have never been to a sportsevent with about 10000 people. Footy itself is quite interesting as well, because they don't throw the ball but kick it, which must be very hard considering the egg-spape of the ball. That's why some of the players didn't manage to get the ball in between the two sticks even though they were standing right in front of it...
The next days Tanita and I stayed with Hugo and his family. They were very welcoming, nice and funny too. We discovered Melbourne in those days and went to a place 1 1/2 hours from the city which had 20 thermes with different temperatures. Very nice and relaxing...
On Tuesday Tanita packed her stuff and caught a train to her new working place. Since the family had invited me to join them on their easter trip to Sydney (and that was exactly where I wanted to go), I stayed at their house until thursday, when we (Mum, dad, Bridget and me) headed off to Jinderbyne, a place in the mountains where Guy, their son, works and lives. We stayed there one night and took him with us the next morning. On our way to Sydney they even stopped in Canberra, the capital of Australia, for me. But to be honest that place isn't really exciting. There are some nice buildings but as everyone told me the city was only built to avoid having to make a decision between Melbourne and Sydney, which both wanted to become the capital.
In Sydney we stayed in the holiday house of the cousin, which was located on the north side of the City, in Mosman. It is a nice area and takes only 10-15 minutes into the city centre by ferry or bus.
That night we had japanese barbecue for dinner...I had calamari for the first time. It's not my favourite but it doesn't taste as gross as it looks either :D
Bridget, Guy and I went into the city, to Kings X to party a little but since we had "Good Friday" all clubs and bars were closed. We got home before 12pm but at least I drove over the Harbour Bridge and saw Syndey by night.
Next day we did a sightseeing tour through Sydney. The Opera house, Botanic garden, Contemporary Art Museum, the Rocks (the oldest neighbourhood) and Pitt Street, the shopping street.
On Sunday we had planed to go to the beach to swim and relax but because it rained we went to have coffee with some friends and went to the Manly beach later on, as the weather was getting better.
On Monday the Mylecharanes (familys name --> I know its weird) needed to go back home, so they droped me off at the bus station from where I took a bus to the city centre. I managed to find a hostel for one night. I didn't really know what I wanted to do next but I decided to take a bus to Brisbane after non of the hostels I had asked had work for me. 
The next day at 5:30 pm my bus left Sydney and made it in 16 hours to Brisbane. I got there at 10 am and since my couchsurfer, James, had work, I hung around the city. Brisbane is a really nice and green city! 
I met James later at Manly station, where he picked me up. The special thing about this couchsurfer was, that he is currently living on a boat. He is waiting for his working visa and stays on a house boat until it arrives. The boat wasn't so big but there was enough room and the couch turned into a bed :)
It was a different, new but very nice experience surfing on James' couch. I almost went with him on a trip to a close island the last weekend but I found a guy, Luke, on gumtree.com, who was going to Sydney and had a spare seat. I met him on Friday to see if I would want to travel with him and what exactly his plans were. He seemed harmless, a little different but harmless ;) and he wanted to take some east- and westroads and make his way down to Sydney within 10 days. His timing fitted mine pretty well, so I took advantage of that spare seat and went with him the next morning towards Byron Bay...

See ya guys later

New Zealand with Jana, Tanita and Jan :)))

I arrived a few days later than the others did, so they had already rented a car and seen the bit that's left of Christchurch. There was a big earthquake in 2010 that destroyed a lot Of the inner city of Christchurch.
After the big long desired reunion we took off to the supermarket, got lots of food and headed south...
The first stop was Lake Tekapo where we climbed the Mount John and had a nice but freakin cold morning swim! Next big stop was Dunedin, where we got to see huge Albatrosses and Penguins. Making our way to the very south part of the Suth Island of New Zealand, we had lots of singing contests in the car, which was so crowded that things were falling on us, as soon as the driver had to stop or something. Since we did wild camping and therefor couldn't have a shower every morning we headed to pools once in a while, swam a little and had a half-an-hour-shower to keep ourselves more or less clean :D
In the very south we were able to see Dolpihns swimming and playing right next to us in the sea. Also, there was a sealion on the beach, who was really relaxed about all the people taking pictures of him...I think he enjoyed being the center of attention and not only the Dolphins :-P
Getting close to Milford-Sound, we booked a Kayaktour for a few hours the next day, hoping the weather would get better. Of course that didn't happen...it even got worse, so we ended up kayaking through pooring rain with thousands of Sandflys. Thinking positive, we made the most out of it and enjoyed the thousand waterfalls instead of just two and some sealions...
Last stop for the first week was Queenstown, which is one of the most popular cities in NZ. It is in a beautiful area and good to do activities like rafting, Paragliding etc.
We stayed in a hostel, which was sooo nice after sleeping in the car or tent the days before. We got to wash all our clothes and bought a whole day of internet ;)
After a couple of days in Queenstown, we made our way to Lake Wanaka, where did our once-in-a-lifetime-experience, Skydiving!!! You know, the thing where you jump out of an airplane :-P
I thoght I would be getting sick or something but I nothing like that happened...I even really enjoyed it!
Next big thing was the Tasman-Nationalpark near Nelson. We took a water taxi to Barks Bay and walked back by foot. It took us seven hours to do so, which was even faster than it says on the signs ;) The National park was really beautiful and since even the weather was good, we were in a very good mood and enjoyed the day!

On the north island our highlights were the hot water beach and Auckland. The hot water beach near Whaihi (or something like that) is really cool. At a certain time you just need to dig a whole in the sand and you get hot water after just a few cenitmeters.
The last days of our trip we enjoyed in Auckland, where organised everything and took all our flights back to Australia or for Jana to Germany.

That was my trip around NZ! It was amazing spending it with my sister and my two friends.

Next post will follow soon...hopefully :-P

Greetings, Nina