Thailand - final days

That]s it. This is my last day of travelling. Time was running so fast and now also my time in Thailand is already over.
Our first stop here was Koh Pangan, the party island. We stayed in a beautiful hostel at the beach where we met Maite and Lisanne from Holland and Sam with his friends from Canada.  On the first day we were exploring the island with our rented scooters. It's just 4 Euros to rent a scooter for a whole day! I love it.
The next day we decided to go to the Wipe Out, a water park with obstacles. It was so much fun and also exhausting until I had a bad accident. I hit my head on the edge of a platform when I tried to do a backflip. The wound had to be stitched at the hospital and the day was over for me. That meant I couldn't go to the legendary half moon party :( shit happens and at least I was alive :D

Our stay on the island was really nice though and the day after we took the night bus together with Maite and Lisanne up to Bangkok. Sven and I just stopped for one and a half days because we would come back in a week anyway so we just did some cheap shopping.

After that we directly headed to Chiang Mai in the north. This place was more relaxed and I could calm down for a while. On our first day we drove to the "Grand Canyon" of Chiang Mai. We arrived after 2 hours instead of 1 because Svens phone broke and we drove 50 km in the wrong direction. The canyon was nice but not as big as i thought :D

What I like about Thailand is that you can eat really good food at restaurants all day long for less than 10 Euros and a night in a hostel costs often just 2 Euros. wooow 

What I don't like is that everyone wants to sell you the most useless stuff you can imagine and especially Bangkok smelled like garbage!

On our second day in Chiang May we went to the Tiger Kingdom to cuddle some sweet tigers that are 2 meters long and weigh 300 kg  

I have to admit I had a lot of respect for those big animals. 

To make the day perfect we took a Thai Massage in the evening which was more exhausting than relaxing. They bent us and twisted us like hell but afterwards I felt so good.

The next morning was another highlight when we were riding on elephants!

Oh my good I love elephants they are so huge but so nice and calm and it was such a lot of fun to feed them, play with them and take a ride.

Another good event in Chiang Mai was the Sunday Night Market where bought so many things. Sometimes it's hard to not buy a complete store when everything is so cheap.

Back in Bangkok we had a really expensive drink at the Skybar that became famous with Hangover II. 

The perfect place to have dinner with live Jazz music but not for us - we are poor backpackers :D

At Khao San Road i bought many clothes and at night it's a rally crowded place.

On our last day we finally did some sightseeing in Bangkok and went to the impressive Grand Palace and a 5 meter high golden Buddha statue in Chinatown. 

I have to say Bangkok is a interesting city although it's not really beautiful and it smells like hell. Also the people are just about to take your money but on the other side it has a really good nightlife and lots of interesting places and sights.

All in all I liked Malaysia more than Thailand because the people are so nice there and everybody understands English. 

I will definitely do an Asia trip one day as the culture is so different and there are so many beautiful places and (of course) everything is so damn cheap! 

I'm also really looking forward to fly home tonight to see my family and friends. Travelling for such a long time is exhausting and it will be good to relax sometime and to not care about money or accommodation. 

I had great ten months with a lot ups and downs and I met so many good people that made my journey unforgettable! It's hard to believe that it's  over now but soon I will be travelling again and who knows where I will be then.

Have a good time everyone :)

Hello Asia - SIigapore and Malaysia

Hello Asia,
Ate the moment we arrived in Singapore we realized how clean and organized the city is. One can easily see that they have so much money :D
Nevertheless it's a really interesting city and we really felt a little rich because even there everzthing was much cheaper than in Australia.

Every evening there are light shows at the really creative parks that make you feel comfortable.

In the luxury shopping center there are boats that drive you around!

On our last evening we saw a concert with skyline view - for free!

I wonder how much energy they need to light the city in such a beautiful way.

A huge shock moment was when my SD card with all my photos fell down a bridge. Luckily it landed on an island on the river and I found it again the next day when we swam through the river in the middle of the city :D

After only two days we went on to the capital of Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur.

This was a completley diffrent city. We finally arrived in real South Eat Asia with its chaotic traffic, cheap markets and asian food. KL is a city with a lot of new buildings like KLCC and also luxury shopping centres

but most of the city is still traditional or in building. We lived in Chinatown which is a lot cheaper than the city center.

After another two days and a lot of shopping we went on to the Taman Negara National Park in the middle of Asia. A beautiful jungle with only one rural village that was destroyed this winter by a big flood. The boat trip to the village was a lot of fun.

In Asia I really feel like a giant because everything is so small and the Asians are also not really tall:

I didn't even fit through the door :D

In our two and a half days there we did some jungle tracking which is so exhausting with a humidity of 80%! It was a lot of fun though to see some apes and walk over really high hanging bridges.

I like that they drink there take away juices out of plastic bags :D

The next day we made our way directly to the Perhentian Islands in the northeast. It was one of the best islands I have been so far because on one side it was really relaxed and on the other side there was still some partying and drinking in the evening. Sven and I decided to do our advanced course in diving here and it felt so good to dive again!

we had great four days with friends we made there. Thanks to Eanna, Laura, Luke and Yann. On our last day we we're jumping from a 6 meter high jetty which was one of my highlights on the island.

Tomorrow we will make our way to Koh Pangan in Thailand to go to the Half Moon Party!

Sounds like a good time.

I really love Asia - good people, beautiful plaes and everything is so cheap!!!

Top End National Parks

So in our final week we rented a 4wd to explore the famous national parks around Darwin.

Awesome beast, isn't it?

Litchfield 

After only 150 km we reached the Lichfield National Park. Our first stop were the Magic Termite Mounds. The buildings of the termites can get higher than 5 meters and are all over the place.

After that we needed a refreshing swim at the Florence Falls and it's surrounding swimming holes. Such a great place to take a dive in crystal clear water and under beautiful waterfalls.

This was one of the best places in the national parks and perfect for a hot day in the dry season. 

In the afternoon we moved on to see the lost city which is only accesable by nice 4wd track.

When I see that, I can understand why aboriginal people believe that places like this are sacred. You really get a spiritual feeling when you wander around those strange rock formations.

To finish the day we saw another nice waterfall at sunset:

We slept almost eleven hours because we had not much to do in the evenings, camping at lonely places. 

In the morning we took a cool bath at the Wangi Falls 

What a great start in the day. 

Later in the day we walked a nice bush track to the Cascades. The best part was was walking down the creek to a plunge pool with a small waterfall.

That was our last stop in Lichfield and we spend the afternoon driving the way up to Kakadu.

When we had lunch a funny bird joined us that looked so suprised for about half a hour :D

Kakadu National Park

We arrived at our first destination Ubirr in the Kakadu National Park, which is ten times bigger than Lichfield, at sunset. Ubirr is a sacred place for the Aborigines with a lot of beautiful ROC paintings that are often more than 5,000 years old! 

Often there are many layers of paintings, that's why one can't really tell the actual story that was painted, but it's fascinating to hear some storys told by Aborigines or to think about what the painter could have meant.

First we thought there were a lot lof bushfires in the national park that could be dangerous but the someone told us that they are caused purposely to prevent bigger wildfires.

Our third day we started with a short natural walk that reminded me of the Lost City:

Unfortunately we couldn't see the biggest waterfalls, the JimJim Falls because the road was still closed due to flooding so we saw some more rock art that day and camped on another lonely campsite. 

In Kakadu there are heaps of crocodiles and not only freshwater but also huge saltwater crocodiles. That's the main reason why swimming is almost not possible there but on our last day we finally found a great saltwater crocodile free spot which was probably the best of all: Maguk.

Paradise on earth!

Would you swim with freshwater crocodiles under you? We did :D

Then it was already time to drive back to Darwin. We took a 100 km gravel road including two water crossings. 

Just when we were back on a sealed road in the morning we had a shock moment. I was driving as usual when suddenly a small kangaroo jumped in front of the car - no chance to stop, but we were lucky as the kangaroo survived and there was almost no damage at the car. Puuuh.

All in all I have to say Lichfield was way better than Kakadu and two days are more than enough to see Kakadu but we had some great days especially in Lichfield and at Maruk. 

And we found a funny sign:

Somebody seems not to be alright with "no firearms" haha :D

Back in Darwin we were at Crocosaurus today. Sven and I dared to go in the cage of death to see a 5 m crocodile face to face

We hoped for some more action but it was impressive anyway. This one weights over 600 kg! If they attack you in nature you are gone in a second.

So now that's it. Tonight I'm flying to Singapore and leave Australia behind me. I can't believe that my 8 months here are already over but I had a great time with ups and downs and many many people I met.

It's time to move on and I'm also looking forward to see South East Asia.

Fin.