OG

Australia

The Great Ocean Road

Technically, we've just completed the drive known as the Great Ocean Road since it runs from Torquay to Warrnambool and we passed through there sometime around lunch yesterday. (We only stopped long enough to decide that we'd stay in Port Fairy instead. No offense Warrnambool but

Australia

Roo Golf

The Anglesea Golf Club is famous for having its very own population of Eastern Grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus). The animals live all around the course and can be seen especially in the morning and around dusk grazing on the fairways and lounging in the shady roughs. Apparently they get hit

Australia

On The Road Again

When you're travelling for a long time, it goes without saying that there are always 'down times', i.e. days when not a lot is happening. Melbourne was very much 'down time' for us because even though it was a very pleasant stay and

Australia

Moving South

What with the floods in Queensland and the Barmy Army invading Sydney, we decided to head further south and are now residing in lovely, leafy Melbourne for a week. There is no central tourist focus point here like the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge in Sydney but it'

Australia

The Great Kangaroo Corruption

Among the many quirks and oddities about Australia, one is invested with much pride by all Australians: the fact that all the animals on their coat of arms can be had for dinner. This may not sound like much but imagine the Brits having a lion steak for tea. Or

Australia

Happy Holidays

I had this whole post prepared about Oprahmania down under and how all the Aussies got their knickers in a twist about a famous person visiting and telling them how wonderful their country is. But as the days slipped past and her Winfreyness was relegated further and further back in

Australia

Strine, aka Aussie English

Sydneysiders, that's what the good people of Sydney call themselves. Now that we've taken possession of our cute little apartment in the middle of trendy Darlinghurst, we might be tempted to call ourselves Sydneysiders too but it's just an address really. As soon as

Australia

NQ – Where the Men Are Men and the Cows Are Nervous

Queensland, and North Queensland in particular, is to Australia what the deep south is the US – the butt of every joke. "Banana-benders" is one of the milder nicknames bestowed upon the inhabitants of this tropical state. (The worse ones generally include cows and some form of sexual conduct.

Australia

Finding Nemo

I'm going to make myself wildly unpopular with any Australians reading this by admitting that I wasn't as impressed by the Great Barrier Reef as I had expected to be. Maybe because we came from spectacular Bali where the underwater wildlife is incredibly rich or maybe

Indonesia

Beautiful, Bello, Bildschön = Bali

You know those postcards where turquoise blue water fringes improbably white sandy beaches and a few colorful fishing boats lazily drift along? That's what it's like here on Nusa Lembongan. The island is only about 12 km east of Bali but it feels like we are

Malaysia

Malaysia, truly Asia *

There are no direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Bali so we had to make a stop-over somewhere. We'd already been to Singapore and Jakarta didn't seem like a very exciting place to see so we settled on Kuala Lumpur. Let me kill the

Indonesia

Off The Grid

We'll be absent for a few days because we're diving on Nusa Lembongan, a little island off Bali, and the intertubes aren't all that available in these parts. But hopefully we'll get lots of time to prepare some blog posts to put

Vietnam

Tunnel Rats And Jesus

Any museum visit in Vietnam will inevitably include some mention of the American war. The interpretation is often humorously biased with lots of rhetoric involving 'imperialist pigs' and 'American aggressors' and nary a mention of possible Vietnamese wrong-doing. But some of the exhibitions are still informative

Cambodia

On Food

If I were you, this is the post that would probably make me most jealous: the food here in SE Asia is delicious. Especially in Cambodia we've had the most wonderful dishes although the cuisines are all rather similar in this region. (Thai food in particular seems to

Cambodia

Puppie Chaser

I think we can all agree that this blog is in desperate need of a puppie chaser after that last post about the Khmer Rouge and S-21. (A "unicorn chaser", or in this case a puppie chaser, is a concept created by Boing Boing editors as an antidote

Cambodia

Not For The Faint Of Heart

From the serenity and beauty of Siem Reap and its temples, we moved to the extreme opposite when we visited Tuol Sleng, formerly known as Security Prison 21 or "S-21", the most notorious interrogation and torture prison in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. The buildings of Tuol Sleng

Cambodia

Angkor What?

After some unfortunate experiences with the travel bug and an uneventful stay in Vientiane, we finally made it to Siem Reap, i.e. the gateway to Angkor Wat and its many many surrounding temples. So many in fact, that after three days of intense 'templing' we still haven&

Laos

Lovely Place, Luang Prabang

We're in Luang Prabang, Laos, a sleepy little city that feels more like an oversized village. It is famous for its numerous Wats, Buddhist monasteries which function as temples and often also have a school attached. Thanks to this, the town has a large population of monks and

Vietnam

The Dragon Pearl

To counter the craziness in Hanoi, we spent three days in Ha Long Bay cruising around the majestic karsts of the South China sea. It really does look like the movies, think The Man With The Golden Gun even though that was filmed in Thailand; same same but different, as

Vietnam

Goooood morning Viet Nam!

While the 1000 year festival was going on in Hanoi, every morning began with an hour of music piped through loudspeakers onto the streets. The music was a mixture between opera and Vietnamese folksong and I have to admit that I quite enjoyed listening to it because it really makes

Vietnam

HONK HONK!!

Coming into Hanoi by taxi we thought: "Wow, this place is really busy". Walking out onto the streets an hour later we changed that to: "Holy shit, this place is NUTS!" Not ten seconds go by that you don't hear a horn honking from

Korea

Seoul, the soul of Asia

Our favourite part of the city was Bukchon, an old quarter where ambassadors and people connected to the court used to live. The neighbourhood lies on a steep hill and is full of little alleys and rows lined by tiny but wonderfully preserved houses.   Bukchon is also where the inspiring

Korea

Palace tours

Back in Seoul we've been doing the usual tourist tour around the palaces. There are five major ones that are included on every 'must see' itinerary. We've seen two so far and while they are very well restored and in excellent condition, I have

Korea

The (Culturally) Independent Republic of Nami

Our first day in South Korea was spent on Nami Island, a tiny little island in the middle of the Han river, about 60 km north-east of Seoul. The place is hugely famous in Asia thanks to a very popular Korean TV drama "Winter Sonata" which was filmed

World

First class

It's incredible what kind of deals you can find online. Like the flight we took yesterday/today. Back in July when we started looking for a flight out of Europe our only requirement was that it had to land somewhere in Asia. After sifting through many different destinations