London & Woburn, England - End of my World Tour (5 - 9 May 2009) After Honk Kong it was great to set foot on Europe again after 5 months away, and knowing that I would stay at Eva & Aman's place in South Kensington definitely helped me a lot to overcome the little sadness occurring at the end of my world travels. Anyway, it was great seeing them again and having a beer with them at their local pub whilst having a great chat. On Wednesday I headed up north to visit Linny & Aiden, and Tracy in Woburn. It [View Full Entry]

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Hong Kong, China (1 - 4 May 2009) A quick stop-over for three nights in Hong Kong was the last wing of my journey away from Europe. I was staying at a little apartment in Causeway Bay which I shared with a guy from Belgium and another one from Japan. I did a lot of sightseeing (e.g. Victoria Peak) and shopping (Kowloon, Mong Kok), and in the evening I met up with my good friend Anya from Moscow and her boyfriend Yongky from Jakarta. It was good the see them, and together with their friends we spent two nice evenings out [View Full Entry]

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Gili Trawangan & Bali, Indonesia (13 - 31 May 2009) After yet another day in Kuta, I was picked up at my hotel at 6 o'clock in the morning on Tuesday to be taken to Padangbai to catch the ferry over to Lombok. Whilst I was too tired to chat up with the people in the minivan, I was meeting Johnny, an English guy, and Melanie from Germany on the 4 1/2 hours boat trip, and it soon turned out that they were heading to the Gili Islands as well. So we shared a minivan for the short 2 hours journey [View Full Entry]

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Bali, Indonesia (1 - 12 Mai 2009) After yet another long-haul flight, I was arriving in Bali's Denpasar airport on Wednesday evening. Whilst immigration took me almost 2 hours, the taxi ride to my hotel (Dayu Beach Inn) in Kuta was very short, and because of the heat and humidity I immediately took a first swim in the pool. Very refreshing! The first couple of days I stayed in Kuta, exploring the beaches around (quite nice), the Indonesian food (yummie!) and the local nightlife (wild). On Sunday, I rented a Vespa (from 1977) and headed off to Lovina in the northern [View Full Entry]

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Perth & Fremantle, Western Australia (22 - 31 May 2009) Once arrived in Perth, I checked in at a hostel in Northbridge, where most of the residents were long-term British and Irish. Pretty cool people, and during my 2 nights there we mainly spent the time playing cards or going out in one of the nearby pubs & clubs in this lively neighbourhood. However, after visiting Perth and the surroundings I headed further to Fremantle, a cool and very relaxed historical little town only half an hour south-west of Perth. The Old Firestation Hostel was a fantastic place with lots of [View Full Entry]

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Whitsundays (Airlie Beach) - Port Douglas, East Coast Australia (7 - 21 March 2009) After Irene hat dropped me off at Brisbane airport and I had arrivd in Airlie beach, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the local bars and at he hostel (cyclone ‘Hamish’ was passing by, however, not as strong as expected, so we didn’t have to be evacuate). During that time I decided to go on a 3 days / 3 nights sailing tour on the ‘Spank Me’ on Monday, together with 42 year old Steve, an RAF police officer from Cambridge, England. Courtney, a Canadian [View Full Entry]

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Melbourne (26 February - 2 March) Arriving in Melbourne, it was great to see Garb again who picked me up from the airport and took me to her house in Flemington, a lovely Victorian-style area only a couple of train stops from the centre. We ended up chatting for the rest of the day, and on Friday, while Garb was working, I went to the city to see her artwork as part of an exhibition in a gallery. Cool stuff! In the evening, I met up with her and her boyfriend Robert and some other friends at at a cool bar [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand - Part II (Nelson to Christchurch) (18 - 26 February 2009) Travelling through New Zealand is easy: you either rent a car, get on a public bus that brings you straight from A to B, or you choose one of the hop-on-hop-off bus companies that serve the whole country and stop at scenic points of interest during the day and drop you off directly at your accommodation at your destination. I was travelling with MagicBus which turned out to be a good choice since the average age was probably in the mid/late twenties compared to Kiwi Experience (aka Kiddy [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand - Part I (Auckland to Nelson) (9 - 17 February 2009) Arriving in Auckland at 14h45 on Monday afternoon, it took me a while to get through immigration and then afterwards with the airport shuttle bus to the city. The YHA hostel I was staying at was very sterile and clean and didn't offer many interfaces for social networking, so since I was hungry anyway I decided to go to the harbour and eat. The mussle deal they had in one of the restaurants was excellent (1kg for NZ$ 12,-), and together with some beers I spent an excellent [View Full Entry]

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Sydney, Australia (5 - 8 February 2009) After a 13 hours flight from Buenos Aires I finally arrived in Sydney on late Wednesday afternoon and I went straight to the hotel near Kings Cross and then went for a beer with some people I met there. On Friday, I met up with my Swiss friend Martina who just moved from Geneva to Berne and now just started her 6 weeks trip through Australia and New Zealand. Together we went to Bondi Beach and had some relaxing hour in the sand and even went for a quick swim in the freezing cold [View Full Entry]

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