http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/LivingTheDream/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from LivingTheDream en-us Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:52:45 +0000 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:52:45 +0000 Day 595 on the road Melbourne is easily the most agreeable and cosmopolitan city I have been to since I left home. Miles apart from the chaos and pollution of some Asian metropolises like Manila Jakarta or Bangkok still vivid in my memory Melbourne just has a great feel to it. The mix of different people living here from all over the world is incredible and the city's location right by the oc http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-455131.html Day 588 on the road To get from Alice Springs in the centre of Australia to Adelaide down in South Australia there are three main options if you don't have your own car Catch the bus 180 20 hours catch the train 150 24 hours or catch the plane 60 2 hours. Well that wasn't a difficult decision since I have long given up my selfimposed noflying dogma and so a mere two hours lat http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Great-Ocean-Road/blog-452599.html Day 578 on the road The heart. The soul. The centre. I am not quite convinced about the heart and the soul bit of Alice Springs' slogan that greeted me as I stepped off the train but the part about the centre is certainly true The city is located a very long way from anywhere else and sits approximately in the geographical centre of Australia. And with only 27.000 people living here it must http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-450173.html Day 572 on the road I am in Australia and I keep having to pinch myself to believe just how different this place is compared to Southeast Asia. A mere two hour flight southeast of Bali it feels like a different world altogether. After travelling across Asia for the last year and a half some things that I once considered normal and a part of everyday life in Europe suddenly seem odd and new y http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-447679.html Day 565 on the road So here it is my last blog entry about Southeast Asia after travelling across the entire region plus a few other nearby countries for the last 18 months or so. On the way back to Bali from Lombok I had met adventurous and eversmiling Suzanne from Holland and the next two days we were to explore central Bali together on a rented motorbike.My last stay in Kuta on Bali ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-447100.html Day 562 on the road I have done my fair share of diving all over Southeast Asia in the last year or so but nothing comes even close to how amazing the underwater life is here in the Gili Islands off Lombok's north coast. Apparently the fishermen are paid by the local dive operators NOT to fish and it more than shows in the marine life to be found just a few metres from the beach. Visibility i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Lombok/Gilli-Trawangan/blog-445164.html Day 555 on the road I am back in Kuala Lumpur and I love it just as much as on my previous few visits here. Of all the Southeast Asian countries I definitely like Malaysia the most with its mix of immensely friendly and tolerant people and its diverse natural beauty. If I ever chose to live in a country in this part of the world it would almost certainly have to be Malaysia.This time however http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-445110.html Day 553 on the road How to write a blog entry about a place that has such an awful reputation as Angeles City in the Philippines The place is possibly the sex capital of the world with between 10.000 and 20.000 prostitutes selling their bodies every night. During the time of the U.S. airbase here as many as 100.000 working girls were offering their services. I had a morning flight the next da http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Pampanga/Clark/blog-442576.html Day 552 on the road Here is something I learned during the last year and a half of travelling in Southeast Asia Whenever somebody claims to give you the cheapest room in town or a similar sounding offer rest assured that there are much better deals to be had. This proved true once again when I shunned the guy who made just such a claim as I was looking for a place to crash in the unremarkabl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Taal-Lake/blog-442564.html Day 549 on the road Leaving El Nido was a lot more difficult than anticipated. Ongoing typhoon warnings caused all ferries and flights from El Nido to be cancelled for days on end. I had already booked a flight from the island of Coron about eight hours north by boat for the day after tomorrow and when I found out that the overnight ferry I had been hoping to take was cancelled I was starting http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/Coron/blog-442569.html Day 546 on the road There are places in the world that are just perfect for people taking pictures of them. And then there are places like the Bacuit Archipelago in the Philippines where I am at the moment that no matter how many pictures you take of them their true beauty can never be captured in a photograph. This place here is so amazing I sometimes had to pinch myself to believe it is real http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/El-Nido/blog-440947.html Day 538 on the road The guidebook had called Manila airport dirty chaotic and dark. I was expecting the worst but instead after arriving here from Taipei I found it superclean well signposted and modern. Maybe they have recently upgraded it or I arrived at a different terminal Leaving the airport I braced myself for the usual army of taxi drivers and other hawkers but I found nothing. No http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/Puerto-Princesa/blog-439099.html Day 535 on the road Going back to Taipei to complete our loop around Taiwan we opted for the high speed train that connects Taiwan's major towns. The system is very efficient and the stations and trains sparkling new. The next train to Taipei left less than twenty minutes after we bought our tickets so soon we found ourselves going north at 300 km h.The next morning I accompanied my mum to th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taipei/blog-437630.html Day 532 on the road From Tainan my mum and I took a combination of train and bus to Sun Moon Lake the largest lake in Taiwan. On the way we had to change trains in a small little town and walking around waiting for our connection we stumbled across a crammed tea shop manned by a lovely elderly couple. They spoke no English whatsoever but with hands and feet they explained to us what their va http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Nantou-County/Sun-Moon-Lake/blog-437412.html Day 529 on the road We had wanted to see some Taiwanese temples and we got more than we bargained for in Tainan. Tainan is famous for its abundance of beautiful temples and people from all over flock to the city for this reason. Our guidebook recommended a walking route that takes in the main temples and we had every intention to complete this walk.However we failed not miserably but still http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Tainan/blog-436488.html Day 527 on the road We hadn't initially considered going to Green Island but with a recent Taifun wrecking havoc in many parts of southern Taiwan our plan to visit Alishan needed to be adjusted. It was a mixed blessing On the one hand Green Island was very beautiful on the other hand Alishan boasts a narrowgauge alpine railway and some grand mountain vistas.Anyway the choice had been made http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Green-Island/blog-436218.html Day 524 on the road A three hour train ride south on one of Taiwan's comfortable and reliable trains brought us to the city of Hualien on Taiwans' east coast the stepping stone for the magnificent Taroko Gorge. Or shall we call it as the English translation in the tourist brochure does Extreme beauty of the world and a pleasing delight of hills and water CatchyWe had missed the last bus f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taroko-Gorge/blog-435394.html Day 521 on the road Taiwan really good. This was literally the very first thing I saw after stepping off the plane in Taipei. I have never fully understood why the Chinese and apparently also Taiwanese never bother to check for spelling and grammatical errors on their billboards and signs but I am very glad they don't as it always provides for some of the best spontaneous entertainment pos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taipei/blog-430941.html Day 518 on the road Wasn't the Airbus 320 the plane that crashed a few months ago you know that Air France flight from Brazil to France... The pretty Asian girl in the seat next to me on the flight from Bali to Singapore tensed up noticeably then she mumbled something which I didn't quite catch. With hindsight this probably wasn't the best line to chat her up and thus for the next two and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-430939.html Day 510 on the road I think my timing to visit Bali was not quite the best. The main tourist area of Kuta was supercrowded when I was there mostly by vacationing Australians some of which are simply amazing on their surf boards who seemed to have taken over the place. It also didn't help that I arrived late at night I spent a good two hours looking for a place to crash checking more than http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-430469.html