What is the best known natural wonder of Australia? Right, it's Ayers Rock. Today it's called Uluru again. That's the Aboriginal name. And where is it located? In Australia center, right in the middle. So you might think that's not far away from Alice Springs, mh? But it's still about a 450km drive, a little bit further south along Stuart Highway and somewhat west on Lasseter Highway. Mr. Lasseter was looking for gold in the desert west of Stuart Highway during the wild days. Nobody knows if he found some because he didn't come back. On the way you pass by Mt. Connor, another rock formation eroded out of the desert ground. And then finally, where the road ends in the middle of nowhere is Uluru. And Kata Tjuta. You never heard about it? I did ... read more

Heading towards Australia´s center I first tried to hitch my way through the outback. There´s only one highway going south, the Stuard Highway, and I thought with the friendly Ozzies and a clear direction to head to it wouldn´t be a problem. But after about 300km in an outback town called Katherine I got stuck. Nobody seemed to go any further, the sun and the humidety were stewing me in my own grease. So I chose the pool option for the rest of the day and marveld at ever-changing outback vegetation from inside the airconditioned Ghan, a once adventurous but today fairly usual train ride. It took me from the lush green humidety to the red and dry area in central Australia, to Alice Springs.... read more

Already by the time I arrived in Bangkok I had thought about trying to reach Australia overland, meening to get there without flying. Partly because of getting a better feeling for the distance and partly because overland travel is cheaper and more interesting. My first real attempt to find a boat going to Australia was in Port Klang. But all the shipping agencies did not offer any kind of passenger service. The next possibility I had heared about was from Bali. People told me, that Australian cruise ships go there and sometime take additional passengers on their way back. But when I reached Bali no Australian cruise ship could be seen anywhere... I think it just was the wrong season. So I traveld from one Indonesian Island to the next, getting closer and closer to Australia ... read more

During my days in Ende I got to know a bit more about the religious conflict between the islamic majority and other religious groups. About 88% of the Indonesian people are muslims. About 8% are christian and 3% are buddhist or hindu. The center of the islamic society is Java where most of the Indonesian people live. Flores in contrast is 95% catholic with only a small islamic minority. In Ende I visited the local church during a christening procedure for 69! children. Afterwards I had the opportunity to talk to a local journalist. He said that the christian community was very affraid of a bomb attack on the upcoming christmas, the church full of people being an easy target. There had not been any problems with the local islamic minority but for several years already ... read more

After a very long bus ride right into Jarkarta I found myself with little motivation of exploring this big city. So I took another very long bus ride right across all of Java and with the ferry to Bali. The touristic centre of Bali is Kuta, a beach town on a peninsular south of the capital Denpasar. Between the main street and the beach a maze of alleys offers every kind of accomodation, food, and souveniers a backpacker might think of, a bit like Bangkoks Khao Sarn Road relocated at a beach. But most of the places were pretty deserted. A local shop owner told me that several bombings, the last one in October 2005, scared away the masses of beach bums and surfers that are generally heading for the place. On the last incident two ... read more