Only 2 hours from Sydney (yes, in Australia that’s just really nearby…) lie the Blue Mountains, world heritage listed so I decided to go and have a look! Different temperatures here, glad I took my fleece jacket. Did some nice walks there, with some grand views, which were difficult to capt on photographs.
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After a rather tiring night bus (Australia does not seem to know the concept of sleeper buses…), I arrived in Sydney, around 7am. I decided to head directly to Sydney Harbour, to take advantage of these early “golden hours” for making some photographs. Not the best choice with a 20kg backpack and 10kg daypack… On my second day in Sydney, I met up with Maarten and Marilyn, brother respectively sister-in-law of my friend Karolien. They gave me a very warm welcome, and it felt great having a conversation which did not center on where people were from or where they were going. The ensuing weekend, Maarten drove me around the main sights of Sydney on his motorbike (a different type than the typical Vietnamese grass mower…), always good to have a (semi-)local as a guide!
One of the great must-do’s of Australia. I had rented a car, teamed up last-minute with a nice German girl to keep the costs down and have someone reminding me on which side of the road to drive. A lot of nice vistas, but the cherry on the cake was our arriving at just that very right moment in the right kind of weather at the famous “12 apostles”. What a sunset!
I arrived in Melbourne at 10am in the morning, and what a morning. One of these fantastic crisp sunny mornings with clear blue skies, such a relief after the unbearable humid heat of Bangkok. First stop: the hostel, located in St Kilda (ie at the beach!). A bit of a disappointment after the 9EUR/night luxury of Bangkok: more than twice as expensive and less than half the quality… But hey, sun was shining, so I decided to treat myself to a big fat hamburger, which was pretty nice after having had Asian food for over a month. Then off to the beach, do some reading in LonelyPlanet. And experience a (the first of many!) beautiful Australian sunset. Next days were spent exploring Melbourne a bit. A nice, cosy, food- and coffee-centric city, I could see myself living there for a while
On my way to Australia, I made a 5-day stop in Bangkok. To visit some friends of my fathers on the one hand, and to have some off-time to prepare my itinerary in Australia. Inadvertently, I had scheduled to be there at Songkran, the Thai holidays celebrating the start of the rainy season. Luckily, my father’s friends were so kind to warn me that all of my electronics, passport etc. should be best put in watertight bags, since the Thai shower everyone with water during Songkran (whether by means of water guns, or plainly by means of buckets). An interesting experience, at the least. Understandably, I have a bit less pictures of these events ;-)
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