One year, 2 jobs and 2 continents later

Thanks for your patience folks.

I couldn’t blog such a long time because of the Chinese internet restrictions. That’s why I only had limited access to face book and the uncensored internet.

But now the time has come to get the last updates.

After finishing the year 2009 in Australia with a lot of “non-working-but-travelling-experience” we went to China to spend 7 months working and travelling there.

We worked hard and tried to use our spare time to visit as much as possible places in China. Well, the people are quiet strange and there are really a lot of them in China. Of course there are also so called “normal” people (in our understanding), but unfortunately these are exceptions. The majority does behave like small kids, is independent and have really disgusting customs (spitting everywhere accompanied with loud noises, long fingernails to clean ears and noses without any shame and if they clip the finger nails then mostly in public places. ETC).

Nothing against Chinese people because they also quiet friendly and take care of you.

As a result I would say you can really feel the big cultural difference if you come as a European to China.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like my time there. I really enjoyed it and I am fascinated of this huge amazing country. Things are only different there and more adventurous.

We also met with some of the best good old friends of Europe, hosted our families in Shanghai and travelled with them through the south of China. I definitely return to China to see more and study more Chinese in the Kingdom of the middle.

Diana had to leave China one week earlier because they didn’t extend there visa. So she flew to a small paradise in Thailand – Koh Tao. Meanwhile in China I had enough time to prepare the departure. With an engagement ring in the backpack I arrived one week later in the paradise to get a rest and ask the question of the questions.

A dental incident and some nice days later which we spent in Bangkok and Hong KongHHHHon we arrived San Francisco. We had a great time there together with Diana’s (and now also my) family ;-) (Hector his sisters and Diana’s brother with his wife) and we were hosted first class.

Finally we arrived in Peru and in our new life. And here we are!!

Landed in Peru, already working, driving and exploring again. We already start to settle down and to organize our wedding on 08^th of January 2011.

The latest pictures (probably not uploaded yet) are from the last long weekend trip in Perú…

Nos vemos chicos

MAINTENANCE

it's coming...

Vacations end

Before I will never finish my report of our trip in Queensland I will make it quick and finish it now. Because meanwhile happened a lot things more which also should be told.

My time was coming with hiring a car and I had to take this big challenge I was waiting for the whole time. I took the control of a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and had to get used to drive it also on the wrong side. So it was not surprisingly that I every time activated the wiper instead of the turn signal. After 2 days it wasn't anymore a problem and it was awesome to discover Australia by car.

We explored National Parks with Waterfalls, the table lands, a really tiny version of the alps, long lonely beaches and slept almost every day in the wild in our tent. And that was definitly the biggest challenge because it was freezing cold and we only had one terrible sleeping bag.

After watching Platypus in Yungaburra we drove to Cape Tribulation the end of the driveable road at the coast where the rainforest reaches the sea. You can see this only at a few places in the world. It is unbelievable to drive the roads surrounded only from jungle. It was like in paradise. But even this magical place had some dangerous attractions. So we went to daintree river to see the famous saltwater crocodiles.

After returning from Cape Tribulation we finished our trip in Cairns. We spent almost a week in Cairns and did our last trips from there to Kuranda one of the biggest sky rails in the world and to the Great Barrier Reef. Sorry again but it is indescribable and it is unique. Everybody who is going to Australia should see the Great Barrier Reef. Our ship stopped somewhere we had to jump into the water and dived into another world. If you have ever seen a documentary of reefs and thought it will be amazing if you could see that than the Reef is your place. It is like your swimming in a big seawater aquarium with million of fishes and all kind of colors. It seems to be so surreal but your really swimming in the wild sea.

I will finish my writing now with these memories. We saw a lot more but there is no time to report everything in detail. As result we can say that we really loved to travel in Australia and that it is not without reason one of the best backpacker countries in the world where you have such a good infrastructure and so many beautiful spots packed very close to each other.

Cheers

Spitzl

Townsville / Magnetic Island

After we had to wait until 4 in the morning in Rockhampton after our return from Great Keppel Island we continued northwards our journey by bus. Arrived at the tropical door of North Australia there wasn't anything which it was really worth to tell you. Townsville seems to be small, tropic ugly and all the shops, bars, etc. closing very early if they aren't closed already.

But we weren't here because of the city, NO, we wanted to start from here to the next island. Magnetic Island. After spending one night we headed towards Magnetic Island carriing a lot of food in our backpacks..

We gave us 5 days for our main goal to explore the Island with all there beaches wlking tracks and wild life. Even though the island was more touristic than the Keppel Island it surprised us with its natural beauty.



We walked a lot in these days and sometimes betwenn the burning grass on the floor in the forests which was really strange. After we discovered the beaches by a walk and the unaccessable places by kayak we had to search for the koalas and some kangooroos. In fact we saw kagooroos crossing the road and in the Forts (the name of a walking track) 7 Koalas. It wasn't so hard to find them because of their laziness they slept the whole daytime and didn't move a lot.

There was also a sanctuary park in our Bungalow Bay but we didn't visit it because of the very high price and the typical "you-are-tourist-you-can-touch-all-animals-if you-pay-tour"

The 5 days passed very quickly that we had to leave the island to pick up our booked car in Townsville which should give us more independence in the following days.....

tbc

Spitzl

Extra News

on the occasion of the dust storm I owe you some pictures of sydney in the dust. I also want to mention that it was not like the most of the people imagine. There was a huge polution in the air but you didn't feel the storm in the city. That means it was not comparable with a storm in the desert. Only at the Sydney habour were stormy winds and you still could open your eyes. And that maybe was the onliest dangerous thing that all people inhaled a lot of the poluted air while they underestimated the asthmatical threats.

Cheers Spitzl

PS: http://blog.flickr.net/de/2009/09/23/roter-staub-uber-sydney/ (while I still was sleeping)

Rockhampton/Great Keppel Island

After a couple of days at WoyWoy and a visit at the relatives of Diana we decided to change our holiday route. Originally we wanted to buy or hire a car in Sydney and drive it up to north to Cape Tribulation (in the north of Cairns). But they told us that our time is not enough to go the whole way.
Plan changed and 2 tickets were bought to fly to Rockhampton. Unfortunately we couldn’t see Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. But it was better to save it for summer times when it is warmer there and we can go for swimming.

So we arrived at Rockhampton and had to take notice that there was no public transportation to town available. But a very nice woman offered us a free ride in her car to the city centre. ;-)
Ok honestly it is too much to call it city centre. Rockhampton is not so small like it seemed to us but as the cattle capital of Australia it was more a little city which could be a setting of an italo western movie.

We slept one night in a Saloon looking Pub and booked our Trip to Great Keppel Island, where the crystal clear water and the long and lonely beaches were waiting for us. And surprisingly it was the truth which was caused by several factors. On one hand it wasn´t the already high season and the really big boom of Keppel Island happened some years ago. Therefore we only were 25 people on the whole island.

It was awesome and we booked it unfortunately only for three days. It was our first camping in Australia and it was the most comfortable, because they offered us for our tent mattresses, top sheets, blankets and pillows and it didn’t matter anything that we had neither a sleeping bag nor a camping mat.

The weather was not extreme hot but it was really nice we had all the time sunshine and during midday it was really hot to go swimming. We spent the following days relaxing mostly at the beaches where sometimes passed some daily tourists and we watched every sunset at the sea.

After three days we had to leave and went back to Rockhampton to leave from there with the bus to Townsville...

Post under Construction

Agenda of the Queensland Journey

1. Rockhampton
2. Kepple Island
3. Townsville
4. Magnetic Island
5. Paluma Range National Park
6. Big Crystal Creek
7. Waterfalls
8. Mission Beach
9. Yungaburra & Tablelands
10. Cape Tribulation
11. Mossman
12. Port Douglas
13. Wonga Beach
14. Cairns

tbc