Welcome to OZ

We landed in Sydney to an amazing whole new world:

• Every body looks like a westerner and it is hard to tell who's a tourist and who's a local


• We can understand the spoken language around (ignoring the Thai-Hebrew dialect we encountered before)


• The air is not polluted and the sky is a perfect blue (with little painted clouds just like in the Simpsons)


• Everything (well almost) cost at least twice as much as in south east Asia


• The Ozies are so nice and always trying to help you


• And.. they drive on the left side for some weird reason

Well - we love it! Even though it is harder on our wallets, it is so nice to be in such a completely different environment. Our plan is to basically to rent a van and drive around Australia for about 75 days, on "The D" trail (a.k.a the Half Circle). This means more or less the following:

New South Wales - heading North

• Sydney


• Blue Mountains NP


• Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Taree


• Bayron Bay and Nimbin


• The Gold Coast: Tweedheads and Surfer Paradise
  

Queensland - still heading North

• Brisbane


• Noosa and Rainbow beach


• Fraiser Island


• Whitsundays Islands


• Magnetic Island


• Great Barrier Reef


• Cairns


• Head west to Darwin

The Northern Territory - heading South

• Darwin


• Kakadu NP


• Lychfield NP


• Alice Springs


• Ayres Rock


• Kings Canyon

Victoria - heading east and north

• Adelaide


• The Great Ocean Road


• Melbourne


• Canbera (maybe)


• Back to Sydney

OK. That's a big plan. We have a short time and a lot to see and do, so off I go now. Wish us luck and may the schwartz be with us.

Schnitzel corner and the Israeli people

So we decided to go to Kho Phan Gan - the home island of Israelis in Thailand. Yay!

Basically, spending time in PhanGan is very tiring.. you go to the beach, drink a fruit shake (watermelon), get some tan, eat falafel or schnitzel, drink a fruit shake (banana-pineapple), read a book, play beach volleyball, drink a fruit shake (mango-orange), eat some pasta and do it all over again. Life's a bitch (or is it a beach?).

Abbey Goes Scuba Diving

You should have heard the sigh of relief I had when we came back to Bangkok - I was so happy to be back in the land of fruit shakes and nice people. But Bangkok is not my favorite place here, and there is much more fun to be done in the islands..

Abbey decided to be brave and get certified in scuba diving. So we found ourselves heading to the island of Kho Tao to do some dives, enjoy the beaches and meet some funny Norwegians. We stayed in a nice resort by the beach, that also has a swimming pool where the divers can practice their skills, and I could get my eyes burnt from an over dose of Chlorine. Great! We had a basic fan room with a cold shower and we got a reminder that Thailand is more expensive than Vietnam. Oh well.. they have better fruit shakes, and of course the legendary 7-11.

So as you might figured out there were a bunch of Norwegians over there. We had plenty of fun with them and after they told us that they saw a whale shark in their dives I decided to also jump into the (hot) water and go for a fun dive. Never in my life I felt so sick as this cursed day. The boat was rocking from side to side and I was feeding the fish with the breakfast I hadn't had. At least the dive was OK (obviously no whale sharks.. but we saw a reef shark).

Hanoi

In short: Big city. We stayed in the old quarter. Not-so-nice people. There is a lake in the center.

Well.. I am sure there were some good things about Hanoi - I just don't remember them at the moment.. anyway, the Ethnology Museum was great and is highly recommended. Other than that I got very excited to go back to Thailand, even though I had a great time in Vietnam. I guess the fact that the people were so pushy and aggressive made me too tired of dealing with them. All in all, Vietnam is absolutely beautiful and there are so many great places to see and visit.

A Day Trip to the Perfume Pagoda

After spending too much time in Hanoi, I decided to go for a one day trip to the Perfume Pagoda - supposedly a nice place to spent a day. Abbey was not in the mood and so I found myself spending the day with a young American-Vietnamese guy named Jimi and a mid-seventies Jewish couple from Canada. Quite an interesting group we were, with a vast majority for the Jewish faith

Well.. the rumors were true - it is a nice place. The only problem was the fact that the sun was out and I got hot. Really hot. Other than that, pagodas tend to be what you would think they are - yes, that's right - pagodas. And silly me, I thought seeing another one will make a difference. I was wrong. It was just another pagoda. The moral my friends - always listen to Abbey when she says "Oded... why do you want to go? It is gonna be another pagoda." She was right.

OK. I should stop complaining and tell you that we had a nice boat ride on the perfume river and then took a cable car to the temple at the peak of the mountain and enjoyed the views and the cave etc etc.

Sababa* in Sapa

We met my Israeli friends Liora and Barak in Hanoi and together we headed on the night train to Sapa, which is located at the north, near the border with China. After a long journey that included a 9 hours train and a ride with a mini van packed with way too many poeple, we made it to the lovely town of Sapa. It is so nice here! Good and cheap hotels, nice restaurants and beautiful views all over (at least when it is not foggy and you can see it).

We hiked and trekked in the area for four days (Liora and Barak left after three days) and had a lot of fun. We also enjoyed many hours in our fancy room, drinking coffee, reading a lot, and watching the great panoramic view.

* Sababa - Great, Wonderful (Hebrew)

Halong Bay

After making it to Hanoi, we decided to leave first thing in the next morning to Halong Bay - one of Vietnam most famous points of interest. Sounds great, right? The only problem was a little typhoon that decided to show up. So instead of having a three days tour in Halong Bay we ended up having a one day tour, that included very long rides to and from Halong City. But problems aside, Halong Bay is so beautiful and we were very happy to visit there.

Basically, the bay is full of crast islands (and tourists boats), that create a great view. We also visited two huge caves inside one of the islands, as well as a fishermen floating village.

Hue

After another ride on a sleeping bus (even though it was during the day), we made it to the city of Hue. It is a nice city, but it wasn't one of our favorites. We walked around the old town, visit the citadel, where the emperor used to live, and didn't do much in our day and a half there.


Abbey in the entrance to the citadel








The main entrance








One of the gates











A local woman collecting god-knows-what in the moat of the citadel







Preparing for another long sleeping bus ride.. cheese and cookies!

Hoi An - The Old City of the Tailors

Ever wanted to have a suit made to your size and for real cheap? A coat maybe? A dress? If the answer for any of these questions is yes, or you just want to enjoy the nicest place in Vietnam, Hoi-An is just the place for you.

Hoi-An is a really small nice old city, situated by a river bank. Other than hundreds of tailor shops, it has a lot of beauty and style to offer, together with excellent food and a relaxed backpackers atmosphere.

And if you wandered.. no, we didn't get any suit or any other part of clothing. Instead we decided to support the local artisans - we bought plenty of beautiful painting on rice paper.

On the bridge to one of the small islands






The beautiful lanterns of Hoi-An are one of the symbols of this city




Old style building near the river







Want a ride? The tricycle is the most popular mean of transportation for turists





Abbey with the Japanese bridge on the background









We enjoyed the great food and drinks at VI cafe every day at Hoi-An






The owners of VI cafe - Gonnur and his wife






Yay! We are again at the beach







Or just by the pool of our hotel