Jan 08

On Monday I left Melbourne and started my way back to Amsterdam. The fact I've left Australia still hasn't really sunk in, I guess I feel like I'm just taking a short break and will be back in a week or two. Hard to think that I don't know when I'll be back and that I'll end up so far away.

So now I'm in Kuala Lumpur for about 2 1/2 days; I flew wth Malaysia Airlines so making a stopover was easy. It's an interesting city, though I haven't seen a lot of it yet, but there are a lot of different cultures here and it's fairly Westernized for an Asian country (not that I've been to any other Asian countries, but it's quite modern here and English is very common).

Things are very cheap for a Westerner and I mentioned before that my hotel is quite cheap. Now that I'm actually here, I'm amazed at what I get for what I paid. My room is not huge, but it's very nice and it has luxury touches like bathrobes and slippers for your use, and a separate bath and shower. There's a big desk for business travellers and a flat screen tv. I have a huge king-sized bed all to myself. It's very nice and all for only 84 eur a night. =) It was the first time I've had my luggage brought up to the room for me; they whisked away my bags from me as I got out of the taxi, I was lead up to reception to check in, and then my bags were brought up after I got to my room. I felt like such a poser in my shoes that are dusty and dirty from Australia and with my suitcase with SubPop and Threadless stickers on it. Everyone I saw at first seemed to match the poshness of the hotel, but I've seen more normal people since then. Oh, and my view! I asked for a room with a view of the twin Petronas Towers, which are the landmark of KL, and which are just across a park from the hotel I'm in. The view lived up to what I hoped for, I have this perfect view of the towers, plus the park in between. It's amazing, and on my first night I went to sleep in the glow of the lights lighting up the towers. Many photos to come...

Right, I'm off to go explore more of the city, esp the Chinatown and Indian area, maybe see a temple and visit some of the markets. I'll be back in Amsterdam all too soon and will hopefully get cracking soon on posting more stories and photos...

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. As you could probably guess, I just haven't had much time to use the internet, or I've been in places away from any internet access at all. If you've emailed me in the past few weeks and I haven't replied, I'm sorry I haven't written, but I have read my email at least and I am happy to hear from people. I promise a reply, even if it doesn't come until I'm back in NL. =)

Yeah, the 3 weeks or so since I last wrote have seemed very long because I've been so busy. In that time I drove on from Melbourne to Adelaide, toured Tasmania for 6 days, and then toured the Outback for 6 days. I am now in Alice Springs, in the center of Australia, the only "city" of any size in the Outback, about 27,000 people. It's damn hot, 40 degrees C, which is a bit over 100 degrees F. I imagine it's sort of similar here to Arizona or other places in the SW in the summer, a dry-ish baking heat that makes you feel like you're walking around in an oven. I plan to spend the afternoons anywhere air conditioned, it's horrible to try to do anything outside after about 11 or 12 until the sun goes down.

Of course I have many stories from the past few weeks, which I don't have time to write now. It'll all come eventually and if I do it from home I can add photos and videos. So look forward to all of that! I've had a great time though, though it's been trying sometimes with some of the long walks I've done and with the heat and many hours trapped in a bus that was desperately trying to cool us with the airco, but it's hard fighting that kind of heat pounding against all the windows. Tasmania was definitely a different story, much cooler and wetter and I actually had to drag out my jeans and rain jacket and long sleeved stuff for a couple of days. In the Outback, the only time I got out my sweatshirt was to use it as a pillow when we were camping outside. Tasmania was beautiful though, it is so full of amazing nature, temperate rainforests and rivers (that aren't dry!) and waterfalls and white sand beaches. It felt very similar to New Zealand and I liked it in the same way. It's not very populated either and has lots of tiny towns scattered around the island, quite a few of which we popped into for toilet breaks or to fill up the bus with gas. Humourous sometimes to see small town life.

On both tours I met a lot of great people and it's sad I'll probably never see them again. We had a happy little group though for a few days and I'm sure we all will fondly remember the trips.

My time in Australia is nearly over, which I hate to think about. This is likely the last time I'll post from down here. I am not looking forward to leaving Australia, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone back in NL and sharing stories. I hope to see those of you back there soon!

After nearly a month, I have returned to Melbourne, though only very briefly, I'm just staying here tonight and then tomorrow it's onwards west towards Adelaide. It was nice to be back in a place I know though.

So I've been driving from Sydney over the last 3 days. It's been rather exhausting, the first day I was so tired and sore when I finally arrived at my destination; I've learned to take more and longer breaks to avoid feeling like that again. The first day I drove to a small town near Australia's highest mtn (which I can neither spell nor pronounce). Not the most exciting drive until I was in the mtns. The second day was much better, through some gorgeous forests and eventually to the southern coast of Victoria, and then today to Melbourne, which also wasn't a very pretty drive, but I did go this morning to an Aboriginal site out in the boonies in a national park and that was beautiful. Added a couple of hours to my trip though, but it was worth it, it was a small cave-like area with water, surrounded by rainforest-like plants and animals, apparently one of the most southern occurrences of a setting like that. A sign mentioned a certain type of lizard, and I think I saw one of them crossing the road on my way out. I had seen tiny little lizards as I walked to the Aboriginal site, but this thing was huge! It was about a meter long, including its tail. Glad I didn't come across one of those in the forest...