A long one for the toilet.... After saying goodbye to Amy, I left New Zealand for Sydney. Here I spend a couple of days sightseeing and went down for a rugby game, Australia vs South Africa. In the harbour was an American aircraft carrier with its supporting ships, and in the street I was staying the prostitutes were doing overtime, working around the clock to get as many US$ as possible. My next stop was in Newcastle, to were I took the train. It's only 200 km, but took me about 5 hours, how wrong was I thinking that the delays in Holland were bad!!!! But arriving in Newcastle I was picked up by Joris and went down to his new home to meet up with Carol. Joris and Carol used to work in my local pub...

So were where we, on a glacier I believe.. At fox Glacier I heard that in Greymouth are a couple of really good hostels. And having a bit of a cold coming up, a hostel with spa, sauna and gym sounded good for a couple of days! I did go to the hostel, but never ended up in the spa or sauna, I did go to the gym though. And so after a couple days I decided it was time to visit Stefan's parents in Ashburton, Jenny and Clyde. It was a little adventure getting there. I had to go over the Arthurs pass, but as it was snowing and I didn't have any snow chains on me I might be sent back, and there's not really another way of getting to Ashburton... I decided to give it a go and of course...

Footy


Melnourne sundown


 

Trow and Victor

So the decision was made, a couple of weeks to New Zealand. Luckily they do cheap airline tickets here as well so there wasn't a problem there. I arrived in Christchurch, a quit little town, which looks a lot like some old English town, with an old Victorian church on the main square and a stream with weeping willows lining it. They do seem to have an excellent bus system in Christchurch as you can catch the bus from Kings Cross to Dublin, for only a couple of dollars!!! Wonder what Ryan Air thinks of that! Here I met Scott, whom would later drive a bit along with me, and went out for a drink or twenty six. Next I was off to Dunedin, along a road through the rolling hills, with a lot of sheep. In...

So what's there to say? Finally made it to Australia! The day before I left I found out that I needed a visa, luckily Dutchies can get one over the Internet in a couple of minutes so that was sorted pretty easily, and a good lesson to prepare a bit better next time! When I arrived in Melbourne, customs took me immediately separate and put me in the "special" line. The line where people get sear So what's there to say? Finally made it to Australia! The day before I left I found out that I needed a visa, luckily Dutchies can get one over the Internet in a couple of minutes so that was sorted pretty easily, and a good lesson to prepare a bit better next time! When I arrived...

the last one for the time being!!!!!
The train ride to Jogjakarta was really beautiful, though Koen and I were a bit hung over from our Queens night before... Luckily the train was almost empty so we could use more than one seat per person...to sleep.A bit of a pity, as it might have been one of the most beautiful train rides of this whole trip. Volcano's, jungle and rice paddy's all coming by at a leisurely speed. In Jogjakarta we booked ourselves a tour going to several temples. The first one was Borobudur, a big temple only comparable with some at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. On the way back we passed a couple of smaller ones. Koen and I decided not to see them.These were pretty expensive and...

On our way from Siem Reap to Preah Vihear in Northern Cambodia

Kids in a flash...



Mareli sitting on the road,not the best road we had on our trip...


Me and my driver on the moterbike to the temple. The road up there is stupendous steep at places and the bikes are extra cooledwith water tanks mounted up front.


Mareli in her bike.


Mareli at the Preah Vihear Temple


The temple


Alittle kid we found crying for it's mom...for hours!!!!!


Another roadside viewin Cambodia


Sundown in Cambodia


And off we went for Thailand...our transport? Luggage compartment of a luxery coach


Bangkok sky


Bangkok sky2...


sleeping...

In Jakarta we went location hunting, locations where my dad used to live, voluntarily or under force...

My dads old house,now occupied by other Dutch people working for television. We were invited in and could take pix and filmwhat we wanted!!!


One of the Jap camps my dad used to be in, now a psychiatric institution.


In a bar in Jakarta...Dutch food like frikandel and kroket!!!


Sleeping in the train from Jakarta to Jokjakarta, after celebrating Queens day...


Mount Bromo,an active volcano....pretty cool,every so oncein a while a bit of smoke and a moonlike landscape.


Snorkeling on Gilli air,an islet near Lombok, Indonesia. A coulple of days sun, sea and sand.


More gilli.


And...

After our days rest and Mareli's quick visit to catch another sunrise, we decided to leave for Preah Vihear, which according to all the guide books is a pain in the butt to get there. But by bus, three bumpy ours later we arrived no problem!!! Together with two Frenchies we shared a taxi to the actual temple of Preah Vihear. I found the temple not as good the ones in Ankor Wat, but the location, on top of a hill overlooking both Cambodia and Thailand was special! Especially the perfect tar road coming from Thailand....unlike our dirt track from Siem Reap... The first night in our hotel near Preah Vihear, Mareli had some big, bad spiders in the room, all over the room that is, on the bed etc....where...

Our second day at Ankor Wat started a bit later than the day before. At around seven we woke up and were on our way a bit later. Today we did a bit more conventional route, unlike yesterday when we went to the more remote sites. Today we did the great circle route, which includes Ankor Thom, the largest of all of them. What maybe is most impressive is that (I think the French) decided to rebuild the temple and after taking the temple apart and sorted the pieces out, the war started and the Kmher Rouge destroyed all the data. So after the war some very, very patient people started puzling and I must say, they did a pretty good job!!! After Ankor Thom we did a couple of other temples, but couldn't...