It took us about 4 minutes to sort out the paperwork for our rental car at the Avis desk and we were happy to learn that we were going to drive a Toyota Rav4! As we walked over the parking lot, we both realized that we had no clue as to what a Rav4 would look like, but luckily there were only 6 black cars on the Avis lot. We matched the license plates and before long we drove away on the right side of the road, which is of course the left side because Australia used to belong to the United Kingdom. The drive to the hotel took no time at all and before long we were enjoying a nice dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.

The next morning we left Launceston early and set course to Bicheno. We travelled over some cool dust roads and made some small nature walks (some of them through rainforest) during the day. We had a light lunch at St. Helen and arrived at the Best Western in Bicheno at five in the afternoon. The weather deteriorated over the evening and when we stepped outside the following morning, it rained. After we obtained some ponchos from the local supermarket, we walked up the Whalers Lookout in Bicheno for some magnificent views over the ocean. Next up was the Bicheno blowhole and after that we drove to Freycinet National Park, to see the world famous Wineglass Bay with our own eyes. As we pulled into the parking lot, we had some difficulties avoiding all the (soaked, because it was still raining) wallabies, who seemingly couldn’t care less about passing cars and tourists taking photos of them.

We parked the car and made our way to the lookout point for Wineglass Bay. Despite the weather, the views from the lookout were gorgeous and made the hour-long uphill trip really worth the effort. On the way back we took a scenic route and had a relaxing drive back to Bicheno.

Back at Bicheno, we realized it was only 2pm, so we decided to visit the East Coast Natureworld. This animal sanctuary just north of Bicheno is, as we discovered, well worth a visit. The park has a large variety of Australian animals, amongst whom the famous Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian Devil is an endangered species and this park does its part in protecting and rehabilitating animals that are hurt due to human activity. We visited some devils, we were almost run over by a large group of kangaroos when we walked towards the snake exhibit, we saw some wombats and Yvo was attacked cuddled by birds in the aviary (we have a video of this, for those of you interested). While we waited for the animal feeding to start, we noticed two devil joeys that were drinking their mother’s milk. During the animal feeding, we had the opportunity to pet a devil’s back and a wombat’s belly. All in all we really had an excellent day.

The next day we had to do some shopping, something we didn’t particularly looked forward to, but it had to be done. After we restocked our shampoo and deodorant, bought some sandals and a fresh pair of shoelaces, we started a walking tour the Lonely Planet suggested. Around noon we visited the Bell Tower, which was far more impressive on the inside than we’d expected it to be. The Swan Bell Tower in Perth has viewing decks where you can see the actual movement of the bells as they ring, which is between noon and 1pm. Another viewing deck shows the bell players themselves and on the top you can walk around the tower. Yes, that is on the outside and yes, I know, that sounds horrible. Horrible it was, but once you’re past the whole “this is really high, why didn’t they use closed floorboards instead of those with the nasty holes in them”-feeling, you’ll appreciate the view.

Conquering your fear of small heights (we still share the fear of average to huge heights to this day), is something that needs to be celebrated. We ordered two Hoegaarden and two big pans of mussels, as soon as we were back at the Belgium Beer Cafe. The rest of the afternoon we spend on drinking some beers and relaxing in the sun.

Our flight from Helsinki to Beijing was delayed by three hours and Finnair was nice enough to supply every passenger with a 17.5 Euro coupon to spend at the airport, just to make up for the wasted time. The flight from Broome to Perth was delayed by more than seven hours and we didn’t even got an apology from Virgin.

We walked around Broome with our suitcases, desperately searching for a bar or cafe that was open, but because it was a Sunday afternoon, almost everything was closed. Virgin offers the option to buy a seat in a ‘blue zone’, which is more expensive, but will have a bit more leg room. Because we’re not the shortest people on earth, we bought the blue zone seats, but when it was finally time to board the plane, it became apparent that something had gone wrong with the seat assignments. There were already people in our seats and the, ever so friendly, stewardess told us that we would have to settle for a normal seat. Yvo’s eye twitched for a moment as he stood up from our temporary seat and started to, let’s say, ‘explain’ that this was not acceptable. A minute or so later, the people in seats 1A and 1B were evicted and relocated to our intended non blue zone seats, while we were relaxing in their old seats. Drinks and food were not complimentary, despite the long wait, but we were on front row and well on our way to Perth. Finally.

Our arrival at Broome Airport was well behind schedule and because taxi’s there normally only drive to the airport when a flight is scheduled to arrive, we had to wait for quite some time before we could grab one. The weather was fantastic, it was hot, sunny and the humidity was low. As our seaplane tour was cancelled (we received an email from the tour company a day before, telling us that they were ‘done for the season’), we tried to arrange a tour or two at the reception of our resort. The Bali Hai Resort is a wonderful place to stay when you’re visiting Broome. We had our own little house with two showers (one indoor and one outdoor), a bath, a kitchen and a barbeque. The receptionist managed to book us onto a scenic flight to the Horizontal Falls and also on a hovercraft tour, both the next day as no other days were available. In the afternoon we visited the local supermarket to prepare ourselves for a nice relaxing barbeque that evening.

The next morning we got up pretty early to go to the airport. A Cessna, or at least the model we had, is not a big aircraft: It will seat six people, including the pilot. These planes are designed to transport normal sized dwarfs or small sized humans, so we had some trouble getting in. While Bernd was doing his best not to knock the pilot unconscious with his knees, Yvo had to cope with a steering wheel moving up, down, left and right, seemingly targeting areas on him where steering wheels just don’t belong. The flight to the falls was rather good, especially the part where we had to descent to an altitude lower than the clouds, whilst being well above the clouds. Small planes like that, or rather, the passengers in them, don’t do well in clouds, as uncomfortable banking and rolling of the plane is bound to occur as soon as they enter one. Like a scene from James Bond, the pilot saw a small opening in the clouds and decided that this was the opportunity he was waiting for. The plane banked 45 degrees to the right and 45 degrees to the ground as we plummeted down to earth. Although this might sound like good fun, let me assure you: It wasn’t, but we did miss the clouds and as soon as the plane stabilized again we were well under them. The falls themselves are pretty nice and after we circled them a few times, we flew to an isolated beach to have some lunch and enjoy some free time. The flight back was not bad, as we flew lower than on the first flight, giving us a better view on the forest and bush.

After we had two hours to relax back at the resort, we were picked up for the hovercraft tour. The whole flying over the ground and water is amazing and while waiting for the sun to set, we hovered through the bay for quite some time. Unfortunately, at the time the sun was about to set, the skies had become clouded, so the tour ended with some nice snacks and drinks, but without the famous Staircase to the Sun.

The following two days we enjoyed our well deserved (no really, all this holiday stuff is very hard) free time. We did some barbecuing, reading, swimming and sleeping.

We left Darwin fairly early for our flight to Alice Springs, where we switched planes for Ayers Rock. Besides the fact that the flight attendant tore the little oxygen mask in two pieces during the safety instruction, ensuring us that our mask wouldn’t fail in case of emergency, the flight was pretty good. Our descent down to Ayers Rock airport was a bit bumpy, but the sight of the rock was incredibly impressive. It was much, much bigger than we expected it to be. When we arrived the weather still seemed to be pretty good, but later in the afternoon it deteriorated and it started to rain. We were booked on the highly celebrated Sounds of Silence dinner, but it was canceled due to the weather. The next morning the rain was gone, which was great because we were going walk the 9.4 kilometer track around the base of this magnificent sandstone. About 15 minutes into the walk, dark clouds appeared and no more than 5 minutes after that it rained again. This is not your average “how refreshing, a drop of rain”-kinda rain, no this is your “is this the Great Flood? I told you we should have build an Ark”-kinda rain. Every tour guide was smart enough to bring some ponchos with them, just in cast that it would rain, every tour guide except ours unfortunately. Except the being-soaked-due-to-the-rain-part, the tour around the rock was excellent and highly recommendable.

In the afternoon we had a sunset tour to the Kata Tjuta. The weather had improved a bit during lunch, so we were able to make some pictures of Ayers Rock and the Kata Tjuta without rain. During our walk over some of the rocks of Kata Tjuta, it did start to rain again, but this time we had ponchos to save the day. We finished the tour with Champagne and bread with bush Dukkah. All in all we had a pretty good time at Ayers Rock, though we were happy that our next destination was Broome, where sunshine is almost guaranteed.

A two hour drive brought us to a small billabong (body of water, like a lake) where we had a cruise in a small barge over said billabong. The weather was lovely and we saw some lazy crocodiles enjoying the shade under the Mangroves. For lunch we made fresh sandwiches after which we drove to the campsite to dump our backpacks and go for a swim. We didn’t feel like swimming, but we enjoyed some free time in front of a huge fan. Later in the afternoon we visited Ubirr. Ubirr rock is famous for its Aboriginal rock art and its magnificent views from the top of the rock itself. As far as rock paintings go, these ones were indeed pretty good (though I’m no expert in this art form of course). The views we saw from the top were nothing short of spectacular. Just sitting there absorbing the peace, quiet and the nature around us was extremely relaxing.

After we got back to the campsite from Ubirr, there was another opportunity to swim, which we again skipped. That evening we had pasta for dinner and after the food and dishes were gone, it was time for bed. Try to imagine a nice comfortable long bed with white linen on it sitting in a dry and air conditioned private room complete with minibar and television. Have that image? Our accommodation was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike that. We did have a private “room” (a cabin made out of metal tubes and mosquito net) and we did have a bed (two wooden boards, raised from the ground) but that is where the resemblance stops. On top of the wooden boards lay a plastic mattress and given that the humidity and temperature in Kakadu that time of year are both horribly high, the whole sleeping experience wasn’t that good. The sound of all insects chirping around us was comfortable and did help a little bit, but we didn’t sleep much that night.

The next morning we left early for a place where we would have the opportunity to swim, again. We drove for over two hours to a spot where we started a 20 minute walk over rocky terrain up hill. Our first stop was a cool little waterfall where the first people jumped in the water. For the people that wanted to climb a little higher, there was a possibility to climb up some really steep and sharp rocks where we, to our surprise, would be able to go for a swim! The climb up was difficult and tough, especially in the warm humid weather we were having, but well worth the effort as the panorama we saw there was excellent.

For the afternoon Shaun had a little surprise for us: He drove us to a place where we would be able to swim for a bit. We opted for the unscheduled hike up a hill, as we were getting a little tired of all the swimming stuff. Shaun was convinced that the walk up should take us no more than 10 minutes (he was able to do it in 5 minutes on his bare feet, or so he said). Either Shaun is in great shape, or we are in horrible shape, but after 45 minutes of climbing up loose rocks, we were a little over halfway up. We took some photo’s as evidence that we made it that far and decided to go down again.

As we drove back to Darwin that evening, we agreed that the tour was interesting and that Kakadu is a park you should visit at the very least once in your life, but also that we were happy to return to civilization and (maybe even more important) air conditioning.

The taxi driver that brought us to the hotel was very friendly, although we have no idea of what he tried to tell us. Australians have their own language and although it sometimes resembles English, it is quite different. There are the words that are shortened versions of normal English words (Brisbane becomes Brissie, mosquito becomes mozzie, barbeque barbie, Tasmania Tassie and so on), these take some practice, but are not the hardest part. There are the words and catchphrases that are only heard in Oz, feel free to look up some examples on Google (or Goggie, I’m not sure anymore?), but these can mostly be ignored since they rarely matter in the whole sentence. The hard part is that Australians hate to spill a breath of air and will try to fit as many words or even sentences in one breath as possible. Gdaywheryaoffto? I’m sorry? Nameofthehotel? Ah, eh, Metro Hotel Tower Mill please. Noworries…

After a handsome three and a half hours of sleep, we headed back to the airport (some brilliant planning here, the flight from Hong Kong arrived at 23.30 and the flight to Darwin the next day departed at 08.25). Qantas provided us with a lovely light breakfast during the flight, so the morning was not too bad. We arrived at the Darwin Travel Lodge Mirambeena before check-in time, giving us some time to do nothing. Victoria Bitter is best enjoyed when it is hot and humid and, wouldn’t you know it, Darwin was able to provide us with exactly these conditions. Two VBs later, we checked in and spend the rest of the afternoon mentally preparing ourselves for the next day: A 6.10 departure for a two day Kakadu National Park tour with Adventure Tours.

The ferry trip from Hong Kong to Macau took about one hour. Half the city was converted into a racing circuit, so walking around was a bit of a challenge. In 2005 we visited Las Vegas, so we had some high expectations. Macau is totally unlike Las Vegas. Sure, both cities have casino’s, but that is the only thing these two cities have in common. After a whopping 4 minutes we were done walking around in the biggest and newest casino of Macau, the new Lisboa. Thank god (or rather, thank the Portuguese) for the rich history of Macau and the beautiful old buildings.

We started the interesting part of our tour with the most famous dish of Macau: The pork burger. If you ever find yourself looking for lunch while in Macau, don’t spend too much time looking for this burger. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t very good either. It’s just a piece of lightly spiced pork meat attached to bone slapped between a dry bun, no lettuce, bacon or sauce of any kind. We had a big breakfast, so that was okay, but I don’t think we’ll order the pork burger again.

The first real sight in Macau we visited, were the ruins of the Cathedral of St. Paul. The main part of the ruins is the facade of the cathedral, a very impressive thing when you are at the bottom of the stairs leading up to it. On top of the stairs, once you pass the facade, lies Fortaleza do Monte, a big and impressive fort that offers a pretty cool view over the city. After we added some nice pictures to our collection, we journeyed through the streets of Macau to the A-Ma temple. There where some semi-interesting buildings on the route, but these couldn’t catch our attention for more than two or three minutes. The walk to the A-Ma temple took us some 45 minutes, but was well worth the effort. Not because of the A-Ma temple, since it wasn’t as impressive as the Lonely Planet claimed it would be, but because in front of the temple was a nice little stand that sold some delicious, cold, diet coke. We drank our cokes and made our way back to the Guia Fortress and Lighthouse. We had to survive a scary ride on a wobbly chairlift, but the views from the top of the hill (where the Guia Fortress is located) were stunning.

Diner proved to be somewhat of a challenge. We were looking for some normal and simple food, but we ended up eating dishes that were all but normal or simple. Somehow we managed to eat the “chicken” (despite all the little “chicken” bones), the spicy “meatballs”, the “tomato” sauce and the strange white solid that had no recognizable flavor.

The day was interesting and a visit to Macau will add some more spiffy stamps to your passport, but if you have a spare day in Hong Kong, we suggest that you stay in Hong Kong.

Our last day in Asia we stayed in Hong Kong again, but because three weeks of holiday is hard work, we didn’t manage to do too much. A good part of the day was spend at the local Starbucks, because a Frapuccino is hard to resist when the temperature and humidity are both high. That night we watched the world famous Symphony of Lights on the opposite site of the Hong Kong harbor. This show involves all the major skyscrapers in the city, which will light up on music played throughout the viewing areas. It almost looks like the buildings are dancing on the music, making the whole experience unique and something to definitely see when you have the opportunity.

We started our next day a bit later than usual and decided to get some breakfast at the Shun Tak Centre shopping mall. From there it was a short walk to The Center building which functions as the world’s biggest clock by representing the time with colored lines. We couldn’t figure it out and continued our way to the Midlevels area. A few quite long outdoor escalators bring you to the higher parts of Hong Kong. We took a short pit stop at a local Starbucks and enjoyed a frappucino with Frosty the Snowman playing in the background. Descending back to The Center building we made our way to the Bank of China building, unique in its shape and its many triangular glass plates covering it from top to bottom. Continuing our walk we strolled around a small church almost crashing into a Chinese wedding… not being invited we moved on to the higher grounds of Hong Kong: The Peak. Unfortunately there was a three hour wait time for the Peak Tram which brings you to the very top of Hong Kong, so we settled for the Botanical Gardens. Let alone the flora and fauna, this is one of the few places in Hong Kong where you’ll find a bit of rest and quietness. On our way back to the hotel we visited Hollywood street with the Man Ho temple. Upon entering the temple you see a lot of big incense spirals, all slowly burning, affecting your eyes and lungs. It’s too bad that Buddhism isn’t more popular in The Netherlands, because temples like these make for a great coffee shop.

This specific fish market is supposed to be one of the biggest in the world, which, given the shear size of the complex and the absurd amount of people, is probably right. Walking around the market is really interesting, there are hundreds of cars, hand carts and mechanized trolleys all moving in different directions at any time who are apparently all out to run you over. Inside the market (which is really also outdoors, but has a roof and two walls, so I’ll call it inside) you find the actual trading part of the market. Here fish is delivered, chopped into smaller pieces and then sold. Walking through the narrow lanes between suppliers was a challenge, as containers of fish blood and guts are dumped on the spot and we didn’t feel like we needed that kind of thing on our shoes. Although the blood was not an excellent sight, the whole experience was pretty fun.

You might expect the smell of this place to resemble the smell found in the deeper layers of hell, but that is totally not the case. Fresh fish doesn’t smell bad, which was good as we hadn’t had breakfast yet that morning. On the subject of breakfast, Lonely Planet says: When you visit the Tsukiji fish market, you cannot afford to miss a local sushi breakfast. The fish in the sushi comes directly from the market and is de freshest you will ever eat. So as we walked away from the fish market, we looked for a breakfast spot and sure enough, after a couple of minutes, we saw a little restaurant where some other tourists were eating. When you’re about to enter a sushi restaurant at the Tsukiji Fish market with this thought on your mind: “Aaah, what could go wrong?”, you might be better off to just walk away. McDonalds sells a great breakfast, that will set you back only a few dollars. But hey, what could go wrong? So we entered the restaurant.

The restaurant offered a breakfast deal that included 8 different sushi in combination with soup and tea. Hot, green and different are the only words I can use to describe the tea to you, as I still don’t know what the taste reminded me of. Our 8 pieces of sushi looked okay, but the rice used to create the sushi turned out to be a mix of 70 percent rice and 30 percent wasabi. Seven sushi where made out of a little brick of rice mix, with a small piece of fish on top of it. The last sushi was fish with rice mix rolled in a dark green leaf or something. Everyone had a table, but we of course had the great honor to eat at the bar, so the sushi chef was in front of us the whole time. As Yvo attempted to dip his first sushi in some kikoman (the black salty soy sauce), the chef started pointing at and talking about the sushi. Both of use are absolutely fluent in virtually every language spoken by man, but for some reason we didn’t quite understand what the chef was trying to say. Yvo tried his: “What is it boy, did Timmy fell down the well?”, but it didn’t help. Finally the chef made some gestures, indicating that the rice should not come into contact with kikoman, but that we should turn over our sushi and only dip the fish part in it. As if eating with chopsticks wasn’t difficult enough.

While Bernd was trying to extinguish some wasabi with green tea, Yvo tried the soup. The Miso soup had a lot of fish parts in it and tasted, well, fishy. Yvo was about halfway done, when he spew something back in his bowl and declared that whatever he just had in his mouth, was impossible to chew. He’d only managed to bite a small bit off, but that was the best he could do. At first the little black chunk looked like some sort of shiny mussel, but as Yvo turned it over with his chopsticks, it became clear that it was something else. Some people would feel nauseated by the sight of a fisheye in their soup, but Yvo took it like a champ. He managed to finish the bouillon part of the soup and noted that ‘Miso soup’ probably is short for ‘mi so sorry I ordered it soup’.

A short subway ride from the Tsukiji fish market took us to one side of Tokyo’s most famous bridge: The Rainbow Bridge. It took us about 45 minutes to cross the bridge on foot, a rewarding walk as it provided us with brilliant photo opportunities. The bridge ends in the district of Odaiba, home of Tokyo’s copy of the Statue of Liberty (what is it with Japan copying French structures?) and the Fuji TV Headquarters. The tiny statue wasn’t really impressive, but combined with the Rainbow bridge in the background, it was worth the picture :). To visit to the Fuji TV Headquarters was nice and the observation deck in the sphere gave us a nice view over that part of the city. In the evening we visited Shibuya and took some photos of the Shibuya 109 building. It was cool to visit Tokyo, but we were both happy to leave for Hong Kong the next morning.