Melbourne & Adelaide (Australia): Kangaroos, koalas and Great Ocean Road

15 February - 26 February 2011

After a few hours driving from Canberra, we arrived at the Wilsons Promontory National Park located at the southernmost part of Australia. The Park is famous for its wildlife, its bays with the white sand beaches and for its stunning views from the summint of the Mont Oberon. We decided to see all of it.

First day, we succeded in finding 14 kangaroos, quietly eating the grass. On TV and on pictures, they look really cute, well it is exactly the same in real...

The second day, after a long and painfull walk to the summit of Mont Oberon, we were standing in front of gorgeous views, breathtaking...

We ended our trip to the park with a visit to the white sand beaches.

This park was definitely worth the effort...

We reached Melbourne on the 17 of February. Two days in a big city. Guess what the Chareuntakul sisters do? They shop!!! Clothes, souvenirs, postcards, Melbourne was definitely the right place for it. Lucky we stayed at a friend's place. A comfortable bed, a private bathroom, some privacy, internet and excellent food, that was exactly what we needed after 10 days of noisy and dirty dorms...

Time to move on. Next destination: Great Ocean Road. The road not to be missed in South Australia. A sequence of beautiful white sand beaches, famous rocks and forrest with plenty of little cute koalas sleeping on their tree.

After the Great Ocean Road, we passed by several small towns. We experienced a night in a very old and crappy caravan, went to the movie, saw the Blue Lake at Mont Gambier, ... And finally, we arrived in Adelaide.

3 days without the rental car, a realy pleasure. We didn't rest that much. We even took a bike and rode 30 km to reach the beach. With David (a guy we met on the way to Adelaide who was hitch hiking). Almost just the 3 of us on the beach, picnicking, swimming and relaxing... Great day!

For our last evening in Australia, we decided to end like we started, with a big and delicious chinese dinner. And after dinner, party time!

I only slept 1.30 hour that night but it was good fun.

New Zealand, here I come!

Next stops: Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington (North Island, New Zealand)

Sydney, Gold Coast and Canberra (Australia): sea, food and sun

2 January - 14 January 2011












January 2nd, 2011. Today is Chinese New Year's eve. My sister and I have booked a hotel in Chinatown (of course) to celebrate the Rabbit New Year. I'm meeting my sister in Sydney at the airport. Hard to believe it was my sister, I was so tan (dark as I have never been) and my sister so pale (coming straight from Brussels where it was still snowing).

That was the beginning of a 4 weeks trip with my sister in Australia. It was also the beginning of our budget trip, no more shopping, no more restaurants and no more hotels, only the minimum, sandwiches, cooking and backpackers dorms... a real chock for my sister...

We first spent some days with our parents and their friends in Sydney (still can't believe how many friends they have in Australia, especially in Sydney!). We visited all the main attractions like the Opera House, The Harbour Bridge, Chinatown, ... under 38 degres on average... hot really hot...

First time in Australia for the whole family and so surprised by the people and the place.
People are just so nice, helpful and polite and in all the places we went to, streets were very safe and clean. So different from Belgium.
We had a great time and like usually, amazing food. We even tried lobster's sashimis, yummy! Well, the lobster was still moving when the waiter brought it on the table (poor animal) but it was so delicious!

After few days, my sister and I hit the road and flew to Brisbane. We rented a car and drove along the East coast. We passed by the Gold Coast, THE place for the surfers and the beaches. And it is true that Australian beaches are beautiful. It makes a big difference when the weather is sunny and very hot (we got 40 degres one day, unbelievable!). We saw some very sexy surfers but it was not easy to take pictures of them...

We drove quite a lot per day, on average, 4-5 hours. Not very easy when you are not used to drive on the left side of the road. We scared ourselves several time but nothing serious, hopefully...

We stopped at many nice places. Surfers Paradise, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie (where we visited a koalas hospital), Byron Bay (with our favorite beach), ... mostly for the beaches.





Then we passed by Sydney again and headed to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Well, it was a big disappointment. Besides the main public buildings, nothing. City was quite small, empty, quiet but surprisingly, all the hostels were fully booked. So we had to stay in a Formule 1. A bit of privacy, that felt good.
The good thing about that night is that we saw and fed some possums with bread, so cute.


Next stops: Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia.

Noumea & Pines Island (New Caledonia): relatives, paradise and excellent seafood

28 January - 2 February 2011



After spending 1 day in Sydney, I arrived in Noumea in New Caledonia. It's a French territory, located nearby Australia (a little bit less than 3 hours flight from Sydney), in the Southwest Pacific. it comprises a main island and several smaller islands.

My auntie (my mum's sister) and 2 of my cousins moved from Paris to New Caledonia a few years ago so we, my parents and I, decided to visit them. The capital and main city is named Noumea, where my relatives live.

New Caledonia is famous for its white-sand beaches and emerald lagoon (the world's largest enclosed lagoon) and I can testify that this is true. I have never seen such beautiful beaches and water. First, when I got there I couldn't believe what I saw. It is definitely the first time that I see a paradise like New Caledonia.





We stayed one day in Noumea with the family and the second day, we went to Maitre Island for a day trip. My parents and I found the island amazing but it was nothing compared to Pines Island, where we went the next day.

Pines Island is 30 minutes flight from Noumea. The beach was just in front of our hotel. White-sand beach and turquoise water. Just like postcards. My cousin's friend took us to his private island. A little paradise on earth. We spent the day there, sun baking, swimming, sun baking and swimming. It was simply a wonderful day!
I got so tanned that when I came back to my auntie's place in Noumea, they were a little bit shocked.

It was just nice hanging around with my family in such a beautiful place. Besides, seafood was fresh and delicious!
Another great discovery in my trip...
But 5 days in such a place is definitely not enough. I will certainly go back one day.


Next stops: Sydney & Gold Coast, Australia.

Yangon, Mandalay & Bagan (Myanmar): temples, friends and oily food

6 January 2011 - 22 January 2011

Here I am, on my way to Myanmar, previously called Burma. Everyone says it is difficult to travel in this country. Well, it wasn't that difficult but it was defintely very different from all the countries I have visited before.
No ATM's machines so impossible to withdraw money. Official government rate for 1 dollar: 6 kyats and real rate: 800 kyats. 30 minutes time difference with Bangkok. Most recent english magazine found: Elle Magazine from February 2001... What a different world!
The first day I arrived in Yangon, I met Sandra (Austria), Elliot (UK) Maarten (Belgium Flemish) and Dirk (Germany) and since that day, we traveled together.
We visited all the touristy sights of Myanmar like the Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the 4000 pagodas (well not all of them but quite a lot) in Bagan, the world's longest teak bridge in Amarapura, Inle Lake, etc. Too many things to see and not enough time. Run Joelle, run...

Some cities still have the British buildings left during the occupation time so it was sometimes surprising to see a big english cottage in the middle of nowhere.
We very often woke up at 5AM to take buses, boats or to see the sunrise. It was an exhausting trip but it was definitely worth it. We did see unique things that we will never see anywhere else. Like the sunrise at the top of one pagoda in Bagan (the 4000 temples city). Slowly, we discovered the temples spread around the city. By the time the sun was totally out, there were hundreds of pagodas all over the place, breathtaking.
Myanmar is still a very poor country and under developed but people are friendly and sceneries beautiful.
I was quite disappointed by the local food. One of the first time in my trip that I didn't like the food. Lots of oily stuff. I never had so many fried rices with chicken in 2 weeks in my entire life... Even though food wasn't that good, I still managed to gain weight when others lost...

We also experienced all kind of transportation: bikes, motorbikes (yes, I finally learnt how to drive a motorbike!), buses, boats, horse carts, trishaws, cars and planes. Not always the most comfortable neither the fastest but a very interesting experience...
This trip was really a nice discovery for me. It is also certainly thanks to the group of people who I was traveling with. I would highly recommend to visit Myanmar to all the people who are interested in discovering a new culture and who wants to travel off the beaten tracks... and who don't care about the food ;o)

Next stop: Noumea (New Caledonia)