Down Under with Jan Mikaela Nora and Ella

Yes, we are finally there. This morning around 6 AM we touched down at Adelaide airport in Australia. A big milestone for us, although it felt pleasantly relaxed. In the early morning sun, under clear skies, it was almost as if we were coming home. Which in fact was true. The Australian customs though were less impressed. Paranoid as they are for any overseas food, dirt or animal diseases, they searched our bags rigorously. And not without success. With great satisfaction her majesties elite squad found something extremely illegal, which had to be confiscated immediately: our electric fly swat (you know, a tennis racket on batteries to kill mosquitos). Followed of course by some extensive paperwork, with many stamps and autographs. Yes, the country clearly escaped today from a major threat ;-) After this last hurdle of Australian bureaucracy, we had a very warm welcome by a lady from the Meet and Greet service. This former South African woman helped us getting started today with bank a...

For all of you who are frustrated with the European summer, we have some good news: we are back in Phuket and it's raining! Does that make you feel a little better? Of course it's still 30º C, and a shower every now and then is quite nice, when you're in a sea canoe, doing a snorkeling trip, or taking a dip in the pool. But still …   We returned to Phuket, after a tour of Thailand . In Bangkok we paid tribute to the Grand palace, all kinds of (floating) markets, Chinatown and of course the go-go girls at Patpong road. Besides the cooking class in Chiang Mai, we did the temples and the golden triangle, we went up&down Laos and we visited the longnecks up north. What remains are memories of a beautiful country with ever so friendly people. Click here for a photo impression .   Now you might get the idea that we've been racing around. But really, we took it very easy. No must do's, taking one day at a time. We're really down to the l...

If anyone asks what we've been doing in Thailand, the only true answer would probably be: mostly eating. Of course we did the temples, the markets, some more temples and some more markets. But no matter where you go, you'll find foodstalls everywhere. Delicious Thai food, and very cheap. The Thai have no fixed times to eat. For them any time is a right time for fried noodles, green curry, tom yum soup or spring rolls. From early in the morning to late at night. At least four times a day, but preferably more! So who can blame us if we join them? Its soooo great. That's why we decided today to pay tribute to the Thai kitchen. In Chiang Mai (up north) we took a cooking class, where we learned about all the ingriedients, and we practiced on making no less than six dishes. And guess what? We had to eat everyting we cooked ourselves !!! Hmmmmmm, what a life ...

Bangkok: Asia in a nutshell. Vibrant alive, like an antheap buzzing with life, action, noise and energy. Everywhere people, motorbikes, tuktuks and polution (feels as if we smoke three packs a day ;-) But everyone's friendly and keeps smiling. Love this place. We're here now since two days, away from the beach, on our backpacking trip. What a life !   What brought us here in the first place was our visa. We needed to pick them up yesterday from the Australian embassy. And so we did. In this sweaty and humid weather we even dressed ourselved up for the occassion. So all exited we came at the embassy for our big moment. This was it, finally our visa. So what an anti-climax it was, when we just put our passport over the counter, waited for five minutes, and then got them back with the visa stickered in. As if we were bying a trainticket. Thank you, after 18 months of hard struggle with Australian bureaucracy.... just like that !!! Weird .... but it felt great anyway. Now we ...