Pics!!

Pics are now in the three latest stories on the blog!! Enjoy!
See you soon!
/Tina

Paradise?!

We left the heat in the jungle and got to the east coast... finally some sea breeze!! And the water was turquoise and 25 degrees... couldn't be better!
We are now at Perhentian Island Kecil(the small island) and we got a bungalow at Matahari Chalets, a nice and clean set of bungalows right next to the beach.

Our Bungalow veranda!

The beach!

We are relaxing and trying to acclimatize to the heat.. it is not that hard with the beach that close... Although we left the jungle the mosquitoes are all over us... but at least we have a good mosquito net over the bed.

We have spent the two first days on the island on the beach and on the veranda of our bungalow! Nice and easy! The weather has been nice, the few clouds we had today had a nice cooling effect! No real sun burn yet ... Lots of delicious fruit juices and shakes! We can't stay away from the coffee-chocolate-shake, it's addictive! :-)

Not the perfect sharpness in the picture.. but doesn't he look good!!

Happy Tina on the beach restaurant!! Waiting for yet another fruit-shake!!

Tomorrow we're going out on a snorkeling tour, trying six of the best snorkeling spots around the island. Turtles and sharks (small ones) have been promised!!! Will be nice to do something active again after two days on the beach (we're not used to relaxing, thanks Jacob) ...

After the snorkeling, we're probably staying on the island yet another day, and then we're heading for Thailand (sorry Khang, looks like we're leaving out Redang)! We just have to figure out how and where to cross the border ... Better ask some locals, or even better ... some backpackers!

C U soon (only 2 weeks left)!

Even hotter....

We have done a day of hiking in the jungle... and it was so hot it was almost unbarable. We were sweating like never before, and have not yet stopped(although shower in cold water and some cooling time by the fan). We are in Teman Negara, a National park in the middle of Malaysia. It is a very intresting environment... and as said... HOT!!
Yesterday when we arrived we got stucked in one of the floating restaurants(the village is by a river) by the heavy rain that started. I have never seen so much rain in my entire life... Luckily we got a ride back to our hostel by the nice travel agency lady... The rain with lightnings and heavy thunder kept on for all night... which was a petty because they closed the "Canopy walkway" in the park today... the one we really looked forward to. But we got so see it from a distance, it was actually a rope-bridge walkway in the tree canopies, from tree to tree... It looked really cool.. but what can we do. At least the rain stopped in the morning and we could do the hike to the top.


Before we came to Teman Negara we spent two days in Cameron Highlands which was great. The climate was more "normal" with a cooler attitude. In the morning until 15.00 it was warm, but in the afternoon it always rained... intresting. We got to visit a tea plantage, strawberry farm, honey farm and we managed to do a hike in almost no rain in the afternoon. But hey... is it rainforrest or not??

Us at the tea plantage... a bit dark... but at least we are both in the picture!

We stayed at a very nice place called Fathers guesthouse, very clean and very nice staff. Good facilities like internet, good food and DVD room(so nice to just get into the couch for a DVD....).

Tomorrow we are heading for the Perhentian Islands and we are looking forward to have some lazy days on the beach with snorkling and reading books.

We can not believe that we only have three weeks left on this trip... what happened to time?? Although I must admit I am looking forward to coming home. Must say I miss some basic things back home like, mum, Lin, Ems and the rest of my family, the exercising, my own bathroom, our bed, some other clothes(oh man... these clothes are worn out...), potatoes(not fried in any way.. just boiled), news(TV or paper...), a movie in the couch, sweets...
But hey.. three weeks is still a long time and we plan on spending them well in Malaysia and Thailand!!
Sorry... did not bring my camera here(didn't think we would find internet here in the middle of the jungle) .. but pics on Jacob with the snake will come... promise!

Singapore/Kuala Lumpur

Hi all!
We are now in Kuala Lumpur and had one day in Singapore before that. The flight from Australia was great with a lot of movies and TV programs... Singapore was HOT! And big... we stayed in a nice hotel and enjoyed the city. The last night before going with the night bus to Kuala Lumpur we went to Night safari which was cool seeing all animals by night. Also Jacob became a celebrity on the animal show being the one taken on stage to hug the 30kg big Python!!

In Kuala Lumpur we gave ourselves a bit of a treat checking in to a five-star hotel! Imagine the feeling of going from a dirty 10 people dorm to a huge room with bathtub and "livingroom". We got to check in when we got there early in the morning and therefore got a nice breakfast that morning. Then we enjoyed the hotel facilities: pool, afternoon snacks and evening drinks on the 21th floor... It was sooo nice to get a bit of a homey feeling in that luxirous place!


Today we are heading north, to Cameron Highlands, a nationalpark, for some hiking and visiting tea plantages. Then we are going to Teman Negera for some jungle adventures before we are heading for the coastal area.
The heat is crazy.. it is more of a humid heat than the breezy one in Brazil. So we are sweating down the streets... looking for shoppingmalls to cool down in.

Get back to you soon with pictures on Jacob with the snake!!
/Tina

Cloud9 Backpackers- worst Australian hostel!

Just need to make this clear to all backpackers out there... since we did not book through a website we can not make an "official" review.. But the world should know that Cloud9 Backpacker hostel in Brisbane is the worst ever. Extremely dirty, not very friendly and rude personell, dirty kitchen with no bowls, plates or cuttlery(you could get dirty ones for a deposit of 10AUD!!!), not very clean sheets, deposit for blankets, bad smelling beds, some kind of DVD room that consisted of some broken and dirty sofas in front of two broken TVs.

I mean, how hard can it be?? We stayed at the nicest, best hostel in Hervey Bay(Next Backpackers) and they made everything look so easy... and did not make any fuzz about ones responsibilities... When you close up, you clean the kitchen.. When you have reception you check people in AND you help them what ever booking they want. Sheets were sent of to be cleaned(and not washed in-house with kind of bad washingmachines...).Things were there as a service to the guests... and guests were treated as geasts not as annoying backpackers(which I bet there can be a lot of though...). It is not that hard if you just have the will!!

We stayed two nights in a 10 bed dorm at Cloud9 in Brisbane and we are happy to have left it... We are now in Singapore and at a lovely hotel where they said: "Welcome Mr Mattsson" when we stepped inside the door! Too easy!!

Great Barrier Reef!!

Ok, without heading more north we needed to see the Great Barrier Reef. Since we only had a few more days in Australia we needed to go for a day-trip. We could go by bus a few hours up north and head out with a boat, that would leave us with just a couple of hours on the actual reef. Or, we could head out from Hervey Bay where we stayed and then get a lot more hours on the reef. Hm... once again choice... BUT it turned out both of them were the same price!! So, after talking to Mark at Next Backpackers(thanks Mark!) we decided to go for the a day-trip with a flight to the most southern island of the Barrier reef: Lady Elliot.

At 8.10 in the morning the small plane took off:

We were six people in the plane, plus the pilot. The flight took about 35 minutes and it was amazing!! We flew over scenic blue water and saw Hervey Bay from 1500 feet distance... cool!!!


Although we had beautiful weather when we started it was pouring down when we got to Lady Elliot... Well, well.. at least you do not need sunshine to snorkelling right?! So, we were booked on a glass boat at 10.45 which included snorkelling on the depth. So, we had time to do the first snorkelling in the lagoon! We got changed and as we walked with our fins and mask the heavy rain started. Vikings as we are, we just put our towels under the rain-coats and got in the water!

But what an amazing feeling!! The water is so blue, and since it was raining, it was so much warmer than on the beach and what a sea-life!! The most amazing fishes and corals... unbelievable!! And as we swam through the water we happen to just run into a sea-turtle, can you believe it. It just took a rest by the corals and there we were, face to face... it was sooo big and did not seem scared at all... just a meter from two pale swedes... God, wonder what he thought...

We went for the glass boat and the rain just wouldn't stop... but once we got out at bit and got into the water it was again amazing.... warm and blue!! And the scenes under water were fantastic!!!

Then we got some nice lunch and got ourselves dry and pretty warm. Then we went for the reef-walk with a guide. She spotted strange creatures in the reef: sea-hare, anemones, "sjo borre"(sorry, don't remember the english word), sea clams, sea cucumbers and more.

Sea hare (sjo hare)

Sea cucumber (sjo gurka)

After the reef walk we got some left over time to go snorkelling again, and the rain had stopped. So we headed for the "Coral garden" and got to the edge of a reef and got into the blue beautiful sea. And again... amazing views of tree-looking corals. By the end of our time we came once again close to a BIG sea-turtle and got to swam with it a bit... Oh, my god what a feeling!! We met a couple there that had a under-water camera and they would send us some pictures.. we will upload them as soon as we get them!!

When we finally got back to our hostel we were still so amazed with our experience we could hardly find the words. But we made some noodles, got a beer and fell right asleep... Great Barrier Reef tires you out!!

Now we are in Brisbane after one day in Noosa. Noosa was a nice little town with a lot of surfers. (not as good hostel as in Hervey Bay though...). On Friday we are heading to Singapore and I can't wait to see a "new" culture and maybe have some warm days! (So far, Australia has been the coldest country, who would believe that?? I even think that it has been warmer back in Sweden the last weeks...).

Catch ya!

Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

On Thursday, we took a flight from Melbourne (via Sydney) to Hervey Bay, north of Brisbane. This is town located just next to the largest sand island in the world - Fraser Island. This is the region we'll spend our last week in Australia (after one week in Sydney and one in Melbourne).

It was a nice feeling stepping out of the air plane - the outside temp was at least 10 degrees (C)higher than in Melbourne - nice! As soon as we arrived to our super-clean hostel ("Next Backpackers"), we booked a two-day tour on Fraser Island. After a falafel and a hair cut (only me ... ;-), we had a quick look at the beach before the sun set at 6 PM (as always, way too early). We finished the evening at one of the four open (it's off-season now) restaurants here - an Irish pub. After a couple of beers and some laughs at some crazy Irish limericks, we enjoyed a Guinness and beef pie with mash' (what else)!

Early next morning, we're picked up by our (funny) tour guide and joined the others in the group (quite a few germans, 3 scotts, 2 welch guys, an aussie couple and a french couple). We took the 4WD bus over "The Great Sandy Strait" onto Fraser Island. First impression was -"where's all the sand?". Sure, we landed on a nice beach but apart from that the island seemed to be completely covered by a thick bush.


The island is protected as a world heritage since 1991 and very few people live here. The first thing we saw after getting off the ferry was a Dingo - cool! The first stop was a 20-minute walk through a rain forest (the only one in the world growing in sand only). Really nice with the cool fresh air, and the huge old Kauri Pine trees were quite impressive! After that we continued over to the east coast where our camp site was located. It was time for an all-you-can-eat lunch (a fact that our tour guide announced at least ten times ... ;-)

After lunch we stopped at a fresh water creek, an old ship wreck, some multi-colored sand dunes and climbed a small hill for some marine wildlife watching (ocean was "dead" though).


Nice stops, indeed, but nothing special ... An hour before sunset, we returned to our camp site and checked in to our cabins. Since me and Tina we're the last guys to book the tour, we had no other choice than to upgrade our accommodation to more luxurious one. And the cabin was not bad at all - a huge comfy double bed, an ocean view and a large clean bathroom! Can't remember when we stayed that good before ... Certainly not in the camper van, even though the first two might fit ... :-)

After a long longed shower, we joined the two welsh guys (John and Nick) and the Aussie couple (Craig and Erin) for some beers before the dinner. As it happened, there was a national rugby game this evening, Australia vs New Zealand. So our new friends gave us a crash-course in the rules of the game, and we then enjoyed a great game! Quite a surreal feeling, watching on TV and drinking beer and wine in the middle of nowhere, far away from any civilization!!!

The next day, we had an early lunch and drove south along the beach (speed limit is 100 km/h). I'm pretty sure I'll never go that fast on a beach again, pretty cool feeling! The first attraction was Lake Wabby - a fresh-water lake in the middle of the "desert". To get there, we hiked some 20 minutes through a lush forest. The color was quite dark (and not turquoise like we had seen on fliers, but the was probably another lake (McKenzie)), and the water wasn't that warm either ... but we dived in anyway. As soon as got on, it started to rain, quite heavily ... Strange feeling, being surrounded by sand (desert) in a black'ish lake with the rain pouring down on us ...


After a picnic lunch, with way to little food, we continued to another lake, Lake Garawongera. Another fresh-water lake, but this one was located in the bush, 220 m above the sea level (also some kind of world record, plenty of them here ...). Dark, cold water but since bathing was the theme of the day, we never hesitated going in. Of course, as soon as we got in, it started to rain again ... No worries! Apparently, the bottom sediment (sand) in the lake is great for your skin (like a mud treatment, only with sand). Of course, we had to try it! We rubbed the white sand all over our body and awaited the "amazing results" that our tour guide had promised. No instant result but after a while you could really feel that the skin had gotten really smooth! Perhaps not amazing but still cool! :-)

We really appreciated the two-day tour on the island and we also enjoyed spending some time with some nice people! The two welsh guys also stayed at Next, and we finished of the day by a all-you-can-eat (what else) Mexican buffet. Me and Nick also stayed up all night (o well, at least til 3 AM) to catch the Premier league fixtures of Everton - Spurs (0-0) and West Ham - Pool (0-3). Nice to have a conversation on football with a proper Brit (for a change)!

Today, we have had a relaxed day with some time on the beach and a long walk along the shore! Tomorrow, we going out to the Great Barrier Reef for some snorkeling! Can't wait! Life could be harder! :-)

More Sydney, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and Grampians

Ok... Sydney was fantastic! Thanks Khang for such nice hospitality and guide through the city... would not been the same without you!

Tuesday was another nice day in Sydney; we started off with the ferry from Parramatta to Darling Harbour in Sydney. Very nice to see the city from the water side. In Darling Harbour we went for the Aquarium for almost 2,5 hours... there were Dugongs (mix between Hippototumus and a Whale), sharks, sting rays, crocodile and a loooot of different fishes... It was enormous and very nice!

After that we deserved a lunch and it was a quick one on a familiar Thai place. Then we took the bus to famous Bondi beach!

The sun was shining (although, it was not that hot) and Jacob was persistent in getting in the water... if he would... I should...

So.. we plunged in the BIG waves!! And it was very nice.. much warmer than in the air. But since it was late afternoon the waves were getting bigger and all of a sudden, the life guards closed the beach for swimming... But, we made it! The surfers were still going strong... Can't believe they want to do that...

We spent the evening on a Chinese restaurant before we went to the movies...

Thursday morning we took the flight to Melbourne. After finding a hostel we strolled through town and actually managed to get some left over tickets to "Billy Elliot- the musical" the same night, I was thrilled!! It was fantastic (according to me... Jacobs’s first musical... maybe not of the same opinion)!!

The next day we had a busy schedule going to the market and taking the tram to St Kilda, famous for good cakes! We got cakes and a lovely present for my sister! We strolled St Kilda’s beach walk way


and also got a look at Melbourne’s Formula 1 track (located in the beautiful and huge Albert Park, with great views of the city skyline)!!


Very exiting to imagine the pit stops during the race. The day ended with an Australian football game... rugby, but still not... Very popular, but a bit long... 4 x 30 min... But it was nice to see, and we really got a good grip of the game!


The next day we picked up our second Wicked camper-van. A crap-van! So old... so bad... It smelled... it made funny noises and third gear just worked like 60% of the time... Marvelous!! Oh, well.. only 4 nights!!


We spent the days driving Great Ocean Road, with beautiful beaches

and exciting rain forests


Along the way, we stopped at the great surf museum, close to the world-famous "Bell's beach"


After driving along the ocean road, we head up to Grampians national park


(were we actually were allowed to bush-camp in the bush!!), and then back to Melbourne going south. The days on the road got us near wild kangaroos, wallabies (not on photos), emus and koalas!


So, we are now back in Melbourne and tomorrow heading for Harvey bay to explore Fraser Island and Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is nice... but expensive! A lot more expensive than NZ... and people were a bit friendlier on NZ... (one example, when hiking we always got a "How'yr doing" if we met someone... here they look strange on us when we try that...).

Got to go!