Week 12 - Perth - Manderley Gits

My dearest readers

Unfortunately we all knew this post would come. This officially is the last blog about our traveling experiences around the world. After twelve weeks of flying, sailing, diving, hiking, camping, swimming, shopping, visiting, but most importantly enjoying ourselves, we now find ourselves ready to go back home.

In a way I’m glad this journey has come to an end. We have experienced it all, and enjoyed every minute of it! But after a three-month travel, one starts to miss their family and friends (to be honest, most of all I miss the good old spaghetti my granny makes, so I know what the first thing will be when I get back home).  

It’s weird actually. We all try to hang on to our last moments here so badly for a few seconds, just so that in the end it can hurt a little more to let it all go. We have had this unbelievably amazing experience with an unbelievably amazing group of friends. I wouldn’t have wanted this any other way, and I’m sure we all take some amazing memories and souvenirs back home, where all of our lives will go their own way again.

As we were sitting in the taxi, heading to the airport, we couldn’t help but singing the song ‘leaving on a jet plane’ by John Denver, until the taxi driver (not so friendly) asked us to stop because we were giving a migraine headache. But well, it didn’t stop the fun, because we acted as if we didn’t quite understand what he was talking about, so we kept on singing (sorry mister taxi driver, we’ll never do it again).

Unfortunately, you know they say Karma’s a b*tch. Well, we got our share of karma when we arrived at the airport. First, Els’ and my suitcase were too heavy to get on the plane, so we had to pay extra. But, well, when your suitcase is heavy, it means that there is a lot of stuff in the suitcase. This means that you have bought a lot of stuff, which leads to empty wallets. Yes, my dear bloggers, we didn’t have enough money to pay the fine. We had to go beg for money with the other travellers in the airport (we even sang leaving on a jet plane again) before we were able to pay the fine. This lead to an extreme delay, which forced us to run through the airport and through security.

But karma hit again, because Jeroen wouldn’t stop beeping through the metal detectors! He had to strip until he only wore his underpants and socks for the security to find out there was some sort of metal detail attached to his sock. Yes, we were quite the party crowd over there ;-)

Our airport journey continued with Anne falling down the escalator, which caused her knee to start bleeding enormously. She literally had to limp to the right gate.

Fortunately our luck started to change. Since our flight was delayed (yes yes that’s a bad thing but wait for it) we were able to arrive at the gate in time and Annelien found a seat next to an extremely handsome guy. Anne has limped her way to the stewards and (once again) an extremely handsome steward is taking care of her leg as we speak. It seems like everything is getting okay in the end, right?

So, dear readers, the time has come to say goodbye. Goodbye to Perth, to our journey and to the amazing experiences. And now we’re leaving on a jet plane. We don’t know when we’ll be back again. But our next stop, that’s HOME!

Lots of peace, love and teary goodbyes

Manderley

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLBKOcUbHR0

Week 12 - Perth - Emily Van Torre

Dear kangaroos, oh I mean bloggers!

I’m sorry, since we’ve arrived in Perth, all I see is kangaroos! Don’t get me wrong, those animals are beyond cute, but I think I’ve seen enough of them for a while.

Poor Anne, I felt so sorry for her. Remember when she wrote about the whole spider situation? She had the shock of her life when she found out the spider was crawling on her. That’s why she actually had some trouble falling asleep the night after it had happened. So I had a drink with her that night at the hotel’s bar and after that, oh man, she actually fell asleep ON the bar! At least, she slept…

Today was our third fulfilling day in the wonderful Perth.
As we were still tired due to our sleepless night in the wilderness, we decided to go on a bus tour so our legs would get a little rest.

The first stop was Barrack Street Jetty.  We worked our way up in the Swan Bell Tower where we had an amazing view over the Swan River. The tower is an extraordinary building  built in glass with a set of 18 bells. Twelve of those bells come from  the St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London, which was a gift to Perth.

The next stop was the Perth Town Hall. The town hall is built on the highest top of the city. There’s always a lot to do in the

town hall: parties, receptions, weddings,… As you can see: Perth is a lively town! The bus driver gave us an hour to wander through the shopping mall of Murray St. I got the chance to buy a dress, souvenirs for my family (who I began to miss…) and a few bottles of water. Then we jumped on the bus again to go to our next stop: the Burswood Entertainment Complex.

The complex was huge! It has – I quote – a casino, seven restaurants, eight bars, a nightclub, two international hotels , a world class golf course, a Convention Centre, Theatre and the Burswood Dome. Our group was so enthusiastic about this complex and Els, our own party animal, insisted that we would come back tonight to party here. We all instantly agreed. After all you just live once, right?

We moved on to the Botanic Gardens where we wandered for over two hours and we were amazed by the exquisite fauna and flora. No wonder this park is visited by more than 6 million people each year! We rested at the Women’s Memorial Fountains and then we searched a nice restaurant to have dinner.

Just like we planned, we went back to the hotel to freshen ourselves up and then we headed towards the Entertainment Complex again. As you can guess, we had a marvelous night (without kangaroos)!

Write to you soon!

Xoxo Emily

http://www.citysightseeingperth.com/Attractions/barrack-street-jetty.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Bells

Week 12- Annelien Pattyn - Perth, Australia

Good morning everyone!

First of all, I must say that I’ve slept very well after the experiences which Anne has already written about. Actually, it were two tough days in the Australian Golden Outback with sleepless nights. For this reason, we have slept a little longer today than normally. Now, it’s 11 AM and we have agreed to brunch at 12 AM.  So, I still have enough time to write something concerning what’s on our planning today.

The weather is very fine, but what else did you expected? Perth is blessed with a wonderful Mediterranean climate, which brings an abundance of sunshine and warm temperatures nearly all year round. Actually, there is no bad time to visit Western Australia, although summer can be quite hot and winter a bit on the rainy side. One thing is sure: the ‘thing’ you always can count on in Perth is the sun. On average, the city enjoys over 300 days of sunshine each year, which greatly enhances all the outdoor activities and…that’s exactly what’s on our planning today: “outdoor activities with a passionate following for all things related to the ocean”. There are 19 beaches right in the metropolitan Perth area, so the beach feeling is never far from our mind ;-).

This afternoon, we’ve planned to go surfing. It’s a sport that’s a huge part of most local people.  Hopefully, there also will be other tourists otherwise we will seem a little ridiculous I think J. If we aren’t able to continue standing on our surfboard (big chance!), we still have the choice of diving and snorkeling. I know we did that already in Solomon Islands, but it was so amazing that it's a pleasure to do it once again! We won’t have to go far to find colorful reefs and old shipwrecks.

After surfing, diving or whatever… We probably will have a drink. Almost every place in the town has outdoor seating which will gives us distinctively a fun atmosphere.

Sorry guys, I have to leave you for today… but I’ll write to you soon!

Love,

Annelien

http://www.essentialtravel.co.uk/guides/australia/perth-weather.htm

http://www.essentialtravel.co.uk/guides/australia/perth.htm

Week 12-Annelien Pattyn-Perth, Australia

Good morning everyone!

First of all, I must say that I’ve slept very well after the experiences which Anne has already written about. Actually, it were two tough days in the Australian Golden Outback with sleepless nights. For this reason, we have slept a little longer today than normally. Now, it’s 11 AM and we have agreed to brunch at 12 AM.  So, I still have enough time to write something concerning what’s on our planning today.

The weather is very fine, but what else did you expected? Perth is blessed with a wonderful Mediterranean climate, which brings an abundance of sunshine and warm temperatures nearly all year round. Actually, there is no bad time to visit Western Australia, although summer can be quite hot and winter a bit on the rainy side. One thing is sure: the ‘thing’ you always can count on in Perth is the sun. On average, the city enjoys over 300 days of sunshine each year, which greatly enhances all the outdoor activities and…that’s exactly what’s on our planning today: “outdoor activities with a passionate following for all things related to the ocean”. There are 19 beaches right in the metropolitan Perth area, so the beach feeling is never far from our mind ;-).

This afternoon, we’ve planned to go surfing. It’s a sport that’s a huge part of most local people.  Hopefully, there also will be other tourists otherwise we will seem a little ridiculous I think J. If we aren’t able to continue standing on our surfboard (big chance!), we still have the choice of diving and snorkeling. I know we did that already in Solomon Islands, but it was so amazing that it's a pleasure to do it once again! We won’t have to go far to find colorful reefs and old shipwrecks.

After surfing, diving or whatever… We probably will have a drink. Almost every place in the town has outdoor seating which will gives us distinctively a fun atmosphere.

Sorry guys, I have to leave you for today… but I’ll write to you soon!

Love,

Annelien

http://www.essentialtravel.co.uk/guides/australia/perth-weather.htm

http://www.essentialtravel.co.uk/guides/australia/perth.htm

Week 12- Anne Hallez- Perth, Australia

Our last but not least stop is the beautiful Australia. From the blue of the Solom Islands we went to the rich gold that Australia brings. In every place that we've been to in the past, we were surrounded by hotels, all you can eat restaurants and a lot of luxury. Because we agreed to really discover new things we decided to turn things around a little. We would go to the Australian Golden Outback with nothing but tents, easy to make food and a couple of sleeping bags. For the next two days we would trade in luxury for simplicity.This way, we would really get to know the land down under.

So after arriving at the hotel after leaving the airport of Perth, we left everything electrical at home and left with the only things that were necessary to survive these few days. There's a little place east of Perth, called 'Kalgoorlie'. It actually took me until now to realize that the place wasn't called 'Kangarooly' but fortunately no one noticed. To make sure we would actually survive these two days in the wilderness, a local Australian guy accompanied us. After an hour train ride from Perth to Kalgoorie, a jeep, or what I normally call 'safari-car' was waiting for us. We drove a while trough miles and miles of sand and finally arrived at a little place where we were supposed to put our tents.

We arrived really late in the day and decided to make sure that everything was ready for a good night of sleep. We learned how to build tents, how to protect us from wild animals and how to make a fire. When our guide told us that making a fire is really important to ward of any dangerous animals, I started to get really afraid that we would suddenly be attacked by a wild minx or a lion or two. There are too many scary movies about people camping in the woods and getting attacked by scary people or giant animals. We weren't in the woods of course but that thought didn't seem to sooth me at all. Since then I knew that I probably wouldn't get my well deserved sleep tonight. 

It was starting to get dark and we decided to make a fire that was big enough to make our supper and protect us from any danger that would come our way. I was so grateful then that our guide was smart enough to bring wood to make a decent fire.While we were sitting by the fire, our 'Aussie' taught us a few typical Australian words. We learned that the word for 'afternoon' was 'arvo', a 'bloke' is a guy, a 'barbie' is a barbecue and that good day is pronounced g'day here. I immediately felt like I was in the middle of the outback version of the TV show called 'home and away'. The accents were right but the background was totally different. In a way it was nice to see a different side of what Australia has to offer.

After a cozy night by the fire it was time to head back to our tents to get a good night of sleep. As I predicted, that wasn't the case at all. I woke up by sounds of what I thought were laughing hyenas and I felt like I had to stay a awake in order to protect myself from any danger. I had been up so late that I didn't even realize I had fell asleep until I woke up by the feeling of something tickling my arm. I opened my eyes gently and what I saw then, woke me up immediately. There was a giant spider the size of my hand, crawling around in my tent. I screamed so loud that I woke up every body else. Luckily our guide was brave enough to rescue me from the spider. I was forever in his debt.

After waking up thoroughly by this wonderful surprise (sense the sarcasm)  our guide told us that we were about to go on an animal safari. I was thrilled when I heard about this because we would get the see the animals in the safe distance of our safari car. But I have to say, after having rescued me from the giant spider, I trusted the guy with my life. I can't even begin to describe what we saw at the safari. I saw birds in every color, lions that were laying around like they were more lazy than any human could every be and finally some wild kangaroo's jumping around like they didn't have a care in the world. These were animals I actually wanted to be around.
We cruised trough the outback for a while but then decided that we were too exhausted to go any further. We called it a day, packed up our bags and went back to our hotel.

I don't know about you, but I'm planning to go to sleep and dream about kangaroo's, koala's and other cute Australian animals.

G'night (I'm belive I'm already becoming a true Australian)

Love, Anne


sources:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_%28Australi%C3%AB%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth,_Western_Australia
http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/
http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destinations/Australias_Golden_Outback/Pages/Australias_Golden_Outback.aspx
http://www.australiasgoldenoutback.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outback
http://library.thinkquest.org/28994/auswords.html 

Week 11 - Solomon Islands - Manderley Gits

Vea sigoi, my dearest readers!

A few days have passed in this amazing, colorful, dive-a-licious country and besides the amazing nature you just can’t seem to get enough of (really, it’s like I’m discovering new colors and vegetation every day), I have only one thing to say. IT IS TOO FREAKISHLY HOT IN HERE! I know we have been very (very very) lucky concerning the weather during our trips, but an average temperature of 32°C is a bit too much for me (and this is coming from someone who suffers from severe I’m-always-cold-issues). The tropical monsoon climate of the Solomon Islands causes temperatures of about 30°C throughout the whole year. Fortunately, we have arrived after the hurricane and tropical rainstorm season. (we’re so lucky, I know ;-).

After our scuba diving experiences, we decided to do an excursion to the tropical rainforests of the islands. Unfortunately, there were no guides available when we wanted to go, so we had to change our course to Guadalcanal and Honiara, its capital. 

Guadalcanal is the largest island of the Solomon Islands, and is quite known for ‘the Battle of Guadalcanal’, a battle of World War II where the Japanese tried to take over the island. They thought the Solomon Islands to be a strategic place to put their military base. I have to admit I had no idea of the existence of the island or the cultural background, but hey, one should never stop learning, right?

We let our inner war soldiers reveal during our trip to the battlefields of WWII, although it didn’t take that long for us to become amazingly quiet. It really is a quite strange feeling to walk on a place where so many people have died in a war. We visited the US Memorial in Honiara, which gave us an amazing panoramic view on the battlefield where thousands of soldiers have fought for the Americans and the Japanese. My imagination started working overtime by creating a battle between a young American who doesn’t want to be there, fighting for his life, hoping to return to the girl he’s about to marry, and a Japanese, fighting for the honors of his country, embittered by the many lies put in his head by his colonels.

I must have wandered too much because when I finally snapped out of it, I found myself alone at the Memorial. Although I refuse to admit I got scared, I have to say I might have had some forever-alone thoughts and kind of prepared myself to continue the trip on my own. In the end I found the group at the Memorial souvenir shop (where else) playing with toy swords. (No, I kid you not)

To enlighten the mood a little bit, we continued our tour through Guadalcanal by visiting the botanical gardens, which gave us a rainforest feeling, so that made up for the fact we didn’t get to the original rainforest. Maybe we’ll get there later on, though this botanical really gave us a good impression of how the real deal must look like. We got a good look on the typical plants of the country, but the most amazing view we had was on a lake, entirely covered in lilies!

We ended our day by visiting Guadalcanal’s very own Chinatown! Well, the houses were more slums, rather than anything else, but it had its charm. 

We flew back to our vacation house, enjoying a sunset like the one we enjoyed in South Korea. It looked as perfect now as it did in South Korea, and it brought a good summer vibe into the group. We decided to end our day by enjoying a summer cocktail, providing us some coolness in this still invincible heat.

Lots of peace, love and plastic sword souvenirs to you all

Manderley

Sources:

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/solomon-islands/things-to-do

http://www.landenkompas.nl/salomonseilanden

http://www.travelwizard.com/southpacific/solomon-islands/guadalcanal/

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slag_om_Guadalcanal

http://www.guadalcanal.com/

http://battlefields.com.au/index.php/tours/54

Week 11- Anne Hallez- Solomon islands

We all have that fantasy place in our imagination, that place we go to when we have to work, study or when the weather's really bad. A place with a lot of sun, palm trees and pearl white beaches. If you agree and if you like what you hear, the Solomon islands are the way to go. It's a different kind of beauty than we experienced in other countries. It's a place to go surfing, scuba diving and go swimming with dolphins. And that's exactly what we were going to do.

The first thing that came to mind when we entered the world outside of the Nusatope airport when we arrive in Gizo, was the heat. It was almost to warm and I immediately felt the need to run to the beach and go jump in the water.

But first we took our bags to a little house that was preserved for us just on the edge of the island. For the first time ever, I had no words. The house here is big, white and beautiful. There’s a pool at the back that seems like it’s floating on the real water of the island. While the others were immediately looking for the bests rooms in the house, I ran to this little bed next to the pool, laid down, and forgot why we were there.When I looked at my right, I saw nothing but blue and the only thing I could think about, was that I never wanted to leave this place.


The sound of the doorbell woke me up from my daydreaming. Our scuba instructor entered and told us that he would be teaching us how to use scuba diving gear in our very own pool. He showed us how to breath trough a oxygen mask, teached us how to dive really low, how to handle the weight of the tanks strapped around our backs and finally the necessary signing language that’s used to signal each other while diving. 
It was hard at first, but after a while we all seemed to master all the necessary things to actually go into the water and go scuba diving. After being surrounded by what seemed to be nothing but blue, It seemed like a good thing to be surrounded by the actual blue of the water that surrounds the island. We packed up and got ready to discover the beauty of the see.

We got on a little boat, that drove us to the middle of the ocean and prepared ourselves to jump into the water. When we did, we were surprised by how hot the water actually was. Our diving instructor told us that the water temperature was a good 28 degrees and that the fish living in the water actually need it to be this warm. 

Jeroen was the first one to go in the water, followed by Annelien, Audrey and finally Emily. Manderley, Els and me were a little doubtful to go in but because our diving instructor told us that it was important to stick together, we all counted to five and got in to the warm water. It took me a while at first, to adapt to breathing trough a machine, but the calmness and colorfulness of the water overwhelmed any problems I had adjusting. In my orange bathing suit, I felt one with the colors of the sea. There were so many kinds of fish in the water, that I didn't know where to look first. The colors of the reefs, the corals and especially the multicolored fish were breathtaking. I tended to keep my distance though, cause this underwater world felt very unfamiliar to me. 

Our instructor signed that it was time dive and go deeper into the sea. What we saw there was what we hoped for, but didn't dare to expect. There was a group of dolphins just swimming below us and it felt like there were thousands of them.We could hear them making sounds that I had only heard on Zen Cd's and it made me want to get closer to them. When we got closer, we were amazed by the fact that they weren't afraid of us. It seemed like they were smiling at us and like they didn't have a care in the world, just like we did then. 

After actually swimming with the dolphins, it was time for us to go out of the water and into the light. We got back into our boat and headed back to shore. All the way back, we couldn't stop talking about all the amazing things we saw. Back in our hotel, we all took a swim because it felt like the natural thing to do now. And after working up a real appetite, we decided to eat something and crawl into bed. When I closed my eyes, I knew these weeks would be hard to forget. I'm actually writing you now, really early in the morning, because there's a week left of blue and discovering to do. I hope you enjoy these talks, and for those of you who would like to know what we saw and experienced, down below there's a little film I got from our scuba instructor to show what diving in the pacific sea looks like. I hope you enjoy it, I'm off to have breakfast.


Write you soon!


Anne

Sources:
http://www.tropicalparadise.net/solomon-islands.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands
http://www.diveadventures.com.au/pages/destinations/Solomon/solomons.htm
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2xCbQGHvRA
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWz9pnWlqE
 http://www.diversiondivetravel.com.au/dive_travel/south_pacific/solomons/diving_solomons_r27t.html?gclid=COWT7u-Zna8CFQdJ3godTWETcQ

Annelien Pattyn - Week 11 - Solomon Islands

Hi, you there!

Actually, I shouldn’t laugh with the fact that most of you are sitting at home (some of you in our own home country: the rainy (?) Belgium), but actually, it’s stronger than me so I still do… SORRY! Hopefully, I can cheer you up with my story and let you dream a little bit…

Yes, we’re still in the Solomon Islands and I amuse myself very well here, just like my other travel friends. I can’t describe this place any better than Anne has already did: “A place with a lot of sun, palm trees and pearl white beaches.” Unfortunately, it’s our last weekend here L. Actually, I want to stay here a little longer but there still is another country on our planning that we have to see: Perth, Australia! One thing I know for sure is that I’ll ever come back again to this beautiful place for a longer time!

Wednesday, Manderley wrote about that we wanted to do an excursion to the tropical rainforests of the Islands but then, there were no guides available. Glad as we are, today  there were some(!) guides available to show us the rainforests. I repeat: “some guides” so, we still could choose a guide… I agreed with the other girls that it would be Ricardo ( see photo ;-)). Although there also were girls available to guide us, Jeroen had nothing to say on our choice J.

Ricardo told us that around 80 % of the Solomon Islands are covered with tropical rainforests and that they are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and fixed carbon. Of the 163 land birds that breed in the Solomon Islands, an astonishing 72 species (44% of Solomon Islands land birds) are found nowhere else in the world, while another 62 (38%) are considered unique subspecies. the Solomon Islands rainforests also support numerous endemic amphibians, reptiles, molluscs, insects and several endemic plant groups reflecting unique patterns of speciation, isolation and dispersal. I found this excursion very spectacular because I’ve never had seen a rainforest in my life. Now, I got a different view on nature… It’s so beautiful!

After this trip, we were so one with the nature that we decided to go to the Kwaibala Waterfall. Ricardo joined us because it’s on private land and difficult to find. If you need to refresh yourself (and that’s what we did), nothing can beat this Waterfall. It’s about 3 km from the centre, but we took a taxi to the Kwaibala River, from there we had to walk 25 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimwear with us…

After a long day, we returned to our hotel. I don’t know yet what we are going to do this evening, but I’ll see. Maybe, we are going to a restaurant or a pub…

I will write you next week in Perth, Australia!

Hugs & kisses from the oh so beautiful Solomon Islands!

Annelien

Sources

http://www.illegal-logging.info/approach.php?a_id=110

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/biologicalsci/staff/details/d.burslem

http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5416/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/solomon-islands/things-to-do

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Week 10 - Annelien Pattyn - Papua New Guinea

Dearest readers

Waaaw, this country is truly amazing although I think you know it already from the stories of Audrey and Els but I wanted to repeat one more time. Hehe J

Unfortunately, it’s our last day here but I can’t wait to go to the Solomon Islands because I think it’s also very beautiful… I’m curious!

Jeroen wanted to go to the Parliament Haus today and that’s what we did… Actually the other girls and I didn’t want to go but we wanted to do him a favor… but I have to say: it was quite impressive…

The Parliament Haus was officially opened in 1984 with Prince Charles on hand. The main building is in the style of a Maprik, or Sepik-style, haus tambaran, while the attached, circular cafeteria building follows Highland design principles. The façade is quite stunning, with a mosaic featuring unmistakably PNG motifs. Photographers with wide-angle lenses will be rewarded with great shots in the late afternoon light.

The cavernous lobby is entered through doors whose handles are stylised kundu drums, which is an hourglass-shaped drum with lizard skin. Inside, huge Sepik masks share space with several display cases full of fantastic butterflies, including the native Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (the world's largest at 30cm wingspan across), beetles and some very large stick insects. The display cases are easy to miss; they're under the stairs. Photography inside Parliament Haus is forbidden. That’s why there aren’t any pictures here (I’m sorry for that). I’ve looked on the internet, but I can’t find any…

It's possible to visit the chamber and witness parliament when it's sitting. A taxi from Boroko costs about around K15 or around K20 from Town. Alternatively, take a PMV along Waigani Dr, get out at the white, empty Pineapple Building, and walk about 2km northeast. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to visit it. Maybe next time if we ever come again?

I’m so hungry, guys so I’ll end my blog here.

C u in the Solomon Islands ;-)

Xoxo, Annelien

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/papua-new-guinea/port-moresby/sights/museum/parliament-haus

week 10 - Bekaert Els - Papua New Guinea

Hi everybody

Here I’m again, writing from the beautiful country “Papua New Guinea”. I can’t believe how beautiful it really is here.  Today we went for a backpacking trip through the seaside resort in the province “Madang”. Madang is located nortside of the island and it is known for the fertile grounds and high peaks. Offshore they are a couple of volcanic islands. These volcanos are still very active and you can see the hot lava bubbling in the craters. Madang has also a very interesting history. It was destroyed in the Second World War through very severe and bloody fights. The town of Madang, which is the capital of the province, was completely ruined. When it was rebuild after the war, they’ve build many beautiful public gardens and ponds.  Madang is now known for their art. After a guided tour through the province, we rested at the beautiful beach with palm trees. The coastal waters are perfect to snorkel and scuba dive. Inland, in the rainforest, you’ll find hundreds of tropical birds. I still can’t believe how enchanting they are.

The country depends for the greater part of the export of wood, fish and minerals. Approximately 72% of the economy depends of this. But these land reclamation is made more difficult through the rough terrain. It really depends on these natural resources. Also Cacoa, oil palm and tea are famous products for the export.  There isn’t an export of industrial products, because of the high shipping costs, high wages and limited domestic market. So Papua New Guinea has to import all the industrial products. The country also depends on the support from other countries, like Australia, the European Union, Japan, China… Australia is the biggest contributor of all and Papua New Guinea knows strong ties with Australia.

After this trip through the province of Madang, we went more inland in seek of a native tribe. It was my wish to see how these isolated people live. And yes… after a long hike, we met a local who would guide us towards a little village.  The whole group was exited and we couldn’t get our nerves under control. Finally we would meet these intriguing people.

It was a real culture shock. The man were only dressed with a koteka for their penis. The woman with a skirt made of grasses. Their boobs were uncovered and danced with every step they took.  I couldn’t hold a little smile. The tribe was very curious when they saw us, because they don’t see often ‘white people’. But after a little acquaintance, they were at ease with us. They began to show us their way of living and invited us in their village.

It was really an extraordinary day. I still can’t believe that my dream came true.

Sweet dreams (I’m sure I will),

Lots of love

Els

Week 10 - Papua new guinea - Audrey Vanderstraeten

Dear readers,

Els already wrote about our first day in Papu New Guinea and how we arived in Port Moresby. Since I was very impressed by this city I wanted to write a bit more so that you as wel can experience what we saw.

This was the first time that we visited Port Moresby, the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.

Port Moresby has relatively constant temperatures throughout the year that vary from 24°C up to 32°C depending on time of year. I already heard a lot of this city and couldn’t wait to see it with my own eyes.

My first impression was confronting and intimidating. It might be the largest city of PNG but it’s definitely not the cutest. Port Moresby is known as one of the world’s least livable cities. However, it does have some redeeming features.

The most impressive building is the Parliament Haus, the mosaic façade of Parliament Haus will excite any photographer.  Another place worth visiting are the National Botanical Gardens they are definitely one of Port Moresby highlights and when the orchids are blooming, it’s perhaps the city’s most charming spot. 

Outside town, Varirata National Park is heaven for bird-watchers. 


It’s a small part of PNG’s future and it’s fascinating to talk with locals to sense what it’s like to live in a city rated one of the earth’s most dangerous and least livable.

Being mindful is necessary in Port Moresby but there’s no need to be paranoid. With so little work available, most people sit around smoking, chewing betel nut, reading the newspapers. At the end of the day the locals will regale you with good manners and thoughtful conversations.

Experiencing Port Moresby is about people rather than sights.

Write to you soon!

XO-XO
Audrey Vanderstraeten

Sources:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/papua-new-guinea/port-moresby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Moresby

week 10 - Bekaert Els - Papua New Guinea

Hi my dear readers,

After an amazing trip through the zen-world of Japan, we arrived at Papua New Guinea. There’s a lot to tell about this fascinating country. I think Papua New Guinea is still rather unknown for most of us. It is a country not yet damaged by tourism. Maybe because of the fact that Papua New Guinea is the last discovered country by the western people.  You can find this magnificent island North of Australia and bordering Indonesia.  Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern part of the island New-Guinea and a few surrounding islands.  It’s the second largest island in the world, after Greenland. And it’s the highest tropical country with mountains as high as 5000 meter.

Papua New Guinea is a land with lots of opposites: rainforests, rivers, valleys, highland, mountains, shore, coral reefs and forests with mangroves.  It’s known for its incredible nature and wildlife. It has the most unique fauna and flora of the world. Nature has had all the time to expand and develop without human interference. I couldn’t wait to explore this country. And today it finally happened. We arrived at the capital ‘Port-Moresby’, located on the southeastern coast of the main island. Port Moresby is a city with almost 200 000 inhabitants. It’s a surprising modern city, in contrast with the rest of the country, which is still very rustic. After visiting this city, we decided to leave the capital in search for the countryside.

When we left the city and walked in the middle of the beautiful nature, I was speechless. I saw flowers that I had never seen in my life, and mammals that I only knew from television.  I saw the most colorful birds, birds with feathers in all the colors of the rainbow. I’ve never seen a bird-of-paradise in real life, but it was really impressive.

There also live more than thousand different tribes divided over the island Papua New Guinea. All these tribes have different cultures and rituals. I’m hoping that we can visit one during our trip in Papua New Guinea. I’ll find it fascinating to see how these tribes live, work, love…  

I’m going to end my blog for today because I’m very tired, but Audrey will tell you a bit more about our day in Port-Moresby. I’ll write to you soon from this fascinating country called Papua New Guinea.

Sleep tight,

Love

Els 

Week 9 - The Philippines - Manderley Gits

Kamusta, once again, dearest readers!

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably wondering how our night out in Boracay ended. Well, I wasn’t hungover this time (yay for me!) but Audrey on the other hand had a few drinks she probably shouldn’t have had. (the poor thing had to sit through a few boat rides, which wasn’t that fortunate for her, but oooh so funny for us)

But, well, our trip has no mercy for hangovers, so we went on and visited some more places in the centre and south of the country, before we headed back to Las Piñas and later on Manilla to get our flight to Papua New Guinea.

First of all, we went to Bohol, an island province in the Central Visayas region. Since it’s surrounded by water, it can only be reached by boat (which we decided to do) or airplane. Immediately we could see that tourism was the most important part of their economy. They have beautiful beaches (but then again, you can find those throughout the whole island group) and some churches and ruins from Spanish colonial times. Also, they have the coolest tourist attraction ever! The Chocolate hills.(no, I kid you not) They’re a geological formation of little hills on top of a plateau.

Because of the dullness of the historical origin of the hills, I would rather tell you about the legend that forms a more interesting (and romantic) base concerning the origin of the hills. There once was a giant named Arogo, who had a lot of power. He fell in love with Aloya, a simple and mortal girl. When Aloya died, the pain of losing the one he loved so intensely dreadfully cut up Arogo. In fact, he could not stop crying over his love. When his tears dried, they formed the Chocolate Hills. Romantic, right?

Afterwards we took a ferryboat that sailed slowly through the cane of the island and showed us the Pintadas, or the ‘original’ residents of the island. We could see it was nothing more than a cultural attraction for tourists, but still it gave a warm feeling, sailing through the peace and quiet of Bohol.

We met another group of young travelers who took us to a little island near Bohol, of which we had never heard before: Balicasag. It felt like paradise on earth with the amazing view, and exquisite diving and snorkeling facilities. We had a quick dinner at the island and then decided to leave our fellow travellers to go back to our hotel for a good night sleep.

Our last day in the Philippines we have spent shopping (what else ;-). We visited Las Piñas and its amazing malls! The most fascinating one was the SM Mall of Asia, the largest mall of Asia! Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we wanted to some of the more local markets as well. One of the locals took us to a smaller mall where you could find local products, souvenirs and, well, a lot of counterfeit goods. We had just about enough time to find all of our souvenirs, when we found out it was time to go back to Manilla and catch our flight.

So here I am, at the airport, writing this blog and hoping that Papua New Guinea is an equally beautiful country. And secretely I’m hoping for another Bayani ;-)

Lots of peace, love and souvenirs!

Manderley

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills

http://www.boholboard.com/bohol-sightseeing.php

http://smmallofasia.com/moa/?p=1097

Heleen Callens, a friend who visited the Philippines