G'day Australia!

This is it: the last message from Down Under just hours before I take off to Kuala Lumpur. It has been a great time over here, I love this country, its people, its environment and its cities. It sure will be strange to go back to Europe, where everything is so close together and packed...

Today I started with a swim in the ocean and Coogee, went for some breakfast in Randwick, bought new thongs, and visited some shops, Sydney is always enjoyable, a great city to be!

I spend the last day in Casa Marco, and we will eat a delicious pasta for dinner! I think this story contains lots of reasons to get back here ASAP!

Cold Cold Canberra

Last Sunday Daylight Saving Time, meaning the difference with mainland Europe is reduced from 10 to 8 hours, it will also have positive effect on a possible jetleg between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur.

Funnily enough the temperature dropped significantly last Sunday as well, when I woke up after one of the many farewell parties organised for me I thought I was getting sick, but the weather changed, today it was even foggy. Perfect time to change Canberra for a European Spring & Summer!

As the my departure day approaches I have to say goodbye to people, and that is weird. Some people I've known for a long time and suddenly I'll be going back to the other side of the world... It is good that there are many social activities planned this last week.

And everything is more or less packed in boxes ready to be shipped to Rotterdam..

The Trip

Today marks the last week of being Down Under, next Saturday the trip will start from Sydney's Kingsford-Smith Airport. I just give a short recap of the route I plan to travel:

1. Malaysia & Singapore: 1 April I'll arrive in Kuala Lumur, Malaysia's capital. I'll stay two days in the city and visit the Petronas Towers, hope to go to see some caves and do some shopping of course. On the 3rd I'll take a bus to Melakka, which is known to have some old Dutch colonial architecture ("Stadhuys"), one day later I am going further south to Singapore where I spend two days, want to do some cultural things and shop! My last 4-5 days I'll spend on a tropical island off the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula. Finally 11 April I'll go back to Kuala Lumpur and head off for the next destination:



2. Hong Kong: I will visit one of my ex-housemates who moved there last week. Looking around the city, maybe visiting Disneyland Hong Kong and shopping (again ;-) ) From there the plan is to set off to the next destination:




3. China: My housemate might accompany me to one of the southern provinces where there is lots of natural beauty to see, from there I most likely travel on to Xian, which is and old capital city and is close to the famous terracotta warriors. If there is time left I might go to Shanghai, otherwise I'll be in Beijing 20 April where I'll meet Xander and Francois the day after. We'll spend 3 days in Beijing before we kick of the big one: the Trans-Mongolian Express (TME)




4. Mongolia: our first stopover on the TME will be Mongolia's capital of Ulan-Bator, we'll spend a week in the country and take a tour that should show us all major sites and sceneries.



5. Russia: next stop Irkutsk on lake Baikal in the middle of Siberia. We'll spend there three days and hopefully get a glimpse of Siberia and the lake (the largest fresh water resevoir in the world). When we board the train again and head off to Yekaterinaburg (3-4 days in the train!), this city has lots of history (The last Czar, Nicholas II and his family were killed here by the Bolcheviks) and is very symbolic for me: 40 KM to the west we will cross the border between Asia and Europe so I'll step into the old continent myself. The next destination will be Moscow, where we look around 3 days, after which we will go to St Petersburg for 4 days. From here I'll take off for the last leg
   
   
6. Home: all good things come to an end. I'll be landing on Schiphol Airport on the 18th of May. After 20 months I will be back where it all started!

Canberra Day

Last Friday my colleagues threw me a farewell party. My director made a great lunch and all my team mates came and we had a great lunch with good drinks. I'll definitely miss the working atmosphere here, it has has been good! As a present they gave a a original didjeradoo, I am really happy with it!

Last weekend we went with 9 people to Jervis Bay in a holiday house. It was a long weekend because Monday it was Canberra Day, and event traditionally celebrated by Canberrans by going out of the ACT. Even though the weather was not that great we had a good time, good food and drinks and we even managed to take a dip in the sea. The great variety of things you can do over here will be dearly missed!

In the meanwhile I sold my car and desk and am slowly packing my stuff, I contacted a freight forwarde so that should be good. The hostels in Malaysia and Singapore are booked so now it is up to the last obligations: working on the tender and say goodbye to friends over here..