brita's space

I thought a lot about what I should write in my blog about Tasmania and I started over about 3 times already....I guess if I tried to explain what I experienced in this last month it would not only take me tons of pages, I think that in the end I would be dissappointed because there is simply no way of describing the 360 degree view from a lookout at Crade\le Mountain, the excitement of seeing Possums and Wombats, Wallabies, selas, Penguins or Snakes in the bush, the smell and sound of the rainforest after light summer showers, the sight of valleys dipped in fog right after getting out of your tent i\early in the morning, the sound of various birds early in the morning or in the evening, seeing a sky covered with millions of stars while camping in the middle of the forest, the friendliness and open-heardeness (does that word exist?) of the local people, and a whole lot of other things...
I had the pleasure and luck of getting to know and spending time with friendly, fun open and very warm people (thanks Pete, Helen, Aidan and the whole Overland Track bunch!), of seeing an amazing variety of wildlife, plants and landscapes (the rainfores still touches me in a way that is unbelievably beautiful!), doing incredibly great walks in several National Parks (particularly the OVerland Track, Tasman National Park and Bruny Island!) across the island and of having a very relaxed time while driving along the major areas of the island... it is such an easy and relaxed place to travel..no planning in advance necessary..just hopping in the car and driving from one National Park (paradise!) to the next one...while stopping at a berry farm and picking your own blueberries or sampling some EXCELLENT cheese...bushcamping next to deserted long white beaches (with saukaltem water unfortunately:) or at mountain lakes or in the middle of a tropical rainforest with hardly any people around you!!
I would recommend this beautiful island to anybody who likes to spend a peaceful time in amazing nature - I really loved this place and could have easily stayed there muuuuuuuuuch longer!
I will keep this place and all my experiences deep in my heart and I am looking forward sharing some impressions by showing you some of my photos when I come back! in the meanwhile I uploaded some photos on this site - hope you like them!:)
I arrived in New Zealand yesterday and am starting my "exploring the island" tomorrow! :)

Hi everyone! first of all I uploaded new photos from Thailand and Vietnam, I published some more stories (see below) and since I finished my ASIA part of my trip I thought of some things regarding my impressions of the last 2,5 months:

Things I liked:
x) the many heeeeeeeeeeeeeelloooooooos and byyyyyyyyebyyyyyyyyyye's of the people and particularly children on the streets
x) the nice spices and partially great food
x) the happiness and modesty of the people who have so much less than us
x) the cultural sights - particularly the temples in Cambodia and Nepal
x) the fact that people always sit together in groups and enjoy their food with family and friends rather than alone
x) the lush forests and snowy mountain peaks with great fresh air
x) the cute dogs in people's homes and on the street

things I didn't like that much:

x) the not-cute-anymore dogs on the plate of the butchers on the markets
x) traffic and pollution in the cities
x) the far too many "hello hello Motorbike?", "Hello, Tuk Tuk?", "Hello Madam, Cyclo?"
x) the large Korean or Japanese tourist crowds at the temples  - taking millions of photos and screaming like they were in Prater on a Hochschaubahn!:)
x) the unfriendly staff at the airport in Hanoi
x) hearing roosters and barking dogs starting at 1:30 a.m. during soooo many nights (uff:((((!!)

I went to Vietnam on January 6 and spent 2 days in Hanoi which was an interesting experience (they have cerrtain streets where only a particular product or product range is sold - e.g. the shoe street, the Bamboo street, the silver street, the coffin! street, the paper street, etc...)
One thing I learnt there (which was also one of the most important things!) was how to cross the street there without getting hit by a few hundreds of motorbikes! The traffic there is CRAZY and still bicycle drivers, pedestrians, motorbike drivers and cars manage to get through the streets with very few accidents. The first few times I waited for minutes to cross and locals smiled at me because they must be used to this sight of tourists almost peeing in their pants before walking across the street (the best tihing is sneak up to a local and walk next him when he crosses!:)
On day 3 I started an 8 day tour across the North, Northeast and Central part of Vietnam (this time with an organized tour in order to manage to see so much in such a short time). First we went via Lao Chai to Sapa with an overnight train. Lao Chai and Sapa are close to the Chinese border and Sapa is a mountain town  at 1650 metres of altitude and is known for beautiful views and for the many little villages of various hill tribes living there. When we arrived there at 5.30 a.m. it was cooooold and damp and foggy and hopped right into bed for 2 hours to warm up and get some rest before our first hike of the day in the Sapa mountain area. We had a lovely guide for 3 days: her name is Mang and she is an 18 year old girl from the tribe hill of the Black H'Mong. She hiked to some hill tribe villages with us (Black H'Mong, Red Dzao and Flower H'Mong tribes) which were far off from the main touristy tracks and we had lunch in the peoples houses abd learned a lot about their culture, customs and way of living. It is amazing at how simple the houses are there, it was really cold (4-10 degrees Celcius) and people and even small kids run around barefoot or in the traditional skirts and sleep on the cold floors. We also visited the famous Sunday market in the village of Bah Ha which was the most colourful experience I have ever had: the women of the Flower H'Mong tribe buy and sell handicraft, embroidery and their traditional skirts and shirts and it is just sooooooo busy and beautiful there (check out the photos I uploaded!). There is also a section of the market where living animals are sold: water buffalos, pigs, dogs, chicken and horses. After I heard the pigs screaming their guts our when they were put into tight cages or bags I promised myself not to eat pork meat for a while (wasn't really possible though because we got served pork meat very often in restaurants!).
After spending 4 hours at this amazing market we went back with the train to Hanoi and then continued to the East of Vietnam by car - Bai Tu Long Bay was the nezt stop. Instead of going to touristy and buzy Halong Bay we went to the "sister" of Halong Bay named Bai Tu Long Bay where there are hardly any tourists. We had a 3 hour boat tour through the many limestone islands and spent one night at a big island in that Bay where we did some biking the next morning and then some kayaking along floating villages.
We continued our drive to Tam Coq which is a really nice are 2 hours Southeast of Hanoi. The are is covered with rice fields and also limestone hills along the rivers. We spent our time there with biking and going on boat rides and a day after that we drove to Cuc Phuong National Park to do some walking in the lush tropical rainforest. We also visited the Endangered Primate Rescue Center which rescues, studies and breeds various monkeys ( some of them are endangered and very popular among hunters who get a lot of money for them by selling them to restaurants or for medicinal purposes). Pur last day was also very memorable where we went on a long bikeride to Mai Chau which is a village inhabited by a tribe called THAI and those people live in stilt houses. We stayed with a local family in their stilthouse and slept on floormats and thick blankets since it was also freezing cold there (needless to say that I skipped the cold outdoor shower at 5 degrees and mountain spring water temperature!:)) After that we drove back to Hanoi and I went straight to the airport to head for Melbourne.
I want to say the biggest THANK YOU to Kathi from HTS Reisen in Vienna - the BEST travel agent in the world - who helped me out with the problems I had with my ticket there within a few minutes on the phone! Thanks, KATHI! :)))
So now I am in Melbourne (missing the Australian Open by ONE day:(() and I will be flying to Tasmania tomorrow to encounter many more adventures and doing a lot of hiking!

After my great week of diving on the Similan Islands I headed off to Koh Lanta to spend Xmas there. I was really amazed about how touristy Thailand is or has become and it was quite a "shock" after Nepal and Cambodia to be surrounded by tons of tourists and far too many souvenir shops and cheap bars catering to the typical Hausmeister guests:)! the beaches on the island were o.k. (except for low tide time where it was very rocky and you would have had to walk hundreds of metres to get to the water) and the nice thing were the many comfy bamboo huts right on the beach with many pillows and good food to hang out and just read or do nothing. After a few days there I moved to Krabi where I went for rock climbing. The limestone rocks are a really pretty sight and the climbing was great fun! I did 4 days of climbing with a really good and patient climbing guide named Porn (really, no kidding!:))  and he tought me several things which I might forget by the time I go climbing again but it was great fun and very tough on my arms (I felt like they became long monkey arms!)..one of the beaches there - Phra Nang Beach - was very nice but super crowded since New Year is about the busiest times of the year. I had a quiet and nice New Year's Eve with 2 Norwegian families which I have met on Koh Lanta and we had dinner on the beach. Most of the days on Krabi we had untypically not-so-good weather with frequent rain and it was very clowdy. Those days were good to relax though and I ate far too much food which was very greasy (tons of oil in every meal!) and became wuite lazy!:) Nice though to have had some warm weather before heading off to cold Vietnam!