Back to the future

Dear all,
this time I will show you a little bit about our trip to Singapore.

After a very comfortable 8h flight from Brisbane with Emirates we arrived at 8am in a very wet Singapore. Although we are already quite used to high temperatures the incredible high humidity stroke us down immediately. We barely managed to get to our hotel and took a power nap for a few hours as soon as we got there to get ready for a city walk under these conditions.

Beside the weather conditions Singapore is also different in almost every other regard. How can I say…it appears so futuristic to me. It is perfectly clean everywhere, the metro system is far beyond everything I’ve experienced before: modern, fast, easy to use… The architecture is astonishing throughout the city and you feel about 200 years in the future.

If you question yourself what that odd building on the left side is, have a look on the next picture.

That’s the Marina Bay Sands Hotel – the ship-like structure on top is an oasis with palm trees, a huge pool (just for hotel guets,...damn) stretching over almost the entire length, restaurants, bars, etc. Truly one of the strangest buildings I’ve ever seen…but that’s not all. Every night it turns into something like a spaceship featuring an amazing laser show (picture taken from Jonas Travelblog).

From up there you have literally the best view over the city…while relaxing on a comfortable couch with cocktails, chips and fresh air. Actually we were quite lucky that we got in as we didn’t quite meet the dress code but I already managed to get into club SET in Miami in flip flops hence this wasn’t really a big deal – the lady at the entrance finally let us in after her collegue said something in her ear (maybe they thought I am a celebrity cause I am so tall and blond :P). Therefore we got this beautiful snap shot:

If you ever complained about the fines you have to pay for littering or smoking in the metro system back home in Vienna, you haven’t been in Singapore. There is a reason why everything seems so nice and clean – they charge you heavy fines for almost everything. Chewing gum is forbidden and not available, minor “crimes” often lead to punishment with the bamboo stick and drug dealing/consumption leads to death penalty. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden and common sexual practices as e.g. oral sex were legalized as late as 2007… (porn sites are still inaccessible...Mike found out)

Beside these rather unusual penalties there are also a couple of “funny” ones as indicated in the following pictures:

Imagine that in Amsterdam;)

no kebab in the bus:(

The strange-looking bomb-like thing in the lower right corner is the world famous durian fruit - infamous for its incomparable taste and smell. After having a couple of delicious soups and other typical dishes in one of the numerous food courts...

...we finally found a market in Chinatown, where they sold this fruit…

…and tried it of course;)

If you want to know how my experience was, have a look at the following video (German only):

To be honest it is not that bad. If you eat it fast enough it is quite good and tastes like mango, vanilla, cheese and…yes onions. The big problem is first of all its smell and the remaining taste in your mouth – for hours. Chewing gums are unavailable and tictac’s are way too weak to get rid of this strong taste…and we had some difficulties with our digestion system later on – this is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. By the way: if you bring a durian fruit into your hotel room you have to pay the room for an additional week after your departure as it becomes impossible to rent out the room for a while due to its long-lasting smell that poisons everything.

Ok, enough about that.

Singapore has also a very vibrant nightlife and on Friday night we went out to club Zouk. This club is definitely a cool place to be although the experience is definitely different to other clubs – because I could see over the whole crowd…easily. The tiny Asians all looked at me like an alien from another planet: tall and blond with curly hair! This was also the chance to wear my shopping goodies I made on Orchard Road earlier that day – one of the best shopping areas in Singapore. I am really proud of my booty as it is incredible difficult to find the right size as an European...almost all clothes end at size small for girls and medium for guys – Mike didn’t buy anything;)

On Saturday we took a ride with the Singapore Flyer – the largest wheel in the world, standing 165m tall.

From up there you have a great view over whole Singapore...

...including the Botanical Gardens…

I have no idea what these odd structures on the right-hand side are but they look cool somehow

That’s it for this time! I hope you enjoyed the report and see you soon in Bangkok.

Kisses,

angie & Mike

From Brisbane to Paradise

Hi my dear friends, this time u will get to see the final part of our adventure in down under – an experience that was truly astonishing!

First I want to tell you how Brisbane was like…a lovely city approximately the size of Vienna.

We stayed with Sarah and her cool housemates in a cute little house in the center of Brisbane. We had a great time together cooking dishes (we served “Krautfleckerl” again), telling funny stories while having a glass of wine or two or just listening to her playing the piano. She is a great person with lots of interesting hobbies such as making her own jewelry and obviously many friends as almost every day new people popped up for a coffee, a tea or just to say hello.

The city has a remarkable skyline and a climate that comes close to Miami. This makes the public lagoon at South Bank in front of the CBD skyline a famous place for gatherings or simply an oasis of peace to relax and forget about work for a moment.

We were lucky because during our stay the Buddha Birth festival took place at the lagoon which is the largest of its kind in the world. There I relaxed with my café latte and watched the dragons dancing and afterwards I had a shoulder and back massage…very nice.

The night life in Brisbane is restricted to a small area called “The Valley”. I heard that club “Family” is the most famous one, so we went there on a Friday night. Cool club with 2 big floors, good drinks and a freaky ambient but not quite enough people – a general problem of the Aussies and the Kiwis.

On our last evening we had a girly night with one guy (Mike of course). The girls became jealous not to have such a trendy beard like Mike’s and decided to find out, how they would look like when having a beard – with interesting results including a Salvador Dali lookalike ;)

Our next goal was to go all the way up to Airlie Beach to see the Whitsunday Islands, which is the backpacker beach paradise of Australia. Meanwhile, we were so curious to see more wildlife that we visited the Australian Zoo, the last home of the “crocodile hunter” (Steve Irwin). So far we haven’t seen too much wildlife to be honest…no kangaroo, no koala bear, no drop bear ;), no lizards, etc. There finally we saw koalas, kangaroos and other funny creatures of Australia; have a look: aren’t they cute?

Koalas; very fluffy little bears with a sleeping problem ;)

A cassowary – something like a colored ostrich

An echidna – something like a hedgehog with a long nose…

…and finally: the animals we do not have in Austria. Although they would perfectly fit on the “Donauinsel” – laziness at its best and only moving when the food cart comes around ;)

One animal which fascinated us most was the Tasman devil. It coughs as if it has smoked a pack of cigarettes and just runs in circles like Dagobert Duck – if you ever wanted to know why they are endangered, have a look at this video...

From there, it took us three days to reach Airlie Beach (appr. 1100 km). We booked a beach view hostel near the lagoon, which is like in Brisbane a free giant pool. U have to know that the Aussies rather go into pools than in the sea because there they do not need a stinger suit to protect them against dangerous little jellyfishes which r just as big as a finger tip but can kill you!!!
However, the lagoon is amazing: hot weather, cool wohda (as the Aussies say water) and palm trees full of cockatoo’s eating coconuts.

After one day relaxing at the lagoon we booked a speedboat tour to the Whitsunday Islands.

After some snorkeling (fully protected of course) we headed towards Whitehaven Beach, among the top ten beaches in the world. After a short bush walk where Jiny “found” our first snake in the wild, we came to the lookout point over viewing the hill inlet…and spotting our speedboat waiting for us.

Best place to…do a photo shoot of course!

 After re-entering the speedboat we drove along the Whitehaven Beach, which is 7 miles long, finally stopping at its northern end, where we had a lunch buffet at the beach. I think these pictures don’t need any comments, or?

After having lunch I assumed having a romantic afternoon with Mike in paradise but again something appeared to be way more interesting than me. After spotting a goanna or monitor lizard, Mike disappeared in the bush for hours – and actually it was my fault as I pointed its appearance out to him…hmmpfrr. Mike and his animals – I should have known it…

The next day we had to get up really early as we had booked a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The ferry left around 8 am and it took us 3 hours to get to the Hardy reef. Although the weather forecast was good, the weather wasn’t. Already while boarding the crew strongly recommended taking some medicine against travel sickness and although most people did, the ride ended up in a real mess. The strong wind caused the highest waves (4-5m) I have ever seen (and felt), which were quite high for a boat of around 25m. It was almost impossible to get off the seat and if we ended up flying all over the boat – seriously. One can assume that this was way too much for most stomachs (me and Mike were fine) and hence…what a mess. No further comments on that…

Finally we arrived at the reef where the water was calm and immediately jumped into the gear to get ready to see some fishys – sexy, hah?

After jumping into the water I was suddenly surrounded by an explosion of colorful fishys – what a cool experience.

Then we spotted a bigger one and tried to hunt it – here u can see a video of our (not unexpectedly unsuccessful) hunt ;)

The reef is not only the home of millions of fishys but also of mussels in all colors…

…and sizes! This one was about 2m wide and that was the closest I dared myself to go as you really don’t want to end up having one leg in it when it’s closed – creepy!!!

Also very fascinating were all the different corals there…especially the so called brain corals (see below)

Just when we were staring at the corals we saw something big swimming towards us…fortunately it wasn’t a shark…it was a huge but very cute sea turtle – we even touched it…so cool!

We also caught our turtle experience on video – have a look:

This was literally one of our journey highlights…highly recommendable.

After that we relaxed another day on Airlie Beach before we started driving back to Brisbane, where we will continue our journey towards Singapore.

Stay tuned for our next blog entry from Southeast Asia.

                                                                              Blubb