First impressions of India by Cat

I feel stressed, a part of me does not want to go to India. I have read too much about it and I am starting to think that it is crazy to go somewhere to be hassled by beggars, be cheated and sick on the trains. Another part of me is telling me it is going to be amazing and that if Rebecca and Deo have been there for so long, something incredible must make people go back.
I am a little scared though.
We are waiting for our plane in Singapour. Once we enter in the gate's waiting area, the experience starts already, A mini chaos is already there, the security people are trying to make people queue but it is not working. People are pushing, not paying any attention to security guards and air hostesses....we are 2 of 10 westerners on the plane.
The flight is only 6 hours long. I sleep all the way and when it is time to wake up to get ready for desembarquing, I wished the flight was longer...I am still nervous.
We get off the plane, and book a prepaid taxi. There aren't too many people in the airport as it is past 3 am.
The taxi drive takes about 40 minutes and we pass dozens of people sleeping on the pavements, in their rickshaws, everywhere. we are a little scared that nobody will open the door at the hotel as it is so late, even though we called before leaving to make sure this would not happen.
All is good, the taxi driver finally finds the place and we are taken to our room. We have to get used to these people asking for tips all the time and just be very aware of them.  Ouf! we arrive in the room. Safe for a while. All clean, All good.

Bali

We have left Australia. We did not think that we were going to stay 3 months, the maximum time that I could stay because my visa. So the next country was Indonesia, and Bali to be more precise. In fact we did not stay a lot in Bali. We had 10 days in Indonesia, but we only spent 3 days in Bali and the rest in the Gili islands.




There were three things to do in Indonesia:

• Rest
• Spend time with Freddy and Patrick
• Check out if there are houses for Salome and Dennis.

So following our plans, we rest and spend time with Freddy and Patrick. We arrived to Kuta  one day before the French Brightonians. And as the first day when you arrive to a new country, we were just trying to understand how things work, get information about where to go and get used to the new weather conditions. Then the first night we meet Freddy and Patrick just after they landed and had a beer with them.

The day after we left to Ubud, a small town in the middle of the island. We stayed there for three nights, eating, drinking and going around the town with a small moped in the research of the nice rice terraces that you can find in all postcards. The second day we rode and crossed half of the island to find a very nice and calm royal garden where we could have a swim and cool down. We spent more than 5 hours on the motorbike to make 100 km return.

Balinese dance

Balinese dance

Freddy

just Bali

Hinduism goods

in the royal gardens

becoming statue

Freddy la statue

And then, on the fifth day in Indonesia, we moved to paradise, the Gili islands. These islands belong to Lombok, that is the next big island after Bali. They are 3 tiny sand islands, which main roads are the ones that goe around them by the beach. The two small ones are very nice and quiet, and the biggest one is the same but a bit more turistic, and with some bars where you can even have parties. Cat did not like that much staying in the big island, but we still had time to spend one day on the other two small islands, going all around the island in an hour or an hour and a half and snorkeling and eating by the beach. All three islands had beaches all around, sand or some stones, but beaches all around. The highest point in the smallest island is 6 meter, so you can get an idea of which type of sand islands they are.

By the beach viewing the other beaches

local fisherman between two islands

So we did what we had planned, did nothing by the beach, drinking and eating with Freddy and Patrick and a few more. Snorkeling and diving and laying by the beach. These days were our holidays within our sabatican year.

Goa party DJ

partying very hard

in a tree house

It was quite nice to dive. It was the first time for Cat and she loved it. The coral was nice, soft and hard corals, nice colors and very close to the beach. You could also snorkel till the submarine wall where the corals start. We even saw turtles, I saw them meanwhile I was snorkeling and Cat during her dive.

does it really work?

Cat's first dive

And for the last point of our plan, sorry Salome but we can not tell you if Bali is such a nice place to buy a house and move in, but I can tell you that the Gili islands or some quiet place outside Bali most turistic areas would be amazing, even though I am not sure about the prices for the houses. But for sure that you would love the weather and the beaches.

It could be Salome but was Cat

view from the beach

locals

Goodbye Australia

Waow, les 3 mois sont passe si vite.

A chaud, le meilleur a ete definitivement le roadtrip1 dans  l ouest...ben oui, c est la que j ai vu mon premier kangourou....ca ne s oublie pas! Le camping, la compagnie de Caro, les petits soupers sur notre super table et nos chaises qu on a echanges trois fois (sans blague) au magasin car elles cassaient tout le temps, les petites habitudes qu on a prises en un mois de covoiturage, co campinage.  Notre tente qui a ete boufee par un insecte crapuleux...et puis le contact avec dauphins, requins et tortues....et serpents.


 C etait definitivement une sacree experience. Caro s'est lancee dans ce voyage avec nous, c etait courageux de sa part de partir un mois avec un couple et je la remercie, ca nous a permis de mieux se connaitre, dans un contexte extra professionnel.  C etait un super mois!
Apres les experiences en tant que Helper on ete riches....speciales....on s en souviendra, surtout celle dans la communaute religieuse, ca nous a marque! Les rencontres avec Mark et Carole, Maria et Ahmed, amis de la familles chez qui ont est arrive sans les avoir jamais rencontres. Ils nous ont ouvert leur porte et leur coeur. C est incroyable.

Et puis les retrouvailles avec ma cousine Ali et Rob a Melbourne...on etait tellement copine quand on etait petites, et puis l adolescente nous a un peu ecarte...maintenant on se retrouve comme avant quand on jouait et faisait des betises ensemble!
Nos derniers jours a Melbourne sont agreables. C est comme rentrer a la maison, on reste avec Ali chez qui je me sens comme chez ma tante...

3 months have flown.
If I had to choose the best moments of our australian experience, I d say our first roadtrip in the west. But of course, we have had so many amazing experiences, we have met so interesting and amazing people and we are leaving australia with such an amazing feeling. 
The last week in Melbourne kind of felt like if we were home, staying with Ali and Rob...Wilsons do have a gift to host people! 
We leave australia with the feeling we have seen so much but so little!

Bouclons la boucle

la vue de notre "chambre"

Il est temps de rejoindre Melbourne, de boucler la boucle. Comment rejoindre Melbourne? Pas d offre interessante pour un campervan cette fois...on n'a pas envie de faire la route en train, sans pouvoir s arreter en chemin, on a encore envie de voir du pays et on a bien envie de se retrouver tous les deux apres cette semaine chez les hamishs. On a toujours pas vu de Koalas en plus! C est notre mission. On doit voir un koala avant de quitter le pays...sinon on demande une extension de visa pour Pau!

On loue donc une voiture....la moins chere. On se promet de ne pas depenser de l argent sur le logement, l'Australie a fait vraiment mal a nos economies, on doit faire attention. 5 nuits , une voiture et une tente.

Jervey's Bay, our morning walk

Ce petit trip etait une bonne surprise. On a opte pour une route moins touristique. Apres une premiere etape dans une petite ville cotiere (premiere nuit passee dans la voiture...alors qu on aurait pu planter notre tente mais Pau preferait la voiture....Caro, le crois-tu???), on s est dit qu on l avait vue la cote australienne et qu il n y avait pas plus belle que celle de l ouest. De plus,les temperatures ont baisse, c est la fin de l ete et la pluie est toujours presente.

Notre route nous amene dans les Snowy mountains ou se chache le point culminant de l Australie, le mont koscuiszko. Pour l atteindre, on triche un peu, on prend un telesiege....ca donne envie d aller skier! L air est frais et pur, le paysage superbe. Ca me fait penser au Perou, sans evidement les hauts pics enneiges. On ne parle que de 2228 metres ici, pas plus! Les couleurs sont magnifiques, les tons de verts et de bruns...ca donne envie de peindre sur une grande toile, pour du vrai!

On prend le telesiege sans neige!

le toit de l Australie

C est dans ce parc national superbe que nous avons passe la nuit la plus froide de notre vie. Superposition de tous les vetements dans notre sac a dos ainsi que nos sacs de couchage, il fait toujours trop froid, c est a 3 heures du mat qu on est alle dans la voiture pour finir la nuit...et a 5h du mat qu on a allume le chauffage...mais on ne se plaint pas....on est heureux d etre la ou on est...au milieu de nul part, dans la montagne.



La prochaine etape est un must apperement. La cote sud, avec ses formations calcaires impressionnante se retrouve dans tous les guides, a ne pas manquer!

 Les paysages sont beaux, la lumiere est speciale, on s arrete a tous les points de vue, on prend des photos, on respire l air frais, on profite de nos derniers jours en Australie, on se souvient de tous les beaux paysages, les incroyables moments passes dans la nature....

...mais aussi on voit enfin des koalas! Ils sont tellement mignons! Mais qu est ce qu ils sont lents! Ils dorment a longueur de journee!

On devient des pros pour le camping. Apres 3 nuits passees dans la voiture et tres etrangement la meilleure de ces nuits fut celle passee sur une air d autoroute! On trouve un camping gratuit. N ayant pas de materiel de cuisine, on trouve des solutions grace aux superbes infrastructures australiennes....qui aurait pense qu on mangerait une omelette au milieu de nul part???