Merry Christmas.... from Germany

We spent three weeks in Morocco and Noah really enjoyed his time there. It was a little hard for me as a very smiling girl, guys tend to think that I was trying to hit on them all the time. Beside the fact that you feel like a money machine to them, it is a very nice country to visit. It really made me realize how rare free generosity is. I tend to trust people very easy and I was many time disappointed there. I made friends thought, Mohammed, a small grocery shop owner. He could barely speak french but I tried to learn arabic and berber with him, and a parking guy who bought me some mandarine when I didn't have any money, the mandarine seller was really nice too. Beside that, invitation to have a tea is the introduction to any kind of relation, tomato are cheaper that anywhere else in the world (I haven't tried Indian ones), bread is delicious with some amlou (crushed almond with honey and  oil) spread on it while still hot, tagine, couscous, delicious oranges, mandarines, cute and hugable camels, beautiful people, old mans sitting on the ground, riding donkeys, hitch hikers, woman with veil and henna tattoo on their hands and feet, people staring at you, begging for money, pottery, sardine smell, hashish, crazy taxi drivers, mercedes taxi, camping car, the king and his beautiful wife.....

We left Morocco the 19th and drove to Tanger, took the ferry there, drove along Spain mediterranean cost, thru France and arrived in Germany yesterday to make a surprise to my uncle for Christmas Eve.  

On the road, I met some of my best friend, Claudia in Barcelona, who I met in Australia and taught me yoga, Chloé, Sarah and Aude in Guebwiller, who I know from Moorea since more than 10 years. 

I saw the snow all around me for the first time on the road. It feels and looks like we are in a giant freezer. I'm wishing everyday to see it falling now...

We wish you all late Merry Christmas, 

Take care

Poema

News from Portugal

Hi

Just to let you know that we are still alive, I haven't been a very good blogger lately.... We are in Portugal, back on the road and on the beaches waiting for the waves... We are in Ericeira, trying some local food (more than trying actually), delicious cheese and 7 euros gargantuous buffet.... I posted the pictures of our trip from Pisa to France, it's on Picasaweb and will be on the blog very soon. Take care,

Poema

Hi no news since a long time, sorry I'm not very good at updating our blog frequently. I'm in Marseille since two days now. I stopped my surf trip for now to work on a luxury yacht named Ilona. I'm doing house keeping work for two weeks, basic cleaning job, got to be on repeat Mode for 2 weeks but good pay. It's a bit funny to work after such long holiday. The crew is really nice and the boat is really spacious. Noah left to go surf on the Atlantic, he is in Spain, Mundaka tonight hoping to have waves tomorrow. I stay in Marseille with Amandine and Manatahi, her son. I know them from Tahiti. 

Hope you are all well, take care, 

Bisous nana

Poema

We left Croatia 3 days ago and drove thru Montenegro and Albania to reach Greece. We are loving the drive and enjoying the warm water, very nice people, great food and beautiful scenery... Check the new photos on the right column,

Take care, 

Poema

News from Croatia

We started our Europeen road trip and we are in Croatia now waiting for an insurance paper to cross Montenegro's border. We also encountered some car problems, alternator to fix, the gas pump, the water pump, and yesterday the clutch... hoo!  We've been lucky as we found everything we needed for the car here in the area. We also made friends, Dario and his family. He is our gas pump mechanic and they have been very nice to us, inviting us for lunch and helping us everyday. 

Saturday, sept 19th we left Bad Kissingen, Germany and drove to Munich to see the Octoberfest. Pretty impressive, huge party for everybody. We surfed the standing river wave in the middle of the city and had lots of fun and big bruise for me...

We left Munich on the 22nd and drove thru Austria to sleep at the Italian Alps border. The drive is beautiful, lakes and mountains, empty forests, roads. 

We arrived in wednesday afternoon in Venice and spent the rest of the day there. Amazing and surprising water city, it was like a maze for us as we walked around without a map. 

The fog stopped us from driving that night and we crossed the Slovenia border the next day . We drove thru small towns and big forest to get to Croatia. 

The Croatian coast is magnificent, one of the best coast drive we've done. The sea is calm all day long, clear water and beautiful bays, old towns, little wooden boat, figs everywhere....

Today is a rainy day, we hope we won't have anymore car troubles.... that's a BIG wish for a Volkswagen !!!!! When you buy an old volkswagen, you buy an adventure with it !!!!

Check out our new pictures from Europe,

Poema

Forest castle and family in Germany

Great news !!!! We have found and bought our van for the Europe tour. It's a white Volkswagen, with a bed and really nice interior design, white flowers over red walls and green carpet. I don't know about having that kind of desing in my house in Moorea but in our Europeen camping-car it's pretty cool. We named her Matira and open a bottle of champagne to wish her a long life.

Since we arrived, we stayed at my uncle's house in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria. It feels good to be with my family. The house is situated between a forest and a park and there's nobody else around, it's a big house, a castle for me... we are also enjoying the good Europee food, basicaly bread, cheese, sausages (for Noah) and wine with salad.... and not forgetting the beer ! 

All around, the forests and empty fields are followed by little towns with red-brown houses, colored by flowers hanging out of the windows. Castles are siting proudly on the mountains and are kept alive at night time, spotted by warm yellow lights. Autumn is coming and cloudy sky are taking over the sunny warm days. Threes are also changing colors, slowly giving up their green color for a golden coat.

My uncle loves history, castles, old churches and shares his passion whenever he can, driving us around, visiting this time travelers buildings, beauties of art...

Now we have to get Matira completely ready for the long trip... and decide where to go...

Make a wish...

Poema

Abu Dhabi

Escale de 24h a Abu Dhabi, capitale des Emirats Arabes Unis, avec un peu plus de 700 000 habitant, est une ville en pleine expansion. Partout des grues montent des tours de verres, aux formes les plus excentriques, transformant des dunes en immeubles et palaces hi-tech. La ville entiere est en pleine transformation, les sites de construction se suivent, les plages artificielles aménagées sur fond bleu turquoise. 

La chaleur est épuisante et les trottoirs desertiques sont arpentés par deux touristes en quete d'aventures, beaucoup trop extreme pour nous....

La ville est de petite taille et nous la traverson en quelques minutes. Nous sommes en plein Ramadan, un vendredi, la ville semble morte. Tout les restaurants sont fermés durant la journée. Nous nous procurons a boire et a manger chez Carrefour et degustons notre dejeuné caché dans notre voiture. Durant le Ramadan, il est irrespectueux de manger ou boire en public aux Emirat Arabes Unis. C'est le mois sacré de l'année ou tout musulman doit s'abstenir de manger entre le lever du soleil et le coucher du soleil. 

Notre nuit courte a l'aéroport ne nous a pas aidé a tenir le coup face a la chaleur, nous avons retourné notre voiture vers 16 heures. 

La visite de Dubai sera pour une prochaine fois...

A bientot

Poema

Jbay life

J-bay, Dreamland....

A month has gone by for us in J-bay...

We met Kim and Todd, the newly world tourer from Oahu : our closest friends and neighbors since Indonesia for three weeks. 

Everyday, Kim and I were motivating ourself to surf cold water, we bought sheep boots to keep our island girl feet warm. Noah found a meal/desert-mate in Todd and they shared many late night apple crumbles and ice-creams...

We met Kahi and Louise, also from Oahu and also world tourer. Kahi have been riding Alaia in J-Bay, a wooden old style surfboard (check out their website eatdrinksurf.com). 

I met him in the water, as nosy as I can be sometimes (I said sometimes), asking him a bunch of questions about his board. Seriously I would sink on that piece of wood, but he rides it very well and even do 360 on set waves !!! 

We also met DR from Maui and Jan from Florida. They came in JBay for a week for DR birthday, a place he's been dreaming of for 30 years.  He was in French Polynesia years ago and lived/traveled/surf in the islands. We had our first bray (BBQ in South Africa) together at their rental house/villa.

Jeffreys bay is a pretty small town and everything is concentrate around the Da Gama Street. We are 5 minutes away from the food stores and 20 minutes away from the city "center".

Noah enter the J-Bay underground where he trains and teach what he knows about Jui Jitsu. 

Everyday life for us have been pretty simple : wake up around 6-7 am, check the waves, go surf when it's warm enough, check the surf forecast, hang out at the beach, look at the waves, walk on the beach, pick shells, watch TV... Since we arrive, the food store have been armed robbed, a young surfer died (couple towns away) after a shark attack, a guy disappeared... It's probably like in all the other country we visited, Jeffreys Bay is so small that everybody knows everything...

We visited the lion breading park with Todd, Kahi, Kim, Louise, Ken and Roy (from Belgium). They are so beautiful, strong, impressive, fierce. Sadly their living area are very smalls and humans are taking over wild spaces which makes it hard for them to be released. 

This weekend we drove to Cape Town and I felt in love with South Africa after that road trip. The landscape is beautiful, empty lands, roads on the cliff, blue mountains, inland desert roads...

We went to the most southern tip of Africa, ate fish and chips in Hout Bay, saw the penguins trying to escape, hang out with "dangerous" baboons, (tried to) sleep at the noisiest backpacker ever, ate kilos of oranges and tangerines, went to the Elephant Addo park, saw elephant herd...

Yesterday we left thinking of coming back one day... 

Poema

 

Where we've been... 6 months later

India-South Africa via Abu Dhabi

We flew out of India more happy than ever. We were very ready to leave the chaotic country. The flight was pleasant and  3 hours later we landed in Abu Dhabi. A transit of 15 hours... spent in the airport. We used free internet, slept on the nice clean carpet, ate sandwiches and enjoyed the clean atmosphere.... 

Women in black outfit were coming and going while men were usually wearing white outfit or western type clothing. Some women looked like ghost but some other had it all fancy with feather on their sleeve or cristals... 

We went to look outside and it is the desert, like the real one in the Sahara... soooo hot!!! We decided to stay at the airport for this time. We had too many hand luggage to walk around town in the heat.

The 15 hours went fast... we took the plane to Johannesburg, 8 hours, I literally passed out... Noah was by an Indian man who didn't look too friendly.

We waited 4 hours in Jo-burg (where I slept) and then last plane ride for one or two hours. Arrive at Port Elisabeth, we rode the car for 45 minutes to get to our beach house studio.... right in front of J-Bay supertube wave, the so called "best right in the world"....

What a trip to get all the way here. It's so weird to make so many transition, from India to here... it is so clean, peacefull, no cars, no honking no bad smells, no hassle, just relax and enjoy the sound of the waves breaking on the shore.... aaaaaaahhhhhhhh..... what a pleasure....

Today we surfed for the first time in J-Bay. I caught two nice long waves. It is so much fun, not too many people, very mellow waves.... Even though my feet ad hand were freezing I stayed out for 4 hours then hot shower... sooo good !!!!!

Enjoy life, live your dreams... take care

Poema

Jaisalmer-Shimla by train

After spending such a good time with our Jaipur guest house family, we found it hard to leave. 

We arrived on Jaisalmer without any reservation. The touts there were pretty hungry with the low season, any tourist is assaulted at the train station. I never got so surrounded, at a point that Noah started to yell at them. We walk out of the train area to escape from the touts and went on the road. It is the desert, so hot and bright. Few hundred kilometers away is Pakistan. 

Jaisalmer is famous for its kamel rides in the desert. 

A beautiful fort sits in the middle of the town and you can have your beauty sleep inside it.

We checked the first hotel I read about on internet and thankfully it wasn't full. We had the best room in India there, all built into red stone, very clean, big bathroom with a tub, good TV and AC. It felt like I was in a castle. We didn't really left the room as we felt so good...The heat outside and the hassle you get every time the local see you is discouraging... we totally forgot about the kamel ride... too short stay anyway... instead we spent two nice days relaxing in our hotel with the nice view on the fort from the top roof restaurant. 

Late at night, we hit the railway again to go to Bikaner and visit the unique rat temple in the world.

At the train station we met Judy, an Indian girl who is living in UK since she was little. We shared a room in Bikaner with her and spent the day together, she was such a lovely person, I really enjoy her company. Luckily we found a clean hotel right at the train station with a very good restaurant. We hired a rickshaw to go to the Rat Temple and rode for an hour as we had the slowest rickshaw in India. It was fun though and we didn't broke down like all the ones we saw on the way. We had plenty of time to look at the scenery. 

The rat temple is small and you have to take off your shoes to go in (like in every temples). From outside it looked good but inside..... the smell was really strong, rats were hanging out everywhere. They didn't look healthy and I didn't want to get too close from them. Most of them were just sleeping or trying to get cooler since it was such a hot day. Death animals were all around and I didn't feel good at all. I visited it on the tip of my toes and went out very fast. 

Back on the rickshaw for an hour direction the Fort, one of the best I visited, arranged a bit like a museum. It was really interesting to see it.

The long day and rides got us hugry and we decided to have brunch-dinner at a nice restaurant by the hotel. We had the best indian meals and service there. Then I walked down the street with Judy. A street "marchande" tried to sell me some plastic bracelet... I ended up buying some rope to dry my clothes...

We caught the night train back to Delhi. We had an AC sleeper coach, very nice and clean but an old woman sleeping under Noah's bed snore so bad that she kept Noah awake the whole night...

Delhi... We took a room for the day before our night ride to Shimla, north of India. 

In the train to Kalka we shared our room with two mans from Delhi. They are railway worker and they were going to the north to have some security classes. They were traveling with two other co-workers, very funny people as they all sit with us in the same room, squeezed in so we could be all together...

We had to stop in Kalka to change train. We rode the toy train to get to Shimla. It is a very pleasant little train and the ride up to the mountain is surely a change from what we've seen so far. The nature and the temperature is really nice, but the buildings spoil the view. We rode the mountains like a snake and I felt asleep. 

Shimla is an Himachal town, situated 2000m above see level, in the northen part of India. The weather is totaly different from the Rajastan and the lifestyle as well. More westernised, more cleaned with rules and clean roads. 

It felt good to be in the forest and cool weather. The clouds were coming and going as the day went by. It feels so weird to have so much difference in one country, I'm not used to that at all, in my island nothing really different from one side to the other. 

Here in the mountains people are not as excited as they are in hot places.... Noah always says that the cold keep people calm, like in the airport or in the airplane when they try to freeze us.

The hotel we stayed at made me feel like I was in Europe, the smell of the pine wood, the flowers...

A catholic church sits in the middle of the town and the market is built around. 

In the crowd sherpas are walking slowly up the hill with big bags of vegetables... most of them are old man.... it is a hard work but no car are aloud in the market area.

Before I came to India, people told me, either you hate it or love it.... Noah definitively don't like it... I don't hate it, I just think that I need time more time for India... I saw the tip of her beauty in some people faces, eyes, an extreme beauty.... India needs time to share her secret with us... 

Take care

Poema

Delhi-Jaipur by train

17^th of july

After hanging out in Delhi(16 millions people) for the day and walking around the bazar area, we left 2/3 of our luggage at a guest house situated in front of our first hostel the Smyle Inn.

We crossed the bazar crowd, a mix of people, animal and dust to get to the New Delhi railway station. More than a hundred of people were sitting on the floor waiting for their ride. It seems like the crowd never move as it’s always pack everytime we come.

For the first time of our life we saw a man so skinny that we thought he was going to die, he was laying on the floor, asking for money.

We crossed bridges to get to platform 12. People are everywhere, sitting on the side of the shaded bridge… We got there on time. We had a sleeper room witout AC and shared it with 4 other persons. At the train reservation office they manage to put all tourists together, which I wasn’t wishing for my trip to India… anyway they were very nice. Three Japannese and one American. It’s interesting to see how much more Asian are traveling as backpackers.

The night was noisy, food and drink sellers were welling every 2 minutes “chai” “coffee” during the whole ride, even when everybody were sleeping.

One of the other unique experience we have riding the train from Delhi to Varanasi is the sight… seeing Indians pooping in the nature, not hidden at all and at every passengers view, we can see all the details… of course we are not perverting on them but we can’t avoid seeing them. Imagine you are in the train waking up and excited about seeing as much as you can of India and looking at every piece of India landscape, trees, green vegetation and right there in front of your face, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 man pooping, one of them very comfortably as he is reading a magazine... Then the city comes and even closer, right by the train rails, some more “poopy man”… In the evening and in the morning you can see at least 100 of them in an hour… Amazing India !!!! We are still laughing about it.

18^th of july

We got into Varanasi (1.5 million people) in the morning. We didn’t know where we were going and we decided to look for a guesthouse to have a shower and leave our bags there for the day after a long and sweaty trip from Delhi.

The arrival at Varanasi train station was a real eye opener, as shocking as India can be I guess. A group of touts (con artist), 6 or 8 of them spotted us and were looking at us like we were pieces of meat as our cabin was full of tourists. It really annoyed me and we close the window on their face.

While people were disembarquing, poor kids were running thru the whole train looking for leftovers or forgotten items.

We got out of the train and the touts were right on us like sharks. We runned away, and got out facing another dirty and messy town, making me loose all hope for a clean and peacefull Indian city experience….

We were shadowed by more touts and rickshaw drivers. We crossed the traffic jam to try to loose them. We got to the other side of the street and some more touts surrounded us. I waited for Noah in one of the hotel lobby while he looked for a place for the day. A big group of Indian were waiting to check out in the lobby and some women dressed in beautiful saris asked me to take picture with them. It was propably my first enjoyable experience with Indian excluding any money exchange. It gaves me hope about having Indian friends and erase all the bad feeling I had since Delhi.

Noah got a room close to the train station and it made everything easier and mellow for us.

A rickshaw took us to the Gange, THE holly river.

Everyday, thousand of people travel from all over India to come here to have a bath, cremate their family bodies and spread the ashes into the Gange, the door to a world where everybody is equal.

Along the river on the temple side, a holly city have been built, where pilgrims, students, tourist, marchands, goat, dog and cows live in harmony. Coming from the main noisy street, I felt better and more relax in here, it is another world…

The view of the Gange wasn’t spectacular at first. In front of us was a giant sand bank with some people on boats.

Then we walked down the straits and on each sides, all along the river, peoples were swimming, boats loaded with Indians dressed in their best outfit were cruising … on our right a cremation ceremony was held. The best cremation is made with wood fire. It cost around Rs4000 (80 USD) and takes 3 hours. The other option is the electric burner and it cost around Rs700 (13 USD) and it takes only 5 minutes to have your ashes. It is sure very cheap and could be a good industry for the country.

We hired a boat. I didn’t want to touch the water, as for me it was more polluted than holly. What realy impress me at the Gange is how people strongly believe in the power of the river, turning the brown and polluted water into something drinkable. The swimmer face were as relaxed and happy as the faces of a tourist swimming in a clear blue lagoon. Some mans were fishing, other washing their clothes, brushing their teeth, washing their mouth, cows were having a bath… It’s just amazing how beleiving in something changes everything… At one point, those who believe in the power of the river, who don’t think about the filthfiness of the place, are somehow more free as they don’t bother as we do…

19^th of July

Agra (Pop: 2 millions)… the Taj Mahal city. We arrived there more organized than in Varanasi, we learn the lesson. The guest house pick us up at the train station. We stayed at Rose Guest house, situated in a residential area, the rooms are a bit dirty and old but we can’t be too picky in India… The owner were very nice, probably the first ones who didn’t try to sell us something. We found out that day that the Taj Mahal entrace was free from 2pm and for three days for Shah Jahan's birthday, the Mughal emperor who built this mausoleum in memory of his favorite wife, we could enjoyed it as many times as we wanted. The Taj construction start in 1653 and it took 21 years to finish it.

We walked out to visit the area. Mecanic shops, dump with cows on the other side, fruit stall, food cart… people were looking at us like we were from Mars, I guess there’s not a lot of tourist walking on the area, we were the only one. We kept walking and the street got narrower and busier, the air was dusty and hot. We saw Agra Fort from far and walked towards it. Car part shops were sharing the block with flour maker, bag shops. Before we got to the fort, we crossed the dusty fruit market and the very busy bus station. I saw for the first time a real slum situated on the other side of the fort. All the river had no water but instead black mud full of plastic bags and trashes. Kids were following us to beg for some money. It was really hard to see so much poverty, and think about the beautiful fort and Palace. It doesn’t make any sense, how can a country have such gap ?

We arrived at the Fort entrance. The locals pay Rs25 for the entrance and the tourist Rs500. The Fort is gigantic, red and have some very beautiful stone carved walls and pillars. From there we saw the Taj Mahal for the first time… The locals are the main visitors and it is really nice to see that they are take interest into their heritage.

We got out after an hour visiting and enoying a quiet place then took a rickshaw for the Taj Mahal.

We ate at a restaurant there and had some Indian food. It was really good, I love the garlic nan (local tasteless crepe), dipped into a curry sauce miam !!!!

We waited for 30 for the free entrance… many people were waiting also, womans in colorfull sari were sitting under a three, young indians, some tourists…. Some kids probably living in the slum, were selling their souvenirs thru the crowd and were mainly dealing with locals as they represent 95 % of the visitors. Some of them became our friend and Raj offered me the Taj Mahal souvenir key chain, after trying to sell it to me.

The locals usually like to talk to us and once a person start, the group get bigger and bigger. They are really nice and usually want to be friend with you. We got along with a group of young people who came to see the Taj for the day and we went inside with them. The sight of the Taj Mahal was breathtaking, it is one of the most beautiful building I ever seen, perfectly constructed, strong and ageless, in perfect shape after 350 years, all built into marble. The park was crowded and colorful, full of life, indian woman walking gracefully in their sari. Wearing it is like an art…

The queue to get in was long and it was really hot, our eyes were hurt from the reflection of the white marble floor.

Beside the sculpted marble piece around the tumb, the interior part we were aloud to see wasn’t as spectacular as the outside. We got out very fast and sit in the garden. It was so peaceful and fresh, hassell free, pollution free and green.

Too thirsty after the wait under the bright sun and the heat, we had to get back out into the busy street to get water…

We went to eat at Mc Donald. For us it is a safe way to eat and they have good vegetarian burger… no cow meat in India, yeah !!!! They should hav vegetarian burger at every Mac Donald I think…

20^th of July

We overslept, feeling comfortable on our bed in the AC room. I did some laundry as I was running out of clean clothes. We then had lunch at Pizza hut, they have delicious pizza with garlic and parsley ring. We don’t really want to eat in the street after what we’ve seen and it is hard to find clean Indian restaurant.

We felt better after the good lunch and walked around the area. We sat on the side of the road and watch the traffic and the cows. They hang out in the middle of the road and no body touch them, they are holly and they do what they want… almost (they are not aloud to steal food from the vegetable stands).

It was amusing to watch the traffic. There are probably more rickshaw than car in India, as small as they can be, they are usually packed and you can see 6-8 people in it. Tourist get to ride them alone... too bad.

We went back to the Taj Mahal for the last time that afternoon. It was very crowded, more than the day before. May be a hundred thousand visitor were there, and may be a milion for the day, if not more… we stayed in the park and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Taj Mahal filled with life and energy. After a little while, some rain drp got us out, and we hang out with our little friends. They escort us all the way to the main gate to say goodbye.

21^st of july

We got up early to go to the train station. Supposely departing at 6.15 am, we left 4 hours later. I finished my night on our bag at the train station. I didn’t know I could sleep so good on a such little area…

We rode in the non-AC sleeper coach, surrounded this time by Indians. They are very curious and very nice. I ended up spendind the whole trip with my neighbour from the next compartment, Rekka. She was so nice and willing to share some time with me. We talk about everything, her sons, her life. She will go to Canada in August to visit her older son for two month and that’s why she was very happy to be able to have someone to speak to so she could improve her english before Canada. I walk her out of the train, she wanted me to meet her husband. Then I jump back on the train to arrive in Jaipur at 3pm.

The guest house manager was waiting for us at the train station. We drove thru Jaipur to get to our Guest House. The family welcome us as never in India, gave us flower lei and red point with rice on our forhead. We were their first foreigner guests and they treat us like kings. They are really really nice and were very helpful, making sure we had everything we needed, and giving us tips about the rides. It feels so good to be with people like them, I felt like they were family to us. The room was clean and big with a nice big garden. It is situated in a residential area of Jaipur, a good place to relax and get away from the dusty busy city area. They own a naturotherapy center where they teach yoga, like a retreat center.

We went for diner at a shopping center nearby. A lot of shopping centers are being built all around India, like in Thailand and Malaysia. The type of shopping center where you will find the same product as you will find in the street but in a clean and covered place, and of course, more expensive. It’s less interesting than the street market as they mostly have the same product everywhere, mainly clothes but it feels good to be in a clean place.

We treat ourself with some ice cream and it was really really delicious…

After a good night sleep we woke up to check if we could see the partial solar eclipse but it was too cloudy to see anything. Vishwa, the owner of the guest House, brought us our breakfast a curried rice with vegetable and nuts.

We hired a taxi to visit some of Jaipur monuments. The most important one for my guest house family is the Amber Fort, a huge fort with wall going on the hills like a snake, linking it to another fort sitting above Amber fort. Mirror walls and marble lace, jasmin garden and maze alleys, cobra dancing and art marchand...

Jaipur (pop 2,5 million), known as the pink city, is an interesting city to visit, has many gardens where you can relax and beautiful architecture... The city still have many red old building. Slums are like recycling center, every trash go thru but most of it stay in...

The heat exhausts us very easely ad we had a big nap to end the day before a late train ride to Jaisalmer...

Poema

India !

Wednesday, 15th of july 2009

We got on the plane in Bangkok at 9 am and landed in Singapore after a 2 hours spent in a very comfortable plane... Singapore is probably the cleanest city in the . The airport is at the image of the town, a huge shopping center where you can enjoy yourself, free cinema and wireless internet (in the whole town too), showers, massage hair dresser and bed for those who wants to spend some money to relax before their flight.

Thursday, 16th of july

We flew of Singapore at 11pm and landed in Delhi at 2am. The airport looked good but to get a real idea of the cleaness of a town I check the bath room... and it usually gives me the right idea... it edlike piss, even in the women bathroom...

We ended up in the bazzar street where our budget hotel is situated, cows, dogs and man were sleeping in the street... plastic papers everywhere but it was 2 am... What would it at day time????



I followed the taxi driver in a dark narrow dirt road to go to our hotel... the manager was sleeping behind his counter... Our room was pityful for the price we paid but at least no flea, no rats and no sticky floor.
I'm always traveling with a sheet and a sleeping bag (and a little pillow I got on a plane). It's really useful when you are traveling as you can make yourself comfortable everywhere.

After a short sleep, we took our breakfast at the top floor. It's really hot here, almost too hot to breath... 40 degrees
We saw the laundry service and changed our mind about cleaning our clothes here... they will be cleaner if we don't.

We stepped outside, smelling piss as the open public piss room is right at the end of the street.
The main dusty street is full of little shoppes, bike-trickshaw are finding their way thru the crowd, some guys are picking up the trash in the street but the smell of the piss is stronger than anything else... We are like targets here, and some guys started to talk to Noah, asking him where he was from and this and that... telling him that they were just talking to be nice, they didn't want any money, getting us confident about his friendship by giving us a tip, "go to the governement tourist office", showing us the place on the map.... then he left telling us to go straight.... a minute later a second one arrived and started the same conversation... leading us to another point of the street and telling us to go straight if we were going to the tourist information center... after 5 minutes, a guy we notice earlier engage the conversation and led us all the way to their tourist office scam. At that point I looked at my map and it did seemed to be the same office as the one we should have gone to but they got us into it... as we were inconsciently looking for a cool place to relax and get away from Delhi's heat and smelland what is more attracting than a AC room and some comfortable seats...
A seller took us in his office, the room was air-conditioned... it was soooo good...
Then he start to ask us about what we wanted to figure out what speach he was going to use on us.. we were pretty easy target as we didn't have any plan and we didn't read anything about India... no guide books...
His speech was good, he was really nice, and told his idea about the best place to go, the way to do it... but where he really failed was when he gave us the prices without looking at anybooks and just by playing with his calculator.. then calling someone by clicking a switch... their office looked pretty good for governemental office also... he gave us photo books, which really got me out of their deal. We told him that we were going to think about his plan but he didn't want to let us go so easy so he gave us some other trip idea, "you will do as you want".. they offered us some water... It was over and all we wanted was to get out of there... he change his voice tone and his face as we were standing up to leave... As we stepped out Noah saw the first guy who talked to him and that made everything clear to us. Looking at the map, we knew we were far out.
We started to walk back and ask a policemen how to get to the real tourist information center... Beggars are sleeping on the street, woman with colorful sari, family eating in the dirt, piss and poo along the walls... dust air and rickshaw everywhere...
Touts were following us, talking to us and trying to get us away, far away from our destination point. They will try to get you out of your way even in front of the tourist information center gates, it's just crazy. We got in the office after a mission walk and we were reassure as we saw the not so luxurious office with the not "overnice" people. They were helpfull and nice but not too much like in the fake office. They gave us the informations for the train rides.
Touts are everywhere here, looking at you and listening to you, studying you... some tried to get us out of our way to the train station office but everytime they told us something we did the opposite. The train station was full, people sitting on the floor... the line for the second class seater has no end. In the stairs to the international train station office, a sign warn the tourist about the touts... They have a special office where foreigners can buy their ticket in a cool and organise space... After all that, sitting in the safe room and thinking about what happened, we felt better, being aware of what's going on out there and we laugh about it.
We got our ticket, planned our whole trip for two weeks in India.

We will leave tonight to go to Varanasi to see the Gange, then to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and the other temples and forts around, then Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Bukaner and the rat temple, then a northen town called Simla... And back to Delhi for the last day... if everything goes at it's planned..

Take care

Poema

Nana Bangkok

Last day in Bangkok... tomorrow we will fly to Singapore to catch our flight to India, Delhi. Bangkok trapped me and we stayed here longer than I thought I would. We found a very comfortable and affordable hotel here and we felt tired after our touristy trip to Cambodia. 

Bangkok is a big and busy city where the king and the queen face are in every corner... It's kind of brain washing and I started to like him without even knowing anything about him. They posted stores dedicated to him, the queen and the country flags around the schools. The king have to sympathize with his people as early as he can.... 

Fruits are delicious and very cheap, I had some of the best rambutan, mango and logan... mango shakes are just unbelievably delicious (60 cents).. 

Tourist are everywhere, markets fill the streets and keep people busy buying after work...

We visited the week-end market, the biggest market on earth I read... It was really big I agree, so big that I thought I would never see the end of it. 

We visited golden Temples and saw golden gigantic Buddha... walk along the brown river...

We rode noisy Bangkok tuk tuk and visited tailor shops to help out the driver to get a commission...

Coming out of our hotel and having people calling us and our money for a ride... is as aggressive as the heat and the sun when you come out of an air-conditioned shady place. Well take it positively and just laugh about it or you will hate Bangkok...

Poema

"Suostey" Cambodia

We left busy touristy Bangkok by bus to see one of the wonder of the world, Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia. We rode the bus full of tourist for 8 hours cross a chaotic border where tourist are lining to get into the country of the Cambodian Khmer heritage. Buses, wooden wheel cart, casino shuttles and taxi are driving in every directions. The poor cambodian pushes his wheel cart on a dusty road in front of the Las Vegas look a like casino. After driving 10 minutes in a town unbalanced between poverty and money palace, we drove thru empty rice fields to get to the most popular town in the country... Siem Reap. Huge massive newly built hotels welcome you to the Temple town. Then we hit the busy dusty town centre, scooters everywhere, bicycle, wheel cart, wooden houses, new concrete colorful houses, Hotel, restaurants...

Tuk tuk driver offer you a sunset ride to the temple for 5 dollars. Everything works with dollars, even ATMs spit dollars. Before sunset the street are changing faces, lights everywhere, girls walking in high heels on muddy road looking for a charming foreigner prince, beggars all around, kids selling postcards, bracelets, food stands on the walkway, night market...

The market is generally cheaper than Bangkok and much nicer, people are not aggressive. Tintin have his stands, he even went to Cambodge I saw... I'm not so sure about that, I have to check it out. 

We left the hotel at 5 am in a Tuk tuk (a scooter with a home made wooden covered cart in the back). We started by Angkor wat. The entrance cost 20 USD per person for a day.  Tourists are everywhere like ants, I guess that's how it is everywhere recognize as a world wonder, I don't like it but I have to deal with it or find ne wonders... The temple is huge, carvings everywhere, it's beautiful and it's makes you realize how talented and patient were the people in the ancient times. Most of the statues lost their heads but carved walls are still telling stories and woman carvings seems to be alive and dancing... Angkor Thom is the next with elephants caring tourists around. So far it's my favorite temple, hundreds of faces and details, broken colums. 

Check out the picture from our Cambodian trip on the right colums with more details...

Take care

Poema

For more info about Angkor Wat  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

Welcome to Thailand

We left Kota Bharu yesterday and took a taxi to the border. We filled our papers and crossed the bridge to go thru Thailand customs. Then a nice local muslim gave us a ride to the train station with his three wheels home made motor bike. 

At the entrance of the train station some army guys with guns were filtering the crowd and were patroling in the station... I was wondering why...

We had to wait for the second train trip leaving at 2.30pm so I went for a walk in the not so clean border town, Sungai Kolok. I bought some ramboutan (45 cents USD/kg) and logan (1.5 USD/kg). By buying a plastic bag, I ended up giving a pronunciation-reading lesson to the owner daughters whom are going to participate to a speech contest very soon. I spent an hour with them... I learn a little bit more about the town, that they have terrorism, murder, drug traffic and bomb attack, which got me a little worry for a second but I had a good time and I forgot about it very fast. They offer me thai candies for my help and some water. 

30 minutes before getting in the Express train, we found out that the southern line we were on had been bombed several time and was shoot.... pretty crazy and a bit scary, sometimes it's good to not know too much about were you are going !!! 

Some friendly military with guns boarded with us and I understand why they were all around... to protect us from the terrorists. I heard that the people that are bombing the trains are separatists muslim, they want to have their own country and not belong to Thailand anymore. I saw muslim womans in black with their face covered for the first time in Kota Bharu and Sungai Kolok, it's pretty impressive. 

We were in the 2nd class sleeper cabin and they were very comfortable, with a lot of muslim, ouf !!! We thought they were going to put all the tourist together to make it a better target.... Once we past the south part of Thailand, more and more food seller were boarding and inviting us to buy their product. 

We arrived after all safe and in one piece in Bangkok. We took the cab and had a difficult time with the driver as he wanted to charge us 7USD instead without turning his meter on. He got upset when we told him to turn on the meter but we ended up paying the real price... 2 USD. 

Seems like people working with tourist in Bangkok are not happy with what they are doing and they aren't very pleasant, never smile or say a nice word, they are all about your money and if you don't buy right away or ask too many questions they start to speak in Thai, complain and have their bad face... 

Tonight we have a room in Pahtit, a "safe" area in Bangkok, for 22 USD. Fried rice or noodle cost around 1 USD. It's right by the most touristy part of the town, Kao San Road. It's full of tourist, tailors, silver seller and wedding dress shoppes.

We met some friends from USA, Myrna, and Chile, Ximena in the street and we are going to Cambodia to visit the Angor Wat temple.

A bientot,

Take care

POema

In Malaysia

Hi everybody,

I haven't been a very good blogger since Indonesia and I apologize for not writing anything since then. I will try to summarize our Indonesian trip later... 

We left Singapore today and rode the train for 16 hours to reach Malaysia border town to Thailand, Noah's first train ride !!! 

We went thru Singapore and crossed the bridge to Malaysia. We paid in total 29 USD for today's trip.

We slept a lot during the train ride, comfortable seats and air conditioning. The "Jungle train ride" was good, nothing spectacular though. The jungle (from the train) is not that impressive and sadly they are replacing the original forest by palm trees and rubber trees plantations.

The population is mostly muslim here and it feels weird to see that it kind of make the women (mostly) look the same, from Indonesia all the way to Malaysia, leaving them without any cultural specificity. The same thing is happening to the nature, by turning the orignal and full of life jungle into a monotone palm tree plantation... 

We are in Kota Bharu for the night. On the way to the hotel we saw our world tour companion, Mac Donald... 

Take care

Poema

 

Bali

Notre periple a Bali-Lombok et Java

Bisou

Poema

Bye Bye Australia

Hi everybody,

We are flying out tomorrow to Indonesia. We sold our car at the last minute to some very nice Tongans. We are really happy about it because it goes to polynesians and I really liked them. Their will be 4 of them sleeping in the car when they go to work out of Perth to pick fruits. We spent the afternoon with Bunny, we are so much the same, open hearts and happy, it gave me more energy for the rest of the trip.

We arrived in Perth 4 days ago and we stayed with Meike, my german friend I met in Sydney at the beginning of our trip, at her uncle's and aunty's house, Fritz and Suzanne. They are very nice people and being able to have somewhere to stay after selling our house car is really helpful. What makes it even nicer is the beautiful garden they have, full of flowers, hibiscus, monette, palm trees, roses, plumeria... 

We got time to see more of Perth too, while waiting for some potential buyer. We visited 3 museums which was really interesting. 

Perth is our favorite Australian city, not too busy, with a lot of parks and roses gardens, water in the middle and not too cold. We saw a lot of aboriginal with white Australians which warmed my heart as I can see a better future for Australia.

English and Australians people call the country's strongest beer "the wife beater"... Their favorite and national food is meat pie.... Oh, they also eat french fries with white vinegar... I have to try that some day.

Poema

Western Australia

Yallingup, 17^th of April 2009

It’s been a while since I haven’t wrote anything about our trip around the world.  We are in Yallingup, Western Australia since 2 weeks. We stayed in Perth the first night we got in WA to get our India visa.

Perth is built around the water. It is a very nice artsy city where buildings are growing faster than weeds, sculptures are left on the beach,  bus stops are colorfull, a ferris wheel takes tourist in the air and Le Cirque du Soleil spread its magic in the middle of the town… We followed the train line to go South and find the waves. Land is for sale everywhere and gated communities are growing all along the highway.

Religious campsites welcome us as we enter the Cape to Cape area. We started our wave search from Cape Naturaliste, then drove all the way down to Margaret River. Trees spread theirs branch to give cars shade, grapes are waiting to be picked under their veils, the sun comes up and slowly pours her golden light over the earth, the car shakes as we drive on the dirt road, rabbits run away to hide. Down the cliff the waves are breaking, red rocks emerge from the sand and cut the beach line, my feet are numb walking in cold sand. 20 minutes walk get us to Noah's favorite spot, a nice right and left peak wave. 

Noah bumped into a friend of ours, Daniel. He is Brazilian and have been living around the Pacific for the past 10 years. He's spending some time here in Western Australia surfing and enjoying the place. We hang out with him everyday. His house mates are Australians, Lyndall and Adele, they became our friends from the first night. Lyndall works at a winery and we get free wine every night, which Adele and I enjoy !

I met Claudia thru Daniel, she is a Brazilian-Austrian yoga teacher living in Australia for few years now. We became very good friends and she teaches me yoga everyday of the week. I'm learning about raw food with her and discovering a new culinary world. 

We are coming to the end of our Australian trip and selling our car. I feel sad about selling our Australian house and leaving my new friends but at the same time I'm very excited that we are going to be in a new country very soon.

Poema

Western Australia

Nous sommes arrivés a Margaret River depuis deux jours maintenant. Nous avons beaucoup roulé ses derniers temps et le coin semble parfait pour nous poser et digerer notre "road trip". 

Cela fait presque deux mois que nous avons attéri en Australie et deux semaines que nous avons quitté Byron Bay. 

Le voyage vers Uluru était tres spécial, a faire si vous avez l'occasion, n'oubliez pas vos chapeau moustiquaire si vous ne voulez pas que les mouches vous gachent la journée. Les road-house (station services avec restaurant et douches si vous avez de la chance), road train (camion a trois remorques), les tombes, les carcasses de voiture et d'animaux tout le long de la route, les buissons argentés, bleutés, les couchés et levés de soleils uniques, une terre rouge, orange, beige, la chaleurs des couleurs, la secheresse du vent, tout ca c'est un petit bout du desert australien... La ville de Coober Pedy avec son opale et ses maisons sous-terraine est egalement a visiter. Tout le monde se salue sur la route des la sortie de Port Augusta, le desert ca rend plus social et solidaire...

Apres ce voyage, la traversée entre le South Australia et le Western Australia a été moins difficile que prévue. Le desert cotier n'est pas aussi extreme qu'au centre, je n'appelerai pas ca le desert d'ailleurs. 

Nous campons aux alentours de Yallingup. Il y a des vignobles tout le long de la route entre les deux cap, des grottes, des sentiers de randonnés, des plages vides, des moustiques, un peu de vague, de l'eau bleu turquoise, du recif.  Le climat est comme en méditéranée je dirais, il est agréable, un peu frisqué mais tant qu'il y a du soleil, tout roule.

Perth est une ville agréable, nous y avons passé une journée et une nuit. La ville est construite tout autour de l'eau. Les routes sont larges et le traffic n'est pas difficile a gerer. La ville est en pleine expension, des immeubles en construction de partout, des terrain  et lotissements a vendre tout le long de la cote entre Perth et Margareth River. La nuit tombée, coté mer, au  large, vous pouvez appercevoir les cargo en attente, de vrai train sur la mer. Un esprit artistique plane sur toute la ville, les plages exposent des sculptures modernes XL, les arrets de bus sont décorés, une tour de verre attire l'attention, le cirque du soleil campe au milieu de la ville.

La mer nous berce ce soir,

a bientot

Poema

+ photos

Hi everyone, coucou tout le monde

Je n'ai pas trop le temps d'écrire en ce moment mais j'ai posté quelques photos avec des sous-titres (cliquez sur la photo pour voir les sous-titres). J'actualise le plus souvent la carte pour que vous puissiez nous suivre. 

A bientot

I don't have time to write nowadays but I posted some new pictures with subtitles (you have to click on the photo to see the subtitles). I update the map as often as I can so you can see where about we are.

Take care

Poema

From North to south...

Hi everyone, I posted some new pictures of our trip from Eastern Australia, all the way up to Noosa and down to Torquay where you can find very famous point breaks like Bells beach. We are staying in that area for the week end swell and then drive toward the west. I miss the east coast tropical weather. It was 16C here today and I spend almost the whole day under my blanket. I hope it will get warmer but I doubt it, I heard it's warm weather for here, what a joke !!!

For now I will try to not get blown away by strong winds, take care,

 

Je viens de poster de nouvelles photos de notre trip de Noosa (Queensland) jusqu'a Torquay (Victoria) ou se trouve le fameux spot de surf de Bells Beach. Nous resterons dans les environs pour la houle du week-end et ensuite nous nous dirigerons vers l'ouest. Le climat tropical de la cote est me manque deja, il fait froid ici, jusqu'a 16C. J'ai passé presque toute la journée sous ma couverture. Espérons que ca se réchauffe plus tard, mais je doute, a ce qu'il parrait il fait chaud en ce moment... quelle bonne blague !!!

En attendant les vagues, j'essayerai d'éviter de me faire emporter par une rafale,

A bientot

Poema

Vendredi 6 mars

Petite virée avec Koki et Deborah de Los Angeles a Mullumbimby. C'est une petite ville hippie,  l'Australie c'est tres hippie. Il y a un super magasin d'alimentation générale bio (Santos) et des boutiques de fringues super cool et pas trop chers (Closet).

 

7pm:  nous empruntons une route pommée pour aller au concert d'un groupe australien "Tijuana Cartel". L'ambiance était tres sympathique, tres cool mais vraiment pas mon trip ni celui de Deborah d'ailleurs. Nous avons fini a l'extérieur de la salle a rever de notre lit.... Les australiens sont tres respectueux dans les petites villes, on peut laisser son sac sous un banc, sa bouteille de vin a coté de l'escalier, personne n'y touchera. 

Samedi 7 mars

Avec Noah, nous sommes allés au marché de Brunswick et étant donné que mon budget hebdomadaire est épuisé (70 AUD), j'ai décidé de vendre quelques vetements, je n'en ai pas beaucoup mais c'est pratique de faire ca, je peux renouveler ma garde-robe "second hand" facilement et alléger ma valise en meme temps. Mon stand était le plus petit de tout le site, certains pensais que je picniquais sur mon pareo ou que j'allais faire un mini show, d'autres m'ont fait de la pub gratuite, offert a mangé... c'était une bonne expérience.  J'ai récolté plus de 25 AUD (une fortune pour nous) et j'ai pu m'acheter des legumes bio. J'ai rencontré deux francais qui habitent le coin, l'un vendait des cacahuetes pralinées et l'autre avait une roulotte de vente de gauffre, profiterolle. Il y avait aussi un groupe musical familial extraordinaire.  

Les Market sont généralement organisés pendant les week-end, il y a plein de trucs interressants et c'est tres local, des fruits et légumes a bon prix. Allez également faire un tour au Garage sale, le meilleur moyen de faire des affaires. La pub est généralement faite sur les poteaux électrique alors gardez les yeux ouverts !!!

A bientot

Poema

Lundi 2 mars

Nous quittons Coolangatta tard dans la matiné et la chaleur nous rattrape vite. La traffic, c'est vraiment pas notre truc, plus de 20 voitures et ca y est on stresse. On est trop lent pour les Ausraliens et beaucoup expriment leur frustration par des gestes tres explicites... 

Passage dans la ville nommée "Surfer Paradise"... c'est plutot l'enfer pour nous, des immeubles partout, un vrai labyrinthe pour acceder a la plage. Ca devait etre le paradis il y a vingt ans et malheuresement Coolangatta semble prendre le meme chemin...

Les espaces de vente de voiture, de meubles et les zones industrielles nous accueillent a l'entrée de Brisbane, une ville de taille moyenne. Le style "City & Busy" est omnipresent, il faut etre pressé, overbooked, tallon aiguilles et chemise longue (malgré la chaleur) pour etre dans le mouvement. Pas trop notre style. Il n'y a pas beaucoup d'aborigenes dans les villes, ils doivent fuir les villes autant que nous !!! Il y a tellement d'espace en Australie, pourquoi venir s'entasser dans les cages a poules citadines?!?

Trois heure de voiture et nous atterissons a Caloundra pour une pause baingnade. En regardant l'ocean, la pointe de Bribie Island, plage de sable blanc désertique, me transporte quelques secondes aux Tuamotu, mais les immeubles me ramenent tres rapidement a la réalité. 

Une petite baignade s'impose meme si les bateaux et immeubles m'effrayent, on ne sait jamais réelement ou vont leurs eaux usés.

Beaucoup de gens pense que je viens de Hawaii, mais lorsque je dis que je viens de Tahiti.... ils s'exclame tous en disant "Tahiti !!!!! Woaw!!!! C'est mon reve d'y aller mais c'est tellement cher !!!!" Et oui, je crois qu'on a mal misé en choisissant l'hotelerie de luxe pour la promo de Tahiti en Australie, ils vont tous aux Cook Island pour leur Honeymoon... la ligne directe d'Air Tahiti Nui Sydney-Papeete sera annulée tres bientot manque de touristes. Il y a plein d'idées pour rattraper le coup franchement loupé : Ecotourisme, ecotourisme, ecotourisme, toilettes publiques ouverts toute la journée, sites naturels aménagés, tourisme culturel... 

La plage est attirante mais l'échelle d'ultra-violet est a  sont maximum, six minute au soleil et vous etes cuits !!! Je ressemble a un poulet roti en ce moment, c'est assez effrayant... mais tres appetissant.

La chaleur nous freine et nous decidons de passer la nuit a Caloundra. Une pancarte publicitaire avec la photo de feu Steve Irwin (tué par une raie) devant un crocodile nous annonce que son zoo est a 30mins. 

C'est la semaine de ramassage des gros déchets a Coulandra et il y a plein de trésor tout le long des rues, de la vaisselle intacte, des meubles tres facilement réparables, télé, barbecue etc... Nous trouvons une grille de frigo pour notre glaciere, nos légumes ne se noyeront plus a la fonte des glacons.

Le couché de soleil est magnifique et nous ne sommes pas les seuls a l'apprécier, les moustiques débarquent et nous reperent rapidement. Ils tournent autour de notre voiture alors que les mouches s'invitent dans notre carosse... finalement c'est pas si mal quand il fait plus froid.

Mardi 3 mars

Il fait jour tres tot, aux environs de 5h00. Les sportifs du matin longent la plage, marcheurs de tout ages, jeunes courreurs et groupes de cycliste. Ils ont le temps de se défouler car les bureaux, magasins et écoles ouvrent a 9h00. Les ouvriers du batiments commencent plus tot, aux environs de 7h00. 

Nous empruntons la route cotiere pour la suite de notre voyage. Une petite douche pour se rafraichir sur le chemin et on arrive a Noosa. Le parc est énorme, la ville est petite et divisée en trois : la zone intérieure mi-chic, la zone plage huppée avec appartements, café, boutiques Hippie-chic et le parc.  Les bus débarquent et embarquent des centaines de touristes de toutes nationalités venus visiter le parc naturel de Noosa. 

On part pour une ballade dans le parc, il n'y a pas de houle mais on prend nos planches au cas ou. Des eucalyptus, des fougeres et encore des eucalyptus. Le seul Koala que j'appercois est une statue a l'entrée du parc, je dois etre aveugle ou bien ils doivent se cacher a l'intérieur du parc. Sur le chemin, nous croisons des groupes de touristes asiatiques, spécifité des zones touristiques. Nous checkons les trois pointes réputées pour la longueur de leur vague. Quelques longboardeur a Tea Tree bay sur des mini vagues de moins de 1m. On continue et rien a signaler a la deuxieme et troisieme baie. Nous nous arretons a Alexandrie Bay. Mes yeux sont rivés sur la mer, il fait une telle chaleur! Je me précipite a l'eau pour essayer de prendre quelques vagues. C'est pas génial mais ca fait toujours du bien de glisser. Noah a eu le temps d'observer la plage et ses occupants. Un nudiste attire son attention, posté a l'entrée de la plage parmis les gens "normaux". Au fait il y a des nudistes tout le long de la plage. Alexandrie Bay est leur coin de paradis.

 Apres une session de body-surf, on retourne vers la voiture, je dois courrir pour eviter de trop me bruler les pieds. Je m'arrete en chemin a Tea Tree Bay dans l'espoir d'avoir une bonne vague, mais j'attrape un coup de soleil au lieu de la vague parfaite... 

Apres une douche et un démélage urgent de mes cheveux plein de sable, nous faisons un petit tour dans la ville. C'est beaucoup trop touristique pour nous et nous retournons a Caloundra pour y passer la nuit. 

Mercredi 4 mars

Sur la route du retour nous nous arretons chez Robert dit Boby et Irene Dubois, des amis de la famille. Des goyaviers a l'entrée du jardin, des manguier partout, c'est comme un paradis pour moi. Je retrouve les odeurs que j'aime tant de seve de mangue verte que l'on mange avec du sel, de goyave, je suis heureuse.... Nous passons l'apres midi chez eux et nous voyageons a travers les souvenirs de Boby, Tahiti des années 50. 

Je les quitte avec beaucoup de chagrin. Nous passons la nuit a Coolangatta.

Jeudi 5 mars

Il n'y a pas de vagues et il serait bien que l'on commence a partir vers le sud pour rejoindre le Western Australia. A moins d'etre millionaire ou pro, un surfeur passe 70% de son temps a attendre la vague.... Nous quittons Coolangatta en esperons ne rien manquer ce week-end. Une houles est annoncée mais leurs prédictions change tout le temps. 

Nous retrouvons Koki chez lui a South Golden Beach, Byron Shire. Il est artiste et activiste pour la defense des baleines, des dauphins, des plage nudistes et la nature. Il a vécu tres longtemps en Polynesie, et a travaillé pour le tournage de la Bounty entre autre. Comme Boby, il me transporte dans ses souvenirs de Tahiti de son époque, le Tahiti qu'il ne retrouve plus et qu'il gardera a fond de son coeur.  

 

En allant a la plage, une flaque d'eau attire l'attention de Koki, la situation est alarmante. Des tetards de grenouille sont en danger de mort, il faut les sauver. Un voisin arrive et alimente la flaque en eau fraiche pendant que Koki courre dans le voisinage a la recherche d'un sceau, de casserole et de passoire. On passe une vingtaine de minute a transferer les tetard dans le sceau. Il seront distribués et hébergés dans les piscines du voisinage prévues pour leur sauvegarde. 

Les moustiques sont féroce ici au couché du soleil, ils attaquent chaque centimetre carré de peau nue. Ils ne veulent pas que je perde l'habitude parce que c'est comme ca a Moorea....

Je retrouve avec joie mes amis Oblio et Wallum, des enfants du quartier avec qui je monte dans les arbres de pakai (il appelle ca "ice-cream bean"). 

A bientot

Poema

 

Hi everybody, coucou tout le monde

I added some picture to "Australia part 1". Take a look, also for those who didn't know, you can see the pictures captions by clicking on the album. Enjoy !

Je viens d'ajouter quelques photos a notre album "Australia Part 1". Pour ceux qui ne le savait pas, vous pouvez voir les "titres" des photos en cliquant sur l'album.

Bisou

Poema

Sunshine state, here we are

Sunshine state, here we are ! We had to come to Queensland to see the Australian blue sky... we did it ! We've been in Coolangatta for more than  a week now, waiting for the perfect long wave to come back. We arrived last wednesday and we had super conditions, soo good that we didn't have the time to take pictures, too exicited about surfing Snapper rock Rainbow bay & Greenmount. That wave is sooooo long, unbeleivable, longest wave I've ever surfed.

The weather is really nice here, sun is strong, extra large and long beaches, very enjoyable cold showers and nice people, actually a little too much people.... surfing with over 200 of them !!! It's like seeing the wave of your dream but not be able to surf it... because someone is on it !!!

We had a couple of waves fortunately and I'll be happy with that, very happy. I think Australia is the most crowded surfing place on the earth, after that we won't complain about crowd anymore !

The WCT contest start tommorrow if the waves are back and we will probably drive north.

Take care

Poema

Vive Sunshine state

Coolangatta, 24 février 2009

Ca y est !!!! Nous avons vu le ciel bleu d'Australie et surfé de superbes vagues, il fallait juste passer la frontiere du Queensland, Sunshine state !!! Il fait chaud, beau, la mer est bleue turquoise et prendre sa douche froide est un vrai plaisir !!! Wahou!

 Nous sommes a Coolangatta une ville sympathique a la frontiere du Queensland et du New South Wales. Coolangatta a éte nommée ainsi d'apres une goelette qui s'est échoué en 1846 sur la plage de Kirra, tres connue il y a encore quelques années pour sa vague au tube interminable. Mais Kirra n'est plus ce qu'elle était car l'extraction de sable a déplacé les bancs de sable, donc plus de tubes magiques mais il y a a présent Snapper Rock, la plus longue vague que j'ai jamais vu et surfé. A ce qu'il parrait, Snapper Rock a contribué a l'essor de la ville et a son développement, le prix des l'immobilier a augmenté et les appartement partent comme des petits pains, le surf ca rapporte plein de sous !!!! 

Malgré le monde fou (plus de 200 personnes a l'eau, ils ressemblent a des fourmis), la vague est vraiment incroyable et le fait qu'il n'y ait pas de recif et seulement du sable me fait encore plus haluciner !!!!

Les gens sont généralement tres gentils et polis sauf l'autre soir lorsque quelqu'un nous a balancé un oeuf sur la voiture, bon j'ai pas trop compris, j'étais a moitié endormie, mais rien de mal, c'était sur la voiture et ils étaient surement bourrés.

Aussi une chose est sure personne ne pourras mourrir de soif alcoolique en Australie, j'ai l'impression qu'il y a plus de Liquor store dans tout le pays que de Food Store, c'est impressionnant.

Il est tres rare d'appercevoir les aborigenes et c'est assez bizarre de penser que c'est leur pays et qu'on ne les voit meme pas, c'est troublant.

A part ca, il n'est pas etonnant qu'il n'y ai pas beaucoup de touristes Australiens a Tahiti, vu le climat, les plages géantes, les vagues, le cout de la vie et la barriere de corail, rien de particulier pourrais les attirer dans nos iles parrées d'hotels de luxe...

Ma minute "Voyageur a budget réduit" : Pour vous procurer gratuitement du sel, poivre, sucre, de la confiture, de serviette en papier, du Ketchup et internet Wi-Fi allez chez MacDo ! En plus les ice-cream coutent entre 30 cents et 50 cents seulement (cad 30 Fcfp ou moins)...

Voila !!! Bisous a tous  et a bientot,

Poema

 

Australie, along the East coast

Je viens de poster quelques photos d'Australie,

I posted some pictures from Australia,

I'll be back later for more news, 

Bisous

Poema

Hitting the road... sur la route vers Byron Bay

We finally left Dee Why after getting our car ready for 3 days, it's not that easy especially when you want to get the cheapest. We highly recommend Salvation Army store and Vinnies, really nice and cheap used stuff (the best matress I ever had for only 95 AUD, cleaned of course). Then go to Bunnings for any hardware, it's the cheapest if you take time to look around the store, they have hidden sales items and good service (ps take care of your tools, you can take them back and get your money back).

Generally, people are really nice here, they easily smile to you, say hi but when it comes to driving around, they are crazy, roadragers !!! don't slow down or take too much time leaving your parking place, they'll honk for anything... I heard it's because they work too much...

Driving up the freeway wasn't the best scenery and we decided to take the "tourist road" as they call it, closer to the shore and MUCH nicer. It rained a lot for the last couple days, we didn't see the Australian blue sky yet. An old man told us that 10 inches of rain felt today, we saw some flooded land but nothing dramatic. We are sleeping at Port Macquarie, at the Lighthouse Beach. It's a quiet neighborhood where a lot of house are for sale.

Take care

Poema

Tout d'abord, je voudrais adresser mes meilleurs voeux a Vaimiti qui c'est marriée aujourd'hui (14 fevrier a Tahiti), elle fait a present partie de mon club de "copine marriée", je ne suis plus seule au monde !!!

Nous avons quitté Dee Why apres 3 jours de preparatif : la construction de notre lit, l'achat de quelques bricoles pour faire la cuisine et pour amenager notre van. Les meilleures adresses pour s'equiper aux meilleurs prix : Salvation Army ou Salvos (l'armée du Salut), Vinnies (c'est comme Salvos) et  Bunnings pour tout ce qui concerne la fabrication d'un lit (prennez soin de vos outils, vous pouvez les ramener apres utilisation).

Nous remontons la cote vers Byron Bay. Il pleut depuis plusieurs jours et nous n'avons toujours pas vu le ciel bleu Australien. La nature est beaucoup plus silencieuse ici comparée a celle de la Nouvelle-Zélande ou les criquets chantaient du matin au soir. C'est plutot le cri des oiseaux que l'on entend et on peut aussi appercevoir des Cacatoes a huppe jaune sur le toit des Shopping center. 

Nous avons atteri a Port Macquaries et nous y restons pour la nuit. C'est une petite ville en bord de plage, tranquille et ou il y a plein de maisons a vendre...

Je vous embrasse et a bientot

Poema

News from Kangaroo land

We are in Australia since 5 days now. We spent 3 days looking for the van we dreamed of and we finaly got it, a Toyota Hiace Commuter. Plenty of room, good engine and tinted windows to be more "incogito". So far, we liked it here. The streets in Sydney are really busy but they look really good with Europeen style buildings and trees all along them. I also really like the Tipanie trees (plumeria) growing all around here and I go pick the flowers when ever I have time. Their smell makes me feel better as if I was in Moorea.

We are staying in Dee Why right now, till we are all set with our "carosse". It's a nice car with not too muh traffic, it stresses Noah too much to be in traffic and we try to avoid the cities as much as we can. We made the bed yesterday, right in the hardware parking lot, like that it's easier to get what you need.  I'll post some pictures when we have it all set.

Well that's about it... oh, shocking... beside the floods and the big fires, more than 300 people died, we had 2 sharks attack in less than 5 days in Sydney area... so I'M NOT GOING OUT UNLESS IT'S PERFECT !!!! One of them happened in Bondi, the town where we hang out for 3 days. 

Take care

Poema

Nous avons enfin trouvé notre carosse, un joli van Toyota Hiace Commuter ou il fait bon vivre !!! ( je posterais les photos du bolide tres bientot).

Nous avons eu beaucoup de chance, encore une fois, car nous avons exactement ce que nous recherchions, vitre tinté pour passer plus innapercu lorsque l'on dort sur les parkings, rideaux, plafond surélevé et un trés bon prix pour un van tel que le notre. 

Nous l'avons inauguré hier soir meme, et on a tres tres bien dormis. Nous sommes a Dee Why, (ou nous avons acheter le van), une ville situé a 30 min du centre de Sydney. C'est tres sympathique, il y a plein de petit magasins tout le long de la route principale, et beaucoups d'espaces verts, cent fois plus agréable et moins peuplé que Bondi. On se demande d'ailleurs pourquoi il y a une telle concentration de voyageurs a Bondi, c'est peut-etre a cause des jolies blondes...

Nous avons fait le plus gros et le plus stressant, trouver un van, trois jours de recherche, plus d'une vingtaine de vans inspecté, la traversé de la ville sud-nord-est-ouest... et pouf, la citrouille c'est tranformée en joli carosse... 

bisous a tous

Poema

Kangourou land

Iaorana

Nous sommes en Australie, a Sydney depuis deux jours. La recherche d'un van pour notre sejour de trois mois n'est pas aussi facile que je le pensais. Deux jours entiers a chercher notre carosse de Cendrillon, mais toujours rien. La ville est trés grande par rapport a Auckland, pas comparable a vrai dire. On ne s'attendait pas non plus a ce que le cout de la vie soit aussi cher, presque deux fois plus cher qu'en Nouvelle-Zélande. 

Les rue sont tres jolies, avec des batiment comme en Europe, et des arbres tout le long des rues.

Hier soir nous avons dormis dans la voiture, rien a voir avec notre premiere nuit passé dans un hotel sympathique, je me retrouve avec un torticoli, vivement notre carosse...

A bientot 

Poema

Kiaora 

J'ai ajouté quelques photos de Raglan prise lors de notre seconde visite et aussi celle de Waitangi Day.

I added some pictures of Raglan I capture when we went there for the second time and the one's from Waitangi day.

Enjoy,

Poema

Aotearoa, here we are

We have been in New-Zealand for 2& 1/2 weeks now, it's a very beautiful and interresting country. It's Noah's first time here and my 3rd. 

The purpose of our trip was to visit our friends Piripi and Michelle and be at their wedding. We arrived on the 19th (+23h to Tahiti) and Michelle picked us up at the airport. We drove to Tauranga where Piripi was waiting for us. He is a crew member on the traditional-modern double hull canoe, Te Aurere (teaurere.org.nz).

We ate with the crew at Whareroa marae(ancestrial meeting house), with 50 other people related to Tauranga marae, it was impressive.

We stayed at Sean and Ange's house for the night and walk around Maunganui little town. It's a really cute place, nice to hang out and good surf.

Tuesday Jan 20th :

We drove to Gisborne where the ceremony was going to be hold. The whole week was intense, everything had to be perfect for THE day. 

Gisborne is a very nice town, around 30,000 people live there, mostly maori, most of them live in the town, and beach side properties belong to rich Kiwis. The beaches are really long like in Florida but the sand is hard and it makes a perfect running ground for everybody. That's where Captain Cook arrived for the first time in NZ guided by the Tahitian Tupaia in 1769.

Saturday Jan 24th:

The wedding day, the most important day of a woman's life.... isn't it ! The wedding was perfect, held in a big  and beautiful ocean view garden. It was really hot and I was quite happy about it. I prepared a poisson cru (tahitian raw fish) for the party and everybody liked it, ouf ! Each family and friend's group sang or performed a haka (traditional dance).

Sunday Jan 25th

We have been very well taken care by Michelle and Piripi. We pretty much lived like princes in very beautiful houses they rented for the wedding. 

In the afternoon we had a barbecue party at the beach house where Mich and Piripi were staying. I made some flower crowns (hei) and taught an otea ( tahitian fast dance) to Michelle and her friend. 

Monday Jan 26th:

We moved to Moana's house in town to stay there untill we got our wetsuits, indispensable for our world tour. The water is REALLY cold.

Moana is maori, and with Tahitian Raipoia Cowan Brightwell she reintroduced the woman waka ama (polynesian canoe) in NZ ten years ago. She's teaching at a maori only language school. 

She has a big heart and made me feel like I was home, I was really sad to leave her.

Wednesday Jan 29th :

We got our wetsuit and left Gisborne. We cross the North island going from east to west, and we arrived at Raglan around midnight, 6 hours driving. We cross Raglan town center "in the blink of an eye", as Noah says. Then we drove around looking for a place to sleep in the car. I slept the whole drive from Gisborne, and I woke up when we arrived in Raglan. It was weird to arrive and visit Raglan in the dark, I felt like I was in a movie. I couldn't understand that Noah wasn't tired at all and was looking for the waves at this time of the night, I guess the coffee was really strong. We end up coming back in town for more security for our first night in the car. 

Raglan is a very small town but it is getting bigger very fast. It has gotten a lot bigger in the past 2 years. It's a hippie-surf town where everybody enjoys their quite life, a lot of camper vans and camping cars are going there and most of the people we had around us where sleeping in their car. 

Thursday Jan. 30th

We drove around and found the spot following some surfer cars. There was 3 of them, one after the other one. The waves looked good and a lot of people were in the water at 6am.

We decided to surf Whale bay, Noah went first and I stayed in the car to watch for our stuff. Then I went out. It was really fun. I had to wear a wetsuit for the first time in my life and it felt a bit too tight on my neck and my shoulder. First step in the water : my feet were cold and the rest of my body was still dry, it is kind of weird but I wasn't cold at least. I caught a wave easily. Riding it with a wetsuit seems to be different but it's not too bad. Just tight on my shoulders and exhausting.

We hang out the rest of the day around the surf spot and went in to town. I felt like I was visiting a different town from the one I saw the night before.

Friday Jan 31th. 

We slept at Manu bay in our car. It's really cool and fun to sleep in a car, quite a small place but I like it and enjoy it for now. Our window view changes when ever we want and we can see the stars before we sleep... the only "con" is the cold shower.

We hang out in town and at Manu bay. Noah surfed a little bit. I stayed in the car, the crowded small waves and cold water doesn't really attract me....

Saturday Feb. 1st

We decided to go back to Auckland to hang out with Michelle and Piripi. They live there in a very cosy and cute house. Michelle is working at Maori TV and Piripi works for himself.

Sean and Ange where there for the weekend and we were really happy to see them again. 

We had lunch together and Noah went to sleep early. 

Sunday Fseb 2nd :

We hang out at the house till 11 and went to town  for a visit. The city center didn't change since my last trip couple years ago. Walking around reminded me of when I was studying here for 3 months to improve my english. The harbour changed a lot and got bigger. It is full of asian people and Noah felt like he was in China, just like I did when I came here for the first time.

Driving around Auckland is really hard, all the streets change name at least 3 times and it's really easy to get lost.

Monday Feb 3rd

I went to Maori TV and hung out with the sports reporter the whole day. We went to see the Kiwis (guys) and Kiwis ferns (woman) 2008 Rugby league world champions.

Then I hung out at the TV station for the rest of the day.

Soulan, one of my best friends in NZ, came to pick me up to go for dinner. He is a professional boxer and also work as a personnal trainer. I met him when I was studying here and I was really happy to see him again.

Tuesday Feb 4th

We left the house at 4am to go to Raglan. We arrived there around 7 and the waves were good. It got bigger during the day, 4-6ft and we had two sessions. It was really fun, crowded and the locals were a bit aggressives but that's how it usually goes...

We had our one dollar ice cream and slept in the parking lot in front of the spot.

Wednesday Feb 5th:

The waves got smaller, so we went  into town. I walked around and took some pictures, and met people. 

Karla is a kiwi girl, with 5 other artist they own a shop where they sell their pieces. It's a really interesting place to visit, it's called Jet. 

Then I met Ardré and Antonio. They are maori artists, he is a poet and she is a singer. They are really nice and they invited us at their place. 

We left Raglan because the waves were not so good anymore and we had to get ready for Waitangi day,the most important maori holiday of the year in New Zealand.