Commercial break

Now if this doesn't make you want to go to the Fijis.. what will?

... although if you ask me, it would have been better suited as an advertisement for Amsterdam's red lights district...

From Kangaroo to Kiwi..

I know everyone stopped reading this blog after my long australian silence! But i just meant to say that i made it to Auckland, in Kiwiland...

Funny town.. everyone looks foreigner!.. so many people from Sri lanka, the Fijis, Japan, South Korea, who knows where.. all settled here.. all locals.. it's not that big a city but it seems extremely cosmopolitan...

And tomorrow i'm meeting some of my best friends, from France.. after 8 months.. i'm excited!

The 378 (or so) meters Auckland landmark.. "the tallest structure on the southern hemisphere!"

Scary australian wine!

I almost forgot to mention this one!

Red

10 minutes of vain senseless reflection about which film to load next.. color or black and white? the eternal dilemma!

"black and white will do" i think, as i load it in the camera.

And there she appears.. beautiful.. in a red skirt!

Wazzup in the land of Oz?

Some alert readers have been complaining lately that there hasn't been much material for alert reading in the past month... and that indeed for a good reason; i haven't written anything!

"So what do you think of Australia?" everybody asks eagerly!
Well.. i'm still not sure!
I still think that -as beautiful as it is- the whole east coast is mostly a gigantic amusement park for drunken german teenagers..
But i also think i haven't seen much and a month is pretty short for a country that big.. Brisbane and Sydney look like really nice cities, and maybe even cities i could imagine living in..
It's much like the US.. although not quite.. more laid back and more exciting in the same time..
Beautiful weather most of the time, great travel opportunities, cool cities... no wonder so many visitors think of settling here!




So anyway.. soon after i left you last time, i embarked on the "Samurai" for a 3 days saling trip around the whitsundays islands.. with Wasa the insane skipper and Stephanie, the cute french cook (and one hell of a sailor!).. none of them being depicted below!.. that was just some sunise shooting..

I thought you may like this shot of a french frog, a couple of minutes before going for some scuba diving..

The highlight of the cruise was definitely the incredible white heaven beach -whose name is pretty descriptive!- the finest sand i ever set foot on.. felt like walking on flour!



Sunset sunbathing.. life's hard!

Next on the program after the whitsundays, was yet another extremely popular package; the 3 days 4x4 self drive on Fraser island.. 11 people in a bouncing jeep for 3 days.. luckily we had a great group and everyone had a great time..

of course, we did get bogged in the sand a couple of times!

And we made some cool native australian friends!..





We also learned how to light a fire by rubbing wooden sticks.. i thought it worked only in the movies!

.. i told you we had a nice group! ;-)

After Fraser i made it down to Brisbane.. for which i don't have too many pictures (one!) but where i had the greatest time in Australia so far! Many thanks to Marta, Zak and Marine.. i love yous'! and the Globetrekker guesthouse.. the friendliest guesthouse i've been to in a long time!

.. on the way down to Sydney.. "Surfers paradise".. i don't know what the name suggests to you, but this is what it looks like!

And finally the Sydney opera house! How long have i dreamt of seeing it in real?... i even had all the photos ready in my mind.. except that it's a lot harder to shoot that i thought it'd be!

Sydney buildings from the royal botanical gardens..

That's it for now folks.. On saturday i'm flying away to New Zealand...

So what have i been doing in the past 10 days??

Hanging out by the beach in Cairns..



Walking in the rainforest and swinmming in waterfalls...

Camping and hiking in the bush...

Following kangaroos...
Visiting some 190000 years old lava tunnel formations in Undara...Eating some outback beef pie...
Walking around the secluded bays of magnetic island...


Feeding colorful perrots...

Looking out for koalas...


And posing at sunset above townsville!

.. i'm off to Airlie beach in a couple of hours.. i may go sailing or something there.. i'll let you know when i can!

And off he went..

With a last 5 restful and lovely days in Mumbai, i ended my trip in Asia..

As emotionally attached i am to India, i don't know if i could ever live there.. Every trip to India leaves me with an aftertaste of discouragement that nothing will ever change there.. simply because people don't care!
Obviously i don't mean to change the culture, or live more "western style".. certainly not.. but just make it work.. so that kids wouldn't have to sleep on the ground of filthy streets waiting to get malaria..
But as i already mentionned, these issues are so culture related , that the people are just not willing to make it change..

India is a 5000 years old lady, lost in times, who vainly tries to hide her wrikles underneath expensive imported cosmetics... and she can be as wise as she can be dead stubborn!

Amazing things started to happen as i landed in Sydney yesterday.. phenomenons unheard of for months now... the toilet would flush in public restrooms and i wouldn't be scared to touch the seat.. and they'd be soap at the sink!!... even cops wouldn't be halfway as stubborn and accept to handcheck my film.. with a smile!

I know the excuse by heart.. but a dirty environment isn't the result of poverty or overpopulation.. it's the result of mentalities for which the act of cleaning is considered dirty or impure.. but enough of this it gets on my nerves!

In bombay you can...

..eat south indian food on banana leaves..

..salute monkeys in the bolivary national park..

..stay in beautiful colonial houses in the forest of Matheran....buy telephones and... all kinds of things!!

So now i'm back into true civilisation!.. where overweight consumers buy overpriced products!
("damnit this guy is just never happy", i hear you think!)

I landed in Cairns last night.. some people learn from their mistakes and some don't, so i arrived again without a reservation and the first night cost me twice what i expected (which expected price was already 10 times higher than the asian prices i got used to!).. ouch!

Land travel gradually transports you from one culture to anther and gives you some time to think and to adapt.. But flying straight from India to this Coca Cola beach! I feel like i landed in the middle of a commercial for an MTV sponsored summer camp! A land of surfers and blond bimboes where everyone above 25 must have been euthanized!
I must say i feel a bit out of place!.. but i'll find my way!