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Moeraki Boulders and Dunedin (New Zealand)
The trip from Mount Cook takes 3h30 – 4h (I don’t remember), for more than 250km. I’m the one driving, in the rain so I don’t go super fast. In New Zealand, there are so few people on the road that even a public danger like me can drive (on the left) without any problem. When I see someone speeding towards me, I take advantage of numerous stops/point left views to stop and let the person pass me. Moeraki BouldersWe arrive at Moeraki Boulders in rain and wind. They are balls dating back to the dinosaur era. Are they fossilized dinosaur eggs? Or just fossilized rocks? Nobody knows. There are…
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Mount Cook (New Zealand): salmon and snowy peaks
We leave Akaroa directly after the excursion to see the dolphins As the trip to Mount Cook is very long (more than 400km), we choose to stop at Tekapo Lake, 1 hour from Mount Cook, to sleep Lunch is next to a lake seen on the way. Some ducks and vans keep us company. We aren’t very difficult for lunch. In general, a few slices of pan toasted bread and a good omelette are more than enough. If we have a little more time, I also prepare a salad. Dirty dishes are put in a plastic bag to be washed in a campsite in the evening Lake Tekapo is very…
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Akaroa (New Zealand): encounter with Hector dolphins
Part 1: Travel Diary Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diary The sale of farm products in “honesty box” The road from Christchurch to Akaroa is, at the beginning, nothing extraordinary. We are just happy to come across a farm selling eggs (between NZ$5 and NZ$6 a dozen) and manuka honey. It’s very easy to spot this kind of farms, they put signs on the side of the road with the list of products sold. For eggs, people usually come with their cardboard, but for tourists like us, they give free cartons. When it’s marked “free range”, it means that the hens have access to the outside Either the…
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Christchurch, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura (New Zealand): Travel Diaries
After 10 hours of flight from Kuala Lumpur (imagine the number of hours of flight from France!), we land in Auckland … …. to catch a plane 4 hours later to Christchurch. Checking prohibited or restricted items at customs is going better than expected. Like Australia, New Zealand is very fussy about customs. However, we took care to throw away any food, any item containing honey, and to declare ourselves as pestiferous (dirty shoes, items in contact with non-potable water, contact with wild animals during the last 30 days). We were expecting to be quarantined for weeks to prove that we were not infected with Ebola, and in the end…
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Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): small stopover before New Zealand
When you take the round-the-world ticket, there are mandatory stopovers, because the airline alliance in question does not operate a particular flight live. Kuala Lumpur is one of them. As we take Malaysia Airlines from Singapore to Auckland, Kuala Lumpur has been added to our itinerary. For 20€/person, this stopover can be transformed into a stopover. So why not? We are very tired when we arrive in Kuala Lumpur and the hot humid climate not helping, we take an Uber from the airport (the Klia Express costs more at two than an Uber) and spend the whole day sleeping and eating at our hotel (it is very good luckily) We…
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Singapore (part 2/2): the sweet life
Part 1 & practical tips on Singapore here. As soon as we get back to Singapore from Batam, we head to the Botanical Garden. Emilie is waiting for us there. She is on a business trip in Singapore and we find it super funny to be, like that, on the other side of the world We spent a lot of time at theOrchid Garden in the Botanical Garden. While the garden is free and ideal for jogging, the Orchid Garden part isn’t free and for 5$SG, you get your money’s worth. There are orchids of all colors, photo corners for the selfie pros, cool houses with air conditioning to grow…
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Batam (Indonesia): dream stay in Elysia Nongsa
Batam is an Indonesian island located only 1 hour by boat from Singapore. We didn’t know it was accessible from Singapore until we met Feng 6 months ago (before our world tour). We met Feng via Couchsurfing He had only been learning French for 3 months but he was already fluent in it. He is extremely smart, so he only needed 2 hours to understand my job (how to create a structure and manage Adwords campaigns). It was also Feng who encouraged me to learn Spanish to fully enjoy our trip to South America. Seeing how well he mastered French in 3 months, I told myself that it was quite…
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Singapore (part 1/2): one of the four dragons of Asia
Singapore strangely reminds us of Hong Kong, for its very western side with half-Asian half-European rates. Hong Kong and Singapore are nicknamed “Asian dragons”, as well as South Korea and Taiwan. But unlike Hong Kong, our first impressions are 10 times more positive: the people are super nice and smiling, and the country is remarkably clean Part 1: Travel Diaries Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diaries We take the last flight in Asia except round-the-world ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to land in Singapore. From Singapore, our next 5 flights (long haul) will be covered by our round the world ticket. This is the technique that many…
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Nha Trang (Vietnam): a big seaside resort
Nha Trang is one of the most awaited destinations of our world tour, I went there twice, years ago, and I kept excellent memories of it. The return to Nha Trang this time is like a slap in the face as the city has changed so much and has become a tourist destination Part 1: Travel Diary Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diary We left Mui Ne at 8am by bus to arrive around 1pm in Nha Trang (bus with couchettes please) It rains for part of the trip. There are storms in progress and planned for a week, not in Nha Trang but in Central Vietnam. On…
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Stray dogs in India, Nepal and Myanmar
During our stays in India, Nepal and Burma, we are struck by the number of stray dogs we come across in the streets. This is a scene that we no longer see in other Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam or China, where dogs are eaten and teams supplying the dogs to restaurants “clean” the streets by kidnapping all the dogs that have the misfortune of hanging around in the street, whether they belong to someone or not.Fortunately, the religious fervor observed in India, Nepal and Burma also has a consequence in saving the lives of many stray dogs. They don’t hurt them, but they don’t take care of them either.The…
