Map of Tasmania!

Do you know what that is? Get yourself an Australian slang book and look it up if you don't and you'll get a giggle out of it :)

Two weeks ago, WR and I went on a quick but fun trip to the island of Tasmania, just south of Victoria. Tassie, as it's known here, is one of the last frontiers of Australia, still containing wilderness where no human has ever set foot in. Needless to say that we decided to leave that piece of history just the way it is and followed a fairly common tourist trail, being the first time here and all. Also, hotels, rental cars and food & wine down there aren't exactly cheap, and seeing that we're both currently not winning any bread, we thought that 3 days of hedonistic vroom and click should suffice, thank you very much! Tasmania was beautifully sunny until we arrived and decided to show us some blue sky and sunshine just before we left but for most of the time, it was rainy. No problem for our Seattlite but a bit depressing for the other half of the duo.

Thing is, though, we went to see the rainforests of Tasmania, and rainforests just aren't rainforests if it ain't rainin', so we got the authentic experience. It was pi$$ing down for most of the time really, once when WR was driving on the left side for the first time in her life, 'twas pretty scary. She also managed to lightly tickle another car while parking. It made the other car giggle for a short time but it didn't tell :)

Our trip was based on the famous Cradle Mountain, a beautful piece of jagged rock in the centre of Tasmania and UNESCO world heritage site in its own right. Of course it was freezing cold and raining sideways because of the wind blowing up there when we were there but we managed to snap at least a few shots of the peak. Here's one:

In the foreground is lovely Dove Lake, which you could circumambulate in 2 hours if the weather was decent, alas..it was one of the 9 out 10 days up there when it's not, so we chickened out after about 3 minutes of stoicalness.

Cradle mountain is also surrounded by an ethereal otherworldly landscape which is absolutely unique. I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like it before. There was moss, lichen, pandanus, more moss, tree ferns, button grass, and about another 5,000 species you or I have never heard of. It was fantastic. Willierose just called me a plant nerd but I take it in stride. She loved it too but is just too cool to admit it.

There was a short walk around the lodge called the Enchanted Walk and enchanted we were. Here's just one shot. I'll upload some to my Flickr account soon so you can check them out when you have some time.




But the by far cutest thing was this little guy: The non-Australians reading this may not recognise it as readily as us VB-gargling folk but to the uninitiated it's a Vombatus ursinus or wombat. Ursinus means 'little bear' and you can kind of see why. When I snapped this shot he was standing on a tuft of grass and was scratching himself with his hind leg. Very very cute. Lots more happened but that's all I've got time for today. Hit us up on Skype or something if you want to know more.

Tooroo, possums!

Guido and Willierose

Seattle, Washington, USA!!! October 2008

Here's some great pictures of my dear Jennie's (and Alex's) beautiful wedding. It was SOOO fun! And absolutely, positively awesome to be hanging out with my best friends again.

G&W Crib

This is our new home! We don't have much in it yet, but we love it!

Cawongla

Here are a few pictures from Guido's parents' house in Cawongla

Hello there! We're really sorry that it's been so long since we've last posted anything. We're here in Australia now, in Melbourne. Here's what we've been doing: we arrived in Sydney in February. We stayed there for a week, and I met many of Guido's awesome friends! We had a really great time there. Thanks again to Greg, who let us stay at his place for a few days.

Next, we headed north to Guido's parents place in Cawongla which is a small town about 800 km away from Sydney. It's beautiful there and I loved G's parents' house. Arnie and Trudy Gautsch were lovely people, great cooks, fun to talk to and generally an enjoyable pair. They also have their own art gallery in the nearby city of Lismore. We stayed in Cawongla for a few weeks and relaxed on their quiet 10 acre property, and I even saw a few wallabies around the house.

Guido was offered a job teaching by the Department of Defense in Melbourne, so off to Melbourne we went! It took us a couple of weeks to find a place to live, but we finally found a great two bedroom townhouse in Seddon, a nice suburb of Melbourne. We love our place, and Guido is really liking his new job. We're still getting to know Melbourne, but so far, we think it's a great city. There are a lot a great shops, cute cafes, and delicious, cheap restaurants. The beaches are nearby, and not too crowded (although it is fall right now). We're sure we'll grow to love it since it looks like we're staying here a while.

Here are more pictures!

KL Pictures

Langkawi

So when we left Koh Lipe, we took the Tigerline Ferry straight to another island called Langkawi in Malaysia. It's only about an hour away from Lipe, but the difference between the two islands is huge. Langkawi is a major port and a duty free island so many tourists, Malaysian and foreign(mostly European), come to the island to do their vacation thing and their shopping thing. Our first night there was not so good; we ended up sleeping in an old, dirty hotel room with cracks, paint peeling in the floor and on the walls, and a big piece of plywood for a window. It was pretty crappy (but only $8!). We were eaten by a ton of mosquitos (thank goodness no other big bugs were in there, or else I would've freaked), and woken up by what sounded like wrestling from the floor above us at 6 in the morning. Needless to say, we packed our stuff the very next morning, and moved to this beautiful, new, and clean hotel called the Sweet Inn. We didn't do much in Langkawi, other than more beach-y stuff. The beaches, Cenang and Tengah, were really nice. They were big and there seemed to be hardly any people on them. The sand was like light brown sugar. The views of other islands from the beach were beautiful, and made for nice sunsets. We had some good food, drank really cheap beer (60 cents!), and walked around a bit. So that's why we don't have many pics from there-- we didn't wanna bore you with more beach pics.

~Malaysia~

ello!

just a really quick hi from Guido. We're in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will be for another few days. Somehow, we fogot to get a visa for our flight to Vientam on Monday and since immigration is closed over the weekend, we wouldnabeen able to get on our plane! After much research and blahblah, we finally decided to move our trip up to the 6th, which leaves us with a whole week in KL and only 1 day each in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City. Jetstar also not so kindly decided to charge us 400 Singaporean Dollars for the change :(

Nevertheless, it's really quite exciting here. We're staying at a lovely little bohemian guesthouse called 'Le Village', full of paintings, colourful walls and nice people, a dead-hamster-throw away from Chinatown and 2 semi-conscious cat swings away from Little India. We've already been on the skybridge on the 41st level of the famous Petronas Twin Towers, the world's second-largest skyscraper. We were subjected to some 3D brainwashing in the shape of a corporate ad flick beforehand but at least, the whole episode was completely free of charge. Bliss! Well, kind of, but something different for a change.

We'll be in town till the 5th and will head on down to Singapore, where we might meet up with Willierose's Tito Tony. Stay tuned folks!

-Guido

Koh Lipe Pictures

Koh Lipe

Hello from Koh Lipe! We’ve been here for two weeks now, and the internet is slow and expensive, hence the late update on the blog. Apologies! We arrived at the height of peak season, so at first we had a little trouble finding accommodation. In fact, we’ve finally just settled into our dream bungalow: it’s one of only six on this small beautiful beach away from the crowds and the main drag, it’s right on the beach, has it’s own hammock, and is fairly secluded. We love it!

What have we been doing the last two weeks? Well, there’s not much to do on this little island, and that was part of the appeal. We’ve both been reading a LOT of books (me, 6 so far!), doing the usual beach affair of swimming, snorkeling, tanning (I’m brown, Guido’s spotted), and eating of course. It’s been fun and relaxing, but truthfully, I’m just about ready to leave Lipe. It’ll be sad to go, but I think we need to move on in our travel adventures. Guido will tell you more…

Hope everyone is doing well! Take care – Willierose

Lipeee! Really beautiful spot, I must say. I especially like our new bungalow, it’s gorgeous. Been snorkeling pretty much every day here, sometimes 3 times in one day. You can just swim out from any beach and there are coral reefs wherever you go. So far I’ve seen 3 sea horses, a moray eel, thousands of clownfish (Nemos!), lots of pufferfish (fugu-chan), a beautiful and highly poisonous sea snake, entire forests of coral etc. I’m toying with the idea of going diving, too, but’s a fairly pricey affair..2800 baht (about $85) but since Willierose still owes me a Chrissy present.. J

In a few days, my friends Reto and Petra will arrive here, too. Petra should be in the air as I type this actually and there shall be much rejoicing when they get here. I haven’t seen Petra in 3 years (not counting countless Skype sessions, esp. when Kete-chan was still in J-Land).

Alas, our visa will expire on the 26th, so we have to get out of here soon. After much debate, we decided to go to Malaysia for a week, since we’re really close to the border down here. We’ll take the train down to Penang first and hang out in Georgetown and then head on down to Kuala Lumpur, from where we’ll take the plane to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, hang out there for a bit and then to Oz on the 7th. Phew! Lots of countries in less than 2 weeks.

Over and out,

Guido

PS - pictures will be posted as soon as we find cheaper and faster internet, probably not for another week or so....

Thailand, part I

And right back at ya! We're in Thailand and already had a busy week. Met up with Reto in Bangkok and went up to lovely Chiang Mai, a laid-back city in the mountainous North.
It was quite a lot cooler up there, which was a nice change. Like everyone else, we did one of the famous trekking tours, which was, of course, tres touristy but fun nonetheless.
Apart from walking a LOT through woods and hills, we also rode elephants, showered under waterfalls and took a bamboo raft down a river. Hanging out with Reto again was great and we spent New Year's Eve together as well. We had a yummy dinner at the gekko cafe, which included our first tom yum goong and a plate of roasted frogs! Mmmm...they were juicy and crispy at the same time. You can see one of their feet in the slide show. After quite a lot more than one beer, we decided to walk around town for a bit when we stumbled upon a great custom here. Hundreds of people lit sky lanterns, which filled with hot air and then suddenly took off! The entire night sky was filled with hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns. Of course, Reto bought one too, so we all let it go into the air together.

The next day, our trek started and luckily, we weren't as hungover as some of the other group members. Even though it was a fairly big group, we had a great ol' time with lovely people, gorgeous waterfalls and views and more beer ;)

This morning, we arrived back in BKK and will head down south tomorrow for some serious dolce far niente, sunbathing and coconut-sucking. Stay tuned!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

It's been a while! Guido and I hope everyone had a great holiday. If you didn't get our Christmas email, it means either we don't have your email address; or we just forgot (if so, we apologize). Our holidays were pretty darn good. When we got back from El Nido, Guido, cousin Kate and her friend Shids all went to Batangas and Tagaytay for the weekend. We'd like to profusely thank Tito Tom and Tita Vicky for providing us with the beautiful hotel rooms. We had a very nice, relaxing weekend. After getting back to Manila we had a big night out with some of the Natividad cousins. they took us out to a comedy club, and --can you believe it-- karaoke! So of course we had a blast.

For Christmas we went to Bataan. There we ate, drank, got very merry (even more karaoke)! Guido also finally got to try my Tita Emy's famous cooking. I had been waiting for her kare-kare dish since the year 2000. Yummy! Unfortunately, Guido got a cold and was under the weather for about a week. Poor thing. After a slow recovery at Tito Alvin's place, our stay in the Philippines sadly came to an end. We'd just like to thank all our family and friends in the Philippines for taking care of us! We had a great time and we're really going to miss all of you!

Here are a few more pics--

Slideshows

Here are lots of pics that start from the beginning of our trip. You can click on them to enlarge I think.

Subic and Baguio with the Tans

Family

and the lovely El Nido

the takeoff



enjoy!

El Nido was beautiful!! Sorry to sound like a travel brochure but if any of you ever have a chance to go, don't hesitate for a moment! We loved it. We loved it from the moment we boarded our tiny little airplane. We got front row seats, which meant right behind the pilot and the co-pilot! There was no door or anything between us and the cockpit, so we could watch the take-off and landing. Guido even took a video if it (we'll post it later). 75 minutes later we landed on a dirt airstrip, greeted by a small singing group of islanders and met by Ace, a guy from the Art Cafe, a little place in El Nido by Judith, a (tough) Swiss expat and her Filipino husband. They organised everything, from the airport pickup to accommodation, island hopping tours and our tickets back.

Our cottage was very very basic, but cute and directly on the beach. From there, we could easily get into and around town . The first two days, we spent cruising through spectacular limestone islands, snorkeling, swimming, relaxing and eating on the beach. We saw lots of fish and even a couple of sea turtles. On our third and unfortunately already last day, we rented a kayak and paddled to the nearest island from El Nido, where we found our own private beach!! Yay! And finally, we were taken on a gorgeous sunset cruise. Lovely stuff.

Here's some pictures :)

Me and the tiny plane

The Small Lagoon

The Big Lagoon and us

Our beach (and kayak)

P.S. Sorry there aren't many pics(the internet is expensive where we are right now), but more will come soon!

El Nido Part I

Greetings! We just arrived in El Nido, Palawan, a beautiful island paradise in the southeast of the Phil. We've got a really cute little cottage on the beach and we're going on the first of two days of island hopping tomorrow. Wanna know what we've been doing for the last week?

We were in Baguio for a whole week, staying with the Tan family, as we mentioned before. It was a nice, easygoing start to our Filipino vacation. We'd go do a couple of touristy things during the day (saw lots of mountains, went to the market, checked out the view of the silver mines, etc) then eat, drink, and Wii into the night. Very relaxing and unadventurous. It was great.

After that, we stayed a couple nights at Willierose's Aunt Melanie's house in Kamias (Manila area). We were introduced to one of the biggest malls in the whole world, the Mall of Asia. It houses the only Olympic-sized ice skating rink in SE Asia and the only IMAX theater in the Philippines, as well as a gazillion stores. Willierose was very excited to be there, Guido was... not as excited, but very supportive. He admits he had fun though! Anyway, last night (the 9th) Guido met the Natividad side of the clan (about 25 of them!!!). Aunt Melanie and her cohort cooked up a huge feast. We ate, we drank, we slept. And G played a lot of pool with the uncles. Of course, everyone loved G, and complemented on how tall he is and how much he could eat. Bravo! (and everyone keeps asking what part of America he's from... hahahaha)

Today, we boarded a 19-seater Dornier to get to our present destination. We'll post pics and videos of everything soon. Love love love - G and W

So far, so good!!!

It's been years and years since I've been back to the Philippines, so I was really looking forward to this trip. And we've been having a great time so far. After we spent a couple of nights in Manila with my Aunt Emmie and cousin, Kate, they drove us to Subic.

We stopped over in Bataan, where we'll be spending Christmas! We were immediately greeted by some tasty ice-cold homegrown coconut juice. Then, we met up with the Tan family, close family friends, in Subic city. Subic used to be home to an American naval base, but now it's just a freeport city. There are still a few old American veterans hanging around, though. We did a few touristy things, such as going to the marine park, seeing the city and walking around the beach. We stayed at a funky hotel that was built in the 70s and is owned by Aki Tan's wife's family. Unfortunately, there was a huge earthquake as well as a volcano eruption nearby in the early 90s, which destroyed a lot in the area. The effects can still be seen and the hotel was never renovated, which makes it look a little grungy. The grooviness is still there, though, as you can see in the pictures below.

Last night, we came up to Baguio with the Tans and are now staying at their place. Baguio is about 1500 meters up in the mountains. What's great about it is that it's a smaller city, so it's not as crowded, noisy, nor polluted as Manila. The air is cleaner and the city is slower-paced. What we, and especially Guido, have been enjoying most here is the food! We're being fed like there's no tomorrow, and really enjoying it. You guys all know how much Guido loves food, and how he loves trying new dishes, so he's really loving it here. It's really fun to see him try all my favorite food for the first time. We can only hope we both don't gain too much weight while we're here! Wish us luck! Here are some pictures:

In Bataan.

(from right to left: Willierose's aunt Emmie, her cousin Kate and Kate's uncle)

The view in Bataan. It's in the country.

Willierose and Guido in Bataan. She cut her hair and he's drinking coconut juice.

The Westbay hotel in Subic. 70s ahoy!

The pool at the Westbay; the view from our room.

The Tans and us. From right to left: Aki, his wife Trisha, Tito Tony, Arnel, Alan and us

Here also with Tita Evelyn in the middle and baby Ariana

We're in the Philippines!

On Wednesday, we finally got moving: After some initial baggage problems (they made us repack 4 times and then we still had to pay $60 because Willierose brought 30 kg of chocolate as souvenirs for her relatives) and a totally packed flight we arrived safely in noisy, lively Manila at about 11.30pm. Willierose's aunt and cousin picked us up and drove us to their nice home in the burbs, where they gave us a whole condo to live in! Very nice indeed. The next day, there was the coup that you might have heard about. A senator and a general tried to oust the President, which ended in both of them and all supporters being thrown in jail and business as usual the next day.

Been eating lots of tropical fruit (mangoes and coconuts! as well as papayas, mangosteen, lanzones, etc.), delicious Filipino food and all of that pretty much non-stop. I hope that I won't come out of here 20 kg heavier. Love,
Willierose&Guido

hello

welcome to our travel blog!
we're off to explore tropical asia for 2 months and will keep you updated as we go. we shall eat, swim, relax, take pictures, marvel, gawk, shudder, be utterly delighted, frolic and more and you can read all about it here. stay tuned!

love,

w&g