Archives For May, 2007

Today I have spent a lovely day at St. Kilda, Melbourne. It was fairly warm, at least until the sun went down, and I have finally been at an ocean again. It’s been far too long. When I walked up St. Kilda Pier I thought that this must be fantastic for a sunset, so I came back a few hours later. And I was right. I’m a sucker for sunsets…

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I really don’t like flying when that means having to sit for close to 24 hours in a plane! But let’s start at the beginning. Checked in at Heathrow and everything went smoothly. Absolutely no problems. In the plane, a 747, I found out that I had four seats to myself. I then had a look at the movie selection and there were loads of films I hadn’t seen so far, so things just couldn’t have been any better. I was well into “Blood Diamond”, just after the scene, when this old bloke stated that if they ever found oil in Sierra Leone they would all have real problems (which is one of the funniest movie lines I’ve heard recently), when I realized that I had neither a phone number nor an address of my friend in Melbourne with me.

That’s when I decided to have another glass of white wine, and believe it or not, things did look better after that. I watchd another movie and then thought that maybe I should try to get some sleep. If I would be able to kip on the leg to Hongkong, then I’d have to stay awake on the flight to Melbourne, where I then would arrive around 8 o’clock in the evening. I could just go to bed normally there and I would hardly experience any jet lag. Ready to explore the city the next day! It all sounds far too good in theory, because I was wide awake as soon as I closed my eyes!

So I watched more movies, while almost everybody around me was snoring already, and…had some more wine. When the plane touched down at the airport in Hongkong I felt a bit hung over, but at least I managed to go online and find out where I had to go in Melbourne. By the time we were allowed to reboard the plane I was so tired out, that I fell asleep as soon as I hit my seat. I slept through take-off and the first meal, then woke up just in time for the second meal and slept again until we were only about an hour away from Melbourne.

Then it was all a breeze. Get on the shuttle to the city, change into another bus that brought me to just where I needed to go. Met my friend, went out for a couple beers, had a laugh and went to bed around 2 am. Today I haven’t even been out of the apartment. I slept for most of the day feeling extremely jet lagged, but I’m ready to venture into town tomorrow. I think. I’ll keep you posted!

My bags are packed and I’m ready go. I actually managed to fit all my stuff in just my backpack. It weighs close to 16 kilos, with the bulk, maybe 10 kg, made up by my dive gear. It feels bloody heavy, but it’ll be a lot better than carrying an extra dive bag around with me. The gear will kind of garantee at least some income, so it’s worth lugging it around.

My jetplane leaves at 4 pm today, so I’ve still got a few hours to kill. Today I’m just flying to London. I’m going to visit some friends there and down on the coast in Dorset. Then on sunday I’m booked on to a Quantas flight to Melbourne with a short 2-hour-stopover in Hongkong.

I’ve spent a lot of time away from home, but I still get nervous a bit every time I leave. Once I’m on the plane it’ll be fine, though. There’s a reason why alcohol is for free on board. Calmes down the nerves. That’s a reason as well why all the cheap airlines will never be able to tap into the long distance market. People would need to spend all their holiday cash on expensive booze even before arriving at their destination.

Anyways, I probably forgot half my stuff, but that doesn’t matter. Got my passport and my tickets. Everything else will sort itself out. I must not forget to bring tissues to the airport! Hopefully, there’ll be loads of exciting travelogues and pictures in the next few years for you to read and watch, starting with my next dispatch from Melbourne in a few days.

So long and safe travels, guys…

I feel the need to apologize for the lack of fresh content lately on travel-junkie.com, but as you might know I am leaving in a few days for Melbourne and there is still loads to do. To add to all this my brother has decided to move to Munich a few weeks ago and has just now found a new apartment, so I’ll help him get some of his stuff over there as well.

A few days ago I couldn’t find my passport. I was almost panicking. Searched for a full hour until I remembered that I might have left it in the car. Thankfully it was there!! There’s no way I could have gotten a replacement before I’m supposed to fly off and I never bother with travel cancellation insurance. Would have cost me loads of money…

Last friday was my leaving party. Thankfully I wasn’t working yesterday. Felt horrible the whole day. Maybe I should just not drink for a while, like Paul, from travmonkey.com, but then that would be extremely difficult in the next week or two, so maybe later!

Following my 10 most favorite places in Southeast Asia I decided to post my favorite dive spots. I haven’t been to many of the world class dive sites in the area, like Richelieu Rock or Sipadan, so this list reflects merely my personal top 10.

1. Hin Daeng & Hin Muang, Koh Lanta, Thailand
   These are my absolute favorites. There’s the big stuff, like Mantas and Whale Sharks, and little critters, like the Harlequin Shrimp. Because of the depth and the sometimes quite strong current both those sites are not really suited for greenhorn divers.
2. Batu Bolong, Flores, Indonesia
   I had a fantastic dive here with three octopus. They were following and holding on to each other while weird patterns were pulsating down their bodies. Looked like an octopoda threesome to me. Just awesome!! The current was just unbelievable; in places so strong that our bubbles went straight down…
3. Shark Point, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia
   Probably the only dive site on earth, where you are surrounded by 15 turtles when doing your safety stop. Loads of different kinds of sharks and a gorgonian fan at around 20 m populated by pygmy seahorses. There can be some current, but here you always dive with the flow, so no worries…
4. Tulamben USS Liberty, Bali, Indonesia
   Loads of nudibranchs, scorpionfish, hundreds of garden eels waving in the slow current and extremely nosy parrotfish all within the remnants of a WWII freighter. Loads of little swimthroughs with fantastic light shining through holes in the hull.
5. Koh Haa Lagoon, Koh Lanta, Thailand
   This is an easy dive, but can nevertheless be breathtaking. Directly in the lagoon there are a few very curious and very cute porcupinefish, quite a few boxfish, and some garden eel. On the outer edge of the lagoon with it’s two pinnacles there’s barney, the hawksbill turtle and, if you look closely, a ghost pipefish hidden somewhere!
6. Sail Rock, Koh Tao, Thailand
   I did easily 50 dives here. If I would dive there now, I’d probably still know every fish by name. Great pinnacle dive with a chimney starting at 7m and going down to about 20m and a chance to see some big fish.
7. Tulamben Drop Off, Bali Indonesia
   I haven’t seen that much fish here to be honest, but the colors are just stunning. There are loads of huge gorgonian fans all over the site. Their colors made all the more brighter and vivid by the black vulcanic sand that’s everywhere.
8. Chumphon Pinnacles, Koh Tao, Thailand
   Chumphon, Koh Tao’s premier dive site, is a submerged rock formation covered in all different kinds of coral. There’s grey reef sharks around and the chance to see whale sharks. Loads of small critters as well. Can be quite crowded with divers, even for Koh Tao standards.
9. Simon’s Reef, Gili Meno, Indonesia
   This is a huge site starting at 14 m, going down to like 45 m, so it’s an advanced site. This is the place where I managed to capture three beautiful cuttlefish on film. Can be fantastic with visibility reaching 50-60 m. I once missed the whole dive site, due to current and bad visibility and promptly saw a huge stingray, easily 2,5 m long…
10. Temple of the Sea, Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia
    Visibility wasn’t good, when I went diving here, but I could see the potential. There’s bamboo and nurse sharks and loads of barrakuda and jacks. The Temple is a pinnacle covered in soft and hard coral. When you’re in the area and you dive, then this spot shouldn’t be missed!

There are so many more dive spots I want to go to, most of all a liveaboard trip to the Burma Banks near Myanmar and to Alor in Eastern Indonesia. And I haven’t even been to the Philippines yet. If you’re not a diver yet, but would like to learn, then you should check out Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi or, for the more adventerous, Koh Lipe in Thailand, the Perhentians in Malaysia and the Gilis in Indonesia. There’s loads of dive sites for beginners there, loads of stuff to see and courses are not too expensive.
What’s your favorite dive sites?

A while back I had this idea. I get rid of my dive bag and put all of my gear into my backpack. Brilliant, don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. My dive bag is ripped to pieces anyway, so that saves me having to buy a new one. Today I decided to give my idea a try. So in went my BCD, my fins, my wetsuit and my backpack was almost full. And I hadn’t even gotten any clothes in there, yet! So, I took my gear out and put one piece in at a time and stuffed the remaining space with clothes. This will mean that my clothes will always be extremely wrinkled, but then, I don’t think I’m likely to win a Best Dressed Man Competition anyways. At least this will work, although my wetsuit will have to stay home. And this I am really unhappy about, I mean I have no problem peeing into my wetsuit (can be quite an enjoyable experience on a cold night dive), but peeing into a rental one is just gross…

Wherever there are people with money, there will be other people trying to take some of that money away. Sometimes this is especially true when you are travelling. You are far away from home and thus you might seem an easy prey.

In 2001 I met a young german backpacker, let’s call him Hans, in the departure hall of Denpasar Airport on Bali. We were both waiting for the same flight to Darwin, so after a while he came over and we started chatting. He seemed a bit nervous and soon after he wanted to hear my opinion about something that had happened to him the night before.

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