Endless Summer

Rumours, rumours, rumours... Some people don't follow our blog too regularly and asked "which twins??!", hellloooooo ;-))

Nim is due 16th of April! But as we're talking about twins, they'll probably be earlier than that. But we are here and help her with everything, as Max is in New Zealand right now and can't do much because of his respiratory problem anyway.

Summer time in South Australia is -- spider time again. A new species of the huntsmen family. These are harmless..... but we spend 2 hours vacuuming the shed of 14 (!!) venomous Redback Spiders and several eggs and nests. SCARY!!

Yesterday and today we had 43 degrees Celsius. And Holger helped putting up a friend's shed (well, 'shed', in Germany you'd call that a HALL) in that heat - so this beer is actually EARNED!! ;-)
It's amazing when you come inside and think "Wow, can someone turn off the aircondition, it's FREEZING in here!" and then you look at the thermometer and see just how "freezing" it really is: 29 degrees. But tomorrow it'll be a pleasant 35 degrees. :-)

Back in OZ!!

We're back! Living with Max and Nim in Mt Barker again, near Adelaide, South Australia!

Some pictures of the new house:


Debbie's got her own pool!

from Bangkok

backstreet along a Klong (waterway)

In the garden of the beautiful Jim Thompson's house

For Christmas we treated ourselves to lobster and everything with it in this exclusive seafood restaurant (that we thought looks something between Burger Kind and IKEA children's paradise) - for more than 100 Euros.

But normally THIS was our favourite dish this time: roasted duck with rice, vegetables and chicken broth - for 40 Baht - ONE Euro.

We LOVE the street kitchens.

We LOVE free Wifi.

He's got the whole world...
Mobile communication from three continents.

More fotos from Koh Chang

Ferry and "Sorn-ang-tou" - the public "bus"

Koh Chang means "Elephant Island"

and has many nice waterfalls.

Relaxing the first two days in the djungle

with great food, like everywhere... ;-)

Day trip to the touristy White Sands beach - no, we wouldn't want to stay here.

But Koh Chang is a very beautiful island

and at Long Beach we found "our" spot.

At low tide you can walk out for far - and look back towards our Treehouse Lodge.


Cats and young dogs everywhere. :-)

Back to OZ!

Have booked a flight - tomorrow we are flying back to Adelaide with Air Malaysia again. Yeehaa!! One month in Cambodia and two months in Thailand.... were wonderful. Angkor Wat and Cambodian people and countryside, a lovely family holiday with our parents in Hua Hin and on Koh Phayam and finally more than 3 weeks at peaceful Long Beach on Koh Chang, relaxing, reading and meeting so many great people... we are grateful and very happy about everyting that's come to us. And now we are excited to go back to all the wonderful people in Australia again! And to our DAN the van!! :-) Lot's of love and sunny greetings to everyone freezing in Germany! ;-) In Adelaide it's supposed to be up to 42 degrees...

Fotos from Koh Chang!

We are in Trat now, nice little town, and finally fast Internet! :-) are right now looking for flights back to Adelaide. This is lovely Long Beach on Koh Chang, where we spend as much as 23 nights!

Our treehouse bungalows! ours is the one behind the trees on the far right.

showers!

restaurant!

sunset!

New Year's Eve party!

Visa granted!!

Holger's visa for another 12 month has just been granted!! He had to attach his bank account, a statement about our itineray in Australia and one about what we are planning to do after we leave Australia. Holger wrote very nice and apparently convincing statements - and here we go!! Australia, here we come! Again!! ;-)
So tomorrow we'll enjoy a last day at the beautiful Long Beach here on Koh Chang.... meanwhile we really feel as part of the family, including even a Malaria blood test (all well, and of course they had seperately packed, clean needles ;-) with the Thais in the beach restaurant... and last night the manager's baby "Nemo" turned one year old and there was a big party with cake for everyone and a huge fire - we were among the last "birthday party guests" at the fire at around 4 in the morning... Nemo already sleeping, of course.
And then: Good bye Koh Chang and back to Bangkok! Book a flight and back to Adelaide - Max and Nim are already waiting, they have moved house and Nim's twins (two boys) are getting bigger and bigger. Are already looking forward to see her big belly - and Debbie doggie! :-)

Still no fotos from Koh Chang

Although I'm quite proud of myself of having managed to crop some pics to just 200 KB in the THAI version of MS Picture Manager, the Internet connection still seems to be toooo sloooow...... and for the price of 60 Baht per hour for the internet we could instead eat Salama's homemade French Fries, which are the best we've ever eaten anywhere in the world... it's just a tropical paradise. No picture updates. Sorry. ;-)
Still no news about Holger's new visa for Australia - but mine had been granted in just 4 hours in early December, so we're still optimistic.

Happy new year!

Happy new year and all the best wishes to all of you and thanks for following our blog! We have been on the island Koh Chang for more than a week now, in a beautiful Hippie Bungalow "Treehouse Logde" in the southeast of the island and enjoying the peace here. Had a nice little new year's eve party on the beach with fire and music & two buckets of Sang Som & Coke... :-) was good fun. Internet connection is very slow so I can't upload pictures, and to get mobile connection you have to either hold on to a tree that's growing over the beach from the restaurant of our lodge or walk out to a sand bank when the tide is low.... but still - this is a very remote spot. Lovely. Lots of love & all the best for 2011 to everyone!