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Just a notice to all our friends on facebook: Vietnam seems to be blocking facebook, so don't be surprised if we don't answer. Write us an e-mail instead. ;-)

Cao Dai Holy See Temple

Three hours drive North of Saigon lies the beautiful Temple of Cao Dai, following a religion of its own that is a fascinating fusion of East and West and contains elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, native Vietnamese spiritualism, Christianity and Islam - one of our fellow bus tourers (a Vietnamese born Aussie, in fact) just stayed there straight away.

The "divine eye".






Tourists may watch and take pictures of the chanting and praying from the balcony.

Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Welcome to Asia!

But otherwise our room (a whole apartement really) is very clean and nice.

Our view.
Welcome to Vietnam, you're a millionaire like that!! Just exchange 50 Dollars. :-)

Welcome to Saigon!! ooh, we LOVE the street kitchens and bars again! You can get a decent meal for 2-3 Dollars (doesn't really matter if Australian or US, pretty much the same right now), a noodle soup for 1-2 Dollars and a beer - for just 9000 Dong. That's about 45 cents. :-D

Happy New Year!

Vietnamese coffee - good and strong, a bit like caramel (the "fresh" milk IS cow's milk, isn't it?! ;-), not like:

The infamous WEASEL COFFEE!! You know, you've heard about it.... the weasel eats it first and then... later... the beans get roasted and grinded... and you get to drink it. I don't know. MAYBE we'll try it some day. But today is not that day.

Vietnamese BBQ...

And the one and only, great PHO. Vietnamese noodle soup, "the dish that built a nation" (Lonely Planet). Delicious.

Streets in Saigon:


Find the pineapple.

Floods and floods of motorcycles on one of the main streets in Saigon - all decorated for the Lunar (or Chinese) New Year (23rd of January was the first day of the year, with the celebrations going on for the whole week following) -

...with dragons (2012 ist the year of the dragon again - a good year for Holger hopefully, as he was born in a year of the dragon as well)...

... yellow flowers...

...Kumquat trees...

and yellow blossomed New Year Trees!


I've ALWAYS thought that would be the better word for it!! ;-)

Uhm, no, especially after just having been there - these are definitely NOT dishes typical for Australia. :-D

One has to wonder........ :-)

Good Morning, Vietnaaaam!!!

I just had to.

AAWWW... that grafitti just serves as tooo good a background not to keep shooting!!

Goodbye Australia!

Goodbye Dan! And thanks Jerome for driving us to the airport! May Dan serve you well!

Goodbye Sydney! Port Jackson and Bondi Beach (top right)!

Port Jackson with Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Darling Harbour and Pyrmont!

And some last views of the Australian Ouback - from up above!

Last days in Australia!

Work! But cuddle me meanwhile!
We spend another day folding mail...

... with the cat wanting to help all along!


After work: Bondi Beach!

Sydney Fish Market! I have truly never seen anything like it.


Fresh Sashimi!

Of course we couldn't say no...

And we just called it Holger's second birthday...

...went to Port Botany...

... for a swim...

... and Holger got another present: a bluetooth keyboard for his iPod!

That's our shared house - we live here with one Indian, one Sudanese, one American with Greek roots - and our Chinese landlord!

And Spooky, the dog.

That's our landlord telling the rules to our housemate - only kidding of course, just helping to cure his back from his painting job.

How to shrink two years of your lifetime into one bag again!?

We've sold the Dan! Sad but happy too. He's in good hands, and we got a good price for him.

Chinese New Year!

Darling Harbour:


Monorail:


Sydney at night.