Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Picture time 1 Picture time 2 Picture time 3
 
The adventures of The Gallivanting Dane
 
This is part of the tale about my trip to Malaysia and Australia. I'll stay each place for about 2 weeks, and once I'm back home, I'll have been gone for totally 29 days ... the longest I've ever been on vacation.

It all came about because my Mom and her husband, were kind enough to invite all their kids and grand kids for a 2 weeks vacation in Malaysia. After I got the invite, it didn't take me long to start thinking about extending my trip to Australia, since I would be part of the way there already. So that's how my trip came about. You can read more about it on my LiveJournal.
 
Following is the tales from my trip.
 
Part 1
NH hotel, Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, Holland
 
It all started on the morning of March 12th 2008, when my alarm clock went off at 5.00 in the morning. 1 hour later I was going to jump a train from my city to Hamburg in Germany, where I would transfer to the airport, to meet part of my family, fly to Amsterdam in Holland, where the rest of my Family would be waiting, and we would all be flying off to Malaysia together.

Well things got off to a good start, all my bags were packed, so I just had to shower, get breakfast and then walk the short distance to my local train station. I got there about 10 minutes ahead of time, and the board listed my train, so all was fine … until 3 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive. Off went the PA and they announced that the train was cancelled from this local station, but it would leave from the main station 10 minutes later … 1,5 km away (about 1 mile).

Now how in the heck are you supposed to go that distance with a big suitcase in 10 minutes? So off I went to the closest bus stop, since there were no taxis near by. The first bus wouldn’t leave before it was too late, so on the phone I went, and called the railway company. Since they passengers have some good right in Denmark, and the train I would have been on, was the only one I could use, to make my connection in a city 110 km away, for my train to Germany, they had to put me into a taxi to that city, and pay for it!

I arrived in the city, actually before the train I was supposed to be on, and caught my train without any problems. Fast forward some hours, and we’re in Germany, where I suddenly got a txt message to call my mom.

The situation was that the flight that the major part of my family would be on, had been cancelled, and they were going to head out to Amsterdam on a later flight, and my flight had been cancelled as well, and they were looking into how I would get to Amsterdam with the 4 other people I were traveling with. Later on I got the message I would be flying to Amsterdam with an earlier flight with the group I was flying with.

I didn’t see this as a problem, so I arrived in the airport, where the big group still was, because their flight had a technical problem. Now the thing is, for the small group to get to Amsterdam, we had been booked on a flight via … Copenhagen Denmark!!

Well we got to Copenhagen on time, and were waiting for our flight there, when a message ticked in, that the big group most likely wouldn’t make it to Amsterdam, since their flight finally had been cancelled. And on top of that, our flight from Copenhagen was delayed by 20 minutes, so it would be cutting it close for us.

We boarded the plane and then the captain came on the PA, and announced that due to the weather conditions in Amsterdam (there had been a big storm there the day) we were delayed for additional 1 hour and 15 minutes, which would mean we wouldn’t make our connection in Amsterdam. So I contacted the other group, and after a while, they called me, and yes you guessed right, they were staying in Hamburg overnight, and flying out the next day.

We finally got under way, and yes didn’t arrive in Amsterdam in time, so we kept our fingers crossed that our flight were delayed out of Amsterdam due to the weather as well, for just 1 hour, which was all we needed.

Well our luck wasn’t with us, which we found out when we checked the departure board in the airport. So off to the transfer center we went, where they willingly rebooked us on a new flight from Amsterdam the next day at noon. But they weren’t very cooperative in having to pay for our hotel, since it was due to the weather we were delayed. That was until I told them that we were delayed because they cancelled the flight we were supposed to be on, before the weather started to misbehave. At that point they checked with somebody, and yes indeed now they were going to pay for our hotel, and dinner and breakfast the day after.

So as I write this, we’re in the hotel, and it’s the morning after. The big group will be leaving Hamburg this morning, but they have been split up into 2 groups, and will arrive at 2 different times in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 2 different flights. We’ll be departing at noon, and will be the first to arrive in Kuala Lumpur, because we have a direct flight, and the others have to change planes twice.

The Gallivanting Dane signing off … for now :).
 
Part 2
Posting from KLIA
 
Day two of The Gallivanting Dane adventures have been very uneventful. We got checked in at the airport in Schipol on time, and had just a tad of doubt that we would catch the plane, since it was full booked.

So we proceeded to the gate straight away, where the plane was parked outside



I handed our boarding cards over to the staff, and after about 10 minutes, they returned to me, and told us we were on the plane, but we couldn’t all sit together. That was ok, since my sister and his son, and a couple that are friends of my mom and her hubby were seated together as well.

The flight was very uneventful, and we arrived in Kuala Lumpur on time. But strangely enough the only suitcase that arrived with us was mine! So it’s a good thing that we’ll be waiting until 7 pm tonight, since the luggage will arrive around 4 pm, so it’ll be in time before we head out.

In the mean time, we’ve booked a room for the day at the Pan Pacific hotel at the airport, which is very very nice, so we could nap a bit, and get a shower after the flight. The other 4 in my group are sleeping right now, but I wasn’t able to, so I took a shower and am now on-line at the airport, using their free wireless internet!

And to coin a often used phrase: That’s all folks!

The Gallivanting Dane signing off!
 
Part 3
The rest of the family arrives, and we get to Penang
 
They day in the airport were rather uneventful. We were happy that we had the hotel room, where we could lounge around, and relax.

The first group of the rest of my family all arrived on time, and it was nice to finally greet them. After having said our hellos, we went to the hotel. where we more or less camped out in part of the foyer, while getting a bit to eat and drink, and talk about our trip.

While we waited for the last group to arrive, we also did a bit of exploring outside the hotel, so we could get a feel of the weather. In my opinion it was a little to warm, and humid, but it's all manageable, and after a couple of days, we'll be more used to it.

At around 4.00 pm, we went to inquire about the missing suitcases, and found out that only 4 of them have arrived, but they promised that they would send the last one off to Penang, and then deliver it to our hotel when it got here. The hotel staff was kind enough to call and check yesterday, and it seems like it had arrived at Kuala Lumpur, and it was scheduled on a flight here, but we haven't seen it yet, so I'll have them ask again today about it.

Well the rest of the family finally arrives in the evening, and we board the bus to Penang. It was quite a bit of a drive, and we arrived here in the middle of the night. So before we got our rooms assigned and settled in and said our goodnights, it was way to late. I went to sleep and I think I got about 4 hours of sleep before I got up for breakfast at 10.00 am. After breakfast I went back to bed again, and napped for a couple of extra hours.

After I got up, and went to the pool at the hotel, to talk to the rest of my family, and to get my first dip in the pool, which was very nice indeed.

The rest of the afternoon were spent relaxing, getting some lunch, and a small guided tour from my mom's husband, to the most important places around the hotel.

When we got back from this trip, I went and walked around the hotel grounds for a bit, it's located right at the beach, and after having talked to my mom about the quality of a massage a guy have in a open sided tent, I went and got a full body massage, that lasted one hour, for about US$ 20.00. I'll say it was a very good massage, and he really knew how to give it. A big part of the one hour was spent on my feet, and that was a bit weird to start with, but it sure helped. And the rest of the massage was very good as well, even though I did feel a little sore in some spots afterwards! ;-)

In the evening we all met up at the room I'm staying in, together with my ex brother in law, and talked about what we would like to be doing for the next couple of days. Quite a few of the ladies will be going to getting their nails done, get a facial and a massage. And we also discussed that some of us would like to go paragliding after a speed boat, so we'll look into that today. They are very willing to negotiate on the prices if you come as group, so we'll figure our how many will be going during today, and after that haggle about the price!

After the chat, we went out to dinner as a big group, to a Chinese restaurant just across the street. My mom's hubby had booked a table, and talked to the owner of the place. And since it's a family run place, and we come as one big family, we got a special deal on the dinner. And what a nice dinner it was! It seems like the owner of the place pulled a fast one on us, and actually served a lot for us, on the house, since we got appetizers as well, which weren't supposed to be included in the price! So we enjoyed ourselves, and had quite a few beers to it.

After the dinner, some of us went to bed, and the rest went to a night marked, where you could buy all kind of nick knack, including pirate copies of designer t-shirts, bags, sunglasses, and all kind of new and old movies, even those not out on dvd yet, and cd's!  I was tempted to buy some, but didn't since it could get very expensive if I was caught in customs on the way home.

After the visit to the marked, off I went to bed, it was around 11:30 pm, and I'll admit that I was in need of some shut eye. 

This is The Gallivanting Dane signing off, and going to get breakfast!
 
Picture time 1
 
Ok I've uploaded my pictures! They are unedited and uncommented, but at least there's something to look at :)

Click me to see them
 
Part 4
 
This time the Gallivanting Dane is blogging to you from Tanjung Sanctuary on Langkawi, and here’s my blogging spot:



It’ve been a few days since I’ve last blogged from my trip, so there’s quite a few things to report about.

Lets start with Sunday. Sometime shortly after lunch, five of us decided we wanted to go and try the jet ski out … and I must say that even though I’m not that much into cars and speed and such, it was quite an adrenaline rush to let the jet ski rip, and just give it full speed across the water. To protect my head from the sun, I’d put on a cap, which also was good to protect against the water spraying up in my head. At one point the wind caught my cap, and it blew off, but luckily I could pick it up again without to much trouble. After a while, it happened again, and I tried the same tactics as I used before, leaning to one side, and letting a leg stick out on the other side, to keep the balance. Unfortunately this time it didn’t work, and I went into the water. I don’t know if you’ve tried a jet ski dear reader, but getting on to it, while it’s in the water, isn’t an easy task, especially not for a guy like me who’s a bit on the large side. After a while I managed to get back, and back to the beach, so everything was good again.

Later in the afternoon my niece’s boyfriend and I went to get a haircut at a local place, which my mom and her hubby had recommended. And I must say that I’ve never gotten quite a haircut like it before. To start with, we got our hair washed, and a very long head massage. It was very relaxing indeed. After the shampooing we got the hair rinsed, and then they put some conditioner of some sort into it, and rinsed that out, before we got the haircut. The haircut was a haircut, nothing spectacular about that, but what was spectacular was the price! Again it surprised us how cheap it is here, since we only paid around US$ 11.00 for it! We’re definitely not in Denmark any more, when it comes to prices!

Sunday evening we all meet up, and walked out into Batu Ferringih, to find a place where we could eat. We did find a place, but suddenly I didn’t feel well, and I was sweating a lot. So I decided to go back to the hotel and lie down for a while. Once back at the hotel, I quickly had ½ a liter of water, and during the next 1 hour, some more fluid and some chips to get some salt into my body. I’m pretty sure I was getting dehydrated, since I hadn’t had much to drink during the day. When the others got back, I met up with them again, and they could also tell me that I had been pale when I left them, which I wasn’t anymore, so everything was good, and since then I’ve been sure to get enough water to drink!

Suddenly it was Monday, and after having lounged around at the pool for a while, some of us decided to try out the Jet Ski’s again! And yes it was still as much fun as the first time around, and no, this time I didn’t fall off, since I’d left my cap off, so I knew I wouldn’t loose it! ;)

In the afternoon we had a small volleyball match on the beach. We’re totally 21 traveling together, my mom and her husband (who’s Swedish), his kids and their family (8 totally), my mom’s kids and their family (9 totally) and a couple that my mom and her hubby knows. So my stepdad’s boy had proposed a match between Denmark and Sweden on the beach, which we did, and unfortunately Denmark lost the match. Afterwards the Malay that took care of the water sports at the beach took on the Swedes, and yes they beat them! Afterwards they also beat the Danish team. I did play in the game between Denmark and Sweden, but since I haven’t played in years, I sucked at it big time!

In the evening we started a small Canasta tournament (in case you don’t know it, Canasta is a card game, I don’t know if it’s know outside Denmark though), and we had fun playing it.

Suddenly it was Tuesday, and the plans were all set for that day. We had booked two boats to sail us out to a small deserted Island, were we could scuba dive, and they would serve us a BBQ at the beach. The trip there was about 1½ hours, and after everything had been offloaded, those of us who wanted to go scuba diving, well it was actually snorkeling, jumped on one of the boats, and sailed off to a small reef, were there were lots of small fish, sea porcupines and life on the reef. It was very cool indeed!

After about 1 hour of diving around, we went back to the island, and had a very nice BBQ, while we just enjoyed life. Later in the afternoon we started the trip back to the hotel, this time the boat put full speed ahead, and we arrived back at around 5 pm. It was very nice to get under the shower to rinse the seawater of the body, and then have a dip in the pool afterwards.

In the evening we found out that my mom had remembered wrong, and instead of having to leave Penang on Saturday, we were to check out on Friday. She thought we didn’t have a hotel on Langkawi before Saturday, but after checking up on it, we found out everything was ok. So we just had to travel a day earlier than expected.

Wednesday morning I went to a local tailor to get measure for some tailor made shirts, which are also very cheap here in Malaysia. For 2 short sleeve and 2 long sleeve shirts, I had to pay 360 MYR, which is about US$ 110.00, for that kind of money I don’t get 4 shirts in Denmark at all!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, which was needed after the trip the day before, and in the evening we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant again. Where we again got a great deal on dinner. Again the food was great, and they had put an effort into serving us some food, they hadn’t served the first time around.

Thursday came quickly, and after having breakfast, I went to get fitted for the shirts. I was surprised to see that they were almost finished, and after having tried out one short sleeved and a long sleeved, saw that they fit very nicely. They just had to finish sewing the buttons on one of the shirts, which they did while I waited.

In the afternoon and evening we had booked a guided bus tour of Penang, where we saw some of the placed of interest, and also visited 2 malls on Penang. One was a big new one with lots of big stores with the big brands of clothes, watches and so on. The other mall was the one for the everyday Malay to use, and they had lots of different shops, many were shoes and clothes shops, and it was very large!

Back at the hotel, it was time to pack up, since we were leaving at 7:20 am Friday, and we had to be ready at 7.00 am, so we could get breakfast before we left.

And thus we end where I am now, its Friday early evening, and we spent the day traveling and relaxing. First by van to Georgetown on Penang, then by boat for about 2½ hours to Langkawi, where we also traveled by van to our destination Tanjung Sanctuary. It’s a very nice place, and it’ll be nice to relax here for a couple of days, before I head off to Sydney on Tuesday!

Well it’s time for me to sign off, we’ll be getting dinner in about 1½ hour’s time, and I’m kinda getting hungry.

This is The Gallivanting Dane signing off.
 
Picture time 2
 
Greetings all

I just thought I would let you know that I've added pictures from my trip with the Cable Car here on Langkawi. It was a great experience, and man what a wonderful view you have from way up in the mountains!

You can see the pictures here
 
Part 5
Reporting from Sydney
 
 
 
G’day mate!
 
So it has been a while since I last blogged, so I think it’s about time I get around to do it again.
 
First I want to finish up the visit to Malaysia.
 
The days at Langkawi went by rather quickly, even though we didn’t do that much to be honest. The place where we stayed was very nice, as true pearl, and we all relaxed a lot.
 
Mostly we spent the time relaxing, and on some evenings we went to a place along the beach, it’s more or less a strip where they have all kinds of restaurants and shops, to eat and just browse the shops. From what I recall, we went there 2 nights, and both nights we ate at a place named Putomayo. It was a very nice place with great food!
 
Monday my ex brother in law, my niece and her boyfriend went and took a ride on the Langkawi Cable Car. It was a great ride, and what a view we got from the top of the mountain, 705 meters above the sea. I couldn’t help myself taking lots and lots of pictures, and I’ve posted them here. 
 
Monday afternoon some of us went to a shopping mall on Langkawi, to see what they had there. It still amaze me how cheap things are there, compared to what I’m used to. But it also showed that they mainly catered to tourists, since there weren’t that many locals there.
 
Tuesday was my last day in Malaysia, so I spend it taking the last pictures of the place where we stayed, and playing the last games of cards, and packing. My plane was set to leave at 5:35 pm, so I left the hotel around 3:45 pm. I got checked in on time and everything, and then while we were waiting for the plane, they announced it would be about 25 minutes delayed, which wasn’t too bad, since I had about 4 hours between planes in Kuala Lumpur. Then suddenly it started pouring down, and they announced again that the plane would be delayed, but this time they didn’t know for how long. I got a bit nervous, since my flight to Kuala Lumpur, wasn’t bought through the other airline company, so they wouldn’t care if I got delayed flying into KL. But totally we were only around 50 minutes delayed when we took off, so I was a very happy camper about that, and I made my connection in KL without any problems at all.
 
We arrived more or less on time in Sydney mid morning Wednesday, and I didn’t have any problems getting my luggage and going through customs and immigration. The trip to the hotel was very easy as well. I had looked up how to get there on the net, and it was an easy trip with the train, and then a little walk from the train station to the hotel. Unfortunately they didn’t have a room available before 2.00 pm, so I stored my suitcase, logged on-line and surfed a bit, before I went out and explored the city around the hotel, and had a bite to eat.
 
When I got back to the hotel, I was lucky enough that they had a room available, so I could check in. It was nice to get a rest and a shower after having been underway for a while. In the evening I went out and found a bite to eat, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but it wasn’t bad either.
 
Thursday after I got up, I took the train to Circular Quay, from where I walked to the Sydney Opera House. I’ll admit that I didn’t think it would be something special to visit, but since I was there, and it’s designed by the Dane Jørn Utzon, I went anyway. And I must admit that I really liked it, and was amazed by how it looked up close. I also went on a guided tour inside the Opera House, and it was a very interesting tour, where they showed you a lot of the house, and told you about the history off it.
 
Friday I went wandering in The Rock. And I must say it was a very interesting place with all kind of interesting shops and buildings. I didn’t see all off it, but it’s sure a place where it’s possible to spend a good bit of time exploring.
 
Saturday it was time to go and visit the Blue Mountains. I had booked a guided trip with AATKings named: Blue Mountains tour and Cruise, and I think it was a great tour. The guide/bus driver knew a lot about the area and Sydney, and was good at telling about it. In the mountains we went to the Scenic World, where I tried out almost everything they had to offer, by riding the Skyway, Cableway and Railway, and walking the Walkway. It was great, and I really enjoyed the nature there as well.
 
Now we arrive at Sunday, and again it’s a beautiful day with gorgeous weather! So I jump the bus to Bondi Beach (they have nicknamed the bus “the Bondi Bendy”). It’s a very nice place, and the beach it just beautiful, and as are the ocean! What surprised me the most was that the beach wasn’t as big as I thought it would be! It’s probably less than 2 km wide, but it’s still a nice place, and yes lots of people were there, tanning, bathing and surfing. I spend a couple of hours there just walking in the surf, and sitting and reading and watching the people.
 
Om the way home I jumped off the bus at Bondi Junction, where I went and walked around in a shopping center, and even though I went to a big book store, I only bought 1 book!
 
Sunday evening I went and walked down Oxford Street for a bit, and it was quite interesting, because I suddenly recalled that it’s the gay area of Sydney. They did have a couple of interesting shops though, and I did look at DVD’s but didn’t buy some, since they aren’t cheap here compared to Denmark.
 
So that’s about it for now. I have loads of pictures I need to get uploaded, but that’ll have to wait later.
 
 
This is The Gallivanting Dane signing off.
 
Pictures from Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
 
I just thought I would let you know that I've posted almost all my pictures from my trip to Uluru and Kata Tjuta here. If you want to, you can read more about Uluru and Kata Tjuta here
 
Part 6
The last post about MBT™  
 
It’s about time I add a post about the last part of my visit to Australia. I’m home by now, and have been almost 2 weeks, it’s amazing how fast time passes by!
 
Monday
 
I were supposed to go on yet another tour, the Dolphin Watching & Australian Wildlife Park Tour, but it was unfortunately cancelled since there weren’t enough people who had signed up for it. So I signed up for the Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour instead on Tuesday.
 
So Monday I spend just wandering around Sydney, including Hyde Park, visiting the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, and just generally enjoying my last day in Sydney, since I would spend the day after it outside Sydney, and I would leave early Wednesday morning for Uluru.
 
 
Tuesday
 
The tour on Tuesday was a great tour, and on the way to Hunter Valley we drove a scenic route, and stopped at a Wollombi where they served us tea with scones, butter, strawberry jam and whipped cream. Then we continued on to Hunter Valley, where we visited the Lindeman Winery, there we had a tasting of several very good wines, before we headed off towards the next stop on the tour.
 
At the next stop, which was Hunter Resort, we were taught a bit more about how wine are made at the Wine School, including a short walk to a field where we could see the wines, and they told us about how they were taken care off. After that we watched two short videos about the making of red and white wine, before we were taught the basic of how to taste wine, which was quite interesting.
 
After that, we were treated to lunch, where the food and wine were coordinated, so they matched up. The food and wine was very good, and I must say it annoyed me a bit that I couldn’t bring any wine home to Denmark to me, darn it!!
 
At Hunter Resort they also had beer from the Blue Tongue Brewery which I of course had to taste as well, since I’m a beer lover as well as a wine lover!! And they did have some very good beers, that I also would have liked to bring back to Denmark with me!
 
The last stop on the tour was Hunter Valley Gardens Village where they had all kinds of tourist shops. It was nice to walk around there and just look at what they had, before boarding the bus, for the about 2 hour bus ride back to Sydney.
 
 
Wednesday
 
Today I had yet another early start, since I had a mid morning flight out of Sydney to Uluru. The trip was uneventful, and went as it should. The hotel I stayed at there also had a room for me, so everything was as it was supposed to be.
 
I didn’t have any plans for the Wednesday at Uluru, so I just walked around and enjoyed the weather and the low humidity. The nature there amazed me, and to be honest, I think that the trip to Uluru will be what I remember the most from MBT™. But all of it will always stand out in my memory of course, and I do want to go back to Australia again.
 
Thursday
 
Today was yet another early rise day, I had booked myself on the Ayers Rock (Uluru) Sunset & Kata Tjuta Tour and the bus were going to leave my hotel at 6.00 in the morning, so I had to get up at 5.30 to be ready, yawn!!
 
But I must admit that the sunrise over Uluru was amazing, and the walk we had out of the Cultural Center with an Anangu (the name of the Aboriginal tribe living there) guide was very interesting, and I did get to have a short talk to him, and his translator, about how those of my friends I’ve told about how I had decided not to climb Uluru, agreed with me out of respect to the Aboriginals beliefs.
 
The afternoon walk into Kata Tjuta was great as well, and our guide sure knew her stuff. The Valley of the Winds Walk was divided into 2 sections, the first was for all of us to the first lookout point named Karu, and then those of us that wanted to do it continued to the Karingana lookout point. The walk there was a bit challenging, but also quite amazing, through stony country.
 
After having returned from the walk, we boarded the bus and rode it to a designated sunset viewing area, where the tour company served nice chilled sparkling wine and snacks, while we enjoyed the sunset over Kata Tjuta. After the sunset we continued to the dining area, where we would all share dinner. There we got a great dinner, with more sparkling wine, while we talked and had fun. After the dinner we were all told to go to a stargazing area, and while we closed our eyes, they turned off the lights around us, and when we reopened out eyes, we had an amazing view of the stars. It’s hard to describe how amazing an view it is, when you are able to view stars without any lights what so ever around you, in several hundred km’s distance.
 
Thus ended the Thursday, and since I had been up early, I didn’t last long that evening. But it had been a great day, and the last part had been great, since there were only 9 of us, we all talked and had fun together.
 
Friday
 
Today I slept in a little bit, well to be honest, not that much, since I had gone to sleep a bit early, I woke up without it being to late. Since I were leaving just around 11 am for the airport, I got up and packed, so my suitcase were ready. I then went and checked out and just relaxed and walked around a bit in the area.
 
The rest of the day was spent traveling from Uluru to Brisbane, via Sydney. I got to Brisbane a bit late, but that wasn’t a big surprise to me at all. In Brisbane I got my first taste of driving on the left side of the road. Since I had booked a car with an automatic transmission, that wasn’t a problem, but I did make a few mistakes with the controls for the turning signals and wipers, since they were on the opposite side than what I’m used to. I did take a bit of getting used to driving on the left side of the road, but I was very careful about it, and paid a lot attention to it.
 
The first night I stayed in Brisbane, and then I headed out of the city, and south towards Sydney. On my way back to Sydney, I stayed the following places:
 
 
On my road trip I stopped quite often, and whenever I saw a sight with “tourist drive” I took that road, so I got to see something else than the Pacific Highway down to Sydney. I had lots of fun out of driving on the roads in the mountains, which I’m not used to, and yes it was fun driving the winding roads!
 
During my trip, I saw a sign for The pub with no beer which is a brewery. I did try to find it, but even though I saw several signs for it, I didn’t manage to, but instead I got way up in the mountains, and when I finally saw a sign with several city names on it, I stopped and looked at the map to find out to where I should head. The road heading back towards Pacific Highway was pretty good … for the first 500 meters or so, and then it turned into a narrow twisting and turning gravel road … but man it was fun to drive it, and I think I did so for 10 km before I was back on asphalt again. And I must say that my rental car was covered with red dust afterwards! *grin*
 
In Port Macquarie I walked a bit along the coast, which had a break wall of all kind of rocks. Those rocks were decorated with all kind of greetings from people all over the world, which was way cool. I found it interesting to see where all the people had come from, and what kind of message they left behind.
 
The road trip was nice, and I got to see many nice places along the coast. And it was nice to meet Australians outside Sydney, and they were very friendly. People greet each other no matter if they know them or not, almost everywhere you meet them, which was way cool :).
 
Amazing enough my trip came to an end, and the last day I drove the direct way from Port Stephens to Sydney Airport. They had told me at the hotel it would be a 3 hour drive, which I think was a high estimate. But I left about 3 hours 15 minutes before I had to return the car at the airport, and with the stop I had for brunch, I actually arrived at the airport just on time. It was a bit of a hassle to drive through Sydney to the airport, since the way you drive is through the suburbs, and then you can either drive over Sydney Harbor Bridge, or through a tunnel under it. I wanted to drive as little as possible in Sydney, so I took the tunnel, which worked as a charm.
 
The trip home
 
After having returned the car, I went to check in, and that took a bit of time. The thing was that I had a ticked from Sydney via Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam to Hamburg in Germany. But I only wanted to fly to Amsterdam, and from there catch a flight to Copenhagen and then to Aalborg where I live. And I of course wanted to check my suitcase in all the way home. I think it took them about 20 minutes to do it, but they did do it, and they didn’t complain about having to do it at all.
 
The flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur went without any problems, and in Kuala Lumpur I went to the Transit hotel and bought a shower, which was nice, so I felt fresh before the long leg of the trip. We boarded the plane to Amsterdam, and got pushed away from the gate on time, but then when they went through the check list, they discovered an electrical problem, which meant we had to get back to the gate, so they could fix it. It didn’t take them that long to fix the problem, but the delay meant we had missed the slot over Afghanistan, and we had to wait an extra 35 minutes before we could leave. By the we were about 1 hour and 20 minutes late, which was the time I had between planes in Amsterdam … but I couldn’t do much about it, and had to handle it when I got to Amsterdam.
 
After we had taken off, we got a bit to eat, and then after the couple who were seated next to me, and myself, and used the bathroom, we all settled in for the night, and long flight home. I took a sleeping pill myself, and after a bit I went to sleep, and slept for about 6 hours of the 12 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam.
 
As you have probably guessed, I didn’t make my connection in Amsterdam, we actually got to the gate as my flight departed. So I had to rebook to another flight, and that cost me a bit, but I’ll be complaining to KLM about that, and hope they’ll pay for it, but I’m not counting on it. It mean that I got about 5 hours added to my trip home, but it was ok, since I could spend time in one of the lounges in Amsterdam, and again in Copenhagen when I got there.
 
Once I finally arrived in Aalborg, I was waiting for my suitcase, and yes you guessed it, it didn’t arrive with me! So off I went to claim it missing, and they promised they would contact me as soon as it got to the airport, and arrange a delivery time. So instead of spending the money on a taxi home, I went and had a look at when the bus would leave the airport, and luckily I only had to wait a few minutes, so I jumped on it instead. On the way through the city, we went through a roundabout, and at that point I found out that I had gotten more and more used to driving on the left side of the road, since I thought “why is he driving the wrong way around this roundabout?” Well I did occur to me at the same second, and I had a chuckle about it.
 
Luckily I had the fortune to have packed my keys in my backpack, so I didn’t have any problems getting into my apartment when I got home, and I did of course have clean clothes and all at home, so that my suitcase didn’t arrive with me, well that wasn’t a problem. And yes it did arrive, about 24 hours delayed, so I was pleased that I didn’t have to carry it up 9 flights of stairs to my apartment!
 
 
Well as they say “that’s all folks!” And thus ended MBTtm.

PS: All pictures are now uploaded to my photobucket