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Blogging precious memories

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26.Nov.2016: We slept in and had a calm, wonderful morning. Anthony made pancakes with ice cream and syrup. I also wrote some postcards to home... Later, we set everything up for BBQ. I prepared salad, Maria cut the pineapple and Anthony wrapped up the steaks and sausages. We had the BBQ at Mullaloo beach. It was so tasty, way too much food, though, and lots of fun. Hehe ... back home, we preheated to go dancing that night. It was Phil, Anthony, James, Lingi (Richard), Maria and I. We got a ride from a friend of them. Her name was Jessy. The club name was Arcade night club. We had a wonderful and joyful night out dancing. 👍🏻👯💃 The next morning, we of course didn't wake up very early. We got ourselfs organized, packed our stuff, took a shower, grabbed some food and had to tell a wonderful, caring and kind family good bye! We really hope to see them again one day! 💕 We took the bus to Perth Bus Station and grabbed an Uber to the airport. Everything worked out fine. ✈️ Then took the flight returning back to Bali.

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25. Nov. 2016: We went to the Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre in the morning. Maria still wanted to wander around and to buy some things. She got a new wallet from here favorite store Colette and a nice necklace. It was so hot outside that it was best to be in an air conditioned building. Late afternoon we went with Anthony, our host, to a dog-beach and took their dog Katara. It was so much fun. 🐶 Afterwards we went to Mc Donalds, grabbed some stuff from the drive trough and ate it at home. Later Anthony even let me drive his loved car to get some liquids from the liquor store. This was my first “left side car driving”- experience. To gear with the left hand, and to set the blinker with the left hand, is so different. Takes time to get used to it. 😊 With the boys, we had some drinks, nice chats before we head to bed. 😴

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24. Nov. 2016: A fun and rememberable ride through stunning Perth with our Aussie Friends in a nice Mercedes Benz Car. Loving it! 😍 Listen to the music and enjoy the skyscrapers ending in the flawless blue sky of downtown Perth. ❤️🏙☀️

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24. Nov. 2016: Went to Perth to explore Kingspark. The scenic view was breathtaking. Our Aussi-Friends gave us a ride in a Mercedes Benz Car. LOL *thuglife* bahaaa 😂😉 We still haven't figured out who it actually belongs to, but we didn't want to argue if they offer us a comfortable ride through Perth City. 😛 Then we hit the Westfield Carousel shopping center in Cannington. Maria and I did some shopping. I bought a nice light jacket and custom jewelry and she bought new sneaker shoes. Also we got some chocolate for Carol and Anthony for letting us stay with them as "Couch Surfers". That night we returned home for Dinner Carol invited us to. She made Tacos. 😊

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23. Nov. 2016: With our new Australian -"Aussie"- friends, we went on a little road trip to Serpentine Park and North Dandalup Dam. The serpentine falls national park is best known for the waterfall that cascades over a sheer granite rock face, abounds with the scenic beauty of ancient landforms and verdant forest. The boys were giving us a fantastic sight seeing tour. It was so much fun. We went swimming in the Serpentine Waterfalls, which was so refreshing💦, since the weather was so sunny and hot hot hot. 🔥🔥🔥had Picknick and a joyful drive with Justin Bieber music. 😅🎧🎼 In the evening, we went by bus to Wanneroo to go to our accommodation we arranged via Couchsurfing again. Our host Anthony and his mom Carol are so sweet. We feel very comfortable in their very nice home.

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22. Nov. 2016: Trip to Rottnest Island on "Telethon Tuesday" (cheap Tuesday). For every person who travels to Rottnest on Tuesdays, $1 is donated to the Telethon Appeal. Of course we had to jump on it since the ride to Rottnest is the double amount of price during the rest of the week. We paid $ 39 each person each ride. So we were lucky to catch a ferry on Tuesday since we booked it last minute the night before online. Rottnest is an island off the coast of Western Australia, located 18 kilometres west of Fremantle. It is perhaps best known for its population of quokkas, a small native marsupial found in very few other locations. Rottnest Island is blessed with a casual atmosphere, picturesque scenery, dazzling marine life and some of the world's finest beaches and pristine bays. Rottnest Island earned its curious name when in 1696, Dutch explorer, William de Vlamingh, mistook the island's unusual marsupial population for common rats and named it Rottnest - literally translating to 'rats nest'. Today, having a photo taken alongside the 'rats' - known as Quokkas - is one of the main highlights for visitors to the island. We were very eager to catch a good selfie with the cute little Quokkas. And I think we were successful. 😅😊 We were hiring a bike to discover the island, sat at the beach enjoying the nice sand and had a very expensive decent lunch, for me a nice, but also high priced, beer for refreshment. 😅🍺 The ferry ride was fun, compared to the one to the Gili island (Indonesia), it felt much safer, though. Back in town, we went grocery shopping to cook at Beatty Lodge Hostel, where we extended our stay.

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21. Nov. 2016: Moved out this morning from Matt's in Warwick and went on to Leederville, a suburb of Perth. It was a nice first Couch Surfing Experience. ☺️ In Leederville, we checked in the Beatty Lodge Hostel. The Hostel is clean and comfortable. It even has a kitchen where we cooked that night: Pasta with bolognese sauce. During the day we took part of a free guided City tour trough Perth and later we were wandering around an outlet mall. There we met Fahin, Farhad and Reza. Fun boys to hang with. We rode the free CAT busses to go places within the city center of Perth. 🚌 After we went grocery shopping at Woolworth, we went to the hostel and cooked our own dinner. So much fun, it was tasty. 🍝

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20. Nov. 2016: Got to love them Koala bears. 😍❤️💕❣️🙏🏻🐨🐨🐨 … Perth was worth the travel and flight. We had a wonderful time. Each and every day was a blast. 🤗😜😃

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20. Nov. 2016: Went on a trip to Cohunu Koala Park in Byford. Train-/ Bus connection still a bit of a miracle to us, but eventually we made it to our destination. 😋👍🏻🚃 The park was ok, a bit small, but it payed off so much. We seen Kangaroos, Koalas, Ostriches, Wallabies, Emus, Kookaburras and many more. Posing with the Kangaroos and holding a Koala were the best things. The picture with William was sure quite expensive, but who could resist to cuddle up with a sweet Koala just as him? 🐨💕 Greatest time! On our way back we stopped at Perth station to grab some food: Tasty Burgers and salad @Ribs&Burgers.

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19. Nov. 2016: flight from Denpasar/ Bali to Perth/ Australia went just fine. Got by Uber to the airport. In Perth, we sidled through public transportation to Warwick, where our Couch Surfing host Matt expected us. Found a host last minute; Maria spontaneously joined me on the trip. Bus and train system is still a bit confusing to us. We learned, that it's mandatory to hail 🤗 at the bus 🚌 in order to stop and pick up passengers. Of course, this is how we missed our first bus. 😅 At Matt's, we met Eline from the Netherlands and Sascha from the UK. Our hosting gift to Matt were two bottles of booze from the duty free shop in Denpasar (Rum and Vodka). 🍾🍾 In Warwick, we hit up the grocery store, cooked together with the girls and later on went to the "gay parade" which took place in Perth this evening. We had a beer at a pub that night and went back to Warwick by public transport. By then we were tired and had a good sleep on a comfy sofa.

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7. Nov. - 19. Nov. 2016: University break spent in Vietnam was quite an adventure. But still, it was very nice to return to Bali. To the rest of the gang. Had the best time hanging in and around the Kampung 168 in Jimbaran, where we, fellow students and I, live. We went dancing, shopping (found best jeans hotpants ever), of course attended classes at Udayana and went out for delicious food. We also attended an excursion at the campus in Denpasar of Udayana university. It was an exhibition about technology and quite unspectacular... Oh and we hit up the beaches (tried out the Nyang Nyang beach) combined with tasteful breakfasts. 😛 I put up some pictures of it on here before I continue blogging the next big thing: on Nov. 19th. my travels continued. This time to Perth in Australia. 🐨☀️

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5. Nov. 2016: last day in Vietnam. Still in Ho Chi Minh. We visited the Notre Dame, Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập), also known as Reunification Palace (Vietnamese: Dinh Thống Nhất), the Thien Hau Temple and at last the national Vietnam war museum. It was very touching. It's so horrible what has happened to this country. 🙏🏻 My prayers go out to the victims still affected in further generations and now! Afterwards we headed back to the Budget Hostel to grab our stuff, went to the airport to fly back to Denpasar. At Ho Chi Minh Airport, Bettina and I drank our last (indeed pretty expensive) Vietnamese beer.

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4. Nov.2016: After heading home, back to the Budget Hostel in Ho Chi Minh, we had a date arranged with the owner and his employees for cooking "lesson". We practically were cooking together. It was so special and much fun. We had snails (yes, snails- and it was pretty good), crabs (also very nice, the preparation kind of cruel, though) and chicken salad. It was a very precious and tasteful evening.

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4. Nov. 2016: Cai Rang Floating Market. We got picked up at our homestay after a poor breakfast. We right away went on the boat. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and learned about the daily activities of the locals who live along the Mekong Delta and went on a market on land. The highlight of this was the Cai Rang Floating market, where locals are trading/ selling certain products, like fruit, coffee, baguette and so on. After that we rowed to Ninh Kieu, where we had free time and the chance to taste snake, rat and frog (frog we already tried in Hanoi). It was ok, but not good. I am not eager to try this again soon. I just tried a little piece anyway. Another stop was at a noodle making shop, where we learned how noodles are produced.

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3. Nov. 2016: Mekong Delta Tour We chose a two day trip. The first day, after arrival in My Tho by bus, we rode a local motor boat along Dragon Island, Unicorn island, Phoenix island and turtle island. We stopped at unicorn, while there, we visited the bee keeping farm, where natural pure honey is produced. Also we drove in a rowing boat along the coconut canal to see locals daily life in Mekong delta. From there we continued to Ben Tre Province to visit a handmade coconut candy workshop. We also stopped for lunch and local fruits. That night we slept in an homestay where we had delicious dinner (included a little cooking class for spring rolls) and decent accommodation. Good enough for only one night. Other than that we had bad luck with the weather; it was pouring most of the day.

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2. Nov. 2016: From Da Nang we flew to Ho Chi Minh/ Saigon. Our last stop on the trip. We stayed at the Budget Hostel in the City Center. The first evening we were wandering around, searching for an ATM. 💴 We stopped for food and even for a hair cut. It was 100.000 Vietnamese Dong which circa equals 5 $. The girls had to keep an eye on the hairdressers work since I was afraid to have too much cut off. 💇 Everything worked out well. Weather conditions continued to be wet. ☔️

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1./2. Nov. 2016: By sleeping bus, which we rode during the day, we eventually arrived in Hoi An from Hue. Rain continued in Hoi An, we slept at a really nice homestay for two days. We rode the bike to enter the city center. There, we were amazed by cute little souvenir and clothing shops. The night market by the river was impressing with its lights. We did some spoiling, nice food, wine, pedicure and also we went to the Tailor and ordered some size measured clothes. I got a trench coat, so did Bettina. Bea got herself a suit tailored, and Nicole got a jacked, a tank top and a blouse fitting to a nice jacket.