Hong Kong

We are currently in Hong Kong and about to move on to Dubai. Hong Kong has been great! Its skyline is unreal and the landscape on which the city sits is really beautiful. We met another girl who was traveling from New Zealand back to Germany and she was motivated enough to basically be our tour guide for the day. Also met one of Netto's friends here and he showed us a good dose of the Hong Kong nightlife. All in all a good experience, but my favorite part was actually outside the city itself at the Big Buddha on Lantau island...

Thoughts: Over this trip we've done some pretty amazing and challenging hikes. From Tongariro crossing to Franz Joseph Glacier to taking all our bags up to the Big Buddha, we've been pretty adventurous. During those hikes, the scenery is mind-blowing and for the most part we are concentrated on what is ahead. Every now and then, however, it was nice to stop and turn around to see where we were a few hours before. And more often than not the view was spectacular.

During fourth year we've been celebrating our pending completion of medical school and celebrating our impending doom of what will be intern year. But now that we've almost reached graduation, now is a good time to look back and reflect on what we did the last four years; the friends we made, the great fun we had and the challenges we over came. I feel that now, more than any other time the last four years, I have time to retrospect and appreciate what medical school meant in my life.

Google Images: Big Buddha, Hong Kong light show, Hong Kong Peak

Tokyo

Sorry for the long pauses in the blog... but traveling in Thailand will do that to you. We arrived in Bangkok [watch the nuts] last Sunday in the afternoon. I had purchased over night train tickets to get us to Southern Thailand in order to go to Ko Phi Phi. The tickets were to be picked up at the domestic cargo station at the airport. In short, it took us about two hours and three employee buses to find this random ass building in the sweldering heat... but the kicker is they actually had an envelope with my name on it! Bangkok [watch the nuts] to Ko Phi Phi door to door time - 24hrs! The pay off however was 24hrs in paradise before heading back to Bangkok [watch the nuts]. We arrived on Budha day in Bangkok [watch the nuts] and continued to eat street food, haggle for every Thai Baht and visit the amazing Wats or Temples that Bangkok had to offer.

The last you heard, we were leaving Auckland and heading to the second leg of our trip - Asia! We arrived in Singapore and planned on staying with Freya, a friend of mine that I met through Sejal. After staying in a camper van for 5 days we arrived in Singapore to stay with a fun, loving and giving family. We had real beds, a beautiful roof top view of the Singapore skyline and home cooked food. Freya and her younger brother Jesal also gave us a good look at Singapore's night life. By far the craziest we've had so far on the trip. We had a great time with them and will hopefully see them in July.

Below is a slide show of Singapore and Bangkok!

Below is a slide show of our journey to Koh Phi Phi Islands.

So, after a great time in Singapore and many adventures in Thailand we arrived in Tokyo at 630am today. We've basically walked all over this town, taking pictures with Sumo wrestlers, drinking Sake, partaking in some fortune telling [nirav's said that whoever works under him will cause him destruction and harm.. pharmacy tech rebellion!! lupett!!].

By far, the highlight of our day in Tokyo was our public bath adventure this morning [this was in honor of William "to do something cool in honor of me in some eastern country"]. Since we could not check into the hostel until three and since we had not showered in 4 days [Thailand does that to you], we decide to go to a natural hot spring public bath [onsen] in the neighborhood. The custom is to put your shoes in a locker and take a towel and soap into to the locker room. Then undress and walk into the bath area. There you third world squat on a stool about half a foot tall and in front of you is a hot and cold water faucet. The hot is reall hot and the cold is really cold, so you take a bucket and mix to your desire. So, Netto, Nirav and I squated and washed our selves for the first time in 4 days, laughing hysterically. Once so fresh and so clean clean, you have earned the right to soak in a natural hot spring pool where the water is about 40 degrees celsius!

Thoughts: I have none, I've shared a lot and there are people waiting

Google Images: Kho Phi Phi View Point, Grand Palace in Bangkok [watch the nuts], Clark Quay in Singapore, Orchard Garden in Singapore

Auckland

About a week or so has past since the last post and A LOT has gone down. I'll give you the skinny because this keyboard sucks.

Nirav arrived on Feb 4th in Sydney and we took him around Sydney for a couple hours. This was our first chance to drive in a big city.. it was interesting to say the least. Then we started a two day road trip to Melbourn, beginning with a stop in the Royal National Park and then heading further south. We stopped at a couple beach towns along the way, but the hightlights being Jervis Beach and Buchan caves. We arrived in Melbourn in the middle of some music festival and proceeded to begin a festival of our own, that did not end until 4 in the AM. Below is a slide show of the road trip.

The next morning we began our journey to the second country on the list: New Zealand. New Zealand is unlike any place on earth. We hiked a volcano, a glacier, explored fjords 400m deep, jumped out of a plane at 12000 feet and jumped off a ledge 147m above Queenstown all the while living out a rented camper for 5 days.

Below are a select few pictures from the north island of New Zealand. The highlight of the north island was the Tongariro Crossing which is one of the most famous one day hikes in the world covering amazing terrain including a volcano, sulfur lakes and a rain forest.

The south island was a fantasy world. The slide show below will start with Arthur's pass, which is north and we will work our way down the west coast to the Franz Joseph Glacier. From there we head to Queenstown, where we wish we had more time, but reminded us of Colorado. We then head to Fjordland that includes Te Anau and Milford Sound, which is all included in a National Park carved out by glaciers. We end with the 'Last Super' on the shores of Lake Tekapo.. Enjoy

Now were headed to Singapore for the second half of the trip... stay tuned.

Thoughts: Visiting such great scenery and awe inspiring geography has a tendency to put you in your place. You realize how small humans are. On our drive from Auckland to Togariro National Park we pulled over to sleep in the car for a couple hours. Looking up at the sky almost made me have to sit down. The Milky Way was clearly visible, millions of stars littered the pitch black sky... if you are any where else in the universe, you can't even see us.

Google Images: Garie Beach, Franz Josef Glacier, Tongariro National Park, Milford Sound

Townsville

I really shouldn't be writing from Townsville, but the unpredictability of travel has struck in the form of Cyclone Ellie. Ellie brought harsh rain and wind to the area, flooding access roads, decreasing water visibility and making the Great Barrier Reef un-reachable. We were fortunate to reach Airlee beach only to find out that our scuba and sailing tour was cancelled. Airlee, however provided a decent time any ways with the Australian open and a party scene that did not stop. In the AM we learned that roads out of Airlee were open and so we took off back to Townsville. It has pretty much rained non-stop and we've basically hung indoors, putting our adventures on hold for the moment.

Thoughts: When planning a trip of this magnitude its dumb and almost arrogant to think it will all go perfectly to plan. Ellie reminded us of the unpredictability of our trip and the natural surrounding which we traveled here to explore.

Google Images: Check out satellite images of Ellie, its big