Sawadee Pee Mai !

Sawadee Pee Mai ! (Bonne annee en Thai....)

Apres une soiree de Nouvel An inoubliable au milieu des Thailandais de Phuket Town, avec ses lanternes volantes, son marche et ses chants locaux, nous vous souhaitons plein de bonheur et plein de bonnes choses pour 2010 !




Nous aurons donc passe le Nouvel An 2010 en compagnie de 2 allemands, une allemande et une americaine rencontres sur place, au milieu d'une population exclusivement thailandaise (aucun etranger dans cette ville, tous les touristes ayant prefere se retrouver sur la plage de Patong pour une soiree a l occidentale). Awesome experience !

Ko Phi Phi

Aujourd'hui, nous avons visite l ile de Ko Phi Phi, rendue celebre pour le film The Beach (ca tombe bien, on ne l'a pas vu), avec option "tourisme de masse"...
Nous avons donc rejoint une croisiere organisee sur la journee, avec le programme suivant :
minibus, gros bateau a touristes, plongee au tuba au milieu des bateaux et des chinois en gilet de sauvetage et masque et tuba (toujours la grande classe, ces chinois) - et avec aussi une quantite de jolis poissons multicolores, puis repas et temps sur l ile de Ko Phi Phi (superbe) avant un retour sur Phuket dans l apres midi.
Au final une tres bonne journee, avec des paysages splendides, mais surtout avec le merveilleux sentiment de faire partie de la grande famille des touristes de masse ! Parce qu on le vaut bien...

Phukhet

Nous sommes finalement arrives hier soir a Phuket. Au programme d'aujourd'hui, lever 10h pour recuperer du decalage horaire, bus locaux (une vraie aventure), plage, marche, plage, plage, plage, coucher du soleil... Et ce soir, petite soiree - courte - a Patong, histoire de voir a quoi ca ressemble (un genre de veni vidi vici quoi... On y retournera pas).

et le coucher du soleil...

Demain, lever 7h, et on va a Ko Phi Phi, sur la journee. Le soir, reveillon a Phuket town. On pensera bien fort a vous tous. Bonne annee a tous. On espere tenir jusque minuit heure francaise :-).
Ensuite, le 1er, nous fuirons Phuket, direction Ko Samui...

Bien arrives...

Because most of our readers can read french, and after receiving several complaints, we decided to write in french. However, enough complaints of english aficionados could incent us to reconsider....

Voila, nous sommes bien arrives a Kuala Lumpur ce matin apres 12h de vol... Et il fait chaud!
Ce soir nous prenons l'avion pour Phukhet, on n'est pas encore sur du programme pour la suite.

Evidemment, c'est le premier cyber cafe, donc j'ai oublie l'adaptateur pour uploader quelques photos, ce sera pour demain.

En gros, on ne sait pas encore dans quel coin on va passer le nouvel an, l'opinion generale semble recommander d'eviter Phukhet autant que possible. Il reste beaucoup d'iles cote Phukhet (soit proche de Phukhet, soit de l'autre cote de la peninsule).

South-East Asia trip, D-3

Merry Christmas to all of you........

Lisboa

Just some pictures from Lisboa, before I go to bed... I'll post maybe a couple more tomorrow, before going to Amsterdam :-).

Lisboa downtown....

Now that I remember, the next picture was taken on the way back to Madrid, en el Parque Nacional de Monfragüe...

This one was taken not too far from Cabo de Roca, westernmost point of mainland Europe :-).

Lisboa again...

New trip, new milestones!

Some already know, we - my cousin and I - are going on a 4-week trip to South-east asia...
So far we dont really know where we are going.
What we do know is that we are flying in Kuala Lumpur, on dec28, and out on Jan22 (next year!).

Just like the south-american trip, I'm open to (most) propositions about where to go!
Lars, Lionel, Otarie, onk & co, I'm waiting for your comments...

Fall - Madrid

Fall eventually made it to Madrid, bye bye summer....
Don't you worry though, we still have a steady and sunny 20C every afternoon!

Cambridge

Here I post a couple pictures I took in the center of Cambridge (I shall spell it centre, not to be too rude). I had forgotten my umbrellllllla, but did not need it once (si si, c'est vrai...)

Check out the lawn.... (Unfortunately, no sunbathing permitted)

And that's a picture taken in the College I stayed at for the courses and presentation.

Here is a proof that I was actually working there... Indeed, it might be the only one...

And this last picture was taken on the way back, in London Stansted, HQ of Ryanair.... And by far the worst airport I've been up to now! But very conveniently located when going to Cambridge. It's a bit like Paris-Beauvais, but instead of having 2-3 aircraft at time (ie. about 400 passengers), there are about 40, for the same number of seats in the main hall (do the maths). Dont worry, there are plenty of "duty free" shops where you can spend your money instead of losing your time (not) finding a seat.

OC-style week-end

This weekend, I went to UC Irvine visit Kameel.

OC-style party, swimming pool, boston lagers, bikinis (censored)...

And to finish, I d like to show a big advantage of the usa. For careful readers, it is to be related to an adventure in Peru (after the Misti climb...). The shoe is size 20 (I am a 12... or 47 european).

I am still unsure of next weekend's plan. Most probably some wine road around Santa Barbara, or Las Vegas...

Canoe sex / American beers

I arrived at UCSD on monday... Everything fell in place, work is going fine, workout after hours.

Just a small anecdote though :

Yesterday I went to the mall, buy some groceries, for breakfast, my daily salad, etc etc.

Indeed, I was going to buy a 6-pack of american beer.

(Not this one, but Samuel Adams, which is better...). There I come, at the counter. Indeed, the cashier asks for my ID. I show him my French ID.

- Oh, sorry, we dont take this...

- Really? - OK, here s my driving license...

- Still not valid...

- I am not supposed to walk around all the time with my passport, am I?

- I am afraid that would not be sufficient : we do not accept foreign ids. Any.

- So... how does that work, I cant have a beer with my friends?

- You're supposed to ask for a temporary id.

- for three weeks?

- I am afraid so...

- damn...............

*beers stayed there...

Now I have to ask my recently turned 21 flatmate to buy beer for me... What a beautiful country. I am just hoping that they will let me in a bar tonight!

cheers.

Mallorca !

This weekend I went with Camille to Mallorca, visiting Miguel (see the last posts from Argentina).
He lives in a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere (we barely saw a single german!!!)

Corrida

This Sunday, I went with one of my roommate to a corrida... I know, i know, it was awful... But I had to go, right?
Next June 21st, Ill go to some concert instead of some slaughter game, I promise.

Ajaccio

Some pictures of the national park "Scandola", and Ajaccio's surroundings... who s in?

The last picture is a metaphor for heaven, as I see it anyway. I had saved some chocolate from Zurich...

Zurich

Here are a couple of pictures I've been willing to upload for a while...
For those familiar with Le Grand Bornand, I am sure you'll recognize La Pointe Percee, le col des aravis,etc etc... :-) Et bien sûr le Mont Blanc.

Here is a special picture, I see it as the Swiss version of the famous toilets scene in Trainspotting.
And that's how you surf a couch...