Whenever we travel to a new city, we love going on walking tours. We love discovering the off-the-beaten-track places that only a local will know. We signed up for a fun 3-hour walking tour with Depot Adventures in Melbourne. We explored the cafe scene for coffee, hidden speak-easy bars, Aussie chocolates, art galleries, museums, great street art, Chinatown, the history and architecture of the city. We learned how Tasmania was discovered and got its name, then finished with a beer at a local tavern. Melbourne is a dream for people who love urban design. There is a whole network of wide streets adjacent to hidden art-filled lanes, some decorated with elaborate street art. There is even Banksy art in Melbourne.

After the walking tour, we went back to view the famous painting of the nude named Chloe at the prestigious Young and Jackson Hotel Bar after hearing her story from our local guide. Chloe became the mascot of the Royal Navy frigate and is considered an icon of the city.

A friend of ours compared Sydney to Los Angeles and Melbourne to San Francisco. Of course, we added that it’s like a cleaner version of San Francisco, without the homeless problem.

Melbourne is filled with wonderful street art and many are hidden historic gems. Officially, graffiti is illegal, so it is constantly changing. The murals are located throughout the city, but you can find clusters down the famous Hosier Line, which is opposite Federation Square and Flinders Street. AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place, Fitzroy. They are all easy walks.

Here’s a link to a self-guided tour of the street art for those who want to discover the hidden artistic gems.

Enroute to Prince Phillips Island, we stopped at Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park to see the kangaroos, more Tasmanian Devils, koala bears, and other animals and birds native to this area. Unfortunately, the kangaroos at this park are so well fed by the tourists that they don’t leap when they see strangers. In fact, they ignored our hands filled with kangaroo feed and went to sleep.

Prince Phillip Island lies just off Australia’s southern coast. We came to see the famous Penguin Parade, and saw thousands of Little Penguins marching in from the sea. They were formerly known as Fairy Penguins, but were renamed due to political correctness. After sunset (around 9:30 PM), groups of penguins come to land after a day of hunting and fishing for their babies. The penguins come in groupings called mobs, and the first few come to shore to test the waters and the danger level. If they sense any danger, they all rush back into the ocean. After a while, another mob of penguins try again to come to shore to go home. All along the coast, Little Penguins are coming home to their burrows or wooden boxes. We were sitting in the VIP stands, and quietly waited. Soon, a few bodies waddle in from the wild sea, climb up the sandy beach, waddle over mounds, and slide down the sandy hills. Not long after, there were hundreds. The official count the prior night was 1069.

Be sure to watch the video at the end of this post. There homes are everywhere along this part of the coast. Even along the plank walkways that were built for this location, the little penguins walk along side. The Penguin Parade is not to be missed.

Evelyn and Burt at Prince Phillips Island to watch the Penguin Parade. The Blow Hole is right behind us.

Up to this point, we had travelled to 99 countries. We wanted #100 to be special, so we decided to go to Tasmania. Officially, Tasmania is an island state of Australia, but the list of countries we use to count is from the Traveler’s Century Club, where membership requires having traveled to 100 countries. Here’s the link to their official list of 330 countries.

We decided that while we were exploring Tasmania, we had to see the Tasmanian Devil, an endangered species who are now seriously threatened by a cancerous face tumor. There are only between 15k-20k devils left in the wild. Here’s what we uncovered.

TASMANIAN DEVILS ARE SCREAMERS !

If a wolf howling at the moon sends shivers up your spine, wait until you hear a Tasmanian devil. In fact, the first Europeans to enter Tasmania imagined demons lurking in the bush when they heard the blood-curdling shrieks and growls. Hence being dubbed ‘devils’. It’s now known that their various vocalisations (coughs, growls, snorts, sniffs, screeches and even sneezes) are designed to scare off other animals. 

THEY YAWN WHEN CONFRONTED

Tasmanian devils are very timid and don’t normally pose a danger to people unless they are attacked or trapped. However, when they do feel threatened, they do strange ‘yawns’, showcasing their sharp teeth. While this looks quite fierce, it is actually more a display of fear and anxiety than aggression. Be mindful these wild animals have a strong bite, like a hyena’s, and can bite through your fingers.

Two of the best places to see the unique animals of New Zealand are at the Cradle Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and the Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary in Mole Creek. Be sure to go at feeding time, since they are nocturnal animals and are sleeping until feeding time. The animals are fed with farmed wombats and other cut up animals, both for food safety and stability of food supply. They are not the road kill, which we saw every kilometer while driving.

We took a private tour and got introduced to a few babies — a baby wombat (top row), and some baby quolls (bottom two rows), which are closely related to the Tasmanian Devil. A mother Tassie devil gives birth to approximately 20-40 joeys at any one time, but the mom only has 4 teats. Truly a test for survival of the fittest. The survivors live in their mom’s pouch for 3 months. After survival, many animals are released back into the wild.

At the end of each tour, we were handed a bag of kangaroo food. When we walked over, the kangaroos were so exuberant that they surrounded us and jumped onto our chest to reach the food.

We saw several moms with the joeys hanging out of their pouches, many times with just the long legs sticking out of the pouch. It turns out that a kangaroo can give birth to up to 3 joeys each year, and when one leaves the pouch, another can take its place. The joeys remain in the pouch for 9 months and can suckle until 12-17 months. The joeys are extremely flexible when in the pouch, and sometimes its feet would be sticking out right beside the head (lower right).

We always thought of kangaroos as wild, but these man-raised kangaroos were more like children. A baby kangaroo or any marsupial is called a Joey, because the local aboriginal word stands for “little animal”.

We loved Tasmania, which is known for their wild and beautiful landscape, clean air, eco-tourism, abundant marine life and exporter of wild abalone and lobster. Now that we’ve become centurions and reached our 100th country count, our goal is change the way we travel in the future. Most of our future travels will extend the amount of time at each place, instead of living out of our suitcases for months at a time.

The tour to Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia was promoted as a scouting trip by Mehmet. However he scoped out many of the places in advance to ensure that our small group would be comfortable. As always, no one ever goes hungry on these trips. Food in SE Asia is amazingly affordable, made with fresh ingredients, and delicious. The group spent a lot of time laughing together, sharing stories, and everyone got along. The camera salesman in the group wasn’t able to close a sale, Mehmet got hooked on Burt’s Red Bull, and we’re still waiting for Heidi’s edits from her 2015 photo tour. There were lots of sleepless nights, as Mehmet runs a tight schedule with both sunrise and sunset photo trips. Not a minute is available for shopping nor enough time to enjoy spending time at some of our luxury hotels.

Overall the trip was good, as we got to revisit Cambodia, which had been totally flooded the last time we visited in 2011, and this time the light for sunsets and sunrises was amazing. The highlight of our tour in Laos was the Fire Boat Festival, which was not part of the itinerary, but we got lucky when we arrived early and our guide, Vahn, told us about the festival that night. The sunrise at Halong Bay was a winner, despite there being a lot of uncertainty. We stayed at two beautiful resorts, but we got in so late and left so early the following morning, that we never had a chance to enjoy it. The schedule was so tight with so much packed in, that it seemed we spent a lot of time driving, and less time to photograph the people in the market places that we love. For the most part, the food was awesome, our traveling buddies were fun. Because we are traveling during the transitional period, the weather was not favorable for many colorful sunsets and sunrises. However, there was a good balance of landscape, architecture, people.

We traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia in 2011, more than 12 years ago, and a LOT has changed. There are SO many more people, and the traffic is now over the top filled with motorbikes. We had to hold hands just to cross the street safely. You can get run over by motorbikes even in the open air markets, which used to be pedestrians only. The infrastructure has been built up, and there are so many more luxury hotels (undoubtedly funded by the Chinese.) Fortunately, the air quality was still clean. We were disappointed that Hoi An has turned into such a touristy, commercialized shopping mecca, overloaded with tourists. We still prefer going to the places that are less traveled and are off-the-beaten path.

Below are photos of our traveling buddies on this tour.

We are a group of Travelers, who are passionate about traveling to exotic destinations and photography. Because this was a scouting trip, there were only 6 of us. Sherrine (top-center) and Heidi (lower-right) have traveled with us before to the Balkans. Heidi also accompanied us to Georgia and Armenia, whereas Mark and Peggy had hired Mehmet on a private tour of Turkey. Heidi also spent several long nights on her job in the Bahamas working remotely, then was exhausted during the day. Her cake decorating skills are over-the-top wonderful.

The photo block above shows our group: Evelyn at the front side of Angkor Wat (top left). Mehmet photographing Sy’s mom in her home cooking a meal (Right bottom), Sherrine giving English lessons(top middle), Mark enroute to the rice fields on the back of a motorbike(middle), Peggy holding baby duck at local market, Burt on the back of motorbike going up to rice terraces feeling out of control, as he’s used to being in the front driving (top right), Heidi going by boat to the caves. A memorable trip with wonderful friends.

Top photos shows Burt and Evelyn at Angkor Wat as shot by Mehmet(middle); Bottom Photo was shot by the entrepreneurial Lady Boat Captain who had Vietnamese hats for her clients to wear enroute to the caves (bottom).

The Tonlé Sap floodplain in the northwest of Cambodia is home to more than 3 million people and supports one of the most productive freshwater fisheries in Asia. During the monsoon season, the lake quadruples in size flooding the area with life and is the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia. The floating village in the lake is also a major draw for tourists. In Khmer language, ‘Tonle’ means fresh water and ‘Sap’ means lake. What immediately struck us is the number of young kids in this village. There is a large proportion of younger people playing together who are oblivious to being poor.

However, In 2011 when we last visited, it was during the 50 year rains, the waters swelled well above the ground floor that people were not able to sleep in their homes. Our lunch was cancelled as the 2nd floor kitchen of our restaurant was underwater. The overhead power lines were less than 10′ above the water line. We were relieved to be able to visit this village during normal times.

There are close to 17 million people in Cambodia, which ranks #73 in world population, but has not grown like Vietnam. Cambodia is considered a third world country, and has serious issues to access to reliable sources of clean water, as well as poor infrastructure. When the ruthless Khmer Rouge was toppled in 1979 by Vietnamese troops, the highly-skilled workers and academics had been murdered, leaving the majority of the people who were trained as farmers. The median age is 27 years old and life expectancy is only 71. More than half of the people are engaged in subsistence farming and Cambodia remains among Asia’s poorest countries.

Practice rehearsal at local dance school. The hand movements that are taught at a very young age is mind-boggling. It reminds us of the Bali dance movements.

Professional dancers performing at the dinner show at our hotel in Siem Reap. We were quite impressed how well the dancers performed the traditional story of good over evil.

In this part of the world, Khmer ox carts can still be found but are rarely used for farming. The ox cart were previously considered Cambodia’s ancient Mercedes-Benz, and has been the main method of transportation for thousands of years. In ancient times, ox carts were used as a status symbol.

At the local market, Evelyn taught some of the vendors how to do the shaka, a Hawaiian gesture. Of course, the vendors couldn’t help but laugh while they were learning this motion, resulting in a connection between photographer and vendor.

At the Siem Reap Market, we meet all types of local people. We love seeing the parents interacting with their children all over the world.

Angkor Wat iconic view at sunrise. There was quite a race to reach the coveted location for this photo viewpoint before sunrise, as every photographer’s ideal was to capture the towers in the rear separated with no overlap, a perfect reflection, with good light.

Angkor Wat is a Buddhist-Hindu temple complex located in northern Cambodia and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1992. It was built in the early 12th century, serving as a monument to King Suryavarman II, and his tomb. It is considered the largest religious monument in the world and is spread over 400 acres. It is often considered one of the wonders of the ancient world, though not on the current list of Seven Wonders of the World. We obtained a 3-day pass, and it needed all 3 days to explore this enormous set of structures.

At sunset the first night, we found bus loads of monks at the temple site. The last time we visited in 2011, there were only two young boys. This time, we were lucky and could not be happier seeing so many young monks.

The last time we visited Angkor Wat was in October 2011, when the country was hit with a 50-year high rainfall. The floods blocked access to more than 75% of the complex, so we were looking forward to seeing this temple again. The photo above shows the reflections from Bayon Temple(top). Click any of the three links in this paragraph to see our report from that prior trip to this location.

The monks now all have cell phone cameras and digital cameras, and were really enjoying taking photos of each other. Technology has changed the world.

Angkor Thom is the correct name of the huge archaeological city, and Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Wat Bayon are part of this. It was easy to get lost. In fact, Evelyn did lose her way, but fortunately, the monkeys found her first. Clearly, the tourists are back, as people were fighting to get selfies taken at the Ta Prohm temple, the movie site of Tomb Raider, where Lara Croft, the character played by Angelina Jolie (Below top left) were shot.

The light was beautiful, so we shot thousands of photos here. It was difficult culling out so many wonderful images. Here is a view from the South Gate (bottom right). The south gate of Angkor Thom was inundated with motorbike traffic and the bridge was filled with photographers lined up to take sunset photos with the stone heads along the top of the bridge. Bayon Temple show the many faces of Buddha (top right). Ta Phrom Temple is the one that the jungle has taken over.

There were so many details that survived earthquakes and the Khmer wars. The extensive bas-relief with stories of the Hindu god Vishnu, the colors in the stone, the thousands of faces of Buddha. Angkor Wat is considered the heart and soul of Cambodia.

We were warned that monkeys are quite mischievous and to hang onto our cameras, phones, eye glasses, jewelry, water bottles and anything else that a monkey could claim. Though we did see one pair of monkeys go after a tourist, we were fortunate to be able to photograph their antics without personally being molested.

The orange color lit up the skies at sunset, as viewed from bridge at the South Gate of Angkor Wat. Even gondoliers have set up business to bring tourists to view the sunset.

We were thrilled with this final scene as a goodbye gift from Cambodia. It was absolutely incredible to finally see this grand temple. Good bye Angkor Wat.