Martin: The day has come! More than two weeks have passed, now Sebas joins me again. After waiting in the hostel all day long because I didn’t know what time he arrives, we fall with tears into our arms as he finally shows up after midnight. Well, almost 🙂 Eva and I are super tired from walking around in the city and after waiting until 10 we decide to go to sleep and meet Sebas the next day for breakfast. Me not being a morning person at all, our first encounter is a sleepy ‘hey, great to see you` on my way to the coffee machine. Which is actually quite impressive; the two weeks had absolutely no effect on us, it’s as if we had never been separated… 🙂

Sebastian: So, finally it happens that we are seperated for the first time in many months: Martin took his flight early in the morning after a night without sleeping and I am sitting in the plain to Bali. At the arrival everything works out without problems, with my last Dollars I buy the visa and after yeeears I meet Muscho, a high-school mate, again. On the way to his place he asks me if I am hungry and as always I am :). Expecting to go to a local Indonesian restaurant a few moments later I find myself with a grilled sausage, sauerkraut and potatoes – the most typical AUSTRIAN food you could find… in fact Muscho brought me to his favorite place which happens to be a Swiss restaurant. In the end, having a good old „like at home“ bite is not that bad at all :).

Martin: after haven”t slept all-night I take the plane from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Since I have a stop over of 8 hours before I continue to Tokyo, I decide to go downtown to catch a glimpse of the city. The first thing that attracts my attention are rules that are seemingly placed everywhere. There are stickers with what you mustn”t do, how much it costs you if you still do it all over the place, it”s even indicated where you are supposed to stand when you enter or leave the train.

Sebastian: So, after a great month in Thailand we arrive at the Malaysian border. The procedure doesn’t take longer than one hour total and the police men once again are of great help telling us which places we definitely have to visit and letting us drive through without any insurance (after we promised that we will not drive fast :)…). After this very positive start we are eager to learn more about this country!

Martin: After this looong night we leave Bangkok at 6pm… thanks to Flo guiding us out of the city, otherwise we would still be trying to find our Way out. The reason we decided to leave was that we booked a 4-day diving safari starting the next day in the morning and didn’t want to postpone it on short notice. We estimate the 850km ride to take us max. 8 hours, so enough time to take a nap before our first dive. Well, as usual, so we thought… -:)

Since yesterday it’s exactly 6 months that we are on the road to “eastbound” the world. We think that this is a good moment to thank all of you for your great support and for following our adventure. Your “virtual participation” means a lot to us!

So far we saw beautiful places in 15 countries, drove 22.000 kilometers on every kind of roads, visited 4 SOS Childrens Villages and met many many great people! And to be honest: no matter where, when or with whom – all of our experiences have been amazingly positiv! Maybe it’s because most of the people are nice if you only face them with a smile – independently of their country, ethnical background, culture or language…

We hope that we could communicate our emotions and impressions in a realistic and authentic way so you were able to share them with us!

And now let’s get ready for 6 more months, +15 more countries, ??? more kilometers and MANY MANY more nice people! Stay tuned and SMILE!

Hugs n kisses 🙂

Your Eastbounders.

Sebastian: This part of the trip is definitely one of the most emotional for me so far. I meet up with my brother and a good friend that I haven’t seen in years (both of them) and we will be lucky enough to get to know new friends that we hope to stay in touch with for the rest of our lives. Also we visit some great places and enjoy the – in my humble opinion – best food in the woooorld!!!! In short: we have a hell lot of fun 🙂 !

So, how does this Thailand trip start off…?

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Christmas is coming up, the celebration of charity and generosity is around the corner!

As you know, as part of our trip we want to help building up a new Children Village in Peru, which provides a home for children without parents.

Check out all about our initiative by clicking here: THE INITIATIVE

Please participate in our initiative, no matter how much you donate, every amount helps to make a difference!

Martin: Eva (Uno) left and we decide to meet Tom, Sue and some friends of them for dinner. Walking in the streets of Kathmandu we are quickly surprised as there are small oil lamps burning everywhere and the floor of each business is decorated with painted „Hackenkreuzes“. Coming from Austria we are a bit confused, only to find out that today´s the festival of the light (Deepavali), where Nepalis worship Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. The Hackenkreuz, called Shwastika, is actually an ancient symbol for luck. The atmosphere is great and I`m happy that we can witness this important celebration for Nepalis. Next day we already hit the road again: Pokhara is waiting for us. As we postponed the departure to Thailand due to the floodings for almost a month, we decide to attend a buddhist meditation retreat and go for another hike in the Annapurna region…